DAY OF REMEMBRANCE: Here we are again. Another 9/11.
Last year on this day, we were in New York.
It's hard to describe the palpable mood of New Yorkers on that day. "Smothering sadness" comes to mind. Clearly, when it comes to 9/11, they are still the walking wounded. With good reason.
Riding the subway, everyone was silent, eyes downcast, except for nervous glances about the cars, wondering if some idiot copycat had any ideas. NYPD were on the subway cars we rode. Their presence was both reassuring and a painful reminder of how vulnerable we all are.
Speaking of which, today I about had a heart attack. The kids and I were coming home from a run to Renton, south of town. As we headed back up I-5 there's one part on the freeway where it curves and suddenly Seattle is laid out in front of you. It's usually stunningly beautiful, but today it horrified me, as a growing TOWER of black smoke hung over the city. Clearly there was a large fire in progress. My heart started pounding and I immediately thought it might be a 9/11 copycat. I wonder how many other drivers around me were thinking the same thing. I dove for the radio dial to change it to an all news station. Within a couple of minutes I found out it was "only" a five-story apartment building on Capitol Hill on fire - not a terrorist attack. Relief (no one was hurt in the fire, thankfully), but, darn it, it also drove home how that day of terrorist attacks was a paradigm shift.
Last year, we visited the State of Liberty and the 9/11 memorial on 9/10. Our recollections and photos are here: http://magnoliaprep.blogspot.com/2013/09/big-apple-big-day.html
THE BASEBALL PROJECT: Thanks to a Facebook post by Seattle radio station KEXP, we learned about a live, streaming concert on the radio this afternoon by a group called The Baseball Project. Intrigued by anything baseball, we tuned in online. Turns out it's a super group of baseball loving musicians (including Peter Buck and Mike Mills, formerly of REM), and all of their songs are about the nation's pastime. Baseball + rock 'n' roll?! Squee!!!
Their lead off song was was "Box Scores," which delightfully captures the allure of poring over box scores in the morning paper.
The second song they played was "13" about "a kid from Seattle and how it all went wrong" (they're talking to you Alex Rodriguez). Next on deck was "They Don't Know Henry," which they introduced as being bout "the greatest Brave of all" (Hank Aaron).
Their closer was the rollicking "Hola America!" It's a song about Cuban baseball players making their way to America. To my ear it sounds like something Iggy Pop would record. Loved it!
If you're so inclined, you can watch a half hour set they played in Portland a couple years back here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTedT_WH1i0
The press release described Mount Sharp as "a Mount-Rainier-size mountain at the center of the vast Gale Crater." The kids and I stopped for a moment to ponder Curiosity sitting at the base of Mount Rainier, a fixture on our landscape.
Per the presser, "Curiosity’s trek up the mountain will begin with an examination of the mountain's lower slopes. The rover is starting this process at an entry point near an outcrop called Pahrump Hills, rather than continuing on to the previously-planned, further entry point known as Murray Buttes. Both entry points lay along a boundary where the southern base layer of the mountain meets crater-floor deposits washed down from the crater’s northern rim."
FAMILIAR FACE: Interesting news today that the art that inspired the Seahawks' original logo back in 1976 has likely been found ... in a museum in Maine!
For years, there has been speculation about the genesis of the original Seahawks' logo, which I'll post here (noting the NFL and the Seahakws own the rights to it).
Today, a story in the Seattle PI reports the inspiration for the logo is in possession of the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine. It's a transformation mask, and the inside is super intriguing, so it has been displayed in an open position, which is, perhaps, why it wasn't widely recognized as the Seahawks' inspiration all along.
I don't want to post the photos since I don't know them to be public property, but here's the inside of the mask: http://library.umaine.edu/hudson/palmer/detail.asp?id=91647356
And here's a link to the PI article with the photo of the outside of the mask. I think you'll agree, it's a dead-ringer for the Seahawks' logo:
It is believed it was carved from cedar in the late 19th or early 20th century.
STELLAR SELFIE: After 10 years of travel, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft recently arrived in very close proximity to its intended target, a comet!
Photo: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA
The "selfie" above was captured with the comet in the background, about 30 miles away from Rosetta. In the not-too-distant future, Rosetta will send out a lander, Phiae, to rendesvous with the comet.
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