Le Blog Exuberance

New work from Sparklejet web design

I recently launched a few new website projects from the Sparklejet design studio:

For the Bayshore Sanitary District, a government agency in San Mateo County, I did the complete site development, including photography. I took this site from conceptualization through design and launch. The site features 1024 pixel-width pure CSS layout and a print style sheet that hides photos and other unnecessary page elements. Compared to virtually every other sanitary district website, this one is actually a pleasure to use.

California Health Advocates: This was a massive project for a Medicare-related non-profit, combining 2 existing large sites (calmedicare.org and cahealthadvocates.org) containing over 550 pages into a new 300+ page site. All the bells and whistles here: pure CSS layout, text size adjuster, CSS print styles, a “skip navigation” link for screen readers, gorgeous HTML markup… ;)

And lastly, Just Art Pottery, a quick-and-dirty redesign of an old site. While a full redesign was in order, it wasn’t possible given the budget and the constraints of the existing e-commerce system. Still, I was able to make huge improvements in page speed by converting much of the site from deeply nested tables to modern CSS. I also improved the overall site navigation structure.

President George Bush: what a crock

I'm listening to President Bush's press conference of April 29, 2008 on National Public Radio.

It's  apparent that this man is totally unfit to be the President. He's clearly not engaged with reality. And I suspect he is on drugs of some kind. He loses his "train of thought" and under his breath suspects a reporter of deliberately derailing him. At one point, he really didn't have an answer for the reporter's question, and you could hear as he stammered, waiting for the teleprompter to come up with some words to put in his mouth. What is a joke! This is a travesty of democracy.

Bush doesn't know much about anything, so the best he can do is parrot the  soundbite-friendly snippets coming from his teleprompter. You can hear it in his voice -- he stalls, then switches the topic to some plug for his policies, or an attack on the Democrats. It's completely false, totally bogus. This is really a crime against the American people. We have an IDIOT for a President! How did things get this bad!?

A reporter asks him a question about terrorism, and he puts in a bald-faced plug for John McCain. Is that what we have these press conferences for -- not to answer important questions from the public (represented here by the press), but to slide in useless political endorsements?

And the way he jokes with reporters -- this used to annoy me, but now I realize that it makes sense since the whole goddamn process is a joke. This is nothing but the theater of the absurd. We have a moron sleazeball for a president, apparently we're stuck with him despite repeated calls for impeachement, and we're all just riding it out.

My eggs are in the Obama basket now, that's for sure. Clinton reeks of the same shallow style as Bush has; Obama is by far the most "thinking" person among the candidates, and that's who I want in the oval office.

Empty Printer Cartridges for Daniel Webster School (Potrero Hill)

Time to recycle all the printer empties. Your old inkjet and laser printer cartridges will help Daniel Webster Elementary School (Potrero Hill, San Francisco) to buy school supplies. Last year they collected over $170 in cartridges, at $3 per.

Drop off your empty inkjet or laser cartridges at the school office in the small admin building on Missouri Street between 19th and 20th streets during school hours. Your old printer cartridge empties can help out a Potrero Hill school. Bring in all you have, from home or office — it all helps.

And, a brief note on the polis: And while you're at it, tell your representatives in the government that you want the U.S. to invest more in public education. Let's raise the starting salaries for teachers to the high-five figures so we can attract the best teachers to the schools that need the most help. We can't fool ourselves any more — an uneducated population is bad for society.

Technorati Tags: budget, education, schools, society, taxes

Frank Lloyd Wright comes to California

Some of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most engaging and innovative architecture was done in Southern California in the years following the end of World War I. From 1919 to 1923, the architect worked part-time in the newly-sprung Los Angeles metropolis, during the midst of a tremendous economic boom fueled in part by the explosion of the personal automobile and the petroleum industry maturing in California at that time. In a span of only 4 years he created new forms of American architecture that we can still look to for inspiration. (At the same time, he was engaged to build the monumental Imperial Hotel in Japan, arguably one of his greatest achievements.)

Above: the Alice Millard House, also known as La Miniatura, 1923, in Pasadena, a short walk from The Gamble House, Charles and Henry Greene's 1908 masterwork of American Arts & Crafts architecture.

Below: detail of the Samuel Freeman House, also circa 1923, just up the hill from Hollywood Boulevard.

