Hosted another Heavy Gear game today. This time we tromped around on a large-scale printed satellite photo, and it worked out quite well. Lots of indirect fire causing maximum havoc!
I’ll try to have more of the minis complete for the next stompy day…
There’s a documentary out in theatres right now titled, simply, Apollo 11, and it’s rather neat. For you see, while it is a straightforward documentary on Apollo 11, it has an interesting conceit: all of the film is comprised of actual archival footage or audio from the actual mission. (The only exception is a couple of shots from other Apollo missions, and some line drawing animations showing the position and sequence of the craft on its way to and from the moon.) That’s pretty cool. There are no talking heads, no voice-over narration unless it comes from audio spoken and transmitted at the time (to which mission control and news reports do a great job for that), and no big explanations or digressions. It’s the closest you can get to ‘cinema verité’ and ‘home movies from space’, just the story unfolding in a narrative manner as it happened.
Best of all, a lot of the footage is of the “never before seen” type, found almost forgotten in a NASA vault, shot in glorious 70mm and scanned at a ridiculously high resolution. There are some amazing shots and sequences that alone were worth the price of admission, doubly so worth it to see it on a large screen. There were also some candid moments of levity between the crew and control that were both hilarious and oh so human, a lovely touch to this technological marvel that, at the same time, touches our souls deeply in the spirit of exploration, accomplishment, and wonder.*
I would have preferred things if they hadn’t broken the conceit to include the animations (though I understand why they did so, not everyone would be as familiar with it all as I was), but my biggest “complaint” is simply that I wanted it to be longer. I wanted more of the amazing footage, more of the banter, more of the wonder unfolding before me. And that’s pretty high praise indeed.
Apollo 11 is a definite good, well worth seeing in a cinema. A great remembrance of a grand mission.
* To this end, if you haven’t seen the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon I highly, highly recommend it. It’s the complete opposite of Apollo 11, composed of interviews with most of the astronauts who travelled to the moon (Michael Collins is a freakin’ riot, I love that guy) and it’s profound to hear of their experiences.
Crystalline beauty…
There is a difference
Between being a possibility
And being a position
~ ~ ~ ~
A possibility is an intention
It grows towards the future
Seeks an outcome
Speaks to universal desires
Open to invention
It discovers, it learns, it develops
It may even change
The path we take to get there
Is rarely the one we thought we’d need
And doubly rarely the one we start down
Yet we arrive
~ ~ ~ ~
A position is fixed
It begins from a supposed truth
And it ends at an envisioned result
It is impervious
It does not dance as it moves along
Steamrolling all before it
Forcing its will upon the world, upon others
Outcomes along the way be dammed
Why should it listen?
It is right
So everyone, and everything else
Is clearly wrong
It is committed only to win
Even if the victory rings hollow
Pyrrhic on all sides
Nothing fulfilled
~ ~ ~ ~
When we aim to open new realms
For ourselves and for others
On our journeys towards more perfect
The worlds of possibility
Bear far more fruit
In leading towards our shared intentions
And towards fulfilling our shared desires and needs
Glorious outcomes
By the bucket
~ ~ ~ ~
(And if they’re not glorious
We get back to work
Realign ourselves
Restate our intentions
Begin down the path anew
Towards a new
more perfect
glorious outcome)
Ah, I love this! A new school in a remote village in Senegal, the Fass School uses local materials and know-how to beautiful effect, creating something unique and beautiful for the community.
Befitting the region, the design features lots of natural ventilation, white reflective walls, and a high ceiling to keep the space comfortable during the hot and bright days. The tall roof also serves double duty to help channel rain to an existing underground aquafer when the driving rains arrive. Add to all that that a generous courtyard and large porches. It’s a wonderful example of form and function singing together, creating delightful spaces that enhance the learning within.
If this project looks a bit familiar, it is because it is by Toshiko Mori, who designed the Thread Cultural Center I posted about a few years ago. Just like there, I love her continued exploration and use of the local forms and materials, the curving surfaces flowing together to create a unified whole, both in the school and the adjacent teacher’s house (and toilets!).
Really great work, providing a new hub and opportunity for a community, celebrating the culture, history, and creating something lovely well within the budget of a nonprofit. Great design comes from the heart, not necessarily the wallet.
A trio of weekends, a trio of movies, and now a trio of capsule reviews! Got a chance to catch The Lego Movie 2, How To Train Your Dragon 3, and Captain Marvel…
Potential Spoilers Ahead!
Beauty often erupts…
… when you least expect it.
Photo by my parents!
Going into a tailspin
in those days meant curtains.
No matter how hard you pulled back on the stick
the nose of the plane wouldn’t come up.
~~~
Spinning round, headed for a target of earth,
the whine of death in the wing struts,
instinct made you try to pull out of it that way, by force,
and for years aviators spiraled down and crashed.
~~~
Who could have dreamed that the solution
to this dreaded aeronautical problem
was so simple?
Every student flier learns this nowadays:
You move the joystick in the direction of the spin
and like a miracle the plane stops turning
and you are in control again
to pull the nose up out of the dive.
~~~
In panic we want to push the stick away from the spin,
wrestle the plane out of it,
but the trick is, as in everything,
to go with the turning willingly,
rather than fight, give in, go with it,
and that way come out of your tailspin whole.
~Edward Field~
~Corita Kent~
(Beyond the lovely words, I love it as a great early example of the remix “culture”, a case of additive worth, with Corita Kent taking the poem of Fields and rendering something extra beautiful with it.)
I like it when a design finds a way to use building material in new and even mind-bending ways. That double-take my mind makes as it tries to marry what it knows about a material (and how it’s used) and the different form that is arrayed before it is exciting. Which is all preamble to say, “woah, check out the sinuous and curvy brick on this one!”
Used to screen a semi-private courtyard, the brickwork is definitively out of the ordinary. With twists and turns it lets light and air through while maintaining a mediated visual connection. There’s something fun about the peeks of greenery (and warm light at night) that pokes through what we’d usually register as solid brick. There’s also a feeling of movement, like a sheet of rippling water.
I’m much less sanguine about the remainder of the house and find the nearly blank walls on either side of that sensual front especially unfortunate. Except for the tie to the courtyard, the rest of the house doesn’t appear to pull much inspiration from the unique front either, alas.
But what a front! A fancy façade though that is a treat to see and see through.
Lynx Thoughts 