Construction Round-Up!

Gather round and see how fast things are going up. I think you'll agree that they just charging along. Here's the Recovery Cafe a few weeks ago:

And here it is now:

They've added a floor and lots of other stuff.

Let's have a look at A.L. Humphrey then:

And now:

They haven't added any more floors, but they're filling out the interior structure. So yes, everything is being built super-fast. With all these rapid results, you might be thinking, "Hey, why can't they fix the McGuire as fast?" Well, the problem is that once it's built, it's a lot harder to undertake massive repairs, even if you've hired an entire dwarf army for the venture. That's why it's important to build it right the first time.

Oh, and here's the crane.

Yeah, it's really not impressing me any more.

Graffiti Word Association - 2

I already told you: moo! Didn't you hear me the first time?

Eye Guy's Latest

And when I say "latest," I mean from the last month or so. He hasn't been too active in the last few months, but have any of us. My friend Jim spotted some of his trademark work in Tacoma. Hey, why mess around in Tacoma when you can contribute to Seattle's urban nightmare? See, I ask the important questions.

Here's something on the side of the New Pacific Apartments (aka the starting point for Jeff Bridges' extravagent walk through Seattle at the beginning of Fabulous Baker Boys) at 1st & Vine. Poor Eye Guy is still dealing with water solubility issues like with this:

This is quite the inferior work. I mean, is that tag really necessary? We all know it's Eye Guy.

A lot of his stuff has gone on signs. I'm not sure that those are the best place for the eyes. Witness:

It doesn't work too well, does it? But this kind of does:

This is also on Vine Street, at 2nd Ave. I think the fact that it's on the reverse side makes it work. Overall, it's the best of the lot. Funny thing, just when I think that Eye Guy's stuff is declining precipitously in quality, he'll do something surprising and cool. Come on, man, gimme some of that old magic!

After Hours

Brigitte Bardot. La fille de paille

Here's Brigitte singing a really weird and annoying tune about straw. She's supposed to be naked under all that straw, but alas. Golly, it's a shame that she turned out so crazy, but what are ya gonna do? Please enjoy.

My Trip to the Zoo

I heard the other day that they're closing the Woodland Park Zoo's nocturnal house. What's going to become of the bushbabies and the Rodriguez fruit bats? They'll probably give them ten bucks and a bus ticket and send them on their way. Sorry, creatures of the night, try another city.

This being January, things were very quiet. The red panda was in an even deeper sleep than usual. The penguins were downright boring - not swimming or frolicking, just standing around waiting for life to happen. Observe:

Nothin' to see here, folks. Move along. You know, there was more action going on in the reptile house:

Look at that guy go! I continued on to the nocturnal house and saw them feed the night-time anteaters. Sorry, no pictures. It was dark and all I had was my cell phone.

I walked on, saw some kangaroos, tried to see some bears and various other animals. I also saw a squirrel. Here he is pretending to be in the forest:

And here he is after diving into a trash can and fishing out a Cheeto:

He should come to Belltown and ransack our trash! He's very good at it.

I imagine that I'll go again to see the nocturnal house a few more times before they close it. But for now, that was my trip to the zoo. The end.

McGuire Scaffold-Watch! Week: ???? + 39

The perspective may be different (I took this shot from 2nd & Bell), but the scaffold is the same. I'm pretty sure that the scaffold has been up for a year. It takes me a while to notice glaringly obvious stuff, but I seem to remember dodging some elements of scaffolding while walking down 2nd Ave. this time last year. What can I say? I'm not an observer. I'm also not an instigator. If I was and if I lived at the McGuire, oh baby, how I'd be instigating. I mean, does it really take a year to fix a poorly-constructed building? And exactly how poorly constructed is it? I'd want to know. I'd also want free rent. And then if the scaffold remained for more than a year and a half, I'd want them to pay me. It's only fair. And those are the things that I'd include in my instigating.

Security House Scaffold-Watch: Week 13

If I'm not mistaken, that dark gray strip on the side is new. So they're actually doing work! Lord knows what purpose it serves. I've seen guys going up and down on that area in a window washer's rig, obviously working on something. I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the mole people. Since this project seems so rhapsodic and meandering, I'm going to revise my estimated scaffold removal date (ESRD) to April. I guess that if the only sign of progress is a slight change of color to part of the building, maybe things will take longer than anticipated.

Drill, Baby, Drill!

What is it with all the drilling in this crummy neighborhood? Right down on the corner at Blanchard, they're doing this:

The entire process isn't exactly "whisper quiet." And just around the corner from that on 3rd, they're doing the same thing. And ditto for 4th Avenue. What's the deal? I could just go up to those guys and ask, but I'm shy, so I'll say that it has something to do with the mole people.

Christmas Is Still Over

Somebody really should tell the folks at Great Jones Furniture:

They're definitely starting to look slightly crazy. Not as much as a guy walking around in a Santa suit three weeks after Christmas, but crazy enough for me not to want to buy any furniture from them.

Coming Soon to the Moore!

Sorry about yesterday's mini-hiatus. I was celebrating the third anniversary of this. And since there wasn't that much to celebrate it was a pretty boring day. Anyhow, back to all things Belltown. On the surface, this show at the Moore sounds kind of dreadful, but it's actually a pops concert put on by the Seattle Youth Symphony and the Broadway Bound Children's Theater. Let the kids have their fun, I say. Of course, there's no way in hell I'd ever go see this, but as long as family and friends attend, they should have a pretty full house. They promise an orchestra of about 100 for the gig. Question: where are they gonna put them all? When I was looking around for a venue for Mackris v. O'Reilly, I had to pass on the Moore, because the stage was far too small. And my ensemble was around 60 people. It should be interesting to see those poor kid wedging themselves back to the fire exits. Like I said, let them have their fun.