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.......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

Before we delve into our account from the World Cup Final(?) between Real Madrid and DC United we have to give a quick mad love shout out to KING 5's Don Porter. Like anyone on a road anywhere in Seattle yesterday, we were sitting in our car cursing traffic. On the corner of Second and Pike, we found ourselves trapped in a sea of cars and buses right behind KING 5's Don Porter. Just then......

Overheard while trying to buy a ticket to last night's Real Madrid vs. D.C. United match: "You ever see a soccer game before?" "No, man, I'm an American." Sixtysome-thousand Americans apparently saw their first soccer game ever last night at Qwest Field between a big name Spanish team loaded with stars and past its prime and a MLS team that likely doesn't sell 20,000 tickets to its home matches in the Capitol. These are......

The other day we were perusing Citysearch’s lists because we had nothing better to do and about 20 minutes in which to do it. Every now and again we hit upon a morsel of an interesting suggestion, but mostly we just disagreed with everything. Our biggest pet peeve is most definitely their Best Sushi list. How can Hiroshi’s (on Eastlake), with its generous slabs of buttery fresh fish, and interesting and creative rolls not make......

Our good friends at Bostonist are big fans of DriveTime, a weekly vlog created and hosted by Ravi Jain during his commute to work. Most of the time, he picks up guests in his car and chats with them as he drives along, but for the past month, like everybody else, he's been focused on the World Cup. Now, for the first time ever, Ravi's going to take the show on the road in......

The World Cup is so over that even the most pretentious Europhiles have finally shut up, but Seattlest has some unfinished business. Before the tournament started we set up something called the Seattlest World Cup Challenge over at ESPN and a bunch of you joined, despite our lack of creative naming skills. Some of you joined and forgot about it, only to get the points a monkey flipping coins would have. We doubt we'll......

Italy vs. France The victor wins the World Cup. The losing country’s male population will be crying into their capri pants for the next four years. Seattlests’s favorite part of the World Cup is watching the games on the home turf of ex-patriots. Therefore, we spent yesterday at the French restaurant Maximilien In The Market, which is tucked behind the fish throwers and home to spectacular views of Elliot Bay. Maximilien, which according to the......

There are only two World Cup matches left to be played: there's the loser's game on Saturday in which Germany will pummel Portugal 8-0 to the delight of 8 trillion England fans and the satisfaction of 0 German fans, and there's the winner's game on Sunday, the result of which is not going to be revealed by Seattlest until after the match. We can't tell you how that game will end because we want to......

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddy for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bids Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. Yeah, we may have a few issues with our World Cup broadcasters here, but this guy......

The Mariners play a children's game called "Flip" before they play each baseball game. In Flip you use your glove, hands and feet to pass a baseball around a circle. If you permit the ball to hit the ground, you're out. Sounds like fun, right? Actually, it's a race war. From the P-I: "It's all racial," reliever J.J. Putz said. "Usually if we have a Latin judge, all the white guys are out. If......

It was nice playing along as a wannabe soccer fan for a while. Yes, yes, we know you're not done yet. But, you see, the Tour starts this weekend. And now that the media machine known as Lance Armstrong has left the building, Seattlest is actually (gasp) excited to watch this time around. The past few years of the Tour have been like sex between people who've been married forever--still feels pretty OK, but you......

Topolino's Pizza's new Capitol Hill location, on 12th Avenue at E Denny, has only been open for business a week, and Seattlest has already eaten there approximately 72 times. We've never been to their other locations (in Bellevue and Madrona), but then again, those establishments aren't right near our apartment. Family-owned and -operated for decades, the restaurant's definitely got that laid-back family feel. While waiting in line, the employees in the kitchen will converse......

Things are getting dire at work with regards to the World Cup. Seattlest isn't sure how many two-hour lunches it's proper to take over the course of a month, but we're quite sure we passed that number long ago. Today (deep breath) is an off day. A vacation, holiday, break, pause, a rest from leisure. There are no games today. The second round is over, and the semi-finals don't start until Friday. Here are......

