Nothing against extraordinary PubliCalendar curator Genie Leslie (and she sure runs laps around our original PubliCal editor, hippie SU student Chris Kissel), but I've got to add this to the list of our daily picks for civic nerds: The Seattle Department of Transportation began accepting applications today for new parklets—urbanist agitprop spaces where you convert a couple of parking spots into a micro-park.

You've got to find your own funding, but still: If your application is approved, you can set up genius spots like this one from last September's PARKing day where a stretch of parking spots on University at 2nd were temporarily transformed into an all-ages painting studio.

The pilot program for official full-time parklets started last year, and there are three in play. SDOT will approve five new 12-month spots this year.

SDOT, explaining that you have to submit a micro-essay, writes:

SDOT will permit five new parklet locations this year, and you could be one of those five! Completing an application is easy. You’ll need to prepare a simple site plan showing the ideas for your parklet, collect at least two letters of support from businesses or residents near the proposed parklet, snap a few photos of the parklet location, and write a paragraph or two explaining why you want to host a parklet. Visit the program website for more information and to download the application guidelines.

And while I've hijacked the PubliCalendar, let me recommend two other things, including an alterantive to Super Bowl Sunday:

1. Head into Chinatown on Saturday, February 1 from 11am to 4pm to celebrate the Lunar New Year; it's the Year of the Horse.

Details on the action-packed neighborhood-wide free for all—lion and dragon dances, Taiko drumming, martial arts, and kids' costume parade—here.

But we must give special notice to the $2 Food Walk. It's exactly what it sounds like: Tour Chinatown's parade of restaurants—from China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and more—and sample the day's special New Year's $2 menus.

2. And I don't know who you might be—perhaps you read this article on head injuries—but if you don't feel like drinking beer, eating bean dip, and cheering on the Seahawks, you can sip wine, eat cheese and crackers, and chill out to this amazing set list at Benaroya Hall's Nordstrom Recital Hall for a Sunday afternoon of chamber music: