HUGE AMOUNTS OF CHEESE: The Cheese Festival is upon us! This is one of our top three favorite events of the year (#2: our birthday, #3: Christmas). Several reasons: a city block full of cheese, friendly vendors, wholesale prices on bottles in the wine garden (don't buy the red wine that says "bacon" three times in its description, we made that mistake last year), and (it bears repeating) a city block full of cheese. 10......

The East Coast got two new toys this month and Seattle didn't get any. We didn't even get a Microsoft/Yahoo buy-out like we were promised. Why can't Seattle get a bike-sharing program of our own, a la Washington, D.C.'s new "SmartBike DC"? Our city has a dedicated (at times, frighteningly dedicated) cadre of bicyclists who will shoot down objections that Seattle's just not bike-friendly. If we can embrace Zipcar, as undoubtedly Seattle has, we......

Seattlest has found a reason for everyone to welcome bicycles on the city's streets. The origins lie in Virgin Vacations' (has anyone asked The Name Inspector to do a write up on Richard Branson's desire to cater to virgins?) naming of the world's 11 most bike-friendly cities. Unfortunately, Seattle didn't make the list (Portland came in at number 2), which uses five criteria created by The Bicycle Friendly Communities Campaign to judge a community's bike......

There is something seriously wrong in this city right now. The fight between drivers and bicyclists has been brewing for years, but recently it seems to be reaching a boiling-over point. It pushes what we consider to be sane people, on both sides of the argument, into a state of rage that we honestly find a bit frightening. It needs to stop (and by stop we don't mean that we want to see a bunch......

#1 on our list of events for the weekend is the Elysian Pumpkin Beer Festival this Saturday up at the Capitol Hill location. There will be 13 different pumpkin beers on tap, including the GABF silver-medal-winning The Great Pumpkin Ale. Festivities begin at noon with the tapping of the Great Pumpkin at 4pm; a huge pumpkin in which a batch of Night Owl carried out its secondary fermentation. Yum. Beers From Elysian: Night Owl Pumpkin......

Well Dan, I guess you don't even need a bike and a mountain anymore. Here is a RedBull biking event in Budapest--I guess if we can build mountain bike trails under the freeway, they can race their bikes in the subway.......

The operative word, of course, is "considering," because by no means is a bike park at Stevens Pass a done deal. But the plans are surprisingly detailed and specific, which gives Seattlest hope. The local biking community is all a-twitter about the prospects. Each year we trek up to Whistler repeatedly for our downhill biking fix (that's a friend pictured on a black diamond Whistler trail at the right), and we'd much rather spend less......

That headline was designed to hector Seattle because we know how awful it is for this part of the world to be compared to New York City. But showing Seattle how New York does something better seems to produce results (the M's notwithstanding). This time they're creating truly bike-friendly streets. It's always been unbelievable to us how Seattle presents itself as an uber-environmentally friendly city, while drivers clog the freeways in Hummers, voters kill the......

The Seattle Times has a quickie little snippet about some ski resort ownership swapping, namely that Boyne USA has bought the Summit at Snoqualmie from Booth Creek. At first we were a little concerned, namely because Booth Creek has a great track record from a customer service perspective, especially when they extended our season's pass for free after the disastrous winter of 05-06. But after a little more research, we're very excited because this is......

Our postings have been light (OK, nonexistent) this summer as we gallivanted about the western US and Canada teaching people how to ride mountain bikes. We were most excited about a trip in late August to Blue River, BC, the spot of legendary Mike Wiegele's heli-skiing outfit. The plan was to get dropped at 9,000 feet via helicopter and escort about 40 people back down through fields of granite rock slabs and unending alpine......

Today Mayor Nickels announced a new Seattle motorcycle medic team that will be patrolling the streets in 2008. They can weave in and out of traffic and get to incident sites faster than an ambulance (although we've seen motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic, and...who's going to come out when the motorcycle EMTs go down?) and other cities are doing it, so why shouldn't we? Of course, they're not going to give you a......

Seattlest's heart's cockles always get warmed when we see a bunch of people who choose to ride their bikes to get around get together, so we were predisposed to love Northwest Film Forum's Second Seattle Annual Bike-In last night. (Almost getting slammed by a driver opening her car door while riding over probably added to our joy at making it there.) Unlike most communal bike events in Seattle (Critical Mass, Bike to Work Day), the......

Our new workout regimen involves coasting down Pine to downtown, eating lunch, and bicycling back up to the Hill. If it works, we'll call it the 7-Minute Miracle! (Actually, even if it doesn't.) Often we pull up in front of Pacific Place, where there are four or more bike racks -- the kind of convenience we'd never noticed until we got pedals of our own. Today we were headed to the Nordstrom's Grill (the old......

Via our Reader Tipline, Seattlest has been alerted that some mook stole a pink Rodriguez tandem. It was last seen in Ballard on Thursday evening, July 19. Theft in Ballard! Well, there goes the neighborhood. The contributor goes on to say: "My husband and I have been training for the MS 150 bike ride and the RSVP ride. We would love to get our tandem back in time for the ride. Reward. No questions asked."......

