Belltown Bent

Worth the dirt

If you love to garden, but your plot is measured in pots, you tend to have high expectations of any plant allowed into one of them. Winter can be particularly challenging for the visiting varietals. Perform, or get retired to compost.

Brassica oleracea, more formally referred to as Decorative Cabbage, earns its spot in a pot. Its wild ancestors were native to Europe's coastal climes from England to Italy. Hardy enough to deal with whatever winter weather comes off Elliott Bay, the colors even get brighter as the temperatures drop.

I joined this one, sitting on the Bent grill, to watch last night's sunset. Here's another, in Washington D.C., photographed while celebrating Thanksgiving.

4:25 and dropping

Here, in the vicinity of 47°N/122°W and the Bent, the sun dropped set below on the horizon at twenty-five minutes after four. That makes for what seems like a short day.

They'll seem even shorter for another three weeks, until we turn the corner on December 17th when the big hand pushes back from 4:18 to 4:19. It's all clockwise from there and sunrise/sunset charts will afford more enjoyable reading.

But forget the charts, it's going to fly by. And how could we complain about a day that ends like this.

Have a peaceful Thanksgiving.
 

Lighting the way...

... but no lighting up.

These lights, on the corner of N. First and Denny, light the way to Tini Bigs' front door, and that door is at the top of the Bent's list of places to go walk through when Washington Cleans Up our Indoor Air Act on December 8th.

I-901 carried 39 out of Washington's 39 counties. It's not often everyone agrees with Belltown (King County). But about a quarter million folks put it on the ballot, and well over a mill (63% of voters) said, "just say no to smoke."

Tini Bigs' owner Keith Robbins was ahead of the pack (no pun) when he turned off the smoking lamp at his Watertown, back in August. Other proprietors may not be quite as prepared - but the folks at Seattle Smoke Free Coalition are here to help.

Couldn't ask for a better critic

Jane Monheit's mom loves this picture of her daughter. She wrote to tell me so. What could make a photographer feel better about about capturing a moment. It was one of several blissful mid-set captured moments with the Clayton Brothers at Jazz Alley in 2001.

She'll be bringing her working quartet when she parks her "The Season" holiday tour in the Alley for six nights beginning Tuesday. Hopefully she'll also bring along the jazz vocal chops that once caused critics to proclaim her one of the most promising voices in jazz. What could make a singer's mom feel better?

I hadn't the foggiest

Last night's glorious sunset gave way to a calm, cool, clear night. Which explains this morning's fog. At least nearly hiding the tip of West Seattle and the rest of Elliot Bay.

It made me wonder, once again, "just what is fog?" Turns out, it's really been a cloud all along. Instead of floating along in the sky, which we expect of clouds, fog is a cloud anchored to the ground.

If you ask Google book search, "what is fog?", you may discover fog is also what Desie was experiencing on page 17 of SICK PUPPY, Carl Hiaasen's story about an eco-terrorist with a trust fund. Or anyone of the ref's found on 258,000 pages.

Or, it could be a b-side from Radiohead's COM LAG.

Back to the window

Sometimes I just can't come up with anything to write about. It's too easy to work on a different project or run errands.

Or to go to the window and watch the sun set on Belltown.

Christo, wrapping Belltown?

No, you'll not find that rumor starting here. Christo, the Bulgarian born artist formerly known as Christo Javacheff, is currently working on a project that will cover more than 6 miles of Colorado's Arkansas River with horizontal translucent panels of fabric floating 10 to 20 feet over the water.

Actually, Christo and Jeanne-Claude are the artists working on the "Over the River" project. Apparently, it is often assumed that Christo is the artist. That's one of many errors and rumors he clears up on his their straight-forward site.

To clear up the rumor, once and for all, that wasn't started by this entry, the striking orange fabric stretched along the vertical posts (pictured above) is nothing more than a safety net (making an artistic statement of its own) along the Olympic Sculpture Park stretch of Elliott Ave. Check the progress of that project at this unofficial OSP journal.

Cougar coup

No, the east-siders haven't taken over the Seattle Center, and the consolation bowl Apple Cup won't be played until the 19th here on the west-side of the rivalry.

But the 3 and 7 WSU Cougars do have a commanding 10-2 flag-raising lead over UW in their Tackling Hurricane Relief competition. Each day at 10:00 a.m. the school which raised the most money in the previous 24 hours has their colors run up the Space Needle flag pole, and the Huskies haven't put up many W's.

The real winner in this effort is Habitat for Humanity and their efforts to replace homes destroyed by recent hurricanes in the Southeastern U.S. But the in-state spoils go to the school raising the most money, when their colors and logo will be painted on top of the Seattle icon. With less than 24 hours to go, and what appears to be a commanding lead, it looks like the crimson and gray will come out on top this weekend, not matter who wins the game.

That won't be a pleasant sight for the purple and gold Huskies, but there's still time for some big dogs to step up.

Up, up, and away

The waterfront trolley usually rolls north and south along the waterfront. This morning, #605 was the first of three cars to move up and slightly to the west.

As Olympic Sculpture Park surveyors paused to watch, the three cars were carefully transferred from their tracks to the backs of flat-bed trailers so they can be relocated to indoor climate-controlled storage until they are put back into service upon completion of a new facility to be built just east of Occidental Park in Pioneer Square.

The new facility is projected to open in summer of 2007, and will be part of a mixed-use facility planned by developer Greg Smith which will house people as well as the antique trolley cars.

Reckless precision

Tuck Andress is too seldom mentioned in discussions of great contemporary guitar players. In large part because he has only released two albums under his own name. The title of one, Reckless Precision, also describes his remarkable style. Prodigious technique, remarkable improvisational range, and breath-stopping plunges into the heart of a song. But nowhere to be found on the polls.

That's fine with Tuck. His first love is his wife, Patti Cathcart. And as half of the world-renowned duo of Tuck and Patti, he is very happy to stand behind her and provide soulful, unobtrusive, orchestral support for her stunning singing. They make music that makes love to their audience, and their audiences love them back.

But when Tuck steps forward, once, maybe twice for a solo piece, time seems to stop. After the first few bars, you don't blink, or breathe. You just open up all your senses to absorb the waves of sound rolling off his finger-tips. For nearly 3 decades Tuck, and Patti, have been blowing minds with their magic. For 3 nights next week, they'll be blowing ours at Jazz Alley. See you there.