Seattle, Day 1

After a very early departure from St. Louis this morning, K and I arrived in Seattle at almost exactly the same moment.  We both had layovers in Denver too, but unfortunately we were in different terminals.

It was going to be a few hours before mom and E arrived, so we headed into town for lunch at Pike Place Bar and Grill.  I had the lunch special, which was a blackened Cajun burger with blue cheese and bacon.  It was awfully good, but I was so hungry that I bet shoe leather would have tasted pretty good.

After we were sufficiently sated (K not only cleaned her plate, but also ate all my leftover french fries), we motored off to the hotel to drop our bags, then back to the monorail station to pick up mom and E.

The Space Needle, right near the monorail station

After depositing their baggage, we made the long walk to Elliott Bay Books (and though she tripped over her shoes many times, K managed to never fall down).  We're all book people, and Elliott Bay is a famous shop.  They recently relocated from their previous location, which I never visited.  According to C, though, it was a charming space cobbled together over time.  Their new location has lost some of that, but it is bright and very open, and really quite lovely.

The Paramount Theater, originally built in 1928, which we passed by on our way to Elliott Bay

It's a bad picture, but I just had to post it!

C recommended "a great little restaurant a few doors down from Elliott Bay" for dinner, and when I saw Oddfellows, I knew that was what he was talking about.

My dinner consisted of a very lemony summer squash soup with Dungeness crab (a staple on every Seattle restaurant menu), and the "something chocolate," which that night was a rather large pot de creme, which mom helped me finish.

 E's dinner: watermelon salad and sauteed greens

 Mom's asparagus with poached egg

K had a veritable pupu platter of meats, cheese, and anchovies (which were left uneaten), but my picture of the lovely array didn't turn out, and I'm pretty sure K would have poked out my eye with a fork if I made her wait any longer to eat.  Alas, no picture.

After our long day of travel we were all pretty beat, so we tromped back to the hotel, and that was it for the night.

The Song I'm Loving Today

Wanna Take You Home (Gloriana)

This song is a perfect example of guilty pleasure, country music style.  It has a cute band - the lead singer has a Billy Currington-esque mop of curls; the male backup vocalist has Gary Levox's frosted blond tips; there's a hot brunette who can sing, and an blonde cutie who appears to be channeling Julianne Hough.  Singing together, they're working on some Little Big Town harmonies.

Of course, we shan't overlook the significance of cowboy boots, nor the image of lots of girls doing lots of booty-shakin' in very short denim shorts, straight out of one of Brooks and Dunn's goofiest and most fun videos, "Play Something Country."  And for what it's worth, this one's got a pretty catchy beat in its own right. Oh, and of course there's an old man in a rocker.

However, let's not for a moment think this is high quality stuff.  It's basically the Danielle Steele of the lyrical world.  But fun.

I know absolutely nothing about Gloriana.  This is the first song of theirs that I think I've ever heard (and that happened only a few days ago on the radio), although their first and only studio album came out in 2009.



Well I've been watching you girl,
The way you move, got the room on fire.
Oh yeah, rock my world,
Wanna take you home with me.

Well I ain't lettin' you go
Home with a boy who don't deserve you.
Oh yeah, baby don't say no,
I wanna take you home with me.

You should never be lonely (lonely),
You're the best that I've ever seen.

I wanna take you back to my place,
You can do your dance on the kitchen floor.
I wanna hear your boots knockin' down that hallway,
Right on through that bedroom door.
I wanna lay you down next to me (next to me)
I wanna ease your mind, maybe set you free.
Can't you see?  I wanna take you home with me.

Oh my, time does fly,
Two a.m. and the bar is closing.
Are we saying goodbye,
Or are you coming home with me?

You should never be lonely (lonely),
You're the best that I've ever seen.

