At the point that we realized all 24 dancers from the Mark Morris Dance Group were on stage simultaneously, we were struck by two thoughts. First: holy shit 24 dancers on stage at once in a delirious, joyous romp; and second: thank god dance companies can still exist that can put 24 dancers all on stage at once. Morris' company was celebrating the 20th anniversary of his early-career classic L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato... [continue]

Hey wow, holy shit it is hot outside and it's only 11am. With this weekend's forecast, people will be freaking everywhere outside. We're planning a mountain bike ride near Roslyn on Saturday, other friends are going camping, and another crew is ski touring around Rainier. But lest you forgot your high school chemistry classes, the effect of heat on frozen substances is to cause them to melt. In this case, very suddenly and there's still... [continue]

This weekend, Seattle's prodigal dance son returns, as the Mark Morris Dance Group performs the 20th anniversary of Morris' epic classic, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato. Yes, it is unseasonably sunny and warm out there, and you can simply extend your gorgeous day outside by taking in an evening of transcendant dance. Morris' inspirations are humble, really: the poet Milton, the composer Handel, and the painter William Blake. This is his capstone work, widely... [continue]

If we learned anything at Pacific Northwest Ballet's Laugh Out Loud Spring Festival last night, it was that pointing your fingers while dancing en pointe is hee-larious. Ba-dum-ching. We'll be here all week. The fest, another genre-busting divergence from the norm by director Peter Boal, aims to celebrate all that is wacky and funny about ballet. They mean funny "ha-ha" but there's some funny "strange" thrown in as well. We caught Program A (there's a... [continue]

We have a few friends helping out this weekend for the Dalai Lama's visit. They are kind and giving people, and we appreciate their work. And yet, all we can think about is this:... [continue]

"i kept looking for Wayland Flowers" by EdgarDiazRocks. Another candid capture from one of our favorite Flickr Pool portraitists.... [continue]

Two ambulances pulled up outside the Showbox SoDo on Monday night, just as the doors were opening at 8pm. They attended to a very drunk young lady who no doubt missed out on the all-ages Diplo/Justice bill for that evening. Ah, the youth. Upon entering, we came face to face with a wall of said youth and unavoidable flat-screen monitors plastered everywhere running MySpace videos and ad spam. Up the stairs to the bar,... [continue]

Urban Wilderness by Slightlynorth Ah, the witching hour. (We've been drooling over a few wide-angle lens options for our Nikon D80 and this is not helping...) Drop your own gorgeously-lit gems in our Flickr photo pool, won't you?... [continue]

Neither did we. It's a nice little campaign, but we wonder how many car drivers who need to get the message will actually see the ad itself.... [continue]

Stretchy horse by Espressobuzz This captures the simultaneous childhood glee and twisted carny feeling of the circus world, but it's just down the street at Seattle Center. Want shots like this? Find out how from the man behind the Noblex cam, then drop your own in our Flickr pool, won't you?... [continue]

Last night at Benaroya Hall, author Richard Powers read from a new short story called "Modulation." It was classic Powers; a dense, far-reaching, and meticulously vivid tale of a computer virus that infects music player devices via filesharing sites. He weaves the story around four different individuals: a Japanese hacker recently released from prison and now employed by the RIAA to huntdown filesharers, a Brazilian journalist researching soldiers in Iraq who blast ear-crunching music from... [continue]

"Stack" by Rachel-B Delightful colors lurking in our Flickr pool. Won't you add yours to the stack?... [continue]

At first, we weren't ready to like Artistic Director Nacho Duato's work Castrati--out of the gate it felt strained, and we worried that the topic (castrated Italian boys who became famous singers) would be too easily over-dramatized. Set to a series of works by Vivaldi, it opens with a group of men wearing low cut gowns, half dress-half cape numbers in all black; we later deduce these are the veteran castrati, their mission to bring... [continue]

When Seattlest was a young dancer, we dreamed of creating choreography worthy of this Spanish company. Not that we knew La Compañía Nacional de Danza back then, but the first time we saw them perform it was like watching the dancers from our imagination writ large on stage--we never succeeded as a choreographer, but Artistic Director Nacho Duato (that's right, you read correctly) has The Gift. Intense, vivid and poignant without ever being self-important or... [continue]

Speculation abounded when Charles posted about a recent study showing what would happen to Seattle if a 9.0 quake hit us. The Space Needle was called out as an icon that wouldn't go down. Seattlest's dad is the resident earthquake-and-volcanoes disaster geologist in the family, so we asked for the truth. We were told to consult the disaster flick 10.5, a made for TV turd movie starring Kim Delany (you know, from CSI: Miami, or... [continue]

"bike rack" by poopoorama Caught this hanging in the Seattlest Flickr pool. We've got a theory about how it got up there...what's yours?... [continue]

Mike Doughty (yeah, he used to be in some other band) has a new album out this week, Golden Delicious. We saw him at the Triple Door in December for his Question Jar tour; he sat on stage and played songs (even one from that other band), occasionally drawing questions written by the audience from a large glass jar and answering them with charming humor and candor. Most felicitously, we didn't even have to ask... [continue]

"Beer can in the face" by soundonthesound Call 'em like you see 'em, folks. Then drop them in the Seattlest Flickr pool, won't you? We know you will.... [continue]

. from mraaronmorris Such a simple title. And we'd have gone for "So drunk, trying not to fall off bridge." To each their own. Won't you put your own in our Seattlest Flickr Pool?... [continue]

Photo by Mike Siegel from the Seattle Times Seattlest Seth's cousin wasn't the only one stranded by the recent snow onslaught in our beloved Cascades. Anticipating the re-opening of I-90, we took Wednesday off from work and then bored a hole into our computer waiting for the DOT site to tell us the pass was finally open. 11am rolls around, our friends swing by to pick us up and we were off. The trip... [continue]