Music: More Than a Sum of Its Notes
Seattlest Pix 30Dec11
Friday Morning Headlines
Can't Miss It: The Weekend and Forever Forward
Closing Words from Your Resident Beer-Nerd
Remember 43Things, Seattle's own gotta-get-my-shit-together online listory? We're cheering them on to a milestone, as they have crested 1.9 million to-do-itemizing members and are closing in on two million. Popular life goals at the moment are 1. save money, 2. get out of debt, 3. become financially independent, 4. win the lottery, 5. pay off my student loans, 6. make money, 7. become a millionaire, 8. stick to a budget, 9. retire early, and 10. invest.
Seattlest Wants To Write a Post About 43 Things
According to Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, the zoo is dirtier than a frat bathroom with twice the STDs. With elephants dying of herpes and generally pinned into tiny confines, the group contends it's time to stop gawking at their expense and release them to a happy retirement in far-off sanctuaries.
Let's see more dresses and cardigans on the Monorail, please. At 1:46, the 1962 promo is just shy of a real-time Monorail trip. We were curious how the Monorail looked brand new (not that different)--sure, it's a little older, but it's the people who have changed. For fun, compare with this 2007 Monorail ride, which offers the jerky, handheld-cam impression that the train is about to lurch from the tracks and crush everyone below.
A High School Algebra Textbook Counterpoint
Yesterday we blogged about Cliff Mass's opinion on the high school algebra and geometry textbooks the school board is considering--and nobody with an opposing view commented. You'd think it was unanimous agreement. However, we were notified about this indignant response on Twitter: "Wow, I just lost all respect for the Seattlest - GG. http://bit.ly/1R3H08 Cliff Mass is an idiot. Agh so pissed off. Why can't ppl see that all the great minds are saying NOT TO lecture at kids or drill-n-kill. WELCOME TO OUR GENERATION!! Lets go to the weatherman for how we should teach math. EXCELLENT IDEA. Include all the rich white males from Bellevue while you're at it."
Class Up Math Class Says Cliff Mass
Tucked at the end of UW meteorologist Cliff Mass's post about the millions of square miles of low clouds over the ocean that will ruin our sun-loving lives for the foreseeable future is a PS about Seattle's high school math "situation" that we mentioned last week. Says Cliff: "I was amazed that three of them are still considering a terrible math series (Discovering Algebra, Discovering Geometry) that was found by the State Board of Education to be unsuitable. And dropped by San Diego as a failure." They lost us with the titles, for god's sake, but it helps to have Cliff weigh in with an expert opinion.
Thanks to This Week's Advertisers
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We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Seattlest.
- V Australia, now offering round trip airfare to Brisbane from $639!
- Silversun Pickups, their new album Swoon is out now!
If you're interested in advertising on Seattlest or any other site in our network, check out our online mediakit.
Tom is off on a long weekend luxuriating at McMenamin's Edgefield Manor, just outside of Portland. On the way, a stop will be in Centralia to massacre delicious lunch at Berry Fields Cafe and tip a hat to the styrofoam house. On the way back, a stop will be made at The Spar for some wilted spinach salad, among other things. In between those? Probably some amazing sitting on verandas, light reading, and insane doughnuts.
BALLET (PREL-jzoh-cahjz): Not your average night at the ballet, as the evocative Ballet Preljocaj (choreographed by company founder Angelin Preljocaj) company will perform Les 4 Saisons--a UW World Series debut. Choreographed to the bright and rhythmic music from Vivaldi, Les 4 Saisons provides a playful, colorful, and unconventional interpretation through dance.
Seeing as how this last Tuesday was the forty-seventh anniversary of the 1962 World's Fair here in Seattle, we've spent a fair bit of time checking out all the great HistoryLink info on the Century 21 Exhibition (as it was otherwise known) and came across an interesting little tidbit: the Ford Motor Company, at the prompting of Joe Gandy, a local dealership owner, invested in developing the "An Adventure in Space" exhibit, one of the fair's signature pieces. And at the end of their exhibit, Ford showcased its most cutting-edge concept car, named the Ford Seattle-ite XXI.
