{"id":410,"date":"2009-04-09T18:47:09","date_gmt":"2009-04-10T01:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/04\/from_the_pen_of_my_bar_continu\/"},"modified":"2009-04-09T18:47:09","modified_gmt":"2009-04-10T01:47:09","slug":"from_the_pen_of_my_bar_continu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/04\/from_the_pen_of_my_bar_continu.html","title":{"rendered":"From the pen of my bar, continued"},"content":{"rendered":"

When business writers say things are looking up, they mean for banks. If there’s a trickle down effect in the art world, I haven’t seen it yet. (Image, on the wall at The Hideout<\/a>. )<\/p>\n

\"img_wallArt.jpg\"<\/span>Rough, tough times continue for artists and everybody who relies on them (dealers, critics, museums, art centers). In Seattle, however, there’s the comfort of knowing that our local art bar is not just a hide out but an engaging correspondent. <\/p>\n

Last week’s letter to customers – Does your bar write you letters?<\/i> – here<\/a>. This week’s is equally robust:<\/p>\n

On Tuesday our ice machine stopped working. One day everything is fine,
\nthe next it is broken. Just like that. It was only four years old and
\nhad worked like a dream – not a hitch.<\/p>\n

Every time we lifted the flap,
\nit was to the brim with sparkling, clear ice – hundreds of pounds – it was
\nlike opening a treasure chest. If you ever felt down, you could just
\nlift up the lid and smile at all the dazzle, the technology, the purity
\nof it all. Have you seen 400 pounds of ice cubes, all at once?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Tuesday it all came to an end. The fan stopped spinning. Drips of cold
\nwater leaked from the throat of this marvel. We gathered around,
\npointed flashlights, plugged and unplugged, unscrewed panels and poked
\naround. When things are working great you just don’t ask questions, it’s
\nonly when they break that you investigate.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Justin noticed the intake screen on the back. He saw a thick
\nfur of dust with bellybutton lint and eyelashes that stuck to the screen
\nlike a sweater. We had killed it. All it ever asked was for someone to
\nclean the screen and let it breath. We killed it out of our own neglect.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There
\nis a price to pay for killing. When you kill a machine the price is
\nclearly written on a handwritten invoice with parts that you’ve never
\nheard of and labor rates that rival a doctor’s. It was a bitter pill.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We
\nencourage you to look at the things that are working so perfectly
\naround you and pay closer attention. Get your oil changed. Fix that
\nfunky extension cord. There are batteries to
\nreplace, filters to change, chimneys to sweep and letters to write. There
\nis nothing worse than realizing something died because of simple
\nneglect. We are just lucky that it was an ice machine.<\/p>\n

Fondly, The Hideout<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When business writers say things are looking up, they mean for banks. If there’s a trickle down effect in the art world, I haven’t seen it yet. (Image, on the wall at The Hideout. ) Rough, tough times continue for artists and everybody who relies on them (dealers, critics, museums, art centers). In Seattle, however, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}