LOVE THY MUM
I didn’t get online with my own computer in time to post this time sensitive blog post on Mother’s Day itself. Suffice to say, I spent the day with two VIMs, my mom and Dominique.
*****
It had been one day short of a year since I had been in Seattle—no coincidence, just the maximum I could extend my ticket from May 2006. My flight to Toronto was largely sleepless, but the in-flight movies-on-demand were impossible to resist—I watched 3 of them and was on the way to getting thru “the Good German” when the systems were shut off for our descent.
The US Customs and Immigration have a rather remarkable facility at Pearson airport in Toronto—despite the fact that there are several flights a day leaving from YYZ’s US-bound terminal, it was experiencing a dearth of customers when I arrived on Air Canada from Paris. Most of my co-passengers were Canadian and getting off in TO. The officers in Pearson were friendly, and I was relaxed. I told the officer screening me that I had two bottles of wine with me as gifts, and he made no further inquiries. Terminal 1, where the US –bound flights board, is gleaming white, clean and well designed (IMHO). There are regularly spaced electrical outlets by the rows of seats in the waiting areas. Wifi is available (CA$9 for a day’s access). Might I also mention that most of the seats on the flight from Paris had electrical outlets as well (mine didn’t, unf.).
Both of my flights departed a little late. It didn’t affect much in my plans. I arrived more or less on time, and with no customs to clear in Seattle, I was able to make my way out front quickly to meet my mom and stepdad, and then in turn we waited for Dom and Aden’s flight to arrive (it landed early). After we were reunited, we headed to Palace Kitchen in downtown Seattle, just one block from our hotel. This was to be my base of operations the next few days—we all came off our flights with a bit of a cold, so Dom and Aden spent much of the first couple of days recovering in the room, barely eating, so I would go up to the Palace Kitchen and meet friends for a meal and/or a glass of wine. In many ways, Palace was my base of operations even when I lived there—the kitchen is open 'til almost 1am, the lighting is dark, the atmosphere lively, the staff is friendly, the food is excellent and the wine available by the glass is high quality and always something unexpected. It’s where I took Jill Sobule when she came to work with me in Seattle; I remember a lively evening with members of Cheap Trick, Pearl Jam, Marigold, and Peter & Stephanie Buck there when Cheap Trick played the Crocodile Café (in about 1998) that the place handled without so much as a feather being ruffed; the Palace is also family-friendly—at 10.30 that night they brought out crayons and coloring books for Aden as we dined.
My days in Seattle were busy without being *especially * productive—I saw my dentist and my optometrist—I don’t bother investigating if my insurance will cover me for these visits in France, I just do ‘em here, plus I like my care providers in Seattle immensely, and they know me, my health history, etc (I highly recommend Spex,the optometry clinic and salon in downtown Seattle). I saw a friend or two. I played some wicked tennis (I won 3 out of the 4 sets I played). I rummaged thru my storage space and even found a few things to sell—some DVDs/CDs I didn’t need—this coupled with unwanted DVDs/CDs I brought from Paris netted me some really good music (the new Feist album, a Karen Dalton album reissued by Seattle’s genius label Light in the Attic, the Format, the last Neil Young album and his two recently issued live albums from early 1970s performances) and plenty of spending money. We made our family pilgrimages to two favorite eateries—the Red Mill hamburger-y (twice), and Smokin’ Pete’s Barbecue. I culled some of the stock in my wine storage, so every night we were sucking down some premium grape juice—a 2001 Shafer Hillside Select cab; Sine Qua Non’s coveted “Suey” botrytised Roussane from California and an Alban vineyards Syrah were among the highlights.
BELLINGHAM, 5/10
We headed up to my old hometown a day early, to spend more grandparent time, and to enjoy their lovely home on Lake Whatcom. There was a lot for Aden to take in, but I managed to show her: the hummingbird feeders with lots of feeding (and fighting) birds; a pair of loons feeding off the end of our dock--at one point when the female stayed down longer than the male, he cried the lovely, forlorn whistle that loons usually make at night; and I caught a garter snake that was sunning itself on a bush and showed it to her (being familiar with snakes via Harry Potter, she was not afraid). On the day of the show, I headed into town and did a bit of DVD and bookselling—my favorite bookstore, Village Books, had moved up the block from its original location—it doesn’t meld into the adjacent café the way it used to, unfortunately. I drove by my old house, where I wrote my first songs (incl. Flood of Sunshine), had my first drinks and kisses, and spent about 8 of my most formative years. At 2pm I pulled into the visitor lot below the Viking Union building at Western Washington University, and made my way up to KUGS, Bellingham’s college radio station, that now inhabits a suite taking up most of one floor of the building—it used to be a 10-watt station in one room. Jon arrived and we did an interview, then headed to the Wild Buffalo to set up. It turned out that we could soundcheck right then and there, so as quickly as I could change my strings (they were 2 years old) on my acoustic guitar; we ran thru some songs and coughed up all the rust in our lungs. Then we headed off to a café to talk about plans for a future Posies album, down the road—Jon is still touring for his album, and I’m trying to get my album done and get the Disciplines’ album off the ground, so now is not the time, but we both hope to work on something sooner than later. I had dinner with Dom and Aden and my folks, and bless ‘em, my folks offered to babysit so Dom could go to the show.
Our show was really, really good. We had over 150 people show up, and I had devised a set list earlier that pulled songs from all of our albums that was very well received (obv. Jon & I tailored it a little more when we got together). I felt relaxed, and tho' I have been fighting a cold for my entire visit; my voice was in good shape. All in all, the night exceeded expectations both musically and in the number of people that came to see us. As you can imagine, lots of friends were there, including Chip Westerfield, with whom I formed my first band in 1980 or so; and my son, now 21, was able to come…no, I don’t feel old, if you are wondering.
