Olympic Sculpture Park

We went to the opening of the Seattle Art Museum's new sculpture park. It was really sweet. I need to go back and take some photos bur there were some very intriguing pieces and the landscaping and location made for a very classic seattle scenery. It will be interesting to see how it does. There were huge crowds today but I imagine that those will taper off fairly quickly. the other interesting thing will be to see how the art lasts out in the public - even with the do not touch signs and some form of employees watching over the ground the potential for damage and or vandalism is unfortunately a big risk. I hope that people take care of this because the park really is beautiful.

some of the pieces were very interesting and some I would probably throw out if i had the choice (although i imagine that is true of most art). The cool thing about much of these sculptures is their sheer size and the environment in which they are placed surround and envelops you in this fascinating world that is a strange combination of the artist's vision, the park designers' landscape and the downtown Seattle and Puget Sound (with Elliot Bay) radiating out in all directions

hopefully i will have more to share soon...

more images

sample images

what's in a name...

so i was randomly reading something today and I came across the phrase "carte blanche" and while thinking that this would be a sweet name for my band (as soon as I figure out what music to make and other minor details) i also looked up the origins of the phrase. I found several interesting interpretations of the phrase's origin, the most accurate history seems to indicate it came from French military usage. The surrendering party gives the "blank/white card" which is, in essence, a blank page with the surrendering party commanding officer's signature at the bottom so that the the winning CO can put in his own terms for the surrender.

As a group name it has an intriguing backstory and just sounds slick. So nobody take it (either that or let me be part of the group). I figure that the first album could be called lettres des cachet ("sealed letters")taken from the open form arrest letters containing a carte blanche which could be used to secure a prisoner's freedom or to imprison someone (another level that plays on duality). These letters could be bought from the king, for a fee of course. The person in possesion of the letter could fill in the desired name. FYI for the history lesson, as I understand the policy that allowed for these letters was abolished in January of 1790.

Continuing on this tangent, I started reading a lot of the other phrases that were listed and learning a lot of random information that I am sure will come in handy soon.