West Seattle, Washington
13 Monday
That’s our video of Mudhoney‘s first song at West Seattle Summer Fest tonight – “The Money Will Roll Right In” – following the introduction by the West Seattleite who’s running for the biggest job on this year’s ballot, and is backed by many members of the music community, King County Executive candidate (and County Council chair) Dow Constantine. Mudhoney played more than an hour on the Alaska Stage (in the street by Junction Plaza Park). Thanks to Babs (one of many awesome WSBers we were honored to chat with during the festival today – we’re there Sat/Sun too) for sharing photos including this one:
Tomorrow’s Summer Fest live music slate starts at 12:30 pm – see the full schedule here – with highlights including Supersonic Soul Pimps on the California Stage (north end of the festival) at 8:15 pm.
ADDED MONDAY MORNING: Lots of buzz about “bodypassing,” “moshing,” “crowd surfing,” whatever you want to call it, during Mudhoney’s set. Found someone else’s video on YouTube that actually caught it on camera during the later song “Touch Me I’m Sick”- about 40 seconds in:
Talking with someone at West Seattle Summer Fest today about this afternoon’s bank robbery at Westwood Village, the subject of last year’s Admiral Wells Fargo stickup came up. Coincidentally, it turns out, there was a major court action in that case today: WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli points us to a Seattle Times report that the robber, 51-year-old Douglas Cox – who survived being shot by police in the downtown standoff that followed the stickup — was sentenced today: 19 1/2 years in prison. He had pleaded guilty in April, and had a history of at least half a dozen other robberies. (His getaway driver was sentenced last year to almost 4 years behind bars.)
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(The Full Tilt Ice Cream bicycle, staffed by Greg, roaming earlier)
The sun’s still up but it’s after 5:30 so we’re hereby declaring this Friday night. A nice breeze is blowing through the main crossroads of the West Seattle Summer Fest festival grounds. The much-awaited Mudhoney performance is a little more than two hours away. We’re still headquartered at the big tent at California/Alaska (look for Information/Junction/Survey signage). More to come!
Ladder 11 – based in Highland Park – is here as are firefighters collecting for the Muscular Dystrophy Association “Fill the Boot” drive – you might have seen the donation drive elsewhere in West Seattle earlier today (we passed them at California/Fauntleroy in Morgan Junction). They’ll be here throughout the evening, so if you’re coming down for Mudhoney, keep an eye out for them. Lots of other unique fundraisers here – like this one:
Michelle Joan is with the quilt that West Seattle Sound View Quilters are raffling in October – buy tickets here now! They’re in front of Stop n Shop on the ground level of the Senior Center of West Seattle. Thanks to Louise for e-mailing to make sure we came by for a photo – we’d love to hear from anybody else with fundraisers or cool deals here – we’re roaming for photos but there’s so much here, we won’t see it all, no matter how hard we try. And of course you’ll see so many great local businesses here, including more than a few WSB sponsors — such as the Dream Dinners crew:
The official end time for Summer Fest tonight is 8 pm, but that’s when the Mudhoney concert starts, so it’ll be rolling for a while past 8. We’ll be here in the central tent, too, since we’ll be covering what’s expected to be quite the crowd for the concert.
7:10 PM UPDATE: It’s been busy much of the day but this is the busiest yet. No trouble though, and just in case, there’s a sizable police contingent on hand — just feet away from us (and close to the “Alaska” stage where Mudhoney will be playing in an hour or so) — this photo gives you an idea of the sunshine we’re looking into (hey, we’re not complaining):
Reminder that in addition to the food vendors, many local restaurants have sidewalk cafes set up, expanding their capacity, like West 5:
7:56 PM UPDATE: Minutes till Mudhoney’s scheduled performance and we have answered the question “where’s the Alaska stage?” about a hundred times, as the last people remaining in the info tent. Of course we’re also staked out over by the stage in hopes of capturing some of the show on video too. Another big question here at this hour – restaurant recommendations. And we’ve had more than a few non-West Seattle visitors ask whether they could walk to Alki from here. (Well, you CAN, but it’ll take you a while.) Oh dear, a little boy who got separated from his parent/s just showed up – the police are chatting with him – remember that if (heaven forbid) you get separated from a child here at Summer Fest, come to the Information (etc.) Booth here at California/Alaska. Nearby, Fitness Together has an old-fashioned “test your strength” setup – here’s a bit of video:
8:15 PM UPDATE: Mudhoney’s playing now, after an introduction by King County Council Chair (and County Executive candidate) Dow Constantine. Video shortly. (By the way, the aforementioned lost child has been reunited with his family.)
