i haven’t been bloging much, i’ve been really busy.
last week i stayed pretty late monday-wednesday, and i finally got this feature done. sweet.
thursday i got to go to a “writing and speaking powerfully and professionally” workshop which was pretty neat, from there i met someone from
makeoutclub in Tacoma and we went to the
Museum of Glass, which i’ve been meaning to get to for a while. there’s a bunch of cool stuff right outside the museum including
Chihuly’s Bridge of Glass which is an absolutely amazing exhibit. anyways, after exploring the outside exhibits, we checked out the inside. the galleries were mostly largish glass sculptures of uniform color, and there was lots of modern art, like the kind on canvas. not exactly what i had in mind. after exploring those for ten minutes we checked out their hotshop, which was pretty neat, and watched them make a plate.
if anyone is interesting in going, i recommend that you spend most of your time (or all of it), exploring the glass bridge and other free exhibits around the museum, as i liked those much more than most of what was in the museum itself.
music weekend
friday -
Beck @ the
Moore theater
i saw Beck about two and a half years ago, it was a pretty cool show, he had about ten people on stage with him, dj, drums, horns, backup vocals, etc. the show had lots of pomp and action, Beck was all over the place, at one point in the show a four post bed was lowered from way above the stage and beck lounged on it. the dj did a solo scratch act, everyone moved around and jumped and screamed and played and moved and stuff.
this time, Beck came out alone and sat on a stool with his acoustic guitar and had a conversation with us, it was half concert half stand up comedy. he sat on a stool and played and talked. he was later joined by some guy named Smokey. his new stuff is very mellow, not exactly what i expected, would i have gone if i had known this? maybe... not, but all in all it was pretty neat. after that i went to this cool café on broadway called bleu with people from work. you can find the set list for the show
here.
saturday -
KEXP 90.3's Expansions Fifth Anniversary Party featuring Amon Tobin, FCS North, DJ Riz, Kid Hops, DJ Masa, and Eyvind Kang @ the
Sky Church in the
EMP
Matt (from expedia) and i went to this after getting a bite to eat...
the sky church is pretty damn cool. lots of good lighting, not too big. it resisted the urge to be a sucky venue attached to a touristy place, for that i applaud it.
DJ Masa spun a fairly generic set, which was alright... before i can dance at all i need to hear a beat for about an hour, doesn’t have to be groundbreaking. Eyvind Kang came on about 20 minutes after i got there and played violin on top of the beats. he used a sampler and a synthesizer to make some pretty neat effects, it was also totally impromptu, he didn’t know what records were going to be played. it was pretty neat. then DJ Riz came on and played a very ambient set (Matt and i had a difficult time classifying it, i believe i ended up calling it “deep ambient”), Kang played with him for a while then stopped. about 15 minutes after Kang finished, FCS North (pronounced focus north) came on, as Matt noted, their name sound like a high school, but they’re actually pretty cool. they are like an actual band, keyboards, dj, bassist and drummer. they also played a bit of a down temp kind of thing, but were very enjoyable.
then Amon Tobin came on, and he just kicked everyone into high gear, incredible set, upbeat to downbeat, wide range of stuff going on and it sounded great. i was dancing next to this girl. she was wearing a pleated plad skirt, knee high socks, a short sleeved black collared shirt that was made out of leather (or something) and a red necktie... yeah, that was cool. she and i were both tearing things up, distinct from most of the crow by keeping up with the very upbeat music for a long time (the fact that i could do it surprised me). after a while she left briefly and came back, she then suggested that there was more room up front and we should go use some of it, “we’ve been dancing together so long we might as well be friends.” uhm, my thoughts exactly! what a refreshing perspective on things. see you later matt. we found a slightly closer area with quite a bit more space, we introduce ourselves quickly (she’s Jen), and then we go on to tear up the floor a bit more. around 1:40, the set ended, and we were left standing in relative silence, we turn to each other and she says (before i can say the clever things i’ve been thinking of for a while now) “it was nice dancing with you” and smiles, as she starts to move sideways toward the back. she’s going. unfortunately there’s only one thing you can say in this situation, “goodnight” i said and smiled, then watched her slip away. i think if i weren’t so happy at the time i might have said what i’ve been thinking since i left the EMP, or perhaps screamed, “WHYYYYYY?”
but hey, what can you do, that’s just the way things were going to happen. i guess it’s just fine anyways, i am leaving in two weeks and all, but still, what the fuck.
i just feel like after the
incident at the Showbox, and this, and most of my other female encounters in say, forever, that i’m totally cursed. or something.
do i not look ok or something? what is it?
(me after the show)
bleh. i walked back over to Matt, he looked slightly impressed, “it’s been nice dancing with you... goodnight” i say to him. he doesn’t understand but then... laughs, and then throws his head back and laughs some more. this isn’t helping. i hit him. as we walk out Matt makes the evening complete “man, she was doing all that sexy dancing too.” “yes,” i answer flatly. “oh yeah... you don’t have a lot of opportunity at that sort of thing most of the time, like in terre haute, enh?” “no... not really.”
sunday – “Unlimited sunshine tour” with
Cake, Flaming Lips, De La Soul, Kinky @
pier 62/63
went to the (pike place) market for a late lunch then went over to the pier (a very short walk away). all good acts, i got up to the front for all of them too. i mainly came for the Flaming Lips, but i enjoyed all the acts, they were diverse to the extreme. Kinky was first and is a "Electro-Latin organic fusion" band. they had good energy and interesting stuff. De La Soul is a hip-hop group with a dj and 2 mcs, this was really nice because it wasn’t that new fangled cash-money rap shit that’s so popular with the kids these days. it was real hip-hop, smooth rhymes and a few real messages, good crowd involvement.
the Flaming Lips were great, i really like them. they played quite a bit off of their new album “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”, three songs, “Do You Realize”, the title track and “Fight Test” which are the three tracks that immediately stand out for popular appeal. they also did some stuff off of a Soft Bulletin, and of course their top 40 hit, “she don’t use jelly”, and they also did a sweet cover of Kylie Minogue’s “i cant get you out of my head”. unfortunately the set was very short, about 50 minutes, because there was some hassle in setting up the equipment. of course, during this time, the people in the front (ie me), got covered in confetti, which was a great attention getter in the elevator of my apartment building.
Cake then came on and finished out the night in style, got a bit more crow involvement than i thought they (he) would, i was pleased with the performance.
time for bed.
