I'm a lasagna boy!

SEA the city by boat, by train, by foot.

Walking down by the Port of Seattle, Anna and I hopped a ferry to Bainbridge Island. There we walked into the quaint downtown, replete with about six thousand different places to pick up an espresso, and found a chunky little paperback filled with pictures of bicycles around the world.
Upon return to the mainland, we traipsed through the sunshine-filled afternoon -- and who would have expected that sort of weather in Seattle? -- we then rode the Monorail on a two-minute journey which arced prettily through a Frank Gehry-designed Museum.

Seattle runs free bus services through the downtown area between 0600 and 1900: how much does this fareless area promote overall public transit? Portland and Pittsburgh do something similar. San Francisco could promote MUNI by adjust an area between Union Square or Chinatown and the Convention Center, and between the Embarcadero and Van Ness; I think that Jim Reid for Mayor had an idea along those lines.

SEA by 'plane.

Upon arrival at SEA, I wondered if one could get downtown by public transit. And it was easy: the online trip planner set us straight, for a $1.25 apiece.

93 pounds per day.

Bestow blessings upon venerable Neldam's Danish Bakery, where 75 years of kringle-eating, cake-devouring, and cake-making all add up to a delicious community.

Within a few miles each of the other, the East Bay boasts such luminaries such as Piedmont's Fenton's and Berkeley's 300-lbs-of-lard Kingpin Doughnuts. And who of the early-risers amongst us can forget Johnny's Donuts in Lafayette?

The Oakland School Board needs this.

Somewhere between laconic street slang and overinformed academic prattle comes

Word.

Bless this Old Tub.

The New York Times' Obituaries section always evinces a bittersweet smile: I enjoy reading about the unusual and strong people on these pages, people who have, perhaps quietly, made a difference in our understanding of the way we live.

Under the headline Master Bourbon Distiller, today I read that Frederick Booker Noe, whose name I first encountered on a bottle of bourbon, died. The 6'4" Booker said: "A respectable amount of bourbon to pour in a glass is about two fingers' worth. Lucky for me I have big fingers." (sound clip at the Small Batch bourbon site).

... silver screen, can't tell 'em apart at all ...

Listening to Bowie this morning, thinking about a painter from Pittsburgh.
Scott Blake's digital pointillism might be making a weighty statement about how we have trapped ourself in the measured black-and-white of the automated world, or he might be making cool collages. Or both.

Is our librarians learning?

The Palo Alto Daily News ran a story reporting that the Redwood City Public Library has learned a lesson from San Francisco. Librarians preparing for the upcoming $45,000 renovation of the Schaberg Community Library simply discarded unwanted titles, and did not coöperate with a local resident who tried to take them to other community organisations.

History Lesson Pt. II

Thanks to aram, we have something else to argue about: The Real Top 100 Albums of All time...

Interesting Facts

The appearance of two Sonic Youth Albums, Slint's Spiderland, and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless in the top ten illustrates the strong influence of thirty-something indie-rockers.

Bands with the most appearances on the list
The Beatles - 5 Albums
David Bowie - 4 Albums
Radiohead - 4 Albums
Talking Heads - 3 Albums
Velvet Underground - 3 Albums

An otherwise inaccessible location

The oddly-placed Frank Curto Park along Bigelow Boulevard in Pittsburgh ("put it in H!") always made me wonder: who was this poor fellow, that the city would feel an obligation to honor him, but to do so in a slipshod way? Create a narrow park along a busy highway on a bluff over the train tracks, and expect the public to use it?

The STUDIO for Creative Inquiry found a suitable use for the park: installing an Art Garden. Visitors can contribute their own plants to the garden, like a magic penny from the Malvina Reynolds song. Fitting, as Frank Curto was the curator of Phipps Conservatory during the 1970s.

To fathom Hell or soar angelic

Some cranks wrote that "by the rules for combining Greek roots, the word should have been psychodelic. They also said that even in the late 70's, psychedelic had mostly been replaced by hallucinogenic". All due to Humphry Osmond, who introduced Aldous Huxley to L.S.D., and who died this past week after a lifetime devoted to research into medicinal uses of hallucinogens.