Tag: waynekremerWednesday, December 2, 2009It's Christmas time, so that means it's time to bundle up, get in the car, and head out to the Carson Valley. The dancing lights at the Kremer house are back again this year. It's becoming tradition for me to write about this light display every year, just to introduce it to everyone who hasn't seen it and to remind those who already have. The address is 1176 Chaparral Ct, off Stephanie Way in the Carson Valley. Click here for a Google map. Their official website is www.nevadachristmas.com, where you can find hours, videos, and more information on how it works. Plus you can read the interview I did with Wayne Kremer in 2006. They're also again this year collecting food and money for the Carson Valley Community Food Closet, so if you come bring a can or two of non-perishable food or a few bucks for the mailbox. The lights run until New Year's, so you better get out there and watch them! Tags: carsonvalley christmas douglas waynekremer Saturday, December 6, 2008The Kremer Lights are back, and better than ever! Long-time readers may remember me writing about this light display in the Carson Valley back in 2005 and 2006. The Kremer family has put together one of the best Christmas light displays in the region. Not only is it an elaborate display, with a steel mega tree, several smaller trees, candy canes, cartoon dogs, and new this year an eight-foot wreath, but it's also all animated and set to music. They have a 20-minute show that runs continuously all night, and the lights dance and flash, choreographed in time with the music. And while this kind of thing is easy to do technically (with Light-O-Rama equipment), there is an artistry at work in the Kremer display that is sometimes lacking in other similar shows. Here's a sample of one song from the 2005 show to give you a taste. He took 2007 off, but promised to be back in 2008 with a new surprises. And he sure is. This year the new big thing is a video screen, right in the center of the giant wreath. For each of the songs in the show, he has created a music video that plays on the screen while the lights are dancing all around. Sometimes the video is a big part of the show, sometime it just fades into the background. But it's a fantastic addition to something that was already incredible. Luckily the Kremers live on a cul-de-sac, so when the show is running their whole street turns into a drive-in movie theater. Cars are lined up side-by-side all the way across the street, sometimes two or three rows deep, to watch. Their neighbors probably have a nightmare trying to get out of their driveway, and backing out of there when you're ready to leave can be tricky without hitting anything, but having so many other cars there enhances the feeling that you're in a theater, with an audience, watching a performance. That's not something you usually get just looking at Christmas lights. Now, the crowds are usually bad enough as it is, but I urge everyone reading this to set aside one night this month to drive out to Stephanie Way, in the Carson Valley, and see the lights. The house is in the Johnson Lane area, and the address is 1176 Chaparral Court. You can find directions here, or just look at the embedded map below. View Larger Map Their official website is www.nevadachristmas.com, where you can find hours, videos, and more information on how it works. Plus you can read the interview I did with Wayne Kremer in 2006. They're also again this year collecting food and money for the Carson Valley Community Food Closet, so if you come bring a can or two of non-perishable food or a few bucks for the mailbox. The lights run until New Year's, so you better get out there and watch them! Tags: carsonvalley christmas douglas waynekremer Tuesday, December 12, 2006It's Christmastime again, and that means it's time to go out looking for Christmas displays. And you can find plenty of displays on the west side of town, and scattered around both the Carson and Eagle Valleys, but if you don't head out to the Johnson Lane area and see Wayne Kremer's display, your Christmas just isn't complete. Wayne has not only put up lights, he's put up snowflakes, dogs, little mini Christmas trees, and a 20-foot megatree. But then he took the next step and programmed the whole display so it's choreographed to music, which he pumps out over his own radio transmitter. The whole system turns his yard (and part of his next-door neighbor's) into one big stage, where a 20-minute show comprised of nearly ten songs plays out for anyone willing to brave the crowds. Here's a sample: Last year I wrote about the display, but back then I didn't know too much about it or how it worked. A few days later I found out that the display has its own website, www.nevadachristmas.com. And this year I have an exclusive interview with the guy responsible for it all, Wayne Kremer. He was good enough to answer a few questions about how the lights work and where he got the idea to do it all.
