Thursday, July 31, 2008

Retarded Policeman

Video Find of the Day

Ordinarily I wouldn't post a Retarded Policeman video. They are simply too politically incorrect, even for me. It's bad enough they make fun of the developmentally disabled in the character of The Retarded Policeman himself. Then, on top of that, they let his character voice racist and misogynist and culturalist opinions which are highly not to be tolerated. But in this case his target, whom he make-believe immolates, is a mime. There's nothing wrong with make-believe immolating a mime. I'd like to make-believe immolate the whole lot of them.

Retarded Policeman #13: Mime (Doug Jones of Hellboy 2)

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

40s Music Video

Video Find of the Day

Yes, they had music videos in the 40s! They were shown in movie theaters as shorts preceding or between feature films. This one has been posted at least twice on YouTube. The posters apparently don't know that this is a Glen Miller song being rendered. The title of the posts is Moonlight Cocktails, but the song is actually Moonlight Cocktail (no "s"). It came out in 1942, not the Fifties, as the description suggests (MCMXLII = 1942.) In fact it was #1 in all of March and April of that year! Words by Kim Gannon,
Music by Lucky Roberts. I love the internet!

Moonlight Cocktails

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Dead Branches

Just a picture of dead branches. That's all. Dead branches, in an abandoned yard. I should be so pretty, when I'm dead. Click on it for a screen-sized version.

Sign Language & Dragons

Video Find of the Day

This is cool, although I wouldn't know it except for the detailed description. The "speaker" is Alice, who is ranting in Chinese sign language about the use of denigrating signs for the deaf in that language, and calling for more respectful signs. Dragons arise!

From the description:

Alice's main points are: * The Deaf Chinese are used to using signs for "deaf-mute" (聋哑人) and "mute" (哑巴) but these signs are not respectful to Deaf people. * Overseas, Deaf communities stopped using the expression "deaf-mute" 20 years ago, and only China persists. * It was foreigners that appreciated that within the character for deaf, "聋," is the character 龙, meaning "dragon," a traditional mythological protector being. That's pretty cool! * [There's more.]

Deaf, not Dumb: Chinese Sign Language 聋哑"与"聋人"的区别?

Monday, July 28, 2008

Seamlessness

Video Find of the Day

Yesterday we saw the end of Madrigal History Tour. Today it's the beginning. If you stay for the last 30 seconds you will learn how Renaissance polyphony is to angels as a Chinese dragon team is to a dragon, if you didn't already know.

King's Singers - Madrigal History Tour - Introduction Part 1

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Tanzen und Springen

Video Find of the Day

To make it up to Germans, here's some Englishmen respectfully singing a fine old German tune.

King's Singers - Madrigal History Tour - Tanzen und Springen

Peeve: "Poor Have Too Much"


When I talk to middle-class people, sometimes I hear complaints like, "It isn't fair that poor unemployed people don't pay income taxes." Or, "Gee, it must be sweet to never have to pay a mortgage, rent, or house payments. I wish I had it so easy."

They really get worked up when they find out that some poor and homeless individuals have had good fortune. When a homeless guy wins the lottery, I have heard housed people bitch, "It isn't right, that they win big while I have to work for a living," even as they're putting a dollar of their own down for a shot at the same good luck.

It would totally suck that poor people have the occasional good fortune if their lives were a bed of clover aside from it.

A case of misplaced poverty envy occurs every year when the Seattle Seafair Torchlight Parade goes past Anitra's room, and we open the blinds and watch it from the comfort of bed. The other parade observers outside on the street often make comments to the effect that we have it too good. Ha! One evening a year, maybe!

So many poor people live in Pioneer Square because decades ago Seattle made the decision to sweep all of its poor into this neighborhood and forget about them. That it was discovered to have historic charm and turned upscale around me is not my fault. That they route the parade past our bed is not our fault.

Once the parade started people turned and watched the parade instead of us, and I took some videos.

This first video is ironic, in that the sirens heard at the beginning are just a reminder of the sirens we hear every 20 minutes on average all year round, 24-7. So we're supposed to regard all those sirens at once as a treat?

Hot Cycles



Anitra says a bad word. I respond by bad-mouthing clowns and poking fun at the lederhosen-ed. Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I clown in print and I'm part German myself. So ease up.

Color Commentary



The ability to live in a neighborhood where dragons may often be sighted is also a benefit of living in the Iron Triangle.

