I have been so busy with outings the last couple weeks and I really hit some great meals and Music! First my son and I went to the Triple Door to see Shawn Mullins. He was solo on his acoustic and was fantastic. We had lots of Satay and peppered scallops and my son felt special as he is just starting to get used to going out to higher end restaurants and clubs. Then my daughter and I have tickets to see Kathy Mattea who is doing a intimate tour based on Americana coal mining songs and history. We had dinner at the Wild Ginger and it was another spot on meal from their excellent kitchen. This Sunday we joined a community picnic focusing on sustaining regional foods. I joined the Seattle Slow Food movement as it fits in with my values on preservation of heritage breeds and eating local. We met some great local chefs and the food was very good. Finally my wife and myself went out to our first "underground" dining event. These are private parties that usually feature a famous or well known chef and they are hosted in someone's home or restaurant that is closed. The idea is to have a communal event with a set menu and it offers a lot of creativity to the chefs. One of our friends is a fairly well known Chef in Seattle and he hosted the event featuring a great Italian chef. The pasta was sublime, it was the most interesting pasta dish I have ever had, we had a great bottles of Barbaresco (at wine shop prices, not the 72% mark up, that is a big plus) and we really enjoyed it. It is exclusive and so I don't plan to advertise it, but there are more and more of these popping up.

I have been working with the Office Live team the last couple weeks to move my original Larouex Gourmet Foods Website from my roll-my-own commerce site to the private beta of their new commerce platform. It has been smooth and I was up and running in a weekend. The site integrates with PayPal and professionalizes my shopping cart and checkout process. Office Live is getting there and the team has been awesome to work with.

Even Mary Jo Foley dropped me a nod (but no link <s/>)

I would usually blog on Bumbershoot 2007 as there was so much great stuff. But people... Between the wankers at Seattle Weekly, The Seattle Times "People Blogs" and everyone else in Seattle who fricken has something... SO MUCH TO SAY!... I beat it all down with my exclusive personal recordings from the KEXP Secret Music Lounge. I have more to offer than words with my own clandestine recordings of live, awesome music...

Enjoy! Hint: Right-click the links below and save the target where you can find it, it is MP3...

• The Gourds
• Steve Earle

If you need access to the files, send me your Passport email to Larry_W_Jordan_Jr@msn.com

My son and I headed out this morning to Des Moines (which is a just a jaunt down the hill from Normandy Park) to see the car show at the waterfront. My son is gaining a healthy obsession for Italian cars (Lambo's and Dino's) and I fully support this. In my youth, my best buddy Jon was employed in California for a company that imported Lambo's and he knew them inside and out. I once was there with him and we rode in Steve Garvey's car which Jon spun up over a 100 MPH in less that a block and it freaked me out.

Check out the cool car photos...

The Seattle Times and a bunch of others have celebrated the Instant Coffee installation at Northwest rooms at Bumbershoot. From my POV, I crack up when I see too much praise being heaped on a artificial installation that somehow is supposed to build community through the magic of that artistic installation. This is silly, although I have stopped in 3 times so far, it is nice and cool and we played cards, but a "den" of creative expression and life changing experiences? That is a big stretch, lots of people sell the same fluffy stuff with the online communities too.