If you’re an art lover (or a Seattlest reader, which you are, right?) and you’ve been around the Emerald City arts community for any length of time, chances are you’ve come across a SuttonBeresCuller (SBC) installation. more ›

What're you up to tonight? How about getting gritty with Rooster, or raw with ACT? Or maybe you'd rather delve deeply into the history of the Pacific Northwest? Whatever you choose to do, make sure you check out our calendar first. more ›

It's going to be an interesting week... more ›

What's more American than loving art? Probably a lot of things. But if you're looking to skip the fireworks in favor of films, books an visual displays that still celebrate the Land of the Free, we've got you covered there, too. more ›

COWBOY POETRY: Baxter Black is well known in much of western America for his work as a cowboy poet on NPR. This modern poetry legend is also a large-animal veterinarian. The Arizona-based Black is visiting Elliott Bay Book Company to read and perform from his newest book, Lessons from a Desperado Poet. It's part how-to book, part-memoir and draws from his experiences while home on the range. more ›

This Cinco de Mayo, skip the overpriced margaritas and go to the theatre. Or the art gallery. Or the museum. Or to see a guitar god go wild. It's First Thursday, after all. more ›

Ice Cube makes it a good day, John Perkins talks about the end of the world as we know it, and of course, it's First Thursday. more ›

As you've seen with our Octopus Dishes, Octopus tats, Heavens to Etsy and This Week in Film features today, the Seattlest staff has done our best to mine some local octopus content for our readers. But it's not enough! Not enough! What happens when you slap the keyword "octopus" into some Seattle sites' search engines? more ›

Hey, straggler! This is your last chance to take a peek at the Seattle Art Museum's biggest show EVER before it closes on Monday, January 17th. more ›

Crusty Capitol Hill Month continues here at the Re:Take column. What happened to the concrete zoo in Volunteer Park? more ›

Remixing SAM! Art, music, drinks, activities, tours, fashion show, variety performances and much more! more ›

AWES OF ATTRACTION: When the Seattle International Children’s Festival changed its name to Giant Magnet, our reaction went from “Eh, I guess kids should be allowed to have some fun every now and again” to “Giant Magnet??!! Are you freaking kidding me? Where?!” And though there isn’t exactly a giant magnet anywhere, per se, the events calendar for this festival pretty much makes up for that. They’ve got circus performers, hip-hip violinists, African dancers, Colombian bands, Native American performing artists, puppeteers, all sorts. The festival, entering its 24th year, is still entirely family friendly, but it’s also cultural, entertaining, and entirely irresistible. more ›

The Seattle Art Museum laid out its exhibit plans for the next couple of years, beginning with its October blockbuster, "Picasso Masterpieces." The national Picasso museum in Paris is undergoing renovations so they're sending much of the collection--Picasso's private stash, mostly--on a worldwide tour: Madrid, Moscow, Helsinki, Seattle. Seattle? Yes, indeed. "This is what we built the museum to do," director Derrick Cartwright told a press luncheon. An extremely ambitioius undertaking, 150 pieces, that requires a couple of "Presenting Sponsors" (Microsoft and JP Moran Chase) not to mention a "major sponsor" (Sotheby's) and a hotel sponsor (the Four Seasons, duh, right across First Avenue). more ›

This exhibit will cover every phase of Picasso's career,from his early 20th century forays into painting to work from the 1970s just prior to his death. The exhibit is only possible because the Musee Picasso, which houses much of Picasso's work, has closed for renovations -- otherwise these paintings would be viewable only in Paris. more ›

TRUE ORBIT: Chilled to a level of realness unfortunately too often glossed over. It’s the real B-Boy style, enunciated rhymes and steady but pressing beats with a pleasant scratch and straight hip-hip talk unconcerned with that which most are blinded by today. Two things, music and life positively, the only two things that truly matter. This is good time hip-hop, all flow sans unnecessary spit. Easy to touch and be touched by. Not ground breaking but ground holding, still perfecting the stable roots of a tree that grew so quickly. Orbitron with Continental Soldiers, Red Cloud, and DJ Young Native. more ›