After building the Hollyhock House in 1921, his first project in California, Wright set out to create 4 more homes in the Los Angeles area using his new “textile block” system of cast concrete blocks. In addition to the Millard House and Freeman House shown above, he built the Storer House at the west end of Hollywood Boulevard (bought and restored in the 1980s and still in private hands), and the Ennis House, in the Hollywood Hills below the Griffith Observatory.

Wright's patterned cast concrete looks great, especially as it is shadowed by the unique light of Southern California. This construction method embodies his ideal of “organic architecture:” sand in the concrete came from the construction sites. While the concrete was beautifully handled by the genius Wright, it has proven to be highly susceptible to aging and all the buildings have required tremendous work in recent decades just to keep them standing. Even with rebar tying the blocks together, this construction technique probably wasn't the best choice for a region beset by earthquakes and torrential rains.

Below: the Storer House, Hollywood, California (private):

Below: the Ennis House, Hollywood, California. Notice that the building is clad in construction scaffolding; this was during 2007's long-needed stabilization project to secure the home on its hillside perch.

Here are some photos of the concrete blocks disintegrating at the building's foundation, and a New York Times article from 2005 about the restoration of the Ennis House.

Technorati Tags: architecture, California, EnnisHouse, FrankLloydWright, FreemanHouse, LosAngeles, MillardHouse, StorerHouse

San Jose’s City Hall: California futurism

What we have here is the long-awaited “Future” as realized by architect Richard Meier in San Jose, California's new City Hall — finished in 2005, photographed here in 2008:

It's found at 200 East Santa Clara Street in San Jose, California (Google map) — the so-called “Capital of Silicon Valley.”

As always, start at Wikipedia for more info about San Jose City Hall.

Technorati Tags: architecture, California, RichardMeier, SanJose

Happy spring // unhappy 5th anniversary of the Iraq War

Happy ** spring




And unhappy 5th anniversary of the Iraq War.

Technorati Tags: poppies, spring

The Unforseen // featured photos of suburban sprawl

IN THEATERS NOW! “The Unforseen” opened March 14, 2008 at San Francisco's Lumiere, Berkeley's Shattuck, Los Angeles's Nuart, and will open in other cities in coming months. These are three of my photos which were used in this 2007 documentary film which examines the wasting of a natural springs in Austin, Texas due to suburban development. Links to these photos…

Check out the movie website: www.theunforeseenfilm.com

The film was beautifully shot by cinematographer Lee Daniel; directed by Laura Dunn; and was co-produced by environmentalist Robert Redford as well as one of my favorite directors, Terrence Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The New World).

Technorati Tags: AntelopeValley, California, development, environment, homes, LauraDunn, OilAddiction, Palmdale, PeakOil, RobertRedford, SanRamon, suburb, suburbansprawl, TerrenceMalick, TheUnforseen, urbansprawl

The many sides of the "housing crisis" — it’s later than you think in California and Texas

We bemoan the loss of pristine nature.

We cherish it, enshrine it in national parks, visit it, protect it, photograph it, promote it.

And yet will will lose more and more of it, because that is the way things go.

More and more people, with our ravenous appetites for novelty. New continents, new forests, new ports, new riches to harvest, new people to conquer.

A smaller world in 2008 than in 1492.

All the gifts of Nature, it seems, are to be brought under the whip of Mankind.

# # #

 

 

The Unforeseen, executive produced by Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Called “the best film at the festival, hands down,” the film documents the struggles between development and preservation of Austin Texas.

 

View the trailer, reviews and latest news at  http://www.theunforeseenfilm.com.

2008 Theater Showings:
March 7 - Boston - Kendall Square Cinema
March 14 - Los Angeles - NuArt
March 14 - San Francisco - Lumiere
March 14 - Berkeley, CA - Shattuck
March 28 - Austin, TX - Alamo South Lamar
April 4 - Seattle, WA - Varsity
April 11 - Denver, CO - Landmark
April 18 - Philadelphia, PA - Ritz Theater
April 18 - San Diego, CA - Ken Cinema
May 17 - Columbus, OH - Wexner Center for the Arts
more cities coming soon....

And another movie about suburban sprawl: Radiant City.

