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Isn't this a handsome magazine?
And isn't it shameful
that Publisher Sue Hitchen
won't pay her freelancers?
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Archie McPhee
This frivolous store may be the kitsch capital of the country. Top sellers include bacon air fresheners, wind-up hopping lederhosen, plastic pig catapults and the librarian action figure, based on Seattle's Nancy Pearl. The wacky warehouse also stocks day-glow plastic bugs, Japanese candy, punching nun puppets, tiki-headed doorknobs and Tickles Tapeworm snackboxes. 2428 NW Market St, 206.297.0240, open Mon-Sat from 9am-7pm, Sun 10am-6pm; www.mcphee.com).
Ballard
Ballard, once the sleepy Scandinavian fishing quarter, is growing alarmingly hip. Gourmet dog-treat boutiques jostle greasy spoon diners. Design firms and dive bars commingle. Wine bars dot the wharves and warehouses. The blossoming neighborhood is also home to one of Seattle's top tourist sights at the Ship Canal. The 1917 Hiram Chittenden Locks link salty Puget Sound with freshwater Lake Washington via Lake Union. Sockeye, Chinook, and Coho Salmon migrate upstream through a 21-step “ladder”, visible through six lit windows (free; 3015 NW 54th St, 206.783.7059; open daily May-Sept 10am-6pm and Thurs-Mon 10am-4pm the rest of the year; www.nws.usace.army.mil).
Gasworks Park
Rusting industrial shells loom on the lakeside: a sharp contrast to the tidy skyline across the waters. The old Gasworks – with grassy lawns, some gaily painted pipes and a vast mosaic sundial – remain a favorite haunt for courting couples, kite-fliers and budding gurus. That's right. A sign explains that the refinery tanks stand intact to become “a metaphysical playground unimaginable”.
Experience Music Project
Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen intended to honor Hendrix, but the museum's mandate swelled to cover all Northwest music. Blobbed at the Space Needle's base, the building supposedly echoes one of Jimi's smashed guitars. Uber-critic Herbert Muschamp accused Frank Gehry's design of “looking like something that crawled out of the sea, rolled over and died.” The interactive exhibits, however, rock ($19.95 or $26.95 with entrance to the Science Fiction Museum; 325 Fifth Ave; 206.367.5483; open daily in summer 10am-8pm; rest of the year Sun, Tues-Thurs 10am-6pm, Fri-Sat 10am-8pm; www.emplive.com).
Seattle Public Library
The new central library – a $165m edifice unveiled in May 2004 – is a design destination, an iconic 10-story, glass-skinned stack of steel origami. Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas even seduced the The New York Times architecture critic. The hard-to-please Muschamp rhapsodised: “In more than 30 years of writing, this is the most exciting new building it has been my honor to review.” Light and color flood the interior, where the main stacks spiral like a seashell. The third-floor “living room” even features a coffee cart, run by the homeless nonprofit group Fare Start (1000 Fourth Ave; 206.386.4636; open Mon-Wed 10am-8pm, Thurs-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 1-5pm; www.spl.org; see website for free tour times).
The Troll and Lenin
Funky Fremont houses a troll under the Aurora interstate bridge. The steely eyed concrete sculpture, several stories tall, crushes a life-sized VW Beetle (free; Aurora Bridge and 36th St North). Nearby stands a seven-ton statue of Vladimir Lenin amid guns and flames –an understated bit of protest by Slovakian sculptor Emil Venkov. An American veteran teaching overseas, Lewis Carpenter, mortgaged his house to bring the bold bronze back to Washington, before his death in 1994. The kooky Chamber of Commerce defends its central spot: “This sculpture is placed here in the Artist's Republic of Fremont, as a symbol of an artistic spirit that outlasts regimes and ideologies, and as tangible proof that art does outlive politics” (free; 36th and Evanston North; www.fremont.com).
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