Bridging Time

UNABRIDGED:  Yesterday after dinner, we decided to go for a stroll, destination: The Fremont neighborhood of Seattle (which will be full of naked bicyclists come Saturday, BTW).

We parked at the south end of the bridge and walked across to the north.

A few sculls slipped silently through the water under the bridge.

Once on the north side, we stopped at a place called Old School Custard. Their calendar is more delicious looking than most calendars, wouldn't you say?  :)

From there, we walked further east to Fremont Brewing. We haven't been there in a long time, but just from driving by, you can see the place has expanded and expanded, but it's still packed all the time.  We sat on the bleachers near the front door, and Annabelle added some artwork on their risers.

The sun was setting as we walked back across the bridge.

The bridge tender was all aglow.

If she were counting, she would have seen over 4,000 bikes cross the bridge on Wednesday. That's a lot.

ASSEMBLY LINE:  We're still working on learning about the history of rock. There's a lot to learn! Part of today's lectures touched on how television was so important to the music scene in the late '50s and early to mid-1960s, with shows like "American Bandstand," "Shindig," and "Hullabaloo."

And we learned Paul Revere and the Raiders, a Portland band, were the 'house band' on a dance and music show called "Where the Action Is." Their American Revolution outfits were a not subtle push back vs. the British invasion.

Music on television was so influential, it resulted in cartoon characters having a number one hit (The Archies with "Sugar, Sugar") The kids and I watched the original video from 1969, featuring the animated Archies of comic book fame characters performing the tune. "This is MESSED UP!" CJ declared. I told him think about how messed up it is watching it as a four-year-old, like I did!

And television can be credited for a band of chimpanzees (Lancelot Link & the Evolution Revolution) having a #1 hit, as well (Sha-La Love You). I shuddered watching those videos today. (I think I've repressed the memories of them due to trauma, LOL.) Christian remembers them and said to me, "It was not well done." I'd call that an understatement.

And not to be outdone by apes, the made-for-tv band The Monkees had a number of hits with 'bubblegum' pop songs. The Monkees were much easier on the eyes and ears, IMHO.

Wacky times, those were.

We also learned about the birth of Motown, which meant we listened to some great music today. :)
I showed the kids The Marvellettes performing "Mr. Postman"  http://youtu.be/rGJcbHni4rc

And we watched The Contours singing "Do You Love Me?" That video is ALL KINDS of win! A dance party ensued. http://youtu.be/FgtpreUfcS0

Motown founder Barry Gordy Jr. had a masterful, 'assembly line' approach toward creating artists who would be successful "crossover" acts.

BUDDING BOEING ENGINEERS: We stopped at Value Village on our way back from Shoreline (helping clean up the campus where the kids take school once a week). You never know what you're going to find there, and today, one of our finds was a Boeing 747 model - imported from Japan.

As you can see, the instructions were entirely in Japanese. However, there were a couple of drawings, which the kids made the most of.

There were moments when it was a struggle, as evidenced by CJ's face ...

However, in the end, they made it work.