Fremont Fair, More Photos, Live Music Reviews
I attended both days of the Fremont Fair. It met
all expectations - from freaky outfits, clever and diabolical floats, truly
outlandish attendees, live music and great food. Took way too many photos of
the couple of days. Went for another modest 14-mile bike ride and captured a
few additional panoramas from that trip. Review of the Fremont Fair, the new
Seattle Art Museum exhibition and more follow; pictures include Fremont Fair,
Alki views taken during bike ride, and Lake Union on second fair day plus an
experimental trip through the fair (filmstrip style)...
It met all my expectations. The Fremont street
fair, that is. I just spent 15 hours over two days at the Fremont Fair,
starting Saturday about noon - just in time to catch the parade. The parade
features naked painted people riding bicycles for about half-a-mile of parade
route. The fair is laid out along Fremont's lower bridge and canal streets, and
except for the first half a day, the main bridge route through town is allowed
open. My guess is that twenty or thirty thousand lined 38th and 34th Streets.
I got to the tail end of 34th, trying to stay ahead of the parade, because I had
erringly assumed that the #26 would continue into Fremont - instead it
dead-ended on the Queen Anne side of the Fremont Bridge and dumped all its
passengers onto the bridge. By the time I got to 34th I could see it was
impossible to navigate east, west or to cross the mass. So, I followed the
shoreline to get ahead and made it to a clear spot on the curb about a block
from the parade end just in time to catch the bike parade.
Next year my timing will be much more fine tuned and I'll know the preferred bus route. On Sunday, for instance, I caught the #54-to-5 which dumped me off just between Gas Works Park and the "center of the universe" heart of Fremont. Less distance to walk, lots of alternate paths to the fair.
The parade lasted until well past 1:00 pm, with a lot of the paraders heading to Gas Works Park and a lot of them heading to the shoreline parking lots east of the bridge to park their contraptions. This parade is one where just about anyone could join. It's mostly either satirical or lambasting or severely criticizing a variety of human foibles including present political leadership, present intolerant mores, and present ridiculously strict or constraining statutes. Lots of live music on the floats or in the street - all the floats have to be human-powered and there was one butterfly-dragon which consisted of at least twenty Radio wagons hitched together to carry the long, segmented, body of the butterfly-dragon. The head was what looked like a tricycle pull-wagon bike. There was also a papier-mache tank powered by two cast-away bicycles - one for the starboard track and one for the port track - pretty clever.
The parade brought great whoops from the crowded curbs and there seemed to be plenty of interaction with the paraders and the paradees. After the last float had gone by there was a surge of curb people who followed the end of the parade and then an SPD police cruiser with its lights flashing, signifying that 34th Street was soon to revert to its non-parade use. I wandered from there west toward the fair streets and meandered down Phinney and Evanston Avenues between Canal Street, N 34th and N 35th Streets. Pretty much all of waterside Fremont was taken over. The streets were lined with tents with freebie acts in between and stages at most of the major intersections or end points. Food vendors everywhere, including a local (Portland, I think) organic dairy giving away a pretty tasty strawberry-yogurt drinkable smoothie. I stopped by their chiller any number of times until they ran out and started giving away regular yogurt - not as good as the smoothie to cool oneself with. It was hot. Even by East Coast standards, Saturday it got up to 87 and Sunday probably at least to 85, with just a very faint breeze and practically zero clouds. Everyone had a hat on and most of the guys had their shirts open or off - some of the remainders from the bike parade also only had on their body paint or some variant of a fig leaf.
I caught the Folklife Festival, now the Fremont Fair, next the Gay Pride Event, then the West Seattle Fair, then the Capitol Hill Block Party, I'll miss the Alki Beach Music Fest, and then Bumbershoot. That's a lot of fairs and music festivals. There's two things I've concluded about Seattle street fairs. The first is that they are a whole lot freer and open and tolerant of the odd-person-out types than nearly any other fair I've attended. I love fairs, street fests, block parties, any event where strangers can crash the party and be welcome. The cops just lean back and watch or participate. Most of the events seem reasonably well-behaved (missed the bad-ass Mardi Gras of a few years back - like one of the Georgetown Halloweens). The other is the quality of music here seems to be at the top of the barrel for local bands. This country has such amazing talent in its citizens. Every street fair in all the towns I've attended (most recently Danville, Illinois and LaCrosse, Wisconsin) has such exuberance from the folks attending, the artists, the musicians, the locals. Everyone seems to have a very high degree of native talent and some folks stun with their artistry. From what I've heard of the local, Seattle, bands at Folklife and now at the Fremont fair, this town has a very deserved reputation for excellence in music, in musicianship, and in creative license to invent.
I love live music. In DC, the parks department holds these summer concerts with local groups in a few big parks downtown and in neighborhood parks on Thursday and Saturday nights. I used to bike around looking for these events. Most of the time I spent at Folklife was listening to the groups. Most of the 15 hours or so I spent at the Fremont fair was listening. At Folklife the groups got thirty minutes; at the Fremont fair the groups got an hour, so I was grovin' in front of half-a-dozen or more staged acts and local, street, musicians. The guy who plays the piano at Pike Place Market, the fifty-ish blond, long-haired Windham Hill-type new age musician was there as well. I captured most of the names of the bands and trios and groups. Most of them have CDs (CDBaby.com) and I'll undoubtedly spend a few bucks on most of them. So, the deal is that street fairs here have a bit more license to misbehave, the average band is a notch above most and instead of playing covers, they mostly play original material.
Perhaps the license to move outside the confines of society engenders a slightly-more-free-spirited artistic expression. This one is probably not chicken-egg.
