Dave Hates Chico at the Spar

My old friend Jeremy Johnson is coming to The Spar this Saturday, 8/1, with his bandmate, Kevyn Smith. They are Dave Hates Chico and they promise to pull out all the stops for their worldwide, exclusive North Tacoma debut. Check out the link to hear their new song.

Jeremy and I used to devour pairs of sandwiches together from the famed, and now defunct Raindancer sandwich shop in the University District of Seattle in the mid 90’s. This was our ritual: he would ride his bicycle from Queen Anne to my house in Wallingford with his guitar strapped to his back (I always thought that was super cool) and then we’d go snatch up a bag of sandwiches pre-jam. I’ve played guitar with many people and I’ve eaten Raindancer sandwiches with many people, but NO MAN could do both with as much fervor as Jeremy. Further, no other man explored the entire sandwich menu so completely. He even renamed most of the sandwiches for our purposes to aid in identifying their effects on the human body.

Dave Hates Chico has recently toured the country and their new EP “Floatin” is available now. Aside from playing great music, these guys are on a crusade to sort out the mess created by the music licensing business. Venues in Seattle are forced to pay licensing fees for cover songs played under their roof, and it is killing the live music scene in the process. I support Jeremy and Kevyn in all of their endeavors.

If you’re at The Spar and you don’t like this band, I will buy you one (1) pint of Hale’s Cream Ale, or another beer of equal or lesser value for your troubles. Once you’ve finished your free beer, I will show you the door.

Attention Google: you’re in trouble

HI, YOU’VE REACHED THE NEWLY CONJOINED SEARCH MONSTER OF MICROSOFT AND YAHOO, FEATURING AMAZING DAILY PHOTOGRAPHY, AND A VARIETY OF EDUCATIONAL CONTENT TO COMPLEMENT OUR TRADITIONAL WEB SEARCH FUNCTION. WE WILL WORK FROM A COUPLE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES, AND MAYBE EVEN PROVIDE SEARCH RESULTS THAT CHANGE REGULARLY AFTER INTERACTING WITH USERS TO FIND OUT WHAT THEY ACTUALLY GIVE A SHIT ABOUT IN SEARCH RESULT PAGES! PLEASE LEAVE YOUR MESSAGE AFTER THE TONE……… BING!!!

“Hey, Google here… We’re not happy about this at all. It looks like we should have focused on improving our look, our search algorithm and our online advertising program a long time ago. At the very least, we could have taken a few more bong hits, watched Star Wars a few more times and just bought Yahoo ourselves. Unfortunately, we’ve been super busy with our head up our ass creating a million new things for which many people could certainly care less. What do we do now?? Photos are cool, right? Hey, have you seen the truly lame ground photos we’ve taken of practically every street in the world? That’s almost cool, right?”

Pizza, coffee and a suntan TO GO

remember staring across Union at Poole’s Nursery on 6th Ave, wondering what if anything could ever revive that corner. It didn’t take long before Poole’s emerged in a far more industrious form, now known as Poole’s Corner. 3 stories of commercial energy rose out of the little corner, giving life to a host of businesses. Farrelli’s Pizza, Origin 23 and Bahama Tan provide a little retail something for everybody on the ground level, while offices buzz overhead.

The center has become so busy that I am usually forced to park in the underground garage (free) because all the street-level parking spots are full. Farrelli’s pizza is quite good, and the kitchen is open late every night. This is a huge bonus if you like midnight hot wings. Origin 23 (previously Firehouse) is home to coffee, snacks, gelato, wifi, and big tables, which naturally caters to UPS students, and anyone who despises the thought of contributing to the coffers of Hanoi Howard and the rest of the clan at Starbucks. Bahama Tan rounds out the bottom floor, and provides a pre-vacation tanning solution or a prophetic glimpse into the future of skin cancer; you make the call.

The little nursery is long gone, but the Poole name lives on safely for generations to come. For this corner, the building style works. I’m just not sure how many of these mixed-use buildings we want on 6th Ave. The concept usually gets rave reviews from our local, developmentally conscious (hippy, urban, art) people, but if they continue to pop up everywhere, we are left with nothing but a multi-level strip mall. Thoughts, anyone?

Downtown Tacoma via Puyallup River

If you’re like me, you’ve often wondered what it would be like to take a kayak down the Puyallup River. Your ship has come in. This article and subsequent video should provide everything you need to know when taking this safe, fun journey through the wilds of Pierce County. You can park cars behind the Puyallup Fred Meyer on River Road and drop boats in the water under the bridge to Hwy 167. There is a nice sandy beach under the bridge, perfect for this sort of thing.

We left the other car at The Dock building on Dock Street in downtown Tacoma and it took us about 4 hours to connect the dots. 2 1/2 hours of the trip is like riding an escalator – very relaxing and calm. The last hour and a half did involve a pretty good paddle, but only because of the way we timed the tide. Surprisingly, when the tide is coming in, Commencement Bay actually backs up into what appears to be the last mile of the Puyallup River. So we were effectively paddling upcurrent and downstream at the same time for awhile, even though that really doesn’t make sense until you’re there.

You loop around the Simpson Lumber Mill (the one with the smokestacks and giant sawdust piles in the middle of the port – this is a site to behold if you’ve never been close to it) and cut across Commencement Bay to Dock Street.

I highly recommend this for anyone with a kayak in the Tacoma area. It’s just too easy and convenient to pass up. The river level is high right now because of all the warm temps and mountain runoff; I assume this is key to the whole operation. Obviously, if the water level is low, the conditions will change drastically, and you may end up carrying boats over sandbars in spots.

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO of what we encountered. Good luck, and please drop us a line if you try it.

Much ado about nothing

Many people are saddened by the news that the Little Holland in Fircrest is closing. Personally, I’d be more disappointed if another one of my pets’ toys disappeared under a couch. The Little Holland’s building is in the way of a new commercial complex, and I assume they are being bought solely to clear space for this new business center. I find it amusingly ironic – the place that never had enough room for its patrons to park will now be bulldozed to make room for parking spaces.

In fairness, I should mention that the Mikie Burger was a very servicable “Smitty” type burger featuring a slice of Canadian bacon. This burger was delicious. Unfortunately, 75% of the time I visited them they were closed. They ran the goofiest schedule I’ve seen in the fast food world. If you happened to find them open, you would likely park a block away, walk down Center Street, place your order with some grumpy, old attendant and then wait 10 minutes for your order. They only had enough seating for a few people, so you were then forced to walk a block back to your car to eat. Fun. I haven’t been in over a year.

Because the business was sold for a good chunk o’ change and not simply forced to go under, I feel comfortable saying, “good riddance.” Take your money from the sale, and don’t open anything else.