Laser technology
Inspired by John McCain’s talk of expensive overhead projectors, Katt and I went to see a laser light show at a planetarium.
Despite hearing a lot of references to laser light shows, we’ve never actually seen one, so we didn’t know what to expect. I guess I was thinking there’d be some complex mathematically-derived patterns of colored lights that would morph into one another in an awe-inspiring, or at least stoner-inspiring, fashion, all set to a whole lot of Led Zeppelin and Rush.
There was a little of that, but it wasn’t very awe-inspiring. That stuff looked like Windows 3.1 screen savers. Most of it was animated doodles. And not very good doodles, either. Here’s a picture Katt took before a more serious laser light show aficionado asked her to put away her phone:
He did the mash.
But you know, it was awesome.
They were running the Halloween show, so there were a whole lot of crude drawings of monsters dancing in two-frame animations. We couldn’t stop laughing during the first ten minutes of the show. On the other side of the planetarium, there were some kids (I think) that were shouting “Whoa!” every few minutes. About every ten minutes, some people would walk out of the show. All of that added to the experience.
The set list included the Ghostbusters theme (going “Ghost! Busters!” during that was solidly entertaining), the Monster Mash (from which the above picture was taken), and according to Katt, half of a They Might Be Giants album.
The best part, next to the animation, was the planetarium viewing experience itself. Watching anything in those recumbent seats with the image projected on a huge surrounding dome rules. If I’m ever ridiculously rich, I am going to have a planetarium, in which I will recline and watch Space Ghost DVDs.
Tags: halloween, planetarium
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