Here are the top CHS posts from this week in 2011:
(Image: @theoriginalpuma via Twitter)
If you think holiday overindulgence is an exclusively human activity, think again. The birds do it, too, and one of the most common offenders here on the Hill is a little fruit-loving passerine called the cedar waxwing.
Last Aviary, we saw birds that kill their own brain cells. This week we’re seeing birds that get drunk.
The cedar waxwing is a small gray bird with a black mask and a pointed crest. If you look closely, you may notice a few splotches of red on the wings and a bright yellow band on the tail.
Waxwings subsist mainly on fruit. Their bodies are well adapted to this diet—unless the fruit rots and ferments before they eat it. Then the birds get intoxicated, which makes them sick. When they fly drunk, they sometimes have fatal collisions with cars or the ground. (In the spirit of the holiday season, let’s give thanks that the humans on the Hill don’t have wings.)
In late fall, waxwings rely heavily on mountain-ash berries as a food source—but American robins do, too. You may not think of the robin as a particularly fierce bird, but a single robin can defend a fruiting mountain-ash tree from a flock of up to fifteen waxwings. Perhaps partly because of this, waxwings have adapted to travel in large flocks. When their numbers are high enough, they’re better able to take possession of and defend their food resources.
Waxwings are constantly on the move as they look for their next fruit fix, so if you want to find them, you need to look for the foods they prefer. If there are any mountain-ash berries left in your part of the neighborhood, they’re your best bet. Otherwise, look for waxwings on any tree or bush that still has fruit on the branches—especially junipers, dogwoods, apple trees, and fruiting ornamental plants.
Interested in learning more?
More Capitol Hill Aviary
Melissa Koosmann is a freelance writer and resident of Capitol Hill. She writes about education, culture, and nature — and, sometimes, birds for CHS.
Victory for R-74 brought election night celebrations — and big plans (Image: Alex Crick for CHS)
Determining the “most important” Capitol Hill stories of 2012 starts at a base level. What is important? For CHS, it is what events, incidents, crimes, and amazements we’ll remember many, many years from now. Predicting what will be memorable? It’s a fool’s game. Honestly, we’re only guessing. Views, comments and “interestingness” will be our guide. Fortunately, we’ve done this before:
Below, we’ve once again collected the “most important” Hill stories of the year. They are listed in no particular order though some of the year’s biggest stories are included up top. We based our “importance” measurement on stories that were viewed and commented on the most during the year. We also focused on stories our readers spent the most time on over the months of 2012. It’s an arbitrary list. Even more arbitrarily, we selected what we feel were the biggest stories for a poll that you can weigh in on. Poll closes at midnight as we ring in 2013. If you think there is a story we should have included but didn’t, let us know in comments. We’re proud to have been here for another year of writing these stories down and making them part of the things you’ll remember many, many years from now. Thanks for being part of CHS.
MOST IMPORTANT CAPITOL HILL STORIES OF 2012
The future of Pine at Melrose. It’s big.
People were pissed about aPodments (Image: CHS)
Another CHS YIR, another Linda D pic (Image: CHS)
Darewski seen in his final moments in a grab from a SCCC security camera
The Lumineers party on the Block (Image: Jim Bennett/CHBP with permission to CHS)
MORE CHS YEAR IN REVIEW 2012
The cafes of Capitol Hill are helping to fuel an art-focused Seattle ecommerce start-up. Sarah Brooks and Stella Lorenzo have created Artsyo, an online marketplace for local art that launched early this year, in the same cafes where many of the works you can find on the site hang.
At less than a year old, Artsyo already features 300 local artists and 1,200 pieces. Brooks says they primarily recruit for the site by contacting the artists who take part in art walks around Seattle.
“The art walks are the first filter, but [Artsyo] is open,” says Brooks. “If you are an artist, you can upload work.” Brooks and Lorenzo recruit, vet new artists and artwork, and maintain the site in cafes around Capitol Hill – the 12th Avenue Stumptown was mentioned as a favorite. Both founders said that if they’re able, they’d like to keep Artsyo on the Hill when it’s time to get an office.
Brooks says that the idea for Artsyo came to her when she first moved to Seattle. “[An online local art marketplace] was something that I was looking for when I moved here five years ago,” says Brooks. “I was going to set aside some money and get some art for my apartment. I was working a lot and I didn’t have time to see all the galleries and art things. I wanted to be able to see it all in one place!”
