west, vol. 5

this day was epic, and deserved its own post.

thursday
-woke up to yet another beautiful day. showered, then basked in the sun on randy's balcony. ben & tyler were up shortly, and we headed out again on the 5, aiming for the international district...chinatown. goal: to feast on barbecue. while waiting at the stop, discussion turned towards the different shades and colors of...yams. ben was resistant toward the idea of asian purple yams, saying that he hated anything that was purple out of principle. a woman waiting under the shelter (who happened to be wearing an ostentatious, sequined, royal purple blouse) commented, "well, do you hate me then?" oh, bus-stop talk...
-made it to kau kau, well in time for the lunch special; a mere 5 bones for bbq pork, pork fried rice, hot-n-sour soup, and your choice of things like grilled prawns, duck breast, spare ribs...you get the idea. tyler went for the duck breast, i had the spare rib, and ben, ever the wildcard, got some lamb curry. bone-in, of course. all this and a large pot of hot tea resulted in a serious glow/buzz...not unlike muncie's history NY House (now the might savage's). good thing, too, for upon exiting, clouds had descended upon washington for the first time past noon during my visit.

beard papa's...best gorton's fisherman look-a-like/sailor sellin' cream puffs in any metro seattle food court. i mean, i trust this man.
-wandered around the international district, including passing by the seattle pinball museum. alas, it was not open, so we peered through the dusty windows onto the game machines. well...i did need my quarters for the bus. we eventually passed into uwajimaya, a market on steroids, packed with a bookstore, full grocery, food court, housewares, toys, and enough strange food and drink to spend the better part of an hour staring at. purple yam ice cream? got some ginger candy and a coconut chocolate bar for amelia, and stared at the cream puffs from the aforementioned beard papa.
-upon leaving uwajimaya, and finding an orca card machine (if that is an LOTR reference, excellent work); we headed towards the bay. wandered through pioneer square, and happened upon waterfall garden, an interesting oasis, though admittedly not a place you can really sit and talk. unless you enjoy yelling at your friends...so, bostonians...anyhow. made it to the bay, where people-watching was done, and tyler couldn't resist the siren call of the artisan pump organ outside ye olde curiosity shop. for $.50, i didn't expect such a bone-rattling blast of sheer organ. whoa.

one of those sights that you observer for a second, and then walk away to reduce imminent embarrassment. playing it is like exclaiming, "t-t-t-tourists over here!" but...how can you resist trying out those pipes? i must've been an organ-grinder's monkey in a past evolutionary cycle.
-made it to the owl n thistle, a darkened, lived-in yet tidy hovel of a bar currently in somewhat of a construction alley. if only i'd had the stomach room for a $4 happy hour burger, but i opted instead for a ninkasi ipa. at some point, ben sneezed so loud that every person in the bar turned around to bless him. i could dig the daytime vibe of this place, so dark and wooden that i forgot it was cloudy outside.
-not sure if it was the 4pm buzz, or the emerging sun, but leaving the owl, i felt like a flag unfurled. in hindsight, this was good; the day was just beginning. we headed back to pike place market to fruit up. while tyler investigated some art prints, ben & i kicked it in the park again, people-watching & chewing the fat. after snagging some peaches (again; too good to resist), we headed for the bus stop.
-stopped to procure cabin necessities: cigars. tyler chose well with some stinky rejects for $4 a pop---cheapest in the humidor. though ben was supposed to purchase wigs to impersonate andy's ex-es, and despite pausing to plan our next move, and finding ourselves directly in-front of a wig shop, we went wigless, as he cowed under the pressure of finding an empty shop with 1,000 empty-eyed heads staring at him. alas!
-took the bus back to randy's, and waited in the orange-glistening 5pm sunlight on the benches outside the apartment complex, watching the fountain burble and briefly petting a dog named...stinkbone? randy arrived, and we chilled out for awhile before heading back out...the night-of-dudes was ever-approaching.
-headed out towards fremont with good intentions. snagged gyros and falafel at a walk-up called sinbad's---though the best feature of the place were the wasted foursome who got in a good amount of groping, as well as walking to the counter, waving a hand full of bills, only to be told repeatedly that they'd already gotten & paid for their food. it was almost more embarrassing than funny, due to it being 9pm and not even dark yet. who knew that we'd catch up...

