From St. Paul to "Lisbon"

It's way too easy to join the eruption of literary praise surrounding Jonathan Franzen's new novel.  Just as it's equal parts self-promoting laziness to piss all over what Franzen's accomplished.  I'm still in the middle when it comes to this event, er, book.  Mainly because I haven't finished "Freedom" and I've not exactly felt driven to devour it whole.  And while I'm still a big big fan of Franzen's talents, I'd like to take a slighter different tack.  One utterly without plot spoilers.  Namely, I need to say something about what Franzen offered up for his authorial lecture in Seattle earlier this week.  In short, it was a gawddamn travesty.

Big books, thankfully, still can garner big spotlights in the right places - no matter how much that list of places is dwindling.  Nonetheless, that was the case in the way Seattle Arts & Lectures promoted Tuesday evening with Franzen at Benaroya Hall.  It was my first visit to that symphonic wonder.  Gorgeous, filled with warm wood and all the glitter of money donated from the largess of what's now a different economy.  Franzen remarked himself after being bathed in a typically laudatory intro that "wow, this is a big room."  And Seattle's book-thirsty population (real or imagined) really showed up in its best dress fleece and tweediness.  You could practically feel the intellectual lust dripping off the seat backs and gumming up the floor throughout.  Bookish horndogs are so adorable.  So all Franzen needed to do was give a coy turn of the shoulder or bare a subtly original angle.  In which case, he could have serviced every single sizable IQ in the place simultaneously.  Instead, he read (from old, unedited notes) a "talk" he'd delivered in Germany last year.  Some won't fault the dood - he admitted as much himself, making the obvious joke about how Seattle's so full of bibliophiles that he couldn't do a regular book tour event here.  But I can't be so kind.  As much as I admire Franzen's work and the exposure he brings to the general craft of novel writing, he couldn't have underwhelmed the room more if he'd cinched up the chastity belt wrapped 'round his wit and sprayed us all down with an ice water firehose.  Well, maybe that's a bit stretched.  Let's just say that a full price ticket general admission ticket ($30 frickin' bucks - still a chafe at half price) proved about as stimulating as a handjob in a glove factory.  I'll come back to review the book next week.  His work should merit this double billing.  But that SAL event was a disgrace, dood. 

On another level of satisfaction, the new album from The Walkmen ("Lisbon") has offered up one of those rare surprises that keeps me going back to my record store week after week.  These guys know how to tunefully kvetch and lament.  They also know better than most acts how to craf compelling songs and deliver them with full gut emotion.  I'm intrigued by what they've done here.  My rating for this album - an impressed and curious B-plus.  Heading north, I expect.  

The new Arizona Tea - now with more over-processed white sugar

What a Seattle morning.  Gray as Glenn Beck's heart outside, but the energy where I've been indoors is off the charts.  I had to visit REI's flagship store to get a new exercise BPA-free hydration system (translation: plastic water jug on a belt).  Every dood or doodette there was AMPED! at 9:15am.  This came after dropping Maya into the friendly din of Friday activity that is her pre-school (ah, the excitement of the sabbath's cup runeth overeth).  And before sticking my head into the Espresso Vivace across from REI where the crowd was lined up out the door although no one waiting for a fix seemed to mind.  Our society has so many squeaky wheel moments.  Waiting for coffee can surely be one of them.  But when you see a group of people being this tolerant and kind to one another (while buying drugs, no less) it gives me hope that we CAN all get along.  At least until that second jolt starts tipping the collective attitude a bit more toward Happy Hour and thoughts of the weekend and...well, I'll just try to enjoy the moment.

I'd be an incomplete version of myself if I didn't at least weigh in on Arizona's immigration bill.  It would surely be easy to scoff at the stupidity of that bill's timing and intent.  It is, after all, one of the stupidest bits of legislation I've ever seen come down the pike.  I can't see how it isn't undercut or gutted entirely by the lawsuits already mounting.  But for me, one aspect remains largely forgotten in the discussion.  In a best case scenario, who wins?  Did the bill's sponsors envision a reduction in Arizona's budget for services that are somehow available to illegal immigrants?  Did someone expect an atmosphere of intolerance would scare immigrants away, sending them to the other border states and erecting a metaphorical border the length of not only Arizona's southern desert, but those American borders to the east, west and north?  I don't have anything to base this on other than gut instinct and way too much time spent listening to the blather on all sides, but I do have a best case scenario theory.  Arizona wanted to draw the population of Tea Partiers there, to buy the overbuilt suburbs of Phoenix (one of the worst real estate markets in the country).  They wanted to draw the Tea Party to hold an anti-Burning Man and similar caravan events for Euro-America.  The problem is that summer's basically here.  Arizona sucks this time of year.  Maybe some of their more short-sighted residents wanted to make that a year-round thing.  That, after all, would make about as much sense as anything I've heard.

