Saturday, January 8, 2011

Alan! Alan! Alan! Alan!


I’m not usually in the habit of forwarding all those silly things forwarded to me but this was sent over by a friend and it had me laughing so hard I almost fell off my chair.

BBC One produces “Walk On The Wild Side”, a television show featuring animals in their natural habitat with added human voiceovers by British comedy actors.




It’s produced in England as a regular, full length TV programme but... 





...there’s a brief and very funny mashup at the link below.

Alan! Alan! Alan! Alan! lol


Friday, January 7, 2011

Thanks again, Santa


and goodbye to all that.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Chrysler Building


The Chrysler Building is considered a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture. Ground breaking occurred on September 19, 1928.


Standing at 319 meters (1,047 ft), it was the world's tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931.


The distinctive ornamentation of the building based on features that were then being used on Chrysler automobiles. The corners of the 61st floor are graced with eagles.


On the 31st floor, the corner ornamentation are replicas of the 1929 Chrysler radiator caps.


It was the headquarters of the Chrysler Corporation from 1930 until the mid 1950's, but although the building was built and designed specifically for the car manufacturer, the corporation didn't pay for the construction and never owned it, as Walter P. Chrysler decided to pay for it himself so that his children could inherit it.


Photographed yesterday, 11:45am, Text from Wikipedia


Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Pink in May in SoBro


On the way to the subway the other day I noticed three young men tearing up the concrete in front of the Chase Bank.

The Graham Triangle has been featured here before during a repair. 
This time the plantings were being extended.

“Whatcha doin’?” I asked.

“Digging holes.”

“Uh...right. How come?”

“Trees.”


“Oh yeah?”


“Yeah.”
“Really? New trees? How many?”

“Six.”

“Oh wow, Cool.”
The Urban Garden Center, an offshoot from Dimitri’s Garden, have teamed up with the local non-profit Friend’s of Brook Park to plant 49 trees throughout Port Morris. We were fortunate enough to receive 6 of them right after the blizzard in front of the Chase Bank.
You can see a photo of them clearing the snow from the excavation here:

Now they are planted. They are Kwanzan Cherry trees.

These are the same pink cherries that bloom in Spring all around the reservoir in Central Park.


Pink in May in SoBro.

Awesome.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Madison Avenue is the new Hollywood


As more merchandise goes digital in our digital revolution, the ability to sell it is compromised. “Why pay for something when you can make a copy for free?”, or so goes the increasingly mainstream wisdom. Who cares if it’s intended for sale?

The creators do, naturally. 
And so advertising is the online mantra now, something viewed with concern for decades. I’m sure you’ve noticed in this past year how news or video delivered online requires a bit more of your time and attention to get to the free stuff. The net is clogging with ads but some people will turn them off so how does the advertiser prevail?

By blending it all together. Blur the “free” entertainment and the ad until ad-stigmatism takes over and they become inseparable in perception. The Op-Eds recoiled in horror back when the first Coke can in a movie scene earned a fee for placement but now that can is the movie star and the sales pitch IS the story.
The Gymkhana series, pitching DC shoes, is taking this to the next level and we’re not going back.

This series is a triad of viral video so laden with product reference the products become the content; FORD and SPY and Monster Energy Drinks, Pirelli Tires and Castrol Oil. But the sales pitch is blended with hip hop so skillfully you’ll probably stay till the end anyway. And that’s the point. The first two videos have won mainstream advertising awards, and below you can watch part three.

Our culture is being shaped to believe that endless advertising is entertainment, because conventional no-ad performance is now digital and hard to monetize.

Evidence that innovation is not always improvement.
 But hey, the video is great.


Monday, January 3, 2011

plumb, level and square


I’m all for holding landlords accountable when they screw up and goodness knows in the landlord-tenant relationship, mistakes are sometimes made. But for complaints to be truly heard it helps to be evenhanded and give credit where it’s due, too.
So in a moment of expansive holiday spirit I ask ClockTowerTenants….

“Have you really looked at those gorgeous doors 
on the ClockTowerSalon yet? 

Wow.

Just beautiful. So how DO we get from here….

To here…


To here?


Glad you asked. lol After the brickwork is completed measurements are taken and then it starts with a good drawing and filing for Landmarks approval.


I hope that’s not blood on the blueprint but I wouldn’t be surprised. Construction isn’t pretty.


The tools are sharp and dangerous, too. Mitreboxes have been around for centuries in one form or another.


But imagine if an old-school mitrebox and a modern electric circular saw got together and made a linevoltage-lovechild.

That thumb-treatening spawn would look something like this:

Properly known as a “motorized mitrebox saw” and widely referred to as a “chopbox”, this brute cuts perfect angles through practically anything with startling power and precision.
Another tool used in the doorhanging process is the woodplane.

These quaint devices---around in America since colonial times--- shave thin layers from a piece of wood to reduce thickness. Long ago a giant, powered shopversion was born.

THEIR lovechild would look something like this:

With all the power of that monster shop tool but the lift-and-carry portability of our little handplane, these terrifying machines revolutionized cabinet work by bringing powerplane capability to the jobsite. Just don’t put your hand in there.

Our new wooden doors were handcrafted to precise specifications not only to fit the ClockTower custom openings but also to meet Landmarks approval with a design that replicates a historical appearance. These doors, two sets, are finished to a near automotive level of paint finish and appropriately, cost just about as much as a new car. They are even custom-crated for shipping protection, with layers of foam sheeting to protect from scratches, clear plastic for a water shield and then wrapped in a wooden crate.

First, we need to install the door frame, the header and both jambs.

Brickwork may be accurate but it’s not nearly accurate enough. Perfection is essential if a door is to swing and seal properly. The doorframe must be placed within the opening and then “shimmed into plumb”, perfectly straight up and down relative to the earth.

Most doors swing on two hinges. Heavy doors can often receive a third one in the center for stability. These extraordinary doors will receive five hinges each, that’s right Five, a mark of very high quality guaranteed to all-but eliminate warping in bad weather conditions. Care taken at this point pays real dividend later on.

But once the frame is installed and perfectly plumb, level and square? Now it’s easy. Just screw the hinges into the factory mortises with the screws the manufacturer provides and then install the pull, the weatherstripping and the locking hardware.

Voilá. And well done.

Plane, saw and mitre photos found on the web and used without permission.