Seattle: Visit to MoPOP! part four: Infinite Worlds

Perhaps spooky, supernaturally horrifying abstracts or creepy-crawlers aren't exactly your thing, and instead of shivering under the covers at night dreading a zombie hoard descending upon your quiet home and ripping you limb from limb into an unrecognizable spray of blood and viscera, you spent your nights worrying yourself with an ever-more imminent artificial intelligence induced apocalypse where cold, unfeeling robot overlords or inhuman alien beings from beyond the stars descend upon and obliterate our fragile, bipedal liquid-filled kind. After all, you've likely got a smartphone lounging around nearby, with audio, video and surveillance capabilities you might be unaware of as a consumer, and more smart devices enter our homes on the daily, whether it's your Google Home speaker or the smart fridge warning you via text message that you're low on milk... and who really knows when it comes to aliens? Space is a very big, very vast terrain, and inconceivable terrors could lurk in the outer reaches of the galaxy, or perhaps even in the shadows on nearby planets...

If the above all rings true with you, never fear my friend! The Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPOP for short, has got your back. Whether you're a die-hard Jedi, a whimsical Whovian with a tip of the bow-tie, rebel fighting against the threat of Skynet, or simply a curious observer stepping into uncharted waters,the Infinite Worlds exhibit offers a peek into the world of Science Fiction that is sure to whet the palate of anyone with half an imagination left rattling around inside their skull. Thankfully, all threats have been subdued, and we the visitors are able to enjoy the craftsmanship and design intricacies such up-close and personal observations allow. No Daleks will try to exterminate you here, though you may marvel in wonder at their plungers and whisk-like attachments, and wonder, as I did, what they ever hope to achieve with such things. I know, there's an episode of Dr. Who out there, somewhere, that demonstrates the precise purpose of the plunger, but it's more fun to wonder. Do the Daleks have terrible little pipes for plumbing on their home planet or do they encounter frequent clogs in their exoskeletal robo-suits? 

As science fiction does, frequently, tend to overlap itself with the horror genre, there are some creatures that could find themselves in either exhibit. I'm not going to question the logic behind why some displays wound up in one place and not another, as I think it's fair to assume the people running MoPOP have a measure of awareness when it comes to doing what they do. As a fan of the Alien franchise and the design of the Xenomorphs, in all their various stages of life and forms, it pleases me to see more of them lurking around regardless. As I mentioned before, there's a lot here to check out, and that goes for many different corners of the science fiction fandom. We were rapidly running out of time within which to enjoy our time at MoPOP on this particular visit, but we made the best of it within the time frame we had available and I hope these photos can give you a taste of what's in store should you decide to pop on down for your own visit. Trust me, it's worth it! But there are plenty more photos to come, so check 'em out and see what you're missing out on~

Seattle: Visit to MoPOP! part three: Scared to Death

Over the years I've had many different interests evolve, blooming into questionably obsessive territory before they eventually wane, like that time I really wanted to learn how to play the electric guitar but upon taking home an acoustic I realized my fingers were perhaps a bit short for the task and over time found my way to the ukelele instead...or the time I tried to learn Russian. One thing that has remained strong, consistent, and lurking in the background of my more pressing goals (tie-dye, candle making, travel, whatever thing I'm obsessing over at the moment) is a deep and lingering love for all things spooky, supernatural, or otherwise bone-chilling. Fortunately for me, I'm able to listen to headphones while I work, so I can satisfy my curiosity for the creepier side of things with endless hours of true crime or cryptid podcasts as I work, work, work away. If you're interested in some of those ear-filling goodies for yourself, some of my favorites include Small Town Murder,  And That's Why We Drink, Morbid Podcast, The Cryptid Keeper and of course, Mysterious Universe as always. I can absolutely credit Mysterious Universe for being the alpha and omega podcast to truly get me into podcasts, and I've been listening to MU for years and years.  

One of my first introductions to horror films was through an old Vegas local show, Saturday Night Fright At the Movies, a gloriously cheesy schtick involving an undead Elvis and a rotating cast of B-grade (or often much worse rated) films of a spooky or science-fiction bent. As a kid obsessed with spooky things, I absolutely loved the show and would make a point of trying to catch it every weekend after watching Ren & Stimpy. I'm really dating myself here with all this, but the point of all the backstory is to fully impress upon you, dear readers, that as a fan of horror I thoroughly enjoyed the Scared to Death exhibit at MoPOP!! I had seen advertisements for it during the Halloween season but had presumed it was a seasonal showcase and forgotten about it until the Marvel exhibit caught my eye and we found ourselves down at MoPOP to check it out. There are, as it turns out, many different exhibits that stay on for extended periods or permanently, but there's also many different rotating through, so if you're in the area it's worth considering a membership if you think you'd be going more than once. 