Hope your own questions are answered in the asking today.  Rock on.

Upping the randomness. You're welcome.

I'm going to go back to an older style of blog randomness this week.  A number of things have caught my eye and I'm behind on throwing a few thoughts at the ramparts.  Here goes.

Saddest story of the past week was the suicide of a Vermont artist that always made me chuckle.  That sounds totally condescending and inappropriate given the gravity of taking one's life.  But if you know anything of Stephen Huneck's work, you'll realize that I'm not a total cad.  Huneck was known for the folk art he did largely centered around cartoonishly-sweet images of dogs.  He spread his success widely - I remember being in Colorado for a wedding back in 2002 and stumbling upon a studio of his work.  I think he also opened one in Carmel at some point.  According to the story I saw in the Burlington Free Press, he was despondent after laying off his employees last week.  The economy hits artists, too.  Especially the rare ones that not only have employees, but appear to care very deeply about them.  Google Huneck's work - I'll bet you've seen some. 

On the other end of the spectrum, the story in yesterday's Style section of the NYTimes was a laugh riot.  It dealt with a bunch of anecdotal New Yorkers that are living what was described in many ways, but constitutes a "caveman" diet and lifestyle.  Dudes eating loads of meat, exercising by throwing around rocks and the like, fasting for 24+ hours between meals, and generally being hilarious.  These "paleo diet" folks are welcome around my campfire anytime. 

All of Seattle is as damp as a locker room towel bin after a hard basketball practice.  Hope your own fireplace is stoked to also be stoked today.  Rock on.

Seattle sight seeing ain't always this pretty, believe me...

It's one of those afternoons that makes me want to reach around Seattle's waist and squeeze. Wait...that didn't exactly come out right. I'm talking a hug. Because Seattle is so damn cute and fuzzy. And filled with hilarity.

Maya's on a break from her regular gig when it comes to daycare. So we're juggling some fun things - swim lessons, playdates, picking up drifters from down by the Amtrak station for a few hours of reasonably-priced babysitting. Some days give me a bit more time to get things done than normal, some much less. Today's a treat because I got some writing done earlier and now I'm also benefiting from a playdate drop-off so I can run some errands and the like. Included in a mix of things that you'd surely not care to hear about was the need to head down to a music venue near the Pike Place Market to pick up a pair of tix for a show that Sarah and I are overeager to see in October. Yo La Tengo @ the Showbox SoDo. Music geek royalty (reminds me of my all-time favorite Onion story headlined "37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead in Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster"). But I went to the ticket office inside the Showbox at the Market because it's closer. Those familiar with that area know it is surrounded by places that are or wish they were as classy as a strip club. Inside the Showbox there was an older rocker dood ahead of me in line with his bike getting single tickets for the following shows - Motorhead, Butthole Surfers, and The Damned. He was about 50. Then there I am. Then this kid, no more than 20, comes in by himself hootin' and hollerin' like he just shot up a village or saw the Indy Five-Hunnerd or won a free trip to Cabo Wabo from a classic rawk station. The old-way-beyond-his twenty-ish years shirt hanger and skinny jeans model behind the counter says without any sarcasm "this isn't a strip club" as nonchalantly as if he'd just said "restrooms are for customers only". Lynyrd Skynyrd didn't take offense, thanked Mr. Hipster kindly and turned on his heels, back into the sunlight with a mission before him. I got my tix minus the ridiculous Ticketmaster mark-up. And the afternoon is still young. Is this a great town or what?

Hope your own clubs are all exclusive yet welcoming today. Rock on.

School canceled because of a forecast? What is this? Seattle?

For those that wonder just where I went, it's back to Wisconsin. I'll be here in the deep freeze through Saturday. This morning at my parents house it was more than twenty-below-zero. Even the toughest of the old guard appear somewhat bothered by this degree of cold. The schools closed here on the threat of cold. Which shocked me. You can't really get outside much, but the warm seems even moreso and more worth lingering for a bit. I'm out in it, driving around my latest hilarious rental car. A bright yellow new VW Beetle. I should be a 20-year-old sorority pledge chair. And in the snow, the yellow's all the more warming for the locals. Every time I've driven by an ice fishing village, the outside-the-shack lingerers always give me at least one shocked arm-point with what I imagine a shout-out of "look at that thing, why doncha!" This morning I'm in the nearest town with free WiFi - Medford. At an uncommonly cool cafe` for a town this size. This place could be in almost any arty or college-friendly place - Boulder, Burlington, Eugene, Ann Arbor. Pretty big props for a town of a few thousand. Uncommon Ground (horribly usual name, but good use of "Ground" not "Grounds") - my rating A-minus.

