Chic, IL 5 Things Not to be Missed at the Field After You've Seen SW:MOM

5] Maori House: a terrific Native New Zealand meeting house that was disassembled and reconstructed in the museum with the blessings of the people who built it. Even on crowede days, the hall it's in contains a serenity that can be refreshing after a hard day's tour of a crowded museum.

4] Plant Hall: hundreds of different displays of the world's plants... not a big crowd-pleaser. But a lot of people -should they even find their way into this hall- tend to miss the beauty of this exhibit: every plant, every flower, every leaf, every stem, every root, every fruit, every seed, every vegetable in this exhibit is fake. It's all resin, plater, glass, plastic, celluloid, wax, metal and paint. It took decades for all the objects to be designed and constructed. It's never happened before and it will never happen again. The boys in the replication shop nowadays are spending a year using similar methods to put together a cacao tree for the Chocolate exhibit in ought-two, and they tell me that every day they gain more respect and amazement for the people who put Plant Hall together. I've seen what an ordeal it is to mold and cast a single leaf for this tree, and to do that dozens of times over for a single branch of a single plant and then _paint_ each one... keep that thought in mind if you get a chance to see how massive Plant Hall is when you're ther tomorrow; it's a stupefying concept.

3&2] Kremlin Gold & Endurance: are the "other" two temporary exhibits at the Field right now besides SW:MOM. Kremlin Gold is exactly that: the history of the past 1000 years of Russian culture told through their jewelry and metalwork. It's also the show I'm most proud to have been involved with. "Endurance" is mostly a photo show, but it tells the story of one of the most incredible tales of human perseverence ever. Imagine heading to the Antarctic in 1914. Imagine your ship getting crushed in the ice and your entire crew of 28 is forced onto the ice to try to survive with no way to call for help. Imagine being stuch there for over two years. That's exactly what Ernest Shackleton and hs crew did, and every single one of them survived. How they survived is told by the amazing pictures the crew's photographer took, from the first day to the last, including some amazing early color images that are so clear, they look as if they could have been taken last week. Listen for the esteemed Liam Neeson, who narrates the three video segments in the exhibit.

1] SUE: Did this really need to be said? Yes, it did. A lot of people are put off when they come to museum and see a $8 million, fifteen foot high Tyrannosaur in place of the towering, 35-foot tall Brachiosaur that used to occupy the North end of Stanley Field Hall. "It's small" they say, with the same disappointed tone Linda Hamilton probably used on her honeymoon with Jim Cameron. Of course, these are adults who say this. Kids always seem to understand, tho, and for two reasons. One they learned in school, and one they know as soon as they look into SUE's eyes...

Technically speaking, SUE is indeed one of the most important dinosaurs ever. Not only is she an almost unbelievably complete skeleton of the most famous dinosaur ever (Field researchers have even discovered parts of her inner ear that was miraculously preserved within the skull,) but she also displays several of the better arguments concerning dinosaurs' evolution into birds (including the world's largest wishbone... damn thing looks like a giant stone boomerang.)

The more primal reason kids love SUE- the reason kids start becoming interested in paleontology in the first place I think- is that if she were alive, SUE would eat you. Then she would eat me, and she'd eat security, the docents, school groups, and then she'd go for those two elephants in the middle of the hall. Let's face it, the Brachiosaur -for all its height and girth- was the Jurassic equivalent of a moose. The T-rex, on the other hand, was a crocodile, a lion, an eagle, and a grizzly bear rolled into one and expanded to mind-boggling dimensions: foot-long teeth

 

Hey Bob! Great to see you on the JC finally. And I'm glad you took the time to post your personal "must-see" list again.

Although we couldn't make it up to Chicago this weekend, we still hope to get there this month before SW:MoM closes. I don't think we'll probably get to be in town on a work day for you, so we won't get to check out the flesh-eating beetles, and your desk. Since I plan to be in town for all four days of CapriCon, maybe that Thurs or Fri if you are working. I'll ask ya about that as it gets closer.

Hope all of you that are at the CF holiday special today have a great time!

 

Hey, Penguin! Good to have you back!
When I was at SW:MOM a few weeks back, we went to see the Egyptian stuff (very cool) and some other stuff before we headed to MOM, but we did see Sue too and it was great! She was so imposing and the way she was positioned was great too. Felt like she was gonna just jump right at ya and bite your head off.
But when my mom said, "I thought she would be bigger." I was like, "Dude! Bigger? She's HUGE! This thing is like two stories high!" I couldn't believe she said that.
Sue was truly an amazing site. I mean just look at those talons and teeth! Imagine being attacked by those. That would not be good. And if you went upstairs, they had a great exhibit on the history of Sue and they had the actual skull which was really cool. I was really amazed by the whole thing and it's one of the best parts of the museum.
I remember being upstairs in the Sue exhibit and there were two kids and their mom walking across the carpet that had the picture of Sue's bones on it, and I believe it was the actual length. They measured how many of their foot steps it took to go from end to end. It was like 42 or 43 or something like that. Those kids got such a kick out of it and my little sisters got really excited too. They were really in awe the whole time.
Sue is a definite must.

 

Hey, Bob!! I think I've finally found a time to get to the Field BEFORE SW:MoM leaves. Phwew! I thought we might be coming over the weekend before New Years, but it turns out my husband is on call that weekend. His d@mn job!

But now we've worked it out that we will take an extra long Christmas weekend, and swing by Chi for a couple days "on our way" to the Quad Cities. Depending on weather, of course, we will probably drive up on Wednesday the 20th. Will you be working on Thurs and/or Fri, the 21st and 22nd? If yes, would you be able to meet us and give the grand cheese tour of your desk, etc.?

 

Ja, I should be around. Just gimmie a day or two advance notice so I can remember to be around. Also, see if you can get an ETA and I'll meet you in front of SW:MOM.

Just for the Hell of it, I put a shot of my desk (along with a few other images) on my Photopoint site (Le_Penguin@hotmail.com) under the "work" heading. Most of the SW and SUE related items aren't visible from that shot, but there is an R2 w/ holographic Leia on top of the monitor.

-Le Penguin
"Cue the dead horse."