Threads and traces: brontotheres

Showing posts with label brontotheres. Show all posts

27 November 2010

Lights. Camera. Brontothere.

What the...???? Read on....

I made it through high school and college without ever having to participate in making a parade float or even being in a parade. In the last 14 months, though, we have been in three parades, two of them involving a float, the most recent being tonight. This didn't involve the dreaded chicken wire and tissue paper, though. No, this involved a modified rhinoceros taxidermy form and a lot of talent and energy from our faculty, staff and students.

Remember this guy from September?

The brontothere we entered as our float in the university parade in September so charmed our administration that they asked us to re-enter it in the city's annual Parade of Lights, held to kick off the holiday season on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Obviously, this is a night-time parade and lighting is critically important. Our curator agreed to take this on.

Sometime after that, we found that our brontothere would be not only the university's representative, but actually the Grand Marshal float leading the parade, with the university president and his wife riding on the float along with the university mascot. No pressure at all, right? Oh, and the lights had to be (we were told) LEDs. And we found out less than two weeks before the event.

Here's what we did.

First things first. By a unanimous vote, the brontothere's nose horns got red lights in honor of Rudolph. Everything else was negotiable. This was not.

Then he was lifted onto the trailer once again, gently. The platform makes it possible for us to strap him securely to the trailer.

Net lights helped us negotiate his difficult shape rather ingeniously.

Don't you think the net lights give him a strong resemblance to Durer's rhinoceros?

They used lights to outline a panel on each side for the school banners.

And they used string lights to outline his head and legs.

Rudolph had NOTHIN' on our guy. THIS is a red nose.

Front half is lit.

Adding more lights to the rear.

Pointillistic brontothere.

Brontothere reflected in the overhead door.

The artistic Michelle replaced a white bulb with a green one at each eye, to give him the laser-eyed effect.

Full body lights are working.

Room lights back on for phase II of the work.

White tarps plus multi-colored net lights = a winter snowy wonderland effect. Or so we say.

It all comes together.

Lights and sound system ready to go. Needless to say, he was a hit.

And also needless to say, we are chilled, exhausted and exhilarated after watching him move regally downtown. He was the star of a lovely and joyous hometown parade. You wouldn't see him in the Macy's parade, just as you wouldn't see the decorated horses, Harleys, rescue dogs, Lakota drummers and singing toilets we saw tonight, but I'll take this over Macy's any day.

Let the holiday season begin.

03 October 2010

Brontotheres on parade

Brontothere in the loading dock position

If you remember the saga of moving our brontothere family diorama, you'll remember that they are life-sized recreations of long-extinct rhinoceros-type creatures from what is now the White River Badlands. Beautiful, precise, and compelling sculptures....in plaster. Even though the plaster is molded over a frame, and they are thus hollow, they are still inordinately heavy, brittle, fragile and vulnerable. The brontotheres are on their ledge to stay for the foreseeable future.

But with a standard rhino taxidermy form (yes, these things are standard), expanding foam and tremendous talent (obviously not mine), it is possible to put a brontothere in the homecoming parade. Who'd'a thunk it? It was a beautiful October morning, and the brontothere had a nice ride through downtown with many fans cheering him on.

The hoist in the new building helped us get him onto a sturdy base.

Careful padding of the straps--he is made of foam, after all.

Note that he has his own banner.

Carefully releasing his feet....

....down he goes.

Much more secure. He is light enough to rock in a high wind, so this will help.

Ready to be loaded onto the trailer for his debut performance.

Pensive.

The crew gathers to get the brontothere on the trailer.

No, this is not our typical dress code. We had everything from grizzled oLd West field paleontologists to a Sparklesaurus in his retinue.

In place, strapped down and feet cushioned.

What a brontothere float looks like, finally.

He was the first float in the parade and has been asked for repeat performances in the upcoming months. Next challenge: name him!

05 September 2010

A perfect week, part II: the Paleontology Research Laboratory opens

You may remember this....

We broke ground in April 2009 for a new paleontology building to house the collections, labs and offices of the Museum of Geology. For the next 16 months, we watched the hole being dug and then the building rising. We wore hard hats and slogged through the ice and mud to visit as it went up. We looked at it, and at our collections, and wondered if it would ever really be open. In June of this year, we started moving collections in.

On Wednesday, it became official. We cut the ribbon and dedicated the new Paleontology Research Center.

180 people crammed onto the plaza in front of the building, where we had seating for 75. (We TOLD them that there were a lot of people who had waited a long time for this....) The weather was perfect. The speeches were heartfelt. And the long, long journey to opening day was capped with a wonderful show.

Of course, now the real work begins, as we continue to move the collections as we develop new programs to take advantage of this rare opportunity. There is much to do. Today, however, we savor Wednesday's moments.