Lo-Fi

Hi peeps,

I just did a write-up of a local nightspot in Eastlake called Lo-Fi. Check it out!

Here's a link and it is below too but without any of the fun pictures : )

http://www.seattlerepresent.com/culture/the-lowdown-on-lo-fi/

The Lowdown on Lo-Fi
April 14th, 2009 | by Laura Oster, Site Contributor | Culture | 0
The Lo-Fi Performance Gallery is a hipster night club and venue on Eastlake Avenue. I checked it out on a Thursday night and was impressed by the scene overall. There is a fairly large room in the back with a stage and some seating and a dance floor. In fact I was surprised at how big it is because from the street it looks like a tiny whole in the wall. There is a smaller loungy space with a small dance floor and a bar in the front and they have one of my favorite things in there- a photo booth! I absolutely adore photo booths - they can capture a series of moments like individual snapshots cannot and for me at least they are always hilarious and really show peoples’ personalities.
Okay back to the Lo-Fi, the vibe is hip but friendly. Thursday night is RUB night with live funk and soul music in the back, and in the front there is a dj spinning what I would call underground hip hop. I went into the back and listened for awhile and enjoyed the music, the regular band The Teaching was doing an improv set with some guest musicians and collecting money for earth day to benefit a charity. They made up a song Cheap and Trendy about buying cheap clothes on the spot which was catchy, funny, and memorable – I can still sing the refrain! I listened there for awhile and then went and chatted up the bouncer who was a friendly guy. He recommended coming on Tuesday nights which is STOP BITING a night of hiphop, downtempo, soul, funk and jazz. I kept wondering what STOP BITING was cause I’ve seen the posters on Capitol Hill and now I know. So I’ll have to go check that out one of these Tuesdays.



After chatting with the bouncer I had a seat on one of the leather benches in the front room and watched some footage of break dancers projected on a screen next to the dance floor. I was enjoying the music when a guy walked up next to the dj, pulled a sax out of a case and started playing along to the music. He was good and the sax with the music sounded great. He played to a couple of songs and then came up and handed me a cd. I listened to it later and I liked it, it was pretty chill jazz by a group called AfterMath. They had a gig coming up at Tost Lounge so I’ll have to go check them out too. Oh and one last thing about Lo-Fi, they have art shows every so often and the art they had on display when I was there was dark, intriguing, well done and not too expensive if you’re in the market for some original art.

If you’re looking for a little socializing, good music, and the unexpected, check out Lo-Fi. Doors open at 9 most nights and the cover if there is one is usually a reasonable $5. It’s on Eastlake Avenue and I had no trouble finding nearby free parking. For more info go to http://www.myspace.com/percussions.

Green Festival in the Emerald City

Here's a link on the Green Fest in Seattle on Seattle Represent. I've embedded the article too. Check it out if there is one in your area! It is a lot of fun : )

http://www.seattlerepresent.com/culture/green-festival-in-the-emerald-city/

Green Festival in the Emerald City
March 31, 2009 by Laura Oster, Site-Contributor

If you’re looking for something to do that’s inspiring, fun and eco-friendly, then Seattle Green Festival could be right up your alley. The Green Festivals are a joint venture by Global Exchange and Green America that are all about sustainability and a great way to learn about green businesses, farms, and products in your area.

The green fest consists of a large exhibition area, a kid’s zone, a musical stage, organic beer and wine tasting, and several stages with presentations by various well respected speakers in the green community on such topics as Building the Green Economy and Seven Rules for Shopping for a Better World. I chose to spend my time there wandering and looking at the booths and talking to people. I learned that you can grow your own mushrooms at home with a starter kit and that there is a cool company that sells equipment so that you can make your own soda to reduce plastic use. I also discovered some cool products that are now on my wish list like a handbag made of old Bollywood movie film and paper made from elephant dung – that’s right paper made from elephant poop!

There were also several eco autos on display including the new, locally designed EMC3Commuter car which will be available for purchase all over the country in May. CEO David Joner started working on the idea as a family project with his 11 year old son and several years after the initial brainstorm, this cute, 3 wheeled car that gets 60 miles to the gallon is being manufactured in China. I chatted with Joner for a little while and was impressed with the car, a two-seater with ample cargo space, nice design, and a $14,000 price tag – not bad for a new, very fuel efficient car.

I was pleasantly surprised by my experience at the festival overall. I would have expected a lot more stereotypical hippies but found that most of the participants just looked like every day Seattleites. People were friendly, and even though I went solo I had a great time. It was also a reasonable price; I took the bus downtown which meant I got a discount and paid just $10 to get in plus I left with a full stomach, a ton of free samples, some free eco-oriented magazines, and lots of ideas. Oh and if you want to get in free, just sign up in advance to be a volunteer for a few hours.

Here’s a tip if you do go – don’t eat too much beforehand. Lots of free samples are found for everything from organic yogurt, chips and salsa, donuts, chocolate, cereal, smoothies, coffee, tea, soda and more. I tried numerous snacks but couldn’t resist purchasing some yummy vegan yam fries from a booth operated by Café Flora which were really excellent and I am not even a vegan! So between the samples and the reasonably priced food for purchase options, there were lots of tasty things to try.

