If you are anything like us, you frequently read glowing recommendations of fine little eateries on the outskirts of Seattle and think: I really should check that out sometime. But the truth is--urbanite that you are--you only vaguely know where places like Kent and Burien are (south?) and rarely take the time to actually venture out of your cozy little city. But as fine a city as Seattle is, it lacks some things that are......

This Seattlest took one look at the weather forecast and headed to sunny Florida yesterday. Now here we are in our hometown of DeLand, population 24,375 (per 2006 census). Our mother doesn't have wireless at the house, and is operating off a 1997 iMac. It's cute and compact, but slow as hell, so we headed out this morning for the one source of public wifi in town: Boston Gourmet Coffeehouse. A couple of things about......

Are food safety and food tasty mutually exclusive goals? You have to ask after both Zesto's and Wild Ginger show up on the P-I's list of Seattle's dirtiest restaurants. Zesto's, the venerable burger joint of 15th N.W. and 65th, has the most "red critical" violations of any restaurant in Seattle this year: 15. Frankly, if it takes 15 red critical violations to get the yumminess into their burgers and shakes, we will assume the risk.......

Franklin vs. Garfield is one of the Seattle sports events that you just shouldn't miss. Here's what we wrote about it for The Stranger in September:True local hoops fans don't miss this game between two perennial inner-city basketball powerhouses, even at the cost of connubial tranquility. The 2005 game at Garfield fell on Valentine's Day, but happily married Husky basketball coach Lorenzo Romar was there anyway. A win in this game means neighborhood bragging rights......

This morning's commute is pretty bad, but as this rain is expected to last well into the evening, by then Duck Tour may be the only way to navigate the city. Already (as of 8:35 am): --Amtrak service between Eugene and Vancouver, B.C. is suspended because of mudslides. --Sounder service was also cancelled. --Most highways and roads on the coast are closed. --Stevens Pass is closed. --Westlake Ave. in Seattle is blocked between Galer and......

Over at Ballhype, Jason created a Google Maps mashup that shows the birthplace of every NBA player. Is Seattle represented? Yes, oh yes. Seven players are born in Seattle. That, ladies and gentleman, is more than any single city north of Los Angeles (14) or west of Dallas (9). San Francisco proper has as many NBAers (1--Jason Kidd) as Edmonds (Martell Webster). Ha! Eat our dust, Golden Gaters! Overall, 10 NBAers were born in Washington......

Today is the last day of the Evo Barnstorm Ski and Snowboard Sale. Seattlest went yesterday, and if we had not recently purchased our gear at full price at another store, (can we say refund?), we would have walked out with a trundle of supplies. Don’t worry about missing the goods because you are shopping the sale on the last day because from the looks of it yesterday, Evo has plenty of merchandise. From......

On our walk back up from the Pike Street Victrola the other day, we noticed a new store has arrived in the space that used to be a...what?...ethnic foods, was it? We always meant to go in and see. But we didn't. Not even during the "Going Out of Business" sale. God, it was awful. Some days the owner would come out and stand there, looking downhearted. Eventually we started looking for reasons to cut......

It's been said that Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot was a play in which all that was left to the characters was hope; if that's the case, then Endgame is what you get when you lose even that. In one long act, the play features a cast of four characters in increasing states of immobility and decrepitude, the last dismal dregs of humanity gasping their final breaths, telling incoherent stories and hoping for a bitter......

Seattlest has found a reason for everyone to welcome bicycles on the city's streets. The origins lie in Virgin Vacations' (has anyone asked The Name Inspector to do a write up on Richard Branson's desire to cater to virgins?) naming of the world's 11 most bike-friendly cities. Unfortunately, Seattle didn't make the list (Portland came in at number 2), which uses five criteria created by The Bicycle Friendly Communities Campaign to judge a community's bike......

The National Weather Service had released a high wind warning for Seattle. It hasn't gotten quite that bad yet. KOMO's weather page reports that there was a 47 mph gust at Sea-Tac at noon, and 57 mph at Alki (winds are always worst on the coast, of course). There were some power outages this morning in Burien and in Monroe, but no more reported yet. Beware of falling trees, a Redmond driver is in the......

The Chemistry That Keeps Us Together, The Purrs' long-awaited follow-up to their breakout LP The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of, dropped a couple weeks ago, and we've been listening to it steadily since. Earlier this year, they promised us the album was moving in a new direction, exploring harder rock material, exemplified by the song "She's Got Chemicals," which has been in their set list for over a year now. It opens with......

This Friday and Saturday, for the eleventh year running, the Pyramid Alehouse will host the "Get Snowed In Party" in celebration of Pyramid's flagship winter ale, Snow Cap. Snow Cap turns 21 this year, and in honor of this ale finally coming of age, ticket prices for each night of the event are only $21. Hosted in a frosty cold revival tent behind Pyramid Alehouse, last year the two-night party was fantastic: beer gardens, hot......

For a guy who's nearly tone deaf, Eddie Argos has done pretty well for himself in the world of rock music. When his band Art Brut broke a couple years ago, their sound--spoken-word lyrics over choppy punk rhythms and AC/DC-inspired riffs--stood out in the London indie scene, amongst Britpop redux bands like Babyshambles and Bloc Party. Their debut album, Bang, Bang, Rock & Roll was a Pitchfork and KEXP fave, and the first time......

The sale of Capitol Hill's Odd Fellows Hall is to close in early January 2008. The 4-story building at 915 East Pine Street has been home to a number of Seattle arts groups, including Velocity Dance and Freehold, and the Century Ballroom. The memo from Redside Partners says:Our intent is to update the building systems while retaining and/or restoring much of the original charm the Odd Fellows intended almost 100 years ago. Significant changes in......

