My adventure in Seattle

            In this article I am going to tell you about my adventures in Seattle!
I flew to Washington State to visit my Grandma, Barb Shane.  Before I explain about the journey, let me introduce you to this awesome woman. She loves to travel and explore just like me and she lives in a small town called Enumclaw.  For all the Kasey Kane fans out there, he comes from that town.

   The main locations we explored were the International Chinatown district, Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square in addition to lots of other places in between. Well, lets begin!

     Okay so on a slightly cool day in November we drove to the Tukwila link station. The  Sound Transit is a great way to get around Seattle without paying thirty bucks every time you park. There was hardly anyone around as we patiently waited for the link.


 When we got on, there was plenty of space to sit so we found a spot and enjoyed the view as we sped along. It took about thirty minutes to get to the International Chinatown district.
         The first place we stopped in Chinatown was Uwajimaya which provides a vast variety of foods, gifts and other things. We purchased some rice noodles to make Pad Thai later that week (which turned out to be very delicious!)
         Then we walked to the Panama Hotel which my Grandma wanted to see since it is a place that had a part in history during World War 2 and a book was written about it called Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

        After that we walked to the old and new train stations and admired the high vaulted ceilings and elaborate designs . Grandma enjoyed the old station, you could almost hear the crowds and trains of yesteryears gone by. 

  We then walked to 319 Avenue to check out the Klondike Gold Rush Museum. For those of you who don't know about this gold rush in Alaska, it began in July 1897 and people poured through the Seattle area to climb on a boat and journey to the wilderness. 

       The place was set up nicely and gave a lot of interesting facts about it.  It's also kid friendly so let the little ones tag along too.  

        I tried purchasing a ticket but I guess you could say I was over 110 years to late! 

After that we grabbed some lunch at Athenian in Pike Place Market. We choose that restaurant because the night before we watched 'Sleepless in Seattle' so we wanted to enjoy our chew in the same space that the movie was filmed. I even had my picture taken next to where Tom Hanks sat!

I'll have to say something quick about Pike Place Market. It's a place where the smell of fish, spices and flowers come at you from all angles and people from all cultures are selling their unique wares. It's a place rich with history and Seattle charm, heck it's where the first Star Bucks is located! Here's a video that tells a little more about the market.

 

        Then in Post alley which is underneath Pike Place Market is the gum wall. People from all over the world stick their gum on that wall, I myself proudly smacked it on. Who knew sticking used gum on a wall could become such a work of art!  

 Then the last place we went to was the piers. It's not too far from the market and it has a beautiful view of the mountains. One of my favorite stores is' the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop'. It is a museum as much as a strange shopping experience! 

      The last thing we did (which was another day) was ti eat at Ivar's. If you ever eat there you have to get fish and chips. The fish is so flaky and tender and the fries a golden perfection and if you have extra you can feed the seagulls! 

If you are planning a trip to Seattle I hope this helped or if you just want to learn about a city that is strange and beautiful then this is the place to learn about! I had a great time with my Grandma, thank you for such an amazing time. 

May adventure take you by the hand and lead you,

The music of Flamenco




        I was looking at guitars recently at strings by mail. One of the guitars I was looking at had a video at the bottom, they all do so you can hear them. The performer in this video played classical, flamenco and fingerpicking.  I've had a light interest in flamenco music and dance but not enough to want to learn but it was like God flicked a switch and I had this intrigue to want to learn about this. Let me tell you, the more I am understand this art form the more I see the beauty and power in
it!

History

          It seems to be that Flamenco was born from a mixture of three cultures; Arabian, Gypsy and Jewish.  It sprang up from the area of Andalusia, Spain. The people who started playing it was the oppressed and poor, it was their outlet. It wasn't very popular until the 1860's. Cafe Cantante (Cafe singer) where opened. They sold drinks and the sort but they were popular for the dancing and music! 
It began to fade by 1910 but artist were still playing and dancing  and bringing new styles to the art.

Three in one
    I didn't know this side of Flamenco when it comes to the dancer, the singer and the guitarist. If it's just the guitarist playing they just play. If there is a singer and guitar player the singer leads, so the guitarist must follow what rhythm the singer wants (Also if you want to keep it to it's traditional form you would not be playing by any written music, everyone passes it down or makes it up on the spot!) then if a dancer joins in the mix the singer and guitarist can follow the dancer or the singer.

Here is a video of a Cafe Cantante, I enjoyed watching it. I hope you guys enjoy it too.
Cafe Cantante Siglo

Wrapping it up
     
          That was some of the things I learned about flamenco and of course there is loads more! Here is a link to a website I found the intreseting facts about Flamenco!
classicalguitarmidi.com

Here is one performance with the rhythmic clapping, tapping and guitar.

Here is a video of a woman dancing the style of Guajira.

I hope you learned a little more about this beautiful art form and that it encourages you to dig deeper!

May Adventure take you by the hand and lead you.

  

Parkour: the sport that defies gravity

 

           When I first heard of this sport I thought it was dangerous and down right foolish, but the more I learned about it the more I fell in love with it! Okay you may not have a clue what this is so I will explain. . .

