Sunday at ROW Garden

More pictures of everyone's favorite Capitol Hill gardening collective.

Getting ready for fall.

The vegetables of our labor :)

The gardeners victorious - myself and our fearless leader, Kristin.

Seattle AIDS Walk with the Sisters of the Mother House

When I signed up for the Seattle AIDS Walk with the Gothic Pride Seattle team, I did it because Dizzy (now a Rep. of the Capitol Hill Community Council :D) would be there and it's always fun to go on a promenade decked out in my gothic finest. I did not know I was also going to have the company of these fine ladies:

Meet the Sisters of the Mother House of Washington, the founding and recently resurrected charitable drag nun sisterhood of Seattle. Sister Angela Merici (flying nun hat with blue boa, novice sister on the lower right) was the organizer of the Gothic Pride Seattle team and also a gracious answerer of questions about the Sisters of the Mother House.

The park was just full of people. It would've made finding the team interesting, except that I was walking with towering drag nuns.

McGinn sighting! Seriously, this guy is everywhere.

No event with the Sisters is complete without lots and lots of photo ops. The nice man on the left without the flying nun hat is Ambrosio de Membro Sancto (heh heh), a guard of the Sisters of the Mother House. He's there expressly to make sure that the Sisters get where they're supposed to be on time and don't get completely sidetracked by said photo ops.

On the road with the Gothic Pride Seattle team.

We arrive at Harem for a welcome cup of Turkish coffee and are greeted by Dizzy in his....festive...hat....

M. Theresa Nervina of the Mother House of Washington and Sr. Dorothy Faith of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence of the Abbey of St. Joan.

The Mother and a possible future Sister of the Mother House.

The organizer of the Gothic Pride Seattle team, Sr. Angela Merici, plus admirers.

And of course I had to have a picture with the Mother of the Mother House, M. Theresa Nervina. I'm happy to announce that there will be more opportunities for photo ops soon - the Sisters of the Mother House will be accompanying the Capitol Hill Community Council's Halloween Walk. I'm delighted - what better way is there to start Halloween on Capitol Hill than going door to door for candy on Broadway with a charitable sisterhood of drag nuns?

Last Minute Plans: Seattle AIDS Walk

I just heard about this Saturday's Seattle AIDS Walk earlier this week. Just today I found out that the Gothic Seattle Pageant has a team in the walk. So of course I had to sign up with them. If you want to help me contribute some last minute money to charity, you can donate here.

Haunted by Street Art

I found these little buddies on my street just this week. They're all along Boylston and Olive. Thanks artsy neighbor!

Looking forward to fall: Events in October

According to popular belief, things slow down in Seattle once summer ends and the rain curtain falls. This is crap - all the cloudy days don't catch up with us until after the holidays. Until then, we're all still sailing on a Vitamin D high til we can coast on holiday bonhomie/grinchiness, which eventually runs out in January. This means I'm going to be socializing around the Hill for at least three more months until we all go into collective hibernation til Spring.

Anyway, I've already pitched about all the steampunk-y goodness that's coming up this month and next. I'm even more excited now that I've (only just) realized I can recycle all my new steampunk goodies for Halloween. One mad Victorian scientist, coming right up.

It's fortunate I have a relatively family-friendly costume for Halloween this year since I'll be one of the chaperones/shepherds for the Capitol Hill Community Council Halloween Walk. I know that two hours of herding small children up and down Broadway doesn't sound like a ton of fun, but little kids in adorable costumes makes me happy. Especially since the little blighters would be cheated out of all that tooth-rotting goodness if the Council didn't do the Walk on Broadway -it's kind of hard to go trick or treating at apartment buildings.

In nerdier (and consequently more exciting) event news, the Capitol Hill Community Council is going to host it's very own mayoral candidate forum on Oct. 17th at Seattle University's Pigott Auditorium. I know it's not an event venue that non-alums are very likely to see, but I can guarantee you - it's a very nice auditorium. The acoustics are so lovely you can forgive the fact the whole place is painted mauve.

