Art by Zee

On March 26, 2011, at 8:30 pm local time, the Pacific Science Center, the Space Needle, and the City of Seattle will join thousands of other cities, business, landmarks, and people around the world in turning out the lights for Earth Hour.

Earth Hour began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, when 2.2 million people and 2,100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour, reducing Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for that hour. Since then Earth Hour has grown into a global statement against climate change with more than 50 million people participating along with world renowned landmarks like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, CN Tower in Toronto, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum.

Organizers and participants understand that simply turning the lights off for a mere 60 minutes isn’t going to change the world for long, but the goal is to get people educated about their energy use and how it effects our environment and motivated to make healthier change.

Check out the Earth Hour website for more information on the event and the Green Seattle Guide published online by the Office of Sustainability and Environment for ways you can help protect the natural environment of the Northwest.

Seattle Out and Proud is launching a new website and parade registration system. From their press release:

Seattle, WA, March 11, 2011: Seattle Out and Proud (SO&P) is excited to announce that on March 15, 2011 we’ll be launching our new website and parade registration system. The new website is designed to be more user friendly and have an even smoother integration with our parade registration system.

Twenty-eleven is a year that will bring many firsts for SO&P. In addition to our new website and registration system we’re happy to announce that our Pride Idol singing competition will be hosted by Neighbours Night Club, and emceed by your favorite Diva Gaysha Starr. Join us March 11, 2011 as we partner with SAM REMIX for the new Nick Cave exhibit “Meet Me at the Center of the Earth” as we have one of our very own board members conduct a guided tour of some of their favorite pieces.

Be You. Be Proud. Express Yourself! Is the parade them for 2011 and is a celebration of the cultural diversity that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and ally communities express every day. Stand up and declare, “I AM! WE ARE!” This year’s theme is a celebration of our ability to create, innovate, influence, and express ourselves. We invite you to find new, exciting, and creative ways to express who you are. Declare your message loud and proud along 4th Avenue this June 26, 2011 as we kick off another great parade that draws over 450,000 spectators, participants and volunteers – Be You. Be Proud. Express Yourself!

Visit our website at www.seattlepride.org for more information and details about our events and programs.

The Moisture Festival is a three week festival of live comedy/ variete performance. That is, it’s a collection of shows where anything might happen when artists are given the stage with a live band so that they can perform pretty much anything they can both imagine and make concrete. There are aerialists, can can dancers, rope acts, clowns, jugglers, and a long list of everything else.

The festival begins on March 17 with an opening night show at Hales Palladium and continues until April 10 with shows at the Palladium, ACT Theatre, Open Space on Vashon, and the Georgetown Ballroom. There are four burleseque shows over the weekend of March 25 – 26 and Variete shows as often as four or five times a week until festival end.

Catherine Deneuve – beautiful, personable, and one heck of an actor, able to be serious, silly or anything else she needs to be to make the characters she plays come to full, rounded life.

SIFF celebrates this magnificent screen star with a careful selection of some of her best films this weekend.

Friday, March 11 see Deneuve in Lars von Trier’s complicated, tragic fantasy drama Dancer in the Dark at 7:30.

Belle du Jour screens at 1 pm on Saturday, March 12. Hold on to your ticket and go see the second half of the double feature, 8 Women, at 3 pm. (Or just go straight to 8 Women if you like, as its a great film. Of course this means you’re missing an equally great film in Belle du Jour, so you may as well go to both.)

The series wraps up with a contemporary Denueve in 2010′s Potiche. Directed by François Ozon, Potiche gives Deneuve the opportunity to shine as the trophy wife faced with catastrophe – how will she handle things? Can she even take care of herself? Also starring French legends Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini and Karin Viard.

Bones: The Tale of Callie Archer:”Maybe it’s the story of a woman who just flips out, or maybe it’s a mythic tale about one of the Celtic Powers. Told by a Bard and by Callie Archer herself, the tale unfolds in narration, monologue and music”.

Be one of the first to experience this new production in a reading at The Little Red Studio on March 13th at 7:00 pm. A $3 – $5 donation gets you in the door and helps support local theater.

Bones is written and directed by Sherry Narens and features Daniel Brockley and Lee Ann Hittenberger.

From the city:

SEATTLE – The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is gearing up for snow expected to arrive in the Seattle area on Wednesday, February 23. As of 4 a.m., ten snow plows will hit the streets in the north sector of Seattle and eight plows will move into action in the south sector. Starting at 9 a.m., SDOT will go into a full 24-hour response plan to keep roads open, buses moving and critical emergency services accessible.

The response plan calls for deploying 30 trucks with plows, which will be prepositioned throughout the city in key locations such as elevated structures and certain trouble spots on major arterials. The department starting pre-treating major roadways with salt brine this afternoon in preparation for the storm. Additional details concerning SDOT’s response will be forthcoming as more information about the impending storm becomes available.

Motorists are advised to use caution when driving in snow and ice, especially on Seattle’s many hills and bridges. For up-to-date information on the City’s response and roadway conditions, please visit: http://Seattle.gov/transportation/. Motorists can also check on current traffic conditions and roadway images on SDOT’s Traveler’s Map at:

http://web5.seattle.gov/travelers/.

As a reminder, property owners are responsible for clearing sidewalks adjacent to their properties after a snowstorm. SDOT encourages residents and businesses to have snow shovels and materials on-hand to keep walkways clear and safe for pedestrians.

The Northwest Flower and Garden Show is one of the brightest parts of the gloomy Seattle winter. Outside it’s dark and rainy (or snowy), but inside the Washington State Convention Center it’s lush and green.

