Twas the night before Christmas. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, under threat of holiday cancellation if they ventured downstairs. I in my hoody and daddy in his knit cap had just settled down for a long winter’s wrap. Read More
ByGD
Generation X-mas
ByGD
All That and a Bucket List (no chicken)
I recently discovered the Bucket List blog and was inspired by the story of a woman who decided that a “good enough” life really wasn’t. Instead, she wrote her bucket list and devoted herself full-time to achieving it. Since her bucket list seemed to include an awful lot of stamps in her passport, I immediately subscribed and began to study the blog for clues to answering the primary question in my life: how to pay for airplane tickets.
ByGD
Discovering the Secret of Life at Bumbershoot
Dave B.
I didn’t plan to drag two children under the age of 10 to all three days of Bumbershoot. But that is exactly what I did.
My festival preview lives here, and my survival guide is here. My compatriots over at Three Imaginary Girls and the KEXP blog (not my compatriots- just good coverage) have, I think, covered most of the shows. So I am free to talk about the secret of life. Read More
ByGD
Doe Bay Moments
Doe Bay Fest is only six years old, but with its stellar record for booking the best of the Northwest, it is already legendary. Festival-goers recognize each other on the street and nod – “Doe Bay?” “Doe Bay” – like members of a secret society sharing a password. This was my first year at Doe Bay, and because of the type of writing I do for a living, I wanted to tell you how to score tickets to Doe Bay Fest, which always seems to sell out before tickets go on sale. I planned to describe the camping areas and give advice about meal planning and festival food.
But now that I’ve been there, I’m not going to write any of that. Read More
ByGD
A Hard Dog’s Night
So I have this memory of John Denver sitting on a cabin porch in a Rocky Mountain sunrise, eating GrapeNuts cereal. I’ve spent unsuccessful hours online trying to prove John Denver did a GrapeNuts commercial, but the memory is there if the evidence isn’t. The reason this commercial stayed with me while it was forgotten by the rest of the world is that the image of wholesome predawn hopefulness is so foreign to me. Even as a child, I was a night owl. I always wanted to stay up with the grownups and got my best ideas for games and projects when it was time for bed. Read More