Adventures of a Discoverer

Yesterday I got to know one more concert venue in Seattle: the El Corazón . Those driving by I-5 in Seattle downtown have probably noticed it many times: it's a small building that contains two concert venues, the El Corazón, which is the larger one, and the Funhouse (which I have been before), both with the same owner. Both of them give me the same vibe as the Liquid Death water: it's decorated to look scary, but it's actually a perfectly fine concert venue. Inside, the venue is not too big but not small either, it doesn't get too hot and it seems to be in good shape. One nice thing is that the El Corazón has a small balcony, which is really convenient for people who are not too tall to have a good view of the stage. The employees are quite nice: the barman gave me a free coke, for example. Yesterday night they were showing a Nü-metal concert: it's a subgenre of heavy metal characterized by mixing alternative metal with some other genres like rap and reggae. To s...

I had heard about this in various places, so I decided to try it myself. You may have seen the brand "Liquid Death", which can be summed up as "What if a bunch of death metal fans decided to sell water in cans?" Despite the name, the logo and the slogans ("murder your thirst") it's just water, like any other brand of bottled water. There are different versions: flat or sparkling, pure or with various flavors (like "decapitated cherry" - to keep the tone of the brand). It always comes in cans that at a distance look like beer or some hard seltzer. I tried the flat pure version, named "Mountain Water" and it is just that: pure flat water, just as good as any other water. I guess it makes you look more hardcore when people see you drinking from their cans.

Even though we don't think much about it, the world is still full of nuclear weapons. As part of that, a group of film makers and scientists got together a couple of years ago and created the International Uranium Film Festival : various movies related to nuclear weapons are shown and then discussions between film makers, scientists, activists and the public follow. Currently, the festival is on tour in the United States and this weekend the festival is happening in Seattle, at the Northwest Film Forum . Seattle is a particularly noteworthy location given that the city is just some miles away from the Bangor Trident Base , where the US Navy stockpiles approximately 1,500 nuclear warheads. I went yesterday to the opening night of the festival, and it was really cool. In addition to the discussion about the current status of nuclear weapons and the tensions in the world, I could watch the movie "The Atomic Cafe" , which was a very curious and, if I may say so, entertaining ...