Bellisima! Futtitini!

here’s some pics and a quick bocce video – we’ll have Karri’s interview audio online soon!

Quick Video:

Slideshow:

Hard work – Done well. HUGE congrats!

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Went over to Boise this weekend, to see family and to see Heartless Bastards at the Neurolux in downtown. What a great time, and a great show!

I’ve known about HB for some time but every time they’ve come to Seattle I’ve missed them for one reason or another. They just put out a new album, and so a new tour, and we thought it would be great to head over to ID instead of seeing them finally here – well worth it, definitely a Top 10 concert for me. And definitely a band that rises above studio recordings – you really only get the ‘whole picture’ watching them live.  Erika Wennerstrom has such a great (and unique) voice – the only singer I can think of remotely similar is Chrissie Hynde – who is weirdly enough, also from Ohio, where the HB’s got their start. The musicians are all very, very good, the drummer in particular puts in all sorts of fills and extra stuff you’d not expect from straight-ahead rock music like this but i’m sure not complainin!

Here’s a bunch of their music on YouTube, including apparently a video from their 2010 Boise visit….

we also got to spend time with my sister’s family and an unexpected treat to see another cousin who happened to be in town for a few days too – great stuff!

until we hopefully get back over there to ski this winter….

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only about another month until the 2015 NW Pinball and Arcade show on the weekend of June 5-7! Apparently this bad boy will be making its debut there….very, very cool!

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But mark your calendars anyway – June 6-8, 2014, Tacoma Convention Center….

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At one point or another, we’ve all seen these on various family members, friends and celebrities. I myself have had the Reverse Mullet as well as an attempt at the Hair Metal (I however never, ever used petroleum products in my hair, I just never brushed it :))

The 13 Ugliest Hairstyles of Our Time

Notable missing participants, by hairdo style:

1) The Flock of Seagulls – this is now called ‘Japanese Anime Hair‘ and if you go to any Comic-Con or watch a Justin Bieber video, you’ll see it in abundance;

2) The Beehive – What, no B-52’s?

3) The Side Ponytail – You can’t leave out Tina Majorino’s ‘do in Napoleon Dynamite! Plus if you double up, you end up with Witch Hunter Robin…

4) The Jheri Curl – Ah, the days when Lionel Richie ruled the planet. But Keenan did the best turn in Hollywood Shuffle….

5) The Crimp – The two words that remain, forever, infamous: Gene. Simmons. And in a side note – kerewin and I have seen this ‘do in person at Whistler, complete with guard-Guidos to protect it.

6) The Big Bang – I’m not going to comment on certain sisters who have sported this ‘do – you know who you are 🙂 – but to this day, an entire western half of the Salt Lake City valley still keeps these ‘stylists’ in business….there, however, it is known as ‘The Hair Claw’.

7) The Phil Spector – I always wondered what happened to Bernie from Room 222….Or did he just reach the Tipping Point?

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But then again, I’m sure Calvin would have zinged him back in short order….

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Where a horde of space aliens, steel balls, and sometimes unshowered nerds descend upon the Seattle Center for gaming craziness….woo hoo!

The 2012 Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show

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Watched the 2005 Anthony Hopkins movie The World’s Fastest Indian tonight. Pretty good, although a bit slow in the middle. This is the story of Burt Munro, the guy from New Zealand who built and rebuilt his 1920’s Indian motorcycle to conquer the world of speed – first in NZ, then in Utah, USA at the Bonneville Salt Flats, in the late 60’s. The movie doesn’t really dwell on about 90% of his life – it concentrates on his quest for speed at Bonneville and the many obstacles (money, logistics and other various pitfalls along the way) he faced in getting there, getting to run and setting several new world records.

Anthony Hopkins is pretty good and believable as Burt Munro – he plays it pretty minimalist, though and sometimes it’s hard to understand him – not sure how accurate his NZ accent is, but whatevs. The speed runs at Bonneville and elsewhere he does on that crazy old motorbike are very well done and really give you a sense of how it must have seemed to drive at that speed (close to 200pmh) with little to no protection (he had almost no brakes, no protective gear save a helmet and no drag chute, at least in the runs depicted here). There isn’t really much character development of any note here – the story (like the man depicted) is solely focused on speed, speed, speed. But it’s interesting to note from Wikipedia that many of Bert’s records are still standing to this day.

The DVD includes a separate, older documentary of sorts from 1971 with the real Burt Munro in it – while it could have been at least a half-hour shorter, it’s interesting to watch and you can see the 2005 film pretty much nails the character and his quest spot on. Ultimately, ‘TWFI’ is an entertaining and inspiring adult holiday movie to watch if you get the chance.

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