Think Kit #1: Year in Photos

I was thinking about 2013 this past week, and my brain said, "Dang dude, you didn't do that much last year. After all, in 2012, you quit a job, got a new job, went to Europe for 40 days, went to Washington for your brother's wedding, moved, and did a bunch of boring everyday shit in-between." But when I started actually thinking about it, I did cover some ground in 2013: the Year of Doing Shit (Better).

The following images are 97% of what has kept me mostly sane for the past 11 months:

The annual (Wooves) Chicago winter retreat wherein males venture

to the snowy Northlands, raise orderly havoc, consume bacon,

imbibe Belgian birthday brews, and reflect upon the aging process.

Amelia made many photographs this year. Here was the first 

of her showings, in Muncie's Gordy's Fine Art + Gallery.
Her photography also provided reason to visit...

...Portland. Top-to bottom:

–Ken's hero sandwich on ciabatta. Some of the best bread we magically

stumbled upon. I copped his book and my baking skills rose.

--Columbia River overlook somewhere near Multnomah. Nature's trifecta:

Mountains, Trees, Water.

--Prancing the Willamette somewhere south of the city. Temporarily

King of this Abandoned Isthmus.

It's true, Randy came to the Midwest. Tacos and bar-crawls
soon followed. Let's hope he comes back soon.
Or that we get out to Seattle soon. Either way!

Everything, Now! at the 10th anniversary Sunshine of Doom show.
This was a great night. Never knew those songs could sound
that good...I guess it's nice to know we improved in a decade.

Bread. I'm obsessed. And not just any kind.
Ken Forkish helped me take my stylings to a new level.
I probably ate this loaf in three days.

(Salted butter is the only kind of butter.)

Amelia prepped, peeled, sliced, and froze 80% of these peaches by herself.

And canned numerous other produce we were fortunate enough to receive.

All this in a house without air conditioning. Y'all are spoiled...

We lost countless brain cells this summer from heat exhaustion.

I'm not even sure I have digested California enough to write about it.

8 days, up to 7 dudes at once. Turning or nearing 30.

Pacific Coast Highway, San Fran, Venice Beach.

Redwoods. Ocean. Sky. Mountains.

Old friends. Older friends.

Hey! I booked a show for my favorite band, Landing.

It was fantastic. They were fantastic.

It was also the day I returned from California.

I ate a giant torta and zoned out to their drone-pop melodies.

Not only do we buy cars (well, just one) but we clean up, too.
Goofy prom pictures may have later resulted from too much

good food and good drink.

Chicago became a bit of a haven this fall.

We did a lot of walking and eating, the two

most important things in life aside from good friends

–which exist there in plenty. 

Amelia showed more photos in Ft. Wayne this fall.

We journeyed up for the opening, and stayed afterwards

to hang out with a great group of artists, creatives, and other 

adults who proved that getting out of Indy can be artistically refreshing.

Ft. Wayne, I take back all ill things I've said about you.

Oh yeah, I kept baking. My mom mailed me a reed banneton,

which may have changed my life.

Between Record Club, starting some shifts at LUNA,

pilgrimages to Reckless Records, and ... well, moving way
closer to LUNA – it was a heavy vinyl year.

We rang in Thanksgiving with my parents in Florida. 

2014, where will you take me? I hesitate to predict,

but hope that I can project continued adventures.

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. 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.

west, vol. 2

Friday
-began with a morning run. no sweat! wow! 4 miles. neighborhood loop.
-cleaned up, set off on bikes. rode to fairhaven, stopped for fairhaven fish and chips. wild fried salmon, homemade tartar. mmm. i'm not sure where this love affair with mayo began...but i'm on that train, for sure.
-back on bikes to get as close to larrabee park as possible. made it till the trail got rough, sat in the woods for a spell, gazing at the tall trees and stream.
-stopped at fairhaven park, overlooking splash walk & large hill w/ frisbee throwers. 75 degrees!
-rode back to boulevard park, sat in sun reading till i was sleepy, then laid in the sun and fell asleep. nose got sunburned...thought i was almost in canada!
-saw a guy "walking" 2 fat goats down the bike/walk path. not on leashes...they stood & watched us pick wild blackberries till he was 50 ft past and continually yelling for them. the larger one was named Neptune. had a stare-down with him robert goulet style. they finally trotted after him, their wide bellies swinging.
-got back, drank some white wine in the backyard lawn chairs in the sun. ad cooked up some very tasty zucchini fritters, with a simple tomato/cuke/onion greek salad. gin martinis, shaken not stirred, watched zack galifinakis stand up. sleep early after so much exercise.

