West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
First an update on “Leucy,” the leucistic (light-colored) crow that died in the recordsetting Wednesday heat, after living for several years along the Gatewood/Upper Fauntleroy border. Our neighbor Jane, who told us about the well-known crow’s death on Friday, posted an update today, saying that after freezing the crow’s remains, she turned them over to the local bird-expert author who had studied it before, Lyanda Lynn Haupt, who Jane said planned to take it for study at UW. (Added Monday morning: As Lyanda notes in the comment section, she has now written about “Leucy” at her website, The Tangled Nest.)
Speaking of crows:
Jodie shares that photo of a local bald eagle under siege by a crow while perched atop a tree nera 45th and Genesee, west side of The Junction – a scene we’ve probably all seen before, and yet always riveting. A different bird-in-tree scene is shared by Gary Jones – two ospreys squabbling over supremacy in an Alki Point tree:
Want to know more about our local birds and why they behave the way they do? Seattle Audubon‘s BirdWeb site is a great place to start.
(iPhone photo that doesn’t do justice to tonight’s sunset – send a photo if you have one that does!)
As the sun sets on another Seafair Sunday, we have one last look at those six blue-and-yellow U.S. Navy jets that have either mesmerized or maddened you for the past four days – there don’t seem to be many people whose opinions fall inbetween. Thanks to everyone who shared their views of the high-flying Blue Angels – this one from Jim Clark:
And there’s the seventh Blue Angels crowd fave – this view of Fat Albert is from David Rosen of SlickPix Photography, who was out along I-90 today:
David also shares this view of two Blues:
Our lingering memory is always the sound of the cockpit covers closing, and the jets’ engines firing up at the Museum of Flight – this clip from the M-o-F fence today is more about that sound than the visuals:
And we never leave without a snapshot of the ever-cool crew:
Last update we got, the Angels were scheduled to leave Seattle on Tuesday. If we get any more specific information than that, we’ll let you know. Meantime, lots of video of today’s events, including other airshow acts and the hydro races, can be found at kirotv.com – their TV station has the Seafair television contract, so they have the most “behind-the-scenes” stuff to share.
(December 2008 photo)
Last December, a movie crew took over the long-defunct Morgan Junction tavern Chuck and Sally’s to film part of “Greenspoke.” This weekend, we got an update from writer/producer/director Tom McIntire – including an offer to see the finished product next week, at a discount:
The film was completed in March. Shot in West Seattle, Ballard and Magnolia, Greenspoke features local talent and crew. We recently won The Accolade Award of Merit: short film and were nominated for the Best International Film under 50 Minutes at the International Film Festival Ireland. A beautiful Japanese translator and a world weary vehicle emissions technician awaken profoundly changed by the efforts of a brilliant scientist trying to control climate change.
Greenspoke will have a sneak preview locally on Tuesday Aug 4 at 9:30 pm at the strong>Central Cinema, part of a fundraising effort for nonprofit Smiling Z Studios that includes another award-winning short film (two julias) and live music after the screening from Seattle band The Daguerreotypes (featured in both films). (Tickets available online: Enter the promo code blog to get the cast and crew price of $12. Includes hors d’oeurves. No-host bar. No one under 21 admitted.)
Greenspoke will also be playing at 1 Reel Bumbershoot on Monday Sept 7 at 8 pm and at the Tacoma Film Festival in October.
The film has a Facebook page, by the way. Meanwhile – since someone’s bound to ask, “Speaking of Chuck and Sally’s, what’s up with that property?” all we can say is, no recent action in terms of permits or complaints.
