West Seattle, Washington
17 Wednesday
From the WSB West Seattle Events calendar: 6 pm tonight, it’s the first South Delridge/White Center Community Safety Coalition meeting of the year, St. James Place, 9421 18th SW (map). 6:30 pm, it’s the Southwest Design Review Board meeting for 2743 California SW (medical/dental-office building going in just north of PCC), West Seattle (Admiral) Library branch. Also at 6:30, at Seattle Public Schools HQ in Sodo, the final public hearing for the citywide closure proposal that involves three West Seattle schools/buildings (archived WSB coverage here). At 7 pm, at the new Duwamish Longhouse, the world premiere of “Angeline,” a documentary film on the life of Princess Angeline, daughter of Chief Seattle. Also at 7 pm, the Seattle Parks Board gets an updated briefing on beach fires, park HQ downtown (as reported here yesterday – looks like status quo for this year).
ADDED 12:58 PM: Also just got word that the West Seattle High School music department’s winter concert is tonight, 7:30 pm, WSHS Theater, all welcome – and it’s free!
Our new leadership in DC is challenging us all to reach out and help each other – and we’ve got a stack of ideas to share with you – many are already on the WSB West Seattle Events calendar, but we want to shine an extra spotlight too – for starters, Illusions Hair Design (WSB sponsor) still has appointments available for its annual “Have a Heart Day” on Sunday 2/8 — here’s what it’s all about:
Illusions Hair Design is raising money for West Seattle Helpline – benefiting many families in our community – and Pencil Me in for Kids – benefiting hundreds of local grade-school kids each year – through its annual fund raiser “Have a Heart Day.” Since 1994, Illusions has opened its doors the Sunday before Valentine’s Day, donated staff time performing haircuts at reduced cost, and donated ALL monies raised to local charities. This year’s event will be on Sunday February 8th, from 12-5. Please call (206) 938-3675 to schedule an appointment, or visit www.illusionshairdesign.com to learn more.
Illusions, by the way, is currently featuring a photography display that you are welcome to stop by and check out during regular salon hours Mondays-Fridays, through the end of February – the debut show of Marybeth Coghill (here’s some of her work on Flickr).
Thanks to Roxhill Elementary principal Carmela Dellino for pointing us to a KIRO Radio story about a song written by a Roxhill teacher, and performed by students, in honor of MLK Day. (Find it online here, including audio of the story, in which you hear the kids sing part of the song.) Carmen explains: “Chris Robert, one of our Kindergarten teachers, combined the importance of King as a civil rights leader with the significance of our upcoming inauguration of the first Black president of the United States by writing a song. He taught all the Kindergarteners the song and incorporated it into a lesson about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. I am extremely proud of his work and all our teachers at Roxhill.”
What we mean by that is: Our weekly list of Friday-Saturday-Sunday events is a “map” in its own right, but the big map activity this weekend happens tomorrow afternoon, when Snowstorm ’08 WSB mapmaking star Alice is leading an informal session on how to make Google Maps – that, and other activities including a big concert rescheduled from its snow-scuttled date, are all part of more than 30 events and activities in West Seattle this weekend, ahead:Read More
Tomorrow morning at 10 am, ArtsWest starts taking applications for its always-popular musical-theater summer camp. No auditions are required, but only the first 30 to sign up are guaranteed a spot. This year’s production: “A Year with Frog and Toad.” Full scoop here.
From Toni Reineke with Westside Symphonette, West Seattle’s community orchestra:
We are short 3 trombones, 1 or 2 trumpets, and at least one French horn player … we have great strings this year (though we could always use more, especially violas). We even have an oboe player!
We started our winter/spring session last Tuesday but players are welcome to join any old time. They could call me at 206-243-6955 or e-mail tonireineke@comcast.net.
Next rehearsal is at Chief Sealth (in the Boren Building) this coming Tuesday, January 13.
(For original report with background on what this is about, go here)
1:56 PM UPDATE: Adam shot photos separate from the webcam, and here are two of them (above and below).
Note the burning car tipped on its side; WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand, who was covering this on the ground, says hydraulics were used.
