Theatre: Season's End

 Clyde's by Lynn Nottage, Directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton, Arts West, June 6-30, 2024

Jinkx Monsoon & Major Scales Together Again, Again! Created by Jinkx Monsoon and Major Scales, Original Music by Major Scales. Seattle Rep, 31 May-23 June,2024

The Lovely Bride (herein known as the LB) and I have season tickets to local theatres Arts West and the Seattle Rep, but rarely do the stars align such that we have plays at both the same weekend. On this particular sunny Seattle weekend, we did, and so the entire weekend became theatrical in nature. And eating. Lots of eating.

Friday we set out for West Seattle on the far side of the industrialized Duwamish river for dinner and show. The dinner was at the Phoenicia, our go-to place in good weather as we like to eat on the patio outside. They know us there by now - we're the older couple that orders way-too-many small plates and defeats the lot of them. Olives, pita, hummus, burrata, manila clams, green beans and lamb chop lollypops. Baklava to go. This time, for once, there was no parking weirdness. 

On to the play. Clyde's is a truck stop restaurant on the off-ramp to purgatory run by Clyde (Tracy Michelle Hughes), literally the boss from hell, who torments a kitchen crew of ex-cons that no one else will hire. The kitchen staff in return have banded together into a demi-family who trade fantasies of sandwich combinations and try to create that perfect bite. Montie (Reginald Andre-Jackson, last seen tearing up the stage in the Rep's Fat Ham) is the zen master of sandwiches, and the only one who doesn't seem afraid of Clyde. Rafael (Jacob Alcazar) is the acolyte, seeking to learn from the master. Tisha (Deja Culver) tries, but is too weighed down by her reality. And Jason (Joe Moore), is the new guy, whose racist tats are scribed on a very sensitive flesh.

The dialogue is as rapid-fire and intense as a kitchen in the weeds. The character laugh, yell, argue, and fume at full volume. The actors throw everything into it, and leave nothing in the tank afterwards. Hughes' portrayal of Clyde is that of head devil, rampaging in make everyone's life miserable, knowing that her staff has nowhere else to go. The set itself is an intensely detailed kitchen, its walls stained by smoke and pain. 

The LB says it was the best play of the season, and I would agree, though I will note that the entire season from the Arts West was excellent. English was very good, Born with Teeth was excellent, and Matt & Ben was OK in a weird, quirky way. Hedwig didn't work for me, and I am filled with Christmas charity for the cheesy, breezy Snowed In. In General, Arts West had more hits than misses, and is a strong season of seriously good performances. 

So, that was Friday. Saturday, after the last practice session of our Tai Chi class (we get three weeks off) and poke (from Big Island in Renton), we decamped for Seattle Center. This year they moved the matinee performance up to noon, so we decided to stay in town overnight as opposed to rushing around on Sunday morning. So we stayed overnight at the Mediterranean Inn, a nice 3-start hotel caddy-corner from Dick's Drive-in (and with that, everyone in Seattle knows where I am talking about). Most of clientele are families going on cruises, gathering in Seattle before heading off to parts unknown. Nice rooms, but the strong recommendation is the rooftop patio, which gives a sweeping view of Queen Anne Hill, the Needle, Rainier, the docks, West Seattle, and the Olympics. The LB and I spent the afternoon and early evening on that deck, reading (Demon Copperhead for Kate, while I finished up a Raymond Chandler novel (more on that sometime later). I got takeout from our fave place in the area, Racha Thai - calamari, fresh rolls (for her) chicken satay (for me), bananas in coconut milk (desert for her) and black sticky rice (for me). So yeah, we've been eating out a lot this weekend.

Breakfast was at the Mecca Cafe, a bar that serves all day breakfast. Denver omelet and hash browns for me, oatmeal and ham for the LB. One of the two elevators in the hotel broke down, so all the guests going on cruises with all their luggage had to manipulate the surviving lift (the younger couples took their luggage down multiple flights of stairs instead). We spent the late morning on the roof again, which the cruise people had abandoned. The LB had gotten some advance parking in a lot a few blocks away, and to my surprise, everything worked. Has the curse been lifted? (OK, the lot was a little too far from the theater, and the LB had to take the walk in stages, but we still got there in plenty of time - she is a little brilliant that way).