There's a lot to see, and we really could have spent longer wandering the halls and absorbing as many details as our eyes allowed. We'll be heading back again soon! For now, please enjoy these photos I captured and there's plenty more below the cut!

Vegas: Math Alive! Exhbit at the Springs Preserve May 2018

The Springs preserve plays host to two large museums on it's grounds: The Nevada State Museum and the Origen Museum. This exhibit was in the Origen Museum, same one we saw the Space exhibit on my birthday in. This time around, the exhibit was focused on Mathematics- not surprising, perhaps, given the name of the event. We caught it right at the tail end of it's run, so it will no longer be available to check out by the time this post is live, I'm afraid. I hope that by preserving it's awesomeness and sharing it with you here now you'll feel inspired to look into and check out future events at the Springs Preserve! There's always something new going on and we've had a lot of fun checking it out over the time we've had our memberships. It's always a family friendly affair, too, so for those of you with young ones it's a great option for a day out with them! Personally, I've always had something of an on-again-off-again love affair with math. I felt it came easily when I was attending a math and science magnet school as a child, and paid far less attention than I should have during lessons. Everything up through geometry made sense, and geometry came easily as my spacial-awareness from years of drawing was already pretty high. It was when we started to dabble in algebra, mixing the letters with numbers, that things started to go awry for me. I think that with the right teachers it would have been no problem, as I had a teacher later in life who explained it all in a manner that clarified things immensely, but for most of my middle and high school career I found myself growing resentful and frustrated by the teachers I had, who made it seem so effortlessly easy and insulted my efforts to ask questions after class...that's right, I legitamately had a teacher make fun of me when I came to her room after class to ask her for additional guidance. She had always been a bit of a nightmare teacher, with a reputation around campus for being a monster, but to mock a student's honest efforts at trying to learn and understand the material? Wow. In the end I needed to seek out outside tutoring and it helped, but it took time to get over the psychological block that I was innately bad at math after her abuses and taunts over the school year.  You may have to plan your visit for earlier in the day, however, if you're planning on visiting the butterfly exhbit, their zoo (say hi to Mojave Max their tortoise!), the Sustainability gallery , Boomtown and Waterworks, or other areas of the Preserve like the botanical gardens...

 

More photos below!

Vegas: Nevada State Museum at the Springs Preserve

On this particular visit to the Springs Preserve we found our way to the Nevada State Museum! We were pretty excited to find out that it was included in our admission with our annual passes, which we both highly recommend getting if you're in the Vegas area for any substantial amount of time. There's just so much to see and do at the preserve, especially if you're a local that enjoys gardens, museums and the out doors but wants to stray away from the crowds at the Bellagio's conservatory or other top tourist destinations. We were both quite happy with our time in the museum and found it an excellent use of an afternoon together. There's a lot of exhibits and information to absorb! Personally, I'd say my favorite displays have to be the skeletons as it's so fascinating to see the prehistoric remains of beasts that roamed the lands eons ago. On the topic of dinosaurs there's a really cool painting inside the museum that was painted by super talented local artists! Photos will be included below.

It might seem silly that we're so enthusiastic about museums and gardens and the like since Vegas is a city that thrives on it's nightlife and high class dining, shopping, and entertaining...but both Antho and I are locals who grew up in the city and we both just generally prefer to stay off the main boulevard when we go out to play. There's a lot of fun and exciting things to see and do on the Strip, that's for sure, but with traffic, parking, the crowds and everything else it can be too much sometimes. We have fun when we play tourist but it's not something we do every day... at the preserve, however, we feel at peace. Everyone we've interacted with has been pleasant and friendly for the most part, the crowds typically thin and the gardens beautiful. We've gotten a lot of use out of our annual passes and expect to get several more trips in before they expire. It's been especially fun to see how the grounds change through the seasons. There's always something new coming in to bloom or going out for the season. 

As always, more photos after the cut!

Vegas: Wetlands Park

As part of our personal quest to see all the pretty places scattered around our fair city, we suited up and found ourselves driving over to the Wetlands Park in Henderson one fine day. By this point we'd gotten Vanticore, our big Van, and were eager to stretch her legs. Eventually we want to get her fully converted to be livable so we can travel about in comfort, not unlike my much loved tortoises who carry their homes with them, but for now she's getting us out and about as we break her in. She's gone to Valley of Fire since this, but since she was still pretty new to us and we were finding new mechanical errors here and there, we kept it close to home and the Wetlands Park is pretty conveniently located just off of Boulder Highway on none other than Wetlands Park Drive ( 7050 E. Wetlands Park Lane

Las Vegas, NV 89122)... it's free to visit and there's quite an extensive network of trails running throughout the park to explore, so we barely just scratched the surface of all there was to see and do during this trip. The museum was preparing to close shortly after we got there, too, so we weren't able to spend as much time checking out the various exhibits (giant flying mechanical insects, animals pelts and more) as we would have liked. The ladies working inside the museum were very cordial and friendly despite being ready to leave, and when it was time for them to start closing up for the day they were still polite. Perhaps it was Antho's enthusiasm, which can be pretty contagious to be around, and he was pretty excited to be there. We'd talked about going several years back when I lived nearby, but it never panned out at the time. Perfect excuse to take Vanticore for a drive and stretch her legs!  It's free to visit 

More photos after the cut!

