As I drove down the main highway of Vashon Island on Sunday afternoon, heading toward my brother

Everyone’s favorite “Seattle” “doctors” are just about ready to re-invade your Sunday evenings and force the return of the old recapping skills. In preparation for a brand new and even longer season of Grey’s Anatomy, the cast was in town over the weekend to film some scenes to give the show that faux-Seattle character we came to know, love, and find hilarious this spring.

Few series really bother to be true to their purported hometowns, and that’s especially true of shows set in Seattle . . . The difference with “Grey’s” is that Horton hails from Bellevue and saw an opportunity to show off the region he loves. This season we’ll see characters engaged in heavy conversation on a pier, strolling downtown and chatting on a balcony at Fisher Plaza, the stand-in for Seattle Grace. Mount Si, North Bend and Queen Anne, all places that Horton says feel specific to Seattle, will guest star at some point. [p-i]

It’s nice to know that there will be more chances to view our city in the strange mirror of television once again. Maybe we can even look forward to a very special episode where the interns make a jaunt to Bellevue!

The fawning profile of the cast’s visit ends with some words of wisdom from Patrick Dempsey: “There’s nothing that makes you feel like Seattle in Burbank.” Sounds like material for a Death Cab For Cutie song, doesn’t it?

arcade fire

Originally uploaded by joshc.

Remember when it used to be funny to make fun of Canadian music? How we’d jingoistically laugh at their rules about having a certain percentage of Canadian artists played on the radio? Clearly, those days are over as any Shuffle Songs / Party Shuffle adventure on iTunes is likely to hit a brilliant Canadian band within three tracks or fewer.

Tomorrow, some of Montreal’s finest make their way to the Paramount [#]. The Arcade Fire, whose late-2004 Funeral[$] quickly secured a place as an album most likely to end up on countless “albums that changed my life” lists, bring their fantastic stage show to Seattle.

And by “fantastic” I mean completely flipping out awesome. That is, if you go for the sort of show filled with performers who switch instruments between songs, turn electric guitars and violins into marching band instruments, transform tambourine playing into a full-body workout, do robot dances while singing, occasionally flip out and/or strangle each other, and create wall of soundish backing vocals.

The internet says that the show is sold out, which makes a lot of sense. However, if you’re as resourceful as I think you are, you will explore your social networks and craigslist to find a spare ticket. Your Wednesday night deserves it.

I saw them last Thursday at the CMJ music marathon performance in Central Park. While I don’t think it’s reasonable for us to expect a repeat surprise David Bowie appearance in Seattle, it’s completely sensible to expect to have an incredibly good time. If you want to do your homework before attending the show, give the recently re-released self-titled EP [$] a spin on your playlist, since the band seems to like using the middle section of their setlist as an opportunity to play some of their older songs which usually sound new to people who have only heard the LP.

Along for the ride are Bell Orchestre a subset of the Arcade Fire who play instrumental music that would be suitable for scoring your next sexy spy film, and are the kind of band to inspire fans to spend the concert sketching Richard Perry playing the stand-up bass. Also on the agenda are up-and-comers Wolf Parade, who are sort of like a sparser fusion-jazzier version of the headliners. Of course, this is a completely unfair comparison, but the point is that if you like the Arcade Fire, it’s really likely that you’ll also enjoy Wolf Parade; so why not show up on time?

related

• You Ain’t No Picasso has a few tracks from Wolf Parade’s CBC Radio 3 appearance online for your listening pleasure [#]
• Matthew Derby’s essay about the Arcade Fire is better than anything I could ever write about them [believer]

As a side effect of having a hobby like photography, I can’t seem to see anything without mentally drawing a big black frame around it. This evening, I was returning to Seattle on the 8:10 ferry (by the way, how did I go from appreciating free wifi, to being annoyed at not finding it?). I was completely drained from a long afternoon of dragging a full armada of home office technology (desktop PC, monitor, printer/fax/scanner; and assorted cords, cablemodems, and firewalls) into the car, out of the car, into the living room, back out and down the stairs to the basement. Not wanting to climb upstairs into the lit passenger area for merely a 35-minute ride, I lay in my car listlessly, floating in the warm dark night.

