Gathering No Moss

GIMME SHELTER: Wednesday night we rode the rails to the stadium district. Our mission: To finally see one of rock and roll's most iconic bands, The Rolling Stones.

I'd never been to a concert at Century Link Stadium (home of the Seahawks) before, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. Following the directions of staff standing on the street on the south side of the stadium, we ended up entering the stadium through the parking garage. Eventually we wound our way to three security lanes and breezed through there no problem. We were then pointed in the direction of a stadium entrance, but it was for suite guests only - definitely not a spot our nosebleed seat tickets would grant us entry.

Eventually we found some doors leading us to an elevator. Here's a photo of our view from there. 

That particular little patio was packed, but we waited a few minutes and eventually hitched a ride up to the stadium's top level. There, we had no trouble walking around and checking things out. (Mercifully concession lines were short and fast moving, and bathrooms weren't too bad a wait.)

It was about 7 p.m., and the crowd was still making its way to their seats.

On the concourse, we had to stop for this photo opp. It is the Seahawks' stadium, after all.

Soon enough, we made our way up to our seats. That was the first real "Uh oh" of the night for me. Turns out our seats were smack dab in the middle of a 30-seat long row. Ick. They were also right in the middle of a huge section from a top-to-bottom standpoint. Double ick. For a number of reasons, I *really* deplore being fenced in in the middle of a huge pack of people. (I much prefer to have my escape options more open). So, pretty much as soon as we sat down, I was looking for a Plan B - no easy feat when it's a sold out show and I don't know the stadium well at all.

We sat through the opening act, Lukas Nelson, who likely almost *always* has his name followed by the descriptor "son of Willie Nelson." That would get old, I'll bet.

Lukas plays a mean guitar, has shampoo-commercial hair and performs with a ton of energy. His accompanying band is Promise of the Real, BTW. They play what you might call American country rock. Fun trivia: Lukas Nelson was hired as an "authenticity consultant" to Bradley Cooper for "A Star is Born." He co-produced the music for the film, writing songs with Lady Gaga. His band appears in the film as lead actor Bradley Cooper's band. Nelson won a BAFTA Award for Original Music for his work for the film.

After the opener, there was the standard set-the-stage time, and then at 9 p.m. sharp, the Stones took the stage.

Wow - within the first measure of the first song, there was Mick doing his thing. At age 76, with a brand new heart valve, the guy most certainly still has the "moves like Jagger"! That guy can dance!

After four songs, the Stones moved to the foreward-most part of their stage and did an acoustic set of bluesy songs. That's when Annabelle and I struck out into the night to stake out a better place to watch the show.

We wound up wedging ourselves into some standing-room-only space at the south end of the stadium. It was a better view, and it was nice to have a solid concrete wall behind us to lean on (and to keep people from leaning on us!). Soon, Christian and CJ joined us down there.

CJ can tell you a bit more about the show. ...

In 2019, the Rolling Stones, arguably one of the single most influential and important bands in rock 'n roll history, embarked on the North American leg of their No Filter tour. The North American leg of the No Filter tour primarily stops at National Football League (NFL) stadiums, such as CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington. Due to the band members' age, it is likely that the No Filter tour will be their last major tour.

On August 14, 2019, the Rolling Stones made a tour stop at CenturyLink Field, in Seattle, Washington's SoDo neighborhood. The opener for the concert, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real (a band led by one of Willie Nelson's sons), played a (relatively) short set driven primarily by folk rock. I wasn't terribly impressed, but clearly a lot of concertgoers begged to differ. After about 30 minutes, the Stones began their set with Street Fighting Man, a cut from their 1968 LP Beggars (sic) Banquet. For the fourth song on the setlist, the Rolling Stones let the crowd vote (using the band's website) which song to play. The song that won was Beast of Burden, a major radio hit that came from the band's 1978 release Some Girls.

The Rolling Stones played acoustic renditions of Sweet Virginia and Dead Flowers on a b-stage in the center of the stadium, before returning to the main stage. Once the band returned to the main stage, they played Sympathy for the Devil (another cut from Beggars Banquet), one of the Rolling Stones' biggest radio hits. Afterwards, the band progressed through more of their radio hits, such as Honky Tonk Women, Paint it Black, Start Me Up (which I missed part of because I had to use the bathroom really bad), Jumpin' Jack Flash, and Brown Sugar. After the crowd demanded an encore for long enough, the band returned to the stage with their two biggest hits, Gimme Shelter and (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. 

Even though we left as the last chord of the last song was fading away, we managed to see the band being whisked away from the stadium as we were leaving. I can't believe how quickly they got out of there. We practically ran for the exits, but the Stones' egress was faster, because we had to wait on the sidewalk for their police escort to pass.

All in all, it was a fun night, and I'm glad we made the effort to see some rock legends while we still had the chance.

Fina11y

ALL ABOUT EDGAR: For our family, Saturday was pretty much all about Mariners' hitting legend Edgar Martinez.

First thing Saturday morning, we headed to the stadium to have an opportunity to view the newly-minted Edgar Martinez Hall of Fame plaque that will be on display in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in perpetuity.

Guess who wound up being the very first people to view the Hall of Fame plaque? Yup, it was us. :)

I have to say, I don't think the bronze bust on the plaque looks a whole lot like Edgar. Guess it's the thought that counts? 

On our way back to the car, we stopped by to say 'Hi' to the statue of Ken Griffey Junior out in front of the stadium. 

Fortunately this larger-than-life tribute is a very good likeness of "The Kid."

Saturday afternoon we were back at the ballpark. This time there were a whole lot more people there.

It was an early-arriving crowd as people were hoping to snag a replica Hall of Fame plaque. Our party of five came home with them. But I have to say, the plastic replica is an even worse "likeness" of Edgar. Yikes.

We spent a little time down in the 'Pen (the lower level of the field), and then headed up to the centerfield fence. Eventually we made our way up to our seats (our favorite, top row of the stadium, along the third base line perches).

From there, we watched people ready the field for the pre-game ceremony.

 Glad they spelled it right. :)

 There was a big ol' Hall of Fame banner on hand, and chairs were set up in the infield.

Eventually, Edgar made his way from centerfield to his infield seat.

Then, one by one, special guests were introduced. No surprise, Ken Griffey Jr. received the largest round of applause.

Below are a couple of short clips from the ceremony.

Edgar gave a thoughtful, sentimental speech that was thoroughly appreciated by those on hand.

The night before, we were at Seattle Center. There, we got to see a special #11 flag atop the Space Needle to honor Edgar, who always wore the number 11.

All in all, it was a special day, and I'm glad we had the good sense to leave the game right before former Mariner Mike Zunino - who doesn't hit hardly anything, ever - hit a three-run bomb that led to the Mariners' loss. 

DARK HUMOR: Friday night, we headed to Seattle to check out a performance at Seattle Children's Theater. One of Annabelle's friends was in "Heathers The Musical (High School Edition)," and so we decided to check it out. We're sure glad we did!

Annabelle can tell you a bit more about it. ...

On August 10^th, my family and I attended a showing of Heathers: The Musical – High School Edition. This production was put on by the Seattle Children’s Theater as part of their youth drama school program, which encourages middle- to high-school aged students to explore the arts and drama. One of the major reasons we attended this particular production was not only due to the Seattle Children’s Theater’s history of good performances, but also because one of my friends from a former school was performing! The show itself was very well done. All the actors seemed very comfortable with their roles and the choreography for major songs was extremely well done. While the background music sounded quite muted at times, it was definitely made up for by the singers’ great voices and emotional performances. Despite having to tweak some of the lyrics (and even cut whole songs) to make the show more age-appropriate, it definitely stayed true to the original soundtrack and story.

Even though their three-day run is now over, I’d like to congratulate all of the actors and actresses on their amazing performance. The best way to support SCT and help create future performances like this is by donating and attending shows. For info on future performances and how to support them or apply for drama school, you can visit their website at www.sct.org.

Working It

HOMEFRONT: Apologies for the lack of posts as of late. It seems like our hands are continually covered in mortar, grout, joint compound, or wallpaper glue this week.

We *FINALLY* finished the tile installation in the downstairs shower. Hooray!
Honestly, it really wasn't much of a shower before. It had a drain that leaked, regular old drywall for its walls (who does that?!), and a broken shower head. 

So, we ripped out the drywall, resloped the shower floor so that water would actually get to the drain, surrounded the shower with cementious backer board, and installed a hundreds of subway-shaped tiles floor-to-ceiling.

And because one project begets another, new flooring is going down in the bathroom soon, and its adjacent hallway and bedroom. And before you put new flooring down, well, it makes sense to paint the walls. However, there was a 'small' problem: The hallway walls were covered in dark, dingy textured wallpaper. Worst-case scenario was that we'd paint over it if it was impossible to pull up. However, we found with a couple of test patches that we could pull at least the top, textured layer off without too much trouble, so then we had to remove the backer layer by scoring it, spraying it with some nasty chemical, and then painstakingly scraping it off one square inch at a time.

However, with CJ, Annabelle, sometimes Kennedy and I working together, we knocked the peel job out this week. The painting will be the fun part! (Also, yes, I know we need a new light fixture. The one in the photo is super dated and not in the cool funky-retro way that I like.)

Yesterday, CJ and Annabelle assembled a bath vanity from IKEA. It's a good exercise in following written, sequential directions.

Suffice it to say, we're nowhere near finished with the renovation(s), but we definitely made some serious progress this week. 

FIRE IN THE SKY: Speaking of this week, I've noticed "not normal" looking clouds bumping up against the east side of Mt. Rainier. 

They were stacked clouds, cumulus of some sort, but I didn't know what sort until I happened upon a post by KING 5 news about pyrocumulus clouds and Mt. Rainier. 

So there you have it, our meteorlogical lesson of the week.

BEES, PLEASE: Another story from our newsfeed this week involved burgeoning beekeeping in the heart of urban Detroit, Michigan.

A non-profit, Detroit Hives, is buying vacant land in the still- city, and setting up scores of beehives on them, where minorities are encouraged to learn about beekeeping. Talk about a win-win!


MEANWHILE, ON JUPITER: NASA's -year-old Hubble telescope continues to amaze. At least once a year,  Earth-orbiting Hubble turns its eyes to all our outer solar system planets to check on their weather. This week, new photos of our solar system neighbor Jupiter were released. (The photos were taken on June 27 of this year.)

Did you know that Jupiter's great red spot, an enormous storm, has been shrinking for years now? While it is getting taller and turning more orange, it is shrinking in diameter. Once upon a time the Great Red Spot was believed  to be large enough to cover the width of three Earths, but as of April 2017, the storm spot was just a little wider than one Earth (a diameter of 10,159 miles, according to NASA.

Using the latest Hubble images, NASA compiled an animation of Jupiter's rotation. (In case you were wondering, Jupiter completes one rotation every 9.8 hours.)

A few more fun Jupiter facts from the folks at NASA ...

Starry Eyed

PLAY PARK:  Saturday evening we made our way to Blanche Lavizzo Park in what has become an annual pilgrimage. It used to be to watch Star Trek episodes acted out, but last year they shifted universes to Star Wars. This summer's offering was "The Empire Strikes Back." Basically every scene, every line, oh-so-creatively done!

As always, the low-budget but big-imagination sets were fantastically done. Below is how they recreated the opening scene, with an Imperial Star Destroyer taking the stage.

The Imperial minions were throwing mini starships. CJ caught one. This is what is said (a famous quote from the movie).

 Pretty early into the script, a wampa gives Luke a real hard time. Love how they recreated that!

 And then there is the scene where the Rebel Alliance is fighting the Imperial Walkers.

 Tactically flying around them, they were able to take the legs out from underneath them. 

 The performance was very dynamic. Often cast members were posted up in the midst of the audience. 

The production's "little things" were so much appreciated - like Luke enjoying a bag of Dick's on Degobah.

Yoda was a big fan of the burgers and fries.

There were epic battles.

And Luke was a little worse for the wear, having to get an artificial hand installed. 

There were some heartfelt goodbyes during the show, as well. 

 Poor Han. Hope the carbonite doesn't kill him!

The show runs the first four weekends in August. The reason we went on opening night was it coincided with celebrating Grandpa R's birthday. In addition to serving up dinner for nine in the park (pastrami sandwiches and potato salad) Annabelle and I made some Star Wars cookies for dessert. Most of them went to the cast after the show.

All in all, it was such big fun. Hats off to Hello Earth for providing such fun (and free!) entertainment each summer.

BTW - this R2D2 costume was the inspiration for Annabelle's Halloween costume last year, right down to the roller skates.