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Democratic Convention: At least 3 West Seattleites are there
August 25, 2008 10:14 am
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle people | West Seattle politics

donkey5.jpgAs the Democratic National Convention starts today in Denver, here’s the West Seattle lineup as we know it: For one, we know Mayor Nickels is there, because County Executive Ron Sims tweeted (posted to his Twitter feed) about it. Also, the 34th District Democrats had previously mentioned Chris Porter and Kimber McCreery were going (more on the 34th DDs’ home page), as well as a 34th DD’er who’s from Vashon, 18-year-old Nick Bordner. This is the culmination of a long process that started way back with those well-attended caucuses on February 9 and then the 34th District caucuses on April 5 (our in-person coverage stopped there); we’ll let you know if we find online diaries or blogs from any of the local attendees.

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Happening tonight: Highland Park Action Committee
August 25, 2008 7:02 am
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   Highland Park | Neighborhoods | West Seattle jail sites

The Highland Park Action Committee, leading the fight against two potential city-jail sites in West Seattle, has its next meeting tonight, 7 pm, at 1116 SW Holden (map).

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Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza construction, 2 weeks to go
August 24, 2008 11:58 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   Alki Statue of Liberty | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

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Thanks to David Hutchinson for new photos including that fisheye view of the in-progress Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza — which is scheduled to be done in less than two weeks, with the all-day dedication celebration scheduled for Saturday, 9/6. (More details on the celebration are now posted on the Statue of Liberty Plaza Project website, by the way.) Another big milestone in the past week – installation of thousands of pavers:

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David says, “By Saturday almost all, including the 1503 with inscriptions, were in place.”

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All WSB coverage of the Alki Statue of Liberty is archived here.

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2 Camp Long updates: Festival today; volunteers 9/20
August 24, 2008 10:31 pm
|    Comments Off on 2 Camp Long updates: Festival today; volunteers 9/20
 |   Environment | West Seattle festivals | West Seattle parks

First — Luckie sends three pix from the Arts-in-Nature Festival‘s second and final day at Camp Long today, before the deluge:

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Luckie was up on Schurman Rock to get that photo of the dome set up as part of the Nature Consortium‘s annual extravaganza. Next, kids working on, well, art in nature:

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Final pic – an unwelcome guest at the festival – Luckie says a Camp Long naturalist found it in one of the park ponds and told her that “it’s a non-native species that is partly responsible for driving out the native frogs. Nobody knows how it got there—possibly, someone slipped it into the pond. The naturalist noted that releasing a non-native species such as this one opens a Pandora’s box of possibilities, which are seldom good”:

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The Nature Consortium does a lot more than put on this festival; restoring the West Duwamish Greenbelt is its main mission, and you can join the effort in a work party almost every weekend (watch the West Seattle Weekend Lineup and greenseattle.org). Second Camp Long-related note tonight: We just got a news release about what sounds like a HUGE volunteer effort at Camp Long on September 20th – up to 500 volunteers fanning out to work in the park. Here’s the full announcement:Read More

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Car-Free Day #1 (2 weeks till Alki) report, in case you wondered
August 24, 2008 8:57 pm
|      12 COMMENTS
 |   Environment | Transportation

Two weeks till the Alki Car-Free Day, third in a series of three; that series started today, sort of, in a manner that our friends at Capitol Hill Seattle call “a slopping wet joke,” and not just because of the weather. Will add other links as we find them, starting with:
*Casey McKinnon calls it a “non-event event”
*P-I visits Alki during the Cap Hill closure
*KING calls it a washout, noting (as did CHS) it ended two hours early
*KOMO focuses on … kids who had a lemonade stand
*Seattle Times mentions the lemonade stand too (among other things)

There’s a thread in the WSB Forums, too. (Background on the scheduled 9/7 Alki Car-Free Day, from the 7/30 announcement, is here and here.) We will check with SDOT in the coming week to see if what happened on Capitol Hill will lead to any changes in the plan for Alki (and, next week, Rainier Valley) — we’ll be asking, in particular, about the pre-event towing plans (which seemed to be the biggest shock on C-Hill).

