7000 lights with 3600 LEDs dancing to ‘Little Drummer Boy’ by Mannheim Steamroller adorn Captain Rick’s Oasis in Gilbert Arizona

Captain Rick: The holiday light and sound show at my desert oasis in Gilbert Arizona is always an enlightening experience. My 20th presentation includes 3600 LEDs dancing to ‘Little Drummer Boy’ by Mannheim Steamroller.

Click the above photo to view my 2017 light and sound show or …
View Captain Rick’s 2017 Holiday Sound and Light Show

Presentations of previous displays follow in the YouTube Playlist

How it works …
A ‘Holiday Brilliant Spectacular Light and Sound Show’ controller provides 3 channels of signals to my trees and shrubs, each wrapped in 3 bands of red-white-blue or white-multi-white, connected with 50 extension cords. The device accepts a SD card loaded with hours of favorite holiday songs. As it projects quiet music across the yard, a device receiver analyzes the audio and programs the controller to display 3 bands of lights on the plants and trees, resulting in an awesome sound and light show of 3600 LEDs dancing to the music.

Oasis Light Show History …
My Gilbert Oasis was the first in my HOA 20 years ago to present a holiday light show and has done so every year since. 2007 marked a record with 12,000 lights, requiring two 15 amp circuits running at maximum capacity. Addition of one more string of lights would blow a circuit breaker. Three years ago I began to replace older incandescent lights with energy efficient LEDs. They consume about 1/6 the power, are many times brighter and rarely need to have a light replaced. Over half of the lights in this years show are LEDs.

Setup and takedown …
In past years it would take 20 or 30 hours to install all of the lights and cords … and about half that time to take it all down. Having done this for 20 years, I have increased efficiency. Setup and takedown now requires about half the time, including the addition of the new light-music control equipment.

Captain Rick presents ‘Deck the Halls’ Dixieland style … his first video in 1080p HD

Captain Rick : Every Christmas my Gilbert Arizona Oasis bursts with thousands of lights. In 2015 I installed Holiday Brilliant light controllers that made 8000 lights sequence and dance to a playlist of music beaming from a digital music box. I captured a video of the lights dancing to ‘Deck the Halls’ Dixieland style in Full 1080p HD video with stereo sound using my new LUMIX 16 megapixel camera.

Click the image above to view the video in Full 1080p HD with stereo sound      via Captain Rick’s Flickr Site.

Light rings and bands of red, white and blue sequence and dance up and down, back and forth in time to the music, including the giant red, white and blue dancing ‘2015’ in the palo verde tree.

3 weeks are required to install the lights and a week to take them down. A quarter mile of cords are used to hook up all of the circuits.  A dedicated 15 amp circuit runs at full capacity to supply power to illuminate all of the lights.

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Interesting ATRIDIM NEWS JOURNAL Links:

Photography by Atridim

Captain Rick’s Christmas Lights Spectacular YouTube Playlist

Captain Rick’s Christmas Lights Spectacular … the Holdman ‘House on Christmas Street’

Captain Rick: The Holdman Amazing Grace Christmas House on Christmas Street in Pleasant Grove, Utah presents the world’s most spectacular Christmas light display featuring 176 light channels and 45,000 multicolored lights synchronized to ‘Amazing Grace,’ ‘Music Box Dancer’ and other great musical numbers.

Captain Rick’s Christmas Lights Spectacular on YouTube: I have compiled the best of past Holdman Christmas light performances in a half hour playlist I present for your enjoyment below, via my YouTube site.

VIEWING INSTRUCTIONS: Click the image above … after you read this: This is a continuous performance that lasts about a half hour. When you click you will be transferred to Captain Rick’s YouTube site and my playlist will begin. Select your viewing quality. Most are available in 720p HD. Select the full screen icon at lower right. Turn your sound up. Then, do not touch anything, except to press ‘skip’ if you encounter an occasional ad. There is a few second blank spot at the end of ‘Music Box Dancer’. Be patient. The performance continues with a 14 minute complete show of the record 2010 Holdman Christmas Lights show and ends with a song by Judy Pancoast about the Holdman ‘House on Christmas Street’. ENJOY!

The Amazing Grace Christmas House was located in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Designed and programmed by Richard Holdman, the display started in 2006, but traffic became too much of an issue and is no longer running.  Richard has gone on to create Holdman Lighting which installs animated lighting displays around the world.

Richard Holdman: 2010 was the last year for our large display on our home. The traffic became to much along with some neighbor complaints but for the record there were many awesome neighbors that loved it and I really appreciate their support over the years.

