Category Archive Seattle

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Lucky Envelope Brewing

Around this time last year, my husband and I embarked on a quest to visit all the breweries that had sprung up in our newly hip Frelard neighborhood. We called it the Fremont Drinking Project, and made it to approximately three places before we got busy and forgot about it for months. Then one day in September, we took advantage of a rare free afternoon to visit one of our favorite breweries, Lucky Envelope. Obviously, I didn’t get around to writing it up right away. Now, only a few months later, it’s almost hard to imagine walking down the brewery to casually sit around sipping beer. But those days will come again, and when they do, you can be sure I’ll be sipping from a Lucky Envelope.

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Fox and the Law

The first and last time I ever saw Fox and the Law was at Macefield Festival in 2015. I think it was one of their last shows before breaking up. Folks in Fox and the Law are involved in Freakout Records and Freakout Festival, which seems to have replaced Macefield, and the band Acid Tongue, which I also like, and have gotten to see more than once.

But Fox and the Law was particularly my jam, a very particular type of rock music that I can never adequately describe because it is such a baseline sound for me. I even love the name, which sound like an ’80s tv show in the vein of Simon and Simon.

Plus, I’m really proud of getting a clear picture in red stage light. That is so hard to do.

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Lake Union Dragon Boats

It’s a little-known fact that Seattle has a handful of dragon boat clubs. When I discovered this, I dragged the kids down to Lake Union for the Dragon Boat Festival. It was a bit of a surreal experience, because this particular August morning felt more like Lunar New Year. It was wet and freezing. We stuck it out for a little while, but headed home with numb ears and fingers before really exploring the rest of the festival.

Lately, they haven’t been able to hold the festival because there is too much traffic on the lake in August. In the future, they are hoping to reschedule the dragon boat festival for another month. Maybe it will be warmer?

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1000 Pieces at Pacific Northwest Ballet

Jerome Tisserand in David Dawson’s Empire Noir, DIRECTOR’S CHOICE 2017. Photo © Angela Sterling c/o PNB

Little did I suspect when I watched the final performance of Yardbird at Seattle Opera that it would be the last performance anyone saw at McCaw Hall for the foreseeable future. Like many others, I had tickets to see Pacific Northwest Ballet’s new program 1000 Pieces the following weekend. But two days before the program was to premiere, the governor shut down all large gatherings. In the midst of pandemic, it was a minor tragedy, but it wasn’t a total loss. In fact, it turned into a special event, the memory of which I will both cherish and grieve.

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Charlie Parker’s Yardbird at Seattle Opera

Frederick Ballentine (plays Charlie Parker). Photo by Philip Newton c/o Seattle Opera

It was a miracle I made it to see Charlie Parker’s Yardbird at Seattle Opera at all. First of all, black operas are rarely performed by major opera companies. I didn’t have advance tickets, and on opening weekend I was home sick with a flu-like virus. I got mixed up the next weekend and showed up on the day that there wasn’t a matinee (big oof). But I finally made it for the very last performance of the run – only a few days before all big arts performances were shut down due to the pandemic. So was it worth all that effort?

Yes and no.  

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