Posts in Essay
The Perfect Storm: WNBA Team the Seattle Storm Ignites Social Justice

Traditionally, professional athletes aren’t known for speaking their minds, though that’s beginning to change. Their personal opinions often remain private to protect an endorsement—or three. Of course, there’s the apocryphal story of Michael Jordan saying, “Republicans buy sneakers, too,” when asked about a political opinion he did not want to give. But there are professional athletes who speak their minds and stand up in the face of social and political injustice. And they’re often women.

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The Dirty Little Secrets That Keep Morning Radio Thriving in Seattle

It’s about 10 a.m. on a Monday, and Carla Marie and Anthony have just finished their four-hour morning show on Seattle FM station, POWER 93.3. But the day’s work isn’t over yet. Their producer, Hoody, has a caller on the line for the duo’s regular signature segment, “Dirty Little Secret.” The call patched into the studio is from a truck driver from Washington who has six girlfriends in six different cities around the country on his route. The titillating details might make your average person’s jaw drop, but your average person isn’t tasked with being quick-witted and chatty on a daily basis.

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EssayJake UittiThe Stranger
Seattle’s Free Community-Based Festivals Are Wrestling With a Cash-Strapped Future

There’s no shortage of music festivals in the Pacific Northwest—least of all in the Seattle area. With a population of just over 650,000, the city supports an unusually large number of festivals, from Bumbershoot to Capitol Hill Block Party, Doe Bay, Timber, and many others. This week the city will experience perhaps the most ambitious effort yet: Upstream Music Fest, the Paul Allen brainchild featuring 300 acts and panels on everything under the sun.

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With Millions of Records Sold, Bellingham’s Soundings of the Planet Are New Age’s Old Pros

A little yellow house sits on a patch of land about 30 minutes outside Bellingham. A few dozen feet away, the frosty Nooksack River rushes by. Thick green splotches of moss run up and down tree trunks, and the air is free from cell service. Residing in that little yellow house are Dean and Dudley Evenson, founders of the wildly successful musical business Soundings of the Planet, whose elongated, pastorally soft melodies, such as “Mending Your Own Mind” and “Gentle Season,” you’ve likely heard on a massage table or in a yoga studio without knowing their origins.

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A Brief History of Ice Skating in Seattle

In 1984, dressed in an eggshell-white leotard with sparkly teal highlights, Edmonds native Rosalynn Sumners, then only 20, rouge-cheeked and surprisingly poised, twirled through the air of a Sarajevo ice rink. Known for both her creativity and strength on the ice, Sumners, who’d won multiple national and international championships as a figure skater, earned an Olympic silver medal that day.

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Kids at heart: Seattle musicians are devoted to their young audiences

“It was a long time coming,” says musician Chris Ballew, swirling on a stool in his West Seattle home studio.

Ballew is speaking, of course, about his second act in music: Caspar Babypants.

Co-founder and frontman of the rock band The Presidents of the United States of America, Ballew says the lifestyle of a stadium rock group wore him down. But a new voice — one he’d always been looking for — struck him one day in the car thanks to a tantrum by his 2-year-old son, Augie.

His wife at the time, Mary-lynn (the two are now divorced), soothed their young son, singing the refrain, “Run, baby, run. Run, run, run.” Augie was calmed.

“I saw it work and I was amazed by it,” Ballew says.

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'Silicon Valley' Star Talks Green Technology, Saving the Environment

If you’ve ever seen the HBO comedy Silicon Valley–specifically the episode featuring the Tech Crunch Disrupt competition where start-up company Pied Piper wins for its data compression software–you might have an idea of what Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is like. Last Friday, thousands of bright developers and future Microsoft hopefuls came together to examine what’s next on the software horizon.

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Vinyl Revival

Seattle resident Chris Darrell, also known as DJ absoluteMadman at area nightclubs, finds a certain Zen quality to the process of playing a vinyl record. There is taking the album out of the sleeve, cleaning it, placing it on the turntable and gently dropping the needle. He maintains that the mechanics of the operation put him at ease.

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