why do grown-ups play with LEGO?

living vicariously through blog posts and instagram shots of the opening of the in LEGO, we connect exhibition a week or so ago at the bryan ohno gallery in seattle, i've found myself once again pondering the whole love of LEGO among adults. when i started working on this question in earnest a year ago, i think that one could still detect a slight sheepishness among some of the adults who loved LEGO. but that may have been my own uninitiated perspective.

today, i believe thanks (at least in part) to the LEGO movie, it seems that love of LEGO is everywhere. people get enormous and colorful LEGO tattoos (and they must be adults, since you have to be 18 (or at least reasonably look it) to get a tattoo). gizmodo writes about LEGO regularly and so do the folks at geekwire. there are elderly folks using LEGO to keep their fingers and their memories nimble. there are serious blogs, discussing the LEGO community at a rather academic level. and blogs analyzing in minute detail every new LEGO brick and color. thousands of grown up people around the world are unapologetically and even proudly devoting their precious spare time to their LEGO hobby.

there are also some folks who love LEGO who are making a business of it in grand style. people like ryan "the brickman" mcnaught in australia. warren elsmore in the uk. nathan sawaya in new york. these are folks who took their hobby and made it their very successful businesses. and they think they're lucky to get to play with LEGO for a living, there's no sheepishness in sight. as well there shouldn't be.

i wonder if this embracing of a childhood toy in adulthood is something unique to our times? we all want to hold onto our youth these days. and we do so in the form of elements of pop culture. so i find myself singing along to the same songs on the radio as my 14-year-old does and i too want urban decay eyeliner. and i want to play with LEGO minifigures. granted, i play with them differently now that i would have as a child (i say would have, because i didn't really play with LEGO as a child, i had a pony, after all). and my method of play - taking photos of them "in the wild" - actually rather embarrasses my child, who isn't that keen on me arranging marge simpson on a shelf next to a cup at ikea. so it is something other than holding onto my youth, at least for me, since playing LEGO wasn't a part of my youth.

but what is it? is playing with LEGO just like any other hobby? like flying radio controlled planes? or building model trains? or quilting? or painting or any other creative hobby? why do so many more men indulge in the hobby than women? can it be taken seriously? is it art? the three showing their LEGO photos in the gallery are daring to think so. and their photos are each marvelous in their own very different ways. and i think that's some pretty cool boundary-pushing.

steampunk lego

i have a rather hard time staying out of the employee store at work. i'd been eyeing metalbeard's duel for awhile, because it's got that steampunk feel to it. it's probably the hardest thing i've built and i'll admit there's something wrong with that big foot, but finally i just turned one piece around (not how it was supposed to be) and gave up. it stands more or less stable now, so i'm good with that.

there's a lot going on - great small details, like the shark arm and the anchor on his pegleg foot, which incorporates a barrel (those barrels always lend a steampunk touch). he's not super stable and it feels to me like a display set, not a play set, but that's ok, as that's what i want to do anyway.

he came with this micromanager (he does after all need someone to duel against). it's the most complicated micromanager i've built, but not my favorite, despite being rather overly detailed on the inside, which lends some whimsy that i like. i guess i just like my micromanagers in micro size.

the top opens up and there's a little seat in there, where i think a guy could hide out. since i'm not actually playing with him, but just putting him on the shelf with my other lego movie sets, i don't have anyone inside.

we also recently acquired the creative ambush set, also acquired because of the steampunk feel. sabin built this plane, while i built the flying kebab wagon (see below). i love again the old west details - clever use of a barrel as the front of the plane and green shutters as flaps.

probably my favorite detail is little sudds backwash's flying organ. so cute. a much more creative lego builder than i has made a whole new creation out of this set. skills of that magnitude are, as yet, beyond my lego abilities.

but i do love the whimsy and details of the flying kebab wagon, complete with the rotisserie of meat, ketchup and mustard bottles and frying pans as headlights. the menu boards double as wings and the wheels fold up when it's in flight.

there's much more steampunk lego goodness in this group on flickr. and also this one.

in all, a very satisfying couple of sets. this lego building is addictive, i tell you. i wonder what i'll tackle next?

those play-doh folks really did an awesome job with wallace & gromit

we all know how much i love lego, so it's not surprising that i wasn't all that keen on this cynical piece in the nytimes (while otherwise generally being a fan of both the nytimes and of cynicism). i also read this one, which chose to be charmed by the branding of the movie, and is thus a little more positive. it's actually interesting that it's taken nearly a month for some negativity about this film to surface.

