Historic Seattle presented its ninth annual Bungalow Fair on the last day of September. I was invited in my capacity of Antique Lady and arrived early on Sunday morning, Oct. 1, planning to attend a lecture presented by Megan Thomas, curator of the metalwork section of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The lecture was on the craft of C.R Ashebee, one of the greats of the British Arts and Crafts movement.Historic Seattle is a 31-year-old local organization dedicated to the preservation of threatened historic buildings, education and advocacy for the Arts and Crafts movement. The Bungalow Fair, assisted by the Arts and Crafts guild committee, is the highlight of the year's activity. This has enabled them to host more than 50 architects, interior designers, antique dealers and craftspeople in metal, tile, glass, lighting and furni-ture in 10,000 square feet of space at Town Hall (the former Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist). Historic Seattle has made the Bungalow Fair a yearly tradition anticipated by thousands of residents and visitors, too.Seattle's - and Queen Anne's - growth, residential and neighborhood development and architecture are strongly tied to the Arts and Crafts era, from the 1890s into the 1920s. One exhibitor of particular interest to me was Charles Rupert Designs Limited, its booth presided over by a very interesting couple: Stuart Stark, a third-generation Victorian (Victoria, B.C., that is) and his English wife, Margaret Graham Bell. The company was named after Stark's grandfather, an Edwardian bank manager of some style whose bank was just three blocks away from their original retail shop.
Thanks to a recent $10,000 contribution from the advisory council of the Magnolia Community Center, the Rotary Club of Magnolia is close to its goal of raising enough money to buy and install 10 automatic external defibrillators in the neighborhood.The $10,000 came from rents paid for program space at the community center, said Darrell Drew, president of the advisory council. "So if we do good management, we can put some of the money back into the community."The Rotary project was chosen because its members gave the advisory council an impressive and organized presentation when they asked for help, he said.Dick Turner, next year's president-elect for the Rotary, said there's a simple reason the defibrillators are needed. "The concern has always been that we don't have an aid car here," he said.
The Lawton Elementary School 16th annual auction will be held Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Washington Athletic Club, 1325 Sixth Ave. The theme of this year's fundraiser is "Viva Venezia!" chosen in support of Lawton's World Culture studies, which this year will focus on Europe.The goal is to raise $70,000 to directly benefit students attending the school. "Viva Venezia!" will be the Lawton PTA's largest fundraising event of the year. All proceeds will support programs teaching world cultures and arts and music enrichment, as well as supporting tutoring, equipment and supplies.The evening will kick off with the "Merchants of Venice" silent auction. Dinner and the live auction will follow with items such as a ride in a race car with a professional driver, pieces of art by artists Dot Krause and Chris Jordan and trips from Park City to Santa Fe.
The Queen Anne Community Council Transportation Committee and Uptown Alliance will host pre-sentations on the Nov. 7 election transportation issues at a 7 p.m. meeting tonight, Oct. 25, at Queen Anne Com-munity Center, 1901 First Ave. W.Seattle Proposition No. 1 would levy additional property tax for an average Seattle household of $144 per year in the first year, declining in subsequent years. The levy lift authorization would expire in nine years, renewal subject to voter approval.The added property tax, together with a parking tax and a new tax on companies per employee, would be applied against the city's backlog on transportation infrastructure maintenance of $.5 billion in nine years. Items to be funded would include an increased Neighborhood Street Fund; maintenance for streets, sidewalks, bikeways, bridges, stairways, street signs, signal control, street trees and landscaping.
Everyone who has ever traveled, or even read the tales of real travelers (flying from Holiday Inn to Holiday Inn doesn't count), is aware of the cliché that travel broadens the mind as it strips us of our routine comforts.As some-one who my sister Karen once called "the family adventurer," I think, compared to the folks who since their honeymoon have been to Disney World and their timeshare on Maui, I am a traveler. Compared to Paul Theroux, who I'm convinced would take a train to hell if such service were offered, I am a rank stay-at-home.But not all trips are really travel in the strictest sense of the word as I am struggling here to define it.I came to this realization while on the Amtrak two weeks ago, on my way to Cincinnati for my annual visit to the family manse, where my 88-year-old mother still rules the roost.A squadron of my fellow riders were oohing and aahing in the lounge car as we passed through Glacier National Park. Don't get me wrong, Glacier, in a more natural way, ranks right up there with Yellowstone as a national treasure in my book, and is so big that if you are there on the ground you are instantly reminded that humans are only one of the lesser beings sharing (and doing a bad job of it) this fragile, overheating planet.But the train tracks have not moved, and this is my tenth railed trek (in the past 22 years) back to see my family. I can't exactly say I am bored by Glacier's wonders, even as seen through Amtrak's smudged windows, but I would be a liar of Rumsfeldian proportions to claim my heart soared at Western Montana's mountain majesty this time.
