The chatter of people is an ambience in the background as we near the Pike Place Market on Pike Street. A jazz band is playing in the distance, near a Starbucks, and as I near the entrance of the market, I can’t help but smile. A magician stands there, a sign proclaiming that for a quarter, he could tell you what day of the week you were born on, and for a dollar, he would do any magic trick you requested with only a bucket and a place to stand. I walk along, curiously reading his sign stating that all proceeds would go back to his hometown school in Vietnam. As I move about the market, I spot beautiful wood carvings, polished to a spectacular gleam, and traditional calligraphy, paintings, hand drawn and painted in front of your very eyes. There are hair accessories, a lot of them, and little bracelets and a ton of fake jewelry. There are assorted wood selections, each of them from a different state, proudly arrayed, each with a tiny label of the wood’s home state. But there are only a few stores I am interested in. I walk past bouquets of flowers, arranged and preserved for the wintertime, a sea of them on one side of the market, stretching all the way to Virginia Street. On the other side, there are assorted food stalls, each with their own specialty, one selling Rainier cherries and Lapin cherries and Bing cherries and so much more. Another offers fresh roasted nuts, arranged in a buffet-style orderly line. But as I walk on, past the vegetable sellers, past the sea of flowers, past the nuts, past the wood carvings, the paintings, the jewelry and accessories, I get to the place I was looking for. The classic Pike Place Fish store stands there, a crowd clustered around it. I walk up to the counter. A bellow emanates from the lively stall: “We got a SALMON!!” A response comes “OOHHH OOHHH SALMON!!!” I spot the order suddenly flying through the air, dipping toward the ground, and… At the last moment, a fishmonger with an apron, clad in muck boots, not slipping despite the wet floor, catches it. Applause showers from the audience as cameras click and video recordings start. The wet fish smell starts to get to me as I walk up to the counter and state my order. The guy at the front starts smiling. “Ahh,” he says. “You want the oysters, eh?” I give a nod. “They’re free. Go take em!” I raise my eyebrows. “Raw, fresh, oysters?” “Sure, they’re raw. We even give hot sauce! But you gotta eat them here!” He laughs. “Nah, I’ll pass.” I reply. “You sure?” He asks again, hands already moving to hose down and wrap my order. “Sure as can be.” I repeat. As I walk back to my car with oysters in my bag, I decide to visit the gum wall, a tradition that I do every visit. As I walk toward it, the grays and blues and blacks start merging into a vibrant pattern as I make my way to the piece of collective art. It is vibrant, neon colors, boring into my eyes, yet it is also set in darkness, black gum of a suspicious flavor and white, drained, depleted gum scattered all over. It is the essence of creativity, human ingenuity, and culture in one place, but every 6 months is hosed down, cleansed of all this. It is a collage of the people, one that is universal, one that anyone can add an important part to, no matter the age or size. From the wood bits from every state to the hand-made paintings to the flying fish and music playing and the magical tricks, the market has a special place in my heart. So, taking out a small stick of gum out of my pocket, I chew for a bit, and add my own piece to the collage of culture.