9:06 PM: Here’s our crowd-shot video, and you can hear Mudhoney playing. We have a longer clip – their first song, and the Dow C intro – that we’ll upload upon arrival at WSB HQ (video via middle-of-the-street wi-fi tends to take a while):
Sounds like Mudhoney is wrapping up. Still a lot of people hanging out, and not just the crowd for the concert. The booths are shut down, though, and we’re rolling up our spot for the night – back in the morning. More coverage (and other news) to come, though, here on WSB — we’re just changing locales. Oh yeah – there’s the Mudhoney encore.
(cameraphone photo added 5:11 pm)
Southwest Precinct police are responding to a robbery call at Westwood Village – believed to be the Alaska USA Credit Union branch in QFC. We’re on our way to check it out. 4:55 PM UPDATE: We’re on the scene. That is indeed the bank that was hit. No injuries that we know of. A K-9 officer is at the scene and while the bank branch is closed now, the store’s still open, for now. 5:27 PM UPDATE: Just talked to a manager at the bank. It will stay closed till about 7, then the manager says it will reopen for a little while in case people need to handle transactions as the week comes to a close – it’ll be open regular hours tomorrow.
Sasha e-mailed to ask about an incident this afternoon at 35th/Othello, involving a scuffle between officers and a suspect. We just talked to Southwest Precinct Lt. Ron Smith here at West Seattle Summer Fest – he says police responded to a call about someone acting erratically, and when officers approached the suspect, he “charged them.” A struggle ensued but the officers are OK. The suspect is being checked out at a hospital and could face charges of assaulting officers. 4:24 PM UPDATE: Another note came in, asking about a sizable police presence around 1:30 along 35th some distance south, apparently near Thistle – turns out it was related to the same incident, according to Lt. Smith.
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We’re here, facing KeyBank and the Food Court, and ready to cover the first afternoon of West Seattle’s biggest summer event. Come say hi and take the Summer Fest survey (only one page of questions and you’ll be entered for a $100 shopping-spree drawing). Above, a look down the Food Court. Much more to come! Full festival rundown here.
1:07 PM UPDATE: Time for more photos! GORGEOUS day out here. Lots of people but not too crowded, sunny but not too hot. Toward the north end of the Summer Fest zone, on California north of Oregon, near JF Henry, you’ll find Greg Whittaker from Alki Kayak Tours – modeling the rubber sunglasses he’s got on sale for $1 (down from $5!):
Not far from there is Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) – thanks to Lora for sharing her phone so we could participate in KUOW’s “The Conversation” this afternoon, during another of their roundtables with neighborhood-news site editors (we were asked about the King County Water Taxi and the Conner Homes Junction project). Check out Hotwire this weekend for free samples of a frosty drink!
Also on the north end, you’ll find the Art Dive tent just north of Oregon – on the south side of the tent, this metalcrafted mermaid is keeping watch:
2:07 PM UPDATE: Live music will be starting soon – remember there are two stages, the California stage at the north end of the festival, and the Alaska stage east of California, near the Junction Plaza Park site. We’ve talked to lots of great people already – the Hi-Yu Junior Court has come by, as they patrol the festival selling Hi-Yu buttons (help support what is arguably Seattle’s most robust summer festival – and the only one that still has a float that travels to represent its community). If you’re walking north, just look for the gingerbread house:
The steel-drum band, by the way, is The Toucans, and they just declared that they and Mudhoney are the only two bands at Summer Fest that started in 1988. (Mudhoney performs tonight after 8 pm, same stage that The Toucans are on right now.)
