I dropped George and Evan at SeaTac this morning, so it’s just me and the aggravating Rental Chariot. I’ve got a lot to do to get ready for the European segment and being back at work, so I took a pretty easy day.
After the airport, I drove up to the Seattle Center area and walked around the grounds under the iconic Space Needle, and then went through the EMP Museum.
I immediately lost myself in the Star Wars and the Power of Costume exhibit. They have sixty to seventy original movie costumes from the original trilogy as well as the prequel trilogy. In my theatrical experience, the department I know the least about is costuming, so I’m always excited to hear about why an artist made the choices he or she made when designing and building them. This was fascinating from an art history perspective.
The prequel trilogy’s Padmé Amidala’s costuming drew influences from everything from Victorian-era European aristocracy and Malaysian royalty to African tribal dressings, and much of the development of her character is revealed or supported by her clothing. This stands in stark contrast to the female lead of the original trilogy, Princess Leia, whose costuming was generally very modest and subtle, drawing from a much more traditional view of portraying purity through dress. (Which, of course, heightens the shock and reinforces her humiliation of being forced to wear the slave bikini in the following movie, itself nearly as iconic a costume as the Darth Vader helmet.)
Costuming for the gentlemen in the series was just as ornately concepted. And there were also great writeups on other favorite characters.
Then I chuckled my way through What’s Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones. There, I found the perfect location to continue the trip’s deeply embarassing selfie tradition, but it’s lonelier without the boys.
I wandered a bit more before heading back to the hotel. It’s the first time this trip that I’ve actually stayed in a real hotel. Everything for the roadtrip was either an old-fashioned highway-side motel, AirBnB, or hosted by a friend. Being in a hotel feels a bit boring, but I will admit, hotels have this figured out pretty well, and it’s a good place for me to get things done while I get ready for the next segment.
My “big sister” Alex Wright made me promise that I’d go to Thai Tom on the Ave for dinner one night in Seattle. So decided to I pick up some takeout from there for dinner tonight so I could at least have some good food while I resigned myself to the idea that work was a thing I have to start doing again. It was glorious.
This place put me on a half-hour wait just to take out a single order of pad see ew (I should point out, there was no description of what anything was on the menu; I picked this because I’ve had it elsewhere). The whole restaurant is probably smaller than my apartment, and is set up like a bar. There’s a small Asian man (standing, center) who runs between that station, all the tables, and the crowd standing outside, scribbling on a tiny Guest Check pad all kinds of notes about waitlists, orders, and who knows what else, as well as delivering the takeout, taking payments, and making change. Be advised: this man stands between you and some pretty fantastic food, so it behooves you to try and flag him down as he makes a pass. He may or may not come to you.
While I waited, I wandered around “the Ave” which is University of Washington’s answer to the Drag (Guadalupe Street along the West Mall of the University of Texas).
Back at the hotel, I feasted, did paperwork, and repacked a few things in preparation for tomorrow’s office day. The first day back… I’m scared.
