Okay, childish sniggering aside (see previous post), this statue is the one causing the most controversy in my home town. News crews have been out to film it (from the shoulders up), local tongues are wagging over it, local prudes are demanding it be removed saying, "If she were alive she'd be arrested!" and on and on and on.

My two cents: it's lovely. Nudity never harmed anyone. She looks like a woman in her mid to late 40's ought to look, pendulous breasts and anatomically correct crotch and all.

Apparently, she's "creepy." I suspect those who believe so have never seen a woman older and less photoshopped than Jannah Burnham. (p.s.: totally NSFW) And while I happen to like Jannah Burnham, I appreciate that most women are not going to look like they just walked out of a slightly pornographic fairy tale.

Tags: art, burien
Current Mood: creative

A few months ago, I described the new statues in our public square here in Burien, WA as "Lumpen Decepticon Zombie Art, and I still feel that way about them. They do kinda grow on you, not enough for me to want to keep them, but hey, at least I can take more pictures, ne, and try to get a feel for them.

Whoever made the female statue clearly has a feel for roboglueteus maximus, and I do mean maximus. Do we really think that robots will have the same integral design as humans? Do we hope so? The artist clearly does.

Tags: art, burien
Current Mood: giggly

Today was the Burien 4th of July Festival, when our whole little city gets together and celebrates, well, being a city and surviving yet another year not succumbing either to the forces of chaos that is South King County, nor being swallowed whole by the behemoth that sits across the northern border, Seattle. Omaha, being cat herderchairwoman for the 33rd District Democrats, was obliged to go stand out in the hot sun with a sign and wave to crowds that, surprisingly, waved and cheered back.

Of course, Kouryou-chan was there. And it's traditional at the Burien parade to throw candy at the crowd, which sometimes squirts back with water guns (a welcome blessing, believe me!), so that was her incentive to walk-- one for the crowd and one for her. She had fun until we ran out of candy, but she toughed it out and walked the entire two-mile parade route.

( Lots and lots of photographs. First: Democrats! )

( And now, scenes from the parade itself. There were no Republicans. )

Tags: burien, family, local, photography, seattle
Current Mood: alive
Current Music: God Bless America, as sung by Garrison Keillor

My city has been undergoing a renaissance of sorts, rebuilding its public square and replacing its late 60's-era rambler City Hall with a modern, four-storey construction of glass with a back that faces the city's main retail drag, curving along the curb, and a front that faces the city's largest open parking lot. (The satellite view is apparently after the tear-down, but before reconstruction began.) Being a modern, left-coast city, it commissioned some public art to decorate their front entrance.

This monstrosity is what they got. Called "mother and child," this 10-meter tall pair of lumpen zombie Decepticons striding across the parking lot is just the sort of thing to discourage any parent from taking young children to the city hall. The "mother" statue is especially disturbing, with her Barbie proportions, rasta-like dreads and menacing claws.

The city has recently announced that the statue is "temporary." Huh. I wonder why they might want to put a deadline on just how long this eyesore has to stay in sight.

Tags: art, burien
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: NPR, Morning Edition

You might wonder what would cause such an outpouring of grief. These cards read "We'll Miss You" and "Rest In Peace," and they were left at a very public place. A place Omaha and I visited not less than a month ago.

The Keg was one Burien's highest of high-end restaurants. It was well-run, and the food was usually better than other Kegs in the area. The place was always packed, every time Omaha and I went, no matter the time of day or the day of week. For it to just vanish like this, with little warning, stunned both of us more than just a little. And it's understandable that it would cause the kind of reaction I've photographed here: the regulars loved it because it was so good, and because there's nothing else really like it in our area. We'd have to go into Seattle to get a decent steak; there's no place over at Southcenter that really does it quite so well.

Goddamn. That's sad. Sigh. I make a really good steak (just ask lisakit), but sometimes I want someone else to do it for me.

Tags: burien, economy
Current Mood: depressed

They rented, not bought, the house. They have a very expensive, very large big red Dodge truck with what looks like a enclosed motorcycle trailer, almost the same color. They're in their late 20's, and they have five children. The two-year-old roams the street, unsupervised. The children, unkempt, apparently unwashed for several days in a row, seem almost desperate to make friends with those next door.

Yesterday, a big blue truck with Rent-A-Center came up the road. They unpacked a big stereo system and a huge wall-mounted plasma television.

Their regular friends drive a beat-up Kawasaki motorcycle, the rider cheaply armored if at all, and a totally cherried Nissan ricer, low to the ground with a sweet glossly-blue-and-logo paint job that must have cost a fortune.

Meet my new neighbors.

Actually, I haven't met any of the adults yet, but from what I've seen, things aren't promising. There's something about the Rent-A-Center television and the five children that makes me feel like I'm having a Darlyrmple moment. It might take a while for me to figure out if they're happy people or not, but I expect not. A six-thousand dollar rental television, an expensive truck and a rental home, indicates a deep-rooted expectation of instant gratification, the deprivation of which would be construed as suffering. "Much modern suffering has a distinct flavor of self-infliction. I am not talking now of the physical illnesses that derive from habits such as smoking, but rather of the chronic suffering caused by not knowing how to live, or rather by imagining that life can be lived as an entertainment, as an extended video, as nothing but a series of pleasures of the moment."

Tags: burien, life
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Women of Sodom, Manwich