Mount Lemmon

We headed through Tucson to drive up to Mount Lemmon. My friend Alex said we could watch the temperature drop as we drove up the hills.










Sure enough - by the time we made 8000 feet - the temperature dropped from 105 to 73[?] The drive it self was beautiful. The winding road passed by many scenic views of rock formations and valleys.















Eric and Alex

First days in Arizona
















Eric and I are out visiting our friend Alex before heading over to my cousins in Phoenix on Friday. We headed out this morning to Tuson to visit Pima Air Museum and to drive up Mt. Lemmon. The Air base museum which is right next to a giant aircraft junk yard. Cool!















We spotted some great planes - including my favorite - the Lockheed Constellation.
















Of course it was 105 degrees - so it was not pleasant walking around. Other planes we spotted included Boeing B-29, The Super Guppy and some former Air Force One Planes.

Cepheus.


Just finished up another window. My sister Cathy and I worked on this one as an anniversary present for my aunt and uncle. I have been using this pattern for about a year now. The constellation Cepheus in the Northern Autumn Sky i believe. It is part of the 2 piece pattern that includes the Little Dipper.

The constellation















I handed off the glass to Cathy for 2 weeks and she copper-foiled the piece.




















Soldering done









Finished Constellation

Gay Lawn Jockey

I have seen these statues in peoples yards over the years and have always liked them. I am sure that was because of their electric / illumination potential as opposed to their questionable historical background. I was always told [assumed?] the statue was a racist leftover of the deep south. There are now several sources [1] [2] online portraying the statue's history as a noble one tied to the underground railroad. However, I suspect those alternate histories are being spread by the lawn jockey industry. [more info]
A simple survey of their online catalogs still shows some very questionable material.

So several years ago i put out the word that I wanted one for a project someday. I thought I had a very unique idea for taking this racist symbol and turning it into something more entertaining / less offending. Well.... apparently I was not the first to stumble on to the idea as i spotted this rendition this weekend while camping.

A very nice job. My idea is still a little better. I want to place the statue at the edge of a pond and swap the lantern for a motorized disco ball. But without a lawn [ or my own gay bar..] I am not sure what i would quite do with it.












Racist symbol Lawn Jockey

+ chaps + disco ball

= gay icon Lawn Jacques.

Not too bad.

Toy Store!


In the process of fixing the Vanagon, i stopped by Glenwood Electronics on Hague street today. [An electronics components supplier here in town] What a place! Full of old push button switches and lights and old components! It was great just poking through the place. Back in the day, they probably did alot of business with all the manufacturers here in town. Now days.. probably notso much. I definitely plan to keep these guys on my list.

ICFF Weekend

Headed to NYC this weekend to meet up with my friends for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair [ ICFF]. Eric is in the middle of a class - so I was solo for the weekend.









We hitup a couple of showrooms Friday afternoon, including the Domus Store.

The store was having a sale special for the weekend - buy one white leather couch.....
- get a scruffy Chilean for free.

The sign said this one was named "Cristian" and
that he was fully house-trained.









The show itself was great this year. Some noteworthy items included the DutchTub. Looking a little out of PlaySkool or FisherPrice - this hottub included an external heating coil that you build a fire in. I thought it was pretty neat.







Also I spotted the Bocci display. I first spotted this guys in MocoLoCo. Thier chandeliers are awesome. I took a few pictures.





























We left the show to head over to Brooklyn for an open house at 14townhouses This is a new modernist take on the traditional city brownstone/row house.









The unit we toured was HUGE. I really liked the whole concept. My pictures really do not capture it fully. I was a bit taken aback at the prices [ $2 million and up ]









I do not believe the structures themselves were worth that. [ Some aspects of the construction were actually a little sloppy and cheap IMO] Maybe the land is the key.
















When we finished the tour and headed outside, we intercepted a protest parade of people in the neighborhood. As it turns out, they were trying to bring awareness that the state and local funds and attention were being used for some very high end development that did nothing for the current residents. Our $2million townhouse tour was a perfect example. While not a resident myself, I had to remind myself that this development was completely out of my financial reach as well.


I tried to take a picture of the parade marchers walking past the billboard for the development.








Heading back to Lower Manhattan, we stopped in on a few ICFF reception parties. Included of course was the Ingo Maurer showroom. I first saw his work in Berlin years ago and have always liked his flair for technology and whimsy. This picture is of a "blanket" of circuit boards and LED's overhead changing color and pattern. Someday I plan to accost him at a reception to figure out how to get started as a lighting designer.

Flux Capacitor


Everyone needs a flux capacitor in their house right? Or at least a Warp Core. I just finished up the Utility Room Project my roommate and i started back in November. The room was never really finished and looked pretty shoddy. My attempts at home networking and video did not help matters whatsoever.






Walking into the room - you were greeted by a giant mess of wires hanging from the gaping holes in the ceiling. Not Good.





phone and video wiring








I picked out a vanity cabinet from IKEA that I thought could serve as a home network panel. I figured I would route all the phone, Ethernet and video through the cabinet in some layout that did not look so bad. The ceiling was a mess from all the HVAC ducting and the likes - so i planned to put in a drop ceiling to conceal most of it and add some fluorescent lighting while i was at it.



The glass door on the network cabinet begged for something interesting inside it. I noticed that you could sorta see the indicator lights of the components inside when the lights were turned off. SO - always to make things a little more complicated... I got the idea for the Flux Capacitor. I figured that it was the most boring room in the house..




These are disposable LED blinkers we used in ballons this summer. I could not bear to throw them away.





I spent a day soldering them together with my new battery powered solder gun. It did not work well - so i ended up dragging out my 100 watt soldering iron to finish the job.




I wired two strings of the LED's up to a 3 volt bus i made from the old phone patch panel. One side of the bus is switched to the open/close of the network panel




Details of the door switch.











I strung the longer string above the translucent drop ceiling







The shorter string was placed in the back of the network panel









I eventually plan to put some rechargeable flashlights and hangers for them on the side of the cabinet along with a charger for all my rechargable batteries.



I have the final product as an AVi file [ 3.2 mb] You can download it by right clicking here The random shaking in the film is not seismic.. my Roommate had the hiccups if you listen carefully... *note to self - no Sangria before filming.