The focus of the forum is on community and neighborhood activism, so the Council is inviting attendance and questions from as many Cap Hill community types as possible. If you'd like to help out with the event or just throw in your two cents, but the Policy and Planning boys at chcc.planning(at)gmail.com.

Park(ing) Day - Live at Central Park Seattle Pictures

I can finally put some pictures up because of the wonders of Flickr and the generosity/quick postings of a person I only know as gravitysalad. I did take pictures on Park(ing) Day, but since it wasn't my central goal for the event there are a lot of things/ interesting shots that I missed. This wasn't so for gravitysalad, bless their little heart, thus I can finally present some pretty pictures of the day.

One puzzle - who the hell is this person? There are some shots of gravitysalad's I remember being taken, but for the life of me I can't picture the person who took them. I'm blaming the long hours and the hot sun for that. Anyway, if anyone knows who it was who took these lovely pictures, please tell me so I can thank them and invite them to all of the Council's future events (their camera is invited too :D).


The grand view of Park(ing) Day Central Park. 4-Play Park, winner of the Most Playful Park award, is in the foreground. The fact that a group of Portland design professionals came all the way up to Capitol Hill just to make that innuendo made me very happy.


Here you can see the elusive 12 Hr Notice, a DJ that recently rolled onto the neighborhood scene with only his beats and a shopping cart.


Here's one of the pictures that I swear I remember someone taking, but I can't remember who it was. Argh. It's one of the shots I'm especially grateful for - lots of people activating the space and me looking useful explaining something. It's kind of hard to get pictures like that when you're the only one manning the booth.


A collection of sites at an event like this was bound to get some high concept parks - Park(ing) Day Central Park was no exception. Above is the sign for Brite Collective's contribution, Negative Space. Their spot boasted vegan cookies and creating your own map of the city (with markers!), but I think they got their picture taken so often because of their sign and its placement. The angle of the light made for an especially clever picture, too- one that I took that I'm actually in.


Speaking of high-concept, here's the winner of this year's Park(ing) Day Seattle Prize: air-stream by Signal to Noise. This is what happens when you ask design professionals to define a park. It's a lot more personable when you add people to it, especially if they're under 5 years of age and apt to treat the whole thing as a modified ballpit. This happened more than once during the day. It was very cute.


I was so amused that the Capitol Hill Community Council park got picked as a backdrop for KOMO that I just had to get a picture. In order to do that, I had to walk right behind Denise Whittaker as they were shooting, hence why you can see me briefly in KOMO's Park(ing) Day video below. Please note the elegant demeanor and the "sash of state".

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UPDATED Park(ing) Day - Live at Central Park Seattle

Wow...it has been quite a day. We had visits from KOMO, Mike O'Brien, Sally Bagshaw, Seattle Post-Globe (i.e. Kery Murakami). Also, many small children and assorted residents. Hollow Earth Radio is here with their confession tent, a bunch of architects went conceptual and made an Air Park (huge hit with the kids), 12-Hour Notice is down the way playing music out of a shopping cart, Webster Crowell is here with his start-up seltzer company, and of course the Community Council's "Paradise Unpaved" park is gorgeous.

Pictures will come when I get some more time and a better internet connection. Totally looking forward to the Toy Box Trio's concert later this afternoon, and the awards ceremony tonight :)

UPDATE: My pictures and the KOMO video of the "Paradise Unpaved" park are over at the UP Blog. Also, here's the listing of the Park(ing) Day Seattle Prize winners - congrats to Signal to Noise for coming in first! (Sorry, still too tired to post twice.)

A Conversation with Friends of Seattle Public Library

A while ago I got to sit down and talk with Sarel Rowe of Friends of Seattle Public Library about how I use our public library system, what our library contributes to the neighborhood, and what libraries will look like in the future (two words: info portal). This conversation was part of a survey Friends of SPL put together for their Neighborhood Report on library value, an important subject in the light of the recent week-long library closure. I was just lucky enough to be able to take the survey in person with someone as nice and fun to talk to as Sarel. Apparently, Sarel felt the same way, so now you can see what I said in a post at the Friends of SPL blog.

