Whether it rains, shines or still doesn’t feel quite like Spring, Plant Amnesty is presenting us with the best Mother’s Day gift of all: The Festival of Trees!

Come for the free entertainment or learn about arbor from the always entertaining Ciscoe Morris. Either way, it’s free and something you can do with or without Mommy.

It’s Friday and so far it’s looking pretty grey; if you’re near Wallingford, why not perk up your day with a visit to Trophy Cupcakes?

Every day the bakery produces nine different flavors of fresh cupcakes–five standard flavors which are available every day and an even wider variety through which they cycle throughout the week. (I highly recommend the peanut butter & jelly cupcake.) Today, Trophy is celebrating “Maria Hines Day” in honor of their award-winning neighbor by putting up a special display to recognize the Tilth chef’s achievement. As an added bonus, they’re paying tribute to Chef Hines’ love of peanut butter and strawberry by offering lemon strawberry minis (one of the tastiest cupcakes in all of Seattle) and chocolate peanut butter minis for $1.25.

Midnight at the Egyptian: The Lollipop Girls in Hard Candy, a 3D “erotic” film from the 70s that will probably make you laugh more than it will turn you on but offers considerable joy of watching celluloid bodies moving in triple-D.

One week only at the Varsity: Goodbye Solo is a Venice Film Festival award winning movie about a young Senegalese cab driver and a local good ol’boy in Winston-Salem, NC. Although they initially seem like an unlikely pair, the two are drawn together into a genuine friendship that enriches both of their lives.

If you like creepy, over the top, violent, action-packed, sexually charged films, whether played straight or for laughs, you really should be hanging out at the Grand Illusion on a regular basis as they are the local masters at bringing the traumatically twisted on film. This Friday and Saturday they present the Deep Red International Festival of Fantastic Films featuring “zombies, voodoo dolls, cannibals, mutant children” and ghouls and gore aplenty. Friday night see three full-length freaky films; Saturday’s screenings include four more features and a free shorts program at 3pm. Late nights this weekend check out Black Devil Doll: sex, violence and an evil from beyond.

Sunday the Grand Illusion shifts gears to a family friendly program of historical animation created by cartoon legends Max and Dave Fleischer including shorts featuring Betty Boop, Superman and Popeye, plus full length feature Gulliver’s Travels, all drawn by hand and still as charming now as they were when they were first released. Through Thursday.

NWFF presents two remarkable films this weekend. First, the US theatrical premiere of Green Screen, Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke’s documentary and fiction hybrid that demonstrates the universality of gentrification as China past is swept away and rebuilt in the form of a formerly successful factory destroyed to make room for an upscale apartment complex. (A panel discussion about blending documentary and fiction filmmaking follows the 7pm screening on Wednesday, May 13.)

Saturday night best selling author Dave Eggers will be in the house at NWFF for a Q&A that follows a special screening of Away We Go, directed by Academy Award winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) and co-written by Eggers and Vendela Vida. This tender-hearted and funny film crosses the US in the company of an expectant couple looking to find the perfect place to call home for their new family. The movie screens at 4:30 pm at the Harvard Exit and all proceeds from the event go to support the programs of 826 Seattle.

Central Cinema offers up a clever double feature with Baz Luhrmann’s brightly colored, semi-modernized Romeo + Juliet starring the lovely pair of Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Danes as the titular couple followed by a Tromeo & Juliet, shocksploitation house Troma’s rather unique take on the tale of tragic young love which is undoubtedly the only version of the tale existent in which Juliet transforms into a monster with a male member.

Revanche continues this week at SIFF. Gotz Spielmann’s intense drama in which ex-con Alex robs a bank to fund a new life for himself and his girlfriend Tamara only to witness her shooting at the hands of a policeman named Alex. Alex flees to his grandfather’s country farm to escape the fallout from the robbery only to discover that Alex and his wife live nearby, inspiring him to thoughts of revenge, plans complicated when he makes the friendly acquaintance of Alex’s wife.

