Category: Art

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Thursday/ animals in LEGO

I ran out to Walmart in Factoria to go look for All Bran Buds today, but no luck. (All the stores here in the city seem to be out of it. Amazon has none, unless you want to pay $10 or $15 per box, from sellers in Canada!).

I almost bought a LEGO set at Walmart, but they lock them up in a display case, and the store assistant was swamped with four other shoppers.

I love the concept of a world map here, and also the idea of using as few bricks as possible to an animal or something recognizable that represents that country.
So which is the cutest: the sleek bald eagle, the orca, the toothy crocodile, the angry lion, the macaw parrot (a psittacine; all parrots belong to the order Psittaciformes), the fat giraffe, the brown bear, the sleepy penguin, or the mama kangaroo (a nice touch, that joey squeezed into its pouch)?
Here’s the other way: to use hundreds of bricks to create a lot of detail. Nice teeth for this tiger, to maul you with🐯. ROWR.
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Saturday/ dope or nope?

dope adjective
slang
excellent —used as a generalized term of approval

There are several Twitter handles that post pictures of products, usually personalized by their owners, that ask the question ‘Dope or nope?’ (Approve or disapprove?).
I found this blue Tesla with its orange highlights and matt black hood here on Capitol Hill’s 15th Avenue.
I think 🤔 it’s a nope, speaking for myself.

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Thursday/ the puzzle that’s a puzzle

I found a puzzle (wonder what had happened), and R2-D2 depicted on a card, on my walk today.
I was too far from my house to pick either up/ clean it up*, and besides that: I only have one hand. 🙂

*If it’s on my block, especially on the sidewalk or street at the front of the house, it doesn’t matter what it is; I feel compelled to clean it up. Broken beer bottle, dead crow, dog poop, empty cannabis packets.

Was there a tug-of-war between two people, with the puzzle in the middle, and the box was torn open? Who knows.
R2-D2 (say Artoo Deetoo) is a fictional robot character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. He has appeared in eleven of the twelve theatrical Star Wars films to date.
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Wednesday/ 2.2.2022

There are lots of two’s in today’s date (with another one to come on the 22nd of February, of course).

My current Apple Watch face is the kaleidoscope. Every time you look to get the time, the watch face lights up from dim to bright, the image morphs for a few seconds into a different one, and then it stops again as the watch face dims.
This is just one of the standard patterns. I’m going to create a few custom ones with my own pictures.
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Tuesday/ Happy Lunar New Year

Happy Lunar New Year.
It’s the Year Of The Tiger.

My collection of tigers. Rowrr 🐯!
Left to right: 2010 Starbucks ‘Bearista’ Year Of The Tiger bear; 2015 Schleich 14729 Tiger Figurine; 2010 Year Of The Tiger piggy bank by Walmart China; ‘2010 Year Of the Tiger’ stuffed tiger in silk; 2010 Year Of The Tiger plush tiger.
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Sunday/ Olympic Sculpture Park

The skies were a beautiful blue today, and I went out to Olympic Sculpture Park to take a few pictures.

I parked by the pedestrian bridge on 3rd Ave West. This is a look back at the Queen Anne Beer Hall and the Space Needle from the bridge. I have not been to this Beer Hall; so I am putting it on my post-pandemic to-do list. Quaff a few beers at Queen Anne Beer Hall.
Looking north after crossing the pedestrian bridge.
A closer look at the artwork called Adjacent, Against, Upon (1976) by Michael Heizer. The granite slabs were quarried in the North Cascades. (This is Myrtle Edwards Park, on the way to Olympic Sculpture Park).
The north entrance and ramp to Olympic Sculpture Park, with a long slanted pedestrian bridge that straddles the railway on the left.
The Eagle (1971) by Alexander Calder.
This bench is called Mary’s Invitation: A Place to Regard Beauty by Ginny Ruffner (2014), in honor of Mary Shirley, a benefactor of Olympic Sculpture Park.
Wake (2004) by Richard Serra has five gently S-curved iron structures.
The cafeteria and indoor space called Paccar Pavilion is closed. The steps in front of it is called the Bill & Melinda Gates Amphitheater.
What is nature, and what is art?
Split (2003) by Roxy Paine, a tree made of stainless steel tubes of 20 different diameters.
Making my way back around the south end of the Park, with the south of the staircase going to the slanted bridge across the railway. SAM stands for Seattle Art Museum.
Echo by Jaume Plensa (2011), a Barcelona-based artist. The sculpture’s title refers to a mountain nymph in Greek mythology that had offended the goddess Hera. As punishment the nymph was deprived of speech, except for the ability to echo the last word of another, spoken to her.
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Wednesday/ The Randolph

I walked by The Randolph* tonight. I like the stained glass with the name at the entrance.
*A four-story apartment building here on Capitol Hill, built in 1928.

