Confessions of a Cascadian Prep

1. I went to a STATE school for undergrad.
2. I have never owned a VOLVO, tweed jacket, or a boat tote, nor do I intend to.
3. I ended #2 in a PREPOSITION.
4. I do not attend CHURCH very often.
5. More than likely, I will vote for the REPUBLICAN presidential candidate.
6. I prefer travel destinations such as Southeast Asia and Latin America instead of EUROPE.
7. I like all music, especially GOTH & BLUEGRASS music.
8. My house was built in the 1990s and it is furnished with very, very few ANTIQUES.
9. I don't care for PLAYS or MUSICALS.
10. My ear is pierced and I occasionally wear an EARRING.

A Cascadian Prep's Commute Home

One would think that for an urban region with mountains and snow about 30 miles east, we would be used to driving in a little of it here. NOT!

(Play with sound ON)

(music by Ra Ra Riot)

(music by incredible Portland, OR band - The Shins)

The Joys of Summer

Cascadia is settling in for the "90 Day Gray".  We had a nice December, but Mother Nature is making up for it now... cold... wet... windy.  So naturally, our thoughts turn to sunnier days.

Shark Reef Park - Lopez Island

It was early September - the best time to sail in The San Juan Islands. Mrs. Cascadian Prep and I were anchored in a little cove off of Lopez.  Just a warm and cloudless summer day spent on the foredeck reading and rocking gently with the waves. She - a bikini top and shorts from that lemon (lululemon?) place. He - Orvis quick dry shorts, sans shirt, and Top-siders. The other "she" - at Grandma's place. Could life get any better?

Suddenly, I felt the need to change the tunes and freshen my Dark 'N' Stormy, so down the companionway to the chart table I sprang. Upon my return, I noticed something else had changed.  Her Top was beSide her.

Life did get better.

Jay Ferguson's Thunder Island (I was a wee lad when it came out. Loved it then, love it now.)

Musical Evolution of a Transient Prep

1980s

but a few shows I went to in the 1980s

1990s

and a few from the 1990s

The Internet and barcoding killed the "ticket stub" in many cases.  A pity. But, I guess sentimentality is overrated.

Send... Help... Fast

This is what we're dealing with here in Cascadia. Don't buy the starving artist bit this Seattle (Kirkland) band wishes to portray. They're from the Seattle-area's "Eastside," which is to say the east side of Lake Washington, which also is to say the well-monied side of the city. Home to more Bourgeois Bohemians (BoBos) than a Franco-Czech Chambers of Commerce convention.

Increasingly popular Fleet Foxes

(I hate that I like their music.) Watch the video and ask me about the goats.

DMB

I saw a bumper sticker on the back of a Suburu Outback - "Dear Jesus, Protect Me From Your Followers."  That's the way I feel about the die hard fans of The Dave Matthews Band (DMB).  For starters, they have that oval sticker on the back of their Suburus, Volkswagens, and vintage Volvos, which simply states "DMB."  Then there are those who have to make the annual pilgrimage to The Gorge at George, Washington to watch ALL THREE NIGHTS of his three night stand.  WTF?!

It's not that THE Dave Matthews is a bad guy (a real good family man living in Seattle, Washington, I hear). I mean, he writes OK music and has very good musicians making up his band, but when did Phish or Widespread Panic give up the throne of "Hippie cum yuppie jam band," "BoBos in Paradise group," or "I only smoke dope once a quarter festival"?

I think the whole thing is just DuMB. And even though DMB is an adopted darling of Cascadia, I hope I don't see any burgeoning Cascadian preps at his next gig!

The Gorge at George, Washington, USA

Boom Boom Bow

Almost one year from today, we will set sail out of Victoria, British Columbia for our  approximately two week voyage to Maui. Four of us on a 36-foot boat and the Pacific Ocean. I am looking forward to the total media purge, the inability to yield to the calling of my favorite blogs, the inability to write blogs, and the knowing what it's like to see nothing but water for days upon days. I'm told that you cross over out there, mentally, and that there is no going back. Like Cortez, I just might have to "burn the boats" when I get there.

The Race (held bienially)

The Boom




The Bow

"Seven Seas" by Echo & The Bunnymen

Nantucket Reds in Cascadia

Just a quick little posting to say that my faith in Cascadians is restored... at least temporarily.  I donned my relatively new Nantucket Reds at the U2 concert at Qwest Field (Seattle) Saturday night and was met with compliment after compliment. Most kudos came from drunken rabble-rousers, but their words were positive, nonetheless.  Giant-sized grunge guys, middle-aged suburban women on a "Girls Night Out," and Vancouver Canucks fans down for the show all paid tribute to the "Reds." (Congrats to the Canucks who won Saturday's game of the Stanley Cup.)

