February 20, 2009
Just joined Twitter
Just so Dandan readers are aware, I am now officially on Twitter.
I know!
I can't believe it, really, either.
You thought I was a terrible Dandan blogger because more often than not this page is TOTALLY BLANK when you go to it. I wince every time I see that! I really, honestly do.
Even if the only Dandan reader out there is my Mom. Even if no one really wants to know what D and A say to each other. I could tell you what K is starting to say, now that K is part of the picture. But I swear I don't want to mommyblog. I really, really don't.
But, well.
One of these days, that could change.
Posted by Dipika at 2:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 12, 2008
Mom and Baby Yoga
H: You should check it out.
A: Wait, what do they have the baby do?
Posted by Dipika at 7:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 2, 2008
'Release:'
I've been making these kinds of short videos every once in a while.
And posting the short films at our art and design blog for Design Kompany.
There are reels and reels of Digital8 tape here at DK world headquarters in Capitol Hill, Seattle.
I guess they're tapes. Not reels. Not reelly.
Posted by Dipika at 2:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 5, 2008
Ubiquitous Computing
A: Everytime you see someone on a laptop, you think of it, right? MySpace. It's everywhere.
D: ...
A: It's ubiquitous.
D: ...
A: Ubiquitous computing.
Posted by Dipika at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 12, 2008
We got tagged, yo.
So, the other day our house/office door gets a special treatment courtesy of "Basey." I kind of recognize the signature, so I assume he/she lives around here.
Sharpie on glass:
The speech bobble is ours, from the decoration of our open house a couple of months ago. It used to say "yes!" I guess that was sort of an invitation, to the tagger.
We are enjoying this actually, kind of like having a conversation (the bubbles help). Does anyone know who Basey is?
Posted by Akira at 6:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 11, 2008
Spring, or, "a Bowl of Cherries"
Spring is finally here in Seattle. This was taken about ten days ago, when the Cherries in front of our house first bloomed. It's starting to warm up now, though we still use our heater...
Posted by Akira at 5:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 19, 2008
Now on Sale
I've decided to make Dandan a graphic design company of its own, since Design Kompany's got its own thing going and doesn't get into band art.
I've been seeing a lot of really terrible band posters, and worse, CD covers.
I'm not trying to say everything is bad, but I want to make some of these better. I missed my big break freshman year of college when some guy asked me to make a cover and I said OK but just never got around to it. And bang, they're dropping out of school to tour New Zealand.
I'm back! Dandan is taking commissions for band posters and art. If you are down, give me a shout at dandan@design-kompany.com.
Above is a perfectly copyright-free version I can e-mail any of you in Adobe Illustrator if you want to customize it. $5 via Paypal is all I ask. And now this special promotion, two files for the price of one!
I got the vectors from a site that linked to Bittbox, if you'd prefer to DIY.
Peace and love,
Dandan
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November 30, 2007
'Step:' A Short Film by DK
Some of you will wonder why Dandan has been quiet for so long. Things have been cooking up over at DesignKompany.com is the reason.
Blogs often die and I don't want Dandan to be a statistic! So I hope you don't mind the long silence. I will see if Akira can write something.
Posted by Dipika at 5:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 28, 2007
Why I Hate Polite Smalltalk
You know, I don't have time to write this post.
Posted by Dipika at 1:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 12, 2007
Hipster Kickball (2)
The guys and girls with the getup: perfect, asymmetric hair; tight-fitting pants; thick-rimmed glasses; and hand-knitted(?) hats and scarves(!). Wish I had taken a picture/video. There was even a crowd gathering around.
Posted by Akira at 9:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 11, 2007
Hipster Kickball
Today. Under stadium lights.
This kind of thing sure doesn't happen in North Carolina.
Posted by Dipika at 9:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 20, 2007
"Everything you do bad comes back to you"
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February 23, 2007
'Welcome to Iraq:'
Read the news, but don't just skim headlines.
Posted by Dipika at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 19, 2007
"There has been too much learning"
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February 18, 2007
Ballard Scene: "Which One is He?"
D: Dude, which one is he?
H: This tall, skinny dude with glasses.
D: ...
H: ...
D: You just described half of Seattle.
Posted by Dipika at 12:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 18, 2007
"All Kinds of Crazy People Walking Around"
This random guy, about 22, with frumpy clothes and curly blond hair walks into Design Kompany's office today when there's only two of us here. We're on a streetfront that's kinda busy and since this is Urban Living there are all kinds of characters strolling by, or as M says, "All kinds of crazy people walking around."
S: Looks like he's coming in.
D: Hm.
S: ...
D: ...
G: Are you accepting applications for employment?
S: No, sorry.
G: Are you accepting applications for employment?
D: Um, no.
G: I'm drug-free.
D: ...
S: ...
G: Is this a drug free establishment?
D: ...
S: ...
G: I only have six dollars and I'm really hungry.
D: Sorry, I wish we could help out, but we're pretty small.
S: ...
G: Do you take vitamins?
D: What.
G: Vitamins. Do you take vitamins?
D: No.
G: You should. You'll grow bigger.
Posted by Dipika at 5:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 2, 2006
Big Knits Hit Seattle
[Reprinted by permission from Design-Kompany.com]
About 1,000 people trekked to Seattle Center today to look at crafts made by local designers and a handful from further afield. Boston and Toronto, for example. The event? A two-day exhibition at Seattle Center called "Urban Craft Uprising."
Styled after "trunk shows," where people transported in trunks their handmade goods to sell in community gathering spaces, this event brings together independent craftspeople of like urban fashion sensibilities.
"It's an underground movement, in all different parts of the country," said Lindsey Ross, one of the organizers for Urban Craft Uprising, which is in its second year in Seattle. A lot got started in Austin, Texas, she said, and as people in other metropolitan spots learned about it, they got inspired. "People are divorcing the idea of crafting from, say, grannies knitting blankets. Men are getting into it, too. They can be some of the best knitters."
If you are into local and handmade crafts, like knits, beaded jewelry and bags made from seat belts that manufacturers couldn't use, check it out on Sunday.
Urban Craft Uprising.
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
11am - 5pm :: Sunday, December 3
Free
Posted by Dipika at 5:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 13, 2006
dairy of a sushi helper #3
a: Oh, my god, the uni guy came in today, and I had one.
d: ??
a: Uni guy. He sells just uni, out of a cooler box he carries from a restaurant to a restaurant.
d: Like a drug dealer.
a: Huh? well, yeah. So, this guy comes in randomly and Boss goes, oh, that's the uni guy. He sells Boss two tiny boxes, each for $25. Expensive, huh?
a: he used to do this all the time, this uni guy, but he quit, he told me.
d: Why?
a: I don't know, but he started up again, apparently, just a few weeks ago. He came in the other night, and no one recognized him or knew what he was up to. Then he went, "do you remember me? I used to sell you uni. I quit, but I am doing it again."
d: So, was it good?
a: Awesome. $3 a pop, with employee discount. But so sweet and melt-in-your-mouth soft. Boss was like, "I can't serve this to customers. It's too good."
Posted by Akira at 1:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 27, 2006
Polka Dots on the Beeb
Oct. 25 1:36PM
J: I made it on the beeb (BBC) today!
D: ...
J: I have a story on "The World", a coproduction of BBC/PRI/WGBH that airs (I think exclusively) here in the U.S.
D: ...
J: My story on an amazing sockeye salmon river in British Columbia is today's "Geo Quiz" about :45 after the hour in today's live broadcast, which means 3:45 today on KUOW.org, 94.9FM. www.theworld.org will carry it after 5:30 eastern time today.
D: Wow.
J: FLIPPIN SWEET!
3:50PM
J: Salmon were everywhere, all along the river like polka dots...
4:15PM
D: Like "polka dots"?
J: hey, i was ad-libbing during a phone interview in my bedroom at 7:30 this morning, cut me some slack ;-) Sitting in my bedroom on my cellphone... while some producer in boston asked me questions. i recorded my answers and ftp'd them to him. he then cut and pasted them into a coherent monologue.
D: ... [Hey, kinda like I'm doing now]
J: odd process.
D: ...
J: The other metaphor i used is that the salmon-dotted river looks like a long roll of xmas wrapping paper -- with a repeating pattern of red points on a green background.
D: ...
J: too long for radio.
D: I'd say.
J: But someone should totally make that wrapping paper!
Posted by Dipika at 12:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 12, 2006
2.75 Years in Seattle, 1 Trip Up the Space Needle
Hey party people, I finally made it up the Space Needle. Three of us, including a little baby, took one of those little elevators up. This is the ticket I got.
For some reason the dude at check-in wanted to inspect my purse much more thoroughly than my friend's. That, I believe, is because I have BLACK hair and BLACK eyes and BROWN skin. Yes! I think in fact this is what it is.
But this didn't stop me from getting a kick out of being in the Space Needle. Inside they play smooth jazz and try to make you buy coffee and key chains. They also try to get you to go to the restaurant, like it's a big treat or something.
You can actually go outside if you want to get away from these things, and just appreciate the cool views. It's nice having the Space Needle all set apart from the other buildings in downtown because it means that you get to actually see a bunch of stuff further away. Not like when you go to the Empire State building or the John Hancock Tower or you know all those other ones in other cities around the country.
Now that I have mentioned all these TALL BUILDINGS in my post along with WHAT I LOOK LIKE, the SPACE NEEDLE DUDE and US GOVERNMENT will be keeping tags on me.
Posted by Dipika at 12:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 18, 2006
My Trip to the Seattle Aquarium
H: So, how was the aquarium?
D: Lame. They had like, four fish.
Posted by Dipika at 10:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 4, 2006
Os Mutantes: "They're like a Brazilian Stereolab"
The other day I hung out with some young people who wanted to go see this Brazilian psychedelic rock band. I'd never heard of Os Mutantes, but this was a loud and happy bunch, with a bouncy light show, dancers, and all around brilliant color.
Kind of like being at the circus, with a couple of jazz numbers tossed in to mix it up.
Posted by Dipika at 7:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 2, 2006
"Pho with Extra Tendons, Please"
J: Tendons?
A: Yeah. All Asians eat them.
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July 21, 2006
Broadway and Denny: "Go Back to Your Country!!"
D: When you have a second, I'd like to know a little bit about Borderline Personality Disorder.
R: The 'symptoms' section of the Wikipedia article on BPD is a good place to start. The thing with all personality disorders you have to remember is that they are not black or white, or put another way, they aren't "either you are borderline or you're not". Every person has elements of each of personality disorder. Our tendencies are towards some more than others. A Venn diagram could be useful. Anyway, personality disorder labels are useful for communicating a large amount of information in a short space, I think usually between mental health workers. And personality types are constitutional, whereas mental illnesses are superimposed and are easier to mollify. Meaning, you can treat a manic/depressed/psychotic episode, but you can't treat an antisocial/avoidant/borderline/etc personality. I think I might get done early today. I'll give you a ring.
D: I guess the reason for my curiosity is, I want to know if the mental state of Americans is in a perilous place. I'm not convinced we can truly handle the stress and anxiety of being a nation at war. I've been reading about bombings in London during past wars, where people could see the skies darkening. Surely there's something we can't see damaging us immediately today, surely this war is taking a toll on our collective mental health?
R: ...
D: This came up because I overheard a conversation about a just-married woman whose husband got deployed for 7 months to Iraq. I tried to picture how they would start a life together after his return. I hate to think about what they brainwash all the young people who go into the military to think about foreigners. It surely can't be good news for the next generation of Americans -- and the future of this country -- if its people are taught to mistrust the rest of the world.
R: ...
D: ...
R: I've been working in the VA hospital. The 'V' stands for veterans. I talk to guys everyday now about being in wars, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf War, etc. It makes me think of war as part of the human experience now. The effects are a little different for every war and generation I guess, but the gist is the same, nightmares, trouble with re-entry into society and a state of hyper-arousal. Or, another way to say it is, post traumatic stress disorder.
