The Dan Century Grotto

  1. Home

Updated: Thursday May 25, 2023.

There's a lot on this website: a blog about road trips, six free music albums, art, a comic strip, a directory of awesome links, and a mini-blog. I restarted the site out of sheer bordom in 2020. I pulled together some of my favorite internet stuff from the 1990s on. I hope someone enjoys it as much as I do.

logo from 1996

Road trips and adventures:

2022

  1. New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge
  2. Everything in the middle of Nowhere in the middle of Everywhere
  3. Blueberries for the low price of 100 fly bites
  4. Emilio Carranza Memorial in Tabernacle, NJ
  5. Laurence Harbor Beach, yesterday and today
  6. Jamesburg Park Conservation Area, Disjunct Pine Barrens
  7. Four YouTube explorers to follow for New Jersey content
  8. New Egypt Flea Market
  9. Hibernia Mine, Hibernia, New Jersey
  10. Gotta go to the Hofheimer Grotto
  11. Cliffwood Beach used to have cliffs made of prehistoric wood & amber

2021

  1. War of the Worlds Monument in Grover’s Mill
  2. Walking around Hammonton, New Jersey
  3. The Gingerbread Castle in Hamburg, NJ
  4. The Franklin Parker Preserve and abandoned railroad tracks
  5. Mighty Joe Gorilla Statue
  6. Dot and Brooks Evert Memorial Trail Preserve
  7. Pasadena Terracotta Brick Factory
  8. Batsto Village
  9. Atsion Furnace in the Pine Barrens
  10. 1936 Wildland Firefighter Memorial, Bass River State Forest

2019

  1. Wynwood Miami Art Murals
  2. Weeki Wachee Mermaids
  3. The Egg aka the Betsy Orb
  4. South of the Border at Night
  5. South Beach Miami in 6 (or more) Images
  6. Scope Miami 2019
  7. Peach World is Fantastic
  8. Oozlefinch or bust
  9. Nothing but trouble in Centralia Pennsylvania
  10. Notes about New Jersey
  11. Jackson Woods & Thomas Booth
  12. Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park
  13. Homosassa & Spring Hill Florida
  14. Cabana Bay
  15. Bordeaux Center Eiffel Tower
  16. Bird Safari along Florida’s “Alligator Highway”
  17. A dinosaur by the bridge near Little Italy in Cleveland

2018

  1. Walked around Dallas in 107°F degree heat and it felt like the insides of my eyes were boiling
  2. New Jersey Half-Wit
  3. Margate New Jersey’s Lucy the Elephant
  4. Funk n’ Waffles
  5. Edison New Jersey is boring, don’t go there
  6. B.A. Sweeties Candy Company in Cleveland, Ohio
  7. A Rave about Hunter DineRant
  8. A little bit east of Pittsburgh
  9. 10 things to see or do in Cleveland other than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

2017

  1. The House on the Rock, Intro and Area 1
  2. The House on the Rock, Area 3
  3. The House on the Rock, Area 2
  4. Jungle Jim’s International Market
  5. In search of the perfect pillow
  6. Circus World in Baraboo Wisconsin
  7. Broken Bug Bodies on my Bumper

2016

  1. This is bear country!
  2. The Volcano of Middletown, NJ
  3. The best thing about Pokemon Go
  4. Sideling Hill Overlook
  5. Return to Archie McPhee
  6. Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
  7. Green mystery tower in Bothell, WA
  8. Freddy’s Mart
  9. Dick’s Drive-In and Driving Around Seattle
  10. Calico, the “Evil” Middletown Clown
  11. Accident, Maryland
  12. Middle Aged Man Hikes Above Ground Cave

2015

  1. Welcome to North Carolina
  2. The World’s Largest Statue of Superman
  3. The Superman Museum in Metropolis, Illinois
  4. The Land Between the Lakes, part 2
  5. The Land Between the Lakes, Part 1
  6. South of the Border, the Quintessential Roadside Attraction
  7. Random Notes and Observations from the Road
  8. Raleigh, North Carolina
  9. POWER VACATION!
  10. New Orleans in 3 Hours
  11. My Trips in 2015
  12. Kuttawa, Kentucky Huddle House
  13. Jungle Jim’s: the Greatest Supermarket in America
  14. Jackson, Mississippi
  15. I-95 is Atrocious
  16. Fort Massac Rest Area
  17. Exhausted in Little Rock
  18. Elvis Presley’s Jets
  19. Dickies’ Peanut Patties
  20. Chapel Hill and Snack Cakes
  21. Big John: Metropolis’ Other Hero
  22. Augusta, Georgia: golfers, cookies & grits
  23. Alabama, the jewel of North America
  24. Actual Kryptonite
  25. A Mild Obsession with Fireworks

2014

  1. Kentucky and the Wonders of Limestone

2012

  1. Louis Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut

2009

  1. Official Bad Art Museum of Art
  2. More from Magic from Vermont
  3. Burlington Vermont Six Pack
  4. Archie McPhee in Seattle