A feud of sorts has erupted between West Seattle and Magnolia about the noise of planes landing at the King County International Airport (aka, Boeing Field).Many residents of Magnolia, including King County Council member Larry Phillips, have spent years trying to come up with a way of shifting the flights away from Magnolia to over Elliott Bay.One of the ways of doing that is called a Localizer Directional Aid (LDA), and Boeing Field commissioned a study last year to evaluate the method.But King County Council member Dow Constantine-whose constituents include West Seattle residents-fired off the first salvo in the feud Oct. 9 when he paid to have an opinion piece published on the Web site but not in the printed version of the West Seattle Herald.According to him, the LDA system would shift Boeing Field flights closer to the Duwamish Head, which would increase plane-noise levels in West Seattle."As I told West Seattle residents at the two neighborhood briefings on the this topic I held last year," Constantine wrote in his paid opinion piece, "I am strongly opposed to the concept of providing noise relief for one neighborhood by burdening another."For that matter, so is Phillips, the Magnolia resident said.
The Port of Seattle is considering a plan to shift cruise-ship operations from their current home at Terminal 30 to Terminal 91 at the south end of Interbay.But only six people showed up to speak at an Oct. 19 public hearing about the project's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which indicates there should be a minimal impact.Project manager Michael McLaughlin said that the proposed move was sparked by increasing container traffic at the Port. "About a year ago, one of our container customers came to us looking to expand," he said.The Port spent roughly $16 million to convert T-30 a few years ago to handle cruise ships, but the idea was that if container business came back, the Port would look for an alternate location for the cruise ships, McLaughlin explained.The Port considered moving the cruise ships to Terminal 10, but access and cleanup issues led to the conclusion that it didn't meet the project's needs, said David McCraney, an environmental program manager for the Port.And that left T-91, which is underutilized, said Port spokesman Mick Shultz. The move to T-91 would not expand cruise-ship capacity, he said, which this year saw 197 cruises scheduled out of Seattle. In fact, that number is expected to decline to 189 next year, he said.
The full magnitude of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's move to Lower Queen Anne became apparent at an Oct. 19 meeting of the Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce, where a group of designers revealed the project plans to what appeared unanimous approval.If an odd quiet so far has surrounded the foundation's move to the Seattle Center parking lot east of Fifth Avenue, the Thursday meeting likely will change that. This is a big, ambitious project that will include a five-level sunken parking garage and a campus featuring lots of open space, trees and waterworks, as well as a pair of main buildings that resemble two boomerangs locked together to form a kind of parallelogram.Chamber Executive Director Margaret Irvine, reflecting the mood at the gathering, described the foundation's presence as "a gift to the neighborhood," adding that "they didn't have to do this."
In a quiet room images cascadeas seedsfrom my fingertips.So writes Queen Anne artist C. Albert about the first of the nine works she is currently exhibiting at the Richard Hugo House on Capitol Hill. In each of her collages, the pieces pour one on top of the other to compose and juxtapose themselves into a flowering of texture color and shape. Her materials are varied. Fabric, paper, glass, photographs and metal all find their way into her compositions. Layer upon contrasting layer make up each of the images, which are almost sculptural in their composition.That's one of the elements of collage that appeals to Albert: "I really like the way I can move things around, integrate the photography that I love and build on the textures, kind of like sculpting."The works are small, but the detail is rich. And the artist wants you to pay careful attention to the details.
In a quiet room images cascadeas seedsfrom my fingertips.So writes Queen Anne artist C. Albert about the first of the nine works she is currently exhibiting at the Richard Hugo House on Capitol Hill. In each of her collages, the pieces pour one on top of the other to compose and juxtapose themselves into a flowering of texture color and shape. Her materials are varied. Fabric, paper, glass, photographs and metal all find their way into her compositions. Layer upon contrasting layer make up each of the images, which are almost sculptural in their composition.That's one of the elements of collage that appeals to Albert: "I really like the way I can move things around, integrate the photography that I love and build on the textures, kind of like sculpting."The works are small, but the detail is rich. And the artist wants you to pay careful attention to the details.
