The State's government is in crisis--but so are its people. Read up on today's headlines to see what fresh sorrow and bleakness you may have missed. more ›

Swedish hospital is laying off 150 people, Gregoire has called an emergency legislative session, and a search warrant for a fetus. Oh, and that Tacoma teachers' strike? It's finally over. more ›

A few weeks ago we streamed a sample of Tony Kevin Jr's upcoming EP Poverty. He was offering up all three songs from the album for free throughout that week. Last night, Conor Byrne's open mic was dubbed his official release show. To celebrate, a big group of friends from the local music scene, including Damien Jurado, Melodie Knight, Matt Hart, Kendra Cox, Ben Carson and many more, joined him on stage for "Mahatma Ghandi." It was a powerful moment, and luckily we captured it to share with you. Enjoy! more ›

WSDOT is giving Nickelsville three days' notice to move the camp from its current location at Second and W. Marginal Way. According to the Nickelsville website (yes, they have one), the move followed action by the city government against the state. In a message yesterday, the operators of the website stated, "Nickelsville remains determined to remain until another permanent site is secured." more ›

So Malcolm Gladwell shows up at Town Hall and asks the audience which talk they'd like: a long, in-depth talk with minimal Q&A; a medium-sized, generic talk with lengthier Q&A; or all Q&A. The event is sold out with people who have all paid $5 to hear Gladwell speak, but only three or four people raise their hands for the first option. Everyone else votes for the chance to hear themselves speak once Gladwell gets through with whatever he plans to go on about. more ›

There may very well have been fuckery afoot in the decision to close/re-purpose Cooper Elementary's building rather than close the more affluent Arbor Heights Elementary. (Why are we not surprised?) In a controversial series of posts over the weekend, blogger Sable Verity alleged that Seattle School Board District 6 Director Steve Sundquist was discriminatory and unethical in the way he interacted with parents and students at the two school. This morning, KUOW reports on their investigation into the role that poverty may have played in the school closures conversation. more ›

, columnist Joel Connelly blithely goes along with the argument that if Prop. 1--the tax-heavy plan to breathe funding-life into the Regional Transportation Improvement District (RTID)--fails, the entire region will continue tottering along to complete and total transportation infrastructure collapse. more ›

Economist and NYTimes columnist Paul Krugman was speaking at Town Hall last night. We were going to do this thing where we pretended to mistake him for Jack Klugman and then complained the whole post about him never mentioning acting with Tony Randall or Quincy. Luckily, we thought better of it. more ›

is an uneven piece of theater: on the one hand, the technical side of the production is weak; on the other, the actors--with little to work with besides a strong script and each other--deliver powerful and moving performances which make the play definitely worth seeing. more ›

First of all, we haven't read the book. We've read other Dostoevsky novels, but not this one. On the other hand, we're not stuck in that dreadful Harry Potter situation where we're gonna tell you all the stuff they left out. What they left in is the poverty, fear, gory ax, greed, and other good stuff that makes for theater you leave talking about. more ›

Monday the 10th, at 7pm, the Paramount Theatre presents Charlie Chaplin's 51st, 52nd, and 53rd films, all from 1916: The Floorwalker, The Fireman, and The Vagabond. They're all half-hour or so shorts from early on in his Mutual Films era, and feature Chaplin's genius for environmental comedy, with mishaps with escalators and fire poles. more ›

Starbucks, give 'em credit, is able to do more than one thing at a time. Mark of maturity, that. The papers are full of its plans to expand into every corner of the globe; this week it's Russia. On the domestic front, meantime, they're promoting a slogan to follow up on last year's "Geography is a Flavor." The new catchphrase: "Coffee is Culinary." more ›

A big 'thank you' to Seattlest commenters for making the previous two posts on the Gas Works Park Mystery Party the definitive places for speculation and conjecture. Just this morning an unregistered guest indicated that they'd received an email asking for actors to "protest" the party at $100 a head, which kind of dulls the luster on a previous commenter's note that Melinda Gates's birthday is August, 15. Anyway, in lieu of any actual, factual new information on our part we'd like to point you once again to those threads and leave you with these bad photographs and the lyrics to the seventh song on Simon and Garfunkel’s 1966 album The Sounds of Silence. more ›