So, the Rep. I can honestly say we has seen Monsoon and Scales back in the before-time, before she won RuPauls' Drag Race a second time and got to be a Doctor Who villain. I likes the performance then. This one? Not so much. The conceit of the show is that this is the final reunion of vocalist Monsoon and pianist Scales in a dystopian future where the sun has burned out and gelatinous aliens are in charge.  Fun times. And both characters have seen better days, as Monsoon Norma-Desmonds her way through memories and songs, while the age-makeuped Scales is equal parts provocative Larry David and subservient Renfield. There's not much of plot, rather just a framework for the songs, most of them about the perils of getting old. Maybe that's what frustrates me, as a bonified, card-carrying old person. A lot of references to Drag Race, which I had never watched and so the references went over my head (but landed firmly with the quartet of young women behind us). Monsoon's voice is amazing and Scales keyboard work was great. In the intimacy of a cabaret show, or even the smaller Leo K theater, all this probably could work, but up on main stage of the Rep, not so much. Monsoon made the best of it interacting the decidedly less-than-full-house on that way-too-early-matinee, but it was just OK.

And I think "just OK" is the final judgement I have to throw at this Rep's season. Passengers was another not-quite-a-play but was another good performance. Islander was good. The queer-themed Little Women had challenges living up to the original text. Same with Fat Ham, thought the end result was much better. And ditto Quixote Nuevo, which had the additional sin of using puppets.  Sanctuary City was probably the best of the season and was darn good. So yeah, there have been better years, and this season had a brace of solid performances. But were this baseball, we would be talking about it being a building year. Next year's agenda looks much stronger. 

And that was our weekend. We headed home, got a couple small pizzas from the local Romio's, and collapsed in the hanging chairs overlooking our back yard. I think I've had enough activity for a little while.

So how was your weekend?

More late,

DC: The Week That Was

So, I spent the past week in Washington. The Other Washington, as we like to call it in our corner of the Lower 48. The DC version of Washington.

 We were there because the Lovely Bride was part of a group talking to the various offices of Senators and Representatives. The LB is an Enrolled Agent, a professional tax preparer who is certified and approved to deal with taxes and the IRS. She has been in the past a big wheel in local tax preparer organizations (former president for a couple), and she still is putting together conferences and teaching people about tax law. The National Association of Enrolled Agents were looking for people to come to Washington and talk to government leaders (well, their staffs) about professional tax preparers and why they are good things to have around.

Me? I tagged along as arm candy.

We flew out on Monday and got to the the conference motel, the Madison just off M Street, late in the evening. Tuesday the LB had a training session, and Wednesday they met with the government representatives. The LB's team was a mix of out-type-of-Washingtonians and South Carolingian. So they met with the offices of Patty Murphy, Kim Schrier, Ric Larsen, and Lindsey Graham. Only Ric Larsen was available to say hello, and then briefly. Lindsey's meeting was in a hallway.

What I can show you.

While the LB was hobnobbing with people who actually can see the levers of power (if not touch them), I used my Tuesday to take a trip up to Maryland to visit the offices of Zenimax Online Services, who are the makers of Elder Scrolls Online and my bosses. I took a tour of the facilities with my immediate superior, Bill Slavicsek, and had lunch with the other writers in the new cafe. It was a really nice cafe, and it was the first time all the writers were in the same room. After the tour, Bill and I watched Quantumania (which was pretty much a family adventure film), and went out with the talented Michelle Carter to dinner a local place (Tarks) which had excellent food (I had the duck). Long drive back to DC.

Teaching moment.

Wednesday the Lovely B visited lawmakers and I went to the National Galley of Art. The American rooms were closed for renovation and the Vermeers were in the Netherlands for a big Vermeer retrospective, but I had a good time taking in the museum at my leisure. Favorites were a hall filled with Rodins, a collection of Renoirs and Monets, and rooms full of Calders and Rothkos in the newer, weirder modern art annex. Joined the LB at a tax preparers' reception at the District Wharf, which is a new upscale office and restaurant district on the Potomac. As I said, I was the arm candy, fetching drinks and making small talk. Nice work if you can get it.

Thursday through Saturday the LB and I walked around Washington. Well, took a taxi down to the mall and walked about. Our hotel was a few blocks away from the metro, so we our aged legs relied on cabs and the occasional Lyft. And for once I had excellent luck with taxis - about 9 out of 10 times I found one easily. 

View from the
Botanical Gardens 

Anyway our agenda over the next three days included the Lincoln, Korea, WWI, and MLB memorials, with an attempt to visit the new African-American Arts and Culture museum, only to find it swarmed by school groups and individual tickets booked out to the next Wednesday. Instead we took in the Freer Museum with its Asian Art and Whistler's Peacock Room. That was the first day. The second day we slowed down a little, sleeping in and hitting smaller museums.  We did the Spy museum on Friday, a private museum that was recommended by at least five people, and was very good - we spent about four hours there. Saturday was the Botanical Gardens in the shadow of the Capitol Building, with a trip out to the  Kennelworth Aquatic Gardens, a marsh and former aquatic plant garden run by the National Park Service. Lots of photos of lilies. Sunday we were up way too early to return to our Washington.  

