Yesterday Seattle came close to reaching a 1951 record by stretching
out a dry spell to about 49 consecutive days. It finally sprinkled last night (9/10
September) to leave the foliage gleaming with droplets by morning. The 1951
record was 51 days. That for a town often referred to as “Rain City”.
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| Rain City |
But why Rain City? Perhaps because the dry sunny summer period
typically only lasts from May to late September, with plenty of days with rain through
the rest of the year? Seattle does have several other nicknames, including The
Gateway to Alaska, Queen City, Jet City, and Emerald City.
Rain City is the fictional city in which the 1985 film noir “Trouble in Mind” was set. Did Seattle appropriate the nickname “Rain City” from that
film? Or was the name in the film taken from Seattle’s nickname? The movie was
filmed in Seattle.
Director Alan Rudolph chose some of the meaner areas of Seattle
on the edge of downtown, beneath overpasses and under the monorail for much of
his filming. He took over a derelict corner property in a downtown building to
create a café as a center point. In the opening scene in which Kris
Kristofferson leaves prison having served a sentence for murder, Marianne
Faithful sets the mood with the opening song, an appropriately raspy rendition
of the slow 8-bar blues song, Trouble in Mind written by jazz pianist Richard M Jones (first
recorded with Thelma La Vizzo accompanied by Jones on piano in 1941). Actors
include Kris Kristofferson, (as Hawk) Genevieve Bujold, Joe Morton, Lori Singer (as Georgia) and Keith
Carradine (as Coop).
The action of this retro futuristic melodramatic gangster
romance culminates in a shoot-out at the luxury residence of the smooth
gangster character Divine. For suitable opulence the film uses the Seattle Asian
Art Museum in Volunteer Park. Cleared of its usual displays, the museum is transformed
into an art-moderne mansion with armed guards at the gates, and decorated
throughout with wonderful paintings and sculptures on loan for the film by
northwest artists. During the course of the action late in the film one large
painting is destroyed spectacularly over someone’s head, while a bullet smashes
a large glass installation by Dale Chihuly, something some of Kristin’s artists
friends delight in replaying.
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| Hawk,Georgia and Coop. |
Watching the film this week, Kristin Nelson pointed out one
of her ceramic sculptures she loaned for the mansion scene. The scene was full
of work from the local art scene. “But it was a budget production” she
explained. “You can tell by the length of the credits; we all had our names in
the credits instead of being paid, so the credits are very long!” Sadly the
credits weren’t quite accurate… they misspelled her name!
Trouble in Mind is a thought-provoking film. The characters come
together each in their own style, as if from different times, or as caricatures
from an old comic book. The film is ambiguously set in the future or past, so after
than 25 years later I think it still looks fresh.
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| Seattle Asian Art Museum |
Yesterday the Seattle Asian Art museum with its pair of sitting
camels guarding the main entrance looked serene in its summer setting.
Currently showing inside is the Ramayana exhibition of 44 works of Indian art
from 16th century onward. There is no sign of smashed glass or blood
stains. Nearby and also within Volunteer Park is the park conservatory: a mini
crystal palace full of wonderful plant specimens from around the world. The
conservatory this weekend celebrated its 100th anniversary. Happy
anniversary!
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