• Tonight we expect it to be all-out airness in Eastlake at El Corazon for the Seattle Regional Air Guitar Championships. We also hear one of the judges has a thing for the keytar.
• A homemade float plane (who does that?) had a splash landing this morning into Lake Sammamish. Its pilot, an 82-year-old Redmond man, was left unscathed.

Downtown Seattle turned into an Old West style stand-off this morning as SPD officers pursued bank robbery suspects driving a gold SUV. Shortly before 11 a.m., SPD officers surrounded the suspect's car on Spring Street between First and Second Avenues. While all the details remain sketchy, at shortly after 10 a.m., a man described as armed and wearing a mask held-up a West Seattle Wells Fargo on the 2300 block of California Street. SPD officers entered a pursuit as the suspect fled in a car driven by an accomplice. The chase first led through Capitol Hill and then downtown, where one of the suspects fled on foot near the intersection of First and Yesler before being apprehended. The driver continued on, leading to the eventual stand-off in downtown. Unwilling to relinquish the weapon or exit his car despite demands from officers, the SPD fired on the suspect, hitting him in the neck. more ›

There's no sign outside, no street number, just a Vespa on the sidewalk below a fluttering Italian flag. Welcome to Tavolata, the long-awaited Belltown outpost of Union's Ethan Stowell and business partner Patric Gabre-Kidan. Neither has clogs-at-the-forno experience in Italy, but that didn't stop them from creating an upscale, "modern Italian" restaurant in Belltown. more ›

Tattooed guy, Larry (we think it was Larry) Conner (we think he said Conner), headphones, cigarette, ignores Monday night's snowstorm under makeshift tarp and jury-rigged work lights to complete tattoo-themed mural outside Wann Izakaya on Second Avenue. Hey, if Hasselbeck and Alexander can work in the snow, let alone artists like Conner (or did he say Cotter?), then the rest of us ought to as well, right? On the other hand, too cold & windy to actually take out trusty reporter's notebook. Easy name to remember, though. Potter? Porter? more ›

Seattlest's wife used to work with Warren Dykeman before he moved to a less corporate position. So we had an early sneak preview at his style, having seen a couple of pieces he hung in their office. more ›

This almost got past us, but really there is no way to escape the steel jaws of Seattlest's newsreader. The Seattle Times mentioned earlier this week that north-south travel times through downtown have actually improved since the bus tunnel was closed. more ›

Everyone who writes from time to time has a few pieces of work that should never see the light of day. Well, that's about to change. Tomorrow evening, Seattle will bear witness to the Salon of Shame, a take-off on NYC's Cringe reading nights, wherein people dig deep into their repertoires and voluntarily disclose embarrassing things they've written. Y'know, the sort of things where you might not be able to make eye contact with the individual after the fact. Awk-ward! more ›

Whoever hired the caterer for the reelection party of Seattle Monorail Board member Cindi Laws, I hope you can get your deposit back. more ›