If you have some free time this weekend (and if you don’t, you might want to make some), check out the Urban Craft Uprising both Saturday and Sunday at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall.

Doors open at 11 am, both Saturday and Sunday. If you’re one of the first 100 people in the door, there’s a swag bag in your future.

Doors close at 5 pm both days, giving you 12 whole hours of holiday shopping. For a list of vendors, see their website.

Urban Craft Uprising
Saturday and Sunday, December 1st and 2nd
11am – 5 pm
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall

As much as I’d love to be one of those annoying people who finishes their Christmas shopping before Labor Day, it will never happen. I’m forever buying gifts at the last minute, usually on the way back to whatever family function I’m attending (all of which require me to drive a decent distance, thus affording me the opportunity to shop).

This year I have an additional challenge. I’m on a pretty strict budget (stricter than usual as I have a rather important event to pay for in, oh… 21 days – eek!)

I’m looking for the best reasonable local gift ideas that my family will actually like. I’m not talking about the Space Needle magnets or the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack. I want gifts that they’ll use and enjoy.

I’ve listed a few ideas after the jump, but I’m counting on you, dear readers. Help me fill my holiday gift bags and still have the money to pay for my wedding.
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photo by wesa turtle [flickr] via our group pool [#]

• the last time falafel was part of a pickup line, things didn’t turn out so well for a certain conservative talk show host. Maybe this one will have better results? [seattle.lj]
• Will the CHS tourney rise again? and who or what could hope to defeat the squirrels anyway? [capitolhillseattle]
• Once again, reports of the waterfront streetcar’s demise are slightly exaggerated. [seatrans]
• yikes! Vancouver 2010 mascot is packing heat. Calm down, it’s just the biathalon. [crosscut]
• Nicole Brodeur (voted best columnist of 2007 by Seattle magazine!) pays a visit to a homeless encampment along with a Parks Department security detail. Hilarity ensues as she discovers that some people choose to be homeless and decides that tax money shouldn’t go to “cleaning up after them”. [times]

• Just in time for the holiday season, the Grand Illusion brings you Bob Clarke’s 1974 film Black Christmas–one of the first slasher films and definitely one of the best, eschewing gore for the sake of actual plot. Friday and Saturday only.
• Also at the Grand Illusion: a tribute to the late, great Kate with a pair of Katherine Hepburn films, Adam’s Rib and Summertime.
• I will never, never, never understand the appeal of The Big Lebowski but if you’re one of the many admirers of this film…well, I probably don’t have to tell you that it’s this weekend’s midnight movie at the Egyptian. Lebowski fans are rather passionate about their love, indeed.
• Two of the most brilliant German-produced films of all time, M and The Blue Angel are playing Friday night at SIFF.
• SIFF offers a double feature Saturday: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and l’Age d’Or with Un Chien Andalou.

As 2007 winds down, thoughts turn to making lists [fimoculous] to summarize events and consumption from the preceding months into ranked order. I’ve been holding off on trying to pick my favorite shows, mostly in anticipation of the 1st of December at Neumo’s. The lineup alone should win some sort of odd couple trio prize. At the top you’ll find the Thermals, who have yet to disappoint. Their loud, lo-fi, prophetic political pop punk sounds even better live, in the midst of a teeming pit of sweaty dancers. In supporting roles, there’s Arthur & Yu, the perfect for a fall picnic, sparkly folk-leaning indie that launched a Sub Pop spin-off label, and the tropical-infused party rock of Coconut Coolouts. See, something for everyone! or everything for someone?

Just in time to get you in the mood for their show, the Thermals had a little fun with a green screen and made a cute new video for “Return to the Fold”:

(the thermals, arthur & yu, coconut coolouts; 1 december 2007; $12, 8pm [neumos])

I remember when I first guessed the truth about Santa Claus, and how devastating that was. Being a kid in Seattle today is probably even worse, since Mayor Greg Nickels has started Operation Save Santa, a campaign to tell kids about global warming–the message of which appears to be pretty much, “Hey kids! If we don’t stop global warming, Santa will be homeless!” Which, in my mind at least, conjures up images of a dirty Santa in his suit, huddled over a trash can fire somewhere in upper Alaska-ish. Maybe with a bindle, and only 7 tiny reindeer, picking his teeth with one tiny leg bone.

The mayor sent out an open letter to Santa, concerned about the melting polar ice caps, and at a conference for new mayors this week said, “We know reindeer can fly, but we are not sure they can tread water [Bloomberg]”. And then he pointed out how good Seattle is doing with following the Kyoto protocol stuff, which is great and all, but seriously? Santa? I guess that part of the Operation was to hand out energy-efficient lightbulbs before the Westlake tree lighting ceremony, and to ask Santa to put Seattle on his “nice” list for being so good, but I’m still pretty sure that homeless Santa and drowning reindeer crosses some sort of line.

