Adam Ferrara

Saw Adam Ferrara perform this weekend at the Parlor.  Very funny guy.  I really enjoyed his show.  I didn’t know him very well before and I found it cool that one of his jobs was driving for the UK car show, Top Gear.

Tom Green

I had the chance to see Tom Green’s new standup tour this weekend.  He was really funny.  I had some doubts going in as I was familiar with his past comedy routines, which I mostly found annoying.  My Canadian wife however is a bigger fan and she made sure to get tickets for the show.  I’m glad I went after all.  His jokes and stories were much better than his usual schtick of doing wacky things to people.  I thought it funny that he was so annoyed by the current use of technology, mainly cell/smart phones these days, as it is a bit of an old school way of thinking.  He did have some good points about etiquette however and how the youth are just allowing themselves to be too distracted by these devices.  Do check him out if you get the chance.

Our Country and its Defenders

On Veteran’s Day it seems appropriate to post a few of my thoughts about our country and those who protect our freedom and try to help bring freedom to others around the world.  Despite the many flaws within our political and economic systems, our country is still one of the great democracies of the world, providing its citizens a relatively stable and safe place to live, with many personal freedoms.  This is truly a great thing, something that all U.S. citizens should be very appreciative of.  However as the saying goes, “freedom isn’t free”, and I want to make sure to point out who we owe respect to for our country continuing to be a great place to live. 

The true defenders of our freedoms are the veterans of the armed forces.  Yes, certainly war is an ugly thing and not something to be glamorized.  It is also something that you could argue could have been avoided potentially in some cases.  Regardless of whether you personally agreed with every conflict our country engaged in, which is not the fault of our military, the fact is that our soldiers did not have a choice but to do their best in whatever situation they were placed.  And for this reason, we need to show them the utmost respect for the many sacrifices they made to be the defenders of our freedoms and that of others.  Yes, you could also argue that we shouldn’t have stepped into the conflict of others, but that is another political debate that is irrelevant to the reality of our veterans.  These are real people who signed up to make sure that we could enjoy as much peace as possible within our country.  And many of them did not live to enjoy the peaceful times they helped secure.  That is truly unfortunate.  Those of us who never had to step into the soldier’s shoes, we should always be grateful for these men and women who died in and survived these conflicts on our behalf.  

Today I hope all living veterans are having a nice day off from their everyday duties and getting a chance to enjoy their freedom.  I’m sure there are other soldiers who must continue to do their duty despite what day it is, and I am grateful for their vigilance.  In any case, I hope we all remember to show our respect to those living and dead veterans for their role in ensuring the relatively peaceful lives we enjoy today.  Hey, soldiers can only do so much to fix the many challenges we face as a society.  In times of peace, it is really the responsibility of the rest of us to try to help make our society a little better as we go, in honor of those who secured this privilege for us.

I also want to make a personal remark about my father, Bill Hagins, who himself served 12 years in our Air Force.  I am very proud of his service and his efforts both in and out of the military to remind everyone how lucky we truly are to be living in this country and to just be living.  He has seen much tragedy and personally experienced much hardship in his military service and it reminds me that those who survived need even more of our support and love.  It couldn’t have been easy and I hope that everyone thinks a little bit more about what it might have been like if you had to be in their shoes.  I know I’m very grateful others were able to serve on my behalf.

Seattle Auto Show 2011

I had a chance to run through the auto show this year (last week) and see all the latest cars.  There were some really nice ones, including the Lamborghini with the flat black finish, I hear also referred to as the stealth finish.  It is really cool as you can imagine but out of reach for most of us.  There was also a Lotus painted in a similar fashion if you wanted that cool look but didn’t quite have Lamborghini money.  I got some good pictures, so you can have a look and see what you think.  One of the surprise cars for me and my friends was the Hyundai Genesis coupe which was a nicely styled and affordable sporty car.  If I were single, because it is a coupe, and I was looking for something fun but not spendy, this might be the car for me.  They really did a nice job with this one.  Another surprise for me was the new Chevy Volt.  The exterior and interior is very modern and stylish.  This is another vehicle I could be tempted to buy since it includes a little more style along with the electric concept.  I liked the fact that Volkswagen tried to create a slightly more masculine Beetle with a lower profile but I think most men still aren’t going to be sold on it.  Especially with muscle cars like the new Camaro and the new Challenger and Charger making comebacks in the market, it would be hard to impress your buddies with a bug.

