The Beastie Boys have been a part of my musical soul for as long as I can remember. Mike D, Adrock and MCA have mixed up some of the best tracks over the decades probably getting more of my air time than any other band.

With the death today of MCA, I feel like a part of my musical soul has shattered a bit.

If you feel what I’m feeling then it’s a musical masterpiece
Hear what I’m dealing with then that’s cool at least
What’s running through my mind comes through in my walk
True feelings are shown from the way that I talk
And this is me y’all-I MC
Y’all my name is MCA and I still do what I please

So we give thanks … and an amazing amount of gratitude for the musical mark you’ve left on this world. You’ve inspired thousands of kids to scratch their parents records, wear goofy mustaches and slide over hoods of cars, having 808s hit your chest to the point where your heart remixes itself to the beat enveloping the crowd. You will perpetually remain at the #1 concert for your acoustic set at The Crocodile. You and your crew are masterful musicians and visionaries.

What’s gonna set you free?
Look inside and you’ll see
When you’ve got so much to say
It’s called gratitude, and that’s right

Time to pass the mic and pour out some brass monkey. Sad day for music.

I love me some Johnny Cash from time to time. Today, I saw a pair of shoes that reminded me of some I Walk the Line lyrics.

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you’re mine, I walk the line

Spun, I’ll admit, I’m a fool for you. You give me cause for love that I can’t hide.

oxoxo my dear

On my way into the office I saw some really intricate graffiti in Pioneer Square. The other night we watched Pearl Jam 20 … a great documentary on a band I love.

While this wall downtown had nothing direct to do with the band itself, the lyric resonated with me.

Spun a lot of records today at the house. Loads of good percussion, jazz, The Ventures, The Cure, songs from Mexico and even an eighth of a song off of a French album that deserved the stereotypical movie record scratch it was that bad. Happy to hear a little pop and varying cadence again that only a belt driven music making device with physical media can provide. Sadly though, unlike Pandora, record tracks don’t have a thumbs up button or bookmark functionality that doesn’t require an index card, pen, or label maker. Oh technology.

What do Cut Chemist and Reggie Watts have in common? Aside from having them bookend my weekend, they’re one-man-audio-geniuses. Cut Chemist tore up the Showbox at the Market Friday night with a half dozen turntables, most of which were tied to his MacBook Pro. The real joy was how he beat juggled a stack of vinyl to create a smattering of sound unlike anything I’d heard live to date. I kept having to tell myself, “that’s just one dude up there.” Cut, I applaud (still) the way you masterfully wove loops from Giles Peterson and flecks of Moby throughout your own music, ultimately changing it’s DNA but still keeping something familiar. As an aside one of my favorite lines in lyrical history is “She gave me headphones, said ‘have you heard this sound?’ I think I’ve heard this one, it’s totally underground.” As with the lyrics, the timing and delivery of each scratch, mix, beat, tweak, wobble, whatever it was that he was doing with his equipment on stage was nothing short of phenomenal. Cheers man. Come back to Seattle again, I’ll bring the beakers, you bring the breaks.

On the B side of the weekend, we’ve got Reggie Watts. Perhaps the biggest beard-fro-combo I’ve seen on anyone. This man is brilliant as well, but in different ways. Reggie can drop impromptu knowledge faster than you could get it through an XKCD comic, and in a way where you didn’t realize it could be spit via rhyme with elegance in tone and harmony. The vocal range of this man is as limitless as his respect for Seattle and contempt for contemporary music. Two mics, a keyboard and a couple pieces of sampling/looping equipment and he commanded a sea of people to bob their heads, crest in hysterics, and ride tumultuously syncopated audio waves he flawlessly spit for us. Yes, he played The Neptune … but he also embodied Poseidon, with his presence and stage command. I’m still in awe of just how long his songs lasted and how intricate they were harmonized by layering his own voice over loops time and time again. Thanks for the Sea Town home coming. We look forward to the next time you blow up the stage with your lyrics, insight and vocals.

From there we rolled up to Naked City Brewery in Greenwood where our friend Tim Frommer’s brown ale was on tap for winning a Seattle Beer Pro Am. Tasty tasty beer Tim (so good we got a growler of it Saturday night … but I’m getting ahead of myself). Great time kicking it with some friends, got to meet a few other people and then we hit the street to check out some art … yup, because of course, there’d be a great showing of local art in the street right as we’re done enjoying a tasty beer. Turns out John Osgood opened up a gallery across the street, Urban Contemporary Art Gallery and had three of his artist friends helping him with a two sided graffiti improv show.

So I got to talking with Zachary Bohnenkamp as he was finishing up his half of one tag teamed piece about shooting a photo a day on the way in to work and was curious how he got going on doing spray work. Good stories on back in the day. Then we were introduced to Xavier Lopez who amongst other things writes an article for the Seattle PI about the underground art scene in Seattle. Great stuff. The interview with Weirdo about the 619 being torn down is excellent. We’ll dearly miss this mecca of mindpower, art, creativity and … well … questionable architecture. So then he recommended we check out John’s place for some other amazing artwork. Oh man, I’m so glad he did. Mat Savage, Weirdo, Jeese Link, Justin Kane Elder, Ninjagrl, Narboo and a whole host of other amazing local artists. Truly amazing. We’ll post up the photos of our pieces at some point soon. No idea how we didn’t get them captured. Kim got a gorgeous orange bird by John Osgood and I walked away with a chickadee “perched” on the intersection of I-90 and I-5. The mixed media nature of overlaying a beautiful painting … depicted in a bottle as well … over top of a map of my favorite city just sang to me. I’ve been looking for the right chickadee for a tattoo … maybe this will be it.

