Sunday, February 16, 2014

Get Your You On

"If you have a talent to do something, anybody, I don't care what you do for a living. You gotta give it to the world."

So says Bruce Zaccagnino, creator and proprietor of Northlandz, the world's largest model railroad. At 52,000 square feet and 8 miles of track, Northlandz is 42 years in the making. (It's also only 25 miles away from Dave's house, so if we do this right, we've got a unique opportunity for cross-platform content.)

I'm not much for model railroading, or really for anything that requires patience, attention to detail, and persistence. But I am a huge fan of people that find their purpose, the thing that makes them happiest, and pursue that despite what anyone else might think.

Photographer Matt Albanese has an obsession of his own, and a gift for finding telling stories visually. In the short film below (and the companion website), he visits Northlandz and takes a series of stunning photos of Zaccagnino's life's work.



In the film, Zaccagnino hopes that his work, "will be somewhat immortal for a time after I'm gone". We should all be so lucky.

And I assume social scientists of the future will come to G:TB for the wisdom of our time. Or at least PhD-level dipshittery.

20 comments:

rob said...

did wall jump over gheorghe?

zman said...

Want this where bobby baccala got got?

T.J. said...

Nope. But he did jump over G-Man

zman said...

So ... Creighton.

Shlara said...

I like that the NBA brought out the old guys for the pre-game concert/warm-ups.

Shlara said...

I love Pharrell, but that hat...

zman said...

Bode Millers wife needs to pipe down. Or at least get off my TV set.

mr kq said...

Totes ma goats on Bode's wife. Although Shitzel just shut her up.

Mark said...

Skiing on mute on tv2 and the All-Star game on the main TV. Shockingly, not a lot of defense so far. Well except for Joakim Noah. God I love that guy.

Mark said...

Totes ma goats is never not funny when the voice reading it is that of James Earl Jones.

zman said...

This is some manipulative bullshit.

rob said...

what'd zson do now?

rob said...

this halftime show

Danimal said...

Hey G's

zman said...

This is the manipulative bs

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/olympics/wp/2014/02/17/bode-miller-breaks-down-during-nbc-interview/

rob said...

yeah, that's what i assumed you were referencing, z.

tribe are 9-point home favorites agains uncw this evening. just beat the seahawks by 4 at their place. i expect a pissed off w&m team that plays like this game matters, because it does. a win puts them 2 games up in the race for the 3 seed in the conference tourney with 4 to play. big number, but i like the tribe.

Dave said...

i have been to northlandz. it's pretty big, as far as train sets go.

if you haven't read "play their hearts out" -- a mark rec-- you've got to check it out. fascinating and infuriating at the same time.

Mark said...

Agreed. Worth it for any sports fan. Even more so if you have kids who play sports.

Dave said...

i have 20 pages left, but i had to look up what happened to demetrius walker and it's not so good . . . nor should it be, i guess.

Mark said...

No, its not. Most of the kids featured in the book (or mentioned in the case of kids from other programs) are finishing up or have just finished their college eligibility.