Paul Ray writes that the music series project for the Lander Festival Street has another organizing meeting on Monday, January 25 at 7:00 pm, at ROCKiT Space, 3315 Beacon Avenue South.
Since the first meeting we have decided to create an Ad Hoc group called “BeHi Music†to try and organize a series of 4 music events over the summer of 2010, performed at the Festival Street next to the Beacon Hill Link Rail station. This series would feature musicians who live, work or attend school on Beacon Hill or groups that contain members that fit that criteria.
This is still in the early stages, still trying to establish the feasibility and identify the steps necessary to make this work, and hoping to start working on actually implementing those steps soon.
Anyone interested in this project is encouraged to attend.
Photo by Emi Yañez. The Seattle Symphony Orchestra will perform a free community concert at 7:00 pm tomorrow night, January 19, at Mercer Middle School (1600 South Columbian Way). The concert is open to the public — and, yes, we said free. Thomas Hong is the conductor, and the featured soloist is violist Amber Archibald.
The scheduled program includes works by David Diamond, Gustav Holst, Georg Philipp Telemann, Samuel Jones, and Felix Mendelssohn.
The concert is part of the Symphony’s ACCESS Project (Artistic and Cultural Community Engagement with Seattle Symphony), dedicated to bringing classical music to underserved communities throughout the region.
Photo at ROCKiT Space, by Bridget ChristianPaul Ray writes about a potential activity for the new Festival Street:
“With the opening of the new Beacon Hill Festival Street, some of us were inspired to see if we could organize a music series at that location, perhaps emphasizing Beacon Hill musicians. We have scheduled our first organizing meeting for Tuesday January 5 at 7:00 pm. Thanks to Jessie and Marti the meeting will be at ROCKiT space (3315 Beacon Avenue South). This is the first meeting so we will be starting with the basics: what are we trying to do? How will we do it? Anyone interested in the idea of a music series at the new Beacon Hill Festival Street is invited to attend.”
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Speaking of ROCKiT space, we are told they are now holding an open mic every Saturday night from 7:00 to 10:00 pm. Jessie says, “This is a very casual sort of thing, open to all, and we welcome any art form you’d like to share.” As mentioned above, they are at 3315 Beacon Avenue South.
Baja Bistro, 2414 Beacon Avenue South, has just been approved for a change in license type to “Restaurant / lounge — spirits, beer and wine (50 percent or more dining).”
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Dayna writes about a lost kitty:
Has anyone taken in a rather large tabby cat the past week, or slipped him some food? Don’t have a pic at the moment, but he is a grey/black/dark colored male tabby, on the larger side. He’s an inside/outside cat who often catches his own food and isn’t tagged because he’s a master at losing his collar. Â He hasn’t been around for about a week. Â His name is Simon. He lives near Maple Park in the south part of Beacon Hill, on the corner of 13th Ave S and Angeline. His family was on vacation over Christmas and the house-sitters rarely saw him…. Now his family returned and he hasn’t emerged! If you have any info, please contact Dayna at dayna@ross154.net.
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Local acupuncture clinic CommuniChi will offer free acupuncture to all new patients on January 16, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the legacy of the civil rights movement. More info can be found on their website.
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Seattle Public Schools now has 174 National Board-certified teachers, with 57 earning their certification during 2009. Beacon Hill International School led the 2009 pack with 6 teachers earning certification: Elizabeth Alexakos, Susan Fluegel, Heather Graves, Kyle Okada, Andrew Pickard, and Mary Thompson. Other Beacon Hill-area teachers earned their certification during 2009: at Kimball Elementary, Nancy Kiser and Kristina Thorp. At Mercer Middle School, Susannah Fenger. At Van Asselt, Sarah Clemmons, Bernard McDonough, and Nancy Howard. And at Franklin High School, Howard Steele.
A guitarist tries out the music space at ROCKiT space. Photo by Bridget Christian in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.The new ROCKiT space non-profit music and art organization on Beacon Avenue held their grand opening this weekend. Bridget Christian was there, and has posted a great set of photos from the event on Flickr. She says, “GREAT place for kids… all kinds of art stuff to do, books, instruments to mess around on.”