d.b. cooper...i think his drink had egg in it, which was the deal-breaker. i'll eat an over-easy egg, or fresh mayo, but something about stirring a white or yolk into liquid and not scrambling it turns the corners of my stomach.
-a quick jaunt across the street brought us to 9 million in unmarked bills, local whiskey-bar/small-plates restaurant. unfortunately, that's not a d.b. cooper reference (dude only asked for $200K, which would've made an equally good name)...and thus i passed on the non-themed-man's drink for an old fashioned with maker's mark. what can i say? i felt the midwest calling. the other dudes also ordered drinks full of muddled fruits, cinnamon sticks, and various zests that required the bartender to wield a metal tool that peeled an orange as easy as butter. may have to invest in one of these. hung out around a barrel to toast the future arrival of the rest of the party, then moved over to watch tyler kick an inordinate amount of ass on the free ms. pac-man game, which sat lonely in the bottleneck between bar & dining area, ignored by the masses of better-dressed-than-i yuppies and college-crowd. not that i'm judging...but eating ghosts is a old-fashioned pleasure that never ceases to satisfy, and i'm not too cool to watch it being done right.
-headed up the street to randy-described dive bar, the dubliner. hailing from indiana, when i hear the word "dive" i think of bars layered with the plastic nascar flags, the glow of a tube television barely piercing through an ashy blanket of stolid cigarette smoke, and the taste of a corn or rice-powered lager cold-coating my throat. in case i hadn't delineated, the pac-nw is different. this dive was clear-aired (still jealous of every-city-except-indianapolis), dim-but-clean, full of empty tables, tattoos, and flat-screens with soccer. oh, and unlike midwest dives, they sported at least 10 taps. we split a pitcher or two before randy headed for the airport, at which point we decided to have another beer, then head back for the apartment via bus. when i went to buy the round of 3 skulls wit, the bartendress informed me that a pitcher was just as cheap...and here-in lies the beginning of the end. we polished off the pitcher, and, now full of pomp and feeling great about friends, dudes, the dubliner, and the world in general (even current affairs couldn't harsh this mellow); we made a bee-line towards the bus-stop, with plans to stop off somewhere along the route for a nightcap.

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during a brief wait at said bus-stop, ben scaled the wall to relieve himself out-of-sight. tyler then followed suit, only to suffer what would be referenced as "vine-burns" for the rest of the weekend.
-after a rousing bus-ride with only a couple other passengers, we disembarked close to 85th street, with ideas of returning to the great tap-list at naked city. we figured randy and the crew wouldn't be at the apartment before 1am, so we could have a nightcap, then catch the final northwards bus. alas, it was just before midnight, and naked city was closing. across the street, the glowing sign of Baranof beckoned us, despite its apparently dim interior. passing through a closed dining room, we made it into the red-and-black hued, vinyl-booth-coated, besparkled bar of Baranof. the bar was empty; the 3 of us filled half of it, and immediately produced out-of-state ID's before settling into another IPA. here the fog sets in, not of war, but drunk, musky brotherhood; the music waxing to fill available earspace while the universe narrows to a bright, pinprick tunnel that is warm and smells of familiar comforts, booze, aftershave.
-eventually, and there is photo evidence of this fact, the rest of the jet-lagged dudes arrived with randy to the bar. things were now truly rolling. hugs were exchanged as we doubled the population of the bar just before closing hour. perhaps pints were ordered, but soon enough, last call came, and moments later tyler was handing out the obligatory whiskey shots. if toasts were uttered, i remember them not, but perhaps they were not in vain, and someone can later correct my version which has become somewhat of a rosetta stone, a joyfully-jagged edged memory. i do remember (or, perhaps, hope i remember) thinking, "oh wow...we are all alive in this one place...this is most fantastic."

photo by honorable a.s. maxson. while not the best picture of the night, clearly the most representative of the blur that was the evening.
-randy left to drive the other dudes back to the apartment, while tyler, ben, and i strode northwards on the sidewalks, with a promised return ride once the first carload was emptied. at some point, a small man in a zip-up sweater emerged from a sidestreet. facts were exchanged; of those that i remember, his name was Esteban, and he was Brazilian and spoke with an accent. i stammered out a vague invitation/talked up our mountain cabin, in parts unknown and towards Canada. most peculiar though, was his clear preference of Ben, who later kissed the top of the small man's head, after which Esteban remarked about his soft lips. while they walked ahead arm-in-arm, tyler & i trailed perhaps 10 feet back, supporting each other while weeping with laughter at the strange two-some in-front of us. at some point, he melted off again onto yet another side-street, leaving us in gales of laughter when randy pulled up to expedite us back to the apartment.
-ever seen 8 dudes bed down in a 2-bdrm. apartment? we tried, and failed, to order late night pizza, i managed to spill most of randy's DVD rack, and eventually made it to my sleeping mat. yes.

west, vol. 4 (a brief interlude)

Before resuming my PAC-NW documentation, I offer up this brief review of storied Seattle delicatessen, Salumi, mentioned in a previous post. Read on:


Despite maintaining the least amount of open hours I've ever seen (ain't knocking it; I'd do it too, if I could); my buddy and I managed to hoof it down to their modest space on one of the most beautiful days imaginable. As a fruit vendor would later say to me, "DUDE, Santa Claus was wrong...THIS is the season to be jolly." Right on, man.

Anyhow, Salumi. A modest line extended out the door. The wait was roughly 30 minutes, which ain't that bad, and having withstood the rigors of Hot Doug's absurd line in Chicago made this seem like we were getting express service. The menu was brief & affordable. I believe it was the turn-of-phrase "slow-roasted explosion of flavor" that sold me on the porchetta. Right before ordering, a free sample of their mole salami nearly changed my mind, with its slow, smoky heat meting out increasing amounts of pleasure during the chew. But no! My brain froze when ordering, and all I could utter was, "Porchetta, please." Knowing I was going to be eating on the sidewalk, a can of Coke seemed an apropos addition.

Sat down in the funky triangle across the street that held a small bus hub, and was populated by a smattering of bus-folk, people loving on some sandwiches with their face, and plenty of pigeons. We sat, unwrapped, and immediately were overcome with a feeling of zen---this sandwich was clearly the only thing in the world that mattered. The universe had been reduced to my olfactory system, teeth, and a juicy beast of a sandwich that warmly throbbed with the vibrations of a thousand harps through two planks of well-hewn bread. Mmm. Oh yes...it was that good.

After finishing, we nodded at each other in silence, paid our respect to the deli paper that kept the sidewalk juice-less, and set out northwards, boldly facing a new, changed world. Only, changed for the better.

west, vol. 3

sunday
woke up in a rough way after the previous bar crawl. walked down to diamond jim's grill (what a great name) for fried potatoes, sausage, eggs, and a ridiculous amount of coffee. homeward brought some reading time, and when ad & megan headed out to a social event, i biked downtown. first went to the local everyday music, a northwest chain with a more-than-fair used & new selection. i picked up: kluster's admira 1971 reissue, michael rother's esperanza, yo la tengo's summer sun, hans-joachim roedelius's works 1968-2005 compilation, and group bombino's guitars from agadez, vol. 2, a great sublime frequencies release. all used!
-then popped down to the community food co-op, and picked up flour, eggs, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella, to make pizza and blackberry-cornmeal-buttermilk muffins. was barely able to stuff it all in my satchel, but made it home on the bike without breaking a single egg. whipped up the fantastic cupcake/muffins, and then hung out whilst eating the purple heirloom tomatoes, and toast with goat cheese.

monday
-woke up, had another nice 4mile run, barely even breaking a sweat till i was done. wow...could get used to that.
-biked uphill towards & under the interstate, aiming for a ridge that overlooks the town, as well as the bay. roughly started at the upper-left blue point, towards the blue point at the lower-right.

