- More info here – South Lake Union Block Party -

-  The Seattle Founders Day Festival website  -

Jason Puccinelli – Rocket photo by Liz Potter

Rocket  - Featured Installation for MadArt in the Park

Early one summer morning, a rocket fuselage smashed into earth right in the middle of Cal Anderson Park.   The two-story projectile will no doubt capture the imagination of park visitors, compelling them to draw close.   From what strange place did it come?  Is there any life form aboard?  One can only discover the truth when they walk up and touch a few buttons.

The party will start at Ola and end down at Avalon Glassworks 2914 S.W. Avalon Way on Thursday 7/29.

Food will be provided by Luna Park Café (French Fries and Milkshakes)
plus an Elvis Cover Band and the fabulous Mighty Elvis Mobile!

~Ola Salon
~Beer and Wine from OLA Salon
~Live Music- Acoustic Sets by Sid Law and Nathan Adams
~Tarot Readings
~Chair Massage by healing roots
~Complimentary services and products furnished by OLA Salon

~Java Bean will be offering coffee samples
~West Seattle Produce will have organic fruit and veggie samples
~Avalon glassworks will be doing a glassblowing demonstration and offering discounts

Stop by and say hello, have a beer and listen to some great live music in the sun.

“The World of Puppetry: Treasures from the Cook/Marks Collection” will be the first opportunity for a portion of this massive collection to be displayed in Seattle.  Don’t miss your chance to see the world through wooden eyes with puppets from Bucharesti, Palermo, Bali, Athens, Osaka, Rio de Janeiro, Bamako, Bursa, and many more points on the globe.

Included on display are stunning examples of Sicilian opera dei pupi, Indonesian wayang and Japanese bunraku (some of the puppet traditions recognized by UNESCO as “Intangible Cultural Assets to Humanity”).  You will even see vaudeville marionettes returning to the limelight after making their original appearances on Seattle stages a century ago!

Northwest Puppet Center presents

The World of Puppetry: Treasures from the Cook/Marks Collection

Location:
Seattle Center Pavilion B (next to the skate park)

On View July 23-Aug. 1, 2010
6pm-9pm on Fri. July 23
11am-4pm on weekends
11am-3pm on weekdays

Admission is FREE but donations to Northwest Puppet Center are welcomed to help continue NWPC’s expanding museum efforts.

Exhibit sponsored by The Jacqueline S. Marks Fund at the California
Community Foundation and Seattle Center.  General support provided by ArtsFund and Washington State Arts Commission.

To learn more about the Cooks/Marks Collection:
http://nwpuppet.org/worldofpuppetry.html

Get a double-dose of puppets by combining your visit with the regional festival, Puppet-O-Rama,
organized by members of Puppeteers of Puget Sound, to be held at Seattle University July 30-Aug. 1.  International Puppetry Museum and Northwest Puppet Center will be hosting a reception at the regional festival on July 30 to celebrate this new collection and would like you to join in their celebration.   Come learn more about puppetry at the festival:  http://www.puppet-o-rama.org

Not a puppeteer and want to see puppet shows all around the area?

Find out where the Northwest Puppet Center will be performing this summer  http://www.nwpuppet.org/summer.html

After this exhibit at Seattle Center, more of the collection will be on display when the 2010-2011 season opens in November. Northwest Puppet Center will feature two exhibits each year and The Cook/Marks Collection will be a major portion of the Puppet Museum at the Northwest Puppet Center for generations to come.

To find out more about the Northwest Puppet Center’s 2010-2011 season performances: http://nwpuppet.org/weekend.html

National Treasure Dan Hicks plays with his Hot Licks, free this Wednesday July 7th at noon at Waterfront Park, 1301 Alaskan Way (that’s next door to the Aquarium).

Another great free Out To Lunch show in the Summer Concert Series. 

“As a performer and songwriter, Dan Hicks is imminently engaging, twisting his signature mishmash of damn near every musical style known to man into songs that feel supremely natural. The magic holds for as long as the music plays; once a song’s over, the theoretical strangeness of Hicks’ sound sinks in. How could Western Swing play alongside gypsy jazz, while surf rock mingles with bossa nova cowboy sing-alongs, and female backup singers play call-and-response with Hicks’ very particular vocal twang? Add to that Hicks’ penchant for writing lyrics filled with a dry wit, and you’ve got something very strange – very strange and very wonderful.” – - Nicholas Hall, Seattle Weekly

Inviting all Capitol Hillsters to the Cal Anderson Park Alliance 8th Annual Capitol Hill Independence Day Community Picnic Saturday, July 3, Noon – 5 PM.

This great free all-ages community celebration is Cal Anderson Park Alliance’s signature annual event. With four eclectic live bands, free root beer garden, urban family photo portraits, pie eating contest, pet/human look-alike contest, and feel-good, all-ages interactive fun. Everyone is invited: kids, hipsters, parents, friends, lovers, and anyone who loves Capitol Hill.

Performances will take the Sunbowl Stage all afternoon, among them the kids band the Not-Its, funk band Eldridge Gravy & the Court Supreme, the Toucans and the Raggedy Anns.

The CAPA Root Beer Garden will be handing out root beer floats until the ice cream’s gone. Skillet will be on the scene with their great food. And free cotton candy for everyone!

PLUS: more free activities, including Spin Art Bike, Patriotic Tie-dye, the Cupcake Royale Cupcake Walk, and Hoola Hoop Contest.

This is a family-friendly, all-ages event to celebrate our independence and our community!

Wowie! Free show Wednesday 6/23 by the awesome legendary English ska band, English Beat at Westlake Plaza downtown between noon and 1:30 pm. Gotta love that! Part of the Out to Lunch, Summer in the City free music series. Here’s the rest of the summer schedule here.