Ballard Walk - Graffiti

A beautiful Saturday and a walk from Fremont to Ballard. Okay, found was a motivating factor, specifically, trying out Plaka Estiatorio. On the way, we saw a Henry, graffiti, bones, tags, and a orange face.

Henry house, southeast edge of Ballard. More Henry here.

Alley off of 8th Ave NW

Bones - 11th Ave NW garage.

Pieces in abandoned lot on NW 50th St.

Orange paste-up face on NW Dock Pl Ballard.

Ballard Loves You and Penguins

Left: Ballard Loves You; Right: Penguins and Saint?

Location: Behind the Sloop Tavern (2830 NW Market St) in Ballard.

Creator: “Ballard Loves You” by Andrew Miller (http://mantisart.wordpress.com/). Penguins by Starheadboy (http://starheadboy.blogspot.com/) – I believe.

Description: I love when you walk around a corner and discover something fun like these two pieces. Yes, what was I doing s(l)ooping around the back of the Sloop Tavern?

The Sloop Tavern Mural

The Sloop Tavern Mural

Location: 2830 NW Market St., east wall of the Sloop Tavern.

Creator: The mural is signed “T. Teitge ‘81”.

Description: Mural in various hues of blue featuring sloops, a one-master sailboat with a fore-and-aft mainsail and a jib.

The Sloop Tavern Mural and Signature

Maintenant Je Vois - Mural

Location: 4703 Ballard Ave NW (47.662772, -122.379388), Ballard

Creator: Hemispheres (located adjacent to the wall) commissioned the piece by David Benzler. Painted in 2003, retouched in 2013.

Description: “Maintenant Je Vois” means “Now I See”, in French.

Left: Mural with Miniature Effect; Right: Signature

RE Store Mural - Ballard

Left: RE Store Mural Face, Right: Indian Proverb

The RE Store mural is a collaboration between RE Store and the Summit High School art students, Sustainable Ballard, artist David Benzler and Art Books Press. The mural features a large woman’s face. One of her eyeballs is planet earth and from the same eye flows a river. The other eye features plant leaves for eyelashes. Around the top of the head: day and night. Around the bottom of the face: sustainable cityscape with windmills, solar panels, green roofs, small markets, and public transportation. It has this Ancient Indian Proverb written in the bottom left corner: “Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your Parents, it was loaned to you by your Children. We do not inherit the earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

RE Store Mural, Ballard

LA Fitness Spin + Yoga Playlists

My unofficial Ballard spin - yoga playlist that sonically sums up for us one and a half years of a double feature of spin followed by yoga every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is below (culled to just 20 entries – it was hard). It spans several spin instructors and one yoga instructor. These aren’t necessarily my favorite songs but the most evocative of my LA Fitness experience besides the occasional club announcement: “what gets measured gets improved!”.

- Nickelback, All the Rights Reasons, “Rockstar” (1995)
- Rhianna, Music of the Sun, “Pon de Replay” (2005)
- Gwen Stefani, The Sweet Escape, “Wind It Up” (2006)
- Wolfmother, Wolfmother, "Joker and the Thief" (2006)
- Scissor Sisters, Ta-Dah, “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’” (2006)
- Usher, Raymond v. Raymond, “OMG” (2010)
- The Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D., “I Gotta Feeling” (2009)
- Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple, “Going On” (2008)
- Madonna, I’m Breathless, “Vogue” (1990)
- Kevin Rudolf, In the City, “Let It Rock” (2008)

- Cake, Comfort Eagle, “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” (2001)
- Who, Who’s Next, “Won’t get Fooled Again” (1971)
- No Doubt, Tragic Kingdom, “Just a Girl” (1995)
- U2, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, “Vertigo” (2004)
- Tina Turner, Private Dancer, “Better Be Good To Me” (1984)
- OneRepublic, Waking Up, "All the Right Moves" (2009)
- Billy Bragg and Wilco, Mermaid Avenue, "California Stars" (1998)
- MC Yogi, Elephant Power, “Ganesh is Fresh (feat. Jai Uttal)” (2008)
- Kelly McGuire, Boat in Belize, "Island State of Mind" (2007)
- Pink, Funhouse,“Glitter in the Air” (2008)

Spin Etiquette

We have gone to the morning spin class at LA Fitness in Ballard for about a one year and a half now. Here are some rules which would be nice if fellow spinners and those who use the spin room followed:

1. Don’t drag a bike to some corner and then leave it there. It’s interpreted as out of order and generally causes confusion. This most often happens when someone comes in when the class is not in progress (most of the day) and drags a bike to look out a window, for example, out of the normal “formation” and never puts it back.