View Bellingham Overlook in a larger map
-rode through whatcom falls park, up some bike trails that ended abruptly, and up a few hills i didn't think i'd be able to do. had to walk the last mile or so in from the trailhead. the view from the ridge was pretty spectacular, the weather equally so. munched on some tomato-basil bread with the goat cheese we'd snagged from the market, and some blueberries. the route back was much quicker...downhill most of the way.
-after cleaning up, went to the northwest washington fair, which was ... fair. couldn't hold up to the indiana state fair. ate some fried vegetables and bbq beef. found out what "horse pole bending" was...a crazy event where you sprint your horse slalom-style around rubber poles.

tuesday
-woke up, had some breakfast. decided to hit seattle that day. left around noon, with sandwich aims, and a hobo supply list: sleeping mat, grocery bag full of possessions, and my army map bag. true northwest itinerant style.
-located randy's workplace without smartphone or map, and picked up the keys to his apartment.
-ate a fantastic sandwich on the sidewalk at paseo's, where i left a puddle of the finest juices for some lucky hound. the pork shoulder with cilantro, mayo, jalapenos, romaine, and grilled onions on a crusty, oblong loaf was a beautiful thing.
-bro dropped me off at homebase seattle for the next few days, and bro-time commenced when tyler arrived shortly thereafter, fresh from roaming the city. we awaited randy's presence; who then left us to our own bro-devices to go on a date.
-made our way via bus to naked city brewhouse. had one of their house brews, a dubbel, a foggy noggin big chief (irish red), and a firestone walker solace wheat. though the dubbel was tasty (wished i had had a chance for another one of their in-house taps), the foggy noggin was the highlight. and a rather tasty steak salad (yeah, i don't know why i went for that, but it hit the spot). watched soccer highlights and began to chew the fat with ty, anticipating the ever-growing bro-gathering that was commencing...right then. randy picked us up on the way back to his place, and i fell asleep in the terrible glow of the new predator movie. c'mon adrien brody.

wednesday
-woke up pretty early. ty & i had one goal for this day (besides ruling, and meeting up with ben later on): salumi. rode the 5 downtown to 3rd & Pike, and hoofed it south, past frou-frou art galleries and several missions. made it to salumi, whose line was only extending 25 or so people out the door. it was beautiful out...why not wait?
-once we got inside, we were treated to a sample of their mole salami, which was pretty incredible. despite that, i had to go for a hot sandwich, the "slow-roasted flavor explosion" of the porchetta. whoa. just when i thought i'd had the tastiest sandwich in history, i'm treated to something almost on a different level. it was zen, like i said to tyler, "when i'm eating this sandwich...nothing else [redacted] matters man...there is only the sandwich." also ate this on the sidewalk across the street, with a can of coke (seemed apropos) and street pigeons flapping in my general direction.
-despite the sandwich buzz, we pressed onwards, greased mouths toward the sun. tyler hadn't been through seattle's central library, so we headed that way, walking the hills, and exploring one of the few buildings that is able to give me indoor vertigo. or maybe it was the porchetta settling. the red floor 4 is particularly affecting; so intense as you exit up the metal stairs to a wall of light and space.
-turned east and walked to capitol hill in search of sonic boom records. unfortunately, the store was closing in 2 weeks, and we didn't expect much. however, the used CDs were 50% off, and we found quite a bundle that weren't picked through yet. tyler snagged 15 or so at about 2.50 a pop, and i came home with three: stereolab's switched on, vol. 2 and margerine eclipse and the remaster/re-issue of the soundtrack to black orpheus. there were also 4 copies of everything, now!'s spatially severed, at a dollar a pop, likely leftover from an indie listening station promotion we were part of. alas. i recall seeing our records in out-of-state stores for the first time and being so excited---so i am at least happy to report that i still felt a spark of pride, even if they were now priced below cost.
-headed back to pike's place market for a mega-round of people-watching and fruit-obtaining. tyler picked up some utterly choice rainier cherries, and i sprung for some peaches. fruitstand guy greeted me with the quote of the week (one of, at least), "DUDE, how's your day been?" i was immediately part of his vibe-flow and replied, "DUDE...it's been awesome. i mean, this weather, am i right?" him: "yeah, man, totally. santa claus was wrong...this is the season to be jolly." he then sold me some amazing peaches that were bigger than my fist. we walked down to the park at the northern end of the market, which was filled with tourists, do-nothings, itinerants, LARPers (for real), businessmen, tribal folk, guitar strummers, vendors, and sleeping junkies. chilled in the sun for awhile, staring at the bay and mt. rainier, on the most unbelievably clear and sunny day yet. in between mountain gazing, we were reading off funny/bad band names from the local alt weekly. highlights included "crazy and the brains" and "poop attack!"
-bounced up to the bus stop and rode back to randy's. slept halfway. got back in time for to hang out for a couple hours before ben's arrival, striding up with his suitcase in hand. we immediately got in the car and drove to the U-district, walking around the neighborhood before swinging in to a pizza joint with $2 drafts. what!? despite looking like a funky sbarro, it was surprisingly delicious. caught up with ben, and the bro-power was increasing. swung by an albertson's to pick up some deschutes, and a watermelon wheat, and went back to randy's, where relaxing occurred before falling asleep watching the first episode of game of thrones.

