The movie and the singing are in full swing as we write this, and the cake/cupcake partying will follow, but we can report that tonight’s real-life wedding onstage at the Admiral Theater happened in fine style. We took the wedding party’s photo above in the lobby afterward; we’ll be checking our video in a bit. Good crowd on hand to applaud now-newlyweds Melodie Anderson and John Babcock, longtime sweethearts whose story you can read here and here; we met the fine folks from Standing Ovation Films, a West Seattle-based video-production company who read about the wedding plan here on WSB and donated a wedding-video package worth $2,000 (they had three cameras in the theater!); other donated gifts included the Cafe Revo wedding dinner, the Sugar Rush Baking Company cake and cupcakes, an anonymously gifted stay at a Lake Chelan vacation home, and the volunteer services of nondenominational minister Teri Ensley, who you may also know as the ringleader of local pet-helping nonprofit Furry Faces Foundation. For the occasion, till we have wedding video to share, here’s our favorite ABBA song:
ADDED 9:52 PM: Here’s the entire five-minute wedding – minister Teri’s mike did come on after the first 10 seconds or so:
(video no longer available due to blip.tv shutdown)
MOVIE CUPCAKES: No matter which of tonight’s big movies you are going to, you’ll see cupcakes. The ones at left were photographed by Lora Lewis of Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) as she gets ready for tonight’s Winter Indoors Movies on the Wall showing of the original “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (7 pm, West Seattle Christian Church activity center, free [cupcakes extra]); cupcakes also are in the works for the wedding celebration before the singalong “Mamma Mia!” at the Admiral Theater (7:30 pm, $8, cupcakes included).
MAKING OF A COVER DOG: We learned recently that one of West Seattle’s best-known canine cuties, Wendy Hughes-Jelen‘s Italian greyhound Sophia, would be appearing on a future cover for WS-based CityDog Magazine– and now (discovered via our Blogs page feed) Wendy has published the story of Sophia’s big day on her website. See Wendy’s story, photos and all, here (meantime, CityDog has promised to share a sneak peek at the cover when it gets close to hitting the stands).
Thanks to Joe Follansbee for these photos of the Denny Middle School marching band in this afternoon’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade downtown. Joe reports: “The rain eased off for us and the wind was light, so conditions were tolerable. And the kids were near the beginning of the parade, so they (and their parents) didn’t freeze halfway to death!”
While we were visiting Denny yesterday morning (longer story to come), music director Marcus Pimpleton told us the marching band’s next parade is the Junior Daffodil Parade, two weeks from today in Tacoma (more info here).
Andrea Mercado from the Log House Museum — where you can check out the history of West Seattle, noon-4 pm Thursdays-Sundays — just sent this note:
Stop in Sunday, March 15th, between 11-2 to help us move file cabinets, brochures, books and papers out from the Log House Museum upstairs. Besides being an enormous help to the Log House Museum and Southwest Seattle Historical Society, you will also get to see the inner sanctum of the museum (upstairs) which is not generally open to the public. (oooooooohhhhh)
A 105 year old log structure is always an adventure to maintain and a joy to work in, but the building cannot handle the weight of our modern-day conveniences.
For 30 minutes, an hour or two of your time… there will be goodies donated by the Alki Bakery and beverages to keep us all going.
The museum’s in the big beautiful historic house shown in the photo above, 61st/Stevens in Alki (map).
With recent bowling-center closures elsewhere in the region, more bowling leagues are rolling our way – so Underdog Sports Leagues sent this announcement of new leagues at West Seattle Bowl, with registration open now:
Roll on Through Wet Weather Toward Summer!
Spring in Seattle could easily be renamed MoreWinter. It’s that tease of a season here in the Northwest that spans from after the holidays until about July. MoreWinter tosses out a nice day every couple weeks – but for the most part you could be in November. How to make it through until Summer? Take refuge in the warm embrace of the bowling alley. Liquid sunshine, prizes, theme nights (like Ugly Sweater Night), and classic fun will ward off April and May cold dampness!
The leagues are on Monday and Thursday nights, and run for 6 weeks each. Monday night league starts on the 30th of March at 7 pm, and Thursday is late-night bowling starting on March 26th at 9:30 pm.
Longing for the sun that seemed to shine throughout the workweek – and now has mischievously vanished? WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli captured some of it this past week on video – lovely water scenes off Beach Drive. Another video to share – this one from Arbor Heights Elementary School:
That’s a video plea for Barbara Bailey, the school’s music teacher, to get better and come back. Arbor Heights teacher Mark Ahlness shared that clip with us; he writes on his own website – which is among the 100 West Seattle sites featured on our automatically and frequently updated Blogs page (always good reading) – that she is “fighting valiantly to regain her health.”
TRAFFIC ALERT: To clarify the Alaskan Way Viaduct closure signs you may have seen regarding tomorrow’s St. Patrick’s Day Dash – according to this city alert, if you head northbound tomorrow morning (approximately 7:30-11 am), you will be routed off 99 at Western, since the Dash is happening north of The Tunnel. So that might cause some slowdowns. (Reminder, NEXT weekend is The Viaduct’s next inspection shutdown – full closure 6 am-6 pm Saturday and Sunday, Battery Street Tunnel closure from Friday night-Monday morning.)
First: Direct link to today’s long list of events from our West Seattle Weekend Lineup – just click here.
Second: We have one “what’s NOT happening” note – the West Seattle High School fundraising car wash has been called off, rainout.
Next: Tonight’s the night for two fun movie events in West Seattle. First, an update on the “Mamma Mia!” preshow wedding tonight atThe Admiral:
Melodie Anderson and John Babcock will get married onstage before the “Mamma Mia!” singalong screening, and yet another gift has appeared: Dinah Brein McClellan at the Admiral Theater says Standing Ovation Films has now donated its services to shoot the wedding and related events (including the donated wedding-party dinner at Cafe Revo). YOU, however, do NOT need to bring a gift – just help make sure there’s a good crowd to cheer on Melodie and John – they’re marrying before movietime, 7:30 tonight at The Admiral (tickets $8, available online till a few hours ahead of time, after that, at the door).
More in the mood for goofy family fun? Be at tonight’s Winter Indoor Movies on the Wall presentation of the original “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory“:
Your sponsors are the West Seattle Junction merchants; venue is the newest multipurpose facility in The Junction, West Seattle Christian Church‘s activity center (with not one but TWO big screens!) on 42nd just south of Genesee), price – absolutely free, and you’re encouraged to bring a nonperishable food item for the West Seattle Food Bank. Worth bringing a few bucks for concession sales and the special “Golden Ticket” raffle. More at the Movies on the Wall website. (Next week, the winter series finale – “Napoleon Dynamite“!)
Again – for everything else happening today and tomorrow in West Seattle, go here!
MOVIE CUPCAKES: No matter which of tonight’s big movies you are going to, you’ll see cupcakes. The ones at left were photographed by Lora Lewis of 
With recent bowling-center closures elsewhere in the region, more bowling leagues are rolling our way – so 
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