Saturday
-up early, went to farmer's market close to noon. lots of hub-bub, vendors, musicians, great looking produce. ethiopian food! snagged lion's mane mushrooms, heirloom purple tomatoes, red peppers for stuffing, deep red plums, fresh goat chevre cheese. megan stayed back making wheat basil bread.
-bought hempler's sausage with kraut & grilled onions, sat and watched two marimba players & a trumpeter play some cyclical, call-and-response afro-beat stuff. hypnotizing. small child banged a cowbell that skittered after the beat perfectly.
-walked across the street for a pint at boundary bay & to watch the sounders game. had a sorachi ipa. tasty! sounders remained tied, rode back to the house.
-drove out to lake whatcom, hiked alongside 4 or so miles in along sheer cliffs and fresh water. couldn't take the water...peed on the side of the trail, looking both ways all paranoid.
-people own little strips of land next to the lake, where they come & barbecue and boat, or have a camper, & a shed, garden, etc. weird!
-happy hour at the fork. ninkasi maiden shade ipa, pork belly sliders, flatbread pizza with parm, green apple, homemade sausage, caramelized onion, and curried almonds (with honey or perhaps sugar glazed). reeeeeal good. arugula salad with balsamic, parm, cherries, plum. mmmmm. i was feeling a bit underdressed in a place with linen napkins, sitting at the bar next to a woman working (?) on a tablet pc. or maybe she was reading romance e-books. either way.
-home, clean up, try not to fall asleep. walked downtown, went to the grand (dive-y bar). had deschutes mirror pond ipa. went to copper hog for the firestone velvet merkin stout. twas smooth as one would expect a velvet merkin to be. !!!
-went to the beaver inn for fried sampler platter: dill pickles, onion rings, green beans, zucchini, mushrooms, mac n cheese bites, mozz stix, jalapeno poppers. whoa! who needs a state fair when a 10-spot will get you all that. with nary a drop of grease to be found. manny's pale & lucille ipa. desk chairs. free popcorn. terrible jukebox (candlebox, bobby brown). rough bathroom...trough-style reminiscent of the chug! kitchen closed before more green beans were had...
-russian dumpling joint, Pel' Meni: meat dumplings, potato dumplings. served with sour cream cup and brown bread. world's ideal beer sponge? mmmmmm. a little spicy. then walking home, lots of cops out and about, but we didn't raise a ruckus. didn't think i was drunk till i laid down. whoops!

west, vol. 1

Wednesday
I flew out late Wednesday for my third trip out to the Pacific Northwest (although one of these was just passing through, on tour with EN!). After flights that rendered me as stiff as when I completed the half-marathon, my brother plucked me from the Seattle airport at close to midnight local time, in the midst of a three-lane rat-race that made the Indianapolis pick-up zone look like a machine. On the ride back to Bellingham...my desperately-empty stomach needed something warm. (I'd only managed to find a lemon-blueberry scone via Caribou Coffee in Minneapolis), and reluctantly turned to the McChicken. Glazed in mayo, of course, with hot-n-salty fries. I'm not sure when the last time I ate McDonald's, but I wasn't disappointed...except in myself. Desperate times call for pre-shaped particle-pressed chicken patties. Got back to the house past 2am, and immediately went to bed in the wooden loft of the guest room.

Thursday
My body and brain were so confused, I failed to sleep in. Woke up around 8, showered, started reading one of my vacation books (all food/culture this time): Spice: The History of a Temptation, by Jack Turner. After showering and considering cooking in, we took advantage of the sun & newfound warmth to walk downtown to a Belgian-styled breakfast joint, the Mount Bakery. Having never consumed Eggs Benedict before, this seemed like a ripe (and recommended opportunity) for which i was richly rewarded with two poached eggs laying seductively atop half a belgian waffle topped in thin-sliced ham, all on a bed of roasted potatoes. This was, naturally, blanketed with a golden blanket of Hollandaise. Combined with great coffee and a sunny patio...this blew my jet-lagged mind.

Post-food coma, Ad and I headed out on bikes to gather in more of the sun, riding streets and paths down to Boulevard Park, which is on the bay and was crowded with sun-seekers. Rode a little farther to Marine Park, off the beaten path and much smaller and quieter, with some nice stones to sit and look out at sailboats, the port, even Lummi Island. He had an outdoor soccer game to play in the early evening, so we booked back through town, and I worked on some LP art (the 2-color center of the record) for this fall's EN! release.


Early draft for Do It On the Moon record centers.

He returned in time to respond to gnawing hunger pangs from Megan and I, and then they treated me with a gift certificate he'd been hoarding (or...hadn't had time to use while jetsetting across the midwest and east coast) to a local "gastropub" (something about that word just rubs me the wrong way...I blame Indiana), the Copper Hog. I needed little encouragement to try one of the best burgers I've ever had, excessively topped with fried egg, bacon, and cheese, of course. The featured brewery that night was Seattle's Two Beers Brewery, which provided a smooth & tasty blonde, and an IPA that was distinctly hoppy, but not overly so. Both I thought were more than adequate representations of each style. By this point, it was close to midnight, and my sleep-addled brain had been feeling like mush since 8pm, so I was out immediately upon returning.