Photos from the SandFestival Ruhr have been turning up in various newspapers' "pictures of the day" galleries. From what I can gather this festival in western Germany features 11 large sand sculptures, one of which depicts "President George W. Bush as an octopus who holds corn, oil, a cross, the World Trade Center, and a gun in his tentacles." Though I don't know any German, I do know how to use flickr tags so here's a "sandfestivalruhr" gallery which currently contains photos from Markus Schroeder.
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The San Francisco Chronicle caught up with the creator of the Mobile Movie (MobMov) movement at an undisclosed location as 15 cars tuned in their radios to enjoy the latest traveling feature film. Bryan Kennedy has received plenty of blog and national press coverage as his nostalgic re-creation sprouted a healthy following in many states and around the world. This article observes that the movie-goers "seem to be attracted to the intersecting parallels of art and kitsch, the familiar and the unknown." A recent intermission innovation at this MobMov is playtime on a Nintendo Wii.
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Monday, July 30, 2007

The popularity of jewelry featuring uncut diamonds is growing. At DeBeers' U.S. stores, one of every five pieces sold features rough diamonds. Not surprisingly DeBeers was among the first to push these stones into the jewelry market. Many of the stones used are unsuitable for cutting into faceted gems, so otherwise worthless rocks are made valuable by clever marketing to the exclusive, subtle, and natural trends in luxury products. (via Luxist)
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The N.Y. Times reviews the museum dedicated to bubbly sugary refreshment, The New World of Coca-Cola. From a lobby decorated with the corporate mission to a tasting gallery ready for sampling sodas from around the world, the sweet success of Coke is ready for sharing at $15 a head.
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Friday, July 27, 2007

Before the big hit "Brigadoon" skyrocketed their careers, Lerner and Loewe staged the musical “The Day Before Spring." Earlier this year Jim Morgan of the York Theater Company decided to bring it back to life, obtained the necessary permissions, but then discovered that the music was nowhere to be found. A detective story of sorts then ensued. A revival in 1990 had been cobbled together from the sheet music of seven published songs from the musical and the recollections of living original cast members and musical directors. But Morgan and his directors found that score to be "so sketchy as to be essentially unusable." Enter Mark Horowitz, senior music specialist at the Library of Congress. In 1999 the library purchased a set of Loewe's documents which he had left to a friend who had in turn left it to someone who put it up for auction at Christie's. Horowitz provided this treasure trove to music director Aaron Gandy who found that “Every song had a different set of materials that survived." Gandy pieced it all into a full score and this weekend the curtain goes up on a revitalized "The Day Before Spring" as part of the York's "Mufti" series.
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How do you transport a coin worth $1.9 million across the country? John Feigenbaum dressed down in a t-shirt, jeans, flip-flops and bought a coach seat on a redeye flight to avoid suspicion. He got an unexpected upgrade to first class and stayed awake through the flight, periodically checking to make sure the coin, a 1894 dime, was still in his briefcase. The dime is one of only 24 struck that year at the San Francisco mint for a VIP gift. Only nine are known to still exist. Feigenbaum transported the dime from the seller's vault in Oakland, CA to the buyer's vault in Manhattan, and collected a nice commission.
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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I hadn't checked in on Peter Gabriel in a while. He's been investing in digital music distribution, founding and backing We7, a download site with an ad-supported model. The free mp3s are fronted with a short audio ad and you can pay for a version without the ad. Neither version has DRM. Gabriel is currently on a European tour and his WOMAD festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary. He's working on an album which may be released in 2008. Bonus video links: Gabriel speaking at TED 2006 about Witness, daughter Anna's Youtube channel.
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For the chef who has everything, why not wow them with a gold-handled saucepan decorated with 200 diamonds? Just fork over £100,000 at Harrod's in London and German cookware maker Fissler will make you one to order. It comes in a jewelry box made of rootwood (similar to burl). A pot like this needs a matching spoon for stirring and brandishing.
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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

