West Seattle, Washington
11 Sunday
(Oklahoma! dress rehearsal photo by Ellen Cedergreen for WSB)
Tomorrow (Thursday) night is opening night for “Oklahoma!” – the spring musical at West Seattle High School. It’s running May 12th, 13th, 14th, 18th, 20th at 7:30 pm, and the 19th at 8 pm. This is no ordinary run – special events are planned, according to WSHS Drama. For example: On Friday night, “for a small donation, have your photo taken with members of the ‘Oklahoma!’ cast and a very sweet miniature horse” – that would be the famous Jeb – 6:45 to 7:15 pm, before the show. On Thursday 5/19, it’s a special benefit performance, to raise money for the drama program, which is not financially supported by the school district. The fundraiser is a “fun, intimate pre-show event” described as:
Where: Foyer at St. John’s Episcopal Church, right next to the school
Timing: 6:00 pm-7:45 pm – chat with other WSHS Drama supporters and “Oklahoma!” cast
members in an intimate gathering including heavy appetizers and beer, wine & soda. As a special treat, we’ll even have a live miniature horse with costumed cast members for a free photo op!8:00 pm – special reserved VIP seating for the performance of “Oklahoma!”
Cost: just $20! (A no-frills ticket costs $7 with a reservation, $12 without. For just $13 more you get heavy hors d’oeuvres, beer or wine, a chance to chat with cast members, and a picture with a miniature horse! Best of all, you know that you helped support the arts at WSHS!) Yes, it’s a work/school night but there’s a miniature horse photo op AND it’s for a really good cause!! ;-)
Guarantee your spot and make your reservation by Tuesday, May 17th! E-mail PR@westsidedrama.com with your name, phone number, and the number of benefit tickets you want to reserve.
And if you can’t see Oklahoma! but want to donate to WSHS Drama (tax-deductible!), they’re offering an address for that too:
Checks payable to WSHS Drama and mailed to:
West Seattle High School
Attn: Andrew Finley
3000 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116
“Oklahoma!” ticket info is here.
Thanks to Monica for sharing the news that the Chief Sealth International High School Jazz Band 1 scored a big win at a regional festival this past weekend – returning from Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, with the first-place trophy from the Northwest Jazz Band Festival. Senior Eric Wolken also won an Outstanding Music Award for his work on lead trumpet. Your next chance to see the award-winning Sealth jazz musicians in action: Jazz Night, May 27th.
(Alki, 1916, from Seattle Municipal Archives)
From the Alki Art Fair committee:
Alki Art Fair T-Shirt design submissions wanted
The Alki Art Fair Organizing Committee is requesting local artists to submit a design for this year’s Alki Art Fair T-Shirt. The theme for this year’s design is the Alki Bathhouse (1911-2011) centennial. Please incorporate the theme in your design. If your design is chosen, besides being emblazoned on this year’s t-shirt, the design is intended to be used on all marketing posters and announcements for this year’s fair. Submissions must be made on or before June 5, 2011. For additional information, please see the art fair website at: alkiartfair.org. Please include your name, phone number, and email address with your submission. The dates for this year’s Alki Art Fair are July 23rd and 24th.
You can mail or drop off your submission to: Alki Community Center, c/o Frances, 5817 SW Stevens St., Seattle, WA 98116 or e-mail to Frances at: alkiartfair@hotmail.com
Their mission is to help those in dire need of emergency assistance – and right now, they’re sending up a flare on their own behalf. Expenses have gone up for West Seattle Helpline, and in order to keep helping the number of families for whom they’ve been able to offer assistance, they have to raise $3,500 by month’s end. Board vice president Brooks Riendl explains:
I am issuing a challenge to our Board, Advisory Board and the West Seattle community to raise $3000 and I will match $500. Our Board President, Katie Plett has offered $250 in matching funds as well. … We have secured a total of $1850 in donations for this challenge to date and need help with the remaining $1650. Donations can be made through our website or by contacting Anna Fern at: (206) 932-2746.
Helpline programs also include Clothesline, which helps match families in need with donated clothing. While this is a cash-donation request from Helpline right now, you can also help by attending their annual fundraiser, the Taste of West Seattle, with dozens of local restaurants donating tasty treats – that’s coming up a week from tomorrow, Thursday 5/19, and you can buy your tickets online right now by going here.
Despite the downpour, about 20 people are out along 35th SW near Juneau – site of a recent deadly motorcycle-car collision – for a rally urging drivers to slow down. As you probably know, the propensity for speeding on the straightaway has given the road the nickname “I-35.” Denise Sharify of Neighborhood House, who led the crusade that resulted in a similar rally almost three years ago, organized this one too.
Also out: Seattle Police, with Community Police Team Officer Kevin McDaniel on hand, and Traffic Unit vehicles in evidence too (our crew saw one chase down a speeder). Plus TV crews in abundance.
Sharify (talking with KIRO’s Graham Johnson in the photo above) says they’ll be out there as long as people concerned about safety are willing to join them – scheduled end time 6 pm.
She also says they may plan another rally, so this doesn’t fall too far off the front burner. (Additional photos added 5:31 pm.)
Going to the Sounders game on Saturday night (after West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day)? Just got word that the West Seattle Water Taxi is adding a late run to accommodate fans afterward – an 11 pm departure from Pier 50 to Seacrest.
Seattle Public Schools‘ interim superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield is coming to West Seattle for a community forum. The Alliance for Education and Neighborhood House are co-sponsoring the event on May 23rd – one week from Monday – 6-8 pm at High Point’s Neighborhood Center, 6400 Sylvan Way. Along with Dr. Enfield, school board president Steve Sundquist and several other district officials will be on hand, and there will be free child care available, along with dinner.
Both the online and “printable” maps for this Saturday’s 7th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day – 256 sales, big and small, all over the peninsula! – are available now, as the big day nears. In case you missed the debut of the latter, late last night, you can download it here (12-page PDF). For those who absolutely cannot print it out, we’re distributing a limited amount of pre-printed copies to a few locations later today (they’re being photocopied right now); more on that later.
The biggest value of the “printable” version is the sale list – we have four sections of actual map in it, but 7 full pages of sale listings, coded by the same numbers you’ll find on the online-only map version (which you will find here on its own WSB page – if you have already browsed it and just want to make notes about individual sales, each one is printable 
from the info-bubble that comes up when you click a line or marker).
Note that we have made notations for the BENEFIT, BLOCK SALE, and GROUP SITE locations – and also, the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day Facebook page continues to amass wall posts from both sellers offering more details on what they have, and buyers who are looking for specific items.
In the meantime, we’ll see you 9 am-3 pm this Saturday, May 14th (cloudy forecast for now but they say that every year, and last year the sun broke out), from Sale #256 in the south, to Sale #99 in the north, from Sale #126 in the west to Sale #249 in the east … and 252 others inbetween!
(Photo by MIKE SIEGEL/SEATTLE TIMES [WSB partner], republished with permission)
Hundreds watched it arrive in Elliott Bay, passing West Seattle shores late last night (WSB coverage here) – and this morning, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) is in place at Vigor Shipyard (formerly Todd) on Harbor Island for three months of work – also visible from the West Seattle Bridge, as Brian Presser from TouchTech Systems observed while in this morning’s nightmare traffic (WSB coverage of THAT, here):
Hours after the SBX arrival, officials from the Missile Defense Agency and Vigor hosted media reps to get a somewhat closer look, though tours on board the facility itself were not offered. Army Col. Mark Arn, the SBX project manager for the MDA, explained a few things you might not have heard, even if you have been following our coverage over the past week. For one, a little more on why it’s here for the next 3 months: Routine maintenance, upgrades including power and radar – such as, enabling it to hook into shore power so its diesel generators don’t have to run ALL the time – and work on its thrusters, since it’s coming up on a “5-year certification renewal.” That requires a shipyard at a deep-water port (at least 50 feet), and Vigor qualified.