We haven’t written an item like this in a while. More than a few people, however, have suggested we shouldn’t be so shy about sharing good news regarding this trailblazing business of making a living as an independent, journalist-run, community-collaborative, online-only news service. So here’s a little bit about WSB’s July. According to Google Analytics – the gold standard in traffic measurement – WSB pageviews totaled 706,143 for the month of July. 23,000 homes/businesses (unique users) visited at least once a week; more than a third of them visited at least once a day. This is the biggest month we’ve had so far this year, second-biggest to snowbound December 2008, and through the end of July, our pageviews for this year total more than 4.6 million. We thank you SO MUCH for finding value in being part of WSB. But even more than the numbers, we are proud of more big stories this month. The biggest: Myrtle Reservoir neighbors e-mailed WSB, wondering why the reservoir-covering project was being dug up again; we uncovered the fact that the waterproofing material used at Myrtle and Beacon reservoirs had hundreds of leaks and needed to be replaced, in a $4 million “change order”; the story was picked up by almost every major news outlet in the region, with credit to WSB in print and on the airwaves. Speaking of airwaves, we guested on KUOW’s “The Conversation” twice this month to talk about neighborhood news. The WSB Pets page helped reunite more than a dozen lost/found pets with their owners; the WSB Forums’ West Seattle Jobs Offered section helped match jobs and jobseekers (see this recent “thank you” from a recruiter) – employers can post job listings there for free. And last week, for the second consecutive year, Seattle Weekly announced that readers voted WSB the best website of its kind in the city – and this year the competition was tougher than ever, with more great independent news sites appearing almost weekly. Though we don’t all run our operations exactly the same way, there is one guiding principle we all share: Community collaboration. So much of what you see here begins with your e-mails, phone calls, WSB Forum posts, tweets, Facebook posts, and in-person conversations (all contact info here) – we were pleased to meet so many people this spring/summer while tabling at festivals from Gathering of Neighbors to Delridge Day to the Morgan Junction Community Festival to West Seattle Summer Fest. Thanks again for being part of an incredible community, and thanks to everyone who is part of WSB by collaborating with helpfulness and respect for your fellow neighbor. Though some days bring bad news, and it’s part of our job to report that too, together our future as a community is nothing but bright.
Planning to vote early, now that ballots are arriving for the biggest election King County’s ever conducted entirely by mail (which is how they’ll all be done from now on)? If you’d like to see and hear the candidates in key races, the county-produced Video Voters’ Guide has King County Executive candidates here ; and Seattle city races (plus bag-fee Referendum 1) here.
10 am-2 pm, 44th and Alaska, the West Seattle Farmers’ Market rolls into August; peppers and potatoes are on the “what’s new” list within the Ripe and Ready rundown (see it here). Via Twitter, we also learn that Loki Fish Company plans to bring newly arrived whole fish; there are often other sightings, close to market time, tweeted by Farmers’ Market management at @NFMASeattle. Meantime – for anyone planning on checking out the Skillet street-food trailer while visiting the Farmers’ Market – not only won’t it be there today, as noted on its website, but Skillet may not be back in West Seattle any time soon, at least not according to an e-mail exchange shared by John L, in which Skillet proprietor Josh Henderson told him they were going to concentrate on their weekend catering business for now; we have sent Henderson a note asking for confirmation, no reply yet.
Those are the Seafair-provided Corvette convertibles that Blue Angels pilots and entourage use to get around while they’re in Seattle each summer, leaving downtown – with police escort – Saturday morning. The video is from former Blue Angels pilot Len Anderson, who traveled to Seattle with the team on Thursday and has been sharing behind-the-scenes photos, video and observations via his Twitter account (@lead_solo) all along the way (here’s a link to his photo of the pilots in the parking garage, pre-Corvettes, and a photo of the SPD motorcycles awaiting them). But you don’t have to be an ex-pilot to get “behind the scenes” to some degree; that’s the feeling we always get when watching the Blue Angels’ arrivals, takeoffs and landings at the Museum of Flight, including the crew preps before the pilots show up:
To get any closer, you’d practically have to be flying yourself, which might provide a view like this one that David Hutchinson shared, after taking photos from Ruby Chow Park on the north end of Boeing Field:
For the timeline of this year’s Boeing Field/Museum of Flight viewing (from our experience so far), and more photos, read on:Read More
Saturday morning, members and neighbors of St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church got to work clearing an area south of the church, along SW Hanford (map), that they’re hoping will become a “park-like space” for the neighborhood. Among the helpers, Charlie the Bichon Frise:
“He’s the boss!” one of the volunteers told our photojournalist. For the human volunteers, next step is planting drought-resistant native plants later this summer. Not a bad idea, given our dry weather, which took a turn for the foggy this morning:
Greg Wright shared that look at the downtown skyline seemingly floating over the fog. The forecast does not mention a rerun for this morning; another weather note, famous forecaster Cliff Maas says the stats show that last Wednesday wasn’t the only recordsetter – the entire month of July goes on record as Seattle’s hottest July ever.
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