Saturday, December 09, 2006
Lighting Up Christmas
As I was putting up our Christmas lights last weekend, I couldn't help think about the lengths we go to for the holiday season. It's not uncommon to see houses in our 'hood with the icicle lights hanging from their porches. Some people opt for the blow-up snow globes with Santa inside, getting pelted with a blizzard of plastic pellets. I'm mighty proud, I have to say, of my HUGE old-school Christmas lights, which I have hung from the eaves of our house for the last few years. It's hard to describe the feeling I get at the top of my aluminum extension ladder when I'm clipping those things to the second-highest part of our house. Mostly, it's accompanied by an internal monologue that goes something like this: "Shit, I forget how HIGH this is" and "I hope a good gust of wind doesn't come along and blow me into the neighbors' pine tree."
Seriously, though, I think it has a lot to do with honoring some sort of family tradition. The big C-9 lights are ripped straight from the pages of my mental holiday Christmas album. I only wish I still had the giant golden Santa head my folks used to hang on our front porch. I mean, this thing was about four feet high. They'd stick it up there and shine a huge floodlight on it. It was like some gargantuan Incan idol up there. True, garish...but I used to love it.
Another thing I thought of last weekend was my boy Carson Williams. You'll remember his work, if not his name. He's the suburban Cincinnati computer engineer who made it big last year (if you call a Miller Lite commercial BIG) when he synchronized the Christmas lights on his house to music, specifically "Wizards of Winter" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Refresh your memory or just rock out (there just aren't enough Christmas songs out there that invite, nay, DEMAND, air guitar treatment) here.
There's something about this idea that really moves me. Is it wrong to call it art? I find it exciting and ingenius. I've watched it about a hundred times. I especially dig the mini grove of little light-up Christmas trees in the yard that change colors. Like, who thought of this?! Carson Fucking Williams, that's who. This guy is the Mack Daddy of do-it-yourselfers. Dude has his own page on Snopes.com. Let us bow down to his greatness. The thing I love the most about the video is the outrageous amount of light emanating from Williams' front yard; watch the shadows cast on the wooden fence to the right. God, his neighbors must have hated him.
Did they! They basically shut him down about midway through the holiday season. Traffic tie-ups in suburbia don't sit well with the soccer moms. Credit Williams with having the scruples (or the lack of a second home) to comply with their wishes.
So what's he up to this year? Truth be told, this IS big. According to Wikipedia, Williams has taken his Internet fame and started a custom animation lighting business, ConsarLights.com, which is in business to provide custom-designed holiday lighting. Last month, Williams created a new show in Denver, Colorado. Created with the help of Parker 3D, the show at Northfield Stapleton features over 250,000 LED lights drawing 150 amperes of electric current. "Symphony In Lights" is a free show that runs through the month of December. On the home front, a public park not too far from where Williams lives has erected a replica of the facade of his house, which he has decorated with lights and, yes, set the whole thing to music. His soccer mom neighbors no doubt were the first ones in the park.
Labels: Christmas, Christmas lights
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Thanks for reminding me of this! A certain other DIY guy showed it to me last year and I could not remember the dude's name OR the music he'd used to rediscover him through Google. So cool!