too much typing—since 2003

8.14.2004

a thing I like

Why don't more businesses rent those searchlights for grand openings, etc.? I'm a total sucker for 'em - I see one of those lights sweeping across the sky, illuminating the clouds, and I'm always tempted to find its source, as if it's a rainbow and there might be gold (rather than, say, used cars) at the end of it. Totally cool...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You say tomato, brother, I say light pollution. I find this sort of on-site advertising so much more attractive. Well, chacun a son gout, which this time I am going to post correctly except without the appropriately Frenchy accent marks.

2fs said...

"Light pollution"? Sheesh but we're grumpy today - are you gonna tell those neighbor kids to get the hell offa your lawn now? ;) It might be "pollution," if it were in the middle of the countryside, or if everyone used them all the time - but in a city, with all the other light sources? I like the sign you point out, though - it's just a different sort of thing. The attraction for me of the searchlights isn't really the destination, it's just seeing their light shining in the clouds.

Anonymous said...

Nah, I'm actually in a great mood. Shoulda used some of those smiley things. However, you write:

It might be "pollution," if it were in the middle of the countryside, or if everyone used them all the time - but in a city, with all the other light sources?How different is that from claiming it's OK to toss an empty Pringles can, say, on a sidewalk where you're already stepping around litter, but not in the garden? Granted, the spotlights are temporary... so to hell with anyone who wants to look at the stars just on the night they're lit.

Believe me, Jeff, I think the spots look magical sweeping the sky too. I just can't get enraptured by them the way you do, on account of every time I see an electric light, any kind, pointed up, I picture a galaxy out there that we can no longer see.

2fs said...

Ah, now we're getting into philosophical issues: what is "pollution" anyway? To me, the difference between this and the Pringles can is that the Pringles can is never of any benefit to the visual or ecological environment; it's pure "noise." And as you mention, light is temporary and does no lasting harm. Or to put it another way: if you're an astronomer, any light is "noise" and therefore pollution - but it also has clear benefit, and so one must compromise between those benefits and the problems it derives. For me, on balance, the searchlight creates no problems. And even though they usually exist solely to advertise, their beauty, for me, trumps any potential inconvenience (which is as strong as I can make the pollution issue for myself - it doesn't rise to the level of "harm" for me). That's a reasonable slogan to live by: let beauty trump inconvenience!

2fs said...

So that link: would that be a "point of light"? Anyway - yeah, I think they should've kept that, and not built anything on the site.