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front page fodder
King Cat Theater, William Tell Hotel, Wino Magazine, Final BHLUS meeting by Clark Humphrey
A SEA OF GREEN: The "Save Our Sonics" rally outside the new Federal Courthouse on Stewart Street on June 16 was far more exhilarating than anything seen on the KeyArena floor this past year (except the Obama rally). With the help of the local sports media, organizers drew more than 3,000 people to the courthouse steps. Sonics legends were there (Gary Payton, Xavier McDaniel) to spur on the shouting. So were several men, and at least one boy, in Slick Watts getup. The King Cat (nee King) Theater at Sixth and Blanchard has reopened as a film, concert, and meeting space. Built in 1974, it was Seattle's last new single-screen movie theater that wasn't a remodel of an existing building. In the 1990s it became a venue for jazz and rock shows, including a Nirvana-headlined benefit in 1993. More recently, it housed a Pentacostal church. New owner Arif Amaani plans to screen Bollywood movie musicals in the 896-seat King Cat, when it's not hosting live shows. Those include local label XIL Records's rock showcases on July 18 and Aug. 15, and "Fusion of Rock" all-ages revues each Thursday night. Schedules are at kingcattheater.com; tickets are at brownpapertickets.com. --- The Boston Globe's June 22 travel section ran a feature about Seattle's nightclub scene. After talking about Ballard and Capitol Hill, writer Steve Morse discusses Belltown as a spot for "posh restaurants" such as Le Pichet and Cascadia, and describes the Amber bar as having "two floors of beautiful furnishings and even more beautiful people. It has won all kinds of awards as Seattle's best singles bar." Meanwhile, Belltown's Five Point Cafe topped a list of America's "Best, Worst, and Dirtiest Dive Bars" posted at sloshspot.com. Writer "rtcrooks" relates, "With breakfast served 24 hours a day by wait staff that are not afraid to talk a little shit, this dive is as dirty as they come.... A place to go where no one knows your name, and if you told them, the strongest cocktails in town would help them to forget it by morning." --- The William Tell Hotel, 2327 2nd Ave., has been put up for sale by its most recent owner, the Plymouth Housing Group. The William Tell was once an adjunct to Second Avenue's "Film Row" ofmovie-studio distribution and marketing offices. It was a frequent hangout for studio sales officials and theater managers (and, occasionally, actors). It later became a single-room-occupancy residential hotel. Plymouth then ran it as low-income apartments. The building's last residents have since been moved to other Plymouth projects. Plymouth says it hopes to earn enough from the building's sale to support the building or remodeling of new affordable-housing units. The William Tell is one of 37 buildings in greater downtown placed last year on the City's list of potential historic landmarks. --- Security cameras will go up in Victor Steinbrueck Park, at least temporarily. The City Council approved an $850,000 pilot project for the video cameras on June 9. Besides Steinbrueck, the cams will also be placed at Hing Hay and Occidental parks. The cams will record video 24 hours a day; authorities will monitor live feeds only during what City officials call periods of "heightened alert." Once the cameras are installed, they'll be taken down within 21 months unless the Council agrees to keep them. --- Belltown got its own visual taste of the Fremont Solstice Parade on the morning of June 21. One of the parade's unofficial bands of nude bicyclists used the alley behind Black Dog Forge as its body-paint staging area. Once "dressed," the bicyclists rode en masse through northern Belltown and up Westlake to the parade. --- Wino Magazine is a new free monthly based in Belltown, celebrating Washington's wine industry. It's run by Josh LaRosee and Doug Haugen, two of the three partners in the Suite 100 Gallery. --- Ready for Urban Outfitters' next incarnation of corporate cool? The Philly-based chain's newest apparel concept, Free People, gets its own Seattle store later this summer on the corner of First and Stewart. It displaces the locally-owned Powder Room women's boutique, which has sidled into the space next door on First. Already open is SloBody's new "yoga fitness" studio in the Doyle Building, 119 Pine St. (upstairs from the former M Coy Books space). Its schedule includes both modified hatha yoga sessions and what its founders call "conditioning/yoga fusion classes." These, they claim, blend "the structure of training for sport with yoga's art of awareness and energy of breath." More info's at 999-6217 or slobody.com. --- The Belltown Housing and Land Use Subcommittee (BHLUS) held its final meeting on June 9. John Pehrson, who's led the community-organizing group for the past six years, is moving from Belltown to South Lake Union. "There was not sufficent interest or commitment to continue BHLUS as a separate entity in the future," Pehrson says, "so it was decided to 'fold' it back into the Belltown Community Council (BCC), as it existed before 2001. The officers of BCC generously agreed with this." BHLUS's several ongoing projects will now be folded into the BCC agenda. They include sidewalk improvements on Bell Street and Third Avenue and lighting the Chief Seattle statue in Tillikum Place Park. |
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