Traffic would have been a mess on the Friday afternoon before a 3-day weekend under normal conditions, but this bridge collapse is really going to make a mess of things. Here's what the Washington State DOT says:
I-5 is closed in both directions in Skagit County south of Burlington.
Driving south:
Traffic is being diverted off southbound I-5 at Exit 230.
For an alternate route, take eastbound SR 20, then south on S. Burlington Blvd. and west on E. College Way (SR 538) to southbound I-5.
To use SR 9 as an alternate northbound route, bypassing Mount Vernon, take Exit 221 at SR 534 east to northbound SR 9 to SR 20 westbound to I-5
Driving north:
Northbound I-5 traffic must exit at Exit 227.
An alternate route is east to E. College Way to northbound Riverside Drive-S. Burlington Boulevard, then west on George Hopper Road to I-5.
1) The most life-changing burger joint in the country is right here in Seattle. Esquire magazine asked their online readers to pick the most life-changing burger joint in America. They said they were expecting the honor to go to a chain like Steak 'n Shake or In-N-Out. Instead, the winner by a huge margin, "inspiring more vocal burger love than any other place with 56% of the votes," was the Northwest's own Dick's Drive-In.
Esquire said Dick's serves " a simple, cheap burger (a Deluxe double is an astoundingly low $2.70) that people just like. The secrets, according to a spokesperson for Dick's, aren't very secret: The beef patties are 'fresh, never frozen, and delivered locally every day,' and they use a sauce made of mayonnaise and spiced pickle relish." And the fries and shakes aren't too bad, either. Nice going, Dicks. I only hope this doesn't mean extra-long lines at 1:00am now.
Here's the link to the story, and here are the results from Esquire:
2) Speaking of burgers, if you want to thank a hero, burgers are the way to go. Remember this guy, Charles Ramsey, the neighbor who put down his Big Mac to help three kidnapped women escape from the Cleveland home where they were held hostage for 10 years?
Now he's reaping the rewards for his heroic actions. More than a dozen Cleveland area restaurants have declared that Charles gets a free burger anytime he wants. And not only that – at Hodges, the restaurant where Charles works as a dishwasher, they've added the Ramsey Burger to the menu. The Ramsey Burger is sort of a fancy version of a Big Mac -- an 8-ounce Certified Angus Beef patty with bread and butter pickles, lettuce, secret sauce, onion, cheddar cheese and a toasted sesame bun.
It'll run you $12, which is on the pricey side, but it does include tater tots.( For 12 bucks, it better include tater tots!)
3) Is there a divorce in your future? I hope not, but if there is, there's a new way to do it and spend thousands less than it would cost if you and your soon-to-be ex re-enacted War of the Roses. Wevorce went live yesterday.
Wevorce uses software to guide you through the breakup, get your paperwork together, work out a financial plan and custody agreement, and file for divorce without a court battle. I guess the two of you have to at least be speaking to each other, but it's way more streamlined than communicating through lawyers. You're going spend up to 10 grand on your divorce with Wevorce, but siccing lawyers on each other and going to court can cost a lot more than that.
Here's the website, and here's the company's founder explaining the concept:
It seems like a good alternative to the ugliness that surrounds a lot of splits. I just hope you never need it. I hope you kids work it out. You guys seemed so good together.
Catch THE FEED twice an hour between 6 and 9am weekday mornings on The Mountain.
1) It's game-changing, earth-shaking, and revolutionary. That's what Microsoft thinks, anyway. Microsoft revealed the new Xbox yesterday—Xbox One, which will be the gaming console for people who don't really care about gaming, because Microsoft wants to take over your living room with this thing. Watch movies and TV, listen to music, surf the web, make Skype video calls . . . they want it to be the center of your home entertainment ecosystem.
It does sound pretty cool. You can switch between sources instantly with voice commands. A new Kinect sensor detects subtle gestures and can even monitor your heart rate when you're gaming or exercising. If you're watching an NFL game, and one of your fantasy football league players scores, a box could pop up on the screen showing how your stats have changed, then you could summon Skype to call one of your buddies and talk about the game. No word from Microsoft on price or release date for the Xbox One other than later this year, which I'm pretty sure means "just in time for holiday gift-giving," right?
Watch this video to get some idea of what we're dealing with here:
2) If you're turning 50 anytime soon, you know what you're supposed to do – you've got to get a colonoscopy. Yeah, a camera on the end of a long snaky thing goes up your . . . thing, so they can take a peek at your . . . . stuff. I've done it. It's really not bad at all – the worst part is the prep for a couple days ahead of the procedure. Where you drink the stuff and then it comes out and . . .you get the picture .But now . . there's an app for that.
The colonoscopy prep app walks you through the whole thing with timed alerts to guide you during the pre-procedure cleansing process. It's for Android or iPhone, it's free, it's physician approved, and let's be honest, you already spend a lot of time in the bathroom with your phone, so this is just the next logical evolution, until someone creates an attachment for your phone that lets you perform the actual procedure at home. Dream big.
3) Are you spending your home improvement dollars wisely?
There are things we have to do to maintain our homes, like replacing leaky faucets and staining the deck. And there are things we do that we hope will add value at resale time. I found a list of things you think add value to your home but really don't.
For instance, a swimming pool.
Decadent, sure, but dangerous, especially with young kids, expensive to maintain and a lawsuit waiting to happen. And really – in the Northwest? With our weather? Be serious. Better ways to spend your money? Create more light – like a new window or a skylight. Or create a home office. That does add value.
Other money-wasters: Wall-to-wall carpeting, extravagant landscaping, and over-building for the neighborhood you're in. Check out the whole story here. And take a look at these home improvements that really do add value.
Catch THE FEED twice an hour between 6am and 9am weekday mornings on The Mountain.
1) Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek has died. He was being treated for bile duct cancer in Germany. He was surrounded by his wife of 46 years, Dorothy Manzarek, and his brothers Rick and James Manczarek (the original spelling of the family name).
