Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Dueling Plant Events: John & Summit Bedspread Party and Native Plant Salvage

This Saturday there's double the plant fun with a mulch and bedspread party at John & Summit Park and a Native Plant Salvage down in Black Diamond. Details below:

John and Summit Bedspread Work Party
When: Saturday December 4th, 9AM (Rain, snow or shine . . . we're working!)
What: Distributing organic coffee chaff, chocolate mulch and leaves into the garden beds, then covering it all up with our burlap bedspreads

If you have small tarps, please bring them. We have everything else you'll need to help.
We really need your help! Come and bring your friends, too! We'll be moving soil in rain, snow or shine.
Delicious coffee and treats are being provided! Please RSVP to Barbara at gingergooddog@gmail.com so we know how many to expect.(Even if you forget to RSVP, come garden with us!)

King County Native Plant Salvage
Join other volunteers digging up trees and shrubs from this site scheduled for development in the morning. In the afternoon, we’ll be potting up the salvaged plants so they can recuperate before going to King County habitat restoration sites. Once replanted, these native plants will help reduce erosion, shade streams and provide habitat. Special thanks to Yarrow Bay Holdings for providing the salvage site.

When: Saturday, December 4, 2010

Time:
9 a.m. to 12:00 p.m: Salvage plants
1 p.m. to 4 p.m: Potting at Holding Facility

Where: Black Diamond for salvaging/ Issaquah for potting

Directions to the Salvage site: From I-405 near Renton, take Highway 169 past Black Diamond. Turn right onto SE Green Valley Road. Go approximately 1.5 miles and watch for sign on right. Turn right into site on gravel road. Volunteers who dig for King County from 9:00 to 12:00 are eligible to dig plants for themselves from 12:00 to 2:00.

Not a morning person? Volunteers are also needed at our Native Plant Holding Facility from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. to help pot up the salvaged plants. Volunteers who help with potting are eligible for free native plants.

Directions to the Native Plant Holding Facility:

From I-5 or I-405, take I-90 east to Highland Drive exit (exit 18) in Issaquah. Stay left on the off ramp to continue onto Highland Drive through several lights. Turn right onto Issaquah–Fall City Road. Just past Endeavor Elementary School, stay straight onto Duthie Hill Road.
The Holding Facility is in Duthie Hill Park (on the right) at 27101 Duthie Hill Road. Drive to Nursery at the end of the road.

Notes: A parent or guardian must accompany volunteers under 16 years old. Dress for the weather and be prepared to get dirty. Sturdy shoes or boots are recommended. We’ll provide gloves, tools and light refreshments.

Please call Cindy Young at 206-296-8065 or email cindy.young@kingcounty.gov if you plan to participate.

{And yes, I've been hearing "da dah ding ding ding ding ding ding ding" in my head ever since I thought up the post title}

Burlap Quilting Bee for John and Summit Park!

There is an important 'burlap coffee bean sack quilting' get together tomorrow, Wednesday, all day and evening (9am to 9pm) at the nearby Seattle Presbyterian Church.


Unpaving Paradise will be amending the soil at John and Summit Park this Saturday with rich nutritive greens and browns. When finished UP will put the soil to bed for the winter by covering it with mostly pre-assembled quilted-together burlap coffee bean sacks. UP wants to give a 'nice look' to the garden for the local community to admire over the winter months. Therefore getting the 500+ coffee bean sacks stitched together in shapes mirroring and custom fitting the designed plots is important. Not only for appearance but to quickly and deftly cover the soil without walking on the soil and compacting it.

The plan is to have pre-measured template patterns on the church floor and then to quilt together the coffee bean sacks to fit the patterns. Many of the sacks have been already stitched together in strips so as to save time on Wednesday's assembling project.

The stitching is simple and requires no previous experience. We will have all materials ready for you. And feel free to be creative by sewing in thick colored yarn!

Please come and help out even if only for an hour. There are two volunteers so far who are coming. Consider lending a helping hand.

They have free church parking on the north side of the building and you are allowed to park for free from 7 to 9 pm in the pay parking lot just across the Street (Howell). The Church (located just behind the Seattle Central Community College) is a block south of East Denny. The quilting bee will be in the downstairs Fellowship Hall; entrance thru church's north side parking lot.

