Meanwhile...

...on Pike Street, the cherry trees are in bloom. Even though it's not in Belltown, the sight is still very pleasant.

See You in Hell, McGuire's Garage!

Well, for those of you who have an emotional attachment to the McGuire's parking garage, I have some sad news for you: it's apparently going to be demolished tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. That was quick and decisive! One of the cops on the scene told me they were going to take the place down floor-by-floor. Of course, the main tower will take a lot more effort. Lord knows how long that'll take, but according to this cop, the garage will only take a day. Decisive! Here are some other photos of this future vacant lot:



Pay your respects while you can!

New Place!

As you may have noticed, the Del Rey is no more. That's a shame. I went there once and it was OK. The staff was friendly enough, but it had kind of a weird vibe. It was the type of place that needed to be filled with people to have any kind of atmosphere. And based on what I saw, I thought it did a brisk business, so being empty wouldn't have been a problem. But I was wrong. Rest in peace, Del Rey. But say hello to the Sarajevo Lounge. Uh, OK. You know, Sarajevo doesn't really seem like the ideal namesake. I mean, for me it only conjures up images of a mediocre Olympic Games and ethnic cleansing. I hope the drinks are better than the name. Anyway, let's wish the new proprietors luck in their endeavor.

It Begins

Well, if you were wondering what the heck was going on at the McGuire, here's the scoop: it's being gutted to prepare for demolition. How exciting! As I've discussed here in the past, I'm almost positive that there won't be an implosion, but instead just a slow dismantling that will eventually bring the building down. Me, I'm planning on documenting it day-by-day once it gets started in earnest. For the moment, they only appear to be working on the area under the parking garage. Here are a few pictures that only partially tell the tale:


Anyhow, it's beginning, but it hasn't become interesting yet.

After Hours

Nick Lowe. So It Goes

This is kind of how all music should be. The tricky part is that few can write songs like this. And even the great Nick Lowe can't do it forever. If he could, he'd be doing it right now.

Your Sunday Squirrel

It's the Passover Squirrel with his basket of bitter herbs and stories of Pharaoh! Enjoy!

Your Sunday Squirrel

This fellow was part of last week's bounty. This week has been quiet. I took a walk to Denny Park today and there were a few squirrels running around. The rest were probably in squirrel-church. Nobody was very friendly, but they weren't above refusing a peanut. All of them freaked out when I reached for my camera. Hey guys, I only want to take your picture! Anyhow, I still have many good pictures from the last few weeks and I look forward to posting them.

Your Sunday Squirrel

Once again, it was a very good squirrel week. They seem to recognize me now. And they come dashing up when I call them. They also do a lot less fighting amongst themselves when I'm passing out the peanuts, because they may just understand that everybody's gonna get more than they want. This fellow was not quite as skittish as his friends and he liked to stand. My focus-bot was slightly more interested in his front feet, but it's still a fairly good shot of a handsome tree rodent.

Graffiti B Gon

You know, the storage building's big red door at 3rd & Stewart offers a tempting canvas for any dumbass tagger. And indeed, they get tagged a lot, because as you know, everybody is interested in people who spray paint their names on things. Here's what their big red door looked like just a few days ago:

What the heck does that say? I seem to recognize a D in there but little else. Yeah, it's not much to look at. But these storage people do not mess around. This bit of visual noise was gone in a day. Bravo, I say. The building across from me got its roof tagged something like two months ago and they still haven't done anything about it. I wish they were as speedy about clearing it up as the storage commandos. Anyhow, hats off to the consummate anti-taggers!

Your Sunday Squirrel

It's a squirrel! In a tree! Imagine that! This is another photo from last week. You know, you're gonna see a lot of photos of squirrels eating peanuts in the next few weeks. That's because it's the only time they hold still long enough for my feeble camera to capture them. The current crop of squirrels at Denny Park is really quick, so I slow them down with food. That's all I've got to offer.

Further Evidence of Spring

Well, folks, a year ago, the buds burst forth all at once and early. And of course, that was followed by a bunch of cold and miserable months. Luckily I was away from it all in Ukraine and Turkey. This year, things are a lot more tentative. The pear trees across the street are in bloom, but it's kind of like, meh, I'll take pictures when they start displaying mass bud action. There are some nice things to see around this rotten neighborhood, though. Like this:
The Grange Insurance gardens at 2nd & Cedar are very pleasant this time of year. And they take very good care of them. Even in the previous week's foul weather, they're really something to see. The cheery trees are still in bloom there, so stop by and dig some blossoms, willya? Speaking of cherry trees, as predicted these guys are popping on Battery, between 5th & 6th:


This is the old Frederick Cadillac/Teatro Zinzanni lot that is now home to a lot of scrappy stuff that would be more at home in Georgetown - and these Mt. Fuji cherry trees. Last year, they just exploded mid-March. This year, like everything else, they're not so decisive. But they still are pretty up close.