May 13, 2013

Mike McCready once ruined a friendship of mine. This was a shame, because the friend in question was an interesting guy. He wrote a book about his experiences teaching in inner-city LA high schools, worked as a writer/producer on several television shows, and he even won the game show Jeopardy several times in a row. On most Sundays, he and I would grab...

May 11, 2013

December 2011, late-July 2012, August 2012, and September 2012 broke records for dry stretches. Downtown Seattle went roughly 100 days without seeing so much as a drop of rain. In many King County locales, records were broken. January 2013 had a near-record stretch of dryness, followed by an overcast … yet notably dry February 2013. March was...

May 4, 2013

Last Monday, I was speaking with someone about the upcoming May Day festivities. “Seattle doesn’t have riots”, I told him, “we have hissy fits.” Shortly before the protests started, I explained to another person, “Seattle riots are different than most. Here, there’ll be 100 white guys with $5,000 cameras trying to make...

Apr 30, 2013

You rallied. You begged. Washington basketball fans have been shitting David Stern’s semen for the last 4 years, and when it came time to man up, extend a middle finger, and send that asshole packing, what did you all do? You got down on your hands and knees like a bunch of little bitches and took a load right in the face. Pow! Right in the kisser! So,...

Apr 27, 2013

After watching the above video, you may come to the conclusion that the answer is “yes”. This is where we are as a society folks.  A point where the guy in a superhero costume officially makes more rational, logical sense than does the Mayor, the Chief of Police, and every bobble-headed human teleprompter on every “news” station in...

Apr 26, 2013

I have a well-established track record of staking out wildly-unpopular-at-the-time positions, which, sometimes years later … become far more popular positions. When I first started “blogging”, I took a lot of flak for using four-letter words. I was called classless, compared to trailer trash, and people rushed to distance themselves from me. ...

Apr 21, 2013

This Capitol Hill resident posted a sign notifying birds that they are not welcome in his unit, but it was a complete waste of ink and paper because as everyone knows, birds can’t rea … wait a minute … hold on here … awwwwwwwwwwwwwww … I see what this guy did here! Touche’, random attention whore …...

Apr 21, 2013

“Hey, with the check my dad sent me, let’s open up an eatery in one of Seattle’s main tourist attractions, then get all shitty about people with cameras.” “Sure.  My mom says I should be a model anyway, and that people should charge for pictures of me.” “Cool, my mom says I’m special too.” “Wanna get...

Apr 7, 2013

Ah, spring. Clouds lift, flowers bloom, Rainier peeks out from behind the clouds, and almost as if on queue, Washington State Ferries begin to fill up with the seasonal bane of everyone’s existence … tourists. “Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello!”, shouted the toddler, mere inches from my face. “She just learned how to say...

Mar 31, 2013

Last night, hipsters stood stoically, pointing gently above the stage, careful not to spill their PBR’s, while across town, their fathers were stage-diving and crowd-surfing like twenty-somethings. Such is the state of affairs in 2013 Seattle. What, exactly, got the Gen Xers so riled up last night? I’m glad you asked. You see, Seattle’s...

Mar 18, 2013

Mar 17, 2013

When I first read the proclamation above, I rolled my eyes. “Overshadowed by male-dominated bands”, I said, “oooh, sounds sinister.” I couldn’t help but wonder, though … what exactly is a male-DOMINATED band? Were the Beatles a male-dominated band? How about Simon & Garfunkel? Were the Go-Gos a female-dominated...

Feb 26, 2013

I’ve been busy for the past couple of weeks, and I have a backlog of photos that I just haven’t had fifteen spare minutes to post. Back on February 9th, the annual Chinese New Year celebration was held in the I.D., and I was surprised by the number of people that turned out. In my opinion, Seattle’s Chinatown has always been underrated. ...

Feb 9, 2013

“You know that thing about punk rock being freedom?”, I asked rhetorically. “Yeah”, said the guy who fronted a band that many would call punk. “Well, it’s a load of shit. Punk rock isn’t freedom. Punk rock is privileged white kids rebelling against daddy’s money.” He stared into the distance for what seemed...

Feb 3, 2013

This was the marquee at the Show Box last night: Here are my tickets, so far, for February’s shows. What year is it again???? A few months ago, Love Battery’s Ron Nine was interviewed by The Stranger, and in the article, he was asked for his thoughts on the “g” word. “Speaking for myself, I always kind of rebelled against the word...

Feb 2, 2013

For many years, I made a living as a bicycle messenger. It was a tough job, but in those days, the days before email became ubiquitous, it was one of the few jobs which afforded young proletariat adults a quasi-legal way to make a better-than-minimum wage. Winter was especially harsh, but due to a reduced number of messengers on the streets that time of year,...

Jan 30, 2013

In the last few months, I’ve had a few emails, not to mention a few real-life conversations, expressing surprise that I have not touched on a subject. That subject, is the legalization of marijuana in the State of Washington. It was generally assumed (correctly) that I supported legalization, and some folks are stumped by my lack of enthusiasm over the...

Jan 20, 2013

This afternoon, Easy Street Records in Lower Queen Anne opened one last time to auction off its remaining inventory. Armed with $50 or so, I went down to pay my final respects, and to perhaps pick up an item or two as well. I figured that I might pick up a poster for $15, a rare record for $20 … or something along those lines. I would soon find out,...

Jan 19, 2013

It’s a depressing time to be a Seattleite. It’s a depressing time to be an American. Over the last decade, I’ve watched not only the middle-class dry up, but small businesses dry up as well. While some places in this country are still doing better than others, in 2013 Seattle, you’d either have to be insane to start a small business, or...

Jan 12, 2013

snow day noun a day on which public schools or other institutions are closed due to heavy snow. What child doesn’t love a snow day? A day off from school to play games, build snow men, go sledding … why, it ranks right up there with Christmas for most kids. Earlier today, my daughter informed me that there was going to be a giant snowball fight at...

Jan 10, 2013

In case you haven’t heard, speculation has begun to run rampant here in Emerald City about the possibility of the Sonics returning to Seattle, by way of the Sacramento Kings. Rumor has it that they would play in Key Arena for two seasons before moving into a new arena in SODO. While this is technically still a rumor, started by a single tweet, it’s...

Jan 8, 2013

I was up watching SNL this weekend so I could catch The206 afterward. The206, was good, but 15 minutes of commercials for a 30 minute show, and watching Keister pimping local businesses made me realize just how much the country has changed since Almost Live’s heydey. The in-your-face emphasis on the show making money wasn’t lost on anyone, but you...

Jan 1, 2013

You know, sometimes I envy suburban tourists. I truly do. After all, they don’t have to wait 10 minutes each way for an elevator when they leave their homes; don’t have to smell what 15 people are cooking for dinner … at the same time; don’t have to listen to their neighbor argue with her partner at 2am every morning. After coming home...

Dec 31, 2012

I may be many things, but a procrastinator is not one of them. Twelve hours before 2013 even starts, and I’ve already taken care of my first resolution … a resolution which was the lead entry in my “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” category: I’ve been meaning to leave Facebook for awhile, I just never got around...

Dec 30, 2012

Earlier this year, Christine Gregoire, bowing to Hollywood interests, took a page out of the Ronald Reagan playbook, and instituted trickle-down economics for moneyed filmmakers in the State of Washington. You know, the very same moneyed filmmakers who declared Republicans to be evil for advocating trickle-down economics. See, according to Democrats, tax cuts...