Adventures of a Discoverer

Seattle is blessed with having a number of live action theaters: from the fancy and huge ones (like the Paramount) to the tiny theaters that feel kinda improvised. I've been to a number of those last ones, and they can be cute, with its own charm. One such theater is the West of Lenin theater: it's called that because it is situated a little bit west from the famous statue of Lenin in the Seattle neighborhood of Fremont. I always wanted to get to know it, and this Saturday I did just that. They were staging "Uncle Mark Ruins Christmas" , which is an improv show: before it starts, the public gets to write on pieces of paper some Christmas memories, and then the troupe takes that as a starting point for improvisation, usually ending in some hilarious situations. The theater is truly small: I've seen living rooms that were bigger, and it only has two rows of seats. But, for an improv show, that works: you feel like you're just sitting down with the actors. All in...

The Northwest Film Forum, located in Capitol Hill, Seattle, is a non-profit organization whose objective is to provide new and creative cinematic experiences by hosting movies and movie related experiences. In other words, you can see all kinds of crazy movies (and talk about them) through it. They have their own movie screens in Capitol Hill, but from time to time they make use of the movie theater inside the MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture, in the Seattle Center). Many people have heard about and visited the MoPOP but probably never knew that there is a top notch movie theater deep at the bottom of the building (I myself had never been there) which is actually bigger than a number of other theaters in the city. Yesterday, the Northwest Film Forum was making use of the MoPOP theater to show a collection of video poems: a video poem is a poem that makes use of a short movie to complement it. In this program, some poets used the video to read the poem aloud and coordinate the verses with r...

In Japan it is quite common to find the so called "cat cafés": a coffee shop where in addition to various coffee drinks you can find a number of cats that you can play with. Seattle also has one of those, the Seattle Meowtropolitan in Wallingford and now it just got a new one: the Neko Cat Café in Capitol Hill. "Neko" means "cat" in Japanese, and this café is very much inspired by the Japanese cat cafés: it has some Japanese drinks and desserts that are really yummy. In order to play with the cats, you need to make a reservation, and then they let you in the cat room, where you have a dozen cats to play with for 45 minutes. There are a number of cat toys too and, believe me, the 45 minutes pass by really fast. The cats are super nice and some clearly appreciate cuddling with humans. One advantage of the Neko Cat Café compared to the Seattle Meowtropolitan is that the Neko allows kids (with a responsible adult) so I could take my kids there and they had a g...

Seattle used to have a number of arthouse movie theaters, that showed movies that are not in the commercial circuit, and I loved them. However, unfortunately some of them have closed, but we're lucky that one of the ones still standing is the Grand Illusion. Set in what used to be some kind of office, at the University District, it is a non-profit institution that is kept by volunteers. It is a tiny theater, but exactly because of that it feels very cozy, and it has a very cool selection of movies, many of which are hard to find anywhere else. Even better: if you want to see one of your favorite movies on the big (-ish) screen, you can just volunteer there and one of the perks is picking a movie. I had been there once before, but that was a long time ago, and it was great to see that the Grand Illusion continues to do great. I watched "Zardoz": a completely bonkers movies from the 70's that the director later admitted that he was on drugs when he wrote the script. Int...

"Arepas" are a staple in Venezuela: they are like a flat thick bread made from corn, that can be stuffed with various fillings such as beef, cheese, beans, etc. They are regularly consumed by the Venezuelan people and, as such, they are the main dish on the menu of this Venezuelan café at the University District in Seattle: the appropriately named "Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen". Yesterday I was there waiting for a movie at the Grand Illusion which is next door (see next post) and since I didn't have dinner I decided to try an arepa. It was delicious! I got one with shredded beef and cheese, and that was great. I want to go back there to try the other varieties. If you want to try one too, this seems to be the right place to give it a try.