{"id":13042,"date":"2023-11-14T21:22:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T21:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=13042"},"modified":"2024-01-01T21:25:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T21:25:15","slug":"the-architectural-embodiment-of-ridiculousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2023\/11\/14\/the-architectural-embodiment-of-ridiculousness\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The architectural embodiment of ridiculousness&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2023\/11\/inside-las-vegas-sphere-u2\/676000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">from The Atlantic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SPHERE AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>My night in front of the world\u2019s largest LED screen<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/author\/charlie-warzel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Charlie Warzel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sphere | Hello World | A July 4th Event Like No Other\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GUsY8ocXVuk?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The moment I first laid eyes on the Sphere, from a cramped window seat on approach over the Las Vegas Strip, my airplane precipitously plunged what felt like between 90 and 300 feet. This was the variety of turbulence that makes people gasp and clutch their armrests, that threatens to pop open the overhead bins. It seemed a fitting welcome: The Sphere had already coaxed me into seat 26A on a flight partway across the country, and now it was pulling me toward its unmistakable, shimmering orb-ness with a final gravitational tug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thinking this way about a building is ridiculous, I know. But have you seen this thing? Quite literally, the Sphere is a large arena\u2014a futuristic entertainment venue for concerts and other Vegas spectacles. But such a description undersells the Sphere\u2019s ambitions. It is the architectural embodiment of ridiculousness, a monument to spectacle and to the exceedingly human condition of erecting bewildering edifices simply because we can. It cost $2.3 billion; it\u2019s blanketed in 580,000 square feet of LED lights; it can transform its 366-foot-tall exterior into a gargantuan emoji that astronauts can\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/technology\/infrastructure\/a45499347\/las-vegas-sphere\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">supposedly<\/a>\u00a0see from space. This is no half dome and certainly not a rotunda. This is\u00a0<em>Sphere<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2023\/11\/inside-las-vegas-sphere-u2\/676000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">click to continue reading at The Atlantic<\/a> ]<a href=\"https:\/\/accounts.theatlantic.com\/login\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/accounts.theatlantic.com\/products\/?source=gate_toast\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from The Atlantic SPHERE AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS My night in front of the world\u2019s largest LED screen By\u00a0Charlie Warzel The moment I first laid eyes on the Sphere, from a cramped window seat on approach over the Las Vegas Strip, my airplane precipitously plunged what felt like between 90 and 300 feet. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art","category-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}