Battle of the Smithsonian!

I had few hours to kill today, so I decided to catch up on the sequel to the movie, "Night at the Museum"; hard to believe that first film came out at Christmas 2006. Seems like only yesterday!

While this one moves the action to Washington DC's Smithsonian complex, and really ups the ante for potential exhibits that may soon come to life, it doesn't retain the freshness of the first film. Certainly a fun movie, but a bit sequelly and predictable - whereas I found the first one to be quite unpredictable! Owen Wilson, as the feisty diminutive cowboy escapee from a diorama again manages to steal the show with his snappy retorts. (At least this time he takes a screen credit!)

As a free publicity campaign for famous US museums, these films must have worked wonders. They certainly give me itchy feet to return to New York's Museum of Natural History, and the Air & Space Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington.

Today's outing was also a good excuse to snap this 3D display for my 365 Photos project.


Cinema display for "Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian".

Mego Museum freebies

In the mail today came my complimentary set of fourteen Mego Museum trading cards, #39 to 52 inclusive, featuring the highly-coveted Mego 8" Star Trek action figures from the 1970s. All one had to do to get these cards was send both email and postal addresses to the guys who run the Mego Museum website.



The photography is very nice. The designers and photographers have managed to get those early figures, including the ultra-rare Andorian and Romulan figures, into some great poses. The monochrome cardbacks feature "Mego Facts", and trivia questions and answers. Too bad the mailing list has been closed off for now, or they'd be swamped with more word-of-mouth orders.

Sweet Williams: surviving the drought and the heat

I wanted to share this photo of my very healthy-looking Sweet Williams display. I took this shot last week on the back balcony, but they are thriving still, despite some scorching days out here in Penrith, on Sydney's western outskirts.



The unique planter is an Orbital Herb Planta from Go Home Lifestyle Products. I first saw these pots at the Powerhouse Museum when I was there for the Premier's Reading Challenge presentation ceremony, but it was a letter from the Museum's shop just before Christmas, granting me a 20% discount off any purchase, that made me go racing back into the city. I mean, I liked the planter at 40 odd dollars - 20% off made it a bargain! (They'd had a huge stack in the November - and were down to just four left in Christmas week, so it's selling well.)

To plant it out, I literally bought two rectangular punnets of Sweet Williams from Bunnings, broke off clumps and shoved them into each section. No extra soil would fit. The little inner pots stay moist for days because they sit in any extra water without getting sodden. The perfume from the flowers is quite amazing for such small blooms, and the flowers keep replenishing themselves.

Gee, I do have a green thumb, after all.

On the fifth day of Christmas

Yesterday, my friend Leonie and I went to see the new Ben Stiller movie, "Night at the Museum". Based on Milan Trenc's children's picture book "The Night at the Museum", this movie is a lot of fun, with some great special effects that are seamlessly incorporated into the story. (Why should toys be the only things to come to life at night?) this film should make anyone eager to take a stroll through the New York Museum of Natural History. By day or by night...

Today's ornaments:



Above left: For 1998, one of my favourite ornaments: Pinky and the Brain, two determined mice attempting world domination, and have seemingly achieved it by wrapping up the Earth in Christmas lights and carrying it away. From the "Animaniacs" cartoon series, and bought from the Warner Bros. store in Parramatta. The little troll with Christmas hair, tie and pixie boots, is actually a girl's hair accessory for a ponytail. I bought him from the Lakemba pharmacy/newsagency, back when I lived in that suburb.

Above right: For 1997, the Christmas elf with the Jack-in-the-box just had lots of appeal. It's spring-loaded and came in a display box from Grace Bros. in Roselands. The cat is unusual and wasn't intended to be a Christmas tree ornament. The head is ceramic and the body is a tiny bean bag, made of patterned material. He doesn't actually hang from the tree, but rather reclines on the top of several branches. I bought him from the Lakemba pharmacy/newsagency.

Because I read...

On Monday, I was invited to join New South Wales Premier, the Honourable Morris Iemma, to a presentation for the conclusion of this year's Premier's Reading Challenge at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum. My principal graciously let me attend, in my capacity as a member of the reviewing panel, even though there wasn't much direct benefit to my school.

An innovation of the previous premier, Bob Carr, the first Premier's Reading Challenge's caused a bit of a scramble at Scan, when I worked there, digging through all our old book reviews to find the best of the best in children's literature, both classic and new, to help the coordinator draw up a reading list for school students in time to meet a tight deadline. Since then, the PRC has become a well-oiled machine, and I'm really enjoying being part of the review panel, which meets numerous times each yea, both in person and via email.

