Choices, choices

So I've officially decided sometime between now and Labor Day, I will be going down to the Pacific Northwest (be that Seattle, Portland, George...whatever) to come down and visit and go see a show or three. Now right now, I have a few choices as to when I come down and who I go see (not people, bands/shows/what not). I of course am going to lay out the choices and people can give opinions as they will, but I think worst case scenario this will help me map out what exactly will be at each show and will help me figure out exactly which I should go to.

First up:

Capitol Hill Block Party

Saturday and Sunday, July 27th and 28th

Cost: $15

Location: Area around Pike's Place/Neumo's in Seattle

Primary artists playing: Spoon (!), Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground (!), Silversun Pickups, Viva Voce, the Blood Brothers, Against Me!, Aesop Rock, Mirah

At least 29 others with more to be announced

Second up:

Download Festival

Saturday, August 25th

Cost: $45

Location: The Gorge in George, Washington

Primary artists playing: Modest Mouse, Incubus, The Presidents of the United States of America, Nada Surf, the Thermals, The Heavenly States, Arthur & Yu, Back Door Slam

Last up:

Bumbershoot Festival

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, September 1st through 3rd

Cost: Either $75 (3 day pass) or $195 (3 day pass with guaranteed access to main stage shows amongst other things), leaning towards the latter one

Location: Downtown Seattle, Seattle Center area

Primary artists to see: The Shins (!), Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (!), Wu-Tang Clan (!), Panic! at the Disco, Pete Yorn, Kings of Leon, Andrew Bird, Anberlin, Gym Class Heroes, the Damnwells, Lupe Fiasco, the Frames, DeVotchka, Mae

Tons and tons of musicians not included, not included also are the Film Festival, the comedians (including Janeane Garofalo, Fred Armisen, and Eugen Mirman), arts shows, great food, etc. Plus, still a bunch of artists not added yet.

So there they are...each have their plusses, each have their minuses, and I need to choose quickly. The plan is to use a mileage ticket to get there and back, and to get using 20,000 miles you have to order the ticket early. Thus the timeframe to go to Capitol Hill is pretty tight right now. So here are the extra things to consider...

• The positives are that it works the best in my schedule because it is long from now and happens on a weekend where I have a paid day off on Labor Day. I also know a group of people that are already going, plus another friend who may go as well. The primary negatives are that the artists I most want to see (the Shins, Pete Yorn) I've already seen and I've heard Bumbershoot itself is an absolute mess. High likelihood of burn out as well, plus most expensive.
• Capitol Hill Block Party has the two bands I want to see most of all: Spoon and Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground. It is also the cheapest (or most affordable as us Marketeers say). Besides those two bands though, pickings are slim and it has a high likelihood of being an average concert, especially with Spoon's reputation of meing mediocre live.
• Download Festival has bar none the best venue and the highest likelihood of not missing any bands that I'd like to see. Also, it is one day and out, so I likely wouldn't get burnt out or go into a music overload coma for a month afterwards because of it. Strangely enough, with the biggest bands of any of the bills, this one has the bands I least want to see. I'd be down with the bands, but I'm not impassioned about seeing any of them.

With all that said, my early rankings go: Bumbershoot in the lead, followed by Capitol Hill, and then Download. Bumbershoot has the highest likelihood of a true "experience" while Capitol has the highest likelihood of being the most mediocre, but also could be amazing because the amount of bands I don't even know. To quote Bill Simmons, it has nuclear upside. I mean come on...it's nuclear. No less, opinions? I'd sure appreciate them.

Wednesday is the best day of the week

I know this contrasts greatly with my previous post discussing how much I love the weekend (which I do assuredly), Wednesday is consistently my favorite day of the week. Oh Wednesday, let me count the reasons for why I love you.

• Wednesdays feel as if they are the perfect equilibrium between the beginning of the week and the end of the week, which I suppose makes sense because they are in fact the middle, however they always seem to go by faster and overall be better days.
• During TV season, it is the home of Lost (or was as next year it's going to be on Tuesdays).
• Wednesday IS new comic day. That is a glorious reason, and I love my new comics. For a super duper nerd like myself, that makes it an "A" day already. However, due to the fluctuation in the release schedule, even with my passion for it, it is not my favorite Wednesday happening.
• The best and most consistent reason - Trivia Night.

Most every week, my team and myself go play Trivia at Hooters. Now you're probably going say, "Hooters? Trivia? Something there doesn't fit together." Sure, inherently you'd think they do not make sense together, but after being asked to play by a group of six friends the very first time, I've been addicted. Every bar/restaurant should have trivia. As a lifelong purveyor of useless knowledge, it only makes sense. But at the same time, in the middle of a long hard week of work, what is better than kicking back with some friends and just having a good time? Absolutely nothing, and that is the entire truth of the matter.

For the past year and a half plus, we've had an eclectic group of trivia players, all forming into one overarching team name: Drunken Cowboys. This is ironical that I am one of the most consistent team members, considering quite often I am not drunken while playing (well...sometimes), and I hate country music. This makes the whole team name very strange for me, but you know, you don't mess with tradition. No less, it is a blast, and even though we've only won once ($245!! Yes!) we keep on going just because its fun and its a great thrill of competition. Plus, you meet cool people and its a great way of doing something different, as no two experiences are ever the same. I am an unabashed fan of trivia night.

Tonight was no different. We had our traditional core of Colver and myself, with the addition of Matt and Michael (Lloyd? Mike? What to call him?). Anyways, so we had a four man strong team, which is a great start. Plus, we were on fire, getting the first 8 questions right. Here is the layout for those who are not familiar with Trivia Night (which is likely all of you). Each round (there are 3) goes like this...first through fifth questions worth ten points, sixth question is double points, seventh through eleventh worth ten, last question you bet off of how many points you have going into it. Each question (besides #6 and #12) you can put down two answers, and the second answer is worth five points. Going into the last question of the first round, we were at 105 points, down 5 from the leaders...the dreaded Rub. This team is full of experienced players...aka they each have 20 to 30 years on us. Seeing that they wagered, we did something that was horribly out of character for us. We bet. We NEVER...EVER...bet on the last question. All or nothing, that may as well be our motto. However, this time it was smart, as we got it wrong and only lost 15 points, staying in mathematical contention after the first round. For those wondering, the question was "what are the three most populous cities in South America?" and the answers were "Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires." We put the latter two, but instead of Sao Paulo, we had Santiago. Sad panda.

No less, we continued to do well but ultimately lost. Colver got deep into the Matrix (aka he was wearing my sunglasses and was being ridiculous), Matt and him got intensely into discussing Commando and the relation of Arnold's name in it to Colver's current status (his name was John Matrix), and Lloyd and I started blowing obvious questions. We are both huge Beastie Boys fans, and we got this question wrong - "What is the name of the record label the Beastie Boys started?" CROWN ROYAL! CROWN ROYAL! Yet we both got it wrong. I subjected my Mom to a good 6 to 8 years of listening to MCA, Mike D, and Adrock, and it was all for naught. How does this happen? No less, there is some good news...the team that won (that wasn't Rub) ended up getting the absolutely final question wrong, meaning the money carries over to next week. That means next week is going to be $500+!!! Alright, now that is something I can get behind.

So that's a play by play on tonights Trivia, which went poorly but was still oh so worth it. I paid $13, had an amazing time for over two and a half hours, got to hang out with great friends, and continue developing my reservoir of useless knowledge. Anyways, I shall leave this post with a team picture, featuring the Drunken Cowboys and our eternal extra team member - the one, the only, Alex.

The Drunken Cowboys plus Alex...left to right...me, Lloyd, Alex, Matt, Colver

Recommendations for the Summer

As it is officially summertime, meaning we have crossed into the month of June, I figured I would drop a few recommendations for those folks who remotely care to see that. I mean come on, who doesn't want to see my recommendations? They're coming from me, that's how you know they're good.

Books

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

It's Harry Potter for one. It's the last Harry Potter ever for two. I may start weeping just talking about it. As a book I originally would only read if properly bargained and bribed beforehand, it is pretty amazing that I turned out to be as big of a fan as I am. I call myself an Hpothead. I went to Prisoner of Azkaban's opening night showing dressed as Harry. I am going to the Midnight release of this book. Yep...I'm a pretty big fan. Essentially, here is the deal. If you don't read the book, we're not friends anymore. Even you folks out there who may or may not read this blog and do not know me, you count to. This relationship is over if you do not read this book. That settled? Good. Here's a brief idea of what it is about. Teen Wizards Harry, Ron, and Hermione head off to destroy Horcruxes (thingamajigs that contain bits of Lord Voldemort's soul) in a desperate attempt to finally kill the very bad man known as Voldemort. Success? We shall see.

