West Seattle, Washington
06 Saturday
Friday and Saturday nights, you have the chance to support local school music programs while enjoying great music from students AND big-name special guests at two events we want to remind you about:
(2013 event photo courtesy Emily)
FRIDAY – WEST SEATTLE BIG BAND @ MADISON BENEFIT: Tomorrow brings a night of music and dancing at, and benefiting, Madison Middle School:
Swing into Spring to the sounds of the amazing WEST SEATTLE BIG BAND! Free swing-dance lessons start at 6 pm. Peruse the food stands, bake sale, and raffle options while the Madison Middle School music students wow you with their musical talent. Then kick up your heels with the West Seattle Big Band!! Great fun for the whole family! 6:00-9:00 pm in Madison Middle School Commons. Admission $10 per person at the door; students and children under 18 free! All proceeds benefit Madison Music Boosters.
Madison is at 45th/Spokane.
Then on Saturday:
(Total Experience Gospel Choir at 2013 Soul Jambalaya; photo courtesy Denny IMS principal Jeff Clark)
SATURDAY – SOUL JAMBALAYA: The music programs at Denny International Middle School and Chief Sealth International High School will benefit from this event Saturday:
“Soul Jambalaya” is a fabulous concert celebrating Black History Month and the rich heritage of gospel, blues, jazz, and funk music. Student and professional musicians will gather together at Chief Sealth International High School Auditorium on Saturday, February 8, 2014 @ 7:00 pm to perform arrangements from all of these musical genres. Featured artists include the Total Experience Gospel Choir, Westside Blues, Figgins and Halbert Jazz, and our very own Denny International Middle School Jazz. Admission is free – donations will be accepted to benefit the schools’ music scholarship programs.
CSIHS is at 2600 SW Thistle. If you lose track of the reminder about these events, you’ll find both – and many more – on the calendar.
With drums, dancing, and firecrackers, the Lunar New Year was celebrated this afternoon by the North Delridge Vietnamese restaurant Phở Aroma, which brought in the West Seattle-based Âu Lạc Vovinam Lion Dance Team – see and hear for yourself in our short video clip:
The Lion Dance is a tradition aimed at scaring away evil spirits:
Behind-the-scenes photos ahead:
This one somehow fell out of our calendar queue, so it wasn’t in today’s preview – but if you’re looking for something fun to do tonight, it’s still a few hours away: The award-winning Garfield High School jazz program has a fun(draiser) tonight at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in North Delridge – music, dancing, and more. It’s not just local because it’s happening here – the Garfield ensembles include students from West Seattle, too. More details here; the event (21 and over) starts at 7 pm.
It’s been five years since the Duwamish Tribe celebrated the opening of its longhouse at 4705 W. Marginal Way SW – and you still have three hours to join the anniversary celebration. An open house continues until 5 pm; we stopped by for the noontime reception:
Those on hand included Cecile Hansen, who has served as the tribe’s elected chair since 1975:
The story of the longhouse – the first one for the Duwamish people since their last one was burned down before the end of the 19th century – is told in this HistoryLink.org report. The story of the tribe can be explored both via its website and at the Longhouse/Cultural Center, which has regular hours as well as being open for special events like the one today.
It’s on! Until 1 pm, the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra-presented Super String Saturday celebration of music and mentoring (with WSB as a media sponsor) is happening at Chief Sealth International High School (2600 SW Thistle). It began with the SYSO’s mini-concert (and they were wonderful – hear a snippet in our Instagram video cliplet), directed by SYSO music director Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, following welcoming remarks by Denny International Middle School principal Jeff Clark, King County Councilmember Joe McDermott, and Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen.
Right now, those SYSO musicians are performing onstage side-by-side with elementary students, and then those students (and participating middle schoolers) head off into instrument-technique clinics in individual classrooms. But that’s prime time to visit even if you don’t have a student in those programs; here’s the schedule for the rest of the event:
11:50 am-12:20 pm: Information session for parents in the CSIHS auditorium – “learn how to best support your young musician”
12:25-12:45 pm: Chamber Ensemble demonstration in the auditorium
12:50-1 pm: Middle-school students onstage with SYSO musicians
The event is free; bring a few $ for refreshments on sale in the Sealth commons – which you’ll walk through on your way from the front door to the auditorium – benefiting student music programs. The SYSO is involved in local schools year-round through the Southwest Strings Project, involving Arbor Heights, Concord International, Highland Park, Roxhill, Sanislo, and West Seattle elementaries as well as Denny.