The Chicago-born Manzarek moved to Los Angeles to study film in 1962. He formed the The Doors in 1965 with singer-poet Jim Morrison, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger shortly after finishing UCLA film school, and dropped the "c" from his last name to make it "Manzarek." A chance encounter on Venice Beach with Morrison, who was also studying film at UCLA and had written some lyrics, led them to put the band together.
I'm pretty sure I listened to the debut Doors album about 50,000 times in my youth, and I think one of the reasons they fascinated me was Ray's keyboard playing. I thought Morrison was a little too theatrical, and to tell you the truth he probablly frightened me a little as I tried to sort out my adolescenet feelings of confusion around sex and girls and stuff. But as a kid who took piano lessons for years, I thought it was very cool that the sound of a keyboard basically powered the band and gave The Doors their signature sound.
Here they are at their best. You have to sit through a few minutes of Jim doing kind of a poetry slam/rant thing, and then it's the full-on live version of "Light My Fire" featuring Ray's trademark keyboard jamming in the middle:
Benmont Tench, the keyboard player from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, said: "His playing showed me the path to improvisation . . . Indescribably important." Tommy Shaw of Styxsaid, "The blatant sexuality of Jim Morrison's persona standing firmly on Manzarek's exotic and distinct musical bedrock must have caused a lot of sleepless nights for parents of the young fans who were attracted to it all." And strangely enough, one of the most poignant tributes came from Weird Al Yankovic, who posted this video of Ray playing on one of his parody songs called "Craigslist" in 2009. He said, "the session was one of the absolute high points of my life -- Ray was amazing."
Watch Manzarek just sitting in the studio, learning the part, and banging it out:
I talked to Ray in 2001, and here are a couple of clips where he explains why he's still angry at Jim Morrison, and what he thought of Oliver Stone's movie The Doors:
2) Alcohol is good for you. Alcohol is bad for you. Which is it? Today, the news is bad.
The National Cancer Institute now says that more than 15% of breast cancer in America is from alcohol. And alcohol consumption results in maybe 20,000 cancer deaths a year. And this study did not involve hard drinkers or chronic alcoholics -- most of the cancer in this study occurred in people that drink less than a drink and a half a day. So the bottom line – at least today -- is that technically, there's no amount of alcohol that's good for us. That's depressing enough to make me want a drink. Here are the details.
3) If you're going to take that news with a grain of salt (on the rim of your margarita glass) and still indulge, maybe you need this:
The BACTrack mobile breathalyzer -- a professional-grade alcohol-testing device that works in conjunction with an app on your iPhone to measure blood alcohol content. This is sophisticated – it uses the same technology the cops use for roadside alcohol testing. The app determines your level of intoxication, and gives you your ZeroLine -- an estimate of how long it'll take before your BAC returns to 0. ("Hey, baby, I won't get back to my ZeroLine for 9 hours -- can I just stay here tonight?") It has extra mouthpieces so you can share with friends, and a social media feature which lets you post your sobriety level on Facebook or Twitter. Which seems like a GREAT idea. This thing isn't cheap – it costs $150. (I said it's professional grade.) But it could be worth it if it saves your life, or someone else's life. Or just be lots of fun at a party. More details, and a link to buy it, here.
Catch THE FEED twice an hour between 6am and 9am on The Mountain.
The devastation in Oklahoma is hard to wrap your head around, but here's one happy story. A woman was describing her experience to a news crew -- how she and her dog took shelter in the bathroom, the twister leveled her house, and her dog disappeared in the mayhem. And as she's telling the story, someone notices some movement in the rubble, and she and her dog are reunited.
1) Another rocking guest appearance on the Stones tour.
Here's the latest from the Rolling Stones tour, which seems to be permanently trapped in the state of California, instead of coming up here for one lousy night. Another celebrity guest took the stage over the weekend. It's a little hard to hear the subtleties on this fan cellphone video, but Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Nirvana strapped on his guitar and sat in on "Bitch" Saturday night for the Stones' second and final show in Anaheim, California – and he rocked his brains out. You can tell this must have been an out of body experience for Grohl to be face to face with Jagger. Check it out:
The Stones head back to the Staples Center in Los Angeles tonight where they started the tour at the beginning of the month. And then they finally leave California for their next show this weekend in Toronto. A whole different country, sure. But Seattle? I guess not.
2) The guy who played one of rock's best-known piano riffs will remain in jail for five more years. Jim Gordon, who wrote and played the breathtaking piano coda on the Derek and the Dominos classic "Layla," was also once one of rock's most acclaimed drummers -- percussion was his main instrument. But he's staying in jail for at least the next five years. The legendary session player stabbed his mother to death 30 years ago, claiming her voice had tormented him for years.He's 67 now, and he was denied parole in a hearing held last month.
A state of California panel considered the musician, a diagnosed schizophrenic, "a danger to society if released from prison" -- in part, because he resisted court-ordered medication and counseling.It's a sad story. Gordon also recorded with The Beach Boys, Carly Simon, The Carpenters and John Lennon.
I couldn't dig up any video specifically with Gordon playing the piano, but here's a tasty live version of "Layla" from back in the 1980s:
3) Men, are you suffering from Hobbit Feet? You know, people are always complaining about how the media set up unrealistic standards of beauty that normal women can never live up to . . .but hey, what about us dudes? Guys, it's time to start worrying about Hobbit Feet.
I saw this alarming report on MSN. Warm weather arrives and you might throw on some flip flops on the weekend, or after work, or even AT work if you're a DJ. And that might well reveal a previously untreated and very unsightly condition . . .hairy toes. No worries, though -- the new trend is laser hair removal for men's feet. A London dermatologist is charging around $1,000 so men can undergo about eight laser treatments, each lasting up to an hour, to remove the offending hair. And that's just the feet – think of what's involved with back hair!
This is very cool. Comedian/actor Patton Oswalt was doing a guest appearance on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. He played a guy who for whatever reason decided to fillibuster at the city council meeting (or whatever governing body that show is about.) Anyway, he did a completely improvised 7-minutes-plus scenario for the possible plot of Star Wars Episode VII.
