The first Thursday in September is here at our doorsteps and here I am with my hands in my pockets in terms of coming up with a new concept for TBT. Well, actually, I’m feeling a little itch to do something different. I’ve been toying with the notion of promoting this video that I made for a long time now and I feel like the timing’s right now. It’s been approximately five years since I was first taken out to Seattle, Washington with my dad (who now lives there) and shown an entirely new world of outdoors adventures I couldn’t have pictured in my head if I had tried. My trip was in August of 2009. . .so, this is a bit past the month-date itself but I feel it should still count. 🙂 There’s a second impetus for my posting this today. I unfortunately got wind of the passing of one of my English professors from the University of Tennessee today. Even more sadly the event had actually happened some time ago and I had not known until today. I consider Steve Sparks one of my mentors from the university, as well as incredible inspiration for me to keep up my pursuit of writing. He was also a gentle soul and widely-respected by his peers at the university. He was one of the first to give me feedback on this blog so I’d like to honor him by posting
Today’s food for thought: Hiking in the Cascades.
The edit below features some footage I collected from the Seattle area from the five days I spent there with my dad. I had a very basic idea of just documenting the whole thing and waiting until getting back to Knoxville later to sort through what I had and see if there was anything worth doing, but I became too excited and threw something together while I was still there. (Please be kind, this is edited together with the experience of someone using iMovie and Garage Band. haha!)
We spent most of our time in the Cascade Mountain Range hiking and tiring ourselves out on some massive elevation gain, and when weather didn’t cooperate at times we sought to do other things. Like explore waterfalls that were in town. Because waterfalls indeed just pop up all over towns in the northern Seattle area (those who are familiar with Bothell at all know what’s up).
I also happened to be in the right place at the right time for a Sounders game, and that was just an absolutely crazy experience. You want to hear a passionate fan base? You don’t need to go to Europe. Fly to Seattle and cheer on their boys from the MLS, holy crap. I didn’t get too much media around that event as it was just nice to sip on some beers with dad and then force our way back into the mass exodus flooding the streets in neon greens and blues, all bound for one purpose, one place: Century Link Field.
On another rest day away from the jaggedness of the Cascades we ventured into the city and we checked out the incredible Paul Allen-funded Experience Music Project (EMP) Museum downtown. An overwhelming amount of music and film collections were to be discovered inside, and honestly there was just too much stuff to take in so my photo sessions had to be brief. They were also kinda blurry and dark, so I apologize but here are some of the things that stood out to me:
The infamous Guitar Tower. Two stories tall.
Probably one of the worst photos of Alien you’ll see. . . I was too afraid to get near it.
All content originally published and the reproduction elsewhere without the expressed written consent of the blog owner is prohibited.
Photo credits: Tom Little
Thomas J 
Hey, nice work! Great to put a voice to the words I read on your site. That’s something else we have in common apart from movies – a love of walking. Myself and a couple of mates are hoping to climb Mt Kilimanjaro next year. Climbed Mt Fuji in Japan a couple of years back which was great. You have plans to do more filming?
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Oh no way man! Awesome, Mt. Fuji man, wow. Incredible. My summit tick list isn’t quite impressive but I do one day have a goal to top Mt. Rainier. That thing is just stunning. Each time we hiked around that area I was very tempted to just try it haha. Best of luck on the exploration of Kilimanjaro man that’d be stunning.
I really would like to do some more of these things, they’re fun. And it has given me an entirely new appreciation for the long hours professional film editors must keep. This thing was bloody fun to put together, but a lot of work still! 🙂
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Awesome mini-doc Tom. Loved the fish jump. And the musical selection. 😉
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Haha! Thanks Adam, thanks very much. I’m glad it was met with approval. Kinda want to maybe do another one sometime. 🙂
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Very cool, Tom! Looks like you guys had a great time. I’ve never been to Seattle, but I’d love to go sometime! Thanks for sharing this.
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You’re very welcome! Thanks for watching it and giving it some time, i was pretty nervous putting this up haha
Seattle is great. I suggest adding it to your list of places to visit. 🙂
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I will have to do that!
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Awww Tom! What a cool video! And what a great experience for you and your dad! You guys seem pretty tight. Also, good for you, rescuing those children from bears. 😉 And I LOVE the EMP!!! I visited a friend in Seattle last year, and it’s one of the coolest museums I’ve ever been to. We got some of the same pics actually!
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Thank you oh so much Cara, it was really a great experience putting that together and sharing that time with him. We’re pretty good buds, there’s no doubt about it. 🙂 Which makes the distance kind of strange and difficult at times. I don’t think we could be further away while still being in the same country! Haha.
And I KNEW we were friends for a reason!!! Aw, how cool is the EMP Museum? That place from the moment when you walk in is a pretty mind-blowing experience is it not?
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Yeah Seattle is quite a trek from Tennessee, eh? Still, not bad to have someone there so you can go on awesome vacays! 🙂
Omg the EMP is literally the coolest!!! My profile pic on Twitter is actually from there! They had this ridiculously awesome fantastic exhibit that had GoT stuff and Harry Potter stuff and Princess Bride stuff…It was amazing. There were also sci-fi and horror exhibits–maybe some of the same horror stuff you saw (I saw the alien, too). Did you play any of the instruments they had in those little rooms? UGH. Now I wanna go back!!! Lol.
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Yeah, absolutely! Love getting the experience. The freaking 6-hour plane rides are not so cool with me, but it’s still worthwhile the trip. Esp for places like EMP, yeah!
That’s really cool, I didn’t know tha’s where that was taken. Good call though. 🙂 I think one thing I really love about that place is even despite how much stuff they have they even rotate a bunch of the exhibits so there’s something new all the time to check out. Because they totes didn’t have any of the GoT or Harry Potter stuff there. I’m trying to recall what was there. The sci-fi/horror section was most definitely there. But that was downstairs. There was shit upstairs to check out and I think when I was there it was taken over by an AC/DC tribute thing. Which was cool. But I’m just not as into AC/DC lol
Seattle is the shit.
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