South Park Bridge

I joined about 200 people at the South Park monthly community meeting last night to hear about the fate of the South Park Bridge. South Park is a fascinating little neighborhood on the southern edge of Seattle, mostly built from the 1920's through 1950's to provide homes for the Boeing workers whose factory was in full bloom at the time. Since then the fortunes of Boeing and all of the industries that surrounded it have waxed and waned, and South Park has come through many rough patches. Statistics from the 1970's and 80's suggest that it was Seattle's most dangerous zip code for quite a while, but in recent years the neighborhood has undergone a rennaisance, finally getting a long sought library and community center, and becoming the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in Seattle.

The big problem South Park faces these days is the closure of the bridge that connects the neighborhood with the rest of the city. The bridge across the Duwamish River moves some 20,000 cars and trucks and more than 5,000 bicyclists and pedestrians each day. A 2006 assessment of the bridge showed that one of its piers isn't anchored in stable soil, both piers were built with substandard concrete, and either side could collapse during an earthquake. The Federal Highway Administration has given the bridge the worst safety rating in the state.

King County estimates that it would cost $123 million to replace the bridge, and last month the federal government rejected a grant request for $99 million, leaving the project without a penny. The bridge is scheduled to be closed on June 30th, diverting all traffic to the nearby freeway and cutting off all walking and biking routes to and from the neighborhood. An urban neighborhood on the verge of genuine renewal will be left utterly isolated.

The facts one could gather from the community meeting were nothing but depressing. Despite years of warnings, there is simply NO plan to repair or replace the bridge. Representatives were on hand from the Office of the King County Executive, from the City of the Seattle and from the Port of Seattle, but there was only one message: South Park does not have the money or the clout to force a solution. The locals were up in arms with anger and frustration, but the offical reaction was to express sympathy and shoot down all hope.

Read more about the situation here, and more about yesterday's community meeting here. And if you're in Washington, by all means call your local and State reps and demand that they help this vibrant community maintain its lifeline.

The Mistake by the Lake

Photographer Chris Mottalini has taken a lovely series of photographs of makeshift enclosures in Buffalo, NY built by parents whose kids have to wait for the school bus in that town's famously brutal winters. The shelters dot the Buffalo landscape, but when I lived there they just blended into the background. I'm impressed that Mottalini took the time to notice them. The series carries the ignominious title "The Mistake by the Lake." Many more images here.

Film By Design

The 10th Annual By Design film festival opens tonight at the Northwest Film Forum. By Design is a beloved local institution that explores the intersection between design and the moving image. The programs have always presented breathtaking new work alongside unearthed treasures from the past, and this year continues that worthy trend. Highlights of the 2010 series include a documentary on the British-based art collective The Light Surgeons on March 6; a presentation by film curator Peter Lucas on the history of movie title sequences on March 7; and no less than FOUR different programs of short films by Charles and Ray Eames. More information and tickets here.

Barry Hannah

Sigh. Sad to hear that writer Barry Hannah passed away on Monday, March 1. He was 67 and had been battling cancer for some years. Hannah's writing had such boisterous energy and manic spirit that it seems wrong for him not to have lived into an obstreperous old age. But there you go.

Hannah blasted out of the deep south with his first novel, “Geronimo Rex” in 1972, an incendiary coming-of-age tale replete with sex, violence, liquor, a perverted white supremacist, and a special kind of dark hopefulness that became his stock in trade. He wrote several more novels, but his unique way with words really shined in his short stories - wild and absurd tales of an American South full of passion, guns, confused war veterans, suspicious strangers, oddballs, outlaws and hair trigger good ol’ boys. He was one hell of a writer. The Rumpus has a sweet remembrance of the man, and the lit blog Tin House features an interview with Hannah from 2009 in which he discusses his illness and his as yet unpublished final book, The Sick Soldier At Your Door.

Gorillaz in the Mix

The good folks at NPR are temporarily sharing a free stream of the entire new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. Let's be honest, it's all about about promotion, but it's still an entertaining listen. As ever, Gorillaz' core duo consists of musician Damon Albarn and graphic artist Jaime Hewlett, and they continue their trend of working with an outstanding roster of musical contributors, including Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Lou Reed, Mos Def, The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music, and more.

Listen here.

Kiki Smith

The extraordinary sculptor, printmaker and photographer Kiki Smith will be in Seattle for the opening of her new show at the Henry Art Gallery. Smith entered the art world as a sculptor in the late 1970s, creating works of unsettling beauty which often showed women's bodies in various states of distress. One powerful series of pieces, made of bronze and forged steel, featured a woman with her skin removed to show bare muscle tissue, yet her face, breasts and belly remained smooth. In the 1980's Smith experimented primarily with print making, most famously experimenting with screenprinted images of organs and body parts on clothing, posters and public walls. For the last 30 years, the artist has bounded from sculpture, to prints, to video presentations to installations, always creating a powerfully unsettling sense of intimacy that provoke political and social unease.

The show at the Henry, titled "I Myself Have Seen It: Photography & Kiki Smith" opens on March 6. The very unusual show consists of both Smith's own photographic works, alongside photographic images from Smith's personal collection. The exhibition features Smith's snapshots, video collaborations, computer-based images and hand-made composites, juxtaposed against such photographic treasures as 19th-century motion studies by Eadweard Muybridge.

Smith opens the show with an introductory lecture on March 4th. Tickets are available now through Brown Paper Tickets." I Myself Have Seen It" runs until August 15, 2010.

Slinkachu

Street artist Slinkachu places tiny hand-painted figures in unlikely urban settings, photographs them, and leaves them for passersby to find. He recently released a book of his photos called Little People in the City: The Street Art of Slinkachu with a forward from none other than British novelist Will Self. Splendid.

Ouch My Eye

Ouch My Eye is a physically small but conceptually huge gallery existing in the unnamed Seattle interzone between Pioneer Square and the Stadiums. Over the past 3 years Ouch My Eye has mounted dozens of carefully curated group and solo shows, unafraid to tackle subjects as diverse as Art vs. Science, contemporary furniture design and "9/11 Truth." This month brings the 2nd Annual Invitational Exhibit with artists chosen based on their affinity with the mission of Ouch My Eye: "Creative people dedicated to un-orthodox work guided by a passion to create regardless of education, affiliation, or past accomplishment." This beautifully assembled exhibit features work by Charles Kraft (shown here), Chris McMullen, Joe Vollan, John Lewis, Lynn Schirmer, Mike Klay, Ryohei Hase and Tracy Boyd

Opens this Saturday, February 27th, at Ouch My Eye, 1022 1st Ave S. in Seattle.

Seattle Bike Swap

This Saturday brings the annual Seattle Bike Swap. Lots of great deals from parts manufacturers and bike shops looking to sell off stock and clear out old merchandise before bike season really gets going. Tons of new and used bike-related goods, from complete bikes to small parts. One day only, Saturday February 27, at Magnuson Park Hanger #30. Admission is $5 from 9 am to 1 pm and free from 1 to 2 pm. Kids enter free all day. Most dealers are not taking credit cards, so bring cash or things to trade if you mean to go shopping!

Ishmael Reed

Today is the birthday of writer, poet and social critic Ishmael Reed, born February 22, 1938. Reed was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but grew up in Buffalo. He attended Buffalo public schools from elementary school until he dropped out of Buffalo State University in the early 1960's. Reed's writing career began with a jazz column he wrote for Empire State, a long defunct African American weekly paper out of Buffalo.

Reed moved to New York City in 1962 and co-founded the East Village Other, an underground newspaper that became an important organ for the burgeoning counter culture movement. He published his first novel, The Free-Lance Pallbearers, in 1967, and since then has published some 10 novels, five books of poetry, four collections of essays, six produced plays, dozens of songs, and countless reviews and critical articles. Reed's huge body of work conforms to no one style, but more often than not Reed is combative, suspicious, deeply cynical and funny as hell.

In addition to his own prolific career, Reed has been a champion for younger writers, founding and serving as editor and publisher of various small presses and journals. His current publishing imprint is Ishmael Reed Publishing Company, and his online literary magazine, Konch, features contemporary poetry, essays and fiction. Reed recently retired from teaching at the University of California, Berkeley where he taught literature and creative writing for thirty-five years.

beware : do not read this poem

tonite, thriller was
abt an ol woman, so vain she
surrounded herself w/
many mirrors

it got so bad that finally she
locked herself indoors & her
whole life became the
mirrors

one day the villagers broke
into her house, but she was too
swift for them. she disappeared
into a mirror
each tenant who bought the house
after that, lost a loved one to

the ol woman in the mirror :
first a little girl
then a young woman
then the young woman/s husband

the hunger of this poem is legendary
it has taken in many victims
back off from this poem
it has drawn in yr feet
back off from this poem
it has drawn in yr legs

back off from this poem
it is a greedy mirror
you are into this poem. from
the waist down
nobody can hear you can they?
this poem has had you up to here
belch
this poem aint got no manners
you cant call out frm this poem
relax now & go w/ this poem

move & roll on to this poem
do not resist this poem
this poem has yr eyes
this poem has his head
this poem has his arms
this poem has his fingers
this poem has his fingertips

this poem is the reader & the
reader this poem

statistic: the us bureau of missing persons re-
ports that in 1968 over 100,000 people
disappeared leaving no solid clues
nor trace only
a space in the lives of their friends

Mobile Sound Unit

Vancouver based designer Jonathan Igharas picked up a heavy-duty utility tricycle while he was in Beijing and converted it into a highly portable DJ station. Powered by a rechargeable marine battery and a power inverter, the Ant AV Tricycle houses turntables, CD players, speakers and a visual projector within a cleverly designed cabinet. Sliding rails allow for quick set up and easy access to the equipment within, making it possible to move from one location to the next. Brilliant. Hope to see and hear this on a Critical Mass ride some time this summer.

From the charming site For the Love of Bikes!

