Among the special events, spectacles and movie stars at this year’s festival, Ewan McGregor is set to receive the Golden Space Need Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting May 22 at the Egyptian Theatre. The event will also feature a screening of his new film “Beginners,” a U.S. comedic drama by director Mike Mills.
Tickets for the Opening Night Gala can be bought here, which include screening of “The First Grader” and Gala party to follow. “The First Grader” is a UK film shot in Kenya by director Justin Chadwick, who previously directed “The Other Boleyn Girl,” about an 84-year-old Kenyan villager trying to get an education. General admission is $50 and includes two complementary drink tickets, while premium admission is $100 and includes open bar at the post-film reception and preferred entry into the Gala screening.
The Centerpiece Gala will be held June 4 and will feature the French film “Service Entrance,” a comedy about a Parisian stockbroker directed by Philippe Le Guay.
The festival concludes June 12 with the Closing Night Gala, featuring the UK documentary “Life in a Day,” a mosaic of thousands of individuals from around the globe in a single day by “The Last King of Scotland” director Kevin Macdonald.
This year the festival will feature 441 films, including 257 features and 184 short films, 96 of which will be premiered at SIFF, representing 74 countries, a record for SIFF.
Special to SIFF this year, the new “Pathway” system will be released aimed at assisting moviegoers in finding the kind of films they’re looking to experience. The SIFF website lists the ten Pathways as:
Love Me, Do! - Romance and love in all its forms, pleasures, and idiosyncrasies.
Make Me Laugh – Films that make you chuckle and tickle your funny bone.
Thrill Me – Suspense, thrills, and action. Films with a faster pace that might also surprise you when you least expect it.
Creative Streak – The exploration of artistic endeavors from all disciplines: literature, film, art, dance, and performance.
Open My Eyes – Revealing films and documentaries revolving around history, politics, and contemporary events from around the world.
Sci-Fi and Beyond – Science, technology, environment, the future—and beyond.
Take Me Away – Be prepared to be taken to another place – from exotic far-off lands to vibrant experiences outside of everyday life.
Spellbinding Stories – Mesmerizing dramas and documentaries that explore thought-provoking questions, realities, and topics.
To the Extreme – Explore the outer limits with films that go beyond the edge.
Face the Music – Films that intersect the world of music on all fronts: from biopics and concert films, to musicals and live events.
Screenings for the films will take place at various venues throughout Seattle, Renton, Everett and Kirkland.
SIFF, the largest and most highly-attended film festival in the United States, will be opening the SIFF Film Center in the Alki Room at Seattle Center this coming fall, “fulfilling its long-standing vision of creating a permanent home where SIFF’s successful film, education, and community outreach programs can thrive,” the organization says on its website.
Find out more about what’s screening at the film festival this year here.
If you can’t make the Chamber meeting Thursday, but would still like to catch up on the issue, SDOT will be hosting an open house on the West Mercer Project from 4:30 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8 in the Rainier Room at Seattle Center. Items to be covered at that meeting include:
Viewing the preliminary plans and giving SDOT your feedback on:
A wider Mercer Underpass at Aurora Ave N
Converting Mercer St and Roy St from one-way to two-way
Improved intersections, new street connections, and new bike lanes
Viewing and commenting on project art concepts
Learning about the recommendation for West Mercer Place improvements
A new, weekday farmers market is getting ready to open for the summer in the parking lot of Whole Foods (2001 15th Ave W).
The Seattle Farmers Market Association, which includes the popular Ballard Sunday Farmers Market has teamed up with Whole Foods to make this happen. “SFMA believes that this type of business partnership will allow the farmers market to become more sustainable while providing a rich experience for the entire community,” according to the press release.
The hope is to start with 30 vendors and expand to 40 or more during peak harvest season. The market will run from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursdays starting June 9th, timed for commuters heading home from work. This is the same time slot as the Queen Anne Farmers Market, which will be running from 3 to 7:30 p.m. every Thursday from June 2 to October 6 at the corner of W Crockett Street and Queen Anne Ave N.
