a shot of Ben Bridwell greeting Band of Horses fans last night at the Showbox. Just in case you wanted to be prepared for the scope of his beard before heading into tonight’s sure to be delightful all ages show.
band of horses // the showbox // 19 november 2007 [flickr]

It seems that the bloggers have broken Ben Bridwell, just a little. At last night’s Band of Horses show, he made a point of letting everyone in the audience know that he was having a good time and that it was really a joy to play for this crowd of composed of wonderful supportive people who had sold out the first of two nights at the Showbox. Throughout the set, he made references to the big blog “scandals” of the preceding year — making self-deprecating efforts to show that he’d made peace with the YouTube generation [s'gum], lightly teasing the kids in the audiences documenting the whole thing and acknowledging that selling a song to Wal*Mart [p'fork] had taken a little edginess out of the unavoidable “the Funeral” even after they decided to kill the deal [bv] before it made it to television.

Not that anyone in the onetime hometown held any of it against them. Returning from South Carolina enormously bearded and bearing a banner with the latest album’s cover art, Band of Horses were an entirely different animal from the still ragged and full of promise ensemble that opened a post-mortem Carissa’s Wierd CD release at the Crocodile to about thirty people three years (give or take a couple days) ago.
In the year since extolling the band’s virtues among Seattle’s seven gifts to the world [mb], I’d managed to miss them every time they were in town. I’m happy to say that they’ve gotten even better and had one fewer saxophone solo than the last time I saw them. The show was one of sparkling energy, hooting, yipping, and hollering between songs. There was a hatchet tambourine solo and back to back guitaring. I was reminded of all of the reasons that I liked Everything All the Time so much and was more convinced of the merits of Cease to Begin. The kids up front pumped fists in the air, waved hands, shouted for the band to “come home”, and, yes, filmed their favorite songs on shaky outstretched digital cameras. By the time they got to the expected cover, the fake end of the set, the announced encore, and the real end of the show, they’d made it though a good chunk of both albums yet it all seemed over too soon.

Thursday night’s 3rd Birthday Party for Metblogging Seattle at Remedy Teas was a smash hit, with guest appearances by authors (9!), readers, commentators (Gomez!), Six Apart staff (?), and fellow bloggers (Seattlest(s), Buffoonery, & Capitol Hill Seattle!) bearing gifts (walnuts?). We managed to fill up the space nicely, startling several would-be customers who thought they were going to have the place to themselves for quiet contemplation.

For me the real highlight was seeing what Remedy’s kitchen could produce when told to go all-out: those little tea cookies you normally see behind the glass at the counter were out in force on towering vertical trays that looked like castoffs from Star Trek: 3-D Chess. I’d like to say we saved some cucumber sandwiches for the vegetarians among us, but the truth is they were too tasty to let them go to waste on Josh.

The evening was capped off with a cake and candles (apparently in some long-forgotten Mayan base-3 ⅓ numbering system).

Stay tuned for next month’s meetup, sure to feature 100% less subsidized tea and cookies, but the same cast of characters.

Among others, Berlin [#] and Vienna [#] have both tried to give electronic music; Montreal tried to pass off Celine Dion [#]; Philadelphia threw American Bandstand and Pink into the mix [#]; New York celebrated their music & theater [#]; DC handed off Sousa [#]; so we couldn’t let the 7 days of Metroblogging Gifts to the World pass without mentioning Seattle’s vibrant music scene, in this admittedly non-representative final entry in the series:

Everything All the Time from Band of Horses just might be the best album out of Seattle this year. Rising from the ashes of the incomparable chamber pop of Carissa’s Wierd, Ben Bridwell, Mat Brooke, and an ever changing cast of the usual suspects came up with a simultaneously new and retro americana. The album calls to mind driving along a dusty empty highway, conversations in crowded bars with impeccably curated jukeboxes, long summer days with baseball games in public parks that end with the sun hanging low on the horizon as its light bounces off the water and tumbles up the hills like gold. There is nostalgia for skipped days of school and tenuous stages of a budding romance. It has resilience of surviving a particularly rough half-decade. It wears its heart of its sleeve and includes lovely square postcards along with the liner notes.

Impossibly bright and fuzzy guitars explode out of nowhere [mp3], a tentative pedal steel melody allows itself to be devoured so the song can turn into something entirely different at the midpoint, and there is a quiet harmony about Florida. Mat isn’t in the band anymore and Ben and the rest of the gang are leaving us for one of the Carolinas. But even when it’s reminding me of something else, Everything All the Time will remind me of Seattle.

