home recording studio is up and running!

I love having semi-free weekends.  I finally got my little home recording studio up and running today.  A while back I found an older Tascam USB mixer that I tried to get working with my new computer.  Problem was, it wasn't designed to work with Windows 7, so it would never show up and caused my machine to crash.  After a little Google searching, it turns out that under "preferences" you can specify for the device to run in Windows Vista SP2 mode (it defaults to XP) and this provided the work around for Windows 7. Eventually, I think I'll need to invest in a proper recording program like Cakewalk, but in the meantime I have Audacity (free!!!) and it seems pretty simple to use.

I can finally start to work with the various instruments I have been collecting over the past year... a telecaster with P90 pickups, an electric drum set, a MicroKORG synthesizer, a Korg Kaossilator and various guitar effects pedals. Its safe to say no real work is going get accomplished for the rest of the afternoon.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

I did actually have chicken for dinner tonight, and it was delicious.
I received an email today from the City of Santa Monica informing me that my design was selected for part of GLOW 2010, being held on Santa Monica pier/beach. I co-designed the proposal along with my good friend Aaron who I knew from grad school and we're both quite honored and excited to be one of the selected teams.  One of the exciting things about working in the public art realm is that it provides the opportunity to create experiential spaces without many of practical restrictions of architecture.  If you are unfamiliar with GLOW, it is an all night festival held on the beach and consisting of dozens of interactive lighting based installations.  Aaron and I were able to come up with a scheme that choreographed an experience for the visitor, without having to worry about long term durability, weatherproofing, seismic forces, etc.  As an architect, I am interested in defining space, but the art arena seems to be an ideal testing ground for ideas.  This installation will fall somewhere between an object (ie. sculpture) and an enclosure.
More musings to follow.  Today is the first step in a long process.  I will be sure to post updates along the way and show images/video of our process.

Vintage Polaroid Camera Lamp

There is something very sacrilegious about this next project.  A while back I picked up a 1967 Polaroid Land Camera on eBay with the intent to convert it to use 4x5 sheet film.  The conversion looked fairly easy, but in order to develop the film, I would have had to carry around a portable developing tank.  This seemed like a real hassle, so I decided to just put the camera on my shelf as a conversation piece.
After gathering dust for months, I struck upon the idea tonight to remove the lens from the camera and turn it into a lamp.  A quick Google search for "Polaroid Camera Lamp" yielded no relevant results and I decided that I might have come up with a completely unheard of creation, or at least something that hadn't been tried since before the invention of the internet.  My theory is, if you can't find it by page 3 of Google, than it doesn't exist.

The following images are a photo documentation of my little Frankenstein operation, courtesy of my camera phone (still haven't got around to replacing my stolen camera).  I'm really digging the result, but something felt very wrong about destroying a 43 year old relic.  I still need to remove the outer lens from the faceplate, which will also help keep the light bulb in place more snugly.  It was looking like I would have to conduct a bit of surgery with my Dremel in order to get that lens out, so I am going to finish up tomorrow.

Loney Dear live at KCRW

Probably my favorite artist at the moment.  Video of a live session at KCRW in Santa Monica.

Eclectic NY Loft

I saw this wonderfully eclectic loft in NY while browsing through one of my favorite design blogs, The Jailbreak. I love their collection of retro, borderline nerdy stuff juxtaposed against the very hip, wood and exposed brick space. The neon tube television sign is my favorite piece. Some of the comic books and kids toys get to be a bit too much for my taste, but in general I'm digging this D-I-Y project. The red tiles in the kitchen work well with the subtle light pink and green to create a sort of country home kitchen meets 1950's suburbia feel.




Modernism is so boring, I love seeing people showing some personality in their design!