Laserpod!

Now that Eli has opened his birthday present I can officially blog about the laserpod without spoiling any surprises. Leafing through a design slide show on the NYT over a month ago I came across said laserpod. I thought it looked really neat, but neat in the way of housewares only affordable to Manhattanite financial planners and trustaffarians. Lo and behold! It was a gizmo both artistic and reasonably priced! Since Eli has a lava lamp (not a real 1960s one, but one of those fake ones readily available in the 1990s when American youth was experiencing a brief and regrettable return to hippiechic) and rejoices in finally having a rumpus room, even if I have outlawed the sectional sofa, I thought it would be the perfect compliment to the decor. A little kitschy, but fundamentally cool and scientific. Plus, it's very difficult to get him a non-practical gift, but this I knew he'd love.

He opened it Saturday afternoon and we played with it for a bit, but it wasn't until Saturday evening, when we turned the lights off in the basement and played with the different diffusers that we saw some of the spectacular images a 3 lasers and 3 LEDs create. As the website says, pictures don't do it justice. And the lights really do evolve over time, very organic. At one point, it looked a little like being inside of someone's brain. Or at least a science fiction film interpretation thereof.

It's going to be fun having guests over.