Every Friday at 7 p.m., Keystone Congregational Church opens its doors to the Wallingford community for Friday Night at the Meaningful Movies, presented by the Wallingford Neighbors for Peace and Justice.The free weekly event includes a film on a particular issue of social justice. The movies are usually up to an hour long, followed by a discussion with a guest speaker that ends the evening around 9:30 p.m.
I am a horrible driver. I've been doing it wrong for years, and I had no idea. Although I have caused no accidents, nor participated in any collisions requiring bodywork or insurance agents, I am still driving-impaired. The fact that I've never had a ticket doesn't mean that I know what I'm doing, either. How could I have gone for years and years thinking - nay, believing - that I was a safe and conscientious driver, you might ask. The answer is clear: I never had a teenager in my car with a driver's permit in her purse. Not only does she hold a legal document, entitling her to get behind the wheel of a car while one of her adult progenitors white-knuckles the dashboard, it appears that her license is also gives her, er, license to tell me every move I make is the wrong one.
The history of Fremont runs deep and, these days, fast. It surprised Heather McAuliffe when she tried to join a Fremont Historical Society (FHS) that we no longer had one. In 1973 the FHS met - for about eight months, according to member Roger Wheeler. It didn't even last long enough to help with a historical survey done in 1975. This time, however, Heather, Roger and Paul Fellows want to see their FHS not only start but seriously succeed.Their Pieces of History kickoff event scheduled for Saturday, May 7, follows a year of preparation. They'll welcome new volunteers, accept offers of information and answer questions at the Fremont Library, 731 N. 35th St., from 2 to 5 p.m. To make it more interesting, Paul Dorpat will present a slide show on neighborhood history at 3 p.m.
For students at Alternative School No. 1 in North Seattle, Afghanistan hardly feels like a world away. The One Face at a Time International Exchange Program connects Seattle children with children in Kabul, Afghanistan. It matches students in countries where there may be conflict or fundamental misunderstandings of culture, and creates an exchange through letters, photos, storytelling, videos, poetry, technology and artwork to solve problems.
An April 28 public meeting about plans for a new park in Magnolia was supposed to garner ideas for a preferred design, but comments coming from roughly three dozen people at the meeting focused more on what they didn't want to happen than what they did.The fledging park is currently a derelict playground that used to be part of the long-closed Magnolia Elementary School on 28th Avenue West between West McGraw and West Smith streets. It's been Seattle Parks and Recreation property for around 70 years, explained Parks planner Cathy Tuttle. "But it was in a long-term lease to Seattle public schools."With the closing of the elementary school, however, the 2 1/2 acres of land behind the school has ended up back in Parks Department hands, she said. It hasn't been forgotten, though, and almost $1.4 million was earmarked for its revival in the Pro Parks Levy.
Walking toward the tiny green recording studio somewhat arbitrarily placed in a far corner of a Fremont parking lot, I watch as the members of The Muttering Guppies set up for another recording session. The drummer offers me an ice-cold Pacifico and empties his equipment from the back of his gray pickup. I swing my legs off the side of the wooden deck outside, the hot afternoon sun beating down on my face, listening while the guys discuss potential inventions and politics.In the dark, sweaty studio, James Thomas, creator of the Guppies and a Magnolia resident, stands in the middle of the room in a black T-shirt and jeans fiddling with his microphone. The drummer and bass player lurk in the dim corners of the small space.A 1970s gold-framed painting of pink flamingos hangs on the far wall and a pilot hat adorns a mannequin head staring mockingly from the top of the recording equipment, as if to say, "Let's see if you guys can get it right this time."
A slew of new books will be arriving this summer dealing with the issues of children today being separate from the natural world. And a name has been attached to this condition: Nature-Deficit Disorder. Oh, my, another thing for parents to fret about.It does seem, however, that happily playing in the mud or building magical treehouses has gone the way of the dodo bird. Now the little darlings are attached to the screens of their PlayStations, Game Boys or the television. Or, if there is some interaction with nature, it is planned, just like soccer games or swim lessons.
"The Tales of Hoffmann," which opens at the Seattle Opera on Saturday, May 7, has a rich and colorful history, locally and generally. Composed by Jacques Offenbach, the opera had its Seattle première in 1970 with John Alex-ander and Joan Suth-erland in the leads. The 1980 production starred Dennis Bailey and Ashley Putnam. Both productions were in the era when Seattle Opera was under the artistic directorship of Glynn Ross, who put Seattle on the map as the Ring Capital of the U.S., and also presented two productions of each opera, one in English and one in the language of the composer. In Speight Jenkins' time there was a production in 1990. I attended them all and am eagerly looking forward to the new production.
