August 20, 2006
Bounced into the Parkway Tavern on Saturday afternoon to check out the IPA Festival their blog post described as “An all-day celebration of hops featuring 18 of the finest regional IPAs.” Who doesn’t love India Pale Ale? There was a crowd of already quite rowdy people in the Parkway when we popped in about 5 in the afternoon. India Pale Ales are notorious for being just chock full of alcohol, up to around 10%. The Parkway was bumping. I picked up the scent a block away, there was a bbq out front and kielbasa sausage was being grilled. I haven’t been there in quite a long while, it’s all been redone inside and it looks great. On our first trip to the bar, an outwardly lit older woman instructed me to “try the erection beer”. Okay, guess I will.
She was talking about the Walking Man Homo Erectus Imperial IPA brewed in Stevenson, WA by the Walking Man Brewery. The brewery describes the beer as “An Imperial IPA brewed in celebration of being erect for two million years.” I ordered a 6 ounce glass. This was a bold IPA containing 10% alcohol by volume. Very nice. Even after several libations and cloudy judgement, she had recommended a stellar beer.
I sampled two more IPAs before leaving, the Bend, Oregon-based Deschutes Brewery’s Inversion IPA and Denver, Colorado’s Great Divide Titan IPA. Deschute’s makes killer beer. Already a big fan of their beers, especially the excellent Mirror Pond Pale Ale, it came as no surprise to me that this was my favorite of the afternoon. The Great Divide was also very tasty.
My faves in order:
- Inversion IPA
- Titan IPA
- Homo Erectus Imperial IPA
Eavesdropped the table behind us: “I’ve been listening to Dead Kennedys again recently. I haven’t listened to it since I was about 13 years old, but I realized their musicianship was amazing”. To which I leaned over and injected “Welcome back.”.
The Parkway was still going strong when we left around 6:30. They were giving out tickets to win novetly bar prizes (tee shirts, hats, etc.) and the boisterous crowd roaring and cheering with every glass broken behind the bar. Like I said, IPAs are strong as hell. Better to leave early in the evening than be that guy at the bar who’s lost his pants and is crying uncontrollably at 9:30 PM. You know? Not like I’ve ever done that. I’m jus’sayin’…
Comments Off on IPA Festival at the Parkway Tavern
August 13, 2006
Tranlation: Let’s go. I lived in a house next door to a guy Russ before I bought my house in South Tacoma a couple of years back. He started a band called the Vamanos. They have a bluesy rock n’ roll sound and their songs—while fun are typically—um, how you say? …long. I’ve been recording the band in a combination of spaces lately (their basement, my basement) and they’re nearly finished with about 7 songs which they intend to release independently. They dropped a last minute show tonight at O’Malley’s on 6th Avenue. O’Malley’s is weird. I wouldn’t typically think of it as a live venue. It’s just, kind of… a bar. While it wouldn’t be altogether a bad idea to host more live shows, patrons might be better served if there were a few tables moved out of the way and there was room for people to move around.
In contrast to my last post on film shooting, these shots are digital. While they’re not entirely bad shots, I can’t help but think they’re a bit flat. Err… digital. Don’t listen to what I say, take a look for yourself and let me know what you think in comparison with the previous shots of the Boss Martians. Or not.
Comments Off on Vamanos
August 4, 2006
“I guess the most important thing I realized is something I probably knew all along,” he said in a statement released Thursday night. “At least among artists, it is best to resolve our differences one on one. I am pleased that Mr. Rubino and I were able to do that.”
Link to the Seattle PI where you’ll see an incredibly goofy photograph.
August 2, 2006

Observed at the Spar in Old Town earlier tonight.
Bottle Up and Explode? Punk Rock.
Comments Off on Bottle Up and Explode
July 28, 2006
I was surprised to stumble on the Western State Hospital Hill Ward ruins in Fort Steilacoom Park a couple weekends ago. Judging by the graffiti, I’m probably the only one who didn’t know about it. I guess it’s been abondoned since 1972. Here’s a link to recent article from TheNewsTribune.com detailing some problems in the area, and here are some photos of the ruins.
July 24, 2006
It’s all the rage. Tacoma has been attempting to reinvent itself and prop up the downtown area as the happening city center.
