At Denny and Stewart, there's a billboard with a faux stained glass look and churchy type that says "Imagine No Religion." It's been up for a month or two, and the Seattle Times just ran an interview with the guy who paid for it, Redmond's Mike Christensen. Christensen wanted to advertise the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a 12,000-member association of agnostics and atheists. Online, the Times solicits opinions about the godless billboard. Our favorite is......

The 4th Annual Care for the Market luncheon, held yesterday at The Paramount Theatre, was a wake-up call for us. When we think of Pike Place Market, we picture ourselves gorging on Beecher's macaroni and cheese. We envision ourselves carrying bundles of ginormous dahlias, sampling oh-my-god-these-are-good peaches, and listening to the funky sounds of street musicians. We don't necessarily think of meals and housing for low-income senior citizens, childcare for those who can't otherwise......

FRIDAY MUSIC: We're supporting local talent this evening, with a Cornish Senior Recital. Composer Andrew Boscardin (aka Bosco) has two new pieces ready to meet the world. He tells us:The first set will feature a sextet with myself, Mack Grout, Brad Gibson, Rachael Contorer and Clark Gibson. The second set will feature a 13-piece big band. All of the music was written by me and represents easily the largest and most daunting undertaking of......

In an email from one of Seattlest's roving surveillance units: On the way home last night I saw a hit and run at Stewart and Boren: a car ran a red light, struck a cyclist and nearly ran him over. The bicycle riding victim got up, pounded on the hood a bunch of times and pointed to the side of the road and walked over to it, but the driver swerved around him and took......

Seattlest is getting word that 2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle has been closed due to police activity. The south-bound lane of the street between Virginia and Stewart has apparently been closed since 8 this morning. Seattlest's downtown spy reports a crowd gathering underneath a building where police are trying to dissuade a woman from jumping off a ledge. Does Seattlest have any other downtown readers who can keep us up-to-date on the situation? Did this......

It seems like it was just last week that we were gushing over the Bottleneck Lounge. Oh yeah, that was just last week. Well, we're talking about them again. In honor of the Gay Superbowl, the Central District bar is hosting a party: Please join us for live coverage of The Academy Awards on our flat screen TV this Sunday at the Bottleneck. Hosted by Jon Stewart and bartended by Cam, the evening promises......

Yes, they're overblown and sure, it's tiring to watch 4+ hours of Hollywood patting itself on the back, but it's the Academy Awards, fer fuckssake. We can't not watch Sunday's big show. From the red carpet fashion to the drawn-out musical numbers to the people-who've-died montage and the Academy's tribute to gaffers, the Oscars offer something for everyone. Plus, this year it's hosted by Jon Stewart and, though his comedy is not exactly made for......

SIFF Cinema's Noir City Festival has a double-feature not many of you have seen before: Moonrise / Night Has a Thousand Eyes. The festival benefits the Film Noir Foundation, whose mission is to find and preserve noir titles in danger of being lost or irreparably damaged. Says Noir of the Week: Moonrise was once to be a William Wellman A-list picture with Jimmy Stewart or John Garfield but ended up in the lap of Charles......

According to an email we just received and the permit application it linked to, Seattle's Greyhound Bus Station is ambling slowly and uncomfortably towards the end. Design review early design guidance meeting for a 51 story, 1,200 room hotel, convention and meeting space (100,000 sq.ft.) with retail and restaurants at street level. Parking for 1,100 vehicles to be located below grade. Existing office structure and bus station to be demolished. Right now we're not sure......

Was asked the other day to name the most under-rated restaurant in Belltown. In the sense of under-appreciated. Gotta be 94 Stewart. While across-the-street neighbor Steelhead Diner gets the buzz, newcomer Txori draws the avant-garde, and Tavolata attracts the trendy, 94 Stewart simply serves excellent food. Last night's cumin-rubbed lamb shank in a pinot noir reduction was just about perfect. And chef Cindy Nelson wasn't afraid to surround the meat with Brussels sprouts, either. Granted,......

