GENUINELY COOL, ARTSY FARTSY NIGHT: Go to the Filter release party at the Richard Hugo House tonight for readings, hobnob opps with writerly folks, and performances by Awesome!. The literary magazine celebrates the release of its second issue, and if you haven't seen this work of art yet, you may not know: this is a beautiful and well-crafted literary magazine, not only in content but in construction. more ›

Like anybody else, we appreciate the sentiment of the Presidents' Day long weekend--well, for those of us who have that day off or are able to take it. It provided us the perfect opportunity to temporarily ex-patriate ourselves and pump money into Canada's economy. That's what it's all aboot, anyway. This so-named Presidents' Day has become just a reason for the commercial sector to entice us with Fabulous Savings. Nobody thinks about Washington or Lincoln anymore, much less Millard Fillmore, say, or Grover Cleveland if we are to buy into this doubletalk about the inclusivity of the day. But--ZOMG--holy crap! Fry's has HDTVs on sale! more ›

Remember a few years back when "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" came out and the Flaming Lips were suddenly everywhere? Mitsubishi started using "Do You Realize" to hawk their cars and Justin Timberlake was dressing up in a dolphin suit and jumping on stage during Lips shows? For a few glorious moments the hipsters and frat boys were humming the same tune, and no one seemed to mind. more ›

Once upon a time you could write a book on the typewriter in your attic, bundle the pages together with some butcher paper and twine and schlep it to New York to give to your publisher and then forget about the whole thing until it was time to blow the dust off the keys for the next go round. Or so we imagine it. Then came the critics. And then the book tours. Then Amazon.com and the damned reader reviews. Then the blogs. Now you gotta respond to all that shit. Any critique that goes unanswered, regardless of how obscure the publication or how ridiculous the charge, is out there for the world to see. A criticism of an author's work, floating around out there on the internets somewhere, is indistinguishable from a hard fact until the power of Google puts it in front of the author himself and he responds. more ›

Back in October we posted about not being able to get our grubby little eyes on Jonathan Raban's new novel until January. The month has come and, now, gone, and the book is available at all your favorite retail outlets - Tonight Jonathan's reading from it at Queen Anne Books. If you've never heard Jonathan Raban speak you're nearly as impoverished as if you'd never read any of his books. He seems to write out loud like he just can't turn it off. He can't stop this volume and density of ideas and observations from flowing out of himself, and then there's a way about his voice that's so conspiratorial, so peculiarly British, so charmingly agile in tone and inflection that... Uhm, we're fans. more ›

Fueling speculation that the 2007 Mariners ad slogan may be "Mariner Baseball: Wanna Pitch?", the M's signed the author of the 465,629th best-selling book on Amazon.com to a three-year, $24 million contract tonight. more ›

>>>UW Forum for Science and Ethics Policy, 5:30pm. Dr. Dennis Schatz, VP for Education at the Pacific Science Center, cheerleads for “Making Science as Pervasive as Sports in Society.” His ulterior motive? It can only be to pack the Sonics off to Oklahoma and build our very own Exploratorium right here in Seattle, to which we say “Be Aggressive, Be Be Aggressive!” Free. UW Health Sciences Building, T-478. more ›

>>>Benaroya Hall, 7:30pm. Seattle Arts and Lectures brings prolific big shot and errant van survivor Stephen King by. Maybe you’ve heard of him? For the Constant Reader, it’s an event not to be missed. He'll talk about Lisey’s Story, his latest novel. Tickets $25 and $35. But, like many things in King’s Dark Tower world, they’ve already moved on. more ›

A record-setting 20 teams competed in Seattlest trivia at the Old Pequilar last night. The winning team scored 64.5 points (out of 80) and toook home $150. We'll post complete results this afternoon. more ›

That Old Nerd™ we told you about the other day who filed a lawsuit against the publisher of the world's greatest cartoonists, claiming defamation and violation of his right of publicity (apparently over some alleged stories of the man's past recounted in one Fanta book and a lack of the requisite "TM" next to his trademarked name on the cover of yet another), recently made the legally dubious decision to grab the breast of an author and award presenter at last month's 2006 World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim, CA. more ›

Let's have a moment of silence to listen to the pitter-patter of raindrops and reflect on the poor citizens of Seattle circa 1953. That year holds the record for continuous days of measurable rainfall in Seattle (and thus provides the tenuous basis of this series) but 1953 also witnessed 94 continuous days of zero measurable publication of the Seattle Times. Writers and editors for that paper went on strike on July 16 to protest low wages. At that time a Seattle Times editor pulled down a cool $110 a week. more ›

The holidays are over (except for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, of course), so authors are starting to make their way to Seattle again, ready to read excerpts and sign autographs so that you'll be tempted to buy their latest title. Here's a cheat sheet for the week in book tours. more ›

No comments, just schedules. (Because we're lazy, that's why.) more ›

Gotham. Motown. The Big Easy. The Windy City. The City of Angels… The Emerald City? more ›