4:54 PM: More photos, as promised! First one is by our photographer, and the following three are courtesy of the SYSO.
After today’s event, Denny principal Clark told the SYSO:
On behalf of the entire Denny International Middle School community, I would like to extend a huge thank you to the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras for their amazing partnership! Our orchestra program has grown dramatically in recent years–the small group lessons and professional coaches provided through the Southwest Strings Project continue to be outstanding. Thank you to all of the families who joined us for Super String Saturday today and to the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras for making it happen!
Four school-music notes to share:
SUPER STRING SATURDAY IS HOURS AWAY: 10 am-1 pm Saturday at Chief Sealth International High School, it’s Super String Saturday with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra – start by enjoying their performance, then marvel at musical mentoring with local student musicians getting special coaching and joining the SYSO musicians onstage, and along the way, get a chance to expose younger children to string instruments, while meeting music educators and performers. More info in our preview. It’s all free – just show up! (2600 SW Thistle)
DENNY & SEALTH MUSICIANS SHINE: Just last night, the Sealth auditorium filled with the sound of student musicians’ hard work:
The photo was shared by Denny International Middle School principal Jeff Clark, who along with Sealth principal Aida Fraser-Hammer wrote:
We are so proud of our scholars at Denny and Sealth and the fantastic music they have performed over four concerts in the last month. Our combined holiday concert, our jazz bands, our four orchestras and our four bands have all been outstanding! (Thursday night), 251 scholars performed in our final concert, our Winter Symphonic Band Concert. Congratulations to all of our musicians! Mr. Pimpleton and Mr. White have done an amazing job! Thank you to all who support the thriving music programs at Denny and Sealth — Go, Dolphins and Seahawks!
SOUL JAMBALAYA: An event supporting the programs at Sealth and Denny has just been announced:
“Soul Jambalaya” is a fabulous concert celebrating Black History Month and the rich heritage of gospel, blues, jazz, and funk music. Student and professional musicians will gather together at Chief Sealth International High School Auditorium on Saturday, February 8, 2014 @ 7:00 pm to perform arrangements from all of these musical genres. Featured artists include the Total Experience Gospel Choir, Westside Blues, Figgins and Halbert Jazz and our very own Denny International Middle School Jazz.
Admission is free – donations will be accepted to benefit the schools’ music scholarship programs.
Also just announced:
WEST SEATTLE BIG BAND TO BOOST MADISON BENEFIT: A night of dancing and music for all:
Swing into Spring to the sounds of the amazing WEST SEATTLE BIG BAND! Free swing-dance lessons start at 6 pm. Peruse the food stands, bake sale, and raffle options while the Madison Middle School music students wow you with their musical talent. Then kick up your heels with the West Seattle Big Band!! Great fun for the whole family!
Friday, February 7th, 2014, from 6:00-9:00 pm in Madison Middle School Commons. Admission $10 per person at the door; students and children under 18 free! All proceeds benefit Madison Music Boosters.
Madison is at 45th/Spokane.
(8/14 note: To check whether a business is still a current WSB sponsor, please go here)
Interested in music lessons – ukulele, guitar, bass? Music teacher Masa Kobayashi and his Alki Ukulele studio have just joined the WSB sponsor team. 
Here’s what he would like you to know:
He has 20 years’ experience playing and 10 years of experience teaching. Masa says, “My students are getting constant improvement with me – most of them actually have become active gigging musicians.” He’s proud that his students have been inspired by the fact he too is an active musician with gigs – something they thought wasn’t possible for them to become, before they started taking lessons.
As explained on his website at AlkiUkulele.com, Masa has experience with many musical styles from punk, rock, metal, funk and jazz, to Balkan and African music. For guitar and ukulele, he teaches rhythm and soloing, finger-picking, two-handed tapping, chord soloing, and more. For bass, lessons include various finger-picking styles, soloing and old school/Victor Wooten-style slapping, two-handed tapping, and chord soloing.
