The Cascade Bicycle Club’s Seattle Bike Expo was overwhelming. Walking into the entrance of the Smith Cove cruise terminal on day one, I was bombarded by the noise of several thousand people wandering through almost 200 vendor exhibits, eating from the food stands, watching performances, and listening to presentations by athletes, coaches, authors, and industry people. Once I got over the initial “oh my god there’s so much to see where do I start?” anxiety and planned my course of action, the Expo gave me the chance to do some serious geeking-out with everyone from custom-bike builders, to bike advocacy groups, to reps from big-time corporate bike companies. With so many bike companies in attendance, the Expo is a good place to gauge emerging trends and walking around the floor, I saw a lot pandering to the practical-minded cyclist.
The Expo floor looked exactly how you’d imagine. Vendors showed off their latest and greatest bikes, gear, clothes. Nutrition companies pushed their bars, gels, goos, and drinks that all promised to make you faster, stronger, better. Dozens of companies promoted bicycle tours everywhere from around Puget Sound to around Asia. I saw townies, race bikes, electric assist bikes, recumbents, and mountain bikes made of steel, carbon, aluminum, bamboo and even hardwood.
I arrived at the Expo a few minutes after 11, just as the classic framebuilders’ panel discussion was slated to begin. The panel featured Ken Taylor of Jack Taylor cycles, Bill Davidson of Davidson bicycles, and Glenn Erickson of Erickson bicycles and R&E Cycles. It was moderated by Jan Heine, editor of Bicycle Quarterly. Davidson and Erickson are both renowned builders who have been making custom bicycles for over 35 years, but the real treat was seeing Ken Taylor. Ken, along with his brothers Norman and Jack, started Jack Taylor bicycles in Stockton-On-Tees, England in 1936 and built custom bicycles until 2001. Their bicycles are considered to be some of the finest to come out of Britain and are often compared to legendary French builders Rene Herse and Alex Singer.
State Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane), the senate majority leader since 2005 and the Democratic senate leader since 2003, announced this morning that she is not going to run for reelection.
As recently as the 2009 session, Brown, a candid liberal who was outspoken about Washington State's regressive tax system, was once rumored to be thinking of running for governor. However, her stock fell a bit as the conservative bloc of Democrats in the senate known as the Roadkill Caucus was able to flex its muscle more and more, culminating in this session's GOP budget coup.
Here's Brown's full statement:
I have decided not to seek re-election to the 3rd district Senate seat this fall. Returning home two weeks ago, I began taking stock of my twenty years in the Legislature, reflecting on what I have been able to achieve with the help of colleagues and supporters. I decided that, though it is still immensely gratifying to serve Spokane and the state of Washington in this capacity, I am ready for new challenges.
During my tenure in the Legislature we have created in Spokane a health sciences education and research campus, which will be a centerpiece of our regional economy and will educate thousands of pharmacists, nurses, dentists, doctors, and other health professionals. The building that will house the University of Washington medical school and the Washington State University pharmacy received its final funding in this year’s capital budget.
I have also championed the clean-up and protection of the Spokane river, Spokane’s aerospace cluster, our film and video industry, and spearheaded the funding of the Fox Theater, the MAC, the refurbished YMCA/YWCA facilities, and numerous non-profits in Spokane, such as Crosswalk, the Northwest Autism Center and Sally’s House.
At the state level, I am most proud of my work to create mental health parity legislation, and my work on the state budget to enhance childcare and healthcare for working families. I am equally proud of my efforts to protect the state’s partnership with numerous non-profits who serve vulnerable people across the spectrum: abused and neglected children, the elderly, homeless people, and people with disabilities, and of our fourteen year fight to pass a simple majority plan for school levies.
Given the challenges of the recession and the reductions in the alternate budget proposed by the Senate Republicans, I am particularly pleased with this year’s final budget, which protected not only vital human service programs, but also made no further reductions to K-12 education or higher education.
I have been involved in the promotion of women’s rights and civil rights throughout my life and legislative career. This year’s path-breaking marriage equality and human-trafficking laws are two examples of the kind of legislation that originally motivated me to run for office. Serving as Ways and Means chair and then as the leader of my caucus for ten years has given me a tremendous opportunity to be deeply involved in all the major public policy issues facing our state and to work with talented elected officials and advocates.
I would like to thank Gov. Chris Gregoire and Speaker Frank Chopp for their leadership and for the productive relationship we have enjoyed for eight years. In particular, I appreciate the governor’s unwavering commitment to the economic future of Spokane and I want to thank the speaker for his dedication to the most vulnerable people in our state.
