— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ इक्यानवे —
Making plans with Danielle is always known to be a slight crapshoot, due to her sporadic work schedule as much as the instability of some members of her family. Back when she told me she wanted to start getting together to celebrate the anniversary of her 2000 move to Seattle every year, my initial idea had been for us to do the Belltown Art Walk together, because when she lived with me for four months in 2000, it was in my apartment in Belltown. But, Belltown Art Walk is on the second Friday of every month, and she worked that entire weekend in February; we hung out the previous weekend instead. I still thought she might enjoy Belltown Art Walk, though, and she even marked her calendar for Friday, March 13.
Then, there were multuple challenges this past Friday, starting with the record-breaking 3" of snowfall in Seattle for that date. I later learned that Danielle never had the slightest worry about the snow, even though she had
plenty of it down in Renton.
Instead, I got a text from Danielle at about a quarter after 2:00 on Friday afternoon, which began with,
I'm sorry, but I'm not joining tonight. I've had an emotionally exhausting week. And she went on to tell me the wild drama that occurred between Patrick and Morgan, apparently resulting in them having a 2-year restraining order against each other. Due to Danielle's strict boundaries with Morgan (who is 21, it's worth noting), Morgan still isn't staying with her, and is staying with a friend for now. The chaos Danielle was describing—which, thankfully she was never directly involved in; she just got to hear all about what happened between them, although she did apparently go over to Patrick's apartment when the cops were called—was wild enough that I thought: fuck it, I'm going to call her. I went into a phone room while here at work and Danielle picked up immediately, and I got details with far greater efficiency than we could manage over text.
I only mention all this because, as we chatted, without any prompting from me, Danielle said she was reconsidering and maybe she would come after all. She was in the car on her way to pick up Rylee from school (Rylee is 17) and had me playing through the car phone on the dash, so I was able to say hi to Rylee after she got in the car. Danielle had already said maybe Rylee would motivate her to go out, and that's exactly what happened: Rylee and I both agreed that it would be good for her to go out, get her mind off things, and have some fun.
And so, that's what happened—although Danielle did not get into downtown Seattle until about 7:00. The Art Walk is ostensibly scheduled from 6:00 to 9:00, so that still gave us a couple of hours. But, as he has done for most other Art Walks we've done, Shobhit met up with me at work when I got off at 4:30. I had totally assumed I would go home first, but I thought, what the hell. Shobhit and I could kill some time. It's just that we not only had to kill time until 6:00, but clear until 7:00 when Danielle finally arrived. I had told her she should take the train rather than drive, mostly because of the chance we would get some free wine; so that's what she did, parking at Tukwila Station and riding the Light Rail in from there.
Anyway, killing two and a half hours turned out to be much easier than expected. I had marked about 10 stops I really wanted to take Danielle to based on spots we went to the last time we did Belltown Art Walk. But, this Art Walk has
43 participating venues, so at my suggestion, we simply walked all the way to the northernmost stops, and then worked our way south as we waited for Danielle. I don't know how many total venues Shobhit and I hit in the end, but it had to have been at least two thirds of them.
We started in places so far north that they were pretty far removed from the others, and it sounds like they don't get as many Art Walk visitors as those clustered on 1st and 2nd Avenues further south in Belltown. They were so happy to see us that they didn't mind that we came in super early. We went to
Partners in Print, which had only a very modest and small artist display on the walls; and then we went to
Roq La Rue Gallery, which is in the building across Elliott Avenue from the old PCC office building and which had some very interesting paintings and other art on the walls. The lady there offered us some wine while we were the only people in there. And after that, we went to
Offset Bottle Shop, which we learned only just opened
two Tuesdays ago. We were again the only patrons in there due to how early it was, and this was their first Art Walk; the guy there also offered us some wine. Shobhit felt bad about coming and going to a place so new and not buying anything, and wound up buying a $45 bottle of wine.
We went to several more places as we worked our way back down toward Westlake Center, and easily filled up our time, particularly once we were killing the hour between 6:00 and 7:00 when the Art Walk was officially underway. Danielle finally arrived, and after some inital confusion as to where to meet her outside the station, we headed off for my list of places to take her. Oh, but not before we presented her with a gift that Shobhit randomly bought for her at a pop-up digital art shop we walked into shortly before: a digital image of a sunblock bottle called "Boundaries," and the additional text
SPF 30 - Burnout Protection. Shobhit and I both knew instantly it would be perfect to give her on this particular day, and I got
a nice photo of her with it.
So then we went to Base Camp Studios 2, where we spent a fair amount of time; we also went to
Jeni Falldine Sewing and Design Studio, where we spent a lot more time than I expected (which was also fine), as Danielle was very interested in the jewelry and the clothing there. She particularly loved
this lacey blue cover that was unfortunately way out of her price range.