We feasted on hotel breakfasts in the morning, then one large meal in the early evening. Mandu on K Street was a intro for the LB for Korean cooking like mandu (dumplings) and  bulgogi. Nama was a sushi place nearby. Del Mar was a sumptuous and expensive restaurant at the District Wharf. and finally, 

Jaleo by Andre Jose, which had some excellent tapas. And sangia. Kool-Aide pitchers of sangria. The weather was great and we dined alfresco whenever we could manage it. Despite all the walking, I gained a couple pounds this trip. Go figure. 

. 

So that was Washington. There was a great trip, and I would go back if the Lovely Bride chooses to go. We missed a bunch of stuff, but avoided getting that Thousand-Yard-Museum-State that hits when you try to do everything. Memorial Day was proved to be quiet (The former house-mates, Anne and Sig, looked after the cats while we were gone and did some serious yardwork), and I still feel a little exhausted, but ready to go back to work.

More later, 

Eating Disney

 Who in their right mind goes to Disney World in a pandemic?

>Sheepishly raises his hand.<

So, here's the story. We made reservations - park, plane, hotel - like, eight months previously, on the assumption that we would be over the worst of it by then. Disney World was running a EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, and this was a good a reason as any. And when it seemed like the worst of it was NOT over, the Lovely Bride was headstrong in her desire to go, as long as we made proper preparations.

So we went to Florida and emerged OK.

Mind you, we were vacced, and there was solid mask discipline throughout, particularly in the park (the Lovely B did call out a couple people indoors w/o their masks, at the cost of harsh looks but higher safety). I brought KN95s, which were surprisingly comfortable.The few maskless I encountered seemed to also have a minimal understanding of sunscreen as well, so they were easily identified. And I was chided on the plane down by a flight attendant to not keeping masked while chewing (OK, I feel that inner Karen rising, but it was a fair cop). We were cautious and generally smart, and afterwards we self-isolated on the chance that we did pick something up (though to be honest, I always welcome the opportunity to not see other people).

And we were helped by perfect weather - warm but not too hot, low humidity, no rain. Some of the natives were commenting that it was the best weather for months.  Crowds were containable, except for the lines, which were long. Drinking at EPCOT is apparently a major draw - I saw a lot of varieties of "Drinking Around the World" T-shirts, but I saw surprisingly few drunks. It was in many ways a magical kingdom. 

OK, fine. You went to EPCOT for the food. How was it?

It was good. Really good. In addition to their regular restaurants scattered among the various national districts, they installed a host of other locations to sample. Belgium. Australia.Hawai'i. Brazil, Germany. Much good food. Many small bites. Many mimosas (we started to keep our dead soldiers, and returned with a host of plastic stemware). There was a booth selling lobster with a bisque sauce that was a highlight. Weirdest booth? A place selling hand-made noodles called "The Noodle Exchange." Wait, what? (OK, it is not as weird as being in the Canada district and hearing "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" on the background music. Is that the new Canadian anthem?).

Of the established restaurants, we had favorites that we went back to, and a new one. The top three were:

Morocco - Spice Road Table - Small plates - hummus, lamb kefta, tiroptakia, served in the open air part of the cafe. A friend had posted pictures of  a recent meal, and I felt challenged to respond in kind. Only meal we did photos for, because we kept forgetting to take pictures unitl after we ate.

Japan - Tokyo - Some of the best sushi I have had, hands down. Incredible service, though we arrived late, then ordered another round after the initial. They were incredibly accommodating. "Yes, we've had sushi, but what about second sushi?" Also, no Sapuro beer (the sole case of the shipping crisis casting its shadow on us). Closed the joint down - we were last ones out the door.

Animal Kingdom - Tiffins - An upscale restaurant in Animal Kingdom that you would normally miss on the way to get on the Pandora/Avatar movie rides. Spices from South Asia and Africa. The LB had scallops and steak, I had a perfect veal. I mean, platonic ideal of veal. Incredibly well-presented, well- seasoned, and generally fantastic. One of those hidden gems. 

The worst meal we had (and it is in my all-time five bottom meals) was at a hotel off the property - Il Mulino at the Swan. Air conditioning full blast, cafeteria-loud venue, snippy front desk, slow service, long waits between courses, inedible saltimbocca. I can groove on a two hour meal, but not a that level of discomfort. So yeah - go for the park for the food.

