As a followup to this May Times article about University Village’s expansion plans (highlight: a huge new parking garage on the south edge, just north of the Viaduct), I was curious to see what the building permits would look like when superimposed on overhead imagery of the current mall layout. Areas in red above represent new construction — you can see the way that surface parking is gradually being replaced by stacked garages as the area becomes more dense. And as the graphic shows, that Key Bank on 45th isn’t long for this world.

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The high tech space toilets that the city has been trying to sell off on ebay never sold, because apparently no one wanted to pay a minimum of $89,000 for used toilets that were frequently filled with drug users, hookers, and sometimes both at once [PI]. I know, it’s shocking. We paid $5 million for them a few years ago, and now you can get them new for around $200,000, without the layer of gross soggy debris on the floor.

They’re back on the market now, priced to move–the lowest bid right now is for the one from the Market, at $898.88 [ebay]. So far, people are willing to pay the most for the Waterfront toilet, which is at $1,713.88. You’ve got about a week left, so get your bids in eventually, because no one wants to miss a chance to buy the automatic toilet of their dreams for cheap.

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Here is your chance. The “Alley House,” so named because it was built in the developer’s back yard just went on the market. The-3 bedroom, 3-bathroom house combines green features like Solar Hot Water Preheat, a green roof, and Energy Star appliances with luxury amenities like a Liebherr refrigerator, Caeserstone countertops and built-in audio.

Sloan Ritchie, the developer and owner of Cascade Built, has been blogging about the building process on the Cascade Built blog.

The Alley House was also featured recently in the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce building green blog.

Listed for $770,000. Open this Sunday, August 10 from 1-4pm.

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The Elizabeth Gregory Home, a shelter with 11 beds for women in transition, needs to raise approximately $30,000 over the next two or three days. Donations have dropped off significantly, decreasing from an average of $200-300 down to $100 this year. The reserves that the shelter had were used last year, and they are basically out of money.

The shelter needs to give notice to their landlord on Monday if they cannot raise the needed funds and the women at the shelter would be turned away at the end of the month. In addition to the 11 beds, the shelter also provides food, laundry, Internet, and case worker services to up to 150 women each month.

You can read the complete Seattle Times article here, but if you can help, here is their contact information.

Elizabeth Gregory Home
P.O. Box 45310
Seattle, WA 98145
206-729-0262

Note: I suggest calling them, even if you are planning to mail in a donation so that they know what they have to count on by Monday.

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• Northwest Film Forum has a couple of interesting films this weekend: Chimes at Midnight is a 1966 film by Orson Welles that blends scenes from Shakespeare’s plays Richard II, Henry IV (parts 1 and 2), Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor with a commentary from Elizabethan historian Holinshed to produce an original work centered around the character called Falstaff, played by Welles himself.
• Full Battle Rattle, the other film at NWFF examines the Mojave Desert facility built by the US Army for a billion dollars to give soldiers headed for deployment to Iraq the chance to train in simulated “virtual Iraq”. The film follows one Army battalion through the simulation during which time they will try to quell a staged insurgency and prevent a staqed civil war before they are transported to Iraq to put their newly-acquired skills to the test where the action is 100 percent real.
• SIFF kicks off their Jean-Luc Godard tribute series with Contempt, the brilliant director’s first big budget film. Legendary sex kitten Brigitte Bardot stars as the not-quite-loving wife of a screenwriter (played by Michel Piccoli) whose marital discord neatly mirrors the confict between art and commerce examined in the film both directly as part of its film-within-a-film storyline and indirectly as a matter of philosophical reflection.
• Also at SIFF: The Films4Families series continues Saturday morning with a showing of the best of the film adaptations of classic children’s novel The Secret Garden. This version, released originally in 1993, is beautifully shot and well-acted by excellent young actors who bring to vivid life the story of three neglected children who restore themselves as they restore an abandoned garden on an isolated English country estate. An excellent film for children, The Secret Garden is also appealing to adults. (August 9, 10 am)
• The Grand Illusion presents Monster Camp, a documentary that provides a peek into the world of live action role playing, or, LARPing, for short. At NERO Seattle, the local branch of an organization that role plays games all across America, serious gamers spend 48 hours fully immersed in their imaginary world, transforming from ordinary folks into the fantastical beings they imagine, limited only by their own creativity.
• Midnight at the Egyptian: Family adventure film turned cult classic, The Goonies.
• One of my favorite films of SIFF’s 2008 Festival was Baghead, a film that asks: “Is a guy with a bag on his head really all that scary?” Four struggling actors head to the woods with the idea of writing their own screenplay and discover that the answer to that question is a resounding “yes”. Baghead isn’t just scary, though, it’s also funny and charming and totally likeable. It’s at the Varsity.
• If you’d rather see The Goonies outside, you can catch it Friday night at the Seattle Center’s Mural Ampitheater or Lynnwood’s Lynndale Park. Also on Friday night: South Lake Union’s Cinema on the Lawn screens Juno. On Saturday head to Fremont Outdoor Cinema for “Big Giant Monster Night” featuring Cloverfield, to West Seattle’s Sidewalk Cinema for Finding Nemo, the Mural Ampitheater for Batman Begins followed by a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, or Hing Hay Park for Transformers.

