If you are a Mariners fan and you’re female,  this one is for you.

The Savvy Girls of Summer are hosting a pre-game event next Tuesday for female Mariners fans and children under 14. Tickets are only $11 and include the game and a pre-game event w/ snacks, wine, and a Moose visit!

From Deidre Silva, one of the savvy girls, and author of It Takes More Than Balls: The Savvy Girls’ Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Baseball, “What makes this different from a Girls Night Out or Ladies Day event is that there will be a brief panel discussion featuring women who work in the sports industry. This is a good opportunity to expose your kids to a dramatically different sports perspective than we normally experience. Fox Sports commentator Angie Mentink will be on hand as well as a few women who are executives in the Mariners organization, including one of the player’s wives.”

More details, including the event schedule and online reservations, available here.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Carlson [flickr] via our group pool [#]

Picture it: it’s July 2004. A long-winded Senator for Massachusetts is trying to become president. Seattle still has dreams of a new monorail. Kathleen Wilson is writing for the Stranger. Blogging.LA was experimenting with cityblogging spin-offs. And so it was that Seattle Metblogs (or, as we liked to call it back in the day, Metroblogging Seattle) was born just in time for Independence Day fireworks [mb]. But a weblog doesn’t count until it survives for at least a month; so we’re celebrating our birthday at our August happy hour:

Last year we had a tea party that brought us cake, a box of walnuts, and vodka. This year, we’ll be at McLeod Residence from 6 to 9 pm and we’d very much enjoy it if you stopped in to say hello. A final schedule of events is still in the works, but there are rumors of cupcakes, dramatic readings of comments from the archives, and video games. We hope you’ll join us. After that, stay for Tiger Beat (a Contemporary/80s Mash Up Dance Party by Pity Party productions), so you can stick around and follow Lykke Li’s advice and dance, dance, dance.

Block Party, this may be a little indelicate, but we need to talk about your size. See, it seems that you’ve grown out of those pants you’re wearing, and it’s making you really difficult to be around. While it’s nice to have the mainstage in the middle and all, it makes it ridiculously difficult to get from one side to the other. I spent most of the weekend pretty stationary mostly because I was afraid of getting sucked into the crowd. If you keep this up, people are going to get hurt.

The best $2 I’ve ever spent were used to sit in that corner window at the Comet on Friday. The guy selling cans of PBR had put up a sign that said “Comet VIP Seating $2″ behind him, but I don’t think anyone believed him, so I watched almost everything at the mainstage perched in the window, getting high fives, and able to see everything, including a little too much of Tim Harrington when he came careening over to the hot dog stand during Les Savy Fav’s set. (The best $1 I spent was on a Creamsicle during the Fleet Foxes’ set–man, those things are delicious.)

The best dance party of the weekend came, unsurprisingly, during The Saturday Knights’ appearance as the super secret Neumos guest. (Told you so.) I feel like I’ve been practicing tantric record appreciation for the last few years, waiting for these guys to finally release something other than the EP I’ve had since they were giving them away at the Crocodile in 2005, and I’m so pleased that Mingle was the album I was hoping for. Most of the crowd in Neumos around us clearly were not Metroblogging readers, because they had no idea who was coming up, and when The Saturday Knights walked on with a full band and started in on “45″ the crowd sat in stunned silence for a second and then let loose. By the end of the set I was drenched in sweat and beaming, without once having been trampled to death by the crowd.

Image via Josh

More after the jump…

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_{photo courtesy of Metroblogging’s own Slightlynorth / Shawn [flickr]}

The New York Times published a short travel essay on Georgetown a couple days ago [nyt]. In it they describe the appeal of a neighborhood Fantagraphics curator Larry Reid calls the “last outpost of any blue-collar, bohemian arts culture in Seattle.” When put that way, the appeal is self-explanatory. For those reasons and more, I really enjoy Georgetown. There’s an authenticity (grittiness?) to it that is missing from many other Seattle neighborhoods. Lunch at Jules Mae’s Saloon is easily turned into a Seattle history lesson and a short walk along Airport Way always leaves me feeling fortunate that Georgetown exists (however precariously) and sentimental for a different Seattle.