2. Don’t leave a dirty towel or any towel on the bike unless you intend to indicate you are reserving the bike for an upcoming class. Again, this usually happens when people during non-class hours get lazy and leave a towel on the bike which is later interpreted as “reserved” by people arriving for the next class.

3. Don’t aim the fan toward the two bikes at the side of the room; it's intended to cool the other 25+ riders. (The room is set up so that two bikes are off to the instructor’s left.)

4. If you are leaving early don’t sit in the front row. It’s annoying and disruptive.

5. Don’t be possessive about bikes. People become so fixated on getting their favorite bike or position that behavior begins to get strange. Be adventurous and try different bikes and positions in the room.

6. Don’t talk at length while the spin class is in progress. A couple of words or sentences, fine. Extended conversations, no.

7. Check your biking shorts for holes and rips. It’s not all that interesting to be behind some unintended skin exposure, especially during the hovers.

8. If you ate a whole bunch of garlic the night before, chances are the class hasn’t and will be suffering.

9. Smile more.

Happy spinning ;-)

Spinning at LA Fitness in Ballard

As part of our proactive fitness quest this spring Travelmarx has joined LA Fitness in Ballard at 1416 NW Ballard Way. Yes we know, it’s the happening club this side of the ship canal and like lemmings we jumped on board.

One of the things we’ve been taking advantage of is spin class (called cycle zone) at 5:45am weekday mornings. First, getting up at 5:00am to get to the class is not as bad as it sounds provided you go to bed early and keeping in mind what a friend who told us: "deliver the body". Second, after the class you feel really good. The rest of the day is a breeze. The 50+ minutes of instructor-led “riding” generates a lot of sweat and huffing and puffing.

The bikes used are Keiser M3 bikes and they are very nice to spin on. You can spin with the same shoes that you use to work out in or you can use cycling shoes (the pedals of the bikes are SPD – or Shimano Pedaling Dynamics - compatible). The instructors so far for the spin classes (we’ve had four different ones) have been great.



Overall impressions of the Ballard / LA Fitness? The club facilities are good but there are a number of opportunities for improvement:

- The management is, well to be kind, a bit lacking. Basically, it seems kids are running the shop and that would be kids with not much experience in customer service. It doesn’t help that all decisions seem to have to come from corporate headquarters. Recently, a sign at the front desk informed members in day-glo magic marker colors that the club was out of Q-Tips and Kleenex and was waiting for a shipment. Now Q-Tips and Kleenex aren’t that critical, but why not just run to Fred Meyer around the corner and buy some as a stop gap measure? Suggestion: hire some seasoned staff.

- Joining and figuring out what rate you are going to pay varies by the day if not hour. I got one rate on a Saturday when I joined. Then, I got called Sunday to inform me there was a mistake and that my initiation fee and monthly rate would be something different – I okayed it. But, nothing got changed and I’m still at the first rate. Friends all have different plans and rates – it seems. Suggestion: simplify the membership process and make it less variable.

- The men’s locker room shower flower is always wet. No mats or anything to keep your feet out of the standing water. Suggestion: put mats down.

- There are not enough clocks on the walls. Suggestion: put some more clocks on the wall. [July 2009 - they have added more clocks. It took a while for them to read the correct time, but they are there. Thanks.]

- The placement of hand towel bins for storage and return are not where you would naturally place them for a club like this. No one thought about the layout. Often they are supplied with larger bath towels when you only want a small hand towel. Suggestion: install a few more hand towel bins, specifically more nearer to where you enter/leave the club by the front desk. [July 2009 - more locations of hand towels have been added. It's better now. Thanks.]

- The spin room doesn’t have good air circulation. Suggestion: install some fans. [July 2009 - it's hit or miss. Sometimes the air conditioner works great and sometimes it doesn't. It's better overall I think.]

- Spray bottles to clean down machines and paper towels are woefully lacking. Suggestion: Place more spray bottles about.

[See comments for more info.]