ADDED 4:23 PM: Three WSB video clips – first, the car (a BMW) as it burned:
Second, the fire being put out:
Third, a hooded contestant arriving at the shoot:
The plot of “The Phone” apparently involves contestants answering ringing cell phones in major cities, and embarking on an action-packed race for cash prizes. We’ll watch to see when it’s scheduled to premiere — and we’ll be looking to see when this episode turns up. One more photo: Adam snapped the helicopter that was participating in the shoot – note the attached camera:
Published earlier in the afternoon:
1:12 PM UPDATE: Much better pictures from the webcam mentioned below, sent by Adam (thank you AGAIN!). What follows is what we originally posted at 12:54 pm:
That’s a screen grab from a couple minutes ago via the camera.eastalki.com webcam set up across the street from Seacrest, where – as first reported here yesterday – the TV show “The Phone” is shooting today, and their promised “detonation” simulating a car explosion was just set off. Lots more pix/video to come later. (Reminder, the parking restrictions remain in effect till 6 pm.)
ORIGINAL 4:13 PM POST: Thanks to JBC for the first tip on this — the Seacrest parking lot will be off-limits tomorrow as will a lot of parking in the area along the east side of Harbor Avenue, 6 am-6 pm, because a film/video crew will be in action. Someone we asked at Seacrest would only say “film” but Adam says his building nearby has been notified it’s a “TV pilot.” (We saw one obvious prop – a makeshift A-board sign for a nameless “Water Taxi” with three tiers of ticket prices that bear no relation to the pricing of the real Water Taxi, which of course is out of service till spring.) We’re off to do more online research in hopes of securing details, but wanted to get word out ASAP about the parking restrictions for tomorrow. 4:41 PM UPDATE: Just got a photo of the notice (thanks again to Adam). Will retype the text here momentarily. Two things of note: Alki Crab and Fish WILL be open during the shoot (which the notice says will last about six hours), and one part of the production will include “the detonation of a charge which will simulate a car explosion.” 4:57 PM UPDATE: To read the entire text of the notice with details about what they’re doing tomorrow, including that “detonation,” and why there may be some intermittent traffic control in the area tomorrow too — plus which show is apparently involved — click ahead:Read More
Among this weekend’s highlights: Two nighttime explorations presented by Camp Long; a free introductory class by new WSB sponsors NiaDivas; and your chance to join the new group West Seattle Change – more than two dozen events and activities in West Seattle this weekend, ahead:Read More
(12/28/08 West Seattle Farmers’ Market photo by JayDee)
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: Some vendors didn’t make it out last week because of the snowstorm’s aftermath, but the Farmers’ Market is expected to be back to full strength today, 10 am-2 pm, 44th/Alaska. Here’s today’s fresh sheet; among other things, it says tulips are back (we photographed them this time last year).
ONE MORE SHOW FOR “AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS”: Last chance to get your delayed-holiday entertainment on! (Or, to simply see a good show.) Twelfth Night Productions (WSB sponsor) has one more performance of “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” 3 pm today at Youngstown Arts Center; tickets are available online or at the door. (To see what else is happening today/tonight, see the West Seattle Weekend Lineup.)
In 1851, when the first European-Americans arrived at Alki Point, the Dkhw’Duw’Absh occupied at least 17 villages, living in over 90 longhouses, and 6 Potlatch Houses (centers of spiritual and social gathering), along Elliott Bay, the Duwamish River, the Cedar River, the Black River (which no longer exists), Lake Washington, Lake Union, and Lake Sammamish. By 1910, nearly all of the Dkhw’Duw’Absh longhouses were destroyed by Non-Native arson.
