Oh, the pain! It's 7:05 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, or 7:05 somewhere, and the Mariners should be on television. I automatically go to FSN for the game, but alas, the season is over. No game stats in the morning paper. Ichiro's pursuit of the batting title is over. Felix and the other players are headed back home, or to play winter leagues in Mexico and Central America, and I'm left with a huge hole in my psyche. For the baseball addicted, the first few weeks after the end of the season, an end that came much too soon for our Mariners, is tantamount to going on the wagon, withdrawing from drugs or going on the Zone diet.
My thoughts have lately been wandering through the past, resting on some interesting and outstanding, in both positive and negative ways, folks I've met since I left home at 18 or so, 40 years back. These musings are tinged with guilt because I've always meant to write something about these particular people but haven't. My head is in a yesterday space a lot right now because of the job I started 14 weeks ago. I'm an activities director for a fairly large assisted-living facility. (You can't call 'em nursing homes anymore, and our residents are not patients - marketing has even come to Alzheimer World.) It is a place that forces you to confront change and the irrevocable passage of time.
Had Kurt Cobain never existed, we probably would have invented him. The Nirvana founder's life story-a perfect, if tragic, narrative trajectory that reads like some gnomic page torn from the encyclopedia of modern antiheroes-has achieved the status of myth, so archetypal and broadly drawn that it seems to define rather than just reiterate the unholy triad of "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll."
The first thing you see at the entry to "Hug: Recent Work by Patricia Piccinini" is a pristine automobile tire, a Jaguar tire to be exact. It appears to have an organic protuberance spilling out and over its top side and thus is an eerie combination of the natural and the manufactured. And that's what makes it a perfect introduction to the current exhibition at the Frye Museum. Piccinini's art is all about the intersection of hi-tech science and nature. She imagines a future world in which customized life forms have been created through technology. In her world and her art they exist in harmony with the life forms created through evolution, but she can't help wondering if that harmony will exist when such crafted life forms join us in the real world.
REVISED APPLICATIONS: *1200 Madison St. (3004404) for a Land Use Application to construct a 16-story building with 241 residential units over retail and customer-service uses, two live-work units and three townhouse units located at grade. Project includes two levels of below-grade parking for 107 vehicles. The following approvals are required: SEPA environmental determination; Design Review. Building permit may be needed but was not included in this application. Written comments accepted through Wednesday, Oct. 24.
CENTRAL DISTRICT - Seattle Parks and Recreation's Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center (LHPAC) opens its 2007-2008 season with Dinah Was, a dynamic musical production that celebrates the life and times of jazz and blues legend Dinah Washington. Hailed as the "Queen of Blues," Washington played hard and fast. She was the epitome of a blues diva who lived a tumultuous life - and was driven to sing about it. Incorporating many popular songs from the singer's 20-year career, Dinah Was: What a Difference a Day Makescelebrates her remarkable and rocky journey from humble roots to headlining fame. The play explodes with the rhythms, tough breaks, and tender notes that fired the life and music of this passionate performer. Songs include "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes," "I Wanna Be Loved," and "Come Rain or Come Shine."
The White Ravens took on the SeaTac Sharks on Oct. 14 at Foster High School, 4242 S.144th St. in Tukwila.
ted, we probably would have invented him. The Nirvana founder's life story-a perfect, if tragic, narrative trajectory that reads like some gnomic page torn from the encyclopedia of modern antiheroes-has achieved the status of myth, so archetypal and broadly drawn that it seems to define rather than just reiterate the unholy triad of "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll."
Sunday Morning mist mixes with the colorful leaves along Lake Washington Boulevard South.
On Oct. 13 the staff of Beacon Hill's El Centro de la Raza held a party downtown at the Trade Center in honor of the organization's 30 years in the community. With the theme of "confronting global warming while building the beloved community," more than 950 gathered for the banquet and art sale benefiting the center. At left, South Enders Kathryn Flores (left) and Alma Banda Goddard, browse art.  Muralist Daniel De Siga from Yakima, currated the evening's show.
A near-capacity crowd converged on the lobby of Merrill Gardens at Fourth Avenue North and Valley Street in Lower Queen Anne for the Saturday night recital of George Gershwin music. It wasn't a debut by any means, but a special evening nonetheless. The featured artists were pianist Randolph (Randy) Hokanson and vocalist Barbara Coffin. Both artists were greeted with loud applause when they took up their positions at and by the piano.The show featured some of Gershwin's most famous compositions, started at 7 p.m. and ran for nearly an hour, including an encore. The evening's repertoire embraced such greats as "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "How Long Has This Been Going On?," "Our Love Is Here to Stay" and the aria "Summertime" from "Porgy and Bess."
Enhance Fitness teacher Mark Bryant uses humor, respect to encourage health in seniors.The folks who form a human circle around physical trainer Mark Bryant during a Friday morning workout session at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center are, to a person, smiling. Many of them laugh. Each has his or her eyes glued to their instructor, who is a whirlwind of constant movement. And as he bounces around inside the circle offering advice and cracking jokes, Bryant - recently named Enhance Fitness Instructor of the Year for the whole United States - keeps a running tally on each of his students, even those not present."What happened to Betty today?" Bryant asks. "Oh, she's OK," a woman responds as she reaches her hands into the air according to Bryant's workout routine. "She had an appointment."
"Everything in moderation - including moderation," a patient of mine once pointed out to me explaining his reasons for taking a break from the diet regimen I had prescribed for him. I like it when such nuggets of wisdom are thrown my way. It brings things back in perspective. In my experience, drastic measures result more often than not in drastic failures. I have long been a believer in small steps rather than grand resolutions, especially when significant and lasting lifestyle changes are required.Of course, "small" is not sexy. Drama is. You can read plenty about people who, for example, have lost enormous amounts of weight in record time.
Friends may head off to Provence for sun-soaked summer days, drift down to the Southwest to hike great waves of color-drenched rocks, cruise Alaskan waterways. But what lights me up is a week or so at the Toronto International Film Festival every September. With 300-plus films on tap, representing half a hundred countries, the festival offers a spectacular trip around the world, a chance to sightsee lives and experiences and places through the eyes of superb visual artists.
After "Spamalot," chivalry will never be the same. An utterly ridiculous romp, the 2005 Tony-winning musical shamelessly retells the Arthurian myth while simultaneously lampooning musical theater with delicious irreverence. Nothing's sacred in this medieval lark. It's idiotic; absurd, occasionally uneven ... but marvelously clever and fun.