Video: The Crocodile showroom redone

I was somehow lucky enough to accompany a writer on a pre-opening private tour of Seattle music venue The Crocodile earlier this week.

In one sentence: everything is different from what you remember of the old place.

Here's a 360 video of the showroom two days prior to first door open.


You can see the new showroom for yourself tonight and Friday, when local bands take the stage for what The Croc is calling soundchecks. These two nights are opportunity for the club's operations staff to fire up all engines for the first time and learn the kinks and quirks of the new place, prior to the first ticketed performance this weekend. The soundchecks tonight and Friday are completely free. You should go.

Read more about the tour and get some inside scoop in Chris Burlingame's article The Crocodile Sneak Peak. A few more photos from our tour are over on my Flickr.

The Crocodile is a new venue located at the old, long-storied Crocodile Cafe location in Belltown. (One such story goes like this: Eddie Vedder had his own personal key for the alley door so he could come and go whenever he wanted.) But this venue is not simply The Crocodile Cafe, reopened. It is The Crocodile, with a completely redone interior, top-of-the-line equipment and an operating philosophy which places quality over quantity. You will not see The Croc booking shows every night of the week, just to be open. If a good lineup can't be had, the club will be closed. (ala Showbox vs. Chop Suey vs. the old Crocodile Cafe.) I like this approach: it helps the performance-going public to distinguish between a good show and just a show. If The Croc books it, the club believes it will be good, and it is not just a date-filler on the club calendar.

The Crocodile folks we met were to-a-one friendly, approachable, open, fun, and really good people. I'm confident The Crocodile will soon enough have their own stories and be creating new memories for music lovers throughout the Puget Sound region.

2009 is International Year of Astronomy: Local Notes

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, so here's two Seattle-related bits of cosmic news to start off the month of Galileo's birthday:

• Mt. Rainier made an appearance in NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day yesterday


• On February 15th, the Museum of Flight will unveil two new large-sized prints of multi-wavelength images of the spiral galaxy Messier.

Astronomy Picture of the Day is an unadorned site of gorgeous photos accompanied by explanations in plain English. The photo above is of lenticular clouds near Mt. Rainier, taken in December 2008. Browse the APOD archive for more amazing pics. I particularly like this one: The Milky Way Over Mauna Kea. Wow.

The two new prints at the Museum of Flight combine images from NASA's Great Observatories: the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The prints are provided by NASA as part of NASA's participation in International Year of Astronomy. One print displays the combined Hubble-Spitzer-Chandra images. A second print is a triptych that displays the three high-resolution images from Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra side by side and with description captions below. The Museum of Flight is one of 100 organizations across the country to recieve two new prints from NASA. More info on the Museum of Flight's Happy Birthday Galileo! and print unveiling event to be held on February 16th.

you are here

here

You are here. Where the accumulation of everything ended in keeping nothing.

This piece of street art is particularly site-specific and serves as a pointed reminder of the false value of "things." Look for it when walking on Pike or waiting for the bus near the intersection with Bellevue Ave.

More about the site and the sad story of what happened here one early morning in late October.

Try The Kingfish Cafe for knockout southern comfort food

Believe everything you've heard about The Kingfish Cafe. Yes it really is that good, and yes, you will wait for a table --unless you arrive ahead of the 5:30 dinner opening and hang out with other hopefuls who skipped lunch in anticipation.

The nine dinner entrees range in price from $11.25 for red beans and rice up to $18.75 for a ribeye steak. Entrees include appropriate accompaniments, such as collard greens, grits, or mashed potatoes. Starter salad or soup is not included.

For a delicious sharable starter, try the trio of Wonderful Dips. The catfish spread is the southern version of the northwest's salmon spread: fresh, creamy and rich: perfect on the sturdy and salty crackers. Slather the spicy black-eyed pea spread on a piece of crispy flat bread for a treat which puts mexi bean dip to shame. The cool artichoke garlic dip is tasty, but not as remarkable as the other two. Saying that, I must admit to mopping the artichoke dip bowl clean with the last bite of lightly toasted bread.

