25 posts tagged “seattle”
1. The National and Menomena @ The Moore Theater:
On Friday night, Em and I got to go see Menomena and The National at The Moore Theater here in Seattle. We had a really great time. I thought I’d missed my best chance at seeing The National since they’d been here fairly recently and I was too busy to free up an evening. I was pleasantly surprised when my friend Luke, who also attended, let me know they were coming back, and that Menomena was opening for them, a fact which is an unnecessary but welcome bonus.
As I’ve said before, I love The National more every time I listen to them, and they certainly didn’t disappoint live. Menomena and The National both put on a great show. It was a lovely Friday evening and a well deserving part of this week's five things.
Sadly, much of what once made the Soul/R&B sound great has perished in the wake of the ridiculous pop trends of the late 70’s and beyond. Even greats like Stevie Wonder and The Temptations lost their minds and went the way of overproduced, heavily synthesized silliness. What was once a proud and powerful force in the world of music has for too long been turned into music that is barely fit to listen to in an elevator.
The vacuum left behind by these musical giants after their fall from grace has at times been filled with talented individuals who were able to capture something of the old magic and combine it with current pop sensibilities. Yet, for every moderately talented group, there has been busloads of “no talent ass-clowns” who get paid to make the same song again and again, taking an insubstantial, but dance-worthy, baseline and covering it with mediocre vocal talent and mindless lyrics about sex and romantic relationships which barely reach a junior high maturity level.
For far too long, we've been without the timeless ballads and soulful lyrics of a young Stevie Wonder. The soulful pleas of David Ruffin and the Temptations were nowhere to be seen. The body-moving, soul-lifting power of James Brown could only be found by tuning into an oldies station.
Fortunately, during my lifetime, a talented group of men and women have finally taken it upon themselves to fill in the sizable gap left by past greats. The men and women I’m referring to are those who make up what is known as the Neo-Soul genre. The most popular manifestations of this genre are Alicia Keys and John Legend, but that is merely the tip of the iceberg.
If you are at all interested in this genre but haven’t gotten into it yet, I highly recommend picking up Raphael Saadiq’s new album, The Way I See It, released last Tuesday on Sony BMG. The title of the CD itself sounds more like a Marvin Gaye album than today's typical R&B fare. CD's today are more likely to be called something imaginative like Sweat or Shake That Ass or some other similarly mind-numbing possibility.
Saadiq’s CD is at times the postmodern incarnation of everything that was good about the sound and songwriting of Stevie Wonder or Smokey Robinson, and he moves and carries himself in a way that emanates the effortless sexuality, charisma and charm of David Ruffin or Marvin Gaye. I listened to the CD four times through... and that was just Thursday afternoon.
Some might feel it rests too much in emulation and fails to move forward into anything new, but personally I'm not looking for perfection, just something that seems worth listening to. I recommend checking out the CD, as the very name of the Neo-Soul movement (as well as the genre it points back to) implies, it’s good for the soul!
You can see a music video from the CD here. It isn't the strongest song on the CD, and the video isn't terribly exciting, but it works.
3. Magic Numbers:
For those who don’t know, magic numbers refer to sports standings, and are the numerical representation of how close a team is to clinching a spot in the playoffs. The best way to explain how the number works is to use an example. A team in first place in a division, the Cubs for instance, have a magic number that gets lower and lower as the team moves closer and closer to clinching their division, something the Cubs did over the weekend. Once the magic number reaches zero, it is mathematically impossible for another team in the division to catch them.
Continuing to use the Cubs as our example, a magic number goes down in two ways: when the Cubs win, and when the team closest to the Cubs in the division, in this case the Brewers, lose. So, for every Cubs win, the magic number goes down by one, and for every Brewers loss, the magic number again goes down by one. The magic number can never go up, so it is always the best representation of how close your team is to winning the division, or clinching the wild card.
The equation to figure out what a magic number is can be figured out pretty easily, it is the total number of games in a season, minus the number of wins for the first place team, minus the number of losses for the second place team, plus one. So, if we were to use the Cubs record on Friday, it would be Total number of games in an MLB season - Cubs wins - Brewers losses + 1 = Magic Number!, or, 162 - 92 - 69 + 1 = 2!
I love watching magic numbers, as each draws closer to zero and we see the playoff picture come into clearer focus, my baseball loving heart fills with excitement and anticipation. Also, when a team your rooting for is in first place it is fun to know just how close they are to clinching a coveted playoff spot. So, for me to watch the Cubs (2) and the Dodgers (7) move closer to winning their division is exciting indeed.
