Seattle’s winter weather has been the talk of the town (and of some the city blogs too: metblogs, seattlest, my ballard, white center). Even this morning’s broadcast of “Weekday” with Steve Scher on KUOW had a round-up of weather-related news. The tail-end of his broadcast featured Professor Cliff Mass of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. Mass commented on the fog which has held the city in a cold grip since yesterday and hasn’t loosened up… Hey! At least its not the warm, sticky pollution that clings to the valley walls of Beijing. Can you tell which is which? Please say yes…

On a gloomy, foggy day like today add a little Department of Eagles to your playlist. These Brooklyn natives are coming to Seattle to play with local band The Cave Singers in a couple weeks, and are absolutely wonderful. Their most recent album, In Ear Park, is their first officially produced album and is beautifully arranged. The album is stock full of melodic harmonies, floating piano arpeggios, and quasi-abrasive guitar rifts, resolved with the eerie and smooth-sounding voice of their lead singer, Daniel Rossen. It is the perfect soundtrack for walking along the waterfront sidewalk beneath Olympic Sculpture Park on a day like this.

 

 

 

$13 // Department of Eagles, The Cave Singers // Wed, Jan 28th // doors 8pm // Neumos (Pike and 10th)

I was supposed to get this contest notice up a lot earlier, but have been derailed by watching old Stella video clips on CollegeHumor.com. Which, might I add, would have been a pleasanter experience had I not had to close the My Best Friend’s Girl trailer a million and a half times (I may be exaggerating).

Ahem, but anyway, Stella is, as the press release will tell you, a trio made up of Michael Ian Black, Michael Showater, and David Wain. The three have been performing together in one form or another for about two decades. Their incarnation as the sketch trio, Stella, began as a night club act in 1997 which lead to a series of short films posted on the aforementioned CollegeHumor site. In 2005, Comedy Central aired a combination sketch/sitcom featuring Stella bringing them into the mainstream consciousness, but not mainstream comedy.

It has been a few years since the end of the show, but in 2008, the group reformed, performing in February at an Obama rally and more recently uploading new shorts on mydamnchannel. I have been struggling to give a brief synopsis of what you’ll see if you attend one of their shows, but you really have to see it to understand. If pressed, I’d quote the gal on the new video preview when she said, “absurdist crazy inappropriateness.”

If you are one of the many (many) die-hard fans of Stella and want to avoid the $22.50 ticket price, send an email to seattle.metblogs at gmail dot com with the subject line STELLA for your chance to win two tickets to see them at Neumos next Wednesday, January 21st at 8 p.m.
update: thanks everyone, we picked a winner.

An after-hours scuffle with Neumo’s security landed members of the local hipster hip-hop crew Mad Rad behind bars (#). Ty Finnan (Darwin) and Nathan Quiroga (Buffalo Madonna) have been charged with assault for allegedly attacking a member of Neumo’s security staff. Peter Robinson (P Smoov) was cited for obstruction and trespassing charges.

The group has since been banned from performing at Neumo’s and possibly Chop Suey, the Showbox and King Cobra. Prior to the brawl they they were scheduled to perform at Neumo’s on March 16 with Blue Scholars and Common Market.

Mad Rad is scheduled to play at the Lo-Fi Performance Gallery tonight. The show is 21+, doors open at 9 p.m., $5 before 11 p.m. and $10 after.

Those cute Minnesotians Minnesotaites Minneapolisians indie rock boys from Minnesota, Tapes ‘n Tapes, are coming to spend Inauguration Night with us at Neumos. Tapes ‘n Tapes generally put on a wildly enthusiastic show which might just inspire you to start another street party celebration. (If you do, call me. I’ll be up near the front of the stage and am always ready for a street party.) We have a pair of tickets to give away: send us an email at seattle.metblogs@gmail.com, with “Tapes ‘n Tapes” as the subject line.thanks everybody, we picked a winner.

Here is their video for “Hang Them All” off of last year’s “Walk It Off”:
[youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-PZ5g1odqA [/youtube]

Doors are at at 8:00, with openers Wild Light. It’s an all-ages show, so it should be an early night. Plenty of time for extra inauguration partying.

NWFF continues their Films of 69 series with two fine films. Oh! What a Lovely War was the directorial debut of Richard Attenborough, a sort of avante garde satire of of World War I that uses humor and song to decry the death and destruction wrought on an entire generation of young men. Alice’s Restaurant pokes at another conflict as Arthur Penn directs Arlo Guthrie and a free-spirited cast in a funny movie about a hippie Thanksgiving and what may very well be the single most entertaining visit to an Army recruitment center recorded on film based on Guthrie’s somewhat exaggerated real life stories.