U2's 360 screen from the floor of Qwest Field

a surreal experience

Since the Mrs. and I had general admission floor tickets (putting us on the crowded field), she appreciated my wearing them since she could see me a mile away - I easily stood out in a sea of blue jeans, baggy brown cargo shorts, and fully-tattooed legs.  There must be something about U2 which causes one to have an open mind because I really thought I would be jeered, not high-fived by my fellow Cascadians.

The pants are great, but you have to choose your venue wisely.  The U2 show was absolutely incredible, and they chose their venue wisely - a metropolitan Cascadian night. 70 degrees F, not a cloud in the sky... only stars and the dulcet tones of The Edge's guitar.

Distant Sun

Today, under a building overhang, a stranger said to me that it could be a long time before we get reliably sunny weather. Just at that moment, we each were sprayed with dirty street water from a passing bus.  We weren't strangers anymore.

(Good thing I was wearing rainy-weather shoes, or as we like to say here in Cascadia - "shoes.") 

a desert island song & band - Crowded House's "Distant Sun"

If you ever have a chance to see Crowded House or Neil Finn's solo act, do it. You don't have to be a Gen X'er, but being born in the 1970s, or earlier decades, might help. These Kiwis don't come to North America very often, and heaven forbid they go on the casino or free concert-in-the-park circuit, but even if they have a less desirable venue, it would be worth your while. It was mine.

This Western Feeling

The Foals - This Orient

You may ask, "So how is this germane to Cascadian preppiness?" Well, time for another round of "6 Degrees of Pugetropolis Prep." I'll have you know that The Foals are from Oxford, England - namesake for the cloth in which our favorite button-down shirts are made. The Foals, in the US, are signed to Sub Pop - a Seattle-based record label.  And, quite simply, I just really like this band. 

The [Dis]parity of Grunge and Prep

Alexander Julian

Living in the land that begat grunge, I am happy to report that it is still DEAD, and if not dead, waiting for another silver bullet or swift coup de gras. I have to admit, when grunge music became popular in the late 80s / early 90s, I found myself bopping my head and banging my steering wheel to some of its wildy-popular anthems - all while wearing Ralph Lauren button-down oxfords pinched from dad's closet or my own Alexander Julian polos.

This month marks the 17th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's suicide. Rest in peace, Kurt, and rest in peace, Grunge. To both I am thankful, for they are given credit for killing the dreadful hair bands of the early to mid 1980s.

At first glance one might say that there is nothing in common with the grunge sensibility and the prep sensibility. Well, contraire mon fraire. There is more to these ways of life than meets the eye. Consider the following: 



Kurt Cobain
1967 - 1994

- Both have isolated beginnings, be it in the Pacific Northwest or the Atlantic Northeast.  This is real Darwin "Origin of Species" stuff, or more correctly, "allopatric speciation."

- Both have predecessors to which they openly pay homage and reference. Grunge has musical groups like The Who, Neil Young, and Led Zeppelin and vocational groups like lumberjacks and electrical linesmen from which they were influenced. Prep has institutions like the Ivy league, prep schools, and sports and hobbies like rowing, sailing, lacrosse, hunting, and fishing from which they were informed.

- Both wear utilitarian clothing.  Grunge: the lace-up boots, cargo pants (or shorts), flannel shirts, insulated underwear, stocking hats. Prep: the boat shoes, khaki pants, oxford shirts, and perhaps a hunting or sailing jacket. Each item may be used for multiple purposes, in a multitude of venues.  Which brings me to...

- Thrift. Both groups, regardless of socio-economic standing, see thrift as a virtue, hence, the frayed khakis or faded oxfords, or duct-taped combat boots or tattered flannel shirts. 

- Both have a "Come as you are" mindset, or to put it bluntly, an "FU" mindset. Not that either group is rude - quite the opposite - but each group has a quiet confidence in themselves which will not waiver in the face of ridicule. They are true to their clan, but accepting of others.

(But did the two ever co-exist?)

Niles Crane from Frasier
1993 - 2004

Portland's The Decemberists

BEST. (Portland) BAND. EVER

A must-have band on any Cascadian prep's iPod. Smart, quirky, self-aware, and at times, classic (can all be prep/trad traits) with equal parts "Portland Bohemian" (we'll let that one slide.) A perfect microcosm of Cascadian people. 



from Castaways and Cutouts cover



Dulcet Tones from Puget Sound

Death Cab For Cutie
Smart lads with smart lyrics. Great musicians from the Great Northwest.