Wishing everybody around the world all the best this holiday season.

Posted by Gary at 11:36 AM | Permalink

There are events every holiday season that get me in the 'spirit'. The last few years my favorite activity has been going to the Intiman Theater with my family and watching Langston Hughes play, Black Nativity.

Part theatre, part concert and part church service, Black Nativity is a remarkable testament to community. Bringing together artists and audiences of different faiths, ages, backgrounds and beliefs, this holiday classic and Seattle tradition unites people through song, story, dance - and a shared commitment to the idea that within all of us lies both the power and the obligation to enhance the civic life of our region.

This season marks the 10th year an amazing group of individuals have come together to put on this remarkable show. The play is anchored by two people, Reverend Dr. Samuel McKinney, Paster Emeritus of the historic Mount Zion Baptist Church, and Pastor Pat Wright, who's a director, pastor, singer, actress, musician, and musical director and I believe runs the Total Experience Gospel Choir.

Although these two anchor the play, the entire group embodies an energy that you can feel in your seat. That is when you're sitting down... The show is not for the casual viewer, as you'll need to clap, stand, sing, dance if you want to, and mingle with your neighbors.

If I were a play critic, I'd give this show my top rating. I highly recommend you try and get tickets.

Posted by Gary at 11:25 AM | Permalink

You never know until it snows. That's my mantra to the question people ask, "do you think it's going to be a good winter?" Well it has started off slowly, but now the storms are backed up and ready to roll through one after the next.

Although the snow has been slow to fall, I've has a pretty good time going up and making happy fun turns. The weekend before last, I went up with Adam and Nicole. Saw the Crystal Mountain crew of Katie, Nancy, and Scotty. As the day carried on, new terrain opened and by the end of the day, we had skied runs open for the first time this season.

It was a beautiful clear day which pretty much turned into a fun little photo shoot. I would ski backwards on the cat track and shoot photos of the crew behind me.

Let it snow.

Posted by Gary at 10:30 AM | Permalink

There are certain films that everybody should see. The ones that make you question, debate, and hopefully act on what you see. People don't have to agree or disagree with them (although that's is usually the outcome), they just have to question and be open to the premise the movie suggests.

My friend Mark Abma sent me a link to a film called Zeitgeist that everybody needs to see. Sit down, get comfortable, and push play. It's pretty long, maybe two hours, but worth it. It takes on three very interesting topics: Christianity, War & 911, and who really runs the world (The Financial Institutions). Zeitgeist was created as a nonprofit film expression to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are. Please watch the following movie.

I grew up going to church every Sunday, believing in God, went through confirmation, and became a member of the church. There was a minister at my church named Dale Turner who I truly enjoyed listening to because he made me think. Then I took some Origins of Religion and Philosophy courses that really made me question religion. There are many positive things that come from religion, like giving people hope, but there have been horrible things associated with religion as well, when an organization or power over people is abused.

The U.S. government, our political system, and mainstream media, I've been feeling are broken. I haven't been able to put my finger on why or how, but things just haven't added up. SO many things just aren't right about what happened on 911 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It just doesn't seem like we know what we are doing. Or we do know, we just don't want to say.

What is the root of the worlds and our countries problem? It's money and power. Who has it and who doesn't. There are so many appropriate sayings to express this thought. You know what I mean.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power,
the world will know peace. - Jimi Hendirx.

Anyway, watch this film and you'll get the picture. Pass on the website information and get more people to watch this challenging film. Discuss it's possibilities with your friends and families.

Other films that you should see:

01. An Inconvenient Truth
02. Sicko
03. Fahrenheit 9/11
04. Bowling for Columbine - Okay, enough Michael Moore
05. Super Size Me
06. Crash
07. American History X
08. Gandhi
09. Who Killed the Electric Car?
10. Star Wars Trilogy

Posted by Gary at 8:41 PM | Permalink

There are certain things I like to do every year, one of which is making it up skiing at my home mountain for opening day. This last Saturday, Crystal Mountain fired up it's chairlifts and people came to get the goods.

In comparison to 'opening days' in the past, their wasn't as much terrain open. But they did open Powder Bowl off of chair 6. That pretty much made the day, as my ski buddy Adam and I got 2-3 runs of boot deep powder. The rest of the day was pretty mellow cruising the groomers of the Forest Queen Express. Happy fun turns.

Crap I'm outta shape this year. Much more so then in years past. I have to start working out, doing pilates, yoga, and skiing as much as possible. I've found as I get further up in age, to avoid injury I need to be in good shape.

The other fun part of opening day is sharing it with like minded mountain folk. I saw some of the Crystal Mountain posse. We shared a couple runs with Scotty and Nancy. I saw a Charlie from K2 and Keith of Sturtevants. Shared a few stories with other people and made new friends on the chair.

The most common element of the day was smiles. Lots of smiling faces all around. Particularly in the morning with the blue sky. I didn't see much smiling once the winter storm rolled in. Hopefully the 17" they got that night is enough to get us through the high temps and massive amounts of rain the last two days. I'm scared to look at the web cam and see all the snow melted away.

Regardless, the 2007-2008 winter season has begun. Day one is in the bag, the first quad burn and soreness barely lingers. My muscle memory for my favorite activity is back. Just like riding a bike. There is no other place I'd rather be than skiing at Crystal. I have the most fun skiing there, for so many reasons...

So get your ski gear out, tune the skis, put the winter tires on, and I'll see you at Crystal.

Posted by Gary at 3:18 PM | Permalink