John Markoff of the NY Times talked gadgets with Steve Jobs. Today he had a wide range of observations on the industry, including the Amazon Kindle book reader, which he said would go nowhere largely because Americans have stopped reading. “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.......

It's safe to assume that Sharon Jones is cooler than you. The current queen of neo-funk/soul grew up in Macon, Georgia and Brooklyn, singing in church before ending up doing session work in the '70s as the anonymous vocals on dance and disco records. Without a solo contract of her own, she left the industry and took odd jobs like corrections officer at Rikers Island and Wells Fargo armored car guard. Fate intervened in......

It's become fairly commonplace for the brighter real estate bloggers, like Timothy "The Tim" Ellis over at SeattleBubble, to mock P-I reporter Aubrey Cohen once a month. See Cohen--the P-I's lead real estate reporter--writes an article about the state of the national housing market once a month when the industry standard Case-Shiller numbers are released. The Case-Shiller index (from S&P) tracks the changes in home prices for 20 US metropolitan areas each month as......

Last we talked with Carrie Akre, she was gearing up for the release of her latest CD, Last the Evening. Now, a couple of months later, the CD is officially out, and Akre is buzzing from the aftermath. Indeed, most of us music critic types have had nice things to say about the disc, which showcases her exuberant, imagery-laden lyrics and alt.country sensibilities, and shows off the great musicianship of her backup players. We......

Seattle is now one of the lucky few markets in the US to be getting beer from Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey in southern California. If you have not yet tried any of their beer, you have no idea how lucky we are....If you have tried their beer, there is a good chance you are likely rushing out your door to the nearest bottle shop right now. Tomme Arthur is the mastermind behind the wonderful beers......

Local filmmaker, occasional pub trivia host, and friend of Seattlest Dom Zook blogged on September 19 that he's moving to LA. I’ve been a stalwart Seattle fan for most of my adult life. I love this town, even though some of the people who govern it are slightly “challenged”. I love making movies in this town… but I think I’ve gone in depth about my issues here. Many have wondered why I’ve stayed so long......

Rockstar Seattlest commenter (ex; you're dead to us, Jake) 8bitjake had the scoop earlier this week for those that were paying attention. He got an email from a friend at the Eastside game studio Bungie: "So heres my big secret. You should google Bungie + Microsoft + separation this week. You know that big ol BILLION dollar franchise Bungie has created for Microsoft, to show their appreciate Microsoft is letting Bungie leave. Of course Microsoft......

So, you think you have been to a beer festival before? Maybe you went to Fremont Oktoberfest , or maybe you even went to the Seattle International Beer Fest this summer. If you really want to go to a beer festival, get yourself to Denver in 10 days. The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is every beer lovers dream. 408 breweries. 1,884 beers. One huge convention center. 3 straight days of goodness. Can it......

Overheard at Seattlest HQ: "I can see how the guy might have a case, but it's pretty common knowledge in the industry that you don't fucking sell AutoCAD on your own -- at least not on obvious places like eBay." That Seattlest was referring to Timothy Vernor, a local guy who filed suit against Autodesk because they used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to have eBay pull auctions where he was trying to sell used......

We're living in the town that Microsoft Office built, and all in all it's not too shabby. Every once in a while we're struck by something and think, "wow, someone paid upwards of $300 for a graphical representation of a talking paper clip and we used the money to build this..." But generally it's been a pretty good deal for Seattle. Time marches on, though, and what was once the raison d'etre for personal computers......

A couple years back, before we'd been thoroughly disabused of the notion that a future existed in pecking out stories for a living, we were in talks with a local fashion boutique that was seeking freelancers. They needed local writers to churn out a couple stories on hip clothes and NW lifestyle (or something to that effect -- honestly, we don't remember) for an ad supplement they planned to publish in Seattle's "underground newspaper," the......

When entertainment giant AEG Live announced plans to create a new and innovative music venue inside Quest Field Events Center, we imagine a big to do with all the local press in a large room packed with music lovers on one side and bankers on the other. Wonder which side was clapping more wildly... We haven't been to WaMu Theater yet, but with the kind of high-profile shows the place has been booking (Deftones, Daft......

Slate takes 1,700 words to say what we already know instinctively: wine's a drink for elitist snobs, beer's for real men. Wine is “aspirational,” beer is for real men. The current Henry Weinhard campaign puts it bluntly: beer tastes better than soy milk. Well, duh. Beer's great, no doubt about it. Thirst-quenching, satisfying in ways wine can never be. Most wine people love beer. But here's the problem: beer has always been popular because of......

