As musicians played lively folk music in the background, Kim Pham relaxed at a nearby table.She was taking a break from her artwork as she watched the crowds of people make their way down the hallway, taking in the colorful works of art lining the walls. Rich oil paintings, charcoal drawings and sketches of landscapes and portraits highlighted the creative atmosphere and brightened the mood.The low murmurs of excited voices filled the third floor of the St. Nicholas building at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art (SAFA), on 10th Avenue East, where the festivities were taking place.
Driving along 10th Avenue East on the north end of Capitol Hill you might be aware of the leafy residential district on either side of the busy arterial. You might also notice the former church building that has been home to the Bertschi School at 2227 10th Avenue East, a private elementary school that has occupied the site for a generation. But you might not be aware that a group of neighbors and the school are at considerable odds over the school's proposed expansion."It's a matter of maintaining the character of the neighborhood," said Larry Hettick, a longtime critic of the school's expansion plans.Hettick lives on Broadway East near the Bertschi School. He and many of his neighbors are concerned about increased traffic, parking problems and noise, issues they say the school has not adequately addressed and which they believe will be exacerbated.
Seattle has developed one of the strongest green building programs in the nation, according to a new study that tracks the growth of the industry in the city over the past five years.The report found that the city has helped spur growth in the green-building industry through policies aimed at private developers and by requiring environmentally-friendly designs for projects constructed during the largest municipal building boom since the Seattle fire of 1888. The report, "Building a Better City," is available online atwww.seattle.gov/dpd/sustainability.
The Greater Madison Valley Community held its 17th annual spaghetti dinner at M.L. King Elementary School Nov. 4. More than 100 people turned out for the neighborhood tradition.
Before the first, hard frost and strong winds of winter hit Seattle, thick piles of orange and yellow leaves made the streets of the Central Area radiant. Inside the Central Area Senior Center, the energy level was equally vibrant. "Let's Talk," a weekly dialogue between some of the center's members on a diverse range of topics, was just getting under way. The senior citizens arranged their chairs in a circle, silhouetted against a panoramic view of Mount Rainier and Lake Washington. In light of the center's current financial struggle, the topic for the morning was highly personal: Why is this center important to the community and to your life?Ola Crawford, a newer member, said, "It has been so wonderful for me. I'm able to interact with a lot of people and learn a lot while I'm here."
Everyone has so much on their minds during the month of December. Sometimes having one more thing to do, in addition to the many things you are already juggling, can send you right over the edge. Chances are this time of year "one more thing" will come in the form of an appetizer you are responsible for bringing to a party or two during the holidays. You may think your only relief is to buy something pre-made. But my enthusiasm for home-cooked foods runs rampant and I want to give you the relief you need with these two recipes. Neither will take much of your time and you will be able to say you made them yourself.
Thanksgiving was over and the day the nation was waiting for was finally here. Turkey sandwiches, left over pie, football, parade and at the top of the list: stores that open at 5 a.m.Unfortunately I missed it all. All I wanted to do was sleep. However my kith and kin, who are younger than I and more adventuresome than I, were scarfed and hatted and ready to go off in the rain to see the parade. They phoned three times to see if I'd changed my mind and each time I assured them that I wasn't feeling neglected and that they should just forget about me and have a jolly wet time.After I hung up the phone I congratulated myself for sticking to my refusal and yet I felt so sad. I had said no, whereas not too many years ago I would have bundled up and joined them. This time I turned over and went back to sleep.
There I am staring out the window at school, grade 2A at J. J. McGilvra Elementary School, thinking how smart I am to be able to read an entire sentence from the historic novel, "Dick and Jane." The next thing I know I am applying for my driver's license. That is the day the world opened in all its freedom and majesty.Passing the driver's test was another giant leap toward adulthood. Driving a car demanded certain responsibilities; and if one wasn't diligent in the rules of the road, the occasional traffic violation sometimes occurred. I liked spending many hours working on a 1942 Dodge 4-door car. It had been an army officer's car during World War II but my uncle, a veritable Rembrandt of car painters, and I had applied some 30 coats of midnight lacquer blue onto it, totally disguising its past reputation. The mirrored finish convinced us to continue the transformation by lowering the chassis, adding fender skirts and full moon hubcaps, and finally splitting the manifold. The icing on the cake was adding Smitty mufflers because it would give the ride a real hot-rod sound. Now, like anyone proud of their first car, I found just the right time to cruise by some girls I knew walking to school. I revved the motor and dropped the clutch leaving just the right amount of rubber.