Oh To Be Not Anyone...Gone

I didn't see Patti Smith when she was recently here in Seattle, and I regret it. Immediately after the show, the entire city was breathless with excited and tearful summaries of Smith reading old poetry and new prose from her book Just Kids, and of her powerfully direct musical performances, just she and a guitar. No one who saw it spoke of anything less than a once-in-a-lifetime performance. Stranger writer J.T. Oldfield posted this summary on the magazine's blog.

Luckily, video blogger Ben Slivka sneaked a video camera into Benaroya Hall and managed to record a stunning seven minute section of Patti reading and playing. Here, she reads about her mental state at the very moment that her friend and lover Robert Mapplethorpe died, followed by a heartbreaking performance of her song "Beneath the Southern Cross."

Solace

Seattle street painter Solace is a distinctly Northwest kind of animal. While his work is clearly based on street culture and graffiti forms, he rarely uses letters, focusing instead on the strange creatures and characters that creep from his imagination. Like fellow Seattle-ite Parskid, Solace's ogres and trolls occupy a space both dangerously urban and peacefully uninhabited. You can find Solace's monsters on walls all over this city, and by digging a little deeper you can see his custom vinyl toys, stuffed animals, and detailed works on canvas.

A beautiful show of new small paintings by Solace, called "Survival of the Fittest," is up at the Whiskey Bar in downtown Seattle until March 4th.

Yoko

Yoko Ono is mounting an epic big-band performance of her newest record - which many critics are calling her best. The album Between My Head and the Sky, by the resurrected Plastic Ono Band features Daniel Carter, Yuka Honda, son Sean and others. The show takes place on February 16th at BAM with a band that includes the boggling collision of Cornelius, Paul Simon, Jim Keltner, Haruomi Hosono, Eric Clapton, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and Bette Midler. Needless to say, tickets are long gone. Earlier that afternoon WFMU DJ Brian Turner talks to Yoko at her studio for three hours of conversation and music. Streams here.

My World is Empty

My wife and daughter have gone away without me for the first time since she was born! Ten whole days!

Head Like an Espresso Truck

I like the sound of this.

"Head Like an Espresso Truck" is a one-night-only event featuring Seattle bands Fresh Espresso, Head Like a Kite and Truckasauras. It would be a good line-up at any time - all three bands are Seattle music makers gaining some serious attention. While they've all got their roots in hip hop, all three bands are serious experimenters, finding new ways to take the driving beats and cultural awareness of hip hop in new directions. And blessedly, all three bands have a great sense of humor about themselves and their work. This particular show finds all three bands on stage at the same time. As the event website has it: "No headliners. No set changes. 3 bands all set up onstage mixing it up. Fresh over Truck. Truck on Kite. Kite doing Fresh. And everyone all in."

At Neumo's, Friday February 12th, 9:00 PM. Tickets just $10.

Jim Denevan

Working freehand with found materials, Jim Denevan creates massive drawings on beaches and on the Earth's surface. His preferred canvas is a wide beach at low tide, sometimes walking for 30 miles and spending as long as 7 hours on a drawing which the tide then washes away. In addition to many insanely beautiful photos, his website contains detailed notes on how he accomplishes all of his projects. Denevan is part of the current Vancouver Biennale exhibition, and will create one of the world's largest free-hand sand-drawings on the beaches of Vancouver's Spanish Banks this summer.

E-Waste

E-Waste is a series of tragic but beautifully shot images from photographer Andrew McConnell. The photos were shot in Agbogbloshie, a suburb of Ghana's capitol city Accra, which has become a dumping ground for computers and electronic goods from Europe and the U.S. The hundreds of tons of waste that wind up here each month become the raw materials for impoverished people to salvage and live on. In places like the U.S., properly disposing of computers is hazardous and costly. Simply dumping them in poor countries like Ghana poses fewer legal problems, but results in all manner of toxic materials being released in the water, the air, and into the bodies of the people who work with them. The photos are eye-opening.

La Puerta

I mentioned Barcelona street artist Limow just the other day, and now, via Wooster Collective, comes this very cool stop motion film made by Limow and Sam3 on the streets of Barcelona and Murcia. Check it out.

Merwin

The poet W.S. Merwin is making an appearance in Seattle this week. Merwin has been writing and publishing poetry for more than 50 years. He is inventive enough, and has been around long enough, that his work has evolved through many different styles representative of several cultural eras - from his ornate mythological poems of the early 1950's, through the austere meditations on the natural world that he writes today. Through his many changes, the beauty of Merwin's poetry owes as much to an undying wonder at the ephemera of the world it does to his formal and rhetorical inventiveness.

Merwin's earliest work was written under the tutelage of John Berryman, and he returns the gift of teaching by sharing the Seattle stage with four younger poets who will read their work and chat with Merwin before an audience. The poets include Erin Belieu, Ben Lerner, Valzhyna Mort, and Matthew Zapruder.

On Thursday February 4th at Town Hall Seattle. Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for students, available through brown paper tickets.

For The Anniversary Of My Death

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
When the last fires will wave to me
And the silence will set out
Tireless traveller
Like the beam of a lightless star

Then I will no longer
Find myself in life as in a strange garment
Surprised at the earth
And the love of one woman
And the shamelessness of men
As today writing after three days of rain
Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease
And bowing not knowing to what