CHARITABLE INDULGENCES: If you're not too hungover from tonight's couture cocktails with Jack Mackenroth at Product Runway, something beautiful involving imported beer and fine Scotch is happening in Fremont both tonight and tomorrow: the HopScotch Spring Beer and Scotch Festival. The festival's a benefit for NW Folklife, so think of your purchase of extra tequila tastings as an act of springtime charity. 5 p.m.-12 a.m. Friday, 1 p.m.-12 a.m. Saturday // Fremont Studios, 155 N.......

Last Friday we got a chance to poke our noses into the Northwest African American Museum before it opened, as part of a test lunch group for the St Clouds Museum Cafe. The Museum is in the historic Colman School, at 23rd and Massachusetts. It's historic now, that is -- back when we lived across the street, on 25th, it was condemned, boarded up, and left a home for pigeons, until a group of black......

This is the coolest collection of random, old Seattle photos we’ve ever stumbled upon while not working at work. For anyone who can’t imagine 3rd and Pine before crack, or the masochistic liberal who wants to marvel at a time when people would have paraded massive, old growth firs down the street in celebration, this is your time capsule. If you like slacking off at work or just appreciate a little cultural history, these......

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 //......

POETRY: Eavan Boland is from Dublin, Ireland, and we take it that "Eavan" is a girl's name there. It's not immediately obvious, it it? She carries more of a charge in her than that boggy, peaty, old Seamus Heaney. One of her poems, The Pomegranate, begins: The only legend I have ever loved is the story of a daughter lost in hell. And found and rescued there. Love and blackmail are the gist of......

The intrepid and dedicated bloggers over at My Ballard.com have been providing nearly minute-by-minute coverage of the Seattle Landmark Preservation Societies vote on the old Denny's building on 15th and Market. According to their pain-staking notes, around 6:30 the board's final vote of 6 to 3 in favor of landmark status, was met by gasps and cheers by supporters in the audience. The vote means that the building cannot be demolished and replaced by......

The February performance of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues is commonplace in cities across America. In Seattle, "V-Day" will be celebrated with a performance on February 24th at The Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). Sponsoring the event is the Seattle Office of The National Council of Jewish Women. To advertise the performance, The Council produced the colorful print you see to the right. The advertisement is running in The Seattle Weekly and JT News,......

It's the first Thursday of February, which means that the Seattle Art Museum is open "After Hours," and entrance is free. Their Art for All musical guest is okanomodé, and provokes this cross-pollinated promotional copy:Melding composition, style and genre with the skill of Basquiat blending color, okanomodé spins song into frenzy and makes magic with his tongue.If you've been meaning to drop in to see those three panels from Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise, why......

Francophiles attending the Beaujolais Nouveau gala in Bellevue Friday will have the chance to bid on more than a dozen travel packages (tickets to Paris? ho-hum...) as well as some rare and valuable works of art. An original lithograph by the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is likely to draw the most interest. (The gala, which celebrates the release of the first Beaujolais of 2007, is sponsored by French-American Chamber of Commerce and takes place......

Stand at the corner of First and Pike, and you almost hear the thunder of Seattle's hotel wars, the howitzers of the future as they battle for attention in the trades, the travel mags, the lifestyle glossies. First into battle: a new Four Seasons, across the street from the downtown Art Museum: 21 stories, 149 hotel rooms, 36 residential condos, opening 2008. If your memory goes back more than two years, you'll recall that Four......

Everyone is jumping on the reunion tour bandwagon these days, and the paleontologists greedy museum directors of the world are not to be left out of the mix. Lucy, the famous (if you prefer science over Hollywood) 3.2-million-year-old fossil, is going on tour too. She's got some contentious bones. The original set of fossils--representing the oldest, most intact human ancestor--has been swept out of Ethiopia, where she was supposed to stay in perpetuity, and is......

Some people like going to the Eatonville Pioneer Farm Museum to see the genuine 1880s cabin. For others, it's the chance to participate in the craft instructions or walk the nature trail. Arthur Lawton, however, goes to fuck the goats. Allegedly. According to court papers, says the Times, witnesses saw 63-year-old Lawton "having sex with a goat in a barn" at the museum. He was booked into Pierce County jail last night, charged with animal......

We finally made the (arduous!) four-block trek down to the Frye to check out "Anxious Objects: Willie Cole's Favorite Brands." The exhibit highlights the last 20 years of Cole's work, heavy on the mixed media sculptures he's famous for. Cole takes ratty, disposable, everyday domestic objects and transforms them into pristine pieces that mimic symbols from South Asian and African art: scorched ironing boards become Domestic Shields, detached gas pump nozzles arc up from the......

Jen Graves posted about this on the Slog on Tuesday and we've got a bit of a beef with everyone's beef about it. When the Gates Foundation's new headquarters open across from Seattle Center in 2010, visitors will be able to visit a 15,000 square foot interpretive center dedicated to educating patrons about the work of the Foundation. We're with Jen on this one: we're pretty intrigued by the idea of a museum dedicated......

It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by poop. Finally D.C. contemplated taking Vermont's place as a state and marveled at the GOP lessons learned from the "Macaca Moment." Due to some sad shootings......