4:00 PM – Richelle Mead: Vampire Academy Book 3: Shadow Kiss
UW Bookstore, U-District
Richelle Mead’s youth-focused urban fantasy series stars a teenage dhamphir (half-human, half-vampire) training to become a guardian of a Moroi, a full-blooded vampire. In Shadow Kiss, Rose—our heroine—is assigned the task of guarding someone, but not her good friend, a Moroi royal named Lissa. This causes her behavior to become erratic, and leads to ghostly visions. [Source: UW Bookstore]
[LINK]

6:00 PM – People Eating and Giving: 826 Seattle – Fundraiser
Palace Ballroom
This is the inaugural year of People Eating and Giving and features Dave Eggers (bestselling author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and What is the What and founder of 826 National), Stewart Stern (Oscar-nominated screenwriter of films such as Rebel Without A Cause and Rachel, Rachel), Teri Hein (Executive Director of 826 Seattle and author of Atomic Farmgirl), Karen Finneyfrock (spoken-word artist, Mistress of Ceremony and Paddle Master), and select 826 Seattle students. [Source: Beats me…826 probably]
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Erica Bauermeister: The School of Essential Ingredients
Santoro Books
Debut novel: “Eight students gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen as Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students’ lives.” [Source: GE Putnam's Sons]
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Naomi Shihab Nye: Seattle Arts & Lectures Poetry Series
Benaroya Hall, Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, $10-$35
Naomi Shihab Nye’s mixed heritage–her father is Palestinian, her mother is American–shapes the subjects of her poetry. She is the author of numerous books of poems, including You and Yours and Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, a collection of new and selected poems about the Middle East. She is also the editor of numerous anthologies for children. Nye has traveled extensively, including to the Middle East and Asia to promote goodwill through the arts. [Source: Seattle Arts & Lectures]
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Richard Mason: Natural Elements
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Mason reads and signs the first American publication of his second novel. Mason has lived in South Africa, London, and Scotland; his eclectic background is reflected in his work.
[LINK]

What could possibly be better than a beer festival? Not much, if you ask me, although this weekend’s Hop Scotch Festival does up the ante by adding Scotch. This spring beer and Scotch festival, held indoors at the Fremont Studios (155 N 35th) Friday and Saturday, May 8th and 9th, presents patrons with the opportunity to sample more than 50 seasonal beers, a variety of Scotches, and wine and tequila, too. Tickets purchased in advance through their website are $20, at the door they’re $25. Both include a souvenir cup and six tasting tokens; available upgrades include $5 for a flight of Mexican beers and $30 for a Scotch seminar with the Master of Whiskey which includes eight tastes of Scotch along with an excellent education.

The festival runs Friday from 5pm to midnight, Saturday from 1pm to midnight and helps raise funds for SIFF.

image by George Kelly via Creative Commons

7:00 PM – A River & Sound Review: Variety Show
Richard Hugo House, Cabaret
A one of a kind literary entertainment variety show featuring novelist Stephanie Kallos, author of Broken for You, poet and essayist Anne McDuffie and musical guest Patrick Bradshaw.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Lindsay Hill & Nicole Sarrocco: Who’s On First? First Thursday Reading Series
Arundel Books
Lindsay Hill was born in San Francisco and educated at Bard College. He has been published in many literary journals and recent works include: Sea of Hooks (Arundel 2008) and Contango (Singing Horse, 2006). Lindsay has recently completed his first novel. He lives in Portland with his wife Nita, two kids and two cats. He works, with Nita, as a consultant to not-for-profits and social enterprises.
*
Nicole Sarrocco recently received her PhD. in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, following Masters degrees in both English and Creative Writing. She now teaches in North Carolina. Her poems have appeared in journals, magazines, Seattle buses, gumball machines, and, reportedly, on Australian Public Radio, and have won awards including the Agnes Scott Writers’ Festival Award and the Galway Kinnell Award. Her first book of poems Karate Bride was published by Arundel Books in 2004.
*[Source: Arundel Books]
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Sandra Cisneros: The House on Mango Street
Town Hall Seattle, Great Hall
Sandra Cisneros is touring the country to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her best-known work, The House on Mango Street, which has sold over two million copies since its initial publication in 1984. The novella tells the story of a young girl growing up in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago. In 1985, it won the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award and is now required reading in many schools and universities nationwide. Presented with Elliott Bay Book Company. [Source: Town Hall Seattle]
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Saxon Holt: Get Gardening
UW Bookstore, U-District
Saxon Holt is a lifelong gardener and photographer whose gorgeous photography is featured in Hardy Succulents and Grasses. He is the owner of PhotoBotanic.com, where he maintains a library of more than 200,000 images from his 25 years as a garden photographer emphasizing sustainable and naturalistic American gardens. [Source: UW Bookstore]
[LINK]