Comics

Y the Last Man

Like Harry Potter, Y the Last Man is rapidly approaching its climax. Issue 56 recently passed us by, leaving us with a mere 4 issues to wrap up the tale of the world's last man...or the man that was once known as our last one, as he sired a child who is now the...other last man. For those not in the know, and you should be as this book is pretty much genius from cover to back, Y is the story of a man named Yorick Brown, who along with his pet Capuchin monkey named Ampersand (as in this - &), are the last survivors of something that killed off all of the men across the world, leaving a chaotic world featuring all the women and this one man. It is a story of trying to find the truth behind what happened, Yorick trying to find his lost love, and the mysterious Agent 355 and Yorick's developing relationship. It is about life, and the people who fill out that life and how they make sure it continues. The book is the brain child of the best writer in the world (suck that literature!) Brian K. Vaughan and artist extraordinaire Pia Guerra, and is required reading for pretty much anyone that has a mind. It is one of the best things the medium of comic books has ever offered, and requires more readers, especially now that it is ending. With the ending set for some time in September (I believe), this is more of a general recommendation, but a recommendation no less. Even if you are inherently resistant towards the medium, remember this. I would never lead you astray. Well...most of the time.

Movies

Ratatouille

What a shocker. Pixar making another amazing movie. I can hardly believe it. What am I going to recommend next, "Activity of the Summer: Breathing." Of course Ratatouille is going to be amazing. It is made by Pixar, who has never made a bad movie, just 5 amazing ones and two decent to good ones. It is directed by Brad Bird, who outside of Hayao Miyazaki and John Lasseter is pretty much the greatest thing in animation. The man directed the Iron Giant and the Incredibles! What more does the man need to do to earn everyones faith?! It also has a great and classically off the wall cast in true Pixar tradition, featuring comedian Patton Oswalt as the lead and my boy Will Arnett (Gob from Arrested Development) in a smaller role. Count me in. I can't wait.

Music

The Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder

This is the most ridiculously bizarre album of the year. I don't even know how to describe it. It is two CD's long, alternating between full songs and weird little minute long tracks, of just pure pop goodness and driving guitars and synth and vocal effects. It sounds like Electric Light Orchestra's Mr. Blue Sky extended into album length and updated to more fit the sound of now. It was released in February to very little fanfare, but boy is it catchy and fun. If you're willing to try something a little new (which is the summer spirit, I mean come on) put these guys in your CD player and roll down the windows and have a good time. You may be disappointed, but I don't think you will be.

TV/Video Games

It's summer time. I gave you enough to distract you for a while. If you must, watch the 4400 and play some Halo 3 Beta...well play that for like 6 more days. Once that is over, brush off your old copy of Warcraft 3 and play it with me on rainy days. But besides that, go out and enjoy the sun. Go hiking, go fishing, go play some Frisbee Golf. Go have a beer on the deck of your favorite bar. Pretty much whatever, even if it is just suntanning at your place while reading Harry Potter and Y the Last Man while listening to The Apples in Stereo, get out there and enjoy your summer! There's plenty of time to be cold in the other 9 months (especially for us Alaskans), just get out there and enjoy it while it is there. Two last recommendations...try random things like Renaissance Faire's (went to one this past weekend and it was a great time) and do not play World of Warcraft. That is the devil's game, and do not submit to its loving embrace. Otherwise you'll turn into this little kid that I met at the Renaissance Faire this past weekend...and nobody wants to be like that. Well. Besides that kid. He seemed pretty down with it.

Due to Popular Demand...

Yes...My Mom is cleaning me in the sink

Are you not entertained?! It was requested by two people in my comments, so it must be posted. After my crash coming down Flat Top, my Mom insisted I get cleaned up before I went anywhere, which apparently meant it was time to jump in the sink and get cleaned like Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Any parallels between that movie and my life I can bring I fully embrace, but this is mildly embarassing. I have no shame.

