Does the Federal Communications Commission value what the public has to say about media diversity in the United States? By mid-December, we should have our answer, and it will be a resounding "yes" if FCC Chairman Kevin Martin drops his proposal to allow big media corporations to grow even larger. But such an affirmation from the five member, Republican-majority commission won't come without intense public pressure.
DECEMBER 1Columbia City Toy Drive hosted by Atlantic Street Center. Please bring a new, unwrapped toy for the Atlantic Street Center's Holiday Toy Store benefiting low-income families in King County. Doors open at 10:30 am and Santa Claus will start taking pictures with kids at 11 am. DECEMBER 1-8 "It's Not For Me,"a children's theater production performed by the Langston Hughes performing arts youth theater group that teaches everyone about the joys of giving. Saturdays at 12 noon.
KING FM 98.1, the classical-music station, has set up a Christmas Channel streaming on demand at www.KING.org. In most radio markets, Adult Contemporary stations play pop-music Christmas titles and neglect an audience looking for traditional carols. KING-FM's Christmas Channel can serve that audience worldwide, presenting the aforementioned carols and recognizable classical Christmas pieces.Christmas pieces.
The local AARP Tax-Aide Program is seeking volunteer Tax Counselors to provide free personal income tax preparation and counseling, with special attention to those 60 and older and to low- and middle-income taxpayers. Volunteers are trained during December and January, using IRS-provided training material and tax preparation software. Computer skills are required; in Washington most tax returns are filed electronically.
More than 60 Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce members lunched and promoted their businesses Thursday-before-last at the Mountaineers Club. Chamber marketing director Leilani McCoy said, "According to research by Steve Snyder of the California Chamber of Commerce, networking is the number-one reason people join local chambers. It was apparent by the turnout that this is an important function of our chamber." The Chamber holds several networking luncheons each year. For more information, contact Margaret Irvine, Irvineqacoc@aol.com.
Palmer Stangvik, a beloved teacher on Queen Anne for three decades, gently passed away Nov. 15 at home in Napa, Calif., surrounded by family and friends. Mr. Stangvik was 71. He was known to a couple generations' worth of fifth- and sixth-graders at Coe Elementary School, where he taught for 30 years. Last spring the school's playground was renamed Palmer's Playground in his honor.
There have been some detours since Teatro ZinZanni first set up its "spiegeltent" on Mercer Street in 1998 and staged shows billed as "Love, Dinner & Chaos." Featuring five-course dinners and, among other acts, magicians, contortionists, acrobats and comedians, the show played to full houses for 14 months. But there was a problem, remembered . According to Norman Langill, a longtime Queen Anne resident who directs the shows, the theater was operating on temporary permits, which had to be repeatedly secured. So, fed up, Langill moved the tent and the production in 2000 to San Francisco, where it continues to this day, he said. But now Langill, his zany troupe and the Moulin Rouge are back at the theater's original location on a five-year lease signed with the Seattle Opera, which now owns the property, he said. The show, "Hearts on Fire," opens tonight, Nov. 28.
The writing was apparently on the wall last June when QFC put a proposed mixed-use project on Stone Way Avenue North on hold indefinitely. The Wallingford project was shelved because of skyrocketing construction costs, according to QFC spokeswoman Kristin Maas. But the news led some in Queen Anne to wonder if the same thing was going to happen to the grocery chain's plan to pay to replace the Metropolitan Market with a new QFC store in a Cox family-funded mixed-use project that would have eliminated two homes and an apartment building. The Wallingford property was subsequently sold to a developer, and now it turns out that the Queen Anne property has been sold to a developer as well.
Francesca Helfrich, 6, and Nancy Shawn dish out a Thanksgiving dinner for homeless youth at Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets, the Capitol Hill-based homeless advocacy organization. A team of nine volunteers plus several chefs made the holiday meal possible.
Lowell Elementary School student Ian Howey, 9, bags leaves with his mother Leslie Rorty during a Lowell leaf cleanup event on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 24.
Christmas season has begun for Capitol Hill merchants, but the hordes of "Black Friday" shoppers did not descend on Broadway or Pike-Pine or 15th Avenue the day after Thanksgiving. They never do. "I think for most of the merchants on Broadway, Black Friday is not for us," said Michael Wells, owner of Bailey-Coy Books at 414 Broadway E. However, he added that this year's after-Thanksgiving weekend was better for him than last year. However, he added.
A very close friend back in Cincinnati, a psychiatrist by trade, defended me at a party one night 20 years ago from accusations that I was a pessimist and a cynic. "Wilken is the most cynical optimist I know," he said. "He doesn't not believe in goodness; he just doubts that it exists. But if you find it, he'll come and look at it. And enjoy the ride over, too." There is a school of thought - call it the University of False Optimism (UFO) - that has always had adherents in American culture. "We are too winning the war in Vietnam. Look at the body counts," they said right about up to the minute the helicopters started evacuating people from the roof of our embassy in Saigon.
Annex Theatre announced that Bret Fetzer has been appointed to the position of artistic director. Fetzer, who previously served as Annex artistic director from 2000 to 2004, was selected by the company and approved by the Annex board of directors to oversee the day-to-day operations of the organization.
Last Saturday night marked the opening of Current Works at Crawl Space, the premier alternative exhibition space on Capitol Hill. This show focuses on the new directions and explorations in the current studio practice of its member artists. This exhibition follows rounds of studio visits between the artists during a period of intensive art making as we approach the end of a busy year.
The following information was provided by the city's Department of Planning and Development. Unless otherwise specified, written comments on projects should be mailed to 700 Fifth Ave., Suite 2000, P.O. Box 34019, Seattle, WA 98124-4019. Appeals are made to the Office of the Hearing Examiner, Seattle Municipal Tower, 40th Floor (SMT-40-00), 700 Fifth Ave., Suite 4000, Seattle, WA 98104. Appeals must be accompanied by a $50 filing fee in a check payable to the City of Seattle.The project number is in parentheses. For more information, call 684-8467.