The Science Centre?

I visited the Ontario Science Centre of all places recently.  I had the urge to go.  Don't you think every Torontonian gets the urge to go back to the Science Centre every once in a while?  I know I do anyway.

The first attempt was a failure because that place keeps terrible hours for working people and students (middle of the day stuff that only children and their guardians can manage).  The second was semi-successful, but I need more time.  It takes a lot more than the two hours I gave myself to look around the place.

I visited the Da Vinci exhibit, which was extremely interesting because it was all about design and development of ideas.  It's perfect for me because that's pretty much what I do all day, so I got to check out how a master does it (no photos allowed).

the oh-so-familiar logo

try as I might, I could not get a good shot of this ceiling installation sculptural piece

mechanics!

cardboard chair

my science exploration partner

the rainbow light corridor

wearing a futuristic white unitard, but in a da vinci-esque setting... hmm

what may have happened to the dinos

I could have spent all day in this interactive zone

trying my hand at cobbling (with cardboard)

Invisible Man: Liu Bolin

This guy is very good at camouflage.  Artful camouflage.

Meet the real invisible man.

You know what I'm crazy about? Gus* Modern

Gus* Modern is a furniture and accessories design company whose factory is located right near my apartment in Etobicoke (anyone heard of Lakeshore Village?).

I love their style.  So simple and versatile, and so boxy, which I love.


My design-savvy brother first pointed Gus* out to me and said I should check out their product line.  I saw their products at STYLEGARAGE (www.stylegarage.com/) on Queen St West, but it took me a couple months to realize their factory and offices were only blocks away from me.

One of the great things about the company is their focus on eco-friendly designs.  Even with the growing popularity of environmentalism in interior design, I don't think enough companies make products that speak to it, so kudos to Gus* for that.



Here are some of my favourite items out of their current stock:

Check out more of their stuff at http://gusmodern.com/.

Look out!

The Bubble Eye Goldfish

I couldn't help re-posting this, from one of those "guy" websites where everything is girl or joke oriented.

"No problem"

The Kuleshov Effect in Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei Eisenstein)
http://www.kellimarshall.net/film/you-tube/

I don't know why, but I have watched this short music video a bunch of times.  I find it so haunting.  It kind of reminds me of studying Eisenstein and Kuleshov.  Kuleshov could show a single shot of a single expression (the lion statue above, a man's face) and, depending on the context (music, buildup), the audience would assume it was expressing something specific.  The trick was, he could apply the exact same image to any number of filmic moments and it would be read as wherever it was placed (happy, confused, tragic).  It is known as the Kuleshov Effect.  I think it's at work in this video, and that is one of the things that makes it so brilliant.

The Kuleshov Effect (badly demonstrated by me) - but it's a fun exercise to try!

P.S. Jamie Drake

a) one of his childhood perspectives!  a little prodigy in the making..

b) Jamie Drake in college!  This photo is awesome, I wish I had one of myself like it.

c) a current perspective of Drake's, I have just finished practicing my hand at his style.  I noticed, he loves detail.

Here is my sad, copyright infringement attempt (keep in mind my limited marker supply), and I included two others that I think are rather nice - also attempts at the styles of the professional renderer.