By now I'm probably made each and every one of you sift through the existential madness that is Garfield comic strips minus Garfield's annoying thought bubbles. Well, today, I'm spreading the love for Lasagna Cat. Each of these live re-enactments of Garfield comic strips are followed by a music video tribute to the strip we just watched. I may not be literally LOLing, but I am definitely LOLing in my soul.
Sunset Finally Sets
This time there really is a wolf. It has been confirmed that the Sunset Bowl and Lounge in Ballard has been sold and will close in April. This is, of course, HORRIBLE news. I will miss their eccentric staff, their 24-hour bowling madness, their DDR machine, their wacky drink specials and, most of all, their 40,000 song, 5 night/week karaoke. In the meantime, I plan to visit as much as possible over the next 3 months. I suggest you do the same. If you've never been to this amazing Ballard staple, now is your chance. Your last chance.
I don't know what stupid plans the new owners have for the space but even if it's not more effing condos, it's still not going to be a suitable substitute. Of all the Old Seattle businesses that have been closing of late, this is definitely the most tragic.
I Resolve to Resolve
I am not comfortable making New Years resolutions in general because I feel like it is a way to make excuses NOT to do something. (e.g. I will quit smoking…AFTER the New Year). If you want to change something about yourself, why not just start right away? That said, the end of one year and the beginning of another does bring about personal scrutiny. There are some things that have come to light for me lately that I would like to change and I am starting now. I won't call them resolutions. But I will put them in list-form because that is a method that usually motivates me.
Starting now, I will:
*CONSUME LESS CRAP. This means drinking less and eating less bad food. This includes saying no to the 2am nacho or french fry. If have only had a drink or two at 2am, I will certainly be less inclined to want the nacho.
*EXERCISE MORE. I have always been pretty good about doing something exercisey every day, but I haven't been very good about cardio since winter hit. I will do more cardio. 3 times a week, at least, I will DDR. Dance Dance Revolution is actually a good means of getting cardio, unlike Wii tennis, which seems to only work out your right forearm. My right forearm is my only muscle that doesn't really need a workout.
*PAY CLOSER ATTENTION TO MY POSTURE. I've seen my shoulders hunched in pictures lately. I've never had great posture but it seems to have gotten worse. I need to pay more attention to where my head and shoulders are at any given moment. Feel free to correct me if you see me slumping. I may say “Thanks, mom” but, like most motherly advice, I know it will be for my own good.
*STRETCH. My back is getting worse. I really need to get back to yoga class. But barring that, I know the yoga positions that will make my back feel better. Lying on the couch in front of the TV isn't one of them.
*LISTEN TO MY BODY. If my body feels really horrible after a night of drinking sugary drinks, I shouldn't rinse and repeat the following Saturday night. If I am full but really want to eat that last quarter of delicious burrito, I SHOULDN'T eat that last quarter of burrito. The pain in my stomach will be worse than my sadness over wasting a quarter of a delicious burrito.
*DO EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. This will become my new mantra. It should help with everything else on the list. Feel free to remind me of this the next time you see me ordering my 6th drink on a Tuesday.
I will not:
*Let Seasonal Affective Disorder be an excuse for not doing something I know I should do (as in everything on the above list).
HAPPY 2008!
Be Careful Out There
I am pretty disturbed by this story in the Slog about a woman my age who was stabbed in my old neighborhood on New Years Eve for seemingly no reason.
Few new details have emerged yet in the sad story of Shannon Harps’ death, except a rather scary-looking sketch of a “person of interest” in the murder, released by police earlier today. (The sketch of the “person of interest” matches the description of the suspect police released yesterday). Representatives from the Sierra Club, where Harps worked as an associate regional representative promoting the Cascade Chapter’s Cool State campaign, have not returned calls for comment.
Friends and coworkers we have talked to, however, describe Harps as a quiet, mild-mannered young woman who was a little shy but who had a great sense of humor once you drew her out. Harps worked for the Sierra Club for at least eight years—first in Columbus, Ohio, and then in Seattle, where much of her job involved signing cities up for the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement, in which cities agree to voluntarily reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions. “It’ll be a terrible loss,” says Sierra Club Cascade Chapter chair Mike O’Brien, who worked closely with Harps. O’Brien describes Harps as thoughtful and helpful—always the first person to show up at events to help out and the last person to leave after cleaning up. “She was just a really good person… just very positive and uplifting,” O’Brien says.
