Seattle Daily Photo: September 2010

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Sidewalk Fountain

This little miss was enjoying the water spurting up taller than she was. This walkway fountain has a hidden drain beneath the pavement and water seeps back into the sidewalk through the "cracks". Ingenious! And fun on a sunny day at the new Lake Union Park.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Boe Odyssey, Seattle's Scarf Dance Man

Colorful characters, we has them. Yesterday you saw the photo of my chance passing with the braided Oktoberfest celebrant. This is Seattle's dancing Scarf Man, a Seattle figure for at least 20 years. His business card says "The Boe Odyssey" and he offers all ages scarf dancing for any occasion. I understand his given name to be Calvin Creach, but everyone calls him Boe. He is an ubiquitous figure about town, but especially so on Capital Hill where he lives. I've seen passing cars suddenly screech to a halt and tourist passengers jump out and ask if they can dance with him, such is his fame. He hands them all scarves and they joyously go at it like Isodore Duncan and her minions by the side of the road. He is inevitably at large festivals and gatherings all over Seattle, and I caught this chance shot of him at the Lake Union Park opening festivities. He is very free spirited and uninhibited in his attire or unattire, usually wearing skirts and colorful tops and dancing with gobs of beautiful flowing scarves.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Ms. Oktoberfest Meets Filmakers

Last weekend was jam packed with Seattle weekend-long events. Lake Union Park's grand opening, the 23rd annual KEXP Shake the Shack Rockabilly Ball at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard, the Festa Italiana at Seattle Center, and Fremont hosted its annual Oktoberfest and Brew Ha Ha 5K fun run (yes, I know it IS still September. . .but, when you are the Center of the Universe as Fremont claims to be, you can do Oktoberfest your way :-).

I experienced a chance melding of two of these weekend events. I was out for a photowalk on Ballard Ave Friday night, on the lookout for any Shake the Shack Rockabilly Ball folks and their trés cool "hot rods" that might be about (like this shot from last year), when "Ms." Oktoberfest with the braids here, who had apparently wandered over from Fremont, walked past me and was stopped by the lovely lady you see and her husband who asked to take a photo with the colorful character. While the husband got a shot of them I snapped away, too. We chatted and I learned the photographer (just out of sight to my left) and his photogenic wife were filmmaker John Jeffcoat and producer Deryn Williams. They told me his film, "Outsourced" had been developed into a television comedy show and had just aired, and that his newest film project, "Big in Japan," was taking him to Tokyo with local band Tennis Pro to document their chance to leave their day jobs and make it big as rock stars by building an amazing Japanese fan base there. These kinds of serendipitous meetings will happen :-). Seattle is an amazing place with amazingly creative, talented, interesting and fun people!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Seattle's New Model Boat Pond

Move over Paris and New York. Make way for Seattle's huge Model Boat Pond where kids of all ages can sail a replica "Pirate" wooden model boat, hand made by middle school students and rigged to sail quick as lightning under wind power. When I first saw them zipping across Lake Union Park's new Model Boat Pond, I thought they were radio controlled. Not so, they were driven by the wind and the great rigging made by the enthusiasts who have guided this model boat project.

I talked to Paul, the man in red in the photo and a volunteer with The Center For Wooden Boats. He explained how these replicas were modeled after a real boat, the Pirate, found right here in Seattle and that the fleet of the dozens that they have was created by middle school youth. When I mentioned I'd only seen model boats being sailed like this in Paris, he said Seattle had now joined Paris and New York in having a dedicated model boat pond. But it isn't Seattle's first. There had been a huge world class one built at Golden Gardens in the 1930s in the area now occupied by the youth building, grass field, and parking lot. That pond had an amazing fleet of beautiful model boats, but someone broke into the place where the boats were kept, took all of them out on the beach and burned all but two of them. Paul many years later became the owner of one of those two remaining classic model boats. Unfortunately, it was damaged in shipping when he loaned it to a museum for display. He plans to restore it. The old model boat pond at Golden Gardens, he said, was filled in during the 1950s during the height of the US Polio epidemic due to fears it was a potential breading ground for the disease. The park department built base ball diamonds over the site, then abandoned those after a time due to the strong winds in the area. Now Seattle sailors as young as two can learn to help a model boat come about with a tennis ball at the end of a bamboo pole and watch the wind zip it back across the water. Completely charming and captivating. The volunteers keep the rigging ship shape and do a little bailing now and again by dipping a sponge into the hull and wringing it out. Do you see the cart full of boats at the lower right? I saw one very much like it in Paris. To see individual photos, check out my Flickr stream.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Sunday Bridges #16: Husky Marching Band Takes the Bridge

The crowds on Lake Union Park's opening day loved the Husky Marching Band's performances as they marched all over the new campus dressed in bright purple and playing Louie Louie and other faves (more shots of the band itself in my Flickr) stream. There were mascots, too, including a dancing strip of bacon (visible to the right). I've featured shots of this pedestrian bridge before. It links the west shore of Lake Union Park to the docks and main features of the park. Recently added to the bridge arch are plaques etched with photos and dated time line events chronicling the history of the area. And now for your listening pleasure. . .

