6:30 PM – Benjamin Parzybok: Couch
SPL Ballard Branch
The Portland author will read from his new book, about 3 displaced roommates and their magical davenport.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Eric Ames: Carl Hagenbeck’s Empire of Entertainment
UW Bookstore U-District
Hagenbeck was the European PT Barnum. Ames is an assistant professor of German at the UW. I would love to ask Ames about why he wrote this book, pick his brain, &c. It seems like such a random subject and yet I’m totally fascinated and can’t wait to read it.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Cass Daglish: Humming the Blues
Elliott Bay Book Co.
The poet will be joined by “Kathleen Alcalá, Jane Alynn, and Bethany Reid, who will read from their contributions to the most recent issue of Calyx: Journal of Art and Literature by Women, now in its 33rd year.”
[LINK]

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

• You can see it for yourself tomorrow, but enjoy today’s sneak peek and deep background on the re-opening of the crocodile cafe today courtesy of Chris B & Jeanine A. [threeimaginarygirls]
• Oh, twitter. First stupid interviews with Senators, not songwriting contests for the Decemberists. [nymag]
• You’re running out of time to show up your officemates NCAA style. You can either play the numbers & mine the hivemind [slate], copy Obama, or follow your heart (within reason) and go localish. [seattlest]
• Crowdsourcing the coverage of tomorrow’s first Sounders FC game and baiting comments with questions about the best fans. [bigblog]
• Mars Hill will fight about Satan’s existence for the late night news. [myballard]
• Nineties night at Neighbors features bad nineties music, few people dancing, and inexpensive drinks. [lineout]

dangerous, & checkable from a city bus.

Thanks to the Seattle Times, you can feel just a bit more dangerous for playing in your office’s NCAA tournament pool. It turns out the the time honored tradition (of making horrible sentimental picks and losing a few bucks to more analytical and informed colleagues) isn’t specifically allowed by Washington’s gambling laws. Anything not allowed by the rules, then, is specifically forbidden (and consequently slightly more fun). [times]

While you could be subject to criminal charges for putting money on the line, just revel in your minor lawbreaking and try to get a little bit of your real work done between streaming games to your iphone. If you want to keep it safe, legal, and neighborly, there’s always the Capitol Hill Seattle bracket, where only pride is the only thing you’ll gain or lose. [chs/nyt]

I received an email by STG Presents and here is what they said (with some minor edits from me):

The Roots
The Paramount Theatre
April 9, 2009
8:00 pm

Enter to win Paramount Club seats for The Roots and enjoy all the benefits of the Paramount Club: VIP private theatre entrance; access to the members-only Paramount Club lounge with private restrooms, coat check and personal bar service; unparalleled Loge seats; parking validation and more.

To enter, email marketing@stgpresents.org – one winner will be selected at random and will be notified by Monday, March 23rd.

There you have it. Email, enter and I’ll cross my fingers for ya.

Wonder what’s happening in McCaw Hall today for the Starbucks shareholders meeting? Brew up a cup of VIA and tune-in to Twitter:

SBX_IronChef is livetwittering the Starbucks meeting

If you’re lucky you can flip between this and Gary Locke’s confirmation hearings [senate.gov] as a way of getting in shape for for the office-based multitasking required for when the NCAA tournament starts.

(via starbucksgossip [#])

6:30 PM – Earl Emerson: Cape Disappointment
SPL Ballard Branch
Number 3 in Emerson’s local book tour. If you missed him at Seattle Mystery Bookshop on 2/28, or UW Bookstore on 3/10, well, the third time is the charm. To recap: “After a 10 year hiatus, Seattle private eye Thomas Black is back… sort of. Recuperating in the hospital after being severely injured in an explosion which may or may not have killed his wife, Black suffers from flashbacks and hallucinations, in this disturbing addition to the series.”
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Scott Simon: Windy City: A Novel of Politics
Benaroya Hall, S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, $25 – $60
Seattle Arts & Lectures presents Simon, anchor of NPR’s Chicago Weekend Edition Saturday, journalist, essayist, commentator, author, all-around literate guy, &c. If I had the dosh, I would totally go.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Stacey Levine: No Comment Literary Reading Series
New City Theater Black Box
Levine’s next book, The Girl With Brown Fur: Tales and Stories (formerly The Kidney Problem) is due out this spring. And that’s all I know.
[LINK]

From the Seattle PI’s offices today:

Found via Gawker

If you like supporting the local arts, DanceSeattle is putting on a new version of Alice in Wonderland called Looking Glass Glimpses, featuring student dancers from Bainbridge, Renton, and Seattle along with local contemporary dancers. There are only two shows this weekend: Friday, March 20, 2009 at 7:00 PM and Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 2:00 PM. Location: Youngstown Art Center in West Seattle. Tickets are only $10.50.

Some other photos from a recent dress rehearsal after the cut:
(more…)

Sure to elicit comments of more than one opinion, Seattle Atheists (who knew atheists formed organizations?) have purchased ads on Metro that will run starting April 1st. No, it’s not an April Fool’s prank. These ads are similar in nature to the ads recently run in London. No mention of this on the actual website, so I’ll just go with the source on this one.

photo by paul swortz [flickr] via our group pool [#]

• Did you miss your chance to get the last newsprint edition of the P-I? Enjoy knowing that you can buy a back issue from the Seattle Times. for about $50. [bigblog]
• Did you know that you can listen to KEXP live on your iPhone with an App called Public Radio Tuner? [kexp]
• Make your pockets more fun by filling them with Seattle happy hours and nightlife updates. [gotime]
• Scoping out basketball teams that we might steal from other cities. [dailyweekly]
• Oh, and a hearty congratulations to the dozens upon dozens of Slog commenters who thought that they were amazingly special snowflakes because they knew that one of the Stranger’s writers had an appointment in municipal court today.