Vegas: September visit to the Springs Preserve & OriGen Space Exhibit

As part of my birthday celebration, Antho and I went to visit the Springs Preserve. The Springs Preserve is a 180 acre property a short three miles from Downtown Las Vegas, and was actually the origination point of the city itself! Within it's boundaries are a plethora of things to see and do along with an ever rotating seasonal roster of events, flowers, and activities. Since this initial visit we've returned several times and despite that we've yet to truly begin to uncover everything there is to do inside the bounds of the preserve! There's the gardens, naturally, but also several hiking trails, multiple museums, a zoo, an old west style town, a cafe, and much more! There's even a butterfly habitat during the warmer months where you might get to live out a Disney princess dream with the little lovelies landing on you...singing is entirely optional. What brought us here for this particular visit, however, was the Space Exhibit inside the OriGen museum. 

While some of my friends dabble in astrophotography, which is incredibly beautiful, my curiousity in the cosmos stems largely from readings of Carl Sagan and documentaries/sci-fi. I do ever so love me a good (or sometimes terrible) sci-fi movie... and in space, no one can hear you scream...

We had so much fun during this visit that we actually sprung for annual memberships, which allow us to enter the gardens up to an hour prior to public opening as well as guaranteeing us free entry to the botanical gardens and museums for an entire year! When there's special events, like the Haunted  harvest we'd later go to, the entry fee is discounted for members. For the two of us it was about $50, which is really quite reasonable for everything included, especially when you consider that it's easy to spend $50 on a movie night (tickets, dinner, etc) it felt worth it to us. We could have gone an even cheaper route, but we wanted to support the venue and since the preserve is also rather close to where we're currently staying it makes for an easy budget friendly choice when we want to go out and do something but don't necessarily want to burn through all the gas (and gas money) it would take for us to drive out to Mount Charleston or Red Rock.  In all of our visits here, the staff have always been very pleasant and helpful. Walking among nature is known to be good for your health and we always leave the preserve feeling more relaxed and happy. Maybe it's from sunshine, or the exercise, but whatever the case we love the Springs Preserve!

More photos after the cut!

Japan: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo 2012-08-16

Not everything is quite what it seems...

One fine summer day I decided to embark upon a quest to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art  Tokyo, or MoT, an art gallery in the Miyoshi district of Tokyo.

It's a lovely art museum nestled into a quieter neighborhood of Tokyo, one not particularly bustling with tourists. Walking there ended up being something of a mission all in it's own, as my gps signal was unreliable and I found myself exploring wonderful little pockets of the town I hadn't expected to encounter!

Japan: Ghibli Museum, Mitaka 日本語も

If you're a fan of animation then you've probably heard of Studio Ghibli, and if not, you should! Seriously, these guys are often referred to as "the Disney of Japan" and for very good reason! 

Stunningly detailed imagery drips from every frame, lush in all of their films and their iconic characters have become beloved icons the world around. Primarily focusing on a hand-drawn aesthetic, everything from the minutae of everyday life to resplendent scenes of mythological beings or nature are rendered and exaggerated with loving detail until every scene oozes with atmosphere and life.

Pretty legit stuff, guys.  

ギブリの映画を見ましたか？どちがすきな？

あたしの一番すきなは風の谷のナウシカともののけ姫です。

キキもかわいいですね？＾＾

トトロはとてもかわいいでもその映画ぜんぜん見ませんでした。

ほんとう！びっくりしたか？

友達たちの一緒に三鷹の森 ジブリ美術館を行きました。

すごい楽しかったよ！

So it was with great excitement that I agreed to go to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka with some of my friends. Tickets had to be purchased in advance through a kiosk in either Lawson or Family Mart, and they could sell out quickly if you didn't plan ahead! We found a date that worked best for everyone and set our calendars.

One of these things is not like the others… ^^; 

あらららら。。。いっぽんは違うな？「笑」

More photos below!

ここの下で写真がある！

San Francisco Exploratorium

We finally made it to the Exploratorium! Nyee!!

Lots of photos of fun stuff ahead.