SEATTLE, 5/11
I came into * these * shows with some expectations, as I knew that the first show was almost sold out in advance, and the second one was selling well, having only been on sale a week it was already to the halfway point towards selling out (it didn’t sell out, but it was plenty full). We hit the road at about midday, and stopped in Seattle to check out our accommodations (my friend Brian and I swapped houses for the weekend, he’s in my flat in Paris right now) and have a quick lunch, at Little Coney’s at Shilshole Marina. We had already passed some time in my old neighborhood that week—Dom harvested clothes from the Value Village by my old place, and of course, we did a drive by of the house I lived in for 9 years. I couldn’t stay too long—it’s emotional to see it. Time has softened the impact of seeing my old place in Bellingham, where I lived from 1979 until 1986; but I only sold the house I lived in, starting in 1997, last spring so it’s a bit intense to see it occupied, its windows regarding me as a stranger.
We pulled into the alley at the Triple Door, and the staff was there to welcome us and help get all the stuff down into the club—Dom’s suitcase, a huge box of CDs, a stroller, my bag, my computer bag, and, oh, yeah, a guitar. Craig Montgomery, who used to be the Posies’ live sound engineer, touring with us from 1990 to 1994, does sound at the Triple Door. From 1989 to 1991 Craig also toured with Nirvana. I had already seen Craig that week for a tennis match—Seattle really is that small, or at least my part of it is…
The Triple Door has a magnificent Steinway, so we set that up. We did a run through of “Last Crawl” at soundcheck—unfortunately we didn’t get to it during the shows—with me on the piano that had potential…during the shows we did perform “That Don’t Fly” and “Love Comes” with me on the piano, and I did a bit of “Flood of Sunshine” and “Burn & Shine” from back there as well. Tons of friends came to the show, or stopped by while Dom & I were having dinner; Darius was in the house of course; Rob Glaser, founder of Real Networks, bought a CD from me at the merch booth. Matt Southworth, from the Capillaries, did an excellent set opening for the first show; Jon joined him for a couple of songs. As the first show was all ages, Aden was down in front being adorable and making sure everybody knew that it was her papa onstage. I thought that both shows were great—again, I have to say that we showed a kind of relaxed confidence that is really unstoppable—by the second show, the cold I’ve been fighting was starting to win, but generally people remarked that the Rod Stewart rasp coming into my voice was welcome, and by concentrating, I could hold the pitch without too many errors (and play the hits—suddenly we’re in a baseball game), although every now and then my voice sputtered out of control and I sounded like the grocery store checkout kid from the Simpsons. By the time the second show was finished, I was totally depleted, and wanted to go to bed. It took awhile to sort out the money, and get loaded up, but we managed and by 1.30 or 2 I was in bed recovering.
Since then, I’ve been in Bellingham; yesterday (Saturday) there was a big party at my mom’s place, with relatives, friends, neighbors, all having food out on the deck. I had my private wine stash—two bottles of Harlan Estate’s “The Maiden”, from 1998 and 2000--decanted in our room, for Dom & I. I gave my son a bottle of Chateau d’Yquem for his birthday…Aden abused her brother relentlessly. Fun was had by all. Finally, at about 9.30, several days’ worth of driving up and down I-5, the shows, the socializing, cold meds, and the Napa valley red caught up with me, and Dom, and Aden (except for the wine part); all three were asleep, leaning on each other like the posts in a teepee.
Today we woke up early on Mother’s Day, it’s good to have everyone assembled, three generations of women from my family (all three with different last names), having toast and coffee, and looking at the grey choppy water of Lake Whatcom slosh against the bulwark.
Here’s to mothers, and the renewal of life, and the lives we share.
Love
KS
Bellingham, USA.
*****
Addendum: I spent yesterday driving to Seattle in the morning to get Dom & Aden on their flight, then running around Seattle saying goodbyes and taking care of last minute errands—I did manage to check out the new Green Pajamas CD, "The Night Races Into Anna", which features my contributions on two of the songs, recorded last year in Seattle. It’s on the Hidden Agenda label, a subsidiary of
Parasol, same as my first album.
I drove back up to Bellingham Monday afternoon, and had a last dinner with my folks, enjoying the lake as dusk, and watching the hummingbirds one last time. Nighttime, and flitting bats, came. I was up this morning at 4.45, as I had a 6.15 shuttle to SeaTac. This is a pretty remarkable service—there were two shuttles to chose from that morning, it arrives in the form of a Greyhound-style coach, with much nicer seats, and picks up passengers at the Valu-Inn near the freeway—which is just 15 minutes from my folks place in the sticks. It takes two hours, as it makes stops along the way in a couple of towns, but it costs only 34 bucks. My cab home tomorrow in Paris is going to cost the same price in euros, meaning, about $50-60, and it’s not going nearly the same distance. The check in and security lines at 8.45am were short, so I ended up with plenty of time to read the NY Times, break my fast, and update this blog…and sequence the Cosmopolitants’ album, listen a song in progress I’m working on with Lydia Lunch, and take notes on the rehearsal tapes of Liquid Architecture. In other words, back to work. All I could think of as this morning as I woke up in my seat on the bus and looked over the leafy parts of south Seattle is that it was incredible tennis weather. Paris partners, where are you? I can’t work Remi to death, and due to the restrictions on the number of courts you can book, he and I can only really get in one good match a week—out schedules permitting. I often have daytimes free, so if you’re out there…let’s hit.
Love
KS
SEA A Terminal