Jesse Vernon, of The Stranger, recently discovered the Chief Sealth Trail, which, he says, starts on Beacon Hill and then “transports you to Kubota Garden via Ireland. Or New Zealand. Or some other place with rolling green hills I’ve never been.” However, some commenters on Vernon’s post complained about the trail’s hills, and one commenter, Kinkos, suggested that the best way to ride the trail is to “take light rail to beacon hill, ride to the trailhead, then ride downhill on the trail to near the end – to the rainier beach sta. catch the train back to beacon hill, and repeat.”
Adoption prices for cats range from $102 to $107, and include:
Initial vaccinations
Deworming
Feline Leukemia testing
Certificate for free health exam at local veterinarians
Spay or neuter
Microchip
Two-year Seattle Pet License (if applicable)
Also this weekend, ROCKiT space (in the old Buggy location, 3315 Beacon Avenue South) is holding their grand opening event, both Saturday and Sunday. ROCKiT space is a non-profit organization devoted to making music and art accessible to all. They have equipment and space available to members, including musical instruments and P.A. equipment, art supplies, books, rehearsal space, performance space, and more. This weekend they will have “neat stuff for all ages including pumpkin carving, a costume exchange (bring your spare costume stuff!), live music and much more.”
A colorful sign marks the front entrance of Kusina Filipina. Photo by Wendi.After yesterday’s plum tree story, we have more food-related stories for you to check out!
The Om Nom Nom Nom foodie blog reviews Beacon Avenue establishment Kusina Filipina: “The food is really good. I think it comes pretty close to authentic Filipino food.” Despite the good rating for the food, and an overall positive review, they give it 2.5 doughnuts on a 5-doughnut rating scale. Tough critics!
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Laura at the Beacon Hill Bungalow blog just canned 75 pounds of tomatoes. We salute her ability to slave over a hot stove in August. It will all be worth it this winter.
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OK, it’s not actually about food, but the University of San Diego Student Radio blog features “Coffee and Conversation with Sabzi of the Blue Scholars,” from our very own Victrola Espresso on Beacon Avenue. In the interview, Sabzi discusses the Northwest’s musical identity, the role of record labels in a changing music industry, the current and future state of music, and more. If you haven’t yet gotten around to hearing Blue Scholars, there are links at the bottom of the interview to a couple of songs you can stream.
That large thing in the upper right corner is the tunnel boring machine that was used to dig the Beacon Hill Tunnel. And now, it can be yours! Photo by Eric Hodel.Remember that huge tunnel boring machine that was used to dig out the Beacon Hill light rail tunnel? Want it for your own nefarious projects? Seattle Transit Blogreports that you can have it, for a mere $300,000 (or best offer).
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Local duo Blue Scholars are releasing their new EP, OOF!, tomorrow. They’ll be celebrating the release by making surprise appearances or perhaps even playing secret shows all over town. The only way to know where the action will be is to follow them on Twitter: @bluescholars for the news. If you can’t make it to the secret shows, they’ll be at the release party at ‘Ohana in Belltown tomorrow night. (Hat tip to Reverb for the news.)
Neighbors on 12th Avenue South enjoyed the Night Out block party last Tuesday. Photo by Bridget Christian.Neighbor Brook writes with an interesting observation about Beacon Hill real estate prices on Zillow:
“Every other neighborhood I’ve checked has followed pretty much the same curve, but North Beacon Hill and Columbia City each have unique curves. They’ve settled into a flatter line where average house values are now just above values in Greenwood. The other exception about North Beacon Hill is that it flattened out in 2006. Maybe the start of the subprime meltdown was felt in the neighborhood first, or maybe it was buyers getting scared away by the giant blue walls, but either way we were spared the last gasp of superheated speculation. Either way, it totally bucked the trend.”
What does this mean? Perhaps the beginning of the much-heralded light rail-powered price increase? We don’t know, but it’s interesting.
