White Center Now: The blog about White Center

It’s a busy primary election ballot on August 18th, but few have more at stake than those who will cast ballots on whether to let their section of North Highline be annexed by Burien. If you’re still making up your mind on North Highline South Annexation Area Proposition 1, note that the city of Burien has scheduled two more “open house” format meetings to for annexation information – July 14 and 29; more details on the city’s website. Remember that this is a by-mail-only election (countywide); ballots will be mailed July 29, according to the King County Elections website, where you can find full details on everything else you’ll be voting on..

Children of the Revolution Trio

Expect a full house and lots of energy when the group Children of the Revolution perform at Cafe Rozella.

Performance starts at 7 p.m., Friday June 26th at Cafe Rozella

“When you go to a Children of the Revolution show, you might as well leave your preconceptions about world music at the door” wrote Tina Potterf of the Seattle Times. Fans will usually say something like, “That was the best live show Ive ever been to; I don’t quite know how to describe it.” From Bozeman Montana to the caves of Granada, Spain, from Istanbul to Taiwan, COTR make life-long fans wherever they go.

They can loosely be compared to such breakaway and high-energy world music artists such as Ozomatli, Gipsy Kings, Santana, Manu Chau and the Afro Celt Sound System, but all similarities stop there. Made up of virtuoso musicians, singers and dancers from around the world, COTR blend their Flamenco, Greek, and Rock roots creating, a lush and melodic sound driven by infectious Latin and Middle-Eastern grooves.

The group is fronted by lead singer Vassili, who grew up on the Greek Islands, and former metal head turned flamenco guitarist Eric Jaeger. Sharing the spotlight is Barcelona-born flamenco dancer Encarnación. Their electrifying and sexy concerts showcase outstanding musicianship and songwriting with world-class dance performances. Both world music aficionados and those new to the genre agree – COTR puts on one of the most unifying and entertaining shows in the world.

Cafe Rozella
9434 Delridge Way SW
Seattle, WA  98106
(206) 763-5805
guarnero@caferozella.com

http://twitter.com/caferozella

www.caferozella.com

(WCN photo from March)
It’s a followup to the BOOM Youth Summit three months ago – a chance to propose a project, and get funding for it. The deadline’s just been extended – find the details, plus a link to the application, here. (You can see some of what was actually created at the summit itself by checking out this link on the White Center Community Development Association site.)

That’s who headlined the music slate in downtown White Center on Saturday night as Full Tilt Ice Cream celebrated its first birthday. The band name’s a little profane so here’s a direct link to their site (where you’ll also find better video – we were a little too close to the guitar, so it drowned out the vocals). And we’ve got the results of the “buy one and we donate one” (hmm, BODO?) ice-cream tally for the day: 165 cones, 60 pints sold. For each cone, Full Tilt plans to give a coupon to the White Center Food Bank for distribution to its clients; for each pint, they’ll deliver the equivalent in ice cream to WCFB for direct distribution. (Of course you can give to WCFB online any time — just go here.)

As of noon, Full Tilt Ice Cream is open for the day and into the night, since there are two bands tonight (starting at 9). This is the day FT is celebrating its first birthday, so if you buy a cone/pint, the equivalent will be donated to the White Center Food Bank. And tonight’s a great night to be on 16th SW, as White Center for the Arts has its monthly event, 5-10 pm in the old skating rink. The group had been trying to buy the building — Justin at Full Tilt tells us a deal couldn’t be worked out by the time the building was scheduled to be auctioned, so the auction went forward last week, but, he says, nobody bid, so that may keep the door open for a nonprofit purchase – at a better price than what was being offered. We’ll keep following the story.

Out of the White Center Now inbox:

The White Center-South Delridge Community Safety Coalition Meeting
Thursday, June 25, 6-8 pm,
St. James Place, 9421 18th Avenue SW

Guest Presentations:

* Big Brothers and Big Sisters
* Feet First, proposed walking map

Farewell, Social Time – for Kathy Kaminski. An opportunity to wish her well!

And: If you have a specific concern, you may email or call me and let me know before the meeting and I will pass on the information to SPD or KCSO or the appropriate city/county department. With advanced notice, law enforcement officers are able to find out more information about specific incidents and concerns and share that information at the meeting. Everyone is welcome to bring up concerns at the meeting, but if we know the concerns a head of time, we may be able to find out more information for the community. Thanks!

… Please spread the word to your neighbors!

