Restoration of a sound sculpture

It's been a while since I've been in the Kendall Square T stop. An article in this morning's Boston Globe drew me in as I remembered the sculpture in the station that was designed to add music to the sound of the trains.

Unfortunately, the beautiful sound sculpture needs maintenance. Its creator maintained the piece for 20 years, but it has been silent for a while now. The article in the Globe tells the story of an individual who reached out to many people in an attempt to rescue the now silent sculpture. He won the attention of two individuals at MIT who have assembled a group of students now known as the "Kendall Band Preservation Society". Work is underway to restore this delightful piece of art.

I'm putting a visit to the Kendall Square T station on my list of things to do once the restored sculpture is back home and working again.

Interested? Click to read the article Grace notes from the underground.

See the magic of sculptor Paul Matisse in this short video on boston.com.

Between the raindrops

Gray light and rain greeted me this morning, as predicted and expected. It was a good at home day, with time for a good walk in a dry part of the day.

In the middle of the afternoon I took advantage of another dry spell to wander through a flower garden.

A spot of camera play, and then... the rain returned.

More photos from my almost dry wander can be seen in the gallery Patterns in petals.

Early morning light

Wednesday colors

White clouds, blue sky

Afternoon light

It was a warm day, a day to satisfy both of my outdoor cravings - rolling on two wheels, wandering on two feet.

Late afternoon was a good time for a visit to the coast. I was treated with wonderful light, reflections, sea touching sky.

Interested in more photos from my late-day wander along the New Hampshire coast? Jump to my gallery New Hampshire's short coastline - 2010.

The power of the wind

Last week brought approval by the interior secretary for Cape Wind, an offshore wind farm that has been going through an approval process for the past nine years. Groups have been jumping forward, protesting the presence of 130 wind turbines five miles offshore. While there may be some legitimate concerns, most of them seem to be of the "not in my backyard" variety.

The wind farm is projected to supply 75% of the power used by Cape Cod and the Islands.

I still remember the first time I saw a working wind farm. It was many many years ago, in the hills of California. I thought it was a beautiful sight.

My wishes are for the wind farm to be built. And when it is up and running, I hope there is some way to travel across the water to view it.

A few interesting facts from the Cape Wind site:

The towers, from the surface of the water to the center of the blades, will be 258 feet tall. The lowest blade tip height will be 75 feet above the surface of the water and the highest blade tip height will be 440 feet above the surface of the water. The base of the wind turbine towers will be 16 feet in diameter.

The wind turbines will be arrayed in a grid pattern of parallel rows. Within a row, the wind turbines will be .34 nautical miles apart (about 6 football fields), the rows will be .54 nautical miles apart (about 9 football fields).

From the closest beach on Cape Cod, in clear conditions, the wind turbines will appear one half-inch above the horizon.

From the Boston Globe: Interior secretary approves Cape Wind plan, nation's first offshore wind farm

For information on the project, jump to the Cape Wind site.

Petals patterned in light

Back to what has become my favorite garden, fascinated by patterns of light shining through petals, by flowers unfolding...

More tulips are visible in the gallery Patterns in petals.

Which day is first?

I flipped to the month of May in my calendar to find that the days of the month were ordered improperly. Hmmm...

It's a calendar that I created at RedBubble using some of my favorite photos. I liked the single-page no frills format of their calendars; the simplicity of design highlights the photos rather than the calendar grid. Unfortunately, the days of the month of May don't fit into a balanced grid, having the first 2 days of May in a week of their own, repeating that pattern with the last two days.

The problem? May has 4 weeks with a (normal) 7 days, plus 2 weeks each containing an odd day or two. May 1st, today, is on a Saturday. And May 30th and 31st are a Sunday, Monday pair of days. In a proper calendar grid, there would be 6 lines. On my RedBubble calendar, there are 5. The top line shows May 30th, 31st, and 1st.

I obviously missed this when I previewed the finished product. I assumed it was a random error, and contacted RedBubble to report the issue. The answer I received pretty much blew me away - they appear to have deliberately created a non-standard month grid:

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After investigating a very large number of calendar designs we have chosen to use a common layout where any days from the end of the month which do not fit in their own line are added in the top left of the grid. This is an aesthetic decision and we have been careful to show this layout in the calendar previews so that customers can see what they are purchasing.

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I wasn't happy with the amount of time it took for my calendars to reach me after ordering them; they seemed to come by ship from Australia, taking over a month to reach me after I placed the order. (Not really, they were flown to the states, but they appear to have been flown to a distribution center where mailing addresses were hand-written and then shipped by Parcel Post. I have no problem with an intermediate shipping point, but they should have been pre-labeled and there is no excuse for any mailing method below Priority Mail.) After I complained I was issued a credit for the shipping fees. And they claim to have addressed their shipping problems.

I like the overall look of RedBubble calendars, but I can't accept the decision to use a day grid of their own creation. As the months roll by and I turn towards creating a calendar for 2011, it looks like I'm going to need to explore other options.

Flowers in the wind