Like many other Boomers, I have been accused of Me-ism. You know, a focus on my own problems and little petty goals at the expense of the greater good. There is a school of belief in some of the under-40s that all Boomers are little Baby Neros, fiddling away on their "personal goals" while Rome burns.I am no Mother Teresa, admittedly. But I pretty firmly believe that some-where in the past decade there has been a sea change in this country that has much more to do with the cell-phone folks, under 50, than the Boomers.Granted, I didn't really get much better, more selfless, more concerned with the less fortunate. But many of you got worse.Our papers are full of stories about the Sonics and their rich, youngish yuppie owners demanding that we, the poor schmuck taxpayers - most of us shorter than 6-6, just about minimum size for a decent nonpower forward these days - pay for their gotta-have-it-refurbished-or-we-will-leave KeyArena.This in a city where 12 schools are being closed and an estimated half-million-plus folks (in King County) don't have health insurance.
Volunteers from the Space Needle teamed up at the Seattle Center last Thursday with Habitat for Humanity of Seattle and South King County to partially build and disassemble two houses before loading the parts onto trucks for shipment to Mississippi victims of last year's devastating hurricane season.The homes were paid for with more than $164,000 raised last fall in a Tackling Hurricane Relief effort that pitted Washington State University against the University of Washington in an Apple Cup fundraising competition, said Space Needle spokeswoman Mary Bacarella. (WSU won.) "Early on, it was an effort that was completely supported by Space Needle ownership," she said. In fact, the traditional rivalry between the two schools extends to the Wright family, which owns the Space Needle. Howard Wright is a Cougar, while his brother Jeff is a Husky, said Dean Nelson, Space Needle president and CEO. "So we had little bit of friendly competition, well ... competition," Nelson grinned.
In these difficult times, middle school students are facing more problems than past generations of early teens. Drugs, sex, gangs and family issues are only the tip of the iceberg for students in transition into adolescence. Most of them adequately handle such pressures and are able to stay on the right track in school. But there are a large handful of students who have difficulty with these issues and are affected more severely. The result often manifests itself at school in the form of chronic truancy or behavior issues with peers and teachers. This usually ends up in the expulsion or long-term suspension of the student. Often such kids can't afford to miss any more school than they have already.
The thin, gray light this month creates quiet scenes out our windows as we surround ourselves with full-color plant catalogues and lengthy order lists. As one leafs through these seductive tomes, the mind wanders and then leaps into flights of fancy. Must have this, and this, and ...How quickly we forget the treasures already existing in our gardens.Pulling on some warm, bulky clothes, I took a fast amble through my winter-chilled garden on New Year's Day. There were new, luminescent blobs close to the ground that will soon unfurl into hellebore flowers. The Daphne bhuloa was covered with small, soft-pink florets.
After a Wagnerian summer, the Seattle Opera opens its 2006 season with a Viennese-light confection: "Die Fledermaus" (The Bat) by Johann Strauss II, a delightful operetta filled with wonderful, lilting music. "You ought to write operettas, Herr Strauss," he had been told by Jacques Offenbach, who was then enjoying triumphs in Vienna. The year was 1865, and Strauss, at 40, had never seriously considered following Offenbach's example by writing for the stage. With his dance music - polkas, galops and, above all, waltzes - Strauss had become famous; he was musical director of the court balls and conductor of an orchestra with which he had acquired a dazzling international reputation on tour. So what did Offenbach mean by sowing the seed of doubt in his mind, telling him that he "ought to write operettas"?
For me, January is a month of reformation, when I need to bask in the company of others more often. And so, as gales gust through our sea-port of a city (as well as our bank accounts), I seek the kind of laughter that spills out in every direction. Accompanied by a choco-late martini, the combination gives me a whole new perspective on winter ... and credit card debt.So, after a whirlwind of holiday socializing, gatherings where I'm usually too well-behaved and awkward to be myself, I make a point to carve out one-on-one time with my inner circle of friends, women who strive to live fully and don't mind sharing what goes on with them. It seems no matter where we are in our lives, we can talk until insight is ours. This exchange uplifts the slump that sets itself down on me as soon as the twinkling lights of December are gone and one gray day folds into the next.
My son came running into my room last night complaining that he'd lost all feeling in his butt. This didn't come as a huge surprise, although it did make me wonder what he'd done this time. After all, this is the boy who stuck his hand into a blender, the one who thinks having his appendages turn purple is a badge of boyhood honor, and who has peed on his cousins from the top of a tall cedar tree. Not much surprises me about his antics any more. At this particular time he was shivering and shaking, so I told him to take a hot shower. He emerged an hour later, after emptying the hot water tank, to tell me this story.