"You're My Sunshine!" by photobynani , from the Seattlest Flickr pool
Evening's Curley Signs Off, Signs Up For Politics
Today marks the end of a TV era--the John Curley era. As host of KING 5's Evening Magazine, Curley's perennially perky attitude has hypnotized viewers nightly for the past 14 years. With a prime 7 p.m. time slot, many tuned in to hear Curley's witty interviews and take on the Northwest's quirkiest stories. In the ratings war, he always gave Pat Sajak and his Wheel of Fortune a beatdown for the time slot's top show. With budgets tight among the media business, it's no shock to see Curley signing off--even with great ratings. Curley plans to use his unemployment TV charm wisely, to run for Sammamish City Council, taking a page out of ex-KING 5er Jim Compton's book. We spoke with the folks at KING 5, and they won't have a permanent replacement for Curley (of course, how could you?). Instead other familiar talent (or even an ensemble team) will step in over the next few weeks.
Logging operators with a sense for PR understand you want to hide the ugliness and destruction that is a clear cut from the most accessible view points. You'd think this applies to Mt. Si, the most visible and the first mountain you see heading east from the city on I-90.
When we mentioned to a friend that we're re-reading John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley, the friend remarked that he knew another reading same. With summer approaching, maybe the greatest of all American road-trip travelogues (sorry, Kerouac) is just the thing to whet one's appetite for the season of travel.
Mariners 4, Rays 2
Jarrod Washburn, ladies and gentlemen--your major league wins leader. Washburn throws seven innings and strikes out nine, getting his third win in as many starts (box). The offense comes alive in the fourth inning; Rob Johnson and YuBet both hit run-scoring triples. Next game: Tomorrow, 7:10 p.m. vs. Rays, Jakubauskas vs. Niemann.
This morning's story about Wallingford car prowls going unpoliced isn't the first time we've heard the Seattle blogosphere making noise about lack of SPD follow-up for smaller crimes. West Seattle has car prowlers, so does the U District and Central District. In contrast, SPD says car prowls on Capitol Hill are down 50 percent.
As you know, the nicer weather places great demand on meeting spaces. Still, remember to be courteous to others conducting a conference, especially during the afternoons. If, for instance, they have not brought wading apparel, or a towel, to work, don't snicker. Just remind them to kick off their shoes before entering the workplace.
Watch Hotties Chase Balls
The Lingerie Football League's Seattle Mist--twelve nubile, busty, hard-bodied, long-legged...sorry, what were we talking about? Oh, yeah, the Mist are holding a public practice Wednesday from noon to 2 p.m. at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila. If you are more into dudes, the UW football team has an open practice Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Husky Stadium. You'll have to use a little more imagination, though, as the Dawgs won't be in their skivvies. Also, high school soccer practice schedules can be found here.
We've been hammering rather bluntly at city services, so we thought to relate recent instances where they've gotten it right, for fairness' sake. Add yours in the comments, should you feel so inspired.
"Betancourt," said I, "are you aware that you are the cause of great tribulation to me, by persisting in swinging at terrible pitch after terrible pitch?"
MvB is off to Annex Theatre tonight for Love's Tangled Web; Saturday night is Bosco's jazz gig/CD party at The Mix in Georgetown. Sunday he hopes to be kissed--with tongue--by the spring sun's rays.
Twitterer columbiacity brought this parkour YouTube video--shot one-handed in and around Seattle--to our attention, and we say thanks. It's an amazing amount of fun to watch this guy go. And Slate claims no one wants to advertise on YouTube's user-generated content. We just want more of this, less baby vomit.
Last week we held our first guest blog post contest, and the winner was LaFemmeMonkita! We sent her to the new Croc to see Dr. Dog. We chose her post because...well, not that it was a crowded field the first time out, but what could be more Seattlest than posting about recycling...and its olfactory drawbacks? Not much! Hope you enjoy it.
Seattlest Happy Hour Next Monday!
The third week of the month is rapidly approaching, and that means Seattlest Happy Hour! This month our merry band of travelling blogger vagabonds makes it all the way to the wilds of Lower Queen Anne. We're hitting up Solo, located at 200 Roy St (right by Seattle Center), for their all-day happy hour: $1 off all beers and wines, $2 Rainiers, $3 wells, $4 sangria, $5 vittles, and, we can only assume, $6 blowjobs. Join us from 5-8 p.m. for food, folks, and fun, as well as other outdated taglines.