Torchlight Dragon

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Airto Moreira

Video Find of the Day

A vendor at Real Change told me Airto Moreira (eye-ear-toe) is a Brazilian percussionist who worked with Miles Davis for two years, and was involved in the making of Bitches Brew. So I said, I'll bet he's on YouTube. And sure enough, here he is.

Airto Moreira - Miles tribute

Belltown French

Alley of the Week

This week's alley is only the next one north of last week's alley (Taste Italy). If you stare deeply into the center of this picture of it, taken from Vine, you may see the fountain in Fountain Court. The building here is the Montreux, possibly named for Montreux in French-speaking Switzerland, and definitely French-inspired.

You can see the French inspiration from within the alley, too. The grilled balconies are lovely, and I can squint and almost believe I'm in a French alley.

As of 2006 the condos here were selling in the ball park of $400 per square foot. Very affordable. Gee, why is anyone homeless?

Friday, July 25, 2008

All Over the Map

Video Find(s) of the Day

It may prepare you for this to tell you that in 1996 this guy put out a CD called "Gilles Apap & the Transylvanian Mountain Boys".

AMAZING Mozart 3 - 3rd movement Cadenza



The next 5 videos are a series of Mr. Apap interacting with Indian musicians. (That's not much preparation either, I suppose.).

Gilles Apap in India



Gilles Apap in India2



Gilles Apap in India3



Gilles Apap in India 4



Gilles Apap in India Final

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Gloria

Video Find of the Day

We got a submission this month at Real Change that suggested that there is so much violence in our streets because we all aren't Christian enough. Well, I'm not Christian enough by any measure, and I'm not shooting or beating anyone.

Yet. Maybe I'm violent in potentia.

Anyway, when people go on about how Christian I'm not, I think of the Greater Glory of God, and one thought leads to another, and...

Vivaldi - Gloria - 1 - Gloria in excelsis Deo

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Bachapella

Video Find of the Day

Well. This is a find, inn't? It's something, yes it is.

Bach Bach Bach

Skyler

When I decided to do the City Hall camp-out (the second one Real Change organized) I figured I'd need sleeping gear. To me, sleeping gear means mat, sleeping bag, extra blankies, pajamas, and a teddy bear, or similar item. I've had a down sleeping bag since 1979. Mat, since last homeless bout. Extra blankies, always. Pajamas, a problem. I like to sleep nekkid, usually. So I went to the Goodwill outlet store in Sodo and looked for suitable PJs. I wanted PJs with a pig motif. Not finding any, I settled for sweats.

Then, on the way out, I spotted a giant plush toy in the form of a skunk. I picked him up and found him truly plush. I knew immediately that he would be my teddy bear alternative. He was so big, he could even double as an extra blanky.

Photo of me with Skyler by Danina Garcia, Photoshopped by me to bring out Skyler's face.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

What a Dump!

Video Find of the Day

Homeless people camping at "the old city dump" in Sacramento are at risk of being swept. They're bringing filth in... to a dump. THEY are too dirty, to live in a dump.

It's the city of Sacramento that stinks.

Planned Homeless Camp Sweep Postponed

Wenches Are Good

The light is poor in some of this, but I think it still has interest as a documentation of 1) The Seafair Pirates admit wenches now (hooray!), and 2) I almost get shot in the face.

Seafair Wenches

Lions & Filipinos

More from Sunday's Chinatown Parade. The video starts with Chinese lion dancers. Unfortunately I was caught with low batteries. So no zoom. That problem was corrected by the time the Filipino cane marchers showed up. I was in heaven.

Chinatown Parade

Monday, July 21, 2008

Potatoes

Video Find of the Day

This has only been seen so far a little over 36,000 times. That isn't enough, so I have decided to give it a nudge. I'm thinking about potatoes a lot lately, because I see them as my hope for the future, what with them not needing bees to propagate and all.

Potatoes O'Brien

Dragon Team

There's nothing like a Chinese Dragon. I've wanted to film a Chinese dragon team for ages. I love the pass-off, when the half of the team animating the dragon is replaced by the half that has been resting. The dragon itself never tires. I managed to get two pass-offs on this video, filmed last evening during the Chinatown Seafair Parade.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

No News, Good News, Dept.

Video Find of the Day

When I can't find any other good videos, I can always count on Onion News to pick me up.

The Onion: Volatile India-Pakistan Standoff In 11,680th Day

Geese Have It Worse

Way back in October of 1996 (Bronze This!) I expressed a certain sense of outrage that bronze poor people can permanently sit in the park at the Darth Vader Building at 4th and Lenora in Seattle, but that real flesh and blood poor people are regularly chased off. As bad as it is for poor humans, Canadian Geese have it worse. Canadian Geese in the Puget Sound area have been subject to open official genocide by the USDA since 1999.

