The show will be open to the public, but it’s advised that those attending get there early to ensure admission.

The Summer Krush concert series began July 31 with a performance by Mariah Carey in Los Angeles, and will conclude Sept. 16 with a performance by Good Charlotte in San Francisco. All shows are free, and are also being used as a promotion tool for the new Samsung BlackJack II, a “music-centric” mobile phone.

For more information, visit www.samsungsummerkrush.com.

(Excuse the crappy cellphone camera pic.)

Simply put, Trent Reznor and his band – now nearing 20 years of existence together – have outdone themselves with the visuals and imagery that accompanies the already-stellar music on this tour. From the opening track selection of “1,000,000,” a giant wall of lights was on cue with every note the band played. It seemed like old hat at first, what with seemingly every huge rock act nowadays dazzling the crowd with as many visual wows as audio ones. But after a few songs, I realized something extremely insane was about to happen.

After three or four more songs – of which “Closer” and “March of the Pigs” were included curiously early on – a giant backdrop came down behind the band, which was to be the setting for all kinds of insanity for the rest of the night. The backdrop was some kind of screen that generated the most outrageously creative effects at a show that I’ve ever seen.

At one point during “The Greater Good,” a particularly creepy and unsettling track from last year’s “Year Zero,” the backdrop displayed a close-up of a face with dark, leering eyes staring into the crowd. It soon became eerily obvious that this face was indeed the face of none other than Trent Reznor, slowly whispering lyrics that were enough to make my flesh crawl. The scene looked like the perfect environment for some kind of terrifying snuff film or low-grade horror flick, but Reznor’s freakish expression more than compensated for any lack of carnage or nudity.

But, I thought to myself, this was Nine Inch Nails. This is what they do. Their music inspires. It gets to you. It leaves an undeniable imprint on the listener’s psyche, and with enough repetition, the music can often become almost like a drug. (Ironically enough, “The Perfect Drug” wasn’t in the set list for the night.)

The rest of the list, however, left no room for disappointment. “Wish,” “Only,” “The Hand that Feeds,” “The Good Soldier,” “Terrible Lie” and “Head Like a Hole” were all definite highlights, with various set changes and equipment switching going on the entire time. Interestingly enough, there was a 10-minute instrumental interlude about halfway through that included a cellist, a xylophone and lots of bizarre programming jamming together. The result was subtle, artistic and perhaps a little too long, but launching back into the furious “Wish” directly after the tranquility was the perfect way to grab the audience’s attention again.

All in all, Reznor’s work is undeniably brilliant, both on stage and in the studio. He’s a rare man who has the brain of a musical genius and backs it all up with an absolute knockout punch of a live performance. Let’s hope they make another run through town, and soon.

The Seattle Seahawks will be playing their annual scrimmage 11 a.m. on Aug. 2 at Qwest Field. Tickets go on sale today and are available here. The cost is $12 for adults and $5 for youth (ages 6 to 17.)

All proceeds for the event will benefit the King County “Play it Smart” programs.

Go ‘Hawks.

I can understand drivers asking the guy to remove the cone, but what I find disgusting is the fact that somebody decided to actually get out of their car and knock the guy to the pavement.

NEWS FLASH:

It’s a freaking cone, people. Life goes on.

Sadly, some people are too insecure and caustically violent to realize such things. It’s depressing that things like this happen, honestly.

The Seattle International Beerfest took place this weekend at Seattle Center, and it proved to be an exercise in trying to remember everything you sampled.

The admission, reasonably priced at $20, scored beer junkies a 4-oz tasting glass, 10 beer tickets and a wristband that got the wearer free re-entry for the duration of the festival. The beer tickets were good for any beer offered, which ranged in “cost” from 1 to 6 tickets, depending on the rarity of the beverage.

My accomplice and I found ourselves perfectly content with most of the 1-ticket beers, since the vast majority of those were “oh, I can only find this at (fill in name here)” as opposed to “what the hell is this crap?” Oftentimes, I don’t have much interest in tasting a beer I can’t even begin to pronounce; let alone trying to remember what the hell it was after the fact.

A 4-oz glass might seem innocent enough, but try using it to drink beers that commonly contain percentages of 11.5 and above. I was initially skeptical about getting any kind of buzz whatsoever upon going inside, and figured this would be nothing more than just a fun tasting/sampling experience.

By the time I’d had my third 4-oz serving of Old Ruffian Barley Wine from the Great Divide Brewery out of Denver, CO., however, I was finding myself in a constant argument with the ground about whether or not I’d be standing upright. Looking around at some of my fellow festival-goers, I soon discovered I wasn’t the only one who was having this argument. Only it appeared they were losing. Badly.

