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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.
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.
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Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
YOUR VOTE MATTERS Everyone has a favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or local boutique. Call me old-school, but I will die on the hill that Caffe Vita has the best coffee in town. Disagree with me? Now’s your moment to speak up. Each year, we survey Seattle magazine readers, asking them to weigh in on everything…
Studio Sessions: Ling Chun
The Seattle-based artist brings playful color to ceramics and neon while exploring memory, transformation, and life between cultures.
For Ling Chun, creating begins with something sensed before it can be named. Working with clay, glass, light, and sometimes synthetic hair, the Hong Kong-born artist gives physical form to things that words cannot always hold. “For me, the magnitude of making goes far beyond the object that is eventually produced,” Chun says. “The object…
The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever
PAX West draws more than 100,000 people to Seattle each year. Co-founder Jerry Holkins reflects on what the gaming convention set out to change, how its community has grown and why gathering face to face still matters.
Access to game news as it was happening was difficult back in the day. Even with the advent of the internet, communication between game publishers and journalists was still a very elite affair. I used to fake credentials—via fax machine!—to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, mostly just known as E3. It was simultaneously as loud…
Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026
Navigate Seattle’s wildest end-of-summer weekend with 20 picks spanning Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Orange, wrestling, skateboarding and—obviously—movies made in 48 hours.
Four years after Bumbershoot returned with its quirkiness revivified, Seattleites broadly acknowledge the two-day multimedia extravaganza as a welcome finale to the summer festival season. Fests like Bumbershoot are designed around a choose-your-own-adventure model, but if you’re the kind of person who looked at this year’s sprawling lineup—featuring multiple bands, artists, and exhibits happening at…