Here's the single take where Patton just lays out the entire plot:
And then, just to add another layer of awesome to this, some intrepid Star Wars geek/Patton Oswalt nerd named Isaac Moores actually created a video version of the entire scenario that Oswalt described. Amazing:
And now, here's Alexis Normand, a Saskatooon singer who was kind enough to attempt our National Anthem at a hockey game somewhere in Canada. And even though she completely screwed it up, she didn't stop -- so kudos to her for powering through. At least we know for sure she wasn't lip-synching.
1) Here's a business idea for you if you're an entrepreneur – pot excursions to Washington State..
Right now they're working out the rules for growing, producing, and selling marijuana here in Washington. (Or should I say hashing out the rules?) A big question was whether retailers would be allowed to sell pot and pot products to out-of-staters. And the answer is: Sure! Retailers will be able to sell pot to anyone over 21 with valid ID. Which I'm pretty sure means you're going to see busloads of pot tourists from Idaho, Oregon, or wherever coming here to stock up.
But there's a limit to how big your stash can be. In a single transaction, you'll be able to get once ounce of useable marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana-infused product in solid form like cookies, and 72 ounces of marijuana-infused product in liquid form. Put that in your Nalgene bottle. They've even come up with official "Produced In Washington" icons for pot products which will be your guarantee that you're dealing with genuine Evergreen State bud:
Read more about the first draft of the new pot rules here.
2) Sad news . . . .The NASCAR driver with the greatest name in auto racing history has died. Dick Trickle apparently took his own life with a gun in North Carolina. Dick Trickle was never a big winner on NASCAR's premier circuit — which is now called the Sprint Cup Series—but everybody loved that name. It was a running gag on SportsCenter back in the day with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. They would say, like, "Dale Jarrett captured the checkered flag. Dick Trickle finished 43rd." The guy was apparently as quirky as his name. Check out this video of Dick lighting up a cigarette inside his race car:
RIP Dick Trickle. Gee, that's fun to say. Let's say it again, together. Dick Trickle.
3) Let's say you're a hardcore Seahawks or Sounders fan, and you need another way to show your love for your team. There's a license plate for that. Or, there will be, starting in January.
Today Governor Inslee will sign the Seattle Seahawks/Sounders FC License Plate Bill into law at the VMAC, where the Seahawks practice. Proceeds from the sales of these plates will support youth organizations around the state. They're going to run you $40 over your usual plate fee, with a $30 annual renewal fee. I'm not sure if they've finalized the designs yet, but I'm pretty sure the Sounders plate has a scarf around the edge and a beer in the middle.
If marijuana's going to be legal around here, you're going to need a few tips on how to consume it. Nick Swardson shares his experience with pot brownies.
It's a classic Seattle spring morning -- gray, damp, cool. Of course, this would be Bike To Work Day. Pedal yourself to work this mroning and you can stop at one of dozens of commute stations and fortify yourself with free treats and swag. If you show your helmet at these Starbuck's locations, you'll get a free tall beverage.
(Here's my kid showing his helmet. Unfortunately, he stole that helmet from me. He doesn't actually have a bike. Or a job.)
And at the end of the day, when the sun may actually be shining, there's an after-party for bike-to-workers from 4:30 to 6:30. Be careful outt there -- rubber side down!
1) How to shop with a conscience. If you're somebody who shops very carefully because you're interested in knowing which mega conglomerate is behind the products you buy, and what issues they support, you need this app. Buycott shows you a product's corporate family tree while you shop.
While you're in the store, you can scan the barcode on any product and the app will trace the product's ownership all the way to its top corporate parent company, including conglomerates like Monsanto, Kraft, Unilver, whatever. With Buycott, you can scan your box of cereal and find out if it was made by one of the 36 corporations that donated big bucks to oppose the mandatory labeling of genetically modified food.
It may make things a little more complicated, but if you shop with a conscience, you might want to grab this app. You may wind up eating nothing but nuts and berries from the local farmer's market, but that's the price of putting your money where your mouth is. The app is free, and although they released an Android version, it seems to have some glitches, so they're only offering the iOS version right now, here.
2) We may not have an NBA team, but we do have a film festival! Does Sacramento have a film festival? Well, if they do, it's probably lame. The Seattle International Film Festival starts today.
It's a little slice of Hollywood, right here in Seattle. Tomorrow, for instance, Andy Garcia, Vera Farmiga,and Tom Skerritt, will be at the Harvard Exit theater on Seattle's Capitol Hill for the North American premiere of their film Middleton, which is a romantic comedy, filmed on campuses across Washington state. You remember Kyle MacLachlan from Twin Peaks, and as the mayor on Portlandia. He's from Yakima, and he's going to receive SIFF's Outstanding Achievement in Acting award on June 3, followed by a Q&A and a screening of the Twin Peaks pilot at SIFF Cinema Uptown.
Here's the festival's artsy-fartsy trailer:
Yes, it's a film festival, which sounds kind of fancy, but really, anybody can buy tickets to most screenings, and it's not too pricey, either. All the details are here.
3) Who are the highest earners in professional sports?Sports Illustrated just revealed the Fortunate 50 -- the highest-earning athletes of 2013.
Tiger Woods is obviously back, coming in at number 5 with 40 million bucks in winnings and endorsements. Kobe Bryant is 4, Drew Brees is third, LeBron James is number 2, and the highest-earning athlete in 2013 is . . . Floyd Mayweather Jr., who should rake in a cool $90 million this year– and unlike those other guys, none of it is endorsement money; it's all winnings. The highest paid baseball player is A Rod with the Yankees – he's 9th, and King Felix Hernandez of the Mariners comes in at number 14, with $25 million in salary and endorsements this year. Gee, professional athlete is a pretty good job.
Because he got somebody to pay $43.8 million for this painting.
According to the Seattle P-I, quoting the Sotheby's auction catalog:
Barnett Newman's 1953 painting Onement VI "overwhelms and seduces the viewer with the totality of its sensual, cascading washes of vibrant blue coexisting with Newman's vertical 'Sign' of the human presence, his iconic and revolutionary 'zip."
In other words, it's a lot of blue with a line down the middle.
I'm not sure what Allen paid for the painting, but he was expecting to get between 20 and 40 million bucks at auction, so he did pretty well.
