Cultural events
Initiative showcase the region’s music culture
Press release
Your next visit to Sea-Tac Airport will come with a free upgrade -- to include the sights and sounds of northwest music. The Sea-Tac Airport Music Initiative, Experience the City of Music -- a cooperative effort by the Port of Seattle, Seattle Music Commission and PlayNetwork -- will launch this week to showcase the northwest region’s music culture and enhance the experience of millions of passengers who pass through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport each year.
The Sea-Tac Airport Music Initiative, Experience the City of Music is a comprehensive program that enhances the traveler’s experience by utilizing speakers and screens airport-wide to feature a diverse variety of northwest music from the soulful sounds of Quincy Jones to the poignant lyrics of Eddie Vedder.
Travelers will also hear artist-read public announcements, enjoy curated videos on terminal and baggage claim monitors, and listen to a multi-channel web radio player available through the free airport Wi-Fi network.
A Northwest nonprofit arts group is promising to turn one block of downtown Burien into a mini Burning Man festival on Oct. 15.
The popular Burning Man festival draws thousands yearly to the California desert. Correction: Burning Man brings thousands to the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, not California.
"We've outgrown every venue in Seattle, and this year we are stuffing two acres of downtown Burien with Fire, Music and Art," a press release from Ignition Northwest proclaims.
"We invite you to come celebrate with two full acres of theme camps, interactive displays, fire spinners, DJs, live music and performers, dance, art cars, grilled cheese, suspension rigs, small blimps, neon rainbows, and every other odd thing we can think of. Imagine one city block of Burning Man being transported - streets and all - to downtown Burien."
The Burien event, dubbed Seacompression, is a 21 and over event because sponsors will have five highly decorated theme bars along with local food vendors.
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Photo by Tony Miller
Burien Little Theatre invites actors to audition for staged readings of the holiday comedy "A Christmas Story," written by Philip Grecian. The readings will be performed much like a radio play.
Auditions will consist of cold reading from the script on Tuesday, Sept. 27 from 7 to 9:30 p.m.
Actors are sought who can play women's roles ranging in age from 9 to 50 and men's roles ranging in age from 9 to 50. Some actors will read multiple roles.
You don't have to be these ages to read the roles, but we prefer actors age 11 and older.
The time commitment is minimal as three to five rehearsals are planned, and there will two performances. The show is directed by Rochelle Flynn.
Synopsis: Humorist Jean Shepherd's very funny memoir of growing up in the Midwest in the 1940s. The story follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas. Ralphie pleads his case to his mother, his teacher and even the Santa Claus at Goldblatt's Department Store. The consistent response: "You'll shoot your eye out."
Drive down 153rd Street in downtown Burien and you will see a difference. Colorful new banners have been installed on the light poles from 1st to 10th avenues that will decorate the street for the next year.
The banner project was the brainchild of Burien Arts Commissioner Victoria Hall. Hall, who has lead the education committee of the Arts Commission for many years, wanted to find a way to work with area school children to explore the idea of cultural heritage. Working with three different schools in 2010, she had the students create drawings that explored their diverse cultural heritages.
The drawings were then displayed at the Burien Community Center, and from the many drawings eleven were picked to be made into banners. The arts commission embraced the idea of decorating 153rd Street with the banners and with the help of Discover Burien and local designer Maureen Hoffmann, were then able to have 44 banners printed and installed.
The new banners will be celebrated at Burien Clean Sweep on April 30th with a scavenger hunt for participants and artists.
On Friday, Jan 14th, Ghost Light Theatricals will premiere “Metamorphosis”, a play based on the famous short story by Franz Kafka and written and directed by Wilder Nutting-Heath.
“The story isn’t by any means original and it has been done many times. It’s like reading a good book again and again and again,” said director Wilder Nutting-Heath. “Each time it resonates differently with you and that’s why you come back to it.”
In short, Metamorphosis tells the story of Gregor Samsa, a salesman who is the sole provider of his parents and sister. One morning he wakes up to find that he has transformed into a bug overnight. His appearance is horrific and he is no longer able to leave his room and risk being seen. He goes from being the family’s provider to being the burden in need of sister’s care.
Nutthing-Heath said when he first read Kafka’s short story, he was a high school student going through an identity crisis.
“I identified with Gregor Samsa’s struggle with his new body.” he said.
When he read the story again at the start of the current project two years ago he was at a very different stage in his life, Nutting-Heath said.
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Courtesy of Ghost Light Theatricals
Events in and around Ballard
By Robinson Newspapers Staff
2010-12-01
The print deadline for calendar submissions is two weeks before the date of the event to be publicized. Email calendar@ballardnewstribune.com, or to get it posted online immediately, email anner@robinsonnews.com.
Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Comment Period
You can submit a comment to: awv2010SDEIScomments@wsdot.wa.gov from Oct. 29 - Dec. 13, 2010.
