Space-o-rama for a whole week! Mark your calendars for October 4 – 10. You might recognize the dates:  The launch of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, happened on October 4, 1957 and the signing of the Outer Space Treaty was on October 10, 1967.

Conveniently, World Space Week starts right at the end of Oktoberfest (September 18 – October 3), so go ahead and slur the celebration from ale to astronomy.

A bit about the organization: World Space Week Association is an non-government,non-profit, international organization. It’s one of the world’s oldest space education organizations and a proud partner of the United Nations, which officially  declared World Space Week in 1999. The celebration of World Space Week is under the guidance of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA).

You’re obviously excited about doing something to celebrate World Space Week, and if you would like your space shenanigans/event/what-ever  to be  listed on the global calendar, just send me an e mail with the details.

Also, World Space Week Association is looking for help! I just signed on as the Executive Director so you’ll be stuck with me . Check out the list of volunteer positions available, or feel free to make up a new position for yourself.

You can reach me at tpage (at) worldspaceweek.org

The old stock-broker trainee in me suggests shelling out for a painting now so you can sell it in a few years and buy a decent sized apartment in New York. Three cheers for classy investments that you can hang on your wall rather than file in a drawer.

Title: The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet
Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 160
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Date: January 2009
Retail Price: $23.95
ISBN: 0393065200

At a mere 160 pages, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s dwarf book is much like Pluto: It’s got plenty of substance, but is mostly appreciated for the cartoons. As one may guess from the title of Tyson’s new book, the publication is a nonfiction account of Pluto’s fall from planethood. It combines serious science with an entertaining levity that is usually reserved for farce.

Tyson, director of the Rose Center for Earth & Space at the Hayden Planetarium in New York, began his career there at a very interesting time. In 2000, the museum had a budget of $230 million and he was trusted to manage the planetarium’s renovation. Historically, science museums and planetariums displayed the planets grouped together, but the Rose Center’s curators wanted to do something different — something innovative. They grouped like objects, which necessitated that Pluto be placed in a class with other icy objects, far from the other planets.

One year went by. Then, on January 22, 2001, in a news-breaking front-page story entitled “Pluto’s Not a Planet? Only in New York,” cheeky New York Times reporter Kenneth Chang accused the planetarium for downgrading Pluto’s planetary status.

For the next several years, Tyson was bombarded with hate mail from the spectrum of space skeptics — from surly 70-year-olds to sugar-high seven-year-olds, who wanted to protect Pluto’s repute. So what does one do when the New York Times publishes an agitating article? Leave it to Tyson to respond with an entire book.

The Pluto Files offers hilarious documentation of the uproar over Pluto that came through the press and his own mail. Tyson plucks the wittiest, most facetious, most self-righteous characters from personal, corporate, and government sources, featuring them on his literary stage.

One elementary school student, for example, lectured Neil with an illustrated letter: “You are missing planet Pluto… this is what it looks like. It is a planet. Love, Will Galmot.”

Other more anonymous characters are heard in Disney’s public statement that Pluto’s demotion is “dopey” and “grumpy.”

He even includes the California Assembly Bill H236, which takes a tone of authority: “Whereas Pluto… affectionately sharing the name of California’s most famous animated dog….” Like a professional comedian, Tyson makes fun of every character — even himself. He even breaks out into song. After all, drama lends itself to a chorus, and in this case Tyson provides ample page space to the choir. You can read the entire lyrics of three songs in the appendix (my particular favorite is “I’m Your Moon,” a melancholy ballad by Jonathan Coulton).

But all joking aside, The Pluto Files does give the reader an inside look (and a hearty laugh) at how the scientific classification of a planet is decided. Tyson, being a Harvard and Columbia graduate, is well-educated in scientific classifications. “What I don’t know,” Tyson muses, “is this: If I shout ‘Pluto is not a planet’ in a public place in New Mexico, could I get arrested?”

I unequivocally recommend this book to anyone with a sense of humor about scientific categorization. I also recommend that anyone too stiff to enjoy the book’s witty commentary please write to the author with your complaints, for there is always the possibility of a sequel. Tyson was voted the “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive” by Peoplemagazine in 2000, and it is possible that The Pluto Files will earn him the title of “Sassiest Astrophysicist Alive.” In fact, I dare the New York Times to bestow him this new title.

