4 p.m. – Chef Demo with Metropolitan Market Chef Amy Pinkis, who will be teaching market goers how to make fresh mozzarella (and later, homemade ricotta), and how to concoct delicious dishes that highlight the fresh-made cheese
4 p.m. – Kid’s Mozzarella Pull
5 p.m. – Live Music with returning market favorite The Canote Brothers (be sure to bring your dancing shoes!)
5:30 p.m. – Chef Demo part two with Met Market’s Amy Pinkis, this time teaching market goers how to make their own homemade ricotta cheese and integrate it into interesting recipes
Check out what’s fresh at the market this week here
As always the Queen Anne Farmers Market will take place from 3 to 7:30 p.m. at W Crockett Street and Queen Anne Ave N. The Interbay Farmers Market will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Interbay Urban Center, located at 1819 15th Ave. W.
One of the most notable patrons and philanthropists of the Queen Anne and greater Seattle arts community, Bagley Wright, died at the age of 87 after suffering a heart attack on Monday night, according to a report by The Seattle Times.
Bagley and Virginia Wright at a “Capote” party in Seattle, 1966. Photo credit: Photo by Dave Potts, Courtesy of the SeattlePI Collection, MOHAI.
Wright moved to Seattle in 1956 with his wife Virginia Bloedel, whose family owned a successful Northwest timber business, and quickly got to work developing what have since become some of the city’s greatest artistic institutions. At the time Seattle’s arts scene was regarded as ‘cultural backwater,’ the Times writes, and Wright took it upon himself to change that. “He understood that a great city had to have great cultural institutions,” his son Charlie Wright told the Times.
And change it he did. The influential philanthropist and developer founded the Seattle Repertory Theatre here in Queen Anne, helped transform the Seattle Art Museum (where his son Charlie now sits as chairman of the board) from a boutique gallery in Volunteer Park to a downtown destination, and had a hand in building the Space Needle, undoubtedly the city’s most iconic landmark. The Wrights were also the first major investors in Benaroya Hall.
“He really planted the first seeds of a vibrant cultural life in Seattle that we all take for granted now,” local arts consultant Susan Trapnell told the Times. “He’s really been an essential donor and supporter of almost every major arts organization in the city.”
From the Times:
In addition to his wife, Mr. Wright is survived by his brother, Dan Wright, of Greenwich, Conn.; sons Charlie Wright, of Seattle and Bing Wright, of New York City; daughters Merrill Wright, of Seattle, and Robin Wright, of San Francisco; as well as 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“We have a great family, thanks to him, and it’s a great comfort. We did have a good time together. Nobody was better company than Bagley. I’ll miss him no end,” Mrs. Wright told the Times.
A memorial service for Wright will be held on Tuesday, July 26 at 3 p.m. at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Capitol Hill. In lieu of flowers, the family has suggested contributions be made to the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Repertory Theatre or the Bloedel Reserve in Wright’s memory.
It certainly has been a strange summer. After weeks of of waiting for summer to arrive, it finally warmed up and gave us some sun, only to take it away and slap us with 60-degree weather and 75 percent humidity. And then today Queen Anne woke up to blue skies and an almost opaque bank of fog covering Elliott Bay. When I walked to my car this morning, this is what I saw:
The Space Needle buried in fog. Quite a beautiful sight, and one more reason to love living in Queen Anne. Even still, let’s hope the foggy mornings dissipate and the sunshine stays a while.
As of 12:30 p.m. Friday the Space Needle was just a little over $12,000 shy of its $50,000 fundraising goal, which if met, will mean the Pride flag will once again fly atop the Needle after leading the Pride Parade to PrideFest at Seattle Center Sunday. So far $37,610.27 has been raised, which will go toward supporting four local charities: The Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA) Scholarship Program, Lambda Legal, It Gets Better for the Trevor Project and Mary’s Place, a homeless shelter for women and children.