And so, thanks to the TNT’s Grit City, the Tacoma comparison begins. Noting that among other things Tacoma (like Georgetown) has its own glass blowers, artists on scooters, and cheap rent, Grit City proudly declares that Tacoma is the new Seattle. Here I thought Portland was the new Seattle. Or Omaha. And if those cities are the new Seattle, what’s Seattle? Once again, an Internet poll comes to our rescue.

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Update: I just noticed that Grit City is not claiming Tacoma is the new Seattle. They’re claiming Seattle is the new Tacoma. All the sudden this meme became a lot more more sinister.

The article in today’s PI about urban gardening [PI] talks about something I’ve been thinking about a lot myself, recently. (The PI is reading my mind.) I live in an apartment with a fairly large balcony that gets afternoon sunlight, so I’ve been experimenting with a balcony container garden because I got tired of waiting for a P-Patch. Right now I’ve got a bunch of flowers, edible and not so edible, tomatoes, herbs, and an adorable columnar apple tree. It’s all fertilized by the leavings of the worms that survived the winter in the worm box I built in November [mb]. We’ll see how it goes, of course, but all of the new things–I’ve had the herbs and apple tree since last year–have been planted for about a month and are growing and flowering like gangbusters. Because it’s all in containers there’s little danger of weeds, so the time investment is small, and I’m learning a lot. I went to the University District farmer’s market to buy the plants, and the vendors were enthusiastic and helpful and incredibly knowledgeable.

The success is starting to go to my head, and I’ve been eying the large shaded dirt patch in front of my apartment building a lot recently. But it looks like I’m not the only one–people all over town are trying to reclaim nooks and crannies of dirt to grow food. People with backyards and no time to mow are handing the space off to neighbors who want to grow produce. It all seems like a good way to foster community relations, and relieve a tiny bit of anxiety about food shortages. Maybe we should all start farming in the city while it’s still fun, not a necessity.

A few city officials are looking to inventory public land to find spots in parks and other places that could be taken over to grow food. Some architects are looking at planning buildings with gardens on top, buildings that collect and recycle rainwater, and possible all of the above for buildings made of recycled shipping containers. The City Council passed a local-food resolution, to research incentives for developers that include space for food gardens. It all seems like the right direction, at any rate, although the housing situation in this town still gives me the vapors.

Would you do it, Metroblogging readers? Is farming with your neighbors a worthwhile proposition? What would you grow?

What follows after the jump may include some inside baseball, and if you’re not into comic books you might not catch all of it. What is important though is that today was the first day of this year’s Emerald City Comic Convention. Comic creators, fans and press gathered in the Washington State Convention & Trade Center to celebrate this thing we call comics books.

The first thing that a non-comics person would notice when stepping onto the convention floor is the complete range of totally inappropriate style choices for facial hair. We are not as a people a fashionable lot, and while I think most everyone can agree that a t-shirt and jeans is a fine casual clothing option when you start replacing that with a pair of too small shorts and shirt that barely covers the belly button then there are issues, at least when that’s on a guy.

This is not for the faint of heart, I’m glad that I left my fiancee at home, she can deal with me enjoying comics as a hobby, but I don’t know if she could deal with the full force of comic fandom. Can you?

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Sonek321 dropped this intriguing photo into the Metroblogging Seattle Flickr Pool. I bet you have a few gems to contribute too.

We’re back! Yes, that’s right. Meet Your Farmers Market Vendors is back! This week’s interview is Anne from Trevani Truffles.

I’ve been enjoying Anne’s truffles for several months now. She has interesting flavors like Grand Marnier, Pear Ginger, Blackberry, an Espresso Mocha, and of course, rich, decadent chocolate (among others).

I contacted Anne the other day and I’ll let her tell you about her business in her own words.

