Architecture as Inspiration

The architect's name is Calatrava, and I recommend taking a look at some of his projects. I actually recently visited one of his works, without knowing whose it was at the time, and it was sheer brilliance.

Critical Mass

Today was an excellent day. I got my first Lightswitch paycheck, I got a great compliment from the senior architectural lighting designer there, and I spent the entire day working on lighting network layouts for a new roller coaster. Maybe I should explain that last one... this is the first time EVER that I have actually contributed something tangible to what will be a major theme park attraction. Its a big step, and it feels very good to be here.

I would say today might be the day I achieved critical mass out here.

It was October when I first began hatching plans to... euphamistially speaking here... 'improve my educational situation.' And today is also a little sweater with the knowledge that it is also a big day for the person I had those plans with.

Let it be etched in positerity that, fittingly, this is the night that the last shot of the Patron Anejo was had.

Strange

Is it just me. Or does everyone else also feel like the average attention span on this continent just sky-rocketed?

Godspeed Buddy

Right place, Right time

To be interested in theme park lighting that is:

"Universal Orlando reports they have had their best year ever in 2007, earning a record $92 million in profit last year, over double from what they made the previous year. Overall attendance at the parks was up 3% and Per-Cap spending was up 6%."


and some almost big news:

"While it looks like nothing came of it, government officials in Australia have confirmed that Disney was looking at redeveloping the White Bay property (a working port) next to the Anzac Bridge. While they wont talk about what was discussed for the property, they said that this was an unsolicited proposal for the site by Disney and talks went on for the past few months and has since stopped. Disney will only say that they are exploring various options for growth and while the Australian market is attractive, they currently have no plans for the region. "

Birthday

West Coast birthday #1 was good. I got to go on-site at a Lightswitch job for the first time, afterwards I was taught retail lighting by the head architectural LD here. The office wished me happy birthday, and margaritas will hopefully be had at the end of the day today.

I got the slew of facebook messages of various importance. J.Cro used just about every method possible to wish me a happy birthday, which was definitely appreciated. Jake forgot, which has happened enough years now that its approaching tradition. And of course, one call the reminded me of how little things change if you hold onto them, for the 8th birthday since I've know him, my buddy Josh was a part of it.

Cali

For the first time ever I'm in a short sleeve t-shirt and sans jacket for my birthday. I could get used to this.

JasonReadDesign.com Leopard / XP

The 3.0 version of my website is complete, and I'm very happy with it.

http://www.jasonreaddesign.com/

un

today begins my birthday weekend.

unfortunately there's no julie here to set up a three night celebration like last year.

looks like a south park marathon / zelda on wii.

Arrival

Now broadcasting live from my own desk at Lightswitch.

Complete with awesome LED desk light, personal phone extension, computer, email address, and business cards.

Its like actually having a real job.

Awesome.

Shifted

At a friend's suggestion I've begun shifting at closer to 4,000 RPM instead of the low-3,000s, which is actually how I used to drive. It has lead to my rediscovery of why I like my Mazda3... the girl's got zip. And this, in turn, led to the reuse of the 3 mix CD.

[Now, a brief segue here. My mix CDs are not about songs you've never heard before, they're about the order of the songs, the tempo, the evocation the songs create and composition and juxtaposition of those songs.

(Sub-segue, this is also how I feel about my design-- the use of existing elements and ideas in efficient, compact, communicative packages... ok, its how I feel about my designs when I feel they're effective. End sub-segue.)

Okay, so I've been listening to 3, the mix I made to celebrate the purchase of my car. And I've noticed something... Those songs feel relevant again. Now, this is one of two CDs I have, along with The Institute, that represent one of the happiest points in my life, the last few weeks leading up to graduation from Syracuse and the summer that followed. It was a time when I knew what the future had in store for me, that future looked bright.

That period was ended by the beginning of grad school. It ended somewhat abruptly partly by unending opening orientations, one or two of you may recall me telling you at the time of the jerk who irritated me incessently for not wanting to have yet another "Hi, I'm _____" conversation (I think that guy ended up dropping out).

But the point is, those songs, played while driving playfully, can once again be played without the nostaglic sense of "wow, what a great time that was." End segue.]

So, I was listening to this fun, high-energy mix Monday on the way to go see Blade Runner: Director's Cut with someone from work in the city. It played as I drove through the Presidio, a tall-redwood section at the Northern end of the San Francisco pennisula at twilight. Suffice it to say, driving over the Golden Gate bridge and round the curves of that road at 'magic hour' may well be the San Francisco equivalent of going to Kennywood's Phantom Fright Fest for Pittsburgh. This time though, it happend much sooner and without the weight of fixing something broken.

