Archive for the ‘seattle’ Category

OK to be ignorant

Friday, May 18th, 2012

There are some things it is OK to be ignorant of. Like when I was at the doctor’s office yesterday, waiting, and wondering to myself why there’s a pamphlet entitled ‘Cotton’ in the same rack as the STD and Drugs pamphlets. It was a long wait, so I picked one up. Turns out it’s about heroin. Unbeknownst to me, there’s an important part of the junkie’s kit called ‘a cotton’, which can be a vector for disease if reused. I think I’m OK with not being hip enough to have known that before.

Dancing Burgers

Thursday, May 17th, 2012

Actually two separate things, but over the same evening.

First the dancing. Local burlesque icons, The Can Can Castaways, setup a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo. I contributed and got to see a rehearsal last night. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, but suffice it to say, they’ve upped the ante on their stage contraptions, having learned some welding, it looks like. The new show is titled Tune In Tokyo, and looks like it will have an appropriate theme, modern and hyper-paced. I can’t wait for opening night to see the whole thing in full costumes.

Then the burger. There’s a bar-n-grill, descriptively enough it is named Sport Bar. I’ve had a groupon to there for a while now, and it was on the walk home from the dancing, and I’d heard they have a burger where the patty is made with ground bacon. I really hope that it isn’t 100% bacon (and it certainly tasted like a mix of beef and bacon), because if it was, red in the center seems like a bad thing. Anywho, it was tasty enough, but not actually as bacon-y as I expected. And since the place is literally under the space needle, it is way over-priced, so even with the groupon, it was an over-valued meal. Next time I see a groupon for the Five Point….same ‘hood, infinitely better value (but only 1 TV).

Band Idea

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

Culian Jope – An all-Julian-Cope-covers band. I’ll need a drummer, guitarist, bass player, and a real keyboarder. My simplistic tinklings would never do for playing out, and hopefully I’ll be busy as lead singer, naked in a tortoise shell.

Ok, we’ll do at least one Eurythmics cover too. And a Rolf Harris.

Seattle May Day 2012

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

As I was watching the live TV coverage of the vandalism in downtown, I considered going down to get more protest pictures, but from the news coverage, it looked like a lot smaller group of serious people, and a lot larger group out for trouble-as-fun, than the Anti-War marching in 2004. The damage level looks about the same as post-WTO, for the areas that were hit, but the affected area seems smaller. It certainly is all over faster.

The pics at flickr are getting a lot of extra hits, so the protestors accomplished something ‘positive’ in my life.

Michelle Shocked @ The Triple Door (Seattle)

Monday, April 30th, 2012

Another year of Michelle’s Roadworks touring, this time back at the Triple Door, and she was in fine form as always. She started the evening off with folkaoke; she plays her guitar, and feeds lines as needed, while an audience member came up and song one of four classic folk tunes (Blowing In The Wind, Deportees, This Land Is Your Land, and Do Re Me).

When the ‘real’ show got going, she sang new interpretations of her classic tunes. Given the choice, the audience picked ‘Graffiti Limbo’ over ‘Come Along Way’. Once she’d gotten through those (sadly, no Hopeville this time), she did some of the new songs off the as-yet-unfinished album in progress.

She then took time to bring up a couple of local foreclosure activists (against them, for some reason =P), and then did some speaking of her own on the subject. This really ticked off the slightly loud table over my shoulder, who just wanted her to shut-up and sing. It wasn’t as bad as the Goldthwait woman by any means. When she finished talking and did one last song, they were happy, but still managed to chatter away through the whole thing. I don’t get some people.

If there was anything really wrong with the evening, it was that I had eaten just a few hours earlier, during the SQREAM ride, and just wasn’t hungry enough to order my favorite, 9 Flavor Beef. Unexpectedly, my tablet had wifi access. I didn’t notice this until after the show, or I would have uploaded the pictures I took, as I took them. As is, I’m at work without the cable to unload them now. D’oh.

The Schoolyard presents Cabaret

Monday, April 30th, 2012

When the Open Circle Theater went under, I wondered where the players would end up. If I understand things correctly, The Schoolyard is made up of some of those folk. That’s what the guy who recommended them to me said, anyways. Anywhoo, they had a Kickstarter for their next show, I pitched in, and Saturday night was my turn as VIP, for my reward. In typical style, I had a completely different show in my head, having not fully read the project description, but still ended up entertained.

Cabaret is a classic musical of love in Berlin, before the war. They had the Re-Bar set up with a tiny stage in the center of the room, and the audience surrounding all four sides. My seat was at a table on the venue’s actual stage (along with two other sets of VIPs), a old-style-looking phone on my table, and one of the other VIP tables. I should have realized what that meant, but when the male lead came and sat down at my table during the phone-club scene, and started small-talking with me, I was unprepared for improvisation, and just had to smile and look pretty =p

The cast did a great job, the german landlady was played extremely well, as were all parts. The live band providing the musical background did a good job as well, with the intermission costume-change a subtle clue to the impending inevitable tragedy of the second act.

The audience was an interesting mix. One guy in the front row looked like he was in love with the stage, a sort of dumbstruck smile on his face almost the entire time, especially in contrast to his date, who looked mostly bored the whole evening. Another front rower, something must have gone wrong during intermission, as he came back with a scowl that never left his face.

Not a bad way to spend a saturday night.

Serious Biscuit Party pics

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

Had a fun time at the Serious Biscuit customer appreciation party. Free biscuits and booze, how could one not have fun? And I got to play with markers =p

Tom Douglas stopped by, but I was so intent on my ‘artwork’, I didn’t get a chance to meet him. What would I have said, “hey I really like This restaurant of yours” or “Finally, you opened a place I want to eat at” =p ??

So that is why…

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

I only check my twitter feed about once a day, so sometimes I miss the beginnings of things. Like when a local jazz place started retweeting a bunch of #stoprush emails, it took some digging to find out they’d had an ad accidentally run during a Rush Limbaugh show. Without context, it seemed kind of odd.

Context is hard in 140 characters.
Scratch that, spelling and grammar are hard in 140 characters. Nuance and context are nigh impossible. Unless you are Emily Dickinson. Then you can do both. Most people on twitter are not Emily. Quite possibly 100%, if rumors of her death have not been exaggerated. Twain could probably twit a good tweet, too. But again, rumors of death are likely not exaggerated at this time, prior occasions not withstanding.

Modern world

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

This morning, I’m eagerly refreshing my browser every few seconds, waiting for tickets to see Weird Al Yankovic, at the Seattle Symphony Hall, to go on sale. I get an email, it’s from the theater group I just did the exact same wait-for-10am-sale-start, for the Sinead O’Connor show, announcing that she has canceled her tour =( An hour later, I get an automated phone-call letting me know the same thing.

The conveniences of modern living, multiple ways to find out about the same disappointment.

Hope she feels better soon.

Aww, Twist

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

The housecalling vet came by and saw Twist today. He was already kinda skittish after being stepped on by a visitor last night, and people with needles didn’t help much; now he’s hiding under my bed. On the plus side, other than his blood pressure and fast breathing, likely from nervousness, they gave him a clean bill of health, contingent on the blood work results.

She did recommend I switch from the current mix of wet/dry food, to a wet-only diet, to prevent diabetes. I’m willing to give it a shot, though I dunno what I’ll do with the 20 pounds of left over dry food; I don’t think a shelter will take an open bag of food. Maybe they will.