Thursday, October 23, 2014

Museum of Moving Images




So we were going to go to the Lincoln Center Library of Performing Arts to see the Sesame Street show, but after we got in the car I checked Google Maps and it looked like the Queensboro Bridge was backed up about a half hour. Plus I called and the librarian at the Lincoln Center told me that it wasn't really for kids, that it was more for adults.  Wha?

Thinking on the fly I switched directions. I had heard from the poet KC Trommer about a good Hanna-Barbera/ Chuck Jones exhibit at the Museum of The Moving Image, in Astoria Queens, just a few minutes drive from where we were about to get on the congested bridge. We got off the bridge just in time and headed over.

"What do you want to do on this rainy day girls? Do you want to go see Bugs Bunny movies at the Museum of the Moving Image?" 
Sofia says, "Yes! We love to watch movies, even though they aren't good for the soul."
"What!? Who told you that?"
"You did."

The first exhibit we saw at the museum was Bill Clinton cartoons. (Damn voice recognition software!) Bill Plymton cartoons. His cartoons are very strange and beautiful, with lots of crazy deformations, which I think were disturbing at first for the girls, but then funny, hopefully in a way that is informative and helps them understand the plasticity and humor of life. 

   Er,


We went from there into an exhibit of the old Astoria studios. We met a Greek woman there named Xania (with a hard K, like Ksania.) She asked me to take a pic and text it to her, so I did.

    Posing with the stars





 I asked Xania if she would stay with the girls for a few minutes while I went to put more money in the meter. She was happy to help out and the girls we're happy to have a new friend. When I came back they were all bent down and looking at a model for the Muppet movie. I snuck up over the top of it and surprised them!

 I dug some of the other exhibits too. 


    Hmm, what's up with C3PO? Cool tape dispenser cycle.


 I had a moving moment with a model of Robin Williams' head made for Mrs. Doubtfire. You could see so much depth in that lifeless face. Museum of moving images for real. My face peers out from behind like a concerned ghost. 



Another good exhibit was the soundtracks. The girls stayed for a while and listened. Here they both just happen to be listening to Audrey Hepburn movies, The Nun's Story and Breakfast at Tiffany's.



from there we found an 80s game room where the girls learn to play Miss Pac-Man. Serious nostalgia for me. 





Next to the arcade there was a replica 1988 living room replete with cartoons of the era on the television, in this case the Hulk versus Spiderman. We lounged out in there on the cow-hide couches (cowches?) and just watched cartoons for a while. 



What an amazing museum. We also made a photographic flipbook (which you then can buy at the gift shop afterwards for $10.)

    You can see our flipbook bottom right.

We spent awhile making a stop animation video that we emailed to Gen too. Whew!

Didn't even get a chance to see the Chuck Jones exhibit.

We left the museum because the meter was about to expire. But I forgot it took them a while to print up the flipbook, and then the girls had to use the facilities again so we didn't make it out in time before we got the ticket. Seven minutes late! 



Shirley, goodness and mercy!

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