Entertaining

DO THE PUYALLUP: Summer is going out at a sprinter's pace for us at MPA. Seems like we're always on the run these days. 

One 'must do' to check off the list was making it down to the Washington State Fair before it closed. Monday was the day to make that happen.

The forecast was iffy. Thirty percent chance of rain, but the hour-by-hour forecast said it would hold off until 2 p.m. We figured if we could get to the fair when the gates opened, the kids could get three hours of rides in before the rains came.

The 'little kids' rides open at 11. We were standing there waiting for the clock to strike the time.  Highlights from the tamer ride included some swinging. 

 It also included a little spinning.

There was also a little sliding.

We checked out the new rides at the fair, including this elephant themed one for tots.

 It was quite colorful.

We looked at haunted houses and fun houses from afar. This barn-themed one cracked me up.

 Below is "Cob Marley." That's just so weird.

The kids rode classic rides like the Scrambler.

And dared to experience this centrifuge-like spinner.

They floated through air with the greatest of ease.

 And they hopped on board a few coasters, big and small.

CJ was a speed demon on the bumper cars course.

 Annabelle dished out a few hits ...

 and took a few!

We marveled at the fair food, but didn't have a single bite or sip of any.

While the kids weree riding, I just stood around soaking up the crazy sights and sounds of the fair.

This, of course, includes doing some people watching. For some reason, this family felt compelled to bring a political poster to the fair. Interesting choice. 

About 1:30, the skies started looking threatening. And while the kids were on the Ferris wheel at 1:45, the clouds opened and started dumping rain.

Within moments, most of the fair was shut down.

 During the deluge, we huddled under tents on the midway, where the games were. The kids each had two 'free' games with their wristbands ($45 apiece, if you can believe that!). They decided to try to win one of these fine creatures. I call it a furmaid. ;)

Lo and behold, they came home with one (thanks to a kind carnie, mostly).

On our way to the car, we managed to spy a ride that was still running, for some reason. 

 The kids hopped on board.

All in all, a fun day at the fair. I am kind of ashamed to admit we didn't check out all the farm animals, the educational exhibits, the art ... nope, none of that. It was all about the thrills of the rides for the kids this year.

SATURDAY NIGHT: Of course, this week included a concert. That seems to be the norm these days. This time, it was the Melvins who were the main draw. CJ can tell you all about it. ... 

In their nearly 40-year career up to this point, the Melvins, a band from Montesano, WA, have influenced countless other bands (particularly in the alternative rock genre) and are often credited with pioneering the style known as "sludge metal," later expanded on by bands such as Eyehategod, Crowbar, and Iron Monkey (though that's another can of worms), and inspired multiple different notable grunge bands (including Mudhoney, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains). In 2019, the Melvins embarked on a U.S. tour, along with Redd Kross, another band that started in the 1980s, and one that also influenced grunge. Toshi Kesai, a Japanese noise (or rather, Japanoise) musician, was brought along as a special guest for the tour.

On September 13th and September 14th of 2019, the Melvins played shows at Neumos, a venue in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. The first night was for ages 21 and older, but the second night (the one I went to) was all ages.

The concert started at 9 P.M, with Toshi Kesai, hidden behind a bed sheet, playing electronic music that was largely improvisational, with seemingly little to no planning beforehand (nothing against his work). On the bed sheet, a laser from behind projected a small light show, for the audience to see. The lights moved in sync with the music, though the audience was seemingly losing interest in the show by the time Toshi Kesai's 20 minutes were up.

After Toshi Kesai's show, Redd Kross, alternative rock veterans from California, began their hour-long set. Unfortunately, Redd Kross appeared to lack energy during their set (my dad didn't agree with me about that), though I'll never be quite sure as to what the cause of that was. Interestingly, Redd Kross' current bassist is also the Melvins' current bassist, so he stayed on the stage in between Redd Kross' and the Melvins' sets.

At 11 P.M, the Melvins, the show's headliners, finally came on stage, starting their set with songs with titles such as "Sesame Street Meat" and "The Kicking Machine," followed by "Anaconda" (not to be confused with the Nicki Minaj song of the same name). Throughout the rest of their set, the Melvins voyaged through over 30 years of material, going back to 1989's Ozma (their sophomore album). It was also during the Melvins' set that a mosh pit formed in the audience, which, as I learned pretty quick, became very chaotic and fast-paced. The Melvins were on point with musicianship, and were much more energetic and engaging than either of the previous two acts. I honestly wasn't expecting a chaotic mosh pit to form in what seemed like a hipster-ish audience, but I'm not complaining.

