August 2010

Tonight at Providence Mt. St. Vincent 4831 35th Ave SW (between SW Hudson & SW Edmunds in West Seattle it's the Illusion of Elvis by Danny Vernon. You can get a sample of this extraordinary performer by visiting his site here.
The event is free and good for the entire family.

Dinner is available starting at 5 pm. Music starts at 6 pm.
Beer and wine garden for those over 21. Fun activities for kids.

Food is available for purchase such as fried chicken, burgers, and hot dogs. On hand for pre show entertainment are a clown, face painter, and a caricature artist.

For neighborhood residents ready for a break from the crowded, noisy summer street festival scene, the Ballard Art in the Garden Festival is here to help.

The annual festival at the Ballard P-Patch returns for its 10th year Aug. 21. Event Chair Kelly Ryan said he credits Art in the Garden's longevity to the venue.

"The whole concept of music and food and art in a garden is so relaxing," Ryan said. "There's something pretty special about walking around and smelling that food and hearing that music."

The nature of gardening itself has also helped keep the festival going for a decade, he said.

"Gardening is a thing that once you get it in your system, it doesn't go away," Ryan said. "It's a lifestyle."

Ryan, who is also a gardener at the Ballard P-Patch, said the festival is a way for gardeners to showoff and give the community a taste of what can be done with the soil.

Now is a fitting time to do that, with long waiting lists for P-patches and parents starting to teach their children to garden again, he said.

Nearly 600 people from infants to centenarians attended the Kenney Annual Barbecue Thursday night, Aug. 19.

CLICK THE PHOTO ABOVE TO SEE MORE IMAGES FROM THE EVENT

"The clouds have parted, the sun is shining and everyone is having a good time," said Kenney CEO Kevin McFeely, who believed the event has gone on for a decade and a half.

Ed Hartman’s Marimba Music provided a lively soundtrack for the event as people sampled everything from corn to hot dogs to a range of barbecue fare.

By Steve Shay and Patrick Robinson

While news of the July 23 death of Sealth High School class of 2003 graduate Petty Officer Jarod Newlove has captured headlines nationally, and has left questions unanswered about his initial disappearance and then shooting, back home his shaken West Seattle community has responded with empathy toward his wife, high school sweetheart, Kimberly, and their two young children, and extended family.

Kimberly Newlove told the West Seattle Herald Thursday, Aug. 19, that she would like to thank the community for its support. She also said she plans to attend the beginning of the fundraiser for her family to be held at Alki Crab and Fish at 1660 Harbor Avenue SW, next to the Water Taxi dock, 5:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. this Saturday, Aug. 21. The restaurant will contribute all proceeds from beer and wine sold to help the family of the fallen sailor.

“I have been very happy with the way the community has respected our family’s privacy and we are so amazed and grateful for all the support we have been getting from everybody,” said Kimberly, who works full time as an office manager for her father’s business.

The freshly occupied and rehabilitated Kolstrand Building represents the newest outpost of the Ballard Avenue commercial district. Situated at that street's southern end among a handful of industrial businesses, the building and its tenants are standing at the retail core's final frontier.

The Kolstrand Building, originally built in the early 1900s and occupied by the Kolstrand Marine Supply Company for 80 years, was restored by evo Properties in the past year. In late July and early August, its first commercial tenants – Staple & Fancy Mercantile, Dutch Bike Co. and The Walrus and the Carpenter – moved in.

Westside School is in their new home at 7740 34th S.W. in the E.C. Hughes building and they couldn't be happier. The school is a beehive of activity with teachers, and parent volunteers all preparing for the coming school year.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS

Jo Ann Yockey, Head of the School, took the West Seattle Herald on an exclusive tour of the new home for Westside and pointed out the surprising and delightful aspects they discovered when they moved in.

"I'm in heaven," said Yockey, referring to the much larger space the school now has, "and we've filled up the building and so it's great. To see it come together, cleaning it up, you don't know when you are getting an old building but it's all wired for the internet, the security is fantastic."

King County Executive Dow Constantine has issued a proclamation to honor and memorialize Ken Wise, known as "Mr. West Seattle" to many who passed away August 1, 2010. A memorial service will be held today Thursday, August 19 at 11 a.m. at Fauntleroy Community Church, 9140 California Ave. SW.

It reads:

King County
In Memorial

WHEREAS, Ken Wise was born in Seattle on October 31, 1930 to Robert and Bea Wise; and

WHEREAS, Ken and his sister, Lane, and brother, Gordon ("Oly"), were raised in West Seattle, where
Ken acquired his lifelong love of fishing, a sport he pursued around the world and enjoyed
with many friends and family; and

WHEREAS, after graduating from West Seattle High School and the University of Washington and
serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Ken went to work in his family business,
West Fuel, until it was sold in 1995; and

WHEREAS, Ken, known throughout West Seattle as ''Uncle Kenny," was an enthusiastic community

From the official Seattle Police Department Blotter report:
On August 18th at approximately 1:52 p.m. an officer in a fully-marked police car was responding to an emergency call with lights and siren activated. Just north of SW Brandon Street on California Avenue SW the officer collided with a beige Ford sedan and subsequently struck a tree near the side of the road. The driver and only occupant of the beige Ford sedan, a male in his 70′s, was evaluated at the scene but was not injured and did not require transportation. The officer, a male in his 20′s, was transported to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

Traffic Collision Investigation Squad detectives are responding to the scene. The circumstances surrounding the collision are currently under active investigation.

Thanks to reader and Videographer Edgar Riebe of Captive Eye Media for sharing his video of the scene with us.

Edgar@CaptiveEyeMedia.com
edgarrriebe@comcast.net

From a Newstips report sent to us by reader Gabriel Shalitmontagne:

The average computer user likely imagines that software is created by people in cubicles under fluorescent lights in a large office park somewhere in Redmond or possibly Silicon Valley. But one West Seattle based company is changing that notion and rising to the top of some important lists with incredible speed.

Monster Costume Inc. is an iPhone and iPad development company focused on Multi-touch design. They are based on Alki and they have a hit on their hands in the form of an interactive children's puzzle book for the Apple iPad called Bartleby's Book of Buttons. Volume 1: The Far Away Island.

The company, led by Kyle Kinkade, is only six months old but has an impressive resume and more importantly has gotten the attention of Apple itself who put their fresh creation in a featured position on the iTunes store. It's selling rapidly at $4.99 a download. "We're the #2 top paid book app on the app store. The #1 top paid ipad app is a book about the table of elements. This means that:

Whitman Middle School teacher Christopher King won the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2010 Literary Contest award for best screenplay July 24 for his script "Jade."

King said it felt wonderful to win the screenplay category with "Jade," a humorous action-adventure piece centered around the illegal trafficking of ancient antiquities.

"Short of getting a screenplay produced, receiving positive recognistion for one's writing is the most satisfying thing that can happen for a writer," he said. "It means that your story worked – that someone 'got it.'"

"Jade" is set in Mexico and Pamplona, Spain, and tells the story of two strong male leads who can't stand each other teaming up with a beautiful, duplicitous daughter of a respected archaeologist to deliver a precious Olmec jade frieze to a private collector.