7:30 PM
Daniel A. Weiner – Good God: Faith for the Rest of Us
Elliott Bay Book Co.
In Good God, Rabbi Weiner sets the place of religious devotion and practice against the cacophony of much of contemporary life, as needed for the human soul to know and nourish its potential. He proposes a way of looking at faith that doesn’t fall into the boundaries of this (monotheistic) religion or that, but rather, is working on a higher plane. It is also socially and culturally connected. Rabbi Weiner is the founder of Faith Forward, an interfaith organization that works on the links between progressive values and religious principles. [Source: Elliott Bay Books]
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Naomi Shihab Nye: Seattle Arts & Lectures Poetry Series
Benaroya Hall, Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, $10-$35
Naomi Shihab Nye’s mixed heritage–her father is Palestinian, her mother is American–shapes the subjects of her poetry. She is the author of numerous books of poems, including You and Yours and Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, a collection of new and selected poems about the Middle East. She is also the editor of numerous anthologies for children. Nye has traveled extensively, including to the Middle East and Asia to promote goodwill through the arts. [Source: Seattle Arts & Lectures]
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Walter Rusell Mead: After Fukuyama and Huntington: Prospects for American Power
UW Kane Hall, Room 220
Presented by the Luce Symposium on Global Religion and Human Security. Mead is the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations and author of God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World. [Source: UW Bookstore]
[LINK]

Photo By Chris Bennion

Last Friday Seattle Children’s Theatre (SCT) wrapped up its 2008-09 mainstage season with their 101st world premiere, I Was a Rat!, based on the popular re-worked fairy tale and children’s book by Golden Compass author Philip Pullman.

The story opens with a young pageboy taken in by a childless couple, the aging cobbler Bob and his wife Joan. They give him the name of Roger, as the pageboy says he was formerly a rat and without a name, a tale quirky enough to attract the attention of the Daily Scourge newspaper, a sideshow owner named Professor Tapscrew, and a young ruffian named Billy. The search for Roger’s true home is also accompanied by the story of the newly-married Princess Aurelia, whom Roger claims to have a past with.

My family came along to see the show, with my two children especially excited to watch their first play ever.  Besides, I knew that as much as I hoped to offer people an objective opinion of the performances, what is ultimately important to the success of I Was a Rat! is a show that would be both entertaining and engaging for the little ones.  Although making it a good time for the parents certainly doesn’t hurt their chances either.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to let my children, Evan (6) and Kenzie (5) take the forefront of this review.  Their overall impression of the play was quite obvious as we left the theatre; smiles played across their faces, both extremely happy to have met the cast and get some autographs, especially those of Roger and Aurelia.  I did manage, however, to wrap up the evening by asking them a few pointed questions on the way home. (more…)

Fight the Swine Flu! by Archie McPhee Seattle - from our Flickr pool

Since I am about to head home due to “minor ‘flu symptoms” I thought I would check with Public Health: should I get tested for H1N1? Should I just go home, make soup, and go to bed?

Is the CDC tracking all cases, or just those that exhibit severe symptoms?

The answer is behind door #2. I should go home and the CDC is only interested in severe cases of the ‘flu.

If you are similarly paranoid, and don’t wish to take my word for it, you can check the Public Health H1N1 website [LINK] for updates. You can also subscribe to e-mail updates on the same page.

Another casualty of the unstable economy, Fremont’s Seattle Language Academy says that they need to raise $125,000 in the next month or else they’ll have to close [Times]. They stopped paying most of the staff about two weeks ago, but enrollment in the 15 languages offered has dropped from about 450 student to about 300, and they just can’t support themselves.

A lot of the problem seems to be that most people take the classes to prepare for studying and traveling abroad, especially since the University of Washington and Seattle Central have been cutting back their language classes. With the economy in the state that it is, people just aren’t traveling as much as they used to, making learning another language an even lower priority.

They’re hoping that a last-ditch fundraising effort will save them, but if it doesn’t, any money they raise will go to paying the staff.

All photos are via our Flickr pool.

(No title) by zeebleoop

among the broad blades of grass by zeebleoop

(No Title) by may or may not

Night at the Market by seattlescott