View allAll Photos Tagged signoff
Painted with two genuine Aussie oldschool kings, Paris and Gustoe. Stoked to finally knock out a really nice wall with two guys who's styles I have admired for since I was a young tacker.
Best appreciated All Sizes on Black
Signoff Soundtrack:
Sign-off. Eventually everyone does.
Some people may remember when TV didn't broadcast 24 hours every day. Some people may recall waking up in the early morning hours to something like this.
But that's not what this is about. It's about the contemplation of something greater. An interpretation of something we all are bound to, an inevitability of sorts.
I will leave it at that. I'll let the viewer think about what it may be. Or may not be.
I'm hereby proposing that old signoff song - which middle-aged (and older) colonials may recall from Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise - be nominated as the Rail Photography Community's theme tune...
Four elephants catch a last pocket of light near the former location of Eric, between Monolith and the Sand Canyon road turnoff.
Tehachapi Pass, California, April 2016
By 1943 the routine was - 15 minutes either side of the shift was dedicated to informing the next shift what had been done and what needed doing. Most of the plant was on 12 hours shifts which meant 60 hours a week.
This was the scene at Hexthorpe Bridge Terrace entrance / exit. The majority of workers used a cycle or Trolleybus to get to work. Those beyond a bus route could use a potorcyle - for which a small allowance was paid.
One of the great paintings on display at the new Danum Museum and Art Gallery in Doncaster.
Great American Ball Park is a baseball stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is the home field of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds. It opened in 2003, replacing Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), their home field from 1970 to 2002. The park's name comes from Great American Insurance Group.
The ballpark hosted the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The Reds put in $5 million for improvements, which included two new bars and upgraded concession stands.
In 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a ½% sales tax increase to fund the construction of new venues for both the Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). The Reds and the Bengals had previously shared occupancy of Cinergy Field, but by the mid-1990s, they complained that the multi-purpose stadium lacked amenities necessary for small-market professional sports teams to compete and each lobbied for venues of their own.[11] Nearby Paul Brown Stadium broke ground in 1998 and was opened on August 19, 2000.
Great American Ball Park was built by the architectural firms Populous (then HOK Sport) and GBBN at a cost of approximately US$290 million. It is located on the plot of land between the former site of Cinergy Field and US Bank Arena; it was known locally as the "wedge". The limited construction space necessitated the partial demolition of Cinergy Field. It was fully demolished on December 29, 2002.
The original address of Great American Ball Park was 100 Main Street. However, after the death of former pitcher and longtime broadcaster Joe Nuxhall in 2007, the address was changed to 100 Joe Nuxhall Way. A sign bearing Nuxhall's traditional signoff phrase "rounding third and heading for home" is located on the third base side exterior of the park. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is adjacent to Great American Ball Park. In honor of Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Reds' home park from 1912 to June 1970, a monument reminiscent of the park's infamous left field terrace was built on the main entrance plaza on Joe Nuxhall Way; statues of Crosley-era stars Nuxhall, catcher Ernie Lombardi, first baseman Ted Kluszewski, and outfielder Frank Robinson are depicted playing an imaginary baseball game.
A 35-foot-(10.7-m)-wide break in the stands between home plate and third base called "The Gap" is bridged by the concourse on each level (see photo). Aligned with Sycamore Street, it provides views into the stadium from downtown and out to the skyline from within the park.
In right center field, two smokestacks, reminiscent of the steamboats that were common on the Ohio River in the 19th and early 20th centuries, flash lights, emit flames and launch fireworks to incite or respond to the home team's efforts. When the Reds strike out a batter, fire blows out of the stacks beginning with the 2012 season (previously, steam was spewed out following a strikeout). Fireworks are launched from the stacks after every Reds home run and win. The seven baseball bats featured on both smokestacks symbolize the #14 of Pete Rose. On May 15, 2015, a part of the top of the right smokestack caught on fire during the 6th inning of a Reds game, caused by a loose propane valve, causing smoke to be blown across the field, several sections of seats to be evacuated, and the Cincinnati Fire Department being called to put it out. No one was injured.
A 50-foot-by-20-foot (15 x 6 m) Indiana limestone bas relief carving near the main entrance features a young baseball player looking up to the heroic figures of a batter, pitcher and fielder, all set against the background of many of Cincinnati's landmarks, including the riverfront and Union Terminal. Local designers and artist created the piece between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy, the sculptors of the scale model used for fabrication were Todd Myers and Paul Brooke with fabrication by Mees Distributors.
Just inside the main gates off the Crosley Terrace you will find two mosaic panels measuring 16 feet wide by 10 feet high. The mosaics depict two key eras in Reds history: "The First Nine", the 1869 Red Stockings who were the first professional baseball team in history with a record of 57-0 in their first season and "The Great Eight", the famous Big Red Machine that won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976. The mosaics were created between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy. These mosaic panels are made of opaque glass tiles and were produced in Ravenna, Italy by SICIS.
Panoramas of downtown Cincinnati, Mt. Adams, the Ohio River and Northern Kentucky are visible from most of the park.
At 217 feet, 9 inches (66.4 m) wide, the scoreboard from Daktronics is the sixth largest in Major League Baseball, and the 15th largest in the United States out of all LED screens. The Reds paid $4 million to install a new, LED scoreboard and high definition video screen in time for the 2009 season. The scoreboard did not add any size from the previous, but added HD quality. The scoreboard clock was originally a replica of the Longines clock at Crosley Field, but has since been modified.
If a Reds player hits the "Hit Me" sign located between the Power Stacks located in right field, a randomly selected fan will win the red Toyota Tundra pickup truck located on top of an elevator shaft approximately 500 feet (150 m) from home plate beyond the center field fence, which is valued at approximately US$31,000.
As a nod to Crosley Field, the Reds' home from 1912–1970, a monument was created in front of the main entrance to highlight the park's famous left-field terrace. Bronze statues of Crosley-era stars Joe Nuxhall, Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, and Frank Robinson (created by sculptor Tom Tsuchiya) are depicted playing in an imaginary ballgame. The grass area of the terrace has the same slope as the outfield terrace at Crosley Field.
A three-piece mural on the back of the scoreboard in left field depicts the bat Pete Rose used for his record-breaking 4,192nd hit and the ball he hit in 1985. This was replaced with new banners in 2015 as part of the All-Star Game upgrades.
Located on the west side of Great American Ball Park on Main Street, the Hall of Fame and Museum celebrate the Reds' past through galleries and extensive use of multimedia. The Hall of Fame has been in existence since 1958, but did not previously have a building.
A private party area located above the batter's eye.
The dimension of 404 feet (123 m) in center field is a tribute to the same center field dimension in the Reds' previous home, Riverfront Stadium.
A glass encased restaurant on the third level of the stadium that serves upscale food and has views of the field and the river.
Adjacent to both the stadium and the Reds Hall of Fame is a rose garden that symbolizes Pete Rose's record-breaking 4,192nd hit. It was strategically placed here because the ball landed around this area in Riverfront Stadium. The garden is visible from a stairwell in the hall of fame displaying the number of balls that Rose hit.
For the 2015 season, Great American Ball Park became the first MLB ballpark to feature a suite designed exclusively as a place for mothers to feed and care for their babies Reds COO Phil Castellini, a father of 5, says he felt compelled to do his best to provide a worthwhile solution after stadium officials told him an increasing number of women were asking where they could nurse their children at the ballpark. The suite has 5 glider chairs, diaper-changing stations, a restroom, a kitchenette, refrigerator, lockers, and televisions showing the game. It's located on the Suite Level near the Champions Club elevators.
After the 2008 season, all of the scoreboards in the park were replaced by new high-definition video displays. The Reds have a ten-year contract with the Daktronics company of Brookings, South Dakota, and also have contracted with Sony for the high-definition video cameras and production equipment, which will be operated from a renovated control room. A team of 25 people will be responsible for the content of the displays.
The previous displays were installed by the Trans-Lux company when Great American Ball Park was built. However, Trans-Lux went bankrupt, and the team could not find replacement parts.
"We were just limping through, hoping the old scoreboard would make it to the end of the 2008 season", said Reds spokesman Michael Anderson.
Jennifer Berger, Reds senior director of entertainment, events and production said that the Cincinnati Reds will assume the responsibility of the cost of maintaining the displays; the fans will not have to bear the brunt of paying for them.
The team expects to save money in the long term due to the displays' increased energy efficiency.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
Great American Ball Park is a baseball stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is the home field of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds. It opened in 2003, replacing Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), their home field from 1970 to 2002. The park's name comes from Great American Insurance Group.
The ballpark hosted the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The Reds put in $5 million for improvements, which included two new bars and upgraded concession stands.
In 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a ½% sales tax increase to fund the construction of new venues for both the Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). The Reds and the Bengals had previously shared occupancy of Cinergy Field, but by the mid-1990s, they complained that the multi-purpose stadium lacked amenities necessary for small-market professional sports teams to compete and each lobbied for venues of their own.[11] Nearby Paul Brown Stadium broke ground in 1998 and was opened on August 19, 2000.
Great American Ball Park was built by the architectural firms Populous (then HOK Sport) and GBBN at a cost of approximately US$290 million. It is located on the plot of land between the former site of Cinergy Field and US Bank Arena; it was known locally as the "wedge". The limited construction space necessitated the partial demolition of Cinergy Field. It was fully demolished on December 29, 2002.
The original address of Great American Ball Park was 100 Main Street. However, after the death of former pitcher and longtime broadcaster Joe Nuxhall in 2007, the address was changed to 100 Joe Nuxhall Way. A sign bearing Nuxhall's traditional signoff phrase "rounding third and heading for home" is located on the third base side exterior of the park. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is adjacent to Great American Ball Park. In honor of Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Reds' home park from 1912 to June 1970, a monument reminiscent of the park's infamous left field terrace was built on the main entrance plaza on Joe Nuxhall Way; statues of Crosley-era stars Nuxhall, catcher Ernie Lombardi, first baseman Ted Kluszewski, and outfielder Frank Robinson are depicted playing an imaginary baseball game.
A 35-foot-(10.7-m)-wide break in the stands between home plate and third base called "The Gap" is bridged by the concourse on each level (see photo). Aligned with Sycamore Street, it provides views into the stadium from downtown and out to the skyline from within the park.
In right center field, two smokestacks, reminiscent of the steamboats that were common on the Ohio River in the 19th and early 20th centuries, flash lights, emit flames and launch fireworks to incite or respond to the home team's efforts. When the Reds strike out a batter, fire blows out of the stacks beginning with the 2012 season (previously, steam was spewed out following a strikeout). Fireworks are launched from the stacks after every Reds home run and win. The seven baseball bats featured on both smokestacks symbolize the #14 of Pete Rose. On May 15, 2015, a part of the top of the right smokestack caught on fire during the 6th inning of a Reds game, caused by a loose propane valve, causing smoke to be blown across the field, several sections of seats to be evacuated, and the Cincinnati Fire Department being called to put it out. No one was injured.
A 50-foot-by-20-foot (15 x 6 m) Indiana limestone bas relief carving near the main entrance features a young baseball player looking up to the heroic figures of a batter, pitcher and fielder, all set against the background of many of Cincinnati's landmarks, including the riverfront and Union Terminal. Local designers and artist created the piece between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy, the sculptors of the scale model used for fabrication were Todd Myers and Paul Brooke with fabrication by Mees Distributors.
Just inside the main gates off the Crosley Terrace you will find two mosaic panels measuring 16 feet wide by 10 feet high. The mosaics depict two key eras in Reds history: "The First Nine", the 1869 Red Stockings who were the first professional baseball team in history with a record of 57-0 in their first season and "The Great Eight", the famous Big Red Machine that won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976. The mosaics were created between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy. These mosaic panels are made of opaque glass tiles and were produced in Ravenna, Italy by SICIS.
Panoramas of downtown Cincinnati, Mt. Adams, the Ohio River and Northern Kentucky are visible from most of the park.
At 217 feet, 9 inches (66.4 m) wide, the scoreboard from Daktronics is the sixth largest in Major League Baseball, and the 15th largest in the United States out of all LED screens. The Reds paid $4 million to install a new, LED scoreboard and high definition video screen in time for the 2009 season. The scoreboard did not add any size from the previous, but added HD quality. The scoreboard clock was originally a replica of the Longines clock at Crosley Field, but has since been modified.
If a Reds player hits the "Hit Me" sign located between the Power Stacks located in right field, a randomly selected fan will win the red Toyota Tundra pickup truck located on top of an elevator shaft approximately 500 feet (150 m) from home plate beyond the center field fence, which is valued at approximately US$31,000.
As a nod to Crosley Field, the Reds' home from 1912–1970, a monument was created in front of the main entrance to highlight the park's famous left-field terrace. Bronze statues of Crosley-era stars Joe Nuxhall, Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, and Frank Robinson (created by sculptor Tom Tsuchiya) are depicted playing in an imaginary ballgame. The grass area of the terrace has the same slope as the outfield terrace at Crosley Field.
A three-piece mural on the back of the scoreboard in left field depicts the bat Pete Rose used for his record-breaking 4,192nd hit and the ball he hit in 1985. This was replaced with new banners in 2015 as part of the All-Star Game upgrades.
Located on the west side of Great American Ball Park on Main Street, the Hall of Fame and Museum celebrate the Reds' past through galleries and extensive use of multimedia. The Hall of Fame has been in existence since 1958, but did not previously have a building.
A private party area located above the batter's eye.
The dimension of 404 feet (123 m) in center field is a tribute to the same center field dimension in the Reds' previous home, Riverfront Stadium.
A glass encased restaurant on the third level of the stadium that serves upscale food and has views of the field and the river.
Adjacent to both the stadium and the Reds Hall of Fame is a rose garden that symbolizes Pete Rose's record-breaking 4,192nd hit. It was strategically placed here because the ball landed around this area in Riverfront Stadium. The garden is visible from a stairwell in the hall of fame displaying the number of balls that Rose hit.
For the 2015 season, Great American Ball Park became the first MLB ballpark to feature a suite designed exclusively as a place for mothers to feed and care for their babies Reds COO Phil Castellini, a father of 5, says he felt compelled to do his best to provide a worthwhile solution after stadium officials told him an increasing number of women were asking where they could nurse their children at the ballpark. The suite has 5 glider chairs, diaper-changing stations, a restroom, a kitchenette, refrigerator, lockers, and televisions showing the game. It's located on the Suite Level near the Champions Club elevators.
After the 2008 season, all of the scoreboards in the park were replaced by new high-definition video displays. The Reds have a ten-year contract with the Daktronics company of Brookings, South Dakota, and also have contracted with Sony for the high-definition video cameras and production equipment, which will be operated from a renovated control room. A team of 25 people will be responsible for the content of the displays.
The previous displays were installed by the Trans-Lux company when Great American Ball Park was built. However, Trans-Lux went bankrupt, and the team could not find replacement parts.
"We were just limping through, hoping the old scoreboard would make it to the end of the 2008 season", said Reds spokesman Michael Anderson.
Jennifer Berger, Reds senior director of entertainment, events and production said that the Cincinnati Reds will assume the responsibility of the cost of maintaining the displays; the fans will not have to bear the brunt of paying for them.
The team expects to save money in the long term due to the displays' increased energy efficiency.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
Great American Ball Park is a baseball stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is the home field of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds. It opened in 2003, replacing Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), their home field from 1970 to 2002. The park's name comes from Great American Insurance Group.
The ballpark hosted the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The Reds put in $5 million for improvements, which included two new bars and upgraded concession stands.
In 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a ½% sales tax increase to fund the construction of new venues for both the Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). The Reds and the Bengals had previously shared occupancy of Cinergy Field, but by the mid-1990s, they complained that the multi-purpose stadium lacked amenities necessary for small-market professional sports teams to compete and each lobbied for venues of their own.[11] Nearby Paul Brown Stadium broke ground in 1998 and was opened on August 19, 2000.
Great American Ball Park was built by the architectural firms Populous (then HOK Sport) and GBBN at a cost of approximately US$290 million. It is located on the plot of land between the former site of Cinergy Field and US Bank Arena; it was known locally as the "wedge". The limited construction space necessitated the partial demolition of Cinergy Field. It was fully demolished on December 29, 2002.
The original address of Great American Ball Park was 100 Main Street. However, after the death of former pitcher and longtime broadcaster Joe Nuxhall in 2007, the address was changed to 100 Joe Nuxhall Way. A sign bearing Nuxhall's traditional signoff phrase "rounding third and heading for home" is located on the third base side exterior of the park. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is adjacent to Great American Ball Park. In honor of Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Reds' home park from 1912 to June 1970, a monument reminiscent of the park's infamous left field terrace was built on the main entrance plaza on Joe Nuxhall Way; statues of Crosley-era stars Nuxhall, catcher Ernie Lombardi, first baseman Ted Kluszewski, and outfielder Frank Robinson are depicted playing an imaginary baseball game.
A 35-foot-(10.7-m)-wide break in the stands between home plate and third base called "The Gap" is bridged by the concourse on each level (see photo). Aligned with Sycamore Street, it provides views into the stadium from downtown and out to the skyline from within the park.
In right center field, two smokestacks, reminiscent of the steamboats that were common on the Ohio River in the 19th and early 20th centuries, flash lights, emit flames and launch fireworks to incite or respond to the home team's efforts. When the Reds strike out a batter, fire blows out of the stacks beginning with the 2012 season (previously, steam was spewed out following a strikeout). Fireworks are launched from the stacks after every Reds home run and win. The seven baseball bats featured on both smokestacks symbolize the #14 of Pete Rose. On May 15, 2015, a part of the top of the right smokestack caught on fire during the 6th inning of a Reds game, caused by a loose propane valve, causing smoke to be blown across the field, several sections of seats to be evacuated, and the Cincinnati Fire Department being called to put it out. No one was injured.
A 50-foot-by-20-foot (15 x 6 m) Indiana limestone bas relief carving near the main entrance features a young baseball player looking up to the heroic figures of a batter, pitcher and fielder, all set against the background of many of Cincinnati's landmarks, including the riverfront and Union Terminal. Local designers and artist created the piece between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy, the sculptors of the scale model used for fabrication were Todd Myers and Paul Brooke with fabrication by Mees Distributors.
Just inside the main gates off the Crosley Terrace you will find two mosaic panels measuring 16 feet wide by 10 feet high. The mosaics depict two key eras in Reds history: "The First Nine", the 1869 Red Stockings who were the first professional baseball team in history with a record of 57-0 in their first season and "The Great Eight", the famous Big Red Machine that won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976. The mosaics were created between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy. These mosaic panels are made of opaque glass tiles and were produced in Ravenna, Italy by SICIS.
Panoramas of downtown Cincinnati, Mt. Adams, the Ohio River and Northern Kentucky are visible from most of the park.
At 217 feet, 9 inches (66.4 m) wide, the scoreboard from Daktronics is the sixth largest in Major League Baseball, and the 15th largest in the United States out of all LED screens. The Reds paid $4 million to install a new, LED scoreboard and high definition video screen in time for the 2009 season. The scoreboard did not add any size from the previous, but added HD quality. The scoreboard clock was originally a replica of the Longines clock at Crosley Field, but has since been modified.
If a Reds player hits the "Hit Me" sign located between the Power Stacks located in right field, a randomly selected fan will win the red Toyota Tundra pickup truck located on top of an elevator shaft approximately 500 feet (150 m) from home plate beyond the center field fence, which is valued at approximately US$31,000.
As a nod to Crosley Field, the Reds' home from 1912–1970, a monument was created in front of the main entrance to highlight the park's famous left-field terrace. Bronze statues of Crosley-era stars Joe Nuxhall, Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, and Frank Robinson (created by sculptor Tom Tsuchiya) are depicted playing in an imaginary ballgame. The grass area of the terrace has the same slope as the outfield terrace at Crosley Field.
