A few weeks ago, we watched the first half of the Champions League Final at Pyramid. Each shot or diving save was met with indifference by the lunch crowd—we quickly found the game slow and boring. For the second half we moved to the Owl and Thistle and wedged our way into a seat around those in jerseys and scarves. Their oohs, awws, and referee death threats made for a much more exciting second half.......

The Euro Cup starts this weekend-- it's just like the World Cup except there is more overt racism, and the fans have free health care. All of the games will be shown at the George and Dragon, Café Presse, and in your living room via the ESPN family of networks. The Kangaroo and Kiwi will open at 11am to show the late morning game live, and then they will show a replay of the early......

The Saturday night SIFF Cinema screening of the documentary Heavy Metal In Baghdad provided the best possible antidote we could have hoped for to the asinine and maudlin SIFF opener Battle in Seattle: Stuart Townsend's misfire was so bad it may have actually inflicted a deeper scar into our collective psyche than the actual WTO riots ever did. While both films aspire to show an up close and personal look at what it’s like when......

Local drink maker Jones Soda lost more than $10 million during the fourth quarter of last year, according to the PI. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the company posted a 39-cent-per-share loss -- 13 times the 3-cent loss that analysts were expecting. During the same period a year ago, the company posted net income of $2 million, or 8 cents a share. That's a mighty big change in fortunes for a company that last......

As after all great magic tricks, we're still puzzled how this was done. God knows we love Ballet -- like everyone else who works around Broadway and Pike. It's not just a restaurant, it's our unofficial cafeteria. We've got the menu memorized, the staff all know we like tea and bring us a pot without asking, the price is always right. But we do eat there a lot, so today we walked into the QFC......

On Sunday night, Seattlest and a bunch of other Seattleites showed up at Chop Suey for the "Jive Turkey Extreme" Cancer Rising cd release party. The Valley (a Seattle rock band) opened, but we missed their set due to an emergency Piecora's artichoke-heart and sun-dried tomato pizza slice run. Ah, well. No matter. We were still among the first hundred people to buy our ticket and therefore obtain a free copy of Cancer Rising's hot-off-the-presses......

It’s almost Thanksgiving and we’ve yet to deliver any holiday recipes. We feel deep shame. If there was a Seattlest penalty box, we would sit in it. The truth is that this year we’ll be sitting back, relaxing and watching the dog show that’s after the Macy’s parade while our sister-in-law (also a chef) does the bulk of the heavy cooking. We will, however, be bringing our pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is something we’ve always......

Saturday, Tera will give herself a VIP tour at the opening of Aritzia. She will follow this potentially hectic event by introducing a friend to her newest wine obsession - Twisted Cork. Sunday she will trek to Qwest and root for Chicago, uh, eh, oops...Seattle. Yes, root for the Seahawks. Jack's heading to the Showbox proper tonight to see Canadian indie pop band Stars. Sunday, he's hoping to see Rex Grossman slip into old......

So, yeah, there's been this Russian-Turkish style "urban spa" called Banya5 on Ninth for, like, three years now. It's kind of a giant community sauna, with a central oven providing both wet and dry heat, surrounded by a bunch of fresh- and salt-water pools. The guy who built it, Seattle-born real estate developer John Goodfellow, isn't even Russian; he got hooked on the concept in New Yawk City. You have to know where it is,......

Angry oldtimers of every era have complained that current players are motivated by money. Never has that charge seemed more appropo than now, when your average major professional league player salaries are well over $1 million. But players in major professional sports don't care about money as much as you think. If they cared about money as much as you think, stories like the Storm's Barbara Turner's would be the norm in the NFL and......

Romo sign procured from Qwest Field by our roommate, who was at the game, sitting behind two Dallas fans. For some reason they didn't take their sign with them when they left. Our headline is the reminiscence of the Cowboys' botched 19-yard field goal, by a guy who watched today's Seahawks playoff win at the Kiwi and Kangaroo on Aurora. Mike Holmgren, coaching genius: What do you do if your 238-lb star linebacker tackles......

You don't have to worry about turkeys, luckily, because if you're leaving the city like Seattlest is your hosts probably have better access to enlightened turkeys that lived a fuller and more organic life while ranging free than the ones you're likely to find on the shelves of Whole Foods. Ditto all the other fixin's, although you might want to stop for bread. City bread beats country bread hands down. Alternately, make your own. Your......

The answer is clear: Chuck Palahniuk would beat Charles Burns in a fight, if the outcome was decided by audience vote. Charles Burns, author of Black Hole is funny, local, and writes and created fantastic, morbid art. But Chuck Palahniuk, author of among other works Fight Club, opened up by tossing dozens of bottles of Wild Turkey into the audience. He followed this with a reading of Guts, a short story famous for making people......

SIFF enters its second full week with a slew of great documentaries, including the final screening of fair trade coffee doc Black Gold (Tuesday, 9:30pm @ the Egyptian). The directors, Marc and Nick Francis, will be in attendance, as will Tadesse Meskela, an Ethiopian Farm Cooperative Organizer featured in the film. The SIFF screenings mark the first time the directors and subject have been together since the making of the film---and the first time......

Shopping for carnivorous loved ones this holiday season? We suggest a visit to the Oberto Factory Outlet, a store clogged with a staggering array of discount meat snacks. The Oberto Sausage Company is the nation’s largest jerky concern, and its Rainier Avenue outlet seems to carry every possible variety: beef, pork and turkey, cured and seasoned in myriad flavors (original, spicy, teriyaki, hickory, BBQ, taco, mesquite, etc.), and packed in bags, cans, and jars of......

There are so many things to love about Turkey: it's juicy and delicious, always reminds us of the holidays, and is a truly versatile meat. What's that you say---there's also a country by that name? We suppose that would be alright too, though probably not as tasty. Yes, today's the beginning of TurkFest 2005, "a cultural festival celebrating all things Turkish." Activities including traditional music and dance, a photography exhibit, and (good God) shadow puppetry......