We start things off this weekend with a simple two words from Donte: Muthafucking Justice! As Halloween approaches, it seems that the tradition of Seattlests stalking each other continues. Seth will attend the opening night of the Seattle Opera's first ever co-production with New York's Metropolitan Opera, Iphigenia in Tauris, which is conveniently scheduled at the exact fucking same time as the Husky/ASU game. He'll try to catch the fourth quarter at the Spectator on......

Tonight the Elliott Bay Book Co. hosts a trio of writers touring as the "Akashic All-Stars." Akashic is a small literary press based in New York (specifically, Brooklyn--is anything cool left in Manhattan?). Only ten years old, Akashic is a sign of a promising future for American letters. Like the music industry, publishing is being transformed by technology, allowing for smaller firms run by people with both business smarts and passion for what they......

It's been a couple years since the Purrs' post-psychedelic gem of a debut LP, The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of, took KEXP by storm. The KEXP "bump" got them attention in indie circles nationally, landed some songs in a TV sitcom, and scored them a record deal with local indie Sarathan, who supported them in their first national tour. But at the same time, Sarathan made the strange choice to not release new material......

Over the weekend, we made three trips to the new Stumptown Coffee on 12th Ave (next to Cafe Presse). We're not actually coffee geeks, it just worked out that way. (These people are coffee geeks.) We're more of a cafe geek. If you aren't familiar, Stumptown Coffee is based in Portland, and this is their big move into the Seattle market. (Edmonds' ZuKafe claims to have been their first Puget Sound wholesale account.) Here's Seattle......

The above video is of James Chapman's electro outfit Maps, performing "It Will Find You" live with full band at the Mercury Prize Ceremony (right before he lost the award to the Klaxons) earlier this month. If you didn't get the chance to check them out when they played this weekend at John in the Morning at Night, you can still get your hands on their debut album. Seattlest has three signed copies of......

Saturday at the Croc, we hated most of the crowd at first sight. Who invited the tools to John in the Morning at Night? Jager shots were being consumed, and there were way too many dudes in backwards white baseball caps, just chillaxing with their brahs. For this, we can only blame Vampire Weekend. As previously mentioned, despite their hyperliterate lyrics (who else would title a song "Oxford Comma"?), Vampire Weekend's indie afropop-by-way-of-Graceland sound......

Biodiesel drivers rejoice! There's a new place to fill your French-fry-smelling tanks thanks to Dr. Dan's Alternative Fuelwerks grand opening of a new, and may we say much more accessible, location, in the Ravenna neighborhood on Friday. When Seattlest dropped by the Espresso Express on N.E. 65th and 15th Ave. N.E. to check out the scene, we were too late for the speeches and celebrations, but did arrive in plenty of time for the yummy......

Twenty-one year-old Mercury Prize nominee Jamie T has his first show in Seattle at the Croc Saturday, and it's a big 'un: John in the Morning at Night. He'll be primarily playing from his debut full-length, but we're sure he'll throw in a few songs not found on Panic Prevention. After all, as Jamie himself said, "There's, what, sixteen songs on the album? I had about forty-five songs for that record, just because I'd......

British boy wonder/musical polyglot Jamie T makes his first trip to Seattle to play the latest incarnation of John in the Morning at Night, coming up this Saturday at the Croc. On his debut full-length Panic Prevention, the young Mr. T. makes veritable sound collages, amalgams of rock, reggae, punk, soul, rap, heavy cockney accents, and assorted audio clips. That's exactly why he gets comparisons that run the gamut from a baby Bob Dylan......

After paying for a financial feasibility study, the Muckleshoot tribe announced today that they'd be willing to donate land for an NBA arena down there in Auburn. The land is more or less here: The Muckleshoots' study indicated that people who attend Sonics games are no less likely to go to the games if they are in Auburn than if they are at Key Arena, and there's a certain logic there. As for us, we......

Municipal WiFi was once all the rage in city governments, but the networks currently in place are falling down where it matters most (poorer neighborhoods, of course) and those cities with time to back out are doing so. Chicago just called it quits. "We realized - after much consideration - that we needed to reevaluate our approach to provide universal and affordable access to high speed Internet as part of the city's broader digital inclusion......

Can you think of a better way to spend your Saturday than kicking back on the lawn, chowing on a burger and listening to great live music? Didn't think so. Grab your shades, your sunblock and your appetite, kids. The barbecue is upon us! Providing the tunes are Blue Scholars (with 7-piece band!), Cloud Cult, Pela, The Cave Singers and The Blakes. We've seen most of these bands and can vouch for their fun factor,......

There's one person left in Seattle who thinks Sonics owner Clay Bennett is on the up-and-up, and that's state legislator Margarita Prentice. It wasn't the fact that Bennett's ultimate goal was to take the Sonics to OKC that kept the team from getting an arena. No, it was "Seattle's elitist attitude." Says Prentice:I just think it's part of Seattle's elitist attitude that somehow or another we're too cool for sports.Yes, if we weren't such anti-sports......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Um, we are not so sure this is a good idea.....but, Uber Tavern up on Aurora is hosting a "pub crawl by bike" this Sunday, August 12. Actually, hell yeah it is a good idea. Just WEAR A HELMET, please. If you can make 11 (all awesome) bars in 1 day on a bike, kudos. From Uber's email: Starting time? 1pm at Uber Tavern (we will open 2 hours early for the occasion) How......