That's why I think this 2001 sculpture set at the entrance to Bellefield Office Park in Bellevue is so interesting.

Not long ago you could not walk here without either kicking a goose or stepping in goose evidence. Now you rarely see them here. Instead, you see an arrangement of three bronze statues depicting a boy and his mother admiring a Canadian Goose.

It's like, now they're mostly dead, let's commemorate them! We loves our genocidal victims!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Carnival of Souls

Video Find of the Day

As the Flying Christopher came up last night, so, this night, Carnival of Souls came up. I consider this one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It is admittedly marred by bad acting, even horrid acting, and poor editing, but the sense of relentless haunting it conveys more than makes up for its flaws. It's in the public domain, thanks to quirks of US copyright law, and embeddable from Google, so let's try that.

Beautiful and disturbing,
Carnival of Souls (1962) (82 minutes)

Taste Italy

Alley of the Week

Here's an alley showing off. Fountain Court Apartments ("A taste of Vince, Italy in the heart of Seattle!") were built 1999 over the whole block between 4th and 5th and between Battery and Wall, the alley turned into a gated driveway through it from street to street. The display makes the apartment building look pretty upscale, but I checked the prices and they run around $2 a square foot, which seems pretty reasonable to me. The last hell-hole I lived in the U District was 85 square feet, for which I had to pay precisely $170 per month -- $2 per square foot. That was 1991. So it would seem that the price is right. Of course, the smallest studio here is more than 5 times as big as my former hovel. I'm curious as to how the bill for the fountain is paid for. I assume the water is recycled, but what about the power? My guess: the extra costs are paid by rents on the ground-floor store fronts.

The day I was there taking pictures, both gates to the "alley" were open so I checked it out from the inside.

The fountain close up.

A walkway from the official front door at the corner of 4th and Battery leads into the central court.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Flying Walken

Video Find of the Day

Was talking about this tonight. Here it is, embeddable. For now.

Christopher Walken in Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Two Tired, 1924

Video Find of the Day

Two 1924 versions of Too Tired from kspm01 that could hardly be more different.

Polla's Clover Garden Orchestra - Too Tired



Lee Morse - Too Tired

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Dances With Yellow

Video Find of the Day

YouTube found this for me. They're powered by Google. Google reads souls. Since they recommended it, it must be safe for all the family. ATV stands for Aktif TV (Turkey).

oryantal star

More Picnic

I've taken advantage of the services I rent from the guys formerly known as Mac.com, and now calling themselves MobileMe, to put the halfway decent raw photos that I took up as an online gallery.

Picnic

RCOP, the Real Change Organizing Project, had a picnic yesterday evening at Seattle's Gas Works Park, and I had to experiment with the new used camera. One thing I learned in the experiment is that it's really hard to video people playing badmitton. Where do you point the camera? Do you follow the shuttlecock and see the background blur half the time? Or do you stay on the participants and get to watch them watch the shuttlecock outside the screen?

Anyway, the result also incorporates about 11 stills from the event, including a couple of shots at the end showing off the park itself, and a little bit of Royal Fireworks Music, used out of sequence.

RCOP Picnic

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Satire Wars

Video Find of the Day

It should be obvious by now that I love satire. What I most love about it is the cosmic humor inherent in it, rather than the malice. That is, I enjoy the humor directed at the high position that truth and objective reality holds in peoples' minds. Satire makes fun of the idea that there is objective truth, as much as it attacks public figures. What's funny about the New Yorker's latest cover is simply that it is false, but the falsehood of its proposition is NOT objective, because if it were, there wouldn't be so many people believing the proposition! "Objective" implies a consensus, at least of expert opinion. But in a society where "expert opinion" can be the opinion of anyone who is a consultant for Fox News, there can't be consensus. Ha, ha!

As funny as that cover is, I still think the Onion is way funnier than the New Yorker, every day.

The Onion: 'No Values Voters' Search For Most Evil Candidate

Monday, July 14, 2008

Komm Zigany

Video Find of the Day

Gypsy, sort of the way Porgy and Bess is African-American. But interesting.

