MEANWHILE, ON LINEOUT

Katie Kate released a new song—you need to hear it! ... Patrick Swayze is rollerskating and acting like a jerk ... Listen to Sean Nelson's great new solo album! ... Listen to the new Gaytheist record! Is the album cover cute or creepy? ... Fuck being hard; Thundercat is complicated ... A robot plays the James Bond theme song ... More »

Slog

News & Arts

Two-Block Radius

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Two-Block Radius / Booze / Chow Now Open 24 Hours: Lost Lake Cafe & Lounge

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Thu, May 9, 2013 at 6:27 AM

lostlakecafe.com

Capitol Hill finally has a place to eat that is open all day and all night. After Basic Plumbing—the windowless, louche gay bathhouse on 10th and Pike—closed its clammy doors, David Meinert (5 Point/Big Mario's) and Jason Lajeunesse (Neumo's/Moe Bar/etc.) turned the space into 24-hour diner Lost Lake Cafe & Lounge (with an accidental, but hopefully cleansing, fire occurring during the process). They promise "the stiffest drinks on the Hill" (stiffest-er than the Crescent*?! Lord help us) and "no pretentious deconstructed anything, just real food for real people at great prices." The atmosphere is retro-Twin-Peaks-y, and we hear that the tuna melt is good, and there is pie.

*UPDATE: Or stiffest-er than C.C. Attle's, as commenter kittenalarm rightfully asks!?

Link | Comments (19)

FacebookShare

Monday, May 6, 2013

Bikes / Two-Block Radius Whatever You Do, Don't Lock Up Your Bicycle at Pine and 11th

Posted by Christopher Frizzelle on Mon, May 6, 2013 at 12:14 PM

Don't lock up here.

Consumer alert: bike rack edition. Until a few weeks ago, the corner of Pine and 11th had a bike store on it, and so there's this feeling in the air that this corner might be a good place to lock up a bike, kind of a muscle-memory thing, since this corner used to be so friendly to bikes, used to be the place where you could go to fill up your tires with an automatic pump instead of having to pump the pump yourself, and buy bike lights, and flirt with Velo employees. But now that Velo has moved downtown and the former entryway to the bike store has become a face-picking station for junkies, this rack has become the worst place to lock up your bike in America. If you leave it just for a few daylight hours, you're probably okay, but if you leave it overnight? Now that there are no eyes on the street anymore? Expect it to be dismembered beyond recognition.

Link | Comments (41)

FacebookShare

Friday, April 19, 2013

Two-Block Radius / Architecture There's a New Old Park in the Neighborhood

Posted by Unpaid Intern on Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 4:35 PM

Posted by intern Madeline Reddington.

The Bullitt Foundation is warming up for its opening on Earth Day (Monday), and the renovations to triangular McGilvra Place (created in 1901) were finished this afternoon.

Madeline Reddington
The newly transformed McGilvra Park.

While the grass is totally gone, it looks like it may turn out to be a nice spot for a lunch or coffee on some of the tree-stump furniture that's been added. That is, if the constant flow of traffic down Madison Street doesn't bother you.

Another picture after the jump.

Link | Comments (14)

FacebookShare

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Two-Block Radius / Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz From the Mailbag...

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 11:34 AM

That's why other newsrooms call ours "the brain trust."

Link | Comments (2)

FacebookShare

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Two-Block Radius Man on the Street: Meet a Paid Signature-Gatherer

Posted by Anna Minard on Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 11:32 AM

ANNA MINARD
Meet Alex.

Walking to lunch yesterday I met Alex, left, who was gathering signatures for a city charter amendment I've been following. After politely telling him I already knew about the campaign, thanks, and walking past, I backed up. I watched him talk to a couple people. I've worked as a street canvasser before, but never a signature-gatherer. I wanted to know more.

We chatted for a minute about his job, which is migratory. "I've worked all over the country," he told me—here in Washington, where he's from, and California and Maryland. He gets a call from an intermediary when a campaign has work, and he shuttles off to wherever he's needed. "You kind of live out of motels," he says. He'll be here for about two or three weeks, he thinks, gathering all the signatures necessary—the campaign needs more than 30,000. I asked him how much he's making. "A dollar per signature." Is that normal? That depends, says Alex. Some campaigns pay $2 or $3 a signature. Do you make a decent amount of money? It's okay, he says. He's made as much as $1,600 a week at times. But it's easier if you know the area, he said, and he's not from Seattle, so he had to find out the hard way that downtown is mostly tourists, not local voters, and up here on the Hill, everyone's wary of canvassers asking for money. Also, he said, it's a bummer that it's spring break right now: No students.

