2024.12.13. Belltown Art Walk + Winter Lights at Amazon

12/12-13, Amazon is hosting some winter activities. In front of the HQ is the lights and photo booth, plus a drawing table advertising for Gage Academy of Arts. Next block is a pop-up market for small local vendors. The right photo was taken on Monday of the week before all the booths and stalls were set up. These lights stayed on after Friday.

2nd Friday of a month is Belltown Art Walk. Today, I joined a few others at PublicDisplay.Art offset at 110 Union 4th floor for a guided walk. Today is led by a local artist Christopher Coleman. Raining, so not many people. Christopher said yesterday at the Capital Hill Art Walk, they had a large group. Not really "guided", as he didn't talk to us about the spaces we visited. Basically, we tagged along as he did his art walk, checking out galleries and talking to whoever he met. There's also a photographer in tow, who is probably documenting this "event".
Base Camp 2 (former Bergman Luggage Building) is leasing out its 2nd floor to various young artists, very similar to the Coleseum building. Open studio today. Quite a lot of people, despite of the rain. One "artist" is a very young guy, maybe high-school age. We didn't have time to visit the gallery downstairs.
We visited Gallery Ergo in the belly of Pike Place Market. It was a bit strange, as the whole market was closed and security guards were eyeing on us. This wall is a new exhibition of a mid-west artist.
Then, a very strange small gallery called Rebl One on 55 Bell. It has a stage. A girl was singing while plucking a guitar.
Last, Slip Gallery, which I usually visit. Among other displays, today is its opening reception of Robin Layton's rain and horses. A real photographer. I flipped through one of her coffee table book, which contains more photos. Some photos are accompanied by a poem.

2024.12.12. Scott Kranz's climb of Bulgers

12/12, Thursday. 6:30-9pm. 415 Westlake Ave. Scott Kranz and Glazer's Camera organized tonight's talk and promoting the camera sale this weekend at Glazer's. Scott Kranz spent the last 2 summers documenting his climb of Bulger List.

During the intermission, he talked about camera gear. He uses Sony. The Sony representative at Glazer is also present. He publishes a gear list. Afterwards, during Q&A, he said either he uses a hip-belt camera pouch (for protection + quick access), or a shoulder belt clip (quicker access). He also emphasized the research before his trip: both for condition and weather. He even plot where he'd be at what hour for optimal shot. I asked him what peaks he like to climb outside of Bulger. He mentioned Mt Olympus, The Picket Range, Vesper-Del Compo area.

Scott Kranz was a corporate attorney. About 10 some years agao, he quit his day job, and now freelancing as a photographer. Quite a good speaker.

Donation is collected for WTA. A large turn out. The talk started late. No water fountain on site.

2024.12.11. Musical Mountaineers + Grizzly

12/11. Wednesday. REI. 6-8pm The Musical Mountaineers hosts this evening at REI with a young author Kevin Grange. This event will repeat on Thursday.

Anastasia Allison (violin) and Rose Freeman (keyboard) played as Youtube video of them playing on the mountains projected on the screen. They usually go on a weekday, sunrise or sunset for better sunlight.

The second half is Kevin talked about his book Grizzly Confidential, and his love of bear 399, who raised multiple litters as large as 4 cubs, but was killed by a car in 2022. Coincidentally, I watched the documentary movie 399 - Queen of Teton on my last flight on Delta.

Anatasia is very personal. Both events were sold out. So I wait listed. She emailed me to notify me of cancellation, instead of letting eventbrite automatically handle the wait list. It's a good turnout, but still quite a few empty seats.

A nice enjoyable evening. Music wise, not enough dynamic. Video is excellent. Book wise, not sure if there's anything new.

2024.12.7. Piggy-pudding Caroling + Stimson Green + ANT Gallery

12/7, Saturday, noon. This year, the Piggy Pudding Caroling is happening during the day, while all prior caroling have been on Friday evening.
I got to Pike Place Market late (~1:20pm), all the teams have dissipated. But the highlight is the award, where the finalists perform one more time. The "best carole" is awarded to Puget Sound Company, the competing 2nd is Beacon Hill High School. (See above photos) The "most creative" this year is awarded to Silver Bell, the competing 2nd is Beaconnettes. Beaconnettes concluded this event with their 2024 version of 12 Days of Christmas. I love Beaconnettes, not just for their ridiculous hair, but also the lyrics that showcase every year's main events.

Tessa Floreano hosts a lauch party of her new book at Stimson Green house. I walked by this building many times, this is the first time being inside. In fact, the only reason that I went to this book talk is the location. I had never heard of Floreano, nor interested in a thriller. Most in audience are her friends.
She talked about the genesis of the book, read a short piece. She is very nice, brought quite a lot of food, and gave everyone a gift bag.