Yes, he reiterated, it won’t be operating while here. So what if somebody just accidentally flipped the switch? That can’t happen, Col. Arn insisted – putting it into operation requires a sequence of processes far beyond just pressing a button or flipping a switch. By the way, up to 100 people can live on board, though they have been closer to 85 lately. How sensitive is it, as a missile (or whatever) detector? He had an interesting analogy in this next minute-plus of video (the main questioner you hear is longtime aerospace reporter Glenn Farley from KING5), along with information on what’s under the dome:
Col. Arn said the SBX arrival here now also has to do with its schedule; it participates in missile-defense tests, including one less than a month ago. It’s the only one of its kind, and he said there are no current plans for another one; he mentioned its total cost in the vicinity of a billion dollars. The work at Vigor is estimated at $27 million.
ADDED 5:33 PM: One more view, from our friend Rebecca Nelson, who runs Ravenna Blog, has some nautical chops, and was first to tell us (about two weeks ago!) that something big was headed this way – a look from the water:
One WSB’er e-mailed to call this the worst traffic he’d seen in five years of living here. We lived the commute too this morning since we were trying to get to the shipyard for the “media availability” regarding the Sea-Based X-Band Radar that was towed in last night (WSB nighttime coverage here, today’s followup here) – and we made it maybe a mile in the first half-hour toward The Bridge. Fauntleroy was backed up, 35th was backed up, Avalon was backed up, Andover to Delridge was backed up. The 911 log showed no incidents anywhere on the West Seattle Bridge; we have called SDOT to see if their systems indicated what made this so much worse than usual. (At least one TV traffic person reportedly blamed an I-5 crash.) More to come. And remember – the Alaskan Way Viaduct has closures this weekend, and next Monday starts “The Big Squeeze” lane reductions. (P.S. Just after publishing this, we headed back into WS up Avalon – and it’s STILL backed up halfway up the hill in the bridge-bound direction – see iPhone photo above.)
11:11 AM: The photo above is from Oliver, showing what the travel-time signs on Fauntleroy said when he passed through. We’ve also heard back from Marybeth Turner at SDOT; she talked with the Traffic Management Center manager in their agency, who also blamed I-5: “He said that there were several accidents on I-5 that backed up traffic.” We don’t see a whole lot on the WSDOT_Traffic Twitter feed but will be asking for their thoughts.
Tonight, principals for both Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School will be among the guests as the Sealth and Denny PTSAs talk about how the schools’ co-location will work starting next school year – the new Denny’s almost done. 7 pm, Sealth library; also from the WSB West Seattle Events calendar:
SCHOOL BOARD REP CHAT: Seattle Public Schools concern or question? The next informal discussion with board president and West Seattle rep Steve Sundquist is today at Delridge Library (5423 Delridge Way SW), 11 am – 12:30 pm.
SAFETY RALLY ON 35TH SW: Weather permitting, the Community Action Team of High Point is hosting a Traffic Slow Down Rally 4-6 pm, all participants welcome. Demonstrators will be centered along 35th from Juneau.
CANDIDATES’ FORUM: The August primary is approaching fast, so a candidates’ forum is at the heart of the 34th District Democrats‘ monthly meeting, 7 pm at The Hall at Fauntleroy (agenda here).
WEST SEATTLE COOLMOM: CoolMom May meeting at C&P Coffee (WSB sponsor; 5612 California Ave SW), 7 pm. Transportation and climate change are the focus
JOB-SEARCH WORKSHOP: Free workshop “Job Interview Basics” at SSCC WorkSource – see full story here.
WEST SEATTLE GARDEN TOUR COMMITTEE: If you are interested in becoming a volunteer member of the West Seattle Garden Tour, tonight’s the monthly meeting and potluck to help plan this year’s 17th Annual West Seattle Garden Tour. The WSGT Committee meets monthly on the second Wednesday of the month at an appointed member’s home for a potluck feast and to review the steady progress of the Tour. 6:30 pm; RSVP to info@westseattlegardentour.com.
