It was a coincidence that Central Cinema was showing an all-Swayze ticket starting the night of his death. They're showing Dirty Dancing tonight at 7, and Road House every night until September 17 at 9:30. more ›

Adding to this week's lamentable streak of violence, we woke up to find a report from Seattle 911 that a man had been killed in a hit-and-run accident last night near Cherry and Sixth in Downtown. The body was found just past midnight. According to the SPD Blotter, there are no witnesses at this point, but "officers observed a security camera on the east side of the Seattle Metropolitan Tower that might cover the intersection." more ›

Last night at about 10:20 p.m., a bicyclist was struck and killed by a car taking the Dexter Way North exit from Aurora, says Queen Anne News. The police arrested the car's driver after "an evaluation showed signs of impairment." more ›

As is all over the news, Michael Jackson died earlier this afternoon. Seattle's legendary Quincy Jones says goodbye to Michael in this statement: "I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news. For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words. Divinity brought our souls together on The Wiz and allowed us to do what we were able to throughout the 80s. To this day, the music we created together on Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad is played in every corner of the world and the reason for that is because he had it all--talent, grace, professionalism and dedication. He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him." more ›

• Put your jazz hands together for Seattle's Garfield High School jazz band who won first place at Lincoln Center's 14th annual Essentially Ellington competition in NYC this weekend, beating out crosstown rival jazz band and reigning champion Roosevelt High School.
• Perverted vegetables found in Seattle.
• Seattle Beer Week is well underway and to celebrate tonight's festivities, check out the Dry T-shirt Contest in West Seattle. Say wha? Dry T-shirt? Ohhh, they want you to wear the best beer-related shirt (oldest, farthest away, etc.).The only thing wet you'll find is the pints of beer.

"Aged 4 Mos." by B.K. Dewey, from the Seattlest Flickr pool more ›

Remember that incident up in Lynnwood where the kid died after drinking meth bong water? Apparently this man in Lewis County has some kind of death wish for his wife and nursing infant, or (more probably) he doesn't read the news. He gave his unwitting wife a glass of water spiked with meth to help her summon up the energy to do household chores--and then, in a strikingly strategic move, talked about what he'd done on the phone while in jail on other charges. The first person to spot an anti-meth-water public service announcement on TV wins a lifetime's worth of a sense of grim resignation to humanity's stupidity. more ›

MyBallard has the story: the woman's body was found around 10 a.m. this morning, "face down in the sand," and police say the cause of death is "suspicious." Identification was found nearby, so that news should follow. A woman out walking her dog on the Golden Gardens beach found the body. We really hate when life imitates CSI: Miami. more ›

A $100m shortfall in sales tax may cause Metro to cut service by 20 percent. Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond--who obviously just saw The Wrestler--called it "a body blow." Why linger at Forever 21 when it's not all that hard to get into Ft. Lewis if you're a teenage girl? But children are the future. And somewhere out there in the Puget Sound, J-pod orcas are still trying to lose the baby weight. Welcome to the world, J44 and L122. more ›

ONE WEEKEND ONLY more ›

RECOMMENDED more ›

A 39-year-old bicyclist collided with a van this morning on 24th Avenue near 65th, and died at Harborview later. MyBallard has the sad aftermath on the horrific accident, which came during the morning commute and left the cyclist pinned underneath the van. Let's be careful out there, people. more ›

John Updike has died of lung cancer. He was 76. He was just in town in mid-November for a talk at Seattle Arts & Lectures that we attended and wrote about. It was our first and last time seeing him in person. We feel very lucky to have had that chance, now, and so we repeat what we said then: "He mentioned that the name Updike is what happens when the Dutch name 'Op de Dijk' hits American shores. Maybe that’ll be our updated image of this writer who has never lost his boyish enthusiasm for fiction’s impossible task. There he is, in front of his earthworks, holding back the sea—though the sea of course will inevitably win." more ›

This is a public service announcement, in case any of you are tempted to incorporate trash cans into a composition of your own. It's not as easy as it sounds. more ›

As the minutes tick past, that blurb keeps getting updated. Now, it's a full story, complete with quotes from Swartz: "One thing is clear: at the end of the sale process, we do not see ourselves publishing in print." more ›

