After the recent bout of “gang” related shootings in the Puget Sound area, it seems that more people are aware that Seattle actually has gangs, not just “gangs”. The difference? According to Dictionary.com, a gang is a “group of criminals or hoodlums who band together for mutual protection and profit.” According to me, a “gang” is a “group of bored wannabe-gang members posturing and acting like big thugs who make really stupid decisions.” There is an apparent difference, a legitimacy that wasn’t there before. Well, I’ve done some looking around and have come to the conclusion that yes, Seattle really does have gangs, but not in to the extreme that say, Los Angeles has gangs. Or maybe that’s more my assumption yet again.

While browsing through Seattle 911 (Seattle PI, a great reference source), I found this map showing gang “territories” in the greater Seattle area. It shows more official gang activity than I had previously thought. I’d like to say that I’m not typically this oblivious to what is going on. I lived for a few years in the Rainier Beach area, hung out in West Seattle, Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley, and other neighborhoods of the city that show up on the map as neighborhoods where gangs like to congregate. I’ve seen plenty of kids that likely could have been or likely were in a gang. I knew kids who carried guns. I continued to dismiss all of it as “gang” and not gang activity. The greater the occurrence of incidents involving guns, violence, and deaths, the more likely it is that Seattle does have a legitimate gang problem.

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photo by machel spence [flickr] via our group pool [#].

• the City Council sets a course for more streetcars, and step on it! Because the South Lake Union one’s been such a hit, right? [seattletransitblog]
• West Seattle Blog is about to turn three. (Holiday) Party in the Junction, etc. [wsb]
• More about Deborh Lawrence’s impeachment ornament. Now VIRAL! [arttogo]
• Perhaps you’d like to buy a condo on the cheap(er)? Auctions abound, signifying a the real estate cloud o’ doom has reached Seattle. [alexgarcia]
• Not afraid to be servicey, CHS & friends help a neighbor find a $50 date on the hill. [capitolhillseattle]

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A couple years ago a stand-off between a menorah and a christmas tree resulted in eerie scenes of winter wonderland at Sea-Tac. This year, via the Seattle LiveJournal community [#], comes word of the latest pairing in winter icons. It seems that the baby Jesus has company this year at the State Capitol. The Freedom From Religion folks have sent a little sign to Olympia to sit along side the nativity scene. [times] My own perspective is that the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s are so drenched with holiday music, overwhelming advertisements, and inescapable decorations that it doesn’t seem too grinchly to suggest that an airport or government building free of “spirit” or “anti-spirit” could be more of a refuge than an insult. Your mileage my vary.

While we’re on the topic of holiday insults, it turns out that the Bush family doesn’t want to spend their last days in the White House being taunted by their tree. Seattlest brings us the story [#] of local artist Deborah Lawrence whose McDermott-loving, Bush-hating ornament nearly made it onto the official tree before someone took a look at the fine collage print. [komo]

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photo by taylor hain [flickr] via our group pool [#].

• Eli Sanders tries to understand why the [student-funded] Daily is publishing offensive, right-wing, poorly reasoned, ill-informed, anti-gay editorials. [slog] Let’s try to not cynically compare the number of comments between that one, and this pro-Prop 8 one published the same day [uwdaily] and just accentuate the positive — it prompted Dan Savage to coin the term “douchesparkle“. [slog]
• Hell, with enough prodding, even articles about poetry can get comment-mobbed. [slog]
• The Northwest Film Forum is having a holiday party and your favorite film critic will be dressed as Santa. Every time I think of the awesomest possibility, I think of another more hilarious option. This is how they get you to show up! [seattlest]
• It’s rent-a-tree time. [ikea]
• Archie McPhee has a book! [myballard] So does 43 Things! [joshp]
• The City Market sign-making genius revealed, in Seattle magazine. [flickr]

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Photo courtesy of Wesa [flickr] via our group pool [#]

Nickelsville is likely to move again, after a vote by University Congregational United Church of Christ (UCUCC) to allow the homeless encampment use of their parking lot at 45th and 15th for the next three months. (#) This will be the fifth move for Nickelsville since September- they began near the Duwamish River, moved to a parking lot nearby, camped out at Discovery Park, and finally settled in the U-District at the University Christian Church (UCC). UCC needs to use its parking lot again- not surprising considering that UCUCC says that their parking lot would have earned them about $19,000 in the three months that they’ve allotted to Nickelsville. Fortunately for residents, the distance between the two camps is only five blocks, and will likely make logistics and transportation during the move a little easier for the residents.

