Powell's Books

I have been to hundreds of bookstores, and never experienced anything like Powell’s! I have seen big bookstores before, and I have seen small curated bookstores, but I’ve never seen anything like this! First, it is immense, taking up most of a city block, and multiple floors. But amazingly, it is deeply curated, carefully and clearly organized, with each section feeling neat and alive. Used books and new books live side by side together in a pleasing harmony. Handwritten notes and suggestions from staff are everywhere, and all signage is clear, and the lighting is excellent. It must take an army to keep it organized, not to mention a set of principles that the entire staff fully understands and embraces. I could have spent days and days there. If I could only visit one bookstore the rest of my life, it might be this one. 

The Zuhl Museum

Gah! This small museum at New Mexico State University houses the worlds largest collection of petrified wood, and many other wonders! I had no idea that...

• Cathedral geodes could be six feet tall
• Completely three dimensional crab fossils from 50M years ago even existed
• Ammonites could UNCURL
• Fossilized ammonites sometimes get a different mineral crystallizing in each chamber of their shell (??!!??)
• Oviraptors arranged the eggs in their nests so neatly

Total side note: Some exhibits are outside, which gave me a chance to examine New Mexico ants. They are tiny, a sort of orange color, darker toward the front, and more yellow toward their creepy translucent abdoment. They also run insanely fast. If they were humans they would be running at 150 mph. I wonder what their stride pattern is, and how frequently their legs move? Not to mention this. It has nothing to do with the museum... or does it? Seeing so many wonders made me appreciate even the nearby ants. 

Anyway -- it's an incredibly cool place to visit if you ever find yourself in Las Cruces. 

Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology: The Exhibition

I had reason to be hanging around the National Geographic Museum in DC today, so I thought I would check this out. It's pretty cool! It is reminiscent of the James Bond Exhibit at the Spy Museum. Lots of artifacts from the movies, mixed in with various archaeological artifacts. Interestingly, it features a portable tablet with headphones that is somewhat essential to the exhibit. You enter numbers into it based on where you are in the exhibit, and it plays sound bites or short videos related to what you are looking at. There are several looping video clips on big screens in the exhibit, but they have no sound unless you enter their code, and then you hear synchronized sound in the headphones. The headphones are a clever construction that allow you to easily hear what people around you are saying, so you can easily have a conversation with them on. Few people did, though. Everyone's demeanor was as if they were walking through a tomb... and it looked like a tomb, so maybe that's okay? I am uncertain how I feel about the weird mix of things in this exhibit. "Making of the movie" displays are mixed in with real archaeology are mixed in with explanations of the inspiration for the fake things in the movie. Overall, it is a clever way to bring a relatively static installation to life. I did find myself wishing that the audio clips weren't so dry, or at least a little shorter. Maybe I wanted it to be more of a story? I'm not sure. Anyway, it's worth checking out just to see something a little different in museum design. Also: Crystal skull beer mugs in the gift shop.

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood at Idlewild Park

I'm so happy to announce that Schell Games has completed work on the Daniel Tiger ride at Idlewild! I got to ride the finished version today and it is super fun! The whole thing was a wonderful joint effort between Idlewild Park, the Fred Rogers Company, Schell Games, LifeFormations, and the Weber Group. Working from the basis of the Mister Rogers Neighborhood ride, which opened in 1989, we were able to keep many aspects that were so charming and wonderful about the original, and bring it up to date, and make it even more fun. The biggest change was from animatronic puppets to "paper doll" animatronics that could represent the animated characters. Kudos to Mike Sanchez who helped us work out how to best bring the characters to life! Other big changes include the sound system which now sounds crystal clear, a great new script (courtesy of the Fred Rogers Company), and the addition of "imaginary daniel", who rides along with you, and chats with the different neighbors you meet. But I think my favorite part is that now the ride is a sing-a-long! While the trolley travels from stop to stop, Imaginary Daniel leads the riders in the "won't you ride along with me" song from the show, making this the world's first sing-a-long ride! Anyway, it was a pleasure to work on, and we never could have done it without the help of Anisha Deshmane, who led the effort from the Schell Games side, coordinating the design and all the different craftspeople that made it all look so great. Everyone at Idlewild was so great to work with, I hope we can do another ride there someday. Here's to many more years of this charming attraction! You should totally go and check it out! See fun video coverage of the ride (via Dave Crawley) here.

Park Güell

When I agreed to go to Barcelona, I expected a beautiful European city, full of romantic sights and sounds, but I had no idea what I was in for, not really. I mean, it is a beautiful city that has tremendous respect for its past, and great swaths of it are similar to the way they were 500 years ago, surely. And it is a city that loves art. But what I could not have understood is the city's relationship with Gaudi. Never have I encountered a city where one man made such an impression. At first I thought, "Okay, he's kind of like Frank Lloyd Wright, an interesting artist/architect, and the spectacle of his bizarre eye-catching designs is a point of pride for locals, and a photo opportunity for tourists." And, that is true, I suppose, but it is only the surface of something much, much deeper. And I didn't understand it until I took a trip to Park Güell. It made me think of a comment Emerson made in his essay on Love:

The statue is then beautiful, when it begins to be incomprehensible, when it is passing out of criticism, and can no longer be defined by compass and measuring wand, but demands an active imagination to go with it, and to say what it is in the act of doing. The god or hero of the sculptor is always represented in a transition from that which is representable to the senses, to that which is not.

The park is on a high hill that overlooks the entire city, and is so unexpectedly large and varied that I was taken aback. The park is far too large to look at... instead, you become immersed in it, and with all the spectacular views, you find yourself looking through it instead. And shockingly, it is not out of place with the city around it. I could not escape the distinct feeling that, exploring the park, I was no longer in my own mind, but in the mind of Gaudi. And looking out at the city, I found the fanciful colors and swooping shapes were not just in Gaudi's work, but were everywhere in Barcelona. Gaudi simply set them free. Even after I left, I found myself seeing the city differently -- as if the colors and shapes were ready to erupt from every apartment building, from every bank and grocery store. I found myself seeing through Gaudi's lens, as it were. And if this were just about one man, that would be one thing -- but I think it is not. I feel like Gaudi found something special that lives in the heart of everyone in Barcelona, maybe everyone in Spain. He found it, turned it up to 11, and set it free, and a nation said, "Yes... yes, that is truly how we are inside." How else can one explain Sagrada Familia, a cathedral that Gaudi started designing in 1883, and, through the love of the people of Barcelona, is expected to be complete by 2026.

For me, it serves as a testament of what one individual can do when he can see into the hearts of his neighbors, and bring their proudest, truest selves into the light.

The Atlantis Bookshop

While I was in London, I had to stop at the Atlantis Bookshop, as well. I had seen ads for it in the London Review of Books many times, and was pleased to realize it was right around the corner from my hotel. And it did not disappoint. Though small, it had quite a fascinating collection of occult, religious, and philosophical works, as well as, let's say, exotica. I picked up a few books there (I decided I better limit myself to three), but it was hard to resist getting more -- there were so many unusual texts. I complimented the proprietesses (who had a somewhat supernatural air) on the selection, and they proudly mentioned that they were having their 100th anniversary. I jokingly insisted that they didn't look a day over ninety, and, I swear they cackled! Something about that chilled my blood. I paid and got out quickly.

The Roycroft Inn

Okay, this is a long story, but I guess I have to tell it sometime. It's about Elbert Hubbard. Not L. Ron Hubbard, that's a whole other story, but Elbert Hubbard. (They are actually related, though not by blood. On top of that it has always seemed likely to me that "L. Ron" chose that peculiar name-phrase to connect to his famous uncle.)

I discovered Elbert Hubbard on my birthday, about ten years ago. I was poking around in a used bookstore (Caliban Books) and I found a cardboard box full of these neatly bound little book/magazine things that seemed quite old. Each was a "Little Journey" to the home of some great man or woman. Newton, Socrates, Hypatia, Beethoven, etc. They were dated around 1900. The printing style of the books was incredibly eye-catching, and, I don't know, I felt a kind of energy around the box. There was no price, but there were around 80 of the "Little Journeys", and the clerk said they had just come in, he hadn't priced them, and gave me a deal for the whole set, and he threw in a copy of "The Roycroft Dictionary" to go with it.

Over the coming weeks, I was completely taken with these bizarre little books. Each was beautifully printed, and contained a flowery biography. Weirdly, these biographies didn't stick to the facts. Each was about 30-40% biography, combined with wandering philosophical outpourings that I found bold and fascinating. That summer I was working on Carnegie Mellon's campus, doing some rather dreary software work, and so I was glad to be able to take a break at lunch, sit under a shady tree, and go on these Little Journeys to the homes of the great, with Hubbard as my guide.

There was so much in his philosophy that resonated with me. So much about where greatness truly comes from, about the importance of creativity, about doing great things because you must, because there is no other choice. I was pleased to learn details of the lives of these legendary figures (people who've read my book and wonder "Who the hell is Hypatia? Where does Jesse pick up this stuff?" need wonder no more), but with each book I read I became more curious about Hubbard. Weirdly, each of these books contained advertisements for other books as well as furniture, and other things, and through these ads, I gradually came to understand that:
- Hubbard was part of some group called "The Roycrofters"
- The Roycrofters were printers, but also seemed to make household goods, and hold "TED-like" conferences
- The Roycrofters had been located in East Aurora, New York.

