Feb 5, 2012

Two weeks ago, the Seattle Weekly ran an article which I thought was possibly their best piece … ever. It’s called ‘Ripped Apart’, and you can read it here: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2012-01-18/news/ripped-apart/ Not long after that article was written, today, Josh Powell, a man denied custody of his two children, a man who clearly...

Feb 3, 2012

Well, my friends, the posebag bloggers and their tragically hip followers are out in full force this week. I mean, look at them go. See all the anger? See all the rage? It certainly looks real, doesn’t it? You buying any of it? Some years ago, I had a quite popular website. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. I had my share of traffic, my...

Feb 2, 2012

You know, they all come around eventually. The renowned breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure faced an escalating backlash Thursday over its decision to cut breast screening grants to Planned Parenthood. Some of Komen’s local affiliates are openly upset, including all seven in California, and at least one top official has quit, reportedly in...

Jan 21, 2012

As I sat here three days ago and watched anti-SOPA protests proliferate across the Internet, a nagging thought kept running through my head. “How”, I wondered, “is any of this hurting big media?” I mean, let’s say that, because of these online protests, SOPA and PIPA are both defeated. It’s plausible. After all, people are riled...

Jan 21, 2012

Well, my acquiescence to my powerlessness over the Weather Channel has drawn a rousing chorus of “Booo!”s amongst my own small circle of morons. I’ve been called everything from a pussy, to an enabler, to an enabling pussy, to a … well, really those are the only two things I’ve been called, but they hurt. Of course, I am, if...

Jan 19, 2012

A few hours ago, the above video was posted on YouTube by buzzfeed. It shows Meg Coyle in an uncomfortable confrontation with a local woman who was upset that King 5 had attracted the Seattle Police Department, who in turn ruined a sledding tradition on Queen Anne Hill (Capitol Hill has a similar tradition). Instead of apologizing to the community when the...

Jan 18, 2012

We’re almost 24 hours into the anti-SOPA protests, and I’ve got to tell you … I’m getting burned out. Google’s black banner, countless blog after blog with their black banners, Wikipedia’s complete blackout of their site — I’m starting to lose sympathy for my own cause. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still...

Dec 25, 2011

For as long as I can remember, my favorite TV shows have been in two genres: 1) Infomercials 2) Televangelism To me, these are the television equivalent of train wrecks. They are deeply troubling, and I know it is so very, very wrong to stare at them, but I just can’t help it. In addition to these programs, in the last few years, I have found yet another...

Nov 24, 2011

For the first time since “Hi, I’m a Mac … and I’m a PC”, an advertiser has delivered an amusing, clever, and culturally relevant tech commercial to consumers. At least, I thought they did. I direct you to the following new video which currently has the bedhead community in a row: It shows a line of iPhone customers fawning over a...

Nov 15, 2011

Thank God for Q13 News. These guys are one of the only stations in town that do not abandon Seattle for a national morning show. Frankly, I don’t give a damn where in the world Matt Lauer is, I just want to know when the Viaduct is going to re-open. This morning, as my wife and I were watching Q13, they reported a story about an upset Target...

Nov 6, 2011

To my oft-posed query – “Why do 100% of news bobbleheads jizz their pants on queue at the mere suggestion of sunshine?” I received an email today which claims to answer just such a question: “Good news, it’s going to be sunny!” “Good news, it’s going to be sunny!” “Good news, it’s going to be...

Oct 21, 2011

Well, we all knew it was coming. Starting this afternoon, the Viaduct is closing for about a week, and this development is going to royally fuck me sideways with a yardstick. I’ve been at my temp/part-time/however-long-I-feel-like-doing-it job for two weeks now, and I take the Viaduct at least 4 times each day. As a matter of fact, it’s my preferred...

Sep 11, 2011

Today, I headed over to the Seattle Center International Fountain, and when I got there, I was horrified by what I found. Since it was 85 degrees outside, there were young bathing-suit-clad children frolicking in the fountain, and everywhere I looked, there were people with cameras. Some people had cellphone cameras, others had consumer-grade handheld...

