Bumbershoot 2009

This Weekend...

Seattle is the place to be this Labor Day weekend. With the Penny Arcade Expo kicking off this Friday, and Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival Saturday, the long weekend in Seattle is looking like a great way to chill.

Last year was my first Bumbershoot experience, which I went into not really knowing what to expect. Needless to say, after spending sometime at the Music & Arts festival -- which showcases a wide range of bands, arts, and FOOD! -- I came away pleased with the experience. It was something I had to balance with the Penny Arcade Expo also going on during the same time, (which is a whole other beast of a festival), but made convenient with the close proximity of the Convention Center, to the Seattle Center. I'm glad I had took the time to see what Bumbershoot was all about last year, this time around is looking to be another great lineup of music.

I'm definitely looking forward to Andre 3000's, protege Janelle Monae performing. Other notable acts, De La Soul, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MSTRKRFT, Raphael Saadiq, Black Eyed Peas, Franz Ferdinand, Metric, Modest Mouse, to name few over the course of 3 days.

It's gonna be a hot one, and that's only a part of the music side of the festival!

Seattle Bumbershoot 2008 - Thumbs Up

Bumbershoot rocks!

The annual end of summer music, and arts festival Bumbershoot, offered something for everyone over the labor day long weekend in the Emerald City. As a first time festival goer, who was somewhat unsure of what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of things to see and do, that it was practically impossible to get around to everything, leaving me with a feeling of wanting to come back next year.

What is Bumbershoot exactly? Read up on it's history here.

The festival spans 74-acres at the Seattle Center, from the Space Needle, to the Key Arena, and everything within and around it. The area is densely populated with pure entertainment, vendors, stages, exhibits and all sorts of people. The event was also easily accessible via the Monorail.

One thing that I think surprised me the most about Bumbershoot is that it does not favor a specific musical genre, or style, or demographic of people for that matter. Performers from Beck, Estelle, Death Cab for Cutie, to the Stone Temple Pilots, The Offspring, Bedouin Soundclash, Final Fantasy as well as folk, country, jazz and electronic acts to name a few, performed on various stages all over the grounds throughout the day and night. Families, and young people all coming together to enjoy the festival. Skate ramps, screenings, drop-in art classes with live models, comedy performers like Human Giant, and thought-provoking exhibits like "The Power of One" illustrate the diverse appeal and interests of the festival. The food was international, from Thai, and Filipino, to your basic Corn on the Cob, and Russian baked goods. And the free samples of the festival sponsors like Starbucks, Rockstar Energy Drinks, and Cliff Bars wasn't bad either.

Despite how chaotic, Bumbershoot may sound, it was actually very well organized, and controlled. Even though I went to Bumbershoot half the time (the other half was spent at the Penny Arcade Expo), I still was able to find something to do. Even if it meant breaking off from my friends group, exploring the festival grounds by myself, and discovering The Power of One exhibit. It was such a strong contrast to all the entertainment going on, that it actually affected me and brought down the festive mood. In a good way. The images of mutilated soldiers of war, and the struggling people of different countries, was eyeopening.

Please check out The Power of One online, to learn more.

Estelle put on a head-bopping, ass shaking performance. The UK singer charmed the audience with her down-to-earth personality, and shed some light on her songs, love, breakups, and being in the music industry. Her live performance should be recorded as an album because after hearing her in person, listening to her studio record just isn't the same. The band added so much to the music, it was like hearing remixes.

Stone Temple Pilots performed for a packed crowd, that rocked the festival. Anyone who has forgot who they are was definitely reminded when they played familiar hits from their albums. I was planning on attending Beck's performance, but I ended up being unable to secure a ticket to the show, so I opted for the GameWorks 1UP meetup instead at PAX.

All in all, Bumbershoot was fantastic, and I plan on attending next year. You should too! And if you're stressing about the price for a 3 day pass.. it's totally worth it with the amount of stuff you get access to.

Suckage in Seattle

Awful Chinese food, and lack of electronic stores in downtown.

