Gossip is an Olympian band that chose its name wisely: they're worth spreading, fun to know, and slightly malicious. We mean that in the best possible way. Live, the three-piece vibe raucous fury, singer Beth Ditto's righteous wail affixed like a spike to the front of guitarist Brace Paine and drummer Hannah Blilie chop shop roadster. Fast, dark, and dangerous, just like Gossip. more ›

Kate Hudson wants A-Rod as a sperm donor, In Touch magazine reports. Says a "friend of Hudson" (ahem): "She just turned 30 and she's ready to have her second child...so she brought up the idea to Alex and told him that they would make a beautiful baby together, and that she would assume all financial responsibility." more ›

• Capitol Hill Seattle has taken on an important question regarding the almighty hamburger. Which has the better burger, Quinn's or the Lunchbox Laboratory? The argument's raging in the comments.
• Subterfuge Seattle has successfully identified "Seattle's most socially relevant person," and they're kind enough to share not only the guy's name and bio information, but a photo as well!
• As usual, The Sable Verity has the inside scoop on all matters South End--this time, she's calling out the Seattle Public Schools superintendent for marking Rainier Beach High for closure before Goodloe-Johnson was even in charge. Ouch.

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We missed Project Runway last night (we were here), but apparently Blayne did a funny Chewbacca imitation and created a beautiful wreck of a drag-queen outfit. Thoughts? Comments? more ›

We're in the International District, walking down the street, past the whole roasted ducks displayed in windows, sniffing fried Chinese food and fragrant pho broth, searching for the one thing that seems not to exist in the ID--coffee. more ›

In another effort by Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz to "get back to the roots and the core of our heritage, which is the leading roaster of specialty coffee in the world," it's been reported that Starbucks will remove those tasty breakfast sammiches from their stores. more ›

Howard Schultz is shaking things up. According to the Wall Street Journal, Starbucks is testing a $1 cup of drip coffee in some Seattle-area stores.

The eight-ounce short size isn't on Starbucks's menu but has long been ordered by in-the-know patrons. Typically, a short, brewed coffee would sell for around $1.50, although that can vary by several cents depending on the store. Starbucks is also testing the offer of free refills for traditional-brewed coffee in the Seattle area. more ›

starbucks, howard schultz, sonics more ›

's coming back on Sunday, 9pm on Showtime! This means weekly installments of nothing but gloriously bad decisions, lesbian sex both complicated and primal, stylishly coiffed men, women, and those who have yet to make up their minds, and -- possibly our favorite part--endless cups of coffee, gossip, and star guest performances at (all-purpose meeting point) The Planet. more ›

Just in time for New Year's resolutions, Starbucks added a new word to their ordering lexicon: Skinny Latte. That's official SBUX lingo for "nonfat Latte made with sugar-free syrup." more ›

Back in September, Billy Chasen had a mission: concoct the single most expensive Starbucks drink he could. The winner?

I told the barista that I was there as part of a contest to make the most expensive drink. She played along, trying to squeeze as much as we could into a venti cup. She thoroughly enjoyed the problem at hand (although other customers on line were getting peeved). more ›

Just in case anyone reading this blog is a sixteen-year-old girl and/or writes for Gawker, have we got big news for you: more ›

A couple of Seattlest haters and their friends went to the SIFF Cinema last night to check out the new Coen Bros. movie, which is still every bit as good as we already said it was when we saw it months ago. Lucky for us No Country for Old Men is more along the lines of vintage Coen masterpieces like Blood Simple and has absolutely nothing in common with the turd-arific misfires of their more recent crap, which might be the only sign of a loving and forgiving God than anything you're going to get out of the Coen's trademark brutal-ass nihilism. Warning to whiny pussies: Don't go see this movie if you're already depressed; it won't help. more ›

Last year Seahawks kicker Josh Brown publicly announced his crush on Carrie Underwood. He'd even gotten her phone number. But soon after, Underwood was linked to Cowboys QB Tony Romo. more ›

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. more ›

this ain't. more ›

Last night's Arcade Fire show was rife with problems. Not with the Arcade Fire, Lord knows they can do no wrong, but with the opening bands, and most of all, with the venue. Somehow, even though the scheduled time for the show was 7:30pm, the time published everywhere---on the Ticketmaster site, in ads for the show, in UW emails, on the goddamn tickets---doors actually opened at 6:30pm and the Gossip started playing right around 7. This would explain why no one was there for their set. more ›

Empathy is the issue at hand, though. Lawyer Atticus Finch (David Bishins) is an odd bird. He won't play a backyard game of catch with his son Jem. He won't join in a touch football game. When he chats with Scout, his daughter, his conversation is mainly made up of oracular pronouncements not geared for childish comprehension.He hides his countywide fame as a marksman from his kids. He takes a case that guarantees the whole family will be subject to verbal abuse and gossip. And he's always at the office -- though how busy could a small town in Alabama in 1935 keep him? -- leaving his kids mainly in the housekeeper's care. more ›

Rob Gordon once said, "The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules." more ›

Starbucks is going to slim down its drink menu, notes Starbucks Gossip. They cite a line from an AP wire article on recent Starbucks business: more ›

Through July 1 // Seattle Center House // Tickets $28 adults/$22 seniors/$18 students more ›

Now that the opening gala has kicked off SIFF all proper-like, it's time to join the orgy of cinema for the next 25 days. For all film screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $10/$8 (and matinees $7/$5), except for gala screenings, which are $25/$23, and the closing night film event, which is $40/$35. more ›

Dustin and her racing partner Kandice (Dustin's the blonde...with the nice teeth...the one who doesn't kinda sorta resemble Maggie Gyllenhaal) achieved All-Stardom by coming in fourth place last season on Amazing Race 10, and also by being blonde, perky, upbeat, mutually supportive, and lightning rods for bitterness from other teams. They wanted to be the first all-female team to win the race, though surly long-time rivals "Bama" ended up coming a little bit closer. more ›

There's a classic science fiction short story called The Country of the Kind by Damon Knight that was published in 1955. The narrator of the story walks around a utopia acting like a huge asshole, disrupting lives and smashing up properties. He thinks of himself as the king of the world because everyone around him is too nice--like enlightened and tolerant and kind--to stand up to him. It's a humane and permissive society, completely free of violence and conflict. For some reason it's reminiscent of Seattle, but that's not why we bring it up. more ›

--The Seattle Mystery Bookshop gets sucked into a publisher's con game. [Seattle Mystery Bookshop] more ›

Howard Schultz is probably enjoying his first relaxing day in a while today after the Starbucks shareholder's meeting yesterday. At least, he finally had a chance to explain to everyone just what the hell he was talking about with that whole memo thing. You remember the memo--we're talking about the one where he complained that Starbucks had lost its way in the name of growth and had become a cookie cutter retail chain that was squeezing the romance out of caffeinated beverages. When he was dictating that memo it must have occurred to him that he'd be standing on the stage inside McCaw Hall someday soon explaining it. Yesterday was the day. more ›

It's like we were just saying about Starbucks the other day, only if we were the Washington Post instead of a city blog:

For most Seattleites, what Schultz called "the watering down of the Starbucks experience" is stale news -- akin to reports that the Seattle SuperSonics (which Schultz sold last year) are a losing National Basketball Association team or that Seattle winters are wet. more ›