West Seattle, Washington
16 Friday
-Tonight is the 47th/Admiral pedestrian-safety meeting.
-The White Center Food Bank told us they appreciate all the pre-Thanksgiving help and would be happy to take donations as they get ready for a pre-Christmas distribution this Wednesday. More turkeys! Here’s where to find the WCFB.
Almost forgot to mention this before leaving our home away from home (thank God for Hotwire’s computers!) — The city has opened four shelters for people without power to “spend the night someplace warm,” and two of them are here in West Seattle, at the Delridge and Southwest Community Centers. Full info is on the same city page as all the updates on the power outages.
Usually we just bring you pre-weekend “here’s what’s happening” blurbs. But so much is going on this week before the weekend, besides basic holiday stuff, so here goes:
–TUESDAY NIGHT: An e-mail tipster reports that West Seattle’s own Mac “Santa Mac” Macdonald is producing “Rock ‘n’ Roll Christmas,” a benefit show at 7:30 pm @ McCaw Hall, and promises it’s “the most fun to be had this holiday season.”
–WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Cafe Rozella hosts author Layne Maheu @ 7 pm, reading from his book “Song of the Crow.”
–THURSDAY NIGHT: The next Junction Art Walk, 6-8 pm, starting at Divina, with 12 participating locations (we’ll post artist specifics by Thursday). Then get involved in civics and meander over to the Southwest Precinct at 8 pm as the city Design Review Board makes its pronouncement on the huge Fauntleroy Place development.
-Just back from our first official drive in search of WS’s best Christmas lights. Will post our findings sometime tomorrow. To generalize wildly — so far, the north side of WS appears to have many more lavish displays than the south side.
-Sorry if this is old news to Morgan Junctionites; just noticed the big CLOSED FOR REMODELING, REOPENING FALL 2007 signs in the windows of Washington Federal Savings at Cali & Fauntleroy. Somehow you gotta wonder, will they really reopen as a bank? That corner is so incredibly prime … you’d think those “mixed-use” developers would be clamoring for it.
-Earlier this fall, when we posted a few times about best-selling author Terry Brooks (who lives in WS at least part of the time), someone wrote to say that other best-selling authors live in WS, including a couple, Skye Moody & G.M. Ford. If that’s so, apparently they won’t be here much longer, according to her MySpace page, which mentions they’re moving to the Oregon Coast next month.
Update on The Junction’s new “raised crosswalks”: Junction Dave (see comments on our complaint post below) was right. The city not only was “on it,” sometime in the past 24 hours or so, they got crews out to put the first round of striping on the bumps. After “Molson” (also from comments on the same post below) reported a striping sighting last night, we checked it out this morning, and indeed, each side of each “raised crosswalk” has a pair of triangular stripes, pointing up and ahead.
-Big banners at the Farmers’ Market today reveal that it’s only taking a holiday hiatus — after the Dec. 17 finale-for-the-year, it will return Jan. 7 as the “Winter Farmers’ Market,” 10 am-1 pm.
-The ever-busier section of Harbor Ave near the tow yards, Verge, ActivSpace, etc., is now even busier, as Budget Trucks seems to have set up a rental business there, with many of its offerings parked on the street. Best to avoid driving RVs and Oversize Load Tractor-Trailers through that stretch. Bicyclists may not be safe either.
-Also more-lined-with-parked-cars-than-ever, Thistle between 35th and Delridge, during the Mars Hill services, which apparently won’t move to their new ex-Doxa home before next month. We cruised by just to see if any protesters were there, since the demonstration outside MH-Ballard got called off. Nope. (If you don’t recall why somebody wanted to protest MH in the first place, here’s a refresher, plus the church leader’s latest musings on the subject, and a pointed deconstruction of said musings.)
-Looks like a whole lot of WS folks out buying Christmas trees. If you’re not sure about your options, remember to check the list at the bottom of our Holiday Stuff page.
Tonight’s weather radar pictures show a Big Blob of stormy something coming this way. But its true nature may not be revealed till after you tuck yourself beneath three layers of comforters (down from four last night, when Seattle set a for-this-date record low of 18 degrees). One thing seems to be for sure … by this time tomorrow night, we should be able to stop worrying about the weather for a while. Good thing, too, since three interesting events are happening in West Seattle tomorrow (Thursday) night — we’ll post about them first thing in the morning.
