It's official: Theatre Babylon is leaving the Union Garage at 1418 10th Avenue. On Sunday, Feb. 20, the Theatre Babylon board met to discuss the decision by the Seattle Fire Department two days earlier to limit the total occupancy of the space to 49 people.Previously, the Fire Department had allowed 49 people in the audience, plus whoever was needed to put on the show, such as actors, backstage personnel and box-office staff.Since the new restrictions greatly reduced the number of tickets that could be sold for a show, the board felt continued occupancy of the Union Garage was no longer a viable option.
Marianne Sato used to hone her typing skills with "Mario Teaches Typing," a computer tutorial program with Mario and cohorts rewarding her performance by knocking blocks or jumping turtles. Then she found she didn't have to set foot outside her home to find a real, live tech helper."You mean they come to your house?" was her initial reaction.As she found out, they do. Her Traveling Technology Tutor (TTT) Jan Gray arrived, greeted by Sato's friendly dog, Enu. Sans Enu, they settled in the study room in front of Sato's monitor, where Gray begins the lesson by asking what Sato would like to learn.
We were all sad," Lorilynn Mason reported on the closure this month of her restaurant, Longshoreman's Daughter, after more than 11 years. "We held a wake - wore black, wore veils, gave speeches. Kind of like a funeral." She amended that quickly, "I'm excited that they are there. I'm glad they will be a daytime business, but I hope they add dinner, too.""They" are Nandita Polissar and her husband, Nayak, who purchased the landmark restaurant from Lorilynn. Nandita hopes to win over loyal Fremont diners from Longshoreman's (also known as LSD) to Silence-Heart-Nest, scheduled to open in early March.Nandita has worked with Lorilynn's suppliers to get the same products and services everyone came to expect.
Welcome to Sisleyville. Or the latest news from "A Bad Day in Black Rock," the Roosevelt neighborhood's long-running film noir about a community held in thrall to Hugh Sisley, a slumlord-in-denial, and Keith Gilbert, his intimidating right-hand man.The midwinter sun shines a little brighter on the Roosevelt neighborhood since federal agents took white supremacist and convicted felon Gilbert away in shackles last week. The gray-bearded, bearish Gilbert, 65, along with several others, was booked for selling automatic weapons to an undercover informant. Gilbert is also a felon caught with firearms.Maybe 100 firearms, including machine guns, in fact. Gilbert is a classic poster boy for three strikes, you're out. With Gilbert out of the way, this is an interesting moment in the perverse saga.Sound Transit is coming. Third Place Books is a community hub. Roosevelt Square is a happening place. Roosevelt High School, bordered by numerous Hugh Sisley properties, is being renovated.Sisley, 78, lord of derelict properties, stands to be a very rich man if he plays his cards right.
Epics of Wallingford, Peter Mundwiler's newest installation, at Gallery4Culture through Friday, Feb. 25, exhibits the mythic landscape of the North Seattle neighborhood."The show reworks a few Wallingford characters as gallery objects," Mundwiler said.The works, loosely tied together, are inspired by Mundwiler's memory of living in Wallingford."Pretty much the gist of the show is about what is real and what isn't real," said Greg Bell, Gallery4 Culture's director and manager.
The line stretches down the sidewalk like a car wash on a sunny Seattle day. Actually, on this drippy, gray Saturday morning at Green Lake, the line is an undulating tangle of tail-wagging dogs in queue for a little pampering. The Sit! Stay! Café and The Grooming Spa next door have you covered: Dog dads and Dog moms relax with yummy human treats while the dogs get dolled up next door. Just around the corner from the lake, the Sit! Stay! Café is the Green Lake hangout for dog owners. A living-room setting, hot espresso and cookies that make you say "WOW" help the time go by nicely. All this, and they love your dog.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for all racial and ethnic groups. In fact, African-Americans in King County have the highest death rates from stroke and coronary heart disease, compared to any other racial or ethnic group. One major risk factor for heart disease is high blood pressure, or hypertension, which is highly prevalent among African-Americans. The risk is also higher in Mexican-Americans, American Indians, native Hawaiians and some Asian-Americans.Close to 85 percent of people who die from coronary heart disease are over the age of 65. So how can we, as seniors and people of color, reduce our risks?
