News of the Croc's closure sparked a lively conversation at Seattlest HQ yesterday. We suspect reactions at other blogs' virtual newsrooms were equally as visceral. The local blogosphere, if you will, seems to have turned temporarily into a Croco-sphere. Personally, we have found bittersweet solace in the words of Scripture: In 1966, I went down to Greenwich Village, New York City to a rock club called Electric Banana. Don't look for it; it's not there......

Magazine called Cooking Light, which runs "supper clubs" around the country in addition to printing a monthly collection of recipes, picks Seattle as the nation's number one city for healthy eating, just ahead of Portland. Strange, cuz their suppers are sponsored by Benefiber, Tums and Viva paper towels. Their most recent local event was held at that temple of elegance and haute cuisine, The Edgewater. Aw, c'mon, Seattlest! Don't be such a fucking cynic!......

From the PI this morning: "Three shot inside Capitol Hill club." Apparently, a fight broke out on Sugar's dance floor around 1:30am; three people were injured, and police aren't saying much more than that. Someone was firing a gun inside the club, so this isn't one of those ambiguous cases of violence within fifty feet of the club doors. The night's event was Sin Sunday, an 18/21+ weekly event featuring a DJ spinning hip-hop and......

It's cool that Drew Carey has been the face of the new Seattle MLS team, appearing at the G&D and showing up in the booth for Monday Night Football to talk about the team's plans in Seattle, but he's kind of a Cleveland guy. Couldn't we get a Seattle name that's about on par with Carey? Like....oh god there is no Seattle name on par with Drew Carey. Long live Seattle guy Drew Carey! And......

Seattlest feels dirty (not in a good way) after reading the Oxford American's article on indie rock and Seattle. Bill Wasik's piece about indie rock and the blogs and radio stations who love them revolves around Seattle and KEXP. He frames us as the first city of indie rock, which, first of all, doesn't seem right. We have a decent amount of indie-type bands and some clubs and Capitol Hill, but... do you think we're......

This afternoon at two o'clock the city council will vote on proposed new nightclub regulations, bitterly opposed by Seattle's entertainment industry. Yet even as the council prepares for the vote, controversy continues to swirl over SPD's nightclub sting op from Saturday, Sept. 8. This morning, The Seattle Times reported on inaccuracies in its article from a week age today on elements of the sting operation, including the disputed claim that a gun made it......

Seattle. Portland. Which one's better? You may say: "How can you choose? Each has their good points. It's like asking which religion is better." Guess what, asshole, that Negative Nellie attitude is the reason nobody ever asks for your fucking opinion. Jerk. To the debate! First up, it's a pro-Seattle opinion. Seattle is better than Portland, by Jeremy "The Seatown Samurai" Barker When I tell people that I think Portland's gone down the wrong road......

In Slate today, Taylor Clark declared our -Ist-less neighbor to the south "America's indie rock Mecca," then spent several paragraphs dropping names and figuring out why. His conclusion? It's easy to live here. In the words of a friend of mine who used to be the music editor at the local alt-weekly, Portland is like a resort community for indie rockers who spend half the year working themselves ragged on tour. You can venture into......

According to a report in this morning's Seattle Times, Mayor Nickels has decided to play hardball in his attempt to get all Stasi on Seattle's nightlife. In what appears to be a blatant attempt to politicize Seattle's police force, according to the Times, "Seventeen bouncers, bartenders and other nightclub employees were arrested Saturday night for allegedly violating state liquor laws." Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske and City Attorney Tom Carr used the sting to push for......

The number of rock clubs in Seattle isn't necessarily dwindling, but the number of rock club bookers is definitely trending down. First the staff at Neumos took over national booking at Chop Suey on the Hill, now the Fenix has gone away and their lease is being picked up by the Showbox. The new venue will be called the Showbox SoDo. The OG Showbox is changing it's name to "The Showbox at the Market." Little......

We're bringing it up because Seattle Times brought it up. Here's why we hate the idea of making clubs get licensed in order to be clubs: If we happen to have some huge influx of new citizens, you can bet the majority of them aren't coming here simply because they want to sit in a cubicle for nine hours and return home to their ever-tinier condo so they can watch TV. Where people work, they......

As we speak, the invasion of the obnoxious roaring planes has begun, so we'll just get the "not a fan of the Blue Angels" admission out of the way. Go ahead and slaughter us in the comments. Apparently we're the only one in the world who doesn't go all ga-ga over them. We have no soul, but that's fine. We'll accept that and move on. Speaking of moving on, we'll be moving on down......

Mariner big leaguers are feeling good with the team at 13 games over .500, but if they belonged to an M's farm team, they'd be expecting a pink slip. Future Mariners, you see, aren't supposed to try to win too much. So says Greg Hunter, the Mariners' director of minor-league and scouting operations:A good gauge is .500. You want your clubs to be somewhere around there, whether it's a few games above or below. You......

Yesterday Seattlest said the following: Sally Clark has pulled her nightlife plan citing the fact that everyone from the mayor to the other city council members to the lowliest 1st ave drunk hates it. Which is only vaguely true. Clark pulled the licensing portion of her nightlife plan that would require clubs to receive a license from the city which could then be revoked at the city's discretion. Kind of like a liquor license,......

The City Council finally got around to passing "adult cabaret" zoning laws that just might let Seattle develop a strip club scene worthy of a would-be world-class city. But there's a provision that kills one of our brilliant ideas: The new rules, which passed by a unanimous vote, require strip clubs to be at least 800 feet from elementary or secondary schools, child-care centers, community centers, public parks or open space where children tend to......

