It's for the curious, it's for the hopeful

The other day we went to Seattle's Museum of History & Industry, something I had been looking forward to for quite awhile, having spent some days as a kid skipping school with my mom and my brother to do just this. We would go to the museum and look at all the old stuff they had on display, and then we'd ride the bus downtown to the Paul Bunyan room at Frederick & Nelson for banana splits. I remember my mom saying the bus would "turn on Pike or Pine." For a long time after that I thought there was a street in Seattle called Pikerpine.

The Museum of History & Industry has a fancy new acronym: MOHAI. Either everyone in that committee meeting was 85 years old, or this is some genius ploy to get people to smoke up and visit the museum. (Or both. Who knows, the Northwest is crawling with hippies.)

Whatever the case, sadly, the MOHAI has seen much better days. It used to be like Seattle's own Mütter Museum of junk, but in attempting to become more kid friendly it's gotten a bit schlocky. (This phenomenon is not unique to the MOHAI—I experienced the results of this trend in my stint at the Museum of Natural History in New York several years ago. I actually think kids are better off if they aren't always treated like kids. When you over-think what is kid friendly or not, it often just makes things boring.)

Writing in The Stranger a couple weeks ago after visits to both the MOHAI's storage facility and the Las Vegas Neon Museum, Erin Langner put it well:

In the process of creating a comfortable and often sterilized facility, the environment that allows objects to be explored rather than just explained can be lost. Both MOHAI's warehouse and the Neon Museum evoke the traditional wunderkammern, or "cabinets of wonder," back to which American museums trace their origins. The overpowering curiosity that comes with entering a space abounding with unlabeled artifacts is a natural inspiration to look closely and to ask questions, two tasks that mainstream museums spend large amounts of time, money, and text trying to encourage in their 21st-century audiences.

So that's that, I won't go on about it, I was disappointed overall. I'm really hoping that once the MOHAI moves to its new location at the Naval Reserve Building on South Lake Union, it will re-integrate some of the weird stuff.

That being said, there are still are some cool things to see at the current location:

People protesting the massive Boeing layoffs of the early '70s.

Boeing's first plane (the B-1, introduced in 1919) still hangs from the ceiling. Below it sits the Slo-Mo-Shun IV Hydroplane.

An early computer from Boeing. Everyone likes a good control panel.

An old dress from a couturier window in the fake circa-1889 town.

"Gradual withdrawal can mean a lifetime."
Or a hundred years or whatever, but who's counting.

The men's bathroom still has its nice old wood and metal fixtures – very nautical, aren't they? (I'm not sure why but they seem like they'd be on a boat. The Côte d'Ivoire maybe. Very much so.)

And the parking lot still has this old cannon, pointed across the lake at Kirkland.

So, basically, in conclusion, the place is worth seeing but hopefully it will be even better when they let some stuff out of storage.

Also, it's still a good idea to have a banana split after you go.

More info at seattlehistory.org

Champagne of the Forest

If you're having a hard time distinguishing the subject of this picture from the bushes behind it, it's because you're looking at the elusive camouflage Miller High Life tall boys. Beer companies engage in a lot of lame gimmickry but I'm on board this time, I can't help it.

A Special Day for Being Afraid

Earlier this week I read a review at Pajiba by John Williams (you might know him from such excellent blogs as A Special Way of Being Afraid) and I am super worked-up to see the new Swedish vampire movie/love story Let the Right One In. Here's the trailer:



You can tell from these short clips how unusual and visually stunning the movie is. Scandinavian people are always doing cool and freaky stuff. Scandinavian people understand the power of empty space and color and lines.

While we're at it, another extremely scary, beautifully-made film that gave me nightmares a few nights in a row is The Orphanage. Get it on Netflix if you haven't seen it.



Happy Halloween.

Myths Of The Near Future

.
In the shuffle of moving I forgot to mention that Emily and I saw a really good exhibition at James Cohan Gallery before we left New York:
Martha Colburn's handmade 16mm animation Myth Labs.

It's essentially a stop-motion collage that Colburn pieced together using drawings, magazine cut-outs, historical images, and flat puppet-like constructions, and then filmed through stacked glass to distort everything slightly. The extremely high-speed story connects the pilgrims and the conquest of North America to the current epidemics of meth and religious fanaticism.

I found the content extremely unsettling and was completely blown away by the attention to detail that went into crafting the whole thing—it took Martha Colburn nine months to complete it.

The show is over now but I recommend visiting marthacolburn.com to view a short excerpt and more stills.

James Cohan's current show runs through November 15th and features the work of Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes, who also kicks ass at art, so if you're in New York go check that out.