Now his biggest problem is how to fill a very large space on one of his walls where the painting once hung, because as you can see, it's a big baby.
1) Imagine a supergroup fronted by Jimi Hendrix, with jazz trumpet legend Miles Davis and jazz drummer Tony Williams, and Paul McCartney on bass. It almost happened.
It's no secret that Hendrix always wanted to push the boundaries of his music, and in 1969 Jimi had these jazz dudes lined up, and the three of them sent a telegram to Paul in London that said, "We are recording an LP together this weekend in New York -- How about coming in to play bass -- Peace." Unfortunately, Paul was on vacation for two weeks and never got the telegram. So this supergroup never happened. Of course Paul was still a Beatle at the time, so who knows if he would've actually done it? And if they really wanted him, how about a little more notice than, "Hey, we're recording this weekend, 3000 miles from where you are -- care to join us?"
Here's more on the supergroup that never was. Check out Jimi covering the Beatles here:
2) Did you pop an Ambien to get to sleep last night? The FDA is recommending cutting the dosage in half, because the normal dosage might be enough to affect your mental alertness for a whole day after you take Ambien. In fact, if you take the extended release version, Ambien CR, they're saying you shouldn't drive the day after you take it because it can stay in your system all day long and impair your ability to perform activities that require you to be alert.
Remember when it came out that people who'd taken Ambien were getting up in the middle of the night and cooking a meal, going for a drive, or having sex -- and not remembering any of it the next day? Clearly this is one powerful drug, which I guess is why it works so well. (I used to take it pretty regularly, until I got my Tempur-Pedic bed from Sleep Country!)
Clearly, the only equipment iit's safe to operate after a night on Ambien is your radio. Read more about it here.
3) At last, you Star Trek geeks can translate things into Kilngon.
You know that with their Bing search engine, Microsoft is always looking for an edge over Google. And now, they've added a handy new amenity. The Translator feature on Bing now translates English into Klingon. Sure, it's a made-up language from Star Trek, but . . . . anything for a leg up on the competition.
Why are they really doing this? Well, the feature was added in connection with Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel that hits theaters tonight at midnight. Plus, if you've ever parked on the Microsoft campus, I guarantee you'll see more Starfleet Academy license plate frames per car than anyplace else in North America.
1) Big changes coming to Saturday Night Live. You already know that head writer and "Weekend Update" anchor Seth Meyers will leave in the middle of next season when he takes over the Late Night slot from Jimmy Fallon, who's moving to the Tonight Show. Now Bill Hader, who's been there since 2005, says he's leaving at the end of this season. Hader's best-known character is Stefon, the uber-hip but slightly confused city nightlife correspondent on "Weekend Update."
He also does James Carville, Al Pacino, Vincent Price and Julian Assange, and pretty much every cheesy game show host on SNL. Fred Armisen is a question mark, too, since he's involved with his show Portlandia, and Jason Sudekis may go soon as well. So a lot of familiar faces will be gone, which can mean a season of train wrecks as they readjust, or it can mean some lesser-known cast members will get to shine and breathe new life into the show. (Not that it needs it -- I think SNL is having a pretty good run right now, don't you?)
Enjoy a little Stefon in action here:
2) You don't hear a lot of Bob Marley music in commercials; his estate guards his music very carefully, and they don't let just anybody use it. But you're going to hear it soon . . . in a commercial for Hyundai. They're coming out with a roadside assistance feature that's kind of like GM's On Star, and their ad agency decided the campaign should boil down to one simple message (Picture Don Draper pitching this to the client:) "Don't worry about a thing, because everything's gonna be alright." Yeah, it's the Marley song "Three Little Birds." So they hit up the Marley estate just as plans happened to be unfolding for a remix of Marley's Legend album . . .and now, Hyundai will sponsor that album and a documentary about it, and you'll hear Marley's song in a car commercial. In the ad business, that's what they call "synergy." It's a win win.
3) The music of KISS – tasty licks, fun, but not super sophisticated. Just a good time, right? Kind of like the food they're going to be serving all over the country. Yup, KISS plans to open more than 100 restaurants in North America. They just opened the third branch of Rock & Brews in the LA area, they're in Los Cabos, Mexico, and next up is the LA airport, Maui, Kansas City . . and the world.
Paul Stanley of KISS says "Most of the time when you bring your kids to a restaurant, you are eating cardboard pizza or dried out macaroni and cheese." But I guess this place is different – let's look at the menu: Mosh Pit Mac n Cheese, Any Way You Want it Pizza, Which One's Pink Ahi Salad, Freebird Chicken Sandwich, the Woodstock Wedge salad, Slowhand Pulled Pork Sandwich, and top it all off with a n order of Purple Rain Chocolate Drops . . . hey, when are we getting one of these joints?
1) Spinal Tap is back, with a black vinyl album. Really black. Totally black.
I think it's a well-established fact that the best movie ever about rock & roll is This Is Spinal Tap, right? Right. Trust me. Well, good news: The band Spinal Tap is reissuing its debut album, on black vinyl. In fact, the record's black, the cover is black, and the inner sleeve is black. So you'll get all the band's hits, including "Hell Hole," "Sex Farm," "Big Bottom" and "Tonight I'm Going to Rock You Tonight" in one glorious black-encrusted package. The band's press release says, "Imagine the greatest record ever made by man. And then imagine that record as remastered by God himself. And then take that remaster and let Zeus and Ghandi have a freestyle rap battle over the top of it. " The Spinal Tap record will arrive in about a month, on June 11. (Just in time for Father's Day?)
2) How rich would you be if you'd bought Apple stock instead of Apple gadgets? Well, maybe not rich, but you'd have a lot of money, let's just say that. Business Insider crunched some numbers, and here's what they figured out.
If, instead of spending $399 on the original iPod in 2001, you'd invested that money in Apple stock, in 2012 you'd be sitting on $26,374.
