It's sci-fi for real at the HMNS's new Wiess Hall

The Houston Museum of Natural Science has always strived to make science fun for young and mature alike, but now with their newly reopened Wiess Energy Hall 3.0, they’ve managed to turn learning about energy science into a thrill ride.

Yes, the redesigned permanent Hall provides enough educational exhibits and interactive-learning displays to make the sternest high school physics and geology teachers giddy, but the HMNS has also built motion effects simulator rides into the exhibition, allowing visitors to fly, dive and drop directly in the never-ending story of how we discover and harness energy sources to power the world.

With an expansion from 8,500 square feet to 30,000 in this renovation and redesign of the popular exhibition, the HMNS seems almost modest in calling Wiess Hall “the most contemporary, comprehensive, technologically advanced exhibition on the science and technology of energy anywhere in the world.”

I recently had the opportunity to take a preview tour of Wiess Hall, where my energy journey began from the moment elevator doors opened on the 4th floor to reveal a wall-sized replica of an offshore drilling platform. But stepping deeper into the Hall, I felt like I had left a 21st-century museum and boarded the engine room of a favorite science fiction spaceship. The main difference from a Hollywood sci-fi movie set and the HMNS is that while some of the Wiess exhibits give peeks into future technology, much of the cutting edge science on display remains firmly grounded in the present–albeit sometimes 8,000 feet under said ground.

From floating satellites overhead to blinking displays on climate change to an interactive video simulator that allows visitors to feel they’re operating an offshore oil rig, Wiess Hall gives even the most hyperactive museum-goer plenty of hands-on exhibits to explore.

As a whole, the exhibition chronicles the different forms of energy systems and how we use that oil, gas, solar and wind power to fuel our cities and the very displays delivering all this energy knowledge to museum-goers. And while hydrocarbon fuel remains a large focus, renewable sources like wind and solar also become stars in the continuing energy technology story.

With much to do, see and learn, there’s enough to keep the most jaded kids and adult engaged, and perhaps awed, for hours by the science and technology, but I’d bet three big features in particular will likely lure Houstonians back again and again for continuing explorations.

Energy City
The greatest feast for the eyes comes from this 2,500-square-foot 3-D, 1/150th-scale “white model” of downtown Houston. This little H-Town uses projection mapping technology to create a vibrant constantly changing metropolitan and surrounding energy-harnessing landscape.

Energy City, which took two years to build and complete, becomes the stage for 30 minutes of animated content. A five minute sequence takes Houston from day to night and then each night brings the coolest science lecture ever, as 32 laser projectors paint a illustrated light story of how we power our lives using the many energy systems, including solar, nuclear, wind, hydroelectric and even geothermal. (Spoiler alert: watch out for volcanos.)

While Energy City educates on how we can access power from the Earth, sun, wind, and water, it also entertains with brilliant light shows and even fun little animated surprises during the daylight hours. Look closely for car chases and some unexpected space and time travelers.

EFX 3000 (The Eagle Ford Shale Experience)
Climb aboard this inner-space ship for a very active lesson on hydraulic fracturing. With curved projection techniques and mechanical motion effects, the simulated ride takes passengers on a bumpy flight–piloted by down-home Texan robot DAR-C–to Karnes County, Texas. Once we reached the gas and oil drilling fields a resident scientist shrinks the EFX 3000 down to miniature size, all the better to navigate through a borehole of an oil well. (Kudos to ride designers and the HMNS for pumping from the Houston’s talented acting well when casting. I recognized our friendly fracking engineer and shrinkologist. as Catastrophic Theatre regular Karina Pal Montaño-Bowers.)

Geovator
HMNS members will probably remember an older version of this simulator ride in the previous incarnation of the Hall. The completely revamped Geovator, a geological exploration/time traveling vessel, and its holographic host, Captain Mercaptan, take riders deep into the Earth and then back through time to the Cretaceous Period. After dodging pteranodons and witnessing the meteor strike that killed all the pteranodons, we got down to the business of seeing how hydrocarbons form.

Wiess Hall 3.0 is now open. Entry to the permanent exhibition is included in a general admission ticket to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Another beautiful day in Energy City, the 2,500-square-foot 3-D, 1/150th-scale “white model” of downtown Houston.

Houston Museum of Natural Science Courtesy Photo

Another beautiful day in Energy City, the 2,500-square-foot 3-D, 1/150th-scale “white model” of downtown Houston.

museums science

Movie Review

Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close shine in ambitious drama La Bola Negra

Photo by Carla Oset/Netflix

Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente in La Bola Negra.

For a long time — too long — gay characters in movies tended to appear as either side characters with no real stories or as tragic figures who were usually unable to express their true selves for fear of what the world at large would think. That has changed in recent years, but the remnants of the past can still haunt, as the new film La Bola Negra demonstrates.

The film takes shape in storylines involving three different men: Carlos (Milo Quifes), a young man in Granada, Spain in 1932 who wants to join an exclusive casino (aka social club); Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente), who unwillingly joins the military during the Spanish Civil War in 1937, only to have desires aroused in him when he’s asked to guard an enemy detainee; and Alberto (Carlos González), an out gay man in 2017 whose inheritance from his recently-deceased grandfather opens up a world he knew nothing about.

The film goes back and forth between each man, detailing how they handle their individual situations and the complications that arise in their individual lives. Along the way their stories are deepened through people they meet who either welcome them with open arms or shun them for various reasons. While tragedy bonds their stories, so too does hope, resistance, and love.

Co-director/co-writers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, along with co-writer Alberto Conejero, have expanded Conejero’s play, La Piedra Oscura, which was inspired by Federico García Lorca’s unfinished play, La Bola Negra. Lorca, who was killed during the Spanish Civil War, had only finished four pages of the work, his first to feature an openly gay protagonist. It’s clear there’s a desire by the filmmakers to honor the legacy of Lorca as both a playwright and a gay man, and the seriousness of their pursuit is evident throughout the film’s 160 minutes.

Calvo and Ambrossi do little handholding to guide viewers through the three distinct stories, an approach that mostly works but occasionally leads to confusion, especially as more characters are added to the equation. None of the stories are overly complicated, but they take their time with each, making the long film feel even longer. Only Alberto’s story contains any kind of development that might be considered surprising, making it tough to fully engage with the other two.

Where the film does come alive is when it brings in two well-known actors for brief-but-fascinating stints. Penélope Cruz plays Nené Romero, a singer who entertains the troops and further expands Sebastián’s mind. Glenn Close pops up as Isabelle Durand, a scholar of Lorca who helps Alberto with a unique discovery he makes in his inheritance. Both actors bring up the level of the film significantly through their performances.

Quifes, Guitarricadelafuente (the stage name of Spanish singer Álvaro Lafuente Calvo, no relation to Javier), and González all put in good work in their roles, even if none are overly engaging. They are often overshadowed by supporting actors like Cruz and Close, as well as Miguel Bernardeau as Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, the captured soldier; Julio Torres as Alberto’s partner, and Alberto Cortés as Lorca, who brings a symmetry to the film as a whole.

La Bola Negra — which means “the black ball,” represented both literally and figuratively in the film — is an ambitious film that becomes a slight victim of its filmmakers’ aspirations. Although each of the three stories contain interesting elements, a strong emotional connection is lacking overall despite good-to-great performances.

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La Bola Negra is now playing in select theaters; it debuts on Netflix on December 2.

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