A report on whether hiring bonuses attract more cops proved inconclusive, but Nelson wants to plow ahead anyway. Screenshot

During Sara Nelson’s campaign for her at-large seat on City Council, she said she was not afraid to take an unpopular route, especially in her efforts to increase SPD’s measly $355 million budget. She fulfilled at least part of that promise during Tuesday’s Public Safety and Human Services meeting, when her recently proposed resolution to support hiring bonuses for the Seattle Police Department pulled focus away from more senior council members’ monthslong deliberations on the topic of hiring incentives across a broader swath of city agencies.

At the meeting, Seattle Department

The longer I stare at the Space Needle, the weirder it looks to me. Otto Greule Jr / Getty

Please don’t throw your mask away: Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to announce that they will extend the travel mask mandate for two weeks to monitor the rise in COVID cases, reports the AP. This story is still breaking, but, regardless of the CDC, there ain’t no way I’m taking off my mask on planes or buses. It’s a lifestyle, lol.

The Space Needle is goin’ gold: In honor of the iconic tower’s 60th birthday, the Needle will once again be painted the color it

It’s SIFF season, baby! Seattle’s favorite film fest returns this month with 262 films over 11 days (April 14–24) screening both in-person and online. We’re rounding up some of our top picks. You can check out all of them here.

TUG OF WAR
Tanzania, 2021, 93 min, Dir. Amil Shivji

Don’t miss this rare feature from Zanzibar… Courtesy SIFF

It is not an accident that one of the most fascinating pop stars of the 20th century, Freddie Mercury, was born in Zanzibar. This island, which is a part of the nation of Tanzania, is one of the most fascinating places on earth. And so there is no

Suzette Smith, an editor at The Stranger‘s sister paper The Portland Mercury, contributed a few blurbs to this round-up. Smith, it should be noted, is not Stranger editor Rich Smith’s sister. Work fam, yes. Blood fam, no.

Russell’s Bellevue mansion is up for grabs. PHOTO BY TIM WARNER/GETTY IMAGES

Did it just snow for you? It just snowed for me. It snowed for Bryan, too.

Snowing in Tacoma. pic.twitter.com/3UXIkdGhzu
— Saint Bryan (@saintbryan) April 12, 2022

Local meteorologists have confirmed that, yes, snow happened.

It’s much worse in Portland.

We bid goodnight to an unparalleled scratchy voice and charmingly cranky comedic spirit. Gilbert Gottfried—who probably never imagined his Disney’s Aladdin parrot

It’ll be something like this, but with a lot more masks. (Here’s SIFF’s COVID policy, in case you’re wondering.) SIFF 2019
Movies are back, baby! The 48th Seattle International Film Festival starts this Thursday and runs until April 24. This year’s hybrid lineup, screening in-person and online, includes a modest 262 films.

We know you probably need help weeding down SIFF’s offerings, so we’ve spent weeks sorting through screeners to bring you a handful of must-see picks. Scroll through this list to see some of our favorites, plus additional interviews with directors like Seattle hometown hero Megan Griffiths. You can also see the full schedule and get tickets here.

We’ll

“Pro-choice” rapper spitting on the streets of Vancouver, BC. Charles Mudede

Not long after arriving in Vancouver, BC on Friday, April 8, I found myself in front of the main entrance of the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront waiting for a cab to take me to an appointment on Commercial Drive. Audible from where I stood was the conversation of two men and a woman in their late 40s or early 50s. They were all smoking cigarettes like students pretending to be adults in an elementary school play. The three clearly wanted the world to know they were smoking, and were proud of it, and were very much enjoying it.

I heard

People are nuts about black midi, and that’s encouraging to folks who like to see loud, complex rock music get some shine. Lisa Hagen Glynn

Witnessing black midi send the sold-out Neptune Theatre crowd into states of ecstasy and agony over 70 minutes on a Monday night, I thought of a famous quote by King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford: “King Crimson were the only band in the world who could play in 17/8 time and stay at 5-star hotels.” In other words, the commercial success London’s black midi have achieved just two studio albums into their career is startling.

The London quintet make anything but easily palatable rock for

Good evening, ladies. Matt Baume

You never know where heroes or villains might develop, but Robert Maxheimer, Exhibitions Manager at The Walt Disney Company, saw it happen at the D23 Expo in 2019.

At that year’s fan expo, Disney had assembled a display of costumes from their archives, with 20,000 people passing through the exhibit over three days. Among them were a mother and daughter, dressed as Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother. The pair studied the costumes on display, Maxheimer recalls, so that they could go back home and tweak the designs of their own outfits.

That’s just one slice of the magic to find in the exhibition that just

It’s SIFF season, baby! Seattle’s favorite film fest returns this month with 262 films over 11 days (April 14–24) screening both in-person and online. We’re rounding up some of our favorites. Every day, expect two more recommendations on Slog.

If Aubrey Plaza is in a film, I am watching it. Courtesy of SIFF

I didn’t get a screener of Spin Me Round so I’m making this recommendation based on faith. Also, on the fact that director Jeff Baena’s previous film, The Little Hours, was a perverse and hilarious adaptation of The Decameron from 14th-century Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio. Perhaps it is a fault of mine, but I immediately trust a director

Joe Newton

Bisexual female in an open/monogamish relationship with a heterosexual male. My partner and I have some friends in the swinging lifestyle that invite us to parties and group sex events. They recently picked up gonorrhea at a hotel takeover and did not find out until after hosting 20 people at a sex party. So, the group is now dealing with a gonorrhea outbreak—mostly oral infections, as we are all very diligent about condom usage for PIV. We are being treated, but I am pretty upset. The thing that bothers me most is how nonchalant they are being about the situation! One person even called this an