It's an honest question. Last week when we read and reported the story of James Paroline who was killed by a single punch, we were slightly stunned that the effects of a punch could kill a man. So much so that we assumed it was likely a very rare occurrence and a tragic case where the most imperfect circumstances lined up. However, tonight while browsing the local news we spotted the following headline: "Modified Guilty Plea in Punching Death in Monroe". more ›

According to Slog, the Seattle Times is about to lay off 200 employees (at least 45 of them from the newsroom). As a friend noted, it's not entirely surprising. Print media far and wide are bowing to the evolution of demand for media. This Seattlest, for one, only ever touches a newspaper anymore if it's in a bin at our local coffeeshop. And, even then, it's to pull out the crossword. We get all our news online and reckon we're not alone. more ›

Right on the heels of the announcement that the Mars Volta was added to the Sasquatch lineup, and right before tickets go on sale this Saturday, the three-day music festival has seen fit to delineate who will be playing on which day: more ›

After months of wild speculation, the official 2008 Sasquatch lineup has finally been announced: more ›

Chris Walla is best known for being the guitarist in Death Cab for Cutie. Or he's known as a producer for Tegan & Sara and the Decemberists. Or maybe you heard about the little incident he had with Homeland Security confiscating his computer last fall. Now Walla's got another reason for notability: his first solo album, Field Manual, out today on Barsuk Records. Singer-songwriter stuff ain't exactly our bag, but Walla's smooth delivery ensures that even the more overtly political songs go down easy. Above is the video for first single "Sing Again," which was filmed in Portland and features about 9,000 cameos from Walla's friends/other Northwest artists. Betcha can't name 'em all! more ›

Robert Bresson, Luis Buñuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Jules Dassin, Federico Fellini -- thanks to distributor Rialto Pictures, their restored films are popping up in theaters around the country, and, happily, here in Seattle. more ›

Former Washington governor Booth Gardner has Parkinson's. He's been using his leftover political capital to campaign for a "Death with Dignity" initiative, to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Washington state. And it's been working. Even the New York Times took note of Gardner's labors. more ›

If you haven't yet heard through the grapevine, Death Cab will release their 8th studio album in May of this year. more ›

We've been hitting shows on the Seattle music scene for about four years now, and if there's one thing we can say with certainty, it's that Seattle doesn't need more musicians, it needs ones. Such may be the consolation of learning that next week, the Seattle chapter of Paul Green's School of Rock opens. If Green's now famous "school" can help create a new generation of musicians whose influences go deeper than Green Day, that alone will be an achievement. more ›

DJ Nphared spins for Sportn' Life artists, including D. Black and Fatal Lucciauno, and he also DJs for Grynch. Seattlest enjoyed his mixes at the Parker Brothaz show on Monday, so we set out to learn more about this guy's ethos. more ›

Inspired by a random iPod event at Seattlest's Thanksgiving, a friend lamented the early death of John Denver and then launched into a diatribe about how he didn't pull a Kennedy; that is, Denver wasn't a dilettante pilot. He went on to explain that Denver was an experienced pilot who owned many planes and flew often. He died, our friend claimed, when one of the fuel tanks in the experimental plane he was flying... more ›

No. But that doesn't make this factoid from a political campaign article in today's any less disturbing: more ›

A few weeks ago, singer/raconteur Jenny Owen Youngs was in town, playing at the High Dive the same time as the Fremont Bridge was being closed evenings, which led to our arriving mid-set in a state of high dudgeon. We decided to skip a half-assed review, and afterwards fired off some impertinent questions via email. We just heard back, and as you'll see, Jenny schools us a bit. Now we adore her even more. If you buy her new album, Batten the Hatches, tell her we sent you. more ›

There was no Seattle Freeze here, as people drank, smoked, and chatted all night long with a mixture of friends and strangers. A lot of people claim that the death of this block is part of the slow death of Capitol Hill culture. In contrast, Seattlest sees last night's festivities as evidence that the spirit of Seattle is alive and well, and that it's going to take more than the demolition of a few buildings to kill that. more ›

The script to Birdie Blue is the sort that, if there was any justice in this world, would have been unceremoniously trashed by every producer whose desk it crossed. Unfortunately, this being the real world and all, this awful script has been produced off-Broadway and in regional theatres all across the country, despite the fact it's guilty of every terrible conceit and device you could associate with the modern theatre. Nothing would have made us... more ›