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Primary season is coming up, so the pile of postal mail is getting a bit thicker. In between an ad from a fly-by-night mortgage broker and a student loan bill was a card from the Municipal League of King County, giving their “ballot recommendations.”

(Aside for the fly-by-night mortgage broker crowd: Guys, the sub-prime and exotic loan market is gone. Go make an honest living. I saw a help wanted ad at Taco Time last week.)

Back to the ballot recommendations. Admit it, that list of judges looks like one long set of unfamiliar names. Actually, the Municipal League agrees, but there were two candidates that got the dreaded NOT QUALIFIED stamp.

Well, that looks entertaining. Let’s see why:

There’s C.F. (Frank) Vulliet, the “not qualified” candidate for state supreme court. He’s running against “outstanding” incumbent Charles Johnson. Vulliet’s story is straightforward: he’s a “self-employed, semiretired” attorney who isn’t allowed to practice law. He’s retired enough that he’s not bothering to keep up the continuing education all practicing lawyers are required to take.

A state Supreme Court judge who isn’t allowed to practice law? Sure, why not.

Then there’s Matthew Hale. He was described by the P-I as “ambitious.” Well, yeah, if I had the chutzpah to run for a place on the superior court after a mere three years in practice, they’d probably call me ambitious too.

Hale’s chief claim to fame is that he’s widely supported by off-road motorcycle and ATV enthusiasts. Why? Well, that’s going to take a little explaining, but Goldy at horsesass.org already did the hard work:

Hale’s opponent is an experienced judge by the name of Laura Middaugh. Middaugh is married to a state senator, Adam Kline. Adam Kline once wrote a hilarious e-mail telling off-road enthusiasts how little he thought of them. Therefore, several off-roaders are voting against Kline’s wife.

“I don’t care what anyone says,” wrote one dirtbike enthusiast. “She [Middaugh] is a lawyer who’s [sic] hubby is a lawyer who has a personal agenda. No way possible [sic] she is not going to support his agenda.”

Democracy in action.

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This is via Ann Donovan via Lori Metcalf (Director of Administration, Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle)

The following highlights feedback received from community members who attended the four streetcar forums in July 2008. The forums were held to present the preliminary concept route map for streetcars, and then discuss details associated with the line through each of the neighborhoods. The four forums were held for: the Central Line, Ballard/Fremont Line, University Line, and First Hill/Capitol Hill Line.

The first section below presents general comments that would apply to all of the potential lines. It lists the Pros and Cons heard at the forums. Then for all lines as well as the individual lines, questions raised by attendees are listed.

Read more

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Everyone always complains how much space trucks and SUVs take up in parking lots, but this is a new low:

Actually, it appears this afternoon’s incident was the result of an under-the-influence driver, who fled on foot after an ill-fated attempt to negotiate the ramp down from 25th Ave. Police, fire trucks, and UV’s own Security are out in force to deal with the results.

