BOMBS BURSTING, ETC: Happy Independence Day! Grill up some zucchini, down a beer or three, and enjoy your day off. Ivars is doing their exploding chemicals thing after sunset, so if you're into that, sedate your dogs/chickens/goldfish and enjoy the 23 minute show over Elliott Bay. Or wherever: check here and here for your options. 10 p.m. // Your Roof // Free(dom) GANGSTA RAP—SERIOUSLY: Get your gangsta self to Chop Suey on Saturday for Crooked......

Port Townsend pop/rock trio New Faces have had a pretty damn good year, and with an upcoming West Coast tour and release of their debut full-length album, it's only going to get better. Here are a few reasons why you should squeeze into the Comet this Saturday night to check them out: 1. They won this year's EMP Sound Off! competition. 2. Sounds like a young Paul Banks fronting a band with a more lively......

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......

Are you feeling lazy this winter in Seattle? It's been raining and dark (well, not so much this week), and maybe you just haven't felt like doing much or going anywhere. Well, it's time you got off your ass to do something about it; like go to a beer festival. If you've never been out to Port Townsend, this weekend is a great time to make the trip. Water Street Brewing will be hosting......

The other week we enthused about the new passenger-only ferry to Port Townsend, read the post about the beer in Port Townsend, and put two and two together. The ferry is temporary, until January 6 last we heard, though you can sign a petition to keep the Seattle-to-Port Townsend run around. Here are the departure times. If you're tempted to make a dash for it, here are a few tips. It turns out the Seattle......

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. Port Townsend is situated in a beautiful spot out on the Olympic peninsula and is about a 2-hour......

You recall the other day we were mad as hell at the Washington State Ferries for running their boats until they rusted through, leaving everyone high and dry while new ones can be built. WSF is still dead to us, but Governor Gregoire could make our "holiday card" list if she keeps it up. First the viaduct course correction, now she's scrounged up $100 million to pay for three new ferries. Budget, schmudget! She's......

When have you gotten your money back on a ferry purchase? After 20 years? 40? 60? How about 80? Washington State Ferries still had plans to fix at least three 80-year-old ferries before the magnitude of their decay was uncovered. Now, because WSF never imagined the day would come when the ferries would have to be replaced, it'll be a year or more before new ferries can be built and car-ferry service returned. Our favorite......

It's a weekend full of "fests" this time around. A veritable festival of...fests. Including EndFest with the Smashing Pumpkins in a parking lot somewhere, Oktoberfest in Fremont with lots of tasty local bands and Decibel all over the place. Here's a video for Decibel participant Kill Memory Crash: Imperial Teen is at the Crocodile. Not a fest. Hillstomp is at Conor Byrne tonight. Also not a fest. They were playing as a part of fest......

Seattlest finally got around to reading Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. It's been on our "to read" list for, oh, about eight years now. Imagine our surprise when, on page 47 (hardcover), we came across a strong local connection for the titular lexographically gifted madman, William Minor: A third half-brother, Thomas T. Minor, died in peculiar circumstances many years later.......

Reader, hesitate no further! At the close of last season, we penned a write up of western Washington's drive-ins, threatening to remind you again when the season re-opened. That time is now. This month, drive-in theaters opened. To celebrate, we paid a visit to Wenatchee's Vue Dale Drive-In since we were in the neighborhood and we had never been. It was a nice two-screen venue with a panoramic view of town behind one screen......

--Husky QB Johnny DuRocher won't play football again after an examination following his concussion in the Stanford game revealed he has a brain tumor. --A naked Steve Ballmer has been spotted at Pro Sports Club Gym in Bellevue. --Ryan Anderson, star of last year's terrific Rainier Beach team, is now a freshman at the University of Nebraska, and led all Husker scorers in an upset of #25 Creighton on Saturday. Seattle ballers represent. --The......

Wednesday, November 1 >>>Benaroya Hall, 7:30pm. Seattle Arts and Lectures brings prolific big shot and errant van survivor Stephen King by. Maybe you’ve heard of him? For the Constant Reader, it’s an event not to be missed. He'll talk about Lisey’s Story, his latest novel. Tickets $25 and $35. But, like many things in King’s Dark Tower world, they’ve already moved on. >>>University Temple Methodist Church, 7:00pm. Keeping with the All Soul's Day theme,......

DIY isn't just for musicians and craftistas anymore. If the words "artisan cheese" kick your salivary glands into overdrive and and spur your desire to be that artisan, call the Mt. Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend and make plans for an August weekend workshop: Vermont farmstead cheesemaking pioneer and renowned teacher Peter Dixon will be returning to Western Washington Aug 4-6 to teach two cheesemaking courses at the Mt. Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend.......

A new shuttle bus service is offering Port Townsend residents service to Seattle twice daily seven days a week. It seems that there's been local demand for some transport to the city from that area that doesn't involve cars and Olympic Bus Lines answered the call. Particularly interesting to Seattlest is the reverse ability to get from the city to Port Townsend without a car. A round trip ticket from PT to Seattle will set......

You can usually get a good feel for an event by the media distributed to promote it. If you see a guy with a guitar on a flyer stapled to a tree you don't have to scrutinize the (no doubt questionably legible) text to have a pretty good idea whether the event is for you or not. You either rawk or you don't. Likewise if you drive past a Clear Channel monstrosity on the highway......

Ah summer in Seattle. You never know what you might find around the bend. Whether it’s 19 cannons being fired off at Pier 36 this morning, bad traffic, or the Blue Angels screeching overhead, Seafair continues into August. So don’t forget to check the schedule to mark where you want to be or not be. Personally Seattlest can’t wait for the Parade of Ships on August 3rd. And guess what? You can actually take a......

Anyone interested in olde schooly sailing vessels should get themselves to the downtown waterfront today. You may catch a glimpse as a whole bunch of them sail right on by Seattle on their way to Tacoma and the Tall Ships festival they're throwing down there. This is the first time the ships will visit Tacoma. They set out a few days ago from the Victoria Tall Ships Extrazaganza and spent last night in Port Townsend.......

Port Townsend is a favorite weekend getaway for many Seattleites, and it's easy to see why. The drive up is alone worth the price of admission (Seattlest likes Kingston ferry to Hood Canal to 19) but once there the food is good, the downtown is cute and there are plenty of activities to keep you going. In an effort to keep the city cute, the Port Townsend City Council recently passed an ordinance that limits......