West Seattle, Washington
05 Saturday
Never mind the weather, there’s no such thing as a bad weekend … this time around, we’ve found 31 WS events for you to enjoy:Read More
Just launched: Version 1.0 of our brand-new Events page, stocked with a variety of events coming up in West Seattle (and a select few elsewhere, but of WS relevance) over the next three months. If you are involved with an event of public interest and you don’t see it there yet, please send e-mail to tell us about it. One of the events on the page already is the October fundraising dinner/auction for West Seattle’s only private high school, Seattle Lutheran HS; WSB readers sent us full details too, including a call for more auction donations:Read More
This reminds us, we’ve been meaning to mention Skylark has music Thursdays as well as Fri-Sat-Sun.
Checking back on the Evergreen State Barbecue Championship happening along the Alki promenade all weekend — Yes, there is indeed one vendor selling food (from a $2 corncob to a $24 full platter with full rack of ribs), if they haven’t run out by now! Meantime, the judging is happening hourly; we were there at brisket-judging time, and followed Jonathan from Edmonds as he left his battle station and headed for the judging table holding what he proclaimed would be the prize-winning brisket (plus our videographer asked him to predict the outcome of the Seahawks-Bengals game, which at that point hadn’t started):
Among the most amusing aspects of the Barbecue Championship, from an onlooker’s perspective, is the wide variety of wordplay in the team names and their attire, logos, banners, etc. We caught up with this next guy mostly because of his T-shirt:
Also seen at Alki today, just past the east end of Barbecue Row: The Statue of Liberty Plaza Project crew, selling their $20 fundraising T-shirts. As mentioned at the last public meeting, they’re trying to get all their fundraising done by year’s end.
Going to the Farmers’ Market with kid(s)? Today’s the day they can join the Zucchini Races.
Fall officially arrives early Sunday morning. Before and after that, there’s a massive amount of things to do in WS — from Holy Rosary’s annual WestFest tonight and tomorrow, to the North Delridge Adopt-a-Street cleanup, to tonight’s rescheduled outdoor movie (weather looks better), to the last Children of the Revolution appearance (they’re fabulous) of the season at Cafe Rozella tonight, and tons more: 37 events ahead!Read More
5-8 PM TONIGHT: Fall art show reception @ Alki Bathhouse.
7 PM TONIGHT: Alki Community Council meets @ Alki Community Center.
7 PM TOMORROW: Gate opens, next to Hotwire, for rescheduled Sidewalk Cinema presentation of “Monty Python & the Holy Grail.” Hope the weather holds!
Just a quick advance mention of two WS weekend events that hit our radar today — the Evergreen State Barbecue Championships are happening on Alki both days this weekend (usually quite a scene with barbecue crews camping out in RVs nearby); the West Seattle Farmers’ Market on Sunday is hosting Zucchini Races, 10 am-1 pm, inviting kids to build and race “vegetable vehicles” like the one below (photo courtesy Neighborhood Farmers’ Market Alliance):
Sadly, it’s true — this is the last full weekend of true summer. (The autumnal equinox happens early Sunday morning 9/23.) No shortage of things to do, however — such as, join EarthCorps and others to spruce up Me-Kwa-Mooks, cheer on the Northwest Hope and Healing half-marathoners and 5Kers, celebrate West Seattle authors … 31 events ahead.Read More
… and there’s plenty of time to go Art Walk-ing, before and/or after the Alki Statue of Liberty meeting: The folks at Divina remind us that they are participating in the Art Walk tonight and featuring live Brazilian music, with Kiko Freitas 6-8 pm and Eduardo Mendonca 8-10 pm.
We e-mailed Cafe Rozella owner Ricardo Guarnero to ask about a blurb in the newest City of Seattle Neighborhoods Newsletter saying that he was thinking about moving the coffee/culture hotspot. Ricardo responded quickly to say, no, he’s not moving, because: “We like the spot we have and are committed to the White Center community, which we treasure.” (Technically, Cafe Rozella is on the border, if you consider there to be one, between West Seattle and White Center — it’s within the city limits.) He also wants everyone to know: “We have just published the Rozella Review, a journal of writings and poems by White Center residents and would-be WC residents. The reaction has been very positive. If anyone wants to take a look at one or even buy one ($10) they can drop by the cafe.” If you can’t get to Cafe Rozella sooner (or even if you can), tomorrow night is a fantastic time to drop by. CR has live music every Friday night but tomorrow night, when Jovino Santos Neto performs at 7 pm, CR is also part of the monthly Music Nights in White Center event; read more here about who’s performing where at other nearby venues.
Any time now, that bright blue cover comes off for the final weekend of the 2007 season at West Seattle’s only public outdoor pool, Colman Pool on the shore at Lincoln Park. (Our favorite way to get there is to park near Lowman Beach and walk the south stretch of Beach Drive, plus the unpaved section of Lincoln Park shore trail.) Both days this weekend, Colman Pool is open for lap swim noon-1:30 pm and 5-7 pm, public swim 1:45-4:45 pm. After Sunday, unless you belong to one of the private organizations with pools (Allstar, YMCA), your swimming option will be Southwest Pool (on Thistle next to the SW Community Center, a few blocks east of 35th).