But whether or not the Needle sports the rainbow flag at this year’s PrideFest, the city and Seattle Center will be full of Pride all weekend long. Interested in catching some fun Pride events this weekend? Check out the highlights:
Armistead Maupin reading at Seattle Public Library – Saturday, June 25 3 to 4:30 p.m.
PrideFest and Seattle Public Library welcome best-selling author Armistead Maupin for a special Pride book reading from his latest novel, Maryann in Autumn, and a conversation on the very gay world of Tales of the City. Saturday, June 25 3-4:30pm, with book signing afterwards. Entry is free but space is limited. FREE TICKETS AVAILABLE JUNE 1 at BrownPaperTickets for Book Reading.
Concert for Equality at Seattle Center – Saturday, June 25 6 p.m.
A ticketed concert with national talent, and 100% of net proceeds to benefit Equal Rights Washington. At the Mural Amphitheatre at Seattle Center. Crystal Bowersox, Thelma Houston, BETTY. An amazing show with world-class artists! GET TICKETS AND MORE INFO
Annual Red Pride Party – Satuday, June 25 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
Our annual RED Party has been the party destination for men every Pride, this year with Seattle favorite DJ Brian Gorr, and this year we’re adding a women’s party to our roster with Spinderella at Baltic Room. This is a big year and we can’t wait to roll out all the fun. GET MORE INFO – TICKETS ON SALE NOW
PridePrade – Sunday, June 26 11 a.m.
The Downtown Pride Parade is a spectacle to behold! It runs along 4th Avenue to the Seattle Center, and is produced by Seattle Out and Proud. Full info at seattlepride.org.
Seattle PrideFest at Seattle Center – Sunday, June 26 12 to 8 p.m.
The largest free pride festival in the country! Noon-8pm, 3 stages, national and local artists, non-profits, beer gardens, fun.
But the Needle caught some flack this month after rumors circulated that the organization did not plan to raise the flag again this year, catching the attention of national progressive organization Change.org, as well as a number of local and national media outlets. With Seattle Pride fast approaching at the end of the month, many in the community spoke out, urging the Needle to again raise the flag.
After an outpouring of support for the flag over the last two weeks, the Space Needle changed its stance this week, announcing that it would raise the flag again, if the greater Seattle community agreed to take on a fundraising challenge: “If the community can raise $50,000 for 4 local charities, the Space Needle will raise the Rainbow Flag on Sunday of Seattle Pride weekend in Seattle,” the Needle wrote in a press release Monday (.pdf).
“We want to harness the enthusiasm that has built up to raise the flag for the encore performance. Our entire community gets involved in whatever issue is at hand and we think that is what makes us so strong. This challenge can reap great benefits for these worthwhile organizations,” said Space Needle LLC Chairman Jeff Wright in the statement.
The $50,000 raised, assuming the challenge is met, will be divided equally between four local charities: The Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA) Scholarship Program, Lambda Legal, It Gets Better for the Trevor Project and Mary’s Place, a homeless shelter for women and children. The Space Needle has kicked off the challenge by offering an inaugural donation of $5,000. From the press release:
The Rainbow Flag, flown last year on the Space Needle, will lead the Seattle Pride Parade this year and, if the community challenge is met, it will be raised on the Space Needle when the Parade ends at Seattle Center on Sunday, June 26th. The Seattle Parade has grown in stature for several years now and holds a prominent position on the national scene.
Seattle Out and Proud, the organization behind Seattle Pride weekend, has already responded to the Space Needle’s challenge, partnering with the organization to help raise the funds. [Read more →]
The exhibit is slated to be built just west of the Space Needle on the site of the Fun Forest pavilion. The plan calls for a glass atrium of about 5,600 square feet to be constructed on the east side of the pavilion, according to the DPD decision. The building will also be renovated to add about 3,350 square feet of floor area for retail and lobby space, and about 250 square feet for an entry vestibule. In addition, a garden and walkways will be constructed in the exhibit’s accompanying outdoor spaces.
