MOVABLE FEAST

We met some friends in Tacoma and walked from their house to Cheney Stadium for Tacoma's inaugural food truck festival, The Movable Feast.  The parking lot was filled with food trucks, seating, multitudes of hungry people, bands, bouncy houses for the kids, and much more.


I settled on Choripan, intrigued by the concept of Argentine street food, and I was not disappointed.


The chorizo sandwich I had was near perfect.  A toasted baguette held spicy chorizo sausage, sliced in half; aioli, chimichurri, harissa, rajas, red peppers, yellow peppers, and cilantro.  Flavorful, spicy, and nicely balanced begin to explain this sandwich before all words finally fail to describe it.

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I also enjoyed ginger pork and lemongrass chicken lumpia, salted caramel ice cream on a waffle cone, Mexican Coca-Cola, as well as tasted chocolate-covered banana lumpia, empenadas, and Kahlua-marinated pulled pork.

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I will be attending the next local food truck festival I can find.

FROST PARK: NORNS

Frost Park Chalk Off 5:17 saw TWT create "Norns."  As one passerby told a photographer of the event, "Whoever drew that is sick!" My work here is done.


Detail of "Norns"—the three Norns, thread of fate, and octopus ink cloud.


Detail of "Norns"—the tethered beast, an octopus.

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The creature creates the three Norns, who, in turn, spin out the thread of fate for the creature, who creates the three Norns...

EVEN HEAVEN

"Even heaven, one priest conjectured, needed a hell where the things heaven could not know or touch might be contained."
—page 65, Arc d'X by Steve Erickson.

SHORES OF LAKE EASTON

The Lake Easton State Park shore of Lake Easton as seen from the old railroad trestle of  the Iron Horse State Park shore of Lake Easton.  Saturday 21 July 2012.  Iron Horse State Park, Easton, Washington.

CAMPING DINNER

Campfire-roasted hot dog smothered in ketchup and mustard, beef stew on the propane camping stove, and a can of Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale.  A splendid meal after a day of hiking through the dark, fog, and mud of 2.3-mile-long Snoqualmie Tunnel (and back) with The Wife, The Child, and The Dog.  Eaten next to the campfire at Lake Easton State Park, Easton, Washington.  Friday 20 July 2012.

RED TOP MOUNTAIN LOOKOUT

The Wife, The Child, The Dog, and TWT hiked two miles up a forest road (due to a washout) and then another mile through forest and up the side of talus slope switchbacks, in order to view the world from the Red Top Mountain Lookout.  It was spectacular.  Thursday 19 July 2012.  Teanaway Region of the Central Cascades, Washington.

LAKE EASTON

Sunset over Lake Easton.  Wednesday 18 July 2012.  Lake Easton State Park, Easton, Washington.

KNIGHTS OF VERITAS

The Wife, The Child, and TWT headed down to the Puyallup Public Library for a bit of medieval martial arts, as demonstrated by the Knights of Veritas.  Their goal for the day was to dispel many of the myths surrounding sword combat as it is seen in modern-day television, movies, and videogames.


The Knights of Veritas director and another knight show how easy it is to be left vulnerable to harm or death in sword combat.


The zornhau (zornhaw), or "wrath strike" as it would be seen on the big (or little) screen, although the longsword is about two feet from the victims head.


The medieval martial art of longsword combat.  Here the Knights of Veritas are showing how vulnerable one is, even in full armor.


A duel in full armor with visors.

RED CHANDELIER

It was an evening of wandering the ramps, steps, and walkways of Tacoma's Museum District, sharing pieces of public art with The Niece and The Child.  The kids were fascinated by the tendrils and tentacles of Dale Chihuly's Red Chandelier in the University of Washington Tacoma library.

FROST PARK: FINN & JAKE

TWT made it down to Frost Park today for Frost Park Chalk Off 5:14.  There he chalked "Summer Reading with JAKE & Finn," the two primary protagonists from the post-apocalyptic, highly mythic, and yet tenderly endearing "Adventure Time" cartoon.  'Nuff said!

FOURTH OF JULY

Last night's fireworks are this morning's blanket of blue haze that fills the Puyallup River Valley.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

People gathered on the front lawn of Meeker Mansion listen to the Puyallup Valley Community Band play patriotic marches and tunes in observance of Independence Day.

URBAN ART FESTIVAL

The Child and TWT wandered down to Tacoma's Dock Street Waterfront Park yesterday to explore the eighth annual Urban Art Festival.  TWT wasn't sure how they've survived this long.  There were moments and areas that we enjoyed, but overall the event seemed simultaneously messy and sparse.

There were too few booths for the arts community I'm aware of in Tacoma.  They were scattered about a large space, which was fine for wandering, but didn't seem conducive to conversations and cross-fertilization of ideas and media.  The DJ Stage and Main Stage were too close to one another, sometimes effectively drowning out one another, which didn't make sense considering how large the area of use was.  Rather than have both stages at one end of the park, they should have each anchored an end with all of the booths and happenings between.

Another problem was lack of a schedule of events at the event.  I'm sure something was printed up in one of the local newspapers, but I couldn't find anything at the Urban Arts Festival other than nearly illegible boards that had what I assume were schedules.  (Save the "fancy" scrawl for your artwork; make the public announcements, such as schedules, readable.)

All that being said, there were a few areas that stimulated the sense of TWT:


A founding member of C.L.A.W. (and founding chalk artist of the Frost Park Chalk Off) set up shop with the FREE CHALK box and let people go wild, which they did.


The DJ Stage dropped some heavy beats.


A bicyclist catches some air on some homemade urban-decorated ramps.