My family pulled and dragged me through the airports and onto two airplanes in order to get me to come back home. It was such an amazing trip that I just wanted to stay in California. The weather could not have been any more perfect the entire time we were there. The people I met were absolutely wonderful, especially the people who I interviewed. I could have talked to all of them all day. They were all extremely gracious hosts who I am so glad that I met. Even though the traffic really is as bad as everyone says-- or maybe worse-- the drivers were somehow all friendly and made maneuvering the highways rather simple. The Mexican food was wonderful! I wish that Indy had taco stands like L.A.! Somehow, despite all of the good food I enjoyed in California, I returned to Indy a few pounds lighter. What an amazing experience! I cannot thank Eli Lilly enough for making this trip possible!!! What an amazing thing to do for teachers! Thank you!!!
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I must admit that I am a huge fan of The Price Is Right. My earliest memory is sitting on the floor of my Uncle Frank's place in Gary-- yes, Gary, Indiana-- and watching the show. My mom always credits Bob Barker for my math abilities. Angela & I went to a taping of the show many years ago when Bob Barker was still the host. Going to this show involves a LOT of waiting, but I enjoyed it a great deal. This time, I went by myself, as my wife had to watch the kids. I arrived at CBS Television City around 6:30am, by far the earliest I had awakened on this vacation. I met a lot of cool people while waiting in line, and the time flew by. Eventually, we got to meet the producer, Stan Blits, who asks people a question or two in order to determine who they will choose for contestants. He is able to spend just 15-30 seconds talking to each person in order to make his decision. When he got to me, I talked to him about my grant from Eli Lilly and told him that I had written The Price Is Right into the grant. Despite already being in the studio once before, I was again blown away at how incredibly small the set is, compared to what it looks like on television. The crew is squeezed onto this stage. Cue card people and producers are constantly dodging cameramen. The audience is so loud that no one can hear who is being called to "Come on down!" They have to write the names on cue cards for us to know who is being called. When Bob was the host, the commercial breaks were fairly quiet. He spent every break talking to the audience and allowing people to ask him questions. I was able to thank him for teaching me math as a young boy. Drew's show, though, is less G-rated and is much more like a dance party or a comedy routine during the commercial breaks. During the first break, they blare a Greenday song ("I'm not sick but I'm not well") while Drew dances and lip syncs. He is so animated that he is a bit sweaty, so he is called over by two make-up ladies. As he is getting his face powdered a bit, he says, "See! Fame hasn't changed me a bit! I'm just like any ordinary guy. My wardrobe lady puts my pants on for me one leg at a time." During a couple of other breaks, Drew talks to a few audience members, cracking jokes and making everyone laugh. For a couple of the commercial breaks, though, Drew is gone entirely.
Before the show, we each signed a six-page document, much of which was written in Lawyereese and Latin. I don't think I'm allowed to tell anything that happened on the show itself. Sorry. You will have to watch on September 29th. I can probably tell you that, when we were first seated, a worker came and rearranged me and two guys, which told me that one of us would surely get called down. Unfortunately, I knew which of us it would be, and it wasn't me. From about 50 feet away, I saw this guy in his interview & knew that he would be called. Sure enough, he was one of the first four contestants. I got a great deal of TV time, thanks to this guy and his unusual entrance, as well as his time on stage when he was looking for pricing advice from his friend, my "line-neighbor" who had already been on the show twice, and me. Although I did not get called down, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the show again. Admittedly, if I lived in LA, I would certainly attend every taping each summer until I got chosen to be a contestant. We drove the rest of the way back to Los Angeles today. We drove through probably over a hundred miles of orange groves and grape vineyards. It was beautiful scenery for a Hoosier family! At the hotel, we enjoyed some TV and a swimming pool in what turned out to be our nicest hotel of the entire trip. I was excited to get to watch some of a Yankees game. Unfortunately, we have no pictures from today. Part of this is due to the fact that it took me two hours to pick up dinner from two different places with L.A.'s traffic, along with the fact that my original restaurant choice was closed. Traffic is the one thing that would make me not want to move here.
