Reid Beels

Looking out my window at the moment, I can see a number 77 TriMet bus stopped in the middle off the intersection of 19th and Northrup. Cars are making their way around it, but it’s blocking the tracks of the portland streetcar. The streetcar came up behind it and waited for a while before reversing back to the 18th and Northrup stop to let its passengers off. The bus looks pretty much empty, but a few more passengers just hopped off to join the streetcar refugees in their trek up the street.

TriMet maintainance just showed up and they appear to be snapping digital photos of the bus. I just went downstairs and looked around and I havea better idea of what happened now. A few minutes before I noticed the stopped bus, I heard a clanking noise which I now assume was the black nissan that’s parked on the corner running into the bus. One of the TriMet cops is talking to the driver now. The front bumper and the corner of the hood are dented, but there doesn’t look to be to much overall damage (at least, no one inured). It would seem that the bus swerved to avoid the car, which is why it was diagonal in the intersection.

Back in December of last year, Erin, Leah, and I collaborated on a children’s book for our ethics class. After much discussion of content, writing of text, drawing of pictures, and painting of backgrounds we all met one night in the student publicity office to assemble everything into a finished product. Many hours later, we emerged victorious holding the one and only copy of our masterpiece: Be Patient, Peter, which we promptly presented to our professor and never saw again.

Later on, when I went back to look for the files I was unable to find them. After much searching, I eventually resigned myself that the work had been lost forever, the digital form to the ethers of technology and the physical form into the hands of Dr. Etlich. This being said, you can imagine my joyful surprise when I stumbled across all of the original production files nestled safely in the root directory of my iPod. Huzzah!

And so, without further ado, it is my pleasure to present the special edition digital reissue of our groundbreaking philosophy text:

Be Patient Peter (PDF)

If you aren’t yet convinced of the glory of the publication, I produce for you the text from the back of the book:

The purpose of this book is to teach children about philosophy. The wonder of young
minds lies in their ability to both accept new concepts and exercise reason. Through the short
narrative about young Peter’s meaningful walk in the park “Be Patient, Peter” provides a short
overview of various philosophical concepts and introduces the young reader to five points of
view.
Peter becomes upset when his mother doesn’t allow him to swim unsupervised with his
older brother. Even only children can relate to the frustration encountered when age presents
a road block. Initially, Peter feels angry and resorts to vengeance. “I’ll show her,” he claims,
and heads out into the woods intending to swim against her wishes. Along the way he meets
five classic philosophical minds, Socrates, Aristotle, Lao Tsu, Confucius, and Sir Charles
Darwin, who help him understand the reasoning behind his mother’s rules.
Socrates teaches Peter what philosophy is, the expectations involved, and the need to
talk to people to understand. Aristotle talks about virtue, balance and patience. Confucius
introduces the concepts of cause and effect and duty. Lao Tsu brings in the need to understand
and yield to the forces of nature. If we stop looking for results, and live in the present, the
answers will find us. Darwin continues this line of thought, introducing the idea that people
are animals too. He explains to Peter that over time he will mature and that is why he must be
patient. By the time Peter reaches the water hole he changes his mind.
Expect a lot of questions from young readers!

Okay, so I’m sitting here at Coffee Time, I’ve got my Powerbook on the table and my phone is sitting next to it on the right hand side. Since I sat down I’ve grabbed my phone and moved it around no less than three separate times, each time realizing that it wasn’t a mouse and dejectedly going back to my trackpad. My phone is not a mouse, but what if it WAS? With the size of today’s mini wireless mice, the hardware can’t actually take up all that much space and it would provide just one more little bit of hardware integration. It would be so cool. It wouldn’t even necessarily need to be built into the mouse either. Like those flashy lights that scott used to have, it could be built in to a replacement battery pack. This would work especially well on my phone as the back panel could be quickly replaced to let an optical beam shine out. There would still need to be a clicking method, of course, but that could be dealt with. If people would be satisfied with one button, it could add a bit of width to the phone and function kind of like the Apple pro (not mighty) mouse. If it were actually to be built into the phone, existing exterior buttons could be used and if the phone had built-in bluetooth, this would just add one more little way to use it. I totally want one.

Update! I’m realizing that it might not be the most reliable solution, but I think that it might just be possible to do this on a cameraphone with adequate java support! Sure, sliding your cameraphone around might not be the best idea, but it would still be cool.

