Union Trust Building

My brother John and I wandered into this marvel of downtown Pittsburgh
architecture this morning, my last fling with the city before heading
home. Caught up despite myself in Pens mania, I also bought a Pens
baseball cap(?!) and Pens wool cap. The driver of the shuttle to the
airport was happy to give me the lowdown on Pittsburgh's Stanley Cup-
bound (probably) Penguins. The verdict: like Detroit, they are a
strong team rather than a bunch of guys huddled around an egomaniacal
leader. Younger than Detroit, but focused.

I expect to be quite the envy of the sports fanatics at the gym
tomorrow in my new cap...

Local wine

I always like to sample local wine when I'm in a new place, and I was
pleased to discover on this trip that one can get both Pennsylvania
and Maryland wines. I had a red blend while in Pittsburgh that was
perfectly acceptable, and I found two out of these three Maryland
whites to my liking. The exception was the Riesling, pictured here
still in its glass. It had an odor of rubber. The simple Pinot Blanc,
on the other hand, was fresh and light.

The smell was lovely

at the nearby Folger Rose Garden.

At the Haupt Garden

I was hoping to go to the Museum of the American Indian today but ran
out of time. Instead I hung out in several gardens, including the
Haupt Garden in front of the Smithsonian Information Center.

Shannon & Laurie

While I poked around DC for another day, my cousins hopped the Bolt
Bus to NYC to see Laurie's friends Richard and Paul.

And speaking of Nut Job

Here he is!

Mimi is three

Last night after our walk around the Mall, Shannon and I returned to
Laurie's house in Arlington for cousin Mimi's birthday, which was
celebrated with Thai takeout, presents and a Tinkerbell cake. Mini
loved her new dresses and hat, but she pretty much ignored her new
stuffed dog Coconut, which I proceeded to call "Nut Job for short."

Vacation Part Two: DC

Here I am communing with my friend Vincent at the National Gallery
yesterday. Weather yesterday and today in DC has been absolutely
perfect.

Family geeks in Pittsburgh

Here are my brother John and stepmom attending to their individual
needs at John's house in Pittsburgh.

Food ironies

Here I am at the Pittsburgh airport, waiting for my parents to arrive,
and I am hungry. This being an airport in a not particularly snooty
city, I expect that I can get a mediocre meal and a glass of mediocre
wine at a chain pub, say TGI Fridays. Pittsburgh airport does in fact
have a TGI Fridays (more than one, according to the directory), but it
closes at 8:30 pm. Which happens to be as I land.

The only place still open is, as you can see, an even bigger chain
than TGI Fridays. And they don't serve alcohol.

Meanwhile, I picked up this Barbara Kingsolver book at the airport in
snooty Seattle, a book which happens to be about the author and her
family packing up and moving to a farm in Appalachia to try and live
off only locally-grown, sustainable food for a year. The picture on
the front cover appears to be a handful of lovely scarlet runner
beans, grown locally and organically I'm sure. But there's nothing
local or organic about my dinner tonight!

New digs

This is where my office is moving in six weeks. It's UW Medicine's
newest and shiniest complex of buildings, located in South Lake Union.

Yesterday some of us took a tour of our almost-finished spaces. We
also got to see the new lab building, which we won't have access to as
"admin people" once we move in.

It's all very pretty and nice, but I continue to have mixed feelings
about the impending move. My commute will be longer, I'll probably
have to work later and, of course, it will be more effort to get to
decent places for lunch. Not to mention coffee.

I need a nap!

Tonight was the annual RCB dinner, dance and auction. I volunteered to
be a greeter. We have so few opportunities to dress up in casual
Seattle, so I had to get a photo of Kenny, Natalie and Jonathan in
their finery.

What a weekend

I am addicted to "Random Spirit Lover," the sophomore album from
Sunset Rubdown. I listened to the first four tracks like 20 times
while driving this weekend.

And what a lot of driving I did, all short trips of course. The big
event was my friend Topher's birthday at Boom Noodle on Capitol Hill
Saturday night. This is my fave photo from that evening, of Jon and
Maria. I like the body language.

I spent the bulk of Saturday finishing a song. I also practiced
guitar, which I'm finding quite enjoyable. I haven't even plugged it in!

