July 2010

The inaugural Poverty Bay Arts Festival kicks off Saturday, Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the festival committee has issued a Call for Entries.

Sponsored by the Des Moines Arts Commission and the Associated Students of Highline Community College, the one-day arts festival will be held throughout the downtown Des Moines Marina District. It will showcase local talent and feature the works of professional, college, secondary school and elementary school artists. Art will be displayed at various businesses and special venues.

Also scheduled are street performances and a Poetry Slam.

Anyone interested in participating should visit the festival website at www.povertybayartsfestival.com for more details and download the Call for Entries application.

The deadline for entries is Friday, July 23.

For further information, contact Cora Morrison at: desmoinesflorist@gmail.com or Vickie Bergquist at Vickie@vickieinsurance.com

PRESS RELEASE:

Washington State’s First President’s Cup

This spring, the National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC) awarded its first President’s Cup in the state of Washington to a lifetime piano student of John Van Lierop of West Seattle. Timothy Locke, West Seattle resident and recent graduate of Garfield High School, proudly received the coveted trophy from Van Lierop on behalf of the NFMC at his final piano recital at Tibbetts United Methodist Church in West Seattle.

At the age of four, Tim demonstrated a natural affinity toward the piano having mastered several passages from the musical “Les Miserables” by ear. This past April, with 14 years of piano lessons under his belt, Tim performed the Grieg Piano Concerto, 3rd movement with the Garfield High School Symphony Orchestra at the Quincy Jones Auditorium. An exhilarating piano concerto with an exciting symphonic accompaniment, the Grieg Concerto was forever on his mind and in his head since he was a young boy. This spring, Tim also performed at Carnegie Hall as the principle clarinetist with the Garfield Symphony Orchestra.

Schenkar Construction Design/Build LLC, a specialized construction services provider, today announced it will raise and relocate an 1800 square foot Historic Craftsman house located in West Seattle that had been slated to be demolished to make way for a new development. This house is scheduled to move 2am to 6 a.m. July 18.

In our prior story on the house above, the press release we ran contained certain errors. We apologize and are looking into the details as we follow this story. Thank you.

8:30 p.m. July 4 – 11:30 a.m. July 5, 3900 Block of Second Ave. N.W.

Victim stated that on July 4, a woman with whom he had a relationship (the redacted police report leaves the nature of that relationship to the imagination) was sitting in her vehicle in front of his residence.

In a text message, she told the vicim she was going to break into his house and take his laptop. Officers arrived and escorted the woman from the scene.

Later that evening, the vicim received further text messages from the woman, thought the content of those messages has been redacted.

The victim's house alarm was tripped early July 5 when someone entered and exited through the front door with his Macbook Pro.

Officers located the woman at the scene. She stated she was trying to retrieve her vehicle keys from the victim and leave. Police escorted her home to Linden Avenue North.

Later that morning, the victim returned home to find his bedroom window wide open, the front door unlocked and his Macbook Pro missing. Inside the window were a half a sandwich and numerous rocks and pebbles that had not been there before.

Due to its popularity, Greenwood's Taproot Theatre is bringing Drama with Your Mama, a theater class for toddlers, back for a summer run.

Drama with Your mama launched last spring and provides parents and caregivers a fun and enriching way to bond with their children while encouraging social and self-awareness in the toddlers.

Taproot Theatre Education Director Sara Willy told the Ballrad News-Tribune in May that children get a lot out of the class. Future actors are learning skills that will serve them in that pursuit, while other children learn how to use their voices, bodies and space while being aware of others, she said.

She said the goal is to build confidence in children. For example, when asked to show what a tree looks like, young children will often look to adults to show them first. Drama With Your Mama will give them the confidence and ability to make their own choices and show what a tree looks like to them, Willy said.

The class, for children ages 1 to 3, takes place on Mondays from July 12 through Aug. 16 at Timberlake Church, located at 1460 N.W. 73rd St. The six-week session is $75 or $15 on a drop-in basis.

While walking my son to his second day at zoo camp, a woman fell in stride with us. Her son looked about the same age as mine, and she began to ask him questions while smiling at me.

