West Seattle, Washington
26 Sunday
Less than two months now till West Seattle Summer Fest, the street festival in The Junction. We’ve already reported on the big-name headliner for Night 1, Mudhoney – but now, the rest of the music slate is “nearly complete,” and booker Jason Fitzgerald — who enthuses, “This is by far the best lineup yet!” — is sharing the news on who will be playing during the festival’s three-day run July 10-12:
Mudhoney (www.myspace.com/mudhoney)
Mark Pickerel & His Praying Hands (www.myspace.com/markpickerelandhisprayinghands)
The Magic Mirrors (www.myspace.com/themagicmirrors)
The Dimes (www.myspace.com/thedimes)
McTuff (www.myspace.com/mctuffmusic)
70 Proof (1970’s guitar rock cover songs performed by Andrew McKeag & Jason Finn of The Presidents, Mike Musburger of The Posies, Kurt Bloch from The Fastbacks, Ben London from Alcohol Funnycar and special guests!)
Thee Sgt Major III (www.myspace.com/sgtmajortheband)
Super Sonic Soul Pimps (www.myspace.com/intellijamus)
Black Panties (www.myspace.com/blackpantiesrock)
The Tripwires (www.myspace.com/thetripwires)
Team Gina (www.myspace.com/teamgina)
Derby (www.myspace.com/derbyrock)
We Are Golden (www.myspace.com/wearegoldenmusic)
The Lonely Forest (www.myspace.com/thelonelyforest)
Kim Virant (www.myspace.com/kimvirant)
Trombone Cake (www.myspace.com/trombonecake2007)
Kristen Ward (www.myspace.com/kristenwardmusic)
Capping Day (www.myspace.com/cappingday)
Green Pajamas (www.myspace.com/greenpajamas)
Carrie Clark & The Lonesome Lovers (www.myspace.com/carrieclark)
Strange Jerome (www.myspace.com/strangejerome)
Mighty Shiny (www.myspace.com/mightyshiny)
Half Light (www.myspace.com/halflightseattle)
Olympic Sound Collective (www.myspace.com/olympicsoundcollective)
Hurricane Chaser (www.myspace.com/hurricanechasermusic)
Swamp Soul (www.swampsoulband.com/music.html)
Gunbunny (www.myspace.com/wearegunbunny)
Pillow Army (www.myspace.com/pillowarmy)
Ranger & The Re-Arrangers (www.myspace.com/rangerandtherearrangers)
The Toucans (www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1559701-toucans-steel-drum-band)
Supermassive (www. supermassivemusic.com)
Fitzgerald adds, “The dates and times for these performances will be published later. And, as always, it’s all FREE!”
Three big plant sales this weekend – Furry Faces Foundation (with a book-signing!), Sound Yoga (WSB sponsor), Tibbetts Church … plus, “A Night of Swing” tonight with the West Seattle Big Band at Grace Church, a busy Saturday slate including the West Seattle Sportsmen’s Club Kids’ Fishing Derby at Seacrest … Sunday brings the Walk With Us to Cure Lupus 5K on Alki plus the beer/gardening art event at West Seattle Nursery on Sunday … more than 40 events in the full West Seattle Weekend Lineup, brought to you by Skylark Cafe and Club:Read More
With the first-ever Seattle International Film Festival showings in West Seattle now less than a month away, WSB is co-promoting an Admiral Theater event to celebrate this major moment in WS cultural history: An opening-night party on June 5. The party is just taking shape – it will be fun but informal, probably something of an open-house format that night, before the 7 pm showing of the ever-so-appropriate choice “The Admiral.” On behalf of Admiral entertainment director Dinah Brein-McClellan, we’re asking you: Got any ideas for who or what should be part of that party (an all-ages, drop-in event)? If you’re a local business or organization, maybe you’d like to be part of it? Leave a comment here or e-mail 
Dinah, dinah@admiralentertainment.com – and stay tuned for party details. In the meantime, a reminder that tickets for the 25 SIFF movies to be shown at The Admiral June 5-11 are on sale now – ticket sales are all done through SIFF, *not* the Admiral, so you’ll want to snap them up sooner rather than later. The movie slate is here; ticket sales start here; details on special multi-show ticket deals are here.
