Practicalmadness

So my Advanced Video Projects professor decided that it would be nice if we took a field trip to the Experimental Sound Studio, a do-it-yourself sound production house run (in part) by SAIC professor and local sound guru Lou Mallozzi, that caters to the sonic whims of the Windy City's creative avant-garde. Typically this involves using Pro Tools to cut all the 'umm' and 'ya know what I'm sayin?' out of student videos and then adding a line to the credits stating that the "sound [was] edited entirely using Pro Tools". This makes them look technically savvier than they are, and may get them a job at a production house, or may just raise the (illusory) technical bar which other videomakers must strive to describe, analyze and whine about.

So my professor schedules this field trip -- may I add that this class is an advanced projects workshop which, in the normal course of events, is not really even supposed to meet as a group unless absolutely necessary and yet has found a reason to waste up to four hours every Thursday morning since August -- for this morning, Thursday morning, at 11:30 a.m.

Sometime between last week's unnecessary meeting and Monday, I get a letter from SAIC informing me that if I intend on participating in the Undergraduate Exhibition next Spring, I had better be at the Betty Rymer Gallery at noon today. I e-mail the instructor and explain that due to this meeting I will be unable to join the others at ESS (too bad, so sad) but I hope everyone has a great time, I know I did when I went with Mallozzi's Sound class last year, hint hint I've already been don't expect me bye see you next week bye.

And so tonight, I get this message from the instructor, sent to the entire class:

hey all this is an EMERGENCY TIME CHANGE for our ESS visit...

(due to the mandatory senior graduation meeting tomorrow at noon)

We will now meet up there at 1:30pm, thursday the 24th!

She goes on to say that she will also be trying to contact everyone by phone to inform them of this important change in schedule.

Here, fellow students, is your critical reasoning problem for today. No need to take notes; however, there will be a quiz later. Okay: Student A is sitting in a meeting at Columbus and Jackson. The meeting starts at noon and is scheduled to last one hour, not counting the Q & A session. Student A is also expected to meet with his class in a tiny hole-in-the-wall sound studio somewhere on the Far North Side at 1:30 p.m.

He has thirty minutes, at most, to get from Columbus and Jackson to Paulina and Berwyn. He is three blocks away from the nearest L stop that will take him anywhere near his destination, and his destination is a twenty minute walk from the Berwyn L stop. The train ride from Jackson to Berwyn takes at least 25 minutes, not taking any lunch rush into consideration.

So let's break out the calculators, shall we? That's twenty minutes to walk from the L to the studio, after a 25 min. train ride from the Loop, plus a ten minute walk from the Betty Rymer to the L. Add those numbers together and figure your estimated time of arrival at ESS.

If you added 25 plus 20 plus 10 and came up with 30, congratulations, you could be teaching an Advanced Video workshop.