AMERICAN NEEDLE by Photocoyote from the Seattlest Flickr pool.
Thursday Morning Headlines
Start your morning with a little Foxy Knoxy. Plus: tons of crimes, one crime in a stupid hat, noble police dogs and a body found in a trash can, with a couple of lawsuits sprinkled on top.
Toddler Escapee Found Resisting Early Bedtime
Seattle police officers Friday night responded to a call of a young child wandering the streets in Queen Anne around 9 p.m. The SPD Blotter reports the police officers-turned-babysitters found the lively and rambunctious three-year-old boy at 9th West and West Galer, sporting a blue sweatshirt, pants, a diaper (we hope clean vs. dirty), and wool socks.
Neighborhood News And Local Blog Round-Up
- Tomorrow night kicks off the BBQ Jazz outdoor concert series over at Interbay Golf Center. This week you can tap your toes from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. to the sounds of on-and-off again national award-winning Roosevelt High School Jazz Combo.
- Vintage porn dating back to the VHS era was found stashed in the ceiling of the portable Blakely Elementary School classroom on Bainbridge Island. Workers discovered six nudie mags, VHS porno tapes, condoms, and ladies panties(!!) as they were demolishing the room.
If We Told You...
...on September 12, 2001, that the next President of the United States would be a guy named Barack Hussein Obama, you would have thought we were insane, even as you purchased another crate of duct tape.
First Sarah Palin, and Now This Guy
We like to think of sports as a microcosm of society. And our society loves its freedom. (In fact, we are about to get real free with a bottle of something within the hour.) Said freedom has its limitations, though. For instance, you can't choose who roots for your team. Anyone with half a brain is welcome to hitch up to your favorite team whenever they want. But this realization doesn't mean we aren't really, really troubled by the wrong-headed Seahawks fan who thought it was a good idea to stir up a rivalry with the New York Giants (who the 'Hawks play next week) by posting 9/11 jokes and photos on a Seahawks blog. Our apologies to our brothers and sisters over at Gothamist. Next time you are in the area, coffee is on us. Deadspin has the gory details. (Consider yourself warned.)
Please Sir, I Want Some More Details
Ooooh—the Seattle P-I has launched their new crime blog, Seattle 911. It's a resting place for the flotsam and jetsam of the city's police and fire departments, where morbidly fascinated readers can take in side stories, breaking crime news, and details from daily reports.
We Review: Buck 65, Bernard Dolan, and Rudy & The Rhetoric @ The Crocodile Cafe
The local act opening for Dolan and Buck 65 was Rudy & the Rhetoric, now out on CD-R. They sound clean, rehearsed, and synthy; the MC (Rudy, we presume) looks freshly scrubbed and straight out of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog, one of the outdoorsy pages, where the guys are fully clothed. We had no idea Ken dolls could rap, but he was pretty good, and the DJ (the Rhetoric?) did some cool scratching. Overall, they were surprisingly polished but we had a hard time taking them seriously, especially since the MC kept wincing at the crowd's lukewarm reception.
Get Out This Weekend: Keith Johnson / Dancers @ Velocity
Keith Johnson / Dancers is the creation of Keith Johnson, currently Associate Professor who teaches both composition and contemporary dance techniques at California State University Long Beach. This past summer (well, "summer"), he was part of the Strictly Seattle Festival. We found a review of this show at St. Olaf, written by an opinion columnist who rigorously avoids having a strong opinion of the piece. God we love Minnesota. Here's the program:
Brink explores the ideas of risk, caution, and the messiness of beauty in the quest for perfection. Music: George Crumb.more ›
Lunatic Fringe
Corner of 3rd and Union last night, the air's full of crazies. The rabid anti-Hillary crazies, fueled by and fueling right-wing panic even as they convince the mainstream that she's unelectable because she's so polarizing ("Just look at us!"). The Ron Paul crazies, all suited and tied. The 9/11 crazies in search of evil conspiracies.
Seattle's Sports Savior is Back on the Case
You may not agree with his conservative politics, but if you like the Mariners, you owe an elaborate tip of the cap to ex-U.S. Senator Slade Gorton.
Bicycle Hobo Gang Commemorates September 11th
With a Freedom Fries eating contest. Here is the relevant flickr set for last night's contest, evidently won by bicycle hobo associate identified only by the alias "Michael." Here are the rules for the 9/11 Eat Off Commemoration that apparently took place at Red Robin:
Jim Riches, FDNY Deputy Chief
Jim Riches, Deputy Chief of the FDNY, is one of the producers of the Urban Legends video that questions the supposedly heroic actions of Mayor Giuliani on 9/11. Jen Carlson recently interviewed him for our sister site in New York.
