Belltown Bent

The art of restoration

This pocket beach, being created at the junction of Myrtle Edwards Park and the Olympic Sculpture Park, will be the first stretch of natural(ized) shoreline encountered by young salmon leaving the Duwamish River on their way to Puget Sound, and beyond.

It will also be the first stretch of accessible beach, tide-pools and all, encountered by folks walking, jogging, or rolling their way north from Belltown. When completed, it will feature natural saltwater marsh landscaping above the water, and a regenerative seascape of kelp, algae and underwater grasses below the water - a great place for fine art and habitat restoration to meet.

Clearly, an exception to the rule

Rain rules this time of year. That's just the way it is, the way it should be. But once in a while, there is an exception to the rule.

Yesterday, what an exception it was. Blue, nearly cloudless sky. Crisp, make that cold, clean air. And visibility that didn't need to be measured.

Days like this remind us how close the Cascades lie to Belltown - as seen here from our vantage point at the Don Armeni Boat Ramp in West Seattle - an exceptionally clear backdrop to the Bent's two towers and our neighborhood landmark. 

World's Fair Wonder

Walking through Seattle Center, Belltown's backyard, it struck me - the Space Needle is pretty cool. It was really cool when it was built, for the 1962 World's Fair. It's tall - 605 feet at the beacon, wide - the 'halo' has a diameter of 138 feet, and it's pretty long on fun facts.

But in 1891, faced with a challenge to build something to rival the Eiffel Tower, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. had a radical idea. On the back of a napkin, he sketched what would become known as the Ferris Wheel when it debuted at the Chicago World's Fair & Columbian Exposition in 1893.

The bridge-builder from Pittsburgh envisioned a big wheel, 250 feet in diameter, spinning on a 45 foot long axle between two 140 foot tall towers. Over two thousand people could ride the Ferris Wheel at a time, going 265 feet, about 26 stories, up in the air - higher than any building in the world at the time.

It was a huge hit, generating over $720,000 at $.50 a ride, and gave folks an idea, on the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World, what it was like to go 'round and 'round.

9,000 year old mirror

OK, I was spaced-out, staring out the window of the lobby at nothing in particular. Suddenly, involuntarily, my eyes focused on these upside down bubbles, seemingly bouncing along under the surface of the fountain/pool outside.

It took a moment to consciously shift my focus. I realized the bubbles were reflected, from across the pool beyond my gaze, by the polished stone coping along the edge.

I wonder, if 9,000 years ago, in the Neolithic town of Çatalhöyük, some equally spaced-out person had a similar realization, resulting in what may have been the first obsidian mirror?

High-flying fans

Welcome to the team, number 12. That's our number, here at the bent, and yours too, if you're Seahawks fan - no matter where you reside. The team retired the number from the player roster - it belongs to the fans from now on.

The 12th Man - sounds better than 12th Person, but at least one of us here at the Bent might feel otherwise - plays an important role for the team. Like costing the Giants 55 yards for eleven delay-of-game penalties, for instance.

We caught the 12th Man flag going up the other day, under the watchful eye of the King 5 chopper, the second time the Bent has snapped a picture of a picture being taken.

Go Hawks!

High-class crosswalk

On a cold, rainy Saturday, specialists from Sellen Construction put these steel beams in place nearly 30 feet over Elliott Avenue, just north of Broad Street and south of Bay.

The beams will be covered with corrugated sheet metal, then concrete and, eventually, complete landscaping to form the pedestrian bridge connecting the upper and lower portions of the Olympic Sculpture Park - in Belltown's NW corner. It will be part of a contiguous path from Western Avenue to the waterfront. That will be one sweet right-of-way.

You thought the Sunday paper was heavy

The Westwood Victoria, shown arriving this afternoon just off shore from Belltown, delivers the paper. Not the one full of inserts that make it hard to find the sports section, but the newsprint it comes on. Like up to 28,000 tons of it - enough to print 200 million newspapers.

She's one of seven new vessels planned for Weyerheuser's Westwood Shipping Lines 3rd generation "ConBulk" fleet, designed specifically to meet the needs of their paper and lumber customers (she can also hold enough lumber to build about 2,000 average-sized homes).

Built in Poland, under the supervision of engineers from Norway, named for the capitol of British Columbia, and flying the Bahamian flag, this 656' delivery boy lady may well be bringing your newspaper almost to your doorstep - or, maybe, the lumber to build the porch your paperboy will invariably miss.

Get up close to Hadley Caliman

That's just what NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson is doing - digging on a Hadley Caliman solo at this '04 SRJO performance.

It's a rare opportunity to get up close to 50-plus years of jazz experience, including a mentoring relationship with Dexter Gordon and gigs with Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Bobby Hutcherson, SRJO, Carlos Santana and the Grateful Dead - plus 20 years of teaching at Cornish College of the Arts - and hear it all flow out of a tenor sax.

We all have that opportunity when Caliman brings it all, along with his quartet, to Tula's in downtown Belltown. I'll be the guy with his eyes closed.

It's always setting

While we haven't been able to see it for several days, the sun does set every night. And, lucky for us, here at the Bent, it's setting later and later each evening. In this particular instance, at about 4:26 PM PST.

But, what if you wanted to see the sun setting at 4:57 PM CET, in Genoa, Italy? Or, say, the same time but different place. Oslo, Norway, for instance. No matter what the weather is like at home.

Glad I asked. To satisfy that yearning, the Bent created "Tonight's Sunset" - a group on Flickr - where folks all over the place post their sunset shots before the day is done. Like tonight, in La Jolla.

1/1/06 12:03:36 AM

12:03:36 was the moment this happened just up Broad from the Bent.  With the breeze blowing in off Elliott Bay, the smoke slowly drifted behind the illuminated Space Needle.

Apparently, the earth has also fallen slightly behind. Our ever-so-slightly slower rotation (did you feel it?) has resulted in the real-time need for one more second of clock-time to get us through 2006. Sunrises, moon phases, and seasons tend to work at their own pace.

On Saturday, that :01 will be added to Coordinated Universal Time to make sure everything fits. So if this picture were to be taken at the same moment next year, the time will be 12:03:35 - but who knows were the smoke will be.

Happy New Year.