More sushi
February 25, 2012
Again, homemade. First attempt at an inside-out roll. Very sloppy, but still delicious.
Inside-out filling: avocado, carrots, cucumber and roasted red bell peppers.
Traditional roll filling: avocado, carrots and cucumber.
Of course, looks are not as important as taste. Even though the ingredients were simple — mild, even — the result was refreshing.
The forgotten mural
February 25, 2012
Sen. Karen Keiser admires a mural that only lawmakers and lobbyists have access to.
Room L-22 sits in the basement of the Joel M. Pritchard Library at the Olympia capitol campus, below the cafeteria where lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists meet every day.
A plaque above the room’s door reads “The Washington Room,” as if L-22 was the most important room in Olympia. In Washington.
But lawmakers do not use Room L-22 much anymore. Few books remain on the shelves that line its perimeter. Most days the room is locked.
Lobbyists gather in the dark chamber now.
On Feb. 15, when Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, entered the room, the lobbyists jumped from their seats. They introduced themselves and shook hands. They made jokes and laughed. They pretended the senator was the highlight of their meeting.
But Keiser did not come to L-22 to shakes hands with lobbyists.
You see, above the empty bookshelves that line L-22, there’s a mural by abstract-expressionist Kenneth Callahan. The mural also wraps around the room. Its four panels span at least 200 feet together.
Before the senator arrived, it is safe to assume the lobbyists did not notice the painting. Half the lights in the room were off, shrouding the frame in shadows.
But now the lobbyists pretended to take great interest in the mural. They dropped everything they were doing and spread out to look at the four panels. They gasped, pointed and cooed.
“Don’t touch it!” Keiser said to a lobbyist.
Keiser stood and admired the painting herself, probably ignoring the lobbyist talking at her ear.
Keiser is sponsoring a bill to take works of art like this mural, which the public rarely sees, and turn them into a celebration of Washington culture — and an opportunity for college students.
The bill would sell state owned art. Part of the proceeds would go toward restoring damaged art and acquiring new art. The rest of the proceeds would go to the State Need Grant for college students.
Lucent
February 22, 2012
In the basement of a Irv Newhouse building, in a conference room used by senators of the Washington state legislature, sits this phone, manufactured by Lucent Technologies Inc.
Cityscape
February 20, 2012
The Olympia Report 