Tag Archives: blue scholars

Arts, BH in the News, Neighborhood Pride

Prometheus Brown speaks about gun violence

The Seattle Times asked Prometheus Brown (Geo from Blue Scholars) to write a guest column about the recent gun violence in the city. Geo gave them a song, performed from what looks like Dr. Jose Rizal Park on Beacon Hill:

Tryin’a do the right thing. I don’t have the answers,
but neither does a person who practices double standards.
If every death’s a tragedy then join us when we’re chanting,
and not just when we’re singing and dancing. Too many

shots fired in the south end, nobody cares.
Shots fired in the north end, everybody scared.
Nothing they can do for us that we can’t do ourselves.
Point the finger at the mirror instead of somebody else.

Click on the image to see the video performance.

The post has generated 132 comments so far on the Times page; sadly, many of them were racist or misinformed. “Big shout to the ppl who got my back against the @seattletimes comment section crazies,” tweeted Geo this afternoon. “My favorite @seattletimes comment section response to my editorial: ‘don’t quit your day job.'”

The Montlaker blog had the best tweet in reply: “While @prometheusbrown points out Seattleites live in different cities, @seattletimes commenters live in completely different worlds.”

The Times is also hosting a live chat on the Seattle shootings Wednesday, June 13 at noon with Geo/Prometheus and Cafe Racer regular Andrew Swanson, who also wrote an op-ed for the newspaper this week.

Geo will appear alongside many other performers at today’s Beacon Boogie Block Party outside The Station coffee shop at 5 p.m.

Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: Movie lights and skate park lights

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Jefferson Park sidewalk. Photo by Joel Lee in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.

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Local group Blue Scholars have a short film contest in progress to promote their album Cinemetropolis. See this video for details. Deadline is April 6.

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The Seattle P-I has a photo series, “What Seattle neighborhood are you?” Beacon Hill is represented, but we daresay they don’t know us very well: “BEACON HILL: You were happily climbing the social ladder until you found out the love of your life was two-timing you with then-grungy South Lake Union. Forget Amazon. You can do better than that, Beacon Hill.” Love of our life? Bah. They wish.

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Apparently the lighting at the new Jefferson Skate Park is less than ideal. But Seattle Parks is working on getting it right.

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Former Beacon Hill resident Roger Valdez published an article recently in the Seattle Transit Blog with a radical anti-zoning suggestion: “Beacon Hill: The Revolution Won’t Be Measured in Feet.” But then he followed up with another Beacon-centric post: “Zeroing in on Beacon Hill.” What do you think of his suggestions?

Beacon Bits

A Bit missed: “Fou Lee” cinemagraphed

(This was intended to be in the earlier Beacon Bits post, but due to an editing error, it didn’t appear.)

Erick Zuniga (@EStodaZ on Twitter) created this hypnotic “cinemagraph” featuring a few frames from the Blue Scholars’ video, “Fou Lee.” Cinemagraphs are still images in which a minor action is animated in a repeating movement. Here are some good examples. And here are more.

(Here’s the full video, chock-full of Beacon Hill scenery and tasty chicken adobo.)

Arts

Get Off the Hill: Blue Scholars, World on a Wire

This is the first of an occasional series of “Get Off the Hill” posts, in which the BHB will mention some entertainment options that aren’t in the neighborhood. We love spending time on Beacon Hill, but we can’t spend all our time here. Occasionally it’s worth leaving the hill for a good movie or a concert.

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Beacon Hill hip-hop duo Blue Scholars have just started their first nationwide tour and will be playing in front of the hometown crowd in an all-ages show at the Showbox at the Market, Saturday night, September 17. The tour will take them all the way to New York City, where they’ll wrap up the whole shebang on November 11.

The Showbox show is sold out. We hope you have tickets. If not, perhaps you can catch them in Portland, Olympia, or Bellingham. (Tickets are cheaper there anyway.)

In the meantime, check out this discussion between Sabzi of Blue Scholars and Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes of Tarboo Inc., and enjoy this song:

Continue reading Get Off the Hill: Blue Scholars, World on a Wire →

Arts, Neighborhood Pride

Blue Scholars’ “Fou Lee” video released

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“Cruise on the Hill, getting food at Fou Lee.” Blue Scholars have a new song and video, “Fou Lee,” that features local stores Fou Lee and MC Foods, along with what looks like some pretty tasty cooking. (Watch the video all the way to the end and you’ll see a list of the ingredients in chicken adobo.) Release parties for their new album, Cinemetropolis, are June 17 and 18 at Neumos.

Thanks to Tyler Hill for pointing us to the video!

