This Sunday, the 26th Annual Nordstrom Beat the Bridge to Beat Diabetes run takes place in the general vicinity of Husky Stadium and Montlake. The race starts at 8:30, but street closures begin as early as 7:30.

I’ll be running the race with my husband, and last year we saw some pretty irate drivers yelling at the police officers who were preventing them from mowing down the runners. No parking signs and street closure signs are now up, warning drivers of the event. So if you live in the area, or are just planning to drive through there on Sunday, please plan accordingly. Here is the detailed street closure information, complete with approximate times.

Montlake, south of Pacific: closed from 7:45-8:45 am
Montlake Place, 19th and Lynn, west of 19th: closed from 8:25-9:25 am
Boyer/Fuhrman, west of Lynn to Eastlake: closed from 8:30-10 am
Pacific, from Brooklyn to Montlake: closed from 8:15-10:15 am
Montlake, both directions, north of Pacific: closed from 7:30-10 am

And the Burke Gillman Trail from 44th to the University Hospital will be overrun with runners from 8-10 am.
Only one lane of traffic each way will be available along NE Pacific.

Registration is available until the event starts, so if you want to spend Sunday morning running a great 5 mile course, come on down! If running isn’t your thing, and you live in the area, come support the runners. We love hearing the cheers of bystanders as we’re going. The first 2 miles of the run have to be completed in about 20 minutes, or runners get stuck by the raising of the University Bridge. Since I’m a slow runner, I’ll take all the encouragement I can get to keep my speed up and beat the bridge!

This weekend will bring high temperatures in the 90’s. It will also bring the start of street fair season. The University District Street Fair takes place on Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 10am.

You can find all sorts of fun, including a long list of craft vendors, food vendors, and entertainment. I’ll definitely be enjoying some corn on the cob and shishkaberries, and I’m sure the husband will partake of a Ballard Brothers salmon burger. You can find everything from jewelry to garden art, soap to ceramics, paintings to toys. With the weather being so beautiful, I fully expect the fair to be packed.

As the official kickoff to the street fair season, the University District Street Fair is one of the biggest. However, if you miss out (or just really love street fairs), don’t despair. There are plenty of additional street fairs and festivals coming up this summer. A relatively complete list, including links, can be found at the Seattle.gov website.

Also this weekend in Ballard, the 17th of May, or Syttende Mai, the Norwegian Constitution Day. This is a celebration of the day back in 1814 when Norway’s constitution was signed. There’s a parade down 24th Avenue NW in Ballard, children’s games, dinner, and dancing. Even though I live in Ballard, I’ve never been. It appears that My Ballard will be covering the event pretty extensively, so since I’ll probably still be at the street fair, I plan on checking out their coverage to see if I want to attend next year.

Whatever you do this weekend, make sure and get outside to enjoy the sun.

Let me start off by saying that it is really hard to write a preview of a band that refuses to be categorized let alone two of them. Lord. It is also hard when you realize that neither of a band’s two shows with “a string quartet, woodwinds, trumpets, and a harpist” will be taking place in your town because, quite frankly, I love that kind of stuff.

That said though, tonight’s Clinic w/ Shearwater show (Neumo’s), while hard to pigeonhole, seems to me to be the perfect kind of music to listen to after two days of frolicking in the sun. I thought about describing that in more detail, but you know what? Have a listen and let me know if you agree with me:

Clinic – Free Not Free
Shearwater – Rooks [mp3]

Okay now that you’re back, here are things you should know: Both bands are touring in support of their new albums Clinic’s recently released Do It and Shearwater’s upcoming Rook (June 08). Shearwater is a spin-off of Okkervil River. And in regards to Clinic, Pitchfork says, “it’s still inexplicable for a band this savvy about groove-minded freakouts that they’ve never recorded a song longer than four and a half minutes.” [pf] I don’t know about you, but this might be the strongest argument to love a band that I’ve ever heard. Immune to jammy-noodling? Sign me up!

Doors at 8, $13adv, 21+
img from Clinic’s press page.

