Legos Gone Avant Garde
Jan. 11th, 2013 12:35 pmInstead of a blog post (although thoughts are sorta tumbling around for one) I bring you a link to some pretty extraordinary art made from Legos. No, really.
Inkscrawl and Lord of the Rings Legos!
Jan. 25th, 2012 09:13 amTwo completely unrelated bits of news before I head out on today's expedition:
1) Rose Lemberg is bringing back inkscrawl, that beautiful little zine devoted to tiny bits of speculative beauty, under the editorship of Samantha Henderson. You can read more about this here.
2) Legossss, my preciousses, Legos.... I'm almost willing to walk into Mordor for these....
Oh, and while I'm thinking about that, if you have a spare moment or so, you might just want to head over to Google Maps and request directions for walking to Mordor. You'll find them helpful.
1) Rose Lemberg is bringing back inkscrawl, that beautiful little zine devoted to tiny bits of speculative beauty, under the editorship of Samantha Henderson. You can read more about this here.
2) Legossss, my preciousses, Legos.... I'm almost willing to walk into Mordor for these....
Oh, and while I'm thinking about that, if you have a spare moment or so, you might just want to head over to Google Maps and request directions for walking to Mordor. You'll find them helpful.
So I spent part of Sunday watching a large pirate on water skies get chased by a plastic whale.
I had a reason for this.
Legos.
I have always wanted to go to Legoland. Legos filled our lives when we lived in Italy. My brother had the Lego Train, with Lego tracks that we ran under his bed to make a tunnel as the train dashed from Lego City to Lego Town to Legoville. (I may have mentioned that naming things = not my strong point.) We also had Lego Space which occasionally sent down messages to Legoville which generally sparked wars between Lego City and Legoville which no train could halt, especially once stuffed animals were involved. (Important life lesson: if you ever need to stop a Lego train, throw a stuffed dinosaur on its tracks. Works every time until the other sibling runs and gets the dinosaur and throws it, which entirely changes the tempo of the game, but that's another story.)
And someplace, I knew, in the not so distant place called Denmark, stood Legoland. I saw pictures, and it was clearly a marvel – a whole place with little buildings made entirely from Legos. I wanted to go. I desperately wanted to go. But for whatever reason we never made it to Denmark in all our years in Italy (and we probably would have been taken to Educational Things in Copenhagen anyway, coupled with a brief stop at the Little Mermaid.)
Years later, I made it to Denmark. My feet twitched. My hands twitched. Legoland. But I was on an incredibly, incredibly strict budget not helped by getting robbed by an American tourist earlier on the trip, and Legoland was expensive, and –
And I was afraid that it was not going to live up to those childhood dreams. (A guy I met in Copenhagen was decidedly not encouraging.) So I mucked around in Copenhagen for a bit, then headed to Sweden instead, stayed one horrifically expensive night, headed back to Copenhagen...
...twitched more –
And headed to Brussels.
I regretted it the instant I stepped off the train in Brussels. (To be fair, this was because I had, for a number of reasons, a horrible time in Brussels – it was the low point of the entire trip.) I'll go back, I told myself. I'll go back to Denmark.
And yet I never did.
I've travelled extensively since, generally by accident, to various continents and countries and cities and places – part of my twitchy feeling now is that my travelling has slowed down so drastically – but never to Denmark, keeping Legoland always twitching in the back of my mind.
Enter Cypress Gardens.
Cypress Gardens, for those of you who may not remember it, was one of Florida's first theme parks, of sorts, founded in the 1930s and featuring botanical gardens, Southern Belles and water skiing. This did well until the advent of Disney. Unfortunately, Cypress Gardens was a solid 45 minutes away from Disney, and unlike Tampa Bay/Busch Gardens, it did not have the benefit of having a large city like Tampa nearby to provide a steady source of visitors. And, it was located off of US 27, better known to many people as "not one of Florida's more attractive roads" (although US 27 is home to one of Florida's other once-glorious attractions, the Citrus Tower. There's another story with that, but it can wait.) US 27 is best known to us as "that highway where your grandfather fell into a canal" so you can see the fun that awaits you, and that's on a nicer bit of US 27. I kept thinking that I really ought to go and check the place out – and yet I never did. Most of Florida apparently felt the same way.
