| Environmental: Planting Young Fruit Trees: A Hands-on Learning Experience
, Nov 17th, free. Go Johnny Appleseed. Autumn is the time of year to plant fruit trees, so learn site location, plant preparation, and first-year plant care for your own little hobby orchard. * Also, Cisterns and Water Catchment: Getting Started!
, Nov 14th, free with RSVP. They explain how to catch rainwater, how to store it, and then how to use it once you got it. Come next summer, you'll have the greenest lawn, and the neighbors will be envious.
Fashion: Unzipped
, Nov 17-18th, free with registration. Over 50 designers from Seattle and beyond descend on Seattle Center showcasing their styles and selling directly to you. Styles cover both men and women, both cocktail and informal. This show is about 50% for civilians and 50% for industry folks, so there are lots of inside resources available.
Opera: The Play of the Soul and the Body, Nov 17th, $25 suggested donation. It's the pleasures and temptations of the world against the sage advice of guardian angels. The imagery of Michelangelo's Last Judgment
from the Sistine Chapel is brought to musical and theatrical life. This is provided by a baroque orchestra including a harp, chitarrone, and viola da gamba. * Also, Trouble in Tahiti and Rita
, Nov 16 - 17th, $20. Seattle Opera's young artists perform a double bill. These shows are good for opera newbies; the tickets are cheap, the shows are short, and the opera experience is more intense in a smaller venue.
Fundraisers: The Wines and Portos of Portugal, Humane Society Benefit, Nov 15th, $30, of spending an evening tasting these wines. Like, how often do you get to drink up with Fido?
Book Events: Historic Preservation and the Imagined West
, lecture and book signing, Nov 14th, free. The work studies and compares historic districts in Seattle. Put all of the interests of architects, city planners, and boosters together in one big soup, and then provide shopping and tourist centers with some idealized presentation of the old west. * Also, Toxics Next to Your Skin
, Nov 15th, free. Ever read the ingredients list on personal care products, and wonder what all of those chemical really are, and what they do? Well, if ignorance isn't bliss to you, come here and get the low down. * Also, Mary Randlett Landscapes, Nov 13th, free with admission, of some of the grand landscapes of the Northwest, plus some of the mundane seen in new ways.
Business Events: Driving Company Performance, Executive Briefing
, Nov 15th, free to business executives with at least "Director" on their business card, on best practices of market-driven companies developing better products, faster, and generating more profits. Go on and crush your competition. * Also, Read to Succeed, Nov 14th and 20th, free. Those folks at the Puget Sound Business Journal
show you how to extract nuggets from their newspaper to formulate sales leads and spot trends.
Spoken Word: Prisons and American History: The Prison Industrial Complex,
Nov 15th, free. Instead of using prisons as problem-solvers, this is how to create a world free of prisons by attacking the core problems of homelessness, unemployment, drug addition, mental illness, illiteracy, and other social ills. * Also, A Delicate Dance: Multicultural Issues in Modern Day France
, Nov 14th, free. Those Frenchies already feel swamped with the overwhelming American cultural presence, so how do they welcome immigrating Muslims and Arabs into their society and create cultural diversity?
Food and Wine: The biggie this week is the Seattle Food and Wine Festival, Nov 16-18th, $14. Don't eat breakfast. Chefs demonstrate their talents and wares; companies hand out samples of their tasties. Tickets also include entry to the
Seattle Christmas Gift Show. * Also, Beer Making for the Holidays, Nov 17th, $78. Here's how to develop brews according to your own preferences. You graduate the class 30 days later with 30 bottles of brew, just in time for Christmas giving.
Holiday Shopping: Take your pick, you can throw a Yule log and hit a place to spend your Christmas bucks. Pacific Place has a ton of live entertainment in the plaza that goes best when you're wearing a scarf and sipping an eggnog latte. * Also, the
Chat With Women power pair hosts a shopping party on Nov 15th, $35; this is one of those shop-till-you-drop parties. * Also, the Commons at Federal Way has a gob of holiday events and little activities on the schedule as well. Organization:
Alpental Volunteer Ski Patrol. Supposedly, it's going to be a La Nina year, so the snow should be good. They've already been getting snow in the foothills for the last four weeks. Here's a way to enjoy the slopes and help out fellow skiers. Most of the skiers in need of help seem to be screwing off and doing something they shouldn't be doing, which then gets them into trouble. |
Uncool
It seems like coolness goes through a cycle of tension. When something is rare, it's special, desirable, and sought after. After a lot of people acquire the object, it becomes common and ordinary, losing its allure. In a way, it becomes a victim of its own success (i.e., Coach purses). Here are three items that have passed the tipping point from cool to pedestrian:
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Utilikilts: This used to be cool, about a decade ago. Now, it's worn by a bunch of unkempt guys with potbellies. The less you see of these guys, the better. You might as well be wearing socks with your sandals.
Tattoos and Piercings
: It seems like every generation has to go one step beyond the previous generation. Body art seems to be this generation,s mark of individuality and social rebellion. However, since everyone is doing it, tattoos and body piercings no longer have the cachet of novelty. Instead, it's more a copy-cat thing now, just one more among the crowd.
Hip-Hop:
This is following the cycle of Grunge. In the beginning, this was done by a minority more concerned about making a statement about the establishment than making a buck. Then, it became popular, and the big money came in. With dollars washing about, priorities are no longer the same, and the spirit driving the message is compromised.
Note: There will be no issue next week.
Cool Video: The Seattle Cardboard Tube Fighting League. Go whack somebody with a paper tube.
If you're having problems seeing the video, click here
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