TwispWorks (Part Two)
Twisp is a mountain community of workers relying on their hands and the natural resources around them, and has been since it was founded in 1897. The entire Methow Valley is full of people creating new things, both out of necessity and inspiration. When the historic Forest Service headquarters was decommissioned in 2002, the Twisp neighborhood had strong ideas about what should be done with the building vacant. They wanted to honor the site’s past and its significance to local history and industry, but use the space for a new project that will help Twisp look forward.
“Mostly we wanted to make something that the public can benefit by, that is able to give back to the community,” says a former local Forest Ranger, “If it couldn’t be a ranger station, I think [TwispWorks] is the next best option.”
Working in Twisp (Part One)
The town of Twisp is fewer than fifty miles south of the Canadian border. It spans an entire 1.18 square miles and has a population of 900 living in the surrounding National Forest area. Located in Washington’s Okanogan County, Twisp is surrounded by the Cascade Mountains, the joining of the Twisp and Methow rivers, and over a million acres of federally-protected forests. There is a history of hard-working people who respect the land, and respect the industries that thrive on it – particularly the Forest Service. Twisp is the original Old West town of Washington, and its past is paving the way for a future built on community and creativity.
One Flag, Two Flag, Green Flag, Blue Flag
Superbowl XLVIII is a little more than a week away, Seattle has officially succumbed to Seahawks fever. It has been quietly simmering away just under the surface of society since the beginning of the season 5 months ago. But after winning over 80% of their regular season games, enthusiasm for the Seattle Seahawks has finally boiled over. The Seahawks as a part of the Superbowl is a relatively new idea that people have to get used to (they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005), but it’s not like fans haven’t had faith all along – CenturyLink Field has consecutively sold out for the past decade, and the waiting list for tickets has 10,000 names on it.
So who has the display of ultimate Seahawks fandom? Who is the #1 12th man? Here is a handy guide to seriously kick-starting your Seahawks Superbowl spirit, as well as examples of some of the local businesses and organizations with the most eye-catching team spirit.
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Choose Your Own New Year’s Eve 2014 Adventure!
Like many of you, I have been so busy recovering from Christmas that I’ve barely had any time to plan anything for New Year’s Eve. This time of year when I naturally reminisce about everything that has happened over the past 365 days, it only seems appropriate that the year end with a celebration of the good things of 2013, and a ‘good riddance’ to the not-so-good things. Fortunately, Seattle is one of the nation’s fastest-growing metropolitan cities (over 630,000 residents and counting), so there are dozens of great parties and gatherings to choose from. I can plan the perfect New Year’s Eve 2014 with one simple question: what Seattle public radio station do you listen to?
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Rooting for the Underdog: 6 Iconic Seattle Start-ups
Seattle is the iconic underdog city. It may not be as bustling as the Big Apple, or as glitzy as Hollywood, but it has undeniably carved out a special place for itself in American lore as a city of start-ups. Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon didn’t begin as household names. So what is it about Seattle that makes it ideal for kick starting independents?
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Franz von Stuck at the Frye Art Museum
Franz von Stuck did not begin as a painter, but as a graphic designer and an architect. Born in Bavaria in 1863, Stuck showed an early talent for drawing and caricature. He attended the Munich Academy from 1881 to 1885 where he refined his artistic style. Stuck first became relatively well-known when he began illustrating cartoons for the German weekly satirical magazine, Fliegende Blätter, a publication with 95,000 copies at its peak circulation, and featured other artists such as Wilhelm Busch and Julius Klinger. Stuck supplemented his magazine work with providing drawings for book covers, pamphlets and promotional posters. Here Stuck begins exploring the creation of icons and the legendary, biblical and mythical symbols that will later dominate his painting career.
Wakuda Studios’ Jonathan Wakuda Fischer
Anyone walking by the Dexter-Denny intersection lately probably won’t notice the large orange and black mural that’s gone up within the last couple of weeks on the sides of 90.3 FM KEXP. In fact, many of the studio’s neighbors don’t know there is a radio station there at all – the gray concrete one-story block, affectionately called the Berlin Wall, looks far too small to house the approximately 80 employees and 200 volunteers they have on rotation to keep the non-profit studio running smoothly.
I got a chance to take a break from preparations for the fall fundraising drive to talk with artist Jonathan Wakuda Fischer as he put the finishing touches on the mural. He has been a longtime listener and donor to KEXP since he moved to Washington from Wisconsin 8 years ago. “I didn’t know I wanted to be an artist before I came to Seattle,” Jonathan says, “I found my creative self here.”
Treat the Cause, Not the Symptoms
The Downtown Emergency Services Center (DESC) started in November 1979 as an emergency overnight shelter in the ballroom of the Morrison Hotel in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. A small staff served nearly 200 chronically homeless Seattle adults that, “due to their severe and persistent mental and addictive illnesses, were not being served by the existing shelters of the time,” according to their website. Over the next decade, DESC partnered with the City of Seattle, the Greater Seattle Council of Churches, and Washington Advocates for the Mentally Ill to assess the shortages in providing resources for the vulnerable homeless people in the community. The organization rallied in 1984 to create the first severe weather overflow shelter in King County.
Over the River and Through the Woods: How Broadband Reaches Rural Washington
Northwest Open Access Network (NoaNet) is changing how Washington residents surf the web. Metropolitan cities like Seattle and Bellevue have long had access to broadband connections, enabling the Pacific Northwest to stay at the forefront of many existing and emerging industries. However, through an infusion of nearly $140 million in federal grants from the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), NoaNet is adding 1,000 miles of broadband all across the state. This expansive project, one of the largest in the country, will bring reliable, high-speed Internet to nearly 2,000 hospitals, libraries, schools and universities in rural Washington communities.
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Hurtling into the Future, Faster Than a Speeding Bullitt
If anyone is qualified to be the president of the super-sustainable Bullitt Foundation, it’s Denis Hayes. On April 22, 1970, he organized the first Earth Day, an environmental protection event that is now celebrated in over 190 countries. Hayes was also the head of the Solar Energy Research Institution during the Carter administration, was named Time Magazine’s Hero of the Planet in 1999, and has received a national Jefferson Awards Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Hayes has been with the Bullitt Foundation since 1992.
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Louisa Gaylord 