Look forward to fewer arbitrary ticketing fees from the Crocodile this summer. After they flush out the shows already on their lineup being sold through Ticketmaster, all advance tickets purchased online will come with a flat $2 fee plus standard credit card charges. How, you might wonder, has this miracle of sensible pricing been brought to us? It turns out that in addition to running an alt-weekly, blogs, and a world of questions, the technological gurus at the Stranger also had some time on their hands to develop a way for people to buy tickets on the internet.

Sounds a little bit like Brown Paper Tickets, without having some of the profits directed to charity (unless you count keeping the Stranger in the black as a charitable cause). It is worth noting that they plan to roll the system out to other organizations (with discounts for community groups and nonprofits) in the coming months.

In any case, let’s all hope that there’s some sort of celebration to mark the last Ticketmaster show at the Croc.

6:00 PM – Book Fair! To benefit Daniel Bagley Elementary School Library
Santoro’s Books
20% of all purchases will be donated to the school for future book purchases. Advance and special orders are welcome.
[LINK]

6:00 PM – Write Time: Place & Self
Richard Hugo House Classroom
“Great writers such as Henry David Thoreau and John Muir have embraced the natural world and utilized it as a reflecting glass to examine human nature and their own psyches. In this class led by Jourdan Keith, learn about and practice the philosophy of nature writing from the vantage point of lush Cal Anderson Park. By observing the world around you and exploring your relationship to it, you will create rich pieces filled with detail and introspection. A relaxing summer session. FREE. *This workshop is for TEENS ONLY.” –RHH
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Alain de Botton: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
SPL Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium
The horror of the mundane hashed with semi-philosophical ruminations about nitrous oxide. Deep, man, like that’s so, like, epic, you know? Sigh. Nonetheless, it’s on my reading list. I mock, because I love.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Don Joseph Goewey: Mystic Cool: A Proven Approach to Transcend Stress, Achieve Optimal Brain Function, and Maximize Your Creative Intelligence
Center for Spiritual Living
The concatenation of God and brain plasticity is bizarre, yet fitting. Let’s say it together: Brain plasticity! Braaaainsss…
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Marc Fitten: Valeria’s Last Stand
UW Bookstore, U District
A debut novel about love and pottery in one’s golden years.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Willie Weir: Travels with Willie
Wide World Books & Maps
“Local Seattle guy, world traveler, frequent KUOW contributor and avid recycler Willie Weir joins us to celebrate his latest book, Travels with Willie. It is a book is about finding adventure & facing fear, embarrassing blunders & language barriers, ice cream & kindness, the world’s steepest street & the world’s cheapest engagement ring, catching a thief & losing a zebra, a father’s touch & a farmer’s embrace, buying time & spending another night. And, of course, it’s about bicycles.” –WWB&M
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Ingrid Newkirk: PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble
Barnes & Noble University Village
Oh, the guilt. Theoretically, I support the idea of a society that is cruelty-free. Practically speaking, well, a look into my closet or refrigerator reveals how very far I live from that ideal. Newkirk is president and cofounder of PETA.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Lee Konstantinou: Pop Apocalypse: A Possible Satire
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Debut. I suspect that anyone who has read Boomsday, Uglies, and Little Brother will find the themes familiar, and enjoy Konstantinou’s take.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Stage Fright: Open Mic
Richard Hugo House Cabaret
For writers 14-24. Contact: aribergman@hugohouse.org
[LINK]

Everyone likes firefighters for their bravery and their willingness to put their own lives on the line to save others. Nearly everyone’s wondered what it’s like to be one. You can get a small taste of that at the open house for King County Fire Station 78, the brand new fire station in District 37, covering the eastern side of the fire district, including Covington.

The open house takes place June 13 from 10:00 am to 11:00 am and again at 12:00 to 2:00 pm. In between those times there will be a dedication ceremony from 11:00 to noon to celebrate the station’s opening and from 12:30 to 1:00 there’s a technical rescue demonstration.

Fire Station 78 is located at 17820 SE 256th St in Covington.
—
photo of Seattle Fire Station 14 courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives. Fire station 78 is much more modern.

Starting tonight, and running through the weekend, a large majority of the shows you’d want to be seeing anyway will have the added benefit of helping to raise money to support a good cause (beyond your enjoyment of great music). This year, more than forty local, national, and international bands have teamed up with Noise for the Needy to support Transitional Resources, a licensed mental health center and residential program that offers a full spectrum of optimistic and respectful mental health services to adults with major mental illnesses. Founded in 1976 as a residential treatment program for fifteen, the West Seattle-based center has serves over 200 individuals each year through six different programs.

As for the live music, there are so many options to draw you in, you’d be hard pressed to go wrong. Throw Me the Statue has an eagerly-awaited album coming out very soon, Grand Archives are back from a big European tour with likely previews of new material, I Was A King have come all the way from Norway for you, and as far as I can tell, you have to be dead to not be having fun at an Art Brut show or dancing sweatily when you’re in the capable hands of the Emerald City Soul Club. Similarly, if you’ve been in search of incentives to check out rising local stars, there are no shortage of showcases. Black Ties and Neckties put on the most theatrical horror show of a rock spectacle while still being a real band, Cataldo charmed me senselessly when I caught them as openers a few months ago, Speaker Speaker are a heartskipping good time, and I’ve been particularly negligent in not getting out to see New Faces, the Pica Beats, and Hey Marseilles despite hearing nothing but praise sung from every corner.  

