The combination of toys, cupcakes, and Katherine Hepburn’s voice is one that I just can’t resist! This Friday, Schmancy is hosting Cakespy‘s newest art exhibit from 6pm-9pm at the downtown store. Cakespy is a fantastic source for all things sweet and wonderful in the greater Seattle area, and one of my favorite sites to browse when I have a dessert craving. Check it out!

Cakespy is also featured at Trophy Cupcake, show starts tonight from 6-8pm and the art will be up until May 31.

Recently a number of places in North Seattle have been trimming their hours of business, closing an hour or so earlier than when the economy was booming. Off the top of the head, these include places as diverse as the Barnes & Noble at UVillage (10pm instead of 11pm Mon-Sat), Tangletown Zoka (10 instead of 11) and the Wedgwood Starbucks (9pm instead of 10pm). The first of these, coupled with the temporary shutdown of the large corner Starbucks there for renovations, has really turned the Village into a ghost town after 10. A micro-trend in today’s economy, or a coincidence? Anyone notice other Seattle area retailers or restaurants giving up on the late-night crowd?

12:00 PM – Louis Ure: Liars Anonymous
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Jessie Dancing is an operator for Hands On Emergency and fields a call from a millionaire. She believes she hears him being murdered while she’s on the phone with him. She heads from Phoenix to Tucson to play the tape for his widow only to be told that he’s still alive. Then what was it she heard? [Source: Seattle Mystery Bookshop]
[LINK]

5:00 PM – Fifteen Ways to Tell the Story: Writing Class
Richard Hugo House, Cabaret
“In this fast-paced session led by writer and instructor Wendy Call, we’ll zoom through fifteen writing exercises, searching for the best way to get those words on the page. If there’s a story (factual or otherwise) you’ve been itching to tell, this is your chance to anchor those words to the page. Multimedia writing prompts-questions, answers, lines of poetry, images and even scents-will help us open the dusty drawers of memory and empty them out. Each participant will leave with a the elements of a new story draft and a toolbox full of writing exercises for your writing group or your classroom.” [Source: RHH]
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Daniel Wolff: How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them
UW Bookstore, U-District
What qualifies as a “good education,” in America? Daniel Wolff looks back into history, at the formal and informal educations of some key figures in our nation’s development, to find out. From Ben Franklin’s time spent in a printer’s shop, to Andrew Jackson’s savage childhood, to the privileged upbringing of Jackie Kennedy, Wolff pulls together the threads to weave a narrative of education in the U.S.A. And then he shows how all of it relates to the standardized tests, achievement gaps, and philosophies of education that we know today. [Source: UW Bookstore]
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Stephanie Smallwood: Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora
SPL Douglas-Truth Branch
This event is part of the Seattle Reads: My Jim series. Using letters, journals, and narratives from around the trade route, UW professor Smallwood brings to life the everyday horror experienced by Africans first arriving in the Americas. Saltwater Slavery was the winner of the 2008 Frederick Douglass Book Prize for the best book on slavery or abolition. Sponsored by University Book Store and Seattle Public Library. [Source: UW Bookstore]
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Wendy Mogel: ParentMap
Town Hall Seattle, Great Hall
Clinical psychologist Wendy Mogel, author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, helps parents recognize this overindulgent behavior, and avoid the pitfalls of “helicopter” parenting. Presented by ParentMap as part of its Pathways parenting lecture series; co-sponsored by the Seattle Jewish Community School. [Source: Town Hall Seattle]
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Christine Fair: Pakistani Attitudes Towards Militancy In and Beyond Pakistan
UW Kane Hall, Room 220
Presented by the Luce Symposium on Global Religion and Human Security. Fair is the author of the book Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Jim Moore & Judith Roche: Poetograpgy
Richard Hugo House, Cabaret
A guest reading and discussion on poetry and regionalism with poets Jim Moore and Judith Roche. Co-presented with the Loft Literary Center. [Source: RHH]
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Winifred Gallagher: Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“As the 19th-century philosopher William James wisely understood, what you selectively notice and attend to is what makes up your experience. It is your life! Winifred Gallagher gets it. She has written a provocative, illuminating, and captivating book on the power and importance of attention in multiple domains in life—relationships, work, leisure, health. What makes some people happier, healthier, more fulfilled, more creative, or more engaged than others? Because of what they pay attention to.” – Sonja Lyubomirsky.
[LINK]

