Week of September 5th, 2014

Have been thinking about super powers lately.  Not the Marvel/DC kind, but rather the ones each one of us have.  The things that come to us naturally that when we do them, others are speechless.  My greatest power is the ability to find the perfect parking spot in any condition.  Not just one close, but right in front, rock star parking on a Seahawk game day.  It's not feeding the poor or righting the wrongs of the world, but it is pretty damn useful.  I used to be afraid of mentioning this ability for fear of jinxing such good luck, but once I realized that this was a gift, it changed me profoundly.

Have been wondering if I had any others that were latent and realized that I have a knack for being able to insult a person to their core after knowing them for less than a minute (not all powers are good ones of course).  This realization occurred a week or so back when we were out to dinner with some friends at Taipei's best Bulgarian restaurant.  How many Bulgarian restaurants are there in Taipei?  I have no idea, but we were looking for a new place and TripAdvisor had this rated top 5 in town.  None of us had ever eaten Bulgarian food before, and TripAdvisor has a very high accuracy rate once you know how to read the comments.  Being able to immediately tell a crackpot commenter and discount his displeasure is essential (perhaps another hidden power?). 

Bulgarian food is very similar to other Mediterranean cuisines (although according to the proprietor, it is nothing like other cuisines and is far superior to any other).  Liberal use of yogurt as a marinade, fresh veggies and the interesting use of lamb were all present.  The Bulgarian guy that runs the place (it was only him and a local server) chatted with us the whole night other than when he went into the kitchen to make the food and yes, we could have done with a bit less monologuing from him, but we learned a lot.  In the taxi on the way over, we pooled our knowledge on the country, and none of us could name a city in Bulgaria other than Sophia, and even as someone who prides himself on his knowledge of geography, had a hard time visualizing where it was on the map.  We learned that it is on the Black Sea south off Russia and north of Turkey.  Albania and the former Yugoslavia are neighbors.  Bulgaria is known to be an ideal spot for European retirees as it is inexpensive and you can buy a home on the coast for as little as US$9000.  They are also (along with Georgia), the oldest producers of wine.  Their local grape is called Melnick...we were with our wine expert friend and even he had only heard of it tangentially.  We got a nice bottle and all enjoyed it, so there is a tip if you are out looking to bring something unique to your next dinner party.

We also learned the difference between lamb and sheep.  Lamb has a reputation of being gamey and needed to be marinated for a week for it to be edible.  Remember Jerry Seinfeld spitting his mutton into the napkin...our Bulgarian host informed us that is true, but only when the sheep have started eating grass.  Good lamb meat comes from animals that have only been drinking mother's milk, and once they start grazing, that is when the meat gets fat and tough.  Makes sense.  Kinda hard to really enjoy it after hearing that it was baby sheep, but we managed to devour it and lick our chops in delight afterwards.  The dude went on to say that the best meat comes from the back of the neck and there is a joke in Bulgaria about how when a wolf catches a sheep, he eats the neck meat and leaves the rest for the French.  Not a bad one...he went on to tell us a couple more sheep related jokes that weren't as funny, and were a bit bizarre to be honest.  I guess we also learned that Bulgarian jokes are sheep-centric, but I always suspected that Bulgarians had a carnal love for them.

Back to my insulting superpower.  We loved a lot of what we ate and I feel comfortable endorsing Bulgarian food to you should you get the chance.  After the meal, a buddy and I went out front to have a puff, and a couple walks by...white dude and Chinese chick.  They are looking at the restaurant and we tell them our food was good and they should check it out.  The women spoke good, but not native English and we had the following exchange.

Chinese Chick - "Are you American?"
Me - "I am, my friend here is from England"
Chinese Chick - (Pointing at white dude) "He is from America."
Me - "Where you from?"
White Dude - "Seattle"
Me - "Me too...from Ballard".
White Dude - "I'm from Puyallup"
Me - "Puyallup's not Seattle...that's where we go to get our krusty pups" (local slang for corn dogs).
White Dude - "We gotta go".

For non-Seattle types, Puyallup is known as being white trashville and for having the annual state fair, where you can see enormous livestock, catch Toby Keith and/or REO Speedwagon, play carnival games and eat anything as long as it is deep fried, with the best and most popular thing on the menu being the corn dog.  I don't think my insulting power is very strong as there are many comedians that make a living out of insulting people.  I have always struggled with making friends because of this ability to instantly piss people off, but if I had realized I had this power earlier in life, I may have been able to harness its strength for good or profit.  So that is my advice to you...look inside yourself and understand your super power.  If you have kids, help them to identify theirs and do what you can to help them excel.