1729 Harvard Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122-2227

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Thankfulness

On and right before Thanksgiving, I got some very sweet texts from good friends of mine about how thankful they were to have me in their lives. Right back at you, guys. I was struck by the trend, at least in my little friend circle of Seattle 20-somethings, of seeing Thanksgiving as a day to be thankful and express gratitude for the good things in one's own life. It made me happy and made me think about all the things I'm grateful to have in my life, which in turn made me happier.

Even if my faithful readers didn't have the chance or time to be thankful on Thanksgiving, I hope that you will at some point (or at several points!) during the holiday season. My bet is that it will give you a breath of space and happiness in this midst of the next month's short days and busy schedules - that's what it did for me, anyway.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Fresh from the Inbox: FREE TREES for Seattle Volunteers and Upcoming EarthCorps Volunteer Opportunities

Pre-Script: Chris LaPointe is a fellow student at the Evans School of Public Affairs at UW. If you do go to one of the volunteer events (which are good fun if you like digging in the dirt), please compliment him on his general badassery.

===
Hello Volunteers, Partners & Friends:

That's right Seattle volunteers, we are offering you FREE TREES for your service! During this Thanksgiving week, EarthCorps and the City of Seattle want to say thanks for volunteering and helping restore our natural areas. As recognition of your hard work, the Seattle reLeaf Trees for Neighborhoods program is excited to be able to offer you free trees to plant in Seattle yards.

The details: Trees must be planted in yards (and not as street trees) in Seattle. Tree supply is limited. Applications deadline is Dec 6. Program participants will receive up to 4 free trees per household, watering bags, a bag of GroCo compost, and training on proper tree planting and care. Trees can be picked up on December 12 between 10:30 am – 2:15 pm in Crown Hill. More directions will be sent when your application is accepted.

Available species include:

-Shore pine (Pinus contorta ‘Contorta’)
-Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum)
- red oak (Quercus rubra)
- red cedar (Thuja plicata ‘Excelsa’)
- Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

To receive a free tree, you must meet these guidelines:

- Live in Seattle, and plant the tree on your property (renters must have their landlord’s permission)

- Plant the trees in your yard, and not as street trees

- Do NOT plant the trees under power lines (these are large trees that will eventually grow into the lines)

- Commit to caring for the tree in the future, including watering for the first 3 summers

To get your trees, send in the attached application ASAP. Questions can be directed to:

Jana Dilley
Seattle reLeaf
jana.dilley@seattle.gov
206-615-1668

===
In volunteer event news, things are slowing down a bit this holiday season but we still have a few events scheduled. It’s easy to sign up just visit the volunteer calendar on our website at http://www.earthcorps.org/volunteer.php, choose the project that you would like to participate in and click on Sign up for this event and complete the on-line registration process and we will handle the rest. All you have to do is show up (on time, please).

Save the Dates:

January 8, 2011 – Kiwanis Ravine – First EC Volunteer event of 2011

January 15, 16 & 17 – MLK Jr. Weekend of Service (Jose Rizal Park, Dearborn Park & Cheasty Greenspace)

April 2011 – EARTH MONTH

April 16 2011 – GLOBAL YOUTH SERVICE DAY

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Please notify me if you wish to be taken off of this distribution list. You are receiving this email because at some point you volunteered with EarthCorps or expressed interest in receiving information on EarthCorps volunteer events.

Sincerely,

Chris LaPointe
Volunteer Program Manager
EarthCorps
6310 NE 74th Street, Suite 201E
Seattle, WA 98115
206.322.9296 x217
www.earthcorps.org

EarthCorps is a community of people dedicated to restoring the Earth. Join us!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Sledding Mayhem on E Denny Way or An Ambulance Arrives at the Sledding Party

This evening I repaired to the spontaneous Son of Snowpocalypse sledding party down on Denny and Bellevue with Mark Atwood. I went down the hill twice - once in a turned-over recycling bin with two other fellows (one of whom was Rob, a frequenter of Gamma Ray Games) and another time on a borrowed baking tin. The first run went very quickly and very well. The second time was fine until I got hit in the back by two goths on a table. It hurt, but I stuck around awhile longer until the ambulance showed up.

Maybe ten minutes after my 2nd run, two groups of sledders in recycling/trash bins went drag racing down Denny. They were doing fine all the way down, no tip-overs or collisions, just one successful dismount off the back of the right-hand bin (I was very impressed).

