This is the quiet time. I've been through a lot of building, rebuilding and demolition projects. They have a rhythm, a rise and a fall, arsis and the thesis. This is the quiet time. The demolition opened with a flourish, cannons and bigger hammers, clouds of dust and the 1812 Overture as soundtrack, framing has more of a baroque feel, the ordering, the procession of vertical studs, holding up the roof and ceiling. J.S. Bach and well tempered framing material, the measures of cut, place, pop, pop, pop of the nail gun. One wall is 4/4, another a waltz in three quarter time and the dance of 6/8 on another.
Now is the time of development, weaving the fibers of pipes and wires through the skeleton, the circulation, the nervous system of the building. The pace seems to slow, contemplation, either figuring out exactly what the architect or engineer really meant or deciding with the owner how we need the building to work, to breathe, to think. I hear a Brahms fugue, theme, theme, theme and variation. Look at the pipes and wires, there they are, the same figures, repeated with variations, drain and waste, supply, drain, vent, supply, circuit here, outlet, switch, outlet, light, circuit there light, light, light, switch, syncopation in 12/2.
Our staff Pick of the Day is The Swiss Family Robinson. It predates all the secret banking, neutrality questions. It's more the amazing story of the paterfamilias whose encyclopedic knowledge and execution carries his family through shipwreck and disaster to idyllic settlement of their own new world. This is who MacGyver wishes he could be. We have a nicely illustrated edition, hard back, priced at 30% of cover price, in the young adult section. Look for it in the store come May. Stop by for a cup of coffee, a slice of pie and a good read.
No comments:
Post a Comment