The Alki Ukulele studio really is near the beach, and the best way to contact Masa to inquire about lessons is by e-mail – alkiukulele@gmail.com.
We thank Alki Ukulele for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; see our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.
You might call this a sort of lost-and-found notice – West Seattle High School‘s music program has lost some sheet music over the years, and hopes you have found it, and can return it! The announcement:
Did you ever play an instrument or sing in a school group at West Seattle High? Do you still have sheet music or music books that were taken home for practice, but never made it back? If so, the WSHS Music Department would LOVE to get these items back! (You will owe no fines and can remain anonymous if you wish.)
WSHS has an extensive music collection dating back to the school’s opening over 100 years ago, but many pieces are unusable because of missing parts. In many cases, replacement parts are either no longer in print or are expensive. Sometimes, it would take only a single returned part to make a piece playable again!
You may return your sheet music and books in one of the following ways:
— By mailing them to Mr. Ethan Thomas, Music Department, West Seattle High School, 3000 California Ave. SW, Seattle, WA 98116
— By taking them to the special box in the West Seattle High School library. (Please enter the building through the west courtyard.) Current students may take the music directly to the band room.
— By dropping them off with one of our volunteer music sorters, Toni Reineke. Email tonireineke@comcast.net to get info on location.
If you have questions, please email Mr. Thomas at etthomas1@seattleschools.org or leave a message for him at 206-252-8800.
P.S. If you or your friends or family have music that belongs to other West Seattle schools (e.g., Sealth, Madison, Denny) and want to deliver it to us, we’ll ensure that it is reunited with the appropriate school.
P.S.S. Do you have a used instrument gathering dust? WSHS also welcomes instrument donations!
(August 2011 WSB photo from Summer Concerts at Hiawatha)
Another announcement tonight from the Admiral Neighborhood Association – in its role as the only West Seattle neighborhood group that presents an annual concert series. ANA has just put out an early call for musicians interested in being part of Summer Concerts at Hiawatha this year (note that the series dates are set, so if you are a potential spectator rather than a potential performer, you can at least do some early calendar-marking):
Hello and Happy New Year!
We are now accepting submissions for bands/acts for the 2014 Admiral Neighborhood Association Summer Concerts at Hiawatha Park. This year’s concerts will be held on Thursday evenings – July 24th, July 31st, August 7th, August 14th, August 21st, and August 28th – beginning at 6:30 pm.
Concerts are free to the community and made possible by sponsorships and support from Seattle Parks and Recreation, the Associated Recreation Council, the Admiral Neighborhood Association, and area businesses.
If you would like to be considered for this year’s concert series, please submit the following preliminary information to info@admiralneighborhood.org:
(1) Band name and brief description of genre/style
(2) Band website or other link to where the band’s past performances may be viewed/listened to
(3) Band’s fee for a 90-minute performance, including a 10-minute break, if desired. Please indicate whether this fee is negotiable
(4) Number of members of band and types of instruments played
(5) Stage size requested and special sound/equipment requests
(4) Band contact name, email address, and phone number
Past artists performing for the series have included The Dusty 45s, Caspar Babypants, Star Anna, LeRoy Bell, Glenn Crytzer & his Syncopators, Fly Moon Royalty, Massy Ferguson, Reilly & Maloney, Pearl Django, and Yogoman Burning Band, to give an idea of the caliber of talent and diversity of appeal we seek.
Band submissions will be reviewed over the next few months (please remember we are volunteer-driven!) and we hope to contact bands and announce our lineup by about May or June.
We also appreciate reader recommendations of bands to consider for the series (that’s how we found The Local Strangers for our 2012 series!).
Thanks so much to all. We look forward to putting together another smashing ANA Summer Concert Series, and we’re already dreaming of warm summer evenings on the lawn at Hiawatha!
Katy Walum
Admiral Neighborhood Association
This will be the sixth year of the concert series, launched in summer 2009.