The application was approved on the condition that construction activities other than that taking place within enclosed floors will be limited to non-holiday weekdays between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to reduce the noise impact of construction on nearby properties.
Any appeals of this decision must be received by the Hearing Examiner no later than May 19. For instructions on how to appeal a land use decision, visit this DPD web page.
Though it’s been rainy this past week, the clouds parted for a few hours this afternoon and it actually looked like spring under the Space Needle. Despite temperatures in the high forties, many passersby strolled and sat in the Center grounds, enjoying the unexpected sunshine.
The Center turned on all of its waterworks on April 1, after closing it throughout the winter as a cost-savings measure. From Seattle Center:
International Fountain is programmed with new music each week, selected by Seattle Center musicologist James Whetzel, often to coincide with events happening on the grounds. For the weekend of April 1st, visitors will hear a mix of Japanese pieces in recognition of Seattle Center Festál: Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival, April 1 -3, in Center House, Fisher Pavilion and Seattle Center Pavilion.
The return of Seattle Center waterworks renews the hope that Mother Nature will soon delivery spring weather. Seattle Center invites the community to come down to the Center to take in the sun, view the spring flowers, listen to the fountain music and partake in all of the weekend festivities. For more information on Seattle Center attractions and events, visit the website at www.seattlecenter.com or call 206 684-7200.
Now here’s an event that I wish I hadn’t missed this last weekend. On Saturday, April 2 over 200 people gathered under the Space Needle at Seattle Center to duke it out for International Pillow Fight Day.
Participants of the event, in the vein of a flash mob, tossed pillows around at friends and strangers, giggling and laughing for the better part of 45 minutes until the crowd dwindled down to just a few die hard pillow wielders.
If you’re like me and missed out on this fun event, you can live vicariously through those who were there and check out the pictures from the great pillow battle at the Seattle event’s Facebook page. Until next year!
The Space Needle, along with a number of other towers around the world, will be lit red when the sun goes down this evening to stand in solidarity with and support Japan in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that hit last month.
Photo of Space Needle in red, white and blue shot from Kerry Park by Joe Rothstein, via Flickr.
“We hope that by lighting our rooftop in red, people will be encouraged to make a donation to the Japanese Consulate’s governmental website, the American Red Cross, or any other credible organization that is providing aid to Japan,” President and CEO of Space Needle LLC Ron Sevart said in a statement. “The people of Japan that have been impacted by this tragedy still need our help.”
According to KING 5, the following buildings will also be going red tonight, Monday, April 4:
CN Tower (Toronto, Canada), John Hancock Observatory (Chicago), Menara KL (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Macau Tower (Macau, China), North Tower (Seoul, Korea), Olympic Tower (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), Sky Tower (Auckland, New Zealand), and Spinnaker Tower (Portsmouth, Hampshire, United Kingdom).
The business, which quietly opened at 332 5th Ave N a few months ago, started its transformation by painting the outside walls white with black trim, and introducing a new concept to the space. Instead of opening up another club, which the space has had many incarnations of already, and none without their share of problems (particularly crime) in recent years, the new owners opted to turn the space into a venue for a variety of events – from live concerts, to fashion shows, comedy shows, corporate events, private parties and others.
Check out the upcoming events calendar for iMusic here. To find out how to reserve a table on a club night, or reserve the space for a party or event, click here.
With black and white photos of the two in Seattle’s notable spots, the restaurateurs hope to get enough votes to win Franey the Northwest and the country in Food & Wine Magazine’s new competition.
“We just thought, ‘how can we be creative here and get people to vote,’” said Mark Canlis. “It’s been a riot; it’s just been a lot of fun.”
There are a total of 14 photographs that will be released each day until voting ends March 1. One of the early shoots had the brothers on the top of the Space Needle in a harness braving cold temperatures and high winds.
“We were so high off adrenaline coming off the space needle in 50 mph winds,” said Canlis. “There were some nerves involved.”
