We're in Seattle Part V: Our Last Day

Thanks to the Seattle Times, we learned about the St. Demetrios Greek Festival. This was the 47th installment of the annual food-oriented celebration at Seattle's Greek Orthodox church.

This was the scene at St. Demetrios


Now, in Seattle, they participate in a ritual that is quite foreign to those of us from L.A. It's called football and it's not of the high school or UCLA vs. USC variety. Since it's been well over a decade since we had a pro team in L.A., I forgot the importance in making sure that there is always a tv tuned into the game every Sunday. Here at St. Demetrios, it was all about the Seahawks, with the guys working the beer ran from their posts to spots in front of the big screen every few minutes. Carlos and I made like temporary Seahawks fans, mostly on account of the fact that we don't really have our own teams (although, Carlos is apparently still a Raiders fan and I will root for the Browns), while we ate food like this:



Yum. Thanks to the people at St. Demetrios for the tasty lunch.

That evening, we walked across the street to Whole Foods, where we found a soda called Fizzy Lizzy.



Naturally, I was a fan of the name. Also, I must say that the pomegranate drink is quite tasty.

While at Whole Foods, I took a picture of this piece of public art. I don't know the story behind it.



That night, we spent our final evening at Neumos, where we saw Wolfgang Flur of Kraftwerk, Claude Vonstroke and a host of others.

We're in Seattle Part IV: How Food Almost Ruined My Trip

Actually, I'm back in L.A., but I didn't have time to finish posting before we went to the airport and I, for some reason, couldn't hook up to the Sea-Tac wifi. So, let's go back to Saturday if you will.

We went to Hurricane Cafe again, mostly so that I could try the Mac'n'Cheese, which, by the menu's admission, is "killer." It's pretty freakin' awesome, I'll give them that. Hurricane's Mac is more Italian inspired than the variety I'm used to eating. It's made with penne and topped with tomatoes and parmesan cheese. Quite tasty, but Fred 62 still makes the best.

We spent the afternoon walking across downtown, which isn't as far as it might seem, so that we could interview some L.A. DJs who were in town for dB. The first thing you learn in Seattle is that everyone jaywalks. A potentially deadly habit in L.A., jaywalking is a way of life in Seattle mostly, I imagine, on account of the fact that there is no traffic. (There is, however, a lot of construction, so half the downtown sidewalks are closed.) There are so few cars traveling through downtown Seattle that jaywalking becomes a necessity, lest you spend fifteen minutes waiting for every light to change.

After the interview, we went back to the hotel and asked the concierge about restaurants. He suggested the Japanese/Korean hybrid spot across the street. We went there and I decided to bite the bullet and try kimchi. I know what you're thinking, how does a girl who grew up in a part of town with as many Korean markets and restaurants as the north west San Fernando Valley go her whole life without ever eating kimchi? Well, for one thing, I really don't like cabbage.

Regardless, I tried the kimchi. I loved the way the spices filled up my clogged sinuses and seemed to free them of mucus. I ate some more. It was great. I was so proud of myself for trying something new and actually liking it.

We finished dinner, walked back to the hotel and started to get ready to head back out to Neumos. As we were about to leave, I started to feel ill. Desperately ill.

I tried my green eggs and ham. I liked them, too. Then they made me sick.

We missed the show at Neumos, but figured we could still make it to the afterhours. I decided to lay down for a bit and I didn't wake up until the next morning.

We're in Seattle Part III: On Mexican Food and Grunge

On Thursday night, the nice door guy suggested that we try eating at Bimbo's Bitchin' Burritos, which is apparently a very hot Mexican food establishment on Capitol Hill. Since the restaurant is only a block away from Nuemos, we decided to grab dinner there on Friday night.

Now even though neither Carlos nor I are of Mexican decent, we are L.A. natives, which makes us fairly particular about our Mexican food. It just seems like people outside of L.A. (or, even a lot of high class L.A. types) can't handle the basic concept driving all Mexican dishes-- lard makes things taste better. But, we're in Seattle now, so we figured we ought to give the city's take on Mexican food a chance.

