Local News

Seattle Maritime Festival offers free harbor tours, tugboat race

The Gladiator, a 136-foot-long tugboat, in 2007. (Photo by Mark Harrison/ The Seattle Times)

The Seattle Maritime Festival is underway today on the Seattle waterfront, with competitions and demonstrations that highlight different aspects of the maritime industry.

Four free harbor tours by Argosy can accommodate 250 people each. Tickets are handed out starting at 10:15 for the 11 a.m. tour, at the festival information booth at Pier 66. The other tours happen in the afternoon at 12:45, 2:30, and 4:15. Make sure you go to the booth as early as possible before the tour time. There’s a limit to four tickets per adult.

There are also ongoing vessel tours, free wooden-boat building for kids, and an afternoon worth of shows on the waterfront. At noon, fire boats will be on display, followed by the tugboat ballet at 12:10 p.m. and the Abandon Ship Demonstration at 12:20 p.m. The Coast Guard will demonstrate a sea/air helicopter rescue at 12:50 p.m. and a workboat parade will take place at 1:15 p.m. Tugboat races start at 2 p.m.

And don’t forget sunscreen.

For a complete schedule, visit the website here.

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Jimi Hendrix guitar becomes part of one-of-a-kind British boat, really

We’re sure Jimi Hendrix never imagined this.

As part of a national art project linked to the Olympic Games in the U.K., a sailboat was built using pieces of wood from many diverse places and things.

Among the 1,200 pieces that make up the boat are fragments from a Jimi Hendrix guitar, according to an article in The Telegraph in London.

Gary Winters and Gregg Whelan, the artists who came up with the idea for such a unique craft, visited 20 places to gather items to be used in the building of the boat. You’ll have to see the vessel. It’s quite remarkable.

Unfortunately, the article doesn’t say just where and how they got pieces of a guitar once owned by one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time. (Oh, yeah, he’s from Seattle, if you didn’t know…)

The yacht will sail around the southern portion of England before reaching the Olympic sailing venue in Weymouth, Dorset, just in time for the August games, according to The Telegraph’s story.

1 comments | More in Arts & Entertainment, General news | Topics: guitar, Jimi Hendrix, sailboat

Key acts for Capitol Hill Block Party announced

The Capitol Hill Block Party, scheduled for July 20-22, announced some key acts in its lineup today. Neko Case, Fitz and the Tantrums, Diplo, The Lumineers, Youth Lagoon, Cloud Nothings and more are on the lineup.

For more info on bands and tickets, see Andrew Matson’s blog.

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Richard Beyer, “Waiting for the Interurban” sculptor, dies

"Waiting for the Interurban," Richard Beyer's best-known sculpture in Seattle. (Seattle Times archives)

Richard Beyer (Times archives)

WENATCHEE — Master sculptor Richard S. Beyer, creator of the iconic public sculpture “Waiting for the Interurban” in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood,  died Monday in New York City. He was 86.

The creator of wry works who displayed a genius for joyful subjects — including dancing, singing people and animals with human expressions — delighted art lovers and non-lovers alike for nearly two generations.

He made hundreds, maybe thousands, of public and private pieces that found their way to cities and collections throughout the Pacific Northwest and the world.

His vision of respect for the common man — along with a love for nature, history, science and playful teasing — marked his works as “populist” by many critics and, at the same time, won him legions of fans.

In particular, most children found Beyer’s animals irresistible — a bull with a cowboy hat, a salmon in skirt and pearls, a coyote in pants reading a book.

“His talent was enormous, just like his personality,” said Richard Wrangle, an artist in Twisp, Okanogan County, and Beyer’s friend for over 50 years. “To make some of his early works, he blasted granite into the shapes of animals — it sounded like jets taking off, chunks flying.

“But it was a perfect process for him,” said Wrangle, “because he was a ‘blasting’ type of guy. He was always in someone’s way, some politician somewhere, questioning their motives and actions and making some noise.”

Beyer was born July 26, 1925, in Washington, D.C., to parents committed to President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, a political vision — support for the common man and woman — that carried through the artist’s life and work.

In high school, Beyer showed his creative side early with drawings and art projects. But his day-dreaming often led him to buck authority and he changed schools often. Finally, his creative leanings were recognized at Fairfax (Va.) High School, where he found artistic encouragement.

After serving in the Army, Beyer enrolled in Columbia University in New York and earned a social sciences degree. More importantly, he met and fell in love with Margaret, a childhood friend whom he married in 1948. The marriage lasted 56 years until Margaret’s death in 2004.

Trained as an economist, Beyer moved to Seattle in 1957 to work on a Ph.D. at the University of Washington. While working on his dissertation, he continued to draw and carve small animals for his children and those in the neighborhood. By 1963, he was showing these carvings at local galleries, whose patrons were recognizing a new-found, if rough, talent.