Another (super) ability I have is being able to navigate Bumbershoot to have the most amazing experiences.  Bumbershoot is a Labor Day weekend music/comedy/arts festival held at the Seattle Center right in the middle of downtown.  It is on it's 40th year and I have been going regularly since '95...that is till we moved to Taiwan.  Had missed the last two, but when the music line-up was announced in the Spring, saw that it was very friendly to my tastes and worked with Betty to get a cheapo-miles ticket and fly back for the weekend.  What follows is a diary of the three days, what I saw, heard, and ingested.  I am writing this up for posterity, so will not be offended if you peel off here.

Attending all three days were a couple of Seattle friends and a friend from college along with three of her buddies.  A handful of other Seattle types came out for one day excursions.  Will keep their names out of here to protect their privacy, but they know who they are.  I stayed with the Seattle couple, and on day 1, they went to an afternoon Sounders game while I caught the Monorail (the mode of transport into the future circa 1962) to meet up with the college types.  Got there early so started with a "power pop" band called Dude York.

 

(One of) The great things about these festivals is catching bands you'd never heard of, but then fall in love with immediately.  Dude York were not one of those, but they were a lot of fun and totally punk.  Great way to start the weekend.

Found my college friend, met her crew and game planned.  They were keen to see Panic! At The Disco on the Mainstage, but talked them into stopping by Big Freedia for a couple songs on the way.  Billed as "booty rap", Big Freedia set the Guiness World Record for "Most People Twerking Simultaneously", so how could you not check that out.

Only could take a couple of songs as the rap was too hard core for my taste, but seeing the two chicks savagely twerking their bootys (booties?) off was new to me.  How can they work those things so hard for so long and not have a chiseled ass.  Extraordinary. 

We dove in to see Panic!, but not being a 13 year-old girl, I left the girls to check out another unknown quantity, Gregory Porter.

Instant love and the first amazing show of the weekend.  Soul singing jazz compared to Nat King Cole and Lou Rawls...if you like any of those words, go find his stuff NOW.  Guaranteed.  You can thank me later.

Caught a couple of (very forgettable) Mac DeMarco songs in the beer garden (never a good place to appreciate a band) before heading into the Mainstage for Elvis Costello.  Elvis was a huge part of my life from '80'-'84ish and his first 4-5 albums, but it's been a couple of decades since I've been truly moved by his stuff.   Have seen him a bunch of times in those years with mixed feelings.  Still, it was Elvis and it must be seen.  Along with 2/3 of the Attractions, he played a tight and enjoyable set, hitting all the things there is to love about the guy.  Highlights for me were Clubland, Radio Radio and Pump It Up, but not a clunker in the batch.  Good times.

There are beer gardens at all the stages, but the true gem for a drink at Bumbershoot was the Blue Water Taco in the Center House (now called the Armory).  Centrally located on the festival grounds, you could get any type of drink you desired and it was never crowded.  There was always a table inside/picnic bench outside to sit down and recap what just happened and devise a plan of attack.  We'd split up to go see whatever, but always knew we could go back to the Blue Water and someone would be there.  It is also close to the secret clean bathroom that only those in the know knew.  A true oasis from the frenzy of the crowds...I wish I had taken photos of it, but only have this one from Sunday with a buddy doing his version of the Bernie Lean.

We had a couple hours before the main event that night, so decided over a Jameson on the rocks to go check out The Both, which was a band made up of Aimee Mann (Voices Carry) and Ted Leo (of the Pharmacists).  Totally pleasant and instantly forgettable...didn't even remember to take a picture.  She did close with Voices Carry, which is still as annoying today as it was then, although the line, "he wants me, but only part of the time" is a good one.  We had time for a another drink and then it was time for the Afghan Whigs.

My love of the Whigs goes all the way back, and was pretty pumped to see them.  It'd been 15 years or so since they put out a disc, but newly reformed, the new album is great and expectations were high.  They did not disappoint, bringing their brand of loud, dark, dirty, sexy rock and roll in its fullest.  Best moment was when Greg Dulli sang Bobbby Womack's 'Across 110th Street'.  Womack died a couple of months ago and was supposed to play Bumber.  Had been excited to see him too  so this was a poignant moment.  Even after a day on my feet, I could have gone a couple more hours.  Epic and brilliant way to end day one. 

Day one weather had a few sprinkles in the morning with partly sunny skies the rest of the day.  Day two moved to partly cloudy and a little warmer with day three being that Seattle late summer blue sky day that is probably the most perfect anywhere.  Each day was short sleeves with the evening cooling down to put on the light jacket.  At those times when I stopped to appreciate the environment (especially after coming from 'standing in front of the oven hot' Taiwan), I would look up and there would be the needle framing the scene.

 



Photos aren't Ansel Adams, but OK for being taken on an HTC One while rocking out.  And it doesn't have much in the way of telephoto, so all the band shots are basically where I was standing.  At every show, except for the Mainstage, which was always pretty crowded, you could literally walk right up as close as you wanted.  My favorite spot is about 5 rows back and off to the side in front of the speakers to feel the most out of the sound, which was always crisp and clear and just loud enough that the ears would be ringing in a pleasant way when I laid my head down at the end of the night.

