You could be the lucky winner to take home one of four pairs of tickets to a City Arts Festival concert. The shows include Robyn, Felice Brothers, Blue Sky Black Death and Blackalicious. And you love free stuff, right? more ›

You read that right, the Foo Fighters are looking for a few lucky, hard-core fans to throw them garage shows next month and one will be in Seattle on April 27th. Are you the biggest Foo Fighters fan with a mega garage? We think it's going to be a pretty tough competition everywhere, but every kid, his mom, and grandma are Foo Fighters fans up in here. How will you stack up? more ›

Yesterday afternoon we got a last-minute invitation to captothehill's remembrance of the 500 block of East Pine, a $10,000 party the bloggers won back in July. more ›

Wired is having a contest to see who can make the coolest stuff from Starbucks packaging, and leading by example is Wired photographer Dan Winters who created the Tie Fighter below from a coffee box and some cup holders. It is something to behold. more ›

If the recession is raining on your summer vacation plans, why not enter to win a free trip to the Washington coast, care of Seattlest and our good friends at Vacations by the Sea? This week we’re giving away a trip (worth about $900!) to wine, climb, and dine in beautiful Westport, Washington, smack-dab in what locals call the "Banana Belt." more ›

If the recession is raining on your summer vacation plans, why not enter to win a free trip to the Washington coast, care of Seattlest and our good friends at Vacations by the Sea? This week we’re giving away a trip (worth about $900!) to wine, climb, and dine in beautiful Westport, Washington, smack-dab in what locals call the "Banana Belt." more ›

If the recession is raining on your summer vacation plans, why not enter to win a free trip to the Washington coast, care of Seattlest and our good friends at Vacations by the Sea? This week we’re giving away a trip (worth about $900!) to wine, climb, and dine in beautiful Westport, Washington, smack-dab in what locals call the "Banana Belt." more ›

If the recession is raining on your summer vacation plans, why not enter to win a free trip to the Washington coast, care of Seattlest and our good friends at Vacations by the Sea? This week we’re giving away a trip (worth about $900!) to wine, climb, and dine in beautiful Westport, Washington, smack-dab in what locals call the "Banana Belt." more ›

If the recession is raining on your summer vacation plans, why not enter to win a free trip to the Washington coast, care of Seattlest and our good friends at Vacations by the Sea? This week we’re giving away a trip (worth about $900!) to wine, climb, and dine in beautiful Westport, Washington, smack-dab in what locals call the "Banana Belt." more ›

In our continuing quest to get other people to do our work for us, we're accepting reader submissions for Seattlest posts. Enter, and if we select your blog post, you'll win a pair of tickets to the Tuesday (April 14) show at the new Crocodile, starring Dr. Dog, The Cave Singers, and Golden Boots. The rules are these: Enter by posting a link to your blog post in the comments section of this post. You have until 5 p.m. Monday. Then we'll pick our favorite, and reprint your post on Seattlest next week. We're leaving the topic open--just make sure it relates to Seattle in some way. PS: Make sure you didn't give us your spam email in your profile, or we won't be able to tell you you won. more ›

The Fremont Bridge, gateway to the Center of the Universe, could be your future art studio. Some lucky Seattle-area creative type is going to get a workshop in one of the bridge towers, in which to create a diverse, in-depth exploration of what it means to be the city’s busiest bridge 'n' stuff. All that and a $20,000 grant from SDOT. Apply by Jan. 5. Or don’t--we don’t need the competition! more ›

How many bowls of clam chowder could a $1,000 Ivar's gift card buy? If you become the next Ivar's Clam Star, you could find out--and you'll also receive a Clammy Award trophy, along with a possible ringtone deal. Let Seattlest repeat that, Biden-style: ringtone. All you have to do is recreate one of Ivar Haglund's ballads on video and be creative about it. Dear God, do local musicians realize the potential for ironic hilarity here? Deadline's October 27th--get cracking! more ›

• Belltown says thanks but no thanks to streetcars.
• The Stranger has an amateur porn contest, while according to the Central District News, the Central Cinema has an amateur horror movie contest.
• Now that the remnants of Nickelsville has moved to Discovery Park, the Magnolia Voice is your source for all things Nickelsville.

Stay tuned tomorrow for an awesome contest during tomorrow evening's Seahawks-Bears game. Prior to tomorrow's game, we'll have another post with more details. There will be prizes and stuff, y'all, including a super-secret prize option that is so super-secret we can't even tell you about it yet. But trust us, it's a righteous bit o' swag. For your chance to win, you'll need to check back manana. more ›

Perhaps you bit on the Bite or uncorked at Uncorked last weekend, but this coming weekend brings a cooking contest for amateur chefs—and your chance to sample the food for a good cause. more ›

Who doesn't love West Side Story? Communists? Nihilists? Secret Muslims? With Stephen Sondheim's lyrics, Leonard Bernstein's score, and Jerome Robbins' fabulous choreography, the end result is one of the greatest musicals ever brought to big screen. A new 35mm print of West Side Story is showing this Saturday at SIFF Cinema as part of their United Artists 90th Anniversary film series. more ›

more ›

There's just a little bit of time left before SIFF 2008's opening night, and in between now and then, SIFF Cinema is hosting the United Artists 90th Anniversary film series. To celebrate the studio's 90th birthday next year, the touring tribute covers films from the mid-'50s to 1980, the decades when UA was at the height of its powers. Not like right now, when the relaunched studio's attempt at a comeback (Tom Cruise's Hitler-killing Nazi drama Valkyrie) has just been delayed for the second time, which has everyone in the industry proclaiming UA 2.0, the film, and the couch-jumper himself all but dead. more ›

Poor Jones Soda. It's been a tough year. Whereas they were once the stand-out local kids who were every bit as nutty and obsessed with soda as Northwest microbrewers are with their beer, nowadays it seems like every newly hyped win is a loss. Yeah, in the last year they busted out nationally and became the official soda at Qwest Field. But just a couple weeks ago, it was announced that in Q4 '07, Jones Soda lost $10 million dollars. more ›

Brand new year, same familiar venue: Seattlest Trivia returns to the Old Pequliar tonight, with Seattlest James hosting. more ›

Bellingham jazz funksters, Megatron, had a few impressive solos, but for the most part, their songs were fairly simple and somewhat repetitive. But we're not here to harsh on Megatron. They did a good job warming the cold December crowd and getting everyone excited for our lady of the evening, the illustrious Ms. Sharon Jones and her acclaimed backing band, The Dap Kings. If Megatron had the crowd warmed up, The Dap Kings got them... more ›

It's safe to assume that Sharon Jones is cooler than you. The current queen of neo-funk/soul grew up in Macon, Georgia and Brooklyn, singing in church before ending up doing session work in the '70s as the anonymous vocals on dance and disco records. Without a solo contract of her own, she left the industry and took odd jobs like corrections officer at Rikers Island and Wells Fargo armored car guard. more ›

The last time multi-culti multi-genre singer-songwriter Manu Chao hit the Seattle area was at Sasquatch this summer (see above). Singing in French, Spanish, Arabic, Galician, Catalan, English, Portuguese, Italian, and Wolof, Chao fuses a variety of styles, including rock, reggae, punk and ska. So this ain't your grandma's drum circle's world music. There's no word as to when he's headed back to the Northwest, but if you're looking to experience the Spanish political punk in your own home, Nacional Records just released a limited quantity of the double vinyl version of his latest album La Radiolina today, available at Sonic Boom, Easy Street, and Everyday Music. more ›

This summer Manu Chao showed his love to Seattle (and the rest of Washington) with an explosive set at Sasquatch (above). The seriously broadly multilingual and multicultural songwriter—he's French-born and -raised of Galician-Basque origins and sings in French, Spanish, Arabic, Galician, Catalan, English, Portuguese, Italian, and Wolof, often mixing languages within the same song—Chao fuses a variety of styles, including rock, reggae, punk and ska. With his hodgepodge of genres and tongues, he crosses cultural boundaries and appeals to many listeners who don't typically dive into "world" music. No doubt that's part of the reason why he just won his first Latin Grammy. If you're looking to experience the true Spanish political punk in your own home, Nacional Records is releasing a limited quantity of the double vinyl version of his latest album La Radiolina tomorrow. It'll be available at Sonic Boom, Easy Street, and Everyday Music. more ›

Austin-based Anglophile pop quintet Voxtrot just can't help but draw comparisons to bands like Belle & Sebastian, Morrissey, the Wedding Present, and even the Cure. After a couple well-received EPs, the band put out their self-titled debut full-length earlier this year (see above single "Firecracker"), and then proceeded to tour up a storm. Now the boys are back on the West Coast: Voxtrot headlines an extremely twee-centric all-ages show (Division Day, Tullycraft, and Math and Physics Club are also on the bill) at Neumo's next Tuesday night, and Seattlest has one pair of tix to give away. Enter to win by filling out the form below. No worries: Your info is safe with us and will not be shared with advertisers and/or the government, yadda yadda yadda. We'll be drawing one winner Monday at 10am. more ›

And we mean everybody: the New York Times, Pitchfork, the ever-fickle blogosphere. Seems that it's not hard to garner that kind of love and affection when you're a Brit-leaning pop quintet straight outta Austin. With clever arrangements, charming melodies, limber lyrics, and jangly guitars, Voxtrot just can't help but draw comparisons to bands like Belle & Sebastian, Morrissey, the Wedding Present, and even the Cure. After a string of well-received EPs, their self-titled debut full-length came out in May, and since then, they've been touring nonstop (most recently as openers for Arctic Monkeys), while also performing at the Pitchfork festival, the Siren Music Festival in Coney Island, and at CMJ. more ›

Indie underground vets Les Savy Fav manage to be both experimental and catchy. It's a tough balancing act, but the NYC quartet pulls it off with aplomb, especially on latest (and greatest) album Let's Stay Friends. The art-leaning band with academically-inclined lyrics is equally well-known for its intense live shows, with frantic frontman Tim Harrington providing a great deal of the spastic energy and wildman antics, as well as the costumes and gratuitous nudity.... more ›

Art-punk quartet Les Savy Fav has scored the best reviews of their ten-year-plus career for their latest album Let's Be Friends. Truth be told, we never really paid attention to the band until this release, probably because the term "art-punk" is a mite too pretentious for our tastes. Whatever the case, the angular new album totally does it for us, from the heady statement of intent on opening track "Pots and Pans" to the... more ›

Tuning the Air continues their multi-guitar soundscape at the Capitol Hill Arts Center showroom every Monday through 12/17. So you've only got four more chances to see the guitorchestra in action, playing their fusion of the old and new, the classic and the modern, live and in the round. Intrepid reporter MvB has seen them on more than one occasion and had this to say about the CHAC residency: Tuning the Air is guitar-topia,... more ›

Tuning the Air has been performing their big guitar orchestra take on all genres, from classical to rock, pop, and ambient, for a couple years now. Think the Beatles back-to-back with Bach, and some improv thrown in for good (huh huh) measure. The show used to be in Ballard, but for the past few months, they've taken up a weekly residency at the Capitol Hill Arts Center, in the CHAC showroom on Mondays through 12/17--which means you've only got four more chances to sit in the middle of a guitar circle. Waaaay better-sounding and -smelling than a hippie-infested drum circle, believe you me. more ›