Day 120 - Seattle, Washington, USA
Day 120 – 6th October 2005 -8:00 GMT
Today I met Butch Walker…. Don’t say who's Butch Walker look him up, fantastic solo artist used to be in a band called Marvellous 3. We walked across to Pioneer Square which is the oldest part of the city, it has lots of art galleries along the streets.
Pioneer Square
A Totem Pole in pioneer Square
The Smith Tower (The Tallest Building in the world outside of Manhatten in 1903)
We stopped for a bite to eat, well we all had soup. Then we went on the Bill Spiedel's Underground Tour. This is a history tour of the underground part of the city, including walking through the rat filled sewers. Seattle was started in 1851 and named after an Indian Chief, Due to Seattle being built on the mud flaps the city was washed away several times and then burnt down in the late 1880’s. Anyway after it was rebuilt the town folks got tired of living in a city that had no sewers and when the tide came in so did the sewage, so they decided they would raise the Ground Level. They built Brick walls around each block which ranged from 8ft near the water to 35ft near the hills, then they filled in the gaps between the walls, with anything they could find, mostly being sawdust from the mill. They also ran sewer pipes under the raised roads. Now they had all the buildings with the roads running at the Second floor level. All the pavements were at ground level still, due to this they put ladders in the corners so to cross a road you had to climb a ladder between 8ft and 35ft watch for horses cross the street and climb down the other side. Due to the store fronts being at ground level people did not want to buy sacks of flour etc and have to carry them up the ladders so the stores put there stock at the side of the roads so the horse and carts could stop load up and go. Unfortunately the horses kept knocking the sacks of flour etc down and killing people who walked passed minding there own business. The Seattle folk put up with this for 3 years before the City agreed to pay the cost and raise the pavements. So all the stores had their shop fronts underground. So we had a tour of the underground area which was really interesting although a few people left the tour early on when someone pointed out a rat at my feet. Looking at pictures of Seattle in the early 1900’s and now it is very strange as all the buildings entrances on the street level are now underground and you enter on the second floor.
Seattle Underground
Seattle Underground
Seattle Underground
After the 90 minute tour I decided to visit the Seattle Art Museum as it is free on the first Thursday of every month. The museum had a lot of pottery from china and very little stuff I would refer to as art, they did have a few Andy Warhol paintings. I only spent an hour here then met up with Jill back at the Hostel. Jill and I then headed up East Madison to a venue called Chop Suey, doors were not yet open so we had a beer at the Elysian Micro Brewery where we were the night before. We joined the Queue at Chop Suey around 8:15pm and got into the venue. There were 5 artists performing tonight, The setup for the night was a bit strange, the first artist Jim Bianco came out and sang 3 songs.
Jim Bianco with Butch Walker on Base
Then the next artist came out and sang 3 songs. Then an artist called Cary Brothers Came out and Butch Walker came on after they had done 2 songs and played base guitar. Then Butch played three songs and went offstage.
Butch Walker
Butch Walker
Butch Walker
Imogen Heap came on and did 7 songs.
Imogen Heap
Then the artists came back on and did a few songs each and then they all came on and sang Kiss by Prince.
Butch Walker on Piano
Everyone on Stage singing Kiss by Prince
After Butch’s first set I bumped into him in the corridor and had a chat with him and told him he needed to met Jill before he left, so after the gig I dragged Jill over to Butch and we chatted away, Jill got her photo taken with him and left as happy as she has ever been.
Jill With Butch Walker
We walked back to the hostel and got back about 1:30am
Today I met Butch Walker…. Don’t say who's Butch Walker look him up, fantastic solo artist used to be in a band called Marvellous 3. We walked across to Pioneer Square which is the oldest part of the city, it has lots of art galleries along the streets.
Pioneer Square
A Totem Pole in pioneer Square
The Smith Tower (The Tallest Building in the world outside of Manhatten in 1903)
We stopped for a bite to eat, well we all had soup. Then we went on the Bill Spiedel's Underground Tour. This is a history tour of the underground part of the city, including walking through the rat filled sewers. Seattle was started in 1851 and named after an Indian Chief, Due to Seattle being built on the mud flaps the city was washed away several times and then burnt down in the late 1880’s. Anyway after it was rebuilt the town folks got tired of living in a city that had no sewers and when the tide came in so did the sewage, so they decided they would raise the Ground Level. They built Brick walls around each block which ranged from 8ft near the water to 35ft near the hills, then they filled in the gaps between the walls, with anything they could find, mostly being sawdust from the mill. They also ran sewer pipes under the raised roads. Now they had all the buildings with the roads running at the Second floor level. All the pavements were at ground level still, due to this they put ladders in the corners so to cross a road you had to climb a ladder between 8ft and 35ft watch for horses cross the street and climb down the other side. Due to the store fronts being at ground level people did not want to buy sacks of flour etc and have to carry them up the ladders so the stores put there stock at the side of the roads so the horse and carts could stop load up and go. Unfortunately the horses kept knocking the sacks of flour etc down and killing people who walked passed minding there own business. The Seattle folk put up with this for 3 years before the City agreed to pay the cost and raise the pavements. So all the stores had their shop fronts underground. So we had a tour of the underground area which was really interesting although a few people left the tour early on when someone pointed out a rat at my feet. Looking at pictures of Seattle in the early 1900’s and now it is very strange as all the buildings entrances on the street level are now underground and you enter on the second floor.
Seattle Underground
Seattle Underground
Seattle Underground
After the 90 minute tour I decided to visit the Seattle Art Museum as it is free on the first Thursday of every month. The museum had a lot of pottery from china and very little stuff I would refer to as art, they did have a few Andy Warhol paintings. I only spent an hour here then met up with Jill back at the Hostel. Jill and I then headed up East Madison to a venue called Chop Suey, doors were not yet open so we had a beer at the Elysian Micro Brewery where we were the night before. We joined the Queue at Chop Suey around 8:15pm and got into the venue. There were 5 artists performing tonight, The setup for the night was a bit strange, the first artist Jim Bianco came out and sang 3 songs.
Jim Bianco with Butch Walker on Base
Then the next artist came out and sang 3 songs. Then an artist called Cary Brothers Came out and Butch Walker came on after they had done 2 songs and played base guitar. Then Butch played three songs and went offstage.
Butch Walker
Butch Walker
Butch Walker
Imogen Heap came on and did 7 songs.
Imogen Heap
Then the artists came back on and did a few songs each and then they all came on and sang Kiss by Prince.
Butch Walker on Piano
Everyone on Stage singing Kiss by Prince
After Butch’s first set I bumped into him in the corridor and had a chat with him and told him he needed to met Jill before he left, so after the gig I dragged Jill over to Butch and we chatted away, Jill got her photo taken with him and left as happy as she has ever been.
Jill With Butch Walker
We walked back to the hostel and got back about 1:30am
posted by Simon at 10:31 AM
1 Comments:
I think the people of Seattle sound completely mad!! Why on earth didn't they find somewhere else to found a city? (The story was very entertaining, though!)
Post a Comment
<< Home