Overall, the Melvins put on a great and engaging show (though I can't really say the same of the openers).

CJ has one blurry photo to share with you.  As you can see, he was close to the front.

Meanwhile, in a decidedly quieter venue (our living room), Annabelle and I enjoyed a really special movie. I'll have her tell you more about it. ...

"Song of the Sea" is an animated movie produced by GKIDS studio that was released in 2014 to critical acclaim. With a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Picture. The movie is deeply rooted in Celtic myth, mostly focused on the mythical species known as Selkies. Selkies have the ability to transform from human to seal, but only if they are wearing their special seal-fur coat that’s with them since birth.

The animation style of the movie is very unique, almost looking painted or drawn in chalks at times. The characters’ movements are fluid and interesting to watch, with great use of shape in the designs. They’re drawn in a slightly different style to the backgrounds, but not so far apart that they look out of place. The plot of the movie is just as interesting as the visuals, though speaking of it too much here would be a large spoiler. It touches on some heavy ideas, though as a whole the movie is very family friendly and I agree that it deserves the amount of praise it gets. Whether you’re looking for a fantasy adventure or more interested in drama and action, "Song of the Sea" has something for almost everyone.

Here's the movie's trailer if you'd like a sneak peek.

Waylaid

DUWAMISH WAY: Playing catch up here. This post was supposed to go down last week. Logging in today I noticed it was waylaid. Oops.

Friday middday, we wanted to get ourselves and our dogs out into the sunshine. We decided to head down the hill about two miles to the west to check out a park we've driven by dozens of times. Yesterday, we learned it's called the Duwamish Gardens Project.

The park's tiny, 5-car parking lot is right under the light rail line. It was cool to watch the trains whiz by, overhead.

We headed down a pathway near the park's northern border. Before long, we encountered an art installation. 

The art was multi-sensory: Pretty to look at, and it played soft chiming music as the light breezed moved its elements. A nearby sign explained that the sculpture was supposed to be evocative of the method the Coast Salish used to preserve salmon they'd harvested.

The park is full of native plants, many of which were blooming during our visit. This is the viewpoint looking back toward the parking lot/light rail track, at the western-most border of the park. Can you spy the solitary fisherman?

It's a pretty little park, and a spot we'll visit again, but it wasn't a great place to go for a walk, given the short trail. So, we stopped at another, nearby park on the way home. There, we found these beautiful flowers (dahlias?) in bloom. No filter on the photo below - their color was amazingly vibrant!

SOMETHING BREWING: This morning, Annabelle and I updated our kombucha brewing operation. Kennedy was handling it while he was here, but he has moved on, so it's up to us to keep the mother alive.

Not gonna lie, every time I have to look at or work with the mass of bacteria, it grosses me out. I mean, ewwww.  Hard to believe that something that looks this terrible produces something that is supposedly good for you (kombucha is chock full o' probiotics).

The finished product looks slightly less sinister ...but to my eye, it does kind of resemble a specimen jar you might find in a lab in Area 51 or Dr. Frankenstein's castle.

EXPANSIVE: I had the kids read a really interesting article on Space.com about the Bigelow Aerospace B330 habitat that's being tested by NASA right now. I've long thought the Bigelow approach of building inflatable/expandable habitats makes so much sense.

One of the most interesting parts of the article to me was a photo where you could see the words "does not exist" on certain parts in the habitat. What the label meant was that, for instance, the steel walkway wouldn't be present in a space habitat, because in near zero-gravity, no one's needing a walkway in the habitat!

YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING: I don't usually post political news on the MPA blog, but a headline today was just too much to pass up, so the kids and I read it. The article in The Hill was titled: "Trump on energy-efficient light bulbs: 'I always look orange' "

Last week, the Trump administration finalized the reversal of the Obama administration's efficiency standards on light bulbs. A compelling reason for this anti-environmental action: Trump blames the bulbs for showing him in an unflattering light, literally.

At a recent rally in Fayetteville, Trump claimed, "I'm not a vain person. ... But I look better under an incandescent light than these crazy (LED) lights that are beaming down."

And in a speech to Republican House members, Trump told the group, "People said, 'What's with the light bulb?' And I said 'Here's the story,' and I looked at it. ... The bulb that we're being forced to use, number one, to me most importantly, the light's no good. I always look orange."

So there you have it, an illuminating look into the inner 'workings' of the mind of the man that is the current President of the United States of America. 