Cypress Gardens slowly and majestically inclined. In 2004, a group of investors made a heroic attempt to transform the park into an Adventure Park, only to be slammed by the seemingly unending series of hurricanes that hit Florida that year (Charley, Frances, Jeanne.) It finally reopened briefly, to the response of, uh, that's a lot of money for us to drive all the way out there, and a lot of ehs, to the rides. (It didn't help that getting there from Miami/Fort Lauderdale meant a major detour either on the way to or back to Disney, and that's without worrying about the falling into a canal part. A couple years ago, the investors gave up – sadly, more or less at the same time that Florida finally realized that really, something ought to be done about this US 27 deal.
Enter Legoland.
Apparently, Legoland had been hoping to enter central Florida for some time, and was just looking for a nicely failed place to buy up. They purchased Cypress Gardens, agreeing to preserve most of its garden bits, and just add in Legos and rides. (Some of the old rides from the Adventure Park days were kept.) It opened in October 2011.
I'm going, I thought.
But not immediately. I don't handle crowds well these days, and it's a solid hour drive from here – which meant I would already be tired once we arrived, which does not help with the crowds. But the second weekend in January is not exactly high tourist season at the theme parks, and so, despite reports that the park had filled to capacity a couple of times between Christmas and New Year's, we headed down Sunday, armed with Gatorade and my scooter.
We didn't take US 27 down – we headed down another road, with more miles, but more lakes and fewer traffic lights; it takes about the same amount of time, which meant going through Lake Alfred, a town that has seen considerably better days, but still has lovely lakes, and Winter Haven, ditto, and then we were there.
Having gone through the park, I can say that if Legoland is going to last, it's either going to need more rides, or better rides, or just slightly lower prices. Currently, it's about $10 to $20 less than Disney/Universal/Sea World – but unlike those places, it's clearly a one day sort of thing, and the surrounding area does not exactly offer a number of places to stay or other things to do (aside from Bok Towers and that ghost road thingy which makes your car go "uphill", which turns out to be a solid 45 minutes away from Legoland anyway), and as I've noted, it's a solid 45 minutes away from Disney and a good hour from Universal and further from the rest of Orlando – and a solid hour from Tampa. None of the roller coasters come anywhere near matching what Tampa Bay/Busch Gardens or Universal has to offer; the King Tut ride is a decidedly lesser version of the two Disney equivalents (I cracked up) and so on.
And it also needs to work on its merchandise. I came prepared to resist temptation, and as it turned out, I really didn't have to resist much. It's a problem when my local Target, not exactly a Lego destination, offers a better selection of both Lego Star Wars and Lego Harry Potter. It's an even worse problem given that Downtown Disney still has the large, elaborate Lego store with a considerably better selection of items.
But, for its targeted age group – six year olds and inner six year olds – it's awesome.
And I have to say, aside from a sad accident with a latte early on and the decision of my camera to turn from a cheap camera into a cheap, temperamental camera that couldn't decide if it was on or off –
Yeah, awesome.
Plus, a Lego pirate on water skies chased by a plastic whale. There's a lot to be said for that.
Pictures follow in the next posts.
I had a reason for this.
Legos.
I have always wanted to go to Legoland. Legos filled our lives when we lived in Italy. My brother had the Lego Train, with Lego tracks that we ran under his bed to make a tunnel as the train dashed from Lego City to Lego Town to Legoville. (I may have mentioned that naming things = not my strong point.) We also had Lego Space which occasionally sent down messages to Legoville which generally sparked wars between Lego City and Legoville which no train could halt, especially once stuffed animals were involved. (Important life lesson: if you ever need to stop a Lego train, throw a stuffed dinosaur on its tracks. Works every time until the other sibling runs and gets the dinosaur and throws it, which entirely changes the tempo of the game, but that's another story.)