The lines for Dogfish Head’s 120-minute IPA (21 percent alcohol content) and Shelton Broers’ Mikkeller Black (17.5 percent) were just as staggering as the potency of the beers themselves, so I sadly missed out on those. But, I have the good fortune of living across the street from Pike Street Beer & Wine on Capitol Hill, so the 120-minute IPA isn’t too hard for me to track down. The Mikkeller, however, remains a mystery to me, and I’ve developed a strong curiosity about this Danish delicacy. I’ve since put it on the list as another to eventually try before my liver tenders its resignation.

And speaking of livers, even though this year’s Seattle Beerfest didn’t do my internal organs any favors, what it did for my palette more than made up for it. And hey, it wasn’t even too rough on the pocketbook.

Police opened fire on the suspects after warning them at least 10 times that they’d shoot if they didn’t get out of their vehicle. One suspect was shot in the neck and taken to Harborview, while a construction worker sitting in a nearby van was injured by shattering glass from the gunfire.

Witnesses said it was “like something from Hollywood,” and one even said he thought the scene was a movie being filmed.

Insane….

…and then capped off by an epic sunset at Carkeek Park.

As if lying to the public for the past year about the interests of the Sonics’ future wasn’t enough, Bennett came back to the witness stand Tuesday and adamantly denied any accusations of secretly working to move the team to Oklahoma City.

I don’t know what reality Bennett is currently choosing to live in, but it’s not the same one the rest of the world is in. Just a few months ago, the PI and Times were riddled with front-page stories about how a series of incriminating emails were dug up; most of which detailed plans to take the basketball franchise out of Seattle. The entire report is pretty well-complied by ESPN.com here.

More fun and especially damning evidence can be found here in the Seattle Times from an article written in April.

Mr. Bennett, do you expect the public and everyone else with a memory that extends beyond the length of an average Alzheimer’s patient to honestly just forget about the smoking gun? Aubrey McLendon, co-owner of the team, celebrated the “good news” of the possible move to OKC by proudly titling an email with “The Oklahoma Sonic Boom (or SONIC BOOMERS!!!) baby!!!”

Right. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

NBA Commissioner David Stern needs to stop sitting on his hands and forgo his friendship with Bennett, who is nothing more than a lying criminal asshole and has no business owning a professional basketball team. I don’t understand why these emails haven’t been cited more often in these ensuing legal precedings, but then again, I’m not a lawyer.

I am, however, an observer. And what I see is very, very wrong.

My friend actually turned to me about five minutes into the movie and whispered, “OK, this is already better than the other one.” That’s how good it really was, and neither of us are even what I’d consider comic book junkies.

But.

There’s a reason I don’t typically see movies on opening weekend anymore, and especially not at night. Even more especially, I make it a point to steer clear of most PG-13 movies on said weekends.

Why, you ask?

It has nothing to do with the quality of the movie or my anticipation for it. Hell, I’ll probably end up seeing Dark Knight the second it comes out. The reason I avoid huge movies on opening weekends boils down to this:

I have to deal with the combined ignorance and stupidity of roughly 200 other human beings in an enclosed space for at least two consecutive hours.

And granted, I love Seattle and I think the people here are largely open-minded and good-natured. I lived in LA for six years, so when I moved up here, I found the overall mentality of most people in the Northwest to be far preferable to the rampant idiocy I had been used to before. That being said, people anywhere are prone to the same blindingly inconsiderate behavior patterns as they are anywhere else, at any given time.

But when you bring your screaming, babbling 2-year-old child into a crowded movie theater and expect he/she to remain quiet, you’re buying not only a completely useless ticket for a child who will probably get nothing out of watching the movie, but you’re also buying a ticket to being on 200 people’s collective shit lists.

In this case, the offending woman’s son began giving what sounded like a loud incoherent critique of the movie after about the first 10 minutes, which resulted in an understated reaction of “aaw, isn’t that cute” from most people. But after another two minutes of loud squawking and doing what small children do, it began to get one step below infuriating and I had a hell of a time focusing on what Edward Norton and Tim Roth were saying. All I could hear was “BAAADAAAGAA!!!!!” as if the great Cornholio had suddenly stepped into the theater and ate a box of Sour Patch Kids and three cans of Mountain Dew just to make the rest of us miserable.

After the squawking persisted for another minute or so – and gotten quite louder and more frequent, by the way – the woman at least had the common courtesy to grab her child and escort him the hell outside, where she hopefully spiked his bottle with a shot of whiskey. Whatever it was, the kid was quiet for the rest of movie. Who knows, they might not have come back. The film was intriguing enough to the point where any screaming children became a distant memory after another half-hour of viewing time. And I credit the writers, actors and filmmakers for that much.

So maybe common courtesy in a crowded movie theater isn’t dead after all. But, be that as it may, there’s one word parents should remember as being paramount to enjoying an outing at the movies – babysitter.

My guess is either they can’t afford their bill anymore, or some disgruntled laid-off employee decided to let ‘em have it.

And no, it wasn’t me. Quiet!