the thing itself and not the myth

The most interesting thing I’ve done lately is see music. The weekend before last I was up in Vancouver for the folk festival. I got in free because I have a friend who works on the main stage as a sign language interpreter. It is basically awesome.

(Follow me after the jump for Vancouver Folk, the Glitter meet-up, ZooTunes, and more. Image-heavy; click through to embiggen) Read the rest of this entry »

I got back from the east coast and was promptly devoured by the film festival. Sorry! I saw 22 movies, and they’re all discussed in these four letterboxed posts.

It ended on the 15th, so let’s see what I did since then after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Where did we leave off? Rice pudding & teleportation, I think. So Sunday was lunch & roller derby practice (go Bronx!) & then the rain stopped so we could go out to 5 Pointz. YAY. It’s a converted warehouse full of artist lofts, which is awesome already, but then the outside of the building is street art central. You can only paint by permit (which makes sense and is also very strange), and I took ten million pictures. Well, 79 in my Flickr set. Follow me after the jump for some favorites, and the rest of my time in New York. Read the rest of this entry »

The first day in NYC I apparently didn’t take any pictures at all, even though we did lots of stuff. I got to see my friend’s office & one of her volunteer sites, and we went to improv at the UCB theater, and we walked enough that my shoe exploded and I developed a blister on the bottom of my foot. Hot!

I didn’t take any pictures the second day either, when we procured a new pair of shoes and amazing gelato, and went to knitting in Astoria.

The third day… wow. This is getting to be a theme. The third day I didn’t take any pictures until the evening. I was kidnapped by a friend in time for breakfast at a tea shop (which had clearly stolen my ipod, as they were playing Spring Awakening, Rufus Wainright, and Elliott Smith), then off to sight see, particularly to the Morgan Library & Museum, which was very cool! We got lunch at Risotteria (gluten free pizza for the win, as well as v tasty risotto, and my first black-and-white cookie). Nom!

I apparently didn’t take pictures until the We’re About 9 show, so let’s continue with that after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

So! Earlier this month I visited friends on the east coast. I flew into NYC & took the train to Springfield, MA. The train, by the way, was basically the best idea ever. So much more comfortable than the bus. And prettier! And with legroom! And food! Basically, it was awesome.

In Massachusetts we did lots of outdoorsy things. After the jump, more pictures than you could possibly ever want to see. As always, click through to Flickr to embiggen. Read the rest of this entry »

I hope you all had a groovy weekend. I feel like I was wicked busy and didn’t actually get anything done. I spent all of Saturday on the bus running two errands on opposite sides of the county. Yay. I passed a RickRollin’ Scientology protest while transferring buses downtown.

There was also an Anonymous there offering free hugs, but I failed to get a good picture. Woe.

The second errand was the more interesting of the two, as it was a trip to get the supplies to turn this:

into this:

I think I will name it Edith. The laptop is named Adrienne. Edith isn’t after anyone, but it seems to fit. A few more shots of the process live on my Flickr under the tag laptop case.

Finally, I got into the office this morning and found this, the most perfect tshirt, on my desk, a gift from a coworker.

Speaking of socks, I bound off two pairs this weekend (Gred & Forge & Toe-up Embossed Leaves.) All praise Grumperina’s stretchy bind-off, which I found vastly simpler than EZ’s sewn bind-off, and so neat and stretchy! I am going to weave in ends at knitting tonight, and then maybe there will be pictures later this week. Maybe.

I did stuff lately that I didn’t really take pictures of, or, if I did, I took crap pictures. Let’s talk about them anyway!

Earlier this month I went up to Vancouver, a whirlwind weekend trip that included sushi the size of my head, gelato, knitting, sunshine, friends, and roller derby, which was the excuse for going up at that particular time. Terminal City is a really young league (this is only their second season), but they already deliver awesome derby action. I opted to cheer for the Riot Girls, using the time honored pick-the-best-uniform method of allegiance, and they took an early and commanding lead, but I was happy to root for the Faster Pussycats at the end, when they got in some awesome jams. I hope to be able to come up for more derby action this year! Hint, hint, Vancouver friends.

The next weekend, since the new hangar meant that the Rat City bout sold out CRAZY EARLY, I went to see Ellis Paul out at Youngstown. (I was maybe a little grateful that derby sold out, so I didn’t have to make that decision myself. I am possibly ridiculously fond of Ellis.) Antje Duvekot opened, and was lovely, and of course Ellis was great. He had just got a new guitar in Oregon, and he was maybe a little infatuated.

The coolest bit, though, was when he took requests, and someone asked for “Trolley Car”. He admitted right off that he couldn’t remember it well enough to do on his own, and asked for audience support. Eventually, he wound up calling a guy from the front row to help him out. Between them they could woodshed about 75% of the song, which was really great, actually. But what makes this particularly awesome, is that I am pretty damn sure that this fellow’s girlfriend/wife/partner-person is the same woman who got called up several years ago, when Ellis played Phinney Ridge, to take the Patty Griffin part of “Conversation with a Ghost”, and was amazing. I also have a feeling that they drive from Spokane/Idaho/some great distance to see Ellis in the first place. So. That is all just wicked cool, so far as I am concerned.

Finally, I trekked up to Lake Forest Park Town Center (the name that means nothing) to see the Yarn Harlot and a bunch of knitters at Third Place Books. Where I did not buy her book, but I did finally buy Tam Lin, and I also scored a copy of Once Upon a Time in the North, a pre-His Dark Materials story featuring Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison. I am enjoying it much more than Lyra’s Oxford. Plus, it comes with a game! Sweet.

After the jump, a few things I *did* take pictures of. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been carrying reusable grocery bags for a while now, which I like a lot, but I wasn’t such a fan of advertising for the grocery stores I got them from.

Last month I stopped at the craft supply and picked up some fabric paint, then asked folks over at the ephemeral blog to talk me out of writing Al Gore facts on my bags.

They failed to do so. The results live after the jump; may it be on their souls. Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend I went to the Rat City bout, which was enough social action to get me through the rest of the weekend.

Rat Bastard, at halftime:

For actual bout photos, watch Adam’s Flickr page, because I am sure it’s just a matter of time before he has some up. And his will actually be good, whereas mine suck.

The good change from last season was that the food was provided by Skillet. I’ve been hearing about them for ages, but I’ve never been able to get to a location. All that changed this weekend and I got to have POUTINE and ROLLER DERBY both. *Awesome*.

The bad change is that the bout was at Hangar 30, which some of you might know as the location of the library book sale. It’s fine for that purpose, but for derby? WAY TOO SMALL. They used to bout at Hangar 27, but the city wants to turn that into a private facility, basically, screwing over all the community groups who use it. RCRG did a fantastic job maximizing the space in Hangar 30, but it’s really horribly small, and the loss in particular of the majority of the floor seating is tragic. It also means that the bout sold out wicked fast, and that the league lost a lot of money on the missing seats. It totally blows.

So, I did that, and then I spent the rest of the weekend knitting. I was supposed to go to Honk Fest on Sunday, but it rained. Boo. Anyway. Knitting & general yarn porn after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

After a movie Saturday morning, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and walk around Seattle a bit. I started in Pioneer Square, walked down the waterfront, and took the “Waterfront Street Car” back up to the International District.

More photos than anyone cares to see after the jump. Plus maybe a little history. Read the rest of this entry »