Young Bloggers
Lessons in Sweetness: A Review of Wonka
All the smells, tastes, and feels of the movie theater do not compare to Wonka, the new chocolatey and valuable movie. I went to see this about a week ago with my grandparents, and I was very surprised that they liked it too! I never saw the first movie, and I haven’t read the book, so I was starting with a blank canvas. I got some chocolate to be in the spirit for this movie and some popcorn, both of which were necessary when watching the movie. The smell of popcorn and candy really improved the movie-watching experience, and the taste was even better. Other than being a good movie that engages all five senses, Wonka shows an important lesson of loyalty and perseverance—in the chocolate-making business and in the real world. Willie Wonka, after moving to a new place, looks for money in chocolate sales. On his first attempt, the police shut his business down because his groundbreaking chocolate is threatening the other businesses in town. He then gets pulled into a hotel that gives him a lot of unnecessary debt ($10,000) to pay off. The people who own the hotel give him a contract to sign, but Wonka does not read the fine print and gets charged for unnecessary things like going up and down the stairs. He decides to hatch a plan to sell his chocolate without permission and has great success. This decision shows that Wonka has a lot of perseverance and does anything he can do to continue his passion. His friends that stay at the hotel help him along the way, showing that they can be helpful in his plans. As well as being entrepreneurial, Wonka shows great loyalty to his friends and allies. For example, in one scene, Wonka was a very loyal friend and portrayed an important lesson to everyone watching the movie. When the people in his town get very irritated because Wonka did not stop selling chocolate, the police banish Wonka from their town using a one way boat ticket to an unknown place. After he realizes that his friends are in danger, he jumps off the boat, swims to shore, and tries his best to get them out of trouble. Wonka shows that friends are more important than chocolate. In conclusion, the new movie Wonka is much more than a movie. It is a life lesson that everyone can use to become a better person. This movie changed the way I value different parts of my life, and encouraged me to be more loyal to the people I know. In addition, whenever I think about giving up on a task, I think of Wonka and how he persevered to keep making chocolate. A well-acted, perfectly-shot movie like this one is a must-see, and people of every age will love it.
My Soup Is Getting Cold and Other Funny Stories about the Stealing of the Mona Lisa
On August 21st, 1911, a person named Vincenzo Peruggia committed one of the most famous art heists in history. He stole one of the most remarkable paintings in the world, the Mona Lisa, made by Leonardo Da Vinci, from the Louvre in Paris. But who was Vincenzo Peruggia, and how did he get away with stealing the Mona Lisa? Vincenzo Peruggia was an Italian man who had moved to Paris. He then got a job in the Louvre, installing protective glass onto new paintings that the museum received. This job gave him special access to the secured art and a way to know how to access all the paintings in the Louvre, without tripping security set for criminals (like him). In his Louvre uniform, a white smock, Vincenzo Peruggia could walk in the gallery when no one else was there, and it was this access to the gallery that helped him steal the painting. After that, he had hoped he could sell the artwork to a wealthy person. But when news of the painting’s theft hit the media and police began offering a large reward for its return, he realized this might be more difficult than expected. When Peruggia eventually tried to sell it in the black market for a lot of money, he was caught instantly. This stunt, which dragged on for almost 3.5 years, helped make the Mona Lisa as famous as it is today. Last summer, I was able to go see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre in person and learn all about it. The experience of it was truly phenomenal: from the bustling crowd in the small room to the far enhanced security around it, perhaps due to fear of another Peruggia. My first thought was the painting is way smaller than I expected. When I looked at the painting for the first time, I felt awed because I was in the room with one of the most valued works of art in the world, and it was just a couple of feet away from me. The painting itself is a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, an Italian noblewoman, although whether Da Vinci used a different person for the model is very controversial. I observed that Mona Lisa’s eyes followed me around the room, watching me as I explored. There are many stories to be told about the Louvre, like how the workers designed a metal cage to go around the painting in case of a fire, but the theft of the Mona Lisa has to be the most exciting one. Recently, I read The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day, a nonfiction novel about how the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. The writing style of this book was a narrative and explains the theft of the painting. Although written in the style of a history book, the author made the story engaging and funny. For example, on pages 248 and 249, Nicholas describes Da Vinci’s mathematics notebook in which Da Vinci wrote a short note about stopping his entry because his “soup was getting cold.” Instead of deleting that part from his story, Day keeps it in and writes, “He would go on, you see, but he has to eat.” I learned a lot from Day’s book about the Mona Lisa, and at the same time, I was never tired of reading it. I enjoyed that the book had pictures with each chapter; this choice can help readers envision different parts of the book. I recommend this book to 5th and 6th graders wanting to learn more about art history, or someone planning a trip to Paris who wants to learn more about the story of the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day. Random House Studio, 2023. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