Your appreciation is welcome: It took a bit of work to put this show together for your enjoyment. However, it was a tiny effort in comparison to the work that went into the Holdman light displays. If you enjoy it, I would be grateful to read your comment below. More so, I know the Holdmans would enjoy your comment.

I welcome your comments, likes, shares and following of my blog! (If not visible, click the red title above)

HD Video of B17 and the B25 WWII Bombers flying over Arizona’s Superstition Mountains and Saguaro & Canyon Lakes

Captain Rick: This high Definition Video of B17 and the B25 WWII Bombers flying over Arizona’s Superstition Mountains, Saguaro Lake and Canyon Lake, presents some of Arizona’s most beautiful landscape. The majestic views from the air with the WWII bombers in sight are magnificent.

Click to View HD Video of WWII Bombers over Arizona Landscape

The photography is in HD, the planes are gorgeous and most notably, it is shot as the B-17 takes off from Falcon Field in Mesa, AZ and then flies over the Superstition Mountains to the east of Apache Junction and then on to Saguaro and Canyon Lakes on the east edge of the Phoenix Valley of the Sun.

The aircraft with two engines is a B-25 bomber, the type that Jimmy Doolittle and gang flew over Japan. Both aircraft are stationed at the Confederate Air Force hanger located at Falcon Field in Mesa where both aircraft were rebuilt. Falcon Field is an old WWII Training Airport.

The backdrops are stunning. Music is from the mini-series, ‘John Adams.’

SaberCat1 filming in HD the B17 and the B25 WWII Bombers over and around Arizona’s Superstition Mountains and Saguaro Lake. H5 Productions, in conjunction with The Commemorative Air Force filmed these aircraft during the Veterans Day Celebration on Saturday, November 13th, 2010. The B17 Bomber was flown by pilot Russ Gilmore and the B25 Bomber was flown by pilot Spike McLane. The base for these bombers is Falcon Field located in Mesa, Arizona. SaberCat1 pilot, Mitch Kelldorf. SaberCat1 aerial cinematographer, Mike Murray. Editor, Mike Murray.

Sincere thanks to PJ of Arizona for bringing this excellent video to my attention.

I welcome your comments, likes, shares and following of my blog! (If not visible, click the red title above)

Love echoes in Alberta after historic flooding

Captain Rick: An abundance of love echoed across Alberta Canada during the historic flooding in late June as people worked together to survive and recover. This 10 minute YouTube video captures photographic moments of those ‘love echoes’ with excellence.

Receding waters gave way to a mammoth cleanup of affected areas, aided by a spontaneous volunteer campaign in which many home owners were assisted by complete strangers.

Appreciation:

I extend my appreciation to June of Tennessee for sharing this excellent video by Heather Rankin. I invited Heather to share her thoughts on this excellent video masterpiece (which has already been viewed by 50,000 on YouTube) in a comment below.

I extend special appreciation to Sandi of Calgary Alberta for contributing an eyewitness report to my breaking ATRIDIM NEWS JOURNAL Report on June 21, 2013: Historic Flooding in Alberta

2013 Alberta Flood Stats
Worst in Alberta’s history. Areas along the Bow, Elbow, Highwood, Red Deer, Sheep, Little Bow, and South Saskatchewan rivers and their tributaries were particularly affected.
A total of 27 local states of emergency were declared and 28 emergency operations centres were activated as water levels rose and numerous communities were placed under evacuation orders.
Four people were confirmed dead as a direct result of the flooding
Over 100,000 people were displaced throughout the region.
Some 2,200 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) troops were deployed to help in flooded areas.
Preliminary estimates suggest damage from the flood could be between C$3–5 billion.

I welcome your comments, likes, shares and following of my blog! (If not visible, click the red title above)

"We’ve Heard It All Before" … Obama makes same speech in 2012 as in 2008 … 2 Million hits on YouTube

Does the rhetoric of the Obama campaign bring about feelings of déjà vu, along with the inevitable nausea? If so, it could be ’cause we’ve heard it all before somewhere.

The Republican National Committee has outdone itself with this new ad. With apologies to Abe Lincoln, you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time—unless they are Obama voters.

Watch Obama make the same speech in 2012 as he did in 2008:

CLICK to VIEW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZgQhnNRSuw&feature=BFa&list=PLpRDP9tt_V7szOsqVtWETZtXD_cjQZzID

Bret of Arizona … thanks for referring this outstanding video.

I have added it to my ATRIDIM NEWS JOURNAL Video Collection on YouTube, accessible via the link above.