Nikolai Schukoff - Graefin Mariza [II]

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Cod Liver Oil

Video Find of the Day

Since Anitra loves sea chanteys, I'm always on the look out for those I can stand. I found this one while looking up the potential of cod liver oil to relieve arthritis pain. The relative article at Wikipedia said, "This article is about the fish extract, for the traditional Newfoundland song, see 'Cod Liver Oil (song)'", which I did, and found the lyrics that appear below. The Dubliners' version is slightly different in places.

The Dubliners - Cod Liver Oil



I'm a young married man that is tired of life
Ten years I've been wed to a miserable wife
She does nothing all day but sit down and cry
And prays up to Heaven that soon she will die

Chorus:
Doctor, o doctor, o dear Doctor John
Your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong
I'm afraid of me life, I'll go down in the soil
If me wife keeps on drinking your cod liver oil

Well a friend of my own came to see me one day
He told my darlin' was pining away
He afterwards told me that she would get strong
If only I'd get a bottle from dear Doctor John

Chorus

It was then that I purchased a bottle to try
The way that she drank it you'd think she would die
I bought her another it vanished the same
O me wife she's got cod liver oil on the brain

Chorus

That me wife loves cod liver there isn't a doubt
And a few thousand gallons has made her quite stout
And now that she's stout it's made her quite strong
And now I'm jealous of dear Doctor John

Chorus

My house it resembles a medicine shop
It's covered with bottles from bottom to top
But then in the mornin' the kettle do boil
O you're sure it's singin' of cod liver oil

Chorus

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Michael Jackson Bhangra

Video Find of the Day

In this, the Michael Jackson impersonator is Suleman Mirza and the janitor impersonator is Madhu Singh. There are lots of versions of this on YouTube. This one spares us the unnecessary introductions and the long shots of the crowd reactions.

Michael Jackson versus put sardara da



In the same vein, the real Michael Jackson in the Dangerous video, re-edited.

Michael jackson rangla punjab dance video

Friday, July 11, 2008

Isaiah Gets Lessons

Video Find of the Day

Isaiah Chevrier is the child djembe drummer whose progress has been chronicled by rootsymali. I've posted a couple of those videos. Well, now he's going to djembe school. He's 6 now, finally getting formal instruction.

Mind Blowing 6 yr old Djembe Drummer

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Evelyn Preer

Video Find of the Day

A reminder of why I subscribe to kspm01. Recorded in 1926.

E. Preer - It Takes A Good Woman To Keep A Good Man At Home

Anitra's Other Baby

Besides the Union garden, Anitra "With the Lettuce in Her Hair" Freeman also maintains the decorative plants in the entrance-way to the thrift store next-door to the Union. They're pretty. Click on the image to see them in more detail. This image has not been Photoshopped, except to reduce its size.

Post-911 Photography

Now that I've committed to posting an alley per week, I realize that I have to hurry up and take pictures of 50 of them before the short Seattle summer ends. So the plan is to go on long walks on good days and get as many alleys in as possible. Today in two hours I got pictures of 9 of them. I also experienced my personal first camera-related post-911 paranoia incident.

Naturally I wasn't just taking pictures of alleys. I see something, I take a picture. It's amazing how being able to take pictures changes your sight. For instance, I never really appreciated this window of 1st United Methodist on the Marion St. side so much before.

On my way to Uwajimaya I suddenly realized, camera at hand, that the sidewalks around this rounded triangular wall don't actually go anywhere. I went to the apex of the triangle, marveling at it. I'd been by there maybe half a thousand times, but I'd never thought of it before I could photograph it.

The post-911 paranoia incident occurred as I was taking this picture of a decoration of the 605 Union Station Building. The building houses offices of Amazon.com among others. I was struck by this use of the circled cross (several times along the length of the building) which is a popular pagan sun-sign and also regarded as the prototype of mandalas.

And, it's a favorite symbol of neonazis! Usually it appears thicker, as in this flag of the Swedish Neonazi Party.

Anyway, as I was preparing to take the picture, I heard a voice behind me, saying, "Sir? Sir!" I knew it was a security guard that had just passed me. I first took the shot, pretending not to hear, and then said, "Yes?"

He said, "Photographing this complex is not allowed."

I said, "Really?! Why is that?"

He said, "Since 911, you know -- it makes them nervous."

So I said, "Oh. Sorry." And walked away. With the camera. With the dangerous picture on it. And now, I've put it on the internet!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Birthday Burlesque

Video Find(s) of the Day

Last July 9, when I turned 58, I posted a video find I just called Burlesque. I've decided to make this a tradition. One day a year, Daddy gets to post burlesque videos. As I turn 59, I found four I like. FYI, the first three were posted by videoloops who is based in Seattle, and were all performed at Seattle venues.