The reason that I mention all of this is that Band of Horses is just one of many signed to Sub Pop, our friendly neighborhood label that, for better or worse, brought you grunge and put Seattle on the map in the 1990s. Although they started in Olympia (which is also home to the state’s capitol as well as giftworthy record labels Kill Rock Stars and K Records. And Sleater-Kinney! But this is not oly.metblogs.com, is it?), they eventually moved and claimed Seattle as their home base for spreading the word about the music scene by way of a singles club. Imagine Netflix, but on limited edition seven inch discs made of vinyl that you got to keep. Now recall that the party started with a thousand copies of the first single from a little band out of Aberdeen called Nirvana. You probably know how things turned out from here. In case you’ve forgotten, recall that the interest in flannel snowballed to such rabid frevor that a sales rep (who still works at Sub Pop) was able to convince the New York Times that Seattle had its very own lingo called grunge speak [wiki] without much effort.
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“Ah, the great outdoors.” The spectrum from which Seattleites can honestly utter that phrase is simply astounding. Whether you’ve gazed over a steamy latte at the snow-capped Olympic Mountains with the Puget Sound’s briny air filling your lungs or tossed your 40 pound pack to the ground after your sixth day of hiking around Mount Rainier to down a Nalgene of Tang and gnaw on some beef jerky, you’ve had a taste of Seattle’s great outdoors.

Seattle’s location makes it an ideal haven for outdoor enthusiasts of all stripes. Boaters, sailers, jet skiers, canoeists, kayakers, fishermen, and other water sportsmen get their fix any of Seattle’s many bodies of water including the Puget Sound, Lake Union, Lake Washington, and Green Lake. Cyclists have their choice of several urban bike trails including the Burke-Gillman Trail and Lake Washington Boulevard. Runners often take advantage of the trails at Green Lake and Seward Park. Plant and animal lovers can examine hundreds of species at Discovery Park, the Arboretum, Volunteer Park and its conservatory, and Lincoln Park.

And that’s all within the city limits. Allow yourself a few hours on the road and the possibilities are limitless.

To the west is Olympic National Park, home to magnificent peaks, the Ho Rainforest, and the Olympic Coast (one of the largest wilderness beaches in the world). To the north are the San Juan Islands, a perfect place to bike, fish, run, boat, or go whale watching. To the east are the Cascade Mountains, home of North Cascade National Park and other state and national parks and forests (my favorite being the Enchantment Lakes). Finally, to the south is Mount Rainier National Park, our crown jewel. It is full of bright flora and fauna, cascading streams, frosty blue glaciers, and the sweetest air you’ve ever breathed. I have few memories better than of staring at Rainier’s peak while laying in a meadow of wildflowers on a bright sunny day.

And that, frankly, is just the surface. I failed to mention the numerous state parks and forests that dot the state. I neglected to address the best places to go rock climbing (ahem, Exit 38, ahem). I didn’t even mention skiing, snowboarding, or snowshoeing. And then there’s REI, a Seatle original since 1938 and the only retail store that makes me giddy. We’ve got it all. And to you, world, we give this gift. Ah, the great outdoors.

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See also: Gift the First, Gift the Second, Gift the Third, Gift the Fourth, and Gift the Fifth.

Read about gifts from around the metroblogging world with this updated guide [la.metblogs] or follow some of these technorati tags being used across the metroblogging network: Metblogs7Gifts, 7Gifts, Metroblogging7Gifts.

via tamu

The first thing most non-Seattleites think of when our fair city is mentioned is rain. However, a truer, more accurate, association should be, dare I say, greatness. Yes, greatness.

You see, what Samantha was saying in regards to our art scene [mb] is true across all industries/genres. There is a laissez-faire mentality present here that encourages open-mindedness and creativity and allows people to take chances. No matter what it is - medicine, information technology, transportation, food and beverage, entertainment - a person can come to mother Seattle and be nurtured, be given the opportunity to grow into beauuutiful butterflies all they can be ah, screw it, superstars.

So on this, the fifth day of city gifts, my true love gave to me - and the world - 5 gold rings¹. That is to say, 5 people who have emerged from Seattle’s chrysalis and ascended to the top of their fields².

