You've Got To Build a Story

You need to build a story. You need to develop content

I found this quote in an article, of all things, on getting a job in todays hyper competitive job market - extreme interviewing if you will .. but it hit home for planetariums at home too ..... it hit home that no matter how many gadgets I built, collected etc, people would probably say 'thats nice' and surf on to the personals on Craigs List ..

What compels us? Compel is my new favorite word, its been the subject of our sermon series at church these past weeks, and stories compel us. Content compels us. I realized that I have a tendency to just go on building forever, when I should be writing and performing in my vehicle. Its like building a record player then having a 1 record collection. A TV with only one channel .

I know, just when Im done I knock out a wall .. I turn a visitor center into a stage theater, I push aside my pyramids and start on a castle ..

Youve got to build a story - but there are many stories about these planetariums, about these stars, about these people who look at them. It should be easy right?

But its not .. there are so many stories out there in the ocean, I tend to stay on the beach ...

HPA Makes a Video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy1eKmyq1w0

It came about not because I always wanted to, or I even had a video camera. Sitting looking at my ancient digital camera one day, I found that it had a 'movie' setting I'd never tried. This only worked for a few minutes, but then it occurred to me that I had another better camera unused I'd won in a contest, and it took longer videos! So I did this in one take after having done a version of it the day before. Most of it was coincidental - the CD playing had just been done of the Big Bang, something I generated with music software 2 years previous, edited onto the beginning of a show tape. It was Tuesday and I was off. The Nasa stickers were from Owen and his museum of planetariums. This isnt even my planetarium, its in the barn proper and I just love theaters so made one with my egyptian theme. The light bulb at the end just happened to be there. The voice seemed like Hitchcock meets Masterpiece theater. Very strange but fun.

From WOW to WIN

How do dreams get accomplished? First of all, do we have dreams? Pipe dreams, sleeping dreams, or waking goal oriented dreams, they all flit in and out of our minds eye like butterflies. But do we realize them?

Planetariums are like that for a few .. half remembered trips .. WOW like memories, but how can they go from WOW to WIN .. in other words, how can we realize these half glimpsed urges, visions today?

As much as we like to be eccentric backroom hermits, celebrating our oddities and workshops and tattered old catalogs, we really cannot do it alone.

The secret of going from WOW - remembering the wonderful feelings that the stars and planetariums evoke in us .. to WIN, holding these things in our waking lives .. is to surround ourselves with supportive people.

So that when I build an aurora projector out of a coke bottle, I do not get the blank stares, or apathy or even negativism (why are you wasting your time with this) . I get positive vibes, enouragement, more dreams and suggestions ..

It seems to me the only path from WOW to WIN is through others .. for a passion shared is a passion that will endure.