Good Friends, Food, Art, Music and Being Protested by the Protester...

Good Eeeeeeeevening!

Wow – so the last few days have been action packed, to be sure! WOO!

To start, I received a VERY amusing phone call from Little Carrie Clark last night – YAY! Well, actually – It was Tracy I spoke with first, then Darryl and THEN Carrie… They were KILLIN’ me! They started out with a lovely rendition of ‘KaaaRoooKooKooKaaOooKooKooooo’ and moved on from there. Let’s just say that they had maybe enjoyed a FEW beers by that point in time… Hey – and I guess it was time to crank call the peeps! They also called earlier and left a very entertaining message. Hey – I think I can blog messages from my phone. If so, I’m TOTALLY blogging the message that they left… heh heh… Good stuff.

So ANYhoo – it was SO great to hear from them. I’ve been getting the low-down from Carrie and Darryl via e-mail, but it was really great to actually talk to all of them. I have to say that I am SO bummed to not still be there. I miss them!!! :( I would’ve LOVED to have stayed for the whole month… Curses!! And it sounds like the album is turning out fabulously - I’m SO excited to hear it! AND it sounds like they’ve been keeping on course with the exotic beer drinking… Good on ‘em! I can’t wait for Darryl and Tracy to come and visit us in the Great White NorthWEST… Gotta give us a chance to represent with some Seattle good times! Also – Carrie has assured me that there will be some more pics coming before she comes home. Which, hey – is tomorrow! We’re putting the band back together, man! WOO!

On the Seattle front, it was a very entertaining weekend, indeed…

On Friday night, I attended a going away dinner for my friends Melissa and Rob. Paul, Chad and Stacey joined us and it was a great time! Paul and I started with a couple of ‘research’ drinks in the Wallingford neighborhood (site of the upcoming pub crawl) and then met up with the rest of the bunch over at the Asteroid Café for dinner. Wow – what a great dinner! And crazy rich! We basically spared no expense and busted out with alllll the courses. I think we pretty much rolled out of there. If you’re in the mood for great Italian food prepared with organic ingredients, definitely check out the Asteroid Café. I’m just sayin’…

The evening did have its down side, however. It’s always sad to have to say goodbye to good friends. Rob and Melissa are moving to New York City next weekend – heading back to their homeland… It will be very sad to see them go, but not to worry – we’re all already planning a trip over to visit them. WOO! It’s so ridiculous that I’ve never been to New York City – just plain ridiculous. Welp – I aim to fix that situation in the very near future. Yeah, they haven’t ditched us yet! HA! Suckas…

The next day, I got a few things done around the home and did a bit of cleaning… And that night, went out and had an awesome FREE evening!! WOO!

Oooo – sorry – got a bit distracted there – Watching ‘Anthony Bourdain’ on the Travel Channel… (A channel to which I am totally addicted… Along with the Comedy Channel and the Food Network… What more do you want? Food, laughs and Travel!? Oh, okay – let’s throw in some tunes as well…) Seriously – I love this show – it totally cracks me up. I DON’T like reality shows, but this is a bit different. Anthony Bourdain is an obnoxious, but funny chef from New York that goes on food related adventures around the world. I would LOVE to do a show like this! It would be my dream… Hey, and ummm, maybe I’ll call it ‘My Perfect Spots.’ Shut up – it could happen… Don’t crush my dream! Anyway – tonight he’s visiting the back country areas of Vietnam and it’s pretty entertaining… Blah, blah, blah…

OKAY – back to the story at hand…

So, on Saturday night – we ended up having a virtually FREE evening! Awesome!! I went with Paul, Josh and Deema to a great art show over by the stadium. It was sponsored by a group of artists going by the collective name, ‘Ouch My Eye.’ Very cool space with some great artwork… I would LOVE to live in a space like that… They have bi-monthly showings and I highly recommend checking it out. And hey – it was the start of our free drink spree…

After we left the art show, we moved on to the Lo-Fi Performance Gallery over by REI to check out Skerik’s Syncopated Taint gig. My good friends, Dave and Joe play in the band and it’s always great to see them play. (Ohhh, Davel...) And Craig, Hans and John… Great guys… Go see them! Now!

