Crocodile Cafe to reopen in early 2009

The Seattle Times: Sept. 9, 2008

The Croc lives!

"Right now it still looks like it looked last time you or anyone else was in it," says Kerri Harrop, spokeswoman for the Crocodile Café, Seattle's best and most-famous rock club. The Croc's "abrupt close last year left a lot of people reeling," Harrop says, and the plan is to reopen in "late January/early February."

What's going on between now and then?

Construction." When that's done, "I anticipate capacity will be around the 400 mark."

There will be two businesses in the building and two entrances. According to Harrop, Via Tribunali will sell pizza "where the back bar was," and that the wall separating the concert area from the cafe area will be knocked out. She won't specify exactly how the Crocodile will bleed into Via Tribunali.

Last month, The Seattle Times reported that area bar owner Marcus Charles had obtained the Croc's liquor license (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2008091508_webcroc05.html). Says Harrop, "Marcus Charles has assembled a good group of investors that includes Susan Silver, Peggy Curtis, and Sean Kinney."

As for who will book the music, Harrop confirms no more than "a human being."

Former Croc and current Chop Suey booker Pete Greenberg said he's not been asked to book the club, and Steven Severin, who books and runs Neumo's, said, "you can write that I don't know what the hell is going on."

Perhaps most important, "Jim Anderson will still be running the sound," says Harrop. In the past, he made the Croc Seattle's best-sounding rock venue. "All efforts are being made to make sure the room sounds and looks perfect," says Harrop.

There are new Croc photos online, on artist David Choe's Flickr profile, here — http://www.flickr.com/photos/invisiblehour/page6.

Andrew Matson, staff reporter
The Seattle Times: Sept. 9, 2008 (fourth article in the link)

Pan African Market - a dash of west Africa in Pike's Place

Sometimes you miss what's right in front of you, just as I have for so long. The punishment - living in the Seattle for years, going to the Pike Place Market, let's see...at least 52 times a year AND missing out on some fine West African delicacy from Pan African Market on 1st and Pike. It's a great place to sit outside on a sunny day and enjoy a plate of Beef Tibs, which is a delicious tender cut of beef sauteed with onions and peppers or my favorite - the spicy lamb stew - small tender pieces of (carnivorous) heaven which they often run out of and the vegetable sampler - a succulent medley of six different vegetables, almost forming the color of a rainbow and includes cabbage, spinach, peas, carrots, and more. Everything comes with their store made, really soft Injera - a delicacy from west Africa in the form of a flat bread.

Now if you want to go all out - don't be shy to order everything in one plate, roll up your sleeves and jump in with you hands - you won't regret it.

Death Magnetic...first impression

I'd say the three singles that were floating around were a pretty good sign of how this album ended up sounding like. OK, maybe I should listen to the whole thing a couple more times before jumping to any conclusions......too late...so here goes...Lars is definitely back with his double stroke beats and the crushing rolls. I'd even say the solos from Kirk are also "Metallica" material, and actually his love for the phrygian scale is still dominant. The riffs from James kick ass - some are actually faster and more intelligent than ever before. His vocal though, is a little disappointing. I don't know man...he's still somewhat stuck in the nineties, sounding like I disappear and fuel.The riffs in the End of the Line and the Day that Never Comes are so much like those in creeping death and master and actually, I felt subtle touches of seek and destroy in the the end's chorus punch. I could still hear the load/re-load grunges coming out from time to time like in the beginning of the Day. But hey...that doesn't sound bad. And Trujillo...he brought back fingerstyle, just like Cliff and unlike Jason - which sounds awesome in Cyanide and All Nightmare Long, which btw I think has the fastest playing riff in recent times. I also love the fact that they're back with the interludes with riffs mixed with solos coming in and out. Speaking about things coming back...all hail Suicide - which is an awesome instrumental. Another comeback - the Unforgive III, however, was unncessary and doesn't go with the rest of the album at all. Getting rid of Bob Rock was definitely a great first move on the road to salvation...hell yea! And Rick Rubin did an awesome job...but you know what - they should give production another shot...after all, the best songs out of Metallica are those that they produced themselves.But hey, this is definitely an album that I'll be banging my head to for a long time to come…

Trying out the new Windows Live Writer

Windows Live has this new app out, one that'll help publish rich contents to blogs and this is my first try! Actually, I've never tried any of these things, always used the web versions. So here goes...

