If you've noticed I've been taking more shots than usual in Manhattan Beach recently, its because I'm getting ready to exhibit at the MB Hometown Fair, October 6 & 7.
My son Ken won the Battle of the Bands there a few years ago, but I have never been able to exhibit there until this year.
If you're in the neighborhood next weekend, please drop by and say hi!
Hermosa Beach agency Frank Creative Workgroup recently asked me to help them create an interactive web site for the launch of GoLite Footwear.
The site, built completely in Flash, incorporates video, audio and all sorts of unusual effects.
Frank Creative provided the art and ideas, pushing me beyond my comfort zone in order to figure out how to make Flash do what they wanted.
A very exciting project.
If you're visiting my site you probably appreciate good photography, which is why you'll enjoy a website I recently completed for landscape photographer Mitch Dobrowner.
Mitch got into photography as a teenager, inspired by Ansel Adams and Minor White, came to California in the 80's and started a motion graphics design company with his wife Wendy Vanguard - a frequent design collaborator of mine.
After a 25 year hiatus, inspired by my success and Wendy's encouragement, Mitch pulled out his camera again and started creating the incredible high-contrast imagery you can see on his web site ( mitchdobrowner.com ) and in the current issue of Lenswork Magazine.
Wendy and I got together to create his website in Flash, in a minimalist style designed to keep the focus on Mitch's photos. It's so effortless to add more and more things to a web site -- it takes more effort to leave everything out and strip a design down to it's essentials.
Hope you enjoy it!
The AVP announced their 2007 schedule today, and their annual visit to Hermosa Beach will be May 17-20.
One week before the Fiesta Hermosa, it will be a busy month at the pier. But these dates have a better chance of sun than their traditional June visit.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa announced plans to blanket the City of Los Angeles with Wi-Fi.
Not a new concept, but Los Angeles is the largest city in the world in terms of area so this would be quite a large project.
Most other cities have problems implementing Wi-Fi because it usually requires access to light poles or other tall objects, usually not controlled by the city. However since LA owns their electric company (DWP), they don't have this roadblock.
Thank you Senator Obama. Good luck in 2008.
On this day in 1865, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the 13th constitutional amendment which abolished slavery, and sent it to the states for ratification.
Three-quarters of the states ratified it by the end of the 1865. The Kentucky legislature didn’t vote to ratify until 1976; Mississippi has never done so.
The text: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
Sunday, January 14, 2007 marks the 100th Anniversary of the founding of Hermosa Beach.
Naturally, there a number of festivities planned for this historic occasion:
• On Sunday at 2:30pm, there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony to open the newly refurbished Hermosa Beach Museum, in the Community Center building.
• At 6:30pm, Mayor Sam Edgerton will officiate the Hermosa Beach 100th Birthday Party on Pier Plaza, featuring Dean Torrance and the Stonebridge Band.
• At 8:30pm. there will be fireworks choreographed to music off the Hermosa Beach Pier.
More information on the Hermosa Centennial website.
I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day moving my servers into the 365 Main datacenter in El Segundo.
This is not really that different than moving into a new office: shut down the server, carry it into the car, drive to the new place, install the server, fire it up; repeat until all servers are moved.
From a virtual perspective however, it is something like moving 150 pets: get each one ready to go, get each individually situated after the move, do some handholding with each of their owners, keep the barking to a minimum...
There is not very much physical work, yet somehow I was exhausted! Maybe it has to do with the tension of getting each website back up as quickly as possible (some didn't go down at all), requiring logistics not unlike a military operation -- because some businesses depend entirely on their website for survival... Dec 25 is the only day those businesses can be "closed"...
Anyway, it's done, everyone is up and running in the new place with more and faster bandwidth than before -- gotta keep up with all those people getting fiber-optic internet connections!
After two weeks and orders from 16 states and 4 countries, my 2007 calendar sold out!
I'm making more calendars now, so place your order and they will ship on December 15th.
Update: The second printing has arrived and I'm filling the backorders now.
One of the most enjoyable parts of this experience was reading the comments I received with the orders. Everyone has a story, and it's really great to read all of them. Thanks!
With 12 months, 14 pages measuring 11"x17", it's a typical wall calendar with twelve months of Hermosa Beach goodness!
The price is $15 plus tax, with free shipping in US and Canada. Click here for more information and the order form.