When I first arrived in Seattle for PAX it was pretty late, the drive ended up being longer than I thought because of the Canada/USA border crossing delays, odd sunny-rainy weather, and the traffic issues it caused. Hungry and being somewhat familiar with certain landmarks in downtown, I ended up going to Chinatown thinking that I'd be able to eat at the Japanese market Uwajimaya, (The foodcourt has multicultural cuisine). Though by the time I got there, it was practically closed. Plan B was to eat somewhere in the area, since most Chinatowns kick ass, and Asian restaurants typically stay open late.

There was this one restaurant that I had been meaning to go to since my last trip to Seattle, so I decided to check it out. It was pretty packed, and it seemed to be a popular spot, hungry we (my dad came along to PAX) proceeded inside. Everything seemed cool, I look at the menu, and I was surprised to see they had fried brown rice, rather than the usual fried rice. Taken by the idea, I ordered it, along with some noodle dish. At this point I was really excited about the food, until not even 2 minutes later, the waitress brings out the food. I was kinda shocked at how fast they "cooked" it.

The food was luke warm, like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for hours, and it had a flavor of cheap soy sauce, lard, and just general shit quality. I was disgusted. I take a look around, and I see everyone enjoying their food, the thing is, there weren't any Asians eating. Usually the lack of Asians at an Asian restaurant is a bad thing. I should have noticed sooner. I tried to eat as much as I could, but I got to a point where subjecting myself to such an atrocious meal was morally wrong.

I flagged the woman down for the bill, tossed some cash on the table, and literally walked out as she was ready to pour more tea. Worst fucking Chinese food evar. Even worse than Panda Express.

When I told a friend of mine who used to live in Seattle what had happened, he himself agreed that Chinese food in Seattle is utter crap. He used to drive all the way back to Vancouver just to get a good meal. And he's absolutely right. Here in Vancouver we have some really kick ass cuisine, in fact we're spoiled. After this bad experience in Seattle, it makes me appreciate Vancouver even more.

This place was on the corner of S. Weller and 6th. Avoid at all costs.

Another thing that bugged me about Seattle was the lack of electronic stores in the downtown core, specifically around the convention center, and Seattle Center. I wanted to buy something for my ipod, but there wasn't an Apple Store, or Best Buy, in the area. Really annoying considering Vancouver has multiple electronic stores within short distances of each other.

Don't get me wrong, I still love Seattle, and these minor quibbles are just that, minor. Seattle's great, and I'll post my thoughts on Bumbershoot coming up next.

PAX 2008 - Bigger than last year, but is it better?

Fun, friends, and mixed feelings on this year's expo.

Where to begin? I'm back in Vancouver and finally ready to post about my long weekend in Seattle at the Penny Arcade Expo, and Bumbershoot Music & Arts festival. The event filled weekend had me at first questioning whether or not planning for 2 major events was a good thing, but in the end, it all balanced out quite nicely thanks to the strategic placement of the monorail conveniently located near the convention. Would I do it again next year? Probably.

As you might have noticed it's been dead around these parts for the past several days -- I didn't have time to do any updates live or otherwise, nor was I interested in doing so. I was more concerned with going with the flow of the daily expo happenings, rather than stressing about blogging, running around covering panels, or gathering research for articles. I just wanted to chill out for once, though the fact that the PAX Panels were pretty weak this year worked in my favor! So expect related posts over the next few days.

This year's PAX was different. Not that everyone's expo experience is the same each time around, but in my opinion it was different from my last year's PAX adventures in a slightly negative sense. That's not to say I didn't have any fun, because I did with Jen, Jon, David, Doug, Kevin, Mike, Shane, Flips, and all the other peeps I hung out with (random elevator people included). The thing is, the expo just wasn't the same in terms of overall appeal.

Whether it was because of the missing friends, that made the last expo so fun and who inspired a sense of community, or the E3-esque exhibit hall lineups, weak freezepop performance, timid concert crowds (PAX-goers have a tendency to just stand, watch, applaud, and wave their DS), or limited panel selection, PAX 08 was lacking something. Maybe it's just me, and I've become too used to the GDC, and Comic-Con atmosphere, growing a little distant from the geekery of following the webcomic, but I doubt that's the reason why I feel this PAX fell flat. After much discussion with other PAX-goers, they seem to agree that the vibe has changed a bit. As a regular PAX attendee since 2005 (4 years and counting?) this year was kinda 'meh.'