However, the Swan (and its companion, the Dolphin, where we stayed) were excellent hotels otherwise. Close enough to be in walking distance to parks, plus had boat service to EPCOT and Disney Hollywood. Boats running so often we never had to wait long. And, the gondolas from my youth (and Disneyland) were back, hooking up Hollywood and EPCOT with some of the other resorts, and to be honest, we spent a morning riding those.

The rides were great as well. We abjured the Magic Kingdom, did EPCOT for two days, Animal Kingdom for one, and Hollywood (also known as "Everything else Disney owns") for a day and change. Star Wars Land/Galaxy's edge was good. Rise of the Resistance was worth the two hour wait and an intriguing study in presenting an experience themed around a ride. Smuggler's Run (you get the fly the Millennium Falcon) was great, and we went back a second day to improve our score. The Flight of Passage Pandora ride was worth the wait, the slow boat Na'vi River Ride not so much. The new Ratatouille ride was amusing, but not overwhelming. And I finally got to ride a couple rides that I never had time for before, like the Test Track at Epcot (another nice total experience) and the Tower of Terror (I went alone, the LB waited drinking mango rum slushies from a nearby place of safety, then we had great ice cream to celebrate from Hollywood Scoops - go hunt it down if you're there.

And the people working the park were pretty darn impressive as well. The staff was omnipresent and positive without being creepy. While we were there, they rolled out a new app for line management and reservations, which promptly crashed, so the bulk of the staff I saw (mostly but not exclusively young people) were spending a lot time showing guests (mostly but not exclusively older) how to use their phones. 

And that was it. If you are a person who bridles at $3.75 cokes at a hotel, you don't want to take this type of vacation. But if you can throw caution to the winds (or have a Lovely Spouse who is actually spending the money), it was a delightful break, and the first time out of the house for a real vacation in two years. 

More later,

Weekending in Seattle

View from the Balcony

I tend to celebrate my birthday by not being around. Often the Lovely Bride and I decamp for some hotel, like the Salish Lodge or Alderbrook, where we get massages and I can sit in a comfortable chair and read. I've spent previous birthdays kayaking on the Bellevue Slough and riding in a zeppelin over Everett. This year, the usual haunts were already sewn up before we could make reservations, and I did not want to travel far. 

And so we chose the Edgewater in downtown Seattle. The Edgewater is a luxury shoreline hotel built over the water before they stopped letting people do that, and the Beatles once stayed there once, which they don't let anyone forget. The interior has been redone a couple times, the most recent in 1990 or so, and has a PNW/Frank Lloyd Wright/Rock and Roll vibe to it. The rooms were large, comfortable, and most importantly for our case, had balconies overlooking the Sound which were perfect for reading books, drinking wine, and watching the sun go down.

The first night out we walked to Ohana, a favorite sushi spot in Belltown (an area north of downtown Seattle, which they are trying to rebrand as "Uptown"). Walking was the exercise of the weekend, even though it meant challenging a particularly steep hill on Wall Street. The food was great, the drinks were strong, and we ended up getting back to the hotel in time to watch the sun drop down in a cloudy sky.

Sudden neighbor

Then, in the early hours of next morning, the cruise ship arrived. The Edgewater is right next to the Port of Seattle pier, where the cruise ships dock, and in the morning our window had a nice view of the Celebrity Millenium, registered in Valletta, Malta, which had snuck in around 5 AM. Despite its sudden arrival, we breakfasted and headed for the aquarium, a short walk south.

The Seattle Aquarium is very nice, but always had a vibe of "work in progress" to me, set up within a renovated warehouse on the docks. It keeps that vibe, since it is currently working on a "ocean pavilion" across the street in the shadow of the Pike Place Market's parking structure. High points were moon jellies, a particularly cranky-looking octopus, harbor seals, and sea otters (the latter in the midst of second breakfast, dining on crabs). Everyone was masked, but there was an onslaught of children, which made me feel a little uncomfortable.

For lunch walked over to Place Pigalle, in the aforementioned Pike Place market. Place Pigelle is a small restaurant down a hallway right next to where they throw the fish. Light meal of mussels and soup (French onion in my case). Good view of the Sound, and we were serenaded by an accordion and violinist in the courtyard below. I went down to tip them and found that the musicians were wearing full cat-headed masks.So, yeah, Seattle.

View of the city, without cruise ship

Afternoon was the SAM - Seattle Art Museum, which was hosting an Monet exhibit of his work at Etretat.  Etretat is a fishing village on the English Channel that in Monet's time was becoming a tourist destination. Monet (pre-Lillies) was seeking to rekindle his vision, and went to the village to paint the landmark cliffs in ways different than all the other artists of the times were painting them.

