It's Frickin' Hot in Herre, Mr. Bigglesworth

Aye, it's damn hot. The Seattle Times said it hit as high as 98 degrees at the airport today. Earlier, I was inside a cool office building but now I am sitting in our brick oven, I mean house. Many of us in the western PNW are in denial about getting air conditioning because there is really only a span of 2-3 weeks that are hot enough to warrant it. So we hedge our bets and hope for a mild summer.

But it could be much worse...we could have unbearable humidity. I actually didn't know what humidity was until I was 16 and spent a blazing summer in Japan. I'd take a shower and couldn't even get dry. But mostly it's that heavy feeling of pressure bearing down on every body part exposed to the air. Breathing becomes difficult and my will to live decreases. Because I also suffer the occasional migraine, I have a theory that heat combined with humidity is a trigger for them. The humidity thickens the blood, the heat slows me down and the arteries in my brain start to get jammed up, thereby causing stunning auras and excruciating headaches. To battle this I take low dose aspirin in high-humidity situations. I had to do this last month when we were in Virginia. They also say hormones are a factor in migraines---delightful. I think it's obvious for this and thousands of other high-maintenance reasons, I could never be on Survivor.

Hot In Herre

Fourth of July: Smoke on the Water

Truly, is there any better way to spend 4th of July than on Lake Union in a sailboat with Karen, Court, Nadine, Lil B & Ken with gorgeous 84 degree Seattle weather, eating fruit and turkey franks? Not for this gal.

Other highlights of the day were teaching Nadine how to row the dingy, seeing Ken become a bona fide member of the "anchor team" (and I don't mean news) & witnessing a boat full of porno-destined chicky babes dancing around in bikini bottoms and pasties while being followed by boatloads of buzzed, horny men in speed boats. Yeah, just another day at the lake.

From my observations of being out on the boat several times with the Riches, the hardest thing to do is anchor, especially in close quarters with hundreds of other boats around. It usually takes several attempts to get your placement right so that you are secure but not drifting into your neighbor. I also learned yesterday that full chain anchors are more stable and need less length than chain-rope combinations. In our case, we had the chain-rope and even though the anchor team did a great job of setting anchor at 4pm, by 9:45 the wind shifted and we started to drift behind a much bigger boat so that we couldn't see the fireworks. At times we got so close that Court & Ken had to use poles to push off from the other boat. It was a constant struggle that started just as the fireworks show began. But for a good 70% of the time we could see and there is nothing like being there on the lake with the works of fire exploding overhead.

Also, when trying to take pictures of fireworks on the boat, it's never going to look right because with an open shutter, ever speck of light is going to look like electric sperm or tracers.

Photo Album:




This entry also marks my first foray into You Tube video posts. The following video was taken by me. Fireworks are better in person but they are still cool no matter what. Check out more fireworks videos on my video channel.

"Boxes Woohoo!"

Response from the Fremont Arts Council about Solstice Parade

Last month, I wrote an open letter to the Fremont Arts Council about the sub par experience at this year's Fremont Solstice Parade. I felt compelled to say something because this year included some participants to were not very family-friendly and in general the parade didn't seem very organized compared to past years. Here is their response:


Dear Kali,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for your support of the Solstice Parade over the years.

We appreciate that you took the time to write and that you were kind enough to include some great pictures. The Fremont Arts Council is forever reinventing ourselves and input from people like you is information that helps guide our progress.

I'm sorry that you didn't like the Parade order. I promise I won't be the person to do that next year and therefore it will be done differently.

I can't promise that there won't be distasteful ensembles in the Parade. We don't preview the art that goes in the Parade and every year there's at least one ensemble that offends someone and sometimes it's one we never would have suspected before hand.

We will also always be a forum for political expression, even of controversial ideas such as the legalization of drugs. While that particular group (which was in the Parade last year as well, by the way) may or may not be in the Parade next year, rest assured there will be controversial ideas in the Parade every year unless we overhaul the entire philosophy behind the Parade.
I have forwarded your message to the Arts Council Board so that they can have the benefit of your input as they plan out the future of the Solstice Parade.

Enjoy your summer! See you next year!

Lars Henrikson
Ex-Solstice Director 2007

***********

Is it me or is that the most politically correct and extremely polite way of saying "thanks very much but we're going to do whatever we want"?

Seattle hearts Flight of the Conchords

The Flight of the Conchords show in Seattle last night exceeded expectations. How amazing is it that a sold out crowd hung on every word of these 2 humbly funny Kiwi dudes with guitars? The fresh and unassuming banter between Jemaine and Bret is worth seeing by itself. In everything they do, they come across as guys you'd root for but more importantly, guys you'd like to be friends with.

Their minimalist presentation puts all the focus on their music, their quirky personalities and the relationship between the two guys. Since they are a duo and gaining more notoriety, they must have to spend an awful lot of time together. I sincerely hope they are pleased with the growing success and attention they are receiving. And I sincerely hope they like spending that much time with one another.

I think it was Bret who said that was the largest audience they'd ever played live to (2000+). Also they commented on the strangeness of the airport-runway-like lights lining the ceiling of McCaw Hall. Having never looked up in that venue, I have to agree--it is a little intimidating. At one point between songs, the guys decided they were too far back on stage and moved their equipment: mics, monitors, cords forward--only there wasn't enough cord so they played without the benefit of their monitors which was not ideal. Being that close to the edge of the stage also put them in front of the speakers for the audience which resulted in occasional funky feedback. Bret seem to fiddle with the microphone stand A LOT which made me think he was either nervous or truly having a problem with the stability of the stand.

They played my favorites: Business Time, I'm Not Crying, Beautiful Girl. My husband loved the Robot song/Humans Are Dead. I didn't keep track of their set list unfortunately. But I hope the HBO One Night Stand Show comes out on DVD-- the same feeling/intimacy from that show came across in person. I was hoping to hear the Hiphopapotamus v Rhymenocerous but they ended the show with Albie the Racist Dragon (not one of my favs). They did not get the opportunity to do an encore--because (I assume) with the 2 other opening acts and the whole show going 3 hours, they wanted to party before 'last call' which happens around 1:30am in this early to bed town.

Ah well. A great night to see these guys do their thing.