Last Thursday, Referendum 71 went into effect. With that, Washington became the first state in the nation to establish new rights for gay and lesbian couples by a vote of the people. R-71, which passed in November, affirmed legislation passed earlier this year in Olympia, giving ... [...]
It is now certifiably official that Mike McGinn beat Joe Mallahan by 7,190 votes and will become Seattle's next mayor—no matter who was really elected.
The final summary of the November election shows that 12,900 votes cast countywide were disqualified and not included in the victor... [...]
Poor biodiesel. Only a few years ago, it was the cutest thing among greenies to tool around in a vegetable-oil-powered Mercedes with exhaust smelling of French fries. Then other greenies started to realize that the fuel's ingredients were being delivered from as far away as Malaysia, leaving a bi... [...]
Back in October 2002, the country was still reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks. With the U.S. high on patriotism, fear, and Colin Powell's insistence that weapons of mass destruction were hiding in Iraq, most U.S. Senators voted for a resolution giving then–President Bush authority to declar... [...]
Pierce County officials, and Governor Gregoire, were understandably fuming last week over Arkansas' reluctance to take Maurice Clemmons back. Had Arkansas issued a warrant in October for Clemmons' violation of parole in that state, Washington could have denied the serial offender bail for pending... [...]
This past August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it would move its Pacific Marine Operations Center from Lake Union to Newport, Ore., in 2011.
The Center is the base for 10 research vessels and employs about 175 people. Its lease in Seattle ends in 2011, and... [...]
Dear Dategirl,
I used to enjoy the holidays. I'd throw dinner parties with friends, maybe a bonfire in the backyard, drink some wine. That all changed when I got married. I love my husband, but he's way too attached to his family.
Instead of a...' [...]
Sagittarius (Nov. 22–Dec. 21)
You've set the ball in motion for change, and of course you're terrified. However, I admire your courage, proceeding despite your fears. Since you can't know what will happen next, it's brave of you to go ahead anyway. Just trust your gut...' [...]
SPECIAL VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE EDITION
Dear Mexican,
As a Chicano/Mexican, I have lost my faith in God. While we take pride in our country like everyone else, and like to make frequent jokes, Mexicans are generally very humble (poor) people. Isn'...' [...]
Dear Uptight Seattleite,
Damn that Chubby and Tubby for making me miss them so much, especially this time of year. The little brats (I mean my dear nieces and nephews) used to drag me to the one on Aurora for our annual tree hunt. Usually you had to buy two of [...]
The Isle of Man—a tiny British Crown dependency located in the Irish Sea—has a population of around 80,000. One of them, 23-year-old Davy Knowles, is arguably the next great blues-guitar hero. Chances are you haven't heard of him yet.
Chances are even greater yo...' [...]
Anyone who's ever tried to make a zine (or any artistic pursuit) profitable can probably relate to Three Imaginary Girls co-founder Liz Riley when she says her online publication will probably never become a for-profit endeavor. "There's no m..." [...]
With her Total Experience Gospel Choir, now in its fourth decade, Pastor Patrinell Wright has traveled as far outside the choir room as Neumos to collaborate with Common Market. They've also gone into the studio to record a stirring cover of Soundgarden's "Jesus Christ Pose." And...' [...]
Evangelista ~ Wednesday, December 9
One of the most important yet unsung women in rock 'n' roll, Carla Bozulich, is back with her umpteenth project, Evangelista, a masterful experiment in heavy, edgy wonder. Having proven herself as frontwoman for some of the most influenti... [...]
I never would have suspected that a cello was going to create one of the more metal moments of my week, but I was completely transfixed watching Grayceon's Jackie Perez Gratz pull her bow across the bridge of her electrified instrument at the Funhouse last Thursd... [...]
How long can you remain a fan? I suppose I'm still a fan of Simon and Garfunkel and Cookie Monster 30-odd years after my parents introduced me to them. Elvis fan clubs are still going strong. Hell, James Dean fan clubs are still flourishing. In the sa...' [...]
Mr. D's isn't just the name of a restaurant, it's a person. And that person is Demetrios Moraitis, a Pike Place Market restaurateur since the '80s who's become a household name for making frozen gyro-meat sculptures in the likeness of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, among other... [...]
Why is wine so expensive in restaurants? We drink wine regularly, and I don't understand why a bottle that costs $20 in the grocery store cost me $48 the other night in a restaurant.
—TomWhen you know just how little breakfast costs to ...' [...]
Some cities treat their pro sports teams like a close family member. In Seattle, we view them more like a rich, reckless uncle—not someone whose debts we'd pay or help to build a new home. Remember how the Mariners narrowly lost a public vote to build Safeco Field before th...' [...]
Veteran doc maker Robert Stone (Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst, Oswald's Ghost) assembles nine talking, graying heads to reminisce about the origins of the environmental movement in the U.S., which kicked off in earnest in 1962 with the publication of Rachel Carson's ... [...]
