Seven facts in honor of Little Miss Seattlest's first-ever movie, WALL-E, which we saw at the Cinerama—one of three three-panel Cinerama theaters left in the world. FACT: The Seattle Cinerama is not Seattle's original Cinerama. That'd be the Paramount, which sacrificed 1600 seats to fit the screen and three projection booths required. They screened Cinerama films from September 1, 1956, to January 26, 1958. The Cinerama we know and love today opened January 24,......

POLITICS: Samantha Power (where have we heard that name before?), a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is in town Friday night to discuss her book, Chasing the Flame. It's about the 2003 death of UN High Commissioner Sergio Vieira de Mello in Iraq, and how we might better deal with the challenges of religious extremism, refugees, terrorism, and ethnic struggle. She also wrote a book on genocide, A Problem from......

Monday SEATTLEST BOOK CLUB PICK: For March, we're reading Jonathan Raban's Surveillance, set in a not-so-distant future, when everyone's actions are highly monitored. Get a head start on the conversation by hearing from Raban himself. (We'll know if you went or not.) 7pm // UW Bookstore // FREE FANTASTIC FICTION SALON: Connie Willis, an award-winning SF writer, hosts this discussion of sci-fi/fantasy fiction writing. (As a new member of Hugo House's "Writing Fantastic Fiction"......

Expect the usual: geography, movies, pictures, 3 tacos for $2, and mass chaos. Last week's fourth-place team, Inside-Out Underpants, requested a round on Science Fiction Authors. We've somehow managed to create a round on that theme that won't consign everyone else to 0 points each. The quiz starts at 8:00. Sign-up starts about 7:45. Tables disappear sometime around 7:00, so far as we know, though you're always welcome to play standing. The Old Pequliar?......

BOOKS: Like mysteries? The 17th Annual Western Mystery Fan convention continues through the 4th. For a group focused on clues and figuring things out, they spell things out incredibly well on their website. Where's the fun in that? 9am-5pm // Renaissance Seattle Hotel, 515 Madison St // $60 (day pass) YO-YO: It's the annual Pacific Northwest Yo-Yo Championship. It sounds a little odd, and it is, but it's definitely a sight to behold, with people......

25 teams! Free ashtrays for the taking! Controversy about whether or not Bangor is a "city" or just part of Bremerton! And a geeky white boy dance-off to close the evening! Yes, last night's Seattlest trivia at the Old Pequilar was, again, a madhouse -- the fun and exciting kind of madhouse. Our friend Brannon fulfilled a lifelong dream of writing a trivia quiz and making his friend read all the questions -- and a......

We're pleased as punch to report that noted local filmmaker (and friend of ours) Brian McDonald was just down at the Austin Film Festival becoming an "award-winning screenwriter." Saturday, October 21, he won the Science Fiction category of the AFF 2006 Screenplay Competition with his screenplay "Graverobbers." (Technically, since his short film Whiteface won audience favorite at the 2001 Slamdance, he's already award-winning. But this is newer.) Known in the industry as a "story"......

That Old Nerd™ we told you about the other day who filed a lawsuit against the publisher of the world's greatest cartoonists, claiming defamation and violation of his right of publicity (apparently over some alleged stories of the man's past recounted in one Fanta book and a lack of the requisite "TM" next to his trademarked name on the cover of yet another), recently made the legally dubious decision to grab the breast of an......

Nalo Hopkinson, author of delightful Caribbean-themed speculative fiction, spoke last night at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame as part of Clarion West's summer reading series. Hopkinson is one of the few people of color working in the mostly ivory SF tower. She's Canadian but spent her childhood in the Caribbean. Attendees were lucky enough to hear her read from her not-yet-released book The New Moon's Arms. That reading - more of a......

Clarion West is a renowned Seattle writing workshop for science fiction that takes place every summer. This year they're sponsoring a series of six summer readings at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame featuring some of the instructors who come through the program. Last night Maureen McHugh, who has been nominated for the top awards in the genre and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award for her novel China Mountain Zhang, read from......

