Wedding Hippodrome Springfield, Ma

This was taken in March of 2007. The Hippodrome was cleaned and decorated for a wedding. Most of the lighting was done using the Hippodrome's existing light fixtures. Notice the room seems to change color, this was done using Colorkinetics LED lighting that was brought in for the event.

Hippodrome Springfield 2nd Anniversary

https://youtu.be/d3-yOFrylCg?si=bFTZLTPuhU2icFoK

Building Rain,,,Photos from 2003

We purchased the Hot Club in the summer of 2003 and reopened the club as Rain in November of the same year.

Rain was an entertainment complex that featured three separate concepts under one roof.

The main room was called Rain. The concept was actually more of an imitation of The Rum Jungle located at the Mandalay Bay, but the name Rain was more popular and instantly recognizable

Rum Jungle featured water walls in the front of the club visible from outside and several water walls inside the club.

This first picture is of the Hot Club before demolition.

The house facade over the Main bar was the first thing to go.

Construction lasted for about 3 months

Rain remains one of my favorite nightclub designs. I incorporated the feel of Rum Jungle, which was one of the more popular nightclub concepts in the country at the time, with a design that I first saw used in Miami the previous year. This involved mounting LED lights to the walls and covering them with white Polypropylene. The color of the light would shine through and the polypropylene would glow that color. I had the idea of doing this design and placing black lights behind the poly instead of LEDs. The lights wouldn't change color, but the black light gave off an erie glow. The white plastic broke down the UV effect of the black lights and just glowed blue. (see pictures below)

Above the Main bar we built platforms where the House was.

We added a set of stairs in the back of the main room for better access to the balcony.

These are a couple of completed pictures

The most prominent feature of the Main room were the two water walls that were in the front of the room, The largest wall faced out the front window.

We shopped around for water walls to purchase. I got estimates of about $20,000.00

We built them for roughly $2000.00 each

We placed all of the pumps and reservoir tanks in the basement below the walls.

Here is a completed picture for the Grand Opening weekend.

Wedding Hippodrome Springfield, Ma

This series of pictures was taken in March of 2007. The Hippodrome was decorated for a wedding. The lighting was incredible. The tables that you see below were lit using the Hippodrome's intelegent lighting. Most are Martin fixtures (918's and Mac 550's) cntrolled with a Light Jockey.

Most of the uplighting was done with colorkinetics LED fixtures which were rented.

The Paramount Theater's original movie screen is still in good working order and is put to good use during events. The screen is 45 feet wide and weighs 2ooo pounds. It is lowered and raised useing the theater's fly system and counter wieghts

The Hippodrome is a great place to have banquets and funtions. The room itself allows you to do things that a typical ballroom can't. A 60 foot high cieling and $500,000.00 worth of production equipment make anything possible. There is a great sound system, Intelligent and static stage lighting, special effects like snow and wind machines, and a broadcast quality video system, including cameras, mixing board, and an Avid editing suite installed for video production using the movie screens and 20 or so remote tv's installed throughout the facility.


Some of the weddings that have been held at the Hippodrome have used DJ's and live bands. For this one we used a DJ and a troupe of Cirque Du Soleil performers.

The Last Ten Years: In Automobiles

I bought a new car last week. I have been driving a Dodge Ram Diesel for the last 2 years and turned in my last lease car last year, while I like the truck, the fuel mileage was just too much. I checked a credit card statement and added up over $1000.00 in 1 month on fuel. I decided to buy something practical and comfortable, as I tend to drive approx. 25,000 miles a year. In the past I had more than 1 car. Now I am only driving one and my wife has her vehicle.

I bought a 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. rated for 35MPG city and 40MPG highway.

This is not my car. I downloaded a picture of the same car and used it.

So far I am happy with it and am averaging 34MPG all around and 38MPG on the highway.

The car is full of options; leather, panoramic roof, Ipod dock, navigation, etc. People that have known me for a long time are surprised to see me drive a Hyundai (and enjoy it). I am kind of surprised myself at how well it drives. The hybrid does take a little getting used to. When the ignition is turned on, nothing happens, just the dashboard lights turn on.

Here is a look at some of the cars I've had over the last 10 years. There were many more, but these are the ones that stand out.

I leased a Jaguar XK8 for 2 years in July 2001. (Hippodrome company car)

This was a great car, my first convertible and still one of my favorite cars. As much as I liked the car, there is still no denying that Jaguars aren't the best built cars. The front end of the car felt like it was going to fall out every time you went over a bump. The salesman (who I became friendly with) said, "You think it sucks now?

Wait a few years til it's not new any more. That's how they build them."

