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#Silo#Silo TV#Silo Apple TV#Juliette Nichols#Solo#Solo (episode)#Solo (Silo)#spoilers#Danny watches Silo
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Grain
Part of this series.
Danny had agreed to look for the missing grain and grain silos. He cared, both about Amity as a whole and about specific people in it. Appearance aside, he wasn't a heartless monster. He wanted to help with a desperation that may have either been a symptom of being stuck for so long.
Unfortunately, he wasn't sure how.
Beyond the fact that the silos were gone, replaced by trees, Sam and Tucker didn't have any more information. They also stressed that they didn't expect him to go out and try to get the grain back or fight giant grain monsters. Sam just wanted him to keep an eye out and tell them if he saw anything..
But Danny itched to do more. He wasn’t satisfied by just sitting around and watching, even if, realistically, that was all he could do.
Well. The watching part. Not the sitting around part.
He’d explored his immediate area, the space around his cozy ruin, fairly well. It wouldn’t hurt to go further afield.
It probably wouldn’t hurt to go further afield. He hadn’t thought it would hurt to help Tucker impress Sam, either. It had. But Danny could do things now that he couldn’t before, and he could always run and hide.
He made a small note and set it down on the little table in his little house, so that if Sam or Tucker came to visit while he was away, they would know. Then he left. There wasn’t exactly anything stopping him from going whenever and wherever he pleased, after all. No family to worry, no responsibilities to keep up with, no provisions to gather, no borders keeping him in, other than the edges of the woods themselves.
He leapt up into the trees, and trotted along the branches as a forest cat, leaping easily from tree to tree whenever there was a gap. Shapeshifting came to him more and more easily as time went on (as long as he stayed in the trees, that is), and he’d tried out a lot of different forms, but, surprisingly, he liked being a cat. Maybe that was just because it was the first shape he’d ever shifted to, after being changed into… whatever he was now. But it had a lot going for it. Small, fast, good at hiding, good at climbing, good at jumping, decent natural weapons, sharp ears and eyes.
Magical places were unmappable, but they weren’t unnavigable, and Danny was well aware when he left his explored bubble. His fur stood on end in anticipation at first, but with a conscious effort, he slicked it down. If something did attack him, he didn’t need to be that fluffy.
He wasn’t scared.
Just excited.
He climbed unfamiliar trees, skirted clearings and small ponds, and, in fits of whimsy or boredom, chased strange rodents. He did not get lost. The sense of where home was pressed gently against the back of his mind, in the same place his awareness of the trees and their help rested. He wondered if that sense of home was from the trees, too, or from something else, and he briefly jumped to the ground to test it.
At once, he felt his body change. Longer, a bit sharper, more triangular. He could see his pointed muzzle more easily, and while the pattern of his fur seemed to be the same, black with white points, it was sleeker.
He was a fox. He was fairly confident he was a fox. His tail seemed unnaturally long, however, and he wasted a few minutes twisting to look at it.
There was also something on his head, growing between his ears, something partially rigid and partially soft that brushed against his peripheral vision.
Danny did not like losing control of his shapeshifting. He hated being trapped in unfamiliar bodies at the whim of the Woods. Usually, he’d jump back up into the trees as soon as he could. But… He was also curious, darn it.
Padding around roots and through the underbrush, Danny backtracked to a pond he’d seen before and peered into his reflection.
He was a fox. There were also branches growing out of his head, no longer than his ears, antler-like and heavy with densely-clustered snowy flowers, leaves, and shiny little black and white fruit.
Huh. He wondered what those tasted like. He raised one paw and batted at the fruit. There was a tiny, pinching pain as one, black and gleaming, detached and rolled on the ground. He sniffed it.
He… probably wouldn’t be poisoned by something his own body had produced, right? A person could even drink their own urine without much issue, if the circumstances demanded it…
Delicately, he picked up the berry with his lips, then crushed it against the roof of his mouth with his tongue. It was sweet, but otherwise had the same sort of metallic tang as blood. Weird.
… Was his blood in those?
A shriek split the air. Human. Terrified. Danny stiffened, ears rotating, trying to get a better idea of where the sound had come from.
He shivered, all his fur standing on end as he experienced what he could only describe as a tiny tug on his entire being. He took off, slipping through gaps in the trees easily, as if he knew this part of the Woods intimately, despite never having been here before.
Only moments later, he hit what looked like the beginnings of a campsite. A group of humans - a small merchant family, maybe, three adults and children - stood with their backs against a tree as wolves circled closer.
Danny called them wolves, because he didn’t know what else to call them. They were too big, too dark, and their coats flickered green. He slid in between them and the humans, snarling and instinctively reaching for a shape like the ones in front of him–
There was a sensation not unlike something not unkindly slapping his mental hands away. No, said the thing in the back of his mind. That one has killed. Danny couldn’t have it, couldn’t be it. He shifted his focus to one of the others, and grew into the general shape, his antlers not disappearing, but going sharp and thorny. He felt brambles with thick, sharp thorns wend their way out of his flesh and wrap around his limbs like armor.
He snarled again, this time much deeper.
The wolves snarled back, but except for the first, the leader, they backed away. Danny and the wolf circled each other for a few minutes, sizing each other up, then they leapt at one another, biting and clawing.
The wolf was strong, and used to being itself. But Danny was strong, too, and the Woods let him cheat. The wolf stumbled away from him, whining and showing its throat.
Danny sniffed and jerked his head to one side. There should be a herd of deer in that direction, much better to eat than humans. The wolves were animals, not people, not intelligent in the way people were, but in the same way the Woods let him know things, it let him whisper things. The wolves left, tails between their legs.
Good. Good. Danny had never exactly done anything like this, but thank goodness no one was hurt. He turned to see if any of the travelers had been hurt and–
An iron pot hit his shoulder, making him stumble and yelp.
“Get– Get away! Get out of here, monster!”
A rain of other small objects that the humans had to hand pelted him, and he fled without further prompting, shrinking, shrinking, not knowing or caring what he was turning into until his paws became wings and carried him into the nearest tree. At once, he resumed human shape, and huddled in on himself.
He’d forgotten.
He’d forgotten, which was ridiculous, because everything about him should have been a reminder.