2:38 PM UPDATE: Alan Harrison from ArtsWest just dropped by with word of the deal they’re offering during Summer Fest – buy season tickets here, in person, during the festival, and you get $42 worth of goodies thrown in – a ticket to “Plaid Tidings” this holiday season and a $10 gift certificate. (Season tickets are $159 for six plays.) We’ve also gotten a visit from a multimedia class at the Delridge Community Center, youth 14-18 – you’ll be seeing some of their work here on WSB soon, and we’re really excited about that!
3:26 PM UPDATE: Lots of fun to be had on the fly – there’s been a cake-eating contest over by the Community Tent on the east-central side of the festival – tomorrow, we’re told, they’ll do it again with chocolate cake, so plan on that. Meantime, here’s video of the unicyclist who’s been doing stunts – and just keeping your balance on one of those contraptions seems like stunt enough – near our HQ:
5:19 PM UPDATE: We’re going to start a separate evening update with more photos – the live music is really rocking over here in the center of the festival – the Alaska stage (near the Junction Plaza Park beer garden, proceeds from which benefit the park construction fund) is just east of California.
West Seattle Summer Fest is happening RIGHT NOW! It rules the weekend, 10 am-8 pm today and Saturday, 11 am-7 pm Sunday, but we’ve got more to share too — like the Seafair Pirates Landing on Alki Saturday, swing dancing in Puget Ridge on Saturday night … more than 50 events in all, ahead in the full West Seattle Weekend Lineup, brought to you by Skylark Cafe and Club … (And good luck to everybody riding the STP!!!!) …Read More
On the 4th of July, we brought you a quick update about the West Seattle Little League 9-10 All-Stars‘ huge district-championship win, propelling them into the state tournament (starting next weekend). Now we have not only that victory photo but also the full details, courtesy of Cami MacNamara:
West Seattle 9/10 Little League All-stars are the District 7 Champions!
On Saturday July 4th they started their battle against South Highline National Little League. Having lost to SHNLL on Wednesday, WSLL was coming up through the losers bracket and needed to beat SHNLL twice to earn the championship.
The first game was fantastic; WSLL beat SHNLL 18-5 in four innings with some red-hot bats and great pitching. Highlights included a bases loaded triple by Jack Page, an out of the park home run by 9 year-old Anthony Coats and a dominant pitching performance by Alex Parker.
This win forced a second game and WSLL played equally as well in this contest. Great bats and excellent pitching were again the story. ALL the players were feeling confident and playing beautifully. David Johnson pitched masterfully and the big highlight was a game winning triple by Jacob Terao to secure the 13-3 victory, again in four innings.
The WSLL team is managed by Derek Page and coached by John Coats.
The players are Jack Page, Anthony Coats, Matt Dietz, Thomas Sobotta, Anthony Goss, Alex Parker, David Johnson, Grayson O’Neil, Jacob Terao, Cameron Paskett, Ethan Chen, and Adam Wickler.
From here, the boys will go on to represent District 7 at the Little League State Tournament Starting beginning July 19th at the Valley Ridge Fields in SeaTac. For details, check out www.westseattlelittleleague.com.
You can also follow WSLL on Twitter, @wslittleleague (we’re at @westseattleblog for frequent human-powered updates, @westseattlenews for an automated feed of links to WSB stories as they’re published).
This is not in West Seattle but the folks at King County Animal Care wanted to get the word out far and wide, so they even sponsored WSB for the week, knowing animal lovers abound in West Seattle, and we want to make sure you’ve heard about it: The county’s Super Pet Adopt-A-Thon is tomorrow, 10 am-4 pm, at the Kent Animal Shelter (here’s a map), with adoptable pets from all over the state, as well as pet experts on site offering behavior advice and more. Full details here.
