photo by Eldan Goldenberg [flickr] via the metroblogging group pool

• a shockingly compelling defense of Gregoire’s decision to pit viaduct vs. tunnel [horsesass]
• rent a video, help a scarecrow employee recover from windpocalypse [dailyweekly]
• changing the world? perhaps you’d like to ‘blog about it?¹ [worldchanging]
• investigate the interestingness of a would-be neighborhood without leaving the house [robotcoop]

(more…)

pickings slim as the year winds down, but a couple of odd items (in addition to everyone else’s suggestion of el vez’s mexican xmas extravaganza [tripledoor]) are on the radar:

• George Harrison died five years ago. Northwest Harvest needs money to feed the hungry. Local musicians (including the drummer from Yes) like playing covers. Spin up the blender and you’ve got tonight’s George Harrison cover jam night tonight at the crocodile. [myspace]
• Although the appeal has probably been limited by our recent unpleasant weather — snow! ice! rain! wind! power outages! — they turn on the fake snow every night at 6 pm at Pacific Place to make your holiday shopping errands feel more picturesque and kind of freakishly weird.

Most of my information on the Wawona debacle comes from Joe Follansbee of the Maritime Heritage Network. (He’s also where I get all of my information about MOHAI’s proposed move to my ‘hood, a move I fully support because the underused Naval Reserve Armory building makes me sad.) And now he’s published a book on the boat, called, “Shipbuilders, Sea Captains, and Fishermen: The Story of the Schooner Wawona“.

There’s just enough time left to order one for the history buff in your life. Joe has been a great force in helping preserve the artifacts and stories of an industry that helped build this town, and his book is sure to be compelling.

Four of five family members were found dead in their Burien house Monday; the fifth was rushed to Harborview in a state of collapse. The culprit? Most likely their gas-operated generator. The local news has been full of stories about generator-related illness and injury, so I thought I’d post up some generator safety tips.

First, do not use your generator inside. Just like a car, your generator uses an internal combustion engine that gives off carbon monoxide. Make sure your generator is outside and in a well-ventilated area where fumes will not enter the house.

Don’t overload the generator: your generator has an output rating. Do not exceed this rating or you will cause some serious damage to your appliances.

Never plug your generator into a household outlet. Never connect your generator directly to your home’s wiring. In both cases, you can create “backfeed” or send power to “dead” lines out on the power grid, which can be lethal for a utility worker making repairs even miles away from your home.

Use proper power cords. Read the instructions for your generator before doing anything else with it and make sure you follow those instructions to the letter. Make sure your generator is properly grounded, turn off all equipment being powered by the generator before you turn off your generator, and please, never try to refuel a generator whie it is still running.

For more tips and detailed explanations of these rules, visit the Consumer Product Safety Commision [site].

I was going to ask the question that was bugging me — Why was almost all the power restored in North Seattle by Friday evening while South and West Seattle remained in the dark — but Seattlest and the Slog got to it first.

So, as a resident of North Seattle, I think I get to do something the Slog and Seattlest can’t do — answer the question as a local.
(more…)

The parade of Pike/Pine carnage continues. This time, it’s in the form of slender mannequins sporting pricey styles. It looks like ian is vacating it’s corner storefront in favor of the sunnier pastures of Fremont before the wrecking ball arrives to take down the other side of the street.

Akron Family + These Arms Are Snakes // Neumo’s // 15 December 2006

These Arms Are Snakes have been together for something like three years, playing extensively, and touring like crazy, yet this is the first time that I’ve managed to get to one of their shows. I walk in late in their set, and they’re in full epic endgame mode. Lead singer Steve Snere’s shirt is unbuttoned as he flails frantically around the stage. Screaming, crawling on the floor, throwing himself fully into the music, he’s pure performance. Later, everything gets quiet when he steps out of the spotlight and mumble-narrates, bent over, occasionally smashing beer bottles into a bin.

It’s just a short interlude before their finale. The spectacle is saturated with danger. Meters of mic cords are looped around his neck between lyrical explosions. As if this isn’t enough, the ladder into the sound booth becomes a part of the makeshift pyrotechnics. Steve strands the crew in the loft and sets it up mid-stage so that he can climb above the rest of the band and have a better look at the audience. He seems to deem them suitable for crowd-surfing, stepping down from his perch to throw himself back into their adoring arms.

