Recruiting! by Erik98122

According to Washington state’s Employment Security Department, our unemployment rate is now 7.8%, the largest rate of unemployment since 1990. Current estimates state that 303,570 people are looking for work.

How do we compare to the rest of the nation? The national unemployment rate is 7.6%, less than our rate. Remember when it seemed like we were pretty isolated from the downward trends? Yeah.

Source info

Speaking of a certain weekend in April, the EMP just released their schedule for the eighth annual Pop Music Conference. I’m deeply disappointed that I’ll be out of town and missing the event. With a Prince-borrowed theme “Dance Music Sex Romance: Pop and the Body Politic”, it sounds like the always-interesting conflagration of academics, music critics, and hangers-on will be even more stimulating.

The conference starts on Friday 16 April and runs through Sunday afternoon. There are talks about viral media in the Obama campaign, a roundtable discussion on groupies, a keynote conversation with Nona Hendryx, a sneak preview of Copyright Criminals, Sean Nelson talking about “Sean Nelson, “Let’s (Not) Get it On– Or, `Fucking to Songs About Fucking and Other Uncomfortable Developments in the Awkward Relationship Between What We’re Going to Have to Just Agree to Call Indie Rock and Sexuality in the 1990s”, Robert Christgau on “The Old Folks Wish Them Well: Romantic Marriage in Rock and Roll”, and even more eclectic stuff like “The Jocker and the Hoosier Boy: The Politics of Bowdlerization in ‘The Big Rock Candy Mountain’”, “Partnered Dance vs. Solo Self-Expression in the Rock & Roll Era”, and an entire session on “Punk and Female Flesh”.

Registration is free and for in-town fans of thinking and music it’s crazy not to drop in for at least part of the dazzling show. Peruse the rest of the panels and get yourself on the list at empsfm.org/popconference .

Didn’t get enough Murder City Devils from their double feature in Seattle this month? Need an excuse to go to Palm Springs in April? Great news for you: Coachella just announced [twitter] that they’ve been added to the Sunday night lineup (where they’ll probably be squeezed into the poster somewhere in the vicinity of heavy-hitters My Bloody Valentine and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

Sure, this was kind of guessable by looking at their tour schedule and seeing a stop at the Glasshouse in Pomona and at the Henry Fonda in LA, but questions about a Coachella stop had been previously denied. Glad to see this finally confirmed. Closing out the three-day festival should be a great end to their not-exactly reunion tour.

update: oh, they’re playing the Sasquatch, too. [soundonthesound]

* 6:30 PM: Ravenna author Ann Wendell talks about her 2007 book Seattle’s Ravenna Neighborhood at the SPL Ravenna branch. I’m pretty sure that that is not an accident. You may recall that last year Wendell’s eponymous, and very interesting, book on Frederick & Nelson was released.
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* 7:00 PM: Paul Brians, author of Common Errors in English Usage, celebrates the reissue of “the most cheerfully useful book… since the Kama Sutra”[Scott Simon, NPR] with a discussion and book signing at the U-District UW Bookstore. And really, is that not the best recommendation for a reference book, ever?
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* 7:00 PM: Richard Hugo House promises “an intimate night of poetry” as a fundraiser to send the Fierce Five to Detroit for the Women of the World Poetry Slam. It’s just like 8 Mile– except in the ways that it’s entirely different! I’m not sure how they plan to raise funds with this event- there is no cover charge posted on the site- but I’m sure there is something planned. A rummage sale? Tupperware party? Does Tupperware even exist anymore?
[LINK]

* 7:30 PM: The Seattle Arts and Lecture series hosts Junot Diaz at Benaroya Hall, to discuss… um. Writing? Life? What it’s like to win a bunch of prestigious awards, crowned by the 2008 Pulitzer? Diaz won the Pulitzer for his first full-length novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, in the process becoming both a beacon of hope to aspiring writers, and an object of envy and despair to those who’ve been around the publishing block a few times.
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* 7:30 PM: Yiyun Li came to the US to study medicine, and earned a Master’s degree in immunology, but threw it over for the angst and horror of fiction writing. Medicine would probably have been easier, but fortunately for us Li is as crazy as any other writer, because her fiction is superb. She’ll be visiting Elliott Bay Book Co. to read and sign her first novel, The Vagrants.
[LINK]

If killing Jack by bus wasn’t enough, Jack in the Box is giving away two free tacos today only.

Go. Hurry. Eat crappy food. \"Jack in the Box\"

There have been a lot of discussions of late about the future of news and the future of our two daily newspapers. By my count, there have about 137 panel discussions in the last month alone, give or take 130.