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Is it just me or does it seem like summer is flying by this year? Get out there and enjoy it while you can. There’s a lot going on this weekend for kids and grownups too. Here’s a few that caught my eye:

Bubble Fest at the Pacific Science Center

We went to this last year and had a great time. It’s bubble madness with bubble shows, bubble pits, stations for blowing your own bubbles, and you can even kayak through the bubbles in the science center “ponds.”

August 6-10 at the Pacific Science Center

Bicycle Saturday

Just about every other weekend, the city closes off the 4-mile stretch of Lake Washington Boulevard that leads up to Seward Park to motorized vehicles, making way for cyclists big and small. It’s a beautiful ride along the lake, with plenty of choice spots to stop for a picnic, if you’re so inclined.

August 9, 9am - 6pm

Schoolhouse Rock!

If you have fond memories of spending Saturday mornings watching a cartoon bill sing the blues about the long road to becoming a law, then this Bellevue Youth Theatre production of Schoolhouse Rock! is for you (but you can pretend it’s for the kids).

Friday, August 8, and Saturday, August 9, at 7pm. Sunday, August 10, at 2pm.

Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival

The Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival brings you not one, but two free plays at Volunteer Park this weekend. Alice in Wonderland at 2pm and The Wind in the Willows at 5pm. Bring a blanket and suncreen.

Both plays run Saturday and Sunday.

Dances of Mexico

Learn about the history of Mexican folk dance when Ballet Folklorico Ollin, comes to the Queen Anne branch of the Seattle public library.

August 9, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Know of any other fun family activities this weekend? Share ‘em in the comments!

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Whether you’ve seen all of his films or none of them, if you are a fan of modern cinema, your movie viewing has almost certainly been influenced in one way or another by the work of French-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, one of the key figures of the Nouvelle Vague school of filmmaking, known also as the French New Wave. This movement led to the development of the “auteur theory” of filmmaking, the school of thought that says that the director of the film is the chief architect of its story. Remarkable at the time, the auteur theory has become the leading school of thought in filmmaking and the reason why even the most casual moviegoer refers to “Spielberg’s new film” or “the works of Lucas”.

Godard’s films used innovative techniques such as filming in “natural” locations (a friend’s apartment, the street) under natural light and frequent jump cuts, techniques that allowed the director the chance to both express his philosophical outlook about film and stick to the extremely low budgets of his early career. Other significant components of his style including downgrading the importance of the script in favor of improvisation by the director and the actors to create the story as it was being filmed and engaging audiences to view his films with the awareness of their fictions instead of suspending disbelief to see the movie as a true story.

SIFF pays tribute to Godard with their Godard’s 60s series, screening nine of the director’s best films of the 1960s, including Breathless, a film that is often labelled as one of the most inluential films ever made. The series starts August 8 with Contempt, his first big budget film, in which Brigitte Bardot stars as the extremely dissatisfied wife of a screenwriter creating an adaptation of The Odyssey for a film-within-the-film directed by legendary Fritz Lang, who plays himself. Contempt runs through August 14th and is followed by Two or Three Things I Know About Her on August 15, Weekend on August 16, A Woman is a Woman on August 17, Band of Outsiders on August 18, Masculine Feminine on August 19, Pierrot le Fou on August 20, Breathless on August 21, and the exquisite Vivre Sa Vie August 22 through August 28.

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This just in from Metblogger Ryan: 3 pedestrians were trapped under a van in Belltown on Western (location changed from original post). Not sure of the cross street. Ryan says “this is a terrifying scene. I’m sick to my stomach.” I hope the pedestrians are OK. We’ll update later. For now, steer clear of the scene.

Update: Black minivan…3 people hit…one person on the way to hospital unconscious. Two trapped.

Update: Northwest Cable News and Seattle LJ (originally but has since edited) that the incident was a car hitting 3 cyclists. Ryan on the scene: “can neither confirm nor deny. I didn’t see any bikes but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any. Although, they pulled big boots off of the guy I took a picture of…he definitely wasn’t dressed for cycling.”