pacific northwest redux

"there's a big day comin', and i can hardly wait..."


view from James Turrell's "Light Reign" at UW-Henry Art Gallery.

flying into seattle was beautiful. the day was clear, and sometime after passing the continental divide, the clouds melted away, and the craggy landscape gave way to greenery, and then mount rainier, which we banked around in an unbelievably blue sky.

i've had the opportunity to travel to most of the continental states via tour van, an amazing way to see so much of the country's landscape, but so little of the country's life. spending 9 to 12 waking hours (less if you count sleeping, and subtract for drinking oblivion, foraging for food, endless load-ins & outs, following compact cars into the gaping suburbs in search of carpet to wearily collapse on...) is no real way to actually experience a city. getting to spend the better part of five (incredibly sunny!) days in seattle was a great time, and allowed me enough time to get a feel for the general vibe of the city. would i want to live here in the (near) future? yes.

we took bus lines around the city, walked hills, museums, galleries, universities, frequented ethnic restaurants and scenic views, hung at hipster joints, family pubs, almost-suburban coffeeshops, chinese bbq shops...

lots of thanks have to go to my friends randy & annie, not just for showing the boldness to move into the unknown, but for extending excessive amounts of midwestern hospitality in the far west. randy's apartment was our homebase, and he took us to some supremely great parks, restaurants, even drove to the UW gallery (and made it through the whole thing!). annie met up with us two days in-a-row, despite working full shifts that started before 6am! we hung out at some of her haunts, and met some super nice & cool people in the process. these are all things that make me feel better about moving than the mere prospect of employment.


conquering broke-down piet at golden gardens, sunset.

currently the plan is...to have no plan. fall always feels like the natural time to move, for whatever reason. i need to keep my eyes and ears open for job prospects, and then hope to make the jump at some point...after all, my brother, randy, and annie all moved into seattle (proper) at the age of 27.

speaking of my brother, i'd be an ass if i didn't mention his & megan's hospitality, showering us with superfly meals (including possibly the best of my life at Vij's in Vancouver), a piping-hot wood-fired stove every night (and more than a couple mornings), multiple tasty well-aged bombers and bourbon, as well as the finest hippie-loft lodgings possible, complete with 3 skylights mere inches from our soundly-sleeping faces! after running all around seattle, it was nice to take it easy in the more laid-back atmosphere of bellingham. that, combined with the aforementioned food & booze, one of the better record stores i've encountered, and getting to split a few stacks of lumber like a true nor'westerner, made for a vacation's vacation.

flying back into indianapolis (via detroit), it was again sunny, but the only visible landmark greeting us was the hot air balloon hovering over conner prairie, squished in-between diminishing farmlands and bloated, perfectly-curved suburbs. we were ready to go back before we even landed.