Today:

With the beautiful weather continuing, it’s a perfect day for the kick off the Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Culture Festival at Seattle Center. Part of the Center’s program of festivals from around the world, the three-day event explores Seattle’s deep ties to Japan with tea ceremony demonstrations, artwork, and Japanese food. Myself, I’m hoping to finally find some authentic ramen in this city.

Today from 10 am to 6 pm, Seattle Center. Free and open to the public.

Tomorrow:

The National Women's Political Caucus, along with a few local political consulting firms, are putting on an all-day conference tomorrow for women who want to run for office this year. The focus of the conference is to work on skills for raising money, speaking persuasively, and "the unique challenges of running as a woman."

The conference is broken down into six sections—for example, State Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane), is teaming up with defeated City Council candidate Jessie Israel to give a talk on running winning campaigns. There's a full list here.


Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane).

Admission also gets you a free copy of a book by local political consultant Cathy Allen , and lunch.

The conference is $50 for NWPC members, $65 non-members; register here .

Tomorrow from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, at Mercer Island Community Center (8236 SE 24th Street).

Tomorrow's Full Calendar:

The Northwest African American Museum is opening their exhibit on jazz in Seattle between the '30s and '50s tomorrow. Saturday from 4 pm to 9 pm, at Northwest African American Museum (2300 South Massachusetts Street).

The EMP's free Pop Conference continues this weekend, featuring expert panel discussions on Chicana Futurism, Pre-Internet Teen Girl Bedroom Culture, and the History of the Vocoder, among others (the panels for Saturday and Sunday are listed here and here , respectively).

Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 12:45 pm, at the Experience Music Project (325 5th Avenue N). You can register when you get there in the morning.

The Seattle Architecture Foundation is sponsoring the second of two lectures on the architectural history of Seattle, by UW Professor Jeffrey Karl Ochsner. This lecture covers 1945 to the present.

Saturday from 1 to 4 pm, at the Central Library (1000 Fourth Ave--Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium).