Bumbershoot 2005 hosted the inaugural People Talking and Singing show, where 2,800 festival attendees packed McCaw Hall to see Dave Eggers, Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Mike Doughty, Sarah Vowell, and Death Cab for Cutie, all the while raising $18K for 826 Seattle, the youth writing center in Greenwood. Last year's event, also at Bumbershoot, was hosted by Daily Show Resident Expert™ John Hodgman and singer Jonathan Coulton. Eggers, Handler, Gibbard, and Vowell were back......

Sometimes when you start going off about how *hysterically funny* someone is, people take it as a dare not to laugh. But Lauren Weedman cracks us up, and we don't care who knows it. Tonight she's reading from her new book, A Woman Trapped in a Woman's Body (Tales from a Life of Cringe). It's a free reading, 7pm at Neumos, 21 and over only. If you want to prep beforehand, here's a Seattle Times......

We asked our fellow Seattlests: What's the last good book you read? And what's coming up on your summer reading list? James: I just finished Songs of Innocence, Richard Aleas's second book about ex-PI John Blake. Like Aleas's first book, it's a noir mystery where you're a little ahead of the hero; the tension comes from wondering how the hero will handle the truth. On deck: another dead woman and the detective obsessed with her,......

When Federal Way resident Frosty Hardison was on the Daily Show, he said the Rapture would be coming along in oh, " five to seven years." But when we heard news that Def Leppard, Foreigner, and Styx would be at the White River Ampitheater on September 26th, the first thing we thought was: September 26th is a Wednesday, what the hell? And then we realized that Frosty was actually wrong. Dead wrong. This is a......

The Daily Show appearance of the guy who staged a semi-successful one-man Holy War against An Inconvenient Truth in Federal Way has already been posted elsewhere, but we can't help reposting. He's really a funny guy--his Church Lady and his Al Gore impressions are hilarious and it seems like hanging out with him would be like spending some high energy time with Robin Williams, if Robin Williams were a religious nut who believed that any......

--Bill Gates is appearing on the Daily Show next week. --Federal Way hopes it has started a "healthy debate" on global warming. Who'd a thought banning An Inconvenient Truth would be the first step towards that. --The Cha Cha is going to be ousted by condos soon, but it will live on in pavement art. --Hendrix will be immortalized in energy drink. --Landlords, get a renter in that unit before someone comes and steals all......

Idea borrowed entirely from Jon Stewart on last night's Daily Show.......

We called Elliot Bay Books last week in advance of John Hodgman's reading, and asked whether they thought it would be crowded. Should we show up early, now that he's all famous and whatnot? Not a bad idea, they said, maybe 7pm. The reading was to start at 7:30. We strolled into EBB as the clock struck 7, and our heart sank into our feet as we spied the line at the bottom of the......

To make your own political campaign lawn sign. While Seattlest sits and waits for the Daily Show to wake up and finally go knock on Matthew Baldwin's door, we suggest you check out the call for submissions over at The Morning News by our favorite local jester of the tech world. Make your own political lawn sign for a fictional or historical person (no actual politicans allowed), stick it someplace public, and send your photo......

When he last graced our fine city, Mr. Jonathan Hodgman was touring for his new book The Areas of My Expertise. He has since then become straightman-comic hawker of Apple computers and Resident Expert on the Daily Show. Seattlest could possibly be more jealous, but we're not certain. He is back on tour because his book has been released in paperback. Is that the literary equivalent of a pop-song/DJ remix mashup? We hope to find......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say......

The iron bars of smug do-goodery and significant social issues cannot contain the comic genius of Lauren Weedman. We tell you what, unless more than one North Korean missile is headed our way, you have no good excuse to miss seeing Bust at the Empty Space Theatre. We may have dropped a few pounds from laughter -- which we're stealing from the point in the show where she suggests to the orientation leader that volunteering......

Seattle as a city is currently in danger of becoming the guy at the party with the undone zipper. When we come strutting out of the men's room anxious to talk about technology and the environment and progressive politics all anyone can see is the Discovery Institute hanging out of our pants. Seattlest cringes every time the national media references a particular "Seattle-based think tank" - They won't let us pretend for a minute that......

It's a primary election of merely local consequence and you have little to no idea who or what is being decided, much less which way you should vote. Additionally, the last time you visited your local polling place the day was capped by emotional scarrification the likes of which you will never recover from should you live through a dozen more Red State administrations. Go vote on the way to work tomorrow anyway. It's just......

The Northwest Film Forum's been showing The Girl from Monday for a week now, but for tomorrow night's screening at 8pm, director Hal Hartley will be in attendance to introduce his latest work and hold a post-film Q&A. Since Hartley's veritable indie film royalty, this is a big geeky deal. The Girl from Monday has been dubbed a "fake sci-fi movie," but it's also a dark dystopian satire, a vision of the future where humans......