Last Friday we were at Shorecrest High School after-hours for "Coffeehouse," an open-mic put on by the school's literary journal Tattoo. It was our second time around, so we had a better idea of what to expect: the cafeteria was packed to the rafters. Seriously, Friday night and this is what the kids of today are up to? Near the end of intermission we were looking over the art gallery in the hall when this......

The artists behind Buttrock Suites uniquely combine the dramatic force of '70s and '80s arena rock (AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Boston) with choreography. It's a hard music dance revue, plus plenty of hairspray. Last year, Seattlest interviewed co-founder Diana Cardiff, who told described the choreography as: ...many styles of dance, movement, theater. No two pieces are alike. Each piece has its own take on a song, whether it be in full stereotypical Buttrock fashion/costumes, glammy jazz,......

Seattlest ventured into Belltown last night to attend the Buck 65 show at the Crocodile, mostly because Buck 65 is a divisive name in hiphop. You either love him or you don't, and we couldn't make up our minds based on the tracks he's got online. Our plan was to skip the openers. The guy touring with Buck 65 is named Bernard Dolan -- and, in the phrasing of Flight of the Conchords, what......

Musical hyphenate-extraordinaire Shawn Smith has been fronting bands and playing solo in Seattle for about 15 years. As recent, local music history goes, he’s as seminal a figure as Kurt Cobain—and more prolific—though not nearly as high-profile. He should be. Always busy, Shawn’s currently spending time with Kevin Wood, covering Malfunkshun tunes (and writing new ones) as From the North. His band Brad has a new album recorded and will, he’s confirmed, play in......

Monday CALL 911! CALL 911!: Political and economic commentator and White House strategist during the Nixon administration, Kevin Phillips talks about his book, American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century. Phillips traces the set of related causes that caused the downfall of historical world powers. That same combination of ills he says -- global over-reach, militant religion, resource problems, and ballooning debt -- is......

Gem of the Ocean at Seattle Repertory Theatre Through May 6, tickets $10-$48 The lights go down, a hymn starts up, and we're back in Wilson's fabled Hill District in Pittsburgh, at the house at 1839 Wylie Avenue. It's supposed to be 1904 -- and Wilson loaded up on historical detail -- but this play is talking about things right now. It's evangelizing about the price and worth of freedom, and that, along with......

Monday SEATTLE ARTS & LECTURES: Art Spiegelman's 1992 Holocaust tale Maus (based on a true story) won the first Pulitzer Prize awarded to a comic book. Its success paved the way for the graphic novels thriving today and led to Spiegelman's ten years on the staff of the New Yorker. In the Shadow of No Towers (2004) gathers his recent broadsheets of disenchantment with the war on terror. 7:30pm // Benaroya Hall // Tickets:......

On Saturday, they will rock you. In advance of their first show ever in a bonafide rock club, Seattlest asked Buttrock Suites co-founder, producer, choreographer, dancer, and lead head-banger Diana Cardiff how exactly they combine Poison and Bon Jovi with grand jetées and pointed toes. However they damn well please, it turns out. What was the inspiration for Buttrock Suites? My inspiration for buttrock was from riding around in my car and rockin' out to......

Music: The electronic talent of Guillermo Scott Herren's Prefuse 73 show at Chop Suey tonight comes highly recommended from every quarter of the Seattle media scape, and after listening to some of his work you can see why. 8 p.m. // Chop Suey // $12 Even More Music: A friend recommends the new deal at the Baltic Room called "The Beatdown." Quoth the friend: "I stopped by the first week and not only was the......

This weekend, the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center is having an Open House, while Cooper Artist Housing is having Open Studios. We know this because some old friends of ours are Cooper cultists and they sent us a postcard. How droll! How last century! If you can, come on by. We live in a building with some pretty interesting peeps, doing some pretty nifty stuff. We'll have a new film short & photos [They're working......

Friday night's performance by Dorky Park at On the Boards was surreal on many fronts. Seattlest was running late for the show, and as we screamed past Queen Anne Ave N. on Roy street with zero idea where we'd be able to park, someone pulled out of a street parking spot one block from OtB. We slid into the spot and then into the theater, where we promptly scored a seat dead-center in the fifth......

A while ago we brought up Tuning the Air...um, was it April? Last night, we finally made it out to Ballard to check out the circular guitar ensemble and were not disappointed. This is the second year of Tuning the Air's Monday night performances in the North Annex of Trinity Methodist Church. The 45-minute shows begin at 8pm (doors at 7:45pm), and the suggested donation is $5. You go inside, you go up some......

SIFF runs a tight ship. Even though their Face the Music party at Neumo's last night had a bajillion bands on the bill---all of whom were doing ~20 minute sets chockful of covers, as a tribute to musicians featured in films at the festival--- somehow they were actually running ahead of schedule. How often does that happen at a regular rock show, let alone one with eleven musical acts? Somebody must've been cracking the......

In Seattle the markers indicating the change in seasons go beyond the weather and blooming cherry blossoms. It's spring, and it's time for the course catalogs to start arriving at your door. We didn't receive our personal favorite from the Experimental College until last week, but it's been online since March 2. You can register online March 16th and you better be on the ball about it this semester if you don't want to get......