GROWING-UP IN THE THEATER

MAPPING/cartography

Growing-up around the theater, I knew those workers that manned the box office[out front]; any young boy, with normal curiosity, would be overwhelmed at first, if let-in to such a 'secured' room; at about age ten, such a normally-curious youngter would instantly become fascinated by the money-handling paraphenalia[and any CA$H he spied]; much younger than that, on my first visit, I was fascinated by the colorful seating charts being displayed; even befor CRT's invaded the cramped spaces, the cashiers would be asked by the patrons, standing at the windows, where their seats were; reference to those 'maps[seating plans/floor-plans]' was the quickest way to answer those kind of questions; they simply pointed out the location on the huge chart behind them; many of these cash-transactions are now redundancies; changed everything, and credit/debit cards eliminate most of the need to secure collected CA$H; the 'maps' are still essential.

Pictured below, a Detention Officer, at DCJF, enters information about the 'housing-location' of a newly-admitted inmate; the screen-display is the floor-plan, in a pod, which can house up-to 96 inmates; you'll get lost in that warehouse, were it not for the electronic floor-plans, used for data-entry, and printing the new inmates wristband.

This was my hand-drawn floor-plan; it was the first artifact included in my "POD PEOPLE;" we were on lock-down, 22/hours at a stretch, before getting our turn to use the common area, where the showers were located. Many of the long-term detainees, spent an hour of their 'special time,' walking laps around the oddly-shaped space[not painted/red zone]; I knew that 1/hour = 3/mi, but some of the fellas counted their laps, instead of just watching the wall-clock[not visible during those long hours of lock-down]; mapping our shared environment, facilitated calculation of the length of one lap; it also gave me a location, to write down these inmates 'names.'

The long walk, from my pod, down winding hallways, passing numbered doors[all locked], and landmarks[where windows allowed a view of what was behind some restricted entrance], became less confusing, as me and my 62/year-old cellmate, argued about how to get from our pod, to the Medical Unit[or the 'courtroom']; these conversations, often heating-up, when any disagreement surfaced, enabled me[along with sidereal observations, made from the slit of window, facing outside, towards part of the circumferential access-road] to imagine an accurate floor-plan/site-map.

I began writing my manuscripts[mss], for Pod People[fifth book], in order to engage the fellas, in a dream-like fantasy, where the facility was decommissioned, and converted to a homeless-shelter, that would become self-sustaining, and serve 19 rural southwest Georgia counties.
I tried to publish this eclectic collection of mss, written over a period of 935/da, [during-which, the theme/purpose of these writings evolved into so many different things/monographs], in 2017, when I received my back-pay from Social Security[$30K].

My Canon printer/scanner/copier could have produced a physical 'document,' for submission to a conventional publishing house. My DELL laptop[around $500 @OfficeDepot] had awesome capabilities, and the 25' HDMI-cable I bought, along with a $700/projection-device[that I haven't purchased,... YET!], would make this 'publication[along with myriads of alternate mediums]' into a live-presentation, that could travel anywhere in the world.

Unsure of the demand for a story like mine[from MAR 3, 2015, to mid-SEP, 2017], these mss are on my scrap-heap, as I imagine other fresh content for my publishing efforts[ANOTHER TIME PUBLISHING]. I'm currently exploring the use of any free e-mail account, to quickly/efficiently distribute published material, another time!

The present day , was featured on Sunday Morning[CBS].

Her latest , is a collection of 'lost videos' from a live concert; her finest , Linda Ronstadt /"What's New"/ Nelson Riddle Orchestra (1983), is a sound-engineering masterpiece, unlike Rod Stewart's . Roddy's British publisher used a sub-standard studio-crew, and this particular album can destroy your vehicle, with the sub-sonic vibrations, reproduced by a poorly-mounted sub-wolfer, if your amplifier can max it out!

My experimentation, with Roddy's video, and my mini-theater sound-system, seems to indicate that all audio-components have been compressed, to 'sound better,' when played through those tinny-speakers underneath your laptop. BUY THE CD'S!

My HiFi LP-player[1950's] played mono-only; my engineer-friend, up in Danielsville, has pointed out[he is an avid vinyl-collector] to me, that fidelity[in this sense] refers, not to the quality of the recorded sound, but to the accuracy, with which the analog medium, via an amplified stylus[my HiFi had two of these, on opposite sides of the cartridge], reproduces the recorded signal.