If you like wine, you really ought to head over to the eastside this Saturday, particularly if you like your wine blended with the sweet, sweet taste of doing good. The Rotary Club of Issaquah is hosting Grape Escape 2010 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Issaquah this Saturday, March 13, from 6 – 9 pm, offering wines from the Lake Chelan AVA and a food menu that includes roasted top sirloin, grilled chicken skewers in a lemon beurre blanc sauce, crab cakes pan seared with lemon herb remoulade, savory wild mushroom tarts, and more.

Proceeds from the on site silent auction, wine sales and raffle go to the Issaquah Rotary Scholarship Fund which helps local graduating high school seniors continue their education in college.

Participating wineries include Ventimigilia Cellars, Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards, Rio Vista Winery, Lake Chelan Winery, and Wapato Point Cellars.

You can register in advance online through Friday; after that, you simply pay at the door. Salut!

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Photo by hlkjlgk via Creative Commons

The Washington Bus is an organization that exists to give young people a chance to get involved with the political process by offering a political training bootcamp, internships, and opportunities for organized activism.

Their training bootcamp, the Washington Bus Summer Fellowship, is a ten-week program for Washington residents aged 18 – 24 who have a passion for civic involvement, strong organizational skills, and a desire to make a real difference. Fellows learn campaign management, grassroots organizing, public policy formation and leadership skills.

If you’re qualified and interested, go to the Washington Bus website to complete a Summer Fellow application.

The City of Seattle’s on the search for a new Chief of Police. Led by the 26 member Seattle Police Search Committee, a citizen panel appointed by Mayor Mike McGinn, the national search begins with no front runners, inside-track candidates or preferences for or against candidates of any race, gender, ethnicity or place of origin.

The search committee consists of people from all walks of life, including neighborhood groups, minority communities, business and civic leaders, and police and justice-system representatives. The search began back in January with a series of meetings that includes three public hearings scheduled through May.

The next of these public hearings will be held on Wednesday, March 10, at 5:30 pm in the Bertha Knight Landes Room at Seattle’s City Hall. On the agenda: discuss and finalize assessment criteria and discuss candidate interview questions. Want to get involved? The meeting is open to all interested parties.

The next public meeting will be on Wednesday, April 21 in the same place. After a closed executive session, the public is invited to be on hand for a vote that will select between 5 – 7 candidates from the 10 – 15 profiles presented by the executive search firm responsible for locating qualified candidates.

Every year the EMP/SFM sponsors an exciting “battle of the bands” called Sound Off! to support the local underage music scene by giving young musicians a chance to come together and play their music in front of a supportive audience. Judges like music critic Gene Stout, Megan Selig from The Stranger and The End, Spencer Manio from The Saturday Knights, John Roderick from The Long Winters, Andy Roe from AEG and James Keblar of the Mayor’s Office of Film and Music, this year’s jury, review all of the submissions – there were a record breaking 130 this year – and select the winning artists.

This year’s champions are Sammamish’s own Great Waves. “Led by the dreamy and enchanting vocal styling of troubadour Ashley Bullock, Great Waves captivate with narratives that evoke all senses ranging from sadness, despair and hope.” Their prize package includes a slot at Bumbershoot 2010, a live on-air performance on The End, studio time, production, equipment, industry consulting from the Recording Academy, and one of their songs being featured for sale in Rock Band’s Rock Band Network.

Second place went to Hooves and Beak [Myspace], the project of self-taught harpist Whitney Flinn who earned a performance at Northwest Folklife (appropriate!), studio time, equipment, industry consultation and a Rock Band 2 bundle.

The third place winner got a performance at the Hard Rock Cafe Seattle, opening for an as-yet unselected national touring act, studio time, equipment, industry consultation and a Rock Band 2 bundle – this award went to Bellingham/Burlington guitar/drum duo Candysound [Myspace].

Fourth place winners Seacats, from Kelso, don’t get a performance prize but they get all the other cool stuff. Check them out on their Myspace page.

Congratulations to all the winners and, hey, music fans, be sure to check these acts out. Previous Sound Off! winners include Dyno Jamz, Schoolyard Heroes, The Lonely H, Dyme Def, The Lonely Forest, Idiot Pilot, Mon Frere, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head and New Faces – you never know which of these youngs acts will become the next hot thing.

Trader Joe’s Silent Movie Mondays at the Paramount are always a good deal: silent film classics screened with live music from the mighty Wurlizter organ and tasty, healthy snacks from the beloved grocery chain.

