“Sargent in Paris” is a new retrospective at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) showcasing the early career of American painter John Singer Sargent. John Singer Sargent is one of my favorite painters and was a rare American artist who created some of Europe’s most iconic portrait paintings during the late 19th Century’s “Gilded Age.”
Sargent grew up traveling throughout Europe with his parents. He studied art and painting in Paris under famed portrait artist Carolus-Duran. Paris in the 19th Century was the center of the art world. It was also a time when tastes and style were being transformed by Impressionism and the Industrial Revolution.
This retrospective includes works Sargent created while a student and during his travels around Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. It explores contemporaries and influences, and friends like Claude Monet and Rodin, and includes pieces by Renior, Manet, and Sargent’s mentor Carolus-Duran.
The exhibit culminates with the portrait of “Madam X”, a painting that would make Sargent famous, because of the mini-scandal it created in Parisian high society. The painting was presented at the 1884 Paris Salon exhibition and created a stir among the public and Art Critics due to the hanging dress strap as worn by Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau. She was the Kim Kardashian/Paris Hilton of her day.
Noblex may not be a well-known brand in the US, but this German tactical and sporting optics company traces its origins to two very important brands. Noblex is an offshoot from Zeiss Jena, the original Zeiss factory in East Germany during the Cold-War. After the reunification of Germany, the Bernhard Doctor optics company bought part of the old Jena factories from Zeiss, and produced the Doctor line of micro-reflex sights.
Doctor reflex sights were among the first micro red dots used on competition pistols and combat ACOGs. In 2016, Doctor Optics was bought by Noblex. Doctor/Noblex micro reflex sight designs (and Trijicon RMR’s) are probably the most widely copied designs. If it’s a generic Chinese micro-reflex sight, it’s probably a rip-off of a Noblex.
The NV OS is a sight Noblex designed for modern Glocks with MOS cut slides. The NV is one of the few micro reflex sights that has a low enough base to allow Glock factory iron sights to co-witness with its 4 MOA dot. The NV comes in either red or green emitter models. The sight offers an auto-adjusting brightness setting that can be manually set with a brightness memory to the last setting. The NV does not have motion activation.
Unfortunately, to get a low MOS base, a side battery tray was not posible, so the unit must be removed from the slide to access the battery. Moreover, it uses a small CR1220 battery, which only gives the unit 10,000hrs of runtime (a little over a year). The red dot will blink to warn you that the battery needs to be replaced. Fortunately, because the dot has an absolute co-witness with my factory irons, it is easy to visually zero.
Apart from the 10,000hr runtime, my other gripe is that the brightest setting of the dot is not quite bright enough for visibility in noon-day, direct sunlight. This would be a deal breaker for competitive action pistol shooters. The NV feels more like a low-light augment to your iron sights than as a primary aiming device. Despite these disappointing aspacts, the NV is a good example of precise and well built German engineering.
Discovery Optics updated their Lightweight Scope mounts (which had an unfortunate typo of the name on the box, “Lightweinght”), which I reviewed last year. This new version has been named the DGCM-L and is available in 1.5″ and 1.93″ heights. The DGCM has a 34mm ring size but includes high-quality aluminum shims to adapt the mount for 30mm scopes. Like the previous version of this mount, it is made with aircraft-grade 6061 aluminum with lightening cuts to reduce its weight.
The DGCM mount and shims are notable for coming pre-lapped, with smooth bare metal interiors coated with a wax to protect them from corrosion. This extra smooth surface creates a stronger contact and grip with the rings, the shims, and your scope tube. The rings are paired and lapped with their bases for extra precision. Discovery went so far as to label the ring tops and bases to identify the ring to its base and to prevent accidentally reinstalling the ring tops backward.
Moreover, the rings were designed with an alignment pin to seat the ring top to the base for additional precision and added sheer strength. This level of extra finishing and design is not typically found in mounts or rings under $200. These rings have a street price far less than half that, at around $80. This is why I consider these to be the best budget mounts you can buy.
Super Nintendo World is the Super Mario-themed area inside Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles. Despite being 3 years old, this is still one of the main attractions at Universal. I’d been warned of limited access to Super Nintendo World due to summer crowds, so I opted to pay an extra $35/pp surcharge for Early Access, which allowed us entry at 8 am instead of 9 am. I found this upcharge galling because back in 2000, it only cost $35 to get into Universal Studios itself.