Details:

Brock Enright
Satellite Son

October 25 – December 6, 2009

Opening reception Sunday October 25, 6-8pm

Performance at 7pm

Nicelle Beauchene Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new sculpture by Brock Enright.  For Satellite Son, Enright presents a series of assemblages culled from the obsessive mining of his art and personal history.  These collections, presented throughout the gallery on low pedestals, contain elements and ephemera amassed from his performances, props and locales.

Alluding to curio collections of the early 16^th and 17^th century scientists, Enright anachronistically juxtaposes seemingly unrelated objects and phenomena in order to institute interconnectedness. Rather than defying aesthetic orders and values as in work past, this new series reveals the artists’ control on both his world and his practice through the undefined categorical boundaries he establishes in each piece.  In a way that combines the formal austerity of constructivism with the theatrics of the sublime, Enright’s tessellations create a platform to merge documentation and fantasy.

The sculptural facets within each plinth of Satellite Son are considered to be in a transitory state representing a trajectory of past, present and future.  Enright concedes his work to be in a constant state of flux, and by placing an object on view he essentially pauses or freezes the works. While in still placement, yet maintaining their kinetic integrity, the individual and collective components create an active site into which the viewer is invited.  Acting as catalysts, these objects collide psychological traumas with contemporary myths.

Brock Enright graduated in 2001 with an MFA from Columbia University.  Enright has shown internationally in exhibitions at Vilma Gold, London; ZKM, Germany; Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; The Moore Space, Miami; COMA, Berlin; PERFORMA 07; The Royal Academy of Art, London; P.S. 1, New York; White Flag Projects, St. Louis; and Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York. Enright lives and works in New York City.

Nicelle Beauchene Gallery
21 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002

My friend James Bower reviews movies.

Here’s his schtick on Moon (UK 2009, cert 15. Dir. Duncan Jones. 97 minutes. Cast: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey):

Moon. Once in a blue one, we get intelligent, considered, beautiful science fiction movies.

Sam Rockwell rattles off a virtuoso performance as Sam Bell, a lone space-miner stuck in a small moonbase. Sam’s mind-numbing job is to keep track of the base’s largely automated systems, with only GERTIE, the base’s motherly artificial intelligence, for company. Unsurprisingly, Sam starts to go a little bonkers and winds up crashing his lunar rover. And then things get weird (I refuse to spoil this clever little movie).

Rockwell’s Bell is an endearingly optimistic guy who makes the most of his lousy lot, but he’s clearly getting a bad case of the space-crazies. Sam’s due to return to earth in two weeks’ time, desperate to reconnect with his wife and a daughter he’s never met. The base is plastered with photos of his loved ones, and Sam has spent interminable hours whittling a model town that sits proudly on some upturned crates. He’s a guy in a vacuum, desperately trying to populate his alien environment with something familiar. It’s sad, funny and touching, and Rockwell plays it magnificently. There’s a breathtaking loneliness to every sequence in which he climbs into his lightly soiled spacesuit and trundles off into the darkness. Is there any wonder the poor guy turned to whittling?

There were moments when I worried that the film was going to turn into some kind of 2001 pastiche – there’s ornate furniture sitting in a bleached white room, a bright yellow quilted spacesuit that’s straight out of Kubrick’s wardrobe and a computer that just won’t open the bloody doors. But Moon is bold enough to follow its own trajectory, with a plot that’s fascinating, creepy and moving. And Sam Rockwell… wow.

This is what science fiction is supposed to do.

—-

For more reviews, check out Critical Instant.