"You're not paid by the hour, so you have to make enough to live on," he says. His friend and coworker walked over and said he'd be working all day and into the night. I said thanks, and we parted ways.

Link | Comments (16)

FacebookShare

Monday, March 11, 2013

Two-Block Radius Little Women?

Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 7:00 AM

Link | Comments (3)

FacebookShare

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Two-Block Radius Look at This Dog

Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 11:17 AM

Isn't it neat?

Link | Comments (16)

FacebookShare

Friday, February 8, 2013

Two-Block Radius / Chow Capitol Hill Needs a Salad Bar

Posted by Megan Seling on Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 11:28 AM

Here's a free million dollar idea: Someone needs to grab up one of the available store fronts near Broadway and put in a lunch spot with a salad bar that doesn't look like it's infested with E.Coli.

Who's with me? Why doesn't Capitol Hill have a salad bar!? Vegetables are delicious!

Link | Comments (43)

FacebookShare

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Two-Block Radius / Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz If You Were Wondering Whether the $10 Chocolate Bars at Stumptown, Which Were Hand-Crafted by Brooklyn "Artisans" to Openly Mock My Poverty, Are Worth the Price...

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 3:37 PM

...The answer is no. No they are not.

Screen_shot_2013-01-24_at_3.35.05_PM.png

The Stranger

Link | Comments (25)

FacebookShare

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Two-Block Radius Horse and Potatoes

Posted by Mary Traverse on Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 12:08 PM

Just got a cryptic text from a friend that said "Horse and potatoes at 11th and Pike."

mpt
Horse and potatoes.

I checked it out and sure enough, there is a ~~carousal~~ carousel horse and a sack of potatoes outside the new Sam's Tavern which replaces Chino's in that corner spot.

Link | Comments (8)

FacebookShare

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Two-Block Radius / Teh Internets "Here's a Quick Way to Sadness, Hope"

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 7:46 AM

I'm currently working on compiling the arts section of our annual regrets issue and was trying to think of a headline. (Last year's was "Regretting Me, Regretting You: A Year of Neurosis, Debt, and Death.")

For a lark, I thought I'd see if the internet had a headline generator—and guess what? It does! It promises to "Increase Your Sales Instantly By Finding A Better Headline." I spend way too many hours of my life trying to find a better headline.

So I thought I'd take it for a spin. First, I had to tell the machine what I wanted.

blech

Then I pushed the "generate headlines" button, and... the results explain so much about headlines on the internet—especially Google ads—and pop consciousness in general. A few:

"7 Secrets To How To sadness, hope And stuff that's interesting to read."

"sadness, hope While You Sleep - Our Proven System Will Do The Work!"

"To People Who Want To sadness, hope But Can't Get Started."

"7 Moral, Ethical, & Perfectly Legal Ways To sadness, hope."

and one of my favorites:

"The Lazy Man's Way To sadness, hope."

Too true. The rest of the delightful and depressing results are below the jump.

Link | Comments (7)

FacebookShare

Friday, December 7, 2012

Two-Block Radius / Housekeeping / Games Nerdy Slog Happy Hour TONIGHT, at the Raygun Lounge, 5p to 9p

Posted by The Stranger Testing Department on Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 1:22 PM

Slog nerds, saddle up: come on out tonight to the Raygun Lounge for some beer/wine/mead and gaming (board games, card games, minis gaming...? who knows!) with Slog nerds Paul Constant, Mary Traverse, and the two of us—although Rob is feeling under the weather and doesn't want to accidentally LARP Pandemic. (If you get that, your attendance is expected.)

Feel free to bring any game you want to play or teach. E.g., Paul Constant has never played either Small World or that new game everybody is talking about, Settlers of Catan. So that ignorance of canon needs to be remedied quickly and discreetly.

And a bonus for tonight: Wizards of the Coast is loaning us Tabletop Games Developer Chris Dupuis, to demo the rerelease of "Dungeon!"—a quick-playing game for 1 to 8 players that's the much-improved evolutionary offspring of a 1975 classic.

Dungeon! comes with rules for playing by yourself. As if it were insinuating something.

Also, FYI, we're sharing the space tonight with the nice folks at QueerGeek! and their Ladies Gaming Night (think of it as QueerGeek!SlogCon!), so anyone looking for a measure of dudelessness should also find some tables to their liking.

The Stranger Testing Department is Rob Lightner and Paul Hughes.