Central Cinema presents the well-crafted Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line starring Joaquin Phoenix as the Man in Black and Reese Witherspoon as his wife and sometime musical partner June Carter Cash.

SIFF heats up the cold nights with French Crime Wave, a series of crime-themed movies from France, some well known (Mississippi Mermaid, Diabolique) and some less so (Le Cercle Rouge, Classe tous risques). Every one of the films in this series are worth seeing, but of special note is Friday night’s offering Rififi with its stunning half hour heist segment shot without either dialogue or music (paired as a double feature with gangster flick Pepe le Moko set in the Casbah) and Louise Malle’s debut feature Elevator to the Gallows (Wednesday, 1/21)in which lovely Jeanne Moreau searches Paris for her lover who happens to be trapped in the elevator of a blacked-out building after murdering Moreau’s husband. Saturday’s Mississippi Mermaid directed by Francois Truffaut and starring Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo, Sunday’s hardboiled Le Cercle Rouge, Monday’s Garde a vue andTuesday’s Classe tous risques offer two more chances to see Belmondo in a starring role.

Notorious director Roman Polanski made his directorial debut in 1962 with the Polish feature Knife in the Water, a psychological thriller sometimes called his greatest work and a definite precursor to the tense films he would become best known for in the US. When a married couple impulsively invite a hitchhiker they pick up to join them on their weekend boating trip they are all drawn into a tense emotional drama that leads to a violent conflict. At the Grand Illusion.

If you like your violence extra-bloody, stop by the Grand Illusion late nights this weekend for the aptly titled Tokyo Gore Police, a gory sci-fi story set in a scary future Japan.

One of the most exciting parts of my first real visit to San Francisco was my trip out to the Golden Gate Bridge where I thrilled to the sight of the very spot where James Stewart’s “Scottie Ferguson” rescues Kim Novak’s “Madeleine Elster” from her attempt to kill herself by jumping into the San Francisco Bay. The love story involving the lead characters of this complex psychological thriller is twisted and not just a little dark, but blended into this tale of obsession, anxiety and black-hearted scheming is a love note to the city in the form of extensive use of local scenery. The Cinerama present a series of special 70mm screenings of this classic starting Sunday at noon.

Seattle filmmaker Linas Phillips (Walking to Werner, Great Speeches from a Dying World) appears at On the Boards this weekend in Lasagna, or How I learned to stop slipping towards the prison of permanent darkness, a two-man show that utilizes extensive video footage to document conversations between Phillips and NYC actor Jim Fletcher that explore the edges of sex, philosophy, spirituality, and loneliness.

Midnight at the Egyptian: Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, the Stanley Kubrick satire of global annihilation featuring Peter Sellers in no less than three roles, George C. Scott, the film debut of James Earl Jones and Slim Pickens riding an H-bomb like a cowboy rides a rodeo horse.

* 7:00 PM: Seattle Public Library is amazing. Really, we are incredibly lucky to have such a great library system. Take advantage of this terrific resource and go see Azar Nafisi discuss her new book, Things I’ve Been Silent About: Memories. Nafisi is the author of the best-selling memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran, which I highly recommend to anyone who likes (or loves) books. And everyone else, actually.
This event will be held at the Central Library, Level 1, in the Microsoft Auditorium. The Central Library will close at 6:00 PM, as usual, but re-open the 4th Avenue entrance at 6:30 PM.
[LINK]

* 7:30 PM: Publishing pros always advise authors against self-publishing, but with the state of the book publishing industry what it is these days, well, consider the source. Then consider The Book of Unholy Mischief, a novel by Elle Newmark. Newmark self-published the novel as Bones of the Dead on iUniverse, indulged in some email marketing, and landed herself an agent and a contract with Atria. Now, she’s doing her marketing in person, with a book tour. Newmark is at Elliott Bay Books to read and sign tonight.
[LINK]

So, as I posted yesterday morning, MoveOn.org hosted a rally at the Seattle Federal Building in support of Obama’s economic recovery plan. I’m a solution-orientated person so I visited, listened to a few stories, took a few pictures, and left feeling… disappointed.

Before I went yesterday, I had sent a few emails to the Seattle area hosts (there were several of these rally’s set up by MoveOn through out the country) asking for information on how, we, of the Pacific Northwest, could expect to benefit from the recovery plan. The response I received told me that they had not received that kind of specific information. I didn’t exactly arrive at the event with very high expectations.

