THEATRE: Suzanne Morrison's one-woman show Yoga Bitch is the tonight's highlight at SPF 2-Sweatproof!, the solo performance festival ongoing at the Theatre Off Jackson. Morrison's show recounts her trip to Bali for a two-month yoga retreat that illustrates, if nothing else, that the path to inner peace and killer abs has some hairpin turns in it. We found a Yoga Bitch excerpt on YouTube and were persuaded to see the whole thing. 7pm //......

We usually stay pretty hog-tied to the folk and roots music world, but a year or so ago, we found ourselves volunteering to cover a show at Neumo's featuring Common Market and The Coup. Hot damn! That was a good show. The Coup is back in town tonight for a set at Nectar in Fremont. Think of a mix between Public Enemy and Prince. Check it: 9 PM // Nectar Lounge // $12......

D.Black, co-owner of Seattle's Sportn' Life Records and full-time, big-time hiphop MC and producer, took a few minutes out of his increasingly busy life to talk to Seattlest about what he's been up to the past few months. Where you've seen him recently: hosting Grynch's album release on January 27th, or rocking the fog machine and The Life medallion on Day Two of The Program back in December. Catch him this Friday night: 8pm doors,......

First of all, we have grown slightly disenchanted with the SyncLive method of experiencing The Program. Though we were most certainly not enamoured with the Swollen Members and Blue Scholars shows on Tuesday, our friends who were actually there say the energy in the room made a weak set from Swollen 100% more bearable. And according to the Stranger's Paul Constant, the set from Blue Scholars on Day #1 was "legendary." We stand by our......

Katelyn just mentioned Common Market, but there's also hip-hop aplenty at the Showbox this weekend, with Portland's Lifesavas and New Orleans' funk-tastic Galactic (featuring Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 and Boots Riley of The Coup) tonight and Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, and The Mighty Underdogs (featuring The Gift of Gab, Lateef the Truth Speaker and Headnodic) tomorrow night. Here's some footage of Blackalicious freestyling at Florida's Langerado festival a couple months ago.......

Common Market is doing their smart, earnest, appealing thing at Chop Suey this weekend, with J. Pinder and The Physics sweetening the pot for Seattle hiphop fans. Some gossip surrounding this highly anticipated show: Future Talk, the Physics' 2007 release, is one of the best (and most under-acknowledged) hiphop albums to come out of Seattle since 2005's blockbusters. Seattlest listened to their stuff on Myspace and we are unexpectedly delighted with it. Let's practice for......

We normally run from a restaurant that’s advertised as Chinese and American. Common sense, but it also dates back to a day in New Hampshire when we walked into “Judy’s (or whatever her name was) Chinese Restaurant” and were given dinner rolls and butter along with our menus. Shi’An Restaurant (12534 Lake City Way NE) is easy to run from. Its peeling-away paper sign barely covers the shingle of the former Baker’s restaurant. The inside......

When we were young, our parents bought a house in Craftsbury Common, a tiny town in the Northeast corner of Vermont. There's a post office, a general store, a church, a library and frankly, not much else. The isolation of this place was troubling in former years (at sixteen, for example), but now it is to us, a tonic: a place where there is no coffee shop directly below our apartment, no cell phone reception......

Are you there Seattle art world? It's us, Seattlest. We're trying our best to talk up your First Thursday openings, but it looks like you've crapped out on us this month. We understand: you're on vacation or something, it's kinda hot out, the BLUE ANGELS are in the sky ... We've got posts to post, however, and damned if we won't find something to recommend from your namby-pamby Art Walk offerings. Here's what we're going......

I love Al Gore and I was really looking forward to seeing him talk at Town Hall on Monday night, but I was under no illusions that I would get to see him announce that he was running for President. I fell for that one before. When Barack Obama came through town on a book tour I got in a blood-boiling, fist-pumping frenzy for some kind of announcement, but what I got was a tepid......

For some reason we're more willing to devote an hour of our Friday lunch than an hour of our Tuesday evening to the American Idol cause. Seattlest hasn't seen a whole lot of the show but we decided to run down and check out Blake Lewis just now and we're glad we did. We showed up at noon on the dot and were subjected to 15 minutes of banter from some Q13 chick trying......

Last year's Sasquatch line up was good, but not good enough to get us to spend three days at the Gorge. We still prefer the festival in its one-day, all-in-one-fell-swoop form, but with the lineup that's been announced for this year's two-day fest, we may just have to make the trip. Out of the two days, it was Saturday that really made us coo. Bjork *and* Arcade Fire? Consider us sold. There are still......

MUSIC: Blue Scholars and Common Market 8pm // Neumo's // $20. 21+ MUSIC: Harvey Danger with Slender Means and "Awesome." 9pm // Crocodile // $25. 21+ (also an early show at 4pm for all-ages; $5) PARTY: Arcana: New Years Masquerade Ball 9pm // Capitol Hill Arts Center // $30 (or $75 for deluxe pimp action) MUSIC: The Melvins, Big Business, Porn, "Hot Sauce" Butch Darlene 8pm// Showbox // $25 "MYSTICAL" PARTY: There's this weird......

SEX: Sex-positive retailer Babeland closes out 2006 with their annual three day sale, with even some of their most popular toys marked down 25%. Let's face it, the other gifts you may have received this holiday season won't provide the long-term satisfaction something you pick up here will. 11am-10pm (also Noon-7pm Sunday and 11am-10pm Monday) // 707 E Pike St. // 25% off whatever pleasing your bits and pieces is worth MUSIC: As hard as......