My whole family are Nintendo game fants, so rather than risk not seeing all of Super Nintendo World, I begrudgingly paid for Early Access. On top of this, I also paid for two $45 Nintendo Power-Up wrist bands at a gift shop so my kids could enjoy the interactive attractions inside the park. I’ll leave the debate on the value of this extra fee for later. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Super Mario World is located almost at the exact opposite end of Universal Studios from the main entrance, so you have to walk through it all to get there. We were allowed through the front gate of Universal Studioes a little bit before 8 am, but were held up by staff about half-way to Harry Potter World near the Hello Kitty shop until 8 am. Staff kept folks from running and causing a rush. We all proceeded to the escalators down to the Sound Stage / Studios half of Universal. Walking past the Jurassic Park, Mummy, and Transformers attractions (and soon to be Fast & Furious Roller Coaster), we reached the giant green pipe entrance to Super Mario World.
I’ve been to Disneyland, Disney World, and Universal over a hundred times, so I thought I’d be a bit jaded. Walking through the Warp Pipe and its gates for the first time was refreshingly awe-inspiring. The designers did an exemplary job in creating the feel of a human-sized Super Mario world. Nintendo game music and sounds were everywhere, and the colors and movement were overwhelming.
Super Nintendo World felt both bigger and smaller than I expected. The scale of the structures and rooms made me feel small but the amount of space that the park takes up and the amount of space and activities could be completed in an hour’s time. This is where paying extra to get in early paid off. Most of the rides had less than a 15 minute wait and some less than 5. After general admission and the normal crowds arrived after 9 am, Super Nintendo World quickly swelled up and I could see where waits could get to be an hour or more for rides like Mario Kart.
You can read about Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge in my other article. But for now, we’ll focus on the interactive games, Easter Eggs, and the Bowser Jr’s Shadow Showdown attraction. You don’t need to buy Power-Up Wrist Bands to enjoy most of Super Nintendo World but having at least one member of your party with one allows you to take part in interactive attractions.
Located throughout Super Nintendo World are yellow power-up boxes, just like the Super Mario games. Punching the underside of the boxes with an arm with a Power-Up wrist band earns you a virtual coin (and sound effect!). You can keep track of the coins and keys you earn through the Universal Studios app on your phone or by tapping your wristband at a kiosk near the bathrooms.
These coins earn you points and access to some Easter Eggs, like triggering special audio messages from Mario, Luigi, or Princess Peach if you encounter them at character meetups in the park. Camouflaged on walls in random locations in the park, are key buttons which trigger visual Easter Eggs when you touch them with your wristband. Finally, there are 5 mini-games and the Bowser Jr. attraction, which can only be accessed with a wristband. If you are in a group, if at least one member of your party has a wristband, the rest of your party can also participate.
Near the entrance of Super Nintendo World is Goomba Crazy Crank which requires you to rotate and hand crank at a consistant speed to beat a Goomba. In Piranha Plant Nap Mishap, you have about a dozen alarm clocks which you have to run around and hit to turn off. Koopa-Troopa Power Punch, which relies on timing while hitting an exploding POW box to cause a koopa to hit a coin.
Thwomp Panel Panic is the fourth mini-game, but it is easy to overlook (kind of like secret rooms or warp pipes in a video game). The entrance to Thwomp Panel Panic is unmarked next to the exit for Toadstool Cafe. Inside is an interactive LCD wall that displays a random set of yellow and blue tiles. Tapping the blue tiles turns them yellow and earns you a key.
Once you have earned at least three keys, the staff will let you tap your wristband at the entrance of Bowser Jr Shadow Showdown. This is an AR game where you line up in a room and IR sensors project your shadow onto the LCD wall. You move your body to block attacks and hit flying Koopas and attacking baddies to earn points.
As you exit the Shadow Showdown, you may notice another unmarked entrance opposite your exit. This will lead you up a set of stairs to an overlook balcony. Here you can get a great view of Super Nintendo World and play a bonus interactive wall game, Frosted Glacier.
And that’s it. There is also Toadstool Cafe (a theme restaurant) and the Super Nintendo World gift shop. There may have been additional Easter Eggs we may have missed, but we managed to complete all of the attractions at Super Nintendo World in about an hour. Was it worth an extra $140 ($35/pp) to do it? If you have only a limited time visiting L.A. or hate crowds, it is.
Too Much Information live chat show. I had to reschedule my interview with Matthew Henman, Senior Director of Business Operations at Crunch Fitness TX, about A.I. integration in gym and how he got into the fitness industry. Read my show notes https://moondogindustries.com/tmi-live-250709-flyingfrontier/
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A.I. is taking over customer service. For the past 10 years basic chatbots have largely been used as the first level of Customer Service “Chat Windows”. But now with almost real-time natural language A.I. chatbots and realistic voice-synthesizers, A.I. is poised to take over phone call-centers.