–From “The Life of Si’ahl, ‘Chief Seattle’,” by Thomas Speer (read the story online here)
Nearly a century later, a historic event in West Seattle today, as our area’s First People opened their new longhouse to visitors:
That two-minute video clip follows singers, drummers, and other community members into the Duwamish Tribe Longhouse and Cultural Center immediately after today’s ribbon-cutting. Earlier, we published a quick update, with a few photos and a brief clip of the ribbon-cutting itself. But as we wrote then, there is so much more to show and tell you, if you were not able to be there. Click ahead for more video, and other highlights:Read More
Back from a two-hour event with many amazing moments, as the Duwamish Tribe opened its new Longhouse and Cultural Center, on the eastern edge of West Seattle (4700 block of West Marginal Way; here’s a map), to the public – Duwamish chair Cecile Hansen and major donors Arlene and George Wade cut the ribbon, as this brief video clip shows:
(video no longer available due to blip.tv shutdown)
It is open until 4 pm today, so you are welcome to go visit for yourself. Much of the building is the high-ceilinged longhouse meeting space, but the Cultural Center displays are in a cozier space that opens from the door (which is on the west side of the building):
There’s a gift shop too:
The ceremony and presentations included so many emotional moments – reconciliation of the Natives with descendants of Seattle’s first white settlers – but also included news, with word of a performance series for which season tickets are now on sale at the gift shop, and a lawyer’s somber warning that the fight for formal federal recognition of the Duwamish Tribe remains an uphill battle, to say the least. Many more details to come in our later report, and more video of those moments.
The snow woes forced a two-week hiatus for the West Seattle Weekend Lineup, but now that wintry weather is down to its usual dull roar (knock wood), we’re ready to resume. From Twelfth Night Productions‘ (WSB sponsor) “Amahl and the Night Visitors” (read more here) to work parties tomorrow in three local forests to the Duwamish Tribe‘s longhouse dedication, to free yoga, in all, more than two dozen West Seattle Friday-Saturday-Sunday events are listed ahead:Read More
This one’s still on the WSB (Other) Blogs (in West Seattle) page, but will fall off soon since 100 sites feed into that page and this update’s a few days old. If you haven’t read it already, and you’re interested in the arts — or philosophy — or just plain thoughtful writing — it’s worth a look: ArtsWest executive director Alan Harrison‘s 2008-ending thoughts. (And we couldn’t resist calling attention to it, since he opens by implying only 4 people, or so, will see it.)
For everyone who missed out on some of the usual pre-holiday fun because of Snowstorm ’08 — tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday, you have four chances to make up for it, with four performances of Twelfth Night Productions‘ “Amahl and the Night Visitors” at Youngstown Arts Center here in West Seattle. Twelfth Night is sponsoring WSB through the weekend to get the word out — here’s its announcement of the show, which it has presented annually for more than a decade:
Twelfth Night Productions celebrates Twelfth Night with its twelfth annual performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors, a short opera by Gian Carlo Menotti.
This fully orchestrated production of Menotti’s brilliantly scored opera tells the story of a poor young shepherd and his mother who receive a visit from the Three Kings on their way to Bethlehem: “Amahl’s mother welcomes the royal sojourners, who rest in the small, bare house where love and faith work miracles during the night.” (Publisher’s Weekly, 1986)
“Our production has become a tradition for many families in the Seattle area. It is a beautiful way to close the holiday season,” says artistic director Mary Opland Springer. Each year many cast members, musicians, and dancers return to recreate the magic of this beautiful opera.
Twelfth Night Productions is a non-profit performing arts organization located in the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. This production features several artists from the West Seattle community as well as the greater Seattle area.
Amahl and the Night Visitors runs in a special limited engagement at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, the former historic Cooper School, in West Seattle. Showtimes are: Friday, January 2nd, and Saturday, January 3rd, at 7:30 PM, with matinees at 3:00 PM on Saturday (1/3) and Sunday (1/4). Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students & seniors, and are available through Brown Paper Tickets (www.brownpapertickets.com), and at the Youngstown Theater on performance days.Due to the popularity of this production and limited seating availability, we recommend purchasing tickets in advance. Amahl and the Night Visitors is produced through special arrangement with G. Schirmer Publishing Inc.
Here’s the direct link to the Brown Paper Tickets page for “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” We thank Twelfth Night Productions for supporting WSB with this sponsorship, and we hope you’ll support the local performing arts by enjoying “Amahl and the Night Visitors” this weekend!