There are moments in the 1933 "King Kong" that remain, against all odds and all accounting, sheer poetry. Like that predawn image of four flimsy biplanes rocking down a runway across the river from the New York skyline, imbued with the fragility and also the state-of-the-art, hi-tech grandeur of a still-new and daring mode of travel, lifting off for a murderous rendezvous with immortality.********So Peter Jackson, the man who made such a personal, cottage-industy triumph of "Lord of the Rings," has gone and remade "King Kong." The tech is as hi as it gets - we expected no less - and nothing in its deployment implies derision, or anything but reverence, for what O'Brien and company were able to accomplish seven Pleistocene decades ago. The first "Kong" is Jackson's favorite film, the movie that made him want to make movies of his own, and unlike the updated, charitably forgotten remake of 1976, Jackson's version restores the fable to its own proper zeitgeist, the Depression.
My heart has always stayed in Fremont," Pam Hinckley told me. She's been absent for a few years but, luckily for Fremont, her spirit, energy and heart have returned to the neighborhood. Thanks to Theo Chocolate, Pam has come back. "All roads lead to Mike Peck," Pam suggested. That's Fremont landowner and neighbor Mike who helped Joe Whinney, Theo founder, with real estate issues concerning the chocolate-factory building at 3400 Phinney Ave. N. Joe also asked Mike's advice about the special-events space in the building, and Mike recommended Pam, his friend and co-conspirator from the 1990s, as a great resource.Pam describes her first look at the chocolate factory with an enthusiastic grin. She loved the look of it - and the potential.
Jan. 1 comes around every year, and each time it feels like a grand opportunity to start anew. A clean slate, a new chapter, the time to do something differently, to make some changes. This is the time when we resolve to eat healthier, to go to the gym at least three times a week, to save more money or spend what we have more wisely. While these are extremely noble resolutions, I would like to invite you to be creative and look at some possibilities that might not have occurred to you.How about taking better care of yourself in 2006? How would it be if you resolved to take 15 minutes every day - OK, maybe every other day - when you are alone, just sitting in a chair, relaxing, breathing, resting.
* Staff additions: Tamara Bolton and Nancy Werner have joined ERA Care Communities, which owns and manages six Puget Sound retirement communities, including Ida Culver House Broadview, Ida Culver House Ravenna and University House at Wallingford.Bolton is the new human-services director. She previously served as assistant human-services director for The Tacoma News Tribune.Werner is the new director of sales. She has more than 20 years of sales experience, most recently as senior director of community relations at Sunrise Assisted Living.
One of the challenges of today's hectic society is finding ways for different generations to keep in touch. Students have more homework and extra activities than ever. Grandparents are busy, too, with their own world of interests. One solution to this challenge - on the local level - is a new North Seattle newspaper, The Olympic View, recently launched by local high school students with guidance from ERA Care Communities staff.The Olympic View "covers the beat" of the Ida Culver House Broadview, a retirement community owned and operated by ERA Care Communities.
Sometimes when modern times seem too hectic and the world moves too fast, I like to walk to a place were the atmosphere is a step back in time. This place - called Third Place Books - is a bookstore at North 65th Street and 20th Avenue Northeast. I like to stop there, have coffee and look at books on the shelves.I'm drawn to the interior of this building. Not many structures grab me this way, but inside, it is old-fashioned, creaky and wooden. The wooden floor has an unfinished, pitted and knotted look. The bookshelves also are made of knotted wood.The inside of Third Place moves me back to a different time in my life. It has the feel of those old, corner grocery stores that were around when I was a kid in the 1940s and '50s.
The gallery occupies a modest, house-like structure - it was actually built as a church - across the street from Red Mill Burgers. The Francine Seders Gallery, 6701 Greenwood Ave. N., is a Phinney landmark fitting snugly into its surroundings. The quiet, neighborhood location seems almost paradoxical, given the cachet of the Seders name.But Parisian-born Seders is accustomed to steering by her own lights. She drives a 1966 Mustang. She keeps fit with gardening, tai chi, Aikido and walking the Phinney-Greenwood neighborhood, where she lives. She's known many of the Northwest artistic masters - Mark Tobey and Guy Anderson, among them - but doesn't dwell on it.