The horsemen of change are upon us! Yesterday the City Council approved a $567 million master plan to transform Seattle Center into more of an open, public park. That means the Fun Forest is out when their lease ends January 2010. The master plan proposes to replace the pay-to-play carnival with a skating rink, sculptural jungle gym, and something called a splash fountain. Of course, no specific funding mechanisms have been established in okaying the......

Image Courtesy of the dualy talented, Jay Cox of The Sea Navy and Our Seattlest Flickr Pool Long spoken of and rarely acted upon, the renovation and remodeling of The Seattle Center was again on the docket for Monday's City Council meeting. Center officials presented a number of new design ideas for the redevelopment of the Center. Central to these are the demolishing of Memorial Stadium and The Fun Forest. Proposed uses for the......

If you're wondering what happens to the lesser-known bands who used to play Seattle at the Croc, evidence from the sports world shows that you ought to look for them in Kent. Or not at all. As you read, those Seattlests who do follow music weren't too concerned about losing the Croc. Neumos and Chop Suey are the places to go--they book well-known bands (well-known to music types, at least). The Croc booked lesser-known bands,......

Other than the Apple Cup, Garfield High vs. Franklin High is the best sports rivalry this area has to offer. Both are "inner-city schools" (with all that connotes), and the guys on the teams have usually been playing against each other since they were kids. Winning this game means bragging rights in the neighborhood until you die. Unexpected things happen at rivalry games--like when we went last year, and Nate Robinson was there to watch......

The Mariners announced that they're calling the M's Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday series with the first-place Angels "Lolla-Blue-za." They're encouraging fans to wear blue on game day, and they'll have marketing folks wandering downtown, rewarding fans in blue. One lucky blue-wearer will get to throw out the first pitch! (For those of you who weren't high schoolers in the early 90s, "Lolla-Blue-Za" is a play on "Lollapalooza," a touring music festival that was a huge deal in 1991......

Seattlest arrived on scene soon after the Capitol Hill Block Party had opened. We wandered, checked out the stage locations and thought about getting a beer, then spotted a booth touting free bottled water. It looked like the booth had something to do with praying to the Earth Spirits or some other new wave white hippy crap, but we decided to take our chances. We asked for a water and oddly enough their were no......

-- John Moe's Family Herman project: the funniest riff on The Family Circus since the Dysfunctional Family Circus. -- Consumerist presents: Confessions of a Starbucks Barista. Commenters say: she sounds like a PR flack. -- An Event Apart is in town. -- Metro buses unwrapped, then partly rewrapped. -- Up-to-the-minute updates on Seattle Web 2.0 popularity. Quick, someone give them venture capital. -- Dig your trench coat out of your closet -- the Noir......

The scoreboard at Everett Memorial Stadium will be incredibly accurate this season. Why? Because Dino Rossi is buying a minority share in the Aquasox, and he tends to get bitchy when people lose count. Rossi will be making the announcement with fellow new minority owner Jay Buhner, where it’s a safe bet that Rossi will make sure that the two are seated. This will complete Rossi's reverse-Bush résumé-- elected official, lost disputed election for higher......

Most people like to unwind after a long week of work with some Friday happy hour festivities. Are you most people? Are you a lemming who would unquestioningly commit genocide or vote for Mike "!" McGavick just because the masses were doing it? (Bad example--no one's going to vote for Stumbly McWhiskeyBreath) Anyway, the point is that Seattlest isn't most people. When Friday rolls around, we want nothing more than to enjoy high-school football. We'll......

Lordy, we are getting old. Midway through day 2 of Bumbershoot, we were dragging hardcore. The crowds, the drunk white guys, the terrible fashion---it was all getting to be too much. But then we nutted up and carried on with our high-octane music intake. Our day began at the Mainstage with the New Pornographers. Even without Dan Bejar and Neko Case, the always-solid supergroup put on yet another great show. Carl Newman was left......

Dear Seattlest, You never pay any attention to the Sounders until you start getting all excited about the World Cup and accidentally come across an interview with their GM that seems to indicate that they're leaving the city. When was the last time you went to a game? What gives? -Pissed off soccer fan Dear Pissed off dork, You're entirely correct. We hereby vow to spend more time on the Sounders even when the World......

It's rained--hard--five out of the last six weekends. And after a week of beautiful weather, it's supposed to cloud over Saturday and rain Sunday. Along with the byplay of their weekend, the Seattlests answer the question "Why does God hate Seattle?" James is by no means a stereotypical NPR liberal. No, he's a stereotypical PRI liberal, and he's flaunting that on Saturday night at the Julia Sweeney/Ira Glass conversation at the Paramount. He's also going......

Sonics Lose Opener: The season got off to rather poor start, after the Sonics did everything wrong in the final few minutes of last night's opener, and lost to the Los Angeles Clippers of Anaheim 101-93. Not very promising, it was of course only the first of 82 games, and last year the Sonics started their season by getting blown away by the same Clipper squad. Steve Kelley, however, says it is time to panic.......