Seattle...second installment

Downtown Seattle at the Pike Place Market was interesting. We got there and parked in a garage right at the market. It cost $11.00 for the maybe two hours we were there. It was worth it though, because the streets were narrow and crowded, and finding parking would have been no fun at all. The market itself was not as "grand" as I had pictured it, and in fact bore a certain resemblence to downtown Burlington, Vermont on farmer's market day. Seattle's tourist people should take a real hard look at the Pike Place area, because it seems to be peopled by three sorts. The obviously out-of-town tourist from some tourist factory in the midwest somewhere (where DO they get those same shirts and shorts that tourist wore in 1963?) who walk around faces agog taking in the bizarre sights of the crunchy-hippie-down-and-outs who make up the second group. Unfortunately the nearby park was occupied in one entire half by homeless men trying to catch a few winks wrapped up in their blankets, and bleary-eyed druggies who looked out at the tourists as if the visitors were the odd birds. The third group inhabiting the market is the vendors and the locals who go there to buy. A busy trade goes on, and there are jewelry stalls, art of various kinds, totebags, tee shirts and the like for the tourists, fresh herbs, flowers, seafood, and several eateries, soaps and herbal products, and more. All told a thriving, jostling vortex of humanity packed in like the fish on the displays.The fish market is as you would expect a fish market to be. That whole thing about throwing fish around is really over rated. It looks like guys throwing fish around. Well, I've seen the Fulton Fish Market in NYC, so maybe fish aren't a thrill like they are to some people.I got some lovely honey sticks at a really good price. Less than I could get them in the NorthEast. So that was a good days work.

The crowning glory of Pike Street Market are the flowers. The plethora of bloom was incredible. The variety of flowers was amazing, and the colors and groupings were truly wondrous. The prices for cut flowers were so low that if you could keep flowers for months it would pay to import them from Seattle. I have never seen such lush, large, colorful bouquets. Going rate was $15.00 for a large bouquet better than the local florist could make you for $40.00. Arrangements of these flowers was so professionally done, and so attuned to color and size that if I lived there I would always have fresh flowers and never have to grow any myself!

Seattle...first installment

Seattle is situated in a wild and wooly topography for a city and environs to grow. Sharp rocks, ridges, forest primeval, more hills and even more forests and rocks. Houses perched wherever a square foot of land allows building, and high density dwellings going up all over. Traffic flows more slowly here than, say in North Carolina or New York, where the average interstate flow seems to streak by at about 80 mph. I'd say it averaged about 55 in Seattle, sometimes slower. Although the traffic is slower, it is more congested than some places, and the lanes seem more narrow? Is this possible? Raised medians between some lanes abound, and any route to "somewhere" is convoluted.The foliage is wonderful, with camellias and other flowering semi-tropical plants in abundance. The forests are different than the Norteastern forests, yet quite similar in feel. Two rain forests differentiated by climate. Huge cedar trees and giant old deciduous trees share space with undergrowth of newer pine, spruce and assorted shrubs. Seattle and suburban settlers value their trees, and many a house is engulfed in trees far nearer the foundations than we in New England like our trees to be!Water abounds. I wasn't aware of the size of Lake Washington, which borders the city of Seattle on the East, and which separates Seattle proper from several surrounding communities which are contiguous with Seattle as far as population intensity, and economy. The Lake is a beautiful fresh water lake with parks around its sides, as well as private dwellings of the well to do. The Seattle area has parks aplenty. Nice times for the kids. The community of Kirkland boasts several nice parks, and plenty of Lake Washington views. Just a drive through the arty downtown area on a nice day is like a mini-vacation to the Lake.Next time thoughts on an afternoon trip to downtown Seattle.

"The Da Vinci Code"...

The movie is out! And I saw it! Since the book was not that well written, I had hopes that Tom Hanks and Ron Howard would somehow transcend the material and give us a great movie! They did it! The screenplay was tighter, the performances were excellent, the casting spot on, and the music gave a quality that mirrored the ambiance of the book. All in all a fine production. I give it ****. Jean Reno did his usual fine job, Alfred Molina was cast superbly and the rest of the actors likewise. Of course Tom Hanks is his usual BEST, and it is Tom Hanks that pushes this film over the top and captures our imagination. Hanks is REAL. Whomever he plays, he brings character and depth to the role.

As far as this film being in any way threatening to faith or Catholicism, I think you would have to be paranoid or gullible to feel that this work of fiction is in any way worth angsting about. Forget it and have a good times at the movies...movies, baseball and hot dogs - that's what it's all about!

Public Domain threatened...again...

Big publishing strikes again. The eBook world is plagued by what is really reversal of expiring copyright. Old texts which we enjoy as free or very low priced ebooks are attracting the attention of entities who once had an interest in these texts, and the fact that copyright expired has not deterred publishers from attempting (with some success) to take a long view of their "rights." Today I got word via the Blackmask Online newsletter that Conde Nast is sueing him over a couple of very old pulp stories that someone is making into a movie. There is money to be made, and they smell it. Can the little guy hold out against large corporate aggression and help preserve just a bit of public domain? A court in Maryland will have the first say.

Please hit that link and go see the site, and see all the good work Daniel has done over the years to keep the ebook readership alive and well, and supplied with good reading.

Another academic scene author has crossed my path. Why haven't I read any David Carkeet before? I fell across The Error of Our Ways recently, and the drollery and situational complications are both entralling and entertaining. Set in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri; a suburb with academic connections, the story is two threads so far, moving toward one another with inevitable hubbub to follow. More critique when I have finished.

Dortmunder is my current ebook. This time it's What's the Worst that Could Happen and I think the answer is coming up in a few more chapters. Again, Dortmunder has himself in a complex situation, but this time it is of his own making. Can't wait to see if he extricates himself, May and Andy without any lasting ramifications. Again, more to follow. I may have to actually buy the rest of the Dortmunder books in print! Wait - there is always ILL. It is too bad they aren't all in ebook form.