I am wearing my contacts today. I can’t see a damn thing on the computer. They are soft contacts, and in reality, my eyes are too fucked up for soft contacts. Astigmatism and such. The eye doctor says I need spectacles for computer work. Because my eyes are working to hard to focus. This also happens when I am trying to watch a movie. The spectacles would relax my eyes, the way my existing glasses do. I can’t believe I need specs to wear when I am wearing contacts. I rarely wear my contacts to work. But it was such a nice sunny day, I wanted to wear sunglasses.
On Sunday, Louise and I went to the grand opening of the new Seattle Public Library Central Branch. This is a big deal. This new library has been getting a lot of press. Louise even saw an article in this month’s W magazine. My favorite headline was from the NY Times that read “Library puts on fishnets and hits the disco.” Although I didn’t read the article because it required a subscription. And I’m against that, as a rule. Anyway, it’s a very striking and modern building. Some people don’t like it, because of that fact. Because it does not look like any other building around it. So what, I say. The other buildings are boring! Others, like me, like it. And inside? Oh it’s wonderful. Nothing traditional about it. There are more computers in that library than you can shake a stick at. The non-fiction stacks are on a “spiral” which means you don’t have to keep going downstairs to the next stack. The floors slope down for several floors, in a spiral. It’s crazy! There is an auditorium, too. It’s huge. For a library. Louise was took pictures, mostly of the flooring, she was very enamored with all the different flooring. But the picts are not up on her website yet. She said she’d put them up last night. But you can see some pictures here.
It was brilliant booky goodness, and it was hard to resist petting all the new books.
Yeah, but to quote from The Stranger,
Sure, it looks great, but how is it going to smell six hours afer it opens? I’ll tell you how it’s going to smell: like a bum’s asscrack, that’s how.
I put the photos up, complete with weird artifacts that appeared after I uploaded them. Can’t be bothered troubleshooting though… http://www.tattiesoup.com
oh no, you certainly don’t want to do that…. don’t troubleshoot! troubleshooting sucks.
The exterior of the library looks like a Transformer halfway to becoming a robot. The interior looks like the sets from the movie “Andromeda Strain”. I like the look of the inside, but I don’t like the use of type or the font. All that open space isn’t going to facilitate quiet refection. Sound is gonna bounce in there like crazy.
I’d rate it a solid “meh”.
well, here’s the thing, lisa… you’re not invited to the library!! i’ve talked to them… and they’ve banned you. ok? so you’ll never have to worry about looking at that horrible font again.
you’re wrong about the noise, however. there were a ton of people there, and the noise level was very low. they have top secret government ways of doing that. i’m pretty sure that boeing and microsoft developed something to keep it quiet. and maybe, if i ask nicely, they use that technology on you! 😛