Postcards from the Edge...of Grunge!

i love Seattle in the springtime... sunny, breezy and cool, nice! we only had a couple days there but SIFF seems like a festival you could spend a couple weeks enjoying no problem, tons of great movies and other stuff, most of which we missed (mark mothersbaugh speaking, robin guthrie / harold budd live collaboration, a bajillion films). those who DO spend day after day attending events i think have unfortunately dubbed themselves "Siffies" but what can you do? just love them for it i suppose.

the Portastatic performance at the Moore (what a cool old place -- i was last there to attend a grunge festival in 1989 featuring Mudhoney, Tad, and at the bottom of the bill, Nirvana) on Friday went great i thought, and it was awesome, if occasionally distracting, to see the movie on a big screen with a big audience reacting to the film and laughing and whatnot. much more exciting than running through the thing in a cramped rehearsal setting watching the movie on an 8" portable DVD player screen. hopefully we can get this large group back together and record the music for the Unknown, and who knows maybe play with the film again in some other towns.

don't know if there are other reviews of the show online, but this guy wasn't too into it, though he charitably notes that our performance was "not entirely meritless"... thanks! neither is your narrow idea of what the soundtrack to this film should be. anyway, had fun playing & the festival people went out of their way to make the whole experience hospitable and fun. thanks especially Eric, Amy, Randi, Barbara, at SIFF!

next day, saw a moving and heartbreaking documentary about Harry Nilsson ("Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why Is Everybody Talking About Him?)" ) which was prefaced surprisingly by an impromptu a capella performance by an audience member of an entire Nilsson song, complete with beat boxing and vocal orchestration... the guy had some major cojones to jump up at 11 AM in a theater full of Nilsson geeks and do what he did (including 2 false starts that had the emcee telling him "one more chance") and he won everyone over by the end of the tune...the film was great, as was the coffee at the Egyptian Theater.

back in the Triangle late last night after a long travel day & will be at Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals this evening, ruining further my already-destroyed voice, lending my support to a team that needs to find its legs and play its game in order to do what no one seems to think they can do tonight -- turn it around after being drubbed on Saturday in Edmonton. The Oilers certainly think they've already won it and who can blame them with the roll they're on, but i'm not counting out the 'Canes (nor am i going to jinx them!)... it's the last game of the season whatever the result and it's been a great one that could get a lot greater in one evening.....GO CANES