I’ve written about Austin Cantina before. They are a little Ballard establishment where the food is good and the service is always even better. One of the reasons I enjoy going there, is that I can be assured of getting grass fed beef and local, organic pork in a lot of their dishes. I recently asked the owner, Jefe, to tell me a little bit about his restaurant and why he makes the choice to use local ingredients.

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PSMS is hosting their annual wild mushroom show this Saturday and Sunday (October 11 and 12) at The Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) (UW). There will be over 200 varieties of wild mushrooms on display, and visitors are welcome to bring in samples from their yards for identification. From the website:

Program:
* Hundreds of species of freshly gathered local wild mushrooms.
* Fresh specimens identified by name and displayed in a natural setting.
* Featured Speaker: Dr. Else Vellinga
* Mushroom Identification: bring your own.
* Cooking Demonstrations featuring local chefs with samples to taste.
Special Guest Chef: Kathy Casey.
* Books, field guides, posters and gifts.
* Displays of mushroom cultivation, conservation, mushrooms & ecology, photography, and arts and crafts.

Admission:
* $7 for General Admission
* $5 for Students and Seniors,
* Children under 12 are free

I always think it’s kind of funny to see little kids at political rallies - all dressed up in the paraphanelia of their (parents’) candidate, since it’s not like they have really made an informed choice about which candidate they support, you know? But anyway, I suppose it’s a good experience to get your kids involved early on and show them what you stand for.

For all you ObamaMamas (and papas) out there, here’s a chance to show your support with the whole family at the Kids for Obama parade. The parade starts this Sunday at 2pm by the Greenlake bathhouse theater. “… children and teens will express with words and drawings their hopes for the future of America on ‘wish flags’ that will be mailed to Obama,” and the first 300 kids to arrive get a free balloon.

I just received an urgent notice from a volunteer at Friends of the Seattle Public Library. It reads as follows:

The library’s collections budget has been severely cut in the Mayor’s most recent budget. There is a 2.2 million dollar shortfall - this in the face of registrations that are up and a growing city population. The library’s collection budget is still at less than 2002 levels.

The collections budget is what is used for putting materials on the shelves. When it takes six months to get a book that you are waiting for, the shortfall in the collections budget is the reason why!

The Friends are asking for support from the public to let City Council members know how important the library is. People can write letters, send emails, or best of all attend the Council meetings tomorrow between 4:30 and 5:30 (or call during the same time frame). We put out a call for support last year and it made a big difference.

Here’s how you can help: 1) send a handwritten letter to your councilmembers: Jean Godden, Jan Drago, Nick Licata, Bruce Harrell, Tim Burgess, Richard Conlin, Tom Rasmussen, Richard McIver, and Sally Clark at Seattle City Hall, Floor 2, POB 34025, Seattle Wa 98124-4025. Tell them what branch you use, how you use the library, and why the branch is important to you and/or your community. Thank them for past support and ask them to consider increasing the library’s collections budget. 2) Email council members. Their emails are in the form: firstname.lastname@seattle.gov Tell them your name, the branch you use, how you use the library and how it is important. Thank them for their past support and ask them to increase the library’s collections budget. 3) Call City Council between 4:30 and 5:30 on Oct 8 at 684-0481 or email in the same time frame to: council.live@seattle.gov messages received in that hour count as “official testimony” in the first public hearing on the mayor’s budget.

More information available on the Friends of Seattle Public Library blog.

There will be a Plush You! show on October 10th from 5pm to 9pm, located at 1932 2nd Ave, Downtown. Plush You showcases toys from artists all over the world. You can find more info at this website. You should check it out…these aren’t your childhood plushies.

photo by zeebleoop [flickr] via our group pool [#]

• David Schmader reviews Sigur Rós without realizing that he left before they even played their first song. [lineout] Sam Machkovech stayed through the opening band and enjoyed the show. [lineout]
• Ballard might have the most creative political flyers. [ballardgossipgirl]
• Of course Blayne is havint a party at a tanning salon. [seattlest]
• It’s pledge season at KEXP: meet the volunteers who await your donation. [kexp]
• Nice perspective on the McLeod transition, from the creator of a Tablet veteran. [10things]

*Or wherever you keep your computer.