Day two was expected to be the best with the most bands I like, but I will digress into a word or two about the food.  It's festival food and not haute cuisine, but arguably as fine a mix of that kind of fare as you could want.  Day two started out with a mixed dim sum platter, and over the weekend, I had very good pizza, pirogi, coconut shrimp and a couple of yummy falafel pita pockets.  Eating one of those at the Blue Taco bar, one (of the three)falafels fell out and onto the top of my buddy's shoe.  Some of the girls were taken aback when I picked up the yummy morsel, reinserted it back into the pita and enjoyed it with gusto.  Near the end of day three, it was time for Ben and Jerry's.  Had been saving that treat till then end of the weekend.  From experience, you want to make sure to ask for a freshly made and still warm waffle cone to mix perfectly with the ice cream.  Went to their stand mid-evening on day three only to find them sold out of chocolate.  In my book, there are two flavors...chocolate and chocolate/peanut butter.  The destroyed look on my face when I saw they were out of chocolate must have been evident to the dude and he said there was some remnants of fudge brownie left that he didn't feel right offering for full price, and that I could have them at half off.  Dude...you had me at fudge brownie remnants, so bring it on.  I would estimate that the brownie bits constituted 36% of total volume and was a warm/cold slice of heaven.

Music on day two started with a one/two punch of unknown bands.  A duo called Hobosexual kicked off the day with an updated and stripped down country fried stomp.  I like that kinda stuff at times and they were good.  Would probably pick up their stuff in the used bin.

Next on that stage were Sandrider.  This summer, I asked the guy at the local record store what his hot tip was for Bumbershoot and it was these guys.  Never ignore the hipster record store guys recommendations. A loud head banger trio from Seattle, not one of my usual go-to genres, but I loved them and banged my head throughout.  The singer said that when he was an impressionable teenager, he'd come out to Bumber and was inspired to pursue music, and that it was a treat to now be playing it.  Great start to the day.

Next up was one of those that was highly anticipated...The Dream Syndicate.  Sloppy 80's LA slacker rockers, they hadn't been a thing for 25 years, but have recently gotten back together adding skronk-meister guitarist Jason Victor to the fray.  If you know me at all, you know I love me some distorted feedback guitar and Dream Syndicate supplied it all set long.  Loved every second of them and put this in the top 3 shows all weekend.

They played on the Mural Amphitheatre stage, which is a holdover from the 1962 World's Fair and was created by artist Paul Horiuchi.  With the needle towering above it, my favorite setting for sure.

The Replacements were next.  Another 80's reunion band that I'd never seen but have listened two since the 80's.  They played the Mainstage and just feel that big venues do not do most bands a favor and leave the music cold.  The Mats were good in their sloppy way, I liked their song selections and stage banter, but after seeing everything else so close and loud, kind felt a little bummed out (but in a good way if that makes sense). 

Anyway, I didn't feel bad about leaving 20 minutes early to go see the third in a row of 80's rockers...Mission of Burma.  More loud distorted guitar heroics.  Have loved them forever and can't see that changing.

Not on my wish list, but I talked myself into going to see Big Star's Third.  Turned out to be a super group of indie darlings performing Big Star's album 'Third'.  The group consisted of among others, Chris Stamey, a couple of the Posies, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Mike McCready and Steve Wynn.  Big Star is one of those bands that indie hipsters love, and I have listened to a lot, but never quite hits me.  A bit too morose for my taste I think.  Anyway, the show was fine and quiet (and in reading the KEXP hipster blog, was the greatest thing this century), but I left bored halfway through.

I did so as I wanted to prep myself at the Blue Water Bar in anticipation of funking my brains out to Bootsy Collins, who was closing out the night.  Bassist for James Brown and Parliament/Funkadelic, 62 year old Bootsy is a legend and American icon.  If you've ever been to a proper funk show, you will understand the family vibe this show brought. 

 

They played a bunch of funk masterpieces in that uniquely tight but sprawling style.  Bootsy's banter was predictably hilarious...my favorite passage was when he was talking about getting down with the ladies and how he liked "finger funking", complete with demonstration as to how he does it.  He goes onto say that the the kids today don't go much for finger funking, "But I still do".  Late in the set, some of the family come to Bootsy to help him take off his purple sequined dashiki, and underneath he is wearing a Seahawks 12th Man jersey with Bootsy on the back.  The crowd went absolutely apeshit at this point.  He then crawls down off the stage and into the crowd, who respectfully makes a passage way for him to touch all the people.  Pure genius and feel lucky to have had the chance to now see this national treasure.

 

That was a labor of love but am too tired to finish off day three.  If you're still with me at this point, check back next week for day three and my take on the state of marijuana consumption in Washington and Utilikilts.