Weekend Update: Pretty Songs and Sh*tty Calamari

ParentFest 2005 – Well, it was only half-ParentFest, as "mum" is in England for her brother's birthday. She called him on the pretense that she was in Seattle, and the joke was revealed when she showed up at his doorstep. Much hilarity ensued. Heh heh. In the meantime, Dad got to spend some quality time with his grandson. There was much rejoicing.

So, we met up with one of our friends, an ex-coworker of ours who's now working in Seattle. She took us to a place (as an inside joke) called Von's Grand City Café.

The word "grand" is used very liberally in their name, but I guess they didn't do as well being Von's Lame-ass Cafe. I ordered the calamari (of course), which was by far the worst calamari I have ever eaten. First, it was served in a tiny bucket rather than a plate. Second, it was so overdone, it didn't even look like calamari. It looked more like deep fried blobs. I ate it solely to avoid a repeat of our previous club experience.

Even worse than the craptastic food, the bartender greeted and took the orders of a couple of men standing behind us at the bar right between our friend and I having a conversation. The amazing thing is that there was a perfectly useable spot just to the left of our friend that they could have used, rather than sticking their rather large heads right in the middle us, forcing us to lean back and stop all conversation. It's pretty safe to say I will never visit that craphole again, but we had a good time drinking (craptastic drinks too), catching up on each other's lives and just plain ol'gossiping.

We said our goodbyes and headed to the Sky Cries Mary show at El Corazon, a dive club where the bar staff couldn't make a decent drink to save their life. This was mostly to our advantage. One of the bartenders made a made a whisky sour so strong it was still the color of whisky when she finished, and she poured me a double Crown on the rocks without charging me extra.

While we were waiting for the show to start, my sweetie spots sheet music on one of the music stands on stage for a movement from Shostakovich's Symphony no. 8. Don't ask me which one, I don't know, but supposedly it's pretty famous. Since this isn't exactly the type of venue that sees much classical music, his curiosity is piqued about how they're going to use the piece.

The shows opened with a string quartet, a group called the The Bella Trio and a guest violist, whom my sweetie seems to know from somewhere but couldn't place him. After the first piece, he left the stage, and The Bella Trio played another three pieces. They also performed on several songs with SCM.

The show was great, and by great I mean I'm sure there were other band members on the stage, but I didn't see them. I was standing right below Roderick, and as much as I love his voice, I could not take my eyes off Anisa. She is simply mesmerizing. Swoon.

And I swiped one of the set lists after the show:

Walla Walla – Moving Like Water | Cornerman | Dumbo | Shipwrecked | These Old Bones | Scapegoat | The Ant, The Stars, The Owl and Its Prey | Ocean | Every Iceberg Is Afire | When the Fear Stops | Headless Man | Small Town | Moonbathing | Vuh | Elephant Song | Travel Lite | Gliding | Walk of Nothingness | Nowhere