SILENT SCREEN: Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays at the Paramount is back and focusing on the speechless girls of black-and-white. Words fail you when discussing Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl anyway--Judith and Bob are young atheists who naturally end up in a reform school run by sadists. This is an ur-Girls Gone Wild visual text and will count for credit if you are a student of this kind of counter-history. The important thing is, Judith and Bob learn that those fires of hell are real and they burn, thus making Christianity something more than an academic choice. more ›

We visited the Ballard Blocks so you don't have to, and having been inside the belly of the beast, we can say with some certainty: it's a sign of the a-BLOCKS-calypse. more ›

Capitol Hill Seattle was on fire today, with a Google-mapped report on the dog cops chased around Cal Anderson for an unreasonably long time and a poll on who should be the face on Capitol Hill's dollar bill. (Maybe we suggest Editor MvB's visage?) The Southlake enthused about The Bachelor's visit to Seattle, including five points of interest and--yes--a Google map of the episode's highlights. Cascade Bicycle and MyBallard want to talk about the Burke-Gilman's missing link. Matthew, Laurie and Iris over at Roots And Grubs were let down by their Trader Joes tortillas, but shared how they saved dinner. It sounds scrumptious! more ›

The Times called her a relic of old Ballard. "Forget that frivolous Ballard Denny's," they said. "It didn't tell Ballard's story, old or new. Edith's house is the real Ballard landmark." more ›

When even a convent in Olympia began to seem expensive (egads), Seattlest settled for a trip to the mysterious region called "unincorporated Snohomish County," also known as "our parents' house." We would take a vacation, damnit, even if that meant a weekend of sitting in our high school bedroom-turned-guest-room, noshing on Trader Joe's brie, and contemplating the tiny nature reserve just beyond the rows of strawberry plants in the back yard. more ›

Also, we don't care that her people think that she has a bigger sack than Barack Obama. Please, just stick to killing horses. more ›

There was little real reason to expect anything different during Sunset Bowl's last night of operation. We read histrionic predictions somewhere that hipsters would swarm the place; this never materialized. There were perhaps a few more people--though that place was always packed whenever we went--and some may have stuck around later, but by and large the clientèle consisted of the same combination of loud, scruffy, tattooed, pierced, well-groomed, young, old, middle-aged, beefy, wiry, scrawny, trashy, nerdy, slightly-off-kilter, and unironic miscreants that one normally found there. In short, the place was filled with bowlers, drinkers, and karaoke singers. more ›

The failing state of the roads on Capitol Hill (and maybe all over Seattle, we just happen to spend most of our time cursing Capitol Hill potholes) has been getting to us the last few days. Biking around, we're spending as much time avoiding potholes that will swallow our front tire as sleep-deprived drivers on cell phones. We wanted to get a photo to illustrate what we're talking about, and the only issue was, which huge pothole would it be? more ›

The latest session of the state legislature is now in full swing and most people are watching the big-ticket items under discussion. The supplemental budget and what to do with our $1.5 billion surplus are at the top of the list. Also high on the agenda are transportation issues like a new vote on light rail and a toll on 520. But there are always niche issues under consideration. They probably won't get the limelight coverage the budget and Sound Transit will, but when we find something interesting, we'll let you know. more ›

Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays wrap up tonight at the Paramount -- the redoubtable Dennis James on the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ -- with a trifecta of Charlie Chaplin shorts from 1917: The Cure, The Immigrant, and The Adventurer. Tickets are $12. The show starts at 7pm, but if you get there early, you can hear Freehold Theatre's George Lewis talk about Chaplin's contribution to the field of physical comedy. more ›

If the sampling includes exactly Seattlest's commitment-phobic friend who just bought his first condo and the participants in a recent office conversation, then absolutely everyone is moving to West Seattle. Per that conversation there are only two things West Seattle doesn't have: wedding dresses and a Trader Joes. Oh, and jobs. And pull with the city government. Four things! Yes, if it weren't for weddings, two-buck chuck and work there would be no reason to ever leave the burrough. It must truly be a paradise. more ›

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SILENT MOVIES: It's Week II of the Paramount's Harold Lloyd retrospective. Silent Movie Mondays brings you Dennis James on the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ and ought to be on one of those things-to-do-before-you-die list because that's just the kind of experience it is. Of course, if you're into fast-paced comedies, it's just something-to-do-tonight and there's no reason to make a big fuss about it. Trader Joe's is the sponsor, by the way, and they're being generous with free snacks in the lobby. more ›

FACT: On August 24, 1919, film star Harold Lloyd -- while posing for publicity shots in which he was lighting a cigarette from a lit bomb -- blew the thumb and forefinger off his right hand. "Somehow," accounts explain, "a real bomb had gotten mixed in with the props." In 1923, as if to underscore learning nothing from the experience, he released one of the most famous films of all time, Safety Last! (Which you won't see at this month's retrospective of the films of Harold Lloyd because they just showed it a while ago.) more ›

Sometimes it seems like every Seattle street corner has teriyaki, Tully’s, or a Thai restaurant. Everyone’s got a favorite place for Thai food (ours are actually in Issaquah and Tukwila), though we prefer to cook and eat it at home. Thai cooking is fairly easy once you get the hang of it. more ›

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... more ›

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. more ›

As lazy organic foods shoppers who don't like to walk any farther than we have to, Seattlest is perturbed by the rumors that Rainbow Natural Grocery on 15th Avenue East has a cloudy future. We've seen for ourselves that shelves aren't getting restocked, and we hear that employee paychecks sometimes don't pay out. Something ain't right. more ›

How many bags of frozen shrimp scampi must there be in the freezer of an active single who shops for food and dates at Trader Joe's? How many pounds of trail mix? Seattlest thinks they could take it a bit easier on their pantries and just become alcoholics like singles have traditionally done. more ›

Except for 2Pac (who has more posthumous recordings than Beethoven) the career trajectory of hip-hop artists generally follows this simple pattern, dubbed the Nas effect: album detailing how tough life growing up on the streets was, album describing how pimpin' they are now they are rich and can buy more Rolls Royces then you have had hot meals, and an album describing how street they are even though they are rich. more ›