Wednesday, March 15
The Vells, a side project of Modest Mouse drummer Jeremiah, played Jazzbones along with the Pete Moss Band and Minimum Wage (from Seattle). Vells seemed a little off, like they had new cordless headsets or something. The Pete Moss Band was definitely the favorite of the night. Tons of fans came from across the bridge to see the young band perform for their second time on Jazzbones' stage since January. The teen-agers from Gig Harbor did a few covers, but they mostly played their own material heavily influenced by classic rock and blues.
Thursday, March 16
Checked out Third Thursday at Embellish Salon and Gallery du Jour for James Hume's artist reception. Murphy tried talking me into getting steps shaved into my hair. I assured him the style was seriously not me. Could you imagine that look on me? I'm not that outrageous (but secretly wish I was). Hume's new art work uses blues, yellows and even green, steering pretty far from the ultra-intense red and blacks. Matt E. and hottie Laura came by to see the art and listen to James Whiton perform rare, solo stand-up bass instrumentals that looped in layers to create a divine full sound. Hume's mother did numerology and told me all about myself through numbers in my name and my date of birth. It was exciting how dead-on she was. Hollywood Scott, who shows his art there next month, introduced me to Syren Lounge's owner, Chad. Even though our encounter was brief, I could tell he was cool and really look forward to throwing them back at his new place. Embellish owner Trish sported a killer wave of bangs with a little paper surfer actually in it. It was adorable. I went with Matt and Laura down to Rampart Gallery for a minute to check out Hogbot art, which turned out to be a collection of people who collaborate at get-togethers over beer and good food.  Next was The Swiss to see Jeff Olson's art on opening night. James Whiton bought me a lovely glass of vino as we realized everyone from the Embellish Art Walk party had met up at The Swiss to see Olson's art and for drinks and chat.

Friday, March 17
St. Paddy's Day is usually a day I push it to 11. Not this year. I didn't even leave the house till midnight. Scooped up Anderson, and we racked our brains for somewhere mellow. We just weren't feeling it, you know? It was a toss up between Monsoon Room and Tempest Lounge. Tempest won. I needed a place Sweet Cara and Anderson hadn't been before. DJ JoMama and friends were playing pool. Teddy Haggarty was in his regular seat at the bar talking with fabulous owners Michelle and Denise. Larry made tasty drinks indeed. Soon we were chain-smoking and talking too loud. We headed around the corner to the Monsoon. Uncle Eli spun cool tunes, and owner Laura made me a smooth Manhattan. I ended up chugging it because I was running my mouth instead of drinking. JoMama told me about the upcoming Urban Art Festival this June. That's gonna be a par-tay!

Saturday, March 18
Out of morbid curiosity I wandered down to the Kitchen to see Charlie Drown and Church of Hate. The guy using himself as a cutting board between bands was interesting, but not really anything new. Charlie Drown was pretty cool though. With flaming red-dyed waist length hair and powerful vocals, the other thing more engaging was her cleavage and the black electrical tape Xs that kept peeping out of the top of her metallic, sparkly blue promo dress that looked like it had had a bad run-in with a lawn mower. Yeow.