Sunday, June 08, 2008

Sentinel

I followed most of Tam's recent Wikiwander in realtime, with digressions of my own along the way. Despite having read and enjoyed the book as a child (and the film version of James and The Giant Peach as a more-or-less adult), I hadn't realized the fellow I knew as a writer of creepy yarns also wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- nor that he'd been a fighter pilot.

Somehow we picked up the thread again today. While I was looking at airplanes, Tam found herself looking up J. R. R. Tolkein's grandson for a quite interesting reason that connects the two topics. The photo in that link gives a good sense of the art but not of the structure; we wondered if it was a flat cut-out, or what? The Wiki page doesn't say.

But do we live on a kewl planet at a kewl time? Oh, yeah. You can zoom in on the sculpture from orbit! Of course, there's also the more-conventional way to learn more. And no, it's not a flat cut-out.

Tam elected to hand this one to me (she may have a funny "overheard" post in the works) so here y'are.

2 comments:

phlegmfatale said...

Incredibly cool. Elegant, modern and yet reverential of the era. A lovely tribute. This is so fitting of the magnificent industrial heritage of Birmingham, too. Have been to Birmingham and marveled at the craftsmanship of generations past. It is heartening to consider their municipal works or industrial elegance which parallel their solid-hearted constructs of materiel. We should daily consider this profundity.

staghounds said...

Miracles and wonders. Thank you!