Showing posts with label Ballard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ballard. Show all posts

Monday, April 05, 2010

A sad day for Ballard, and most of all, the friends and families of Kellen Jones, Spenser Millard, and Mike Turner

Kellen "Bobo" Jones is my second cousin, the son of my cousin Dave, and his wife Kelly Jones (I am half Jones), and brother of Dylan. He died tragically, with two of his best friends in Ballard on Easter. Kellen was a football legend and well-loved boy about Ballard. . .the guy everyone likes, and about whom people always have something nice to say. My heart goes out to Dave, Kelly, and Dylan. This is heartbreaking. But it is also a time to celebrate how many lives he touched, and read and listen to the many testimonies of people who loved him and were touched by his generous heart.

We're all in this together, but there is no way we can know or really share the depth of loss this great family feels.



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Thursday, August 13, 2009

An amazing view of Ballard, Seattle, Wash., with a frieze of Olympic Mountains


click on Ballard to enlarge, Photo by Jack Johnson. Source: Washington State Archives.
General Photograph Collection. Used with permission.

A photograph of my neighborhood in Seattle (Ballard) in 1960, nearly fifty years ago. I love the perspective--and no, the Olympic Mountains do not quite loom over us like that! We can see them, but from our promontory from Crown Hill/North Beach, they seem further in the distance, far less foreboding, but breath-taking still, and humbling in the way mountains always are.
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Saturday, June 20, 2009

The return of The Young Fresh Fellows

The Young Fresh Fellows roared back to life Friday night in my neighborhood--at Ballard's Tractor Tavern. Scott McCaughey[1] was in fine form, wearing his usual sunglasses and a big fur hat. He was just as hilarious as ever, and has written a new song album of funny, tight, rocking tunes. The show focused on their new album released that day--I Think This Is. They did play their great tune "Amy Grant" as an encore, and performed an excellent cover of "Hang On Sloopy." I have only listened to "I think This Is" once so far, but it is excellent, and about as good as anything YFF have ever released. A track listing only hints at the genius contained in this new album:

The Guilty Ones
Lamp Industries
Suck Machine Crater
Let The Good Times Crawl
Never Turning Back Again
New Day I Hate
Go Blue Angels Go
Used To Think All Things Would Happen
YOUR Mexican Restaurant
Shake Your Magazines
After Suicide
If You Believe In Cleveland
Ballad of the Bootleg
Everyone was in fine form, especially Kurt Bloch, the longtime band member and former lead guitar in Seattle's Fastbacks. It was great to see them again, and I hope we get the chance again soon. I suspect we'll get to see Scott's other band (with Peter Buck, Ken Stringfellow, Wilco, and various other rotating members) soon--they also have a new album coming out shortly. I just heard their cover of Little Black Egg--wow.


Photo by Dean Ericksen from The Tractor show - click to enlarge
[1] Scott's Wikpedia listing:
As a singer and songwriter, Scott McCaughey is the leader of the Seattle-based bands The Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5.
He is also bassist for
Robyn Hitchcock's most recent touring band, The Venus 3, along with Bill Rieflin and Peter Buck.

In 2008, McCaughey formed the side band
The Baseball Project with Buck, Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon. Their first album, Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails, celebrates many aspects of baseball culture, and includes a song in tribute to Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix.

Since 1994, he has worked with
R.E.M. both on stage and in the studio. While originally brought on as a second guitarist for the Monster tour, McCaughey has remained with R.E.M. in various capacities since then, contributing to the band's studio albums New Adventures In Hi-Fi, Up, Reveal, Around The Sun and Accelerate. Additionally, he has received credits for his work on the R.E.M. Live album as well as their 2003 greatest hits collection, In Time. When working with R.E.M., McCaughey plays guitar, bass, keyboards, and adds backing vocals.
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Ballard Bear Update


The black arrow shows the location of my house.

From the Seattle Times: "Urban Phantom is the name given by state wildlife agents to a 2-year-old black bear who was first seen in Magnolia late Saturday, and so far has eluded capture as he has been sighted also in Ballard and Shoreline."