I sent email tonight to the three wind players I've recruited for my
rescored version of "Slow Poison." I find that my mind still drifts to
Dream a lot, not surprising when it comes to this project, but perhaps
more surprising when it comes to listening to other music. The first
Sunset Rubdown album I burned for Dream to listen to last fall, only
to learn that he already had it. The new one is the sort of brilliant,
manic record that I felt I could really connect with Dream on. I felt
pangs of sadness many times this weekend knowing that I'd never be
able to talk to him about this album.

Gardening

I asked one of the landscape workers what was going to replace all of the plants that are being ripped out in front of UWMC. He didn't know: "That's up to the landscape architect." What power! I wish I had an army to redo my garden whenever I had a whim. Though I'm told that the plant scheme here has been the same for at least 20 years.

I stopped here on my way to a class on effective presentations. I know that I could use some help in this area. One of our exercises was to rewrite an introduction to give it more punch. This is what I wrote:

Here's a fact you may not know: The largest manufacturer of baby carriages in the U.S. is not Scwinn, Tonka or GM. It's Anheiser Busch. So perhaps it's not surprising that kids are abusing alcohol at younger and younger ages.

Georgetown Super 8

Tonight was the third(?) annual Georgetown Super 8 Film Fest. I think
around 500 people showed up; an overflow crowd.

The flicks were very hit or miss, as one would expect. Too many
cameras jerkily moving through the neighborhood for no particular
reason. But the interview with the veteran whom everyone knows as that
old guy who takes a walk every day was touching.

I skipped out at intermission to grab a Manny's and a Gringa at Smarty
Pants. Some loud, rather drunken party was going on there.

Unhappy dogwood :(

I began today doing chores and running errands. This included a stop
at Swanson's to ask for advice about what to do with my Cornus kousa
which, as you can see, is not doing well. Its bark is covered in white
spots, and it leafs out less and less each year. Last year it produced
almost no blossoms, and this year seems likely to be even worse. "Why
did I buy a supposedly disease-resistant dogwood when this one is
clearly dying?" I wondered.

About ready to chop the thing down, I decided to take photos of the
poor patient to Swanson's where, to my surprise, they diagnosed the
problem as simple underwatering. "These trees are not drought tolerate
AT ALL," Brenda firmly (but politely) informed me. I asked her if deep
watering twice a week - her recommended regimen - would bring it back.
"Not this year," she replied. "It's very stressed."

I hope a year of proper watering will produce a different result. I'll
put it in my calendar to take the same photo a year from today.

Book club

We were lucky enough to have scheduled book club on Saturday, which
turned out to be the nicest day of the year so far. The book, for
those of you keeping score, was "The Gathering," by Anne Enright.
Beautiful but sad.

Also beautiful, not sad, is book club member Julie. Here she is
studying Kirsten's back yard. And for the benefit of the pregnancy
fascists, yes, that is water in her wine glass.

Blossoms everywhere

I took this one of pear? cherry? trees in full bloom outside UWMC.
Some of these damn trees are giving me terrible allergies, but I love
them anyway.

I wish I had three hours off every day!

I had to leave work for awhile today to have my water heater replaced. Since they always give you a two- to three-hour window, I took advantage of the opportunity to clean up the basement a bit (at least enough for the guy from Benla to get my water heater out!) and pull some dandelions.

I also did some Internet browsing and ran across the review I wrote of Sketchingham, which I saw two weekends ago when I drove north to perform with RCB. 

Here's my new water heater, which I should have had put in awhile ago . . .

Obama vs. Entitlement

The time it took me to compose this photo of the signs outside the
43rd District precinct caucuses was unfortunately the best time I had
at that event. Well, that and the hot dog I bought from the cart out
front. I can't imagine going through this torture again, not even for
my man Obama. Nothing but a lot of irritating, entitled white folks
asking stupid questions and making boring speeches. Granted, I did
leave before 1pm, before the election of delegates to the next level.
I just could not take one more minute. Plus I had an RCB concert in
Bellingham.

Ants on the move

Swarming ants were an endless sorce of fascination when I was a kid.
I'm still mildly fascinated. Yesterday the ants in front of my house
were going frigging nuts, presumably preparing for the apocalypse.