I felt somewhat out of costume because I went in regular clothes, didn't have my hair dyed or spiked or Mohawked, didn't have body paint or face paint, didn't have body parts dangling jewelry, didn't even have political messages plastered on my clothes - though I broke down and placed the shoe-sticker of a band I really liked on my shoe toe - "Spyplane." I'd say that at least half the people crawling around Fremont were dressed for a party, the rest seemed to be looking for a party.
There's also this section of one of the streets which had the display cars - cars decorated as if they were moving sculpture. There was at least one whole row of "bugs" (VW's of some form). There were cars from out-of-state, too. That's one of the Fremont fair attractions - the art cars. It's an entirely visual sight and I took photos of probably two-thirds of the cars, about a third of them didn't seem that unusual - not something I couldn't find in any given neighborhood across America. Two-thirds, though, were genuinely decked out - one was completely covered with Nancy or some similar Sunday comic and shellacked. Another had an entire Dungeon&Dragon set built on top of it - as if it were a traveling gameboard. Another was decked out as a traveling encyclopedia of "stuff" with all the "stuff" on display shelves inside the converted commuter bus. Some of them were done with brighter paint and more embedded decals than the finest overdone motorcycle you've ever seen. Paint so glossy it looked liquid. In between some of the cars were more musicians and some of the cars were playing their own DJ-managed music.
I saw quite a few of the artists I'd seen at Folklife at the Fremont fair - most of them seem to travel a fair circuit in Washington or the Northwest. A lot of them even have schedules of where they'll be next - as did a large number of the in-between musicians. The musicians on the stages also had their schedules, except they were mostly at local clubs or stages in the city. I stayed Saturday until 7:00 pm and then walked over to Ballard to catch the bus home. Sunday I got to the fair about the same time and left about 5:00 pm, although it wasn't as hot as the day before I was exhausted - mostly just from the unrelenting sunshine. The fair was along Fremont's commercial streets and most of them are older and closer together than in other parts of town and don't have trees lining them. Scant shade and an unusually hot day for this time of year out here. If this year keeps up like last year it will be another "hotter-than-normal" summer with temperatures bordering the nineties rather than the usual mid-seventies. In fact, the weather seems to be much like when Katherine and I were here same time last year for house-hunting. Weirdly-cool in the morning with chance of rain, followed by clearing and hot followed by clear, gorgeous sunset, cool nights. As Katherine put it, "perfect Seattle weather."
The groups I listened to at the fair are worthy and I'll add them to the groups I reviewed at Folklife.
Ian McFeron and the Band - <http://www.ianmcferon.com/> a very interesting folk-blues-rock group formed locally in 2003 with several guitars, acoustic and electric, a violin/fiddle, drums and a few other instruments including electronic keyboard. Three guys and a gal (fiddle) who have one CD out and play in and around Fremont, Ballard and other parts of Seattle. McFeron writes his own words and songs and they're not bad contemporary folk-blues tunes, has message content and a beat.
Spyplane - <http://www.spyplane.org> - this four guy Seattle band, formed in 2002 from members of previous incarnations, have a couple of EPs and a CD out and plays at local clubs including the EMP Liquid Lounge. They're definitely indi-rock with strong beats, good guitar licks, locally-written songs and an original style to the classic beat of good rock and roll. Seem to have groupies and definitely have streaming radio.
Creeping TIme - <http://www.creepingtime.com> - a five guy group with bass fiddle, mandolin, violin/fiddle, drums, guitar and more as they trade off instruments. Folk, rock, bluegrass, country - all fused into very lively and high-energy folk-rock with an indi-twist and original lyrics and music. They play locally and have a few CDs out as well as a great selection of their cuts, both music (MP3) and lyrics, on their website, which also has streaming audio. With additions in 2001 and 2003, the band has been around since 1997.
By The Way - <http://www.bythewaymusic.com> - a trio of Seattle Gen-Xers who play blues folk country rock, originals. They do the fair thing in the greater Seattle area and have one CD. Pretty convincing stuff with a beat for just a trio, including acoustic instruments, too.
Revolving Jugglers <none> - this was one of the street acts, a Gex-X red-haired woman keyboard player and singer with a trio of guys playing lead and bass guitar and drums. Very new age and yet still rock-and-roll. Good stuff from an unassuming local group with one CD.
There were a few more bands including one real hard rock goth band playing at one of the main stages, but couldn't locate them on the schedule and they didn't have a band sign or kick-drum-with-name, but did seem to have quite a few groupies.
So, the music scene assessment here is what everyone's already written - outstanding local talent playing evolving rock-and-roll with original lyrics and riffs. Definitely good stuff. For me it's great since the festivals and street fairs give me access to the bands without having to go to clubs or bars. Nearly all the local groups have CDs and nearly all of them are listed on CDBaby's website <http://www.cdbaby.com>.
On a previous trip downtown I checked out the new exhibit at Seattle Art Museum - "Van Gogh to Mondrian." It's the collection of Dutch shipping magnate wife and German industrialist daughter Helene Kroller-Muller, who began a passionate art collecting spree in 1906. She collected neo-impressionist master painters Seurat, Signac, Denis, symbolists Radon and Toorop, and abstractionists Mondrian, Van der Leck, Van Doesburg, cubists Picasso, Gris and Leger. It's a fantastic collection and in 1938 Helene Kroller-Muller dedicated the building which became the Kroller-Muller Museum, to house one of Europe's greatest collections of art - now touring only Seattle (through September 12) and Atlanta (October 16 through January 9). If you're in Seattle, it's worth seeing if only for several Van Gogh's which you've seen and seen again but now can see in person - including "Cafe Terrace At Night," with its wonderfully bulging and impressionistic stars. In addition to the art, the traveling exhibit also has some of the furniture which was designed and built for the Kroller-Muller institution - it started more as a huge mansion-cum-gallery and became the largest art gallery in the Netherlands. There are examples of the finest furniture craftsmanship on display, many carved entirely from a single piece of teak. Again, if you're in Seattle this Summer, or Atlanta this Fall, try and catch this exhibition.