I'll get back to more regular posting around the Inauguralpalooza when I'm back in Seattle. Hope your own defroster works today. Rock on.

The day after Christmas in Wisconsin, home safely in Seattle. Ahhhh.

The day after Christmas in Seattle, home safely from Wisconsin. Ahhhh.
Originally uploaded by emaggie

For my immediate family, this Christmas was something of a split affair. Sarah had to work, Maya and I went to Wisconsin. It seems as though most of the Nation faced some sort of wintry craziness. I was lucky - we got out of Seattle before many days of snowfall gummed up air traffic. And then we got back in yesterday afternoon. I'll spare everyone the tactical details - precarious drives, Maya barfing almost on an ironic cue as we left Minnesota by car after arrival on the way to Northern Wisconsin and then as we re-entered the State on our way to the airport to leave for Seattle, more winter than even Cold Miser might have hoped for in that most demented of 1970s Holiday specials. But we made it. The most telling irony - I got stuck in the intersection half a block from our front door last night as we turned onto our street during our triumphant return. Amazingly, a trio of good Samaritans (or were they shepards?) helped me push the Volvo into the only possible curbside parking spot. It was a true Boxing Day miracle. Regardless, what follows are a handful of shots from our Wisconsin visit. Enjoy.

Maya got some minor league shoveling experience this week before we head back to Wisconsin.

Maya got some minor league shoveling experience this week before we head back to Wisconsin.
Originally uploaded by emaggie

Seattle is so screwy. All week long it was "Henny Penny, the sky is falling - have you seen the forecast?" Maya's daycare closed four of five days. Before a mandatory two-week break. For the "Jewish Community Center". Cough. But let's recap their week in response to Seattle's uncharacteristically slightly colder weather. Monday - closed due to frozen pipes (nighttime low - 29 degrees). Tuesday - normalcy. Wednesday - um, we're closed again because we watched the weather this morning (note: it started to snow in the early AM THURSDAY). Thursday - well, what do you expect since it's actually snowing a two inches. Friday - closed because it snowed yesterday and the City hasn't bought a snowplow since the Eisenhower Administration. And now we're in the break between that ridiculousness and...WHAT MAY BE THE PERFECT STORM! Or, in other words, it may snow 4 inches on Sunday. So Maya and I are throwing in the towel and heading to a much more challenging climate. Northern Wisconsin. On on the shortest days of the winter. Expect some comparative pics soon hereafter.

Hope your own flights are booked and ready to roll on clear runways. Rock on.

Maya looks ready to pee her name in the snow.

Maya looks ready to pee her name in the snow.
Originally uploaded by emaggie

Hot chocolate makes it all worth it.

Hot chocolate makes it all worth it.
Originally uploaded by emaggie

"But when I say a 'size 10', I just want you to know I wear a 12, heh heh..."

I'm not sure how many dozen times I've seen the clip of Dubya getting shoes chucked at him yesterday. But it ain't going away any time soon. Right after it happened, I thought it was shocking and hilarious. Now, given Dubya's attempt to spin it so clumsily I'm convinced it is an incident that will live on along with the worst of the worst gag reel for this era. The fact that Dubya tried to joke initially is the strongest indication of how little he understands about the Middle East. Anyone who's read a newspaper since Baghdad fell in 2003 (remember that Saddam statue?) knows that being hit with a shoe or even just being taunted with the sole of a shoe is like flipping someone the bird while taunting yo' momma's past work as a prostitute. Why are the Arab media and cities throughout the region so all over this story? Because even a blind street urchin knows what an insult this was to have thrust fully into a final stupid photo op for Dubya. To try to make it into a non-issue by way of dismissal...well, that worse than turning around a whipping a cowboy boot back from the podium.

Speaking of street urchins - we saw "Slumdog Millionaire" last night. A small gem of a film that receives a very high recommendation. My rating - an A-minus. Romantic, uplifting, sad and beautifully shot. My only question leaving the theatre is whether Regis Philbin has seen it yet. If you've done so, you might get my drift. Hint - the Indian Regis portrayal maybe says something about both characters.