Also from Tuesday night’s Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting: ANA president Katy Walum announced who’s playing this year’s Summer Concerts at Hiawatha, one of which is actually at Alki:
JULY 28, THE GOTHARD SISTERS They fiddle, they dance, they sing.
AUGUST 4, MASSY FERGUSON: Rockin’ local faves – the clip above is from their West Seattle Summer Fest concert last year.
AUGUST 11, YOGOMAN BURNING BAND (this concert’s at Alki) “Happy hardcore, ska, soul” is how they describe their music online.
AUGUST 18, LEROY BELL AND HIS ONLY FRIENDS. Longtime songwriter now singing his own songs.
AUGUST 25, CASPAR BABYPANTS: Needs no introduction.
SEPTEMBER 1, STAR ANNA AND THE LAUGHING DOGS. “Alt-country, rock, Americana” is their self-description.
The concerts are free, as ANA has rounded up another slate of sponsors (once again including WSB); they’re outdoors, bring your own chair/blanket, and more details, such as available refreshments, will be available as the season gets closer.
The Ratzenberger family and volunteers are planning an awareness event that includes some fun exercise in an effort to educate people that 65% of those diagnosed with lung cancer never smoked cigarettes.
LOCAL FAMILY RALLIES AROUND 31 YEAR OLD NEVER-SMOKER DIAGNOSED WITH NUMBER ONE CANCER KILLER
Seattle, WA (April 29, 2011) – More shocking words had never been heard by the Ratzenberger family. At just 31 years old, Sara Ratzenberger, a healthy and active young woman, never expected to hear that she had lung cancer.
“When I woke up from surgery, I expected to hear everything went well. Instead I saw the teary-eyed looks of my parents and my husband. Then my husband said “it’s not good, it’s cancer, Sara.” To this day, it is still unbelievable that after six months of being misdiagnosed with pneumonia – having been tested several times and having been told I did not have cancer – that my story turned into this” says Sara, shaking her head.
Although smoking is a major cause of this disease, about 65% of all new lung cancer diagnoses are among people who have never smoked or are former smokers. And Sara’s family is committed to educating the community about this and other misconceptions surrounding lung cancer. The family will host Breathe Deep Seattle, Washington’s first 5K event to benefit LUNGevity Foundation and the organization’s mission to fund lung cancer research.
“The key is to raise money for research,” states Amy May, Volunteer Event Coordinator for Breathe Deep Seattle, “Sara’s cancer was found in stage four, which is not uncommon. But that needs to change because only 16% of lung cancer diagnoses happen during the earliest and most curable stage of the disease, making lung cancer the most deadly cancer in America. The 5-year survival rate for lung cancer is only 15% and that is unacceptable.”
May has joined forces with LUNGevity Foundation, one of the largest private funders of lung cancer research to host Washington’s inaugural Breathe Deep Seattle 5K. The organization, like May, is dedicated to ending lung cancer now.
On Saturday August 13, 2011, the 5K will take place in Seattle’s Lincoln Park. The event welcomes runners and walkers and registration fees for the event range from $10 to $30. Runners will be timed. Event participants will receive a free t-shirt and ice cream, provided by Husky Deli, after the event. Event participants will also receive their own web page, which can be used to raise funds toward lung cancer research.
“1 in 14 Americans are impacted by lung cancer and so you have likely been touched by the disease, whether your realize it or not. It’s time to care about lung cancer and those it touches. Sara and I hope the community will support this critical cause by helping us to raise our $15,000 fundraising goal,” shares May.
To register or make a donation, please visit www.lungevity.org/seattle or call the LUNGevity office at 312-464-0716.
The Breathe Deep Seattle walk/run will be a wonderful way for participants to spend a summer morning. Participants will enjoy a beautiful one mile trail run through evergreen forest, with views from a bluff to the Puget Sound below. Then, wind their way down to the beach and run for 2 miles along the water on paved and hard-packed gravel travel. Wildlife, waves, mountain and sound views will inspire!
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