Tag: collections

Just as much as he was fascinated by a star show, Owen Phairis was intrigued by the uniquely peculiar contraption responsible for creating it. It's a love that has resulted in the largest collection of planetarium projectors in the world.

With digital-video and laser systems replacing the somewhat alien-looking devices most of us grew up with, the classic planetarium projectors are now being discarded. Loath to see them scrapped, Owen decided to give them a home. His goal now is to acquire at least one of each model ever made.

See him show off a few of his favorites in this video, and try to resist counting how many times he says "projector."

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Richard Garriott, sometimes known as Lord British, is a successful video-game developer, avid astronomer and well-known space tourist, having paid a substantial amount of his own money in 2008 to visit the International Space Station solely to fulfill a personal dream.

He's also an enthusiastic collector of space artifacts, as well as a large number of oddities, which he houses at his estate in Austin, Texas, known as Britannia Manor.

In this short film, we get a brief glimpse of his fantastical collection, most notably of his assemblage of wonderful automata.

For every strange, public attraction built around someone's personal obsession, there are untold numbers of people who've each built their very own world of wonder behind closed doors. Take, for instance, the Beer Can Man of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who personally amassed thousands upon thousands of vintage beer cans, witnessed by public eyes only briefly after his death.

Graphic artist Sean Tubridy snapped a few shots as they were hauling the collection out of the building where he works. Most, he said, were from the late '70s or older. Many were still unopened.

"So the deal is these belonged to a guy known as 'The Beer Can Man,'" Tubridy wrote. "He had a place in our building and collected these along with bar signs and all sorts of other stuff. He died a while back and it's all gone now and these are being hauled away. They can't be recycled for the deposit because they are tin and steel. Still, a few nice finds in there."

In the end, workers removed twelve trailer-size dumpsters full of cans. ... Continued