Later, on my way to Exhibition Hall, saw a lot of people at ANT Gallery. There, I found this young musician playing Bandura, in accompany with a new exhibition titled Under Fire - Sacred Art in Today's Ukraine, a collection of recent art work from Ukrainier art school faculty and students. Liliya Kovalenko, president of Ukrainian Association of Washington State also gave a short speech.

There's an openning reception of a different artist, who brought a wine with "removed alcohol". It is surprisingly good. I found these interesting: 2 made of sea shells, a few very colorful digital work by Abishek Maid, and always Tom Saknit.

2024.12.6. Ebru Yildiz at Cornish + Twinkle Twinkle at Freeway Park

12/6. Friday. Went to an Art Lecture of visiting artist Ebru Yildiz at Raisbeck Auditorium. I really enjoyed it, and this New York-via-Turkey based photographer. She discussed her works, and thoughts and preps behind some of them. She does portraits (sometimes more than 1 person, often a music band). Very candid, modest and approachable. She emphasizes practice, do at least one thing everyday when you are not working on a project. Also research before you work on a project.

Twinkle Twinkle at Freeway Park. Dickens Carolers sang in 2 sessions. Between them, one lady from Mini Breaks Dance taught a few dance moves, and crowd participated.

At the same time, roast marshmallow with chocolate over fire, or make holiday cards with stamps, ribbons, sparkles. Last year, I burned my marshmallow so fast, that I didn't try this time. I did make a few cards, and enjoyed it.

2024.12.5 Google AI roadtrip

12/5 Thursday 1pm. Google hosted this AI in Action training lab at Westin Hotel, not sure why not in one of its many buildings.

I arrived a few minutes before 1:30pm, just before the lab supposed to start. Surprised to see so few attendees (6? 7?), and out of them, I knew 2. They are organizers of GDG Seattle. Seems the goal today is introducing AlloyDB AI and Vertex AI Agent Builder to create an AI agent for a shopping chatbot. Reference: https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/generative-ai

First lab is using simple SQL in Google's AlloyDB to set up tables and embedding. However, for these training accounts, it times out so quickly, that we could only load 8 rows of data. 2nd lab is building the AI agent using the model setup in lab #1. If you are not familiar with Google Cloud, it's hard to find where things are. There were 3 Google employees (other than the 2 teaching the labs) onsite to troubleshooting our errors (usually caused by missing steps of the labs or things changed since the labs were tested). We ended with a quiz and a survey. Everyone got a pair of very colorful socks. (why socks?)

At the end, they laid out 2 stations of food in the next room, and a drink station. I was astonished to see this much food for so few people, especially, there were almost nothing during the first two "refreshment" timeslots.

One cool thing is that 2 artists were hired to draw cartoons of us. I received 2 very colorful drawings. They are very fast.

2024.11.28. Thanksgiving Day

11/28, Thursday. My planned trip fizzled out due to an unexpected event. The large turkey lunch called for a walk to burn off some calories. Headed uphill to Kerry Park just before sunset. Surprised to see so many people. I had never seen this much crowd here. Great view of downtown and Rainier. Some clouds today, advertising a colorful sunset.

We walked to waterfront for sunset, a lot less people. Excellent color today. Olympic mountains are clear.

During this long weekend, painted my old home, did a lot of shopping online.

2024.11.23. Level Up Vocal Ensemble + Warren Miller's 75

11/23, Saturday, 4:30pm. My 2nd time attending Level Up! Vocal Ensemble's performance, because I really enjoyed it last time, even though I'm not a gamer. Yes, they sing video game songs. Today's concert is titled Girl Boss Battle. Copy of their program here:

Sleeping in the Cold Below, Warframe: Call of the Tempestarii - arr. Julia Cosma
Sis Puella Magica, Puella Magi Madoka Magica ------------------ arr. Julia Cosma
Good Riddance, Hades ------------------------------------------ arr. Stephen O'Bent
Tomb Raider Theme, Tomb Raider (1996) ------------------------- arr. Julie Sakalys
Malach, the Angel Messenger, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
                                                     ---------- arr. Julie Sakalys
Still Alive, Portal ------------------------------------------- arr. Katie Bent
MORE, League of Legends --------------------------------------- arr. Julie Sakalys
STAGE OF SEKAI, Project SEKAI: Colorful Stage! ---------------- arr. Isabella Cabullos

I especially liked "Still Alive". This is a very fun group, some in costumes, all wore face masks.

---

At 7:30, we went to McCaw Hall to see Warren Miller's Film Tour of 75, a collection of some new footage of these athletes on snow: Selema Masakela | Shaun White | Caite Zeliff | Jeremy Jones | LJ Henriquez Max Hitzig | Danny Davis | Parkin Costain | Toby Miller | JJ Thomas | Alex Ferreira Lexi duPont | Noah Maisonet | Zeb Powell | Daron Rahlves | Connery Lundin Aaron Blunck | Mark Abma | Cassie Sharpe | Juho Kilkki | Luis Medearis Cass Jones | Mia Jones. Ticketmaster sells tickets, and only Ticketmaster, so a hefty service fee.