The famed Seattle-based crab fisherman of the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch will kick off season five tonight at 9 p.m. with new episodes. Yay!
Tax Day Freebies
Tomorrow's the big day, so hopefully you're all done by now with your W-2s and 1099s and itemizing every single receipt from the past year. If not, get on that already. Once you're done, you can bask in the sweet rewards that Tax Day brings. No, not your refund, we mean fish tacos and sex toys, of course. (And yes, that's what she said.) Tomorrow, Babeland will be handing out a free Gold Digger Jr. vibrator to the first 100 people in the door who can prove that they have filed their taxes. Additionally, 10% off any instore purchases. Meanwhile, Taco Del Mar is offering up a free taco to anyone who goes to their website and fills out the form to get a coupon via email. YOU'RE WELCOME.
Spokane Taking Caddyshack Seriously
Spokane doesn’t liking being confused with other "wimpy" West Coast cities, so it should come as no surprise that city officials here have resorted to blowing up area squirrels with a lethal cocktail of propane, oxygen, and fire to reduce the rodents’ impact on area parks. Who says you don’t need a hammer to kill a fly? The Rodenator Pro is to cute, furry little critters what xanax is to work ethic: imminent death. After all, nothing restores a park to its original beauty like the sounds and smells of an old fashioned subterranean fire bombing.
Why Wasn't Amazon Paying Attention?
Hey, Seattlest doesn't have any bestsellers, gay or straight, banned or otherwise, but "software glitch?" C'mon. Even if it wasn't a deliberate wardrobe malfunction, Amazon's response was just pitiful, akin to the woman in charge of snowplows leaving town during December's storm. Twitter's out there pushing conspiracy theories, and Amazon's all "Nevermind." You'd think the company that pioneered online book sales would do a better job of managing an online crisis. Jeff Bezos, where are you?
In the history of Seattle odysseys, this one ranks right up there with Citizen Dick's tour of Belgium: Your Seattle Mariners played their first seven games on the road, and come back to our chilly environs in first place with five wins, as many as any team in major league baseball. This all without Ichiro, the team's best player, who missed week one recovering from a bleeding ulcer.
Jack is getting all kinds of antsy for The Thermals' record release show, Saturday night at Neumos. In preparation he's been listening as much of their new album, Now We Can See, as he can find online. Sunday is Easter, so he's invited some family-types over for a dinner of apple cider-braised pork loin.
In our continuing quest to get other people to do our work for us, we're accepting reader submissions for Seattlest posts. Enter, and if we select your blog post, you'll win a pair of tickets to the Tuesday (April 14) show at the new Crocodile, starring Dr. Dog, The Cave Singers, and Golden Boots. The rules are these: Enter by posting a link to your blog post in the comments section of this post. You have until 5 p.m. Monday. Then we'll pick our favorite, and reprint your post on Seattlest next week. We're leaving the topic open--just make sure it relates to Seattle in some way. PS: Make sure you didn't give us your spam email in your profile, or we won't be able to tell you you won.
We're attending a wedding this summer. And, like any prospective wedding guest, before we buy a gift we're going to figure out how likely it is that the couple will eventually divorce.
Our newest sportsballers, Sounders FC, will play to another capacity crowd Saturday. This week's opponent? The Kansas City Wizards. Here's a little bit about them.
Dear readers, I'm breaking from the official Seattlest "we" to let you know that this is my last day with your favorite local news, events and opinion blog. I've been writing a lot about Northwest hiphop for Sound Magazine, a publication you should definitely be reading if you're interested in the Seattle/Portland/Vancouver music scene and are looking for quality long-form feature stories; I'll be working more closely with the editorial staff at Sound now, which requires me to bid adieu to the local news editorship at Seattlest. I'm also a licensed massage practitioner, and have begun to build my own Capitol Hill practice. (Joy!)
AP photographer/videographer Ted Warren noticed we posted a video of the Woodland Park Zoo's new penguins yesterday and sent us this video to check out, featuring the Humboldt penguins and narration by the Zoo's penguin profiler Celine Pardo. It's an informative--and splashy--two minutes!
