You can read the either the condensed fact sheet or the more inclusive summary document online. After you’ve reviewed either or both of the documents, take a survey online, or, better yet, send your own thoughtful comments regarding the RPZ review directly to the SDOT.

For a mere $25 donation at the door, Skiffle attendees will get to see performances by musical acts like Cham, Bison (featuring members of the Presidents of the United States of America, Guns N’ Roses, the Dusty 45s and Pearl Jam), and Scribes, as well as get a chance to bid on unique works of art created earlier in the day by teams of local artists, community members and bands. Each team gets a blank canvas to transform into art - some of the canvases includes guitars and basses.

Proceeds from SKIFFLE go to helping pay for space rental and costs of providing youth arts programs at Youngstown for the upcoming school year. Classes offered as part of this programming include Rock School’s Band 101, instrument instruction, songwriting, vocals and recording, as well as Arts Corps “All-City” program, mentoring youth in spoken word poetry, audio recording and break dance.

This coming Sunday, August 17, is J.P. Patches day in Fremont. Head down to the Solstice Plaza at N 34th, just east of the Fremont Bridge, between 1 and 3 pm for the unveiling of Late for the Interurban, depicting J.P. and his galpal Gertrude. Pat Cashman serves as MC and several local luminaries will be on hand to pay tribute to the beloved clown, including Governor Chris Gregoire (who might want to make sure she’s got some ID on hand before checking out any of Fremont’s liquor serving establishments).

The statue was built with funds raised by many generous contributors; if you didn’t get a chance to donate, it’s not too late–the statue will include a donation box with all funds benefiting Children’s Hospital, a place special in the heart of Patches.

Godard’s films used innovative techniques such as filming in “natural” locations (a friend’s apartment, the street) under natural light and frequent jump cuts, techniques that allowed the director the chance to both express his philosophical outlook about film and stick to the extremely low budgets of his early career. Other significant components of his style including downgrading the importance of the script in favor of improvisation by the director and the actors to create the story as it was being filmed and engaging audiences to view his films with the awareness of their fictions instead of suspending disbelief to see the movie as a true story.

SIFF pays tribute to Godard with their Godard’s 60s series, screening nine of the director’s best films of the 1960s, including Breathless, a film that is often labelled as one of the most inluential films ever made. The series starts August 8 with Contempt, his first big budget film, in which Brigitte Bardot stars as the extremely dissatisfied wife of a screenwriter creating an adaptation of The Odyssey for a film-within-the-film directed by legendary Fritz Lang, who plays himself. Contempt runs through August 14th and is followed by Two or Three Things I Know About Her on August 15, Weekend on August 16, A Woman is a Woman on August 17, Band of Outsiders on August 18, Masculine Feminine on August 19, Pierrot le Fou on August 20, Breathless on August 21, and the exquisite Vivre Sa Vie August 22 through August 28.

Stay on this side of the water and make your way to Judkins Park in Seattle for the Umojafest, the Northwest’s largest and oldest black community festival which runs from August 1st through the 3rd featuring a children’s day with over twenty fun activities for kids, a Hip Hop Youth Empowerment Rally and Talent Showcase, an African American day Parade, a basketball tourney, a gospel fest, all sorts of vendors and booths, an extremely excellent food court and much more. The festival has been happening for over 50 years and is always high quality fun.

Magnolia gets in on the action with their Magnolia Summerfest and Art Show. Neighborhood celebrations are always special because they’re inevitably a little quirky, tied to the unique qualities of their neighborhood. People in Magnolia apparently really love their art because the Magnolia Art Show is the main focus of their summer festival. If you head down the Magnolia Playfield this weekend, you’ll get a chance to check out the entrants and winners in the Adult and Youth Juried Art competitions as well as their poster contest.

Can’t make the afternoon preview? Head to the North East branch in the evening for a repeat of the preview.

This Saturday, July 26 the Torchlight Run and the Torchlight Parade take over downtown Seattle. The Torchlight Run, a 5 or 8K run through downtown Seattle that encourages pirate attire begins at 6:30 pm. The Torchlight Parade, a huge parade with floats and cars and all kinds of different groups representing all sorts of aspects of Seattle community begins at 7:30. This year’s parade theme is “Amazing Adventures”.

Even if you’re not much of a race or parade fan, if you’re going to be anywhere near downtown, you’re going to be affected by the events due to the street closures. From 8 am to 8 pm, the two southern lanes of Mercer from 2nd to 4th Aves are closed. At 3 pm, the southbound lanes of 5th Ave from Mercer to Denny are closed. A whole slew of streets shut down at 6 pm: 4th Ave. from the Memorial Stadium to Seattle Center; all cross streets intersecting 4th Ave. from 3rd Ave. to 5th Ave.; Broad Street from Harrison St. to Denny Way; Denny Way from Warren Ave. to 5th Ave.; John St. from Broad to 6th Ave.; Thomas St. from Broad to 6th Ave.; Taylor Ave. from Broad to Denny Way; Eastbound Harrison St. from Broad to Aurora Ave. N.; 2nd Ave. N. from Denny to Thomas St.; Thomas St. from Warren Ave. to 2nd Ave. N.; and, John St. from Warren Ave. to 2nd Ave. N. Between 6:30 pm and 7:45 pm Dexter Ave from Mercer to Denny is closed as is Northbound Aurora from “SODO” to Mercer St

(photo by Gina C via Flickr.)