the magic dumpster
my excursions into the ether of the internets.
Nov 09
Nov 08
The Seattle Center Monorail and The Alweg Monorail Company
The Monorail was built for the 1962 Century 21 Exposition (Seattle World fair) by the Alweg Monorail Company. Alweg ran it during the fair and fully paid off the 3.5 million needed to build it and made a profit. At this point they gave the monorail to the Century 21 corp who ended up selling it to the city for $600,000.
It is actually bolted to its foundations in a way that allowed for it to be taken out at the end of the expo.
My guess is that Alweg’s plan was to build and make profit on the monorail for the three years outlined in their contract, and they were worried about eating into their profits if the City of Seattle required them to remove it afterward. so they made it easy to remove.
Also, Alweg also offered the city of Los Angeles a monorail with 40+ miles of track, for free. The deal was they would build it, and run it for 3 years, like the Seattle one, and would give it to the city of LA afterwords for free. The Auto and Tire companies unfortunately successfully scrambled to block it via the political arena.
Nov 04
The Housemartins - “Happy Hour”
Swear to God, I listened to this song on repeat for about two weeks in my first year of college. Still just so infectious.
Brady’s Bits: You probably know one of those Upper-Class Twits (Windbreaker and Morrisey Hair Guy) better from his other little project a few years later.
He had pretty good luck with that gig, too.
of course I would be remiss not to add that this song is referenced in Barenaked Ladies song “Hello City”
Great Lake Swimmers - Palmistry (via NettwerkMusic)
Nov 03
On “tortoise enclosures.”
[via]
Oct 27
Complex - part 1
Complex is an open ended fictional story by Scott Heinowski
Lexington, Michigan wasn’t much to look at, a small village, a couple of touristy shops to try and capitalize on its Lake Huron shoreline, but for Mark Davidson it was definitely lackluster. He had taken the transfer to work in Lexington in order to keep his job, but in all honesty he actually hated working for the energy company. Mark was young and had dreamed of moving to New York or Chicago after college, but the acceptable income of his current job and the fear of the unknown kept him from making any bold decisions.
Still, there was something about the place, the waterfront was refreshing. Mark felt anchored, if you will, whenever near the water. it was a fixed landmark, almost like the edge of the world. He had taken to waking down the lake shore until the Marina, taking in the great lake, then slowly meandering back up Huron Avenue.
The Studio Coffee House was right there between the Marina and Main street. Ava Friday aptly ran the place, and despite the fact that the summer season had been abysmal for tourism this year the coffee shop was in okay fiscal standing. But alas running this coffee house was not Ava’s dream either.
Oct 23
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Yeah.
Oct 19
American Idyll: 1905 | Shorpy Historic Photo Archive
Belle Isle in its better used days.
Oct 14
Oct 10
EMP/SFM (on Mixed Spleens Flickr)