Of course, you can't mention Southern cooking without paying homage to grits, or "South Carolina ice cream," as my father refers to them. Grits are the centerpiece of many a Southern breakfast.What exactly is a grit?To start with, there is no such thing as a "Grit Tree." Southerners like to hide a smile when a Yankee friend wants to know where grits grow.Simply put, grits are small, broken grains of corn.
Well, the state Legislature has convened and disbanded once again, as they do every winter down in Olympia. There's already been plenty writ-ten about the new and "im-proved" gas tax, which will add 9.5 cents to the price of each gallon of gas motorists pur-chase in our state - a levy slated to be phased in gradually over the next four years. There's also been quite a bit written about the state Senate defeat, by one vote, of House Bill 1515, which would have banned discrimination against gays and lesbians. In the case of the gas tax, 11 Republican legislators crossed the House aisle to vote with their Democratic colleagues in raising somewhere around $8 billion to help replace large pieces of our aging transportation infrastructure - most notably for us in Seattle, the Alaskan Way Viaduct. In the case of the gay tax (there's still a price to pay for being "different"), two Democratic senators, Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam and Tim Sheldon, who represents those bastions of liberty Mason and Kitsap counties, joined Republican bigots to ensure that gays in the Evergreen State can't be guaranteed the same legal protections other minorities receive inside our state's allegedly liberal borders.
I knew what the guy was going to do before he did it.The cloverleaf near the south end of the Ballard Bridge, where Nickerson, Emerson and Elliott Way come more or less together, is a tricky spot. If you're coming up Nickerson and bending right with the intention of heading north across the bridge, you have no stop sign, but you do have to watch yourself, and others. Somebody coming down around the mini-skyway from the direction of Fishermen's Terminal/Magnolia could plow into you on the left. And straight ahead - well, there is no "straight ahead" when you have something like a 270-degree turn to execute; but there's that transit stop on the bus lane that parallels the main Elliott Way traffic lanes.Last Saturday - bright, sunny afternoon, clear as a bell - I had no motorist on my left, and no bus lurking at the bridge-end pickup area. But I did spot a bicyclist headed north on Elliott. He was in the bus lane, almost invisible thanks to the transit rain shelter, but I saw him.
I can only write about my family reunion in hindsight, as if my memories need to develop slowly like a photo in the dark. I look back and the reasons for going seem obvious, but initially I resisted.But the world is shifting beneath our feet: a catastrophe of political will and confusion, which is never a good mix when men and might are involved. The personal effect has been even larger: an almost feral need to connect or reconnect with those I love.Upon arriving, I was stunned to see my past in my family's eyes. From then on I was transfixed every step of the way. So much so, I immediately began scribbling notes on my cocktail napkin. But instead of feeling like a writer, I felt like a spy. Not the sister, daughter, cousin, niece and aunt I needed to be between breath-catching silences.
My father, Mike Choman, sipped his gin-and-tonic and traded amazed head-shakes and superlatives with his friend and bandmate, Glenn Isaacson, during Earl Klugh's concert at Dimit-riou's Jazz Alley last Thursday night. I sat with these two men from Wenatchee whom I have often heard talk technically about music, as they took turns identifying jazz standards. When Klugh called out one they hadn't heard of, they agreed to play it at their next gig.My dad drove over earlier in the afternoon simply to see this concert, to spend the evening with me and share his musical expertise. Our table was at most 6 feet from the stage; the intimate setting of this concert allowed the audience to connect with Klugh, to really appreciate his mastery of the guitar.
Exercise. For many of us it is a love/hate relationship. We feel like we have to do it, but we don't really enjoy it. Why do we work so hard at something we don't always enjoy? Is it the promise of body fat lost, or that exercise high we feel? We operate under the assumption of a physical if/then equation. If I put in the time, I will see the results. In the beginning this is the case. You head to the gym, find the nearest treadmill and climb, on and 30 minutes later you are done. After that you hit the machines for your strength training. Initially, this workout program works and since January you have lost 5-10 pounds. But in the last two weeks nothing has happened. Your body has turned on you and revolted! WHAT IS GOING ON?
The days are longer, the weather is nicer and there's never a better time to grab a good book and head to a park. In May at the Capitol Hill branch library, Preschool Story Times will continue at their regular time: every Wednesday morning at 10:30 for a half-hour, (except for May 4).Also, a reminder: All city libraries, including the Capitol Hill branch, will be closed on May 30 in observance of Memorial Day.Here a few choice titles worth considering before summer vacation.