I enjoy things even more to see the unexpected success of the Rays this season, it does my heart some good. They’ve never had even moderate success thus far in their short existence, so to look at the standings and see that they've already clinched a spot in the playoffs, and their magic number to win the division is 7 (not counting the conclusion of tonight's games) is stunning!
Anyway, magic numbers are a fun way for a baseball nerd like myself to get deeper into the game I love.
4. My iPhone:
There really isn’t anything that needs to be said. After two weeks with my iPhone, it’s everything I thought it would be. =)
5. Yankee Stadium:
I sit here in my living room as I write this, and watch with a full heart as, on the other side of the country, Yankee Stadium wraps up its storied career as the premier venue in sports.
Plenty has been said about how important Yankee Stadium is, not just to baseball, but sports in general, so I won’t go into great detail about how remarkable it is. What I will say is that it’s been pretty important in my life. You don’t have to know me very well to know about my passionate love for all things baseball, and Yankee Stadium was where I fell in love.
There are so many remarkable moments and memories I have as a lifelong Yankees fan that I will cherish for the rest of my life. My first baseball game was at Yankee Stadium, as Don Mattingly hit one out and the Yankees beat the Royals. I remember my first playoff game at Yankee Stadium, where Scotty Brosius hit the game winning home run and the Yankees beat the Rangers, and where Don Mattingly made an appearance before a screaming, electric crowd, and Mariano Rivera came in for the save to the sound of Metallica's “Enter Sandman”, a key part of what is still the most thrilling ritual I’ve ever witnessed in sports.
I even felt more connected to the games I watched on TV when they took place in the cathedral of baseball I’ve known so well. That trademark bright blue padding surrounding the field, that beautiful aerial view, the short porch in right field. As much as the pinstripes, they were always there to remind me of how special Yankees home games can be, and of all the great memories, frustration, pride, affection and enjoyment I’d found in being a Yankee fan for all these years.
I’m definitely excited about the new stadium, it looks beautiful and classy, carrying over not just the best of this Yankee Stadium, but also what Yankee Stadium was before the refurbishment of the late 70’s. That will become a special place as well in time. New memories will play out there.The fans will create an electric atmosphere again, the organization’s careful attention to tradition and history will make the ghosts feel at home, and the players will still step onto the field wearing pinstripes 81 times a season.
Still, while I've found some peace letting go of the old Yankee Stadium, there is definitely a part of my heart that will always stay in that hallowed place, and that will break when it is finally torn down. The best way I can think to describe it is as if the house you grew up in were torn down. Like your parents or your grandparents moved out of a home you thought you’d be able to visit forever. You thought you would bring your kids back and tell them stories from the house, but now it is gone and your children will never know it, you will never be able to visit the places of memory anymore.
So, with the coming demolition of Yankee Stadium, it’s as if part of myself will be torn down as well.
Goodbye old friend. I’ll always remember you.
So, it took Em and me forever to get home from Raleigh/Durham this weekend. We were there for my little brother's wedding and the trip home was meant to take place on Saturday. We got to the airport around 12:30pm to catch our 2:00 flight. As it would turn out, there was no rush, in that our plane to Nashville wouldn't end up leaving until well after 7:00 due to lightning storms. We ended up staying off the Nashville flight altogether because we'd missed our connection by quite a bit, thus we ended up taking an 11:00 pm flight to BWI to spend six hours there. When all was said and done the trip, which was meant to have taken 8 hours in total, wound up taking 25 instead.
Even after two days I'm still out of whack, so my brain is unable to go into great detail in praise of any particular thing. Thus, I will instead share some stuff I'm enjoying this week, as I've done in random posts in the past.
1. Chris Merritt - Pixie and the Bear
So, as some of you know, Waldo grew up with a guy who just so happens to be a remarkably talented singer/songwriter/musician. His new CD, Pixie and the Bear (which is available on his web site) is fantastic. I love it! I've been listening to it pretty much non-stop this week. You should most definitely check it out!
2. Lars and The Real Girl
Emily and I finally got around to seeing this film and we're glad we did. It's a lovely film about many things, including loving others well, growing up, and living in community.
3. Seattle
After being away for a few days, we're really glad to be home again. This really is our city, and we're glad to be here. For those of you who care, the Why I Love Seattle posts really will come back someday... someday very soon!
4. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
It isn't their most recent album, but it is certainly my favorite. I had the pleasure of listening to it without interruption or distraction when we were flying to NC, and it had been long enough that the beauty of the CD struck me all over again. For my money, this CD (including the appendix) is nothing short of a masterpiece. Brilliant!