Kokoras Greek Grill in Morgan Junction (foreground) and Eats Market Cafe in Westwood Village (background) were two of the food purveyors at Thursday night’s Taste of West Seattle at The Hall at Fauntleroy, benefiting West Seattle Helpline – and even in the early minutes, when we dropped in for some quick pix, the place was buzzing:
Others on the long list of Taste of West Seattle participants included WSB sponsor Cafe Revo (added Friday – Revo won “best bite”!). As we mentioned earlier in the day, it was a busy night around West Seattle. We also made the rounds of some of the West Seattle Art Walk venues – first, it wouldn’t be Art Walk night without food, and neon-bright cupcakes were offered at The Skate Church in The Junction:
Then we caught up with a few artists – at Clementine, William A. Herberholz:
At Keller-Williams Realty, artists included Mark Morgan and Krissy Maier:
And before the night was out, we went to Alki to catch the post-sunset glow – the Bathhouse was a beautiful Art Walk venue, with the view blending right in as an artwork in its own right:
The West Seattle Art Walk has venues from Fauntleroy to Alki to Admiral to Morgan Junction to Delridge, all over the peninsula, and you can enjoy the next one on June 11th – do note, many of the art shows are up for the entire month, not just WSAW night. At ArtsWest, though, the annual student exhibition is only up two more days – today and tomorrow.
Another excuse to think “sunny … warm …” in the middle of today’s drippy chilliness: The virtual suggestion box is now open for the West Seattle Junction Outdoor Movies on the Wall series, which draws hundreds of people to the courtyard (seen above in a photo from last summer) between Dr. Wolff and Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) for six summertime Saturday nights. As announced by Hotwire’s Lora Lewis, this year’s dates are:
Saturday, July 18th
Saturday, July 25th
Saturday, August 1st
Saturday, August 8th
Saturday, August 15th
Saturday, August 22nd
The movies should be family-friendly, though that doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be G-rated. Send your suggestion(s) to westseattlemovies@gmail.com. (If you don’t want your e-mail address attached to a suggestion, alternatives also include leaving a comment at the official website, westseattlemovies.blogspot.com – or even send a tweet to @wsmovies – or leave a comment here.) Lora’s also looking for series sponsors for the bargain-basement rate of $150; interested businesses can e-mail her at lora@hotwirecoffee.com.
Want to avoid a rerun of last year or the year before? Here’s last year’s list; here’s the 2007 list. So – what do you want to see On The Wall this summer? (By the way, no rainouts this year – if rain happens, the movie will move indoors to nearby West Seattle Christian Church‘s events center, where the winter movie series was held.)
Last time the Admiral Neighborhood Association met, we brought you first word of plans for a summer outdoor-concert series at Hiawatha Community Center. Tonight, as ANA gathered for its monthly meeting at Admiral Church, concert series organizer Katy Walum provided updates – read on for what’s in the works, dates and times, and how you can help:Read More
It’s a familiar sight to those who drive Sylvan Heights/Orchard between Delridge and High Point — the Vietnamese Cultural Center north of Home Depot and next to Tug, a simple structure with a grand statue out back. As noted in the feature story we published last July, that statue pays tribute to 13th century Vietnamese hero Gen. Tran Hung Dao. But on Saturday, those gathered at the center were there to honor other soldiers – the thousands of Americans and Vietnamese who lost their lives in last century’s decades of war:
Chanting honored those soldiers, as did a drum ceremony:
Those in attendance heard from Dr. Dung Nguyen, M.D., who chaired the event.
A moment was offered for veterans to pause and remember:
A wreath was laid, before a moment of silence:
As explained on the event invitation, Vietnamese-American communities take time around the end of April/early May each year for ceremonies like this; as this online timeline reminds us, this is the time of year, 34 years ago, when the war finally ended.
(For the history of Vietnamese immigration to the U.S. in wartime and afterward, here’s a city-hosted website.)
West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day is of course far from the only thing happening today – the West Seattle Weekend Lineup has a TON of other events (see it here) – among them, an event to which you’re invited at the Vietnamese Cultural Center on SW Orchard just north of Home Depot (west of Delridge) – home to the sculpture shown above (as featured in this WSB story last year):
We are observing Memorial Day on May 9th to honor the 50,000 American soldiers who died fighting for freedom in Vietnam. Annually, the Vietnamese American Community gather around April 30th to remember the fallen soldiers of the Vietnam War. We invite you to join us in our traditional memorial ceremony this year.
Actually the bells have nothing to do with tomorrow’s WSB-sponsored West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (9 am-3 pm, get your map here!), but Bells of the Sound performs in West Seattle tonight, and with West Seattleites in their rank, we thought you’d like to see what they’re all about (this clip’s on the wild side) – 7:30 tonight at Tibbetts Church in The Junction. Meantime, tomorrow’s also the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive (PLEASE put a bag out before you go garage-saling – it’ll be picked up right at your mailbox/door!) and the Gateway cleanup followup – MUCH more going on, totaling more than 40 events in the full West Seattle Weekend Lineup, brought to you by Skylark Cafe and Club:Read More
As we reported last month, the Seattle International Film Festival is coming to West Seattle for the first time, with films at the Admiral Theater June 5th-11th. The schedule’s been made public today; see it here — note that the list of 25 movies includes, appropriately enough, one called “The Admiral.” The SIFF citywide box office is now open; this page explains how to get tickets.
