Image of the Day

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Cover of the forthcoming Rodarte-edited issue of A Magazine (A has a different guest editor for each issue – check the archives here).

Social Adaptability

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Dogs and polar bears are friends – from the TV show "Jailed Polar Bear." In Churchill, Manitoba ("the polar bear capital of the world"), bears who wander too close to town are kept in a safe holding area until Hudson Bay freezes over and they can be released back into the wild.

(Thanks to Jessica for the link)

Ready, Able

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Grizzly Bear "Ready, Able" from Veckatimest (2009, Warp). Directed by Allison Schulnik.

(thank you for the link Joey Veltkamp)

At Rest

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Yesterday Emily and I took a full day off, something neither of us has done done since that trip to Port Townsend in early January. It was so nice in Seattle. We went to Alki and took a walk, went to Ray's for a late lunch, and ended up at Captain Blacks with some favorite cohorts, where we got to watch Bode win the combined, along with the ceaseless wonder that is ice dancing. It was magical and surreal (the day off – the ice dancing not so much).

This post is not about anything, it's just me checking in 'cause it feels like it's been awhile. Here are some pictures I've taken over the last month.

Shabazz Palaces at Neumo's.

One should never disagree with a bear.

There's a band called Ocelot Omelet.

Cold Lake at the Comet. They play the Crocodile this Thursday night – highly recommended.

I remember someone coming back to New York and saying that one of the things they missed was all the walls of ads pasted up around the city. At the time I thought that was ridiculous.

Seattle does have some nice paste-up artwork around though. I admired this skull on the way to work for a few days until the rain washed it off.

Stang and a couch. What else is there.

I don't know, seemed photo-worthy. Nice colors.

I'm looking for a new office. One with a big window.

There's a venue in Seattle called the Pet Seminary. ("Where dogs go to become priests.")

Classy.

"Go to hell." "You first." (Is that a line from The Quick and the Dead? I think it is. Surprisingly underrated movie despite the presence of that little girl DiCaprio. He's kind of a kid in that movie anyway so it's okay...Arnie Grape with a six-shooter.)

Past Lives at Black Lodge on Saturday. Go buy their new record and see 'em live (Brooklyn: April 20th). They have never sounded better. Same goes for Triumph of Lethargy, who opened. They have a new album on the way which I'm very much looking forward to.

After the show we walked out to our Jeep to find that it was all muddy and the front fender was crushed. We became quite agitated. And then we realized that our Jeep – the exact same model, year and color, with the exact same rack on the roof and everything – was parked two cars in front of this one, and was 100% unscathed. It was a little embarrassing.

If anything like that ever happened to this dude he would just finish his Raindog, find a crooked little stick in the gutter and wave it in the air, and an unusually sturdy and majestic shetland pony would appear to whisk him away...or maybe a dune buggy. He seems like he knows some secret that I don't know, and I wish I knew it.

Northwest Living

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Some pics from our weekend camping in the North Cascades...which was beyond beautiful, just totally mind-blowing. Other than when I had to go over and yell at the French Canadians who set up camp extremely loudly in the middle of the night right next to us, or when we had an awkward encounter with some creepy middle-aged people from New York who saw our NY plates and wanted us to hang out with them, or getting back to find that my computer had completely fried, it was a perfect weekend – I'm looking forward to going up there again some time soon.

Get ready to live

Marblemount, WA

A roadside plaque about Jack Kerouac et al's time up up there in Desolation Lookout.

A one-lane road runs across Diablo Dam (by the way, Diablo is pronounced Die-ab-low, with ab being pronounced the Suzanne Somers way).

Ross Lake

You said it sister
On the Fourth of July we hiked up to Heather Pass in Okanagan National Forest. We didn't make it to the top because the path was still covered in snow and we lost the way.

Also, there was a massive grizzly bear eating his way through the meadow below us.

Sunday we hiked up to Thornton Lake and Trapper Mountain.

There was still a lot of snow but the trail was more clear.

It was however one of the tougher hikes I've ever done – it was 9 miles roundtrip and listed as "moderately strenuous" but there was nothing moderate about it. We got to the top and pretty much collapsed.

It was insane though – the view was totally worth it. It still bugs me out that this is only a couple hours outside of Seattle.

click to enlarge

Grin and Bear It : )

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Tonight as part of the Seattle International Film Festival, Los Angeles band No Age is performing an original live score to L'Ours (The Bear), a 1989 film by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Take that, Grizzly Bear.
From siff.net:

When a rockslide kills a mother bear, her cub Douce becomes an orphan in the threatening Canadian Rockies. Luckily, she encounters Bart, a full-grown male bear on the run from hunters after mauling their pack animals. Though the ill-tempered Bart initially rejects Douce’s companionship, the cub wins his affection by licking Bart’s gunshot wounds. Psychedelic mushroom trips and a rendezvous with Doc (the effeminate male bear who plays Bart’s love interest) are woodland fun at its finest, but the invasive fear of being hunted drives The Bear forward. Staged with trained bears and filmed in the Italian Dolomites, Jean-Jacques Annaud’s film seems like realism in drag as documentary. Yet it’s this feeling that makes The Bear a magical discovery and a welcome departure from the ordinary wildlife exposé.
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As Douce and Bart sift through the maladies and joys of their precarious existence, so too does No Age’s music filter raw sensation through art-punk chaos.

I like bears, I like the Canadian Rockies, I like mushrooms, I like art. I like punk, I tell you what. I like that stuff. I'm not sure about the chaos, it's complicated.

No Age Every Artist Needs a Tragedy mp3

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Triumph of Lethargy also playing tonight, at The Mix in Georgetown (info here)

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Loud good times