Sunday morning I got up and went outside to run errands around the neighborhood. I was a block away from my apartment when I realized that a simple sweater wasn’t going to cut it and went back to put on a jacket. That was good timing on my part: the hazy sky turned dark and forboding and the air had a definite chill.

A short time later, however, the sun came out. The air temperature stayed about the same but it was nice to see the sun again even though the visit was bound to be brief. Sure enough, a few moments later it was gone again and within half an hour the winds kicked up strong enough to blow open a closed door at the IHOP where I’d gone to lunch. Walking home felt like swimming through a hurricane but since it stayed dry, I felt lucky.

Now I feel luckier yet reading about how many people lost power yesterday. White Center, Lake Forest Park and Magnolia lost power according to published reports–maybe others as well?

Here comes our first hint of winter.

Oh, craigslist. This summer we all learned about the need to carefully evaluate whether the submissive woman looking for an aggressive dom is really a jerkface software developer who just wants to put pictures of your engorged body parts on the internet. This weekend, a lesson about how it’s not just the “casual encounters” that have turned scamtastic. Some people in Renton recently found out that they’d rented their house from the wrong guy:

Mike and Lia Lester claim that they and another couple rented the house after seeing an ad on the Craigslist web site.

They met a man they thought was the owner of the house and paid him $5,700 in rent and security deposits and he gave them the keys to the home.

Now, they say they’ve been scammed. [komo]

So much for the the golden days of craigslist, when prospective renters needed only to worry about whether “cozy” meant “cramped” or how much the landlord was stretching the neighborhood boundaries before checking out a place.

(via digg [#])

Metblogs isn’t about politics. We are lovers, not voters. But as I read through the ballot initiatives and candidate profiles in my voter’s guide, I thought hey, why don’t I put my famed cranky curdmudgeonly rantiness to good use.

Thus, I hereby introduce a new feature from now until Election Day: You, Your Ballot, and You! Today, we’ll start with what was supposed to be the hot-hot statewide race until one candidate accidentally imploded his chances: The US Senate Race.
(more…)

It’s true, and the saddest thing I’ve heard in a while:

“With deep regret, The Empty Space Board of Directors announced today that The Empty Space Theatre will cease operations effective immediately.”

They appear to have a cash flow problem, regardless of their rent-free space at Seattle University. Started in 1971 on Capitol Hill, the Empty Space has grown to fill the middle ground between larger theatres like the Rep and all of the little bitty fringe theatres. I loved their old Fremont space, and I hoped desperately that the move up to Seattle University wasn’t as last-ditch as it sounded.

I’m sad, friends. I had fully intended to make “Forbidden X-mas” a new holiday tradition after I had so much fun on the last night of it last year. I was looking forward to seeing Nick Garrison as a German spy. I like theatre in this town because it’s so hopeful–because each time I go see a play all of the actors seem committed to pulling it off. And this commitment to giving it a shot has resulted in some great times out of the Empty Space–Sarah Rudinoff in “Ming the Rude”, anyone? Or Peter Crook in “Frozen”?

But I guess I shouldn’t be too upset, since after all there will always be the 5th to produce such groundbreaking productions of…. uh…. well, anyway, there will still be a lot of singing.

Take a break from Halloween and check out some classical music: Stephen Rogers Radcliffe conducts his first concert with The Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras (SYSO) for their premier performance of the 2006-2007 t 3:00 p.m. on Sunday October 29, 2006 at Benaroya Hall.

The concert includes Richard Wagner Die Meistersinger: Prelude, Samuel Barber Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance, Op 23a and Igor Stravinsky The Firebird Suite, 1919 all performed by the Seattle Youth Symphony.

Tickets range from $8 for students and seniors, to $35 for adults and can be purchased at the door or reserved now by calling (206) 362-2300.

