West Seattle, Washington
16 Tuesday
To help you find the Weekend Lineup more easily, we’ve given it a category of its own — you will always find the latest one by clicking WS Weekend Lineup in the categories list at right (or bookmark the link). As for this weekend, 28 possibilities so far:
Rhonda from Beach Drive Blog (who also runs this week’s Citizen Rain “Blog Of The Week,” The Mortgage Porter) reminds us all that today is your last chance to visit the Walker Rock Garden till next year. She has a nice photo gallery from the garden here.
If you’ve been looking for more ways to show your love for, devotion to, crazy-mad-nuts-aboutness regarding, West Seattle … check out the WS Art Dive next to Hotwire this weekend. Right at the gate, we found artist Jason Olcott selling two types of T-shirts that might meet your need … one is black, fists on the front with WEST SIDE across the knuckles, WEST SEATTLE on the back; the other is pink, inscribed in script, WEST SEATTLE GIRL. 20 bucks. Those are only two of the catchy creations we browsed at the Art Dive; participating artists are there, basking in the sun, awaiting your visit, till 5 today, 10-5 tomorrow.
You don’t need to go hang out in the shadow of the Space Needle to enjoy yourself this weekend. We’ve found 21 ways to have a blast here in WS (and environs), including the West Seattle Art Dive!Read More
Tomorrow, you get two “last chances”: First, last chance to ride the Elliott Bay Water Taxi‘s special early run, 6:10 am. As you may recall, this extra run was added for Freeway Fright ’07; the road work ended early, but Metro stretched the bonus WT run one full week to gather data. The Water Taxi’s regular season, by the way, has another month to go — it continues through September 30th.
Second, it’s the last non-holiday weekday of the year at Colman Pool. The beautiful beachfront pool at Lincoln Park will be open daily through Labor Day, then closed till one final “post-season weekend” Saturday-Sunday, September 8th-9th. For us, it’s just not summer unless we swim there at least once.
September is almost here, and with it arrives your annual chance to pull a fun stunt for a good cause: 
The Furry Faces Foundation is offering you the chance to send somebody a flock of plastic pink flamingos — 10 bucks for every five birds you would like them to land in your target’s yard. To quote the FFF press release, “All flamingo flocks are modestly accessorized with Hawaiian leis, boas or Mardi Gras jewelry and after a 24-48 hour stay over, they will mysteriously disappear.” The concept has a few more fun enhancements, including the ability to purchase “insurance” against somebody sending a flock your way. You can order a flamingo flock by e-mall (furryfaces@hotmail.com), phone (932-1652), or by picking up/dropping off an application at Hotwire Coffee or Pet Elements.
According to both the Hotwire Coffee website and a WSB reader who attended last night’s outdoor movie, the rescheduled date for the Sidewalk Cinema presentation of “Monty Python & the Holy Grail” (rained out last weekend) is Friday night, September 21st. See you there!
From the Sunday events in our West Seattle weekend lineup (posted on the site every Friday morning), two today-onlies:
ARTS IN NATURE FESTIVAL, DAY 2: Its name evokes “paintings among the trees” to the uninitiated, but the schedule of events is far wilder, in more ways than one. Camp Long, 11 am-6 pm.
SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK LIVE, JR., FINAL PERFORMANCE: 2 pm today @ ArtsWest. The kids in this show put it together during a month of Musical Theater Adventures day camp, and we’ve heard nothing but good things. (Mentioning them one last time gives us the excuse to run this cute photo, courtesy ArtsWest.)
With school starting in less than 2 weeks, the machinery’s starting to rumble for kid activities too. We got e-mail this week from Camp Fire USA, which wants WS families to know it’s starting registration for group programs (and in addition to what’s mentioned in that link, even has a preschooler-level program for kids as young as three; Camp Fire offers “community family clubs” too). We have a soft spot for Camp Fire; one of us was a Blue Bird way back when (and was sad to learn while working on this post that the Blue Bird designation was retired in ’89).
Last weekend in August, and we just can’t bear to see any more rain. We’ve got rowing & volleyball at Alki, the Art in Nature Festival, a narrated history walk around eastern WS, and a job fair (today!) … 31 ways to have fun without leaving the peninsula:Read More
Just a few one-time only events in this advance alert (much more tomorrow morning in our weekly WS Weekend Lineup):
TONIGHT: Open house @ High Point Community Center, 6:30 pm. (It’s a beautiful facility, just 3 years old.)
TONIGHT: The Southwest Design Review Board meets @ SW Precinct, 6:30 pm, to review the proposed new building at the Alki Pegasus Pizza site.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Last outdoor concert of the season @ Providence Mt. St. Vincent, dinner available @ 5 (wine-tasting booth too), music by the fabulous West Seattle Big Band starts @ 6.
SATURDAY: The Great Cross-Sound Race, with rowers going from Alki to Bainbridge and back.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Festival season isn’t over yet! Arts in Nature happens at Camp Long all weekend. It’s presented by the Nature Consortium, a WS-based organization profiled today in the Times.
Sign on the gate @ Hotwire says last night’s rained-out showing of “Monty Python & the Holy Grail” WILL be rescheduled for “a Saturday in September,” no date yet, we’ll let you know the second we hear. Meantime, in the rainout post on his Sidewalk Cinema blog, movie maestro Philip notes that next Saturday’s “Edward Scissorhands” showing will have an 8 pm opening band, Pagasys (hear them here).
