image: lcbo.com

For my premiere post here in the Metroblogging family, I’d like to start with one of my ultimate favorite topics to talk and write about… delicious food and good cheap eats!

Throughout the years of dining and social feasting with friends, I

R.S.V.P. for the April Happy Hour

Quick — what are you doing tonight? In case you’ve managed to misplace your planner, this post is intended to remind you that the Metroblogging Seattle hang out hour is tonight, at Piecora’s at 7 pm. You should be there.

Don’t worry. There will be plenty of time to get your international electronic post-rock music fix with Ulrich Schnauss and M83 who will be playing across the street at Chop Suey at 9.

For those of you who like to plan ahead, mark your calendars now for
SEXY AMERICAN GIRLFRIEND this Friday night, APRIL 29, Sexy American Girlfriend rock The Dubliner in Fremont with a hot mash of classic and obscure punk rock and new wave hits from the 70s and 80s. Featuring songs by the Clash, the Pretenders, Devo, the Dead Kennedys, the Ramones, the Jam, the Specials, Elvis Costello, and lots more.

The scoop:
Sexy American Girlfriend
at the Dubliner
3517 Fremont Ave N
Seattle
Friday, April 29
9:30pm
$cheap

…over downtown.

(more…)

While walking on the beach at Discovery Park this weekend, I discovered a strange object resting in the sand. (Pictured here; click here for larger view.)

In actual size it was about two feet wide, with a spongey, organic texture to it; when I touched it with my shoe I found it to be yielding but resilient. My first thought was that it was part of an animal but it had no odor to it and seemed whole. I can’t say for certain that it wasn’t manmade (a parks employee later explained that it’s common for parts of boats to become encrusted with little sea creatures) under the sea life growing on it, but it appeared to be all of a piece. Also, it had at one point been wrapped in a net a pieces of the surrounded it.

There were park employees and volunteers at several stations around the park as part of the Earth Day festivities, but they were all stumped, too.

Rhododendrons (and their close relatives the azaleas) seem to bloom all year round, depending on their variety. It’s hardly worth even mentioning that they are really starting to come into their own around this time, except that everyone has at least one, or two dozen, or several hundred out in their garden, and when you come into late April to May, out they pop, all at once. This in combination with the sunny warm weather results in the husband and I going for many long walks around the neighborhood, where we “rate” our neighbors on how well we like their rhodies. We give bonus points for odd colors (my favourites are always the ones who have freckles) as well as general health of the plant, shape, and number of bushes.

So far, the weight of the recent rains has managed to drag down any early-flowering rhododendron blooms to the ground.

Also in almost-full bloom are the viburnums. At a distance, the small white flowers look daintily lacelike against the green background of the leaves.

I have as many excuses not to cook dinner on any given night as you have time to sit still and listen (e.g., next Tuesday’s excuse is “Meeting a bunch of strangers at Piecora’s”), so Kathy Casey’s claim that “Dining out for life” is the “best” excuse leaves me largely unmoved.

Nevertheless, the mere thought of 150 restaurants donating 30 percent of their Thursday sales (April 28th) is certainly an excuse that’s better than “no reason at all” (my best-used excuse). Even if you’re a cheapskate, you can at least stop by your local World Wrapps for a little tidbit over lunch.

Stop by the Dining out for life website, and check out your local area restaurants before Thursday. I think giving to charity and having a good meal is pretty efficient, when all’s said and done.

dcfc take the bait

more cowbell!

Given the obsessive volume of posts about the appearance of local indie darlings Death Cab for Cutie on television’s the o.c. [fox], it only seemed appropriate to report the set list and post a couple of screen captures found on ye olde internets. The kids at the Bait Shop (where “tickets [are] always plentiful and the band [is] never too loud to talk over”) were treated to three on air tracks:

• “Title and Registration” [$]
• “A Movie Script Ending” [$]
• “The Sound of Settling” [$]

In addition to lots of swoopy camerawork showing the guys rocking out while adults pretended to be teens pretending to be indie, the show featured a second Northwest shout-out. In a related plotline, ridiculous suggestions to improve his self-referential comic book graphic novel kept Seth away from his beloved band (and girlfriend). The source of these harebrained ideas: none other than a “marketing genius” recruited from Fantagraphics.

And there you have it, the final entry on the intersection of a real band and a fake rock venue. [Ed: we can only hope. --at least Modest Mouse's appearance was largely ignored.]

related: In “Death Shows for Cuties” [salon] Hillary Frey argues for an end to indie bands as teen drama prop.

I was driving down Bel-Red around midnight tonight (trying to widen my ecological footprint) when I happened to drive past a Bellevue police vehicle going the other way. It was driving sort of slowly, with the lights completely off, and I was baffled and remain baffled.

Can you “flash” a police car (flick your headlights off and on, to remind them to turn on their lights)?

Can they pull you over for speeding if they don’t have their headlights on? (Aren’t cop cars required to be visible if they’re doing a speed trap?)

Is this their idea of setting a good example?

So here I am, watching the news and I just hear that the Gay Rights Bill that was to insure that there wasn’t discrimination in jobs, insurance, etc was voted DOWN in the Senate today by 1 vote. What’s that about? I thought we were a fairly forward moving state. But then again, I guess maybe we live in a forward moving city.

Also, what in the world is going on with all the shutting down of schools, increasing gas taxes…etc. Sorry, I was in a bit of shock and I’m curious what you all think about what’s going on in our fair city and state.