Seventeen teams showed up at the Old Pequliar last night to see if our voice would give out. We managed to get through the evening without having a Peter Brady moment, but we're grateful to those of you who were willing to step up to the mic at a moment's notice. We thought we'd produced a slightly more difficult quiz than usual, but we were proven wrong -- every team got 40 or more......

Even that movie voice-over guy will be unemployed. You have heard of this impending strike, have you not? It may seem unrelated to you, the sad inner workings of Hollywood, but in truth, if you are someone who ever turns on their TV, if 8pm every day marks your celebration in the church of Stewart-Colbert, you best care. Without writers, the only thing left standing is Reality TV. We have known this for a long......

Just because it's a modest storefront doesn't mean it's a hole in the wall. Au contraire, mes amis. Two new spots in Belltown--both French--forgo pomp in favor of hospitality. At Entre Nous, it's the sprigs of thyme in a pitcher on the counter and Brigitte Bardot on the sound system. At Le Petit Café (no website), it's a slice of lemon in the water glass, seedless grapes on the plate. Little things that enliven lunch.......

There's a film crew all set up and shooting some kind of car/shoot 'em up scene right now at 1st and Stewart. We noticed them from our office perched high above the director's chair and ran down to get some shots of our own. When we asked a woman who looked like part of the crew what they're filming, she rubbed her eyes wearily and said in a thick German accent, "German television." Um, OK.......

Outside Key Arena last night, there were a few religious protesters with big signs urging passersby to repent of their evil ways, but inside the venue was a packed house eager to see The Police for their first tour in twenty years. The crowd definitely skewed older (and drunker), kinda like your parents at Oktoberfest, and the stage was sparsely set for the band's three solitary figures. As always, Sting was in one of......

Thirty years after the release of their first single (“Fall Out”), The Police are playing live again. And they’re still “unbelievably lame.” Hey, don’t get pissed at us—that’s 54 year-old drummer Stewart Copeland’s opinion. Following their second show in Vancouver this week—their second since the inevitable reunion—Copeland had quite a few choice words for his band’s performance. Apparently Reuters picked up the quotes from the drummer’s site, but a very thorough 30-second browse revealed nothing.......

True Hoop's been running a fascinating serial written by Gregory Dole, who was Leandro Barbosa's interpreter when he worked out with NBA teams before the 2003 draft. Part IV talks about Barbosa's work out with the Sonics, wherein he wowed the top of the Sonics' org chart, including then-poobah Howard Schultz. Barbosa had a great workout, hitting his shots, blowing past defenders, and unleashing a nasty crossover that caused Kirk Hinrich to fall on his......

We randomly checked out the Walkmen and Kaiser Chiefs show at the Showbox last night, mostly in the dark about their work. Although we had seen the Walkmen live once before, we couldnt remember if they had made much of an impression. During the opening, a friend summed up their sound as "like the Strokes except not irritating." That's a good enough summary although we'd swap out the Strokes with Rod Stewart, who Walkmen lead......

What fun! Another restaurant promotion! This one's called New Urban Eats, and it features 20 relatively new places offering three-course dinners for thirty bucks. Sunday through Thursday, throughout May except (wonder why?) Mother's Day...the one day nobody should eat out but everybody does. Sure, there are plenty of perfectly lovely places that serve dinner for less than $30. But the NUE restaurants are kinda fancy, kinda pricey, kinda hot. In some cases, very fancy, very......

Charles Simonyi, the man who gave us Microsoft Word, has been sent into space by the Russian government as punishment for the development of "smart quotes." Neither his billion-dollar fortune, his ownership of the world's 33rd-largest yacht, or his relationship with Martha Stewart could prevent his just and fair ostracism from the society that he's tortured by autoformatting every other damn thing we type and filling half of our screen with useless toolbars. Simonyi and......

No, we can't root for the Huskies, but there are plenty of former kids who a few short years ago were playing in front of sparse crowds at some smelly high school gym, but in the next two days will play ball on a national stage: Thursday --Mitch Johnson (O'Dea) of Stanford, vs. Terrance Williams (Rainier Beach) of Louisville, 9:40am --Micah Downs (Juanita) of Gonzaga vs. Indiana, 6:45pm Friday --Marcelus Kemp (Garfield) and Lyndale Burleson......

