SUGGESTIONS by Rev. Ivan Stang

Each winter since Princess Wei 'R.' Doe retired from her day job, we've thrown the SubGenius mail-order business into the back of the iVan and escaped Ohio winters to see friends and family, and hiking trails, in the South and Southwest.

SubGeniuses who aren't interested in nature and landscape shots, but just want a quick breeze through the visual highlights -- the funny shots, mainly -- should skim through the first section, "SubGenius Specials" and perhaps "The Floozeum," our documentation of the incredible bulldada collection of Rev. Susie the Floozie. Only a fraction of these are predicated upon "inside jokes" which only the most jaded and/or fanatical SubGenii will "get."

The rest of the photos represent, in considerably more detail, the first third of our trip, from Ohio to Texas -- visiting friends along the way -- and from Texas to Los Angeles -- visiting National Monuments and State Parks along the way, with a focus on the naturally surreal. This particular winter we spent the middle third with family and friends in L.A. and San Francisco, and the last third high-tailing it home via a more northerly route with one sprained ankle out of four. We are still editing the later sections, although we have already included the "SubGenius Specials" from the entire trip.

As always, you may simply skim the thumbnails, especially if you happen to be nearsighted. If you look at the full-sized pictures (recommended), simply clicking on each picture brings up the next.

At this posting, we are still editing music-video "slide shows" combined with sync-sound video clips, and although the stills fly by much faster in those (exactly one per second), there are twice as many of them. Those will be on YouTube soon enough. Last year, we did the videos first, but never got around to the photo galleries. The dozen or so older 2010-11 videos can be seen starting with:

Enchanted Rock, Texas and Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

We have a very methodical approach to shooting and editing. Our main reason for taking pictures at all on these trips is so that we may someday refresh our memories in extreme detail as we advance in age. Therefore, on an average adventurous day, we shoot from 500 to over 1,000 digital photos and short movie clips. Those are just for us. We then, in a series of time-consuming (but fun!) stages, cull them down to the very best from each day. Half of those are considered "family only" and get stashed in galleries known only to the Stang & Doe families and a few old friends. What remains is what you see here.

Anyone interested strictly in the SubGenius or humorous angle can ignore everything past that first "SubGenius Specials" folder and "The Floozeum.". However, for those considering visits to some of these locations, we have made an effort to isolate and post only the most visually appealing and interesting shots.

In this photo gallery, if you find yourself wondering why in the world we included certain shots, examine the file name. When there are words tacked onto the file number, it's usually for a reason. Sometimes they are inside jokes, but generally they are explanatory.

As a kind of side-hobby, somewhat like my interest in videotaping protozoa and micro-animals through microscopes, I also like to photograph rotting buildings. As a landowner with a peculiar aesthetic sense, the process of decay fascinates me. Although we generally do not stop or even slow down for these, I love to capture mysterious glimpses of dilapidated buildings, or "Dilapos" (recently shortened to just "'Lappies"). Many pro photographers have websites dedicated to this sort of thing, and what I manage to catch from the moving automobile is no competition for those. Nonetheless we offer separate galleries of "Dilapos," where we have collected our UGLIEST shots of America. No political statement is meant by this, as dipshits with agendas have suggested. We simply think that man-made things look cool as they fall apart, "Life After People" style.

We offer the first half of this year's Dilapos collection here as stills:

DILAPOS 1 and DILAPOS 2

Meanwhile, you can see the "video slide shows" of similar subject matter from last year starting here:

Dilapos 2011 - America in Ruins