Yes, yes, Seafair is this weekend, but if you are a parent of a gradeschooler, or a nerd, or both, then there is a much more important event. Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince is playing at the Pacific Science Center IMAX. more ›

We have to be honest: We were slightly annoyed when we read the email promoting Seattle School's (of Motel fame) latest event. Anything that calls an organization "insanely exuberant" and says that it is putting on one of the "craziest film events in the history of the city" is trying pretty hard to sound zany and exciting. more ›

What it is ain't exactly clear, however. Back on December 2, PopMatters published "So Long, Something Weird," which made it sound like locally based exploitation/sexploitation distributor Something Weird Video was going out of business. It’s time to call out the carnal color guard and get the bugler to blow a rather trashy and tawdry Taps. After nearly seven years celebrating the best of exploitation, Something Weird Video has parted ways with chief home theater... more ›

Nothing ages as poorly as sketch comedy television. You remember it being it hilarious, but when you sit someone down in front of a "Mr. Show" or "Kids in the Hall" or "Ben Stiller Show" DVD, invariably, the first episode passes in uncomfortable silence before you have to admit that, at the time, it was hilarious, but maybe it would have made more sense to watch a few clips on YouTube instead of buying the boxed set collector's edition DVDs. more ›

We don't have a lot of parenting pet peeves. Little Miss Seattlest has already picked up our usual response to a lot of great debates: "Whatever." more ›

SHOPPING: Scarecrow is having a used DVD sale right now that will be running through the end of the month (or "until the shelves are bare"), but don't wait until everyone else goes through and takes all the good stuff. more ›

On the heels of the old news about Amazon and dynamic pricing comes some old news about Amazon's 30-day price guarantee. That's right. Amazon will refund your money if their price on something you buy drops within 30 days of your purchase. We hadn't heard that, either. There's some new news to go with the old news, though. Using Your Accounts, you could manually check on everything you ordered in the last month. Or, this... more ›

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: more ›

MUSIC: Criminally underrated British singer-songwriter Jim Noir delivers his psych-pop twice tonight: first an acoustic set at Sonic Boom in Ballard, and then rocking out at the Croc as part of the Sub Pop/Barsuk Winter Celebration and Holiday Party Extravaganza. more ›

--The first college basketball poll is out, and the Huskies are ranked #16. more ›

Mark your calendars: starting November 1, the Seattle Public Library will be extending its DVD checkout period from one week (boo!) to two weeks.

The Seattle Public Library will extend its loan period for DVDs from one week to two weeks beginning Wednesday, Nov. 1. The change also applies to DVD sets, such as television series and multi-part travel and history collections. A DVD may be renewed twice if there are no holds on the item. more ›

Today's PI has an article about a new social networking site founded by a couple of ex-Real employees. Shelfari is a place to show off and discuss your favorite books. Founded by former RealNetworks employees Josh Hug and Kevin Beukelman, the three-person company plans today to unveil a Web site that allows people to list book titles, write reviews, recommend books to friends and find like-minded bibliophiles. Shelfari plans to make money by passing leads... more ›

Maybe they're still thinking about it. Maybe they're waiting for more requests to come in. Maybe if you requested the same DVD (performer: Mary-Louise Parker; Release date: July 11, 2006), critical mass would be reached, and we could check it out of the library one of these days. At least with books, if they opt not to buy the title, they'll request it via interlibrary loan. At least then we know. more ›

The Port of Seattle just knocked on Seattlest's inbox with news that six computer disks that contain information on over six thousand airport workers are missing. First of all, who the hell still stores information on "computer disks?" Hopefully, that means "DVDs," but still. When are we going to hear the first report of a thumb drive containing critical homeland security data being stolen? more ›

International travel is a challenge for a book whore like Seattlest--how many titles can we cram into our carry-on and still have room for at least a few necessary items? (Our journey began before the foiling of the London plot, when we liked to carry toiletries with us in case our checked luggage got lost.) True, we have an iPod and we did load a few goodies of the bookish variety onto it, but in all honesty, the iTunes book offerings are still immensely dissatisfying. And expensive: $50 for the newest Harry Potter, are you fucking kidding? more ›

Amazon launched its grocery service recently and it's got us all nostalgic for a bygone age. Back in the day our ass never had to lift out of the Aeron to get produce, DVDs, books, clothes, art, exotic pets, and a human toe delivered right to our office by a scooter messenger. A six pack of Oly and a head of lettuce please. Because we fucking can! Then we were all fired and a few rich guys got slightly less rich. more ›

Deadwood's back, starting Sunday night. We're feverishly working through our season 2 DVDs to get ready in time, 'cause we know we're not going remain spoiler-free. more ›

Hate the library's new one-week checkout period for DVDs? more ›

In between obsessively checking their progress in various NCAA tournament pools, here's how Seattlest types will spend their weekends. more ›

After we discovered the library's new "1 week for DVDs" policy, Seattlest sent feedback expressing our displeasure and requesting that multi-disc DVD sets, at least, be left with a 3-week checkout period. more ›

This morning, Seattlest received a "Notice from the Seattle Public Library." Before telling us that Everything You Know About Sex Is Wrong is now available for us to pick up at the North East Branch, the email said:

Starting April 1, 2006, the check-out period for all DVDs is ONE WEEK. A DVD may be renewed twice if there are no holds on the item. A shorter loan period brings DVDs back sooner for the next person to check out. It also brings the loan period in line with our neighbor library systems.

Seattlest is a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Well, we never actually watched the show all that much. We're fans of the idea of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, maybe. We continue to have trouble sitting still for an hour (or two, or three - damn you DVDs) but we'll probably eventually get it sorted and have ourselves a Buffy marathon for the ages. Now, Angel -- to Buffy what Joanie Loves Chachi was to Happy Days-- not so much. Can you get any dorkier than a bunch of high school kids staking demons and vampires? Turns out that you can! Enter Angel. more ›

Poor porn. It's like the creative and hilarious ugly kid who kinda smells in high school. Behind closed doors it's fine to let him bring his zine collection and some records over to your mom's house and you can kick it with him in the basement for hours even though he sucks at Nintendo, but he's never going to get invited to the table in the cafeteria or shown any similar public displays of acceptance. Sorry, smelly kid - That's just the way it is. We'll check you after college when you can have us over to your quirky but expensive house once and then never invite us back. "Sorry, man, but I got some record industry people coming over so...you gotta jet." more ›

Obviously the streets of the Emerald City will be empty between 1-5pm on Saturday, when the Seahawks play, but what are people doing the rest of the weekend? more ›

It's difficult to be bleeding edge all the time. Sometimes by the time Seattlest gets around to posting an item, we suspect maybe it's long ago scabbed over and there's just that faint white line and memories of itchiness. more ›

Seattlest loves the Seattle Public Library system. So what if the downtown library can, from certain perspectives, be compared to a smushed cheese grater? We hardly ever make it through the front doors, and we'll tell you why -- in a bit. more ›

Usually, when we're sick we like to curl up at home and watch reruns of The Golden Girls. Something about Betty White's cheery disposition makes us feel better, even when we can't keep down solid food. Sure, we'll whine and complain a lot, but usually in a day or two feel feel better. Recently, we read John M. Barry's The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History which has put all of our colds in proper perspective. It's ostensibly the story of the not too distant 1918 Influenza outbreak, responsible for over 50 million deaths worldwide. The book details how incompetent governmental decisions allowed this virus to spread and how poorly our healthcare systems responded to this tragedy. It's really one of the best books we've read recently and it definitely had us stocking up on hand wash (and Golden Girls DVDs). more ›