ADF

onto other, less important topics....

quite possibly the coolest place in Austin is the Alamo Draft House. It's a large theater with every other row of seats removed and replaced with long narrow tables and a lowered walking aisle. You look at the menu (great microbrews, pizza, burgers, sandwiches, espresso, etc.) and then write your order on a piece of paper. Then you prop the paper up with a little clip on the table. The waiter sees it from afar, discreetly retrieves it, and arrives 10-20 min later with your food. But that's just the food service... the coolest thing about ADF is audience interaction. Some shows are specifically designed for audience interaction (the Michael Jackson video singalong, complete with props; Videoke, where you choose a movie clip to reenact on stage while the movie clip plays behind you; The Mr. Sinus Show (a twist on Mystery Science Theater), where three great local comedians play a cheesy movie like Red Dawn and throw in jokes throughout) but even when it's just a regular movie, people here are so used to the comfort of ADF that they feel just fine laughing really loud or calling out "bring it, Michael!". Not to the point where it's annoying - just to where it feels like we're all hanging out together like old friends. Why don't they do this in Seattle? Everyone gets so stuffy up there sometimes!

Anyway, they've got a great lineup for Halloween month! Check this out:

THE WOLFMAN GYPSY FEAST

(There is also a ticket option for the movie only, without the meal)

Even a man who is pure at heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf when the wolf bane blooms, and the moon is full and bright. We're thrilled to present the classic horror tale THE WOLF MAN starring Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Rains with a special Gypsy feast that will bring out the beast in food lovers everywhere.

We start with Roast red peppers stuffed with roast chicken and three onions, and then an authentic gypsy Found vegetable soup, the main course is Matho Ballo - Pork with whiskey sauce, corn cakes, and braised kale, for dessert we have Bakhlava with apricot and pistachio.

Showings (click on a show time to buy tickets):

Sunday, October 16 7:00 pm (No Passes) - Ticket includes full meal

Anti-Plastic

Fight Mannequism!

Serenity

Nostalgic for that boat-family feeling? Check out my favorite movie so far this year...

SERENITY !

(that's the name of the "boat")

and Zoe is KICKASS

Cancer Horoscope

I'm no anticapitalist. By all means, you should go out and make some dough. But don't let it conflict too much with your own short- and long-term happiness, which is something I lately suspect you of doing. I think there should be a maximum ceiling on how long you let yourself be miserable, especially when it comes to just making money. There are ways and there are ways. If you really think sacrificing your well-being and capacity for joy just to receive a pitifully small paycheck is your only option, you're not being creative or resourceful enough. You're probably underestimating yourself, too. Let this Libra new moon be the end of that bullshit and the beginning of a chapter where profit and happiness can coexist.

Better Than Grog Blog

My beloved sea cook, one of the cutest and best women I know (don't tell her I called her cute), started a blog. Can I believe it? No. But lucky for the world she did, because the imagery in her writing kicks ass. I love her and miss her so much!!!

link! link! -----> JeSiKa StaRR

ACL Fest

Landon got me a free pass to the Austin City Limits music festival for tonight. I get to see Keane (whom I have a slight crush on), Spoon, Thievery Corporation and John Prine. Sweet!

Free Tibet!

I got to see a glimpse of the Dalai Lama today. He's touring the building where I work right now.

filler

I have no patience for learning HTML and my pic of Tu & Mathilde

was covered up by my profile crap on the right, so I'm putting this up

because I had it in photobucket - it'll push Tu's pic down so you can

see it. This is an old collage that I had thought of using as a

background on Myspace. Pics of me as a kid, my dad and his cabin, my

old RV, living in the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, Halloween as a cannibal,

etc...

My friends' babies

While I haven't met them yet, I'm pretty excited about my friends'

babies. My shipmates are unique people, so when two fascinating people

have a child, I'm so curious and excited about their development!

Here's Mathilde & Tu. Noelle said she will be sending more pics too.

Hold fast to ye trusstackles!

Monday is National Talk Like A Pirate Day and Landon wants me to come to the downtown Austin bar where he bartends and join the festivities. The Jolly GAAAAR!rogers are playing.

I'll try not to school them when they start calling their beer grog and on the true meaning of A Hoy.

Spoke at length with Noelle on the phone yesterday! It was so nice to catch up. You people know that all my friends are virtual now, right? The phone is as close as I get to real and consistent interaction. Anyway, Noelle had a seriously painful delivery but said it was totally worth it, of course, and it sounds like she, Craig and Ewan are doing well even though they have to live in Modesto, CA for awhile. Both she and Tu are excited about the Attachment Parenting methods that they are practicing. While I was on the phone with Noelle she was giggling because Craig was making her smell the lavender he had picked outside. And I could hear Ewan gurgling baby-style in the background. I lightheartedly spoke of my depression and negativity since I'd moved to Texas and she said "well at least you're positive about being negative!" which I thought was funny.