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Opening Day @ Lake Union Park

There were big doings at the grand opening of Seattle's new Lake Union Park on the waterfront at the south end of Lake Union. I showed you an in-progress view here before. It was a perfect sunny day with temps in the 70s and people flocked over the arched pedestrian bridge and came via bike, boat and streetcar to enjoy boat rides, a farmers market, sailing model boats on the new circular pond, watching kayak building demonstrations at the Center for Wooden Boats, seeing a scale model of the Gates Foundation nearing completion at Seattle Center, touring historic ships, hearing the Husky marching band as it made its way through the whole campus, enjoying live performances of Seattle musicians, dancing with Bo the Scarf Man, watching Frye Bread being made, eating Molly Moon ice cream, hoppin' at an all ages dance under the big top and much more. I took this shot from Queen Anne Hill prior to going down for a close look at all the features.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Get In Here

This vintage sign cast an eerie glow and whimsical charm at the back of Antique Liquidators, a huge antique shop in the Cascade neighborhood. I love poking about in there and have made some great finds for our home. Reuse-recycle :-). The neon sign's bulb lights flash in a pattern leading the eye around the sign and creating a bit of a strobe effect.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Tree Lace

Sunset through the trees on the beach at Golden Gardens.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Reflected Needle

Autumn dawned bright and beautiful with blue sunny skies in Seattle, and we had our first bit of frost on the window pane this morning. I took a long walk with a friend in the afternoon warmth. On a day such as today, the Space Needle seems to be almost everywhere if one looks. This is my fave window to find the Needle checkin' out its handsome self at Seattle Center's Fun Forrest area.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Gafitti Lock in Post Alley

Several street artists seem to be commemorated on this small padlock in Post Alley. Names seen from this angle include Pon1, Laze, Savme, and BSA. I'm wondering if Pon 1 is a street artist with a day job working in bio-med ;-).

Monday, September 20, 2010

Shadows

You can see the guy in the pork pie hat from yesterday's shot in the extreme right of this one. This can give you some context for the first shot. I loved seeing this couple and their child's shadows preceding them as they walked along Pike Place with the familiar vintage neon Market signs and clock behind them.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Pork Pie Hat

A colorful street scene of people conversing on the sidewalk of Pike Place, complete with a silhouette of a gent wearing a 50's style pork pie hat a la Lester Young and Frank Llloyd Wright. Lately I'm seeing some guys around town even wearing 1860s style bowler or derby hats. And of course the Mraz 60's style Sinatra-meets-Ed-Norton kind of hats are still going strong.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Seeing Red

This was a bright corner on a dim day! The Little Red Bistro on Dexter Street is fairly new to the neighborhood and may have taken its color inspiration from the vintage red cast iron street clock by the Joseph Mayer & Brothers Co of Seattle, probably circa 1915-1930.

In 1897 German immigrants to Seattle, Markus, Albert, & Joseph Mayer, started a watchmaking and wholesale jewelry business in Seattle just as the Klondike Gold Rush hit. The brothers also hit the trade route north through Canada to Alaska and made their fortune. There is a photo in the Dawson City, Yukon archives of a belt made entirely of gold nuggets that brother Albert Mayer made for a woman customer. Among their lines were silver trade bracelets featuring Tlingit carving designs that they sold to Pacific NW native peoples and curios seekers. Joseph being an entrepreneur, the business expanded and formed divisions. He became an agent of a clockworks company in the east. Joseph had the cast iron street clock casings made by Pacific Car and Foundry & Co in Renton (now PACCAR), and later manufactured his own inner clockworks in Seattle. In 1922 Joseph Mayer & Bros Co became the manufacturing wing of the 3 brother's endeavors and it was this division that made and sold the 10 historic street clocks remaining in Seattle to their original owners, and in some in other western cities such as San Francisco, CA and Victoria, BC. Joseph Mayer & Bros Co. manufactured sterling flatware, hollow-ware, and souvenir spoons that are now highly collectible. I saw a panoramic photo from the UW library image collection of the employees of Joseph Meyer Bros company, and there were over 70 people in the shot. What an indication of Mayer Brothers' industry and success! By 1936, Joseph Mayer had moved his now named Northern Smelting and Refining Company from 81 Marion Street to 400 Dexter Avenue. This clock sits in front of that building, yet doesn't appear in a 1930 photo of the corner. We can assume Joseph may have installed it when he opened shop there. Or, perhaps it was erected as a memorial to him after his death. Sadly, Joseph Meyer took his life in the building in June of 1937. The business survived him and became the Northern Stamping and Manufacturing Company famous for their stamped mark of M&B between a pick and shovel (recalling the Yukon gold rush that got them started). They were purchased by E. & J. Towle in 1945, which later became West Earth through 1980. I don't know if the building was divided up into separate store fronts after that, but Little Red Bistro is at 400 Dexter Ave rather than Joseph Mayer & Brothers' old business address of 406, now just out of sight to the left. Sometimes photowalks reveal more than just a scene :-).