Beacon Bits, BH in the News

Beacon Bits: Stale and crumbly

[Some quickies of varied age and interest. –Ed]

Who’s got the worst storm drain in the city? We do! — Seattle P-I’s Big Blog

Chow Bio of The Station’s Luis Rodriguez in The Stranger.

Inay’s gets a visit from a Seattle Times reviewer.

Former Beaconian Roger Valdez revisits and discusses transit-oriented development and tunnels in the Daily Journal of Commerce.

Angela Garbes of the Seattle Weekly nabbed a bag of peppers from the informal farmers market near the VA.

Blue Scholars ‘mature’ with a show at The Paramount this Wednesday — Matson on Music in The Seattle Times

Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: Bumps, bacon, and the blues

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This pothole was found somewhere on Beacon Hill by photographer sodoheights, who added it to the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr. Thanks!
The “Bumper to Bumper” column in the Seattle Times addressed a much-discussed Beacon Hill topic this week: Beacon Avenue’s bumpy pavement outside of the light rail station. According to a spokesman for Sound Transit quoted in the column, we should be seeing some relief for the the poor pavement when that segment of Beacon is repaved in the next couple of months.

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Some Beaconians might be curious about what happened to former Culinary Communion operator Gabriel Claycamp and his pork emporium, The Swinery, after Claycamp decamped from Beacon Hill back to West Seattle last year. It turns out the road has not been entirely smooth (some of the comments on that post are interesting, to say the least), but Claycamp and the Swinery did get a positive write-up from the New York Times’ T Magazine Blog recently.

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Elliott Jones of El Centro writes with more news about tasty tamales:

Have you been one of the lucky attendees of El Centro de la Raza’s tamale classes? Chances are, you haven’t – they have been wildly popular and have been selling out quick! Here’s a link to sign up for the next one, on May 15th (they are every 3rd Saturday, by the way).

Our April class is this Saturday, so that means that even though you might not be able to learn how to make them yourself, this month, you can still purchase some! Tamales are $12/dozen and you must order by Wednesday at 5pm.

To order, call Ashley Haugen at 206-957-4611 or e-mail development@elcentrodelaraza.org.

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The Dana Lupinacci Band is playing blues and jazz on Thursday night at the Beacon Pub, 3057 Beacon Avenue South. Show is at 8:00, and there is no cover charge.

Also in musical news on the Hill: We neglected to mention that Beacon Hill’s own Blue Scholars were featured in The Stranger a couple of weeks ago.

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Some lowlife stole a couple of kids’ bikes right off their front porch. “1 royal blue/silver/black 20″ mongoose, BMX style with pegs. Right handbrake is cracked. 1 lime green/silver 20″ Next, BMX style with pegs.” If you’ve seen them, please contact the parents.

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Denise Louie Education Center is holding their Fifth Annual Children and Families Festival on Saturday, May 22 from 1:00 – 4:00 pm at their Beacon Hill location, 3327 Beacon Avenue South. The event is free and open to the public, and will feature food, music, crafts, and community resources. Volunteers are needed. For more information or if you are interested in volunteering, please contact Frances Lin at 206-792-9771 or email flin@deniselouie.org.

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The Rainier Valley Cooperative Preschool is hosting a rummage sale this Saturday, April 24.  The school is located at the Beacon Lutheran Church, 1720 South Forest Street (just across Beacon from the library).

Beacon Bits

Beacon Bits: Anime, biking in Portland, local remixes

Anime collection photo by Paul Fisk (CC BY-SA)
There is an Anime Club event at the Beacon Hill library on the second Tuesday of each month (that’s tonight!) from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The club is free and open to all, with no registration required. Each month there will be new anime episodes along with old favorites, and guests will also enjoy new manga comics and Japanese snacks.

The Beacon Hill Branch is located at 2821 Beacon Avenue South, a block south of Beacon Hill Station. There is a free parking lot behind the building. For more information, call the branch at 206-684-4711.

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Beacon Hill neighbor Willie Weir of Yellow Tent Adventures, along with his partner Kat Marriner, recently did a “week-long, fully-loaded bike trip within the city limits of Portland. We’re talking tent, stove, sleeping bags. No reservations. No hotels. An urban adventure at its frugal finest!” Willie will discuss the trip in a lecture, “Portland: An Urban Adventure,” tonight at 7:00 pm at REI, 222 Yale Avenue North. More information on Facebook (login required), or see the REI page. (The REI page has conflicting information about the event’s cost — it’s either free or $5.00.)

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Two nice shots of the downtown cityscape view from the PacMed/Amazon building were recently tweeted by MarkPrivett and lassielas.

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Two remixes of Helladope’s “Just So You Know” by Blue Scholars’ Sabzi, including the “Beacon Hill Slumlord” mix. — Matson on Music, the Seattle Times