Glad We Left New York, Part Deux (For the Commenters)
For those of you just tuning in, yesterday we wrote a little piece about the steam pipe that burst in New York. Apparently it pissed a bunch of people off, and we have to concur that actual true (non-sensationalist) details have been slow to trickle in over here. Everything we've read the last couple of days focuses on a "geyser of steam and debris," which seemed like an overblown fearmongering catchphrase at first, but is now starting to sound like that may be exactly what it is.
Boy, Are We Glad We Don't Live in New York Anymore
Seattlest got the news from a coworker yesterday: an explosion in midtown Manhattan had resulted in a collapsed building (MSNBC); then that no, in fact, it was a transformer that exploded, leaving a nearby building "shaky" (CNN).
What Does the New Al Qaeda Report Mean?
Our Southern California based Al Qaeda correspondent, Jeff Schell, is here with analysis on the new Intel report regarding Al Qaeda's desire to "use contacts and capabilities in Iraq to mount an attack on U.S. soil."
The Upper Deck at Yankee Stadium Is Not Like the Upper Deck at Safeco Field
You may have heard about the unfortunate Kirkland man who was enjoying a Yankee game with his wife and son when some drunk asshole fell on top of and nearly killed him.
Get Out Thursday: Christopher Hitchens @ Town Hall
POLEMIC: Understated, respectful, sober -- these are words that describe someone else besides Christopher Hitchens, who we suspect would beat you senseless with his shoe if it meant that he could own "iconoclastic."
For Your Consideration: This Week at SIFF
Memorial Day weekend is finally behind us, so it's time to settle into SIFF. Yes, it's absolutely lovely outside, but Seattleites can only handle so much sun. Get away from all that UVA/UVB exposure and spend your time in the theaters' comfortable darkness.
A Whole New World
We had to agree with On the Boards' executive staff (Lane Czaplinksi and Sarah Wilke) statement in the liner notes to The Adventures of Ali and Ali and the Axes of Evil that they had been “excited about presenting Vancouver’s neworldtheatre since the first moment [they] saw the image of a smiling President Bush holding a little wild eyed man baby.” Admittedly, this was a large part of the reason why we wanted to see this piece, in addition to the generally good reviews and awards it had won in Canada. In its U.S. debut, the play more than lives up to that photo, with its pointed and consistently funny script.
Seattlest Book Club: "In My Beginning Is My End..."
We're going to spoil the end of Jonathan Raban's Surveillance. If you haven't read it yet and don't want to know, stop reading now.
Speaking Tour: 3/26 - 4/1
FANTASTIC FICTION SALON: Novelist, nonfiction author, and short story writer Terry Bisson has swept every honor in the science fiction field as well as France's Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire. He joins Hugo House's Writing Fantastic Fiction workshop series, where he will teach "Who Likes Short Shorts? We Like Short Shorts!"
Zioncheck Goes Hollywood
Ex-Seattleite, ex-Stranger-nic and ex-grassroots campaign manager Phil Campbell wrote a book that we loved about Grant Cogswell's run for City Council in the wake of WTO. The book is Zioncheck for President, which we've discussed with Phil in the past. Now Stephen Gyllenhaal has bought the rights to the film adaptation and plans to produce the thing DIY style here in Seattle.
Get Out
MUSIC: Pianist Jose Gonzales takes a holiday from his Thelonious Monk obsession to play an evening of romantic jazz standards at Madrona eatery St. Clouds, with bassist Mark Bullis and special guest Ray Baldwin on trumpet. Drink it up, baby. Yeah. That's right.
Speaking Tour: 2/19 - 2/25
AUTHOR, AUTHOR: In Bich Minh Nguyen's memoir, Stealing Buddha's Dinner, a young family escapes from Vietnam shortly before the fall of Saigon and relocates to Grand Rapids, Michigan. "In her recreation of a world populated by family ties, Ritz crackers, and Judy Blume books, she has captured the 1980s with perfection," says Kirkus Reviews.
Dolphins Do What Ehren Watada Won't
Realizing that trying to protect our way of life with humans gets people killed, the Navy has decided to do the job with sea lions and dolphins.
Seattlest at Sundance: Take 2
It seems that it's always about day two of the fest that we really fall in love with this place---the overheard intense discussions of films, the industry gossip, the random interactions with individuals you will never see again, and all that swag just ripe for the taking---really, these are a few of our favorite things.
11 Huling Bros. Employees Colluded to Steal From a Mentally Ill Man, Allegedly
Just two weeks ago, Steve Huling announced that the family is selling their auto dealership, which they've owned for 60 years.
Murray and Cantwell Already Opposed to Bush's Unannounced Plan
"The Decider" will be yakkin at you tonight, beginning at 6pm PST, in a nationally-televised address expected to last for about 30 minutes. The topic: The Iraq War, which President Bush wants to try to win--understandably so, as his other option is to pull out and go down in history as the guy with sole responsibility for the senseless deaths of 2,997 American soldiers (as of Saturday). That's exactly the same number of people as died on 9/11. (Guess what, Osama? We can get 3,000 people killed for no reason too! SNAP!)

