Calista Robbins 7/2/26 Calista Robbins 7/2/26

The Divided Line: Selah [Part 1]

Those enemies, Selah and his colleagues had learned of late, included them too. They’d hauled fifty workers off the grounds a week or so ago, shoved them in the back of black armored vans, and shipped them off to that prison across the sound. It’d been such a grand spectacle. A warning, really, to any others who thought to question the corpocratic reign.

Maxwell Meier 6/30/26 Maxwell Meier 6/30/26

A Queer Reflection on PNW Wedding Planning

Wedding planning during Pride month brings forth newfound realizations, opportunities for self-reflection, and chances to make amends with past traumas, which makes June all the more special.

Parker Dean 6/23/26 Parker Dean 6/23/26

Museum of Illusions Tickles Brains of All Ages

The Museum of Illusions has been open in Seattle for just around two years now, and each visit promises something unique, engaging, and absolutely mind blowing. During my visit to the MOI, I experienced a tilted room, a room with endless mirrors, and got a few silly snapshots that played with perspective.

Zach Youngs 6/9/26 Zach Youngs 6/9/26

Sound Cinema: Anacortes Cinemas

Anacortes Cinemas is their fourth cinema to be covered by Sound Cinema (Bainbridge Cinemas, the Historic Admiral, and the gone, but not forgotten Varsity). It’s one of their youngest theaters, but it retains a certain nostalgic charm.

Parker Dean 6/7/26 Parker Dean 6/7/26

Parker’s Pages: Dungeon Crawler Carl

Like clockwork, whenever I share what I do here at the Echo, specifically with this column, I am told that I must read and review Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman, a Puget Sound native and fantasy and sci-fi novelist. I must admit, it was the title that most intrigued me. I’d certainly played my own dungeon crawler once or twice, and I liked that there seemed to be humor and absurdism baked right into the title. So, after a long wait, I’m happy to announce I have finally cracked open the first book of this 8-book series (with two more on the way), and I am obsessed.

Calista Robbins 6/3/26 Calista Robbins 6/3/26

The Divided Line: Juno [Part 2]

She took a long breath, steadied herself, and veered off the main road as soon as the soldiers passed by her. After, it was a short yet steep walk to the hillside entry of the leisure district, a mockery of artistic curiosity. Bio-engineered trees stood in perfect symmetry on either side of the walkway. To the left, the movie theater and the music hall. To the right, the art museum. Each government-sanctioned and carefully curated.

Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 5/25/26 Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 5/25/26

Perennial Conventions: My Year Without a Smartphone

I had dispersed the grip my phone had on my reality and rendered it less powerful. But it wasn’t all birdsong and silence. Outside of getting lost frequently, and the amount of time it took to send a text—which was both a skill and will issue—there were other cons. Without social media or a smartphone, the lack of ease in communication left me out of the loop. That was my goal, of course, but feelings in reality are often different from expectations.

Zach Youngs 5/12/26 Zach Youngs 5/12/26

Sound Cinema: SIFF Downtown (Cinerama)

Before the brilliance of IMAX or the new immersive theater gimmicks of today, there was Cinerama. The technique was to use three synchronized projectors to run a film on a staggeringly large, curved, widescreen. It was a way to mimic how the human eye sees. The format began in 1952 and quickly spread in the 1960s. Seattle obtained its own Cinerama theater in 1963. Though, soon after, the format fell out of fashion and the suburban multiplexes kept people closer to home and away from these one-screen wonders. Seattle's theater languished and was ready to close for good when Microsoft co-founder and all around pop culture philanthropist Paul Allen saved and revamped our Cinerama.

Parker Dean 5/7/26 Parker Dean 5/7/26

Parker’s Pages: Project Hail Mary

Friends, please allow me to peel away from our Puget Sound authors to bring you my latest and greatest obsession: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Unless you’ve been living under a rock—or the spring fever haze here in the PNW—you’ve probably heard about Project Hail Mary (2026), the newest addition to Ryan Gosling’s filmography, and, in my opinion, quite possibly the best space movie of the last decade (sorry Dune). The film adaptation is spectacular (I watched it three times in theaters), and I definitely recommend you check it out when it starts streaming if you didn’t have the pleasure of seeing it on its big screen run.

