Seattle Daily Photo: May 2009

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Fran's Chocolates

The oldest of an ever burgeoning group of Seattle businesses dedicated to chocolate, 25 year old Fran's Chocolates has opened a new shop downtown in addition to its University Village location. Inspired by a trip to Paris, Fran learned her art, started her business, and now has the distinction of making the President and First Lady's favorite sweets: Fran's Smoked Sea Salt Caramel in Milk Chocolate for him and the same in Dark Chocolate for her. In coming weeks I'll be taking you to some of the shops dedicated to the OTHER popular Seattle bean and where you can gain an education as well as indulge your sweet tooth or drink some amazing sipping chocolate. Among them will be Theo's in Fremont, Chocolopolis on Queen Anne, The Chocolate Box near Pike Place Market, Oh! Chocolate in Madison Valley, Cocoa Chai in Ballard, Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle, Cocoa & Cream in Magnolia, and Chocolati in Wallingford (I've featured shots from their Greenlake and Greenwood locations before).

Meanwhile, if you are in Seattle, are over age 10, have $69 and can book an 8:30 AM start time on Thursdays, Fridays, or Saturdays, you might enjoy the 3 hour Tour de Chocolat that many of my friends have recommended to me. It begins and ends at the Chocolate Box, and goes by bus to three other locations to learn about chocolate, tour a factory, and taste from the amazing array of wonderful chocolatiers in Seattle. I remember touring Scharfenberger's factory when it opened in Berkeley a number of years ago. It was the first I'd ever seen percentages of cacao listed on products (make mine 78% dark :-)). Now, everyone lists similar information on their specialty bars, even Hershey's!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

These three young women were savoring chocolate covered strawberries as they walked along Mercer Street in the warm sunshine that is revisiting us this weekend and all through next week. Is it my imagination, or are the berries sweeter this year? The strawberries and raspberries we've bought recently have been phenomenally flavorful

Friday, May 29, 2009

Skywatch: Geese Heading North

For days I've been hearing the honking of geese on the wing. I was heading to a friends' house when I had to wait on the Ballard bridge for few minutes while it let a boat through. I shot this from my car window as this foursome chattered by. You can take a look at the skies all over the world today via [swf3.jpg] Friday.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Ambulance

This ambulance came shrieking down Roy Street past Counterbalance Park's blue display, all siren and lights, commanding attention for itself.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Sunset Color Abstract

I liked the geometric and color abstract these metalic shingles on the EMP created at twilight. This west-facing surface of the building is known as Purple Haze, after the Jimi Hendrix song. You may recall my early theme day self portrait at sunrise in front of this wall and this twisted nighttime reflection of the Needle.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The 60s Live On

The round light globe, the influence of Bauhaus or International Style on the stairwell sheathed in glass, the interior and exterior transparency. . .they all scream 60s to me. This Mid-Century Modern apartment building stands out at dusk in the heart of a neighborhood of well kept Queen Anne, Edwardian, and Craftsmen style homes on Queen Anne Hill.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Our Better Selves

Today is a national holiday in the USA. Remembering all who have fallen in service of the United States and her allies around the world this Memorial Day. May we as a people become more worthy of their sacrifices as we work together to become our better selves. The light of some of our enduring principles seems to be shining again, and I hope for a new day soon when profit and influence are eschewed and defense against aggression becomes our sole motive for sending the men and women of our armed services into combat.

This flag is across from Seattle Center, and I shot it late at night backlit by a large light.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

From Eugene

These guys were great, and I think I may have dated the mando player in another life. The Northwest Folklife Festival is in full swing at Seattle Center through Labor Day. . . oh wait, you're right! Through Memorial Day! It only seems like it will be through Labor Day because this city really is one big rolling festival after another until the end of summer. It does seem like much of the city's population is there enjoying the fab weather, food, exhibits and plentiful music.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Sunny Day Kinda Guy

A happy face illuminated by a window reflection at Pike Place and 1st Ave. We are having a wonderfully sunny Saturday, and everyone is out and about!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Skywatch: Uh, They Went That Way ->

"Wow officer, I was just standing here and they came speeding by and took that corner so fast, it made my head spin!" ;^) This is one in my series of shots I call "Playing With the Space Needle." Sometimes an icon just needs to lighten up.