If you'd bought the first iMac in 2002 -- you know, the one with the screen perched on a little pole sticking out of a big white half-sphere?-- you'd have spend $1,999. But if you'd invested that in Apple stock, in 2012 you'd have $153,260. Enough to finally buy that new iMac you always wanted. Of course Apple's stock was at an all-time high in '12 and it's taken a little dive since then -- like shedding 1/3 of its value -- but it still wouldn't have been a bad investment. Hindsight!
3) If you're a fan of the many ways humans make make guitars sound great, this is the tour for you. It's Peter Frampton's Guitar Circus.
The tour heads out this summer, and depending on where you catch him, Peter will be joined by B.B. King, Robert Cray, Sonny Landreth, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Steve Lukather from Toto, Richard Thompson, Rick Nielsen, ex-Byrd Roger McGuinn, Steve Cropper, former Eagle Don Felder, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Stone Temple Pilots' Dean DeLeo, Vernon Reid of Living Colour, Vinnie Moore from UFO, and Vince Gill.
Around here, the show comes to the Tulalip Amphitheater in Marysville on July 28 with special guest Kenny Wayne Shepherd . . . but you could also catch the show at the Mill Bay Casino in Manson and at the Northern Quest Resort & Casino near Spokane. Check out the complete tour itinerary here.
1) I'm not proud of this story. it's childish and immature. But I think you have a right to know. If you're, say, having a feud with somebody, or you just want to prank someone, there is a service that will anonymously deliver a package of , well . . . as my 1 1/2 year old kid would call it, "poopy."
Yeah, this is for real. It's called called S&#t Senders, and their website says, "Has some one really pissed you off? Don't get mad, GET EVEN. Send that special someone a big stinky pile of s&$t." It's actually quite reasonably priced – about 30 bucks, depending on the variety you choose. You can choose from cow, gorilla or elephant waste, in quart or gallon size. Seriously. .
Their website offers you this, in case you're skeptical:
The TOP TEN reasons to send some one a package of s&$t:
To your ex-husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend
Neighbors pet crapping on your lawn
For your mean boss
For a salesperson or mechanic that ripped you off
A Last minute gift for some one who has everything
A gag gift
For a rich gloating friend, to knock them down a peg
To the teacher that gave your son/daughter a D
Some one left you negative feedback on your auction
You just don't like them
I actually hope you don't use this, and I hope you forget I told you about it. But if you want to check it out, here's the link. (It's probably NSFW, unless you work at the zoo.)
2) You have keyless entry to your car; haven't you always wondered why you can't have it for your house, too? Well it's here. There's a new lock for your house called Kevo.
(I'm pretty sure that's not the actual size relative to an iPhone.) These guys first unveiled this idea on the TV show Shark Tank and it's for real now. Forget regular keys -- this works with your iPhone. And as long as you have your phone on you, you just touch the deadbolt and it unlocks your door. Your iPhone is basically your key, which communicates with the lock via Bluetooth. If you want to give somebody else access to your house, you can send them an e-key and their iPhone will open your house when THEY touch the deadbolt.You can give a maid or a contractor access to your house for a specific window of time using their phone. It's pretty slick. You can buy the thing starting next month for under $250. Go here, or watch this:
3) I'm intrigued by this, even though it could be a cheesefest . . . . The Beatles tribute stage show Let It Be, which has been running in London, is finally coming here – it's going to open on Broadway on July 16.
The show mixes live performances with state-of-the-art technology to recreate the Beatles experience. Starting with the Cavern Club in Liverpool, they go forward to the Ed Sullivan Show, Shea Stadium, and then get a little trippy as they portray what they think it would've been like if the band had kept playing live later on, in the Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road eras.
It's packed full of songs that span the Beatles' career, sung by fake Beatles who might or might not make you cringe, depending on how hardcore a fan you are, I guess. Let It Be is coming to Broadway, then you have to believe eventually it'll tour the whole country, which means it would probably come here, since we love the theataaah in this town. I'll let you know if and when it comes to Seattle.
Catch THE FEED twice an hour weekday mornings between 6 and 9am on The Mountain.
1) "I am the Lizard King. I can do anything!" The immortal words of Jim Morrison are now captured forever in a new Doors app for the iPad.
You know it's big, because it has its own trailer, just like a movie:
This thing has music, videos, hundreds of photos, cartoons, you can actually swipe through pages and pages of FBI documents and court transcripts, essays by Patti Smith and surviving Doors members, interviews and concert footage . . . there's even a graphic novel that depicts the infamous incident in Miami where Jim Morrison allegedly exposed himself.
Here's the list of contents, from the description in the App Store:
THE DOORS official App brings The Doors' story to life with a rich, immersive experience that digs deeply into every aspect of The Doors' incandescent career. From their beginnings, to today, The Doors' music burns with an intensity fueled by their distinctive approach to poetic lyrics, bold instrumentation and mesmerizing performance.
Conceived by Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman and produced by Jac Holzman and Robin Hurley. Built by Brandwidth U.K.
THE DOORS App features:
* Insider Stories – by David Fricke detailing the making of each Doors album; the "Miami Incident," American Prayer, Absolutely Live, Live in Europe '68 - enriched with videos, audio, photos and rarely seen memorabilia
* Timeline The Doors' History – You control the Timeline from the radio dial of Jim's
Shelby GT500
* Cast Of Characters – Meet the key people in The Doors' universe
* Music Room – Flip through the classic Doors LPs, hear song samples, or scan and match full tracks from your own library. Plus lyrics to all Doors songs
* Graphic Novel – Tale of the infamous Miami Incident by Dean Haspiel & Adam Holzman, plus a Doors Dossier of actual FBI files and many trial related documents
* Tech Nuggets – Descriptions and photos of all equipment used in the recording of each studio album
* Doors Map of LA – Prime hot spots in the band's history, with photos and stories
* Vignettes – from Patti Smith, Hunter S. Thompson, Greil Marcus and Francis Coppola, as well as John, Ray and Robby
* 44 Video Commentaries, plus six (6) full-length Doors Music Videos
* Social – In-app links to Social Media and the iTunes store
* Gallery – All the App's photographs, artwork, tape boxes, memorabilia, press releases
* Favorites – A personal portfolio of treasures, chosen by you
The app, called simply The Doors, just went on sale in the App Store for $4.99. Worth it.
