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Archive for July, 2010 
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A couple of weeks ago, my guy treated me to a dinner that Outstanding In The Field held in the Seattle area on this year’s nationwide tour. Local chef, Matt Dillon and The Corson Building staff served a gorgeous meal at Oxbow Farm, paired perfectly with Rhone varietals from Syncline, a winery located in Southern Washington that biodynamically farms and harvests its vines. We were given a tour of the grounds the farm before we were ushered to a long table in the middle of vegetable fields for dinner, where we shared food and life stories with our neighbors, enjoying every bit of what was set down in front of us while the sun set across the valley.
Matt Dillon is also associated with Sitka & Spruce (newly reopened in The Melrose Market), as well as Nettletown (yum!), and Bar Ferd’nand (superb!). Oxbow Farm is getting ready to hold educational classes for students this fall. They are also a great resource for weekly CSA boxes delivered to your doorstep! Contact them for more information!
Hullo Adventurers. This is Gao Gao reporting from Beijing, China. Travel back to Asia is always overwhelming. The contrast in technology, pace and pitch is overwhelming. Those that can boast previous travels to city have no idea. The cityscape undulates in construction – the Beijing I see today is yet again a different Beijing from the one I left a few months before. Beijingers have incurred an astonishing increase in disposable income – especially those of the ‘ba ling hou’ generation. The growing middle class are materialising their presence in designer goods, a growing consumption of the arts and hospitality sector. With the opening of the economy in 1978, capitalist practices have proliferated exponentially. That is not to say that the government is not present – the exchange of goods is still heavily monitored – but the days of state branded goods has headily been replaced by McDonalds, Chanel and American Apparel. The Red Flags are being switched for Hondas. My father has everything Apple has ever released. In both colour models. China, however, is not fully capitalist. Not in the sense where private ownership is directly related to democratic agency. It’s not fully Communist either. Perhaps in culture- not necessarily in power. Take the Cult of Mao, for example. Where Mao’s image had previously been used to symbolise an ideological movement from the feudal imperialism of the dynastic era and the capitalism of the western industrial era. Now, however, his image is used quite subversively. He appears on mousepads in kitsch design stores, embossed with LV in the background. Red stars adorn the hats on sock puppets and iphone covers. Communist propoganda is now sold as post-it-note-pads. The Communist propaganda images from 50 years ago still appear – except this time, the chinese people (and foreigners) are paying money to consume it. A wry inside joke, if you will.
The country, as a whole, still has a long way to go Adventurers, but Beijing is the place to be right now. In the block my mother was born in, there are apothocaries dedicated to capturing the scent of swimming pools and thunderstorms. A cinema called Megabox. Milk massages. 3 quai beers. Orange art galleries. In short? See for yourself adventurers. Flights are only approx $1200 for the month of August, and I will be your personal tour guide and translator. Things I can promise: You will slide down from the top of the Great Wall on a helter skelter. You eat three things you can’t pronounce, and two things that you wish you couldn’t. I will introduce you to the Lychee Martini. I will cycle you around in a tut tut. Until next time Adventurers. GG p.s. Mongolia has been postponed to this Friday – this adventurer misjudged the quality of a lamb doener.
Collaboration with the community and all its doers and thinkers is at the center of any The Adventure School event. On July 3, 2010, 25 neighbors who attended our community Independence Day Celebration in Cal Anderson Park in Seattle found themselves participating in a dance research project with dancers Shannon Stewart and Jody Kuehner. These 25 people agreed to be part of a new research project about dance and were the first pool of specimen. “Raw data has not yet been fully analyzed for new movement discoveries, but initial observations are promising”, said Shannon Stewart. Watch the results of this exciting new research. Some more information about the two investigators/instigators of this dance investigation: Jody Kuehner is a dance artist and choreographer living in Seattle. Currently, she is exploring a new character named Cherdonna who is one half of a duet called The Cherdonna and Lou Show. Jody joined the Pat Graney Company in 2008. She has presented choreography at On The Boards, Velocity Dance Center, University of South Florida and the Joyce SoHo NYC. Modern dancer and community leader Shannon Stewart is currently CEO at Movement Projects and Development Director at Velocity Dance Center. She has recently been the Founder, and Past Director at All-ages Movement Project, as well as the Co-Founder, Program Director & Talent Buyer of the Vera Project.
Check out Anne and Nick’s engagement party. First, we are all hanging out at The Center For Wooden Boats, looking at the wooden boats, eating Veraci Pizza, drinking a glass of wine, listening to a toast and then BOOM! Mrs. Fenton gets out the wax lips and guests go crazy!
Can you believe that I was in Paris for almost ten days, and the only photo of any food I ate during my trip was of an ice cream cone? Granted, it ranked at the top of a long list that I keep entitled Best Ice Cream I’ve Ever Had, but I was disappointed in myself when I scrolled through the pictures on my camera during the flight home and all I saw were monuments and landscapes. Fortunately, I kept a detailed account of the restaurants, bars, and shops we visited which I have prepared for you to use whenever you please, and especially the next time you visit The City of Light. …Listed by neighborhood… Le Marais:
Saint-Germain de Pres: Montmartre: Grand Palais:
If you are interested in seeing dance, try Theatre de la Bastille or Menagerie de Verre, and if you’re up for it, pack a picnic and head out to Versailles one day where you can rent a bicycle and tour the expansive gardens. If you’re looking for a friend in Paris, get a hold of Morgane, our French Adventurer for Life. Remember to send The Adventure School a postcard! Bon voyage!
People don’t wear enough things on their head! I’m starting an “Accessorize your head to the EXTREME” movement! Ban.do also makes some pretty awesome headbands & clearly Cori knows how to accessorize her head!
 ban.do "m"  Cori Ready
Hullo Adventurers. It is time. The itinerary: The goals: Merely an adieu. (Expect a postcard.)
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