Last Friday was the Dave Brubeck and Ramsey Lewis concert at the Paramount. The show was phenomenal, just as expected. I was a bit surprised that the legendary Brubeck performed first. Although, in retrospect, it made the most sense. The guy is…well, old; He’s about the age of Charlie’s GREAT Grandpa and if there’s any correlation there, he should have been asleep in his easy-chair midway through his set. Given the fact that his biggest songs were released almost FIFTY years ago, I expected the average age of Brubeck’s audience to also be on the older side. And, while I was righter than I thought, I was amazed by how energized the folks around us became during the performance. Especially the woman sitting next to me—I’m not sure she realized the noises that she was making, but I’ll just say they made us youngsters a liiittle uncomfortable.

"The Great Performer", Ramsay Lewis and his Trio were incredible. Although also not a group of youngsters, they brought a lot of liveliness to the evening that made me glad they closed the show.

In order to get the tickets to Brubeck as early as I did, I had to purchase a Seattle Theater Group package, which means I had to buy tickets to at least two other shows. One of those other shows happened to be Dan Zanes on Saturday. We knew Charlie was a little young to truly appreciate it, but we figured he’d enjoy watching the lights and shiny instruments. We stayed in our seats the entire time, but it didn’t take long for the aisles and area in front of the stage to become saturated with sub-five-year-olds. As the kids became excited by songs they were familiar with, they’d jump up and down making the room look like giant baby mosh-pit. I thought about crowd-surfing Charlie, but Andrea didn’t seem to think it was a good idea.

photo courtesy: Brian Romero

While I’m on the subject of music, ZooTunes released their line-up and it includes Andrew Bird and the Avett Brothers—two of the artists on my top-ten of 2007! I just saw the Avett Brothers at Neumos—a local venue—a couple of weeks ago and they were magnificent—more than worth seeing again. We’ll be in line for tickets on Monday AM. And lastly, I had lunch with Duff McKagen from G&R and Velvet Revolver last week. He’s friends with a co-worker (and also former-rock-star) and now officially sits on our advisory board. He was extremely nice and surprisingly down-to-earth.

I know you probably wanted to hear some details regarding Andrea and ‘Betababy’, but I figured I’d let her fill you all in on the gory details, cravings, and so forth. She’s been more-or-less out of commission, but as soon she’s able to open the lap-top and type without barfing on the keyboard, I’m sure she’ll tell you more than you want to hear. Or…perhaps I already did.

…do you celebrate your birthday like the Romans? Happy Birthday, Auntie Magoo!

We’ve been a little spotty with our posting lately. We realize it. We’re sorry. We’ve been busy..you know, workin’ and stuff. We’ve also booked up just about every ounce of free time in April with concerts, dinner dates, play dates, etc. In the past weeks I got to see the Avett Brothers and Daniel Johnston. Tonight, we’re going to see jazz legend, Dave Brubeck. Saturday we are taking Charlie to see Dan Zanes and then finally—to end the month—we’re seeing Swell Season (from the movie Once) on the 30th.

We also—aside from experiencing stranger than normal Seattle weather—have been feeling under said weather. I’ve had a cold that seems to be getting better only very gradually and Andrea’s been experiencing strange flu-like symptoms that’s prevented her from eating anything other than bazaar, random cravings. I know what you’re thinking and I’m pretty sure it’s not pneumonia—in fact, it’s probably just allergies. I appreciate your concern though. Andrea? oh yeah, she’s pregnant.

The following image represents both the baby growing in Andrea’s Uterus and what might be blocking my left nostril.

10 weeks.

These May flowers better be #$%!ing good.

Perhaps we got a little cocky with our last post. The weather here seems to have developed Attention Deficit Disorder—snow, hail, sun, rain, sun, snow, hail, rain, hail, sun…The only thing that the weather gods seem to be consistent on is, cold. We’ve spent the past week avoiding outdoor activities, because we know that—even if the sun does come out—the moment we step outside, we’re going to be pelted with hail.

This past weekend, however, we discovered a couple of out-of-the-house activities that allowed us to remain warm and dry:

1) A five-course Moroccan meal. The only problem was this is an authentic Moroccan restaurant and apparently they don’t have high-chairs in Morocco. Instead, they have tuffet-like seats with no way to strap a 1-year-old to them—next time we’ll bring some bungie cords. On the upside, we were not only allowed to eat with our hands, but rather encouraged to do so. Perfect for a toddler … and … for most adults. Around the fourth course, Charlie started to lose his mind, so I took him for a little walk around the block. We got back right as a belly dancer was beginning her routine in the middle of the restaurant. Charlie was mesmerized. He sat and stared intently; and although I wanted to do the same, I took the opportunity to finish my meal. The early dinner we had planned ended up being a 3-hour experience. Thanks Korina, for inspiring the event.

2) On Sunday, we headed down to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. I’d never been, and we figured it might be fun for Charlie to see large airplanes up-close. Half-way there, we realized that we had forgotten to grab our stroller; instead of turning back, we decided to give it shot on foot. Charlie actually did extremely well running around, sitting in cockpits and making airplane noises at the aircrafts suspended from the ceiling. Of course his favorite part was the gift shop, where he made a mess of the toy helicopters and was almost successful at getting his parents to buy more crap for his playroom. While Charlie was obsessing over toys, I was plotting ways to smuggle Nixon’s telephone (with the presidential seal in the center of rotary-dial and buttons that connect you directly to the White house) off of Air Force One and into our car. I was also unsuccessful.

Happy Earth Day. Go Obama.

We’d like to thank the local meteorologist who planned the Sunny Summer Saturday in Seattle. We spent the entire day out in the yard picking, weeding, trimming, mowing, planting, and digging…oh and torturing earthworms.

Note to the ASPCA: No animals (worms) were actually harmed in the taking of this photo.