The sun is out here in Seattle and we are looking at our best Memorial Day weekend forecast in recent memory, now take a look at the skies from all around the globe by clicking here. Join us for Friday!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Weights Waiting

I came around a corner of a small building at the Locks and was attempting to get a shot of what I assume is a ladder leaning against the wall when this guy came out of the doorway holding a weight, sat down and started doing curls. There was little boat traffic, so I assume he was caught up with his work and likes to keep busy. His shadow became more interesting to me than those of the ladder.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Height of Small Footprint Urban Living

We purposefully live in a very small house, purchased from best friends who have for a couple decades subscribed to small footprint, simple living. When they sold us their house, they moved to even smaller digs. They sold us their car, too, and did not replace it, but ride their collapsible (Brompton) bikes everywhere. I remembered seeing a photo they took of this prototype modular multifamily dwelling they toured, in which they'd posed their collapsed bikes in front of the colorful doors. I thought the dwelling was an exhibit that had long ago been removed. But, no. I spotted it in a place that had not occurred to me to look. . .UP! This two apartment model called "Inhabit" is perched on a downtown rooftop! You can read more about it here, and see the plans (now on hold due to the economic downturn) to build a multistory complex in South Lake Union from recycled cargo containers that are prefabricated into contemporary stackable digs that can be shipped anywhere. This is NOT your granny's modular resort home! Thrift meets urban density design meets recycling.

I remember when we lived in San Francisco seeing something similar done with old horse drawn trolleys and cable cars that had been discarded in the dunes at the end of the line in Ocean Beach when the line converted to newer trolleys. People had started living in the discarded cars and the area was called "Carville." Then some people stacked them and incorporated them into larger houses built in the last few blocks of the Outer Sunset. Looking out a friend's back window there on 48th Avenue, I could still see the windshield and the headlamp of the cable car that nosed out the back of the house behind theirs. So, it doesn't surprise me at all in a newly thrift-conscious era that cities all along the west coast are seeing sales in shipping containers for shed and home building use becoming trés popular. What do you think? Could you let go of enough "stuff" to live in something so small? I don't think I could for very long.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Profile

This enormous terra cotta cartouche design featuring a stylized American Indian in headdress (which Seattle's History Link reports may have been inspired by the portraiture of photographer Edward S. Curtis) adorns the upper stories of the historic Cobb Building in downtown Seattle. I wondered why a headdress usually indicative of tribes much further east than Washington state would have been featured. Then I saw an early 1900s Curtis photo of a young Salish boy in a feather headdress, so, perhaps not as off base for this location as I thought; but, given stereotypes of natives common for the period, who knows what was in the artist's mind. You can see more photos of the eleven story Cobb Building at my More Seattle Stuff page and read about its interesting history in a great short article at History Link here. Many Seattlites adore this building that gracefully curves around a corner, one of the most impressive of all Seattle's terra cotta ornamented buildings. It began life as a dedicated medical office building and three years ago became a very convenient address for 92 luxury apartment dwellers. This poor fellow is going to develop allergies and start sneezing if they don't dust him off soon! He is at ground level just inside the building's entrance portico, and so doesn't receive the cleansing showers that keep all the others above him clean.

Monday, May 18, 2009

I Heart Chess

Inside Caffe Fiore on Sunset Hill the morning sun illuminates a wooden inlay chessboard table. This is one of the ways I like to "come to" in the morning. I thought it might be a good way for us all to start the work week.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Syttende Mai!

No, you were not mistakenly redirected to Oslo Daily Photo. This is Seattle's Ballard neighborhood celebrating Norwegian Constitution Day. As happens every year, Ballardites will put on a grand parade this afternoon celebrating Syttende Mai (17th of May) and the community's Nordic heritage in general. Many residents of the Pacific Northwest have deep family roots in Norway as well as Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. The mills, ship building, and fishing industries of Ballard drew a concentration of Nordic immigrants to Salmon Bay in the 1800s and it is not uncommon to hear snatches of conversation amongst the elders that make you think you might be in Oslo, Helsinki, Copenhagen, or Stockholm instead of Seattle. I bet our CDPB friends in the Twin Cities, MN area might be enjoying similar parades today. These are some of my shots from last year.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Life on the Corner

The corner of 4th Avenue and University in downtown Seattle was humming with conversations, private thoughts, people crossing the street and traffic waiting for the light, all captured in an instant by the shutter. The building in the background to the left is the Seattle Tower, and behind it is a glimmer of the windows of the WaMu Tower. The building that houses the Capitol restaurant is the Cobb building, which I will show you more of soon.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Skywatch: Is It Any Wonder

. . .that so many Seattlites love to fly given the beautiful, interesting skies we have to wander? :-) It's my first time to participate in Skywatch Friday (hello!), although I'm always taking photos of the sky and of aircraft. I never thought of it much when I was in college here, but now I'm keenly alert to all the air traffic and I love to watch it all. I have some Flickr friends who are pilots and plane enthusiasts, so when I get a shot of something unusual, they help me identify the craft. I keep adding to my series called "Seattle Skies." Probably the most interesting one I've shown you was this, an Alaska Airlines jet, one of two with a very "Dis"tinctive livery, that I happened to catch a shot of from Olympic Sculpture Park. That building on the left is Rainier Tower, and the one on the right is the Olympic Hotel.

