Results tagged “pacificnorthwest”

We said Pacific Northwest Ballet's Broadway Festival was an enormous amount of fun, and it sounds like plenty of you figured that out for yourselves. Artistic director Peter Boal just sent out this "Next round's on me!" email: "With 5,250 tickets purchased to date, we have broken the old record for single tickets sold for a mixed repertory program. It is also the highest grossing mixed repertory program in our company's history, surpassing the old record set by Valentine in 2006." Two shows left: Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. more ›

all in a generation; still we pioneer, homestead. more ›

The bountiful ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest is worth between $243 billion and $1.22.1 trillion, economic and environmentalist researchers announced late last night. Phew! Numbers are far easier to work with than poetic sentiments about our "introverted, feral, buddhistically cool" raindrops (Tom Robbins), "unruly mobs of young clouds" and "green stand of mountains" (Ken Kesey), or Chief Sealth's sacred, inter-connected vision of "every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods." more ›

Many thoughts crossed our mind last night as we left the showing of Edward Curtis's , Curtis's work bears witness to the fact that early film sucked. The narrative is disjointed, the story thin and hard to follow. It really just proves that people (or at least Americans) love technical gadgetry for its own sake, and are willing to embrace an impoverished experience for the novelty. more ›

According to the P-I, Honolulu's thinking about sending island-style trash our way. Walt Disney doesn't really tolerate landfill stench wafting over its new resorts, and there's only so much space on Hawaii for garbage (Walt Disney resort memorabilia aside), so companies are in the process of bidding for the privilege of hauling the refuse to a new mainland location. It's possible that Washington could be the trash's final resting place. more ›

The 75,000 strong crowd doubled (and-then-some) the previous record for attendance at an Obama event. Before the candidate took the stage, the crowd was serenaded by Portland's own, The Decemberists. The band, like Obama, were doubtlessly playing for their largest crowd to-date. Oregon's primary is this Tuesday, the 20th. As the record-breaking crowd indicates, Obama is expected to win handily.
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We are quite certain that we will never read such a headline again in a Pacific Northwest newspaper or website, so we're enjoying it tremendously. This is the monkey we told you about earlier this week, who went on a neighborhood-wide biting spree. Local news stations in Spokane have also been enjoying the unique story and a video of the escaped monkey has made its way onto YouTube, as of today. more ›

One month from today, Salish Lodge & Spa will host the second annual “The Falls Come to Life” dinner and auction to benefit Food Lifeline--the nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger in Western Washington. Guest chefs Armandino Batali, (Salumi) Holly Smith (Cafe Juanita), Jason Wilson (Crush), Johnathan Sundstrom (Lark), and Matt Costello (The Inn at Langley) will each prepare a signature dish for the menu, as well as contribute a culinary experience as part of the many items up for auction. more ›

This folk-music-related post is about participation, not performance. Shapenote singing (aka Sacred Harp) has been part of American life for well over 250 years, and has been sung in Seattle for 30 or 40. A sizeable group of people will gather in Ballard this weekend, at the Pacific Northwest Sacred Harp Convention, to sing it again. more ›

The Washington State Chapter of the ACLU and local travel guide guru Rick Steves have joined forces to reform marijuana laws in the United States. Steves has long been an outspoken advocate of marijuana reformation. He sits on the board of the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and has been a featured speaker at Seattle's annual Hempfest. Steves and The ACLU are comparing the criminalization of marijuana to the failed prohibition of alcohol in the 1920's and say it's time to have a national conversation about marijuana. more ›

We're sure we don't need to say this, but you can't miss your caucus. This is the first year in our whole time in the Pacific Northwest where it matters what Washington voters think. If you're still wondering where to go, here are two Dem or GOP caucus locators. Caucusing starts at 1pm. We understand that if you know who you support and you don't want to spend an hour or two talking about it, you can get in and out in about half an hour. more ›

We'll tell you right now, there is just not going to be a better Valentine's Day-ish gift than this Roméo et Juliette. more ›

In case it doesn't snow too much tonight, or in case you're not too much of a pussy to venture outdoors, head to Queen Anne to network with the organizers of South by Southwest and other like-minded music geek individuals. more ›

Do dancers hibernate in winter? There's an explosion of dance activity coming up as January draws to a close. Had we but world enough and time, we'd go to all these shows, but time's chariot won't permit us to make up all the stops. Here's the wealth you have to choose from: more ›

While there is plenty of good beer in Seattle to keep us busy, it is always nice to head out of town to visit some of the brewpubs spread around the Pacific Northwest. We try and do a trip as often as we can, which usually turns out to be one trip every three months or so. more ›

That sure didn't last long, did it? Barely nine months. more ›

For a quarter century, Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, artistic directors of the Pacific Northwest Ballet, stood at the summit of Seattle's cultural elite. Russell founded the company's ballet school and still travels widely as a consultant. Among his many achievements, Stowell choreographed Seattle's holiday favorite Nutcracker before stepping down three years ago. So what's he going to do for an encore? Hold that thought. more ›