And there soon may be more residents at the tent city. A local homeless shelter that provides 55 beds to homeless men may be out of funding, barring a Christmas miracle, according to the P-I. (#) CityTeam Ministries (formerly Peniel Missions, a 106-year-old ministry), will close on December 27th, unless they are able to raise $1 million by Dec. 4 to cover their $742,000 annual operating expenses for next year, as well as outstanding expenses from this year. If you’re interested in donating, you can read their director’s letter.

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Yesterday morning, at some unearthly early hour, my husband and I ran our first half marathon - the Seattle Marathon Half.

If you’re thinking of running a half or a full marathon, I can recommend the Seattle Marathon series of events. Here’s a brief rundown of the event for anyone thinking about trying it next year.
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Alpine Self-Serve Restaurant, 1960 courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives [flickr] via our group pool [#]

While enjoying a cup of coffee and some live jazz at Zoka tonight, I ran into a self-described Seattle old-timer. He was more than happy to tell us about Tangletown’s history, and spent a long time musing about this place that no longer exists- at least, not near Green Lake.

Once upon a time, there was a place called Honey Bear across the street, and in the good old days, that was where everyone went. You’d run into people from Denmark and Sweden while getting $1 cinnamon rolls, and people talked to each other- it wasn’t unheard of for customers to just randomly ask if other customers wanted to go walk around Green Lake after their meal. According to our new friend, Honey Bear was world-famous, because it was so homey and cozy, and one visitor attempted to recreate it in his home country, but was unsuccessful. As these things often go, Honey Bear’s owners sold it, and the new owners weren’t engaged in the day-to-day management, and changed the staff and the atmosphere, leading to its eventual death.

Stories like this make me miss the Seattle I never knew. It’s hard to imagine a restaurant where Seattleites actually talked to each other, and hung out together after meals, though this gentleman’s personality made me believe that perhaps once upon a time, Seattle was the kind of place where these things could happen. Honey Bear has reincarnated in Ravenna and Lake Forest Park, so perhaps I’ll discover a similar community if I manage to venture up that direction; but it does make me nostalgic for this magical place this man described, that I won’t ever be a part of.

It does make me wonder if there are other places that have that kind of friendly following that I just haven’t discovered yet… and also, whether there are other places old-timer Seattleites get nostalgic for that I should know about, even if I won’t ever be able to experience them. So, those of you who have been here for a while, what am I missing?

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One of my favorite annual events at the Seattle Center every year is WinterFest, a celebration of the season that offers many an antidote to the gloom and damp that so often accompanies it.

The festival kicks off Friday, November 28 at 1 pm with opening ceremonies that include the Keith Highlanders Pipe Band, speeches by the Mayor and by Seattle Center Director Robert Nelliams and performances by a host of local dancers and musicians.

Over the course of the next few weeks the WinterFest will offer up such activities and events as ice sculpting, bonfires, a big band dance, piano playing in the Center House, concert bands, jazz bands, choir performances, dance, flute music, performance art, stage magic, a fire festival, visual art, and so much more that I couldn’t possibly list it all. Check out the Center’s website for specifics or just head on down (take the Monorail or one of the many buses that pass it) and you’re bound to find something fun. The whole of the Center is festively decorated and promises an atmosphere of excitement and magic. Don’t forget to head over to Fisher Pavillion for the Starbucks sponsored rink, lace up your skates and hit the ice.

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As the baby boomers begin forgetting to renew their big regional theater subscriptions, the administrators and theater-makers have been freaking out about bringing in the next generation of theater patrons. Dying subscribership is a cyclical matter, nothing new, really. But how is this playing out currently in the middle of a recession-turning-depression?

A great many producers are playing to the lowest common denominator, to a varying degree of financial success. Shrek the Musical, Young Frankenstein, Beauty and the Beast and High School Musical is the sort of fare currently keeping the suburbanites and high school groups happy on their annual trips to New York City.