Enter your name and email here for a chance to rock this handmade,18kt gold/sterling silver blossom ring, bearing a single, luminous 6mm cultured pearl. Just fill out the form below for your chance to win. And while you're at it, we recommend you check out these Wildfox Couture tees of hotness. No worries: Your info is safe with us and will not be shared with advertisers, etc. We'll be drawing our winner Friday at 9 a.m.
Above you can see the Woodland Park Zoo's Humboldt penguins in their new, quasi-natural environment. The exhibit opens to the public on Saturday, May 2, so you have to content yourself with video for a little while yet. The Zoo tells us "the penguins, 10 males and 10 females, arrived three weeks ago from five other zoos and aquariums," and were put in quarantine. They range in ages from one to twenty years old, and you can adopt a penguin for just $50, though confidentially we hear you probably want to avoid the teenagers.
The intrepid Monica Cohn filed this report for us from the great northern hinterlands west of Greenlake.
Seattlest's new roving correspondent Roger van Oosten just sent us this report from the Husky sidelines.
Courtney Love: Bitch Also Poor
In other Courtney Love news, Kurt Cobain's widow has woken up from her decades-long booze and pills coma to find that somebody done gone and stole her money. According to yesterday's Page Six: "some of the people handling Kurt Cobain's estate had lost all the money the Nirvana frontman had left her and their daughter, Frances Bean, her lawyer says. A team of investigators, forensic accountants, and lawyers found that Cobain's estate had been looted of more than $30 million cash and up to $500 million in real estate." In response, they plan on tracking down as much stolen booty as possible and filing civil suits aplenty. Courtney's crazy-ass Twitter feed had no comment.
We don’t usually read Danny Westneat’s column, but Wednesday’s piece about another Belltown beatdown and the generally deteriorating state of Seattle’s low-crime image is increasingly common.
If it were any other year, we’d probably be a little more pumped for spring season fashion. But ever since this little thing called the RECESSION started, flipping through fashion mags and blogs feels like one giant tease. Instead of stakin’ up on our personal inventory of open-toed sandals, breezy tanks, and oversized designer sunglasses, we’re window shopping and reflecting on the good old days of unapologetic mass consumption of the mid-to-late '90s. But we’re still on the prowl for good deals and of course, free shit. And our friends at Chickdowntown get it. They wanna hook up one lucky Seattlest reader with some glam gear.
Courtney Love: Bitch Still Crazy
Kurt Cobain's widow is supposedly all pissed off yet again, this time about moving men throwing out a dead bird that was actually a £8,000 piece of art by British taxidermy artist Polly Morgan. The piece of art was in Love’s bedroom, with its pedestal already packed to be sent to her new house; the bird was left sitting on a sideboard, and when the movers came, they threw it away. In response, Courtney fired her assistant. We scoured Ms. Love's completely unintelligible Twitter feed for any sic-heavy, crazy-ass, 140-character rants on the topic, and all we found were the following: "they threw out my El Pollo Loco the first Polly Morgan piece and she is gracious enought o find another embryonic chicken and put it under a belljar w a lil chandelier." and "Polly Morgan is a great artist and i thought this would stir uop a debate about art vs trash." Indeed.
Psychology Today Has Questions About Our Drugged-Up Kids
It seems like we're always bemoaning the lack of critical, patient-advocating mental health coverage locally, so we wanted to point out that Psychology Today has interviewed Seattle's Furious Seasons, and the result is a really illuminating summary of almost everything that investigative reporter Philip Dawdy has been up to the past few years, from critiques of the rates of bipolar and ADHD diagnosis in children, to uncovering pharmaceutical misdeeds ("the worst corporate behavior I have ever seen in my 15 years as a reporter") and the failure of FDA oversight and regulation.
Ken Griffey, Jr.'s fifth-inning homer yesterday was his eighth on opening day, tying him with Frank Robinson for the most opening day four-baggers in history. Here's how it happened:
Comcast Sportsnet Casting About for Outdoor Host
This just off the Teletype...man, does that thing make a racket, but we can't give it up. We're all, No, no, no email--Teletype! People lose their shit, but you know, a lot less spam that way. So Comcast Sportsnet is taking applications for wannabe hosts of a new series that will include hiking, biking, camping, kayaking, fishing, climbing, survival skills, and more. They also say, "Everyone is welcome to apply for the host position regardless of outdoor experience," so we're sure that hilarity, etc. They'll make their decision with a reality-style television series where the candidates will compete....*yawn*...for the...the goal of being named host. Love that Comcast is so behind this new show that they don't want to just show it, they want to make everyone watch this other reality-show first.
