It’s not often that I make my way over to White Center, but after having my first visit to Proletariat Pizza tonight, I think I’ll be going there a lot more often.
Located at 9622 16th Ave SW, Proletariat is conveniently located just across the street from Full Tilt Ice Cream and a couple doors down from the newly opened
Photographer Ishimoto Yasuhiro was recognized as photographer of the year by the Japan Photo Critic Association in 1957, received The Mainichi Art Award in 1970, and was given a distinguished contribution award in 1991 by the Photographic Society of Japan. He received medals of honor in 1983 and 1993, along with being named a Man of Cultural Distinction in 1996 by the Japanese Government. Back in 1953, he took a series of photos of he Katsura Detached Palace which was built in the early Edo Period (17th Century) for the Hachijonomiya family. The palace is spread over a 50,000-square-meter site and is made of buildings built in the sukiya style.
These impressive photos will be on display at Seattle’s Japanese Garden Thursdays through Sundays from 1:30 to 4 from September 2 through November 14. he photos will also be available for viewing during Respect for Elders on Monday, Sept. 20, and Maple Viewing on Wednesday, Nov. 17. Admission to the photograph exhibit is free with Garden admission.
A reception to celebrate the exhibit takes place September 9 from 6 to 8 pm.
For more information, contact the Japanese Garden ticket booth at (206) 684-4725.
Seattle Parks and Recreation is hosting a life jacket sale on Saturday, August 21, from 10 am to 2 pm at Evans Pool, 7201 E Green Lake Dr. N.
Washington State law requires children ages 12 and younger to wear a Coast Guard approved life jacket or life vest on vessels less than 19 feet long. There must also be a life jacket on board for each person older than 12. Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death among children ages 1 – 14 years old.
Life jackets are available in sizes from infant to adult size XXL; infant to youth large jackets are $20 and teen to adult size XXL jackets are $30. All sales are final and the person who will wear the jacket must be on hand for a proper fitting.
For more information please call Diane Jones at 206-684-7440, or email her at diane.jones@seattle.gov.
Swedish electronica artist Fever Ray (also known as Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife) has released a cover of Peter Gabriels’ “Mercy Street”.
Karin explains why she chose this song to reinterpret: “It’s an interpretation of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Mercy Street’. We made it more intense and faster to fit our excentric pecussionists and energetic live musicians. It is a monotone track but we worked with the dynamics trying to make it sparkle. I listened to it a lot when I was around 15, and it still moves me. It made me start reading Anne Sexton too.”
Listen to the online stream here before heading over to NME.com where the song is available for exclusive download for just 24 hours.
Decibel Festival returns to Seattle September 22 – 24 with a free three day conference, 27 showcases across 11 different venues and over 100 artists representing 15 countries.
This year’s musical line up includes Beats Antique, VibeSquaD, Eskmo, Emancipator, Truckasauras, MachineDrum, and many more including festival headliner Flying Lotus. Showcases include the Opening Gala featuring Ean Golden, Kris Moon and Introcut, the Room40Label 10 year anniversary showcase with Ben Frost, Grouper, Lawrence English, and Rafael Anton, and the LoDubs showcase with Disco Nihilist, Struggle, Lioncub and Energy Flash.
Workshops include DJ Tech Tools, a panel on “Women in Electronic Music”, a lecture on “The Age of Abundance” and “Putting Social Networking and Online Promotion to Work as an Artist”.
Passes and individual show tickets go fast; advance purchase is highly recommended. For complete festival line up and pass/ticket purchasing visit the Decibel Festival site.
If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, consider some free outdoor theater: Seattle fringe theatre group The Wrecking Crew is staging Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. through August 28 in the amphitheater at Central District’s Dr. Blanche Lavizzo Park.
The park was named in honor of Blanche Sellers Lavizzo (1925–1984), the first medical director of the adjacent Odessa Brown Clinic for children. In honor of Dr. Lavizzo’s commitment to serving the Central District community, the Wrecking Crew is presenting Much Ado FREE to audiences. Donations are accepted but not required.
Good thing you’re not the Wicked Witch of the West: you can survive our current high temps with a dip in the pool, a wade through water, or a splash from a fountain. The Seattle Parks Department has some options for you:
Beaches
Seattle Parks offers safe, lifeguarded beaches at nine sites around the city. It’s best to swim only where lifeguards are present just to be on the safe side. Beaches are open daily, weather permitting, from noon to 7 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Amenities range from swim rafts and low and high diving boards to nearby wading pools, play areas, ballfields, and more.