Then a four-door sedan came cruising up the obviously closed E Denny Way. One of the sledder-filled bins hit the car and made it spin. I heard from another onlooker soon after that in the collision/spin, the car rolled over a sledder's leg. The ambulance came to pick up said sledder soon after.

Recent Events: SteamCon II and Son of Snowpocalypse

It has been an exciting fortnight. I got to spend a week home sick, got well enough thanks to modern medicine to work at SteamCon II, and now it's snowing like mad in our fine city of hills.

At SteamCon the 2nd, I mostly admired other people's costumes and helped them accessorize further with the wares of Realms of Regalia. RoR mostly sells the extra fiddly bits - pins, feathers, ribbons, lace, cords, applique, jewelry. You can imagine our booth was extraordinarily popular at a steampunk convention. I'll have another post with pictures and stories to follow.

As for snow...wow, what a fitting start to the beginning of steampunk season: the more layers the better! I was delighted to wake up this morning to a fine view of our winter wonderland. I only have to commute to UW and back (Evans School, whatwhat!) so when evening classes were cancelled, it only took me two hours to get home. Steve, the driver of bus #2384/ the #48 this evening is to be commended for his commitment, skill and dedication to duty. Even though we crawled along more slowly than an arthritic hamster, Steve got bus #2384 up the back of Capitol Hill. This is way more than the drivers of the 10 or so cars we passed on the way up can say, that's for sure.

After a couple of hours of excited tweeting and Desert Bus viewing, I made my way down to the inevitable sledding party on E Denny Way. See next post for details.

(sledding picture courtesy of David Lichterman)

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

My Mom Has a Blog

My mother, of My Mom vs. Tom Carr fame, just started a blog. It's called Dickens 3 in the OC, a reference to where she lives now and the old style of telephone prefixes from her childhood in the San Fernando Valley*. Basically, she's going to write the kind of stuff she'd write in exasperated letters to the editor at the Orange County Register. If you saw the email fight between her and Tom Carr, you'd see she's a dab hand at this kind of thing. So if you think my mom is awesome, and you want another amusing blog to read when you're killing time at work, it's worth a look-see.




*The prefix used to be Dickens 3 or DI3, which translated over to 343 when they changed from letters and numbers to just numbers. That was also, by the way, before area codes. This led to a conversation about how she used to use a manual typewriter to write up papers in college. And now she's in the blogosphere. Kind of a weird thought that technology has changed so much in such a brief time.

Friday, September 10, 2010

William Gibson Book-Signing at U Village B&N

Before I arrived, I think I expected to see what I had seen at the last booksigning I attended. It was at the University Bookstore, where Jacqueline Carey was doing a signing for Naamah's Kiss. There was a small crowd of about 50 or so people.

For some reason, I forgot that William Gibson is just a wee bit more popular and well-known than Jacquline Carey. Just a bit. So it was a little surprising to see a more than a hundred people lined up outside the Barnes and Noble auditorium. Even though I didn't line up in time to get seated, I still had a good enough view in the back to see Mr. Gibson (his whole head!). The B&N soundsystem was good too, bless their little souls.

W.G. read more slowly than I read his books in my head, so the rhythm of the text was different than I was expecting. Then again, it would take a very bad reader to ruin the first chapter of a Gibson novel. I appreciated the most what he said before he started reading. It was that he only really got to read the first chapters of his novels when he first read them while on tour, to an audience. So during the first few stops on the book tour (like this one), he and the audience were both experiencing the book for the first time.

I liked the Q&A better. Even though I couldn't hear most of the questions, it was still lovely to hear him answer them. The quotes that I caught via Twitter are below.

"I'm not really writing about the future...I'm just trying to create mini fugue states that help us make sense of our alien present."

"I'm more interested in travelling to the same place repeatedly...I'm reluctant to add another city to the capitals of my imagination"

He is one of the most quotable people I have ever met in person. When I got "Zero History" signed (see left), I mentioned that I appreciated his tweetability. He said that he thought it was the technology training him to speak in soundbites. Perhaps, but it's also that he's quite clever and has a lovely way with words. He also has a nice measured cadence to his voice, so I have time to catch up with his thoughts while I'm twiddling away on my cell phone, talking to the Internet.

