It's 100 percent free to be thrilled about the inauguration of our new executive leader. Joy isn't the only freebie today, however. (What? There's more?!) Krispy Kreme will give you one free donut today in honor of the occasion, and a bunch of department stores such as Nordstrom and Macys are giving away free cosmetics and beauty products starting today and continuing until supplies last. Though fitting to the savvy celeb now residing in the White House (we're speaking, naturally, of Michelle Obama), the beauty giveaway is actually in response to a lawsuit accusing the department stores of price fixing on their cosmetics. That kind of two-faced cheating is simply not going to be tolerated under the Obama administration. Get your free stuff before the country runs out of donuts and concealer! more ›

INAUGURATION PRE-FUNK: On this most hallowed Inauguration Eve, head to Neumo's and raise a mighty yawp for Obama with Orkestar Zirkonium. They'll bring the party with their local take on Eastern European brass and drums. Also on the bill: the funkdefied r&b grooves of Emerald City Soul Club and the urban Latin flavor of Picoso. more ›

Just in time for Inauguration Day, 826 Seattle is celebrating the publication of Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: Kids' Letters To President Obama (available January 20th). In the book, 826 students from all seven writing centers "reach out to the 44th president, speaking to the issues closest to their hearts, relating their life stories, and asking for help. Topics include the economy, education, war, global warming, race relations in America, and immigration. The book also includes letters about snow cones, puppies, microwavable burritos, dinosaur projects, multiplication, and the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, reportedly haunting a White House bedroom." To celebrate the book's release, there's a party and reading at 826 Seattle next Saturday afternoon. more ›

Pandora is batting a perfect 1.000 for Seattlest HQ this morning with Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" as the seeder (does it get better than Outkast, Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, the GZA, and Missy Elliott on a Tuesday?). But what really put this morning over the top in terms of all-around greatness was finding this Wall Street Journal article about the writer's life, Obama, and the White House by local author Jonathan Raban, via Slog. An excerpt from Raban's essay:

In politics, "realism" is usually just another term for pragmatism, or Realpolitik. But "Dreams From My Father" suggests that for Obama the word is rooted less in a political than in a literary tradition, where it has a far richer meaning. It signifies the watchful eye and patiently attentive ear; a proper humility in the face of the multiplex character of human society; and, most of all, a belief in the power of the writer's imagination to comprehend and ultimately reconcile the manifold contradictions in his teeming world.

Before we moved our worldly possessions across Elliott Bay to West Seattle, we'd never visited that neighborhood's Beveridge Place Pub. And we'd never tasted 3-Grid IPA, an excellently hoppy product of that neighborhood's Schooner Exact Brewing Co. Now that we pose as West Seattle regulars, we recognize both pub and brewer as priceless neighborhood gems; there's no better place to kill a few (happy) hours, and no finer micro-local IPA. more ›

The strongest windstorm since the 1993 Inauguration Day storm that sunk I-90 killed six people is coming. more ›