Seattle – Page 45 – Gemma D. Alexander

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Association of Writers and Writing Programs, AWP, AWP conference, conference

First Impressions and Take Home Lessons: AWP Conference

As a testament to how overwhelming AWP can be, I forgot to take pictures all 3 days. This is my book fair haul.

I wasn’t going to attend the Association of Writers and Writing Programs 2014 conference. AWP is rooted, as the name implies, in academic programs and has a literary focus that is only tangential to the technical and journalistic writing I usually do. But I want more “creative” in my nonfiction. Some thirteen thousand people from all over the U.S. traveled to Seattle for the event; I didn’t even have to change my morning commute (same bus, three stops early). It seemed like the universe was handing me an opportunity. So with little more preparation than a warning about people in pointy shoes, I signed up for three days of literary frenzy. Read More

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Consul, Marcy Stonikas, Michael Todd Simpson, Seattle Opera

Get Your Papers Together to See Seattle Opera’s The Consul

A modern, English-language opera about a woman fighting bureaucracy sounded like a painfully tedious proposition – too much like my real life. But I attended The Consul at Seattle Opera because I have season tickets.

A bleeding man bursts into a decaying apartment, forgetting to shut the door. Knocking over furniture, he falls to the floor, calling his wife. She rushes into the kitchen, trailed by his mother. The secret police discovered their meeting place; one of their friends is dead. He has been followed. John Sorel drags himself up the fire escape while his wife washes his bloody hand print from the door frame seconds before men in trench coats enter without knocking. Read More

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Andrea Silvestrelli, Francesco Demuro, Marco Vratogna, Nadine Sierra, Rigoletto, Seattle Opera, Verdi

Rigoletto at Seattle Opera

La Bohéme has a special place in my heart, but Rigoletto is a better opera. Which explains why, at the end of the holidays when all I wanted was a regularly scheduled week, 2014 started out so packed with culture and art that one might call it glamorous. The week started with high concept cocktails and a loft show and culminated in opening night of Seattle Opera’s Rigoletto. Read More

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Brent Cowles, Learning Team, Mark Ward, Seattle Living Room Shows, You Me & Apollo

You Me & Apollo Play in a Living Room

It takes a lot to drag me out on a Tuesday night. I really didn’t want to leave the house this time, either. But You Me & Apollo was up from Fort Collins for a Seattle Living Room Show. Plus, I’d already paid for the tickets.

Reluctantly, we left the girls with the babysitter and headed to Capitol Hill, where we happened upon Canon, which provided a much needed attitude adjustment. Read More

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canon, cocktails, mescal

Canon Fodder

I won’t pretend I’ve never poured Southern Comfort into a McDonald’s milkshake. But Jameson and Glenlivet feature more prominently in my stories of college-era drinking than sickening concoctions. In those days, we would buy a bottle of the best whisky we could afford, and more bottles of something cheaper that we referred to as “cannon fodder” and saved for drinking after a strong buzz had dulled our palates.

Over time, we came to understand that there was a canon of cocktails, with nuanced variations and underground classics that paralleled the music world. Cannon fodder was replaced by classic cocktails and proper barware. Read More

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First Impressions and Take Home Lessons: AWP Conference

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Get Your Papers Together to See Seattle Opera’s The Consul