Cleaning house

Today I found this short video I took back in the summer of 2004. It was the last time I was in Europe. This video was from the part of the trip where I was visiting my college buddy David Liso near his home in Saxon, Switzerland.

JACKPOT!

Finally, decent, cheap ethnic food nearby! Except that it's been there the whole time. I just didn't know about it. I have been complaining for months about the dearth of good lunch options in SLU, and then a couple of people told me that there's "great pho" next to the Greyhound Bus Station on 8th & Stewart. Turns out that the pho in question is Pho Bac, a place I've heard about for years but never realized was in this location.

My pho was much better (and cheaper) than the over-anised stuff I had last week at Black Bottle. The broth was tasty. Salty. Maybe not quite as complex as Than Bros., but then again "complex" pho is not pho.

Pho Bac is in the Greyhound terminal. It is a bit strange. But then again, I should be so lucky to get off the bus in an unknown city and eat like this in the station!

Everett Has the Gays

Or at least it did this weekend. I spent part of Saturday night at The
Castle in Everett, where Kate was having her birthday. It wasn't quite
the bang-up affair we'd anticipated. A charity drag show had taken
over the main bar. We were banished to the pool-and-darts section. It
wasn't so bad. I played one partner game and won.

Here is Kate showing off her pool skills.

You will comply. Resistance is futile.

There is a heckuva lot of construction going on at SLU. It's fun watching construction workers munching salads (with arugula, no doubt!) at Whole Foods during my lunch break.

This building project kind of freaks me out. I don't know why. It's certainly not the biggest building going up in the neighborhood. I think it's all of that blue and orange, and all of the equipment leaning against the building.

Slog didn't care

I took this photo of a temporary sharrow painted on the Ave. Am I
wrong, or is this too much gay? It looks like the city's Bike Master
Plan is also a piece of the Gay (male) Agenda!

I sent this to Slog, where it was promptly ignored.

My neighbor Emily

Tonight I went to hear my duplex mate Emily sing six songs at Kobuta
Garden. She was fabulous. That year of graduate opera training in
Wimnipeg has clearly paid off. I think composer Byron Au Yong was
impressed as well with Emily's gutsy delivery, accompanied by water
percussionist Stuart Mc Leod, at four different locations in the
gardens.

Lesbo? Lesbi friends!

Yesterday I went as my friend Topher's date to a lesbian wedding,
sorry "commitment ceremony," in Issaquah. It was a lovely, steamy
affair. Topher did a fine reading. The reception was nice and cool.
Topher and DJ Colby B chatted about great DJs who have played, or will
play, in Seattle. Colby is one of those people to whom I get
introduced over and over again, but we can never quite remember each
other.

I just finished reading Mark Jacobson's essay about a man disguising himself as a zombie to sell DVDs of his ultra-low-budget Bed-Stuy zombie flick. I can dig it. I identify with - and have been guilty of indulging in - relentless self promotion. 

The essay reminded me of a boneheaded thing I did a couple of years ago. Against my better judgment, I sunk some money into a locally-produced horror film. It's not a great film by any measure. It's unlikely that I will ever recoup my investment. What was I smoking? you may well ask. 

I'm still asking myself. Was I tipsy when the story idea was laid on me? Yes. Was I feeling on top of the world, confident that my picture would appear in Slog the next day? Yes. Did I find that I was still reeling from the remnants of a crush on the best city councilmember Seattle never had? A bit. Did I have money to burn? Not exactly. Was I terribly impressed with the rough cut of the film that was lent me? Not really. Was I delusional? I don't understand the question . . .

Funny how our occasional bouts of star-stricken madness are tempered with the worst jolts of real life. I was saddened to read last week that the (very nice) guy who wrote the film and who gave me such a good spiel for financing his film was gay-bashed last week in Belltown.

RideCivil video on KING5

I make an ever-so-brief appearance in this story KING-5 TV did on last Friday's RideCivil. RideCivil now has its own blog!

Kid-friendly

Saturday I hosted book club and saw the Stay Up Late Show starring
Rebecca Davis. And took no photos, apparently. Sunday, I went to Dave
and Aki's BBQ. Never have I seen so many content, happy babies. Caught
up with a number of BBers I hadn't seen in awhile.

RideCivil

So Friday after work, I rode to Westlake Park for RideCivil. It's a
bike ride that seeks harmony among cars, bikes and pedestrians. There
were about 30 of us. Dave, the organizer, says that this is three or
four times better than any turnout to date, no doubt because of all
the hubbub over Critical Mass recently. KIRO-TV interviewed Dave
before we took off on our ride. We rode towards Puoneer Square, up to
Broadway, Eastlake to South Lake Union. That's right, back to the SLU
Block Party for me. Aqueduct was playing when we arrived, which was
cool. We had one beer before the six of us remaining ended up at Paddy
Coyne's. We talked bike politics, locally and nationally. I rode home
with Dave most of the way, which was fortunate because my headlight
burned out on Dexter. I borrowed Dave's Frog light. He was such a nice
guy. He wrote about the ride for BikeHugger over the weekend.

Controlled, not chaos

Who would have thought that my lunch on Friday would be paid for by
Paul Allen? Not exactly, of course. Vulcan created the space for the
SLU Block Party. But the participating eateries had to pony up their
wares for us workers. I was pleasantly surprised by how low-key the
whole thing was. And did I mention free??

If it's Thursday, it must be guitar lesson day

Thursdays I take the bus to work rather than riding my bike. I bring
my guitar to work with me so I can go directly from work to guitar
lesson.

There need to be a trash can and a recycling bin near the bus stop.
Without them, this pile of rubbish behind my guitar will continue to
grow.

Bikes bikes bikes

Just as I published my last post, I saw that Bike Commute Tips Blog ran an article about another company which sells Dutch bikes, this one based in Vancouver (BC). More intriguing is the brief mention of Breezer Bikes, which attempt to combine European comfort/versatility with the American need for lighter bikes with more gears - the kind of bike that can climb hills.

But waitaminnit! I already own such a bike. I've owned such bikes for over fifteen years. They're called hybrid bikes, and every bike company worth its salt now makes them. My current hybrid is a Kona Dew Deluxe, and despite some documented flaws, it is the best bike I've ever owned.

A little impractical in hilly Seattle . . .

. . . but these bikes are amazing. The come from a company called Dutch Bike Co. Seattle, and I found out about them from Cyclelicious. (Photo courtesy Henry Cutler of WorkCycles.)

The Dutch Bike Seattle blog praises Portland and Chicago as great (or soon-to-be-great, in the case of Chicago) bicycling cities. Meanwhile, it rails against the "elitist cycling egos" of Seattle and many other cities.

Amen to that. Anti-elitism is part of the reason why I'm joining RideCivil tomorrow.