My Mom vs. Tom Carr: The Last Word

To all who have been following this epic story: Tom Carr decided not to appeal the Washington State Liquor Board's decision to grant Faire Gallery and Cafe's request for an extended liquor license. In short, Faire can now serve cocktails because our city attorney finally decided to back down. The end.

Good times at the Broadway Design Charette

I know it sounds weird to say that a four-hour community meeting was tons of fun, but I had a really good time at the Broadway Design Charette this afternoon. Everybody, and I mean everybody, was there and there was a lot of excitement and energy going around. It helped that Seattle University's new Admissions and Alumni Building is spacious, light-filled and lovely. Also, there were tasty snacks :D

The whole write-up will go up on CHS blog soon enough, but there was some consensus around the community benefits that were most desired. Community meeting space, Nagle St. as a green pedestrian corridor, artist live/work or performance space and affordable housing were all quite popular as possible features in a transit-oriented development over the light rail station.

Looking forward to fall: Steamcon and the Browncoat Ball

I know that PAX 09 is just barely over, but I'm already looking forward to the event of the fall geek season in Seattle: Steamcon, the very first steampunk convention ever. The prices are reasonable ($40 for 3 days if you buy now), and if the Steampunk Swapmeet is any proof, I'm sure the vendors will be excellent. Even if the presenters and speakers are uneven, Steamcon will be well worth the price of admission. Now if I could only figure out how to get down to the SeaTac Marriott by public transit in less than an hour...

This is a little far afield for me so I probably won't attend, but the Portland Browncoat Ball certainly deserves a mention. It's a weekend-long shindig all over Portland for Joss Whedon/Firefly/Serenity fans. Nothing more needs to be said.

Hot and Steamy: Steampunk Swapmeet and Fantastic Voyage

In case you needed an excuse to dress up like a mad Victorian inventor and buy up costumery in preparation for Steamcon, Diana Vick and the Steamcononauts have kindly provided these events for your enjoyment.

PAX 09: What a way to spend a Saturday

I headed down to the Convention Center this morning for the Seattle Geekly Tweetup thinking that I'd be there for a cup of coffee and then head back home. I got up the hill at about 7pm. This has been the longest day I had at PAX without actually being at PAX.

The SG Tweetup was lovely - Shannon and Matt were great hosts, all the folks at the Tweetup were geeky and nice, and Caffe Dior makes something addictively tasty with milk and ginger called Royal Tea. There was also a lovely, lovely woman from Wizards of the Coast there who gave us all D&D goodies. It was kind of like geek Christmas.

After that I wandered the halls playing games. I got a chance to try out Munchkin Cthulu (hilarious) and Living Labyrinth by Bucephalus Games (adorable), and played a couple of rounds of Fluxx with some friends (still confusing). All in all, a lovely day.

Geek of the Week special edition: PAX is here!

PAX is this weekend! And while I can't attend (sigh), I can still celebrate its coming by drooling on the sidelines. On my way to work I saw signs on all the Convention Center doors announcing that PAX is completely and utterly sold out (which is news enough to make it on the front page of the Puget Sound Business Journal). On coffee break I walked by a block-long line in Freeway Park for PAX goody bags. 60,000 geeks from all around the country...on one hand, wow. On the other, holy crap that's crowded.

But maybe not too crowded to make my way over for this - @seattlegeekly: Please RT! Tweetup at #pax09 on Saturday 9/5 at Caffé Dior lvl 1 in the convention center 11:30am. Come get buttons! #fb

This reminds me - I recently got my monthly sales email from ThinkGeek, which is always worth taking a look at so I can see all the shiny new nerd toys they just got in. There was one so ridiculous that I need to share it with you. Two words: Tac Bac.