A three-piece mural on the back of the scoreboard in left field depicts the bat Pete Rose used for his record-breaking 4,192nd hit and the ball he hit in 1985. This was replaced with new banners in 2015 as part of the All-Star Game upgrades.
Located on the west side of Great American Ball Park on Main Street, the Hall of Fame and Museum celebrate the Reds' past through galleries and extensive use of multimedia. The Hall of Fame has been in existence since 1958, but did not previously have a building.
A private party area located above the batter's eye.
The dimension of 404 feet (123 m) in center field is a tribute to the same center field dimension in the Reds' previous home, Riverfront Stadium.
A glass encased restaurant on the third level of the stadium that serves upscale food and has views of the field and the river.
Adjacent to both the stadium and the Reds Hall of Fame is a rose garden that symbolizes Pete Rose's record-breaking 4,192nd hit. It was strategically placed here because the ball landed around this area in Riverfront Stadium. The garden is visible from a stairwell in the hall of fame displaying the number of balls that Rose hit.
For the 2015 season, Great American Ball Park became the first MLB ballpark to feature a suite designed exclusively as a place for mothers to feed and care for their babies Reds COO Phil Castellini, a father of 5, says he felt compelled to do his best to provide a worthwhile solution after stadium officials told him an increasing number of women were asking where they could nurse their children at the ballpark. The suite has 5 glider chairs, diaper-changing stations, a restroom, a kitchenette, refrigerator, lockers, and televisions showing the game. It's located on the Suite Level near the Champions Club elevators.
After the 2008 season, all of the scoreboards in the park were replaced by new high-definition video displays. The Reds have a ten-year contract with the Daktronics company of Brookings, South Dakota, and also have contracted with Sony for the high-definition video cameras and production equipment, which will be operated from a renovated control room. A team of 25 people will be responsible for the content of the displays.
The previous displays were installed by the Trans-Lux company when Great American Ball Park was built. However, Trans-Lux went bankrupt, and the team could not find replacement parts.
"We were just limping through, hoping the old scoreboard would make it to the end of the 2008 season", said Reds spokesman Michael Anderson.
Jennifer Berger, Reds senior director of entertainment, events and production said that the Cincinnati Reds will assume the responsibility of the cost of maintaining the displays; the fans will not have to bear the brunt of paying for them.
The team expects to save money in the long term due to the displays' increased energy efficiency.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
Great American Ball Park is a baseball stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is the home field of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds. It opened in 2003, replacing Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), their home field from 1970 to 2002. The park's name comes from Great American Insurance Group.
The ballpark hosted the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The Reds put in $5 million for improvements, which included two new bars and upgraded concession stands.
In 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a ½% sales tax increase to fund the construction of new venues for both the Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). The Reds and the Bengals had previously shared occupancy of Cinergy Field, but by the mid-1990s, they complained that the multi-purpose stadium lacked amenities necessary for small-market professional sports teams to compete and each lobbied for venues of their own.[11] Nearby Paul Brown Stadium broke ground in 1998 and was opened on August 19, 2000.
Great American Ball Park was built by the architectural firms Populous (then HOK Sport) and GBBN at a cost of approximately US$290 million. It is located on the plot of land between the former site of Cinergy Field and US Bank Arena; it was known locally as the "wedge". The limited construction space necessitated the partial demolition of Cinergy Field. It was fully demolished on December 29, 2002.
The original address of Great American Ball Park was 100 Main Street. However, after the death of former pitcher and longtime broadcaster Joe Nuxhall in 2007, the address was changed to 100 Joe Nuxhall Way. A sign bearing Nuxhall's traditional signoff phrase "rounding third and heading for home" is located on the third base side exterior of the park. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is adjacent to Great American Ball Park. In honor of Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Reds' home park from 1912 to June 1970, a monument reminiscent of the park's infamous left field terrace was built on the main entrance plaza on Joe Nuxhall Way; statues of Crosley-era stars Nuxhall, catcher Ernie Lombardi, first baseman Ted Kluszewski, and outfielder Frank Robinson are depicted playing an imaginary baseball game.
A 35-foot-(10.7-m)-wide break in the stands between home plate and third base called "The Gap" is bridged by the concourse on each level (see photo). Aligned with Sycamore Street, it provides views into the stadium from downtown and out to the skyline from within the park.
In right center field, two smokestacks, reminiscent of the steamboats that were common on the Ohio River in the 19th and early 20th centuries, flash lights, emit flames and launch fireworks to incite or respond to the home team's efforts. When the Reds strike out a batter, fire blows out of the stacks beginning with the 2012 season (previously, steam was spewed out following a strikeout). Fireworks are launched from the stacks after every Reds home run and win. The seven baseball bats featured on both smokestacks symbolize the #14 of Pete Rose. On May 15, 2015, a part of the top of the right smokestack caught on fire during the 6th inning of a Reds game, caused by a loose propane valve, causing smoke to be blown across the field, several sections of seats to be evacuated, and the Cincinnati Fire Department being called to put it out. No one was injured.
A 50-foot-by-20-foot (15 x 6 m) Indiana limestone bas relief carving near the main entrance features a young baseball player looking up to the heroic figures of a batter, pitcher and fielder, all set against the background of many of Cincinnati's landmarks, including the riverfront and Union Terminal. Local designers and artist created the piece between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy, the sculptors of the scale model used for fabrication were Todd Myers and Paul Brooke with fabrication by Mees Distributors.
Just inside the main gates off the Crosley Terrace you will find two mosaic panels measuring 16 feet wide by 10 feet high. The mosaics depict two key eras in Reds history: "The First Nine", the 1869 Red Stockings who were the first professional baseball team in history with a record of 57-0 in their first season and "The Great Eight", the famous Big Red Machine that won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976. The mosaics were created between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy. These mosaic panels are made of opaque glass tiles and were produced in Ravenna, Italy by SICIS.
Panoramas of downtown Cincinnati, Mt. Adams, the Ohio River and Northern Kentucky are visible from most of the park.
At 217 feet, 9 inches (66.4 m) wide, the scoreboard from Daktronics is the sixth largest in Major League Baseball, and the 15th largest in the United States out of all LED screens. The Reds paid $4 million to install a new, LED scoreboard and high definition video screen in time for the 2009 season. The scoreboard did not add any size from the previous, but added HD quality. The scoreboard clock was originally a replica of the Longines clock at Crosley Field, but has since been modified.
If a Reds player hits the "Hit Me" sign located between the Power Stacks located in right field, a randomly selected fan will win the red Toyota Tundra pickup truck located on top of an elevator shaft approximately 500 feet (150 m) from home plate beyond the center field fence, which is valued at approximately US$31,000.
As a nod to Crosley Field, the Reds' home from 1912–1970, a monument was created in front of the main entrance to highlight the park's famous left-field terrace. Bronze statues of Crosley-era stars Joe Nuxhall, Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, and Frank Robinson (created by sculptor Tom Tsuchiya) are depicted playing in an imaginary ballgame. The grass area of the terrace has the same slope as the outfield terrace at Crosley Field.
A three-piece mural on the back of the scoreboard in left field depicts the bat Pete Rose used for his record-breaking 4,192nd hit and the ball he hit in 1985. This was replaced with new banners in 2015 as part of the All-Star Game upgrades.
Located on the west side of Great American Ball Park on Main Street, the Hall of Fame and Museum celebrate the Reds' past through galleries and extensive use of multimedia. The Hall of Fame has been in existence since 1958, but did not previously have a building.
A private party area located above the batter's eye.
The dimension of 404 feet (123 m) in center field is a tribute to the same center field dimension in the Reds' previous home, Riverfront Stadium.
A glass encased restaurant on the third level of the stadium that serves upscale food and has views of the field and the river.
Adjacent to both the stadium and the Reds Hall of Fame is a rose garden that symbolizes Pete Rose's record-breaking 4,192nd hit. It was strategically placed here because the ball landed around this area in Riverfront Stadium. The garden is visible from a stairwell in the hall of fame displaying the number of balls that Rose hit.
For the 2015 season, Great American Ball Park became the first MLB ballpark to feature a suite designed exclusively as a place for mothers to feed and care for their babies Reds COO Phil Castellini, a father of 5, says he felt compelled to do his best to provide a worthwhile solution after stadium officials told him an increasing number of women were asking where they could nurse their children at the ballpark. The suite has 5 glider chairs, diaper-changing stations, a restroom, a kitchenette, refrigerator, lockers, and televisions showing the game. It's located on the Suite Level near the Champions Club elevators.
After the 2008 season, all of the scoreboards in the park were replaced by new high-definition video displays. The Reds have a ten-year contract with the Daktronics company of Brookings, South Dakota, and also have contracted with Sony for the high-definition video cameras and production equipment, which will be operated from a renovated control room. A team of 25 people will be responsible for the content of the displays.
The previous displays were installed by the Trans-Lux company when Great American Ball Park was built. However, Trans-Lux went bankrupt, and the team could not find replacement parts.
"We were just limping through, hoping the old scoreboard would make it to the end of the 2008 season", said Reds spokesman Michael Anderson.
Jennifer Berger, Reds senior director of entertainment, events and production said that the Cincinnati Reds will assume the responsibility of the cost of maintaining the displays; the fans will not have to bear the brunt of paying for them.
The team expects to save money in the long term due to the displays' increased energy efficiency.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
Great American Ball Park is a baseball stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is the home field of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds. It opened in 2003, replacing Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), their home field from 1970 to 2002. The park's name comes from Great American Insurance Group.
The ballpark hosted the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The Reds put in $5 million for improvements, which included two new bars and upgraded concession stands.
In 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a ½% sales tax increase to fund the construction of new venues for both the Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). The Reds and the Bengals had previously shared occupancy of Cinergy Field, but by the mid-1990s, they complained that the multi-purpose stadium lacked amenities necessary for small-market professional sports teams to compete and each lobbied for venues of their own.[11] Nearby Paul Brown Stadium broke ground in 1998 and was opened on August 19, 2000.
Great American Ball Park was built by the architectural firms Populous (then HOK Sport) and GBBN at a cost of approximately US$290 million. It is located on the plot of land between the former site of Cinergy Field and US Bank Arena; it was known locally as the "wedge". The limited construction space necessitated the partial demolition of Cinergy Field. It was fully demolished on December 29, 2002.
The original address of Great American Ball Park was 100 Main Street. However, after the death of former pitcher and longtime broadcaster Joe Nuxhall in 2007, the address was changed to 100 Joe Nuxhall Way. A sign bearing Nuxhall's traditional signoff phrase "rounding third and heading for home" is located on the third base side exterior of the park. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is adjacent to Great American Ball Park. In honor of Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Reds' home park from 1912 to June 1970, a monument reminiscent of the park's infamous left field terrace was built on the main entrance plaza on Joe Nuxhall Way; statues of Crosley-era stars Nuxhall, catcher Ernie Lombardi, first baseman Ted Kluszewski, and outfielder Frank Robinson are depicted playing an imaginary baseball game.
A 35-foot-(10.7-m)-wide break in the stands between home plate and third base called "The Gap" is bridged by the concourse on each level (see photo). Aligned with Sycamore Street, it provides views into the stadium from downtown and out to the skyline from within the park.
In right center field, two smokestacks, reminiscent of the steamboats that were common on the Ohio River in the 19th and early 20th centuries, flash lights, emit flames and launch fireworks to incite or respond to the home team's efforts. When the Reds strike out a batter, fire blows out of the stacks beginning with the 2012 season (previously, steam was spewed out following a strikeout). Fireworks are launched from the stacks after every Reds home run and win. The seven baseball bats featured on both smokestacks symbolize the #14 of Pete Rose. On May 15, 2015, a part of the top of the right smokestack caught on fire during the 6th inning of a Reds game, caused by a loose propane valve, causing smoke to be blown across the field, several sections of seats to be evacuated, and the Cincinnati Fire Department being called to put it out. No one was injured.
A 50-foot-by-20-foot (15 x 6 m) Indiana limestone bas relief carving near the main entrance features a young baseball player looking up to the heroic figures of a batter, pitcher and fielder, all set against the background of many of Cincinnati's landmarks, including the riverfront and Union Terminal. Local designers and artist created the piece between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy, the sculptors of the scale model used for fabrication were Todd Myers and Paul Brooke with fabrication by Mees Distributors.
Just inside the main gates off the Crosley Terrace you will find two mosaic panels measuring 16 feet wide by 10 feet high. The mosaics depict two key eras in Reds history: "The First Nine", the 1869 Red Stockings who were the first professional baseball team in history with a record of 57-0 in their first season and "The Great Eight", the famous Big Red Machine that won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976. The mosaics were created between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy. These mosaic panels are made of opaque glass tiles and were produced in Ravenna, Italy by SICIS.
Panoramas of downtown Cincinnati, Mt. Adams, the Ohio River and Northern Kentucky are visible from most of the park.
At 217 feet, 9 inches (66.4 m) wide, the scoreboard from Daktronics is the sixth largest in Major League Baseball, and the 15th largest in the United States out of all LED screens. The Reds paid $4 million to install a new, LED scoreboard and high definition video screen in time for the 2009 season. The scoreboard did not add any size from the previous, but added HD quality. The scoreboard clock was originally a replica of the Longines clock at Crosley Field, but has since been modified.
If a Reds player hits the "Hit Me" sign located between the Power Stacks located in right field, a randomly selected fan will win the red Toyota Tundra pickup truck located on top of an elevator shaft approximately 500 feet (150 m) from home plate beyond the center field fence, which is valued at approximately US$31,000.
As a nod to Crosley Field, the Reds' home from 1912–1970, a monument was created in front of the main entrance to highlight the park's famous left-field terrace. Bronze statues of Crosley-era stars Joe Nuxhall, Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, and Frank Robinson (created by sculptor Tom Tsuchiya) are depicted playing in an imaginary ballgame. The grass area of the terrace has the same slope as the outfield terrace at Crosley Field.
A three-piece mural on the back of the scoreboard in left field depicts the bat Pete Rose used for his record-breaking 4,192nd hit and the ball he hit in 1985. This was replaced with new banners in 2015 as part of the All-Star Game upgrades.
Located on the west side of Great American Ball Park on Main Street, the Hall of Fame and Museum celebrate the Reds' past through galleries and extensive use of multimedia. The Hall of Fame has been in existence since 1958, but did not previously have a building.
A private party area located above the batter's eye.
The dimension of 404 feet (123 m) in center field is a tribute to the same center field dimension in the Reds' previous home, Riverfront Stadium.
A glass encased restaurant on the third level of the stadium that serves upscale food and has views of the field and the river.
Adjacent to both the stadium and the Reds Hall of Fame is a rose garden that symbolizes Pete Rose's record-breaking 4,192nd hit. It was strategically placed here because the ball landed around this area in Riverfront Stadium. The garden is visible from a stairwell in the hall of fame displaying the number of balls that Rose hit.
For the 2015 season, Great American Ball Park became the first MLB ballpark to feature a suite designed exclusively as a place for mothers to feed and care for their babies Reds COO Phil Castellini, a father of 5, says he felt compelled to do his best to provide a worthwhile solution after stadium officials told him an increasing number of women were asking where they could nurse their children at the ballpark. The suite has 5 glider chairs, diaper-changing stations, a restroom, a kitchenette, refrigerator, lockers, and televisions showing the game. It's located on the Suite Level near the Champions Club elevators.
After the 2008 season, all of the scoreboards in the park were replaced by new high-definition video displays. The Reds have a ten-year contract with the Daktronics company of Brookings, South Dakota, and also have contracted with Sony for the high-definition video cameras and production equipment, which will be operated from a renovated control room. A team of 25 people will be responsible for the content of the displays.
The previous displays were installed by the Trans-Lux company when Great American Ball Park was built. However, Trans-Lux went bankrupt, and the team could not find replacement parts.
"We were just limping through, hoping the old scoreboard would make it to the end of the 2008 season", said Reds spokesman Michael Anderson.
Jennifer Berger, Reds senior director of entertainment, events and production said that the Cincinnati Reds will assume the responsibility of the cost of maintaining the displays; the fans will not have to bear the brunt of paying for them.
The team expects to save money in the long term due to the displays' increased energy efficiency.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
Great American Ball Park is a baseball stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is the home field of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds. It opened in 2003, replacing Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), their home field from 1970 to 2002. The park's name comes from Great American Insurance Group.
The ballpark hosted the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The Reds put in $5 million for improvements, which included two new bars and upgraded concession stands.
In 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a ½% sales tax increase to fund the construction of new venues for both the Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). The Reds and the Bengals had previously shared occupancy of Cinergy Field, but by the mid-1990s, they complained that the multi-purpose stadium lacked amenities necessary for small-market professional sports teams to compete and each lobbied for venues of their own.[11] Nearby Paul Brown Stadium broke ground in 1998 and was opened on August 19, 2000.
Great American Ball Park was built by the architectural firms Populous (then HOK Sport) and GBBN at a cost of approximately US$290 million. It is located on the plot of land between the former site of Cinergy Field and US Bank Arena; it was known locally as the "wedge". The limited construction space necessitated the partial demolition of Cinergy Field. It was fully demolished on December 29, 2002.
The original address of Great American Ball Park was 100 Main Street. However, after the death of former pitcher and longtime broadcaster Joe Nuxhall in 2007, the address was changed to 100 Joe Nuxhall Way. A sign bearing Nuxhall's traditional signoff phrase "rounding third and heading for home" is located on the third base side exterior of the park. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is adjacent to Great American Ball Park. In honor of Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Reds' home park from 1912 to June 1970, a monument reminiscent of the park's infamous left field terrace was built on the main entrance plaza on Joe Nuxhall Way; statues of Crosley-era stars Nuxhall, catcher Ernie Lombardi, first baseman Ted Kluszewski, and outfielder Frank Robinson are depicted playing an imaginary baseball game.
A 35-foot-(10.7-m)-wide break in the stands between home plate and third base called "The Gap" is bridged by the concourse on each level (see photo). Aligned with Sycamore Street, it provides views into the stadium from downtown and out to the skyline from within the park.
In right center field, two smokestacks, reminiscent of the steamboats that were common on the Ohio River in the 19th and early 20th centuries, flash lights, emit flames and launch fireworks to incite or respond to the home team's efforts. When the Reds strike out a batter, fire blows out of the stacks beginning with the 2012 season (previously, steam was spewed out following a strikeout). Fireworks are launched from the stacks after every Reds home run and win. The seven baseball bats featured on both smokestacks symbolize the #14 of Pete Rose. On May 15, 2015, a part of the top of the right smokestack caught on fire during the 6th inning of a Reds game, caused by a loose propane valve, causing smoke to be blown across the field, several sections of seats to be evacuated, and the Cincinnati Fire Department being called to put it out. No one was injured.
A 50-foot-by-20-foot (15 x 6 m) Indiana limestone bas relief carving near the main entrance features a young baseball player looking up to the heroic figures of a batter, pitcher and fielder, all set against the background of many of Cincinnati's landmarks, including the riverfront and Union Terminal. Local designers and artist created the piece between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy, the sculptors of the scale model used for fabrication were Todd Myers and Paul Brooke with fabrication by Mees Distributors.
Just inside the main gates off the Crosley Terrace you will find two mosaic panels measuring 16 feet wide by 10 feet high. The mosaics depict two key eras in Reds history: "The First Nine", the 1869 Red Stockings who were the first professional baseball team in history with a record of 57-0 in their first season and "The Great Eight", the famous Big Red Machine that won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976. The mosaics were created between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy. These mosaic panels are made of opaque glass tiles and were produced in Ravenna, Italy by SICIS.
Panoramas of downtown Cincinnati, Mt. Adams, the Ohio River and Northern Kentucky are visible from most of the park.