- With the Seattle Mariners playing the first of 162 games today, season predictions are the order of the day. We've heard Seattlest David's take, now let's take a hop around the interwebs and see what people are saying:
- "This is a mediocre team, but a mediocre team in a mediocre division is a mediocre team with a prayer. If you're going to dream, dream big, motherf***ers."--Jeff Sullivan, Lookout Landing
- "The Mariners under Wakamatsu are trying to transition into a different team. All spring, they’ve run with abandon, hit-and-run, squeezed, bunted and manufactured runs with a little-ball attack at the front and back of their batting order. Wakamatsu is quite willing to let his boppers bop, but he wants everyone to do the simple things Seattle teams haven’t done well in years."--Larry LaRue, Tacoma News-Tribune
- "They have obvious limitations in the present, but they have grand dreams for the future. They're kind of stuck in time right now. Yesterday was awful. Tomorrow looks promising. Today is some strange hybrid of both. It's a good season to sit back and let the moment carry you wherever it wishes."--Jerry Brewer, Seattle Times
These are a few of the things going on outside right now. Our current temperature reading is 62, but that's a Seattle 62, so it's like it's 75 in terms of the need for shorts and flip-flops.
Sister Lindy Westius Explains It All for You
We've often wondered how many different kinds of people there are in this world. Sometimes we see people on the street or on the bus, and we try to figure out if they're serial killers, or we see kids in the park and wonder if one of them will grow up to be president. Lindy's got it all figured out. Her piece in The Stranger has all the answers, and it's kinda nice to see that 224 (and counting) of the city's finest minds think so too.
Almost three years ago, we walked around Lake Union for your entertainment. That seemed like it took all day, so this time we rode our bike. Much quicker!
Though he's read comics off and on since John Byrne wrote Fantastic Four, James is attending his first-ever comic convention on Saturday. (Nerd!) Sunday he's got an hour and a half massage scheduled at New Seattle Massage. And he's getting ready for a two-week vacation in Paris, for which he leaves a week from Sunday.
Yes, there's snow on the ground, but on Sunday, April 5, the most-awaited emblem of spring in Seattle finally arrives: the Elliott Bay Water Taxi begins its run, wrapping up in fall on October 31. (As you know, residents of West Seattle begin their winter hibernation about then, and have no need of transportation across the perilously stormy Elliott Bay.)
Weekend Sun on the Way, Says Parella
We just added Q13's Parella Lewis to our Twittabase--we wanted to make sure we're bringing you a fair and balanced weather report--and already she's rewarded us by predicting a partly sunny weekend. Contrast this with Cliff Mass, working out of the notorious socialist stronghold of the UW, and his fixation on depressing graphs about the cold. As a caveat, four of Lewis's recent tweets mention drinking coffee to wake up and another one is a Thoreau quote, so it sounds like she's as desperate for sun as anyone else.
We're number four on the list, behind San Francisco, New York, and Portland. SF and NYC we can see, because the data says that density equals more efficient use of resources, but Portland...come on.
...why have recycling trucks been parking and driving around in circles in front of our house all day?
Seattlest headed south on I-5 this past weekend for our annual Oregon coast getaway. Instead of boring you with details about rugged ocean scenery, we thought we’d detail what must be the least beautiful of the major interstate commutes from Seattle.
The other day we spotted this Segway-on-steroids trike on Broadway, which a parking enforcement officer was tooling around on, and our blood pressure shot up a few points. It turns out to be something called a T3 Motion, which is a competitor to the Segway, and besides its Robocop styling, it comes with a siren.
It's been a while since our last guest editorial. Not that you were clamoring for more, but we're just saying. We expected a lot more crank email from people about zoo animal captivity and Pez. This week we have Charles Redell, former Seattlester and Green Man-about-town, with a safety concern near and dear to the hearts of hipsters everywhere.
Tipster Seth Kolloen, who also says he has breaking news on the Sonics' return to Seattle, took a break from sports coverage to offer us this insider's take on political developments in the mayor's race.
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