Supposedly there will soon be an iPhone application that uniquely utilizes the camera feature in tandem with GPS and Google maps. Standing anywhere one will be able to hold up their phone and “scan” around themselves to locate listed food, drink, and entertainment, etc. Distance filtered tags will appear onscreen with links to reviews, store/restaurant websites, menus, phone numbers and zodiac signs.

While this application will I’m sure come in very handy when I am visiting foreign hoods and searching for vegan food for my girlfriend, I already find it slightly terrifying that my computer has grown into my pocket.

(Continued)

by Daniel Blue

30. July 2009, 14:25 ~ 8 Comments

My friend, and occasional alternative lifestyle father figure, Tobin and I have been riding our bikes all about town on these awesome summer nights. As we burn calories we talk poop about all the people who are wasting these fine evenings getting fat off of beer and hamburgers while we are exhilarated by the fresh air and empty streets. Recently we have repeatedly ridden from his Tea Shop on Commerce, down to 15th and under 705 to Dock street. The waterfront here is actually rather pretty to view from a cycle seat … and we pedal the promenade and keep a sharp eye for cuties.

I can’t help but ride up the ramp to the pool exhibit provided by the Glass Museum, every time I see it I ride up it. And like clockwork, every time, the security guard comes running …

(Continued)

by Daniel Blue

24. July 2009, 10:20 ~ 5 Comments

I’m just fresh back from the Hoh Rainforest, a little mossy wonderland that surrounds and follows the Hoh River down a western ravine of the Olympic Mountains. It’s a National Park, which means that at some point someone in charge set it aside and said, “This is a good place, a place that should last. Lets make sure that it stays good.” I’m glad for it.

I wonder if the same could not be done for some of the better places in Tacoma. “We the city of Tacoma, as her people, recognize the power and importance this place has for our culture and community growth … therefore we promise not to sell it to a developer from out of town, or let it fall to the wolves that still exist intown.”

(Continued)

by Daniel Blue

24. June 2009, 16:24 ~ 1 Comments

Last Thursday a friend invited me to check out the Seattle Art Walk, which is something I’ve been interested in for many years but never had the chance to attend. After seeking parking for nearly a half hour in the surrounding surroundings we packed a few organic carrots and strolled down Yesler Way to a building that I have actually unknowingly visited before. The Tashiro Kaplan Artists Lofts have been open since 2004, house 50 resident artists (some with families) and have street level galleries and a arty coffee shop all the way around three sides of the curvy triangle building.

(Continued)

by Daniel Blue

12. June 2009, 14:28 ~ 50 Comments

Last weekend I was hornswaggled into attending Folk Life in beautiful Seattle Washington. It’s been a few years since I played with a foot-bag or danced to a drum circle, but aside from the fact that gutter-punk is the new 90’s hippy, somehow the festival is not what it used to be. For one thing, at an estimated 250,000, there was probably triple the number of people than when I went five or so years ago. This means that even on a grounds as large as the Seattle Center, simply navigating a path through the fray was strikingly similar to an I-5 southbound commute on any given Friday afternoon. I sometimes felt as if I was attempting to walk through the set of a 70’s inspired Zombie movie, and though we milled about for miles, there was little room for dancing or setting my Ouija on a batch of grass for a seance.

(Continued)

by Daniel Blue

3. June 2009, 10:39 ~ 4 Comments

A few of you may remember me posting my thoughts after being interviewed by a UPS student attempting to write a thesis that unpacks the relationship between Tacoma and her artists. What do the arts that come from Tacoma say about Tacoma, and what do the artists do to change or demonstrate that identity?

In a shocking and epic dialog, Ady has sent me the completed thesis wherein she interviewed nine other working artists in Tacoma like myself. I do not believe there is any other work that has been written in recent Tacoma history that better speaks to the soul of this city, but I suppose I’m biased …

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by Daniel Blue

26. May 2009, 13:55 ~ 9 Comments

You may not have noticed much of what is happening in the fashion world of Tacoma’s downtown because you might still shop at the Tacoma Mall. Over the past few years a crop of fancy indie clothing boutiques have opened, attempting to serve the local residents that may be driving to Seattle or just settling for Nordstroms in their quest for unique clothing. However, in a somewhat disturbing sign of the times, three out of four high end clothing stores in the downtown area have closed within the past year. Rocky and Coco’s, Tiki Lounge and Dame Lola, have gone the way of the Woolworths. Granted, Dame Lola does not claim to be closing out of lack or recession; Mrs. Dashow is having a baby, but it would seem that high end jeans and $200 tops aren’t a priority for the typical Tacoma shop-o-holic.

(Continued)

by Daniel Blue

15. May 2009, 09:54 ~ 18 Comments

This weekend I spent a few hours in the car to get out on the Olympic Peninsula. I’m reading a book by David Abram called The Spell of the Sensuous, about the human need to encounter something other than humans and human made things. We left Tacoma’s manufactured landscapes in the hopes of gaining some new perspective on our lives within them.

There are some sneaky hot-springs outside of Port Angeles, “where the mountains meet the sea”. In my opinion, these are some of the most beautiful places on earth, but there was something in my way as I stepped out of the car, walked for miles and then stepped out of my clothes into the mineral rich murky shallows carved into the steep of a blue rivered ravine.

(Continued)

by Daniel Blue

29. April 2009, 10:28 ~ 10 Comments

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