We also had cups of sparkling wine there. I had talked up both the free wine and the free snacks at these Art Walks, and this time around there were no snack plates at any single place we went to—though several of them did offer wine. More than one place, like Jeni Falldine, had snacks last month but not this month. I guess that element is pretty random, which we have experienced already.
We did not get to all 10 places I had mapped out for Danielle, but we must have gotten to 7 or 8 of them—including
Junior's, the vintage store that had the most important thing I wanted her to see, in the back: the
Official Bad Art Museum of Art (OBAMA). This was where, of course, I took the hilarious photo of Danielle that you see at the top of this post. Side note: this was the single place where I found something to eat, the
final slice of a small 2-year-anniversary cake they had on display. The sign said PLEASE HELP YOUR SElF so I just followed directions and ate the one small slice that was still left.
Our final stop, as planned, as the original Base Camp Studios—which Shobhit rushed us out of last month because he had gotten tired and feeling slightly unwell and suddenly wanted to just head back home. This time we got to get a bit of a better look, and Danielle even
bought herself a T-shirt.
It was nearing 9:00 and we were all basically done with the Art Walk, plus we were all hungry since there had been no food (besides one slice of cake) at any of the venues this time. We chatted briefly about where to go, and then when we saw how close we were to
Kedai Makan we decided to go there. We ate our entire dinner family-style, which actually made it quite reasonably priced for all of us: Danielle's one-third share was barely more than $23, thanks to none of us ordering any drinks, and we all got more than enough to eat. We even shared a dessert (a spongy cake that was probably meant to be perfected with a coffee syrup on top, but I refuse to consume coffee anything, so the cake on its own wasn't as impressive to me; Shobhit and Danielle both really loved it).
We walked Danielle back to Westlake Station after that, and when Shobhit and I realized it would be too long before the next bus over on Pike, we decided to take the train ourselves: one stop in the opposite direction from where Danielle was going. When we got down to the platform we saw Danielle standing by herself on the other side, and I called out, "Hey slut!" Danielle cracked up, but Shobhit thought I should not have done that; I think maybe he thought it was offensive. But hey, Danielle and I have our thing. We recently came up with nicknames for each other, Bitch Boy and Pig Slut.
Anyway in the end Friday was a lovely evening and I'm really glad Danielle made it after all. I kind of got the sense she could take it or leave it as far as Art Walks are concerned, but she had a good time getting out and hanging out with friends.
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ इक्यानवे —
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ इक्यानवे —
The weekend overall was not monumental but it
was eventful; on Saturday evening I took myself to see
Sirat, which turned out to be the kind of movie that was well made but which I did not enjoy experiencing. And I went straight there from Happy Hour with Laney, which we did by returning to
Life on Mars—we had previously gone there for Happy Hour
in 2018.
And I got caught up on Laney's pretty recently solidified plans to go back on the road for a year or two. I hadn't been feeling super great about this, to be honest, but after talking with her on Saturday, I feel better about it. Laney told me that when Shobhit had joined us at another Happy Hour recently at Poquitos and he learned about this for the first time, he said more than I even realized about how much I'm not going to like her leaving, while I was in the bathroom. (For Shobhit's part, when I informed him the other day that this is all but a done deal at this point, he quipped: "On the positive side, this will eliminated my competition." I just said, "Oh, my god.")
Laney has a lot of ambivalence, which is also very understandable, about her apartment at Pride Place, which she moved into with a great deal of hope and excitement
in 2023. I was beyond thrilled, myself, as it's only six blocks from my condo. It's incredibly important to note that Pride Place was billed as senior living for queer people, and it's still where the queer senior community center is located on the ground floor. But, after some time of not filling all the vacant units, it seems they filled the rest of the units without being explicit about it being a queer housing facility, and this has resulted in a number of shockingly homophobic tenants in the building who had no idea they'd be moving next door to a bunch of queer people. Plus there are a few creepy and even violent people there. One woman Laney actively avoids and will not get into an elevator with, as the lady is known to have stopped taking her meds and is prone to violent outbursts.
Combine this with the sketchiness of the location, resulting in open-air drug use all along Broadway between Pine and Pike (precisely where Pride Place stands) and Laney frequently having to walk amongst open drug users crowding the covered vesibule in front of the building entrance and, as she put it, "I'm kind of over it."
I had been concerned about Laney losing access to Pride Place should she give up her apartment, but I learned a key detail on Saturday: there's another building with subsidized housing on the north end of Capitol Hill, near where she lived right before she went on the road the first time, where it's a much quieter and safer area of the neighborhood. She's been on the apparently seven-year waiting list for five years already! So even if she goes back on the road for one or two years again, by the time she comes back it could be perfectly timed for her to get a place like that. Laney is a deeply prepared person, which already well known, and it turns out she was
still even more prepared than I realized.
