Alameda Free Library in 5 Minutes
Living in California, where cities have recently had to cut services to the minimum (thanks to Schwarzenegger's policies), I feel so lucky to be living in a city with a brand-new public library which will be opening in a couple of weeks. Thanks to some forward-thinking individuals who fought not once but twice against local reactionary forces to pass a bond measure to fund it, the opening of our new main library is one of the island's most anticipated events of the year.
Since my family and I have benefited and will continue to benefit from our city library, I thought this would be a nice way to show my appreciation to the citizens of Alameda for making this a reality.
Presenting... a time-lapse video of the construction!
The police station, across the street from the new library, was kind enough to place a webcam pointed at the construction. I started saving hourly snapshots (automatically, not manually as Harvey Keitel did in the movie "Smoke") back when construction began in April of 2005. Now that the library is all but complete (still missing a few finishing touches such as the promised bike racks), it's time to show the fruits of this project.
It came out pretty well, I think, especially the first half (since you can't see much going on once the walls went up!) Five minutes. Over 4000 frames. I removed most of the images in which the camera wasn't functioning, or when it was dark (during the winter months), or when the sun was shining right into the camera. Unfortunately, a spider decided to spin a web right over the lens, making the view slightly more interesting, so it's to her that I dedicate this production.
There is a larger (640x480) version with more details and legible timestamps which you can download/view here (55 Megabytes!)
Don't forget the Library Gala happening October 28, just a week from this writing. Buy your tickets online or at Daisy's at 1347 Park Street (next to Tucker's) or Needle in a Haystack, 1533 Webster Street. See you there!
Since my family and I have benefited and will continue to benefit from our city library, I thought this would be a nice way to show my appreciation to the citizens of Alameda for making this a reality.
Presenting... a time-lapse video of the construction!
The police station, across the street from the new library, was kind enough to place a webcam pointed at the construction. I started saving hourly snapshots (automatically, not manually as Harvey Keitel did in the movie "Smoke") back when construction began in April of 2005. Now that the library is all but complete (still missing a few finishing touches such as the promised bike racks), it's time to show the fruits of this project.
It came out pretty well, I think, especially the first half (since you can't see much going on once the walls went up!) Five minutes. Over 4000 frames. I removed most of the images in which the camera wasn't functioning, or when it was dark (during the winter months), or when the sun was shining right into the camera. Unfortunately, a spider decided to spin a web right over the lens, making the view slightly more interesting, so it's to her that I dedicate this production.
(MP4 H.264 format; will work if you have QuickTime 7 installed.) Sorry, but YouTube quality wasn't good enough!
There is a larger (640x480) version with more details and legible timestamps which you can download/view here (55 Megabytes!)
Don't forget the Library Gala happening October 28, just a week from this writing. Buy your tickets online or at Daisy's at 1347 Park Street (next to Tucker's) or Needle in a Haystack, 1533 Webster Street. See you there!
Fine print: I assume that the images from the webcam, becuase they come from a government agency, are in the public domain. This particular production is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 2.5.
posted by A Progressive Alamedan | 10:53 PM
1 Comments:
That was amazing. Thanks! And thanks to the spider as well.
Post a Comment
<< Home