I'd also really recommend to anyone living here that they buy the yearly membership at both the Zoo/Aquarium and SAM. It's like sixty or seventy bucks each and another like fifty for the Burke (art and geo-sciences) and when you do it all at once it's a couple hundred bucks and seems like a lot. But, the ability to drop in on any of these places at any time it's convenient or when one is in the neighborhood - without having to go through the hassle of paying the six, seven or eight bucks each visit calls for - is worth the seemingly-heavy-up-front cost. I've been to the zoo at least a dozen times since I got my membership and it's only about half a year so far and already i've been twice the number of times for the same cost. Same is even more true of SAM, since it's near a bus transfer, I've taken to just dashing through to familiarize myself with the permanent collections - and to fill my brain with more design ideas. Anyway, it's a good deal for the institutions and the free reign it gives one to visit these places is totally worth the investment. (Civic-do-gooder comments over, now.)
I've posted a few shots of the past few days below - but beware, I'm in the experimental mode again and some of the photos may or may not work as intended - a few are huge and - hopefully - will work as expected, if not, it's just bits.
On the house front, the outside is "almost" done, there's the balcony railing, a few downspouts to reattach, but the painting is all done and now the yard gets to go through rehab. The inside is getting patched, filled, sanded and will be painted either today or tomorrow. Then, all that will be left will be the detail work and the carpet and remainder of electrical installation - the outlets, switches, lights, and whatnot. The spiral staircase still has to be finished but at this point it's probably three weeks or less until we go for final inspection and "occupancy." I'll try and get some photos whenever the painters are finished - it'll be pretty much an all-white view.
Katherine heads out tomorrow for Illinois, for a farm meeting with her mom, sister, brothers, and a really good representative of the next-gen Wilber Farms owners - Leif, Luke, Marty, Ellie, Hanna, (leaving only Caitlin, Adam as unattending and they both have conflicts). I could go but it's my turn to tend to the house - Katherine was here at the start when I was traipsing around San Francisco and now it's my turn while she and her mom meander back to Seattle from Illinois. If all goes well, they'll go through the Amana Colonies in Iowa, catch the Badlands, the Buffalo herds, the Black Hills and Wind Cave in South Dakota, take the back way into Yellowstone Park through Cody, Wyoming, drive north through Helena and through Glacier National Park and arrive in Seattle from either the way-northern route - State Highway 20, or the next-best-thing route - Old U.S. Route 2. That will take about a week which should be good timing since she'll arrive back just about the time the upstairs is finished. And, just in time for July 4th fireworks. I understand we stand a chance of seeing up to about a dozen fireworks displays from our roof - including the major downtown Seattle and Lake Union fireworks. Should be fun.
As a parting comment, the latest edition of Overheard:
Overheard
On the #54 bus heading for the Fremont fair on the second day, passing by an overlook on Fauntleroy Way which offered spectacular views of the Olympics, heading toward Alaska Junction, this 80-ish Anglo-Saxon-American lady sitting in the front set-aside seat, leaning back talking to this 50-ish Anglo-Saxon-American man. She's saying it's "so nice to get back to where there are real mountains." He's saying that the older mountains of the East are just as interesting and she's having none of that. "I was in the Appalachians several times. They're just like the foothills. I mean real mountains, like these." He says that the Eastern mountains are more interesting because they have more creases and hidden character. She says "well, I was even on - what do you call it - that Blue Ridge thing?"
Further along the same bus, picking up folks downtown heading towards Green Lake, this Gen-X Anglo-Saxon American guy and his Anglo-Saxon American girlfriend get on and sit near the front. Next stop this taller Anglo-Saxon American Gen-X type gets on and sees the other guy and greets him, "wow, what are you doin' here." First Gex-X guy, "well I live here now, two years, this is my girlfriend. And you, you here now?" Second Gen-X guy, "no, just visting. Doing everything. I'm still in Portland," First guy, "This is the first you've been up here?" "Yes, things are okay in Portland." First Guy, "Portland. Yeah, Portland's Portland." Second Guy, "well, since you been gone the Farmer's Market has gone "family" and things are not as cool. There's this new "family-oriented" push and a lot of things are not as cool anymore." First guy, "well, Seattle's okay, it's got its things, the cops are meaner. It's like, it's a city. So where you headed?" Second guy, "I've heard about this Fremont thing and am going to check it out." First guy, "us too, yeah, we were here last year and it was toned down from the year before that. But I think it changes year to year, no laws or anything yet."
More later.
Chas
View from the bus stop across the Fremont Bridge and of the bridge and intersection of the bridge with 34th Street -
the heart of the parade route. A lot of folks were taking the bus. Of course, a lot more could just walk from their
house or apartment or condo - a neighborhood fair.
Panorama from my viewing spot along 34th Street. The streetlights at the right end are at the intersection of 34th and Stone Way, which
was the end of the parade route and a few thousand feet from the entrance to Gasworks Park, which was the site of an impromptu
end-of-parade parade.
A full 360-degree panorama of the location along 34th Street where I was set up to watch the Parade. That's 34th Street on the left and
right sides with Stone Way the intersection on the left and the Aurora Bridge soaring over the street on the right. Downtown Fremont is
just west of the area where the bridge goes over 34th.
The crowd scene heading toward the "heart of the universe" in downtown Fremont. The bridge is the Aurora Avenue
- State Route 99 bridge and is yet another landmark in this town of landmarks.