Summertime lunch (pasta, Frascati) with our Paris Pal, and Seattlest carries on about the failures of Velib as if it were the end of Western Civilization. (Velib is the city's brand new, one-way, hourly bike rental program; see "Paris When it Fizzles" entry on our other blog, Cornichon.) When we pass a Velib "station" near the Arc de Triomphe, we triumphantly demonstrate that American credit cards won't work. Then Paris Pal swipes his Amex...the......

Some signs went up at the future site of the Colman Center earlier this week. Where there is currently a parking lot surrounded by Western Ave, the alleyway entrance to the Owl and Thistle, the pedestrian walkway to the ferry terminal and an on ramp to the Viaduct there will soon (2009) stand a 12-story office tower that's making the case that there is a market for "green" office space in Seattle. What's particularly......

As a public service, let us alert you first that traveling by Amtrak in the summer is different than other times. The trains get full up days in advance, as do the bike racks in the baggage car. (You can take your bike on the train for just $5 each way.) Then, because Amtrak is understaffed, all sorts of things begin to break down -- if you're us, the wrong part of your ticket gets......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

We've seen a lot of dangerous places in Seattle to ride a bike (Dexter, 15th, the Burke-Gilman) and at each of those we've either come close to clipping bikes with our car or nearly rode straight over them with our bus. There's only one place in the city that Seattlest can never remember a near miss with a bicycle, or ever even considered that someone on a bike might be a potential road hazard we'd......

--How the hell does Hugh Foskett end up standing in for Conor Oberst in this newspaper clip? I barely even know Foskett was a candidate for the Fightin 43rd's 1st position, and now Toronto thinks he's a rock star. --There's a "Ride of Silence" going on tomorrow Wednesday, May, 16 at 6:30 at Gasworks to raise awareness of the fact that cars and bikes share the road. --Bellevue will start offering domestic partner benefits......

I love this bike from Seattlst Flickr group pooler Jeff-a-roo. And you know what, Jeff-a-roo? Seatllest loves people who love bikes, so we love you too!......

As the world holds it's breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. And an ice storm swept through the area. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans......

We're following James' lead, as we're finally ready to invest in a digital SLR camera (shockingly, we've got some cash burning a hole in our pocket). We plan to use it for more outdoors/nature shots, plus capturing all the nonsense our friends and family get into on bikes, boards, and boats. Our top three contenders, in no particular order are: a Nikon D80, Canon's Digital Rebel XTI, and (if we're really feeling flush) the Canon......

Though Seattlest has long given up dreams of becoming a professional mountain biker, that doesn't stop us from still wanting to get paid to ride our bikes. (If you tell us to become a bike messenger we will be forced to bitch-slap you.) But the moment is finally upon us, and every other two-wheeled geek in Seattle. The P-I just ran a piece on a number of Seattle-area companies that are "best workplaces for commuters"......

Say it with Seattlest: Oh my. Prepare yourselves to drown in dance, fabulous dance this weekend. Locust debuts the world premiere of their new work "Mockumentary" Thursday at On the Boards, which OtB is billing as "Part documentary, part horror film, part hip-hop video and part rock show." There will be singing, live music, and dancing; but most importantly there will be zombies and BMX bikes and that is why Seattlest is attending. Also opening......

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? Phillyist is concerned that the war on Trans fats could affect it's beloved cheese steak sandwiches, something for which we should all be concerned.......

Went to this NetGreen thing today at Bergen Park in Ballard. Took the bus, even. Dozen or so "electeds" on hand (city, county, federal) with their attendant staffers. Lots of bikes. An electric Xebra Zapcar. Lots of self-congratulatory speeches. Did you know Seattle has an Office of Sustainability & Environment? Dude who runs it, Steve Nicholas, holds Master's from Harvard, no less. He's all up for this project, whatever it is. So's city councilman Richard......

Lyon, France's second city, offers its citizens and visitors a number of choices when it comes to mobility: first, drop the car in one of dozens of municipal parking garages. Then: three subway lines, two tramways, numerous buses, a funicular...and two thousand public bicycles. The bike deal is called Velo'V, short for Vélo-ville, vélo being French for bike, the whole thing pronounced v-love. Love it we do, and so do the locals. Grand Lyon (the......

The recent hubbub at Critical Mass (paired with some magnificently asinine comments on Seattlest Matt's post) reminded Seattlest of why we prefer to keep our bikes as far away from roads, cars, and people as possible. But sometimes getting out to actual dirt isn't a reality. This past Monday, after a lazy weekend and looking forward to taking Tuesday off from work, we set out around our neighborhood in the Central District for a......

It was nice playing along as a wannabe soccer fan for a while. Yes, yes, we know you're not done yet. But, you see, the Tour starts this weekend. And now that the media machine known as Lance Armstrong has left the building, Seattlest is actually (gasp) excited to watch this time around. The past few years of the Tour have been like sex between people who've been married forever--still feels pretty OK, but you......