Splitscreen: A Love Story

Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo.

This is cool for the following reasons:

I love Europe
and clouds in my coffee
and trains
and moody piano-driven music
and bridges
and airplanes
and clouds
and sunsets
and short films
and love stories.


And as if this isn't cool enough already, apparently it was all shot using a mobile phone.

Buy Your Tickets TODAY for the Mobile Food Rodeo

Buy your tickets TODAY for the Seattle Mobile Food Truck Rodeo!!

Why you ask?

Well let me tell you.

If you buy them now, you get the entry ticket for $8.50 (after fees), plus you get a $3.00 voucher good at any of the food trucks. 

However, if you just show up tomorrow you have to pay $10.00 and you don't get any voucher! 

Need I say more? Ok maybe I do. Because why should someone have to pay to go to a food truck?

Mobilefoodrodeo.com has your answer:

"This isn’t just a parking lot full of great food trucks, it’s an experience with live music, live art, contests, tons of hay barrels, cowboy hats and even a Trophy Cupcake eating contest!!

But, this is still 100 % about the best mobile food in town. So enough of the build up already….We are introducing some seriously tasty signature dishes to keep your taste buds salivating at this Mobile Food Rodeo. Think you’ve tried them? Well you haven’t, as these prized dishes set to debut for the the very first time as part of the Seattle Met’s Wagon Awards competition.

That’s right! The Mobile Food Rodeo is the ONLY place to get your hands on these dishes! Our favorite mobile food trucks are cooking up brand new signature dishes for the Wagon Awards this year to be judges by our guest judges and audiences. That right!"

Music, art, cowboy hats, cupcakes and new dishes! Ok I'm done. 

Buy Food Truck Tix Here

Something to Brighten Your Day.

This is Good with a capital G.

This idea get high marks for:

-simplicity
-use of existing materials
-improving people's everyday life
-low cost
-being awesome.

The Ace Hotel: Portland. Put An Elk on It!

Traveling with my job, I’ve stayed in my fair share of hotels. For too long I ran the circuit of the big name hotels, lured by points, priority check-in (who cares?), and the coveted sliver, ahem, excuse me, platinum card that comes in the mail every year, telling me I am important and am not home that much.

Well I’m here to tell you it’s all a sham.

No matter what you pay at these chain hotels (I’m talking Marriott, Hilton, H.I. Express, Hyatt and the like), you get: a lobby with stuffed chairs and a blah, if upscale feel, expensive parking, expensive breakfast. For your $150-$200+ you get a room that looks basically the same no matter if you are in Seattle, San Francisco, Hong Kong or Indianapolis. I mean really. It’s just a shoebox with nice bed, a big TV and a stark, functional, but characterless bathroom. These hotels are generally funded by developers looking to get as much money out of a plot of land as possible, with no regard for the locality they inhabit. Had enough of this discussion? So have I. In fact, I’ve had enough of these places in general. 

Now try this on for size. 

• Rooms with character. Each room is a bit different. Some have murals. My current room has one wall papered in an old dictionary. 
• The ceilings are tall, the floors are wood. 
• A sweet elk on my “Portland” bedspread. Put on Elk on it!
• A clawfoot bathtub. 
• Wooden floors that delightfully squeak as you walk up the stars or step into your room.
• Record Players (in some rooms)
• Custom soap and bath products. (Have you tried the cilantro conditioner?! I could drink that stuff.)
• Stumptown Coffee in the Lobby. Let me repeat. Stumptown. Lobby. 
• A photobooth in the Lobby. 
• Clyde Commons, the restaurant attached to the hotel, is the sort of place you'd actually want to go on a Friday night and you'd actually want to eat the food. 
• Oh, and did I mention it’s the same cost or cheaper than the big chains?

• The lobby is hip beyond all imagining. I feel like I’ve stepped into a set for “America’s Next Top Hipster.” You really feel out of place unless you have multiple tattoos and/or piercing, and look like you don't give a damn. It’s kinda ridiculous really, but kinda fun too. Explore your inner skinny jeans.

• The breakfast is reasonably priced ($8), delicious and healthy too. The guy working it said he got all the fruit today from the Farmer’s Market. How very Portland. Wherever it was from it was delicious. Blackberries, peaches, blueberries, cherries cheeses, toast with Nutella, pastries, yogurt, etc, etc, and (of course), Stumptown Coffee. All in a nifty little breakfast room with communal wooden table with copies of the New York Times, or a window seat by the little roof-top herb garden. 

Have you ever seen an herb garden at the Hilton? I think not. 

And maybe the best part, Powell’s is a block away.

1 Reel Film Festival or What I Would Be Doing This Weekend if I Were Around Seattle

I'm leaving town this weekend.

But if I weren't, this is what I'd be doing:

1 Reel Film Festival
http://www.siff.net/cinema/seriesDetail.aspx?FID=244

SIFF Cinema is using Bumbershoot as excuse to have a little mini-fest.
This is good news to you loyal reader because you get to experience some of the best short films from around the world.

Top Picks would be:

-Best of SIFF Audience Choice Shorts at 4:30pm on Sunday.
-Astonishing Tales, Sunday at 7:00pm
-Around the World in 50min, Monday at 1:00pm.
-Cupid Attack, Sunday at 2:00pm

Really you can't go wrong. Just go.

What to do this Weekend: Fireworks in Vancouver

I know I haven't been posting much these days, but not due to lack of Good things to talk about. In fact, there's been so much Good that there hasn't been room for much else.

However, there's something so good that if I don't tell you about it, then this blog is pretty much worthless. So pay attention:

I you are ANYWHERE close to Vancouver, BC this Saturday you need to get in your car and drive. Even if you need to fly in it would be worth it. Why? Because the weather looks like it will be perfect for an evening of FIREWORKS over the bay in front of Vancouver. Every summer there is something in Vancouver called The Celebration of Light and countries compete to give all who care to watch the best show around.

This Saturday at 10pm is the final night. China (who first developed fireworks) is set to close out this, the 20th anniversary of the festival.

Picture yourself basking in the sun, by the ocean, with mountain in the distance, hundreds of boats in the harbor and delicious food in your belly. You're enjoying all the interesting people passing by, the elaborate picnics, the smells of food and the sound of languages from around the world. This is Vancouver on such a night as this Saturday.

Trust me, as one who was there last weekend, there is no better place to be (maybe anywhere) on a summer's night. I seriously, without question would be there again, but can't since I'm out of town for a friends wedding. I'm begging you, go there for me.

Cookie from Heaven

I just had the best cookie of my life.

Maybe my blood sugar was out of whack and the cookie hit that needed sweet spot. Or maybe it was the crack cocaine they put in this thing, but I'm telling you it was out-of-control good. So good in fact that I may never be able to enter Macrina's again with out eating one. And for only $2, how can one NOT justify the buying the best cookie of one's life?

So you're probably wondering, "what kind of cookie was this?" Well let me tell you. It was a ginger-molasses cookie sent from the heaven. It wasn't too gingery, it was nice and sweet, with a touch of salty(?) something to balance it out. And then there was the texture. It was this glorious soft, yet chewy combo with slight hint of crispiness only around the edges. It was just perfect. Go get one. Now.


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