photo of Vince Mira, courtesy of Lucky Rebel/Can Can Productions When we first heard that local Johnny Cash impersonator extraordinaire Vince Mira would be performing on the music stage at Seattle Tattoo Expo this weekend, our reaction was: "Isn't he too young to even have a tattoo?" Mira recently granted us a few minutes on the phone to answer this and all the other questions we had. "I don’t have any tattoos," he told Seattlest,......

Seattle SuperSonics 1967-2008.......

"Well I woke up Sunday morning, With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt. And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, So I had one more for dessert. Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes, And found my cleanest dirty shirt. An' I shaved my face and combed my hair, An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day..." This weekend ditty—Sunday Mornin' Coming Down—brought to you by......

Local Singer/Songwriter Joanna Horowitz got a crazy idea a year or so ago. A long-time musician involved in the theater business, she thought it might be fun to write a musical. Enter 100 Heartbreaks... The plot, in a nutshell: Singer/songwriter Charlane wants to cross over into country music. She figures that, if she gets her heart broken 100 times, maybe she'll be ready to write an honest country heartbreak song. She gets stuck when......

From the real-life inspiration of Seattle-based writer and performer Joanna Horowitz comes 100 Heartbreaks, a story about country singer hopeful Charlane Tucker. Tucker, a self-proclaimed expert at hook-ups, break-ups and hangovers, is a regular girl who desperately wants to "make it" in the country music world. Her genius plan to get to Nashville: Find 100 men who will love and leave her. 100 Heartbreaks is a one-woman country musical, performed by Horowitz, that follows......

Last night there were tons of Ron Paul's people outside the Showbox Sodo. Before, during, and after Barack Obama's fundraising event/rally, the Paul supporters waved their signs and interacted with anyone who would give them the time of day. Too bad they couldn't afford tickets to the event due to the current tax structure--if only someone would abolish the IRS and the Federal Reserve.... Meanwhile, inside the venue was a crowd of teens, twenty-somethings,......

A few weeks ago, singer/raconteur Jenny Owen Youngs was in town, playing at the High Dive the same time as the Fremont Bridge was being closed evenings, which led to our arriving mid-set in a state of high dudgeon. We decided to skip a half-assed review, and afterwards fired off some impertinent questions via email. We just heard back, and as you'll see, Jenny schools us a bit. Now we adore her even more. If......

It's not often the Seattlest feels the need to research a show before we go to see it, but Yo La Tengo's current tour has a really fascinating description: The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo Tour is a rare opportunity to see this ever-surprising band in a setting more intimate and interactive than any tour in their 23-year career. A little bit "Storytellers," a little bit "Unplugged," with a soupcon of their famously varied Hanukkah shows,......

In January of this year, the Weekly's Brian J. Barr described local trio the Cave Singers as "an updated version of the Anthology of American Folk Music. Not the graduate-student, learned interpretations of folk music circa 1962, but folk music approached by way of punk rock. It's sparse, melodic, and simultaneously creepy and alluring, like the widow mourning graveside in Johnny Cash's 'Long Black Veil'." That was enough to get Matador Records interested, who......

Wait--choke back that vomit. We're making shit up. Speculating doom, if you will. Only half of that title is true. Charles Cross' 2001 biography of Kurt Cobain actually is being adapted for the big screen. By highly-anticipated The Kite Runner and Wolverine screenwriter David Benioff, no less. (Aside: Seattlest once met Benioff at an Austin bar, while unsuccessfully schmoozing with Hollywood types. Before we knew better, we asked him, "Are you a writer, too?" Ha.)......

We have a message for 15-year-old us: "You are a fuckface." Because it was 15-year-old us who decided against going to see Dizzy Gillespie at Jazz Alley in February of '92. "I'll just catch him next time around," 15-year-old us thought. There was no next time around. That performance was Gillespie's last--not just in Seattle, but anywhere. Ever since, we're committed to enjoying the elderly legends before they pass. We saw Ray Charles and Cab......

Tomorrow, the biggest, bestest band to ever emerge from Seattle—there, we said it—releases a new concert DVD. You can buy (or Netflix) Immagine in Cornice (Italian for "Picture in a Frame") and watch it in the privacy of your own condo, or—lucky us—catch it big-screen-style at the Metro. Cornice is a film from photographer-turned-director Danny Clinch, who knows from shooting big-shots (Johnny Cash, Tupac Shakur, Bruce Springsteen) and documenting their acts on film (Spingsteen’s Devils......

This past Friday, Steinbrueck Park was the site of a free, four-hour concert that punctuated Pike Place Market’s Centennial Celebration. It was a great time to be a proud, passionate Seattleite. A wonderful time to be a frugal tourist. And, despite a tiny bit of Pearl Jam-overpromising by Party promoters, a perfect time to be Seattlest. As people started to pour into the area, claiming spots in what little grass was left by the freshly-erected......

Thirteen teams turned out for Seattlest trivia last night at the Old Pequliar. Want to see how you'd do? Here are all the questions. We'll post answers later today, along with a list of team standings and anything else interesting we find to say about the event. Round 1: Geography 1) What's the largest city in Pierce County, Washington? 2) What is the longest mountain range in the world? 3) What is the largest county......

Actually, we heard Murder by Death (myspace) first, then Two Gallants (myspace). Both are remarkable for what we're going to inventively call "the new lyricism" -- a two-fisted Carver-esque stylistic concern for narrative produced by a mutant strain of whisky-slugging Decemberists from the wrong side of the tracks. Murder by Death, out of Bloomington, Indiana, has a song on their third album, In bocca al lupo, called "Sometimes the Line Walks You" -- which gives......

We usually don't like to talk about shows in the past and/or in a completely different city, but this one involves pure comedic gold. Everyone's favorite scientologist/hipster (scientologister?) Beck performed an allegedly secret show in New York City. As Tom DeLay can undoubtedly testify, it's hard to keep a secret these days, so the show sold out almost immediately. Those unable to secure tickets resorted to the last refuge of the ticketless, craigslist. Perhaps......

If asked to pick, we would say that Johnny Cash is our favorite musician. As an homage, in our younger days we used to wear a lot of black. We thought, if it makes Johnny Cash look so cool, then it will do the same for us. About halfway through college, the realization struck us that the whole only-wearing-black thing works well for country music legends and not Jewish kids living in New York......