(SYSO photo: Musician mentors student as they prepare to perform together onstage)
Southwest Seattle Super String Saturday is back again this year – a great day for enjoying the work of outstanding young musicians and inspiring kids who might want to follow in their footsteps. WSB is proud to be a media sponsor again this year. Here are the details:
On Saturday January 25 from 10 am- 1 pm, a free community event, Southwest Seattle Super String Saturday at Chief Sealth International High School at 2600 SW Thistle Street, kicks off with an inspiring performance by one of America’s premier youth orchestras, the Seattle Youth Symphony.
Following the performance, young violin, viola, cello and bass players from Southwest Seattle schools fill Chief Sealth IHS with the sound of their hard work and dedication. This event celebrates the elementary and middle school string players who are receiving coaching by professional musicians hired by the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras.
The free public performance by Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra features Serge Prokofiev’s powerful ballet score for Romeo and Juliet – a work that has become one of the most revered orchestral scores composed for dance. The mini-concert continues with Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to the Der Freischutz, a Romantic-era opera inspired by German folk music.
After the public concert, violin, viola, cello and bass students from Southwest elementary schools (Concord, Roxhill, Sanislo, Arbor Heights, West Seattle, and Highland Park) and Denny International Middle School participate in an array of activities including instrument technique clinics led by top-level Youth Symphony musicians and SYSO coaches and learning how to play in a chamber music ensemble. Then the excitement builds as the string students join the Youth Symphony musicians on stage and are mentored by their high school-aged musical counterparts. All the musicians play “side-by-side” in this large orchestral setting, with the younger students inspired by the level of performance demonstrated by their older peers.
This is an event for the entire family and includes an “instrument petting zoo” organized by the West Seattle Community Orchestras introducing younger children to string instruments, and SYSO coaches and school music teachers on hand to discuss how parents can support their child’s musical learnng. Refreshments and resources are also available.
This event showcases Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras’ Southwest Seattle String Project, an initiative that provides professional musician “coaches” to work alongside public school music teachers and lead small group and individualized instruction.
(SYSO photo: Double bass musician Todd Gowers coaches Denny IMS students)
This service is provided by SYSO at no cost to the schools or the families because SYSO is committed to enabling equitable access to arts education, especially in areas which historically have had lower participation rates in instrumental music due to economic barriers.SYSO provides this program free to the Southwest Seattle public schools because of generous support from national and local funders. In fact, last month Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras was one of just twenty-three American orchestras selected by the League of American Orchestras to receive a 2013-14 Getty Education and Community Investment Grant specifically to fund SYSO’s school programs. To learn more about how to donate to SYSO’s school programs, contact info@syso.org.
West Seattle Blog and Classical KING-FM are Media Sponsors for this event. For information about the Southwest Seattle Super String Saturday event, please contact Kathleen Allen, Director of Education, Communications and Partnerships at Kathleen@syso.org.
Here’s our coverage of last year’s SWSSS event.
(Photo tweeted Wednesday night by @Russell_News)
With two days until The Game, Seahawks fever is intensifying. Again last night, as visible from West Seattle’s northeast-facing shores, the Russell Investments building displayed #12 – tweaked since the Friday test shown here. The photo above is from Russell’s Twitter feed (we took a photo from Seacrest earlier in the evening, but that was before the display reached its final configuration). Update: Russell says this will be repeated FRIDAY night. Meantime, some of what’s happening today/tonight:
MICROHOUSING-RULES-RELATED APPEAL HEARING CONTINUES: Starting at 1:45 pm, testimony resumes in the Hearing Examiner’s chambers downtown, in a community-activist-led challenge to a city decision that the proposed rules for “microhousing” don’t need environmental review. This picks up where Tuesday left off. (Municipal Tower downtown, 40th floor)
CHALLAH BREAD-MAKING WORKSHOP: 5:30 pm at Delridge Community Center. Details in our calendar listing – contact the center to see if there’s room. (4501 Delridge Way SW)
Tonight’s peninsula-wide event:
WEST SEATTLE ART WALK, JANUARY EDITION: 6-9 pm, 18 venues around West Seattle welcome you to see local art and, in many cases, meet the artist(s) whose work is on display. Here’s the walking map/venue list for the winter quarter, which includes WSB sponsors Chaco Canyon Organic Café, Click! Design That Fits, Hotwire Online Coffeehouse, Wallflower Custom Framing, West Seattle Cyclery, West Seattle Office Junction, and a dozen other local businesses supporting the arts; see artist previews on the official WS Art Walk website.
