{ the jaunty magpie }

This Bird was incredibly lucky and thankful to be invited to Triple Sip, a most Jaunty wine event held at Seattle's Triple Door -- one of my favorite locales to see great live music. It's got a lovely, swanky lounge with a big aquarium that bathes everything in a sort of dreamy light, and then separate from the lounge is a full stage with booths set up like a classic dinner-and-a-show theater. It's been one of my favorite spots since it opened years ago and I love just sitting in the bar where they pipe in the music from the stage area, so even if you don't have tickets to the live show, you can still hear the music being performed. I've been able to see acts like Buena Vista Social Club's Barbarito Torres, as well as local musicians like Late Tuesday and the Ian McFeron Band.

Triple Sip was a wine event to celebrate nearly fifty small wineries, both local and abroad, offering a rare chance to meet the winemakers and try wines that usually aren't available in stores. I had many a tasty glass of vino, wandering with Jaunty friends Beth and Jim, who were so very kind to invite us to share in the experience. And the night was finished off by a rock-your-bobby-sox-off performance by Man or Astro-Man? which is a surf rock musical science experiment gone horribly right. If you've ever LOL-ed your booty off while watching Mystery Science Theater 3000, you will no doubt have heard their robo-musical stylings in the show's theme. So how cool is that? And they performed with a theremin, which in my Jaunty opinion, is the only way to finish off a perfect evening in sci-fi astro-style. We've got movie sign!

The event was a fundraiser for something especially close to this Bird's heart -- KEXP radio. Radio?? Who listens to that anymore? There's satellite and Pandora and blah, blah, blah. I enjoy Pandora, I adore podcasts (Too Beautiful to Live, Radio Lab, to name a couple), but I still believe in radio and I definitely believe in public-funded radio, which feels like a rare white tiger in these desperate times. KEXP is local, but is broadcast over the internet, so anyone with a connection can hear it, plus they have podcasts available. The music is primarily alternative/indie rock, but includes unique programming that showcases world beat music, blues, rockabilly, reggae, ambient, the list goes on. My ears always hear something interesting and find new discoveries far more meaningful than anything standard radio provides. This is significant, considering much of radio these days exists as corporate shills, privately owned by huge conglomerates, whether it's broadcast or satellite. They push products before artists, and it's removing the option of choice listeners once had when radio was hosted by human beings who chose the playlists. It's sad that a lot of stations have to lose their staff and they're replaced with a computer that just randomly generates playlists, intercut with drops and ads.

In my pimple-faced Jaunty early days, I used to work at a college radio station where I'm pretty sure love was what kept that antenna broadcasting on that tinny AM bandwidth, but it was a great experience in finding music that mattered and being in a community that celebrated weirdly wonderful choices, versus finding the next Top 10 song that's going to be played ad nauseum for the next three weeks. Listening to KEXP brings me back to those happy days and even with tighter purse strings, I scrape together the cash to donate every year during their periodic fundraisers (they have awesome thank-you shirts!). It's out of solidarity for quality programming that's insightful and supportive of the arts. Even if you don't live in the Seattle area, check out KEXP's online stream -- your heart will be singing along with the music.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Beth and Jim for inviting us -- getting to drink amazing wine, hang out with KEXP and meet Cheryl Waters was fantastic!


Jaunty Fine Print: photo of Man or Astro-Man? by Mr. Magpie and his amazing iPhone