Though I know he's been writing for more than 30 years and I've seen his recent book jacket pictures, W.G. was unexpectedly old...especially his voice. It was clear, it was strong, and he's obviously as sharp as ever. It just had that timbre to it, of wearing thin. This must be the arrogance of youth, but it's strange, realizing that someone so bleedingly current is an old man.

9/10-9/12 Seattle Geekly Garage Sale

It's a two-bus trip to there from the Hill, but I think it's worth a look if you're into nerdy bargain finds (esp. if you have access to a car). Also, the Seattle Geekly folks are pretty cool, so you should give them some of your money and help them get rid of stuff they don't want to have to take with them on their move.
SEATTLE GEEKLY GARAGE SALE!

Come Friday night 9/10/10 from 6-9pm for a Garage Sale Preview! DVDs $2, CDs $1, come get the best stuff before the neighborhood does! Or...

9/11/10 Saturday 10a-4pm, 9/12/10 Sunday 10a-3pm. A couple of geeks are
...trying to move! Come buy CHEAP DVDs, CDs, books, yarn, fabric, beads,
and other miscellaneous stuff! Back yard of address: 5810 8th Ave NW,
Seattle 98107.

Call our 206-201-2352 number if you have questions!
Hope to see you here!
--Shannon

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Blackberry Picking at Magnuson Park

One of the things I resolved to do before I start grad school at the end of September was to go berry-picking. My friend Anne agreed to be my berry buddy, so we set a date (yesterday) and figured we try out picking at Magnuson Park.

Despite general sogginess, Anne and I persevered and went a-berrying in spite of the weather. As far as large parks go, Magnuson isn't too far away from my usual haunts - 43 or 49 to the U District, and then take the 30 or the 75 to Sand Point Way and the park's entrance. From there we trekked in toward the lakeshore, having heard on the internets that that was the best place to find blackberry bushes.

The internets were right (hurray internets!). We found a bunch of brambles all along the paths near the lake, though not all of them had many ripe berries. I was worried it'd be too late to find many blackberries, but it looks like we're right in the middle of the season. The berries were in all stages of ripeness, including too-dried-up-to-be-edible. The dried up berries kind of weirded me out - aren't birds supposed to eat those before that happens?

Anne and I ended up off-roading and finding a couple of clearings in the middle of some really great blackberry thickets. We were drenched and tired, but we kept feeling compelled to stop and pick because there we just so damned many berries. When we finally left after about 2 or 3 hours of picking, I think we both made off with 2 or 3 pounds of blackberries (1lb/hr, woot). We're totally going back in a couple of days - even with that haul, we're going to need more berries if Anne's going to make wine or I'm going to make jam.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Nightlife: Report from August Capitol Hill Community Council Meeting and Reflections

This last Thursday night, James Keblas, Director of the Seattle Music and Film Office, came to the Capitol Hill Community Council meeting to talk about the Seattle Nightlife Initiative. Before I go on, here are the bullet points of Mayor McGinn's Nightlife Initiative:

1. Code compliance enforcement
2. Flexible liquor service hours (This links to the Report on Flexible Hours, created of the City of Seattle by the Responsible Hospitality Institute.)
3. Noise ordinance enforcement
4. Security training requirements
5. Precinct community outreach
6. Professional development
7. Late-night transportation alternatives
8. Targeting public nuisances

Ok, short explanations first. "Code compliance enforcement" and "professional development" are about the city working with nightclubs and bars to make sure they're doing everything they're supposed to to be good neighbors, like helping a nightclub figure out where they should put baffling to keep the noise down. "Security training requirements" requires clubs to send their security staff to Seattle Police Dept. security training classes at a cost of $90 per employee. "Precinct community outreach" is the SPD talking to and getting feedback from the community about nightlife. I'm not clear on if the City plans on adding to the SPD's outreach budget or if the Mayor's office just threw that one in there to remind everyone that the precinct already talks to the community about safety issues already.