Marc Conte, a friend of Harps who worked with her in the Club’s Columbus office, says Harps was always supportive and positive, even when victories were few and far between (as they frequently were in Ohio.) She never got mad or raised her voice, he says, even during heated debates. “Some take an adversarial approach but Shannon rose above it. People on ‘the other side’ of an issue were her opponents, not enemies. She might have disagreements with those folks but never arguments…”
Harps moved to Seattle about four years ago to work at the Sierra Club. She was stabbed by a bearded, “scruffy-looking” man, according to witnesses, outside a condo building on 15th and Howell, where she had lived for two years, and died of injuries to her upper chest and abdomen before paramedics could get her to a hospital. She had planned to meet up with friends for a New Year’s Eve party, and was just heading back from Madison Market with groceries when she was attacked. Police haven’t yet said whether they believe the killer was someone Harps knew, but an SPD spokesman did confirm to the Stranger that police are interviewing co-workers to determine whether the man was connected to the Sierra Club. Meanwhile, police have increased patrols in the area around 15th and Howell. O’Brien says he can’t imagine anyone targeting someone like Harps for a random attack; however, the alternative is equally unimaginable. “It doesn’t make sense,” O’Brien says. “If it’s not random, then who the hell would want to target someone like that?”
I still know quite a few people who live on Capitol Hill, some of them RIGHT IN THAT AREA. Ladies (and gents too, for that matter), if you don't already own some pepper spray, please buy some. A friend of ours has been giving us girls nice sharp butterfly knives for our birthdays over the past year. I'm thinking now might be a good time to learn how to use it.
Wild at Heart and Weird on Top
Should I be concerned that I find myself increasingly identify with the Lynchian vision of the world?
NFT Radar: Tap House Grill
X-Posted from Not For Tourists.
The Tap House has a bit of an identity crisis. The red walls and black furniture, as well as the 160 beers on tap suggest upscale happy hour and late-night dining destination. The numerous TVs depicting sports matches and the late 80s rock soundtrack, however, are Sports Bar all the way. The black-clad wait staff seems as uncomfortable with this dichotomy as I am. Still, the service is Johnny-On-The-Spot, allowing you to take utmost advantage of the under $3 fancy-pants happy hour menu. (Get the Santa Fe Beef Won Tons and the Volcano Goat Cheese.). The wine selection is overpriced and copied from the Safeway drink cooler, but this is not a wine bar. The beers are where the Tap House excels. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the choices, try one of their 5 samplers. But unless we’re about to be ushered into a new era where sports fans and foodies unite, the Tap House needs to pick a genre.
Omitting Important Details
Why didn't anyone tell me that Phillip Seymour Hoffman got naked in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Even though I may be in the minority on wanting to see such things, I would have thought it would have come up among those who recommended the movie to me.
This film has just been moved to the top of my Must-See List.
Another Sacred Childhood Memory Pooped On
My beloved Clash of the Titans, a film which I not only watched daily as a child, but continue to immensely enjoy in my adult life (just this WEEK, in fact) is, naturally, being effing REMADE. Who's behind this travesty? The man who directed Blade and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the latter being the flop which Sean Connery signed on with after turning down the role of GANDALF in a little fantasy trilogy called THE LORD OF THE RINGS).
For fun, I will hypothetically cast this film to give it maximum, wound-salting potential.
In the role of my dreamy, fuzzy-chested, dim-but-powerful Perseus (a.k.a. Harry Hamlin):
In the Burgess Meredith side-kick role:
Playing the lovely but equally dim and fairly helpless Andromeda:
Playing the hot, misunderstood Calibus:
The Gods:
The Stygian Witches:
And, of course, instead of Ray Harryhausen's genius stop-motion effects, we will have crappy C.G. versions of Pegasus, Bubo, Medusa (voiced by Angelina Jolie?) and the Kraken.
Who do YOU think they will cast?
Effed by the Wind 
