Friday's hot ticket

morning / mourning
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

tix to The Belmont were gone in hours.
tix for the limited 1:30 am performance? gone in 45 (minutes, not seconds)

From WT Direct: Great rate plus a holiday gift

US Bank never sent me a holiday gift
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

US Bank has never sent me a gift. Ever.
Online bank WT Direct sent a set of Tiffany & Co tumblers, but they didn't need to. Really. I liked WT Direct just fine already.

WT Direct currently pays 4.9% APY on a cash account. Let's compare to US Bank. Hmmm...US Bank currently pays 0.3% on a comparable account balance.

It's easy to open an account and setup electronic transfer permissions between your regular bank or credit union account and WT Direct. They do not charge any transaction fees to transfer funds. After initial setup, funds are transferred within 24 hours. The few times I've called WT Direct (yes, they publish a telephone number), the staff have been friendly and helpful.

Give WT Direct a try if you need to have easy access to a cash account, and want to earn more than 0.3% interest on those funds.

You might get a set of Tiffany & Co glasses along with that nice interest rate.

Moving Units, VHS or BETA: A Low Investment with Good Payoff

A 2-block walk, 12 bucks, and 2 recommendations got me out to Chop Suey Tuesday night for 2 bands I hadn't listened to prior to a quick MySpace search hours beforehand.

Los Angeles-based Moving Units opened and I liked their pop-y, dance-y sound well enough to pick up their new CD "Hexes for Exes" at the merch table. Solid beats, firm control of guitars, and melodic, if not sharp, vocals. Mix up The Cure and Nada Surf, then throw in some buzz and bleep and you'd get close to their sound. That buzzy, bleepy goodness shines through clearly on the CD, less so live. Interestingly, about a quarter of the audience were apparently there just to see Moving Units: the crowd thinned out before VHS or Beta hit the stage.
Demographics: 2/3 boys, 1/3 girls. Avg age: 24. Attire: jeans, t-shirts, sweaters. Boys in hats, girls with knitted scarves.

VHS or BETA played a groovy mix of pop, rock, and funk in their set. I particularly enjoyed the instrumental funk rock piece, which Craig Pfuder (guitarist, vocalist) said they hadn't played together in quite a long time. I didn't stay until the very end (it was a school night after all, kiddies), but when I left shortly after midnight the dance floor was still 1/2 full with VorB enthusiasts.
Demographics: 3/4 boys, 1/4 girls. Avg age: 30. Attire: jeans, t-shirts, sweaters. Fewer hats and scarves.

stalker opportunities this week

Here's a few events penciled in on my calendar. If you are a friend or future friend: hope to see you. Hit me if ya wanna meet up. If you're a real stalker, I'll kick your ass and make you cry. (Unless you like it that way, in which case I'll ignore you.)

VHS or Beta at Chop Suey (Tuesday, 11/27)

Catching Project Runway on the big screen at 22 Doors (Wednesday, 11/28)

Bassbin Twins and Uberzone at The Last Supper Club (Thursday, 11/29) Update: This show has been postponed

blue flavor party and later, a blue house funeral (Friday, 11/30)

Punk Rock Flea Market 2 at the Underground in Belltown (Saturday 12/1)

Birthday party for yaj, Britney Spears and Lucy Liu (Saturday, 12/1)

Urban Craft Uprising at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall (Saturday 12/1 or, more likely, Sunday 12/2)

Props from the Wooster Collective

Seattle street art receives props from the respected Wooster Collective: twice!

Magnetic Poetry
Static Invasion’s cling-ons turned the ConWorks wall into magnetic poetry writ large.


The cling words can be arranged at will, by anyone. Words include nods to the local street scene, such as “toy-ass,” nko,“ and “starhead.”
I love the interactive nature of this piece, which draws participation from incidental passers by as well as from those who arrive with deliberate intent.

Read the Wooster write up on the magnetic poetry wall.

The Owl Tree
Roughly two miles from ConWorks a tree was planted. It grew and blossomed into an intriguing collective work.


Mutual respect and the desire to collaborate prompted a discussion amongst Seattle street artists via the Flickr photo sharing group. Connected folks asked around and a location was secured: the wall of a building slated for demolition. At least 21 artists/collectives have contributed to the Owl Tree wall so far.

The cooperation, collaboration, creativity, and evolution of the Owl Tree have been a joy to observe.

Read the Wooster write up on the Owl Tree.

Wild Turkey Friday

theme for black friday party
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

Friends came up with an excuse to get together the day after Thanksgiving: Wild Turkey Friday. We had no intention of actually drinking this sh*t, however someone brought a cluster of airline-sized bottles. So we all shared one (still as nasty as ever). I'm just glad we also had Casablancas to freshen the mouth.

The remainder were labeled for subsequent years and we each drew one from the pile. So I'll be hosting the gtg in 2009, when we'll crack this particular baby open and pass it around.

Buy Nothing Day

westward from Mt. Si
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

Glorious fall weather called for abstinence from shopping on black friday.
Mt. Si is only 30 mi east of Seattle and I have never hiked it before. This picture was taken at the top of the rock spar.
Eight miles round trip, elevation gain about 3,400 feet.

jump off 15th

This pair so cracks me up! We spotted the paste-up and she agreed to jump for some quick, fun snaps.

UPDATE: Courtney from Seattlest blog likes this too: Seattlest Pix of the Day 07Nov25

Why I support music education

Because a student might be lucky enough to participate in something like this when grown up.



Agency Fallon of London has been brilliant for Sony lately.
Another great Fallon ad is for Sony Bravia and has play-doh-like bunnies. There was a bit of a dustup about its similarity to art work by L.A. pair Kozyndan, but all seems to have settled down now.

I love creative shit like this.

(oh, and BTW I wasn't in band. I played the piano.)

43 Things: Not sure it's working for me

I started using 43 Things in September, 2007. It seemed like just the right trick to help me stay focused on things I want to do which require more effort than the daily breathe-work-sleep routine. I'm not sure it's quite working for me (yet).

The good:
* The act of writing a list forced me to spend time in long-term thinking
* The list is stored online
* Seeing lots of others with similar goals

The struggle:
* Remembering to visit my list
* Navigation/UI is a little squirrell-y: I can't always easily find my way back somewhere
* Writing an entry that is a good balance between helpful for me and also not too personal if read by others

Although 43 Things has a reminder feature, I'm reluctant to intentionally sign up to get MORE emails (from ANY site). However, I'm pretty sure the other two items I'm struggling with will resolve themselves if I solve the the first one.

Perhaps I need to add another item to my 43 Things list: Visit my 43 Things list at least once a week.

Reviewing a Summer Concert Series in Graph Form

The NYT published a gorgeous spread of data graphs by Andrew Kuo representing his experience at an outdoor summer concert series in Brooklyn. Kuo must be an Edward Tufte disciple.

Some of his data coordinates:
* What was jogging through my mind
* Enduring the length of lines
* Why people came to the pool

I inadvertently geeked-out for a good 15 minutes looking at this sweet thing.

(For optimal viewing, save then zoom in using a picture viewer.)

Picture Do-Over: Kolios

This is my most viewed picture on Flickr. It was taken during the second of two wild-ass dust storms that came in the same day at Burning Man 2007.

If I could take this shot again, I'd shift the camera so the artwork is in the lower right quadrant instead of the middle. I'd adjust it for a slice less foreground and a catch a few more people to the left. I wouldn't change the the angle of it, though. I've seen several other pictures of this piece which were taken face-on and they didn't have the same impact.