Art vs Commerce (Iron and Lies remix)

Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything

Benjamen Walker & Radiotopia

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

*** New ToE series debuting next week about truth, lies, American democracy and the 50 year legacy of deepthroat and trouble-making investigative journalists***

But first a look back to a road trip I took to the American heartland in Wisconsin a few yerars back. We visit the house on the Rock and the forevertron. Even though Alex Jordan’s tourist attraction is one of the most visionary unique places in the world you still won’t find it on any of the official Wisconsin art environment maps. This never bothered the guy who put it together Alex Jordan Jr, in fact the whole place was built on the idea of sticking it to the official arbiters of culture, plus it pulls in millions of dollars a year in admissions fees! Plus the Forevertron, a place built on the idea of escape from pain, suffering, and failure.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Benjamin Walker's theory of everything.
0:05.0	At Radiotopia, we now have a select group of amazing supporters that help us make all our shows possible.
0:13.0	If you would like to have your company or product sponsor this podcast, then get in touch.
0:18.0	Drop a line to sponsor at radiotopia.fm. Thanks.
0:24.0	This installment is called Iron and Lies. Please consider part two.
0:30.0	When I told my friends who are from Wisconsin or who spent time there about my plans to visit some art environments in the state for my podcast,
0:40.0	every single one of them said the same thing. Make sure you visit Alex Jordan's House on the Rock.
0:46.0	I don't think anything can actually prepare you for the scale of the place.
0:52.0	You come upon the chamber with, you know, that's devoted to sort of depictions of the sea.
0:56.0	And there's like a 200 foot large sea monster in there as well as the walls lined with ships in bottles, hundreds and hundreds of them.
1:06.0	It's just kind of absurd and overwhelming.
1:09.0	That's my friend Wayne Marshall. He got his PhD at University of Wisconsin Madison.
1:15.0	And the House on the Rock, he insisted, was an art environment I had to see with my own eyes.
1:22.0	In that room with the giant sea monster, there was a little sort of octopus band of, you know, automata, musical automata playing the Beatles, Octopus's Garden.
1:32.0	And that was just one of, you know, many, many, you know, examples of these, these kind of musical automata.
1:39.0	And it doesn't quite seem like all the instruments are producing their own sound.
1:43.0	And you know, some of them seem like they're maybe piped in or not real.
1:47.0	And the whole, the whole experience is kind of like that.
1:51.0	This is pretty much what I got from all my friends with Wisconsin roots.
1:56.0	This place that Alex Jordan filled up with stuff was a must-see.
2:01.0	I was definitely intrigued.
2:04.0	But the House on the Rock was not on the itinerary I got from the Kohler Art Center.
	...

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