The Fremont Solstice Parade

I have previously mentioned the peculiar neighborhood Fremont,  known as “The Center of the Universe,” host to the annual Solstice Parade, which is a bizarre and fabulously wild, trip down the rabbit hole. It is a magical mystery tour of very open and free-form artistic expression:  A stream-of-consciousness of the creativity and collective eccentricities of people from Fremont. If you attempted to derive a unified meaning from the parade, you would undoubtedly lose your marbles; So don’t try, just enjoy the strange weirdness.

The Painted [Naked] Cyclists of the Solstice Parade

The wildly popular parade draws a crowd, partly due to being preceded by a naked (but fully-body-painted) bike parade known as the Solstice Cyclists. The unofficial and unsanctioned naked cycling tradition started when a few streakers crashed the parade, and has grown into thousands. The Fremont Arts Council’s website says  “While the painted cyclists are a beloved part of the Solstice Parade, they are actually in no way affiliated with the Fremont Arts Council”.

While you may think that this is an anything-goes naked frenzy,  attended solely by perverts, there are a few basic rules [guidelines at best] as well as societal expectations of decency. The cyclists are painted to accentuate the human body as an art form as opposed to simple public lewdness . Almost everyone is painted, and many of them are without a doubt quite artistic. Those who are not painted are heckled by other participants and bystanders! I mean everyone has a moral code, and naked cyclists are no exception!  

Having accidently seen the International Naked Bike Ride of Portland, which is just naked bicyclists (sans body paint), [I am becoming a bit of a connoisseur of naked parades]:  I can honestly say that The Painted Cyclists of the Solstice Parade are far more interesting and make for a far more family-friendly naked parade!  And (I kid you not) that is how the event is viewed:  a lighthearted, fun, [family friendly(?)] display of uninhibited freedom and artistic expression that just happens to use the human form as a canvas.

This fully nude dude in a Guy Fawkes mask [the modern symbol of anti-authoritarianism and/or political activism] hopped off his bike for a photo-op with a surprised but easy-going Seattle police officer.

The Solstice Parade

The actual parade itself was really fantastic. I have not been to too very many parades, but this one was far and away the most entertaining.

And of course the beloved  Flying Spaghetti Monster is a staple of the Fremont Solstice Parade! Preaching Pastafarianism to the masses!

Colby wanted to join the parade but was far too tired.

The parade is cherished by both the young....


... and the young at heart.

I put my remaining pictures into collages, which are nicely representative of the broad spectrum of the parade: the beautiful, the bizarre, the cute-overload, and the impressive.

Look at this awesome little kid on stilts!

What sets this parade apart from many other parades:

There really is no theme!  While it is a parade for the summer solstice, there is really nothing tying one crazy thing to the next, and that allows it to be completely unpredictable, as if you stepped out of reality and into bizarre dream.

It is incredibly unstructured, open-minded, and laissez-faire.  If you wanted to randomly join the parade wearing any random thing... or completely naked (and painted), you could, and almost no one would think it odd.

No Logos, Ads, or Printed Words allowed!  This may seem trivial, but it is crucial to the aesthetic of the parade. Because of this rule, everything is completely open to interpretation. You do not even know what group any given float is representing. And best of all there is no floats with Ads saying “Ed’s Used Cars” etc, just cool visual stuff for everyone to enjoy.  They eloquently explain it as follows: “Participants must stretch to express their ideas visually, groups flow together in one juxtaposed whole, and we’re all happily free of logos for the day.”  Brilliant!

Kayaking

We bought a tandem kayak and took it out to a few places around the area.

We kayaked in the Puget Sound from Golden Gardens to Carkeek Park.

We kayaked around Washington Park Arboretum.

 That is our friends Derek and Michelle in front of us.

We took Sagan out once. He is a terrestrial animal....so I wouldn't say he loved it...

We have seen some cool wildlife. A lot of these normal things: herons, geese, ducks, turtles. And a few of these not-so-normal things: seals and star fish (the 2-foot diameter purple one seen on Planet Earth, and the crazy multi-legged orange ones). 

We can hear sea lions a few times, but luckily have not seen any. I do NOT want to get close to a sea lion. Someone described them the other day as the bears of the water.

It has been kinda rainy recently and we have been busy, so we are looking forward to taking it back out.

Happy Syttende Mai!

Ballard is a very cool neighborhood… and I’ll let Wikipedia tell you ... “Historically Ballard is the traditional center of Seattle's ethnically Scandinavian seafaring community, who were drawn to the area because of the salmon fishing opportunities.  …  Each year the community celebrates Norwegian Constitution Day on May 17 to commemorate the signing of the Norwegian Constitution.”

We went to the The Syttende Mai Parade!

I struck up a conversation with a nice Ballardite who told me that unicycling is a very common program in Seattle physical education programs. That's the Pacific Northwest for ya.

Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection

Note:  If there is no mouse-over effects (mouse-over the 2nd picture of this post to see), you may need to  redirect to the specific post  or go to the full blog [depending on the browser].