After a while, I became aware of the panorama in front of me, the tiny lit Seattle cityscape like a necklace of lights with a glowing Space Needle, and hanging above it, a giant golden moon drifting in and out of the clouds. I smiled sleepily as I pictured several different shots I could take — tiny space needle, giant moon; wide cityscape, giant moon; my favorite cluster of buildings with the moon; the moon with wisps of clouds scudding across it…

As the ferry continued to chug along slowly, and I tried to figure out camera settings in my head that would allow me to get a sharp image, I watched the buildings get larger and larger, making the moon appear to stop and sink back down. The space needle grew a little lacy frou-frou — shining arches belonging to the Pacific Science center. The ferry swung away from the needle, heading towards its pier; the moon shrank and settled on top of the tallest building like a silly hat.

We had arrived.

I can tell you from experience that the more you know about stagecraft, the harder it is to let go of the critique when you’re in the audience. At last night’s Dead Can Dance concert at the Paramount, I was of two minds about the experience, but the exquisite musicianship of Lisa Gerrard, Brendan Perry, and their five supporting players overcame the deficiencies of the show, and left me with a smile and runny mascara.
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This past Saturday, my boyfriend and I drove out just past Gold Bar to Wallace Falls State Park and hiked up to the falls. It was a perfect day for a hike — cool, overcast, and a bit damp. (Some pictures of the trail and of the falls.)

During the course of our hike, we saw quite a few large black slugs and one small garden-variety snake. We also saw several Woolly Bear caterpillars — a clear signal that Autumn is on its way in.

Meanwhile, back in the city I saw the first pomegranates of the season in the Broadway QFC, which always gets me thinking about Persephone and spending six months in a cold, dark place. I’m starting to notice the leaves on the trees turning yellow and red, and the sun is rising later and later in the morning. I’ve started wearing a jacket to work in the morning, although it’s often too warm to wear it home at the end of the day.

I know that many people dread the return of the long gray months, but this time of year feels like homecoming to me. I am not comfortable with the heat and light of summer, and it’s always a great relief to say goodbye to August.

It’s that time again: tomorrow is the primary election for the local elections. You can either sit down with Penny Pennerson’s voter guide, check out the candidates websites, and think for yourself, OR you could just pick your favorite periodical and vote according to their editorial board’s preferences or according to which candidate got the most endorsements.

To help you take the easy way out, here’s a table of the picks from the two major dailies and the two major weeklies.

Note that the Stranger is likely to pull its endorsement of Nickels after his move to kill the Monorail. If you’re looking for a protest vote, why not write in Grant Cogswell?

For all of the practical details about how and where to vote, check the Secretary of State’s elections page [#].

I was just reminded by local merchant (Sin in Linen, who I love!) that today is International Talk Like a Pirate day. How could we all have forgotten?! I think in my case, I blocked it out. You see, I’m not very good at talking like a pirate, because I can only ever remember “Arr!” which doesn’t make for complex conversation. I think someone should come up with an International Talk Like a Robot day. That would be so much easier for me to participate in AND it’s still silly. Can someone get on that, please?

But back to pirates, did you know that Astoria was a real place? I didn’t until about a month ago. You have no idea how excited I got (not like that!) when I realized I could visit the filming location of The Goonies. I am planning to visit soon. Anyone been there and have recommendations?

On the Seattle Monorail Blog, regular monorail-related content provider Joe reports that “The monorail will be on the ballot for a 5th time this November. The only question is who will be writing the measure, SMP or the City Council.” An e-mail from Mayor Nickels describes how and why the citizens of Seattle will be forced to consider the matter once again at the voting booth:

. . . I am canceling the agreement that grants permission for the monorail to use city streets. Exercising my authority to cancel the Transit Way Agreement is the most direct method for preventing this flawed plan from going forward.

Second, I believe it is fundamentally important that the voters of Seattle have the final say in this project. The people of Seattle know I’m a mayor willing to make tough decisions. In this case, the people have a decision to make, too. The people created the monorail authority and I respect the people’s right to have the final say in its fate. It should not be decided in City Hall and it certainly should not be decided in Olympia. [smb]

So there you have it. Another bit of spice for this year’s local elections and and another chance to support grade-separated mass transit.

I guess that Nickles can be so bold about this since he has no credible challengers running against him. I wonder if the Stranger will endorse a write-in candidate now?

Alright everyone –

Best service and value for automotive stereo systems: Discuss!