After Hours

Françoise Hardy. Frag den Abendwind

Here's FH singing in German. It's not a great tune, as it sounds like it was written for somebody else. But her pronunciation is very careful, so I'm sure that Germans can appreciate that. This performance also contains a rare instance of FH moving around during a song. Usually, she stands still, looks nice and croons, but no, in this one she walks! Outta sight!

Night Monkey!

As you may know, the Woodland Park Zoo is closing their night exhibit within the next month and a half. Yeah, I know, boo! Last time I was there, I totally shirked my duty to bring back pictures of the night animals. Over the last few weeks, I've really wanted to take a picture of the night monkey. Today I got my chance. Here it is:

See it? In all that darkness? Night monkey? In case you can't see it, I'll describe what you're not seeing: he's a small monkey that comes out at night. I also got a shot of the slow loris:

It's just like a regular loris, only slower. And then there's the rare Rodrigues fruit bat:

They're big and they make bad noises.

OK, so maybe that was kind of a bust, but I did see other animals:

This is a pile of chuckwallas. And thanks to the torrential rain, the penguins were not only swimming, they were also capering. Here they are with a little girl who wouldn't move out of the frame:

It wasn't a complete loss. I saw the night monkey with my own eyes, so that's good enough, isn't it? I think I'll head to the zoo a few more times before the night exhibit closes. The zoo claims that the animals will be distributed to different attractions and most won't be shipped away, but me, I'm gonna be real careful about ordering a "hot dog" at the Rain Forest Cafe, if you know what I mean. It's just that their assurances are a little like when your parents say that they're taking your dog to a farm in the country where he can run and be free. Doesn't it sound like that? Watch out for those "hot dogs," I say.

Garage Party!

What do you get when you mix blogging with bowling? Blowing? Bogging! Well, whatever it was, it happened last night at the Garage. It was just for me and about 60 of my close personal friends. See, we all contribute to the community blogs at the P-I, and since nobody gets paid, they threw us a bowling party. I brought my own shoes and ball - a mighty 16-pound Brunswick Black Beauty - into the mix. Don't worry, owning bowling accessories has never improved my game. I'm always lucky to break 100. I ended up scoring 124, 116 and 110, getting interviewed by this Japanese film crew and meeting my fellow bowling bloggers. My guest was my friend Ty's wife, Emily. Here we are:

That is not my ball; I had put the Black Beauty away, so I was forced to pose with a random house ball. So that was fun. Thanks, P-I.

But the evening wasn't over. Emily's husband, Ty, was playing in Ballard at the Coppergate, so I took that in. Here's the whole band:

That's Eric Peters on drums. He's good. These two will be cranking out the high-powered jazz every other Tuesday (alternating with Ron Weinstein) until they get fired. I highly recommend it. Cover is free, so what's stopping you, other than the fact that it's in Ballard?

Anyhow, that was my fun evening.

After Hours

Marie Laforêt. Manchester et Liverpool

WARNING! This song will get caught in your head! Even with the screwy sound (this was the best of several vintage selections, so there were worse choices), you'll be humming it for days to come. So don't blame me for that. I told you what to expect! OK, so here's another beloved Armenian-French performer. Apparently, Marie's original last name was Doumenach or some such. She joins Charles Aznavour and Sylvie Vartan in the admired Armenians category. Yes, Sylvie is only half-Armenian, but still, half-Armenian is Armenian enough. Anyhow, this tune is about Manchester and Liverpool, two places you don't really to visit - like Schweinfurt in Germany, Tula in Russia, Rivne in Ukraine, Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Bodrum in Turkey and Amarillo in the U.S. Some people would argue with Bodrum. I've been there. It was all half-naked, middle-aged Germans going to the mega-disco every night. Yikes! There are far better places to visit in that wonderful land.

Oh, the Humanity!

Gosh, who could have guessed that a place that painted your portrait on a piece of wood for $20 wouldn't last? Honestly, it was a nice idea, but there must have been few takers. So 2nd & Stewart has lost yet another business and the Josephiniun has lost a tenant. Observe:


They haven't emptied out their window yet, but that will happen in due time. The shop, however, has been totally cleaned out. I blame the lack of reputable foot traffic and our nation's general lack of enthusiasm for portraiture for the shop's demise. It may have worked out a lot better if they had been in the Pike Place Market. I mean, there's a guy who's been doing pencil portraits outside of Golden Age Collectibles for years. If they opened a shop in some high-density area, they'd probably do mad business. But hey, it's all over now, so the point is moot.

