Results tagged “thehouse”

The warm spring weather must be going to the heads of the folks in the State House, those busy little worker bees passing House bills left and right, and last night their attention was focused on state parks, as they passed a bill that will add a $5 opt-out fee on driver's license renewals. We're not upset about the $5 itself, but how those tricksters are trying to get it, placing the fee there in the "hopes" that we don't notice and select to opt-out. (You know it would be written in size 8 font.) The bill is now off to the Senate, where we hope it becomes opt-in.

All of the conservatives must have been teabagging protesting the government's tax increases so passionately (and creatively) yesterday, that they missed The House pass SB 5688, a bill expanding the rights of same-sex domestic partners. The bill provides domestic partners the basic benefits, rights, and financial security given to the State's married couples. It isn't a marriage certificate folks, but once Gov. Gregoire passes this into law, Washington could be well on its way to proceeding with a marriage bill next year.

N.P. Thompson went to SIFF, and we all benefit now that he's written about the best and worst films of the festival -- and launched a few broadsides at SIFF and select members of its audience:

The 33rd Seattle International Film Festival ended two weeks ago; it’s taken me this long to gain enough distance to sort and sift through all I might conceivably have to say on the subject. Even so, the movies under discussion here represent only a small fraction of what I took in. There were several screenings I walked out on, a few more I considered walking out on, and perhaps a baker's dozen of screener discs I couldn’t eject quickly enough. This year, as in other years, festival officials emphasized the sheer quantity of it all: 25 days, 600 screenings, X-number of North American premieres. They take this approach, because qualitatively, especially this time, there was almost nothing to point to. Which isn’t to say that weren’t some good films, but that they were in short supply.

We've been Thompson fans for a while -- no one since John Simon has made such vivid use of anger and spleen in his criticism. Thompson lambastes fellow members of the film critic community as zealously as he eviscerates the 90% of movies that are crap. We haven't obsessively followed his career post-Slate-rejection, but we were pleased to see his name as a contributor on Matt Zoller Seitz's essential film and TV site The House Next Door. Every good cop needs his bad cop.

This week the Washington State Senate is deciding whether to make Washington to the first state in the nation to ban the fire retardant deca-BDE [ESHB 1024]. (The House, where Jamie Pedersen was a sponsor, passed the bill this February.)

TRIVIA: Tonight at the Old Pequilar. Seattlest David hosts. Guaranteed round: sesquipedalianism, or "addiction to unnecessarily long words." Also movies and geography.

The show itself was actually something of a let-down; people fall in love with The Mountain Goats (which is 90% Darnielle, plus collaborators) for their ability to capture smallness on their albums: small stories, small feelings, small sounds. Darnielle manages to create an intimacy on records like Tallahassee that didn't transfer well at the show Friday night.

If you're like us, you already own all of Neko Case's CDs. Get ready to expand your collection. Her first DVD -- her 2003 performance on Austin City Limits -- will be available October 10:

Performing on Austin City Limits, one of Neko and her grandmother's all-time favorite programs, was one of Neko's proudest career moments, and probably one of her proudest personal moments as well...

Continue reading "Neko Case Conquers a New Shiny Disc-Based Medium"

Okay, so Billie Burke Estate isn't bluegrass music, but he sure had on a bluegrass shirt. We loved BBE so much last time we saw him at the Tractor that it went without saying that we'd love him again as he opened for grassrock supergroup Skitterpup. Estate played much the same set as he did way back when, but given On The House's living roomish atmosphere, it just felt more cozy-cuddly this time. Besides, there were kids twirling and the coffee was free. What's not to love?

As avid folk music connoisseurs, we’ve done our time in various Unitarian churches listening to obscure out-of-towners mouth off about Bush in the nicest possible (read: no cursing) sort of way. But for the past couple of years, a small venue on Capitol Hill has been integrating The Lord with great music and free coffee on a whole different level.

Deadwood's back, starting Sunday night. We're feverishly working through our season 2 DVDs to get ready in time, 'cause we know we're not going remain spoiler-free.