Today, we sadly left our wonderful cabin at Yosemite and traveled to Kings Canyon. We did not have enough time to do any major hikes in this park since it takes so long to drive in and out of it. However, we were able to take in some of the major sights, including looking over a mile down into a canyon that is deeper than the Grand Canyon. There were also some waterfalls that were easily accessible, as well as a beautiful meadow that showed some of the canyon's granite walls in the background. We began today by visiting Bass Lake, where The Great Outdoors was filmed. This is one of our favorite movies! Unfortunately, we learned that the original buildings from the movie are no longer standing. The restaurant was rebuilt after a fire, though, and does still offer the 69-er challenge. If you can eat all of the meat they bring you, the meal is free! (You'll have to re-watch the movie to fully appreciate this.) Next, we returned to the secret locals' swimming spot. This time, though, we bought a raft to slide down an inclined section of the river. The kids were having so much fun that many of the adults built up barriers with large rocks in order to maximize water flow and allow bigger people to raft down as well. It was a blast! Finally, we ended the day by visiting the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. To give you an idea of how big these things are... They are larger than the Statue of Liberty, a 19-story building, and a jet aircraft. The first branch of this tree is seven feet in diameter! Today, we visited a super secret swimming spot that lies within the park. Only the locals seem to know about this place. It wasn't secluded, but it was not at all over-crowded either. I thoroughly enjoyed cooling off in the river. The water was the clearest that I have ever seen in my entire life! It was gorgeous! Our major accomplishment was hiking to the top of Sentinel Dome, 8123 feet above sea level! This gave us a 360-degree view of the park from nearly the same height as Half Dome, although I admit that this trail is easier than Half Dome's. We ate dinner at the top and enjoyed the view for quite some time. As evening approached, we drove a short distance to Glacier Point in order to hear a ranger talk and to see a nature program about stars after darkness fell. I love some of the photos that I was able to capture from here! The stars were especially numerous here as it became darker. I saw Saturn for the first time through a telescope and was amazed at how cool it looked! I could actually see the rings! This was a really incredible day! Despite already being at Yosemite once already, I had never before seen any of today's sights. Today, we hiked to Yosemite Falls, one of the most popular attractions of the park. They are 2425 feet in total height, making them the 6th largest in the world! Although the falls were clearly drying up, as California is going through a major drought and the snow at the top of the mountains is almost gone, there was still a lot of water coming down. We also hiked to Seminal Bridge and Seminal Beach to swim in the Merced River. It was very refreshing after a little bit of hiking on a summer day. Today, I visited the Walt Disney Family Museum for a few hours before driving to Yosemite. This was fascinating to me! I could have spent much more time here. I was able to see many historical artifacts from Walt Disney's personal and professional life. My favorite item was the original first drawings of Mickey Mouse from 1928. Walt was given an 20% paycut by Charles Mintz after Walt had created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, one of the most popular characters at the time. Walt quit his job, losing the rights to his own creation, Oswald. On his train ride home from New York, Walt created Mickey Mouse. If you look at a picture of Oswald, you can certainly see the similarities! Another favorite part of mine was seeing all of the cels from 15 seconds of Steamboat Willie, knowing that everything in those days was created by hand. It was an even more tedious process than it is now with the help of computers. Don't get me wrong. I love doing it. It just takes SO much time! The day began with an enormous disappointment. I drove out to the Disney Family Museum only to learn that it was closed on Tuesdays. I don't know how I missed that. ARG!!! I hope to get to spend a couple hours there tomorrow on our way to Yosemite. On a brighter note, today I interviewed Frank Tai at Pixar. Frank has worked on Toy Story 3, Brave, and Monsters University. Frank was born and raised in Taiwan but moved to Indianapolis to stay with some and aunt and uncle while attending IUPUI. He took me for a tour of Pixar Studios, first showing me parts of the building in which he works, where soon-to-be-released pictures (within two years of their release dates) are being worked on. The entrance to this studio is quite grand, with the giant lamp and ball, icons of Pixar, greet visitors from the outside. Life-sized Monsters Inc. and Cars characters greet visitors inside the building. A