At 217 feet, 9 inches (66.4 m) wide, the scoreboard from Daktronics is the sixth largest in Major League Baseball, and the 15th largest in the United States out of all LED screens. The Reds paid $4 million to install a new, LED scoreboard and high definition video screen in time for the 2009 season. The scoreboard did not add any size from the previous, but added HD quality. The scoreboard clock was originally a replica of the Longines clock at Crosley Field, but has since been modified.
If a Reds player hits the "Hit Me" sign located between the Power Stacks located in right field, a randomly selected fan will win the red Toyota Tundra pickup truck located on top of an elevator shaft approximately 500 feet (150 m) from home plate beyond the center field fence, which is valued at approximately US$31,000.
As a nod to Crosley Field, the Reds' home from 1912–1970, a monument was created in front of the main entrance to highlight the park's famous left-field terrace. Bronze statues of Crosley-era stars Joe Nuxhall, Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, and Frank Robinson (created by sculptor Tom Tsuchiya) are depicted playing in an imaginary ballgame. The grass area of the terrace has the same slope as the outfield terrace at Crosley Field.
A three-piece mural on the back of the scoreboard in left field depicts the bat Pete Rose used for his record-breaking 4,192nd hit and the ball he hit in 1985. This was replaced with new banners in 2015 as part of the All-Star Game upgrades.
Located on the west side of Great American Ball Park on Main Street, the Hall of Fame and Museum celebrate the Reds' past through galleries and extensive use of multimedia. The Hall of Fame has been in existence since 1958, but did not previously have a building.
A private party area located above the batter's eye.
The dimension of 404 feet (123 m) in center field is a tribute to the same center field dimension in the Reds' previous home, Riverfront Stadium.
A glass encased restaurant on the third level of the stadium that serves upscale food and has views of the field and the river.
Adjacent to both the stadium and the Reds Hall of Fame is a rose garden that symbolizes Pete Rose's record-breaking 4,192nd hit. It was strategically placed here because the ball landed around this area in Riverfront Stadium. The garden is visible from a stairwell in the hall of fame displaying the number of balls that Rose hit.
For the 2015 season, Great American Ball Park became the first MLB ballpark to feature a suite designed exclusively as a place for mothers to feed and care for their babies Reds COO Phil Castellini, a father of 5, says he felt compelled to do his best to provide a worthwhile solution after stadium officials told him an increasing number of women were asking where they could nurse their children at the ballpark. The suite has 5 glider chairs, diaper-changing stations, a restroom, a kitchenette, refrigerator, lockers, and televisions showing the game. It's located on the Suite Level near the Champions Club elevators.
After the 2008 season, all of the scoreboards in the park were replaced by new high-definition video displays. The Reds have a ten-year contract with the Daktronics company of Brookings, South Dakota, and also have contracted with Sony for the high-definition video cameras and production equipment, which will be operated from a renovated control room. A team of 25 people will be responsible for the content of the displays.
The previous displays were installed by the Trans-Lux company when Great American Ball Park was built. However, Trans-Lux went bankrupt, and the team could not find replacement parts.
"We were just limping through, hoping the old scoreboard would make it to the end of the 2008 season", said Reds spokesman Michael Anderson.
Jennifer Berger, Reds senior director of entertainment, events and production said that the Cincinnati Reds will assume the responsibility of the cost of maintaining the displays; the fans will not have to bear the brunt of paying for them.
The team expects to save money in the long term due to the displays' increased energy efficiency.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
Great American Ball Park is a baseball stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is the home field of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds. It opened in 2003, replacing Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), their home field from 1970 to 2002. The park's name comes from Great American Insurance Group.
The ballpark hosted the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The Reds put in $5 million for improvements, which included two new bars and upgraded concession stands.
In 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a ½% sales tax increase to fund the construction of new venues for both the Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). The Reds and the Bengals had previously shared occupancy of Cinergy Field, but by the mid-1990s, they complained that the multi-purpose stadium lacked amenities necessary for small-market professional sports teams to compete and each lobbied for venues of their own.[11] Nearby Paul Brown Stadium broke ground in 1998 and was opened on August 19, 2000.
Great American Ball Park was built by the architectural firms Populous (then HOK Sport) and GBBN at a cost of approximately US$290 million. It is located on the plot of land between the former site of Cinergy Field and US Bank Arena; it was known locally as the "wedge". The limited construction space necessitated the partial demolition of Cinergy Field. It was fully demolished on December 29, 2002.
The original address of Great American Ball Park was 100 Main Street. However, after the death of former pitcher and longtime broadcaster Joe Nuxhall in 2007, the address was changed to 100 Joe Nuxhall Way. A sign bearing Nuxhall's traditional signoff phrase "rounding third and heading for home" is located on the third base side exterior of the park. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is adjacent to Great American Ball Park. In honor of Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Reds' home park from 1912 to June 1970, a monument reminiscent of the park's infamous left field terrace was built on the main entrance plaza on Joe Nuxhall Way; statues of Crosley-era stars Nuxhall, catcher Ernie Lombardi, first baseman Ted Kluszewski, and outfielder Frank Robinson are depicted playing an imaginary baseball game.
A 35-foot-(10.7-m)-wide break in the stands between home plate and third base called "The Gap" is bridged by the concourse on each level (see photo). Aligned with Sycamore Street, it provides views into the stadium from downtown and out to the skyline from within the park.
In right center field, two smokestacks, reminiscent of the steamboats that were common on the Ohio River in the 19th and early 20th centuries, flash lights, emit flames and launch fireworks to incite or respond to the home team's efforts. When the Reds strike out a batter, fire blows out of the stacks beginning with the 2012 season (previously, steam was spewed out following a strikeout). Fireworks are launched from the stacks after every Reds home run and win. The seven baseball bats featured on both smokestacks symbolize the #14 of Pete Rose. On May 15, 2015, a part of the top of the right smokestack caught on fire during the 6th inning of a Reds game, caused by a loose propane valve, causing smoke to be blown across the field, several sections of seats to be evacuated, and the Cincinnati Fire Department being called to put it out. No one was injured.
A 50-foot-by-20-foot (15 x 6 m) Indiana limestone bas relief carving near the main entrance features a young baseball player looking up to the heroic figures of a batter, pitcher and fielder, all set against the background of many of Cincinnati's landmarks, including the riverfront and Union Terminal. Local designers and artist created the piece between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy, the sculptors of the scale model used for fabrication were Todd Myers and Paul Brooke with fabrication by Mees Distributors.
Just inside the main gates off the Crosley Terrace you will find two mosaic panels measuring 16 feet wide by 10 feet high. The mosaics depict two key eras in Reds history: "The First Nine", the 1869 Red Stockings who were the first professional baseball team in history with a record of 57-0 in their first season and "The Great Eight", the famous Big Red Machine that won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976. The mosaics were created between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy. These mosaic panels are made of opaque glass tiles and were produced in Ravenna, Italy by SICIS.
Panoramas of downtown Cincinnati, Mt. Adams, the Ohio River and Northern Kentucky are visible from most of the park.
At 217 feet, 9 inches (66.4 m) wide, the scoreboard from Daktronics is the sixth largest in Major League Baseball, and the 15th largest in the United States out of all LED screens. The Reds paid $4 million to install a new, LED scoreboard and high definition video screen in time for the 2009 season. The scoreboard did not add any size from the previous, but added HD quality. The scoreboard clock was originally a replica of the Longines clock at Crosley Field, but has since been modified.
If a Reds player hits the "Hit Me" sign located between the Power Stacks located in right field, a randomly selected fan will win the red Toyota Tundra pickup truck located on top of an elevator shaft approximately 500 feet (150 m) from home plate beyond the center field fence, which is valued at approximately US$31,000.
As a nod to Crosley Field, the Reds' home from 1912–1970, a monument was created in front of the main entrance to highlight the park's famous left-field terrace. Bronze statues of Crosley-era stars Joe Nuxhall, Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, and Frank Robinson (created by sculptor Tom Tsuchiya) are depicted playing in an imaginary ballgame. The grass area of the terrace has the same slope as the outfield terrace at Crosley Field.
A three-piece mural on the back of the scoreboard in left field depicts the bat Pete Rose used for his record-breaking 4,192nd hit and the ball he hit in 1985. This was replaced with new banners in 2015 as part of the All-Star Game upgrades.
Located on the west side of Great American Ball Park on Main Street, the Hall of Fame and Museum celebrate the Reds' past through galleries and extensive use of multimedia. The Hall of Fame has been in existence since 1958, but did not previously have a building.
A private party area located above the batter's eye.
The dimension of 404 feet (123 m) in center field is a tribute to the same center field dimension in the Reds' previous home, Riverfront Stadium.
A glass encased restaurant on the third level of the stadium that serves upscale food and has views of the field and the river.
Adjacent to both the stadium and the Reds Hall of Fame is a rose garden that symbolizes Pete Rose's record-breaking 4,192nd hit. It was strategically placed here because the ball landed around this area in Riverfront Stadium. The garden is visible from a stairwell in the hall of fame displaying the number of balls that Rose hit.
For the 2015 season, Great American Ball Park became the first MLB ballpark to feature a suite designed exclusively as a place for mothers to feed and care for their babies Reds COO Phil Castellini, a father of 5, says he felt compelled to do his best to provide a worthwhile solution after stadium officials told him an increasing number of women were asking where they could nurse their children at the ballpark. The suite has 5 glider chairs, diaper-changing stations, a restroom, a kitchenette, refrigerator, lockers, and televisions showing the game. It's located on the Suite Level near the Champions Club elevators.
After the 2008 season, all of the scoreboards in the park were replaced by new high-definition video displays. The Reds have a ten-year contract with the Daktronics company of Brookings, South Dakota, and also have contracted with Sony for the high-definition video cameras and production equipment, which will be operated from a renovated control room. A team of 25 people will be responsible for the content of the displays.
The previous displays were installed by the Trans-Lux company when Great American Ball Park was built. However, Trans-Lux went bankrupt, and the team could not find replacement parts.
"We were just limping through, hoping the old scoreboard would make it to the end of the 2008 season", said Reds spokesman Michael Anderson.
Jennifer Berger, Reds senior director of entertainment, events and production said that the Cincinnati Reds will assume the responsibility of the cost of maintaining the displays; the fans will not have to bear the brunt of paying for them.
The team expects to save money in the long term due to the displays' increased energy efficiency.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
Great American Ball Park is a baseball stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is the home field of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds. It opened in 2003, replacing Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), their home field from 1970 to 2002. The park's name comes from Great American Insurance Group.
The ballpark hosted the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The Reds put in $5 million for improvements, which included two new bars and upgraded concession stands.
In 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a ½% sales tax increase to fund the construction of new venues for both the Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). The Reds and the Bengals had previously shared occupancy of Cinergy Field, but by the mid-1990s, they complained that the multi-purpose stadium lacked amenities necessary for small-market professional sports teams to compete and each lobbied for venues of their own.[11] Nearby Paul Brown Stadium broke ground in 1998 and was opened on August 19, 2000.
Great American Ball Park was built by the architectural firms Populous (then HOK Sport) and GBBN at a cost of approximately US$290 million. It is located on the plot of land between the former site of Cinergy Field and US Bank Arena; it was known locally as the "wedge". The limited construction space necessitated the partial demolition of Cinergy Field. It was fully demolished on December 29, 2002.
The original address of Great American Ball Park was 100 Main Street. However, after the death of former pitcher and longtime broadcaster Joe Nuxhall in 2007, the address was changed to 100 Joe Nuxhall Way. A sign bearing Nuxhall's traditional signoff phrase "rounding third and heading for home" is located on the third base side exterior of the park. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is adjacent to Great American Ball Park. In honor of Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Reds' home park from 1912 to June 1970, a monument reminiscent of the park's infamous left field terrace was built on the main entrance plaza on Joe Nuxhall Way; statues of Crosley-era stars Nuxhall, catcher Ernie Lombardi, first baseman Ted Kluszewski, and outfielder Frank Robinson are depicted playing an imaginary baseball game.
A 35-foot-(10.7-m)-wide break in the stands between home plate and third base called "The Gap" is bridged by the concourse on each level (see photo). Aligned with Sycamore Street, it provides views into the stadium from downtown and out to the skyline from within the park.
In right center field, two smokestacks, reminiscent of the steamboats that were common on the Ohio River in the 19th and early 20th centuries, flash lights, emit flames and launch fireworks to incite or respond to the home team's efforts. When the Reds strike out a batter, fire blows out of the stacks beginning with the 2012 season (previously, steam was spewed out following a strikeout). Fireworks are launched from the stacks after every Reds home run and win. The seven baseball bats featured on both smokestacks symbolize the #14 of Pete Rose. On May 15, 2015, a part of the top of the right smokestack caught on fire during the 6th inning of a Reds game, caused by a loose propane valve, causing smoke to be blown across the field, several sections of seats to be evacuated, and the Cincinnati Fire Department being called to put it out. No one was injured.
A 50-foot-by-20-foot (15 x 6 m) Indiana limestone bas relief carving near the main entrance features a young baseball player looking up to the heroic figures of a batter, pitcher and fielder, all set against the background of many of Cincinnati's landmarks, including the riverfront and Union Terminal. Local designers and artist created the piece between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy, the sculptors of the scale model used for fabrication were Todd Myers and Paul Brooke with fabrication by Mees Distributors.
Just inside the main gates off the Crosley Terrace you will find two mosaic panels measuring 16 feet wide by 10 feet high. The mosaics depict two key eras in Reds history: "The First Nine", the 1869 Red Stockings who were the first professional baseball team in history with a record of 57-0 in their first season and "The Great Eight", the famous Big Red Machine that won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976. The mosaics were created between 2001 and 2003 with concept, design and project oversight / management by Berberich Design. The illustrative artist was Mark Riedy. These mosaic panels are made of opaque glass tiles and were produced in Ravenna, Italy by SICIS.
Panoramas of downtown Cincinnati, Mt. Adams, the Ohio River and Northern Kentucky are visible from most of the park.
At 217 feet, 9 inches (66.4 m) wide, the scoreboard from Daktronics is the sixth largest in Major League Baseball, and the 15th largest in the United States out of all LED screens. The Reds paid $4 million to install a new, LED scoreboard and high definition video screen in time for the 2009 season. The scoreboard did not add any size from the previous, but added HD quality. The scoreboard clock was originally a replica of the Longines clock at Crosley Field, but has since been modified.
If a Reds player hits the "Hit Me" sign located between the Power Stacks located in right field, a randomly selected fan will win the red Toyota Tundra pickup truck located on top of an elevator shaft approximately 500 feet (150 m) from home plate beyond the center field fence, which is valued at approximately US$31,000.
As a nod to Crosley Field, the Reds' home from 1912–1970, a monument was created in front of the main entrance to highlight the park's famous left-field terrace. Bronze statues of Crosley-era stars Joe Nuxhall, Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, and Frank Robinson (created by sculptor Tom Tsuchiya) are depicted playing in an imaginary ballgame. The grass area of the terrace has the same slope as the outfield terrace at Crosley Field.
A three-piece mural on the back of the scoreboard in left field depicts the bat Pete Rose used for his record-breaking 4,192nd hit and the ball he hit in 1985. This was replaced with new banners in 2015 as part of the All-Star Game upgrades.
Located on the west side of Great American Ball Park on Main Street, the Hall of Fame and Museum celebrate the Reds' past through galleries and extensive use of multimedia. The Hall of Fame has been in existence since 1958, but did not previously have a building.
A private party area located above the batter's eye.
The dimension of 404 feet (123 m) in center field is a tribute to the same center field dimension in the Reds' previous home, Riverfront Stadium.
A glass encased restaurant on the third level of the stadium that serves upscale food and has views of the field and the river.
Adjacent to both the stadium and the Reds Hall of Fame is a rose garden that symbolizes Pete Rose's record-breaking 4,192nd hit. It was strategically placed here because the ball landed around this area in Riverfront Stadium. The garden is visible from a stairwell in the hall of fame displaying the number of balls that Rose hit.
For the 2015 season, Great American Ball Park became the first MLB ballpark to feature a suite designed exclusively as a place for mothers to feed and care for their babies Reds COO Phil Castellini, a father of 5, says he felt compelled to do his best to provide a worthwhile solution after stadium officials told him an increasing number of women were asking where they could nurse their children at the ballpark. The suite has 5 glider chairs, diaper-changing stations, a restroom, a kitchenette, refrigerator, lockers, and televisions showing the game. It's located on the Suite Level near the Champions Club elevators.
After the 2008 season, all of the scoreboards in the park were replaced by new high-definition video displays. The Reds have a ten-year contract with the Daktronics company of Brookings, South Dakota, and also have contracted with Sony for the high-definition video cameras and production equipment, which will be operated from a renovated control room. A team of 25 people will be responsible for the content of the displays.
The previous displays were installed by the Trans-Lux company when Great American Ball Park was built. However, Trans-Lux went bankrupt, and the team could not find replacement parts.
"We were just limping through, hoping the old scoreboard would make it to the end of the 2008 season", said Reds spokesman Michael Anderson.
Jennifer Berger, Reds senior director of entertainment, events and production said that the Cincinnati Reds will assume the responsibility of the cost of maintaining the displays; the fans will not have to bear the brunt of paying for them.
The team expects to save money in the long term due to the displays' increased energy efficiency.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
For many years small local AM radio stations were the primary source of news, information and entertainment for the community. Most operated from sunrise to sunset. Many of these stations have signed off for the final time as their listeners are using more modern forms of communications and rarely listen to local radio broadcasts. As a result of low listenership, those stations cannot attract enough advertisers to pay the bills. Somehow, WEPG-AM in South Pittsburg, Tennessee is still hanging on, but it may not be too many more sunsets before the signoff announcements are made, the national anthem is played, and the transmitter is shut down for the final time.
To control Information Technology (IT) costs we think about and act within the enterprise as a whole, in part because we sell enterprise and mid-level solutions. We apply an Enterprise Architecture (EA) strategy which at the top level is comprised of infrastructure and communication considerations. This is not just about technical infrastructure, defined or designed by IT, because it is highly likely that such individual solutions (one offs) will not align to core business strategies (vertical needs verses horizontal needs spanning the whole company).
It is not really possible to do this, that is consider the entire company's needs, without significant participation by the business for which we use terms such as Solution Delivery or Product Management. Product and program managers from a solution delivery framework gather information, report back to the business, and return to apply the business strategies to align with short, medium, and especially long term business goals.
This business and implementation strategy focus is a change agent, to reduce siloed thinking, and achieve more horizontal capability across units. We reduce multiple applications, which take time to manage and maintain, and where it makes sense, fold them into one. Because we take security and privacy of our customers very seriously, any applications which may be at risk have been identified and are brought up into our standards. The process of combining risk management goals, application and data reduction streams saves money, although the process of so much change at once can be stressful at the unit, project, and personal levels.
We seek to empower self-service among our partners, customers and employees, for access to all kinds of information they need, and internally reduce redundant data stores, for example referring to customers by one identifier if possible. This is especially challenging in our partner relationships with multiple data stores that contain similar information about customers which are identified in completely different ways. This is the reason for serious data modeling and tight or loose coupling where needed – to retrieve and move information back to the partner systems. We leverage Microsoft software, and then buy, build, minimize or reuse existing systems.
In order to be more successful in our efforts to control IT costs we strive to increase flexibility among existing staff and provide rewards for strategic thinking – this strategic thinking aligns along company-wide goals. We need people with the right skills who work in efficient methods, only including the people who need to be included to make decisions or act. In fact we need to change confrontational and passive aggressive behaviors internally to collaborative personality styles – changing the organizations culture is doable but difficult. For more information I recommend reading "The Heart of Change" by Kotter and Cohen.