To be fair, you didn't expect the Ray Harryhausen talk at the Science Fiction Museum last night to sell out either, did you? But it did, and even though we hinted that we were from a globe-spanning blog empire, they refused to let us in. "You know, Mr. Seattlest golfs with Mr. Allen frequently," we lied pathetically. But no soap. Who's Ray Harryhausen? Just one of the greatest stop-motion animators in film history (and SFM......

As noted here and elsewhere, author Octavia Butler died last weekend. Tonight, the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is hosting a memorial gathering. Not only was Butler a giant voice in SF, she served on the museum's Advisory Board. Local science fiction authors will read from her work and discuss her influence. Speakers include Greg Bear, Joel Davis, L. Timmel DuChamp, Eileen Gunn, Brian Herbert, Leslie Howle, Vonda N. McIntyre, Nisi Shawl, Stephanie......

The insanely prolific folks at Make magazine are teaming up with a heady group of co-conspirators this April for Maker Faire in San Mateo California. Seattlest is seventeen different shades of green with envy for our cousin SFist, because this event will be in their side yard, and the guest hosts are front-lined by the folks from Myth Busters. Myth Busters, sweet Jesus! That is our favorite show. Our dream job. It would be......

Monday Nov. 28 5:30: Jane Midgley, Elliott Bay Book Co. Women and the U.S. Budget: Where the Money Goes and What You Can Do About It 6:00: Anne Rice, Third Place Books -- Lake Forest Park Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (signing only) 7:00: Peter Blecha, University Bookstore (University District) Rock 'n' Roll Archaeologist: How I Chased Down Kurt's Stratocaster, the "Layla" Guitar, and Janis's Boa 7:30: Richard Bach, EBBC Curious Lives: Adventures from......

The set and special effects are more richly rendered than anything Dreamworks has ever produced. The well-designed ensemble cast overshadows your old favorites from the original Star Wars. The story is both more believable and more fantastic than The Matrix. Of course, in RL it’s just one man on a bare stage in the dark cellar of the Capitol Hill Arts Center, but Virtual Solitaire is so fully imagined and so strongly performed that Dawson......

Halloween isn't until Monday, but everyone's going out to celebrate this weekend. So after you put the final touches on the ultimate scary costume (be it a Katrina victim, avian flu, or even *shudder* Harriet Miers), hit the town for one of the many Halloween-themed movies showing on the big screen. Tonight at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is the second film in their Alien Encounters series, It Came from Outer Space.......

When's the last time you attended a reading by a genuine, MacArthur-certified genius? Tonight's your chance -- local author and Science Fiction Museum board member Octavia Butler will read from Fledgling, her first novel in 7 years, at 7:30 at Elliott Bay Book Co. Butler's appearance is being co-presented by the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas, an organization Seattlest confesses we'd never heard of before. Their mission: "To offer progressive programs that encourage......

A post-apocalyptic short film will be shot in Seattle this coming Sunday and they're looking for extras in the future goth vein. Where does one shoot a post-apocalyptic short film? Microsoft Campus? Seattle Center? Lower Madison? No, no, no. Rainier Brewery! This is an entry for The Science Fiction Museum's Science Fiction Short Film Festival which is accepting submissions through December. The unfortunate name of the production is "Knuth: City of the Future Lost." -......

You never know who your neighbors are until something tragic happens. Yesterday we discovered the sad news that actor James Doohan, Scotty from TOS, has died of pneumonia and Alzheimer's complications, but also that he was a Washington State resident, making his home across the puddle in Redmond. He originally hailed from Vancouver, B.C. Doohan had been active in the science fiction and Star Trek communities even recently, appearing in recent Trek films as well......

Alright, first things first: The 31st annual Seattle International Film Festival is nearly upon us. Opening night is May 19th, and SIFF runs for nearly a month after that. During that time, more than 230 feature-length films will screen, including a whole bunch of goodies which have already won awards at Sundance and other film fests. The box office opens today for SIFF members, but the general public (i.e., the commoners) will have to wait......

David Brin and Cory Doctorow will be reading and signing tonight at the JBL theater from 7-9pm. We had to look up the exact location of the JBL Theater and that exhaustive research has uncovered the shadowy near-certainty of its geographic placement, but not a street address. It is adjacent to the Science Fiction Museum in the EMP. Cory Doctorow, aside from being one of our favoritest people on the interweb and beyond, is a......