February 26, 2026

Coupla days ago, riding an elevator at a doctor’s office, the background music was a string version of “Your Wildest Dreams,” by the Moody Blues. Always liked that song, ‘cuz it made me wistful for a girl who (wisely) got away, but it was sure a surprise hearing it. Usually the only music in public spaces is “old people music,” so hearing something so modern was a nice change-up—

Oh, wait, that’s right. I’m old people now.

Today, on the daily walk I reliably stroll 4-5 days out of seven, everything was lovely and familiar. I crossed the same footbridge as every walk, was barked at by the same dogs. It was an utterly routine walk, and then, extraordinary and excruciating pain in my left knee.

No idea what the pain was about. There’d been no misstep, I hadn’t banged it, hadn’t strained it, and that knee has never given me any trouble, yet the pain was so extreme that I limped like a Civil War veteran and wished for a cane or crutches.

And then, the pain promptly disappeared. Shook the leg, did a few deep-down squat thrusts, and walked the rest of the way home with no pain, no problem. Pain for no known reason—

Oh, that’s right. I’m old people now.

You are cordially invited to join this old coot for the weekly Friday breakfast tomorrow. It’ll actually be lunch, at King Buffet in Renton — same place we had Thanksgiving dinner. First person to RSVP please gets to pick the time, but it has to be before 3:30, because that’s when dinner prices kick in.

It’s Dutch treat, like everything else on this page, but no-one will be turned away for lack of funds. If the price tag is a problem, let me know in advance, and I’ll cover it if I can.

The envelope, please, and the winner for best movie I’ve seen in the past week is: Keep an Eye Out, a kooky & surreal French crime drama comedy. It’s streaming free at Tubi (sorry about the commercials).

Here’s my agenda for the coming week…

Cannonball Arts is the new museum from the folks who put on Bumbershoot every summer. Looks like it’ll be a little looser and more interactive than your typical artsy-fartsy museum. I’ve been thinking about going since they opened a few months ago, but something keeps coming up and I haven’t made it yet, but it’s definitely happening this week, unless it doesn’t.

The Hawks and the Sparrows is playing on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday only, at Beacon Cinema on Rainier Avenue. I saw it once, and it’s weird, spectacular, and spectacularly weird. If you want ordinary, you don’t want this, but ordinary can be sorta boring.

“No-one is Illegal: Seattle Musicians against ICE” is a benefit concert for NorthWest Immigrants Rights Program, Thursday evening at the Royal Room in Rainier Valley. Sliding scale tickets start at ten bucks, and it’s a restaurant, so it’s probably a $35 night, which is kinda steep for me, but it’s for a worthy cause.

And as always until the horror ends, I’ll try to be at a protest this week.

If you’re doing something and you’d like a flatulent fat fellow tagging along, send an email or text and away we’ll go.

Get well soon, Nancy!
          Happy birthday, Kathy!
                    And happy 120th birthday, Grandma C (and many more)!

Updates every Thursday — see ya next week…

Friday, February 20, 2026

Nancy’s in the hospital, and we’re all wishing her a speedy escape for home. C’mon, Nancy!

Everyone else, eat an onion like you’d eat an apple. Just take a bite, then another and another bite until it’s gone. You won’t enjoy it, goodness no, but the rest of your day will seem so much better!

Here’s Henry Mansfield & Digital Velvet performing “Bend Your Knees,” at Southgate Roller Rink, a mile or so from my house. It’s almost enough to restore my faith in rock’n’roll:

The pedophile president seems determined to start a war, to distract from his name being all over the Trump-Epstein files. To be clear, I’m against this war, and in favor of impeaching, prosecuting, and imprisoning pedophiles in high office.

On a happier note, the Tasveer Film Center has opened, in Rainier Valley. They show foreign movies, so you have to read subtitles, but I’ve always found that if the movie’s good, you forget you’re reading.

Best movie I saw last week was Kapo, and here it is. Not a lot of laughs, though. It’s a haunting holocaust adventure with a little kid who ends up in a concentration camp. A film for our times, you might say.

