BLDGBLOG in San Francisco

[Image: BLDGBLOG’s second event! The flyer uses photos by Nicolai Morrisson].

I’m excited, honored, flattered, stoked, etc., even slightly stunned, to announce that BLDGBLOG and Chronicle Books have teamed up to host an afternoon of talks about landscape and architecture at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, from 2:30-5:00pm on Saturday, April 7th.
The line-up, as you’ll see from the flyer, above, includes John Bela & Matthew Passmore, of Rebar; Erik Davis, author of The Visionary State; Lisa Iwamoto, of both IwamotoScott Architecture and UC-Berkeley; myself, against all better judgement and in contrast to last time; and Walter Murch, three-time Oscar winner and co-author, with Michael Ondaatje, of the excellent and highly recommended book, The Conversations.
Each speaker will have 15-20 minutes in which to do their thing; you’ll have two different Q&A periods in which to ask questions, and there’ll be a 10-minute break between the third and fourth speaker. Everything will be timed to within a millisecond…
I’ll be re-posting about all this in ten days or so, however, complete with more information about each speaker, including some examples of Lisa’s work at IwamotoScott and a full-length interview with Walter Murch; so, for now, just mark your calendars! And if you’re anywhere near San Francisco, I hope to see you there. Be sure to introduce yourself; I like people.
Finally, if you want a larger version of the flyer, go here. Of course, if you like what you see, photographically, don’t miss the other work of Nicolai Morrisson (formerly known as Nicolai Grossman).

15 thoughts on “BLDGBLOG in San Francisco”

  1. Geoff,
    I have been picking off your previous posts as if BLDG BLOG is a box of chocolates – I really have no idea what I’m going to get. I am already dreading the day when I finish reading all your posts, and must wait an entire twenty-four hours for the next one.
    I look forward to your event in SF.

    Paul M.

  2. Well, there are 675 posts or something like that – so you’ve got a very long haul ahead of you! But let me know if you do read everything; you should win a medal.

    Or be quizzed: Which post, from 2005, mentioned…?

    Anyway, if you come out to the event be sure to say hey. Though I will be speaking first, so I’ll be nervous and incomprehensible and smiling like a moron – in which case you’ll probably be so horrified, you’ll never read BLDGBLOG again.

  3. Geoff, since you’re coming to San Fran, wanna have lunch with some fawning, adoring Wired magazine editors? You have a fan base. Ping me back at adam underscore rogers at wired dot com.

  4. Sounds great. And lest we forget, Murch made an important contribution to speculative architecture by directing Return to Oz, a gorgeous movie that almost ruined his career.

  5. Hey John – Will do. And, Phila, I’ll be posting a BLDGBLOG interview with Murch in the next ten days or so – it’s really great, and all about architecture, astronomy, structure, pattern, video surveillance, acoustics, etc. I’m excited to put it up. So watch for it – and come out to the event if you happen to be around SF.

    And, Adam – about to ping you. Let’s meet up!

  6. Very jealous of you meeting the great Walter Murch. If I had the chance I’d probably ask him about the equally great Alan Splet, another sound designer of genius who provided all the clanking, humming, industrial atmospherics for David Lynch’s films up to Blue Velvet. The pair worked together on The Black Stallion soundtrack for which Spelt received an Oscar.

    Return to Oz is a good movie actually, weird and scary which probably accounts for why you rarely hear about it.

  7. Phila, I’ll be posting a BLDGBLOG interview with Murch in the next ten days or so – it’s really great, and all about architecture, astronomy, structure, pattern, video surveillance, acoustics, etc. I’m excited to put it up.

    Sounds amazing! Can’t wait.

  8. Geoff,

    There’s no publicity at all about this event here at CCA. Could you e-mail me print-quality images (or links to same) so I can help get the word out?

    Looking forward to this.

  9. Hey Chad – Thanks for the offer; your email address doesn’t appear to be posted anywhere, however, so I can’t email you. But you can find images – albeit non-high-res images – here.

    Hope to see you at the event…

  10. Hey (hibiscus) – too bad we didn’t meet, but thanks for coming out; I’m glad you were here, and even happier that you had a good time!

    And I hope I didn’t make a complete tit of myself up there…

  11. no, great presentation, great guests. my blindfolded-and-dragged-in companion was bowled over and very fully fed.

    i had only two notes from the evenin’ —

    (+) very hard to hear the iwamoto/scott talk. both of them kept backing away from the mic. next time maybe stand behind them with a stick.

    {=} time pressures and tech pressures always seem to take time away from Q&A sessions, but those are the reason that many people go to seminars, so, tip to the host: always have seed questions in your pocket to break the ice with each presenter during Q&A, before throwing open the floor. that way no precious moments of interactivity are wasted on is it okay for me to ask a question?

    -={emcee is audience surrogate and liaison}=-

  12. I see… Sorry about the stepping-back-from-the-microphone problem.

    The Q&A thing was a little difficult, actually, because I was juggling a lot of roles at that point – I was hoping actually to be asked questions, as one of the presenters, and yet I was trying, also, not to be an over-talkative host (host, presenter, moderator, emcee… afraid people would eventually yell for me to shut the f*** up) – and, further, I was having to watch for technical difficulties, etc. etc., and even make sure some of the presenters didn’t leave without saying goodbye, in the middle of the Iwamoto/Murch Q&A, thus vacating the stage… It was a little hairy, in fact.

    I’ll hire an assistant next time!

    But thanks for your thoughts. Hope your friend survived the blindfold…

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