Seattle.BloggersPub

The first event of Seattle Reads Persepolis with Marjane Satrapi was tonight at the Lake City Branch of the Seattle Public Library.Yours Truly trundled up north with a sketchpad, prepared to make a patented Crappy Drawing ™. But even twenty minutes…

And now, for the rest of the Oedipus story.Oedipus is now known to most modern readers through Freud’s Oedipus Complex, “a male child’s unconscious desire for the exclusive love of his mother. This desire includes jealousy towards the father and the un…

Is it just me, or did John Frusciante channel Jimi Hendrix at the end of Dani California?

I’m known for my chocolate consumption. I love chocolate, all flavors, especially dark; but when it comes to the dessert of my dreams, you’ll find no cocoa! Nothing rubs my sweet spot like Rhubarb Crisp. The more tart the better. No amalgamations, hybrids or fusions please. Keep your blueberries in your […]

Ira Forman, NJDC executive director (photo: Philadelphia Jewish Voice)
The NJDC just e mailed me one of their periodic alerts. This one announced that Ira Forman, the group’s executive director, had attacked a Jimmy Carter USA Today column about Ehud Olmert’s West Bank “realignment” plan. Forman himself had penned his own objections in […]

Plenty of folks on Washington’s Kitsap Peninsula are worried about a NSACAR track that’s being pushed by a Florida corporation. At least two county commissioners think the deal is a rip-off for taxpayers, who would be responsible for financing $166 million of the project. Under the proposal, the corporation would also be exempted from certain taxes, be given land-use waivers, and be allowed keep taxes from ticket sales for NASCAR. In addition to the worrisome finances, a racetrack of that size–83,000 seats–would also strain roads and infrastructure in Kitsap County.

So it’s not surprising that plenty of locals are less than happy about the prospect of a gigantic speedway in their backyards. The opposition is a time-honored American tradition: a gathering of neighbors who want a say in their community. They don’t have corporate funding or a slick PR campaign, just a simple website, roots in the community, and a belief in local decision-making. “Our Board Room is the kitchen table of whatever member’s home we happen to be in,” their website says. They may just have a fighting chance.

But in a recent public hearing, county commissioners threw up their hands up at the mention of Initiative 933. If 933 passes, they admitted, land-use changes to accommodate the racetrack would be a fait accompli. Neighbors couldn’t do a thing about it.

Rev up your engines, Kitsap County residents. If I-933 passes, your semi-rural county will likely soon be home to the largest stadium in the Northwest–25 percent larger than Qwest Field and 75 percent larger than Safeco Field.

He played Carnegie Hall in 1949, was named Down Beat’s “Best Jazz Pianist of the Year,” in 1950 (the first of several times), and has gone on to earn seven Grammies, thirteen honorary degrees, a Laureate award by The Praemium…

The Bent bopped up to The City of White Rock, B.C. for a large portion of beach promenading, and a side of business north of Surrey. I did most of the promenading. While the white rock really is white (they…

I’ll bet John Nash is one happy camper today.
Nash won’t return as Blazers’ general manager
The Blazers are so dysfunctional, who in their right mind would want that job?

Today is your last chance to vote for the best American work of fiction published in the past 25 years.
Tomorrow I will start counting the votes.