WS culture/arts 2927 results

Well, you know that, and I know that.

Now the latest Seattle Weekly confirms it. Love this quote. Guess WS Blogger Spouse and I aren’t the only Easy Street patrons with, um, a couple gray hairs (but really, just a couple):

But as much as we can play up West Seattle’s younger music community, it can’t be denied that an entire generation of older folks remains. How will they take to the same summer fest they’ve been attending for the last quarter-century being transformed into a rootsier version of the Capitol Hill Block Party? Vaughan has only to look at his Easy Street patrons to see the answer.

“A lot of the old folks out here are pretty hard- edged,” he says. “In a way, they’re kind of punk rock. When they come into Easy Street, they go for Johnny Cash, lots of rockabilly, just harder-edged older music.”

With that in mind, Summer Fest’s organizers couldn’t have found a better headliner than roots-punk icon John Doe.

Plunder wonder

July 8, 2006 5:27 pm

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| WS culture/arts | WS miscellaneous

Back from a long day in the sun that included the Seafair Pirates’ landing at Alki.

We’ll confess, it’s been many years since we checked out the pirate event. Last time, somewhere in the ’90s, it was pretty pathetic — we wandered down to the beach, found disorganization and apathy. We enjoy the Pirates’ other appearances — especially in parades — so we decided we’d stick with those.

But given all the advance publicity this time, plus our honor-bound duty to report for This Here Blog, we decided to check out today’s event. As we arrived at the beach (on foot, after getting a ride as far as Admiral & 59th), our jaw dropped. Not just a massive crowd, but also food and merchandise booths, and even other events under way on the beach — some sort of pole-vault competition (!?). It looked like a beach in California, and we mean that as a compliment … a beach where people were truly having tons of fun in the sun.

So we staked out a spot on the rocky shore, not far from what appeared to be the designated landing spot west of the Bathhouse & statue, and watched. The fireboat Chief Seattle went by, putting on a show. A flotilla of various sailboats, power boats, and classic wooden yachts kept shuffling about, with at least one boat flying a pirate flag, leading us to wonder if the Pirates had swapped out vessels this year.

Finally, a cannon boom in the distance — and a sighting of the Army barge-type boats that we knew the Pirates had been using for these landings. One came ashore with just soldiers on board (military invasion of WS? has it come to this?), then backed up, and cleared the way for the Real Deal. Huge cheers and applause. Lots of little kids — and young women — in pirate togs. What a greeting those guys got.

We have no idea what they did AFTER storming ashore from their barge — we started walking toward the water-taxi shuttle. But we were so heartened to see thousands of people show up. Dear everyone, PLEASE turn out for the parade in two weeks along Cali Ave, OK? That’s the real heart of summer fun in WS — and it has been a bit sparse in recent years.

Traffic alert

July 8, 2006 8:42 am

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| WS breaking news | WS culture/arts

Not sure exactly what’s up — we’ll check while en route to the Pirates in a bit — but WS Blogger Spouse tells me that Alaska is all torn up on the block between Easy Street and Key Bank. Last-minute work in time for next weekend’s Summer Fest/Street Festival/etc.?

Speaking of which, the whole music schedule is up online for the festival … and as a tipster told us a few weeks back, it’s quite a lineup, sponsored by West 5, Easy Street, and KEXP.

Wow, in the olden days, the music lineup was pretty much something that couldn’t have been sponsored by anything more eclectic than (bless their hearts) the Senior Center and Poggie’s Tavern. How far WS has come!

Now that we have the fireworks out of the way …

July 5, 2006 1:12 am

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| WS culture/arts

… time for more summer fun. Here’s one event you might not have heard about: the Mediterranean Fantasy Festival, coming up a week from Saturday, right here in fabulous WS. I would never have heard of it if not for a mailing list I signed up for after becoming enthralled by a local belly-dance troupe during an offbeat Christmas show at ArtsWest a couple years back. See ya there!

Weekend calm before the storm

July 1, 2006 1:02 pm

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| Holidays | WS culture/arts

This is the weekend to hang out around your house before West Seattle’s blitz of midsummer events: Pirates Landing next weekend, Summer Fest (formerly Street Festival) the weekend after that, The Parade the weekend after that. Of course, by “weekend” I mean literally today and tomorrow, since Monday you’ll have to get ready for fireworks viewing on Tuesday … looks like great weather for the Fourth of Jul-Ivar’s show over the bay, which is visible from the Alki Bathhouse eastward along the WS Elliott Bay waterfront.

On the east side of the West Side

May 3, 2006 5:38 am

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| Delridge | WS culture/arts

Cool story about what’s up at the re-invented Cooper School on Delridge.

I’m waiting to see somebody write about what’s up at the ActivSpace building on Harbor Ave just past the bridge. Some weeks back, somebody hung a sign on the Fauntleroy overpass offering “readings” there, among other things, and I believe they meant what we used to call “fortune-telling” as opposed to oh, say, poetry readings. (Actually looks like a lot of alternative practitioners, when you peruse the ActivSpace “customer” list.)