I really enjoyed the very first documentary on free ride skier Max Hitzig from the foot of Austrian Alps. Stunning mountain scenary and death-defying moves, made me want to get out in the snow. Could have left after that. The movie went downhill afterawards, both the scenary and the skills. I definitely won't be attending another Warren Miller screening.

Not a full house, but full enough. During the intermission, the organizer threw swags into the auditorium. So a lot of people crammed to the front to catch them. Only then, I noticed a lot of kids. It also encourages you to sign up a sweepstake online. In the lobby, the sponsors showcased their gears, and ski map.

The next day, briefly checked out the gingerbread village at the Grand Sheraton. 5 kids, 5 over-engineered gingerbread creations. I came to see this exhibition last December too.

2024.11.21. Pacific Marine Expo + Founder's Live

The Pacific Marine Expo is a 2.5 day affair 11/20-22. I only went on Thursday, not very early. My first time ever. Location: the event center of Lumen Field. Is it the same as WaMu Theatre? It's a very large 2 story hall. Lots of vendors, from mechanic tools to digital monitoring system, fishing industry, recreational vessels, government agencies, environment NGOs. There's one company that only showcases their chicken egg (in powder), but they don't sell it there.

I attended a few educational talks, and talked to a few vendors (including the egg seller, yes, it does taste like egg). I liked these.

• Linde's plasma cutting machine, and it cut a steel fish for anyone who wants one.
• Rachel Aronson from Maritime Blue talked about its Quite Sound voluntary program. About 70% vessels going through Puget Sound voluntarily lower their speed during winter season, to reduce underwater sound pollution, when Orcas are around.

No food or drink provided by the expo. There are vendors who sell lunch. However, at 4pm, one company hosted a happy hour with some sliders and beer, and it soon ran out. I'm also surprised to see quite a few groups from Alaska, at least 2 from Bristol Bay.

I left for Founders Live event (6-8pm). 4 founders today:

• news publishing/subscribing database service
• a little AI robot friend
• yet another social network
• EV charging robot

The EV charging robot idea won the popular vote today.

2024.11.16. Games + Education Collider

11/16, Saturday. This is the 2nd time I went to this games in education event held at Pacific Science Center. Last year (2023/11/15) was only in the evening. The goal is to share knowledge of how to teach using games. The expo is on the lower floor, where you can see many interesting games aimed for from toddlers to adults, and talked to the designers. I like this event last time. A lot more content this year. Educational and fun. I wish more people would come.

Keynote speaker Tammie Schrader, science coordinator for the Washington Education Service District 101. She's an excellent speaker: loud, clear, funny. A few panels throughout the day. Sometimes 2 classrooms were holding workshops at the same time. The classrooms here have terrible sound proof. Noisy like hell.

During one of the panels, I jotted down a few websites (missed most):

• Unity Game Engine, a sponser of this event
• Teach AI
• AI competency framework for students
• The annual ED Games Expo | Washington, DC
• Microsoft 21st Century Learning Design
• 3 AR tools: Adobe Aero, Lens Studio, Procreate 3D

In the afternoon, I took a 3-hr workshop, lead by 4 teachers from Center for Leadership and Innovation of St. Thomas School in Medina, South Bellevue, a very wealthy neighorhood. Each one talked about one game class and its process and takeaway: a cardboard maze for kindergardeners, a narrative card game using Someone Has Died, building a box with raspberry-pi, servos and blinking lights. I forgot what's the 4th. I'm very impressed what they have done, and kids' demos. I asked one of them who can come to their school. I was told that anyone can apply, but they'll interview the kids and the parents. The last section, I and 2 other guys tried to use Twine, an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories, to outline a narrative game.

Between the sessions, I went down to checkout the games. I'm especially taken by this game Brailliance to learn Braille. Talked to its designer, and saw him using a Braille keyboard. He's not blind.

2024.11.15. Third Friday Speaker at Center for Wooden Boats

11/15, Friday, 6-7:30pm. Third Friday Speaker series at Center of Wooden Boats. I arrived late, but the speakers didn't start until ~6:30pm. 3 local business owners who operate in the space of private boats:

• surveyor Zach Simonson-Bond of Kingspke Marine
• shipwright Andy Stewart from Emerald Marine
• insurance underwriter Alex Jones of Redshield

My first time here. Not sure if I learned anything. The talks are very general, nothing in detail. The Q&A is more interesting, especially from this lady who arrived at the same time as me (the door is locked, and she knows to ring someone to let us in). 2 takeaways from her: 1) wooden boats are no longer allowed to moor in LA (and potentially banned from more harbors). 2) get a smaller boat, so you can operate without a crew.

