An armed man was forcibly subdued in the lobby of a downtown hotel this weekend after an alarmed ex-girlfriend alerted staff that the man had a gun and intended to use it. The altercation, which involved as many as four employees, escalated into a full-fledged wrestling match as the suspect became violent and refused to hand the firearm over. Seattle Police responded relatively quickly and relieved the hotel staff of the suspect, whom they......

Conventional wisdom says these days ain't happy ones for pulp-and-print publications. Circulation's down. Ad revenues are down. Everyone wants to read online. So nearly every newspaper, magazine and television news program has a host of blogs these days, to compete with the millions of self-described experts, autodidacts, conspiracy theorists and Chuck Norris-aficionados who propagate the blogosphere with their own brand of citizen journalism (read: poor spelling and poorer grammar). Indeed, it's hard to get noticed......

Kristina Sutherland's Franklin and Figaro is the type of play that gets a regular theatre-goer excited: A clever original script, expertly produced by a small theatre company, with a strong cast of local actors. This is what fringe theatre was supposed to be but rarely managed. Subtitled "a revolutionary farce," Franklin and Figaro is set in the pre-Revolutionary France of 1776; the playwright Jean Beaumarchais—who wrote the populist classics The Marriage of Figaro and The......

There is something seriously wrong in this city right now. The fight between drivers and bicyclists has been brewing for years, but recently it seems to be reaching a boiling-over point. It pushes what we consider to be sane people, on both sides of the argument, into a state of rage that we honestly find a bit frightening. It needs to stop (and by stop we don't mean that we want to see a bunch......

1. Things We Lost in the Fire. There are a few things we liked about this (supposedly based here, though there is nothing to indicate that it actually takes place here) movie---mostly that the heroin junkie played by Benecio Del Toro lives in a flophouse in Renton and that Halle Berry plays a Seattle woman named Audrey, leading to a scene where Del Toro runs after her calling, "Audrey, Audrey, Audrey, Audrey, Audrey!" Call......

A few weeks ago, Nobel Prize Laureate and co-discoverer of DNA Dr. James Watson blew through town, reflecting on how he's stayed away from stupid people, then delving into his now-customary slurry of sexist patois. Apparently he waited until he got across the pond to London to pull out the big guns:The 79-year-old geneticist said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that......

Police forces from the Snohomish County Sheriff's department and the Sultan Police department swarmed on the semi-annual Fantagraphics Shoot-out party on Saturday, shutting down the festivities after only a measly two hours of shooting, which wasn't nearly enough time to shoot all the tvs, computer monitors and lawn mowers hauled out to be shot (see our coverage of the 2005 party here). Apparently, according to these cops, it's somehow "illegal" to dump a lot......

The food news may seem depressing, but there's hope. Bear with us. In 1651, Thomas Hobbes, not known for his optimism, wrote that the life of man was doomed to be nasty, brutish, and short. Couple hundred years later, the even less-cheery Thomas Malthus predicted that the Industrial Revolution would cause worldwide famine. Yet humans survive, even prosper. Oh, sure, we waste resources fighting one another. Granted, too, that political systems everywhere seem to encourage......

Seattlest confidant/subliterate henchman "Pete the Polak" told us a long stupid story this weekend about how a friend of a friend of his once knew Duff and this credible source claimed that it was he and not Axl who wrote the lyrics for the timeless classic "Paradise City" and that said song was based on Seattle. We immediately called horse shit on this obvious lie, but upon activating a computer we could find no evidence......

With the primary on August 21st we thought we would bore the general public and preview the races for City Council. First, a personal digression: Every summer we've spent in Seattle since we graduated college, we've spent working on a city council campaign. Until this summer. Sure we haven't spent our Saturday mornings battling with staple guns, marched in any of the neighborhood parades, or had to deal with some dip-shit community leader having a......

Swoop, the mascot of Eastern Washington University, was stomped outside a bar Sunday night and briefly detained by none other than police chief Gil Kerlikowske. Apparently. Reports the Seattle P-I:Lt. Kenneth Hicks, shift commander at the precinct that includes Pioneer Square, was leading Kerlikowske on a closing-time tour of the club district when the senior officers witnessed a man-on-eagle fracas, according to police documents. The officers watched as a 30-year-old Seattle man shoved the eagle......

Guns, booze, dames, and private eyes: The SIFF Cinema Summer Series (say that five times fast) kicks off tonight with their first annual Seattle Noir City Festival. Noir City's been taking place in San Francisco for five years now, and this is the first time it's made its way to the seamy underbelly of the Northwest. The festival is co-presented with and will benefit the Film Noir Foundation whose mission is to spread the......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

At the Microsoft Strategic Account Summit yesterday morning Bill Gates dropped some future knowledge on the assembled ad men and tech types. A few of those nuggets we found particularly interesting and insightful: Prediction #4: There Will Be No Street Cars in Our Large Cities. All hurry traffic will be below or high above ground when brought within city limits. In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and......

Wednesday, February 21 >>> The Thermals at Chop Suey. The Thermals are back in town to rock out for the cause of saving all ages shows. With Helvetia, Speaker Speaker. * mp3: How We Know 8:00 pm doors // $10 adv. // All ages >>> The Budos Band at Neumo's. James Brown may be beating women in heaven, but on Earth we've still got the Budos Band, a ten-piece of twentysomethings who bring sweet......

