Seattlest grew up in Central Florida and, even though we haven't lived there for many, many years, we still crave the sunshine. Maybe it's because our body expects more vitamin D? We certainly don't want to add to the choruses of imported souls who bitch and moan about Seattle winters. Nonetheless, we wind up doing so, anyway, every year around mid-January. But, we've come to delight in February, which always gives us a week......

We see on CL that Richard Hugo House is now accepting applications (deadline April 11) for its writer's residency program. Only two writers will be selected, who will have the chance to teach in the Hugo House's writing classes. The residency starts this September 1, 2008, and lasts one year. The highlight is you get to live, subsidized, in one of the “Hugo Huts”—Seattle’s historic Belltown Cottages. The rent subsidy doesn't include utilities, jackets with......

C'mon, Seattle Times. You get a press release related to the McMenamins affair in Kenmore from some mysterious source claiming that the whole deal is off and you turn around and announce it to the world without so much as a phone call to McMenamins? When Seattlest gets a release in the mail detailing the city's plan to dye the sky green we immediately start ranting about how blue skies were good enough for us......

[UPDATE: Once again we fall prey to the print media's knee-jerk print-first, ask-questions-later response. Man, that kind of rushed, speculative reporting really does a number on our carefully cultivated bloggy credibility.] We don't talk enough about Kenmore. It seems like it's quiet out there. We listen, we don't hear anything. Except for the float planes. And except for the McMenamins proposal to lease the seminary in St. Edwards State Park for use as a......

This morning we noticed that someone had dumped some Ultra detergent into the fountain at Cal Anderson Park, which made a bunch of pretty foam, but which perturbed us because we weren't sure if that was getting into our drinking water. The park, as you might already know, is basically a very cool lid for the reservoir that sits underneath it. But we weren't sure how it all worked, so we called the Parks......

It may be one of the subjects the P-I used to deride the City Council lately, but we're happy to see someone paying attention to a form of recreation in this city that doesn't involve fleece, lycra or gortex. Skateboarding exists in the collective mind of the city government - That's a good thing. This is from a flyer we picked up over the weekend at Gasworks: That's a lot of skateparks. It's a pretty......

And now for a whistle-stop tour of some suburban bowling houses... With 50 lanes under one arched roof, Kenmore Lanes is the area’s biggest bowling center (if not the state’s). Besides its mounted giraffe and elephant heads, it also has a cardroom, which could be its undoing. The Kenmore city council’s recent cardroom ban was met with a lawsuit by the alley, claiming it can’t survive on bowling alone. The venue’s fate is now in......

What a bunch of lard asses the rest of the county is, right? Did you travel for the holidays and have to sit next to that fat guy for four hours on the airplane, the whole time thinking "the fattest man on the face of the Earth has to be sitting in 21B", but then when you finally landed and got inside the airport there were blubbery people like him (or bigger!) everywhere? And did......

Seattlest chortled like little Stewie over this headline. Do you know why? Because this post is about the long-awaited opening of Cal Anderson Park! Ha! Not parking! Tomorrow, September 24th, there will be an official opening from noon to 3:30pm:We'll have a community celebration with tours of park, information on the reservoir lidding, music and other entertainment.No word on what this "music and entertainment" might be, but it is sponsored by the Seattle Parks and......

Even though the Kalakala is currently residing in Tacoma, she is still a part of Seattle history and therefore dear to our heart. We miss seeing her in Lake Union where she promised to become a restaurant or night club, so we anxiously await new restoration plans. Next month she celebrates her 70th birthday so there will be an exhibit on the Thea Foss waterfront coinciding with the Tacoma Tall Ships Festival. We continue to......

Photographers, start your cameras! The Discovery Park Advisory Council is sponsoring a photo contest, with winning submissions to be published in a photo calendar (presumably for 2007)....

How often do you walk through the Westlake Park plaza? Ever look down on your way through?...

Existing somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits is local performer Jason Webley. From humble beginnings as a U-District street performer to tours up and down the West Coast (and occasional jaunts as far away as Russia), Jason's particular blend of witty and poignant lyricism, musical arrangements (piano, guitar, accordion, and shovel often figure prominently), concerts that blend showmanship, performance art and audience interaction, and an infectious love of humor and pranksterism have earned him......

Mother Nature is relentlessly dishing out day after glorious day of perfect sailing weather—leaving Seattlest in a westerly-facing, boating daydream. Fortunately, that steady northerly breeze is backed up by a healthy dose of opportunity, including the best boating bargain in town. Seattle Parks and Recreation offers exceptional classes at the Mt. Baker Rowing and Sailing Center. The adult sailing class begins Saturday aboard their fleet of Laser II's. For an unbeatable $108, you'll get......