Did I already mention on this blog how OBSESSED I am with the canceled tv show "Firefly"?? There's a movie called "Serenity" coming out. Before you see it you should rent the 4 Firefly cds. This show is so cool because the crew on the ship Serenity interact just like us sailors. Different backgrounds, similar terminology, an awesome captain, cool engineer... and my fave is Zoe. I want to be just like her!!! This show is made by the same people who did Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

So now I join the ranks not only of the people who spend too much time online, but also the people who become obsessed with certain TV shows. And so it goes with Life on Land.

Vegetarian Poodle Clipping

Heard Zappa on the radio lately? Well this is for you, Captain

Christopher, along with Rage lovers, Guns n Roses, and many other

rarely heard tunes can be heard on KAOS. Find it in iTunes free radio

under "Public". It's a station out of Evergreen State College. I love

the internet!!! But I'm still partial to KEXP.ORG





ANYWAY... the lovely Nanette Brown-Clampitt came to visit me in Austin!

Here she is, standing directly under the largest windchime I've ever

seen at the "Great Outdoors" nursery, where I bought a tomato plant and

a lemon verbena.





We went to Ruta Maya coffee house one morning for coffee and breakfast tacos. There was a toddler yoga class going on.


Then one night we wandered around the 6th street area and found

ourselves exploring the Hilton. We had it all to ourselves! One of the

banquet workers adjusted the lighting to our liking and took our

picture together. The luxury of the Hilton lobbies stands in vivid

contrast next to the convention center. While peering down from the

Hilton lobby lanai we could see cots and clothes belonging to NOLA

evacuees.





Below

are Nanette and Landon along the riverwalk in San Antonio. We toured

the Alamo last Sunday. Fascinating stuff. We rented the movie that

night to complete our All Alamo Sunday.

La Grande Hermine - Infiltration

cool site, and fun article (what sailors would enjoy on vacation)

http://www.infiltration.org/boats-hermine.html

...listening to Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker album. I'm really falling for this bluesy alt country rock stuff.

like lincoln logs?

holy canolies.



i copied this pic of pride's QD from bhodi & erin's site: pride2.blogspot.com

Pride and Self Sufficiency

Andrew emailed and said that the bobstay gave out. He said everyone is in good spirits. Someone else commented on the Bill site and said Leann is not currently aboard Pride 2.

Read a Katrina story by 2 EMS workers who'd been attending training in New Orleans when the hurricane hit.....

Pride 2 caught in squall

rec'd from Nathalie Reginster today:

It is believed that Erin and Bhodi are currently crewing on the Pride of Baltimore II. They were supposed to join her crew when she reached Europe. In a transit from Britain to Spain they were hit by a squall - 40 knots and seas to match. They lost the whole rig while at sea. Nobody was hurt. Apparently the bowspint carried away and the fore and main followed suite not long after. Everything went by "the board" as they say (over the side). They motored 80 miles inland and made an emergency landing in France dragging the remnants. My friend App's brother, who is also crewing said its the biggest rats nest he's ever seen. The spars have all been reduced to kindling and some of the sails are salvageable.

See the article for more info

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/4941345/detail.html-

... and as far as I know, Andrew Mckee is still first mate on board, and Leann from Lynx is there too.

So Much To Click

I'm attach some new links to my blog here, but here's a preview:

Bleep.com is great for previewing good music. Search for " PROEM " and listen to my favorite tune on the Socially Inept album, it's Number 3 (Invisible For All). Proem is Richard Bailey, my fellow coworker in the dungeon where I work. He'll be performing at Chop Suey for the Decibel Festival on Thursday, September 22nd.

Join the crew (literally) on myspace. Erin& Bhodi from Lady Washington, Hawaiian Chieftain, Bill of Rights, Amistad, Bounty and Pride 2; Laura Levin from LAMI & Ocean Institute; Macgregor from Lady Washington and Bill of Rights; Jimmy Mcmanus from Talofa and Bill of Rights; Stacey Lary from Lady Washington and Adventuress; Meghan from Lynx and Lady Maryland; plus some other cool people from around the country are already part of the Tall Ship Sailors group and we're checking in almost daily.