… Sam and Tucker made it easy to forget.
(At least no one had gotten hurt. He could still hang on to that, couldn’t he?)
He spent that night in the tree, but not the next. Crying and sulking in trees was not a good coping mechanism, and he had better things to do.
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Weather in Episodes 101-138
Ep 101:”Letters” - Lera Lynn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPxlswKGFFA
Ep 102: “Listening to TPM” - Brook Pridemore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cafwO8twwQk
Ep 103: “Faded” - P.O.S.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIbFAaXELrE
Ep 104: “Qualified” - Sammus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0rMugLM-x0
Ep 105: “You Cannot” - Erin McKeown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Kqv8JUkvo
Ep 106: “All or Nothing” - The Dream Masons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cubSZ3PvbrQ
Ep 107: “The Ends and the Means” - Robby Hecht
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihqki-K7MiU
Ep 108: “Robert Frost” - Mal Blum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNvt-DIwzZo
Ep 109: “Full Metal Black” - The Royal They
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9iiKR3ukn4
Ep 110: “Everyone I Know Will Die” - Four Eyes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knrIrYx6vow
Ep 111: “Andromeda” - Airøspace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5G9FY22MyY
Ep 112: “Try Try Try” - Rachael Sage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3RCYh6qgNA
Ep 113: “If We Live” - Disparition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ6siYesZUI
Ep 114: “Song For Myself” - Bear with Eagle Arms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3O3-kznudE
Ep 115: “TMI” - Josey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhLoBRFB2J8
Ep 116: “Animal Skin” - Bryan Dunn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow4lxcbPk_U
Ep 117: “Lost Every Thing” - Mary Epworth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMYtgJDGOTY
Ep 118: “Glitter” - Charly Bliss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_2UqssvaSc
Ep 119: “Turn Into It” - Jamey Browning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smTIrDGx4gM
Ep 120: “Fast Talker” - aj & and good intentions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTtUYekKVMs
Ep 121: “Riches and Wonders” - Eliza Rickman and Jherek Bischoff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gdLDLlFc3M
Ep 122: “Fire Drills” - Dessa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-AWAhIedT8
Ep 123: “Pieces and Pieces” - The Rough and Tumble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSShfdaHxwA
Ep 124: “Lake Full of Regrets” - Devine Carama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5yPYN_iFfc
Ep 125: “Source Decay” - Holy Sons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARp2dq6elyQ
Ep 126: “Clockwork Family” - Dan Warren
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-c5P2YZsjM
Ep 127: “J’Accuse” - Mucca Plazza
https://soundcloud.com/mucca-pazza/11-jaccuse?in=mucca-pazza/sets/taste-the-pazza
Ep 128: “Lemonade in the Shade” - Jeff Scroggins & Colorado
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-AZ6JkwJDc
Ep 129: “Mariposas” - Yva Las Vegass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FCTPqJTOq0
Ep 130: “Space and Time” - Joseph Fink
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYiV45oZwjg
Ep 131: “Standard Deviation” - Danny Schmidt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--ytjxV66Ds
Ep 132: “Bad Friend” - Cheese on Bread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk1Fd1R-R9g
Ep 133: “Escape Artist” - Caged Animals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pit1HvPtY3o
Ep 134: “Raising Helvetica” - Sims x Air Credits & ICETEP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylq4_R5DJAs
Ep 135: “Living On Light” - Silo’s Choice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Uv1XOI1D8
Ep 136: “She Left Without A Goodbye” - Cerah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMtLJp7Uass
Ep 137: “Hymn 101″ - Joseph Pug
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMVN5rPLCoE
Ep 138: “Friend or Foe” - Low Power
https://soundcloud.com/lowpowermusic/friend-or-foe
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THE DAYS EARLY DARKENING
THE DAYS EARLY DARKENING by Danny Caing Date Written: June 1, 2019
SCENE 1
Location: 13676 W Kirby Hughes Rd, Marana, Arizona, USA Date: July 22, 2083, Thursday 8:32 AM
No one knows how these heatwaves kept on coming while increasing its temperature every year blaming Global Warming. During the daytime, the temperature has reached 65 degrees Celsius. Not even a dog can walk on the road when exposed to extreme heat dies. Some residential houses burned down due to the heat of the sun and forest fire is everywhere. Many cities were abandoned, massive exodus and food shortages. Most people traveled at night and on daytime, they look for shelters in the caves or tunnels to avoid the heat waves of the sun. All communication breakdown including electricity, and water systems. Planes crashed down, cars won't start, and the ship's engine malfunctioned.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA has just announced that there's a Solar Storm coming. The surface temperature of the sun has been increasing rapidly for four decades now and is expected to come most worse in the coming days. They have expected the massive Coronal Mass Ejection will directly hit the Earth at exactly August 17, 2083, Tuesday 8:32 AM.
Layla and Marcus were at the concrete bunker protected by lead sheets, constructed by their father when they were kids. Their father was an engineer and a contractor who build a highway and bridges. At the garage are all types of heavy equipment.
LAYLA: Are we not going to leave this place and move north where the others do? They say that there's an underground bunker that can protect us from the CME.
MARCUS: Do you know what will happen to us when we don't make it to the cave or tunnel when the sun is up? We will burn to death. Do you have any options aside from this?
LAYLA: We can convert the bulldozer as our transportation. We'll install lead sheets around the operating area and fuel tank with the iron sled. We can make the route map of all the location gas stations until we reach our target destination. Likewise, we can travel during daytime and nighttime.
MARCUS: So, we don't need any more caves and tunnels on our trip for shelters. I think this is a good idea. Let's do it. We can go to Sahuarita. There's an underground bunker there used by Titan missiles during the cold war. It's a week trip by the bulldozer.
During the nighttime, Layla and Marcus went out of their bunker and watched aurora borealis in the sky. It takes 4 to 5 hours to cool down the road at night before they can use their bicycles. Although they have stocks of canned goods, water, and medicine on their bunker, they still go around at night looking for more water and fuel.