Before the public portion of the gig, the club played host to a very unlikely private party. The Phillip Morris group was there having a private promotional party. We got there technically before the public part of the show started, but they let us in anyway. SO – we didn’t have to pay the cover to get in… THEN – we were informed that there was free food and drinks to be had! COOL! What was even more surprising was that not only was there food and drink, but it was GOOD food and drink. The food was being catered by Whole Foods and the drinks entailed a full, open bar. Ummm, I wasn’t really expecting that… I tell ya – those Phillip Morris people are crafty bandits! Book a great band at a cool club and throw in some good food and drink… And hand out free lighters and cigarettes – people will LOVE you! Screw the fact that you’re Phillip Morris… Crafty, I tell ya… And hey, I’d be a total liar if I said I didn’t walk away with several free drinks, some great food, a couple of lighters and a t-shirt. What can I say? I’m easy… AND – to make things even better, the band was GREAT! As usual… Those guys never disappoint. If you haven’t had a chance to check them out – DO IT! And the club was playing ‘Metropolis’ on a giant screen behind the band as they played… Great visual juxtaposition with the music… Paul took some great shots of the evening. Check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/p_d_gibson/

The next day, I met up with Stacey (RB) for what would be a very entertaining afternoon. We started out with a lovely breakfast at Tangletown and then headed up to Everett for a PETA protest of the Ringling Bros. Circus. I must admit that I’m not the biggest fan of some of PETA’s methods, but I don’t support the way animals are treated by Ringling Bros., so I was down with attending the protest.

When we got there, there were a handful of people with protest signs and literature. We grabbed a couple of signs and some fliers and on the corner, we stood. We had been standing there for about a half hour, when we noticed a rather interesting woman joining the protest. You could tell from a mile away that she was that die-hard protester – the one that you always steer clear of when walking down the street… She also had on a lovely, acid-wash jean ensemble, complete with LEATHER tennis shoes. (I was surprised that this particular person was wearing leather shoes to a PETA protest… Whatever…) ANYhoo – she was standing over to the side of us while we were on the corner.

So yeah, Stacey and I are standing there with each other, so we are OF COURSE talking to each other. And God forbid, we were smiling and laughing occasionally. And it’s not like we were loudly yucking it up or anything – we were just being pleasant. It was at this time that the weirdo lady next to us came up to us and LECTURED us about the fact that we basically weren’t taking this whole thing seriously. Ummm, I got up on a Sunday morning, after being in a club until 2am and we drove from Seattle to get there for this thing. And I don’t like some of what PETA does – We were taking it SERIOUSLY. It was at this time that I basically told her that I disagreed with her and that I felt that it was a detriment to the cause to alienate people that you are trying to reach. I calmly explained my attitude and ideas and that was that. She didn’t like what I said… And then, Stacey very nicely wrapped it up by making a very true statement that “We’re on the SAME team!”

It was at that time that Stacey and I moved to a different part of the corner. She didn’t seem to like that either as I’m pretty sure she was talking to her buddy about it a few minutes later. WHATEVER. The fact that we were there, doing our part for something in which we believed should be good enough. Everyone has their own idea of representation and in a volunteer situation, who is ANYone to say otherwise. So there. We had the choice to stay home and do nothing or to go out and support a cause. We chose to get our asses out of bed and support something worthwhile… I think that’s a good thing. And if acid-wash lady doesn’t like it… BAH! So yeah, we got protested by the protester! I think our work here is DONE!

After the protest debacle, Stacey and I headed for home. We had other trouble to cause with our afternoons – the day was still young! However, I actually didn’t do much of ANYthing with the rest of my day… I basically just sat around, watched some TV, worked out, went for a lazy walk, did some reading… Yeah, it was rough. But come on – you gotta do that every once in a while! Right?!?!

And then I got the call from my crazy, drunken friends… Hey, wait – I ALSO got a call from my crazy, drunken friend STACEY as well! HA! Betchya thought I FORGOT, RB!!! I think she was trying to drink away the crazy, Acid-wash lady…Who WOULDN’T want to forget about her?!??! I know I do…

Well, I guess that’s it for now. I gotta go do some piano practicing… I MUST do some piano practicing… DO SOME PRACTICING – DO IT NOW!!! Sigh… Guess I’ll go do some stupid practicing…

Stay tuned for a wrap up on the Toronto adventures from Carrie and a long overdue conclusion to the last camping adventure. I’m going camping again this weekend so I HAVE to finish it before then. ACK!

Have a great night and may it be filled with crazy, acid-wash lady dreams!

TRJ ™