The technologies we invest in to help control IT costs are our own. We custom write stuff served up on Microsoft servers and plan to use SharePoint as the UI for our new change request tool. We are substantially reducing and eliminating the number of different applications (SQL stored procedures or XML Blobs mostly) we use and maintain on a daily basis. We are moving from C++ to C#/.NET (C Sharp and .Net technologies).
We use Microsoft software as our strategy to control IT costs - it is easy to manage, and has great support. Some team members keep an eye on relevant Open Source software as competitive analysis. When we use it, we know not only how but why.
Our company is getting the maximum value from its data center investment because we have not invested to the level we need for our infrastructure. We expect to remediate this lack of investment after deploying skilled, thoughtful product managers with the right combination of education and practical experience to assist in this effort through the next couple of years.
What is our organization doing to maximize the value from its data center investment? In addition to the other things mentioned we outsource development and support to India, Israel, and developing countries, etc. We also are making use of tax advantaged locations for large savings in transactions.
We are adding metrics and measurements by which we evaluate not just personal progress but internal and external customer satisfaction with our IT initiatives on a project by project basis to self-improve.
The practices which enable us to maximize value from our IT investment are varied and multifaceted. To maximize ongoing investment we are adding solution delivery strategies, planning ahead, and aligning IT with company-wide goals. Of course in our space we have some unique issues, and as a public company even more so. One thing that may surprise you is some of our projects we do end to end locally because of how critical success is. We leverage our best, most successful local managers to produce projects and design larger scale solutions if we determine it is the best strategy – so in this way we are flexible – we don't just out source everything.
We are in the process of reducing the number of applications we need to maintain, and where it is appropriate fold one into another so long as the user interface or back ends do not become unmanageable. We are making over our change request platform from top to bottom which we feel will enable quicker turnarounds on change requests – it is both loosely and tightly coupled where it needs to be. For the presentation layer we choose Microsoft SharePoint.
Conversely, what factors are inhibiting our organization from reaping the maximum value from its data center investments? The factors inhibiting the maximum value include a lack of foresight in strategic planning for long term goals –
1. Putting temporary things together to just meet immediate needs.
2. Focusing on small details and not seeing the big picture.
3. Lack of metrics to evaluate progress, process, and client / customer / partner success.
4. Unwillingness of team members to change or promote change even when it is in their and the companies' best interest.
5. Having too many data centers, identifying customers in too many ways.
How important is productivity within the IT function in our efforts to control IT costs and maximize our data center investment? Functionality, capacity, and reliability far outstrip productivity, but that is only because we have already hit very high productivity goals and exceeded them. Here are some of the metrics we examine:
Metrics
Percentage of project budgeted costs
Scope requirements
Total cost of ownership
Traceability
Defects rate (sev1, sev2, sev3 bugs - zero tolerance for sev1)
Completed requirements
Customer satisfaction scores (cust sats)
Schedule slippage
Flexibility of management styles
End-to-end throughput time per client-side user request
System extensibility
Scalability
Maintainability
Defects per thousand lines of code (KLOC or by function)
Support functionality and documentation availability, and completeness prior to launch
Rates of failure
Restoration (emergency)
Availability
Test effectiveness
Business acceptance
System acceptance (signoff)
Average turn around time for service and change requests
Number of security or privacy defects (last two should be zero tolerance in launch candidates)
Number of post freeze change requests
Among the mandatory metrics used are peer review effectiveness of code, and post mortems and overall customer satisfaction. In other words we do not consider just ontime delivery of products, enhancements, or new functionality.
What is our organization doing to improve productivity within its IT function?
Getting the right people – some people grew with us or came to us with deep knowledge from the school of hard knocks – work experience – we seek to capture the most knowledgeable and either increase their education or find those with both practical work experience and advanced degrees. Good thing this is Seattle with its heavily educated population. New programs at the university level such as Informatics and Information Management are producing the people we need – not just MBAs or Master of Comp Sci - because so much of our development work we outsource to India and developing countries, and IT is not traditionally closely aligned with marketing or sales. We do outsource much of the development work as is possible.
The undergrad Informatics and Master of Science in Information Management programs at the University of Washington are housed in Mary Gates' Hall, renovated and named in honor of Bill Gate's late mother, it's headed by Mike Crandall (Dublin Core, Microsoft, Boeing). So you can see this is the direction we are going regionally, because that is where the spend is. Another great information school is at the University of California at Berkeley, housed in one of the oldest and most architecturally beautiful collegiate buildings on the west coast, South Hall. On the physical level all Berkeley had to do is add wireless. Excellent academics such as the seminal thinker Dr Michael Buckland are there at Berkeley, and business leaders such as Mitch Kapor. Industry wide I think iSchools are having an effect, adding a more well rounded, even playful culture to high tech operations.
Improving and opening the culture is important. Having a shared lexicon is one of the benefits of educated people; those with MSIM (master of science in information management), Informatics, technical MBA degrees can comunicate effectively with highly technical people - this can produce enormous savings and long term cost benefits. Increased, clear, enthusiastic communication saves IT costs.
In strategy meetings, for example, we often include Enterprise Architects to assist in stack ranking program and project development, because this helps reduce redundant systems.
Our organization's ability to measure the return on investment (ROI) or success of its IT investments is “Fair but mixed,” we want ROI to be easily measureable and this means evaluating the correct things, asking the right questions in the first place, not following other organizations techniques, although we examine them as examples.
We are adding ways to evaluate our ROI – we do use business analysis methods. There is always an identifiable way to analyze and measure the relationship of what something costs even if it appears intangible such as Brand protection.
Considering the strategic and tactical stuff we are doing, at the core, creativity is what drives our success. Creativity is always a very difficult thing to measure. In fact it could be said that if you try, you are barking up the wrong tree. However creative thinking around practical goals has provided us success. This is where the ideas around flexibility and being very responsive come to play.
We have found very very high ROI around outsourced projects because they must be clearly defined within the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) compliance.
Those people who actually think out of the box are oftentimes not recognized by co-workers and management. Change is perceived as negative among full time staff. We seek to show support for both full time employees and consultants, and change this view and enhance their ability to communicate ideas. That is why our management keeps an open door policy. Unfortunately like any other policies the hazard is that individual managers must believe in our policies around openness and creativity; such self-selecting polices are impossible to enforce.
Our organization uses balanced scorecards, Six Sigma and other types of internally derived quantitative value measurement methods to measure the ROI or success of our IT investments.
The continued use of these methods we expect will substantially improve the management and measurement of our IT investments. Some of the metrics are at the discretion of the product or program manager, others are mandatory. In part we have some success- at issue is adopting metrics and measurement as well as Enterprise Architecture and engaging with open arms increased strategic thinking and planning.
Senior management must come together and present a unified strategy for the entire company – which is a top down management style but it must be embraced from the bottom up. This is within a framework of enforced change as we seek to achieve excellence in all of our business units, especially in core infrastructure – those units which either produce money, or cost money. Some of our key investments we know are lost leaders, but other research will more than make up for those. Enforced change in this context means business units receive minimum budget until they comply.
We are still feeling the effects of the changes the Web brings in enterprise directly and for our customers; we continue to learn from the effects of communities and communication via the Web. The opportunities for growth are so enormous that it is all the more important that we curb spending where it is not required and apply it as much as possible to grow in creative arenas which still have huge untapped profit potential. It is not just about money, among hard core technologists – those who really love it – money is secondary in many ways - it’s about the fun stuff technology can bring as well as the benefit to serve humanity that technology brings.
High tech, information technology, and software development have made some strides to maturity but we are still learning new things; it will be a learning industry, discovering and inventing stuff for a long time to come.
p.s.
Enforced Change is a radically different challenge, and promises different ways of looking at human-to-human, individual-to-corporation, corporate-to-corporate, human-to- computer interactions, etc, which I plan to cover in future articles, so stay tuned!
Note about this photograph: (rant inserted in July, 2015)
As you can see this photo has been up for nearly 8 years and, as of late, I had come to the realization that there are sleezy operators on the internet who will stop at nothing to make money on their sites by swiping other's work and displaying ads and giving NO attribution or credit to the original creator. I had originally posted this photo on Flickr and realized that it was getting more views than all of my other photos combined. So I set out to document what it was that made this particular building famous in my patently verbose way. I noticed that the more I typed and especially after adding links, the more views it got.
Originally on Google image search, it wended its way up to the first place if one searched for "Scranton Prep". That was not really my intention as the School itself should have top billing. I would settle for row 5 or 6 on page 1! Anyway, one day a couple of years ago, it fell totally off the Google radar and was only available if one was to add "Flickr" in the query. I don't really care as I am not really interested in the number of views though I found it interesting that this particular photo got so many views.
So then, in the interest of appeasing the Google gods and obtaining their algorithmic absolution, I put the same photo on Panaramio, another google property. This also allowed it to be viewed in Google Earth which I thought would get me the indulgence I was seeking on Google image search. Wrong!
So along comes this sleeze bag operator from the Czech republic by the moniker mapio.com which was using my photo (along with others that they swiped including the Scranton Fire Department) as background for their commercial pages, which, from what I can tell is a source of revenue as they display text ads for mostly educational sites.
Instead of my Flickr photo working its way back up, they chose my image which was expropriated by mapio (interestingly, they swiped it from Panaramio! - I don't know or care if Google is aware of it) Interestingly, even though I deleted my photo from Panaramio, it is still displayed on the top row of pictures (not in full resolution though) of Google image search though no longer on the mapio site as a background. Further, if one goes to mapio.com there is no way to leave feedback as in "I don't appreciate that you stole my photo without attribution".
If you go to their plain vanilla web address, mapio.com, you would not realize that they do more than rent out apartments in London without further digging. It is ironic that Google image search continues to display the mapio photo as if it belongs there even though they swiped it from Panaramio and it is no longer there! That obviously means that mapio has the photo cached.
That is the real reason for this rant. At the very minimum, any site wanting to use anyone else's photo or other media, should request permission to do so. I have had a few requests for that type of thing and I was glad to do so. Also, my photo not need to be the #1 photo (it is and has been on Yahoo image search which uses Bing as their search engine). I do not need to be embarrasingly successful...
Update 5-15-15
Though you can see an an approximation of the above image at google images, it is now a low resolution version hosted by flip.life (whoever they are) and, if one was to click on the "View Page" for further information, there is no information, in fact there is no photo!
Update: 5-16-15
Of all things, my actual Flickr photo is the one displayed on google images once again. It shows that, with persistence, one can take control of one's internet presence even if it is via a circuitous and devious route.
-- END of RANT --
Just sit back and eat the popcorn and enjoy our main feature...
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--------------------- The Scranton Preparatory School ------------------------
---------------------------------- aka Scranton Prep ----------------------------------
----- 1000 Wyoming Avenue in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA -----
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The vantage point of this photo is through the fence abutting the railroad tracks behind the school's athletic field; the school itself is seen beyond the field and Wyoming Avenue. One of two relatively recent (2005+) additions can be seen to the left of the main building. It is actually the second iteration of wings built on the site of the former outdoor basketball courts and, like the smaller former wing, houses a gymnasium. The complementary addition on the right contains science laboratories and a lecture hall. That addition is not as large because it does not have the depth (from front to back) as it abuts a car dealership.
The Scranton Preparatory School, "Prep", was founded in 1944 by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and was originally located in the 300 block of Wyoming Avenue. Its first home was a building next to the Cathedral rectory which had been vacated by the University of Scranton (formerly Saint Thomas College) when the university relocated to larger quarters at the Scranton estate in the area of Madison Avenue and Linden Street. That building is gone; its replacement is a prayer garden.
Prep later moved to a building at the east corner of the same block at the intersection of Wyoming Avenue and Mulberry Street. That building formerly housed the Thompson Private Hospital.
.The school remained there until 1961 when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania decided to widen Mulberry Street resulting in the demolition of the building. There was a two-year temporary relocation to a building at the University of Scranton while a new site was located. An ideal candidate was located in the 1000 block of Wyoming Avenue at the site of the former Women's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences* (see footnote below) , a branch of the International Correspondence Schools. The school relocated to that building, pictured here, in 1963.
. Prep's enrollment grew substantially in 1971 as a result of the additional students from the all-girls' Marywood Seminary whose building had been destroyed by fire. Prior to the combination, Prep had been an all-boys' school. The current enrollment for the school (2016-17) is 775 students.
. If this building looks somewhat familiar, you may have seen its image in the old Popular Mechanics among others. Page three of the magazine was many times a full page advertisement for the International Correspondence Schools (ICS), which advertised heavily in popular technical magazines and had their headquarters in Scranton. The building was featured in the upper left corner of their study manuals and and there was nearly always a likeness of one of their manuals in the advertisement. Too, there was usually a bright yellow, double tear-off postage-paid return card for those interested in furthering their education in "The World's Schoolhouse". (Who or what was the second one for??!).
. The athletic field in the foreground of the above photo was previously occupied by a factory known as Haddon Craftsmen, the printing subsidiary of ICS. It occupied the entire block across the street from the Women's Institute. In perhaps the ultimate example of addressing simplicity and a study of worker/management dichotomy , the Women's Institute's address was 1000 Wyoming Avenue and Haddon's address was 1001 Wyoming Avenue. It pretty much boiled down to the boys being on one side of the street and the girls on the other. Amazing things can happen when there is one building per block on each side.
Haddon printed the course books for the correspondence courses as well as other textbooks for Intext (The International Textbook Company), the parent company of ICS that supplied textbooks used in college courses. In its latter days before it closed, Haddon Craftsmen was spun off from Intext and printed, among other things, paperback book selections for the Book of the Month Club.
.One mysteriously vanished detail of the demolition of the Haddon Craftsmen printing plant is an historical marker honoring Thomas J. Foster, the founder of ICS, which adorned the plant on the Wyoming Avenue side. In a rather grandiose proclamation, it stated that ICS was the "World's Schoolhouse". You can see an image of the plaque along with a comprehensive narrative of ICS's raison d'etre here. A rendering of the Haddon Craftsmen printing plant can be seen here. The vantage point for this image is catty-cornered to Haddon, in other words, if you were in the north corner of Coyer Motors, a tiny Pontiac dealership with room for a single automobile in its showroom. That property is now home to that paragon of fast food haute cuisine, Wendy's.
There is a street off to the left called Institute Way. The volume of mail was such that ICS had its own zone code (15, as in Scranton 15 Penna.) which later became zip code 18515 and is used to this very day by its successor institution Penn Foster . The value of having its own zip code has been largely attenuated, given that the terms "distance learning" and "online learning" have replaced "mail correspondence course" in the parlance of this type of education. Stamps are now optional!
When ICS moved to "new and improved" quarters on Oak Street in North Scranton in 1963, this building became the home of Prep. Along with classrooms and a chapel, it had residential quarters for the Jesuits on the 4th floor and a TV/radio station (not related to the school) in the basement.
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* NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE *
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If you read on, you will see that there is a quiz at the end of this passage. It is recommended that, if one chooses to take the quiz, that it be self-scored.
As you may have NOTICEd, this segment is conveniently perforated so that you can cut and paste it and take it home if desired. If you are already at home, then you are already at home.
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********************* DO NOT attempt to mail it in! **********************
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The following is related only tangentially to the current building and is included for historical and amusement purposes only. It is not required reading for present day Cavaliers.
If you are, or have ever been a Cavalier after 1976 the following is arcane and superfluous information and will not appear on the graduation test. You need not read it!
Those who graduated in or before 1976 will be quizzed on call letters, frequencies, and TV and radio personalities.
One final preface to the next section is that, as usual, the people behind the scenes, the engineers, camera persons, secretaries, and others really deserve a lot of credit for any broadcast organization's success. They are, perhaps by omission and invisibility, the unsung heroes of broadcasting. This is largely because we never hear their names or see fast-scrolling credits which may or may not include them. What we see and hear on a daily basis is the "talent" or on-air personalities who are also essential and, because of their notoriety, appear to be 100% of tele-organizations. So, in a some way, we owe a good deal of gratitude to these invisible people for their contributions.
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--------------------------- TALES OF THE BASEMENT -----------------------------
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.First there was radio...
. In the olden days (the '60s and '70s), the basement of Prep was home to WGBI-TV (later changed to WDAU - channel 22) and WGBI-AM (910 kHz) and later WGBI-FM (101.3 mHz) radio. All were affiliates of the Columbia Broadcasting Sytem (CBS). The stations were owned by the Megargee family whose mainstay was the paper business.
Market penetration by the Megargee Paper Company, paper-wise, was such that its ubiquity ensured that no matter in which area restroom one chose to relieve oneself, it was assured that the label on the toilet paper and paper towel dispensers bore their brand.
.In the real olden days and after several frequency changes, WQAN (a Scranton Times/Lynett media company) and WGBI-AM (a Megargee of paper fame station) both broadcasted on 880kHz, the former from dawn until noon and the latter from noon until signoff. The stations operated at 1000 watts during the daytime and 500 watts at night.
.WQAN and WGBI shared the 880kHz frequency from the early 1930s until 1941 when the shared frequency was changed to 910kHz. This continued until 1948 when WQAN was allotted the 630kHz slot.
Urban legend has it that WQAN stood for "We Quit At Noon". That may be the actual derivation of the station's call letters. WQAN's call letters were changed to WEJL in January of 1954, the letters EJL being the initials of the newspaper's publisher Edward J. Lynett. According to the same urban legend types, the letters GBI in WGBI stood for "God Bless the Irish".
WGBI AM kept the 910kHz frequency and continued to use it for many years. Its mainstay was (both!) country and western music with the usual news and weather reports.
When Entercom lost its lease on WBZU's transmitter site on Davis Street in South Scranton in 2006, (WBZU is the current call letters of WGBI's 910kHz frequency) it set the stage for an ironic twist of fate. It turns out that WBZU and WEJL (formerly WGBI and WQAN) are once again located, equipment-wise, in the same location. This time, it is in the Scranton TImes building that the twain meet and their their transmitters are in the same room. Both broadcast from the tower atop the Scranton Times building at Penn Avenue and Spruce Street. These stations, which had parted company in 1948 are, once again, broadcasting side by side after a nearly 60 year hiatus!
...then came along that new-fangled invention, the television...
WGBI radio predated the televison station by nearly three decades. WGBI-AM began broadcasting in 1925 and WGBI-TV began in 1953.
In 1958 the McGargee family, the owners of WGBI TV, entered into a limited partnership with the Philadelphia Bulletin newspaper which operated WCAU TV in Philadelphia. The call letters of the TV station were then changed to WDAU. The Bulletin opted to sell WCAU, which then became a network O&O (owned and operated) and keep the smaller WDAU when forced by the Federal Communications Commission to divest itself of one of the television stations. The FCC deemed that there was too much signal overlap in the Lehigh Valley (Allentown) area where both signals were available. The partnership was dissolved a year later in 1959, the Bulletin selling its share back to the McGargees.
.In this era, Channel 22 was, hands down, the TV station as, along with the best local news gathering organization, the station was part of the CBS network which was the radio and television network. The local TV competition was WBRE, the NBC affiliate, and WNEP, the ABC affiliate. Too, there was a fair amount of synergy between TV and radio whereby some of the talent, including Tom Reilly and Bill White, among others, appeared on both media. Just imagine, one could watch the 6 o'clock news and on the way to the store in their '57 Chevy hear the same people talking at them!
.The entire TV menu at this time consisted of WDAU-22 (CBS), WBRE-28 (NBC), and WNEP-16 (ABC). Yes children, until WVIA, the PBS affiliate appeared on the scene in 1966, the entire TV world consisted of 3 TV stations! Nearly all broadcast stations, and TV sets for that matter, were black and white prior to 1965.
