State Fair photos

Marylin sez, "Joel Sartore's photos from various state fairs capture some bizarre moments: like hissing cockroaches from Madagascar pulling tiny tractors; Minnesota sisters with rainbow glitter pigtails; bleachers full of 8,400 Iowa fairgoers all about to bite into corndogs simultaneously; Minnesota Dairy Princess Kristy Mussman posing in a freezer so a sculptor can render her likeness in a giant slab of butter; contestants in a mother-daughter lookalike contest; volunteers in Iowa all slumped over in folding chairs at the suggestion of a hypnotist. Garrison Keillor wrote the state fair feature story in the July issue on National Geographic, enumerating the Ten Chief Joys of the State Fair."

The Ten Chief Joys of the State Fair are:

1. To eat food with your two hands.

2. To feel extreme centrifugal force reshaping your face and jowls as you are flung or whirled turbulently and you experience that intense joyfulness that is indistinguishable from anguish, or (as you get older) to observe other persons in extreme centrifugal situations.

3. To mingle, merge, mill, jostle gently, and flock together with throngs, swarms, mobs, and multitudes of persons slight or hefty, punky or preppy, young or ancient, wandering through the hubbub and amplified razzmatazz and raw neon and clouds of wiener steam in search of some elusive thing, nobody is sure exactly what.

State Fair Joys Take in the State Fair (Keillor)

[#1 posted by Enochrewt, July 13, 2009 7:34 AM]

11. To show of them fancy laser lines in yer mullet.

I kid, I kid, (sorta). I once got to see the batmobile in action at the state fair (Michael Keaton/Tim Burton version). Amazingly they had it pushing 140mph, and it seemed like it could do more.

[#2 posted by VinceKlortho, July 13, 2009 7:39 AM]

Fairs are awesome... and the pix in this article are amazing. Can't wait for my county fair in a few weeks!

[#3 posted by Anonymous, July 13, 2009 8:49 AM]

The photos put me in a happy place filled with unicorns until I saw the one with the Heimlich maneuver dolls. Their mouths make them look like.... well ok I haven't actually seen one, but I'd guess... oh I need a real unicorn, I don't believe they have BJ dolls at the fair and let children play with them! And some of the dolls are themselves children! I had solidly believed that was illegal here. My faith in humanity is destroyed... again... UNICORN!!!!

[#4 posted by Anonymous, July 13, 2009 9:12 AM]

As a 4H adviser my favorite part of fair is walking through in the early morning and seeing the kids curled up in the straw sleeping next to their cows. Unfortunately the fair is banning this practice because it's not safe - even though I don't know of any kids that have been injured doing so. But it 'looks bad' so they need to 'protect the children'. Maybe we'll see more couches in the bovine barns this year :(

[#5 posted by FoetusNail, July 13, 2009 9:15 AM]

The above photo has a similar feel as the work of the Dutch painter Pieter Bruegal.

http://www.bouwman.com/netherlands/wedding.jpg

[#6 posted by Cowtown2, July 13, 2009 9:21 AM]

12. (Per Keillor) Gawk at any flamboyant gay couples you see, and "tsk tsk" them if they dare to have a kid with them or communicate any desire to marry.

http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/fuck_garrison_keillor

http://www.familypride.org/blog/2007/03/garrison-keillors-homophobic-rant.html

I've read both pieces linked to in the blog entries, and while I'm sure its delivery is intended to be low key and decline-to-enforce-my-old-timey-judgments, in that Keillor sort of way, nothing feels tongue-in-cheek about it either.

[#7 posted by Versh, July 13, 2009 9:31 AM]

The 3. chief joy Set off my purple prose tolerance, and I had to brace my chair from cringing and try not to think about how stupid the phrase "jostle gently" has any relation to crowds.

Compare to #7:
"7. To watch the judging of livestock."

Why not phrase all of them that way? Cripes!

That said, the biggest attraction at the Ohio State fair is a life-sized butter cow and calf.

[#8 posted by daemonsquire, July 13, 2009 9:46 AM]

I haven't read the Keillor story yet, but I imagine I'd prob'ly enjoy the pictures more, viewing them in conjunction with David Foster Wallace's Ticket to the Fair.

[#9 posted by jaytkay, July 13, 2009 12:25 PM]

......a similar feel as the work of the Dutch painter Pieter Bruegal...

I immediately thought it looked like a painting, too. A remarkably beautiful painting.

The pre Raphaelites came to mind.
Like this or this or this. Or maybe John Currin.

[#10 posted by airshowfan, July 13, 2009 12:28 PM]

A live dog-neutering demonstration?

Really?

Cool!

[#11 posted by cinemajay, July 13, 2009 12:47 PM]

Here in Minnesota we are of course, huge State Fair fans. My wife belongs to the Fair Foundation and we even have brick with our name on it.

When last we visited it, appropriately, it was covered in smushed tater tots.

:)

[#12 posted by Anonymous, July 13, 2009 1:48 PM]

Joel Sartore, who shot this story, is possibly the coolest person on Earth. Seriously, google his work. Amazing stuff.

[#13 posted by Robert, July 13, 2009 1:58 PM]

Conan! What is best in County Fair?

1. To eat your corndogs
2. To see their sticks thrown before you
3. To hear the judging of the livestock

[#14 posted by Marilyn Terrell, July 13, 2009 9:56 PM]

@#12 Here are some photos by Joel Sartore of a RAVE (Rapid Area Visual Expedition) he shot for National Geographic on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea documenting the island's amazingly rich and often endangered animal species:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/bioko-primates/sartore-photography

[#15 posted by Modusoperandi, July 14, 2009 3:00 PM]

"wiener steam"? That was my stripper name!