The 39th Oz-Stravaganza 2016 and the Nomes of Oz

It's been a few weeks since Amanda and I attended this biggest Wizard of Oz Festival of the year and time now permits me to get at it.

We chose to leave the Land of the Hoosiers a few days early in order to have a pleasant journey. So naturally, we hit a few wineries along the way.

 

Turns out Pennsylvania is second only to California with the most acreage devoted to vinyards. Who knew?

Once we hit New York State, the nickle and diming of the Toll Roads began. 

The one odd feature of the Toll Roads are the Rest Stops, one of which features an elevated walkway that crosses the highway.

Of course, once we made it to the Craftsmann Inn in Fayetteville, which is near Chittenango, site of the 39th Annual Oz-Stravaganza, of which we were Guest Authors in the Authors & Artists Alley. Once we settled in, we made our way to the festival grounds and it became obvious we were no longer in Kansas.

After stopping by the local library and the All Things Oz Museum to donate a copy of our latest book, Nomes of Oz,

we then made our way to Chittenango Falls, which always gives us inspiration for our next book.

As usual, we found inspiration in the oddest of places.

The next day was Saturday and the best of the three days of the festival. We found the usual Poppy Field and set up nearby in the Authors & Artists Alley tent.

The day was spent interacting with numerous kids, parents and all manner of fans of the Wizard of Oz. Alongside us were the usual crew of suspects (Authors and/or Artists).

Vincent Myrand (Artist)

Ron Baxley, Jr. (Author)

Gwen Tennille (Artist and Author)

Tom Hutchison (Artist and Author)

Richard Mickelson

Kenneth L. Doane II

The highlight of Saturday was the parade, which Amanda participated in for the first time. I'm so proud of how well she did.

 

 

 Overall, it was a great day and sales were good. Unfortunately, Sunday was a wash-out with rain all day, which required relocating the farewell ceremonies to the church basement.

John Fricke, two-time Emmy Award-winning producer/writer; a Grammy Award nominee, was the host and did so admirably. He is such a special guy and Amanda and I are proud to count him among our friends. I know of no one who loves Oz more than him. I wish the Grand Marshall of the Parade and Special Guest, Bronson Pinchot could have made, but alas... not to be. 

Overall, it was a fantastic festival, despite the rain-out, which usually happens about every other year or so. Special kudos and congratulations go out to Marc Baum, Colleen Hummell Zimmer, Lynne Bunce, Mark Sample, and so many others who go far above the call of duty to ensure a successful festival. I know I've missed someone, but I hope they understand. It was a fun time and we hope to return next year.

Totus vos postulo est Amor!

The 100th Indy 500 ; What a Race!!!

Just over a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the 100th Indy 500, a classic American race that I have been attending since 1988.

This year, as usual, I was joined by my friend Brion, and this year, he brought his fiance, Shannon Feinstein.

This year, we met up as usual at the Plainsfield Steak&Shake, though a bit earlier than usual due to the fact that this year's race was sold out. Despite the warnings of massive crowds early on, our usual, very secret, back door way into the north end of the complex worked like a charm. Even once we made our way to the north gates, the crowds weren't that bad, though we would discover later that they got worse fairly soon after we got in.

Once we got in, we made our way to the back nine for some quiet time before the madness began.

We then did some walking and got a fine look at the Pagoda across the infield.

We then made our way to the Fan Zone for some pre-race fun.

As usual, there are photo ops around various autos from the past and present.

 

 We also ran into a rather large bear and I felt compelled to perform a prostate exam, for his health of course.

Soon, we made our way to our seats, which were about halfway up on the outside of Turn 2. Best seats ever!!!

There were the usual pre-race rituals, including the Balloon Launch and the biggest flag I've seen in some time.

 

 And then it was Racetime!

 

As usual, the start was amazing and after about 50 laps or so, we did our usual ritual of walking about to see the cars up close.

Fortunately for us, we watched Juan-Pablo Montoya crash out on the backstretch, which seemed to amaze Shannon.

And of course, we love to stand beneath the track for a restart.

Finally, we made our way back to our seats for the last 75 laps or so and were not disappointed as the racing was awesome!

Overall, it was an awesome day and one for the records. I have never seen so many people in one place... ever.