I’m planning a vacation where I want to go alone somewhere, not really talk to anyone and just relax. No I’m not gonna meditate. I just want to be alone. But I’ve found out that the hardest part of taking this personal time away is deciding where I should go. So I’m coming to my fellow Seattle bloggers/commenters/blogger commenters for help. Here is what I’m looking for and/or the obstacles I have:

-I don’t have a car. I could rent one, but I’m also crazy cheap. I rather rent a bike, but I’m also a horrible cyclist. I tend to fall and I’m scared to go down hills. So I’m looking for a place (island, village, small town) that isn’t too hilly and rents bikes.

-I want to hike and/or sit in a hot spring.

-I can’t camp on my own. I wish I could, but I’d be rubbing two sticks together for the entire time I was there with nothing to show for it.

-I want to take ONE ferry or ONE clipper or ONE train. Is this possible? I was looking at the Vancouver Islands and the San Juan Islands and it seems like you have to drive here to get to that ferry and then take another ferry to get ot that island. That’s way too much planning for me. I want something that just takes me there and I’m done. Easy is the key phrase for this mini vacation.

-I want to go in August. I want to wear a bathing suit.

-I DON’T WANT TO SHOP.

-I want to be in a pretty, secluded place where dogs and kids don’t exist.

-I want wherever this is, to be no more than 5 hours away.

So, where is this place? Is it around Seattle? I need help people. Links would be awesome. Cheap (OR FREE) accommodations would be awesome. Getting some me time so I can hike/knit/relax would be awesome. Awesome would be awesome.

Thanks in advance and enjoy the HOT weather we’re having today.

Even though it’s 85 degrees and sunny outside, you can still go skiing this weekend at Alpental!

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going surfing tomorrow, and toying with the idea of skiing on Sunday just because I can.

Sincerely,
One happy Midwestern transplant

photo Karcher GmbH & Co, via KOMO

Via Kottke.org, some astounding photos of the Space Needle getting it’s first bath in decades. Further perpetuating local stereotypes, the wash is even chemical-free; so don’t worry about getting soap in your eyes if you’re strolling under the Needle during the clean-up:

… the crews aren’t using any soap. That’s because what they spray up ends up going down to the Seattle Center and the EMP. Splotches of grime run from the beams under the restaurant all the way down to the base.

“We don’t intend to spray waste water with detergent on them. So we just use pure water. And this is quite challenging because the dirt on the surface is really stubborn,” said Frank Schad with Karcher. [komo]

Cleaning an icon is a high-profile enough that the company, Karcher GmbH & Co.) is doing the work for free. According to KOMO, the Space Needle is only paying for rope technicians through a subcontract.

We know you’re just as excited about SIFF as we are, but you don’t have to wait to see a good film.

• Central Cinema is showing the heartwarming Akeela and the Bee.  Take a bunch of friends, enjoy the movie and then see if you can resist the urge to challenge each other to an impromptu spelling bee afterwards.  Also at Central Cinema on Sunday, May 18, at 2:00 pm is a special screening of Trial by Fire, a film about the struggle for freedom in East Timor presented by the Seattle-East Timor Relief Association
• The Grand Illusion presents Daughters of Wisdom, a rare look at a world few Westerners even know exists, let alone ever see that examines the lives and work of the nearly 300 nuns living in the hand-built Kala Rongo Monastery high up in the Himalayas.  Director Bari Pearlman will be in attendance Friday and Saturday. 
• Also at the Grand Illusion:  The Savage Streets, a locally made comedy about a couple of defective detectives. 
• Modern audiences might be surprised that Midnight Cowboy, the only X-rated film to win an Oscar, even earned an X-rating in the first place; its frank portrayal of a troubled street hustler and the ill and impoverished man who befriends him is hardly explicit at all by today’s ratings standards.  The emotional impact of this bittersweet tale of two losers finding strength and love in their daily struggles and their growing friendship remains just as moving today as it was in its initial release.  At SIFF Cinema Friday, May 16.
• Also at SIFF Cinema:  Robert DeNiro’s legendary portrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in Martin Scorsese’s powerful film Raging Bull, Saturday, May 17, and the first James Bond film, Dr. No on Sunday, May 18.
• “He who controls the spice controls the universe!”  Dune, the film version of the Frank Herbert novel, directed by David Lynch and released to international disdain in 1984 is this weekend’s Midnight at the Egyptian movie.   Lynch himself has spent the intervening years staying as far away from the film as possible but its managed to develop a cult following and reviews far more positive than the nearly universal drubbing it got on its first run.  Mess or masterpiece, you decide.
• NWFF screens Mister Lonely, the story of a Michael Jackson impersonator who is led by a Marilyn Monroe impersonator to a castle that plays host to an impersonator community. 
• Also at NWFF:  Alice Neel, a portait of the painter whose exquisite portraiture work brought her acclaim after years of living a marginalized existence and whose difficult choices resonate through her family lines even now; and, for one afternoon show only on May 17, Le Grand Voyage, the story of a young French man who drives his aging father, with whom he has nothing in common, to Mecca, only to lose him in the crowd just as they are starting to come together at last. 

