I was somehow lucky enough to accompany a writer on a pre-opening private tour of Seattle music venue The Crocodile earlier this week.
In one sentence: everything is different from what you remember of the old place.
Here's a 360 video of the showroom two days prior to first door open.
You can see the new showroom for yourself tonight and Friday, when local bands take the stage for what The Croc is calling soundchecks. These two nights are opportunity for the club's operations staff to fire up all engines for the first time and learn the kinks and quirks of the new place, prior to the first ticketed performance this weekend. The soundchecks tonight and Friday are completely free. You should go.
Read more about the tour and get some inside scoop in Chris Burlingame's article The Crocodile Sneak Peak. A few more photos from our tour are over on my Flickr.
The Crocodile is a new venue located at the old, long-storied Crocodile Cafe location in Belltown. (One such story goes like this: Eddie Vedder had his own personal key for the alley door so he could come and go whenever he wanted.) But this venue is not simply The Crocodile Cafe, reopened. It is The Crocodile, with a completely redone interior, top-of-the-line equipment and an operating philosophy which places quality over quantity. You will not see The Croc booking shows every night of the week, just to be open. If a good lineup can't be had, the club will be closed. (ala Showbox vs. Chop Suey vs. the old Crocodile Cafe.) I like this approach: it helps the performance-going public to distinguish between a good show and just a show. If The Croc books it, the club believes it will be good, and it is not just a date-filler on the club calendar.
The Crocodile folks we met were to-a-one friendly, approachable, open, fun, and really good people. I'm confident The Crocodile will soon enough have their own stories and be creating new memories for music lovers throughout the Puget Sound region.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Video: The Crocodile showroom redone
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
It's the small things in life
One of my kids (Glenn, I think) made these toast tongs in woodshop class and they've been neglected and fogotten in the mess of the utensil drawer.
After burning the fingertips, I briefly considered using a metal fork -- but yeah, I've seen the same cartoons as you and didn't want to turn into a b/w skeleton.
Wait, don't I have TOAST TONGS? Why yes I do! Nom nom nom.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Video: If I Made a Commercial for Trader Joe's
Who doesn't love Trader Joe's? This is a funny fan ad created by Carl's Fine Films, who describes this as an "unauthorized commercial for Trader Joe's shot on my Palm Treo before I accidentally ran over it with my car." The song perfect represents the TJ vibe.
There's a Trader Joe's three blocks from where I live. My favorite TJ things: good cheap wine, Parrano cheese for half the price of regular stores, feta cheese, organic marinara sauce, black bean dip, flattened bananas, choco-covered graham bites. I have more but I'll stop now.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Art: Wordle creates images from words
The fonts (typefaces) have funny names: Gunplay, Telephoto, Boopee, Sweater School Rg, Duality, Kenyan Coffee, Sexsmith, Owned, Silentina Movie, Tank, Scheme, Loved by the King, Alphabet Fridge Magnets All Caps, King Typewriter, plus more.
I made this Wordle from my Twitter posts. You can get a text file archive of all of your tweets on Twitter from TweetScan.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Advert: Check these eyebrows
I can't help but love the uber-creative ad spots the folks at Fallon come up with.
Eyebrow Dance
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk ad
agency: Fallon
creative: Nils-Petter Lovgren
production company: MJZ London
director: Tom Kuntz
Monday, February 16, 2009
Fucking David Foster Wallace (free)
Yeah, I know he's dead and all, but I have to be straight up: I couldn't get even half through An Infinite Jest. The novel was pretentious and hipster and navel-gazing and as hard to get into as any James Joyce piece of work.
I'm mostly alone in my opinion of David Foster Wallace, I realize. To be fair, I liked a few of his short stories in the collection Girl with Curious Hair. His writing was sharp and insightful in short form, particularly the first few in that collection. (The ones toward the end, meh, not so much.)
If I don't have anything else to do on Thursday April 26th, I might end up at the Hugo House and give fucking David Foster Wallace one more chance. I like the reader line up.
Reading and Celebration in Memory of David Foster Wallace
Thursday, February 26th 2009, 7:00 pm
Richard Hugo House
Free
Hugo House is hosting a special event celebrating the life and work of writer David Foster Wallace. Local luminaries David Schmader, Cienna Madrid, Paul Constant and other writers and performers will read from their most beloved of the late author’s work.
Wallace, who died tragically last September at the age of 46, was a writer of singular importance and influence, both as a literary stylist and as an exacting, hilarious, and heartbreaking examiner of the cultural and existential absurdities and tragedies in contemporary America. Come hear some of your favorite of Wallace’s essays, novels, and short fiction, or be introduced to this extraordinary writer for the first time.