I had the griddled catfish entree: a generous portion of cornmeal-dredged and pan-fried fish, accompanied by a hearty scoop of tomatoey, garlicky, spicy grits and enough collard greens to make both your mom and your nana happy ($12.75) The catfish was cooked to perfection: crispy brown outer and moist, flavorful inner. The grits were mighty fine - the savory seasoning was a new thing for me. (Growing up with southern parents, grits were dressed up with butter and sugar and served with breakfast.) Collard greens hit the spot too, but if you are vegetarian, ask questions first. I'm pretty sure I tasted ham hock along with the onion and other flavors in the dish.

The menu warns that the buttermilk fried chicken entree may run out and I can understand why($15.50). I tasted a bite and it beats Ezell's chicken hands down. (Granted, Ezell's costs less and you get it quicker.)

I rarely RARELY order dessert, but couldn't pass up pineapple upside down cake. Another staple in my childhood kitchen, I imagined it would be something like the Duncan Hines kit: a flat one-layer cake, pineapple rings shining through the butter/sugar topping, and a half of maraschino cherry centered in each circle. I couldn't be more wrong. The Kingfish Cafe version of pineapple upside down cake was so right.

Check out Kingfish Cafe for the knockout southern home comfort food, attentive service, and warm and friendly staff. Well worth the wait.

Art on Broadway: artist reception & guided tour tonight

You can view the STart on Broadway art installations anytime through November 15th, however tonight is the only opportunity to meet the artists and have a guided tour of the works staged in empty retail spaces.

The reception is tonight from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at the Artist Trust office (1835 12th Ave), followed by an hour-long guided tour on Broadway.

untitled, Jason Puccinelli


If you can't make it tonight, plan your own walking tour when it is dark; many of the works are washouts during daylight.

Look for one of my favorites, Sky Dance. It's like a mashup of the Nutcracker with Disney's Haunted Mansion.

Parasol, by Webster Crowell

Decibel Festival: Mercy!

After reviewing the Decibel Festival schedule and making recommendations for dB newbies (TIG), I'm ready to work on my own plan and decide whether to pay-as-I-go or just buy a damn pass.
Here's what I'm considering hitting:

• Deconstructing Pop (Tujiko Noriko, Jahcoozi)
• dB Conference, panel 1
• The Trinity (Jerry Abstract, Jeff Samuel)
• Dirty Dancing Showcase (Deadmau5)
• Native State Label Showcase (Nalepa)
• dB In the Park
• Detroit Techno (Carl Craig)
• Innerflight Showcase (Kadeejah Streets)
• Decibel Festival Finale (The Bug/Warrior Queen, SuperMayer)

Some of these are simultaneous which could make for some interesting and fast hill walking. Not to mention the number of ink stamps to collect on my inner right wrist.

The Carl Craig set at Opulent Temple at Burning Man this year drew a huge (I mean HUGE) crowd. If that is any indication, the Detroit Techno show on Saturday will be off the hook: sweaty people dancing as if wearing Hans Christian Anderson's Red Shoes, crying "Mercy!"



the outer edge of the crowd 100 yards from Opulent Temple, right before Carl Craig went on.

PARK(ing) Day in Seattle

Park(ing) Day in Seattle resulted in 30 parking slots around the city transformed into micro-parks for one day only, Friday, September 19th. I rode my bike on a Capitol Hill-South Lake Union-Downtown circuit to visit a baker's dozen or so.

The following picture is of a spaced titled Victory Garden, located on Capitol Hill. The folks here encouraged growing your own veggies and herbs on your city balcony or window. They brought potted plants from their own spaces to prove it could be done. The tomatoes were looking good.

This next photo is of a space Downtown on 1st Avenue near the Market. It was run by AIA Seattle and was a lovely little park. It featured furniture using wood planks from naturally-downed trees (offered from Myer Wells). Gorgeous!

The Zen Garden (below) was in the South Lake Union neighborhood and took up 3 spaces. One segment had a zen rock garden created with coffee beans.

Oh, and about the coffee beans: they felt so nice in hand I commented that it would probably be nice to walk on. The folks running the spot insisted I try it out. So off went my shoes and socks. It felt heavenly! And smelled good too. (Hmmm. A patented spa treatment might be in my future.)

See more pictures of Seattle PARK(ing) day -- including me in coffee beans up to my ankles -- here.

Book Repair Shop in the Seattle Underground

I'm a casual collector of unusual old books, so I was exicted to happen across an authentic bookbinding and repair shop on First Avenue in Seattle. Ars Obscura is located on the original street level - which is now the Underground - of the Grand Arcade Building in the 200 block.