Here’s my story:  My little Trevani Truffles business began only last summer at the urging of my children.
 For several years the family and close friends were the sole recipients of these chocolates.  But my son, especially, kept bugging me to “DO something with these!”.  The opportunity came when, seeing that my sweet old momie was going to be living with us and needed some serious care, and that I couldn’t take care of her and work outside of the home, too.  I needed to scramble and get SOMETHING going.
I made a phone call to the Renton Farmer’s Market people to get info on how to start at the outdoor markets.  After an initial rejection because I don’t GROW the truffles and the market is an agricultural one, I was informed that 5% of the vendors could be not farmers as long as they were local.  I live in Renton so I was IN!
Now I have two year-round markets, University District on Saturdays and West Seattle on Sundays.  I’m looking to get into the Ballard Market and have Broadway and Renton this summer.

I use Venezuelan chocolate, 58% cocoa mass for the ganache and 73% for the shell.  Only DARK chocolates here!   I like the earthy quality of the Venezuelan chocolate.  It seems more raw.  I use local ingredients when I can.  Like the “CreamyDreamy Pear Ginger”,  the pear is from the Booth Orchards in Twisp. They sell at the Seattle farmer’s markets.  And the hazelnuts, too, are local market vendors. Chili peppers, local. Also organic ingredients when possible.  So ,yes, some of the flavor combinations are seasonal.  Local sweet wines and Whidbey’s Port are ingredients also used. I made a porter beer truffle last week.  And of course coffee!

As for how do I choose and decide what favors?  It  is a constant and  quite unscientific experimentation.  Just think of a thing delicious to you and if it sounds good dipped in chocolate!  Well, there you are.  A new experiment!  And a possible HIT!
My favorite part of the market scene is meeting the people and chatting with them.. Folks have a way of inspiring me to continue with this venture.  When their faces light up from (surprise?) tasting their 1st bite…OH! I want to take their pictures!  And the little kids who favor dark- not- sweet- chocolate!  who knew !?
Right now the outdoor markets are my “store”.  It has been a cold wet winter!  One day soon I’ll find a perfect little shop, like in the movie, CHOCOLAT.    ‘Til then, pray for beautiful cool sunshine!

–

Till next time, shop local, cook local, and if you find a new vendor because of this series, please tell them that you read about them on Seattle Metroblogging!

clash photomontage via st. vincent [myspace]

• Us, wonderful us. It’s our rescheduled monthly Metroblogging super fun drinky times. Tonight at Bimbo’s. We’ll be pouring over the latest in the Tournament of Blogs showdown over margaritas and nachos. Drop by to say hello, influence the polling, protest the results, or just sit quietly and observe from the bar. And yes, there will be snacks. 6:30 pm [facebook]
• Ignite, part the fifth. Another sure-to-be crowded parade of breakneck paced PowerPoint presentations about topics deserving of more time. For instance: Dick Carlson on “Bad Powerpoint! Bad! Bad!”, Mónica Guzmán on “How to be an awesome news story commenter”, Justin Martenstein on “the six hour startup”. So much excitement jam-packed into so little time. 8 pm, Capitol Hill Arts Center [igniteseattle]
• Charles Muedede, Kathy Fennessy, and Jay Kuehner face off at the Northwest Film Forum on the topic of whether film criticism is still relevant now that everyone has a ‘blog. $3/5, 8pm [nwff]
• Grand Archives begin their world-conquering record rollout campaign today. Their almost self-titled release (the Grand Archives) from Sub Pop hit finer record stores across the country this morning. They’ll be on KEXP today at three, KNDD tomorrow Thursday, and playing a double-header at the Triple Door tomorrow. Tonight, you’ll find them playing a free in-store at Sonic Boom in Ballard. If you thought the four song demo EP was nice, just wait until you hear the album. It is excessively full, rich, and gorgeously produced: old Carissa’s Weird pals Sarah Stoddard, Jenn Ghetto, and Sera Cahoone show up all over the place and one song even has a Flugelhorn! [myspace]
• St. Vincent is the band configuration of sometimes Polyphonic Spreester, occasional Illinoisemaker, and always incredible Annie Clark. Aside from being spooky, dreamy, and lovely, her latest album (Marry Me) is named after a running joke on Arrested Development. With Foreign Born. $12, 8pm. [neumos]