These were the days before the remote control; the term "couch potato" was not yet vernacular. One, upon hearing the phrase, might have thought that there was a misplaced spud on your davenport. TV viewers did not have the option of swiftly rotating though 500 channels of nothingness; three were plenty. One effect of the actual effort required to change channels is that people, many times, left their set tuned to a single station for an entire night. Too, it was a contest among the networks to see if they could lure you into leaving the dial set to their station.
.To add to the complexity of owning a set, there were many older TVs which received VHF only and in order to receive the UHF stations (those from 14 to 83), one needed a "converter box" as all TV stations in the Great Northeast (PA) were UHF. The converter box was a little box which sat atop the TV through which the antenna wire was routed, some electronic mumble jumble took place and then the resultant signal was routed to the TV via channel 3. These boxes (why are there always boxes involved with TV?) also had a separate electrical plug as they contained tubes. The TV was tuned to channel 3 (sound familiar?!!) and then one tuned the set through the converter box.
.As a bonus, semi-off topic, aside, I present the following:
Did you know that the TVs of old, the ones with the cathode ray tubes, (the analog ones) could be used to detect tornadoes or other storms in your area? It seems that storms broadcast on channel 2, much as channel 2 did. The method involved tuning the set to channel 13 and turning the brightness down just to where the screen was darkened and then tuning the set to channel 2. If there was a storm in the area, with each lightning strike, you would see the corresponding spikes on your CRT (here we are using the TV in monitor mode and hopefully you do not live in a city where there is an actual channel 2 broadcasting to spoil the fun). If there was an approaching tornado, the entire screen would glow so you knew to unplug your set and proceed directly to your tornado shelter. Maybe it would be best to place the TV in your tornado shelter and watch it until the power went out. By the way, there is nothing preventing you from trying this out if you have an old set lying aroud the house which has not been sacrificed due to our penchant for more pixels and the latest and greatest 3D 16384p 60" 7.1 theatre surround sound flat screen HD TV screens. Compare this product description with "da tube" which pretty much described a TV set in days gone by.
.For those of you who might be inclined to think that the previous passage was fabricated so that I might up my tube cred and continue my propensity for verbosity, which, given the lack of brevity in this mere photo description (!) seems not out of the realm of possibility, see the following link: Storms on TV
.End of bonus segment, now back to our regularly scheduled program
.Though their signals were easy to pick up in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre "metro areas", it was nearly impossible to get a signal outside of these urban areas. It seems that the undulating topography of heynaville (for clarification and further information on everything heyna, see Tutorial on Heynabonics ), otherwise known as Northeastern Pennsylvania, wreaks havoc on the electromagnetic emissions known as television signals. Simply stated, the folks out in the boonies could not get the TV signals.
.At this juncture in the annals of TV, a person in a metro area could easily get TV signals using a bow tie or rabbit-ear indoor antenna. The main problem with the "stronger" signal in these areas is that sometimes the signal could "ghost", a phenomenon whereby the viewer would not only see the intended transmission but, at times, a slightly off-registration "ghost" of the picture. These ghosts were caused by TV signals reflecting off large buildings or other objects. Many of these aberrations could be resolved by having someone else move the antenna about while you observed the screen. The best picture, it seems, always managed to leave the antenna holder/adjuster in a Twister-like body position and there were the predictable gripes as he/she put the antenna in a position "about" where it was optimum.
.Those in the intermediate area, say 8 to 10 miles away, depending on topography, could get a reasonable facsimile of a picture with an outdoor, roof-mounted antenna. It was found that wrapping a bit of aluminum foil around the antenna lead-in wire aided in minor adjustments to the picture. So if you needed to get rid of a minor ghost or snowy picture, the picture could be adjusted by sliding the foil up or down the wire as needed. People outside this range were able to get signals mostly through sheer will power and the expenditure of a goodly amount of funds for outdoor, roof-mounted antennae.
At this point, the only things keeping one from a clear TV picture were electromagnetic pulses, coronal mass ejections leading to minor EMPs), snow, fog, the cold war, high winds, communists, and rain. Reception, along with the dreaded horizontal and vertical hold adjustments on the TV required perseverance and experimentation if one was to be an avid TV watcher.
...it was then decreed that all TVs must have a coaxial cable attached and thus ended "free" TV as we knew it...
To solve the problem of lack of, or, at best, lousy, signal, the stations employed "translators" (no these were not people who translated heynabonics to English for the broadcasts!). These were additional broadcast towers distributed around NEPA (northeast Pennsylvania) to allow folks in say, Palmerton, Slatedale, and Slatington to get a reasonable semblance of a signal. These were not received on the regular station number, 22 in the case of WDAU, but rather, say for example, channel 18 in Clarks Summit or 52 in Hop Bottom.
Coincident with the rise of the translator, there was another industry, in its nascent stage, supplying TV signals to those who still had no reception. It was something called cable TV (or, in broadcast parlance, Community Antenna Television, or CATV) whose mission was to carry the local stations out to the valleys to the south and west where reception was otherwise impossible. This amounted to a guy locating an antenna on top of a mountain where he could receive the signal, amplify it by electronic means, and sell the signal to customers who were along the route of the wire. The charge was $2.00 per month for the service. They too had all of 3 stations on their schedule, though some subscribers in the southern reaches could get additional stations from the Philadelphia or New York areas.
Yes folks, cable TV was invented here in hard coal country in the little 'burgh of Mahanoy City so that an appliance store owner could sell more TVs. Though you may curse your Comcast or Time Warner cable bill, without cable it was impossible for a goodly segment of the population to receive any moving pictures on the television and for others to receive a clear signal.
Service Electric, which started operations in 1948 and still in business today, was a pioneer in the field. That may be why the first official broadcast of HBO was made from New York to Wilkes Barre in 1972 on Service Electric, a fact attested to on a bronze plaque on Public Square in Wilkes Barre.
--Yet another bonus, semi-off topic aside:
Certain areas in the Pocono mountains such as Tobyhanna and Mount Pocono were TV heaven. You could, with a moderate investment in an external VHF/UHF outdoor antenna, receive all the New York and Philadelphia stations plus the local UHF stations. Nearly the entire VHF dial from 2 to 13 had available stations. The quality of the signal depended on the weather and the amount spent on the antenna. Those with the best reception had the full dresser Channel Master fish bone antenna with the 360 degree rotating motor for VHF. You would turn on the desired station and turn the direction dial to the direction of the source station. Most times these directions were either known or actually marked on the rotation control knob. Some of the stations available were WCBS, KYW, WNBC, WNEW, WPVI, WABC, WOR, WCAU, WPIX, and WNET. It was like having cable before cable!
-- End of bonus segment. We now rejoin our regularly scheduled blurb which is already in progress.
.An odd situation was caused by the expensive AT&T/Bell System leased line to New York City for WDAU to recieve network programming. Rather than pay what they considered the exorbitant fee, a microwave relay system was set up to receive broadcast signal from WCBS in New York. This system was not unlike the system set up for cable TV where a receiver was placed on a mountain top and the signal was amplified. In this case, instead of being fed into a cable system, the signal was passed along to the next microwave tower in the chain. In the case of WDAU, the primary receiver was in Effort, PA in the Poconos and the signal was then beamed to the transmitter building atop the West Mountain in Scranton.
A problem occurred when WDAU had to sync with the CBS network for national programming. The engineers in the studio weren't able to see the WCBS signal and therefore an engineer had to be stationed at the transmitter to effect the changes as needed. This all had to be done with precise timing rather than cues from the station. Presumably there also had to be a switch at the commercials so those in Scranton would see commercials for da Acme and the Scranton Dry and not Crazy Eddie's commercials which were, as self-proclaimed, totally insane.
WDAU was not alone in having a cobbled-together system as similar methods were employed by WBRE in getting NBC's signal from New York to Wilkes-Barre and WNEP in getting ABC's signal from New York to Avoca. A side effect of all this cobbled-togetherness was that the TV signals' quality was, from time to time, not quite up to broadcast standards and there were the predictable complaints.
...they somehow all managed to operate in the cramped quarters....
When the local news made its debut on WDAU and other local TV stations, it was uncharted territory; they were flying by the seat of their pants, so to speak. The segments were 15 minutes long and consisted largely of the newsman reading reporter-generated news or copy from the newspaper. These documents were either held in his hand or laid on the desk, either of which required the anchor to be looking down a good deal of the time. There would be an occasional quick look up at the camera, hoping that his newspeak buffer did not run dry or his reading and speaking would get out of sync.
At this point in TV history, TV studios (also known as "sets") were rather primitive. Instead of having green screens , which enabled "chroma key", a method of cutting and pasting the talent's image superimposed over other graphics, the backdrop consisted of a textured, glittered wall. The field reporters were not giving live updates with the attendant graphics for their names and story lines; these were all shot on site on film and processed back at the station. In the weather segment, there were no dynamically updated, full color doppler radar weather updates. The highs, lows, and weather fronts were magnets arranged on a display board map.
These were the days before the teleprompter, chryron, chroma key, superimposed picture-in-picture and all the other equipment which give today's news broadcasts a very polished appearance.
What was remarkable was that, in this limited space, along with TV and radio studios and the requisite control rooms, there was a film processing area and a film library (Who can forget those "Movie for a Sunday Afternoon" etc. where cowboys and indians, Lawrence of Arabia type, and infinite World War 2, movies were played until the film reels wore out??!).
This was an era before ENG (Electronic News Gathering) where the live remote via microwave and later satellite was still a dream. The news was captured entirely on film shot by the photographers at the scene and rushed to the station and processed, hopefully in time for the next news broadcast. Submarine designers or NASA could surely have taken a clue on space utilization from this organization, where every cubic inch had to matter!
...and, as with all empires, it too must fall...
.Alas all of the former McGargee broadcasting empire has morphed into other entities. WDAU-TV was sold to Keystone Broadcasters in 1984 and redesignated WYOU. They initially moved broadcasting operations to the former Kresge's store which abutted the Scranton Dry Goods store on Lackawanna Avenue.
.That change also marked the end of the common ownership of the TV and radio stations. WYOU - the former WDAU (Channel 22 (13) - CBS affiliate), is currently owned by Mission Broadcasting and operated by the same company, Nexstar, that owns WBRE (Channel 28 (11) - NBC affiliate) in Wilkes-Barre. Both TV stations are currently located in the same building on Franklin Street near Public Square.
One downside to the WYOU/WBRE merger is that, upon the consolidation of the studios to Franklin Street in Wilkes Barre and the relocation of all their transmitters to Penobscot Mountain near Mountaintop, they decided to do away with all of their translators. Contrast that with WNEP which still maintains several translators reaching all the way to State College in the middle of the state and one can easily see why WYOU/WBRE are a distant 2nd and 3rd place finishers when it comes to audience size in the NEPA market. The Nexstar philosophy is that 90% of the people watching their station(s) are receiving it on cable therefore they don't need the expense of multiple translators.
.The radio stations were sold to Entercom in the early 1990s. WGBI-FM (101.3mHz) which had a soft rock format is now WGGY in Pittston doing a country thing. WGBI-AM (910khz) which was unabashedly country is now part of the greater WILK AM/FM conglomerate. It has a talk format that simulcasts in Wilkes Barre, Scranton, and Hazleton, and has a nearly 50 mile monopoly on talk radio in the region.
WGBI AM now bears the undignified moniker of WBZU AM and is merely, to use TV jargon, a translator. Though running on the classic 910kHz frequency, it is a tool with no personality of its own. Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, Ferlin Husky, and Merle Haggard surely are not tuned to BZU in their respective places of rest.
When WDAU moved out of Prep in 1984, its new home was the former Kresge's 5 and 10 Cent Store (note the F. W. Woolworth store further up the block, about the 4th iteration of Woolworth's opened by C. S. Woolworth mentioned at the outset of this description) downtown on Lackawanna Avenue. It remained there until Southern Union, a gas and oil conglomerate whose operations were largely located in Texas, through the beneficence of a hometown boy, bought the property and demolished Kresge's to build their expensive and fleeting headquarters. WYOU/WBRE then moved their Scranton operations next door to a corner of the Scranton Dry Goods building at Wyoming and Lackawanna Avenues. These days, WYOU, the formerly fabulously fantastic WDAU plays second fiddle to its ugly big sister WBRE.
...and that, folks, is the brief, concise history of a diminished broadcasting empire whose greatness will live on only in our memories and imaginations (and of course on Flickr!).
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------------------------------------ UPDATES ----------------------------------------------
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This will be updated periodically as the various internets and time allow.
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Update April 3, 2009
WYOU announced that they will no longer be doing local news. They will offer Judge Judy or some similar tripe in its place. Sadly, they probably will have higher ratings.
Further Update sometime later 2012
WYOU once again has local news. It is a simulcast with its sister station WBRE. The only difference in the newscasts is the superimposed logo at the bottom right corner of the screen identifying the station one happens to be viewing.
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---------------------- New and Improved: Quizzes -----------------------------
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This section will be updated periodically and I will post an email address where you can send your test for grading.
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WDAU quiz:
1. The main news anchor for much of the 60s was:
a. Mark Hiller
b. John Glough
c. Derry Bird
d. Perry Como
e. David DeCosmo
f. Franklin D. Coslett
g. John Perry
h. Hoyt Keiser
i. Tom Powell
j. Tom Bigler
k. Joey Shaver
l. Jerry Griffin
j. Bill O'reilly
2. A typical news/weather/sports lineup in the 60s would include (pick 3):
a. Vince Sweeny
b. Bill White
c. Harry West
d. Jack Doneger
e. Bill Flanagan
f. Nolan Johannes
g. Debbie Dunlavey
h. Jim Mustard
i. John Perry
j. Joe Zone
k. Tom Reilly
l. Lorri Lewis
m. J. Kristopher
n. Phil Cummins
o. Joe Dobbs
p. John Glawe
q. Bob Carroll
3. The signoff (Remember when TV stations actually signed off?) for WDAU started with:
a. The national anthem
b. "Hey all you coal miners out there..."
c. "From the basement of Scranton Prep..."
d. "Serving the industrial valleys of Pennsylvania..."
e. "That's all for today..."
4. The nearest donut/coffee shop to (and possibly half of the customer base of) WDAU was:
a. Mr. Donut
b. Curry Donut
c. Krispy Kreme
d. Dunkin Donuts
5. The official licensees of WDAU/WGBI was/were:
a. Roy Stauffer's Chevrolet
b. Megargee Paper Co.
c. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Broadcasting Inc.
d. International Correspondence TV Inc.
e. Coyer Motors
f. Scranton Broadcasters Inc.
g. Burne Oldsmobile
6. During Station Identification (yet another "remember those"? questions), along with the call letters, channel number, and location, the following was shown:
a. A commercial
b. Public Service Announcements
c. Time and Temperature
d. Current Mine Subsidence information
e. School Closings
7. As part of WDAU's signoff each night, a video of an Air Force plane flying at high speed and altitude and accompanied by a (rather dramatic) poem by John Gillespie Magee was shown. The poem, whose last stanza is excerpted here:
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
was shown just prior to the national anthem. That poem was called:
a. Flying High
b. Hang 'em High
c. Twelve O'clock High
d. High Flight Poem
8. This is a quasi off-topic question: (quasi because it surely was reported on by WDAU) : The out-of-contol truck, the one popularized in Harry Chapin's immortal ballad "30,000 Pounds of Bananas", after overturning and disgorging its contents, came to a screeching halt at:
a. Chick's Diner
b. The beer distributor across from Chick's diner
c. The intersection of Harrison Avenue and Moosic Street
d. The intersection of Irving Avenue and Moosic Street
e. 1001 Wyoming Avenue
9. The very last image broadcast each day before the transmitter was turned off and the picture went to snow was:
a. A picture of the building
b. A picture of Madge Megargee Holcomb, the station owner
c. A test pattern
d. A random picture of paper products from the Megargee Paper Company
e. Live TV shot of Scranton Prep and WDAU staff schmoozing over coffee and doughnuts at Krispy Kreme
f. A live shot of the Krispy Kreme donut shop showing late night WDAU employees drinking coffee
10. The weather segment at WDAU was often sponsored by firms such as Bell Telephone or gasoline distributors. At one point, an oil company sponsored the segment which required the weatherman to use a car antenna as his pointer. Atop the antenna was a red ball. That sponsor was:
a. Shell
b. Texaco
c. Hess
d. Atlantic
e. Mobil
f. Sinclair
g. Esso
11. WDAU and WGBI had their transmitter on:
a. Penebscot Mountain
b. Bald Mountain, west of Scranton
c. Mountain Top
d. Colocated with WEJL atop the Scranton Times tower
e. Mount Pocono
12. WGBI radio's format was:
a. Hard Rock
b. Talk
c. Heavy Metal
d. Country and Western
e. Classical
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I will post the answers out there in internetville once I figure out what they are.
Update 4-12-13
Since this seems like just as good an internet as any, the answers are:
1. g 2. ibk 3. d 4. c 5. f 6. c 7. d 8. d 9. c 10. d 11. b 12. d
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Finally, if the Tales of the Basement has whetted your appetite for all things WDAU, a most excellent (former) TV station, a most excellent site is maintained by a former WDAUer:
Go there and you can Catch 22.
Nobody knows it but youve got a secret smile
And you use it only for me
Nobody knows it but youve got a secret smile
And you use it only for me
So use it and prove it
Remove this whirling sadness
Im losing, Im bluesing
But you cant save me from my sadness
Nobody knows it but youve got a secret smile
And you use it only for me
Nobody knows it but youve got a secret smile
And you use it only for me
So save me Im waiting
Im needing, hear me pleading
And soothe me, improve me
Im grieving, Im barely believing it now, now
When you are flying around and around the world
And Im lying alonely
I know theres something sacred and free reserved
And received by me only
I have lost a friend, he would have not faved or liked this one. He always wanted to see my smile. I'm sorry I can't give it to him ever again and I definitely cannot find one tonight. He told me he looked forward to my daily self portrait in this project, and checked each evening. I feel terrible. Happier thoughts of him will come later, now I can only feel complete sadness that his life has ended and that he died alone last week and was only found tonight.
His faved signoffs in our emails were mostly live long and prosper or Ciao for now, both of which choke me up. Scroll down to see my tribute.
#347 in Explore 8 May 2007
I stayed up late on August 29/30, 1983 to record this piece of TV broadcasting history, the audio portion of it anyway. The sequence began at 12:30AM with a video showing station employees packing and saying goodbye with somber nostalgic background music. Then this message at 12:45AM with the VP and General Manager seated on a stool in a darkened studio, followed by the usual Sierra Club sign-off film. Instead of the National Anthem during this, a few instrumental lines of Auld Lang Syne played and ending with Simon and Garfunkel signing the last lines of The Sound of Silence. After this the WKBS logo briefly appeared on the screen and then dead air. Channel 48 would remain this way in Philly until August, 1992 when the frequency returned as WGTW-TV.
Saint Peter NGUYỄN BÁ TUẦN
Priest
(1766-1838)
* Judas’ Kiss.
Entrusted with the safekeeping of two priests by the pastor of Kim Sơn parish, Bát Biên securely hid the two priests inside his home. A week later, he told the two priests: “I heard that the mandarin knew of your presence here and that the authorities are coming. I have to move you to a safer place.” Then Bát Biên led missionary priest Fernadez Hiền aboard a sampan and sailed away. Later, he returned to take Fr. Peter Tuần.
The two priests completely trusted Bát Biên’s words when they boarded the boat to escape, but unknowingly, that considerate and caring gesture was really the “Judas’ kiss.” Mr. Bát Biên’s conspiracy to get the two priests arrested went smoothly. Kisses were always gentle. And behind those kisses were imprisonment, tortures, and finally death.