For further information, contact Cristin Miller at cristinmlr@gmail.com
Make the story happen
In the dichotomous choice of cat or dog, I am dog. All the way. Not that I hate cats, I'm just mostly indifferent. (Just like a cat.) Yet, even I like this amusing video, Kittens Inspired by Kittens:
Yes, cat funny (LOL). But the video also perfectly captures what kidlets under 5 have in abundance: energy, creativity, and the ability to see the simply obvious. It's been 15 years since living with a 5-year old, so I forget the magic of a young child learning and shaping their world.
It reminds me to take time to think simply, to see the obvious, and to make the story happen.
(via LeeLeFever)
p.s. Please don't send me links to other "cute kid" videos. I can only tolerate one every three to six months. If you ignore my request, you'll get links to movies of my dog and of my vacations. The links will be disguised so well as to be irresistable. Be cool. Thank you.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
A luxe date night on the cheap tonight
Tonight is the opening of a new art show hanging at Vermillion with local singer/songwriter PWRFL Power performing for the opening event. The art opening and performance tonight are free, so being broke is not an excuse to stay in. Get out and get on some art, music, and night air tonight.
This month's show at Vermillion, An Unfinished Edge, is about ambiguity, the spaces between, and what can happen when the observer is not supplied with the critical information of a story. Concerned with ideas of habitat, the work addresses conflicts and comparisons between the natural and human worlds.
Vermillion is an unpretentious space on Capitol Hill with art in the front and a comfortable, hip, and inexpensive wine and beer bar in the back. It's a great pre-func or meet up spot any time you're on the hill. The design of the space is lovely; the board games and 45s jukebox encourage lingering and hanging out. Although wi-fi isn't provided by Vermillion, I've been able to jump on neighboring networks easily enough.
Peeps are passionate about tonight's performer PWRFL Power: it's love or hate, with no middle ground. (More.) If you haven't heard him before, tonight's a no-risk chance to form an opinion.
Even if you aren't into the music, your trek to the hill is not a waste. There's lots of art to check out in the neighborhood: it's the monthly Capitol Hill Art Walk tonight. Capitol Hill Seattle created a handy walking map of participating businesses.
Vermillion
1508 11th Ave
Capitol Hill, between Pike and Pine
An Unfinished Edge, opening Thursday, February 12, 2009
Live Music by PWRFL Power And Guest DJs
6pm - Late, Free
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
2009 is International Year of Astronomy: Local Notes
2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, so here's two Seattle-related bits of cosmic news to start off the month of Galileo's birthday:
- Mt. Rainier made an appearance in NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day yesterday
- On February 15th, the Museum of Flight will unveil two new large-sized prints of multi-wavelength images of the spiral galaxy Messier.
Astronomy Picture of the Day is an unadorned site of gorgeous photos accompanied by explanations in plain English. The photo above is of lenticular clouds near Mt. Rainier, taken in December 2008. Browse the APOD archive for more amazing pics. I particularly like this one: The Milky Way Over Mauna Kea. Wow.
The two new prints at the Museum of Flight combine images from NASA's Great Observatories: the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The prints are provided by NASA as part of NASA's participation in International Year of Astronomy. One print displays the combined Hubble-Spitzer-Chandra images. A second print is a triptych that displays the three high-resolution images from Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra side by side and with description captions below. The Museum of Flight is one of 100 organizations across the country to recieve two new prints from NASA. More info on the Museum of Flight's Happy Birthday Galileo! and print unveiling event to be held on February 16th.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Video: Stephen Colbert remixes himself
His own Remix Challenge results in Stephen Colbert remixing himself into a video with glowsticks and laser lights.
Stephen did not -- not -- want you to take his interview with Lawrence Lessig and remix it with a pumping k-hole groove. But you did it anyway. Stephen says, " I don't know what makes me angrier, here, the copyright infringement or the fact that those beats were so jaw-droppin', ear-poppin' fresh. "
So what's a guy like Stephen to do in response? He made his own, of course. Hahahahaha! Check it out: he busts out some hilarious dance moves.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Aretha Franklin's Hat:
Birthday greeting for Emmy-winning friend Shannon:
DJ Adam Freeland wears it well:
Hedgehog Ms. Appa Pricklesworth isn't so sure.
Download the hat file here. The psd file has a transparent background for your own Photoshop play. Check out the Flickr gallery Aretha Franklin's Hat for inspiration.
Coraline: movie trailer v.2
Neil Gaiman says, "It's the first Coraline trailer I've liked ." This new trailer is much creepier than the earlier one. Love it!!
Related: I learned a new word today thanks to SlightlyNorth. His self-portait should be avoided by all koumpounophobes.
Coraline opens in theaters on February 6th.
