On Friday I went with Kevin to check out Capitol Hill Block Party before seeing the Dresden Dolls’ film show. The show was held at the Capitol Hill Arts Center so it was only a short walk away from the block party going on at the same time. The block party was mainly a music festival, not many vendors or food booths. Even with three stages, it became crowded, especially when Band of Horses came on stage. We saw a bunch of different bands: Slender Means, Helio Sequence, Immaculate Machine, Tennis Pro, Himsa, Village Green, and Band of Horses.
My two favorite acts would probably be Village Green and Tennis Pro. Both bands brought a lot of energy to the stage and were pure fun rock n’ roll. Tennis Pro’s gimmick was that they were dressed in ill-fitting ugly tennis garb. Imagine: short-shorts, tight polos with popped collars, and a headband. They even had their own tennis groupies: girls who came to the show in mini skirts and swinging wooden tennis racquets.
Check out my flickr for more pictures and hi-res versions.
I’m a big fan of the Dresden Dolls, so when I heard that Amanda Palmer was putting on a film and music show I was sure to go. Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls showed a collection of short films and in between the series of shorts there were live acts such as a Samba dancer on stilts, and a fire breather/dancer. To top off the night, Amanda Palmer brought out the other half of the Dresden Dolls: Brian Viglione; to do a few songs. She mainly played film songs and covers, which will probably never be recorded and released so it was great to see such a rare performance.
This weekend I played assistant-babysitter to my nieces while my brother was out of town on his annual golftrip. Luckily my sister-in-law thought of enough activities to keep us occupied. On Saturday morning we went to the Seattle Woodland Zoo along with four other families. I haven’t been to a zoo since I was in highschool so it was fun practicing my photography on animals I haven’t seen in a really long time. Out of the 192 pictures taken during the trip, these are the ones I am most proud of. Check my flickr for the hi-res version.
I found The Happy Planet Map from a yahoo news article. The gist of the article is that an organization found that there is no correllation between happiness and consumption. There’s more too it than that, since the article takes the perspective of relating tech consumption with happiness; the tech-countries did not fare well when ranked based on “happiness.”
Maybe it is all subjective because the study was based on people’s perceptions of their own quality of life; but after poking around on the website, I tend to agree with the rankings. It seems that the countries with simpler lives are more happy.
This harks back to my views on the American consumerist lifestyle. We work work work, but for what? To buy more stuff? To make our lives easier? To have provide a better life for our children? But any of this make us happier?
Maybe we should start saving up to move away to another country and live simpler, happier lives. Then I’d just need to find a way to replace my tech-based hobbies…
It’s still only Saturday? I did so much today that I feel like the weekend is over already. I woke up a little before noon and went straight to the licensing office to get my WA license in North Bend. The wait time was not so bad since the office was in the sticks away from Seattle. Then I came home and vaccuumed the house and cleaned my bathroom. Chores and errands give me a sense of accomplishment.
Afterwards my brother took me to the golf range. I told him a few weeks back that I was kind of interested in learning. I hesitate to jump into golf due to the high cost of equipment, playing, practice, and lessons. So far I’m self-taught on almost all the sports and activities I do; in a weird way, I’m proud of that. At the range I figured my experience in racquet sports may help some since I heard golf is all in the hips and legs. Turned out I was right and my brother said I was kind of a natural. Surprising, since the last time I hit a golf ball was probably 10 years ago.
I brought my camera to try to take some action shots of my bro but it turned out to be more useful for taking video instead. I was making solid contact with the irons and could get the approximate distances on each club. My placement was pretty good as well since I was not slicing or hooking it; the ball flew straight plus or minus a few yards in either direction. My brother said he’ll take me to a par3 as soon as I learn how to putt. Here’s my swing; any tips are appreciated
My only dilemma now is deciding if I want to add golf to my ever-growing list of activities. I don’t want to spread myself thin and be only average at the things I do. The competitive nature in me demands that I be better than others at the things I get into. I’ve been told this is a bad personality trait, but to me, being competitive IS fun (i.e., winning is fun).