Sampaist is on the scene in São Paulo beginning this week to become the only ist south of the Equator. Editor Leandro M. Pinto leads the paulistanos down there. You can protest someone at his office, sure, but when the whistle blows at the end of the day can you follow him home? D.C. has sports fans, apparently, and elephants aren't really cut out for zoos. There's this trick where you can read information from......

Last night, the air was thick with sweat and World Cup Fever. That's what you get when Brazilian actor/musician/superstar Seu Jorge comes to town. The sold-out show was hot and crowded---and the least hipsterish we've ever seen Neumo's. Members of the audience were speaking in Portuguese, donning soccer jerseys, and wearing glasses less out of concern for their image than their eyesight. All in all, it was an energetic, friendly crowd. And when Seu,......

'Round Super Bowl time, a group of UT rejects called Texas A&M University decided to sue the Seahawks for using the number 12. (Back story: During a 1922 game, a bunch of A&M football players got injured, and some student suited up in case they needed him to play. They didn't, but this act of spectatorship so inspired the university that A&M students call themselves "The 12th Man" and the school's trademarked the phrase.) The......

Ah, shit. Two things had to happen today for the U.S. team to finish second in the group, advance to the next round of the tournament and then get destroyed by Brazil in a lackluster showing. Italy had to beat the Czech Republic, which they did, and the U.S. had to beat Ghana, which they did not. Like an idiot Seattlest picked the U.S. to win today in the Seattlest World Cup Challenge. Betting with......

On one hand, the U.S. team gave an encouraging performance in their 1-1 tie with Italy over the weekend and managed to avoid the label "mathematically eliminated" at least for another few days. On the other hand, being excited about a tie with the boot nation in any endeavour is downright unAmerican. Outside the confines of our little Group E, the soccer powers continue their relentless march into the later stages. Germany, England, Argentina,......

75 minutes in, the Germany vs. Poland match was a draw -- then Poland's Sobolewski, in a snit after being beaten to the ball, tripped up Germany's Klose. Two yellow cards made a red, and Sobolewski was sent off to leave his team short-handed for the remaining 15 minutes. Poland sucked it up -- goalie Boruc made some fantastic saves -- and Germany misfired. At 90 minutes, just before stoppage time, Klose made a header......

LAist is flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with their new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other. Where do ist editors go when they hang up the 'editorial we'? They take on MySpace, apparently. At least Ben Brown does. Austinist reminds of the just rewards of less savory careers this week and then they witness the Arctic Monkeys and We Are......

Show of hands - How many people are ditching work on Friday? Not that there aren't a million reasons to fail to show up to work on any give day, but the start of the World Cup should keep more of you than usual away from the cubicle. 9am Friday morning is the first match of the tournament with Germany set to eat Costa Rica like a plate of schnitzel. Should be fun to......

We're starting a Seattlest World Cup fantasy group over at ESPN instead of Yahoo because Yahoo makes you pick players and who the hell can keep up with all those crazy European longhairs. At ESPN you pick the winners of each match ("pick 'em" they call it in fantasysportslandia and casinos) and if you turn out to be the best guesser Seattlest will reward you with a Seattlest tee shirt, Sounders tickets and... whatever, something......

Dear Seattlest, You never pay any attention to the Sounders until you start getting all excited about the World Cup and accidentally come across an interview with their GM that seems to indicate that they're leaving the city. When was the last time you went to a game? What gives? -Pissed off soccer fan Dear Pissed off dork, You're entirely correct. We hereby vow to spend more time on the Sounders even when the World......

It's common knowledge that every seemingly-local media organization actually belongs to a vast network of similar outlets in other geographic areas. It's for suppressing stories, congratulating each other on liberal bias and conspiring against politicians and celebrities and other things along those lines. For example, every once in a while Seattlest will say, "Hey, SFist, way to stick it to the religious right last week. Let's not report on that story casting gay marriage in......

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the......

Here in Seattle, it's a slow sports day. The only major local team in action is the Husky women's basketball team, who host Michigan tonight. It's high school basketball night, but there aren't any particularly compelling matchups. It's such a slow day, in fact, that the P-I's Jim Moore decided to fill his column space speculating on who Seattle's Sexiest Athletes are. Included with the article--a staggeringly unflattering picture of the Seattle Storm's Sue Bird......