Right Place, Right Time

This is a pretty, pretty, pretty amazing photo (Carlos Gutierrez/UPI/Landov) of Chile's Chaitén volcano a couple days ago, which hasn't erupted in over 9,000 years. Some stats: 12 mile high ash plume, 4,000 evacuees, square miles in dust.

It's called a "dirty thunderstorm." It's a phenomenon not well known yet, but most atmospheric physicists maintain that volcanic lightning is a result of a large amount of electric charge released by the volcano itself. The static charge is sparked when it collides with ash and ice particles in the plume.

A fascinating photo. It looks like what I imagine the end of the world to look like. We will awake in the middle of the night, walk outside into the middle of the street with our neighbors, where no one speaks. They look up. It's all around us. And it sounds like hell. Like cats screaming over a thousand baritone singing men.

Animation!

I'm doing a minor case study for arch 11 on one of twenty optional Los Angeles based buildings. One happened to be the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, built by Robert Stern. I chose it because I love all things Disney, and I saw this as an opportunity to visit the grounds and have a closer look. However upon arriving I found this task pretty much impossible. Unfortunately the studios have been on lock-down since 9-11. I did enjoy pacing the perimeter though, and hope to one day be invited in, for what? I don't know yet.

Based on my research, I'm calling the concept of my study "Rebirth".

When Walt died in 1966, the Disney animation, in a sense, died with him. He truly was the magic behind the movies. Over the years the department separated and spread out, almost at a loss for direction. It wasn't until 1991, with the release of Beauty and the Beast that Disney animation experienced what put them on the map 60 years back, enormous success, and a large demand for more. A couple years after, Robert Stern was commissioned to build the new animation headquarters, across the street from the birth place of Snow White and Bambi, and we saw the department reunited and re-energized.

The building is very much a Disney structure, with playful lines and loud colors, and the unavoidable, three-story tall sorcerer's hat that Mickey wore in Fantasia. The landscaping is thick, with water features here and there, and animals residing in the trees. The lot is clean, the staff are smiling, and the air even smells sweet. Stern's ultra post-modern styles merge nicely with, as Herbert Muschamp reports, "...the buildings spaces and symbols that are dedicated to the serious work of being silly."

Good times.