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Mark Viera

I was able to see Mark Viera this weekend at the Parlor in Bellevue.  That was a great show.  Mark was really funny although some people seemed a bit turned off by his seemingly depressing marriage and family views.  I sort of agreed, but I got that was just his schtick.  Anyhow, the funniest part of his set to me was when he talked about his experience growing up with his grandmother who of course was cheap and didn’t buy him anything but plain corn flakes for breakfast.  He did a great impression of the rooster on the box taunting him with a weak crow warning you that the cereal was dry.  The real surprise that evening however was that DL Hughley showed up out of the blue and performed for a short time before Mark came on.  That was cool and of course very funny.  There was also a really funny comedian who performed before DL named Anton, who had a great style, telling stories about his life that had so many parts and then came around full circle.  Very impressive.

Fun weekend

My last weekend was a lot of fun.  My company sponsored a golf tournament on Saturday and my team did really well for the mixed handicaps we had.  We took 3rd place behind some really good golfers so we were really happy about that.  Plus it was just a beautiful day and we just had fun trying to do our best and also making fun of our mistakes.  And then on Sunday I was able to go to a nice housewarming/BBQ one of my coworkers put on.  I ate too much unfortunately but the food was really good so at least I enjoyed myself at the time.  I just have to cut back this week to make up for it.

The End’s Summer Camp Concert

Had a good time yesterday at the End’s Summer Camp concert.  Our local alternative rock station (107.7 FM) sponsored a nearly all day concert with 10 newish bands and only charged us $20 each to attend.  It ended up being sold out as you might expect and that is a lot of people since the show was held at Marymoor Park in Redmond, which is a huge plot of land.  It ended up being a perfect day for having this outdoor concert.  It was sunny and hot (for Seattleites) during the day.  The bands were all awesome.  Very talented and a lot of fun.  I took my 15 year old daughter who appreciates alternative rock like I do.  One of my favorite moments was when Portugal, the Man ended one their songs, “People Say”, covering a short part of the Oasis song “Don’t look back in anger”.  That was cool.  The last two bands really rocked the most of course.  Manchester Orchestra had a great rock sound and the Neon Trees ended the show like real rock stars, putting on a very exciting performance.

Capitol Hill Block Party 2011

I was able to go to the Capitol Hill Block Party on Fri and Sat of the 3 day event.  It was a good time as usual but also as usual it was tough to choose which bands to see and which ones to miss.  For those not familiar with this event, they have bands playing at different stages overlapping each other, and some of us like more than one type of music, although I think their intent was to try to group the genres together.  The weather was perfect however and it seemed like most of Seattle was there.  One of the highlights of Friday, other than the good bands, was getting to see Gumby.  I don’t know what someone is doing still running around promoting this old character, but anyhow, he was there running around.  We just thought it was funny that he appeared above us from a building window as a show on the main stage was going on.  I was able to get a pic or two of that just because it was so random.

Here is who I was able to see and what I thought of them:

Friday:

Fresh Espresso: this band was pretty cool but I admit I’m not the ultimate rap fan, so it wasn’t my favorite performance.

Kurt Vile and the Violators: very cool rock from a guy who you could hardly see because of his long hair.

Woods: fun folksy rock band unbelievably not from the northwest.  But of course they knew where some of their big fans would be.

Ra Ra Riot: just a really nice sounding band.

The Head and the Heart: these guys have been around a while but its cool to see they are starting to get more radio play and become better known.  More fun folksy rock from the northwest.

