Holiday 2006
Once you've started keeping a yearly top 15 list of your favorite albums, it's impossible to stop. I haven't been a proper music critic since 1999 and yet I dutifully compile a top 15 every year, and will probably do so until the end of the music industry itself – which, by my estimates, should happen any minute now. When society falls down, the ice caps melt and bands no longer release "albums" purchasable in "record stores," I imagine I'll adapt with the times: a list of the top 15 downloadable album-like units in a given year, or perhaps a list of the top 15 most interesting lists from preceding years.
December 18, 2006
Holiday 2006
Say, here's an idea: Why not give a present that has to be experienced? Seattle is nothing if not an active town, and its residents love to go out and enjoy its natural and man-made attractions. They love spa days, live theater and interacting with nature. Why not give holiday gifts that enable your fellow Seattleites to do what they do best?
November 9, 2006
Holiday 2006
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a Holga from OKOK Gallery. The Holga, a cheap plastic camera that shoots medium-format film, is not a precision instrument; you could shoot the same photo with a hundred different Holgas and not get any two shots that resemble one another.
November 9, 2006
Seattle Style File
Owner/esthetician Danielle DeCanti provides a broad array of services, and her upbeat attitude and punky charm are half the reason to visit Helle.
November 1, 2006
Life Behind Bars
Located inside the space once occupied by Ballard Hardware (the faded letters of the former occupant's sign are still visible) and between longtime Ballard Avenue magnets Hattie's Hat and the Tractor, King's Hardware is the rarest kind of new bar: From its hardwood fixtures to its wall festooned with tacked-up vintage photos, the place feels as old as the hills. If I were visiting this part of Ballard for the first time, I could easily take King's Hardware for Old Ballard – simply a no-nonsense bar with a pool table, a Skee-Ball machine (why not?), a giant outdoor seating area and a killer menu of burgers 'n' brews. Plus, it has an adjoining door with a new branch of Rudy's Barbershop - so not only can you get a snappy new haircut nearby, but you don't have to walk far for a celebratory, post-shearing cocktail.
September 6, 2006
The first thing one observes about Bumbershoot 2006 is that it has slimmed down. Seattle's premier music, arts and culture festival has been a four-day event since 1977, but this year the Friday events have been eliminated. We have only three days to get that four-days-of-Bumbershoot feeling, but if there's anything we Seattleites love, it's a challenge. Well, that and funnel cake. Trust me, you'll walk it off.
August 30, 2006
Convergence Zone
One Reel, the producers of Seattle's premier music, arts and culture festival, want you to know that they like you. They've seen you around and think you're cute, and today in study hall they slipped me a note that said "Please tell (possible Bumbershoot attendee) that I like him/her a lot."
June 9, 2006
Convergence Zone
Having said all that, I can tell you that "Cars" is a joy. It's business as usual for Pixar - and business, as always, is good. The voice actors -- an expert pit crew that includes Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, George Carlin and such left-field surprise guests as Jeremy Piven and "Car Talk" hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi - are as thoughtfully cast and well directed as they would be in an Altman movie. While the film is populated with countless in-jokes and pop culture references, director John Lasseter never allows these touches to overwhelm the story (a lesson that Dreamworks' crew has yet to learn). And the animation is as beautiful as a 1950s hand-tinted vintage Route 66 postcard - which is what "Cars" is, really: a letter from a forgotten time, a valentine from the old, weird America.
June 8, 2006
Convergence Zone
he Rat City Rollergirls are split into four internal teams: the Throttle Rockets, the Sockit Wenches, Grave Danger (hi, honey!) and last year's champs, the Derby Liberation Front.
May 24, 2006
It's go time! Time to pry yourself away from that marathon "World of Warcraft" session, mini-"Lost" marathon or dark, cool coffeehouse where you're hammering out your dissertation, and get out to enjoy the kind of weather that actually makes us want to live here. And you don't need to spend a fortune entertaining yourself, either - for summer is when Seattle truly becomes the land of the free (or exceedingly cheap).
May 15, 2006
