The other night, it was raining, and Seattlest had spent the entire day in our tiny studio apartment with the shades drawn. Next thing we knew, we found ourselves at that back of a particular dark, dank Eastlake bar chatting with our editor for another job about how much we'd love to write a musical. The thing about musical theater, we contended, was that it was cheesy. Granted, we maintained, we love musical theater for all its glittery, flashy, jazz-hands-and-kick-ball-change cheesiness, but we recognize the wider world doesn't see an ounce of reality in Sutton Foster dressed like a flapper, killing the big notes at the end of "Gimme Gimme." Most people can recognize talent like that when they see it, but it doesn't resound with them the way that, say, Angelina Jolie's heaving breast during a close-up action scene would at any summer blockbuster. more ›

It's no secret that you are likely to be recorded by security cameras just about anywhere you go in public in a metropolitan area. That's no secret, right? And it's not "the government" watching you on a flat panel display. It's more likely to be your friendly neighborhood retailers. Or the parking garage employees. Or, alright, the government. more ›