Recalling Bainbridge Island

Back in April, my girlfriend and I spent a precious Seattle Saturday hanging out on Bainbridge Island with her mom and mom's boyfriend, Charlie.  Bainbridge is quintessential Pacific Northwest and I took many pictures of the island's lush scenery.  After visiting Seattle at the beginning of the month, I remembered that I hadn't posted these pictures yet so I am finally posting them now.

To get to the island, you take a drive-on ferry from downtown Seattle.  We met at Charlie's house which has an amazing view of the Sound and Seattle's skyline.   His nephew's family (including adorable little Taylor) joined us for hike at this school/preserve on the island called Islandwood.   Islandwood was founded recently in 2001 and is basically a school in a big park that teaches kids on field trips that buildings can be made out of recycled milk jugs and why its bad to dump leaky car batteries into Puget Sound.  After the hike, we made pizzas and drank wine.  It was quite a good day.  I hope to get back there soon.

Super Old Pics from 2008 Whistler Trip

I went up to Whistler back in December with the old Microsoft crew.  Here are the pics.  For someone who flew out all the way from NY, I was kinda pathetic, I skied only one day.  But I had a lot of fun slothing it up and I got to see the special lady which was really the whole point of the trip.  We also rode the Whistler-Blackcomb gondola which opened that day and goes really high.

Anyway, its good to finally get these posted.  I am way behind on posting my pictures and someone has been asking very nicely for a while for these shots in particular.

Brazil trip pics coming.... soon.

What Modest Mouse Means to Me

So I am listening to Thursday's "John in the Morning" KEXP show as I often do on slow weekends, and Modest Mouse's "A Life of Artic Sounds" came on.  I realized how much Modest Mouse's music means to me and needed to share.

I first heard "All Night Diner" in a fraternity brother's room as a sophomore at Stanford.  This was 2002 before Modest Mouse had achieved mainstream popularity.  I started downloading their stuff and gradually got more and more into it.  I think I was drawn to it because its so honest.   I was mainly listening to Building Nothing Out of Something, This is a Long Drive For Someone With Nothing to Think About and The Moon and Antarctica back then.  The songs on these albums could be crazy and excitable but equally sad and deeply felt.  I think that by being honest in their songs about their fear and frustration and disappointment and loneliness,  Modest Mouse allowed me to be honest about mine.

After school, I moved to Seattle, near where Modest Mouse is from (Issaquah, WA).  During the ~3 years I lived there, I began to see life painted in their colors.  I ate and drank (a lot) in the informal, often wild establishments of the area.  I took in the beauty and the isolation of the Cascade Mountains and the Puget Sound.  I suffered the numbing depression eight months of cold and rain and overcast skies will bring on. 

I eventually left Seattle but I know I will return someday.  Somehow in the same way Modest Mouse's honesty reaches right to the core of me, living in the Pacific Northwest shows me the joy and pain of life in their purest forms. 

Alright, enough of that.  Enjoy these songs from Building Nothing Out of Something.  Maybe in some later post, I'll explain why I like Band of Horses so much.