(more…)
July 22, 2006
Last weekend we hit the Humane Society’s Dog-A-Thon down at Forst Steilacoom park. My wife put herself (and her dog) on the task and helped to raise $500 toward the no kill shelter in Pierce County. I think overall, the event raised $151,000, up $30K from last year. This was a pretty good opportunity to shoot some photos, and that I did. There are a bunch of dog-a-thon photos up on my Flickr site.
June 16, 2006

“Hey man, you can’t bring that in here. This is a signed band and they’re on a record label. Are you with the press?” says bouncer. “Um, no. Just a local guy with a camera. I’m here for the show.” I reply.
If I had a minute to think that through, I probably should have just said, “Yes, I’m with the _____ here to take shots for the upcoming issue.” Better yet, being a graphic designer, I should just make some legitimate cards or a “press pass” for myself and produce them on demand, but hey—this is Maggie O’Tooles, not some exclusive venue. Come on… I’m at a place that has squeezed in a Mudhoney show literally between Ladies Night with cover band x and Bikini Contest Fridays. I asked the guy, “Are you sure I can’t bring this in?” He calls over another guy—presumably management—and double checks. This guy affirms the policy and tells me they have a pro on site, and also they “pay a lot” for photographs, but I can leave a card and they might hire me to do shots in the future. A little pissed, but at least considerate of the rules of the seedy joint, I took my camera back to the car and locked it up.
Once inside, I noticed a girl from the local camera shop walking around with a Canon Digital Rebel in plain view. Out of curiosity, I stopped to ask her if she was being paid for shooting. She said she was working for the bar. Okay. Great. Good for her.
I had wanted to run a roll of B&W through my Nikon N80, and perhaps a roll of expired Ektachrome 1600 for kicks. I’m not a pro. This is not pro gear. I don’t get paid to take photographs. Nor was it my intention to sell shots of the band with ridiculous ass Bud Light banners advertising the bar’s trite promotions as a backdrop for cold hard cash. It wasn’t even friggin’ digital this time. As I said, I shoot photos for kicks. It would have been what I considered… practice. I didn’t imagine Mudhoney to be the kind of band that would be really uptight about their image, and as it turns out, I was right. Instead, all I was able to get in the door was my cell phone camera and take a few awful pictures with it. Oh well. Suck. Suckafried. Sucktastic. Suckatocious.
Mudhoney played a good set with songs from their entire catalog. Stuff from the early days and a smattering of tunes from from the recent Under a Billion Suns. Mudhoney is one of those bands that has always done things their own way, a rarity on the radar these days. The show started out with less than a bang, but picked up steam and closed pretty strong. Mark Arm broke a string on his sparkle top Gretsch on the opening song. Never the best way to start out. It wasn’t the best show I’ve seen Mudhoney play, but considering the venue and frankly, the crowd, it was good times.
The reason for the whole rant on the man preceding my brief review of the actual show is simple: Once the band started playing, not only was the pro shooter up in the front row snapping away, but there were about 15 additional asshats lined up at the stage with small point and shoot digital cameras. They were firing off tons of shots in plain view. Shots with flash that I’m absolutely certain are going to suck. Why I was forced to leave my amateur film SLR in the car is well beyond me. I thought to myself, “Sure… I’m going to leave you a card. Eff that. This is the first and last time I’m coming to your dungheap. Mudhoney or not.”
You can see my crappy photos from the show here.
Comments Off on Mudhoney
May 6, 2006
Girl Trouble played live at the Commencement Bay Coffee Company in Tacoma last Friday with The Plastards and Skangst. I missed the opening act. Call me fashionably late if you will. The CBCC is in an old warehouse downtown on Jefferson. This was the first live show they’ve put on in the venue. Though the show was all ages, there were libations available for the over 21 crowd. Here are some photographs from the gig.
Comments Off on Girl Trouble
April 22, 2006
I’ve never been to Jazzbones. It’s not a bad venue, it’s just that the usual events typically feature generic acts that I’ve no interest in. The opening acts for the show were abyssmally mismatched. While the first act Weather wasn’t altogether terrible, it was actually physically painful for me to sit through the second group, Dedset. Seriously, it hurt.
I’ve never seen The Posies. They’re a band I’ve been following since the early 90s, but I’ve just never had the opportunity to catch them live. The played a great set of songs from their catalog and sounded great. I’ve put up some photos from the show.