Waiting in line to ride Space Mountain at Disneyland, one is confronted with a big movie screen overhead, showing what looks like a moon (big orange globe) spinning there against a star field. The impression it’s supposed to give is that you’re in a space station, preparing to board a shuttle, while the space station orbits the moon, tumbling all the while (the moon appears to migrate from apparently above the screen to apparently below the screen). Evidently it’s supposed to be a very fast orbit, as it only takes about a minute to go completely around the globe.
But I’m usually in the special assistance line that bypasses the part where you get to watch that for fifteen minutes or more, so I never questioned it before. On my last visit to the park, Michaela and I were in the long line, and I noticed that the starfield doesn’t move. The space station is practically stationary above the actual planet, which never comes into view, while it’s being orbited by this huge moon that’s spinning like a top.
It’s the only frame of reference that makes any sense, and I never noticed it before…
I must have listened to “Last Chance Texaco” thousands of times…damn near wore out the vinyl, but it wasn’t until I saw Rickie Lee Jones in concert that I got the doppler effect thing she did at the end of the song, and that was only because she physically moved from one side of the mic to the other. :smack: However, judging by the significant ‘Ahhhhh!’ coming from the audience I wasn’t the only one.
Is anybody going to mention the FedEx arrow? Or that picture of the two faces that look like a goblet? Or the “Jesus Saves” thing in black and white? I’d be shocked if any of those took 100 tries, but I thought I’d ask.
The which – not that particular obelisk, perhaps, but the form of the Egyptian obelisk in general – is, of course, the model for the Washington Monument.
I’ve got one for Back to the Future III. I’m not going to bother spoiling this one since this movie is so very, very old and not exactly high art.
There’s the whole thing with Clayton Ravine being named after Clara Clayton when she falls to her death over its edge and then Doc Brown unwittingly changes the future by saving her. So, of course it’s no longer Clayton Ravine when Marty gets back to his own time. What’s it called? Eastwood Ravine. 'Cause “Clint Eastwood” fell into it and disappeared into the future. :smack:
If you’re interested in corporate logos, I read something that pointed out the symbolism of the Sony VAIO logo. The first two letter (the “VA”) are drawn as to look like a sine wave (an analog signal) while the second two letters (the “IO”) look like the numbers one and zero, which are of course the basis of binary, digital communications.
(And I’m also curious what the “Jesus Saves” thing is.)
I’m an Honor Harrington fan who always had trouble remembering the book titles in order, until I learned from a Cafe Society thread that the even-numbered books all have “honor” in the title somewhere. Once I got over the embarrassment at not noticing this myself, I found it was now a snap to remember the titles.
Have you noticed that at the end of the first Back to the Future, the mall (which was previously “Twin Pines Mall”) is now “Lone Pine Mall”? When escaping from the pine tree farm, Marty knocks over one of the “twin” pines on his way out.
You know that Simpsons episode in which Homer invents the alcoholic drink that you set on fire, and calls it the “Flaming Homer”? And then Moe steals the recipe and calls it the “Flaming Moe”?
Both of those names are puns on “Flaming Homo.”
I realized this about eight or ten years after seeing the episode.
That was on his arrival, wasn’t it? Where the scarecrow lands on the windshield scaring the bejesus out of him before the Delorien comes to a stop in a shed.
For me it was Mal’s pistol in Firefly/Serenity. From its outline I’d assumed it was a revolver, but in the movie he’s seen thumbing a cartridge into a magazine then slapping it home in the bottom of the receiver. It’s at the beginning where they’re readying for the payroll job, just before River comes slinking down the cases and he asks if she knows her part. I noticed that, popped in one of the series disks, where the pistol is displayed quite prominently in the title sequence, and sure enough, there ain’t no cylinder.
Re: Tony Shalhoub in Galaxy Quest. I noticed, of course, he was the only one not freaked out by the goo transport system. I guess being a druggie would explain that – well within the limits of an every day occurance for him. Also explains why he had the munchies and missed the first batch.
Here’s a movie one I only realized recently. While re-watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I finally grokked the reason for the pistol with a single bullet. At first I didn’t quite get it–you’d have to be a pretty good shot to use it to hunt something down for food, so what was the reason? Then, watching Barbosa’s hand gestures, I realized that the single shot was so the stranded pirate could put themselves out of their misery. :smack:
Yes, that’s it. It’s a white/black field with some design in black that appears to make sense (it’s been a while since I saw it so I forget the actual content) and your eye is first drawn to that portion. But after you look at it a bit, or else shift your focus, JESUS SAVES appears in a fool-your-eye sort of way.
A site with optical illusions probably includes it or something similar.
Another painting that was shown in one of my art textbooks was in the Trompe-l’œil genre but doesn’t seem to be among the ones in the linked Wiki article. It looked at first like a landscape with a range of mountains, but on closer scrutiny disclosed a satyr lying down diddling itself. Fun art.
I’ll try to track down an online version of the Jesus Saves thing unless somebody beats me to it.