I will miss the incredibly dedicated staff of the state Senate and many of my colleagues in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle. In particular, I appreciated working with Sen. Jim Hargrove on mental health and human service funding, Sen. Ed Murray on marriage equality and the budget, Sens. Tracey Eide and Rosemary McAuliffe on simple majority, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles on gender equity, Sen. Derek Kilmer on economic development initiatives, Sen. Joe Zarelli on the Rainy Day fund constitutional amendment, Rep. Ruth Kagi on childcare and early learning, and my seatmates Timm Ormsby and Andy Billig on numerous Spokane initiatives.
Senate Democrats are well-positioned to continue to lead the state. I look forward to watching the careers of our seasoned members as well as our emerging leaders.
The people of Spokane have given me the tremendous honor of representing and serving them for twenty years. My son, Lucas, and many dear friends have accompanied me and supported me on this journey. I am immensely grateful to all of them.
From the Cola archives, here's a sit-down Q&A Sen. Brown did with me in 2009, just as the new normal of recessionary budgets was starting to take hold in Olympia.
One thing Brown did not mention in her statement was her priority to change I-937, the voter-approved renewable energy initiative, which she felt was too inflexible when it came to defining renewables such as biomass hydro power, a big deal for Spokane's power company Avista. I-937 was tweaked this year to include some old biomass to count as renewable energy.
Unfortunately, since I got to the panel late, all the seats were taken. Standing off to the side, it was nearly impossible to hear what the builders were saying over the wall of sound coming off the expo floor. But, the experience wasn’t a total loss. I noticed that I was standing next to Portland-based frame builder Ira Ryan and struck up a conversation. Ira builds gorgeous steel frames and forks out of his one-man shop and is a highly regarded amongst young framebuilders. He came up to Seattle to show two of his bikes at the Oregon Bicycle Constructors Association booth.
I’m a big fan of Ira’s work and though I tried to play it cool, I was feeling pretty giddy chatting with him. We talked about Portland vs. Seattle bike scenes, how the economy has affected the custom-frame business (not as bad as I would of expected) and what kinds of bikes people are requesting these days. Along with the sleek race machines he’s well known for, Ira’s been building lots of townies—pragmatic bicycles with racks meant for getting around town comfortably while carrying a load. It’s a nod to the ever-increasing population of cyclists who are far more interested in bikes as transportation than they are in toeing the line as racers.
An encaustic painting by Jen Ament, who will be featured at He/Art on Saturday, May 12.
Think, suggests designer, maker, and gatherer April Pride, of an art opening and a house party rolled into one.
KEXP DJ Tim Betterley is providing the tunes, Hilliard’s will be poured and consumed, and art (more on that in a minute) will be available to trade for American cash. And it all happens in Pride’s Madison Park domicile at 1214 42nd Ave E.
‘I have always pondered why we don’t view art in the environment of a home,’ says Pride.
He/Art on Saturday, May 12 from 5 to 9 makes it happen with contributions from Irene Wood (you’ve seen her accessories in our fashion spread; she’ll show work in oil, acrylic, ink, and polyurethane here), photographer Jules Frazier, encaustic and ink-on-paper artist, Jen Ament, and glass artist JP Canlis.
You should go, and make yourself at home.
Like Ira Ryan, many of the big companies are branching out from their traditional focus on race bikes and offering transportation-minded bicycles that come stock with fenders, racks, internally-geared hubs. It’s nice to see the big companies embracing the commuter market like small companies have been doing for a while. A hand-built, custom designed frame or even a one-off, semi-custom bike is really nice, but most people can’t afford the several thousand dollar price tag. Big companies will be able to provide similar bikes for a fraction of the cost.
Three hours on the Expo floor was more than enough for me, but I made sure to stop by the classic bike show before making my exit. More than 50 vintage, light-weight bikes were on display, organized by country of origin. There were Jack Taylors, Colnagos, Schwinn Paramounts, a Malvern Star track bike from Australia with wooden-rims, and many more. It was like the classic-bike gallery Classic Rendezvous come to life and one of the highlights of the expo for me.
Charlie Clay, Seattle photographer and bike nerd in his own right, was at the Expo as well. Here are some of his images from the day.
