Rolling back into Seattle last night after a week partaking in the xmas holidays in the somewhat snowy midwestern territories, I was looking for a movie while stuck on the runway (movies.app delights me to no end) and noticed that there’s a midnight showing of There Will Be Blood tonight at the Neptune. It seems that the film opens locally for more regular screenings late next week, but if (like me) you’ve been eagerly anticipating the latest from Paul Thomas Anderson ever since the closing credits of Punch Drunk Love, then you might be willing to get in some pre-new year’s practice for staying up all night by seeing his adaptation of Oil! starring Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano ahead of the crowd. 11:55 pm, $10- [landmark]

When I was in college in St. Augustine, there was a house that I’d pass regularly with a sign out front that said, “Free, You Move.” We always thought it was a joke, because the town was full of historic old houses that no one wanted to deal with. One Seattle couple, though, seems to have found such a house in Tukwila and are in the process of moving it to Columbia City right now [king5].

The house was built in 1908, and the couple bought it from Tukwila for $1 rather than see it torn down. Moving the house will cost them $150,000 along with whatever permissions they had to get, and will involve a trip across Lake Washington on a barge starting at midnight tonight. They’ll have to move around a bunch of high-tension wires and travel through four different cities. It should arrive at its final destination tomorrow.

I hope that they glued everything down before they left.

This decaying old building is most likely not long for this world. Located in South Lake Union, it will probably be demolished in the coming years to make way for high-rise office buildings.

I loved how the setting sun was catching the faded paint, and how the birds seemed to be as interested in it as I was.

Straight from Metroblogging Islamabad,

This is not by any means how the city planned to embrace the new year. I just hope there is better in store for us as we try to deal with this tragedy which is one more of those tests of our resolve as a nation.

• The assassination of US president John F Kennedy gave birth to a vast number of conspiracy theories, many of which are still hotly contested to this day. Film make Robert Stone takes a look at the “conspiracies, truths, myths and lies” tied to the event in a film that includes interviews with the likes of Norman Mailer and Tom Hayden and extensive archival material, including material never before seen by the public. Oswald’s Ghost plays the Grand Illusion through Thursday, January 3rd.
• Labyrinth was not quite a commercial success when it was released to theaters years ago, but the David Bowie & Jennifer Connelly-staring story of a girl trying to rescue her baby brother from a glammed-out Goblin King has become a major “cult classic” over the years thanks to cable and VHS and DVD release. If you’ve only ever seen Labyrinth in the comfort of your own home, I highly recommend you go see it at the Egyptian at midnight either Friday or Saturday as there is nothing quite so magical as seeing a beloved film in the company of other people to whom it is beloved. Besides, it’s always fun to have someone to play “real dog/fake dog” with you. If you’ve never seen Labyrinth at all, don’t worry: it’s still a fun, sweet, enjoyable film, no matter where you’re seeing it.
• Central Cinema is screening the Elvis Presley & Ann-Margaret romp Viva Las Vegas. Easily one of my favorite Elvis movies, in Viva Las Vegas Presley plays a race car driver who needs a new engine to compete in a Las Vegas grand prix and Ann-Margaret plays his romantic interest.
• Diva is a 1982 French film in which a postman in love with an opera singer’s voice is on the run from drug dealers, music pirates, and the police all because he recorded the voice he loves so well. At SIFF.
• Jack Nicholson plays a talented pianist who refused to be confined by life in Five Easy Pieces. Even disregarding the famous toast scene, Nicholson’s performance is brilliant throughout. A newly restored print of the film is playing this week at NWFF.

The Nielsen research group–the firm best known for releasing stats on TV viewership– has released their 2007 Trend Index listings. [#] Alongside lists that chart the top ten best selling DVDs (Happy Feet was #1) and the top ten advertisers by US spending on traditional media (#1 was Proctor & Gamble), Neilsen reports that a whopping 13 percent of the population of the Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area read or contributed to a blog within the past month which ranks us at #4 on that list of ten. (I am sure there is an explanation why San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose is ranked third when they also only have 13 percent but I don’t see one readily accessible.)

I wonder if the no-texting-while-driving rule will change our #7 standing on the Top 10 US Markets for Text Messaging list next year? Apparently texting is really popular in Texas as Houston and Austin are #1 and 2 on this list.

photo by AnnEA [flickr]

The internet and cable news networks are abuzz with reaction to this morning’s assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. For some interesting local reaction including a harrowing personal account of trying to get home amidst total chaos [karachi mb], click on over to our sister sites:

Karachi Metroblogging
Islamabad Metroblogging
Lahore Metroblogging

Best of luck to everybody over there.

photo by BrittneyBush via our group pool.

Wow is it cold out there! It is still mostly rain where I’m at in Pioneer Square, but I swear I can see little snow flakes mixed in with the rain.

How is it where you are? Let us know in the comments!

photo of sign for now defunct waterfront streetcar by Metblogs’ own Shawn/slightlynorth [flickr]

I thought I was done complaining about the streetcar but I’m not. So, here goes.

According to Citizen Rain [c-r], workers at the Hutch and other businesses on South Lake Union have given the streetcar another nickname. They’re calling it the “70 on Rails.” If you know anything about Metro route 70 you know that it’s infamous for its unreliability.

Further, in the linked KOMO article there’s a stunning quote from streetcar Project Manager Ethan Melone. When asked about complaints by drivers that the streetcar is turning the Mercer Mess even uglier, he said, “Well, that is exactly one of the reasons to provide another option. The mess is (because) everybody (is) in their cars.”

This is the part where I bang my head on my desk repeatedly. Thank you, Ethan. You’re exactly right. If more people would use the South Lake Union Streetcar to commute to work then there wouldn’t be a problem stopping traffic entirely — both the cars exiting I-5 and the cars on Mercer — so the streetcar can amble, slowly, toward its destination.

Actually, Ethan handled the question the best he could. Was he going to be honest and risk his future as a Nickels lackey? Of course not. The honest answer would’ve been, “Yeah, we know it’s bad right now. We know it’s causing even more problems for commuters trying to both exit and enter I-5 on Mercer. We know that it’s always been a problem there and, frankly, I’m not sure why we decided to insert a slow moving rain canopy into the mess. It was a mystery to me when they proposed it but I do what Paul Allen tells Mayor Nickels to do. I’m sure you understand.”

The real problem with Ethan’s response is that in two sentences he demonizes drivers and pits them against this pale imitation of a rail line. This is a bad sign. If the people responsible for this project are not going to honestly address criticisms of it, I have an even worse feeling about the future of a meaningful rail system in Seattle.

Finally, a message for the steetcar apologists who are cropping up: Have you even been on the damned thing? Do you have to drive or bike near it? If not, you might take into account that even those who work on South Lake Union — who the train was ostensibly built for — think it’s a waste.

I spotted santa in Capitol Hill! This sticker really made me smile when I spotted it. Good times!