Thanks, Wayne, both for the interview and for putting together these lights every year. If you want to check out the display, it can be found in the Johnson Lane area, in the Carson Valley. The address is 1176 Chaparral Court, and you can find directions here, or just look at the embedded map below. View Larger Map The lights run until New Year's, so you better get out there and watch them! I'll see you there. Tags: carsonvalley christmas douglas waynekremer Wednesday, December 21, 2005Okay, everyone reading this has to drive out to Johnson Lane tonight. No excuses, no shirking your duties. If you are in Northern Nevada, you need to hop in your car after sunset tonight and drive to the Carson Valley. If you are an expatriate living somewhere else, you need to hop on a plane and get here as soon as you can. If you’re in a hospital bed, get them to call an ambulance. Because out in Johnson Lane there is a Christmas light display that you’re not going to want to miss. Last night we went out in search of awesome Christmas displays, and we spent the evening coming across display after display that were depressingly similar. Eveyone has the icicle lights, everyone has the wireframe reindeer, everyone has an inflatable Santa on the roof. After a couple of hours of this we decided to head home, and hit one last neighborhood on our way. That’s when we had a revelation and realized what an awesome Christmas display truly could be. Last year I wrote what I called “Radio Free Suburbia”, where I talked about how one of our neighbors was broadcasting Christmas songs over the radio with a low-wattage transmitter. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, but because we didn’t actually spend a lot of time in front of their house, it wasn’t until this year that we realized we were only seeing half of the puzzle, and we were missing how cool it actually was. Last night we drove by again, and found out that this year they were once again broadcasting over the air. But this time we spent a little more time parked in the street looking at their house, and we began to notice something: the lights on their house and in their yard were blinking, like so many other houses we had seen that night. But instead of blinking in a random pattern, they seemed to be programmed, like they were putting on a show.. And as we sat there longer, with their radio station tuned in the background, our brains put all the pieces together: this light show was actually synchronized to the music! They had turned their entire yard into a stage, playing out this spectacle that must have taken weeks or months of programming.
Well, we sat there, transfixed. Song after song came on the radio, each one of them carefully choreographed in the lights. Other cars pulled up to the house and shut their engines off. And before we knew if, maybe 20 minutes later, we had sat through the entire loop and the songs started to repeat. We drove away and looked at some other houses, but everything was a disappointment after that. I was sitting there watching this show, and wondering how it was done, when at one point Wayne Kremer, the owner, came on the radio explaining how he had set it up. It uses a software called Light-O-Rama, which coordinates the music with several controller boxes placed around the property. There are ten boxes controlling 134 channels and over 50,000 lights! After getting home and going a little digging online, I found the same setup used at a few other houses. Carson Williams in Ohio did one, and you’ve also got the Plymouth Lights, the Lindsay Lights, and Wonderland Christmas that are all based on the same concept. But being able to see it live beats watching a grainy video any day. Speaking of which, here’s a grainy video of the show! I uploaded one song to Ourmedia for everyone who can’t make it out to see the lights, or who wants to sample the show before they go. If you are in the area and you do want to go visit, the lights are in the Johnson Lane area of Douglas County. Drive Hwy 395 to Stephanie Way, turn east on Stephanie and drive about a mile and a half to Saratoga Springs. Turn left into Saratoga Springs, then take the second right onto Chaparral Court. The lights are at the end of the cul-de-sac, on the left. The address is 1176 Chaparral Court (here’s a map). If you go check out the lights, post a comment letting everyone know what you think! Update, 12/24: I just found out that the lights have their own official website, www.NevadaChristmas.com. It includes, among other things, a complete video of the entire 19-minute show. Awesome! Tags: carsonvalley christmas douglas waynekremer |
Newest Photowww.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public items from the Around Carson group pool. Make your own badge here.
Around Carson on TwitterNorthern Nevada Bloggers
| |
WelcomeSectionsSister SitesVisit other websites by the Around Carson team: SearchMember LoginSponsored Links
|
|
E-mail the Caretaker This site is Valid XHTML. |
This site's design and code are licensed under Creative Commons. All contributions retain their original copyright and appear by permission. |
A production of The Computer Vet Hosting by DreamHost |