“This new farmers market will provide the best of both worlds for convenient midweek shopping, fresh picked seasonal produce from local farms and food producers, and the in-depth selection of the Whole Foods Market experience,” the press release states.
The ride, which will start at the Burke Gilman Trail at Gas Works Park at approximately 6:30 p.m. tonight, will continue along Eastlake to downtown, where is will loop back around and up via Westlake Avenue along Queen Anne hill, and back to Gas Works. The ride is scheduled to pass City Hall at approximately 7 p.m., which means participants will be coming through Queen Anne anywhere between 7:15 and 7:45 p.m. tonight.
If you’d like to participate in Seattle’s 7th Annual Ride of Silence, plan to arrive at Gas Works at 6 p.m.. There will be dedications and a spoken word event before the ride, as well as a post-cycle social gathering from 8 to 10 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and with more than 15,000 bicyclists in Seattle, is likely to have a big turnout. For more information check out the Seattle Ride of Silence website.
The proceeds of tonight’s performance will go toward grants for artists who were expecting employment from Intiman Theatre this season, but did not yet have contracts and received no severance when the season was canceled due to budget issues last month. The grants will be distributed by local non-profit Artist Trust, which is dedicated to supporting artists in Washington State.
“Intiman’s crisis is a crisis for all Seattle theater,” Daisey said in a statement. “This moment has huge implications for what theater will mean in the future of Seattle’s artistic landscape. I’m very happy that Seattle Rep was able to act quickly and decisively so that proceeds from this performance will go directly to the artists who have been hurt by the cancellation of Intiman’s season. Seattle has an extraordinary theater community, and I hope everyone will come together to support the artists for this night, and to have a spirited, honest discussion about the state of our theater.”
From the press release:
Daisey’s monologue is about the failure of the American theater to help sustain and support its workers. In the monologue, he sinks his razor-sharp wit into a subject he knows well: the American theater. From gorgeous new theaters standing empty as cathedrals, to “successful” working actors traveling like migrant farmhands, to an arts culture unwilling to speak or listen to its own nation, Daisey takes stock of the dystopian state of theater in America.
Tonight’s performance will be followed by a roundtable discussion on the state of theater in our time with theatre professionals, artists, and arts funders, including Jerry Manning, Hans Altwies, Allison Narver, and Charlie Rathbun, and moderated by Daisey. Audience members are invited to participate.
Tickets for tonight’s show are $25 and are available at www.seattlerep.org, or at the Box Office at 206-443-2222 (Toll-free 1-877-900-9285). Tickets will also be available at the door. Seating is general admission.
There is no website for the business as of yet, but according to its Facebook page, the salon will specialize in cuts and color for men and women, as well as styles for special occasions such as weddings and print media.
There’s no word yet on when the salon will be opening, but I’ve put in a word to the owner and will update this story as soon as I hear back. In the meantime, follow updates on the salon’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
With the cost of food going up, one group of Seattleites has figured out how to eat every meal for free. They call themselves “freegans,” more commonly known to outsiders as “dumpster divers.” As one freegan says, “People think that food that goes in the garbage is bad.” They disagree. But it’s not just about sifting through garbage, they also forage for food in urban areas.
Students from the UW Entrepreneurial Journalism class, taught by our partners at the Common Language Project, talk with these freegans who say they “eat like kings” on a daily basis.
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) completed the repaving of Dexter Ave N between Fremont and 4th Ave N and McGraw Street on Friday, but construction along the thoroughfare is not quite over yet. A contractor working with SDOT will be continuing construction on bus islands and installing new traffic markers, including buffered bike lanes, along Dexter over the next two weeks in order to stay on track with completing this phase of the project by the end of May.
The second phase of the project, which stretches from McGraw Street to Garfield Street, is scheduled to begin next week and to be completed in early August. From SDOT:
Crews will start with installing an underground storm water detention pipe near Garfield Street and a bio-retention / “rain garden” near Crockett Street. Other work includes repaving the roadway, installing bus islands, adding a buffered bike lane, and making pedestrian improvements. During this second phase of the project, Garfield Street will be closed for seven days between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.
