Photographs: Downtown, Roosevelt Way 


Photographs illustrating a recent trip downtown and the four-mile walk north along Roosevelt Way. There are 43 total photographs, including two really odd images of a wedding invitation sent me by Cingular Wireless, and one map. Images all have captions defining what the image shows and where it was taken. As has been the case for the past half-a-year, all images have ALT tags. As has also been the case for the entire life of the journal, all images are copyright using a Creative Commons license - so if there's one you want to use, go ahead. 


Seattle Glassblowing Studio on 5th Avenue in Belltown, this storefront is directly beneath the 5th Avenue monorail line and was used
by Seattle Friends of Monorail as a staging ground for press briefings and other news events because the Glassblowing Studio staff
are huge fans of the proposed Green Line and the public space here is quite attractive.



Shot through the window after hours, these are not the same glass sculptures, but rather are a series of similar sculptures which
are placed in tripod prongs on a wrought-iron tree which held about half-a-dozen such glass objects. Each one is about 12-inches
across and maybe 18 inches deep.



More views through the Seattle Glassblowing Studio shopfront windows. The studio not only serves as an outlet for glass artists,
they also have classes on glassblowing and glass blending, the art of adding different compounds and firing them to create the
colors and internal shadings. Glassblowing arts are all over the place in Seattle - it's one of the town's "local" specialities.



Final shot through the window of the Glassblowing Studio. Each of the preceding three images is actually two images combined
to make a panel of two, despite the appearance that these objects might be adjacent, in many cases they are not. The front
windows of the studio run about thirty feet with three large glass panes each measuring about ten-feet across and maybe
six-feet high.



J. Gilbert Footwear's showcase window on First Avenue, also in Belltown. This shoe gallery features custom made and adorned
leather, alligator, and snake-skin footware for both men and women. Each month they change the display with a new designer's
wares on display.



Closer look at two of the window displays. The inlay work on some of these shoes and boots is worthy of the best Texas bootmaker.
You don't want to know the price of any of these items, they're all at least the price of a large iPod or good set of bookcase speakers.
I suppose one might say they were slightly more utilitarian than an MP3 player or a set of speakers and will probably last as long.
It's all just discretionary income anyway, right?



The Seattle Public Library University Branch, right on Roosevelt Way at the corner of
NE 50th Street, right in the thick of the U-District's Roosevelt strip.



View of the walkway to the Library's front door from the Roosevelt Way side. The Seattle Public Library
collections now number just over two million items, mostly books, but CDs, tapes, videos, and other items
such as maps and deeds are in their special collections. Not counting university libraries, the largest US public
library systems are, in order, New York (10.6 million), Queens (10.4), Cincinnati (10 million), Los Angeles (8.3),
King County (Greater Seattle - 8.1 million), Chicago (8 million), Boston (7.7), Brooklyn (7.1), Pittsburgh (6.7, the
mothership of Carnegie Libraries), Philadelphia (6.2), Cleveland (4.9), Dallas (4.7), Houston (4.4), Miami, St.
Louis, Buffalo, and Detroit (all just over 3 million items), Columbus, District of Columbia, Toledo, Fairfax County,
Va., Montgomery County, Md., and St. Louis County, Mo. (all just over 2 million). Seattle should make the list this year
as city council approved $500,000 for the collections department which will put the library well over the 2 million mark.



The green line (turquoise, actually) shows the walk, covering about 4.6 miles from the
south end of the University Bridge up Roosevelt Way to Northgate Mall. The magenta
line is the route (actually half the route) of the 75 bus from Northgate Mall transit center to
downtown Ballard. The orange line shows the beginning of the 45 minute trip home from
Ballard via the 15/18-21/22 bus lines. Downtown is off this map to the bottom.



This is the front of Scarecrow Video, which Adam's film professor at Seattle South
Community College claims is the finest video rental store in the entire Seattle area. If
that's true, then it will be the equivalent of Video Vault in Alexandria, the DC area's finest
video store in terms of the off-the-wall and rarely-seen videos it stocks. Scarecrow is
on Roosevelt at NE 50th Street.



A shot from Roosevelt Way of one of the three Vegan restaurants in this area, just north
of NE 55th Street. Notice the trés hippy color scheme. The name of the restaurant is
Good Morning Healing Earth. The Roosevelt area has this and two other Vegan eateries,
the U-District has three, Capitol Hill has three - five if you count near First Hill-Madison area.



This is from in front of the main door. The sign said "For Sale," so we're presuming the
owners have plans to leave the area. The restaurant was getting ready to open for the
day, though.



This is a shot of the outside tables on the 55th Street side showing more of the late-60's
color scheme used throughout the restaurant. Their fare included vegan burgers, vegan
chile and a bunch of wraps using toasted vegetables and peppers. Actually, it sounded
pretty good.



In the same neighborhood as Good Morning Healing Earth is Keytime, a "learn to type
in one hour" typing tutor. We were wondering just how one could learn to type in one hour
and then it struck us - "hunt and peck" can be taught in a lot less than an hour.



This house was at the corner of NE 56th Street on the east side of Roosevelt Way. Adam
and I concluded that this was the house of a witch who had been practicing "bad magic" and
this was the result. The house next door was also somewhat torched. Why a witch house?
This part of Roosevelt Way, sort of in the "in between" land between the U-District and the
Roosevelt neighborhood just looks like it is a haunting ground for witches and warlocks.



Between NE 59th and Ravenna Avenue on Roosevelt Way is The Trading Musician, a Guitar
Shop or Musician's Friend type of store except that Trading Musician deals in used equipment
- of all sorts from guitars and drum sets to mixers and PA systems. I didn't go in here as I am in
the market for a few items including some cymbals (more is always better), some brushes, a few
mike stands and another JBL EON15 PA system. Better to go in a place like this when I have
money.



