7.20.02

seattle_blip

Treasure Hunt

In getting reacquainted with my fair city I have been bewildered by how many things seemed to have disappeared since I last thought about them. Some places,such as Bud’s Jazz Records and the Catholic Seaman’s Club were just misplaced in the memory bank. I found myself walking down the wrong street looking for them.

Others though are hard to understand. I found some things are really old news but strange to me. For instance my first visit to the University District had me searching for the Last Exit on Brooklyn and strangely feeling lost, most certainly I must have gone down the wrong street? But it is really gone. A Seattle institution (albeit a gross one) and place of past employ for me,I couldn’t believe it. Research found it was moved years ago, you can see how little I’ve kept up.

But here also may I momentarily dab a kleenex to one millimeter of my eye to ponder the demise of this strange mix: Cafe Counter Intelligence, The Western Coffee Shop, The Ditto, The real Cyclops, The Twin TeePees,The Frontier Room (I can’t even comment on the remodel), The OK, The Gibson, Ernie Steele’s, The Doghouse…and so on.

CATCH OF THE DAY:

la_mirada

7.11.02

seattle_blip

A visit to the Ballard Locks.

We ended up in Ballard yesterday and in a spontaneous moment decided to go to the Locks.

Well here is another thing as a kid growing up here you take for granted. It is just down right beautiful. Lucky time of the year to be there too, because the Fish Ladder is choked with travelling salmon. It was amazing watching them literally jump out of the water.

People here are complaining about the heat, as it reached into the low 90’s yesterday. Yes, my kind of people, get the weather out of the 70 degree range and no one can take it.

7.08.02

seattle_blip

Of course the millisecond we got to town we had to rent the video Singles, being the 10 year anniversary and everything (of the movie and us).

How could we have forgotten its intense Afterschool Special factor? The bad, bad, boring plot? All I remember is the music, but there is so little of that. Matt Dillon is funny and it sure is a crack up to realize the main character works to solve “traffic problems” (sorry about that Supertrain buddy).

Ben blurted out half way through the movie,”Everyone looks like Nancy Wilson of Heart!”. I responded,”You know Cameron Crowe is married to Nancy, I swear I’ve told you before!”

It was true though,through a miracle of somewhat modern science- Kyra Sedgwick did resemble Nancy Wilson,circa “Roger Fisher/Dreamboat Annie” era.

Priceless moments abound in this film,many featuring a mixed pack of yuppies-in-waiting sporting various Sub-Pop tee shirts (including the ever popular “Loser” one). Where was Mudhoney in all of this?

I sadly missed this potent fact during viewing: Eric Stolz (in his Bridget Fonda days) playing the role of a lifetime as an unrecognizable mime in one of the movie’s more anti-climatic scenes.

CATCH OF THE DAY:

grain_pier

7.01.02

seattle_blip

Okay, so there seems to be some sibling discrepancy as to whether I actually have been housing black widow spiders inside my living space- or not. Being as I didn’t actually get down on my hands and knees to spend quality time with and examine said specimen, I was starting to question my own sanity.

Q: Do black widow spiders exist in this fine part of the country?

A: Great. Ask and you shall receive. According to this rather too exhaustive website about spiders (as far as I am concerned) not only do black widows exist**, but we also get an extra special bonus strain of arachnid up here in the Pacific Northwest called Tegenaria agrestis!

Tegenaria agrestis: the aggressive house spider, is one of the most common spiders found in houses in the Pacific Northwest. Although this spider was first reported from Seattle in 1930, it did not become common in the Pacific Northwest until the 1960s. In the Pullman-Moscow, Idaho area, it is clearly a prevalent spider in basements and in window wells of houses. It rarely climbs vertical surfaces and is usually found only on the ground or lower floors. We have called it the “aggressive house spider” because it bites with little provocation when cornered or threatened.

That’s just fantastic.

** Damn it, I swear this is what I saw! Five species of widow spiders occur in North America. However, the single species occurring in Washington is the western black widow Latrodoctus hesperus. The adult female is a velvety jet black. I don’t like it.