Poem: Dreams

by Jack Brummet

I think about dreams―not drifting
like this, but real R.E.M. dreams.

I don't know which is better―
to dream it or see it,

to see it right now,
or to have seen it.

I don't know which is better,
the memory or the thing itself.

The memory can be repeated forever
but loses fidelity like an old record

and the fictions your mind confects
start filling in the gaps

until the memory becomes a framework
for what we wanted to be, or what should have been.                      

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Poem: Robert Motherwell's Reconciliation Elegy

by Jack Brummet

I think about Motherwell's Reconciliation Elegy―
how he charged around his studio,

rolling vast, turgid highways
of black oil paint over acres of canvas,

and the wrong-headed people
who say "my child could have done that."

click to enlarge

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Alien Lore No. 259 - ACLU lawyer George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) lays down the facts about aliens and UFOs

by Jack Brummet, Alien Lore Ed.

A clip from the movie Easy Rider (directed by Dennis Hopper, and written by Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Terry Southern.  The ACLU lawyer and town drunk, George Hanson (played by Jack Nicholson) lays out the "facts" about UFOs, and the alien takeover of earth.

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President Garfield's ambidextrous parlor trick

By Jack Brummet, Presidents Ed.

He was only President 200 days (with a good chunk of that being mortally ill after being shot),   and is therefore considered one of the forgotten Presidents.

But. . .President Garfield was the first left handed President.  He was left-handed, and also ambidextrous.  He also knew a couple of other languages, and combined that with his ambidextrous hands to be able to write in two languages simultaneously, Greek with one hand and Latin with the other.  He would write a question with one hand, and write out the answer with the other. That was quite a parlor trick.

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Cenacolo di Foligno (The last supper a/k/a sleeping at the last supper) by Pietro Perugino

The Last Supper Fresco by Pietro Perugino (b. 1450, Citta della Pieve, d. 1523, Perugia)

According to The Wikipedia, Cenacolo di Foligno, pained in 1493-96 is located in the ex-convent of the Tertiary Franciscans of Foligno, transformed into the "Conservatory of poor and honest girls" in 1980 after the transfer of the nuns. The fresco was rediscovered in 1845 and attributed at first to Raphael, but recent critics have unanimously agreed it was the work of Perugino, dating it between 1493-96. The idea has also been advanced that it was painted over another fresco of the same theme by Neri di Bicci (1419-1491).

click to enlarge

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JCBSUP? (Jesus Christ Built Seattle Under Protest)

by Jack Brummet, Seattle Metro Ed.

JCBSUP, a/k/a "Jesus Christ Built Seattle Under Protest" is a mnemonic allegedly used by taxi drivers to remember the order of Seattle streets in the downtown core, kind of from Pioneer Square up to Belltown.  You don't hear it so much now (I'm guessing because everyone has a map in their pocket on their "device."  The streets, south to north are:  Jefferson-->James-->Cherry-->Columbia-->Marion-->Madison-->Spring--> Seneca-->University-->Union-->Pike-->Pine.

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Drawing: Faces #698 - skin graft

by Jack Brummet

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Drawing: Faces #688 - scratchboard

by Jack Brummet

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The end of the line for Tubs, a Seattle graffiti landmark

By Jack Brummet, Public Arts Editor

I'm going to miss this place. I know people are really divided on graffiti, but after living in NYC five years, my time in Bogota and Cartagena Colombia, The Mission in San Francisco, and even in Russia, I have come to feel that, in general, it improves far more than it detracts. Is it art? Of course it is; it's just not the art that might be hanging in your aunt's living room. Adios Tubs

We've known it was on the chopping block for seven years.  Yes, many/most people considered it urban blight; I always thought of it as an ever-changing and wonderful "eyesore."

Tubs, the amazing graffiti sandbox, has finally been demolished, after years of sitting idle, and many years as an ever-evolving and changing canvas for local spray paint artists.  After the hot tub club Tubs closed in 2007, it was scheduled for demolition.  Finally, seven years later, they actually did expunge it from the face of the earth.

We are sad to see it go, since we know it will either be replaced by a strip mall, or the dreaded condo development with bottom floor retail.  It was good while it lasted.  Fare thee well Tubs! On a conceptual continuity note, I went hot tubbing there a couple of times in the 80's, and it was great.  By the time of its closure, it had become a notoriously skeezy hotbed of lord knows what. . .

We wrote this piece and took some photos on our last visit to the site, on January 2, 2012.

In March 2009 The Free Sheep Foundation (I think these are the same guys who liberated the Bridge Motel on Aurora) occupied the Tubs building in Seattle's U District, which has been "slated for demolition" for a couple of years now.  It's become an wonderfully and continually changing canvas for whatever artist or tagger shows up.  Early on, people were outraged by all the painting, but over time, it has become a popular stopping by point.  I think every neighborhood needs a building like this. 

I like what you've done with the place.

I always stop by when I am in the neighborhood, but have never seen anyone at work.  I think they only come out at night?  I believe there is some kind of loophole in Seattle's graffiti law, in which "the authorities" are unable to do anything about the artistic improvements to this long abandoned building.

If you're interested, there is a Flickr group that continually posts photos as the building evolves.  I took these seven photos on January 2, 2012.

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Favorite tear-off signs

By Jack Brummet & Mona Goldwater

Pulltab flyers, or tearoffs, have been popular for a few years now.  Here are some of our favorites, from the web and reader submissions. . .

You can make your own online here.

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Drawing: Faces #676 - seven year itch

By Jack Brummet

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America without paint?

America w/o paint? It gets even worse when you think about art..

click to enlarge

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