September 2013

Leah Steen's Cost-Effective Solution for Floors with Flair

Leah Steen’s Cost-Effective Solution for Floors with Flair

The interior designer offers an appealing and affordable way to make your surfaces underfoot shine

!–paging_filter–pEven interior designers can be surprised when it comes to home design. For instance, I continue to be amazed by how often the very basic element of flooring is routinely overlooked. Maybe it’s because people are so focused on what’s in front of them, rather than what’s underfoot, or because of the fear of a…

A Very Literary Ferry Ride

A Very Literary Ferry Ride

Shiro Kashiba discusses his memoir on September 28 on the Bainbridge Island Ferry

Northwest sushi pioneer Shiro Kashiba livens up the ferry ride to Bainbridge Island by talking about his memoir, Shiro, as part of Kitsap Regional Library’s new on-board Ferry Tales program. Upon landing, take the 10-minute walk to Intentional Table in Winslow for a sushi tasting directed by Shiro himself. Ferry departs Seattle at 3 p.m….

The 1 Percent Solution

The 1 Percent Solution

Ruri Yampolsky sets the interest rate on Seattle’s artscape

For Ruri Yampolsky, 1 measly percent means the difference between bland urban terrain and a cityscape that sparks creativity. As director of the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture’s public art program, Yampolsky oversees the city’s precedent-setting “One Percent for Art” ordinance that mandates 1/100th of all city capital improvement project funds goes toward the…

Must See the Swifts

Must See the Swifts

Bird lovers converge in Monroe for Swift Night Out

Witness the Hitchcockian spectacle of 20,000 Vaux’s swifts dive-bombing down a narrow chimney as they make a temporary roost in Monroe before heading to points south. While the show can last as long as a few weeks, Swift Night Out brings bird lovers together with food and drink to witness this crazy natural phenomenon and…

Fans Hoping to Reach Record Noise Levels at Seahawks' Home Opener

Fans Hoping to Reach Record Noise Levels at Seahawks’ Home Opener

The Seahawks have Seattle so excited that fans could just scream (their way to a world record)

Not since 2001, when the Mariners turned western Washington into Brigadoon, has Seattle been this jazzed. Expectations for the 2013 Seahawks are so giddily off the charts that Russell Wilson will be elected mayor of Seattle as soon as he authorizes the write-in campaign. Last year, Wilson proved that he’s the real deal among NFL…

Joint Venture

Joint Venture

With I-502 now in effect, Seattle has become ground zero for the state’s recreational pot market

Jim Willett has never smoked pot. His teenage sons think he’s a square. A former Navy pilot, he spent a year doing drug interdiction flights along the Washington coast, checking for ships carrying bales of marijuana. For the graying retiree, voting against the state’s legalization of recreational weed (Initiative 502) was pretty much a given….

No Running at the NEPO 5K Don't Run Art Walk

No Running at the NEPO 5K Don’t Run Art Walk

Join in on all the non-running fun this weekend

Seattle artists of all stripes are creating the most exciting and artful 5K ever experienced for the third annual NEPO art walk on Saturday, September 7. Follow silly and sublime installations and performances wending from Hing Hay Park through the Chinatown–International District and up to NEPO House on Beacon Hill, where finishers are rewarded with…

Bringing Focus to Homelessness with Social Media

Bringing Focus to Homelessness with Social Media

A Facebook photo project presents a sharp picture of homelessness in Seattle

As the residents of the West Seattle Nickelsville encampment pack up their sleeping bags and tents this month, homelessness in Seattle gets a rare close-up. Zooming in is exactly what architect Rex Hohlbein has been trying to do for the past two-and-a-half years with his Facebook group “Homeless in Seattle,” by which he hopes to…

Roger Shimomura at Greg Kucera Gallery

Roger Shimomura at Greg Kucera Gallery

Roger Shimomura’s paintings hit racist assumptions head-on

Born and raised in Seattle, Roger Shimomura has been living in the Midwest for the last 40 years, but says he is still regularly asked what part of Japan he’s from and how long he’s been in the U.S. Frustrated by the presumption that he’s not American, he created this new series of paintings, American…

Sweet Shoes at Hennie McPennie

Sweet Shoes at Hennie McPennie

You might not consider Mercer Island a go-to spot for kids’ shoes, but you’d be missing out on Hennie McPennie. Opened last January by John and Theresa Keith, former telecom execs, the shop is a result of three years of footwear research, with the goal of providing high-quality footwear to the island’s smallest residents. “We…

Feel-Good Kids' Toys at Eurostyle Your Life

Feel-Good Kids’ Toys at Eurostyle Your Life

When the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle closed The Giving Tree wooden toy workshop four years ago, Leslie Conti and Urs Berger, owners of Eurostyle Your Life, then in Fremont, decided to buy the business, tools and all, and move into its prime South Lake Union location on Westlake Avenue. Among the treasures are ferries and…

Thrills & Chills at the Washington State Fair

Thrills & Chills at the Washington State Fair

Do the Washington State Fair this September

People have been “doing the Puyallup” since 1900, and though this year the name has been changed to the more staid Washington State Fair (thefair.com), more than 1 million visitors are expected to attend the rural extravaganza of blue-ribbon food, breathtaking rides and rodeo broncs. But it’s not all fun and games at this treasured…