Seattle And Tacoma

As promised, here is my first newsreel-of-sorts, coming to you live from the top left-hand corner of the United States; the state of Washington! I have visited the cities of Seattle and Tacoma, there is plenty more to see there than in this meagre blog post, but I'm holding some other stuff back for later, as it related to a different theme (a certain 1990s rock band that put Seattle alternative music on the global map...). You'll have to wait and see.

Okay, back to this. Below is a photo of the Seattle Art Museum. The statue outside moves its left arm to strike whatever that is in its right hand with the hammer. One of the few moving statues I have seen and it looks impressive, as well as providing a handy reference point for those in the city. I have been fortunate to get mostly fine weather for the 11 days I have been here; the day this photo was taken (Tuesday, November 8) was fairly sunny, for an autumn day.


On Wednesday night, November 9, I finally got to see my fave band ever (other than Nirvana) perform live at the Showbox in the south downtown area. They Might Be Giants played a 29-song set that I and the other fans had a great time singing along to. We found out later that John and John had been feeling unwell; no evidence of this during the show, as they put on a solid performance. John F. was ever the showman, telling jokes throughout, and handed out stickers of their new album cover at the end. The photo below is courtesy of Extremely Crappy Live Concert Photos, Inc.

On a side note, if anyone knows of a non-DSLR digital camera that can take decent (unblurred) indoor nighttime shots without flash, let me know. Don't say use your phone or you might get a toaster hurled at your face. (I'll post a review of TMBG's show with more pics on the China 5 Blog soon, as it's more music-related.)

Meanwhile, in the city of Tacoma, local glass artist and sculptor Dale Chihuly (born 1941) is doing amazing things in the medium of glass. Below is a pane from the Bridge Of Glass, a lengthy structure suspended over the length of a walkway near the Museum Of Glass. A riot of colours and beautiful rippled shapes all the way along and it's a shame it won't all fit into one photo. This section of the bridge reminds me of a huge lemon slice surrounded by multi-coloured sea jellies, pulsing gently.

Thanks to Bernard and Robert for providing me with a drawing challenge; they will both appear in a future Geeks In Space strip, which I'll scan and post in late January. Rob, yours is a bit more difficult as I have to learn to draw Jimi Hendrix, but I'll give it a go anyway!