This weekend Mr. and Mrs. Seattlest drove out to North Bend to cut a Christmas tree down and haul it back to Seattle. No, we didn't hike up Si with an ax and harvest a sapling, although that does sound fun. There's a tree farm out there by the name of Crown Tree Farm. It was our first time getting a tree from anywhere other than those road-side dealies or the enclosures that pop up in big parking lots this time of year, or so we thought until we got on the phone with Dad in Illinois afterwards. "You don't remember when you and I and your brother went to cut down a Christmas tree?" he said. "So much for making childhood memories." We thought this was a Pacific Northwest thing, but apparently you can cut down your own Christmas tree even in the Midwest. more ›

Braiden Rex-Johnson's new book, Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining, is a fine complement to Kurt Dammeier's Pure Flavor (reviewed by Seattlest back in August). Affectionate portraits of leading players: wine makers Bob Betz Kay Simon, Harry McWatters; unique restaurants, cooking techniques, recipes. Rex-Johnson, a familiar name whose previous books include the iconic Pike Place Market Cookbook, writes a food & wine column for Wine Press Northwest and served as food editor at Seattle Homes & Lifestyles. more ›

Until the day after Thanksgiving, Seattlest hadn't seen The Nutcracker -- probably the world's most famous ballet -- in years. But we had a solid image in our head of what it looked like because when Seattlest was a little kid, our mom made an annual birthday tradition to see it every year on opening night. For much of our childhood, this meant getting all spiffed up and walking a few blocks to Lincoln... more ›

In 1987, the British illustrator Martin Handford creates a cartoon character named Wally for a series of children's books. Renamed Waldo for the American edition, he becomes an icon of pop culture. more ›

Beaujolais, perhaps the world's most popular wine, goes through life as a comic's punchline; its brash and awkward youthful incarnation--Beaujolais Nouveau--gets no respect. Fun to be around, but nothing all that serious. (Eddie Murphy isn't Nelson Mandela, Wanda Sykes isn't Condi Rice, etc.) Sure, Beaujolais Nouveau provides the excuse for a great party every November--Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! It's Beaujolais Nouveau time!--but over the years, the folks who enjoy the ritual of raising a glass to the new vintage, would prefer a higher quality of wine with their three-figure din-din. more ›

Seattlest went to the opening night of Pacific Northwest Ballet's Contemporary Classics last night for two favorites: Kiss and Caught. PNB has wisely brought these two pieces into it's repertory fold, continuing to signal Artistic Director Peter Boal's commitment to exploring choreography that is traditionally outside the realm of most ballet companies. Overall, PNB rose regally to the challenge. more ›

Opening tonight, and running through the 11th, Pacific Northwest Ballet presents "Contemporary Classics." If you have a friend or loved one who you wish to convert to ballet compatriot, take them to this performance. They will think that this is how ballet always is, and thankfully now that is the case in Seattle. Hats off to you Mr. Boal. more ›

In central Illinois in the 1990s Seattlest was a wee little college freshman exploring the twin wonders of new music and new drugs. Nirvana, for example, was making some music we got really into, so much so that we learned of Aberdeen, WA, even though we'd never been to the West Coast, much less the Pacific Northwest, or Washington, or Seattle. At nearly the same time we encountered our first vanity steroid users. Some guys in the dorm--non-athlete guys--worked out a lot and then sat around in front of mirrors with their shirts off. "Steroids" they whispered to one another, "I'm starting a cycle." It went around the building like a bootleg tape. "So-and-so's hooking me up." And by second semester there were a lot of little, big men lurching around, popping zits and raging from time to time. more ›

Not even merely Blog Hot. She's actually approaching TV Hot. Check her out in this (unfortunately un-embeddable) video clip from KOMO4. more ›

Two-thirds of Pacific Northwest Ballet's "All Balanchine" show is surprising and exciting. Showcasing three ballets spanning the career of George Balanchine, the leading American ballet choreographer of the 20th Century and famously the co-founder of the New York City Ballet, PNB manages to both remind audiences of how adventurous dance can be, while at the same time reinforcing the sense that major ballet companies have to carefully balance the experimental with the traditional in order to keep audiences coming. more ›

Ballet Imperial: it's tutus and tights and corps-de-ballet clockwork, but Balanchine's choreography is nothing to sneeze at. Maybe just that one scissor-kicky thing we secretly call "the Snoopy Dance," and therefore have trouble taking seriously. Otherwise, if the dancers were wearing skis, it'd be a black diamond run. This one shows up in the All Balanchine program that starts this weekend. more ›

Last week was a bad one for pioneers and philosophers of our favorite beverages. On Thursday, beer (and liquor) guru Michael Jackson passed away at 65. A day earlier, Alfred Peet, founder of Peet’s Coffee, died in his Ashland, Oregon home. He was 87. more ›

As we were saying, there's a lot more at Bumbershoot besides the music. You've got the comedy, the literature, the theatre, the dance -- and the people-watching, the sideshows, the side sideshows: yesterday we ran into Craig and Victoria doing a violin-and-flamenco act behind a tent; they say they'll be back today, roaming around, so look for a swirl of red. more ›