Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Good Bye Summer

Saying good-bye to summer has not been easy. The erratic weather hasn't made it any easier either. One day it is torrentially raining and the next its gray and humid and then it's sunny and back into the 80s. We're not sure what to think or do.

We have put harvesting what's left in the gardens on hold, hoping the chilies and tomatoes will take advantage of another week of warm sunshine. For now we're enjoying the remaining flowers that are hanging on to summer also.

We're just happy to get a few more days to start our mornings off with a nice cup of coffee in our garden. Hope you all are enjoying the extended summer also!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Season Premier

A little thing called cancer couldn't keep our favorite killer/hero down! Finally Season 5 of Dexter has started! Honestly one of the most anticipated show returns we have been waiting for. We won't spoil it, but season 4 ended with everyone going - NO WAY! Dare we even say True Blood was merely a distraction until Dexter returned!

Here's hoping Season 5 is as KILLER as the last 4 seasons have been!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Tats Delicatessen

Seattle is a quick and simple train ride or straight shot on I-5, so a long weekend in the Emerald City is a great excuse to visit one of our favorite sub shops Tat's Delicatessen.A long weekend is exactly what we need because Tat's is only open M-F and only during the day, or until they run out of bread, which is what happened the last two times we went and we were the lucky ones who snagged the last rolls of bread. However we heard Tat's finally expanded their hours until the dinner hour and is now open on Saturdays!

What makes Tat's so great? Their East Coast Style subs and sandwiches, in particular the Tat'strami - a pastrami cheesesteak with cole slaw, melted swiss and Russian dressing. The picture below shows the Tat'strami not on the traditional Italian roll, but on toasted rye. We mentioned they have a tendency to run out of bread right?

Another favorite of ours is the traditional Philly Cheesesteak. These guys are from Philly so they really know what they're doing.

Tat's recently moved around the corner from their original location in Pioneer Square. Probably into a larger space explaining the extended hours, addition of Saturdays and now serving breakfast! A Philly cheesesteak with a fried egg to start the day - YES, PLEASE!

Tat's Delicatessen

159 Yesler Way
Seattle, Washington
206.264.TATS (8287)
Monday - Friday: 8am to 7pm
Saturdays: 11am to 7pm

Friday, September 24, 2010

Decibel Music Festival 2009 Recap

While going through our photos from last year's Decibel Festival in Seattle, we realized we never posted anything about this amped-up weekend we spent listening and experiencing an incredible array of music, while dancing our asses off.

Sadly, we won't be attending the DB Festival this year and wow, what a line up! So here is a late, but funfilled recap of Decibel Festival 2009! The Decibel Festival is a labor of love started in 2003 with impressive list of musical and visual artist from all over the world. Playing in various clubs mainly in the Capital Hill area of Seattle, it's not an outdoor music festival - YAY! We're just too old for the whole port-a-potty thing. Clubs, we can handle, even grimey Seattle clubs. Pre-sale tickets for all the workshops, panel discussions, shows and afterhours (we'll get to that) is a mere $157 or you can attend individual shows ranging from $5 to $32. A great breakdown of cost can be found on the website. So figuring out how many showcases, workshops, shows and panel discussions will cost verses getting an all access pass is made easy.

We purchased tickets online and picked them up at a great little neighborhood bar Chapel, an old mortuary, with a granite bar where the body used to lay during service.

The 2009 line-up included several artists we haven't seen and few we had. Most of the shows we wanted to see were at Neumos a gritty little club off of E Pike Street. We weren't able to make it to the Thursday night shows but we were front and center for the dubstep shows Friday, starting with someone we had seen before - Mad Professor, old school!

However, we thought his set was really dated. C'mon man, this is the largest electronic music festival in the US, bring what's hot, not what's hot a few months ago. It was all worth it when Benga hit the stage!

A dubstep DJ hailing from the UK, has a heavy garage background that brought out the goths who jammed to the dark warbly beats. It was the first time we had seen him and he came prepared. At one point N-Type another UK artist came up on stage and hyped up the crowd with his crazy gangly MC style. We had seen N-Type in Tokyo and it was nice to see him stateside.