The impressive lineup is listed below. For more information about the charities, venues, bands, and tickets, visit noisefortheneedy.org

Wednesday June 10

• Slender Means, Fences, New Faces, Red Sea Sharks : Neumo’s, 8p, [$10]
• Coulter, This is a Process of a Still Life, Safer, Skeletons With Flesh On them : the Comet, 9p, [$7]

Thursday June 11

• Throw Me the Statue, “Awesome”, Velella Velella : Tractor Tavern , 9p, [$10]
• Adam Stephens and the Finite Plain, Widower, Jack Wilson & the Wife Stealers, Shane Tutmarc : Sunset, 8p,[$10]
• Half Light, Trentalange, Cataldo,  Cosmic Panther Land Band (All Star Line-up) : Conor Byrne, 9p, [$7]

Friday, June 12, 2009

• Grand Archives, See Me River, the Curious Mystery : the Crocodile, 9p, [$12 ($15 d.o.s.)]
• the Whore Moans, Speaker Speaker, Wallpaper, the Greatest Hits, the Raggedy Anns : Underground Events Center, Belltown, 8p, [$7]

Saturday June 13

• Art Brut (UK), Miike Snow Neumo’s, 8p, Bar w/ID, [$13]
• Black Eyes & Neckties, Telepathic Liberation Army, Loving Thunder, the Beats, Man: Wildrose, 9p, [$7]
• Kissing Potion, Fells Acres, High Dive, 5p, $5
• Furniture Girls, Hotels, Born Anchors, Anomie Belle : High Dive, 9p, [$8]
• Brent Amaker & the Rodeo, the Valley, An Invitation to Love, the Beautiful Confusion, the Thoughts : the Comet, 8p, [$8]
• Point Juncture, WA, the Pica Beats, Black Whales, Grant Olsen (Arthur & Yu), Djs Tom Conqergood & Cuddleup : Chop Suey, 9p, [$10]
• Emerald City Soul Club (Resident DJs: Gene Balk, Mike Chrietzberg, Brian Everett, George Gell, KennyMac, Alvin Mangosing, Marc Muller, Mike Nipper; Guest DJ: George Rodriguez) : Lo-Fi/Victory Lounge, 9p, $10

Sunday June 14

• Constantines, Crystal Antlers, Hey Marseilles, I Was a King : Neumo’s, 8p, [$12]
• Reptet, Gravelroad, Purty Mouth, Sam Marshall Trio : the Comet, 5p, [$6]

As part of a pilot project with Amazon, the UW Computer Science and Engineering department will give every incoming graduate student a free Kindle DX and Kindle-fied course materials. It’s all part of Amazon experimenting with the idea of making the Kindle into a textbook delivery device, and the University of Washington is among seven schools participating in the pilot project.

No word on exactly how much this will cost the university. The piece also mentions incoming Foster School students will also get Kindles.

Farmer's Market Heirlooms

Have you been visiting your local farmer’s markets? Many Seattle neighborhoods have one. Strawberries and cherries have started coming in. We’re at the end of asparagus season. Stone fruits should be arriving within a few weeks.

I’m looking forward to picking up half a dozen flats of strawberries this Sunday at the Capitol Hill market and making homemade strawberry and tarragon jam with friends.

The images were butterflies kissing sleeping women. The soundtrack was this:

AMBIEN and AMBIEN CR are treatment options you and your doctor can consider along with lifestyle changes. When taking either of them, don’t drive or operate machinery. Plan to devote 7 to 8 hours to sleep before being active. Sleepwalking, and eating or driving while not fully awake, with memory loss for the event, as well as abnormal behaviors such as being more outgoing or aggressive than normal, confusion, agitation, and hallucinations may occur. Don’t take it with alcohol as it may increase these behaviors. In patients with depression, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide may occur. If you experience any of these behaviors contact your doctor immediately.

Make up your mind, Ambien CR. Are you going to make me popular or depressed? Will I find myself depressed before or after making hella friends while sleepwalking? And how, exactly, is this aggressiveness going to play out? Am I going to aggressively eat donuts out of the fridge at 1am or am I going to aggressively have sleepwalker sex with a wall or door frame?

7:00 PM – Midge Raymond: Forgetting English: Stories
UW Bookstore, U District
The winner of the 2007 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction will read from her newest collection.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Amy Stewart: Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Best title so far this year! From the publisher: “A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You’ll learn which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), which plants make themselves exceedingly unwelcome (like the vine that ate the South), and which ones have been killing for centuries (like the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln’s mother). Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.” Stewart is a wonderful horticultural writer; both The Earth Moved and Flower Confidential were educational, edifying, and highly entertaining.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Laleh Khadivi: The Age of Orphans
Barnes & Noble University Village
Lyrical, brutal, and compelling, this debut is the story of Reza, a young Kurdish boy, whose family is slaughtered. Conscripted into the very army that destroyed his people, Reza eventually becomes overseer, and oppressor, of his former homeland. A powerful debut novel, and apparently the first of a trilogy.
[LINK]

8:30 PM – Lee Child: Gone Tomorrow
SPL Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium
The author reads from his 13th (!!!) Jack Reacher novel.
[LINK]

The City of Seattle has created a Pedestrian Master Plan aimed at getting Seattle to be a more “walkable, livable, and healthy city”. The city has cooked up some notions on policies and programs and projects that are all about achieving this lofty goal. The city is looking for your feedback on the plan, now through June 15.

You can learn all about the Master Plan on the SDOT website here where you’ll also find links to news stories and blogs all about walking, as well as all the information you could ever want to know about walking in Seattle. I highly recommend spending some time using the Pedestrian Toolbox, particularly the semi-interactive feature on “Common Pedestrian Issues”.