Top 10 Listening (not on iTunes)

1) M Ward - Paul’s Song (Matador)
2) The Blow - Hey Boy (Slender Means Society States Rights)
3) The Beakers - Four Steps Towards A Cultural Revolution (K)
4) The Legend! - This Town (CDr)
5) COCO - Supercool (K)
6) Quasi - When I’m Dead (Up)
7) Tom Waits - Romeo Is Bleeding (live) (Chicken Head)
8) Little Anthony And The Imperials - Over The Rainbow (Special Music Company)
9) Smoosh - Rad (Pattern 25)
10) Blackouts - Writhing (K)

Oh my. The mountains surrounding Seattle today, viewed from the top of the Space Needle, could barely be more gorgeous: so breathtaking and sharp and icy-white and blue as to take all remaining breath away (that not stolen by the wind). Even Mt St Helens was visible, nestling to the behind of Mt Rainier, so proud and noble in its glory. Oh my. Such clarity of vision. Such diamond fresh air. Such happiness.

In the EMP, we were transfixed by the sight of Britney’s red PVC catsuit, filled out by a mannequin with no breasts and broad shoulders: “Even I could have modelled that better,” remarked our host Danny Bland sanguinely. Maybe it was to cheer up all the visiting female teenage college students. We loved the metallic snake boots belonging to KISS, and the suit big enough for three men that once adorned the frame of The Notorious B.I.G. There was even a little thrift store chic - courtesy of a Kurt Cobain T-shirt. Elsewhere, if you were a Dylan or Hendrix fan you’d have been well pleased: not so much if you thought females have something to contribute to popular culture (Olympia merits barely a glass case). Our favourite exhibits: the Jimi Hendrix footage of swinging London in the Sixties, and the ‘make your own music’ interactive studios where both us singularly failed to remember a single recognisable chord sequence. I still hate the massive guitar sculpture, though.