Category: Spall

Spall

Pocket Protection

By Emerson Schwartzkopf

Let’s get something straight at the start: I like computers. And I like all sorts of computer-related gadgets, although I’ve resisted the temptation to plug a coffee-cup warmer into some spare socket of my office desktop machine.
I’m also a firm believer in the one-step-behind philosophy in the world of electronics: Instead of buying cutting-edge stuff, I pick up devices once they’re no longer the hot item on the market. My digital camera doesn’t record the maximum number of megapixels, and the cell phones I tote don’t have a camera or play music and videos.
It’s not that I’m cautious. I’m cheap. But I still recognize the value in saving something very precious: my time.

Spall

Lesson Plan

By Emerson Schwartzkopf

  In every publication, there’s always one regular item that makes its enemies among the staff. It’s tedious to write, always runs long and becomes a bear to fit in the layout.

Spall

Lights! Camera! Buff!

By Emerson Schwartzkopf

  Somewhere in the onrush of last year, I went through a gallery of fine stone in Southern California and came across several slabs of stunning exotic granite. “Nice, isn’t is?” noted someone on the staff. “It’s going into Sharon Stone’s kitchen. She came here and picked it out herself.”

Spall

Match Game

By Emerson Schwartzkopf

   “Hello, I’m a homeowner in Illinois and I have this kitchen counter that I’d like to ….”
   “We’re doing some preliminary research on materials for a project, and we’re trying to confirm ….”
   “Can you help me? I’m here in Texas and I want to know if you’ve heard of ….”
   “Emerson, I’m trying to replace this travertine tile on my floor, and I bet you know ….”

Spall

More Than Meets the Market

By Emerson Schwartzkopf
  
   VERONA, Italy – Every year, I get a few notes from readers about how they’re looking forward to hearing about the new products I saw here at Marmomacc, the annual October world stone extravaganza.

Spall

Fancy Footwork

By Emerson Schwartzkopf
  
   October marks the start of the last of the annual trade-show frenzy, with notable events at home and abroad. As an editor of a stone magazine, I get to be in the thick of it, pushing through crowds and stepping on feet in several languages.
   At least one of those feet I’ll tread on should be yours.

Spall

Rating A Mention

By Emerson Schwartzkopf   
  
   Here’s the good news: Granite placed second in a comparison of 10 countertop surfaces by a nationally renowned consumer magazine.
   Now the bad news: A lot of you aren’t going to like what finished first.

Spall

Sense of Place

By Emerson Schwartzkopf

NEW YORK – When someone talks about a moving experience at a memorial, they usually aren’t talking about a stone monument literally heading down the street. And yet that’s what happened here earlier this summer, at the most-famous spot in recent U.S. history.

Spall

Got Green?

By Emerson Schwartzkopf

   From one perspective, the green building movement is one of the worst things that can happen to the U.S. stone industry. From another viewpoint, it’s one of the best.

Spall

Spanish Surge

By Emerson Schwartzkopf
 
  MADRID – “My driving, I hope I don’t scare you with it,” said the taxi driver, doing a high-speed weave through at least three lanes as we head down the main access road from Barajas airport to the center of the Spanish capital. “You are Americans, right?”