I had the news on in the background last night while I was doing more important and interesting things such as checking my MySpace account. (Don’t get me wrong, I read national and international news online; it’s just our television news coverage that embarrasses me). Ken Schram (also a MySpace fan) was delivering his “Schram on the Streets” bit about the new bus tunnel. He’s not impressed. Why? Because apparently there are some killer, decapitating bus mirrors zooming around down there:

“I’m talking about those bus mirrors that threaten to whack some poor unsuspecting soul upside the head because when they lowered the roadbed in the tunnel, it wound up raising the mirrors to the level of decapitation.” [#]

YIKES! That’s most definitely a scene I would not want to see.

So fair warning, Metblog readers. Hold onto your hats when down in that new bus tunnel.

The Seattle Thunderbirds lost their opening game of the 2007 – 2008 at Kamloops on Saturday, September 22, when the Blazers managed to squeak out a 3 – 2 win in OT. Kind of a bummer, but, hey, the season’s early yet and Seattle still outranks primary rivals Everett and Portland (Portland sucks!) in the conference standings.

This season’s T-birds team is a great mix of players–seasoned veterans on their way up to the big show in the NHL (team captain Thomas Hickey and Bud Holloway were both selected by the LA Kings in the 2007 and 2006 drafts, respectively, Riku Helenius was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightening in 2006 and Jim O’Brien was selected by the Ottawa Senators in 2007) and younger boys just elevated from the kids’ leagues. WHL hockey as a whole isn’t quite as well-played as in the NHL but the games are exciting and legitimately competitive and fun.

The first home game is this coming weekend, Saturday, September 29 at Key Arena; game time is 7:05 pm and if getting the chance to see the T-birds defeat the Everett Silvertips isn’t enough of an incentive for you, several of the team’s sponsors have sweetened the deal by offering opening night giveaways like bottled water, magnetic team schedules, stadium horns, and much, much more. As a season ticketholder and long-time fan of the team, I can assure you that T-birds games are always a good time–lots of action on the ice and a knowledgeable, passionate fan base in the stand combine to make an excellent time for any game goer. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or the team itself (call 206-448-PUCK), the Hockey Store in Kingsgate or the Key Arena box office.

If you are one of those die-hard Monty Python fans who has every line of Monty Python & the Holy Grail memorized, an ability you are happy to demonstrate at every opportunity, then you don’t need me to sell you on the show (even though you might need someone to tell you that repeating the same lines from a movie over and over again, particularly out of context and to an indifferent at best audience is not, in fact, the height of humor): all I need to tell you about the musical Monty Python’s Spamalot is that it is coming to the Paramount for a series of performances that begin on October 10th and run through October 28th.

Those of you who aren’t die-hard Monty Python fans might need a little more swaying, so for your sake, let me tell you that the Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2005, Monty Python’s Spamalot, is a lively and irreverently funny musical that will plays a Seattle engagement at The Paramount Theatre from October 10 – 28, 2007. If you’re impressed by awards, be impressed that the show won two other Tonys in 2005: Best Musical and Best Director (Mike Nichols) in addition to receiving Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for Best Musical.

Monty Python’s Spamalot with book by Monty Python alumnus Eric Idle, based on the screenplay of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (which Idle co-wrote with Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, and Graham Chapman) is a decidedly different rendering of the King Arthur myth involving a chorus line of dancing divas and knights, flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits and one legless knight. The often-dark humor ranges from subtle satire to outright nonsensism and no sacred cows are left unslaughtered. Those of sensitive, gentle nature might be turned off by the aggressive pursuit of madness in the musical but fans of bawdiness will be given a good time.

Ticket prices range from $27 to $100 through the Paramount box office and the usual outlets.

I wanted to make a paper lantern for the Luminata Lantern Walk, but I didn’t. I ran out of time, I didn’t know how to do it, I forgot. I wanted to go, though. I’ve been looking forward to it, so I (and husband and our two dogs) went down to Green Lake planning to eat a burger and watch the procession pass by. I expected to see some fun, creative lanterns.

