Retro fever! It's orange again.

Ah spring break, so much free time.

I'm taking care of a house full of animals at the moment, two dogs and two cats. I don't see the cats much, they like to hide. But last night I got in and it was like a circus. Everyone decided they wanted to sit as close to me as possible. Lots of love means lots of pet hair. And while I love the doggies, they sure like to follow me around and make sure I know that they are hungry for affection, oh yeah and food. I feel like Marge, cause they keep looking at me, WITH THEIR EYES!

Last night was an adventure in West Seattle. Jeff and I met up at Easy Street. Not only do they have a fantastic selection of cds and vinyl, they also have the friendlist staff. I finally found Dusk by The The (I've been having a bout of nostalgia for that mid 90's college radio music) and then Jill Scott's excellent live album. Then Jeff and discovered our favorite new hangout, called Chuck and Sally's. There must be something in the water, cause once again another outlandishly friendly experience with the West Seattlites.

So last night I went to quiz night at Kincora and our team finally won first place! After all these years, well maybe more like weeks, we'd finally won. Sound too good to be true? Well, you know what the usual response to that question is. But after last night, I know how those Russian figure skaters feel. Quiz night is held every Wednesday. You pay three bucks per person and form a team, I think usually no more than six on a team. There are 5 rounds and 10 questions per round. It's pretty low tech. The girl who hosts reads out the quesitons over a mic, you and your time confer (in hushed tones of course) and then right down the answer on a piece of paper.

So after the thrill of having three great rounds and being in first place the whole time, we sort of stank it up in the forth and redeemed ourseleves in the fifth. We ended up tied for first place with another team. So the quiz hosts decide to have a 'rap-off' as a tiebreaker.

For our team (named 'I know you are but what am I') we send up Red, a guy who works in the neighborhood with my friends. He's in a band and he did this whole rap that was quick and pretty awesome and people went nuts. Then to top it all off, he does the splits. The other team's guy goes up and calls Red 'Vanilla Ice'. Then he lays down this lame ass short rap about himself and his teammates. So in the voting (by applause) it sounded like we won. The officials concurred and agreed and indeed we had won. There was much rejoicing. But then, out of nowhere the other team protests the outcome. The quizmeisters decide to let each team vote by secret ballot and it came down to the other team winning. So instead of $107 we settled for two free pitchers of beer.

All I'm saying is watch out for next week.

I'm really thinking about widening the scope of the job hunt.

On Sundays we have a tradition. Well it’s only been about a month or two, so I’m not sure that really qualifies as a tradition establishing time period, but maybe more of a custom, perhaps a ritual? This ritual involves Joy and her Bloody Mary’s – arguably the best in Seattle: just spicy enough, neither too strong nor too watery, and speared with plump olives. So there is a group of us who have become the Bloody Mary crowd. I’m not sure if it’s a fair correlation, but it turns out people who really like Bloody Mary’s tend to be well traveled and well read.

So our conversation this Sunday turns to travel stories, as it often does. And there it is again, that nagging feeling. It has been almost five years since I moved back from Prague. I know that to some extent I romanticize that point in my life and that it wasn’t always easy. But sometimes I wonder how things would have turned out if I had stayed.

I’m not ready to settle for the two weeks of vacation a year. So I’m thinking about a wider job hunt. No, I’m not reconsidering California. But maybe they need usability specialists in Bruges, or someone who can write a really clear procedural in Riga or content management research in Eindhoven

Although, have you heard about Ladonia? I hear it’s beautiful this time of year.

it's snowing in seattle right now, which is kind of adorable. i've haven't had as many convesations with strangers since last year's earthquake. the best thing about snow in seattle is how people still use umbrellas. yes umbrellas in the snow.

Hey look, it’s me again.

So last night, F and I saw the Gorillaz at the Paramount. If you are wondering if they did the regular Wizard of Oz routine, the answer is yes, yes they did. It was strange but also felt sort of groundbreaking. Sort of like hearing Beck’s Mellow Gold for the first time, I thought wow maybe I’m witnessing something revolutionary.

While the music of The Gorillaz is provided by a number of superstars, the prolific overachiever Dan the Automator, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori, and others, the bands personae are provided by animated characters dreamed up by the creator of Tank Girl.
When they perform live, they do so from behind a screen. During the performance, cartoons are projected onto this screen starring the adventures of the animated alter egos. Even knowing this was their schtick, I expected at some point they would emerge, a final bow or something, but except for a couple “Yo Seattle” shout outs, audience interaction seemed minimal. The projected images were entertaining for sure, but after paying over $30, part of me was jonsing for some real live rock star charisma.

But how real is the regular performance thing? It just a genre, right? Every show follows the same basic script. Thanking the opening act, some attempts to localize by commenting on how enthusiastic the residents of that town appear to be (last year at the Tacoma Dome show, Dr. Dre decided to cover an entire region with a sort of clumsy “Western Washington, make some noise!”), the regular set of songs, holding the most popular for the end, the saying goodnight, the long pause, an encore, perhaps two and that’s that. For the most part, The Gorillaz followed this formula but added a new dimension, the cartoon alter egos sort of mocking the rock star image. I’m still not decided, but one thing for sure, it might be the loudest show I’ve ever been two. And I know it’s bad for my little eardrums, but there is something distinctly satisfying about a bass beat that could restart your heart.

Oh yeah, they played Clint Eastwood twice.

Hello. This is my blog.

The impetus of this undertaking can be attributed to MT. He is going to the Netherlands where he will have an excellent time. So, thanks to blog technology while MT is gone he will still get to do what he does best - correct my grammar.

I think I set a personal Victrola record yesterday, a total of nine hours. That Mihalyo stuff they have up at the moment is pretty wild especially after a big fat americano with a splash of soy milk. Can caffeine cause hallucinations? Maybe. But the time was well spent. I am one annotated bibliography, one presentation and one round of research closer to spring break.

Why am I not going to the Netherlands? First MT, then Monty and now F-lin too. I'll be spending spring break researching usability stuff or maybe just writing more and more.

I have Nashville to look forward to. I think.