Miscellaneous: May 2009 Archives

Our post earlier today about the new, Red-Bullish atmosphere the library is promoting got us thinking about other things that might be classified as "undesirable" in a public space. As we understand it, Seattle Public Library uses no-pr0n filters on kids' area computers, but leaves the adult section...adult. In fact, "All users are asked to respect the privacy of other users and not attempt to censor or comment upon what others are viewing." What do you think?

    

During our jog around the Olympic Sculpture Park, we noticed that our favorite art piece was strangely grammatically incorrect. The park's Love & Loss work of art was missing the cute "e" table.

There aren’t many places in Seattle where you can eat massive turkey dinners while rocking out to Alice in Chains and not have to worry about some American Idol shit coming on next and wrecking the scene.

Looks like someone reading a book doesn't it? Well, yes and no. That's a Kindle! With a nightlight attachment, even. It may seem a small thing, but after writing post after post about the Kindle, we'd still never actually seen one al fresco, as it were. (Which, interestingly, we heard the other day isn't used by Italians the way we use it to mean outdoor dining.) However the other day, the geek planets aligned and we spotted this person whiling away the time before a SIFF screening, so we snapped a picture with our iPhone.

At least that's what we think whenever we see this stencil on the sidewalk at 11th and Pine. We have the facts, and we're voting yes.

We'll keep this short, for our readers' benefit--Seattlest.com is now accepting local advertising, which makes great sense because our readers are local, too. In a Seattlest survey, 87 percent of our readers said they live in Seattle, while 97 percent lived in Washington State. (Thank you, Seattle! And West Seattle! And the Eastside!)

Seattlest is on holiday today, so we'll be posting lightly. While you're enjoying this terrific three-day-weekend weather, give a moment to remembering those who suited up and served and died. CNN points out that Memorial Day's origins were an attempt to heal the wounds of the Civil War, so we present Walt Whitman's "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night" after the jump.

Our pet has needs like any other. Good food, good walks, good rubs… what else were we missing? We went to Animal Talk Pet Shop (6514 Roosevelt Way NE) to find out. Our pet was keen to investigate the goodie-crammed store: pet food, pet treats, even the potential for new friends. Animal Talk sells cats, birds, turtles, snakes, and even a tarantula that would have been a very good friend.

John is renting a cabin a few miles outside of Leavenworth that he found on the internet. If it isn't filled with spiders or a meth lab he will probably consider the experience a success.

Inspired by Jack’s Otter Falls experience last summer and too impatient to waste the weekend weather indoors we set out for the season’s first taste of mountain love and ended up running from the wreckage of last winter’s wrath.

Today being Harvey Milk Day, we lunched in Cal Anderson Park, named after Washington's first openly gay state legislator, appointed in 1987 by the King County Council to a vacant 43rd District seat in the House.

ALL THAT JAZZ!: If your musical soul isn't daring enough to venture to Sasquatch or hippy-dippy enough for the Folklife Festival, you can check out the smooth tunes at the--air conditioned--Bellevue Jazz Festival. Curtains open tonight with the preeminent young male jazz singer Kurt Elling and Grammy winner, Dianne Reeves. Weekend performances include: Mingus Big Band, Mose Allison Trio and the Seattle Rep. Jazz Orchestra. On a budget? The festival has a few free shows, featuring our very own local talented pool of rising jazz stars. Performance times and locations vary, Friday-Sunday // Theatre at Meydenbauer Center, 11100 NE 6th St. // Tickets: Packages $59-149

We took the I-5 Mercer Street/Seattle Center exit the other night and while waiting for the light to change, we noticed ten--a seemingly abnormal amount--construction cranes littering the South Lake Union neighborhood. (Yes, some probably dedicated to building the new Amazon HQ.)

You can tell it’s almost summer because people are gleefully filling the sidewalks with the trash of a consumer society and, in a enlightened spirit of philanthropy, marking "free" on it. There was a time, not so long ago, when putting out a lightly used item you no longer needed was a kind of urban recycling. Who among us hasn’t grabbed a chair or desk from the street? Who?!

We hadn't had any bear posts today, but luckily this just came in under the wire. Woodland Park Zoo's "Bear Affair & Big Howl for Wolves" (presented by Brown Bear Car Wash!) returns June 6. Admission is free as part of your zoo admission, which runs: Adult (13-64) $16.50; Child (3-12) $11.00; Toddler (0-2) free. There will be “bear-safe” camp site demonstrations (see above), keeper talks, treats for bears and wolves, and--hey, where'd little Jimmy wander off to?! Ha ha! We kid, of course. Fun fact: Approximately 25,000 black bears exist in Washington.

Sometimes we like to see what the rest of the world has to say about Seattle, so we go to Google News and search for "Seattle". This is what's currently available--the upteen-millionth priest who molested kids, and pages and pages of sports. How is it in this day and age of declining newspapers and traditional media that sports reporters still have work?

