Mother's day photo

Mom and I had brunch on Mother's Day at Clinkerdaggers in Spokane. Fine meal, wonderful view, impeccable service. But the highlight may have been the free photo sitting they offered next door. I think this is a great picture of Mom and my frozen smile isn't nearly as awkward as it could be. Do you agree?

Papa stories: The proposal

I am visiting this weekend in Spokane, I did escape the weather on the east coast, and Tsunami on the West. Since I didn't have my voice recorder out at dinner, I wanted to commit this story while it is still fresh.

I was asking Papa about the UW campus when he was a student there, and we transitioned easily to this, one of our favorite stories. When Nana and Papa had been seeing each other for a while in 1941, he brought up marriage. He said to Nana, " We seem to be getting along pretty well. Do you think you might like to get married?" To which she said, oh no. She was very focused on finishing her degree and it seemed like a bad time. But they continued dating. On December 7, they were headed to have dinner with their friend Mignonette and her husband somewhere they were house sitting. They were supposed to pick up a friend, who ran out of the house saying, "The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor! It's all over the radio!" It was pretty apparent that this would force the US would engage in war, and a draft seemed inevitable.

After dinner, Mignonette suggested they walk up to UW to see the Christmas program. On this walk, Nana said quietly to Papa, "I think I've changed my mind. I think I'd like to get married." The rest is history.

***

Another bit that I heard about for the first time tonight was that Nana and Papa used to live in GI housing Kirkland. When I asked when, Papa said plainly that when Bart was born, he only trusted him not to crawl off into Lake Washington until he was about 6 months old. After he was about 6 months old, it seemed they should sell the house boat and move to the affordable housing for veterans in Kirkland. Any one know where this was in Kirkland?

I also found that the summer Papa work in herring processing, he was based out of Little Port Walter on Baranoff Island.

'Like listening to Picasso'

Jane and I took a break from winter weather and stresses of ordinary life to attend a music performance at the Tractor Tavern near our home. The Tractor normally features rock - folk - country types, but this time the performer was Matt Haimovitz, an Israeli-born cellist now a music professor at McGill, I think.

In a tiny, cramped space next to the bar (Mac & Jack on tap), he came out to the tiny stage and opened by telling us that his instrument was 300 years old, built in 1710. He started by telling us that he would play one of Domenico Gabrielli's pioneering "Seven Ricercare" which were composed about the time his cello was made, and then something by a contemporary composer, Elliott Carter.

He repeated this pattern half a dozen times, and both the old and new music contained notes and chords I'd never heard before and finger and bow work I'd never imagined . . plucking, skipping, thumping. The comment in the title is Jane's idea and it captures the feel of the evening perfectly.

I thought of all you string players and wished you could have been with us.

literary laughter

I went to a book & author festival sponsored by the Seattle U School of Theology & Ministry Saturday where the highlight was the final keynote by Sherman Alexie.

I'm sure you heard of his novels, stories and screen plays, but I don't think I knew before that he's written several books of poetry. He was in rare form. You have to think for a moment about the crowd that would show up for such a thing.

Does the phrase "Seattle Liberal" bring anything specifc to mind? Well it did for Sherman and he started off with that . . describing his joy at watching the Inauguration on TV seeing a pair of such types, wearing No-animals-were-harmed-in-the-making-of-this Gore-Tex parkas, with oatmeal colored hats and oatmeal colored sweaters.

"Arm in arm with a big, African American churchwomen, with a fur coat . . (pause while the audience recoils in horror) . . one of those fur coats with the fox's head still on . . they were swaying back and forth and every time they swayed, the fox head banged one of the oatmeal hat . . none of them cared . . . they were too happy."

Later he said he never understood why white liberals were so interested in Native American spirituality . . . "we love guns . . we kill animals . . we eat meat .. our sacred clothing is from dead aminals and endangered bird species . . . how does that even work for you?"

Towards the end, he started to read a poem (from an upcoming book?) something like "To a Polar Bear Death" . . . when he told us the title, there was an audible "Ohhhhhhh . . " throughout the hall. He had to stop and laugh: "Seattle audience . . in Alaska, they'd be cheering at that!"

If the presentation ever gets posted on the Internet tubes, I'll offer up a link.

Bart, Rising YouTube Celebrity

I am equal parts impressed with Bart for getting his face on YouTube, and impressed with myself for getting this video embedded. Cheers all around!