But it’s a discussion that needs to be had, in my mind. Newspapers, the daily thunk of newsprint on front doorstep (or, in the case of my former paper boy, the roof), the certainty of paper, the ink smudges, the crossword, Ziggy, for most of us it’s part of our lives. And now, with the rise of the web and the economic collapse, there’s the possibility that in the next couple of years major cities will not have daily papers anymore — and Seattle is one of them.

So, we’ve got together a panel of academics and newspaper people, run by one of our great radio talk show hosts, Dave Ross. But we’re turning it on its side, by having groundlings who can interject and counter the discussion, bloggers, journalists for the weeklies, and others. And you’re part of it as well — you can submit your questions via our online form, or ask them at the discussion, or even Twitter them.

The event will focus on the present — what will we miss about newspapers, what gaps in news coverage will be created by the possible disappearance of the two dailies, and what people are doing right now to fill those gaps.

Our organization, if you want to call it that, is No News Is Bad News. We’re just a bunch of bloggers, writers, and new media people looking for ways to help the present news media situation transition to the future of news.

Please come to the discussion. Register now — we only have 200 seats, and they’re filling up fast.

Seattle as a No Newspaper Town? : panel and town hall discussion.
Thursday 26 February, 7 pm.
Bertha Landes Room, City Hall, 600 5th Ave. [map]
Admission is free, but please request a seat in advance at [eventbrite]

Metroblogging dance party favorites Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band [myspace] just sent out a very exciting note: “Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band is pleased to introduce, Molly Moon’s Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band Ice Cream (Coconut ice cream with Chocolate chunks and Huckleberry sauce)! Long winded and equally delicious.”

The band will be guest scooping in Wallingford at 6:00 on Thursday, March 5, and Molly will be on hand for the cd release show on the 6th at Neumos with ice cream.

Coconut ice cream sounds totally disgusting (because coconut tastes like sunscreen smells, and is therefore completely unpalatable), but let us know how it is if you give it a shot.

Image by Salim Virji, used via Creative Commons.

Seattle’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs has issued a pretty cool call for artists: they’re looking for an artist or artistic team to design on-street bicycle parking for the city. The selected artist will work with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) staff to design, fabricate and install bicycle parking at two to four on-street locations, part of the city’s committment to the Bicycle Master Plan which is aimed at tripling the number of people bicycling in Seattle over the next ten years. For more details check out the Arts and Cultural Affairs webpage or contact SDOT art and enhancement project manager Vaughn Bell at 206.733.9960 or vaughn.bell@seattle.gov.

A friend told me a few years ago that one of the most surprisingly fun things to do in your own hometown is take a guided city tour. Being the sort of person who doesn’t like to take guided tours of other people’s cities let alone mine, I scoffed–at least until I got roped into offering the friend of a friend a customized tour of Seattle and in doing research on our destinations discovered that there are a lot of places to go and things to do and see in this city that it’s impossible for any one person to keep track of them all.

If you look hard enough, you can probably find a tour that fits your personal taste; if taste is on your menu, though, you should seriously consider the Seattle Food Tours. One takes you through Belltown, sampling along the way such tasty treats as artisan breads, BBQ pork, handmade chocolates and more. The other guides you through the Pike Place Market, pointing out all the hidden treasures that the Market’s often-confusing layout can hide away from the casual eye. In addition to learning more about some of the food that Seattle has to offer, you’ll be introduced to the city’s history, architecture and public art–not a bad deal at all while you’re being introduced to great restaurants you might otherwise never have known.

Savor Seattle offers a tour of the Pike Place Market as well, guiding you through the Market that includes tastes of salmon, coffee, Washington artisan cheese and fresh season fruit and they also offer a three-hour tour of downtown Seattle that presents local Washington wine and microbrew beers, seafood, cheeses, pizza, tapas, and more.

Follow up any of these tours with a stop by the Burke for their “The World in Your Cup” exhibit on coffee which includes free tastings every weekend through June.

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

• In a recession, both alt-weekly blogs rediscover that you really can pay what you want at SAM to see the Hopper exhibit. [dailyweekly :: slog]
• Secret Sunday matinees return to NWFF, now at 3 pm. [hotsplice]
• Skillet wants to revive street food through street fairs. Isn’t this kind of the Fremont Sunday Market or whatever festival is occupying the weekend during summer streetfair season, just with better food? [slog]
• Cafe Stellina, in the magical appendix of Capitol Hill, is for sale. At least two bloggers hope that it will be reborn as a brunch mecca, potentially by Cravers. [urbnlivin]
• Suspected Oscar lipsyncher Beyoncé/Sasha Fierce is coming to Key Arena for April Fool’s. [seattlegayscene]
• Clover is reported to be still alive and pressing. [starbucksgossip]