Pay to Play

Or, What I Did on My Summer Vacation.

Remember the ’80s, when bands had to pay clubs to play? As a woman, and as a writer, I think about that a lot.

Euphonious Bucket List

Bucket lists are all over the place these days. Last year, I wrote a bucket list on this blog, but I never looked at it again. (Oops, adding the hyperlink I realized it was two years ago.) As much as I love to make lists, the bucket list just doesn’t resonate with me. Except for one bucket list that I carry around in my heart. Here’s how it started.

Hip Hop Heart Garden

Just a random DJ performing outdoors in November in the park known as Heart Garden in downtown Reykjavik. In a complete misunderstanding of what tourists (and residents) want, developers have torn up this guerilla cultural center in the heart of the city to make another corporate hotel.

Stuff I Wrote Lately

My blogging has taken a hit in 2015 as I have spent more time on writing things I get paid for. Sometimes I add links to these paid things on the Stuff I Wrote page, but sometimes I forget and fall behind. I recently updated Stuff I Wrote, as well as some of the Complete Contributions pages where I get all obsessive about documenting everything I ever wrote. But if you’re just wondering what I’ve done lately, here are links to things that ran in August and September.

I didn’t go to Bumbershoot this year, and whined about the reasons why here on the blog. But I snarked about Bumbershoot’s rejection of families at ParentMap, too.

After I wrote a couple stories about movies for ParentMap this summer, they gave me a movie column! It’s only for the autumn, and then we’ll see if it draws enough clicks to continue, but I am already having so much fun with it.

 

Better than the Book

I usually think the book was better but for this one I rounded up a list of book adaptations whose quality rivals the source material.

Coming Soon

A round up of the family-friendly theatrical releases in theaters now and looking forward through the end of the year.

I reviewed the first rep of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s new season, “See the Music.” (Spoiler: I loved it.) I also reviewed the Broadway revival of “Annie” at the Paramount. (Spoiler: Better than the movie.)

Nonfiction Novel Titles

Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Washington is a destination bookstore. In fact, it kind of is Lake Forest Park. There’s not really much else there except this giant, awesome bookstore. So after years of meaning to, I finally made the 40 minute trek out of the city to visit this bookstore. Needless to say, dozens of dollars were spent. Among the books in my haul was a book titled A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar. No, I am not planning a bicycle tour along the Silk Road (although Kashgar definitely belongs on my Euphonious Bucket List). In fact, the book is a novel. But I am simply defenseless against a title like that.

Join the Club

I tried running a book club in grad school, but after a few months we gave up pretenses and started drinking in bars. I do wish I could talk about books sometimes with people who have also read them. But the truth is, clubs are hard for me, with their set meeting times and leaving of houses. Now I think I’ve found a book club that will work for me.

D. Randall Blythe at Showbox SoDo

In 2012, I excitedly bought tickets to see Lamb of God and Gojira play Showbox SoDo. What a lineup! But LoG was unable to play that show, as Blythe was indisposed. When they finally came through about six months later, there was no way I was going to miss it. But I wasn’t the only one stoked, and this was as close to the stage as I got. A decent zoom lens could have handled it, but Showbox doesn’t allow detachable lenses. Boo!

Nutcracker

I’m working on an article about Pacific Northwest Ballet’s new production of the Nutcracker right now. They are hard at work rehearsing George Ballanchine’s choreography and putting together new sets designed by children’s author Ian Falconer, of Olivia fame. I’m excited to see what they come up with. But I’m also going to miss this.

Perfectly Safe

In the white, liberal, upper middle-class circles I usually inhabit, safety trumps all other values. Helicopter parenting has become the standard for responsible parenting, despite data to the contrary. Schools and parents are increasingly making decisions based on the fear of lawsuits or the fear of disapproval from more safety-conscious parents instead of their own best judgement. So this quote from Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book struck me as particularly meaningful.

“I wanted to keep you perfectly safe,” said Silas. “But there is only one perfectly safe place for your kind and you will not reach it until all your adventures are over and none of them matter anymore.”

We should not seek perfect safety for our children, or for anyone we care about.

Rose Windows

In January of 2013, I saw the brilliant, short-lived Rose Windows at Showbox. Poor Moon and the Cave Singers also played that night. I had recently returned from a solo trip to Iceland for the Airwaves Festival where I saw over 40 shows. But I was already on the bus downtown before I realized that this was the first show I had ever attended by myself in the United States.