Fun With A Lava Lamp

When a lava lamp begins to get boring, and unfortunately with this big, old fashioned, 60's model with clear liquid and red "lava" that Nikki 2 K's was gracious enough to let chill on my desk, it does get boring, there are things you can do to shake things up.

And here's a slight disclaimer: I love me some lava lamp, but there's something about this particular model that just ends up frustrating you. It essentially goes through the same set of actions each time until you wind up with a big blob of thick, red fluid forming a ball on the bottom.

In order to spark some new interest in the thing, I have gone to taking the lamp off the base and allowing the lava to slowly cool. It then becomes a lot of fun to spin the glass and watch the fluid swirl and roil around as if it were in slow motion. It reminds me of the slow motion drop of blood in the movie Pink Floyd: The Wall (which I only remember so well because I obsessively watched the movie continuously for a couple of years). As the fluid continues to cool and return back to its hardened and waxy beginnings, you can spin the thing and form a whirlpool sort of tunnel thing in the middle.

So now, when you put the lamp back onto the light, the thinner part of the "lava" glows a mean red while the rest remains dark. Streams of bubbles begin to rise out of this glowing core, reminding me poetically of 99 red balloons (or luftballons if you're German-minded), gaining the top of the lamp only to fall again into the glowing, molten cave.

It's like a rift into hell, a crack in Mount Doom.

Yes, I just geeked out and referenced Lord of the Rings. I also just wrote a post about the lava lamp on my desk, roll with it.

I'm still waiting for a lamp that contains actual lava. How could you get bored with that?


Rocktober song of the day: Add It Up by The Violent Femmes.