West Seattle scenes: Final look at the weekend
From Shannon Felix at Avalon GlassWorks, blown-glass razor clams that she says are the “sleeper hit” of the Shell Show her shop’s having through April. A portion of the $30 price goes to the Seattle chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. Next, the ongoing art of nature itself, shot at Alki by Jessica Seeley (who was there doing legwork for an Alki tour you’ll see on her Seattle Neighborhood Watch blog later this week):
Also from the shore, one more shot of the Corinthian Yacht Club race featured here yesterday – this pic came in tonight from Tracy W, with a Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth ferry appearing to mix it up with the sailboats (CYC has now posted race results, BTW):
And finally, we go indoors, for a triumphant shot from Saturday night’s “Blarney Bowl” fundraiser at West Seattle Bowl, put on by Beer Church to raise money for Whisker City (and raise $ they did – more than $6,000, as you can see on their site). The night included the first-ever “Bar Brawl” with local establishments fielding teams for friendly competition; this Beer Church photo shows Beveridge Place Pub proprietor Gary Sink at left congratulating “brawl” winner Dave Montoure of West 5, who’s getting a hug from a member of the BPP staff:
One last photo-related note — this time, about a photo featured here earlier this week: The most-recent WSB picture of the Lincoln Park house with the war-toll sign led to a followup posted tonight on the P-I site, including quotes from the original comments posted here.
The next West Seattle caucus: Less than 1 week away
With the Democratic presidential-nomination race not quite over yet, there’s still some potential for drama next Saturday, when more than 1,000 delegates chosen at 34th Legislative District precinct caucuses February 9 (WSB coverage with reader reports/photos here) will gather at 10 am at West Seattle High School for the districtwide Democratic caucus. If you’re one of those delegates, your phone’s likely been ringing off the hook with campaign calls making sure you’ll be there. The 34th District Democrats have tons of info on a special section of their website, as always, including the fact that those 1,000-plus delegates will elect 51 people (and 26 alternates) to move on to the King County Democratic Convention, which is also at WSHS, 2 pm April 13. As for the Republicans — no suspense there any more, but half their delegates are still coming from the caucus process; the 34th District meeting was yesterday. The next big GOP meeting is the King County Republican Convention in Auburn on April 12.
Mariners’ pizza changeup started with West Seattleite’s pitch
As the Mariners play their home opener at Safeco Field tomorrow afternoon, fans will notice something new in the food zones: 
Garlic Jim’s (WSB sponsor) is now The Official Pizza of the Seattle Mariners. You might have heard this already, since the official word trickled out a couple weeks ago, but you probably haven’t heard the backstory, which involves West Seattle Garlic Jim’s owner Ryan Reese (celebrating his store’s 1st anniversary, by the way, congrats!): Ryan tells WSB he and a friend went to a game about this time last year and noticed that while the food vendors were generally local (Ivar’s, Kidd Valley, etc.), the pizza came from Papa John’s, which is based in Kentucky. Since Garlic Jim’s is headquartered in Western Washington, Ryan thought it would be a great fit at Safeco. He talked to corporate HQ in Everett; Ryan says they considered it a long shot but thought it worth making a pitch. So he checked with the M’s and discovered the pizza contract was in fact up for bid, and that GJ’s could get in on the process. They set up a meeting at The Safe; Ryan fixed pizzas at his restaurant in The Junction and took them over before he and others including Garlic Jim’s CEO Dwayne Northrop met M’s brass. Like runners moving around the bases, things advanced from there, and starting tomorrow, you’ll find Garlic Jim’s Pizza at The Safe. Ryan says the 200 level will offer pizza by the slice, and it’ll be mini-pizzas at the 100 and 300 levels. By the way, this isn’t the only Garlic Jim’s baseball involvement — after we published a West Seattle Little League pitch for team sponsors a few days ago, Ryan signed up to sponsor a WSLL team. (Don’t miss WSB contributing photojournalist Matt Durham‘s great pix from yesterday’s WSLL Jamboree; see them here.)
New site feature: West Seattle CL listings on WSB “More” page
We hope you’re already well aware that several sections of WSB have continuously updated activity beyond our home-page updates: The busiest 3 sections are the ever-growing WSB Forums, of course; the Blogs page (with headlines and excerpts from the newest 50 entries on the 100-plus West Seattle-based blogs on our list); and the More page – which started with the latest 20 West Seattle- (or Viaduct-) related news headlines from citywide/regional/national sources, and now is newly expanded with the addition of one more continuously updated list: Right below the news headlines, you’ll find the newest 80 Craigslist listings that are tagged “West Seattle” (pulled from all CL categories except personals and resumes). Here’s a direct link.
“Deathtrap” at Youngstown: Killer comi-thriller
So you remember the whole thing about the Dyan Cannon lookalike contest before opening night of Twelfth Night Productions‘ “Deathtrap” at Youngstown Arts Center Friday night? We got there in hopes of covering the big announcement … and learned they had no entrants. TNP did let us stay for the show, however (photo above features cast members Trish Loyd as Myra and Dave Clelland as Sidney); this year marks the play’s 30th anniversary, but aside from a couple period references (mentions of the late Merv Griffin, plus the ancient phrase “women’s lib”), it feels fresh and in spots, fun, especially whenever Jane Taylor as over-the-top psychic Helga (love the beaded fringe and sequins!) is onstage. Director Todd Downing paces his cast well through the many plot twists, which keep things though this is a one-setting, five-character play. Twelfth Night — a nonprofit West Seattle-based theater group (backstory here) — performs a matinee of “Deathtrap” at 3 pm today; then it plays again next Thurs-Fri-Sat-Sun (full showtimes and ticket info here).
SPS confirms it’s keeping mothballed Fairmount Park Elementary (
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