Every time I walk downtown and pass by this (…searching for a euphemism…) public art installation I am a little puzzled about its purpose:

Is it supposed to signal to you that you are now entering downtown Seattle, where top hats, spatulas, scarves, martini glasses, combs, and engagement rings are available for purchase?

(That reminds me; I sure could use a new spatula. Damn! That’s powerful art.)

photo by joshc [flickr]

Has rainbow-colored confetti ever fallen over Benaroya Hall before Sigur Rós played there last night? During “Gobbledigook”, the clap-along, sing-along, extra-drummers called from the wings closer of their main set, the foggy indoor air was met with technicolor spotlights and filled with paper showers. And then they came back for an encore.

If the symphony hasn’t already added special effects to the repertoire, they just might have cause for considering it.

Friday:

I thought I could walk from Downtown to Online Coffee Company on 14th and Pine (because I forgot my ID there on Thursday after using the Internet for about 5 minutes). Of course, the second I started walking the rain started pouring. With every passing street, I kept telling myself I should buy an umbrella, but decided that I already have 3 at home that I never use and suffered through the cool, wet rain. I got my ID and took a bus back home then decided I just could not go back outside, so I watched Air Guitar Nation instead.

Saturday:

Took a yoga class at what is now my all time favorite gym. What with a steam room and the fanciest gym showers I’ve ever used, I think All-Star Fitness in Downtown knows what they’re doing. Golds Gym in Cap Hill and Pro-Robics in Queen Anne, take note. You’re nothing compared to this gem.

Had a smoothie at my favorite smoothie place, Shy Giant in Pike Place Market.

Met the boyfriend for a slightly successful shopping trip (for him). That means one pair of pants at the Gap. I mentioned the new H&M, but after trying 10 pairs on we were both too exhausted to look at anything courdoroy or cargo for at least another month.

Looked at the Live Historic 2 bedroom condos in lower Queen Anne. While very pretty and umm historic, it was too small at about 800 square feet (especially the bedrooms) for the crazy asking price of $435,000 (not including the $325 monthly condo fees). I thought this was a good time to buy? So why does this place seem totally ridiculously high? Is it the fancy claw foot tub that does it for people? Obviously not too many people are interested, as they still have 17 units available that they’ve been trying to push for quite some time. Owners of condos take note, stop building or start lowering your prices.

Like Zee, we also went to the Tea Festival hoping for good things but not expecting too much. We were pleasantly surprised, drank lots of good and not so good tea, ate very delightful cookies and left feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

Walked around Ballard to see the crowds at Reverb. No sounds were begging me to go inside and check out their band, so we went back home to search Redfin and balk at Historic Live’s still ridiculous prices.

Sunday:

Finally hiked to the top of Rattlesnake Ridge. I only wish when I get to the top of these ridges, mountains and what have yous that there’s a guide or map telling me what I’m looking at. I’m pretty sure I was seeing Mount Si across from me, but really I have no clue.

Hopped down the Ridge so I could eat cherry pie for lunch at Twede’s Cafe (of Twin Peaks fame).

And that’s it. So, what the hell did you do?

Having stretched the limits of city permitting as far as possible, McLeod Residence sent a note to members this morning announcing that their much-beloved space in Belltown will be closing at the end of October after nearly two years in operation — first as an art gallery and member-based social club to their current incarnation as an open-to-the-public, event-filled bar, and art gallery (which just opened a brand new show on Friday). I think that most members or visitors would agree that their experiment in creating a home “extraordinary living through art, technology, and collaboration” as been nothing if not an breathtaking, extraordinary, and life-enhancing experiment of the greatest order. They are on the lookout for tenants looking to take over their current lease and are seeking a new space of their own.

Stay tuned for more details, go see the new show and remaining events, and browse the photobooth for a sense of the overwhelming number of great memories formed in their current home. (Reading the letter and feeling nostalgic, here’s my current old time favorite [flickr]).

(After the jump, the full letter to members.)