Jerry Whiting from West Seattle-based JetCityOrange created that clip of his Lava Lamp Webcam, suggesting that’s how a Lava Lamp might look “on espresso” (java lava?) – and now the camera itself has won an international honor: It made EarthCam’s list of the 25 Most Interesting Webcams of 2008. The camera focuses on two Lava Lites — with one in action at all times — and updates its image every 10 seconds; you can see it on this JetCityOrange page anytime (optimal viewing 8-8:30 pm, when Jerry says both are usually on). The full EarthCam Top 25 list is here (with cams from an Australian station in Antartica to the National Corvette Museum).
This first came up in the WSB Forums today, and we just got it confirmed by James Rasmussen, the Duwamish Tribe‘s Longhouse and Cultural Center director, so we could post official word – the longhouse’s grand opening (on the eastern edge of West Seattle) is finally happening this Saturday (Jan. 3), 10 am. (added Tuesday night) Location: 4700 block of West Marginal Way; here’s a map. Rasmussen says the event will last about 2 hours, starting with a 10 am ribbon-cutting, including speeches from various dignitaries and “a thank you from our chair Cecile Hansen.”
In the four days since first word of the two “scenarios” for Alaskan Way Viaduct Central Waterfront replacement — one, a “couplet” of surface streets; the other, a new single-deck viaduct, 2 side-by-side structures — WSB has brought you comments and commentary from: The two West Seattleites on the Stakeholders Advisory Committee, Vlad Oustimovitch of Gatewood (read his thoughts here) and Pete Spalding of Pigeon Point (read his, here), former West Seattle Herald editor Jack Mayne (read his guest editorial here), and the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. We also asked West Seattle-residing (but entire-city-representing) City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen if he would share his thoughts; here they are:
As a resident of West Seattle I find the viaduct incredibly convenient to travel between home and downtown and to most areas west of I-5. Often, other routes are slower and less direct. For this reason the elevated options are attractive.
However, I believe we have to look at numerous factors as we make a decision we will live with for the next century. For historical context, your readers may recall the decisions made by the city nearly twenty-five years ago to build the high and low level West Seattle bridges were very contentious and controversial. The high level bridge was opposed in large part because it cost more than a low level drawbridge. The high level bridge was selected because it would meet current and future transportation needs.
The low level swing bridge was controversial because it employed a unique technology and replaced a four lane bridge with a two lane bridge which allowed the construction of shoulders, pedestrian and bicycle lanes and a clear shipping channel for future maritime needs. The low level swing bridge was more costly than other options but was selected because it too would meet current and future transportation needs.
Like the West Seattle Bridge decisions, I hope the option selected by the state to replace the viaduct will be one which will best serve the City for many generations and that speed and costs are not the only criteria. For the long term benefit of the City I believe that we need to consider a number of factors. Speed, convenience, number of vehicles served are important but are not the only criteria. We should also consider the environmental and economic benefits and how we can improve conditions on our waterfront to make it more attractive to all of us including visitors and businesses.
The options that I favor are those which would remove the elevated structure and replace it with a combination of surface street and transit improvements without creating highway-like conditions on the waterfront. The options that I would support should meet our needs now and preserve the ability to construct a cut-and-cover or deep bored tunnel if required to meet any need in the future for additional non-stop transportation through the City. We can select an option today that preserves future options which are complimentary to the investment we would make now.
I want Seattle to support our current businesses and successfully compete for international trade and business. I meet with local business leaders and with executives who are traveling to Seattle to explore opportunities. Last week I met with executives of French-owned companies that have major businesses here and who are seeking new opportunities. It was interesting how often the beauty of the setting of our City is mentioned as being attractive to them. On more than one occasion individuals told me how they hope that Seattle does create a great waterfront. Other cities are doing this and I am confident we can too while meeting our transportation needs.
Tom Rasmussen
Last reminder, tonight is a major opportunity to voice your opinion “in person” — the public forum at Town Hall downtown, starting at 5 pm (here’s a map/directions to TH).
All WSB Alaskan Way Viaduct coverage is archived here, newest to oldest; project information is at alaskanwayviaduct.org. To read what citywide news sources are reporting about the Viaduct, see the latest links on the WSB “More” page (which also automatically picks up citywide media coverage of West Seattle).