Brooks brought the idea to Lorenzo two years ago during a summer day on Lake Washington. Lorenzo says what hooked her on the idea was the idea of connecting people to artists in their area. “I think local art should be about connecting people, especially people in the local area that aren’t comfortable looking for art in venues on Capitol Hill,” says Lorenzo. ”They’d come down, but they don’t know where to look. If I’m not an art connoisseur, I can find things that catch my eye and meet up with the artist.”
Artsyo takes commission on pieces that sell through the site that aren’t otherwise represented. “We want to show all the pieces”, says Brooks, “but we won’t take commission on pieces where the commission is owed already to galleries or coffee shops where pieces might be showing.” Lorenzo likened what they’re doing to the Craigslist financial model. “Primarily [Artsyo is] about getting people connected with artists and venues that are showing, trying to get people out to see stuff”, says Lorenzo. “Craigslist makes all the money on job listings, and the rest of [the site] is run for free. I want to make sure that the big part of [Artsyo] is connecting people to artists.”
Brooks and Lorenzo also have plans to be able to provide “last mile” services for people purchasing artwork through Artsyo. The idea is to partner with frame shops and companies that do art moving and installing so an Artsyo customers can have the option of having their purchases delivered to their door and even installed. “For people who don’t [buy art] often, it can be an unapproachable thing, says Lorenzo, “We want to lower the bar for that – if they see something, they can have it in their house right now.”
Artsyo just posted the ten finalists in their “Saddest Wall in Seattle” contest. Hop on over to the Artsyo blog to vote for the saddest wall of them all – the entry with the most votes by December 20th gets an original piece of art from the Artsyo marketplace, and Artsyo will pick up the tab.
More Capitol Hill Tech
Treat your visiting relatives to a gay yuletide: Homo for the Holidays continues delighting audiences through Monday Dec 24th with 2 shows per night (7p and 10p) of burlesque, cabaret, dance, drag and music performances at Oddfellows West Hall. The Dina Martina Christmas Show continues through December 31st at Rebar.
Hey shoppers! Check out Shop the Hill for fresh new deals from our local retailers.
Have an event people should know about? Add it to our free community calendar.
Thursday, Dec 20th
Friday, Dec 21st
Saturday, Dec 22nd
Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music features Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, NW Chamber Chorus, guest vocalists and a tap dancer(!). Town Hall, 7 – 9p.
Sun Dec 23rd
There is now a new Einstein’s Bros Bagel Cafe where Noah’s Bagels used to be . Right next to The Bank of America which is at the corner of Thamas Street and Broadway on Capitol Hill. 224 Broadway East is the exact location.
Inside the Bait Shop (Image: CHS)
Our write-up reviewing 2011 — the year Capitol Hill food and drink broke — positioned the period as a seminal moment when the Hill’s explosive growth in the entertainment economy reached a new, super-star level. Unlike punk in ’92, what follows is apparently not a sellout but a doubling down. Investment in the Capitol Hill food+drink economy continued nearly unabated in 2012. Familiar names put even more chips in play. New hands joined a few tables. And some crapped out nearly as quickly as they were dealt in. Here is a look at the year that was. You can let us know anything we left out — but should have included — in comments.
Earnhardt and cake (Image: Alex Crick for CHS)
Familiar names
Many of the biggest investments in Capitol Hill’s food and drink economy in 2012 were made by investors already holding a steak, er, stake in the neighborhood.
The sisters Sodos (Image: Suzi Pratt for CHS)
A new Zoe was born (Image: CHS)
Used to be Rosebud (Image: Doug McLaughlin for CHS)
Crumble & Flake’s Robertson (Image: Dave Lichterman for CHS)
New players
The year also saw plenty of newbies and Capitol Hill rookies enter the field. Will we see any of these owners play another hand in 2013?
Love at The Pine Box (Image: Suzi Pratt for CHS)
Know when to fold em
This is a limited “dearly departed” list. There were a few other casualties among both fresh efforts and long-time loves. While we’ll use language from around war and games and Wall Street to sometimes describe the efforts, know this — CHS is well aware that none of this happens without passion and a lot of work. Pardon us if it ever seems we take a closure too lightly.
More sadness
Bets on the future
These lucky 19th Ave E residents of the future will live above a Linda’s joint. More on the planned development here (Image: Weinstein A|U)