As you might expect, "flexible liquor service hours" got a lot of attention; allowing some bars to stay open and serve alcohol longer is controversial here, even if it's not in other places around the country. There wasn't a lot that Keblas could concretely say, since that's the part of the initiative that will take the longest to roll out. Every other Nightlife Initiative plank can be taken care of within city government or between the city and nightlife businesses. Flexible liquor service hours is dependent upon the Liquor Control Board, who isn't beholden to the city and has the whole of Washington to worry about. What Mr. Keblas could say is below (quote courtesy of Cienna Madrid, but it's pretty much what I remember him saying, too):
I don’t want to get too far ahead of the process now...but here’s a hint of what we think would happen. It would be a privileged license with a tremendous amount of conditions attached...You have to be able to measure it, in order to do it successfully. Measure SPD calls, drunk driving issues, economic impacts. Set these measures in place, say 'here are the numbers right now.' Then we'd grant something like 200 licenses spread among numerous neighborhoods, and build it up intentionally over time.
Mr Keblas also said something interesting about the Liquor Board's reaction to the Mayor's office's proposal of flexible liquor service hours. It was that the Liquor Board will be willing to have a conversation about flexible liquor hours if the City can show they have the people of Seattle onboard. Hmm. This could be interesting.

"Noise ordinance enforcement" is about making sure that noise complaints about clubs are valid, and when validated that those complaints are pursued by warnings and fines to the clubs in question. Validation entails an enforcement official taking a noise measurement in the dwelling of the complainant with all doors and windows closed. I thought that sounded kind of weird until Mr. Keblas explained that someone wasn't going to show up on your doorstep to do a sound measurement at 3 o'clock in the morning. Complainants would need to make an appointment for the enforcement official to come by and take the measurement, presumably sometime in the evening.

"Late-night transportation alternatives" are stuff like taxi stands, drive-u-home services, and being able to pay the parking meter till 10am the next day. This all seems like commonsense to me, and really, it's weird that we don't have any of this already. Sadly, there is no money to extend bus hours til the wee hours of the morning.

"Targeting public nuisances", aka the asshole ordinance, has already been put in place; said ordinance was passed about a month ago. It lets police officers ticket noisy, stupid drunk people instead of having to wait for them to commit an offense (assault, destruction of property) and then taking an hour off the street to arrest them. On the face of it, it sounded great, because nothing sucks more than some jackass yelling their head off at 3am. I totally want those people fined for being noisy idiots.

The problem is that it can be used in a discriminatory manner, like loitering laws. I was also concerned that a ticketing a noisy jerk might also be used as probable cause for a search, like a traffic stop. While I'm happy to have someone have to pay up for being a pain in the ass late at night, I don't think it's cool for them to have their pockets riffled through by the cops in the process. I checked up on this with Mr. Keblas, however, and he said that the police wouldn't be able to use the ordinance in that way.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

UPDATED: Craft Pretty Things at Metrix: Create Space

Because our manager's out of town, I've been working a lot more shifts at Metrix. Which makes me work on projects more, which means that I end up here every day of the week even when I'm not working. I've been missing out on some nice sunny afternoons [):], but I have been getting an extraordinary amount of sewing done and finishing a lot of purses (for me, anyway). And the shop is a lot cleaner than usual...

Below are some pictures of my favorites:







I am extra proud of the messenger bag. I figured out how to make a working strap and how to line it all by myself! Hurray for perseverance and reverse engineering!

MORE PICS/UPDATE BELOW:







Thursday, June 24, 2010

Yay, free stuff! 6/29 - The Best Films You've Never Seen @ Roy Street Coffee

I like free stuff and I like independent film. Roy Street Coffee & SIFF's Best of Fest has done the courtesy of putting those two things together with "The Best Films You've Never Seen", showing next Tuesday, June 29th at 8pm. Roy Street hosts the BFYNS every last Tuesday of the month in addition to their Wednesday and Sunday night 8pm Indie Flick.

6/25 - 1st Annual Prom Dress (Quake) Rugby Exhibition Match & Brocklinds Summer Garage Sale

In the fine tradition of gender-bending summer sporting events in Cal Anderson Park, Quake Rugby will host their first ever rugby exhibition match played in prom dresses. This means if you're looking for any larger or plus-sized formal dresses at Value Village right now, you're screwed.

However, if you really do need that large-sized prom dress in time for Pride (or just some bargain-priced formal wear), you might have some luck at Brocklinds Summer Garage Sale. The sale is this Friday (9a-6p) and Saturday (9a-5p).

