We tried out ‘Zaw over the weekend, and despite the cringe factor they do make a pretty good pizza.

I knew about their focus on seasonal, local ingredients, but for some reason I thought the pizzas were pre-made, maybe even frozen. They are actually made to order, so you can choose a combination from the menu (if you can stand browsing through the “Vietzawmn”s and the “Arizawna”s), or you can design your own - you can even do 1/2 and 1/2.

The good news is that you get a freshly made pizza to take home. The not so good news is that it takes them about ten minutes to prepare your pizza, and ten minutes is entirely too long to hang out in a place adorned with slogans like, “adored by herbivores, carnivores, and locavores” and “great people serving great food to great people.” Next time, I’ll place my order in advance, which you can do by phone or on their website.

We went for the “Shroom Fest,” which was loaded with three types of mushrooms (Ostrom’s from Olympia) and had a nice blend of Asagio and Mozerella cheeses. We also got a “Naked ‘zaw,” which is your basic cheese, in the “appeti ‘zaw” size. They can do any pizza in the smaller size for $3 less. We tried the wheat crust on the mushroom pizza, which was a little too healthy-tasting for me, but their regular crust was very nice. It’s a thin crust - almost like a flatbread.

So would I try it again? Yes, I think I would - but next time I would order in advance and try to get in and out as quickly as possible, because staring at their big ‘zaw this and ‘zaw that menu board will kind of ruin your appetite.

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On Monday, I had the privilege of interviewing Stuart McLean, creator and host of popular CBC variety radio program the Vinyl Café. Since 1998, McLean has been taking the show on the road, visiting cities throughout Canada. Last year, the Vinyl Café visited the US for the first time, bringing the Christmas concert to a sold out Moore Theatre. The Vinyl Café returns to Seattle this year, with a show at the Paramount on Friday, October 10th. Tickets are still available, through the Paramount [LINK], Ticketmaster, or by pledging to KUOW [LINK]. You can listen to the Vinyl Café every Sunday at noon on KUOW.

In addition to his work in radio, McLean is a prolific and bestselling author; professor emeritus at Ryerson University in Toronto and former director of the broadcast division of the School of Journalism; and three time winner of Canada’s Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour . His most recent books feature stories about the fictional couple Dave and Morley, and their family, friends, and neighbors; the Dave and Morley stories are a highlight of the radio program. You can listen to excerpts from the Vinyl Café by following the “HOW TO LISTEN” link at the website, http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/home.php

[A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend: I'd intended to record this interview, but due to technical difficulties (i.e. operator ineptitude) I fell back on good old-fashioned note-taking. Any omissions, misstatements, or errors are entirely due to my horrific handwriting and obscure abbreviations, and should not reflect upon Mr. McLean, who was patient, thoughtful, and intelligent.]

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Seattle MetBlogs: First and foremost, do you consider yourself a radio personality, a humorist, a writer… a professional Canadian?

Stuart McLean: I very much consider myself a writer, though I’ve worked in radio for 30-odd years. It’s a precious gift for a writer to experience that connection to their audience, a writer is lucky to get that. [Touring,] I am able to stand on stage and be there at the moment of giving and receiving, and it becomes a collaboration. I work with the work. I’ve been a guy who works on the radio, but if you told me I could do only one thing, I would be a writer.
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the merce cunningham duo, last year.

We’ve already told you what to see [sat :: sun ::mon ]; so now it’s time to haul out the advice that we post every year . We like to think of it as a classic, just revised with slightly-new content and under the assumption that surely we must have picked up a few new readers and Bumbershoot must have enticed a few first-time visitors since last time. But not a lot changes about Bumbershoot from year to year; so why not re-recycle? It’s good for the environment and for preserving our fingers for typing fresh stuff later. So, in the spirit of eco-friendliness and with thanks to everyone who ever contributed, here’s the revised and updated guide for 2008.

After the jump, our hints. Any of your own to add?