SDOT says drivers should expect lane closures and on-street parking restrictions along Dexter Ave N during this period, though some of the work is weather dependent and may be rescheduled or adjusted as the project progresses. To learn more about the Dexter repaving project, check out SDOT’s project website.
At approximately 1:46 a.m. on Saturday, March 14 Seattle Police were called to the 1800 block of Queen Anne Ave N, the site of a robbery and assault. The victim was walking to her home, just two blocks away, when the suspect, described only as a black male wearing a black shirt, blue jeans and with long black hair, grabbed her purse, according to the police report.
The victim managed to dial 911 on her iPhone, but while on the phone the suspect grabbed her and dragged her about 20 feet, according to the report. The suspect took the cell phone out of her hands and proceeded down W Howe Street, however the victim was able to wrestle her purse back from the suspect before he left the scene.
A witness to the robbery told police they saw the crime unfold, but was afraid to get involved in case the suspect had a weapon.
The victim, who reportedly had scraped knees and elbows from the attack but no further injuries, declined medical attention and told police “she just wanted her phone back,” the report said. A couple of units reported to the scene of the crime and conducted an extensive area check, but were not able to locate the suspect.
In anticipation of a possible budget shortfall, the RTC is discussing the “600,000 Service Hour Reduction Scenario” issued to the committee as part of the debate over the King County Metro Transit Strategic Plan. Routes affected in the scenario include Queen Anne’s Route 2, which would be re-routed from its typical turnaround at the top of the hill to continue down Third Avenue West past Seattle Pacific University, and Route 45, which would be eliminated entirely.
The RTC is expected to pass the strategic plan in mid-June, said King County Department of Transportation spokeswoman Rochelle Ogershok.
“At that point, the full King County Council will pick it up for debate, so that’s where we’re at, still in the context of discussion,” said Ogershok. “It’s too early to tell how that’s all going to unfold and what the specifics of any reductions would be.”
The scenarios, as part of the strategic plan’s service guidelines, are designed to give the RTC and county council members a sense of how the guidelines would play out, but there’s a lot to be discussed and done before any such measures could be approved, said Ogershok. Assuming the strategic plan and the corresponding guidelines get approved, a separate move to make the actual cuts to the Metro Transit would have to be made.
“Right now these are planning examples, but at some point if we had to make cuts it would play out as part of the budget process and then there would be a separate proposal for actual service cuts that would need to be adopted by the council,” said Ogershok.
Also at play is a $20 car license fee to help fund Metro Transit that was passed by both houses of the state Legislature in April, signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire Monday, and is currently waiting to be approved by the county council.
“This new revenue tool could postpone the need for reductions,” said Ogershok. “It all comes down to the revenue situation.”
The measure would only be a temporary solution while King County continues to work on new options, like “a broader, statewide permanent fix for transit,” said Ogershok. A council decision on the legislation is expected to occur later this summer.
Just after midnight on Saturday, May 14 a 15-year-old girl was stabbed outside the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, according to the Seattle Police Department. A crowd of some 200 people had gathered at the Center for an all city dance, during which police witnessed several disturbances. From the SPD Blotter:
As officers were attempting to disperse the crowd, they were advised of a stabbing incident that occurred inside the large crowd. A juvenile female reportedly got into a fight with another female, who subsequently stabbed her in the abdomen.
Officers were able to locate the victim and call in the Seattle Fire Department, who transported her to Harborview Medical Center where she underwent surgery, according to the report.
The Seattle Police Department also located the knife they believe was used in the attack and submitted it into evidence. No suspects were taken into custody, but SPD detectives say they are currently investigating several leads.
The National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive, the largest food drive in the nation, is happening this Saturday, May 14.
To donate items place a bag of non-perishable food by your mailboxes for local letter carriers to collect. The employees bring the food back to their home base, the Interbay Postal Station, where it is loaded into totes to be sorted and delivered to local food banks.