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Who’s behind new Snap Fitness in The Junction: Longtime WSB’er
August 24, 2008 6:34 pm
|      6 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

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Meet Jim Flynn and M.J. Benavente of Gatewood. You might know Jim better as “JumboJim,” the handle he uses when commenting (or forum’ing) on WSB. Our archives show his participation goes back at least a year and a quarter – to a time when only about 25% of the current readership was stopping by – so we wanted to give his new business a special shoutout, once we found out he was behind it. It’s been mentioned on WSB before – a new fitness center coming to Jefferson Square, Snap Fitness, in the former West Seattle Animal Hospital space next to Subway (WSAH is elsewhere in JSq now); they’ve even posted jobs in the WSB “West Seattle Jobs Offered” Forum, but until a few days ago, we didn’t know who was behind it. Here’s a little more about what Jim and M.J. have in store:Read More

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Road watch: High Point semi-updates
August 24, 2008 4:09 pm
|    Comments Off on Road watch: High Point semi-updates
 |   High Point | Transportation | West Seattle news

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Thanks to Scott C for the tip that, while the upgraded signals at 35th/Raymond (previous WSB coverage here) still aren’t unbagged and turned on, a left-turn lane has just been painted onto 35th (a little hard to photograph in the monsoon, but we tried). Meantime, a little ways southeast, the Lanham/Morgan light isn’t unbagged yet either, though multiple sources had suggested it would start its week of blinking tests (here’s our 8/8/08 update; here’s an update on the High Point Neighborhood Association site this past week. Maybe a rain delay? We’ll keep watching – let us know if you see either one go into test mode before we see it!

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Reader report: “Good door-to-door news”
August 24, 2008 2:46 pm
|      6 COMMENTS
 |   Door-to-door alert | West Seattle schools | WS & Sports

That’s how Julie titled her e-mail, seeking to share this:

Today in our neighborhood (Genesee)……..we had two very polite West Seattle High School football players (selling Gold Card Savings coupons for new football uniforms) come to the door.

We’ve had so many unsavory obscure organizations canvassing for ages it is hard to remember there really are some worthy causes out there. And they were polite teenagers too!

I hope they get lots of support from our community. Go Westside!

We’ve told you before about the uniform-fundraising drive — which kicked off with a food booth at West Seattle Summer Fest.

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Reader report: Alki Ave power problems
August 24, 2008 1:14 pm
|    Comments Off on Reader report: Alki Ave power problems
 |   Utilities

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(photo added 2:59 pm, through-the-windshield shot showing part of the big SCL presence at scene)
We don’t have any official Seattle City Light info on this but CL reports power trouble in his building and possibly others in the 1100 block of Alki Ave (map) – unofficial word on the scene is water trouble with a transformer, though this was before the rain arrived, so it may not be THAT kind of water trouble.

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Share the wealth (of knowledge): Be a tutor!
August 24, 2008 12:27 pm
|    Comments Off on Share the wealth (of knowledge): Be a tutor!
 |   High Point | How to help

Kay from the Youth Tutoring Program in High Point says some WSB’ers stepped forward to help when we last mentioned one of their open calls for help – and it’s time for another one, as the new school year gets closer. Here’s her announcement; hope you can spare a little time to make a huge difference in local kids’ lives:

Tutor Great Kids!

The Youth Tutoring Program is looking for tutors in West Seattle!

YTP is a non-profit tutoring program that provides one-on-one academic support to students living in low-income housing. We operate five tutoring centers throughout the city. We are in great need of volunteer tutors at our High Point tutoring center located on 35th Ave. SW in West Seattle.

Tutors commit to one evening per week for two hours and work with one student at a time on homework, math and language arts skills. Available sessions are Monday through Thursday from 5:30-7:30 pm and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-5 pm.

Many of our students cannot get the homework help they need at home and depend on our tutors for academic support!

Our School Year Tutoring Program will be starting the week of September 22nd and we need hundreds of dedicated tutors! New tutor trainings will be held the week of September 8th!

Make a difference in the life of a child in your neighborhood. Apply today at www.ccsww.org/ytp or call 206-328-5659.

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Summer’s final festival: Arts in Nature continues today
August 24, 2008 8:05 am
|    Comments Off on Summer’s final festival: Arts in Nature continues today
 |   Fun stuff to do | West Seattle festivals | West Seattle parks

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Marco kindly shared that photo from the final hour of the first day of the Nature Consortium’s Arts-in-Nature Festival at Camp Long — that’s Pyrosutra (you won’t be surprised to hear they’re now heading off to Burning Man), accompanied by the Yellow Hat Band (and note Schurman Rock in the background). The festival continues today, 11 am-6 pm, with another rich array of art and, well, nature – here’s today’s schedule. $5 donation requested for admission.