Featuring AMNH Astrophysicist Ben Oppenheimer

SciCafe presents Exoplanets and the Search for Life in the Universe, featuring AMNH astrophysicist Ben Oppenheimer. Science enthusiasts are invited to enjoy the Museum after hours with music, drinks, and thought-provoking conversation at the kick-off of the new monthly series SciCafe. Surrounded by magnificent rock and mineral specimens in the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, guests will have a chance to mingle as AMNH astrophysicist Ben Oppenheimer discusses exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, as well as his search for a hypothetical Earth-twin and signs of habitability in nearby planetary systems. Oppenheimer will also explain his role as principal investigator on the Lyot Project, which aims to reveal how planets and solar systems are formed. The American Museum of Natural History’s new after-hours series SciCafe features cutting-edge science, cocktails, and conversation. SciCafe takes place on the first Wednesday of every month.

WHEN:  Wednesday, October 7, 7 pm WHERE Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth American Museum of Natural History

ADMISSION: Free Admission with cash bar, must be 21+ with ID

I wish I could attend this event, but I’m still in Australia. If anyone is going and would like to blog about it on SpaceCadetGirl please send your review to talpage (at) gmail.com.

Have Fun!

Nick Sudthisa’s fifth and sixth graders are preparing for their school’s first fashion show: Project Runway.  All of the finalists created impressive designs, but I would like to personally endorse the galactic getup pictured above. Here’s a bit more information from Mr. Sudthisa:

Our fashion project is about the FUTURE. Jittrin ‘Frank’ Pancharoen and Patcharapol ‘Tle’ Polvanich are both 5th grade students from Bangkok, Thailand. As co-leaders of their design team, ‘The Mighty F&T,’ they decided to tackle the issue of  global warming and its affect on everyday fashion. To them, everyone will soon be sportin’ the ‘man on the moon’ look. In order to survive in the future, everyone will have to wear an Ultraviolet  Mobile Protective Unit (UVMPU). Users will be able to wear regular civilian clothing underneath the suit. The UVMPU uses highly reflective material as part of its cooling system, is especially designed to be lightweight and can be easily transformed into a convenient carrying bag to be worn as a shoulder strap or a backpack.

In their prototype, they used a plastic shower curtain material to simulate the reflective suit, zippers for pockets and various plastic tubes, located strategically in different areas of the suit, to rid of waste.

Currently, ‘The Mighty F&T’ are working hard on a life-size version for a school fashion show set to take place on October 30, 2009.

Good luck Frank and Patcharapol!

Pictures courtesy of this guy.

STS 119

Since the launch was delayed, my friend Cameron and I had time to visit the Astronaut Hall of Fame. The most amusing relic of all was not a set of complicated machinery, but a plain old tin container. I like to guess what things are before reading the labels, and this one seemed pretty easy. It was obviously used for storing some equipment, right? Nope– it was a make-up container for female astronauts! I’m pretty sure that there is a cost of thousands of dollars per pound launched into orbit…but I guess lipstick is an essential. Personally, I would want my green mascara, just in case of a run in with aliens (assuming they like green…).

Atronaut Hall of Fame

The Hall of Fame also boasts some fun rides. My favorite was the 4G Experience. The jolly fellow who operates the machine reassured me, “People puke in here a few times a month, but you can’t smell a thing, can ‘ya?” The janitors deserve due credit in the Hall of Fame too: I would have never known the 4G ride was vomit-vehicle had I not been told.

The thought of losing my lunch reminded me that I was hungry, so my next stop was to Lou’s Blues, a hamburger and beer joint on the beach– or so I thought. There must have been a misspelling– I’m sure the locals know it as “Lou’s Booze and Bras” or “Lou’s Crib of Death.” Old people in Hawaiian shirt danced under a chandelier tangled in a mass of dusty, deteriorating bras, and life-sized skeletons popped out of every corner. It seems there are two types of people in Florida: those who are waiting to become astronauts and launch themselves 60 miles up, and those who are waiting to be put 6 ft. under ground. There’s not a whole lot in between.

To top off the trip, Cameron and I were run out of town by an alligator. We had stopped by a nice grassy patch and were munching on bagels when a rather large lizard (see him in the back left of the picture) slithered out way at full speed. We bounced like a pair of frightened bunnies and took off for New York. I’d rather be snuggled up next to a psychopath in the New York subway than snacking by a swamp in the Sunshine State. Florida sure is a freak fest, but I would love to go back and see a launch if ever the opportunity crops up again.

Alligator!