SCENE 2
Meanwhile, somewhere at Ross Archipelago Antarctica under Bunker No. 832, on the helipad stations, there was a group of people going down from dozens of V-238 Osprey, mostly coming from the elite families around the globe (0.0001% of 10 billion population on 2083). This bunker alone can accommodate up to 832 human beings for 500 years with complete facilities and electrical power. The underground bunkers were built in 2034 when the 8th Extinction Level Event was a piece of substantial evidence discovered by an Archaeologist scientist in 2030 at the Marianas Deep.
At 2030, NASA scientist had already calculated the Solar Storm that would take effect on August 17, 2083. NOAA had summarily identified gigantic sun's hot spots that will trigger as CME's to hit Earth in 2083. An Extinction Level Event usually occurs for every 65 million years cycle. The sun is renewing its energy, like a snake peeling off its skin. Eighty-four percent of species on Earth were lost during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction-level event 65 million years ago. Ninety percent Coronal Mass Ejection direct hit to the planet.
The elite society has covered up the story concerning the coming of the 8th Extinction Level Event. The media blocked the truth on why Earth is getting hotter each year, blaming Global Warming, not the coming massive solar storm. In the later years, the whole world knew about the solar storm. There were chaos and turmoil among nations and even wars in a struggle to survive. The mass suicide was everywhere. Every day, about thousands of thousands of people died of hunger, burns, diseases, and anarchy. Cannibalism was rampant. Mothers killed their babies while the community ate them. Earthquakes, tsunamis, super typhoons, and heat waves occurring every corner of the planet. The most vulnerable area affected by the heatwave is near the equator. The rivers, lakes, and sea boil by the immense heat of the sun while during the night are a thunderstorm, bolts of lightning, and heavy rain flooding the low areas.
SCENE 3
Location: Cor. South La Canada Drive & West Duval Mine Rd, Arizona, USA Date: August 17, 2083, Tuesday 3:28 AM
Layla and Marcus made it out from Tucson City the other night. The city was devastated by fire. People scampering around looking for food and water, some tried to take over their air-conditioned bulldozer by shooting at them, they fought back using MG 42 machine gun. They were the Midvale Park Blood Gang, one of the most notorious raiders at night.
LAYLA: I think we have reached Sahuarita. The Military Map indicates that the Sahuarita Missile Silo is 480 meters away from here.
MARCUS: Thank God, we made it, Layla.
As they reached the Titan Missile compound, there were so many people gathered at the gate waiting for their turn to come inside the elevator. Time was running out. They decided to push through the heavily wired fence with the bulldozer, creating a stampede, everyone's trying to get inside the elevator. There were commotion and panic, one by one, men and women at the front were shot and killed by the U.S. Marines, open firing to the resisting crowd. However, the crowds were too many and were able to get through the defense line. But the main door of the elevator automatically locked up for safeguarding the occupants in the underground bunker.
Layla and Marcus felt hopeless and exhausted. There was no way they could get inside the Silo. Morning has come, many people will die on the ground. There was no shelter to protect them. Layla saw two women on her window-side asking their children to come inside the bulldozer while Marcus didn't hesitate to open the door and let the four kids join with them. Folks were helping the children to get inside the manholes making the sewer as shelter. Just as the CME strikes down Earth, at the horizon, Layla and Marcus saw Tucson City vaporizing into the sky like a reversed flow of a waterfall. Then the ground started shaking with rumbling sound anywhere.
LAYLA (staring in amazement): What is that?
They held the children closer, embracing them and asked them to close their eyes.
MARCUS: Be brave. Do not be afraid. Let us all pray and bow our heads.
Our Father in Heaven Holy be Your Name Your Kingdom come Your Will be done On Earth as in heaven Give us today Our daily bread And forgive us our sins As we forgive those who sinned us Do not bring us to the test But deliver us from evil Amen.
Everyone transforms into the light as if everything from the beginning to the end is part of the universe.
Background Music: "The Days Early Darkening" by Danny Caing https://soundcloud.com/dukesolomon/the-days-early-darkening-by-danny-duke-caing
All Rights Reserved Wonderful Stories Limited Copyrighted @ 2019
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Stop.
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Zazoo U Review
In the Fall of 1990, Fox Kids launched and the first show that aired on the block was Zazoo U. This is a show that I had never seen before doing this blog, due to a lack of interest. However, since I am doing this blog, I might as well check it out. This show was created by Shane DeRolf and was produced by Fox Children's Productions and Film Roman. It has voice actors/actresses like Brian Cummings, Tress MacNeille, Dorian Harewood, Danny Mann, Scott, Bullock, Susan Silo, and Neil Ross. The show is about animals who go to school. The main characters are Boink, a chill and cool guy, Tess, a sweet and optimstic girl, and Griz, a pig who loves to eat. As for my thoughts on the show, I think it's an ok show. At times the show does bore me though. I think it's because at times, the pace is pretty slow and can take time to get going. I also am not a fan of Boink, the one that has a chill voice, as it can be kind of grating. However, sometimes the show can have its entertaining moments and it does have good voice acting (for the most part). While I didn't care for Boink and Tess (I found Tess a little annoying honestly), I did like the Pig character, he was entertaining. I also liked the teacher who is played by Tress MacNeille, she did a very good job and she has a similar voice to the teacher in Animaniacs (another character Tress played). The art style is pretty unique and artsy as well. Overall, I had on ok time with it. Sometimes, I enjoyed it and sometimes the stories were interesting, but other times I was bored. There's some good characters like the teacher, but other characters I wasn't a fan of. However, it is a unique little show. Not something I would watch again, but its a neat little show for what it was, if a little boring. I will give this show a 6/10 for uniqueness and the fact that it can be entertaining and interesting. It was pulled from the lineup after 11 episodes and it was replaced by a show that was already airing on Weekdays during that time.
#zazoo u#cartoons#art#fox#fox kids#review#animation#saturday morning cartoons#saturday#saturday morning
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Bitcoin In the Scramble to Fix Digital Identity, uPort Is a Project to Watch Daily News
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Talk to any three blockchain entrepreneurs, and at least one of them will pitch a way for internet users to own their own data.
Recent privacy debacles at Yahoo, Equifax and Facebook have driven home the realization that anyone with a smartphone is walking, talking, searching, eating, posting, browsing fodder for advertisers, machine learning algorithms and thieves. And users neither control this data nor receive any compensation for giving it up.
