We piled ourselves into the car earlier than usual yesterday morning and, after filling it with $50 worth of gas, we headed towards the city. We picked up one each of AJ�s uncles, aunts and cousins and drove toward the lake so we could fulfill one of AJ�s many wishes � to visit the planetarium.

As we drove down Lake Shore Drive, AJ was already glued to the window, �I think I see the dome!� And he did, too. He spotted it long before the rest of us, who were busily searching for the proper exit.

Before the car�s engine had even shut off, AJ was already trying to open the car door. �Come ON, guys! Let�s go!� He sprinted up the steps, stopping in the hallway to look up. No stars yet. We still had to buy our tickets.

But once he finally dragged us through the entrance gate, he was dancing with excitement.

I�ve been to museums with AJ many times, but I�ve never quite seen him like this. He was concentrating. Hard. He listened to the audio tour. He looked at things. He spent time at each exhibit trying to figure things out and repeating what he learned to us. He gamely donned 3-D glasses several sizes too large to watch a movie about Mars and he didn�t complain when he had to give the glasses back at the end. He was most taken, though, with the giant sun and planets in the main hall.

We gave AJ a choice of star theater shows and he chose one called TimeSpace, which was clearly geared towards middle school aged boys. As we waited in line, another little boy about AJ�s size, who was right in front of us, turned to me and started telling me all the things he�d learned so far at the museum, just like AJ had been doing all morning. It�s too bad the two boys were so shy with each other � they were definitely kindred spirits. AJ was nervous about how dark the theater was going to get. After we found our seats in the dimly lit star theater, he asked, �Is this as dark as it�s going to get?� �I don�t know, AJ. It might get darker.� �How much more dark?� And then the lights went down. He grabbed my hand and I reminded him that his shoes flashed. �If you�re scared, why don�t you just bang your feet together to turn on the lights?� The film had an annoying and unexplained mix of fact and fiction with a few goofy roller-coaster-like effects thrown in. At the first roller coaster, I felt AJ�s grip tighten and heard him swing his feet until his shoes started to flash. But soon pictures of stars came on and he gasped, �Wow!�

The film was narrated by Laurie Anderson � was this part of her duties as NASA�s first official artist-in-residence? I�ve seen Anderson live on numerous occasions. She was one of my idols as a disaffected high school student, because she played violin but didn�t play by the usual violin rules. Plus I�ve always had a fascination with multi-media art. To hear her talking about quarks and particles on the soundtrack of a film that was sort of about space and sort of about fiction (the last third of the film was dedicated to a description of a space station named Kronos-Ra that secedes from earth to become its own country) seemed a little too much like some of her performances (minus the vocoder). It ended up feeling like half-assed performance art.

Although AJ likes Anderson�s Big Science album, he was unaffected by associations with performances past. Instead, he was fascinated by Kronos-Ra. He was particularly excited to watch a robot spacecraft land on Titan, one of Saturn�s moons. He leaned over to me as robot astronauts emerged from the spacecraft. �They must have landed on Titan because they can�t land on Saturn because it�s a gas giant.� Good thinking, AJ.

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