November 16, 2004
Knick knacks
I stumbled across a fascinating site yesterday. Grand Illusions appears to be a shop primarily, but besides that it's filled with the sorts of curiosities that fascinated me as a child (and which fascinate me still), along with explanations, videos and several links to interesting sources.
A lot of it will be familiar to you I'm sure (especially to Jonathan), but there are several tricks and illusions new to me that I took great delight in discovering, such as the torofluxus, the gaussian gun and the checkerboard illusion. It's a peculiar hodge podge of a site, in character much like one of those dusty old shops you encounter on a rainy day which invite you in to gaze in wonder at the bizarre arrays of strange and wonderful knick knacks therein.
You may not end up buying anything, but then to do so would almost seem to be entirely beside the point...
Thought iMark at November 16, 2004 12:06 AM | TrackBackYes, I've bought a fair number of odds and ends from them over the years, and do check back every so often to find out what new stuff they have (so I can nick it... and yes, they do know I do this :-). The chaps behind it are ex-BBC types (retired), who used to make shows like The Great Egg Race and Take Nobody's Word For It, and some of the people on the periphery I've met - good sorts all. I'm particularly fond of their analysis of why the standard 'persistence of vision' explanation of film projection is wrong, and David Jones' murder mystery involving Napoleon and wallpaper.
Worth a look, Mark, is Tim's Wonderful Toys CDROM. I'll lend you my copy sometime.
Posted by: Jonathan at November 16, 2004 12:16 AM