- This post comes live, to you - my loyal readers - from SEATTLE, WA. Yes, due to some work-related business travel, I'm in Seattle - for the first time ever - for a very short visit. More on that in a moment ...
But first ... when I began writing this post, I was counting down to that glorious, post-Passover moment where I would once again be able to eat bread and bread-related food. As we all know, bread is amazing, and to go without it for eight days is tough for a heavy bread-eater like myself. I mean, Passover in general just seems like more and more of a sadistic holiday to me each year. There's just so little to eat. You can eat salad. You can eat meat. But what's a salad without a good crouton? What's meat without bread - as a side item or as a means of creating a sandwich? I mean let's face it, we eat the average grilled chicken sandwich less so for the chicken and more so for the sandwich part. It's the roll that makes it a comfort food, a solid lunch, a filling plate. To that end, what's mystified me about Passover in modern times is that Passover food culture revolves so much around desserts and other junk food. Go to your average grocery store, and the typically-meager Passover food section consists largely of chocolates, potato chips, and other crap. Last I checked, chocolate is not bread, and yet us Jews have decided to create a cottage industry around SPECIAL chocolate and SPECIAL potato chips that are, indeed, kosher for Passover. Because having special chocolate and special chips for Passover is more important than having BASIC FOOD BY WHICH TO SURVIVE. I know that we Jews will often adhere to a principle of "fence-building", in which the letter of a law is taken to such extremes that the spirit of the law is often lost. By which I mean, Passover is supposed to entail doing without leavened bread for eight days in remembrance of the Jews' flight from Egypt. And yet, modern day observant Jews are going out and buying special, Kosher for Passover tomato sauce. Tomato sauce! What does that have to do with bread? I'm sure there is some technical reason why your average marinara is considered unfit for Passover consumption, but really - is this something that we need to be worrying about? IN ANY CASE ... as much as I can be weary of the absurdities of Passover, I also do still feel fulfilled after going eight days without my primary form of nutrition, aka bread. And it makes that first bite of post-passover chametz that much sweeter. It's something I look forward to every year - a momentous event worthy of celebration at the likes of The Olive Garden or CPK (aka bread-central).
This year, I found myself celebrating in Seattle.
So yeah, back to Seattle. I'm here for a quick trip for work, but due to me arriving here a bit early, I had a couple of hours this afternoon to do a whirlwind tour of the city. Before I even got to Seattle though, I had a sort-of-cool thing happen on my plane ride from Burbank. The guy sitting behind me turned out to be former NFL Superbowl champion (on the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins, no less) Norm Evans. I knew this because sitting next to him was some young college football player, and the two of them got to talking, with Evans telling stories about his playing days and such, Pretty cool. When the flight landed, Evans even called up his old teammate Jim Reilly to bestow some additional words of wisdom on the college kid. I'm not a big enough NFL fan to fully appreciate all this, but still, pretty sweet!
Anyways, I got to Seattle and - with the skies oddly sunny and the weather pleasant - I set out to see the sights. I boarded a bus and somehow found my way to the Space Needle, which is actually located next to a pretty breathtaking park with one of the most impressive water fountains I've seen. The less breathtaking part of the area is Key Arena, which I believe is the former home of the Seattle SuperSonics. Walking by the arena, it sort of looked like a ghost town, which was a shame given that it's located in such a cool hub of parks and attractions. Actually, the whole area was oddly quiet and serene. Yes it was a Tuesday afternoon, but still. I guess not everywhere is like LA where things don't quiet down for a second. In any case, I went to the top of the Space Needle and saw some very impressive views of the city. After that, I hit up the nearby EMP Museum of Music, Science Fiction, and Pop Culture. Yep, it's completely random, but somehow it works. The museum's main attractions are its rotating exhibits, and right now they're featuring a well-publicized tribute to Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. It was a great little exhibit, with all sorts of stuff including Kurt's drawings, letters, clothes, and instruments. A giant video wall displayed hi-rez photos of the band as their music blared. It was a bit surreal to see such recent (and still ongoing, in a sense) history displayed in this setting and with this level of reverence, but hey, where else is their a museum exhibit dedicated to Nirvana? It's crazy, too, because you walk through the nearby park area and as kids play and families stroll, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and other 90's grunge music is just blasting from the museum. It was during this odd confluence of events that I realized that, indeed - Seattle is pretty awesome. As far as the sci-fi part of the museum, the main exhibit at the moment is Battlestar Galactica-centric. I got a kick out of the props from the show, but if you are a diehard BSG fan you will probably be in seventh heaven. Interestingly, a huge area dedicated to James Cameron's AVATAR is currently under construction for a summer opening - that should be pretty interesting.
After the museum, I boarded Seattle's MONORAIL (another reason why Seattle is great - it has a monorail!) and after a quick ride was back towards the center of the city. I wandered around until I finally found the Pike Place Market area - a huge market on the water. There were many vendors selling fish, fruit, and all manner of other food, and behind them was an indoor area with all sorts of eclectic shops, including one of the cooler comic book stores I've ever been in, called Golden Age Collectibles (just looked at their website, and apparently it's America's oldest comic shop? if so ... very nice). After a bit of exploring, I met with my work colleagues and we grabbed dinner at a spot that caught my eye near the market - Pike Place Brewery. As soon as I saw that their menu featured a section listing the variations of their "famous pizza," I was sold. Because the sun was going down and it was time for some sweet, sweet, bread.
I like Seattle from what I've seen. You get that sort of intellectual / artistic vibe from the city that you see in places like Boston, although there is also the laid-back, carefree sort of feeling that is more of a West Coast thing.
But hey, I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow, so that's all for now. From the land of grunge and Starbucks, I hereby say goodnight.
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