D: ...
R: I saw a girl at Logan Airport saying goodbye to her soldier husband last year. He was going to fight an unjust war for us mostly willfully ignorant Americans. She was crying, and wearing a long pea coat, he was quiet.
D: ...
R: ...
D: Howcome nothing's happened, really, after the Downing Memo.
Posted by Dipika at 7:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 28, 2006
Telescopically Speaking
D: That's not Jupiter, really. Is it?
A: Yes!
D: No. It's not red and there's no spot.
A: There is a spot.
D: There is not a spot.
A: But look! There are moons. Five, in a line.
D: Which one's Io.
Io Statistics
Discovered by Simon Marius & Galileo Galilei
Date of discovery 1610
Mass (kg) 8.94e+22
Mass (Earth = 1) 1.4960e-02
Equatorial radius (km) 1,815
Equatorial radius (Earth = 1) 2.8457e-01
Mean density (gm/cm^3) 3.55
Mean distance from Jupiter (km) 421,600
Rotational period (days) 1.769138
Orbital period (days) 1.769138
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) 17.34
Orbital eccentricity 0.004
Orbital inclination (degrees) 0.040
Escape velocity (km/sec) 2.56
Visual geometric albedo 0.61
Mean surface temperature -143°C
Magnitude (Vo) 5.02
Source: PlanetaryExploration.net
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June 9, 2006
Two Lines from Yoda
Do or do not. There is no try.
Posted by Dipika at 8:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 8, 2006
Open House at Design Kompany Today!
Big news.
Today we are hosting a barbecue party for our office mate and client, D+A Studio.
There's one thing I have to clarify. A lot of people think "D" and "A" are the characters of Dandan, but actually to think this would be incorrect. I can see how you could make that mistake, though.
The "D" and "A" of D+A Studio are the owners of an architecture design studio. They do pretty cool stuff, like green design and thinking about how to design communities instead of just buildings. They also are really into urban design for smart growth.
Sometime last fall D (of Dandan) met one of the designers for D+A Studio. "When I saw their business name, I couldn't help but think good things were on the way."
We helped them rebrand. And now we share an office!
more about D+A and details of the party
Date: Today!
Place: Design Kompany/D+A Studio office
Time: 5 to10pm
Posted by Dipika at 9:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 3, 2006
Scenes from a windowsill
A lot of people are moving lately. And when you move, you tend to find old desks, chest of drawers, things that you have had for a long time and no longer want. So, a lot of used furniture ends up on the sidewalks with a "FREE" tag on it. Over the Memorial Day weekend, there was a pile of it right outside of our window, some of them our own found-but-no-longer-desired furniture (yes, we are moving, too). Sitting on the windowsill with the view, with various human drama (or the lack thereof) unfolding down below, provided an excellent respite from the packing and cleaning.
------
[a young guy, very excited and animated, bounds over to a TV stand balanced on the curb, grabs it, runs back to his friends]
A: I wish I had a camera.
D: Or a video camera.
A: Yeah! it would be a funny video blog piece.
A: We could put something out, wait for someone to grab it and shoot the entire scene, like the candid camera thing.
D: Wouldn't that be like spying or something?
[pause, as we thoughtfully gaze out where an old guy in trainer pants with a dog passes by]
D: Never mind. Spying is exactly what we are doing.
------
D: There goes some young hipsters.
A: Yeah. They didn't even look at the stuff over here.
D: I think they are called that because they show off their slim hips.
A: Uhm, D, the term stems from the word "hip" meaning trendy or fashionable, I think.
D: Oh, yeah... heh.
A: Can I quote you on that?
------
A Guy on a Bike I: [looking at the stuff, as he approaches it slowly] FREE!
AGOAB II: Yeah. Something must be wrong with it, dude.
AGOAB I: [emphatically] FREE!!
AGOAB II: Yeah... [cycles away]
AGOAB I: [catching up with his buddy, but looking back at the stuff again] FREE...
------
We actually watched a few people examine our old sewing-machine table (we picked it up off a sidewalk ourselves, but that's another story) later that weekend, and even took pictures. Apologies to the guy whose private moment with a piece of furniture we rudely interrupted.
Posted by Akira at 4:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Scenes from a windowsill
A lot of people are moving lately. And when you move, you tend to find old desks, chest of drawers, things that you have had for a long time and no longer want. So, a lot of used furniture ends up on the sidewalks with a "FREE" tag on it. Over the Memorial Day weekend, there was a pile of it right outside of our window, some of them our own found-but-no-longer-desired furniture (yes, we are moving, too). Sitting on the windowsill with the view, with various human drama (or the lack thereof) unfolding down below, provided an excellent respite from the packing and cleaning.
------
[a young guy, very excited and animated, bounds over to a TV stand balanced on the curb, grabs it, runs back to his friends]
A: I wish I had a camera.
D: Or a video camera.
A: Yeah! it would be a funny video blog piece.
A: We could put something out, wait for someone to grab it and shoot the entire scene, like the candid camera thing.
D: Wouldn't that be like spying or something?
[pause, as we thoughtfully gaze out where an old guy in trainer pants with a dog passes by]
D: Never mind. Spying is exactly what we are doing.
------
D: There goes some young hipsters.
A: Yeah. They didn't even look at the stuff over here.
D: I think they are called that because they show off their slim hips.
A: Uhm, D, the term stems from the word "hip" meaning trendy or fashionable, I think.
D: Oh, yeah... heh.
A: Can I quote you on that?
------
A Guy on a Bike I: [looking at the stuff, as he approaches it slowly] FREE!
AGOAB II: Yeah. Something must be wrong with it, dude.
AGOAB I: [emphatically] FREE!!
AGOAB II: Yeah... [cycles away]
AGOAB I: [catching up with his buddy, but looking back at the stuff again] FREE...
------
We actually watched a few people examine our old sewing-machine table (we picked it up off a sidewalk ourselves, but that's another story) later that weekend, and even took pictures. Apologies to the guy whose private moment with a piece of furniture we rudely interrupted.
Posted by Akira at 4:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 30, 2006
カラオケはOKよ！歌うか。
D: Can I look at the song book when you’re done?
K: Um... it’s in Japanese.
D: Right.
K: ...
D: ...
K: Which artist are you looking for?
D: スチャダラパー*.
K: Really? But they’re so old! Hey, which song?
D: "Konya wa Boogie Back".
K: What! I love that song! 一緒に歌いましょう！
...
...
...
K: Hey, I want to know what else you know.
*Akira reviewed one of Scha Dara Parr's albums in his Music Fridays column.
Posted by Dipika at 5:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 11, 2006
Howell and Boylston: Apocalypse and Angels Thirdhand
“I heard someone say, 'If they made a new movie about the Iraq war in the style of Apocalypse Now, then the soundtrack would be this*.'”
The cover of this Black Angels' album (pictured) had already intrigued me. But after that introduction, I had to slide the CD in. And wow.
Suddenly I'm in high school again, with Pink Floyd's "Learning to Fly." Warrant popped into my head, too, though I'm unclear exactly why.
The Black Angels say their "psychedelically induced rock n' roll evokes the spirit of the 1960's while awakening the heavy droning rhythms inspired by The Velvet Underground."
Hm.
Where's my Warrant tape?
Black Angels
Date: June 19
Place: Chop Suey, Capitol Hill
*Sample some music at their Myspace. Isn't sampling music what they made this site for? (Hint: Yes.)
Posted by Dipika at 12:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 5, 2006
Japanese Architects Up On the Roof
Q. When do you hire an architect?
A. When you want to have lunch on the roof.
That's the request one Japanese family had for a Tokyo husband-and-wife* team of architects.
Now the family has a very wide, flat but slightly inclined wooden roof that overlooks a mountainscape and valley. Perfect viewing with Kirin and a bento.
The "roof house," as they call it, is in Hadano, Kanagawa.
Tezuka Architects got a packed audience at Henry Art Gallery last night as they described how easygoing their clients were. The kitchen was still under construction when the architects were invited for lunch, so they ordered in.
Or rather, up.
Yui Tezuka said a Pizza Hut guy came on his bike, and wanted to know how to deliver. "We said, climb the ladder and come up on the roof. And he said, where do I leave my shoes. And we said, you can leave them anywhere you like."
It's not impossible to go up to the roof here in Seattle. I hear sometimes landlords open them for July 4 barbecues. I've been on rooftops twice since I got here. Both times I got square lectures on how dangerous it is and was gingerly chaperoned down.
*The person who introduced the couple was off on one name. He was corrected:
T: My name is Takaharu, not Takahiro.
A: Ouch.
Posted by Dipika at 3:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 28, 2006
Bards, St. Patrick and Information Design
D: I don't think there is any real "design movement" to grab onto right now. There're inklings of a wave, though. I feel something coming on... Maybe it has to do with my fascination lately with "information design" or "scanning quickly" or just reducing down bits of text and pictures into fast, easy-to-digest snippets...
M: My, that's a lot to take in. I have found my thoughts quite often straying down a similar path, regarding the transition from traditional media to electronic media, what it means to all of us, and what it means to me specifically. I feel like great change is also afoot. "Information Design"... I like the sound of it.
D: Is it a good thing?
M: Probably very good, very terrible, and everything in between.
D: Does content get dumbed down? Are we becoming zombies?
M: Yes and yes, and it will take highly skilled and creative people to ensure that this decay stabilizes, or even starts to wane.
D: What happens with a fat book like Anna Karena, is anyone going to have patience to finish something like that or will they be too busy scanning blogs?
M: I like to think about what happened in Ireland (because it's easy) at the coming of St. Patrick, Christianity, and most importantly, literacy, to a land with an ancient and exceedingly sophisticated oral tradition of information. Bards did not cease to ply their trade, but they were however able to share their poetry or scathing satires with a much greater audience.
Monastaries worked incessantly producing both secular and religious books that standardized folk tradition and religion, and guaranteed their survival through the archiving of this information.
Storytellers and musicians were able to sustain themselves and their work, and share it with far more people than would have been, or in fact was the case in an illiterate Ireland.
I think the biggest difference between then and now is simply the rate and the strength at which the change is occuring.
Oh, I'm starving... back to my shredded wheat.
Hoo Roo,
~Mark
Posted by Dipika at 11:29 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 24, 2006
Rules on Glass Separatism
D: Don't throw the colored glass in with the clear glass.
A: Why not? They don't have bins anymore for colored glass.
D: ...
A: What. We can't just keep it here.
D: Maybe they have colored glass bins someplace else in the neighborhood? I'd hate for them to throw out the whole lot just 'cause we didn't bother to find out.
A: ...
D: ...
A:
------ Forwarded Message
From: Ask Evelyn Seattle Public Utilities
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 10:27:10 -0700
To: Akira
Subject: Re: Glass recycle
You can recycle all colors of clean & empty glass jars and bottles, with lids or caps removed (no bags, cartons or six pack rings) are to be placed in the glass bin.
Drinking glasses, light bulbs (dispose of fluorescent bulbs and tubes as hazardous waste) eyeglasses, ceramics, such as mugs, plates and bowls, Vases , window glass and mirrors, bottle or jar lids or caps you can NOT recycle in your glass bin or container.
Thank you for recycling!
For FREE monthly e-mail updates on conservation tips, events and activities happening around Seattle
------ End of Forwarded Message
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April 4, 2006
Journalist Elizabeth Kolbert: Climate Change Will Be 'World-Altering'
A roomful of science people pressed forward as journalist Elizabeth Kolbert tapped her microphone March 23 at Seattle's Town Hall. The author of last spring's three-part series* on climate change for The New Yorker readied herself to share firsthand observations of how humanity's actions are already reshaping the planet's landscape.
The most dramatic changes, she said, are happening in the Arctic.
Kolbert met geophysicists and chemists in Alaska and Greenland as part of a quest to find out how serious a problem climate change really is. "Like a lot of people, I kept waiting for this story to be resolved," she said.