As April showers turn to May flowers Seattle sports fans continue to hope that this spring will bring better times for the local professional baseball team. But, the Mariners mediocre effort has driven Seattlest to the George and Dragon in Fremont more and more often to catch the latest European soccer action. Here's why. --The Champions League Semifinals this week pit Chelsea vs Liverpool and Manchester United vs AC Milan: The four best football clubs......

Hot issues don't really die, ever, they just retreat underground and cool for a while before popping up in new places. Increased regulation of strip clubs was put down by voters recently by a pretty strong majority, but according to this email we just received the City Council is reintroducing some of the restrictions of the placement of new clubs in the form of a zoning ordinance. Today at 5:30 at City Hall there's a......

"If I were still mayor, and I knew I was coming to an event like this," Charley Royer told us before last night's political fundraiser pub quiz, "I'd make sure there wasn't a question about Seattle that I didn't know the answer to." Nice in theory. Mayor Nickels' team won the night (we swear we didn't rig it!), but he was only able to get 6 out of 10 on our Seattle round. Can you......

Yet another postponement, and the new plan is to try to play a doubleheader on Monday, beginning at 10:05 am PST. The M's have a day game in Boston on Tuesday, so this would mean they'd play 3 games in about 28 hours. Not good. Even if they play both games on Monday, that leaves two games that will need to be played sometime during the season. The P-I's John Hickey has the scoop on......

Wednesday, February 21 >>> The Thermals at Chop Suey. The Thermals are back in town to rock out for the cause of saving all ages shows. With Helvetia, Speaker Speaker. * mp3: How We Know 8:00 pm doors // $10 adv. // All ages >>> The Budos Band at Neumo's. James Brown may be beating women in heaven, but on Earth we've still got the Budos Band, a ten-piece of twentysomethings who bring sweet......

--The P-I gazes into the crystal PDF and fortells the future of downtown's condo development. Words here. --Portland vandals don't like Starbucks. --Vancouver cops don't like WiFi. --A new Modest Mouse track has escaped into the wild. --A local blogger takes on Digg. We want nothing to do with this. In fact we never heard of Michael Hanscom. Wrong number! --Tomorrow morning is going to be the warmest Saturday morning you will ever experience......

"Streetcar gongs ceased their clamor; newsboys cast their unsold papers into the street; from the doors of mill and factory, store and workshop, streamed 65,000 workingmen. School children with fear in their hearts hurried homeward. The life stream of a great city stopped." That's how Mayor Ole Hanson described the beginning of the general strike that was held in Seattle February 1919, one of the few general strikes ever attempted in the U.S. The Bolsheviks......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

So Rick's was raided on Wednesday night: P-I night reporter Scott Gutierrez was out on the scene and reports that police arrested 14 dancers and one manager for what a police spokesman said were violations of the city's adult entertainment ordinance. Hmm. 14 dancers and a manager. Who's missing? Right. The johns. Well, maybe there weren't any customers there at the time, with a squad of Seattle's Finest patronizing the place? No, that's not it:......

If you want to read the many reasons why the Rafael Soriano for Horacio Ramirez deal sucks, USS Mariner (humorlessly) and Lookout Landing (hilariously--check the poll) can satisfy you. We've got a different take. Yes, Rafael Soriano is a better pitcher than Horacio Ramirez. If he were a stock, or stock, or a stock car, you'd be idiotic to trade him for Ramirez.. But. The Mariners need starting pitching. Without Ramirez, they have two--TWO--for sure......

Monday, after posting our pro-lap dance response to Susan Paynter's PI column, we received an email from an anonymous local stripper: I just read your defense of your right to make women touch you sexually for pay and was wondering: 1. How does intimate sexual touching for payment not equal prostitution unless you're going by a very narrow, fundamentalist penis-in-vagina definition of sex? 2. Why can't you just be happy looking at us beautiful ladies......

Susan Paynter thinks all the talk about "freedom of speech" around Referendum 1 (the four-foot rule, etc.) is a ruse -- what the clubs really want to keep "legal" is prostitution: If we want a vote, up or down, on legalizing prostitution, then, in the words of G.W. Bush, bring it on. But if, outside of Nevada, we still oppose the oldest profession when it is practiced on the street, do we ignore it when......

Why go to the clubs when there are many hotties working at local business establishments? We've culled Craig's List, the Stranger I Saw U, and local blogs to determine where you, the reader, can find hotties without paying a cover. --Icon Coffee ("radiant and beautiful" barista) --the Starbucks at 2nd and Seneca ("many good-looking and handsome guys") --a local salon (see illustration) --the Ballard Fred Meyer ("incredibly cute brunette" working at the wireless counter) --Stellar......

Are we more Lake Forest Parkish or Minneapolisesque? Four-foot rules exist in Bellevue, Everett, Federal Way, Kirkland, Lake Forest Park and Tacoma, according to city reports. Burien requires dancers to be at least 10 feet away from patrons, while Renton prohibits off-stage performances altogether. Cities that don't ban dancers from getting near customers include Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and San Diego, according to another city report. Los Angeles and Portland also lack such rules,......

Wednesday, October 25 >>>Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater, 7:30-10pm. Are you afraid of the dimmed lights in a theater? A Guide to Visitors presents their annual Ghost Story night. Spooky stories about haunted office buildings and ghost quests, told by people such as the woman who leads a ghost tour of Pike Place Market. The press release says the Jewel Box is haunted, so maybe the dead will chip in a tale or two themselvs.......