we're in and up

we're in.

it took 20 hours to get in and get assembled but we did it. an absolute huge debt to the riggers at GEFCO, mr pontieux and mr port who all worked some magic through so many things going wrong. wrong plugs for the compressor. the base being too large for the elevator.(see mr port trimming the base to the left here.)


now we are in testing mode. we had a full successful run yesterday. all the primaries, all the secondaries and all the inflatables. it was quite a run. not to mention there was a meeting of several of the people in charge of the bldg at the same time so they got to see it all. it was amazing demo karma.

some little animations of the move in process... thanks to jean-lara for camera and/or pix.

OH SHIT! IT'S IN!!!!!!!

oh my god. it's in.


Jump to this like to see more photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/Bill.Washabaugh/AmorphicAugust2007

no sleep till c42

jean-beeel has left the bldg. but do not fear, jean-dan is here.
9am this morning we had a meeting to go over scheduling until the opening. it lasted 3 hours and there were 18 attendees. 15/18 prefer french to english so it was pretty intense at times(i can usually understand words like chauffeur, limousine, croissant, laissez-faire, grec and not too much else). for the most part, there were 3-4 conversations going at once. also, it seems to be totally acceptable here to answer your cell phone during a meeting. at least 6 different people did it, mostly without even leaving their seat.

all that being said, there is a new jean in town, jean-phillipe. he is in charge of getting 42 champs ready for the opening and we're a priority. until the 21st anyways. well, almost. we do have to compete with one day for moving cars in and 2 days for a photo shoot so i guess that leaves us about 8 days to get it all ready. what, me worry?

we move in tonight and go to sleep on the 21st.

my last tango

folks-

Yesterday, the Totemobile received its official certification from the French safety board. The path is finally clear. Monday night at Midnight, the Totemobile will arrive at 42 Champs Elysees, the sidewalk will be blocked, 2 very large boxes and 5 smaller ones will be floated across the sidewalk and into the basement of the building.

Sadly, after about 16 months of extremely hard work on this project, I won't be here to see it happen. I have to leave tomorrow to go back to the US. It's with a strange mix of sadness, fear, excitement, and relief that I leave here tomorrow. It's hard to believe we finally made it here after such an unbelievably difficult path, and I don't get to be here for the best part.

Well, maybe I can convince Dan to continue updating the blog - the next 2 weeks will definitely be intense. I suspect he won't have a waking moment to write, but who knows? Maybe I'm the only person who would read it anyway. And my Mom. Thanks Mom for all your comments, at least I know 1 person is reading this.

Well, I leave Paris, and I leave you (Mom) with a few pictures of the Amorphic Mission Impossible crew from the last few days.

Bill

rugby sucks

not good news today.

Our install has now been postponed until Monday night. Because of....rugby. The championships are in Paris this weekend, and the streets will be crowded with rugby holligans, so we couldn't get a permit to block the sidewalk on the C-E until Monday night. Which really sucks, for so many reasons. but also because I have to leave on Sunday night.

The Legend of Jean-RoundSquare

Here it is folks. The long awaited proof. I know, nobody else cares at this point. It's really just fun for me. But here's a great pic of Jean-Francisco, Jean-Beeeel, and Jean-RoundSquare in today's meeting, in the basement of the new building. Oh, and here's a pic of Jean-Dan with the glasses on. YES!

The results...still waiting. Meetings, emails...sit and wait.

We realize that we should have been here 2 weeks ago to organize what the French folks clearly didn't organize....

But wait, they were on vacation...for the last 6 weeks. I guess it wouldn't have mattered.

Fingers crossed, we move in on Thursday night..

hurry up and wait

just sitting here waiting today....

We've updated the weight and re-submitted all the formal documents to the verifying agency. now we wait.

We had heard that there was a problem with the Air Cushion transportation system. (long boring story.) It turns out one guy had already bought them, but just didn't tell anyone else. Really, amazing stuff. I'm trying to figure out if the cloud of disinformation from our view point is just a language barrier, or if it is actually this bad. Beginning to think it's not the language. Ok, problem solved.

In order for us to move this beast into the building on the Champs Elysees - they need to close down a part of the street, so there are all kinds of police permits that need to happen. Now we are a few days behind and waiting. I'm sitting in my hotel room on a bright sunny Paris day, writing manuals. very exciting.

I hope to have more news soon. In the mean time, here's a picture of Chico sweeping.

who designed that thing?!?

busy day of work here. We checked into our new Apartment-hotel. We were told it was a 4 bedroom apartment, and a 2 bedroom apartment. Not true. It's actually a 1 room apartment with 4 beds, and a 1 room apartment with 2 beds. That's not gonna work. Seriously. No, really, seriously, since we came to France last September, this has happened with almost EVERY single place we've stayed. That's 8 or 9 times. How hard it this? WTF???? I guess we move again tomorrow.

Anyway, I did get to run down to the Champs Elysees today. Got on 1 subway line at Charles De Gaulle (Chuck-D) stop. Jumped off at the Franklin D. Roosevelt stop (The Frank). Walked up the stairs, and here's what I saw.

You look at all the other building on the C-E, they're so beautiful and classic and they make sense. You look at this building and you think who designed this thing?!?! It just doesn't fit.

Oh, sorry, there was a big ugly machine sitting in front of the building when I took this photo today. Wonder who designed that thing?!?!

back to work, more adventures for sure tomorrow.