OH, Archie! by Seattle Daily Photo [flickr] via our group pool [#]

As reported by FremontUniverse this afternoon (#), Archie McPhee is moving to the no-man’s land between Wallingford and Fremont, right into the spot currently occupied by the state-controlled liquor store.

Since I walk past that store almost daily, I’m pretty excited that I’ll have something other than Not A Number to amuse me on my way home. However, I am minorly concerned about where I’m going to buy my liquor on the way home if Archie’s takes over that space.

On the other hand, the combination of liquor and Archie McPhee seems like a really excellent business plan.

So… if McPhee’s moves into the liquor store, do they just get to keep the liquor license?? They already have the cocktail supplies, so perhaps they could supply the cocktails as well? My walk home is looking better and better every day!

Not only do love watching movies here in the Northwest, we love making them, too. Local Sightings is an entire festival of Northwest films, brought to you by Northwest Film Forum.

The festival kicks off this Friday night, October 3, with a package of short films at 7pm, followed by an opening night party at 9. As is appropriate for an opening night, Friday’s package is entitled “Stories of Reach”. In Seattle director Curtis Taylor’s Bachianas No. 5, three women dream about love in a Tacoma Strip Bar. A.J. Eaton from Boise bring The Mix-Up, about a retired construction expert whose TV Mr. Fix-it job turns out to be a little different than he expected. Vancouver, BC’s Jennifer Halley asks “What do you do when the little voice in your head is not so little?” with her film Sarah in the Dark. Four other films–Skies Falling, Orbita del Verano, 30-Love, and Stumble and Fall complete the set.

You can win a pair of tickets to Opening Night at Local Sightings. Just send an e-mail indicating your interest to seattle.metblogs@gmail.com no later than Thursday, October 2, at 5pm, with your full name. Winner will be notified that night.

There’s still plenty more to come after opening night. Saturday includes another shorts package – “The Rose City Revue” – a series of new works by filmmakers from, you guessed it, Portland. Popular at this summer’s SIFF Festival, Good Food is a film about the comeback of family farms as part of a focus on sustainable food growing practices and it screens at 7pm Saturday, as does GPS, a thriller about a group of college friends on a GPS treasure hunt turned seriously creepy. Later that night are two more shorts programs: “Stories of Circumstance” and “Fast, Cheap & Out of Control”. The latter includes a film called Aerogeddon, a homemade retelling of the blockbuster film Armageddon, filmed in less than 30 days and for less than ‘$100.

Sunday features a panel discussion on works in progress, a presentation by Jim Ball about his Post Alley micro theater where he screened independent and experimental films back in the 1970s,
the documentary High and Outside, and shorts program “Movement in Place”.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday bring still more shorts, features, documentaries and discussions. Highlights for me include: Arid Lands on Monday, a documentary about the Columbia Valley, and Wednesday’s March Point, a film in which three teens from the Swinomish Tribe named Cody, Nick, and Travis, want to make a gangster movie but instead end up making a film about the impact of two oil refineries on their tribal community. Reluctant investigators who join the project initially because it sounds like more fun than drug court, the trio eventually come to understand a lot more about themselves, the environment, and the threats to their environment and their people from the refineries.

For full schedule, check out the website and don’t forget to enter to win tickets for Friday night.

H A P P Y  ~ D I W A L I photo via J I G I S H A on Flickr

The Seattle Asian Art Museum is celebrating Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, with a Diwali Ball next Saturday night. Festivities include live music, dance performances, and “bollygrooves” music by DJ Aanshul. Tickets are $50 a head, but that includes Indian tapas, wine, beer and “signature cocktails.”

This sounds like fun, but it got me wondering what other Diwali celebrations are going on in Seattle. Perhaps something a little more low key.  I searched around, but couldn’t find a thing. Anyone know of any?

If you’d like to go to the ball at SAAM, tickets are available here for $50 a person. Or $150 gets you a Rajah ticket which includes an invitation to the VIP opening of Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodphur. All proceeds from the ball go to support the exhibit.

almost as scary as a pack of pub-crawling zombies and a whole lot prettier. photo by Danny Ngan [flickr] via our group pool [#]

• The perfect accessory for any home: a PDL Portable Confession Booth. Now for sale on eBay. [slog]
• No matter what boundaries GeekySwedes use, Archie McPhee is still moving to Wallingford. [fremontuniverse]
• The clearest explanation of the bailout rescue plan you’ll read all day. [fnarf]
• the Washington Center for the Book announced its awards for this year. Party in the Library! [threadcount]
• Huskies, we have a new Alma Mater. Or do you keep alma mater that was current at the time your degree was awarded? [times]
• Be forewarned, Zombie season is once again upon us. [seattle.lj]

Monroe, WA: A man robbed an armored car this morning, then escaped by jumping onto an inner tube and floating down the Skykomish River. Police suspect that the robber had a friend waiting downriver. I tend to agree with this assessment. The Skykomish River, at current levels, is not very fast. Regardless, police have yet to locate the suspect.

