Cézanne still life
I took the day off and Trisha and I spent the morning perusing the Impressionism exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. The format was unique: the Impressionist works were displayed alongside earlier paintings that inspired them. The audio program nicely explained the relationship between the works and how the artists encountered the inspirational creations. We were especially delighted to see the influence of so many Spanish artists like Goya, El Greco and Velasquez. Afterwards, we had lunch and picked up luscious tomatoes and peaches at the Pike Place Market.

We attended our second Mariners’ game this year and were treated to a rare win: 8-2 over the also last-place Cleveland Indians. For our pre-game snack we had Ivar’s fish/clams and chips. The highlights of the game were Raul Ibáñez‘s 2nd-inning grand slam and Félix Hernández‘s dominating, 8 strike outs, pitching. On the drive home an enormous rising full moon escorted us on the I-90 bridge over Lake Washington.

We just bought tickets for the exhibit of the famous Lucy fossil coming to the Pacific Science Center in October. That’s Lucy as in the 3.2 million year old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 and the subject of Donald Johanson‘s book From Lucy to Language. It’s really rare for such priceless specimens to leave their home museum so this is an exciting event. We will also be attending numerous lectures over the winter related to the exhibit.

What an evening! Knopfler is a magician with the guitar and we loved the simplicity of the concert. The band came on and played 90 minutes non-stop with none of the pointless banter and introductions we endure in so many of these productions. And what a treat to actually see him produce those uniquely Knopfler-esque riffs that we’ve listened to countless times on CD. Thankfully, he played many of our favorites including “Romeo and Juliet,” “Telegraph Road,” and the Dire Straits classic “Sultans of Swing” (first released 30 years ago, can you believe?). The relentless “Speedway at Nazareth” really had the place jumping.

Trisha and I attended the Cirque du Soleil performance of Corteo at Marymoore Park. It was another wondrous spectacle and we can’t wait for the next Cirque appearance.