Second best movie of the week was The Princess Bride, and here it is. It would be better without Westley repeatedly threatening to beat up Buttercup, but everything else about the movie sparks and sparkles.

Here’s what I might or might not be up to over the coming week, and if any of it sounds like fun, please, drop me a text or email and we could hang out together.

Saturday 2/21 at Rainier Beach Community Club, it’s a movie: Summer of Soul, a concert film from the same summer as Woodstock, but a little blacker, with Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension, and more. And it’s free!

Sunday 2/22 at Fauntleroy Church, it’s a play: The Detention Lottery. “See the justice served in your name.” It’s free, with donations appreciated, and I’ll probably chip in ten bucks.

Playing all week at Central Cinema, it’s Bruce Lee’s second best film, Game of Death, with Gig Young, Kareem Abdul-Jabbaar, and Chuck Norris. It’s a fun flick, but I’ve seen it before, and probably won’t go unless someone wants to share the chop-socky. A ticket is $13 or $16, depending on the showtime.

Wednesday 2/25 at Jules Maes, it’s Opera on Tap, wherein they stage snippets of genuine opera in a restaurant/bar setting. It’s bonkers fun and surprisingly funny, but like the Bruce Lee flick, I probably wouldn’t attend solo, so drop me a note and we can enjoy it together. Tix, $15.

Friday 2/27, breakfast will be lunch at King Buffet in Renton, at a time to be determined. RSVP and it could be you and me. I recommend the egg foo young.

Saturday 2/28, there’s Good Noise! A Noise Maker’s Workshop, where we’ll learn how to make joyful, coordinated noise at protests.

Any time the mood strikes, I’m happy to sip a cup of coffee and hear music being made at C & P in West Seattle, tap toes at a live show at Seattle Jazz Fellowship, or devour dinner and a free movie at the Tin Room in Burien. And almost every week, you can find me at a protest here, there, or somewhere.

If you’re up to something and you’d like a flatulent fat fellow tagging along, send an email or text and away we’ll go.

All invitations are Dutch treat, but no-one will be turned away for lack of funds. If the price tag is a problem, let me know in advance, and I’ll cover it if I can.

And here’s a test, to see if anyone reads this far down the page: Breakfast is my treat, for the first person who texts or emails “Gimme my free breakfast!”

Let’s close with a memory of the great Jesse Jackson: The Question is Moot.

Over and out until next Friday’s update, and let’s hear it for the opposite of Donald Trump, which is truth, justice, and the American way!

Friday, February 13, 2026

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.”

As always, you’re invited to anything I’m up to. Or whatever you’re doing, if you’d like a flatulent fat fellow tagging along, send an email or text and away we’ll go.

The absolute YES for my week is the West Seattle Indivisible meeting, bake sale fundraiser, and opportunity fair at St John the Baptist on Sunday afternoon. Doug needs to climb out of his recliner and get more involved in the anti-fascist resistance, and also, they had me at “bake sale.”

When the mood strikes, I’m happy to sip a cup of coffee and hear music being made at C & P in West Seattle, tap toes at a live show at Seattle Jazz Fellowship, or devour dinner and a free movie at the Tin Room in Burien.

Love you all, and until next Friday’s post, do the right thing, be kind to strangers, eat your vegetables, have your pet spayed or neutered or both, and consider joining me for breakfast any or every Friday.

Friday, February 6, 2026

Howdy & welcome to my front porch on the internet. Have a seat, grab a sarsaparilla, and I’ll tell you what I’m up to over the next week.

You’re invited to accompany me to anything that sounds like fun, or make a counter-invitation — I’m open to almost anything except going to church. Send an email or text and away we’ll go.

This morning, Friday 2/6, the weekly family breakfast is at Little Pat’s Place.

Saturday 2/7 at 7PM, there’s Indian classical music at the Roadhouse in SeaTac — free.

On Tuesday 2/10, an evening of silent reading & jazz at Asylum Collective in Pioneer Square. It’s $17.85, which includes bottomless coffee and wine. Cheers!

