MEANWHILE IN BREMERTON — The Ghost of Quincy Jones comes back to haunt Quincy Square, in a good way, performing an unannounced pop-up concert, utilizing the free touch and play instruments for kids recently installed along the refurbished half city block. The instruments seemed to be playing themselves, belting out Quincy’s hits, starting with a 10-minute improvised groove on the Sanford and Son theme song to a thrilling finale with the ghost of Michael Jackson. But it’s a Tuesday afternoon before the shipyard lets out, so no one is around to hear it. Begging the question: If the Ghost of Quincy Jones comes back to play Quincy Square but no one is around to hear it, does the Ghost of Quincy Jones still make a sound?
GORST — Construction is announced for the Alan Alto Atrium on the old Navy City Metals lot in Gorst.
PORT ORCHARD — Following Kitsap Bank’s recent buy out by Heritage Bank, the group consequently abandoned plans to renovate and build a new bank branch and community center at its former Bay Street location on the Port Orchard waterfront… The city took over the property. Development proposals for the site range from condos, to a roller rink, to a homeless shelter, to the resurrection of the town’s former multiple story waterfront Silver Springs Brewery with plans to contract with the area’s largest craft brewery, Silver City, on the condition the craft brewery brew exclusively mass-produced lager. A study session and vote from city council is expected.
EAST BREMERTON — Hi-Lo’s Cafe returns, on the other side of town this time, in the old Shari’s building off Wheaton Way, serving 24 hour moon biscuits and gravy, grateful bowls and drip coffee in wacky, art-y and antique-y mugs.
POULSBO — News reaches the nation’s capital that Poulsbo city council voted to outlaw fireworks late last year. The federal government declares the quaint tourist town “Un-American,” and directs Immigration Enforcement officials to turn their attention to mass deportation of Norwegian immigrants, including descendants, even those who were born in Poulsbo. The Sons Of Norway Vikings are pissed and take up arms against federal agents in response, while Norwegian Cruise Lines plans to send empty cruise ships to Liberty Bay to pick up Norwegian immigrants and descendants before the federal government accidentally deports them to South America…
HANSVILLE — One of the world’s largest Pokemon Go digital caches is found in by a tourist group that had accidentally taken the ferry to Bremerton which brought their phones in close enough range to put the mega cache on their digital radar. The group travels by $80/uber to the very north end of North Kitsap and posts the cache on social media, turning the sleepy seaside hamlet into a global tourism destination. The local farm-to-table bakery goes viral and Hansville-based author D.D. Black signs a major book deal.
MEANWHILE… Kitsap Indigenous candidates sweep the fall county elections in unprecedented numbers, sparking record levels of not only tribal candidates but also in overall voter turnout countywide. Tribe members are elected as county auditor, among other administrative offices and one seat on the county commission, which leads to near-immediate balancing of the county’s budget shortfall, streamlining of county and city level permitting processes in support of small, local businesses and a drastic decrease in rates of local homelessness and food insecurity through a major social services overhaul initiative and a focus on the local food ecosystem through investments in local farming, fishing and pot-latching. In another immediate initiative, each of the county’s major water transportation hubs are now connected by a fleet of marine passenger vessels run by local and tribal youth, servicing the routes daily contributing to easing traffic in major thoroughfares — most notably in Gorst.
IN NATIONAL NEWS, SPOTIFY TAKES A HIT More than half-a-million accounts are canceled as residents across the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas ditch the streaming service to listen exclusively to Kitsap’s all-local internet radio station out of Kingston, The KLAM. The mass protest of the entire population of music listeners across both peninsulas brought the streaming giant’s numbers down from their self-reported 700 worldwide million listeners-per-month to more like 699 million, 400 thousand. Take that!
IN REGIONAL NEWS, SHUTTERED SEATTLE MUSIC VENUES many of whom closed their doors at the end of last year, begin looking into feasibility studies of what it would take to re-establish their venues in Kitsap, looking specifically into the old vacant Brewski’s building off Callow, Pat’s Little Red Barn in Belfair and the potential of building a new venue on the site of the old Natachas. Proponents cute demand evidenced by the Smokestack’s live music calendar, the Charleston Music Venue and long shuttered local venues Cafe Zoo, Punk Palace and Winterland, as well Endfest and Lollapalooza at the Fairgrounds in the 90s.. Meanwhile, on Kitsap Way, Brother Don’s buys the vacant building next to its current location with plans to renovate that entire space into a world-class music venue.
AND IN BIG NEWS FOR LOCAL NEWS, amidst a growing wave of philanthropy for real, local media outlets, Smokestack acquires a ridiculous amount of anonymous funding and puts in a bid to buy the old Kitsap Sun building while initiating negotiations to buy the actual newspaper back from its current corporate owners aiming to reinstate a full local staff so that the town newspaper can focus on covering the news again, while Smokestack can get back to focusing on being the red-headed, irreverent, stupid-fun, alternative weekly its always been meant to be… <3smokestack