These beaches are open through September 6:
· Matthews, 9300 51st Ave. NE
· Madison, 1900 43rd Ave. E
· Mt. Baker, 2301 Lake Washington Blvd. S
· Seward, 5902 Lake Washington Blvd. S
· West Green Lake, 7312 W Green Lake Dr.
These beaches are open through August 29:
· East Green Lake, 7201 E Green Lake Dr. N
· Magnuson, park entrance at NE 65th and Sand Point Way NE
· Madrona, 853 Lake Washington Blvd.
· Pritchard Beach, 8400 55th Ave. S
Outdoor Pools
Seattle Parks runs two outdoor pools, each with swimming lessons, family swimming, water exercise programs, and special events. You can even rent the whole pool for your own special event.
Lowery C. “Pop” Mounger Pool, at 2535 – 32nd Ave. W, 206-684-4708, is open daily through September 12. Mounger Pool is really two pools in one place. The “big pool” has a 50-foot corkscrew slide and there’s a warmer, shallower “little pool”, too.
Colman Pool, at 8603 Fauntleroy Way SW, 206-684-7494, opens at noon each day through September 6, and is also open the weekend of September 11 and 12. The pool enjoys a spectacular view of Puget Sound from its prime location on the beach in West Seattle’s Lincoln Park. It features heated salt water and a Giant Tube Slide.
Wading Pools and Water Spray Features
Seattle Parks has 25 wading pool sites this summer, and there are five parks with spray features to enjoy. Please note that the pools take about an hour to fill and drain each day, as required by law.
Three-day-a-week Wading Pools:
Bitter Lake, 13035 Linden Ave. N, noon to 7 p.m. Wed, Thu, Fri through Aug. 20.
Cal Anderson Park, 1635 11th Ave., noon to 6:45 p.m., Fri, Sat, Sun through Aug. 22.
East Queen Anne, 160 Howe St., noon to 7 p.m. Sun, Mon, Tue through Aug. 22.
E.C. Hughes, 2805 SW Holden St., noon to 7 p.m. Wed, Thu, Fri through Aug. 20.
Hiawatha, 2700 California Ave. SW, noon to 6:45 p.m. Mon, Tue, Wed through Aug. 18.
Soundview, 1590 NW 90th St., noon to 7 p.m. Sat, Sun, Mon through Aug. 22.
South Park, 8319 8th Ave. S, noon to 7 p.m. Sun, Mon, Tue through Aug. 18.
Wallingford, 4219Wallingford Ave. N, noon to 7 p.m. Wed, Thu, Fri through Aug. 20.
Daily Wading Pools:
Green Lake, N 73rd and E Green Lake Dr. N, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Sept. 6.
Lincoln Park, 8600 Fauntleroy Ave. SW, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Sept. 6.
Magnuson, eastern end of NE 65th St., noon to 6:30 p.m. daily through Aug. 29.
Van Asselt, 2820 S Myrtle St., 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Sept. 6.
Volunteer Park, 1400 E Galer St., 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Sept. 6.
Water Spray Features:
Ballard Commons, 5701 22nd Ave. NW, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Oct. 15.
John C. Little, 6961 37th Ave. S, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Sept. 6.
Lower Judkins, 2150 S Norman St., 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Sept. 6.
Miller, 330 19th Ave. E, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Oct. 15.
Pratt, 1800 S Main St., 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Sept. 6.
For a more complete listing of fun summer activities in Seattle parks, please visit www.seattle.gov/parks and click on “2010 Summer Guide” on the home page.
Last weekend I gave up sleep in order to play Classic Adventures: The Great Gatsby from Seattle’s own I-play from start to finish. While I’m no fan of the classic American novel that inspired the game, I always enjoy a good hidden object game, particularly if it has some clever twist, so I decided to play for a few minutes to see what it was like. I was hooked from the start.
