Seattle Metblogs » sea_checker

Sorry to beat a dead Monorail, but…

sea_checker — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 11:33:10 +0000

I take back every bad thing I ever said about the Monorail Recall. This includes the time I hollered “Monorail Forever!” at them out the window of a friend’s apartment after the Torchlight Parade. I’d been drinking, you see, and yesterday I got my tab renewal notice in the mail. It seems that my “Voter-Approved Monorail Tax” has gone up from $7 last time to ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX DOLLARS. Ludicrous! Sure, it’s because I’m driving a newer vehicle now, and “we” approved it, but I still very nearly soiled myself.
I admit I don’t have a solution to our transportation ridiculousness, but I can’t help but get a slow sinking feeling about this monorail. If only we had learned a lesson from the Simpsons Monorail episode (which city council staff viewed during earlier planning stages).
In case you want to read some more anti-monorail stuff…
Let me fully disclose that I never complained until it affected me personally. And if you live and drive in Seattle, it’s probably gonna chap your hide eventually too.

To-Dos

sea_checker — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 14:51:19 +0000

Some things of note this weekend:
Blazing Saddles at the “Fremont” Outdoor Cinema (Friday location actually more in Wallingford, at Stone and North 34th), tonight at dusk.
Sunday: David Byrne at Summer Nights at the Pier, 7 pm, $32. Tickets still available when I last checked, but ain’t nothin’ wrong with lurking nearby for free.
Was anyone else a bit taken aback by some of the Friday movie choices at the Outdoor Cinema this year? I haven’t seen the venue so I don’t know how visible it is from the street, but it seems a little weird that you could be taking a late evening stroll with the children and look up to see Deliverance projected on a giant screen. And need I say From Dusk Til Dawn?

Restaurant News

sea_checker — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:28:26 +0000

Eastlake’s lovely Latin mainstay Bandoleone has moved to Fremont, and my Eastlake posse tells me it’s probably due to exorbitant rent costs. Surprising, as Fremont is not exactly sporting Northgate-caliber rent prices these days, but I suppose we all end up in the center of the universe eventually, don’t we? Nah, I don’t mean to hate, but NewFremont is looking more condo-licious every time I venture down there for a Baja Fresh burrito. When I was a young’un visiting Grandpa in the big city, Fremont was more Dusty Strings and Solstice Parade; less Red Door and Ballroom. Recent visits to nighttime Fremont establishments find me being constantly approached with “how YOU doin’ tonight?” and I’m not even hot. But for Dad Watson’s, the former Bagel Oasis, and now Bandoleone, we have Fremont to thank.
Still, Bandoleone fit in nicely on the main drag of Eastlake, and with its loss there seem to be considerably less eating options there. It was the perfect transitional restaurant between basic pizza at Pazzo and elegant spendy Italian at Serafina. Bandoleone was sometimes iffy with the main entrees (I once had a chicken dish that smelled like Friskies) but perfect for a few appetizers, a carafe of Sangria, and a bitter chocolate dessert.
In other rising rent news, several businesses in Wallingford have been closing, with seemingly most of them reborn as restaurants. The mysterious WonderBar looks to be almost ready for opening across from QFC. Further west down 45th, you may have noticed, unless you are BLIND, the gilded spire/A-frame addition to a building that looks to be…another Thai restaurant! I’ve actually watched much of this construction from my kitchen window, including the hoisting of the giant pyramid at 5:30 one misty morn. Since then a gently spiraling outdoor staircase has been added, and now an enormous beaming statue, at which point I was like, um, restraint much? This place had better DELIVER.

Rip-Roarin’

sea_checker — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 10:29:08 +0000

Oh. Dear. God. The rains! They have returned! If you’re the kind of Seattleite I am, you’re dressed for the cabana today and not hurrying through the rain. I run for no rain. Umbrellas are for weenies.
I’m wondering what this means for Inner Ear Trauma Fest, er, Seafair, as the Blue Angels are scheduled to fly today from 12-1 and I was looking forward to gawking at lunch. The cloud cover may interfere. A good place to watch them if you’re on the west side is in Sodo, preferably from a highish point, because you can see them circle around a few times before going over Lake Washington and there aren’t too many tall buildings blocking the view. I suggest the roof of my office building, but I know you can’t all make it there. I still think they look pretty good on TV too, although they aren’t as likely to blow your mind.