From the Backroom To The Showroom

From the Backroom to the Showroom

All my life i was a backroom guy .. hidden back behind the water cooler and the coffee machine - there i was .. see me! back behind those cardboard boxes ... and happy to be there .. i would balance your reports .. i would gopher your shipments... i would manage 20 professionals as long as we were doing backroom transactions ...

then it changed for me .. i was forced to go into sales... and backroom gary was facing JANE AND JOHN Q PUBLIC and they were buying but they werent always amused.

and i became FRONT ROOM gary. and i won awards.. trips to hawaii.. video projectors .. i found my background drive worked in the front room too .. the best of both worlds..

you see i could be that green shade accountant.. that totally committed faceless machine ..

and i could be a huckster .. a hawker .. a salesman .. but with empathy and humanity ..and believe me its made me alot of money

and then i found my secret passion was portraying the stars... and i went through the VERY SAME CYCLE that i had in my professional career .. and to kickstart it all i went back to the same villa park il neighborhoods.. the same early friends. the same memories .. passions ..

and i found myself on the same path .. backroom for soooooo long ... acquiring.. lusting.. building .. collecting.. acquiring..

but then i saw it

i saw it

like my career.. i had been trained .. gandalf told merry and pippin and frodo and sam much the same when they asked ... how shall we save the shire? gandalf said .. thats what you have been trained for

so owen and me. maybe you? weve been trained in the backroom .. but for a larger purpose ..

alot of planetarium pros no doubt have followed some of this .. some to the fore.. some remain in the back

but WE ARE PIONEERS .. we arent taking jobs at establishments

we are GOOD ANCESTORS .. blazing trails. we are .. if we but see it

and so we have been in the backroom... i was until recently

we move to the showroom . it doesnt mean we have to stop what we were about

but we need to see the expressions on kids faces

because in the end .. we might remember those more... we might.... gare

HPA Quote

From the optical wizardries of industrial giants to your corner hardware store - from scientific legends to enthusiasts tinkering in garages and barns .. these worlds meet, mingle, and all share one common purpose . the stars.

the HPA Newsletter

19 in 15 years? Yes but I took 6 years off. 19 in 9 years. That sounds better.

They arent really news.. they were in the 90s before the Net. Nothings news anymore when you are online. HPA newsletters are rather then .. reflections.

Like of all things ... baby formula. They look small. A quick bottle. But the way they grow organically .. until common themes and random chance bind them together into some kind of song from out THERE .. they nourish. They nourish me, I keep the latest issue for months at my side to savor the things people have written, or caused me to write.

And all of this without even mentioning the subject. Its because our subject has an undertow of spirituality. Of beauty. Of restless curiosity. Of fascination with what the human hand, eye, and mind can build.

the HPA newsletter isnt a newsletter.

I dont know what it is. All I know is when one writes itself in its own time .. it becomes timeless. gare

I Always Liked Oats - Short Planetarium Fiction

I Always Liked Oats .. a very short planetarium story from HPA

time for supper! announced mom .. and GARY .. COME OUT OF THE CLOSET

gary winced - a 17 yearold kid like him liked to be secretive, but it hadnt been easy .. he'd been in the large converted pantry all day doing 'something' and couldnt help but come out once or twice for black construction paper .. staples.. glue.. tape

all through dinner Gary seemed preoccupied .. Dad intoned his ususual tale of his day .. the girls (garys sisters) giggled about this boy or that.. as soon as supper was cleared away, Gary returned to the entranceway of the pantry, but turned and said loudly

SHOW IN 30 MINUTES!

show? asked mom? she was still puzzling why gary her son had emptied the quaker oats box after breakfast that morning .. it had disappeared...

show? asked the sisters .. yet they curiously were ushered into the large pantry and sat on the flloor.

last came dad.. his glasses perched on his nose .. and mom joined him

gary drew a curtain over the entrance and confronted his dubious family on the floor .. shutting off the light he unvelied the quaker oats box .. it had hundreds of holes carefully punched in it .. a light was within ..

before his family could react .. a gasp was heard .. the oats carton exploded into pinpoints of light ..and the closet ceiling .. transformed into a makeshift dome with paper and glue ..

revealed the glory of the heavens

how did you do this son? his father asked from his place over by the entrance..

well started gary

I always liked oats ....

Life in the Rear View Mirror

Life in the Rear View Mirror

In any endeavor of our hearts, the quick passing of time renders them quickly in the rear view mirror. Cars are so much of our culture, that analogy needs no explanation. But some rear view mirrors said OBJECTS MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR

And we are taught by drivers ed .. or uncle ed. or mom or dad... always check the mirrors before passing ...

