It’s true that the mayor has big plans to try and fix up the Mercer mess, which will be nice if it actually works out. I don’t drive, but I do live and work and ride the bus around South Lake Union, and it’s generally a great big pain.

But Mercer is a high profile ugly road spot, thanks to Paul Allen and the whole construction thing, and you might not care much. There are 100 or so other construction projects slated for the year, though, and I’d bet that at least one of them will be going down in your neighborhood. It’s a pretty neat looking map, although if you don’t like neat looking maps you can go straight to the list to find out approximately when you’re going to need to devise a new route to work.

Why yes, that is an anatomically-correct life-sized statue of a triumphant nude man made entirely of yellow Lego bricks.

The biggest film festival in the country is about to land in Seattle. And maybe you’re the sort who likes seeing movies but isn’t so keen on paying for tons of tickets? Or maybe you’re just a do-gooder who wants to help make the festival it’s usual level of awesome? Either way, if you’re willing to set your alarm clock on Saturday morning, it might be worth your time to drop by the annual Seattle International Film Festival volunteer orientation meeting this weekend:

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 @ 10AM
THE EGYPTIAN THEATRE
801 E PINE ST

INFO:
volunteers@seattlefilm.org
206.320.1001

For those of you Eastsiders who always dreamed of volunteering, but didn’t want to come all the way to Seattle to do it, this is your lucky year. Don’t forget — the festival is branching out to Bellevue this year; so they’re probably hungry for locals to help make the foray to the other side of the lake a success.

The math here isn’t too bad: every two hours of volunteering equals one free ticket. On top of that, the need tons of ushers, which means you’ll probably be able to see a movie while volunteering, which is kind of like take one get one free. More volunteer info, including an application form, is available at shiftboard.com/siff.

(via siff volunteers [myspace])

This weekend’s midnight movie at the Egyptian is the 1998 re-edited version of 1958′s Touch of Evil. The tagline for this Orson Wells classic is “The Strangest Vengeance Ever Planned!” which just cracks me up. It’s a touching story of a Mexican narcotics officer (Charlton Heston) who is on his honeymoon when he gets himself involved in an investigation of a car bomb. He runs afoul of the great big sheriff (Wells), who he catches planting evidence against the suspect. It’s at that point that each of them decides to destroy the other.

Also, of course, the movie’s got one of the longest continuous shots ever (3 1/2 minutes), which is totally worth going to see if you’re the sort of person that likes that kind of thing.

This reworked version won a New York Film Critics Circle award in 1998, and it’s got Marlene Dietrich as a fortune-telling madam and Zsa Zsa Gabor as a strip club owner. It bombed at the bottom of a double bill when it was originally released, but is now considered a top-notch noir. By, um, people who have actually seen it.

There are still a few days left to submit design ideas for the Seattle Memorial Temple project, an attempt to both build a memorial for the Capitol Hill shooting victims and to provide their friends and family with a place to gather and grieve. No decisions have been made yet as to where the memorial will be located, what it’ll be made out of, or if it will be set on fire. (The project was inspired by the work of David Best, a sculptor who creates temples and then burns them in an effort of catharsis.)

Design submissions are being accepted through Monday, April 24th through a variety of mediums. My favorite idea is some sort of floating memorial in Lake Union, but that is probably highly influenced by my view of the lake.

Tonight is apparently cuteness overload night at Neumos with a trio of duos taking the stage [#]. So much overload that it’s the only actual bullet point on tonight’s agenda:

• Local teenage girl pop phenomenon Smoosh kicks off the evening. They’re followed by a double-header of husband-and-wife rock acts: Viva Voce and Mates of State. Both bands have some degree of the charming guy-girl vocal mixing and some degree of the tweeness inherent in married people being in a band together. Where Viva Voce takes a more dreamy and laid back approach with some field-recording type samples thrown in for good measure, Mates of State are a bit higher up on the enthusiasm scale with songs that often take a manic turn into carnival music territory (for what it’s worth, I mean this in the best way possible — drum set meets classic organ meets dual vocals explosions = a certain sort of awesome).

• For those that think that single bullet point outlines are the work of the devil, here’s a second suggestion: get some fries at Ting between sets at Frites. It’s a long night and you’ll need some nutrition.

They bill Natalie MacMaster as the one-woman Riverdance, and I wish she would make them stop.
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My mate S. likes to offer to take me on a tandem ride every so often. While I like to think it’s because he’s a nice guy, I don’t think you can rule out the possibility that he just wants to watch me pee my pants in terror.
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by Tom Sansilo, courtesy WSDOT

Planning a trip to the San Juan Islands this summer? Better arrive early and pack an extra book. The 144-car ferry M/V Elwha busted its drive motor and is out of service until February 2007.

WSF is reshuffling ferries, but for awhile several of the ferries will be running under reduced capacity – meaning, more chances for the ferries to overload and leave latecomers behind.

If you’re travelling to Orcas, Lopez, or Shaw, WSF recommends avoiding the final boat from Anacortes on Sundays through Thursdays. It only holds 124 cars, and once it’s full, if you’re not on it, you’re staying overnight on the mainland.

once again, culling the most interesting listings from Upcoming or around town, the Recommend-o-Tron spits out your Wednesday agenda:

• Indie comics fans (and people who really liked American Splendor) rejoice! Paul “party crasher” Constant interviews Harvey Pekar tonight at Town Hall tonight. Pekar’s in town in support of his new, non-autobiographical, Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story. Tickets for the 7:30 event, which cost only $5, are still available. [elliottbay]
• Seattle’s webloggers who aren’t obsessed with graphic novels congregate tonight at Ralph’s Grocery. Laptops optional. [meetup]
• A local band called the Vomiting Unicorns [myspace] plays tonight at the Crocodile. Curiousity about their name should be enough to get you to show up, right? If not, the Stranger’s MySpace competitor site has mp3s [#]