April 2012
JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF PORSCHE
Today is Sunday in Stuttgart and the Mercedes Museum was so much fun yesterday that my colleagues and I decided to visit the Porsche Museum today. It was very cool but very different from the Mercedes Museum. While the Mercedes Museum was about the history of Mercedes with no holds barred. Meaning that during WWII, while Mercedes became an armament factory and had to use forced labor to build the Third Reich’s ammunitions, they owned up to it and spoke matter-of-factly about it. They pointed out the error of their ways and how the Allied Forces bombed the factories to smithereens. The museum was as much a timeline of world history as it was a museum about cars. Porsche, on the other hand, glossed over all the bad times and focused purely on its successes. And all of those successes stemmed from the design flair of curvy fenders and fast engines. Porsche has never strayed from the iconic shape and it was awesome to see the history of the brand all under one roof. The picture here is the stainless steel ceiling at the museum. Since we all know the iconic shape of Porsche, I concentrated on the mosaic-type ceiling that shows a reflection of our world as an abstract painting; broken yet whole.
When my son is old enough, I’d like to take him here. And show him which of the Porsche’s I’d like him to buy me for my 70th birthday.
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CHILDHOOD DREAMS REVISITED IN STUTTGART, GERMANY
Childhood dreams never go away. They just find park benches in our minds in which to sleep on until we one day shake them up when something reawakens our imagination. Today, that happened when i was walking through the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart, Germany and saw this magnificent race car from 1939. It got up to 387 miles an hour on a nearby raceway. It’s shape, color and stealthness made me relive those days in the 60’s when these were the cars of Batman and Flash Gordon.
HOW DO DADS COPE WITH TRAVELING AWAY FROM THEIR KIDS
As my team from Small Army and Old Harbor Productions travel together through Europe shooting small films for SolidWorks, I noticed that the producer was taking out a little Buzz Lightyear and snapping photos in front of iconic locations throughout our trip. I couldn’t help but finally ask what was up with all the Buzz pictures. Steve told me that his son is 4 years old and looks forward to his dad taking pictures of Buzz throughout the world. Buzz has been to more places that most of us could ever hope to go. Steve’s son loves this. And so does Steve. After all, he spends about 80% of his time traveling the world to create commercials and films for big name clients like GM, Audi, Gillette and SolidWorks to name just a few.
I thought it would be interesting to do a Google search to see how prevalent the topic is on the internet. You know, to see how other dads cope and offer advice to other dads. The search was, The search was, "How do dads cope with traveling away from their kids“. “The very first Google find was, “How could men get away without paying child support?” The second was by a mom blogger who wrote, “Kids acting out cuz they miss their dads.” And finally, “Moving away and custody of fathers.” Maybe it’s just a matter of bad SEO from other sites but this is what came up. Nowhere were dads talking about how they cope with being away from their kids. I thought that Steve’s approach was a great idea. Where ever he goes in the world, he feels a connection when he takes out Buzz Lightyear from his busy job, and takes a moment to snap a picture of Buzz LIghtyear conquering foreign lands in a polymer plastic uniform that could only be from the future. Steve then sends the pictures home and his son knows that his dad is always thinking of him as he introduces Buzz to new places but will ultimately return to the loving arms of his son.
My 6-month old son has no idea that daddy is traveling. He simply knows that I don’t exist when I’m not there. After 13 days apart I will magically appear again. I expect that he will hear my voice and see my smiling face and break out into a giant smile and uncontrollably kick and shake with delight and forgive me for magically disappearing for so long. And while I love traveling and meeting intelligent people with great stories, I never stop thinking of my son. And when i see others pushing their child’s stroller or hear a child cry, I feel a yank at my heart, or is it my soul, that says, get home quickly. One of the things I do to cope with being away from my son is writing this blog to stay connected to dadhood in a small way. It’s important for me to do something every day that involves my son even if I’m not home. So the blog is one way. Shopping for small presents is also rewarding. And as a songwriter, writing little songs about or for him also scratches the itch of being a dad who may not be with his child but is still connecting the best way he can think of. This to me, is very important to being a dad.
Tomorrow we travel to Germany for our last film of this trip. It will last 4 days and then I will be back home in Boston to see my brave and loving wife, and my perpetually happy son. I hope they greet me with open arms.
If you have any stories or suggestions of how you cope when away from your family, please let us know. We dads can use all the help we can get.
INTERVIEWING THE DESIGNER OF THE WORLD'S MOST COMPLICATED WRISTWATCH
Today is exciting as we prepare to interview the designer of the world’s most complicated watch which sold recently for 2.7 million dollars. Located in the foothills of the Swiss Alps in Geneva, Switzerland, John Pierre Golay and his cousin Pierre Michel, of Franck Muller Company, are two charming older gentlemen who have opened their studio compound to us. They have agreed to show us the entire process of how they created their newest watch, the Giga with the largest tourbillon ever designed. I asked John Pierre if there were any secrets or proprietary information that we should stay away from. His reply was, “What secrets? We have no secrets. It is about experience; about understanding. If you can make this watch, please go ahead.”
They don’t make any children’s watches so Conor will have to keep asking mommy and daddy what time it is. Considering he’s only 6 months old, I don’t suppose he cares what time it is anyway. It’s either time to play, time to eat or time to sleep. And no watch is going to tell him that!