State championships aren’t just about sports and academics – there are the arts, too! Congratulations to Seattle Lutheran High School senior Mitchell Siburg, an SLHS Jazz Band member who won first place in the guitar category at the recent 2009 Washington State Solo and Ensemble Contest (full list of statewide winners here), sponsored by the Washington Music Educators Association, held on the campus of Central Washington University. To get to the statewide competition, he had to win the regionals here in Seattle; Bil Hood at SLHS says Mitchell “performed a modern composition in the classical genre titled ‘Sadaude,’ by Roland Dyens, an unaccompanied work in three movements. … Mitchell will attend Buffalo University in New York next year, majoring in music, and hopes to enter a career in performing arts.” (School/student news? editor@westseattleblog.com any time!)
Just hit “play” on that first clip, and you’re bound to get a Fourth of July feeling, despite the somewhat wintry weather outside. That’s the Toni Reineke-directed Westside Symphonette senior orchestra, conducted in our video by Nse Ekpo, rehearsing at Chief Sealth High School (Boren). That’s also where the Symphonette’s senior and junior members will perform their FREE spring concert tomorrow night, 7 pm. Also on the program, a Mozart clarinet concerto, with Ekpo soloing:
Westside Symphonette is West Seattle’s community orchestra – all volunteers, and though the concert’s free, donations will be accepted.
Sunday’s the big 2nd annual Sustainable West Seattle Festival in The Junction (which is sponsoring, and co-sponsored by, WSB) – and that tops another long list of things to do, places to go, etc., with West Seattle Montessori School (WSB sponsor) and Arbor Heights Elementary having rummage sales (get in the spirit for NEXT weekend’s West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day!), marching drummers in The Junction … more than 40 events in the full West Seattle Weekend Lineup, brought to you by Skylark Cafe and Club:Read More
BIG SCREEN: That’s a trailer for “Walk Right In,” a film that’ll do some shooting at Seattle Lutheran High School this weekend, according to SLHS’s Bil Hood. The film’s website explains some of the Seattle connections.
SMALL SCREEN: Your editor here got to spend some time at City Hall yesterday afternoon guesting on a Seattle Channel show that takes a closer look at the city budget and some of what’s being cut. It starts airing tonight at 7 pm (Channel 21) and at some point after that, you’ll be able to catch it on seattlechannel.org too – here’s the official announcement:
The recession has chipped away at the Emerald City. Since November 2008, City leaders have been dealing with a $43 million deficit in 2009’s budget. Recently, Mayor Greg Nickels announced a mid-year budget cut, plus plans to tap the city’s rainy day fund. What programs and services will be impacted in balancing the budget? How might the cuts impact the residents of Seattle? And looking ahead, how will the city deal with the $41 million budget deficit that is projected for 2010?
Studio guests include Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, Washington Policy Center’s Paul Guppy, SeattlePI.com’s Joel Connelly and West Seattle Blog’s editor Tracy Record. Tune in, tonight, Friday, May 1, 7 p.m., Cable 21 on SEATTLE CHANNEL.
Three of those four panelists, by the way, live in West Seattle – besides the deputy mayor and us, so does Paul Guppy (who, along with Connelly, had far livelier things to say than we did, but we did recap some interesting WSB comment threads regarding the city budget, including this lively, even investigative, conversation regarding Fire Station 37).
The Mater Matrix Mother website has been documenting artist Mandy Greer‘s creation of a crocheted art installation – she’s been visiting West Seattle libraries, too, and will be at the Sustainable West Seattle Festival this Sunday, as well as at Delridge Day coming up May 30th. Now there’s word her work her installation has found a future home, Camp Long’s Polliwog Pond – read the update just sent by Camp Long’s Sheila Brown:Read More
SEEGER/HAGLUND SIDE NOTE: If you missed it over the weekend, we previewed next Sunday’s Admiral Theater event celebrating Pete Seeger‘s 90th birthday (see the story, with video, here) – and it turns out there’s a link to one of the news stories we’re covering today. The former home of Ivar Haglund (left) that’s about to be used for training fires in Upper Alki (WSB story here) is apparently the one mentioned in our Seeger/Admiral preview, as the house where Seeger and Woody Guthrie stayed with Haglund (a folk musician as well as entrepreneur) during a West Seattle visit in the 1940s – so says legendary local historian Paul Dorpat in this detailed comment.
DYLAN BREAKFAST TOMORROW: The folks at Easy Street Records in The Junction e-mailed to make sure you know about their “Coffee with Dylan” event tomorrow morning: It’s release day for “Together through Life,” the new Bob Dylan record, tomorrow, so from 7 am-noon they’re offering free coffee and various giveaways. More info on this Easy Street webpage.
