Downtown Dallas Building Goes 4D

Last night, a crowd of about 75 folks gathered with martinis and wine glasses in hand to watch, as advertised, a massive, high-tech advertisement for The Tourist, the new Jolie-and-Depp sexy suspense flick. A movie trailer and stills were projected in quot;4Dquot; on the facade of the Praetorian Building at 1607 Main Street, within an eye-popping mish-mash of effects meant to make it look as though the building was coming apart stone by stone, covered with propellers or being shot up in a gun fight and then crumbling. The projection was most effective when standing right in front of the building and when it utilized the buildingapos;s existing checkerboard pyramid architecture. Scenes meant to look like a Venetian cityscape just looked lumpy and distorted, but shots of dancing revelers projected in the existing windows drew large cheers from the crowd -- most everyone I talked to standing around in the chilly air liked that part best. In fact, one woman actually walked by and said, in her finest twang, quot;I ainapos;t never seen nothinapos; like it.quot; Tarnation! The joke of the evening seemed to be that it was a bit of an early hour to appreciate self-animating buildings. quot;It might be a little more fun at 2 a.m.,quot; quipped a woman named Lindy, over her glass of white wine. quot;Not that I ever stay up that late!quot; If you missed it last night, youapos;ve got one more chance to catch the multi-dimensional diversion, at 8 p.m. on Friday. A couple of photos of the scene at ground level follow.