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Countdown: Reason #5 to love The Parade
July 18, 2006 8:28 am
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 |   West Seattle Grand Parade | WS culture/arts

MUSIC!
I have no inside info on who’s confirmed for this Saturday’s parade, but online calendars confirm two regulars: the spectacular All-City Marching Band and the lively Rainbow City Band. One of the local Christian churches usually has a combo on a truck playing some sort of gospel-rock. Bagpipers have turned up most years. Tomorrow: Reason #4!

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Tunes tonight among the trees
July 18, 2006 12:16 am
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 |   WS culture/arts

Another better-late-than-never discovery! I swear I am a Hi-Yu die-hard — later today, I’ll start counting down the Top 5 Reasons to Love the Hi-Yu Parade — but till this very moment, I had NO idea the festival included an annual Concert in the Park! Just stumbled onto it, wandering around the web … and it’s TONIGHT, 7 p.m., on the east lawn at Hiawatha Park, with the West Seattle Big Band, which got rave reviews at Summer Fest. The weather’s bound to be beautiful, the music’s guaranteed to be good, case closed.

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A craftsperson’s perspective on Summer Fest
July 16, 2006 9:07 am
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 |   WS culture/arts | WS miscellaneous

If you, like me, are “just a spectator” at street festivals, here’s an interesting perspective … a blog entry by a soapmaker who apparently has a booth somewhere at Summer Fest.

Meantime, one last observation, and then I’ll get on to wishing the Garden Tour folks (today!) good luck, and looking ahead to next weekend (THE PARADE! THE PARADE! plus on Sunday 7/23, it’s “Stuff the Bus” time for Westside Baby — you can get slightly more environmentally sound disposables at PCC, btw): Among the more interesting sights on the southern block of WSSF are side-by-side outdoor areas for Talarico’s and Elliott Bay Brewery. The former is behind a tall chain-link fence; the latter, behind a cheery-looking short white picket fence. Maybe just something to do with the whole “no kids” thing? All the same, the Talarico’s visitors look like they’re in jail.

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Seen but not heard
July 15, 2006 4:29 pm
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 |   Seen around town | WS culture/arts

Back from our jaunt, which took us far beyond Summer Fest, though we dropped in on the way back.

Glad to see the info booth full of West Seattle-related collateral/propaganda is right in the center of things.

Even more interesting — sightings of people in mascot suits. First there was the State Farm Insurance bear, being interrogated by two beat cops. Then, the strolling ATM shilling for US Bank. Didn’t seem to be handing out complimentary cash, sad to say.

Biggest crowd for comestibles — The 7-11 at the south end of the Junction. Stacked up seven deep in there for sour Slurpees.

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Shake it like a …
July 15, 2006 9:51 am
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 |   WS culture/arts

Don’t forget, Summer Fest isn’t the only festival in WS today and tomorrow.

MedFest is shaking things up in the Admiral area.

We’re setting out for a big stroll that just might, maybe, possibly, take us to both.

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Slice of life from West Seattle Summer Fest
July 14, 2006 8:40 pm
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 |   West Seattle restaurants | WS culture/arts

So I sent WS Blogger Spouse and an accomplice to Summer Fest for Night 1, because my condition after this workweek was a lot like Gerry Rafferty’s line in the classic “Baker Street” — “light in my head and dead on my feet.”

Their report centers around Pagliacci, where they attempted to get pizza before coming home. “One person who was really nice was taking my order,” reports WSB Spouse, “but then this other girl came out and started barking, ‘DON’T YOU KNOW THERE ARE SLICES OUTSIDE? IT’S GOING TO BE A LONG WAIT IN HERE.’ Then,” WSB Spouse continues, “this guy waiting on the bench by the window says to no one in particular, ‘I’M HERE TO GET A PIZZA FOR JOHN DOE‘S WIFE’.”

Ultimately, WSB Spouse and accomplice left with no pizza, and wound up getting something from Spiro’s, which finally seems to have a website.

As for the rest of Summer Fest, I’m told that Mr. Doe himself informed the crowd he had to avoid singing a certain song (or part of a certain song) when he realized there were a lot more kids than he’d expected to see. Last but not least, I’m told the collection of merchants includes a lot of “Home Show”-style stuff — windows, flooring, you name it.

I’ll go check it out tomorrow.

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Festival countdown
July 13, 2006 5:29 am
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 |   WS culture/arts

The “no parking after …” signs are up at strategic spots around the Junction … this time tomorrow, the street-blocking will be under way … the newly renamed Summer Fest is almost here! The musical programming we’ve been discussing here has really generated a new sense of excitement; even here at WS Blog World Headquarters, one of those acts is making the festival a Must-Go for WS Blogger Spouse.

You know parking will be a nightmare, so consider taking the bus (the Trip Planner feature is handy if you need it).

And once the Summer Fest is over … I’m going to be relentless about this … PLEASE come to the parade a week later, even if you think you’re too old and jaded for parades, or just not interested, etc. If you’ve never seen a local parade, you have to check it out at least once for yourself. Most of the summer parade regulars usually turn up — the All-City Marching Band, the Chinese community girls’ drill team, the Seafair Pirates, various assorted politicians, and a LOT more, including the Vancouver (BC) and Seattle motorcycle drill teams. Bring a chair, bring drinks and snacks, stake out a spot along Cali Ave. Which reminds me, I promised myself we’d buy new chairs before parade season this year … gotta get to the store!

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“West Seattle rocks”
July 11, 2006 9:25 pm
|      3 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

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.

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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.

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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!

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Now that we have the fireworks out of the way …
July 5, 2006 1:12 am
|      1 COMMENT
 |   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!

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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.

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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.)

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