A new “Welcome” sign is being redesigned for our neighbor to the West, the town of Ruston. Another great community in our neck of the Puget Sound, Ruston celebrated its centennial in 2006. You can check out a proposed design here. They’re looking for comments on it, so check it out and have your say or forever hold your peace. Or you can let us know what you think on our new Facebook page. (wink, wink)

–James

This, dear reader, is an awesome list. I challenge you to come up with items 86-100. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorites:

9. Sled down South Seventh Street.

22. Buy a book at King’s Books, go read at Wright Park, and then spend an hour at Stadium Video searching for the perfect movie and pick up dinner at Frisko Freeze on your way home.

32. Hang out at the Urban Art Festival at the end of June.

35. Walk the Rhododendron garden at Point Defiance on a rainy day.

36. Catch a film you’ve never heard of at The Grand Cinema.

71. Stare at Mount Rainier, downtown Tacoma and the North Tacoma cliffs during a sunset while sipping champagne at the Cliff House.

79. Make out in the Kissing Lounge at the Hotel Murano.

–James

In its annual readers’ poll “Top 25 Arts Destinations,” American Style magazine is quietly influencing the way we look at urban life. The great news is, Tacoma made the list for mid-sized cities! Our town is ranked 17, and I can’t help thinking that our little roadhouse made a contribution. Woo-hoo for the City of Destiny!

–James

A puffer fish looms behind an installation of blown glass, perhaps imagining how he would blow glass if he could. A school of predatory lion fish slither among museum-quality glass sculptures. Has global warming caused the Puget Sound to inundate our lobby? Nope. This is Oddwater, the new summer exhibit at the Oregon Coast Museum, in Newport, Oregon. Colorful blown art glass, created by artists at The Edge Art Gallery in South Beach, Oregon, are inside all of the displays, complementing the strange creatures of Oddwater. According the aquarium website, “The glass art was created specifically for each display based on the actual habitat structures and the requirements of the animals.” The result? A unique fusion of art and aquaria. I may have to leave the comfy confines of this hotel for trip to Newport!

-Dale

Just last year, our friend Josh posted his nostalgic memories of Point Defiance Park’s Never Never Land. At the time, a few structures, including the well-known statue of Humpty himself remained. But since then, even that has disappeared. As Kathleen Merryman reported in her News Tribune column, almost all of the final remaining structures have been demolished.

Kerryman writes, “All that’s left standing of the original attraction are the Old Woman’s Shoe and a pile of giant concrete books. If I had a dozer, I’d put them out of their misery.” So much for sentimentality. By her own admission, the columnist isn’t from these parts. No kidding.

A few photos from the park’s best years are posted online. Go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page for a slide show. And if you want to see what the storybook scenes looked like just prior to their annihilation, you’ll do no better than to drop by Tacoma Gnome’s blog.

–Dale

Not too long ago, Wright park went by another nickname. The park, which had fallen to neglect and incursions from unsavory characters, was known as Fright Park. Now, a multimillion dollar restoration project has turned all that around, and this public space is a real jewel. Here are a few of the improvements, noted at Tacoma Daily Index:

– Refurbishing the iconic maiden and lion statues donated to the park by Clinton Ferry in 1891 and prominently placing them at the park’s entry ways

– Initiating Master Plan designs to re-establish the long view corridor which historically ran through the center of the park

– Relocating the basketball court from the center of park to a more visible location for improved safety

– Adding 97 trees and rerouting pathways to protect the root system the park’s Champion Sugar Maple

– Renovating the 1930’s brick restroom constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA); retaining the historic exterior of the building while modernizing the interior for safety and efficiency

– Renovating the Bowling Green and horse shoe pits that have been part of the park for nearly 80 years

Good Stuff,
–James

At Savi Day Spa, located inside our hotel, visitors begin getting special, personalized treatment from the time they make their initial phone call. Co-owner Sharon Kline tapped her husband, songwriter Myron Kline, to produce a jingle that callers would hear while on hold. (If you want to hear how it sounds, do what I did: call the spa at (253) 627-2000 and ask Stephanie to put you on hold. She’ll gladly oblige. Then do what I’ve also done: call back and make an appointment.) Myron also wrote the music that accompanied guests as they walked into “Museo”, the gala benefit that we hosted in March for the Tacoma Art Museum. Who knows? Maybe you’ll hear more from Myron around our halls or phone lines….

–James

With 18 years of operation under its belt, the Downtown Tacoma Farmers’ Market is an established tradition. Over 80 booths of the season’s freshest produce, flowers, artisan crafts, jams & jellies, live music and more are returning to the city beginning May 15th for their seasonal run through October 16th. Here’s the schedule:

Day: Thursday
Time: 9:00am to 2:00pm
Where: Downtown on Broadway between 9th and 11th

–James

Billy Morris once assisted Dale Chihuly as a gaffer, which, in glass art circles, refers to a master glassblower who shapes glass as it comes out of the kiln. In other words, he worked directly with Chihuly to help execute that master’s designs and ideas. Since then, he has moved on to become one of the most original, creative and virtuosic glassblowers in the world. Inspired by ancient civilizations, tribal cultures and mythology, his sculptures raise ordinary artifact to the level of art. Raise yourself in our elevator to the 25th floor and see the work he’s done for us.

–Dale

One of my pet peeves about the Web is that whenever creative organizations launch a new website, all-too-often, navigation is difficult and those fancy-schmancy flash animations render the download times interminably long. Ugh. Thankfully, this is not the case with the Tacoma Art Museum site. Easy to surf, yet pretty to behold, this site is, in my opinion, a model of Web design. (Such good design doesn’t come cheap, I’m sure.) Here’s an opportunity for you to help the museum pay for its facelift: October 18, TAM will be holding its annual gala benefit. Show up and pitch in!

–Dale