The regional theater circuit, however, can’t possibly stoop that low. They seem to be at a loss lately offering awkward seasons ripe with haphazard guesses.

How will they bring in the next generation - or even the now generation? What appeals to this untapped demographic?

Perhaps the folks at New Century Theatre Company have been having this conversation long enough to make some informed choices, and short enough to take some risk. Someone has to grab the reigns soon and it’s people like the core company at NCTC who could get the tired horse of Seattle theater galloping apace again.

When was the last time you saw some theater?

Unless I’m on Capitol Hill I rarely go to the theater and see people who look like me in the house. I’m an average urban dweller in my thirties seeking to be challenged by theater and simultaneously entertained a bit too. I am progressive politically and I don’t make very much money while doing what I mostly love. I look back fondly on what the Capitol Hill and the Fremont neighborhoods used to be. I’d live in Ballard if it weren’t so hard to get to and from. I see “me” everywhere in Seattle – but not in Seattle theater audiences.

But NCTC’s inaugural production of Elmer Rice’s classic The Adding Machine boasts an audience full of “me”. The now generation of theatergoers was out in full force on Saturday night.

The show is smart and finely crafted. The acting is superb and you get the sense these performers are just tickled to be involved. The opening monologue is a testimony to the breath support of a practiced and well-trained actor. The direction and the design, however, is the reason to see this production. The sound design may very well be the best thing I’ve heard all year. Designer Rob Witmer has a fantastic way of building tension; you’ll want to own the soundtrack. Jennifer Zeyl’s set design is an exercise in antiseptic angles morphing into cold landscapes of symmetry and bursting into warmth, color and fantasy. I contemplated sculpture. The costume design by Pete Rush explores shades of grey and flat textures so thoroughly that when color is introduced you have to reckon with it for a moment or two. Geoff Korf’s lighting design makes you feel. It’s creepy; at one moment I felt so alone even though I was in a room full of people. Black and white and shadow feels so oddly isolating.

The direction is the true gem of this production. There’s something awesomely pure about it. To discuss more would give away much of what is so enjoyable about discovering within the show. John Langs is a visionary and you’ll see why when you go.

Because you have to go!

There are moments when you try something again because you know you’re missing out on something. I had this moment with sausage recently. I never eat it. I always order something else. I had it at Denny’s maybe and it was kind of greasy and overly processed. But then I had this… Bratwurst! It was made with love and craft and, man: sausage can be righteous. I have a whole new relationship going on with cuisine.

The Adding Machine is like Bratwurst.

You will rediscover something here with theater. Theater can be like this.

Trust me: this one’s for you, Seattle.

Get your tickets HERE.

The Adding Machine
Through December 13th
ACT Theatre’s Falls Theatre Space
700 Union Street
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm
Tickets: $25 General, $15 Students, $15 Rush (1/2 hour before showtime)
Tickets: 206-292-7676

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Image via Josh

You know…seeing Icy Demons and Yeasayer the night after of Montreal, and watching all of it heavily dosed on cold medicine, is an awful lot of sound to pack into two days.

Icy Demons is the most inappropriately-named band I’ve seen in ages. They’re almost ridiculously warm and friendly, with the panda bears on their pants and the smiling and their adorable macramé covered rattle. But Donte wasn’t kidding when he wondered if the audience would be able to keep up with the band’s dizzying genre changes–I certainly couldn’t. It felt like this band was everyone’s side project and so everyone got to write a song or two and the band had to play it, no matter how it fit with the rest of them. One song we’re rocking an excellent synth-rock jam and the next we’re verging on reggae, and then all of a sudden it sounds like a lounge band on a cruise ship has taken over. Josh said, “Icy Demons were like the old saying “If you don’t like the weather now, stick around. It will change,” and they’re one of the few bands that can put a crazy collection of genres in their myspace subheadline and really mean it. They currently have “ICY DEMONS: EXPERIMENTAL / CLUB / DUB”, which hardly covers their range.”

I enjoy genre-hopping as much as the next girl, and what I liked of Icy Demons I really liked. They’re like world music from the future, a house band in a sci-fi movie, and by the time they were done I was thoroughly bewildered.

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