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West Seattle Farmers’ Market today: What to look for
August 24, 2008 6:03 am
|    Comments Off on West Seattle Farmers’ Market today: What to look for
 |   West Seattle Farmers' Market

The organization that runs 7 farmers’ markets including ours says this week’s highlights include several varieties of tree fruit, plus cabbage, and more … here’s the link to the “ripe ‘n’ ready” list. The West Seattle Farmers’ Market is open 10 am-2 pm, 44th/Alaska.

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Dog poisonings: Investigation expands, citywide media covers
August 24, 2008 2:02 am
|    Comments Off on Dog poisonings: Investigation expands, citywide media covers
 |   Crime | Pets | Safety | West Seattle news

poisoneddog.jpgSince Friday morning, when we first posted the story of Kate K and her dog Coco — who is recovering from being poisoned in her own yard — the comment thread brought two other nearby residents forward with stories about dog poisonings – and that has animal authorities investigating whether these cases might be linked (at Kate’s request, we e-mailed those two commenters to be sure they saw her note about contacting the investigator). It’s also brought two citywide-media reports – we want to thank the Times for crediting WSB and those commenters in its report today (here’s the link); the other report didn’t. Thanks also to those who shared advice on emergency vets.

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Having a ball as curtain falls on ’08 “Movies on the Wall”
August 24, 2008 1:51 am
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   Fun stuff to do | West Seattle video | WS culture/arts

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Click pic to play video

Leave it to Lora Lewis of Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) to keep throwing a curveball into each West Seattle Movies on the Wall showing this summer — tonight, it was a juggling competition (with balls provided to showgoers by co-sponsor Viking Bank), which ended in a dusk juggle-off (shown in the video clip above) between Mike (white shirt) and Mark; Mike won the $25 Pagliacci Pizza gift card. “Galaxy Quest” was the perfect laugh-out-loud conclusion to the movie series, which WSB’ers (via online “voting”) and Junction visitors (via “ballot boxes”) helped shape — the five previous movies were “Finding Nemo,” “Ghostbusters,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “The Goonies,” and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Only one rainout – “Nemo” on 8/9, successfully rescheduled to this past Thursday – and no serious glitches, just a ton of fun. Thanks to Lora and the other West Seattle businesspeople who made the series possible (WSB was a co-sponsor this year too); we’re looking forward to next summer already. P.S. There is one more outdoor movie in West Seattle before summer ends — High Point Community Center is showing “The Wizard of Oz” next Thursday night; center coordinator Brian Judd suggests you get there by 6.

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Duwamish River Festival: Celebrating the cleanups
August 23, 2008 11:52 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   Environment | West Seattle news

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John LaSpina sent that photo this morning — sunrise over the industry-lined Duwamish, with Mount Rainier in the background, hours before today’s Duwamish River Festival began. We saved it, knowing we would drop by the festival this afternoon:

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Boat tours were offered, along with kayaking (we spotted the famous Alki Kayak Tours van on the street) from festival home base at Duwamish Waterway Park (map). Though that’s in South Park, the river is West Seattle’s eastern border, and nothing hit that home more than this signboard we spotted in the Environmental Protection Agency booth:

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The folks there say that was just made up this week, as part of their public-information campaign about the cleanup, one of many past/present/future along the polluted waterway. The official address of the “Lockheed West Seattle Superfund site” detailed on that board is 3443 West Marginal Way (here’s a map); the timeline on the board displayed today says “construction” as part of the site cleanup is set for 2011. The site was added to the Superfund list about a year and a half ago; it has an official EPA subsite with buckets of information, including the official March 2007 news release that says in part:

Historic industrial practices at this former shipyard released contaminants into the bay, including metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and petroleum products. An NPL listing notifies the public that EPA believes a site requires further study and possible cleanup under EPA’s Superfund program.

The Lockheed West Seattle site is one among several other contaminated sediment sites in the Harbor Island area that require remediation. Successful cleanups have already been completed at the Todd Shipyard facility and another Lockheed shipyard. At these sites, 330,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments were dredged and removed from the sites, 7800 pilings were removed, and over 5 acres of fish-friendly inter-tidal habitat were created. Sediment cleanup projects like these are a significant part of the EPA’s continuing efforts to the remove toxins from Puget Sound.