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Capitol Hill Crossing, Watch Out for Hauls

Life gets even more interesting for Capitol Hill pedestrians on July 1st when big dirt-haulers will start trucking from I-5 to the Broadway Light Rail Station site and back again using Olive and Denny. Recent pedestrian improvements at Boylston, a curb bulb on Denny and a crossing refuge on Olive, will make things a little less precarious for the pedestrian, and giant safety signs like the one above should keep everyone on their guard. Just be careful out there, and like they told you in kindergarten, don't forget to look both ways when you cross the street.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Karaoke is the new cupcake?

With all the new karaoke nights and venues that have been popping up in the neighborhood this year, I'm starting to feel like karaoke is going to be the new cupcake: nice, but far more popular than it is enjoyable. This April brought us the advent of Frances Farmer Organ Karaoke, upbeat & underprivileged songs accompanied by an actual organ ever 1st and 3rd Thursday at Vermillion. If you hang around CHS Blog or Cal Anderson Park, you already know that Rock Box will be bringing Japanese-style booth karaoke to the neighborhood sometime this fall. And now that Highline is settled in on Broadway, they've brought back Cake-arokee from the purgatory it languished in after the close of its previous location, Squid and Ink. This particular karaoke event tonight (June 15th), and will occur every Tuesday night from 10am til closing time in perpetuity.

So, ok, FFOK sounds amazing. We'll see how the rest of them turn out.

Holy Christ, it's been awhile

Sorry about that guys. Between writing for CHS Blog, Metrix:Create Space, All Things Cupcake (see sidebar for links) and getting ready for grad school I haven't had a lot of time for Life on the Hill. Which is wrong. How could I abandon my sweet little blog baby that way?! In the next few somewhat less hectic weeks, I will endeavor to rectify this grievous error.

Monday, April 19, 2010

2010 Bend-It Extravaganza Call for Queer Artists

Bend-It is calling for all Queer Artists to be a part of the 2010 Bend-It Extravaganza

We are currently planning our 3 day art festival which will be June 25th-27th in Cal Anderson Park and Hugo House on Capitol Hill. Get the word out there!
We are hoping to showcase some new talents as well as some beloved favorites.

That means all you Acrobats, Singers, Breakers, Jugglers, Storytellers, Burlesquers, Poets, Pop Divas, DJs, Painters, Photographers, Hip Hop Artists, Drag Queens, Dancers, Film Directors, Clowns, Actors, Body Painters, Fashion Designers, Drag Kings, Boylesquers, Zinesters, Ukulele Strummers, Belly Dancers and Rock Bands AND artists! We are especially excited about young, local, and people of color artists.

Check out our website and use the Get Involved section to submit information if you have interest in performing, organizing, or just learning more.

Or, you can contact one of these organizers directly:

Sam - Sam.J.Irish@gmail.com
LT - ltmkt2@gmail.com
Quinn - quinnwyatt@gmail.com
Eden - Ourrainyparade@gmail.com

This year as part of the Bend-It Extravaganza , we will have a table where queer zinesters can leave, or pass out their zines for free. Everyone who contributes is guaranteed free photo copies for work sent in by June 11, so tell all your friends. If you've never written a zine before, but have always wanted to, now is your chance. We are accepting all kinds: lit zines, comics, poetry, adventure stories, cooking, mental health, DIY, etc., but would ask that they be in agreement with our mission statement and values.

Mail your submissions to:

Bend-It
PO Box 20252
Seattle, WA 98102

All submissions must be postmarked by June 11

For more information contact Quinn at
quinnwyatt@gmail.com
and go to benditbandits.org

Bend It is a queer artist activist collective that makes the world a more fabulous place by building welcoming, liberated spaces, strengthening community, and creating meaningful alternatives for queer young people and their friends.

Since 2003, Bend-It has been organizing a three-day arts festival during the weekend of the Seattle Pride Parade in June. We designed our festival as a meaningful, non-corporate, proactively inclusive alternative to Pride, hosting community artists-led workshops, concerts, photography exhibits, film festivals, fashion/drag/burlesque shows, and spoken poetry open mic nights. We have encouraged DIY (do-it-yourself) and DIT (do-it-together) mentalities by offering reciprocal skill-building workshops—as opposed to top-down, one-way interactions.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Radio8Ball Show, or The Pop Oracle

Michael Upchurch of Seattle Times says "You'll have fun at this show." I wholeheartedly agree, though I might be just a wee bit biased since I've been live-tweeting for them all season. Then again, if I didn't like the show, I wouldn't still be running Radio8Ball's Twitter for them, now would I?

