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The Paradise Garage Retrospection; a Career in Lighting.

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How I started Working at the Paradise Garage: Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog. After my first time dancing at the club, I went back a few weeks later to hang out with my friend Peter, this time it wasn’t to dance but to get a glimpse behind the curtain and meet some of the people responsible for operating this fantastic night club. Peter worked on the tech crew, which was responsible for the clubs lighting designs, electrics, built and maintained the set decor and theme designs. So as you might imagine these people seemed almost magical to me. Peter introduced me to the guys on the tech crew at that time, Fortino Jimenez, Stephen Ziegler, and  Derek Vasquez, from there we went around to meet everyone else. We headed to the offices, and I met the manager Mickey Schmolar, and assistant manager Jose’ Lynn. We crossed the back lounge and hit the kitchen where I met Kenny Eubanks and Ricky, then across to the coat room where I met Bobby and Juan. We made the rounds...
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The Paradise Garage Retrospection; My first time at the Club

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  How was I introduced to the Paradise Garage,  Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog. I guess like a lot of folks I went there and fell in love with the soul of the club. When I got out of the Marine Corps in’82, I returned home and landed a job at Mount Sinai Hospital. I had no idea of what career direction to take, but I knew that the Corps set my standards high and I wanted to do something great. Working at the Hospital about a year, when a childhood friend of mine, Peter Munoz invited me to come and party at this night club where he worked. I had never gone to a club in Soho before so I thought this would be an awesome night out. There was a young woman named Elizabeth, who worked with me at Mount Sinai whom I wanted to date, so I invited her and one of her friends, Kim, to join us. On the Subway ride downtown, Kim slipped us something to move the night along in the right direction lol, this was a first for me so don’t judge, besides it was the 80’s. ...
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The Paradise Garage Retrospection; Sound and Lights - Pt3

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What made The Paradise Garage stand out among all other nightclubs technically? Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog. Lighting Consoles and Dancefloor In our last discussion we went into some depth about the lighting system at the Paradise Garage. This section I will try to go over the lighting console, the controllers and how they affected the lights over the floor. I will also discuss the watch-tower effect of the DJ Booth and try to be as entertaining as possible. Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog. During its run, the Paradise Garage boasted one of the best nightclub sound and lighting systems in New York City. In fact, some of the concepts that were developed for the Garage back then, in some way still cannot be matched in today’s more advanced sound and lighting designs. As hard as that may seem imagine, it seems that sometimes the old adage is relevant "If it ain't broke don't fix it". The Lighting Boards and Controls: Standi...
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The Paradise Garage Retrospection; Sound and Lights - Pt2

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  What made The Paradise Garage stand out among all other nightclubs technically? Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog. Lighting: In my last post, I went over the Sound System at the Club. This section is a discussion of the Lighting System at the Paradise Garage based on my 30 years as a Lighting Designer and Production Technician. This Blog post is going to be done in 2 parts because I am going into heavy detail about the Paradise Garage lighting system, and it may be somewhat lengthy. So if you are a tech nerd, strap in because this is going to be good! Lighting System: The Lighting system at the Paradise Garage was tremendous to say the least. No other club in the city had a system like this. The Dancefloor alone had over 730 lighting fixtures rigged from the ceiling. The stage and other lounges had a base set up of about 25 to 40 fixtures minimum. During special parties and events, the number of lighting fixtures in the lounges would increase in size depending...
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Location: 84 King St, New York, NY 10014, USA
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The Paradise Garage Retrospection; Sound and Lights - Pt1

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What made The Paradise Garage stand out among all other nightclubs technically? Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog. Sound: This following discussion will be in two parts: Sound and Lighting. The Audio portion of this section is technical data received from Alan Fierstein from Acoustilog Incorporated. Richard Long Assoc. along with Mr. Fierstein are the original designers and installers of the sound system at the Garage, so his input in this discussion is critical. Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog. This data was originally digitized on my site A Garage Tribute in 2005 Audio System: World Class Discotheque Sound Systems are engineered to fit each unique space with it's own design criteria. To achieve maximum impact, the system designer and the acoustician work in close harmony. The designer determines equipment requirements, while the acoustician considers interior acoustics and noise isolation. Impulse testing, equalization, T60 fine tuning T...
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Location: 84 King St, New York, NY 10014, USA
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The Paradise Garage Retrospection; Tech Crew.

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The Technical Crew of the Paradise Garage  Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog. I decided to tell some stories regarding my recollections of the Paradise Garage in New York. I want to do a series of blogs about The Garage because I want to cover a few things in length and talk about subjects rarely discussed. Hello, my name is Ralph, I was one of five people who worked on the Tech Crew at the Paradise Garage. The Tech Crew was a group of people who worked behind the scenes at the club, we were responsible for installing and maintaining new lighting designs throughout the club, while also assisting the decorators with implementing and lighting their new and fantastic creations which were designed weekly. We were not part of the social scene at the club while it was open, the day ended for us at midnight, so we were basically done for the day. Our work week started on Wednesday and ended on Saturday. On Friday we would finish up the new designs we were working ...
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Location: 84 King St, New York, NY 10014, USA
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