Tag Archives: light rail

Arts & Entertainment, Music, News, Transportation

SeaTac Airport Brings Seattle Music to the Traveling Masses

SeaTac Baggage Claim will turn to Booty Claim when Fly Moon Royalty play at the airport today. (Photo: Tony Kay)

It’s such a great idea, you may actually want to hang out at the airport for extended stretches of time, especially today.

The Port of Seattle, the Office of Film and Music, Seattle Music Commission, and PlayNetwork have joined to create the Sea-Tac Airport Music Initiative. The goal of the project is to fill the whole of SeaTac Airport with locally-bred music of all genres, and that local color will seep into everything from the informational announcements to the overhead music to the video screens throughout the airport.

As you can probably gather, the overhead music in the terminal won’t be your run-of-the-mill muzak. The Initiative-created web player provides a great indicator of the scope and variety of artists being showcased. Give it a listen: It’s easy to get lost in any of the six channels.  The urban/soul channel offers heaps of Wheedle’s Groove selections alongside the Ray Charles, and even the rock station augments the obvious touchstones (Hendrix, Nirvana, Pearl Jam) with tracks by Pretty Girls Make Graves, Head Like a Kite, and Pedro the Lion (among others). PlayNetwork’s also produced several overhead safety and informational announcements read by everyone from Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell to Sir Mix-a-Lot to Macklemore. And original video content by Light in the Attic Records, KEXP, MTV, the EMP, and others will play on monitors throughout the airport.

Best of all, The Initiative is presenting a free show at the Gina Marie Lindsey Arrivals Hall (that’s the south end of baggage claim, folks) today, replete with a line-up easily the equal of any paid-admission club show this weekend. Recess Monkey open things up at 3 p.m with great skinny-tie pop that happens to be totally family-friendly (they sound like Fountains of Wayne with lyrical contributions from Mr. Rogers). Carrie Clark and the Lonesome Lovers follow up at 4 with their much-cherished-in-this-corner kitchen-sink cabaret Americana . The 5 p.m. set by local electro-soul astronauts Fly Moon Royalty should turn baggage claim into a dance party,  and Dusty 45s should keep up that pace with a wicked-cool swirl of rockabilly and lounge.

If you play your cards right, you can even get serenaded by local musicians on the way to Sea-Tac: ten different acts (including Kris Orlofski, Gabriel Mintz, and Quixote Radio) will be playing live sets on the Sound Transit Light Rail running between downtown and SeaTac. Think about it–you’ll totally be able to give your iPod a rest for the whole commute.

 

 

News, Politics, Transportation

Sustainable 520 Coalition NIMBYs Their Way to Support of Eyman’s I-1125

The SunBreak’s reporting on the Sustainable 520 Coalition has tended to champion their local homeowners’ underdog fight against WSDOT plans for a much larger replacement bridge, but their latest move is, forgive us, a bridge too far.

“Why Voting FOR initiative 1125 Will Stop the 520 Project” is the subject line of the group’s email, where they discuss supporting Tim Eyman’s absurd initiative as a way of forestalling 520 expansion. As they point out, I-1125’s balderdash would work, to some extent, in their favor:

  • It prevents tolls on I-90 being used for the expansion of SR 520.
  • It says tolls have to be the same all day and night.

“This means,” the coalition concludes, “there will be insufficient funding to build the west side of SR 520, and the floating bridge probably can’t be expanded.” Yes, and shooting yourself in the head cures cancer.

To be fair, the group does assess the pros and cons of this dance with a lesser demon. What’s not to like about I-1125? They admit:

  • It forbids tolls which vary by time of day to help control congestion.
  • It prevents light rail on I-90.
  • It prevents toll revenues from being used for maintenance and upgrading after the bonds are paid for.

However, the coalition argues, completely unconvincingly, “the policies we don’t like can be changed by the legislature after two years. …[T]he long term consequences of allowing this river of concrete to flow through the City are so great, that it is worth considering the option of voting for I-1125.”

You will have divined that I don’t see the short-term versus long-term strategy in the same terms. Nor do I think throwing I-90’s light rail under a bus (HEY-O!) even temporarily, while the Kemper Freemans of the world are looking for ways to kill it, is canny.

The coalition is succumbing to a NIMBY mindset, when they should be seeking common cause. This move supports the wider perception that the spoiled little rich residents of Montlake don’t like the noise and fuss of construction, when they’re working so hard to frame the problem with the new bridge in terms of environmental impact. If the only environment you’re concerned with is your backyard, you lose moral ground.

Food, Restaurant, Travel

Postcard from Paris, from a Food Writer’s Perspective

From Brussels it was on to Paris for a four-day feeding frenzy. More specifics in the future, but for now a quick taste of what I like and dislike about the city.

Visits to bakeries, markets, and restaurants mean staring at the Metro map for travel planning. In contrast to our current single light rail line in Seattle, Paris offers a labyrinth of rail lines to navigate, reaching desired destinations of the various arrondisements.

From dashing out early morning to compare croissants at different boulangeries to donning a jacket and tie for lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel’s Le Cinq, the Metro is always there with its options. I love staring at the colorful map, connecting, for example, from lavender to brown just in time for a dinner reservation at Le Chateaubriand—which recently moved up to the number nine position in S.Pelligrino’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

On the annoying side, it seems that just about everyone in Paris smokes cigarettes. (Some wearing those ubiquitous scarves while scarfing down espressos, though fortunately restaurant interiors are now smoke-free.) This means frequently passing through smoke-filled doorways, and seeing butts along the boulevards.

Upside: It’s even easier to talk with someone at an adjoining table when the dining companion goes out for a smoke. Downside: Dealing with the smoke stinks. That’s one point that makes me happy to return to relatively smoke-free Seattle.