A few months ago, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer stopped printing newspapers, shed staff, and moved to an online-only publication. This weekend, they unveiled a new design and now the look of their homepage better matches their status as a web-based organization. Yes, the click-hungry photo galleries are still front and center, but the overall feel is a fresher, more pleasant, and engaging. There are bigger pictures, cleaner organization, better integration of the various staff, reader, and contributor weblogs, as well as lots of gadgets that “surface” tweets, feeds, and other offsite content.

For a full rundown of all of the changes, new directions, and goals of the makeover, have a look at Michelle Nicolosi’s full description. [bigblog]

2:00 PM – Warren Moon: Never Give Up On Your Dream: My Journey
Barnes & Noble University Village
Apparently, Warren Moon is the only player ever inducted into both the Pro Football and Canadian Football Halls of Fame. From this, I deduce that Mr. Moon plays (or played) football. Football is a sport. I’m given to understand that football is quite a popular sport, far more popular than curling or whiffleball, for example.
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4:00 PM – Poets West Open Mic
SPL Greenlake Branch
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4:00 PM – Rabih Alameddine: The Hakawati
Seattle Center, The Arab Festival
“In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father’s deathbed. The city is a shell of the Beirut Osama remembers, but he and his friends and family take solace in the things that have always sustained them: gossip, laughter, and, above all, stories. Osama’s grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching stories–of his arrival in Lebanon, an orphan of the Turkish wars, and of how he earned the name al-Kharrat, the fibster–are interwoven with classic tales of the Middle East, stunningly reimagined. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the ancient, fabled Fatima; and Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders. Here, too, are contemporary Lebanese whose stories tell a larger, heartbreaking tale of seemingly endless war–and of survival.” (Publisher’s Summary)
This two-day fete features music, storytellers, food, art, crafts, and writers. I am completely bummed that I will be in Minneapolis for the weekend.
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5:00 PM – Sean Beaudoin: Fade to Blue
Secret Garden Bookshop
Launch party! Food! Booze! Prizes! Booze!!!
“Eighteen-year-old Goth Sophie Blue, sensing that something is awry in her small town, begins to piece together the connections between her missing father, a scientific researcher at a local laboratory, and her high school’s football star, Kenny.” (Publisher Summary)
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