Update: Seattle PI Blog states:

A 60-year-old man died early Wednesday evening after an accident involving a Ford van and a pedicab near Western Avenue and Cedar Street.
Details were few after the crash, which happened about 7 p.m. A woman in her 60s – the wife of the dead man, according to a Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman – was rushed to Harborview Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
The 23-year-old pedicab driver was also taken to Harborview with non-life-threatening injuries.

Ryan: “Heard cop rush past me on cell phone say, ‘Yeah, I’m here and this is a *terrible* motherf**king accident.‘” and “Also heard fireman yell over to a medic ‘You better hurry up! This isn’t good!‘”

Last update via Komo4:

Witnesses said the pedicab, with the name Cascadia Cabs, was heading west on Cedar towards Western with its two passengers when it ran a red light. The driver was screaming, as if he had lost control of the vehicle.

Seattle police later confirmed that there was an equipment failure on the pedicab that contributed to the accident

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Photo behind cut
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.612 OPS.

All you non-stat-minded, non-baseball people just went, “Huh?” But here’s the deal. OPS is the sum of a player’s on-base percentage (their ability to get on base, whether by hit or walk) and slugging percentage (the total number of bases a player accumulates where a homer equals 4 bases, a triple equals 3, etc. divided by the total plate appearances — at bats and walks). It’s a quick-and-dirty way to determine whether a hitter is doing the two things they should be doing — getting on base, and getting a lot of extra base hits.

And Vidro was a hitter — the Mariners’ DESIGNATED HITTER, in fact. His job was to hit, not field, not pitch, just hit.

.612 is a bad OPS. The average OPS in the AL right now is .750. It’s abysmal for a DH. Not only is he last among all regular DHs in OPS, he’s almost 100 points behind the next worst hitter — 39 year old Gary Sheffield, who is wrapping up his Hall of Fame career as the Tigers’ grumpy old man.

If you look at all players in baseball with at least 300 plate appearances (which takes into account most part-time players), you find Vidro near the bottom of the list, with a guy who can only steal bases and a now injured shortstop in a mega-slump.

And again, Jose Vidro is a DESIGNATED HITTER. His job is to HIT. Not steal bases. Not field. Hit. And he couldn’t.

He might be the worst designated hitter to ever get 300 plate appearances ever.

And the Mariners traded for him in 2006, sending away two prospects to the Washington Nationals. Why?

So he could be their designated hitter. No, I’m not kidding.

And that pretty much sums up everything that’s been wrong with the Mariners in the last few years. They’re like that guy you know who always seems to offer stock picks for companies that tank. You find yourself wishing you could make money off betting against his idiocy.

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We all knew that the Fleet Foxes were doing something special, but the speed with which they are blowing up right now is amazing, and on Monday night they were on Letterman. (The location for this appearance on their myspace was Sell-outsburg, NY.)

I watched it at the Redwood, which was as always full of musicians, all of whom seemed pretty pleased to see one of their own up there on the giant tv. If you missed it, you can watch below.

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I know, I know. You are probably all just sick to death of Blue Angels pictures by now. Not to mention the events have been over for 3 days. I just had to share this shot I got from the small park just north of Boeing Field on Sunday. I had no idea they took off together and in formation. The first 4 came streaking over us like this, with the other two a few seconds behind them. They were so close, it felt like the sound alone could knock you down.

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As part of the Samsung AT&T Summer Krush concert series, Gavin Rossdale will be playing a free show Thurday night at the Showbox SoDo. Doors will open at 7:30, and the show is scheduled to start at 9:30 (rock star procrastination notwithstanding.)

The show will be open to the public, but it’s advised that those attending get there early to ensure admission.

The Summer Krush concert series began July 31 with a performance by Mariah Carey in Los Angeles, and will conclude Sept. 16 with a performance by Good Charlotte in San Francisco. All shows are free, and are also being used as a promotion tool for the new Samsung BlackJack II, a “music-centric” mobile phone.

For more information, visit www.samsungsummerkrush.com.

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