Now she says the fact that some still question human influence as a cause of climate change is "really comical, or it would be if it weren’t so scary."
Evidence of change is clear: Flowers open up a week earlier in New England. In the Northwest, the snowpack is melting 10 days earlier than it did 50 years ago. The year 2005 broke hurricane records. Lots of carbon is stored in permafrost that's starting to thaw. Kolbert said permafrost scientist Vladimir Romanovsky told her, "[Permafrost] is like a ready-use mix. Just add a little heat and it will start cooking."
She said people who say they're skeptical that human actions are the cause of climate change are either guilt-ridden, on a payroll or simply uninformed. "Fully 25 years ago, the changes we’re seeing were predicted by climate modelers," she said. So why is there still denial? "Problems that are hard to solve are also hard to acknowledge."
Recognizing the seriousness of climate change is even harder for those who don't interpret scientific graphs or models, since the effects of carbon loading today won't be apparent for several decades. "If it’s so bad," Kolbert said reluctant believers convince themselves, "I’d be feeling it by now."
Other than a few oil-producing states in the Persian Gulf, she said, the United States is among the biggest producers of carbon dioxide. Future generations will have to bear the negative consequences of our choices today, and for no particularly good reason.
Her concluding tone was dire. "I could end this talk by telling you to turn your lights off and save the world, but I’m not going to end that way," she said. "Climate change is going to be world-altering. I don’t mean inconvenient. I mean change in life-altering ways."
*You can read the articles, "The Climate of Man," here: I II III Interview
Here's a recent Wired Magazine article on Kolbert's message.
Posted by Dipika at 5:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 27, 2006
Ninth and Seneca: Two Ladies Discuss Clothing
1: I love your shirt. Can I--
2: Touch it!
1: Where'd you get it!?
2: At Chicos. Many years ago. It's just lasted forever.
1: Nice colors!
2: Aren't they. And feel. It's kind of like a towel.
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March 23, 2006
diary of a sushi helper (2): イルカはいるかい？
Occasionally, we have groups of school kids, out on their big sushi night. Usually found among these groups are a few Asian kids, maybe of Japanese variety, and they are often Japanese culture dilettantes, eager to show off what they know.
As it may happen, they have questions for you.
kid a (at the register): -----(inaudible question, directed to the wait staff)?
staff: Uh-m, you should ask those guys (points to sushi bar). They should know.
kid b: (rather nervously) Um, what kind of fish is Iruka?
me: That would be dolphins (they are not fish, though, and we certainly wouldn't serve it here).
kid a: (Suddenly animated, clapping his hands loudly) YES! FIFTY BUCKS!
Hey, do I get a share of that, maybe?
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March 18, 2006
Would This Happen in Ireland?
So I'm on my way home from a Patrick's Day party and there's this guy sitting in a tree.
He goes, "What's up?"
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March 13, 2006
"Affix 13 Cents Additional Postage, Remove This Label, and Remail"
A letter I sent last week comes back with this big sticky note telling me to add 13 cents. So I go to the post office to see what kind of divvy-up options they've got going on.
This thirtysomething man wearing jeans and one of those netty athletic shirts with a stripe down the arm is in front of me in line. He wants to know howcome he's not getting his mail.
"You moved twice, see," says the postal worker (W). "Your new address is your old address."
"...?"
W: Your new address is your old address. Cause you moved back to your old address. [sighs]
"..."
W: Wait, what's your zip code?
The man tells him.
W: [sharp-toned] Well, if you live in Everett, you need to go to the Everett post office and sort it out there.
The man tucks his new, blank forwarding address forms under his arm, and pushes off the counter. He looks hurt.
W: Next person.
D: I'd like to get some one- and two-cent stamps today. What kind of preset packages do they come in?
W: Well, you can get as many as you want.
D: What kind of preset packages do they come in?
W: A sheet of fifty for one-cent stamps.
D: Okay, I'll take a sheet of fifty. And what about the two-cent stamps?
W: Sheets of twenty.
D: I'll take one of those sheets, too.
W: Okay. [opens drawers, lifts out waxy envelopes with colorful sheets inside]
[While he's doing this, I say, "And one ten-cent stamp" just to make it an even $1.00.]
W: [softening] One ten-cent'r.
D: Yes.
W: Would you like to buy some 39-cent stamps today?
D: No.
W: Telephone card?
D: No.
W: Your total comes to... a dollar even!
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March 8, 2006
Upcoming Film Festival: Southeast Asian Women
They're playing Nina Simone here at one of my usual Capitol Hill cafes and the song Single Woman, if you could hear it, would be the perfect background music for this post.
On March 24, my short movie about traveling India screens as part of a local film festival called Tasveer, which means "picture" in Urdu. The focus is on Southeast Asian women.
One person in this demographic likes my piece for sure. My mom. A relief, since I recorded a phone conversation with her that's part of the soundtrack. At the time I was 25, younger days when it seemed "uncool" to ask permission.
Back then, too, I would never have bothered to make a film just because I'm female and of Southeast Asian descent.
Engineering grads did not sit around in circles and discuss the empowerment of women. We sat in squares, we talked numbers. Popular subjects touched on hydraulics, for example, or the contributions of Gauss and Carnot to thermodynamics.
But it's been a while since college, and like everyone else in the 25-35 bracket I've learned to find other crowds within the crowd.
At the basement of a bookstore in San Francisco* that R says is "where the hippies used to hang out," I found this book about other women around the world who've been making art. Some is sad, like Nina's, but all of it feels real.
Happy International Womens Day.
About Tasveer
Dates: March 24-26
Place: Central Cinema, 1411 21st Avenue, Seattle, WA, 98122
*Speaking of San Francisco bookstores, our friends at Chin Music Press will read from the book Kuhaku at this place on Market Street on March 16.
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February 26, 2006
"Flame Me"
D: She looked a little like Velma from Scooby Doo.
A: The smart one?
D: Yeah.
A: ...
D: What, say it.
A: A lot of people look like that on Capitol Hill.
D: ...
A: They do.
D: Some girls on MySpace might be offended by that comment.
A: They can be offended, then. Flame me.
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February 22, 2006
SciFi Film Stuff (2)
They had a sellout crowd at the Science Fiction Short Film Festival I was telling you about. I'd gone to the second set of screenings, along with 799 other people.
After the shorts, a bunch of the directors lined up to talk about their movies. For their day jobs, most of them work in film or video or animation, but one person was in IT. Someone was from Dublin, someone else from Israel, and the sole woman in the group from Canada. They all said how delighted they were to have their movies up there on the big screen*. One film was shot in 48 hours, and cost $60 CAN, another was a three-year project upwards of $30K. So it just depends.
One of the SIFF folks said they didn't know there'd be so much demand for this kind of thing, so they may expand it to two days in 07.
This one girl had on a black strapless dress, kind of like a sundress, even though gale-force winds that day nearly toppled cars. Come to think of it, a lot of people wore black. I wonder if there was an unwritten dress code? If so, I certainly broke it. My coat is white.
*My own short movie, "The India Tapes," will screen on March 24 at Central Cinema in Seattle. More on this later.
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February 20, 2006
Denny and 5th
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February 11, 2006
15th and Pike
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February 2, 2006
Weather
D: You know, I have a feeling it's going to rain tomorrow.
A: Dちゃん. Um, that's not very insightful.
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February 1, 2006
"That's a fun name! Now, how do you want it today?"
I finally went to get my hair cut today after about three weeks of "I think I need a haircut" moments in the bathroom. I go to this semi-chain place called Rudy's, which sort of caters to the Capitol Hill hipsters around "Pike-Pine Corridor". It's set up like a co-op, where hairdressers take people on first-come-first-served basis, instead of usual appointment system. This means every time, I get a different person, and a different haircut.
I find myself going back to this place, though it isn't especially convenient for me (there are several other choices that are closer or about the same distance from my home). The results vary widely, to say the least. It's not especially cheap, either.
So why do I go back? If it's not the product (the haircut), can it still be called brand loyalty? Maybe. I think it's the familiarity. I've come to expect the hipper-than-thou clientele, the nonchalant reception when I walk in. I have learned to enjoy finding a spot among the blood-red chairs, staring at an old issue of iD, or listening to Jeff Buckley or Cat Power wailing on the store PA, which is always on, a tad too loudly. It's rather odd to think that this hipster joint became a familiar, comfortable place for me to frequent, but I guess some things are starting to rub off on me after two years.
Also, I do like the thrill of not knowing what my new haircut will look like beforehand, and of sometimes being subjected to fresh-faced hair school graduate who would pinch the back of my neck. What's life without a bit of surprise, eh?
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January 31, 2006
SciFi Film Stuff
The best short film I ever saw was this one called "Powers of Ten," which they showed as part of a Wednesday night film series I used to go to in Brooklyn. It's about zooming microscopically and macrosopically, so you get to see molecues and galaxies.
Ever since that movie, plus another one about suns, I've been into shorts. I went to a couple of film festivals especially devoted to brief movies. Even a summer one in Tokyo, where they advertised on little paper fans.
Incidentally, I finished my own little short movie I talked about and it is 15:00.
And I am really curious about this one-day film festival coming up in Seattle next Saturday, it's a series of science fiction shorts.
Date:February 4
Place:Cinerama Theatre, 2100 Fourth Ave.
Time:4pm and 7pm
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January 27, 2006
Jared Diamond (2)
Just to follow up with you guys, I wrote a blurb about this lecture I mentioned before for a new blog, Northwest Science News. (This picture was far too blurry to post but I wanted to share it here. At times like this I miss the tripod and cable shutter release I used for my Minolta X375. Of course, my subjects back then weren't people, but plates of pasta and fries.)
Moving right along:
Jared Diamond on 'Collapse'
By Dipika Kohli
Scientist Jared Diamond came to Seattle on Jan. 12 to talk about the reasons why some societies flourish while others fail - and how those reasons are reflected in our response to crises ranging from AIDS to Hurricane Katrina.
A mix of all age groups nearly filled Town Hall for Diamond’s talk, based on his book "Collapse."
Diamond won a Pulitzer Prize for his earlier bestseller, "Guns, Germs and Steel," which describes why some human civilizations survive challenges that others can’t.
He said today’s societies are increasingly at risk of failure because more people are inhabiting the planet, consuming resources faster than ever. With globalization, slight shifts in the affairs of even small, remote countries affect the world's geopolitical equilibrium. (In the past, he said, one of the countries the U.S. government considered insignificant in this way was Afghanistan.)
Many of the problems faced by societies today are the same ones that faced now-bygone societies: for example, climate change and limited resources of wood, fuel and water. How people adapt to those problems affects whether they win or lose.
He cited one example from the South Pacific: a civilization that was clever enough to devise ways to shape monolithic statues - some as tall as 33 feet and as heavy as 90 tons - without stone tools, and to haul them without wheels. In the end, the society resorted to civil war and even cannibalism.
"So why did the people of Easter Island tear down and break the statues their ancestors built so painstakingly?" Diamond asked.
The professor from the University of California at Los Angeles paused, perhaps to scan the crowd for a raised hand, before giving the answer.
Easter Island once had ample forests, he said, but over eight centuries the people depleted this resource. They cut down the last tree in 1680.
Without wood, they couldn’t build the canoes they needed to harpoon dolphins. Thus isolated from outside help and unable to gather food, the people turned ugly. Diamond said "the meanest thing you could say to someone was, ‘The flesh of your mother is stuck between my teeth.’"
Declining forest cover was also a problem in old Japan, too. But the Tokugawa-era shoguns knew to leave wood resources for their children, so they worked across regions to replenish trees, Diamond said. Today three-quarters of Japan is forest.
Successful societies learn to conserve resources. Or they produce them. Or they make friends with reliable neighbors.
Most importantly, societies that succeed are willing to let go of old ideas. Pious Scandinavians who settled in North America long before Columbus were unwilling to learn how to fish from the pagan Inuit. There was plenty of meat, but the settlers starved, and the Scandinavians retreated from the New World.
