In the emotionally touchy issue of adoption, how do we open a public conversation about the politics of adoption and race, especially for adult adoptees? Writer, activist, actress, and playwright Lisa Marie Rollins is returning to her Seattle/Tacoma area roots this weekend to do just that. more ›

Locally-rooted "freaky weird girl culture, fourth wave futures, and anything else" blog Girlfriend Junction* has this great piece, "Gentrifying While Brown," from recent Bellingham-to-Seattle transplant Anjali Kusler. Check it out for an interesting reflection on an increasingly more racially and economically complex neighborhood. more ›

Grab a partner and register now for the Verizon Urban Challenge. 50 teams will race through our fair city this Saturday for their chance to win cash and a new HTC smart phone. more ›

Early primary results show a Seattle mayoral race three-way, with incumbent Greg Nickels on the bottom and the Seattle Times still stabbing viciously. But for the Times, it's a bittersweet used-to-be-friends assassination: Anti-tunnel crusader Mike McGinn leads Joe "T-Mobile" Mallahan by less than a percentage point. more ›

Last night's Duck Dodge on Lake Union--a proudly tipsy 35-year tradition--was especially busy thanks to the heat wave. More water cannons and water balloons were in evidence than usual, too. more ›

The theatre is considered so negligible in American culture (and in many ways : Bartlett Sher, the artistic director of the Intiman, is the first white director in decades to helm a major production of an August Wilson play, outraging some African-American theatre artists. Wilson, who spent the last 15 years of his life in Seattle, had limited productions of his work to companies that hired African-Americans as directors and designers; since his death in 2005, his widow has overturned that prohibition. more ›

Organizers announced the course for the Seattle Rock and Roll marathon today, which will replace last year's bungled Seafair Marathon. The hilly June 27 race is a for-profit event run by a California company. It starts in Tukwila, near a casino and sexpresso stands, and will show off the industrial area around Boeing, and Rainier Beach, before heading up the Alaskan Way Viaduct and must-see Highway 99. And since there's a rock music theme, expect to hear "Smells Like Teen Spirit" approximately 26.2 times. more ›

In this guest editorial, Chris Kaasa, a senior at the University of Washington, responds to John Fay's controversial pro-Prop 8 article, published last week in the UW Daily. more ›

In terms of identity, Chad Goller-Sojourner either hit the jackpot or got the short end of the stick, depending on one's perspective: a gay black man raised by a white family with a "girl's" eating disorder. more ›

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's controversial pastor and friend, gave a widely criticized speech yesterday on Black Liberation Theology, patriotism, and his relationship with Barack Obama. Obama gave a press conference of his own today, saying he's "outraged" at Rev. Wright's "appalling" comments. He emphasized that Rev. Wright was never his "spiritual advisor," though the pastor married the Senator and his wife and prayed with them the day Obama announced his presidential candidacy. more ›

Last weekend, two men were shot at an afterparty for a book-signing of an unauthorized account of Dr. Dre and West Coast hiphop down in Tukwila. One of the men died from multiple gunshot wounds and was identified to the press late last night as a 24-year-old from Renton named Deon T. Guidry. more ›

The past few months have seen Mr. “Wes C. Addle”—Eddie Vedder—looking more like Mr. Tinseltown than just another (incredibly talented) Easy Street customer. Times don’t look like they’ll be a-changin’ in 2008. more ›

Is a new front opening up in the Culture Wars? Seattle school officials say no, but King 5's producers not-so-subtly imply yes. more ›

Well, it's been a month, and that can only mean one thing: time for the next free edgy youth culture documentary, care of Scion. Last time around, the topic was blood diamonds in hip hop; this time it's all about nightclubbing in the late '80s NYC queer community. more ›

Why hip-hop? more ›

City Council candidate Venus Velazquez was charged with a DUI the other night, which is odd because Bruce Harell was the athlete [slide-whistle], and with that we start our Seattlest General Election Civic Election Coverage 2007. more ›

A few weeks ago, Nobel Prize Laureate and co-discoverer of DNA Dr. James Watson blew through town, reflecting on how he's stayed away from stupid people, then delving into his now-customary slurry of sexist patois. Apparently he waited until he got across the pond to London to pull out the big guns:

The 79-year-old geneticist said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really." He said he hoped that everyone was equal, but countered that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.”

City Council candidate Venus Velázquez was arrested for a DUI last night which can't be good for her campaign for Peter Steinbrueck's seat. Apparently, she had "two drinks with her meal" and then hung around for a while to ensure she wasn't impaired. If that's what really happened, bummer. It sounds like she made a better effort than the guys we see "sobering up" at the end of the night by switching to light beer for last call. "No more shots for me...I'm driving. Two Pabsts, please." Needless to say, you don't see those guys appearing in your voter's guide too often. Even if it was two drinks and a cooling off period - a cop saw fit to pull her over, administer the field tests and take her in. more ›

In a well-paced one-hour lecture, Matthew Brzezinski provided a summary of Red Moon Rising, his new book about the Sputnik launch and its explosive political aftermath. more ›

"Keep in mind the name Matthew Brzezinski. This book feels like a practice run from a young author destined for big things." more ›

Well Dan, I guess you don't even need a bike and a mountain anymore. Here is a RedBull biking event in Budapest--I guess if we can build mountain bike trails under the freeway, they can race their bikes in the subway. more ›

(This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs.) more ›

There were all the things a soapbox derby should have at last weekend's Redbull Soapbox derby in Fremont: sleek, high-design vehicles next to totally scrappy, yet hysterically themed clunkers (the pickle seemed to be a crowd favorite). Attitude, bravado, and shenanigans mixed with derring-do. There were kids and old folks, and everyone in between. And ridiculous skits before each run (many requiring the removal of pants), a nice twist. Unexpectedly, there was Sir Mix-A-Lot and Travis Pastrana (we actually thought that was cool, but many seemed not to know the moto trickster by name) for judges. There was just one thing we wish there had been more of, and that was sightlines for the race. Or, as fellow Seattlest contributor Jack put it: "No matter where we stood along the course, it was hard to see anything without dry-humping the person in front of us as we leaned forward hoping to catch just a glimpse of our heroes cruising down Fremont Avenue." more ›

Because we know you want to know, it's your weekly look at what is keeping Seattlest engaged this weekend. more ›

Man, if the EU court that stuck it to Microsoft this weekend and Mr. and Mrs. Slowsky were in a race it would probably go off the board for betters. It's. Taking. For. Ever. The crime is Microsoft shutting out competitors by bundling Windows Media Player with Windows, which, to us at least, seems like an ancient issue. What are they going to go after Microsoft for next? Attaching round wheels to an axle? We were all about this issue when it was browsers that were being shut out of Microsoft operating systems, but for some reason we can't get all that excited about media players. Real Player? QuickTime? Fuck 'em. More troubling to us are the protocols that Microsoft has refused to open. Standards; there is a point to it, after all. more ›

While you're enjoying an unseasonably sunny summer afternoon, we will be at Safeco Field, showing our undying support for the 2007 Seattle Mariners, authors of one of the greatest collapses in baseball history. more ›

Well, that was spectacular. From the heady days of August 25th, when the M's were three up in the wild card and only one back in the division, had won two straight in Texas, when we were all excited about Blue-za-palooza or whatever the fuck it was...to now, after 11 losses in 12 games, when we're all pretty much in wait 'till next year mode. more ›

The 8th congressional district lost five-term Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn and candidate Rodney Tom in the last twenty-four hours. more ›

Your Seattle Mariners played their biggest series in four seasons this week. With a chance to overtake the first place Angels if they could win three games, the Mariners won zero games. more ›