Art Chantry @ the Henry

First of all, I must apologize for the lack of posting in the last month or so. I have been crazy busy settling into a new place, learning, working, and playing. I've had several things I wanted to blog about in this time, but it never seemed to happen. Tonight however, I went to a lecture that inspired me so much that I couldn't keep it to myself.

Tonight I stopped by the Henry Art Gallery to see local designer Art Chantry speak about his work. He hadn't really been on my radar before, and when I was deciding whether to attend or not I was frankly a little put off by the fact that most of his work is in advertisement. I admit to a bit of snobbery when it comes to slogging product, but this guy managed to rock my world anyway. What was so amazing? Authenticity. There is so little of it in the world, and Chantry has it in spades. Why shoot a TV and then take a picture of it, when you can take a picture of it and shoot the picture? Why put flames on a poster, when you can set the poster on fire? Why declare yourself to be Swiss when you're really a punk at heart? For the first time I see with 100% clarity that the abstract and undefined ideas that have been floating in my head do have a place in this industry, that I have a place in this industry. This man stepped up to the podium and he was tattooed, he was crass, he was unapologetic about his ugliest work, and I was amazed, because it's far too easy to become obsessed with making things look good at the expense of authenticity and experimentation and your own real self. Now, I'm not ready to run off and be a little disciple or anything, because that would only be imitation, and be as plastic and slick as the Swiss disciples, and I'm not particularly punk anyways.

But I guess what I'm trying to say is this: thank you Art, for a magical evening. You really opened my eyes.

Moving, TA Training, Orientation.... information overload!

So, I will be starting the MFA in Visual Communication Design at the University of Washington next wednesday. This past weekend, I packed most of my posessions in my Jetta and drove it 17 hours north to start a new life. I went from summer to fall in under a day, from warmth to rain and chill, from architecture to graphic design, from the working world back to school, and from the known into the unknown. More images of my neighborhood, my school, and my studio work, will come in time, but for now I thought I'd post some observations gleaned from the information overload that has been the past four days:

*Never ship anything you really care about, unless it is nigh indestructable.
*"Do not beat up your students"!!! (yes, this is an actual quote from my TA Training conference. I don't know how the seminar took this turn, but once it had it was hard to get back on track)
*Even grad students have a hard time with some very simple things, like course registration.
*The bus system here really IS better.
*A Volkswagen Jetta can fit approximately one room worth of posessions, plus up to three bicycles on the back when outfitted with the appropriate rack.
*I'm not the only one too poor to afford the MacBook Pro they really want...
*I need sweaters. LOTS of sweaters.
*Even when it's cold here, it's really, really beautiful.

Seattle Parks - Freeway Park

This is post #1 in the Seattle Parks series. Freeway Park is a hidden gem in the midst of downtown Seattle, designed by Angela Danadjieva. A concrete 'lid' has been constructed on top of a portion of I-5, and populated by walkways, plants, and fountains. This hidden gem is a great example of the character of Seattle itself, with the large expanses of concrete directly bordered by verdant landscape. It is full of interesting textures, beautiful dappled light, lunching workers from nearby corporate towers. I don't blame them --- if I worked downtown I would lunch here, too. Full photoset can be found on Flickr.

notes on biking in Seattle

So I was in Seattle a few weeks ago, and meant to do a series of Seattle posts right when I got back, but, well.... you know how it goes. Anyways, two great things about the above image: first, the bike parking was pretty nice. Apparently these used to be parking meters, but the metering on that street was replaced by a single electronic meter that serves the whole street. So instead of ripping out all the old parking meters entirely, they just chopped off the tops and added these cute bicycle symbols, that cyclists can lock to. Being convenient, good-looking, obvious, and based on the principle of re-purposing existing infrastructure gets this bike rack major props here. The only downside was that they were only good for one or two bikes.

Great thing #2 about the above picture: that's a rental bicycle! That's right, the great folks at Montlake Bicycle Shop hooked me up with a very nice rental bike for a few days. I got several compliments on it, everyone was suprised that it was a rental. I completely recommend renting a bike as a great way to see the city- you're not at the mercy of the bus schedule, and you get a better view of many of Seattle's natural wonders than either pedestrians or motorists do. Plus, all that exercise lets you try tasty treats from Pike Place market guilt-free! So all in all, it was a great trip and I logged in lots of miles. I hope to post more later, particularly about some of the parks I saw there.

toxic algae

A trip to the beach (on two wheels) yielded the a strange and unsightly water condition that seriously discouraged swimming. Each wave crest was green. Violent, acid green. Green ripples were left on the sand where the water had receded. Flotillas of the same green material abounded on the water, looking like rising yeast which had met an unpleasant food coloring. A lifeguard told us that this presence was an unusual amount of algae in the water due to warmer than average water temperature. A look at the Ocean Advisory and Beach Recreational Health page yields the information that Venice Beach's water quality grade for this month is indeed a C, with a symbol indicating that this does not meet acceptable standard.

Big suprise. While the lifeguard on duty was quick to assure that this was nothing to be worried about, my scalp and skin felt coated in slime after my hasty exit from the water, and I can't help but think that when someone has algae in their pool, they don't take a swim in it.

Expo Line Funding In Jeopardy

Shhhh, they're trying to keep it quiet, so quiet it was just a tiny nugget buried in today's LA Times, but the State of California may pull funding out from under Phase II of the light rail line intended to connect downtown Los Angeles and the University of Southern California to the ocean at Santa Monica.

"There is talk in Sacramento about major budget cuts in transportation spending — and that has implications for the Expo Line. Work is now beginning on a light-rail system from downtown L.A. to Culver City. But transportation officials said cutbacks could hurt the chances of building Phase 2, from Culver City to Santa Monica. That could be bad news for Santa Monica. The city has already purchased land for a possible rail station."

As this snippet mentions, Phase I Expo Line has already started construction. Phase I will begin at the 7th Street Metro Station in downtown LA, heading south parallel to the Blue Line before breaking away west to connect with USC, Exposition Park, the neighborhoods of Crenshaw, Baldwin Hills, and La Brea before ending (temporarily, we hope) at the northern edge of Culver City near the start of the Ballona Creek bike path. fortunately, this phase of the Expo Line has funding in place, community support, and is set to go.

Phase II of the Expo Line is apparently not so lucky. This phase intends to pick up where phase one leaves off, and continue west via one of two routes: either by integrating into Venice Blvd, then jogging north up Sepulveda Blvd and then returning to the westerly course; or by following the Exposition Right of Way all the way to Santa Monica. I happen to be partial to the Venice/Sepulveda detour, as it places a station right next to my apartment building, and through a couple of neighborhoods that I know could use the added transportation option, but either option is better than nothing.

I can only support a project with such laudable goals as enhancing the connectivity of Los Angeles, reducing traffic congestion along the always busy east/west parking lot known as the I-10, and providing viable transportation options for those who either cannot afford to or morally oppose owning a personal automobile. So it frankly confounds me why the bureaucrats in Sacramento would rather fund highway expansions that let more people sit alone in their cars on the freeway than fund a mass transit option that enhances one of the most crowded commuter routes probably in the nation. The Expo Line will have millions of riders either way, but letting it hang out there half-finished would be a guffaw to rival the move in which Metro allowed the Green Line to not quite make it to the airport.