If modern America is to avoid a similar collapse, her citizens must "reappraise core values of isolationism and consumerism," Diamond said.
Americans have been led to think it’s OK for "anyone to do as he or she darn pleases," he said. But people here must stop consuming so many of the world’s resources. Americans also have to learn the oceans aren’t barriers that will protect us from problems elsewhere.
Diamond said that his research turned up one thread common to societies on the brink.
"Are the elite in a society able to insulate themselves against disaster?" he asked. If so, that’s a caution sign. If the top tiers aren’t affected by poverty and disease, for example, they won’t be motivated to deal with the society's big problems.
Rich people in America live behind gates, Diamond said. They’re able to buy private health insurance and pension plans, too, skirting nonexistent or shaky systems left for the less well-off.
Then there’s New Orleans.
"The Dutch take very good care of their dikes," Diamond said, because both rich and poor live within flood basins. Not so in New Orleans. No one invested in the engineering infrastructure (probably a few hundred million dollars’ worth, he said) that could have prevented the $300 billion flood disaster born of Hurricane Katrina.
Solving long-term problems works out better for the economy, Diamond said.
On his visits to Third World countries, people tell him they’re most worried about public health, family planning and the environment, he said. It would take $27 billion to ease the world’s problems with AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, he said. "And how much are we spending on weeks and months of a major war? ... There are 20 countries waiting to be the next Iraq."
Diamond's assessment may sound gloomy, but he says he's actually "cautiously optimistic."
Modern communication technologies can keep people informed of current "messes ... or successes." Meanwhile, today’s archaeologists and historians can help us learn the lessons of past messes and successes.
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January 16, 2006
Fifth and Pike
"You gotta be humble, dude."
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January 12, 2006
Why Societies Fail: Jared Diamond in Seattle
Jared Diamond, a scientist and Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction author, will be in Seattle today (Thursday) to talk about societies of the past that failed.
"Why do societies fall apart?," organizer Town Hall Seattle asks in a press release. "In his global bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond examined why some civilizations flourish. His new book, Collapse, looks at the other side of the coin. What happened to the Anasazi? The Viking colonies of Greenland? Rwanda?"
Dandan will listen for parallels between past cultural groups that broke apart and modern ones that could be on track to do the same. Of course, we can't go in there knowing what the story is, so for part of the time we'll just listen, too.
Date: Thursday, January 12
Place: Town Hall Seattle
Time: Tickets ($5) go on sale at 4.30 and 7 p.m.
Photo courtesy Town Hall Seattle
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January 11, 2006
feel like cheese dinner tonight?
Who is this marketed to, I wonder? Hapless curry lovers, desis whose mothers didn't tell them where you can get proper paneer, or just the curious like us.
For the record, it does have that spongy texture and tofu-like taste-free flavor, and no, it doesn't melt. Perfect for a curry dish.
Here's the manufacturer's web site.
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January 9, 2006
Slowing Down
Over the weekend Akira discovered how to slow the shutter speed on the digital camera. This is one of those Canon IXY cameras that can fit in a man's breast pocket. Just about everyone I know who has a mini digicam bought this exact model. Super popular.
Akira came up with some artsy photos that could run in lifestyle glossies. Next step: use the new mini-tripod, also pocket-sized!, to smooth blur.
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December 22, 2005
Hot Vlog
Just in time for the holiday season, here's our first foray into video blogging - of a particularly cheerful hotdog in the U District.
related links: videoblogging | joshleo
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December 21, 2005
Design Kompany 2006
Remember how I said we were setting up Design Kompany?
I just got back in touch with one of our past clients in Ireland to see if everything looked okay on this new page I made. A+, she said.
Out of cheesiness we made this little greeting card (left) to email to folks. Yes. I'm getting into the idea of using our photos for some commercial purpose. Akira took this one. There are more.
Pre-New Year Design Kompany slogan:
2006 is where it's at.
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December 19, 2005
Ravioli, Lattes and the Skyline
Isn't it important to get out of your comfort zone once in a while and try new things?
It's easy to fall into a routine and spend all your time in places you know with people you know. Harder to move about in a space that's unfamiliar. Which is why some people don't like traveling. But I love traveling. And so, yesterday I spent the whole afternoon and evening exploring another neighborhood, Queen Anne.
First stop, Uptown Espresso, of course. Crowded there. Later I "discovered" a cute boutique and checked out Easy Street Records for the first time. Akira met me, and we headed to K and J's place where together, the four of us made ravioli.
We folded rectangular strips of lasagna over spoonfuls of a vegetarian filling that looked a lot like Indian food. We trapped the filling by gluing the edges shut with water, and pressing the perimeter with the tip of a fork. The finished works looked like little pillows.
After dinner, we strolled along in the cool night air to Upper Queen Anne, where Cafe Diablo's baristas made this amazing design on my coffee. I've never seen anything like this in Capitol Hill.
On the way home, we stopped at this popular viewpoint, Kerry Park. I had been here in the afternoon, but now there were no tourists setting up big cameras with timers. Seattle's skyline looked good. This time, it outshone a darkened Elliott Bay. And the night breezes felt closer.
Exciting stuff, getting to experience the same viewpoint and the same city from a new perspective. Good to know to do that, there's no need to go far.
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December 18, 2005
12th and Pine
"I get the computer on Monday, Thursday and Friday. Sometimes, though, it's Tuesday, Thursday and Friday."
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December 13, 2005
Western and Columbia
"You can't ask him anything. The only way he communicates is by wiggling his toes."
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December 11, 2005
Wind
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December 10, 2005
Evite: Just Say No
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December 9, 2005
Pine and Boren (2)
Last week after "the Trey show" we stopped at Bauhaus for Italian sodas. Then we spied on the guy in this car.
The cafe has huge glass windows so everybody can see what's going on. It took this guy a few tries to back into the parking spot, but it was right in front of us and we got a clear view of what happened next.
So he gets out and pops the trunk. Gets a black leather bag, shaped like a laptop. Goes back to the drivers seat. Shuts door. Opens bag. Soon a white glow shows us his features.
A: What is he doing?
D: さあ。
A: Wait. Is he going online?
D: ... Oooh. Looks like he is.
A: Of course. They have WiFi here so he can hook up.
[Driver claps open a cell phone]
D: Man, this guy looks like he's done this before.
A: Why can't he come in and pay for a cup of coffee? What the?
D: Maybe he doesn't want to leave his car. Unattended, I mean.
A: What the?
D: Give me the camera, please.
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December 8, 2005
The Man at the Info Desk
I walk up and there's this man in front of me in line. The Seattle Public Library woman has big earrings that look like moons.
[Play scene at about three words per hour]
Him: .... card.
Her: Your card appears to be lost.
Him: So what should I do?
Her: You need to go to that desk [points] and get a new card. It costs $1.
Him: You wouldn't have a lost and found box?
Her: [glances at computer screen] Your card appears to have been missing since August. You need to get a new card. It costs $1. You don't have to pay right now but it costs $1.
Him: I don't have to pay right now?
Her: No.
Him: But could you check the lost and found, please.
Her: We don't have one. When we find a card, it goes to lost status.
Him: What?
Her: It goes to lost stah-tus. We don't have old cards. We cut them up and we throw them away. You have to get a new card.
Him: Can I still get onto the computer?
Her: Yes, you can still get onto the computer.
Me: Excuse me. Mind if I cut in quickly?
Her: [heaves sigh] I'm helping him right now. When I'm finished with him, I'll help you. Okay? [sigh2]
Him: Thank you.
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December 4, 2005
Yellow Space
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December 3, 2005
Setting Up DK
We are redesigning the web site for Design Kompany (suggestions welcome) and we're also reorganizing our office.
A: We really need to get some kind of big calendar. Big.
D: You mean, like "year at a glance?"
A: Something like that.
D: A rolly uppy calendar.
A: What? What's that?
D: You know. A rolly uppy one.
Today Akira picked up these items:
box of 30 binder clips
two yellow in-trays
one blue pencil/pen holder
four tiles of cork
a white board (magnetic)
one 30-Day "rolly uppy" wall calendar:
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December 2, 2005
Snow
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November 30, 2005
Dave Gorman Show
This comedian, Dave Gorman, is in Seattle. Wow! Akira and I caught him at an arts festival in Belfast, and he was funny. I wish he had a different show this time, else I'd go see him at The Moore sometime before December 10.
This routine is about "google whacking," meaning you try to come up with two words that when you Google them together you only get one listing back. Try it. You get these random links and stuff.
So he gets in touch with people at the other end of those links. He goes to see them, gets them to come up with two words that do the same trick, and follows that link. In real life. And so on.
The whole thing is set up like a power point presentation. Sound nerdy? It is. If you like that stuff, go see Dave Gorman. Tell me what you think of that "G'day Davo" line.
Date: Thru December 10
Time: Varies by day
Place: Moore Theatre
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November 27, 2005
First and Pike
"I know! And then, she served wine. I don't drink it. My brother doesn't drink it. For Christmas dinner, I think we'll just have us."
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November 22, 2005
Five More of D's Favorite Cafes
Top Pot (downtown). For when your little brother or sister is in town.
Cafe Vita. For the carrot cake.
Uptown Espresso. For even better carrot cake.
Joe Bar. For the staff.
Panama Hotel Tea House. For the chamomile tea and wicker chairs and feeling of being in a Yasujiro Ozu flick.
Posted by Dipika at 10:52 AM | Comments (2)
November 20, 2005
Dictionary
Today we played The Dictionary Game with friends visiting our part of town.
How it works is one person picks a word randomly from the dictionary (the more obscure the better), and everyone else makes up a definition and writes it down. They turn these bits of paper in to the person who picked the word, who calls them out along with the correct definition. Then players take turns guessing which meaning is right.
Points are assigned as follows.
Players get two (2) points for guessing correctly
Players get one (1) point if other players choose their fake definition
Reader gets two (2) points if no one guesses correctly
So here are the words we learned today. You can find out what they mean on the next page...
siderite
Laomedon
interrobang
nappe
tin lizzie
mizzle
sternutation
flapdoodle
siderite n. 1. An impure, yellowish-brown iron carbonate mineral. 2. An iron meteorite -- sider-itic adj.
Laomedon n. Gk. Myth. The founder and king of Troy and father of Priam. [Lat. < Gk. Laokoon.]
interrobang also interrabang n. A punctuation mark used esp. to end a simultaneous question and explanation. [interro(gation point) + bang, (printers' slang) exclamation point.]
nappe n. 1. A sheet of water flowing over a dam or similar structure. 2. Geol. a. A recumbent anticline or fold of strata. b. A mass of rock moved from its original position by an anticline. 3. Math Either of the two parts into which a cone is divided by the vertex. [Fr., sheet < OFr., tablecloth < Lat. mappa. napkin.]
tin lizzie n. Slang. A dilapidated or cheap car. [< Lizzie, a nickname for Elizabeth.]
mizzle intr. v. Chiefly Brit. To make a sudden departure. [Orig. unknown.]
sternutation n. The act of sneezing. 2. A sneeze. [Lat.
flapdoodle n. Slang. Foolish talk; nonsense. [Orig. unknown.]
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November 16, 2005
Rain
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November 13, 2005
Trees
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November 12, 2005
Weather Report (3)
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October 31, 2005
Bellevue and Olive
"She could walk there, but it's uphill and not in a nice neighborhood. And that bag she was carrying looked heavy."
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October 19, 2005
3rd and Marion
"So you can imagine the scenarios running through my head, right? I turn the car right around and zip home at 80 mph. Know what she says?"
"Whad she say, dude?"
"'My cell phone's broken!'"
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October 17, 2005
Tea + Shakuhachi
This tea place we found is like a salon: they'll work with so you get exactly what you want.
"Are you an oolong person? Any preference, strong or weak?" Bits of loose leaves come flying out of bags. "Smell."
This guy says he can tell you what part of Taiwan a sample comes from, if not which exact mountain.