As an exhibit I really liked this a lot, primarily because it got really down into the details with the process of painting of the "open air" school. This involved such things as where Monet got his canvases, and the importance of the recent invention of tubes of pigment from America that gave the Impressionists the ability to take their work on the road. The works themselves were small for the space they provided - usually such shows are jam-packed, but this one had a lot of bare walls and creative use of empty space. That's OK, because it gave them the chance to really get into the bits and pieces of the creation of art, how it fit into Monet's life at that moment, what other artists were doing, and his technique and technology. I enjoyed it tremendously.

The Lovely Bride

The SAM was also masked and generally less crowded. Many of the galleries were closed and empty at this stage, and the Monet was the major draw. Still, after surveying the area, the Lovely B and made the long trudge back to the hotel, and sat on the back porch as the huge cruise ship undocked and was gone before 5 PM. We had a very pricey, very good dinner at the hotel's restaraunt, repaired to our dockside porch to the finish the wine and watched the sun go down.

And the next morning there was a NEW cruise ship parked outside our window, but we breakfasted, stopped for the groceries at Pike Place (also seriously masked up, but crowded) for smoked salmon, crab, and bread.

And so we return. It was a good weekend, and I got a bit of reading done. And that's how I spent my 64th birthday.

More later,

Big Pile of Books: When in Rome

I have a large pile of books at the end of my desk, accumulated over the course of the year and now demanding reviews. But I'm surprised that I have only one historical non-fiction text among them. That can't be right.


Well, it is, in that much of my nonfiction has been taken up with a single volume: The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II, which I will not be talking about here because, well, I am not finished with it. But has been the long-haul book for lengthy trips away from the home base. Instead, let me talk about this one:

A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome by Alberto Angela, translated from the Italian by Gregory Conti, Europa Editions, 2009

Provenance: I thought I had gotten this text from a friend, but a sticker on the back identifies it clearly as a denizen of Half-Price books, where overstocks go to die. The local Half-Price has carried a lot of good general histories, and this is one. Its appearance feels to me like it more European that Amercian - softbound trade with folding end-flaps, and is pretty substantial.

Review: I started reading this in preparation of running a Cthulhu Invictus game, which is Call of Cthulhu set in the Roman Empire. In addition, I've been reading SPQR by Mary Beard, which gives me larger view of the entire setting (and is really good, but, again, will not review until I finish it, which may be some time).

As a side benefit, after finishing the book, the Lovely Bride and I were invited to Lucca Comics and Games as guests, and spent the week before in Naples/Napoli. So we got to tour Pompeii, Paestum, and Herculaneum with a extremely knowledgeable guide (highly recommended - she's really good) and this book was valuable as preparatory work.

Day in the Life gives me a lot of thought about how to fit in the small bits of life and times for the characters who I may be throwing around in the midst of Romanic Cthulhu adventures.

Here's an obvious one - night is dark but not empty. I know it is a shock, but in our modern times, unless we are way the hell away from everything, we still have some ambient light. Rome didn't/couldn't do that. So they were to a great degree hostages to daylight, and evolved their situations accordingly. Yet the darkness is also a time for deliveries of food and supplies to the city, when the streets are (relatively) empty of the rest of the citizenry.

Another important one - the vast majority of the population were camping. Yep, we know about the layouts of the Roman villas, (And can identify vomitoriums, impluviums, and shrines to house gods on sight), but most of the working class had small tight quarters in tall buildings, which got worse as you went up (the opposite of penthouses in the elevator-assisted modern age). Not a lot of amenities, not a lot of privacy. A lot of rent-paying squatters.

This is obvious stuff when you think about it. Rome had a strong civic and public life in part because of a lack of personal, private space. The did have food kiosks (open-sided restaurants to get a quick meal), and did have running water (the baths, which were social centers for business and schmoozing). Other parts do feel alien, and I need to think about them more when incorporating them into any type of campaign.

The conceit of the book is traveling through a single day, pressing through the city to the a gladiatorial contest and then to a banquet (the laying on couches thing). Angela puts together a nice, solid narrative which carried through the translation. If you want to get a nice general text on Roman life (or what we think Roman life was like), here you go.

More later,

Under Kandorian Skies

Yeah, it is irony when it takes me longer to tell you about the vacation than it did to experience it. But that's what happens when you have a lot of plays involved.

So this is closure, wrapping things up. We left Ashland, stopped in Portland overnight, and then headed up the Columbia Gorge to Marysville, jumped over the border into Washington State, stopped for dinner in Yakima, then home in the evening. The end.