In a back room of a small music store in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, owners Steve and Barb Baker send care packages of a different sort to soldiers in Iraq. Operation Happy Note began with one guitar sent as a gift to their son and grew from there, providing musical instruments to over 400 soldiers. They receive 3-5 instrument requests a day and Barb has quit her job to work on the volunteer project full-time. Guitars are popular and novices are provided with lesson plans. They've also sent out bagpipes.
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Monday, July 23, 2007

Both the Seattle PI and the San Francisco Chronicle have just run articles on coyotes in their respective cities. Coyotes are proving to be quite adaptable to the urban environment, eating mainly rodents, though dogs & cats are frequent targets. Researchers discovered "at least a couple thousand" living in metropolitan Chicago. There are no official records but some in Seattle think the urban population has risen significantly. SF's Golden Gate Park and other large green zones are likely home to at least half a dozen.
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Exciting coverage of the Cardboard Tube Fighting League at Seattle's Gas Works Park. "The CTFL was created out of a desperate need to better train and arm citizens with cardboard tubes." The 3-foot-long tubes (similar to what you may find inside a roll of gift wrap) are provided for participants. You cannot stab your opponent, the goal is to break their tube with yours.
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Friday, July 20, 2007

There are too many construction projects going on in Bellevue, WA to keep track of, but when we'd drive by the site of the Bellevue Lexus dealership the ever-increasing size of the structure was mind-boggling. What were they planning to do with all that space, park their entire car inventory indoors? The dealership opened this week and it is indeed huge, 275,000 square feet. Inside it caters to its luxury customer base with artificial putting greens, a baby grand piano, escalator, a kids playroom with video games, a lounge with a fireplace, and, of course, free Wi-Fi.
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In 2005 Starbucks launched a Chantico, a chocolate drink that failed to capture tastebuds and was off the menu a year later. Now the company is partnering with Hershey's to create Starbucks branded chocolate products. Hershey's Artisan Confections Company subsidiary was cited in the press release as the source of the "the premium expertise" for this alliance. So we should expect chocolate on par with the high-end Joseph Schmidt and Scharffen Berger divisions that make up Artisan Confections. However, there's no word yet on whether they will attempt another chocolate beverage beyond the mocha syrup-laced drinks already on the menu.
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Thursday, July 19, 2007

As usual, the Iowa State Fair in August will boast of a butter cow. That's a 600 pound butter cow, mind you. This year, Sarah Pratt, butter sculptress, is providing company for the cow in the shape of a butter Harry Potter. The butter gets reused each year until it goes bad, so parts of Harry could be constructed out of last year's butter Superman. Back in the 1950s they also made lard pigs.
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Camp Blaze is a firefighting camp -- for girls! The 16- to 19-year-olds who are accepted spend a week at the Fire Training Academy in North Bend, Washington learning firefighting skills. The camp is free and women firefighters from many states donate their time as instructors. The young women are pushed physically as they put out car fires wearing heavy gear. They climb ladders, rappel out of buildings, and learn CPR. There's also time for typical camp activities like putting on skits. Camp Blaze provides a unique and intense team and confidence building opportunity.
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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Highway 520 is within earshot of our house and this past weekend the Washington State DOT took advantage of the annual closure of the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge to resurface a half mile of 520 with two types of quieter pavement. Wilder Construction installed stretches of rubberized asphalt, polymer-modified asphalt (containing cellulose fibers), and a control strip of the standard asphalt. We walked over on Saturday to watch the crew and machines in action. The two quieter asphalts will be monitored for noise and how they hold up in this environment. There are ongoing results posted from a similar project on I-5. The rubberized pavement performs best at the start but as the surfaces age and the weather changes it's not a slam dunk winner. We've noticed a significant reduction in highway noise in our neighborhood. Driving over the quiet asphalt is nice too, though it's jarring when you hit the old loud pavement once again. (photos and longer writeup on my Vox site)
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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Actual toddler conversation transcript from the "why phase":
Him: "Why? Why? Why?"
Me: "Can you be more specific?"
Him: "Why... Mommy?"
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I haven't paid attention to IHOP since college and I've never been to Applebee's, but it still caught my eye that IHOP is making a bid to buy out Applebee's. Their CEO, Julia Stewart, used to be an Applebee's exec, which must be helping things along. The $25.50 per share bid comes to $1.9 billion plus IHOP will assume $155 million of Applebee's debt. The company will partially make up that huge $2 billion debt by selling company owned Applebee's to franchisees. Stewart took over IHOP in 2002 and the stock has gone up 75% since then.
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Monday, July 16, 2007