"Stop by Saturday," he says, all smiles. A couple will play the koto and shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute.
Date: Saturday, October 22
Place: Floating Leaves Teahouse, Ballard
Time: 4 pm and 7 pm
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October 10, 2005
Irish Breakfast?
A number of months ago at a wine bar in downtown Seattle, I met a guy I’ll call Kieran quietly enjoying a glass of wine.
At the time, I was just back from Ireland, and had that conversational style of the sort that people do over there.
He tells me his parents are Irish.
Really?
Yes.
So, you would know then.
Know what?
Where I can get a good, I mean a really good Irish breakfast.
Ah. A fry-up, you mean.
Yes!
For that you’d go to Molly Maguire’s. It’s in Ballard.
Oh, yeah? What’s Ballard?
Misremembering Kieran’s tip, this weekend I showed up at Murphy’s, an Irish pub in Wallingford. No Irish breakfast, but they do have some interesting looking boards for darts.
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October 7, 2005
First and Seneca
Just overheard on the #10: "Ew. Somebody smells like mustard."
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October 4, 2005
Five of D's Favorite Cafes
Essential Bakery and Cafe. Because they have nice crepes. Go early, though, before the big families grab all the newspapers and tables. Then again, seeing little kids and elderly people gather ‘round is kind of nice, too. But loud.
Cafe Casbah. For when you are wandering randomly in Belltown, though I’m not sure why you would be doing that.
Bauhaus. For when you are walking up from downtown and need to break the journey. Also for when you want to watch people staring at their laptop screens.
Cafe Allegro. For when you decide to get the heck out of Capitol Hill and hit the U District. Space it out, though. You could become one of the permanent collection.
Cafe Europa. For when you feel like a walk through nearby Volunteer Park. Don't stop by at the end of the day, which is when I noticed the cops do. Very unrelaxing.
Posted by Dipika at 7:26 AM | Comments (0)
October 3, 2005
イチローの兄弟
あ：『スズキ』は一般的な名前だからね。
D：そうか。だから名字を抜いて、『イチロー』にしたっていうこと？
あ：そう。
D：もし子供が二人目だったら、『にろう』ってよぶ？
あ：ちがう、ちがう。それは『じろう』て言います。
D：あ、そうか。それはちょっと寂しい、ね。
あ：寂しいか。何で？
D：『ゼロ』って似てるから。英語で、『Zero、』 ね。
あ：ふん。（日本語でもゼロだけど、な。）
D：...
あ：あのね、三郎、四郎、あとは五郎という名前もあるよ。
D：君の犬...
あ：ゴロ、ね。
D：そう。ゴロくん。
あ：六郎っていうのは、珍しいね。どうやっていうのか、わからない。
D：「ろくろうさん。」
Posted by Dipika at 7:37 AM | Comments (0)
October 2, 2005
Chinese Duck
So today to get out of the rain for a minute I go into Value Village, this chain thrift store with a major outlet a few blocks from us. What I find on the third floor is a Chinese duck.
Well, I hear about it before I see it.
“This is a duck,” this guy says to this girl. They're young and probably got their outfits from the first floor, where stripey skirts and floral shirts hug TJ Maxx-style racks.
He's holding a small object I can’t quite see yet. I'm three steps away from their floor, and a bit distracted. Was that duct tape patching the carpet on the landing? I think it was. But his confident tone grabs our attention. "But it’s also a letter opener.”
I have to get back there and examine the piece in question. To kill time, I make a round of the dish section and sidestep a kid going "hello" into a blue plastic receiver.
How observant! The tiny bird has a long tail that doubles as a tool to retrieve envelope contents. On the belly, there is a sticker. MADE IN CHINA, it says. $0.69
Posted by Dipika at 1:44 PM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2005
Cigarettes in the Window Box
I’m in the University District at the “Cafe on the Ave: Home of the $1.99 Latte.” Back in Seattle. Getting my fix.
For a couple of days we’ve been on the road/plane to Minneapolis/St. Paul.
I have the day off so I catch the #49 to the University District.
"Sun's out. What the hey."
Turns out today's the first day of classes at UW.
People congregate in large circles on the brick plaza, not unlike the brickyard at good old N.C. State. They're all asking each other about their summers. Campus is new, but for a second, I'm a freshman again.
I order the $1.99 latte and a crossaint. Still in travel mode. Inside they’re playing the Beck album but I get an outside table. The peoplewatching is good here.
Two dudes next to me chat like parakeets (in French). A girl fills a crossword. Beyond the railing and a window box lined with purple pansies, folks walk around like they own the place.
They’re groovin’ to hip hop tunes. Big logos for Dell and Napster flutter above the DJ’s tent, flanked by 14 elevated speakers. Free pizza at this booth. Free necklace with this newspaper. Want to be a Christian? Speak Korean? Sign. Up. Now.
Posted by Dipika at 7:42 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2005
Cal Anderson Park is open!
About a month ago, I complained about this place being closed for a long time, but our neighborhood green is finally back open!
Today, there is a opening ceremony, complete with music and speakers. Too bad we'll be missing it (we are attending another function, and then we are off to Minnesota! More on that later.)... The park itself has actually been open for a few days, and I took a stroll in it the other day. Elderlies padding around. A woman practicing tae kwan do. Kids playing around the water... Nice.
Posted by Akira at 6:50 AM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2005
Name Calling
Today someone asked me if they heard my name right.
“Pacifica?,” she goes.
Wow, I thought, smiling. Now that’s a first.
Posted by Dipika at 7:46 PM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2005
Weather Report (2)
Today’s weather in Seattle:
63°F
Clear
Wind: W at 9 mph
Humidity: 55%
69° | 47°
Today’s weather in West Cork:
“Mostly cloudy with some outbreaks of rain,” according to Irish station Today FM earlier this afternoon. “Heavy and persistent in the West.”
Posted by Dipika at 5:44 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2005
Pine and Boren
I happen to be walking up to my own neighborhood today in the middle of the morning. The usual weekend crowd is in front of Bauhaus coffee shop, watching passerby watching them.
Climbing the slope to get there, I find myself in stride with an older lady, a blind woman with a stick. She's smiling pretty broadly, and I notice her earrings are small, bright sparkles of purple and green. They remind me of summer in North Carolina, the Eno River Festival, maybe. I'm so pleased about this and at the same time worried about zooming SUVs and skaters that it's me who ends up tripping, catching the curb on my right.
Maybe, I'm thinking,this will feature in her blog.
Posted by Dipika at 9:56 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2005
Day trip (3)
Discovery Park is only half an hour away, but yesterday was the first time we went.
Seattle Parks and Recreation describes it as "secluded," but we could catch the #24 and get there pretty easily. It's set on the Magnolia Bluff and overlooks Puget Sound. If it had been clearer we may have seen the Cascade and the Olympic Mountain ranges. But we did enjoy open meadows, sea cliffs and good trails.
You can see the Seattle skyline from a different angle on the way there, it's past this neighborhood called Magnolia. Lots of nice houses on the way. Cool lookout points and beachside walks. Akira took this picture when we were hanging out at the end of the trail, enjoying Sunday, watchin' waves.
Posted by Dipika at 7:20 AM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2005
North 80th and Greenwood
Two weird things happen Friday on the ride up to Leilani Lanes Bowling Alley in Greenwood.
This Asian lady with long hair, a black dress and summery heels is holding a bag on one elbow and running somewhere as soon as she gets off the bus. A couple stops later, I see her again, randomly, running in the same direction as soon as she gets off the bus.
These teenagers get on and they're a little overexcited about it being Friday. They start doing chinups on one of the bars at the back. Everyone's having a good time until this seventh-grade girl mentions getting paid.
She's talking to the oldest one, who goes, "Do I have my mom call you to get Sean to pay me my $35?"
"He owes you $35?"
"Yeah, and I don't call your mom askin' for it, either. That's 'cause I can take care of my own business."
And I can do seven chinups in a row, easy. Watch.
Posted by Dipika at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2005
12th and Thomas
So this guy and his girlfriend are crossing the street and so am I, going the other way. None of us are paying attention to traffic, including their little dog, which is Lassie-colored and the size of a nickel.
She goes to him, “I know what you were doing on the Internet.” Kind of in an accusing tone, clearly catching him off guard. In a quick motion he lifts his chin and for a split second our eyes meet. His look nervous. Mine say, Whoa dude, now you’re in for it.
We're in the middle of the street and the dog jumps onto the right cuff of his jeans. It does menacing sounds and digs into the denim. Stuck and not liking it, the guy drags both members of his party across Twelfth.
Posted by Dipika at 6:50 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2005
Dexter and Thomas
A man in a brown fisherman's hat, brown shoes with a hole in the left toe, and a black leather coat that could have been passed over from his brother seems relaxed in one of the front seats of the #26. He knows where he’s going.
Someone says something I don’t catch and all four people up there launch into a full-on dialogue.
The white-haired gentleman gets people nodding their heads. “A spade’s a spade," he says, beginning the end of his speech. "It ain’t a club, a heart or a diamond.”
If only those who govern us, I thought, could be so straight up.
Posted by Dipika at 7:35 AM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2005
15th and Harrison
Last night I'm walking by Victrola's, this trendy café in Capitol Hill, and five out of six people sitting outside are on their cell phones.
That's 83.3%.
Out of curiosity, I ask Google to tell me what other things are “five out of six.” In 0.11 seconds, Google spits out 155,000 blurbs. Here are some*.
Garden stuff. Five out of six of Angel Lane’s herbs are still alive after she was away for two weeks. These are: mint, chives, sage, parsley and bay, which are “happy.” The author says, "The coriander and I never really got on so its demise is no great loss.”
Goals. Four years ago, Karn Matthews scored five out of six goals for the Oxford Blackbirds to beat Bullingdon in the "Oxford Mail Boys League Under 10B league." This brought his total to 27 that season.
Guilty execs. Five out of six finance guys in the first Enron trial were found guilty in November, 2004, according to OfftheKuff.com.
Insured. Five out of six Alabamians had health insurance earlier this year, according to an Associated Press story.
Spending. Five out of six Americans were expected to buy a holiday gift online, said Affiliate Marketing World last November.
Smart. Between 1990 and 1995, the Nobel prize went to someone from the University of Chicago five out of six times.
Independent. Six percent of rent-controlled tenants in Massachusetts were needy at one point, but five out of six didn’t go to cities for public assistance.
Going the distance. Last spring, Westchester County, N.Y., reported on its Web site that five out of six "stretch commutes" are made by workers in manufacturing, construction, professional, managerial or technical jobs. Quoting a study by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, it said there were 3.3 million Americans traveling at least 50 miles one way to work, about one out of every 200 trips. Nearly three out of five long journeys were by people from households with annual incomes of $50,000 or more.
Shots. A site called GlobalSecurity.org says for some kind of weapon stuff a soldier has to adjust sights so “five out of six rounds fired in two consecutive shot-groups strike within the 4-centimeter circle on the 25-meter zero targets.”
Shady supermarkets. Undercover officers far from Seattle found that five out of six supermarkets in Suffolk were selling out-of-date-food. “As shoppers descend in their droves on Suffolk supermarkets to stock up for Christmas, the Evening Star can today reveal the shocking danger lurking on the shelves of big name brands."
*I didn't fact-check these. Sorry.
Posted by Dipika at 5:43 PM | Comments (1)
September 7, 2005
Stargazing
Last night I saw a Venus, a crescent moon and Jupiter. And I wasn’t dreaming.
Akira and I happened to be in Volunteer Park at about dusk, which is when we make our way home. The idea was to just hang out and appreciate nature so we agreed not to chat, for a change. But then I found this bright, not-twinkling dot next to a perfect crescent moon.
“Is that a planet!?”
As Akira began a discourse on basic astrophysics, I discovered a fainter dot. A second planet.
