Elliott Ave

Every workday I drive along Elliott Ave on my way to the Post Office. Over the last 2 years I have watched the formerly industrial area slowly change. I have always loved the look of this part of Seattle. When we were looking to buy a house we even looked at some in the area overlooking this part of Seattle. I have found some of my favorite photos in this area, as well as some interesting graffiti. The other day I took these shots of the Westfarm Foods building that is coming down as I write this blog entry.

The walls of progress

We were on our way to Mr. Spots Chai House the other day to replenish my wife's chai supply and I stopped to check out the old lady's house that is being surrounded by a building. the story is that the developers wanted her to sell and she wouldn't. So they are putting up the building around her house and yard.

It looks like her house is being eaten by the walls. Her backyard will be dark at night.

Bluefin sushi buffet

So Sunday night we were over at our friend's house deciding where to eat dinner after a rousing game of "Ticket to ride". A suggestion was made for Bluefin Sushi at Northgate. Since moving to West Seattle, going to North Seattle seems like making a trip out of town, so we said yes. A long drive (15 min) and we arrived at the newly (to us) remodeled Northgate Mall.

I hoped that Bluefin would be better than Todai, the buffet at Pacific Place, that my wife won't go to any more. Not that I blame her, it isn't very good. But by my standards Bluefin rates about the same. It had a similar selection and the staff didn't replenish the food very timely.

I started out with some sushi, tempura and Korean ribs.

Sushi was OK, the ribs were the best, the tempura was... well tempura. Some of the other sushi looked OK.

After the table looked like this.

Overall it was OK, it didn't win the Todai challenge though, as we left my wife said she won't go back. We have plenty of good sushi in West Seattle, so I don't mind.

Anonymous vs Church of Scientology

Wired has an article about the online group Anonymous and how they had organized an attack on the Church of Scientology following their attempts to censor a recruiting video of Tom Cruise as seen here on Gawker.com.

A later article in Wired here talks about how a Dutch school accidentally became the target of the attack instead. Oh well gotta give 'em points for trying.

Today when I first heard of it I went the Scientology website and it was still running. I did kinda hope it would be down though.

One of my favorite quotes is from the list of potential questions for people to call into the Church of Scientology. They suggested people call and act curious about joining, but ask questions like, " Do you have Cloverfield insurance?" That is classic.

Buddha Machine meets the Korg Mini Kp

I decided to put the first loop of the Buddha Machine into the Tape Echo of the Mini KP. Just a little experiment for this afternoon.

When Tuesday feels like Monday....

So I had a great weekend, we relaxed and watched the first 2 seasons of ,"The Wire" on DVD. We will move on to the third today.

I keep thinking today is Monday and it isn't. I guess I need to adjust. One of my co-workers went razor clam digging over the weekend, I have always wanted to do that. Maybe next time.

A friend sent me this photo. I messed with it some. It was a crow on their doorstep.

New Synth vid

A chain of my analog and virtual analog synths and some effects making weird noises. It includes a Monotonic U-73, a Paia 9700 modular, a Nord Micromodular, a Yamaha Magistomp and a Boss DD-20.

Glow in the dark meat and such....

So I opened my browser and what did I see, but two pigs growing green and a gasp I did weep.

I was reading the Stranger's Slog and saw a story of the FDA making cloned meat ok to eat. I say sign me up, If it tastes good who cares if its bad for me years later, its steak. Anything to drive the price of Kobe beef down. Just kidding.

I mean can't we just breed animals the old fashioned way, or are they trying to find something to test on that the PETA crowd can't protest about? I need to look into this more.

The glowing pigs are kinda cute though.

Chickenhead Church 1/13/2008

Last Night phase3 played with Dj Dick Flick and Your drugs my money at Mr. Spots Chai House in Ballard.

Here is a video excerpt of phase3's set.

Here is some photos of the other bands.

Dj Dick Flick

Your Drugs my Money

Graffiti in and around Mr. Spots Chai House

Last night we played a show at Mr. Spots Chai House in Ballard. Here are some photos I took with my phone of graffiti in the bathroom and out in front.

Korg Mini kp

This is the Korg mini Kaoss pad. I got one a few weeks ago and have been having lots of fun with it. It has a few synth patches, but it is mainly an effects unit that you control with the pad. I used patch 99 "Synth + Looper" to create this video. All the sounds are from that patch. I did record some sounds to my computer and play along with it.

Korg has a new synth called the Kaossilator that is a pad controlled synth and sequencer, but I wanted to have the effects in the mini kp. I still might get the Kaossilator later on though as it looks fun as well.

La Costa in Burien

So my wife and I have been on a search for a new Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood since the one we frequented closed several months ago. We have gone to several and some have been good for certain items, but not for others. Well on New Years some friend told us about La Costa in Burien and Monday night we went.