I've picked up on mentions of a new frozen yogurt trend. It started with Pinkberry in the L.A. area, which likely got its inspiration from Korea's Red Mango. I thought it might take some time for this new fro-yo wave to reach Seattle, and then even longer to cross to the Eastside, but today I spotted a little place in Kirkland called Shnoo. It's the same concept, down to the two yogurt flavors: plain or green tea and a selection of toppings featuring fresh fruit. A little web searching also turned up Yoberry, a new fro-yo place in Seattle. Red Mango's site says Bellevue Square and Alderwood locations are coming soon. The fro-yo wars are beginning again (remember when TCBY got sued by I Can't Believe It's Yogurt?). (Yelp: Yoberry, Shnoo in Kirkland, Shnoo in Seattle)
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Amtrak is going upscale. GrandLuxe Rail Journeys (formerly American Orient Express) is attaching its luxury cars to selected Amtrak trains starting in November. Passengers who pay the premium price will be able to travel along regularly scheduled Amtrak routes in fancy refurbished cars from the golden era of train travel. GrandLuxe typically operates luxury tours spanning ten days of rail travel in scenic locations such as the Grand Canyon and Pacific coast. This partnership will allow them to offer shorter, more affordable trips, though many will still balk at the $789 per night pricing.
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Friday, July 13, 2007

Sports Illustrated's Photo Gallery of NHL goalie masks. Aggressive monsters, pop culture references, local themes and of course team logos and colors dominate the designs.
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Seattle street signs from "Adams" to "Weller" are now on sale to the public. Over the next nine years, the city's signs will be replaced with bigger, brighter models, so the list will change as the project makes its way through the streets. Certain signs with historical or novelty appeal will be sold on eBay.
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Thursday, July 12, 2007

A lucky few adopted their own peach tree from the The Masumoto Family Farm this summer. Located near Fresno, California, the farm takes applications for this unique adoption program which gives "parents" the responsibility for harvesting their own Elberta peach tree on two consecutive Saturdays at peak picking time. It's tough work in very hot weather, but you get to keep a typical yield of 200-300 pounds of fruit and you can share ownership with friends or donate one weekend to a food bank. The adoption fee is $350. (via SF Chronicle)
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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Olivia Newton-John showed up for opening night of Xanadu on Broadway and joined cast members on stage for the curtain call. The musical is getting good reviews despite its much hated source movie. Roller skating is back on Broadway, this time set to the music of E.L.O.
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As the emerald ash borer threatens America's ash tree population, baseball bat makers ponder the future of their tree supply. Ash has been the dominant raw material for major league bats, though maple has risen recently as it is Barry Bonds' favored source tree. Under the umbrella of a series of articles on climate change, the N.Y. Times raises the question of whether warmer weather will contribute to the decline of ash bats. The ash borer invasion may be aided by higher temperatures and a longer growing cycle for the tree could result in softer bats. But baseball will survive any bat material changes that may result.
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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Tucked a little past the middle of Mimi Sheraton's memoir, "Eating My Words," a short chapter tells the former N.Y. Times restaurant critic's side of a culinary brouhaha that predates all our techie generation foodblogging, Food Network mudslinging, and celebrity chef fawning. In 1979, the New Yorker published a piece by consummate essayist John McPhee that began, in true McPhee style, by describing his fifth-best, fourth-best, third-best, best and second-best meals, which all took place under the same roof, "a sort of farmhouse inn...in the region of New York City". He was vague about the location as the chef-owner ("Otto") and his wife ("Anne") had agreed to cooperate if McPhee kept the restaurant anonymous. But by praising an unknown mom & pop operation into the realm of haute cuisine and by recounting Otto's harsh criticisms of certain New York restaurants, McPhee sparked an investigative firestorm amongst journalists who, unlike McPhee, made their living writing mainly about food. Through wits and luck, Sheraton and her accomplices discovered Otto's true identity and published the details in the Times. She was subsequently skewered by some publications for breaking the trust McPhee had established; Time magazine printed a pun-laden article titled "Devouring a Small Country Inn." Now years later, Sheraton finally gets her side of the tale in print. (The McPhee essay is in "Giving Good Weight" which also includes his piece on New York's farmer's markets.)
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Oh Snapple, where have you gone? The glass-bottled beverage, ubiquitous in the 1990s, has been shuffled aside while brazen energy drinks and branded bottled water take the limelight. After it leapt far beyond its modest Greenwich Village beginnings, Snapple was sold in 1994 to Quaker Oats for $1.7 billion. Sales then took a nosedive and Quaker Oats unloaded it three years later for a mere $300 million (and the CEO resigned). The next owner, Triarc, turned things around and made a tidy sum in 2000, selling Snapple to Cadbury Schweppes for $1.45 billion. But sales have again fallen off. Cadbury is now planning to split itself into two businesses, and none other than giant Coca-Cola is reportedly interested in snapping up Snapple from the beverage unit. Interestingly, Nantucket Nectars, the brand I started choosing over Snapple, is now owned by Snapple (Cadbury) and if a Coca-Cola deal happens it will likely go along.
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Monday, July 09, 2007