What I didn’t expect was for the people to be so welcoming and inclusive. The organizers had a few extra lanterns ready, plus they were extremely liberal about what counted as a “luminata.” We wound up putting a couple of glow-sticks on the dogs and joining the parade. (See what I mean? Gotta love it when they’re all about the fun. My dogs were pretty popular lanterns, too, judging by the pets they got.)

Several people had store bought paper lanterns. One woman had an umbrella with a flashlight duct taped to the handle — pointing upward — so the fabric glowed. Two guys had white plastic grocery bags holding battery-operated flashy Christmas lights. One techno-geek came in a t-shirt that lit up, sound-board style, when you talked to him. There was a giant with glowing wings. One man had a multi-hinged iron crook/staff live flame thingie that looked amazingly dramatic in the dark. Then there were the dozens of kids with glow sticks. And my dogs with their glow-stick collars. The rule seemed to be: Does it glow? Then you’re good.

But most people had actually had made real lanterns. And they were — every one of them — great.
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Whoa! Two hours after enjoying a sumptuous coconut curry soup and crispy artichokes from Skillet on Thursday afternoon, I get an email that they were closed the day before by the Health Department! Huh? What’s going on here? Are they operating illegally? What were the violations? Was my meal ok?

I immediately emailed Skillet to get the whole story. I exchanged several emails with Josh, one of the owners. First, I’ll cut and paste from the Health Department’s website.

Violations
• Operating without a valid permit
• Operating without approved food business plans
• Hand washing facility not working
• Excessive red critical violations

Sounds serious, doesn’t it? That’s what I thought too. Now, I’m going to give you my opinion before I go any further (feel free to ignore). I am reporting the facts on the Health Department’s website and the response I received from Josh. Based on these responses, and my good faith in Skillet, I will be returning to Skillet, weekly if possible, for the foreseeable future as I believe they are doing a good job. There is, of course, always the possibility that Josh is not being entirely truthful. So take this information and do with it what you will. If you have any cold, hard, facts that you want to pass along, please do. I have provided these questions and answers as they were emailed to me, with minor edits such as capitalization and punctuation.
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I recently had the chance to attend the launch party for the third “mission” in the Xeko card game. Local business Xeko is the Fremont-based producer of a trading card game aimed at teaching children about animals while exposing them to the concepts of biodiversity and responsible ecology in a fun way.

Game creator Amy Tucker was inspired by the work of Conservation International to focus each Xeko series, or “mission”, on a different “hotspot”–a species-rich part of the world. The first two Xeko missions were Costa Rica and Madagascar, both award-winning games. The game is played in the style of other popular trading card games like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh and is designed to be easy to learn but challenging to master. The idea behind the game is that people tend to care more about places and things with which they’re famliar; by exposing kids to the flora and fauna of these far away lands, Xeko hopes to influence them into caring about conservation.

The beautifully designed cards consist of three types. Species cards represent plants and animals found in the series’ locales. Species card values are related to each plant or animal’s real-life sttus: the rarest, most endangerd species are the hard Species cards to get. Xeko cards are wild cards with special powers. Boost cards give Species cards more energy when involved in the Turf Wars challenges that provide the competition in the game. The Xeko website [site] is an additional component of the game, allowing Xeko players to set up tournaments, and also announcing and retiring cards based on real-world events. The site also links to more information about the animals, biodiversity and conservation. As an added bonus, Xeko’s producers live the conservation that they preach: cards are printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paer using soy-based inks. In a first for the toy industry, Xeko booster packs come in recyclable paper and players are rewarded for recycling their packaging by sending packs to Xeko in exchange for special bonuses.

The good intentions behind the game don’t mean a thing, however, if children don’t actually enjoy the game so I spent most of the launch party watching children actually play the game. A diverse group of grade school aged kids played the game with the help of game coaches to teach them the rules and all of them looked to be having a good time. Collectible card games are very popular with kids these days and most kids have an innate fascination with animals, put to good use in Xeko. The cards are understandable and written to a child’s understanding without being preachy or condescending. In fact, I think that some adults might enjoy playing the game as well.

