3D Printed Stonehenge, Death Star, Electronic Arts and The Police.

So, yesterday, as you might have guessed, (or at least my one and only loyal follower guessed. hi Debra!) we were printing a 3D Stonehenge. ↓

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

I would kind of consider this print questionable, because the base turned out so thin and flimsy, even though Jason printed it at 200%. I can't even imagine how it would print much smaller than this. It is already so tiny at 200%. ↓

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

And another thing, it is so hairy. That's hard to clean up after the filament dries and those little leftover hairs harden.

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

But, I'll still give painting a go, and I'm sure it will be cute. 

Here are a couple things that I actually painted for those who think I am a complete procrastinator. 😏

The Death Star. ↓

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user embeddedjunkie 

This was printed in pieces, with two halves and a center ring, and it was glued together after I painted it. 

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user embeddedjunkie

By the way, have you seen the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One? We saw it, and I thought it was pretty good. Nowhere near as good as the original trilogy, which were movie perfection, but better than the prequel trilogy, in my humble opinion. 

Back to 3D prints. If you know the video game company, Electronic Arts, you might recall their early days logo: ↓

And here is their current logo, which you might be more familiar with today: ↓

Jason's first 3D design created with the free 3D design program, Tinkercad was an homage to Electronic Arts' original logo with the cube, sphere and cone. Though, when I saw it, I thought of something completely different. So, and I kind of commandeered it, and painted it as an homage to my favorite band, The Police: ↓

Notice the cube, sphere, and cone in the album cover below, and the screenshot from the video of their 1986 version of "Don't Stand So Close to Me", which if we are talking old vs new, that 1986 version just screams 1980s, while the original is timeless. I'm glad they never got around to rerecording anymore of their hits, which was apparently the plan at the time.  

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So you see? I have painted some things after all. and I will get to the rest of them as soon as I have that dedicated painting space I've been dreaming about....Jason. 

🎨

Thanks for visiting!

The Police, The Drummer, and The Little Flag That Could

Anyone who knows me for more than two minutes should know that my favorite band of all time is The Police. Whether they are together or not, they've always been and most likely always will be my favorite.

They were my first concert. They were my Beatles. I think you get the picture.

So, you can probably imagine my delight [read: hysteria] when a little over two years ago this little band got back together to embark on a reunion tour. Thanks to many wonderful friends, I had the opportunity to see them at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Hershey Park in Hershey, PA, Washington, D.C., and the show to [literally] end all shows, Madison Square Gardens in NYC. 

It's been almost 10 months, to the day, since the tour ended. I've wanted to blog about this for just as long. Though, I didn't know how to put it all into words. There was too much to explain with a kind of "you had to be there" feeling. 

Now, thanks to one very special lady who is an organizer extraordinaire and creator of the "little flag that could", I don't have to explain. Better words could not have been written to illustrate the experience of a few 100 or more fans of this band and more specifically, their drummer, Stewart Copeland...

"Our Little Flag Game: A strange tradition of the Police reunion tour"

By Kellie M. Walsh

On Thursday, August 7, 2008, at Madison Square Garden in New York, the Police—singer-bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers, and drummer Stewart Copeland—took the stage one last time to celebrate the finale of their thirtieth anniversary reunion tour [...]
In the middle of the celebration hung a small green flag.
It wasn't much to look at. Its corners were soiled, its face cracked. Its emblem, the silhouette of a horse and rider, held no significance for the Police. To tens of thousands of witnesses that night, it was a mystery.
But to a small group of fans, just a couple of hundred or so scattered around the arena and globe, it was a message [...]
The plan was a simple one: volunteers from the forum at stewartcopeland.net would show their support for the site's namesake by carrying to as many reunion concerts as possible a kelly green flag emblazoned with Copeland’s personal logo of himself on a horse in silhouette.

[click here for full story. It's the feel good story of the season. Heck the decade! And you'll never guess where the flag now resides!]