The History

      the concept of the sport you can say is still fairly new, it was created in France by a group of young men in the 1980's. It's first name was Art du Deplacement. In English it means "Art of Displacement." That name summons up what its all about; getting from one place to another using only your body.  Now there are many other names for it too, like freerunning, the Art of Movement and so on but let me tell you about the two men who have helped this idea come into the light of the public. They are Yann Hnautra and David Belle. These men in the 1980's lived in  a little town south of Paris. These young men formed a group called 'Yamakasi' a Lingala word meaning, Strong man, strong spirit.  
       These two men were not the only ones in  this group, the others in the group were Sebastian Foucan, Stephane Vigroux, Yahn Hnautra, David Malgogne, Chau Belle-Dinh and Frederic Hnautra.

          David Belle's Father Raymond Belle really helped the idea of Parkour to move along in his son's life and his friends. He showed the boys Georges Hebert's Military training methods which was pretty popular during that time in the French Military.
          When they became teenagers they began to do the big jumps that Parkour is known for. With the big jumps people started to see what these young men were doing and people wanted to join in and some wanted to film it.

       

   Roll Film

         With the uprising of interest came Besson's 2001 film Yamakasi: Les samourais des temps mondernes. Then some people in the group such as David Belle decided to take another path in Parkour.

       Through out the years more movies were made and even more people joined this growing group but with that some people were killed doing 'copycat' moves from the movies or the men, not truly understanding the practice and skill it takes to do certain moves.

The idea  

          It is said Parkour  helps free your body for more movement and it's not for people who are looking for 'the next rush' but for people who want to get stronger and more fluent  in their movements and to over come fears.

Wrap it up! 

       If you are interested, here are some good websites to check out:
If you want a better understanding of the history of this art form, buy clothing and look at classes and just learn more about it you can go to parkourgenerations.com
   Another place to check out is take flight. A company dedicated to providing clothing that is comfortable and stylish while doing Parkour! takeflightappearl.com.
    Or if you want to sit back and chill from a computer, a book you can read is The Parkour and Freerunning handbook by Dan Edwardes


             If you want to watch Parkour in action check out Jesse La Flair, who battled his way through the TV series America Ninja Warrior this year. Here you can check out his encouraging video for starters and another video of him showing off his awesome moves!

 

     Last but not least one of the movies that really opened my eyes to Parkour, which is enjoyable to watch even if you have no taste for Parkour, would be Prince of Persia Sands of time.



      I hope you all enjoyed reading this article and that you have a little better understanding of this unique sport. Remember; when trying Parkour be careful and learn from the experts because they know what they are doing.
Tell next time!

May Adventure take you by the hand and lead you,

Brittany

The Sword: More than a Fairy Tale

Hello everyone! This is the beginning of a new chapter of the Topic Article and I can't wait to share it with you.

       For this post I will take you into a world full of mystery, adventure and romance; that world is the history of swords!

                            

            Where to begin . . . ahh the sword.  Simple yet holds an elegance no other weapon can. When gazed upon, the image of valiant knights charging into battle thunders through our heads or of a fair maiden being saved from a beastly dragon. Stories have been formed about the blade but what about the truth behind it? 

         The sword is shrouded in mystery. Sword Masters of ages gone by mainly passed their knowledge to their pupils.  Some, but a rare few, documented their teachings so later generations could learn the art of attack and defense with the blade. This may sound a bit strange but movies have helped keep the sword alive and bring it back to the fore front of history! 

       

        In Cinematic history, swords have been used many a time from actors like Errol Flynn to William Moseley. How about I'll show you a clip from one of Errol Flynn's movies, Captain Blood.

 

In this scene Flynn, as Peter Blood fights his enemy, Levasseur to the death! 

            Then from a more recent cinematic film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Moseley as Peter, fights the evil King Miraz in a duel. 

       Both movies span over seventy years but it shows that the art of sword play is still roughly the same! 

A quick history

        It is said that swords came about during the Bronze Age and they started off as being daggers without a cross guard. People who were considered masterswordsmen were Kings, great warriors and rulers. One such famous swordsmen was Fiore dei Liberi (1350-1410). He is famous for his third manual of martial arts titled the Flower of Battle. 

        He fought duels and came out unhurt and was taught by masters in Germany and Italy. He even challenged men who claimed to be swordmasters. 

        Another is William Wallace of Scotland (1272-1305). He lead Scottish Infantry during the Independence war against England. It's said his sword was a claymor or in Gaelic Claidheamh-mor. In English it's called a great sword and it reaches the length of sixty inches (That's five feet tall!) 

  

        Swords were some times given names so that foe and friend alike would remember them. During the time of the Middle Ages, only the rich and Knights carried such an honorable weapon. Famous swords in fiction you probably know are Excalibur, King Arthur's sword; Sting, Frodo Baggin's sword; and Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, Yamato Takeru's sword and many more. Then in real history; Legbiter was owned by Magnus III, Tizona was owned by Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, etc.  

            Each sword has a history behind it whether  it's real or fictional.  There is so much more history and stories but I can't cram it all in this page so I'll give you some references to check out so you can understand this unique weapon.

A good movie that tells you all the facts and even shows some lessons in the behind the scenes is Reclaiming the Blade. 

     A book I found very helpful to learning how to fight with a sword is The Beginner's Guide to the Long Sword.

  Or if you would rather study the art that goes behind making a sword a good book with lots of pictures and information on how much they cost would be Spirit of the Sword.

Last but not least if you would rather go in person to study the sword a great place to go ( I would LOVE to go!) would be Higgins Armory Museum. This place houses the largest collection of swords in the Western hemisphere! To learn more or plan a trip go to higgins.org

    That is the topic for you this month. Remember, the sword, like any weapon has to be shown respect.

May adventure take you by the hand and lead you,