A lot of people in this town love J.P. Patches and rightfully so–the beloved local TV clown whose popular show for kids aired in Seattle  from 1958 to 1981, its 23 year run making it the longest running locally produced children’s program in the US.    Kids loved J.P. Patches for his silly antics and parents loved J.P. for his sly wit.  (My grandmother loved J.P. when she babysat my oldest brother when he was a kid because he could always be relied upon to behave when J.P. was on air.)  This summer will mark the 50th anniversary of his show’s debut.

Even though it’s been a while since his show was on TV, there are still many “Patches Pals” out there.  J.P. has long been a fixture at Children’s Hospital and charitable events all around the Sound, using his charm to help fundraise for local charities. 

J.P. will live on forever in the hearts of many people; now Patches and his girlfriend, Gertrude, will live on forever in the form of a statue at the corner of Fremont Ave N and N 34th St, about 50 feet west of the famous “Waiting for the Interurban”.  Many a Patches Pal helped get it built and now everyone will get a chance to see “Late for the Interurban” when the statue is unveiled on August 17th. 

I think the statue will be a great addition.  It’s wonderful that Patches is being honored this way and I expect that this will be one seriously entertaining unveiling.

(thanks to Josh and to Citizen Rain for the tip.)

this photo by sea kay [flickr] from our group pool [#] is what I imagine Friday will be like once that hot pocket of air that the local newscasters were predicting while I was still catching my breath after LOST tonight.

• ’tis the season for campus quidditch. [citizenrain]
• depending on your hopes and dreams, some places are better than others for warm nights on capitol hill. [chs]
• unfortunately none of those places are what would most-certainly be a magickal and well-attended beer garden in Cal Anderson park. someone, make this happen. whatever it takes. [captothehill]
• for those who need encouragement to have a beer or five, there is much cause for drinking. [seattlest]
• flip-flops, however, are not encouraged. agreed. [slog]

Via the Seattle PI

Looking to bring more fresh, local, seasonally grown foods into your family? We have a challenge for you.

It’s the second annual Farm Fresh Family Challenge, sponsored by the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance. The alliance is looking for a Seattle-area family willing to buy most of its fresh food from farmers markets between June and November this year, and to write a weekly P-I-sponsored blog during that time.

The first Farm Fresh blogger, Kathleen Whitson of West Seattle, found inspiration experimenting with farmstand eggs, debating when she would choose organic over conventionally grown produce, discovering the different body and taste of a pasture-raised Thanksgiving turkey, and figuring out how to tell her husband why it no longer felt right to make an apple pie in July.

If that’s your sort of food for thought — or if you have your own take on what a Farm Fresh Family should be — here are the details:

# Candidates must be willing to buy most fresh foods (vegetables, fruits, meats, shellfish, fish eggs, cheese, etc.) from one of the seven Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance markets (Broadway, University District, West Seattle, Phinney, Magnolia, Columbia City or Lake City).

# They must write a weekly P-I-sponsored blog, track the prices of the products they buy each week, and be willing to occasionally host a local chef in their home kitchen to share shopping and cooking tips.

To apply, send an e-mail to nfma@seattlefarmersmarkets.org with a description of your family (how many members, ages, etc.), where you normally shop for food, how much you spend on groceries in an average week, how often you cook at home, and what prompted your interest in buying local, sustainably grown foods. Deadline to apply is May 30.

The Alliance will provide the family with assistance, including personal market tours, introductions to farmers, canvas shopping bags, shopping tokens to get started, recipe ideas and more. Photos of the family will be featured in the alliance’s quarterly newsletter and will be posted at all market information booths.