Party On

IN DEEP: Another night, another concert. This go 'round, CJ and Christian saw Deep Purple at the Paramount Theatre. I took them to a light rail station not too far from our place, and they painlessly caught the train downtown. (There's hardly anywhere to park by the Paramount any more, making attending shows there a bit of a logistical nightmare if you're trying to drive.)

In September 2019, Deep Purple embarked on their The Long Goodbye tour, which includes over 25 different dates across the continental United States, with Joyous Wolf, a new rock band from Los Angeles, as support. Deep Purple are best known for their early 1970s efforts such as Deep Purple In Rock and Machine Head. Because of the fact that the band is nearing the end of their career, they chose to name their current tour The Long Goodbye Tour (though it won't necessarily be Deep Purple's final tour). On September 11th, 2019, Deep Purple made a tour stop at Seattle, Washington's Paramount Theatre.

Joyous Wolf, the opener, turned out to be a lot less compelling live than their studio material implies. Throughout their hour-long performance, the band had a terrible mix, with the vocals being buried near the back of the mix (thus making the lyrics unintelligible). The singer repeatedly begged the audience to stand up and applaud him, almost bringing to mind politician Jeb Bush's infamous "please clap" blunder, where he also demanded an unenthusiastic audience applaud him.

Deep Purple's setlist at the Paramount Theatre was identical to that of the previous night's setlist at Portland, Oregon's Keller Auditorium. Deep Purple opened with "Highway Star", the first song on their 1972 best-selling LP Machine Head. Of the band's discography, Machine Head had the most songs on the setlist, with 5 different songs from Machine Head making their way onto the set list (visible here). Most of the setlist was from the band's 1970s material, though there were certain songs from later albums (such as the title track from 1984's Perfect Strangers, or Time for Bedlam from inFinite). After performing Space Truckin' and Smoke on the Water (the band's two biggest hits), Deep Purple left the stage, only to return to play the last two songs of the set as their encore.

Overall, Deep Purple put on a good show, although their age is starting to show, with a noticeable lack of energy during certain songs on the set. I was glad to catch them on what will likely be their last tour.

One thing that CJ didn't mention is that he and Christian had great seats on the main floor, with a good view. However, there was a group behind them that apparently wanted to have a loud, non-stop conversation and didn't realize or care that they were at a Deep Purple concert. Christian noticed that a few other people had abandoned their seats and gone up and stood in the aisle near the stage, so that's what he and CJ did, too.

Speaking of concerts, here are a few photos Christian snapped at the Iron Maiden show a few nights ago.

BAKED: It occurs to me that I haven't posted anything about the last three or so cakes that we've made for Birthday Dreams, one of our family's favorite non-profits. That being the case, I asked Annabelle for a little write up about a tasty projected we put the icing on yesterday.

My family enjoys baking and decorating many cakes, and we continue to do so rather frequently so we can donate custom made birthday cakes to the organization Birthday Dreams, who provide parties and gifts for homeless children and teenagers in shelters across the Seattle area. The most recent cake we donated was a gaming themed cake for a 13-year-old, which we were happy to provide due to our interest in the theme.

We started by baking the requested chocolate cake and adding a chocolate buttercream filling and mini chocolate chips between the layers, coating the outside in a white buttercream for later painting. We sculpted three controller shapes out of Rice Krispies treats – two XBOX controllers and one PlayStation controller – and covered those in the same chocolate buttercream from before. The controllers were covered in black fondant and buttons made from a mixture of modelling chocolate and different sprinkles and candies. We also made a number 13 out of the same modelling chocolate (with a duplicate just in case the first one broke) to place on top of the cake. We used a sugar sheet to cut out the words “Level Up” and the 13-year-old's name. 

The cake itself was air-brushed silver and green, to match the main colors of an XBOX console. We lined the bottom of the cake with green sugar pearls for a clean-looking finish.

Photo above is of the finished cake, with teen's name altered to preserve anonymity.

This cake was actually super straightforward compared to many we've done. The 'trickiest' part was crafting the game controllers. Specifically, the tiny buttons on the controllers, with tiny letters on them.

We ended up making letters out of jimmies and/or cutting them out of candy, like the yellow Now and Later, below, into shapes.

I was thinking about our "caking" this morning, and it occurred to me that by providing birthday cakes to deserving, disadvantaged youth, we have an opportunity to partake in an excellent educational and life-skills building project. The process requires communicating with the organizer/customer(s), reading and following directions (both the cake request and the recipe(s) we'll be using). Art design is involved, which also involves math/engineering (how are we going to support this weight or make sure something stays erected?). It requires organization (sequencing steps is so important), and there are time sensitive benchmarks and hard deadlines that need to be met throughout the process. There are almost always tense moments, when things don't go as planned, which gives us a chance to work on the importance of having contingencies and being flexible. 

