Good Times at Home

We had a wonderful night with some great friends on Friday. First attempt at hosting a party since we've been here, and from our point of view it was a smashing success.

We were even given some lovely flowers, some of which (from Justin and Kristin of CHS) are pictured above.

Sadly, between the fun and the duties of hosting (definitely in that order!), that's the closest I've got to a shot of our guests... but suffice it to say that we managed to gather 15 people in our apartment, and we loved every minute of it.

But why now? Well, for one thing, we finally know 15 people in Seattle. Also, we added this handsome utensil bar to our kitchen, and it made us feel like sharing the newly improved place:


We also shared Champagne Cocktails, which Emily did a great job of fixing for everyone. Her work station:

Well, what else can I say?
Cheers!

Sigh

At first I was compiling a long list of articles and articulate thoughts about this issue, but how about I narrow it down to two?

This clip brought some much-needed laughter to our couch:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Parent Company Trap
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

And this passage from the New Yorker pretty much does the rest:

In a famous letter—the one that holds that the United States “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens”—George Washington offered a benediction:

"May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid."

Lower Manhattan is a little short on vines and fig trees nowadays, though there are some excellent wine bars. Washington’s point remains. His letter was addressed to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island. But, as he knew, Muslims are Abraham’s children, too. By the McCain standard, George Washington was a three-time loser: as President, he lived in New York City; the nation’s capital bears his name; and, even by the standards of his time, he was an élitist. Nevertheless: he was right.

Next Time I'll Do My Little Turn

Had a nice long hike along a stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail near Snoqualmie Pass on Sunday.

Beautiful up there.


Can't quite read it, but I really liked the PCT logo blaze:

(It's the same logo that they have on their web site.)



We were trying to make it to the Kendall Katwalk, a bit of trail carved into a granite cliff/mountain side that's supposedly at a 75-degree slope.

I say "supposedly" since we didn't quite make it. Walked around 5 miles and gained around 2500 feet, but then we turned back--we were close to the Katwalk, but we had errands in town, plus 10-miles seemed like enough hiking for one day!


What else? Well, Saturday we saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World:

I think A. O. Scott put it pretty well:
"At the end, the movie comes home to the well-known territory of the coming-of-age story, with an account of lessons learned and conflicts resolved. But you’ll swear you’ve never seen anything like it before."

Arts in Parks

Been out enjoying some of the summer fun around here, including this piece from the MadArt exhibit in Cal Anderson Park.

Also went to the Central District to see a live production of a Star Trek episode.

A group called Hello Earth Productions did an amazing job--they even had a band to perform the theme song and play sound cues. So cool. Interesting casting choices too, as you'll see if you click over to their website.

They performed The Naked Time (Spock cries! Sulu fences!), which is available to watch online for free at cbs.com. It is also available for purchase on iTunes. In fact, you can buy all of season one for only $13! Done!

A bit from MadArt:


Here's one I tweeted the other day:


Pieces are supposed to be completed tonight, so maybe more pictures to come?

Meanwhile, just down the street a mural's gone up on the wall around the light rail construction site:

Yeah, we're pretty happy living here.

Bells

Spent a nice afternoon at the Seattle Center on Saturday. Apparently the area around the theaters has been newly redesigned and reopened as the charming Theater Commons.

Also includes some compelling outdoor art:

From the Seattle Center website:
A sound installation with visual components by artists Annie Han + Daniel Mihalyo, funded by the City's 1% for Art program, covers the entire main walkway of the Theater Commons - and will remain up through the summer.
The project, entitled Windfall, places a thousand small chimes in the street trees along the main pedestrian corridor, enclosing it in sounds and significantly altering the experience of walking through the long passage way. The fluttering lightweight chimes, also known as Furin, add a sea of color to the green landscape, mimicking a large flock of small birds weaving through the tree canopy.

We were there to see Ruined, an excellent play with an excellent cast.

Seattle Times liked it, as did the New York Times when it played in New York with most of this cast.

If you're around Seattle, you should probably go see it.