Patricia Racette makes her Seattle opera debut as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly. Photo: Courtesy Patricia Racette, © Marty Sohl, Metropolitan Opera, 2009. CLASSICAL & MORE May 5–20Madama Butterfly To close its 48th season, Seattle Opera will rely on the young love of 15-year-old geisha Cio-Cio-San, the “delicate butterfly” who falls for a dashing U.S. Naval officer, Lieutenant Pinkerton, in Puccini’s tragedy Madama Butterfly. Met Opera regular Patricia Racette makes her Seattle debut in a part she now owns; her Butterfly is more emotionally complex, less porcelain doll, the way Puccini intended her to be. McCaw Hall, $25–$241. Seattle Opera will simulcast opening night in HD at KeyArena, where roughly 8,000 people can view the production for free. Ticket registration is closed, but limited walk-in tickets are available: seattleopera.org/keysimulcast. KeyArena, free. CONCERTS May 5Van Halen David Lee Roth is back fronting these hard rock titans (as it should be) and Van Halen just released its first new album in 14 years, A Different Kind of Truth. Old bones might prevent them from running with the devil anymore, but VH can still maintain a brisk jog. Tacoma Dome, $50–$100. Brian Jonestown Massacre After seeing the award-winning documentary Dig! about frenemy rock bands Brain Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols, it’s hard to argue there’s a more volatile band on the planet than BJM. This show will be worth attending just to see if frontman Anton Newcombe can keep himself together. Neptune Theatre, $18–$20. FILM May 4–12Seattle True Independent Film Festival Boasting films with budgets closer to a Funny or Die video than a Hollywood indie, STIFF is the scrappy, rowdy neighbor of that other May film fest in Seattle. Various venues, $8–$50. May 5–27UCLA Festival of Preservation Los Angeles’s biannual festival of rescued and restored 35mm prints travels to Seattle, with a collection ranging from Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean to episodes of This Is Your Life. Northwest Film Forum, $6–$10. DANCE May 4–6Scuba: National Touring Network for Dance For a decade, Velocity has partnered with theaters in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia to put together a tour of up-and-coming contemporary dancers. This year’s performers are local artists Allie Hankins and Alice Gosti, and Philadelphia’s Gabrielle Revlock. Velocity MainSpace Theater, $12–$18. BOOKS & TALKS May 4Daniel Waugh Even in retirement, the UW history professor emeritus continues his extensive studies of the Silk Road and Central Asia. For this First Friday lecture, he’ll discuss the diversity of Islamic culture and its varied artistic traditions. Seattle Asian Art Museum, $10. EAT & DRINK May 6Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon If heaven is indeed a place on earth (as Belinda Carlisle suggested), that place would have a seemingly limitless supply of gourmet chocolates to sample from a host of regional chocolatiers. The chef demos and author talks might also provide divine chocolate inspiration. Pier 66, Bell Harbor International Convention Center, $20–$25. Mobile Food Rodeo Thirty-five food trucks roll into Fremont boasting some of the best street food from Seattle, Portland, and Idaho. Admission is free, giving you a few extra pennies to spend on your favorite tacos, or ice cream, or po’boys, or… Note: Seattle Met is a sponsor. Fremont Studios, free. SPECIAL EVENTS May 5Free Comic Book Day With a selection of free books ranging from Spider-Man to Smurfs, the yearly comics giveaway has options for both the young and the young at heart. Various comic shops, free.
“It’s amazing how accurate the rendering looks now,” says Brooks of plans for the restaurant’s new environs on a much-trafficked corner of Fremont. The latest in Fremont restaurant relocation news: Hunger will serve its final dinner in its current, cozy digs on Saturday, May 12. Owners Brian Brooks and Jaime Mullins-Brooks are moving the neighborhood restaurant and its Mediterranean-hewed menu down the hill to the former Dad Watson’s location at 3601 Fremont Ave N. Brian Brooks estimates it will take a little more than a week after the original Hunger goes dark to get the new place ready for service—if the permitting gods are cooperative. Hunger 2.0 will be about three times larger than the first space, and will also possess a 30-seat patio that should be prime real estate when the sun’s out (and certainly during Summer Solstice in June). Brooks sounds positively giddy about the new location, but he also dropped an intriguing hint about someone who’s joining Hunger’s ranks. “We did acquire a very special player for our team,” says Brooks. He confirmed he was talking about a new staff member, and not a drink-mixing robot or live goat mascot. “He’s new to the scene here, but he has definitely cut his teeth with the best in the country.” Any guesses?
WHERE: Bahama Breeze at the Westfield Southcenter Shopping Center WHAT: At the second annual fundraiser for Treehouse, an organization that helps give foster kids a rich, loving, and fun-filled childhood, you’ll see 30 summer styles from retailers like the Gap, JCPenney, the Loft, the Limited, and White House Black Market. Stylists will be on hand to give out complimentary beauty touch-ups and tips, and swag bags include goodies from Bare Escentuals, Beauty Works, Gene Juarez, Guess, Lush, and more. WHEN: Wednesday, May 16; doors open at 6:30; tickets are available on Brown Paper Tickets
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