THEATER: Hey, don't tell anyone, because this could really upset the natural order of things in town, but SPF:1 - No Protection is dangerously close to a fringe theater festival. Performing tonight are Keith Hitchcock, Mary Purdy, Jonah Von Spreecken all of Seattle. 7:30pm // Theater Off Jackson // $15 MOVIE: Fanboys have already crowned this CGI behemoth the greatest thing ever to play on a hundred billion screens this week. Is it too cliche......

The Everett Herald calls it "a tender right elbow," the Seattle Times calls it "tightness in right elbow," we call it "our summer might be ruined." J.J. Putz, the Mariners' closer, the anchor of the bullpen now that Guardado and Soriano are gone, is having a problem with his right elbow, which isn't really a big deal EXCEPT THAT HE THROWS WITH HIS RIGHT ARM. Flashbacks to '97. Someone get us a goddamn drink. UPDATE:......

The funniest moment was when a ref blew his whistle to stop play and shouted, "My timeout, my timeout...I've got a wet spot." He meant a wet spot on the Hec Ed floor, which saw heavy action Wednesday when the state 3A tourney kicked off. Washington's state tournaments are 4-day, 16-team affairs, and the first day is the best--eight games in a row, beginning at 9am, with only 15 minutes in between games. We were......

MUSIC: Dancing on the Valentine features wall-to-wall Duran Duran songs covered by local bands, including Say Hi to Your Mom, Valu-Pak, Speaker Speaker, and Peter Parker, all to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. 8pm // The Crocodile, 2200 2nd Ave // $10 -- to fight disease! MOVIE: Age of Consent, a rare Michael Powell film featuring James Mason (Eddie Izzard's voice of God) slurring his lines and Helen Mirren as an incredible young hottie,......

Monday A NADER REMEMBERS: Recalling his childhood in Winstead, Connecticut, former presidential candidate and longtime political and social activist Ralph Nader offers 17 values a child should learn to become a conscientious adult. Not helping elect neo-fascists was, unfortunately, #18. 7pm // Third Place Books // FREE Tuesday EROTICA: "One Foot on the Floor: A Reading of Erotica." Jennifer D. Munro (aka Dawn O'Hara) -- whose work has appeared in many collections, including "Best......

--Seattle is under assault by marketing terrorists representing the Aqua Teen Hunger Force. We haven't seen any of these suspicious devices for ourselves, but we have a tip that there's one at 2nd and Stewart "except it wasn't the lit-up version -- just a huge poster/banner thing." Please can we not freak out and evacuate the city like Boston? --This is the reason it's ok to be scared and cross the street when you......

--Spokane loved its ice skating event and apparently the ice skating event loved Spokane back. --Jon Stewart was spotted at the Vista hooha in New York over the weekend. And last we heard Gates was scheduled to be on the Daily show tonight. --Pretty Girls Make Graves are over. --LineOut reacts to the New York Times' "Blipster" piece. --An email from the Mariners to Seattlest has confirmed the Jeff Weaver signing. --Last week in this......

We woke this morning with a smile because for once in our topsy-turvy lives, we were going to indulge in a pastry baked by someone else. We were going to Ballard’s Cafe Besalu. The last time we went to Besalu we were en route to the Sunday Farmer’s market and ordered just one croissant to share with our market buddy--we knew we’d sunk very low when we shouted “Hey look, free beets!” in a ploy......

BURLESQUE: It's a rare Christmas present that unwraps itself. But Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker collects a bevy of Seattle's ecdysiast superstars in a retro-bawdy performance set to Duke Ellington's score for the holiday favorite. The eye candy includes Miss Indigo Blue, Kitten la Rue, Babette la Fave, Lily Verlaine, Jasper McAnn, Paula the Swedish Housewife, Wes Brockbank, and Waxie Moon. Merry XOXOmas. 7pm and 10pm // Triple DOor [216 Union St., across......