Among many other blessings, we are thankful for you taking the time to stop by this site and see what’s up. (Otherwise, we’d be talking to ourselves, and heaven knows, we’ve done enough of that in our time on this planet so far.) We are also thankful to still be here in wondrous West Seattle … where you can see sunsets like this (photo by Lisa) and this (photo by Michelle) … where you can go for a summer swim at a pool like this … where you can find community groups like this and this, spending their “spare time” to nurture our neighborhoods … others banding together to caretake precious bits of urban wildness between the condos and the concrete … yet others who do what they can to share with those in need … We could go on all day, but we’ve got other things to do and so do you. Again — thanks.
-Junction road work’s almost done – just a few finishing touches left around the edges of the “raised crosswalks.” They don’t seem to do much as speed bumps; hanging out in The Junction on Saturday, we saw people zoom right over them, none the worse for wear.
-The official sign is now unveiled at West Seattle’s first drive-thru Starbucks, though the rest of the ex-Rainier Roaster renovation seems to have a ways to go:
An eagle-eyed reader alerts us to news about what she/he aptly describes as “a West Seattle Farmers’ Market fave” — the bakery Sugar (no relation to “Coffee to a Tea with …”) is raising money to help owner Stephanie’s husband fight cancer. $20 per pie, pumpkin or apple streudel, order online by Sunday night, pick up your pie the day before Thanksgiving, right here in West Seattle.
Before we get back to focusing on West Seattle’s present & future … one more bit about the past … which also involves an event coming up this weekend. Ever heard of the SS Dix disaster? Till moments ago, neither had we; but the tale makes “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” sound mild. This Saturday, a boat full of folks will be out off Alki Point commemorating the Dix disaster’s centennial, and the Log House Museum (among others) says you’re invited. (Found a few more details on the museum’s site; this cruise follows the annual meeting of the SW Historical Society, at which a new exhibit about West Seattle’s maritime history will be previewed.)
Cool feature in my favorite part of the Sunday Times (Now & Then): a whimsical structure that once stood in the back yard of a north-of-Admiral WS home, when it belonged to the founder of the downtown waterfront’s legendary Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. (As they say … who knew?)
Thanks to the tipster who reminds us, Nov. 13 is the anniversary of the day in 1851 that the schooner Exact brought the rest of the Denny Party to Alki, several weeks after their scouts discovered our little bit of heaven. HistoryLink has the true tale.
-The Seattle Weekly has two tales of West Seattle nightlife in its latest edition. One is a straightforward “Club Pick” piece about Skylark; the other is a fantastical journey into an alleged Beach Drive scene that you might actually start to believe, until the later paragraphs. (Kudos to the writer for quite an imagination. Best civically minded satire since Exit133.com took on Carl’s Jr.)
-Wonder if the rain will keep the Initiative 937 campaigners off the Fauntleroy walkover today. They’ve been up there sign-waving for two recent commutes … immediately causing me to feel excruciating guilt for being alone in my car (at least it’s a gas-thrifty little-bitty car, honest). But at least we’re not driving a big yellow truck like the McG crew (it was back in Yasuko’s north lot yesterday morning, with the addition of a guy having his own tailgating party outside it).
-Have you seen the bear under The Bridge yet?
All along just a few blocks of Fauntleroy, including the last stretch of The Bridge:
-The Walking on Logs peeps in spooky garb, including jack-o-lantern heads
-A spooky (well, spooky if you’re a Dem) yellow truck idling near Walking on Logs, with huge Mike McGavick campaign signs all over it (the same one was haunting the parking lot on the north side of Yasuko’s this morning)
-The former Rainier Roaster finally has a “Starbucks, Coming Soon” banner draped over the old RR sign
No trick-or-treaters yet in our neighborhood. Boo.
We mentioned a few days ago that the West Seattle shoreline would be headquarters to some participants in Seattle Wireless Field Day. Just found an interesting blogpost with details on what it was really all about, including a cool photo of the blogger’s setup at Don Armeni.