There's something romantic about old books and the craft of hand bookbinding. Through the windows of Ars Obscura are suspended clusters of leather, book presses doing the necessary, and worktables with hammer, liquids, string: authentic, timeless.

I wished to step in and breathe deep the scents and might never want to leave. But I didn't. The shop was closed.

One of my favorite little books is an 1876 edition of the Floral Birthday Book. This is a Victorian-era whimsy, from a time when nothing was said plainly and the inanimate had meaning and significance. Birthday books were popular in the late 1800s through early 1900s (particularly with the British) and provide space for each day of the year to write someone's name. All books I've seen include an illustration or quote associated with the day, and most are based on children's stories or famous writers. Birthday books aren't particularly valuable as a collectible, nor do I seek out pristine or rare versions. I'm not into it for future value. Rather, I like the glimpse into the culture of the past and enjoy reading the inscriptions and thinking of them as Victorian-era horoscopes for a birth day.

Here's September 9th from a few of my birthday books:

"She loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them." Shakespeare (Shakespeare's Birthday Book, 1906 NY)

"...Oft thou hast sworn, in friendship's soothing tone, Whatever wish was mine must be thine own." Byron (Floral Birthday Book, 1876)

"He's well under cover; - by cover we mean He's behind a high bank, and of course can't be seen."(Lt. Col. Seccombe's Army & Navy Birthday Book for Children, 1911). [Really. this book floors me everytime I look at it.]

"Always liked a little something at 11 o'clock in the morning." Winnie the Pooh (Christopher Robin's Birthday Book, 1930)

"Dear me, how inexperienced I was!" Quetch (Dr. Dolittle's Birthday Book, 1935

"How sticky the mind that is Discontent." (A Birthday Book by Joan Walsh Anglund, 1975)

Robert Zverina's Autobioanthropolography

Get yourself to the McLeod Residence and check out Robert Zverina's show "memory (w)hole." Trust me: it is fascinating, and you'll want to go back again to see more. What is so compelling?

Autobioanthropology is a word made up by Robert Z: autobiography + anthropology.

Robert Zverina's been creating mini-films with a digital pocket camera since Feb 2003. He's compiled the best of the short clips into 24 hours of video documentary of ordinary life. Clips range from 4 seconds to 30 seconds, the equipment's maximum recording time. The word autobioanthropolograhy is apt.

The video compilation is mesmerizing: you don't know how long each clip lasts and you have no idea what the next subject will be. A cat? A street scene? Making a purchase? Riding a train?
The briefness of each segment, punctuated with a 5-second empty interval between each, leaves you wanting just a little bit more -- yet also happily anticipating the next segment. Channel surfing ordinary life, if you will.

I watched about 20 minutes of the compilation at the show's opening last Friday. I plan to return to see more, and I'll likely also buy the DVD ($30) and play it on the TV when guests are over.

The second installation by Robert Zverina at the McLeod is 572 Pictures of the Day, which wallpapers the front gallery room. These are prints of online photo/text postings, from pre-blog time to present. He's been blogging before there was such a thing as blogging. No fancy blog s/w for this fella. Every page is hand-coded. (Hard core geek.)

The artist's statement on the memory (w)hole show:
In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, history is constantly rewritten, with the old versions being tossed into the "memory hole"--an incinerator. memory (w)hole is a play on words that implies we inhabit a space between total recall and utter amnesia. This exhibit presents the largest compilation of Robert Zverina Short Films to date, with more than 24 hours of non-repeating microdocumentaries cycling chronologically in a comfortable cinema setting. In an adjacent gallery, 572 Picture of the Day web page printouts line the walls from floor to ceiling to form an "exploded book," a grand gesture in the futile struggle against forgetting.

Just for reading this far, I'll throw in a few fun facts about Robert Z:

• He's a low-fi DJ: he plays 45s on a portable turntable


• He's getting married in August in the country. Back country. He and the wife are having a block party/reception in the Fremont neighborhood to celebrate nups the following week.

Memory w(hole) runs at the McLeod Residence through the end of September.

Here's the dude himself taking a picture of me taking his picture. Hmmm. Maybe I'll be in something.