Peter Nguyễn Bá Tuần was born in 1766 in the village of Ngọc Đồng, Hưng Yên province. At an early age, Tuần had already been known for his goodness, piety, and diligence. At maturity, he entered religious life where he diligently studied catechism as well as Chinese language. Seeing that he had the call to vocation, priests referred to the seminary. But he was in the seminary for only a short time when King Cảnh Thịnh issued his edict of persecution, seminarian Peter Tuần had to leave school and went into hiding at various places with Fr. Gatillepa Hoan to whom he became a capable assistant. Fortunately a short time later, the seminary was reopened; he returned to continue his training and was ordained a priest in 1807. Fr. Tuần had carried out his ministry at many places reaping considerable results and was highly regarded by his superiors throughout his 30 years of service.
* Paying for Trusting.
In 1838 when King Minh Mạng decreed even more severe persecution, Fr. Tuần was pastor of Lác Môn parish in Nam Định province. He not only took care of his pastoral responsibilities, but also paid attention to the Vietnamese Church, and to fellow priests. Hearing that Quần Liêu village was fearful of being incriminated by having in its midst Fr. Fernandez Hiền who was recovering from dysentery, Fr. Tuần had to hurriedly come to intervene and remain there to help villagers feel at ease in helping the sick priest. However this compassionate gesture had linked his life with that of the European missionary.
Remaining for a few days, the two priests left Quần Liêu for Kim Sơn in Ninh Bình province, in the west vicariate of Tonkin. However, the authorities were relentlessly pursuing Christian clerics there also, Christians had to hide the two priests in a swamp and under the elements for two days. Concurrently, the pastor of Kim Sơn parish sent for a pagan named Bát Biên, who had received many favors from the pastor, and entrusted the two priests with him. At his home, before getting the opportunity to bear witness to faith in God, the two priests had to pay for their trust in man. Mr. Bát Biên betrayed the priests and turned them into Governor Nam Định Trịnh Quang Khanh of Nam Định. Therefore, the two priests were put in cangues and thrown in jail.
In prison, the elderly priest of 72 was always bravely faithful to his belief even though his old body had to endure chains, shackles, and beatings. When the mandarin talked to the priest: “You are too very old to undergo tortures.” Fr.Tuần replied: “It is true that I am both weak as well as old, but God will give me strength to suffer all tortures and even to die for him.” In another appearance before the tribunal, the mandarin had a Catholic, who had rejected the faith, stepping on the cross and told the priest to do the same, the priest responded: “Why do I have to imitate a traitor to my religion? The mirror that I look at is my two bishops whose examples I want to follow.” (Fr. Tuần referred to bishops Henarez Minh and Delgado Y who were martyred on June 26 and July 12, respectively.)
* Glorious Death in Prison.
At the time, the laws forbid the execution of any person over 60 years of age. But on 7/18/1838, King Minh Mạng still approved the death sentence for Fr. Tuần, but that “unconstitutional” sentence was never carried out. Tortures in prison: beatings, hunger, thirst, humidity, mosquitoes and rep (centipedes) had finished off the executioner’s work. On 7/15//1838, three days before the king’s death sentence signoff, Fr. Tuần had completed the life of giving witness to God’s love in prison.
The priest’s path to martyrdom did not end in bloodshed or with drama. It was an ordinary path weaved with normal facts of life that any person could be confronted with: a sick friend, a heartless traitor, beatings, mosquitoes, and bed bugs... But at every “mile marker” on that road, the priest had traveled honorably, faithfully, and completely. He had wholeheartedly taken care of a brother in need. He had put complete trust in man even if that person turned out to be a traitor. He had lived a life of faith under difficult conditions, which at first glance seemed ordinary, but because of its long duration, was not any less treacherous.
Loyalty to such “little things,” was as good as loyalty to big things. His faithfulness had brought him the grace of martyrdom even though it was bloodless. He went to heavenly home on 7/15/1838 while he had readied himself step out the execution site to shed his blood to give witness to faith. His body was brought back by Christians to the church of Ngọc Đồng parish for burial, later it was taken to the South and venerated at Lạc An parish.
After 23 years of unprecedented domination of the airwaves in FM radio on rock music, the Home of NU Rock is finally closing shop today, November 7, 2010.
NU107 is the radio station that i truly grew up with. I started to get hook on NU when i was still studying and i still listen to them up to this time that i am already into business. Call it destiny but the radio station is just beside where my business is and to no surprise i got acquainted with some of its past and present DJs like Dylan, Kim, Russ Davis and of course, Francis Brew Reyes. Was able to jam also with the peeps in the backroom like Mark Torres (who gave me all these NU stickers years ago), Glen and Gelo. You guys really rock!
If you have not much to do today or you'll be in the Ortigas CBD area later, you may want to join the 107 Candles ceremony tonight at 8pm, after Francis' In the Raw's final show featuring Urbandub and Itchyworms bands, before they finally signoff at 12MN. :( There will be lots of rock artists and guests for sure because as they say, you only get a home of new rock once in a lifetime.
Farewell NU107 November 17, 1987 - November 7, 2010 .
Cindy Hollister, Yan Arrouye (behind Cindy), Brett Halle (signing the box), Chris Hanson (behind Brett), Matt Rollefson next to Chris, and ?
Through the magic of Windows Movie Maker, I was able to recreate the final moments of WKBS-TV 48 Philadelphia, using the audio I recorded that night with the Sierra Club film the station used - on a regular night's sign off the music was the Star Spangled Banner. This was after the message by the Station Manager, elsewhere on my Flickr stream, on August 30, 1983 at 12:46 AM. Channel 48 remained blank here until WGTW-TV signed the frequency on in August, 1992.
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard published by Rotary Photographic of London EC bearing an image of Zena Dare. The photography was by Foulsham.
Miss Zena Dare
Zena Dare was born Florence Hariette Zena Dones in Chelsea on Friday the 4th. February 1887.
She became an English singer and actress who was famous for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy.
She first performed on stage in 1899, at the age of 12, in the Christmas pantomime 'Babes in the Wood'.
Her sister Phyllis, 3½ years her junior, was also cast in the production, and they both adopted the stage name of Dare. Phyllis also became a well-known musical comedy actress.
During the Great War, Zena nursed injured and dying soldiers for 3 years at Mrs. Vanderbilt's American Hospital in France, and a thoroughbred horse was named after her.
Like many of her musical comedy actress contemporaries, Zena married into the aristocracy; she married the Hon. Maurice Baliol Brett, the second son of Lord Esher.
Zena's last theatrical rôle was as Mrs. Higgins, Henry Higgins' mother, in the original London production of 'My Fair Lady', beginning in 1958 and running for 5½ years.
The production was a runaway success, and its 2,281 performances were seen by a huge number of people.
Zena featured in a number of silent films and talkies, including 'The Return of Carol Deane' (1938) and 'Over the Moon' (1939). In 1963, she was the special guest on an episode of 'This is Your Life' on BBC television.
Death of Zena Dare
Zena died on Tuesday the 11th. March 1975, having lived for 88 years, 1 month and 7 days. Her sister Phyllis died only six weeks later.
So what else happened on the day that Zena died?
Eric Lynch
Well, Eric Lynch, later known as Eric the Midget or Eric the Actor, was born in Rodeo, California. He was a member of the Howard Stern Show's Wack Pack.
He was 3 feet 5 inches (1.04m) tall, weighed 85lb (39kg), and used a motorised wheelchair. His trademark signoff was "Bye for now".
Despite his poor health he claimed to have outlived every doctor's prediction for his life expectancy. Eric died in 2014.
On his death Eric's roommate Jon encouraged fans to have Eric's favorite foods, Pepsi and bacon, in his honour. People still leave full Pepsi bottles on Eric's grave.
Seen after television station sign-off, San Diego, California. My memory says Channel 5, ABC. Regis Philbin was a RADIO news reporter at KSON 1957-60, then in 1960 at KFMB-TV as a news reporter [Wiki: His first talk show was The Regis Philbin Show on KOGO-TV - now KGTV ]. I gained studio access more than once from a technician acquaintance. It was a real awakening, seeing things as they actually looked. Today, where I remembered that studio, ABC7 Channel 10 operates.
I recall that as soon as the final TV show ended, there would be a drum roll, followed by a band playing the Star-Spangled Banner. Patriotism at 1 AM. As the music ended, the test pattern was seen. I don't recall how long it stayed on, seems like just a couple minutes. There was absolutely no sound, which allowed you to nod-off. Just about then this loud, piercing noise would be heard, then the screen would go to a snowstorm of static -- including static noise that would wake-up a dead rock-star!
[Wiki] The Indian-head test pattern was introduced in 1939 by RCA of Harrison, New Jersey. Its name comes from the original art of a Native American. It was widely used by television stations worldwide during the black and white TV broadcasting era before 1970. As TV ritual: The Indian-head test pattern became familiar to the large Post–World War II baby boom TV audiences in America from 1947 onwards; it would often follow the formal television station sign-off after the United States national anthem. During the late 1950s the test pattern gradually began to be seen less frequently. Towards the end of the Indian-head TV era (around the late 1970s), there was no nightly test pattern on some stations. After an immediate transmitter power off, in lieu of the Indian-head test pattern and its sine wave tone, a TV viewer heard a loud audio hiss like FM radio interstation noise and saw the video noise, called 'snow'. Audio and video noise received on Indian-head era TV sets respectively indicated the absence of analog aural and visual broadcast carriers. Consumer TVs typically did not have a no-signal noise muting and blanking feature until the late analog TV period.
Dear IMA friends,
My dad's solo show is opening this Sunday at Queens Museum of Art. I would
love to see you there. If you cannot make it to the opening then come check
out the artwork anytime in April. The exhibition will run from April 5th -
29th. See the link below for further info on the opening night reception or
just read the QMA press release that appears underneath it.
Dana
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=62354442884
*KIA: ORGANIC ABSTRACT*
*April 5 - 29, 2009*
*LONG-TIME ARTS SUPPORTER GAINS HIS MOMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT*
Queens, NY (March 24, 2009) – The Queens Museum of Art is proud to
present *Kia:
Organic Abstract*, on view in the QMA’s Partnership Gallery April 5 - 29,
2009. Featuring 12 pieces, the exhibition exemplifies Kia’s fusion of
natural forms and abstract gestures with mixed-media paintings that are
melodic meanderings in the spiritual realm. Like the organic abstractions
of Georgia O'Keeffe and Arthur Dove, he adds new dimensions to the familiar
forms of the natural world.
In Kia’s recent work, hundreds of small circles rest lightly atop the
canvas, creating a gauzy film that washes over the rounded, wavy or
modulated abstract forms below. Woven between these intricate laces of
color and texture, lays a rich world of flora and fauna. In *Prey* (1994),
a goat lies in repose, his legs trailing off into spiral-like explosions.
In an earlier series, striated lines and large fields of color appear like a
variegated canopy of leaves and branches; whereas in *Organic Abstract* (2006),
color pours from the canvas like an expectant flower. Eschewing any
specific meaning in favor of subtle evocation, Kia powerfully melds
spontaneous gestures with concrete observations to bridge the abstract and
material realms.
Kia came to the United States in 1963 from Tehran, Iran. His first job was
at the 1964 World’s Fair, located here in Flushing Meadows Corona Park,
de-stemming strawberries at the Belgian waffle exhibit in the Belgian
pavilion. When they learned that he was an artist, fair organizers asked
him to take part in an exhibition at the International Pavilion. There,
artists from around the world created new artwork in front of a live
audience. Although trained as a set designer and traditional Persian
miniature painter in his native country, Kia was inspired by his encounters
with Modern art -- Picasso, Dali and the Abstract Expressionists -- and soon
began to explore abstraction. A short time later, he started a gallery in
the village of Great Neck, NY to promote his work alongside that of other
Long Island artists. In the mid-1980’s Kia and his wife purchased the
infamous Long Island “Big Duck” hoping to transform the land into an artist
residency. Due to zoning restrictions, the plans went unrealized and, in
1987, Kia sold the land and donated the landmark to the people of Suffolk
County.
Alongside his continued support of other artists, Kia has continued to
pursue his own artistic career. A classically trained drummer as well as a
painter, Kia’s improvisational approach extends not only to his music, but
to his painting technique as well, breaking down recognizable shapes into a
frenzy of color, movement and light.
*Please join us on Sunday, April 5**th**, from 7-9pm for the opening of KIA:
ORGANIC ABSTRACT, *featuring with special concert by Kia on Persian drum
with Dr. Dariush Saghafi on santur*. *The two have played classical Persian
music from the time of their youth in Iran and continued performing together
in the United States at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Columbia University,
NYU, and Asia House.
*ORGANIZATION AND SUPPORT*
*Kia: Organic Abstract* is supported in part by the NYC Department of
Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.
*DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY *(by Alyson Aliano)*
Available upon request. Please contact David Strauss 718.592.9700 x145 or
dstrauss@queensmuseum.org.
# # #
The Queens Museum of Art was established in 1972 to provide a vital
cultural center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the borough’s unique,
international population. Today it is home to the Panorama of the City of
New York, a 9,335 square foot scale model of the five boroughs, and features
temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art that reflect the
cultural diversity of Queens, as well as a collection of Tiffany glass from
the Neustadt Museum of Tiffany Art. The Museum provides valuable educational
outreach through a number of programs geared toward schoolchildren, teens,
families, seniors and individuals with physical and mental disabilities.
**
*The Museum’s hours are: Wednesday – Friday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.,
Saturday and Sunday: 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Admission to the Museum is by
suggested donation: $5 for adults, $2.50 for seniors, students and children,
and free for member and children under 5. For general visitor information,
please visit the Museum’s
website**www.queensmuseum.org*
* or call 718.592.9700.*
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If you wish to unsubscribe from the IMA-L List, please send an E-mail to:
"listserv@listserv.cuny.edu". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF IMA-L".
Dear IMA friends,
My dad's solo show is opening this Sunday at Queens Museum of Art. I would
love to see you there. If you cannot make it to the opening then come check
out the artwork anytime in April. The exhibition will run from April 5th -
29th. See the link below for further info on the opening night reception or
just read the QMA press release that appears underneath it.
Dana
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=62354442884
*KIA: ORGANIC ABSTRACT*
*April 5 - 29, 2009*
*LONG-TIME ARTS SUPPORTER GAINS HIS MOMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT*
Queens, NY (March 24, 2009) – The Queens Museum of Art is proud to
present *Kia:
Organic Abstract*, on view in the QMA’s Partnership Gallery April 5 - 29,
2009. Featuring 12 pieces, the exhibition exemplifies Kia’s fusion of
natural forms and abstract gestures with mixed-media paintings that are
melodic meanderings in the spiritual realm. Like the organic abstractions
of Georgia O'Keeffe and Arthur Dove, he adds new dimensions to the familiar
forms of the natural world.
In Kia’s recent work, hundreds of small circles rest lightly atop the
canvas, creating a gauzy film that washes over the rounded, wavy or
modulated abstract forms below. Woven between these intricate laces of
color and texture, lays a rich world of flora and fauna. In *Prey* (1994),
a goat lies in repose, his legs trailing off into spiral-like explosions.
In an earlier series, striated lines and large fields of color appear like a
variegated canopy of leaves and branches; whereas in *Organic Abstract* (2006),
color pours from the canvas like an expectant flower. Eschewing any
specific meaning in favor of subtle evocation, Kia powerfully melds
spontaneous gestures with concrete observations to bridge the abstract and
material realms.
Kia came to the United States in 1963 from Tehran, Iran. His first job was
at the 1964 World’s Fair, located here in Flushing Meadows Corona Park,
de-stemming strawberries at the Belgian waffle exhibit in the Belgian
pavilion. When they learned that he was an artist, fair organizers asked
him to take part in an exhibition at the International Pavilion. There,
artists from around the world created new artwork in front of a live
audience. Although trained as a set designer and traditional Persian
miniature painter in his native country, Kia was inspired by his encounters
with Modern art -- Picasso, Dali and the Abstract Expressionists -- and soon
began to explore abstraction. A short time later, he started a gallery in
the village of Great Neck, NY to promote his work alongside that of other
Long Island artists. In the mid-1980’s Kia and his wife purchased the
infamous Long Island “Big Duck” hoping to transform the land into an artist
residency. Due to zoning restrictions, the plans went unrealized and, in
1987, Kia sold the land and donated the landmark to the people of Suffolk
County.
Alongside his continued support of other artists, Kia has continued to
pursue his own artistic career. A classically trained drummer as well as a
painter, Kia’s improvisational approach extends not only to his music, but
to his painting technique as well, breaking down recognizable shapes into a
frenzy of color, movement and light.
*Please join us on Sunday, April 5**th**, from 7-9pm for the opening of KIA:
ORGANIC ABSTRACT, *featuring with special concert by Kia on Persian drum
with Dr. Dariush Saghafi on santur*. *The two have played classical Persian
music from the time of their youth in Iran and continued performing together
in the United States at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Columbia University,
NYU, and Asia House.
*ORGANIZATION AND SUPPORT*
*Kia: Organic Abstract* is supported in part by the NYC Department of
Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.
*DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY *(by Alyson Aliano)*
Available upon request. Please contact David Strauss 718.592.9700 x145 or
dstrauss@queensmuseum.org.
# # #
The Queens Museum of Art was established in 1972 to provide a vital
cultural center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the borough’s unique,
international population. Today it is home to the Panorama of the City of
New York, a 9,335 square foot scale model of the five boroughs, and features
temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art that reflect the
cultural diversity of Queens, as well as a collection of Tiffany glass from
the Neustadt Museum of Tiffany Art. The Museum provides valuable educational
outreach through a number of programs geared toward schoolchildren, teens,
families, seniors and individuals with physical and mental disabilities.
**
*The Museum’s hours are: Wednesday – Friday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.,
Saturday and Sunday: 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Admission to the Museum is by
suggested donation: $5 for adults, $2.50 for seniors, students and children,
and free for member and children under 5. For general visitor information,
please visit the Museum’s
website**www.queensmuseum.org*
* or call 718.592.9700.*
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If you wish to unsubscribe from the IMA-L List, please send an E-mail to:
"listserv@listserv.cuny.edu". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF IMA-L".
Dear IMA friends,
My dad's solo show is opening this Sunday at Queens Museum of Art. I would
love to see you there. If you cannot make it to the opening then come check
out the artwork anytime in April. The exhibition will run from April 5th -
29th. See the link below for further info on the opening night reception or
just read the QMA press release that appears underneath it.
Dana
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=62354442884
*KIA: ORGANIC ABSTRACT*
*April 5 - 29, 2009*
*LONG-TIME ARTS SUPPORTER GAINS HIS MOMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT*
Queens, NY (March 24, 2009) – The Queens Museum of Art is proud to
present *Kia:
Organic Abstract*, on view in the QMA’s Partnership Gallery April 5 - 29,
2009. Featuring 12 pieces, the exhibition exemplifies Kia’s fusion of
natural forms and abstract gestures with mixed-media paintings that are
melodic meanderings in the spiritual realm. Like the organic abstractions
of Georgia O'Keeffe and Arthur Dove, he adds new dimensions to the familiar
forms of the natural world.
In Kia’s recent work, hundreds of small circles rest lightly atop the
canvas, creating a gauzy film that washes over the rounded, wavy or
modulated abstract forms below. Woven between these intricate laces of
color and texture, lays a rich world of flora and fauna. In *Prey* (1994),
a goat lies in repose, his legs trailing off into spiral-like explosions.
In an earlier series, striated lines and large fields of color appear like a
variegated canopy of leaves and branches; whereas in *Organic Abstract* (2006),
color pours from the canvas like an expectant flower. Eschewing any
specific meaning in favor of subtle evocation, Kia powerfully melds
spontaneous gestures with concrete observations to bridge the abstract and
material realms.
