Blake Nelson wrote a book that will be released in September called Paranoid Park about a skater who kills a security guard at a skate park. It hasn't been reviewed yet at least as far as we can tell on Amazon, but the cover art is super cheesy. Well, there is the little publisher's review thingy: more ›

Even though today is Wednesday, as far as we're concerned, yesterday was Hump Day, since that's when submissions were due for The Stranger's first annual amateur porn contest. Public viewing of the, um, entries will be the evening of August 20th at the Northwest Film Forum, with the awards party later that night at Chop Suey. more ›

Here we are in the home stretch of the 31st annual Seattle International Film Festival. If you haven't seen a great foreign film/documentary/indie flick, or at least an advertisement featuring aspects thereof, you only have till this Sunday to do so. Between now and then, some festival films of note (and in a nutshell) include: more ›

Welcome to another week of the pitched battle between Old Seattle and New Seattle, playing out in high resolution in the alternative weeklies. We have to give both of them this: their editorial control is pitch perfect. Outside of a tip of the hat to the other side here and there, each publication follows true to their Seattle View in article after article. more ›

Seattle has its own flavor. It's an American city, sure, but it's its own city, with obsessions, neuroses, and pathologies that are uniquely Seattle in character. Seattlest loves that about Seattle. There are some personalities that have gained national prominence that are either from this city or not but are seen to have characteristics that personify the city. Michael Jackson is not one of those people. Regardless of how many times The Stranger puts him on the cover or however many column inches they devote to him, Seattle will never be a MJ town. Thankfully. So Stranger, please, stop. Enough with the King of Pop. We stopped caring years ago. He stopped being relevant to American culture years ago. Despite that, we are still awash in national coverage and the last thing we need is another cover story by one of the alternative weeklies on Michael f'ing Jackson. more ›