Ghostland Observatory: I had heard some great things about this band, but I admit I didn’t know what to expect.  It’s just two guys.  One wearing a cape with the Texas flag on it playing all kinds of electronics and occasionally the drums, and the other a long haired guy who plays guitar and sings with a voice like Jimmy Page.  Their music was totally cool and their energy was great.  Their show was lit up by all kinds of lasers which just added to the coolness of the show.  I am officially a fan now.

 

Saturday:

Champagne Champagne: another local rap band.  Not bad, but again, not really my thing so I admit I’m a poor judge on this one.

Fences: a nice sounding rock band.  Recommended.

Lovesick Empire: this band had a great sound.  The female lead singer’s voice reminded me of PJ Harvey.

Eleanor Friedberger: this was a one gal band, at least in this performance.  Nice folksy music.

Telekinesis: fun rock n roll by a band led by a drummer.  That was cool to see.

The Lumineers: more folksy rock but a really fun band to watch live.  They know how to get the audience involved with their music to make it a little more fun than just watching.

Ravenna Woods: very cool rock n roll, also a bit folksy, but not as much as some of the bands I saw.

Austra: very melodic dance music from a girl with a beautiful voice and her backup singers providing nice harmonies.

Cold Cave: I would call this an electronic band hearkening back to Depeche Mode or other such bands of the 80s.  They had a good sound but their look was a bit funny to me.  The two main guys wore their leather jackets the entire set and you could tell they were really hot but wouldn’t take them off.  I guess they didn’t want to blow their image.  It was kind of funny to me that they would even bother wearing them on stage in a summer show.  Even though the show was inside, the doors were open, so only fans were there to keep the place from being unbearable.

The Young Evils: this was another fun folksy rock band that sounded great.  Their lead guitarist turned 30 that day apparently, so it was fun getting a chance to be a part of that.  They secretly passed out little handheld pictures of his face for the audience to hold up as we sang happy birthday to him.

Ononos: this band was quite the spectacle.  It is basically electronic, but the lead singer comes out in a full body suit so that you can’t see his face and dressed in a crazy sparkly outfit (check out the pictures as you have to see it; I know my description doesn’t quite cut it).  Anyhow, it was the strangest performance I saw the whole time, but they really surprised me with some cool rhythms. Everyone seemed to be won over by the end.

Sadly not all the photos I took from my phone turned out.  Sometimes I was just too far away from the stage and other times it was just too dark or too many lights were aimed right at the audience.  Oh well, I guess you should have been there yourself.  Maybe next year.

Capitol Hill Block Party 7/22/2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		Capitol Hill Block Party 7/23/2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Bite of Seattle

Went to the Bite of Seattle this year like I often have.  It was pretty much the same except the weather wasn’t quite as good as it has been in times past.  We are not having a good summer here.  Anyhow, the weather on Saturday did improve throughout the day and then it rained a bit later and then it went back to being decent.  I guess not too weird for Seattle.  So I had some good food, but nothing spectacular.  The comedy area however had some great comedians and that was thoroughly enjoyable.  Brad Upton was one of my favorites.  He seems to continue to get better with age.

Bobby Lee

I had the chance to see Bobby Lee perform at the Parlor in Bellevue last night and he was hilarious.  The guy is just crazy and a comic genius.  At the start of the show, he got maybe 3 minutes into his set when an asian guy came back to his seat near the front and Bobby called him out and said he would now have to start all over.  So Bobby ran off stage and the announcer came back out on stage to introduce him again and then he came back on and did a quick version of what he had just delivered.  The announcer didn’t miss a beat but was also struggling to keep his composure.  It was really funny that he turned such a normal non-event for us into a hilarious and seemingly impromptu bit.  And of course he made sure to take off his clothes down to his underwear in the act, which he was fairly known for doing on Mad TV (actually he would strip down all the way on the show and they would simply grey it out for TV).  You must see him if you get the chance.  He is the funniest guy you will ever see live.