Results tagged “seannelson”

At least that's what we think whenever we see this stencil on the sidewalk at 11th and Pine. We have the facts, and we're voting yes.

As you may recall, we love Mickey Rourke. Love love LOVE Mickey Rourke. We love that he's crazy (but completely self-aware in his craziness), love that he has a soft spot for his many dogs (RIP Loki), love that he cries in nearly every interview. So of course we were crestfallen when Sean Penn won the Best Actor Oscar last night. Sure, Sean gave a humble yet political speech (extra points for hands shaking), and we're sure our precious David was happy, but everyone at the Kodak Theatre would've lost their shit had Mickey won.

It was all going so well. The John Hodgman Variety Hour had made a stop at Town Hall, chockful of songs, tales of hobos and molemen, and anecdotes on being a famous minor television personality. Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick guitar-dueled to the death in a feral mountain man-off, while John Hodgman and Sean Nelson cerebrally engaged in a tweedy intellectual-off. Their internal disputes resolved, the foursome were ready to don their matching white bedazzled jumpsuits and perform a well-choreographed ukulele version of "Love Will Keep Us Together."

We've read enough pub trivia answer sheets to be familiar with this phenomenon: A team doesn't know the answer to a question, so they write something witty instead. ("Your mom" being one of the least witty examples.) While some of those answers are genuinely clever, however, we never would've thought to transform fake, funny trivia into a literary form.

If you're awesome, you don't get SAD, we see. You get BOLD! Awesome's John Osebold [MySpace] is filled with the spirit of the season:

Hello! Happy December. I love this month. I wish I could give you all something this holiday season but I'm not very good with cards or throwing parties.

Conventional wisdom says these days ain't happy ones for pulp-and-print publications. Circulation's down. Ad revenues are down. Everyone wants to read online. So nearly every newspaper, magazine and television news program has a host of blogs these days, to compete with the millions of self-described experts, autodidacts, conspiracy theorists and Chuck Norris-aficionados who propagate the blogosphere with their own brand of citizen journalism (read: poor spelling and poorer grammar).

Somehow, in between day jobs, practices, live shows, and recording their second album Beehive Sessions (produced by the Posies' Jon Auer), everybody's favorite performance group/art collective/pop band "Awesome" has found the time to put together a new theater extravaganza for all ages. And though it's kid-tested mother-approved, there's still scads of local talent involved: Here's What Happened is directed by WET's Jennifer Zeyl and has a different guest narrator each night--actor Charles Leggett, Almost Live! and Seattle Channel's Nancy Guppy, and man about town Sean Nelson.

So much new stuff! Food critic Bethany over at the Slog tipped us off about Cafe Presse opening not far from our office so we sauntered over for a lunchtime look-see. We spotted it easily because of the yellow sign. It's on the west side of 12th Avenue, on the block south of Madison, forming a French triangle (un triangle français) with Licorous and Lark. Maybe they can all field a soccer team against Stellina and La Spiga.

It's SIFF's last bleary-eyed, numb-assed, popcorn-butter-fingered weekend, so if you haven't stopped in for some film-festy fun, you gotta act fast. We held Audrey upside-down and shook her until she gave us some selections -- no, no, you deserve the best. There's no telling how far we'd go to make you happy.

POLEMIC: Understated, respectful, sober -- these are words that describe someone else besides Christopher Hitchens, who we suspect would beat you senseless with his shoe if it meant that he could own "iconoclastic."

This week the weather's cooperating a bit more. Nothing like escaping rainy days with a film festival (except if you get stuck in a downpour while waiting in line, so pack that umbrella). Once inside you'll be golden thanks to your perusal of Seattlest picks. Trust us. Golden!

This weekend there are a lot of shows that we recommend you avoid, not that you're going to listen to Seattlest and tear up your tickets or anything, but if you previously had no idea these were happening this weekend you can pat yourself on the back for successfully avoiding any mention of them so far. First Fishbone is playing Studio 7. Stay away. Second, Jello Biafra is in town. Not there's anything wrong with Jello, exactly. Let's just say he draws a particular crowd. Finally, the Gypsy Kings are at the Paramount.

MUSIC: Deerhoof. Some have dismissed Deerhoof as bland or simply weird. Others praise the complex composition of their songs. We just think they're good.

For one night only—Friday at Town Hall—Sean Nelson made a sizable dent in prolific yet forgotten 60s/70s singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson's extensive discography. Oh, but he didn't engage in such a lofty task alone. Instead, he ended up having somewhere around nine hundred other musicians assembled as a rock orchestra, which included theater-pop troupe "Awesome," three violinists, a brass section (including tuba), a trio of back-up chick singers, and a pajama-clad group of kids known as the Cougar Choir, all of whom were led by Nelson and producer-composer-pianist extraordinaire Mark Nichols (who also had a hand in the songs' arrangements). Now that's a lot of talent on one stage. Nelson covered a great deal of Nilsson's repertoire, from the poppy-sad songs about his bad relationship with his father to the poppy-sad songs about his bad relationships with women.

Tuesday, December 5

Seattlest is a big fan of kids. And writing. And learning. And, like, the future. Kids are the future, we are the past, and so it goes.

The Hugo House is running an inquiry into that most terrible and divisive of subjects: childhood.

As Slate will sometimes publish a book review or commentary by Armond White or Stanley Crouch, one gathers that toothlessness in a writer isn't always a condition of employment. How then to account for the uniform awfulness of Slate's film section since Edelstein's departure? How then to account for the myopically prejudicial "old boys' club" atmosphere that deems who will and who won't have "room" in an online publication that's updated daily? (And is losing money anyway.)

You got something better to do? We don't believe you.

SIFF runs a tight ship. Even though their Face the Music party at Neumo's last night had a bajillion bands on the bill---all of whom were doing ~20 minute sets chockful of covers, as a tribute to musicians featured in films at the festival--- somehow they were actually running ahead of schedule. How often does that happen at a regular rock show, let alone one with eleven musical acts? Somebody must've been cracking the whip. Truly, this slavedriver should be commended.

The final full week of SIFF is upon us. It's time to get some last few films before the sun sets on this year's fest. This week's got a couple great music events as well: Friday night, Portastatic will be on hand to perform a specially-commissioned live score accompanying circus freakshow-themed silent film The Unknown (more about that in a few days).

So much is in the delivery. The unsteady, sunburned drinker who wearily slurred his estimate of the time he'd spent drinking Sunday somehow packed cosmic distances into his phrasing. Or there were the two young men, fleeing the rain shower, bleating: "What's gone wrong? Where are the naked hippies? Where are the naked hippies!"

First of all, we could describe it all, the minutiae, the ecstasy -- but streaming video is also fun. MSN Video was at Sasquatch, filming for future on-demand streaming starting Thursday, June 1. (We understand teasers and highlights are up now.) They have artist interviews and a blog from Sean Nelson (whom our friend thinks lives upstairs from him, after seeing him appear with the Decemberists -- "He's in a band?" he asked. "Man, he makes a racket stomping around up there. He's got a piano, too.") You can create your own playlist or just sit back and Sasquatch.

Maybe Seattle doesn’t have a river to dye green just for the occasion, but there are still scads of St. Patrick’s Day activities here in the Emerald City. We suppose you could go to the Seattle Center for the big celebration there, but most people would rather be out drinking, so for your Irish pub-crawling pleasure (cover charges as noted):