We're not going to fault Nordstrom's for their decision to ax the piano players in some stores. Instead, we'll blame Nordstrom customers, and their preference for new-fangled pop music. From the Seattle Times: Some Nordstrom department stores are discontinuing their live piano notes in favor of commercially recorded music piped in over speakers. Nordstrom's store at Bellevue Square recently did away with its pianist, and the Alderwood mall store in Lynnwood will soon follow suit,......

This weekend Seattlest was standing outside of Jules Maes in Georgetown trying to explain to someone which part, exactly, of the Rainier Cold Storage compound across the street was about to be torn down. It's the Stock House which is north of here a bit--it's, uh...no. Ok, it's down there near the...no. Not thirty feet from us and directly across the street there's a sign that says "Stock House." Yep, that's it. Rainier Cold Storage......

Some of the best sports writing anywhere is on FreeDarko, where a group of very smart, very funny people talk hoops in an utterly inimitable way. One of FreeDarko's main contributors, Bethlehem Shoals, has been obliquely referencing a recent move to Seattle, so we thought we'd ask him about it. And about basketball. What brings you to Seattle? Where did you come from? And when did you get here? I followed my girlfriend—I mean, partner—here.......

How easy it is to poke mean-spirited fun at Silverman Festivals, aka Bite of Seattle. The family-owned commercial enterprise, enabled by the City of Seattle in the guise of a community festival, symbolizes so much of what's wrong with America today: greed, exploitation, overweening appetite and tons of just plain crappy food. A cheap and easy target for the smug and self-satisfied. (For one such potshot, see Cornichon's "Blah of Seattle" post a year ago.)......

Last night at the Crocodile was one of those evenings you stumble on where things just keep getting better and better. We went down to see headliners Sea Wolf [MySpace] after hearing them do an in-studio bit at KEXP (not posted yet). About two songs in, the indie-folk melodies and lead singer's baritone duets with cello swept us and Shelves of Vinyl off our feet. They're a six-piece -- Alex Brown Church on vocals and......

-- Watch out, tuberculosis! Seattle's coming after your ass. -- "This building is a Macintosh. Most buildings in downtown Seattle are PCs." -- Mike Webb: still missing. -- Starbucks: Jones Soda is out, Izze is in. -- Hotel 1000 violates Scalzi's Law of Hotel Internet Connections -- but that's a good thing. -- "If I ever get a hearty recommendation from the Stranger that says my movie is crap save for the art direction,......

In the pantheon of great Ichiro quotes, this may launch to number one. You'll remember that the Mariners have to make up all these games in Cleveland that were snowed out. One such game is tonight. And Ichiro is not particularly thrilled about it. He told the Seattle Times (as always, through an interpreter):To tell the truth, I'm not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to. If I ever saw myself saying I'm......

Unopened moving boxes. Furniture in temporary locations. No clue where the closest pizza, Thai, or Indian delivery places are. All signs that even though we've moved all of our possessions from Wedgwood to Rainier Beach, Seattlest is still in the liminal period between our North Seattleite and South Seattleite identities. One of the many things long-time Rainier Valley residents have dealt with that we're learning: the MLK Way light rail construction. In the abstract, when......

Cynthia Hopkins @ On the Boards Through Sunday, May 6; Tickets $24 Frankly, it's a delusion that we can discuss art -- if by that we meant we could, by telling you about Cynthia Hopkins' Must Don't Whip 'Um, persuade you how good it is. Once we were talking with the sculptor Jun Kaneko about his obelisks and someone perplexedly burst out with, "Sure, but what do they mean?" Kaneko smiled and said, "If I......

"If I were still mayor, and I knew I was coming to an event like this," Charley Royer told us before last night's political fundraiser pub quiz, "I'd make sure there wasn't a question about Seattle that I didn't know the answer to." Nice in theory. Mayor Nickels' team won the night (we swear we didn't rig it!), but he was only able to get 6 out of 10 on our Seattle round. Can you......