Everyone should see this array, it is... cosmic :) Here’s how NASA says you can:
Sunset Planets 09.01.05 Venus, Jupiter and the Moon are gathering for a beautiful sunset sky show.Something nice is happening in the sunset sky. Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, are converging, and they’re going to be beautifully close together for the next two weeks.
Step outside tonight when the sun goes down and look west. If there are no trees or buildings in the way, you can’t miss Jupiter and Venus. They look like airplanes, hovering near the horizon with their lights on full blast. (Venus is the brighter of the two.) You can see them even from brightly-lit cities.Try catching the pair just after sundown and just before the first stars appear. Venus and Jupiter pop into view while the sky is still twilight-blue. The scene has a special beauty.
When the sky darkens completely, look to the left of Jupiter for Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. Although it’s a bright star, Spica is completely outclassed by the two planets.
Venus and Jupiter are converging at the noticeable rate of 1o per day, with closest approach coming on September 1 when the two will be a little more than 1o apart. (How much is 1o? Hold your pinky finger at arm’s length. The tip is about 1o wide.)
Posted by Dipika at 8:07 PM | Comments (3)
September 6, 2005
How to build cardboard furniture (2)
Finally, Studio A made another breakthrough product prototype (venture capitalists and furniture makers, bring it on!). This one is called DUJCK (the J is silent, of course). It's an open wardrobe cabinet. Okay it's a shelf. I think it might become a shoe rack in the closet soon it's so ugly. It's made of cardboard, glues, rubber bands, some tape and some nails (as reinforcements).
I made this sketch shortly after unveiling CHUBB and CLUTZY months ago. But you know, the summer got in the way. I also realized numerous flaws in my design as I went.
As you can see, I wanted to hoist a lot of load on top, and that complicated things quite a bit. I also didn't have too many big sheets of carboard, so I had to build this in pieces (in hindsight, it would've been easier maybe to build four little CHUBBS to stack together). As a result the top isn't quite flat, and the legs are threatening to bend sideways (though I doubt they will snap anytime soon).
Anyways, it's supporting the shelves on top (okay not as elegantly as I'd hoped, sure), and my clothes finally have a place to go.
Oh, and I should tell you that CHUBB has gone into manufacturing. A friend, Edward, is the proud owner of the first production model.
No, don't send in the orders. Unless you really want to give me your money:)
Posted by Akira at 3:18 PM | Comments (2)
September 5, 2005
Broadway and Pine
I'm across from the Egyptian Theater at ten to eight the other morning and there's a guy with white-framed sunglasses cursing out the pigeons.
He's perched on the stone retaining wall. Between him and one of Seattle Central Community College's brick campus buildings is a pool of well-cut grass. Most mornings, all that's around are some other people going to work, you, and trees.
I get on the #10 and wind up across from a lady who was at my stop.
"He's just crazy, she says. "I feel sorry for him."
I get to work and turn on the lights. I fill a glass with filtered water, return phone calls and make new ones.
The Yelly Guy doesn't cross my mind until the next day, when I show up at the bus stop and he's not there.
Posted by Dipika at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)
September 1, 2005
Mariners update (2)
Okay, the score is 1-2 against Yankees right now, pretty respectable given their current last-place status. The games we go to, though, seem to go south without fail (in our collective viewing the M's are 1-6). At such times, we amuse ourselves by eavesdropping on conversations...
.
.
"Alright. WHO's EATING GARLIC FRIES?"
(hushed giggles all around)
"CATCH IT!!! ..oh, BOO-"
.
.
.
"They thought they could pull it off."
"You know, I'm a firm believer of building a team starting with a pitcher."
.
.
.
"OH, OH, OOOH! ...hm. out."
"Go home White Sox!"
.
.
.
"Hey, where's the moose?"
"He's off. Visiting family in Montana."
.
.
.
"C'mon, throw the ball, #53!"
.
.
.
"So, Mike's on Monday?"
"I don't know, you gotta ask him. Shit."
.
.
.
"Big swing, big swing #44!"
.
.
.
"Nice swing #33, nice swing there."
"[With a very Capitol Hill whine] GO HOME WHITE SOX!!"
.
.
.
Yup. We went home disappointed with the score, maybe, but we were highly entertained.
Here's the score, FWTW (at the bottom of the page):
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 | |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
Posted by Akira at 1:22 PM | Comments (0)
August 31, 2005
Third and Close to Cherry
So today for lunch I go to Cherry Street Cafe on Third Avenue. I secure an outside table and a fresh copy of Seattle Weekly. There I am, set up for my lunch break in the sun, when these people sit down next to me and start talking loudly. (D’s pet peeve numero uno.)
Okay, you're going, “So? Deal with it!” Except that this has happened twice at this exact location!
The first time it was two guys in almost identical blue, pinstriped shirts, mostly just complaining, and mostly about their wives.
Today these two young dudes on a smoke break from someplace are talking so fast and so loud they can't even hear each other. But I can. Weekend plans, name dropping. And there I am, focusing to get through stories that start like “Lauren Weedman calls from prison.”
There is one redeeming quality of this cafe. It is located next to a tiny sandwich place that has very nice Asian people working there. This one lady always remembers that I don’t need a paper bag. And once she even gave me a free bag of Fritos.
Free Fritos. Sure, I don’t eat Fritos, but still.
Posted by Dipika at 4:28 PM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2005
Two Lines from Euripides
"The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man."
.
Posted by Dipika at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2005
Sixth and Pike
There's a girl on the bus next to me reading Real Simple and popping gum. Today is warm.
A guy up front curses real loud, and the bus gets even quieter than it was when no one was talking. It's 5:30 and rush hour but no one moves.
Posted by Dipika at 9:36 PM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2005
One Day
Two guys speaking in a language that's maybe Hebrew sit down on my left. The bench is worn and initialed and overlooks Elliott Bay. They begin lighting cigars, and pause midpuff for a photo. A navy-clad brunette snaps the camera. Resumes her place by the railing with another woman. They're watching boats. Smoking slim cigarettes. Freeway traffic drowns the words and salt interlaced in the air.
Posted by Dipika at 9:47 AM
August 10, 2005
Midnight Movie: AKIRA
Akira will be signing autographs this weekend at a screening of AKIRA.
"The visionary graphics and... hyperkinetic storytelling in this movie have yet to be superceded."
-- Randy
"Katsuhiro Otomo's masterpiece."
-- I(Heart)Anime
"Nice T-shirt."
-- Miss Moxie, Seattle
Date: Friday, August 12
Time: Midnight
Place: Egyptian, 805 East Pine Street (Capitol Hill, Seattle)
Posted by Dipika at 9:58 PM | Comments (0)
August 6, 2005
A Neighborhood Park Opens (well, no)
In the last year or so, I have been excitedly watching Cal Anderson Park being built in Capitol Hill. It's an old park that had a wading pool, playground, and ballfield (where local GLBT folks staged a softball tournament every summer). But the whole thing has been under construction as long as I have been in Seattle, so to me, it's a whole new park.
Part of the project's purpose is to cover up the reservoir, away from unscrupulous types who might poison our water supply, I heard. Where there was a water reservoir, all kinds of contraptions (trails, light posts and a fountain-like structure) and landscaping features have been springing up. It's been very cool to see it change every time I pass by on the way for coffee, music or beer.
But I am ready to see it for real, like, use it! Back in May, it looked pretty much done, and there was a posting that said the park will open in July, they are just waiting for the grass to take roots. The days were getting pretty long, and I have been daydreaming since about long evenings strolling the park, greeting neighbors and waffling away the time...
Now it's August, and there's a new sign that says it won't open until September. What, the summer will be over by then!
So, with a feigned desperation (I mean, I do understand shit happens, projects delay), I post a picture of chain-linked park, beautiful and still untouched.
Posted by Akira at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)
August 5, 2005
Seattle SeaFair
A crew from FOX was at the waterfront today, trying to get this random, fortysomething couple to pose for a closeup. So the couple set aside their Banana Republic bag and got a crash course on how to “act natural.”
I think all of this was to collect footage ahead of SeaFair, this event tomorrow and Sunday. The Blue Angels are practicing all day today for this air show that's part of the whole deal. There was apparently a Miss Seafair contest this year, too. Here’s the winner, a girl named Melissa from Burien.
Posted by Dipika at 1:54 PM | Comments (0)
July 24, 2005
diary of a sushi helper (1)
It was a very slow night. These bright summer evenings make people late for dinner, which means we work overtime no matter how slow it is -- there're always those people coming at 9:50 pm wanting a meal.
Mr. H (a regular customer who always orders a spicy tuna and Broadway rolls) was his usual self again, waiting for us when we got to work at 5pm. Either the notion doctors are always busy is wrong, or he spends every spare bit of time he's got with us.
Later, I served a very young couple of international origins (I think the guy was from Taiwan, and the girl looked very Northwestern with very dark hair, heavy, dark makeup. Doesn't it get rather hot under the sun, goth girls?).
The couple (around 18, or 20?) was very adult-like and doing everything proper. The amount of knowledge in things Japanese, particularly related to sushi, that Seattleites have astounds me to no end.
Things got rather interesting after the meal, however. The Taiwanese dude, after polishing his yakisoba, pointing at the Japanese menu hung over their head, said "doesn't that say a monster?" The girl looked totally embarrassed and clearly didn't want him to make this blunder. He was persistent, though, and as I couldn't see what he was pointing at, I went around the bar to see. The sign said "Kappamaki."
Of course. If you were really into Japanese etymology, you'd have already known that kappamaki comes from kappa. Kappa is a mythical creature that appears in Japanese folk-tales (it also appears in Monkey! TV series, which is a Japanese adaptation of the Chinese "Journey to the West" story). Apparently, the monster's favorite vegetable is cucumber.
When I told the kid this, he was jubilant, and put his ricebowl on his head to mimic the monster he named correctly (kappa, a water monster, has a saucer on his head to keep his head moist when over-ground). This annoyed his already reddening date a lot, and in her rage she knocked the bowl off his head. It still had some rice in it, unfortunately, and both kids were covered in rice as a result. Very amusing, and juvenile; I was actually relieved though to see that the kids can still act stupid.
Posted by Akira at 2:30 PM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2005
Day trip (2)
This guy on a cell phone near our table is drinking a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper, they are playing The Cure over a dodgy speaker system and a simple breeze is lifting cigarette butts a few inches at a time towards downtown.
We're back in Capitol Hill.
Some time has passed since we left the city, so on one of the hottest days of the year with blue skies and perfect views of the mountains it made sense to go for a drive.
Exploring the surrounds of Seattle is cool because every time we leave, we find something new. Granted it won't always be, but for now, little excursions lead to the Olympic Peninsula or Victoria, B.C. Today we stuck around for a day trip, hitting a waterfront just north of here.
This song just came on, Pictures of You. Boy, this is reminding me of high school. Time to go.
Posted by Dipika at 9:15 PM | Comments (0)
July 5, 2005
Sailboat
Party cloudy and not much wind, so the motor did most of the work on this little sail around Lake Washington on Sunday. Akira helped pull in the line on the starboard side. A relaxing and low-key loop, exactly what we needed.
Posted by Dipika at 6:20 PM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2005
Beach
Yesterday I learned about videoblogging, or "vlogging." I wonder if anyone would want to see some of these images in moving digital format? This trip to the beach the other day could easily have been a video.
*Soundtrack*
Hey, what do you see in that cloud?
Which one?
That one.
Um, I don't know. A deer.
Really?
*
Hey, don't let sand get in the bag.
What else is in here. Oh, hey, sunscreen?
'Kay. Are my sunglasses in there? Oh, wait. They're lost. But they might be in those boxes. Can we unpack those sometime?
We have to get a shelf first, to put the stuff.
No we don't.
*
This beach towel Mom gave me finally came in handy.
*
Hey, those sailboats are cool. I wish I had one.
When you make it big, we can.
*
Should we extend the Flexcar?