COLLEGE APPLICATION SUPPORT: Tonight’s event offering support for college and financial-aid applications is at Chief Sealth International High School, but it’s open to all local 12th graders and their families. Details in our calendar listing. 6 pm, Sealth Library. (2600 SW Thistle)
MINI-OPEN HOUSE ON METRO CUTS: Tonight Metro reps will be at the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council‘s monthly meeting in White Center, which will start half an hour earlier than usual – 6:30 pm, to facilitate Metro’s mini-open house on the proposed cuts. (1243 SW 112th)
READ THE KORAN IN 4 WEEKS: The next session led by First Lutheran Church of West Seattle pastor Rev. Ron Marshall, who’s been teaching this class for more than a decade, starts tonight at 7 pm – details in our calendar listing. (4105 California SW)
(Photo courtesy Erik Nachtrieb)
A new chapter in the saga of West Seattle’s “Archer Addy,” the young champion whose story we brought you back in August. She’s now the subject of an in-the-works series of books, and the team is seeking a young artist to add images to the words:
West Seattleite and author/producer Erik Nachtrieb is looking for a youth illustrator, 8-17 years old, to illustrate for the Archer Addy chapter book series. The first book in the series is completed, in text form, and with the editor.
“The real-life adventures of the Archer Addy book series follow Addison (Archer Addy), a 9-year-old girl determined to enter a man’s sport and become a World Champion target archer in the midst of balancing homework, friends, her sister, and parents. Written on the positive themes of dreams, determination and self reliance, Archer Addy, in her own voice, brings the 8-12 year-old reader into her experiences and inspires them to think differently, try new things, and never give up.”
The Archer Addy series is written from the voice and experiences of Addy, who is a real-life West Seattleite and competitive target archer. We, the Archer Addy Book Team, feel utilizing a child from greater Seattle to illustrate the book would keep within tone and message of the book. We are hoping to find a young person with the same passion and drive for art as the character Archer Addy has for archery.
If you are between 8-18 years old, please have your parents contact us at: 1iOpenProductions@gmail.com. We will then deliver you a few excerpts from the book along with illustration titles from which you can derive inspiration for your drawings.
Further details ahead:
Read More
In the New Year, you’ll be able to get the blues weekly at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) in Morgan Junction. Co-proprietor Jeff Gilbert says it’s a plan that’s been in the works for months, and you can enjoy the shows even when you can’t make it to the Feedback to see them live: “The cool part is the shows are going to be recorded live for TV and the music streamed as it happens on the Internet.” Here’s the official announcement:
BLUES TO DO LIVE is coming to the Feedback Lounge, recording for TV and streaming live on the internet, every Tuesday night, 8 pm, beginning January 7.
BLUES TO DO LIVE is being booked and hosted by Marlee Walker, Queen of Seattle Blues for the last three decades, and a West Seattle/Morgan Junction resident.
BLUES TO DO, a hugely popular brand, is a quarterly magazine, TV show on cable, and is broadcast live on the internet. Blues To Do has a 30-year legacy, starting back in 1984 at KPLU for a multiple award winning nine years and quickly growing from a two hour Sunday night show to a three night weekend blues block.
Marlee hosted a radio show on The Mountain called “The Blues Kitchen,” which lasted just under two years, and was recognized with a “Keeping The Blues Alive Award” in 2000 from The Blues Foundation in Memphis. Soon after she was invited to host “Preachin’ The Blues” at KCMU, which became KEXP, with the Blues To Do calendar being a weekly feature there for another eight years and more awards.
