Sharpening the Point

Ed note: this has been sitting in my drafts folder FOREVER.

Yesterday, I used the word sisyphean. Wasn't trying to be pedantic or anything, it just felt like the best descriptor of my general environment and obligations at the time. Last year came to a close with a hard December finish, and 2011 kicked off directly into my bathing suit area, and it all has seemed more difficult than usual. I tell you this not to complain or make a play for your sympathies, but because sometimes it can be helpful to think about the choices you made at some point that got you to your present location. A Recognize Your Agency exercise. And this brings me to a fabulous woman named Deirdra Kiai.

I met Deirdra through HONK! Fest West. She plays sousaphone in Orkestar Slivovica, a mighty fine balkan band out of Vancouver, BC. In addition to her bouncy anchor work in the OS, she's also a programmer who recently leveraged kickstarter to fund an independent game called Life Flashes By:

Charlotte Barclay, a novelist of moderate success, one day finds herself in a car accident while on her way to the next leg of her book tour. She then wakes up in the hazy world of her own memories and, accompanied by an impish pixie-like creature called Trevin, finds herself whisked away on a whirlwind journey to relive various vignettes of her life so far. In doing so, Charlotte attempts to make sense of who she is and who she’s become, as well as who she could have been had she done things differently.

Life Flashes By is a video game about success and failure in following one’s dreams, about finding love and losing it, and about feeling isolated and out of step with the rest of the world. It is a story that is at times clever and fun and at times melancholy and introspective. Most notably of all, however, it is a story best told non-linearly, which lends itself uniquely to the interactive nature of games. As a player, you won’t just be watching a plot unfold, you’ll be shaping and affecting it in a way unique to you alone.

She sent out a call for voices a while back and I responded with an audition tape for several characters. I was selected for Dr. Stewart. That's right. Somewhere right now I'm giving a very dry reading as a snobbish therapist in a game about life choices, and if I was a person who believed in signs it would be very hard indeed to ignore this one. Mostly though I'm glad for the opportunity to be a poor man's Dr. Katz.

Many thanks to Deirdra for that. Give her game a whirl and the next time you're up in B.C. go see Orkestar Slivovica. They're amazing.

Valentine's Day Hangover

Like most, Slap & Tickle celebrate the day after Love by shaking it off like a begging dog. We kid! In fact, we are excited to have one more chance to celebrate romance in all its forms. Moreover! We are absolutely pleased to be doing so at the Little Red Studio, a fabulous venue full of dark corners and high-backed booths, the kind perfect for stolen embraces and furtive kisses.

Speaking of soft touches, Landlord's Daughter and Honeybear are joining us sandwhich-style for a sweet-meats reuben, heavy on the sauce. No wonder that dog keeps staring at us, drooling.

8:30 p.m. // Little Red Studio // $5 (All-Ages)

Slap & Tickle Tonight

This post will go live on Blue Note in about an hour, but you, faithful blogger reader, you get to read it early. That's the sort of premium rewards we traffic in here at NWN.



Tonight, Cafe Racer will host "A Night of Romance" with acoustic performances by Landlord's Daughter, Pillow Army, and Slap & Tickle. Not only can you swoon to the music, but artists Billis Helg and Carl Nelson will be on-hand to draw pictures of your love, a ring, or as many roses as you would need to close the deal. (Remember the rule for imaginary flowers: take the number you would usually buy for your partner, double it, then start buying drinks and hope for the best.)

It's a promising beginning to Love Season. Remember to only shoot within your weight limit.

8:00 p.m. // Cafe Racer // FREE

P.S. Slap & Tickle will also be at Avanti Art & Design around 6pm, if you'd like to catch us twice or have an early night.

Wherein I link elsewhere

Didja know I occasionally write for Seattlest? It's true. I'm going to start linking there to here every so often, just so youse don't forgets. In today's edition, I play up important events of the weekend!

YOU SPOON FORK: Local heavies Titanium Sporkestra are a renegade marching band featuring members of Infernal Noise Brigade and TchKunG!. They're planning a trip to the great state of Texas for the first ever HONK!TX in March. (Look for Seattle's own HONK! Fest West in May.) Since the cost of getting a score of musicians and a ton of drums across the country is not inconsiderable, they're throwing a party to raise funds and announce their Kickstarter campaign. They've invited Brownstone, DJ DubTek, Aqueous, and k¥Le bija to stir up the floor and you to get stirred.
Saturday 8:00 p.m. // Fonda La Catrina // $10-20 sliding scale donation at the door (21+)

Read the rest here.

Now, don't you feel informed?

It's Christmas (in July in December)

It's that time again. The holiday season in its many guises, the frenzied time of year where we turn our focus to family, friends, food, drink, debauchery and gifts.

And what better way to combine all these things than at the most epic house party of the year. We call it Christmas in July in December.

When we did this party last year, The Stranger's Party Crasher showed up.

We like the idea of picking one's family during this time, and creating a tradition that's uniquely ours. We figured the best way to do that was to make some delicious food, invite our friends, and play some music. Speaking of,

The Bands!

The Psychotronics are a brashly tuneful instrumental three-piece that specialize in three minute surf songs tinged with noise.

Hey Marseilles and Pillow Army mark their fourth year with us. They both use eclectic instrumentation to explore unexpected rhythms. We think they’re fabulous.