In addition to information about Duwamish cleanups, plus the boating and kayaking we mentioned, today’s festival also offered information on everything from “clean car washes” to keeping pollutants away from storm drains to kids’ activities, including a bouncer — sporting the face of, of course, aquatic cartoon star SpongeBob SquarePants. Then as we left the park after browsing the booths, steel drummer Stanley Alleyne launched into a tune that seemed to fit: “Let Your Love Flow.”

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West Seattle metal theft: WSB’er makes a map for you
August 23, 2008 7:45 pm
|      3 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | Safety | West Seattle news


View Larger Map

Based on this report and the comments that followed, Steve made the map you see above and asked us to share it – it’s open to collaboration (if it happened to you, go here and add your location). Unfortunately, he has extra impetus to see these guys get caught, as he wrote:

I decided to map out the locations of casings and thefts as suggested by the poster “Jana.” In the middle of typing a reply to the post, inviting Jana and other WSB’ers to view the Google map I created, I received a call from home to let me know that we had been hit (Thursday night).

If you aren’t familiar with how to use Google Maps, here’s the user guide. Meantime, we’re sorry to hear about Steve getting ripped off, but grateful for his generosity in making and sharing the map!

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Go jump in the (Colman) pool, before it’s too late
August 23, 2008 5:04 pm
|      5 COMMENTS
 |   Fun stuff to do | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

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It’s been three months since we took that photo on the first ’08 day of operations at Colman Pool in Lincoln Park … and now, a note from Alison wisely advises us it’s time to remind you that Colman Pool is going into its last full week of the summer. Monday 9/1 (Labor Day) is its last weekday of the year; after that, it’ll be open for one “post-season” weekend 9/6-9/7, and then the plexiglass gets boarded up again till May 2009. So soon! Remember, this also means about two months with no city-run swimming facilities open in West Seattle, since Southwest Pool‘s renovations are now expected to last into late October, with 11/1 the target reopening date (latest WSB update here). (The West Seattle YMCA [WSB sponsor] and Allstar Fitness both have pools, however.) One more Seattle Parks and Recreation-related note — if you can’t resist thinking holidays already, the fall “combined brochure” for all West Seattle community centers (plus South Park) is online and it’s even got the dates for the Christmas ship (12/13-12/14).

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West Seattle Gateway Cleanup Countdown: 3 weeks away!
August 23, 2008 12:33 pm
|    Comments Off on West Seattle Gateway Cleanup Countdown: 3 weeks away!
 |   Environment | How to help | Neighborhoods | West Seattle news

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West Seattle’s biggest community cleanup in a long time is exactly three weeks from today, and if you’re not already signed up, there’s still room for you to prepare to pitch in. We’ve been telling you about this — targeting the “gateway” area at the Fauntleroy end of The Bridge, from Walking on Logs to 35th/Fauntleroy — since the date was set in early June; today, we have the latest information from organizer Nancy Driver of the Fairmount Community Association:

First of all, thanks to the many volunteers who e-mailed since the last update and signed up for the cleanup – the community response has been great so far. Mars Hill Church (West Seattle campus) has joined us as a co-sponsor – they will be recruiting more volunteers, distributing flyers and assisting with other organizational tasks – we are glad to have their help. Dixie Dokken, a former Executive Director of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, is now helping us with fundraising, as are Catherine Barker (also recruiting volunteers) and Sharonn Meeks (Fairmount Community Association). We are very glad to have their help because we have a long way to go to pull together all the money to cover the tree work that needs to be done.

We’ve been asked about who will make the decisions on the tree work and who decides which shrubbery might be removed. The cleanup area is a public right-of-way and SDOT (Urban Forestry) has the say so on whether any trees or shrubs are removed. SDOT requires that the tree company be a licensed, certified arborist and will supervise the company that does the tree work.

We are looking for four to five groups and/or businesses that are willing to “adopt” a portion of the clean up area so that it can be maintained in the future. It would be similar to commitment under the “Adopt-A-Street” program. If you are a member of a group or work for a business that might be interested in making this commitment to the community, please contact me at ndriver@quidnunc.net or Stan Lock at Stan.Lock@Seattle.gov

We’ll have another update for everyone next Saturday with all the details about where to meet for the cleanup and details on when and how to check in. Thanks again to everyone in the community who is supporting this effort.

