Here are a few more photos from the weekend on Capitol Hill through other people's lenses. I'll try to add some more shots on Monday when more 'crowd sourced' images hit the Internet. More pictures from me, here.

Try Try Try again
Originally uploaded by swooshthesnail

Julia's Block Party Capitol Hill 2-27-09 012
Originally uploaded by gomi_otaku

Mayoral Candidate Jan Drago
Originally uploaded by Essentialarity

Mr. Nude Seattle Originally
uploaded by Essentialarity

gay pride
Originally uploaded by tealeaves

Pride 2009 Random Models at Cal Anderson
Originally uploaded by Norskette

fabulous
Originally uploaded by lilphoton

The Capitol Hill Pride Festival is happening as you read this. Turn lanes are a walkway, restaurants have moved their tables onto the streets and the music and more is just getting started. It all makes way for the Dyke March later tonight.

Meanwhile, Cal Anderson Park's morning of Equalityoga attracted around 300 practitioners to the turf-covered sanctuary of Bobby Morris play field.

Friday started off Pride weekend with Bend It Extravaganza bands like The Redwood Plan rocking sunshine in Cal Anderson and party people remembering Michael Jackson on the streets of Pike/Pine:

On the safety side of things, the 911 logs for the area were mostly incident free with only a few aid response dispatches overnight.

Things were less calm elsewhere in the city including a shooting the Sodo and fights and more breaking up a large party in Greenwood last night.

Capitol Hill fun continues today with events like the Equalityoga gathering this morning (State senator Ed Murray will be there, according to this yogi), also in Cal Anderson, the Capitol Hill Pride Festival on Broadway and the Dyke March later this afternoon. Get the complete Seattle Gay News event guide to Pride here. Street closure list here.

The Redwood Plan

Seattle Gay News was kind enough to share their 2009 Pride Events Calendar with us for your downloading pleasure. As we say around here, if you print it, share it. Have a happy Pride.

Download PDF

06242007-19 Uploaded by machu picchu

The 2009 Pride parade marshals all have Capitol Hill ties, of course, but we're happy to see inked stained wretch George Bakan will be again doing his best parade wave this weekend. There's George doing his 'parade clap' back in 2007.

More about Bakan and the 2009 marshals here:

For 26 years George Bakan has been the Editor-in-Chief for Seattle Gay News. He has been overseeing the operation of the SGN weekly newspaper since 1983.

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Charlene Strong was appointed to the Washington State Human Rights Commission in January, 2009.  After the death of her partner Kate Fleming she became a tireless advocate of marriage and same-sex equality.

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Anne Melle has been on the Board since 2005. Raised in the Chicago area, she was lucky enough to give birth to two gay sons. She became involved with the LGBT community when her first son came out to her 40 years ago. In 1977 she joined Parents of Gays, a Chicago group that was part of the pioneering LGBT organization, the Mattachine Society. Several years later, Parents of Gays become one of the first PFLAG chapters in the country, and Anne was a founding member of the Chicago PFLAG chapter.

 

Though I hate it when big protests and important events are reduced to traffic reports about what street is blocked and how bad traffic is, this weekend's street activities on the Hill and just beyond are crazy enough to justify the approach. Here is Pride weekend through the prism of the Seattle Department of Transportation's street closure report:

Friday, June 27
Wildrose Gay Pride:  6 p.m. - 12 a.m. Capitol Hill - 11th Avenue from E Pike to E Union Street 1,500 expected Streets closed from 6 a.m. (Friday)  - 11:30 p.m. Sunday:  E Pike Street from Broadway to 12th Avenue and 11th Avenue from Pike to Union Street.

Saturday, June 27
Wildrose Gay Pride:  1 p.m. - 12 a.m. Capitol Hill - 11th Avenue from E Pike to E Union Street 1,500 expected Streets closed from 6 a.m. (Friday) to 11:30 p.m. Sunday:  E Pike Street from Broadway to 12th Avenue and 11th Avenue from Pike to Union Street.

PURR Pride Block Party:  1 p.m. - 2 a.m. (Sunday)  Capitol Hill 1518 11th Avenue 1,000 expected...

Some buzz from some organizers about this year's Pride being the 'serious Pride' or 'political Pride.' How about 'Green Pride'? Organizers from OUT for Sustainability are working hard to make sure this year's celebration will be a ecologically responsible one. Director Gerod Rody passes along this "Green(er) Pride Guide" to, as Rody puts it, improve "your sustainability impact at LGBTQ Pride this year."

Speaking of Cal Anderson's Orange Man, he might want to swing by Purr Cocktail Lounge on Tuesday. The lounge is celebrating Pride by teaming up with design group Kwanchai for a week of interior designs in each color of the spectrum.

We bring this promo to your attention not just because Kwanchai and Purr did a great job marketing it (they did! see below) but to also remind that Pride -- for the businesses and the celebration -- is more than this coming weekend's events.

Back to the marketing, as if the Purr color theme wasn't enough, the whole shebang is also green:

In collaboration with Barbie and the staff at PURR, KWANCHAI has developed a concept for the week that is eco-conscience with its innovative use of recycled materials.

"KWANCHAI is creating event designs that demonstrate that events can be beautiful, memorable, and friendly to the environment."  Jonathan Mathews. Our design approach is framed by an eco-minded view that we should continuously seek to capture re-usable materials . By maximizing...

Sometimes, the more audacious the plan, the more likely it is to work. Here are this plan's elements:

1. Celebrate Pride
2. Work with a community just recently torn by a debate on how and where to celebrate Pride
3. Propose shutting down Broadway for a summer Saturday
4. Add a rainbow-colored light display up and down the street
5. And do it with a barebones, grassroots organization and pretty much zero budget

The whole crazy thing moved one step closer to reality this week as the city has given its OK on #3 -- as far as the city's concerns with the event go, the Capitol Hill Pride Festival 2009 on Broadway, Sat. June 27th from 11am—4pm is a go. We told you about the planned festival last month before the Capitol Hill Community Council's meeting to determine go/no-go on the effort. The community vote at that meeting approved moving ahead with planning.

Broadway in rainbow lights? | Image: Capitol Hill Community Council

Three years ago, two groups tussled over the future of Seattle's annual Gay Pride events. This Seattle Times lays out the struggle at the time -- one group seeking to move the celebration downtown for a bigger event, the other seeking to preserve the tradition of celebrating in the heart of the city's gay community. Long story, short, the downtown celebration grew and the Capitol Hill celebration became a smaller but still vital effort.

Now, a committee of the Capitol Hill Community Council -- a group that I chair -- is considering plans for again staging a larger Pride effort on Capitol Hill.

From Seattle Gay Scene:

The Capitol Hill Community Council's Arts and Events Committee is making initial plans for a Capitol Hill Pride Festival 2009 on Saturday June 27th from 11am-4pm. The plan is to close down two blocks on Broadway between Olive and Harrison St. rather than hold it in Volunteer Park like it was two years ago.

Back in 2006, the Seattle Pride Parade moved from Capitol Hill to downtown Seattle along...

Miss the pride dyke march on Broadway today?   I didn't even know it was happening, and only figured it out because some people had set up chairs in front of the Urban Outfitters.    Thanks random strangers!

Here's some pictures in a handy-dandy Flickr Set.

We don't have a gay channel on CHS -- we're organized around geography. Besides, we wouldn't want to try to compete with Bill W.'s creation which is undergoing a makeover just in time for Pride. Gay Seattle Blogspot is now SeattleGayScene.com. Bill W. says the transition is till in process and is all about design and brand. The site mission remains the same -- as Bill W. puts it, delivering "the real meat of everything that's happening." With all the buzz around Pride Week, consider the new unveiling your online component.

The Seattle Times' "Best Place to Sink A Battleship" is kicking off Pride Weekend by having a "Traditional Hot Dog Blessing" on Friday June 26 at 10 p.m: "Join us at the BottleNeck Lounge on Friday, June 27th as we kick-off Gay Pride Weekend with a very special Happy Hour (4-7PM) followed by the Second Annual Hot Dog Blessing at 10 PM. The blessing is open to all, and heralds a weekend of free hot dogs at the BottleNeck - we'll be serving up weenies from 4-9PM on both Saturday and Sunday."

Written in the past about the need for Capitol Hill to come up with some new traditions, Pride and otherwise. Here's a new one via Q Seattle for Capitol Hill and the rest of the city -- Pridefeast:

On June 27, 2008, a new Seattle Pride® tradition begins! Thousands of people will head out to dozens of Seattle restaurants, and part of the proceeds from each restaurant will go to health and wellness non-profits in the LGBT community and will help support PrideFest at the Seattle Center.

Participating Hill restaurants include Cafe Stellina, Capitol Club, Julia's, Quinn's and tidbit -- btw, tidbit says it's celebrating all week so stop by there any night. Looks like the another dine out for charity night to add to your calendar after you eat for Darfur, AIDS/HIV and the rest. No worries. You can do a charity walk next.

The Seattle LGBT Community Center, which last year stepped forward to keep a gay Pride march and festival on Capitol Hill after the traditional sponsors moved the annual event downtown, is struggling to pay its suppliers.

The revelations cap a year that witnessed the financial troubles of Seattle Out and Proud, another gay-focused nonprofit group and the traditional sponsor of Seattle's annual Pride festivities. The group still owes the city more than $100,000 for last year's events.

it's a boy!
Originally uploaded by j0mammma.

• Pride paraded through the neighborhood with good times and pretty much no negative impact. Heck, parking wasn't even an issue. Will the parade happen again up here next year? Downtown's big crowds say probably not.
• Most-interesting Capitol Hill Pride photos
• Most-Taco-Bell-Backgrounded Capitol Hill Pride Photos
• Culinary Fool visits Cafe Presse, finds distracted servers, yummy thin layers of mustard and declares 12th Ave their favorite place for "little places."
• We haven't made it to Smith yet -- field trip to Belltown's delicious and gorgeous Tavolota, instead -- but boy do new bars with no Website generate a lot of traffic for crappy little blogs like CHS.
• BTW, we're told that Linda brought her delicious french fries with her. Forget deviled eggs --a mason jar of perfect fries is our kind of drunk food.
  
• When Seattle summer starts on July 5th, don't forget about the Miller water fountain.
• We're working on a CHS redesign so we can upgrade...