Traveling Without Moving

The New York Times has a slideshow on its website featuring the Seattle neighborhoods of Ballard and Fremont. Click here to check it out.

New Acquisitions, part 5: Bozeman

This is commentary and music, with Ron Carter on bass. Pretty cool.
(I will digitize these and post them up once my whole set-up is back in order.)

This has some covers of tunes from obscure films like Medium Cool, The Libertine, Sweden Heaven & Hell, etc.

I don't really need another Paul Mauriat record (does anyone?) but I liked this cover.

Someone had unloaded a bunch of European pressings at the Goodwill.

I'm a sucker for Ramsey Lewis, I think I have 15 of his records. Good cover too.

Another David Axelrod production.

All the songs on this record are named after parks (Central Park, Parc Guell, etc.)

Finally

More rare Pink Floyd, including:
The Pink Floyd See Emily Play mp3,
I sing this to Emily (sing it at Emily, really), which, you can guess, she loves.

Every Single Post Means Something

Check it: Marnie Stern's new record just came out, with artwork by our good buddy Bella Foster. It's called This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That and it's the follow up to her first album, In Advance of the Broken Arm, which is brilliant and complex enough that I still hear all kinds of new stuff every time I listen to it. Go get it at Kill Rock Stars or emusic or wherever you buy your music.

From the new record:
Marnie Stern Transformer mp3

From In Advance of the Broken Arm:
Marnie Stern Every Single Line Means Something mp3

Some other stuff we found on the road.

Seems plausible.

This is a really nice looking bag and the chips are delicious.

Emily and I were drinking Leinenkugel's in Minnesota and thought it was a quaint regional brand, but they appear to be making headway in other states—I've seen a few of their signs at bars around Seattle. It's kind of a weird beer, a little too hoppy for cheap camping-trip beer but I could see how it might grow on you.

I didn't know this was a book first.

Not sure why I bought this.

Can't wait to try this out.

Up in the Hood

On Sunday we walked around Capitol Hill a little, and then had drinks at Redwood and watched the Seahawks wipe up the field with the sorry little '49ers. That was fun for a change.

Redwood is a relatively new bar that feels like it's been there since 1967. Apparently it's owned by (among others) Mat Brooke of Grand Archives and formerly of Band of Horses and Carissa's Wierd. (I realize that everyone in Seattle probably already knows this but I have to go at my own speed here.)

Carissa's Wierd Suedehead mp3

The bar has these old mining lanterns retro-fitted with new lightbulbs.

Taxidermy. Obligatory at this point, but I'm not really tired of it, I guess. It's kind of classic in bars – like you wouldn't get tired of paintings on walls.

The bathroom has all these old targets as wallpaper.

The bar is lined with shotgun shells. So yeah there's a vague undertone of violence…to animals, large and small…but somehow the place is very relaxing…for humans.

When the game ended, the bartender put on the new Mount Eerie album Lost Wisdom, featuring Julie Doiron and Fred Squire, which is so good, we stuck around just to listen. Get it on white vinyl with a gatefold and poster at PW Elverum 7 Sun, Ltd., or download it from emusic.

Redwood mixes a mean bloody maria – maybe the best I've had. It has long green beans in it, and they blend it really well. It makes a big difference.

I didn't order food but the menu looks solid too. I like Redwood – it will definitely be my third place, or at least one of them.

After that Emily and I walked over to Linda's Tavern, the old standby. It's across the street from my old office, and I used to go there sometimes.

After that was the Tiny Vipers show at Cairo on Summit Avenue, which was part of Expo 86.
It was weird to me that there weren't a ton of people there—I think if Tiny Vipers played Union Hall or somewhere in Brooklyn, it would probably sell out. Of course, selfishly, I would rather see a small show, and Tiny Vipers did not disappoint, even considering she only played four songs. I will look forward to seeing her play again.


Here she is playing "On This Side" for the Seattle Burn to Shine session.

Cairo seems like a cool place. It got written up in the T blog several months ago.

I got a zine and a Flexions record there, which I'll cover in greater detail later (rest assured).

And, finally, on the way home I walked by this little installation in a closed check cashing place on Broadway:

Reclaimed (Ace Cash Express), by Joanna Lepore, imagines that Seattle has been abandoned and "left to the mercy of nature." It's pretty cool.

Post-Post-Something

Not particularly attractive, but weird and worth noting: the cover of the new Animal Collective record Merriweather Post Pavillion, available January 20th from Domino (via LineOut).

Cat Wrangling

Yes, Jeans is doing just fine here in Seattle. He thanks you for your concern. The climate is working wonders for his fur – he's extra soft. He has had no problems meeting his 19-hour a day sleep schedule.

Freeeedom!

(Via Andrew Sullivan.)