On Sunday I spend nine hours at PNCA sitting in on a planning meeting for p:ear, a local nonprofit that works with homeless and transitional youth through arts, education and recreation programs. I was not there to learn about p:ear or to help them plan their future but to study their planning process as part of a strange little extra-curricular project that has spun out of my Design Studio II class. John Calvelli (the teacher of this class), Gabriella (another student), and I (me) all attended the meeting and throughout the process Gabriella and I weren’t exactly sure what it was we were supposed to be looking for. We’re working on coming up with ways that design can be used to help the process progress more easily and efficiently, but what exactly that meant was rather unclear.

We met again this afternoon to debrief from the long meeting and brainstorm ways that design-based improvements could be made to the process. We still aren’t exactly sure what we’re looking at doing, but some strong ideas are surfacing. Mostly supplemental materials (informational packets, workbooks, etc.) and physical organization of data around the room.

Lured by the promise of something interesting and by the beautiful poster, I made my way over to PSU on Saturday to take a look around at the Stumptown Comics Fest.

I woke up late and hopped a streetcar over to PSU where I made the poorest decision of the day (possibly of the week, or even month) when I decided to try a chicken bento from Rice Junkies. Having attempted to eat it (and failed) I must say that even if you are on the verge of starvation DO NOT EAT THEIR FOOD. The rice was dry and almost inedible and the chicken 1) didn’t look like any chicken part I’ve ever seen and, 2) was dry, chewy, and flavorless. The sauce brought on another entire level of the inferno that was my lunch, adding an insultingly bitter twist to the injury of the food.

After ditching the so called meal in a nearby trash can, I made my way to the Fest itself. The exhibition floor was scattered with an impressive selection of artists peddling their wares, chatting with curious readers, and happily sketching away. All of them seemed very pleased to be there, reveling in the community that was their own. I felt a little out of place, not knowing much about the ’scene’ that was represented, but after wandering a bit it didn’t seem to matter.

As usual, the things that I noticed as I examined the work leaned towards layout , printing techniques, and other designy elements. Several books caught my eye not because they had a compelling concept and amazing illustrations but rather because the hand-lettered type was so beautifully executed.

When 5:00 came around it was time for the Comic Art Battle, an amazing no-holds-barred war of pictionary on something psychotropic and highly illegal. The opening event was a ‘foundation challenge’ between two local comics journalists, one from the Willamette Week, the other from the Oregonian. The audience chose the actions of gargling and grave digging (simultaneously) and the artists took to their easels and drew their interpretations of a volunteer audience member performing these actions. Five minutes later, the winner was chosen by audience applause. The Big O took the cup, but both drawings were greatly amusing.

It was then time to move on to the main event of the afternoon. For the four-round comics battle, this years theme was ‘Girls vs. Boys’. After a quick introduction of the players (with The Final Countdown playing in the background) the first round began. Again the audience was polled, this time for an adjective, a verb and a noun. As the selected artists from each team began their drawings of an inebriated elephant playing soccer, insults such as “Of course she can draw an elephant, she’s a republican!” were flung between the contestants and the audience responded with appropriately shocked gasps.

Round 2: The Battle Royale. Two artists compete on the same piece of paper, illustrating a battle between audience chosen armies. Soon beavers and giant squid filled the paper, using teeth, harpoons, tentacles and the INK ATTACK to wage a mighty war.

Round 3 was drawn by volunteer artists from the audience. A young boy named Rolly (probably spelled wrong) who had been eagerly suggesting topics, raising his hand, and jumping up and down excitedly went up against a girl whose name I wish I could remember, but can’t. They bravely illustrated an audience member ice skating.

The final round was a collaborative six-panel strip with two artists from a team working together. Once again, the audience came through with a great topic: botched surgery. Both entries were amusing, but the girls’ took the cake in terms of completeness and plot.

In the end, the girls were declared victorious and the battle came to an end. It was entirely too much fun while it lasted and I laughed long and hard. The next time someone needs an idea for a comics fundraiser they should just do this. It was ten times funnier than much of the improvisational comedy that I’ve seen and it lets the audience see the artists at work.

After she saw it as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, Talia sent me a link to the website of Gutenberg: The Musical. Ever since I downloaded and listened to the music, some part of it has been stuck in my head constantly.

The show is an amusing, though wildly and proudly historically incorrect, show that centers around Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. With witty lyrics set to incredibly catchy tunes, and a total running time of only 22 minutes, I highly reccomend that everyone download and listen to this little gem of a show.

