BOOKS: Novelist Richard Powers reads tonight at Benaroya Hall for Seattle Arts and Lectures. The former computer programmer's latest book, The Echo Maker, is "a haunting novel about memory, identity, and the boundaries of neuroscience," (Booklist), and won the National Book Award and all sorts of "Best Book of the Year" awards in 2006. He's a novelist of "ideas"; David Foster Wallace is a big fan. Here's an interview in the P-I. 7:30pm //......

Time magazine claims, "You can't swing a dead cat this time of year without hitting a Top 10 List." Never one to waste a perfectly good dead cat, we decided to take a swing and create a Top Random-Number Shows Seattlest Saw This Year. And now, without any further ado, here's how your favorite bloggers broke down the year: According to Dante, everything else pared in comparison to Daft Punk at WaMu Theater 7/29/07. OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Man, it's the Beastie Boys thing all over again. We just got the email from Town Hall that Al Gore's appearance at Town Hall this Monday, June 4, is sold out already. Tickets were only $5, but still! Listen to what some lucky (and thrifty) listeners will get to hear about: Al Gore’s fiercely-argued new book, The Assault on Reason, is an indictment of current policy making -- especially the President’s use of power and......

When Seattlest received that fateful email from a friend, our immediate reaction was a roll of the eyes and an audible, drawn out, "Bull shit." No way would the one and only Beastie Boys play the legendary but very wee Crocodile Cafe. No way. Then came the Ticketmaster link all but confirming it. The Croc's website kept mum, not listing the show at all. Supposedly The End had been talking it up, but we......

-- You want warm weather in this town, you're gonna have to follow the rules. -- Someone who managed to score a ticket to the Beastie Boys show recaps the concert. -- The eyes of the basketball world are focused on the Northwest. -- How a menu item is bjorn. Er, born. -- Colbert was right: America's #1 threat touches down on I-90 in North Bend. -- Do you think kink? Probably. Northwest Folklife......

As has already been mentioned everywhere else, the wind nearly destroyed Sasquatch on Sunday, taking out the Polyphonic Spree (all 90 of them) on the mainstage, delaying their show till after the Beastie Boys later that night, and delaying other acts who then had to reschedule for other stages. Right before the Polyphonic group had to reschedule (yet another rendition of that one song that enjoyed way too much rotation on KEXP back in......

Ah, the festival. The half-pound Gorge Burger, the ten-dollar beer, the fragrant smell of weed and clove cigarettes carried along by an occasional, much appreciated breeze. And of course, all that music. By the time our feet hit festival ground, Viva Voce were setting up at the Yeti Stage. We got our burger and a beer and settled in for a bit of Seattlest's favorite married rock couple. We hadn't seen Viva Voce live......

For once, it was actually nice weather at the Gorge for Sasquatch. Last year was all sturm und drang and the year previous was approximately the temperature of the sun, but the gods smiled down on all gathered in George, Washington yesterday afternoon, as it was a pleasant 80 degrees under partly cloudy skies. Our day started off at the Yeti Stage (where the Wookie stage used to be - when did that happen?)......

Is it just Seattlest or is this the Fridayest Thursday in a long time? We'd like to comment on how the first of the ELF guys has been sentenced down in Oregon and how he's going to do 13 years for his acts of terrorism despite turning in other members of The Family, but the only thought that will stick right now is how we're going to get the hell out of here tomorrow. I'm......

Interpol and the Beastie Boys both have new, highly-anticipated releases available soon--Interpol's Our Love to Admire is out July 10th and the Beastie Boys' The Mix Up will "drop" June 26th--and whaddya know? They're both playing at Sasquatch this weekend. To celebrate this monumental coincidence, Seattlest has one pair of two-day festival passes to give away. Fill out the entry form below for your chance to win. Hurry up already! We're selecting the winner......

When our friend told us the Beastie Boys were playing a warm-up show at the Crocodile this Friday, we called him a liar and a sonofabitch. Then he sent us the Ticketmaster link. No fucking way, we thought. Tickets went on sale online today at 4pm. We (and our friends, elsewhere in the city) had our fingers on the trigger. Clock hit 3:59 and we started refreshing the Ticketmaster page. Clock hit 4:00 and bam!......

Wanna go to Sasquatch this weekend without paying $140 plus the requisite Ticketmaster pound-me-in-the-ass fees? Of course you do! Seattlest has a pair of two-day passes, care of our good friends Interpol and the Beastie Boys, so you and your lucky BFF can hit the fest for free. Check out the revised Saturday and Sunday schedules here, and if you win, be sure to stop by and see Interpol (Sunday - mainstage - 8:45pm)......

Last year's Sasquatch line up was good, but not good enough to get us to spend three days at the Gorge. We still prefer the festival in its one-day, all-in-one-fell-swoop form, but with the lineup that's been announced for this year's two-day fest, we may just have to make the trip. Out of the two days, it was Saturday that really made us coo. Bjork *and* Arcade Fire? Consider us sold. There are still......

Our first film-going experience at Sundance got off to an inauspicious start. There we were, fresh off our flight, catching a film in Salt Lake before heading to the festival proper in Park City. We stood around in the wait list line for the requisite two-plus hours to guarantee we got a seat (once the actual ticket holders got theirs, of course). At long last, we entered the theater and took our seats. The lights......

Earlier this week, Seattlest found ourselves taking part in an activity we hadn't done in a while: sorting through the wares of thrift stores on The Ave. Lately, we've been kinda feening for some end-of-summer sunglasses and shoes (always shoes), so we focused our efforts in those areas. Here's a quick review of our experiences at two local thrift faves--- Red Light 4560 University Way NE 206-545-4044 Sunglasses: We try on a bunch of......