To help you find the Weekend Lineup more easily, we’ve given it a category of its own — you will always find the latest one by clicking WS Weekend Lineup in the categories list at right (or bookmark the link). As for this weekend, 28 possibilities so far:
Rhonda from Beach Drive Blog (who also runs this week’s Citizen Rain “Blog Of The Week,” The Mortgage Porter) reminds us all that today is your last chance to visit the Walker Rock Garden till next year. She has a nice photo gallery from the garden here.
If you’ve been looking for more ways to show your love for, devotion to, crazy-mad-nuts-aboutness regarding, West Seattle … check out the WS Art Dive next to Hotwire this weekend. Right at the gate, we found artist Jason Olcott selling two types of T-shirts that might meet your need … one is black, fists on the front with WEST SIDE across the knuckles, WEST SEATTLE on the back; the other is pink, inscribed in script, WEST SEATTLE GIRL. 20 bucks. Those are only two of the catchy creations we browsed at the Art Dive; participating artists are there, basking in the sun, awaiting your visit, till 5 today, 10-5 tomorrow.
You don’t need to go hang out in the shadow of the Space Needle to enjoy yourself this weekend. We’ve found 21 ways to have a blast here in WS (and environs), including the West Seattle Art Dive!Read More
Tomorrow, you get two “last chances”: First, last chance to ride the Elliott Bay Water Taxi‘s special early run, 6:10 am. As you may recall, this extra run was added for Freeway Fright ’07; the road work ended early, but Metro stretched the bonus WT run one full week to gather data. The Water Taxi’s regular season, by the way, has another month to go — it continues through September 30th.
Second, it’s the last non-holiday weekday of the year at Colman Pool. The beautiful beachfront pool at Lincoln Park will be open daily through Labor Day, then closed till one final “post-season weekend” Saturday-Sunday, September 8th-9th. For us, it’s just not summer unless we swim there at least once.
September is almost here, and with it arrives your annual chance to pull a fun stunt for a good cause: 
The Furry Faces Foundation is offering you the chance to send somebody a flock of plastic pink flamingos — 10 bucks for every five birds you would like them to land in your target’s yard. To quote the FFF press release, “All flamingo flocks are modestly accessorized with Hawaiian leis, boas or Mardi Gras jewelry and after a 24-48 hour stay over, they will mysteriously disappear.” The concept has a few more fun enhancements, including the ability to purchase “insurance” against somebody sending a flock your way. You can order a flamingo flock by e-mall (furryfaces@hotmail.com), phone (932-1652), or by picking up/dropping off an application at Hotwire Coffee or Pet Elements.
According to both the Hotwire Coffee website and a WSB reader who attended last night’s outdoor movie, the rescheduled date for the Sidewalk Cinema presentation of “Monty Python & the Holy Grail” (rained out last weekend) is Friday night, September 21st. See you there!
From the Sunday events in our West Seattle weekend lineup (posted on the site every Friday morning), two today-onlies:
ARTS IN NATURE FESTIVAL, DAY 2: Its name evokes “paintings among the trees” to the uninitiated, but the schedule of events is far wilder, in more ways than one. Camp Long, 11 am-6 pm.
SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK LIVE, JR., FINAL PERFORMANCE: 2 pm today @ ArtsWest. The kids in this show put it together during a month of Musical Theater Adventures day camp, and we’ve heard nothing but good things. (Mentioning them one last time gives us the excuse to run this cute photo, courtesy ArtsWest.)
With school starting in less than 2 weeks, the machinery’s starting to rumble for kid activities too. We got e-mail this week from Camp Fire USA, which wants WS families to know it’s starting registration for group programs (and in addition to what’s mentioned in that link, even has a preschooler-level program for kids as young as three; Camp Fire offers “community family clubs” too). We have a soft spot for Camp Fire; one of us was a Blue Bird way back when (and was sad to learn while working on this post that the Blue Bird designation was retired in ’89).
Last weekend in August, and we just can’t bear to see any more rain. We’ve got rowing & volleyball at Alki, the Art in Nature Festival, a narrated history walk around eastern WS, and a job fair (today!) … 31 ways to have fun without leaving the peninsula:Read More
Just a few one-time only events in this advance alert (much more tomorrow morning in our weekly WS Weekend Lineup):
TONIGHT: Open house @ High Point Community Center, 6:30 pm. (It’s a beautiful facility, just 3 years old.)
TONIGHT: The Southwest Design Review Board meets @ SW Precinct, 6:30 pm, to review the proposed new building at the Alki Pegasus Pizza site.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Last outdoor concert of the season @ Providence Mt. St. Vincent, dinner available @ 5 (wine-tasting booth too), music by the fabulous West Seattle Big Band starts @ 6.
SATURDAY: The Great Cross-Sound Race, with rowers going from Alki to Bainbridge and back.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Festival season isn’t over yet! Arts in Nature happens at Camp Long all weekend. It’s presented by the Nature Consortium, a WS-based organization profiled today in the Times.
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