World photo/ Mike Bonnicksen
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Grand Coulee Dam’s new laser show worth the wait by K.C. Mehaffey, Wenatchee World
May 27, 2014, 8:39 a.m. World photo/ Mike Bonnicksen Power lines, created by lasers, are shown on the face of Grand Coulee Dam during the first showing Saturday of “One River, Many Voices,” the dam’s new $2 million laser light show.
MORE INFO Grand Coulee Dam laser show If you go ... What: “One River, Many Voices” laser light show When: Daily, 10 p.m. in May, June and July; 9:30 p.m. in August; 8:30 p.m. in September. Where: Grand Coulee Dam visitor center, Coulee Dam. Cost: Free Sound: Speakers at the visitor center and at Riley Point; handheld devices with narration available for people who are hearing impaired or deaf; or tune in to 90.1 FM. RELATED STORY New movie also debuts at Grand Coulee GRAND COULEE DAM — The laser light show isn’t the only new feature at the Grand Coulee Dam visitor center. Read related story →
Grand Coulee Dam laser light show GRAND COULEE DAM — It’s 10 p.m. on Saturday and the concrete bleachers built to hold 1,000 people at the Grand Coulee Dam visitor center are nearly full. Families and couples are sitting on blankets, chatting as they wait for laser lights to begin dancing across the face of one of the largest concrete structures in the world. After playing the same show for 25 years, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation employees were getting ready for the opening production of the $2 million show. Ivan Snavely, guide supervisor at Grand Coulee Dam visitor center, was thrilled to see so many people. He said he wasn’t really nervous about pulling off this new show. It takes only a half- dozen steps to get it started. It was earlier in the day, when the sound system didn’t seem to be working, that he worried. But that turned out to be just a problem with a microphone. After confidently going through the steps, Snavely soon realized he would have to call the emergency technicians listed in his book of instructions. The crowd outsid e remained patient. Some came in the center to find out why the show hadn’t started, but most enjoyed the warm evening, and company of friends. Some of the people who gathered to watch had spent the day at Lake Roosevelt. They were in the area for Memorial Day weekend, and the warm evening and moonless sky offered perfect viewing conditions. Others had traveled a long way just to see this first showing of “One River, Many Voices.” Alex Hay, for example. He’s co-owner of Laser Fantasy in Bellevue, which produced “Water and Life,” the light show that’s being retired, and he wandered into the visitor center to offer to help. Hay said he’s proud that the first show entertained millions of people and upheld the test of time. He said he knows the owners of LumaLaser, in Eugene, Ore., which produced the new show. “We were here for the last show — we put that to bed,” Hay said. “We just had to see the new show kick off.”
Some of those who came didn’t realize they’d be attending the show’s debut. David Bajorins, of Seattle, said he has a degree in laser optical engineering, and works for Canadian Standard Association in Seattle, which produces optics and lasers, so he always comes to see the show at Grand Coulee when he’s around. He was happy to learn he happened to hit the debut of a new show. If awards were given to the person who had traveled the farthest, Charlie Brown could have gone home with it. Brown lives in The Entrance, Australia, about 60 miles north of Sydney. On Saturday, he was traveling with his brother-in- law, Phil Corliss, of Tonasket, along with Corliss’ son and grandchildren who were over for the weekend from Bremerton. They had all seen the laser light show three or four times before, and plans were already made to see it again Saturday when they l earned it would be a new show. “We read it in the paper,” said Corliss. The old show had just four colors and used an ion gas system that took up most of the projection booth. When it was installed in 1989, it was the world’s most powerful laser projection system. This show comes with 14 colors, 9 laser beams and a computerized system to project it. “The technology has just changed so much,” he said. The equipment is still housed in the same projection room inside the visitor center, closed off to viewing by black curtains. But instead of huge tubes with gases, the show operates from electronic equipment the size of a filing cabinet with a computer screen on top. The visitor center employees are trained how to operate it, and a book with instructions walks them through the steps. The instructions included an emergency number for technicians who can help if it didn’t work. And on this very first show, they needed to use it. Following instructions by phone, visitor center employees cut two wires and spliced them back together. The show started 30 minutes late. But it was worth the wait. Compared with the old show, the brilliance of colors was dramatic. The complexity of scenes that played out on the dam’s face demonstrated just how far laser light technology had come in 25 years. The story, too, more clearly represents how people who lived along the Columbia River were affected when the dam flooded some 56,000 acres of land. It includes mention of a 1939 gathering of tribal members at Kettle Falls, once a great salmon fishery, for their first Ceremony of Tears.
The new show features original music, tribal songs, and the voices of everyone from Colville and Spokane tribal elders to a construction worker who helped build the dam and farmers who reaped the benefits of the irrigation water it provides. John and Sylvia Lathrop, of Wenatchee, came to see the new show with their daughter, Tracy Lathrop and 9-year-old granddaughter, Rilee Savage. The Lathrops in 1989 had attended one of the dam’s very first laser light shows, which also debuted over Memorial Day weekend. For a time, they came every year, camping out at the lake and bringing their family to the show. But it had been four or five years since they’d seen it. And their granddaughter had never seen it. After the showing, the Lathrops agreed this laser show was far more colorful and modern, and there was greater emphasis on the tribal perspective. “It was great for our granddaughter,” said Sylvia Lathrop. “She’s going to write a report on it and turn it in on Tues day.” Still, there’s something they missed about the show it replaces. “I think the old one was more entertaining. This one was more informative,” John Lathrop said. Reach K.C. Mehaffey at 509-997-2512 or mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com . Read her blog An Apple a Day or follow her on Twitter at @KCMehaffeyWW . Download 25.93 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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