There were two more fires in Greenwood early this morning, making a total of five unsolved arsons in the area over the past few months.

The PhinneyWood bloggers were on the scene of the first fire when the fire crew got a call about the second, three blocks away. The CPA office was burned, as was Rosewood Guitar Shop.

It’s been a blessing that so far no one’s been hurt, just property (which is more than bad enough already), but these fires are scary, threatening and harmful. The P-I’s Seattle 911 blog reports that the NW Insurance Council and Arson Alarm Foundation are offering a $10,000 reward for information to help solve the October 23rd arson that caused $2 million in damage to the Green Bean Coffee House, Szechuan Bistro, C.C. Teriyaki and Pho Tic Tac restaurants. If it takes money for you to do the right thing, so be it, but if you have any information that could help investigators catch this jerkface, please call the Arson Hotline at 800-55-ARSON. If you’re worried about your own safety, you can stay anonymous.

Election Night counting showed that Seattle mayoral candidate Mike McGinn led his opponent, Joe Mallahan, by a mere 910 votes. For reference’s sake, the student body of Chief Sealth High School outnumbers the votes that separated the two.

Today with more ballots counted the separation has only gotten smaller; the Seattle P-I and other media outlets are now reporting that McGinn leads Mallahan by 462 votes. If a dozen of them stayed home, you could fit this number of people into Jillian’s on Eastlake or the Jefferson Community Center.

Next count update comes tomorrow afternoon. Go ahead and kick your shoes off, Greg Nickels, it’s going to be a while til you find out who replaces you.

Photographer Michael Lavine’s got a new book called Grunge, featuring an essay by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and a whole bunch of excellent photographs of the Seattle music scene from the 80s and 90s, many of which are fresh even to those of us who were around at the time and all of which are stunning documentation of a significant art and cultural movement that continues to reverberate even today.

Lavine will be signing copies of his book on Friday, November 13, down at Olympia’s Orca Books (509 East 4th Ave), and also on Saturday, November 14 at Easy Street in West Seattle (4559 California Ave SW).

Additionally, the book is being celebrated at book release party Friday, November 13 at Neumo’s with musical accompaniment by Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, a band featuring members of Tad and Unnatural Helpers and the legendary Mudhoney. Doors are at 8pm; tickets are a mere $12 in advance and since this show’s likely to be full early, you’re definitely going to want to get them in advance.

Unless, of course, you’re the lucky winner of the pair of tickets Seattle Metblogs has to give away. If you and a guest would like to attend this show–and, believe me, you want to–send us an e-mail with your name and contact info at seattle.metblogs@gmail.com no later than Wednesday, November 11 at noon. Sorry minors, you must be 21 or older to attend this show.

You can check out images from the book on Lavine’s website. After you’re done looking at the Grunge images, I highly recommend checking out his “Real People” portfolio.

The last time I went to a silent movie with an organ, I was extremely impressed. We were in the middle of somewhere in Los Angeles and my boyfriend and I might’ve been the youngest people in the theater – by 30 years. The three mini movies were hysterical not because they were old, but because they were actually funny. And the organ played back-up to a great time, hysterical movies complete with sing-a-longs and, best of all, $1 popcorn.

That all said, I was just as excited to go to Silent Movie Mondays. This Mighty Wurlitzer Organ induced movie experience isn’t new to Seattle, but it was to me. After 3 years of living here, I finally had a chance to enjoy my first film at The Paramount. I’ve seen plenty of shows there, but it just seemed different to actually sit back for 2 hours and watch a movie while Jim Riggs, the organ player, jammed away with such caress and ease.

After stalling the movie thanks to latecomers (this would never happen at 45th Guild) we finally were graced with our feature film – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Apparently this was a very important movie for its time because it was the first flick was able to film in the ocean. You can tell the movie took advantage of this brand new technology because there were maybe a few too many scenes that lasted a wee bit too long and all there was to show for it were some little fishies, lots of coral and a big shark.

The movie was entertaining in the way that you see old photos of yourself with a bad trendy hairdo. It wasn’t a quality movie, but one to laugh out for it’s ridiculous characters and bad acting. And sure, the organ maestro played perfectly with each scene and we all had a few chuckles. But I also found myself nodding off every now and then because I just couldn’t stay interested to the actual movie.

Maybe I’m no movie buff, or maybe I just rather see laugh out loud silent movie comedies, but 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea just wasn’t for me. If I were a critic I’d give it a solid C. But thanks to some free popcorn my boyfriend scored, the beautiful ambience that is The Paramount and the very talented organ man, I’d give the Silent Movie Monday experience a whole hearty A.

Silent Movie Mondays is happening throughout the month of November. To get tickets, click on this link.

The Eastside Corridor is the only way to go north and south on a freeway in the Puget Sound that isn’t I-5. It covers Snohomish, King, and Pierce Counties, encompassing parts of I-405 SR 167 and SR 512.

The Washington State DOT has been looking at ways to deal with increases in population and employment along the Eastside corridor, increases that would obviously add more traffic to the roads. The new Eastside Corridor vision includes new highway lanes, improved interchanges, express toll lanes, expanded transit service and vanpool programs.

One of the options they’re focusing on right now are the express toll lanes, a two-lane system built alongside existing no toll, all purpose lanes of I-405, connecting with the high occupancy lanes of SR 167. This would create “an expressway within a highway” from Puyallup all the way up to Lynnwood. You can read about on their Tolling Survey page which includes maps, photos and all kinds of useful information, as well as the DOT’s rationale for proposing this particular plan.