This one is just fine comedy.

Inga Ingenue burlesque act 1 for SinnerSaint @ noc noc



This one, I like the song, and enjoy any excuse to hear it.

Lucky Lucy O'Rebel burlesque act 1 @ the Bit Saloon



This one is mildly, just ever so very mildly, deliciously, blasphemous, in an artistic way.

Catrina Kaboom burlesque for King's Cabaret @ the Funhouse



And this one is one I'm going to remember.

Lola Van Ella in "The Best of Midwest Burlesk!"

Condo Park

Alley of the Week

In Lipstick On a Pig, Tim Harris writes, "Urban centers now exist as centers of upscale consumption and culture for those who can pay the price." One of ways that manifests itself is in the construction of private parks for the well-off.

Belltown had a park at 3rd and Bell that anyone in the public could use, including outcasts. So the neighbors got up in arms about it and turned it into a dog park. One of the main ways homeless people had used the park was to eat food purchased from the adjoining grocery. It's now against the rules to have open food in Regrade Park because the dogs might fight for it. Meanwhile, two blocks away, between Battery and Bell and between 1st and 2nd, two condos stand back to back sharing a park between them. Here's how it looks from space. An inviting plaza with trees and gardening, and probably benches. A great place to picnic.

Here's how it looks through the alley from near Vine Street.

And closer, looking up from inside the alley near the Wall Street entrance.

As you can see, the residents here have no need for the Regrade Park. They've got their own. If you're homeless and frequent the alley you know it's there, but you can't reach it.

They build their own parks, and, not satisfied with that, take ours away.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Tiempo de Solea

Video Find of the Day

The animation accompanying the song gives me the idea I know what it's about. I dug around for a translation and found out it pretty much is about what I thought. A repeated line says, "The future in every corner hangs by a thread."

The title is a reference to a flamenco style.

Ojos De Brujo - Tiempo de Solea

Spartacus

"This is a robust plant that can stand a fairly high degree of abuse," is what sold me on Spartacus. Spartacus is what I call him/her/it. Her/it/his kind is called Devil's Ivy, or Pothos, or Silver Vine, or Epipremnum aureum. My name for this individual was inspired by the clear intent to escape enslavement by me. Aw, it wants its freedom! So cute!

It might succeed. I've had it/him/her just a year, and she/he/it has grown 8 feet east, 4 feet south, 2 feet up and 3 feet down.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Lehrer Got It From Agnes

Video Find of the Day

This one is going out to Tim and Revel in honor of their adventures with bacteria. I had never heard it before.

Tom Lehrer (I Got It From Agnes)

Please, Keep the Runoff

I hope they never rein in the runoff in this city. If they did, no one would know why I picked this title.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Third Man Scherzo

Video Find of the Day

I saw this on Classic Arts Showcase tonight, and hoped it would be on YouTube. Frédéric Jenniges on zither. Schönbrunn Palace is in Vienna, which was the setting for the movie The Third Man, of which the music you hear here was the theme.

André Rieu at Schönbrunn - The Third Man

Pleasant Hearsay

I haven't been able to confirm it, but one of our vendors at Real Change told me yesterday that he was listening to a local call-in talk show on the radio when a discussion broke out about "some idiot" who had posted "in a blog" that the government should give homeless people free guns.

Now, in my column this week, I never said the government should give guns specifically to homeless people. I said POOR people who couldn't otherwise afford guns should get free firearms. I do not assume that all homeless people are poor. Some of them are surely rich people taking advantage of the system to shirk rent payments.

But upon questioning of this vendor there remained no doubt that the idiot's blog post in question was in fact my column of July 2. I can't tell you how proud that makes me.

One of the callers said that my comparison of firearms to lawyers was a comparison of apples to oranges, or tomatoes to broccoli, or something of that nature.

Which misses the point, which was that the Supreme Court's decision already in effect declared apples to be oranges, and tomatoes to be broccoli, by establishing that individuals have as much right to firearms as legal counsel in a trial. I didn't write their decision; Scalia wrote it. I was just carrying it to the next logical step.

I live for the moments when I'm called an idiot by the satire-blind.

Anitra's Baby

A view of Union Hotel Garden, worked mostly by Anitra, from above:

Here's another shot of it from the side. Click on it for a bigger version. Kale, sugar pod peas, nasturtiums. We've been eating the nasturtiums, they're yummy. The garden is 70 square feet, roughly in the form of a right triangle, about 10 feet and 14 on its sides.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Canes?

