The Ballard Chamber of Commerce and Origin Records present the 2nd
Annual Ballard Jazz Festival featuring creative national and local jazz groups in concert, club and educational settings.

Opening Friday, November 18th will be the joint cover “Ballard Jazz
Walk” with 10 bands at 10 venues along Historic Ballard Avenue.
Saturday afternoon, November 20th features educational clinics with
acclaimed national artists including Matt Wilson (drums), guitarists
Ben Monder and John Stowell, trumpeter/producer Don Sickler, and
performances by top Seattle high school jazz groups. The evening
concert at the Mars Hill Performance Hall will feature The Matt Wilson
Quartet, Don Sicker and New Stories performing the music of Elmo Hope,
and Ben Monder with Gary Versace and Matt Jorgensen.

New for this year will be “Brotherhood of the Drum” – two nights of
performances by top American drummers who happen to make their home in
Seattle. Hosted by Origin Records & The Tractor Tavern and sponsored by Modern Drummer Magazine, November 17-18 will see performances by: Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden), Michael Shrieve (Santana), Matt
Jorgensen + 451, John Bishop, Gregg Keplinger and more.

(That subject line ought to get me in trouble with just about everyone, eh?)

For those of you depressed by the election results — and in Seattle, at least, we are legion — this week’s Stranger is a must-read. The lead editorial, The Urban Archipelago: It’s the Cities, Stupid, is well-argued, intelligent, and even (dare I say it?) inspirational.

Very briefly, the article argues that the political divide within America is not between “blue” and “red” states, but between urban and rural areas — a point substantiated by the sidebar maps (best seen in the print edition). Urban areas are Democratic strongholds — even in the South; Republicans control the rural “heartland”. To win the next election, the Stranger’s editors argue, the Democratic Party should worry less about winning over conservative rural voters and more about championing progressive urban values while working to increase the strength of America’s cities.

As a dyed-in-the-wool urbanite, I know that I’m never going to move to BFE, Arkanas to missionize among the misguided. But I can certainly get behind the idea of working to make my city a shining example of enlightened urbanism — the kind of place a bright, misfit kid in Arkansas might dream of escaping to. Hell, we might even have a monorail in 10, 15, 20 years …

(As an aside: I have always loathed Norman Rockwell’s work, but that was before I saw The Problem We All Live With, mentioned in the article. It’s not simply that this representation of a young black girl being escorted to a desegregated school by four U.S. marshals in 1960 caters to my liberal sensitivities, which it does — this is American Realist art at its best, a beautifully constructed composition with surprising moral weight.)

This was supposed to be a review of last night’s Magnetic Fields concert at the Moore, but the boyfriend and I were too sick to go. (Anyone else see the show? I would love to hear how it went.)

We asked around among our peeps to see if anyone wanted our tickets, but got no takers. Late in the day, we posted to the Seattle Craig’s List, offering the tickets for free and got a reply within a half hour. While talking to the lucky winner — a very sweet UW student — to make arrangements for the pick-up, my boyfriend mentioned that we weren’t going because we were both sick and she offered to bring us an order of take-out Pho when she came to get the tickets. So, a few hours later, she was on her way to the show and we had big steaming bowls of Than Brothers veggie pho. All things considered, a sweet deal for everyone.

We’ve used the local instantiation of Craig’s list a number of times, mustly to sell/give-away stuff. We’ve always had a rapid response to our offers, and the people we have encountered through these exchanges have always been great folks. Maybe this is true everywhere, but it tends to reinforce my impression that your average, randomly-selected Seattleite is more likely than not a decent human being.

Sometimes Craig’s List is just plain fun to read — as for example, today’s Need advice on exorcising my Evil Dog in the Pets listing.

Driving to Home Depot (Bellevue) at 3:30 this afternoon, I was passing by the Larry’s Market complex when my attention was caught by a man wearing a sandwich board who was standing on the little traffic island by the side of the road.

The sandwich board read (and I paraphrase from memory):

—————————-
I am a thief.

I was caught shoplifting.

I deserve to be beaten up.
—————————-

I could see a cop car heading down the road toward me, so I skedaddled. Ten minutes later, on my way out of Home Depot — I never find what I want there, and I don’t even know why I bother looking — he was on the sidewalk having a conversation with two cops.

I wonder what that was all about.

one: Matt Ruff is one of my favorite authors, and since I grew up reading Sybil, I especially enjoyed his latest novel, “Set This House In Order: A Romance of Souls” which is a novel about multiple personality disorder, set in Washington. Aside from being a good read, the fact that it’s set in the area makes it very easy for me to picture it in my head.

two: “Set This House In Order” was one of the winners of the 2004 Washington State Book Awards, which proves that people other than me love it too.

three: Matt Ruff is going to do two readings and one signing over the next month or so, starting tonight. To hear more about “Set This House In Order” come hear him read it in Kirkland on December 9th. Or hear him read from “Sewer, Gas, and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy” tonight in Seattle. It’s an oldie but a goodie.

Go on. You know you want to.