Over the years, I learned more about Hubbard's life, about how he was a soap salesman who gave it up to start the Roycrofters, and how he and his wife went down with the Lusitania in 1915. And about his "Philistine" magazine, which cast stones at the topics of the day, back at the turn of the century. Hubbard and the Roycrofters were often on my mind, because their values ("Head, Hands, and Heart", making quality goods by hand, self-improvement, Emersonian self-reliance, etc. etc.) so resonated with mine. I would use his quotes in my teaching, and I would sometimes joke to students that I was Hubbard in a former life. Even the style with which I wrote my book, a bold first person, speaking directly to the reader, was very much under Hubbard's influence. And I sometimes wondered... was there anything in East Aurora left to see? My initial Internet searches revealed little. It seemed possible that the Roycrofters were forgotten.

But, in early July 2012, my family and I were driving home from a trip to New Hampshire, unexpectedly early, due to a change of plans caused by a death in the family. We were all somewhat gloomy, and I thought, you know, maybe this is the time. Maybe this is the right time to visit East Aurora. My new Internet searches bore fruit this time -- there was apparently an Elbert Hubbard Museum, a tour of the campus, and even a restored Roycroft Inn. It was a long drive from New Hampshire to Pittsburgh, and we needed a place to stay, and hey, guess what? The Roycroft Inn had rooms available.

I'm not sure I've ever felt more at home. The Inn is absolutely gorgeous, and decorated throughout with works of the Roycrofters, both hand-work and mind-work. The photo above is of a framed picture in our room -- a Hubbard quote I'd somehow never heard before. The room we were given was the "George Eliot" room, and I was pleased to see her name was carved into the door, just as "Beethoven" and others from the Little Journeys were carved into the doors of the other rooms. "How clever," I thought, "that the designers who restored the hotel chose to name the rooms after the Little Journeys." Later, reading a biography of Hubbard, I learned that naming the rooms that way was part of the original design of the Roycroft Inn, which was used partly as staff dorms, but partly to house visiting guests. And there was even an amusing anecdote about this that the Roycrofters liked to tell. They had hired a local craftsman to carve the names into the doors, specifically, Socrates, Edison, George Eliot, Beethoven, William Morris, and Susan B. Anthony. (Causing one visitor to comment, "An odd team, that.") After carving the names, the craftsman expressed disbelief to the other villagers at the madness of the Roycrofters: "They had me carve 'George Eliot' on the door. What if the fellow doesn't show up?"

Anyway, our stay in the George Eliot room was very pleasant, as was the entire Inn, the restaurant especially, as was our entire trip to East Aurora. We didn't get to see all the sights -- the Hubbard Museum was closed while we were there, but we did visit the copper shop, which sells works of local artisans in the Roycroft style, and it was thrilling to me to see the actual printing presses they used to produce the Little Journeys. Later, we had a lunch of ice-cream sodas in a candy store that was formerly the home of president Millard Fillmore, and we visited an old-time five and dime store. The headquarters of Fisher Price is nearby, too. The town has really embraced its arts and crafts history, you can see it everywhere.

Thus ends my tale of my first Little Journey to East Aurora. (Eerily, I later realized that the first Little Journey Hubbard published was, yeah, George Eliot... so, the room could not have been more appropriate for us.) I feel certain that there will be others. And I am pleased, each day, to look upon the framed sign I found in the copper shop that now hangs in my office, one of Hubbard's lesser known epigrams:

"East Aurora is not a locality - East Aurora is a condition of mind."

London Review Bookshop

I'm a London Review of Books junkie. I first found it in a Girl Scout Magazine catalog, of all places. And now I'm hooked. I can't read it fast enough -- the articles are so deep, and it comes every two weeks! But... I really like reading something where every time I think "Oh my God these people are so much smarter than me!" For a while, I used to bring it with me to coffee shops, and tried to look smart reading it in public. How sad is that? Fortunately, I cut that out.

So, anyway, with my bookstore fascination, when I was in London, I had to stop into their bookshop. It was pleasing, and modest. A mix of show-offy intellectuals, confused tourists, and quiet bookish people irked that anyone else is in the shop. They have a cafe, which seemed nice, but the show-offs and the confused tourists were so busy ordering complicated things there that it didn't seem possible to actually order something. The basement is where the cool books were... esoteric philosophy and politics, etc.

As mentioned previously, I picked up a copy of Remains of Elmet.

I took the picture you see here, cuz I was too shy and bookish to ask a stranger to take a picture of me standing outside.