They are seeking more input from the public–you know, the people who actually pay for and use these roads–and to that end they are holding two open houses to discuss the tolling study. The first open house is tonight, November 3, from 4:00 to 7:00 at Kent Meridian High School’s cafeteria (10020 SE 256th St, Kent). A second open house takes place Thursday, November 5 in Kirkland at the Kirkland City Hall Peter Kirk Room (123 – 5th Ave, Kirkland).

Sin Fang Bous, photo by Sindri Mar

Sindri Mar Sigfussion is the founding member of Icelandic pop-folk group Seabear. Feeling a desire to diversify his musical output a bit, he shortened his name to Sin Fang Bous and released an album of experimental pop that draws from a broad range of influences that’s earned a number of critical raves. He’s playing tonight at the Showbox along with fellow Icelanders Mum, touring to support their own well-regarded album. Show time is 8:00 pm.

For a preview of tonight’s show, click here

You’ve noticed by now that this H1N1 virus is a big deal since it gets covered so often in the news you’d think it was Paris Hilton’s new purse dog or something.

H1N1, or the “Swine Flu”, as some people call it, is getting so much attention for a number of reasons and they’re not all about inciting unnecessary panic. One of them is this: when the regular seasonal flu causes fatalities, it’s mostly among the very old, the very young and the already very ill, people who automatically carry a higher rate of mortality. Of course these people are also at elevated risk from H1N1, too, (although it may be worth noting that people 65 and older have the least risk of dying from H1N1) but H1N1 seems to have a thing for young people. The CDC has concluded that at the present H1N1 has caused a greater disease burden in people younger than 25. This is pretty unusual.

There’s really no reason yet to panic over H1N1; while it really sucks to get it, the majority of people will suffer for a while and then get better. Mind you, it’s always better to avoid getting it in the first place. The best way to do that is to follow all the usual illness prevention tips: wash your hands frequently with soap and water and if you don’t have soap and water available, use an alcohol-based hand rub. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. This is really hard to do, but totally worth it as keeping your hands away from your face makes a huge difference in cutting down on the spread of germs. Don’t treat them like pariahs, for goodness sake, but try to avoid being too close to people who are already sick. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash, not your pocket, when you’re done. If you don’t have a tissue on hand when you cough or sneeze, cough or sneeze into your elbow or sleeve unless you can somehow manage to get right to a sink immediately afterwards without touching anything.

A vaccine exists for H1N1. In King County, over 400 health care providers have requested the vaccine, almost all of whom got a supply in before October 30. Another 67, 000 doses are on their way, expected to be here by November 6. The county will distribute these vaccines to health care providers and also to pharmacies for the sake of people who don’t have a medical home or who have a provider who isn’t signed up for the H1N1 vaccine.

A vaccine also exists for the regular old-fashioned seasonal flu, too, which is no less of a potential killer (although, again, most people who get it will only be miserable for a while and then get better. It’s still not worth taking a chance on.) so be sure to talk to your health care provider about that. A bunch of local businesses also offer seasonal flu shots–signs are up at Bartell’s and other drug stores and pharmacies–as well.

For more information on either H1N1 or the seasonal flu, you can visit the Seattle and King County Public Health webpage or call the King County Flu Hotline at 877-903-KING (5464) Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.

Four friends head to the beach to party and have a good time in director Ryan Gielen’s feature directorial debut, The Graduates and from the start of their journey it seems like that’s just what they’re going to do. Ben, Andy, Nickie and Mattie make their way to Ocean City, Maryland for Senior Week in this smart, funny coming-of-age comedy that took the Best Comedy prize at this year’s STIFF festival.

Bolstered by an excellent indie rock soundtrack, The Graduates flavors its humor with a welcome dose of thoughtfulness, well written and acted by a cast who give depth to the sort of roles that are all too often reduced to one dimensional stereotypes.

The Graduates makes its post-festival debut in Seattle on Monday night at Central Cinema. A film maker discussion panel follows the Monday screening; the movie continues through November 5.

Image from Prince Achmed

The popular Silent Movie Monday series returns to the Paramount Theater for three Mondays in November, starting November 2 with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, released in 1916 and directed by Stuart Paton.

Like the other two films in the series, (German director Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 release, The Adventures of Prince Achmed on November 9, and classic American sci-fi adventure The Lost World, directed by Harry O’Hoyt and released in 1925, screening November 13), 20,000 Leagues is a marvel of its time, a science fiction film created long before even the most primitive of digital F/X were anywhere near development. These filmmakers used cardboard cut outs, clay, cedars and anything they could get their hands on to create their fantastic landscapes, creatures and other imaginative details. To the modern eye much of this looks a bit primitive but all these years later, they’re still entertaining and impressive for the creativity their creators imbued into them.

Based on the classic Jules Verne novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is notable for its groundbreaking underwater photography; since there weren’t underwater cameras available at the time, camera operators George M. Williamson and J. Ernest Williamson created a system of watertight tubes and mirrors rigged to allow the camera to shoot the reflections of scenes set underwater. (November 2)

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated feature film. The film features a silhouette animation technique invented by director Lotte Reiniger using cardboard cutouts and thin sheets of lead. (November 9)

Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 novel The Lost World was adapted into a film in 1925. Willis O’Brien created pioneering stop motion effects to tell the story of a group of adventurers head to Venezuela where they encounter a group of prehistoric beasts surviving into the modern world.

Jim Riggs will be playing the Wurlitzer Organ to accompany all three films. Doors open on all three nights at 6pm; films start at 7 promptly.