Check Upchurch's article for a good explanation of the show, but the one I nicked off the Radio8Ball Blog works too: it's the show "where questions are answered by picking songs at random and interpreting them like musical tarot cards". It's also group therapy, intentional/unintentional comedy, really New-Agey meaning-making and a really intimate acoustic basement show all rolled into one. It's not for everyone (especially if you're allergic to words like "synchronicity" or "feelings"), but if you're into it after one show, you're hooked.

I certainly am, anyway. And now so is my S.O. after I towed him along to celebrate my upcoming birthday and got my question picked(!) - "Question #5 (me!) How can I help my S.O. realize his dreams? Song answer: Say you love me [by Jenny Jenkins]". It was really the cutest damn thing ever. If you really feel like reading how that particular musical question & answer went, backwards, see below. I gotta warn you, it's pretty mushy.

(happy birthday to me!)

John sez: I love you too - you are my dream.

I say: I love you John Sepulveda!

Andras sez that sometimes all you need is to realize your dreams and get thru life is someone who believes in you and loves you

trying to understand her S.O.'s language of love

Jenny sez that this song is about

I dont' know much about being stable/ but thanks for cleaning up after me /sorry I'm not making any money

When you're gone I go neurotic/ now you're back it feels exotic about

Question #5 (me!) How can I help my SO realize his dreams? Answer: Say you love me

Friday, April 2, 2010

Call to Artists: Capitol Hill Station Wall Project - Roster of Artists

This particular call to artists is of very personal interest to me. I live not too far away from the station site and wish to be treated to challenging, boundaries-pushing, world-class art on a daily basis. I'll also be on the selection committee (I got to help pick DK Pan as lead artist! So cool!), so I really want a great group to choose from. And, yes, I also happen to like Broadway and wish the best of financial success on its businesses, and I do believe that great art on the construction wall can do a lot to keep foot traffic from abandoned the street in droves.

So, tell all your awesome artist friends who do large scale, edgy work to send in an application. The future of Broadway and my viewing pleasure depend on it.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

R.I.P. Mold, or, Seattle Household Tips

I hate mold. A lot. I come from Southern California, so when I was growing up mold was something you had to take of the bathroom from time to time. Now that I live in a janky apartment in Seattle, it's something I have to address on a weekly basis during the winter in the bathroom, in every windowsill, and occasionally on things that lean against outside walls. So I really fucking hate mold.

I finally got around to looking up how to kill this stuff right the other day. The CDC says that a 1:16 solution of bleach and water, sprayed onto and left on the affected surface, should do the trick. I wiped down everything first and then sprayed it with the milquetoast bleach solution just for good measure. I really hope it works.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Beard & Stache Fest comes to the Hill

Beard & Stache Fest is a month-long homage to facial hair and an extended fundraiser for Treehouse, a non-profit committed to improving the lives of foster kids in Washington state. It's had some events around Seattle previously, but today is the first day it came to Capitol Hill with the Wifflebowl in Cal Anderson Park. I only walked by, but I must admit, it looked like a lot of fun.

If nothing else crazy gets planned for Valentine's Day, I fully plan to attend the next Beard & Stache/Cal Anderson event, the Lover's Quarrel Cardboard Tube Fight. You bring the cardboard armor, the enthusiasm and lots of friends; the Beard & Stache folks will provide the cardboard tubes. It's free (though donations are appreciated) at Cal Anderson Park on 2/14 from 1-4pm, w/a pre-quarrel brunch at Bluebird and an afterparty at Po-Dog.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

This Week's Events of Note

  • It's Hunger Action Week for King County from Jan. 25th through the 29th - can you feed yourself on only $7 a day for a whole week? Many, many people do that every day since that's the maximum food benefit for an individual in the state of Washington. This week in particular however, a bunch of people are going to try it even they don't have to, including the mayor and a hell of a lot of bloggers. What about you?

  • PubliCola is having it's first birthday this Wednesday, January 27th down at The Crocodile from 7pm till they kick everyone the hell out. Come schmooze, drink and celebrate a year of local news and political coverage for FREE.

  • If you're not feeling like a wonk schmoozefest, there's also a Haiti Benefit (Jazz) Show at Faire Gallery and Cafe the same night from 9pm on.