Coming Soon to the Moore!

OK, just kill me now, please. Here's the thing about showtunes: the ones I like can easily go from good to horrific when turned loose in such a forum as this. But the bad ones...those are just agonizing. And I find that although new musicals come out every year, the showtune repertoire never really changes. They adhere to the classics. You seldom hear anything written after the fifties. That's about the same time the source of jazz standards petered out. They were, coincidentally, showtunes mostly from previous eras. Anyhow, I think I'll forgo this event in favor of a movie about hobbits.

After Hours

Gluk'oZa. Tantsuy Rossiya! (Dance, Russia!)

I've been meaning to feature this clip for a while. Not only is it creepy, it's also inaccurate. OK, so the song is called "Dance, Russia!" but a lot of it was obviously filmed outside of Russia. I recognize Berlin's Alexanderplatz and I think there's a shot of Prague. You'll also notice that most locales have Gothic architecture and employ the Latin alphabet - another dead giveaway that we're not in Russia. Question: did no one in Russia want to dance? Why did they have to outsource to Western Europe? Anyway, so singer Natalia Ionova gets all glammed up to sing in front of some random guy in his underwear who gets a little too excited by the TV. Yeah, her voice can still cut through concrete, but she's quite striking, so that counts for something. OK, lots of non-Russians dancing around, creepy guy, Natalia's grating voice... Oh, and how about that ending. The creepy guy and his wife get into a fight. She yells at him for watching smut and he says that he's just waiting for soccer to come on and after that I kind of tuned out. So there you are: a completely deceptive video with unappealing people and a singer who can barely sing. Enjoy!

Oh, the Humanity!

OK, I've known about this for a while, but I thought I'd mention it. Lampreia is no more. Witness:

It occupied that nondescript corner of 1st & Battery for about 15 years, doling out some very good high-end chow for those in the know. Me, I was never rich enough for the experience, so I never got to see what the place looked like on the inside. I'm assuming they had decent carpet and chairs. But don't shed too many tears for Lampreia, Scott Carsberg, the guy who ran it is merely switching formats. Say a premature hello to Bisato:

It's gonna bar a wine bar. I like wine, so it just might work. Anyhow, we'll say ciao to Lampreia to await the arrival of Bisato.

Free Stuff!

Hey, in the alley in back of the Rivoli, you'll find a vacuum, a desk and a comfy chair - and they're free. Have a look:

They're all black, so they totally go with everything. Who could possibly pass up such items??

A Terrific New Installation at Suyama Space!

I was lucky enough to get in on the opening of Claudia Fitch's Floating Mechanism (nightshade) at Suyama Space (2324 2nd Ave.) last Friday. It's quite fantastic. Even several days later, I'm at a loss as to how to describe it. Here's the write-up from the Suyama site:

Floating Mechanism (nightshade) is a landscape tableau that hovers just above the gallery floor, richly patterned and dramatically punctuated by the cantilevered armature floating down from the adjacent wall. Scaled and placed to hold a dynamic relationship to the Space, the tableau considers and playfully re-invents the industrial, mechanical world of the gallery’s original use.

Yeah, OK, but there was also the very cool outer space aspect to it - like it was some important array that should be in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth. Rows and rows of identically-painted pieces of molded cardboard create the impression of eyes or eggs or breasts. It all depends on how you look at them, but the piece's futuristic minimalism is quite remarkable.

Here are many, many pictures:








The best thing about the piece is that despite its uniformity, it is constantly changing depending on the angle of view. It's a completely wonderful experience. This is only the second installation I've seen at Suyama. I thought that Grotesque Arabesque by Dan Corson couldn't be topped, but this is every bit as good. I highly recommend seeing it. Admission is free; just go to the gallery entrance during weekday business hours, ring the bell and they'll let you in. Now that's a great deal! It shows from now until April 23rd.

While taking a break from the crowd (there were quite a few people there), I stepped into the Suyama Peterson Deguchi gallery. Here are a few of their more interesting pieces:

I believe that's a Fokker d.VII.


Here's something by Scott Fife. It's pretty cool.


And this was just oddly juxtaposed.