May 25, 2009 @ 10:11 am
· Filed under general, music
Got some good responses to the last post about summer music (thanks Sachi, Erin, Greg, and Mary!). So this week’s question comes on the heels of watching Iron & Winerecently appear on a late night show. Apparently they have a new album of collected songs called Around the Well.
Q: What song(s) do you like in which you feel inevitably compelled to sing along to?
We’ll be liberal with our definition of “sing along to”, because as you all can likely guess, I certainly don’t profess to carry a tone. But still, in each of our own ways, I have a feeling that there are songs in which we find ourselves going beyond merely passively listening to them. Mouthing the words, whispering them, belting out the chorus in the shower, heck — even humming or whistling along. Why not.
Iron & Wine – The Trapeze Swinger
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I first heard this song at last year’s Hardly Strict Bluegrass festival. Not really sure why I have this reaction to this song, but it is what it is. Two others would be songs I’ve mentioned here before, namely The National’s Fake Empires and Sufjan Steven’s The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades. Go ahead and share yours if you’d like, just leave a comment below!
The following day, the three of us hopped on a morning train up to the City, making the transfer to the BART so as to emerge in the bustling and lively Powell St. station, right on Market Street in the heart of the shopping district. What a change from the calmness of Palo Alto suburbia! The warmth struck me — the forecasts were right on, for once — it was going to be an unusually warm day in the City. We strolled down Market St., among the towering skyscrapers of the financial district on our way to the Embarcadero and the Bay. By happy chance, three of Kelly’s colleagues from the College of Textiles at NC State were in San Francisco.
Their program has a remarkable scholarship opportunity — a fully paid stipend to make a trip anywhere to visit companies on the cutting edge of textiles. And get the image of cotton mills out of your head — that’s one thing you’ll quickly realize after talking with these textile engineering students. Lauren, Taylor, and Carol were in Portland a few days ago talking with top-notch product designers at Nike and Adidas, were hitting Columbia, North Face in San Francisco, and then heading south to visit Patagonia.
We met them at the Ferry Building in the middle of an open-air farmer’s market. Moving along the booths, Kelly caught up with her friends while we sampled the fruits of the season. Food was slim (or crowded) at the Ferry Building, so we crossed back through the flea market and found a deli to grab a quick bite before heading back out on the streets with Lombard St. as our destination.
Lombard Street is of course the “most crookedness street in the country” and a favorite to showcase the steep hills that make San Francisco such a unique urban environment.We made our way up Montgomery and Columbia streets, past the triangular TransAmerica building and through the Italian district. There was some “Amazing Race” like game being played, for we saw pairs of competitors with race numbers dashing by us.
As we made the turn onto Lombard, my friends got their first real taste of the quadricep-testing hills. Welcome to San Francisco! Hehe. Fueled by the hope of an ice cream truck at the top, we made it to the top and enjoyed the view over the City. In the distance, dozens of sailboats lazily made their way around the Bay.
The textile folks jumped on a trolly back to Fisherman’s Wharf as Greg, Kelly, and I headed downhill to the Hyde St. Pier and the waterfront. Bypassing Ghiradelli Square, we made our way out onto the pier that jutted out the farthest into the Bay. I was pleased to find the Golden Gate clearly visible (it’s hidden from view at the more touristy Fisherman’s Wharf), and we took a moment to take in the informal sailing regatta unfolding in front us with Alcatraz Island in the background.
Greg deconstructed the action — pointing out how a boat’s spinnaker deflates when being chased up close, how the boats tack, where the sailors stand and operate the boats. Things were much more refreshing by the waterfront. We made our way east towards Pier 39 to see the the seals, and the sourdough creatures spawned in the kitchen of Boudin’s did not disappoint. The baker even had a small sourdough teddy bear tucked into his breast pocket!
We cooled down with ICEEs (just like the way Chris Ternes and I did at Greg and Kelly’s wedding rehearsal), and waited for Greg’s cousin Jim Cavalieri to come by. This was another big reason for Greg to visit San Francisco. I had met his father at Greg’s wedding and remembered that he was out in the Bay Area with SalesForce.com. Cavalieri was among the first to start at SalesForce and serves as SVP and chief security officer. We met with him and his family near Pier 39 and went to a restaurant on the pier to catch up over drinks. As the kids tried to best each other with ever more creative crayon drawings, the conversation floated between family updates, Greg and Kelly’s thoughts of Stanford, Jim’s experience at SalesForce and life out here in the Bay Area, a neat invention that Jim was envisioning for his wine cellar, and even what I was up to out here. It was a lot of fun — bright and fun personalities. After a few hours, we bid adieu and the Cavalieris headed back across the Bay while Greg, Kelly, and I found a restaurant in the Wharf. We waited at the bar with an amusingly spunky old bartender, and had a window facing the setting sun over the harbor for the main course.