Not bad, says my first impression - it's lightweight, allows connecting to all sortsa sites, provides the essential editing functionality...whoa, including taking a screen shot and pasting right into the journal...not bad, not bad. There's quite a few image formatting options such as color pop and watermark - something that you don't get in most similar apps.

Spell checker is up to the mark, but I wish it had a dictionary and thesaurus - even if it just connected up to some web service.

Now it's time to actually preview and publish it - let's see if it as WYSIWYG and whether what I see is what I get...

...preview is pretty nice, except it's not showing the blog break, maybe because it's still unpublished...

...oh I need to label this...here goes...not bad, it pulled all the labels I had in the site. Oh HOLD ON...this is bad, really bad - it misspelled a few of my labels - missing just the last letter!!! For a second I thought I myself misspelled it. But no...it's not me - it's a BUG!!!

...moving on and publishing...

...and it's posted! NICE!!! Hey and what do you know...it got me writing a real blog after six l o n g months.

Every sha la la la...

I know what you're thinking...the CARPENTERS!!! Yes, but no, it's not about the duo today. Rather, sitting inside a restaurant and listening to the melody in piano reminded me of a old life insurance ad that used to air in Bangladesh TV around two decades ago that used the tune, and I couldn't help but think...

WHO IN THE HELL CAME UP WITH THAT NAME?

It doesn't really insure your life, it just provides a monetary consolation to your loved ones. It should rather be called "In cases my spouse/parent/caregiver/owner (think cats)/lonely uncle die" insurance.

Dr. Yunus in Microsoft

Dr. Yunus in Microsoft - what a great speech! He had the entire audience captivated. Many of us were fortunate to hear him from the front row.

From the Seattle Times:

Inside a private conference room at Microsoft, top executives leaned around the table, eyes and ears fixed on a small, soft-spoken visitor from Bangladesh. He might not be recognized on the street, but to people dreaming up the next great idea to change the world, Muhammad Yunus is a rock star.

One year after he won the Nobel Peace Prize, Yunus came to the Seattle area Tuesday to share his vision for uniting technology and business with a social mission.

The man who turned the concept of banking on its head said poverty stems from flawed concepts, such as the idea that only people with money should be able to borrow more of it.
Yunus, 67, developed the system of microcredit, helping poor people improve their standard of living by using tiny loans to start businesses. Since giving out its first loans in 1983, the Grameen Bank he founded has reached more than 7 million borrowers who would have no access to credit through traditional banks. About 97 percent of them are women.

"The world runs with money," he said. "You need a dollar to catch a dollar, and no one gives you the first dollar."

Yunus said he also wants to change the notion that business exists to maximize profits.

"I think that's a shame because in this theory, they have actually insulted human beings," he said. "Money-making is a very important part of human beings, but human beings are much bigger than that."

Yunus advocated linking business and philanthropy in a new model called "social business."

More from the Seattle Times...

Deshantori (The Migrant)

Deshantori (The Migrant) is a film directed and produced by a few young promising film makers from Bangladesh, based now in the US. This 69 min. short film is about a journey made by so many of us but we often forget the story behind it and how the path for many others has been less fortunate. Check out the movie, and support it if you can.

Good to see that Mridul is as concerned about our motherland as the day I met him in high school and still as willing and resourceful to make a difference!

Stanford robot passes driving test

Junior, Stanford's robot Volkswagen, passed its basic driver's test on Thursday. Driving just 15 miles per hour, Junior passed with flying colors in three of four "missions" on a parking-lot course, including a three-point U-turn and successful navigation of a four-way stop with human-driver cars. But it got stuck on a course passing a car.

When robot drivers become a reality in the streets...I definitely won't be missing the cell phone chatter or careless coffee drivers on the way to work....three cheers for technology...

Read the story in cnet...

Jason Bourne is back...

Fantasia (Epilogue)

Pick a day and write a note
Bleed it out below a clef
The songs written stay afloat
What happens tomorrow, dream today

It creeps on you, sliding away
Rocks the ridges of Monte Rosa
Darkness falls where I lay
With the sand in hand, I'm safe

She was there, for the winter
In the perfect fifth, so afar
The foggy road that leads to her
Harmonies, yet so somber

She's a child, if you think
Strike a tone and she’ll be born.