# # #

And in today's Los Angeles Times: “A stoic little town faces tomorrow. A massive housing project may mean the end for Neenach, in the Antelope Valley.” Be sure to watch the Times's video, which is beautifully produced and photographed. They simply listen in on some of the folksy wisdom of Sigfried Carrle, a 76 year old man who moved out to this rural setting in Los Angeles County years ago.

Listen to a discussion on KCRW radio today, where they speak with New York Times business columnist Gretchen Morgenson:

The Housing Crisis Is Eating America's Economy
Home foreclosure may become an industry in itself. Today's New York Times features a California company called You Walk Away, which is looking for clients whose mortgages are now worth more than their houses, so they can't refinance to meet rising payments. For less than a thousand dollars, You Walk Away will show them how to deliver their problems back to the bank by foreclosure. Part of the problem is the idea that housing is not just a place to live, but a gold-plated investment whose value just keeps going up. What goes up must come down, leaving tens of thousands of people with increased payments on loans worth more than their houses. Are greedy banks and investors at fault? What about homebuyers themselves? And what's the impact on an economy that depends on consumer spending?

Don't tell me you didn't see this coming.

 

Technorati Tags: Austin, nature, oil, OilAddiction, overpopulation, pollution, sprawl, suburb, suburbansprawl, Texas, TheUnforseen, traffic

Lunar Eclipse of 20 February 2008, from San Francisco

Turned out that Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008, was a good evening for an eclipse. In the middle of a series of rain storms, the weather cleared for a while in San Francisco and right on schedule the full moon arose in the east, already obscured by Earth's shadow. Here it is, viewed from San Francisco's Potrero Hill. Also, check out my photos of the Aug. 28, 2007 lunar eclipse.

The Independence leaves port for the last time: a great white hulk of imperial excesses

This ship, the Independence, has been in drydock for years at San Francisco's Pier 70 shipyard. It's fated to be cut up for scrap. While the average sentient being was “watching” the “Superbowl” (*gag*), I was out tooling around the exceptionally quiet City on my bike (thank you for not driving those few hours, ya gas-addicted whores). A few days later, the ship was towed out of the bay, probably to be scrapped in Asia. So goes the waste of the the world's rich.

• Last U.S. ocean liner heads into the unknown — San Francisco Chronicle
• History and old postcard photos of the Independence
• Flickr photos of the Independence leaving San Francisco Bay, 2008

Technorati Tags: cruiseship, Independence, SanFrancisco, SanFranciscoBay, ship

Helicopter rescues surfer in Pacifica

We were walking at the beach in Pacifica today when a  rescue helicopter swooped in to pluck a surfer out of the ocean.

From the San Mateo County Times, Feb. 11, 2008:

“A Brazilian teen who misjudged the movement of the tide on Sunday had to be rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter as he sat on his surfboard at sea, according to officials.”

 

What I don't understand is why the City of Pacifica doesn't have a police boat that can pick up distressed surfers.  The helicopter was overkill, me thinks.

Technorati Tags: California, emergency, helicopter, Pacifica, rescue, surfer

Hunter's Point Power Plant: demolition death

Catastrophic demolition accident at old PG&E plant (30 January 2008, San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, by Tonja Muhammad):

“The untimely collapse of a steel structure at the old Hunters Point PG&E Power Plant on Evans Avenue caused the death of one demolition project worker and serious injury to two others Monday. Two five-story boiler towers were being prepared to be brought down when the collapse happened.”

The (big, bad) machine in the garden.

• Hunter's Point Power Plant  being decommissioned, San Francisco, Heron's Head Park
• PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant Dismantlement and Abatement
• Hunters Point Power Plant Controversy in Bay Nature magazine, 2006: "In the late 1990s, when local residents started to question their abnormally high rates of cancer and other afflictions, the San Francisco Health Department began studies that revealed some frightening statistic — Bayview-Hunters Point residents were suffering from twice the average U.S. rate of asthma, cervical, and breast cancer, and had hospitalization rates that were three times the national rate for congestive heart failure, hypertension, and emphysema. Bayview-Hunters Point and the bordering neighborhood of Potrero Hill also had noticeably higher rates of bronchitis and other upper respiratory diseases in children."

 

Technorati Tags: demolition, energy, HuntersPoint, PG&E, PowerPlant, PowerStation, SanFrancisco