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For those brave enough to return to Bumbershoot for the tricky “middle day”, Team Metblogs salutes you. Several of us will be there, scribbling and snapping the say away. Below, is a slate of recommendations to get you started. Let us know what else from the full lineup you’ll be seeing.

The Sound of Young America Live!: Honestly, Sunday looks like the weakest of the three days at Bumbershoot, so this is the day you should check out a live taping of public radio’s redheaded stepchild The Sound Of Young America. (It’s playing all three days at the same time.) In a world where twentysomethings give to public radio pledge drives, TSOYA would have a prime spot on KUOW instead of that one-off appearance on KXOT. (I mean, honestly, KUOW, do we need yet another tired talk show aimed at the middle-aged, middlebrow former hipster? You have 16 of them already on Sunday alone.) Jesse Thorn is funny, a great interviewer, bipedal, and mostly water. [dylan] 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM, Charlotte Martin Theatre (all three days)

After the jump, plenty of other reasons to make a return to Bumbershoot on Sunday.

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So what do you do when you’re new in town, have a background in the food industry, and are passionate about extraordinary dining experiences? You make it a point to try as many local restaurants as you can so that eventually, you can share those restaurants with as many people as possible.

That’s exactly what Angela Shen did when she moved to Seattle. In July 2007, she started Savor Seattle Food Tours with the Pike Place Market tour. Just a few weeks ago, she opened a new tour - the Downtown Seattle tour. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a Downtown Seattle Mini-Tour just the other day and I have to say that those two hours were among the happiest my taste buds have spent recently.

Full details after the jump, but for now, I’ll tease you with a shot of the delicious pizza our group shared at Serious Pie.
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Over the weekend, there was a situation between cyclists and a driver that resulted in many citizens taking sides, making unreasonable demands, and multiple misunderstandings. From 300 miles away, I could see the tensions rising through blog posts, editorials, and biased articles in the daily papers. This situation will not go away overnight, but will linger for months it not longer. I spoke with a few folks in Eugene, OR on my visit there and they expressed shock and amazement that such an incident happened. Eugene demonstrates how cyclists and drivers can work together to make the road safe for almost everyone.

This morning, I rode my bicycle down the backside of Capitol Hill to the UW. Traveling at 30mph (the speed limit down the hill), I need to focus ahead to ensure that I don’t jam my tire into a rut or misalignment in the pavement while also keeping an eye on cross-traffic and pedestrians. A driver traveling in the left lane rolled down his window and screamed at me “GET OFF THE STREET B***H!” without provocation. I was shocked. Did this stem from the Critical Mass situation?

Regardless of which side you choose, bicycles and driver will have to continue to share the road. There are a few things that we as a whole can do to make this easier for everyone. The main one is to be considerate of others.

Cyclists: ride as predictable as possible. Use hand signals, don’t swerve between cars, pull to the side if you’re holding up traffic, and stop blowing through red lights. Sidewalk riding is legal, but yield to pedestrians and ride at a low level of speed (3-7mph is usually what I ride at).

Drivers: cyclists are aware that you are right next to them so act predictable. Don’t blow your horn or yell, it could cause an accident. If the bicycle is moving slower than the flow of traffic, pass when it is safe to do so. There is no need to punch the gas pedal, race ahead, then slam on the brakes to prove a point.

My rule of thumb has been the same for the 2 1/2 years that I have been biking around Seattle: bikes vs cars in an accident results in the car winning almost every time. It’s not worth my life. It’s also not worth aggravation/impatience/high blood pressure when a car or a bicycle delays my trip for a few minutes. If everyone cooperated together, respected each other, and became aware of one another, these kinds of incidents wouldn’t happen nearly as often. I am not taking sides here, I am making a stand to continue sharing the road whether I am the driver or riding my bicycle.

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Stop acting like anarchists and start acting like a protest movement.