On the alley side of Trading Musician's building is this mural featuring an all-insect band.
The lighting and the narrow aspect of the alley didn't allow me to capture an image which
does justice to the mural, for instance, it's a praying mantis on bass fiddle and a beetle on
drums with a wasp on lead guitar. There's also a "No Flying" sign posted on the stage and
a special "stage left" location for the arachnids in the audience.



This is a panorama at the intersection of Roosevelt Way and Ravenna Avenue. Ravenna is in the left-center with Roosevelt
sweeping from the left side to the center. The esplanade in the middle of Ravenna is more clearly visible on the right. Ravenna
connects Green Lake with Ravenna Park which is just northeast of the University of Washington campus, near NE 17th Avenue.



Definitive Audio between NE 62nd and NE 63rd Streets on Roosevelt Way, one of the
high-end audio shops constituting "hi fi" row.



Also on the same block as Definitive is Precision Audio, in this case
directly across Roosevelt Way from its competitor on "hi fi" row.



Also on the same block is Speakerlab, a manufacturer of speaker kits and a high-end speaker
shop.



Between NE 63rd and NE 64th is Magnolia Hi-Fi, taking up nearly half the block. Inside they
have special rooms for their very high end audio systems and special rooms where they
feature their "theater" style home video set-ups. We're talking dozens of thousands of dollars
for the contents of any of these rooms. They also have lots of other stuff, as long as you're
inside they might as well try and sell you an MP3 player or a car stereo system or even an
outdoor, patio or deck, system.



Across the street from Magnolia is Hawthorne Audio, another high-end audio dealer which
features all sorts of new stuff, but what drew my attention was their window-wall featuring all
their used equipment - most of it high or very high end.



Another window-wall featuring even more used high-end equipment. I didn't go inside this
trip because I'm a complete sucker for used high-end equipment as I've purchased three items
from similar stores in the DC area.



Hawthorne's actual Roosevelt Way side, the equipment was located on the corner of NE 63rd.
Adam and I are reflected in the window as is Magnolia Hi-Fi opposite Hawthorne on the other
side of Roosevelt.



At the corner of NE 70th Street and Roosevelt, on the west side, is this gallery of lighting fixture art made by
women - hence the name "Wired Women..." The lamps were of all kinds and most of them looked pretty nice
and would be at home in any decor. There were no prices posted though, although the artist's name was affixed to
the lamps. It is open only by appointment and is the collaboration of six women lighting artists whose work is also
featured in other galleries around town.



Further up Roosevelt between NE 70th and NE 71st Street is the Perfect Wheels bicycle shop.
Again, we were somewhat perplexed as to what a "conscientious bicycle repair" would be.
Adam suggested that perhaps they don't overcharge. That's Adam in the right wheel reflected
in the window. My hands holding the camera are in between the bike's center struts and I think
my face is lost in the chain area somewhere.



In the same general block as the bike repair shop were these two contrastingly-colored
shops - one for Persian rugs and the other for fish and fish supplies. It looked like the two
shop owners actually coordinated their paint schemes. The further north one goes from
NE 65th Street along Roosevelt the more the shops are converted houses rather than being
built especially for retail.



Speaking of color coordination, this stucco house-turned-business had
these ivy vines on the south-facing wall which perfectly matched the burnt
orange color of the stucco. As I recall this was some sort of machine shop
or welder's outfit.



This wonderful mural was on the north side of the Marcello Ristorante at the corner of
NE 71st Street and Roosevelt Way. Although the photo doesn't do full justice, this is a mural
of a fence overlooking Florence and the mural includes these faux postings and billboard items.
Very classy, even the items which look like they're half-torn are, in fact, part of the mural.



On Roosevelt Way at NE 90th Street is this beachcomber-styled video house which
really looked out of place here - seems it would be right at home in Myrtle Beach or
Wrightsville Beach, but at the north end of Seattle?



On the side of the house-turned-business was this 3-D sign - yes, the letters really are
raised off the backboard. This side of the structure also featured the mural shown below.



Now this is one heck of a clever mural for the wall of a video rental store, whether it's at the
beach or on Roosevelt Way in the north end of Seattle is irrelevant. One damned clever
take on their rental products - eh? By the way, I sort of assumed that Yoda was wielding
a broom given the context of the mural.



At Roosevelt and NE 94th Street there's a new commercial structure with this dog styling
salon. I am always wondering what other language other than American English is so layered
with this level of rich meaning or if the French, for instance, can create as many plays on words
or puns.



The building which had been the old Reservoir Theater and is now a paint store had this mural on the outside. The
painter is installing tiles which are in the design of a Cascade forest near Mt. Rainier. Very nice job of painting and
a nice testament to the skills of the folks who operate this paint store.



As we were walking westward we found ourselves on NE 95th Street heading for 5th Avenue
NE to get to the Northgate Transit Mall and passed Olympic View Elementary School. In the
back lot of the school was this fully-functional log cabin completely fenced in. I was wondering
if the school had a "pioneer studies" program but Adam suggested this was the home for the
janitor.



And now a very odd piece of mail. This was addressed to me, as you can see, in very formal
script and inside was an announcement for the "wedding" of Cingular and AT&T Wireless.
"Reception to Follow" according to the invite. It even contained a sheet of tissue paper
inside the folded invitation.



A closer look at the wedding announcement. I suppose one should give
Cingular's board of directors kudos for this very clever method of
announcing their merger. I just wish they'd spent the money printing and
mailing out 46 million of these things on reducing our bills or beefing up
their coverage - here in West Seattle we have very spotty coverage,
sometimes all I have to do is turn around and the signal strength goes up.

Ciao - more later
chas 

Posted: Mon - November 22, 2004 at 02:28 PM          

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