Land of 1,000 Words

Culture QotW: Summer Festivals

nobody@vox.com(iRead) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:10:46 -0700

Which cultural festivals will you be attending this summer?

Well I don't know if I would consider them "cultural" festivals but I usually try to go to the Edmonds Art Festival, Bite of Seattle, Bellevue Art Festival, and the Taste of Edmonds. Some years I'll end up being downtown the same weekend as Hemp Fest but I've never wandered around it. I feel like there's some other festival I usually go to but I can't think of it now.

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Vox Hunt: In Bloom

nobody@vox.com(iRead) — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:22:17 -0700

Show us the loveliest flower in your garden.
Submitted by Allio's blog.

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This is one of the rhododendrons in our front yard. It's always a guessing game as to whether or not our rhodies are going to bloom each year since we don't take care of them. Our whole street looks nice right now as all the houses combined have almost every color rhodie imaginable: red, pink (various shades), purple (dark, medium, and light), white, and gold (bright orangish-yellow).

Edited to add: This is what that rhododendron plant looked like 1 month and 10 days ago:

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Gotta love that Seattle weather.

Also, I left for school for 8 hours, came back and my Vox theme with the chicks was gone. :-( What happened? It was cute.

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Row, row, row your boat

nobody@vox.com(iRead) — Sat, 10 May 2008 20:10:12 -0700

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.

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Vox Hunt: Celebrate the Earth

nobody@vox.com(iRead) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:05:05 -0700

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

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This is the stem of one of our daffodils that's failed to bloom the past couple years in the snow that we had last Friday.

What? It's (partially) green. :-)

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I don't want to be walking in a winter wonderland

nobody@vox.com(iRead) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:59:28 -0700

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.

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Let it snow?

nobody@vox.com(iRead) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:56:33 -0700

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.

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Happy Pi Day!

nobody@vox.com(iRead) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:17:10 -0700

It's Pi Day!

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(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.

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Be very wary of the 10th of February

nobody@vox.com(iRead) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:46:28 -0800

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.

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We can stay up late, swapping manly stories, and in the morning, I'm making waffles!

nobody@vox.com(iRead) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:18:57 -0800

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".

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Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

nobody@vox.com(iRead) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:05:09 -0800

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.

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