The Quirky Stories and Characters That Took Our Minds Off the Mayhem in 2017
This year’s "shiny things" were a welcomed respite from the news cycle.
By Caroline Craighead December 1, 2017
This article originally appeared in the December 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.
Check out the rest of our 2017 Year in Review package.
Poses like “downward-facing goat” were routine at the various goat yoga classes in the area, incorporating goats into a playful practice for yogis of all ages.
The world’s largest rubber duck, Mama Duck, made a splash into the Thea Foss Waterway for Tacoma’s Festival of Sail in June. Owned by Minnesota-based Draw Events, the oversize tub toy stands six stories tall and had no problem posing for pictures.
Sheridan Martin, a design technologist at Amazon, used her talent to create the Amazon Sphere dress, a frock made of fabric, cardstock and wood, inspired by the geodesic architecture of the new Amazon Spheres buildings.
Livestreams from Woodland Park Zoo broadcast views of tiger, bear and bat exhibits, along with the popular Giraffe Cam, offering viewers a glimpse of mama giraffe Tufani’s new baby, Lulu.
Funko, the Everett-based retailer of Pop! and other licensed action figures and collectibles, opened its first brick-and-mortar store, which is filled with life-size statues, theme rooms and 17,000 square feet of merchandise, including figures such as Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks and Clerks’ Kevin Smith, who visited on opening day and said, “You’re nobody unless you’ve been popped.”
We can’t get enough Seattle pet-stagrams, such as that for French bulldog Sir Charles Barklay (@barklaysircharles; 481,000 followers and counting), who explores the city in Seahawks gear and loves to take it easy.
Oh, and maybe you heard? Russell Wilson and Ciara had a baby, a little girl they named Sienna Princess, a fitting name for a royal Seattle couple.
Follow Us
Ferry Tales: Eight Indie Bookstores Worth the Ride
Plan a summer day around these bookshops in Seattle, Bremerton, Bainbridge Island, Kingston, and Poulsbo.
Independent bookstores tend to be cornerstones of the communities in which they reside, and Seattle is no exception. In addition to helping customers discover their next read, these neighborhood hubs host weekly gatherings and events, like publication release parties, author talks, and book clubs. Many of them have cafés and reading tables that encourage lingering…
Rearview Mirror: Seattle Art Fair is Back, Nordstrom Throws a Block Party, and a Must-Try Ice Cream Sundae
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
SEATTLE ART FAIR RETURNS The buzziest event of the summer (well, aside from the World Cup), is returning next week. Now in its 10th edition, the Seattle Art Fair will once again take over the Lumen Field Event Center, packing it to the gills with art from 101 local, national, and international galleries. This year,…
Studio Sessions: Jennifer Leigh Harrison
Seattle artist Jennifer Leigh Harrison uses layers of paint and abstraction to explore what we carry beneath the surface.
Jennifer Leigh Harrison’s paintings are dense with movement. Color and texture gather into mosaic-like fields, as if they have been fractured and reformed. There are places in the work where a frenetic buzz seems trapped between the canvas and the first layer of paint. That energy runs through Patterns of Belonging, her current exhibition at…
ENHYPEN’s Jay Has K-Pop Stardom and a Seattle Heart
The Federal Way-raised singer talks hometown memories, Ivar’s clam chowder, and how it feels to perform in the place he grew up.
Long before he was performing in sold-out arenas around the world and representing brands like Prada, ENHYPEN’s Jay called the Puget Sound region home. Born Jay Park (not to be confused with the other famous K-pop star of the same name, who is also from Seattle) in Seattle and raised in nearby Federal Way before…