Nicole Bearden (NB): Today we are here with Black Sun from Volunteer Park. I appreciate you taking a moment to engage with us this morning.
Black Sun (BS): Yes, a good conversation passes the time.
NB: Well, we will certainly attempt to make it a good conversation. You have been in the park since 1969. Do you have any favorite moments from the past fifty or so years?
BS: The more people change, the more they remain the same. People, seasons, time—they all cycle, they all come back to incipience.
I bear witness to the spinning wheels of time, the turning clock of seasons, and the joys and sorrows of man—I bear it all and it is both a heavy burden, and a lightsome ecstasy.
This morning, I awoke to the news that one of my favorite authors walked beyond the veil on February 9. Tom Robbins, a prolific novelist, was born in North Carolina in 1932, then relocated to Washington State in the 1960s. He wrote with a bohemian playfulness and humor that often belied his philosophical style and was once most accurately dubbed “The Northwest’s Master of Zen-Punk” by Seattle Weekly writer Roger Downey in 2006.
Nicole Bearden (NB): In honor of Seattle’s Faux Spring weather last week, I decided it was time to have a confab with one of my personal favorite Seattle Icons: A Sound Garden. Located on the NOAA campus near Magnuson Park, between Piers 15 and 17 on Lake Washington, A Sound Garden reverberates with hauntingly atmospheric intonations as the wind blows through artist Douglas Hollis’ twelve, 21-foot high, steel tower sculptures. Sound Garden, I appreciate your presence today.
A Sound Garden (SG): [A chorus of metallic hums breezing through the air.] We are delighted to converse with you.