Panorama of the crowd scene at one of the cross-sections - that's 34th Street on the left and right. The fair was set up on five intersecting
streets and along the Canal walkway. Fremont borders the north side of the Lake Washington Ship Canal - an actual canal which connects
the western edge of Lake Union to the locks and then the Sound.
Another panorama from a corner nearer the Canal. A street musician playing guitar and original songs, getting a few folks to stop and listen
and a few to put some bucks into the till. The Canal is right behind this scene, along the grassy side.
Panorama of Gallery 154, Fremont art gallery, with some of their usual artwork on display, a few street fair participants posing on the
railing with the artwork, and some fair passesrsby taking in the scene. This was at the north end of the fair on the way to one of the
stages set up along the Canal Walk area.
A sequence of photos showing the "Bed of Nails" trick with two performers. Didn't
get their names but they were certainly entertaining to watch - especially the part
where the guy in yellow shorts breaks the cinder block on the shirtless guy's chest
while he's laying on the bed of - real - nails. Lots of performers like this at the fair.
A series of photos showing the Art Cars, many from the Seattle or Washington-state area and quite a few from California. They
do have to work as vehicles, too, although I'm sure some of them probably raise quite a few eyebrows as they're cruising along
the highway.
This was a very strange sight, along Leary Way is this "new age" church - Mars Hill Church - which has a website, lots of attendees of mostly
young people, some with kids, and a philosophy which seems a bit too "churchy" for my tastes. No steeple on this modern church, either. I
guess this means that religions are still springing up left and right, despite Washington being one of the states where fewer than 30 percent
claim any religious affiliation.
Also on Leary Way is the "Stuff Cafe," a few blocks away from the heart of Fremont and about half-way between Fremont and Ballard. This
cafe was also playing live music on the Fremont Fair days - this group sounded like they were doing covers and the sound was carrying for
a few blocks in either direction of the cafe.
A closer look at the stage and some of the patrons at Stuff Cafe - music and caffeine on a hot Fremont Fair afternoon day.
Back home after the first day of the Fremont Fair. The sun had set about 20 minutes earlier and was giving this wonderful, peach-rose,
glow to the sky and backlighting the Olympic Mountains. Notice also the reflections of the sky on the Sound. This view was taken from
the roof deck and is about a 120 degree wide angle.
This is Alki Beach from the walkway right along Alki Avenue. That's Magnolia and Queen Anne Hills in the distance directly across
the water in the center. Bainbridge Island and some of the more distant hills on the Olympic Peninsula are on the left.
Another panorama of Alki Beach, further east from the view above. It was a relatively warm day so the volleyball courts had been set up
in the sand and there were a fair number of skaters, cyclists and bladers using the walkway with even more running or relaxing on the sand.
This panorama shows both the beach (right) and the strip along Alki Avenue (left). This section of Alki has a lot of beach-side service shops
and a huge variety of restaurants, cafes, clubs and snack shops along the street for about a half-mile section of road. This was the
former "beach" town of Alki and despite the continuing press of construction and condo-building, this area has retained much of its
turn-of-the-century beach town look and feel. It's also one of West Seattle's pricier places to live.
This shows the arrangement of the street - with Alki Avenue on the other side of these parked vehicles. The area between the parked
vehicles and the curb is for cyclists, bladers, other human-powered vehicles, and the sidewalk is for those using only their legs and feet
and then there's the sand (off to the left) which is strictly for people only. When this parking scheme was introduced a few years ago
the locals complained about the loss of parking spots but it's made getting around the area on foot or on a bike so much easier.
From the other end of Alki Avenue, on the northeast tip of the end of Alki, there's great views of both Elliott Bay, and pretty much all of
downtown Seattle with Queen Anne on the left and the harbor area on the right. Seattle's downtown presents an ever-changing look since
there are so many different viewpoints to see it from.
Another panorama, this one a 360-degree, which shows the headlands at the tip of West Seattle (Duwamish Head) and Elliott Bay
"sandwiched" in this perspective view. It's actually the same view as the one above but with a different perspective and magnification
factor. With the great flexibility of Quicktime VR, any single perspective view can be made into another.
Here's yet another view from the same VR - note the jetty on the left and the picnic table on the right for a comparison of view angles
and apparent magnification. Light is so much fun!
Back on the other side of Alki, this offers a pretty interesting, beachside, shady, view of
the Space Needle across the Bay - there really are an almost endless set of views in this
town - it's almost like picking a set out of your imagination.
And, now, for something completely different - a water view of Seattle's downtown! This is at the top of the hill at Gasworks Park, which
is on a promontory sticking right into Lake Union from about midway along the northern shoreline. Left center, behind the "gasworks,"
is Capitol Hill, right of downtown is Queen Anne Hill, on the far left, the buildings sticking up are in the U-District. The gasworks used
to be operated to convert oil into gas for piping throughout the city. Now, Alberta gas pipelines bring Canadian natural gas south.
Here's a closer view across Lake Union to the shoreline along North Lake Union - a soon-to-be heavily and publicly subsidized
development zone. There are even plans of adding another streetcar line from downtown to the edge of North Lake Union. It
would add yet another streetcar line and further diversify the city's public transportation system - and yet there's plenty of acrimony
over this new trolley. As always with Seattle politics, it may take a decade to really decide.
Here's the view from the same hill but this time looking at the area behind Lake Union. Left of center is the Aurora Bridge over the Ship
Canal and Fremont, to the center area is the Wallingford and further up Greenwood areas, and the area in the right is more
Wallingford and parts of the U-District. That's an embedded sculpture in the middle of the circle on the left.
