Entry 4: Weird Art Cult

One of the other engineers on the team had arranged for a group outing Friday after work for the new people on the team (me and the intern) to get acquainted with everyone else, plus other people at Amazon that he knows. Long story short, most people didn't show up (including the intern who inexplicably sent out an e-mail asking if we still had plans and then bolted without waiting for a response), so it was pretty much just me and this other dude hanging out. But that's not the interesting part.

The interesting part is where we went: The McLeod (mc-cloud) Residence (http://www.mcleodresidence.com). From the website, "McLeod Residence, located at 2209 2nd Avenue in Belltown, is a home for extraordinary living through art, technology and collaboration." I still don't fully understand it, but it was like a combination bar/lounge/art gallery with all kinds of crazy stuff on the walls, most of which was for sale. I remember a piece that had a small child kneeling and praying, surrounded by glowing green dollar signs and lightbulbs of all different colors. Another exhibit was dedicated to the "Thank You For Shopping" plastic bag that you get from convenience stores, et al. The artist thought it was VERY deep to ponder such "existential" questions as "Who exactly is the bag thanking?" I think the answer is pretty obvious, which is why I'm not an artist. Oh, my favorite was a giant Michael Jackson head mosaic fashioned entirely out of breakfast cereal. Did you know that they have blue Froot Loops now? I didn't.

What kind of creeps me out about the McLeod Residence is that they consider themselves some sort of family. You can pay to become a member, but they have some crazy shit on the website about how "you have to REALLY want it" - presumably, you have to want it more than they want your $300. Some of the members have actually changed their names - for instance, Buster McLeod is now legally Buster McLeod. No word on what he's going to do when the place closes down; maybe he can get another name change and become Buster Knights of Columbus.