For example:

1. Get official buy-in. Get permits if you have to.
2. Announce the time — and the route — in advance. Perhaps last Friday’s fiasco wouldn’t have happened if the driver had known the ride was going to happen on his street.
3. Bring in the community more. And that not only means possibly getting some bike cops mixed in, but also get the community itself to buy in to what you’re doing.
4. Get a real purpose. Corking isn’t the solution, it’s uncivil disobedience. Critical Mass, despite its size, cannot point to one single positive thing it’s done to improve conditions for bikers in Seattle.
5. Can the “silence” and the smug, self-serving Seattle passive-aggression. If people ask you why you’re riding, tell them. If there are angry drivers, talk to them respectfully.
6. Identify the problem riders and self-police. If someone’s being an ass, do something about it.

Civil disobedience movements have always been about respecting others while disrespecting injustice. And being respectful of others and respectful of community mores is possible even while standing against injustice. Look at the Civil Rights marches of the early 1960s — African American men and women and children wearing their Sunday clothes, walking home from work, sitting at lunch counters, marching in Birmingham and Selma and DC. What turned the course of this country was watching white cops turn firehoses and truncheons on well-dressed, respectful African Americans seeing a little equality. It appalled white America. And they were willing to listen to a suit-wearing preacher from Atlanta via Montgomery, because they were increasingly afraid of what would happen if they didn’t listen to the ones who were respectful.

By comparison, the WTO protests couldn’t find their dignity. They turned to pageant, then to farce, then to violence. And in the end, the anti-WTO movement became marginalized as the globalization movement just got better security and marched on. A lack of respect for this city, and the people of this city, may have stopped the WTO meetings, but they lost the war on globalization.

So, Critical Mass, ball’s in your court. Do you choose the way of the bike lane, seeking to protest peacefully while working towards a transit system that respects all forms of transportation — bike, car, pedestrian, bus, or train? Or do you choose the way of the sharrow, the way of chaos, anger, and the marginalization of everything you believe in?

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The other night, three of your MetBloggers attended a preview event at a soon-to-open chocolate boutique on Upper Queen Anne. Chocolopolis is exactly what you’d think from looking at the name. A haven for those of us who enjoy (and depend on) high quality chocolate for the occasional treat. Zee and I each had our own take on the event, so I present to you, a tandem review. Zee’s comments are in italics and mine are not. More after the break.
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the wackness, still via siff, courtesy occupant films

There are rumors circulating that the weekend will be sunny. You know better than to let that sway you from overdosing on the last three days of SIFF, right? Below are some suggestions from us about how to avoid an unpleasant sunburn without breaking out the sunscreen. In addition to these, the festival has time set aside for repeat showings of films that win awards on Sunday afternoon; so keep an eye out for that announcement.

Sunrise [siff] : People who love film call this one of the best in the history of the medium. My interest in it is magnified by the fact that SIFF commissioned the Album Leaf, Jimmy Tamborello’s lush post-rock band, to compose and perform a new score for it during two showings at the Triple Door. [josh]
Friday June 13, 7:00 pm & 9:30 pm (Triple Door)

Letting Go of God [siff] : A film version of Julia Sweeny’s one-woman show / monologue chronicling and reflecting her conversion from Catholicism to Atheism Naturalism. If you haven’t seen this in person, heard it already on This American Life [#], or just want to experience the whole thing again with the director/star in attendance for their movie’s world premiere, this is your chance. [josh]
Friday June 13, 6:30 pm; Sunday June 15, 4:00 pm (SIFF Cinema)

the Wackness [siff] : Hip-hop, marijuana, and therapy with Ben Kingsley before leaving the NYC for college. Plus a special guest appearance by one of the Olsen twins. Mid-nineties urban nostalgia fiends need look no further. [josh]
Friday June 13, 6:30 pm (Egyptian); Sunday June 15, 6:30 pm (Cinerama)

Mysteries of Pittsburgh [siff] : Michael Chabon’s novel gets the big screen, kinda-big star treatment. This looks like one that will eventually play outside the festival circuit, but if you want to see Mena Suvari and Sienna Miller before all of your friends, check it out this weekend [josh]
Friday June 13, 9:30 pm (Egyptian); Sunday June 15, 2:00 pm (Uptown)