First, we spotted a mild outbreak of NoMo. Now, comes SOA — on a flyer for Tuesday’s expanded trick-or-treating in the Admiral business district (3-6 pm), with half a dozen or so businesses south of Lafayette School joining it this year, and identifying themselves as SOA (South Of Admiral). What next? WeCa? EaCa? NoFa? SoFa? AlAl? (as in Almost Alki, a la the marketing of Verge Condos)? We could at least turn Beach Drive into SoAl. But I’m still looking for a justification to meld Luna Park and someplace-or-another into LunaSea …
Beyond the trick-or-treat events (see post below), here’s some of what else is happening this Hallo-weekend around West Seattle … Our favorite is WASL Haunted High at Youngstown Arts Center tonight … Tomorrow night at Youngstown, it’s “Grease Frightening” (scary tweaked photo on the info page) … Also unusual, the themes for the arts conference at Mars Hill/West Seattle today & Saturday … Admiral Theater moves up the monthly “Rocky Horror Picture Show” (get in the mood with this video) screening to Saturday night (scroll down this page) … “Haunted Hoedown” tonight at Skylark Cafe … As mentioned earlier this week, Seattle Wireless Field Day is Saturday at 3 locations including Alki … The WS Chamber puts on Monster Bingo tonight at the golf course … Free Halloween Family Swim, 7 tonight at the Southwest Community Center pool … Halloween Carnival at Alki Community Center, 6:30-8:30 tonight … “Halloween in the Forest,” two sessions tonight at Camp Long … “Freaky Fall Festival,” 6-8 tonight at High Point Community Center, and in a slight variation, it’s the “Freaky Fall Carnival” 6:30-8:30 tonight at Hiawatha CC … “tick, tick … BOOM!” ticks on this weekend at ArtsWest … Leave a comment or e-mail us with anything we’re missing (and don’t worry, we’ll get to the Monday & Tuesday Halloween festivities in a day or so)!
A few posts down, a comment asks what’s up with a couple sites between Admiral Junction and The (Alaska) Junction, including the burned-out Schuck’s @ Charleston & Cali. Just so happens, the Design Review Board meeting for that site is tomorrow night at the Madison Middle School library. Anyone who’s able to go (we can’t), we’d love a firsthand report!
Not sure if all this is enough to qualify WS as Geek Capital of the World. (Though we aspiring geeks at WS Blog World HQ think it’s a great place to be.) But two upcoming WS events are noteworthy for those with technotendencies: This Saturday, Alki is one of three spots for Seattle Wireless Field Day; in a few weeks, Youngstown Arts Center will host Seattle Mind Camp 3.0.
Now that the weekend’s over … you don’t have to wait till next weekend to have fun. Just discovered an exceptionally worthy-sounding wine tasting & auction happening here in West Seattle, this Thursday, to raise $ for WS Helpline. You can even buy discount tickets online.
A sampling of West Seattle fun ‘n’ stuff this weekend: Tonight, the Twelfth Night Cabaret @ Youngstown Arts Center … also tonight, Family Movie Night (“Charlie & the Chocolate Factory,” free!) @ High Point Community Center … first weekend for Tick, Tick … BOOM! at ArtsWest … Saturday, EarthCorps needs help with planting & invasive-plant removal @ Lincoln Park … Sunday, remember the WS Farmers’ Market is still going strong, two more months (lettuce and tree fruit were both awesome last week, among other things)!
Some eclectic events (and thanks to those who’ve e-mailed us about some of this happenings): Megawatt’s “Chautauqua” tonight … a health fair at Freedom Church today (little signs have been up on my side of WS for weeks) … yard sale season is winding down; this one today sounds interesting … live tunes tonight at venues including the lively Skylark Cafe … HS football tonight with Ingraham vs. West Seattle @ WS Stadium … an “educator reception” at Westwood Village Barnes & Noble today with editors and writers of books for “young adults” … my last plug for the Water Taxi’s final day (check the video link on this page; a report from yesterday, kinda cute) … still bored? peruse the offerings at our local community centers — like Alki CC (fall brochure here) … See you out and about!
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