sparkrobot

I ran across this hot poster collection whilst flickring. Appropriately enough, I’ve just returned from a trip to Mexico, though I didn’t see much good design. Just a bunch of tourists and some jungle. This will have to suffice. This poster could easily be swapped into a Heads of State poster for a rock band… Who knew bronchial pulmonary medicine could be so much fun? Just saw the Heads of State featured in the latest Communication Arts Illustration annual. It’s just one of those kind of days…

“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.

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.

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.

I posted some new photos to the photos gallery. These are shots from Hell’s Kitchen on Saturday. I decided to hit a free show last weekend. Seemed like a totally different crowd for the Hell’s Kitchen. Usually, it’s metal as all get out. There were four bands that played. I missed the first band, Friskey, but cought the others. Paris Spleen was a local group. Meh…They’ve got a ways to go to develop a real sound of their own. Next was The Turn Ons (photos) from Seattle, who started off softly but eventually got the kids shakin’. Incidentally, they should get an award for the most pretentious “I’m a rocker” move I’ve seen in a while. Dude actualy put down the guitar and pulled out some leather gloves and put them on — as part of the show. Wow. Wowee-wow-wow. Last up was The Elephants (photos) from Tacoma. They played catchy pop tunes, but switched up instruments about 42 times which was distracting to me. The crowd didn’t seem to care.

In spite of a recent slaughter by The Tacoma New Tribune food critic, Ed Murietta, I’ve found Varsity Grill to be good spot to grab a bite to eat.

Let’s face it — there aren’t many restaurants downtown. Varsity Grill opened quietly early this year in the space that the former billiards/burger joint Jillian’s used to occupy filling a void left in the heart of downtown. VG is about a block from the new bazillion dollar convention center and basically a quick walk from most anywhere in downtown Tacoma. Recently while fulfilling my civic duty I made the walk there nearly every day to grab lunch and take advantage of the free wireless internet. (‘sup Tacoma? Where all the internet at?) I’ll admit, there’s no stunning beacon of creativity beaming from the kitchen, I have to disagree with Mr. Murietta. Though Varsity Grill has an upscale atmosphere, the food is what it is. It’s comfort food. It’s not pretentious — it’s burgers & steaks. It’s ribs & chicken. It’s entree sized salads and soups & fresh-baked bread. Always enough to take home a bit for a snack later.

There is technology wired throughout the restaurant. In addition to the aforementioned free wi-fi, Varsity sports a ton of plasmas screen televisions usually broadcasting sports games. From any angle in the restaurant, chances are stellar you’ll be able to watch the game you’re looking for. Now, I’m not big on TV sports, but here’s why I like it: the sound is off. If you’re into the game, that’s great. You can grab a remote Sound Dog unit from the host or up at the bar and tune into any TV you choose. If you’re not into the game. That’s also great. You won’t be blasted out by sportscasters yammering on about ERA, RBI, DNA, CIA and so on. See?

Also of note to sports fans, there’s a 17 seat theater in the center of the restaurant. It’s like your own personal home theater, except you can pay someone to bring you beer and you don’t have to sport the cash for the 120″ projector and surround sound system.

*Tangential rant warning*

What’s wrong with Ed Murrietta’s review of Varsity Grill? Lots.

First off, this is not a T.G.I.Fridays or a Red Robin or Applebee’s (or any of the other myriad of corporate franchises for that matter) moving into Tacoma offering the same vanilla experience you’ll find anywhere else in America. This is a homegrown spot, bringing an experience that’s from Tacoma. If the effort to revive the empty halls of downtown succeeds, I’d rather bet on locals to own it and drive it.

Secondly, I’ve enjoyed the food every time I’ve been in. It’s not gourmet, but that’s not why I went in there. I’ve had burgers, steaks, chicken sandwiches and salads.

Lastly… * (one star)? Come on dude. They guy recently gave the Swiss *****, The Harmon **** and Meconi’s Pub ****. Okay, I like all of these places too, but what’s with the order of magnitude here? Okay so you didn’t like it. That’s fine… I can dig it. But honestly, it’s not worth slamming them that hard…

*End of tangential rant*

My wife’s twin sister was visiting from San Francisco a while back and we stopped in for a drink. We sat in a secluded corner near the rear of the restaurant, sipped martinis and had a great conversation. There were a gazillion games on, and the place was busy with sports fans. We didn’t even hear them. Name one other “sports bar” where that can happen.

My thoughts… Try it yourself. Don’t listen to a restaurant critic. Try it out. Go downtown and grab a bite to eat. It’s a vast space with plenty of room to catch — or totally avoid — the game. Your choice. There are plenty of places to hang out and comfortably chat or simply chill. It’s moderately priced ($$) and there’s a full bar if you’re into a cocktail or two.

I’ve just discovered a slick application launching tool for the Mac. The developer’s site claims “Namely is possibly the fastest way to open applications.” Hmm. That is possible. Previously, I’d been using the dock as it’s intended – to store aliases that invoke applications to run. Using this method however, I found my dock was getting super-cluttered. Using Namely, I’m able to keep core apps in the dock, but ditch icons I use all the time. If I need to get a phone number, I hit the hot-key combo and type in Address Book and hit enter. Bang. There’s my stuff. When I’m done with it, it’s out of my way. It’s a very similar workflow to searching a Mac with Spotlight. Nice work Amar.

If this headline doesn’t reach out and grab you, ignore this post. Yahoo has posted this to their developer network.  If you’re still reading this, you might find this interesting.

The Yahoo! User Interface Library is a set of utilities and controls, written
in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using
techniques such as DOM scripting, HTML and AJAX. The UI Library Utilities
facilitate the implementation of rich client-side features by enhancing
and normalizing the developer’s interface to important elements of the browser
infrastructure (such as events, in-page HTTP requests and the DOM). The
Yahoo UI Library Controls produce visual, interactive user interface elements
on the page with just a few lines of code and an included CSS file. All
the components in the Yahoo! User Interface Library have been released as
open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses.

There are some photos up from a High On Fire show at Hell’s Kitchen in Tacoma back in December.

We arrived at around 8pm and for a Friday night, the place was relatively slow. (Though it was the 23rd of December.) We were seated right away. The decor was nice and the atmosphere inviting. however they definitely could have lowered the volume on the “background” music. With so few parties dining, Josh Groban in the air was seriously KILLING me. We ordered and the food was on the way.

We started with spring rolls, which were nice and freshly prepared. I had Garlic Chicken and Dionne had a Beef and Broccoli plate. The food was great and reasonably priced. Though the servers were friendly, they were a bit slow considering the traffic. This definitely won’t affect my decision to return however. We’ll be back. I’ve added it to the main Tacoma Restaurants post.

Moderately priced with a great menu. Two of us ate with an appetizer and a couple of beers for about $34. Check it out.

Silk Thai Cafe
(253) 756-1737
3401 6th Ave
Tacoma, WA 98406