Classic Adventures: The Great Gatsby begins with moving scenery in which some objects are hidden. You don’t have to find these to proceed, but locating them gives you bonus points and if you don’t find them all, you have the option to go back and start over. You then enter the world of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s imagination in a game that follows the novel’s plot including narration and dialogue taken directly from the source material – a neat bonus for fans or anyone curious about the work. You play at Nick, neighbor to Gatsby and cousin to Daisy, in a series of beautifully rendered hidden object scenes, each laid out as a chapter in the book. In addition to the list of items you must find to complete the scene, there are bonus items you can find. A book is hidden in each scene; finding it gives you points to decorate your library, which appears between game scenes. It’s not necessary to complete the library, but it’s a fun added bonus. Additionally, words are hidden in each scene – finding all the letters gives your hint meter a turbo boost that speeds up its refills. All the words are relevant in some way to the scene in which they’re found and as an added bonus, if you can’t find all the letters you can still take a stab at guessing the word. Some are easy to guess, some quite challenging.
Some scenes require the player to complete a simple puzzle and some scenes are made more challenging by motion – at points in the story where the characters are driving to and from the city, you search for items as you move past them in your car. The object searches can be quite challenging, but not impossibly so. There were some scenes where I made quite liberal use of the hint button, but none of the scenes would have been unsolvable without it. As you progress in the game, you earn a series of trophies for display in your library; player who like to share their game achievements with their friends also have an option to do so via Facebook Connect.
Admirers of The Great Gatsby, the novel, will be pleased at how well Classic Adventures: The Great Gatsby adapts the book’s story; if you’ve never read the book, you might just be inspired to by playing the game.
Keeping with the reading theme, I-play is offering a promotion that allows casual game fans a chance to help out local literacy group Page Ahead, an organization that provides new books and reading activities to empower at risk children by giving them the gift of reading. Page Ahead’s programs include a book distribution program that gives children books of their own to read and a family involvement program which encourages and enables parents to help their children succeed in reading.
In celebration of Classic Adventures: The Great Gatsby and I-play’s other literary-inspired games, from now until August 31, the I-play Summer Reading Program will donate $1 for each sale of a game based on books. Besides Gatsby titles include Vision in White, based on Nora Roberts’ Bride Quartet series, titles based on the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson, and games inspired by Agatha Christie’s classic mysteries.
To learn more and to purchase games, visit I-play’s site.
While any time is a good time to give a cookie gift, right now is an excellent time to give a cookie gram from Specialty’s Bakery because you won’t just be giving cookies, you’ll be helping out someone who really needs it..
A Specialty’s employee named Tanisha Sepulveda was recently seriously injured; her C5 vertebrae in her neck was shattered, leaving her mostly paralyzed and sticking her with huge bills for her medical care – care which is going to take a long, long time.
Specialty’s is doing their best to help Tanisha and asks their customers to join them in providing her some assistance. From now through August 18th, send a cookie gram which gives your receipient a code to redeem for cookies at any Specialty’s location and Specialty’s will donate $1 for every Cookiegram cookie sent.
Corbomite Games today announce the development of a new commerce strategy game “Star Shipping Inc.” The game is expected to be available in September 2010 for iPhone, iPad, PC and Mac.
In Star shipping Inc. you take the role of the captain of of a cargo ship traveling between star systems to trade goods and commodities in strive to become the richest star ship captain in the galaxy.
Travel to new and exciting planets, encounter multiple type of enemies like space pirates, monsters and others, fly solo or protect your cargo by hiring defense drones. Receive groundbreaking and exciting news at the end of each turn that dramatically effect the next turn’s outcome. A dozen of random events that can occur during travel will make you think twice before take chances and increases the fun experience with a high replay value..
“I’ve wanted to do an iPhone game ever since I first laid my hands on this wonderful device” said Oded Sharon, CEO of Corbomite Games “and especially now with the iPad and the new iPhone 4, it seems like a much more exciting time for independent game developers to reach out to new audiences which we haven’t had access to only a couple of few years ago. Now, we are able to produce high quality products, featuring high production values with stunning graphics and original musical soundtrack that are available in the palm of your hand”
Star shipping features high resolution beautiful space backdrops, planets, aliens, nebulae, space ships, items, and characters. The game includes an in game store where you can buy upgrades to your ship in order to increase performance and get a higher score. For example, you can buy upgrades to get more speed, strength, or resilience. The game also features a bank where you can keep your savings and where you can loan cash in times of need.
Star shipping and will have both a standard version and an HD version available for iPhone and iPad.
The game will also include unique features for each platform, for example, a use of the iPhone’s accelerometer.
For more information on Star Shipping, please visit:
http://starshipping.corbomitegames.com
