Saturday music

My friend Nick was amused that I managed to squeeze Mahler and Akimbo
into the same evening. At 8pm, I was onstage at Benaroya with the
Symphony Chorale singing Mahler's 8th, easily one of my favorite
choral works I've ever sung.

A quick costume change and bus ride later, i was on Capitol Hill to
see Akimbo play their tenth anniversary show at King Cobra. Since the
headliners weren't on till midnight, I had plenty of time to hang with
Nick, as well as other friends/girlfriends/parents/members (Jon & Nat)
of Akimbo. Jon's mom, in particular, was fabulous. Cheeky. And she was
selling band merch before the show!

Akimbo played a very exciting, very loud set. Now that I think about
it, high decibel levels were common to both concerts.

Is that my finger on a can of PBR?

Why yes it is. But that is not my PBR. I am not hip enough to drink
that shit. I am the owner of the vodka tonic to the right.

Working lunch

This is how I spent my lunch yesterday. Singapore Noodles with a side
of Mahler's 8th. I feel pretty good about the Symphony/Chorale's prep
work for tonight's first performance of this big work. But I'm also
reminded why I left the Chorale in the first place - too little time
for polishing pieces other than the over-performed Messiah and Ode to
Joy. I'd much rather sing Mahler every year.

The grapevine ate your baby

A couple of years ago, I cut down one of the two Orion grapevines
growing over my pergola. I thought I had cut it back far enough that
it would not regrow.

I was wrong. For two years now, Stubby has been reborn as a tenacious
ground cover. I don't really mind, except that it twines around
everything in its path. It has swallowed up my pathetic Miss Kim
lilac. It grabbed the legs of a deck chair. It attacked a dying
Arbutus unedo. And now it has pulled a flowepot off the deck.

Next year, rather than fighting it, I may let it have its way as the
dominant groundcover. Or I may come to my senses and hack it back yet
again.

Absolutely appalling

Everyone is concerned about Sarah Palin's lack of foreign policy experience, but John McCain has his own issues. He thinks that Spain is in Latin America.

Here's the full story, in Spanish:
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/candidato/republicano/compromete/ver/Zapatero/gana/elpepiint/20080918elpepiint_9/Tes

And here's a link to the audio of the interview (in English).

As someone who spent three of the best months of my life in Spain, I can just imagine the cynical glee with which our Spanish friends read this interview in El País. (Readers give the article 4.5 stars out of five.)

Teak oil

I spent part of this past weekend sanding and applying the first coats
of teak oil to my front door. I was going to just paint it. I figured
refinishing it for the third time was too much trouble. But Emily
reminded me that paint wouldn't last much longer, and the door has to
be sanded regardless. So I bit the bullet.

It's not going to look as good as the last time I refinished it. The
door has just suffered too much damage from its west exposure. It
would behoove me to extend the door frame to accommodate a storm door.

I know everyone else already knows this stuff, so back off!

I recently bought my first couple of iPhone apps. That's right, PAID
MONEY. I bought Guitar Toolkit and the SpeakEasy voice recorder. It's
amazing that there are multiple competing apps that do these things! I
expect these little apps will come in very handy with the songwriting
and the guitar practice. The latter really suffered this week, what
with Symphony Chorale, RCB and [band redacted] practice every night.
But not tonight! Must. Practice. Guitar.

I also downloaded the Remote app to control iTunes on my laptop. That
should be a very sweet app, and it's free!

Now if they will just develop an app that allows you to use the iPhone
as a video camera without having to unlock the phone, my taste for
apps will be satiated. For now. Until someone informs me of another
function my significant other is capable of (since my iPhone is the
closest thing I've got to an SO at the moment).

OZ Mania!

My RCB friends Richie and David have told me several times that I need
to see Orkestar Zirkonium. Last night I finally attended one of their
shows at Columbia City Theatre.

Wow! OZ was easily the most fun I've had at a concert in at least a
year. The musicianship was incredibly high. I felt like I was in a
Balkan bar, especially at the end, when those of us in the back of the
theater were clapping and dancing in time with the band.

The source of my best dining experience in Seattle

is moving.

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.