You can join [swf3.jpg] here.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Water Flow Faux

I took this with my iPhone outside of Blue C Sushi in University Village. Clever landscaping created a blue rock or glass illusion of flowing water through bedding plants. Creativity really is everywhere you look! The restaurant serves sushi plates on a circling conveyor that surrounds the chefs, imitating the floating boat sushi restaurants of yesteryear with a contemporary Kaiten twist. It's like a sushi automat without the glass doors ;^).

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

"Water Ring" Hatchcover

In Jersey some unfortunates may sleep with the fishes, while here in Seattle we apparently swim with them :-). More "art underfoot" as we continue to look downward. I spotted this sewer hatchcover on a Pioneer Square neighborhood sidewalk. Seattle has some wonderful "art underfoot" in its commissioned utility hatchcovers. This one features a whale, dolphins, salmon, and swimmers all carried along on a circular wave (yes I know three out of four are mamals while only the salmon are fish). I've shown you several other interesting hatchcover designs in the past, and this is among my top three faves. Seattle Public Utilities has this to say about the design: "Artist Betsy Best-Spadaro’s cast iron hatchcovers for drainage and wastewater are located around downtown and outlying neighborhoods and portray several themes: the interaction between human and marine life, and the water cycle. The first is shown through images of marine animals correlated to bodies of water in the region, including orcas (the Puget Sound) and salmon (streams and rivers); within this design humans swimming with the marine life illustrate the need for good water quality, a responsibility of Seattle Public Utilities’ drainage and wastewater infrastructure. Surrounding these images are a series of rings that describe the water cycle, from rain to bodies of water culminating in a center ring that depicts clean water returning to the waterways through sewers and drainage systems."

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Cast of Cultures

As a follow up to yesterday's post, I thought we'd keep looking down for what I like to call "art underfoot." Embedded in the sidewalk along the southeastern corner of the Ferdinand and Rainier Ave S intersection is a public art project of small bronze castings called the Cast of Cultures. You see here just a few of the varied and interesting cultural representations of the citizenry and heritage of the Columbia City neighborhood in the south eastern portion of Seattle. You can view them all from the comfortable sidewalk seating of Lottie's Lounge in the historic Columbia Hotel building.

Monday, May 11, 2009

First We Eat

Culinary delights abound in the city by the Sound :-). This M.F.K. Fisher quote is embedded as "art underfoot" in a whimsical bronze floor plaque in the Fremont neighborhood's PCC Natural Market, where all the foods are organic, local and sustainably grown. The Puget Consumer Cooperative, incorporated in 1961, began in 1953 with 15 families in Renton and Seattle who formed local food buying clubs. " Today, it's the largest consumer-owned natural food co-operative in the United States. PCC has nine stores in the Puget Sound region and is owned by nearly 40,000 members who shop (along with thousands of non-members) in our neighborhood locations. . ." This Fremont store was remodeled six years ago, and it is definately NOT your boho mama's 70s style coop ;^).

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mother's Day Brunch In Ravenna

After our Mother-Daughter 5k Fun Run at Magnuson Park, sponsored by the the University of Washington's Women's Sports Medicine and Lifetime Fitness division, we enjoyed breakfast at the Crepe Cafe & Wine Bar in the Ravenna neighborhood. We were seated inside, but as you can see, it was a fine morning for those dining outdoors. Hope all those celebrating had a lovely time remembering their moms and spending time with little ones and loved ones.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Time for a Sunhat

Pike Place Market vendors share smiles on a late sunny afternoon. After a big storm we are enjoying sunny skies with lovely clouds, clear vistas, and light until about 9:00 last night. Woo hoo! Donning SPF lotion and sunhat for a day in the garden today and a Mother's Day 5K tomorrow at Magnuson Park.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Partial House?

I did a double take in the Madrona neighborhood when I walked past this seemingly partial house. Well, I guess it's okay, since this is about what anyone can afford anyway, right? :-) Design-wise, I thought the dummy windows were an ingenious element. Being butted up against the other structure, the roof peak and windows sliced off gave the illusion that I was looking at a house behind a house, obscured from full view by it, but, not so. I have a feeling this is studio space, but have no idea.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