Though this year’s fest is over, plan on going next year, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Or if you’re going to be travelling, the Denver, Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Chicago fest haven’t happened yet. Check out their website for more details: http://www.greenfestivals.org/

Writing for Seattle Represent

So I've started writing for a new online publication in the Emerald City called Seattle Represent. Here is my first post:

http://www.seattlerepresent.com/culture/through-the-looking-glass-the-burlesque-alice-in-wonderland-at-the-triple-door/

I'm hoping to build up a portfolio with examples of my writing to hopefully start getting some paid writing gigs in the future : )

Peking Acrobats

As you know from my previous post, I have just recently joined the ranks of the unemployed just like thousands of other Americans. It was a pleasantly surprised then to win a pair of ticket vouchers to the UW World Series, a University of Washington concert and performance series (thank you UW World Series!!) I redeemed the ticket vouchers to a touring show, a performance by the Peking Acrobats. I informed my husband and was met with a relatively ho-hum attitude about going. In his own words, "If I weren't with you, I would just go out to dinner." Now I was relatively sure that the performance would do away with any ambivalence that Shawn had but nevertheless, yet I was blown away and delighted with the actual performance. Sure there were acrobatics, contortionists, silly clown jokes, and beautifully played Chinese instruments but the sum of the parts were so much more than that. Everything was done to perfection and some of the stunts and tricks were just ridiculous in their difficulty. There were several times during the performance when I felt myself tear-up at my sheer amazement of the performance. Though both Shawn and I still were in the throes of this terrible cough/cold thing, it proved to be just what we needed to forget all about it and think about how amazing life and people are.

I've included a couple of links below which don't do a live performance justice but do show astounding performances. This first clip features their lion dancers but also if you look closely at the beginning, you a will see a girl riding a unicycle on top of a parasol that another man is holding. I mean really, if a girl can ride a unicycle on top of an umbrella that a man is carrying, isn't anything possible? The other link I've included shows their contortionist balancing trays and glasses on each foot and hand plus her mouth while she moves in a way I could not have imagined. So if the Peking Acrobats are coming to the area, I highly encourage you to go see them at least once.

Lions, girl on a unicycle on top of an umbrella

Contortionist with glasses

Oh and for anyone who wonders, Shawn loved the show and it wasn't even a whole day before he was trying to recreate some of the tricks he'd seen on the show. Spinning plates was one of the more reasonable tricks to attempt and I am glad he chose not to try to balance on spears, break bricks with his forehead or to stack and then stand on 7 or 8 chairs nearly touching the ceiling : )

Well it is late so I am signing off, until next time.

Late night in the new year

So I am up late with this dang cough/sinus infection and I think why not set up a blog? It's something I've been wanting to try and any attempt at sleeping in the horizontal position ends in horrible fits of coughing which result in a super tired and crabby husband and no actual rest pour moi. Note to self, I really need to purchase a recliner to allow more comfortable, non-horizontal sleeping.

Also, this is a rather momentous time for me in my life in a quiet and contemplative sort of way. This is the first time since I was of legal working age that I am sans job. It is a mixed thing this new unemployment status. Since I have this bad cold it is refreshing not to be dragging my bedraggled carcus feeling self to work or to have to use precious PTO but on the other hand I find myself asking "what next?" This is one of those times when you ask the question and don't have the answer. There are certainly any number of things I can spend my time on, reading, walking in the park, going to the gym, labelling spices, writing my thesis, etc. and I am sure I will do all of these things in the next couple of weeks after I am through the cold fog. Still, after these various relatively unimportant and important tasks, I am at the whim of the universe and my creativity. Where will my path take me? I am here in a relatively new city with my husband and few friends we have collected since we arrived in August so essentially I have few ties that bind, or connect. So I find myself doing things like starting a blog, signing up for daily "the secret" messages (I know a bit trite but I do think it helps) and searching the new netflix instant view feature. Considering all things being equal (a rather strange thing so say I know after all how can all things be equal but somehow it fits the bill) it is not a bad place to be. On the one hand, I don't know what the future brings and on the other, you never really know what the future brings. Oh you might know that tomorrow you'll get up, have copious amounts of coffee and go to work but in the longer term, it really is hard to tell. For example, last year at this time, I was recuperating from planning bowl festivities for my job at the Alumni Association of my Alma Matter. There was no way for me to anticipate that my husband would later receive a job offer from Microsoft and that he and I would be sent into a tailspin as we made a completely unanticipated move across the country and away from our hometown, family and friends.

So I start the new year with more than the usual number of questions about what the new year will bring. What will I be doing in a month, six months, a year from now? What will I do once I have employment or should I just write, write, write? I have so many ideas running around in my head, or treading water (the half-written juvenile novella or the screenplay idea I've had since high school) that I'd like to put down on paper. I think getting those ideas on paper will be a good start and after all with no job, I should in theory at least have more time to write though looking for and applying for job is more time consuming than I'd like. Maybe this is one of those times when the journey will be just as important as the destination. Either way, this feels like an important time in my life. There are a lot of milestones already: a new town, a new home, my 30th year, a four-year wedding anniversary, and lots of wedding and new additions to the extended family. Plus I think there is something about 2009 that is significant in a more global way. We will have a new president and hopefully a more hopeful and positive era will begin. Thinking about the year ahead, I realize that this is the last year before 2010! Really, I remember thinking 2010 was so far away as a child and now we are less than a year's countdown towards it. And if we're thinking ahead, there is the 2012 date looming, the end of the Mayan calendar. I know for some this idea is hocus pocus but I think regardless a big change is coming. I hope that my upcoming future and the more global changes in the next year will be good ones. Right now there is a lot of old clutter being cleaned out of our various human systems: political, financial, and spiritual. After all, sometimes you have to make a small mess in the process of cleaning up a bigger, systemic mess. I think that is what is going on right now with the markets, political scandals, etc.

Well that's enough about that for now. I am off to ply myself with some more herbal tea, cough drops, and maybe some instant netflix or a bit of reading before my next attempt at sleep.

Signing off,
Thoughtful in Seattle : )