Pecha Kucha Vol 10 at Octane in "Westside" Atlanta, March 8, 2009

A great night: Pecha Kucha at Octane Coffee Bar and Lounge in Westside Arts District in Atlanta. What's this got to do with architecture tourists? Well, it's free, invented by architects, hosted by architects, had presentations by architects, in an interesting part of town with city views. And I got to meet and talk with 2009 Grammy winner Lance Ledbetter and April Ledbetter of Dust to Digital. Did I mention this this was Free? What a great country!



Here is a rundown

Calvin Florian - "PSST Pass It ON"
It's a collaborative film project. Mr. Florian showed how a particular film came together. Quite a presentation. We watched an idea develop into a film. We say rough pieces in development. At the end we say a bit of the finished project. A very rewarding 400 seconds.

Roland Krystian Alberciak - "Folding Bike Manifesto"
Mr. Alberciak is not only funny, he loves folding bikes. A good combination for Pecha Kucha. I don't like folding bikes any or less. But I do like folding bike enthusiasts more than ever.

Murphy Townsend, MD - “Special ED”
Dr. Townsend presented 400 seconds on Erectile Dysfunction. Very impressive, very fast, very professional, very funny. He had nearly all the men and many of the women squirming in their seats about certain urological procedures.

Brian Dettmer - "Remixed Media"
Mr. Dettmer carves books! And cassettes! And who knows what else. Check out his Flickr page. I can't get this out of my head.

Mary Clare DeReuil and Carlos Tardio - "865 Berne Street"
It's not a tree house. It's a carefully built house in the trees along the belt line in Grant Park. It was so interesting, I drove by in person today and took a picture.

Jake Herrle - "Uganda: Water and Hope"
Mr. Herrle showed pictures from his trip to Uganda mostly of folks in refugee camps. Water isn't particularly scarce there; destruction of water supplies is a tactic in their long civil war. The ClearWater Initiative helps.

Theresa Hall - "World Literacy, Local Community"
Theresa is a volunteer literacy teacher. She presented work book pages used to teach adult literacy. For example, how do can an "r" affect a vowel. She presented pictures of her hardworking and motivated students. I found that to be quite encouraging and moving.

Lance Ledbetter - "In the Presence of the Past"
Lance and April from Dust-to-Digital seat and let me take a picture with them. Lance presented gospel excerpts from "Goodbye, Babylon." Couldn't get the sound quite loud enough for the crowd. Even so, it was a breath of fresh air.

Terry Kearns, April Ledbetter, Lance Ledbetter

Clint Zeagler - "Dali : Dolly"
Side by side pictures: Salvador Dali on the left and Dolly Parton on the right. Both cultivate a "tacky" public image for huge talents. Of course, I was always a believer. Clint may start doing triptychs: Salvador Dali, Dolly Parton, and the Dalai Llama

Kalpana Kuttaiah - "Visual Emotions"
Each visual emotion was a one-page presentation of pictures and words based on a theme. One was yellow. Another red spheres, candy I guess. Another, curved street lights. The more she presented the more I liked them. I'd like to find these on the web.

-->400 seconds can seem excruciatingly long
Things don't aways go perfectly in these presentations: Lack of practice, bad sounds, mussed scripts, material you aren't really "into." The best presentations, don't necssarily don't grab you at first; but they get you by the end. Sort of a tension / release sort of thing, I guess.