The 'bar was tromping around my neighborhood, after possibly swimming from Magnolia to the beach at Golden Gardens, and then climbing the heavily-treed hill. He was spotted near the graveyard up the hill, just a couple of blocks from my brother and sister-in-law, Dean and Mary's house near Blue Ridge. Later yesterday, he made good time, and ended up in a park in Shoreline. I know bears can run fast, but this bear made serious tracks. And so far, no one seems able to find him. At Twin Ponds Park, where he is possibly located now, he will run into a serious roadblock. Interstate 5 probably blocks his path (if he moving to the east, where forests and bear habitat exists).

From The Seattlest: Damn Bear Almost to Jack's House
The black bear we mentioned this morning seems to have somewhere pressing in mind. So far it's cruised from Magnolia, through Ballard, and "made a stop in Twin Ponds Park in Shoreline," says MyBallard, who have created a bear-tracker map. The Department of Fish and Wildlife has put its hunt on hold because there are too many people running around, but that doesn't bother Seattlest Jack: "I am gleeful over the fact that even in a major city, in the 21st century, one might still encounter a bear, or giant bear-like raccoons."

Also from The Seattlest: "Fish & Wildlife officials, meanwhile, have discontinued the search because they don’t believe the small bear is dangerous. The bear had quite a day, swimming across the Ship Canal from Magnolia into Ballard late Sunday night, criss-crossing its way through the neighborhood with police and wildlife officials in close pursuit with tranquilizer guns and tracking dogs. The bear disappeared for several morning hours — wildlife officials believe it was taking a nap — before heading sharply north into Shoreline. There, the media joined the chase, with TV crews on the ground and choppers swirling overhead. "
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Monday, May 11, 2009

A salute to Golden Gardens - Excelsior!


Orcas ("killer whales") off Golden Gardens in February, 2009 (they
don't usually come this close to Seattle proper) - click to enlarge


a typical scene -- looking over toward Bainbridge Island - click to enlarge


Sunset (a great time to visit), just before the bonfires are lit. The sun becomes an
orange or red ball and fills the sky with pink, yellow, and orange as it slips below
the Olympic Mountains behind Bainbridge Island - click to enlarge


An amazing polyglot mix of people gather every day at Golden Gardens. Golden Gardens is a beach in north Seattle (Ballard) on Puget Sound's Shilshole Bay. It is within walking distance of my house, down a trail and maybe 150 stairs. Its 87 acres contain multitudes, and a lot of Ballard history. It became a key Seattle park early on, since it was at the very end of the streetcar line.

You'll find volleyball players, Christians gathering to pray and sing around the campfire, families cooking over open fires or charcoal, drum circles, solo guitar players, skaters, joggers, bikers, kite fliers, scuba divers, wind surfers, Buddhist gatherings, Wiccan meetings, kayakers, canoeists, and mostly just people walking and sitting on the beach.

The beach ranges from sandy to rocky and littered with shells and driftwood. One section of the beach at the north was restored to what they believe was its original pristine state...a small dune area, freshwater pond, and wetlands were recovered a few years ago.

At low tide you find anemones, sea urchins, limpets, oyster drills, starfish, crabs, clams, sand dollars, oysters, and all sorts of other tide pool critters.

At the very north (the restored part) of the beach are reeds, sea grass, alder trees, salal and Oregon grape, and other native flora, which create some very private areas to hang around in. These areas are rumored to contain, at times, people performing the act of procreation (or just straight recreation without the pro- if you're on the other team).

The sunsets are stunning, as the orange sun falls below the Olympic Mountains after sending rays dancing along the sound.

My mom used to come here and swim in high school on the last day of school. A lot of kids, the polar bear club, and the occasional grown-up still swim here. The temperature of Puget sound ranges from about 45 degrees to around 52 in the summer. It is brutally cold, although there are some hot spots around the sound--shallow areas where the temperature is more hospitable. Golden Gardens is not a hot spot. When you jump in you are instantly numb. But you see people swimming anytime you visit there from May to September. I can't do it. . .mid-calf is about as far as I go.

In the last few years, the park has increased security, and cleaned up the beach. There are now 12 steel fire pits where the city allows park visitors to build fires. This is a big improvement from the days when you could build fires anywhere--which left the beach littered with charred logs and ash.

This is about as good as it gets...you bring in a surreptitious bottle of wine, sit on the beach and watch a sailboat regatta and later, the sun as it drifts downward, and finally slips down into the other half of the world.
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