SPECIAL GUEST:
Matthew Henman is the Senior Director of Business Operations at Undefeated Tribe, which owns Crunch Fitness locations in TX. Matthew earned a certificate in Business Metrics for Data-Driven Companies from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and on top of that is a CrossFit instructor and Parisi Speed Coach.
X’s Gym was one of the first national and later international gym chains. It pioneered and popularized “Gym Memberships” in the 1970’s and 1980’s. It was frequented by Arnold Schwarzenegger and featured in the 1975 documentary “Pumping Iron” which launched Arnold’s career.
Next TMI will be a special On-Location episode at the Evike.com L.A. Superstore Wed July 16
I finally got my hands on the long-sold-out Discovery Optics HD 2-12×24 MPVO. Unlike an LPVO, an MPVO’s low end starts at 2x or 3x, and is better optimized for long-range shooting, with features such as an adjustable parallax focus. MPVOs fill a niche between LPVOs and heavier full-sized 3-9x, 3-12, or 4-16x scopes.
The HD 2-12x looks like an LPVO but weighs only 16.6 oz and is just over 9″. It has locking turrets, that have crisp, audible turret clicks. Its illuminated reticle is unfortunately only twilight bright. Optically, the glass is clear with minimal chromatic aberrations. It gets dim at 12x, losing contrast with a milky cast unless your eye is exactly centered in its tight eyebox. It’s unusable indoors only in 2x.
The HD would be a better tactical scope if it had a horseshoe center reticle like their ED-AR, with brighter illumination. Despite these shortcomings, its lightweight compact size and sub $200 price tag make it a good scope for the price.
Too Much Information live chat show. In this episode, we’ll be talking with Brandon Rudge, a professional PRS shooter, about designing the WBR reticle and consulting on the design of the March-FX 5-42×56 PRS Edition scope. Read my notes https://moondogindustries.com/tmi-250702-march-scopes-brandon-rudge
This video is sponsored by Aura. Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
This video is sponsored by Venice.ai. Go to my link https://venice.ai/moondog to enjoy private, unscensored A.I. Get 20% off a Venice Pro Plan using code: moondog
March Scope is the sporting and tactical scope brand created by Deon Optical Design of Nagano Japan.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
PRS Precision Rifle Series is a shooting sports body that organizes standings of PRS matches regionally and nationally. Unlike traditional bullseye or benchrest competitions, these events incorporated targets placed at varying distances and required shooters to engage from improvised positions such as barricades, rooftops, or natural terrain.
Earlier this year, Olight released the OSight S, a compact, enclosed wireless-recharging red dot. I reviewed it and found it to be one of the most feature-rich micro red dots with an RMS-c footprint. People liked its features, but for some the recharging battery was a dealbreaker. Well now there is an OSight with a replaceable coin battery.
OSIght listened and has released the SE. This new red dot replaces the magnetic recharging top with a side battery tray that holds a CR 1620 battery, which can be replaced without dismounting the unit and retaining zero. The user can press the “-” button to switch between a 2 MOA dot, 32 MOA circle, and a circle-dot reticle. The battery can drive the SE for up to 70,000 hrs on dot mode at level 3 brightness.
I still prefer the original S because its recharging cover allows me to see its current battery charge and recharge the unit easily. For people who prefer optics with a battery that can easily be sourced and replaced, the SE has more features than most enclosed red dots, for a reasonable price.
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March Scopes is known for producing world-class premium optics. But they aren’t very well known, because of their eye-watering prices and because their scopes are only sold by specialty optics stores. Their scopes have been in high demand among professional F-class and benchrest shooters. Last year, March enlisted a professional PRS shooter to help optimize a March-FX High Master scope for PRS and NRL style shooting.
I got a chance to see a prototype of the March-FX High Master PRS Edition FX Gen II at SHOT Show 2025. And I got an opportunity to meet the designer of its FML-WBR reticle, Brandon Rudge. This scope was eye-catching for the silver bands around its turrets. But this wasn’t just for style, Brandon got March engineers to make turrets out of a metallic material that could be written on with whiteboard, dry-erase markers to mark off target dope during competitions. A simple yet brilliant feature that I predict will be ripped off and copied by other scope makers.
The scope has some other differences from the standard March-FX. It has non-locking turrets, so there is no chance of an accidental lockup during a stressful match when adrenaline makes turret adjustments challenging. The reticle illumination has been removed to allow for a thinner, finer etching of the reticle. All of these features enhance this scope’s already stunning glass, exceptional range of magnification, and wide field of view, to make a scope that is optimized for PRS / NRL competition.
One additional note, the testing demo sample I received was missing the break-away throw lever and MD aperture filter normally included with this scope.
