Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Sunny Afternoon in Columbia City

An Anchor porter at Lottie's Lounge.

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Love the old license plate holders.

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Ten years ago I hitched to work every day. I paid cash.

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Smoked tukeys.

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Gather has a beautiful neon art installation of found letters from signs. It's shocking how many brands you can recognize just from the font and color. Like the "a" from Radio Shack.

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The "x" isn't really an "x." It's that Cingular character thing.

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This target will one day grace the roof of artist Jeremy Bert's Boulevard Park home. If you don't see it at Gather, you should be able to see it from a nighttime flight in or out of SeaTac.

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(I just now realized that I've admired Jeremy's work at McLeod Residence before.)

Then a trip to the last Columbia City Farmer's Market of the season.

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This is what I bought.

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I doubt there will be a day this nice again for the rest of the year.

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Friday, October 17, 2008

Free Seattle: Volunteer Park Conservatory

My pal Chuck in San Francisco recently blogged about a free thing I should do with my free time here in Seattle: visit the Volunteer Park Conservatory. So I did.

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It was nice and warm in there. I should go back in December.

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Then walked around Volunteer Park on this beautiful fall day.

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Saturday, October 11, 2008

More Cheap South End Fun: Western Bridge

Friday I finally checked out Western Bridge, a free art "venue" in Sodo.

I love their stealth front door -- clever!

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The main exhibit right now is this huge white-on-white painting that stretches across the walls and onto the floor. It looks like shadows of trees coming in through big, high horizontal windows. Which confused me a little at first since the building does have big, high horizontal windows. Except it's on 4th Ave. South, so there are no trees around. (Also, a shadow would bend at the corner.) It's like a trompe l'oeil for the stupid and/or unobservant.

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Another exhibit featured very dark photos of the banks of the Amazon. I didn't love the art, but I did love the building itself and decided that I wanted to live there.

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This feeling got much stronger when I wandered into the living area upstairs.

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The other two patrons were hesitant to enter this section, as it didn't seem like people were supposed to come in. But I told them they had to because it was the best part.

The tub is sunken into the cement.

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This place belongs on the hipster street of dreams.

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And it's just two blocks from Costco!

Western Bridge is open noon to six, Thursday - Saturday. It's located at 3412 Fourth Avenue South. 206-838-7444. Admission is free.

Cheap South End Fun: Museum of Communications

I'm in the middle of a five-month, mostly unpaid maternity leave, so I've been searching for cheap (or better yet, free) things to do nearby with the baby. Tuesday I went to the Museum of Communications in Georgetown.

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Every Tuesday until 2 p.m., volunteers give free tours of this old telephone station.

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I'd tell you what I learned, but most of it went over my head. But still I had fun looking at all the displays of cool old stuff.

Cordless phone circa 1964.

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Remember this voice?



The Museum of Communications is located in Georgetown at 7000 East Marginal Way South (at Corson), telephone 206-767-3012. Museum hours are Tuesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and by appointment. The museum is handicap accessible. There is no charge for admission, but donations are gratefully accepted.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Coyotes Kill Pets on Beacon Hill

A neighbor who lives near Beacon and Columbian says she saw a coyote kill a tortoise shell cat in her front yard in broad daylight. She sent this photo of her cat keeping an eye on the animal.

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Anyway, she asked me to remind everyone to keep your cats indoors to keep them safe from the coyotes that roam our neighborhood. Her mail:

Yesterday a coyote came to my garden and roamed for about 2 hours (from 8 to 10 am), after killing a cat in my front lawn (had to call animal control to pick up the poor victim!). The cat was a tortoise shell cat, no collar, no microchip; never seen it before.

Animal control has not jurisdiction over wild animals, but they said that as long as the animal is not injured and representing a treat to the public, fish and wildlife just leave them alone. I took a picture of my cat looking at the coyote, picture is attached.

I wanted to post this message at the listserv, but the message gets rejected. Could you please post this for me, if it is not too much to ask?! I just want people to know so they do not leave their cats go outside and become a victim of the coyote. BTW, the coyote was gorgeous and skittish. Thanks!