New Hardscaping at a Beacon Hill House

My mother-in-law asked for a photo of my brother-in-law's lovely new retaining wall and landscaping. Since it's on Beacon Hill, it's topical enough to post here.

Another Beacon Hill Man in the News

From today's P-I:

A Beacon Hill man who admitted filming eight women in the Cinerama movie theater restroom won't serve any time in jail, a King County Superior Court judge ruled Friday.

As part of a plea agreement, Philip Michael Thomas was sentenced to 30 days of community service and required to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to one count of voyeurism, a felony. Thomas, 21, is also required to undergo a sexual deviancy screening and may have to undergo therapy.

Thomas was arrested Aug. 11 after a patron discovered a video camera planted in a women's restroom at the downtown Seattle theater. While reviewing the recording, officers discovered that Thomas had inadvertently videotaped himself while setting up the camera.

According to court documents, police found recordings of eight women, as well as images of another woman at her home.

After his arrest, Thomas told police he set up the camera in a single-stall women's room because "he knew that he wasn't going to film any kids," according to police statements.

At sentencing, Thomas apologized for his crime.

"This was a very dumb mistake," Thomas told Judge Chris Washington. "I'm deeply sorry for what I did."

Three Hours of Vintage MTV

Boing Boing reports that a dude in Belgium has posted three hours of MTV from 1983.

If you were to sit at your computer and watch all three hours, here's what you would find.

Night Ranger - Don't Tell Me You Love Me
Huey Lewis - Heart and Soul
The Tubes - Monkey Time
Prince - Little Red Corvette
George Thorogood - Bad to the Bone
Police - Synchronicity II
Sammy Hagar - Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy
Steve Miller Band - Jet Airliner
Kansas - Fight Fore with Fire
Michael Bolton - Fool's Game
Quiet Riot - Cum on Feel the Noize

"October 29th in Alabama is Lionel Richie Day, as proclaimed by Gov. George Wallace"

Bow Wow Wow - Do You Wanna Hold Me?
The Who - You Better You Bet
The Motels - Suddenly Last Summer
Madness - Our House
Nick Heyward - Whistle Down the Wind
ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man
Garland Jeffreys - 96 Tears
Stevie Nicks - If ANyone Falls
Elton John - I'm Still Standing
Thompson Twins - Lies
Billy Idol - Dancing with Myself
Men at Work - It's a Mistake
Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson - Say Say Say

"because coffee lets you calm yourself down... join the coffee achievers"

Quarterflash - Take Another Picture
David Bowie - Modern Love
Billy Quier - Lonely Is the Night
INXS - The One Thing
The Romantics - Talking in Your Sleep
Jefferson Starship - Be My Lady
Robert Plant - Burning Down One Side
Talking Heads - Burning Down the House
Split Enz - One Step Ahead
The Fixx - Red Skies
The Pretenders - Back on the Chain Gang
Joe Walsh - I Can Play That Rock & Roll

A Cold Saturday in Georgetown

Your options are limited at 11 a.m. on a Saturday in Georgetown if you're hungry and not in the mood for breakfast or vegan food.

I wasn't sure if the Hangar Cafe would be serving lunch yet. And we were so hungry that we weren't sure if we could wait for any crepe people ahead of us to get served anyway.

Smarty Pants does its brunch menu until 3 p.m. Stellar's not open until 3. Georgetown Liquor Company's not open until 2.

I kind of wanted sushi and would have tried Daimonji, but they're not open until dinner on Saturdays.

However, Calamity Jane's and Jules Maes serve lunch at 11 on Saturdays. Since we went to Calamity Jane's on Monday, we went to Jules Maes today. The BLT and tomato basil soup were perfect.

It looked like Georgetown Tile Works was open, what with the beckoning clown out front and all, so we decided to go check that out.



First we passed a couple of closed storefronts.



Full Throttle Bottles should be opening soon.



We hung out quite a while in the tile and gift shop, wasting the owners' time chatting about leatherwork, Chris Crites, Chemical Wedding, tiles, belt buckles, outsider art, the east side of Beacon Hill, remodeling, and their new view from the shop. They can see the I-5 signs for Vancouver, Tacoma, and Portland now.



I love the tile they're making. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before.



I think I like this even better.



And these metallic glazes remind me of Tau Ceramica's lovely Corten tile that we currently have in our bathroom. (I say "currently" because we already have some remodel plans drawn up, though we're not sure when they'll actually happen.)



We finally left the GTW folks alone so they could get some work done. I was too lazy and cold to cross the street like these other folks and get a closer look of the demolition.

Photos of the Stock House Demolition

Tonight at Calamity Jane's Pabst was sponsoring an art show and swag giveaway. I was just there for the all-you-can-eat spaghetti.





We ran into a friend, and a neighbor, and my brother-in-law and his fiancee.

After dinner and some free beer we checked out the demolition down the street.







Sabey's Jim Harmon, who seemed unfazed by the cold, pointed out the roof damage from a 1988 fire.



He said things are about on schedule and that the crew will be taking a day off tomorrow, though he'll still be there. I would have asked him some more questions, but I was fucking freezing out there.

Inside the warm confines of Jules Maes, I saw some dudes adding flowers to the fence.





Things will never be the same around here.

Misc. South End News

Decrepit building on its way out: The Paper Noose reports that the DPD has asked the owners of this old Georgetown building to fix it up pronto. Somehow I'm guessing it's going to end up getting torn down and rebuilt.



Call for submissions: The Paper Noose (whom I really should start calling by his new SEO-friendlier name, Blogging Georgetown) also reports that Georgetown's third annual Super 8 Film Festival is coming up. Your three-minute-long entry's due Feb. 6.

Sad news: After 60 years in business, Andy's Diner has closed.

Portland to Seattle

After playing with an 8-week-old black lab puppy in Portland (and seeing my neighbor CJ on Alberta -- hi, CJ!), we headed back to Seattle.



We stayed on back roads until north of Olympia.





Winlock, Washington, claims to be home to the world's largest egg.







Southwest Washington is definitely home to a bunch of anti-government blowhards.









A couple months ago, floods in this area shut down I-5 for days. Some areas still look pretty wet.



When we get home, I am delighted to see that our mean neighbor appears to be moving! I like to think that he's decided to move out of hatred for us. I'll kind of miss glaring at him from our yard, but I think I'll get over it.