wschanz's Open Salon Blog

fernsey's open call first evahhh

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 03:08:45 -0400

O.K. so i haven't posted in over a year but I have been lurking and commenting. Frankly, the spam got to me.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2009 10:21PM

where "wet blanket" came from

There used to be a Detroit Free Press columnist named Bob Talbert that wrote a regular feature called ‘things I learned looking up other things’. This is one of those things.

I’ve heard the phrase ‘wet blanket’ used to describe a person that spoils the fun all of my life. I stumbled across its origin the other day while looking for facts to backup another old story.

The subject has to do with the change from gas lighting to electrical lighting in the theater. I’m trying to find references to the belief that todays stage lighting is hung on 1 ½” gas pipe (schedule 40) because it was hung on the gas pipes when the gas systems were changed out. I haven’t found it yet but I do remember that I read it more than once.

I stumbled across the reference to a ‘wet blanket’ in a couple of places on the web. It appears that London required buckets placed about the stage with wet blankets in them to put out fires and especially performers that accidently set their costumes on fire.

So a ‘wet blanket’ snuffs out the excitement. Because theater is what theater is, the saying is applied in as many creative ways as it can be.

a whole year wasted on OC

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 17:09:03 -0400

Yep, for a whole year I've wasted more time on this web site than on anything else and enjoyed it better than anything else. I really have to thank the muse that got me here and the people that have been here.

I actually feel that I've made friends although I've only bothered to meet one of you in person and that was a real treat.

I hope I haven't bored too many of you with my posts about tech. theater and old stuff that got dug up. I really wish I could update you on Taz the Bobcat but there is an ugly truth about volunteering; you will be abused.

Here's the first post. You should have know to block me then. If they don't need no stinking bqadges I don't need no dicshunnary!

http://open.salon.com/blog/wschanz/2009/09/26/where_wet_blanket_came_from

my 12 (open call)

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:09:30 -0400

Twelve things about me that you may not know. Interesting challenge.

1) my love of theater made it's self know by the time I was six.

2) although many people have sterotyped me as a biker I've never liked to ride them.

3) i really can fix anything with a wire on it and many of those things have been worth millions.

4) I sometimes limp because I tore out a knee climbing in the Alps. Not a lot of fun climbing down.

5) more than once I've looked at the business end of a gun pointed at me. Machine guns are scary. A Cobra attack helicopter that appeared out of no where and stopped fifty feet from me where no one would have ever found a thing or gone looking.

6) I've had a deep interest in art since I was eight. Thank you King Tut.

7) Everyone assumes I like sports. I couldn't care less. However I'm still having work done to repair hockey injuries thirty years later.

8) I have about as many credit hours in the Fine Arts than I have in my field.

9) I'm a stagehand that like all others is duty bound not to tell stories about famous people.

10) a theripist told me to go to AA even though I wasm't an alcoholic so I'd have some structure and people to talk to during my divorce.

11) I'm not bitter about that divorce and I have a herd of flying elephants.

12) I'll give up my 86 Jaguar xj6 when they --- can I be buried in it?

If this doesn't say how dumb we are I don't know what does

Sun, 5 Sep 2010 22:09:18 -0400

The Detroit area much like many other places is built on a first nation site. Detroit was French the name means "strait" in english. That made Detroit a safe place to land boats and was protected from storms on the great lakes. It was also praire making it a place where animals gqthered to feed and people could farm.

The various clans pf first nation people were all a part of the Ojibway nation. Evidence of their existance has been found as old a 4,500 years ago. The along came the europeans and within a hundred years the land was denuded of trees the soil was depleted and the animals were extinct.

Let me ask you this. Which one was the savage?

hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojibwettp://www.ojibway.ca/history.htm

This article by the Ojibway Nature Center is a time line of the area.

http://heritage-key.com/blogs/owenjarus/oldest-house-ontario-discovered-4500-year-old-settlement-near-lake-huron-canada

Now about the only thing we can say about Detroit is that it is the only place in America that is North of Canada. That and the chinese pheasants that were planted here after the ring necks were hunted out of existance are finding a foor hold in the torn down areas of the city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojibwe

I had to learn some of those names when we had a summer place in Canada. Too bad the outboard motors killed the river leaking oil and gas all over.

repost - theater history --- the oil foot light

Sat, 4 Sep 2010 16:09:43 -0400

repost

I don't know why but this post disappeared after about two hours last night.

So. this is a repost.

After the candle or more likely along with the candle came oil lamps. This one was a foot light. You know the one that gives you the flashlight under the chin look. In fact foot lights are very seldomly used today.

You can see the filler cap in the center. The thumb screw secured it in place so that it didn't get kicked into the orchestra pit. Facing the audience was the shield that kept the light out of their eyes. Because this fixture was built out of galvanised sheet metal the shield would have been a lousy reflector.

There are five 1/4" round wicks. It is difficult to compare the amount of light produced because of the many variables but it appers that 5 candle power is a good approximation for a 1/4" round wick. That means that this fixture produced somewhere around 25 candle power. The average incandescent 100 watt bulb produces around 150 candle power. That's not very bright by todays standards.