Friday

• Did you miss Regina Spektor last night ^[seattlest] at the Moore? She’s playing a free show tonight at the LQA Easy Street Records store. [easystreet]
• Michelle Orange went to Italy in search of her ancestors and a series of delightful dispatches came back [mcsweeneys]. Now the letters are collected in a handsome package called the Sicily Papers [$]. She reads from them tonight at the University Bookstore along with Stephen Elliott and other writer pals. [ubookstore]
• Husband and wife rock duo Viva Voce pair up with Silversun Pickups, who can’t seem to get enough of this town. [crocodile]

Saturday

• You’re running out of time and vintage/thrift stores are bound to be picked over; so get out there and buy a Halloweeen costume.
• This is the last weekend for the fantastic Washington State Corn Maze. Twelve acres of corn are intersected by four and a half miles of actual “roads” with “towns” and “cities” and “landmarks”. After picking up trivia while tromping through the state’s highway system, stick around for fresh baked goods, a massive pumpkin patch, a cute overload petting zoo, and then watch real pigs act out the story of the Three Little Pigs. Pretty much the best autumn activity ever. [thefarm]

Sunday

• Scare yuppie shoppers by walking Zombie-style through University Village [upcoming]
• The band names keep changing, but Tim Kinsella continues to make oddly compelling and accessible free-jazz fusion projects. This time it’s Make Believe drawing you to the new and improved Comet. Now with modest cover charges! [comet]

What are you doing this weekend and where did you get your sexy costume?

Hangar 27 at Magnuson Park is one of the relics of the ex-Naval Air Station, an old, drafty building with a *lot* of floor space. It once was a hangar for seaplanes. Now it’s a public space, available for community groups to rent.

Seattle Parks & Recreation says that Hangar 27 is crumbling and underused and will probably have to be closed entirely within two to three years for safety reasons.

Their solution: lease it to a private company. Arena Sports wants to rebuild Hangar 27 as a “multi-use indoor recreation facility,” including indoor soccer, basketball, baseball, and a gym. They’ve worked out an agreement with the city where the city will use tax money for the redevelopment, to be repaid by Arena Sports through lease payments and concession fees. Needless to say, Arena Sports expects to make a long term profit on the deal.

Of course, the Arena Sports project would kill any chance of the space being used for community events. That’s upsetting a number of people, not the least the violent and highly entertaining Rat City Rollergirls, the flat-track roller derby league. The league uses Hangar 27 for most of their events. They want the space to remain public, even if it means the building might crumble around them.

At least one of the Rollergirls, probably more, are planning to show up in full regalia for Monday’s City Council meeting to ask them to leave Hangar 27 as a public space. Watching City Council members face off against athletic women in death’s head makeup = political entertainment at its finest. If you want to watch the fireworks or show support, here’s the meeting info:

Monday, October 30, 2006

5:30 pm, City Hall, City Council Chambers, Floor 2

600 Fourth Avenue

Seattle, WA

Got an opinion? Write or call the City Council:

City Council

PO Box 34025

Seattle , WA 98124-4025

(206) 684-8888

buy your own private dancer [$]

One might suspect the Seattle Times editorial board of being addicted to angry ‘blogger linkage. First, they endorsed [?] Mike [!] McGavick over Maria Cantwell and got all sorts of fun reactions from the internet ^{[horsesass, soundpolitics, slog]} ensued.

Today, they begrudgingly concede that the Constitution protects the rights of dancers to take their clothes off to have a good time. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t undermine those rights with goofy laws strict enough to put them out of business:

Something happens when such rules are on the books and enforced. Call them market forces. Dancers work as contractors. They pay club owners for the opportunity to generate lucrative tips up close and personal with customers via so-called private dances. Separate dancers from their sources of income and the clubs cannot recruit enough interpretive artists or attract enough First Amendment supporters to stay in business. [times]

It seems that the Times is only in favor of lap dances of the symbolic variety, particularly for candidates who want to protect the estates of wealthy publishers.

image, via wikipedia

Holy shit, y’all, it’s daylight savings standard time time again! Before you go to bed on Saturday don’t forget to turn your clocks back an hour, or you’ll show up for your Sunday morning bloody mary an hour on the wrong side. (I can’t ever remember which way daylight savings goes, so I invariably turn my clock the wrong direction.)

That also means that all of you who really like daylight can put on your complaining shoes, because it’s the time of year when night falls before you leave the office. The P I would like to remind you not to run over any trick or treaters on Wednesday Tuesday because of the dark [P-I]. If you see kids falling in line with Capitol Hill Seattle’s wacky new Halloween on Saturday idea, you should still avoid running them over, even though it might still be a little light outside.

If your idea of Halloween fun includes watching horror movies, you might want to get yourself to the Egyptian Theater: the Midnight Movie this weekend Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Sure, it’s muddled and doesn’t quite match author Stephen King’s artistic vision (hence his involvement with the more recent televersion), but it’s definitely got its very own chilling appeal, particularly in Jack Nicholson’s pitch perfect performance as a man crumbling from the pressure of paranoia and psychosis.