Preferred items include canned meats, fish, soup, vegetables; bottled juice, pasta, cereal and rice that do not require refrigeration. Please do not include items that have expired or are in glass containers.
Food Lifeline is seeking volunteers to staff the Interbay Postal Station from 1:30-6:00 pm Saturday to help unload the food from the mail vehicles and place it in totes. You can sign up to volunteer by clicking here and selecting Interbay Postal Station.
The Queen Anne Movie Guild is hosting a screening of Split Estate, a documentary film about the struggle homeowners in Rocky Mountain West faced when they discovered that energy companies owned the rights to the minerals under their land, this Saturday, May 14, as part of its Second Saturdays documentary film series.
From the Queen Anne Movies Guild:
Imagine discovering that you don’t own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine having little recourse, other than accepting an unregulated industry in your backyard. Split Estate maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health.
Zeroing in on Garfield County, Colorado, and the San Juan Basin, this clarion call for accountability examines the growing environmental and social costs to an area now referred to as a “National Sacrifice Zone.”
This is no Love Canal or Three Mile Island. With its breathtaking panoramas, aspen-dotted meadows, and clear mountain streams, this is the Colorado of John Denver anthems — the wide-open spaces that have long stirred our national imagination.
Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left this idyllic landscape and its rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. One Garfield County resident demonstrates the degree of benzene contamination in a mountain stream by setting it alight with a match. Many others, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children. All the while, the industry assures us it is a “good neighbor.”
Ordinary homeowners and ranchers absorb the cost. Actually, we all pay the price in this devastating clash of interests that extends well beyond the Rockies. Aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states, the industry is even making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions.
As public health concerns mount, Split Estate cracks the sugarcoating on an industry touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels, and poignantly drives home the need for real alternatives.
The screening will be held 7 p.m. this Saturday at the Queen Anne United Methodist Church, located next to the QA Library at 1606 5th Ave W. Moviegoers should enter via the Fellowship Hall entrance located on W Garfield St. As always the event is free, and coffee and doughnuts will be provided by Peet’s Coffee and Tea and Top Pot Doughnuts.
Advocates of the opt-out programs say the new provision will cut down on waste and save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on recycling unused books. Detractors argue the city registry violates free-speech rights and will cause financial harm to their companies.
As the battle wages in the courts, Seattle Rep. Reuven Carlyle says he hopes to expand the measure to become statewide next year.
Create your stop yellow pages delivery account on the CatalogChoice website.
Click on Phone Books and choose the yellow pages phone books you want.
Your opt out selection must be in effect 30 days before a company starts its Seattle distribution cycle. Choices for DEX yellow pages phone books must be made by May 16, 2011 in order to prevent delivery of books this year.
If yellow pages books are still delivered to your home after you opted out 30 days or more before delivery, you can log in to that CatalogChoice account and file a complaint.
Bonnie and Kevin Nasr have owned a Little Gym franchise in Seattle for the past 18-years. That gym in the Roosevelt neighborhood is the longest originally owned Little Gym in the world. Their second location is at 2213 15th Ave. West on 15th Ave. W, next to Alpine Hut.
The Nasrs say the mission of Little Gym is to develop confidant, successful kids through gymnastics. Children are taught physical dexterity, along with listening, sharing, and overall life skills.
Children from four months to 12-years are welcome at the Little Gym. Parents help guide children under age three in classes. Extensively trained teachers are on hand during all sessions to lead everyone through their paces.
The focus is on what they call “serious fun.” They offer a structured curriculum featuring tumbling and other floor skills, balance beam, parallel bars, rings, and vault to improve strength and steadiness.
The company started in Bellevue 35 years ago and there are now more than 300 Little Gym’s world-wide. Check out their website here.
Thanks to Steven Smalley for the info and photos! Read more about Little Gym in our preview story last year.