So we are giddy with life, good art, etc. I thank Xavier and he says, amazingly, “Go back and snag one of my prints.” No lie. So I head back under, have a lovely conversation with his two associates who were staffing his section of the gallery and made my way home with a deer-unicorn-woman that spoke to Spun earlier in the evening (unbeknownst to me) as well. Amazing. Thank you.

So how does this all end? Yup, with more art. A friend texts us with “I’ve got two extra tix to SAM Remix tonight, wanna join?” Given that it was the weekend of “Yes” we had to, right? So we dance in the park where we were wed, under the massive moon, amongst friends, strangers, people who cared about this city as much as we do. Stunning way to end the evening. Thank you Michelle.

Saturday

How do you top that? With a sister, her fiancée and puppy in town! We head for Skillet Diner for some breakfast. So full. Never had that huge of a portion of biscuits and gravy before in my life. Coupled with a portion of a cinnamon roll, bloody mary, granola and who knows what else, I was stuffed. As she and Charlie headed over the mountains for her 10 year high school reunion, we went to go see the Sounders. Oh, right, you’re asking, why are Spun and I going to a Sounders game? We’re not sports fans, right? Troof. But, weekend of “Yes” dictated that we accept tix from a friend who couldn’t go. Yet again, running theme here, it was rad. Seats were near the southeast corner … get this … third row. Though they tied, 0-0 against Chivas USA, it was a true experience. Remind me never to sit in the crazy fan section. That’s nutty.

Where to next you may ask? Oh, a surprise park birthday party picnic. Ladder ball, wine, beer, more laughter, super tasty veggie food, some sun, some shade … some sunset, some … let’s go inside. Which led to the greatest match of pop a shot ever, more shenanigans, birthday cheer, and a whole bunch of etcetera. Another absolutely phenomenal day.

Sunday

Here we go. Final push for a killer weekend. How to start, how to start… Pop open the tent we picked up from REI the day before in the living room to make sure it’s all good to go. Nothing short of made of win. Tents, my friends, have come a long way. I’m actually intrigued to go camping now. From there we BBQ’d great burgers with bleu cheese, avocado, over more amazing time with Becky and Charlie before they flew back to LA. So happy to kick it with you guys Congrats on the upcoming nuptials as well! Some errands to be ran were a must for the weekend and then we hit up Schmitz Preserve Park to break in the hiking boots, see some ferns, big trees and explore a forest.

Little did I know, that Spun had something up her sleeve as well. Under the Schmitz bridge, there is a ton of great graffiti. Much of it has been painted over fairly recently … as goes the vast majority of these sorts of pieces of art in Seattle … but there were a few still remaining.

One of which looked almost like it was done in pastels or perhaps with a brush. This “magic mushroom” stood out as the clear winner.

Other shelf mushrooms kept it company in the forest as we roamed about, splashing in puddles and streams, going off the beaten path here and there, and pausing constantly for tiny shafts of sun alighting delicately on moss or mushies.

Ok, so we’re nearly there, an epic weekend with one more choice. Curl up on the couch and watch a movie (Spoiler alert, we did that too later … Battle Los Angeles … bad) or roam Alki beach. Yes. Splashing in the water is much colder than I expected in August.

There was a huge Hindi/Indian festival going on too with fun music, good food, etc. Man I love this city. New plans for the rest of the summer include: biking on Alki and boarding on Alki. Both will likely include chowder and perhaps ice cream. Hopefully, that weekend will also be another one of “Yes” much like we had for the past two days and some change.

To all of you who we had the honor of spending time with: THANK YOU. This was a perfect weekend. One for the recordbooks. One for you to hopefully enjoy just a little bit as much as we did. Maybe I should extend “Yes” to the work week sometime. Perhaps it’d culminate in more amazing than I could have originally expected.

Looking forward to the show tonight at The Paramount. These guys are probably Going to bring their A-game, so we’re going to rally for the Sunday night concert-extravaganza. Gonna be Winderful.

This one goes out to my buddy Adam Ford who back in the day made a small grammatical error that has really yet to be let down. Rich and Papa Mongillo, help me out. I think it was for some tribute to Joni Mitchell and the comp made it all the way through to production with “Singer Songerwriter” in there. Granted we’ve all made these sorts of botched comps, but this one still cracks me up. Oh, and the other meaning of the sewing machine is to promote East Pike Factory for the Etsy Global Craft Party they’re hosting tonight. Maybe the singers and sergers there will help give us super-singer strength for later.

The Stranger, Archie Bell & The Drells, and a patch of sunshine. I can almost hear summer coming.