The Bittersweets at the Tractor

The Bittersweets headlined the Tractor Tavern in Ballard last night. They are touring the west coast (Portland tonight) in support of their latest CD, Goodnight San Francisco, on Compass records. The one time duo of performing songwriters Chris Meyers and Hannah Prater began playing venues in the SF Bay Area in 2004. Their live shows were always well received and they got a lot of radio airplay. They were joined by Steve Bowman (of Counting Crows) and two other performers in a full band for a time and recorded their first full CD, The Life You Always Wanted. The band moved to Nashville two years ago and continued touring as a trio through the recording of this latest CD. Steve needed to depart from the band last fall, and the Bittersweets are again the original core duo. They were wonderfully accompanied on lap steel and harmonica last night by fellow Nashville musician Jason Goforth. Opening for The Bittersweets were two bands I very much enjoyed, local Americana folk group Moe Provencher (great original songs), and new arrival on the Seattle scene, The Ledgendary Oaks (lots of great roots sound and high energy). It just so happened that when I snapped a shot of Oaks lead singer Craig Schoen that he was standing next to a poster of another performing songwriter, Anna Coogan, who happened to be in the audience last night and who joined a few of us for drinks at The Sloop after the show. These things will happen, but I was surprised when I put together these photos to show you that a poster of her would be next to a photo of her :-). The bird in front of Anna is Maverick, a plastic dove that likes its photo taken wherever it travels, sort of like Flat Fred. He belongs to Jason Goforth, who is wishing you "cheers" in the last shot. The Tractor is a local treasure of a venue, featuring great performers in roots, alt, indie, rock, jazz, bluegrass, and country music. I learned that Anna will open for Fred Eaglesmith there on May 21.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Seattle Op Artist

This is a portion of a ginormous op art work I saw at SEATAC airport. It is by artist and art historian Francis Celentano, a University of Washington professor emeritus, and a very active artist, now 80. His work, along with other artists' who explored the op art genre of abstraction, has been influential in the work of several quilt and textile artists I admire. I've even noticed some fabric manufacturers creating fabric colorways that mimic the airbrushed gradations of color Celentano uses for his stripes to achieve optical effects like this. He works like a quilt artist, assembling a new whole out of precisely cut and reassembled pieces. This work is acrylic on masonite strips, and this is just a straight ahead detail of the very long and tall work, Spectrum Delta II, which I believe dates from the mid 70s. Lately he has produced amazing curving striped abstracts that were exhibited at the Laura Russo Gallery in Portland last summer. I dare you to try and follow one stripe with your eye from top to bottom or bottom to top. :-)

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Viaduct Past Safeco Field

I was on the way to the airport when I took this. I played with a crystal effect in Picnic and liked the hint of granular pointillism it offered to a mundane scene. It has been a really busy five days or so. I hope to catch up with myself soon. Hope your work week is going okay, and maybe, just maybe some of you are enjoying Cinco de Mayo festivities. Our very best wishes continue to go out to Mexico City which has been basically shut down for a time. By the way, Mexico City has been very artistically represented for many years by Carraol, whom I consider to be one of the most creative and technically great photographers among all the CDPB global community of photo friends. He sometimes uses sophisticated post processing in his work and if you haven't ever visited his site, give yourself a treat and head over for five or ten minutes and let him show you the many beautiful facets of the world's most populous city. :-).

Monday, May 04, 2009

Crab for Free

I'm sure there will be a run on the Market if I don't explain that, yes, the sign actually DOES say "Crab for Free"; however, appearances can be deceiving and that is not all that the sign says. The complete text reads, " We Will Clean Your Crab for Free."

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Hexagon Tile Washrooms

If you followed yesterday's neon sign down the staircase, you would have found the charming hexagon tile mosaics telling you the ladies and gents washrooms are just through that entryway. Beyond is a tile floor with a border detail, a large XX just outside the door marked women only. That's odd, because XX signifies male and XY female. Hmmmm. Maybe we'd better go a little further down the passage way and see if Bibi's magician who turns $1 bills into $20s is still there, just a little further down the passageway. This may take some magic :-).

Saturday, May 02, 2009

What's Below?

One of the iconic neon Market signs points the way past the bustle of street level shoppers and vendors to the lower floor of Pike Place Market, but what exactly will you find if you wander down that way? I'll show you tomorrow :-).

Friday, May 01, 2009

Theme Day: Shadows

CDPBloggers' theme for May is shadows, so I'm showing you Fishnets at the Locks: Everyone gets an instant pair of fishnet stockings shadow-cast on them while crossing the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks at sunset. :-) Cutting through the locks is a popular route across the ship canal for cyclists between the Burke-Gilman trail and the bike route that leads to the Elliott Bay waterfront and downtown, but they must walk their bikes while on the premises or face a hefty fine. When you slow down to a walk it gives you a chance to notice the great blue heron that sits most evenings on a line spanning the ship canal, and you can see the silhouette of the evening BNSF train rumbling over the iconic Ballard railroad bridge. A slow mo portion to the commute, like slow food, can be really pleasant at the end of a long day at the end of a long week. Happy Friday everybody!

Enjoy seeing creative, beautiful and fun shadow shots from all around the world: Click here to view thumbnails for all participants. And be sure to leave us a comment, especially for Rudy at Antigua, Guatemala, who is celebrating his third anniversary of La Antigua Daily Photo.

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