Bimbo's menu features a few varieties of burritos, tacos and nachos. Much to my dismay, there is nothing involving chili relleno here and very little involving big scoops of guac. With that in mind, I figured I would go with the least authentic of Mexican dishes-- the nachos. I ordered a vegetarian version, since it boasted lots of guacamole, and asked to hold the sour cream. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my plate of nachos came just as I like them-- all stuff and light on the chips. However, the chips were pretty small, which meant that I had to eat most of it with a fork. That just seems a bit awkward. Carlos had a chicken burrito, which he said was alright, but I got the impression he wasn't impressed with Seattle's take on the L.A. staple. Yeah, that's why I ordered nachos.

As far as the ambiance is concerned, Bimbo's looks a lot like Jabberjaw did back in 1996. The place is decorated with flea market finds, including a plethora of Lucha Libre memorabilia and Keane paintings. Musically, they seem to dig the Melvins and things that sound like the Melvins.

It's bizarre that the Melvins, a Washington band that relocated to Los Angeles, has become the reference point of this trip. It seems that grunge was never just a trend up here and, as such, it really never went away. The last time I saw this many people wearing flannel, I was a senior in high school.

After Bimbo's we walked around Capitol Hill. Like L.A., there are a lot of homeless people. Unlike L.A., the graffiti is minimal. All we saw was "El Barto" sprayed across the back of a brick building. Someone must have been feeling nostalgic for the glory days of the Simpsons.

We stopped inside a coffee house before heading to Neumos. That is another difference between L.A. and Seattle, this city actually still has coffee houses that aren't affiliated with Starbucks or Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, which is perhaps a bit ironic considering that Starbucks is from Seattle. I can't remember the name of the coffee house, but it was virtually identical to anything we had in L.A. ten years ago. Inside, they played TV on the Radio, which might be the most modern thing one can find that comes from the School of the Melvins. One thing was obvious, though, Seattle is a rock city, so much so that it makes L.A. seem like Berlin in comparison.

Back at Neumos, the crowd was much smaller than the night before. I don't know if this was because Guns 'N' Bombs isn't as well known as Diplo, or because the crowd was split between three rooms.

If the dB events are indicative of the dance scene in Seattle, one point can be made. People do not dress up here. In L.A., we always thought of ourselves as being fairly casual, but here, everyone is one wearing jeans and not those of the Seven for All Mankind variety. During the course of my few nights clubbing here, I have not seen a single sparkle top, no shoes that look like Jimmy Choo and no Olsen Twin clones.

We're in Seattle Part II

On Friday, our second day in Seattle, we decided to take the chance to do some sightseeing. Our first stop was the Space Needle, which we selected as our destination on account of the fact that it is walking distance from our building. This is the Space Needle, as viewed from directly below the building.



I don't have much to tell you about the Space Needle, except that it costs $16 to head up to the top of the building. Needless to say, we didn't go inside.

Next to the Space Needle is the Experience Music Project. Again, we didn't go inside. I can tell you, though, that it's designed by none other than Frank Gehry, a tidbit I discerned from the fact that it is nearly identical to Disney Hall, which is odd considering the design is supposed to be based on Jimi Hendrix's guitar. Not only does Gehry produce crap, but it's the same crap over and over again. I didn't take a picture on account of the glare from the metal.

We ended up at a station for the Ride the Ducks Tour of Seattle. This tour costs roughly $25, but is well worth the price. Basically, the Ducks are the DUKW from World War II. These are amphibious vehicles that are now used to take people around Seattle by both road and water. The ducks look like this:



Our guide for the tour was a girl named Claire Buoyant, who had only lived in Seattle for a few years, but was extremely knowledgeable about the city. We spent the first forty-five minutes of the tour checking out Seattle's streets. Mostly, this leg of the tour focused on the downtown area.

One thing that is interesting about Seattle is that there is a lot of public art out here. For example, take this fake metal tree.



I think this sculpture might make more sense in Los Angeles where vegetation actually is manufactured.

My favorite piece of public art is Hammering Man, which is outside of the Seattle Art Museum. This is part of the Jonathan Borofsky series and while it's not the largest Hammering Man in the world, it is pretty huge.



If that doesn't give a good impression of size, check out how passersby are dwarfed by Hammering Man's legs.



The second half of the tour took place on the lake. Well, one of the lakes. It seems like there is an awful lot of water here.

From the lake, the Space Needle still towered over the city.



And the view is incredible.



The most interesting sight from the lake was Gas Works Park. Long story short, this was the site of a gas company that went out of business and was sold to a developer who couldn't develop the land on account of it being contaminated. The city then turned the site into a park and, after numerous attempts, was finally able to make grass grow with a special, er, fertilizer.



Throughout the tour, the guides play a mix of music and people start singing and dancing, both in the car and on the street. I really wish I was able to get a photo of the guy who did the YMCA dance while selling his stack of homeless newspapers. Also, the dudes at the car wash went crazy when she played "Car Wash."



To be continued...

We're in Seattle

Decided to go to Seattle for a few good reasons: 1) We wanted to cover DB (Decibel) Fest because some of my favorite L.A. electronic people are playing; 2) We've never been to Seattle; 3) We found a pretty good deal on airfare and a hotel.

We arrived at Seatac sometime Thursday afternoon. This was my first impression of Seattle:



Trees. Lots of lush green trees. I took this photo from the cab window as we made it through some interchange that, as in Southern California, bridges the 5 and the 405. Unlike Southern California, though, there are trees here.

I spent my life in the midst of concrete, palms and jacaranda. This sort of dark green foliage seems exotic.

Having gone most of the day on three mini-pretzels culled from a complimentary airline package, we were pretty hungry. Fortunately, we're walking distance from both a grocery store and a handful of non-chain restaurants. My one rule for travel is to avoid eating anything that I can easily acquire at home.

We found a place nearby called the Hurricane Cafe, which reminds me of a less posh version of Fred 62 in Los Feliz. This place also has a gormet mac'n'cheese, although I have yet to try it. Feeling sort of ravished, I opted for a hamburger with bleu cheese and mushrooms. The order was massive. Even on my empty stomach, I couldn't finish the meal. The plus side of this restaurant is that Sirius radio plays over the system. When we were there, Swedish Egil, yes the dude formerly of KROQ, MARS and Groove in Los Angeles, was playing the Lightning Seeds. The restaurant also boasts a jukebox, which is notable for a Jesus and Mary Chain greatest hits album that, oddly enough, doesn't have "Head On" on it. The service, though, is pretty slow and the prices are fairly high.

On a trip to the grocery to pick up some toothpaste and shampoo, I learned that, sadly, sales tax is 8.9%. In all, that's not much more than California tax, but it is enough to make a major difference when I try to budget things in my head.

That night, we went to Neumos, a bar on Capitol Hill, to check out Simian Mobile Disco, Switch, Diplo and others. I'll save the music reviews for later, so let's just talk atmosphere. Capitol Hill is essentially Seattle's version of Silver Lake. Our cab driver pointed out the plethora of gay discos in the area, which mixed nicely with the indie clubs and other young hip things. We noticed a very large record store that boasted vinyl in the window, but it seemed to be closed.

Despite the hipster-ness of the neighborhood, it's not quite like L.A. You can pretty much walk to every club in the area. Additionally, the clubs and bars all seem to have nondescript brick exteriors. We only went to one club, Neumos, and the inside was quite impressive. It is much less of a dive than our usual indie haunts in L.A. However, the bathrooms still boast the usual alcohol-induced scrawls of graffiti. In another breach with L.A.'s indie scene, Neumos' doorpeople are extremely friendly. Culture shock, dude.

To be continued...