gumball

the sticky sweet pieces of my world. >> chew on it. (the weblog of author/illustrator Brian Yanish)

Sunday, June 27, 2004

costly frogs and missing fingers

In an attempt to expand my horizons I went to the Museum of Natural History today to see the "Frogs" exhibit and had to shell out $19 to wade through a crowded hallway the size of my apartment with a handful of glass cases and 2 or 3 video fact kiosks. How is this price supposed to encourage visitors? It's like Six Flags but nothing moves. All right I suppose there is a lot of stuff to soak up if one makes the effort but lifeless dioramas have never been my thing. I opt for the zoo. Granted the frogs we're cool but I felt like one should have been included in the admission price or a goofy frog cup or something.
The only real moment that pleased me was looking at some Pacific Northwest Native American exhibits while waiting for access to Frogs. In the tiny case displaying a diorama of Kwakiutil tribesman felling trees and carving them into planks with wedges and hand tools one of the figures was not only missing his tool but several fingers. He was hunched over the log holding nothing which looked rather odd. And try as I might I could locate neither the missing tool nor fingers on the ground near the log. I looked for a good 2 minutes scanning the fake bushes convinced they had to be there somewhere. It made me smile.
At what point will someone A)notice the missing appendages? and B) deem it worthy of opening up the case and replacing them?


© 2004 brian yanish