Rock Out With Your FREE BABYCAKE Out...tomorrow in Ballard.

That's right party people! ReverbFest, Seattle Weekly's local music extravaganza is taking over Ye Olde Ballard as it does every October, and we can't wait! This year's line-up includes Erik Blood, Final Spins, KHV, The Maldives, Fatal Lucciauno, Visqueen, and many more. These local rockers will be taking the stage at all the Ballard hot spots, like the Sunset, the Tractor, and Conor Byrne, for a neighborhood-wide day of musical awesomeness.

Click HERE for all the details, including show times and locations. Click HERE to download a song from all 64 performers.

KILL-ER.

But wait! The neighborly funtimes do not stop at the venue doors! Ballard is spreading the love all OVER this weekend. How does a free babycake to wash down your coffee sound? Or how about $2 of a new album at our superfriends' Sonic Boom? Well it can all be yours. A bunch of Ballard businesses are offering free stuff and sweet deals this weekend if you show up wearing your Reverb wristband. Walk in rockin' that wristband at Cupcake Royale, and we'll hook you up with a free babycake with any coffee. Stroll on next door to Asher Anson, and get yourself lookin' good, for %10 off. And then mozy on across the street for $2 of a new album at Sonic Boom.

And the timing could not be more perfect. For you, that is. Why, you ask? Because as of yesterday, WE HAVE HARVEST FEST BABYCAKES! That means you can use your fancy wristband magic to get yourself a tiny taste of Caramel Apple or Pumpkin Maple... on the house.

Contain yourselves.

See you tomorrow.

And the award goes to...Jody Hall!

Photo taken with my iPhone.

This morning at the Swedish Cultural Center on Dexter, some of the city's best gathered to acknowledge the progress our community has made over the past year to make this state, and this country, a better place for everyone. Washington CAN! hosted its Annual Social Justice Breakfast bright and early for those who could crawl outta bed on this all too autumnal morning, and boy are we glad we did. Our very own Jody Hall was honored with the Deana Knutsen Grassroots Leadership Award! Along with three other amazing, community-minded individuals who've been doin' it up big for the people over the past year, Jody was recognized for her hard work on health care reform. We could not be more proud, nor more honored to share the room with such an incredible group of folks.

Big thanks to Washington CAN's Joshua Welter, for all of his hard work and coaching over the last year and a half. Jody couldn't have done it without him!

And a huge shout out to superfriend Molly Moon! Thanks to her for all of her work for health care reform for small businesses, and for sponsoring this wonderful event.

Sure does our little cupcake hearts a WHOLE lotta good to start the day out in company like that.

Go Jody go!

Don't stop now, people. This is a fight we can win, as long as we keep fighting. Health care for ALL!

Bridge Talks Back. Join the Convo.

Hold onto one of these, and it can be yours forever. (Image lifted from the Bridge Report.)

Yeah. We said convo. Because sometimes there just isn't time to write out an entire word. And then sometimes, there's time to write out all kinds of words. On signs. And then parade them around the Fremont Bridge. Who wants in?!

In case you haven't heard, Bridge Talks Back is the result of artist Kristen Ramirez's summer long residency at the Fremont Bridge. Thanks to the City of Seattle's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, along with SDOT's 1% for the Arts Fund, Ramirez has spent the summer in the Northeast Tower collecting sounds, ideas, memories, thoughts, and associations that will all come together as a 6 month sound installation piece, and will launch with a public art happening on Saturday, September 26th.

That's where you come in.

Ramirez is looking for volunteers to hold hand-painted signs, colored with the collected phrases and ideas that define the bridge, as part of the celebration from 1-4 on September 26th. Show up at noon to check in, and then spend the next few hours of your life as part of a super awesome piece of public art. You. A piece of art. And if that weren't enough, (Seriously? How could that not be enough?) you get to keep your one-of-a-kind, hand-painted, Fremont Bridge-inspired sign, PLUS you get a really rad tee shirt that will probably make people insanely jealous of you and your accomplishments for years to come.

So, here's what you do: Email Kristen Ramirez (ktramirez@hotmail.com) with your name and contact info, and let her know you wanna be a part of something big, namely, Bridge Talks Back on September 26th. Then show up for the orientation tomorrow at 6 pm in the meeting room at the Fremont branch of the Seattle Public Library. If you can't make the orientation but still want to be a part of the arty funtimes, email her anyway.

For more info on the project, click HERE.

And stay tuned for Ramirez's October show at superfriend & neighbor Grey Gallery and Lounge over on Ye Olde Capitol Hill.

Candidate Survivor: Voting with your thumbs!

You may have noticed that we at Cupcake Royale are superfans of the awesome squad known as Washington Bus. What's not to love? Politics, youth, jokes, rap songs, a killer blog, and cool events. The cool event du jour...Candidate Survivor.

What is Candidate Survivor, you ask? Well, it is only "the biggest, best, and possibly sexiest candidate forum of the year." Ooo, that sounds hot. You do not wanna miss that. You, yes YOU, get to vote (via mobile phone) your least favorite city council and city attorney candidates off stage, and you get to support the ones you like. Win win!

It's FREE.
It's all ages.
And there's a bar (w/ID)

TUESDAY JULY 28th | 7-9PM | SHOWBOX AT THE MARKET | 1426 1st AVE

Go. Practice flexing those super sexy voting muscles (in this case, apparently, your thumbs) as primary time approaches.

For more info, check out Hella Bus, one of our most favorite things to read when we're supposed to be designing sassy new cupcake paraphernalia. Kidding! Sorta...

What You're Doing Tomorrow Night

If you think you have a better idea than sitting out on the lawn at Cal Anderson eating strawberry cupcakes and watching Little Darlings as dusk settles in on Capitol Hill tomorrow evening, we'd beg to differ. Our superfriends and Capitol hill neighbors-to-be over at 3 Dollar Bill Cinema have one sweet evening lined up for you via Outdoor Cinema.

Tomorrow night's film is Little Darlings, starring none other than the adorably 80s Tatum O'Neal, Kristy McNichol, Matt Dillon, and Cynthia Nixon.


Sweet AND sassy. Now you KNOW we like it like that.


What, you don't know who Three Dollar Bill Cinema is? Crikey! They're only the queer film cool kids behind the annual Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Cineoke, Translations: The Seattle Transgender Film Festival, and now...Outdoor Cinema at Cal Anderson Park.

We love everything they do, but we are psyched as all get out about Outdoor Cinema: I Want My 1980. Yeah. That's right. In their words:

"This year’s slate of fun and campy films all come from 1980, the premiere year of the decade that made sexual power plays, alien encounters, and shameless success all the rage."

Sounds good to us! The only thing that could make it better...hmm...CUPCAKES! So, we're donating a bunch of cupcakes to each screening. Buy them, eat them, love them, and all the monies go to support the yearlong programming over at Three Dollar Bill Cinema! Win win!

FRIDAY | JULY 17 | Cal Anderson Park | Dusk

Run for Your Rights & Away We Go!

Saturday. Greenlake. Run. Or walk. Just be there.

This Saturday, a whole bunch of organizations we love and a writer we think is hilarious are getting together to make it pretty much the best Saturday ever.

First things first: You are not too late to register for NARAL's Run For Your Rights! You can still get signed up online, and for those of you with serious commitment issues, you can actually wait right up until the last minute and register on site on Saturday. Be there by 11 to get signed in, and get ready to run at noon.

We can think of no better reason to run, walk, or straight up skip around Greenlake than for NARAL. We're already planning for next year's Chocolate for Choice...where we have been named Best Baker 2 years in a row...Just sayin'.

After that:



Two more of our most favorite awesome squads are putting on a killer event at the Harvard Exit. Our superfriends over at the Northwest Film Forum are sponsoring a fundraiser for 826 Seattle at 4:30 pm. In case you haven't heard, Dave Eggers is trying his hand at screenwriting, and we have a feeling he's gonna be pretty, pretty, pretty good at it. Come on out for a sneak peek of his new film Away We Go, starring none other than John Krasinski (Jim of the Office) and Maya Rudolph (formerly of SNL).

In case you were not convinced already...DAVE EGGERS IS GOING TO BE THERE. Yep.

Get tickets HERE.

See you there.

Oh yeah, and then come on in and celebrate a Saturday well-spent with a cupcake 'n' coffee!

Local Arts Twofer!

Apparently, Local Arts Twofer! is a regular thing now, because it just keeps happening. And we just keep lovin' it. So much.

This week's Local Arts Twofer! is a double whammy, if whammies were good, and double meant infinite. The rules have changed a little, though. Whereas before the term "twofer" was used to point out the fact that two super cool arty things were goin' down in the same time and space, this time around they're same time...different space...which makes things a little interesting. However, one runs longer than the other, so you can do this people. We believe in you.

THURSDAY | APRIL 30 | SEATTLE, USA

FIRST

Go to the Harvard Exit and check out the results of the great Seattle film race that went down last weekend. Filmmakers were asked to complete a project in 24 hours with these two additional parameters:

THEME: Superstitious SURPRISE ELEMENT: Action: Swallowing a Pill

To top it all off (this is where the good whammies start getting infinite) Cupcakes for Health Care cohort Joshua Welter of Washington CAN! had a hand in the film "Meeting Miss Fortune." Yes. Yes. Yes. Tickets are $9 and the program runs from 7-9:30.

SECOND

Leave the Harvard Exit and hurry on over to Ballard for the "Bad Ideas" Northwest Designers Zine Release Party and Poster Show at Society Co. Here comes the infinity part again...not only is Society Co. our neighbor and superfriend, but our very own Darin Shuler has work featured in the show.

It's almost too much awesome. But its probably just enough, so tomorrow night, get on out and be in it!