While our friend Blake was visiting we had a busy week, which included a trip down to check out the Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection, which used to serve as the visitor’s center of the 500-acre Weyerhauser corporate campus in Federal Way, Washington. 

I knew ahead of time that it was going to awesome, but I had no idea just how amazing of an experience it was going to be. From the shear amount of superlatives I am about to throw down, you can rest-assured that this was one of most fascinating exhibits I have ever encountered. It truly changed my mindset on at least bonsai, if not art itself. I was so overwhelmed by beauty, variety, and Zen that it reminded me of the joy of experiencing the Rose Gardens in Portland. The collection was beautiful, emotional, fascinating, and mind-blowing.

We all have a notion of what bonsai is…. a little conifer tree perhaps?... which is good start, because many bonsai are conifers due to their resilience and ability abide the strains which bonsai undergo, but conifers are just the tip of the iceberg of the possible varieties of bonsai.  For starters, a bonsai can be any type of tree!

A great definition of bonsai is found here, summarized as: “Bonsai is a small-scale representation of a mature tree in nature. It is not a literally accurate image, but a suggestion that is somewhat abstracted and idealized according to the intent and taste of the artist. The goal is not to create an exact replica of a large tree, but to create a simplified, abstract form that suggests a scene and elicits an emotional response.”

‘bon’ = tray, and  ‘sai’ = plantings, so it translates as: “plant in a tray”.  The correct pronunciation is ”bone-sigh” (not banzai).

Some of them looked like miniature versions of the real trees, like this absurdly-amazing lil’ Redwood which is like the gigantic redwoods we saw in California.

Some of them were groves of trees! 

...and others were stunning pieces of art. There is just as much art to them as there is tree! In many of the pieces, there is a striking use of contrast, form, space, texture, arrangement, symmetry (not to mention the choice of mosses, rocks, pots, etc, to accentuate the trees).

It is also a fascinating science! It often involves intense manipulation to get the plants to do, or give the appearance of doing, what artist envisioned, for example the use of grafting and the fusing plants. 

And boy did they succeed in invoking a full spectrum of emotions! Most commonly it was overwhelming joy or outbursts of laughter as we would walk around a new corner and see a work of art (so improbably) more amazing than the last.

When you look at each piece you cannot help but marvel at the unbelievable foresight of the artist, to perceive a concept of which he/she would not see come to fruition for many years. And then you ponder the artists continued devotion and patience through the meticulous process of evolving their design as the tree grows, all the while, keeping this living thing alive through a process which is by definition stressful to the plant. Oh yeah, did I mention that some of them have been bonsai for over 100 years! Or that some of the trees themselves are over 400 years old!

Being ancient, priceless, works of living art, each piece has a history worthy of its own biography. For example, there is this tree, which barely survived World War II, when its owner/artist was placed in a Japanese internment camp. The bonsai (so coddled and so dependent on human intervention) began to take a turn for the worse. The bonsai only persevered by growing its root through the wooden shipping crate it was in at the time, and into the ground, as it was found once the war was over! It is still alive and still amazing, but no longer the same as it was once envisioned by its artist.   

Note the large size of this piece, since it grew unchecked during WWII. (the pot is about 5 ft wide)

Just as fascinating as the bonsai themselves was Scarlet, their caretaker and the collection’s only paid employee (other than the Curator). She has devoted 16 years of her life directly to caring for these plants and knows each one in intimate detail (their history & stats, the evolution of their physical form, and the hurdles they have lived through, etc). She is one of those lucky people who absolutely loves their job (who wouldn't?) and is quite passionate about the topic.

She was very knowledgeable and was more than willing to answer the questions we came up with, which went beyond the scope of the bonsai. We were the only 3 people there for the tour, so we got to talk very candidly with her about her job, the collection, her emotional attachment to the plants, the joyous ups and the tragic downs of such a career, and how the collection is being released from Weyerhauser’s corporate ownership to become a non-profit organization (for better or for worse). A very interesting person, quite intertwined with a specific and fascinating career, during a time of transition and uncertainty; for the trees, the collection, and several people's careers.

On top of it being an amazing experience, it was all FREE! …which makes it quite possibly the best free exhibit I have encountered. The free admission is subject to change as they transition into a non-profit (Seems counter-intuitive doesn’t it? …but they will need funds to keep it running when they lose their corporate ownership. Which consequently, in a recession, is why Weyerhauser is dropping the collection.) I would gladly pay admission (or a membership) to view this again. The deciduous trees of the collection already have given me 3 reasons to come back: Spring, Summer, and Fall; All of which offer an entirely new experience of viewing the living art! Considering how beautiful they were even without leaves, I cannot wait!

I absolutely recommend this to anyone in this quadrant of the continent, and if you are out of range, I recommend you find the nearest bonsai collection on this continent (of which there are ~24) and go check it out, because it is far more fascinating than you thought!

... and sadly my pictures do not even begin to do justice to the beauty of this collection!

Enjoy the remaining pictures from the collection.
["mousing-over" the picture brings up the placard for the bonsai, with all kinds of great metadata]

 

 

 

 

 

There were many more pieces at the  Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection , so go check it out!