On October 4th, visit U-Village to participate in FidoFEST. Schedule of Events: Humane Society’s “Walk for the Animals” is an easy way to raise money for those animals less fortunate than the ones we have at home. Click here to register or to find out more. So far, over 330 people have signed up with $33,300 pledged.

After the walk, there are many booths to check out, the chance to adopt a new dog, and a contest that you can enter to win a magazine cover photo-op for your dog.

There will be a stage set up for: Seattle Police Canine Unit demonstration, dog contests judged by local personalities, dog agility demonstration, and doga (dog yoga).

One of the *highlights* of this event will be the Chapel of Love for dogs. No joking. You can have two dogs marry for the low-low price of $10 per dog, til death do them part. “Your dogs will have a complete wedding ceremony, complete with a veil and bow tie, vows, exchange of biscuits and an official Certificate of Muttrimony.” Ye gods.

Visit the U-Village’s official website for more information.

~The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas

* Robert Kull (not Krull, as I wrote yesterday. Bad blogger, no cookie!) is back to talk about Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes, this time at Elliott Bay Books, 6:00 PM tonight. LINK

* University Bookstore and University Temple United Methodist Church present poet and author Kathleen Norris tonight at 7:00 PM. Norris will be talking about apathy, depression, and sloth, i.e. her book Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks and a Writer’s Life. A lively time will be had by all, I’m sure. LINK

* At 7:30 PM, Seattle Science Lectures, University Bookstore, and Town Hall Seattle host professional tree-climber Nalini Nadkarni. Nadkarni will be promoting and signing her book Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees, and discussing, what else? our intimate connections to trees. $5, Downstaris, Town Hall. LINK

* Finally, at 8:00 PM, business writer Stephen Baker will be at Elliott Bay Books to talk about The Numerati. Interesting, but disturbing, The Numerati is non-fiction cyberpunk: Baker predicts a near-future in which computers track our habits, opinions, and preferences to tailor advertising, product development, politics, et cetera, to individual consumers. It’s like looking down the barrel of a glittery, pink, Hello Kitty! gun. LINK

We can’t believe it either, but apparently one of the fall drinks Starbucks is launching is Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. This is a custom variant of its new Signature Hot Chocolate — kind of like a suggested customization of the drink. “Sprinkled atop the whipped cream is French sea salt, blended with Hawaiian Turbinado sugar. The salt is smoked over burning chardonnay barrels in Woodinville” notes the P-I, while StarbucksGossip tracks the reaction from customers.

A recent Dino Rossi ad states that the Christine Gregoire is ignoring a $3.2 billion budget shortfall. This is technically untrue because: “The state is facing a projected $3.2 billion budget hole next year, but it does not have a deficit today. The current budget, which runs to June 30, 2009, is balanced and the state has several hundred million dollars still in reserve [Times].” Which feels like splitting hairs, but I suppose that that’s sort of what political ads are all about. I never see the ads, and I’m not sure how much they actually influence voters, but I suppose that in a election as close as this one every little fib counts. Do you feel swayed watching this kid of thing, Metblog readers?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhhiTT478Zo[/youtube]

photo by photocoyote [flickr] via our group pool [#].

• Have a spare half-million dollars stashed under your mattress? Buy a condttage. They’re green! And on sale. [myballard]
• Press releases from Inslee [dw] and Riechert [dw] voted against the bailout. The latter voted a lot like the tiny fraction of Congress in competitive districts. [536]
• Stylish people at fashion shows in Seattle? Shocking. [subterfuge]
• No, Virginia, WaMu isn’t going condo. [flickr/bigblog]
• A whole bunch of heartening new details on what Linda Derschang and Ericka Burke are planning for Oddfellows. Even though there won’t be any taxidermy (shocking!), it still sounds like it will have the magic touch we’ve come to know and love: morning cafe, takeaway food and wine all day, vintage mercantile styled neighborhood hangout lounge. And it should be ready by December. [voracioius]