Luminance #AtoZChallenge

For "L" day of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I decided to Let my iPhone pick the word I would blog about.

My iPhone chose - Luminance.  (Not Luminescence.) What a fitting topic for a time of stress and trouble?

Which of the over 10,000 photos on my phone made the Luminance cut?  There were pictures of birthday cakes with candles, and lots of sunrises and sunsets, and a few surprises.

From the LUMA festival in downtown Binghamton, New York, a now-annual September tradition.

A historic building in downtown Binghamton, also during LUMA.

A snowy street, again in Binghamton.

Cape Canaveral, Florida, from the highway - I have no idea why the iPhone selected this one.

A 60th birthday party in Yonkers, New York, at an Irish restaurant.  I've had few birthday parties in my life, and I decided to throw this one for my spouse and myself.  Don't ask why we chose an Irish restaurant, given that neither of us is Irish.

One more - a young tree in its fall foliage.  Why this tree? I'm not questioning the phone.

My phone has spoken.  But while I'm at it, how about another LUMA picture it didn't pick?

Happy Tuesday!

"L" day for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme: "America the Beautiful".

LUMA Skies - #SkywatchFriday

What's a LUMA sky?

Tonight begins the two day/night festival of LUMA, held the first Friday and the following day in the small upstate New York city of Binghamton, population about 45,000.

The first year it was held, they expected about 3,000. people.  Between 20,000 and 30,000 (I would well believe the 30,000 - I was one of them) people showed up.

You can see various You Tube videos of previous installations, including on my blog post yesterday, but there is nothing like being there.

But that's not what I want to blog about today, because we are supposed to watch the sky.

We've had varying skies in the last couple of days, as LUMA started to set up. The buildings with white over their windows are the buildings where the installations will be projected.   The objects under tarp are the projectors.  Lots of road closings.

 This was our library years ago.  It is being renovated into a culinary arts college center for the local community college.

Stormy skies filled Binghamton on September 4.

The tall red building used to house the Binghamton Press newspaper, then offices until an extensive fire around 2010.  Now it's student housing.

Taken on a foggy morning, this used to be a bank and then it was a restaurant.

The old City Hall, which became a hotel.

Projectors for the big event.

And a reflection.

Join Yogi and the other bloggers of #SkywatchFriday each Friday to see what is happening all over the world.

LUMA 2019

Its name is LUMA (or, the LUMA Projection Arts festival and it's the festival that may put Binghamton on the map of art events that attract people from all over the world.

Both my link above and this video (and the one below) may give you a taste of what is in store for those who attend.   LUMA is the outgrowth of something that happened in the small upstate New York city of Binghamton, New York in 2015. 

Artistss envisioned a festival and hoped 3,000 people would show up.

Instead, between 20,000 and 30,000 people (including spouse and I) came.  No one was expecting the crowds but we waited patiently for the show to begin.  The projections held just enough promise for a sequel.  Each year, it gets better.

Quoting from their website:
" Using powerful projectors and 3D animation, we create the illusion that enormous structures are transforming as if by magic. City hall turns into a gingerbread house. The courthouse becomes Stonehenge. The light overpowers the surface and the effect seems real."

This is what the festival has grown into.  Most of the events are outdoors and free (funded by corporate sponsors now, and a kickstarter).  A couple are paid and you have to buy tickets.  It's a two day festival now - September 6 and 7th this year.

The top video is projections from 2018 onto the old First National Bank building.

The second, the Broome County courthouse.

LUMA isn't a joy to everyone.  It runs from around 9pm to midnight on the first Friday and Saturday night of Binghamton and it is very, very crowded - very noisy and full of the type of  noise that (I read this in an op ed written by a war veteran in our local paper)can terrify war vets suffering from PTSD.  Some are so bothered that they find it necessary to relocate during the festival, and these people are far from wealthy.)

But, I am fortunate enough to be able to enjoy it.  The art and storytelling are wonderful.  If you enjoy a venue like this, I suggest you block out your calendar and visit Binghamton, New York next September.

Will I go this year? (I skipped last year as I had hurt my back the night before and didn't want to try to maneuver through throngs of people in the dark)   If I do, I'll blog about it.

Tomorrow, though, is Skywatch Friday, and I'll be watching the natural skies.

Local Saturday - The Shoulders of the Past

When I arrived in downtown Binghamton, New York, where I work on September 1, it was obvious this would not be a normal workday.

Streets were closed.

Windows of vacant buildings (we still have too many of them downtown) were covered with white sheets, among them a building that used to be a bank.  Let's call this the Old Bank Building.

And a building that used to be our Carnegie public library, until 2000.  Let's call this the Library.

In a matter of hours they would be transformed for a few short hours, from vacant buildings to works of art.

As the hour of 9pm struck, upwards of 20,000 to 25,000 people (in a city of around 47,000) gathered for the show.  In its third year, the event is called LUMA, and Binghamton is now attracting artists in this medium from around the world.

It always takes place on the first Friday night in September, when art galleries and restaurants downtown are open for First Friday.  It was so wonderful to see Binghamton come alive.

Behold the Old Bank Building.

The name of the show on the Old Bank Building was "We Stand on the Shoulders of the Past".

A video from You Tube.

As for the library, it was then its turn.

It transformed again and again.

Projections on the library, from You Tube.

My video (not as good as the first one) but it better shows the crowd.

This was all "run" by the Wizard of LUMA.

The Wizard interacted with the crowd in real time.  But, like the Wizard of Oz, there was only a real man (the man on the right side) behind the curtain.

By using old buildings for art, we, in a way, also stand on the shoulders of the past.

But I can only hope that, next year, the vacant buildings (these weren't the only projections) won't be vacant.