SeattleCasbah.Com

Olympic Sculpture Park

The new Olympic Sculpture park in Seattle opened shortly after I moved. Since then, I've seen it featured in many magazines and heard raves from friends. So on a little cloudy day, I grabbed the camera and headed over.

Photos
 

Hello, Goodbye

I'm writing this from the comfort of my parent's place in Tacoma, just south of Seattle. Great, great week and it put into perspective how great all of my friends really are. So, thanks to all of you - for the drinks, laughter, and couches to crash on.

Between Vegas and Seattle, its been a fun month. Its back to NYC tomorrow night and with it, back to work. HUGE thanks to Tara for watching BJ while I was away.

State of the Union

"Iraq...Iraq...uh...just give me a chance and some time and...oh look! Up there, its Dikembe Mutumbo! Standing next to him is a MILF...and a soldier, war hero! Thanks all, good night!"

finally...

a little snow in New York!

One good thing about living in a place without street-facing windows is that you get to see pleasant little surprises like this one when you leave for work in the morning.

Its a miracle!

I don't believe it...its Jesus!

Now do you believe?

Vegas, baby. Vegas.

I'm too easy.

It takes me 3 months to plan a trip back to Seattle. Dave emails me on Tuesday and the next thing you know, I'm booking a flight to Vegas. Yes, it is quite expensive to do this last minute. I said this to Dave until he retorted with my own line, "...hey, look at it as an investment."

Anyway, be back on Monday night with stories of all the money I won and hearts I broke.

Chocolate = Cavities

Late Saturday night I found myself in a campy camping-lodge themed bar in the midtown area of Manhattan. The drinks were cheap and the company good. I excused myself around 3:30 in the morning and found myself hunting for a subway stop to make my way home. Midtown is as deserted as New York can get at 3am. Think downtown Seattle at 2 and you get the picture. Most folks are in the village, or east side, or anywhere but where they work, hence the desolation. I had trouble remembering where the subway stop was, but I knew I was close to 5th and if I could get there, I could find a subway stop.

A few minutes later, I was walking north on Park Ave. Across the street, I could see a Mercedes SUV with its window rolled down. A dark-skinned woman leaned out and yelled towards me, "honey! do you know where there's an after-hours bar around here?"

Sorry, I told her. I continued walking. All of a sudden, a car pulled over to the road right next to me. It was her. From a distance, I could tell she was big. Up close, she was bigger. "Hey, you are a cutie! do you know where I can find a good martini bar?"

The realization that I was being picked up by this woman at 3:30 in the morning made me smile. I walked over. Leaning over with my forehead to the doorframe, I told her that of all the people in Manhattan to ask that question to, she had the wrong guy. "Well, we can go find one together. Why don't you get in the car?" Again, I begged off. I was drunk and amused, so I was also apologetic about it. "what are you, Catholic? C'mon, we can have some fun tonight...Fine - we can go back to your place if you like." I told her no thanks again and took my leave, but then she asked for my phone number. Lady, you have about as much chance of me giving you my number as you'll have of me getting in your car. A few hours earlier, I was engaged in a debate with a friend as to whether a girl at the bar was cute or not. I thought she was cute, but my friend didn't see it. Cute...compared to this lady. I walked away, pulled out my phone, and fired off a quick drunken text to my friend.

I put the phone away, waiting my response as I walked. I was still laughing. What were the chances of that happening? Maybe its just the time of night, all the freaks come out. I'm going to walk farther, see what happens. And then it happens. Crossing the same street, I reached an island seperating the road when I heard a voice call out.

"hey cutie!"

I'm smiling when I turn around, but this was a different car. And this time there were two young, black ladies in the car....there is no way this is going to happen again. There is just no way. "My friend and I are wondering if you want to come and party with us tonight." What the hell was going on? My smile quickly faded and a growing sense of alarm grew in my stomach. Am I in the twilight zone? Did these women think that I was a prostitute? Were THEY prostitutes? Who heard of pro's driving around for johns? Shaking my head, I explained to them that I was on my way home, thanks for the offer, good luck, have fun.

"What, you don't like chocolate?" Uh....

"What, you don't like blowjobs?" Uh....

I forced a smile and turned around, walking away. The subway was still a ways away and in the back of my mind I realized that if something this weird can happen twice in a night, so could very many other things. It was 4am. I was in New York. I texted my friend once again, then flagged a cab for the trip home.

An email from my friend was waiting for me this morning.

Subject: chocolate = cavities

"Please tell me your biggest expense on Sat night was the round at the bar..."

art vs. entertainment

The Proposition

I don't think I've seen a Guy Pierce movie yet that I haven't liked (I skipped the Time Machine to preserve the streak). Since seeing him for the first time in LA Confidential, I've been blown away by his intensity and ability to choose good movies to go into. In this way, he's very similar to Ed Norton. So I was pretty happy when his latest work landed in my mailbox on Friday. A surprise awaited me while the opening credits rolled - this movie was scripted by none other than Nick Cave, he of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds fame, a smart, darkly written indie band. Nick Cave also wrote the soundtrack, which was fantastic throughout.

This is an australian western, set in the 1880's during the period of British occupation. The movie drops you half-way into a story, in the middle of a shootout. This will be the only shootout in the entire movie. While more death is to follow, its of the quick and brutal variety. The protagonist of the film (Pierce) is captured. Pierce is filthy throughout the entire movie - sunburnt, cut, dirty - just filthy. You also find out that he's not a nice guy - a killer who walked away from the depravity of his former life who once captured, is faced with a proposition - track down and kill his older brother, the most brutal of the bunch - or his younger brother will be hanged.

I hesitate to call this a western - the setting matches, but this isn't a story about the good guys going after the bad guys. Everyone's bad in this movie, its hard to even sympathize with Pierce's character, once given his history. The closest thing I could compare this movie to is Apocalypse Now, as the movie more than anything is an examination of humanity at its heart of darkness; how evil isn't a matter of good vs. bad, but of using wrong as a means for a right. The Outback is a perfect setting for this, where like the jungles of Vietnam, only the uncivil prosper. My only regret is that I missed this one in the theaters.  Reviews

I resolve...

there is no way to do a new years' resolution list without sounding trite and cliché. Aren't they all just minor variations of the same resolutions you made a year ago and the year before that? I have a horrible track record with resolutions, I suspect we all do.

2007: No proper resolutions, I just told myself on Dec 29th that I would use the 3 day weekend to clean up my place and do laundry before work on Tuesday. I did neither (not a promising start). On the bright side, I poured hours into finishing up Ultimate Alliance for the Xbox, so in a way I put aside cleaning and laundry to you know, save your lives and the universe as we know it. You can thank me later.

2006: I resolved to take a trip to New Zealand in October. Took the new job and it got tabled to next year. Not bad though, I ended up in NY. Maybe if I make the same resolution I'll end up another 3,000 miles away? London? Ireland?

2000: I resolved to tackle my commitment issues, so I got a dog.

1999: I resolved to figure out what I was going to do with my life. Funny how when you are 21, things like this seem to be easily solved by a few moments of soul searching. Jacob, thy name is Naivety.

1995: Senior year, pretty much my life is the plot of American Pie. Applicable resolutions apply. Not a good year.

so 0 for 5, and the rest of the years the resolutions were obviously not important enough to be remembered. So what's the point? I'm not saying that resolutions aren't important; New Years resolutions aren't important. If you want to change or fix something in your life, do it...one more thing, if I hear anyone making the "my resolution is no resolutions" joke I'm going to punch them, punch them right in the baby-maker. That gets retired and hung up in the rafters next to the "see you next year" banner.