When the fine minds that steward the RE Store came up with an idea last year to throw a big—really big—benefit to raise money for their Community Jobs Training Program, they had no idea whether theirs was a party the public would embrace.

After all, the RE Store is in the business of building community—literally and figuratively—which doesn’t leave them with much time for party planning.

But they need not have worried. As it so often does, Bellingham exhibited a perfect…

In library school (yes, there’s such a thing, it’s a master’s program in Library and Information Science that trains professional librarians) students learn Rosenberg’s First Law of Reading: “Never apologize for your reading taste.”

So there’s no need to feel embarrassed if you occasionally (or regularly) get sucked into reading something lowbrow. Reading can be recreational, after all, and why not have fun? Crazy Rich Asians, which came out in 2013, is Kevin Kwan’s…

Last weekend, I found myself standing in a poultry barn on a small family farm on Kelly Road checking out a pair of year-old speckled Sussex hens my boyfriend and I had come to purchase.

Trust me when I say that when you’re addicted to the taste and vastly superior nutritional value of free range eggs and the simple joy that comes from watching feathered dinosaurs roam the lawn in search of grass and grubs, this is a viable way to spend a Saturday morning.

My manfriend and I…

During the late-night showing of iDiOM Theater’s 48th iteration of its popular 48-Hour Theater Festival last Friday, there was a moment I was convinced I had gone back in time.

In addition to featuring familiar faces from the theater’s 16-year history, the evening’s performances were also the first in the Sylvia Center for the Arts’ recently completed Lucas Hicks Theater. And, like me, those who frequented iDiOM’s former digs on Cornwall Avenue probably couldn’t help but notice the…

The movie is called Let the Sunshine In, but don’t think about the title. It has nothing to do with this Claire Denis film, and no one ever uses those words over the course of the movie. The French title—Un beau soleil interieur (a beautiful inner sun)—is more in the right spirit. It’s a deep and moving investigation into one woman’s inner struggle as she goes about looking for true love.

A mix of comedy and drama, Let the Sunshine In has an ironic, self-knowing quality that at…

Fair-weather bicyclists and hardcore spokespeople are likely rejoicing at upcoming weather forecasts for the region—which mostly call for sun for the foreseeable future. If the warmer temps have you looking for excuses to don a helmet and hit the road, read on.

Bike to Work and School Day is a natural fit to kick off riding season, and this year’s events taking place from 6:30-10am Fri., May 18 at a couple dozen “celebration stations” located throughout Bellingham promise to make…

Work by two prominent artists this month, Sheila Klein and Katherine Wesselman, appear very different but share a congruence in conception and execution. Each brings back something from a foreign clime, transforming it into a novel work of art—Wesselman by subtraction, Klein by accretion.

For an exhibit at the Perry and Carlson Gallery in Mount Vernon, Wesselman photoshopped images from a European trip and printed them as brisk, minimalist abstractions. Reviewers have commented that…

Could the alternative route for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline be our hometown? I know, it sounded crazy to me too when I first heard about it. But if oil behemoth Kinder Morgan has its way, that’s exactly what we’re now facing.

The City of Burnaby has applied to the Supreme Court of Canada to appeal the construction of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project after lower courts and the National Energy Board rejected its challenge. If that community and the…

It’s tulip time, and the fields are alive with the light and color of spring. The word’s out, and this spectacular time in the Skagit Valley is no longer a secret.

But Skagit still holds a lot of secrets—mist-shrouded valleys, swollen and mighty rivers, and frosty high country thick with dark pines and devil’s club. And there are the hidey holes—the hamlets sprinkled along old forgotten highways, the winding sloughs and channels of the fertile delta, and the coast beyond—dotted with islands pungent from salt and rain. There are the bars and diners and coffeehouses, the playgrounds and trails. And there are the people who fill them, hearty and happy. And though our readers revealed some of these secrets, Skagit remains a treasure undiscovered.

Entries by Tim Johnson, Amy Kepferle, Carey Ross, Stephanie Young, and Trail Rat
Photos by Jessamyn Tuttle and Andy Porter