mmrobins.com

The first half of Why We Fight I was kind of bored and wondered why I had heard so many good things. The preview made it look so provacative. It just seemed like a lot of talking heads going over the same things I already knew: the build up to the Iraq war was a lie, the military industrial complex is too powerful, we’re a violent nation, etc.

Then toward the middle of the end it started to really get my emotions. The storyline that started it off was the New York cop who put the name of his son who was killed in 9/11 on a bomb going to Iraq finding out that Iraq wasn’t connected with Al Qaeda. I don’t think even the best actors could have duplicated that feeling of betrayal that he exhibited. The movie just gets more powerful from there, and the facts presented get more interesting: how many targets we actually hit in the first days of the war (none), what our exit strategy for Iraq really was (there was none), where some of the ‘facts’ used to support the war came from (20 years ago).

Even having heard most of this film’s information before, it turned out to be an extremely worthwhile and well made movie. It reminded me how easy it is to forget about a love of and desire for peace when so many powerful forces are urging war. I need to remind myself never to be duped into thinking violence is justified again. The movie even does something that I didn’t think it would really try to do in the beginning, something that I thought it would leave as just a rhetorical question – try to explain why we fight. The answers provided will hopefully remind us all why we shouldn’t.

One of my friends Preston has a new album out that I’ve been listening to. Its not the kind of music that I normally listen to, but I’m enjoying it. It’s not what I expected either, but in a good way. I’m intrigued by the idea of such an ambient music being tied to visual cues. I’m also intrigued by the title of one track, October the 16th. A song just for my birthday? Sounds like a good idea to me. Nice job Preston, hope there’s more music to come.

For Kim’s going away present from Eco Encore she got a gift certificate to Teatro ZinZanni. It’s been a few years since I first took Kim there for her birthday and started her down the path to aerial performance. The show was very similar to what we saw then, so it was still very good. A lot of the people in the show were original cast members, so some of the routines were close to the same like the hat juggling. There was a couple on the trapeze who had an amazingly fast act, and by fast I mean they were moving fast. The guy was throwing the girl around like a little doll up above the dinner tables. Impressive. There was also a contortionist, an illusionist, too much singing by CeCe Penniston, and of course the 5 courses of food. I had the salmon and it was pretty good.

My favorite part of the evening though was the “chef” Cookie, who came out before every course and did a little character act. He started as a Baptist style preacher praising the cookbook in place of the good book. He was then a French playboy who wooed the ladies. My favorite character by far though was when he came out in outrageous drag doing a Marilyn Monroe impression while dressed as some sort of opera like huntress. All of these characters got someone from the audience for participation, and this one got a guy to wear a deer antler hat and prance around. You’d have to see it for it to be funny, but I was dying of laughter.

Friday night Kim and I went with Brian, Bridgid, Jay and his girlfriend to see The Bad Things and Baby Gramps at the Can Can. The two groups took turns, alternating sets. Kim and I danced a lot for the Bad Things music despite not having much room. I really don’t know how you can dance to Baby Gramps with his stomping, improvisational rhythms. I bought a Baby Gramps CD as it’s really starting to grow on me. All in all it was a lot of fun. My only complaint is how expensive the drinks and food are. I guess it’s like that most places downtown Seattle on a Friday though, especially with live entertainment.

• Reading: Across the Nightingale Floor: Tales of the Otori by Lian Hearn

As always, Jason puts on an awesome show. Kim and I went down after I got out of working late and saw Jason at the Can Can near Pike Place Market. We both realized that we had been to the Can Can a while ago when it was something else. It’s a lot nicer now that they’ve moved things around and it’s not smokey.

Jason stomped, played accordian and guitar, and just plain entertained everyone in the place with music, stories and funny dances. He’s one hell of a showman. From his own piratey, meloncholy stuff to orginal lyrics covers of Bob Marley and Outkast, the show was excellent. Tonight’s fun crowd activity was tickling everyone around you to the tune of Music That Tears Itself Apart.

If you live in Seattle and haven’t seen Jason Webley play, you haven’t begun to experience one of the best Seattle has to offer.

