February 2014

Brides for a Cause will be hosting a special Charity Wedding Dress Sale Feb. 20-22 at the Landmark Event Center in Des Moines, Wa. to support Wish Upon A Wedding, a national non-profit organization dedicated to providing weddings and vow renewals for individuals facing terminal illness and other serious life-altering circumstances.

The wedding dress sale will feature 1,000 new and gently used wedding dresses discounted up to 75% off retail prices. All wedding gowns featured have been donated by bridal stores and individuals across the country and resold to raise funds for charity. Gowns will be available in every price range, starting at just $150. On average, the gowns will be priced at $350-$400.

Designer wedding dresses, some retailing at $5,000, will be offered starting at just $500. Sizes range from 0-24. Veils starting at just $30 among other bridal accessories will be offered at the event. 50% of the proceeds will go directly to Wish Upon A Wedding. Please visit www.bridesforacause.com for details and to pre-register.

There will be a Ballard Council Meeting tonight Wednesday, February 12, 2014 at the Ballard Library - 5614 22nd NW starting at 7p.m.

Guests will be presenting on the Holman Road repaving project, the Seattle reLeaf program, Community Police Team, Neighborhood Matching Fund, and the Ballard Urban Design Framework project.

Citizens are encouraged to be there to voice their concerns.

Tegra Stone Nuess and Ed Sozinho have opened the door to a place not many people get to see by making "Analog 128, The handcrafting of a violin," -- a seven and a half minute film that follows David T. Van Zandt crafting his 128th violin at his home work shop in in Ballard.

Nuess wrote on her blog, http://tegrastonenuess.blogspot.com/, “In this highly digitized world, we were intrigued by the age old craftsmanship, the process and the art of creating an instrument by hand.”

Van Zandt and Sozinho are neighbors and have been friends many years. Sozinho said that he has admired Van Zandt’s work and thought that it would make a great film by documenting his craft.

Normally Van Zandt can construct a violin in about eight weeks, but with all the shooting and coordinating schedules the project took about 16 weeks to shoot.

Sozinho said that he has been a photographer for the ten years and started making films the last couple years. Sozinho and Nuess shot the film using a Cannon 5Dmark 3 camera and used a practical lighting arrangement -- that is, he used the light that was already used in the room so as not to disturb Van Zandt while he worked.

By Peggy Sturdivant

While many in Seattle were focused on what would become a historic moment first in a New York stadium on New Jersey soil and then in downtown Seattle there was another historic moment taking place. Janet Yellen was sworn in as the first woman to be Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. This interested me as a woman, as the daughter of an economist, but it actually came closest to home for me sitting across from Donald Kentop.

Like Yellen, Don Kentop was born and raised in Brooklyn. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson H.S. in 1952; Yellen graduated Valedictorian from Fort Hood H.S. in 1963. They were both educated in public high schools in Brooklyn, New York; neither of them at the legendary magnet Stuyvesant High School. Yellen couldn’t attend Stuyvesant because she was female.

Information provided by Nordic Museum

Whimsical and independent, Pippi Longstocking has been a favorite literary character for both kids and adults since the 1940s. This Swedish Peter Pan of sorts and her accompanying cast of characters — including her monkey Mr. Nilsson, friends Tommy and Annika, and her horse — are all celebrated at the annual Breakfast at Pippi’s event at the Nordic Heritage Museum.

The morning starts at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 29, with a Swedish pancake breakfast and lots of activity. Kids and adults are encouraged to dress up as their favorite character from the Pippi stories to enjoy the delicious pancake breakfast, during which there will be crafts for all and live music.

After breakfast, at noon, families can stay for a viewing of the moviePippi on the Run (dubbed in English) starring Inger Nilsson. This all-ages classic was released in the United States in 1977 and features the adventures of Pippi, Tommy, and Annika as they run away from home.

The Burien Arts Association has a special gift for visitors to its new gallery on Valentine’s Day—FREE face painting.

The Burien Arts artists will quickly transform participants into their own personal valentine.

The gallery is located at 626 S.W. 152nd St. in Olde Burien.

Students are invited to drop by after school on Friday, Feb. 14 for a facial transformation. Of course, you don’t have to be a student to participate. No one is too young or too old for face painting!

The gallery is open Noon-6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and Noon-4 p.m. on Sundays.

The mission of Burien Arts Association is to engage, enrich and entertain all the communities, generations and visitors to the Burien and Greater Highline area through creative and innovative arts programming. The non-profit was founded in the 1960’s and for years operated a gallery in the little blue house at Dottie Harper Park.

In fall 2013, Burien Arts opened an exciting new gallery in Olde Burien at 626 S.W. 152nd St.

Seattle Port Commission 'tone deaf' to voters, airport workers, and elected leaders
News Release:

Port memo admits it does not have authority to implement wage, job standards for airport workers

Low wage Sea-Tac workers say they are fed up with the Seattle Port's tone deaf response to a voter-approved wage increase for thousands of men and women working in the profitable hospitality and transportation industry.

Today's Seattle Port airport jobs quality hearing in downtown Seattle comes on the heels of a strongly worded letter from 57 elected leaders asking the Port Commission to restore voters' trust and fairness for airport workers by withdrawing its opposition to SeaTac Proposition 1.

The Seattle Port has joined the position of Alaska Airlines, its largest airport tenant, in legal proceedings blocking implementation of SeaTac Proposition 1 for 4,700 men and women working for travel businesses operating at Sea-Tac.

You can help bird populations around the world and you don't even have to leave home.

Go out into your backyard and count them this weekend. The Great Backyard Bird Count goes on from Feb. 14 to Feb.17, 2014. Song birds populations around the world are on a rapid decline. The only way that scientists can figure out what is happening in different parts of the U.S.A. and the world is to get average citizens to go out and take data and send it into scientific labs. Go out into your yard or neighborhood this weekend and be a citizen scientist. Send your information back to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY.

You can help bird populations around the world.

Go out into your backyard and count them this weekend. The Great Backyard Bird Count goes on from Feb. 14 to Feb.17, 2014. Song birds populations around the world are on an rapid decline. The only way that scientists can figure out what is happening in different parts of the U.S.A. and the world is to get average citizens to go out and take data and send it into scientific labs. Go out into your yard or neighborhood this weekend and be a citizen scientist. Sent your information back to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY.

By Gwen Davis

The West Seattle Transportation Coalition (WSTC) met Tuesday evening in an emotionally-charged back-and-forth about the future of the troubled transportation budget package that state lawmakers failed to pass last year. As a consequence of the failure, King County transportation services can soon be in dire straits. Metro outlined a proposal to cancel 74 bus routes and reduce and revise another 107 routes to live within reduced revenues, according to Seattle Metro as of January of this year.

But King County voters could see an April ballot measure to save Metro bus services. The WSTC discussed the pros and cons of endorsing “Plan B”, as it makes its way to voters. “Plan A” – the original plan, which would have preserved and reportedly enhanced transportation services – is presumed dead by many advocates at this point. Plan B would more or less maintain the status quo for the next 10 years.

“Plan B will keep residents able to get to their jobs,” said Kevin Broveleit, of the WSTC’s research and solutions committee. “It’ll be a band aid – it’s not asking routes to maintain more services than we have. It maintains our current commute.”