The Bremerton Beat

Photo Credit

It wasn’t just local media that turned out to watch the preening and promenading of hairy men with handlebars last weekend, but Newsweek, the prestigious national news magazine.

Click here to watch a slide show.

On a completely unrelated topic, click here to read a Gallup Poll that found Americans have more confidence in sex offenders than the news media.

Superman’s Mustache

What makes a man a man?

Is it growing a mustache? I, for one, hope not.

In any case, Bremerton will host the first ever North American Beard and Mustache Competition July 5. The first showdown of its kind in the New World.

Read the story about organizer Bruce Roe and his gravity-defying facial hair!

Peruse Bremerton’s Whisker Club Web site!

Marvel at a 32-year-old man can’t grow a proper mustache! (Actually, that’s Henry David Thoreau, but it’s close to what I would look like if I tried to grow a beard, except not as smart)

Actually, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t marvel, or ever bring it in conversation. After meeting Bruce Roe, and seeing what I’ve been missing out on, it’s a sensitive subject.

Photo: AP
Story: New York Times

Two global tragedies within the last six months show that Bremerton has become a true crossroads of the world.

And Olympic College is the nexus.

Consider this: a story about two students at Olympic College, Yan “Leo” Qian, 20, and Li Min Jing, 19, both from the Sichuan Province in China. Thousands of miles from home, they are trying to keep their minds on classes while their friends, families and neighbors are still trying to locate people missing since the ground shook and tried to reduce their cities to rubble.

Then there is Olympic College Professor Koi Tirima, a native of Kenya, who was visiting her home when the contested elections of December brought tribal violence and a breakdown of democratic institutions. While her friends, family and neighbors were hiding from mobs or trying to get their democracy back on the tracks, Tirima was trying to keep her mind on teaching English to Kitsap County residents.

I guess it’s true, there are people in Bremerton who have the weight of the world on their shoulders.

Kids have had enough lectures and eye-flitting from grown-ups.

What they need is somebody to take them fishing.

Us old folks don’t get MySpace.com, we don’t understand Hannah Montana, or how someone walks correctly with roller skates embedded in their shoes. And above all, we don’t know what it’s like to have to pass a test to prove to the government that we know how to subtract and divide.

We do know how to bait a hook. And when that nightcrawler gets wriggling, and that five-year-old’s face turns white with shock and fear, whose going to rise to the occasion?

That’s where you come in.

(That’s not even to mention what to do when a kid who has seen 1,000 dismembered bodies on television goes toe-to-toe with a flapping trout.)

This Saturday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. is the annual Kid’s Fishing Day at the city’s Forestry Division compound located at 4398 West Belfair Valley Road (Old Belfair Hwy), west of Jarstad Park.

The fishing day isn’t hosted by Hostess, or Nintendo, or Jolt Cola (am I dating myself?) or Abercrombie & Fitch thong’s for primary schoolers, but by the wholesome Kitsap Poggie Club and the city’s Public Works & Utilities Department.

Read the city’s press release here.

Rainbow trout will be there for the angling, donated by the State Department of Fish & Wildlife. The Poggies provide fishing gear for those that do not have their own, so that cuts out your best excuse, mister.

Check out photos of Fishing Days past here.

Fiddlers, finger-pickers, troubadours, musicians who don’t need to plug in to have a good time, the Bremerton Farmers Market needs you.

The market will be expanding its hours this season in response to requests from ferry riders, and is looking for a solo or ensemble to help create the mood, said market board President Tiffany Royal on Thursday.

The market season starts May 15, and takes place every Thursday through Oct. 9 from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., longer hours than in the past.

“That was a big request last year from customers,” she said.

The market will set up shop in the parking lot of Seaside Church at 1318 Park Ave, near Evergreen Park.

Musicians have been booked for the third Thursday of the month, and tentative arrangements have been made to fill the fourth Thursday, but the market needs to round out its bill.

Music to color in the background of the market experience, is what’s needed, “kind of a soft ambiance,” Royal said.

It’s possible to plug in to amps, but Royal said it wasn’t preferred. It’s not a matter of having some folkies cry out “Judas!“, but because the amplified music can bother vendors and customers and can spoil the mellow mood acoustic instruments can create.

The gig does not pay.

For more info, or to jockey for a regular Thursday spot, call Royal at (360) 621-5934.

The tip for this entry came from real estate agent Jo Soss’ blog, Blogging Bremerton. Click here for Jo’s blog.

There will also be some beer drinking and some rock n’ roll listening, as the Slaughter County Roller Vixens fake not the funk this Saturday in their third bout of their first season.

Kitsap County’s women’s roller derby league will host the battle royale at Sk8town in Port Orchard. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the bout kicks off at 6 p.m. An afterparty with live music will be held at Shooterz Pool Hall at 1750 Village Lane SE in Port Orchard. Admission is free with ticket stub from the bout.

Two bouts are on tap, according to a statement from the Vixens.

Slaughter County’s Terrormedixxx will tangle with Tacoma’s Dockyard Derby Dames’ all-star team, and Slaughter County’s Death Rattle Rollers will step up to the Oly Rollers’ Prima Donnas.

Sk8town is located at 1501 Piperberry Way SE in Port Orchard.

TICKETS

Day Of – $15 for adults, $10 for children

In Advance – $12 for adults, $7 for children

Click HERE to buy in advance.

Word.

src="http://web.kitsapsun.com/1newsroom/blogphotos/zurf.jpg"> The floating hamster wheel

One of Bremerton’s Olympians will return to town Thursday. Swimmer Tara Kirk will bring money, meet with kids and swimmers and race against the mayor.

The race will be at the Glen Jarstad Aquatic Center in the floating hamster wheels known as zurfs.

In the morning she’ll go to Crownhill Elementary. At noon she’ll meet with the Bremerton High School swim team before they leave for a competition. In the afternoon she’ll be at the high school introducing the “Chuck Haselwood Engine of Change Award, a new scholarship, part of Toyota’s national campaign.

The zurf race is a fundraiser. Anyone is invited. The price of admission is a voluntary donation to the Bremerton Schools Foundation. In addition to Kirk and Bremerton Mayor Cary Bozeman, Eric Anderson of Art Anderson & Associates will race, as will Crownhill principal Jill Carlson, BHS principal Aaron Leavell, district athletic director George Duarte and PTSA and foundation president Jonee Dubos. There may be others.

Be a Part of Kitsap’s History: The Kitsap Sun will observe the county’s sesquicentennial by compiling information on county history from residents and former residents. Share your knowledge (and historical photos) via e-mail to sunnews@kitsapsun.com, or by mail to Local News Editor, Kitsap Sun, Box 259, Bremerton, 98337. Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the return of photographs.

City Councilman Mike Shepherd is hosting a District 5 picnic on July 28, but one portion of the flyer makes you wonder if we’re not asking too much of fellow councilman Cecil McConnell.

Hotdogs and Hamburgers grilled by “Master Griller” and
City Councilor Cecil McConnell will be served as well as refreshments

If we really want to get people to retire from the council, I think term limits would be a more humane way to go.

Details about the picnic are available at the link below.

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