Nurses, a PDX indie band I adore, just found a transcendent gimmick. They’re using Chat Roulette to make videos. Chat Roulette is a new social media program that lets a user set up a webcam and be connected instantly to another random user. If a user doesn’t like what they see Read more…
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Phillip Lopate is one of the best known essayists in the country. And one of the most well-regarded. Check out the blurbs:
“‘The Stoic’s Marriage’” is a mordantly funny brickbat tossed at every diarist egged along by big publishing dreams.”
–Jan Stuart (New York Times, review of Two Marriages)
“Lopate is a storyteller. Read more…
Mad Rad is back in the news again. And like usual, it’s not for good reasons. City prosecutors have decided to file assault and theft charges against rapper/DJ Terry Radjaw (born Gregory Smith) and his lady friend, Krystina Borland, stemming from an incident that happened earlier this year. PubliCola pal and overall crime writing ace, Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, broke the story yesterday afternoon.
According to police reports: Smith and Borland were riding in a cab in the early hours of New Years Day when the taxi driver claimed they tried to start having sex. The taxi driver slammed on the brakes and Smith and Borland exited the cab without paying and walked away. The cab driver confronted Smith and Borland about paying for the fare, and according to police reports, Smith allegedly threw the cab driver down on the hood of the car and tried to choke him.
It’s a juicy story and only seems to get juicier from there on out. A knife was allegedly involved, the cops were called, and a woman was pulled out of bed stark naked shortly afterward. For the full details, head to Seattle Crime.
This email just in from Cynara, our Bad Cop.
Hey Josh:
I went to a private restaurant opening last night…..
If you’ve never been, private, or soft openings for restaurants are like dress rehearsals. The restaurant is practicing on you, and in exchange for their fumbling you get to eat and drink copiously, for free. Which is why, if a friend asks you to be their date at the opening of a new restaurant’s friends and family night, you go.
So when my friend asked me to be her plus-one at the opening of Blueacre, the massive new seafood restaurant by local star chef Kevin Davis (Chef de Cuisine is SF transplant Brian O’Connor) I leapt at the chance. And put on loose fitting dress.
After winning my pinball crown back from a friend at Shorty’s last night, I finally went to Tavern Law, the spot on 12th Avenue off Union in Capitol Hill. This is the place with a downstairs bar and a “speakeasy” upstairs that you have to call on a black phone to get buzzed up. Read more…
Seattle’s schizophrenic spring—rain and torrential winds one moment, sun the next, sometimes all within the same day—causes more than just consternation. It leaves us susceptible to colds and the flu, which seem to have affected everyone in town lately. (On top of sickness, those of us with allergies know that spring also means high tree pollen counts and itchy, puffy eyes.)
Dulled taste buds and lethargy notwithstanding, we must still eat. And in our vulnerable states, we turn to food for therapeutic reasons and, more significantly, for comfort. When we’re sick, we rely on food to wake up our senses and remind us that yes, despite evidence to the contrary, we are still alive, still human, can still smell, still experience pleasure.
We turn to things like soup—more specifically, soups that soothe and burn. I’m talking warm broths with aromatic herbs whose scents can actually penetrate the tightly packed matter in our sinuses and brain, soups laced with astringent ginger, pungent alliums, hot chilis to make us sweat, maybe even release a few toxins or kill a little bacteria. Soups like pho, spicy Szechuan hot pots, and congee are the real medicine that give us temporary relief from virus-stricken misery.
Here are some of the best places to find help for what ails you.
Given that Seattle’s Macklemore is the most (only?) Irish rapper I know, it’s no wonder I’ve had his song “In Celebration” —an Irish anthem I’ve seen men and women singing along with at the top of their lungs at Mackelmore concerts—stuck in my head all day.
It started when PubliCola reader Saareal tweeted it out this morning.
It’s sort of ironic that St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday, more or less, known for drinking even though Mack (Born Ben Haggerty) is now sober. Still though, it’s a darn good song.
Here is a fun thing: MTV’s Musical March Madness, a fictional, 64-slot bracket of American bands that dares to imagine an epic Nickelback vs. The Hold Steady match up.
It’s got a pretty good sense of humor: An all-Florida rivalry between Creed and Against Me! and a strangely tragic pairing of Lil’ Wayne and Read more…
Balkan Beat Box have never really fit the “gypsy punk” label. Sure they mix old world horns with western pop but when they bring their multi-national genre party to the Showbox this Wednesday, you’ll see more “D.A.N.C.E” than “CBGB.”
Read more…
So, last night I ate the most awesome ice cream: Greek Gods brand Baklava ice cream. As I was sitting on the couch with my boyfriend watching Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks (part of ESPN’s awesome 30 for 30 series of sports documentaries), a late-night craving for something sweet set in, so I walked down the street to Madison Market and picked up a pint of this new-to-me flavor. It was unexpectedly great: ultra creamy, sweet with honey, a little bit spicy (thanks, cinnamon), tiny slivers of almonds and walnuts.
This Baklava ice cream is made by a Greek Gods, a local company based out of Mountlake Terrace. The company also makes wonderful thick Greek-style yogurt, as well as other strange (or, I suppose, just Greek) flavors of ice cream like Chocolate & Fig, Honey & Pomegranate.
You can also find Greek Gods ice cream at these Seattle stores.
I spoke at a cool event last night. Central Cinema hosted a revised version of the 1990 Academy Awards (which judged the movies of 1989.)
The 20/20 Awards, as they were called, were organized to set the record straight by showing how inaccurate the annual Academy Awards are—bound by fleeting trends and myopic prejudices of the day.
I spoke about Roger & Me, which won 20/20’s “Best Documentary.”
Roger & Me—relevant today with its focus on corporate power, heavy job losses, and current bailout poster child GM—wasn’t even nominated in 1990.
They serve booze at Central Cinema, so I’m not exactly sure what I said, but I did get a sweet note this morning from Korby Sears (the smart fellow from Seattle School who came up with and organized the event), referencing my apparent comments on “the economic arc of the last 20 years.” Whoa.
I think 20/20 has potential, and I hope it grows into an annual event for Seattle.
I’ve posted a list of the 1990 winners and last night’s winners below the fold.
For a full list of the 1990 nominees and the 20/20 nominees, go here.