Parks Dept Responsible for Submerged Spikes in Green Lake

"I'm sorry it was us," says the Seattle Parks Department. [#]

Mystery solved. You may now kindly resume your Green Lake wading.

photo: detail from The Belmont, Nov 2007

After nearly two weeks of wild speculation (a maniacal diver? intelligent geese?), the Parks Department has 'fessed up. The spikes were part of a milfoil control experimental program in the 1980s. Plastic was anchored to the lake bed to reduce the sunlight and thus curb the growth of milfoil in the lake. These curved rods eventually rusted into spikes, were discovered, and consequently fueled speculative theories of who and why.

Ah, the ripeness of summer gossip.

Raise Your Hand if You're a Tourist

raise your hand if you're a tourist
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

The ferry ride to Bainbridge Island (Winslow) and back is one of the best low-cost tourist activities in Seattle. Less than $7 will get you a roundtrip ride across Puget Sound with spectacular views of the city skyline, the shipyards and a glimpse of island life.
Ferries run about every 40 minutes on weekends. The little town of Winslow is a 6-block walk from the terminal and offers two blocks of shops, restaurants and bakeries. Best bets are Eagle Harbor Book Store and Blackbird Bakery.

Eagle Harbor Book Store is a mini Elliott Bay Book Co, if you will. The staff are knowledgeable and helpful, and the selection and arrangement of books demonstrates thoughtful care. (BTW, they are hiring. Wanna live on Bainbridge?)

Blackbird Bakery offers a good selection of vegan baked goods as well as traditional wheat and sugar goodness. Something for everybody here! I had a delicious oatmeal and craisin cookie. The real tourist I traveled with was pleased with the vegan lemon pound cake.

Don't bother with the waterfront walk/trail that is signed to the left as you exit the ferry area on Bainbridge. The "trail" wanders through the service area for the Washington state ferries (sorta interesting if you are mechanically inclined), crosses a bracken outflow, and then pops out for a waterfront view of Eagle Harbor from the industrial side of the bay. Not very interesting or pretty. Better to hang out at the terminal and people watch if you arrive back early.

Ducky Debrief

geek, girl, and a hippo
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

So that was fun! A few lessons learned:

• Smaller goes faster
• Weighted-bottom ducks suck
• Normal sized ducks get stuck
• Wear flip flops (see next)
• Plan to nudge your ducky along
• Hippos don't float as well as ducks
• Get a smaller duck
• Sharpies work great for dressing up the duck

Pimp Your Power Tool for Drag Racing

There's still time to get your MAKE on and create a vehicle for the Power Tool Drag Races. Races will be held Saturday June 28 in Georgetown. The races are part of Artopia, an annual event for innovative art and emerging talent.

Although speedy locomotion is a primary factor to winning a typical race, local-whiz-goes-to-NY-to-MAKE-it Bre Pettis reminds us that "an important part of power tool racing is style: making your power tool look cool."

Learn How to Make a Power Tool Drag Racer


(The chicken assisted starting device at 3:40 is f*cking brilliant.)

Word on the street is that Mr. DIY himself will be present with entrant in hand. You didn't hear it from me.

The Power Tool Drag Races races are organized by Hazard Factory. Motto: Don't run with scissors, commute.

Adorable fashion @ Georgetown Music Festival

Adorable!
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

This young teen looked so adorable I had to take her photo. She has an M.I.A. look going, yet all her own style. I particularly like the red boots balanced with the red shirt, and her mix of patterns and textures. The green wrist warmers are an edgy touch.

She looked to be about 15 years old. Keep on stylin' girl! Righteous!

What everyone in Seattle was doing Saturday night

casual patio dinner
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

Hanging out with friends somewhere - anywhere - outside.

Our fare:

Grilled salmon (caught on Wednesday), grilled steelhead trout, roasted brussel sprouts, spinach salad, roasted corn salad, saimin noodles with onion, grilled chicken, cake with strawberry cream frosting.

Emerald City Comi-Con in pictures

I know nothing about comic books, so I'm not sure how I ended up going to this event on Saturday. Seemed like a good idea, and I ended up having a fun time!

I was hoping to find some old comics that my older sister and I ate up like candy when we were in the tween years: True Love, First Kiss, Love Story, etc. We would have DIED asking our southern-raised parents to buy these for us. Thank god for our neighborhood girl friend, who would pass along her well-read copies. How else would we have known that true love is all that matters? And that the first kiss is the only one that matters? (Uh, I can't even remember the name of person I first kissed.)

Unfortunately, these love comics must be popular items since the only ones I found were priced more than I was willing to pay for a short trip down nostalgia lane. Oh well.