I had wanted to meet up with Melih — Greg and Melih had known each other through the computer engineering program as well as serving on the photography staff of The Technician, but I realized we wouldn’t make the train if we waited any longer. Next time, sorry Melih! Our MUNI ride was free due to some malfunction, and the conductor kept it loose with deadpanned wry jokes all the way back to Market St. Mindful of the tight schedule, we made it on board the Caltrain and settled in for the ride home.
This was the first proper visit to San Francisco for Greg and Kelly, and what a great one it was! The liveliness of Market St., a farmer’s market on the Embarcadero with friends, a trek through the hills, the cool breeze and gorgeous view of the Bay, seeing family, dinner at the Wharf, and the certain zaniness of SF public transport. Come back soon, for there is still so much more to see!
Last Wednesday, Greg and Kelly arrived in sunny California to spend a few days in the Bay Area. Kelly was here just a few weeks ago for a conference at Cal Poly down in San Luis Obispo, and Greg of course had been here two years ago for the EEP Silicon Valley trip. But now they could finally relax and get to know Stanford more. What a joy it was to be with them again! And after hearing stories of our old gang back together in the Triangle again, I definitely felt some pangs for home.
After picking them up at the airport, we came back to campus and walked over to Bytes for leisurely lunch. It was a warm sunny day and you couldn’t have asked for more. We walked around campus and made it over to Tressider, where Amit (and later Nader) met up with us and they got to partake in the obsession of frozen yogurt that’s rampant out here.
That evening the three of us went to dinner at The Counter and stopped by the Nuthouse, the electic dive bar where Greg and I described to Kelly the whole story of Austin and Jessie that happened back in 2007 when the EEP was here. Some people think the Nuthouse is too sketchy, but I like it. It has character. The whole day we talked and talked — about Stanford, about the people back home, families, NC State, everything.
The next day, I got some work done in the morning and met them at the Cantor Arts Center for lunch. That’s right — I was rolling out the big guns (ie, Rodin Sculpture Garden and art museum, right on campus).
Coincidentally, my RAs from Rains were having a lunch event that exact time, so we had lunch with them and I got a discount on the meal (w0o!). I had hyped up all the high minded, lofty conversations one can routinely have at a place like Stanford, and my fellow graduate students did not disappoint: what SI recognized unit is capitalized but not named after a person? This all started of course when a colleage referred to a stipend as “3 kilobucks”. But it was good — Gaurav in EE was able to give them some good advice. Looking through the course directory earlier, I found a materials science class we could sit in. Fortunately, it turned out to be taught by one of the most highly regarded professors in the department — Dr. Brongersma. Not only was the class good, but Greg and Kelly got to chat with him after class and we ran into several friends of mine too. Forgoing another Hindi class to be with them, we hopped on a bus back to the Stanford Terrace Inn and then walked down El Camino to the Old Pro, the big sports bar in Palo Alto so we could watch Game 7 of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey game. Ran into my friend Neil — a Northeastern grad and proud Bostonite who left his group to watch the game with us who cared more about hockey than the basketball games. Greg looked at the bazookas in wide eyed wonder, but pitchers and nachos were enough to satiate us. Fellow Park alum and good friend Brent Rowe joined us after he got back from work, and even his wife Stacy (in residency at Stanford Medical School) came for a bit. The game went into overtime, and with under 2 minutes left in OT the Hurricanes closed the dea, much to the horror of my buddy Neil. He handled it like a true sports fan — pointing at each of us in succession saying a half-joking “you suck!” (but softening to ‘you’re cool’ when he got to Kelly) — before warmly shaking hands with us all and peacing out. The four of us went over to Pasta for a late dinner, and we spoke about the current woes of NC State. It’s frustrating for us, because we want it to be successful but there are certain things that really need to change but don’t.