Nevertheless, this kind of impersonal activism seems to be the downfall of… this kind of impersonal activism. Each region of this country tends to be suitable for a different industry therefore affected by the economic crisis in it’s own unique way. When the passing of Obama’s economic recovery package promises the creation of “green” jobs through the promotion and development of sustainable energy, I have to wonder, where will those jobs be created? Here in Seattle? How will our economy benefit?

There were maybe 30 people milling around, several of them spoke through a muffled megaphone held by a older gentleman with very shaky hands. I stood in front of the Federal Building yesterday and listened to four different individuals share their muffled, shaky stories. The purpose of their speeches: to be something we hear and relate to. “I could be you.” “You’re just like me.” These individuals are suffering as is the rest of the country. We share a similar problem. However, when being asked to blindly support a national economic recovery plan, are we certain we share a similar solution?

(FYI: City elections are coming up. Get informed of the campaigns and what can be done, right here in Seattle!)

photo by zeebleoop [flickr] via our group pool [#]

(originally posted 12 january; last update: thursday 15 january)

George W. Bush held his very last press conference this morning [wonkette] and in a week you’ll be going to sleep preparing to spend the next morning watching onetime Capitol Hill resident [chs] Barack Obama getting himself inaugurated. If, like most of us, you got turned down for tickets, thought it was ecologically or financially unfriendly to fly to D.C. to stand out in the cold on the Mall while watching on a distant big screen television, you’re probably still in the market for a morning party.

Here’s an incomplete list of what I’ve seen floating around so far:

MORNING/WATCHING THE INAUGURATION:

• the Stranger’s party/brunch at the Triple Door is SOLD OUT, but if you have a connection to some secret tickets e-mail me. [slog]
• the Paramount is hosting a free party in partnership with KOMO. It’s free with a bunch of Obama-themed concessions from Tom Douglas like “Malia Scones “, “Banana-bama Bread”, and “Sasha’s Carroty Goodness Muffins” paired with the “Obama-Mama” specialty cocktail for sale in the lobby. [theparamount].
• Party with Jean Godden while feasting on selection from the Dahlia Lounge’s new brunch menu at the Palace Kitchen Ballroom. [voracious]
• Central Cinema parts with their usual pizza party theme for a champagne toast with various brunch options. [capitolhillseattle]
• the party at the SLU Discovery Center is free, though you might leave tempted to buy a condo. [thesouthlake]
• Kerri Harrop and WorldChanging are hosting a free Seattle Weekly party at Spitfire. [dailyweekly]
• AM1090 is hosting a $10.90 brunch with 10 television screens and dueling pianos. [88keys]
• The Baltic Room will have big televisions, a bloody mary bar, and breakfast buffet. [baltic room]
• There are 40 televisions at Sport playing the inauguration. [moveon]
• The City of Seattle is hosting a “Celebration of Hope” viewing party from 8 am until the inaugural parade at the Center House; the audio will also be broadcast from the International Fountain, which should make for a trippy experience if kids are playing in the water and fog. [seattlecenter]
• Brunch at Martin’s Off Madison. [seattlegayscene]
• Starbucks is simulcasting the inauguration to 650 of its stores, including some in Seattle. Perfect for latte liberals! [nytimes]
• MSNBC is commandeering Lincon Square Cinemas to show their coverage of the event. [msnbcevents]
• MOE kicks off the new era in style with twelve happy hours beginning at 8 am: $2 Wells, $2 PBR & High Life, 2 flat screen TVs on all day, breakfast from Pike Street Fish Fry, Mimosas and Bloody Marys in the morning, Whiskey and Jager at night. And biznik will be there; so maybe you’ll network your way into a new economy job? [moe]

I’m sure there are others (for instance a search of online political type sites [moveon][pic2009] yields many events large and small all over the place); leave a comment or send a note to seattle.metblogs at gmail.com and I’ll keep updating this list.

Manuel pinged me earlier to mention that old-old-school Seattle blogger Clark Humphrey has been laying out the reasons why Hearst is shuttering the P-I and why he’s in with the optimists for an online P-I. And he’s a far better self-editor than I am.

(I just wish Clark would break down and move to WordPress already. Hand-coding is still a good thing, but RSS feeds are even better.)

As previously mentioned in a link, Cupcake Royale is moving to Capitol Hill (within walking distance of me!). This fantastic news is now matched by the news that Trophy Cupcakes is also expanding into the U-District community, specifically into U-Village (just a hop-skip-and-jump away from the UW).

I welcome our cupcake overlords in every neighborhood.