For the record, this Seattlest is a daily bike commuter who knows and appreciates the rights and responsibilities of biking in an urban environment. We also have a friend who was beaten by cops a couple years ago during a Critical Mass demonstration. While this post isn’t specifically about Friday’s incident at Seattle's Critical Mass on Capitol Hill, the event (and one just as scary in New York City) moved us to share these......

New York recently passed a state budget that requires Amazon.com (and other online retailers) to start collecting NY state sales tax. Amazon doesn't have any brick-and-mortar presence there, but NY argues that because Amazon has affiliates in the state, the company is obligated to start collecting the sales tax on purchases made there. In theory, New Yorkers already owe the tax. Amazon's just never had to collect it. Of course, neither Amazon nor New Yorkers......

Today Seattlest welcomes our new sports correspondent to the fold. Drew Milam is a longtime Seattle resident who recently returned to the Emerald City after some time in the Bay Area, and claims to be super tight with fellow Santa Clara alum Steve Nash, Brandi Chastain and NFL referee Mike Carey. No word on if he got the gig because he is a Hillary supporter (pleasing Editor Kim) and a Garfield alum (pleasing Seattlest David).......

FILM: If you see only one documentary about fonts this year, make it Helvetica. New York taxi numbers are also in Helvetica. The font is on IRS tax forms, U.S. mailboxes, and ConEd trucks. The 50-year-old sans serif font spells out countless logos: Sears. Bloomingdale’s. JCPenney. Crate & Barrel. Target. Fendi. Jeep. Toyota. Energizer. Oral-B. MetLife. Nestlé. Once you realize Helvetica is everywhere, says Hustwit, "you just can’t stop thinking about it." 7:15, 9pm......

Photograph of investigation at Times Square recruiting center by kerfuffle & zeitgeist on Flickr Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing up on local beaches.Shanghaiist was surprised by Bjork's rooting for Tibetan independence at her concert (see video), and the political fallout has only......

We here at Seattlest like to provide our readers with valuable advice when we think it’s necessary. Two blog posts we’ve seen today make us think it’s important to advise that you stay the hell away from Denver. First, according to the New York Times blog The Lede, in November, the city’s voters passed a law similar to Seattle’s that makes pot the city’s "lowest law-enforcement priority." Well, it seems that the cops in Denver......

It's not often that we can tell just from glancing at the stage that we'll like a play, but with the Seattle Rep's The Imaginary Invalid, we felt like great things were in store the moment we caught sight of the silly, sumptuous velvet hatbox of a set. (Runs through March 22; tickets $15-$59, $10 for 25-and-under.) Much like its crazy old coot hypochondriac, Argan (Rocco Sisto), the play gets to its feet creakily, expelling......

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......

Brooklyn trio A Place to Bury Strangers bills themselves as "the loudest band in New York," but that's not exactly true. A band's loudness is of course the product of several factors, the volume and intensity assuredly a function of the sound system every night they play, or the sound guy, or the venue itself. So perhaps it's more accurate to describe APtBS as "the effects-pedaliest band in New York" or "the My Bloody......

Documentary: Los Angeles and art don't have the strongest association. (Glen Hansard at the Oscars, shaking his statue at the audience, "Make art! Make art!") But it's more of a signal-to-noise problem. The documentary The Cool School explores the lives of the founders of L.A.'s artistic "cool." Regina Hackett describes the situation: Back to L.A. in the early 1950s: Progressive artists had nothing going for themselves except themselves. New York didn't bother to spit......

Saigon descended upon Neumos Wednesday night in true East Coast style, backed by three hype-men, two photographers, one DJ, and for awhile two dancing "homegirls". (Yes, his shirt did come off for a brief moment, and we did get to see those famous bulging arm muscles.) A sparse but expectant crowd watched as the New York rapper and his posse blew through an aggressive set that included the extra-tight club favorite "C'mon Baby" dropped......

Man, this Folk Alliance conference has been total insanity. Last night, the wait for the only four elevators going to the top floors of the hotel (where all the artists showcase) reminded us of waiting for the subway in New York on the 4th of July. Good luck. With all these people from all over the world flooding Memphis, and with all the folkies in Seattle, we're surprised that we've made it all the......

On the heels of an elegant overture, the lights come up and we're met with young Patrick Dennis, hand-in-hand with his nanny, the naive and ample Miss Agnes Gooch. Her nerves are rattled down to her very toes. Patrick, he'd be alright if it weren't for Agnes carrying on about thieves and murderers. It's New York City you know, 1928, and as far as Agnes knows, the place is full of 'em. At last, Patrick......

Knowledge: Seattle University is having a Globalization & Justice conference and you're invited. Today's keynote speaker is the very famous, very sharp...Anil Gupta, ladies and gentlemen! Put your hands together for his talk, "G2G – Grassroots to Global: the Knowledge Rights of Creative Communities." Gupta founded the Honey Bee Network, which is good because if the real ones don't bounce back, we may need to turn to them for pollen collection. 5:30pm // Pigott......

If you're not planning on hitting up the Garden Show tonight, you should definitely be at Neumos getting your mind blown by the hardcore hiphop of New York's Saigon, Dyme Def, and Cancer Rising. Helloooo, Saigon: 8pm // Neumos // 925 E. Pike // $20 adv // All-Ages......