Beyer’s first public commission was in 1968, and from there his art career grew each year. By 1978, he had established a foundry in Seattle’s Fremont District to produce his bronze and aluminum castings.

From there, he made some of his most controversial works, including the beloved “Waiting for the Interurban,” a depiction of people and a dog waiting for a train that never arrives. The dog has the face of a Fremont civic leader who opposed placement of the statue.

In 1988, Beyer moved his foundry to Pateros, Okanogan County,  and quickly became a fixture in Central Washington’s burgeoning arts scene.

After Margaret died in 2004, Beyer moved to New York City in 2005 to be with friend Dorothy Scholz. They married in 2007.

Since a stroke in 2001, Beyer had reined in some activities, but not all. Pushing through strenuous rehab, he continued to produce drawings and castings. He suffered a serious stroke March 27 and never woke from it. He died at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital with his wife and son Charles Beyer at his side.

A wake, funeral service and reception will be held Friday and Saturday in New York.

“Rich always searched for subjects that had meaning in people’s lives,” said Steve Love, an assistant to Beyer at the Pateros foundry and a friend for 20 years. “It was accessible and easy to understand. And most of all, it was humorous. People loved his art because it made them smile.”

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‘Hammering Man’ gets a ‘Mirror’: New outdoor art at SAM

This is an image from the artist, showing what the proposed installation will look like.

“Hammering Man” is going to have some company: Seattle Art Museum announces a commission for a huge artwork that will be attached to SAM’s building.

California- and New York-based artist Doug Aitken’s “Mirror” will, according to SAM, “consist of a monumental LED display that wraps around the Northwest corner of SAM’s building. The main component is a glass-covered band of projected images which dissolve into narrow columns of light” that run up and down the building.

The artist will shoot images around the region for the projection.

The work was commissioned by art patron Bagley Wright before his death last year; installation is expected in early 2013.

0 comments | More in Arts & Entertainment, General news | Topics: Doug Aitken, glass, Hammering Man

Double Jeopardy: Washington state senator’s plan reaches quiz show

The Associated Press

Bob Morton (AP photo)

A state senator’s plan to split Washington in half has put him in Double Jeopardy.

0 comments | More in Arts & Entertainment, Government | Topics: Bob Morton, cascades, Jeopardy

Spring is here! Share your Instagram photos

The start of spring in Seattle brought clouds and scattered showers, some mixed with snow. But the first weekend of spring is expected to bring some sunshine, with a forecast that calls for sunny skies and temperatures that hit the 50s on Friday. A sunny Saturday is also expected, with a high near 56, according to the National Weather Service.

How are you enjoying the first weekend of spring? Share your photos through the iPhone app Instagram by tagging them with the hashtag #springinseattle. If you want to tag a photo you’ve already uploaded to Instagram, just include the hashtag in a comment on your photo. We’ll publish some of our favorites in this blog. If you share your photo with us, it means you give us permission to use your photo on our web site and/or other social networks.

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0 comments | More in Arts & Entertainment, From our readers, Photos, Weather Beat | Topics: Instagrams, share, spring

'The Hunger Games' Poll

As we all know (but we’re going to say it anyway), “The Hunger Games” phenom is, well, a phenom. People will be streaming to see the film starting tonight, but we thought we’d ask a question of those of you who have read the books. You have read them, right?

So put on your thinking caps and take our poll.

You won’t be graded on this, promise.

Jennifer Lawrence portrays Katniss Everdeen in a scene from "The Hunger Games." (Photo by Murray Close / AP)

0 comments | More in Arts & Entertainment, Education, Government | Topics: entertainment, facism, Hunger Games

‘The Hunger Games’ Poll

As we all know (but we’re going to say it anyway), “The Hunger Games” phenom is, well, a phenom. People will be streaming to see the film starting tonight, but we thought we’d ask a question of those of you who have read the books. You have read them, right?

So put on your thinking caps and take our poll.

You won’t be graded on this, promise.

Jennifer Lawrence portrays Katniss Everdeen in a scene from "The Hunger Games." (Photo by Murray Close / AP)

0 comments | More in Arts & Entertainment, Education, Government | Topics: entertainment, facism, Hunger Games

The nutria, an animation by Seattle filmmaker Drew Christie

A nutria (but it's not from the animated short...) (Photo / The Associated Press)

The nutria.

Seattle filmmaker Drew Christie has put together an amusing, and uh, educational animated short you’ll find on The New York Times website on the nutria, a rodent that invaded Lake Washington some time ago when some entrepeneurs thought they’d raise them and sell their furs.

That didn’t work out so much and the rodents eventually were released into the lake.

Some folks don’t want the critters here, but Christie makes the point that all of us are an invasive species in one form or another.

Have a look at the video. It’s quite the diversion.

0 comments | More in Arts & Entertainment, General news | Topics: fur, Lake Washington, nutrria