The Exploratorium

I'd heard it was the original and best, and wow, it sure is! It was so unlike most science museums, because it tries to teach so little! It just has dozens, if not hundreds, of interesting things you can play with. Only some of them, the newest ones, try to explain themselves. It is a museum of meaningful interaction, not of words or ideas. I can't believe more places haven't emulated it.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

We'd seen this place on a Nature special recently, and since we were in SF, we figured we might as well go. It was amazing! Definitely the most beautiful aquarium I'd ever seen. The collection of seahorses alone made it worth the trip, and I could look at the goings on in the million gallon tank for hours.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

I've been to SF many times, but never got a chance to see this place from the inside. It was pretty great -- they had a nice collection. I was also impressed with their kiosk stuff for kids -- it really let kids explore the works of the museum in interesting, thoughtful, interactive ways.

I like any museum where you walk through and say, "That looks like something Magritte would paint... oh wait... Magritte did paint that."

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art

And just over the Millennium Bridge (cool!) from Newcastle is the Baltic Art Centre in Gateshead. It is a simple, fun, contemporary art museum. It had a whole floor in tribute to John Cage, with a mix of his visual and audio work, but its most striking exhibit was "Doubtful Sound" by Cornelia Parker, which took up almost a whole floor by itself! It is exhibited marvelously, so you can look at it from a balcony, but then you can also examine the crushed instruments up close - it was an exciting experience.

But what captured my daughter's interest the most was a curious contraption in the back of the children's area -- a simple triangular cylinder that is mirrored on the inside, and is large enough to crawl into. She found it endlessly entertaining -- I'm tempted to try to build one at home.

Oh -- and the baked potatoes in the cafe were amazing!

Newcastle Keep

While we were in Newcastle for GameHorizon, we did some sightseeing. And part of that was creeping around in the castle that gives Newcastle its name. It's not the fanciest castle, but it's very interesting to creep around in. It really gives one a feeling that living in the dark ages must have been pretty crummy, even for a king. It has a great view, though, which is the point, I guess - you need to see those Scots creeping up on you. Interesting notes about it: They say not to close your eyes when you walk through the attached "Black Gate", because you might suddenly wake up in medieval England through some Twainian mechanism. Secondly, the crenelations on top of the castle were added around 1800, by someone who thought the castle didn't look "castly" enough. Authenticity, indeed.

Playthings, Etc.

This is the coolest toy store in the world. I finally got up there by taking a detour on my way home from a guest lecture at Grove City College. I bought some stilts, some sporks, an x-zylo and some Drooble. I hope to go back for my birthday, and maybe get a pogo stick! It looks like a spaceship because I'm pretty sure it is a spaceship.

Toonseum

I keep forgetting to blog about the Toonseum! It is one of the coolest places in Pittsburgh! Joe Wos has been the driving force behind it, and for a while it was just a small part of the Children's Museum ... but no more! We have secured space for it downtown, and while it is, at the moment, a modest gallery, the selection of artwork is very inspiring, and the gift shop is excellent! But the best part of the Toonseum are the events -- happening monthly, or even more often, they have cool themes, involve screenings, and chances to meet the artists. It's one more thing that makes Pittsburgh awesome.

The Field Museum

I don't travel much, so I'd never been here. But, we are doing a project for them at the ETC, so I took a tour a few weeks back. It's epic and amazing! Bigger than the Carnegie Natural History Museum here in Pittsburgh, but not as overwhelming as the one in New York. The history of Earth walkable timeline was particularly well executed. I can't wait to go back!

YOUmedia

I'm overdue in posting about this! It was a wonderful project we did at the ETC, funded and organized by the MacArthur Foundation. The idea is this: libraries are in some danger of becoming obsolete. At the same time, there are areas, such as art and technology, where the public schools are failing. So, what if, the libraries could find a way to succeed where the schools are not? We created a space that is a fun, cool hangout, but that has all the tools for digital creativity, and the mentors to get the kids interested, and show them the ropes. We installed it in the Chicago Public Library this summer -- if it succeeds, the hope is that this will be a template for other libraries.

Absolutely everyone we worked with on this, from MacArthur, to the library, to the mentors, to Chicago Scenic Studios was top notch. It was an absolute joy to work on! Keep your fingers crossed for its long term success! You can see a video of it, and get lots of information here.

T&T Hardware

Best. Hardware. Store. Ever.

I mean, they have CATACOMBS. And they were able to provide me with a tiny, tiny spring that I needed to fix my razor. Don't go there to buy tools, you'll mostly be disappointed. Go there to buy the weird pieces and parts no one else has. 2114 E. Carson St., Pittsburgh, PA.

Candy & Kites

They totally had both candy and kites. We bought ten pounds of salt water taffy, I think.

Shell Beach

Redwoods and the Pacific Ocean in the same day! A pleasant little beach, where we saw a seagull have a dramatic showdown with a crab. And some of the most beautiful sand I've ever seen... like rainbows of tiny, tiny polished rocks. That water was COLD!