Just some ordinary streetscapes from around Seattle. The top three views are of the 15th Avenue overpass above the Leary
Way intersection right at the edge of Ballard. Leary Way connects Ballard with Fremont. This highway and overpass are one
of few connecting streets to this part of town - Seattle is a city comprised of dozens of neighborhoods separated from each
other by great hills and valleys and expanses of water. Amazing place to try and explore! The view on the bottom is of all the
streetside poles and lines which are carried throughout this city. The intersection is Barton at 35th in West Seattle. Makes
one think twice about how advanced we are as a technical society if we have to have all these lines draped everywhere.
And, now, a 50-image vertical walk around of the Fremont
Street Fair. You can scroll slowly, or you can scroll fast
and watch the five different street scenes in Fremont pass
before you. These were shot about 2:00 pm on the
first day of the fair - Saturday.
And that's it for now. Have a great weekend! Next update
I'll have a filmstrip or something of the Fremont parade.
Next year my timing will be much more fine tuned and I'll know the preferred bus route. On Sunday, for instance, I caught the #54-to-5 which dumped me off just between Gas Works Park and the "center of the universe" heart of Fremont. Less distance to walk, lots of alternate paths to the fair.
The parade lasted until well past 1:00 pm, with a lot of the paraders heading to Gas Works Park and a lot of them heading to the shoreline parking lots east of the bridge to park their contraptions. This parade is one where just about anyone could join. It's mostly either satirical or lambasting or severely criticizing a variety of human foibles including present political leadership, present intolerant mores, and present ridiculously strict or constraining statutes. Lots of live music on the floats or in the street - all the floats have to be human-powered and there was one butterfly-dragon which consisted of at least twenty Radio wagons hitched together to carry the long, segmented, body of the butterfly-dragon. The head was what looked like a tricycle pull-wagon bike. There was also a papier-mache tank powered by two cast-away bicycles - one for the starboard track and one for the port track - pretty clever.
The parade brought great whoops from the crowded curbs and there seemed to be plenty of interaction with the paraders and the paradees. After the last float had gone by there was a surge of curb people who followed the end of the parade and then an SPD police cruiser with its lights flashing, signifying that 34th Street was soon to revert to its non-parade use. I wandered from there west toward the fair streets and meandered down Phinney and Evanston Avenues between Canal Street, N 34th and N 35th Streets. Pretty much all of waterside Fremont was taken over. The streets were lined with tents with freebie acts in between and stages at most of the major intersections or end points. Food vendors everywhere, including a local (Portland, I think) organic dairy giving away a pretty tasty strawberry-yogurt drinkable smoothie. I stopped by their chiller any number of times until they ran out and started giving away regular yogurt - not as good as the smoothie to cool oneself with. It was hot. Even by East Coast standards, Saturday it got up to 87 and Sunday probably at least to 85, with just a very faint breeze and practically zero clouds. Everyone had a hat on and most of the guys had their shirts open or off - some of the remainders from the bike parade also only had on their body paint or some variant of a fig leaf.
I caught the Folklife Festival, now the Fremont Fair, next the Gay Pride Event, then the West Seattle Fair, then the Capitol Hill Block Party, I'll miss the Alki Beach Music Fest, and then Bumbershoot. That's a lot of fairs and music festivals. There's two things I've concluded about Seattle street fairs. The first is that they are a whole lot freer and open and tolerant of the odd-person-out types than nearly any other fair I've attended. I love fairs, street fests, block parties, any event where strangers can crash the party and be welcome. The cops just lean back and watch or participate. Most of the events seem reasonably well-behaved (missed the bad-ass Mardi Gras of a few years back - like one of the Georgetown Halloweens). The other is the quality of music here seems to be at the top of the barrel for local bands. This country has such amazing talent in its citizens. Every street fair in all the towns I've attended (most recently Danville, Illinois and LaCrosse, Wisconsin) has such exuberance from the folks attending, the artists, the musicians, the locals. Everyone seems to have a very high degree of native talent and some folks stun with their artistry. From what I've heard of the local, Seattle, bands at Folklife and now at the Fremont fair, this town has a very deserved reputation for excellence in music, in musicianship, and in creative license to invent.
I love live music. In DC, the parks department holds these summer concerts with local groups in a few big parks downtown and in neighborhood parks on Thursday and Saturday nights. I used to bike around looking for these events. Most of the time I spent at Folklife was listening to the groups. Most of the 15 hours or so I spent at the Fremont fair was listening. At Folklife the groups got thirty minutes; at the Fremont fair the groups got an hour, so I was grovin' in front of half-a-dozen or more staged acts and local, street, musicians. The guy who plays the piano at Pike Place Market, the fifty-ish blond, long-haired Windham Hill-type new age musician was there as well. I captured most of the names of the bands and trios and groups. Most of them have CDs (CDBaby.com) and I'll undoubtedly spend a few bucks on most of them. So, the deal is that street fairs here have a bit more license to misbehave, the average band is a notch above most and instead of playing covers, they mostly play original material.
Perhaps the license to move outside the confines of society engenders a slightly-more-free-spirited artistic expression. This one is probably not chicken-egg.
I felt somewhat out of costume because I went in regular clothes, didn't have my hair dyed or spiked or Mohawked, didn't have body paint or face paint, didn't have body parts dangling jewelry, didn't even have political messages plastered on my clothes - though I broke down and placed the shoe-sticker of a band I really liked on my shoe toe - "Spyplane." I'd say that at least half the people crawling around Fremont were dressed for a party, the rest seemed to be looking for a party.