Sep 6, 2011

This morning, I woke up to the sensation of water dripping off the front of my nose. I got up, walked to the mirror, and was greeted with an image that was ghastlier than a thousand ghouls. The skin from the bridge to the tip of my nose was sloughing off as a glacier of puss assisted its decent. Upon seeing this, I immediately screamed “THANKS LISA VAN...

Aug 28, 2011

o2.pl It’s no great secret that I give alt.weeklies a hard time. I like reading some of the articles in our local tabloids, but the notion that any of the authors are “alternative” is something that I just don’t buy. Everybody wants to be alternative, but only a precious few make the sacrifices to pull it off. Who am I to judge, though? Who am I to...

Aug 9, 2011

Well, if I’m going to put on knee pads and publicly service Mayor Mike McGinn every time he’s right, I suppose it would be intellectually dishonest of me to completely ignore him when he’s wrong. For those who are not aware, Mike has been embroiled in a controversy with Village Voice Media — the company behind such “alternative” publications as...

Jul 31, 2011

The Seafair Torchlight Parade was held yesterday evening along 4th Avenue, and we walked down to check it out … along with 300,000 of our closest friends. The parade was enjoyable, but I had one nagging question throughout. The official name of the parade was the “Alaska Airlines Seafair Torchlight Parade”, but I couldn’t for the life of...

Jul 28, 2011

The ink barely dried on my last post before a decision was made: The City Council in Aberdeen, Wash., voted 10-1 against a resolution to rename a bridge after the late Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain. Eight citizens and several council members spoke against renaming the bridge, which is unofficially named after pioneer Alexander Young. KXRO reports the vote...

Jul 26, 2011

‘My Goodness’ is probably my favorite “new” Seattle band. They’ve got a White Stripes meets Black Keys meets Mudhoney thing going on, and if they aren’t a household name in Seattle (if not wider) within the next few years, I’ll be surprised. A couple of other bands that have the potential to save Seattle from folk and video game music are the...

Jul 14, 2011

The Capitol Hill Block Party is still a week away, but it already managed to entertain me. “How?”, you might ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Today, I pulled up the FAQ on the party’s website, and I struck pure comedy gold. Check it out: How do I get there? The Block Party is easy to get to via foot, bicycle or bus (http://metro.kingcounty.gov). Parking...

Jul 10, 2011

The heck with Facebook’s video chat, there’s a new feature on Seattle Rex that has the whole country buzzing: 170 degree full-motion HD video from the streets of Seattle. It’s true. Call a friend and let them know. Hell, call two. Then they’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on. That reminds me, I’m out...

Jul 8, 2011

A few months ago, I wrote a short post about the Chase Bank that was vandalized on Capitol Hill. Hours after posting it, I received a comment on the blog from someone named “Smith” who simply said: “Very uneducated people are obviously writing your articles” The critique was fair enough, but it was without substance or rebuttal. When I looked at the...

Jun 28, 2011

I love Aberdeen, Washington, or as I call it, Far West Virginia. I always have. At one point, I almost moved there. Grays Harbor certainly has its problems, economic depression being the primary one, but it has one of the lowest costs of living in the USA, and the best climate in North America (83 inches of rain to Seattle’s 37). Most of all, the place is...

Jun 24, 2011

You know, if they wanted to, local news stations could really mess with me. They could send me out on one wild goose chase after another, and keep me chasing my tail indefinitely. Take this morning for instance. Q13 Fox, terrorist fighters extraordinaire, mentioned that Disney had a promo running. The studio was going to take to the streets of Downtown...

Jun 7, 2011

A few weeks ago, I flipped on the television to watch Lisa Van Cise gripe about the weather (“I wanna kill myself cause it’s sooo clowww deeee!”) when something unexpected happened. The newscast cut to a live feed of an airplane landing, and I assumed that a VIP was arriving. Was it Barack? Was it Sarah? Was it Anthony Weiner coming to do...