We got into Memphis last night, and we'll be here for the rest of the week, celebrating folk music along with people from all over the world at the annual Folk Alliance conference. We'll be going on and on about that in articles for another job we have, but we just wanted to take a moment to express how much we love Seattle. We miss Seattle. But mostly, we miss people. There don't seem......

"The Next Slum" is the name of the article in the March Atlantic (not online yet), and Seattle gets lots of mentions. Author Christopher Leinberger, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, argues that as demographics and energy use changes over the next 15-20 years, there will be a growing surplus of large-lot homes that no one wants, decaying on the market. While there should be about four million more households with kids in 2025......

Today KEXP and a public radio station in New York (WNYE 91.5FM) announced they have joined forces to create a partnership called: Radio Liberation. The partnership will bring six hours of weekday KEXP programming, a nightly world music show, and a weekly Kevin Cole broadcast to New York starting March 24th. Radio Liberation also plans to expand KEXP's already extensive live programming and performances, tapping into New York City's vibrant touring and music scene.......

The UK's Guardian Unlimited spoke to Seattle's Fleet Foxes (thanks, CHS) ("a group whose unique sound is hymnal and baroque, with mandolins and banjos and extraordinary vocal harmonies") and got the scoop on Seattle's development opportunity. Lead singer Pecknold says something like, "Go Sodo, young bands," saying that Georgetown "is probably a bit like SoHo in New York in the 1970s, with a lot of industrial space." But what got our attention is this nugget,......

We here at Seattlest really wanted to go out and caucus on Saturday, however, HBO is showing Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. So we made some calls, and the DNC gave us permission to hold a special caucus today. They even threw in a couple delegates that Utah wasn’t going to use: Courtney: I'm caucusing for Obama even though it kills me not to be an active part of trying to put the first......

We have gathered some of the top political writers in the country and asked them to discuss the presidential race throughout the year. Today they discuss McCain’s new frontrunner status, religion in American politics, and Edwards’ departure. Seattlest: How do you handicap the Republican race following John McCain’s win in Florida? Mark (The New York Times): The GOP in Florida has given McCain true front runner status. It must suck to be a wacko Republican......

We remember 1998 rather well. We were living in Buffalo, NY, smoking a lot of the ganja, playing a lot of the folk music, and occasionally going to class to discuss contemporary literature. Good times. A year later, we would move to Portland and, eventually (by way of New York, New Orleans and Orlando), make our way to Seattle to live happily ever after. We'd never really thought about Seattle much, but MTV's The Real......

Quality over quantity, yes? Yes. The weekend isn't bursting with great shows, but there's plenty enough to go around. First up, you've got New York rock giants, The Bravery, tonight at Neumos. (Sold out! Looks like you might have some luck on craigslist). Come Saturday, you've got some decisions to make. Do you continue the NY theme and head to the Paramount for Ryan Adams? Or do you support local boys, The Cave Singers at......

The New York Times reports that our esteemed politicians have agreed on "an economic stimulus package", which sounds pretty high-falutin', but it basically amounts to cutting everyone in America a check. If you got a paycheck of any kind last year--even if you made too little to pay taxes--you will get $300. If you have kids, you'll get $300 for each one. If you made more money, you get more. You could get up to......

Absurdistan is an allegorically rich comedy care of witty German director Veit Helmer and filmed in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the tiny titular land, a war of the sexes break out when the local aqueduct ceases to work, and the men are too lazy to fix it. The women declare a strike--no water, no sex--and two childhood sweethearts find themselves feuding instead of consummating their long-standing love. Looks like it's......

It's a season of sales in Seattle's fabulous boutiques, making it a perfectly dreary, who-wants-to-be-outside-anyways month to break your assumption that boutiques are only for skinny, rich women. Deals are ready for the reaping, so grab your girls and head north of the Ship Canal, where some of our favorite boutiques reside. Here is a short selection of a few where you can find money-smart steals right now. FREMONT Dream (3427 Fremont) This "dreamy" place......

"getty-up!" by Dean Forbes, from Flickr via Creative Commons license. Yes, the irony is thick. Fremont's own Getty Images wants to auction itself off and could sell for up to $1.5 billion, reports the NY Times. The stock photo agency has had a rough go of it lately: But the rise of digital photography and the Web created a host of competitors that charged as little as a dollar for an image. Recent events......

Starting tomorrow night, SIFF Cinema is showing Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust, a documentary that examines Hollywood's relationship and depiction of one of the 20th Century's defining events. Growing up Jewish in New York City, we were introduced to The Diary of Anne Frank at age 9. We quickly became fascinated by her story (our copy of the book is in tatters we read it so often) and by the subject of the......

We left it up to Jami Attenberg to pick a spot in a not-so-crowded Bauhaus Coffeehouse this morning, and somehow she managed to find the cavelike area behind and below everything that goes on in a not-so-crowded coffeehouse. Overtired, pre-caffeinated and maybe a little bit getting sick, Attenberg seemed comfortable in the cave. An interview she did with Metblogs on her last book tour indicated that Bauhaus is one of her favorite Seattle haunts,......

To catch you up: Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo spent last week in Mexico with new girlfriend Jessica Simpson. Many Cowboys fans were miffed, thinking that he should've been preparing for yesterday's playoff game against New York (which the Cowboys lost). The New York Post had a bit of fun with the kerfuffle, hiring a Jessica Simpson impersonator to roam around the stadium during the game. Their impersonator was Lynsey Nordstrom, who they identify as......