This couple must have spent over an hour taking pictures of themselves with the snow-capped Olympics and the Space Needle behind them. Have I mentioned how much I love Alki in the winter?

The Stranger posts a bad review of a new restaurant. The editor pulls it when they realize the place hasn’t been open long enough to merit a review, which is reasonable since restaurants need time to work out their kinks.

But that doesn’t sit well with Aimee Curl. Since she apparently didn’t have any city council members available to go drinking with yesterday, she drums up a SHOCKING SCANDAL that probably doubled the total number of Daily Weekly readers from 2 to 4.

Frizelle’s rejoinder is as snarky as you’d expect. It reminds me of my favorite moment from this last college football season:

In the end, though… what’s the point of all of this? That the Weekly is shocked — SHOCKED! — that the Stranger’s journalism isn’t perfect? For as poorly as the Stranger’s adolescent writing has been aging, the Weekly isn’t much better, coming across as a snooty sockpuppet of their Phoenix masters. (And honestly, what the f**k is the point of the Uptight Seattleite? *I* could write a better column than that, and my journalistic ability extends to poorly proofread rants and impossibly long e-mails.)

The best weekly journalism on paper right now in Seattle is a laser printed copy of a West Seattle Blog post. For as many good writers the Weekly and the Stranger have, it’s amazing how as a collective they come across as a pretentious high school newspaper writer who thinks pulling pranks passes for investigative journalism.

Just get off it, all of you. Get back to writing good stuff. Stop acting like a couple of bloated raccoons fighting in the street over food scraps. Soon enough, the ’77 Cadillac Eldorado of Reality will turn you into roadkill.

Kiro 7

Seattle police announced Friday that they have arrested 48-year-old James A. Williams of Seattle in connection with Harps’ slaying.

Williams has been in custody since Jan. 16 for violation of his probation, police said.

This is definitely a relief for the family and friends of Shannon Harps, as well as for the community as a whole. It appears that the attack was completely random and that the suspect has had a history of violence.

On a personal note, I was returning from the store after the press release and was interviewed by King5 (edited from Kiro 7). They showed me a photo of Williams and passed on the details. I don’t actually have a television so unless they post it online, I won’t be able to see if they use the footage.

What are your thoughts on the news a suspect has been identified?

How cool is this? One of my favorite stores (Archie McPhee if you couldn’t tell by the title) has a Flickr photo stream.

Hey, remember Blarch Badness last year? Our immensely successful attempt to increase our February/March site traffic crown the Best Blog In Seattle?

Well, I’m such a glutton for abuse from West Seattle Blog that I’m bringing it back for 2008.

There are some changes this year:

1. The regional names for brackets that got everyone confused? Out.
2. In fact, there will only be two brackets. And I haven’t named them yet. Salmon and Blackberry? Viaduct and Condo? Erica Barnett and Annie Wagner? Who knows. (But hey, you got cash, I’ll sell you naming rights.)
3. The weird regionals are now replaced by categories. More on that in a moment.
4. The four semifinalists last year automatically go into the bracket and don’t have to come through the category round. And the Metblogs authors will pick four additional blogs that we think are so exemplary that they won’t have to endure the category groups, either.
5. More blogs! I’m not sure how many, but more!
6. And I’ll find another crappy voting system to run it all with!

So, here’s where you come in. I have come up with eight categories. I need your nominations for blogs that fit these categories. And even if they don’t fit these categories, just mention them in the comments and I’ll try to find room for them.

Here’s the preliminary category list:

• Art, Fashion, Photography (sorry it’s all one category)
• Food and Drink (blogs about eating/drinking)
• The Hood (the blogs in your neighborhood)
• Music
• P-I Bloggers (because there are so many of them, they get their own category)
• Religion, Politics, and the Great Pumpkin (the three things people are passionate about here in town — religion, politics, and environmentalism)
• People
• Sports
• None of the Above/Enemies of Metblogs (everyone who doesn’t fit in one of the above groups and/or hates us)

Yes, I know that’s nine. I’ll work it out later.

So, who are your favorite local blogs? Who do you want to see on the list? That’s what that comment box down there is for. Go for it.

If you’re one of those shameful sorts that wants to nominate yourself, you can do it anonymously by using the “suggest a story” button or sending an e-mail to seattle.metblogs@gmail.com.