Link | Comments (16)

FacebookShare

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Two-Block Radius / Oil / Enviro The Burping Sinkhole

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 11:34 AM

Have you heard about the eight-acre sinkhole in Louisiana? Apparently, it's been "burping" up "debris"—including hydrocarbons, which are found in crude oil—and the surrounding swamp has been bubbling and smelling like gas. Local authorities have warned of explosions and evacuated hundreds of residents, who are angry that Governor Jindal, who only lives 50 miles away, hasn't visited.

Some say the sinkhole could be related to the BP Deepwater disaster and that "methane-bubble tsunami" people were talking about two years ago. Others blame a collapsed "brine storage cavern" ~~related to closer oil-drilling operations~~. (It appears this salt cavern was involved with salt mining, though engineered salt caves in the region are also used for oil and gas storage.)

Either way, this apparent drilling operation across the street from Stranger HQ—at least it sounds like a drilling operation—has us all on edge:

If we disappear into a smoking crater in the near future, don't blame the smiting hand of god. Blame the oil industry.

Link | Comments (17)

FacebookShare

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Two-Block Radius This Is Cassius

Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 2:25 PM

Cassius is nearly 2 years old, and he's a boxer, of course.

Link | Comments (29)

FacebookShare

Friday, November 23, 2012

Two-Block Radius This Is Casino

Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 12:36 PM

Casino is five years old and "he really hates the rain," his owner says.

Link | Comments (7)

FacebookShare

Friday, November 16, 2012

Two-Block Radius Okay, Slog, You Asked for It

Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 12:17 PM

I posted a photo yesterday of Jelly, an 11-week-old mix of corgi and Aussie shepherd. So Slog commenter BallardBoy asked, " Is this going to be a regularly occurring column? 'Doggies of the Hill'?

Don't make me do it...

This fellow was spotted in Cal Anderson Park.

Link | Comments (28)

FacebookShare

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Two-Block Radius This Is Jelly

Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 2:13 PM

Spotted at 11th and Pike: Jelly is a mix of corgi and Australian shepherd, and she's 11 weeks old.

Link | Comments (23)

FacebookShare

Friday, November 9, 2012

Two-Block Radius / 2012 / LGBTQITSLFA Cake!

Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 2:09 PM

Cupcake Royale has invited me and Terry to cut the cake. Join us at 3 PM for a FREE celebratory slice of equality cake!

Link | Comments (13)

FacebookShare

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Two-Block Radius The Non-Ice-Skating at Cal Anderson Park Is Non-Happening This Year

Posted by Jen Graves on Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 1:21 PM

WE TRIED HARD TO HAVE FUN Charles, Bethany, plastic, lube.

WE TRIED HARD TO HAVE FUN Charles, Bethany, plastic, lube.

Last year's $100,000 "ice rink" made of plastic coated in mysterious lube will not return to Cal Anderson Park this holiday season, according to Capitol Hill Seattle blog.

We chronicled the debacle of the Holiday Lube Board by trying skating repeatedly on the thing. But it had an unacceptably high bullshit quotient—it was actually referred to as an "ice rink" and cost more than any other actual ice rink in the city—in a neighborhood where it is really best to try to keep the additions-to-bullshit to a minimum, considering we've already got an upscale restaurant called Barrio.

Link | Comments (21)

FacebookShare

Friday, October 26, 2012

Two-Block Radius / 2012 / LGBTQITSLFA Log Cabin Republicans Did a Little Postering Around Our Offices Last Night

Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 9:41 AM

Link | Comments (58)

FacebookShare

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Two-Block Radius / News For Capitol Hill People, This Has to Be the Weirdest Story Today

Posted by Jen Graves on Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 4:49 PM

I'm not sure how to put this, except to say that a very gentle-seeming, very familiar homeless guy around these parts has been arrested for allegedly mutilating a woman to death 36 years ago in Maine.

And detectives got his DNA by tricking him into taking a fake "chewing gum survey."

I bought this guy a sandwich a month ago. He talked about the Vietnam War.

Link | Comments (44)

FacebookShare

Monday, October 1, 2012

Two-Block Radius / Chow / Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz The Chef at Smith Departs

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 3:12 PM

Kelly O
Smith: click to enlarge.

Smith, the pub/taxidermy haven from Linda Derschang on Capitol Hill's 15th Avenue, had an unfavorable revolving-door chef situation for quite a while after it opened in 2007.

Then, finally, Eliot Guthrie started cooking there, and at last, it was good. Then he left (anyone know where he is now?).

Then Chris Howell took over, and he'd been a lead line cook with the Tom Douglas empire for a number of years, and it was good again. Now Howell is returning to T-Doug—he's going to Brave Horse Tavern, lucky for Amazon employees.