2) Aerosmtih rocks Japan, and you get to watch. Steven Tyler just posted a trailer on his Facebook page for a new Aerosmith concert movie, Rock for the Rising Sun. It, too, has its own trailer:
They shot this in Tokyo six months after the earthquake and tsunami. According to the PR blurb,
Aerosmith brought their Back on the Road tour to Japan despite concerns about safety. The film, directed by Casey Patrick Tebo, combines live performance material with behind-the-scenes footage that shows the nation coping with the destruction. Rock for the Rising Sun focuses on the strong relationship between Aerosmith and their Japanese fans.
No slam on the band, but they do seem to imply that the they were super brave for going there, which – hey, you were in Tokyo, not the patio at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, but I guess their presence did help lift the spirits of the people, or at least give them something else to think about.
Rock for the Rising Sun will be out on DVD and Blu-Ray in June.
3) Another triumph for American democracy -- the people have picked a new potato chip. Remember how Lay's asked fans to submit new potato chip flavors? They narrowed the all down to three finalists that they actually produced, so people could try them and vote and ultimately pick one winner. The choices were Chicken and Waffles (with just a hint of maple syrup flavor,) Cheesy Garlic Bread, and Sriracha, the Thai hot sauce flavor.
The people have spoken, and the winner is . . . .Cheesy Garlic Bread. The winning flavor will stay on store shelves at least until the end of the year and the others will stick around through summer, so you still have time to do your own blind taste test (especially if you're taking advantage of Washington's new legalized marijuana.)
A children's librarian from Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin came up with the idea for the Cheesy Garlic Bread chips and she'll get $1 million or 1 percent of sales, whichever is higher. Jeez, I guess they sell a lot of potato chips.
1) Paul McCartney dug deep into the Beatles catalog for his tour-opener in Brazil last weekend.
In fact, he did five Beatles songs that he's never played live before, ever -- "All Together Now," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!," "Lovely Rita," "Your Mother Should Know," and "Eight Days a Week." (They say John Lennon hated that last one, and insisted the band skip it back in the day when The Beatles still did live shows.)
This is good news for you if you're going to catch McCartney at Safeco Field on July 19 -- lots of stuff he hasn't done live in a long time, or ever. Here's some bootleg fan video of a couple of the songs from Brazil:
And the setlist from the opening night of the tour:
Eight Days a Week (The Beatles song) (live debut)
Junior's Farm (Wings song)
All My Loving (The Beatles song)
Listen to What the Man Said (Wings song) (solo band live debut)
Let Me Roll It (Wings song)
Paperback Writer (The Beatles song)
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five (Wings song)
The Long and Winding Road (The Beatles song)
Maybe I'm Amazed
Hope of Deliverance
We Can Work It Out (The Beatles song)
Another Day
And I Love Her (The Beatles song)
Blackbird (The Beatles song)
Here Today
Your Mother Should Know (The Beatles song) (live debut)
Lady Madonna (The Beatles song)
All Together Now (The Beatles song) (live debut)
Mrs. Vandebilt (Wings song)
Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles song)
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (The Beatles song) (live debut)
Something (The Beatles song)
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (The Beatles song)
Band on the Run (Wings song)
Hi, Hi, Hi (Wings song) (solo band live debut)
Back in the U.S.S.R. (The Beatles song)
Let It Be (The Beatles song)
Live and Let Die (Wings song)
Hey Jude (The Beatles song)
Encore:
Day Tripper (The Beatles song)
Lovely Rita (The Beatles song) (live debut)
Get Back (The Beatles song)
Encore 2:
Yesterday (The Beatles song)
Helter Skelter (The Beatles song)
Golden Slumbers (The Beatles song)
Carry That Weight (The Beatles song)
The End (The Beatles song)
2) Have you ever dreamed of becoming a cop, but you're concerned that your pot smoking might prevent you from being accepted on the force? Well, the Seattle Police Department understands that real people – people who might make good law enforcement professionals -- do spark up sometimes. And they acknowledge that they have to reach out to more minorities as they attempt to create a police force that more closely reflects the diverse communities they serve. So in the future they're going to be less strict about a few things, including minor crimes and drug use.
In the past, new recruits to the SPD had to swear they haven't used marijuana in the past 3 years – and 25 times overall. (Which I'm sure if you're baked, you're keeping an accurate tally of how often you fire up a blunt.) Anyway, now they're only going to require one pot-free year before you can join the Seattle Police force. The old rules also prohibited tattoos on your face, ears, neck, head or hands – you know, where the public can see them.
Now they're going to take those on a case by case basis. Maybe the cop can show you his knuckle tattoos -- "ticket" on one hand, "warning" on the other. (Wait, that's too many letters.) Anyway, kudos to the SPD for being a little more realistic.
3) Five dirty things that are cleaner than your cellphone. Okay, cellphones are dirty – you know it and I know it. Each square inch of your phone contains about 25,000 germs, making it one of the filthiest things you come in contact with on a daily basis.
So, just FYI, thanks to Mashable, here are 5 things that are cleaner than your phone:
*Doorknob
*Checkout screen at grocery store
*Kitchen counter
*Pet food dish
*Toilet seat
Yup, they all have fewer germs per square inch than your phone. And as far as I know, you don't rub your lips against any of those items, so . . . . .mabye spray a little Lysol on that thing once in awhile. Just sayin'.
UPDATE: Hey, wait -- I just got a text from a listener (I don't know their name, but they're in the 425 area code) and they said "Norwex antibacterial microfiber cloths will clean up that dirty phone! I wiped mine down!"
1) The Rolling Stones finally get it in gear. The "50 And Counting" Tour hit the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Friday night, and it was kind of a "Satisfaction" sandwich. At the start of the show, the UCLA Marching Band played "Satisfaction" in the aisles at the back of the hall just before the Stones hit the stage. Then it served as the final number of the Stones' two-hour-and-20-minute, 23-song set.