In an interesting turn of events I’d like to see more of from arts organizations, Three Dollar Bill Cinema has teamed up with IndieFlix.com for the 2008 Lesbian & Gay Online Film Festival. The first ever online lesbian & gay film festival streams three features and five shorts. Watch the films online at your convenience and then vote for the films you like best. The award winning filmmaker earns a cash prize, theatrical screening and an IndieFlix distribution deal.

Check out the films here on the web.

The in person portion of the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival begins October 17.

Every time I walk downtown and pass by this (…searching for a euphemism…) public art installation I am a little puzzled about its purpose:

Is it supposed to signal to you that you are now entering downtown Seattle, where top hats, spatulas, scarves, martini glasses, combs, and engagement rings are available for purchase?

(That reminds me; I sure could use a new spatula. Damn! That’s powerful art.)

photo by joshc [flickr]

Has rainbow-colored confetti ever fallen over Benaroya Hall before Sigur Rós played there last night? During “Gobbledigook”, the clap-along, sing-along, extra-drummers called from the wings closer of their main set, the foggy indoor air was met with technicolor spotlights and filled with paper showers. And then they came back for an encore.

If the symphony hasn’t already added special effects to the repertoire, they just might have cause for considering it.

Friday:

I thought I could walk from Downtown to Online Coffee Company on 14th and Pine (because I forgot my ID there on Thursday after using the Internet for about 5 minutes). Of course, the second I started walking the rain started pouring. With every passing street, I kept telling myself I should buy an umbrella, but decided that I already have 3 at home that I never use and suffered through the cool, wet rain. I got my ID and took a bus back home then decided I just could not go back outside, so I watched Air Guitar Nation instead.

Saturday:

Took a yoga class at what is now my all time favorite gym. What with a steam room and the fanciest gym showers I’ve ever used, I think All-Star Fitness in Downtown knows what they’re doing. Golds Gym in Cap Hill and Pro-Robics in Queen Anne, take note. You’re nothing compared to this gem.

Had a smoothie at my favorite smoothie place, Shy Giant in Pike Place Market.

Met the boyfriend for a slightly successful shopping trip (for him). That means one pair of pants at the Gap. I mentioned the new H&M, but after trying 10 pairs on we were both too exhausted to look at anything courdoroy or cargo for at least another month.

Looked at the Live Historic 2 bedroom condos in lower Queen Anne. While very pretty and umm historic, it was too small at about 800 square feet (especially the bedrooms) for the crazy asking price of $435,000 (not including the $325 monthly condo fees). I thought this was a good time to buy? So why does this place seem totally ridiculously high? Is it the fancy claw foot tub that does it for people? Obviously not too many people are interested, as they still have 17 units available that they’ve been trying to push for quite some time. Owners of condos take note, stop building or start lowering your prices.

Like Zee, we also went to the Tea Festival hoping for good things but not expecting too much. We were pleasantly surprised, drank lots of good and not so good tea, ate very delightful cookies and left feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

Walked around Ballard to see the crowds at Reverb. No sounds were begging me to go inside and check out their band, so we went back home to search Redfin and balk at Historic Live’s still ridiculous prices.

Sunday:

Finally hiked to the top of Rattlesnake Ridge. I only wish when I get to the top of these ridges, mountains and what have yous that there’s a guide or map telling me what I’m looking at. I’m pretty sure I was seeing Mount Si across from me, but really I have no clue.

Hopped down the Ridge so I could eat cherry pie for lunch at Twede’s Cafe (of Twin Peaks fame).

And that’s it. So, what the hell did you do?

Having stretched the limits of city permitting as far as possible, McLeod Residence sent a note to members this morning announcing that their much-beloved space in Belltown will be closing at the end of October after nearly two years in operation — first as an art gallery and member-based social club to their current incarnation as an open-to-the-public, event-filled bar, and art gallery (which just opened a brand new show on Friday). I think that most members or visitors would agree that their experiment in creating a home “extraordinary living through art, technology, and collaboration” as been nothing if not an breathtaking, extraordinary, and life-enhancing experiment of the greatest order. They are on the lookout for tenants looking to take over their current lease and are seeking a new space of their own.

