950128 - The Last Buffalo

Up that endless escalator and into the starwars hangar one more time, to see The Last Buffalo, which turns out to be more artsy than the nature recording of Into The Deep. We adjust our headsets and are transported to the land of the buffalo. Blowing sand reveals and covers a buffalo skull. There's a mysterious huge shed with ancient machinery, pulleys, fire, molten metal flows into my lap, a smith hammers steel in a fireworks of sparks. Slowly we come to realize he is a sculptor, forging metal into a buffalo, piece by piece. We watch a buffalo birth, a chase where the mother puts a mountain lion to flight, a dragon fly darts across water and fire consumes a forest. Birth, life, death. At the end, all creatures have turned into metal sculptures in the shed.

Holodecks can't be far off. Half way through the short show, I notice that the people sitting in front of me are actually swallowed by the 3d extension of the mountains which know no screen. There is no screen. I look down to see the row in front of me disappearing into the lake. A surreal Magritte image. The lion jumps over the head of a noticeably tall man two rows below. I can feel us becoming part of the action.

This time I pick a particularly healthy looking buffalo and make my sign on his right hoof with the laser pointer. We decide to eat at the American-Indian restaurant up Columbus Avenue. Buffalo burgers. Its the only recommended way to eat them since the meat is said to be a bit dry. The waiter brings the the right hoof to show me my sign. I nod.