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The cat adoptathon we mentioned the other day was a success! We’re told there were 15 kitties adopted. If you missed your chance to bring home a kitty, there will be another adoptathon on October 10 from noon to 3:00 pm at the Jefferson Community Center, 3801 Beacon Avenue South.
Found dog 8/4, near 39th Ave S.Do you recognize this dog? Know where he belongs? He’s a rather timid and skittish and probably really wants to be home. Contact pateb@foster.com if you can help get him there.
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On the flip side of “found”, Kazi the orange tabby cat has been missing from his home near the Jefferson Park golf course since Sunday. He may be wearing a blue “stinky cat”-labeled collar. If you’ve seen him, please contact his owner through this Craigslist posting.
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Dayna P writes with a question about organizing a trash pickup effort on her block:
Hi. I’m a neighbor on 13th Ave S by Maple Park and recently walked to a friend’s house on 12th Ave, towards downtown. I just couldn’t believe the amount of trash on the street… really awful! I’m wondering if anyone out there is interested in helping me organize a neighborhood trash pickup day. I’ve never done anything like this, so don’t know the best way to go about it. Anyone out there want to help get this going? Does anyone know if the city/parks dept has any programs that help this kind of effort?
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The Seattle Public Library is seeking Homework Helpers for the 2009-2010 school year. Homework Helpers assist elementary, middle and high school students with understanding homework assignments, developing study skills and learning approaches for solving math problems. English is a second language for the majority of the students. Homework Helpers are asked to assist students for just two hours per week throughout the school year, some time Monday through Thursday, between 4 and 8pm. Openings are available at many south-end branches, including the Beacon Hill branch. For more information and to request a volunteer application, please contact Anne Vedella, Volunteer Services Coordinator, at anne.vedella@spl.org by Friday, August 14. Interviews will take place in August. They’re also looking for “Talk Time facilitators” at the Beacon Hill branch — contact Anne about that, as well.
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Local south-end hip-hop duo Blue Scholars turns the music biz on its head: the band signs a label to distribute their album. (Sabzi from the band lives on Beacon Hill. Also, catch their CurrentTV video featuring footage around town, including a stop at Jose Rizal Park.)
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Some strange things are afoot on 14th. Kara on the mailing list wrote yesterday:
We seem to have some suspicious activity going on at 14th Ave S and S Nevada. There is a red Toyota Corolla that waits at the intersection for a “delivery” from someone on foot or in a black extended cab Toyota Tacoma. They make an exchange and away they go. We’ve seen it twice in the last month, most recently this evening (Monday) around 9pm.
I suspect that it is drugs. We have reported it to SPD. If anyone else sees these vehicles hanging around PLEASE report to 911.
Three burglary suspects were caught (and one remains at large) following a break-in at a home in the 4100 block of 13th Avenue South on Friday, reports the SPD Blotter. That didn’t make much of an impact, however. Hazel mentioned on the mailing list and in a post on her blog about another break-in which occurred not too far away at her home, 20th and Spokane on Saturday. Any recommendations for security companies? The question has come up on the list since.
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Wilson Chin, candidate for Seattle School Board. Photo courtesy wilson chin for schools.comWilson Chin joins fellow Beacon Hillian Charlie Mas in the race for Seattle School Board. The Seattle Times has a backgrounder article on all of the candidates for District 7.
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Travis posted several interesting neighborhood-related blog entries over the weekend, including a firsthand account of attempted plant theft from the landscaping around the new Beacon Hill light rail station and the strange appearance of an SPU trailer near Daejeon Park.
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An apprehension at gunpoint (with photo of cops with guns drawn!) was posted by Laura at the Beacon Hill Bungalow blog.
I wonder if we’ll see anything like this with our new Residential (or Restricted) Parking Zone: A comparison of what it’s like just inside and outside the RPZ near Swedish Cherry Hill from Central District News.
(Updated 8/5 to correct attribution. Sorry, Laura and Travis!)
