Snowmageddon, 2008!!!!

December 21, 2008. Third day of snow. This is the most snow I have seen in Seattle in 20 years. Sometimes it snows more but it is always immediately followed by rain so it washes away. So far, no rain. Seattle was at a near standstill...except for us walkers and the cross country skiers.

New Bike

August 28, 2008

Progressive Forum at Seattle Center

On Saturday, August 16th 2008, 1500 or so Seattlites, myself included, turned out to attend the progressive talk radio KPTK am1090's speakers forum featuring many of the show hosts from around the country. Seattle's own Ron Reagan acted as moderator for Stephanie Miller from California, Thom Hartman from Portland Oregon, Rachel Maddow from New York, Sam Sedar also from New York, Randi Rhodes who broadcasts from Florida and Mike Malloy out of Georgia.
It was a very hot day so I was initially glad they had moved from the previous years' location at Seattle Town Hall to the air conditioned Exhibition Center at Seattle Center. I have mixed reviews for the new venue however. It was hard to see or hear anything. Still, it was fun to see many of my favorite radio hosts in person. Here are a couple of pictures from the event...

(still pictures available at 1090 Photo Album )

New Statue in Fremont. Are you a Patches Pal?

Late For The Interurban

Last week a statue was unveiled in Fremont to commemorate one of the longest-running shows in television history starring Chris Wedes aka "Julius Pierpont Patches".

A few more pictures of the J.P. Patches Statue...

A few other statues in the Fremont area...

Puget Sound Guitar Workshop

I just got back from Puget Sound Guitar Workshop. This is a three session, one week per session workshop which takes place in mid-summer. Teachers come in from all over the United States. There is not one among them who is not a professional level player. Students choose which classes they want to take and for a week we all learn new, cool stuff on the guitar, from Blues to Swing, Bluegrass and Flaminco it is all music, all the time. And all acoustic.
There are several cabins where the teachers and students sleep. Also many campers pitch tents in one of the meadows. "Tent City" it's called. That is where I stayed. There were at least 20 tents in Tent City, along with two or three jamming "Gazebos" and Scott "Tanqueray" Katz's "Happy Hour" Hut.
This is my third time at this camp, although not consecutively, and as always I met many great people and had hours of interesting conversation and music. My classes were amazing. I took Flip Breskins Guitar Bedrock class and Steve Baughman's right hand class. I have several months of new material to work on. Additionally, I have been recruited by the banjo players and the first thing I did after arriving home was to go to Stu's music store, The Folkstore over on Roosevelt and buy a banjo.
After spending most of the past three years in voluntary seclusion, for me this marked the official end of my reclusive period and the begining of my re-entry into society. It was a great week, it could not have been a better beginning to my re-entry into the world.

Below is a slideshow of the student concert. I was in the darkened audience, near the back trying to adjust for stage lighting, so the picture quality is not super, but it does the job.

Also pictured (above) is the sunset from the ferry back to Seattle.

NOTE: If you click on the screen below as it's playing it will take you to the YouTube page and you can click on "WATCH IN HIGH QUALITY" which improves the resolution.

Fremont Solstice Parade, 2008.

UPDATE ON DECEMBER 17, 2009

Here is the slides from Fremont Fair, 2007



Original post starts here...
This has been one of the weakest Springs we have had in a long time. It snowed in April. Our gardens died. It was 40 in the morning all the way until June. So it was especially joyful this year at our Solstice parade in Fremont.
Here is a brief slide show to give the gist of the celebration. I could have made it twice as long, but I had to pick and choose.

Note: For a higher resolution slide show, click on the image while it is playing and it will take you to the You Tube site, then click on "watch in high quality"

This woman had the absolute best costume.
She did a beautiful job on her make-up.
She was my favorite of this years parade.

University District Street Fair

Dateline: May 17th, 2008.

As Seattle broke the high temperature record for this day by soaring into the 90's, The Ave. was packed with people attending the U-District Street Fair.
Here are a few slides ...

Sixth Annual Biodiesel Forum at Seatle Center

Today was the sixth annual Northwest Biodiesel Forum, held at the Seattle Center. They had changed locations from last year, but it was easy to find.
Our Governor,Christine Gregoire was on hand to deliver the opening address and take questions from the audience.
When I was there attendance seemed a little light, but it was still early.

Here are a couple of pictures I took at the forum, including a few clips of Governor Gregoire...

I guess I made this phony a little nervous.