In the end, we always do a debriefing. What went well? What did we learn? What could we do better next time? 

An aside: When Annabelle called the Birthday Dreams' office yesterday to ask about a detail regarding the cake, an administrator asked if she and CJ would make a cake for the organization's annual gala in October. Of course, she said, "Yes!"

Never Forget

IN MEMORIAM: On the 18th anniversary of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, NASA astronauts paid tribute to the heroes who risked their lives to save others on that day by tweeting a special message from space.

"Honoring the brave public servants of @FDNY. Thank you for your service, we remember your fallen comrades," NASA's Expedition 60 astronaut Drew Morgan tweeted from the International Space Station. "Your flag and patch are proudly orbiting the Earth on board the @Space_Station! #NeverForget."

Morgan shared photos of a New York City Fire Department (FDNY) patch floating in the Cupola window with a view of Earth in the background, as well as a photo of himself with an FDNY flag mounted inside the orbiting laboratory. 

So many heroes. 9/11 was a day where so many gave everything. Here's a story I'd not heard before today. It's about a young man, a red bandanna, and a heroic effort. The question the memorial video asks is,"What would you do in the last hour of your life?"

Welles Crowther's story is worth a few minutes of your time.


Another 9/11-related story I learned about today for the first time was about Twin Towers' architect Minoru Yamasaki. 

Yamasaki was born in Seattle on Dec. 1, 1912. He graduated from Garfield High School, and then the  University of Washington, class of 1934. Yamasaki also designed the Rainier Tower and Pacific Science Center in Seattle.

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51691083

Given his age and knowing about Japanese internment camps during World War II, I wondered how Yamasaki fared during that period. Apparently the Detroit architecture firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls whom Yamasaki was working for during that period helped him avoid internment as a Japanese-American during World War II, and Yamasaki sheltered his parents in New York City. 

ROCK SHOW: Catching up on the rock and roll lifestyle that CJ is currently embracing, here's his review of the Iron Maiden show at the Tacoma Dome last Thursday night.

Ever since their formation on Christmas 1975, English heavy metal band Iron Maiden have found critical and commercial success, selling millions of albums worldwide. Iron Maiden was arguably the leading band in the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" (NWOBHM), a large group of heavy metal bands that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s (other notable NWOBHM bands include Judas Priest, Motörhead, Saxon, Def Leppard, Witchfinder General, and Venom).

On September 5th, 2019, Iron Maiden performed at the Tacoma Dome, as part of their "Legacy of the Beast" tour. The opener for the tour is The Raven Age, a band featuring George Harris, the son of Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris (yay, nepotism!). The concerts of the "Legacy of the Beast" tour are highly theatrical, featuring large props and sets, which often only get used for single songs (a good example being a large plane prop that was only used for Aces High, the first song on Iron Maiden's set). Most of the songs on the set list are from Iron Maiden's 1980s albums, when the band was at its peak of popularity.

Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden's singer, is impressively still able to sing many high-pitched parts of the band's songs, even at age 60. Noticeably, Dickinson's British accent isn't present in his singing voice, so it's jarring going from hearing him sing to hearing him talk (and vice versa). Towards the end of the concert, Bruce stopped the show to give a speech to the audience about an alleged attack by several venue security guards on a fan in the audience. Bruce followed the speech up with a performance of "The Evil That Men Do", a title he called "appropriate" considering the alleged attack.

Iron Maiden closed the concert with "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and "Run To The Hills," both classic cuts from their 1982 LP "The Number of the Beast." Overall, Iron Maiden put on a great show, and I wish them good luck on the rest of their tour (preferably without security guards assaulting a guest in the crowd).

Christian and CJ attended the show. They had decent seats, about midway back from the stage in the Tacoma Dome, and just a couple rows up off the floor. But early on, CJ decided he wanted to be in the mix, down on the floor, so Christian and CJ ventured into the mass of humanity down there. There are some good photos, but those will have to wait until Christian shares them with me. Stay tuned.

SPACE IS HARD, CONTINUED:  More not-so-good news from a non-NASA space program. On Tuesday, we were set to watch an unmanned Japanese re-supply mission to the ISS launch. Here it is on the pad, just moments before its scheduled take off.

Credit: MHI

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. The launch was aborted when a fire broke out on the launch pad. That's never a good thing. 

I found this video on YouTube. The fire erupts about the 17 minute mark. You can see fire suppression systems kick in shortly after the flames begin.