Read more

Flags outside the Key Arena proudly proclaim its status as home of the Seattle SuperSonics and the Seattle Thunderbirds, even though one team has already left the city and the other will be moving its base to the new Kent Events Center at the end of the year. Even though the trip down to Kent will take significantly longer than the few minutes it takes me to get to the Key from my office or the few more it takes from my home, I’m very much looking forward to the move. It’ll be great to be watching hockey in a brand new facility whose managers are excited to provide a home for the team and its fans and I’ve been sure ever since I first heard about it that I won’t miss the Key at all. It surprised me, then, when I felt myself getting a little misty about walking in the door for the Thunderbirds’ final ever home opener there on Saturday night, but I guess years of countless hockey memories tied to that place made me feel nostalgic.

The pre-game ceremony honoring Guyle Fielder’s recent induction into the Washington State Sports Hall of Fame definitely added to the sentimental feeling. Fielder played hockey in the Western Hockey League for 21 years, 15 of which were spent in Seattle with the Seattle Bombers (1953-54), Seattle Americans (1955-57) and the Seattle Totems (1957-69) before his retirement in 1969. During his career, Fielder became the first pro player anywhere in hockey to score 100 points in a season and became the first professiona hockey player to score 2,000 points, ending his career with a total of 2,037. He was an astonishing 11-time All Star and won six MVP awards, helping his club to five WHL finals and three championships. Fielder stood at center ice to receive a plaque recognizing his induction and a special commemorative Seattle Thunderbirds jersey with his name across the back before dropping the ceremonial first puck to rousing applause from the fans appreciative of his contributions to Seattle hockey history.

Nostalgia was probably not so much a factor for the current hockey players on the ice. The nature of junior hockey, where players are graduated out of the system after turning 21, means that most of the current Thunderbirds players weren’t even born when the Tbirds moved to what was then the Seattle Coliseum, now the Key Arena, back in the 1988-89 season, long years after Guyle Fielder had retired from the sport. The current season has seen the young team struggle after losing many of the previous season’s highest scorers to their aging out of the system and signing with pro teams. Their first four games this season, all away, gave them four losses and zero points. Pride was at stake Saturday night and the team earned some of it back when Jeremy Boyer scored the first goal of the game at 14:59 in the first period.

The defending Memorial Cup champion Spokane Chiefs evened the score at 19:37 of the first with a goal by Drayton Bowman. Bowman scored again at 7:01 of the second period with a powerplay goal, unanswered until Boyer intercepted a pass behind the Spokane net and sent it to fellow Tbird Lindsay Nielsen who shot the puck into the net at 8:35 in the third period. The game ended in a tie that led to a scoreless overtime period and sent the game into a shootout. Seattle goalie Jacob DeSerres stopped Spokane’s Levko Koper, Brett Bartman, Steve Kuhn, and Stefan Ullman; Spokane’s Dustin Tokarski denied Seattle’s Jonathan Parker, Jim O’Brien, and Prab Rai before Jeremy Boyer sunk the game winning goal.

The Thunderbirds’ record now stands at 1-5-0-0. The team heads out on the road for games against the Everett Silvertips on October 10, the Portland WinterHawks on October 11, the Chilliwack Bruins on October 12 and the Tri-City Americans on October 17 before returning to Seattle for a home game against the Kelowna Rockets on October 18 at the Key Arena.

My expectations for the first Northwest Tea Festival had been high ever since I first saw a flyer for it at this year’s SIFF festival. Sometimes too much anticipation can be a bad thing since whatever it is you’re waiting for can often turn out to be not nearly so exciting as you’d imagined it to be, but in this case my hopes and the reality were on par. The NW Tea Festival was a great event and I hope that you were one of the many people who attended.

If you weren’t, you missed the chance to taste some very good teas, to listen to lectures on tea in general, specific types of tea, and specific uses for tea besides simply drinking it. The festival at the Seattle Center’s Northwest Rooms featured booths from a variety of tea vendors, numerous tea talks, a Japanese tea ceremony and more. For a $5 suggestion donation, visitors received a bag filled with tea samples and flyers and also a tea cup, for the tastings. The ability to sample teas served by people knowledgeable about the teas and tisanes (an herbal tea made from anything other than tea leaves, like Barnes & Watson’s tasty Star Spangled Banner, made with hibiscus, chamomile, berries and mint) was in itself a fine reason to attend, but all of the presentations were excellent.

Additional off-site festival programs included two films and talks at SIFF Cinema and a tea dinner at Wild Ginger.

