Visiting the Disney Exhibit at MSI, and an Impromptu Lunch by the Lake
Lisa is back in town this weekend, and organized a small group outing at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry for a Disney Exhibit currently on display. Liz and I found parking across the street, and had a nice view of the museum as we walked to the entrance.
The Disney exhibit had a wide range of stills and information, looking back over Disney’s personal life and accomplishments.
Jake, chatting with Alexandra.
One odd thing both Alexandra and I noticed: the apostrophes looked weird. To me, they seemed upside down and pointing the wrong way. I thought this was a fluke on the first board we saw, but this was a consistent thing across the entire exhibit. Once you spotted it, the apostrophe became impossible to un-see.
It must be an intentional thing, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen this before. Is it a typography thing, reversing the apostrophe? Something due to the sharp slant of the ‘y’?
Prop from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
A view of an animator’s desk. It’s funny, but I didn’t realize until I got to this point in the exhibit that I guess I worked as an animator for a little while as well. Nothing detailed like the folks at Disney, but in my time with Flash I did work a decent amount, trying to apply motion to static things.
As I saw more about the animators, I kept making comparisons… especially regarding the tools they had, versus the ones I had.
One of the more fascinating items in Disney’s office: a singing birdcage automaton. On seeing this, I thought of Dug North and the very cool mechanical singing bird I spotted at the 2011 Vintage Bazaar in Pilsen.
A small poster for Darby O’Gill and the Little People. I remember watching this often with my sister, when we were growing up. How can you not love a movie that has Sean Connery singing?
Mary Poppins’ carpet bag. I was really thirsty and wanted a can of Coke, but there was glass all around this thing. Pretty sure I could have found a Coke in there.
On various boards, there were two things that seemed to get repeated: Disney having learned the value of hard work, and also his propensity to invest much (if not all) of his fortunes into his projects.
On seeing this, I thought to myself “Man, that guy really just likes to roll the dice over and over.”
Near the end of the exhibit, there was an area that allowed participants to draw in the Disney style. Each person could get their own paper and pencil, and could follow along with an instructor (whose movements were shown on the large television screen).
Of course, not everyone is interested in drawing.
Outside the exhibit, there were photos you could purchase (everyone is photographed on their way in). Here, Jake is talking to a few of the staff members, asking them how many people actually buy the photographs… and how many they have to throw away every day.
The guy’s answer was “we do pretty well.”
And of course, Jake had already purchased our photo. I didn’t notice it until just now, but there’s a whole Lion King thing going on over everything.
We explored a little bit, after the Disney exhibit. Of course, we stopped off to see the baby chicks. And we also spent some time at the Science Storms exhibit.
While we were walking around, Liz asked me if it was still difficult to be at MSI, or if enough time had passed (since the Month at the Museum contest). I told her that yeah, it’s still a little bit of a bummer.
It’s been several years now, and there’s just a twinge of sadness each time I step foot into the museum. As amazing and awesome as the displays are, I do always find myself imagining the crowds having gone, and the lights dimming. I found myself looking around at various locations, wondering what it would be like to try to sleep at this exhibit, or over under this display.
The museum does a fantastic job of sparking the imagination, for everyone who walks through their doors. On walking in, my imagination sometimes just goes in a slightly different direction from everyone else.
After heading back to our place for a quick tour, Liz had the great idea to stop by Treasure Island (our neighborhood grocery store), pick up a few things, and have lunch along the lake. We ended up strolling down 56th street, and found our way to Promontory Point.
Since our move to Hyde Park, I think this was our first official trek here.
We got a mixture of sushi, sandwiches, yogurt, olives, and some beer. We found a nice spot in the shade, and joined the other folks who were hanging and grilling out by the water.
Another view of the museum.
After eating, we meandered down the large rocks and hung out closer to the water. Though we were without shade here, being closer to the water was actually much cooler.
We spotted several people who went in for quick swims in the water. I saw more than one bicyclist who would drag their bikes down the rocks, and then pop in for a quick swim. It actually looked really appealing, as there’s a small ladder that provides easy access (and a line of buoys to keep any boats from the area).
Alexandra and Liz, looking off into the distance.
It was a lovely, lazy day – none of us really had to rush, or had anywhere to be. And so we spent the day at our own, comfortable pace. I knew the lake was close by, but it didn’t quite register just how close it was. Perhaps one of these days, if we can get a portable grill and get here early enough… we might snag a good spot for group outing. And maybe just spend the whole day out here.
Related:
Month at the Museum: Science Experiment Reveals Winner
Exploring the Museum of Science and Industry
First Divvy Bike Excursion: Downtown Chicago to Hyde Park
I work as a medical transcriptionist and have a nasty habit of resting my fingers on the ctrl or shift buttons. I would always, unbeknownst to me, be enabling the damn hotkeys, as well as the damn French-Canadian keyboard. I didn’t notice until QA (quality assurance) started sending me e-mails about “using some sort of weird” (backward) apostrophes that I realized the French-Canadian keyboard layout’s apostrophes are backwards. I went nuts trying to disable the stupid thing and finally managed to delete it (I think) and then started noticing the backwards apostrophes in my mother-in-law’s e-mails as well. She must be a finger-rester too. But, as you say, it is probably stylistic and intentional, as I am sure that somebody would notice before sending putting it out there in a museum exhibit…
Miki (July 21, 2014 at 10:48 am)