I wanna take you back to my place,
You can do your dance on the kitchen floor.
I wanna hear your boots knockin' down that hallway,
Right on through that bedroom door.
I wanna lay you down next to me (next to me)
I wanna ease your mind, maybe set you free.
Can't you see?  I wanna take you home with me.

Lay your body next to me, all your troubles up and leave.
Ease my mind and set me free, c'mon, c'mon.

Lay your body next to me, all your troubles up and leave.
Ease my mind and set me free, c'mon, c'mon.
Baby stay with me tonight, hug and squeeze and hold me tight,
Kiss your face in the morning light, c'mon, c'mon.

I wanna take you back to my place,
You can do your dance on the kitchen floor.
I wanna hear your boots knockin' down that hallway,
Right on through that bedroom door.
I wanna lay you down next to me (next to me)
I wanna ease your mind, maybe set you free.
Can't you see?  I wanna take you home with me.

Lay your body next to me, all your troubles up and leave.
Ease my mind and set me free, c'mon, c'mon.

Journey!

I have been going to a crazy number of concerts lately, and while they weren't all one right after another they are ending up that way on the blog just because I've been so busy!

T's and my attendance at the Journey concert was originally intended to be an easy, relaxing evening after a couple of tough days.  And it actually ended up being that, though for different reasons than originally planned.  For starters, I was the one who had had the tough days, although I probably didn't make them very easy on T either.  And second, the original plan had been to get there at a reasonable time, camp out on a blanket, and just listen.

But I was having a little trouble (okay, a lot of trouble) dragging myself out of bed, so we got there late, the place was packed, and we ended up standing the whole time, leaning against the fence all the way at the back of the amphitheater.  But that was okay too, because there was a nice breeze up there!

T says it was so crowded not because they sold more tickets to this concert than they usually do, but because all the fans just take up a lot more space than the teenagers and twenty-somethings who are at most of the concerts I go to!

The sad news is that, due to my troubles, we missed all of Night Ranger.  We caught maybe 5 or 6 Foreigner songs, of which I think I knew two: "Hot Blooded" and "Feels Like the First Time."  Then came Journey, and all the forty-somethings went crazy!

Luckily, we had stopped for snow cones on the way in, which (along with the breeze) helped keep us cool while we were watching the show.

Journey has been through several frontmen since Steve Perry departed a dozen years ago.  The current iteration of the band includes Filipino-born singer Arnel Pidena, and honestly, he's pretty darn good!  He wasn't quite Steve, but he was close enough for a bunch of drunk concert-goers for sure.

Journey played a short set, and the second half was really the better half; the set list (for all three bands) is available here.  And even though there were a number of songs I didn't know, it actually worked out well, since what I was going for was an easy night out.

Keb' Mo'

On a random Thursday a couple weeks ago, I got an e-mail from a girl I know that Keb' Mo' was going to be playing at Celebrate St. Louis (formerly Live on the Levee, which I think is a better name) the following night!

It was steamin' hot (as it has been every day in St. Louis for the last 700 years), but T and I trekked downtown with a cooler full of cold water.  That's it.  Cold water.  It was too freakin' hot for anything else.  But somehow, melting in the heat seemed appropriate, given that we were sitting there listening to some old school blues.

It was a predictably mellow show, but a nice ending to a busy week.

The Song I'm Loving Today

Tomorrow (Avril Lavigne)

We all know I've been having an inexplicable love affair with Avril Lavigne for many years now.

Despite a few rough notes near the beginning of the song (she sorts it out by about the halfway point), the live version I posted below of the song is my favorite.  It's slow and acoustic and she has a sense of isolation about her, nearly alone on that huge stage in front of the crowd.  It fits the song well.  The first link at the beginning of the post is to the album version, and there are a number of other live versions online (like this one, which is somewhere between my fave and the official - more instruments, but not an angry raging band).

And I want to believe you when you tell me that it'll be okay,
Yeah, I try to believe you,
But I don't.

When you say that it's gonna be
It always turns out to be a different way.
I try to believe you,
Not today, today, today, today, today.