An evening of contemporary Celtic music to celebrate the season of Christmas
With Wyndham Hill/ArkMusic recording artists, Jeff Johnson, keyboards, Brian Dunning, flutes and whistles, Wendy Goodwin, violin.
Suggested donation $10.00
Saturday, Dec. 18 7:00 p.m.
Northminster Presbyterian Church
7706 25th Ave. NW
206.783.3402
Studio Holiday Show and Sale
There will be 21 artists' studios open, lots of small wrappable artwork,
holiday goodies and a jazz duo in the evening.
Noon - 9PM on Saturday, December 11th
Building C Studios
818 14th Ave NW
Fifty Four Sixteen Open house and holiday sale Sundays
New studio located upstairs at 5416 Shilshole Avenue NW.
November 28th and December 5th from 10am-5pm
click on photo to start slideshow
The temperatures are dropping, trees are standing bare and snow is falling. Winter season is here which means it’s time for winter ales. Winter brings out unique small-production seasonal brews called winter warmers. There are no specific rules for how these beers should be brewed but winter warmers are typically malty, complex and higher in alcohol. Some have spice or fruit characteristics, others are flavored with chocolate or vanilla.
In the Northwest, we are fortunate to be surrounded by many breweries so the winter beer selection is plentiful. BNT visited a few beer experts in Ballard and Fremont to hear their take on winter beer.
Hale’s Ales
Hale’s Ales’ featured winter beer is the Wee Heavy, which was first introduced in 1985.
The Wee Heavy is a mahogany colored beer with a complex hops, caramel, nut and roast flavor.
“We play around with the recipe a little bit each year,” said Dave Seiler, who has been a commercial brewer for five years and has been with Hales Ales for two years.
This year they added a bit more roast flavor, he said.
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Anne-Marije Rook
More than 5,000 people started off the holiday season in Scandinavian fashion this weekend at the Nordic Heritage Museum’s Yulefest.
The annual Scandinavian Christmas festival has been an organized event in Ballard for nearly thirty year and included dance and musical performances, hundreds of hand-crafted gifts and traditional Nordic cuisine.
Jolie Bergman started volunteering at Yulefest as a 14-year-old in 1994 and has been involved ever since.
“Yulefest is a great thing to maintain as it opens minds and taste buds to Nordic culture,” Bergman said.
Holiday revelers could indulge in the round Danish pancakes called Aebleskiver in one room, watch Finnish dancing in another, and listen to a Swedish accordion duo while drinking Glogg or Nordic beer in the Bodega.
Bergman said that this Yulefest is the largest festival in the Northwest which highlights all the Nordic countries.
“Music, food and dance are the entry points of an ethnicity,” said Ralph Koschi, a dancer who performed Finnish folk dance at the festival.
“So maintaining a tradition like Yulefest to showcase these dances and cuisine is huge," he said.
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Kelly Purnell
Internationally acclaimed knitters and designers from across the United States and Scandinavia will gather in Seattle Oct. 15 through Oct. 17 when the Nordic Heritage Museum hosts its third annual Nordic Knitting Conference, expected to draw hundreds of knitters from around the world.
The conference will feature intensive, hands-on classes in various Nordic techniques representing Scandinavia’s rich knitting traditions and contemporary interpretations of this legacy.
The conference also includes a Friday night happy hour, a Saturday evening banquet with a keynote address on Estonian lace by Nancy Bush, and educational and social interactions with other knitters.
“Knitting is not only a celebrated tradition in the Nordic countries but has also become popular with contemporary textile artists and DIY enthusiasts of all ages," Eric Nelson, CEO of the Nordic Heritage Museum, said in a museum press release. "We are proud to bring these internationally acclaimed craftspeople, artists and designers together for this popular program.”
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Courtesy of Nordic Heritage Museum
It won’t be the celebration they had back in 1935, when Seattle’s 6,000-seat Civic Auditorium was the setting for an early Oct. 9 Leif Erikson Day celebrations. But, Leif Erikson Day 2010 will contain many of the same elements.
In fact, the Seattle Civic Auditorium has changed more than the local celebration has. This landmark built in 1928 became the Seattle Opera House in the early 1960s and was then gutted and reconstructed as McCall Hall in 2003.
Leif Erikson Day, on the other hand, still includes a gathering, a dinner, a speaker, Scandinavian music, the governor’s proclamation, and all the Nordic pride the participants can muster.
Washington’s Gov. Clarence Martin issued the state’s first proclamation of Leif Erikson Day and Gov. Chris Gregoire followed 75 years later with a very similar proclamation. Both mentioned Leif Erikson as the first of many Scandinavians who journeyed to America.
Martin’s message reported that local Scandinavians were making plans for a suitable memorial to Leif Erikson, and Gregoire’s brags that the Ballard statue of Leif Erikson has been replicated and given to Norway and Greenland.
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Courtesy of Elisabeth Ward