Folk-music legend Pete Seeger co-wrote “If I Had a Hammer,” but Peter, Paul and Mary made it famous. Seeger – whose impending 90th birthday will be celebrated in West Seattle and other locals nationwide – is much better known for his songwriting than his singing – this classic performed by The Byrds, also from the ’60s, is a prime example:
Here’s Seeger explaining how he wrote that:
So, after those clips, are you in the mood to sing along with songs like “If I Had a Hammer” and “Turn, Turn, Turn,” along with many others? On Seeger’s 90th birthday, Sunday 5/3, a day with celebrations planned around the country, the Seattle party will be right here in West Seattle, at the historic Admiral Theater. The singalongs will be part of an evening music slate, starting at 7 pm, following a documentary screening at 4 pm. West Seattle author/historian Clay Eals is the one who came up with the idea for the historic theater to host this celebration of living history – during an interview at the Admiral last Wednesday, he explained what it’s going to be all about:
Read on for more about the celebration, more from Eals – who explains the synergy between this event and the musician-biography project he worked on for years – ahead:Read More
From two big West Seattle Junction shopping events to the Snooty Walk and Pet Rodeo to the grand opening of Feedback Lounge, plus a summer-activities-info fair, cleanups from Delridge to Cove Park and beyond, an open house (with giveaways!) at Snap Fitness (WSB sponsor) and a big food drive, more than 50 events are happening in the next 54 (or so) hours ’round here — here’s the full West Seattle Weekend Lineup, brought to you by Skylark Cafe and Club:Read More
Just in from the city – word of a new website spotlighting Seattle composers, “presenting music you might otherwise never have the opportunity to hear.” Read on for the full announcement (and how to become part of it):Read More
What a weekend – more than FIFTY events in our area! Including – Earth Day work parties and festivals, Healthy Kids Day at the West Seattle Family YMCA (WSB sponsor), a movie star at Admiral Theater (which is still celebrating its impending SIFF debut), a spaghetti dinner to raise money for ARK Park, local students show their talent including the “Fashion Through the Ages” Seattle Lutheran HS duo and Chief Sealth HS musicians, freebies including free Sunday yoga at Sound Yoga and free jazz at Admiral Church (both WSB sponsors) plus free swimming at Southwest Pool — here’s the full West Seattle Weekend Lineup, brought to you by Skylark Cafe and Club:Read More
(2007 Mudhoney photo via Flickr, by DaigoOliva)
With less than three months to go till West Seattle Summer Fest — the huge three-day street festival in The Junction — a big-name music act has signed on: Dave Montoure from West 5 and the West Seattle Junction Association confirms that Seattle’s own Mudhoney (which has at least one member with WS ties) will headline the first night of the live music slate, Friday night, July 10th. Some other big changes/improvements are on the drawing board for this year’s festival (July 10-12) too, with details to be made public soon. By the way, if you’re a vendor, performer, artist, or food seller, you can find applications for Summer Fest at the festival website.
By Keri DeTore
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
It’s 8:00 Thursday night — do you know where your roller skates are?
If you do, and you’re a female over the age of 21, with current health insurance and a “badass” attitude — you may be a prime candidate for the Rat City Rollergirls.
RCRG was founded in 2004, based back then at the Southgate rink in White Center. Though Southgate has since closed and RCRG skaters now practice at rinks in Lynnwood and Bellevue, they maintain their ties to the White Center/West Seattle communities. For starters, at least eight skaters live in the area, including Bird on a Wire coffee shop owner Heidi Herr (skate name: “Skate Trooper”). Also — community outreach is a core value for RCRG, and they participate in local activities including helping clean up Longfellow Creek, and a stretch of road they’ve “adopted” in White Center (where their next cleanup is scheduled for April 25).
West Seattle Rollergirl and “Derby Liberation Front” team co-captain “Deadly Aim” (aka Aimee Ettel) took some time off the track to provide some insight into the world of RCRG and to talk about their upcoming home game at RCRG’s big new home “rink,” KeyArena, this Saturday.
That’s the only Overton Berry Ensemble, and a taste of what’s in store at Admiral Church this Sunday. Admiral Church (California/Hill; here’s a map) joined the WSB sponsor team this week to get the word out about its annual Jazz Sunday, coming up this weekend; as you can see on the lineup here, it starts with “jazz-flavored worship” at the 10:30 am service, featuring the Admiral Choir, vocalist Grace Holden, flutist Bernie Jacobs, bassist Jeff Davies, all under the leadership of church music director Keith Terhune. Then at 7 pm, it’s a free concert (donations will be accepted) with the Overton Berry Ensemble (and Grace Holden sings again). To get your complimentary ticket(s), call the church at 932-2928.
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