Billionaire balloonist Richard Branson is finally doing something to get us closer to the Sun. His Virgin America airline begins cut-rate service to San Francisco starting March 18, and Los Angeles starting April 8, reports the Times' Carol Pucci. In an effort to beat Virgin to the punch, Alaska Air is adding more, cheaper flights to the Bay Area. Other airlines are matching Virgin's fares: weekend round trips of $175 to San Fran and......

Has it really been over four years since you've taken a stage in Seattle, Mark? We could be wrong, but your late 2003 Showbox show—a great one, by the way—is the last we heard about. (QOTSA appearances don't count.) Assuming we're right, that's just silly. It's not like you haven't had albums to support. Your 2006 pairing with Isobel Campbell was a gorgeous, syrup-and-sour-mash treat—but did you two share any live love outside of Europe?......

There's nothing like the prospect of a smart hip-hop show to build up our anticipation on a Saturday night. One where we know that the act we're going to see can't fail to deliver, cranks that up a little higher than we can generally handle when we're forced to first stop by a friend's party before the show. To all those in Shoreline that we bored with excited chatter about Lyrics Born and Blackalicious......

If you ever see Seattlest at a show and get annoyed with our habit of constantly looking over your shoulder, it's not that we're looking for someone better to talk to. We love to watch bands set their crap up. Yeah, that's really the only chance you have to talk to your friends, but we can't help constantly glancing up there while one band takes down and the next sets up. You can get a......

As the world holds it's breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. And an ice storm swept through the area. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans......

What's the only local college ever to make the NCAA Men's Basketball Final? Seattle University (in 1958). What's the only local college with an alumnus on the NBA's 50th anniversary all-time team? Also Seattle University (Elgin Baylor). But, despite their terrific basketball tradition, Seattle University relegated the program to Division II status in 1980 because recruiting cost too much. That was a rather short-sighted decision. A basketball program brings in more students than a whole......

The October issue of the Atlantic Monthly is on newsstands now and on its cover are the words "America's Smartest Cities." Please, nothing draws a Seattleite to a magazine faster than a tagline that indicates his intellectual ego is about to receive some much needed stroking. On the other hand, we've seen articles with this kind of headline on the internet and they're generally disappointing. Yeah, yeah, we have a lot of college graduates and......

We established yesterday that Portland wants to be Seattle by pointing out the fact that they have residents who quit the car (for a month) in much the same way Ballard resident Allen Durning has (for good). Tenuous, maybe, but good on 'em. The idea that families need automobiles like they need prime time television should be challenged. Today we suggest that San Francisco wants to be Seattle by pointing out the fact that their......

Transportation nerds, civics geeks and mayor's office moles will all likely be in attendance tonight for the People's Waterfront Coalition's event at Town Hall with John Norquist (former mayor of Milwaukee, New Urbanist type), Scott Bernstein (Brookings Institute Center for Urban and Metropolitan Policy), Anne Vernez Moudon (UW professor of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design and Planning), Bruce Agnew (Cascadia Center, Discovery Institute) and David Brewster (founded Town Hall, founded Seattle Weekly). That's a......

After Wired ran a story documenting the GoogleCenter of the United States a bunch of ists jumped on the opportunity to figure out their own middle. Gothamist, Chicagoist, Bostonist and Seattlest all zoomed in on their creamy GoogleCenters. A crack cartography team is hard at work determining the GoogleCenter of the Ist-a-verse as you read this... Austinist read a book about Olympian Bode Miller and liked it. They also took a few pictures of the......

Scheduling conflicts mean that Seattlest will probably have to miss tomorrow's Captured! By Robots/BlöödHag show at the Funhouse, but if you go we'll be able to feel we were there in spirit. Actually, being there in spirit means crap to us and, man, we wish we were going and could care less whether you go or not. That's not to say that you shouldn't go, because you should - Just don't expect us to care.......