Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming cast, photo by Erik Stuhaug

Taproot Theater, which recently put on a lively and entertaining version of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days goes back in time yet again this Friday, July 10, for the regional premiere of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming.

In a musical conceived by Alan Bailey, written by Connie Ray, directed by Scott Notle and with musical arrangements by Mike Craver, it is 1945, just after the end of WWII, and the Sanders family are ready to welcome Dennis Sanders as the new pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist with bluegrass, folk and gospel songs. The third and final of musical about the Sanders family, Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. This final episode of a series that’s now into its second decade of popularity promises lots of fun, lots of laughs, and lots of great old-time toe-tapping and soul-stirring traditional American roots music.

The musical runs through August 8; if you’re chomping at the bit to see it, you can attend the preview performances on Wednesday, July 8 and Thursday, July 9. For tickets and details, see the Taproot Theater home page.
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In other Taproot news, the theater recently announced their winter holiday production: the world premiere of John Longenbaugh’s Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol, running from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Those of you who like to make your holiday plans well in advance (and I know you’re out there) will be able to buy tickets in October. Mark your calendars now.

2:00 PM – Zinery 101: Workshop
SPL Delridge Branch
A zine is a self-published magazine. Learn the basics and make your own zine with Lucy Morehouse of Ong Ong Press. For ages 12-adult. Limited to 20 people. Please pre-register with the branch.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Erik Scott de Bie and Rosemary Jones: Downshadow and City of the Dead
UW Bookstore U District
The Wizards of the Coast authors sign.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Dean Kuipers: Operation Bite Back: Rob Coronado’s War to Save American Wilderness
Town Hall Seattle, Downstairs
What is environmentalism? What is activism? What is terrorism? Kuipers repots on the extreme fringe of the environmental and animal rights movement through his profile of Rob Coronado and the people he has affected, both positively and negatively.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Mary Guterson: Gone to the Dogs
Elliott Bay Book Co.
The Bainbridge author reads from her sophomore effort. “This fine novel offers a funny yet heartfelt answer to the question, What happened to the one that got away? … With Julia as the first-person narrator, readers can hear her innermost thoughts, and the comedy inherent in the situation comes through.” – Library Journal
[LINK]

Casual games, according to the Casual Games Association, a trade group for casual game developers and distributors, are “video games that are fun and easy to learn and play….platform agnostic…nonviolent, arcade-style games that involve puzzles, words, board and card games, game show and trivia.” Some well-known games include puzzle games like Mahjong, Tetris, Bejeweled, Luxor, Zen Gems, “time management” games like Cake Mania or Diner Dash or “hidden object” games like Mystery Case Files, all of which are fun and insanely addicting.

Casual Connect is the industry’s educational component, offering a variety of newsletters related to casual gaming as well as hosting a yearly conference series in Kiyv (Kiev), Europe and here in Seattle. The next Seattle conference takes place this month, July 21 – 23. Industry professionals will come from all over the world to Benaroya Hall to network and learn from each other, as well as introduce new games, new technology and new opportunities.

Seattle makes a great meeting point for the casual games industry since we have so many local game producers, companies like Big Fish, PopCap, Real Games and more, not to mention all the companies that make the software and hardware that make it possible to create games in the first place.

Condrences at Casual Connect Seattle this year include “Working in audio for the games industry: Freelance vs In-House/Staff”, “Designing, Balancing, and Managing Virtual Economies”, and “What Women Really Want”.

If you’re a game designer or developer, it’s really worth your while to check out this conference, see the Casual Connect site for details on attending.

Tomorrow morning at 9:00 am (Wednesday, July 8th, to be precise), there will be a special meeting of the Seattle City Council Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee. On the agenda is land use and zoning for the Qwest Field North Parking Lot, which might be of interest to the sporty among us. Also on the agenda, besides the usual boring amendments, corrections, and updates, is a report from the Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee (and others) on the process of updating Seattle’s neighborhood plans. We all live in a neighborhood, yes? Yes!

The NPAC briefing and discussion is item six, slotted for about 45 minutes of the 2.5-3 hours that the committee will be sitting. You can attend in person to comment, or you can call or email:

Phone: 206-684-8888
Email: councilagenda@seattle.gov
Agenda PDF: http://www.seattle.gov/council/agendasc/planning.pdf

This is your chance to bitch and moan about sidewalks, speeders, crosswalks, street lighting, et cetera.

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On Friday, July 10th, the Seattle City Council Special Committee on Open Government will hold a special meeting, at 2:00 pm. Way back in January, the Seattle City Council made creating an online Citizen Engagement Portal one of its 2009 goals. Towards that end, they have improved the online Council calendar (Press Release)(Calendar).

Friday’s meeting is part of the process to make City government more open and accessible. On the agenda (PDF) are discussions about on recording executive sessions, the creation of ombudsman positions, and the Citizen Engagement Draft Plan.

I have previously pointed out that council and committee meetings are incredibly inconvenient for the average working stiff, but if you can get Friday afternoon off, you might as well spend two hours being alternately bored and outraged for a good cause.

