Open Studios at Toshiro Kaplan Artists Lofts
Tashiro Kaplan Artists Lofts opened in June of 2004 to provide 50 units of affordable housing and work space for artists and their families, and commercial space for arts organizations and arts-related businesses. Located at 15 Prefontaine Place South in downtown Seattle, they hosted a one year anniversary open studios event on Saturday, October 15, 2005. The majority of art studios throughout the building were open from 4-8 pm. I was impressed by the studios of Alicia Berger, Jaq Chartier, Keven Furiya, and Dirk Park. The whole effect of seeing this place could be entitled Lifestyles of the Art & almost famous". There were plenty of intrepid art goers, and what was so unique to art events in Seattle was the explosion of children running around the joint. If TK could be replicated four or five times more in downtown Seattle then we would be getting back to the era of the Shoe Building.

The Stranger's Third Annual Genius Awards at the Seattle Art Museum
Contrary to what the weekly newspaper claims, the $5,000 grant is not the largest award given to artists in the state of Washington. The SAM administered Betty Bowen Award and the Behnke Foundation Neddy Award are more that twice the size with Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship awards of $6,000 given annually to practicing professional artists of exceptional talent and demonstrated ability. The Awards Ceremony was downtown at SAM with a VIP hipster gathering at 7 and open to the proles at 9. Not being a VIP hipster, I went to congratulate SuttonCullerBeres, this year Visual Art's Genius Award winners. After seeing the trio, [and their parents], I was driven out of the museum by the extremely awful music by the first band who I hope will be breaking up soon. Any band who is not professional enough to monitor their own bass, should be consigned to the fiery depths of hell, stuck in an elevator with musak blaring into their tone deaf ears and forced to atone for inflicting aural pain on their audience. The Genius Awards themselves will help all of the winners advance their ambitious projects in the near future.

Sh!tstorm II Welcome to Hooterville: A Nice Place to Live and Work?"
The second session of Sh!tstorm was held on Tuesday, October 18th in the Jewel Box Theater at the Rendezvous. Four new people in Seattle non-profit management scene were introduced to the cantankerous Seattle Community by the Venerable Council. I arrived early, so that I could find seating since I had to squat for two hours at the first event. Joining me to witness the events was Seattle's #1 art blogger Carolyn Zick of DangerousChunky fame. By agreeing to the Oath of NO ATTRIBUTION, I won't say who the four new people are. Guess what? They all have Theater backgrounds! Sentiments like "if I had a choice between paying people a living wage or producing the work, I would produce the work" I wondered why this hypothesis was an acceptable scenario. If you cannot do both you should leave town. As usual, the theatricals were in fine form although a bit more subdued than the first session. A conscious effort was made by the theatricals not to presume to speak for the Visual Artists. My main observation to the theatre types is LEARN TO LISTEN!!! In the end the session proved to be entertaining and informative.
That was the week that was in Seattle