“Strong Leasing Velocity” Means More Public Art in South Lake Union: Whiting Tennis has a new piece in conjunction with the development of Stack House Apartments and the Supply Laundry building, Vulcan announces. Tennis’s piece is called Hampers. (Double entendre?)

Move Over Oprah—Mudede's Book Club Is Here: Last night at Vermillion, around 40 enthusiastic people showed up for a round-table discussion of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century, led by Charles Mudede. (Goldy was also in the house and contributing to the discussion.) It was a lively crowd, a striking mix of younger and older, and they seemed downright ravenous to talk about capitalism, its problems, the bogus economics we've been sleepwalking through in the past several decades, and how people feel like they're just beginning to wake up from the spell. People drank a little (beer and wine, mostly) but really just wanted to talk and wrestle with ideas. One attendee eloquently discussed bell curves and inequality. (For awhile, people thought we'd start with high inequality and bad shit like robber barons, but that democracy would eventually kick in and make things more equal. But things haven't worked out that way.) Other topics of discussion: everyone's surprise at learning there was no inflation in the 19th century, the (additional) surprise that increasingly sophisticated technology doesn't seem to have any detectable impact on fairness and wealth distribution, the meritocracy question, as well as Balzac and Jane Austin and how novels aren't as explicit about the prices of things anymore. It was a great conversation—people were so hungry for it, expect to see more.

RIP, UW Architecture Photographer and Lecturer (and Roller Derby Enthusiast) John Stamets: Stamets died earlier this week, after having shared his love for photography and architecture with students since 1992. He was also very into roller derby.

Middle-School French Kids Dream of Swimming Their Polluted River: Thanks to visiting artist Don Fels, of Seattle. Fels writes,

When I arrived last year, the program’s suave, dignified and handsomely turned out director told me, as if against type, that I was there to “cause trouble,” to “shake things up.”

Locatechts, Not Starchitects: Is globalization good for architecture? (With a quiz!)

Peter Bagge Goes to Norway: Or his comics do, anyway. Seattle cartoonist Peter Bagge is contributing three days' worth of strips to Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. Bagge's cartoons are autobiographical accounts of Ballard and its Nordic heritage.

Adorkable: Is apparently a word.