The competition is year one of a joint effort from CNN food blog Eatocracy and Food & Wine Magazine, which nominates 10 chefs from 10 regions of the country and lets people vote for their favorite. The most votes in a region make a chef a finalist, of which there will be 10 in all, but the most votes in the country wins the title.
“We want people to vote for us because they believe in us, because we’re doing something creative,” said Canlis. “Because they respect who we are as a company and love that we’re trying to raise the bar of fine dining in the city, love that we’re trying to make this a food town, a food destination.”
The campaign, while garnering some media attention, is running solely on their Facebook page.
“It’s not so much an ad campaign as doing something fun with the city and social media,” Canlis said.
Adding a playful dimension to the Facebook campaign, Morse Code was inserted into the photographs that led to a secret website. The first 10 to the website (which took about six days) were given reservations and a free dinner at Canlis’s pop-up restaurant Hearth & Home held inside Macrina Bakery Queen Anne last weekend.
Their use of retro photographs with 21st century media herald the next generation of Canlis’s operation. Brian and Mark Canlis have been running the restaurant for five years now, and Chef Franey, the restaurant’s fifth chef in 60 years, has been at Canlis for a little over two years.
“I’m 36 and I’m the oldest person on my management team, it’s a young crew,” Canlis said. “We just thought to ourselves, ‘hey, we’re up for this award, how do we let people know it’s not your grandfather’s Canlis anymore.’”
If you missed the Space Needle fireworks show last night, we’ve captured it all on video courtesy of a rooftop vantage point on the south slope of Queen Anne.
Sorry for the shaky camera—one my of resolutions for 2011 is to remember to use a tripod.
If you’re planning to stick around Queen Anne to celebrate New Year’s this year, then there are plenty of places you can go for a prime view of the fireworks at the Space Needle at midnight.
Photo courtesy of the Seattle Center.
Here are just a few places you can ring in the New Year, for free, around the neighborhood.
Center House, Seattle Center—Ring in 2011 with the rocking sounds of The Machine, and witness the fireworks up close and personal.
For many years, The Machine has been playing around the Pacific Northwest, offering the best PARTY music in town. When you come and see The Machine, you will only hear DANCEABLE, FUN, PARTY rock and roll, AND you will have a great time.
Kerry Park—Climb up to Kerry Park, Seattle’s quintessential viewpoint (211 W Highland Dr.) to see the city skyline, Elliott Bay, and of course, the fireworks at the Needle. But remember, Kerry Park is a small space and likely to be packed, so get there early to scope out a prime viewing spot.
The South Slope—If you’re looking to have a more low key New Year’s, while still enjoying the festivities, you can have your own private viewing party from a number of sites along the south slope. Just drive around and pull over anywhere you have a clear view of the Needle. Advantages: these viewing spots are likely to be less crowded, and offer you a quick way home if you live nearby.
From the Water—If you’re lucky enough to own a boat, or know a friend who does and are comfortable battling the cold and wind, the view of the fireworks will be picturesque from Elliott Bay. Ahoy matey!
Wondering what’s in store for New Year’s at the Needle? Check out this footage of the 2010 New Year’s fireworks show, courtesy of PJtheFey.
While the weather today left the possibility of snow open, the forecast predicts mostly sunny skies on Friday, December 31, with a high of 40 degrees, a small chance of precipitation, and an overnight low of 28 degrees. So wherever you plan on watching the fireworks, the skies should be clear.
Have a favorite—and free—place to catch the fireworks? Comment below to add them to our list. Happy New Year!
The wheel, which will be located in Center Square, is set to open on April 21, 2011, “in recognition of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair opening date,” according to the Center. It will operate through the conclusion of The Next Fifty anniversary celebration in October 2012.
The elegant and technologically advanced giant wheel harkens back to the World’s Fair and nods to a future vision for Seattle’s central gathering place. The wheel’s fully enclosed and climate controlled capsules will hold up to eight passengers and provide 360 degree panoramic views of Seattle Center and the surrounding areas.