Kia came to the United States in 1963 from Tehran, Iran. His first job was
at the 1964 World’s Fair, located here in Flushing Meadows Corona Park,
de-stemming strawberries at the Belgian waffle exhibit in the Belgian
pavilion. When they learned that he was an artist, fair organizers asked
him to take part in an exhibition at the International Pavilion. There,
artists from around the world created new artwork in front of a live
audience. Although trained as a set designer and traditional Persian
miniature painter in his native country, Kia was inspired by his encounters
with Modern art -- Picasso, Dali and the Abstract Expressionists -- and soon
began to explore abstraction. A short time later, he started a gallery in
the village of Great Neck, NY to promote his work alongside that of other
Long Island artists. In the mid-1980’s Kia and his wife purchased the
infamous Long Island “Big Duck” hoping to transform the land into an artist
residency. Due to zoning restrictions, the plans went unrealized and, in
1987, Kia sold the land and donated the landmark to the people of Suffolk
County.
Alongside his continued support of other artists, Kia has continued to
pursue his own artistic career. A classically trained drummer as well as a
painter, Kia’s improvisational approach extends not only to his music, but
to his painting technique as well, breaking down recognizable shapes into a
frenzy of color, movement and light.
*Please join us on Sunday, April 5**th**, from 7-9pm for the opening of KIA:
ORGANIC ABSTRACT, *featuring with special concert by Kia on Persian drum
with Dr. Dariush Saghafi on santur*. *The two have played classical Persian
music from the time of their youth in Iran and continued performing together
in the United States at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Columbia University,
NYU, and Asia House.
*ORGANIZATION AND SUPPORT*
*Kia: Organic Abstract* is supported in part by the NYC Department of
Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.
*DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY *(by Alyson Aliano)*
Available upon request. Please contact David Strauss 718.592.9700 x145 or
dstrauss@queensmuseum.org.
# # #
The Queens Museum of Art was established in 1972 to provide a vital
cultural center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the borough’s unique,
international population. Today it is home to the Panorama of the City of
New York, a 9,335 square foot scale model of the five boroughs, and features
temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art that reflect the
cultural diversity of Queens, as well as a collection of Tiffany glass from
the Neustadt Museum of Tiffany Art. The Museum provides valuable educational
outreach through a number of programs geared toward schoolchildren, teens,
families, seniors and individuals with physical and mental disabilities.
**
*The Museum’s hours are: Wednesday – Friday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.,
Saturday and Sunday: 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Admission to the Museum is by
suggested donation: $5 for adults, $2.50 for seniors, students and children,
and free for member and children under 5. For general visitor information,
please visit the Museum’s
website**www.queensmuseum.org*
* or call 718.592.9700.*
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If you wish to unsubscribe from the IMA-L List, please send an E-mail to:
"listserv@listserv.cuny.edu". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF IMA-L".
Dear IMA friends,
My dad's solo show is opening this Sunday at Queens Museum of Art. I would
love to see you there. If you cannot make it to the opening then come check
out the artwork anytime in April. The exhibition will run from April 5th -
29th. See the link below for further info on the opening night reception or
just read the QMA press release that appears underneath it.
Dana
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=62354442884
*KIA: ORGANIC ABSTRACT*
*April 5 - 29, 2009*
*LONG-TIME ARTS SUPPORTER GAINS HIS MOMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT*
Queens, NY (March 24, 2009) – The Queens Museum of Art is proud to
present *Kia:
Organic Abstract*, on view in the QMA’s Partnership Gallery April 5 - 29,
2009. Featuring 12 pieces, the exhibition exemplifies Kia’s fusion of
natural forms and abstract gestures with mixed-media paintings that are
melodic meanderings in the spiritual realm. Like the organic abstractions
of Georgia O'Keeffe and Arthur Dove, he adds new dimensions to the familiar
forms of the natural world.
In Kia’s recent work, hundreds of small circles rest lightly atop the
canvas, creating a gauzy film that washes over the rounded, wavy or
modulated abstract forms below. Woven between these intricate laces of
color and texture, lays a rich world of flora and fauna. In *Prey* (1994),
a goat lies in repose, his legs trailing off into spiral-like explosions.
In an earlier series, striated lines and large fields of color appear like a
variegated canopy of leaves and branches; whereas in *Organic Abstract* (2006),
color pours from the canvas like an expectant flower. Eschewing any
specific meaning in favor of subtle evocation, Kia powerfully melds
spontaneous gestures with concrete observations to bridge the abstract and
material realms.
Kia came to the United States in 1963 from Tehran, Iran. His first job was
at the 1964 World’s Fair, located here in Flushing Meadows Corona Park,
de-stemming strawberries at the Belgian waffle exhibit in the Belgian
pavilion. When they learned that he was an artist, fair organizers asked
him to take part in an exhibition at the International Pavilion. There,
artists from around the world created new artwork in front of a live
audience. Although trained as a set designer and traditional Persian
miniature painter in his native country, Kia was inspired by his encounters
with Modern art -- Picasso, Dali and the Abstract Expressionists -- and soon
began to explore abstraction. A short time later, he started a gallery in
the village of Great Neck, NY to promote his work alongside that of other
Long Island artists. In the mid-1980’s Kia and his wife purchased the
infamous Long Island “Big Duck” hoping to transform the land into an artist
residency. Due to zoning restrictions, the plans went unrealized and, in
1987, Kia sold the land and donated the landmark to the people of Suffolk
County.
Alongside his continued support of other artists, Kia has continued to
pursue his own artistic career. A classically trained drummer as well as a
painter, Kia’s improvisational approach extends not only to his music, but
to his painting technique as well, breaking down recognizable shapes into a
frenzy of color, movement and light.
*Please join us on Sunday, April 5**th**, from 7-9pm for the opening of KIA:
ORGANIC ABSTRACT, *featuring with special concert by Kia on Persian drum
with Dr. Dariush Saghafi on santur*. *The two have played classical Persian
music from the time of their youth in Iran and continued performing together
in the United States at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Columbia University,
NYU, and Asia House.
*ORGANIZATION AND SUPPORT*
*Kia: Organic Abstract* is supported in part by the NYC Department of
Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.
*DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY *(by Alyson Aliano)*
Available upon request. Please contact David Strauss 718.592.9700 x145 or
dstrauss@queensmuseum.org.
# # #
The Queens Museum of Art was established in 1972 to provide a vital
cultural center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the borough’s unique,
international population. Today it is home to the Panorama of the City of
New York, a 9,335 square foot scale model of the five boroughs, and features
temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art that reflect the
cultural diversity of Queens, as well as a collection of Tiffany glass from
the Neustadt Museum of Tiffany Art. The Museum provides valuable educational
outreach through a number of programs geared toward schoolchildren, teens,
families, seniors and individuals with physical and mental disabilities.
**
*The Museum’s hours are: Wednesday – Friday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.,
Saturday and Sunday: 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Admission to the Museum is by
suggested donation: $5 for adults, $2.50 for seniors, students and children,
and free for member and children under 5. For general visitor information,
please visit the Museum’s
website**www.queensmuseum.org*
* or call 718.592.9700.*
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If you wish to unsubscribe from the IMA-L List, please send an E-mail to:
"listserv@listserv.cuny.edu". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF IMA-L".
This is the creature in her mommy uniform,overalls.Now if I could just get my husband to signoff on a Louis Vuitton Backpack for handsfree 3 year old chasing!
Capri Overalls,thrifted
Ecru tank,Marshalls
Sheer vintage jacket,thrifted
Green beads (I'm totally into layering neclaces),thrifted
Plastic Cinderella slippers,thrifted
I can't watch the Super Bowl. Because I don't have cable but I'm following the game on Twitter. There are 100's of people in Dallas posting pics, scores and plays in real time. Enjoy the game. Good night #signoff
John Clark doing pre-game near the first base side stands. September 17, 2010.
This is John Clark's classic signoff smile.
These transmitters were built by dB Control for DRS. DRS teamed with THALES to develop a next-generation shipboard radar based on a prior THALES design. Lockheed Martin contracted DRS-THALES to prototype the system. Lockheed needed three boats equipped, contracted by the US Government agency NAVSEA. These would be called Egyptian Fast Missile Craft. They were being built for patrolling the Suez Canal. Technically all three boats were given to Hosni Mubarak in appreciation for his allowing coalition overflights in the first gulf war.
Fast forward to Thanksgiving 2012, Lockheed was delivering the boats so far behind schedule Mubarak was on trial for war crimes. My blown transmitter was holding up sea-trials, signoff, and final delivery. Suddenly Muslim Brotherhood took ownership of the Egyptian Navy. Steve Jackson and I were en route to VT Halter Marine, a shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi. We were about to perform repair when news of the handover came from our rental-car radio. Jackson is a staunch Republican and quite the reactionary. His NOT listening to NPR prevented his discovering he would soon honor a warranty for Muslim Brotherhood. Instead he stared blankly into space. Perhaps he was yearning for Rush Limbaugh's vitriol while I wondered what god would think.
But I wouldn't wonder long. I jammed my knee swinging my leg over the railing around the big gun while boarding the boat. It hurt so bad I fainted. I woke up in a clump on deck with a concussion and six broken teeth. Jackson would have to finish the job alone. He might have troubleshot it with a sledgehammer had he heard the "liberal tripe" gracing his ears in the car. Instead his careful tutelage assured field repairs could be done in our absence. His proactive stance was surely appreciated by Lockheed Martin.
I found myself loitering the shipyard idle handed so I perused our many splendored gift. At 206' feet long it's a dictator's speedboat; lightweight, quite maneuverable as destroyers go. Powered by quad 30,000 horse diesels, she does 42 knots conservatively; defended by Rolling Airframe Anti Aircraft Missiles. Phalanx automated twin Gatling guns sit poised to take out sea skimming missiles at point blank range by firing clusters of 50 caliber depleted uranium rounds. A five inch gun up front will make mincemeat of anything within visual range. Harpoon cruise missiles should take out any ship within a 150 mile range. Programmed optical guidance handles final approach to resist jamming. I thought to myself this better not come with free refills. But of course it does. For the crowning touch my transmitter would handle target acquisition, touting 3.5 degrees phase droop across a 12 microsecond pulse, conservatively delivering 60 kilowatts peak. DRS cleverly combined phased-array electronic vertical scanning with motorized rotary scan for the best of both worlds.
Keeping tensions down would be key in the war room. Lockheed Martin splurged--with ashtrays all around--embedded even in the radar front panels. The jitters were to be avoided. No coffee maker was provided. Our boys can rest easy knowing we're keeping commanders on an even keel. Tea is popular in the region, it was explained.
A 3,000 year dynasty fell that day. We were stateside but it felt like being overrun by democratically elected enemy combatants. Then I'm to get my most advanced transmitter going. God broke it. I'm a Quaker but I'm a scientific guy. We've got no preacher. We meditate in meeting. Nobody tells us what to think. Maybe those guys were okay, I was just being ecumenical. Or was I a Pharaoh's last guard? I went to turn my coat but God smacked me down. Head bashed, six broken teeth, unconsciousness spoke volumes for me; I couldn't be forced to comply. I won't say Jackson ever followed any order blindly. Nor did he did he do so here. On the contrary, he is a stern man. He maintained a shipboard fire control radar as an enlisted man sixty jobs prior. He obstructed his commanding officer's direct order to fire on a decoy. Only Jackson knew he had a lock on the tow plane, not the decoy. So he got into the commanding officer's face, probably sparing the lives of the tow-plane occupant(s). His due diligence was rewarded by two weeks unpaid leave, determined by formal disciplinary proceedings. Maybe his due diligence fell short here, but only by simple oversight (and only if honoring warranty for Muslim Brotherhood violated his personal standards). Maybe the point was rendered moot when Muslim Brotherhood fell from vogue a month later.
Spread your wings and prepare to fly
For you have become a butterfly
Fly abandonedly into the sun
If you should return to me
We truly were meant to be
So spread your wings and fly
Butterfly
I am signing off for few days,
See you soon guys =)
Take Care
Deep Dish TV Presents Part Four of DIY Media: Movement Perspectives
on Critical Moments
Resistancia y Solidaridad:
El Salvador, Colombia, and the U.S. Solidarity Movement
A Retrospective Film Screening & Discussion
April 7th, 7:00pm
Labowitz Theater of New York University
715 Broadway (at Washington Place),
New York City
Presented in Collaboration with WBAI's Wake Up Call, and NY CISPES,
this special community forum is a retrospective film screening and
panel discussion where filmmakers, activists and scholars will get
together to discuss the U.S. role in Latin America, and how
grassroots, solidarity organizing by U.S. activists has made a
difference in resisting those policies. We will specifically examine
how video and other popular media forms have been used as a tool of
resistance and solidarity.
Recent elections in El Salvador put the FMLN - the former guerilla
group and long-time opposition movement - in control of the government
after years of right wing domination, supported by Washington. In
Colombia, the indigenous and popular Minga of 2008 has sparked a
renewed call for broad-based change in a country that for years has
been dominated by repressive, militarist leaders. In both these
countries, as in other parts of the region, social movement activists
have used video technology and other alternative media to promote
their calls for change. As part of Deep Dish TV's commitment to using
media as a tool for community empowerment, panelists will discuss some
of the lessons learned over the last 20 years of resistance and
solidarity, and their efforts to resist militarism, corporate
globalization and U.S. interventionism in the hemisphere.
Moderator: Mario A. Murillo
Mario A. Murillo is associate professor and Chair of the Radio,
Television, Film Department of Hofstra University in New York, and the
Friday morning host of Wake Up Call on WBAI Pacifica Radio (99.5FM).
The author of "Colombia and the United States: War, Unrest and
Destabilization," he is finishing a book about the indigenous movement
in Colombia.
Panelists:
Greg Grandin is a professor of history at New York University, and the
author of several books on the U.S. Role in Latin America, including
"The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War," and
"Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of
Imperialism."
Roberto Arevalo is a Columbian-born filmmaker and the founder of
Beyond Documentary. He has produced over 20 documentaries about
youth, public health, mental health, immigrant experiences, education
and art. He is currently an artist-in-residence at Georgia State
University.
Victoria Maldonado is a Columbian-born independent filmmaker and human
rights activist based in New York City. She helped create the Latino
Film/Video Collaborative, and is a founding member of Columbia Media
Project. She is currently working on the Deep Dish TV series "Waves of
Change: A Survey of Global Community Media."
Phil Josselyn has been involved, in leadership roles, with the
Committee in Support of the People of El Salvador (CISPES) since 1982.
He recently returned from participating in an international observer
mission of the historic March 15th Salvadoran elections where the
Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) won the Presidency of
the country.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the NYU Humanities
Initiative, the NYU Center for Media, Culture and History, and the
Community Learning Initiative of the Gallatin School.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If you wish to unsubscribe from the IMA-L List, please send an E-mail to:
"listserv@listserv.cuny.edu". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF IMA-L".
Sunset at Jodrell Bank. Cheshire. For the watchers of previous versions... this is straight out of the camera...a little sharpening, frame and signoff.
peterjuerges@hotmail.com
www.cnbc.com/2021/08/27/biden-says-us-health-officials-ar...
Biden says U.S. health officials are considering Covid booster shots at 5 months, moving up timeline of third shot
Key Points
-- New data from Israel shows a booster dose provided four times as much protection against infection from the delta variant than the previous two-dose regimen.
--The Dominican Republic, Hungary, Germany and other countries have either already begun administering booster shots, are close to it or are considering it.
--Pfizer said Wednesday that a booster dose of its vaccine provides a threefold increase in neutralizing antibodies.
President Joe Biden said U.S. regulators are looking at administering Covid-19 booster shots five months after people finish their primary immunizations, moving up the expected timetable for a third shot by about three months.
Biden, who was speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday, said health officials were considering following that country’s lead on boosters.
“We’re considering the advice you’ve given that we should start earlier,” Biden said, adding that officials are debating whether the timeline should be shorter. “Should it be as little as five months, and that’s being discussed.”
Approval of the booster shots is expected to come sometime around Labor Day after federal health officials have time to review data from other countries.
National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins last week said data released by Israel on the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines over time was prompting U.S. health leaders to rethink their position on vaccine booster shots. Israel released new data on Aug. 16 showing a reduction in the effectiveness of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine against severe illness among people 65 and older who were fully vaccinated in January or February.
Israel released more data Sunday showing a booster dose provided four times as much protection against infection from the delta variant than the previous two-dose regimen in people 60 and older, Reuters reported, citing data from the Ministry of Health of Israel. The booster dose also provided five to six times more efficacy in preventing hospitalization or serious illness.
About 1.5 million Israel residents have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Later in the day, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki clarified Biden’s comments, saying that he would rely on officials at the CDC and FDA to make any changes to formal U.S. health guidance, which is currently that booster doses should be given after eight months.
“So I want to be very clear on that. If they were to change their guidance based on data for any particular group, he would, of course, abide by that,” Psaki said at a press briefing Friday. “But for people watching at home, for you all who are reporting out this nothing has changed about the eight-month timeline as it relates to the boosters.”
Other countries including the Dominican Republic, Hungary and Germany have either already begun administering booster shots to their population, are close to it or are considering it.
Pfizer said Wednesday that a booster dose of its vaccine provides a threefold increase in neutralizing antibodies in an unpublished study as the company races to get FDA clearance for its booster doses, according to Reuters.
The study also found that side effects from a third dose are the same as those experienced after a second dose. Common side effects include headache, lethargy, mild pain at the injection site and fever.
Distribution of the booster shots is expected to begin Sept. 20, pending final signoff by the Food and Drug Administration clearance and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Biden administration and vaccine manufacturers have indicated that there should be enough doses for any fully vaccinated adult seeking a third dose.
its being almost an end of my journey.. but i feel strongly that i have just started :D day really went wild.. real wild.. rest nothing much to display in front of you leaving i got a new makeover.. with a bare attitude of mine as usual.. :) felt really wild in it :D felt something inside me.. which i was always wandering about.. but never thought it was all inside me covered with all my insecurities.. tearing apart that cocoon will take so long never knew.. anyway things happen at right time and place.. for me yah it do.. keeping my rest words for my GRAND FINALE..! that what is all is calling about.. :D i signoff today to my true jungle with my bare wildness :D meow :D
www.cnbc.com/2021/09/01/america-has-wasted-at-least-15-mi...
America has wasted at least 15 million Covid vaccine doses since March, new data shows
The United States has thrown away at least 15.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines since March 1, according to government data obtained by NBC News — a number that is far larger than previously known and is still likely an undercount.
Four national pharmacy chains reported more than 1 million wasted doses each, according to data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in response to a public records request. Walgreens reported the most waste of any pharmacy, state or other vaccine provider, with nearly 2.6 million wasted doses. CVS reported 2.3 million wasted doses, while Walmart reported 1.6 million and Rite Aid reported 1.1 million.
The data released by the CDC is self-reported by pharmacies, states and other vaccine providers. It is not comprehensive — missing some states and federal providers — and it does not include the reason doses had to be thrown away. The number of discarded doses is still a small fraction of the total vaccines administered in the U.S.
In general, there are a number of reasons why vaccination sites may have to mark doses as wasted, from a cracked vial or an error diluting the vaccine to a freezer malfunction to more doses in a vial than people who want them. A wastage report can also happen when a vial contains fewer doses than it should.
The data on wasted doses comes as the more contagious delta variant spreads rapidly across the United States, adding fresh urgency to the effort to vaccinate as many people as possible and spurring a plan to begin offering booster shots to those who were already vaccinated — even as many nations around the world have vaccinated few, if any, of their residents.
“It’s really tragic that we have a situation where vaccines are being wasted while lots of African countries have not had even 5 percent of their populations vaccinated,” said Sharifah Sekalala, an associate professor of global health law at England’s University of Warwick, who studies inequalities in infectious diseases.