As it should be, it's quiet this week in Seattle, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to do -- especially the closer we get to New Year's Eve. So without further ado, Seattlest's belated gift to you -- some shows: Thursday, December 28 >>> Vicci Martinez, Kym Tuvim, Jonatha King, and Danny Godinez at The Tractor. Singer/songwriter Vicci Martinez is not only an immensely talented artist with impressive stage presence, she's also cute as......

In the spirit of an earlier post in which we asked you to vote for your top-five albums of 2006 via KEXP, Seattlest would now love it if you'd narrow it down to your top-five Northwest albums via Three Imaginary Girls. In addition to letting your voice be heard, the girls are promising that every ballot cast will be entered into a drawing for a "prize pack of fun imaginary goodies." We admit, this one......

Tuesday 17th >>> Beirut at The Croc. This 20-year-old wunderkind from Albuquerque is the latest entrant into Who Wants To Be a Gypsy Rock Star Millionaire? 9pm;$10 >>> The Secret Machines at The Showbox. The sonically huge psych rockers will be performing tonight in the round, each member of the trio on an elevated platform on the venue floor. If nothing else, it's something different. 8pm doors; $14adv/$16dos. All ages Wednesday 18th >>> The......

Wednesday, September 27 >>>Town Hall, 7:30pm. Science and medical writer Thomas Hager tells you all about the drug that you won't hear about on House, M.D.: "The Nazis discovered it. The Allies won the war with it. It conquered disease, changed laws, and single-handedly launched the era of antibiotics." But does it make you feel like hugging strangers? $5 at the door. >>>Bella Cosa Foods, 4:00-6:00pm: Federico Bibi lets you taste two organic olive......

We hate to sound cynical and old, but my god! Day two at Bumbershoot felt a lot like a tenth grade field trip to white people's rock and roll camp. We ain't dissing the kiddies, but when we head to the overcrowded, sweat-drenched beer gardens just to be amongst people our age, it's worth mentioning. That said, day two was (a) crazy crowded (we spent 15 minutes in the crossroads by the cajun salmon booth,......

What a great way to close out the summer: Beer, fried food on stick, irritatingly large crowds, great music, and a slight chance of rain (remember last year?). Seattlest loves us some Bumbershoot though, and we wouldn't let some pesky weather ruin our fun. This year looks to be a good one. A couple things we are digging right off the bat are the addition of good bands on the outdoor stages and ditching the......

You got something better to do? We don't believe you. Wednesday 2nd >>> Mellowdrone and Monsters are Waiting at Chop Suey. Both of these dancey Cali bands rely on heavy synths. 9pm doors; $8 advance. Thursday 3rd >>> Mark Erelli at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center. Sensitive Bostonian singer/songwriter with a sweet, sweet voice. 7pm; free. All ages. Friday 4th >>> Harvey Danger at Neumo's. CD Release Party – New album is good. Sean Nelson......

Seattlest was admittedly skeptical about fiber arts. It sounds a little Metamucil. Then we saw On Mapping: New Perspectives with a Common Thread, now up at Bellevue Arts Museum. It brought to mind the April 24 New Yorker piece about Mapquest (which could’ve also applied to Googlemaps), the gist of which was, back before Randy McNally mapped America, people used to get from A to B with these little photos flipbooks that showed mile......

Bumbershoot sent out an email this morning announcing a bunch of acts for this year's Smaller, Better Festival. There's even more hiphop on the bill with the addition of local act Blue Scholars and Common Market and Brit chick Lady Sovereign (who we're looking forward to seeing with The Streets soon). Area indie rockers Crystal Skulls and Rocky Votolato will be there and to continue the trend of one Brit band for every couple of......

About three songs into her set, Neko Case gave up on it. Hail the size of dice had the crowd shouting in excitement and alarmed pain. (Note to self: never wait for the weather you see coming across the plain out here to arrive.) The storm, with lightning, lasted about 45 minutes, sending everyone streaming toward cars and tents. At 6:15 or so, it died down and the news came that in another 45 minutes......

Another week of Seattlest making all your plans for you. You don’t even have to think! Joy! Monday 20th: >>Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's second album sounds like they've started hanging out with the Black Keys. Hallelujiah. With Elefant and The Morning After Girls at the Showbox. 8pm, $17adv/$19 door, (21+) >>Shock Therapy: DJs Deutcher Meister, Lu Ying, Kamikaze at The Bad Juju Lounge Free! Tuesday 21st: >>Fish Scale Tour: Ghostface Killah, M-1, Common Market......

Okay, okay, we know that this year’s Bumbershoot lineup will leave you wondering what year it is, since we wouldn’t really call most of the acts especially current or relevant, but there are some things worth checking out. Friday, M. Ward is sure to rock (if you can call someone who mainly plays acoustic rocking). He is one heck of a guitar player and, oh boy, does he do a great cover of David Bowie’s......

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or in Bumbershoot's case, when headliners Ani DiFranco and Devo both cancel, scramble like mad and book Iggy and The Stooges and Elvis Costello in their places. Whee! At least on the former; we're a mite wary of the latter. And as a bonus, the Stooges, short a bass player, are touring this summer with none other than Mike Watt. The lineup (as it stands now--who knows who......

By now the offense is buried under an ever-increasing landfill of journalistic sins commited by what Seattlest enjoys referring to as "Old Media," but once upon a time the plagiarism scandal at the Seattle Times business desk actually seemed, well, scandalous. In the face of our government's planted "reporters" and bribed commentators, though, plagiarism seems like a college crime, but let's congratulate the Times on the small scale of its problems instead of attributing a......