The Wall Street Journal has confirmed that Amazon will be announcing a bigger, more textbooky Kindle tomorrow that will go into the hands of college students after summer break:

Beginning this fall, some students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland will be given large-screen Kindles with textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar already installed, said Lev Gonick, the school’s chief information officer. The university plans to compare the experiences of students who get the Kindles and those who use traditional textbooks, he said. Amazon has worked out a deal with several textbook publishers to make their materials available for the device, Mr. Gonick added. The new device will also feature a more fully functional Web browser, he said. [wsj]

It seems kind of unfortunate that the none of the test beds for this new reading miracle are in Amazon’s hometown — it’s not as if the Seattle area is devoid of undergraduates who might be great test cases for cool electronics.
Engadget has a grainy picture [#] and there is, of course, no shortage of skeptics:

• “Large-Screen Kindle Won’t Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives” [wired]
• “Why a Giant Kindle Still Won’t Be the Perfect Ebook Reader” [gizmodo]
• Valleywag’s outgoing perma-hater says: “Why the Large-Format Kindle Is Not a Life Raft for Newspapers” [gawker]

white stag [pwelverumandsun]

MBV brings the good news that a new record from Mount Eerie is available now, for a limited time, on the internet, starting today. Unlike a lot of recent releases by Mount Eerie, this one contains new songs recorded by Phil Elverum while living in the White Stag building in Portland at the invitation of Mathew Stadler. During a few days in March and April, he “wandered the building at night with recording equipment after students had left and ruminated on the site, specifically what the spot might have been like before the building was even there” and the resulting album contains “sloppy 4 track recordings with the presence of the building clearly audible.”

Get it online [pwelverumandsun]; read more about it. [portlandmercury]

james mercer of the shins, performing last night at the showbox; more photos of the shins & the delta spirit [flickr]

It’s the second night the Shins at the Showbox. Bless them for choosing to do two night engagement at the smaller Showbox rather than the larger, less appealing, SoDo version. I’d forgotten just how great the original (“at the market”) was for shows: even for last night’s sold out performance it rarely felt overstuffed. The Delta Spirit, looking incredibly comfortable onstage and sounding nothing like I imagined San Diego, opened with a shortish set that often found a majority of their members contributing to the percussion section, banging away on trash can lids and shaking maracas while frontman Matthew Vasquez energetically held down vocals and harmonica in a vaguely CYHSY way, except with more intelligible words and soul.

The Shins, sporting a reshuffled lineup — with Eric Johnson from the Fruit Bats on keys, former Grand Archiver Ron Lewis on bass, and (according stereogum commenters [#]) Joe Plummer on drums. Missing was Marty Crandall, which meant that there were 100% fewer undergarments thrown onto the stage, but the talented roster played through a darkly reworked collection of songs spanning the band’s recording history; notably breaking out “Sphagnum Esplanade” and “Weird Divide” from the deep and beloved back catalog. In particular, moodier songs like first set closer “Those to Come”, made use of the talented lineup with backup vocals, but unlike many other big harmony acts like labelmates Fleet Foxes, you get the sense that Mercer and company want the twisty lyrics to sting just a little bit.

If you can brave the rain, hit the sidewalks early to find someone with an extra ticket.

-

Also sold out is Iron & Wine‘s second night in support of Around the Well, a two disc collection of rarities, out of print, and unreleased songs — including the hard-to-buy unless you’re willing to purchase the In Good Company soundtrack “Trapeze Swinger”. The big show moves from Vera to the Triple Door, which seems like almost the most ideal possible venue for Sam Beam. However, if you didn’t get tickets and don’t want to press your luck (all tickets were will-call and are non-transferrable), line-up at the Capitol Hill Sonic Boom to catch the free in-store performance at 6 pm.

If you’re in the food world, you’ve probably heard this (unless you spent the past couple of hours under a rock). Maria Hines, chef and owner of Tilth Restaurant in Wallingford, won the 2009 Best Chef Northwest award. This was her third year nominated, but her first win. Not only did she win, but she was also invited to cook for the reception after the awards ceremony.