That IS a Doozey!

Oh, all right, the details. In Portland we stayed as the Modera, a small downtown hotel reimagined for an upscale crowd - the rooms are small but original art is everywhere, and the central court is dominated by a green wall of plant cover. The afternoon was spent at the Portland Art Museum, which had a nice permanent collection within a pair of already-existing buildings, creating a large number of cul de sacs and side rooms. Three Monets, four Rodans, a John Singer Sargent.  A very nice collection, and if you haven't been, you should go. The interesting thing was a temporary show of "the Art of the Automobile", which translated into classic cars parked throughout the main gallery. Things like Steve McQueen's Jag, a Tucker, a Corvette Sting Ray, and my personal favorite car of all time, the 1931 Duesenberg (where you get the phrase"That's a Doozey!")

You hear that Portland is a younger and more vibrant town than Seattle, and its downtown has much to recommend. The hotel was awash in young artistic professionals, and walking back from dinner, we passed a group playing D&D on the porch of a game store while a young lady was parked under a lampost using the wifi. In downtown Portland. OK, I can get with it.You're younger and hipper than us. That's cool.

Kate's favorite modern art piece

The day following Portland was a day of hits and misses. We got to the Portland Rose Garden, which was all in bloom. Kate enjoyed the foliage while I considered the idea of roses as genetic intellectual property, and the huggamugga a few years back about patenting a life form. But we missed the Tea Garden. We drove up the gorge to a beautiful overlook to Vista Point, a thirties-era project that looks from afar to be something that escaped from a GRRMartin book, but could not find anything of Maya Lin's Confluence project, which is being developed along the length of the river. We got to Marysville and toured around the great Stonehenge there , but did not get to the museum there because we took the "historic" road up to Vista point, turning a 2 hour trip into a 6 hour one.

Vista Point, with wildfire.

And all under a strange red sky (hence the title of this entry). Oregon was on fire, or rather a chunk of it to the west of Mt. Hood. From Portland it was a grey line across the sky, like a belching smokestack. First I thought it pollution trapped under an inversion, but as we climbed beneath it, we discovered that the ground beneath our feet turned red from the scattered light, and our shadows were strange and shifting. It was a subtle shift as we moved through the waterfalls along the gorge, and gave the sidetrips and small hikes we made a strange quality of another world.

Oh yeah, waterfalls are all along the south side of the gorge, with walks of various length to get there. Personal fave was the Bridal Falls. The Multnomah Falls is higher, and closer to the main road, with the sad result that it was mobbed by other tourists, and parking was a pain. So if you walk, take the long road and hit the smaller falls for a better experience.

The Marysville Stonehenge

Oh, and the Stonehenge (having seen the original in England). It was created as a war memorial for local WWI vets by Sam Hill, whose tomb is nearby. The intent was to underscore that we have not advanced that far since the savage days when the original was set up. Mind you, this new version was a) built with concrete as opposed to individual stones, b) was set up to be what they thought the original "fixed" original arrangement of the henge was, and c) not oriented to the stars like the first one, because at the time they did not know about that feature. But the thought is good.

The end result of all this was about three weeks of extremely upbeat work, almost to a manic point. I was hopelessly aware that I was MUCH too much in a good mood upon my return, and had to back it off a few notches lest I frighten friends and co-workers. But it was so good to take a real vacation. I really should do it more often.

More later,

Ashland

So, the vacation.

It has been more than three years since I've had a real vacation. I've traveled, mind you, but it has been either for work or family-related. There has not been a hull-down, recharge the batteries, going-on-vacation vacation for some time now.

So that resulted in Ashland, Oregon, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Ashland is located on the FAR side of Oregon, about ten miles from the California border. Originally it was a railway town, and was the location of one (of many, apparently) "golden spikes" that bound together America. It being America, they pushed through another line elsewhere and sidelined Ashland.

The town reinvented itself. Home to Chautauquas, they transformed over time into the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Now it is a cultural destination - this is the place the English teachers go on vacation.

I've lived for many years in a vacation town (Lake Geneva), so I am aware of three populations of the town. The tourist crowd in Ashland tends to be older and wealthier. The support staff (waitstaff, retail) is much, much younger, and the gap is underlines as there is also a large component of young people using Ashland as a stopover between San Francisco and Portland. The final component are the majority - the natives who live here and are not directly incorporated into the tourist industry. They have a small town life and (using my own time in Lake Geneva as an example) avoid the downtown unless they have to.

It even has a picture in Wikipedia.