I stared at her in disbelief and bit my tongue so I wouldn’t say, “Wow, you’re still doing that?”

“Doing that” is trying to elicit a bond merely because we are both mothers. I fiendishly “did that” when my son was first born. I didn’t have any friends with babies, worked from home and felt incredibly isolated.

I attended a few mommy groups, would talk to any mother I saw at a park or in the grocery store, but I rarely if ever felt a connection with them. They seemed glazed over or too peppy, and eventually I deemed myself a mommy group flunky and quit trying.

I wrote a lot about this conundrum because I thought it was unique to me. I had moved constantly as a young adult, changed jobs frequently and was always able to make friends easily and quickly, so I didn’t understand why it felt so difficult to connect with other moms.

Summer weather is finally here, and that signals the arrival of great musical entertainment at Steel Lake Park every Wednesday evening starting July 14 at 7 p.m.

The lineup for the popular Summer Sounds concert series features something for everyone.

So round up family and friends, a few lawn chairs and blankets, and come on out to enjoy some evening summer fun with free concerts that run through Aug. 18.

Concert Schedule (7 – 8 p.m.)

• July 14 Chrome Molly (Classic Rock)
• July 21 85th Street Big Band (Swing & Big Band)
• July 28 The Islanders (Tropical Steel Drums)
• August 4 Buck & Elizabeth (Children’s Entertainment)
• August 11 The Camano Cadillac Band (Current & Classic Country)
• August 18 The Popoffs (Classic & Pop Rock)

In the event of inclement weather, concerts will be re-located to the Federal Way Community Center, 876 S. 333rd Street.

For more information: 253-835-6900 or www.itallhappenshere.org.

Five Humboldt penguin chicks have joined the adult colony in Woodland Park Zoo’s penguin exhibit. The chicks hatched between April 1 and April 25, but were kept from public viewing until now.

The chicks are the result of the first breeding and nesting season for the colony of 18 Humboldt penguins since the exhibit opened a year ago. The new families are first-time parents P.J. and Dora with two chicks; Quanto and Gonzo with a pair; and Diego and Radar, the parents of a single chick.

Penguin fans can connect with the zoo online to help name Diego and Radar’s chick, a male, which hatched on April 25. Fans can submit name suggestions for the chick to the wall of the zoo’s Facebook page beginning July 7 through noon July 8.

To honor the Humboldt penguin’s Chilean and Peruvian native range, fans are encouraged to submit Spanish-language names. Penguin keepers will select their three favorite names from the submissions, and fans will then vote on July 9 on the zoo’s Facebook page for their top pick.

Soccer mom? Minivan? Entertainment center in a minivan? X-Box?

What do all these have in common? In countries where education surpasses us these terms may not even be understood. These terms all have to do with providing distractions to children during the time that has been traditionally been devoted to learning.

Have we placed “Entertainment” on a pedestal and replaced education as the chief priority for our children? It would appear to be so. Even in our “schools” there is a great deal of emphasis, or diversion, to entertainment.

Why is it that there are far more adults attending a little league, or soccer match than attending a school board meeting when the schools are failing many of these same children who are playing soccer or baseball? Do the parents think that there are better futures for their kids by improving their soccer or baseball skills than improving their Algebra or French skills?

Though the cloudless, sunny skies made the overall effect a little less dramatic, Ballard's first LED streetlight was installed and turned on by City Light's Craig Reid outside the Ballard Library July 7.

The installation of the LED streetlight marks the first conversion of an old sodium streetlight not as part of a City Light pilot project. In the coming weeks, City Light will convert the approximately 5,000 residential streetlights from the Ship Canal to Northwest 65th Street.

The city hopes the LED streetlights will save the city money and energy.

"This is really a great program," Mayor Mike McGinn said during the ceremonial installation. "We're leading the country in this effort."

City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said LED streetlights mean better and longer-lasting lighting at less cost.

Whereas sodium streetlights burn out every three to four years, LED lights last for 12 years, after which they dim instead of burning out completely, Edward Smalley, manager of streetlight engineering for City Light, told the Ballard District Council during a May 12 presentation.

LED streetlights consume 40 percent less energy, Carrasco said.