  • The first Seattle Startup Drinks of the year is this Friday, January 29th from 7-10pm down at Two Bells Tavern. Come on down to Belltown and talk about what you're up to.

Rent's Due

I recently discovered that a favorite (delicious and affordable!) restaurant of mine that did not wish to be named is moving out of the center city in favor of more affordable pastures to the north. Even though they're on a main thoroughfare, that thoroughfare's been hitting hard times as of late. Despite the decline in foot traffic, rents are still at the same levels as several years ago. This bums me out. In a time when we're all still broke and in need of comfort food, a decently priced restaurant gets pushed out beyond reasonable bussing distance by an unyielding landlord and an unequally unyielding rent. Rats.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Recently, on CHS Blog: Pies in Mason Jars, Carbon Coaching & an Urban CSA

These last two weeks I've posted on CHS Blog about Mini-Empire Bakery, David Lyman's upcoming free Carbon Coaching class, and Alleycat Acres. (I can't really count the John and Summit naming stuff cuz I didn't post about it, even if I did help write the letter.) I feel accomplished :)

Kiki the Robot: Origins

Upon learning that Metrix: Create Space had a soldering room, my friend MJ decided it was high time to finish building her robot Kiki. While Kiki is presently a mere pile of parts, she will soon become an adorable (I presume) little bot that can navigate mazes with the help of her wee little light sensors. Once she's up and running I'm sure I'll write a post in the Metrix blog, but for now, I just wanted to document her very earliest beginnings. Think of it as the digital version of bronzed baby shoes.

Monday, January 11, 2010

This Week in Kickoffs: The Uprising Art Opening, Office Nomads Resolutions Party, & B-Way Light Rail Stations Construction Begins

The Uprising, this Tuesday night's (8-11pm) Zombie Art Show Reception & Zombie Potluck at Zero Zero, begins my week in Capitol Hill kickoffs. This is a must-attend: you can meet Zero Zero's Jason of the amazing double handlebar mustache, and of course, there will be zombie art.

Thursday is going to be an event double-header with Office Nomads Resolutions Party/Winter Open House and then the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station Construction Kickoff over at Seattle Central. The party at Office Nomads goes from 6-9pm and the Construction Kickoff presentation will go from about 6:30 to 8pm...yeah, so maybe it isn't actually physically possible to make it to both. But I can try.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Cal Anderson Park Alliance Looking for New Board Members

Kay Rood, Hill-famous CAPA President, has requested that I spread the word about CAPA's search for members to fill their newly-expanded board. The Cal Anderson Park Alliance is the continuation of the badass community group that convinced the city to turn Lincoln Reservoir into a spectacular park rather than a big cement lid. They're still active and making Cal Anderson Park activated and amazing, so if you've got the time and that's what you're into, I recommend applying to become a CAPA board member.

The Cal Anderson Park Alliance is accepting applications and will start reviewing them at the end of January. You can find the application form at the CAPA website.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Grand Openings: Inauguration Day Seattle, Kraftwerks Night, Salvage Marsupials, Radio8Ball Show

This Monday's pretty momentous if you're a massive local politics nerd like I am: at 2pm, Mayor-elect McGinn, City Attorney-elect Pete Holmes and the Councilmembers-elect Sally Bagshaw, Mike O'Brien, Richard Conlin and Nick Licata will be sworn in down at City Council Chambers. I'll be there, shaking hands and taking pictures. Slideshow coming soon :)

This coming Tuesday night is going to be much more interesting than the average Tuesday night because it will be the grand opening of the weekly craft night at Metrix: Create Space and of my wee Etsy store, Salvage Marsupials. Kraftwerks Night (hee hee) will go from 6pm till midnight, and the grand opening of Salvage Marsupials will occur once I show up to Metrix with celebratory cookies.

This coming Sunday evening will be extra exciting too because it's the first Radio8Ball Show of the season and my first time twittering for said show. It should be interesting posting tweets about a "show where questions are answered by picking songs at random and interpreting the randomly chosen songs as the answer to the questions, like shaking a musical 8ball." Wish me luck!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

So, here's the belated cheesy Christmas cracker joke I owe my faithful readers:

What is a minimum?
A very small mother

And as a New Year's Bonus, here's Steve McQueen the Cat, to the tune of the opening theme of McGyver.