The plot centers around Johan Gutenberg (of course), Helvetica Guminstipple, the illiterate grape juice stomper that loves him, and an evil monk that wants the press destroyed so that he can maintain the fact that “the bible sez whatever I sez it sez”. It’s beautiful.

Wednesday night, Diana and I went to see The Lion King touring show at the Keller Auditorium. Upon entering the lobby, there was no doubt whatsoever that this was a big production put on by a company that truly understands the power of a captive audience. The lobby was dotted with merchandise booths in which the least expensive item was a $10 infant shirt emblazened with “My First Musical.” Truth be told, the markup wasn’t as rediculous as I’ve seen it other places. The original cast recording, on sale for $20, is available on amazon new for $13.49. Considering that shipping isn’t included in the Amazon price, $6.50 is a reasonable price to pay for the convienence and the thrill of having something to take away from the show.

I’d heard that the opening number was one of the high points of the show and it did not disappoint. Shortly after the house lights dimmed the aisles and stage were filled with a fanciful procession of animals (in puppet form, of course). Among the highlights were giraffes that were controlled by people wearing stilts for both their feet and hands and a close to life size elephant.

All of the puppets were outstanding, but I think my personal favorite was a cheetah. It was operated by a woman who stood behind it, and controlled the two front legs with poles. The thing that made it really stand out was that the puppet’s head was connected to the operator’s head with monofilamnet. This allowed for an almost invisible connection between puppeteer and puppet that added a huge amount of expressiveness to the creature.

The performance was a fantastic spectacle overall, as you can read many, many other places. I really enjoyed it, but I’m not going to go into detail scene-by-scene. Some of the musical material that was added wasn’t quite up to same level as the original material, but Shadow Land at the opening of act two was really beautiful. I Just Can’t Wait To Be King in act one was a bit of a disappointment to me because it strayed rather far from the look of the rest of the show, bringing in garishly colored puppets that looked more circusy and less savannahy (the spell checker will let me get away with circusy, but it doesn’t believe savannahy). This was mainly because this song was covering up for the massive scene change into the elephant graveyard that would be used for the next few scenes, but it still bothered me.

Okay, I’m going to get a bit techieish now:

From what I could tell from my seat, glancing over at the booth that had been erected in the back of the auditorium, they were using an Obsession II to control their conventional fixtures and a separate console for the intelligent fixtures. Four LCD displays for lighting, two for sound. There were four of what looked like VL7s hanging from the second balcony. I tried to notice a time during the show that they were being used, but I never did. A lot of extra cabling had to be run to handle all of the fixtures that they had installed on the balcony and it snaked in large black bundles up from both sides of the stage and from the booth.

When the curtain lifted, the first thing I noticed were the legs. On either side of the stage were three legs which looked like they were hollow rectangular columns of white cloth which were lit from within. They also could have been L shaped and backlit. Either way, the end result was that their color could be easily changed, usually to extend the cyc color, to work with the scene. The bottoms of them were printed with a rough grassy pattern which stood out as a great contrast to the rest of the column.

The central rock set piece entered and rotated as actors climbed the stairs in the opposite direction as the rotation. This both distracted from the rock’s entrance and lengthened the climb while keeping the actors center stage. In addition to the tracks for set piece movement, the stage floor was fitted with hydraulics that raised the rear 2/3 of the stage at about a 30° angle to the rest of the floor. This was used in large crowd scenes to increase visibility and later to create the effect of a hill. One interesting thing about it is that the central circle of the stage could either remain flat or be included in the rise. One of the most visibly stunning moments in the show came at the start of the second act where a large circular piece of silver cloth was spread out on this incline and smoothly pulled through a hole in the stage floor from its center. The scene was accentuating the devastation of the savannah and the combination of this effect with stark white cyc lighting got the point across very well.

Another truly amazing piece of scene design was the stampede in the canyon. The legs are masked with black slip covers and huge L-shaped units come in from the side, converging to form a canyon. There are four rows of these, in decreasing size, creating perspective. At the top of the furthest unit, a solid wall representing the back of the canyon, was a cutout silhouette of wildebeest. When the stampede begins, this silhouette is removed and a projection of wildebeest running down the canyon wall begins. It is followed by the appearance of a marvelous contraption of wildebeest puppets on a series of wheels that rises from between the next two canyon sections. Finally, actors portraying wildebeest appear on the lower levels to complete the filling of the canyon. Truly spectacular, though my 2:44 am description writing might not be sufficient to express this.