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On the national front, our legislators are pretty much keeping their heads down. Senator Cantwell had been pretty mum about a public option for health care insurance, but she seems to be responding to an intense letter writing campaign. Cantwell was the sole Seattle-ish hold-out waffling on the issue, until last week; although she still hasn’t come out with a firm position, she’s at least mentioned the public option, publically, in a nominally supportive fasion.

A vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend: After my recent experience in a local ER, I became one of the foaming, letter-writing, email-sending, phone-call-making masses that contacted Senator Cantwell’s office to urge her to support a public option. During the 4.5 hours that I spent, mostly eavesdropping, in the ER, I was the ONLY person there who had a primary care physician and health insurance. Nothing like a little personal experience to politicize one.

It’s that time of year once again when the hot rays of the sun call for cooling off on the refreshing waters of Green Lake and Elliott Bay. That’s right, Seafair is upon us for the 60th time. It starts this coming weekend with the annual landing of the Seafair Pirates at Alki Beach from 9:30 am through 5:30 pm, featuring a battle between the pirates and King Neptune, played by Pat Cashman, swashbuckling with sword and cannon. Also upcoming: the annual Allstate Milk Carton derby. Nearly a hundred different marine craft, all made from the creative use of milk cartons, compete for $10K in prizes at Greenlake, Saturday July 11, from 10 am to 4 pm. Head down to the derby to check out the boats, food and family entertainment and don’t forget to take a can or box of non-perishable food to help Seafair sink hunger.

If this isn’t enough action for you, you can also sail with the Seafair pirates on the Lady Washington: experience a living history adventure with sailing demonstrations, maritime story telling and food and grog (in the form of quality wine) from Anthony’s and Dunham Cellars.

Information on these events and all of the Community events around the Sound (Kent Cornucopia days, July 9 – 12; Pioneer Square Fire Festival, July 11; Redmond Derby Days, July 11; Mercer Island Summer Festival, July 11; and Chinatown Festival, July 11 – 12), check out the Seafair website

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

1:00 PM – Make A Book! Workshop
SPL Columbia Branch
Instructors from the Seattle Center for Book Arts show you how handmade books can add a creative twist to traditional soft-cover and hard-cover books. All bookmaking materials and supplies provided. For ages 12 and up.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Elizabeth Austen & Erin Malone: My Uterus, That Party Balloon
SPL High Point Branch
“Motherhood still defines women–whether they choose to have children or not. Come hear a poetry reading and conversation with Elizabeth Austen and Erin Malone. Poet Elizabeth Austen, the Washington “roadshow” poet for 2007 whose interviews of Seattle-area poets can be heard on KUOW, will be joined by fellow poet Erin Malone in this reading and discussion.” (SPL)
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Elizabeth Bear: Reading
UW Bookstore, U District
Clarion West presents the multiple SF award winner.
[LINK]

12:05 PM – Thrilling Tales: Adult Story Time
SPL Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium
“”The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson. If you know the ending to this infamous classic shocker, please keep it to yourself! Also “Jack The Ripper,” by Shirley Jackson.” (SPL)
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Hugo Works in Progress: Open Mic
Richard Hugo House Cabaret
“A monthly open mic designed to give writers a chance to read in front of fellow writers and share what they have been working on.” (RHH)
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Rebecca Brown & Lidia Yuknavitch: Reading
Elliott Bay Book Co.
The two regional authors read from their most recent works. Brown is based in Seattle; Yuknavitch joins us from Portland.
[LINK]

1:00 PM – Ferre Whitney: The Artist Within: A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit
Barnes & Noble University Village
Unlock Your Artist Within, A Wine Bar-Artiste to Speak and Sign
“Artistic entrepreneur Whitney Ferre begins The Artist Within with the premise that our confidence in our ability to create change has been sabotaged by the luxuries of modern living. That is, the very conveniences that simplify our lives (take-out or prepared food, manufactured clothing, warehouse-style shopping centers), have limited our desire- and even our ability- to produce or create, these basic items for ourselves. The Artist Within offers a set of creative exercises to help you strengthen the right-brain, the creative side, which is in the shadow of the over-developed left-brain. I expected this book to be interesting, but I wasn’t prepared for all the fun I had while reading it and working my way through the various creativity exercises. From simple make your mark doodling to more extensive projects involving painting, weaving, and collage, there’s something for everyone.” – sheistoofondofbooks.com
[LINK]

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. (more…)

Seattle Theater Group (STG, for short) is the non-profit organization that operates The Paramount and The Moore, but they also produce events at venues outside of those theaters. Sometimes literally outside, such at No Depression Festival, an outdoor concert at Marymoor Park over in Redmond on Saturday, July 11. Marymoor is a beautiful park and a great place to see a concert, espeically a concert with such a great line-up as this one, featuring Patterson Hood & the Screwtopians, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, Justin Townes Earl, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Seattle Roots-Music All-Star Revue, Zee Avi and headlined by Gillian Welch and Iron & Wine. It’s going to be an excellent show in a beautiful venue and it’s easily worth the $45 (plus service fees) ticket price. What could be better than a great day of music outdoors?

How about seeing it for free? If you’d like the chance to win a pair of tickets to the show all you have to do is send an e-mail to seattle.metblogs @ gmail.com with No Depression in the subject line and your full name in the body no later than Tuesday evening, June 6, and we’ll let you know if you won.