Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Crazy Dragon Illusion!!

For those of you who are interested, I found another toy on the internet that I thought was cool enough to pass along.

This one is a do-it-yourself project. You print this out, cut, fold and tape as directed, and you get this:



Here is a page that contains a Windows Media video showing the illusion at work.

3 hints from my experience:
1.) Being careful about where to fold, cut, tape does make a difference. Use a well-lit area and a hard surface for best results. (A hard drink probably wouldn't hurt either -- just kidding!)
2.) Print out two copies of the .pdf file. Cut one out for making your dragon and use the other sheet as a reference of where to make the folds/cuts, etc. Don't forget to cut along his bottom jaw to the white dot at his neck -- I missed this detail on my first try.
3.) Once you're done, the best results come from looking at the dragon with one eye closed. It says that on the instruction sheet, but who reads instruction sheet?

FYI, the illusion works whether the dragon is printed in color or in black & white.



Films Recently Watched:

Sleeping Beauty (1959) produced by Walt Disney; Supervising director: Clyde Geronimi
I'm sure I'd seen this before, but it certainly had been a while. Love the use of the widescreen framing on this. A stark contrast stylistically from the previous Disney full-length animated pictures.

The Cooler (2003) dir. by Wayne Kramer
I like William H. Macy in general, and he excels in this one (his character was written with Macy in mind). Parts of the story were weak - I could have done without the Father/Son sub-plot, but pretty good overall.

Moulin Rouge! (2001) dir. by Baz Luhrmann
I can't say that this is a "guilty" pleasure for me because I don't feel guilty about loving it. It's probably one of my favorite musicals ever on film. The vivid colors, the quick editing, the pop music soundtrack, Ewan and Nichole doing their own singing...the entire package just works for me. I was happy to sit down with this one again. Also looking forward to Joel Schumacher's film adaptation of the ever-popular, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom Of The Opera, which releases later this month (limited release 12/22). I've never seen the Broadway show (on or off), but the music from the show was quite popular among my group of friends from High School. From the trailers, it looks as though it may have some similarities to Moulin Rouge.

Say Anything... (1989) dir. by Cameron Crowe
A desire to see this film again was driven by my recent purchase of Peter Gabriel's video collection on DVD, Play. Peter Gabriel's song "In Your Eyes" always makes me think of the iconic moment in this film with Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) holding up his boombox over his head playing this song. It had been a while since I'd seen it and Christy couldn't remember for sure whether she ever had, so we watched it last night. Cameron Crowe has a way of capturing time in a bottle. My High School experience was significantly different from what this film portrays, but some moments from this film still resonate, regardless.



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