Stay tuned for more details, go see the new show and remaining events, and browse the photobooth for a sense of the overwhelming number of great memories formed in their current home. (Reading the letter and feeling nostalgic, here’s my current old time favorite [flickr]).

(After the jump, the full letter to members.)

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Flags outside the Key Arena proudly proclaim its status as home of the Seattle SuperSonics and the Seattle Thunderbirds, even though one team has already left the city and the other will be moving its base to the new Kent Events Center at the end of the year. Even though the trip down to Kent will take significantly longer than the few minutes it takes me to get to the Key from my office or the few more it takes from my home, I’m very much looking forward to the move. It’ll be great to be watching hockey in a brand new facility whose managers are excited to provide a home for the team and its fans and I’ve been sure ever since I first heard about it that I won’t miss the Key at all. It surprised me, then, when I felt myself getting a little misty about walking in the door for the Thunderbirds’ final ever home opener there on Saturday night, but I guess years of countless hockey memories tied to that place made me feel nostalgic.

The pre-game ceremony honoring Guyle Fielder’s recent induction into the Washington State Sports Hall of Fame definitely added to the sentimental feeling. Fielder played hockey in the Western Hockey League for 21 years, 15 of which were spent in Seattle with the Seattle Bombers (1953-54), Seattle Americans (1955-57) and the Seattle Totems (1957-69) before his retirement in 1969. During his career, Fielder became the first pro player anywhere in hockey to score 100 points in a season and became the first professiona hockey player to score 2,000 points, ending his career with a total of 2,037. He was an astonishing 11-time All Star and won six MVP awards, helping his club to five WHL finals and three championships. Fielder stood at center ice to receive a plaque recognizing his induction and a special commemorative Seattle Thunderbirds jersey with his name across the back before dropping the ceremonial first puck to rousing applause from the fans appreciative of his contributions to Seattle hockey history.

Nostalgia was probably not so much a factor for the current hockey players on the ice. The nature of junior hockey, where players are graduated out of the system after turning 21, means that most of the current Thunderbirds players weren’t even born when the Tbirds moved to what was then the Seattle Coliseum, now the Key Arena, back in the 1988-89 season, long years after Guyle Fielder had retired from the sport. The current season has seen the young team struggle after losing many of the previous season’s highest scorers to their aging out of the system and signing with pro teams. Their first four games this season, all away, gave them four losses and zero points. Pride was at stake Saturday night and the team earned some of it back when Jeremy Boyer scored the first goal of the game at 14:59 in the first period.

The defending Memorial Cup champion Spokane Chiefs evened the score at 19:37 of the first with a goal by Drayton Bowman. Bowman scored again at 7:01 of the second period with a powerplay goal, unanswered until Boyer intercepted a pass behind the Spokane net and sent it to fellow Tbird Lindsay Nielsen who shot the puck into the net at 8:35 in the third period. The game ended in a tie that led to a scoreless overtime period and sent the game into a shootout. Seattle goalie Jacob DeSerres stopped Spokane’s Levko Koper, Brett Bartman, Steve Kuhn, and Stefan Ullman; Spokane’s Dustin Tokarski denied Seattle’s Jonathan Parker, Jim O’Brien, and Prab Rai before Jeremy Boyer sunk the game winning goal.

The Thunderbirds’ record now stands at 1-5-0-0. The team heads out on the road for games against the Everett Silvertips on October 10, the Portland WinterHawks on October 11, the Chilliwack Bruins on October 12 and the Tri-City Americans on October 17 before returning to Seattle for a home game against the Kelowna Rockets on October 18 at the Key Arena.

My expectations for the first Northwest Tea Festival had been high ever since I first saw a flyer for it at this year’s SIFF festival. Sometimes too much anticipation can be a bad thing since whatever it is you’re waiting for can often turn out to be not nearly so exciting as you’d imagined it to be, but in this case my hopes and the reality were on par. The NW Tea Festival was a great event and I hope that you were one of the many people who attended.