Yet, blockchain fever – entering the mainstream at the same time as this data sobriety – appears to provide an antidote, and a rash of decentralized applications has appeared to help users monetize their data.
Using cryptographic technology such as public-private key pairs, such projects aim to let users of digital services control the data they produce, many times offering a marketplace where users can do things like selling their Yelp bookmarks to an advertiser for a few bucks’ worth of cryptocurrency.
But the team at uPort, an ethereum-based identity protocol, is going after a bigger prize.
Rather than ask, “How can I get paid for my data?” uPort aims to answer, “Who am I in the digital age?”
For Reuven Heck, co-founder and project lead at uPort, this isn’t the kind of problem that can be answered with just another app. Because the internet wasn’t built with an identity layer embedded, Heck said, tweaking the top of the internet – the application layer – just isn’t cutting it.
Rather, the internet needs to be rebuilt at a deeper level, and according to Heck, uPort aims to do just that:
“We believe we now have technology that allows us to build this as a horizontal layer across the internet … without being owned and controlled from an individual company.”
That ambition has led uPort – among the oldest projects under the umbrella of ethereum startup and incubator ConsenSys – to be regarded as one of the most exciting blockchain-based approaches to rationalizing users’ scattered, insecure digital identities.
The internet of identity
It’s notable that uPort has managed to attract a significant amount of interest despite not being focused on the end users.
According to Danny Zuckerman, uPort’s head of strategy and operations, the project emerged from persistent calls across the ethereum developer community for an identity system – preferably a decentralized one, given ethereum’s fundamental mission.
With that background, uPort decided the best approach was to give developers with a way to delegate the task of storing user-specific data on the blockchain by, Heck said, “integrating a few lines of code into your application.”
And yet, it’s not necessarily safe to assume that uPort will only be buried in decentralized applications��� innards, hidden from end users.
“There will be a lot of different ways that users interact,” said Zuckerman, because “it’s really this identity layer for the internet, and there’s not one way you interact with the internet.”
To explain what was meant by an identity layer for the internet, Zuckerman began with the “top-down mechanism” of the analog world, in which the government defines an individual’s identity in a limited number of ways: a passport number, a national identification number, a Social Security number, a driver’s license number. The specifics depend on the jurisdiction, but most people have one or two primary, officially sanctioned identifiers.
The web, by contrast, is a free-for-all.
“With the internet there started to be all kinds of other identity systems, typical username and password – basically anything where you identify who you are and create an account – and so there was this proliferation of many, many identities,” Zuckerman said. “And that started having user data captured in lots of different places, not under their control.”
And for many blockchain enthusiasts, that just doesn’t make sense. On the one hand, these multiple identities are challenging for everyone to juggle (without being subject to security slip-ups). On the other hand, allowing a single, centralized party take over digital identity is not ideal either.
Rather, uPort’s idea is to put users in charge of holding and, if they choose, sharing the data associated with their identity, using the same cryptographic protocols that allow them to control cryptocurrency without the need for a third party. And this goal is frequently called “self-sovereign identity.”
A crowded space
UPort is far from the only project working towards the goal of self-sovereign identity using blockchain technology.
The Sovrin Foundation is one of the most prominent examples of uPort’s competition.
The foundation is behind Project Indy, a set of identity tools launched last year by the Hyperledger consortium. In contrast to public, permissionless uPort, Indy is a hybrid: anyone can view the ledger, but writing to it requires permission. Also in contrast to uPort, Project Indy is planning an ICO.
Civic, which plans to fully roll out its identity platform later this year on RSK, a layer-two bitcoin smart contracts platform, recently raised $30 million in an ICO.
Microsoft and Accenture have unveiled an identity prototype that uses a private, permissioned version of ethereum.
Meanwhile, developers on the public ethereum network are working on a standard for tokenized identity. Called ERC-725, the standard is being spearheaded by Fabian Vogelsteller, the creator of the ERC-20 standard that powered a boom in the crowdsale of crypto tokens.
Finally, the team at Digital Bazaar – which has been working with the World Wide Web Consortium, a standards body – has launched an experimental “testnet” version of a blockchain-based identity solution called Veres One. Like uPort, it is public, permissionless and lacks a token of its own. Unlike ethereum-based uPort, however, it is a freestanding blockchain.
The risk of having all of these divergent, competing standards for blockchain-based identity is that they will recreate the current system: fragmented and siloed.
But most of these projects’ teams, including uPort’s, are aware of the risk and working with different standards bodies to try and build an interoperable system. UPort, for instance, joined the Decentralized Identity Foundation – which includes big names like Microsoft and Accenture, among others – in order to develop a standard for everyone.
Heck underscored the importance of interoperability by citing the examples of WeChat, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. As impressive as these messaging apps’ userbases are, he said, “nothing really has replaced email.”
The reason, he continued, is that:
“Email’s the only universal thing which works across the world. You can send emails from anywhere to anyone. Everybody has something that’s compatible.”
Trying to go it alone is just bad business, he added, saying, “No solution that thinks they are winning now because they were earlier will win if they’re not on a joint standard.”
Momentum and roadblocks
And while all these solutions have made significant progress over the past year, uPort has a whole group of potential partners and clients in the various other “spokes” of ConsenSys. One of these spokes, Viant, is currently integrating uPort, while others – including OpenLaw, Meridio and Civil – are planning to do so.
Tyler Mulvihill, the co-founder of Viant, which plans to go live with its ethereum-based supply chain platform this year, told CoinDesk that using uPort as its identity solution was “a really easy decision,” not only because of the ConsenSys connection, but because “they’re leading the space in self-sovereign identity.”
Gnosis, a prediction market that was spun out of ConsenSys, used uPort to verify that each user was only submitting one entry to its Olympia tournament.
Outside of ConsenSys, Melonport, a decentralized asset manager based in Zug, Switzerland, is using uPort to perform know-your-customer and anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) checks.
But uPort’s most notable partnership is with the government of Zug itself, which is conducting a pilot program to register citizens’ IDs on ethereum. The first registry was completed in November, and the total is now over 200. The city government then announced a voting pilot using uPort last week.
