Also you should watch this movie ... RIGHT NOW: Mind Walk

 If anyone stumbles on this blog anymore you should IMMEDIATELY go read this post.  This guy should be everyone's new favorite read:

How management by metrics leads us astray

It's not just about management so read it.

GO NOW!

Epoisses

As we make our daily vows

Trying not to remember time is running out

And everything we pledge ourselves to 

With the careless ways we place our doubts

What do we expect freedom to be like?

Something golden that steals away our sight?

Or something roughly hewn with all our might?

Or the final joy we know when we are finally contrite.

Everyone burns for something that turns the flame blue

The efflorescence of daily living coats us with the colors we choose

The thin patina colored with our true nature’s hue

Makes the most important part of life the things we do

So today let me push away all the voices

Let me be honest with my heart and its choices

Let me have the courage to do what actually matters

Let the way I live my life change my salt 

So the patina turns to better colors

Let me live my life in a way 

That is completely worth the effort

That's no MOON! But I'd still buy one!

It's HUGE but who am I kidding!?  I'd still buy one if I could!

Lambda ONE ONE ONE

SO!  I'm NOT the only one wondering anymore!
This seems to me to be a pretty big stretch but like Kirk Hamilton said, you never know with Valve.
Check out the article here.
And the details here and here.
Thanks to ShaggyDoug for adding fuel to my fire.

Gabe Newell! Why hast thou forsaken us!?

Well, it's one of those days when I can't stop wondering ... WHERE THE HELL IS HALF LIFE 2 EPISODE 3 UNCLE GABE!?
ShaggyDoug told me the other day that it will never happen ... if he wasn't such a good friend I would have poked him right in his combine eye sockets!!
No less than Doug Lombardi has said it was going to be "Ambitious."  Well.  How ambitious can it be after all these years!?
And what was up with the Valve and deaf gaming thing!?  The cool quotient went way up with that ... and then they went cloaked and silent again.
Don't get me wrong. I still think these guys are amazing.  And there is no way that Valve would pull a Duke Nukem Forever on us.  
I know there is a high fail-potential but I guess I still believe that Valve can DO IT! ... and ... come ON!  It's been a long time for the promised final chapter of what is probably the GOLD STANDARD (in more than just graphics btw) of games! 
No news?
No teases?
No clips?
No sightings?
No definite word one way or another?
Nothing?
Uncle Gabe, if you have ANYTHING for us, I'll be here ... with my crowbar ... and my head crab hat ...

I'm Worse At What I Do Best

Something very subtle happened this weekend, subtle and tragic.  I officially became old.

This weekend is the twenty year anniversary of the release of Nirvana’s First label-backed album, “Never Mind”.  I’m not old because I remember the release.  I’m old because, at the time, I was old enough to be one of the musician’s who thought, “What!?  They picked those punks to be the vanguard of the Seattle Sound!?”  Everyone I knew agreed that they were talented but not really ready yet … and they didn’t have enough experience.

My wife and kids think it’s funny when I talk about the good old days of the Seattle scene.  It’s funny to them that the guy I am now could have rubbed shoulders with people that became legendary.  And that’s actually a good thing because the early years of the Seattle music scene – what some people named the “Grunge” scene – were different from any other music scene I know of, with the possible exception of the Hamburg scene in the late 50’s and early 60’s (here), and the Nashville/Memphis scene from the same time period.

The Seattle music scene in the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s was more like a group of people who never expected to be famous.  The resulting attitude created something magical.  There are so many stories about people bumping into Eddie Vedder and spilling his beer, which only resulted in him buying the next round and asking you to sit at his table.  Or stories about sitting in American Music trying out a Gretsch and talking it over with Chris Cornell.  Or sharing a table with Jon Auer at the Still Life.

The attitude of Seattle was not the arrogance of King Making – for the most part – it was an attitude of commonality, community … of a unity that meant something beyond success.  Everyone was in this thing together. 

So there it was.  Nirvana was taking over the world; even though “10” came out a month before it, even though “Man In The Box” was a hit the year before, and even though many of us thought Nirvana was NOT the Seattle Sound.  Most people I knew thought The Fastbacks or Mudhoney were much better vanguards.  But there it was: Kurt Cobain was now what everyone in the world thought of when they heard “Seattle.”

Nirvana did, in fact, pave the way for many many bands and everyone who made a dollar from music in those days should be at least a little grateful … even if we might quibble about the particulars.

But in thinking back on it all this weekend I was struck by how many people I remembered being so very pivotal to the Seattle Scene but who never really got noticed.  So tonight I would like to raise my glass and send one out to my Home Town Heroes.  Some are famous, and some are not but in true Seattle tradition they all share an equal part of the praise.

The names that follow are responsible in part for making me who I am, but I would say they had a part in making many others, including some now-famous people, who they are also.            

Thank you one and all!

• Sam Vance (for being the renaissance soul Seattle too soon forgot it had) 
• Mark Naron (Still amazing and deft!)
• Stone Gossard (one of the best guitarists of our age)
• Michael Lord/Michael Lord Studios (For teaching us what sound really was)
• Don Carlson/Jet City Studios (for providing a place where aspiring musicians could find themselves - and audio engineers too)
• Matt Cameron (for showing that you can be great and still a person)
• Jon Auer
• Ken Stringfellow
• Charlie Kester
• Andrew Wood
• Bill Power (and)
• Jeff Ament (for teaching everyone that you could be a mean bass player and still artistic)
• Eddie Vedder
• William Azaroff (Seattle and Independent Film in Seattle would not have been any good without you)
• The OK Hotel
• Anne Willson
• Nancy Wilson
• My Sister’s Machine
• The Young Fresh Fellows
• The Kingsmen (I know, Portland – but still)
• Duffy Bishop and the Rhythm Dogs
• Geoff Tate
• Pike's Place Market (so ... very ... many ... hours ... there - still seems like home)

A piece of me will always belong to you all - and that deep cold Puget Sound.

And Kurt, rest in peace man.