Jammin'

THE HOME SHOWS: Last night an event we've been looking forward to for months finally happened. Seattle-based Pearl Jam played Safeco Field.

It has been five years since the hometown rockers have played a show in the Emerald City. I think it safe to say, it was worth the wait.

There was *so* much hype surrounding this show, I was wary about trying to get to and from the stadium, so we had an elaborate plan in place. At about 3:30 on Wednesday, I dropped CJ off at Christian's work, about a mile or so from the stadium. They walked over to the lightrail station and rode to the show. 

Meanwhile, I had to head north, to the Green Lake neighborhood, to pick Annabelle up from her drama class. We left our car there, and then Kennedy played our "Uber" driver and took us to the west edge of the University of Washington campus. 

We walked a mile across the campus to the light rail station (traffic was so bad, walking the mile was faster than trying to drive it). We then took lightrail right to the stadium. 

There, we met Christian and CJ on the street by the stadium, down where Christian had stashed our getaway car at about 6 a.m. 

In order to avoid paying big bucks for stadium food, I had brought sandwiches for the kids and salads for Christian and me. We were going to take them in and eat for dinner before the show. (Christian even called Safeco Field customer service to make sure the rules about bringing food in were the same for the concert as they were for Mariners' games. He was told that it would be fine. 

Well, that was wrong. When he arrived dinner in tow, he was turned away. Not only that, you could only take something about the size of a postcard into the stadium with you. That meant no purse for me or Annabelle, and no backpack for CJ. 

So, we had to stash our stuff in the car, and sat on the curb near the railroad tracks by the stadium, and ate our dinners there. An added bonus: I didn't have forks for our salads because I was going to get them in the stadium. So we ate the salad with our hands, no dressing.  Whatever. At least it only cost a couple of bucks for dinner. :) That, and we were sitting alongside several homeless people while we ate, and I couldn't help but think we were lucky to have food, period, and that we were going to a concert, which is an outing many can't afford to make.

Outside of Safeco Field, even Junior was dressed for the event.

And speaking of being dressed, CJ had on a shirt we custom-made. He could have sold several of them that night.

Fortunately, the concert was fantastic. Definitely worth all of the trouble.

Below, CJ shares a bit about the experience.

On 8 August 2018, we went to the first of Pearl Jam's Home Shows at Safeco Field, concerts held to raise awareness about the ongoing homelessness crisis in Seattle, as well as raise money to fight the problem. The Home Shows, while partially named such because of their natures as fundraisers, are also named such because Pearl Jam is from Seattle (or rather, Seattle is their home). The concert I attended was their first in Seattle in over five years.

During the concert, Pearl Jam played several obscure "b-sides" (a song included with a single that does not appear on a conventional studio album). For example, according to setlist.fm, Pearl Jam opened with the song "Long Road", which only appeared as a b-side on the single "Merkin Ball" (a collaboration with Neil Young). Pearl Jam also played a number of covers, including a snippet of "Help!" by the Beatles, "Friends" by The White Stripes, "Throw Your Hatred Down" by the aforementioned Neil Young, "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd, and "Rockin' in the Free World", also by Neil Young.

Noticeably, Pearl Jam is significantly "heavier" live than in studio, often utilizing faster tempos and louder volumes. One can only wonder how the band will live up to 8 August's concert with the one scheduled for 10 August.

My takeaway from the show is that I have grossly underestimated Pearl Jam's contribution to American music - and mankind, for that matter. 

Pearl Jam often has a fund-raising component in association with their concerts, and for the Seattle shows, they chose to raise money to help with the problem of homelessness. So far, they have raised $11 million during the campaign. That's fantastic.

The Seattle Times' review of the show can be found here: https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/music/photos-pearl-jams-home-shows-rock-for-a-cause-on-night-one-at-seattles-safeco-field/

And Crosscut's review of the show and info about the fund-raising aspect of the event: https://crosscut.com/2018/08/what-pearl-jam-did-last-night-and-seattle?utm_source=crosscut-facebook&utm_medium=social

MOON MUSING: An email from The Museum of Flight today gave us notice of a European Space Agency contest. The topic is investigating the ways that 3D printing could be used to create and run a habitat on the Moon. Specifically, they ask "if you were headed to the Moon, what would you want to 3D print, to turn a lunar base into a place that feels like home? Tell us your idea, to win a chance of actually getting it printed."

The contest closing date is 23 September 2018. It's open to all ages and nationalities, and there will be an adult winner and an under-age-18 winner, chosen by URBAN consortium members and ESA engineers.

Here's a short video about the contest.