The stained glass lettering is probably from the original construction of the building. Lead paint has been done away with for decades now, but lead is still used in the production of stained glass. It is present in the lead “came” or channel that holds the colored glass in place, and in the solder (50% lead, 50% tin) which connects the came. Is it dangerous? Not really. One would have to touch it and then lick one’s fingers.
P.S. As for leaded gasoline, the world has finally stopped using it as well. Algeria has reportedly used the last of its stockpile of leaded gasoline in July of this year.
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Tuesday/ Sixth Avenue, Tacoma

If you’re going, go to Tacoma today, boyo, I told myself this morning.
Tomorrow will see bumper-to-bumper traffic on Interstate 5 for Thanksgiving (on Thursday).
And so off I went. I know of second-hand record stores on 6th Avenue, and mural artwork in the alleys there, and that’s where I stopped to spend a little time.

Sixth Avenue is in central Tacoma. This is the corner of 6th Ave & State Street.
Bluebeard Coffee Roasters is right there, in this rehabbed building.
.
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A FunHouse pinball machine from 1990, by Williams Electronics. It stars a talking ventriloquist dummy named Rudy. The game is themed after the concept of an amusement park funhouse.
This burrito/ taco eatery is not open, and is getting a make-over inside. 
This record shop is full of vinyl records, but they have a small selection of CDs as well. I bought CDs with Maria Callas and Ella Fitzgerald songs on. They are so cheap, it’s almost for free, I thought ($5 and $1).
It’s been 13 years since the Seattle Super Sonics basketball team were sold and moved to Oklahoma City. Best I can tell, this mural is in honor of a guy that passed away recently and was a big Sonics fan.
More art on the opposite wall. The wide-angle lens of my phone comes in handy for shots like these.
Here’s the Seattle Kraken sea monster, mascot of the ice hockey team, emerging from the depths of Puget Sound, at the Tacoma-Narrows Bridge.
Shakabrah is a casual breakfast spot around the corner with hearty egg dishes & pancakes, and burgers & sandwiches at lunch.
The Baptist Church on 6th Avenue was constructed in1924 in the Gothic style with sandstone.
Several utility poles have pink or green paint on to brighten them up.
O’Malley’s Irish pub.
Erin, Go Brah! says the artwork around the corner (Ireland Forever!).
The eyes on the electric utility box are checking out the sun, sitting low and already well on its way back to the horizon at 3.30 pm (sunset is just an hour later).
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Sunday/ happy Halloween

A belated ‘Happy Halloween’ to everyone.

It’s still scary out there. Final approval for the pediatric version of the Pfizer/ BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is expected here in the United States this week. It’s 10 micrograms (a third of the adult dose) and intended for kids aged 5-11 yrs old. Children older than 12 get the adult dose.
[Picture Credit: NBC/ The Today Show]
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Saturday/ it’s official: LEGO’s RMS Titanic

From CNN Style:
Made up of 9,090 pieces, the replica model divides into three sections to reveal the interior of the ill-fated vessel, including the first-class grand staircase, which sprawls over six decks, as well as a Jacobean-style dining saloon and the engine room.
The LEGO ship is a 1:200 scale model and also includes a recreation of the ship’s bridge, promenade deck and swimming pool.
“At the time of its launch the Titanic was the pinnacle of nautical engineering, the largest moving vehicle ever created. It has been an incredible journey to recreate this iconic vessel from LEGO bricks, using blueprints created over a century ago,” Mike Psiaki, design master at the LEGO Group, said in a statement Thursday.
“Designing the LEGO Titanic with such a focus on immense detail and scale, but also accuracy, has allowed us to create one of the most challenging building experiences to date,” he added.
The set won’t come cheap though: Available for pre-order from November 1 and general sale from November 8, the ship will retail at $629.99.

