So humanodon and I were talking about architecture and Arcosanti came up. Now, granted - I linked to some pictures back when I went through, but that was 2011 and we've got a much bigger audience now. So what the fuck. Might as well, right?

Anyway. Arcosanti was my first stop on my way out to Ghost Ranch, where I had a week-long writer's conference, which actually started me on the path to writing the novel (which is done, by the way - it came out 1500 words shy of Moby Dick which, according to Stephen King, should end up as 21,500 words shy of Moby Dick once I've edited it). I rode my trusty steed, the KLR-650, back before it started being a little bitch and breaking frames and shit.

This shot was taken with some Woodford Reserve in one hand. I'd ridden out 600 miles and had exactly zero problems... until the actual turnoff to Arcosanti, where a punk-ass kid in a Volvo station wagon who wasn't looking where the fuck he was going nearly ended the trip right there. So. Fuck you, punk ass kid in a Volvo.

A lot of these are iPhone snaps because I left early the next day and when I got there dinner was like 2 hours off, the room was grody and I didn't feel like unshipping the camera. Unfortunately, by the time I had, the light was shit. This, for example, is the stained glass next to Paolo Soleri's office. It's dope, but the light is crap.

Arcosanti is kind of an amusing place. Paolo basically learned everything he knew designing a foundry using slipcast concrete. Therefore, Arcosanti is all slipcast concrete, and it mostly exists as a foundry that makes these funky bells. They're f'ing everywhere.

Then every now and then you run across totally cool things like this pool. Dunno. Tranquil in a weird sort of way.

I think I described it on Facebook at the time as "the ruins of Mos Eisley Spaceport." It's got kind of a Jack Vance Dying Earth vibe to it; the fact that it's maintained by 20-year-old burnouts certainly helps. I guess it's supposed to mostly be a commune but it feels for all the world like a social experiment gone wrong. It's cheap as hell to stay, though. Think I paid $35 for a room with no air conditioning and all the no-see-ums in the world. And then, yeah. You find stuff like this.

Art, bitch.

Another hilarious thing about Arcosanti is because it's made of slipcast concrete, it totally skunks your cell phone signal and wi fi. So if you actually want to, you know, call your wife, you get to hang out, well, here. This is on the roof of my room.

It got really freaky at night, particularly after I went out at like midnight to take this pic.

I saw two tarantulas and a couple snakes. None of them rattled at me, so... win.

Woke up again at dawn to get sunrise on this sucka. Results were mixed.

That little square bungalow below is where you can stay for cheap. Yes, the horizon isn't even vaguely square. This is an afterthought and as these were all rejects before I didn't bother trimming them up and I wasn't about to start now.

From here I drove to the VLA, which is another entertaining photoessay that I might put up. But now I have to list a bunch of shit on eBay. Studio is due for an UPGRAYYYD