Seeing is believing, so Xeko have been presenting launch events all around the area; if you’d like to see the game yourself, you can check it at on Saturday, September 29 from 1 to 4 pm at Queen Anne’s Blue HIghway Games or at Planet Happy games in Ravenna.

This weeks saddest tale [mb] has a happy ending–RJ the bunny has been found and will be returned to his owner today.

The bandit is still a mystery, but they left the rabbit in a box in the yard of a Puyallup School District building. A groundskeeper found the box, which had been filled with vegetables and water, and recognized RJ’s distinctive name tattoo. Once it goes through therapy, perhaps the bunny will be able to identify its abductor.

(Via the PI.}

Between my usual insomnia and the extra-creepy nightmare which got me out of bed earlier than usual Friday morning, I was looking forward to kicking off my weekend by going stright home from work, getting in bed and sleeping until I felt rested again which is why I felt mildly annoyed upon being reminded that I’d made a comittment to go see Hillstomp at Conor Byrne on Friday night. As it happens, my guest for the show had seen Hillstomp before and had nothing but praise for them so I set out for with high hopes that the show would be worth shaking off my sleepiness. I’m happy to report that it was; in fact, as lively as the band is, I managed to forget all about that whole being tired thing.

Hillstomp is a Portland-based duo featuring guitar and percussion who perform punk rock tinged blues with a good old-fashioned hoot’n'holler, foot-stomping sound. Both musicians are skilled performers who play with an infectious zeal that inspired the whole audience to pay whole-hearted, enthusiastic attention to the music. The guys in Hillstomp are serious musicians, but they don’t seem to take themselves too seriously–the pleasure they took in being on stage and playing their music was very evident and very charming. Seattle audiences are often deservedly noted for being a bit on the stiff side but by the time Hillstomp finished their first number, I didn’t notice anyone in the club who wasn’t at least tapping their toes along to the beat.

The primitive, stripped-down set-up of a band like Hillstomp can sometimes be realied as a sound that’s also very primitive and stripped-down. That can be fine, too, sometimes, but it wouldn’t be an accurate description of this group’s sound which was rich, full, and multi-leveled in a simple sort of way. If you’ve heard the blue performed well, you know exactly what I mean, and if you’ve never heard the blues played well, you really need to get on that posthaste. Their songs covered the usual blues topics of heartache and hard times but they weren’t for a moment downbeat or depressing. This was definitely a fun show; I would definitely see them again and encourage anyone who missed them this go-round to see them the next time they’re up this way to play.

Also on the bill and tonight and no less enjoyable were Sasparilla Jug Band [MS], a Portland blues-folk band and Seattle jazz/lounge group Miss Mamie Lavonna, the Exotic Mulatta [MS].

As a sidenote, when we arrived at the club, they were so full that we had to stand in line and wait for people inside to leave before we could go in. My claustrophobia keeps me from squeeing in a sardine can like crowd, anyway, but I would like to applaud the friendly and good-natured Conor Byrne staff for their committment to keeping their customers safe by keeping the club no fuller than its stated maximum capacity.

Seattle icon Walt Crowley passed away unexpectedly today [times, p-i]. If you’ve read a newspaper or watched the local news you probably know all about it. The blogging we do here at Metblogs, over at Seattlest, and the many other various Seattle-centric sites is spurned by a real affection for this city and region. But as much as we love it here (and love to hate the inevitable annoyances) Walt Crowley loved it more. He was a passionate champion and a proud historian of our city and his loss is a large one. Fortunately, his legacy was secure long ago and the many people he touched will not soon forget him.

One of Crowley’s many achievements was the creation of HistoryLink which has become an invaluable resource for our state’s history. Please take the time to visit the memorial page set up in his honor. If you feel so moved, perhaps you can even throw a couple dollars their way in his memory.