Normally I do not mind the cardboard sign guys who stand on every single intersection in Seattle and try to collect beer money...to each their own...but with over 30,000 American casualties in Iraq, many of whom have lost limbs and mobility, this guy just rubbed me the wrong way and picked the wrong day to set up shop in front of me. I saw him walk his wheelchair over and settle in.

Health and Diabetes Fairs at Qwest Field

In conjunction with my Nutrition class this quarter, I went down the The Seattle Health Fair held this weekend at Qwest Field. Right next door was the Diabetes Fair. The lines for the various free screenings were long. My impression of these events was, in contrast to the vital and healhy seeming VegFest, that the majority of the people in attendance were sick and looking for solutions.
Since diabetes is a topic that has come up in class, I made sure to visit numerous booths at the Diabetes Fair, where everyone was happy to give me information.

Dateline Seattle! April 18th, 2008

There are probably no people more obsessed with the weather than people in Seattle. The so-called and well meaning, but often wrong meteorologists try to predict the weather, but with the Cascade mountain range to the east, the Olympic mountain range to the west, the Puget Sound running interference and the effects of global (human caused) climate change affecting the ocean currents more and more, they do not stand a chance against Granny's weather beetle. We obsess about the weather. To make matters worse, we are often subject to Mother Natures mischievous habit of pulling the bait and switch. Handing out an 80 degress Saturday and then boomeranging into the kind of weather we had less than a week later, on April 18th, 2008...

On the way to the Green Festival.

On Saturday and Sunday, April 12 & 13, Seattle hosted it's first Green Festival. The Dahlai Lama was also in town that week, but even with 50,000 people turning out for His Holiness, the Green Festival was packed to the rafters.

I went specifically to see Jim Hightower and the best progressive radio host, Thom Hartman. I met Thom and he signed my copy of his new book, Cracking The Code.

Coincidentally, that Saturday was the one day of sun Seattle is alloted per season. I rode my bike down (see website for route information), and ran into the Dahlai Lama's motorcade.
BikeWorks was on the scene to protect our bikes in a monitored bike lot. BikeWorks does a lot of good work in the Seattle area.

The ride there and back was half the fun, so I have included some of those slides as well.

[EDIT: Due to numerous comments about the original clip being too long, I have split it into three parts. Part One is the bike route through Fremont to dowtown, and includes the Dahlai Lama shots and pictures of his police escort. Clip Two is arriving at the Convention Center, Jim Hightower and misc. picturs of the Green Fair. Clip Three is Thom Hartman and the ride home.]

Veg Fest 2008

One of the biggest vegetarian food festivals in the United States, The Veg Fest was packed to the rafters with venders of all sorts.
I made several laps around the crowded main floor, sampling the wares of the various venders. Everything from soy that had been shaped and flavored to look and (sort of) feel and taste like the meat product it was designed to replace, to delicious chocolate puddings and a variety of juices and teas. At the time I thought it was strange that they would go to so much trouble to create a meat-like product. After going totally vegetarian as a one week test however,it made a lot more sense. It is hard to come up with a tasty variety of vegetarian protein choices.

Here Come The Phonys!!!

The Circus is coming to Seattle! A rag-tag dog and pony show, full of rip-off snake oil salesmen.
I fully believe that there is much that happens beyond my or any humans perception...a world of unexplained mystery and power...but I do NOT believe these money grubbing schucksters and shills have any information about that realm. I have met many of these woo-woo navel gazers in person and they did not pass the test. What is the test? The test is simple: Does their "secret" information do anything for them? Make their life any better or more serene (beyond the shallow serenity of a big bank account)? The answer? Inevitable, no. They are as over weight, addicted, angry, and superficial as anyone I have met who does not have their "secrets". So...if the only transformative power of these circus performers is to change money from my account into theirs, what good is it? Most of these glassy-eyed jesters are not even very entertaining to talk to.

Faves

Instead of trying to post individual pictures,here is a short slide show of some of my favorite things to do as pastimes in Seattle.

Life as a Returning Student

Since I returned to school to pursue a degree in Environmental Science, I have been living like a student again. Even working full time during the day, tuition does not grow on trees, so I reduced expendatures as much as possible. I rented a tiny hovel in the city. I reasoned that I would hardly be there anyway, better to focus more on a good location and less on amenities. So I live in a shoe box, but this is my back yard...


North shore of Lake Union, facing south.

Carkeek Park

These are the train tracks at Carkeek Park.

Located in northwest Seattle, this popular park offers extraordinary views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.

Years of hard work by neighbors and volunteers have brought salmon back to Pipers Creek in Carkeek Park.

I took the pictures on January 12, 2008. Back up music by Fred Eaglesmith