The concert actually began with a short film about the band, with Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett, Iggy Pop, Pete Townshend and Patrick Carney of The Black Keys explaining why they love The Rolling Stones. In the audience, more stars -- Jack Nicholson, Eddie Murphy, Nicole Kidman, Vanessa Hudgens, Paul Stanley and members of Foo Fighters and No Doubt were all on hand for the show.
The band welcomed a few guests tot he stage, too:
• Gwen Stefani (from No Doubt) -- sporting a spangled T-shirt of the Stones' tongue-and-lips logo -- sang with Mick Jagger on "Wild Horses." Afterwards Jagger asked, "Where do I get one of those T-shirts?"
• Country star and American Idol judge Keith Urban traded guitar licks with Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood on "Respectable," as well as joining Mick on the mic.
• Former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor played on "Midnight Rambler," in an arrangement that extended the song's slow, grinding middle section.
Here's bootleg fan video of "Wild Horses:"
The first thing Jagger said from stage was, "Good evening, Los Angeles! Or it is really just Beverly Hills, Brentwood and parts of Santa Monica," a reference to the swankier areas of the city.
The band appeared happy and played with spirit and intensity, while the 69-year-old Jagger seemed to gather energy as the evening progressed. The set included such rarely performed numbers as "Factory Girl" (from 1968's Beggars Banquet) and the 1980 hit "Emotional Rescue," which Jagger noted they'd "never ever done on stage before."
Here's the opening night setlist:
1) "Get Off of My Cloud"
2) "The Last Time"
3) "It's Only Rock and Roll"
4) "Paint It Black"
5) "Gimme Shelter"
6) "Wild Horses" - with Gwen Stefani
7) "Factory Girl"
8) "Emotional Rescue"
9) "Respectable" with Keith Urban
10) "Doom and Gloom"
11) "One More Shot"
12) "Honky Tony Women"
13) "Before They Make Me Run"
14) "Happy"
15) "Midnight Rambler" with Mick Taylor
16) "Miss You"
17) "Start Me Up"
18) "Tumbling Dice"
19) "Brown Sugar"
20) "Sympathy for the Devil"
ENCORE
21) "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
22) "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
23) "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
Here's "Sympathy for the Devil:" Watch Mick remove his big furry black cloak:
2) Big Bon Jovi mystery: Where's Richie Sambora?
The band's South African and European "Because We Can" tour begins tomorrow in Cape Town, but the Bon Jovi website says, "Due to a personal matter, Richie Sambora will not be performing on the European and South African leg of the tour. All shows will go on as scheduled." For weeks, fans have been wondering what exactly Sambora's "personal matter" is referring to, though many have speculated that the guitarist has been having problems with substance abuse. Rumors have also been surfacing about tensions in the band, particularly between Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi, possibly over money. Here's what Billboard says:
"Thanks 4 your notes & concerns. I'm doing f---ing great," he tweeted. "This is a private matter but please know I love the band and you fans!"
Sambora dropped out of the band's North American tour due to "personal reasons" and,although rumors pointed to a monetary dispute as the core problem, singer Jon Bon Jovi insists that the New Jersey born axe-man is still a part of the band.
"All I can say honest to God is that it's a personal matter, but we love him very much," Bon Jovi said on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in April. "He's absolutely still a member of the band."
And he's not going to lie to Ellen, right?
3) Congrats, Seattle, our traffic still sucks.
Every so often somebody rates American cities for how bad their traffic is. And we have a new list from a "traffic and information services group" called INRIX. They calculated the amount of time that congestion added to drivers' peak hour commute and after crunching the numbers, LA has the worst traffic congestion, followed by Honolulu and San Francisco. You know Seattle's got to be somewhere pretty high on this list, right? This time we're number 8. We actually improved a little last year, but we still have some of the most congested roads in the country, i.e. a 9 mile southbound stretch of I-5, which was the 11th most congested corridor in the country, and more backed up than ever thanks to tolling on the 520 Bridge.
8. Seattle
> Congestion score: 17.6 (tied for 7th highest)
> Population density: 585.8 people per sq. mile (35th highest)
> Average commute time: 27.6 minutes (22nd highest)
> Pct. driving to work: 81% (20th lowest)
Congestion in Seattle actually improved in 2012, with the INRIX index score declining from 19.6 in 2011 to 17.6 last year. Despite this improvement, Seattle remains one of the most congested metro areas in the nation and had some of the most congested individual roads in the country in 2012. Among these was a nine-mile, southbound stretch of Interstate 5, which ranked as the 11th most congested corridor in the nation in 2012. Last March, The Seattle Times noted that new tolls on the nearby Highway 520 had led to increased congestion on Interstate 5.
So don't let your friends in Chicago or Boston tell you otherwise -- they may have bad traffic, but we have BAD traffic. See the whole list here.
1) Bumbershoot 2013 showcases an extra big slate of classic artists. I posted the lineup here earlier, but it's good to see a variety of eras and genres on the schedule for this year's Bumbershoot festival at Seattle Center over Labor Day weekend. You've got Heart, coming off their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, you've got the reunited Zombies, Eric Burden and the Animals, Jason Bonham's and Gary "Cars" Numan. And then you've got 21st Century artists like Death Cab for Cutie, fun, Tegan and Sara, Allen Stone, MGMT, Ra Ra Riot, Vicci Martinez . . . it's big.
Get your tickets early here and save some money. Get excited for the end of summer (if that's possible) by watching this:
2) It's official -- bike sharing is coming to Seattle.
By this time next year, you'll be able to walk up to one of 50 kiosks on the streets of Seattle, rent a bike, ride it where you need to go, and drop it off at another handy kiosk. (You do have to pay for the privilege, of course.) Puget Sound Bike Share starting with 500 bikes provided by a Portland company that's already running bike-sharing programs in Boston and DC. Here's what their setups look like in some of their other cities:
For security reasons, each bike will have its own GPS device to track it down if it's stolen, and the bikes are made so standard tools can't be used to take them apart. You'll need a blowtorch for that. Here's the link for more details.
3) Does bike sharing make us a more exciting city? We couldn't be much more exciting --– Seattle is the fourth most exciting city in the country, according to some real estate site called Movoto.