An Athenian youth once asked the philosopher Socrates if it were better to marry or not to marry. To which the great teacher replied, "Either one, my dear young man, you will be miserable."Now, add a Broadway score, and you have the theme of Stephen Sondheim's "Company."Although the current 5th Avenue Theatre production directed by David Armstrong may lack some of the signature edginess so typical of a Sondheim musical, "Company" still provides a sophisticated evening of theater performed by an exceptional cast.Sondheim's 1970 Tony-winning musical daringly broke new ground. There was no plot. Instead, George Furth's intelligent character-driven and often hilarious book explored the joys and pitfalls of love and coupledom through a series of birthday parties for Robert - Bobby to his friends. A 30something New York bachelor afraid of commitment, he's surrounded by a whirling circle of married friends: five blasé and jaded New York couples who urge him to take the plunge while exposing him to their own not-so-happily-ever-after unions. Set in the 1970s when chic urban clans devoured Librium instead of Prozac, the action unfolds on designer James Wolk's fashionable skeleton of deco grays, complete with a revolving door, staircases, a working elevator and a background of New York City skyscrapers.Besides Sondheim's sublime music and lyrics, what makes this production particularly wonderful is Hugh Panaro, who possesses one of the most glorious voices ever heard on Broadway.
When a woman drops her drawers, something big is bound to turn up. In ACT's current production of "The Underpants," that something is a big hit. Great comic acting, naughty double-entendres and perfectly timed farcical happenings make this one of the best comedies in a Seattle theater season replete with hilarious productions.Steve Martin brings all his wild and crazy humor to the rewrite of an obscure 1911 play by German writer Carl Sternheim. The action revolves around the aftermath of an unfortunate incident in the life of Louise Maske, a shy and sexually starved housewife. As a spectator at one of the grand public processions of the Kaiser, she loses her panties. Horrified, she tries to maintain her dignity and avoid prying eyes. Sadly, she's not successful.As the play opens, Theo, her stuffy husband, a minor bureaucrat, lectures her on her indiscretion. It's obvious that he has no compassion for her. All he cares about is his own self image: what will happen to his career if it becomes known that his wife behaved in such a salacious manner in front of the king? He's pompous, priggish and bombastic. Not a nice fellow, but one bound to get his comeuppance in the hands of Mr. Martin.Watching it happen is simply delicious.
Kids get a chance to see their imaginations come to life with "Hogwash: An Improvised Tall Tale for Small Children," playing through Nov. 18 at the Historic University Theater.Live on the spot, six actors improvise the storylines while one artist creates the props and backdrops and four musicians score the action."I get joy out of the kids being excited about being involved," said producer and performer Jen Rizor. "They have such a big imagination that they are willing to go on that journey with you."An ever-changing story"Hogwash" is an hour-long show, with two contrasting short stories. Kids are in control of the improvised stories, dictating what they are about and in what direction they go. The kids often scream out the suggestions, noted Hogwash creator Jason Anfinsen."Whatever the kids want, they get," he said.
As you fill out your absentee ballot or make your way to your local polling place, there are many things you should make sure to keep in mind. These issues go beyond just Madison Park, Seattle or Washington state, and they affect all of us.The war on terrorThe war on terror should be first and foremost on people's minds. It's been more than five years now since we were attacked by vicious terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. And since then, we have not been attacked.Despite that, the threat of radical Islamic terrorists still threatens the Western world and all those who do not follow lockstep with their ideology. Our safety from this threat has not come from us taking up diplomacy and talking with the terrorists; it came by going on the offense.No one ever said that the struggle against Islamic terrorism would be easy. We're fighting a deadly, suicidal and sophisticated enemy that is extremely patient. However, it's a struggle that we cannot afford to lose.
According to Madeline Langhelm, Donor Resources representative for Puget Sound Blood Center (PSBC), 900 donors are needed every day to maintain the blood supply necessary for a region that covers Bellingham to Vancouver, Wash. Fremont makes a modest pinprick on any map of the area, but in November, four businesses here will offer us plenty of opportunities to contribute.On Nov. 9, Shannon & Wilson will have the blood mobile from 9 a.m. to noon, while Getty Images takes the shift from 1:30 to 4 p.m. On Nov. 13, Adobe hosts the "bus" in its parking lot from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., while PCC Natural Markets in Fremont overlaps Adobe's efforts from 1 to 7 p.m."Fremont is a unique area," where Madeline finds businesses willing to host drives, she admits, but so far no religious institutions participate.She likens her job, coordinating and facilitating blood drives around the Puget Sound, to that of a regional sales representative. "Instead of selling a product, I'm convincing communities to hold drives."