Three days of music at the Gorge! Travis, Kim and I drove out Friday afternoon, setup free camp near the feathers, and went to see some angry music. Friday night was a little overly angry, and by the time NIN came on stage, I was a little tired of the anger. NIN was a good show nonetheless. Our campsite looked out over a waterfall and was very nice. Travis got eaten alive by mosquitos, but Kim and I were fine.

Saturday was a crazy day. That was the day of a 20 minute hail storm and the best performance of the weekend. It was a warm day, people were wearing shorts and tshirts, we were hanging out on the grass with Jessie and friends. Late afternoon during Neko Case’s set an ominous black cloud rolled in and dumped nickel sized hail on us forever. We had rain gear, but it couldn’t stop us from getting a bit wet with all that hail. I think a lot of people left for good after that storm. They started letting people go out to their cars and come back. The music was delayed for a couple hours, but when they got back on schedule Ben Harper put on a really good set. I’ve never really liked the Ben Harper they play on the radio (too poppy), but he did a really good live set. Then… The Flaming Lips played! They had to coolest toys, and the funnest set. The lead singer started the show inside a bubble that he rolled over the crowd in. Flaming Lips groupies dressed as Santa and aliens were on either side of the stage. There were a bunch of streamers. They covered Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. They played until 2 in the morning. THAT was a good show.

Sunday was fun too, but Beck was a little disappointing. He didn’t do any dancing on stage. There was another guy who did. He just didn’t seem into it. He didn’t really do an encore and left early. They did have a cool puppet show in the background that was an exact replica of the band set. After the show we drove back to Seattle and I was TIRED.

After months of training, Kim is ready to show off! Last night she did a group piece with her fellow students, although now she really wishes she had done a solo. I was impressed with the quality and variety of performers. I thought it was going to be very amateur, but everyone was very good. Kim was flipping, hanging, spinning and looking good in her tutu. Jake, Jessie, Jesse from EcoEncore, Bridgid, Gabe and Dennis and his kids all came to watch. Kim’s group piece was at the end. The show was a benefit for villages in Nepal. I’d describe the show more, but Kim’s got some good pictures online which will do it much better justice.

What a weird name for a festival. What a weird festival. Fun though. Kim and I caught the final marathon night with Becka and Michael. It’s cool that it’s in the back of a brew pub so that you can buy beer during the show. There were some really unique acts. The best was probably the acrobat, martial art, sword fighting jugglers. Yeah, that’s multi-talented. The guy who blew bubbles blew my mind! I never knew bubbles could do those things. Next year I’ll have to see the burlesque show too.

I think Seaworld was more fun than Disneyland. They had a cool roller coaster that did loop-de-loops and goes underground, their shows are amazingly correographed, and they have the funniest pirate show I’ve ever seen – not that I’ve seen near enough funny pirate shows. We didn’t get to see Shamu because the line was ridiculous, but I think we saw most of the major shows. We crammed a lot in before we had to go to the airport, which conveniently was only about 15 minutes away. I’d rant on longer and longer with details, but I wouldn’t want to spoil anything when anyone else goes (mostly I’m just feeling lazy right now).

• Reading: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Gabe bought me a ticket to go see a group that he’s been raving about the last few months, Rogue Wave. I had only heard a couple of their songs streaming out of his laptop speakers and wasn’t impressed, but figured I’d go anyway.

The concert was Sunday night at the Showbox, a venue that I’m not too fond of for it’s layout. There’s too many bar areas where people often just talk loudly and don’t listen to the music. I’d be fine with that except when a band tries to do anything quiet and intimate, it usually fails. That and the fact that they never seem to start a show on time. And by on time I mean within an hour of what they say on the ticket. The show was said to start at 7PM and the warmup, warmup band didn’t even start until around 8:30. And it was awful.

Finally Rogue Wave came on around 9:30 and it was a great show. They’re much better live than on their album, which after having seen them live I gave a second chance and liked. I was impressed that the drummer and lead guitarist frequently switched roles.

The headliner was Nada Surf, a band whose claim to fame as far as I know was the one hit wonder “Popular” back in the 90′s. I bought their CD back then and hated it. I’d heard they’d gotten better. I suppose they have, but I’m still not impressed. They weren’t even on until close to 11, and when they came on I was just tired of standing around waiting. I’m not going to wait around four hours for someone who I barely care about, so we left after 4 or 5 songs.

• Reading: John Adams by David McCullough