We've had a crush on Maria Cantwell for some time. First of all, her suits are always incredible. Her hair is always impeccably in place. She's kind of a badass when it comes to the environment and other important issues. We loved her even more when she came out in full support of Hillary. Even though that didn't work out so well, we admire her gumption for voting against last week's $700 billion bailout... [continue]

photo by Jim (sea turtle); Seattlest Flickr pool Cupcake Royale // Ballard, Washington // Sunday // 8:45 PM A scruffy man in a well-fitting jacket plays the guitar outside with his friend who is sitting at one of the sidewalk tables. Earlier the skinny friend was waiting in line for a coffee; he tuned his guitar while he waited. Some minutes later, a bass-heavy, rock-bluesy instrumental began to reverberate through the high-ceilinged cafe. At first... [continue]

"Brittney" by pdgibson, via our Flickr pool. Thanks!A couple of weeks ago, we realized that we've lived in Seattle longer than any other city. By far. We were born in Wisconsin, and spent a lot of our formative years in Milwaukee (we still call drinking fountains "bubblers," and we're going to be a little sad when our daughter doesn't pick that one up from her peers), but when we moved to Seattle 15 years ago... [continue]

SurveyUSA, who also conducted a poll of Washington State voters after the first Presidential debate, just released their results from last night's Vice Presidential debate: Immediately following last night’s debate between Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden, SurveyUSA interviewed 1,100 state of Washington adults, of whom 806 watched the debate. Of debate watchers: 42% say Palin was the clear winner. 39% say Biden was the clear winner. 18% say there was no clear... [continue]

Since no one reads the Weekly's blogs, we figured the post where Chris Kornelis pulls for Sarah Palin in tonight's debate might have passed under the radar. Let's skip the overt retardulousness--Kornelis likes Palin because he graduated from one of the five colleges she went to--and focus on the more glaring bit of idiocy in the piece. Kornelis comes out: as an undecided voter. Dear God, man, undecided?!? Declaring that you're "undecided" at this... [continue]

">Throughout the campaign we have been gathering the top political writers in the country, and asking them to discuss the presidential race. Today they discuss the Republican ticket and look at tonight's vice-presidential debate. Seattlest: You’ve all spent time with the McCain campaign since the convention, what are your thoughts on the Republican ticket? Ryan (The Washington Post): My thoughts are irrelevant. Only The Lord Jesus Christ matters. And Obama is a Muslim. Case closed.... [continue]

Until the age of, oh, six months ago, the only pound cake ever to enter our sphere with any regularity was Sara Lee. You know the one: frozen, aluminum tin, red cardboard lid. As a child, we loved this cake. We loved its perfectly uniform spongy crumb, we loved its smooth, suede-like crust--reminiscent of the ice cream sandwiches that we also loved--and even now, we can’t deny that Sara Lee Moist and Delicious All Butter... [continue]

If you haven't heard it yet, the above video is for Noah and the Whale's light-hearted poppy single "5 Years Time" off their debut album Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down. That catchy song just begs to be used in pretty much every movie trailer—Wes Anderson ones especially—and/or TV ad (we've already seen it in a car commercial). The folky twee British quartet plays a free show tonight at Chop Suey with openers Grand... [continue]

One lucky local photographer turned the rest of us into lucky photo viewers today by getting inside the mostly dismantled Sunset Bowl the other night. We first found the collection of pictures inside the closed Sunset Bowl on MyBallard.com, which says everything sold at last month's auction will be out by Friday and that, as they say, will be that for the Sunset Bowl. After we paged through the 14 pictures in the Sunset Flickr... [continue]

Writer/director Harmony Korine (Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy) is not for everyone. But enough people in Seattle are for him that last night's 9:15 p.m. showing of latest film Mister Lonely had the little theater at the Northwest Film Forum completely packed, and now the film's run has been extended another week (through May 29th). The plot: Diego Luna is a Dangerous-era Michael Jackson impersonator, the radiant-as-always Samantha Morton is a voluptuous Marilyn Monroe impersonator. They... [continue]

"down goes frazier! down goes frazier!" by Craig Farrar (EdgarDiazRocks) We love this contribution to our Flickr pool almost as much for the title as for the shot. "You should get extra points for knocking over the scorecard girl," says the photographer. "Then again, she's the one keeping score." Good point.... [continue]

With two years' experience at the Northwest New Works Festival at On the Boards under our belts as of this weekend, we're seeing a pattern emerge: The really exciting work happens down in the studio, and the mainstage performances are more or less skippable unless you're really into that sort of thing. Saturday afternoon was a hard day to justify spending indoors in a small, dark (though thankfully cool) theatre, which left John and Anna... [continue]

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]

Holy Jeezits, what an outstanding weekend! On Friday, we knocked off early, rounded up the wife and in-laws, bought a bag of tacos, and headed to Richmond Beach in Shoreline. The picnic tables were warm, the tacos messy and delicious. We watched people play or take naps. We watched a pale, red-headed girl turn lobster red while playing Frisbee with her negligent mother. Saturday, we drove out to Snoqualmie Falls. We'd never been there, so... [continue]

"Goose Family and the Barge" by seattlerealtorgal The slightly washed-out colors, graininess, and hazy skyline make Seattle look like some busy, grimy, Pacific-rim, port town with its fair share of insane scooter traffic, plentiful street-corner smokables, bawdy merchant marine conscripts, and bargain-priced sodomy. Dare to dream, Emerald City, dare to dream!... [continue]

If there's one thing we're sick of, it's the ignorant attitude every pseudo-populist commentator in Seattle has taken on regarding the SLUT. (And yes, we've had more than our fair share of fun at its expense, replete with lame puns, etc.) But Aimee Curl's report in this week's Seattle Weekly on the City Council's discussions for SLUT expansion leaves us just a little ticked. After characterizing service expansion as "daydreams," Curl gives plenty of space... [continue]

It's raining and crappy out today, which means it's a work day for the guy who hangs out on the skybridge walkway between 1st Ave and Colman Dock Downtown. He's always up there, but when it rains he makes sure that all of the drains are unclogged and no one has to dance around the huge lakes that form on the walkway en route to the ferries. We're not sure why he does this, but... [continue]

Everybody's got a stereotype, and Italians are no different: wildly passionate one moment, indifferent the next. Political corruption? Cynical indifference. Matters of the heart? Passionate but fickle. Matters of the table? Ah, passionate to the core. Seattlest's Italian restaurant friends get particularly incensed when American chefs misappropriate Italian culinary language and apply a name like "carpaccio" to a plate of sliced raw meat or "pesto" to any old green sauce. So let's be clear: the... [continue]

Just before lunch we were bicycling down Broadway and this guy on the sidewalk asked us where the place was you can buy pizza by the slice. "Pagliacci," we called back. "What's to-day, my fine fellow?" he asked. "To-day!" we replied. "Why, Christmas Day!" That last part was not quite true. But it's like Christmas because Pagliacci Pizza is hosting a concert benefit, “A Night for Elise," at Neumo’s tonight, and that seems really nice.... [continue]