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Posts tagged sonic boom

What We Need More Of Is Science

Low key day today, since I woke up feeling rather under the weather. Hopefully this cold is winding down, because I’m really not looking forward to traveling while sick.

After getting up rather late, we went back down to Cap Hill. Yesterday while looking through The Stranger I saw a Sonic Boom ad that said a new Damien album was coming out today, so I had to go pick that up. Of course, ended up finding much more great stuff in there than I intended, but I did manage to pick up Damien, a rare Soundgarden find (yay!) and a Smashing Pumpkins album (Earphoria) I’ve been looking for for ages. I love Sonic Boom. We had lunch across the street with my sister at the Coastal Kitchen which was delicious as always, and wasn’t even crowded! It’s nice to be able to do these things on off hours, like Tuesday afternoons.

Our major event of the day was to hit up the Pacific Science Center. When I lived closer by, my mom used to buy us year passes every year, which even came with guest passes, so I could go whenever I wanted and bring whoever I wanted. It was the perfect thing for a 2nd-grade me, and I can’t even count the number of times me and Ban, or me or Little Jeff, spent the day there. Lewis and I finally made our way there (via REI to look for backpacks) and saw all the old favorites – anamatronic dinosaurs, naked mole rats, puget sound tide model, and everything in BodyWorks!

I was pleased to see they hadn’t changed any of the old silly body things since I remember them so well, but the height chart was gone, and they had changed all the buildings around so building one was mostly empty (except dinosaurs) and building three had BodyWorks but was missing the whisper dish and gravity bike. Unfortunately buildings four and five were closed to set up for a new exhibit, and I don’t know if they do the day time laser shows any more, but I didn’t see them. And sadly, it overall looked pretty forgotten and unimproved. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse, since I loved what they have to much, but it seems like “kids today” might be bored with the mid-80s-tastic technologies. Shrug!

Came back to have dinner with Lisa, and crashed out pretty good at her house. She and Lewis made some really tasty pizza, and we watched lots of TiVoed Food Network stuff. Ooh, and we also tried out her frozen Monster Cookies to see if they would perk up like fresh made ones. They were mucho tasty. Only a few days left here… tomorrow I think we’ve got to get teriyaki and hit up something like the Museum of Flight. We’ve got a game night at Steen’s in the evening, so it should be good fun. Woot!

Built to Spill!

Gasworks Park

Gasworks Park

It’s been a few days since I’ve gotten to update, partially owing to our train having been old school enough to have no outlets to compute at, and also our days being rather travelly-long. Today was our first full day in Seattle, and it was most excellent!

We started off hanging out with my sister for a bit and trying out new baked goods she’s thinking of carrying in the store. We also got to see her new space! I’m really excited for her to work her magic on this, and to move in and all. I think with all the plans they have in mind, it’s going to be really beautiful when they’re done, and Lisa will have something to be really proud of. I sort of wish we had come up two months later to see all the finished product! It’ll certainly be a treat for next time, at any rate.

The afternoon was our pilgrimage to Ballard, since that’s where we needed to be to pick up our car anyway. After a very calm, very easy trip to Enterprise, we headed to main street Ballard and had some times. I love going to Sonic Boom here, since they have records I’ve been looking for in California with little to no success. It’s strange how productive the local scene can be here, and how distinct from elsewhere. I always feel a little like perhaps I’m crazy when I’m looking for stuff like “the band the 764-HERO guys were in before that band” when even Amoeba records doesn’t have a section for 764-HERO. Then I can walk into Sonic Boom and they’ve not only got a proper section (and signed 764-HERO poster on the wall!) but their info card tells me the names of the other bands with the same members in them, and even those bands have sections! Needless to say I’ve made a point now of coming to Sonic Boom every time I’m in town and going through the entire rock section by hand from A to Z. I bought several lovelies I’m very excited to check out!

We also went to Cupcake Royale and got a nice selection of comestibles to share with Lisa back at the store. On our way back to LIsa’s house we passed by Gasworks, which I suddenly realized I had to show Lewis!  We spent a few minutes walking about and it was wonderful as always.

Crashed a bit after that, so we ended up ordering delicious Chinese food in at her place before Lewis and I headed off to the Built to Spill show at the Showbox! It was really awesome to be back at the Showbox since it’s probably been five or six years since I last got a chance to go – and that was to see Elliott Smith, I think. Anyway, it’s always great to show Lewis another piece of my old life and live a little bit like I’m still in my glory days. Did see a few folks I recognized at the show, not to mention meeting up with Cerise! Cerise is the best. The show totally rocked, despite the crap-tastic second opening band (the first was alright), and I had an awesome time. Yay!

Now it’s almost 2 am and time for me to go to bed. I’ve got silly movies & pizza plans with Steeny tomorrow night, and before that Lewis and I are either going to head down to the Nisqually valley for a little nature walk, or we’ll go blueberry picking in Bellevue. Seattle! So great!