Thursday, November 15, 2007

Motorcyclists have an expression, “Keep the shiny side up!” There’ s a shinny side (fairings, tank, chrome and such) and a rubber side (tires). So literally keep the shiny side up means don’t drop the bike or crash it or run into anything. Less precisely it means “Have a nice day!” in motospeak.

My son-in-law sent me this photo, which he saw on www.desmonorthwest.com, was taken by Patrick Andraste of a model, Jade Indica.

In any event, it provides a slightly different spin on the notion of keeping the shiny side up. Of course you may want to enlarge it by clicking on the photo below.

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Posted by Digital Quixote in • Motorcycles
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Saturday, November 10, 2007

I am a fan of live theatre so it was a thrill for me to get a backstage tour of the Historic Paramount Theatre last Saturday. These free tours are conducted at 10:00 AM the first Saturday of every month. Recommended!

So it’s true, I’ve been on stage at the Paramount. The theatre was built in 1928 and used as movie theatre. In those days movies were silent, but were accompanied by live organ music, timed by the organist, to fit what was on screen. During the tour we heard the organ, which was wonderful, and learned it is unlike a church organ. It can play essentially all the instruments in a symphony orchestra and sound effects (like a fire engine for example).

The theatre originally cost about $3 Million to build. It sold 10 years ago for about $12 Million to a group of investors that spent an additional $20 Million on restoration. Today it is one of the busiest theatres in Seattle. I mentioned restoration. The details of this wonderful building have been lovingly preserved.

Below stage, on the walls of a hallway are posters from many of the productions seen here. All are signed by the cast members. It was a treat for me to see this historical side note since I have seen most of these shows right here.

A couple of times a year, they do a “Silent Movie Monday” where they show historic silent films and accompany them on the organ. That could be fun!

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Out and About
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Friday, November 02, 2007

Click on any photo to enlarge ...

I spent the afternoon today at the Seattle International Auto Show. I am beginning my research which will lead to the purchase of my next car. Number one contender at the moment is the Audi R8 (above) and the number two is the BMW Z4 Coupe (below). There are many other choices. I’m intrigued witht he Nissan 350 ZX. Mercedes lost me due to very poor quality in my current SLK 350. It’s a very long story but I’ll resist the temptation to digress. Maybe another post. In any event, this is a target rich environment.

No car show would be complete without a few classic beauties. I liked the one below.

I was disappointed in this year’s car show in two respects. Firstly, car shows are supposed to have “car show babes” standing on their revolving platforms, in skimpy little dresses with spikey tall heels, next to the cars they’re selling. This year’s show had few and they would have rated low on Richter Scale of car show babes. Second, I like the exotic concept cars. This year there were really only two ... and they were trucks!

Both by Ford, the first looks like it was modeled after a WW II German personnel carrier. Oddly attractive. I liked it!

And the second truck won all the prizes for the biggest vehicle at the show. Sporting a V10 engine, it also had both front and rear seats. And the rear seating area was as large as ballroom. Cool, but ginormous!

But my biggest dissapointment ... no Smart and no Tesla.

Had fun. Enjoyed the day. Hope you liked the pics!

Posted by Digital Quixote in • and Automobiles
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Saturday, October 27, 2007

I really like Jimmy Buffett. Well I’ve never really met the man, but I sure like his music. He never seems to play concerts in the Northwest so yesterday I flew to Las Vegas and tonight attended one of his concerts with my brother, my sister-in-law, and 9,998 of our closet friends. What a hoot!!! As the date approached, my brother said to me, “So what will you be wearing for a costume?” Costume!?! Well it is almost Halloween. “No,” he said, “everybody will be wearing pirate costumes, or wearing flowered shirts, or parrot heads or shark fins or flashy things!” And he was right. We arrived early to appreciate them and I wandered around with my iPhone asking folks if I could take their pictures.

This is unlike me. I am more the shy-shoot-candids-with-a-long-telephoto-lens-from-behind-a-duck-blind kind of guy. But people were nice and seemed in a festive mood. Maybe the Landshark Lager and the Margaritaville Tequila for sale in the lobbies mellowed them. The couple below on the right gave me a little flashy star to wear. I guess my “costume” wasn’t complete without one.

The house was packed. Music was loud (I love sound you can feel) and everybody was singing and swaying and performing little rituals at various points in his songs. One of the lines in a crowd pleasing favorite goes, “fin to the left, fin to the right, and you’re the only bait in town.” At which point people make a fin above their head with their arms and sway first to the left and then to the right. The second photo below is “fin to the left” I think, as you face the stage.

On the way down, clear skies and Alaska Airlines gave us nice views of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood.

I’ve got some more costume pics if you’re interested.

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Posted by Digital Quixote in • Out and About
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Saturday, October 20, 2007

I took my camera this morning to three of my favorite Seattle vantage points. The weather was troubled with deep foreboding skies. But we had some broken sun to light things up. Maybe I could grab a few nice shots. The first was taken from the hill where 12th Ave intersects Interstate 90 at about 9:30 AM. The second was from Bell Harbor Marina at about 10:00 AM. And the third was from Kerry Park in Queen Anne at about 10:30 AM. These are all classic postcard vantage points but you won’t see postcard photos shot in this weather. In many ways I like these better than the ones with cinematically perfect cloudless blue skies.

You can enlarge this one too ...

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Out and About
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