Orion & Merv Griffin's Crosswords
Orion's been working on Merv Griffin's Crosswords for a few weeks now and today it debuted on NBC.Labels: Orion
posted on Monday, September 10, 2007
A Day at the Arts
Today was an arts day. Olenna, Eden and Orion joined us and we started our day at the Kemper Museum of Modern Art. Modern art is always love it or hate it for me, but one piece amazed me. It was a simple mobile that hung over a white background. It was black and it had a square a circle and a triangle hanging from it. The triangle wasn't solid though, it was actually many small parallel bars that together shaped a triangle. I wondered how the parallel bars seemed to hang in space, so I got closer. I realized that the mobile was not hanging at all. The entire piece of art was flat and you could tell that if you looked at it from the site; however, as you walked in front of it, the background seemed to fall away from the mobile as if the background where curved. I walked back and forth and could not figure out how it was done, but it was amazing. I neglected to get the artists name, but it was my favorite piece in the gallery.Next we went the Nelson and spent several hours there. We first toured the old part, then had lunch and then toured the new part. Although, I'm no architecture critic, I like the new part much more than I thought I would.
They also have free audio tours which I would recommend to anyone. It gives you a much better appreciation of the art. One piece of art depicted an old-time politician campaigning for votes. I've always liked it, but the audio tour taught me that it was painted by a former politician and represents his distaste for it. Pick up one of the audio tours when you go next time.
Labels: Eden, Enid, Olenna, Orion
posted on Thursday, July 05, 2007
A Day at Liberty Memorial
We spent the day at Liberty Memorial. Orion, Olenna and Danny went with us as well. If you haven't been there, it is a must see in Kansas City. It is built by the same company that did the Holocaust Museum in CD and the Constitution Museum in Philly. Although it doesn't have the emotional punch that the Holocaust Museum, it doesn't fail at all. It took what I percieved to be a boring war and a footnote in history and made me want more. They were able to pack a lot of information into a small space.Olenna and Danny went up the tower, but when Orion and I tried to go up a few minutes later a storm was coming in and lightning closed it down.
One of my favorite parts was touch tables where you could touch the table and interact with the displays. Think Minority Report style of interaction. The software appeared to be Flash or Director and I wondered how they were going to keep the tables working with so many people touching them until I tried one myself and realized that the tables were only white Formica and the image was being projected from above using 8 projectors.
Using one of the programs, I created a propaganda poster which you could then email to yourself. I did so and after hitting send, I looked at Enid and said "What a great way to harvest my email address."
Labels: Danny, Enid, Olenna, Orion
posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Bond, Freerunning and It All Happens in LA First
My wife and I saw Casino Royale a couple of nights ago. It was really good. Today, I was talking to Orion:"What did you think of the beginning of the movie. That guy was jumping off buildings and bouncing like off elevators like a rabbit."
"Yeah, it's called 'freerunning'," Orion said.
"What?"
"Freerunning. It's been out here for a couple of years. You can even take classes in it."
"I guess it all happens in LA first."
Here's some videos of people who are involved in freerunning. It's like someone made Jackie Chan into a sport:
Freerunning legend Henk:
Russian freerunner:
French News broadcast on the origins of freerunning:
posted on Thursday, November 23, 2006