The pairing with Akron/Family seemed mismatched, yet admirably eclectic. Between bands, the audience churns over as Michael Jackson hits blare over the speakers. A chance to launch into their set at the moment “Billie Jean” ends is missed.

I’d always wondered exactly what an Akron/Family show looked like. Contrary to previous reports, they spend most of the show on their feet, rather than sitting comfortably on stools. The way it goes is pretty much like this: manic chanting gives way to a wall of sound built from three guitars, a pounding drum set, slide whistles, multi-part harmonies, and occasional ivory recorders. Later, singsongy melodies take over for a few measures and various band members seem to become overtaken by spirits. Shuffle, lather, rinse, repeat. Someone holds up a sign saying that they, too, went to Thai Tom for dinner, getting a laugh out of the band.
(more…)

• watch this! unintentionally funny interview with the creator of “metronatural” as well as true believers in the tagline. The investigator seems both scandalized and proud that she knows the term “metrosexual”. Even better, it’s filmed on the Eastside. [blip]
• remember that time the Stranger wrote [#] about the brewing 15th Avenue cafe “controversy”? Several years later, the Weekly dredges it up on the occasion of new Victrola opening near Bauhaus. scandal! [lineout]
• saddest dog walk ever? [seattleoverlooked]
• a dispatch from the still-powerless west [wsb]
• Several suggestions for getting to the slopes, car-free [buschick]

The next time you go home to visit your family and get picked on for wasting all of your free time typing nonsense into a weblog (particularly a Seattle-related one), spending hours documenting your cat’s favorite tricks on youtube, obsessively editing wikipedia, tagging the hell out of your flickr photostream, or meticulously tricking out your myspace, just tell your nagging mother that hey, you’re TIME’s goddamn person of the year. Yes, that’s right. We’re all winners this year as the magazine decided that finding one actual person who made the biggest contribution to 2006 was just way too much work.

Way to go Internet! No, even if (like us) you weren’t mentioned in the article, let’s all count this win as a little Chrismukkah Solstice miracle! The mainstream media like us, they really like us!

Governor Gregoire today made her long awaited decision about the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement – which turns out to be no decision at all. She’s passing the buck to Seattle residents by calling for a Seattle-only vote. From the Times:

“We are at a political stalemate and must find a path forward to replace the viaduct,” Gregoire said in a statement. “I don’t believe that, without a vote, either option will move forward. We need to hear directly from the people for whom this decision has the most impact.”

The vote, which is to take place by April, will force Seattle ultimately choose their viaduct fate… well, sort of. The vote will only include two options, the $2.8 billion replacement option and the $4.6 tunnel option. The state has committed to fully funding the replacement option. But should Seattle choose the tunnel option, the city and its residents will be legally responsible to commit $1.8 billion to the project. A third option, the $1.3 billion transit/surface boulevard option advocated by the People’s Waterfront Coalition will apparently not be on the ballot.

Some observations:

• Gregoire is smart. Cowardly, but smart. By punting the decision to Seattle voters, she becomes absolved of any responsibility in the decision. If we choose the tunnel, the east Washington voters can’t hold her responsible. If we choose a rebuild, it’s our own fault for having another ugly highway on the waterfront. She’s safe and re-electable.
• The only two options on the ballot are those with the least amount of vision. Both are short-sighted in that they only focus on moving cars instead of moving people. The transit/surface boulevard is purposefully being omitted despite the fact that is now the city’s official backup plan. It is the only plan that is financially feasible, encourages transit, and removes the highway from the waterfront.
• Common sense, or lack thereof, by our leaders. Why not implement a phased strategy as Cary Moon advocates?
  1. Begin traffic mitigation (essentially the same thing as the Transit + Streets projects) immediately.

  2. After the mitigation is in place, close the viaduct, and watch how well traffic adapts and redistributes for one year.
  3. Armed with empirical evidence — instead of inaccurate computer models – then decide how much additional car capacity is needed, if any.

But it looks like the stage is set. Rebuild or Tunnel? Sadly, between the two, I’d have to choose the tunnel. One hundred more years of highway waterfront? No thanks. But I’m anxious to hear how Cary responds to this news.