Good Evening Seattle!

Seeing Paul McCartney at Climate Pledge Arena felt like something I shouldn't pass up. Not only do I love his songs, but the guy is getting up there in age and I knew if something unfortunate happened I would never forgive myself. 

McCartney has written or co-written a record 32 songs that have topped the Billboard Hot 100.

The guy is obviously on a different level than most artists alive. Even this little "welcome back to Seattle Paul" blurb shows a special care that is being put into this performance. 

There were some fun historical facts displayed as well. Apparently the Beatles were the first band to perform here back in 1964. I read that the Seattle police had to put barbed wire barricades around their hotel to keep their nutjob fans out.

I was happy with my seat selection. We were two rows off the floor, which meant that we could still see comfortably when the knuckleheads with the floor seats inevitably all stood up.

I'm way behind on writing this blog which sucks because I forget some of the details, but I have the advantage of a little added perspective. Lydia and I still say "good evening Seattle" to each other in McCartney's accent a year later.

The production values of the show were unlike anything I have ever seen.

For example the video footage of John Lennon that accompanied the rendition of "I've Got a Feeling" was put together for Sir Paul by friggin' Peter Jackson.

"Get Back" also had some good archival footage accompanying it. I watched all of the The Beatles: Get Back documentary in preparation for this show. There's so much just normal conversation and joking around between the band members that I ended up feeling a bit like I was their friend as well.

Paul is such a damn boss that one of the videos was just Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp doing sign language along to the lyrics.

"Blackbird" is one of my favorite Beatles songs.

Illinois State Fair 2016

We were on our way to Springfield, Illinois to go to the State Fair, but first I dutifully went to get my parents some cookies from Dad's Cookies in South St. Louis.

To be honest I'm not blown away by the cookies themselves but the experience of buying them was pretty killer. According to their website this location has been baking cookies since 1938. The cookies are sold by the pound, and are kept in these large garbage-can looking containers. The scale they use is the old timey kind where you put a one pound weight on one side and keep adding cookies until it balances. They then put the cookies in a brown paper bag and wrap it in twine. It was an experience that I would definitely recommend.

In Springfield on a fair day the first decision is where to park. I have a spiritual problem with paying for parking whenever it can be avoided but my parents sprang for paying a local school to park in their lot. The fair is pretty much the one time when having space in North Springfield is profitable so more power to them. Above is just a random parking sign that I liked.

Pretty high on our list was Cozy Dogs and lemon shake-ups so we got that taken care of ASAP. Those things are so good. Springfield invented the corn dog on a stick, but we don't like to brag.

Lydia was jelly that Lincoln wanted to be my best bud and not hers. Haters gonna hate.

We went to the Republican tent and pretended that Trump wasn't a joke long enough to get some free stickers and take a few pictures.

The Grandstand is where the concerts are held. On the ground floor they have a good size exhibit on the history of the fair that I like a lot. Tom had a few stories of people dying terrible deaths on the fair grounds. The above exhibit was about the animatronic characters that used to populate the dairy building. I have fond memories of them so it was a bit sad to see them in the dust bin of history already. It was a lot like the nightmare-inspiring creatures that used to live at Chuck E Cheese, but with more cheese promotion.

It's hard to argue with a confident claim like this one.

A year or two ago Springfield reenacted Lincoln's funeral procession, and even had an awesome replica horse-drawn hearse built for the ocassion that was on display. Springfield loves it some Lincoln.

Illinois: home of the blue ribbon winning chocolate cheese. Chocolate cheese: the most delicious way to get diabetes and heart disease at the same time.

Back in St. Louis, Paul McCartney was playing at Busch Stadium. It was so loud and so.. outside that there was a considerable number of slackers who were just hanging outside and enjoying the music without paying. God bless them.