If it wasn't for the people, and after hours fun, no amount of exhibit hall bells and whistles, or panels would have made this expo entertaining. It's all about the gamer community after all. It always was, and hopefully always will be, and though it seems PAX is getting too big for it's own good, the staples of gaming in a large scale social setting remains at it's core. Gamasutra did a pretty good writeup on PAX 08... an estimated 58,500 attendees???

I spent sometime in the PC freeplay arena, and console freeplay which was cool, but I never did break out my DS, or PSP because I was always on the move, with no time to crash on the bean bags. I also intentionally skipped out on collecting swag. I didn't want to carry a bunch of shit with me. I mean I wanted that Skateboard, and that's pretty much it, but I couldn't answer any of the trivia questions. I never really bought anything too, aside from food. Went to a few Panels, one of which featured 1UP's own Karen Chu on game reviewing. I also went to another panel about why the game industry doesn't suck, by Jason Della Rocca, and I was pretty surprised to see that the majority of people sitting in on the panel didn't know who he was. A definite difference between PAX versus GDC demographics. It was like watching a teacher lecturing a bunch of high school students, no offense intended. The topic itself was meh, nothing most people didn't already know, so I got up and left. I did however notice he used a tablet pen with his laptop, which is what I do whether on a desktop or laptop.

The 1UP Gameworks meet up was cool. No community managing was really required when the 1UP members pretty much organized themselves. Of course with all the 1UP members who already knew each other from previous years, it was always like being in a 1UP meet up. I missed out on Anamanaguchi though for the 1UP meet, but that's cool. After getting buzzed at Gameworks briefly speaking to Toasty, and for the first time meeting one of my longtime readers Doug, new community manager Tina, former gamespotter Brad Shoemaker, and 1UP member Amarisse (whom I thought worked at 1UP as the new Karen Chu with her massive professional camera), a few of us headed over to watch some Rockband stage, then to Kevin's other Sheraton hotel party. The hotel party was quiet until I invited a bunch of random people from the elevator. They just so happened to be Canadians and harsh drinkers. After a while (around 3 or 4am) I received a txt message from my other group of peeps who were at a Club. Ended up going there, for a bit, but then after feeling threatened by Vietnamese gangbangers, headed on back to the hotel to crash.

N64 DD. Me, David, and Amarisse. We were pretty disappointed with the watered down Guinness. Mega lame, but thanks for the drink tickets Guild Wars PR lady. That jon guy sure is a double fisting alcoholic from Detroit. LOL Driving the kids back to Canada.(Jen and Mike, intentionally missed their bus the night before, so they could ride back with me in a pretty smooth drive to Vancouver in less than 2 hours)

When thinking about the growth of this once little gamer centered expo from Bellevue, it has me curious to see where this event is going next year. Will it get better or worse?

PAX 08 will have my divided attention this year.

Penny Arcade Expo, and Bumbershoot.

Here I thought that I'd be sick of geek conventions after enduring the ridiculousness of San Diego Comic-Con, but it looks like I'll be attending PAX after all... Just not in it's entirety.

This year my trip to the Penny Arcade Expo will be a slightly different experience from years prior. For one thing, my brother's not gonna be around, and neither is my sister which I'm totally bummed about. Though surprisingly, many of my friends, and co-workers are planning to go, even though previous years they had no idea what PAX was. Now that they're all familiar with what PAX is all about, they're eager to go on a road trip to Seattle. And so I was convinced to go after I had planned on skipping out on PAX this year. To make things even more different, I won't be at PAX the whole time. I was swayed to buy a pass to the Music festival Bumbershoot going on the same time.

Though the concert lineup isn't packed with awesomeness, there are a few acts that I did want to see like Beck, Estelle, Keyshia Cole, T.I., Stone Temple Pilots, The Offspring, Bedouin Soundclash, Death Cab For Cutie, Dan Deacon, The Weakerthans and a few others. Oh wait, that's actually a lot for 3 days.

In any case, I'll be spending time at both events. I fear PAX will take a back seat this year, but oh well. Better to be there, than to not be there at all.