If you got caught in traffic today because Aurora was closed for five hours, you've got your friendly Seattle cops to thank:Just after 1:30 a.m. Monday, officers were called to an apartment building in the 1500 block of Aurora Avenue North following a report that a man there had thrown a knife at his girlfriend and threatened two other people in the apartment with a rifle... Police closed northbound lanes of Aurora Avenue and a......

"Streetcar gongs ceased their clamor; newsboys cast their unsold papers into the street; from the doors of mill and factory, store and workshop, streamed 65,000 workingmen. School children with fear in their hearts hurried homeward. The life stream of a great city stopped." That's how Mayor Ole Hanson described the beginning of the general strike that was held in Seattle February 1919, one of the few general strikes ever attempted in the U.S. The Bolsheviks......

PUBLIC TALK: Do you get guns? We don't, not really, but Wazzu's own Joan Burbank, professor of English and American Studies, thinks she does. She wrote a book on the subject, and she's going to talk about Gun Culture and American Democracy tonight at Town Hall. 7:30pm // Town Hall Seattle, Eighth & Seneca (downstairs; enter on Seneca) // $5 tickets at the door RITUAL EMBARRASSMENT: "Melodrama and lust and braces and accidental erections"! If......

ART: Our main man Rick Klu has some more of this trademark coaster art - picture pscyhedellic hot rod art and underground comics, ala Skip Williamson, Rick Griffin, Robt Williams, that kind of thing - on the walls at Cafe Racer up in the Roosevelt area. Open till 6pm on Sundays // Cafe Racer, 5828 Roosevelt Way NE // Free SNOW: Of the nearest ski options, Stevens Pass is the best. The spaces are......

Tuesday, December 5 >>> Peter Walker at El Corazon. Not to be confused with Paul Walker or Peter Weller, Peter Walker's in town to support Young Gravity, his second album. We have read, though, that Walker evokes another Pete--Yorn. With maybe a bit more bite. 7pm doors; $10. All ages. With Division Day. Wednesday, December 6 >>> Victrola's own folk chanteuse Molly Rose headlines a singer/songwriter parade of not-yet stars at the Sunset Tavern.......

The last time Seattlest was frisked... We can't remember. Apparently we're not going to enough big parties or Seahawks games, though, because we've seen frisking appear twice in the news recently. The Seattle Times brings up body searches in regards to the death of neighborhood hero and deputy Steve Cox who was killed at a house party in White Center when he was interviewing a party goer alone in a room. The article makes clear......

If you're hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs "so are you nakie" to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

Jagshemash! Borat is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour. In Shanghai, Borat would be observing Inane Learnings of Penis Photos for Make Benefit Glorious Flat World of......

Locally-based techno-environmentalists WorldChanging.com are hyping their book on Saturday at Town Hall and badass science fiction author and green futurist Bruce Sterling will be there to talk about it with WorldChanging editor Alex Steffen - Bruce wrote one of the book's introductions and recently sent this to one of his email lists: (((If this tome becomes as big a hit as its spiritual ancestor the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG, we can accelerate the change to a......

It's Sunday night at the Crocodile Café, and the place is humming—but are people here for opener The Trucks, The Pink Mountaintops who pulled a last minute no-show, or Deadboy & The Elephantmen? The bobbing heads and sing-alongs accompanying "Introduction," The Trucks' first song, are evidence that the Bellingham girl-tet has drawn a good chunk of this Seattle crowd. And until tonight—CD release party!—they'd only issued a handful of streaming songs and a three-track......

Torontoist visits the site of a new Frank Gehry structure, stalks "the elusive Bahamas streetcar", and watches Tom Green get surgery. Phillyist rejoices in the Phillies' wild card chances, mourns the injuries sustained by Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse, and goes pirate on our asses. SFist notes that Guns and Roses were in town, that San Franciscans are taking over reality TV, and that the San Francisco Chronicle's skills of original nomenclature could use some......

Monday night at the Showbox, things were just a little off. In the smokers' area outside the venue, a blond dude writhed on the ground, either having a seizure or a "seizure," we couldn't tell which. The venue's bouncers were being tough on digital SLR cameras, due to their potential use as weapons (whaaa?). Right next door at the Green Room, some guy was getting kicked out and a girl was crying. Meanwhile, inside the......

Reference help from the Seattle Public Library is going 24/7/365.25: The Seattle Public Library now has live online reference services around the clock. For anyone up after midnight cramming for a test, stuck at home and unable to get to a library branch or even on vacation with a laptop, the library is available. All that's needed is to go to www.spl.org, select "Ask a Librarian" and choose "Chat with a Librarian." The service is......

Last night, Seattlest was witness to a monumental pop culture event: Ian Bell's Brown Derby Series' interpretation of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet (Chapters 1-12). Look, if you don't know by now about this epic tale of adultery, berettas, incontinent midgets, and terrible rhyming, we really can't take the time to explain it to you. Just go here, watch all twelve chapters, delight in the so-bad-it's-goodness, and you can thank us later. Once......

Our carpool buddy grabbed his wife's phone by mistake this morning. A vexing but victimless error. Not so of a Kitsap County sheriff's deputy's boo-boo yesterday. He grabbed his gun, instead of his Taser, and fired a bullet--not electricity--into a crazy person who'd climbed up a tree in Bremerton. This was not a mistake under pressure. They'd been trying to get the guy to descend from the tree for two hours. Then he started getting......