Here is the January 2014 BLUES TO DO LIVE lineup…
January 7th
POLLY O’KEARY & THE RHYTHM METHOD with special guest SEATTLE SLIM
An amazing power trio featuring one of the hottest rhythm sections in Polly O’Keary and Tommy Cook, both of whom were backing up Too Slim as The Taildraggers.January 14th
ELNAH JORDAN & FRIENDS: CELEBRATING DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Elnah gathers amazing musicians around her and always puts on a dazzling show that includes blues, gospels, jazz and more. This night will see dynamic voices from the Seattle music scene and will be a very special celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.January 21st
RIPPIN CHICKEN
This dynamic West Seattle trio features Delvon Lamarr, who plays the classic Hammond organ done with a contemporary Seattle twist. The band also features guitar legend Ben Bloom and drum master Olli Klomp.January 28th
ROD COOK & TOAST
Guitarist Rod Cook, one of Seattle’s best kept secrets, plays with both precision and soul, either alone or with Toast, his top notch trio of 20 years. Toast features musician excellence in rhythm from Marty Vadalabene or Chris Leighton on drums and the gifted John Bayless on bass – all award-winning players.Look for these shows, which are being recorded live for TV, to include interviews and a Blues CD of the Week offered every week.
Blues To Do-TV airs Fridays at 7 pm on ch. 23/77 on Comcast in King Co./Seattle, or ch. 23 on Broadstripe, and repeats Saturdays at midnight / Tuesdays at 2 pm. This will also stream at those times at seattlecommunitymedia.org. See past shows at bluestodo.com
The Feedback is at 6451 California SW.
A surprise before we close the books on Christmas 2013 – a communique late tonight from West Seattle Art Attack, the local glass artist who, with accomplices, has “attacked” unsuspecting locals with creations over the past six years or so (we first heard from WSAA in 2007, and most recently in 2012). These photos were included with this note:
The West Seattle Art Attack team pulled off another Christmas assault hitting well-decorated houses from Alki to Fauntleroy. The team picked about a dozen houses at random that just felt like they deserved a little gift. Many more were selected, but there were too many people out and about, and the “attackers” were spooked. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas, West Seattle!
Maybe you were a recipient – take a close look when you go outside tomorrow!
NUTSKRACKER from Perinspire on Vimeo.
No, ballerinas are NOT all sweetness and light. Alki resident Simone Bruyère Fraser, who danced professionally for 10 years back east, wanted to have some fun and show ballet dancers’ tough side – so she and friend Esy Casey made that video, with composer Carl Clark, 
and invited us to share it here for the lighter side of Christmas. (Full credits are on the video.) Simone says she and Esy, the video’s director (at left with her in the photo at right), shot it at Salty’s on Alki (WSB sponsor) – perfect place, considering they are the home of life-size Nutcrackers. And yes, she has danced in “The Nutcracker” – “almost every role in 10 years … from lamb, to mouse, to snow queen!” These days, she also does commercial, TV, film, and print work as well as dance, but says her “true commitment is trying to do some good in this world and help people to ‘respect the dance’,” adding, “Ballerinas need respect!”
For years, youth-education efforts at ArtsWest (WSB sponsor) have been focused on its summertime programs. 
But the new year will bring a new program to West Seattle’s arts hub – a new 10-week series of performing-arts classes for all ages. The classes are:
*Exploratory Drama for 4- and 5-year-olds
*Creative Drama for 1st- through 3rd-graders
*Acting 101: Heroes’ Quest for 3rd- through 5th-graders
*The Pituitary Monologues: Writing Monologues for the Stage for 6th- through 8th-graders
*Beginning Improv for 6th- through 8th-graders
*Intro to Musical Theater for 9th- through 12th-graders
*Adult Introduction to Improv
You can follow the links on each of those class names to find out more, or start on the main page for the new program, which also includes contact information for registration.
Most years, we’ve featured locally created Christmas music. Tonight – a song with a bit of a story. We heard from Ian Fetterer, who is lead vocalist/keyboardist and audio engineer for a band called Faintly. They are living in a West Seattle house while writing and recording an album they hope to finish by next year. He sent us the link to a Christmas song that he explains was written “a few years back, and somehow it has now become one of my traditions every year to remix the song to see if I can get it sounding better than the year before, and I’m really excited about this mix!” If you like the song – which you can preview above – Ian invites you to download it here – for free, or “pay what you’d like.”