Another pilot, in which uPort and Microsoft partnered with Brazil’s Ministry of Planning to verify notarized documents, began in June 2017. According to Heck, more such partnerships could follow.
“We are talking to other cities and governments at the moment – none of them we can talk about at this point,” he told CoinDesk.
In many respects, though, uPort has a long way to go.
The same questions that nag the ethereum ecosystem as a whole can make the way forward uncertain for uPort. How to scale the network to enable faster and cheaper transactions is a major hurdle.
Also important – arguably more so, given uPort’s focus on identity – is the question of how to protect users’ privacy when using a blockchain like ethereum, which is visible to anyone.
“Transparency in blockchain is obviously a feature,” said Zukerman, “but when it comes to personal data and identity data it’s a liability.”
Finally, there’s the question of what happens to a user who loses their private key, and with it, presumably, control over their digital lives. UPort has explored different solutions to this problem, starting with designating friends who can collectively vouch for a person and transfer the lost ID’s data over to a new public key. That was an ethereum-specific solution, though; the team is now working on a blockchain-agnostic one.
But still, even with these roadblocks, uPort has had no problem with its main goal, convincing developers to use its platform in their applications. Heck concluded:
“People come to us.”
Mirrors image via Shutterstock
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Metamorphosis, a police escort and the Midnight Fremont Summer Solstice Parade
I kneel down on the deck of the float, sun cloaking my shoulders in warmth. I am absorbed in the action of stitching blue thread through pale blue netting. The stitches are rough but regular. Slowly I make my way across the chassis floor, following the rough line Dave has cut in the shape of butterfly wings, occasionally making mistakes, breaking and tying off the thread, then rethreading and starting anew along the same line.
I am helping to make wings for ‘Metamorphosis’, a butterfly-inspired float. The float will house Dave and Jon’s long-running band, The Shamaniacs, while they play peculiar reggae-rap-psychedelic-rocknroll for two hours as they are pushed through Fremont with thousands of people lining the streets, under the Solstice sun. The float is human-powered, although a generator will project the band’s sound.
The float is pale green and flat, with a pull bar at the front and a push bar at the back that are wrapped in foam and duct tape for comfort. Dave and Jon will be relying on friends and family to push them along the length of the parade. A clear plastic U-shaped gazebo stretches over the float, and handmade paper flowers dangle and decorate all the support beams. I ziptie plastic cutout butterflies onto the front post. One of them is a Camberwell Beauty. It has a smear of free chocolate across the center – I think it’s been in the hands of Jon’s seven-year-old daughter.
We work through the evening, surrounded by bustle and creativity. Up the street, a gigantic Sasquatch is taking shape. His hand now waves slowly, just like a dull giant, but his flesh and eyes glow with colour and thought. Next to us people paint bright yellow and glitter on wood. People stick faces of police brutality victims onto a float which resembles a four-poster bed opposite us. Some kids practice their stilt walking. Outside the Powerhouse, the Art Studio which is vomiting all this creativity out into the street, guys with waxed mustaches and quizzical green eyes use power tools to build the centerpiece float. Designed by Pacific Northwest artist Carl Smool, it will have four giant gargoyle heads atop fabric skyscrapers – the ‘Corporate Gargoyles’. Yesterday evening, I spent hours stipple painting one of the heads to resemble stone. Carl creates papiér mâché pieces of art for activism. Somehow he is overseeing everything.
Jon’s daughter, Samantha, was the inspiration for Metamorphosis, as she flitted about the solstice last year in butterfly wings. She runs around in a black leotard, occasionally coming back to check on progress.
I am privileged to work on the float and get to know Dave and Jon a little. Jon plays me the Shamaniacs’ music. It is unashamedly exuberant and upbeat and I say so; Jon looks at me knowingly and nods. “I am joyful, I’m very joyful,” he says. He is. He talks constantly about life in Seattle, where he has ended up, things he considers achievements, ideas, channeling spirit energy. “I opened the first vegan restaurant – truly vegan restaurant –in Seattle. We didn’t even serve coffee ‘cause we thought it was bad for you.” I find comfort in his take on things. He is wildly positive with childish enthusiasm, but just a shade of self-reflection adds an edge. A girl needs an edge to know where to look. It’s like a horizon.
Dave is wild-haired and thoughtful. He has a quieter, focused energy. He talks of science and ideas too. “I think the next scientific revolution is that we are going to find we are all interconnected”. Wow. A girl likes a conversation to get her teeth into.
Dave and Jon’s old, old friendship is touching. Dave needs a box to sit on during the parade – his detached cruciate ligament won’t let him stand on shaky or wobbly things, like a solstice parade float! He looks around for Jon, and calls to him to make him a wooden box. Jon goes down to the Powerhouse, finds the right tools and pieces of wood, brings them back and makes him a wooden box. Is there any purer expression of friendship than making a friend a box to sit on?
The night gets darker and the wings are complete. We mount them onto the rods and hoist them. Other band members arrive, smoke, eat pizza, tell stories of busking. The floats surrounding us take shape – a rotating silver cone covered in inflatable sharks; a red robot with cake costumes; Sasquatch has hair. The preparation and frantic clean-up is so good natured. Jon and I agree that the community art process is the same fix, somehow, as spending time out in the hills or forests. Soul-making.
We gather outside the Powerhouse and the heads of the Fremont Arts Council explain to us with megaphones and cheering what happens now. It is Friday night, the night before the big Solstice Parade day. The floats are to be moved to the parade head location on Leary Way, in what is known as the Midnight Parade. This involves all the floats being drawn down through Fremont in the middle of the night with a police escort. There is palpable excitement. I hadn’t planned on being there so late, but I agree to stick around and help push Metamorphosis down through to the parade head.
Cops on motorbikes have arrived. Night has fallen and the flashing blue and red lights gleam off their white helmets and off the glittering floats.
