Celebrate Friday Props, come on!
Let’s celebrate
There’s some Props goin’ on right here
A Prop sensation to last throughout the year
So bring your good Props and your laughter, too
We’re gonna give some Friday Props and party with you
Come on now!

 Yes! Another beautiful Friday is upon us and while we had only had one entry for the Madame Currie Look-A-Like contest and no entries for the Mutant Hamster Races, we forge on ahead with Friday Props to recognize some of the creativity around us. During my research this week, I found a unique individual that made me think of Christmas. Randy Regier. He is a man, a late-breaking artist who left his job painting cars, went back to school at the tender age of 33 to get his BA and MFA. What he creates now are toys….one of a kind toys that hark back to the 50’s, the age of Mad Men complete with their own stylized boxes. These are unique toys made from recycled things and represent an age of toys BEFORE the expansive use of plastics. Very, very creative.

Come with me now even further back in time, a time before Mr. Reiger, a time before space exploration and science fiction took hold of the national consciousness. Swiss scientist Dr. Gustav Luchy and an inventor Chevalier Pini decided they would devise a machine to explore the more hostile environments on our planet such as Antarctica and the Sahara. Like the inventor of Velcro, George de Mestral, these two gentlemen used nature as their inspiration.  They engineered a gigantic mechanical mosquito to fly to and drill into earth and ice, prospecting for the rich minerals that lay beneath the crust. These men were ambitious. The giant mosquito could hold 2,500 men, fend off hostile tribes, and tap straight into the Earth’s molten core. The microfiche of the original article published in The Salt Lake Tribune on March 9, 1913 is online (just above the article about “The Weird, “living” Machines of the Octopus-Like Martians) but I could find no visual record of the numerous models reportedly produced of this mosquito. Still…..an amazingly innovative solution for ‘modern’ problems.

Finally, Friday Props recognizes a man who took the mechanical and functional and repurposed it for his living quarters. I’ve always dreamed of how neat it would be to live in a railroad caboose or tour around living on a canal boat in England, bopping from village to village. Bruce Campbell is living his dream in a refashioned Boeing 727. After purchasing the aircraft, Mr. Campbell partially disassembled the plane, towing it out into the trees at its final resting place. The story of transforming this airplane into a fully functional home is amazing and certainly not for the pragmatist or faint of heart. It took him YEARS and, by VERY rough estimates, over $220,000. Probably more. You can find the story and more images of the interior of the plane HERE. Besides crafting a beautiful, unique home, he provided inspiration and sparked the imagination of many. After all, who wouldn’t love to spend a few evenings in a grounded plane with no place to go?