Just back from a whirlwind visit to two holiday bazaar/sale events under way in West Seattle till 3 pm. Above, sisters Danielle Aguilar and Bri’Anna Smith are selling not just warm handmade hats at the Delridge Community Center bazaar, but also the coolest recycled-material lunch bags we’ve seen in a while — quilted out of plastic grocery bags. Bri’Anna makes it all and you can find her online at myspace.com/knitagainstthemachine – meantime, we found another West Seattle sister team selling holiday-gift treats (including flavored nuts and creatively packaged candies) nearby:
Those are from Twisted Sisters Emporium, created by Connie O’Donnell and Diane Radischat (who you may know from Special Editions Studio). Also at Delridge Community Center till 3 pm, those gorgeous West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival handmade glass ornaments, with Hi-Yu Queen Margo Femiano and Junior Court Princess Anna Fuller on hand:
Next, it’s over to C & P Coffee, where a cozy but bustling arts/crafts sale also continues till 3 pm. We were captivated by these neighborhood-pride (little map segments of West Seattle and other Seattle neighborhoods) magnets that Cyn Moore (cyncity pendants) is selling:
She says you can find her neighborhood pendants and other items at Twilight in The Junction, too. One more craftsperson you’ll find at C & P today – Machel Spence of WavyShell:
More of today’s events (Christmas Ship tonight – three West Seattle stops!) are listed on the WSB West Seattle Weekend Lineup.
Regardless of what the weather does or doesn’t do, this is perhaps the very best pre-Christmas weekend – second-to-last weekend before The Holiday, so nobody’s in pre-holiday panic mode yet. And what a wonderful thing that is, since we have a tree lighting tonight, Christmas Ship visits Saturday and Sunday nights, Santa in The Junction and at Westwood Village, wondrous musical offerings, and the WSB Forum members inviting you to a great party and donation drive on Sunday … It’s not all holidays, though – there’s “hardcore karaoke” tonight at Skylark (WSB sponsor), for example, and a circus/acrobatics show at Youngstown! In all, more than 50 West Seattle events listed ahead:Read More
Westside Symphonette director Toni Reineke let us sneak in to the orchestras’ rehearsal tonight at the West Seattle High School theater as they prepared for tomorrow night’s Holiday Concert. The “Jingle Bell Rock” rendition above — with the combined junior and senior groups — is just one of many holiday singalongs you’ll get to enjoy, so bring your caroling chops (and your Messiah score if you have one, since “Hallelujah Chorus” is on the program too!). The lineup has got a few non-holiday selections as well; conducted by Nse Ekpo, the Junior Orchestra practiced Larry Clark‘s “Engines of Resistance” while we were there, and WSB Junior Member of the Team, Torin, got the whole thing on cinema-verite walking video:
Admission to tomorrow night’s concert — 7 pm at WSHS — is free, but donations are appreciated, as Westside Symphonette is self-supporting. Musicians of all ages are always welcome to join the Westside Symphonette – contact Toni Reineke at tonireineke@comcast.net or 206-243-6955. Meantime, the next week-plus is prime time for holiday concerts, and you’ll find them all listed on the WSB Holidays page (if you know of one that’s NOT there, please forgive us for missing it, and e-mail us to let us know!).
Thanks to Huzefa Mogri for sharing that overview of the scene inside West Seattle Christian Church‘s (WSB sponsor) new multiuse facility, opened unofficially for a dessert-theater performance Sunday night, with Taproot Theatre staging “It’s a Wonderful Improv Life” – zaniness ensued, as this photo suggests:
More on the new facility soon; Taproot, by the way, performs the same show at its Greenwood theater the next two Friday nights – info’s on their website.
Brennan Coyle — who recycles old skateboards into creations like the one with which he posed — is one of the people we caught up with tonight at the skatepark-art celebration that accompanied the first night of the Youngstown Arts Center/Cooper Artist Housing holiday open house — and as you can see, he truly combines skating with art. Though construction of the Delridge Skatepark is on hold a while till money can be found to build it, after skatepark dollars were slashed from the new city budget, design is proceeding and so is the work of a community team focused on incorporating art into the skatepark. (The skating-related event was for tonight only, but the Youngstown/Cooper Housing open house continues tomorrow, noon-5 pm.)
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