The festival is presented at three main stages, built up the hill from the city proper. The Elizabethan Stage (also called the Allen Pavilion) is the oldest, though remodeled over the years. An open-air amphitheater with a thrust stage and a period Tudor backdrop, it has a flavor of the globe with more room (and replacing the groundlings with stadium seats). The Angus Bowmer is also a thrust stage (sticks out into the audience), but is inside with a steeper pitch to the seating. And the New Theatre (naming rights apparently still available) is created as a theatre in the round.

The trip down was relatively long but uneventful. Lunch at Meriwethers, a pricy but sumptuous meal in Portland (great crab risotto), and a visit to the Japanese Garden high on the western hill overlooking the city. We arrived after dark, but the Blue Moon B&B left a light on for us.

The Blue Moon, by the way, is a fantastic little bed & breakfast - close to the theaters, away from the downtown, neat, comfortable, and homey. Its proprietor, Dean, is a wonderful cook, both providing the excellent breakfast part of the "bed and breakfast" but also taking into account the Lovely Bride's egg allergy, which makes such things problematic sometimes. It is with regrets that we just an email that he's selling the place, but were glad to have him as our host. It was a great place to recharge the internal batteries.

Oh, yeah, there were also plays involved. More on those later.

Someplace Special

Yes, I've been off the grid for the past ten days, on vacation, visiting family and friends in Pittsburgh.

No, I don't feel particularly responsible to tell anyone I was doing this in a public forum. In fact, all those continual posts I see from people saying "Hey, I'm at the beach this week" or "Hey, I'm at the local Starbucks!" is sort like saying "Hey, my house is empty and I won't be home for a while!"

Of course, when I DO leave for an extended period, I leave the lights on a timer, and my personal bodyguard, Steve "The Crusher" Miller comes in to make sure the dobermans (Hannibal and Lector) are properly fed and any stray trespassers are given proper rites and their scant remains buried in the back yard behind the shed.

But anyway, Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh itself was beautiful in May, ranging between heavy lightning-sparked downpours and warm cloudless blue days (and yeah, I have a little sunburn for a long walk without a proper hat). The trees have unfurled in a cascade of green shades, and the city's age works to its advantage - many of the trees planted decades ago now grace the area with the thick verdant cover. It remains a very green city.

The city itself (was in Downtown (correct pronunciation - Dahn-TAHN) picking up a nephew to take him to lunch) is pretty much pedestrian-based, and all they really have to do is shut down the side streets to all by delivery vans and it would be an effective walker's utopia. Part of that is the nature of 'Burghers themselves - if your vehicle is not physically in the crosswalk AT THAT SECOND, they feel they have right of way. It makes for an interesting experience.

As I mentioned I spent the week visiting family and friends. My nuclear family still all lives in the Greater Pittsburgh area, along with people I've known since high school. My parents are both, in the parlance, "getting up there" in years, but my father can still bid (and make) a three no trump bid at bridge. Yes, we played cards and the Lovely Bride and I did a little planting and we got the entire extended clan (including a married niece now living in Baltimore) got together on the Sunday before we came back.

And there were more sobering parts. My brother-in-law's brother-in-law passed on. As did the Lovely Bride's best friend's husband. And a lot of things I remember just aren't there anymore. At least I can say I caught a movie at the Galleria (we saw Iron Man 2) before they shut that down.

On the other hand, I managed to get back together with two of my groomsmen from my wedding for a gaming evening, and found another interesting new game - Draken, which is worth playing.

And now I'm back in the Seattle area, and recovering from the transit (Air Tran, by the way - Formerly Valujet - not a bad operation. The planes were not stuffed, and the gate crew seems to have their act together (if not the front desk)). So we may pick this up again and have a few more things to say.

More later,

Jeff and Kate's Day Off

I'm thinking of declaring the Friday after Tax Day an annual familial holiday.

The Lovely Bride wrapped up her tax preparation this week, and I've been pushing hard with the day job and a convention the previous weekend, so we decided, by mutual consent, that today was a day off. Put in the vacation request and everything, and made sure I was caught up before leaving the team to go on without me.

So, over the course of the day, we -
- Overslept.
- Had oatmeal.
- Noted that the rain of the previous evening
- Went to the Woodland Park Zoo. Always enjoyable, though this afternoon a power transformer went out, plunging the buildings into darkness and causing the indoor exhibits to close prematurely.
- Took a chance on a restaurant that Dave Gross had recommended years before he left town.
- Had stuffed pizza at Delfino's, in the University Village. Really good pizza, excellent service, nice window view to watch the other consumers. The pizza itself was delicious, and though we will pick nits, its the best stuffed pizza I've had in Seattle. Recommended.
- Got caught in a massive traffic jam coming home (what, first nice day and everyone decides to leave the office early?).
- Napped
- Sat on the back deck, reading Jay Lake's Trial of Flowers, leaving the lawn for tomorrow, until it got too dark and I retreated to my office.