I have resisted any urge to see Sinners, but everyone says it’s good, and it’s playing at Central Cinema all week. $13. Pick a show and let me know.

On Thursday 2/12, Jackie Brown shows at the Tin Roof at 7PM. The movie is free, but it’s a restaurant so we’d have dinner first. Prices and food are both good.

Next Friday 2/13, get lucky and join me for breakfast at Nacho Mama in White Center.

Any time the mood strikes, I’m happy to sip a cup of coffee and hear whoever’s making music at C & P in West Seattle, watch a live show at Seattle Jazz Fellowship, or enjoy dinner and a free movie at the Tin Room in Burien.

And I have nothing but respect for the protesters in Minneapolis-St Paul, keeping it peaceful despite months of provocation. When Trump’s secret police & hate show travels to Seattle, if my health permits it I’ll be in the streets every dang day. Meanwhile, I’m at a protest once weekly or so, they’re always fun, and you’re always invited. God bless America!

Love you all!! Over & out until next Friday’s post.

         

Pretty crazy what’s going on in Minneapolis-St Paul, eh? Let’s pray for peace and calm from both sides, the murderers and the people being murdered.

Immigrants are not responsible for any problems Americans face. Neither are protesters who object to seeing their neighbors abducted and sent to concentration camps.

By far the most worrisome problem for America is its president — a cruel, mentally unbalanced pedophile who tells the truth so rarely, it’s a safe assumption that anything he says is a lie. He’s the opposite of a Christian, a parody of a president, and he’s teargassing Minnesota daily, just for fun.

Many years of my life were spent living dirt cheap in the slums of San Francisco, where my neighbors were red and yellow black and white, near-homeless and homeless, some of them ex-cons, crackheads, and one guy who had an open, blood-seeping wound on the side of his head, month after month after year, because he couldn’t afford medical treatment here in the world’s richest country.

If you listen to loony right-wing radio, you’d think I’d be dead a dozen times over from sharing a front door with such characters, but I survived it, and enjoyed it. There was never a moment of danger, and none of my neighbors were scary. They were people, that’s all.

And you know who else isn’t scary? Immigrants. Also, gay folks, woke folks, black folks, trans folks, Hispanics, Somalis, vegans, Muslims, leprechauns, and everyone else Trump & the Republicans tell you to hate.

Leviticus 19:34, people. “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.” Also Proverbs 31:8-9. “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute, speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

This week’s breakfast is at Little Pat’s Place, Friday 1/30 at 10AM. Try the chicken-fried steak.

Next week’s breakfast, Friday 2/6, same time & place.

Between the breakfasts, here’s what I might be up to this week, and you’re invited. If something sounds fun, simply email or text and away we’ll go!

Friday 1/30 is singer-songwriter open mic night at Kenyon Hall. I’ve always wanted to see that venue, never been disappointed listening to amateurs make music, and it’s free.

On Sunday 2/1, Jim Page is playing at C & P Coffee in West Seattle. That’s Jim Page, not Jimmy — he’s a long-time local folk singer who almost single-handedly got busking legalized in Seattle, plus he’s really good, the show is free, and the coffee is excellent.

If you clicked the music at the top of this page, that’s Jimmy Cliff, and on Thursday 2/5, Broadview Library has a free screening of his movie, The Harder They Come.

At least once weekly I’m at a protest, and it’s usually a good time. Last week, though, I came home with painful legs and a twisted back, for no particular reason except that I’m old.

Farther in the future, Detention Lottery is an “immersive theater experience” set in the dystopia of America 2026. It’s one performance only, on Sunday 2/22, and I’ll be there.

Of course, I’m always happy to catch a live show at Seattle Jazz Fellowship, or enjoy dinner and a free movie at the Tin Room in Burien. If you have a better idea, all invitations will be cheerfully considered, so invite me already.

And with that, this week’s page is finished. Ta ta and be healthy, God bless America, and please drop in for another post next Friday, if there’s a next Friday.