Yesterday was Howell's last day at Smith, and no one there knew who'd be taking over next. Sigh. Derschang has not yet returned an email asking what's up.

(Meanwhile, newly open today on 15th: The Wandering Goose, from Volunteer Park Cafe’s Heather Earnhardt.)

Link | Comments (8)

FacebookShare

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Two-Block Radius / Chow Ooba Tooba's Grand Opening (Today!) on Broadway Benefits Lifelong AIDS Alliance

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 8:45 AM

Ooba Tooba is an alternate spelling of Uba Tuba, which is a beach in Brazil.

oobatooba.com
"Ooba Tooba" is an alternate spelling of Uba Tuba, which is a beach in Brazil.

Ooba Tooba's been on the Eastside for more than a decade—it's a local/family-owned mini-chain, and its fifth outlet is grand-opening at 209 Broadway near John (where 17 different Thai restaurants have been) today. While it's a "Mexican Grill" and makes five fresh salsas daily, it's also a little all over the place (or as they say, "eclectic")—from the "all American burrito" of just meat and potatoes, to the vegetarian Bollywood burrito with "grilled green beans and a sweet ancho crema." It sounds weird and possibly good, and if you're going to try it, today's the day—all day long, from now until 6 p.m., they're donating 50 percent (FIFTY PERCENT!) of sales to Lifelong AIDS Alliance. Which is very cool.

Link | Comments (1)

FacebookShare

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Two-Block Radius Grrrl Army Strikes Again

Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 9:53 AM

Wherever there's rubble, they're there on the double... this time for The Case of the Abandoned Store:

Photo courtesy Slog tipper Charles

It's cute. And for what it's worth, this is what I think about past anti-gentrification activism in Capitol Hill.

Link | Comments (18)

FacebookShare

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Two-Block Radius / City / Visual Art GIRL ARMY!!! Cranks It Up 10 Notches

Posted by Anna Minard on Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 5:32 PM

This is what's across the street today:

WHAT IS RAPE CULTURE? Rape Jokes. Fear culture. Dinner ≠ Booty. Disney??? Why is the victim on trial? One No is rape. Because it happens & did to me.

KELLY O
WHAT IS RAPE CULTURE? Rape Jokes. Fear culture. Dinner ≠ Booty. Disney??? Why is the victim on trial? One "No" is rape. Because it happens & did to me.

MORE > > > >

Link

FacebookShare

Two-Block Radius The End of Something

Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 8:17 AM

The Undre Arms was the closest thing Capitol Hill had to a slum...

Link | Comments (12)

FacebookShare

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Two-Block Radius / Booze / Chow The Former Basic Plumbing Shall Become a 24-Hour Diner and Bar

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 7:30 AM

If these walls could talk, would they ruin your appetite for pancakes?

If these walls could talk, would they ruin your appetite for pancakes?

The space that once contained Basic Plumbing—the "previously windowless, perpetually terrifying gay bathhouse on 10th and Pike" near the Comet and Elliott Bay Book Co.—is going to be a 24-hour diner and lounge along the lines of the 5 Point. That's right, people—a place to eat on Capitol Hill that's open all day and all night! Why didn't any of the other 107 restaurants that have opened here in the last 17 minutes think of that?

This yet-unnamed 24-hour spot will be brought to you by David Meinert (5 Point/Big Mario's) and Jason Lajuenesse (Neumo's/Moe Bar/etc.). They are promising "the stiffest drinks on the Hill" (stiffest-er than the Crescent?! Lord help us) and "No pretentious ~~pre-~~deconstructed anything, just real food for real people at great prices."

The opening of the unnamed diner/lounge (any hilarious ideas?) is set (nebulously) for spring 2013. There's also a Basic Plumbing–related joke here somewhere, but you all can take care of that.

Link | Comments (13)

FacebookShare

Friday, August 31, 2012

Two-Block Radius / Politics / Money How Much of Their Advertisers' Money Is Poster Giant Going to Spend?

Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 5:03 PM

That's my question.

We've been watching the war between activist group Grrl Army and Poster Giant—the promotions company that uses public spaces as its own, private advertising venues—for over a week now. This wall outside our office is ground zero and the stakes have escalated, with the rivaling sides covering each others' posters with more elaborate works with increasing frequency. In the latest salvo, even before 9:00 a.m., a man was out there this morning using a shovel to dismantle Grrl Army's installation of coat hangers (a statement about illegal abortions and preventing new posters from being put up).

Here's shovel bro:

Then Poster Giant slapped up some posters, which were up for—what—an hour? They weren't there long. A woman not affiliated with Grrl Army came by and slathered pink paint across the wall. Here's the result:

Link