...And it knows it.
Seattle is Better Than Your City
Tag: seattle
For One Weekend Only: Snow in Seattle
During a February week, everyone living between the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific Ocean chased snow across the weather forecast. We were like the survivor of a plane crash in the Gobi Desert tottering after a lake receding into the horizon. We were like an old, arthritic dog wagging its tail… Continue reading For One Weekend Only: Snow in Seattle
Heather Maple Hiking
Washington State is a hiker’s paradise. To scroll around a map of hiking trails in the Cascade Mountains is to be bamboozled with the sheer number of options available to you — and during a summer when any indoors get-together with friends carried a potential health risk for you and everyone else in your bubble,… Continue reading Heather Maple Hiking
The Wallingford Sign
Over the years, H and I have spent a lot of time alone together. Our relationship started with four weeks of buses, camping and hitchhiking in southern Mexico. We moved in together shortly after in a city where I knew no-one besides her and her friends. And then we spent a glorious, grimy year living… Continue reading The Wallingford Sign
Cycle Touring Puget Sound: A Bike Break From Reality
We woke early, grabbed our loaded bikes and rolled along our street, downhill toward Lake Union. Our uniform would be familiar to long-term readers of this blog — old shirts, padded pants, sunglasses, sandals and daggy helmets. We left the trail along Lake Union’s western shore and retook the streets, pedalling past H’s shuttered downtown office… Continue reading Cycle Touring Puget Sound: A Bike Break From Reality
A Postcard From Coronavirus-Stricken Seattle
Madison Park Beach, 11 a.m., Last Friday It’s the first properly warm day of the year in Seattle and, at Madison Park Beach, housewives who have been cooped up inside with small children for eight months or more are relishing the chance to soak in the sun. Their children are shrieking and roaming — though… Continue reading A Postcard From Coronavirus-Stricken Seattle
A Memory Tour Through Seattle’s Live Music Scene
One aspect of normal life that I didn’t expect to miss was live music, so here we go on a tour of some favourite venues and memories from the last couple of years. Also: Your local musicians and artists are struggling right now — if you live in the Pacific Northwest you can support local… Continue reading A Memory Tour Through Seattle’s Live Music Scene
Man Night
On a recent weekend, I received a text message inviting me to what my friend called a “man night.” There would be wood-fired pizza, smoked meats, whiskey and decent beer, he said. It would take place at his parents’ house in Burien, a working class town about midway along the suburban lull between Seattle and… Continue reading Man Night
In The Tower
The Club feels like an airplane for two reasons. Firstly the ceiling is quite low and hums faintly with the unseen HVAC systems piping air, water and power from the bowels of the street high into the air. The second is the Club’s altitude — it orbits 75 stories above the city. There is no access… Continue reading In The Tower
If Fungi Aren’t Aliens, They’re Almost Certainly Communicating With Aliens
Imagine, for a moment, if aliens decided to visit Earth. How do you think it would go down? Here’s what I think would happen: A black spacecraft appears on the lawn at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. A door opens and in the steam, a series of purple, tentacled beings emerge. As they glide down a gangway… Continue reading If Fungi Aren’t Aliens, They’re Almost Certainly Communicating With Aliens