large trophy case displays the many awards that Pixar has earned. There is a recreational area for employees and guests, including a ping pong table, which has a vigorous game when I tour. The all-purpose area is enormous and houses all Pixar employees during company meetings. In the wings of the building, artwork lines the walls. Normally, it is artwork from current Pixar pictures; however, since Pixar did not release anything in 2014, they instead have artwork from some shorts that they produced, including The Blue Umbrella. There are also a few photographs on one wall. The one that stands out is a picture of a large group of children and babies. The title below this photo states that all of these children were created as a result of people meeting at Pixar! Man, this must be a fun place to work! Frank takes me to another building, which is absolutely silent. We see no other human beings on the lower floor. However, I did take some photo ops with Pixar characters. This building is used by the people who are working on pictures that are more than two years away from being released. Frank also showed me an exclusive-looking room which was originally designed only for workers with 10+ years of Pixar experience but is now open to all employees. It has a large TV and is surrounded by old baseball memorabilia from the Oakland Oaks. Pixar's studio was actually built on the old grounds of the Oakland Oaks, a semi-professional baseball team from 1913-1955. Next, I ask Frank what the third enormous building is. It, of course, is their gym and fitness center. Just outside this building is also an olympic-sized swimming pool, beach volleyball court, basketball court, and soccer field. Employees are encouraged to get together and exercise before and after work, as well as during lunch. Employees are not allowed to be on the campus for more than 12 hours each day-- including these breaks-- because management does not want them to be overworked. Being on this campus is like visiting another planet for me. Frank's inspiration to become a 3-D artist was when he and some of his IUPUI classmates went to the theater to see The Incredibles. According to Frank, this movie has a huge technology improvement over other films and included more shots than any major animated film before it. It includes water, explosions, city scenes, jungle, and many other elements which are difficult to animate. Frank began working 12 or more hours a day on his artwork in computer labs. He secured a position at Pixar immediately after college with no other studio experience. Frank says that communication with others is the key to success at this job. In college, he had complete ownership in his animations, so any success of the film was completely due to him. Now, however, with hundreds of people working on the same film for years at a time, motivation is found through co-workers and their complements at how he is helping them and how he does his job. To my students who have recently come to the U.S., Frank has great advice. "You must change. Change is hard, but you must leave your comfort zone and push yourself." Frank is grateful for having to go through the experience of learning a new language and culture because it has helped to make him see the world in a much broader way than those who only learn about their own language and culture. Frank admits that he hated math until he grew up, not because he was "stupid" (in his words), but because he did not understand why we need it. Now, he understands that you need math in order to understand how to think logically. "It's not just all about the numbers. It is about developing good problem-solving skills." His advice for students is, "You shouldn't be afraid of math." For Frank, math helps him to think logically in order to "do code," programming the computer to perform special tasks that would be tedious for an artist to perform. Frank demonstrates for me that a code was created to design trees and moss in Brave. He draws a tree trunk and beginning branches and then explains how the computer then generates the remainder of the branches based on the main portion of the tree that the artist begins. I had no idea that this is how it works. Animation has come a long way since Ub Iwerks, a Disney animator, would draw every cel by hand. Like the other studios, I am not allowed to take pictures in most areas. However, I was able to take more photos here than at Disney or Blizzard-Activision. Today was a pretty relaxed day, visiting the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, and driving though part of the Marin Headlands. I was pretty amazed at how windy it is at the bridge and wondered how on earth workers constructed this bridge 77 years ago. At the park, we enjoyed the children’s playground and the trails. Unfortunately, the conservatory was closed, so we missed the carnivorous plant exhibit. We ended the day with a swim in our hotel pool. |
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AuthorDavid Robertson Archives
July 2014
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