Looks like I had a great time. Thanks Brion for 16 years of the Indy 500, and for bring your fine lady to enjoy what we have enjoyed for so long.

God bless America!!!

SpaceQuest Planetarium : End Of An Era!

Today, I confirmed some really bad rumors and the truth of it has hit me hard.

SpaceQuest Planetarium at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is being torn down to make way for something that is not a planetarium. This is an ongoing trend nationwide that disturbs me deeply.

Let's start out with a bit of background about my involvement with SpaceQuest Planetarium.

In early 1997, I was a grad student at Indiana State University where, as part of my duties, I served as the Student Director of the Hook Memorial Observatory. It was a position I excelled at and I loved being an astronomer.

By chance and circumstance, I applied for an internship at SpaceQuest Planetarium and soon found myself offered a job as the Planetarium Educator instead, owing to the fact that the previous educator had died a few weeks earlier.

Walking into The Children's Museum of Indianapolis on March 3, 1997, I was overwhelmed and thrilled to have found what would almost immediately become my dream job. To this day, I have never had a better job, nor will I ever... It was that good.

For the next nearly 4 years, I did the coolest, funnest stuff anyone could ever do... and get paid for it as well. Every morning, I would get up and I couldn't wait to get to work. At the end of the day, I regretted having to leave.

During that time, I wrote and produced 8 planetarium shows, including working with Jim Davis of Paws Inc., Lorenzo Music and John Huge (voices of Garfield the Cat and his owner Jon respectfully), Alan Bean (Apollo 12 moonwalker), and Harrison Schmidt (Apollo 17 moonwalker).  I also worked with Bob Ballard and the JASON Project, NASA (I got to fly on the Vomit Comet twice), and countless others doing some very unique things.

For example, I worked with Jeff Ward of Eli Lily and tracked his dogsled team as they explored the North Magnetic Pole. They would phone back to the dome every Saturday/Sunday during showtimes so kids could talk to them about their adventures. We also tracked their progress on a webpage devoted to their mission. No museum had ever done anything like before.

I designed an award-winning International Space Station web-based game for the museum's website which was, up until a few weeks ago, the most visited website for the museum's homepage.

I built a 1/3rd scale replica of a Stonehenge Trilathon, complete with a Heelstone, which I used to teach simple Physics, history, religion and even how to better complete tasks through teamwork.

Also, I produced in-house video programs called "Dr. What?" for Riley Children's Hospital as part of the museum's outreach program. As part of that work, I got to ride on the Goodyear Blimp "Spirit of Akron." What a hoot!

I webcasted the 1999 Mercury Transit live and was the first museum to ever do anything like that.

The highlight of my career was the acquisition of the Liberty Bell 7 Spacecraft exhibit in 2000. We were the first museum to display this unique artifact of the early days of NASA. I created numerous exhibits and activities related to the science of rockets, as well as a stunning show (pardon my bragging) entitled: SpaceQuest; The Early History of NASA.

I even got to handle and display Moonrocks, as well as introducing kids to the geology of the Moon. In fact, my fondest memories were working with the Museum Apprentice Program (MAPs) kids as a Mentor. Their enthusiasm inspired me and I still keep in contact with many of them.

For nearly 4 years, I enjoyed the support of President Peter Sterling and Director of Education David Cassady until both decided to retire in 2000. It was then that the Board of Directors committed a most grievous act of sheer and complete stupidity when they hired Jeff Patchen to replace Peter Sterling.

Jeff Patchen had absolutely no background in education and he proved his ignorance right away when he promoted a minion of Satan named Karol Bartlett to succeed David Cassady.

Now, fools were in charge and over the next 2 years, the entire education department was forced to abandon the greatest museum on Earth in order to escape the stupidity of Patches the Clown and Karol the Ignoramus! I left soon after she was promoted in order to avoid her evilness.

Here's a fine example of their ignorance at work.

Somehow, they thought that installing a giant glass dildo in the middle of the museum was a good idea.

My only regret was that I was forced to leave, but Time has proven my decision was the correct one, even though not a week passes by that I don't think about that museum and the greatest job I will ever have.

15 years later and now the planetarium is being torn down to make room for something that will not include a planetarium. It is a sad day indeed when science education suffers at the hands of morons who see no value in inspiring kids to view science, space exploration and such as a thing to aspire to, not one to avoid at all cost.