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...

Dec 25, 2012

Comcast: Comcast technical support, may I help you? Me: Good evening, my cable modem has lost sync. Comcast: What’s your phone number? Me: 2-0-6-8-6-7-5-3-0-9 Comcast: Give me just a minute. Me: No problem. (a minute later) Comcast: And what operating system are you using? Me: It doesn’t matter. Comcast: Well, we only support Windows and Mac...

Dec 24, 2012

What better way to celebrate the birth of HeyZeus than going to Seattle’s north side to look at Christmas lights?  Why, it’s a Seattle Christmas tradition. Our first stop tonight was Candy Cane Lane in Ravenna, perhaps the best-known of all Seattle Christmas streets. As usual, the lights at CCL were quite engaging. I just wish it was possible to go...

Dec 24, 2012

It’s a tough time to be an American consumer. It’s a tough time to be an American. I always knew it would come to this, but being the Pollyanna that I am, I was hoping that it wouldn’t. Two and a half years ago, I bought my first Android device, an HTC EVO, and even though it was a battery-draining, unstable mess … I sung its...

Dec 22, 2012

After an aborted attempt to ride the new Seattle Ferris Wheel (or The Seattle Great Wheel as it’s officially called), in late October, we finally headed down to Pier 57 for another attempt. A slightly more successful attempt. As the sun was hanging low over Elliott Bay, about 45 minutes before it officially set, we walked up to the ticket booth and...

Dec 17, 2012

Last night, I saw Sunn O))) and Earth at the Neptune, along with opening bands Lioncloth and Dead in the Dirt. I went primarily to see Dylan’s band … and they didn’t disappoint. I just wish they’d been able to play for a little longer. Shortly after Earth’s set, Sunn O))) took the stage, and I instantly had my scalp peeled back by...

Dec 15, 2012

Shock. When a colleague came into my office yesterday and told me to read the news, that was my reaction, along with disgust, disbelief, anger, sadness, and sympathy. The intellectual side of my brain realized that I was being a hypocrite.  After all, I’d read about the deaths of innocent civilians, including children, at the hands of our troops, on many...

Dec 8, 2012

Downtown Seattle is a much more pleasant place in the fall than it is in the summer. Less traffic, less heat, more lights, fewer bopo boys with skateboards and pit bills, fewer homeless people, fewer tourists, fewer homeless tourists … from the perspective of a resident, it’s just better in every way. Last night, it was even better than usual. On...

“Seasons in the Sun”. It’s been awhile since I heard the old Terry Jacks tune, so I headed over to YouTube this fine Saturday morning, and I pulled up the original 70′s version of the song. Fucking awful, but goddammit, original (even though it is a quasi-cover). When the jewfro version of the song … my parent’s version...

Nov 28, 2012

Another day, another SPD scandal. There have been several in the past few months, but for the most part, I’ve tried to just ignore them. Nothing can be done, really. There’s little probability of change. There’s little support for change. John Diaz remains Chief of Police, and Mayor McGinn … a mayor I used to support … is...

Nov 25, 2012

Nov 23, 2012

This morning, shortly after 9am, the Seattle Christmas Parade kicked off. It looked very much like the pictures on this page. Once the parade ended, the Westlake Carousel officially opened, and I was on a maiden voyage of the 2012 season. Things got off to a rocky start when, shortly after it started spinning, the carousel began making a clank-clank-clank...

Nov 22, 2012

Democrats … Republicans … Tea Partiers … Batshits … Wingnuts … Screwballs … Good God is it any wonder why this country is one flush away from joining the Roman Empire at the bottom of the civilization septic tank? When the corrupt government’s main opposition is retarded fucksticks like the douchejockeys pictured above,...

Nov 13, 2012

Yesterday was an exciting day for yours truly. It’s a day I had been eagerly awaiting for months. Yesterday, Pike Grocery finally opened its doors, and as soon as my ferry docked, I beat a hasty path to its doors. What I found left me quite pleased. A grocery, a convenience store, a deli, oh my. Beer, wine, salty snacks, milk, produce … Pike...

Nov 12, 2012

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Nov 7, 2012

Congratulations Evil, you beat Stupid. You must be so very, very proud. Today, we’ll celebrate, but tomorrow, well, tomorrow, we’ll all go back to complaining about the government we just elected. After all, we’re Seattleites. Complaining is what we do. “Oh the weather is so bad, it always rains here!” … as if it’s...

Nov 3, 2012

Well, I voted. I voted for a few existing candidates, abstained from a couple, but mostly, I wrote myself in. “Rex” in some spaces, “Seattle Rex” in others, depending on what I felt like at the moment. Both are accurate, and historically, this is what I’ve always done, usually to a fair amount of criticism. “You’re...

Nov 2, 2012

Download Video: MP4 Last night was Halloween, or depending on when I had time to post this, maybe it was the night before. We walked to Hilltop, where we went trick-or-treating. There was a flash mob there. I took pictures and a video. On the way, we encountered three groups of people who had wheelbarrows full of candy. They gave us some candy....

Oct 29, 2012

Yesterday, “Hilloween” (Capitol Hill Halloween) was once again celebrated in Cal Anderson Park. Kids aged 1-51 got freebies from local businesses, played games, and were treated to concerts from a variety of performers … the most popular being the Recess Monkey, a children’s music group based right here in Seattle. The festivities were...

Oct 27, 2012

Everyone I meet in my day-to-day life assumes that I am a Democrat. It’s a fair assumption, I suppose. After all, I’m an atheist, I have a bleeding-heart on most social issues, I believe in universal healthcare, I’m anti-large corporation, I’ve been a champion of gay rights, I believe in the legalization of all drugs, the legalization...

Oct 16, 2012

Brick and mortar stores. With the exception of food, and a few forays to the new Target, I don’t visit them very often. I’ve moved almost all of my shopping online. This past weekend was an exception. On Saturday, I broke yet another guitar string (it’s an epidemic lately), and when I plowed through my cannibalized packets of strings, I had...

Oct 10, 2012

When I was in my teens, I coined a phrase that I’ve been using ever since. “You can be right, or you can be popular, but never both.” While every rule has its exceptions, for the most part, I think the phrase stands up impeccably to the realities of the human animal. I’ve taken a lot of shit from people over the years, and while I have...

Oct 6, 2012

It could be worse. You could live 26 miles south. Beef, Chicken, or...

Oct 4, 2012

“Do you need your cane?” I wanted to kill myself when my wife posed this question to me. Sometimes, I think Kurt had this one pegged. Maybe it is better to burn out than fade away. On this night, I was seriously wishing that I had. This past Saturday, my back went out again. This made it the third … fourth time this year. I’ve...

Sep 29, 2012

Today is the end of an era. The 40 year-old Downtown Seattle Ride-Free Zone is no moe. I can hear it now: “Yay! It’s about time those free-loadin’ nigras, homeless people, and all around losers start payin’ ther fayer shayer! I ain’t no socialist! With the exception of public schools, public roads, public police, public fire...