Life: Idiotropic

The largest of the Umbracle's dinosaurs, the T-Rex at the midway point of the tour.

There are dinosaurs in Valencia...
No need to fear.  They are "interesting" and great for young enthusiasts, but no one will run away in fright for these rubbery creatures look more B movie than Hollywood thriller and watching their fingers jiggle like yesterday's flan is more than laughable.

The robotic dinos move their heads and limbs while boxes behind them blare distorted bellows.  The giant T-Rex's entire torso jiggles as if he'd just swallowed a pack of toads. 


Still, if you are a little boy or have a hankerin' for the warped battle cry of a prehistoric reptile, this might be right up your ally.  Or if you're me and want to get her three youngest girls out of the house and into a pack of their own... 

The Umbracle is a 6000 meter garden under a web of graceful white arches designed by Calatrava as part of Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences.  Normally, it's free to stroll through the garden of bushes and palms, but last week this pack of spray-painted rubber moved in and now the public must pay to see hear the battle cry of the Velociraptor.

We are members, fortunately, so we don't have to pay which is good because I wouldn't. 

But my girls enjoyed it.  They skipped around, pointed, got excited at the loudest of the 'saurs, and didn't seem to mind the sweltering heat that made sweat stains on shirts around me.  Yuck.

An hour was enough, more than enough, and we headed for the cool of the Hemispheric - the planteterum/IMAX theater where we saw the new Arabia film which told the history of Saudi Arabia while making us slightly ill with the flying scenes.  Beautiful Napatian ruins from Saudi's first golden age danced across the screen.  Stunning.  Makes me want to go and explore these cities once made great by the sale of Frankinscence to the Romans before Catholicism.  Strange to think that a change in religion could have such a dramatic affect, but the entire civilization collapsed when the Roman empire started worshiping one God instead of twenty.  No more frankinscence in the temples.  No more need for the precious commodity that literaly grew on trees.  The development of Saudi Arabia now points to the possiblity of a third golden age and for their sake, I hope it happens.  It's surreal and quite sad to see complete civilizations so built up and full of knowledge just to end and slip backwards into an intellectual void.

From Saudi to the stars, we decided to head to the Science Museum here to see the new Star Trek exhibit that just opened today.  So new in fact that several reporters stood in different areas with their microphones talking to the camera filming them.  This is the first time that this amazing collection of Star Trek stuff has been outside of the United States and though I'm not a Trekkie by any stretch, I do appreciate the quality of the collection - uniforms, amazing original artwork and concept designs, the Starship Enterprise itself as well as several other models, the cockpit of the Enterprise where visitors can actually sit in the seats, weapons, the transporter, and so much more.   I am now the envy of my Trekkie friends and my children have now sat in the captain's chair of the Klingon vessel. 

The science museum itself is like most where in order to enjoy it, you really need to be willing to read the plaque, understand it, explain it well to your kids, then hope that it isn't broken.  And, like most, sadly, many things don't seem to work.  Still, we wandered and tried a few things.  We saw a mouse.  It's a bit disconcerting that 90% of our DNA is identical to that of a little white rodent in a wheel.  But then, some days are like that.

Downstairs is the Marvel Comics  exhibit, a permanent display that explains that science behind the superpowers.  The Spiderman area had a climbing wall where kids tried to climb sideways like a spider does and six swings to hang on.  The combined weight on the six strings was displayed on the screen.  It would take 1455 kilograms to break the ropes as is.  Even with 6 large people dangling there, it wouldn't even come close.  It those same ropes were made from spider's silk, it would take 17,045 to break them.  Crazy.

I've never read a Marvel Comic.  Though I've become addicted to Smallville, I'm really not a comic book person, but seeing it blown up to poster size, it's really kind of cool.  I love the style and colors and giggle at the words like "Wahboom Bada Boom." My girls liked it too.

When it comes down to it, I had a bit of America today, so "boy stuff" or not, it was familiarity and that in itself is comforting.  Star Trek and Marvel Comics... can't get much more American than that.