Nancy White Carlstrom, the award-winning children's book author, is back in our midst on Queen Anne after having lived in Alaska for almost 18 years."The common theme of all my books is relationships," Nancy says. "Relationships with family, between young and old, with God, and with the natural world."With a nod to Margaret Wise Brown, author of the classic "Goodnight, Moon," Carlstom's book develops the theme, saying goodnight to each family member, comparing each to a natural wonder:
When Seattle Opera's presentation of "Florencia de la Amazons" opens at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall on Feb. 26, it will be returning by popular demand.Daniel Catán's opera, originally commissioned in 1994 by Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera and Seattle Opera, premièred in Houston in 1996. Its lush music and fantastical Spanish-language libretto have been heavily influenced by the works of Gabriel García Márquez.Seattle Opera presented "Florencia" in March of 1998, and it was an unprecedented event: the first Mexican opera to be commissioned in Spanish by any American opera company. Local audiences enthusiastically received it and embraced composer Catán.
I was tooling around Green Lake last week in the amazingly consistent February sun (thank you, global warming... ) with a successful writer friend who has always been a more strident environmentalist than yours truly.A huge Hummer with dark-tinted windows pulled into the main parking lot and stopped my friend dead in his tracks."I wanna see who gets out of that monstrosity," he said.I expected a version of the suburban hip-hop wannabes I usually see driving similar rides downtown on First Avenue on Friday nights. Imagine my surprise to observe two old men - even older than this middle-aged witness - climb stiffly out, their sparse white hairs blowing softly in the breeze.
I live with a wild cat.Well, not actually a wild cat. Factually, Emmy Lou is a declawed domestic shorthair-type feline. She was a stray when she found us.Before anyone complains: She was already declawed when she found us. We'd never even begin to think of doing such a cruel thing to a cat. She can't protect herself at all, other than biting, and she can't climb anything in order to escape a pursuer.Consequently, Emmy is a house cat. She never goes out. Open the front door and Emmy doesn't even begin to make a move to try to get out. (She probably remembers those horrible days before she found us, when she was running loose in Discovery Park.)No, Emmy is never out. Absolutely everything she needs, and probably a lot of things she truthfully doesn't, are provided for her.So what does she pay in return?
House and Senate proposals for family-leave insurance have made headlines around the state. Lines are being drawn between business interests and family responsibilities - but it doesn't have to be that way.We know from the experience of other states and large employers that paid family leave works. We also know that many small employers support giving their employees family leave.Let's be clear on what family-leave insurance is:
How many ways can we be bombarded by the power of little chips to think for us or to reach out to us? Most of us have been able to turn off the annoying, eye-blinking, skip-sliding paper-clip-with-the-lightbulb feature that pops up in Microsoft Word. Now there is a feature that tells you that you are not regularly using all the icons on your desktop. So? I like a messy desk. It gives me something to clean up when I need to bring order to something in my life. But I will clean it up on my schedule, and with no reminders, thank you very much.
The Seattle School District appears to have reversed its stance on unionized bus drivers. Three years ago, the district dumped longtime, unionized school-bus company Laidlaw in a contentious decision to go with cheaper, non-union providers. Non-union Durham School Services and First Student Inc. got the nod, and the school district saved $1.2 million a year, according to district spokeswoman Patti Spencer.That was then. Now the school board has decided in a unanimous vote to re-bid the five-year contracts two years ahead of schedule and to include a "Labor Peace/Labor Harmony" section that protects drivers' rights to unionize, she said. The decision to put the contracts out for bid early goes against thinking at the district staff level, Spencer added. Overall, the district's transportation manager has been pleased with the performance of both companies, she said. "Based on that, the recommendation was to continue with the contracts."
When "Florencia de la Amazons" opens at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall on Feb. 26, it will be returning by popular demand. Daniel Catán's opera, originally com-missioned in 1994 by the Houston, Los Angeles and Seattle operas, premièred in Houston in 1996. Its lush music and fantastical Spanish-language libretto were heavily influenced by the works of Gabriel García Márquez.Seattle Opera pre-sented "Florencia" in March of 1998, and it was an unprecedented event: the first Mexican opera to be commissioned in Spanish by any American Opera company. Local audiences were enthusiastic; after opening night, all subsequent performances were sold out. The critics raved: