Yr. humble scribe attended two private events in Belltown on Tuesday.

In the morning, the Escala condo project (Seattle’s last still-under-construction residential highrise) held a “topping off” ceremony on its roof, 31 floors above Fourth Avenue. A city official was there to praise the project as a key component in Mayor Nickels’s “center city strategy.” (Since when did we start calling our downtown “center city” anyway? Sounds like Norm Rice’s failed attempt to rebrand the waterfront as a “harborfront.”)

The ceremony was followed by a champagne toast down in the project’s sales office nearby. Two scale models of the finished building showed it as a shining beacon of quality living. A chart on one wall listed one third of the project’s 270-some units as sold. Another third are currently available. The rest are on hold, withdrawn from the market pending an upturn in conditions.

The second big event came that evening at the Crocodile. It was an invite-only bash honoring the 50th birthday of Kim Warnick, the legendary Fastbacks/Visqueen singer-bassist. The joint was packed with folks who’ve loved Warnick and her work. An all-star lineup of Seattle musicians paid tribute to her on stage.

Here’s the climactic moment of the evening, with Warnick joining in with her ol’ band members Kurt Bloch, Lulu Gargiulo, and Mike Musburger.

And here are more musical moments from the evening.

The contrast between that scene and the Escala fete reminded me of what Jonathan Raban said about NYC as a city of “street people” and “sky people.”

In his definition, “street people” weren’t just those who lived ON the streets but also those who walk and converse and meet friends on the sidewalks, who live in the street-level milieu of bars and shops and cafes.

The “sky people” of NY are those for whom, as Fran Lebowitz described it, “outside” is what’s in between the building you’re in and the building you’re going to. Sky people live in the rarified air of high rises, have household staffs to shop for them, and socialize at private clubs and exclusive bistros. The Escala will have a private club, the first new one in town in 20 years (I believe since the Columbia Tower Club).

Times have been tough for street-level citizens for several years.

Now, they’re becoming tough for sky people as well.

The thing is, we who live close to the ground know how to survive. And to have a helluva good time while doing so.

…if you have a perversely cynical definition of “fun.” As more and more homeowners face foreclosure, condo and townhome homeowner associations could go bust. The result could be a “death spiral” of collapsing home values.

French photographer Eric Tabuchi offers haunting, lonesome images of “Twenty-Six Abandoned Gasoline Stations.”

ICELANDIC WRITER Iris Erlingsdottir, meanwhile, wishes to remind you that merely having a female leader won’t, by itself, save her speculator-trashed country: “Estrogen Will Not Cure Greed and Stupidity.”

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS wants you to “Save the Words.” Simply mouse over the obscure word of your choice (the words will shout out “pick me” and “no, me”), learn its definition, and promise to use it in daily speech.

…at ungodly predawn hours this past month, schleppin’ to a suburban temp job. Writing hasn’t been among my biggest compulsions upon arriving home. Sorry.

There are still things worth mentioning, to be sure:

• 
  ANDY’S DINER IS SAVED! Well, at least the historic building on Fourth Avenue South, assembled from vintage railroad cars. It now houses a Chinese restaurant, bearing the appropriate title of Orient Express.
• 
  OUR PAL DAVID NEIWERT has done his own Sarah Palin research, direct from Alaska. It confirms just about the worst you’ve heard about her.
• 
  I’VE BEEN SILENT about other election stuff, but someone else has handily provided a Sensible Guide to Voting in Washington.
• 
  A FOOD DELIVERY TRUCK tipped over on a Tacoma highway, spilling 45,000 pounds of chocolate, ice cream, deli meats, and hot dogs. Mmm, the four great tastes that taste great together.

…of Washington Mutual Bank’s sale to JPMorgan Chase, another local end-of-an-era moment has received less attention. It’s the closure of the Rite Aid Pharmacy at Fourth and Pike in downtown Seattle, on the ground floor of the Joshua Green Building.

The store first opened in 1947 as the original location of Pay ‘n Save Drugs, founded by local businessman/philanthropist Monte Bean. Pay ‘n Save eventually grew to some 150 stores in five states; while the Bean family’s “Family of Stores” grew to encompass Ernst Hardware, Lamonts Apparel, Schuck’s Auto Supply and more.

Pay ‘n Save Corp. was taken over by New York investors in 1984. Nine years and two buyouts later, the remaining Pay ‘n Save locations became Payless Drug branches. Five years after that, Rite Aid acquired them.

Through all these changes, and while downtown’s fortunes ebbed and flowed, the Fourth and Pike store survived and thrived.

This summer, the Green Building’s owners announced a massive remodeling. The changes included the displacement of its other street-level tenant, Carroll’s Jewelers.

Rite Aid management still hoped to get a lease renewal. The store received its requisite stock of Halloween candy and costumes.

But the building’s owners decided in mid-September to divide the space into several smaller storefronts. Rite Aid’s pharmacy counter immediately closed Sept. 16; prescriptions were transferred to its Belltown store. The store’s other merchandise is being liquidated through October or until it’s all gone.

…I documented local sign structures that no longer bore any messages. Now, it seems there’s a whole Signifying Nothing city. It seems the city leaders of Sao Paolo, tired of their burg being ignored by the world in favor of the smaller but prettier Rio, took the bold step of banning billboards and most other outdoor advertising signs. They called it a move against visual pollution.

Of course, a city without advertising is still the same city, just a little less dressed. In this case, it’s a huge city with some stunning skyscrapers and civic monuments, but also a lot of non-cosmetic civic problems, many arising from an exploding population and poor urban planning.

Kress IGA, that is, as of 7 a.m. this morning. I’m happy.

The Kress IGA Supermarket should finally open sometime this week. The pre-opening VIP gala occurred Monday evening.
(Yes, you may ask why I photographed this event, but didn’t try to get into many SIFF-related parties and didn’t photograph the one I was at. I won’t answer, but you can ask.)
At the gala, the store’s many local suppliers (particularly in the deli and to-go-meals section) showed off their products. Reps from the city and the Downtown Seattle Association were on hand to wish the store and its Whidbey Island-based owners well.
I think it’ll succeed, even though it’s opening at a time when retailers in general are facing rough seas, and even though it’s in a basement, and even though it has no dedicated parking, and even though independently-owned groceries have taken a dive in this state (concurrent with the decline and fall of the Associated Grocers co-op).

The place just feels right. It’s not gargantuan (without the prepared-meals section, it’s about the size of an old ’60s-era supermarket), yet it’s got a complete selection. Prices are at least competitive with those at the big chains. (IGA is a member-owned franchise operation, whose presence in Washington has ebbed and flowed over the decades.)

Even the deli part, which is obviously intended as the store’s main profit center, serves up a lot of honest grub at honest prices. (Though I don’t understand why there’s a whole olive bar. But perhaps I’m not hep to the whole olive revival thang.)

The City of Seattle might build a new jail on the current Aurora Avenue site of the beloved Puetz Golf driving range.

…your Starbuckless evening. Now on to a new day!:

• Did you know Seattle’s got a waterfront maritime museum? Well, you better see it now, while you still can.
• Seattle U to students: We wanna become the undisputed top private college in the region. To do that, your tuition’s going up.
• A local politician is heeding the siren call for capital-C Change. It’s Republican Dino Rossi.
• Real headline: “Seattle home prices up a tad in Q4, says report.” I’ve been around the Seattle music scene too long to think of “a Tad” as something small.
• Jus’ for fun, let’s take a look at who’d like to buy the Seattle City Council.
• Urban townhomes: Could they possibly look any less dorky?
• Did a honeymooning hubby really invite two strippers to his and his bride’s hotel room, or was it all, as hubby now claims, an unsolicited break-in?
• The European Union’s fined Microsoft $1.3 billion. To put it into perspective, that’s enough to pay Bill Gates’s household expenses for almost a day.

…couple-O-daze for yr. o’b’d’n’t web-scribe. I did a marathon temp gig in exotic Renton. (It’s now ended.) I was there, methodically shoving pieces of paper through a machine, when my Evening Magazine segment aired. (They’d promised they’d tell me when it would run; damn.) You may be able to see it at this link.

Other things have happened as well.

• Wednesday started locally with P-I political writer Joel Connelly grousing that John McCain’s been getting a free ride from the mainstream media. The day ended with the NY Times regurgitating rumors that McCain allegedly had an affair, eight years ago, with a woman far younger than he, who worked as a lobbyist for telecom firms and broadcasters—including for Bud Paxson, of the “family friendly” Pax (now Ion) network. (Pax, you may recall, in 2004 was the chief TV conduit for the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” the guys who were paid big bucks to tell lies about John Kerry’s Vietnam service.)Personally, I don’t care about his past affairs, just as I didn’t care about those of Bill Clinton (whose impeachment McCain supported). But I do care about the other half of the NYT allegations, that he’d bestowed legislative favors upon Paxson and other friends-of-friends whilst promoting himself as Mr. Let’s-Clean-Up-Government.
• In good, potentially great news, the Seattle Landmark Preservation Board decided to pursue saving Ballard’s beloved Manning’s/Denny’s building! And somebody’s already proposed a scheme to save the building, as a restaurant, while building complementary-looking housing on its parking lot.
• Discover U, the longstanding for-profit offerer of reasonably priced self-help classes and group events, has suddenly shut its doors. Now, where will Seattleites learn how to cleanse their colons, find love at any age, or start an eBay business?
• HD DVD, RIP.

• “Skitch”: Once, it was the name of Johnny Carson’s first bandleader. Now, it’s a dangerous X-treme sports stunt.
• The historic building that houses HistoryLink is getting upscaled, beyond the fiscal reach of many of its current tenants.
• One group’s plan to help solve the debate over a new 520 bridge: Put an on-ramp where the Museum of History and Industry is now.
• The NY Times discovers one small slice of Boeing’s employee-club culture. Wait ’til they discover the Boeing employees’ psychic fair…
• Now available to the future-conscious who’ll become part of the past: “Eco-friendly burial options.”

…there’s gonna be a segment about folks trying to save the Ballard Denny’s/Manning’s building, and why it should be saved.

…anxiously awaits the long-threatened but still nonexistent Snowstorm ’08, here’s what else has been going on:

• That plan to restore the boarded-up, aluminum-clad windows at the King County Courthouse? Not gonna happen.
• That plan to channel state money for a Husky Stadium remodel? Not dead yet.
• Seattle’s finally getting a new strip club; sure enough, it’s situated right alongside the unofficially-named South Lake Union Trolley.
• The many human services groups based at First United Methodist Church are packin’ up and movin’ out. The last church service at the classic sanctuary: Easter, 3/23. That building’s being saved for commercial use, but the ’50s-era annex building’s going away.
• There’s good news for music lovers: Capitol Music, the city’s top vendor of orchestral instruments and sheet music for more than 90 years, has reopened in Roosevelt, a year after development consumed its last downtown location.
• Caucus or primary? Wash. state’s got both.

And these are among the stories you might discuss at work, on the bus, or in chatrooms:

• A “person of interest” is in custody in the New Year’s Eve stabbing on Capitol Hill.
• A stage musical based on the Shrek movies premieres in Seattle this fall. As you all remember, the plot of the first Shrek film involved an egomaniacal feudal lord who wanted to banish from his realm anything funky, funny, strange, or otherwise less than upscale. Seattle will be a perfect place to retell this. Speaking of which…
• Will any arts groups be left at the Capitol Hill Odd Fellows hall after the new landlord’s done raising the rents?
• Bush decreed the Navy doesn’t have to follow environmental regulations; allowing sonar transmissions no matter what they do to whales. Remember: The military is here to protect.
• The SeaTimes points with pride to a volunteer patrol that’s helping drive the hookers away from Aurora Avenue. Of course, without the hookers, all Aurora has to offer is the Beth’s Cafe 12-egg omelet.
• Reversing past trends, the developers of a partially-built condo project in Lower Queen Anne will instead convert the building to rentals.
• The Seattle Monorail Project will soon settle its affairs and shut down; while vague plans for an Eastside commuter rail line begin to take shape.
• The revised date on a city hearing to discuss preserving the endangered Manning’s/Denny’s building in Ballard: Feb. 20.
• State Sen. Eric Oemig, D-Kirkland, would like the Legislature to go on record supporting Bush’s impeachment.
• Not so painless: The anesthesiology staff at Northwest Hospital asked for a pay raise. Instead, the hospital’s CEO fired them all.