August is the perfect month to see outdoor concerts and KEXP is sponsoring 4 evenings full of free music. The Mural at Seattle Center is the spot every friday this month from 6-8pm. Tonight August 6th features music by Elliott Brood, Grand Hallway, & Gabriel Mintz. Bring a blanket and come early to get a good spot.

The rolling carnival called Tour de Fat is returning to Seattle this Saturday at Gas Works park. This year’s event features a costumed bike parade for kids and adults, live performances and music, a car-for-bike swap, beer garden and food vendors. And all this wacky fun benefits the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and Bike Works. Dress up your bike and get your costume ready!

Mightypop is back from a much needed vacation and ready to hit the Seattle Square this saturday. Local DJ’s will be spinning the soundtrack while you shop for vintage housewares, local designed clothing and get some fantastic chow from mobile food vendors like Skillet. It’s going on in Occidental Park inbetween 11-5am, be there!

The first time I saw a Mr. Frotheringham illustration was on the cover of Mudhoney’s “Piece Of Cake” CD in 1992. I imagined Ed having a half broken, leaky pen that gave him his beautiful thick/thin line quality. His work inspired me to experiment with pen and ink more as well as color blocking. Fast forward to today and Ed is still working in Seattle for big clients like the New Yorker, Washington Post, Men’s Journal, Scholastic and many others. If it says “Mr. Frotheringham”, you know it’s quality!

My friend Jenn is launching a new clothing company called Vertical Girl soon & I just received her promo catalog. The line is inspired and created from her passion for climbing as well as the need for clothes you can work out in as well as hang out in. The garments are made in the U.S.A. and many feature trim seams, allowing you to trim the length for the perfect fit. The website will be up in the near future.

I finished my second Vintage Vectors project, which was recreating the classic 1982 Centurion LeMans bike graphics in vector format. Read more and download the files here.

The ninth edition of the Cheaper Show is set to take place on June 26th, with $200 art from 200 artist for a total of 400 pieces. This will be for one night only and it will be the biggest art night of the summer in Vancouver, BC. The last show people were lining up for seven hours before the doors opened.

This Friday through Sunday 250 pinball and arcade games are beckoning to be played at the Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show. All the games are set on FREE PLAY with the price of an admission ticket. Steve Wiebe, Star of the documentary “The King Of Kong“, will be in attendance. I personally am going to try to make it to the end of the arcade game Scramble, which I never was able to finish as a kid.

Switch your hub from freewheel to fixed and join the Future Tense summer fixie race series starting this friday June 11th. Each months race will begin at Cal Anderson park at 6:30pm sharp. Trick events and footdown will take place after race. As always, Future Tense is a FREE event!

Next time your in Vancouver go visit the Convention Centre and view the new Digital Orca sculpture. the artist is none other than Douglas Coupland, author of Generation X, Microserfs and many more. I really like the pixelated Orca next to the “High Def” natural surroundings. Photo by Susan Gittins.