La Costa has been around for some time, they opened in 1984, but its hidden away in Burien and it is amazing. Both my wife and I ordered the El Patron. It comes with Carne Asada, Chili Relleno, Enchilada, and a Taquito as well as pico de gallo and rice and beans with cheese. It was perfect.

The Carne Asada was grilled just right and not over spiced. I could still taste the flavorful meat, while it had a little heat to it. The Chili Relleno, a favorite of my wife, was not over breaded and had the most amazing cheese mix inside. The Enchilada was better than ElGallito, which has previously held the award for my favorite Enchilada. The Taquito was crisp and filled with shredded beef that melted in my mouth. The El Patron was too big for either of us to finish, but it gave us a great into to our new Favorite Mexican dining experience.

If you live in West Seattle/South Seattle/Burien area do yourself a favor and check out La Costa. Believe me you'll love it.

Ouch my morning drive could have sucked!!!

If I was this person. You can't see the truck that is in front of the jeep, but it got messed up too. Thats also a telephone pole between them. I shot it after I came back from getting the mail this morning, but on my way to the post office it had just happened. I didn't see the accident just the aftermath.

The power of books

So this morning I was finishing a book I have been reading since I went on vacation a few months ago. It is a book of short stories and poems by Chuck Palahniuk called "Haunted". At the end he wrote an after word that talked about one of the stories called "Guts" and how the first time he read it no one fainted.

When I read the story I remember laughing, laughing some more, yelling, reading some of it out loud to my wife, cringing and then a sigh of relief that it was over. I didn't faint though. I was on a plane on the way back from Hawaii. I remember thinking that this is one of the most disturbing books I have ever read.

It was horror, but not like any book of horror I had ever read before. It was more like the horror of reality TV. Like it is real, sort of. I don't like reality TV, I try not to watch the shows, but sometimes nothing else is on. The way that people become faux-real to me is horror. The stories of this book are linked by the idea that writers are together in a game to win money and the stories in the book are from all the contestants. So like the real(?) reality TV shows it has the twisted type of horror I am trying to describe.

The first season of "Survivor", which I never saw, but I remember people talking about the contestants eating rats. I used to be afraid of rats. One job I had, the impetus for my departure among other reasons was an encounter with a rat on the job. I was working a trash compactor, loading dumpsters onto a fork and dumping them into a compactor then compacting the trash and repeating. The compactor broke and I have to open up the hydraulic unit. A rat brushed by my hand when I stuck it into the dark hole and all my childhood nightmares of rats ran through my head at the same time. Even now I can feel it, see the dark hair dashing into the darkness under the compactor. When I listened to people talking about the contestants eating rats it didn't bother me, but I could see the fear and disgust on their faces and I knew that horror. It was real.

I write this not trying to keep people from reading "Haunted", I thought it was a great book. I didn't read it in one sitting, I kept it by the side of my bed and read little bits. I never read books of short stories all at once most of the time. I read them in little spurts. I think this book was meant to be read from start to finish, but I just didn't get the flow.

I won't ruin it by telling any more. It didn't make me faint, but you might want to read it at home sitting down.

"Television the drug of a nation"

I find myself going back to this quote from The Beatnig's song of the same name, made even more popular when they performed under the name The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.

The writers strike has allowed the major televisions stations to market even more useless reality shows. Dropping most TV viewing to the lowest common denominator. I don't like reality shows most of the time. That is to say I try not to watch most of them. I have been sucked in to some of the A and E shows on occasion,and I did watch pro wrestling for a year or two in the 1990's, but generally I try not to watch reality TV.

The reaction at our house has been to watch shows that we had passed over on DVD. Some I get from the library and some we buy used. A few we buy new, which is part of the reason the writers are striking, to get a part of the revenue from DVD sales. I guess I could wait until the strike is over and allow them to receive the part of the sales they get from me, but I'm a television addict and I need my fix now.

We just finished the last season of "Lost". It was a good one. Now I have a bunch of anime films and an old David Cronenberg film called "The Brood". The anime is all by the same person who did "Paprika" which we watched last week. I kind of like the break in TV shows for this reason. I'm getting to explore movies and shows I might not had watched.

phase3 at Mr. Spots Chai House in Ballard

Come on down to the chickenhed church. Sunday Jan 13th phase3 ambient psychedelia and travelling roadshow will be performing. It will be a fun time for all.

New Year

Well its january 2nd and last year just seemed to have wizzed by. Above is a photo from the bonfire on the beach that we went to at our friend's house in Burien. I took it with my cellphone, so the quality suffered, but it was a fun party. We went home early and relaxed with Boris, who seems to be doing better. Now the holidays are over and it is time to get back to work.

Phase 3 has a show coming up Jan. 13 and I will post a poster and info for anyone who is interested.