Jolene [siff] : E. L. Doctorow’s controversial short story about a young woman on the run from her tragic past comes to life in director Dan Ireland’s feature film that covers ten tumultuous years in the life of the determined title character as she crosses America in search of her the life she dreams of having for herself. [zg]
Friday June 13, 9:30 pm; Saturday June 14, 2:30 pm (Cinerama)

Chrysalis [siff] : A stylish science fiction noir thriller from France involving plastic surgery, mental manipulation, human trafficking, and some seriously stunning visual effects. [zg]
Friday June 13, 11:55 pm (Egyptian); Saturday June 14, 10:00 pm (Cinerama)

Bottle Shock [siff] : Bottle Shock tells the story of the first California wine to win in a blind tasting in Paris (at a time when France was considered to be the ONLY place to produce drinkable wine). I grew up in the Napa Valley and so I knew a little bit of this story going in. That included the ending. Despite that, this movie still had me on the edge of my seat crossing my fingers and biting my nails that everything would all work out in the end. I’m not sure you can go wrong with Alan Rickman in just about anything, but beyond that, this movie was incredibly moving. It is based on a true story, which is to say that the basic facts are all true. There really is a Chateau Montelena, there really was a contest, and Jim and Bo Barrett (along with Mike Grgich) were responsible for producing the winning wine. The scenery is beautiful (and was actually shot in Napa and Sonoma). I cannot tell you how strongly I urge you to see this movie. [patriciaeddy]
Closing Gala, Saturday June 14, 6:30 pm (Cinerama)

Towelhead [siff] : Perhaps it is a bad idea to choose a movie just because you love the director’s television work, but this is exactly what I did. Six Feet Under’s Alan Ball, who purportedly will be in attendence at both showings, directs this “darkly comic portrait of racial and sexual alienation lurking beneath the wholesome façade of suburban America.” [cero]
Saturday June 14, 6:30 pm; Sunday June 15, 1:30 pm, (Egyptian)

Donkey Punch [siff] : The title pretty much says all you need to know. The Midnight Adrenaline series goes out with a bang, with audiences getting to know far more about the programmers that we maybe ever wanted to find out. [josh]
Saturday June 14, 11:55 pm; Sunday June 15, 9:00 pm (Egyptian)

After the jump, reminders of previous recommendations with screenings this weekend plus a photo of Danny Glover dropping a Grand Canyon reference after Trouble the Water!

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Via the Seattle PI

Looking to bring more fresh, local, seasonally grown foods into your family? We have a challenge for you.

It’s the second annual Farm Fresh Family Challenge, sponsored by the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance. The alliance is looking for a Seattle-area family willing to buy most of its fresh food from farmers markets between June and November this year, and to write a weekly P-I-sponsored blog during that time.

The first Farm Fresh blogger, Kathleen Whitson of West Seattle, found inspiration experimenting with farmstand eggs, debating when she would choose organic over conventionally grown produce, discovering the different body and taste of a pasture-raised Thanksgiving turkey, and figuring out how to tell her husband why it no longer felt right to make an apple pie in July.

If that’s your sort of food for thought — or if you have your own take on what a Farm Fresh Family should be — here are the details:

# Candidates must be willing to buy most fresh foods (vegetables, fruits, meats, shellfish, fish eggs, cheese, etc.) from one of the seven Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance markets (Broadway, University District, West Seattle, Phinney, Magnolia, Columbia City or Lake City).

# They must write a weekly P-I-sponsored blog, track the prices of the products they buy each week, and be willing to occasionally host a local chef in their home kitchen to share shopping and cooking tips.

To apply, send an e-mail to nfma@seattlefarmersmarkets.org with a description of your family (how many members, ages, etc.), where you normally shop for food, how much you spend on groceries in an average week, how often you cook at home, and what prompted your interest in buying local, sustainably grown foods. Deadline to apply is May 30.

The Alliance will provide the family with assistance, including personal market tours, introductions to farmers, canvas shopping bags, shopping tokens to get started, recipe ideas and more. Photos of the family will be featured in the alliance’s quarterly newsletter and will be posted at all market information booths.

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