All pictures are from Lego.com.

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Monday/ a little short-handed

I had a procedure done at the dermatologist’s office, on my back.
I’m not allowed to reach up too far, or out, or down, with my arms until Wednesday when the medical tape comes off.

This is the kind of cartoon one finds in The New Yorker magazine (I love them). Check out the T-Rex by the xerox machine in the back. The cartoonist is Daniel Beyers and he resides in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, with his family.
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Friday/ got my bookstore fix

It was lovely outside today (76°F /24°C), and I walked down to the Twice Sold Tales bookstore on Harvard Avenue.
I browsed around in the store but did not buy anything this time. (It’s just fun to look at all the books, so mission still accomplished).

Sunflowers (Helianthus, from helios, Greek for sun) is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae. Before blooming, sunflower plants tilt during the day to face the sun in order to gain more sunlight for photosynthesis, a response called heliotropism. Sunflowers are thought to have been domesticated 3,000–5,000 years ago by Native Americans who would use them primarily as a source for edible seeds. [From Wikipedia]
The plywood boarding is still in place at Twice Sold Tales, a little curiously. Maybe the owner likes the artwork with the cats on. (The cats inside are still there, as well). I like the T-Rex sign, myself. The sign on the door says that the store is not buying books right now. Seattle fire marshal ordered the store to stop piling up so many books inside. (It makes it harder for fire fighters to navigate the inside, and for customers to get out).
The little plaza by the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station is in good shape: no graffiti and no trash lying around.
This 20-foot tall public art sculpture of silent speakers in the shape of an X (or a positive sign on its side) is part of the artwork commissioned for the AIDS Memorial Pathway (AMP) project, a tribute to the missing narratives of women and Black people lost to the AIDS crisis. It is called ‘andimgonnamisseverybody’.
The artist is Christopher Paul Jordan (b. 1990), and he used bronze, aluminum and stainless steel.
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Tuesday/ more Looney Tunes characters

My LEGO Looney Tunes character collection of twelve little figures is almost complete.
(Daffy Duck got left behind when the package was shipped from Denmark, maybe the Bricklink seller there can send me one in an envelope).

Lola Bunny with her basket ball, Bugs Bunny’s love interest. She is a late addition to the Looney Tunes characters, debuting only in 1996 in ‘Space Jam’. She likes to say ‘Don’t ever call me ‘Doll’ ‘.
Tasmanian Devil (‘Taz’) is a scary character, moving like a whirlwind, short-tempered and with an insatiable appetite. Any music— just not Scottish bagpipes— will calm him down, though.
Marvin the Martian debuted in 1948. He has no mouth, nose or ears, and his outfit is loosely based on the Hoplites: the heavily armed foot soldiers of ancient Greece (helmet with the brush on, and skirt). The Hoplites did not have ray guns, of course.
Petunia Pig with teapot and tea cup. She debuted in 1937 in ‘Porky’s Romance’ as Porky Pig’s love interest. In the cartoon movie she has a spoiled pooch called Fluffnums and would have nothing to do with him.
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Sunday/ Denny Triangle walkabout

There was a break in the rain today, and I walked around the Denny Triangle (in downtown Seattle) to check on the construction projects there.