Jonathan Lethem understands what being an unabashed fan feels like, and we are an unabashed, dorky fan of his many books and recent essays. When we heard that he is non-exclusively sharing some of his short stories for $1 to be reused in other works of art (films, songs, etc) and he is giving away the option to his new novel, You Don't Love Me Yet, and releasing the ancillary rights after five years, we......

Republicans in Olympia are tired of the Spend-o-crat majority rendering their very existence moot, and they've decided to do something about it—make funny noises. Representative Dan Roach, who is proving that douchebaggery is hereditary, was complaining that Democrats were railroading a bill through the House to benefit trial lawyers when he went a little off the rails himself--launching an attack on House majority leader Lynn Kessler's trial lawyer husband Keith. The Times' David Postman takes......

M's are 2-0 to start the season for the first time since 1996. Our favorite moment was Yuniesky Betancourt's home run on a 2-0 pitch. Not just because it untied the game, but because it showed how far Betancourt's progressed as a hitter. Calero challenged him with a fastball, which 2005 Betancourt probably would've popped up. 2007 Betancourt CRANKED it. Attention American League: You can't just throw Yuniesky Betancourt a fastball any old time and......

Mossback Returns! This is the most salient news item we see in the Seattle Times story on David Brewster's Crosscut, an online regional news site slated to hit the e-streets on March 12. [Brewster] has enlisted two other Seattle Weekly veterans to work on the venture. Former Weekly Managing Editor Chuck Taylor will be Crosscut's editor. Knute "Skip" Berger [aka Mossback], the Weekly's former editor-in-chief, will write for the publication. Brewster, who will be......

MUSIC: The Cave Singers. One of their MySpace friends commented, "If I was a hang glider I would listen to your music while hang gliding." Um, okay. We might agree with that. Either way, these guys make good down-home music and their guitarist is ex-PGMG. *Sample tracks on MySpace. 9:00 pm // the Crocodile // $7 STREET SENSATIONALISM: Rene Denfeld's book All God's Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families explores the......

Tuesday, February 6 >>> Spanish classical guitarist Pepe Romero at Benaroya Hall. The flying-fingered flamenco phenomenon, knighted by the King of Spain, plays several of his father's compositions and one of his own, plus other Spanish works. * video: Recuerdos de la Alhambra 7:30 pm // $29-$61 // Cheap seats are in the rear orchestra section. >>> From the North at High Dive. Seattle rock music history comes full circle in a way with......

Music: Cat Power, Chan (short for Charlyn) Marshall, brings her insanity-influenced act to our frozen burg. Right now she's walking around town, melting the ice with that impish smile of hers. 8pm // The Showbox // Tickets are $30 (Note: If you intend to scream Chan's name at the concert, or later, in the privacy of your bedroom, it's pronounced like "Shawn," just like the Angels' "Chone" Figgins. Go figure. And forget about the bedroom,......

When the original opera Carmen premiered in Paris in 1875, it was deemed a failure for its shallow, sinful plot. Over one hundred years later, however, Carmen has become one of the most popular operas in the world. Seattlest had the auspicious pleasure Thursday night, to be invited to a preview performance of Peter Brook's The Tragedy of Carmen, a stripped-down, English language version of the Georges Bizet classic. Though not well-versed in opera ourselves,......

Monday, after posting our pro-lap dance response to Susan Paynter's PI column, we received an email from an anonymous local stripper: I just read your defense of your right to make women touch you sexually for pay and was wondering: 1. How does intimate sexual touching for payment not equal prostitution unless you're going by a very narrow, fundamentalist penis-in-vagina definition of sex? 2. Why can't you just be happy looking at us beautiful ladies......