Oh, the Northwest New Works Festival is back this weekend and it's promising to be another fantastic installment of our favorite annual creative mindfuck. This year’s festival offers 4 showcases, featuring 18 artists and performance groups and spanning two weekends at On the Boards. On the Boards says: Over the last 24 years the festival has become the Northwest's premiere laboratory for the creation of cutting edge, risk-taking performance. During the course of 2 weekends......

National film festival correspondent Kyle Anderson on Seattle's other one While May 24th is the debut of the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), the lesser known, 3rd annual Seattle True Independent Film Festival (STIFF) also kicks off its performance schedule on the same date. The latter appears to be the yin to the former’s yang – one is slang for Syphilis and the other is a rock-hard…whatever. Although it has been documented that Seattleites don’t......

It seems every blogger in the Pacific Northwest is singing the praises of the Seattle Art Museum after their reopening. It'd be fun to be the contrary voice that slams the whole affair but really, we don't have it in us - we loved the SAM this weekend as well, so chalk this one up in the "yay" column. As soon as we heard about the fact that SAM was staying open 24 hours, we......

Yes, yes, the new Seattle Art Museum is a vast architectural improvement over its predecessor. No question. But let's not lose sight of another change that's proved another vast improvement: Pentagram's reworking of SAM's brand identity. Remember the old SAM logo? We didn't. We had to Google it. As soon as we saw it, we a) recognized it, and b) realized why it was completely forgettable. It couldn't scream "refugee from the mid-'80s" any......

The planets alligned Saturday for a confluence of free stuff: Free admission to the grand opening of the new revamped Seattle Art Museum and, just as importantly, the annual Free Comic Book Day at participating comic book stores. Pinch Seattlest's cumulative butt cheeks and tell us we're not dreamin'! All the action at SAM takes place on floors three and four with an overwhelming mix of integrated everything. We overheard somebody in the crowd......

There will be plenty to see, do, and hate tomorrow, here is a guide—although we’ll probably end up sleeping in, before re-organizing our photo albums. OPENING DAY OF BOATING SEASON-- If you have been in a boat this year, well then, you my friend have jumped the season. Saturday is the official start. The highlight of the event (unless you’re favorite thing is watching rich people dressed like this wave) are the crew races. This......

Because we don't go out on school nights and we need to plan... SATURDAY: In addition to talks and tours, you and the kids can see live demonstrations of wood carving, drum-making, and weaving at the Opening Day Celebration for In the Spirit of the Ancestors, the Burke Museum's new exhibit of contemporary Northwest Coast Native art. 10:30am-4pm // Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture // All Ages // $8 general; $5 kids 5+;......

--Northwest stocks weren't immune from yesterday's stock downturn. The market is up so far, though. --The state 4A boys and girls tournaments tip off at 9am today. Garfield plays at 10:30am, Franklin at 8:30pm. Webcasts here. --I Make Things visits the Museum of Telecommunication on Marginal Way, which we're ashamed to say we didn't know about. --Popular councilman Peter Steinbrueck won't run for reelection, he'll form a coalition to support a surface/transit option to replace......

Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico. Bostonist was happy they finally found an Anna Nicole Smith connection to their fair city and that an Apple Store was opening up. They were less happy that new rules have been established limiting underage shows and that their Governor is spending......

Carl Hancock Rux's No Black Male Show is presented as an anti-performance. The audience is introduced to its three players as a distraught Rux announces that there will be no show tonight despite having learned their lines. The show (obviously) continues, but it provides a sense of unease for the audience, immediately drawing them in. The No Black Male Show is based on a poem partially written in response to New York's Whitney Museum's......

The American Institute of Architects asked 1800 Americans to name their favorite buildings in the US. After further refinement and surveying, the AIA compiled a list of the top 150 and released it on Wednesday. A grand total of two Seattle buildings made the list: at #108, the gorgeous but metroartificial Seattle Public Library; and at #135, Safeco Field. Nowhere to be found: the viaduct, the EMP, Smith Tower, Washington Mutual Tower, Rainier Tower, Qwest......

25 teams! Free ashtrays for the taking! Controversy about whether or not Bangor is a "city" or just part of Bremerton! And a geeky white boy dance-off to close the evening! Yes, last night's Seattlest trivia at the Old Pequilar was, again, a madhouse -- the fun and exciting kind of madhouse. Our friend Brannon fulfilled a lifelong dream of writing a trivia quiz and making his friend read all the questions -- and a......

MUSIC: Subtle at Neumos. Between van accidents and van robberies, anticon affiliates Subtle has had a rough road the last few years, but they've luckily managed to produce music interesting enough to endear them with both critics and fans. With the robbery last month they need all the support they can get, so come do your part. - credit Donte 9:00 pm // Neumos // $10 adv. READING: Martin Amis's latest book, House of Meetings,......

Not true! Sure, Alexander Calder's 39-foot painted steel Eagle is going to be Seattle's next icon, but from this angle it looks kind of like a puppy getting ready to nip at its master's trousers. Rivalry of middle-aged artworks: Eagle is 35, Needle's pushing 50. Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park opens to the public Jan. 20th.......

We saw Maria Coryell-Martin's haunting, ghostly paintings in the lobby at Benyaroya Hall after Elizabeth Kolbert's talk this week, and were instantly drawn to a collection of small watercolor landscapes entitled "Greenland Suite." We were struck by how reminiscent her work was of abstract desert landscapes, despite all the ice and snow, and as we were scribbling down the artist's name and scheming to get a few prints for Xmas presents, she popped up......