In the Summer 2008 issue of Granta--theme: the new nature writing--Seattle adoptee Jonathan Raban has an Columbia-River-sized essay titled "Second Nature." He's comparing the wilderness of the American West (the Northwest, most specifically) with the more domesticated natural landscape of England--and subsequently, the frame of mind where you inhabit a spot, or are just passing through. In the Northwest, he says:The real thing–-the pricelessly antique antique–-is deep forest, the river running wild, the open......

"Old Wives' Tale" by Seattle Flickr Pool contributor Seattle rainscreen. Stunning. The bountiful ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest is worth between $243 billion and $1.22.1 trillion, economic and environmentalist researchers announced late last night. Phew! Numbers are far easier to work with than poetic sentiments about our "introverted, feral, buddhistically cool" raindrops (Tom Robbins), "unruly mobs of young clouds" and "green stand of mountains" (Ken Kesey), or Chief Sealth's sacred, inter-connected vision of "every......

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......

According to the P-I, Honolulu's thinking about sending island-style trash our way. Walt Disney doesn't really tolerate landfill stench wafting over its new resorts, and there's only so much space on Hawaii for garbage (Walt Disney resort memorabilia aside), so companies are in the process of bidding for the privilege of hauling the refuse to a new mainland location. It's possible that Washington could be the trash's final resting place. Our proposal is to......

Obama in Portland, Ore. at a record-setting rally on Sunday. (Courtesy of the AP) Portland, Oregon showed it was truly Obama country during a rally on Sunday, where an estimated 75,000 people showed up to hear the candidate speak at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, on the bank of the Willamette River. The photos of Obama--an ant amidst a sea of people--must be sending chills down the Clinton campaign's collective spine. The 75,000 strong crowd doubled......

Sometimes, there is a local headline that brings us so much strange delight, that we must share it with you. Today's example comes from King 5.com: Owners of Rogue Monkey in Spokane Could Face Jail Time We are quite certain that we will never read such a headline again in a Pacific Northwest newspaper or website, so we're enjoying it tremendously. This is the monkey we told you about earlier this week, who went......

One month from today, Salish Lodge & Spa will host the second annual “The Falls Come to Life” dinner and auction to benefit Food Lifeline--the nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger in Western Washington. Guest chefs Armandino Batali, (Salumi) Holly Smith (Cafe Juanita), Jason Wilson (Crush), Johnathan Sundstrom (Lark), and Matt Costello (The Inn at Langley) will each prepare a signature dish for the menu, as well as contribute a culinary experience as part of the......

This folk-music-related post is about participation, not performance. Shapenote singing (aka Sacred Harp) has been part of American life for well over 250 years, and has been sung in Seattle for 30 or 40. A sizeable group of people will gather in Ballard this weekend, at the Pacific Northwest Sacred Harp Convention, to sing it again. When we first attended this event in 2004, we'd never tried singing in this style but, by the......

photo from Seattlest Flickr Contributor, artvortice The Washington State Chapter of the ACLU and local travel guide guru Rick Steves have joined forces to reform marijuana laws in the United States. Steves has long been an outspoken advocate of marijuana reformation. He sits on the board of the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and has been a featured speaker at Seattle's annual Hempfest. Steves and The ACLU are comparing the......

We're sure we don't need to say this, but you can't miss your caucus. This is the first year in our whole time in the Pacific Northwest where it matters what Washington voters think. If you're still wondering where to go, here are two Dem or GOP caucus locators. Caucusing starts at 1pm. We understand that if you know who you support and you don't want to spend an hour or two talking about it,......

We'll tell you right now, there is just not going to be a better Valentine's Day-ish gift than this Roméo et Juliette. When we lived in France, we got used to rounding a corner and seeing an impossibly attractive young French couple having what seemed to be fully clothed intercourse. On a park bench. In the train station. Outside a bar. Halfway up a mountain. In the bus. Ah, la jeunesse! the older people would......

In case it doesn't snow too much tonight, or in case you're not too much of a pussy to venture outdoors, head to Queen Anne to network with the organizers of South by Southwest and other like-minded music geek individuals. Join us from 7-9pm on Monday evening, January 28th at Solo Bar in Seattle (200 Roy Street). This is the chance for Pacific Northwest digital creatives to meet with SXSW organizers, as well as......

Do dancers hibernate in winter? There's an explosion of dance activity coming up as January draws to a close. Had we but world enough and time, we'd go to all these shows, but time's chariot won't permit us to make up all the stops. Here's the wealth you have to choose from: January 25 - 27: The Bridge Project @ Velocity Dance Center. Two young Seattle choreographers and one team (Kristina Dillard, Kelly Sullivan, and......

While there is plenty of good beer in Seattle to keep us busy, it is always nice to head out of town to visit some of the brewpubs spread around the Pacific Northwest. We try and do a trip as often as we can, which usually turns out to be one trip every three months or so. Port Townsend is situated in a beautiful spot out on the Olympic peninsula and is about a 2-hour......

That sure didn't last long, did it? Barely nine months. Wild Salmon, an eatery in Noo Yawk City that supposedly showcased Pacific Northwest cuisine, is calling it quits. Charles Ramseyer, who left Ray's Boathouse to open the joint for his friend Jeffrey Chodorow, will stay in the Big Apple (for the time being) and labor for other properties in the China Grill group. Chodorow went off the deep end after Frank Bruni dumped on......

For a quarter century, Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, artistic directors of the Pacific Northwest Ballet, stood at the summit of Seattle's cultural elite. Russell founded the company's ballet school and still travels widely as a consultant. Among his many achievements, Stowell choreographed Seattle's holiday favorite Nutcracker before stepping down three years ago. So what's he going to do for an encore? Hold that thought. Meanwhile, the Stowells' son, Ethan, had became a self-taught chef,......

