Results tagged “memorialday”

Seattlest is on holiday today, so we'll be posting lightly. While you're enjoying this terrific three-day-weekend weather, give a moment to remembering those who suited up and served and died. CNN points out that Memorial Day's origins were an attempt to heal the wounds of the Civil War, so we present Walt Whitman's "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night" after the jump.

But, today's not about honoring wars. It's about honoring the people who have chosen to volunteer their lives to military service (so that the rest of us don't have to). For so many members of our volunteer military, over the last four years, that's meant sometimes three and four tours on a battlefield that millions of their countrymen would like for us to abandon. It's meant lifelong injuries (both mental and physical), among other things. True, we may disagree with some of the missions that have been concocted for these folks, but we're grateful someone is willing to take the job.

1. Seward Park - This is where we spent last Saturday, lying on the grass, reading. There were plenty of families there already celebrating the sun, barbecuing, playing volleyball. Tons of cutie pie kids running in and out of the water.

Right on the heels of the announcement that the Mars Volta was added to the Sasquatch lineup, and right before tickets go on sale this Saturday, the three-day music festival has seen fit to delineate who will be playing on which day:

After months of wild speculation, the official 2008 Sasquatch lineup has finally been announced:

This past weekend turned out to be the perfect time to head to The Methow Valley, which is way out east of North Cascades National Park. The crowds were thin after Memorial Day weekend, the weather was beautiful (but hot) and the drive was amazing.

Sometimes we feel like we grew up on the road. Our parents would hit the road for a weekend or plan a road-trip vacation at the drop of a road atlas. We've spent a lot of time on a lot of great North American roads. We've logged thousands of family miles, thousands of solo miles, and thousands of companion miles. We've driven and/or owned hatchbacks, wagons, SUVs, and pick-ups -- stick and automatic. We're no experts in highway safety; however, we've seen enough things to give us plenty to think about, especially during those stimulating stretches of topographically-diverse Nebraska.

Memorial Day weekend is finally behind us, so it's time to settle into SIFF. Yes, it's absolutely lovely outside, but Seattleites can only handle so much sun. Get away from all that UVA/UVB exposure and spend your time in the theaters' comfortable darkness.

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing!

Apparently, there's some other annual festival this weekend besides Sasquatch. That's right, Memorial Day also hearkens the return of Folklife, Seattle's hippiest fest, held every year at Seattle Center. Local singer-songwriter/friend of Seattlest Ali Marcus will be playing the festival (Sunday, 4pm at Cafe Impromptu in McCaw Hall), so we turned to her for an expert opinion on what's worth your time this weekend, besides hackysack and drum circle. Seattlest Kim's already given you her picks, but if you're looking for a few more options this weekend, Ali's selections are listed below.

Ah, Spring.

[This is part three of a series of posts on Movement, Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, held Memorial Day weekend. Part one introduced the festival using Seattle events as points of reference. Part two described the musical experience.]

[This is part two of a series of posts on Movement, Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, held Memorial Day weekend. Part one introduced the festival using Seattle events as points of reference.]

We're one of the most educated and literate cities in the country, and we don't exactly have a shortage of tree-hugging hippy liberals, either. On top of that, we've got one of the most booming music scenes around, and it's been going on for over a decade now. So why is it that we seem to be missing out on the new folk music revival that's infecting left-leaning, bio-diesel driving bibliophiles in equally as savvy cities like Boston, Portland, and Austin?

Now that Memorial Day weekend is past us, and Folklife and Sasquatch have played their last rain-soaked notes, it's time to focus on the things that really matter: SIFF films. Just for fun, go check out the SIFF 2006 profile on Flickr. It's got a lot of great pics, including a bunch of Jessica Biel looking vacuous and a dozen photos of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. Dudes, we understand that you really like his gangster trilogy (Pusher I, II, III), and he's one of your Emerging Masters and all that, but seriously, stop slobbering his knob. A couple photos would've sufficed.

Pelting rain drove us out of Seattle and down I-90 this morning, but the clouds thinned magically over the Gorge. To the left, a threatening black pile of clouds; to the right, a sunbreak directly over the amphitheater. Sasquatch gates opened at either 10am or 11am, depending on which sign you believe, but we rolled in around 1pm after setting up a tent at the (well-reviewed) Stars & Stripes RV Resort well down the road. Sasquatch is sold out for Saturday and Sunday, and lodging is scarce.

What better way to enjoy Memorial Day weekend than under a cloudless sky with a sweltering sun on the hottest day of the year? Seattlest hates hot weather (we tend to sweat easily and a lot), but we braved Saturday's exxxtreme temps to catch some outstanding music at Sasquatch. When it was all said and done, we had seen eight full acts and pieces of another three; we also managed to successfully avoid sunburn.

Seattlest spent Memorial Day weekend of 2002 at Banks Lake, just south of the Grand Coulee Dam. Halfway through the long weekend, we vowed never to do that again. Along with a camping layout that resembled a jammed Belltown block of newfangled condos, there was also the constant blasting of stereos from every nearby car, trailer, RV, and boat. We made the best of it by drinking plenty of beer, throwing the frisbee about, and the occasional fishing jaunts out on the lake, but especially after the drive back to Seattle that resembled a slow-moving slough of cars stuck in lava, we arrived home neither rested nor with the typical 3-day weekend glow we're accustomed to. So this year we plan to "get away from it all", as the travel sites like to say.

Late last night Seattlest was mingling with the post-concert crowd in the Founders Room at Benaroya Hall. We'd just had our socks knocked off by an Erwin Schulhoff piece in the Music of Rembrance concert commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day. (Which makes Schulhoff's death one more thing we have against Nazis.) According to our notes, try the cheese plate, skip the house Pinot.