Posted by Dipika at 7:27 PM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2005
Talking Heads
So my better half is attending this thing called Gnomedex in downtown Seattle and sent this picture home. What are these guys doing, listening or typing? I asked. She says they are "back channeling." Sounds like an occult film, RPG sorcery or some Self Help Tip. Supposed to be about the future of blogging. Yeah.
Blogging is so 2002, isn't it? Now everyone has a blog, like everyone had a hotmail account in 1996. It seems impossible that high-tech people like Microsoft still have something to say about it, and all the more surprising that people attend such a conference.
But then, I guess there's a point where the critical mass is reached, and something not so new in its concept becomes a breakthrough product through sheer good luck and good design. The way iPod and iTunes 'revolutionalized ' the music industry. After all, MP3 had been around since like 1995, right? So maybe, there'll be a 'blog revolution' that transforms the publishing industry yet.
Anyways, if there's news out there, Dipika will surely be reporting back here soon. In the meantime, I think I will go for a walk and enjoy the weather!
Posted by Akira at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2005
"Bug-free"
Since the latter half of May I’ve gotten four e-mails from people writing from their backyards.
Their authors describe the sun, flowers and birds. They imply summer is happening everywhere, yet I, catching e-mail in our backyard-less urban office, can’t partake of it.
I would say that’s not quite true.
Dropping into Volunteer Park for a walk after work, Akira and I got facefuls of those little irritating bugs that are kind of invisible until AARGH!, they fly into your eyes.
These aren’t as bad as other insects we've seen. A spider, the size of my outstretched hand, nearly made me faint when I woke up to find it grinning at me, calm and vertical on my wall in a hotel room in Ghana.
Yesterday a much tinier spider walked into our kitchen.
“Wow," I said. "That’s the first time I’ve seen a bug in our apartment.”
Akira cleared it with a napkin, in a much more confident motion than the time I asked him to remove a North Carolinian roach 11 years ago from my dorm room.
“I like the Northwest," he said flatly, as if reading my mind. "For being mostly bug-free.”
Posted by Dipika at 7:00 AM | Comments (0)
June 8, 2005
Mariners update
We have been frequenting certain insurance-company-christened ballpark these days, almost learning the names of the players beside Ichiro, and root, root, rooting for the Mariners. It's a nice way to spend the long summer nights, when it's nice out (mind, even in the rain they have those retractable roofs to keep us dry and cozy). This time around, I was treated a free ticket by my friend Bruce, who runs an excellent blog and his friend Steve. With the three rounds of beer and a heap of garlic fries, I am sure we stunk to high heavens when we went home to our respective wives, but that's what boys are wired to do - getting ourselves in a mess;)
Anyways, Mariners are doing a-okay. So far in our collective four viewings, they are going 1-3.
Posted by Akira at 2:51 PM | Comments (0)
Kawasaki sisters' Seattle trip
Last week, we hosted three ladies from Japan, all visiting here for the first time in Seattle. My mom and her two sisters Hisako and Eiko seemed very impressed by the vibrant city and greenery of the surroundings. We showed them bare minimum of the downtown sightseeing points, and in no time they were exploring the Pike Place Market and getting bread for their breakfast all on their own. We took a side trip to Victoria together and visited Butchart Gardens. Here's a picture of my mom, giddy from rickety ferry ride over.
I have an album of the trip on Flickr. If you are interested, drop me a line...
Posted by Akira at 2:50 PM | Comments (0)
June 6, 2005
日曜日。公園にて。
夢みるものたち：
大根おろし。
おでんのコンニャク。
ごま和え。
ビールとお酒。
さばの塩焼き。
しろまぐろのタタキ。
あげだし豆腐。
なすの田楽。
みそ汁。
ハマチのかま焼き。
Posted by Dipika at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)
June 4, 2005
Spicy Naan
Just got back from Maharaja, the King of Capitol Hill. They had samosas and mango lassi, naan bread of the sort you'd get somewhere north of Delhi. Chandigarh, for one, had similar food and atmosphere as the King. Bars with low lights and candles on the tables. The kind of place you could bring a date to, though those in India who frown on anything so sordid would only tell you about the city's "superb planning" (thanks to Le Corbusier, who didn't have a clue about rickshaws) and a garden of roses.
I have to admit I didn't think I'd go for any of these Indian food joints around Seattle. Some have been okay, but nothing's very exciting. I just figured I'd make better food than these guys. But I've never made anything really difficult, so samosas are a treat. The King's chai was a little flat, though. Two-ruppee bus stand chai in India is a million times better, but I guess you'd have to fork out $1,200 for airfare.
But Vijay, the Maharaja himself, seems to be trying. Free appetizers at happy hours and $2 well drinks? Yup. Indians sure know how to wheel 'em in. Punjabi bhangra nights on Thursdays, I learned. Well. Let's see how we get on with that.
Posted by Dipika at 9:25 PM | Comments (0)
June 1, 2005
Sunday afternoon
Akira and I hung out Sunday at what my brother Robin calls "the place with the tall bookcases." It had been some time since we went to the downtown store of Top Pot, mostly because we never hang out around 5th Avenue but also because they keep weird hours. As in not open when it's late and you're wondering where to go.
Akira noticed right away that five of the six laptops people had on their tables were Macs. "That's so not representative of Apple's market share," he remarked, as astute as ever.
Posted by Dipika at 1:11 AM | Comments (0)
May 29, 2005
Water
This weekend I was by Lake Union for a while. I got together with a bunch of girls and went out for drinks. I didn't get a margarita, though. I got Sierra Nevada pale ale.
About halfway through the pint, this girl who'd earlier showed everyone her sequined pink shoes says, "Has anyone read that book, He's Just Not That Into You?" This is followed by a buzz of general assent.
(Am I the only one who hasn't heard of it?), I'm thinking, as someone explains, "You only need the first chapter, after that it's redundant." More talk of relationships, and though I'm probably the median age of this group and should be paying attention, I can't help getting distracted by the water.
But then, maybe I wasn't the median age at all. It's not like we went around the table (of about 10) and actually spilled this information. You could get clues from the years people graduated from college, if you were so inclined, and backcalculate. But whatever. After a certain period of time it doesn't really matter about ages. Maybe I'm only saying that 'cause I've crossed into my thirties. It's so funny when I mention how I just turned to others in this bracket and they say, "Join the club." Like it's Dead Poets Society or something.
Posted by Dipika at 8:12 PM | Comments (0)
May 28, 2005
Weather Report
"Looks like it's going to be another scorcher." Akira says this as he puts down the coffee thermos and picks up a peach. It's noon and we're at the garden a block from our apartment and two from Broadway. One couple wanders in and sees us through the stems, nods politely beneath broad sun hats. Flowers are bright, it's spring.
Yesterday it was a record-high 89, according to the front page of the paper that belongs to Apartment 17. Sunny Seattle is where we are now, it's odd after all the intense drizzly storms that seemed to punctuate most of the rest of the days of the year.
Posted by Dipika at 1:33 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2005
Soft rain
Like anyone else who lives here, I'm delighted when we get sunny days. After three years in Ireland I've learned to really appreciate any peek of sun.
"Lovely day, isn't it?" people on Skibbereen's Main Street would say.
A nod in reply, and the standard, "Grand altogether." Always returned with a smile on truly pretty days.
With rain, which is most of the time, it goes like this.
"Fierce miserable weather, isn't it?"
"Desperate, like," comes the volley. But no one really cares if it's raining, that's the thing.
So for a few days now we've gotten a good wash in Seattle. This weekend there was a soft, misty rain that really brought me back to West Cork. The kind that makes forty shades of green. It's calming to see it again, even nicer to walk about and let it drizzle upon the skin.
Posted by Dipika at 9:51 PM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2005
Why I left Old Skibbereen
A friend of ours from France (hi Eric!) sent us a link to his crazy collection of pictures from Ireland, and it got me thinking about the how and why of my whereabouts. You see, it's been exactly one year since I arrived to Seattle from the hills of Skibbereen. It's been a good year, definitely, but there has been a lot of adjusting for sure.
The farmers, cows and sheep that roam on the roads, the pubs where people sing and talk to strangers as if they are part of a family, the ever-changing sky and lights on the green hills... West Cork was every bit strange and foreign to me, yet something in the place really spoke to me, like I'd known it all along. Something in me still misses it.
So why did I leave? Well, it was a matter of putting an end to what I had always known would end sometime. I was not from Ireland, and I had no Irish in me -- there was no way I was going to settle there. As wonderful as the culture of Ireland is, it's also very, how shall I put it, Irish. I was just a hired hand in a small enterprise, and sadly there was nothing to tie me to the place, after three years.
Is it any different here? Maybe not. I am not American (yet), and I still haven't really found my niche here. But in the city, you are not alone 'not belonging' anywhere - it's more a matter of fact, a byproduct of the lifestyle. I guess I am more of a city rat.
I do love the expansiveness of the Northwest. The perspective it gives me, of the mountains and oceans afar, skyscrapers and old buildings near. In Tokyo, you have no sense of space. Everything and everyone is constantly in your face.
You could say I choose the middle ground, a sort of a compromise. This city has a lot of influences from the East, and there are lots of perks to being one of the closest port from Tokyo. The weather and landscape is reminiscent of Ireland (to me). I get to eat well, live close to everything, but there's still a sort of small-town feel left. It's a good place to live, and I am pretty content so far in it.
Of course, it helps that I actually do like the rain. Gives me all the excuse I need to stay home and read!
Posted by Akira at 8:52 PM | Comments (0)
May 9, 2005
Seymour
Mixed feelings on Sunday when Akira snapped this pic. Great fun to repot a plant in the great outdoors, but what really knocked me out this week was a bloodcurdling trip to the dentist. At the time the conversations didn't sink in, but days later I can process them. What I'd experienced has finally taken root.
Those who appear ancy, I learned, are given headphones and a CD player. "Do you like any special kind of music?" asks the dental assitant, who will soon chat away about restaurants down the street and what's happened with the open spot at her last job.
"Yeah," I say, noticing my mouth going numb. "Jazz."
"Like, Norah Jones?"
I make a face.
I get Ella Fitzgerald, though even with the walkman there's no way to get away from that silvery drill sound. I mean, it is in your head.
So even though I'm smiling in this pic from Sunday, I'm still a little irked about the four fillings.
Our plant got a new name, too. Say hi to Seymour.
Posted by Dipika at 7:40 PM | Comments (0)
May 7, 2005
Day trip
Every once in a while you have to get out of your routine. Akira and I both live and work in downtown Seattle, so it's refreshing when we find ourselves outside these urban bounds. (Those who know about our Ireland days will remember the farm we talked about, but we've been here a year and our vocabulary's somehow changed.)
Skagit Valley's tulips were pretty, but the signs directing you there were a little cheesy. People warned us about traffic, so we left with friends on a Sunday at 8 a.m. (their idea). A couple of families, some kids jumping around in the mud. After snapping this series, we got some purple potted tulips. They've seemed to take well to Capitol Hill.
Posted by Dipika at 9:35 PM
April 20, 2005
Yamanote in Seattle?
The other day, I read an article in Seattle Times entitled "a Lesson from Tokyo" that advocated that Seattle would benefit from "small-scale Yamanote line in the heart of the city." The title and the premise intrigued me, sure, but frankly, in my opinion, it's a load of nonsense.
Now, don't get me wrong: I am all for public transportation, I would love it if I could get on something, be it monorail, light rail or just a little more punctual and convenient bus line, and get to various parts of town. But to model this city's public transportation solution to Tokyo's is just plain megalomania.
For a start, there's the massive difference of scale. Tokyo prefecture has a population of 12 million (about 20 times City of Seattle's population), in about 2200 square km (about 10 times Seattle). The Yamanote-line the guy talks about runs in the area that's known as the special district with 23 wards, with a combined population of 8 million in an area that's about three times the size of Seattle (or about 1/8 of King County, for a bit of perspective). You can see that the population density just doesn't compare, even considering the entire Tokyo against the most dense areas of the Emerald City.