They factored in acreage of parks, number of young adults, bars, a diverse population, movie theaters, museums, theater companies and music venues, and a lack of fast-food restaurants and big-box stores. You add all that up and we're number four. San Francisco's third, Boston's number two, and the most exciting city in America is . .. . Oakland, Calfornia? Yup.
By the way, New York was 6th and Portland was number 10. So this round of the Seattle-Portland rivalry goes to us.
In honor of Cinco De Mayo this weekend, Jim Gaffigan lays out his Mexican restaurant conspiracy theory. And the scary part is, it actually makes sense.
They revealed the musical lineup for Bumbershoot last night. The big headliners of special interest to Mountain listeners . . . .
Making their first appearance at their hometown festival, it's Heart. Also local hereoes Death Cab for Cutie and Vicci Martinez, and the band fun. The classic 60s band The Zombies are back in action and marking their 50th anniversary by appearing at Bumbershoot, Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience, synth-pop pioneer Gary Numan, and Eric Burdon and the Animals. And of course tons more from every musical genre you can think of.
I know Labor Day weekend is a long way away, but you can save some money if you buy tickets now. Fifty bucks for a specific single day, $55 for any single day, or $120 bucks for all three days.
TICKETS
Three-day passes for Bumbershoot 2013 are currently $120. Single, day-specific passes are $50 and single Any Day passes are $55. Platinum and Gold passes (which sold out in 2012) are also available. All tickets are available for purchase at bumbershoot.org/tickets.
1) The Bumbershoot lineup -- available tonight, only in selected Seattle bars. When you've got a gorgeous day like this, you can't help looking forward to summertime, and all the outdoor concert possibilities at the Winery, the Zoo, and Marymoor Park. It almost seems like sacrilege to look four months ahead to Labor Day weekend, but the folks at Bumbershoot are ready to do their big reveal.
The lineup for Seattle's massive annual festival at Seattle Center will be unveiled tonight . . . . .but you have to go to one of seven bars around Seattle. The bars will be running food and drink specials, and then at 10:30 tonight they'll all show a video which announces the Bumbershoot lineup. And just in case you over-serve yourself and can't remember what was in that darn video, we'll post the lineup tomorrow.
Here are the bars where you can see the video at 10:30 tonight (Thursday):
The Spectator (Queen Anne)
Vermillion (Capitol Hill)
Feedback Lounge (West Seattle)
Solo (Queen Anne)
Rendezvous (Belltown)
Spitfire (Belltown)
Neumos (Capitol Hill)
2) Graham Nash -- a friend you can depend on. Graham Nash put a box set together of his own career in music, and then he helped his bandmate David Crosby with his box set,. His other bandmate Stephen Stills liked those two projects so much that he asked Graham for help on his box set. And now it's here: A 4-CD set called Carry On -- 82 tracks, 25 of which have never been released.
The two musical legends commented on the project:
Carry On goes for $45 at Amazon.com. By the way, Stills is performing in New York on Friday with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under the direction of Wynton Marsalis. Classy gig. Nash is just waiting for somebody else to ask him to curate a box set, I guess.
3) Ready to upgrade your flat screen to the next level? Here's your answer:: IMAX is entering the home theater market. Yeah. You get an IMAX-designed theater with state-of-the-art dual 4K projection system in 2D and 3D, a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, curved screen and a custom, patented surround-sound system. It's not quite as big as the IMAX screen in a real theater, but it it's plenty freaking big.
They don't get into pricing on their website, because of course that would be vulgar. You can set up an appointment to talk specifics. But home theater experts guesstimate that we're talking between 1 and 2 million bucks for the IMAX Private Theater. And you still have to make your own popcorn? Outrageous!
1) We're all still smarting over the NBA relocation committee's recommendation to veto the Kings move to Seattle But I found an article on Slate with a simple explanation about why this was inevitable. Yes, the Sacramento group offered less money than the Seattle group, but it's actually not about the money for the team -- it's all about the arena.
Our guys were offering to build a brand new arena for the Kings. Which seems like a good plan – don't put this financial burden on the taxpayers. The Sacramento crew managed to persuade the city of Sacramento to promise a brand new taxpayer-funded arena for the Kings. And the NBA owners like that – they always want to have that leverage of "build us a taxpayer-funded arena or we'll move the team." So the commitment and generosity of Chris Hansen ultimately screwed us.
2) The iPhone is about to get a radical new look. And brace yourself -- it may be unsettling to some users. If you look at the icons and graphics on your iPhone screen now, they have a glossy, realistic 3D look. The Notes app looks like an actual little yellow legal pad. The bookshelf looks like a real wooden bookshelf. Apparently Steve Jobs was a big proponent of that style.
Well the word is in the next big update of the iOS operating system that powers teh iPhone, that's all going away in favor of a flatter, less realistic look, along with newly designed tool bars, tab bars, and other basic interface features. In other words, more like the new Windows phone.
If you've seen that, it's flat and modern with nothing shiny -- no fake leather cover on the calendar. Ironic, since Apple fans used to mock Microsoft for their design. This time around, it looks like Microsoft was out in front on this. Read more here.
By the way, if you're still rocking the original iPhone from 2007, bad news -- as if June 11, it'll be as obsolete as that antique two-piece phone they installed last season at Downton Abbey. Apple will consider it "vintage" and they won't service it anymore. The world was a different place in 2007 -- a phone from that era just won't fly in 2013.
3) Hey, the new Fletwood Mac is here!
And it sounds a lot like the old Fleetwood Mac! Yesterday they released their first new music in 10 years . . . . on iTunes. Extended Play contains one song that goes back to the Buckingham Nicks era of the early 70s -- "Without You" -- and three brand new songs written by Lindsey Buyckingham -- "It Takes Time," "Sad Angel," and "Miss Fantasy." In fact, early reviews say it really sounds like more of a Buckingham album. The band says they have 8 or 9 other tracks that they hope will be the beginnings of a full length Fleetwood Mac album, and of course they're at the Tacoma Dome on May 20..
You can listen to the four new tracks here and watch a live fan video of "Sad Angel" here:
Catch THE FEED twice an hour between 6 and 9am weekday mornings on The Mountain.
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