Another quickie review for folks here in Seattle. After the movie, Sarah and I had a delicious date dinner at Cafe` Spinasse on Capitol Hill. Their pasta is masterful. Everything else we tried we'd try again. By far the best Italian food I've ever had in Seattle. My rating - a B-plus with a few caveats. First of all, I want to go back and try more. Second, it's pretty spendy. But for a special meal, it's worth every nickel.

Seattle's frozen somewhat solid after getting a few inches of snow and much lower than normal temps over the weekend. The pipes at Maya's daycare froze this morning. All we heard at holiday parties over the weekend was plans to head to warmer climates soon. My reaction? Eh. Maya and I head to Wisconsin this weekend where daytime high temps appear to be hovering around zero. Makes 30 degrees and crystal clear sound like t-shirt weather, doncha know.

Hope your own aim on that second shoe is a bit better this time around. Rock on.

Maya sports her Space Needle hat for a birthday party. Well, not really.

Maya sports her Space Needle hat for a birthday party at the Children's Museum. Well, not really.
Originally uploaded by emaggie

One of her classmates had his 4th B-day bash at the Children's Museum in the Seattle Center yesterday. Which gave me the chance for jokey photo staging. What are kids for, after all.

The 15th Anniversary? - Steel

I'll share something of a secret with y'all. Which makes it no longer anything of a secret at all. Nonetheless, 15 years ago this upcoming Monday, I arrived in Seattle for the first time. If ever there was a future worldly goofus just off the turnip truck even after years of being barely exposed to the world at large, it was this here fella arriving in GrungeCity the week prior to starting grad school at U-Dub. I distinctly remember spending the night of September 14th at an especially crappy Motel 6 in Boise, Idaho after a day's drive post-stay with a college friend in Colorado. After what tasted like a horse "burger" and a jigger of spit mixed with my "Scotch and soda" at a nearby "restaurant", I settled in to that poetic late night hotel room TV glow and watched the premiere of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien". The next day, I arrived in Seattle in the late afternoon and went to the campus office for especially bleak campus housing (6 post-undergrad guys in an apartment, unshared locks on every cabinet, despair unshared before nearby Happy Hours, blah blah blah). Maybe I'm sounding too vague and self-involved. Sorry. Just wanted to share.

Hope your own location provides insight today. Rock on.

Even in the best of families feel free to say - "Give me a number 2, extra napkins and a cob."

For Seattle restaurant fans, I'm pleased to pass along the news that Gordo's Burgers shack out near Shilshole Bay on Ballard's Western coast has reopened. And the rub is that it's now a Cuban sandwich shop. Namely, an offshoot of Paseo from Fremont - the best sandwiches in Seattle for about a dozen years running. Love pork? Paseo is your bliss. But the run of other things always get their props. Even tofu. The point being that Gordo's Burgers was one of the first places I got introduced to over a decade ago by a Seattle native who lived in his Mom's basement in Ballard. The burgers rocked. Ironically, I realized that Paseo was opening up there the other night when Sarah and I went out for an anniversary dinner across the street (and the class divide) at the always classic Ray's Boathouse back deck as sunset approached over the Olympic Mountains. In so many ways, Paseo and Ray's represent what's so darn tootin' about Seattle's love of food. Well-updated ethnic food that wasn't even heard of here not so long ago, and the seafaring culture of cuisine that settled this region when gold wasn't the rush everyone sought. If you're in town, head to Paseo. The new Ballard locale will give you one of the coveted cobs of corn you won't get in Fremont unless you eat in. My rating - a consistent A-minus. Largely due to crowds, which I now assume will flood the old Gordo's trailer after this report hits those pesky internets.

Speaking of this weekend's anniversary date, we saw "The Dark Knight" and I must say that I walk away from it supremely underwhelmed. My rating - a sad B-minus. Christian Bale is just weird. Heath Ledger is unhinged, but not all that surprising. I suppose I should blame it on the hype. It's certainly a good film, in relative terms especially for popcorn season. But I didn't get nearly the charge out of it that I'd expected.

Hope your own new favorite lunch spots feature equal parts hipsters and Cuban immigrants. Rock on.

First pitch on a stunning Sunday @ Safeco. The Mariners still suck (Cleveland won 6-2).

First pitch on a stunning Sunday @ Safeco. The Mariners still suck (Cleveland won 6-2).
Originally uploaded by emaggie

If that Pantera shirt's not scoring you the chicks anymore...