5900 students successfully completed the PRC in 2001, but 119 796 did so this year: a 40% increase! The number of students (Years K-9) signing up to take part in the project was almost 260 700. Between them, 3.6 million books were read.

All attendees, big and small, were asked to bring their "favourite book". I took my well-loved Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1, a uniquely Australian publishing phenomenon, which still carries my paternal grandfather's handwritten inscription inside: "to Ian, aged 6." Whenever I riffle through it, being aged six years old seems like only six months ago...

My friend and fellow book review panellist, the prolific author Libby Gleeson, was a guest speaker at Monday's presentation, and I loved the quote she used during her speech. Quoting another Australian children's author, Paul Jennings, she recalled that when Paul was asked by a young fan, "Why do you read, and why should we value reading?", he replied:

"Because I read, I don't bash people up."

So eloquent! Reading allows us to see the world through the points of view of other people, and this helps children (and adults) to realize that all "other people" have thoughts, feelings and actions - whether they are the same as our own thoughts, feelings and actions or not. Reading literature grants us unique and valid perspectives that are not our own.

It would be difficult to sit through such an inspiring day and not be affected by the fact that everyone in that room - and many thousands of others who weren't - have made astounding differences in the lives of 260 700 NSW students in 2006. Amazing stuff.

Next weekend, 410 new book titles will be added to the already-impressive existing PRC booklist.



(ed. E. W. Cole, 70th edition, purchased December, 1964. Originally published: 1879.)

Hail Grigor

Wow, some great trivia - and an unexpected brush with fame - last week. The primary school at which I work has just developed a little history museum of local and school memorabilia, to celebrate the official opening of our new assembly hall - and I got to research a few pieces for the display, including a fascinating old epidiascope exactly like this one! It's amazing what relics are hiding away in school storerooms, gathering dust.

Way back in 1881, my research discovered, the teachers at our school applied for funding to buy some innovative teaching machines, including an "Aphengescope". (I discovered that this obscure, patented term from 1843 refers to a device that was, essentially, a 'pair of lanterns' for projecting small opaque objects.) The headmaster of the day hoped such a machine would make science lessons "more interesting". His funding application was unsuccessful.

Some time early in the 20th century, the school was able to purchase a Ross epidiascope (epi-dia-scope) instead, which served a similar purpose. A forerunner of today's overhead projector, this bulky machine enabled still pictures to be enlarged and projected onto a wall. There are probably not many of these devices still in existence.

The epidiascope gets its name from combining EPIscope, a device for projecting opaque objects, and DIAscope, which projects transparent images in the same way as a slide projector. A knob moves an internal pointer for directing an audience's attention to parts of the projected image.

The two lens mountings represent the two methods of projecting still pictures. The lower has a standard glass slide carrier, fitted to the rear, which would be operated in the normal way. The upper lens mount was for projecting photographs, newspaper cuttings, other printed matter, and even small, flattish 3D objects, such as coins, plant specimens, or a working pocket watch. This was accomplished by the use of the separate projection platform below the body, on which objects could be placed, then raised mechanically until it made contact with a glass plate under the body.

Lit by the epidiascope's powerful lamp, and through various prisms, the image was projected by the upper lens. The lower lens is a F1.3 500mm and the upper lens is F1.3 250mm.

The other discovery was an unexpected showbiz connection. Old school magazines from 1974 mentioned an event whereby Australian actor Grigor Taylor, then of "Silent Number" and "Matlock Police" fame, had visited the school to pin prefects' badges on elected students - because he'd been School Captain himself at our school way back in 195x. (Digit deleted in case Mr Taylor hides his age.) The old honour board is located not far from my classroom and I've scanned it many times, but never noticed Grigor's gilded name emblazoned on it, until now.

One of our other teachers who, as a student, attended the same local high school as Grigor Taylor, recalled her excitement that Taylor's hand-scrawled name had appeared in one of her school text books, although he'd long been graduated. "He was quite a hunk in the 70s," she recalled.

I almost sorta met Grigor Taylor when he was playing school teacher Greg Walker in the school-based TV drama "Glenview High", opposite Elaine Lee and Rebecca Gilling, both of "Number 96" fame. I was at Channel Seven's Epping studios one day in 1978, feeling totally starstuck, to interview Elaine for a teachers' college media assignment, and the rugged Mr Taylor sauntered past with a wink and a smile. How many degrees of Kevin Bacon is that?


The day I almost got introduced to Grigor: young, impressionable, trainee teacher Ian McLean
(right, wearing Giovanni's deli jacket from "Number 96"), interviews Elaine Lee,
who was playing Principal Margaret Gibson in TV's "Glenview High" at the time.
A far cry from Vera Collins, eh?