2024.11.14. Structural Engineer 2024 Forum

11/14, Thursday, 6pm, Benaroya Hall, recital hall. Structural Engineers Foundation of Washington's fall forum. I love this forum last year (about the Summit building of Seattle Convention Center). This time, it's a deep dive of the design and construction of the Overlook Walk at the waterfront.

The speakers are (in order of presentation):

• Peter Steinbrueck gave an overview of the Overlook Walkway project, and the history of Seattle waterfront, with historical photos from late 1800s.
• David Miller (Miller Hulls Architects, talked about the design and change/consideration since the conception of the walkway.
• Andrew Barash (Jacob, the actual project manager of the structural engineering of this project).
• Osama Quotah (LMN architects) on the design of the new aquarium expansion, emphasizes on regional and sustainable design.
• Arash Naderpour (Turner Construction) on aquarium's Ocean Pavilion. Impressive rebar!

One positive comment from all is the collaboration, and discussion throughout (especially before) the project. One negative comment is too many contractors and sub-contractors, so difficult/slow to coordinate.

2024.10.17-20. Refract 2024

10/18, Friday. I went to "Cappy Thompson in conversation with Margery Aronson" at Convention Center, ARCH building, the event space between the administrative office and room 205. I emailed the event organizer weeks ahead. It was really just a talk by Cappy Thompson on her experience in the early days of Seattle glass art scene, the founding time of Pilchuck school, and her works. I did enjoyed her talk.
Followed by a brief talk by Margery Aronson. She is a curator of various exhibitions, and was involved in glass art scene in PNW for over 40 years. Then, Margery gave us a tour of the glass arts in exhibit on the 2nd floor right outside of the event space. She could remember who made each piece. One of these (the black vase) is by Cappy Thompson.

SAM open house 6-9pm. Even though guests had gathered in front of SAM's door, they didn't open the door until 6:05pm. That's very disappointing. The advertised "delicious cocktail and snacks" are pretty pricy. The "relaxing music" is very loud, so loud that our tour guide made repeated futile attempts to escape from the sounds. I really enjoyed this tour of Calder in motion exhibition by Jose Carlos Diaz, the deputy director for arts at the museum.
The new exhibition of Joyce Scott's beads work is colorful, but looked all ugly, if not scary, to me. I did join the tour which softened my dislike. This is a large exhibition with many articles.
There're 3 tables set up in the main lobby if you want to thread some beads yourself.

Only when I got home Friday night, did I realize that there is also a bus tour of the studios this weekend. Too late to buy tickets. Yes, it's now $20+fee, instead of free last year's.

10/19, Saturday. I went to Space Needle to wait for the tour bus, hoping for last minute cancellation. With a paid ticket, everyone showed up. The organizer also brought 3 unpaying "friends". Surprisingly, there is a last seat. The driver called his boss, opened a ticket online, which I purchased there and then. Total 25 passengers, including the 2 tour guides.

Saturday's tour is north of downtown, all new to me. Tomorrow's is south of downtown (which I went last year, so many repeated studios). First is Morgan Madison's studio, which he built behind his house. A very nice building. He cuts sheet glasses, and arrange them in a rectangle flat, augmented by powders, and then fire in the kiln. Geometric, precise patterns. He talked about the processes, very nice.

Next, Carol Milne studio. She makes knit glasses. She talked about her process: "knit" wax curls, plaster, and then pour melt glass. Interesting.

3rd, Bazaz Studios. She paints, silkscreens, acid etching on to flat glass, then fired in kiln. We were given some extra time to go to Top Pot Donut across the street for a bite and use the restroom.

4th, Karen Seymour's home. First we went down her studio in the basement to see her fancy kiln with precise temperature control, which she talked about the annealing, and the natural thickness of glass is 6mm (not sure why). Back up in her house (note of the good view of Lake Union from her window), she has many items for sale, as well as other artists who brought their products to sell.

Last on today's tour is Milo Snyder. He uses 3D printer to make his design, then plaster, then fire in the kiln. He makes lamp covers, pendant lights. A woodwork artisan was selling his bowls of different tree species in the yard.

Overall, I enjoyed the artists talking about their craft, and seeing their working space. However, this year's tour guides are more of chaperoons. They are enthusiastic, but didn't tell us anything regarding to glass during the tour. One of them worked at Chihuly's Museum of Glass for number of years. Oh, yes, when the bus drove by Chihuly's staging workshop, they did talk about it. I very much prefer last year's tour guides. Another difference is that quite a few passengers are out-of-town tourists. I guess Refract this year did much better advertisement.

10/20 Sunday. Went to the closing party. Not much of a party. Cedric Mitchell and his friends were making a large vase. More people to watch them. But no lecture or explaination. Some crackers, chips, cheese, grape. I like these glass pumpkins.