There's also this section of one of the streets which had the display cars - cars decorated as if they were moving sculpture. There was at least one whole row of "bugs" (VW's of some form). There were cars from out-of-state, too. That's one of the Fremont fair attractions - the art cars. It's an entirely visual sight and I took photos of probably two-thirds of the cars, about a third of them didn't seem that unusual - not something I couldn't find in any given neighborhood across America. Two-thirds, though, were genuinely decked out - one was completely covered with Nancy or some similar Sunday comic and shellacked. Another had an entire Dungeon&Dragon set built on top of it - as if it were a traveling gameboard. Another was decked out as a traveling encyclopedia of "stuff" with all the "stuff" on display shelves inside the converted commuter bus. Some of them were done with brighter paint and more embedded decals than the finest overdone motorcycle you've ever seen. Paint so glossy it looked liquid. In between some of the cars were more musicians and some of the cars were playing their own DJ-managed music.
I saw quite a few of the artists I'd seen at Folklife at the Fremont fair - most of them seem to travel a fair circuit in Washington or the Northwest. A lot of them even have schedules of where they'll be next - as did a large number of the in-between musicians. The musicians on the stages also had their schedules, except they were mostly at local clubs or stages in the city. I stayed Saturday until 7:00 pm and then walked over to Ballard to catch the bus home. Sunday I got to the fair about the same time and left about 5:00 pm, although it wasn't as hot as the day before I was exhausted - mostly just from the unrelenting sunshine. The fair was along Fremont's commercial streets and most of them are older and closer together than in other parts of town and don't have trees lining them. Scant shade and an unusually hot day for this time of year out here. If this year keeps up like last year it will be another "hotter-than-normal" summer with temperatures bordering the nineties rather than the usual mid-seventies. In fact, the weather seems to be much like when Katherine and I were here same time last year for house-hunting. Weirdly-cool in the morning with chance of rain, followed by clearing and hot followed by clear, gorgeous sunset, cool nights. As Katherine put it, "perfect Seattle weather."
The groups I listened to at the fair are worthy and I'll add them to the groups I reviewed at Folklife.
Ian McFeron and the Band - <http://www.ianmcferon.com/> a very interesting folk-blues-rock group formed locally in 2003 with several guitars, acoustic and electric, a violin/fiddle, drums and a few other instruments including electronic keyboard. Three guys and a gal (fiddle) who have one CD out and play in and around Fremont, Ballard and other parts of Seattle. McFeron writes his own words and songs and they're not bad contemporary folk-blues tunes, has message content and a beat.
Spyplane - <http://www.spyplane.org> - this four guy Seattle band, formed in 2002 from members of previous incarnations, have a couple of EPs and a CD out and plays at local clubs including the EMP Liquid Lounge. They're definitely indi-rock with strong beats, good guitar licks, locally-written songs and an original style to the classic beat of good rock and roll. Seem to have groupies and definitely have streaming radio.
Creeping TIme - <http://www.creepingtime.com> - a five guy group with bass fiddle, mandolin, violin/fiddle, drums, guitar and more as they trade off instruments. Folk, rock, bluegrass, country - all fused into very lively and high-energy folk-rock with an indi-twist and original lyrics and music. They play locally and have a few CDs out as well as a great selection of their cuts, both music (MP3) and lyrics, on their website, which also has streaming audio. With additions in 2001 and 2003, the band has been around since 1997.
By The Way - <http://www.bythewaymusic.com> - a trio of Seattle Gen-Xers who play blues folk country rock, originals. They do the fair thing in the greater Seattle area and have one CD. Pretty convincing stuff with a beat for just a trio, including acoustic instruments, too.
Revolving Jugglers <none> - this was one of the street acts, a Gex-X red-haired woman keyboard player and singer with a trio of guys playing lead and bass guitar and drums. Very new age and yet still rock-and-roll. Good stuff from an unassuming local group with one CD.
There were a few more bands including one real hard rock goth band playing at one of the main stages, but couldn't locate them on the schedule and they didn't have a band sign or kick-drum-with-name, but did seem to have quite a few groupies.
So, the music scene assessment here is what everyone's already written - outstanding local talent playing evolving rock-and-roll with original lyrics and riffs. Definitely good stuff. For me it's great since the festivals and street fairs give me access to the bands without having to go to clubs or bars. Nearly all the local groups have CDs and nearly all of them are listed on CDBaby's website <http://www.cdbaby.com>.
On a previous trip downtown I checked out the new exhibit at Seattle Art Museum - "Van Gogh to Mondrian." It's the collection of Dutch shipping magnate wife and German industrialist daughter Helene Kroller-Muller, who began a passionate art collecting spree in 1906. She collected neo-impressionist master painters Seurat, Signac, Denis, symbolists Radon and Toorop, and abstractionists Mondrian, Van der Leck, Van Doesburg, cubists Picasso, Gris and Leger. It's a fantastic collection and in 1938 Helene Kroller-Muller dedicated the building which became the Kroller-Muller Museum, to house one of Europe's greatest collections of art - now touring only Seattle (through September 12) and Atlanta (October 16 through January 9). If you're in Seattle, it's worth seeing if only for several Van Gogh's which you've seen and seen again but now can see in person - including "Cafe Terrace At Night," with its wonderfully bulging and impressionistic stars. In addition to the art, the traveling exhibit also has some of the furniture which was designed and built for the Kroller-Muller institution - it started more as a huge mansion-cum-gallery and became the largest art gallery in the Netherlands. There are examples of the finest furniture craftsmanship on display, many carved entirely from a single piece of teak. Again, if you're in Seattle this Summer, or Atlanta this Fall, try and catch this exhibition.
I'd also really recommend to anyone living here that they buy the yearly membership at both the Zoo/Aquarium and SAM. It's like sixty or seventy bucks each and another like fifty for the Burke (art and geo-sciences) and when you do it all at once it's a couple hundred bucks and seems like a lot. But, the ability to drop in on any of these places at any time it's convenient or when one is in the neighborhood - without having to go through the hassle of paying the six, seven or eight bucks each visit calls for - is worth the seemingly-heavy-up-front cost. I've been to the zoo at least a dozen times since I got my membership and it's only about half a year so far and already i've been twice the number of times for the same cost. Same is even more true of SAM, since it's near a bus transfer, I've taken to just dashing through to familiarize myself with the permanent collections - and to fill my brain with more design ideas. Anyway, it's a good deal for the institutions and the free reign it gives one to visit these places is totally worth the investment. (Civic-do-gooder comments over, now.)
