In today's P-I, 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. Likening the quandary Prop. 1 voters face to a scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Connelly writes: Cornered atop a cliff, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid face surrender to a......

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. We were inspired by Krugman himself, though, who turned out to be a very droll fellow, or at least acts that way on cold......

Bad Monkey Productions' staging of Rebecca Gilman's Blue Surge 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. The play follows Curt (Andy Clawson), a small town vice detective, and his partner Doug (Robert Walker) as they try to......

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. That Theater Under Ground's Crime and Punishment is a different take......

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. In his autobiography, Chaplin wrote that his notion of humor was based on "the subtle discrepancy we discern in what appears......

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." Half a step back to the very American notion, articulated by New......

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......

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. You'd think that the large cultural gap between people living in the arts/media capitol of the United States and those living in the second-largest town in Clatsop County, Oregon, would prevent any striking......

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! Rogers (Puyallup) High product Louis Hobson, a 5th Ave regular, is playing Tony. We emailed questions, he emailed answers. Is it Lou-wee or Lou-wis? I never know. It's Louis and not Louie, or......

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.) Taylor's post is titled: "You don't have street cred if you can't do the......

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. The local affiliate of the Hands On......

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......

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. As a SIFF-related resource, it's worth your time to head over......

In honor of President's Day, we've included our fave prezzes along with our weekend activity list. Michael vB is going to see the NW Dance Split Bill ($18) at On the Boards either tonight or closing night Saturday, 8pm. Then Sunday morning he plans to scram on down to the Hi-Spot before the brunch crush for some delicious breakfast vittles. He likes Harry S Truman, because he was "scrappy." Audrey will spend the long weekend......

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. The move improves the Mariners offense (whether the degree of improvement is worth Everett’s reported $3.4 million salary is in question). It’s also exposed an ugly vein of local intellectual elitism. The move was a poorly-kept secret so already the local Internets are buzzing with commentary—and laughter. Because, besides getting......

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......

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. Audrey's watching HBO's happy-go-lucky AIDS film. Tomorrow, she'll evince her newly-found concern for third-world poverty and disease by going Christmas shopping downtown. Sunday afternoon, find her at the Triple Door, having successfully weaselled her way into the KEXP event with Morcheeba. Sunday morning, most Seattlests......

Seattle Weekly Editor-in-Chief Knute Berger white unflighted recently, moving from Kirkland back to Seattle. But, guess what? He didn't cotton to it. Why? Because, as his Pulitzer-worthy investigation in last week's Weekly reveals, Seattle ain't what it used to be. Among his shocking discoveries, sure to surprise Seattle Weekly readers: "gentrification is scrambling the old neighborhoods" "the old square-head Ballard is gone" "U Village is now a yuppie fun zone" "There's some new freeway running......

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......

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. We hear he dined at St. Cloud's in Madrona last night, and had the halibut. According to the menu: Sake Poached Market Fish with Pickled Ginger......

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......

Former anybody but Bush candidate Senator John Kerry is in town raising money, hosting forums and generally bringing…it…on. This morning Kerry is hosting a town hall forum with Senator Patty Murray regarding his Kids First Act legislation, which would use Medicaid to provide health care for children living in poverty. Last night he attended a fundraiser for the state Democratic Party to help pay for the costs of the on-going legal action following the governor’s......