This Friday and Saturday (7:30 and 2:30 p.m., respectively; tix $25-$105), Shen Yun/Divine Performing Arts brings their Chinese spectacular to the Paramount Theatre, a show billed as "five millennia in the making." But there's a twist: while Shen Yun and their sponsors note the group "is independent of China's political regime and proud to include artists who practice the Falun Gong meditation," it turns out, the family-friendly stage show is loaded with Falun Gong philosophy, the savvy group having hijacked the cause of Chinese culture to push their own beliefs. more ›

co-horts Leon Wieseltier and Dale Peck--they accuse of writing literary criticism that "was wholly negative. And, it eventually became clear, indiscriminately so." more ›

Writing on The New Republic Online in November, 2006, James Kirchick snarkily commented, "Of all the subjects for a 90-minute, one-woman show, Rachel Corrie ought to have been at the bottom of the list." Rachel Corrie was an Olympia native and Evergreen State College student who, in March 2003, while working with the International Solidarity Movement, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer destroying Palestinian homes. And frankly, before seeing Seattle Rep's production of My Name is Rachel Corrie, we tended to agree with Kirchick, albeit for completely different reasons. more ›

Sometimes, The Seattle Times has got to make you wonder. It was one thing to go ahead and endorse David Reichert for Congress over Darcy Burner despite widespread dissatisfaction with Republican leadership, but to spin his shameless partisanship as moderation? That's a new low. more ›

Now that Independence Day weekend has come and gone, Seattlest has gotten all that nasty "freedom" and "liberty" and "love for one's country" out of our system---so it's back to cynicism as usual. With that in mind, it's the perfect time to hit up Elliott Bay Book Company for the reading/signing tonight by politically-minded cartoonist Ward Sutton. Ward lived in Seattle from '91 to '95, when he illustrated posters for local bands (of the grunge variety, no doubt). He's back in town this evening promoting his new book o' comics entitled Sutton Impact: The Political Cartoons of Ward Sutton. This is his first-ever collection, culled from his weekly strip in the Village Voice, as well as works created for the New York Times, The Nation, Mother Jones, The New Republic, TV Guide, and other hippie commie pinko rags. In fact, his book features the following warning:

The Attorney General has found that reading Sutton Impact may be hazardous to your unquestioning devotion to the Bush administration, the Religious Right, and the Media Industrial Complex.