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My 2019 in Books

Another year, another Goodreads Challenge. Since I started reading so many graphic novels, setting my challenge goal has been a challenge in itself. On the one hand, I happily recognize graphic novels as real books. On the other hand, it takes about one hour to read a volume of manga, where the average novel takes about 12 hours. So I set a ridiculously high goal that includes both, but I try to sort my results so I can see how much “regular reading” I did apart from “graphic reading.” I’m probably the only person who cares about my reading data, but since I got to read a lot of interesting books last year, you might want to read on to discover some cool stories.

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Pacific Northwest Ballet Completes My Cinderella Season

Angela Sterling photo c/o PNB

Fairy tales, by definition, are timeless. And yet they also seem to have their moments. This year, Cinderella seems to be having hers. I’m not sure what it is about Cinderella that makes it more important to people right now than Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. But I have seen three different adaptations of Cinderella this season across three different art forms. The Cinderella season concluded for me last weekend at opening night of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Cinderella by Kent Stowell.

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Local Music I Like

Being small-to-smallish regional fests, Pickathon, Timberfest, and Doe Bay Fest all feature a lot of local bands. Other local bands like Dave B and Black Belt Eagle Scout have popped up in posts before. But I moved to Seattle for the music, so a post dedicated to current local music I like is probably way overdue.

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Yet Another Charming Streetscape

When I visited Qingdao in 2015, I stayed in the historical German Concession area. The neighborhood’s mixture of European and Asian architecture constantly reminded me of the pseudo-European landscapes of Studio Ghibli movies. As a result, I took dozens of pictures of neighborhood streets that were completely ordinary but struck me as potentially magical.

ByGD

Looking Forward to Seattle Opera’s 2020/2021 Season

Philip Newton photo c/o Seattle Opera

Seattle Opera announced their new season really early this year. Coincidentally, I happened to be on their website that day and saw the new line-up before the press release even hit my inbox. I didn’t get around to writing about it until now, but not for lack of enthusiasm. It’s going to be an interesting season.

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