5. Mario Kart for Wii
For those of you who don't like video games, no words will help you understand. For those of you who do, no words are needed. Mario Kart, welcome back.
I miss blogging consistently here on the VOX. Where does my time go?
I figured a good way to blog without considerable effort would be to share some things I'm currently enjoying/being inspired by/appreciating/etc. at the moment.
Literally, right now, I am listening to this CD, and I'm loving it.
Finally, while taking stuff that can be heavy like the film and book listed above, it is nice to have an outlet that is simply pure fun. That's where this comes in:
All this, in addition to the lovely weather all of us are enjoying in Seattle makes for good times. =)
So last night my friend Carl called and let me know he'd come into some free tickets to see the Sonics play tonight. My hope was to see the Sonics play before they finally made the sad move from Seattle to Oklahoma City, so when the tickets became available at no charge I simply had to take him up on the offer. It turned out tonight that Em was able to come along as well, insuring both of us would get in on the action before Mr. Durant and his team played their home games in another time zone.
My hopes for the game didn't exceed the fact that the Sonics would in fact play, the game would in fact end, and that the three of us wouldn't be the only ones to show up. I was in for a very pleasant surprise. (Sadly I need to include stock photos since we don't bring the nice camera to basketball games.)
The Sonics broke their 14 game losing streak to beat the Spurs, a team I can't stand, in a tight game that was exciting 'til the very end. For all the games they lose, this Sonics team is a team that, were it not for their imminent departure, could easily win my heart with the electrifying Kevin Durant, fellow rookie Jeff Green, and long time favorites of mine such as Kurt Thomas and Chris Wilcox.
This game was a great time, and the fans at Key Arena made up for their less than sellout numbers with raucous enthusiasm and noise. My ears are ringing as I type this words. Kevin Durant didn't disappoint as he posterized more than one Spur, while notching a few impressive defensive plays and sinking a big shot in the final seconds; Kurt Thomas displayed several key plays, many including that midrange jumper I fell in love with when he played for the Knicks; and Chris Wilcox played with the same combination of intensity, energy and big time plays that I remember from his huge performances for the Championship Maryland Terrapin team. The game was certainly worth more than free, but it was free nonetheless. It was a fun night for Scott and Emily Small.
This coming week marks the start of the full schedule at school. Which means adding some more busyness in the way of school work that until now I have enjoyed doing without. Tomorrow we're going to enjoy a busy day with me doing absolutely no school work at all just in case that won't be possible for some time to come.
I look forward to my various activities tomorrow which include:
Going to see There Will Be Blood with my friend Eric
I meant to post earlier about the freak ice storm we got two days ago, but it took me until now to get the pictures loaded onto the computer. It seemed like any other night, that is until the rain turned into sleet that looked more like Dippin' Dots falling from the sky.
School has officially begun. It's actually really nice to be back. The added bonus is the reality that the start to this trimester is staggered. I have two classes for the first two weeks before the other classes begin. Even better is that the two classes I am most looking forward to happen to be the ones that start earlier.
Tomorrow I get started on the Kingdom of God and the New Sciences class I've already mentioned in an earlier post. Yesterday I started a class called Reading Practices: Engaging the Biblical Text. As a small sample of what this class has in store for me, one of my assignments is to watch the film Magnolia, and then write a paper about a particular character who is 'poor in spirit.' You know a class looks promising when they assign you to watch one of your favorite movies.
I suppose that's enough of a boring life update for now. I hope everyone's 2008 is going well so far!
Wow, my first blog in October. It certainly took me long enough. So far October has had its great moments, yet also its fair share of frustrating ones. It's only the 6th for Pete's sake! I've been pretty sick again, we'd like to get me the medicine but without health insurance that's an expensive proposition. Fortunately we have enough at the moment to spend the extra $120 to get the prescription filled, however if I can't establish residency soon and get on a state health insurance plan soon, tonight will probably be the last trip to Easy Street Records for some time. I also have my first paper coming up at school, an intimidating idea even if I were totally healthy right now. The last of the frustrating things I'll actually mention in this blog is that we had a pretty serious plumbing problem here this week at the house, down in the sub-basement. It left us without any plumbing whatsoever for 3 days. It's technically repaired now but there is an awful lingering odor throughout our house for the time being. You all might want to consider buying stock in Yankee Candle Co. because we might be needing more than a few candles over the next week or two.
