the guard-rails are made of the same invisible material as the risers

You mean a force field? ;-)

Many years ago I had stairs with no railing going up to my bedroom loft. I had a light with a timer on it so I could see at night. One night the timer failed to go on. High jinx at the closest Emergency Room ensued.

Interesting comments about laughing when the tension gets too high. Not what I did but as I said in my blog post I was on the edge of my seat, wondering how long it would last.

@#10: Yes, Bill Viola is a great example. When I saw his show at the Getty a few years back I felt the same kind of tension. There was also an artist who did video screens at a renovated bar in S.F. a few years ago (from Paris, if I'm not mistaken but the artist's name escapes me). The portraits seemed to be still but then the eyes would move (reminded me of the Haunted House in Disneyland). It really creeped out my children and we had to leave (ok, they weren't supposed to be in a bar anyway but we wanted them to see these pics).

There is another artists who does these long photos. Her name is Ginny Wearing and she won the Turner Prize in 1997 for these pieces: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1997/turner_prize/36273.stm

First they called artists degenerates and denied them NEA grants, then they made them easy to identify and isolate them from the rest of society by issuing them special licenses. What next: artistic concentration camps? What is this country coming to?!

You have such a nice way with words. Ouch!

When I was seven I was playing with my sister in our front yard and saw a plane crash. One minute it was there and the next it just dropped. To this day whenever I see a plane flying in the sky I wonder whether I will see it crash.

Many years later I made a photograph about it.

My bag: Tom Bihn's The Buzz. It's a sling pack (which means in my urban subway setting I can get off the train and put it on my back with one hand --very handy) and fits a laptop.

I heard that NPR report and one caveat they mentioned was for those who suffer from kidney stones. Drinking a good amount of water is important to those who suffer from this malady.

Yes, we had our plane fumigated before we were allowed to leave the Air New Zealand when we arrived in Auckland in 1994.

You're joking, right?

Those are amazing juxtapositions. And they, plus the text that goes with each, say a lot about our feelings about life (and interestingly, less so about the concept of death).

SO?

One of the problem sectors in this issue are newspapers. They create permalinks to articles but they eventually disappear "into their archives" where there are no permalinks, just pay per view.

I'm not sure of the NYTimes is guilty of this now that they've opened up their archives, but the Washington Post is. I've had to go so far as to create pdfs of the "real" newspaper article so I will be able to upload and link to that.

Made my day. (Oh, wrong movie).

Jack Sparrow did it (I always thought this was the best thing about this movie).

I was taken to see Rain, supposedly one of the best of the Beatles imitators (http://www.rainthebeatlesexperience.com/). And I have to tell you, they were pretty good.

But what was really strange is that they have their own groupies who sat in the first row. Looking at Rain's forum, apparently they have a large fandom. Very postmodern. ;-)

According to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, the further back you go in time, the smaller you get. The empty space near one's electrons compress. For example, I used to be 7 feet tall in 2020.

Ahh, Mondo 2000.

I have a "first edition" of Wired. Also have the very first MacWorld.

My cousin used to work for Hasbro as a sculptor in the late 80s and 90s. One of his first jobs was to model GI Joes. One of the perks for a job well done for middle management was to get your head sculpted as a GI Joe action figure.

Kelsey Grammar for #2 but #4 is definitely Oprah! Definitely.

That cute boxer puppy needs some wall-to-wall carpeting!

THAT is too cool. My dad was a weight engineer on that project for Lockheed (and I have just a regular scale model sitting here on my desk).

Oooh, water and electronics! Now that sounds like a match made in heaven. ;-)

I used the original Diana. Loved it. I was hoping the Diana+ would be digital. -g Nothing like seeing those light leaks immediately!

$50?? The original was under $10 (more like $3 if memory serves me).