shapelight http://www.shapelight.com geeks for hire Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:50:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Contradiction http://www.shapelight.com/2008/06/contradiction/ http://www.shapelight.com/2008/06/contradiction/#comments Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:50:32 +0000 admin http://www.shapelight.com/?p=16 The Vegas Strip from the Mandalay Bay
Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”

I seldom understand old Uncle Walt’s quote better than when I am in Las Vegas.  The conservationist piece of me is sickened by the excess, by the greed of a city built on the fortune of a few and the misfortune of many.  The purely sensual part of me, however, is mesmerized by the beauty of all that neon and glass: the I.M. Pei ripoff that is the Luxor, the burlesque of Roman architecture at Caesar’s Palace, the silly piratical theming of Treasure Island.  They are, to that sensual piece of me, beautiful reflections.

That sensual piece of me also understands the wonderful, greedy chaos of the casino floor.  I am fascinated by light; the way it shines and reflects and shapes the world.  I try to capture that in my photography, and there are few places with light as unique and varied when you stand in the midst of the quarter-slots and video poker machines.

The same goes for the Strip itself - the hotels and signs and streetlights all come together into their own crazy tapestry of light.  Now, I love the view of the LA Valley from the corner of Sunset and La Cienega at night, and the New York Skyline from Jersey at sunset, but Vegas at night is something all its own.  Gawdy, over-the-top and somehow it reminds me of an insane Impressionist Masterpiece.

The epitome of the contradiction I find in myself while in Las Vegas are the fountains in front of the Bellagio Hotel & Casino.  The sheer audacity and waste of a man-made lake in the middle of a desert is staggering - think of what that water could do in sub-Saharan Africa  But I cannot deny the awe and beauty of that water being rocketed skyward in tight choreography to music.

The first time I went to Vegas, I spent most of the night walking up and down the Strip, from where the old Frontier used to be, south to the Luxor and back.  I barely remember the corner-lurkers handing out escort cards and “free” show tickets, but I remember each and every hotel, and finding that Whitman-esque contradiction in myself.

]]> http://www.shapelight.com/2008/06/contradiction/feed/ Update http://www.shapelight.com/2008/06/update/ http://www.shapelight.com/2008/06/update/#comments Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:46:13 +0000 admin http://www.shapelight.com/?p=15 Here we go - the new site design is now live. I figure 5 years is long enough (that’s about 50 years on the Internets.) I’m still futzing with the blog section to allow subsections. It’s not a technical issue, Wordpress has ample ways to accomplish this - I just need to decide on the design/presentation.

So stay tuned - we’re almost there!

]]> http://www.shapelight.com/2008/06/update/feed/ client: Gphotographic | www.gphotographic.com http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/client-gphotographic-wwwgphotographiccom/ http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/client-gphotographic-wwwgphotographiccom/#comments Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:39:19 +0000 dan http://www.shapelight.com/new/?p=13 Screenshot of Gphotographic.com
html, php, flash

A flash website designed to emphasize the client’s photography rather than the website mechinations. PHP was used to create dynamic slideshows from the contents of web directories. The client was able to FTP images to these folders and dynamic slideshows would be created to display on the varying sections of the website.

]]> http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/client-gphotographic-wwwgphotographiccom/feed/ client: Tony DeSare | www.tonydesare.com http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/tonydesarecom/ http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/tonydesarecom/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 05:15:58 +0000 dan http://www.shapelight.com/new/?p=12 Screenshot of TonyDeSare.com
xhtml, css, php, flash

A full website designed and developed to synchronize with the release of the artist’s new album. The website was migrated from Flash to CSS/web standards and a simple PHP based content management system was implemented to allow the client to update basic content on his own.

]]> http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/tonydesarecom/feed/ Welcome http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/test-blog-post/ http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/test-blog-post/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 05:03:02 +0000 dan http://www.shapelight.com/new/?p=9 And so it begins. Like many, I have a couple abandoned blogs drifting about the byways of the internet, but I am back to take another swing.  In the interest of letting this effort succeed, I have decided that rather than try to make the entries in this blog “articles” or “diary entries,” I’m going to let them be whatever they want to be. Pictures, essays, short stories, drunken musings…they will all attempt to live peacefully on this page while they fight racously in my head.

For now, I’ll leave you with a picture I’m pretty proud came out of my camera.

]]> http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/test-blog-post/feed/ homepage text http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/test-homepage-post/ http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/test-homepage-post/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 05:02:00 +0000 dan http://www.shapelight.com/new/?p=7 welcome to shapelight.com, the home page for computer geek extraordinaire dan kaufman. look around for examples of my work and thoughts.

]]> http://www.shapelight.com/2008/04/test-homepage-post/feed/