The "Race"

Matt 1, Myself 0

Today Matt and I decided to trek up Flat Top for his second and my first time of the summer. Not only that, but we were going to run up the fearsome mountain. I told him that I hiked Flat Top nearly every day last summer (true story) and I should be able to keep up with him, because I am in way better shape than I was last summer (also true story). He believed me, but oh boy, he should not have. It was a race, and it was on. Our goal was a sub 30 minute trip to the peak. I thought it would be a cake walk.

Now here are a few points of interest I should note about last summers repeated hikes of Flat Top. One, I was only going to the Saddle. The Saddle is the area below the peak that is the "easy" part to get to, and is immediately followed by the jagged rock and steep incline section. Two, there are two routes to the Saddle. One is to the right. That is the way I went last summer, and the way most people go. For the first time, we went to the left. Now the reason for that is that technically it is shorter, or so Matt reasoned to me before the journey began. Point in fact, it is shorter. But it is also far steeper. So I went in expecting a decently tough hike and it transformed into a pretty darn ridiculously tiring one. Third, I never ran the trail before. Last summer I was walk/jogging the trail, and I was getting to the Saddle in about 35 minutes. Oi. These miscalculations were easily forseeable, yet entirely missed by yours truly. Ignorance is bliss, and I live in felicity. We started the hike and for a minute or so, I thought, "man, we are going to kill this time." Then, I got tired. This is what I get for being lazy in the last month and only doing intermittent cardio. This wasn't going to be a race, this was going to be a massacre.

All in all, I didn't do poorly. Matt is a finely tuned climbing machine. He's obviously part Mountain Goat, part Kenyan, as you can see below. I should have known better than to think I could defeat such a freak of nature. He'd intermittently turn around to taunt me with yells of "DAVID!" and such things, but I carried forth. I finished far stronger than I started, once I began to pace myself and took off the windblocking pseudo-sweater I was wearing to keep myself warm. Note to self...next time I go physically exert myself when it is mid to high 50's out, I do not need to wear extra layers to "keep myself warm." All it did was make me pant like a dog when it is 120 out. Matt finished his ascent in a stellar 23 minutes and 30 seconds. Myself? 29 minutes and 53 seconds! Woo! Sub 30, I am a success! We took some time at the peak so I could compose myself (I was extremely sweaty. My sweat was sweating.) and Matt could take some pictures for friends and family back in Georgia, and then we began our trek down.

Now this was going to be fun. The best part about Flat Top is the run down, as you just bomb down the path at top speed desperately trying not to fall over like an idiot. Now see, given any situation where a person could do something ridiculous and look like an idiot, I will do whatever it takes to look ridiculous. So as Matt and I reached the highly populated and still very snowy Saddle, Matt continued his rapid descent and gracefully slid across the snow, still standing on his feet like a champ. I of course decided that I would also like to look impressive and tried to do the same thing. It was the same thing, minus the grace and the staying on my feet part. I went down hard, and I went down fast. So now, not only was I covered with mud all over the left side of my lower body, but I had a bunch of people staring at me in disbelief as I became "that guy who ate it at the Saddle" for later stories about their trip up Flat Top. I got up quickly and laughed it off, and continued on my way. We killed it going down, running quickly down the stairs and the rest of the mountain, passing everyone who we met going up to begin with. Only when we reached the bottom did I realize that my leg was cut up and bleeding. I took it like a champ though, and am eagerly anticipating the next run up. It was a great topper to the weekend, getting some killer exercise and having a great time while doing it. The moral of the story is, go out and enjoy the outdoors. If you want something fun to do that is free and is great exercise, go on a hike. I'd recommend Flat Top, but mind the snow and the falling clumsy people. And if someone that looks like my buddy Matt challenges you to a race, SAY NO!

The Weeks End

Mattimeo, Scotty G, and Myself at Humpy's

I love weekends. Everyone does of course, but I really, really love weekends. Nothing makes me happier than the feeling of getting off work on a Friday and knowing it's going to be a good weekend. Yesterday was no exception. I got off work, went and picked up my comics (sweet, sweet comics), and rolled back to my place to meet up with Matt. Matt came over and tempted me with Taco King, the delicious "great food made fast" Mexican restaurant that is far and away Anchorage's second best of its variety. That's right, it is the second best, behind Benny's Taco Wagon. Mmmmm Benny's. No less, great start to the evening, having a stellar meal. We followed that up with going to see Knocked Up, Judd Apatow's new comedy starring the genius that is Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl. It was extremely funny and often touching, an overall very good movie, but it wasn't the "best comedy in 20 years" like some critics are saying. So far, so good on the evening. Three great things already, and the night has barely even begun!

Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. (Judging...always judging) and myself

After the movie, I received a call from a friend who was wondering if we were going to go out for the evening, which of course we were, so I informed her that we were going to be headed out after a little while to come downtown. I got off the phone and quickly lit up the Bat-signal, as my posse and myself quickly assembled at my place for the kick off to the evening. Two delicious and large Vodka Crans later, I was ready to roll, as were everyone else. We decided to lead off the evening at Humpy's, as that was the place our friend already was at.

Lorna and Sam enjoying a brew

Now Humpy's is a beguiling place. Whenever you think of Humpy's, you always think, "that's a very nice bar," but when you really sit down and think of it, you can never really come up with a really awesome time you had there. My second fantastic time ever at Humpy's was last night. This leads into a theory I came up with about the bar, and I am convinced it is a very sound one. Anyone that has ever been to Humpy's knows the layout, but for those who haven't been, it has a huge bar, a mini-stage with a dancefloor in front of it, and then a ton of tables and booths for sitting. That's pretty much it. If you aren't sitting and you aren't dancing, you generally are standing around like an idiot. But last night, we got a table and had an amazing time. So here is the theory - if you have a table, Humpy's is amazing. If you don't, it is pretty lame. It is nearly impossible to get a table there too, so this tends to be a problem. Which is why I've had a lot of fun there twice ever.

Everyone was in a very festive mood, I bought some drinks, Matt bought some drinks, Colver did, Sam did, Joe did, everyone was buying drinks! Plus, it was our friend Amy's (Pictured to the left with Scott Gomez) birthday, and we adopted her into our ragtag group after her friends bailed on her. On top of that, NHL star Scott Gomez was at the bar, and we had a grand time pestering him to take pictures with us, as you can see.

We stayed there at Humpy's for a good while, staying in our area drinking and reminiscing and chatting and having a generally very good time. That's the funny thing about going out to the bars. When you tell the story about the night, there is no way you can really convey how much fun you had. Everyone that was there knows because they were there, but to explain to anyone else it is pretty much a lost cause. Which is why I am dedicating this post to it. Back to the regularly scheduled post. A little after 1, we decided to move on to the next bar, and we headed over to Bernie's Bungalow. Bernie's is an awesome bar. A very strange one, but an awesome one no less. It is commonly known as a gay bar, but for a gay bar it quite often has a lot of hot girls in it. It has a very nice inside bar area, but what makes it really shine is the outside area that is only open during the summer. It's just a giant outside area with tons of sitting room and is simply the one place in a downtown bar you can go to really stretch out and relax. It is absolutely incomparable, there is no remotely similar bar in the whole of Anchorage. Colver and Sam are the two in the photo above.

Matt and myself again

The evening continued on with pool and more drinks, until I was distracted by some older women I met when I went to the bathroom. I don't want to go into detail about what I announced, as to save some face, but let's just say the words "cougar" and "hunting" were used in some fashion by yours truly. Oh dear, the things alcohol makes you do. Anyways, so the thing that I ended up finding the most interesting about the women was that one claimed to be Bev Doolittle, which was really amusing and interesting to me for two reasons; she's my Mom's favorite artist, and I could not stop thinking "Why in god's name is Bev Doolittle talking to me?" Turns out Bev Doolittle is 60 and looks nothing like this woman, as you can see in my photographic proof, but at the time her deception was absolutely riveting to me and I drank in her words with much attention paid. I had to think later though, I wonder how many people "Bev" tried her charade on before she found someone that was actually impressed with it. After discussing with my friends about Doolittle and realizing I was the only person who knew who she was, I decided officially that this number had to be at least a thousand. Give or take nothing.

The real deal, Bev Doolittle

Myself, "Bev", and sketchball guy in the pic who may or may not be her husband...

Sadly, "Bev" and her "publicist" ended up departing, leaving my friends and myself to our devices to head home and end the night. Sam, Amy, Matt, and I went back to my place, made some popcorn, had some chips and salsa, and passed out into the terrible slumber only recently intoxicated people can really sleep. The day was June 1st, and it was a truly great kickoff to what I hope will be an awesome summer. I'll drink to that.