A rosy tale of racial reconciliation neatly wrapped in a triumphalist sports movie (and blessedly free of spurious Obama parallels), Clint Eastwood's new movie tells how freshly elected South African President Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman in a subtly crafted performance that blends Ma... [...]
Orson Welles lives on not only in posthumously restored director's cuts of his movies but as a character in other people's novels, plays, and films—notably Richard Linklater's deft, affectionate, and unexpectedly enjoyable Me and Orson Welles. Adapted from the novel by Robert Kaplo... [...]
Timothy Hutton is duct-taped to the potty, and Meg Ryan is just plain potty, in this posthumously produced Adrienne Shelly script directed by first-timer Cheryl Hines (who starred in Shelly's Waitress between Curb Your Enthusiasm seasons). Born of the grief-fueled determination ... [...]
Likeably stoopid, the latest from comedy troupe Broken Lizard (Super Troopers, Beerfest) mines plenty of jokes from eating out and being served. In hock to the Yakuza, former heavyweight champion Cleon "Slammin'" Salmon (Michael Clarke Duncan) offers $10K to whichever server at ...' [...]
The exhibit "Freeing the Figure" occupies a small corner room at SAM—it looks like a sideshow compared to the sprawling Calder exhibit nearby. But don't overlook it. Curated by SAM's Michael Darling, it includes more than a dozen of some of the most importa...' [...]
In the 1950s, composer John Cage won first prize on an Italian quiz show. The category was mushrooms, and among his diverse interests, Cage was an amateur mycologist. He used the money to help pay off a Volkswagen van, in which he and his partner, choreographer Merce Cunningham, ... [...]
The most remarkable aspect of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are is that it captures perfectly a childlike perspective of the world (a goal of this year's film adaptation, too). Short on words, the 1963 book is filled with Sendak's classic illustrations of oversized monsters, bed... [...]
While the format of Death/Sex 2: The Holiday Show resembles the company's non-Christmas version from earlier this year (six 10-minute comedies), the contents are a whole different dimension of outrageous. Happily, almost all of the six spiked (laced?) b... [...]
Twelfth Night can be a welcome antidote to more standard, cloying, moralistic Christmas repertoire. Indeed, despite being set during the 12 days of sanctioned mayhem following Christmas, the story feels more like a Valentine's Day romp—a celebration of the zeniths,... [...]
WEDNESDAY 12/9
Holiday Events: Ticket to the North Pole
The kids are on holiday break and dying of boredom. Or you need a respite from the shopping madness downtown. Either way, Winterfest is only a short monorail ride away. Many of i... [...]
It's hard to miss Washington Mutual after its shameful subprime mortgage collapse. But I liked the old yellow-and-blue logo, now replaced everywhere by Chase's octagon. WaMu's final logo dates from 1997, when it made a major—and ultimately disastrous—expansion into California lending.... [...]
In Sgt. John M. Russell's chaotic Army world the morning of May 11, the enemy was closing in. For the previous several days at sprawling Camp Liberty outside Baghdad, the big Texan had talked of conspiracies, woken up from constant nightmares, and broken down in tears, wishing so... [...]
Jeff Ellis listened to the sound of helicopters over his Central District home Sunday night as law-enforcement officers waged a manhunt for suspected cop killer Maurice Clemmons. An attorney who frequently handles clemency cases, Ellis says his thoughts turned from "shock and despair" over the tr... [...]
The purging of moderates has been a hot topic of conversation recently around Republican water coolers. Now a member of the party's national committee has taken that talk and turned it into a standardized test.
Conservative attorney Jim Bopp, Jr. recently introduced a Reagan–inspired ... [...]
When former UW assistant and UCLA point guard Cameron Dollar decided to take the head-coaching gig at Seattle University this past off-season, more than a few folks were perplexed. Dollar was the top assistant to a head coach (Lorenzo Romar) of a program on the rise; had he bided his [...]
Or so says Google.
According to a "Safe Browsing" advisory from the search giant, Eyman's site, permanent-offense.org (don't click that link, for the love of humanity!), is "listed as suspicious" and "may harm your computer."
It seems that d...' [...]
Dear Dategirl,
My wife is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. But I just found out that maybe she's a little "too sexy," if you know what I mean.
The other night, on our first anniversary, we were drinking Champagne. I guess she drank m... [...]
Sagittarius (Nov. 22–Dec. 21)
It might sound weird, but words and ideas have more power than almost any other tool you can wield. Changing the way someone thinks (and therefore acts) is an incredible way to transform your world. You know all this already, and you're p...' [...]
Dear Mexican:
I used to frequent a cantina in Chicago where half of the bar was Polack, the other half beaner. The Polacks would speak in their native tongue and either start or finish all their sentences with the word kurwa [...]
