Uh oh. I’ve been bitten by the blogging bug. Two posts in one day, while work waiting to be done (=billable hours) languishes on my desk (what desk? I mean the dining room table).
LA Observed got me all fired up about the Griffith Observatory Planetarium controversy in a piece called: Actors or Astronomers?.
The meat of the discussion is here.
In the interest of my financial health, I’m copying the comments that I posted at the meaty link above so that I can get busy with real paying work.
I’ve seen the planetarium show, and my Jane Q. Public reaction is as follows: (1) It is too simple for an adult audience. Why not do a kids version and an adult version? (2) The lame lit orb thing carried by the narrator/actor is cheesy and detracts from the meager content. (3) The actor who “voiced” the show I attended needs to go back to acting school. His voice was fake, almost creepy. At the start of the show, I could hardly believe a real person was speaking. Then his lips moved.
I’d rather a few ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ from a live astronomical mind than a smooth-talker with nary a slip of tongue. Education is not something we do terribly well in this country, and taking the marrow out of the planetarium presentation is a step in the wrong direction.
I stood in line (30 minutes on a weekday afternoon) and plunked down the dough for the planetarium because I expected to learn something. Instead, in the midst of a performance that was supposed to feel ‘live’ but felt more fake than if it had been recorded, I found myself wondering about the career missteps that lead an actor to the ultimate nutty professor role.
West Coast Grrlie Blather 
Hi Kelly,
Thanks for visiting Asymptotia and commenting and I hope you come to visit and maybe comment again, even if we’re not discussing the Griffith Observatory. Thanks for the comment… I fear that your impressions were not at all rare, and that a big opportunity has been missed to make a show that can really engage both adults and children in the same sitting. Real live people -yes, maybe some nutty professors, but ones who can speak enthusiastically about the subject- are the key to that, in my opinion.
Nice blog, by the way. Now I am also going to get back to my kitchen table….
Cheers,
-cvj