And someplace, I knew, in the not so distant place called Denmark, stood Legoland. I saw pictures, and it was clearly a marvel – a whole place with little buildings made entirely from Legos. I wanted to go. I desperately wanted to go. But for whatever reason we never made it to Denmark in all our years in Italy (and we probably would have been taken to Educational Things in Copenhagen anyway, coupled with a brief stop at the Little Mermaid.)
Years later, I made it to Denmark. My feet twitched. My hands twitched. Legoland. But I was on an incredibly, incredibly strict budget not helped by getting robbed by an American tourist earlier on the trip, and Legoland was expensive, and –
And I was afraid that it was not going to live up to those childhood dreams. (A guy I met in Copenhagen was decidedly not encouraging.) So I mucked around in Copenhagen for a bit, then headed to Sweden instead, stayed one horrifically expensive night, headed back to Copenhagen...
...twitched more –
And headed to Brussels.
I regretted it the instant I stepped off the train in Brussels. (To be fair, this was because I had, for a number of reasons, a horrible time in Brussels – it was the low point of the entire trip.) I'll go back, I told myself. I'll go back to Denmark.
And yet I never did.
I've travelled extensively since, generally by accident, to various continents and countries and cities and places – part of my twitchy feeling now is that my travelling has slowed down so drastically – but never to Denmark, keeping Legoland always twitching in the back of my mind.
Enter Cypress Gardens.
Cypress Gardens, for those of you who may not remember it, was one of Florida's first theme parks, of sorts, founded in the 1930s and featuring botanical gardens, Southern Belles and water skiing. This did well until the advent of Disney. Unfortunately, Cypress Gardens was a solid 45 minutes away from Disney, and unlike Tampa Bay/Busch Gardens, it did not have the benefit of having a large city like Tampa nearby to provide a steady source of visitors. And, it was located off of US 27, better known to many people as "not one of Florida's more attractive roads" (although US 27 is home to one of Florida's other once-glorious attractions, the Citrus Tower. There's another story with that, but it can wait.) US 27 is best known to us as "that highway where your grandfather fell into a canal" so you can see the fun that awaits you, and that's on a nicer bit of US 27. I kept thinking that I really ought to go and check the place out – and yet I never did. Most of Florida apparently felt the same way.
Cypress Gardens slowly and majestically inclined. In 2004, a group of investors made a heroic attempt to transform the park into an Adventure Park, only to be slammed by the seemingly unending series of hurricanes that hit Florida that year (Charley, Frances, Jeanne.) It finally reopened briefly, to the response of, uh, that's a lot of money for us to drive all the way out there, and a lot of ehs, to the rides. (It didn't help that getting there from Miami/Fort Lauderdale meant a major detour either on the way to or back to Disney, and that's without worrying about the falling into a canal part. A couple years ago, the investors gave up – sadly, more or less at the same time that Florida finally realized that really, something ought to be done about this US 27 deal.
Enter Legoland.
Apparently, Legoland had been hoping to enter central Florida for some time, and was just looking for a nicely failed place to buy up. They purchased Cypress Gardens, agreeing to preserve most of its garden bits, and just add in Legos and rides. (Some of the old rides from the Adventure Park days were kept.) It opened in October 2011.
I'm going, I thought.
But not immediately. I don't handle crowds well these days, and it's a solid hour drive from here – which meant I would already be tired once we arrived, which does not help with the crowds. But the second weekend in January is not exactly high tourist season at the theme parks, and so, despite reports that the park had filled to capacity a couple of times between Christmas and New Year's, we headed down Sunday, armed with Gatorade and my scooter.
We didn't take US 27 down – we headed down another road, with more miles, but more lakes and fewer traffic lights; it takes about the same amount of time, which meant going through Lake Alfred, a town that has seen considerably better days, but still has lovely lakes, and Winter Haven, ditto, and then we were there.
Having gone through the park, I can say that if Legoland is going to last, it's either going to need more rides, or better rides, or just slightly lower prices. Currently, it's about $10 to $20 less than Disney/Universal/Sea World – but unlike those places, it's clearly a one day sort of thing, and the surrounding area does not exactly offer a number of places to stay or other things to do (aside from Bok Towers and that ghost road thingy which makes your car go "uphill", which turns out to be a solid 45 minutes away from Legoland anyway), and as I've noted, it's a solid 45 minutes away from Disney and a good hour from Universal and further from the rest of Orlando – and a solid hour from Tampa. None of the roller coasters come anywhere near matching what Tampa Bay/Busch Gardens or Universal has to offer; the King Tut ride is a decidedly lesser version of the two Disney equivalents (I cracked up) and so on.