Video Find of the Day

I'm going to make a wild guess here that these are Egyptians. Whoever they are, I'm wondering where the "women with canes" fetish comes from. Notice it's only the women wielding sticks, never the men. Wishful thinking on whose part?

arapça klip 10(şaşkın)

Friday, July 4, 2008

Acapella Rhapsody

Video Find of the Day

YouTube thought I'd like this one and recommended it to me. They/it were/was right. I even like it better than the Queen video provided below it for comparison purposes. Modulo a couple of glitches in the soundtrack.

UC Men's Octet - Bohemian Rhapsody



Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Alley of the Week

I don't know how long I'll keep at it, but for now until I stop, I'm going to post an Alley of the Week.

There are a lot of great Seattle alleys. The one behind my building is exceptional. It's raised, it's gated, and the art galleries (Kucera and Foster/White) put sculptures out on it. From S Main to S Washington, between 3rd Ave S and 4th Ave S. The back of the Union Hotel faces it at its north end. You can see the Tashiro Kaplan Artist's Building beyond.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Happy B-Day, Quebec City!

Video Find of the Day

Here's a little something in honor of the Four Hundredth Birthday (today!) of Quebec City. OK, maybe it's more about the province than the city, but do you think this is easy? OK, it's easy, but, why do you think I do it? Because it's easy. OK?

Mes Aïeux - Dégénération (English Subtitles)

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Epirotika Motherload

Video Find(s) of the Day

Music from northwestern Greece makes the hairs on my neck stand up. There are more where these came from, at channel nestor1o. These all look like low quality kinescopes from the same Greek TV show, maybe even the same episode. The sound isn't bad though.

EPIRUS MUSIC-MOIROLOI PARAKALAMOS-KLARINO XRISTOS HALIGIANNI



EPIRUS MUSIC- PARAKALAMOS-KLARINO XRISTOS HALIGIANNIS



This last one has magnificent faces. Especially the singer.

EPIRUS MUSIC- PIGAINA TO DROMO DROMO

The Smith Tower & Hitler

Two blocks from where I live is the Smith Tower. Named after the typewriter Smith, whose family was also into gun manufacturing, it was built in 1914. In fact, its 94th birthday is tomorrow. At the time it was completed it was the 6th tallest building in the world, and the tallest west of the Mississippi. I just want to call attention to a detail of its ornamentation. First let's see it as it appears from the park next to the King County Courthouse. The upper edge of the south side of the Morrison is at lower right.

Next, let's get closer to the top of the lower section of the building. See the frieze just below the top?

Oh my God! Interlocking swastikas! Seattle's beloved iconic landmark has a Nazi design!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Bulgarian Gypsy

Video Find of the Day

Another category it's hard to find good videos in is the Bulgarian gypsy category, AKA Kocek, AKA Bulgarian belly dancing music. I think most of the problem is the video producers put so much effort into showing off the dancers that the music suffers from neglect. This one has a good balance.

Bulgarian gypsy - Sevgilim Apaz taifa - Mis Dibi

It's Too Hot III

It was too hot again yesterday so I took another walk, trying to find shade and a breeze. This time I walked around the International District.

The ID is another reason I like living at the Union. We're right up next to it -- its northwest corner is literally just beyond our back yard.

Most people think of 4th and Jackson as the main entrance to the present day ID. It's also the site of the old Union Railroad Station, which is surely not an accident. (Consider who built the railroad.) The first picture is a view from the station's entranceway, off Jackson, into the lobby. I walked through the lobby out the other side toward 5th and King St., because it's air-conditioned. In fact, if the weather gets any hotter I'm going to spend my days in Union Station.

5th & King is the site of the recently installed Chinese Gate. It brings back memories of Taiwan for me. I remember seeing a similar gate that was built to frame the rising sun on the eastern coast of Taiwan. I've seen it in my dreams since, and now there's this one four blocks from home.

The view from nearly underneath:

Two blocks further east, at Maynard Street, is Hing Hay Park.

One of several Asian markets in neighborhood.

After doing some shopping I ended up back in the Pioneer Square District on 2nd Avenue Extension across from the Union Gospel Mission (no connection with the Union Hotel.) In this shot, the Mission is the brick building at the right. To the left on the other side of Washington Street is a gray building with pink trim and clay tile roofing over some windows. Somewhere I read that it is the last remaining building of the original 1800s Chinatown. At any rate, it sits on the block just west of home.