12 posts tagged “seattle”

My family and I went downtown today to see the Roman sculptures from the Louvre before they left (and to go to Pike Place Market) and stumbled on the Seattle Maritime Festival.

The festival basically consisted of a bunch of tugboats on the water (we didn't stick around for the tugboat races), boat building contest, and free harbour cruises (for the first 400 people - which we were not).

There was even a mock Coast Guard rescue.

I wish the weather had been nicer (read: sunnier) but it's Seattle so you take what you can get.  Next weekend is the U District Street Fair and I'm hoping not only does the 70-degree weather they're predicting for later in the week actually happen but that it sticks around through Sunday.

In honor of Earth Day, show us something (literally or figuratively) green. 

WTF?  It's snowing.  Again.  It's not sticking yet but there's definitely white stuff coming down from the sky.  The 6 inches of snow we got last night was just starting to melt too.

It's April 18th (9 days til my birthday) and we have about 3-4 inches of snow on the ground.  And it's still coming down.  In fact, Seattle set a record today for the latest snowfall in a year.  The previous record was April 17, 1972.

It's gotten really foggy too.  It seriously feels like the middle of December rather than the middle of April.  I just hope the snow melts somewhat by tomorrow since I have an interview I need to get to by 3:45 and the latest I could have notified them I wouldn't be able to attend was 4 hours ago.

You know, if I were to ever argue against global warming, today's weather would be a big part of my argument.

It's Pi Day!

(Shut up, I'm a math geek.)  I wish I could celebrate Pi Day by eating pie but it's really not worth making one since I'm moving tomorrow.

Also, don't forget, tomorrow's the next round of the anti-Scientology protests.

A few of weeks ago, shortly after the Tom Cruise Scientology video was leaked, a group of people calling themselves Anonymous decided to get together and start protesting Scientology on the internet.  They did some DOS attacks and posted a bunch of papers online.  (You can read more here and here.)  Last week they decided to hold protests today (the 10th of February) outside of Scientology centers all around the world.  Apparently it was quite a success because news media came out at many sites and a lot of the protests had 100+ people attend.  (You can check out some of the protests here and keep an eye on your local news to see if they talk about it.)  I was looking through the Seattle thread and I can't believe I didn't know there was a Scientology center at that corner.  I've driven by that intersection more times than I can count.  Of course, it is a pretty shabby building so maybe that's why.  Anyway, their march took them right past the local ABC building so I'll be watching the local news to see if they mention anything.  To be honest, I'm surprised all these protests turned out to be so big - I didn't think they would be able to organize that many people in public.

They're turning "Shrek" into a musical.  And it's debuting (doing previews, whatever) in Seattle.  I have no idea how good it will actually be but I think I'm going to try and get tickets.  (That is, if I'm not too busy interviewing/getting a job/moving/working.)  They mention "The Little Mermaid: The Musical" in the article and even though it's been getting some bad reviews I'll probably still try to see it if it ever comes to town.  Oh, and mid-June needs to come quickly so I can go see "Avenue Q".

I have a random question for people who have seen a production of "The Nutcracker" that was not performed by the Pacific Northwest Ballet: In these productions, were there ever any cameos by local "celebrities"?  I ask because it seems to be a tradition for the PNB to have local celebrities come and play the grandparents during the opening party scene.  Example: The performance I saw had the weatherman from the local ABC station playing the grandfather.  They'll also have the news anchors show up as the grandparents sometimes.  Do other cities do this as well or is it strictly a Seattle thing?  (My dad thinks I should travel the country seeing performances of "The Nutcracker" to find out if it is or not.)

That question being asked, if you're ever in Seattle during the holiday season, you should try to see a performance of "The Nutcracker" simply for the sets and costumes alone.  The sets and costumes they use (and have been using since 1981) were designed by Maurice Sendak (author of Where the Wild Things Are - and more).  He also illustrated an English translation of E.T.A. Hoffmann's Nutcracker in 1984 which, of course, the PNB sells.

After a fairly typical Thanksgiving (fighting with my sister, food, procrastinating on homework) I'm back at school and not looking forward to this last week of classes.  However, it's after Thanksgiving so I am now officially in the Christmas spirit.  I started listening to Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving and I have yet to stop (I have 1.42 gigs of Christmas music on my computer - I think it'll last me for the next month).

One of my family's Christmas traditions is to go downtown and just wander around.  Like the Pigs on Parade in the summer, there's a Nutcracker March during the holiday season which benefits Northwest Center.  We weren't able to find all the nutcrackers during our trip yesterday but below are the ones we did see.  (I'm planning on going back in a few weeks to try and find some more.)

(I apologize for the nutcrackers being slightly off center in the pictures.  My camera always takes a picture that's slightly off from what's in the viewer and I always forget to adjust it.  Oh, and that one nutcracker is being a chain door because the bus tunnel was closed.  I'll have to go down during the week sometime to get a better picture.)

While we're downtown during the holiday season, we also like to stop by the Sheraton Hotel and check out the gingerbread village they host every year (this benefits the Northwest chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).  This year's theme was, I believe, Christmas around the world.  Or something like that - I was never able to figure out the exact theme.

It's 2 o'clock in the morning and I can't sleep so what am I doing?  Posting on Vox.

I found a few more pigs from the Pigs on Parade so I thought I'd share them.

I also took some pictures atop the Smith Tower but it took long enough to load the 3 pig pictures that I think I'll wait to post the Smith Tower pictures.

Tonight (well, I guess technically last night) I went with my mom & sister to see the musical version of "Young Frankenstein".  It was pretty good.  I think I liked "The Wedding Singer" better as a musical but this was Mel Brooks so you can't really go wrong there.  ;-)  (I wanted to watch the movie version again before seeing the musical but my local Hollywood Video didn't have it in stock both times I checked.  Oh, well, something else to add to my Netflix queue.)  Roger Bart plays Gene Wilder's role as Frederick Frankenstein and Megan Mullally plays Madelaine Kahn's role as Elizabeth.  After they finish their world premiere here in Seattle they go to New York on Broadway.  However, if they ever decide to tour, I highly recommend checking it out.  (I hope "The Wedding Singer" goes on tour soon.  I'd like to see it again.)