Dinner will be provided. Please call Karen at 767-0760 if childcare or interpretation is needed.
—
Karen Greene
Drug Free Communities Program Coordinator
Seattle Neighborhood Group

They announced the event before the location … but tonight, the latter was revealed – this is Saturday night, by the way:

Location Revealed!!!

This month’s Art EVENT,
brought to you by

White Center for the Arts,

Will be at 9639 16th Ave SW.

Yes, once again, and for the last time,

The Ole Skate Rink
White Center, WA

From 5:00 PM until 10:00 PM

For questions and information, please call

206-306-6230

Trio Lucero And Special Guests

June19th, 2009

7pm

Café Rozella

9434 Delridge Way SW

Seattle, WA 98106

(206) 763-5805

Son Huasteco, Huapango, Sones de Costumbre and Canciones de la Huasteca, Mexico.

Trío Lucero del Norte plays traditional/regional Mexican music from the Huasteca Hidalguense (the State of Hidalgo in the plains along the Gulf Coast) sung in Spanish and Nahuatl (an Indigenous language spoken in Mexico).

Café Rozella kicks off its 2009 Friday night concert/dance series with Regional Dance Music from the Huasteca. Come dance huapango. Trio Lucero del Norte’s hot violin and pounding rhythm executed on jarana huasteca and quinta huapanguera (two variants of local rhythm guitars) will make you want to dance.

Full Tilt is turning 1 year old Saturday the 20th of June. To celebrate, we are going to give a gift certificate for a cone to the White Center Food Bank, for every cone that is purchased that day. Rick Jump from the food bank is going to try and be on hand for part of the day. COme down and meet him.

We’re doing some election research right now and realized that you might not have yet seen what the annexation measure will look like on the August 18th ballot. Here’s the direct link; here’s the language:

North Highline South Annexation Area

Simple majority (RCW 35A.14.080)
Proposition No. 1
Proposed Annexation to the City of Burien

The Burien City Council passed Resolution No. 288 which would authorize annexation of that area of unincorporated King County known as the North Highline South Annexation Area which annexation was approved by the Boundary Review Board with a modification to the boundaries as legally described in Resolution No. 292. Shall that area of unincorporated King County known as the North Highline South Annexation Area as legally described in City of Burien Resolution No. 292 be annexed to the City of Burien?

( ) FOR ANNEXATION
( ) AGAINST ANNEXATION

Each of three “small schools” from the Evergreen High School campus has its own separate graduation ceremony tomorrow – all listed here, all at the Highline Performing Arts Center.

Noticed this in the blog-format section of the White Center Community Development Association website – a restaurant review about one of WC’s newest eating/drinking places. Photos too. See it here.

On behalf of partner site West Seattle Blog, we are tabling today at the Morgan Junction Community Festival (continuing at Fauntleroy /California till 6 pm) – and we just got a flyer from Ron Richardson of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society regarding the big History Tour of White Center coming up July 25. Meet at 17th/Roxbury, in the parking lot, at 10:30 am that day (it’s a Saturday), and the tour will last about an hour and a half. $5 SWHS members, $7 nonmembers (“or make a donation,” says the flyer). Ron promises some amazing sights to be seen – mark your calendar.

The grocery-delivery service has now added zip code 98146, a year and a half after it moved westward. A few more details at WSB.

Here’s the announcement:

Enjoy an evening of free live jazz music at Jazz in the Plaza. ThursdayJune 25th from 4-6 pm in the Greenbridge Plaza (in front of the SW Boys and Girls Club) there will be live jazz music as well as other entertainment, prizes, vendors, activities for the whole family and free lightly used books and toys. The sun has come out…. It’s party time! Sponsored by KCHA, WCCDA, Hope VI, Neighborhood House, YWCA, Southwest Boys and Girls Club and the Greenbridge Community. For more information call (206) 574-1167

Seattle resident and New York Times correspondent, Timothy Egan weighs in on the Amanda Knox case with a long opinion piece in today’s New York Times.  I wish I could say that this was the break of objective reporting that we were looking for, but such is not the case.  Egan is not an attorney nor does he regularly write on criminal or judicial matters.  His area is politics, and at that, mostly regional politics.  His piece sheds no new light on the case, revealing the time-worn themes trotted out by the competing Knox camps: those who claim she is innocent and those who claim she is guilty.   But what is of note is that Egan throws all journalistic objectivity aside (whatever that actually means) and weighs in with “an innocent abroad” crowd.  Fittingly that is the title of his piece.  Accordingly, he pulls no punches and calls this a “railroad job.”  As with so much American reporting we get lots of smoke but no light.