It seems that it's always about day two of the fest that we really fall in love with this place---the overheard intense discussions of films, the industry gossip, the random interactions with individuals you will never see again, and all that swag just ripe for the taking---really, these are a few of our favorite things. When we last left off, we were headed into Zoo. The buzz going into the film was not good;......

We're pleased as punch to report that noted local filmmaker (and friend of ours) Brian McDonald was just down at the Austin Film Festival becoming an "award-winning screenwriter." Saturday, October 21, he won the Science Fiction category of the AFF 2006 Screenplay Competition with his screenplay "Graverobbers." (Technically, since his short film Whiteface won audience favorite at the 2001 Slamdance, he's already award-winning. But this is newer.) Known in the industry as a "story"......

We'll be quick with this post, since we've got "tournament training" to finish. This weekend is PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo. This will be the third and largest incarnation of the conference, which is part symposium, part convention, entirely geeky. Gaming nerds of all stripes descend upon Bellevue's Meydenbauer Center for a weekend of competition, education, concerts and demonstrations from the gaming world. You've likely heard of E3, which has traditionally been the gamer's......

One week of SIFF down, only three more to go. Starting yesterday, the fest moved on up, to the Eastside. Now through next Wednesday, films will be shown in Bellevue at the Lincoln Square Cinemas. From the looks of it, they've got a strong Friday lined up, with the final screenings of The Giant Buddhas, Prairie Home Companion, and Conversations with Other Women. As a SIFF-related resource, it's worth your time to head over......

Remember when you thought Neko Case just couldn't get any cooler? Ha! Now she's being held up as an example of the evils of rock-n-roll. A few lyrics from Fox Confessor's brilliant "Hold On, Hold On" caught the attention of David J. Stewart at jesus-is-savior.com: In the end I was the mean girl Or somebody's in-between girl Now it's the devil I love And that's as funny as real love Stewart explains why this is......

Here's another entry in the categories of "Until There is a Portlandist" and "Seattlest Has a One-Track Mind." An AP article making the bloggity blog blog rounds has dug up a swath of indie bands telling Hummer to go stick it in their 10MPG gas pipe and smoke it. Hummer ad execs, while drinking designer vodkas and wondering how they could be as hip as that Cohen kid on the O.C., must have picked up......

That giant flaming ball of hot gases is back, and aside from telling ourselves to stop staring at it, Seattlest's mind is on the fence. (It's a small fence.) We haven't had enough ski season yet, but a nice dry bike ride sure would be dreamy. If the extra vitamin D from the past few days has skewed your thoughts to similar memes, or you just want to pick up a bunch of free swag......

Seattlest had gotten way too accustomed to festival life. Seeing several films a day, taking the occasional break to eat and walk around Main Street, collecting scads of free stuff, sticking around to hear a director speak about his work...it all became the norm. Sadly, it's back to the real world. Thursday was our last day at Sundance. Even though we were downright exhausted, what with all the movies at midnight followed by early AM......

-4000 black employees who brought a racial discrimination suit against Boeing were told today that the aircraft manufacturer did not, in fact, violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -A Bainbridge Island ferry and a container ship had a near miss last night when they passed within 1600 feet of each other. That doesn't sound that near to us, either, but apparently both ships had to manuever severely to avoid each other. -"Savage Love" illustrator......

Seattlest attended SIFF's Screenwriters Salon at Hugo House last night. Seattlest is not a screenwriter, actually, but Lost was a repeat, and we thought perhaps we'd leave our cave for a bit. The talk was hosted by Andy Spletzer (who writes for some local rag the kids all read) and noted local filmmaker Brian McDonald (of Whiteface fame). As the topic was writing for TV, the guest speakers were flown up from the belly of......

Apparently, we do. Seattle is one step closer to joining New York on its side of the public smoking fence, as the statewide anti-smoking initiative has now qualified for November's ballot. Seattlest is conflicted, of course. Decreasing public health risk is admirable enough, surely- but we also wonder if saving insurance companies all those lung cancer claims will ever lower our premiums? We don't plan to hold our collective breaths on that one. Then there's......

Here in Seattle, we love our technology. After all, this is a town full of people who work in the industry, and frankly, you can't shake a stick without hitting some geeky Microsoft employee. Still, it goes so much further than that. Technology has become seamlessly integrated into the average young Seattleite's existence: everybody's got an iPod for the bus, and a PDA to maintain their very busy social life, and a cameraphone to take......