If you weren’t, you missed the chance to taste some very good teas, to listen to lectures on tea in general, specific types of tea, and specific uses for tea besides simply drinking it. The festival at the Seattle Center’s Northwest Rooms featured booths from a variety of tea vendors, numerous tea talks, a Japanese tea ceremony and more. For a $5 suggestion donation, visitors received a bag filled with tea samples and flyers and also a tea cup, for the tastings. The ability to sample teas served by people knowledgeable about the teas and tisanes (an herbal tea made from anything other than tea leaves, like Barnes & Watson’s tasty Star Spangled Banner, made with hibiscus, chamomile, berries and mint) was in itself a fine reason to attend, but all of the presentations were excellent.

Additional off-site festival programs included two films and talks at SIFF Cinema and a tea dinner at Wild Ginger.

Vendors on hand and offering tea included Teahouse Kuan Yin, who had an excellent Pu Erh, Village Yarn & Tea Shop with tea and an excellent collection of books, Floating Leaves Tea, who have Seattle’s first authentic Taiwanese-style teahouse, the previously-mentioned Barnes & Watson, and others. There are quite a few tea houses in the Seattle area now, and this event made me want to visit all of them. This year’s tea festival was fantastic and I’m already looking forward to next year’s, hoping it’s even bigger and better.

For some among us, the thing that marks Autumn’s arrival even more than changing leaves or drizzly weather is the ever-complicated and unhealthily-packed show calendars that arrive annually, in force, when the calendar page turns to October. Probably a result of biggish bands making their fall tours before driving gets to dangerous, it never fails to keep you busy reigniting your showgoing impulses. Last night Jamie Lidell faced off against John in the Morning at Night and Why?. But never fear, aside from ReverbFest taking over Ballard there’s far too much to do this weekend:

• Santogold and Mates of State are at the Showbox SoDo. A kind of surprising pairing, until you think about how both are busy producing such entirely askew looks at what pop music means. The easy comparison from a sense of fashion and influences for Santogold is M.I.A., but with less aggression, more sweetness, rock touches, and dancy friendly rhythms. Mates of State, among the cutest and married-couple dueling vocal acts out there, have brought in occasional support to fill out their keyboards versus drums with strings and horns. Both of these acts are melt-worthy. Saturday, $25, 7pm [showbox ]
• It’s simultaneiously hard to believe that Grand Archives haven’t been around forever and have been around as long as they have. Less than two years ago, with their soaring four-part harmonies, (almost) everybody singing in rounds, swelling choruses, and dusty road songs. they seemed to appear, fully formed and ready for fame. Since those first small shows, they’ve put out one of the year’s prettiest records, toured widely, developed into an even tighter group, and are already starting to debut and record a new album’s worth of great new songs. Saturday, $12, 8pm. With Arthur (of “& Yu) and Ships. [neumos]
• Sigur Rós released Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust this spring. The first few tracks, in particular, find them happier than ever. Manic marches and gleeful choruses cast a new light a long history of somber, glorious, and evocative nature anthems. By the end, though, it wraps into itself with a tear-worthy stripped down English language confession song. Although I’m sure none of their songs are about glaciers or sheep, their recent documentary featured many of both. Live, they use bold but simple effects of strobes, shadows, and scrim to great effect. It is like church for the non-religious. Sold out, but worth the craigslist trolling. [benaroya]

Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union wants to know “What If…?”

Specifically, they want to do know what you would do if they gave you $10.

Even more specifically, they want to know what you would do for someone else if they gave you $10.

A little bit of money can do a whole lot of good, something the credit union seeks to prove as part of its Seven Principles program, the guiding principles by which the credit union does business, including “giving back to the community is an obligation”.

On Monday, October 6, from 10 am to 2 pm, SMCU will hand out $10 each to the first 200 people who stop by their downtown Seattle branch at 801 Third Avenue and tell the credit union what they would be willing to do to help someone else. The credit union will film all the ideas and post them to their site. The public is invited to view the videos and vote for their favorites. The top vote getter will get $1,000 on Monday, October 20, in order to make someone’s dream come true.

The credit union believes: “A small investment can be a powerful thing when combined with principles and good will.” Having seen this in action in my own life, I agree. I think this is a great idea and am totally looking forward to seeing the ideas people generate for their $10.

Thanks Wesa and P-I for details.