I finally got around to making a YouTube video for Squints on a Triple, a song I wrote and recorded in 2008 based on a true story concerning a game of Scrabble played with daughter Jennie (remixed Dec. 1, 2018).
At the same time, I just discovered that my recording of Squints was the winner of the 2008 BoardGameGeek.com contest for real songs that reference actual boardgames in their titles or lyrics.
I wrote This Isn’t Hollywood in 1981, recorded it in 2008, and just made a new video. In the video, which includes animated faces of Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and James Stewart, the final “celebrity” image is of a young Billy Joel, who wrote Say Goodbye to Hollywood five years earlier, in 1976. For the record, all the moving lips are my own (remixed Dec. 2, 2018).
Here’s a new video for an old song (Just Another), actually the first song I recorded using garageBand software more than two years ago. The song itself was written in 1980 (remixed Dec. 2, 2018).
I wrote Long Distance Love Affair in 1978 and it is, as far as I remember, the first real song I wrote. This version is recorded using acoustic guitar. My Flip camcorder was set up on its tripod, so here’s the live video with guitar, vocals, and a single mic (and some imaginary musicians joining me for the final verse; remixed Aug. 25, 2019).
As of October 2009, Rollo’s digital sales have entered six-figure territory, thanks to iTunes downloads, as well as internet streaming through sites like Napster and Lala. The six “figures” can be broken down as follows:
1. “Secret Lover” streamed though Lala: payment = $0.005
2. “She Wasn’t One” streamed though Napster: payment = $0.023
3. “Secret Lover” streamed twice though Napster: payment = $0.045
4. “Last Night” streamed though Napster: payment = $0.010
5. “Love Without Pain” downloaded through iTunes-Canada: payment = $0.58
6. “Your Love” streamed though Lala: payment = $0.005
The total of these six figures is $0.669, which, according to accountants for the band, rounds up to $0.67.
“Digital sales have been a real bonanza for the band,” says keyboardist Jon Ochshorn. “While still not as significant as sales of Rollo CDs, they are becoming an increasingly important component of the band’s financial portfolio.”
I wrote this song (Maybe) last year. This is a new video for the tune, shot in one take with my Flip camcorder, and edited with Final Cut Express (remixed Aug. 24, 2019).
This new song, like Shrinkwrap, is a commentary on art. By coincidence, I was able to incorporate images of the architecture Pritzker Prize Laureates, on display in Sibley Hall at Cornell, in the YouTube video for the song, but the lyrics are not directed toward them in particular (having been written before the exhibition was mounted). Lyrics, production notes, and an embedded video can be found on the Prisoner music web page (remixed Aug. 24, 2019).
While Milstein Hall construction has begun, Rand Hall (which will be connected to Milstein Hall, and which will contain mechanical equipment for Milstein Hall) is suffering from neglect. Storm water from two recent rains has backed up in the roof drain pipes and discharged through an eye wash fixture on the second floor, as can be seen in this short video. The water has worked its way down from the second floor into first floor offices (including my own). How is this possible? Somehow, someone has connected the waste pipes from a second-floor water fountain and eye wash fixture directly to the roof drain pipe, instead of connecting them to a sanitary sewer waste line with a proper vent.
In a stunning, though entirely symbolic, concession to economic pragmatism or, more likely, to mitigate Milstein Hall’s apparent extravagance and elitist sensibility at a time when workers are being laid off and faculty salaries are frozen, Cornell has eliminated the symbolic centerpiece of Rem Koolhaas’s design for its new architecture building: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Barcelona chair has been rendered out of the official rendering of Milstein’s glass elevator, replaced with a plain vanilla chair.
On the other hand, why one even needs this glass elevator in a two-story building remains unclear: Milstein will be physically connected to two adjacent buildings, both with elevators, so that ADA-mandated access is already available. Can it be that architecture students require the constant stimulation provided by such mechanical contrivances in order to be properly initiated into the wacky world of high design?
In 2007, I wrote to Peter Turner, Assistant Dean for Administration of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) at Cornell, urging him to take action on two issues affecting the major lecture room in Sibley Hall, room 157. First, the construction of OMA’s Milstein Hall (Rem Koolhaas, architect) would eliminate natural ventilation, making the room, which is already unbearable, illegal. Since Milstein is an addition to Sibley Hall, it would not be able to be built unless the ventilation issue in Sibley was resolved. I have discussed this in more detail elsewhere.
Second, the lecture hall has only one exit, which is nonconforming with modern building code standards. As it turns out, a recent code interpretation makes it illegal to occupy the lecture hall with only one exit and more than 50 occupants.
Rather than fixing the problem, and improving the safety of these rooms, Cornell has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the code interpretation. According to the Ithaca Journal [link no longer works — payment now required to access news archives] (6/17/09), Cornell spokesman Simeon Moss said that “We’re quite confident in the safety of the buildings.” Really? For everyone else building 50+ occupant lecture halls in the United States, two exits are always required, based on considerations of safety and risk. Cornell, however, is “confident” that its lecture halls are safe with only one means of egress. [Update: the Ithaca Journal (8/19/09) reports that Cornell has lost its lawsuit (link disabled by the Journal*); see my short video about the almost immediate creation of a second exit for the room.]
It should also be noted that Milstein Hall is being built with less fire separation between its new construction and the existing Sibley Hall than would be required under the current building code. Thus a fire in the Milstein addition would not only threaten Sibley based on this reduced level of fire separation, but any occupants of the lecture hall in room 157 would only have a single egress path, instead of two. Way to go, Cornell!
Cornell’s attitude is clearly not based on fire science, but on a misguided set of priorities that revolve around money: what is particularly egregious in this attitude is that they have simultaneously decided to spend more than $50 million on Milstein Hall, at a cost of over $1000 per square foot (compared to $400 per square foot or less for normal university facilities) while using up the $20 million Thomas endowment gift — which was intended to support ongoing program development for the architecture department — to pay off additional debt incurred by the high cost of construction.
* Updated 5/23/13: This article in the Cornell Daily Sun describes the lawsuit that Cornell lost. And here is the State of NY Supreme Court opinion.