Category: Cityscape
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Dress | Wenatchee, WA | March 2020 Every time I pass this dress shop, I’m reminded of how much I don’t know. It’s a window, literally, to another culture, another world, where glittery gowns herald milestone rituals for young women stepping into new roles. Quinceañaras, proms, graduations, weddings — the landmarks of
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Brickwork | Waterville, WA | February 2020 A new office building’s prefab pieces — factory-made eaves, machine-cut wall panels — speed construction but lack soul and personality. In contrast, the bricks laid one-by-one in Waterville’s downtown include frills, contours and textures that speak of the human hand. Protruding bricks create shadows that add visual oomph.…
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Chandelier | Entiat, WA | February 2020 “Grab me, kiss me, waltz me, and love me / I adore thee, cherish thee, absolutely love thee / Come let’s take to the floor ‘neath a chandelier of
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Ridge | Badger Mountain, WA | February 2020 Houses up high with magnificent views sometimes feel soulless. Many are built on shaky egos — too big, too empty, too lacking in what makes a house a home. They beg for cozy reading nooks, a compact kitchen, small quick-clean bathrooms and dog-proof floors. And then there’s…
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Art? | Ellensburg, WA | February 2020 A bathtub-shaped flower bed, mostly dead, seems to float on a sea of ivy. I can’t tell if this is a clever art installation or simply bad gardening. I’m on the second floor of the university’s art building and peering into a courtyard that also contains oversized bricks…
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Tower | Spokane, WA | February 2020 Wall #2 | There’s nothing fancy about the neighborhood surrounding the Spokane County Courthouse, a massive but frilly structure built in 1895 and affectionately labeled “The Castle.” Experts say it’s the best example in the western U.S. of French Renaissance architecture, its cones and turrets based on a…
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Spires | Spokane, WA | February 2020 Wall #1 | Church spires beckon in the distance, but I linger in the lee of a cinder block wall to escape the winter wind. The wall radiates warmth and smells of kitchen herbs, and I’m not sure the church will be as soothing. In fact, the statue…
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Cigarillo | Wenatchee, WA | February 2020 From behind a tinted window, I watched the guy smoke his small cigar. He was scruffy and maybe homeless. But puffing away while sitting on a bench in the sun gave him immense pleasure. He’d blow a smoke ring, read a sentence or two from the book in…
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Cafe | Ritzville, WA | February 2020 “The universe speaks in clues and signs, gentle nudges and hints, rather than pontifications and proverbs, commandments and condemnations. I have trusted its signs all my life, which is why I
IrwinFoto 