This week, we're tempted by David "Fathead" Newman's Tuesday and Wednesday gigs -- a tenor saxman who used to play with the Ray Charles Band, Newman is said to belong in the company of Coltrane and Getz. But Saturday night we were at the Triple Door for the Rocco DeLuca/Sierra Swan bill. It was a night like any other, until Rocco DeLuca and the Burden began playing. Sounding like the love child of Jeff Buckley......

Ron Silver may have been a bad guy in TimeCop, but he had a better seat at the NBA draft than the Sonics' draft pick. Yes, with their highest draft pick since 1989, the Sonics picked a guy who was sitting in the stands. When David Stern announced the Sonics #10 overall pick, Mouhamed Sene, he added, "He's here!" And, sure enough, down came Sene out of the stands, passing actor Ron Silver as......

To: Matthew Baldwin (aka Defective Yeti) From: Seattlest Subject: Re: Friday night If I ever run into you or your evil twin I'd love to buy you a Starbucks as your site is far funnier than is proper. Too bad about you and Jamie Moyer (pitcher for the seattle mariners) - I really thought you guys were going to make it work. I love you, Seattlest P.S. Maybe we can make it to a grunge......

Governor Gregoire, apparently unaware that her job could be taken from her in two and a half years, is leaving it up the state's National Guardsmen whether they want to patrol the US-Mexico border. President Bush is sending 6,000 National Guard members to the Southern border to end the problem of people entering the country illegally. Showing the kind of bold decision-making that caused her to get outpolled by John "My position on the war......

Our modern day prophet had a convo with God the other day and God told him the Pacific NW is screwed. How do prophets get in touch with deities in 2006, anyway? That burning bush thing is so B.C., but we're not sure if He's ready for instant messaging yet. Maybe Pat Robertson recieved a burning text message from God on his phone? Yeah, it's Pat Robertson. "If I heard the Lord right about 2006,......

We wanted to attend the Town Hall evolution vs Jesus Freaks debate last night. It was on our calendar and we had all our stuff layed out. Pen, notebook, pillowcase full of doorknobs... That's the wrong attitude, though. You can't beat science into someone's head, it turns out. Someone emailed us with the right attitude today, though, and we'd like to share it with you. Thanks for the email Samantha. Although recent efforts to challenge......

European travel guru Rick Steves has reefer madness. His best girl is named Mary Jane and every once in while he gets a visit from Puff the Magic Dragon. Face it, people, the man you've relied on to guide you through the historic wonders of the old world is one lost Europass away from becoming this guy. Tonight at Kane Hall, Steves will join Roger Goodman, director of the King County Bar Association's Drug Policy......

Ichiro's Japanese team was expected to advance to the second round of the World Baseball Classic. And they did. But for Ichiro, the Group A tournament at the Tokyo Dome was about more than just moving on to round two. Before the event, he said this: Not only will we win, but also we’ll make Japanese baseball fans feel that they saw a truly great game. I want to make [Korea and Taiwan] see......

We warned you in late December and early January that this was coming: a confrontation between residents of the Pomeroy and its new tenant, Twist. The mainstream guys are finally onto the story now: big piece in today's Post Intelligencer describes the concerns of condo owners, although they're made out to be bad guys who want to undercut the mayor's desire to bring more people downtown. But the real doofus here is Twist's managing partner......

Bernard-Henri Levy occupies a position in France roughly comparable to...well, we don't have anyone like him. Rock star Bono comes close. Jon Stewart, maybe, except that BHL writes his own material. Sporting an unruly haircut, clad in the requisite uniform (black shirt, black blazer), he's a familiar figure on French TV, the embodiment of the Public Intellectual. Atlantic Monthly sent him on a year-long assignment to retrace the intellectual journey taken by de Tocqueville; the......

Seattlest's bus ride to work lasts about twelve minutes. That's just long enough for us to find a seat, sit in it, open our bag, take out our laptop and boot it up, Start, Shutdown, Yes we would like the computer to shut down, put it away and get off the bus. Ah, another productive commute! You didn't notice it, but during the minute our computer was on it attempted and failed to find any......