As it turns out, to my joy and fortune, the Shamaniacs’ float is last in the main parade tomorrow, which means it is first out on the midnight parade. The safety vests check the Avenue up and down. The cops line up either side, Danny DeVitos in shades and uniforms straddling their bikes. Two organizers pull out a giant boombox on wheels, begin playing Motown, and we wheel out Metamorphosis onto the road. We go slowly down the hill, and each float comes out one by one behind us, with whoops and cheers. I look back when we are stopped at the traffic lights to see this ghostly parade of peculiarities which cannot really be made out in the night light. There are enough hands pulling/pushing Metamorphosis that Joe, a busker and band member, and I, sit on the front of the float, at the head of the parade, laugh and dangle our legs off the side, as we make our way through the late night neighbourhood streets. I couldn’t have stopped grinning if I’d wanted to.
People spill out of bars and cheer as we go by. The cops’ lights continue to flash. The organizers with the boombox at the head announce the parade will be taking place tomorrow. Joe pulls out a selection of small percussion instruments from his backpack and presses some into my hands. We make rhythmic noise in time with Stevie Wonder blasting out into the street and laugh at Jon’s mad dynamism. He and his wife Betsy are pulling the float and Jon is stamping, leaping, getting off on the energy. The whole experience is surreal. We pass by my office building, which has a large Saturn planet atop the roof. Tonight, the Saturn is lit up. We see the clear yellow sliver of moon straight ahead in the west.
We reach the parking lot that is the head of the parade and pull Metamorphosis in to her overnight resting place. The other floats follow suit and people toast with plastic cups. We gather and breathe. I try and express my gratitude for sharing the experience. Betsy nods knowingly too. I feel like I have found some of Fremont’s blood.
*******
The next day, I gather my housemates and friends, we dress in green, and make our way out into this sunny day to Fremont. The streets are now full of daygoers, children, street stalls, dogs, tents and free sunglasses. We stop at the Brouwer’s Café for pre-parade Dutch courage. Then I feel like we should head back up to the parade head, to join our parade crew.
I was asked if I’d like to be in the parade when up at the Powerhouse working on the floats, and thought, why not. I have roped my friends in to being green ‘money bunnies’. This is the crew that surrounds the Green Hat float. A giant green top hat turned upside down. The money bunnies wear green bunny ears, a white rabbit comes out of the hat, and we poke sparkling green hats on sticks into the crowd for donations to Fremont Arts Council. We have the boombox to explain to the crowd how the parade happens every year and ask for donations, and we also have our own ragtag marching band. A little apprehensive about getting my friends to fundraise – no-one likes asking strangers for money – they are wonderful, game, and it soon becomes apparent that it’s pretty fun. People are very generous. It’s fun to interact with the crowd. They clearly love the parade. Women put five dollar bills in my hat and blow kisses.
Lily dances and shimmies her way through the whole thing. Somehow Kristin hops up onto the boombox and dances as it is maneuvered down the open streets. I have no goddam idea how that happened because that thing was almost impossible to push in a straight line, so who knows how she managed to stand and dance on top of it in actual motion.
It is blazing hot and we are soon thirsty, but this energy keeps us going. For sure I have felt Solstice fever the whole weekend. I couldn’t concentrate on a thing on Friday. The fever gets channeled through a creative act, like stipple painting a gargoyle head or stitching a giant butterfly wing. This is the culmination, the celebration.
Around us are naked cyclists body-painted rainbow colours, samba dancers, marching bands, overtly sexual hoopists, musicians and photographers. It’s a colourful riot.
We finally get to Gasworks Park, the parade finale, and shore up the green hat, now full of dollar bills. We get free beer tickets and t-shirts. We go claim our beers and sit in the beer garden. Everyone is talking to everyone. Half the people outside the beer garden are half naked. I proudly show the housemates the Toilets sign I painted. We watch someone climb bare-handed up a pole on the gasworks tanks and then proceed to do parkour to the top of one of the giant silo ladders.
“I love that we can see a family and a baby in a stroller,” says Suz, “and then right behind them is a woman with painted gold tits.” What’s weird is how normal it is. Some dude is wearing nothing but sheep bones. Vertebrae down his front, and a ram’s skull slung around his waist cradling his penis.
The sun fades from its sixteen hours on Seattle. The Solstice fever abates. Now we are into the lengthening and the ripening, with a harvest on the horizon.
#art#fremont#fremont arts council#solstice parade#seattle#ecology#creativity#gasworks#joy#art&experience
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Local Artists Blend Chaos with Zen in Kokeshi
By Joey Phoenix
When restaurateurs Tim Haigh and Larry Leibowitz begin a new project, they don’t go about it all willy-nilly. Kokeshi Salem is just about to introduce it’s brand of Ramen to the North Shore.
They have a plan.
A good plan.
When they opened local favorite Bambolina in 2015, they didn’t settle for standard street corner pie. No, theirs had to be Neapolitan-inspired, wood-fired, made from local ingredients, handcrafted with culinary personality — it had to wow its audience. Two years later, all the reviews are in, the people are wowed.
Now they’ve set their sights on Asian style street food deliciousness, and Salem has been buzzing about it for months.
This time around, they’ve gone a little off the rails, but in the best way imaginable. With their creative vision, and the help of some ridiculously talented local artists and craftsmen, they’ve transformed the space behind the former Salem laundromat into more than just a restaurant.
They’ve created an experience.
Planning Kokeshi
Tim and Larry’s original plan was on a much smaller scale than what Kokeshi would eventually become. The initial thought was to have a more traditional space with a single bar seating eight-ten guests. Yet, although the physical space was going to be conventional, the ambiance and the food were never going to be.
“Every noodle shop I’ve ever been to has been quite serious.” Larry explains. “It’s very sterile in their approach, the menu is very simple — usually one thing done really well — without a lot of variety.”
Tim and Larry wanted to do things differently. “We’re not looking at classic preparations or to follow a protocol to making the broth.” he continues. “We want to be able to do it our own way with our own spin, like how we approached the pizza.”
When negotiations for the original smaller space fell through, they had to look elsewhere.
“When we saw this new space available it was four times the size of what we envisioned,” he recalls, “and we realized we could do this in a grand way.” The space adjacent to the former Salem Laundromat used to be an ambulance depot, and the industrial features of the building stood out to the team, including the high ceilings and asphalt floors with exposed cobblestones.
“It had a lot of street vibe to it.” Larry says. “We knew that we could make this industrial raw chic space really complement the food.