but both of these pieces and many of the others, in my view, give a bit too much credit to lego for a movie made by warner brothers and cleverly written and directed by phil lord and christopher miller. yes, there was an executive producer from the lego company and lego did, of course, protect their strong brand name and interests, but (you knew there was a but), giving them all of the credit is a little bit like attributing the cleverness of wallace & gromit only to play-doh.

like polymer clay in the aardman animations, lego bricks were a medium in the film - a vehicle on which to attach both visually and to tell a story. a human, funny, positive, charming, but also slightly politically subversive and even ironic (in its anti-capitalist message) story. it is postmodernism at its best, engaging all of the references of pop culture and childhood memories (from benny the spaceman to batman), rolling them into a rolicking good time of a movie that's self-referential, visually enchanting and has a positive message of believing in your own talents. it's a feel good movie. lego is lucky is worked so well, and some credit for that goes to the strength and positivity of their brand, but they don't deserve all of the credit. warner brothers played a significant part.

signs of spring

sunny yellow.
small water droplets.
bright green to combat the grey.
signs of hope after a long, dark winter.
relentless winds blow,
belying the impending spring.

...or perhaps bringing it.

* * *

i know, i know, i'm all lego all the time. but i can't help it. the lego movie held onto the top spot at the box office for the third straight week. and these behind the scenes featurettes are so clever, i had to share this one.

i'll leave you with the film's earworm - everything is awesome.
just try to be in a bad mood after you hear this song.
i dare you.

here's hoping that everything is awesome in the week ahead. for you and for me.

everything is awesome

it was a beautiful weekend.
it surely helped that it started already on thursday evening.
we had time with friends.
fun at lego world.
time spent with sabin (eating sushi and wandering a bit in copenhagen).
a family saturday night of dinner out and the lego movie.
sunday at home making soup and baking paleo "bread" and photographing cats.

everything is awesome.
(that's a quote from the lego movie, by the way.)
and surely also holds portents of the week ahead.

* * *

are cats better at predicting the weather than weathermen?

* * *

it seems as baby boomers get older, it gets easier to talk about sex.

and also to have some. 

i find that encouraging.

sex after seventy.

good energy in the air

calamity drone

my lego movie minifigure collection is nearly complete. i just have shakespeare and gail the girl construction worker to go. isn't calamity drone cute with her fabulous hat? and speaking of lego, my head is beginning to fill with all kinds of input. not a whole lot of ideas as of yet, but i think i have to put a whole lot in and learn a bit more before something comes out. starting a new job is both exciting and exhausting. but in a very good way. tho' i thought the waiting would kill me, it didn't, and perhaps all that waiting even contributes to my own openness and eagerness to enjoy the whole experience. my new colleagues are so welcoming and positive i'm finding good, creative energy all around. i learned with that bad, bad job (i'm talking about you siemens wind power) a few years ago exactly how important that is. if the energy in the place is wrong, it will never be right. and i can tell you that the energy is amazing. 

so many thoughts are swirling in my head that i can't quite wrestle them to the page as of yet, but they will come. and i haven't forgotten or abandoned my february project, i'm just not getting home in time to properly photograph in the good light (hurry up spring!), so i'll have to do a roundup this weekend.

it's going well with the vegetarian month - there's even a big variety of vegetarian food at work, so i don't even have to be tempted there! and i'm sticking with the no wine thing too. i realize we're only 4 days into the month, but so far so good. it's easy to stay motivated when you're feeling positively high with good energy and new experiences. we'll have to see how it goes when things settle down.

* * *

love this story about the captain of the mary maersk.

* * *

and this visualization of the internet as a world map.

the madness continues - new minifigures from the lego movie

one of our local grocery stores has the latest series of minifigures from the lego movie. and tho' it's less than a week until i start at lego, i couldn't resist. but take a look - could you have resisted?

wild west wyldestyle

scribble-faced bad cop (i love his scribble face)

he's got a bad cop face with sunglasses on the other side.

abraham lincoln

taco tuesday guy

emmet - he's the hero of the movie (as i understand it)

wiley fusebot. he's got an awesome daniel boone hat with a racoon tail.

mrs. scratchen-post - check out the cat hair on her clothes!

panda guy (i really wanted him).

where's my pants guy (i understand he has a reality program in the movie).

marsha queen of the mermaids.

love her blue hair and silver lipstick.

and i couldn't resist a shot of marsha from the back.