Four mentions trumps Milwaukee or Nashville, similarly sized cities with no direct mentions in Harper's Index. The Index (before we kicked the habit entirely, the only reason we subscribed to the magazine) has a fresh new search interface, which inspired us to go looking. The four mentions make an interesting snapshot of Seattle in highbrow pop culture since 1984: our high rate of CPR training, grunge-a-mania, the cult of Kurt Cobain, and the trumped-up charges against WTO protesters. Of course, our culture spreads indirectly, as well: Starbucks has hit the Index 5 times, Bill Gates 13 times, Microsoft 21 times, Amazon 4 times (though "amazon.com" only pulls up one of those mentions), and Boeing twice. more ›

Before last night's screening of SIFF's opening film Battle in Seattle, amidst all the self-congratulatory speeches, Mayor Nickels remarked that the 1999 WTO riots are "strongly rooted in the fabric of our city" and that every Seattleite would be well-served to have their feelings of the events "validated by an outside perspective." We'd be apt to agree---if only the outside perspective that followed wasn't such ham-handed dreck. more ›

Just announced: more ›