There's a media tour today of Chihuly Garden and Glass under construction in Seattle Center—including a look at the poured foundation, a van ride to Chihuly Studios in Ballard for lunch, and, finally, a ride up to the top of the Space Needle for an aerial view.

We’ll start with a tour of the construction grounds hosted by Dale and Leslie. They will walk you through the layout and flow of the exhibition. You’ll be able to see the newly-poured foundation for the Glass House, offering a feeling for the size and scope of the project. You’ll also walk through the gallery building with Dale, who will paint a picture of what visitors will see, experience, and, ideally, take away. We’ll then take a short van ride to Chihuly Studio in Ballard (with boxed lunches provided en route) where the pieces for the Glass House are under construction. Dale will talk through how he’s approaching, concepting and building these expansive pieces to provide a close look at how his vision for the exhibition is evolving.

"The exhibition is on track to debut in April 2012 as a permanent addition to Seattle Center," the press invitation reads, "offering a comprehensive look at the world-renowned career of Northwest artist Dale Chihuly."

Nevermind, I suppose, that the project is not permanent according to its lease.

No, we're not going to jump into this press feeding. It's just too depressing. Occupy Wall Street has just been attacked, the recession is double-dipping, the state budget is a trillion dollars over but the idea of raising taxes is not on the table, racism is alive and well across every measurable piece of data in this city, and...yeah. What's the story today? The story is lunch. That's all that we can figure out. And while we normally flock to free lunches like entitled pigeons, today we have a paper to put out.

But we can't wait to see this "permanent" behemoth come April.