And I, I don't know how I'll feel,
Tomorrow, tomorrow.
And I, I don't know what to say,
Tomorrow, tomorrow is a different day.

It's always been up to you,
It's turning around, it's up to me.
I'm gonna do what I have to do,
Just don't....

Gimme a little time,
C'mon and leave me alone a little while.
Maybe it's not too late.
Not today, today, today, today, today.

Oh, and I, I don't how I'll feel
Tomorrow, tomorrow.
And I, I don't know what to say,
Tomorrow, tomorrow is a different day.

Hey yeah, yeah.  Hey yeah, yeah, and I know I'm not ready.
Hey yeah, yeah.  Hey yeah, yeah, maybe tomorrow.

Hey yeah, yeah.  Hey yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.  I'm not ready.
Hey yeah, yeah.  Hey yeah, yeah, maybe tomorrow.

And I want to believe you,
When you tell me that it'll be okay.
Yeah, I try to believe you,
Not today, today, today, today, today.

Oh, yeah.  Tomorrow it may change.  It may be a better day.
Tomorrow it may change.

I can't believe it really worked.

Jalapenos and contact lenses do not mix.

I was making salsa with a jalapeno in it the other night, and of course I don't have any rubber gloves, so I got some jalapeno oil on my hands.  No big deal, just be careful what you touch, scrub, scrub, scrub, and it's all good.  I even took my contacts out that night with no problem.

But holy hell, when I tried to put them back in the next morning, did it burn like crazy.  Well, actually, only one of them did.  The right one was fine, but the left one was on fire.  I managed to pull it out, and, not knowing what else to do with it, I put it in the case.  Since I was going to have to wear my glasses anyway, I then proceeded to take the right one out.

I wore my glasses all day while pondering the options for my contacts.  The people at the eye doctor said to throw them out and move on to the next pair.  All well and good if you have dailies or weeklies, but mine aren't disposable, and they're expensive.

I decided to get creative.  I reasoned that I could try things out, and if they didn't work, it didn't matter, because the contacts were ruined anyway.  Plan A: what do you drink with spicy food when you need to cool it off?  Milk.  So that night, I poured a teeny dish of milk and put the offending lens in it to soak.  And by god, it worked!  The next morning, I rinsed the lens and put it in with no problem!

It was the other one that was the problem now; it had gone in sting-free the morning before, but when I took it out, it appears that I transferred the jalapeno oil from one lens to the other.  So in it went to the milk bath for six hours or so, and voila!  Like new!

52 Weeks of Dresses -- Week 13

Otherwise titled: St. Louis Aces

Holy Mary, is it hot around here.  But never to be deterred from doing something fun, T and I braved temperatures of over 100 degrees to go watch some tennis.  Two things about this are odd: (1) I didn't even know we had a for-real tennis team here in the Lou; and (2) despite all the matches I've watched on TV, I've never actually seen a live tennis match in my life (at least not one that was for real - watching my friends screw around on a tennis court doesn't count).

The Aces play at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park. Their star player, who played the first match in their bout with the Kansas City Explorers, is Mark Philippoussis, and he's the only player I actually took pictures of.  There are more pictures (not mine) here, if you're interested.

We were sitting in the courtside boxes, which was awesome, because we got lots of food and drinks.  Oh!  And there was a cooler full of ice cold water and beer right behind our seats, which was clutch given the miserable temperatures.

Anyway, it was lots of fun, and now I know something new about St. Louis!

Brunch!

I love brunch.  It is the most delicious of all meals.  A little breakfast.  A little lunch.  Drinks.  It's wonderful.

There was a birthday brunch on the calendar, but sadly, the birthday boy and his wife forgot about it!  How can you forget about brunch?!?  Anyway, that left just T and me to eat all the food we could, and we did an admirable job.

