Helen, Author at Wallyhood

The Chill of “Winter’s Bone”

Helen June 30, 2010 Comments are off

This isn’t actually about current climactic conditions. But Winter’s Bone, new at The Guild, sounds like it has a bite as fierce and hard to withstand as winter’s worst. Here are some quick impressions from your neighbors, caught as they exited this past weekend:

“Great. Very very well done. Very depressing. Very raw and gritty.” – Kim

“I hope Middle America is not actually like that but I’m afraid it is. Pretty scary to think of what meth has done to that whole community.” – Scott

“Grim. Very Grim. A slice of live with no happy ending. The acting …

Food, Festivals and Fundraisers in the Other ‘Hoods

Helen June 29, 2010 1 Comment

Despite distinctively un-summerlike conditions, the good folks of Seattle persisted in celebrating summer festivals last week (denial is a coping mechanism in these situations).

Check out great photos of the Greenwood Car Show in the PhinneyWood blog and the Capitol Hill Pride Festival in Capitol Hill Seattle. And of course, the Solstice Parade in Fremont Universe (try to look beyond the gray skies and shivering participants).

My Green Lake announced registration is open for the Annual Green Lake Goggle and Mashed Potato Munch Off (try saying that three times fast) which will be on November 21st. I guess the …

“Please Give” or Take? at The Guild

Helen June 25, 2010 Comments are off

A movie about greed and guilt, Please Give drew a mixed reaction from movie-goers at The Guild:

“I prefer this more independent style, where they take time with the shots and linger over people’s reactions and facial expressions. It’s refreshing. The story was wishy-washy. But the performances were really polished and interesting. That grandmother was astonishingly brilliant.” – Mary

“A well-cast film, very interesting, a great character study. But a rambling, clunky story as well as having disjointed character development.” – Andy

“It was OK. It had really funny moments but was more depressing and had dark …

Midsummer in Mid-Wallingford

Helen June 23, 2010 3 Comments

In the few blocks around Dicks one afternoon.

At Sunnyside and 44th, a man with a shaved head, eyeglasses and dark crimson monk’s robes gets out of a car with Utah license plates.

Two blocks over, a disproportionately large inflated blue and green tower looms up in the yard of the house next to Mosaic Coffee. On closer inspection it looks like a child’s water slide.

Inside Mosaic itself, my daughter sits reading her book while a woman on a couch near her has a long, coherent conversation with nobody. She’s not wearing a headset.

A couple of days earlier, …

Flip Your Car Mirror In When Parking

Helen June 19, 2010 3 Comments

Take heed. Noted on 46th St. at Sunnyside Ave. N. Title speaks for itself:

…

Fathers, Nudity and Soccer

Helen June 17, 2010 Comments are off

Before you get any strange ideas, these are events this weekend, not a new ESPN2 show. So grab your father, get nude and watch some soccer!

Fremont Fair– Ah, yes, the granddaddy of local weirdness and wonderfulness in an archaic embrace of the sun. (Will the sun be a theoretical object of worship this year?). Hours are Saturday 10 – 8, Sunday 11 – 6. “Artistic highlights include craft and art booths, street performers, local bands, wacky decorated art cars, the free-spirited Solstice Parade produced by the Fremont Arts Council, and many other oddities“. Solstice Parade: The…

Wackyhood

Helen June 17, 2010 4 Comments

Encountered recently – I couldn’t make any of this up:

In the Starbucks on 45th Street a woman came in saying she lived a couple of blocks away and that her car had just been stolen but she needed a cup of coffee first before dealing with the police A group of 4 people were spotted walking down Meridian Ave. N. with a pig on a leash Outside the Wallingford Center, a drunk man sitting on a bench was clutching a huge ‘80’s style boom box blasting out Elton John’s “Rocket Man” (“and I’m high as a kite right …

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Ben on Crime in the City, and in the ‘HoodThere are so few murders in Wallingford, fortunately, that it’s a useless measur...
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