Nancy/Fairmount Community Association

To see the latest version of the official flyer for the September 13th cleanup, click here.

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West Seattle Crime Watch: Bike owner shares lesson learned
August 23, 2008 11:24 am
|      15 COMMENTS
 |   Crime | West Seattle news

Alki resident Steve Sox is getting the word out about the bike he lost despite a lock, explaining in his e-mail to WSB: “While I am interested in recovery, but don’t have much hope, I am also interested in alerting people to the danger of trusting your expensive bikes to bike rack locks on your vehicles.” Here’s his alert:

My mountain bike was taken from the locked rack on top of my car Thursday night/Friday morning near Alki Beach. They did NOT get the front wheel. So be advised that if you see bike as described below with no front wheel or a mis-matched wheel set that it might well be stolen.

I can positively identify the bike beyond the serial number.

If anyone happens to see the bike for sale at a yard sale, pawn shop, where ever, I would appreciate a phone call. My cellphone number is 206-719-2158.

Gary Fisher Sugar 2+ Full Suspension Mountain Bike
Colors: Black w/ grey and silver
Fox front and rear shocks
Cateye computer
No front wheel or a mis-matched wheel set.

Yes, I will offer a reward for information leading to the return of the bike.

Thanks, and please take a lesson from my stupidity. Do not overly trust bike rack locks to protect your property.

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Great Cross-Sound Race: Deja vu, except for the weather
August 23, 2008 11:02 am
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle news | WS & Sports

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This morning’s Great Cross-Sound Race, 7-plus miles round trip from Alki, ended with a three-peat for Evan Jacobs (shown above close to shore post-race): He also finished first last year, solo, and finished first in 2006 with a partner. One thing very different this year compared to a year ago — the weather (as you can see in the photos from our coverage last year) — brilliant sunshine this time around. Full results will eventually be posted on the Sound Rowers website.

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West Seattle Movies on the Wall: Season finale tonight
August 23, 2008 8:23 am
|    Comments Off on West Seattle Movies on the Wall: Season finale tonight
 |   Fun stuff to do | West Seattle news | WS culture/arts

That’s the trailer from “Galaxy Quest,” the sci-fi spoof that’s closing out this summer’s West Seattle Movies on the Wall series of Sidewalk Cinema presentations on the big screen next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor). The weather looks great tonight; as usual, the show starts at dusk (probably 8:30-ish), and it’s free (the entire six-movie series is brought to you courtesy of West Seattle business sponsors including WSB) — but you’re encouraged to bring nonperishable food for the West Seattle Food Bank, which is also the beneficiary of concessions presented by West Seattle Christian Church. Bring a few $ for fundraising raffle tickets, too – there’ve been cool raffle prizes every single show we’ve been to (we only missed one; see you there tonight!).

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From the blog about White Center: Fish among flowers
August 23, 2008 6:07 am
|    Comments Off on From the blog about White Center: Fish among flowers
 |   Gardening | White Center

We originally posted this at White Center Now, where we’re the news-coverage part of the contributor team, but in case you didn’t see it there, we’re mentioning it here during weekend nursery-going time: Village Green Perennial Nursery (WSB sponsor) proprietor Vera Johnson‘s husband Bill Curtin is back from his latest Alaska fishing trip, and part of the catch is on sale at Village Green. Here’s the full story (with pic of a humongous halibut).

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Concert-series finale brings New Orleans flavor to The Mount
August 23, 2008 2:06 am
|      1 COMMENT
 |   Fun stuff to do | West Seattle video | WS culture/arts

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Click To Play

That’s Steve Rice and Big Squeezy, in the last of four outdoor summer concerts at Providence Mount St. Vincent (WSB sponsor) last night. As was the case with the preceding three concerts, this one drew an all-ages crowd, from young-at-heart Mount residents, to young-in-chronology visitors like these:

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Thanks to Karen Berge for sharing that photo (and others from the earlier concerts). We’re already looking forward to next year; meantime, if you’re looking for more music – we also shot video last night for White Center Now at the Cafe Rozella (here) and Full Tilt (here) shows – and there’s more music at Full Tilt tonight (more here).

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