Thats good advice. Because arent we always passing ... onto tomorrows new adventures or trials ..

So how to apply this general statement to Planetariums. Home Planetariums. It might apply to model railroads. Or groups who meet to discuss ...

Museums are rear view mirrors. Newsletters are rear view mirrors. Anything we write and preserve. This very board we are posting on .. want to see what we said about lenses in 06? Its here somewhere ..

Want to see what an STP looks like? Its here .. Want to see when Dick Emmons said before he passed? Its here. Want to see all those who came and contributed but now we cant find them? They live on here. Want to see childhood influences? They live here.

In the rear view mirror.

But take it deeper. Want to go back to 1963 when you were young and sat enthralled? Its here. Want to relive incredible accomplishments that our ancestors came up with? Here. Want to feel joy you might have not felt for decades? Maybe it lives it here. Filtered through decades of 'life'

Life in the Rear View Mirror. We cannot live nor dwell in the past.

But what a treat indeed it is to preserve it as we do. HPA has its archives of lectures, newsletters. The Museum has incredible works of engineering. Our friends and associates around the globe have an incredible collection of experience, stories, knowledge. Thats when the Rear View Mirror can become the Future View Mirror.

the Future View Mirror. or Ahead View Mirror

Remembering the past why cant we take the best parts and build upon them. Learn from the mistakes and then forget them.

Life in the Rear View mirror isnt really living in the past. Its storehouseing the accumulated wisdom. A well one can dip in for fresh inspiration.

Objects may be Closer than they Appear

I wouldnt have it any other way.

Planetarium Expectations

Expectations.

This subject I've heard comes up in Planetarium discussions all the time, with the usual lament being that to wit: Kids and Adults today suffer from expectation overdrive. Special effects in the digital realm have rendered the star projector obsolete goes the refrain! Just visit any major facility and you'll maybe get 5 minutes of stars, and the rest an explosive 3D movie no doubt narrated by either William Shatner or Mark Hamill. Expectations are WAY TOO HIGH for a simple home managed planetarium to overcome. Woe is me! Why bother, who can compete!

This is what I've heard anyway. But to my mind it may be the exact opposite if you look at it the right way. Thats right. Expectations dont run too high. They run way too low!

I submit that this may be the case because todays audience .. todays kid if you will.. is probably oversaturated with effects. Jaded even. Blockbuster after blockbuster ups the ante until the ante cannot be upped anymore, and where might that leave an audience? Hungering perhaps for substance? A real story? Real myths .. real facts .. real stars! Expections may be lower than you think .. a millenial kid coming into a dome is just waiting for the explosions .. the black holes .. the singing and dancing molecules, and they may actually be pre-yawning. Not expecting anything to sink their teeth into. Not ready to be challenged with natures true majesty, which requires no adorning digitially. Not ready to be asked to imagine pictures in the stars above.. these low expectations may well be shattered and a new love and awakening achieved. Precisely because todays 'seen it all' kids havent seen it all. Chances are they have NOT seen the stars in their glory. Their low expectations may play right into your hands, and they may leave with more awe, more wonder, and more questions (and a few answers) than they ever did leaving the latest superhero extravaganza.

Perhaps the lesson is this .. never assume your audience has even imagined what you are about to show them. And its something they may struggle to see again anytime soon in todays world.

Go in imagining you will raise their expectations, not try to meet them. You just might be surprised.

Night at the Museum

Imagine Late Nights!

In the museum .. when humans sleep and the fantastic may come alive.

A blue light appears as if by itself. the faint music of 2001.. a Space Oddyssy... begins but then a faint whirring sound obliterates all ..

In the Museum.. Late Nights!

Stella comes alive and beams Arcturus over to a sleeping Mercury.. this awakens him with a start! Mercury shakes off sleep, whirls about slowly, and casts his Aldeberan into Emmons slumbering eye.. Emmons turns grudgingly at first.. his is an everymans pipe fitting mount, not the polished bearings of his companions.. yet he is among peers and kin and he blazes from within... and sends his best Capella up to his giant Minolta brethren ..

The Minolta giant comes alive .. in the museum.. Late Nights!

Minolta beams everywhere at the same time ... the Spitz Dodec hums with power, having been energizes, his 50's circuits beaming.. a slow whirring dance commences .. and faintly at first..

The 2001 theme begins anew, playing as night has fallen in the museum and the projectors have awakened each other .. and dawn here will only come.. dawn here will only come... when they say so.

Imagine Late Nights! in the museum

(dedicated to Owen and his Musuem of Planetariums