Day 168 - Lights

Thought of the day: The annual Conference on World Affairs is taking place at CU this week.  CWA started in 1948 and had attracted a wide variety of experts in different fields to talk freely about pretty much anything under the sun.  This morning I attended a discussion called "Artists and Scientists in Pursuit of Light" with two artist friends.  The panel included Danielle Feinberg who is a director of photography at Pixar and did the light-up of Wall-E.  She talked about the lighting for a few Pixar movies which made me want to watch them all over again as her talk gave me a new perspective in animations and a new appreciation for the making of them.  Another panelist was Jeff Lieberman who is the host of Time Warp on Discovery Channel.  His talk began with the origin of the universe and ended with the future of human consciousness.  So as you can imagine, his talk jumped all over the place from science to human emotions to mythology.  It was unusual and yet he made it all seem coherent.  I could tell that the audience was quite captivated by him and his topics as most of the followup questions were directed to him.  The third panelist was a physicist and science writer. He made some interesting observations on how science eventually brought many sci-fi dreams into reality.  And the fourth panelist was a storyteller.  Her sense of humor and keen observations of human nature added a nice touch to an otherwise quite serious discussion.  All in all, I found the whole session to be scintillating and mind-opening.  To say the least, any discussion that would make me go online afterwards and research for a dozen of new books to read is definitely not a waste of time.

Photo of the day:

Lights on Pearl St.  Danielle said that one of the joys of photography is to make the most mundane objects look special.  How true! Similarly, I think one of the joys of life is to make the most routine days feel special.  To make an object special, the key is in the light.  And to make a day special, the key is in the mind.  Stimulating thoughts can enlighten a day just like dancing lights can bring an object to life.