There, near beautiful mountain landscapes juxtaposed against the rock and glaciers of an ancient alpine world, Simon von Stampfer was born. It was the 1790's, a decade that saw Benjamin Franklin and Amadeus Mozart pass away from this world, King Louis XIV's bid to expand the domain of France spark the War of the Spanish Succession, The United Kingdom of Great Britain formed, President George Washington giving the first State of Union address.

The young Austrian was obviously blessed with a keen intellect and an interest in philosophy, and perhaps an inherent predisposition towards math and history. He was a local schoolboy, after that on to Lienz and then to Salzburg, where he became a professor in fairly short order. A certain passion was taking seed. He spent quite a bit of his time at the monastery in Kremsmünster, absorbing the wonder of telescopes. Eventually, he became a full professor but his path took him to Vienna to teach Geometry. Still, that continuing interest in astronomy and the effort to advance the accuracy of lenses brought him to the field of optical illusions, and from there, the work of Michael Faraday. The mystery in question? - The illusion created by rotating gears.

Simon embarked on a series of experiments regarding this phenomenon that resulted in the Stroboscope - a disc mechanism that created the effect of a moving image and would go on to prove its usefulness in the analysis of moving parts, callibration and still capture of fast moving objects. Two creative forces named Plateau and Horner were hot on his heals with the same concept, perhaps suggesting the idea of Jung's "common consciousness," or the ancient Egyptian's - and others - belief in MIND as part of the meta-reality of creation and self. In any case, the projection of image in motion using modern mechanics was born and the ride began.

A laboratory worker moves around - soldiers in multimedia - the circus - peep shows - actualités - sound - kissing! - the magic of special effects - Shakespeare - the star system begins - Hollywood - Moses kicks off multi-reels - westerns - cels - a jump into the Hudson - censorship - fan mags - the palace - Griffith - cliff hangers - the dream of an artist - Gertie - a nation is born - Charlie, Mary and Bert - full orchestra - Ford - Edison loses his grip - Felix - Paul and Kurt - Fairbanks, Buster and Barrymore - sound in a dream - Ok, deep breath -

Disney and Red - the big ten - the Queen of Mars - the first independent hunts salvation - Hitchcock's pleasure - the Duke plays ball - Leo survives - Mickey - the Marx - Garbo - The Reporter - M - Her Majesty - refreshments! - the Stooges - things to come - Harlow - Bugs - ...don't give a damn - Citizen - Lena - Olivia - Bogart and Bacall - judo on the sun - Holmes and Watson one last time - Roses - A place - singin' - the waterfront - James and Marilyn - Elvis - new wave - Elizabeth - the Lads - the valley and the blood - easy - no cosa here - the tango and Fritz - Charlie returns - grafitti and wars - exit the Dragon - Z is absorbed - Rocky's horror - light and magic - close third - Annie and Woody - message - Brando makes a buck - We're up to Marlon making the first truly huge sum for a movie. We'll grab one more deep breath and -

Trek to the big screen - Jean leaves alone - Mae is gone - a call home - risky - PG13 - Sundance moves in - Purple - Cary is gone - Fred is gone - daze - Mel, Bette and Olivier gone - here comes Johnny - Daughters Of The Dust - Philly - Wax on the net - clerks - a friendly ghost - the first HD - Marvin - a boat sinks and edges Bond off 1rst - Bruce gets digitalized - The Chairman adjourns - america and time - Lara - webslinging 100 mil - the new pack - games/movies sythesis continues - filtering continues - the first you - money and the new media - screaming tweets - tickets push 8 bucks - movies and the spiritual reflection - a blue bird from Minnesota on the adventure of a lifetime - ...

And the next phase? Whatever it may be, as Shakespeare pointed out, for the purpose of illiciting the truth, - "The play's the thing." To Professor von Stampfer and all the brilliant minds along the way - thanks. Encore!