Speaking of which, I need to get to a dealership for service soon.

Apropos and other French words

Everybody's got a laughin' place --

trouble is most folks won't take the time to go look for'it.

And where it is for one, mightn't be for another

Way late, but always applicable.

Spaceballs

from JimHillMedia.com:

"...For those of you who don't know: merch per capita levels (at least in Disney's case) refers to the average amount that your typical WDW guest spends on theme park tchotckes like t-shirts, autograph books, baseball caps, souvenir mugs, etc.

And why is the Mouse suddenly so concerned about merch per capita levels at WDW?," you ask. Well, for the past year or so, Disney World has been relying heavily on those "Affordable Disney" vacation packages to put heads in beds. But the only problem is ... When you tell people that a six nights / seven days stay at a WDW resort for their entire family only costs $1600 ... Well, that's what they budget.

Consequently, over the past 15 months or so, Disney World has seen a significant drop in on-property merchandise sales. And while Disney's 2007 Annual Report insists that WDW saw a 3% increase in per capita spending among resort guests ... The merch side of that equation is a very different story. From what company insider have been telling me, folks who visit Disney World these days just aren't spending as much as they used to on souvenirs.

To be fair, it has been almost a decade since WDW last had a truly popular product and/or promotion like pin trading to help drive retail sales at that resort. Which should be factored into this downward souvenir spending trend.

At the same time, given that WDW visitors haven't responding all that enthusiastically to the "Year of a Million Dreams" promotion ... Well, that means that there's a ton of merch that features that YOAMD castle-in-the-clouds logo that's still sitting on store shelves around the resort. Which means that these very same items will soon be sold at severely discounted prices at the Character Premiere Shops in the Orlando Premium Outlets & Prime Outlets International malls.

Now I know that it may seem odd to write an article about this one narrow aspect of the Walt Disney World Resort. But you have to understand that Mickey's accountanteers take the whole merch per capita thing very seriously.

After all (According to these folks, anyway) that's one of the main reasons that Euro Disney slid so quickly into the red once that resort opened back in April of 1992. EDL was meeting Disney's initial attendance projections. The only problem was that Europeans weren't loading up on Euro Disneyland merchandise before they exited that theme park. It was those lower-than-expected merch sales levels (plus -- of course -- building three too many hotels) that nearly drove that $3 billion project to the brink of bankruptcy.

And from what I've been told, the guests who are visiting Hong Kong Disneyland aren't meeting the company's initial souvenir sales projections either. Which is why the Mouse has had to make some adjustments to that project's anticipated return-on-investment."

What is this feeling?

Today there is water... water just... falling from the sky!

I've been asking around and no one else around here seems to know what's going on either.

It's seems to be innocuous so far, I'll keep you all posted.

More new things

Spent all day reworking my lighting website. Its up now. Still in what I'll call beta but I like the direction its going. It looks a little more "lighting firm" than "lighting designer" but I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing. Comments welcome.

http://www.JasonReadDesign.com

Dedication

So slow the return to regular blogging has been. Gradually I've been getting ready for this, the first blog entry after being permanently installed in San Fran and starting the internship. Many ideas were debated and rejected: trip stats (states/fill ups/sandwiches), lists of projects I'm working on, and of course, emotive blah blah blah.

As all of you know, I hate moving, always have. But after all the build-up (and trust me, there was a metric shit-ton of build-up, I have witnesses) strangely, none of it really transpired. After a few days I've actually settled in here pretty well. It would definitely be a stretch to say its been completely seamless, but its certainly the easiest transition I've made. I do feel reinvigorated with an energy that can only come from the beauty of this place and the excitement of actually getting to do the things I've always wanted to. I can't really say much about those here, but call me and I can tell you a bit more.

And so, something needed to change. Death to Congo Blue shall be no more. The colors and title no longer fit my new environment, the zeitgeist of J. So, welcome to contact closure. Now, the only two people who actually read my blog use RSS feeds so this is all a little bit like rearranging portraits for a blind man, but fuck them, I like it better this way.

"contact closure... what the hell is that supposed to mean?" you ask? Okay, first and foremost it sounds cool. Just say it out loud. I'm serious. Right now, where ever you are, airport, computer cluster, church, say it out loud.

It's ok, I'll wait....



Still waiting....



There. Didn't that just feel great?


Damn straight it did.

Obviously it also means something. It comes from show control systems, the computers used to sync content in very complicated shows and theme park attractions. A contact closure is a physical switch that can be thrown on command by a computer. Think about it like a circuit breaker that you can control with your laptop (metaphor only). Unlike computers, which have millions of switches, these have a physical air-gap until the device is told to be closed. There's something about that idea, relating to my being out here on this internship, that I can't entirely articulate but feels very right.

