Double cupping is my newest pet peeve. Why are two cups doing a job that is normally reserved for one? Have these cups unionized? There has got to be a better way to guard against the terror of hot liquids than by wasting a perfectly good cup for a couple of minutes of heat protection. I tried to give the protective cup back to barista, but she said she couldn’t reuse it due to health concerns. Science has provided answers to some of mankind’s most pressing problems, surely it could spend a little time figuring out how to make a more insulated paper cup. For now, I’m toughing it out and requesting one cup, and I’ve got the scorched palms to prove it!
I was riding the bus the other day, and thanks to some good tunes coming through on the RJD2 Pandora station, I zoned out and wound up missing my regular stop. I got off a few blocks later, just as a torrential downpour settled in overhead, drenching me with rain. In a huff, I turned to walk back to my house when what should I see out the corner of my but this googly-eyed fire hydrant standing happily in a nearby bush. I felt a lot better seeing that yellow face staring back at me, his metal arms stretched out in an eternal hugging position. I thought about my day, and then I thought about his. If he could keep a smile through the cold and wind and the constant stream of neighborhood dogs marking their territory on him, then I could certainly endure a few extra blocks in the rain.
I love the bus. Always have. As a kid, I can remember going to a family excursion downtown via Metro. By the time we got to where ever it was we were going, I didn’t want to leave my seat. I just wanted to ride around on the bus all day, taking in the city as it passed along through the big block windows. I took this picture on my way home from school. This woman got on the bus with her dalmatian and rode for about 15 minutes. Maybe she just didn’t want to walk her dog that day. Or maybe this is some sort of dalmatian training program that they have to go through before they can ride on firetrucks? Gotta start somewhere, right?
As some of you may or may not know, I recently enrolled in the Film and Video Communication program at Seattle Central Community College. Classes started a few days ago, and the material began with a History of Film course to help show us the foundation of modern day cinema. After discussing some of the roots of film, we then watched a video on the pioneering Lumiere brothers of France, who in the late 1800’s not only invented a camera that could record live action, but also develop the film and project it in one self-contained unit! (Impressive, especially when one considers that I can barely walk and chew gum without tripping). The brothers went around the world documenting different people in their environment 50 seconds at a time (that was the longest amount of recording time their film strips provided). While watching the clip, the segment entitled “Danse Serpentine” stood out to me the most for its simplicity and its beauty. Filmed in 1899, the video shows a dancer performing in a flowing dress, which seems to magically change colors as she twirls around on stage. The color effect was added on by hand, frame by frame, after the film was developed. The technique may be basic, but its effect is profound. After watching it a couple of times, I still find it hard to believe that something so visually engaging and unique could have been made over 100 years ago.
This one, performed by Loie Fuller and filmed by Thomas Edison, is pretty cool too.