“We decided that if Bambolina was Brooklyn, Kokeshi was gonna be the Bronx.”
The two of them shot ideas back and forth, attempting to stitch together a design that would make the most sense. They even toyed around with the idea of bringing in a food truck, sans engine and gas line, as a means to both impart a a working kitchen and add an evocative focal point to the space.
Unfortunately, the logistics of this endeavor proved impossible, and they had to look to other ideas.
So instead, at the suggestion of master welder Scott Lanes, they brought in a shipping container, which Tim converted into a working hot kitchen with the help of a laser cutter.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that Tim is super dynamic.” Larry explains. “If he doesn’t know something he’ll watch a three minute YouTube video and then become an expert.”
Using the parking lot of Salem Laundry as his workshop, Tim cut out the roof, the back, a pass window for the front, and a door to enter and exit. Then Larry, Tim, and a group of six guys with his truck and dragged it into the building.
The first piece installed, it was time to look to transforming the walls.
The Walls — Danny Diamond
One of the most striking features of the space is the art in the vestibule, on one of the main walls, and on the shipping container. The design of the pieces were a collaboration between Tim, Larry, and mural/graffiti artist Danny Diamond of skribblefish.com, but the implementation was Danny’s alone. Danny is a wizard with paint, and his works can be seen from the garage doors of the North Shore to the industrial spaces of Santa Cruz, CA.
Danny grew up exploring a number of artistic mediums including theatre, graphic design, and creative writing. He graduated in 2006 from UMass Boston with a major in creative writing and a minor in philosophy, and it wasn’t until his late twenties when he realized that painting could be more than just a hobby. He had no idea it would ever become such a lucrative career.
Larry and Tim decided to bring Danny on board after Tim saw some work Danny had done for a mutual friend. Danny has a unique style, and its vibe immediately stood out to both Tim and Larry, so they brought him on board.
“There was such a cool edge to his work, and he works in his own language.” Larry recalls, “So we gave him a shot in the vestibule.”
Danny initially proposed a large graffiti piece with distinctive colors that would fade up to midnight black. He did a sample sketch, Larry and Tim made a few tweaks, including the suggestion that Danny incorporate the Kokeshi logo onto an abstract bowl of noodles.
Larry and Tim enjoyed the work so much that they asked Danny to do a second piece, a mural — but they weren’t certain how they wanted to look just yet.
“I wanted something, whatever it was on the wall,” Larry says, “that when people would come in they would stop and take their picture in front of it.”
Danny brought some ideas to Tim and Larry and the three of them set about finding a concept.
“I always put the onus on the client to put me in the right direction,” Danny explains, “and when they told me about their idea of a samurai with tattoos as a showpiece for the dining room, I set about finding reference pieces to make that happen.”
“It’s been my experience that when you hire an artist, you gotta give them free reign to let them do what they do best.” Larry adds.
It’s such a big deal to see the stroke of someone’s hand in a piece. It was important to me for my work to have this feel, because art like this has a humanizing effect.”Danny Diamond
One of the things Larry discovered was that Danny has a knack for high contrast, elegant murals that look as if they’ve been drawn in charcoal onto a sketchpad. So the three of them came up with the idea of having a female Samurai wielding a large sword. It would be mostly black and white, except she would have a tattoo of a carp on her shoulder, and the tattoo would be in color.
During the process Danny realized that the tattoo idea wasn’t going to be able to work. The shoulder wasn’t quite big enough, and there wasn’t enough curvature.
“So much of how we’ve worked throughout this project is about having faith in the artist.” Larry explains, “I told him, ‘say no more, I trust you.’ And it came out awesome.”
In lieu of the carp tattoo, Danny added detail to the hilt of the sword, as well an an array of beautiful cherry blossoms around the piece. The effect is wonderful.
“Everything is so digital nowadays,” Danny says. “So it’s such a big deal to see the stroke of someone’s hand in a piece. It was important to me for my work to have this feel, because art like this has a humanizing effect.”
The Branding — Andrew Bablo
Another element which plays into the dynamic Kokeshi vision was the branding, which was brought from the heads of Tim and Larry into being by Beverly native and Montserrat Alum Andrew Bablo.
Andrew is a multi-talented tradesman with skills ranging from graphic design to metal work to large scale murals. His work is well-known in Boston and the North Shore, and it’s been featured recently in the Hair of the Dog show at the Cabot, the Letterform Show at Mingo Gallery, and on the walls and silo of Bent Water Brewing, to name a few. He was also the owner and long time editor of Steez Magazine.
“People are looking towards more artists to do more unique work.” Andrew explains.
Andrew’s work is some of the most original and dynamic around, and this has a lot to do with the fact that he hasn’t settled on any particular style or material.
“I try not to do the same thing twice.” Andrew claims. “I have a really hard time when people say I really loved when you did this here, can you do the same thing?”
This drive for newness led him to reach out to Tim and Larry after hearing about the Kokeshi project. He realized that he had done a lot of things in Boston and Beverly, and very little in Salem. Knowing what they had done with Bambolina, Andrew knew it would be a good fit.
After some initial hesitation, mainly due to budgeting reasons, Tim and Larry agreed to bring him on board. It was a match made in culinary branding paradise.
“I would jot things down on a bar napkin and he would polish it.” Larry recalls. “I would ask him, what do you think of this? And he would come back with an idea and we would talk about it.”
“Larry had a pretty good idea about what he wanted to do,” Andrew says. “it was a lot of back and forth, a lot of process.
“It was nice,” he continues, “because I prefer that more than someone who just says yes to the very first thing. It’s not mine at the end of the day, because I want it to evolve to become the best product it can be.”
One of the biggest aspects of the branding — and Andrew did everything from the menus to social media collateral and much more — was the actual logo itself.
“Things kept snowballing.” Andrew recalls. “The beginning process was really long, and when we thought we had it locked down and done, he came back and said it’s not done.” He laughs.
The logo is based off of a Japanese wooden doll known as a Kokeshi. Like the name Bambolina means baby doll in Italian, Tim and Larry landed on the name Kokeshi as the Japanese equivalent.
Yet, even though the doll is traditionally female, Larry didn’t intend to have the doll be female.