And it also needs to work on its merchandise. I came prepared to resist temptation, and as it turned out, I really didn't have to resist much. It's a problem when my local Target, not exactly a Lego destination, offers a better selection of both Lego Star Wars and Lego Harry Potter. It's an even worse problem given that Downtown Disney still has the large, elaborate Lego store with a considerably better selection of items.
But, for its targeted age group – six year olds and inner six year olds – it's awesome.
And I have to say, aside from a sad accident with a latte early on and the decision of my camera to turn from a cheap camera into a cheap, temperamental camera that couldn't decide if it was on or off –
Yeah, awesome.
Plus, a Lego pirate on water skies chased by a plastic whale. There's a lot to be said for that.
Pictures follow in the next posts.
Other assorted matters for a Sunday
Dec. 18th, 2011 06:11 pm1. Gifts have been popping up in the mail! This is a positive thing :) First, I got one of ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ravena_kade's lovely watercolor pictures, of a little seal popping up into the sea. The seal is just adorable, and we love it, and now just have to decide where to hang it.
Much thanks for this lovely piece,ravena_kade!!!!
2. Also arriving in the mail: rubber duckies. The sender of this item was not aware that the house had already been quietly invaded by rubber duckies disguised as snowmen, Santa and Rudolph, but fortunately, these are NINJA rubber duckies, READY FOR THE ATTACK. So we are now THOROUGHLY into the holiday spirit!
3. Thus it was time for two holiday traditions: the welcoming of cousins, who came by last night to sample ribs and corn. For those of you who readfbhjr's saga about this, I feel impelled to post a correction. They did not indulge the cat. The cat, overcome with his rather aggressive love for everyone, realized that they needed a cat and therefore chose to indulge them.
4. And the second holiday tradition: the movie, this time the morning viewing of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows with my brother and CD, about which I can say only, wow, dizzying, and by that, I'm talking about the waltzing scene. Like the first Holmes movie most of this seems bent on showing off dazzling camera work and effects, which is not bad, just resulting in a spinning effect, and the banter between Holmes and Watson, ditto. Also we rather question the use of CPR in that particular period and I would like to register my sadness about a certain event in the film which I won't spoil except, sad, sad.
5. While exiting the movie, a certain horrible person, whose guilt I could conceal, but I won't, calling himself my brother, actually dared to wheel me near that horror of a film called whatever the latest Alvin and the Chipmunks film is calling itself. (I don't care.) For one terrible moment, I risked actual exposure to the Chipmunks. Imagine my terror.
But this also showed me that he, at least, still retains an ongoing fondness for the Chipmunks. I thought deeply. I saw a McDonald's. I wheeled to the McDonald's and picked up a Happy Meal. (Yes, yes, but I'm going somewhere even more evil with this, so hold the criticism for a few more sentences.) I wheeled myself to the table. I handed him the little toy from the meal, which just happened to be one of the Chipmunks.
"Thanks!" he said cheerfully. "I'll just put it in your room."
We went home where I flopped into bed for several hours. This, while necessary, turned out to be tactical mistake, since when I emerged, HORROR GREETED ME.
The Chipmunk was standing -- STANDING -- on the backs of two little Rebel Lego dudes from my Star Wars Advent Calendar. He had been assisted by three little Bad Lego dudes, his little chipmunk fists raised in triumph as the Rebel forces lay scattered.
EVIL, I tell you. EVIL.
I had to comfort myself with a Ninja duck. You understand, I'm sure.
ravena_kade's lovely watercolor pictures, of a little seal popping up into the sea. The seal is just adorable, and we love it, and now just have to decide where to hang it. Much thanks for this lovely piece,
ravena_kade!!!!2. Also arriving in the mail: rubber duckies. The sender of this item was not aware that the house had already been quietly invaded by rubber duckies disguised as snowmen, Santa and Rudolph, but fortunately, these are NINJA rubber duckies, READY FOR THE ATTACK. So we are now THOROUGHLY into the holiday spirit!