I've posted a few shots of the past few days below - but beware, I'm in the experimental mode again and some of the photos may or may not work as intended - a few are huge and - hopefully - will work as expected, if not, it's just bits.
On the house front, the outside is "almost" done, there's the balcony railing, a few downspouts to reattach, but the painting is all done and now the yard gets to go through rehab. The inside is getting patched, filled, sanded and will be painted either today or tomorrow. Then, all that will be left will be the detail work and the carpet and remainder of electrical installation - the outlets, switches, lights, and whatnot. The spiral staircase still has to be finished but at this point it's probably three weeks or less until we go for final inspection and "occupancy." I'll try and get some photos whenever the painters are finished - it'll be pretty much an all-white view.
Katherine heads out tomorrow for Illinois, for a farm meeting with her mom, sister, brothers, and a really good representative of the next-gen Wilber Farms owners - Leif, Luke, Marty, Ellie, Hanna, (leaving only Caitlin, Adam as unattending and they both have conflicts). I could go but it's my turn to tend to the house - Katherine was here at the start when I was traipsing around San Francisco and now it's my turn while she and her mom meander back to Seattle from Illinois. If all goes well, they'll go through the Amana Colonies in Iowa, catch the Badlands, the Buffalo herds, the Black Hills and Wind Cave in South Dakota, take the back way into Yellowstone Park through Cody, Wyoming, drive north through Helena and through Glacier National Park and arrive in Seattle from either the way-northern route - State Highway 20, or the next-best-thing route - Old U.S. Route 2. That will take about a week which should be good timing since she'll arrive back just about the time the upstairs is finished. And, just in time for July 4th fireworks. I understand we stand a chance of seeing up to about a dozen fireworks displays from our roof - including the major downtown Seattle and Lake Union fireworks. Should be fun.
As a parting comment, the latest edition of Overheard:
Overheard
On the #54 bus heading for the Fremont fair on the second day, passing by an overlook on Fauntleroy Way which offered spectacular views of the Olympics, heading toward Alaska Junction, this 80-ish Anglo-Saxon-American lady sitting in the front set-aside seat, leaning back talking to this 50-ish Anglo-Saxon-American man. She's saying it's "so nice to get back to where there are real mountains." He's saying that the older mountains of the East are just as interesting and she's having none of that. "I was in the Appalachians several times. They're just like the foothills. I mean real mountains, like these." He says that the Eastern mountains are more interesting because they have more creases and hidden character. She says "well, I was even on - what do you call it - that Blue Ridge thing?"
Further along the same bus, picking up folks downtown heading towards Green Lake, this Gen-X Anglo-Saxon American guy and his Anglo-Saxon American girlfriend get on and sit near the front. Next stop this taller Anglo-Saxon American Gen-X type gets on and sees the other guy and greets him, "wow, what are you doin' here." First Gex-X guy, "well I live here now, two years, this is my girlfriend. And you, you here now?" Second Gen-X guy, "no, just visting. Doing everything. I'm still in Portland," First guy, "This is the first you've been up here?" "Yes, things are okay in Portland." First Guy, "Portland. Yeah, Portland's Portland." Second Guy, "well, since you been gone the Farmer's Market has gone "family" and things are not as cool. There's this new "family-oriented" push and a lot of things are not as cool anymore." First guy, "well, Seattle's okay, it's got its things, the cops are meaner. It's like, it's a city. So where you headed?" Second guy, "I've heard about this Fremont thing and am going to check it out." First guy, "us too, yeah, we were here last year and it was toned down from the year before that. But I think it changes year to year, no laws or anything yet."
More later.
Chas
View from the bus stop across the Fremont Bridge and of the bridge and intersection of the bridge with 34th Street -
the heart of the parade route. A lot of folks were taking the bus. Of course, a lot more could just walk from their
house or apartment or condo - a neighborhood fair.
Panorama from my viewing spot along 34th Street. The streetlights at the right end are at the intersection of 34th and Stone Way, which
was the end of the parade route and a few thousand feet from the entrance to Gasworks Park, which was the site of an impromptu
end-of-parade parade.
A full 360-degree panorama of the location along 34th Street where I was set up to watch the Parade. That's 34th Street on the left and
right sides with Stone Way the intersection on the left and the Aurora Bridge soaring over the street on the right. Downtown Fremont is
just west of the area where the bridge goes over 34th.
The crowd scene heading toward the "heart of the universe" in downtown Fremont. The bridge is the Aurora Avenue
- State Route 99 bridge and is yet another landmark in this town of landmarks.
Panorama of the crowd scene at one of the cross-sections - that's 34th Street on the left and right. The fair was set up on five intersecting
streets and along the Canal walkway. Fremont borders the north side of the Lake Washington Ship Canal - an actual canal which connects
the western edge of Lake Union to the locks and then the Sound.
Another panorama from a corner nearer the Canal. A street musician playing guitar and original songs, getting a few folks to stop and listen
and a few to put some bucks into the till. The Canal is right behind this scene, along the grassy side.
Panorama of Gallery 154, Fremont art gallery, with some of their usual artwork on display, a few street fair participants posing on the
railing with the artwork, and some fair passesrsby taking in the scene. This was at the north end of the fair on the way to one of the
stages set up along the Canal Walk area.
