Cool wine label, eh? This would be one of the offerings from Walla Walla's sensational Balboa Winery, and it's designed by Amy Glase (her husband, Tom, designs the wine). Thursday night, from 6-9, Amy's art will be on display at an unlikely venue: Talarico's in the West Seattle Junction, best known for its gargantuan pizza slices and boner-inducing pickup scene. Confession: I am personally quite fond of both Walla Walla and the Glases -- in art, booze, and life -- and they had the good sense to name their son Winston, sort of a throwback, southern name that has been inexplicably shelved in the annals of modern offspring nomenclature. It would touch this Delridge denizen deeply if you could come out, and next time you're in "Walla-Vegas" (my aun't ultra-clever nickname for the town so nice they named it twice), check out both the winery and Amy's downtown boutique, Fitts & Co.

As we've previously written, the new Counterbalance Park in Lower Queen Anne (aka Uptown) has been flickering with new LED lights that were part of the original design. (The park is located at the base of Queen Anne Ave. North, where it meets Roy Street.) But, for a variety of reasons, they've been delayed since the park's ceremonial opening in July. So now there's to be a second opening on Saturday, featuring a band from McClure Middle School, hot cider, and s'mores. (Mmmm, s'mores.) Details as follows:

Counterbalance Park, 2 Roy St., www.seattle.gov/parks. Free. 5-7 p.m. Sat. Dec. 6.

The $1.1 million makeover of the old gas station site, long vacant, was made possible by $300,000 from the 2000 Seattle Pro-Parks Levy, with the balance raised by the Uptown Alliance from various local benefactors. We applaud the effort. But we also wonder why the park is  being rolled out twice, and why it's seemingly being built in stages, and why some portions of the design still haven't been implemented. And, moreover, who gets credit for the LED design versus the landscape architecture: Murase Associates, a Portland firm with a Seattle branch office; or Italian-born Seattle artist Iole Alessandrini? At least one SW reader has suggested she was fired from the project.

So we decided to ask her, and the city, and Murase what's going on with the "urban oasis" (that being the official city suffix to the name--how many other parks get such an honorific?)...
More >>

Image source: http://www.punchgallery.org/exhibitions/2008-12.html

A voyeuristic show, with video works by Ira Eduardovna, one of which features six simultaneously running screens, like an open box, showing the artist in a maid's outfit. The audience watches her clean from all angles.
See another two-channel video here.
Punch Gallery
Through December 27.More >>

Heather Dew Oaksen's Still Point installation opens at Jack Straw Friday night and continues through Feb. 12 of next year. She'll give a talk on Jan. 23. Until then, you can visit during regular gallery hours (Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) to experience her AV collage of T.S. Eliot, and string theory. (What is it about string theory that's such catnip for artists? For all that people talk about it, how many actually understand it?) The exhibit promises to explore "the layered fluctuations and tension between dependence and independence;and the palpable connections between past and future." Which reminds me of a certain acid trip in the desert...but that's a different blog post.

Jack Straw New Media Gallery, 4261 Roosevelt Way N.E., 634-0919, www.jackstraw.org. Free. 7 p.m.

Images by Spike Mafford, courtesy of the artist.

Perhaps you've wandered by Spike Mafford's long-lived Summit Ave. studio, plumb next to Top Pot doughnuts, and peeked at his photography through the window. A few years back, I remember encountering what I thought of as a gorgeous photographic interpretation of Wayne Thiebaud's Bakery Counter.


"Panaderia Verde", 1996
This prize-winning image earned the photographer a workshop in Oaxaca.

Speaking of Oaxaca, you might know Mafford's work without knowing it's his. The intensely colored photographs of Mexico displayed in light boxes covering the walls at Ballard's forever crowded La Carte de Oaxaca are Mafford's. (See some of those images here.)

Running into him a few weeks ago, Mafford was proud to tell me that he's been the best promoter of his own work. This Saturday he opens his studio space as a gallery. And he's hoping to create a bit of an art destination at Summit and Mercer, with his neighboring galleries Cairo and NoSpace.

Saturday, December 6, noon-late
SpikeSpace
611 Summit Ave. E., CAPITOL HILL
(206) 325-0540
www.galleriaspike.com

If you wonder (and sometimes I do) why the hell anyone would go to an author reading, Friday night at Hugo House provided a convincing answer. Wonderfully curated and unpretentiously hosted by program director Alix Wilber, this second installment of the Hugo Literary Series featured truly riveting "performances" by three disparate authors on the theme of Personal Injury. Richard Rodriguez (above) conveyed his sad and wry recollection of illness like he was creating it on the spot, his compressed poetic language seeming to gesture at everything. Sallie Tisdale was much more of a text reader, but her memoir of a Ski Patrol brother gathered an awesome power like the avalanches she described. Local boy Ryan Boudinot went all-comedic, closing out the night with an absurd piece, flawlessly delivered--wit, timing, vocal tics, bland Bob Newhart appearance, he's got it all. Musical guest Laura Veirs, being a singer-songwriter, naturally took heartbreak to be her  Personal Injury, introducing the show with two pieces that were spare, tender and hooky. (And could you be more my type Laura? Damn.)

When I chatted with Rodriguez and Tidsdale at the afterparty, they both marveled at how game and supportive the packed house had been, in contrast to the kind of skeptical, show-me audiences they often encounter. Of course, that Seattle enthusiasm is too often just a self-congratulatory haze bestowed on mediocrity. What a pleasure to be there on a night when it was earned.

Image: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780375505102.html

Whether you consider her a glorified fashion photographer, or one of our great documentarians, or both, you might be curious to hear the stories behind Annie Leibovitz's iconic photographs.

If you missed her sold-out talk at Benaroya Hall yesterday, on the occasion of her new book, Annie Leibovitz At Work, you can tune into KUOW tonight at 9 to hear the back story.

We know you have your Saturday plans covered with all the REVERBfest fun you’ll be having, but here’s a good hangover-friendly thing to do on Sunday. The Anne Bonny, that awesome junk shop/art gallery on Capitol Hill is hosting an art show of the late, Elena Steuber’s, unfinished project, Tragedy Brought Me Up. Her friends and family helped complete her vision and turned the unveiling into a party with food, cocktails, a raffle, and tons of crafts for sale. There will also be a silent auction of the art pieces with all the proceeds benefiting the Elena Steuber Memorial Fund at the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, an amazing organization Steuber loved. Drop by, it should be a fun party. The Anne Bonny, 1355 E. Olive Way, 4-9 p.m.