3. Thus it was time for two holiday traditions: the welcoming of cousins, who came by last night to sample ribs and corn. For those of you who read
fbhjr's saga about this, I feel impelled to post a correction. They did not indulge the cat. The cat, overcome with his rather aggressive love for everyone, realized that they needed a cat and therefore chose to indulge them.4. And the second holiday tradition: the movie, this time the morning viewing of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows with my brother and CD, about which I can say only, wow, dizzying, and by that, I'm talking about the waltzing scene. Like the first Holmes movie most of this seems bent on showing off dazzling camera work and effects, which is not bad, just resulting in a spinning effect, and the banter between Holmes and Watson, ditto. Also we rather question the use of CPR in that particular period and I would like to register my sadness about a certain event in the film which I won't spoil except, sad, sad.
5. While exiting the movie, a certain horrible person, whose guilt I could conceal, but I won't, calling himself my brother, actually dared to wheel me near that horror of a film called whatever the latest Alvin and the Chipmunks film is calling itself. (I don't care.) For one terrible moment, I risked actual exposure to the Chipmunks. Imagine my terror.
But this also showed me that he, at least, still retains an ongoing fondness for the Chipmunks. I thought deeply. I saw a McDonald's. I wheeled to the McDonald's and picked up a Happy Meal. (Yes, yes, but I'm going somewhere even more evil with this, so hold the criticism for a few more sentences.) I wheeled myself to the table. I handed him the little toy from the meal, which just happened to be one of the Chipmunks.
"Thanks!" he said cheerfully. "I'll just put it in your room."
We went home where I flopped into bed for several hours. This, while necessary, turned out to be tactical mistake, since when I emerged, HORROR GREETED ME.
The Chipmunk was standing -- STANDING -- on the backs of two little Rebel Lego dudes from my Star Wars Advent Calendar. He had been assisted by three little Bad Lego dudes, his little chipmunk fists raised in triumph as the Rebel forces lay scattered.
EVIL, I tell you. EVIL.
I had to comfort myself with a Ninja duck. You understand, I'm sure.
Happy Monkey Day, and the year in Legos!
Dec. 14th, 2011 08:44 amSince I failed to wish all of you a Happy St. Nicholas' Day (December 6) and a Happy St. Lucia Day (December 13), allow me to wish you all a Happy Monkey Day today! Yes, this is apparently A Thing. Or at least an internet thing.
In unrelated news, this, a recreation of some of the year's major news events in Legos, cracked me up. (I especially like the little Lego guy waving an "Occupy Legoland!" sign. Will this be their chance to finally break the Lego tyranny?)
In unrelated news, this, a recreation of some of the year's major news events in Legos, cracked me up. (I especially like the little Lego guy waving an "Occupy Legoland!" sign. Will this be their chance to finally break the Lego tyranny?)
Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar
Dec. 11th, 2011 09:13 amIt's a gloomy, grey day out – quite Christmas like for Florida, at least as far as weather goes, despite the lack of snow, with dangling lights and the occasional plastic snowman to give a sense of the weather.
Over coffee, I carefully punched out another hole in cardboard.
I first saw Advent calendars when we lived in Italy. I fell in love with them immediately – the idea of getting another new little picture each day, of wondering what was beneath the little flaps, of wondering what the next day would bring – it added to the wonder and anticipation of the holidays. I was even more enthralled because we couldn't immediately have one – we were travelling to Florida for Christmas that year, and the next, and British Airways frowned on the thought of small children lugging large cardboard calendars on board for the sake of punching holes to see the next little pictures. It was not until our third year there that we got one, and I was allowed to carefully open each picture. We had a little Advent wreath to light candles on, too, and it glowed near the calendar.
And that was the end of the Advent calendars for years. When we returned to the States, decent and affordable Advent calendars were few and far between, and that travelling issue raised its head again. I almost got one in college, but realized again I would have to schlepp it back and forth. Post college, I was always either too broke, too dispirited, too busy, too travelling, or too unimpressed with the available calendars to buy one….even as I found myself looking at them, hands twitching, wanting to feel that tiny bit of wonder of what was behind the flap. (I admit that the chocolate ones were particularly temping, but I only seemed to find those on years when I was on a particularly tight budget.)
Then a certain friend, called @cyberlizard on Twitter, typed in a few fateful words:
Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar.
You are on a very tight budget, I told myself sternly. You have completely failed to finish a novel this year, which is not improving the condition of the very tight budget.
And yet. Not long afterwards I found myself at Target. It couldn't hurt to, you know, LOOK at the Legos, since I clearly and obviously wasn't buying any of them at all.
I don't know exactly how the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar jumped into my trike. It Just Did.
I stowed it away in my closet for a few weeks, until December came, and I could start punching out each day.
The Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar is not exactly showing me new and improved Star Wars pictures (it has pictures outside the box.) What it does have is little Lego toys. So far I have uncovered a Chewbacca (not in Christmas clothing, although it looks as if the Yoda will be in a Santa Claus outfit) and a Rebel and a Trader and an X-wing (that was a bit tricky to put together since Lego added a couple extra pieces, very frustrating, so I felt I was doing it wrong) and things to hold little Lego weapons in and a couple of other fighter pieces.
I open a new hole over coffee each morning, wondering what little bit of Star Wars toys I'll get this time. And I think this is the sort of magic I may need to return to in future years.
Over coffee, I carefully punched out another hole in cardboard.
I first saw Advent calendars when we lived in Italy. I fell in love with them immediately – the idea of getting another new little picture each day, of wondering what was beneath the little flaps, of wondering what the next day would bring – it added to the wonder and anticipation of the holidays. I was even more enthralled because we couldn't immediately have one – we were travelling to Florida for Christmas that year, and the next, and British Airways frowned on the thought of small children lugging large cardboard calendars on board for the sake of punching holes to see the next little pictures. It was not until our third year there that we got one, and I was allowed to carefully open each picture. We had a little Advent wreath to light candles on, too, and it glowed near the calendar.
And that was the end of the Advent calendars for years. When we returned to the States, decent and affordable Advent calendars were few and far between, and that travelling issue raised its head again. I almost got one in college, but realized again I would have to schlepp it back and forth. Post college, I was always either too broke, too dispirited, too busy, too travelling, or too unimpressed with the available calendars to buy one….even as I found myself looking at them, hands twitching, wanting to feel that tiny bit of wonder of what was behind the flap. (I admit that the chocolate ones were particularly temping, but I only seemed to find those on years when I was on a particularly tight budget.)
Then a certain friend, called @cyberlizard on Twitter, typed in a few fateful words:
Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar.
You are on a very tight budget, I told myself sternly. You have completely failed to finish a novel this year, which is not improving the condition of the very tight budget.
And yet. Not long afterwards I found myself at Target. It couldn't hurt to, you know, LOOK at the Legos, since I clearly and obviously wasn't buying any of them at all.
I don't know exactly how the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar jumped into my trike. It Just Did.
I stowed it away in my closet for a few weeks, until December came, and I could start punching out each day.
The Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar is not exactly showing me new and improved Star Wars pictures (it has pictures outside the box.) What it does have is little Lego toys. So far I have uncovered a Chewbacca (not in Christmas clothing, although it looks as if the Yoda will be in a Santa Claus outfit) and a Rebel and a Trader and an X-wing (that was a bit tricky to put together since Lego added a couple extra pieces, very frustrating, so I felt I was doing it wrong) and things to hold little Lego weapons in and a couple of other fighter pieces.
I open a new hole over coffee each morning, wondering what little bit of Star Wars toys I'll get this time. And I think this is the sort of magic I may need to return to in future years.
Paynes Prairie
Apr. 7th, 2010 06:44 pmSo I finally managed to get a look at the pictures I took during last week's mini expedition to Paynes Prairie. In the process I found this:
( Cut for large images. )
( Cut for large images. )