Two notes from Explorer West Middle School (WSB sponsor):
(Photo courtesy Explorer West Middle School)
AWARD-WINNING, AGAIN: EWMS has again scored big in local theater honors:
At an awards ceremony on Monday (12/9), Explorer West students walked away with top honors in the Young Playwrights Program at ACT. Annually, ACT, a professional equity theater in downtown Seattle, hosts more than 200 high school and middle school students from across King County in the Young Playwrights Program. Explorer West 7th-grade students were two of the eight students selected to win the top prize, a production of their play with professional actors at ACT. Two additional 7th-grade students each received one of the 22 honorable mentions in the contest. Explorer West is very proud to be part of this program and for our students to be recognized for the third year in a row.
More details are on the school’s website.
THEATER TONIGHT DURING BOOK FAIR: EW students will be performing live theater, both classic and original works, 4:30-5:30 pm today at Barnes & Noble/Westwood Village, which is hosting their Book Fair tonight. That’s also an opportunity to have part of your purchase proceeds support EW (the third local school this week with a Book Fair at B&N); they’re raising money to expand the school library.
Five nights after rocking KeyArena with Pearl Jam, Mudhoney rocked a wall-to-wall-and-out-the-door crowd at Full Tilt Ice Cream in White Center, inside and out, to launch the honey/cinnamon/chocolate-swirl flavor bearing their name. More scenes from Wednesday night’s party on our partner site White Center Now.
P.S. Were you there? Got a photo/video link? Add it in comments here or on the WSB Facebook page post, where as of this writing we already have a couple bonus links.
So much happening in West Seattle today/tonight (as listed here earlier), there are few reasons to leave – but this just might be one of them: The increasingly legendary Art Under $100 sale, on at South Park Community Center until 9 tonight. Above, the neon art is by Koko Jamison. You’ll find West Seattleites there too, not just artists but volunteers – we found Bob Anderton emceeing, Tonya Hennen selling raffle tickets:
Tonya’s husband Bill Reiswig is on the artist roster. Meantime, our eye was caught by Liam, Keely, and the picture of Mojo Jojo:
SPCC isn’t far from West Seattle – head down Roxbury and over 509 to Cloverdale and turn left (north) on 8th; it’s at 8319 8th Avenue S.
West Seattle filmmaker Christen Marquez has made a film to tell the story behind part of her name. “E Haku Inoa: To Weave A Name” has its Seattle premiere tomorrow at the Northwest Film Forum at 6 pm, preceded by a “meet the filmmaker reception” at 5:30 pm (appropriate to the Hawai’i theme, catered by Marination!). She explains her film as “a personal documentary that follows the budding relationship of between my mother and I as I try to discover the meaning behind my extremely long, 60-plus-letter, Hawaiian middle name. Before embarking on the project, I had been estranged from my mother for nearly 20 years.” Here are Christen and her mom in a promotional photo from the film:
Christen’s West Seattle roots run deep too: She came here from Hawai’i at age 8, going to school at Schmitz Park Elementary, Madison Middle, and West Seattle High School. Her film has won acclaim, and has been shown on PBS in Hawaii; now, she’s bringing it to a Seattle audience. Northwest Film Forum is at 1515 12th Avenue on Capitol Hill; tickets for the Saturday night screening are available online; if you can’t get there tomorrow, the NWFF website also shows a screening on Sunday.
A special West Seattle showing of the inspirational film “Girl Rising” 
is planned for 4 pm Monday, November 11th, at the historic Admiral Theater – but organizers have just a few days for ticket sales, so you need to buy yours ASAP by going here. The trailer’s on YouTube; see it here. In short, the film “directed by Academy Award nominee Richard Robbins journeys around the globe to witness the strength of the human spirit and the power of education to change the world”; it will introduce you to the memorable girls you’ll glimpse in the trailer. Buy your ticket(s) by Sunday to help the organizers finalize the screening!
Back from Halloween rounds – including a stop at Skeleton Theatre, which as usual is playing again tomorrow, so you still have a chance to go if you didn’t get to 36th/Hanford tonight. It’s an updated version of last year’s production “Ulna 13,” a space saga starring the animatronic protagonists – lights, sound, dialogue, bones and all:
A team of friends/neighbors works hard to make the (free, but you can donate online) show happen every year – their story’s on the ST website. If you haven’t been before, here’s a map; the stage is in the elevated front yard of the home on the southwest corner of 36th/Hanford, and Friday’s showtimes are expected to be roughly on the hour/half-hour between 6 and 9 again.
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