Broadway in New York City reopened this past week, and the Paramount Theater here in Seattle is, as well. ‘City and Colour’ is the alias under which the Canadian musician, singer, songwriter and record producer Dallas Green (40 yrs old), records under.
The $1.2-billion expansion of the Washington State Convention Center has been three years in the making, and will be completed in summer 2022. Interstate 5 is just on the other side. The 10th-floor ballroom will provide views of Puget Sound.
The Cornish College of the Arts building on Boren Ave (constructed 1915, traditional Norwegian Style, architect Sonke Englehart Sonnichsen), holding its own between the Seattle Children’s Research Institute: Building Cure at the back and The Ayer on the right, a new 45-story luxury apartment tower.
The two apartment towers of 1120 Denny Way are complete, two stacks of white floors going up 41 stories. I’m trying to work up enthusiasm for the appearance of the black & copper structure in the middle – and not quite succeeding.
A brand new Porsche 718 Cayman T* on Denny Way, waiting at the red light. (*I say it is a Cayman T because the double tailpipe & wheels match the picture of one on Porsche’s website). Even though the Cayman is sometimes called ‘the poor man’s Porsche’, this model starts at $70k. What a beautiful car, but it burns fossil fuels. Come on Porsche— make haste, and make it electric.
Now I’m in the Cascade district north of the Denny Triangle. This is the skeleton of the old Seattle Times building where the newspapers used to be printed. Two office blocks, 16 stories, and 18 stories tall, will be built here. The three apartment towers at the back with the curvy sides are all on Denny Way.
Looking west from Thomas Street and Boren Avenue North, and using my telephoto lens. Look for the golden elevator cage going up to the observation deck, in the middle of the Space Needle.
The Gold Bar on 9th Avenue serves up cocktails and small plates & tacos. Kudos to them, for opening up their pandemic street space as soon as the rain had stopped. (That’s an active bike & e-scooter lane running along the pavement: something that patrons and the servers have to keep an eye on).
There’s the sun, peering through the leaves in Denny Park alongside Denny Way.
I took this picture (on the pavement by Denny Park) to remind me to look up/ determine how long the lever would have to be, to move Earth, in this famous statement from Archimedes.
A discussion on physics.stackexchange.com provides the answer. The principle of a lever in balance is that on the one side, distance times weight, is equal to distance times weight on the other side: d1.W1 = d2.W2. Earth weighs 6×10^24 kg. Let’s make the load arm length (opposite of Archimedes’s side) 1 m long, and assume he can push down with the force needed for 60 kg of weight. Say that gravity where he stands, is equal to that of Earth’s, and that Earth’s weight is concentrated where it meets the load point on the lever. Then the lever’s force arm length (on Archimedes’s side) would have to be 10^23 m. That is a distance of some 10 million light years. (About 4 times the distance between our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest one to us).
If Archimedes pushed down on this intergalactical, perfectly rigid lever for 3 or 4 feet, Earth on the other end (10 million light years + 1 m away), would move by the diameter of an electron.
Snapping a picture while crossing Westlake Avenue near Denny Way, and looking south towards downtown ..
.. and the McKenzie luxury apartment tower nearby is a cylinder of blue, gray and white tiles.
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Friday/ the insouciant rabbit

in·sou·ci·ant
/inˈso͞osēənt,inˈso͞oSHənt/
adjective
showing a casual lack of concern; indifferent.
“an insouciant shrug”

My package from Kopenhagen, Denmark finally landed on the porch today.
Inside are the LEGO Looney Tunes figures that were still missing from my collection, plus a bunch of bricks for building trees and foliage. I will build one figure every day. Here is the first one: the famous rabbit.

Do I even need to introduce this rabbit? Per Wikipedia: ‘Bugs Bunny is an anthropo-morphic gray and white rabbit or hare who is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality’. He debuted in director Tex Avery’s Oscar-nominated cartoon film ‘A Wild Hare’ (1940).
P.S. That is an enormous carrot!
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Thursday/ the Abba-tars are coming

‘We took a break in the spring of 1982 and now we’ve decided it’s time to end it. They say it’s foolhardy to wait more than 40 years between albums, so we’ve recorded a follow-up to The Visitors.’
– ABBA, at the announcement of their first new album in 39 years

The new album is due Nov. 5. This is the image of the cover on Amazon.

The suspense is over for ABBA fans, and hey! a whole new reunion album of their music is coming. (At first it was just a new song or two that were promised.)

As far as I understand, the 80’s supergroup made themselves into avatars for a virtual world tour, so that they would not have the hassle of traveling the world over in the flesh (and in a pandemic).  Who can blame them for not wanting to travel for work? I do not.

Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson in a live-stream of the ABBA Voyage announcement at Grona Lund, Stockholm.
[Photo by Fredrik Persson/TT News Agency / AFP]
Looking good .. Björn Ulvaeus (76), Agnetha Faltskog (71), Anni-Frid Lyngstad (75) and Benny Andersson (74). Those are the high-tech costumes that had enabled the motion-captured visuals of their younger selves. Benny joked that he should have asked Agnetha and Anni-Frid if they can still sing before tackling the project (they can), and said it was wonderful to experience the camaraderie of collaborating on an album again.