ARE YOU JUST? Michael J. Sandel, professor of philosophy at Harvard, talks about political and moral philosophy at Town Hall. Sandel’s all-encompassingly titled “Justice” courses are among the most highly attended in the university’s history. Sandel is the author of Just: What’s the Right Thing to Do, which examines our obligations to others. more ›

• Seattle Opera must have been on a high note on Friday, when they were awarded a $500,000 grant to debut the new American opera Amelia in May 2010.
• We welcome the handmade chocolates (hellooo, raspberry-wasabi dark chocolate truffle!), traditional German treats, and delicious ganache-filled confections from Madison Valley's Suess Chocolates & Pastries, the newest chocolate shop on the block. If one truffle isn't enough for you, there are truffle-making classes too.

An interesting take on the Hammering Man from Espressobuzz in the Flickr Pool. more ›

• As the Seattle Art Museum nears the end of the Mimi Gates era, they have announced Derrick R. Cartwright, of San Diego Museum of Art, will become SAM's newest director.
• Wallywood reports raccoons are infiltrating the Wallingford neighborhood. We wonder if it has anything to do with the large medical marijuana growing operation going on in a local Wallingford home.
• A big ol' three-alarm fire engulfed a South Seattle apartment building today--the fast-spreading fire left Whisper Wood Apartments neighbors without shoes, coats or even a standing home.

NONCONFORMIST INDIE ROCK GOD: That's right, Destroyer (aka Dan Bejar aka the "unofficial" wine-swilling member of the New Pornographers) is in town tonight, ready to baptize the new Crocodile with...frankly, you never quite know with Dan. One recent album, Destroyer's Rubies, opened with an over-nine-minute track, with Bejar announcing portentously, "Cast myself towards infinity, trust me, I had my reasons." Trouble in Dreams was summed up as "shitfaced" by Pitchfork, who also called Bejar an "untouchable wizard." What a character! If you haven't had a chance to visit the new Croc yet, this show is as good a reason as any. more ›

• Seattle Transit Blog is mad as hell about the legislature backing out on I-90 light rail funding and they don't think you should take it anymore. East side! West side! Let's make a light rail rumble!
• Will fancy eats joint Sitka & Spruce really move from Eastlake to Capitol Hill? CHS polls readers, fans flames of rumor.
• Publicola's Morning Fizz abandoned links and announced that a "dynamic woman" had joined the Mayoral race. April Fools!

We used to think Andy Warhol's work was amusing. more ›

"SAM Seattle Asian Art Museum" by David Hogan more ›

Author John Updike was at Seattle Arts & Lectures this week. The upcoming SAL appearance of Annie Leibovitz (November 19) is sold out. Michael Pollan (January 12) is almost sold out. more ›

more ›

Although we've passed the point in our life where actually going to Hempfest is no longer the choice we'd make on this steamy summer weekend, it is just the kind of thing we love about Seattle: it's a unique event that doesn't take place anywhere else, at least not on the scale that it does here; it's in support of a cause we believe in wholeheartedly; and it offers great views of the mountains and the water. What more could we ask from this event? more ›

With news that long time Seattle Art Museum director Mimi Gates is retiring next year, we are hoping that the Mariners will fire current General Manager Bill Bavasi and hire Gates as his replacement. more ›

Like it's not embarrassing enough to just trip and stumble in a public place. A young visitor to the Seattle Art Museum suffered even further embarrassment by tripping and falling into a world famous work of art. The stumbling Seattlite damaged Double Elvis, a piece by Andy Warhol. According to the Slog's report on the incident, the SAM's spokesperson said the piece had been dented and was sent to the museum's conservators for repair. more ›

It's the first Thursday of February, which means that the Seattle Art Museum is open "After Hours," and entrance is free. Their Art for All musical guest is okanomodé, and provokes this cross-pollinated promotional copy:

Melding composition, style and genre with the skill of Basquiat blending color, okanomodé spins song into frenzy and makes magic with his tongue.

But let's not lose sight of another change that's proved another vast improvement: Pentagram's reworking of SAM's brand identity. more ›