Thursday, August 11, 2011

Thursday night yacht races...

Seattle I love you.


Sunday, August 7, 2011

Coach begins “urban camping” class in Belltown, sparks an exercise revolution.

The summer always gets people into the mood to get fit and go outside. Even now that Global Warming has done away with what our forefathers thought of as “summer” the innate desire lingers. Each year, Personal Trainer Jason Squatenhold sees enrollment in his outdoor “boot camp” classes soar early in May in anticipation of the legendary sun’s appearance and this year was no different. Except this year, Mr. Squatenhold had an idea that he says is catching on throughout the country now.

Urban Camp

Jason describes how the idea of “Urban Camp” came to him.
“The ideal of beauty in our society is to be tan and ripped, everyone is trying to get to that place where they look like they spend a lot of time outdoors. Staying thin is very important to the style conscious. I hold my boot camp classes in area parks. In Seattle the homeless are encouraged to occupy the parks as well as streets in front of Nordstrom. What I was seeing was that my clients were all chunky and pale, even more so in comparison to the homeless men leering at them. That’s when I came up with Urban Camping.
The Seattle motif is to be at one with the outdoors, recycling and roughing it, and no one does it quite like the homeless. They literally never go indoors. Harnessing this, Mr. Squatenhold’s clients go through the motions of typical homeless activities.
Client Marsha Mellow says she can feel her core burn when she does the “cigarette butt bends” a move where the class simulates picking up used cigarettes from the ground. Jason makes the class do hundreds of this exercise in a class.
Other exercises include “Spinning in a circle shouting at the sky” a move Coach Squatenhold says is a great way to prevent chin muscles from sagging and an excellent method for getting that sun kissed glow on your face.
"There are no lockers here, in the first class I send every one of my students back to their cars to collect the contents of their trunks, they have to carry everything, including the spare, the duration of the class.”
Naturally you can find a Groupon for “Urban Camp” classes so you can try it out yourself, but the savings don’t end there. “Thursday a German tourist gave me $5 out of nowhere,” stated die-hard Urban Camper Dave Flanders.

City Council to approve several initiatives aimed at helping Belltown homeless.



New data shows that Seattle's single family recycling rate is over 70%, Mayor McGinn now wants bars and restaurants to help the homeless help themselves by introducing a double header "Recycling Initiative"
In a move similar to the aggressive pro-panhandling support Mayor McGinn handed out to the homeless and Children International last Spring, the proposed "Trickle Down Recycling" bill has local restaurants, bars and fishmongers throwing more than fish. Part one of the new law would require Pike Place Market businesses use only Real Change newspapers to wrap fish, meat and poultry. No word as to if fruit vendors or hippies selling pottery would be subject to this legislation. Citing the weird guilt and awkward conversation one must have when refusing to buy the paper and his disappointment with his agent at not being cast in one of the explosion of shows like Deadliest Catch and Swords: Life on the Line that have decimated the number of actual fishermen willing to work at Pike Place. "Can we just buy a pile of them and then have the guy go away? asked Noord Jergensonsonson, "You know, its bad enough that I'm not on a fishing show, and now this?"
Bartenders have similar issues with the new initiative. Part two of the law requires that cans and bottles be separate. "If we can help the homeless by separating the cans from the bottles, they will no longer tear open every bag in the alley looking for cans," said Council member Jean Godden, " This will promote cleaner alleyways. A Belltown man who calls himself Cigs was urinating and smoking from an old bic pen between two recycle bins early Sunday morning when this reporter found him. I asked him what he thought of the new law. "Man, can you give me some spare change?"

Seattle Center desktop 1

Seattle Center desktop 1
Seattle Center 1