So I found Adam Savage’s (from MythBusters) Dec 12, 2008 presentation on FORA.tv that he gave at the Entertainment Gathering (Richard Saul Wurman’s new conference), on his own obsession with things, in this case, the Dodo and the Maltese Falcon. Along the way he discusses some of his background as a model maker, the history of these objects, and a pretty amazing community of movie prop afficianados/fanatics that he spends a lot of time with. The video includes:

• the Dodo (and how the last complete Dodo skeleton was “destroyed” in a fire) and his attempts to have his own
• the Maltese Falcon and his attempts to have his own
• the connection of the Maltese Falcon to the Black Dahlia, James Ellroy the author
• How Savage has a hand-held laser scanner that fits in a cereal box

My favorite part is the closing:

… and then maybe, then, I’ll achieve the end of this exercise. But really, if we are all gonna be honest with ourselves, I’ll have to admit that achieving the end of the exercise was never the point of the exercise to begin with was it?