So, I guess I get it. She wants to do this now when she knows she still can; if she waits it could soon be too late. Jessica went with her just a few days ago, late last week, to Federal Way to take advantage of a deal on a van that she just couldn't pass up—apparently one of a few converted old U-Haul vans that the lot us eager to unload so they can use the space to sell something nicer and more expensive. And Laney bought it: she's keeping it parked on Capitol Hill streets, just like she did for a while when returning to town with her old can, for the next two months or so. She's going to move back into the van as of May, and probably stick around for another month or so before heading back on the road again. And we'll continue our at-minimum-monthly Happy Hours via video chat, just like we did before. We're both confident we'll stay fully in touch.
It just means I won't have the same kind of frequency of movies and Happy Hours as I've had the past two and a half years. That's all right. Alexia is retiring next month is going to have a lot more time, so there's that I guess.
Anyway, we had a lovely time at Life on Mars, and then when I noted that I had hoped to just go straight from there to my movie, she said she was kind of too tired to hang out for another hour. But, then she suggested we go walk around Cal Anderson Park, which I was quite happy to do. Even though we had the record snowfall on Friday, by Saturday afternoon it was beautiful and sunny. The snow was otherwise all long melted away by then, but there were still a few little snowmen hanging around, which meant I got a few more photos for my
Snow Day album, bumping the total number of shots from 20 to 23.
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ इक्यानवे —
a>
So that brings us to yesterday, which was Oscar Sunday. Just a bit earlier in the day, Shobhit and I went out for a walk and stopped at Mintish Coffee house and shared a delicious grilled cheese sandwich while Shobhit also had an espresso (which they served with a shot glass full of sparkling water, which I thought was very weird; Shobhit doesn't like carbonated drinks so I drank it). But the Oscars Red Carpet pre-programs and the the Oscars were on not long after we returned. Much like last year, Shobhit and I just watched the Academy Awards at home, and so the few photos I took yesterday I just added to what was otherwise my
Actor Awards Viewing Party photo album. I used to separate my Oscar Party and Actor Awards photo albums, but as the past two years have played out this way, I've taken to just combining them, which makes sense since the Actor Awards (previously the SAG Awards) are a significant precursor to the Academy Awards anyway. So the combined albums are still part of my "
Oscar Parties" collection.
I'd love to do actual Oscar Parties, but I don't have enough friends with as high of interest in film who also live close enough. I always talk plenty about it all with Gabriel, but after the debacle that occurred last year, there was never even the slightest suggestion that we go down there—apparently Tess decided to have a small Oscar Party with her friends anyway; Gabriel had thought he and Lea would be watching them just the two of them at home as well, until that development.
Back when Shobhit was scheduled to be performing
The Foreigner in Olympia, I really thought maybe I could just go down to join Gabriel on my own to watch the Oscars. But then Shobhit got let go from the play, so that idea went out the window. In the end Shobhit still did have an audition in Edmonds, which had him gone for about 90 minutes or roughly half the telecast, during which time I did just watch by myself at home. It was fine, though; with Shobhit at home for even half the telecast I did not want to suggest I go down to Federal Way without him, and in spite of some minor improvement overall regarding everyone involved, after last year I had zero interest in even suggesting we all get together.
(It sounds like it's very likely Gabriel, in addition to Barbara and Danielle and Laney, will come to my 50th birthday party on May 2. This is indeed what I want for my birthday this year. But I'm honestly not worried about that, as being both a much larger gathering and not at either Gabriel's or my place changes things. Gabriel and Shobhit will get along fine, I'm sure; they don't even have to actively avoid each other. They just won't have nearly as much need to spend a lot of time directly interacting, which makes me feel better about the whole thing. It's not that I'd be worried about either of them behaving badly—I really wouldn't be—but rather that I'd be worried about how either of them is feeling.)
I did print out two Oscar ballots, but Shobhit did not bother filling one out. I did, and so did Gabriel, and as usual we texted each other our choices. We were stunned to discover that we made all the exact same predictions
except one category: I predicted Stellan Skarsgaard for Best Supporting Actor, and Gabriel predicted Sean Penn. Gabriel got that one right, which automatically meant he got one more right than I did. He got 20 right and I got 19. For whatever it's worth (nothing, really), Shobhit seemed amused that Gabriel beat me.
Incidentally, I was thrilled that
One Battle After Another won Best Picture, which was also what we all predicted. That one won 6 Oscars;
Sinners won 4, two of them pretty huge wins (Best Actor, Best Cinematography), so it was nice to see them spread fairly well between the two of them. It's very rare that the movie I actually feel was the best film of the year actually wins Best Picture. That hasn't happened since
Moonlight won in 2017. Actually this apparently happens every 10 years! I just looked at the list of Best Picture winners, and the time before that when Best Picture was my personal #1 movie of the year was when
The Departed won in 2007. Okay but only three years before that, in 2004,
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won, and that was also my #1 movie of the year (note that every date noted in this paragraph is the date of the telecast, with movie release dates actually being the year prior).
— पाँच हज़ार नौ सौ इक्यानवे —
[posted 12:31pm]