Nah, it wasn’t all bad. Brent showed us the iPhone app that he’s helping some friends with, about coupons that actually might have legs. Of course, no trip to downtown PA would be complete without yet another frozen yogurt stand, and so we tried a place that was actually trying a new business model — completely self-service!
As you can see, while Greg didn’t seem to care much for it, Kelly was certainly enjoying the mini cheesecake bites in fresh froyo. Hehe. For Friday, I spent the morning and early afternoon in class but caught up with Greg and Kelly after their chat with a professor in chemical engineering. It was great to hear another positive vibe. There was a talk that afternoon by an NC State professor on the exciting new FREEDM center, and I thought it’d be good to represent. Man, didn’t turn out so hot. I spotted some big names on campus in the audience, but it was totally the wrong presentation for this crowd. It’s just not a good sign when the killer slide showing what the FREEDM center is working on appears at minute 55 of a 60 minute presentation. I mean, that’s the only reason why the professors were in the room. Didn’t help also that the audience kept insisting on asking economic and financial questions to a prof who stated very early on that he’s a power systems guy, not a MBA.
We bounced after sitting there for half an hour longer, and went over at 5pm to the Lasuen Mall (the ‘engineering’ mall) where the Materials Research Society was throwing a barbeque. I’m telling ya — I couldn’t have scripted a Stanford visit better. We spent the next 3 hours eating some food, drinking a beer, hanging out with chill materials science grad students, playing volleyball with students and professors alike, throwing the frisbee around barefoot in the cool grass, and even an impromptu game of Ultimate Frisbee. All on a warm, lazy Friday afternoon. Oh! There was also a dog that came by who was persuasive in having everyone she approached play catch with her. Hehe.
Amit said a few folks were going to the Nuthouse again later, so the four of us went there to find the place much more lively. However — Greg, Kelly, and I were headed up to the City early the next day, so we called it a relatively early night. Overall, Stanford was sold to them with all the things that you’d expect — great weather, nice campus, lots of top notch researchers, and fun area. It’s also a critical stepping stone to teaching at a top tier university if they both enter academia in the future.
Next up — a fun, beautiful, and really warm day in San Francisco!
May 11, 2009 @ 9:01 am
· Filed under general, music
We’ve a had nice string of warm weather out here at Stanford and folks back home in NC are just starting their summer vacation. So in light of this, what is a song you like that can be described as purely fun, bright, or even effervescent? Thinking back to my music collection, I actually don’t have too many of these.
I’ll venture two: one that I mentioned earlier when I bought the new album.
Sigur Rós - Inní mér syngur vitleysingur (translation: within me a lunatic sings)
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And here is one I discovered a few days ago that somehow caught my ear, particularly the near-childish sounding ending.
Loney Dear – I am John
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I’m pleased to finally post our class video project for Beginning Hindi, Winter Quarter. The centerpiece of the project is a re-enactment of selected parts from the Ramayan. Our whole class got involved in this video, with two members contributing original songs they composed and sung (check out the ~18:00 marker for a great song about Hanuman).
A skeleton script was finalized the night before and shooting commenced the next day with minimal memorization. The locations were scouted out during the shoot, and the Ramayan segment principle photography with two HD cameras went on for 8 hours, ending at sundown. Ljubi, a film studies major, Amit, and I tackled the editing process — but this film was completed only through the Herculean effort by Ljubi who spent 22 hours straight at the editing desk so the movie could be completed in time for the Hindi final exam period. One of the more complex scenes to edit was the fight scene at the end — it was not choreographed so we pieced together a sequence in the editing room. It was a delight to shoot simultaneously with two HD cameras and gave us tremendous opportunities in the editing room. Our biggest challenge, as you can tell from the video, is sound quality. Wind and background noise were very difficult to mitigate.
All in all, it was a great experience and I’m glad our whole class came together to make it happen.
I might have mentioned the Yang and Yamazaki Environment and Energy (Y2E2) building before. It is the home for the civil and environmental engineering department, the Woods Institute for the Environment, the Precourt Center for Energy Efficiency…you get the idea. So it was a must that their building be a campus leader in efficient and sustainable construction and design.
For my advanced topics in energy efficiency in buildings class, we had guest speaker from the architecture firm boora and a building design engineer from Arup who worked on the building. They spoke of the design motivation of the Y2E2 building and Stanford’s historical architectural designs and plans, the importance of the building’s programming and how it affected design, and then into the very features of the building itself. It was neat to hear from the folks who designed it why they did the things they did. A few notes:
Transition Zones
Transition zones help ease the visitor into and out of the building environment. There is the courtyard formed the the L-shape of the building, then the visitor walks into arcades similar to those found in the Main Squad. Lobbies with 4 story atria greet the visitor, who then moves further into the building into more enclosed offices. Not only does this strategy influence lighting, it also helps with expectations.
