Stories From a Tail-End Boomer

  How was I introduced to the Paradise Garage,  I guess like a lot of folks I went there and fell in love with the soul of the club. Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog. 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. ...

Lighting Consoles and Dancefloor What made The Paradise Garage stand out among all other nightclubs technically? 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: Standing at the lighting controls in the DJ booth of the Gara...

  Lighting: What made The Paradise Garage stand out among all other nightclubs technically? 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! Hello, my name is Ralph Curtis and welcome to my Blog. 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...

Sound: What made The Paradise Garage stand out among all other nightclubs technically? 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 TDS tests, etc. complete the installation, examples will...