Towards the very end of last night's People Talking and Singing, as the clock ticked past 10:00 and John Roderick announced he'd play another song and take a few requests from the audience, our butts chimed in: "Hey, this is starting to go on a little long." Our brains, and most of the rest of us, were enjoying themselves thoroughly. But Town Hall started life as a Christian Science church, and the pew we sat......

True confessions time: We've never set foot in 826 Seattle. We think we might have seen the building once, at night, while driving somewhere else. We'd turn in our hipster license, but as Seattlest Jeremy notes, "parenthood remains the antidote to hipness." We've never been all that hip, but we are writers, we (used to) read McSweeney's, and we've been aware of Seattle's hippest educational center, 826 Seattle, since before it opened. We just chose......

The third annual 826 Seattle benefit People Talking and Singing will fill the seats at Town Hall next Thursday. Comedian Patton Oswalt had to cancel, but the event still features host John Roderick of the Long Winters, Dave Eggers, comedians Todd Barry and Eugene Mirman, New Yorker music critic (and current blogosphere gadfly) Sasha Frere-Jones, local songstress Rosie Thomas, and Geologic of the Blue Scholars. People Talking and Singing has become the must-see annual......

Bumbershoot 2005 hosted the inaugural People Talking and Singing show, where 2,800 festival attendees packed McCaw Hall to see Dave Eggers, Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Mike Doughty, Sarah Vowell, and Death Cab for Cutie, all the while raising $18K for 826 Seattle, the youth writing center in Greenwood. Last year's event, also at Bumbershoot, was hosted by Daily Show Resident Expert™ John Hodgman and singer Jonathan Coulton. Eggers, Handler, Gibbard, and Vowell were back......

"You're lucky to have Bumbershoot," remarked comedian Michael Ian Black the other night. "There are a lot of music festivals, but this is an arts and music festival. You get both." He paused. "You get both." Everybody laughed. Why? That is one thing we did not learn at Bumbershoot. We did learn that while, really, all carnivals are human-powered, some are more human-powered than others. Cyclecide's assortment of pedal-powered rides had lines all day, and......

As we were saying, there's a lot more at Bumbershoot besides the music. You've got the comedy, the literature, the theatre, the dance -- and the people-watching, the sideshows, the side sideshows: yesterday we ran into Craig and Victoria doing a violin-and-flamenco act behind a tent; they say they'll be back today, roaming around, so look for a swirl of red. So far as funnymen go, we can recommend the Todd Barry/Michael Ian Black hour......

KARAOKE: Wednesday night is always karaoke night at the Little Red Hen, an outpost of country music that's inexplicably smack dab in the middle of Volvo-driving, NPR-listening, holiday-tree-owning Green Lake. The crowd veers toward the early-20s spectrum, so if you need a break from parties where people discuss mortgages, the new Whole Foods, and their fucking jobs, this is the place to go. Tip: Bring cash so you can buy beer from the guy with......

Our day started early at the KEXP Backyard stage where the Mountlake Terrace trio, Mon Frere, woke us up, got us moving, fed us our delicious brunch of new wave keyboard and guitar anthems. We headed straight there – hadn’t even had our coffee yet, still a bit bleary-eyed from the night before. But this seemed the way to go. Jump right in. Don’t tip-toe into the lake like a pussy. Just get in......

When we lived in Los Angeles, we would spend our Saturday evenings in a small theatre watching two shows of "Beer, Shark, Mice" with, among others, the janitor on Scrubs and Champ Kind. Yeah, that show was really funny, but nothing compared to what would follow—Asssscat. We'll say it again because we don’t even give a flying fudge, Asssscat. Made up of the four original members of Upright Citizens Brigade (and this guy), Asssscat......

Since you have undoubtedly already seen 'Star Wars Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith,' we recommend putting your wookie costume in dry storage and checking out comedy legend (okay, not really a legend, but a funny guy) David Cross performing with Todd Barry and the Thermals at the Showbox. It is really hard for us to quantify our love of David Cross, but we would like to say that if any cast member of 'Arrested......

The Showbox just added two David Cross dates to its May calendar. May, 20 and 22 Cross will be participating in the Vera Project's fundraiser "A Drink For Kids." The Friday show on the 20th will feature Cross with comedians Todd Barry and Jon Benjamin with musical guest The Thermals. The comedians return to the Showbox on Sunday where they'll be accompanied by The New Pornographers. The Vera Project's "A Drink for the Kids" fundraiser......