In 1986 Ron Bartl bought a 1923 Great Northern Railway caboose for $2,900 from a man who bought it from the Burlington Northern Railroad. Bartl decked it out with cable TV, heat, shower, toilet, and phone (no Internet?). Bartl thought he'd use it as guest quarters for his Bellevue, WA house, but now that he's moving to a smaller home, he's listed the furnished caboose for sale on CraigsList at $50,000. With plenty of train nuts in this area (and well-to-do ones at that), this caboose may not have to travel far to its next home.
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As a prelude to this past Sunday's rollout of the new 787, Boeing gathered together one each of its 7xx series aircraft and paraded them in a takeoff from Paine Field in Everett to a landing at Boeing Field in Seattle. The family reunion took place on Saturday evening with the first of the eight planes, a 707, landing at 7:07pm. (In case you didn't notice, the 787 was rolled out on 7/8/07). The planes came from various airlines and a few other sources. The 707 is owned by a refueling company and the 727 by FedEx. The 747 is a testbed for Rolls-Royce. One of its original engines was replaced with a larger model that is being certified for use on the 787. Here's an airliners.net shot of the line-up (you can see that huge engine on the 747).
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Monday, July 02, 2007

Little did I know that one of the world's greatest collection of violins was right here in the Seattle Eastside. Well, it used to be greater; it's been recently edited down to fifteen "crème de la crème" violins, violas and cellos. David Fulton sold Fox Software to Microsoft in the early 1990s and the stock boom gave him the means to acquire seven instruments made by Antonio Stradivari, two by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, and six others from Italian masters, plus the seven that he's recently sold. Fulton is a violinist (his mother hoped he'd be celebrated professional) and he loans his prized instruments out to deserving musicians.
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Levi Strauss had no children, but his company's success provided his heirs with a fortune that they are funneling into a vast trove of local charitable acts. Walter Haas Sr. married the daughter of a Strauss nephew (a Stern), ran Levi Strauss & Co. for nearly 30 years, and set an example of community giving that his children have exploded into vast proportions. The five largest Haas foundations now hold well over a billion dollars in total assets. The largest, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, has given away $268 million. Bay Area residents may not realize the extent of the family philanthropy that gave the city Stern Grove, turned a toxic military base into the beautiful Crissy Field waterfront, built SF's Museum of Modern Art, kept the Athletics in Oakland, brings college opportunities to low-income students, funds gay and lesbian causes, and is about to transform the Presidio campgrounds with $15 million. Some of their larger gifts carry the Haas name, such as the significant UC Berkeley funding, but the Haas family likes their privacy. They give to progressive organizations, they give to disadvantaged children and women, they give to improve the region immediately around them.
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