Tomorrow’s Buju Banton show has been canceled. Honestly, I thought that since the uproar happened so close the show, Neumos would just keep on with it and let everything blow over. There hasn’t been any statement out of Neumos yet about the cancelation.

Google Transit expanded their service to include Metro Transit this week. Apparently, it’s decided I should be dead.

Here’s a sample itinerary using two addresses that represent my home and work (not real home or work, of course). In Google’s mind, I should:

1. Ride south on Aurora on the mighty 3-5-8
2. Cross six lanes of highway traffic (and the Jersey barrier in the middle) that’s going 50mph when it’s at speed (tho some days isn’t moving fast at all)
3. Arrive at the other bus stop across the street
4. Ride the 74 north and east to the U District
5. Walk the last two blocks to my ficticious office

Or, in the short version:
Ride bus AWAY from final destination, dodge cars and SCALE A JERSEY BARRIER to dodge cars again, then finally ride a bus back towards the destination if I’m not crushed, smashed, or otherwise severely injured by a downtown-bound gas guzzling H3.

OK, yes, I could probably walk to the Dexter underpass, dodge that traffic, and come out on the other side. But still, why do that when I could get off earlier — at 39th — and walk under the overpass to the same 74 on Bridge Way without ever having to cross the Aurora Bridge?

And why do all that when Metro’s Trip Planner suggests I get off even earlier — at 85th — and take the 48 to a spot a block away from ficticious work? Oh, yeah, Tripfinder’s route is a laborious 48 minutes, a looong day out compared to the exciting and life-risking 34 minutes Google Transit’s route offers me. Of course, does that take into account the sardine-packed nature of the 358 most mornings or the sticky Aurora traffic? I don’t think so.

I can only reach one conclusion, then. Google wants me D-E-D dead. What did I do to it to deserve vehicular manslaughter, insult its puppy?

• Get your autumn on! a nice roundup of the Washington corn maze scene [seattle.lj]
• Tom Douglas has a new pie hole, some pre-dining bullet points to get you ready for dinner. [bonvivant]
• at least someone finds the Sonics amusing [deadspin]

Is it the water? Something’s rotten in Washington state lately. First there was the tragic death of a policeman tied to the former Mayor of Brier, now the Times reports on the sentencing of a former Malden postmaster for mail tampering; specifically: stealing Oxycodone pills from someone else’s mail and replacing them with her own synthetic thyroid pills, a potentially lethal substitution.

Enough with this madness already.

I’m not up on the reggae scene, so I’ve never heard of him, but it appears that Buju Banton is scheduled to play at Neumos on Wednesday. This has got some people in a tizzy because Banton has a history of singing violently homophobic lyrics and allegedly beating up on gay people. Neumos, as I’m sure you’re well aware of, is in Capitol Hill. Was this a good booking decision on Neumos’ part?

Via the Seattle lj: “By giving Banton any kind of platform, Neumos is colluding with a performer who wants gays and lesbians dead. It is our belief that no mainstream club would book performers who call for the death of other groups of people. Even if Banton agrees not to sing his “Boom Bye Bye” song at the Neumos, it would still be wrong to have him on the stage.”

He’s playing on a Wednesday night, which is rarely a busy night for shows. Again, I don’t know anything about reggae, so I don’t know what kind of following Banton has or how many of them would go to Neumos. But I want to know what y’all think. Are you offended that Neumos would book an outspoken homophobe to play at their club? Are you concerned there might be violence? Do you wish that people would stop getting hysterical over things like this and start getting hysterical over something else?

Update: Neumos responds, L.A. and San Francisco cancel their shows.

Snow Patrol // the Moore // 20 September 2006 (a rundown from last week’s sold out show that I somehow forgot to post before skipping town for the weekend)
Readers of the Snow Patrol‘s Frequently Asked Questions section know to expect “Post Punk Progression” playing before the band takes the stage. What the answer fails to mention is that the entrance music will be accompanied by smoke machines, strobing red lights, and high-pitched screaming of the sort associated with pre-millennial boy band fanatics. Hands reach for the rafters and the wailing continues until Gary Lightbody bounds onto the stage, less floppy-haired than usual, accompanied by the rest of the band and launches into a trio of songs from Final Straw: “Spitting Games”, “Run”, and “Chocolate”.

