Friday, August 6, 2010

Shadows @ the Foundry vs. Blue Angels @ Mercer Island

My longtime colleague and friend, bronze sculptor and community organizer Peter Bevis, has been playing Shadows over loudspeakers outside of Gallery 154 in the Fremont District of Seattle since May 14th. 24/7.

Inside the main front window of the gallery sit the bronze replicas of heads of Sea otters, killed in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Peter cast them, as he has many other animals killed by oil spills or other examples of man's stupidity, to raise awareness of human selfishness.

My music - Shadows - accompanies an epic poem by former Alaska poet, Ann Chandonnet.

A couple of weeks ago, the Seattle police compained to Peter about the sound. The gallery is attached to the Fremont Fine Arts Foundry, which Peter owns. It sits smack in the middle of a non-residential area, far from any houses or apartments. You can barely hear the music 200 feet away, and it is often completely covered by the sounds of machinery operating across the street, or heavy trucks driving down 34th.

I'm staying with my sister, her husband and my mom out on Mercer Island, just east of Seattle, on Lake Washington. Yesterday, today, Saturday asnd Sunday, the Navy's Blue Angels aerobatic team is flying over the Seafair hydroplane race course just north of Seward Park on Lake Washington. The reviewing stand is about two miles from where I'm staying.

The planes make a lot of noise. Probably about 100 times as much noise as the music Peter is playing in Fremont. It is heard at an almost painful level by about 75,000 people in Seattle, Renton, Tukwila and Mercer Island.
I doubt the Seattle police will be questioning the Blue Angels about their noise levels. They're way too busy shutting down the I-90 floating bridge and other roadways and arterials for hours each day this late week and weekend, inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of people to accomodate war worship.

6 comments:

nancydrew said...

Tell me about it. My husband and I, dealing with a life and death emergency, are just about ready to suffer total nervous exhaustion after a week of terror. And now, he is trying to exit Seattle to get home across the state and is totally landlocked on roadways that are clogged and drawbridges that are up. I simply cannot believe it. This city is brought to a complete halt for this "show"--this is my tax dollar at work? G-d help anyone needing emergency transport this weekend.

Anonymous said...

bitch, bitch, whine, bitch, whine...didn't you toot your horn for Bugles Across American you two faced chimp? Too bad you didn't choke on it, Phil.
As for nancy, G-d? Are you a Jew nancy? Or just another nitwit?

nancydrew said...

no, i'm not a jew, just a terribly frightened mother. what is the matter with you?

nancydrew said...

Anonymous @6:01 There is a time when one simply reaches out--Jew, Catholic, atheist. Who cares--just the human chain of help. You must never have needed a prayer. Good for you and I wish you well. My family is trying to be well.

Anonymous said...

OMG I am so with you Phil! This kind of waste makes me want to tear my hair out! The military has gone way beyond rational thinking. It kind of reminds me of Nazi Germany and the hauling out of the missiles, troops etc. If people want to watch crap like this they ought to examine what is missing in their lives. This is painful!

Anonymous said...

So, nancy if you aren't a Jew what is with you spelling God where you remove the "o" and replace it with "-"? The only ones I've ever noticed doing that is usually Orthodox Jews and what does the Blue Angels have to do with you being some sort of freaked out mother?
And Phil, I think I shall report you to the Bugles Across America group and hopefully you will never blow your horn for them ever again.
Nazi Germany? You all should know plenty about what it's like to be a Nazi you act just like them.