OK, this has nothing to do with music or lighting technology. Nor does my view represent those of any others here at WindWorks Design. But I absolutely detest Father’s Day. It’s a holiday that is nothing more than commercial exploitation to get everyone to spend money on cards, dinners, flowers, and gifts.
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According to a Wall Street Journal article from 6May2010 about Mother’s Day, written by Stephanie Simon, Anna Jarvis “spent years lobbying for a holiday to honor matriarchs”. The article goes on to say that Anna Jarvis “envisioned a somber day marked by the wearing of carnations”. And she spent the next 25 years decrying the commercialized holiday and “warned children not to debase their mothers by showering them with trinkets….”.
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So apply the above to Father’s Day. My children are welcome to wish me a nice day, and then let’s just get on to enjoy life as we try to do every day. Skip the stupid gifts and have a fun day!
In various theatre applications, low voltage is best for portable and battery powered lights. When working with various safety organizations who may inspect your on-stage wiring, it’s good to keep within SELV (Safety Extra Low Voltage) guidelines.
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As you can see in the table ELV (extra low voltage) is classified as <50Vac rms and <120Vdc. The “S” is for the safety classification (also sometimes for “separated”). Here’s a description of SELV from Wikipedia entry:
IEC 61140 defines a SELV system as “an electrical system in which the voltage cannot exceed ELV under normal conditions, and under single-fault conditions, includingearth faults in other circuits”.
In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the laser, publisher Photonics Spectra has created a laser development time-line. It’s pretty cool and you can interactively trace the history of the development of the laser starting with Max Planck (1918 – Quantum Energy) up to today’s bleeding edge pioneers such as Dr. Chunlei Guo of the University of Rochester for his use of femtosecond lasers to create very efficient incandescent light bulbs. For laser enthusiasts and technologists, the interactive laser time-line is worth a few minutes poking around.
My friend Mike shared this link with me. Love the list of old technologies that are basically no longer used except by niche users and collectors. Some are still in use such as Ham Radio, but certainly not like 30 yrs ago. This article is from Web Designer Depot.
Continuing on the theme set by the previous post about the Rochester Toy Library, Dave Eggers on a wonderful way to engage students with tutors in a one-on-one way outside the school. This is funny, pragmatic, and seems to work really well.
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Why post this on an entertainment technology blog? At WindWorks Design, we have several on the staff who work closely with the local schools, libraries, and the Rochester Toy Library to help teach music, theater lighting, rock-n-roll lighting, and for younger families – play.
This blog post has nothing to do with music or lighting, but everything to do with having fun and working with children. Rochester, NY has a fantastic toy library called the Toy Resource Center. It is based at the Lincoln Branch of the Monroe (NY) Library System. Because “Toy Resource Center” doesn’t instantly convey the sense of a toy library, we built a visitors page called RochesterToyLibrary.org. Please visit us.
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For cool discussions on toys, the value of play, and having fun at the Toy Resource Center, the toy librarian has an awesome blog. Visit her blog at: http://toybrarian.blogspot.com/
We stumbled across this interesting website that outlines various alternate music notation systems that have been proposed over the years. It’s a very interesting overview, and includes tutorials, commentary, and a blog.
What seems to be missing is a historical section from before the Renaissance. For example, 15th century and earlier. But if you want to see some of the alternative ideas for notation in the modern (post-Renaissance) era, you will enjoy this site.
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