#1 Dr. William Hutchinson

Surgeon turned founder of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, [#] one of the foremost cancer research centers in the world and home to no less than 3 Nobel laureates.

#2 & 3 Bill Gates and Paul Allen

College dropouts turned co-founders of Microsoft. [#] (I don’t need to write this explanation, do I?) After creating Microsoft and driving it to be the biggest software company in the world, in true Seattle fashion both have gone on to create their own philanthropic organizations [gates, pgallen] that fund a significant number of worthy causes worldwide.

#4 Jeff Bezos

Rocket geek turned founder of Amazon.com. [#] When you’re sitting at home ordering holiday presents for your loved ones instead of being crushed at the mall you can thank Jeff. In addition, Bezos’ new project, Blue Origin [#], is working on making “an enduring human presence in space” a reality.

#5 Dan Savage

Former video store clerk turned nationally syndicated writer of Savage Love [#] and pioneer in bringing sex/dating advice into the mainstream. Without Dan we’d all still be reading Playboy Advisor and wondering how to best slam a U.S. Senator [wiki]. He’s also got a soft side and has written at least two books about parenting and is a contributor to NPR’s This American Life [#].

The passenger jet plane has completely transformed our world. And while the first jet airliner (the De Havilland Comet) wasn’t built in Seattle, the Boeing 707 was, and it was the plane that launched the Jet Age in 1958.

Now, think about this. If you’ve flown a plane to any place in the world, you probably flew on a 7X7 — the hump-topped 747s for intercontinental runs, the 737s for the short-haul flights in the US (and the only plane Southwest flies), the 757s and 767s that fill in various niches with hub-and-spoke flights, or the sleek new 777s that United flies to Europe. These planes turned what was once an expensive, multi-day slog in car, train, bus or boat into just a few hours of plane time (along with the hour security wait and humilating patdown and your bags ending up in Phoenix instead of Portland). Huge new airports like JFK and DeGaulle were built to handle the big new jets. The idea of the “jet set” — wealthy socialites and movie stars flying to San Tropez for the week just because they could afford to — captivated gossip rag readers until the arrival of deregulation in the late 1970s. And did deregulation ever change things. Suddenly, planes were affordable for anyone to fly, and thanks to Southwest and People Express, Grandma was just a $99 round-trip ticket away. The jet is how we get from Point A to Point B in this country. And that jet, unless you’re flying an Airbus with US Airways or JetBlue or an old MD-80 with American, is going to be Boeing.

All of Boeing’s passenger jets are still built in Renton and Everett. And even as Boeing outsources for parts, the 787 will be built right here in the Puget Sound region.

And the 707 and all its descendents built Seattle. Boeing was the financial backbone of Seattle from the 1950s until Microsoft and the medical research industry displaced it in the 1990s. Tens of thousands of Seattle families depended (and still depend) on Boeing paychecks. And when Boeing suffered in the 1970s, Seattle suffered.

So, remember that next time you cram yourself into an all-too-small airline seat — the plane you’re on probably comes from metro Seattle. Our Gift The Fourth is the Boeing 7X7 series planes that carry the people of the world — and all the pandemic viruses that will kill every one of us.

Two useless asides:
1. Two rows in front of me at Safeco Field sit a gaggle of women who have had Mariners season tickets since the Reagan administration. Boeing used to have a deal where they’d deduct the cost of season tickets from your paycheck over the course of a season.

2. In 1955, Tex Johnston rolled a prototype 707 over SeaFair, and it’s now part of the Seattle cultural mythset. Here’s a bit on that.

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See also: Gift the First, Gift the Second, Gift the Third

Read about gifts from around the metroblogging world with this updated guide [la.metblogs] or follow some of these technorati tags being used across the metroblogging network: Metblogs7Gifts, 7Gifts, Metroblogging7Gifts.

Seattle isn’t the birthplace of coffee–that’s Ethiopia. We didn’t invent the coffeehouse, either: the Turks did. If you enjoy your coffee with milk, sugar and other flavorings, well…you should thank the Austrians. We’re not even responsible for giving coffee to the United States, early English settlers brought coffeehouse culture with them. Still, it’s beyond a doubt that Seattle, Washington is one of the coffee capitals of the world.