On Alaska east of California, that’s the “Alaska Stage” where Mudhoney will headline tonight, and many others during the three days of West Seattle Summer Fest (sponsoring and co-sponsored by WSB), which starts at 10 this morning. It takes a village to put on a street festival – and the streets are abuzz this morning with people setting up – on California north of Oregon, here’s the Art Dive tent:
And at California/Alaska, this is the tent where you will find WSB, the festival-presenting West Seattle Junction Association, volunteers from the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce at Information HQ, and the Friends of Junction Plaza Park – we’ll be on the west side, the KeyBank/Easy Street/food court side:
Festival guides will be available on site – you can also use the vendor, music and entertainment lists and maps on the Summer Fest website to make a plan before you come down. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, The Junction’s the place to be — hours are 10 am-8 pm today and Saturday, 11 am-7 pm Sunday.
As previewed earlier this week, the carrier USS John C. Stennis returned to Bremerton this morning after a six-month deployment. Gary Jones shares the view from West Seattle shores, in the pink light of very-early morning. He writes, “Ahoy and welcome home, USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74).”
That may be the most exciting sight in the pre-West Seattle Summer Fest hours: Posters at Easy Street for the live music that’s sparked regional buzz – Mudhoney headlining Friday night’s live music (part of a slate on the Alaska stage, east of California, that starts at 6; Mudhoney’s expected after 8). By early Thursday evening, with tents and road barricades up, The Junction already looked like Festival Central:
And the relocated kid-fun zone (in front of Curious Kidstuff) already sports its climbing wall:
That’s a key point to remember about this year’s Summer Fest: The kid zone’s now in the Alaska-Edmunds block; the stage that was at that end of the festival is now the “Alaska” stage by Junction Plaza Park and its fundraising beer garden. There’s still another stage and beer garden on the north end. Individual restaurants/bars are setting up sidewalk cafes, too, like this one:
Elliott Bay spilled out into the street tonight, and like last year, brought in The Bubbleman to enchant kids of all ages – here’s video of his “countdown to bubbles” (and then of course, the bubbles too):
Also happening in The Junction (and elsewhere) Thursday night – the West Seattle Art Walk – check out muralist Jimmy Gersen painting to the beat inside the former north-side-of-Capers space (which as shown here Wednesday will be a video arcade during Summer Fest):
We found live outdoor music too – here’s video of The Spoils playing outside West 5:
Now, to the art. Most of the Art Walk displays are also continuing at the venues through the month, so you can drop by even if you missed it. At Keller Williams Realty, work by Cara Granger Astorquia:
At Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor), artist Karol Sample‘s work:
South of The Junction, at Ventana Construction (WSB sponsor), it’s work by William Hass:
Endolyne Joe’s, another WSB sponsor, like Ventana, just joined the Art Walk starting this month – here’s info on its display:
Look for a separate feature later today on the exhibit at The Kenney. Of course, there’s art aplenty at Summer Fest Friday-Saturday-Sunday as well – look for the Art Dive, organized by Twilight Artist Collective, north of Oregon.
The poster says it all:
Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets.
From Alki Lodge 152‘s Rick Dusatko:
On July 22, at 11:30 am, at Alki Masonic Temple, 4736 40th Ave Southwest, we are inviting the community to come to a Disaster Preparedness presentation put on by the Red Cross.
I know it is at a difficult time for those who work, but if you can make it, it will give you many ideas for some simple things you can do around the house to prepare for an emergency. The program will last approximately an hour and a half, including a Q&A. Literature will be available. The program will be downstairs in the dining hall.
Here’s a map. The call went out as “heavy rescue” but officers have said on the scanner that “nobody’s trapped.” Going out to check the scene but in the meantime, a good idea to avoid that area. Till back at HQ, we’ll update via Twitter with any news from the scene – check here. 12:36 AM UPDATE: Just back, did not appear to be major after all – one damaged car is on the north side of Genesee by the apartments close to the Avalon top of the hill, but the street’s not blocked and the fire units are all gone. Poilce reportedly are looking for a hit-run driver – whether from this car or another one, we don’t know yet. 2:23 AM UPDATE: Southwest Precinct Lt. Ron Smith confirms the driver of the crashed car “ran away from the scene” and is not in custody yet – he adds that the car had a “punched-out ignition” which drew added curiosity, though the car’s status has not been completely verified so far.
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