PIXAR: 20 Years of Animation @ ACMI

As it seemed I had been neglecting my +1 duties of late, I allowed my live-in Man About Town to drag me kicking and screaming to the opening of the Pixar exhibition at ACMI , the first of Melbourne's to "winter blockbuster" exhibitions. You can imagine the scores my fingernails have left in the cement paving.

It was quite an exhibition, which we finally got to see after a couple of speeches by the Minister for Tourism, the Head of ACMI and video greetings from Geoffrey Rush and John Lasseter.

Much was made of the never before seen artwork that goes into making Pixar's incredible films and some of it is really sublime. There is a real sense of the love that flows from the artists into their work. And the shear breadth of talent that the studio has amassed over the years.

The centrepiece of the exhibition (not that it even needs one) is a huge 3D zoetrope, which at first sight looks like a wedding cake that has been pompously overdecorated but the effect when it is hit by the strobe lighting is just phenomenal and would have been worth the price of admission, had we paid.

I imagine there will be a few small kiddies over the coming months drooling over the glass casing of the pretty whirring machine.


Quite a few of Pixar's earlier shorts are on display as well as artwork from the upcoming feature Ratatouille, which ended up being helmed by Brad "The Iron Giant" Bird (though he took the reigns over half way through so it'll be interesting to see how his hand is felt).

Go.

Technology, Entertainment, Design, Two Thousand and Seven

TED 2007 kicks off tomorrow.

We've spoken of TED before... You should know what I am talking about.

Bright minds and visionaries gathered in one room talking about how to make the world a better place.

You can see who they've gathered together this year by clicking on the schedule above.

Hopefully, some of these amazing speakers will end up on the TEDtalks podcasts. Fingers crossed.

Get dreaming.

Melbourne Gains A Pretty Fruit Basket

I have to say, the most interesting thing I've ever seen on the corner of Chapel and Toorak was a three storey high billboard of a gorgeous Country Road model. Apparently, according to Andrew (not that Andrew, the other one, the one that is going overseas again soon, yeah that one) I never saw The Fun Factory in its heyday.

And I never will. It is being demolished to make way for this rhapsody in medal and glass:


Excited? I am. Apple Stores, which are actually owned by Apple, are few and far between and tend to take in a whole range of functions above and beyond the two-bit resellers that we are accustomed to. They are real crowd pleasers too.

AppleInsider has the whole story and some more pretty pics for you to gawk at.

Now, if only they can find some way of including a three storey high model into the design.

NO NECK MONSTERS

NO NECK MONSTERS
Originally uploaded by minkoff.

A cursory search of the Internet coughed up this little specimen.

I don't know if y'al know it but this blog is named after a line said by Elizabeth Taylor in one of my favourite films, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

minkoff has a whole album over at flikr devoted to collages of old movies and the like. Pounce on over and take a look.