Attention to detail with daylighting
This is looking downward in one of the atria. Directly in front you can see conference spaces — glass walled rooms located at the intersection of wings to encourage shared spaces, collaboration with different areas, etc. Note the stepped back design? The rooms are not directly on top of each other — the bottom room juts out farther. Take a look farther down:
The bottom area with the couches is the basement level. These atria penetrate through all 4 floors and the stepped back design was to ensure that despite angle of the sun in the winter, sunlight could reach all the way down to the basement and warm up the thermal mass that helps regulate temperatures. All the floors are made of concrete, making the building thermally massive.
Solar Gain Mitigation Strategies
Directly in front is the north facing side of teh building and on the right is the east facing side. Note the difference in window design. The north windows are not recessed heavily and have minimal framing. The east facing windows, which see the morning sun, are deeply recessed with vertical fins to further prevent sunlight from entering. This reduces the cooling load of the building while still aiding in daylighting. On the south side, overhangs are present to shade the windows during the summer months but admit light in the winter months.
These are but three elements to a very complex integrated design. The Y2E2 building is the first in the new Science and Engineering Quad (SEQ 2) which is currently under construction behind the Packard electrical engineering building.
This is a view of the construction from a terrace on the Y2E2 building. Click for a larger panorama. SEQ 2 will also house the new Engineering Center (the octagonal building in the center of the above photo), the School of Engineering HQ, a Nanocenter, and a Chemical Engineering building. It is also represents a recommittment to original architect Frederick Olmsted’s vision of a quadrangle focused campus. Olmsted was one of the most landscape architects of the time — he did Central Park in NYC.
Above is the original plan for Stanford, which is an aerial view with Palm Drive pointing south. A view of the proposed SEQ 2 quad:
And the image below shows how the SEQ 2 will occupy Quad #2 space on Olmsted’s original plan. These photos are from an article in Portland Spaces.
As the architect from boora said — it really comes down to “a sense of place.”
May 5, 2009 @ 9:01 am
· Filed under general, music
My friend Jordan recommended the Boxer album by The National and it’s indeed quite good, particular the first song, Fake Empires. What I love about this song is how the horn section surfaces towards the end — though it’s at first unexpected, it fits perfectly and really elevates the song.
The National – Fake Empires
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Another song that comes to my mind with this characteristic, although decidedly less optimistic sounding as Fake Empires, is Rob Dougan’s pensive Drinking Song.
Rob Dougan – Drinking Song
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The waltz melody that emerges at the end is not quite expected….but somehow works.
So my question of the week: what song(s) do you know of that have this trait?
Yesterday was great! A special friend visited Stanford: Edouard du Breuil (Eddy), who lived in the same hallway as me when I was studying in Lund, Sweden back in 2005.
We had a great time (our whole hallway meshed really well) and when my sisters and I visited Paris around Christmas time during our whirlwind tour of Europe, Eddy met up with us. He took us to the best bakery in Paris — somewhere that we would have never found without him.
After Lund, Eddy finished his degree in business & finance and started working at Lazard in their M&A group. Eddy would like to attend business school in the US at some point, and took some vacation to visit his brother in NYC (Columbia and NYU) and then come out to San Francisco to visit Berkeley and Stanford. It was so great to meet him after nearly 4 years! It felt like old times. He has some interesting plans coming up, and even has an interest in clean technology as well! We had lunch and walked around campus for a few hours before headed back to the City for a goodbye party. Eddy has some photos on his camera — I’ll put them up when I get them.
Later that evening, after running some errands, I got a call from Brian – a Cal Poly student I met at the ThinkGreen conference — saying that he and a friend was going to be heading through Palo Alto en route back to San Luis Obispo. Amit and I met them at the Old Pro and we had a great chat. His friend Chris headed up the Cal Poly business plan competition and both of them have such inspiring entrepreneurial stories. Definitely need to connect them and Cal Poly to BASES. A lot of what Brian described about regarding Cal Poly and the awakening of entrepreneurship there reminded me of what’s happening at NC State. Good times.