All in all, a very successful day off.

More later,

Back from Vacation

Back in Seattle after almost two weeks in the Eastern Part of this country. Only three days were spent in Washington DC (of which I have a few more, last posts), while the bulk of it was with family in Pittsburgh (and included 3 birthdays plus Mother's Day). The collected family (both mine and the Lovely Bride's) is doing well, thank you.

But this is about the trip back home, done on an infinitesimal amount of sleep, and getting up at 4 AM Pgh time (1 AM Seattle Time) to return. And though you might expect one of the traditional horror stories of missed connections and lost luggage, everything went as smooth as silk, even given tight connections in Cincinnati. We got to Seattle. Our luggage got to Seattle. And I have to say Delta did a darn fine job, even if they have been reduced to selling sandwiches on the plane.

Just as good, the cabbie we took turns out to live the next block over, so he understood what the Lovely Bride meant when she said "Take the windy road up the hill". The Cabbie mentioned that he often saw a county trooper's car in our driveway. We explained that the trooper was a friend who would come over for dinner before starting his shift. He was amused by that.

But the nicest thing was that, since I was back before noon, I went to work, and was greeted like Norm from Cheers. I had only been gone ten days, and there were enough things that I needed to catch up on, but everyone was genuinely happy to see me back (before asking a host of questions).

And that met me feel particularly happy. I work with a great team.

I have a few more Washington stories, but they will wait for later. I really should go to sleep, now.

More later,

Vacation

And by "minor upgrades" I meant to say "going to Hawaii for a week".

The Lovely Bride and I spent the past week on Waikiki Beach on the island of Oahu, celebrating our 25th anniversary. So for the past week, we have been out of touch for the Super Bowl, Fat Tuesday, Super Tuesday (OK, who was the bright soul who put BOTH of these on the same day), Ash Wednesday, Chinese New Year, and the Washington State Caucuses (though numerous other local bloggers have reported in here and here - short form - it was a joyous zoo).

I will report I experienced my favorite Super Bowl of all time this past week, walking along the Waikiki beach with the LB in the tropical sunshine, getting reports second-hand from the shouts and cries of anguish from the various beachfront bars. While pleased with the final result, I didn't feel I missed anything.

The football-ness of the beach continued through the week, since the Pro Bowl, the game-after-the-big-game was in Honolulu, and several of the players and sportscasters were staying at the hotel (Hilton Hawaiian Resort). From our corner room, nearest the beach (we were upgraded as a result of pure travel karma), you could see players moving like whale sharks around the grounds, surrounded by swarms of feeder fish, scavengers, and remoras. We spent a large amount of time up on the lanai/balconies, descending for swimming, dining, siteseeing, and other necessities.

We were stalked while we were there by a lion dance group, celebrating Chinese New Years, accompanied by drums and firecrackers. They always appeared when we did not have a camera, which was interesting, but each time we stopped and watched.

The news from the Main came in through a time warp, most of the US's day gone before we got to breakfast. We heard of the Super Tuesday results and the national politics and it all felt like distant thunder, though there is a rising feeling on the island that their caucuses are going to have some import, and they are scrambling accordingly.

(As an aside, we caught a cab on the way back from the airport here, and the cabbie had attended the Washington State caucuses and was still pumped up about it. I have never had a cabbie in Seattle talk politics with such passion, but it was clear that enthusiasm was contagious)

Also distant was the weather on the other islands. The main island was slammed with heavy rains, as was Kauai. There was a flash flood west of Honolulu that took out part of the H1 highway. Yet on the lee side of Oahu, the worst we got was a light misting in the mid afternoon, coupled with rainbows towards the mountain.

We napped, we walked, and the we read (still working my way through the latest Tom Pynchon book - Kate dispatched a Salzi, a Gibson, and part of a Grafton). We hiked to nearby waterfalls and climbed Diamond Head. We snorkled at Hanauma bay (and for the first time I had prescription goggles so I could SEE clearly). We went to the Arizona Memorial and took the "Explorer's tour" through the turrets and engine rooms of the USS Missouri (VERY worth it). We walked the beach. And we ate. A lot (which probably should be another entry).

But it was great, and relaxing, and a great week of total, complete downtime. And I'll talk more about it later. In the meantime, I'm just going to relax from all this relaxation.

More later,