Sunday, September 16, 2007

Bridge Motel

Last night pretty much everyone in Seattle crowded into my friend Eve's brother's motel for an art party celebrating the motel's last days of existence. We picked up our friend Will on the way. He shut the door in our faces, which seemed weird; I later found out he thought we were dressed up, so when he saw us he wanted to change his clothes really fast. So I waited outside and took pictures of his yard (where The Stranger's "public intern" did some weeding for him month ago).

IMG_0069

IMG_0070

IMG_0071

IMG_0074

IMG_0075

OK, these townhouses are right by the Bridge Motel, which is being demolished to make room for a row of similar three-story townhouses.

IMG_0082

IMG_0188

Here's the motel, where my husband's parents stayed on their first night in Seattle in the '60s.

IMG_0090

Later on we saw some friends of ours, and they said they also stayed here years ago. They said the clerk asked them to confirm that they were a married couple. But that's no longer one of the rules here.

IMG_0094

IMG_0086

I ate some of the art.

IMG_0088

IMG_0096

IMG_0097

IMG_0106

IMG_0109

I like this carpet, though I'd like it a lot more after a steam cleaning.

IMG_0114

Despite having examined the state of the carpet at the motel, I did crawl around this black-light exhibit.

IMG_0146

IMG_0141

IMG_0142

IMG_0119

IMG_0121

IMG_0128

IMG_0126

IMG_0125

IMG_0130

IMG_0133

IMG_0137

IMG_0145

IMG_0151

IMG_0152

IMG_0154

IMG_0157

IMG_0159

Speaking of Eastern Europe, I saw a guy who lived on the same train line as me in Czech Republic in the '90s. My stop was Cernosice Mokropsy, and his was farther down, in lovely Zadni Treban.

IMG_0160

IMG_0161

IMG_0194

Behind the bar, these two played Rock Paper Scissors endlessly, and each time the loser had to dance and swig bourbon. They looked like they were getting sick.

IMG_0165

IMG_0180

I took 16 seconds of shaky video of it.



IMG_0203

IMG_0206

IMG_0207

IMG_0219

IMG_0224

IMG_0244

IMG_0245

IMG_0247

IMG_0249

It started getting crowded, and we left.

IMG_0257

IMG_0253

IMG_0258

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love these photos, especially the last one :)

My husband and a friend went to the Bridge Motel last night, but they went late and he said that it was way too crowded to enjoy. (We couldn't get a sitter so I was stuck at home with the kiddos.) *sigh* And he didn't take pictures. I'm glad that you did, though :)

isabelita said...

This looks as if it was a huge happening. When I was an art student back in the late sixties, early seventies, "happenings" were jsut getting vogue-ish. They were the forerunners of performance art.
Interesting that the demise of the Bridge Motel spawned it... thanks for the photos.

lisa said...

Nothing even remotely as cool as that ever happens around here...thanks for sharing!

chuck b. said...

Crazy hipsters. God love 'em.

They had a motel demolition party here several years ago at a place across town. Different bands played in each room. I didn't go for some reason.