Well, another 365 days are in the can.Readers often ask me about my little life, which I men-tion in this space in oblique, and not-so-oblique, ways every seven days - usually without getting super-personal.I thought, why not do a year-in-review thang for the curious? The rest of you can skim, if you don't wanna overload on Wilken News.Let's start with the Big Dog, God.What hath God wrought in 2005?On the world scene, there was the tsunami.On the national scene, there was Katrina.Scratch about 500,000 lives.As far as disasters go, Pinhead comes in a distant third with his continuing police-action war in Iraq, trailing God badly in damage done and lives ended, wrecked or at least derailed for a time.
LORRA CORNETTE"Normally I make a resolution to not make resolutions, but this year I am doing some. All of the traditional ones: stop smoking, lose weight, exercise more and not be so hard on myself. The last resolution is great because it usually gives me an excuse to not keep the first three."DAVID MEISSNER "I tend to not make resolutions, and I am not making any this year. Whatever I didn't resolve last year I won't resolve this year."
Pho (pronounced fuh) is an aromatic, hearty Vietnamese soup so beloved in its country of country that it's considered the national soup. Conceived in North Vietnam's Hanoi shortly after French occupation, it was popularized throughout the country in the 1950s, when those fleeing communism brought the soup to their new homes in the south. By the time it made its way to America, Pho was well established as the comfort food of a divided nation.Today, pho restaurants are fairly common in Seattle, where the Vietnamese population was sixth highest in the country in 2000. Queen Anne got its first taste of pho with the recent opening of PhoViet Anh Restaurant (372 Roy St., 352-1881).
A few months ago in this space we noted the return from limbo of the beloved mid-'50s mega-hit "The High and the Mighty," sprung from the vaults of John Wayne's old Batjac company thanks to a deal with Paramount Pictures. Any restoration is by definition a happy occasion, but now there's news of much greater aesthetic and historical consequence from the same quarter. Two weeks ago, Paramount gave us back the best movie by far ever to sport the Batjac label: the legendary 1956 Western "Seven Men From Now."
"Casanova" is pretty good fun for most of its hour-and-three-quarters running time, something you wouldn't get from many of the reviews - and fun is something you don't get at all if you have the misfortune to sit down before the brown fog of "The Libertine," coming soon with Johnny Depp as the Earl of Rochester, England's answer to Casanova. But although the peripatetically priapic 18th-century Italian lover is first encountered here lurking about a particularly friendly nunnery, the movie treats his amatory escapades as low comedy rather than sensual adventures, and averts its gaze as quickly as possible.In this, as in many other ways, "Casanova" shows little interest in exploring the adventures of the real Giacomo Casanova and the multifaceted figure he cut in the Europe of his day. Which is OK, I guess. Comedy is not in such oversupply that we can afford to scorn so sprightly a specimen as this Touchstone release, filmed in never-more-photogenic Venice with director Lasse Hallström maintaining the pacing and tone with an easy hand.
From the moment you walk into Veil - a newly opened (and much-anticipated) restaurant located on the corner of Taylor and Aloha, a pocket of Queen Anne undergoing steady renovations and construction - you know you're in a potential hotspot. The interior of the restaurant is almost entirely white: from the walls, to the furniture, to the sheer drapes that cover the windows and compartmentalize spaces throughout. The bar has a sheen of cool, with private booths and small, white leather stools on either side of a long, communal table that runs down its middle. The minimalist dining room, which might have felt overly spare, is somehow inviting and warm, with a noise level that's kept mercifully low - a quality that too many new restaurants are neglecting. Then there's the menu, replete with the trendiest ingredients and prices confirming that this is not your mother's Queen Anne. With entrees from $23 to $29, the real question is whether the food measures up to all of the trappings. The answer is: yes.
Someday we will say "we knew him when"Josh Brown, who graduated from the International School last June, produced a video as his senior project which is being used to help enlist support for the Bridle Trails Park Foundation.Josh approached the foundation board with a request for help to produce a documentary about public/private partnerships. Josh was inspired to create a documentary for his senior project after attending a one week environmental filmmaking class at Western Washington University. He chose the foundation as the focus of his documentary because his family uses the park for hiking and running.Josh worked for more than 11 months on the project and interviewed foundation board members, park ranger Mary Welborn and director of Washington State Parks, Rex Derr.He wrote a paper detailing the content and focus of the project and then spent hours filming and editing. The result is a terrific 10 minute video which captures the history of Bridle Trails State Park, the purpose of the Bridle Trails Park Foundation and the unique partnership between the foundation and state parks. Josh received his principal's "Spirit of International High School" award.
114th Ave. N.E. intersectionIf you were not able to attend the Highlands meeting on Nov. 17, I strongly encourage you to look at the draft design for the 114th Ave. N.E. intersection and send any comments to the city right away. You can view the design at www.KirklandHighlands.org. Send your comments to Don Anderson at 587-3826 or DAnderson@ci.kirkland.wa.us. The design calls for widening 114th to the east (toward the freeway) to make room for a second left turn lane. This will cause two things to happen: the "S" curve will get bigger, and the I-405 offramp lane will get shorter. Both of these are safety concerns. The next time you leave our neighborhood on 114th, try to picture these changes.