Apologies for bad photography

but I had to put up something when I saw this guy driving the 44
yesterday. Like all of the other passengers who boarded after me, I
just smiled politely and didn't say anything to acknowledge his crown
when I boarded. And as I was sitting, chastising myself and Seattle
for being too cool to say some word of encouragement for this guy's snappy headgear choice, I thought damnit, I'm going to take this guy's photo and ask him his story.

So I didn't get a great picture obviously, but I did find out that it was not his birthday. Rather, he said he wears it as part of a group of drivers who wanted to reduce or mitigate complaints against them as Metro drivers. This guy hasn't had a complaint filed against him in 38(?) years of driving for Metro.

Busy weekend

I have all of these photos I took of RCB's "Renegayde Pep Band" when
we played impropmptu at various Broadway locales on Saturday. I would
not have participated if I'd realized how cold it was outside, but I'm
glad I took part. There's not enough impromptu anything in Seattle.
And how else are homeless guys in wheelchairs going to hear a gay pep
band?

This is Brandon in the foreground, by the way. He's a major
cornerstone of RCB and a heckuva nice guy.

Lost post

I wrote a few paragraphs about dosas at Malabar and how Paul Constant
at The Stranger beat me to the punch in blogging about what he read
during, and where he ate, lunch. But my post disappeared before it
could reach blog status. One thing I didn't mention in that lost post
- the owner tells me that the secret to the great dosa taste is using
mustard seed oil in the potatoes.

Too cold for "spring"

But you wouldn't know it from the display put on by these flowering
currant bushes on the Burke-Gilman. Many people get excited by the
invasive blackberries fruiting in the summer along the trail (and many
of those people become hazards themselves as they weave from one side
of the trail to the other in their tunnelvisioned quest for berries).
I look forward to the blooming of the mighty Ribes sanguineum. I have
a smaller version in my own garden, reminding me that spring is here,
eventually overcoming my skepticism.

Geeking out

This is what it feels like not to have commitments every night. Other
than self-imposed ones, that is.

With no class or RCB or gym this week, I'm able to focus on what I
really care about. I can listen to music, create songs, reflect on how
music makes me feel and how it helps me cope with all the sadness and
loss in the world.

I hate this guy!

Just had a slight argument with the barista at Trabant when I showed
him this photo. "I kinda liked this guy," he said. "I'm really kind of
a libertarian."

Well, I've seen a lot of libertarians, and Ron Paul is no libertarian!
He's more a right-wing isolationist nut job, as The Stranger has noted
more than once. The fact that he was able to garner support from so
many otherwise intelligent folks says a lot about how little we pay
attention in this country.

Good riddance, asshole!

Garden begins to awaken

I'm not entirely happy with this photo, but then again I'm never
entirely happy with my garden either. This PJM-relative rhododendron
is blooming better than last year, but it's been several years now
since it's bloomed in full. It's such a sweet plant otherwise that I
don't have the heart to remove it.

Luckily, it's about to be joined in bloom by these white tulips I
planted last fall. If there is anything I've learned through years of
planting successes and failures, it's that you can't have too many
bulbs.

Everybody poops

This sign has been the talk of our office (well, of the men anyway).
What does it mean? How does one use the toilet "inappropriately"? I'm
sure I don't want to know...

Satan! Satan! Satan!

Having just tried Ginger Teriyaki for the first time, I think I know
why people are staying away in droves. It's not the location, which is
primo (45th & the Ave). It's not the décor, which has been nicely
redone for a hole in the wall. It's not even the teriyaki, which is as
good or better than any other place on the Ave.

No, the problem is the radio. KGNW. God Talk over AM. Testimonials
about home schooling. Why we get mad at God more than he gets mad at
us. Aaaaugh! I can't take it. At least at the dry cleaners, I only
have to listen to Xtian radio for a minute while picking up my pants.
At Ginger Teriyaki, I'm stuck until I wolf down my whole chicken bowl.

Then again, maybe it's just their way of clearing tables (as if they
need any help). Or maybe they want to move to a takeout-only business
model.

In any event, their nondenominational God appears to be losing to
Taqueria Mi Charrito's telenovela/futbol-fueled Catholic one, if this
sign comparison is any, uh, sign. Viva mi charrito! (Their taco al
pastor rules.)

Night off

I so seldom seem to have time to myself these days. Rehearsals two
nights a week, class one night a week, and other random tasks or
social obligations filling up the rest.

I have a presentation due on Wednesday night, and I was going to spend
tonight working on it. But then I had a brilliant idea: Why not take
Wednesday off? It seemed too simple. It WAS simple.

So I'll finish the presentation on Wednesday at my leisure. Tonight
it's the Zombie War.

Recording Session

Yesterday was our first time recording since we lost Dream. 

Our friend Jason, ex-Red Stars Theory and Sun Vow, graciously agreed to practice his audio engineering skills on us, and brought along his Pro Tools rig.

We decided to lay the bass down first, so Kaley had the joyous task of playing her part over and over again.

Three hours later, I was ready to do something completely different, so I went over to Rachel & Lyle's house for their moving/art sale. Rachel is pictured here, overjoyed that I have offered to buy a meat purse from her. 

Pre-funk

Gin, soda and new tattoos at CC's pre-Comeback. This is apparently the
first night that Sean has worn shoes since his latest tattoo.

Bridges of Seattle

For the first year or two I lived in Seattle, I was entranced by the
canal bridges. I would always hop out of my car whenever the bridge
went up, to have a closer look at whatever boats were interrupting the
traffic flow. I'm sure some people thought I was nuts, but what the
he'll else are you gonna do while waiting for the bridge to go back
down?

Recently I started getting out of my car again when the bridge goes
up. Something about being reminded that life is too short. Here's the
lone sailboat that caused the Ballard Bridge to go up yesterday.

The master plan

I would like to have pleasant smells and colors greet me whenever I
step out my front door. But there isn't nearly enough of that in late
winter / early spring. So last fall, I finally followed the advice of
Julie's hero Ciscoe Morris, among others, and planted as many early
spring bulbs as I possibly could. At least 100 bulbs I reckon.

They are just now starting to make themselves known. Here are one of
the clumps of crocuses I planted last fall. There are also narcissus,
tulips and allium.

Wasting time

I needed to buy extra equipment in order to edit my Sibelius score, so
I decided to hit the U District (as if I don't get enough of it during
the week). I passed Thai Tom just as they opened, so NO LINE. And I
was out of there in 20 minutes.

Frigging gorgeous day

I was thinking about going to an Obama fundraiser after work, but I
was wiped. Having seen the incredible sunrise this morning through the
windows of the IMA but not having had easy access to my iPhone's
camera to record it, I decided on a slight detour from my regular bike
ride home to take in the sunset at Gasworks. It was well worth the
additional two minutes' ride.

So many good times yet to be had

There are so many people complaining about what Seattle has become,
and I can't really disagree that it's expensive and filled with people
who feel profoundly entitled.

But all of the money and attention have brought great changes to the
bar/restaurant scene. Ten years ago, who would have thought one could
hang out on Capitol Hill and enjoy a wild boar sloppy joe and a glass
of garnacha in the spot previously occupied by the worst Mexican joint
in town?

The allure no longer escapes me

My friend and fellow trumpeter Doug got an iPhone months before I did.
I don't spend as much time browsing and texting as he is does
(demonstrated here), but I do find myself reaching for the camera
quite often.

My life as defined by where I buy coffee

Over the course of the last 15+ years, I've frequented a number of
coffee establishments, including Vivace (every location, even the long-
defunct cart downtown), Bauhaus, Victrola (both locations), Pegasus,
Lighthouse (still my vendor of choice for beans), and the new
Stumptown on 12th.

But few places balance atmosphere, enthusiasm and fine coffee like
Trabant in the U District. I've become addicted to stopping there
after lunch each weekday for a nonfat iced latte or one of their
featured varietals made in their trendsetting Clover machine. (I hear
that Starbucks is even testing one at a store in Greenwood.)

Trabant is another nicety of the U District that I will miss. I will
miss the employees as well, including sweetheart Jonathan here.

One of the things I love about working @ the UW

Almost every weekday, I take a bus to the Ave to eat lunch. The lack
of cheap ethnic food is perhaps the thing I like least about our
office's impending move to South Lake Union. Well, that and the extra
20 minutes it will take me to bike to work every day.

I know that most of the teriyaki joints are owned & run by Koreans,
but this place, whose name I don't know despite walking by it hundreds
of times, serves Korean food almost exclusively. I seldom eat Korean,
so I decided to give it a shot.

I had the beef hot pot. Very hearty, if a bit too sweet.

Despite the bad jokes and too many birthdays

I really enjoyed Darcelle's. She's quite the Portland institution at
age 77.

More Portland

I brought watercolor paint by numbers sets for my cousins Spencer and
Avery. Avery loved painting her inner princess.

First order of business in PDX

I always seem to have to stop at Stumptown in Southeast first thing
whenever I come to Portland. This even though there are now two of
them in Seattle. I think this one makes the best lattes of all of
them. And it seems the most neighborhoody.

Coppergate

Hanging with my friend J.D. here @ Coppergate in Ballard. Here's the
cheese plate.

First iPhone Blog Post

I had seen this piece of paper poking out of the locker next to mine
at the IMA for several days. Today I decided to see what it was. I
figured it would be a locker renewal notice, but I never would have
guessed the notice would be more than 30 years old!

Apparently this notice and an identical one on top of it were stuffed
in a crack above the baskets and have been slowly wrenching themselves
out since 1975. Of course, most of the customers of the IMA weren't
even born when this notice was typed. Most have never "typed" anything
in their lives!

Regroup

It's been a very up-and-down week. The biggest "up" was participating in my local Democratic caucus on Saturday. My precinct went three-to-one for Obama, and I was elected as a delegate to the district (or is it county?) level. Here's what it looked like 20 minutes or so before the caucus started.

The biggest "down" was attending the memorial for Dream a week ago. Meeting his family and reuniting with his other friends was very draining emotionally. But it was also very cathartic. Dream's friend Lara took some wonderful photos of the memorial, including shots of his artwork, his music, his movies, his clothing (!), and finally photos of the few photos he allowed himself to be in.

Witch Hazel

One of the great joys of gardening in front of my house is mid-January, when the witch hazel comes into bloom. Its smell is truly intoxicating, and not easy to describe. It's rather medicinal. But in a good way. And when I snip a few branches and bring them in, the scent of the blossoms slowly takes over.

Here are a couple of witch hazel branches which I'm taking to dinner at my friend Bailey's house tonight.

RIP Dream Smith: 1976 - 2008

dream killed himself sometime after 1am on new year's day in seattle. he had sent me several songs over the past few weeks. most were new mixes of songs he had been working on with our band. some were songs he never intended to perform with other people. (he liked to perform at open mikes, such as the ones at mr. spot's chai house in ballard or trabant in the u district.) the tracks he sent me in early december all showed up in my itunes with the album title "begin." the ones he sent me late in the month had the album title "end." 

i didn't notice the album titles at the time, much less attach any significance to them. now i think that they must be a clue as to what he was planning to do.

i have many feelings at once about dream's death. i'm sad, obviously, but i also feel guilty, angry, stunned. and because almost all of my interaction with him was musical, i am obsessed with thoughts about his music. what is going to happen to it? so much of it, especially the last half dozen songs of his that he wrote (that i know about), are much better than 90% of the songs i hear on kexp. if songwriting ability were the sole determinant of success, dream would have already become the rock star he wanted to be. 

a line in the last song he sent me was going through my head for several days before i knew he had died:

he's well past the point of saving

i never thought that that line applied to dream himself, until after he was gone.

Fuck fuck fuck

I just got email from someone I've never met that our guitarist, Dream Smith, died on New Year's Eve. I had not heard anything from him for over a week and was frankly at the end of my rope trying to figure what what was going on. I still don't know what's going on; I just emailed this bearer of terrible news to find out more details.

Dream was a very smart, sensitive man. I wish I had gotten to know him better in the six months or so of our acquaintance. Dream was also a brilliant songwriter. Some of his songs (not ones he was doing with us) are on his MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/softblanket

There is a local memorial for Dream tomorrow night. I am going, though I may not know anyone there other than my "date," Kaley.