Since I can't comment intelligently on anything comic-book related, I'll just share some more photos. Very amusing that my most viewed pictures on Flickr from the event are (1) scantily-clad girls in costume, and (2) a picture of the word "poop." Sex and body functions. Of course.

A Seattle version of The Amazing Race: wanna play?

Here's your best chance to be on The Amazing Race tv show. Only, without the cameras. And you don't need your passport. And it only lasts 2 hours. And you stay in one neighborhood, in Seattle. And you won't be on tv. But it's probably as close as any of us will ever get. It's on Capitol Hill in Seattle and it happens May 31st. No auditions needed -- just an entrance fee, which goes to a good cause: the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings.

The Seattle Inner City Outings Search Party 2008 scavenger hunt will start off in Cal Anderson Park and threatens to cover the entire Capitol Hill neighborhood. Participants can expect a lot of running around while finding answers to clues and participating in wacky activities for points. The event is timed for a hard stop and late arrivals will have points deducted. Last year's scavenger hunt was held in Ballard and activities included finding the Latin name for a tree, stuffing a sleeping bag with one hand, playing croquet, and creating a haiku from sign rubbings. (Read more about 2007's event here and here.)

So who wants to race amazingly? Maybe even in costume, or at least coordinated accessories. (Think same-colored bandanas if costumes are too scary for you.) It is going to be too fun. I promise.

Not so Innocent: Fuco Ueda artwork

Japanese artist Fuco Ueda produces beautiful images of Japanese girls that are innocent, sexy, and dangerous all at once. You can view several original works at the Roq La Rue Gallery this month.

Fuco paints using acrylic and powdered mineral pigments, and finishes her work with shell powder. The result is simultaneously soft and crisp, like her subjects.

"The heroines of Fuco Ueda’s paintings are often on the brink of danger. These beauties are at once victims and agents. But whether the threats are self-inflicted or not, they make for fierce and beautiful narratives." [#]




Is she smelling the chrystanthemum, or metaphorically tasting the flower?
Fierce indeed!

The Roq was lucky enough to get a show commitment from Fuco before she signed on with Tomoko Kogure, of Tokyo's Gallery Kogure. I chatted with Tomoko on Friday but she didn't reveal much of her plan for Fuco. Here's hoping Fuco doesn't end up in an artist stable and just one of many. Fuco's work is too good to be sidelined. All of the her pieces for the Roq show have been purchased.

I talked with Fuco Ueda for a few minutes through her friend who translated for us. Nice. Shy. Surprised that I knew of her work from a year ago and that I had been eagerly anticipating her show in Seattle.

Get yourself down to the Roq La Rue in the next couple of weeks to see this work in person. It is lovely, lively, and a bit sexy-dangerous -- in a metaphoric way.

p.s. It is safe for kids: the sexy-dangerous vibe will go right over their innocent little heads.

Public Access Bike on 15th?

left unlocked
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

So this unlocked bike has been leaning against a bus stop sign for 3 days now. It is on a busy road and the bus stop is heavily used. I am so surprised the bike has remained in place for DAYS.

I know some folks are wringing their hands and worrying about safety and crime on the hill. Here's a counter point.

If the bike is still there on Saturday, I think I'll decorate it up and make it a public access bicycle for 15th Ave. One way trips, leave it unlocked at your destination. It's a grab-and-go thing: if you see it and need it, you go for it. Southern boundary Pike, northern boundary the Canterbury.

Call me a dreamer. This men's 10-speed is too big for me, however. That bar could easily cause damage to anyone shorter than 5' 8".

Artist SHAG to pay a visit to Fantagraphics

The uber-hip artist SHAG will be at the Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery in Georgetown Saturday, May 24th, 6pm - 9pm for exhibition opening and book signing. The gallery will feature original works created for the alphabet book SHAG: A to Z, published by Fantagraphics. [#]

SHAG's style is the epitome of Palm Springs circa 1960: "a world of mid 20th century modern architecture and design, populated by hedonists, supplicants, and indifferent women." [#]

I met SHAG (Josh Agle) a few months ago at the scooter-themed show Motorino at Roq La Rue gallery. He was the ultimate in cool: nattily dressed in coordinating browns with mixed textured wools. Nice fellow, and genuine, too.



hat tip to Seattle Twist.