All that to say that I've been in the mood for some cheering up. Part of that cheering up I can't share with you because it has already taken place. For example, Emily and I decided I needed a mental health break from school work today so I put off writing my paper and slept in really late. Then Emily and I went to Top Pot (which I will tell you more about once I get back to the Seattle posts), then we went to see Superbad downtown. We even got to visit the local Rock Bottom afterward for the first time, where I enjoyed a tasty mug of Rain City Red. After Rock Bottom we walked over to Easy Street Records where they are always giving away awesome free stuff. Last time I went I got a free Aesop Rock sticker, then today I got a free poster for The Darjeeling Limited.
That wasn't all that cheered me up, I was also cheered by the new ABC show Pushing Daisies and I'll share some other cheery things with you out there in VOXland. Like a story Bob Newhart told on Letterman last night:
Art Linkletter was doing an episode of Kids Say The Darndest Things when he became aware that one of the children seemed miserable. He decided to ask the young man why he wasn't enjoying his time on the show and the boy informed Art that his dog had died earlier that week and he was still quite sad about the whole thing. Linkletter felt sad for the child and offered words of condolence, telling the boy that the dog went up to 'Doggy Heaven' and that after he had lived a very long life and he died the boy would go up to heaven too and he would be able to see his dog again. Looking terribly disturbed and confused the boy looked at Linkletter and asked, "Why would God want a dead dog?" Perhaps it was just because it was late at night, but it cheered me up.
Although in case it was because it was late at night and that wasn't enough to cheer us up today, perhaps we should just get good and angry, and what better to aid us in that endeavor than a clip from Flight of the Conchords that finds an angry Bret doing some "angry dancing".
I really needed a break from my reading. The Cornell style notes we're required to take for Hermeneutics, while helpful, certainly increases the mental burden of the reading if only because it takes much longer and feels much more tedious. So with another article completed I decided to reward myself with a break for some posting fun.
It's a chilly, rainy day in Seattle. Unseasonably so. My fellow Seattleites complain about it frequently in the various coffee shops and such I frequent. It makes me wonder if we'll forgo autumn altogether on the way to winter. So far I don't mind the chill or the rain, most days it's actually been really nice aside from the temperature in the high 50s. I do wish that I could have had friends and/or family visit while we still had the beautiful weather of August and most of September.
Queen Anne is bustling. Cars and pedestrians abound. There isn't a spare seat here at Caffe Ladro, we were actually forced to go to Tully's for a while until a seat was available here. It was worth the effort though, we ended up with one of the two window tables I'm so fond of.
It's been a good weekend so far. Last night our friends Justin and Tim came to Queen Anne to hang out. We took in some food and beer at 5 Spot before heading back to our place to watch Rushmore. Then this morning we took in breakfast at Pesos for Autumn's birthday. It was our second time eating at Pesos, our first for breakfast, and the place is certainly going to be included in one of the 30 reasons I love Seattle (which I hope to start updating again soon by the way).
Anyway, there's some stream of consciousness blogging for your perusal. I'm going to go back to homework now. =(
With Heroes and The Office back for new seasons NBC has established itself a special place in my heart. The two shows can provide me with a lovely mental vacation from the stresses, pressures, and personal disturbance at school. If that weren't enough, October is quickly approaching, and with it, playoff baseball. I certainly won't be able to complain about a lack of distractions from the work I'm supposed to be doing.
School is great by the way. The readings have been enjoyable for the most part, my reading/midrash group is great, and I seem to have really drawn the right straw in terms of my practicum group as well. I love my classes, the other students, my professors, and the school experience in general thus far. I'm also finding a hope for the redemption of my story that is not part of why I came here to MHGS at all. I'm discovering a courage and hope that I didn't expect at all, a purely accidental (at least on my part) benefit of selecting Mars Hill Grad School. It gives me the feeling that somebody has better ideas than I do in terms of what choices I should make and why I should make them. Perhaps (and I'm not one who normally goes around quoting The Matrix) there can be "a difference between knowing the path and walking the path."
Speaking of baseball, I have been encouraged by my wife Emily and my friend Tim to go along with my initial instinct and point out that after most others had scoffed at my argument that, as bad as things looked, the Cubs and Yankees would still have a say in who won their respective divisions, I was right after all. Both teams had fallen way out of first place and I'll admit even I started to have my doubts. I am the one who made the horrible selection of the A's to win the AL West, which to be honest I realized was foolish as soon as I made the pick, it was just dumb. But thanks to the Indians staying strong, the Yankees making enough of a showing in the East to draw to within 2 games, and the Cubs finally playing like many expected them to all along, I don't look like a complete idiot. Sadly the Mets collapse looks like it will hurt my final tally of picking this years playoff teams. If they make it, I'll be 6 for 8, if not, 5 for 8 really hurts my percentage.
Well, enough procrastinating, time to get back to some school work.
