Unusual Life

Many people are surprised that palm trees can survive in Seattle, but the climate is surprisingly mild this far north. Warm currents off the Pacific Coast tend to moderate the local weather. Seattle is often called the rainy city, but that is not accurate. The city does not receive a lot of rain, but it does get about 220 days of cloud cover every year, and most of the rain occurs during the winter months. Averaging only 55 days of sunshine a year, this pervasive grayness tends to make the city have very moderate temperatures. Winter highs top out around 50°F and summer highs float between 75 and 85°F. This turns out to be just fine for the Windmill Palm.

Alain Lucier, a Canadian transplant now living in Seattle, loves palm trees. He loves them so much, he surrounded his home with the beautiful trees, filling up the front back and sides of his homes with hundreds of the trees. Running out of room, and wanting to beautify the neighborhood, he spread out, planting trees on the boulevard in front and then spreading the love by planting trees up and down the street in front of his neighbors house too. You know you’re getting close to this Johnny Appleseed of the palm tree world’s neighborhood in Fremont around the 4200 block of 3rd NW, when you start seeing the palm trees planted all around the neighborhood.

Three tablespoons of water that could have possibly graced the lips of Elvis Presley nabbed $455 on Ebay for Wade Jones of Belmont, N.C., who has had the treasure since 1977, when he took it after a concert as a memento.

Jones insists that he’s not an Elvis-maniac. “It’s one thing to be an Elvis fan, but then you tell them you have this cup of water and they think you’re a fanatic,” Jones defends. “I’m not like the people bidding on the water.”

Nooo, of course you’re not like them. Fanatics are die-hard fans. All you did was go to the concert, nab a souvenir, deep-freeze it for eight years, then melt it and transfer it into a glass vial. This obviously does not qualify as “fanatical behavior.” It’s just common business sense.

Jones, 40, offers what he calls proof of the water’s authenticity: photos of the King during the concert with several foam cups in the background, as well as a photo of Presley holding a foam cup.

But the cup wasn’t for sale. Says Jones: “I’m kind of attached to the cup. I thought it was a little quirkier to sell the water.” You got us there.

The Elvis Cup

Here’s a weird one sent in from our friend Mark at FreshlyPressed, A psychedelic experience characterized by a tunnel on BoredStop. No other information, so we can only surmise what’s going on here. A home renovation project gone bad? Cool, though.

Roq La Rue Gallery, for their 9th anniversary, is featuring the exhibit “Venus”. Featuring contemporary artists from all over the country, the show is centered around the concept of the feminine as muse, in whatever form that may take. From gorgeous to ghastly, innocent to vampy, the female form has been the subject of art from prehistoric times to today. Each artists picked to participate has a history of primarily depicting the female form in their work. Opening Friday June 8th 6-9pm and running through July 7th.

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art, courtesy of Greg Escalante