I turned the Jaguar in after the lease was up and decided to buy another convertible. My thought was that I could buy a classic car with low mileage and use it as I would a regular car. So I bought a 1976 Eldorado Convertible with 7600 original miles on it.

This was a very cool ride, with a 501 CI engine, got about 8 MPG. I drove it around a little bit and came to the realization that it belonged in a museum or in some classic car collection somewhere. A 30 year old car is still 30 years old, no matter how little it has been used. Low mileage original cars are always in demand and easy to sell.

Notice the Jaguar in the background.

I put less than 1000 miles on it and sold it on Ebay. A person in Norway bought it and made arrangements to ship it to Oslo. The car had 8200 original miles when I sold it.

In 2004 I bought a new convertible. An SL 500. This was the 2nd year for the new body style.

A great car and a Hardtop.

The Mercedes was a little more expensive than the Jaguar, but was a much better car all around.

The car was even designed better. With the top down and the wind screen up, your hair wouldn't even get blown around.

I then missed the big Eldorado and decided to look for another one.

What I found was a 1978 Special Edition Barritz. This car belonged to an elderly woman who bought it new in 78. She added all of the "pimp" accessories at the dealer.Including the grill and spoke mags.

The interior on this thing was classic (and like brand new), with the overstuffed seat cushions.

My friends would accuse me of stealing Snoop Dog's car.

I put some work into this one. I removed the exhaust and catalytic converter and had it replaced with a custom dual exhaust. This alone must have added 100 horsepower. I had Antique plates on it and only drove it on weekends. I put 2000 miles on it and sold it with 14000 original. I looked on Ebay and realized this car was in much better condition than ones selling for twice what I had into it. So this car found it's way on Ebay and sold to a person in Latvia. He had a relative of his that lived in New Jersey come pick the car up and ship it to him.

In the fall of 2006 I bought a 2007 S550. This was a brand new body style and a great car.

I can't find any pictures of the car (on this hard drive), so I found a photo online of the same car. Gray/blue Metallic, with a panoramic roof.  The list of options on this car were endless. When I first bought the car, I laughed at the fact that it had electric window shades for the rear side and back windows, until we had kids and used them while traveling with a baby in the back seat. (What did I ever do without them?) This was the last car I bought while I was single, and probably the nicest. It's amazing how your priorities change.

LET SPRINGFIELD BE A WARNING TO THE REST OF US

Springfield, MA was a once busy hub of manufacturing and innovation that has become a city of decay and offers a glimpse of what is happening to the country at large as the government moves to become larger and employ or subsidise a higher percentage of the general population.

Cities like Springfield have been managed with a short term view as politicians worked to better themselves and the few who helped get them elected for the time that they are in office with little concern for the long term affect of policy. There will be no unpopular decisions made about budget cuts and layoffs, no matter how bad the economy gets. Nothing seems to get done in terms of facing the city's problems with crime and education. The city budget will only increase as taxpaying citizens leave the city for the safety of the suburbs.

The examples of moves that were bad for the city, but good for a politically connected few are many. While any one thing can't shoulder the total blame, a combination of many things can be pointed to as the cause and reason that the future is not bright for working families and small businesses. They will continue to be replaced by government funded agencies and people.

The issue becomes, the largest employer in the city is the government. The city, state and federal government provide the best paying jobs and offer unsustainable pension benefits. Government and quasi-government agencies are being created and occupying commercial property and office buildings that are no longer viable as tax paying properties. Many of these buildings are being bought by non-profit enterprises and being taken off of the tax role. The tax rate increases for the shrinking number of properties owned by for-profit companies and entrepreneurs. This has caused a growing number of businesses and investors to leave the city and move to suburban locations that are safer for their employees and more business friendly. The city government has developed an adversarial relationship with existing private businesses. Partly because the few that are left behind are forced to bear the burden of  paying for a bloated local government with an eroding commercial tax base.

These conditions are being glossed over with Hospitals expanding and Federal Stimulas money being used to finance improvements to Union Station and other non tax paying properties. Don't be fooled by this, none of this money is being spent to improve propeties that pay taxes. Very little of the major improvements to any property is currently being done using private money. Private investment has all but dried up. If you doubt this, list the "Private" companies that have been started in Springield recently or have relocated to the city. Now list the companies that have left the city or closed their doors altogether.

Unfortunatly this economic model is a micro version of where the country itself is heading. The more Springfields that this country has to support, the closer we come to financial ruin. There aren't enough people working in private business to support all of those that work for or are supported by the government. In the very near future the borrowing to maintain this level of spending will have to stop.

Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss other people.
Eleanor Roosevelt

I consider myself an idea guy..