Want to know more about Seattle's fab public and historic clocks? Check out the fabulous Clock Walk.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Light Angles

A little photo collage fun with some iPhone shots at Counter Balance Park for you today. Even lo fi, low rez, quirky, grainy Hipstamatic iPhone shots can combine to make something interesting. These are night shots of an LED-lit bench at Counter Balance Park in the Uptown neighborhood.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

A Few Dwindling Moments

Hanging on to these last moments of a short summer seems to be in a lot of people's thoughts. I took this drive by shot and wished I were taking a lunch break to read in clear view of Mount Rainier, too.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Green Rim Fixie

Riding on the sidewalk is legal in Seattle (Traffic Code Section 11.44.120), and perhaps highly advisable on the side of the street one encounters streetcar tracks, like here. After these tracks first went in, several cyclists were badly injured when their bike tires slipped down into the track groove and caught there, sending the riders flying to the pavement. Here is one way the city devised to caution riders how to cross tracks at a safe angle. The Cascade Bicycle Club has wonderful classes to coach urban riders on how to manage a safer commute and ride defensively. I loved seeing this rider's green back rim and fixed gear bike.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Tall Order

A bit of a sun break reflected in the south windows of a UW Medicine research complex in the Cascade / South Lake Union neighborhood. The go ahead was just given in May for the expansion of the very attractive campus with three new buildings to be built over the next 10 to 12 years. Two will be seven stories high, and one eight stories. Those shown here are five stories. The new buildings will not be funded by state monies, but through federal grant agencies such as the NIH. The first of these buildings will be completed in 2012 and cost $166 million. Seattle, and especially this area of the city, wants to attract more biomedical research, seen as an area of rapid and fascinating medical, scientific, and economic development. I'm sure the local construction industry is also glad for the news.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Double Vision

I thought we might start off the week with an abstract. It isn't often one comes across two mirrors mounted at the entrance to an alley, and that's what drew me in. This is a recently redeveloped area in South Lake Union.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

A Sports Victory Weekend!

The Seattle Storm's flag was flying high on the Space Needle today as the team defeated the Atlanta Dream 79-77 this afternoon, in the first game of the WNBA finals. Game 2 is Tuesday. The Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31-6 in their opening game of the season, and the fans enjoyed the treat of the Seattle Flash Mob funsters taking the field at half time and dancing their hearts out. And this was Seattle's weekend for a triple triumph. The University of Washington Huskies defeated Syracuse 41-20. Seattle fans are doing the happy dance. I drove behind one car full of Storm fans wearing green tinsel wigs and face paint cruising over the Ballard bridge after the game, "Go Storm" painted across the back windshield. Gotta love Seattlites and their devotion to their teams. Not being an avid sports fan myself, I was photowalking in the Cascade neighborhood this afternoon. When I saw the trophy store with the Storm's flag on the Space Needle beyond I thought it would make a great shot to commemorate the weekend's victories.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Loss & Sorrow

Seattle native and University of Washington school of architecture graduate Minoru Yamasaki designed these arches and the surrounding buildings of the Pacific Science Center for the 1962 World's Fair. In 1966 construction began on his most famous design, the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, completed in 1971. In honor of the victims of violent hatred on September 11, 2001, the suffering and sorrow of their families, and the people of this nation and other countries swept up in the waves of the aftermath, we remember the horrific losses. We pause to honor their memories. May we find a way through this pain. May love prevail over hatred. Below is the moving tribute piece, Samuel Barber's "Addagio for Strings," Leonard Slatkin conducting the BBC Orchestra at Albert Hall in London four days after the attacks, the whole world in mourning.