A sequence of photos showing the "Bed of Nails" trick with two performers. Didn't
get their names but they were certainly entertaining to watch - especially the part
where the guy in yellow shorts breaks the cinder block on the shirtless guy's chest
while he's laying on the bed of - real - nails. Lots of performers like this at the fair.
A series of photos showing the Art Cars, many from the Seattle or Washington-state area and quite a few from California. They
do have to work as vehicles, too, although I'm sure some of them probably raise quite a few eyebrows as they're cruising along
the highway.
This was a very strange sight, along Leary Way is this "new age" church - Mars Hill Church - which has a website, lots of attendees of mostly
young people, some with kids, and a philosophy which seems a bit too "churchy" for my tastes. No steeple on this modern church, either. I
guess this means that religions are still springing up left and right, despite Washington being one of the states where fewer than 30 percent
claim any religious affiliation.
Also on Leary Way is the "Stuff Cafe," a few blocks away from the heart of Fremont and about half-way between Fremont and Ballard. This
cafe was also playing live music on the Fremont Fair days - this group sounded like they were doing covers and the sound was carrying for
a few blocks in either direction of the cafe.
A closer look at the stage and some of the patrons at Stuff Cafe - music and caffeine on a hot Fremont Fair afternoon day.
Back home after the first day of the Fremont Fair. The sun had set about 20 minutes earlier and was giving this wonderful, peach-rose,
glow to the sky and backlighting the Olympic Mountains. Notice also the reflections of the sky on the Sound. This view was taken from
the roof deck and is about a 120 degree wide angle.
This is Alki Beach from the walkway right along Alki Avenue. That's Magnolia and Queen Anne Hills in the distance directly across
the water in the center. Bainbridge Island and some of the more distant hills on the Olympic Peninsula are on the left.
Another panorama of Alki Beach, further east from the view above. It was a relatively warm day so the volleyball courts had been set up
in the sand and there were a fair number of skaters, cyclists and bladers using the walkway with even more running or relaxing on the sand.
This panorama shows both the beach (right) and the strip along Alki Avenue (left). This section of Alki has a lot of beach-side service shops
and a huge variety of restaurants, cafes, clubs and snack shops along the street for about a half-mile section of road. This was the
former "beach" town of Alki and despite the continuing press of construction and condo-building, this area has retained much of its
turn-of-the-century beach town look and feel. It's also one of West Seattle's pricier places to live.
This shows the arrangement of the street - with Alki Avenue on the other side of these parked vehicles. The area between the parked
vehicles and the curb is for cyclists, bladers, other human-powered vehicles, and the sidewalk is for those using only their legs and feet
and then there's the sand (off to the left) which is strictly for people only. When this parking scheme was introduced a few years ago
the locals complained about the loss of parking spots but it's made getting around the area on foot or on a bike so much easier.
From the other end of Alki Avenue, on the northeast tip of the end of Alki, there's great views of both Elliott Bay, and pretty much all of
downtown Seattle with Queen Anne on the left and the harbor area on the right. Seattle's downtown presents an ever-changing look since
there are so many different viewpoints to see it from.
Another panorama, this one a 360-degree, which shows the headlands at the tip of West Seattle (Duwamish Head) and Elliott Bay
"sandwiched" in this perspective view. It's actually the same view as the one above but with a different perspective and magnification
factor. With the great flexibility of Quicktime VR, any single perspective view can be made into another.
Here's yet another view from the same VR - note the jetty on the left and the picnic table on the right for a comparison of view angles
and apparent magnification. Light is so much fun!
Back on the other side of Alki, this offers a pretty interesting, beachside, shady, view of
the Space Needle across the Bay - there really are an almost endless set of views in this
town - it's almost like picking a set out of your imagination.
And, now, for something completely different - a water view of Seattle's downtown! This is at the top of the hill at Gasworks Park, which
is on a promontory sticking right into Lake Union from about midway along the northern shoreline. Left center, behind the "gasworks,"
is Capitol Hill, right of downtown is Queen Anne Hill, on the far left, the buildings sticking up are in the U-District. The gasworks used
to be operated to convert oil into gas for piping throughout the city. Now, Alberta gas pipelines bring Canadian natural gas south.
Here's a closer view across Lake Union to the shoreline along North Lake Union - a soon-to-be heavily and publicly subsidized
development zone. There are even plans of adding another streetcar line from downtown to the edge of North Lake Union. It
would add yet another streetcar line and further diversify the city's public transportation system - and yet there's plenty of acrimony
over this new trolley. As always with Seattle politics, it may take a decade to really decide.
Here's the view from the same hill but this time looking at the area behind Lake Union. Left of center is the Aurora Bridge over the Ship
Canal and Fremont, to the center area is the Wallingford and further up Greenwood areas, and the area in the right is more
Wallingford and parts of the U-District. That's an embedded sculpture in the middle of the circle on the left.
Just some ordinary streetscapes from around Seattle. The top three views are of the 15th Avenue overpass above the Leary
Way intersection right at the edge of Ballard. Leary Way connects Ballard with Fremont. This highway and overpass are one
of few connecting streets to this part of town - Seattle is a city comprised of dozens of neighborhoods separated from each
other by great hills and valleys and expanses of water. Amazing place to try and explore! The view on the bottom is of all the
streetside poles and lines which are carried throughout this city. The intersection is Barton at 35th in West Seattle. Makes
one think twice about how advanced we are as a technical society if we have to have all these lines draped everywhere.
And, now, a 50-image vertical walk around of the Fremont
Street Fair. You can scroll slowly, or you can scroll fast
and watch the five different street scenes in Fremont pass
before you. These were shot about 2:00 pm on the
first day of the fair - Saturday.
And that's it for now. Have a great weekend! Next update
I'll have a filmstrip or something of the Fremont parade.
Posted: Thu - June 24, 2004 at 11:45 AM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM