Belltown Messenger - FRONT PAGE FODDER

The Dec. 17 Post-Intelligencer front page mentioned Belltown's newest celebrity part-time resident, South Park mastermind Trey Parker. The article, from the Bloomberg News syndicate, noted that Parker, 36, bought an $850,000 two-bedroom condo last year, one of eight properties he now owns in various places. It also noted that "about 3,000 condominiums and apartments are either being built or are seeking a permit to begin construction in downtown neighborhoods," and that in the 12 months through Sept. 30, the average price for downtown condos here rose 45 percent to "a record $453,712." Writer Choy Leng Yeong also mentioned that Parker's new neighborhood's awash with fancy restaurants, but failed to mention whether any of them would soon start serving Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls.

When South Park began, eight years and 137 episodes ago, no Seattle cable system carried it. Many locals received their first exposure to the animated antics of Stan, Kyle, and company during weekly viewing parties in the old back room of Shorty's Coney Island on Second Avenue, which received Comedy Central's east-coast feed from the DirecTV satellite. (The same P-I front page also included a progress report on the Olympic Sculpture Park, describing its New York designers as intending "a reconstituted sliver of Old Denny Hill, which was one of Seattle's original seven hills before it was hosed into the bay nearly a century ago."

Club Venom is scheduled to open Dec. 30 in the revamped former Medusa space, 2218 Western Avenue. Clubbers will be swallowed inside the cavernous glass entry tunnel and cleansed as they emerge from the street to coat check. The futuristic, evocative nightclub designed by local commercial architect Hal Tangen and under the same ownership as the local Cowgirls Inc. franchise offersblack and dark gray (with tan) as the colors of the minute. Metal mingles with wood, and lounge areas are built with low-backed booth. The 5,000 square foot full-service club boasts a central DJ capsule to kick-out danceable top 40 hits and old-school cuts, from a 30,000-watt sound system. Two wall projection areas and a cryogenix system add to the fantasia (hink Glamazon meets The Matrix).

Is your New Year's resolution to get out more (but drink less)? Why not start on Jan. 6. That's the next installment of Belltown's First Fridays, the neighborhood art walk including Vain, Roq La Rue, Velocity Art and Design, V Gallery, Alchemy Collections, Ian, Urchin, TBC, DWR, Tune Hi-Fi, See Sound Lounge, Fancy, Schmancy, and Pants. Always different, this "choose your own adventure" transports visitors to different states and styles, all within walking distance.

The Belltown restaurant scene evolved again in Devember with the sudden closures of Alexandria's Upscale Southern Cuisine on Second and the branch of the Torero Mexican chain on First. Another place, the Biofournil French bakery at Fourth and Wall, rechristened itself "Boulangerie Nantaise" with a reopening party on Dec. 8. The name refers to Nantes, the French city where Biofournil (a chain of organic bakeries) is headquartered.
-ML and CH

A BELLTOWN MANIFESTO
24. Everything in moderation, including moderation.