Dear Uptight Seattleite,
As a supporter of Mike McGinn, what do you think of his wanting to use Macs in the mayor's office? Shouldn't the mayor of Seattle support the hometown product?
ClippieDear Clippie,
The may...' [...]
This Earshot-produced show isn't officially pegged to the holidays. But the veteran saxophonist has such an intensely spiritual vibe—apparent from the first note—that he'll instantly bring you back to the season's reason. "For me, the purpose of l..." [...]
Son Volt frontman Jay Farrar has been reading Jack Kerouac since he was a teenager. But writing the music and lyrics for the soundtrack to One Fast Move or I'm Gone, a documentary about Kerouac's semi-autobiographical novel Big Sur, provided plenty of firsts for...' [...]
Rooney ~ Wednesday, December 2
Rooney is like the anti-Interpol. With their shiny and ebullient take on sunny American rock of the '70s and early '80s and their shaggy, post-hippie rocker looks, they stand as a mirror image of Interpol's noirish, British, post-punk-inflecte... [...]
"I'm rebranding the space; this whole thing was just a publicity stunt," joked War Room owner Marcus Lalario, standing on the sidewalk outside his Capitol Hill club this past Sunday evening as friends and regulars poured in to say goodbye. Indeed, it's sadly true...' [...]
Have you ever looked at an issue of Esquire from the '60s? Or a Ray Gun from the '90s, or even a McSweeney's from today? They're not just magazines, but works of art you feel guilty throwing out because they're beautifully designed. Sure, the words and ... [...]
White American pop musicians' recent fascination with African music has been the subject of heated debate. Even as Vampire Weekend continues to grow in popularity for a sound that fans feel is a fresh coat of paint on indie rock's aging facade, it's been derided by critics for ap...' [...]
Fifty years ago, most Americans had no idea what Indian food tasted like. Some say we still don't. As analyzed by historian Lizzie Collingham in Curry: A Tale of Cooks & Conquerors, the menus of most Indian restaurants in America describe a h...' [...]
If bars can stay open until 2 a.m., why do they give last call so early? It feels like most places in town start closing at 1:30 a.m. and kick everyone out by 2 a.m. They'd definitely get one last drink out of me if they let me drink until' [...]
There is something oddly familiar about Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, in which George Clooney plays a commitment-phobic business traveler with no use for meaningful human interaction. Could have sworn we've been here before. When was it? And where? Oh, yes, of course: J...' [...]
Jim Sheridan's remake of Danish director Susanne Bier's 2005 original about the familial and psychic trauma caused by Operation Enduring Freedom feels like Operation Endurance. Marine captain and stalwart head-of-household Sam (Tobey Maguire), married to his high-school sweetheart, Grace (Natalie... [...]
"Colonialism is always part of the expansion of capitalism," opines Bolivian vice president Álvaro García Linera in Philippe Diaz's devastating, radical critique of the colonialist enterprise as inextricable from the current global economic model. While most state-of-the-world docs ... [...]
Don't be misled by the cheesy, generic poster for Kirk Jones' retelling of Giuseppe Tornatore's 1990 Stanno tutti bene, in which a grinning Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, and Kate Beckinsale pose with Robert De Niro for their characters' family photo in front of a Christmas tree. It's a m...' [...]
Could Dave Foley prostitute his talent to amuse any further without actually becoming a prostitute? In a plunging step down from emceeing celebrity poker, Foley provides a recognizable face for Jameel Khan's picked-over Goodwill bin of workplace comedy, The Strip. Foley's Glenn manages a... [...]
The best and most polished of the current comedy triple-header at Annex (see our stage calendar for details) comes last in the evening's schedule. Penguins is a mordant, campy, hard-boiled Kalashnikov splatfest about the fallout when brawny, brogue-brandishing badass Sister Bernadette (L... [...]
This year's version brings a new drunken Judy to the set in the person of Troy Mink (who replaces Andrew Tasakos), and if you ever wondered how hysterical it might be to watch Nathan Lane fight with Judy Garland for control of the same body, Mink sets the standard.
The play [...]
A Christmas Carol has been turned into a musical, performed on ice, animated with Scrooge McDuck and Mickey Mouse as the leads, told on recordings, broadcast as a radio play, and mangled in numerous Hollywood knockoffs (the latest an eye-popping Disney/IMAX amazement starring Jim Carrey)... [...]
THURSDAY 12/3
Music: Hard Times on Vinyl
Harry Smith was crazy as catshit. The Portland-born, Bellingham-raised eccentric (1923–91) couldn't comprehend paying bills. He would talk to people about things like "bioelectromagnetics...'" [...]
Fabric arts get no respect because, well, they're so soft. Yarn and string and wool are less manly than oil paint, granite, and steel, less inviting of critical theory and gratuitous Adorno references. And yet, what's more rigorous and hard science-y than the periodic table of the elements? Take ...' [...]