With swine flu defeated, it’s time to turn our attention to the killer bear loose on our streets.

Multiple weatherological sources are saying if we can just hold out through showers today and tomorrow, we're headed to some mighty fine sunshine--in fact we might hit 70 by Thursday. We get a little weepy just thinking about it.

At the Cheese Festival this weekend, on our third table of samples, we proceeded as we generally do throughout the cheese concourse, standing on the outside, reaching in with our toothpicks for a cube. You know, Cheese Fest stuff. But this was the day we'd encounter one version of the typical Seattleite, and lo, the beast takes many forms. This version was the fifty-something Magnolia Dad with Token Younger Wife. He was quick to inform me that there was in fact a line, and that he had stood in it for forty minutes. That I thought I was better than everyone else, and that my mother hadn't taught me any manners (oh no, he di'int). For the record, my mama did teach me manners, and she also taught me to be smart enough not to WAIT IN AN OPTIONAL LINE FOR FORTY MINUTES.

But we repeat ourselves.

CRAZY BIG STREET FAIR: It's supposed to be nice this weekend, so get outside, people! Here is your perfect excuse: the annual University District StreetFair, celebrating the beginning of the festival season. It's like country fair meets urban chic. What's not to love? But if the large crowds or hundreds of crafters freak you out, avoid them and come out later to see the Dragon Steps Fire Show with a barbarian Princess and even some fire sparring. Oooh, ahhhh!

A few weeks ago, a favorite women's clothes shop, Mercer (University Village) held their clearance sale to prepare for the spring arrivals. We are familiar enough with this shop to track their changes in merchandise and we noted several changes--all of which impressed us.

We only know one person who owns a Kindle, so we often forget to mention you can subscribe to Seattlest at the Kindle Store for just $1.99.

A month ago, the Seattle Times told us a Honduran crack syndicate had been operating within the forested sketchiness of Kinnear Park, before realizing Belltown’s traditional function as the area’s go-to drug market.

Or at least Dartanion London got a car. The local comedian (Jet City Improv, Dart-Mondo) made a self-admittedly "dumb video" and was selected by Ford to win their Fiesta, a fuel-efficient small car that goes on sale in the States next year (it's already in Europe, natch). But this is more than merely having a car, this is a bona fide em-effing MOVEMENT, at least according to Ford.

Mother’s Day is in some respects a “mayday, mayday.” How do we express our appreciation to our mother on Mother’s Day, and how do we so for the mother who has, if not everything, then everything she needs? “Oh, I don’t need anything more,” she always says. “Just more things cluttering up the house.” We have never purchased flowers for our mother; as much as we love flowers (especially receiving them), we prefer to express our affection in a unique and useful manner. Brunch? “Oh, if it is a nice Sunday morning, I really need to work in the yard,” our mother says.

IF YOU CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT: It's going to get hot, hot, hot tonight at the 2010 Firefighter Calendar Judging Party. In the heat of the judging passion, 23 firefighters (6 are women!) from across Washington will work the runway trying to earn not only the title of "Northwest's Hottest Firefighter" but also one of the 12 coveted months. Secret fantasies aside, this is all for a good cause, helping out the Firefighters Burn Foundation.

We got the following screenshot from intrepid tipster Steve Winwood, who writes: "See if the P-I fixed the hellscape catastrophe apostrophe in paragraph five. This is the worst moment of my entire life!!!!!!!"

If you really care about superfast internet or high definition TV service, don’t bother reading the rest of this post. It’ll only piss you off.

We were walking behind this couple for nearly an entire block yesterday and couldn't help but notice that this guy's hand never once left the bull's eye. Don't get us wrong, we're all for public displays of booty appreciation. It's just that his hand was right there. And from there it never moved.

We're finally coming into the gardening season, and most of us who live in the city have limited space and resources for planting a garden. Sometimes it seems as if even having some sort of a porch, or a stoop to read a book on is a faraway dream--let alone a yard.

With Earth Day and May Day in the not-too-distant past, we were feeling more earth-friendly than usual and spent the weekend bouncing in and out of eco-conscious, recycling shops. Our first stop on Roosevelt Way was a women’s consignment store, Oh Bella! (6507 Roosevelt Way NE), where we joined three women in the coffin-sized shop. Somehow, we rotated with the women around freestanding rack to browse the rack and the walls. We noted a Moschino Cheap and Chic bubble skirt, but at $50, we thought it was chic but not as cheap as we expected for a consignment shop.

Right?

BIG HATS & BACON JAM: An annual event with historical significance that encourages both gambling, drinking and obnoxiously big hats. We're sold. As the ponies race out of the gate in the 135th Kentucky Derby, Seattle derby fans will be able to watch the races and find your coveted Maker's Mark Mint Julep, at The BottleNeck Lounge's second annual Run for the Roses Derby Party. This year they are bringing those bacon-loving-son-of-a-guns from Skillet, who will be cooking up some Southern soul. The best derby attire and hat could even win you an award or two.