His bias is evident when discussing Amanda Knox’s initial alibi, which was that the bar owner, for whom she worked, had committed the murder, while Knox was in the apartment.  To wit, Egan:

Still, Knox’s statements were troubling. She and Sollecito gave different versions of what they had done the night of the killing, their memories clouded no doubt because they’d been smoking hashish. And Knox raised the possibility that a bar owner with an airtight alibi could have been involved.

Knox did not “raise the possibility” that the bar owner might be involved she gave a long narrative blaming him with an array of sordid and lengthy details.  Not exactly a problem in translation.  For those who want a more balanced piece you can read my take, “The Curious Case of Amanda Knox.”

This is unfortunate, as I very much like Timothy Egan’s writing.  In fact, his subjectivity is often the best part of his pieces.  Unfortunately, in this case, he is no better than the Seattle reporters who are rooting for the hometown girl.  Tis a shame.

UPDATE:  Timothy Egan responds to his critics.

I read Egan’s response to his critics regarding his opinion piece on Amanda Knox, “An Innocent Abroad.”  There is some measure of contrition in his response, as with his use of “innocent abroad.”  But, overall, Egan does little to give substance to his very clearly biased opinion piece in which he rails against the prosecutor and calls the case a “railroad job.”  He says he took a month to review the evidence, but there is very little in his piece that could be called factual.

1.  Egan’s account of the conviction of Rudy Guede is, to put it mildly, incomplete and inaccurate.   He draws a straw man, implying that the “anti-Knox” crowd is completely discounting his guilt.  That is sheer nonsense.  Guede is clearly guilty, the only question is whether he acted alone and on that score the forensic evidence points to more than one actor.  Guede was caught almost immediately, and in one of Knox’s permutations of her alibis, she claimed that she let him in and that she was in the next room while he raped and killed her — hearing her screams as well.   If so, why didn’t Knox call the police herself?  She has since ditched that story.  The only thing Egan falls back on is police duress.  But Knox changed her alibis over a period of time and it took three weeks before her first victim, Lumumba the bar owner, was cleared.  She never volunteered that her story was false until his alibi panned out.

2.  Egan claims that Knox had no motive.  This was not a vendetta, robbery or revenge killing.  It was a crime of passion.  As I explained when it comes to sex a little motive goes a long way.  It is not the prosecution’s case that Knox planned to murder Kercher.   The theory of the case fits the case, a sex game gone awry.  This explains the brutality of the murder and incompetence in disposing of evidence.

3.  Egan spends a lot of time impugning the Italians and the British as having prejudged this case.  My reading leads me to the exact opposite conclusion, it is the American media that has prejudged this matter in favor of the American girl.  I sourced much of my material to Der Speigel and the BBC, hardly tabloids, as Egan pronounces the foreign press.

As my original post made clear, I am not prejudging this matter, I certainly have no stake in it.  Although, by all accounts, I should be in the Knox camp, being as we are part of the same community.  Egan is a very able writer, but he is no legal analyst ala Jeffrey Rosen or Kurt Eichenwald.   I think that Egan is simply out of his element and out of his league, on this matter and his shoddy work clearly indicates as such.

PHOTOS OF SEATTLE a photo-exhbit by the New Futures Program will be held on Friday June 12th at 6 p.m.

Information on New Futures can be found at http://www.newfutures.us/

The Exhibit will be followed by a performance by acclaimed Brazilian artist, Eduardo Mendonca.

Cafe Rozella is located at 9434 Delridge Way SW

Phone: (206) 763-5805 – www.caferozella.com

10 am tomorrow in Burien, the King County Police Chiefs’ Association is sponsoring a King County Executive candidates’ forum focused on public safety issues. The 5 top KCE candidates have confirmed, according to organizers; here’s the latest. (P.S. If you are on the Seattle side of White Center, you may be interested in tonight’s 34th District Democrats candidates forum – KC Exec is *not* included, though, because of the forum a week ago in Fauntleroy.)

Just a little more than two months now till the annexation vote in southern North Highline – and another open house is set for next Tuesday, this time at 6 pm, Southern Heights Elementary School, 11249 14th Avenue South (shown above in Google Street View).

Eduardo Mendonca

The always captivating, Eduardo Mendonca will bring his energetic Brazilian music to Cafe Rozella this Friday at 7 p.m.  As always the performance is al fresco and FREE.