Western Washington University Western CEDAR Klipsun Magazine Western Student Publications 6-2008 Klipsun Magazine, 2008, Volume 39, Issue 06 - June, Uniquely Bellingham Ciara O'Rourke Western Washington University Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/klipsun_magazine Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Journalism Studies Commons Recommended Citation O'Rourke, Ciara, "Klipsun Magazine, 2008, Volume 39, Issue 06 - June, Uniquely Bellingham" (2008). Klipsun Magazine. 121. https://cedar.wwu.edu/klipsun_magazine/121 This Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Western Student Publications at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in Klipsun Magazine by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNIQUELY BELLINGHAM Volume 6 Issue 39 June 2008 A profile of The Love Lights LoveAT FIRST Light Is Our Bellingham p. 6 the Best? p. 27 A Mom + Pop’s Hoppin’ Operation p.14 Nonprofit Rags to Unleash Your Seeing Coffeehouse Riches Brain Power iDog p. 4 p. 10 p. 12 p. June19 2008 1 So you think you’re pretty cool. We agree. In fact, the whole city is packed with people like you: unique, creative, and sort of weird. We’re all quirky, but together, we’re brilliant, damn it. Sure it sounds vain. But we’ve got the chops to prove it. Like an Arlington couple capitalizing on their homemade Australian outback. Or city churches funding a coffeehouse that trades treats for chores. The town is simply littered with unsung success, from local designers creating TABLE OF CONTENTS sustainable fashions, to border buffs confiscating marijuana from rotund bears. And with five fellow Bellinghams on the map, we’ve got some stiff competition (see page 27). Three Trees, One Vision Hunting with the Pride: Dear Readers by Liz Beaulieu The Love Lights Learn to Just kidding—we’re the best. Check out the following pages to see why. Roar on “Young Lions” by Taylor Scaggs Sincerely, 4 6 Ciara O’Rourke Rugged Rags Brain Games Editor in Chief by Megan Claflin by Coral Garnick EDITOR IN CHIEF Ciara O’Rourke MANAGING EDITOR Ryan White STORY EDITORS Kevin Diers 10 12 Michael Harthorne Kangaroo Crossing Spotlight Success Molly Maloney by Peter Pearsall by Kwihwa Lee, Erin Miller, Yuki Nakajima ONLINE EDITOR Nick Rohde LEAD DESIGNER Sarah Frantz 14 18 Tyler Nelson DESIGNERS Illegal Imports Songs for the Road, and Adriana Torres by Julia Waggoner Other Tales by Megan Marquett, Steven PHOTOGRAPHERS Jeff Emtman Chea and Isabelle Dills Kevin McMillon Eric Schmitz 20 22 WRITERS Liz Beaulieu Four-Part Harmony There’s No Place Like Home Steven Chea by Kassidy Vietti by Colin Simpson Megan Claflin Isabelle Dills Coral Granick Kwihwa Lee 26 27 Megan Marquett Erin Miller Yuki Nakajima Peter Pearsall Taylor Scaggs Visit our Web site for more articles + interactive features Colin Simpson http://klipsun.wwu.edu Kassidy Vietti Julia Waggoner ADVISER Stephen Howie Cover photo by Jeff Emtman // The Love Lights visit The Outback June 2008 Volume 6 Issue 39 Back cover photo by Jeff Emtman // Back cover photo illustration by Sarah Frantz 2 Klipsun Magazine June 2008 3 (left) Volunteer employees Jeannie Rozeboom, Ken Walker and Crystal Ross help customers at the Three Trees Coffeehouse located at 118 W. Holly Street. (below) Rozeboom covers the register. Story by Liz Beaulieu // Photos by Kevin McMillon Jerry Tegarden performs at open mic night. Just after 7 p.m. on Tuesday night, there are no seats left in the Three Trees Coffeehouse, and the customers keep coming. Two elderly ladies and their tiny dogs occupy a couch by the door, while a man playing chess against himself keeps watch in the corner. The tables in the small shop, usually spaced evenly along the Tuesdays and Thursdays are “chore list” days, says Don compares the atmosphere at Three Trees to Cheers, where Now he dashes between Three Trees and Starbucks—“Apples floor, are pushed together to make room for a makeshift stage Warick, co-owner of Three Trees. The homeless can come in on everyone knows your name. The baristas know the regulars and oranges,” he says. on the left. A man donning a simple blue shirt, his hair tied into those days and do the chores on the list. It gives them a sense of and often strike up conversations with strangers, and Dennehy, Warick, having finished his latte, gets up to join the a short ponytail, is singing and playing along to his guitar. ownership in the shop, he says. every time she visits. Now even Dennehy volunteers, hanging conversation at the next table, where Dennehy is telling a joke The sounds bounce off the sage green walls and the audience “I think it’s more honorable and dignifying to allow somebody up concert posters and advertising the coffee shop’s events to a duo that just walked in. He has to maneuver his chair into swells with people from the street. to work for something,” Warick says. around downtown Bellingham. the small crowd already gathered at her table. It’s Tuesday, The song is called “In the Garden,” and Mitchell Senti wrote Carrie Dennehy, a Three Trees regular, walks in at 1:15 p.m., Volunteer barista Ken Walker has worked at the Three Trees and regulars are claiming their usual spots for open mic night. it himself. Senti is the director of Envision Ministries, which minutes after Warick flips over the “closed” sign on the door. since it opened in December 2005, and performs at open mic Three Trees only seats 70, and tonight is going to be another owns the nonprofit coffee shop. He sees the Three Trees as a Setting her mammoth sketchbook beside a stack of art books, nights when the mood strikes. Senti is teaching him to play full house. ministry—a place where people of all faiths can come in, rest she orders a cup of green tea with jasmine. the guitar, and Walker plans to perform with it sometime this and seek a friendly, safe environment. Dennehy found Three Trees by accident—she wandered summer, he says. “It’s not a Christian coffee shop in that it’s only open to in on a Wednesday “discussion night” her second evening in “I sing sometimes or tell poems,” Walker says. “It depends Christians,” he says. Bellingham after leaving Massachusetts. After that, she couldn’t on how my heart feels.” Although he has been volunteering for The key is Sixteen local churches fund Three Trees to keep the stay away, and enjoys spending her nights somewhere other two and a half years, he is going to ask for a paying position coffeehouse alive. Almost all the baristas are volunteers, and than a bar. soon because he plans to attend Bellingham Technical College. encouraging people they donate their tips each month to other nonprofits in town, “I came down for another [discussion night], met a couple He hopes to stay on as an employee. Senti says. Approximately 15 to 20 volunteers spend four to people and I’ve been haunting the place ever since,” she says. Warick, one of the few paid employees of Three Trees, stands with different five hours per week each at Three Trees, he says. But it isn’t Discussion nights happen every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at out in the casual Three Trees in pressed khakis and a black polo. just a coffee shop, Senti says; Three Trees operates to help the the coffeehouse. They are open-forum style gatherings where He has just come from his other job as a barista at a Starbucks viewpoints to listen community through outreach and plain old goodwill. Volunteers regulars and visitors can discuss pretty much anything. The key in Lynden. give away two-day-old baked goods to the homeless, who can is encouraging people with different viewpoints to listen to each Warick met Senti when they both worked at The Lynden to each other and complete chores like scrubbing dishes and sweeping for coffee, other and talk respectfully. Bookshop (now Katz! Coffee & Used Books). Senti and his wife he says. Dennehy, who moonlights as a painter and photographer, decided to start Three Trees, and Warick said he wanted to help. talk respectfully. 4 Klipsun Magazine June 2008 5 Fresh off the release of their second full-length album, “Young Recording the band’s first full-length “Problems and Solutions” Lions,” a chance stint with Seattle music legends The Presidents in 2006 was a lengthy feat: songs that were already recorded of the United States of America and loads of ambitious side in the studio were overdubbed with horns and drums as each projects, ventures and careers, The Love Lights are shining respective member joined the band. The tracks struggled to fit brightly in the crowded Bellingham music scene. together but their grooving sound was undeniable catchy and a “When we were first getting into the scene people wouldn’t promising preface for the band’s future. give us the time of day,” says Rob Stauffer, the band’s soft- “That record never felt settled because we never got the spoken guitarist and lead vocalist, reflecting on a time when the chance to play the songs as a group,” Ben says. “Listening back, band was comprised of only himself, fellow guitarist Ben Ballew it sounds like we’re still feeling our ways around each other and and bassist brother Jeff Ballew, backed by drum beats from an the songs, which we were.” iPod. “Pop music, get out of here.” The Love Lights were back in the studio again last spring, After struggling to find anyone in town he enjoyed playing this time to record their second full-length “Young Lions,” with, Ben had placed a want ad hoping to attract a like-minded named for Art Kane’s 1958 photo “A Great Day in Harlem” and musician.