The Washington Policy Center responded a couple of days ago with a letter suggesting that if Santa does have to move, he could move to the South Pole, where ice is increasing. Maybe he could bring along all those drowning polar bears, too.

As of a half hour ago, there were still some tickets to the art show portion of the thing that’s happening tonight at the Belmont. The rooftop performance part, by Implied Violence, however had sold out at least an hour before I showed up at La Creperie Voila for a scrambled egg, spinach, and Emmental breakfast. Even if you manage to miss getting a ticket, those first few bites of crispy crepe on a cold morning will make the trip worthwhile.

update: comments suggest that tickets are gone. I guess you’ll need to resort to showing up looking cute and sad in hopes that someone has a spare. (ed: this is my strategy for getting to the rooftop)

I finally tried this whole ordering groceries online bit. [#] Incredibly lazy or just really tapped into convenience?–I haven’t decided. Here’s my take on it:

• I hadn’t really found a real big reason to use either Safeway.com‘s service or Amazon Fresh (except after the first delivery, Safeway.com charges you $9.95 and Amazon Fresh is free as long as you spend more than $25 or $50). I wrote a list of approximately 25 items, then went through and selected all items on both sites to see which was cheaper. Amazon Fresh come out approximately $4 cheaper, however, I was unfamiliar with most of the brands I was ordering, which bugged me (a bit silly, I know). So, I went with Safeway.com
• I know you’ve all gone to the grocery store with the intention of spending $50 and you end up spending $100. I feel like I do this every time. So, it was incredibly nice to monitor the amount of money I was spending on items in my “cart,” and ultimately decide to put stuff back I didn’t really need such as banana chocolate fudge dreamy pudding.
• Searching each category by price makes it real quick to find the milk, bread, etc. that is on sale. You can also search with the Club Card savings items listed at the top. It was quick and easy to be a savvy shopper.
• When the grocery delivery guy arrives, he actually wheels all the groceries into your house and puts them in your kitchen! No carrying bags from your car in multiple trips! I found this to be above and beyond customer service. It also made me feel like I’d gone from lazy to incredibly lazy.
• You don’t need to tip the driver. I asked. Unfortunately, it’s against company policy and they can lose their jobs for accepting tips. But, you’re allowed to give them a “good review” on the Web site. Good to know.
• I was bothered that I wasn’t able to pick out my own produce–the biggest green pepper, the firmest tomatoes (I hate soft tomatoes), one ripe and maybe one not so ripe avocado to save for later. You get what they pick out.
• They substitute things for you, even though I clicked “NO substitutions” when finalizing my order. I don’t know why they substituted, but I got Jenny-O turkey bacon instead of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon. Call me nutso, but this is probably the one thing I didn’t want substituted. The two brands are a huge difference and the Jenny-O turkey bacon is quite awful, in my opinion.
• If they don’t have something, you don’t get it. And you’re not able to make a smart replacement decision. (Such as I ordered precut broccoli in a bag, which they were out of. But they just didn’t give me broccoli heads instead, which is what I would have done if I were at the grocery store.)
• For some odd reason, they bagged everything in separate bags–one bag for the ground turkey, one bag for the onions, one bag for the coffee creamer, one bag for the shredded cheese. After unpacking my groceries, I had effectively doubled by collection of plastic bags, which is obviously not great for the environment.

In conclusion, it was nice and not nice to order my groceries online–definitely not worth ever paying a delivery charge, in my opinion. Perhaps I’ll continue to do it if I can cheat the system a figure out a way to get free delivery each time. Hmmm…

photo by shawn mcclung [flickr] who spotted the bald man watching captiol hill from 25 fet up a phone pole; shared via our group pool [#]

• A guy from Snohomish went on YouTube to sing a song to the Republicans. [postman]
• er, “haven of hip”? [times]
• I don’t know what this post is about, but goddamn if there isn’t a picture of an iguana on a pile of beans. [seattleblog]
• There’s a free U.S.E. show next week. Why aren’t you more excited? [tig]
• possibly the best Dan Savage post of the year. It’s about Project Runway. [slog]
• holy shit. Pete quit the Croc. [lineout]

Somebody apparently tried to rob the bank at University and 45th. “Chrisroxx” of Seattle’s Livejournal community is on the case.

My favorite quote so far, from the comments:

update: a customer changing out money was the one tackled by cops mistaking him for one of the robbers, in the confusion the ave kids grabbed his bag of cash and ran.