The Donner Vixens features members of Desperado, the Seattle Sugarplum Elves, The End Times, Pillow Army, and The Pyschotronics. We’re tackling a selection of nontraditional Christmas covers from artists like Voxtrot, Magnetic Fields, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Rankin & Bass, and more. We will also be performing at the Nog for the Needy at The Comet on 12/21, the XMas party at The Tiger Lounge on 12/23 (with KEG!), and the 7th Annual Blue Moon Tavern Christmas Pageant and Midnight Mass.

Seattle’s Yellow Hat Band plays loud, fun music from all over the world using horns and drums. They are a mobile dance party and we are honored to have em.

Please know that you and yours are cordially invited. If you'd like details, do get in touch.

The Donner Vixens on Hollow Earth Radio tonight

The Donner Vixens are unlike any Christmas band you've ever heard, performing originals and knowing covers of songs that document the hard times of the holidays.

Tune in to Hollow Earth Radio tonight at 11pm for a caffienated set from The Vixens! You'll hear your favorites from Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Mojave 3, Voxtrot, The Youngsters, The Orchids, The Andrew Sisters, Rankin / Bass, The New Pornographers, and Rosemary Clooney.







Formed in 2007 under the name The Christmas Belles, The Donner Vixens are now an annual holiday event highlighted by the Christmas In July In December luau and a Christmas Eve performance at The Blue Moon Tavern. Featuring members of Pillow Army, The End Times, and the Seattle Sugarplum Elves, The Vixens like to disseminate the season's feeling of peace and love through raucous chaos and tight harmonies.







I invite you to log in at, and turn it up to, 11 tonight on Blues & Bluster. But if you can't, maybe you'll consider joining the Vixens at one of their shows this season:

Christmas in July in December luau
Where: Private Residence. Get in touch for details.
When: Saturday, December 18 at 7:30 pm
Featuring: Yellow Hat Band, Pillow Army, Santa Daddies, The Psychotronics, and The Donner Vixens.

Nog for the Needy
Where: The Comet
When: Tuesday, December 21 8:00 p.m.
Featuring: The Santa Daddies, The Seattle Sugarplum Elves, Hollow Earth Radio's DJ Tyson Lynn, and a special guest! Admission and nog sales will be donated to Noise for the Needy.

Tiger Lounge X-Mas Special #2
Where: The Tiger Lounge
When: Thursday, December 23 9:00 pm
Featuring: KEG!

The 7th Annual Blue Moon Tavern Christmas Pageant and Midnight Mass
Where: Blue Moon Tavern
When: Friday, December 24 9:00 pm
Featuring: Billy the Fridge (performing and playing Santa!), Buffy the Trickslayer, DJ Country Mike, Et Ceteras (a Peter Cetera cover band!), and guests. There will also be appearances by both Jesus and Satan, and a Midnight Mass officiated by the Rev. Darnell Jenkins.

Elliptical Habits

Unless you've been reading this, or this, or this, or listening to this, I haven't been putting much out there lately.

It's been a weird year. Been a spate of those recently. But this year especially, articulating my life to myself has been difficult. Figuring out how to show it to others? Impossible. So any kind of writing of a...personal nature, let's call it?...gets locked down as soon as it's produced. To the average observer, I've been piping my diary into dev/null.

Every so often though, it's nice to fire up the skywriter and spell it out in long, graceful arcs. Given the weather lately, I figured I should take any clear day opportunities and make the most of them.

Most of my free time over the past six/seven months has been devoted to one of the following projects:

1) The Psychotronics.
A destructive instrumental surf band devised and birthed by documentarian Jeff Myers, he of past projects like The Christmas Belles and Desperado. We take our first real steps on September 30th, when we play live on Hollow Earth Radio's Blues & Bluster. Listen in at your own peril.

2) The Christmas Belles.
You may remember a Christmas party so epic that the Stranger covered it? We're coming back. This year, we're making some changes: new songs, new venues, new member(s). More information to come as we figure it out.

3) HONK! Fest West.
Man, one year ends and the next starts up, just like that. The pace can be punishing. Thankfully, the reward has (so far) always made up for the hours of work necessarily tied to any venture fully run by volunteers. We already know a fair bit about 2011's Fest: it will be May 20-22 in Georgetown, Fremont, and West Seattle. Still to come: bands, schedule, volunteers, food, general logistics. You know, the small stuff.

4) Strange Tales of Preston Stagger.
He's a magician who solves crimes. He's also the title character of Simon Astor's two-act play. I'm writing some of the music, and will be in the pit during performances. Later in October, most of you can look forward to an invite to the theater.

5) Slap & Tickle.
I am not actively propositioning you. (although you are rather darling in that outfit. The color is really good on you.) Slap & Tickle is me on washtub bass and vocals with my good friend Kate on ukulele and vox. At the moment we're doing covers of old lovely songs that some people vaguely remember. It's just like writing a new pop song, but much, much easier. And you can tell we're serious about it because we made some videos.

Tonight You Belong To Me



You're Sixteen



Five Foot Two


We play next at Trolloween, Sunday October 31st at 7pm. Invites sure to be issued at some point closer to the actual date.

On top of all that, there's everyday life and a full-time job. A loving and wonderful partner and an amazing circle of friends. There are time I am nearly swallowed by my schedule, but I wouldn't have it any other way. What I'm trying to say, I suppose, is to please not worry if you don't hear from me here that often. If I have a spare moment, I'm most likely sleeping.