as we cry in our beer over tax day today – remember that many years ago, a much more joyous occasion was had…

Groundbreaking for the Space Needle is held in Seattle on April 17, 1961.

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Went to see The Darkness at Showbox Seattle last night. While they aren’t on the level of Flight to Mars or Fishbone musician-wise, they still definitely put on a good show.

We skipped the opener, Diarrhea Planet – both of us watched a KEXP clip of theirs on YT earlier in the day and concluded they weren’t for us (if the band name wasn’t enough deterrent to begin with?).

So I’ve liked The Darkness for some time, but mostly the first two albums, hadn’t heard the latter 3 until just recently (right after I got tix) so wasn’t as familiar with that material, but either way, they delivered it well.

Among other silliness seen were a constant rotation of hats thrown up from the audience; the audience banter with Justin Hawkins (singer and band leader), a bit of actual crowd surfing by same, and (sadly) some actual mosh pit action by the end….

Justin Hawkins may be many things, but it’s clear he’s definitely influenced by glam rockers such as Bowie, Marc Bolan and likely Mick Jagger, possibly even The Sweet (which may be closest to the pop rock of The Darkness, sound-wise) – witness the full-body ‘leopard skin’ slinky outfit he had on (the rest of the band looked fairly normal, barring the bassist resembling a rougher fro-headed Borat).

But that crazy falsetto he has is still in good shape, even at 43 years old (he opened the show last night by insisting they were all 28, but later Jeff Carter (math wizard) correctly noted there’s no way they were that young, and it turns out that’s how old they were when they started.

Speaking of when they started, their biggest hit was the last song of the night, which some Seattle nerd captured on their phone and posted on YT (of course) – enjoy! Their albums have also largely made it onto YT also, and the second video below is a full 2015 concert from Chicago, many of the same songs….enjoy! candybowl

In what’s become something of an annual tradition, a buddy and I went to the SIFF SFF Encore film festival today. While all the films were well made, many this year weren’t really as ‘sci fi’ as in years past.

Here’s the films I was able to find online – pretty much my faves from the show – enjoy!

FTL:

M.A.M.O.N (Monitor Against Mexicans Over Nationwide):

Time Chicken:

GEAR:

Dead Hearts:

Strange Beasts:

Jiminy:

The Privates:

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Hard work – Done well. HUGE congrats!

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It could have been soooo much simpler, according to this picture….

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we had (literally) nosebleed seats that summer when the reunion tour hit Key Arena (as the YT notes show, 7 years *after* this VH1 show), but it was definitely worth it to see one of my all-time fave bands…

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…for the Greenwood Car Show! One block from our house, every year near the end of June. Interesting batch this year – lot more Corvettes than usual (although my fave ’54 of years past hasn’t been here for a few years now); the Mini group just keeps getting bigger each year somehow; good selection of oddball electric and Soviet cars; the Hawaiians normally not seen until later in July at the Shoreline VW meet were here in force this year, nearly an entire block for aircooled VWs. And a few choice Japanese cars (old and new), and a Pantera but only one Ferrari, surprisingly. And my usual gripe – *way* too many lame muscle cars (most of which now sadly are ‘classic’ too….again, argh.)

– the kids in the Jeep were cute – and I loved the ‘Jurassic Park’ Wrangler pair they had – too funny. There were many old military Jeeps this year and a couple vintage Dodge Power Wagons, too.

– also, that ‘Porsche’ seen first wasn’t in the show, that showed up later parking across from our house. When the guy pulled up in it, i asked him ‘is it real or Memorex?’ – he said ‘Memorex!’ – so not sure if this was a replica or a real one, but it was sure nice either way….!

– you can click on a pic to enlarge considerably, btw.

Enjoy!

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if Casualties of Jazz started playing Meters songs, this is what it would sound like…click through to hear on SoundCloud..

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio

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Another music tragedy – will they just please STOP?! RIP, Mr. Cornell…

also a much older clip from happier times here….

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finally got back to Flight to Mars last night after an absence of 3 years – true, ROCK. This was the 15th year show – ‘wow’ doesn’t begin to describe it, definitely one of the best rock shows I’ve seen in a long time – looking at the most recent years (that i’ve missed) it looks like they’ve been on a Thin Lizzy kick of late too – there were several played last night – great stuff!

someone video’d the opening F2M song:

Looks like Mr McCready broke out a little Eruption in the Sat show:

Previous years’ clips can be seen from this search too.

candybowl