Friday, October 20
Rode the London Eye yesterday!
The trick to getting pictures of yourself when you are travelling alone is, look around for couples who are taking snaps of each other, and ask, "Would you like a picture of the two of you together?" They'll gladly take your picture if you offer first to take theirs.
Gorgeous, isn't it? What an engineering feat. I hope it's there forever.
Here's one of the capsules. They are self-righting, and use a mechanical system to keep upright, rather than using gravity, like most Ferris Wheels. During the early tests, a couple of the capsules locked, and British Airways had to delay opening day (New Year's, 2000) until everything was operational.
If it can be said to have a theme, it's civil avation. I guess calling your ride on a great wheel a "flight" and your ticket a "boarding pass" would qualify as theming...
The drive wheels. This is the same principle as any fairground "Big Eli" wheel, just on a much grander scale.
Best thing of the day:
I went to a bookstore and found a copy of Richard Dawkin's new book on atheism and belief, The God Delusion on the Christianity shelf.
The trick to getting pictures of yourself when you are travelling alone is, look around for couples who are taking snaps of each other, and ask, "Would you like a picture of the two of you together?" They'll gladly take your picture if you offer first to take theirs.
Gorgeous, isn't it? What an engineering feat. I hope it's there forever.
Here's one of the capsules. They are self-righting, and use a mechanical system to keep upright, rather than using gravity, like most Ferris Wheels. During the early tests, a couple of the capsules locked, and British Airways had to delay opening day (New Year's, 2000) until everything was operational.
If it can be said to have a theme, it's civil avation. I guess calling your ride on a great wheel a "flight" and your ticket a "boarding pass" would qualify as theming...
The drive wheels. This is the same principle as any fairground "Big Eli" wheel, just on a much grander scale.
Best thing of the day:
I went to a bookstore and found a copy of Richard Dawkin's new book on atheism and belief, The God Delusion on the Christianity shelf.
Thursday, October 19
Press for the "Fairground: Thrill Laboratory" event at the Dana Centre.
The Independent
BBC News, where they pulled the most amazingly obvious quote from me...
Booking information for the upcoming shows.
Next week is a horror and Halloween theme:
Thrill and anxiety – how do they relate? Why does the idea of the haunted house crop up so often in popular culture? How can you build your own ghost train? And… what links a fairground ride and a production line?
These are some of the questions we’ll be asking in Fairground: Thrill Laboratory on 24 & 25 October. Each evening will include live experimentation on the Ghost Train – a classic dark ride - and a carnival of food, drink, performance, film, music and discussion, led by a team of scientists, artists, performers, technologists, psychologists, and showmen.
Tickets are £10 which includes:
1 thrill-trip on the ride of the night
Entry into Thrill-Lab-Lotto
Canapés
Soup shots
Fizzy pop
The Independent
BBC News, where they pulled the most amazingly obvious quote from me...
Booking information for the upcoming shows.
Next week is a horror and Halloween theme:
Thrill and anxiety – how do they relate? Why does the idea of the haunted house crop up so often in popular culture? How can you build your own ghost train? And… what links a fairground ride and a production line?
These are some of the questions we’ll be asking in Fairground: Thrill Laboratory on 24 & 25 October. Each evening will include live experimentation on the Ghost Train – a classic dark ride - and a carnival of food, drink, performance, film, music and discussion, led by a team of scientists, artists, performers, technologists, psychologists, and showmen.
Tickets are £10 which includes:
1 thrill-trip on the ride of the night
Entry into Thrill-Lab-Lotto
Canapés
Soup shots
Fizzy pop
Tuesday, October 17
Press event this morning at the Dana Centre in London. We're getting ready for the first of six "Fairground: Thrill Laboratory" events.
The Dana Centre from the front.
This is one of the production assistants in the monitoring rig. It includes a camera to record facial expressions, and numerous physiological monitors.
Here's the ride for this evening, a Miami Trip.
Here's a nice shot of Brendan Walker, the organizer of the events, looking very MST3K in his red jumpsuit. He had custom patches made with the "Fairground: Thrill Laboratory" logo.
Brendan tells me he filmed some video at a funfair in this outfit, and there a gaggle of children pestered and teased him. One of them came up and quietly uttered the tagline to an advert which features nerds, geeks and boffins in funny glasses, "You should have gone to SpecSavers!" Cheeky!
More soon.
The Dana Centre from the front.
This is one of the production assistants in the monitoring rig. It includes a camera to record facial expressions, and numerous physiological monitors.
Here's the ride for this evening, a Miami Trip.
Here's a nice shot of Brendan Walker, the organizer of the events, looking very MST3K in his red jumpsuit. He had custom patches made with the "Fairground: Thrill Laboratory" logo.
Brendan tells me he filmed some video at a funfair in this outfit, and there a gaggle of children pestered and teased him. One of them came up and quietly uttered the tagline to an advert which features nerds, geeks and boffins in funny glasses, "You should have gone to SpecSavers!" Cheeky!
More soon.
