A literary weekend

I love Seattle. I really, really do. What I love most is the cultural events that come to a city that would never come to Wenatchee.

I traveled to the Emerald City Friday night to see and hear one of my favorite authors, Sarah Vowell, read from her new book, Assassination Vacation, and answer questions. I've read two other books, The Partly-Cloudy Patriot and Take the Cannoli, and this newest installment is fantastic.

At the reading, her answers were robust and enlightening, and she has a playful give-and-take with the audience. I didn't ask a question, but the place was packed -- maybe a couple hundred people all crowded in to hear her. And these were the faithful, hanging on every word, knowing her delivery style so well they almost laughed before the punchlines.

After the talk, I waited in line for about 15 minutes to get my copy signed. I already finished reading it a couple weeks ago. She has a great signature and nice bold handwriting. I mentioned I was a high school English teacher and was considering ways to include her work in my class, and she said she had made a concerted effort not to use the F-word in this book. I thanked her for that. She quipped, "But there really is no good synonym for 'fucked up.'" All around us laughed at that. She said she had used the word "geopolitical" as a substitute in one instance.

Saturday I saw a staging of "Miss Saigon" at the Fifth Avenue Theatre. Although the entire show is musical, it is very dramatic and, toward the end, moving. I enjoyed it very much and learned a few things about the Vietnam era. Ironically, the day I saw the show was 30 years to the day since the fall of Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City.

Now, I have a theater hiatus until August when I have tickets for "Princesses," a new musical that will go from Seattle directly to Broadway. The Fifth also announced this week that it has replaced "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story" next season with a new musical version of "The Wedding Singer," based on the movie of the same name from a few years ago. Should be swell. That show, from the creators of "Hairspray," is also headed directly to Broadway after it works the bugs out in Seattle next winter.

See, there is culture aplenty in Seattle. I just wish I didn't have to drive so long to get there.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.