Vendors on hand and offering tea included Teahouse Kuan Yin, who had an excellent Pu Erh, Village Yarn & Tea Shop with tea and an excellent collection of books, Floating Leaves Tea, who have Seattle’s first authentic Taiwanese-style teahouse, the previously-mentioned Barnes & Watson, and others. There are quite a few tea houses in the Seattle area now, and this event made me want to visit all of them. This year’s tea festival was fantastic and I’m already looking forward to next year’s, hoping it’s even bigger and better.

For some among us, the thing that marks Autumn’s arrival even more than changing leaves or drizzly weather is the ever-complicated and unhealthily-packed show calendars that arrive annually, in force, when the calendar page turns to October. Probably a result of biggish bands making their fall tours before driving gets to dangerous, it never fails to keep you busy reigniting your showgoing impulses. Last night Jamie Lidell faced off against John in the Morning at Night and Why?. But never fear, aside from ReverbFest taking over Ballard there’s far too much to do this weekend:

• Santogold and Mates of State are at the Showbox SoDo. A kind of surprising pairing, until you think about how both are busy producing such entirely askew looks at what pop music means. The easy comparison from a sense of fashion and influences for Santogold is M.I.A., but with less aggression, more sweetness, rock touches, and dancy friendly rhythms. Mates of State, among the cutest and married-couple dueling vocal acts out there, have brought in occasional support to fill out their keyboards versus drums with strings and horns. Both of these acts are melt-worthy. Saturday, $25, 7pm [showbox ]
• It’s simultaneiously hard to believe that Grand Archives haven’t been around forever and have been around as long as they have. Less than two years ago, with their soaring four-part harmonies, (almost) everybody singing in rounds, swelling choruses, and dusty road songs. they seemed to appear, fully formed and ready for fame. Since those first small shows, they’ve put out one of the year’s prettiest records, toured widely, developed into an even tighter group, and are already starting to debut and record a new album’s worth of great new songs. Saturday, $12, 8pm. With Arthur (of “& Yu) and Ships. [neumos]
• Sigur Rós released Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust this spring. The first few tracks, in particular, find them happier than ever. Manic marches and gleeful choruses cast a new light a long history of somber, glorious, and evocative nature anthems. By the end, though, it wraps into itself with a tear-worthy stripped down English language confession song. Although I’m sure none of their songs are about glaciers or sheep, their recent documentary featured many of both. Live, they use bold but simple effects of strobes, shadows, and scrim to great effect. It is like church for the non-religious. Sold out, but worth the craigslist trolling. [benaroya]

Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union wants to know “What If…?”

Specifically, they want to do know what you would do if they gave you $10.

Even more specifically, they want to know what you would do for someone else if they gave you $10.

A little bit of money can do a whole lot of good, something the credit union seeks to prove as part of its Seven Principles program, the guiding principles by which the credit union does business, including “giving back to the community is an obligation”.

On Monday, October 6, from 10 am to 2 pm, SMCU will hand out $10 each to the first 200 people who stop by their downtown Seattle branch at 801 Third Avenue and tell the credit union what they would be willing to do to help someone else. The credit union will film all the ideas and post them to their site. The public is invited to view the videos and vote for their favorites. The top vote getter will get $1,000 on Monday, October 20, in order to make someone’s dream come true.

The credit union believes: “A small investment can be a powerful thing when combined with principles and good will.” Having seen this in action in my own life, I agree. I think this is a great idea and am totally looking forward to seeing the ideas people generate for their $10.

Thanks Wesa and P-I for details.

I just heard that the Rainier Valley Food Bank is completely out of canned and dried goods. They are open for donations Saturdays from 7am to 2pm. If you live in the neighborhood, you might consider dropping off some food tomorrow morning. They are located at 4205 Rainier Ave S.