Every series has a theme and the current one is appropriate for anyone looking for the winter, mild as it’s been, to be over: Silents from the South Seas showcases the South Pacific, a favorite locale for early filmmakers due to its beautiful landscapes and exotic cultures. Tonight’s film was LeGong: Dance of the Virgins. Following a brief presentation by Balinese dancer Niluh Saraswatini and a talk by Dr. Christina Sunardi (UW professor of ethnomusicology), came the film. Totally exploitative but a genuine artifact of the sentiments of director Marquis Henry de la Falaise, LeGong was a two-color Technicolor story of a sacred dancer who falls in love with a young musician.

Next up is Sadie Thompson, screening March 15. Gloria Swanson, Lionel Barrymore and Raoul Walsh, who also directed, star in a film about a South Sea island lady of the night who seduces a hellfire preacher. Shocking to 1928 audiences, Sadie Thompson is rather tame for modern filmgoers, but remains an excellent example of Ms. Swanson’s vast talent – the role earned her an Academy Award nomination.

March 22 see FW Murnau’s Tabu: A Story of the South Seas. Murnau’s final work was a collaboration with documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty that tells the tale of a fisherman who falls in love with a young woman who has been offered up to the gods, making her the “taboo” of the title.

March 29 is the Trader Joe’s Wild Card. Stop by a local Trader Joe’s and vote for your choice of short films from the catalog of works by Charlie Chaplin – the top three vote getters will be screened this night. No matter which films win, you can’t go wrong with Charlie.

Ever wonder who makes up the jury that hands out awards at film festivals? Most of the time, it’s a selection of film professionals–writers, directors, technicians, etc.–which makes sense. Why not have peers reviewing their peers?

SIFF agrees. During their annual festival, their featuries, documentaries, and shorts of all sorts are reviewed with an eye for excellence by a group of professionals.

Two special programs within the festival, however, require two special juries. The Films4Families program is aimed at introducing young children to the joys of film. The FutureWave program is about introducing young people to filmmaking by hand-ons immersion. These special groups of films get judged by the people most important to them–the young people who make them and the young people for whom they’re made.

SIFF is seeking jury members for both programs. To be eligible, you must be a student in King County who really cares about film. If you are in grades 3 – 7, you can apply to be on the Films4Families jury. If you’re in grades 8 – 12, you can apply to be on the FutureWave jury. (As someone who is way older than either of those groups, I envy you a bit: every year some of my favorite films in the festival come out of these two categories.)

To apply, go online and download the application here.

If you need more information, send an e-mail to futurewave@siff.net or call 206.464.5830.

In February, we ventured to Capitol Hill to a place I thought was going to suck. The Yelp reviews were mediocre and passing by it several times, Table 219 just didn’t seem like much. But, I have two words that will forever change my attitude toward this restaurant.

Ding Dong

That’s right, I’m not going to tell you about the really good corn dogs we had, or the zucchini fries that were better than any fries I’ve had in awhile. I won’t even mention the two mac ‘n’ cheeses we tasted, mostly because they weren’t anything amazing. And I’m not about to say a peep about the juicy maple-y pork or the fatty spare ribs.

Because I’m only going to write this here blog about the best thing I’ve ever had in all of our Dinner Club experiences.

This Ding Dong is not the kind of treat you get from your grandma’s or from your fat friend or on a road trip when you’re sick of eating Jerky. You won’t find this Ding Dong at the grocery store either. Because this kind of Ding Dong is special – so special in fact that the menu calls it the 219 Ding Dong.

And as I look at the menu right now, I don’t think I knew what the actual ingredients were. Apparently, it’s described as having “white chocolate mousse, chocolate glaze, coconut tuile” but all I heard was “yom, yom, yom” when the waiter told us about it.

The outer chocolate layer had this rich, yet smooth chocolately texture to it. Almost like a fudge consistency. And then I bit into some kind of heavenly piece of goo that must’ve been what the white chocolate mousse and coconut tuile. But to me it tasted like someone melted a sweet marshmallow and had it ooze out the second my mouth had contact.

Needless to say, if you’re going to go to Table 219 (which you should) please expect a pretty decent dinner and appetizer selection. But keep your belly ready for the mother of all desserts. One that you can’t find anywhere – even in a stoned teenager’s backpack.

Table 219
219 Broadway Ave E
Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 328-4604
www.table219.com
They gladly take reservations!

One of the hits at last year’s SIFF, Prodigal Sons returns to Seattle for an engagement at SIFF Cinema starting Friday. Director Kimberly Reed takes you to her hometown of Helena, Montana where the big news isn’t that Kimberly used to be star high school quarterback Paul before her sex change operation; Kimberly gamely answers questions for her curious former classmates but they generally take the news in stride. Reed decides to connect with her brother Marc, whom she hasn’t seen in over ten years and that’s where the drama begins. A traumatic brain injury at age 21 turned Marc truculent and prone to violence but Kimberly reaches out to her brother and agrees to help him find the birth parents who gave him up for adoption which is when he learns that he is the biological grandchild of Hollywood legends Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. A very personal film, Prodigal Sons is intriguing and well-made. Kimberly’s story is interesting, as is her brother’s, and the movie asks a lot of challenging questions about identity, personality and family life well worth considering.