my other favorite links:
Captain Mason Marsh's blog from Portland, OR (one of my old captains from Lady Washington)
Yuri Padowinikof's blog from Tortola's West End, British Virgin Islands (friend and shipmate)
Ian Spain's blog from Moldovia, where he's doing Peace Corp work (worked aboard Providence, Denis Sullivan and Lady Maryland)
Sam Levin's blog - ALWAYS interesting! (my fellow deckhand during my brief time on Providence)

Erotic Irony

I have a weekend to myself. It's bliss. My body is so tense from worry and guilt - not feeling or acting the way other people think I should or wish that I would. "Be happy! Just want you to be happy, Kim!" That's what everyone says and my response is a resounding LEAVE ME ALONE! Mike W. and I once had a discussion about the kinds of music we listened to. I chose music that lifted me up and avoided the more depressing tones and lyrics that he often enjoyed. He didn't find his music depressing, and even if it was, he said that he liked experiencing different emotions "good" or "bad" when listening to music.

I've had two major personal revolutions in my life when it comes to music. After growing up in a classic rock/top 40 saturated suburban high school and neighborhood, a fit of rebelliousness at the age of 15 led me to run off and live with my estranged mother in what Seattle calls it's ghetto (it's not). My new friends included the jazz bands from both Roosevelt and Garfield High Schools, and my stepfather turned out to be a professional jazz musician. These friends unknowingly taught me to really listen to the individual instruments being used, and they encouraged me to join the concert band (they were lacking a baritone horn player). For several years after this I'd say my musical interests were not up to par with my punk/alternative/indie obsessed friends now, but they were a huge step above the Jimmy Buffet my dad raised me on, plus all things Madonna and MTV.

The 2nd big change in my interests was over a period of years. When I was 20 I was in love with Ray Robson, a 29 year old punk music junkie from a big family in Pennslyvania, who looked like Henry Rollins and had an immense library with bands like Built to Spill and Poison Idea. He made audio tapes for me and taught me how to shoot big shotguns and handguns in the Idaho wilderness. My best friend at the time was Maiya Jones, the first girl I ever kissed. She made me tapes with the Cranes, Wolfgang Press and the Butthole Surfers. Maiya and I would walk the back alleys of Boise while Ray and our husbands who were both old enough to drink watched shows at the Neurolux. We had to go to a kiddie hole in the wall but we OWNED that place when we got on stage and danced. Years later I dated a few musicians in Seattle who opened my eyes to some great stuff. Now I've become a pretentious snob compared to the masses who thoroughly enjoy top 40 and whatever else is played on the usual stations.

Anyway, the whole point is that good music is important to me. Regardless of the lyrics, it's a more evolved and peaceful type of communication than all the words that get me in trouble. Compared to many people here, I now listen to the "sad" stuff. And I like it that way. So I know what Mike W. was talking about. Watching all the frat boys and sorority girls dance around town with bleached blonde hair and beers in their hands makes me want to wait out my time in my two caves: the stone block air conditioned little house I live in, and the tiny oppressive office where I work. But I don't exactly flourish under flourescent lights so I go outside every now and then.

In Other News: I've begun reading Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth". Here's 2 quotes I like so far:
regarding the Hero's Journey...
"It's not to deny reason. To the contrary, by overcoming the dark passions, the hero symbolizes our ability to control the irrational savage within us."
and, regarding truth in writing...
"The writer must be true to truth... And that's a killer, because the only way you can describe a human being truly is by describing his imperfections. The perfect human being is uninteresting--the Buddha who leaves the world, you know. It is the imperfections of life that are lovable. And when the writer sends a dart of the true word, it hurts. But it goes with love. This is what Mann called "erotic irony," the love for that which you are killing with your cruel, analytical word."
Now I can better describe why Bhuddism has never been for me. And anyone who knows me knows why I relate to the rest of this latter quote.

Cancer (June 21–July 22)

I'm hungry. My stomach is growling as I write this sentence, but I'm ignoring its demands, as an example to you. Fuck the instant gratification thing this week. Your desires will be coming upon you close and fast; if you're set on seeking their immediate fulfillment, you won't have a moment to rest or to enjoy the occasional satisfactions that come your way. You've got to learn to live with your hunger, now and in general. The best part is, once you do get to eat after being hungry for a while, food tastes a whole lot better.

Caeriel Crestin/Seattle Weekly

Kim

Chief, ruler : English

You have a charismatic and magnetic personality which others cannot help but be drawn to ensuring you of many friends. Very ambitious your keen perceptive powers and ability to absorb knowledge helps you to achieve your objectives. You are a strong willed and industrious worker who is prepared to earn all the material success and good fortune which comes your way. With a philosophical attitude happiness is assured.

(i could use a little material success right now!)

check out the meaning of your name