cascadian telegrams

good gourd: sunday at the pumpkin patch

Beautiful Sunday today so off to Remlinger Farms and the pumpkin patch with Malcom’s BFF Julian, his mum Marleen and neighborhood friends Michael and Jack with their mum Terri. 

I’d never actually been to Remlinger before.  I was expecting more of an apple orchard/pumpkin patch, but they’re a self-styled “family fun park” with rides, animal petting area, hay rides, a restaurant and lots of other stuff.  And it was mobbed.  So not what what I had in mind really, but the kids had fun!

 

after rides and the animal petting area it was off to the corn maze, where you enjoy yourself by wandering around in the tall corn and get lost for a while

The pumpkins were a bit picked over actually, but a decent afternoon out.  And my favorite holiday is just around the corner!

snaps are here.

serendipity, and the last of the summer vines

out for a stroll with Dawn, Eric and Ian this morning (happy belated first birthday, little fellow!) and we happened upon a nice woman who was busy digging things out of her garden, including a huge but lovely grass.  She asked if we wanted it,  Susan agreed and so I stuffed it into my little car, Grinch-style, and transplanted at home... et voila!

I think it turned out rather nice, don't you?

While the fall colors are coming on strong right now, we're *still* enjoying tomatoes off of our plants -- and I assume we will until we get a real frost.  The cherry tomato plant near the porch is a mutant; here you can see the killer tomato is going for the house

I've been eating tomatoes for breakfast and lunch virtually every day for the past three weeks.  This flat was full a few days ago:

Yes the slugs etc. are getting at them, and I've got to slice off the ugly bits.  But they're sweet and delicious, and I'd rather have pest scars I can see then pesticides that I can't in my food.

Schnauss-gehen

Ulrich Schnauss, SoundPool, Hypatia Lake, Sunset Tavern 10/12/10

Ulrich Schnauss has a big 4AD woody... that much is clear from his albums.  I love the auld 4AD stuff as much as anyone, but (a) not sure the world needs another Cocteau Twin and (b) not sure I want to stand in a club and hear rehashed Cocteau riffs.

Thankfully, Ulrich Schnauss did none of that: His set was a very intelligent DJ mashup of his tracks and some older treasures (including an old MixMaster Morris/Orb track), done seamlessly and done well. He sounds more like a mix of The Orb and William Orbit than Cocteau Twins, which suited me nicely.

My friend Dave Peck had a recent post about performance in the age of digital abundance, and this show was a good case in point:  It's a guy with a laptop and keyboard on stage, and he looks rather like an accountant.  I assume Schnauss is well-aware of this, so he shows home movie-style videos of different cities on a big background screen as he performs.   Visually this is not so interesting, so I planted near the front of the stage where I could feel the bass in my sinuses and closed my eyes.

The effect  was very nice.  Schnauss is great at creating these very dramatic and soaring soundscapes,  occasionally ambient then transitioning to deep-down techno grooves.  It's kind of like seeing The Orb live, except he's a more talented DJ and less of a smart-ass.  Unfortunately Schnauss' recorded material doesn't really reflect the vitality of his live mixes... would love to find some of those.

The warmup acts were mixed:  Hypatia Lake was My Bloody Awful, and waaay too loud... driving punters out into the street in front of the club.  I was the only one without earplugs who stayed, I think, and I'm sorry for that.  Note to HL:  Bullshitting your way through a set through noise and volume doesn't fool anyone. They're pointless, really.  

Soundpool on the other hand were quite decent, even though they were 3/5ths of their normal band, and apologized profusely.  But I liked them.

So besides the ringing in my ears today, mostly a very enjoyable experience, topped off by a nice walk through 'Old Ballard' to my car after the show, and bed.

 

office space and sushi night

not sure how I accumulated so much crap, but the piles of books and paper finally got the better of me (and poor Susan) so I "purged" my office, organized the disorganized paper etc... et voila! Instant Ikea Advert:

 

 I also purged all the "dead tree versions" of tech books that I've accumulated over the years that are now mostly out of date... how did I ever accumulate so many?  Clearly I have a problem. Goodwill here they come

As it was "purge day" we also got Malcolm's floor lego-free for as long as that lasts

and to celebrate our newfound organization, we had "sushi night" @ home.  We bought some nice sashimi-grade fish and used the roll-making techniques that our Japanese friend Julie showed us years back... Malcolm helped too, then attacked the results in shark-like fashion :)

(sorry for the poor snaps, I'll never be a food photographer like Dawn or Eric!)