This weekend Mr. and Mrs. Seattlest drove out to North Bend to cut a Christmas tree down and haul it back to Seattle. No, we didn't hike up Si with an ax and harvest a sapling, although that does sound fun. There's a tree farm out there by the name of Crown Tree Farm. It was our first time getting a tree from anywhere other than those road-side dealies or the enclosures that pop......

Braiden Rex-Johnson's new book, Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining, is a fine complement to Kurt Dammeier's Pure Flavor (reviewed by Seattlest back in August). Affectionate portraits of leading players: wine makers Bob Betz Kay Simon, Harry McWatters; unique restaurants, cooking techniques, recipes. Rex-Johnson, a familiar name whose previous books include the iconic Pike Place Market Cookbook, writes a food & wine column for Wine Press Northwest and served as food editor at Seattle Homes &......

Until the day after Thanksgiving, Seattlest hadn't seen The Nutcracker -- probably the world's most famous ballet -- in years. But we had a solid image in our head of what it looked like because when Seattlest was a little kid, our mom made an annual birthday tradition to see it every year on opening night. For much of our childhood, this meant getting all spiffed up and walking a few blocks to Lincoln......

In 1987, the British illustrator Martin Handford creates a cartoon character named Wally for a series of children's books. Renamed Waldo for the American edition, he becomes an icon of pop culture. Meantime, Marie-Eve Gilla moves from graduate school in Burgundy to the Pacific Northwest, becoming the first classically trained French winemaker in the Washington, working at Covey Run and Gordon Brothers before being recruited as general manager for the new Forgeron Cellars in Walla......

Beaujolais, perhaps the world's most popular wine, goes through life as a comic's punchline; its brash and awkward youthful incarnation--Beaujolais Nouveau--gets no respect. Fun to be around, but nothing all that serious. (Eddie Murphy isn't Nelson Mandela, Wanda Sykes isn't Condi Rice, etc.) Sure, Beaujolais Nouveau provides the excuse for a great party every November--Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! It's Beaujolais Nouveau time!--but over the years, the folks who enjoy the ritual of raising a......

Seattlest went to the opening night of Pacific Northwest Ballet's Contemporary Classics last night for two favorites: Kiss and Caught. PNB has wisely brought these two pieces into it's repertory fold, continuing to signal Artistic Director Peter Boal's commitment to exploring choreography that is traditionally outside the realm of most ballet companies. Overall, PNB rose regally to the challenge. Our original reactions of both performances stand unchanged on repeat viewings. Regarding Kiss, we felt punched......

Opening tonight, and running through the 11th, Pacific Northwest Ballet presents "Contemporary Classics." If you have a friend or loved one who you wish to convert to ballet compatriot, take them to this performance. They will think that this is how ballet always is, and thankfully now that is the case in Seattle. Hats off to you Mr. Boal. This weekend only, Ronald K. Brown joins Evidence Dance Company at the Moore. Their centerpiece is......

In central Illinois in the 1990s Seattlest was a wee little college freshman exploring the twin wonders of new music and new drugs. Nirvana, for example, was making some music we got really into, so much so that we learned of Aberdeen, WA, even though we'd never been to the West Coast, much less the Pacific Northwest, or Washington, or Seattle. At nearly the same time we encountered our first vanity steroid users. Some guys......

Not even merely Blog Hot. She's actually approaching TV Hot. Check her out in this (unfortunately un-embeddable) video clip from KOMO4. However, while KOMO has decided she's attractive enough for TV, the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild has decided her employment at the P-I is egregious enough to warrant a lawsuit. They say she's a reporter and belongs in the guild's bargaining unit. The P-I maintains that she's some kind of new media person and not......

Two-thirds of Pacific Northwest Ballet's "All Balanchine" show is surprising and exciting. Showcasing three ballets spanning the career of George Balanchine, the leading American ballet choreographer of the 20th Century and famously the co-founder of the New York City Ballet, PNB manages to both remind audiences of how adventurous dance can be, while at the same time reinforcing the sense that major ballet companies have to carefully balance the experimental with the traditional in......

Saturday night, Pacific Northwest Ballet's season sampler began with Balanchine and ended with Robbins but cannily included fresher works in the middle. It was their gala night, and the lobby was filled with suspiciously tanned women of a certain age in demi-haute couture. Our coverage is going to be bloggily breezy, but if you're interested in a more substantial take, check out Richard Campbell at the P-I. Ballet Imperial: it's tutus and tights and corps-de-ballet......

Last week was a bad one for pioneers and philosophers of our favorite beverages. On Thursday, beer (and liquor) guru Michael Jackson passed away at 65. A day earlier, Alfred Peet, founder of Peet’s Coffee, died in his Ashland, Oregon home. He was 87. Had we known Peet lived in the Pacific Northwest, we would have made a pilgrimage to his home. We would have loved to pick his brain on bean-growing regions and roasting......

As we were saying, there's a lot more at Bumbershoot besides the music. You've got the comedy, the literature, the theatre, the dance -- and the people-watching, the sideshows, the side sideshows: yesterday we ran into Craig and Victoria doing a violin-and-flamenco act behind a tent; they say they'll be back today, roaming around, so look for a swirl of red. So far as funnymen go, we can recommend the Todd Barry/Michael Ian Black hour......

When entertainment giant AEG Live announced plans to create a new and innovative music venue inside Quest Field Events Center, we imagine a big to do with all the local press in a large room packed with music lovers on one side and bankers on the other. Wonder which side was clapping more wildly... We haven't been to WaMu Theater yet, but with the kind of high-profile shows the place has been booking (Deftones, Daft......