If you have to ask why Seattleites love their coffee so much, you obviously haven’t been here during the long, dank winter when it feels like the whole world is made of grey. A little liquid love goes a long way towards easing the daily doldrums.

image via Wikipedia

The ubiquitous Starbucks is the name the whole world knows (I predict that one day soon Starbucks will be more well known than even Mickey Mouse and McDonald’s), but they are far from the only coffee in town. Some folks love Tully’s, the soft-spoken team trainer to Starbuck’s peppy cheerleader, but my local favorite is Caffe Vita, whose rich, flavorful coffee is pure perfection. Espresso Vivace lives up to their “a beautiful cup of coffee” motto with coffee that stirs the tastebuds just as surely as Uptown Espresso truly is the “Home of the Velvet Foam”. (This is a bit of a turn-off for me, but some people really, really like foam.) Victrola’s coffee is pretty fine, too, a palpable manifestation of their mania for careful roasting. Smaller roasters like Lighthouse Roasters, Zoka Coffee, and Seattle Gourmet Coffee have every reason to be proud of their products, as do Poulsbo’s Grounds for Change, Bellingham’s Toad Mountain Coffee, Sumner’s Dillanos and Yakima’s Whatcha Know Joe, along with the many other fine local roasters.

There truly is something for everyone’s coffee taste here; if you think you don’t like coffee, maybe you just haven’t found your perfect match. (My own great love of coffee didn’t begin until one day on the Ave when I ducked into EspressoRoma to get out of the wind. One latte “just to give it a try” later and my life had changed.) Light or dark, regular or decaf, peppermint mocha or “just black”, the possibilities are endless. Mr. Spot’s will give you chai with your espresso (so not for the weak of heart) and Monorail Espresso will give you maple syrup (it’s unbelievably delicious). There are more coffee houses, kiosks and carts here than you could shake an entire forest of sticks at, each of them with their own unique spin and vibe. If you live here, take the time to check out your local coffee shops (I highly recommend Trabant Coffee & Chai), both big and small, corporate and independent. If you don’t, well, you can always order coffee online, brew it up, and drink a cup under your lawn sprinkler.

P.S.: Seattle’s Best Coffee? VERY ironically named.

[Don't see your favorite mentioned in this post? Give 'em a plug in the comments!]

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See also: Gift the First, Gift the Second

Read about gifts from around the metroblogging world with this updated guide [la.metblogs] or follow some of these technorati tags being used across the metroblogging network: Metblogs7Gifts, 7Gifts, Metroblogging7Gifts.

In the spirit of all the holiday gift giving that will be taking place over the next couple of months, all the Metroblogging cities are giving seven gifts to the world throughout the week of NOV 26th - DEC 2. Metroblogging Seattle got kind of drunk at the Elysian and came up with gift the second: Seattle arts.

Now, I know there are a lot of haters in this town that’ll jump all over this, screeching, “What art scene?” But quit humping my leg for a second and listen to me. The thing about Seattle’s art scene that makes it so special, that makes it a gift to the world, that makes it so incredibly not New York’s, is that it’s very forgiving and inclusive.

image via SuttonBeresCuller

What I love about our art scene is the whimsy, the attitude of giving it a shot but not taking itself too seriously. I’m aware that it sounds silly, saying, “Our art scene is a gift to the world because it’s a fun art scene” like this is the Disneyland of creativity, but because of our lightheartedness we see the whole town as a canvas and tuck public art into every possible corner. Everywhere you go in this town you’re aware that people are thinking and making things and that other people are considering what’s being made. And it’s that way for visual art, for theatre, for performance art. Since it’s such a small town word of mouth is important, and the brains attached to those mouths are frequently willing to give you an honest shot.

I know that all the other towns have art scenes too, and to them I say: Bring it.

Because, world, we have all of Fremont, with its troll and its rocket and its Lenin and its Solstice Parade. You can dance on Broadway, learn about parasites on Eastlake. Each neighborhood has its own art, right out there for you to look at.

We have SuttonBeresCuller, Dina Martina, and the Central Library. We’ve got BLVD and Roq la Rue, where you can display all of your lowbrow, Urban Contemporary art. We have Nick Garrison and Sarah Rudinoff and a dozen little theatres that will let them do whatever they want.

But most importantly we have an art scene that’ll encourage you to do what what you will, to make things and introduce them to the pubic. And we have a public that will consider them. We offer these things to you.

See also: Gift the First.

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read about gifts from around the metroblogging world with this updated guide [la.metblogs] or follow some of these technorati tags being used across the metroblogging network: Metblogs7Gifts, 7Gifts, Metroblogging7Gifts.