Seriously, you need to go here...

So, I wanted to do something fun today since we didn't get to go camping (see truck woes here). I thought that weather-wise it would be a fantastic day to go to the city and play, and the kids haven't been to the Metreon in forever, so I got on the net and looked it up. They have a Sony playstation store there, an IMAX theater, a video arcade, a great noodle shop, and the top floor is devoted to an experiential learning exhibit of something (they had a Maurice Sendak exhibit there when Thing 1 was little; a year back they had one on the Titanic--both were great).

Whilst trying to find what the current exhibit there was, I stumbled on the Zeum website. The Zeum is only one block away, and I had heard about it, but never been. There is an amazing carousel next door, and the ice arena on the other side of the park, so I figured between the Metreon and those two attractions, we would still have plenty to keep us interested even if the Zeum was a bust. But the added bonus was that they were offering a weekend workshop (free with price of admission) on drawing your own comic books. Both my kids are into that stuff, so I thought 'why not'?

It was amazing. The workshop was sort of a bust--not very much guidance, just some artist wandering around and commenting on our own improv, and not helping or directing us at all. But the place itself is INCREDIBLE. There are four main areas there: an animators' studio where you can create your own claymation character and film it, a music production lab where you can karaoke and make your own music video, a digital workshop where you can make computer art, and a "main gallery" with various and sundry hands-on creativity stations. Think Exploratorium for the right brain.

Anyhow, we spent the entire time (when we weren't at the comics workshop) in the claymation studio. In addition to making your own character, there are four "studios"--sets that you can change the background on, and film your character doing stuff. Here's one of Thing 2's movies:



They were getting ready to close, and Helene and I were taking too long artfully crafting our characters, so we made one together (hers is the cat--mine is the dinosaur/horse-looking thing):



I got a family season pass there, so we will be going back. I may even go myself once or twice in the next year--incredibly fulfilling art therapy. And after this week, I needed it.