Shinjuku station, one of the Yamanote line (whose entire length is about 22 miles) stations, gets more than 200,000 users daily. Okay, these people don't all use Yamanote line (Shinjuku station serves about 10 lines by 5 different railway companies), so let's look at another station. Harajuku station is a much smaller station with just Yamanote line going through, and it gets about 72,000 people getting on and off one of these trains daily. Oh, and guess what? These railway companies are generally just getting by, most of them in the red.
If the proposed Lake Union line (about 1/3 the size of Yamanote, maybe?) is to be viable, it needs to get at least 30,000 people using it every day. How many people live in the city again? That's right -- that means about 1/24 of the entire population of the city needs to use the thing (be it light rail or trolley, going around Lake Union) every day. Is that too big a number, or small enough to achieve for Seattleites? Let's see...
King County Metro transits get annual ridership of 100 million. Impressive enough for an American city for sure, but that's less than 300,000 daily all over King County. Would one person in ten of these people who already ride the buses use the new line, every day? Probably not.
All this number crunching means nothing really. The numbers are kind of arbitrary, and we are essentially comparing apples and oranges. I didn't mention the massive cultural difference that exists between the Americans and the Japanese, or the rest of public transportation infrastructure that supports these "hub" lines such as Yamanote. The point is, why go to Japan to look for a model? I am just a bit puzzled. I mean, did the author study all these numbers and say, Oh the readers won't know the difference, or was he just ignorant of his myopia. Has he been to Japan?
Is it just Seattleites simply like to think big? Or is this another case of Japanese fetish we are seeing everywhere these days here? I am very much amused and mildly flattered that my home country is getting so much attention from the intelligentsia (and the teenagers) here, but I often see the dumbing down of nuances, differences and distortion of minor (and not so minor) facts. Am I being fastidious?
Posted by Akira at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2005
Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley
春と言えばチューリップ（？そうかなぁ）、チューリップと言えばオランダですが、ワシントン州にもチューリップの大産地があります。シアトルからフリーウェイを北へ小１時間、スカジット・バレーは海と山に挟まれた盆地で、肥沃な土壌と美しい景観を生かした観光誘致が盛ん。毎年４月には、大チューリップ祭りを開催しています。ちょうど日本から友人夫婦が遊びにきたので、案内がてらどんなものかと見に行ってきました。
フリーウェイ沿いの町Mount Vernonで、まずは情報集め。フェスティバル事務局が設置されていて、ボランティア（とおぼしき）おじさんが親切に今日の見所を教えてくれます。日曜日という事で、混雑を覚悟して行ったのだけど、朝まだ早かったのと、お天気がいまいちだったのが幸いして、観光客はまだちらほら、という感じ。とりあえず、一番大規模な農場に満開のチューリップ（と、オランダ直輸入の風車）があるというのでそちらに向かう事に。
フリーウェイとはうってかわって景色のいい田舎道を15分ほど走ると、標識が見えてきます。農場にはちゃんと木屑を敷き詰めて駐車場まで作ってあって、なるほど準備周到。ここまでくると結構やっぱり混雑しています。案内（なんか人がいっぱい）に従って入場料２ドルだったかを払い門をくぐると、土産物テント、風車を囲んだ庭園等、テーマパーク然してました。ま、わざわざここまでこれが目当てでやってくるわけだし、観光客にとっては演出ありがとうなんですが、「昔はこうじゃなかった」と怒る人もいるんだろうな。
でもやっぱり、というか、期待した通り、畑一面に咲き乱れるチューリップは壮観でした。遠くに山が見えたり、周りの田園調の景色もいい感じ。結局、３エーカーもある畑をくまなく歩き回って写真を撮りまくり、土産に鉢植えのチューリップまで買って、２時間近くも楽しんでしまいました。
お昼はすぐ近く、海岸沿いの風光明媚で知られるラ・コナー村で。クラムチャウダーがおいしかった。このコース、春にシアトルを訪れる人にはお勧めです。
Skagit Valley Tulip Festival 公式サイト
Posted by Akira at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
April 4, 2005
ムービーリビュー： A Clockwork Orange
タイトル: A Clockwork Orange (1971)
鑑賞日時： 2005年 4月 2日 Egyptian Theater (Capitol Hill)
主演： Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, etc.
監督： Stanley Kubrick
はい。名作「時計仕掛けのオレンジ」です。Anthony Burgessの原作は大学時代に読んだけど、映画のほうはまだだったので、エジプシャンシアターの恒例週末レイトショーで観てきました。うん、面白かったけど、そろそろ古くさいかな？ という気が。テーマは普遍だし、映像も格好いいんだけど、なんだろう。暴力描写がわざとらしく見えてしまった、のかな？ 何となく入り込めなかった。キューブリックらしい（？）ユーモアはたくさんあって、思わず笑ってしまう場面もかなりあって、楽しめましたけど。
個人的には、テーマ（暴力ってなんだ？ 人が悪いのか、自然な衝動を抑圧したり、社会的な暴力を推奨したり、管理する社会が悪いのか？ 善悪を決めるのは誰？ などなど）をちゃんと考えるなら原作を、出来れば英語で読むのがおすすめ。初めて読んだときに、分からない単語ばっかりの架空のスラング「Nadsat」が読んでいくうちにだんだん分かって行くのが快感だったなあ。エンディングも原作はちょっと救いのある最終章がついてます。対してキューブリックは皮肉やファッションを前に出していて、とにかくシニカル。「それがイイ！」という見方はもちろんあるだろうけど。原作が書かれたのは１９６２年で、この映画は１０年近く後だから、そのへんの時代背景、温度差、みたいなものもあったのかな、などと考えたりもしました。
ちなみにこのエジプシャン、リバイバルを主に毎週末とっかえひっかえいろんなジャンルの映画をレイトショーのみでやってるんだけど、ウチから歩いて１０分なので結構利用価値あり。結局３回くらいしか行っていないけど（眠いので。今回なんて、ちょうど夏時間に切り替わる日だったんで、家に帰り着いてみたら４時になっていた！）。今度「未来世紀ブラジル」もやるらしいので、行ったらまた報告します。
Posted by Akira at 9:24 AM | Comments (0)
April 3, 2005
Writers Conference
This weekend I went to the National Writers Conference. All I had to do was hop on the #8 bus and I was at Seattle Center. I had coffee and tuned into journalists and authors either from right here in Seattle or clear across the country.
Faces in the crowd ran the gamut from bright-eyed students to folks with silver hair, all of us looking for a boost of inspiration.
The message was generally this. Tell stories through action. Prepare for interviews by learning the other guy's language. Keep your eyes and ears open to pick up on cues, because what people do doesn't often jibe with what they say. And get close, 'cause the closer you get, the better the stuff they'll tell you. Okay, not that close. Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph, do I have to qualify here?
So it's Sunday evening and I'm going through my travel notebooks. Akira took this pic of one of them. Guess which city. Possible story coming up when I find the characters and the action.
Posted by Dipika at 7:52 PM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2005
Japanese Invasion
Seems that Japanese popular music is making a comeback here. Lots of bands from Japan, from obscure to domestically-established, are touring the States (and stopping in Seattle), and making a sizable buzz everywhere. Pop princess (in Japan) Hikaru Utada has an album out here with all-English songs, SXSW apparently had a section called "Japan Nite."
"So is the day approaching when a Japanese rock band makes it big here?" asks music writer Peter Larsen("Japanese bands making a splash overseas", The Orange County Register).
Sure, punk-rock duo Shonen Knife has been on the scene for a long time, and I am not so surprised off-center bands like Guitar Wolf, Electric Eel Shock and Polysics are touring the States. After all, playing music for a living (whether you make money from it or not) appears to be much easier here than anywhere in Japan (outside of Tokyo, of course). However, bands like the Pillows and Puffy Amiyumi (of the anime by the same name) are of the true J-pop lineage, and I am somewhat taken aback that these guys are finding audiences here.
Maybe it's anime's (Japanese cartoon) recent surge into the mainstream, as a Shonen Knife member suggests in the story above. (I have heard office workers in this city citing Cartoon Network shows, with character names like "Mamimi" and "Naota", instead of Conan, HBO or Daily Show from the night before) Maybe it also has something to do with the popularity of Japanese movies, animated or not, in recent years.
Maybe, it's been long coming.
Japanese rock always looked to the West for inspiration. Now that Japan has sunk into depression similarly experienced in the punk-era UK, Japan's ready to infuse its own angst into the highly-polished sugarpop that has been the staple of the karaoke-driven music industry.
But then, you could say the US is now ready to accept J-pops, now that the likes of Jessica Simpsons are dominating the American scene. I am mixing up music and pop culture here, but the nature of this adulation towards Japanese culture makes it very hard to distinguish the two.
In any case, it certainly seems more people are aware of the Japanese popular music scene, many no doubt more aware and hip to the latest developments over there than this old geezer. I do think though that there are many I could teach something about J-pop to. You could be curious about some of the music, but may not have listened to any of it. Maybe you've gone to a show, and are curious to know more about their influence, background and whatnot.
So, I am proposing a series. Sort of an annotated Essential Listening list to better prepare the uninitiated and throw in a bit of contextual backdrop to the already converted.
I will pick an old album by a Japanese band each week, with comments on the surrounding cultural context, musical influences, and my personal flashbacks. I won't pretend that I know everything, but it will at least be a perspective from a guy whe spent his first 17 years there.
Posted by Akira at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)
March 23, 2005
How to build cardboard furniture (1)
We had a lot of cardboard from the furniture we bought since we moved into this place. Didn't have the heart to throw it all away, but it was becoming an eyesore, building up in the corner of the room like an ancient shellmound.
Over Christmas, we went to a chic Japanese restaurand in downtown L.A. called R23 (a snazzy flash site, wish there were some pics) and they had all these cardboard chairs like Frank Gehry's infamous "cardboard furniture" line that they actually used for guest seats, and so we thought, 'Hey, we could DO that!'
Well, three months later, I have finally gotten off my butt and built a few things that hold things instead of just taking up space. Pictured here is a horizontal bookshelf with three square compartments.
I reasoned that three or four layers of cardboard, bound or glued together, could be as strong as a plywood piece of the same size, at least to vertical forces. So then I just drew some sketches and went straight to cutting the boards to my specs. The hardest part was to cut these things straight and exactly the same size, as I only had a 24-inch ruler and a utility knife.
Experimenting with smaller pieces of paper would have been smarter, as I noticed that my design had a fairly serious structural flaw (can you guess what it is by looking at the pic? it's pretty obvious) once I cut the pieces and glued them together. So I devised small supports of wooden dowels along the underside of the shelf where it meets the vertical 'column'(or sidewall)s through drilled holes on these columns.
Once the pieces are cut, glued together and the holes are drilled, assembly is fairly simple and easy. When the holes are snug, the boards tend to stay in place because of their natural elasticity, so there's no need for more glue or nails. It's easy enough to take it apart when you don't need it anymore, or when you are moving.
The result? Well, it's no Frank Gehry, and it's not that pretty either, but as a bookshelf it functions all right. We already crammed it with books and it seems to be taking the load quite happily (pictured right. There's also a lightstand in the foreground, also made of cardboard that came with, surprise -- a lamp -- and put together in less than half an hour with what was around). I named it "Clutzy" in the spirit of Swedish furniture-making tradition.
Here's a picture of my other masterpiece, "Chubb" coffee table (the top sheet's not glued on yet). The legs came just like that in a furniture package as a filler/cushion, I just cut them to the length I wanted. The top is four sheets cross-glued, with the bottom two sheets cut out for the legs to slot in. It's stable enough for me to sit on! I designed it to go with the low sofa/futon we bought, but once put together, it reminds me of those traditional chabu-dai (low, portable dining tables for small meals) I used to see on television dramas in Japan.
I am contemplating a few more pieces, maybe paint the ones I made so they look less cardboardy and ghetto. I will report any progress if there is anything noteworthy.
Posted by Akira at 10:51 AM | Comments (4)