**Any other interpretation of the title is not sanctioned by the blogger and may void your warranty.**

And so there you have it, the re-dedication of this blog. Let me know how you like the new layout. What follows is the first in a new series, sequences, which is NOTHING like bullets at all. It is completely innovative and new and much, much better.

1. Finally got the car to a carwash and the interior cleaned. She's a little worn out from the road trip, but 20,000 mile service should happen soon and I may get a few of the dinks and dents dealt with.
2. Purchased Zelda for Wii. I've been holding off on getting the big Wii "launch title" until I had time and energy to play it. It took a while, but that time is now. I'm actually glad I held off, so that I had a great game waiting for me.
3. Getting all 120 stars in Mario Galaxy seems irritatingly complicated. I may hold off on that for a while.
4. While at Best Buy I nearly bought a gorgeous 32-inch HDTV that was onsale. Man I want a big TV, but I'm going to do my best to hold off on thoughts like that so I can save the money I'm making for the ultimate move to LA. It's only 14 months, no sweat... until football season anyway.
5. Speaking of football, someone at the office was laughing about the Pats SB loss. He's lucky Ninja Stars aren't a common fashion accessory.
6. Weekend flights to Vegas can be had last-minute for $40. This could be a problem.
7. The weather here is retarded beautiful. I can't wait for spring.

Leah got my desk chair, Henry got Dale's monitor

Austin's stuff is still up for grabs...

Insurance Anyone?

Violinist: Fall fractures $1M fiddle
By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - Can his fractured fiddle — a million dollar Guadagnini — be fixed? It's too early to tell.

David Garrett, a former model who has been called the David Beckham of the classical scene, said he tripped while carrying his 18th century violin as he was leaving London's Barbican Hall after a performance, smashing it to bits.

"I had it over my shoulder in its case and I fell down a concrete flight of stairs backward," Garrett said Thursday. "When I opened the case, much of my G.B. Guadagnini had been crushed."

Garrett said he bought the 1772 violin for $1 million in 2003, and he is now hoping to get it repaired in New York, where he is based.

"I hope and pray that it can be fixed, but if it can't, I hope my insurance policy will let me buy another great violin," the 26-year-old musician said. He told The Associated Press that other published accounts saying the violin was a Stradivarius were incorrect. Guadagnini is believed by some to have been a student of Antonio Stradivari.

The accident occurred Dec. 27 but only came to light this week when he returned to London for another concert at the Barbican and told British reporters what had happened.

For his Valentine's Day concert there, he is playing a Stradivarius that's been loaned to him.
Garrett gained attention as a child prodigy. Before he was 10, he played as a soloist with the London Philharmonic, according to his Web site. When he studied at the Juilliard School in New York, he became a parttime model to help supplement his income.

Lateral Move

A really interesting wine article, with a metaphor so overwrought you'll think I'd have to have written it!

When Syrah met Pinot:
One's Feisty, the other's finicky

Bullets

Went to the SFMOMA on Thursday, had a few really great pieces but lots of dreck too

Spent what I'll consider my last day in San Fran as a tourist doing a very tourist-y thing: Alcatraz. It was fun, pics on Facebook soon.

CMU's season was announced, sadly for Josh it did in fact include Into the Woods

Spending tonight at a Chinese New Year party in LA.

In little more than 24 hours I will say goodbye to one of the best friends Ive ever had for what could be a very long time.

Greetings from Sunny California

Today I awoke in California... the first time with it as my home. It smells vaguely of the famous redwoods in my quaint Mill Valley apartment. This is going to be great.



A long december and theres reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last

And its one more day up in the canyons
And its one more night in hollywood
If you think you might come to California...I think you should

I cant remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass
And its one more day up in the canyon
And its one more night in hollywood
Its been so long since Ive seen the ocean...I guess I should

A rock and a hard place

yesterday Dale, Josh, and I went to Momentum-- an incredible indoor rock climbing gym in Salt Lake City. I successfully completed four routes (as they're called) a four partial completions. For me it was pretty good considering the heights thing. Ultimately I had a blast-- its something I'll definitely consider as a hobby in the future.

After that we went to a Super Bowl party but strangely the NFL canceled the game at the last second. Odd.

NaCl H2O Complex

Two busy days of driving. Spent Friday night in super exciting Kearney, Nebraska. Dale and I turned to a mutual friend, a Mr. Anejo, for entertainment. Other highlights included a Dale-required stop at a Sonic Burger. The burgers? Actually, great. The blast? Terrible.



We arrived at Josh's place in Salt Lake City early enough to enjoy some beers before an ill-advised attempt at watching Sin City.



Photos should make an appearance on facebook soon.



Go Pats!!!