ByDesign10 is NW Film Forum‘s program that “explores the intersection of graphic design and moving image, and celebrates multidisciplinary artists who push the boundaries to create new techniques, styles and forms.” The week-long series includes a variety of film title sequences, animations, documentary portraits, and special guest presenters. Husband and wife art team Charles and Ray Eames helped inspire the first ByDesign program ten years ago and their work is included in this year’s version as well. The program begins Friday night with a talk by designer Danny Yount about his creative and technical processes and also with a free opening night party that includes drinks, short films and live audio/visual performances. The series continues with a panel of Seattle animators and motion designers screening and discussing their current works, a retrospective of the work of UK art collective The Light Surgeons, a curated presentation of film title sequences, a series of short film portraits of artists and graphic designers, shorts and videos, and a series of animated films illustrating The Decemberists’ The Hazards of Love.

Friday only at The Grand Illusion: The GI Joe Stop Motion Film Festival in which filmmakers from around the world get out their dolls and action figures and cast them in movies.

Starting Saturday at the Grand Illusion: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Richard Lester’s hilarious film adaptation of the stage musical starring Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton, Michael Crawford and Jack Gilford. Always a fun movie to watch, it’s even better with a full audience.

If you’ve reached a certain age, you’re definitely going to want to get to Central Cinema this weekend for their The Goonies quote-a-long. Props and subtitles will be helpfully provided along with a special game of Goonies Bingo.

**Sunday at Central Cinema: stop in for the Reel Grrls second Oscar party. $25 gets you in the door and gives you a chance to order a la carte or for $79 select one of the delicious prix fixe dinners; $40 gets you a light meal selection. Proceeds benefit Reel Grrls, the excellent local organization which empowers young women to find their voice through media production.

Midnight at the Egyptian: Brazil, director Terry Gilliam’s black comedy set in a dystopian future that’s one of the weirdest movies ever made.

Seattle University‘s greenSquat program in a new way of producing theater – two or more productions share a stage – the second production “squats” on the set and production design of the first, reducing materials used, and reducing the environmental impact of the shows, which can often be substantial.

The first greenSquat production is a new play called WRITER 1272, a comedy by local playwright Vincent Delaney about plagiarism, ghost writing, and the complex conditions of college admissions. WRITER 1272 is “squatting” on SU’s recent staging of Island of Slaves, reusing the set, production materials and even posters from the previous play to create an eco-friendly production. Any added materials are themselves found, recycled, or repurposed – nothing new. greenSquat creator Steve Galatro says says, “Theatre is wasteful. In terms of time, money, energy, and physical resources, we have not yet done our best as a theatre community to embrace the trend of sustainability that is now present all around us. In greenSquat, we are challenging students to examine their responsibility as eco-conscious artists: examining the wide array of materials that make a production and imagining their potential to make another production entirely.”

SU hopes that greenSquat will inspire other theater artists to reduce their environmental impact as well and has partnered with a number of local businesses to promote the idea and will offer raffles and green product giveaways at all shows.

WRITER 1272 runs through March 13 at SU’s Lee Center for the Arts; tickets are available at the door or in advance through the box office which is open Wednesday through Saturday from 1:30 to 6:00 pm; call 206.296.2244 for ticket details.

How much do you love movies? A lot? A whole lot? Enough to spend an entire day watching them? How about watching them for 12 hours–with a free breakfast, complimentary coffee, donuts and beer thrown in to boot?

SIFF has found an appropriate fundraiser to help them raise the capital they need to continue their valuable work of supporting film in Seattle (and around the world, through their annual film festival): a 12 hour movie marathon featuring six films from SIFF’s storied past. You can participate in multiple ways: one way is to buy tickets at three different levels – $100 gets you breakfast and general admission seating for all of the films; $250 gets you breakfast, a reserved seat and pillow, blanket, popcorn and a catered box lunch; $500 includes all of the above plus a bottle of wine and an invitation to a future special event with SIFF’s leadership.

The movie lineup features:
The Whole Wide World
To Die For
The Road Warrior
Blood Simple
The Fourth Man
Trouble in Mind

You can also ask your friends and acquaintances to sponsor you to reach the level you desire – SIFF’s got tools for you set up your own online donation page.

For more information, check out their page for the marathon.