(Disclosure: Little Gym is a sponsor of QueenAnneView.com)
Ever wondered what happens day to day in the exciting world of hyperlocal journalism? The couple behind Next Door Media — Kate and Cory Bergman — are profiled in this Seattle Channel piece that focuses on the company’s flagship site, My Ballard. (Queen Anne View is a Next Door Media site.) It’ll air tonight on TV (channel 21), but you can preview it here.
Added bonus: We got to see Silver, one of our tipsters. Thanks for all you do, Silver!
The play telling the story of baseball great Jackie Robinson will feature a cameo appearance on this night by Seattle Mariners baseball star and founder of The Martinez Foundation Edgar Martinez. A hot dog and popcorn reception will follow in the SCT Scene Shop, and there will also be a chance to win a baseball signed by members of the ’95 AL West Champion Seattle Mariners.
The Martinez Foundation, founded by Edgar Martinez and his wife Holli in 2008, aims to “strengthen our communities by providing underserved populations with educational opportunities.”
From The Martinez Foundation website:
We believe every student regardless of race, ethnicity or socio-economic status deserves access to an excellent education. The consequences of the status quo are economically, socially and morally impermissible.
Our mission is to prepare and support diverse and highly-qualified teachers who will raise expectations, accelerate learning and close the achievement gap by granting scholarships and promoting innovative social justice curriculum.
The Seattle Children’s Theatre’s mission statement is “to provide children of all ages access to professional theatre, with a focus on new works, and theatre education,” according to their website.
May 21st is Seattle Works Day, in which 1,500 volunteers will be participating in 32 different service projects throughout Seattle from noon to 3:30 p.m. That’s 5,000 hours of service in a single day, organized by the nonprofit Seattle Works.
The volunteers converge at Seattle Center immediately following the projects for an after party hosted by Seattle Works following the service projects. Last year 81% of participants said that they were inspired to do more in the community as a result of Seattle Works Day.
Seattle Works is still accepting teams and individual volunteers – please visit www.seattleworks.org or contact Kathleen Weber (206-324-0808 or kathleen@seattleworks.org) to learn how to get involved!
State senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D) of the 36th District is introducing new legislation which would clarify the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana law.
Last week, Governor Christine Gregoire vetoed portions of Senate Bill 5073. In a prepared statement, Governor Gregoire said, “But the central concerns I raised still stand: we cannot presume to assure protections to one group of people—patients, providers and health care professionals—in a way that subjects another group, Department of Health and Department of Agriculture employees to federal arrest or criminal liability. That is not acceptable to me; it is not workable.” (Entire statement can be read here.)
“I was disappointed that the governor vetoed most of Senate Bill 5073 — legislation that took nearly two years to develop based on input from a diverse group of stakeholders,” Kohl-Welles said. “However, I believe she fully understands the need to provide protections for qualifying patients in accessing a safe, secure and reliable source of their medicine.”
The new bill (SB 5955) introduced by Kohl-Welles and a bipartisan group of senators, “addresses the governor’s concerns over state employees’ not being immune from federal arrest and protection by establishing a system of nonprofit patient cooperatives for qualifying patients to obtain their medical marijuana. The revamped bill would also allow local governments to control where dispensaries may be located and provide arrest protection for patients enrolled in a voluntary, confidential state registry,” the press release states.
“The new bill has been well-received in preliminary meetings with the governor and her staff as well as by many other stakeholders,” Kohl-Welles added. There is a public hearing this morning in the Senate Ways & Means Committee.
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Among the special events, spectacles and movie stars at this year’s festival, Ewan McGregor is set to receive the Golden Space Need Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting May 22 at the Egyptian Theatre. The event will also feature a screening of his new film “Beginners,” a U.S. comedic drama by director Mike Mills.
With the cost of food going up, one group of Seattleites has figured out how to eat every meal for free. They call themselves “freegans,” more commonly known to outsiders as “dumpster divers.” As one freegan says, “People think that food that goes in the garbage is bad.” They disagree. But it’s not just about sifting through garbage, they also forage for food in urban areas.
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) 
The National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive, the largest food drive in the nation, is happening this Saturday, May 14.
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May 21st is 