The bracket will be announced next week. And then, we start the fun. By mid-March, we will know, again, who is the best blog in Seattle, or at least can summon up their readership to come vote over here.

Now that I think of it, it makes sense that Memorial Stadium is actually a memorial to, you know, something. Says so right there in the name. But until it became a point of contention in the plans to revamp the Seattle Center [SC], I had never really thought about it. And I can’t be the only one.

But apparently, there’s a wall in the stadium that has the names of all the Seattle high school students who died in WWII, which kind of throws a small wrench in the plans to tear down Memorial Stadium and put in an amphitheater and parking lot, even though the plans all mention saving the wall.

Which wall is it? Oh, it’s that dark one all covered in hedges. That doesn’t really clear things up, does it? I still have no idea where this wall is.

“But veterans and Seattle activists argue saving the wall isn’t enough. People want the stadium preserved because it’s more than a place for football or concerts – it’s a war memorial [King5].”

I think that if the wall is in the plans, if someone’s actually intending to look after it and take care of it and maybe even put in some lights and trim the hedges, then that’s a better tribute than anyone on that wall is getting right now.

A lot of the old horror films I watched as a kid turned out to be dumb and poorly made when I watched them again with an older and more sophisticated eye. Sometimes this was due to the advances in special effects and other film techniques over the years and sometimes this was simply because the things that scared me as a little kid stopped scaring me as I got older. A lot of the early vampire films were probably boring all along but I never realized this as a young child who was still frightened by vampires. A few films were actually kind of funny when I watched them again–the original The Blob sure was, particularly when I saw it as a teenager living in Southern California watching Elvira do her Vampira-ripoff schtick. For years afterwards every time I ate a bowl of Jell-o I thought of The Blob and laughed.

• One film that is a definite exception is Eyes Without a Face , playing at SIFF on Saturday as part of their Rialto Festival. Rialto Pictures is a distributor of classic films who in the past ten years have revived and restored a ton of old films that deserve to be seen by modern viewers. The series kicks off Friday night with a showing of Peeping Tom, a 1960 film about a serial killer who films his victims’ last moments. Saturday’s selection, Eyes Without a Face, described by no less a personage than Pauline Kael as “perhaps the most elegant horror film ever made”, tells the story of a plastic surgeon’s cruel attempts to restore his disfigured daughter’s beautiful face by stealing the faces of the beautiful young women he kidnaps. Sunday’s selection is The Battle of Algiers, a 1965 film about the struggle between the French in Algeria and the Algerian insurgency bound on their defeat. Monday’s selection The Two of Us, about a Jewish boy passing as a Christian in the World War II French countryside, screens with a collection of ten years of Rialto trailers. Films by Luis Buñuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Jacques Becker, Federico Fellini, and other round out the rest of the festival.
• Meanwhile, the Grand Illusion has another weekend screening of martial arts epic Kill or Be Killed, pitting an ex-Nazi against a martial arts grandmaster while “White Bruce Lee” Steve Chase struggles to win his own freedom in a deadly battle for survival. Satuirday and Sunday the Grand Illusion hosts a Grindhouse Kung-Fu double feature with Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Devil Woman. As an added bonus, they will be screening a series of grindhouse trailers before each film. There’s even more: also playing is Walter Hill’s Streets of Fire in which then-rising-star Michael Pare is a soldier-of-fortune in a future world where he and his hard-nosed sidekick (Amy Madigan) have to rescue his rock star ex-girlfriend played by Diane Lane who sure has come a long way since the days of making films like Streets of Fire, a movie remembered now more for its best selling soundtrack than for its success in the theaters. I’ve always thought that Streets of Fire was one of those so-bad-it’s-funny films that deserved a cult following–sort of like The Warriors with which it is playing.
• When I saw the trailer for L.A. Story when it first came out many years ago, I thought it was just another stupid comedy based on taking superficial swipes at lame stereotypes and had no interest in seeing it. It’s always bugged me that an intelligent, thoughtful artist like Martin has spent so much of his career in mild pieces of comedic fluff like Father of the Bride, the sort of movies you go see because you’ve got nothing more exciting to do, but, hey, everyone’s got to pay the bills. Somehow L.A. Story came up in conversation a few years ago and I was told to give the movie a chance, that it wasn’t anything like its trailer. It really isn’t–sure, there are a lot of jokes about L.A. stereotypes but they aren’t all cheap shots, more like gentle pokes at the hometown Martin obviously loves. L.A. Story‘s plot is a sweet, touching romantic comedy from which all those bland, vaguely insulting “chick flicks” could learn a lot; even silly bits like the talking freeway sign don’t detract from its warm hearted appeal. On Sunday Central Cinema screens another romantic comedy, the offbeat Life With Fiona.
• Fans of Reno 911 might want to head over to the Egyptian this weekend as Hot Fuzz is their selection for this weekend’s Midnight Movie.

