I Really Just Want to Talk about Dinosaurs

I could write you an introspective post on creativity, friends, but that sounds boring, so I’m going to talk about dinosaurs instead.

For a reason that will go unmentioned, I’m spending all week at either the zoo or the museum. In a few weeks, the zoo is going to be opening an exhibit of animatronic dinosaurs throughout. They’ve had a Carnotaurus for a few months advertising this fact.

He’s pretty scary, as far as robot dinosaurs go. Sure, he mostly just moves his head and growls, but I’ve spent a fair amount of time watching children come to a dead stop and stare at him with utter terror.

I get it. You’re not expecting a 9-foot tall carnivore to suddenly rear up out of nowhere. (He’s kind of hidden around a corner, and now they’ve planted palm trees to screen him.) Especially not one that moves and growls. And even after they’ve realized it’s not real (or their parents have explained that dinosaurs are extinct and that this is a robot), the kids still are skeptical.

They keep their distance. If they do get up close, it’s to giggle and run away a moment later, as if they’ve done something very brave.

(My question is: who decided to design its arms so that they tuck up backwards against its body? That’s super unnatural looking, made more jarring by the fact that the rest of the dinosaur looks so real.)

I’m super excited for the exhibit. It actually opens on one of my family member’s birthday (and he loves dinosaurs, especially robot ones) but that seems like a madhouse so we’ll probably wait a week or so before we head in. Not quite sure what robot dinosaurs have to do with the zoo or its mission, but both the zoo and the Botanic Gardens have started doing artwork displays in the summer.

The Botanic Gardens are doing Calder sculptures this summer. But hey, robot dinosaurs as “art” may be a stretch, but they’re also super awesome, so I ain’t complaining.

Any fun summer things happening where you are? Any awesome dinosaur things happening where you are? Opinions on animatronic dinosaurs? I like them, for the most part, except for unexpected life-size Tyrannosaurus Rexes which traumatize my children. (Seriously, put up a sign!) The dinosaur museum in Grand Junction has a Dilophosaurus that spits water, no joke.