9.29.2006

Midnight in a Perfect World

This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever had the pleasure of listening to and last week I got to hear it live from Josh Davis himself. If you have never heard it do yourself a favor and check it out now. Now go buy Endtroducing, you might not like all the songs on it but don't tell me that cause I will start reconsidering our friendship.

The Shadow concert was invigorating. I had forgotten what seeing a good concert is like as I have not been to a good one like this in a while. He mixed his own stuff with a pretty interesting video that he and another guy had put together. This show was different from previous shows of his because it was a personal journey through his career which has lasted over 15 years now (A scary side note, he mentioned this at the concert and I realized how long I had been listening to him and by proxy how old I am now) and it was exciting to see his take on his progression as an artist. I remember the first time I saw him and it was just him and the wheels of steel. He tore up an amazing set. The mix still stands as one of the most eclectic yet complete I have ever heard. This show was as focused as that set was sprawling and I liked seeing both sides.

I like artists who refuse to stop growing. I do not like all the new songs of his new album or even off his old album but the fact that he continues to push himself and his craft is an inspiration. This most recent album could be argued to be schizophrenic because he tries so many different approaches to music. What is amazing though is the way in which he is able to produce masterful songs in styles he has never touched surpassing those who spend their whole focus on these areas. The David Banner track is truly a standout.

Overall an amazing concert and one that I know I will look back on fondly. The rest of the night proved to be the other side of the coin and I will talk about that soon (Hopefully tomorrow but we will see).

9.14.2006

The Real World Seattle

One of Morgan’s friends visited Seattle yesterday for a couple of hours. She works on a cruise ship and it was docked here briefly so me and Chris Clark met up with her. She has just spent four months in South America and Chris is heading there soon so I thought it would be good for them to meet up.

After getting a full body search and the now obligatory “do you have any other ID, this license is expired” talk we finally got into the port to pick her up. We went to Le Pichet and the market for a couple of hours and had a nice time catching up. Chris was able to ask some questions about his trip. All and all a successful little visit.

When we left to drive her back to the boat we decided to go through an alley to a one way street heading in the direction we needed. This is where Bianca saw the real Seattle. After one crack head poked her head out of a recessed doorway we were on our guard. Passing the next dumpster we saw a circle of people sitting down filling up syringes with heroin, staring at us as we drove past in Chris’ beemer. With Chris shuddering from the needle sighting we passed another dumpster and saw two men smoking crack, one of whom was in a wheelchair. Way to go Seattle. The three of us agreed that this was something you don’t see every day and we sent Bianca off with a great story about the joys of Seattle.

9.11.2006

The Drunken Race

This Saturday was the pub race. For the non-Seattle residents a quick primer is located here. For those too lazy to read that site the gist is that you cross a scavenger hunt and a pub crawl. We ran around Seattle for 5 hours drinking heavily and looking for McDonald’s happy meal toys (note I did not say a hard scavenger hunt).

My team mate was Marques and our team was team champion. Due to our combined weight being much higher than everyone else and our ability to drink (coupled with Marques' competitive streak) we were the favorites entering the race. On the walk down to the first bar we prepared by grabbing some maps, water and protein bars which according to the FDA lower your blood alcohol level. At the restaurant we engaged in much strategizing and general bullshit with everyone else, thoroughly enjoying ourselves.




Once the race was on we were off running all over Seattle quickly becoming more and more inebriated. If you saw me in Capitol Hill running around let me know what I was doing as things got fuzzy at that point. It was a fun time and many thanks go out to Teresa and Jacob for organizing such an enjoyable time.

After two pounds of water weight and about 20 drinks Marques and I lived up to the hype. We took the title with Ben and Stina coming in a close second. Here is a nice picture of the trophy.


I have a good picture of Marques with the bartender at Linda’s but cannot get any pictures of my camera at the moment. They will be added once I pull the right cable out of a box somewhere.

The one thing I don’t have a picture of but wish I did was Marques’ shirt right before we had to switch them as one of the last challenges. Now I will be the first to admit that I sweat a lot but that shirt was dripping water. It was awesome. The people who loved it the most though were the people in the deluxe who had to hear in graphic sailor blushing detail why I did not want to wear it anymore and then see Marques and I’s naked bellies as we switched back getting fore-mentioned sweat all over their dinner. Nice.

I am already looking forward to next year.