Early in the show, the band proves to be chatty, with Gary busting out his charming Irish accent, plenty of salty language, pausing to reflect just how long it took them to get to Seattle (two cancelled shows this year — due to a lost voice and a foiled airline terror plot), and on the day’s weather. While most of the audience spent the day bemoaning the gloomy onset of autumn, our collective dampening was cause for celebration among the lads of Snow Patrol. If stage banter is to be trusted, ours was the first rain they’d seen in ages and suddenly our annoying drizzle took became inadvertent hospitality.

As on the album, the songs are almost clinically pretty and the stage antics are choreographed to match. Bright spotlights illuminate the band from behind, casting long angsty shadows into the auditorium as silhouettes make their way through the high notes of “It’s Beginning To Get To Me” and “Headlights on Dark Roads”, a pair from Eyes Open. If they weren’t so earnestly into it, the swelling chords with just the right amount of noisiness, synthy choral backups, and onstage precision would read as impeccable calculation; instead it is hard not to get swept up in the soaring rock anthems.
(more…)

Last night we lucked into some baby sitting (thanks, neighbors!), so we went out for an actual sit-down meal at a place without a kid’s menu. This time around it was the Ballard location of Pasta Bella, a string of old shops mashed into a funky, twisty space. We’ve been before, so we knew what to expect: Classical Italian meat and pasta dishes with creativity and taste. After the fine (and spinach-free) salads, I was disappointed in my veal tri formaggio — it’s easy to overcook veal, sadly — but the wife’s pollo agrodolce was a fine mix of fruit and chicken. For dessert, it was bread pudding and tiramisu (with vintage port as well for me). It’s not the best bread pudding in the city (not as long as Boat Street has their amaretto-and-cream heart attack in a bowl on the menu), but it’s well above average.

Total price for food and wine and tip: $100 for two. But very much worth it, even before you factor in not having a two year old demanding your attention.

Happy Friday, everyone. There are two things I have to tell you right now before I forget again:

1. Did you all know that Bodies…the exhibition was going to be here next weekend? Why didn’t you tell me? There will be real pulled-apart bodies hanging out on display across the street from the convention center starting next Saturday and staying until December.

2. If you fell in love with the Poetry Bus at Bumbershoot, or if you missed it and are still kicking yourself, it’s on tour. And they’re, y’know, blogging. Because honestly, what else is there to do on a poetry bus?

Today, of course, is the first day of fall (and it’s also a certain Metroblogger’s birthday… I’m not telling whom, but let’s just say this person survived his or her Jesus year without getting nailed to anything.)

And the first day of fall means that’s it’s time for Oktoberfest. This weekend brings the Fremont Oktoberfest. For some, it’s a celebration of German beer , radical pumpkin carving, and some great music (the yummy Anna Coogan and North 19! Viva Voce! Aqueduct! Helio Sequence!) For others, though, it’s an excuse to get so stupidly pissed that they really make Fremont Oktoberfest one giant drunken frat party (without the togas). It’s like Bumbershoot, with chainsaws and way more alcohol and the crowd cattle-penned into that street in Fremont.

So… here’s you an alternative. Prost on top of Phinney Ridge is celebrating its Germanness on Saturday with a kep tapping, led by Mike Baker from Baron Brewing. I mention this because waaay back in the dotcom days (for you youngins, that was after the Beatles and before 9/11), Mike and I were at the same failed company. He got in with the guy who used to be my boss and they pursued their hobby as a business — brewing. Now, they’re selling German brews all over town. And honestly, wouldn’t you rather drink German beer with friends than drink watered down Redhook with a couple of frat boys with fake IDs who are going to ralph on you at any second?

Saturday, September 23 (tomorrow) starting at 10 am, Seattle Architecture Foundation is offering a walking tour of downtown landscape architecture: “from wide-open park to tucked-away plazas to gardens you never knew existed.” Being someone who lives right next to downtown and doesn’t drive, I’ve discovered that downtown is shockingly full of living things hidden in almost-plain view amongst the steel, stone and glass. This tour includes the waterfront view from Harbor Steps (a good view, but there are better) and Freeway Park (one of my favorite places in Seattle, at least during the day). Cost is $10 per person in advance, $12 day of the tour. For advance registration call: 206.667.9184