Just to give some perspective, the 200-foot wheel will be a little less than half the size of the London Eye, the world’s largest and most well-known observation wheel, which is 135 meters (just shy of 443 feet) high.
PI blogger Mary Cropp has discovered some potentially wonderful information: admission to the Space Needle will be free all day long tomorrow, Friday, August 13! Apparently Bausch + Lomb is celebrating the release of its new contact lens solution by making free access to the Needle for all (i.e. the first 10,500 visitors) for a day.
The Needle’s Observation Deck is open from 9 a.m. to midnight tomorrow. Check out the restaurants hours here. Admission is normally $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, and $11 for kids 13 and under (children under the age of three are always free).
A friend (thanks, Nina!) recently introduced me to VintageSeattle.org and some pretty amazing photos posted earlier this month of the Space Needle mid-construction prior to the 1962 World’s Fair.
VintageSeattle blogger Jess Cliffe gave us permission to re-post a few of the pictures, which were provided to him courtesy of Josh Salwitz (thanks, Jess…and Josh!).
What strikes me most about these photos—other than how Lower Queen Anne seems to have really sprung up around the Needle and Seattle Center, and how crazy the Needle itself looks all yellow and half-built—is the very modern quality of the images.
All of the pictures are dated between 1961 and 1962, though they almost look like someone Photoshopped an unfinished Space Needle into a present picture—if it weren’t for the missing buildings and ’60s cars giving the year away.
The man or woman who was behind the lens, however, is a mystery. “Don’t know who the original photographer was, sadly,” Jess wrote.
Want to see more? You can view all of the photos here.
(Photos courtesy of Jess Cliffe and Josh Salwitz; thanks to Nina Pardo for the tip).
For anyone who was in downtown Seattle this weekend, you probably caught some of the Pride Parade, which poured into Seattle Center mid-day Sunday, where thousands celebrated Pride Fest under the Needle.
For those of you who couldn’t make it to Pride this year, we’ve captured some of the festivities through photos.
Crowds enjoyed the International Fountain on the cloudy, but still quite warm summer day.
The Seattle Mural, which stands just under the Space Needle at the heart of Seattle Center, was commissioned over 50 years ago to world renowned collage/mosaic artist Paul Horiuchi for the 1962 World’s Fair. For the past five decades Horiuchi’s Venetian glass mosaic mural has been a gathering place at the Center as the face of the Mural Amphitheatre, and an artistic landmark of the city.
(Photo courtesy of Neil B. Waller via his Flickr page).
Partners in Preservation, an organization dedicated to preserving historic places across the country, has selected the mural as one of 25 historic sites in the Seattle/Puget Sound area up for a restoration grant. Because Partners in Preservation doesn’t have enough funding to restore all of the sites, they’ve put the decision to the community, inviting Seattleites and visitors to share their personal stories, pictures and experiences and vote for which places they wold like to see preserved, guaranteeing restoration to the site that receives the most votes.
From April 15 – May 12, vote here for the places you would like to see receive preservation funding. Each person can vote once daily for any of the 25 historic places. The winner of the public vote is guaranteed to receive a grant, so your votes really do count!
(Photo courtesy of John Hubbard via his Flickr page).
In an email sent out today, Partners in Preservation talked about its vision to restore the mural in time for the Center’s 50th Anniversary:
The Seattle Mural – created in 1962 for the Seattle World’s Fair – is pushing 50. And to be frank, the mid-century, glass mosaic masterpiece that serves as a colorful backdrop for the Mural Amphitheatre at Seattle Center is showing its age. Many of its pieces are missing, faded or cracked. It desperately needs a facelift.
With your vote, Seattle Center can revitalize this landmark artwork in time for the 50th anniversary of the World’s Fair.
Partners in Preservation is also hosting an open house at the mural on Sunday, May 2 from noon to 5 p.m. There will be live music, cake, a paper collage workshop for kids, and a display of 1962 World’s Fair memorabilia.
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