Funny to hear a movie mixed up of our own words which is what Jeremy has down so poetically here. Dialogue taken from clips of a group email conversation around an upcoming ski adventure.

…warped caberet chanteuse vocalizing of Nika…Zola Jesus stirs up a charming mix of synth-mired darkwave and lo-fi bedroom haze with charisma to spare.

Take it away, Jim…

My time out there was pretty great. Finally made it to the Bryant saddle which makes GREAT ski access to that whole upper terrain there off the south shoulder of Chair. It’s in the Volken guide.

Anyhow, it went like this…I was out of the house around 4:30am, hiking from upper Alpental parking lot at 6am. Pineapple Pass at 7:30am, snow was pretty good for walking (one could still ski in there no problem) I had my aluminum crampons and a pole and my aluminum axe. Soloed the Tooth south rib. Bottom part was cruiser, but exposed enough of course to hear the heart pumping!

The catwalk was downright scary, mostly cause of the incredible deathfall exposure and the fact that I was climbing in my spring boots and the small not necessarily horizontal edges for the feet. Anyhow, there was really one move there which provided the crux of the whole outing probably, but there was plenty of other stuff to keep me on point.

Hungout (8:30am) on the top for a few minutes. Long enough to eat a GU, look at my watch and drink some water. Then I headed down the north rigde like you and I did, Tim. There wasn’t any ice of course but with the whole area socked in with fog and a light mist dampening the lichen, I was being pretty dang careful. Climbing down into one of those gaps on the north ridge, I broke off a hold but fortunately had all other three points solidly connected…

Found my way down onto the snow again and climbed Hemlock Peak by 9:30am. Down some steep snow NW or West off the summit and down a steep gulley through a small cliff band had me to the Hemlock Pass that you and I rappelled down Tim. It would have been an easy downclimb with all the snow and crampons and axe.

Climbed up Bryant Peak via it’s mellow south slopes (this is up above Malakwa Lake)–would be superb skiing. The summit was an easy scramble and there is an airy ridge up there with the north side falling away precipituously. The whole North, NW, and West aspects were way too steep to descend (i.e. big cliffs) so I had to loose 700 feet of vertical before heading west and finding a little chink in the cliff, which had me shouting for joy. I was able to downclimb onto this steep snow finger.

From there, it was an easy snow hike up to Bryant saddle which I reached at 11. After my long rest of 15 minutes, I dropped down (to the north) off of the saddle and then swung right to the east following easy snow slopes, around a steep shoulder and then a mellow descent back into the Tooth basin.

Driving home by 12:30pm. Never did have to use the rope…

Thanks for writing about Google’s recent announcement of its intention to build out 1Gbps fiber broadband in select US markets. We were intrigued immediately upon hearing the announcement, and we intend to respond to Google’s request for information with our best case for Seattle as a location for what could be the world’s fastest network.

We can’t just hope Google builds it for us, and they aren’t offering a full citywide network, which is why we have a team hard at work to develop up-to-date plans for a municipal fiber network with connections to every home and business in the city. It is still early in our process, but we are taking this issue very seriously.

American economic history is punctuated by infrastructural revolutions like those that brought canals, railroads, highways, and airports. Places that embrace next-generation infrastructure early on become centers of the industries such infrastructure begets, and the same will be true for broadband. We want to make sure that Seattle is competitive in a 21st century economy and that its residents have equitable access to a vital communications and business network.

Thank you for taking the time to write.

Sincerely,

Elliott Day
Policy Analyst
Office of the Mayor
(206) 684-4000

THE MACHINE from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.
A film by Rob Shaw (2009)

Reading the words painted on the sign to the right of the ape, I thought perhaps it meant destroy those hungry for death and people like Glenn Beck and W (and other neo-conservative hawks) flashed through my mind…

Destroy all monsters hungry for death

Full spoiler (and context) here.

As a parent, the bus is pretty cool too, cause you get to hang on to your child, have them on your lap. No seat belts, no separation. If something passes by on the other side of the bus and it’s not crowded, you can just go there and look at it. It’s a pretty radical change from the normal constraints of a car…

We got out on third and went into the museum. And I have to admit, somewhat abashedly, that this was my first time since the new building, expansion, and renovation (May 5, 2007) that I have been there.

What a pleasure. So big and open and clean and full of light. So much room.

We didn’t linger…not with the kids. It was straight up to the Calder exhibit which was number one for me as I’ve always loved his work.

The space and the limited number of folks there Saturday morning was great. We could all walk anywhere we pleased pretty much around the big painted circles demarcating boundaries below the mobiles. Dylan was pretty into it, Lila was asleep at this point I think, and Jill and I were daydreaming around with all the shadows and shapes moving along the walls. So many flowers everywhere and celestial bodies.

It’s so wild to see an object with multiple lives. the object itself and then the dynamic life of moving shadows. There are some amazing pieces in this exhibit.

It is supplemented with some photos of Calder working; portraits of him in his chaotic studio set in calm NY farm land. But to top it all or really to provide a glimpse of Alexander Calder himself was the movie showing in the back room. Jill fed Lila and Dylan and I plopped down right on the floor rapt with joy and wonder at this amazing movie of him performing his traveling circus.

The man’s joy for and attention to life rollicks around this film and it’s “characters” wire, cork, cloth figurines made mobile, suddenly incarnate with the pull of a string. It’s impossibly ingenious and joyfully intoxicating. I recommend going if only for this film…but of course you’d get to see the work too. Watching this, one understands that Calder is a figurative master. He evokes the movement and shape and muscles of a trotting horse or the barbell-lifting strongman with wires and wheels. Amazing.

Alexander Calder performing le cirque

I’ve included links to a very similar version to the one they are showing @ SAM, but it’s not the same at all. Much of the effect is lost and I recommend soaking in the man’s work and then seeing le cirque!

Calder Le Cirque Clip 1
Calder Le Cirque Clip 2

Movie info from YouTube: “Carlos Vilardebo’s 1961 film of Alexander Calder’s “circus,” an intricately assembled performance piece played out by handmade characters including jugglers, sword swallowers, clowns, and animals. These figures, crafted from a collection of “cork, wire, wood, yarn, paper, string, and cloth,” were each assigned a series of movements and manipulated by the artist to perform specific circus acts. With performances held at various locations in Paris and New York through the mid 1930s, Calder’s circus helped to establish him in avante-garde circles. Jean Cocteau, Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, Le Corbusier, Thomas Wolfe, and André Kertész were among those who saw the celebrated Cirque Calder over the years.AAA “

Adrian Brody plays a punk rocker escaped from his tight, Italian Bronx community. He dances (and provides extras) at a gay club in Manhattan for money, but hangs on tight to who he is, what he believes, even as his homeboys rant that he’s a freak for the way he dresses and wears his hair. Eventually, even his best friend, Luigi (shown below) rats him out, but it’s all part of Luigi’s own demise which goes down in beak-fulls of blow and adultery with total strangers.