After golf I went back to Beaver Lake to do some solitary biking. I was the only person in there and it felt eerily serene. It felt good not thinking about anything while I was in there. I was just focused on the moment. I’m finally enjoying mountain biking more now that the initial fears have disappeared and my skills are more developed. MTB really gets my heartrate pumping more than a typical workout at the gym. It takes more mental effort for me to get my HR up at the gym because it’s too easy to just settle into a groove. Check this out, I recorded my biking session
Thursday night I checked out the Seattle elimination round for the DMC American Battlegrounds DJ championship with Kev. The winner of the competition would move on to represent Seattle on Aug 19th in Chicago. From there, the winner of the Chicago event will move on to represent the US for the world DMC Championship. For those unfamiliar with turntablism, the basic premise is that a DJ manipulates two playing turntables and a mixer to create new, original seamless music; using techniques such as scratching, beat matching, beat juggling, and blending.
The event was held at Chop Suey, and the turn out was surprisingly low. I guess the Seattle turntablism scene isn’t as big as I expected. Though, it was inspiring to see many young people come out to the show, hopefully the Seattle kids will help make the scene bigger. From what I saw/heard, I didn’t think the contestants here in the Seattle area would be winning the worldwide championship anytime soon. The talent here is growing, but still sorely far from world-class talents like DJ Craze and DJ Q-bert.
The winner of the Seattle heat was DJ Tre. Here’s a video I took of the beginning of his performance.
We hit up Beaver Lake today, which is really close to my home. It turned out to be a great ride since it wasn’t very technical, and there was barely any elevation change. I found the trails to be great flowing singletrack which I enjoyed very much. I’m definitely going to go back again by myself and practice till I can do the trails faster without stopping. Pat found the trail to be boring because it wasn’t very technical, but for my level, I think I am better suited to something easier till I build up my skills. I didn’t bring my new camera to Beaver Lake today, so most of these are Pat’s pics.
I feel like I’m lacking something. I’ve got plenty of activities and hobbies to keep myself occupied with, but I still feel incomplete. Maybe I’m just in a rut or something. I’ve been doing the same thing for the past couple months now; go to work, then either 1. go to the gym or tennis or 2. CSS/guitar/fux around on computer. Ever since starting that music blog and trying to update it regularly, time really flies. Each entry usually takes around 40-60 minutes because of the playback links and pictures I research, and before I know it, a good portion of my night is gone. That, plus catching up on the SW forum, and it quickly becomes time for bed.
I sometimes ask myself when I’m feeling emo: “Is that it? It that all there is to life? Work, then do X as a leisure activity?” At first it was exciting and fun to get into new hobbies like tennis and biking, and before that, guitar. I told myself that the guitar was to help me get away from playing videogames at home and to express myself creatively; but even now I am finding it harder to find time to practice guitar consistently. Life is going to fly by if all I am doing is working and looking forward to doing X on the weekend. And in between all that, I catch myself being caught up in typical American Consumerism. I’m buying stuff to keep myself occupied.
My most recent purchase was a new camera, and I got it because my current camera was more of a snapshot pocket camera and I wanted something I could have more control over. In short, I wanted to take better photos. I catch myself justifying the purchase in my head “I don’t NEED the camera…but I wanted it…” Consumerism at its finest. Whenever I find myself getting bored, I’ll start looking for things to buy.
What I’m trying to say is…whatever I do, it seems like I am only doing it for “the moment.” Moreover, I am only doing it for myself. Perhaps I’m lacking a spiritual or altruistic aspect in my life, or maybe what Eric always says is true “Dude, you need a girlfriend.” Although I always retort “There’s a difference between being alone and being lonely…I’m not lonely.” Worse yet, I wouldn’t want a gf and unconsciously treat her like one of my many hobbies. I’m too selfish and immature to dedicate myself to someone.
I don’t know how long I can put up with this cycle of buying/taking on new hobbies to keep myself occupied. Is there no end? I guess in the meantime I’ll put more effort into doing the best with what I’ve got.