THESE GUYS DESIGNED AND BUILT A WATCH THAT SOLD FRO 2.7 MILLION DOLLARS
We have now completed our film of Franck Muller brand wristwatches, the master of complications. Here are the brains behind the operation, Jean Pierre Golay and his cousin Pierre Michel Golayl Both of these Swiss gentlemen went to watch making school years ago and have mastered their craft. If there were a sport called Xtreme watch making, these guys would be the poster boys. The last watch they created took four years to make and had over 1,500 parts delicately placed in a case that fits on your wrist. Without SolidWorks CAD software, this would have been nearly impossible to create. I asked Jean Pierre this afternoon at lunch why the Swiss are so well known for watch making. He surprised me by answering that the French were the real watch makers but that hundreds of years ago, the protestants and Catholics went to war and the protestants were exiled and they went to Switzerland. These were the watch makers and so they took their craft with them.
Tomorrow, we’re back to Paris to finish filming the Aldebaran humanoid robots. I’d like to get my son one of them but considering they are $15,000, I’ll look for something a little less steep in the local souvenir shop. Seven more days until I get to hold him in my arms and kiss my wife. - See more at: http://dadsdecoded.com/blog/index_files/archive-apr-2012.html#sthash.H6iEDYW5.dpuf
JUST ARRIVED IN SWITZERLAND TODAY
We left Paris this morning for Geneva, Switzerland. We arrived at 1pm but as it was Sunday, nothing was open. So myself and two colleagues walked the streets of Geneva contemplating the plan of attack tomorrow as we descend on Franck Muller, the critically acclaimed Swiss watchmaker, to do our film about how his ‘world’s most complicated’ watches are made. Christian was feeling pretty daring and decided to take on the Swiss traffic of lions, tigers and bears. He came away unscathed.
The Franck Muller story is scheduled to go live in September so stay tuned and I’ll let you know when it shows up on our client’s site; BornToDesign.tv. In the meantime, check out the website to see Michael Czysz and his world’s fastest electric motorcycle that we shot back in February.
And now, it’s time to call my wife and 6-month old son to see how they’re doing. Being a dad now, as much fun as I have on the road, I’m never far away from my family in my mind. I miss them. - See more at: http://dadsdecoded.com/blog/index_files/archive-apr-2012.html#sthash.H6iEDYW5.dpuf
BONJOUR, MONSEIUR
Today, we actually got the day off from filming and my colleague Paul and I started sightseeing at 9:30 and didn’t sit down until 7:30pm with one hour for lunch. We visited the Rodin Museum and got some poignant pointers from the Thinker. We then visited the Champ de Mars and enjoyed knowing that we weren’t going to stand in line to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. All but one of the lifts was out of service so hundreds and hundreds of people were waiting in line to use the one working elevator. Paul has a sickness for souvenir stores so we visited way too many of them. I kept looking for a tasteful children’s store to get something for my son and finally found a whimsical airplane made from a gourd. I’ll hang it over his crib so he can dream of flying when he gets older.
I can’t tell you how good it felt to sit down after so many hours of walking. But with a quick shower, we were back out on the town to eat dinner with our other colleague, Christian. Christian has rented a bike for 1.70 euros a day!!! It’s a system they have set up in Paris where there are electronic bike racks with bikes set up all over the city. And every 30 minutes you have to find a bike rack and lock the bike. Then you can go to another bike and use your same 1.70 euro-a-day bike card and take another bike and continue your journey. He absolutely loved it so thought I’d pass on the tip.
TODAY, I'M DIRECTING IN PARIS
I left my family in Boston yesterday to embark on a 10 day journey to direct 3 new small films celebrating the persona of engineers around the globe -- the fact that they can never leave well enough alone. The result is that they create the most wonderful inventions that sometimes change the world. Today I met Bruno Maisonnier, the founder and CEO of Aldebaran. The company is located in the heart of Paris. He has been dreaming of robots since he was a child. And today, he is has created the most charming humanoid robots. Bruno is a very enthusiastic and nice man. And not your typical shy engineer. He is full of ambition and you can feel it when in his presence because he is so outgoing and fun. Forecasters say in the next 15 years, robots will be as commonplace as the personal computer is today. And that every home will have at least one personal robot. Some are calling Bruno Maisonnier the Bill Gates of humanoid robots. We shall see.
The purpose of his robots is to help people. And one of the first breakthroughs with his robots is helping autistic children. Because autistic children learn by repitition and ritual, and often don’t respond to emotion, the robot is the perfect teacher for some tasks. For hours the friendly robots can patiently help and teach without being ‘judgemental.’
I will be posting the short documentary of Aldebaran in mid June so stay tuned. - See more at: http://dadsdecoded.com/blog/index_files/archive-apr-2012.html#sthash.H6iEDYW5.dpuf
CONOR TURNS 6 MONTHS OLD TODAY
I can hardly believe it. Our son is 6 months old today. I feel as though I can remember every day since the day he was born. And thanks to DadsDecoded, I believe I have documented most of them here. Wanting to make sure I teach him all the important things in life, I decided to teach him to drive today. The height challenge was the most difficult to overcome. We decided the old buddy system was the best technique to use. He would steer and I would describe which direction he was to turn the wheel. True, I also had to push the pedals. But it's only day one. By the time he's three, I'll most likely feel comfortable giving him the keys to the '57 Chevy Pickup I've still got stored back in Atlanta.
DAD GOES CURLING ON EASTER SUNDAY