Hines is quoted in the press release as saying: “Big thanks to my crew at Tilth and a very special thanks to my wife for letting me put a lien on the house for Tilth,” said Hines. “I promise we’ll pay it off soon now, honey.”

Tilth was the second restaurant in the country to be certified organic by Oregon Tilth. Tilth has a shiny new website, so go check it out.

Congratulations to Chef Hines!

8:00 AM – 2009 NW Leadership Summit
Town Hall Seattle, Great Hall
Peter Senge, recently named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the top 20 most influential business thinks and author of The Fifth Discipline, and a panel of Pacific Northwest business executives—Jim Sinegal (Costco), Dean Allen (McKinstry), Frank Blethen (Seattle Times), Julie Larson-Green (Microsoft), Pat Shanahan (Boeing)—discuss how companies around the world are leading the change from “business as usual” tactics towards transformative strategies that are essential for creating a flourishing economy and sustainable world. Presented by Seattle University’s Albers Scholl of Business and Economics. [Source: Town Hall Seattle}
[LINK]

10:00 AM – “Surprise” Celebrity Reader from EMP: Children’s Storytime
Barnes & Noble, University Village
Jim Henson themed, according to the website
[LINK]

12:00 PM – Poetry Appreciation Group
SPL Central Library
Join fellow poetry lovers to read and discuss poems.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – John Bradshaw: Reclaiming Virtue: How We Can Develop the Moral Intelligence to Do the Right Thing at the Right Time for the Right Reason
Seattle First Baptist Church
Motivational speaker John Bradshaw makes the case for the development of “inborn moral intelligence” and provides guidance for living a life of integrity and well-being in his new book.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Sarah Waters: The Little Stranger
UW Bookstore, U-District
2003 British Author of the Year and perennial resident of the Man Booker prize shortlist, Sarah Waters, presents this post-WWII ghost story. A doctor pays a call on a crumbling estate and finds its occupants, the Ayres family, haunted by more than their home’s disrepair. He also finds his own story as entwined with the story of the family as the weeds choking the garden. [Source: UW Bookstore]
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Idra Novey & Carey Salerno: Poetry Reading
Open Books
Idra Novey reads from The Next Country, from Alice James Books. Carey Salerno’s collection, Shelter, was also published by Alice James.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Will North: Water, Stone, Heart
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“A life-threatening storm in Cornwall has a silver lining, helping two attracted but procrastinating divorcees to commit. North places the North American central characters of his second novel in a lovingly described corner of England. His book is as much a hymn to Cornwall—its landscape, communities, history, beer, dry-stone walling—as it is to romance. Affairs of the heart do, however, play a central role …” – Kirkus Reviews.
[LINK]

8:00 PM – Castalia: Readings
Richard Hugo House, Cabaret
UW creative writing program reading series featuring David Bosworth, Brian Christian, Kary Wayson, Elizabeth Cooperman and Kirsten Rue.
[LINK]

Washington asparagus has arrived in local grocery stores. I found a great deal on it at Uwajimaya: 4.5lbs for $5. if you find it for cheaper, let me know!

photo by Faeryboots via Creative Commons

The City of Seattle has a lot of public art. Paintings, murals, fountains, and sculptures blanket the city in locations both obvious (large downtown buildings, public plazas, parks) and not so much: underpasses, residential areas. How does it all get there? Well, it usually starts with the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs sending out a call for artists. Their Artists’ Call Board offers up some fascinating opportunities, both local and national, that range from a Soho (NYC) gallery seeking video pieces about female boxers to the Bainbridge Island Public Art Committee seeking a local artist/artist team to create permanent outdoor art for the Winslow Way Street Improvement Project.

The gallery sort of work is easy enough to figure out–you can take classes in video filmmaking, you can teach yourself to paint with a series of workbooks, and then you can simply read the call to see how they want the works submitted–but creating permanent outdoor work for a local government requires a bit more in the way of preparation. What’s an aspiring public artist without a ton of political connections to do?

The OACA wants to help: they’re offering a series of workshops aimed at teaching artists how to successfully compete for public art projects. The first is Monday, May 18 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at City Hall. The workshop is totally free but advance registration is required; go to their site for sign up details.