Addendum and P.S.

...I'll tell you what, if I ever do that Kickstarter and build that "Visitor Center" here*, I'll include at least one "Always-a-Frame, Never-a-TV" (thanks, robert e) Samsung Frame TV and have a rotating display of horizontally-oriented pictures on it. That would be cool, amongst the rest of the display. (To make it environmentally friendlier, it could be turned off except when visitors are present.)

Mike

*This is a plot I've been fomenting for some time now, to build a small outbuilding for my pool table, which is sadly now in storage. The garage-sized building would double as a photographic display space so visitors to TOP could have something to see other than my ratty self. I envision the two long walls would be for hanging pictures, the short solid wall would be for all my photobooks, and the short wall with the door in it would feature a display case for cool cameras and neat photo-related gewgaws of every description. I have a number of such items stored away already, a little seed-box of the dream. And of course the pool table, well-lit, would be a great table for spreading visitors' prints out on. I'm planning on...middle-gray cloth, of course.  :-)

Simonis 860 Grey

P.S. I'm just talkin', never mind me.

P.P.S. Boy, the people who hate cars and pool are not going to be happy with me this week.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Peter Foiles: "I am pretty sure when I was checking the details of The Frame TV that it has a motion sensor so that it turns itself off if there is nobody around."

Manuel: "The only hate I'll bear will be if you start raving about 8-ball pool tables instead of Snooker ones. It only takes watching Ronnie O'Sullivan play—at least when he's inspired—for all other types of billiards to become irrelevant. Now tell us your feelings about that Fiata....

Mike replies: Yes, I've become a rabid snooker fan of late. It's a much better game than any pool game—subtle, with distinct phases, requiring different skills, and endlessly varied in the ways the frames play out. And requiring great skill. I'm astonished at some of the things those players can do with position.

Snooker is very much like baseball is to aficionados—a game of fractions and great subtleties. There is always much more going on on a baseball field—and behind it, in the stats, scoring, and strategy—than meets the untutored eye. British people like to scorn baseball because they entertain themselves by disdaining all American sports, but the irony is that baseball would suit the British temperament wonderfully if they only would bother to understand it. But then, you have to grow up with it (and play it while you're young) to truly understand it, I'm told.

Pool is an indoor, miniaturized substitute for golf; snooker is an indoor, miniaturized substitute for baseball.

As for the Fiata (you knew I couldn't resist answering this, didn't you?), I approve of both the Fiata and the Miata RF, because other people will prefer them and the more the merrier, but I don't need either one—the regular mainstream version of the regular manually-operated ragtop would still be my preference.

John: "The new outbuilding sounds good. Except for the pool table. Tables, cushy chairs, and lamps for a reading space would be much better. And how about soliciting self-published photo books? The Center for Creative Photography had an exhibit like that and it was wonderful. Hey, you would sell the pool table to fund all this. :-) "

Mike replies: An outstanding idea, about the library section for self-published books by others. I would love to do that. Consider it adopted as part of the plan.

Cushy chairs and even a couch are do-able even with the pool table—all that is needed is a few feet around the table for standing and clearance for the end of the cue, so furniture below the level of the pool table-top does not interfere with playing, as long as it is not too close to the table. A couch might interfere with the viewing of prints on the walls, so maybe reading chairs in the corners would be the extent of it. And I would probably locate the reading light in the ceiling to reduce clutter.

Comments

[Bruce Bordner]

Finally a good excuse to buy a pool table! The lighting is good for either use... now if I only knew how to play pool this would be really useful.

[JIm A]

How can anyone hate both cars and pool? That makes absolutely no sense! That's like saying Blue Oyster Cult used too much cowbell!

[s.wolters]

My first association:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVvRoq-i2aI

[Joseph Reid]

Not that it is likely but I would come just to play pool. The photographic surroundings would be a bonus and probably a distraction that would benefit the competition.

[Not THAT Ross Cameron]

At the risk of embarrassing long-time Aussie TOP readers, it puts in mind a popular, nay cult, local comedy movie released in the 90's named The Castle. One (of many) one-liners was "this is going straight to the pool room". It referred to any achievement by the family that was worthy of celebration, and was literally displayed in the pool room for all to see.
Would be well worth a visit!

[Sherwood McLernon]

It would be a pity to waste a nice table like that on Pool, when you could be playing Snooker!

[Michel]

ironically I bet that most people who hate cars and pool probably love carpools

[Daniel]

Mike, where you are you won't use these guys http://montanashedcenter.com/
but if you check out what they make you will get the idea. Not too expensive to have a decent shed/small building done. Less than the cost of many high end cameras these days.

What you suggest makes sense. A place done the way you want from the ground up. Make it so it suits your purposes. So many good designs around and flexible companies that you might do it before you expect.

No, I have no affiliation with the company. Just have friends here in North Dakota and Montana who have purchased the sheds and are happy with them. Varying uses from tools to yard tractors to mother-in-law place out back.

[Hi Daniel, around here it is Woodtex in the town of Himrod--founded by two Amish brothers whose father died when they were young. I've already gotten estimates. They will build the basic structure, but the slab, heating
(it will be heated but not plumbed), and interior finishing will have to be done by others. I'm thinking of getting estimates from contractors for the whole job, top to bottom. It's still a few years away in any case, assuming it ever gets done at all. --Mike]

[Barry]

Well, Mike, the thing about disdain in American "sports" is not the sport, but the way it is "played". The game itself, with the subtleties you mention, could be appreciated, but the chewing, spitting & other aggressive pseudo posturing, diminishes it. A sport should be able to stand on its own merits, like FIFA football, without having to resort to violence (like ice hockey) to entertain people. The "disdain" is probably just a form of class distinction, or snobbery, even, & I suspect that a good chunk of the Trump panic is sublimated elitism.

[David Miller]

"the irony is that baseball would suit the British temperament wonderfully if they only would bother to understand it."

Ah Mike, Mike, Mike… To anyone who has been initiated into the incomprehensible beauty and intrinsic patience of cricket, baseball can never be more than a primitive and unsubtle game recently developed in a former colony that has gone sadly adrift.

;-)

[Bill Mitchell]

you got trouble, trouble, trouble!
And that stands for Pool!!!

[Richard Parkin]

"... but the irony is that baseball would suit the British temperament wonderfully if they only would bother to understand it." This is just a wind-up, right? I'm sure you really know that baseball was an English* game. Anyway, Pool is to Snooker as Baseball is to Cricket.
* English not British ;-)

[Steve Higgins]

In the words of George Bernard Shaw, "The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity."

He'd obviously been dragged to a dull five-day match - probably a draw. :)

[Bob Rosinsky]

Wow,"Simonis 860 Grey" pops right off my screen.