One impressive item about the Decibel Festival was how on time the performances were. With short 1-hour sets, equipment and performers transitioned smoothly, quickly and on time. Which allowed us to step out for snacks at Pike Street Fish Fry which is conveniently located between two of the venues on Pike Street and opened late. Fish & Chips late night inbetween shows - yes, please!

Originally opened as a Belgium Frites (fries) shop with impressive list of sauces besides ketchup, now a traditional English fish & chip shop frying up the best seafood and local vegetables.

Best part is every order of fish & chips come with a battered and deep fried lemon! Interesting!

After we filled our bellies we were off to another club, another show and an afterhours party. We stumbled home as the sun came up to sleep, eat and rest up for the next night's events. Saturday night's events started in the warehouse district far from the Capital Hill venues to see Martyn, an dubby Deep House/Techno artist we had heard lots about and was really looking forward to seeing. Definitely one of the highlights of the festival. We then headed back up to Capital Hill and to Neumos for BBC Radio 1's infamous Mary Anne Hobbs' Dubstep and Grime performance.

The Decibel Festival is a festival for the late night people with most of the headlining acts starting around 11pm/midnight and afterhour parties starting around 3am. We did stop in Fish Fry again, just for fries this time, we needed something to soak up some alcohol before heading to the afterhours party at the Electric Tea Gardens, where Cyanwave was playing.

We were amazed at the diversity of the performers. Even though it is an electronic music fesival each performer was completely different. Mad Professor had deck tracks and a mixer, like we said - Old School. Benga was straight-up DJ with turntables and records. Mary Anne Hobbs used CD mixers, and Cyanwave were laptop artists. It was an incredible mix of talent.

Have fun this year, be safe, have fun and dance, dance, dance!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Decibel Festival

Any festival that has the word Decibel in it must be serious. And yes, the Decibel Festival is a serious music and arts festival held all over the city of Seattle. The festival is a "4-day annual festival with workshops, panel discussions, visual arts and cutting edge electronic musical performances." The conference/music festival has lectures on such topics as "The Ill Methodology". There are scratch workshops, industry panel discussions, film events and different electronic music style showcases.

The musical acts are from all over the world and the most relevant electronic producers to date. The 2010 line-up includes Modeselktor all the way from Berlin and the incredibly talented Flying Lotus from LA, the nephew of jazz musician Alice Coltrane. We won't be able to go to any of the shows, afterhours or to the Pike Street Fish Fry, an English style fish & chip joint conveniently nestled between two of the large venues and open until 2:30AM!

So in memory of 2009's festival and celebration of 2010's, here's an awesomely creative and cleaver video of our favorite show from last year's Decibel Festival - Benga! Go ahead and sing along, you'll know the words by heart after about 20 seconds. Enjoy!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Happy Autumn

Happy Autumn. In our part of the world that means one thing - boots! I am holding out, but each week it gets harder not to pull out a pair of socks and my beloved boots. To help with the transition I am getting inspiration from the fabulous fashion blog - Japanese Street Fashion. I love how committed the Japanese are to their current fashion themes and wow, are they stylish.

Here is my account of Japan, the most stylish place on the planet. Let's start with boots.

What about some shoes?

One interesting common fashion theme among the women was pairing dangerously short skirts or shorts with boots. And I'm talking women of all ages. But now I get it. People in Japan spend a lot of time in the city. Apartments are small and minimal so people spend a lot of their time out, so comfort and style is key. Clothes need to be easy to move in and a bag, always have a bag. Japanese women love their heels and I could not understand how they spent all day in them. In the subways and on the streets, its all you hear - heels clapping against tile and concrete floors. Clap, clap, clap, clap...faster when the train is approaching.

Even the men had mad street style.

The men even carried stylish bags!

Oddly enough, I was at a cloudy reggae show recently and standing in front of me were a handful of Japanese tourist. And yes, they were the only men in the place with visible "purses".

So here's to a happy autumn and some stylish new boots!