The setting was the Cafe Madeleine in the lovely Piper Palm House at Tower Grove Park.  (I went to a wedding reception there once, and it was beautiful!  I didn't know they did brunch too.  Bonus!)  There were two tables of prepared food, and omelet station, and a whole table for fruit and desserts.  And for me, there was coffee and a peach mimosa - even better than the real thing!

U2

Boy was this concert complicated.

First of all, Busch Stadium was completely transformed.  There was a spaceship on the field.  It was strange to see!

Second, the highway was closed through part of downtown, which made things slightly more challenging for me, as a non-downtown driver.  However (brace yourselves - I'm about to say something positive about the city!) at least the streets are laid out on a grid in downtown proper!  That means I can pretty reliably find where I'm going, even if I have no idea where I am.

Third, there were so many people that all the cell towers jammed, causing massive communication breakdown.  As such, I ended up watching the concert alone, but it was actually great.  I found a good spot right behind the barricades surrounding one of the sound towers.  There was no one in front of me for about 20 feet, so I could see (a miracle!) most of the time, and I had something to lean on if my feet got tired.  Other than the fact that I missed the first few songs, it worked out okay.

Now, the music itself.  I love U2, especially their albums through the early 1990s, with a special dispensation made for All That You Can't Leave Behind, which I also adore.  And lucky for me, much of what they played was off albums I like!  There were also a couple of songs ("Vertigo," "City of Blinding Lights") off their How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album, which I own but am not about.

A clip from "Pride (In the Name of Love)." As per usual, sound quality is terrible, so here's where we are in the song:

"...on a barbed wire fence,

One man, he resists.

One man washed up on an empty beach,

One man betrayed with a kiss.

In the name of love,

What more in the name of love?

In the name of love,

What more in the name of love?

[The Edge's guitar interlude]"

Mixed in between the songs were the predictable, but annoying, political statements.  I know that politics is a big part of what Bono does, and if that's his thing, more power to him.  And he is certainly entitled to carry that over to his concerts - it's his band, after all.  But I'm not there for that.  I'm there for the music.

Politics and all, though, U2 was in St. Louis!  Which was awesome!  And I could have thrown something from where I was standing onto the stage!  Okay, that is totally a lie.  I throw like a girl, and not in a good way.  But somebody could have thrown something from where I was onto the stage, and that's a lot closer to the band than I've ever been before!  (Mom and I were hoping they'd stop in while we were staying at their hotel in Dublin so we'd get an impromptu concert in the bar that they sometimes do, but no luck.)

So, despite some kinks, a wicked show.  Party on, party people.

What I Watched -- Boyz n the Hood

I am probably not the target audience for Boyz N the Hood.  However, it was another one of those movies I heard an interview about - this time it was John Singleton on NPR, looking back at his directorial debut 20 years on.

Cuba Gooding, Jr., stars as Tre Styles in his first major role, and Laurence Fishburne plays his father Furious.  Tre becomes too much for his mother to handle, so she sends him to South Central to live with his father.  Tre grows up with the fatherless boys across the street, Ricky (Morris Chestnut) and Doughboy (Ice Cube, in his first-ever acting role, though you should check him out in Three Kings).

Ricky is a good kid who has his heart set on playing college football, and he works hard to make it happen.  Doughboy can't seem to stay out of trouble.  Tre feels for Doughboy, but learned a lot from his father (what a great name - Furious Styles!) and wants to do more with his life than live in the hood.

It's a complex look at poverty and life in the ghetto, while still managing to be an entertaining movie rather than a sermon.  One of the most interesting characters of all just has a couple of scenes: he's a dirty cop who works the beat in South Central, and hates everyone who lives there because they're black (so is the cop).  A brief but fascinating peek into psychology.

The film also stars Nia Long, Regina King, and Angela Bassett (as Tre's mother).

Bottom line: the artistic direction is definitely dated (look at Tre's outfit on the cover!), but the questions are still worth pondering.