Street Art by Night

Some miscellaneous pieces discovered one evening. First, a Henry piece near Sutter Home & Hearth. A fox roasts a carrot for some expectant bunnies. The fox uses what looks like a Big Green Egg – something you can buy at Sutter Home & Hearth. Second, pieces in an alley between Stone Way Ave N and Interlake Ave N.

Barbequing Fox, Bunnies Wait for Carrot at at Sutter Home and Hearth and Fastenal.

Alley Work - between Stone Way Ave N and Interlake Ave N.

Night Moves

This episode of outdoor furniture features nocturnal pieces; they only come out on warm nights*, waiting to be someone's treasure. A brown corner seat, a sofa bed on it's side, a chintz-y couch, and an overstuffed sofa and matching chair. So much selection and it's not even the beginning or end of the month when you typically see pieces curbside.

* Okay, it's not summer yet here in Seattle, but sure has been some warm weather.

We were walking back from Delancey's pizza and came upon these pieces. Hope they all found a home. I imagine the furniture humming Night Moves.

Workin' on our night moves
Tryin' to make some front page drive-in news
Workin' on our night moves
In the summertime
In the sweet summertime

Workin’ on Their Night Moves: Brown Corner Piece (just a tad wear); Sleeper Sofa on its Side

Work that Corner Chintz Couch

Overstuffed and Ready to Take Home

Streetside Sofas

I admit it. I’m attracted to couches on curbs, sofas streetside, and furniture foresaken. I imagine if you place your ear close to the cushions you will hear: “Human kindness is overflowing. And I think it’s gonna rain today.” (It is without a doubt Dusty Springfield’s version of the much-covered Randy Newman song.)

Left: Brown Corduroy; Right: Cyan Dream Couch
 

The Discontents of May - Abandoned Furniture

Random furniture sightings of late May, in Fremont.  A flowery easy chair interrogates a black (faux) leather sofa with juvenile pears on it. “What are you doing here?”  And, a wooden rocking chair passes out by a fire hydrant.

The title of this post is a riff on the title of the song "The Waters of March",  a Brazilian song composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim (1927–1994) in 1972. The song's translation in English starts: "A stick, a stone...". We imagine that as "A couch, a chair...".

Owyhigh Lakes Trail

Our second hike of the season was to Owyhigh Lakes. It was mostly a cool day with a little sun, perfect for our first serious hike. We started on the Owyhigh Lakes Trail from White River Rd and walked past the lakes, over the pass for about one half mile, which accounts for our 9+ miles and the WTA page for the hike reporting 8 miles round trip. We saw just a few patches of snow near the top, nothing significant.

The star flowers in the meadows around the lakes were anemones (Anemone occidentalis) and glacier lilies (Erythronium grandiflorum). Other usual flowers typical of the altitude and late spring/early summer were also observed include Alpine Springbeauty (Claytonia megarhiza) and violets.

Hike Notes

Length: 9.32 miles (according to our Garmin HCX)
Duration: 5.5 hours  (10:00 am – 3:30 pm), includes 30 min lunch break
Elevation Gain:  1,650 ft.  3,750 ft @ parking lot, 5,396 (5,400 according to guide book) ft @ pass over to Kotsuck Creek
Location: Mt. Rainier -- NE - Sunrise / White River, Mount Rainier National Park

Plants and Animals

Anemone occidentalis (Western Pasqueflower)
Claytonia megarhiza (Alpine Springbeauty)
Viola orbiculata (Dark Woods Violet) OR Viola sempervirens (Redwood Violet)
Viola adunca (Hookedspur Violet)
Potentilla flabelifolia (High Mountain Cinquefoil)
Erythronium grandiflorum (Glacier Lily)
Lipstick Cladonia lichen

Dacrymyces palmatus - Jelly fungus
Guepiniopsis alpina - Jelly cup

Perisoreus canadensis - Gray Jay

Anemones – Upper Left: Top Down; Upper Right: Side View; Lower Left: Old One Flower with Spider; Lower Right: Pushing out the Ground

Springbeauty and Columbine Bud

Glacier Lily Bud and Full Flower

Potentilla - Potentilla flabelifolia

Veratrum Shoots and Meadow with Paint Brush

Violets - Viola adunca (Hookedspur Violet) and Viola orbiculata (Dark Woods Violet) OR Viola sempervirens (Redwood Violet)

Trail Pictures – Left: The lakes looking a little empty; Center: Starting off; Right: Meadow trail near the lakes.

Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis)

Interesting Wood Structures (One on the left reminds of a Pomodoro scultpure)

Fungus, Left: Guepiniopsis alpina - Jelly cup; Right: Dacrymyces palmatus – Jelly fungus

Lichen – Lipstick Cladonia

Pompeii and the Pooped Out Premier Exhibitions Formula

Left: Statue Greeting You Upon Arrival; Center: Bronze Statue Originally Silver Plated; Right: Fresco with Dionysus Enthroned (Painted Plaster, 50-70 A.D., House of Naviglio, Pompeii)

I'm starting to detect a trend in the exhibitions at Pacific Science Center: light on artifacts and curation and high on "wow" factors and recreations. The Pompeii Exhibition follows this formula. Yes, the ticket price is high for what you get. Yes, some who know something or nothing about Pompeii will enjoy it. But, ultimately the exhibition leaves you unfulfilled.

First, like I also mentioned for the King Tut exhibit, the music was too loud, schlocky, and repetitive.

Second, the audio guide was pretty bad. If we've shelled out the extra money for it and we are standing in a crowded room jockeying with people to see the exhibits, the audio guide better lift my mood by educating and titillating me. It didn't.

Third, the wow factor is a movie at the end of the exhibition that simulates - with sound, vibration, and stage smoke - the day Pompeii got buried in 79 A.D. Nice, but not great.

Finally, the problem is not so much the Pacific Science Center, but the creator of the show, Premier Exhibitions. This is the company that produces the Bodies Exhibition. (Are you sick of seeing that exhibition in every city you visit?) I'm guessing they provide these "package" exhibitions and different cities or institutions buy them.

If you go to Premier Exhibitions site for Pompeii and try to find out information about something you saw at the exhibition, there is just a few pretty pictures and a simplistic statement about the exhibition. There is no solid information or even an inventory of the what is displayed. (If it was there, I did not see it.) It's clear: the exhibition is meant to entertain, not educate. With that goal in mind, why waste the time putting that information together?

Similarly, you can't find anything on the Pacific Science Center's site about what artifacts were shown. That's not good science in my book.

Did I like anything about this exhibit? Yes, there were some interesting facts about foods, amphorae shapes to store food, and in particular the fermented fish sauce, garum.  (The shape of the amphorae indicated their contents, and the bottom of one amphora fit into the top of another.) And, the statues and artifacts they had were interesting, just too few to get a sense of anything.

Left: Amphorae for Garum (terracotta, 1st century A.D., Pompeii); Center: Mosaic of Garum Amphora (white limestone and black slate, 1st century A.D., House of Aulus Umbricius Scaurus, Pompeii); Right: Cast of a Youth, House of Cryptoporticus, Pompeii

Pompeii: The Exhibition was at the Pacific Science Center from Feb 7 – May 25, 2015.