Fortunately, no one was injured, and there weren't any huge explosions. According to a press release from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), which is conducting the mission on behalf of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), a fire at the base of the of the launch pad on Japan’s Tanegashima island broke out near a vent designed to carry engine exhaust away from the heavy-lift H2B rocket. 

From what I've read, the incident is relatively minor, and it's hoped the mission is launched in the next day or so, but I can't find any new launch date in my Googling efforts as of this moment.

When it Rains, it Pours

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: It started out like most other September Saturday nights for us - football playing on three screens and just puttering around the house.

However, things started getting crazy just before 9 p.m. There was lightning and thunder, which isn't too terribly unusual in and of itself, but it just kept coming and coming, with intensity and frequency I've never before seen in my 50 years in the Pacific Northwest.

The headlines about the freak storm tell it all. ... 
"2,200 lightning strikes recorded across Western Washington from Saturday’s storm,"  declared Fox Q13.

"Seattle area sees 200 lightning strikes in under an hour ..." trumpeted the Seattle Times.


Things were so bad, events all over the region were cancelled, and the University of Washington Huskies' game was delayed for hours. 

Along with the light show, rain was coming down in sheets. Naturally, in the midst of it all, the dogs wanted to go outside. Given the weather at the moment, my response to her was, "No way. We're not going outside. You're going out the doggie door," which is a little door in a back door downstairs, that leads out to a tiny covered spot the pups can do their duty when we're not at home.

I escorted Kirby down the stairs and before long, I found myself sloshing around. Water was everywhere.  My response was to start yelling things like "HELP!" and "FLOOD!" 

The next three hours or so, the four of us were in crisis mode, moving dozens and dozens of soggy items, furniture, and so on.  Once the wet stuff was out of the way, it was time for some serious  vac-ing. I eventually remembered that our floor cleaning machine has a 'dry' setting, so we got that going, too. At one point CJ ran upstairs and threw every town in the house down the laundry chute, and we used those to sop up water, as well (and then deposited them in our new downstairs shower).  

We got every fan we had going and put a space heater in the back storeroom, which took the worst of the water damage.

A little before midnight, the rain had subsided and we had mopped up as much as we could.

As you might imagine, I had dreams about water, and was afraid to go look downstairs Sunday morning.  Thankfully, the floors were still dry. But the whole basement looked like a disaster area, with things strewn all over. 

And lets talk towels. So. Many. Towels. Every towel in the house was used. Apparently we have a *lot* of towels. I did 9 loads of laundry on Sunday. 

So today, things are trending back toward normal. Today, the kids and I inspected all of the things (computer stuff, music stuff, photo stuff, craft stuff, so much more stuff). Fortunately, we didn't lose anything significant. So lucky. So a couple of days out, it still looks like a bomb went off in the basement. It's a major inconvenience and a lot of extra work, but it could have been so much worse. 

BIG BUMMER: Friday afternoon a notice popped up on my computer that India had a moon lander about to touch down. I called the kids into the room, of course. Moon landings don't happen every day. 

When we tuned in, Chandrayaan-2, which means "moon vehicle" in Sanskrit, had reached a distance of 100km from moon's surface and was set to land. The moon lander and rover was aiming to land on the South Pole of the Moon, which would be a first. The moon’s south polar region is of particular interest because of water ice reserves and other resources that could be key for human settlement.

On board Chandrayaan-2 was a robotic rover named Pragyan (meaning "wisdom"). It was set to spend one lunar day (about 29 Earth days) collecting mineral and chemical samples from the moon's surface for remote scientific analysis.

In a press release prior to touchdown, Indian space agency Chairman K. Sivan said landing on the lunar surface involved numerous technical complexities and called the landing procedure "15 terrifying minutes."

We watched and waited, full of anticipation. The personnel in mission control were clearly so nervous and excited. The screen shot (below) was on our computer screen for way too long. The red line is toward the target. The green line was real time data.  Obviously Vikram's trajectory was off target.

For what seemed like forever, the graph above was on the screen, interspersed with screen shots of pained looking flight personnel. 

It was really just so sad to watch. (Video is below, if you're curious.)

Loss of signal, and more than a kilometer off the mark before the moon's surface, the lander's chances were looking slim. 

The lander was lost. ... At least for awhile.

Fortunately, there are a number of space probes in orbit around the moon, and images from those suggest the Vikram probe is still in one piece, albeit it tilted, on the moon surface. The ISRO team is working to establish communications with the lander. While the initial mission goals are out the window, hopefully they can make the most out of the current situation. We'll be staying tuned.