Friday, September 10, 2010

27 on Tap

Floyd's Place Beer & BBQ on 1st Ave N has a cute revolving sign featuring a smiling and waving pig and cow. What more does someone who loves taking street shots need than a few patrons hanging out on the sidewalk. Although the dinner menu gets mixed reviews, with 13 screens and 27 beers on tap it is popular as a sports bar and happy hour destination now that fall football is back with us in the US.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright

Seattle Repertory Theater's productions of acclaimed American playwright, August Wilson's works garnered much praise during his residency. Wilson spent the last 15 years of his life here in Seattle, and passed away at age 60 from liver cancer at Swedish Hospital in 2005. The portion of Republican Street that dead-ends into the Seattle Center campus on the west has been renamed August Wilson Way, and this is the entrance to that path.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Racha Noodles & Thai Cusine Uptown Lunch

We have really enjoyed this Thai restaurant whenever we have visited. This was at lunchtime after a music run to Easy Street Records across Mercer street, and just a short walk from Seattle Center.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Best of Set 2008 - 2009

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

A little blast from the past for you! I put together a little Animoto collage of folks' favorite picks of my Seattle shots from 2008 and 2009. It's a rainy evening in Seattle, perfect for veiwing a little video :-).

Monday, September 06, 2010

Uptown Movement

I was sitting outside Uptown Espresso watching people come and go just two blocks from the Seattle Center campus where the 40th annual Bumbershoot music and arts festival took place over the Labor Day holiday weekend. I had planned to attend on Saturday, but due to the line up of popular performers including headliner Bob Dylan, tickets sold out for the main stage performances for the first time in Bumbershoot history.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Seattle's Got Talent!

This is Seattle busker Emery Carl performing outside of Local Color at Pike Place Market. Emery is not only a good musician who plays guitar, harmonica, and sings well, he also dances energetically throughout his entire performance, keeping a hula hoop spinning around his waist and at times playing his guitar behind his head or balancing it aloft from his chin. I did not see him play it with his teeth, although I would not be surprised if that were in his repertoire a la Seattle legend Jimi Hendrix. I made a little iMovie stop action animation (my first attempt. . .very amateur) of a series of shots I took of Emery. It is up on YouTube with different music for copyright reasons, ~~but has its original score below.~~ (sorry, I can't upload it with the original music which the animation is timed to (On Broadway by George Bensen, so you'll hear it, unfortunately in technofunk, the only selection YouTube offered that was anywhere near the timing of the original). I hope you enjoy this. And if you see Emery performing around Seattle with his pop, roots and blues one man band meets circus arts show, stop and listen for awhile. He's a great entertainer and will make you smile. :-).

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Stalking Giant

Here comes change. I found a crane reflected in an older light industry building window a while back. I walked by there recently. The crane won. These windows no longer exist.

Skywatch: The Moon In the Clouds

I looked up into Friday's sky and saw the mooon behind wisps of cloud. It is dry and warm with the feel of autumn on its way. To see the skies around the world at Skywatch Friday, click here.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Turtle Island Quartet Plays Jimi

I heard a super concert at The Triple Door last night, given by amazing musicians Mads Tolling, David Balakrishnan, Mark Summer, and Jeremy Kittel, collectively known as the Turtle Island Quartet. In a musical path that stretches 25 years and seen a few personnel changes, they've won Grammy awards, they've played with everybody and his brother, they've bent genres and melded jazz, baroque, bluegrass, funk, African, Indian, rock, pop, swing, and everything you can think of, all in the context of a string quartet. You'd have to have a very big chamber to contain their musical adventurism. They were in Seattle to premier their "Have You Ever Been. . .?" CD (give a listen) which features amazing arrangements of the works of Jimi Hendrix as well as original compositions. They wanted to play this music in Jimi's hometown, and I think if he could hear it, he would love the innovation and skill of these performing artists he has influenced and inspired. Check out this video!

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Theme Day: Open Air Markets

My favorite color is green. . .any shade. The lush greens, rhubarb, and beets displayed by an organic farmer at the Phinney Farmers Market looked beautiful to me. This Friday afternoon market in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood is just one of multiple farmer's markets in Seattle's neighborhoods, each held once a week, most open from May through October, but a couple of them year round. They are very well patronized and reflect the ever growing value of eating locally grown organic produce. To see open air markets around the world today, click here to view thumbnails for all City Daily Photo theme day participants.

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