Last week, Seattlest Kim wrote a post about New York City that pissed off New Yorkers. The angry comments to said post were oddly familiar because we got similar comments on a post about Seaside, Oregon that Seattlest Tom wrote in May. more ›

Later this month, the 5th Avenue Theater opens what they're calling a 50th-anniversary production of West Side Story, recreating the original Jerome Robbins choreography. This isn't a touring show starring some washed-up 70s sitcom star--the 5th Avenue is using local talent. Hoorah! more ›

One of the weirder blog posts about the Seattle Weekly "expose" of Real Change is over at Crosscut, courtesy of ex-Weeklyite Chuck Taylor. (We'd point you to the Metblogs recap but it's fatally flawed, in that it's missing one of the seminal posts on the subject, namely ours. So no can do. But here's Real Change's take on the kerfluffle-thus-far.) more ›

The Ides of March is nearly upon us and we just realized that we've made no progress on one of our new year resolutions. We had promised ourselves and the universe that we would compensate for our disappointed idealism and deep-rooted complaintive nature by volunteering some time each month for a good cause. Sitting for an hour at an Obama for President rally doesn't quite fulfill the requirement. more ›

Last week we caught a free showing of the Brazilian documentary Favela Rising, courtesy of Scion's marketing machine. With the promise of free cocktails beforehand, we trundled down to the Harvard Exit about a half hour in advance of the show. Upon making our way upstairs to the top floor, we felt a bit like we'd crashed someone's party where we quickly realized we knew no one there. The atmosphere was more "Yo check out my friend's DJ premiere" than "Indie movie screening", but we tried to settle in. Sadly, we were not wearing a mesh hat slanted like Mike Cameron, or our best "trying too hard" clothes. more ›

One week of SIFF down, only three more to go. Starting yesterday, the fest moved on up, to the Eastside. Now through next Wednesday, films will be shown in Bellevue at the Lincoln Square Cinemas. From the looks of it, they've got a strong Friday lined up, with the final screenings of The Giant Buddhas, Prairie Home Companion, and Conversations with Other Women. more ›

In honor of President's Day, we've included our fave prezzes along with our weekend activity list. more ›

After years of insisting that “good citizens” were the key to winning ballclubs, the Mariners have hired one of baseball’s notorious bad guys, Carl Everett. more ›

You may or may not be aware, but Congress is all in a tizzy (repeatedly) over a number of bills either recently passed or currently on the docket, and reconvened earlier this week to try to get all warm and fuzzy before the year ends. Seattlest did some digging and if any of you are even half as confused as we are, we hope this helps. We're going to break these bills down, James Brown short-sentence-with-rhythm style. more ›

This weekend, Seattlest will be representing at a high school basketball game, a chamber music concert, a church in Burien, and Alderwood Babies-R-Us, respectively. For the full 411, see below. more ›

Seattle Weekly Editor-in-Chief Knute Berger white unflighted recently, moving from Kirkland back to Seattle. more ›

Unlike a certain whiny bastard with terrible taste, most people have had nothing but glowing praise for The Constant Gardener, the new film from Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles. And with good reason---the movie's a taut political thriller about a genteel mid-level British diplomat in Africa (Ralph Fiennes) whose activist wife (Rachel Weisz) is killed, an event which spurs him to get to the bottom of her murder by digging ever deeper. Y'know, 'cause he's a gardener. more ›

While the mainstream media are easily diverted by the smoke screen for John Kerry's Seattle visit, Seattlest has no interest in barking up the National Conference of State Legislators tree. We happen to know that Kerry came to town on the usual tourists' quest for some fresh, tasty fish. more ›

Seattlest has no time. No time to contemplate our future. No time to mindlessly surf the internet. No time to pick blackberries, baby our sunburn, tune up our bike, while away the hours, smell the roses, make another pot of coffee, stop for a 12-pack on the way home, be annoyed by the Blue Angels or write this post. We certainly have no time to attend the Take Back Your Time North American Conference in Seattle today through Sunday. more ›

Former anybody but Bush candidate Senator John Kerry is in town raising money, hosting forums and generally bringing…it…on. more ›