Once again the show features stunning show gardens created by nurseries and garden designers. Each show garden is a unique creation that represents a vision of garden life – gardens range from elaborate fantasy worlds to simple reflections of nature and are always impressive and illustrative. You might not have room to build an entire labyrinth in your backyard but you’re bound to get ideas that would work for you and the designers and builders are on hand with their expertise to share.

There’s also a lot to learn from the seminars offered every day of the show. Learn how to grow your own healthy food or create container gardens for your patio or learn how to install your own irrigation system. Find out which plants are best for the Northwest’s weather patterns or get great ideas for accessorizing your garden to express your own unique ideas. Learn how you can attract birds, butterflies, and other wildlife to your yard and get tips for the gardener who doesn’t have a whole lot of time.

Besides all of the displays and the seminars, there’s the marketplace where vendors of all types have everything you could want – and some things you’d never even imagined – for your garden.

The show opens Wednesday, February 23, and runs through Sunday, February 27. Tickets range from $5 for kids up to $20 for adults at the door or $29 for a two-day pass or $65 for a full five day pass. Tickets can be purchased at the show or online and one great option for the attendee with limited time is the half-day ticket – $10 gets you in after 3 pm Wednesday through Saturday or after 2 pm on Sunday.

Local chocolatier extraordinaire Intrigue Chocolates has got you covered if you need a last minute Valentine’s gift – they’ve already opened early and will be open until 7 pm. Get that gift you forgot. Get an additional gift just because. Or, heck, go in and get yourself a gift.

Their current featured flavors are R. Valentino – rose petals; Pear-Lavender – pear brandy, honey, WA-grown lavender; Sweet Raspberry – raspberry liqueur (eau-de-vie brandy, raspberries); Pomegranate – pomegranate juice; Damiana – damiana; Date Sugar – ground dried dates; and Ginger Juice -fresh ginger juice, but all their other flavors (and there are many) are just as wonderful.

photo by Mary Nagan, courtesy Seattle Parks Department

The Seattle Japanese Garden, located in the Washington Park Arboretum, is a 3.5 acre garden formal garden designed and constructed under the supervision of world-renowned Japanese garden designer Juki Iida back in 1960. Over the years it has been a popular destination for Seattle visitors and residents alike, drawn to its lovely and peaceful environment featuring trees, bushes, flowers, grasses and a pond filled with lively koi. The Seattle Japanese Garden has been closed for the winter and is now ready to re-open on Sunday, February 13.

The opening takes place from 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. with a traditional Shinto blessing of the Garden and a calligraphy demonstration/workshop.

The blessing takes place at noon and the calligraphy workshop is from 1-3 p.m. in the Tateuchi Community Room. Admission to this event is $10.

Regular Garden admission is $6 per adult and $3 per youth, student, or senior; regular Garden hours for the 2011 season are:

February 15 – May 1 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
May 3 – September 18 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
September 20 – October 31 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
November 1 – November 13 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

The 50-year-old garden is a quiet sanctuary in the city designed by world-renowned Japanese Garden designer Juki Iida in 1960.

Mark Chamberlin as Odysseus and April Wolfe as Calypso, in Taproot Theatre’s production of The Odyssey; photo by Erik Stuhaug

How do you do justice to a story that’s over 3,000 years old, one of the most important works in all of Western literature, that takes place over the course of many years involving a cast of hundreds, maybe thousands, when all you’ve got is an ordinary theater space? Taproot Theatre’s production of Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of the ancient story solves this problem by cutting out the excesses of the tale to focus on its heart – its characters.

Soldier, husband, and father Odysseus has had enough of war and just wants to get home to his wife and son but his path is blocked at every step both by circumstance and by the plotting of the gods as well the ordinary and extraordinary people and creatures he encounters. The pawn in an epic battle between Pallas Athena who loves him and does all she can to support his cause and Poseidon who loathes him and does all he can to defeat him, Odysseus must struggle against scheming tricksters and scary creatures. Meanwhile at home his wife is besieged by a legion of suitors disrespectful of his home while they each plot to become the new husband of Odysseus’s wife Penelope. She is determined to remain true to her conviction that her husband is alive and well but she has little protection; her young son Telemachus is unable to exile the suitors on his own and flees in search of his father, leaving her alone with only her wits to keep her safe.

The world in which this huge cast of characters reside is a complex one with locations that span the globe and go up to the heavens. The production wisely avoids trying to conjure all of this into physical detail, instead utilizing a minimalist set and simple, but effective, costuming to allow the audience to see all this with their mind’s eye. Whether it is Calypso’s lonely island or the frightening ocean where the crew of Odysseus’s ship are caught between monsters, it’s all there.

The cast of The Odyssey does a fine job of creating this vision. Mark Chamberlin bears the heaviest weight in the play as Odysseus, weary and weakened at time, but ever determined. Chamberlin gives Odysseus gravity and charisma as well as credibility that makes his stories ring true no matter how fantastic they get. Odysseus’s adventures sometimes come to life simply through his telling and sometimes by being acted out; it is a credit to Chamberlin’s talent that either method is equally vivid. His Odysseus is clever, charismatic, and equally deft with drama or the light bits of comedy which enliven the tale. When the royal court of Phraecia, the island where Odysseus takes temporary refuge, listens intently to his saga, you believe they’re just as fascinated as you are. Nic Beach, Ryan Childers, Solomon Davis, Stephen Grenley, Pam Nolte, Jesse Notehelfer, Nolan Palmer,Sarah Roquemore, Randy Scholz, Josh Smyth, Nikki Visel and April Wolfe round out the cast, each playing several different characters.

The Odyssey is filled with action, excitement, drama and a light dusting of laughs. It’s a very old tale, but this production keeps it fresh.

The Odyssey continues at Taproot through March 5.