~Robert Musil

* UW Bookstore and United Methodist Church are probably proud as punch and pleased as peacocks to present Neil Gaiman tonight. Gaiman will be at University Temple at 7:00 PM to read and speak, and to sign his newest YA novel, The Graveyard Book. A literary cult figure, by now, Gaiman has written comics and graphic novels, S/F/Fantasy novels for adults and young adults, short stories, a TV miniseries, and several movie scripts. I’m pretty sure this event will be standing room only. LINK

* Also at 7:00 PM, Café Allegro pays tribute to Steve Goodman, by featuring author Clay Eals, author of Steve Goodman: Facing The Music. Eals will read from and sign copies of the biography, and local musicians Tom Colwell, Bruce Hanson, and Jef Jaisun will play selections from Goodman’s oeuvre. LINK

* Naomi Wolf began her career as a writer and activist as a feminist, but her scope has always been broader: to Wolf, women’s rights are civil rights and over the last decade she has developed into a powerful voice for democracy and patriotism, civil liberty and civic duty. Fearlessly passionate, relentlessly logical, Wolf takes the stage downstairs at Town Hall Seattle 7:30 – 9:00 PM tonight to talk about her latest book, Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. $5. LINK

* Bay area poet Aaron Shurin is in town to promote what is arguably his best book, King of Shadows, a collection of 20 essays and meditations. Shurin writes of his development as a poet and gay man in a very specific time and place in America. Open Books in Wallingford, 7:30 PM. LINK

* Two more poets will be reading in town, this time at the Good Shepherd Center (Room 202) in Wallingford. Counterbalance Arts hosts a poetry reading by Paul Hunter and Kurt Olsson at 7:30 PM. $5 GA/ $3 Students. LINK

• Opening night of Local Sightings at NWFF kicks off Friday night with a program of short local films followed by a party. If you happen to be Carol Marquess, you get to go for free, courtesy of NWFF and Seattle Metblogs.
• SIFF begins a week of politically themed films Friday night with The Parallax View, a conspiracy-theory thriller starring Warren Beatty. The early 1970s view of the Space Needle, scene of an opening segment assassination, is almost reason enough to watch on its own, but the twisted thriller is rather exciting, too.
• Saturday the 4th is an excellent day to spend at SIFF Cinema: the day begins with a 10:00 am showing of 1982’s The Black Stallion, an optically arresting adapation of the classic children’s novel about a boy and the titular horse stranded together on a remote island after a shipwreck. Go back at 1:00 pm for The Meaning of Tea (part of the first annual Northwest Tea Festival, going on all weekend at the Seattle Center’s Northwest Rooms) and return again in the evening for a double bill of Gabriel Over the White House, a hard-charging pre-Hays Code film depicting a US President bent on shaking up the nation, and the brilliant A Face in the Crowd about a charming, cynical man’s rise to political power that remains as on target today as it was on release back in 1957.
• Midnight at the Egyptian: Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke. If there’s anyone left who still thinks cartoons are nothing but kids’ stuff, I strongly recommend you check this film out–it’s as serious, intense, and even scary in parts as any live action film.
• Late night at the Grand Illusion is the odd but excellent Repo Man but stop in earlier to see My Father, My Lord, David Volach’s dramatic contemporary retelling of the story of Abraham and Isaac.
• Fans of Joel and Ethan Coen will want to spend some time at Central Cinema for their screening of Blood Simple, the 1985 neo-noir that marked their directorial debut.

There will be a dental van providing free dental care from qualified volunteers at the Grace Lutheran Church in Des Moines.

The address is 22975 24th Ave. S, Des Moines. There was no specified time listed.

Cory Bergman of Magnolia Voice is reporting that Nickelsville is on the move.

I suspect this will get interesting in a hurry, as organizers have said they have plans to ultimately grow the camp into a shanty town of 1,000 residents.

I wonder about the sanitary conditions of an unofficial tent city…are the organizers working on that? What about safety issues? The official tent cities have many regulations that they follow, some imposed by the city and some of their own design. Thoughts?

Continuing converage at the Magnolia Voice website.

Okay, so it’s finally happening. The rain. The endless light drizzle. The black hoodies. The grey clouds. And the slippery buses. I, personally, don’t mind it. I can handle this for another 6-9 months. I force myself to go outside and see the beauty in all this darkness. It’s one of the reasons I love Seattle.

But I’m wondering, what do you do? Seattle seems to close shop come Winter, and even though it’s not even close to Holiday shopping season yet, I get the feeling this weekend I won’t see anyone hiking or biking or drinking outside as much.

So if you have any rainy suggestions, holla. I’d love to add them to my list of Things To Do in Trendy Rainboots.