“I didn’t want it to be too classic,” Larry says. “So I had this idea of doing a fu manchu with a man bun.”
However, this idea didn’t make it very far. So Andrew and Larry went back to the drawing board, before ultimately landing on the final version some time later.
“The colors changed, the logo changed, and so the doll that we have now is really soft and playful.” Larry describes. “The whole idea behind the logo was that I wanted people to see it and immediately smile. And I wanted them to know that what they’re about to get isn’t classic, isn’t authentic, isn’t serious.”
“I think we came up with something totally unique that’s also really a lot of fun.” Andrew says.
Branding, as a whole, is something Andrew would like to see more businesses consider more seriously.
“Brick and mortar is so hard, so expensive. If you’re going to make this investment in opening up a restaurant or retail location, you’ve gotta be different. You’ve got to be unique enough to pull people in. If you’re not gonna go for it, then why do it?”Andy Bablo
“Brick and mortar is so hard, so expensive. If you’re going to make this investment in opening up a restaurant or retail location, you’ve gotta be different. You’ve got to be unique enough to pull people in. If you’re not gonna go for it, then why do it?”
Fortunately, Larry and Tim agree.
“I see a ton of value in what he does. I really respect his craft a lot.” Larry explains. “He brought our ideas to life.”
In addition to his work with Kokeshi, Andrew is in the middle of a number of other expansive projects — among which is a mural project set to go up beneath the Salem/Beverly Bridge — but perhaps the most significant thing he’s doing is his role as creative partner for Hubweek.
Founded by the Boston Globe, Harvard, and MIT a couple of years ago as a platform to do keynote speaking events on science and tech, they’re looking to expand this year’s Hubweek (October 8–15) to be the intersection of art, science, and technology.
“It’s really going to be a spectacle.” He says.
The Structures — Scott Lanes
Salem State Alum and well known photographer Scott Lanes has been a North Shore resident for almost his entire life. Beginning his career as a set designer and builder for theatre productions, Scott works with endless amounts of odd materials from metal to fiberglass to glass and just about everything between.
“I primarily do metal,” Scott says, “that’s my main medium, but I work in fiberglass, I’ve done casting. I did a project for Roger Williams Zoo and they wanted a tree house, and they asked me to fabricate a whole set of insects cast in clear resin to be up in the walls.”
“We weren’t originally going to use Scott, but he kept coming up with all of these awesome ideas.” Larry recalls.
“I was over at Bambolina one night about a year ago,” Scott says, “and Tim was telling me about this restaurant he wanted to open — something with a real industrial feel to it.”
Tim then told Scott about Larry and his idea for the food truck as a kitchen, and asked Scott if he had any suggestions. They worked the problem for a while before realizing quickly how unrealistic it was. Then they decided on swapping the truck idea for the shipping container.
“I thought that it would look really cool,” Scott says, “like somebody just opened a restaurant Mad Max style at a dock.”
About halfway through the shipping container install, Tim asked Scott if he’d be willing to fabricate some shelving for the kitchen. Then another project came up. Then another.
“I’m halfway through the shelving and Larry’s like we just got a quote for this stairway going up to the second floor, you got any ideas for doing a stairway?” He laughs.
“And I said, yeah, I do. I’ve had that design in my head for a while and I just had no place to put it.” He recalls. “When I showed them the idea, they loved it.”
In addition to his work on the shipping container, the shelves, and the staircase, Scott also fabricated the tables and the table bases, as well as a number of other small metal work throughout the entire restaurant.
“They kept me busy from November 1st until about a week ago.”
“The design comes in day by day,” Larry says. “there are things happening today that I didn’t know about last week.
“Scott and Tim have just done an unbelievable amount of work just stitching the whole thing together.” Larry adds.
The Sign — Concept Signs
Located off Bridge street in Salem, Concept Signs has been crafting signage for businesses around the North Shore for almost two decades. Run by Ken McTague with the help of his production assistant, local artist Dan Gilbert, Concept Signs is the team behind — as you would expect — the Kokeshi sign.
The shop where the sign was made is a marvel in it’s own right. The back alleyway is filled with old vintage signage from the last 60 years, a stripped ’54 ranch wagon is being refurbished in the workshop, double hinged refrigerators from the 40s and 50s are in the workshop and office, and Ken’s art fills the walls of the office.
“Before I came back to Salem,” Dan begins, “I was working in a more corporate sign shop. It was really boring. For example, I was doing awnings for Dunkin Donuts.
“Working here it’s much better,” he continues. “Theres only like one Gulu Gulu. There’s only one Flying Saucer. All the signs have character.”
Concept Signs’ specialty is New England style gold leaf signage, which can be seen from the Devereaux House in Marblehead to Anmol Restaurant in Beverly to Salem Wine Imports on Church Street. So the Kokeshi sign was a bit of a deviation.
“Letters were cut out of this PVC and we made studs for them and spacers,” Dan explains, “So when you look at the Kokeshi sign the letters are lifted above the sign to cast a shadow.”
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Concept Signs also makes it a point to use automotive finishes on their signs, and the blue paint in the Kokeshi sign is automotive paint as well. The reason for this is durability.
“We did the Devereaux house sign about four or five years ago — the one with the pineapple,” he clarifies, “and If you go by it now it still looks brand new.”
The Future
Kokeshi is having their soft opening this coming week, and it’s certain from day one the lines will be out the door. The team has been working since November to bring about something that will be truly unforgettable.
“Our idea is to whisk you away and make everything tie into it,” Larry says, “but also use a lot of tongue in cheek sense of humor.
“We’ve always said that we don’t take ourselves too seriously and we never want to. We want to have fun and we want the staff to be fun and we want the experience to be fun.”
Also, rumor has it, they’ll be projecting Kung Fu films on the wall. So stay tuned. Stay tuned for information on menus and hours on the Kokeshi website.
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Local Artists Blend Chaos with Zen in Kokeshi was originally published on Creative Salem
#Andrew Bablo#Andy bablo#Concept Signs#Danny Diamond#Joey Phoenix#Kokeshi#Kokeshi Salem#Ramen#Restaurant#Salem Food#Scott Lanes#Salem MA#Creative Salem#Salem Events
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