Re: Contest/Showcase Thoughts

[krandall@world.std.com]

At 12:16 PM 7/11/99 -0400, Ken wrote:

>As this contest/showcase progresses, it will be interesting to see how many
>entries we receive. Does anyone know how many people are on the APD now? 

I'm sure Cynthia could and would tell us.  

>I would also like to emphasize that I believe the idea of this
>contest/showcase originated when someone (was it you James P?) wondered out
>loud about whether an American-style aquarium, as opposed to a Dutch or
>Amano style, had evolved over the years.  Although, I think we really do
>need to make the contest/showcase international, I sure would like to see us
>explore the possibility of whether an "American style" does exist, and, if
>so, what it is. Maybe strategic subgroupings in the contest will be able to
>bring this out. I think this should be a very important by-product of this
>contest/showcase, maybe even its theme.

I can tell you my "take" on that question.  I certainly haven't seen all
the tanks everywhere in the U.S., But I have seen a good many, from both
coasts and in between.  I think we _do_ have a style.  It's not as
"trimmed" as the "Dutch" tanks I've seen photos of, and it is certainly not
a disciplined as the Amano style tanks.  Actually, I think the American
"style" if you want to call it that is so familiar and comfortable to us
that we don't really recognize it as a style except by comparison with
tanks from other places.  My personal style I liken to the terrestrial
cottage garden.  A feast for the eyes of textures, patterns and colors,
certainly not to rigid, maybe a little overstuffed.<g>  I love looking at
Amano's tanks, but I couldn't live with them day to day.  Nor could I live
with some of the "Dutch tanks I've seen photos of, where fast growing stem
plants are meticulously pruned to produce a "street" through the aquascape,
though again, I enjoy looking at them.  

My life is too busy.  I maintain my tanks the way I maintain my gardens.  I
live with them.  When I walk through my gardens, I pull a weed here, stake
a flower there.  When I'm out and about and see something interesting, I
find a place to shoe horn it in.  With my tanks, hardly a day goes by
without me getting an arm wet, whether to pick out a leaf, or scoop some
Salvinia off the surface.  I don't want to feel that I CAN'T buy an
interesting new plant I come across because it doesn't belong in my
perfectly pre-planned aquascape.  And I enjoy watching my tanks change and
mature through the years.  I'm a perennial sort of person, not into annuals.<g>

I love the idea of this contest, and will very much enjoy seeing the
entries.  But I think we _do_ have a style, and it's just fine ;-)

Karen