TORONTO – Seattle Sounders FC have been one of Major League Soccer’s best regular-season teams ever since the club joined MLS in 2009, but that excellence never yielded a championship. Ironically, the Sounders finally landed their first MLS Cup tonight after their worst season. Multiple times over the years the Rave Green have dominated until …
The Skatalites are unique — the originators of a whole genre of music over their brief existence in Jamaica in the mid-sixties and then a stalwart institution supporting that syncopated movement since their reunion in 1983. Members come and go (50 years down the road, many of the founders are gone forever), but that dance …
I thought I had heard everything in sports, but now we have the New York Yankees accusing the Boston Red Sox, with their recent trade for Chris Sale, of being the Golden State Warriors. Who would have ever thought that the original Evil Empire would be looking up at the Dubs? http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/18223011/new-york-yankees-gm-compares-red-sox-warriors This quote by …
Sports books don’t come anywhere close to romance novels in their share of the publishing market, but there are still enough of them out there to present a bewildering array of choices for someone looking to purchase a gift for that special someone who likes to consume sports on the page as well as on …
It’s been two days since I saw the Dwarves play at Seattle’s Highline bar and my body still feels as though it’s been through the washing machine on the spin cycle. I’m still getting my spine back in alignment and sticking body parts back together. I can still feel the bruise I got on my …
On a rainy Tuesday night, two days before Thanksgiving, I ventured to the intimate basement club Barboza Lounge on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Playing was British band Skinny Lister. This would be my third time seeing them but my first time seeing them at their own show. The last time I saw them was as an …
The photos of Mt. Shasta were taken in the morning of Friday, November 11 on my way from California to Portland. Those of Multnomah Falls and the Columbia Gorge were taken on Saturday, November 12.
Seattle’s Funhouse Hosts Greece Punks Barb Wire Dolls Along With Some Seattle Talent, by Holly Homan
Tuesday night Seattle’s Funhouse hosted a punk band all the way from Crete called Barb Wire Dolls. I saw the Dolls about a year and a half ago opening for Dead Men Walking, a sort of super group featuring members of the Living End, the Alarm, and the Stray Cats. I was so blown away …
A new and imaginative microbrewery, the Labrewatory on NE Russell Street, has arrived on the scene in Portland. The owners, Chris Sears, Patrick Walsh, and Joe Watzig, invite larger brewers in the area to use their four-barrel system to experiment with recipes that would be more expensive to attempt on their larger-scale equipment. The Labrewatory …
Saturday night November 12, Seattle’s foremost punk club El Corazon hosted Canadian punk legends D.O.A. Talk about raw punk power! This trio came out churning power chords and smashing drums like they were still 20 years old. Drummer goes by the name Paddy Duddy and reminded me of Animal from the Muppets with his scraggily …
At a time when diversions from real life seem more welcome than usual, it is a pleasure to announce the start of the NBA season and the return of the Portland Trail Blazers to the Moda Center. Last Friday, the Blazers took on the Sacramento Kings in a tight, high-scoring contest that went into overtime …
Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered in her dorm room at Lehigh University by a fellow student in 1986. Her distraught parents came to believe that Lehigh had not taken sufficient efforts to keep its college campus safe, and lobbied for legislative action. In 1990, Congress passed what is commonly known as “The Clery Act.” …
Thursday November 10 brought LA Ska/funk masters Fishbone back to Seattle. Their first concert here in more than two years. The show was a sell out and Seattle’s Crocodile Café was packed. Fishbone is a very eclectic band as well as versatile Front man Angelo Moore played about three different types of saxophones and an …
The best of the best. Doctorate level Pop Culture Recombination studies:
On the evening of November 3, the Showbox Sodo hosted the triumphant and long awaited Seattle return of California punks NOFX. Lead singer/front man Fat Mike came out sporting a mohawk along with a short kilt and a new Bush/Quayle t-shirt. The significance of the latter was a mystery since much of the band’s songs …
The evening after Halloween brought dance macabre to El Corazon starring the Nekromantix. Singer Kim Nekroman, with his coffin shaped bass, held said bass above his head, held it like a guitar or straddled it all without missing a lick. On several occasions he even licked it. And he had high pitched screams down to …
Last Friday, I watched a bit of the Cubs victory celebration in Chicago. I’m not really a parade person, but seeing it I wished I was there. City says 5 MILLION turned out. I admit I got a little misty seeing the throngs in my various old haunts: Wrigley, LSD, the Boul Mich, Grant Park. …
No, the title is not a misprint. In fact, this post is mostly an excuse to write that line, which has been so long in coming. One person with extra motivation to be happy today is Aroldis Chapman, who escaped by the narrowest of margins the fate of becoming the latest victim of the Billy …
Tickets to the World Series at Wrigley are starting at nearly $2,000 just to get into the park. If you want a place to sit down, start talking at $2,500: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2016/10/23/chicago-cubs-win-sets-stage-for-most-expensive-world-series-tickets-in-baseball-history/#3f872de55eab For many, the price is worth it. You can hear from some of them here: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Want-to-see-World-Series-at-Wrigley-It-will-cost-10174338.php If the Cubs win, we may never see …
Who would have thought that Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw would show up to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series without his curveball? It didn’t take long for the Chicago Cubs to figure out that he couldn’t throw it for strikes, and they wasted little time in taking advantage, running up a …
For years, Angel Hernández has drawn my score as worst ump in the Majors. I think he may be a rare case where replay has helped the ump. It used to be, any time that a call that he made was questioned and was very close, any argument at all would result in an ejection. …
Barron’s (Barrons.com) is a weekly newspaper devoted solely to stocks and the financial markets. My Dad passes along old issues to me. The October 17th edition contains a four page article that is based on responses Barron’s received from its “Big Money” poll about the 2017 financial market outlook and upcoming election. The article does …
On October 11 I ventured out to El Corazon to see LA’s the Interrupters headline their own show. And what a show it was. This ska/pop/punk quartet riles up the audience by standing on the monitors, or leaning into the crowd. This is particularly done by front woman/singer Aimee Interrupter. She constantly leaned into the …
On October 5th I had the utmost pleasure of seeing Robyn Hitchcock play at an old converted church, now Fremont Abbey Arts Center. This was a very intimate show, almost like having him play in your living room. He played two sold out nights. Robyn’s songs combine quirky, humorous lyrics with catchy melodies. This was …
As one who once loudly proclaimed my Dylan hatred, I thought it was wonderfully apt. A pleasant surprise from the Nobel committee rather than a cause for the usual mystifying Googling of an author I’ll never read. Here is a writer who actually means something to the lives of people all over the world in …
The ninth inning of last night’s Game 4 of the recently concluded series between the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs was as brutal a finish to a game as I’ve ever witnessed. Five Giant relief pitchers combined to cough up four runs and render what had been a 5-2 lead into a 6-5 …
Last Saturday, Oct first, Seattle’s Highline Tavern hosted the Skatoberfest featuring five ska acts. The headliners this time was the Seattleites. This was my second time seeing them in a week, but they’ve already grown as a band. Added this time were some amazing vocalists with personality to boot. Their main singer (Joseph Quinone) not …
It’s a good thing I don’t make my living as a prophet. I expected last night’s Giants/Mets game to go something like this: Madison Bumgarner would give up a run or two early, as he often does when settling into a game, and that would have been the difference as Noah Syndergaard pitched another shutout. …
The San Francisco Giants, as they did in 2014, managed to slip into the very last available postseason spot and earn themselves a road trip for a do-or-die playoff. With five wins out of their last six games, they are looking better of late than for most of the season since the All-Star Break. Even …