“A lot of the global south is unvaccinated. The African continent is still below 10 percent, and that’s just a huge inequality and it’s really problematic.”
CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said in an email that the share of Covid vaccines wasted “remains extremely low, which is evidence of the strong partnership among the federal government, jurisdictions, and vaccine providers to get as many people vaccinated as possible while reducing vaccine wastage across the system.”
Nordland added, “As access to Covid-19 vaccine has increased, it is important for providers to not miss any opportunity to vaccinate every eligible person who presents at vaccine clinics, even if it may increase the likelihood of leaving unused doses in a vial.”
A CVS spokesman made a similar point, writing in an email: “While we regret having to dispose of any vaccine, we’re extremely proud of our store employees who’ve helped administer more than 30 million doses. When given the option of potentially saving a life or slightly improving our reported waste figures, we’ll always choose the former.”
Walgreens, Walmart and Rite Aid did not immediately provide comment. “Our goal has always been ensuring every dose of vaccine is used,” Walgreens spokesperson Kris Lathan told Kaiser Health News in May.
The number of doses that went to waste is a small fraction of the more than 438 million doses that were distributed in the country as of Tuesday and the 111.7 million additional doses the U.S. had given to other countries as of Aug. 3.
Demand for vaccines in the U.S. rose in August as cases and hospitalizations surged due to the delta variant. Still, the U.S. wasted at least 3.8 million doses in August alone, the data shows.
States, pharmacies and other vaccine providers also reported at least 4.4 million wasted doses to the CDC in June and 4.7 million in July — more than in March, April and May combined.
No state health department came close to the number of doses wasted by pharmacy chains, but four reported over 200,000 wasted doses each. Texas led in reports of vaccine waste by states, with 517,746 wasted doses, North Carolina reported 285,126, Pennsylvania reported 244,214 and Oklahoma reported 226,163.
Lara Anton, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the state “instructed vaccine providers to prioritize vaccinating people when they came in to get vaccinated rather than waiting until they found enough people to use every dose in the vial before opening it,” which can lead to wasted doses. Anton also mentioned extreme weather in May as contributing to Texas’ waste numbers.
Representatives for the North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma health departments did not immediately comment.
Last month, the Food and Drug Administration authorized booster shots for people who are immunocompromised because their bodies may not respond to the initial vaccine regimen. The Biden administration has also announced a plan, pending FDA and CDC signoff, to offer booster shots to all Americans eight months after their last dose in response to evidence of waning immunity.
Those moves sparked debate about whether it was moral to offer Americans extra protection when so many people around the world haven’t received even a single Covid vaccine shot.
But the new data showed that the U.S. has wasted far more vaccine doses than many poorer countries have for their entire population. For example, the country of Georgia, a coronavirus hot spot, has administered just 1.1 million vaccine doses for its population of 4.9 million. Nepal, which has been ravaged by the delta variant, has administered just 9.7 million doses for its population of 30.4 million.
“It’s an equity issue,” said Tim Doran, professor of health policy at the United Kingdom’s University of York. “You’ve got a very wealthy country with good access to vaccines essentially throwing vaccine away, and a lot of vaccine away, and you’ve got other countries and other communities within those countries who would really require it, who were having to wait and aren’t getting access to vaccine and that’s making them susceptible whilst they are awaiting vaccination.”
Sekalala said the U.S. wasting so many doses was “inevitable under the model” in which wealthy countries bought large quantities of vaccines for themselves, only thinking about donating them to poorer countries later.
“It’s a failure of the current system where rich countries buy their individual batches of vaccines, and then have to think about what’s going to happen if they don’t use them,” she said. “This led to an over-purchase, with people buying up supplies that they didn’t need or weren’t able to use.”
One contributing factor to vaccine waste is the way the vaccines are packaged. Most vaccines for other illnesses come in single-dose vials. But, depending on the equipment used to draw a dose, Moderna’s Covid vaccine has up to 15 doses in a vial, while Pfizer’s has up to six and Johnson & Johnson’s has up to five.
Once a vial is punctured — for example, if a customer requests the vaccine at a retail pharmacy — the clock starts ticking. A vial of Moderna’s vaccine has to be discarded 12 hours after it’s punctured, while Pfizer’s and Johnson & Johnson’s have to be discarded after six hours.
The high number of doses in each vial and the relatively short timeframe for using a vial once it’s been punctured likely contributed to unused doses going to waste.
The data released Tuesday is more detailed and complete than data the CDC released in April, when a Kaiser Health News investigation found that the country wasted nearly 200,000 Covid vaccine doses from December 2020 through March 2021.
A separate investigation by The New York Times found about 1 million wasted doses across 10 states from December through July.
The more detailed data suggests that the CDC now has a better picture of how much is being wasted and where than it did earlier in the vaccination program. Still, seven states are missing from the newly released data entirely: Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, Ohio and Oregon.
Another state, Michigan, has reported just 12 wasted doses to the CDC since March 1.
Several vaccine providers reported the waste of thousands of doses to the CDC in a single report. But overall, the newly released data shows that vaccine waste was a slow, steady trickle rather than a flood — the most common report in the data was just four doses wasted at a time.
Also missing from the CDC’s data are doses wasted by federal agencies that are administering the vaccines, including the Department of Defense, the Bureau of Prisons, the Veterans Health Administration and the Indian Health Service.
More vaccine waste data is held in Tiberius, a system run by the Department of Health and Human Services, but officials have yet to release it. The data released Tuesday came from the CDC’s Vaccine Tracking System, or VTrckS, which pulls data from state and local immunization registries.
I’d been standing outside of the courtroom in that suit for hours.
It was the only suit I’d owned.
I was really starting to hate that suit.
I wore it for my wedding, a bunch of funerals, too many trials and through my divorce.
I promised myself I was gonna burn it after the divorce was finalized.
I never wanted to wear that suit again.
Ditching it, I thought… it might cleanse me of the residue of this whole sordid series of events.
The whole thing made me feel so dirty.
Burning that suit would be a personal symbol of me opening a new chapter in my life.
Nobody knew who I was out there in the hallway and I was pretty grateful that it spared me from any small talk.
There were none of those courtroom artists who make pastel sketches for the news like at the first trial.
I remembered how that hit me... when I saw that there were three people sitting in the courtroom to sketch my wife's first trial for the television news...
you know you're in a world of shit when they come to 'sketch' your trial.
The media was never leaked information about this lawsuit… and against my better judgement I kept it quiet... Blake made that call... which I think was a mistake because it really was the media all along that made things happen… but it was nice not to have to deal with them right now.
I wanted to focus on what I had to say on that stand.
I wanted to stay sharp and honed like a razor for the combat I knew I was about to find myself engaged in.
This was gonna get ‘intellectually twisty.’
They were gonna try and destroy me on that stand and I knew it.
The Mole must've told me that a thousand times already.
My wife’s attorney was starting to see it too.
I was standing in the corridor by the big darkly stained and worn wooden doors of the courthouse when I heard the muffled words ‘the defense calls Mr. View Minder.’
A split second later my wife’s attorney Blake straight arms both doors open with a really pissed off look on his face.
I noticed that he was sweating and I’d never seen that before.
He looked nervous too.
Blake was a kick ass lawyer… he won the biggest lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department in history… for something like twenty eight million dollars… he specialized in cases of police misconduct and he was a big defender of civil rights.
The guy believed in the constitution and I really admired him.
He was always usually calm and collected… the guy was the definition of cool… I can’t remember ever have seeing him display any emotion.
Seeing him emotional right now... I guess that alarmed me.
For some reason I turned around and walked the other way… away from the doors to the courtroom.
Blake kinda caught up with me and put his arm around my shoulder…
He used his arm to slow down my flight and he stopped me there in the corridor and turned me to face him and the courtroom doors.
It seemed from the look on his face that he’d come to accept what he’d rejected for so many months in preparing for this trial.
I had told Blake that he wasn’t so much arguing a case in a lawsuit for the damages that my wife sustained in what they said was her false arrest at the Super Store that night… I told him that they were fighting what I did.
They were trying to slaughter the ‘whistle-blower.’
Blake looked me in the eyes with both of his hands on my shoulders now… the kind of grip that someone lays on you when they want to be sure that you understand what they’re saying… and he took in a deep breath.
The kind of breath somebody takes when they’re gonna give you some really bad news.
Between the grip and the breath I knew I was fucked.
Like when the doctor gives you that look right before he says ‘we’ve done all that we can do.’
I knew what he had to say was really gonna be bad and I tried to prepare myself mentally.
‘I don’t know what you did to these people’ he said as he spun me towards the doors of the courtroom… ‘but you are walking into your own execution here… you’re about to be crucified man.’
God… you never want to hear your attorney say those words to you.
It was obvious that he’d conceded the case to loss and he conceded it based on what he figured was gonna happen when I got up on that stand.
He knew what was coming.
Blake pulled open one of the big heavy doors and sort of began to push me through it…
‘Don’t fight’ it he said… ‘and it will be much easier on you’ and he gave me that wink and that look that said ‘let it go… and go peacefully... blade of grass deeply rooted.’
Fuck.
I felt like I’d just been sentenced to death.
Blake made sure that he timed the completion of that statement with his final push of my body into the courtroom so that there was no possibility of me replying.
He really pissed me off with that statement and the way that he said it.
I was mad… because all along I’d told him that the case was gonna head in this direction… I knew it… I knew these people now… I’d seen their playbook.
By the time he realized that I was right it all seemed too late.
The case seemed lost.
I took the chair in the witness stand one very pissed off man.
I wasn’t even afraid anymore.
Pure adrenaline was pumping through my veins where blood was circulating only moments ago.
Fuck Blake and his ‘don’t fight it shit’ I thought.
I wanted this fight.
I’d waited for this fight.
I waited for this fight for a long time.
I was gonna fight it.
And I was gonna fight it hard.
If the case was lost I was gonna fight even harder because I knew that in the grand scheme of things this was just the opening salvo in what was gonna be the mother of all legal battles.
And I was the guy that started it.
They didn't care if they hadda give my wife a million bucks...
the goal was to destroy me.
That's what would help them down the line.
I was sorry that Blake seemed to misread the whole thing but the way I figured it… now was my time to show ‘em what I was made of.
This was my time to shine.
This was my time to throw a few punches instead take ‘em like a punching bag.
I leaned forward in that seat and thought ‘bring it on.’
Slipping on my 'mental brass knuckles' was what I visualized.
I was ready.
I was ready to kick some ass.
When the defense brought out that letter… the one I’d emailed to the Chief of Police the month after my wife was arrested… as soon as the defense’s attorney asked me to read it to the jury from the stand, Blake objected.
He and I, the defense attorney and the judge went back into the judges chambers and discussed the legal merits of the letter I’d written and signed with my name.
I never denied sending that letter.
In fact, I was kind of proud of it.
I sent it to the Chief of Police to let him know not only how I’d felt about the whole case against my wife and what they’d done to my family, but how I knew that I had his ‘nuts in the nutcracker and I wasn’t gonna let go until he did the right thing.’
Which was to drop the bullshit charges against my wife and have those officers apologize to my kids.
That’s what I’d wanted all along was an apology.
Blake always hated when I said that.
‘I don’t work for ‘apologies’, I do this for money’ he’d say.
I wanted the police to right a wrong and make it up to my kids.
It really pissed me off that they were afraid of the cops now.
When the judge read the letter in his chambers he took a couple of those ‘oh boy’ gasps.
He seemed to be a decent guy.
He reminded me of my grandpa and in my head I liked to think that he saw the honor in what I was doing, the decency in the fight that I fought.
‘Mistuh Viewminder’ he began… almost inhaling as he spoke the words… ‘in my fifty years on the bench I have nevah… evah seen such a horrible letter written to any public official.’
‘This lettah is so bad that I’m afraid that if I allow the jury to even see it that it would only be predjudicial… that means that this lettah is so bad that if the jury were to see it I think it would make your wife lose her case’ the judge remarked with a confounded shake of his head.
Then he looked at the attorneys… givin’ them that ‘whaddaya wanna do look.’
The defense wanted the letter brought in to show that I’d contacted a witness in the case before the criminal trial against my wife.
Several of them in fact.
The Mole had ‘accidentally’ forwarded me a copy of one of those funny chain emails that just happened to have the email of just about everybody in the department on it.
So I thought I’d send a few of the officers some Christmas wishes if you know what I mean.
Some people might be inclined to call that ‘witness tampering’ but I liked to think of it as just ‘venting.’
The defense was not shy about trying to say that I was blackmailing the Chief of Police.
Maybe I was.
If telling a guy that if he doesn’t do ‘the right thing’ that you’re gonna squeeze his balls until they pop is blackmail… then indeed I was guilty.
I didn’t tell him what the ‘right thing’ to do was… I mean I knew that’d be crossing a line.
‘The right thing’ was up to him to decide… although I was pretty specific about squeezing his nuts in a nutcracker until they popped.
I preferred to think that the letter really showed just how dedicated that I was to the pursuit of justice in this case and for my family.
I swear his honor wanted to laugh as he pondered my audacity in even writing the letter but he struggled not to and he maintained the decorum of the court even though we were still in his chambers.
The judge came up with a pretty good solution.
We would black out every line of the letter… all that stuff about me squeezin’ the Chief’s balls until they popped and the like and that we’d leave the part that said ‘Dear Chief Hot Dog… and black out all of the body of the letter except for the part where I wrote ‘have a merry Christmas’ and signed it ‘View Minder.’
That way the defense could prove I’d tried to ‘tamper with a witness’ and all that juicy stuff about nutcrackin’ wouldn’t reflect poorly on my wife’s case.
Blake seemed relieved at this compromise and the defense attorney seemed pissed.
I would have really liked to have had the opportunity to have read that letter to the jury.
Even there I’d fantasized about how I would have read it with ‘feeling’ and verve.
I would have read it like I was reading the Emancipation Proclamation.
Unfortunately that was not to be.
We’d been in chambers for about a half hour and when we’d come out the jury looked sleepy and bored as hell.
The defense's tactic was sound... bore the jury to death with technicalities, objections and conferences in the judges chambers and they'll really begin to resent even being there.
I took my seat on the witness stand, adjusted my tie and tried to think of that 'blade of grass deeply rooted.'
The defense attorney handed me the letter and asked if I wrote it.
I admitted that I did without hesitation.
She asked me to read the letter to the jury.
I read them the first line… ‘Dear Chief Hot Dog’… then I told them that the judge had us black out the body of the letter because he said it wasn't relevant… and I read the signoff… ‘have a merry Christmas, Viewminder.’
The jury only returned puzzled and quizzical looks.
The defense attorney asked me if I knew that the Chief of Police was a 'witness' in the case.
I told her that since there was no crime commited, that there couldn't be any 'witness''
It went around and around and I wasn't gonna let her corner me like that.
By the time it was over she would accuse me of 'witness tampering' and 'manufacturing evidence.'
When she accused me of 'manufacturing evidence' I fought back hard... I almost stood up on the stand... I raised my voice and pointed right at her... I actually asked her a couple of times 'which media outlet used those numbers?'
Blake told me over dinner that night that he'd never seen a witness get away with questioning an attorney like that from the witness stand... and the judge let it go... he really couldn't believe it.
He admitted that before I went up there he'd figured that the case was lost.
But he was impressed by my testimony and he still saw some hope.
The defense attorney who was questioning me on the stand seemed shaken by my will to go head to head with her like that.
It seemed to get her flustered to lose her point in that way and I was excused from the stand.
'No further questions' she'd said.
Right at the point where her attack on me and my character was supposed to crescendo she fizzled.
My wife's attorney was smiling and he gave me 'the nod' as I walked past him on the way out of the courtroom.
That the judge said that what I'd written was the worst letter he’d ever seen on his fifty years on the bench indicated to me that he’d never seen the letter that the Illinois EPA wrote to the village in 1986.
The one where they told the Old Man that the village’s drinking water well was contaminated with a very toxic cancer causing chemical called vinyl chloride.
Nor did the judge see the letter that the village wrote back to the Illinois EPA that year… the one that said ‘we will stop using this well to provide drinking water for the residents of the village and keep this well online as a backup well only.’
That letter and the lie that I exposed behind it was the worst letter I’d ever seen written.
It might not have been relevant in this case…
But it was relevant to the thousands of people in that village who had no idea that they’d been drinking poisoned water for twenty one years until I told them.
It was relevant to all those people who had unexplainable cases of cancer and other health maladies from drinking that water.
It was even more relevant to the families of those that died.
The people I believe were murdered.
UPDATE: Cat has comfortable lead, but apparently Fluffy the Mouse is mounting a challenge... Wake UP Cat! =) ...This is the sign-off pic of one of our Twitter Volunteers - usually accompanied by some version of the following TWEET: Red Cross volunteers help Southern Missouri folks 24/7 when called. This volunteer, however, calling it a nite. Happy Trails!
*THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Deep Dish TV Presents
Part Four of DIY Media: Movement Perspectives on Critical Moments
*
*Resistencia y Solidaridad: *
*El Salvador, Colombia, and the U.S. Solidarity Movement *
*A Retrospective Film Screening & Discussion*
*April 7th, 7:00pm
Labowitz Theater of New York University
715 Broadway (at Washington Place),
New York City
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
*
Presented in Collaboration with WBAI's *Wake Up Call*, and NY CISPES, this
special community forum is a retrospective film screening and panel
discussion where filmmakers, activists and scholars will get together to
discuss the U.S. role in Latin America, and how grassroots, solidarity
organizing by U.S. activists has made a difference in resisting those
policies. We will specifically examine how video and other popular media
forms have been used as a tool of resistance and solidarity.
Recent elections in El Salvador put the FMLN - the former guerilla group and
long-time opposition movement - in control of the government after years of
right wing domination, supported by Washington. In Colombia, the indigenous
and popular Minga of 2008 has sparked a renewed call for broad-based change
in a country that for years has been dominated by repressive, militarist
leaders. In both these countries, as in other parts of the region, social
movement activists have used video technology and other alternative media to
promote their calls for change. As part of Deep Dish TV's commitment to
using media as a tool for community empowerment, panelists will discuss some
of the lessons learned over the last 20 years of resistance and solidarity,
and their efforts to resist militarism, corporate globalization and U.S.
interventionism in the hemisphere.
*Moderator: Mario A. Murillo*
Mario A. Murillo is associate professor and Chair of the Radio, Television,
Film Department of Hofstra University in New York, and the Friday morning
host of *Wake Up Call *on WBAI Pacifica Radio (99.5FM). The author of
"Colombia and the United States: War, Unrest and Destabilization," he is
finishing a book about the indigenous movement in Colombia.
*Panelists*:
*Greg Grandin* is a professor of history at New York University, and the
author of several books on the U.S. Role in Latin America, including "The
Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War," and "Empire's
Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of Imperialism."
Roberto Arevalo is a Colombian-born filmmaker and the founder of Beyond
Documentary. He has produced over 20 documentaries about youth, public
health, mental health, immigrant experiences, education and art. He is
currently an artist-in-residence at Georgia State University.
*Victoria Maldonado *is a Colombian-born independent filmmaker and human
rights activist based in New York City. She helped create the Latino
Film/Video Collaborative, and is a founding member of Columbia Media
Project. She is currently working on the Deep Dish TV series "Waves of
Change: A Survey of Global Community Media."
*Phil Josselyn* has been involved, in leadership roles, with the Committee
in Support of the People of El Salvador (CISPES) since 1982. He recently
returned from participating in an international observer mission of the
historic March 15th Salvadoran elections where the Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front (FMLN) won the Presidency of the country.
WE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE SUPPORT OF THE NYU HUMANITIES INITIATIVE, THE
CENTER FOR MEDIA, CULTURE AND HISTORY, AND THE COMMUNITY LEARNING INITIATIVE
OF NYU'S GALLATIN SCHOOL.
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