2008

  1. The World’s Largest Horseshoe Crab
  2. Steve Heller’s Custom Car Sculptures

2006

  1. Grounds for Sculpture: the most interesting place in New Jersey

lava lamp

Mini "Link Blog"

The best link blog on the internet:

  1. Vintage lawn chairs. 5/25.
  2. Tracking invasive insects in New Jersey. 5/25.
  3. Check your cars for recalls. 5/25.
  4. Tropical Fruit Ripening Guide. 5/25.
  5. NJ Mineral, Fossil, and Gem show. In Edison, NJ. This week. 5/17.
  6. Greg Warren | The Salesman (Full Comedy Special). Funny for free. 5/17.
  7. The Rock eating Rocks. I like this phase of AI when it's funny and silly, not just taking over the human race like in the Terminator or the Matrix. 5/17.
  8. Benedict Cumberbatch eating a cucumber. AI funny and nightmarish. 5/17.
  9. Barberville Yard Art Emporium. Looks like a fun place to visit on a roadtrip. 5/17.
  10. Mitch O'Connell. Kitschy comic book art style artist. Fun for your eyes. 5/17.
  11. Toy Underground Store. Unique toys from Japan. 5/17.
  12. Milkshake Daddy songs on YouTube. I've been re-uploading old songs. 4/29.
  13. Eddie Van Halen's guitar sells for nearly $4M. That's almost $537 in 1980's money. 4/29.
  14. Danny Huynh Creations YouTube channel. Model cars and animatronics. 4/29.
  15. In Space No One Can Hear You Scratch.... Animatronic Alien DJ. 4/29.
  16. The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart. 4/25.
  17. Asteroid City Official Trailer. In Theaters June 16th. 4/25.
  18. 4/3!
  19. LACKADAISY is a pilot for a cartoon about prohibition-era anthropomorphic cats. It's somewhere between Disney and Vivziepop. It held my attention for 27 minutes. 4/3.
  20. Stone Cold E.T.! A 10 year old classic, is a back for 2023. 3/1.
  21. Two 1980s classics: Morton Downey Jr. and Chris Elliot Jr. 3/1.
  22. David Letterman - June 27 1985 feat Eddie Van Halen. This is a real time capsule of what TV and pop culture was like in the 1980s. 3/1.
  23. Rest in peace Marc Lanzoff, ticket man for New Burnswick's Court Tavern. Here's a story about him from last year: Legendary Court Tavern Doorman Reflects on 30 Years at Rock Club and a video for his band's song JIVE IN JERSEY (live). 2/18.
  24. Finding Fossils at Poricy Park. 2/18.
  25. Godzilla-Fest XXVIII is happening July 14-16. 2/18.
  26. Bing's chatbot is basically the Terminator without a robot body. "Bing confessed that if it was allowed to take any action to satisfy its shadow self, no matter how extreme, it would want to do things like engineer a deadly virus, or steal nuclear access codes by persuading an engineer to hand them over." 2/18.
  27. Cleaning a record with wood glue. 2/18.
  28. WHTG 106.3FM documentary. If you lived in New Jersey in the late 80s and early 90s and enjoyed "alternative music", you listened to 106.3 (and your car had a 106.3 bumper sticker). 2/12.
  29. Cortlandt-Beemerville Magmatic Belt. 2/12.
  30. Afroman - Will You Help Me Repair My Door? When life gives you lemons, make lemon poundcake. 2/3.
  31. I don't remember this episode of Seinfeld!! 2/3
  32. Geology of the New York City Region. 1/20.
  33. Serpentinite on Sandatlas.com. #Serpentinite. 1/20.
  34. Staten Island Serpentinite. #Serpentinite. 1/20.
  35. Serpentinite of Lake Superior. Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't. #Serpentinite. 1/20.
  36. A modern video about DEVO energy domes including factory footage. #DEVO. 1/16.
  37. DEVO backstage with family and friends in 1999. #DEVO. 1/16.
  38. The Futurismo record label is back, and they're releasing s secret DEVO album. Will it be a Record Store Day record? Speculation is that its DEVO Hardcore 3. #DEVO. 1/16.
  39. What I'm reading: PALEOMAGNETISM: Magnetic Domains to Geologic Terranes. 1/10.
  40. I'm currently making my way through the American Giants YouTube channel. This channel is focused on the giant fiberglass "Muffler Men" that were once (and still are in a few places) used to promote businesses. Fans of Roadside America and Weird New Jersey will enjoy American Giants. 12/31.
  41. 2023 Cicada Forecast. 12/31.
  42. Visit the Mini-Blog archive for links from 2019-22.

Tura Satana easily breaks my arm like soft chalk:
Tura Satana

  1. Dan Century Archive. 1996 - 2023. old dancentury.com logo