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) (more…)

Tonight I went to see Tracy Grammer at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Thingamabobber, which was a good move on my part, even though it is in West Seattle, more or less, which might as well be a different country.

She was the second in a new series; Ellis Paul is going to be there next month, and my excitement regarding this cannot be textually rendered. The only way I could be more excited is if Vance Gilbert was coming with him. (Confidential to Vance: Seriously. Seattle. I know you know where it is. What is the deal?)

Tracy was lovely. She grows every time I see her. I saw her a few times with Dave of course, and at least once with Jim Henry after Dave passed. This is a solo tour, and it suits her. I just wish the audience had been more responsive. Oh Seattle. People who know Seattle audiences, take that experience and apply it to an audience where I easily was the youngest person (at least until you got to fourth graders). Dead silence huge portions of the time. I cheered into silence for Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and for Richard Shindell, and when she got to Townes Van Zandt, who merits the applause of those two combined and then some, I gave up and clapped quietly to myself. They got me, those passive fuckers.

She mentioned Townes because she closed with “Pancho & Lefty”, a song I am perhaps a little obsessed with. On the bus home I listened to Gillian Welch & David Rawlings covering it at a show that’s now ten years old. I thought of how much I love seeing them play, their awkward happy little banter & the way Gillian bobs when she plays guitar, and how they haven’t come to Seattle in ages. I would pay a ridiculous amount of money to see them, no lie. Speaking of artists I would pay a ridiculous amount of money to see, Tom Waits is planning a summer tour. Dear Tom. I saw you in 1999. That was way too long ago.

I need to be better about seeing live music, but it’s hard. Film takes over my life. Movies are easier to go to alone. There’s a lot of artists I’d like to see, but I’m uncomfortable going alone to late-night, hard-drinking bar shows. I try not to live in fear, but it would also be fucking stupid of me to, say, go to Gogol Bordello in SoDo. Or the Paperboys on St. Patrick’s Day. So it goes. But tonight was Tracy, next month is Ellis, and there’s the Winterpills in there somewhere. And the beat goes on.

…I seriously cannot believe I don’t have an “art saves me” icon on this account. What was I thinking?

The last week of January, the Decemberists played two shows at the Moore. I had bought tickets to their cancelled “The Long and Short of It” tour, so there was no question I’d catch both of these. I was up in the balcony for both shows, which is probably best as I had brought a cold back from London and wasn’t anywhere near the top of my game. The first night was a lot of fun, but the second was awesome.

First, the opener was much better. The Butchers & the Builders, who had a great energy and mad percussion action. See the toy drums, etc, at the front of the stage? They got handed out to the audience. I whipped out my camera at first for the totally busker-esque drum kit.

Then the Decemberists were just on, with a set that included the two songs I most wanted & thus least expected to hear - “The Soldiering Life” & “Sons & Daughters”.

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Yay!

In other seafaring news, I did a little damage over at Etsy recently, getting magnets & a necklace on the theme.

And finally, totally not sailor related at all, click through this photo to see my set of photos from International New Year, aka the Work Event That Prevented Me From Caucusing.

…I really am going at this completely backwards, aren’t I? Eventually I swear I will post stuff from England, for the one person who hasn’t prowled through my Flickr already.

I fell down a bit on my picture of the day project in November. I blame work exploding and also me being lazy. Let’s make up for it now. As usual, click through to Flickr to embiggen.

It being the holiday season, Seattle’s Nutcracker March (flash, music) has begun. To my great horror. The first nutcracker I saw was actually kind of cute…

…though the last time I looked at the site there were only John & Paul nutcrackers, no George and Ringo. What’s up with that?

Regardless, around the corner was a TERRIBLE nutcracker, that I have to look at every day because I catch my bus there.

Yup. A Jack Sparrow nutcracker. Just what we all needed.

Now, to be fair, there are some traditional nutcrackers. That’s okay. For example, there’s this fellow at Pacific Place, apparently based on the first nutcracker ever. Or whatever.

And there’s this Seattle-themed one, which is okay.

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After the jump, meet the two most horrific of this year’s nutcrackers, at least that I have seen so far, and to soften the blow a bit, my current favorite non-Beatle nutcracker.

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This has been the week of geek rock, which basically rules. Sunday night was Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm at the Triple Door, which is such a darned swank venue that the disconnect between the room & the show I’m seeing is generally pretty entertaining. Sunday was no exception, with a show that required the audience to participate as both pirates *and* zombies, and offered prizes from Archie McPhee.

Paul being chill; Storm rocking out:

Paul presenting the winner of the door prize. He got a Darth Vader mask (obviously), a brain mold, and probably other groovy Archie McPhee stuff.

Jonathan Coulton:

Who called up Paul & Storm for a large part of the show:

And, Mr. Fancy Pants:

From Paul & Storm’s blog: And we expect many more P&S/JoCo tours in the near and far future. I really hope so, as it was super fun having Paul & Storm doing so much backup.

Then last night we went to They Might Be Giants at the Moore (which, seriously, needs to consider replacing their seats). I read the website, and so didn’t risk bringing my camera. Tragically, I totally could have brought it in. Instead, I have a crappy cell phone shot of John Linnell & his accordion.

Lookit how close we were! Yay. They did “New York City” (introduced as a song by “three women from Vancouver” YAY CUB!) and “She’s an Angel”, both of which I had sort of assumed I would never hear live, so that basically ruled.

No more geek rock this week, though, unless it’s rocking out on the iPod. Woe.

First off, I finished the body cable for the Samus cardigan yesterday, which means that as soon as I pick up a mile-long circular I can do the body itself. Which should fly, as it’s miles of stockinette. I can watch subtitled movies while I do it!

I only went to the festival on Saturday, but I reckon I got my $25 out of it. A handful of pictures after the jump.

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