Back in town

Looked like a bit of rain today but I fired up the Vespa anyway to begin my next round of musical education.

Just a light mist as I pooted along the beautiful tree-lined boulevard of lake Washington.

Parked at SCCC (Seattle Central Community College) and headed downtown to RitzPix store #R 1030 to get the picture of my VW van with the Ferrari on the side converted to digital so I can show it to you.
Then on to Caffe Ladro for the usual.

While I was sipping my tall drip, three SSO musicians dropped by on a break from their musico-necrophilio polishing up of some "classical" musical corpse or other, then sadly dragged back to their Siberial penance.

Poor guys, they seem like such decent folks.

I, lucky I, on the other hand got to go to City Hall and listen to Hot Club Sandwich play their brand of thirties gypsy flavored jazz (think Django Reinhart)

Real live music, every one having fun, kids running amok, audience participation, applauding hot solos, everything that the snootocrats of the "classical" music world are so afraid to countenance.

Two acoustic guitars, one beautiful arch top electric, a violin, a double bass, a ukulele, a mandolin, some singing, what a deal!

Soooo...after that I trudged back to SCCC only to find I was an hour and a half early.

So I took a nostalgia trip in my old 'hood.
The Ferrari store was still there so I went in and bs'd with the salesmen for a bit then went to the coffee shop that now inhabits the building where I worked as a mechanic for 20 years or so.
This is a different coffee shop than the one at my shop in
Maple Leaf neighborhood which is a coffee shop called Cloud City.

This one is called Stumptown Coffee Roasters
They roast the stuff on the spot
Half a block south of Madison on 12th.

Gave me a free cup for the story of my years in the place.

Try it some time.
The coffee's good and the chocolate chip cookie ain't bad either.

Finally got to school fooled around with the flute concerto.
I think I've finally gotten it to work properly.

Got back to the scooter, the streets were dry.
At least until I got out of Madison Park and down the treacherous switchback curves to Lk.Wash. Blvd. where it rained robustly on my levied knees for awhile until I passed Leschi.
I was almost dry again when I got home.

Nice day.



My 67 VW van playing host to the very image of a 1949 formula one Ferrari.

I painted this in '85 when I had time on my hands in the first months after opening my shop.

Then in '97, Road & Track magazine published a picture of the thing, sadly faded, in their humor section. And I quit the 'biz

Anything for a laugh.