First up - a big plug. A graphic designer in DC has put together a beautiful Tim Russert tribute.



Consider it a concert t-shirt for dorks. Or rather, dorks that care about politics instead of emo or Radiohead or (insert your own stupid migratory musical genre reference here). After seeing a quick blurb this morning I ordered one. The proceeds go to Tim's favorite charity in DC - the Boys and Girls Club, as mentioned on Sunday's "Meet the Press" tribute during the end titles.

Closer to the home front, we fondly said goodbye to Maya's visiting friend, Penelope, yesterday morning as she and her mom, Alix, prepped for the flight back to Boston. It was a rare Seattle weekend, especially for this year - sunny in June. That window of summery bliss, however, disappeared this morning under a low slung hammock of drizzle and temps in the 50s. We're glad to have had our summer while it lasted. Hope your own sandbags and/or air-conditioners are getting little use today. Rock on.

"And what's your all-time favorite Gus Van Sant movie?"

If the weatherhandicappers are to be believed, Seattle's about to heat up considerably. Highs near 90 Friday and Saturday. Today's still overcast with hopes for the 60s. I can't say that I'm looking forward to the heat. But after an especially chilly late Spring, we're certainly overdue for a hint of global warming.

Wait a minute...I'm leading with the weather? Well, it's still more interesting than dissecting West Virginia's Primary. Or the lead up to Oregon and Kentucky next Tuesday. The campaign has become so cam-painful that I'm just plain tapped out. For example, a Portland alt weekly (Willamette Week) used the opportunity to interview Barack Obama to ask what sort of tattoo he would get. He tried to respond with wit ("If a gun was put to my head?"). The interviewer persisted. Obama offered that he'd have Michelle's name "put somewhere discreet." How much you willing to bet that Hillary won't get that same question. She's more of a piercing fan, anyways. But please, America - make it stop.

Hope your own endless torture session at least features a moment of levity today. Rock on.

The business end of a bowling alley. Or, actually, the non-business end.

The business end of a bowling alley. Or, actually, the non-business end.
Originally uploaded by emaggie

Sunset Bowl in Ballard recently shut up shop and sold the property for $13Million. High-price condos will soon replace this beloved Seattle relic. Yesterday was the auction of all the balls and pins and detritus. I took my dad, who was visiting from Wisconsin. It was my first auction. His many hundredth. It was astonishingly insightful to walk around the back of the alleys and see what a mechanical operation a big alley represents. What follows are a few faves from a bevvy of pics.

A pin polisher, a urinal and a water heater. Sadly, only the urinal wasn't listed in the catalog.

A pin polisher, a urinal and a water heater. Sadly, only the urinal wasn't up for auction.
Originally uploaded by emaggie

If you're looking for fancy furnishings, I expect the back of an ancient bowling alley is the last place to start.

Taking pictures of people taking pictures - a personal favorite irony.

Taking pictures of people taking pictures - a personal favorite irony.
Originally uploaded by emaggie

I often irritate my wife/family/countless mistresses by taking pics of people taking pics. But in this case, this meta moment has a doppleganger out there in the Seattle mainstream media. Enjoy.

"Oh, and can you give me some snow up top, with legs?"

A quick coffee-snob critique. I try to only support the independent shops. But the occasional over-the-top dork you bump up against therein can be as unpalatable as the world's worst squirrel stew served in a rusty iron lung. Such as the guy in line behind me this morning at one of my faves. He literally ordered a "triple shot vanilla soy latte, two decaf one caf, extra hot". Really, dude? Aside from the infinitely-remote possibility that you have the sort of tastebuds that can discern spices on the parts per million basis as activated by temperature...can you please just tuck that in a bit. Because it makes us all look sucky.

For those desperate for an update - Maya's thriving in her part-time daycare. She's got two new best friends (Marine and Katie). She already knows more about Judaism than me and Sarah combined. Such as the background details on tomorrow's celebration - Purim. Apparently, it's the Mardi Gras of the Jewish calendar. Costumes, lots of drinking, noisemakers, and a carnival atmosphere meant to celebrate Esther and mock Haman's failed attempt to rid Persia of Jews something like 2600 years ago. Whoo-hoo! Kinda like Summerfest in Milwaukee. Well, without all the justified human ceremony and historical reflection. But I ask you - has Tom Petty ever played Purim? Regardless, check back for what I expect will be a bundle of pics from tomorrow morning's celebration.

Hope your own use of Haman is a friendly "hey, mahn" today. Rock on.