Many thoughts crossed our mind last night as we left the showing of Edward Curtis's In the Land of the Head Hunters at the Moore, not the least of which was our continued amazement that film ever took off. No more or less so than contemporaneous films like Birth of a Nation, Curtis's work bears witness to the fact that early film sucked. The narrative is disjointed, the story thin and hard to follow. It......

Not so long ago--even into the 1980s--it seemed certain that the Western would stand the test of time as the quintessential American cinematic form. After all, the story of cowboys, outlaws and Indians on the great rolling plains between the coasts and the travails of those courageous families crossing the country in covered wagons is as much a part of our creation story as defeating the British; Independence and Manifest Destiny go hand-in-hand, and John......

Slog posted a link to this rumored deal between the Sonics and the Muckleshoot Indians to build an arena in Seattle. Our non-sports friends are wondering if it's true. It's not. Didn't smell right to us (arena deals don't happen overnight--local government has to get involved, and someone would've said something, and, besides, we all know that the owners want to go to OKC) , so we didn't post it and, as it turns out,......

The post we wrote yesterday about Rick Steves ("Rick Steves. The man lives in a pleasant world.") seems reasonable if you only know the man through his travel shows on PBS. He was on the Town Hall stage for all of about four seconds last night before destroying that illusion. Actually, he lives in a few different worlds; one here, in Edmonds, Washington, U.S.A., and another in Europe where he spends a third of every......

Your Seattle Mariners played their biggest series in four seasons this week. With a chance to overtake the first place Angels if they could win three games, the Mariners won zero games. They got outscored 24-8. Ever see that thing they do at the zoo where hippos eat pumpkins? It was like that. Much of the blame is gonna come down on Mariner manager John McLaren, who took the interesting step of using his worst......

Today is "BC Day" in Canada, commemorating the moment of victory when Canadians finally liberated themselves from the Indians. Because of this unfair "three day weekend" tactical advantage, Canadian surfer and skateboard punks swarmed Westport to such a degree that the Seattle contingent was pitifully outnumbered and forced to surrender their beaches like Germans on D-Day. Some important Canadian factoids learned on this trip: *Canadians from Vancouver look down on Canadians from Surrey, not unlike......

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......

Yet another postponement, and the new plan is to try to play a doubleheader on Monday, beginning at 10:05 am PST. The M's have a day game in Boston on Tuesday, so this would mean they'd play 3 games in about 28 hours. Not good. Even if they play both games on Monday, that leaves two games that will need to be played sometime during the season. The P-I's John Hickey has the scoop on......

Even the best managers, for instance, Earl Weaver, admit that--at best--they can win an extra two or three games a year for their team. Mike Hargrove didn't win a game today, but he saved a loss. Background: A major league baseball game must go five innings to be considered official. If the home team is ahead, all they have to do is get the visiting team out in the top of the fifth. So--in Cleveland......

As if today’s Mariners game needed any more drama, the standings show that if the season ended today the Mariners and Indians would play a one game play off for the Wild Card spot. This was almost the case in 2000 when a Mariners loss on the last day of the season would have meant a similar scenario. Fortunately the Mariners won, the game was averted, and Editor Dan’s heart was eventually broken.......

Vitals: 36 years old, born in Louisville, signed as a free agent by the Indians in '05. 82-73 career record. $7 million salary. Arsenal: A below average (84-89mph) fastball. To lefties, he'll work up and away with the fastball, a 12/3 looping curveball and a change. To righties, he'll work low and away with the fastball and a slider. Recent Battles: Triumphant! The M's knocked Byrd around in his one start against them last year,......

USS Mariner called Mike Hargrove "delusional" today for his advocacy of going north with 22-year-old pitcher Brandon Morrow on the basis of eight innings of spring training relief work. Hargrove, speaking to the Tacoma News Tribune, defended his stance, saying that people called him an "idiot" for wanting to go north with Manny Ramirez when he managed Cleveland in '94. Good point, Hargrove. Except that you are completely full of shit, as anyone with a......

OK, perhaps there weren't a million people at Neumo's on Saturday night, but the turnout for the Buttrock Suites was downright impressive. Replete with live band, the Suites was a smörgåsbord of guilty-pleasure rock, sexy swagger, and manic modern dance madness that threw the first punch and kept swinging all night long. The energy was a bit low when we arrived towards the end of the readings, but it did not stay down once the......

Monday LOCAL AUTHOR, LOCAL AUTHOR: Clear Cut Press presents two of its novelists: Matt Briggs' Shoot The Buffalo is about a boy growing up in Snoqualmie during the '70s. Stacey Levine's Frances Johnson, set in a small town in Florida, details the random choices made by the eponymous Ms. Johnson. 7pm // University Bookstore // FREE SCI-FI SALON: One of the finest authors on the "humanist" wing of American science fiction and fantasy, Paul......

To your roster of historic and colorful rhizomes (Russets, White Rose, Blue Victor, Yukon Gold, Yellow Finn, Red Ruby...Cascade, Nooksack, Ontario, Seminole) you can now add the Ozette. It's a fingerling grown for centuries in the gardens of Makah Indians on Washington's most western coastline, brought there, it's believed, by Spanish conquistadors who had discovered all manner of edible tubers in the South American Andes. Thus the humble Ozette was in all likelihood the first......

A few hours ago we were very happy with Mariners GM Bill Bavasi. He ridded the team of one of its most sour spots, and brought up a kid who, despite wicked injury troubles, we can't help but want to love. Now comes a move that garners a mixed reaction: Bavasi just traded minor league centerfielder Shin-Soo Choo and a player to be named later to the Cleveland Indians for 1B/DH Ben Broussard, completing the......

Chim Chim Cheree! The Mariners finished a three-game sweep of the hapless Diamondbacks last night, scoring two runs off Arizona closer Jorge Julio in the 9th for a 3-2 win. The win pushed them by Texas for second place in the AL West. They are two games behind Oakland. As the number-conscious boys at USS Mariner point out, the stats suggest that the M's are better than the A's. Though the A's have the better......

25 years ago today, the Indians' Len Barker threw one of the 17 perfect games in 130 years of major league baseball history. M's manager Mike Hargrove was the Indians first baseman in that game, and bench coach Ron Hassey called the game as Barker's catcher. MLB.com got them to share their memories. Hargrove: "It was a misty, ugly, miserable night. I called my wife, Sharon, and told her, 'Don't bother coming down here.' That......

The State 3A hoops tournament started yesterday. All the favored teams won their first round games, setting up some interesting quarterfinal matchups. Undefeated Renton plays two-time defending champions O'Dea at 3:30 today. O'Dea, with junior guard Jamelle McMillan (son of coach Nate) plays a defensive-minded game. We're hoping for a Renton win, which would set up an run and gun game between the Indians and Rainier Beach. But... Rainier Beach must first beat 24-1 Lynden.......

It’s not the best time to be a Seattle sports fan right now. Sure the Sonics were able to re-sign Vladimir Radmanovic for the upcoming season. However, we are a bit worried that he turned down six years $42 million in order to be an un-restricted free agent at the end of next season, but right now we will take what we can get. With the Mariners limping towards the end, the Huskies heading towards......