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last night we did an
outdoor film screening in the back lot
of the RE Store. i
brought my projector, laptop, & speakers,
all packed into bike panniers and a shoulder bag. we hung
a king size sheet for a screen on a big steel rack. we sat in
newly salvaged curved plastic bowling alley seating and
kept beers on ice in a big white sink on the ground. we
watched some music videos by
michel
gondry (whoa!) and
then laughed the night away with
RAISING
ARIZONA. it
turned out to be a great venue there in industrial Ballard
surrounded by a garden of reclaimed building materials.
tonight, the theme of beers iced in kitchen sink returned,
but this time in a newly remodeled superdeluxe 2.8 million
dollar 19th floor downtown condo. as part of a prize for a
charity she works for, sarah agreed to cater a party and i
was pulled in to "bartend," which really just meant pouring
wine and opening beers (which, as i said, were kept on ice
in the kitchen sink--see the contrast to last night?). the hosts
were really nice, but by the end of the night you could see
they were really worried about their new steel floors. that's
right, steel. sheets of rolled 1/16th inch steel, patina'd to a
lustrous grey, screwed into place over existing stone floor.
it looked pretty cool but they worried about how it would
handle moisture and spills. after the party, one owner was
on his hands and knees cleaning it inch by inch, polishing
with the attention one might give to the family silver (if one
had a family and/or silver). it seemed like a lot of trouble to
go through for something you intend to stand and walk on,
illustrating once again that the more one has, the more one
worries.* Standing on it all night hurt our ankles and
knees.
*Having too little brings worries
of its own (food, shelter, medicine).
But having too much seems to bring other stresses and tension.
Where is the middle path? |
