the CasTASTIC VOYAGE

3.25.10 > We went to a show last night. I wasn’t to crazy about the bands, with the exception of King Dude, a solo-acoustic act dabbling in the subject matter or werewolves and murder. Very original. We went to a couple different bars after that, the Unicorn, which I found to be very disturbing. It’s black and red candy-striped walls adorned with real taxidermied heads of endangered species was a bit much to handle. Felt like I was in a Tim Burton movie for the second time in the same day! After that we went to a place called the Redwood. When we walked in my old friend Rene, whom I met in Flagstaff was there. Quite a coincidence. We attempted to catch up as well as can be accomplished under the influence. Good times!

Just ate another vegan breakfast at the Wayward Cafe. Another all vegan restaurant! Amazing how many of these you’ll find here. I didn’t much care for the sandwich I got, but I could tell the food was generally pretty tasty. Great coffee though! I think I had four cups! Slow start today, as we indulged a bit too much last night!

Went to an awesome gallery, Roc La Rue, where we got to see the “Lush Life 2” group show, which included works by Joe Sorren, Chris Berens & Marion Peck (amongst others). What an awesome gallery! I had only read of this place in Juxtapoz; to actually experience it… awesome! Enjoyed walking around with Sam a little bit. Pop my head into Scarecrow video (a huge 3 story video store) and also got to check out the TUBS building, a graffiti hot-spot with some great work on it!

Got in late Tuesday eve. Grabbed a couple slices and headed over to Sam & Angelique’s place to drop my stuff off, take a quick shower. Then we walked up to Al’s, a small local pub, for a few pitchers of “Raineer”, Seattles version of inexpensive, local lager. You can pretty much find this in every bar, and it is a favorite amongst the younger crowds in Seattle.

3.24.10 > Late start. Great first day so far! Went to Gasworks Park which was amazing. So beautiful. Like a Tim Burton set, or Jean-Pierre Jeunet film. It was such a perfect, sunny day. We could see the whole city from atop the hill at Gasworks. Vegan breakfast at Silent Heart Nest. A weird Ayurvedic cafe. No actually they were Hare Kirshnas. They did cook some mean vegan biscuits and gravy.

Got to see the famous statue of Lenin, which was right around the corner from the Silence Heart Nest. Very strange to see such a huge display of Communism being commemorated within the U.S. Awesome to me, but I can understand how it’s been viewed as controversial. So nice to be in this artistic community, staying in a house full of artist, in a city very saturated in art. It seems there is no limit to the galleries, street art and installations throughout Seattle. Very much enjoying this.

Loving the hills and water in every direction. Snow covered mountains in the background. I can imagine myself living here. We went over to another part of town where Sam bought a cool screen print from this African guy selling shirts, prints out of his van. So nice to see this. Seems like street artist have been limited in Providence. It is seldom an occurrence that someone has set up shop on a street corner in RI. Other then a few obviously drug addicted people we passed walking on the street, this city seems almost crimeless. I feel so safe here. Seattle is like a cleaner, safer LA, in a rain forest! Chillin’ out having the best margarita I think I’ve ever tasted, at the Acua Verde Paddle club. Plans to catch a local show later.

That’s it for part 1. Tomorrow I will write up pt.2 and upload a few more pics! PS- for the record, it rained less in Seattle all week then it has in RI since I been back. Just a little tidbit of info for all the naysayers that kept saying “Why you wanna go there? It rains all the time!”

Got this dope Margaret Keane print @ Sals (W.W.) yesterday for $3.99… Inspired me to do a little research on the artist. Apparently she is widely respected, still paints and is having a movie made about here starring Kate Hudson. Most interestingly, is that throughout her early career one of her ex-husbands took credit for all her paintings and it wasn’t until much later a court ruled in her favor and granted her the rights to most of her early work. You can see a huge difference in the work she did then vs. now. Most of the older stuff (like this print) are dark, dreary and depict children/women crying. Her more recent painting are quite the opposite.

Found this Pabst mug @ a thrift store in West Warwick. What a great afternoon of thrifting in what I’ll refer to from here on in as “West Warwicks’ Bermuda Triangle of Crap”, or the WWBTC if you will.