What kind of a summer IS this? For the second time in a month, the Sidewalk Cinema outdoor movie next to Hotwire is rained out tonight. We’re dejected, as we were completely looking forward to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and the live opening band. We’ll let you know if and when we find out about a rescheduling date; in the meantime, “Edward Scissorhands” is scheduled for next Saturday night — cross your fingers for cloudlessness.
Cool crowd, both hosts and visitors, at the police department’s annual Picnic at the Precinct this afternoon. As big and busy as WS is, it’s hard to believe we didn’t get our own police precinct till 2003. It’s a lovely building, but today (before the rain moved in) most of the fun was out in the street on the building’s south side; they shut down Webster for the occasion. Our first photo here is a great crowd shot sent in by WSB reader LyndaB:
(Thanks, LyndaB!) From here, photos are by the WSB team. Besides meeting-and-greeting, the police showed off some of their arsenal, including this robot:
Next — a closeup of the robot, Chief Kerlikowske in casual wear, one of the SPD vehicles you don’t see every day, and more:Read More
Photos below from tonight’s Alki community picnic @ the playfield — barbecue and bouncing, what more could you ask for on a nice night like this? Tomorrow afternoon, another picnic to which all of West Seattle is invited: It’s at the Seattle Police Southwest Precinct next to Home Depot, and besides picnicking with your protectors, you also will get a chance to tour the precinct — 1-4 pm tomorrow.
—
We will post it by late morning – the fire ate into our research time. If you are still planning your Friday night, one of the one-time-only events to consider is the Alki community picnic @ Alki Playfield, 5:30-8 tonight. More to come!
Hot out of the WSB inbox: The Admiral Theater is having a “surprise midnight movie” TONIGHT (doors open 11:30), admission $5, all proceeds to the restoration project. The movie: “Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End.” Be there! Also from the Admiral Theater, two more items that are free to a good home, first come first serve according to the theater’s Steve Garrett: Glass-top display freezer, and upright “Pepsi refrigerator.” Steve says both “need to be charged.” Don’t wait till the midnight movie, call him now if you want either or both at 206-938-0360 theater, 206-856-9798 cell.
Tonight’s your chance to catch the first performances of the second (and final) week of shows for two musicals playing in West Seattle right now — “Disney’s High School Musical” (photo courtesy ArtsWest, taken by mattdurhamphotography.com) presented by the Summer Musical Theater Conservatory Program @ ArtsWest, and “Oklahoma!” presented by Twelfth Night Productions‘ Pandemonium Players @ WS High School Theater. Both play at 7:30 tonight, with several more shows in the next few days; follow the links for full details, including online ticket sales.
We knew Garlic Jim’s Pizza (now in its 5th month in The Junction) was among the sponsors for tonight’s Sidewalk Cinema outdoor movie next to Hotwire — but we didn’t know they were bringing free pizza! GJ’s owner Ryan Reese and his minions just kept the slices coming; smelled heavenly. And that was only part of the fun. The movie was “Raiders of the Lost Ark”; looked and sounded great with the Sidewalk Cinema projection & speaker system. At least 150 bundled-up people of all ages were there and there was still room for more. Awesome raffle prizes (no entry fee, you got a raffle ticket just for being there) from GJ’s (free & discount pizza) and the other two sponsors, WS Farmers’ Market ($10 certificates) and Viking Bank (free safe-deposit box for a year). Next Saturday night, the movie is “Monty Python & the Holy Grail”; sponsors are 4 West Seattle dentists (wonder what their giveaways might be).
The major festivals are over but the fun is far from done. And with Freeway Fright ’07 kicking off, this is the best weekend yet to JUST STAY ON OUR PENINSULA. Click ahead for dozens of Fri-Sat-Sun events and activities around WS:Read More
-Tomorrow night is the monthly West Seattle Art Walk in The Junction; more than a dozen stops and their intriguing offerings are listed on the Art Walk blog (a fine resource that also includes direct weblinks for many of the participating artists and businesses). Among the participants, the growing Ginomai center for artists.
-Also tomorrow night, it’s opening night for two musicals here in WS: The Twelfth Night Productions presentation of “Oklahoma!” @ West Seattle HS Theater (tickets available online), and the ArtsWest Summer Musical Theater Conservatory Program presentation of “Disney’s High School Musical” (tickets available online).
-Friday, three one-time-onlies (more Fri-Sat-Sun events when our weekend lineup appears on Fri morning): In the afternoon; golf in WS for a good cause; then in the evening, the weather should be nice for the makeup showing (remember the July 21 rainout?) of “Chicken Run” at Sidewalk Cinema’s Movies on the Wall next to Hotwire Coffeehouse — and for the 34th District Democrats’ annual Garden Party Auction fundraising bash @ West Seattle Nursery.
We’ve mentioned that our favorite place to experience Blue Angels mania during Seafair weekend is on the fence by their parking spot at Museum of Flight/Boeing Field. After bringing the camera along today, we can show you what that’s really like:
That’s the fence crowd by the jets (not to be confused with the fence on the BF runway) around 1 pm, just before the pilots show up. We got there a lot earlier to be on the front line, inspected by the bomb-sniffing dog, whose photo you will see (and more) after the click:Read More
| 1 COMMENT