Had enough of the snow and colder than average temperatures? If so, you’re probably not going to like the forecast this weekend.

If you’re in dire need of a vacation from this cold, you have a couple of options.

1. Leave town. Here’s what you can experience in Maui.
(High temps in the 70′s, sunshine, cool breezes, mai tai’s, and sunsets.)

A Maui Beach… photo by John Eddy

2. Head out to the Seattle Travel Show this weekend. More on the travel show after the jump.
(more…)

Holy crap, where has January gone? Seems like NYE was just yesterday and yet, here I am getting Valentine’s Day announcements in my email inbox!

So, I went over to NatalieDee to see if she was selling cards this year, as I do, and sadly, no, she is not. Sob!

Oh well, at least I have the Theo Chocolate special confections [tc] coming out (ooh aphrodisiac, fancy!) and, of course, Cupcake Royale’s Deathcake. I reviewed said cake last year [mb] on the last day they were available, so to make amends, not only am I reminding you in advance that these dense, delicious monstrosities are available February 1st – February 14th, but can also tell you that they’re having a special sneak preview tomorrow (January 25th) in all three stores.

- Madrona 8-10 a.m.
- West Seattle 1-3 pm
- Ballard 3-5 pm [cr]

That’s right, free cake that will kill you is delicious!

Anyway this cake is great.
It’s so delicious and moist
look at me still talking when theres science to do [jc]

Select Starbucks stores have started selling $1 drip coffee with free refills [p-i]. Will this revitalize their customer base, or just further damage their image? To get a feel for public opinion, I decided to seek out that oracle of all things Seattle: the Seattle LiveJournal community [#].

1. Does this make you more likely to get coffee at Starbucks?
63.6% no, 24.7% yes, 11.7% maybe
With nearly 300 responses, the majority was by far to the negative. The most frequently cited reason by far? Taste. As LJ user gomezticator wrote, “Two cups of burnt swill tastes just as shitty as one cup of burnt swill.” LJ user scene_stealer echoed this sentiment: “i personally don’t like the way starbuck’s coffee tastes which is why the $1 offer wouldn’t sway me. i think cheaper places like 7-11 or fast food joints have way better coffee.” LJ user loree added, “I’d be much more willing to buy their coffee in the first place if they’d roast their beans instead of burning them…” LJ user ebonyraine dissented, however, saying, “Refills is the number one reason I end up somewhere else for drip coffee even though I prefer Starbucks to the other places I go. I will definitely go there for this, though!”

2. Does this improve your opinion of Starbucks?
60.4% no, 25.8% yes, 13.8% maybe
Again the response was overwhelming negative. Not much commentary on this one, but I would guess it’s the same reason as above: if you don’t like the taste, nothing will make you buy the coffee. Unless you are seriously that cheap.

3. Do you think this deal will revitalize Starbucks’ customer base?
48.8% no, 36.4% yes, 14.8% yes
This response was more divided. LJ user ireplaceable wrote, “revitalizing Starbucks is more about increasing the quality of the coffee and acknowledging the individual needs of community, not just giving us the same bad coffee for less.” Others thought that drip was not the focus of their customer base anyway and therefore irrelevant. LJ user jgurney writes, “People don’t go to Czarbucks for good tasting coffee. They go for froofy coffee flavoured milk drinks. Why anyone would drink their drip is beyond explanation.” Some pointed out that this would benefit most a niche of their existing customer base, as LJ user rosebranch says, “This benefits people who (a) drink Starbucks drip in the first place, and (b) hang out at Starbucks as opposed to buying and leaving. I don’t see this being a revenue generator for them.” Finally, some expressed concern about what kind of client base this deal would attract. LJ user captain_brad sums it up simply as, “Oh, cool. Starbucks’ is opening homeless drop-in centers.”