I may not have five American flag stickers on my car or bake apple pie from scratch every day, but I love baseball. In Little League I was the worst second baseman (baselittlegirl?) ever, but my collection of baseball cards was top notch (hehehe) and I had a life-size poster of Nolan Ryan on my bedroom wall. I remember fondly driving up to Arlington Stadium in Texas with my Dad, drinking ice-cold cokes on the way and seeing Nolan Ryan’s 5000th strikeout. Baseball is happy-making, baseball is playtime.

Now that I am completely grown up and matured, I go to baseball games with as many friends as possible; we pack into Safeco and scream our lungs out for the heck of it. TODAY IS OPENING DAY.

Here are the Top 7 Reasons to Love Seattle Mariner’s Baseball:

1. Beer at Pyramid Brewery before the game. A no-brainer really; grab a chilly Hefeweizen (or three) at Pyramid for half the price of the drinks next door at SAFECO Field. Finding a table inside can be an exercise in complete futility, but grabbing a beer in the giant beer garden outside is as easy as a McDonald’s fast-food apple pie (I would say easy as pie but that’s a misnomer- have you ever actually made a pie? Not easy). Pyramid Beer is now the official beer of the Mariners, so you can get officially buzzed before the game.
2. Kids in the stands who have no idea about steroids, gambling addiction, Pete Rose, or $8 beers; they are just there to enjoy the game and be inducted into the great pastime of the U.S. of A. Do you see their wide eyes and big smiles as they wave blue foam fingers for whoever just hit the ball? Soak it up.
3. Ichiro. When I worked at a fancy hotel in downtown Seattle, they estimated that 20% of their guests were Japanese tourists who come our city primarily to see the great Ichiro. That’s a lot of revenue for Seattle, AND we all know just like the Japanese that Ichiro ROCKS, hands down and batting average up!
4. Peanuts, Nachos, and Hotdogs. I’ll skip the crackerjacks with the junk prizes and dive into a giant plastic tray of chips, “cheese”, and jalapenos, thank you very much. Of course, the food in any ballpark is WAY overpriced and slightly unhealthy, but nothing goes with a baseball game better than food you eat with your hands.
5. The Cheap Seats. For $8 you can get a ticket in the nosebleed section, the center field bleachers. You can’t see the batter’s expression or the pitcher’s evil eye, but you can get loud and crazy and hoot and holler with the rest of the ruffians. When the Mariners aren’t winning the cheap seats are almost empty and it becomes your own little world. Your own little peanut-throwing, heckling, beer-spilling world.
6. SAFECO Field. Our stadium is nice and all but the view it owns is nothing short of spectacular. Take in the game along with a fat view of downtown Seattle and a sunset over Puget Sound at weeknight games. Enjoy the Emerald City and be glad your home is chock full of mountains and water. Luck-ee!
7. THWACK!!! The sound of a player’s bat connecting with the ball is a sound of joy, of mirth, of play; it connects with our hearts too and we all look up, hoping to see the little spot in the big sky, headed our way.

Play is important in life, much more so than big screen TVs, fancy BMW’s or stainless steel kitchen appliances. In the words of George Bernard Shaw, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” So get out there and catch a Seattle Mariner’s game this season and see how many of my Top 7 you can experience at one game. Play ball, and enjoy life!

Some people have this idea of art as an elitist hobby, they think that people qualified to comment on art must have studied for years in Paris and Rome, or painted landscapes since before they could walk, or have an embossed piece of paper from a fancy art school like Cornish. Those people are wrong. Art is for all humans. We are all artists, we are all tapped into the energy of the universe, and our talents just depend on how much we nurture this connection and practice it’s expression. We are all sculptors, and musicians, and dancers; we just choose to spend our time in one way or another.

Why don’t you choose to explore your not-so-inner artist this week at the first Thursday Seattle Art Walk in Pioneer Square. What I absolutely love about this art walk is it’s inclusive nature; from 6PM to 8PM, not only do all the galleries in the area open their doors to all, but Occidental Park provides a home for any artist in Seattle to come and display their work. All you need to do to show your work in the Seattle Art Walk is a business license and a few bucks to sign up for the space rental. This makes the event more accessible to all, honoring the idea that art isn’t just for rich people who stand around in stark galleries nodding their heads and murmuring words like “nonchalant” and “emotive”. Not that the fancy galleries aren’t open to everyone, but there are more than a few of us Seattleites who can’t pay thousands of dollars for a piece of art. I know when I walk into a gallery like the Benham Gallery or the Jeffery Moose Gallery, though their pieces will hopefully spark my brain and make me reconsider the definition of the word ‘art’, there is no way I am walking out with a piece of work to hang on my wall. Most of you will agree with me, and that’ why ‘art’ gets the elitist wrap stuck to it. When I walk up to an open-air art market, however, I get excited: maybe I will discover a great new artist finger-painting on cardboard and struggling to pay rent with their creativity, or find a handmade piece of jewelry from a local, or watch someone carving a wooden totem with a chainsaw.

It is this spirit of universality that makes the Seattle Art Walk so inspiring and so Seattle; this art-loving city supports the creative efforts of all, be they in stark, well-lit gallery spaces or on the street next to a park bench. Come out this month to the Seattle Art Walk, it’s free and for the enjoyment of all artists- that’s YOU. For two hours stroll around, have some coffee at Tully’s or a beer at The Central Saloon, meet the artists who are showcasing their wares, enjoy the street performers, and maybe even get inspired to go home and pick up that paintbrush you once put down.

The Super Sonic Soul Pimps Pimp Nectar with style. Johnnie, Zak, Wells and Kimo all came out in jumpsuits looking like Air Force pilots. Yeah, that’s right, Kimo pimpin’ a jumpsuit (good work Kimo). Anyway, I wrote a review at culturemob.com about it.

What I wanted to talk about here is that they invited CultureMob’s very own Chris Brummel to the stage to play some bass and get down. I took a few shots from my blackberry for your viewing pleasure. The images are fuzzy but then, I was a little fuzzy too. I now present you the short culturemob.com Chris movie. Enjoy!



For more events at the Nectar Lounge, go to culturemob.com

Yes, finally it’s Springtime in Seattle! Yeah, the colors, the birds, the daffodils, the SNOW!!!

Okay, that video above was from New York in February of 2006 but it did snow here in Seattle today!

All aboard the Springtime Express! You don’t need a ticket, you just need a thick winter coat, a dorky yet warm hat, a pair of gloves and some ear warmers. Then repeat after me: “it’s not cold outside! it’s not cold outside! it’s not cold outside!”
I just shot this video of the important things you’ll need this spring!

Springtime my…eye!

On a more serious note, there are a lot of fun event to check out while waiting for spring to appear. Next Thursday starting at 10am you can take a trip to the Nordic Heritage Museum for example. Make no mistake, it’s a springtime celebration. Children can make fun springtime crafts from the Nordic countries. So go have some fun out there!

Find more warm events this spring at culturemob.com

THURSDAY:

• Nada Surf plays the first of two performances at the Showbox at the Market tonight, bringing to Seattle their laid-back rock style. You will remember their name from the song “Popular” which indeed was popular back in the day (My mom says I’m a catch/I’m popular/I’m never last picked/I got a cheerleader chick). If nothing else the Nada Surf will remind you how happy you are to be OUT of high school.
• Not into beach rock? Nine-time Grammy winner Eddie Palmieri spills his particular blend of Latin jazz out onto the piano at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley; if his innovative style doesn’t win you over, his charismatic stage manner will.
• For the dancers out there, no place can match The Last Supper Club for the $5 Beatcon Breakdown with BreakBeatBuddha from San Francisco. Read my preview of the show here.

FRIDAY:

• Analog VIII takes over Rebar every last Friday of the month; this time it’s house music with several local deejays as well as live painters and the Produkt dancers. Rebar’s dance floor is always packed at Analog events, come and make some friends.
• If you think house music is for lam-o’s, then check out some real musicians at The Triple Door with the Asylum Street Spankers from Austin. With rubboards, stand-up bass and heaps of other magic instruments, these cats jam and have a damn good time doing it.
• Rockers will enjoy The Cute Lepers (your lesions are adorable!) at the new club King Cobra on Capitol Hill
• For a bit of wackiness head to Nectar for the Super Sonic Soul Pimps- they have promised a dog collar, box of crayons, and yes, instruments.

SATURDAY:

• The Boss is in town! If you love Bruce Springsteen get your tight jeans and American flag bandanna and head to Key Arena for some good old-fashioned rock and roll.
• The King Cobra goes off again tonight with IceAge Cobra, a psychedelic rock band which will no doubt have all the black-leather and silver-chain clad crowd bobbing heads like they really mean it
• Jose Gonzalez will mesmerize the Triple Door diners into dribbling their food down their chins; his haunting style on the acoustic guitar just might inspire you to pick one up and learn a few chords.
• Over in Ballard Velella Velella will fill the Sunset Tavern with their electro-pop sound; buy a drink and get ready to dance.

Get out there, Seattle! Your city is waiting. I’ll see you on the streets.

So I went to the Vera Project tonight to see Gravy Train!!!!, New Bloods and Joey Casio. I wrote a review of my life changing experience on CultureMob event page. So go check it out. Speaking of which, I heard this one guy say “all ages means all ages, not under 21.” So if you’re over 21 years of age and you have not yet been to the Vera Project, you’re just down right shady!

New Bloods



Added: Check out Eric Grandy’s Preview post and many of the comments about New Bloods in LINEOUT http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/03/new_bloods

Gravy Train!!!