Maxwell Meier 5/4/26 Maxwell Meier 5/4/26

To Seattle, With Autistic Love

Growing up in the South, stigmas can run wild, branding you. Queer? Hide that shit. Autistic? Mask it at all costs. I learned to let people perceive me like a shadow. I showed enough of myself to let people get a sense of me without letting anyone in too deep.

Calista Robbins 5/2/26 Calista Robbins 5/2/26

The Divided Line: Juno [Part 1]

The Divided Line RETURNS.

It had come on suddenly, the sky cracking open with a bolt of electricity and a sharp clap of thunder.

And how fitting a night for it to strike. Nature’s encore of the bombs that’d burst mid-evening. Now the rain smothered the smoking debris and washed clean the bloodied rubble.

Juno tapped the screen of her phone to wake it, heart pounding with nerve-addled hope in the fleeting moments before it illuminated. Hope that Atticus’ name might be on the screen with two words trailing it.

Zach Youngs 5/1/26 Zach Youngs 5/1/26

SIFF 2026: Bigger, Queerer, Wilder, and More Inclusive Than Ever

The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is here at last! The 10-day celebration of cinema starts May 7 and closes on May 17. This year, the festival's physical locations feel like they will keep us in the heart of everything—all four venues are within a reasonable walking distance of each other. There are the three remaining SIFF theaters: the Uptown, Downtown, Film Center, and PACCAR IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center serves as the fourth. The festival brings together film lovers and filmmakers in a raucous cavalcade of films from around the world and right here at home.

Zach Youngs 4/14/26 Zach Youngs 4/14/26

Sound Cinema: Bainbridge Cinemas

Bainbridge Cinemas caters to a wide demographic. It is meant to be a theater that offers broad audience fare so that those that live on Bainbridge Island do not have to make a trek to the mainland if they want to see the latest releases on the big screen. Like most theaters, the theatrical window can be a bit tricky to manage, but in the old sense of the theater experience, if it plays, it stays.

Parker Dean 4/9/26 Parker Dean 4/9/26

Parker’s Pages: Schrader’s Chord

Author Scott Leeds lives in the Pacific Northwest, and just like many of the other authors I have covered before, his work perfectly encapsulated what it feels like to live and be in Seattle and its neighboring cities. There’s a certain way that writers from the PNW write about the rain, the fog, and the dark. Leeds is no different, and effortlessly brings Seattle to life.

Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 4/8/26 Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 4/8/26

Noveltease Arouses, Enlightens with Intersectional Literary Burlesque

If you believe burlesque isn’t for you or you’ve never attended a show before, Noveltease offers an experience that highlights the intersection of literature, dance, music, and history in a small venue, creating an intimacy that provides multisensory entertainment. I left feeling good, emboldened, and creative. And though glamorous clothes were shed, the message of the evening—particularly within the selected poems—was that of reclamation, self-affirmation, and pleasure without shame or exploitation.

Gray Harrison 3/24/26 Gray Harrison 3/24/26

Mudlark Oddities Communes with Curious Minds and Spirits

Mudlark Oddities sits nestled on a side street in the Ravenna neighborhood. To enter, you descend an unassuming staircase, then pop into a shop with narrow, cozy aisles and a seemingly never-ending collection of beautifully macabre things to look at. I’ve never stayed less than an hour in the place. In keeping with the name, which dates back to 1800s London and refers to people who scavenge riverbeds for valuable objects, the shop holds many gems in its keep and has fostered a dedicated community around it.

Maxwell Meier 3/23/26 Maxwell Meier 3/23/26

Take This Poetry Starter Pack to Your Library

The Seattle Central Library was the first haven I found. My friend helped me get my library card and showed me all its inner secrets and quirks. I immediately found sanctuary in the poetry section on the ninth floor. This is where I would read, write, and immerse myself into the world of poetry. My manuscripts felt right at home. One does not go to the library just for books—they go for the experience.

Gray Harrison 3/17/26 Gray Harrison 3/17/26

Seattle Film Society Nurtures Local Filmmaking Scene

On the last Thursday of every month, SFS screens thematic groupings of Washington-made short films at Northwest Film Forum. Submissions for Locals Only are open year-round. These screenings are followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and aftershow drinks and discussion at a nearby bar. Introvert that I am, the thought of mingling at a networking event was enough to make me feel nauseous. But I wanted to give it a shot, and it sounded intriguing.

Raegan Ballard-Gennrich and Parker Dean 3/13/26 Raegan Ballard-Gennrich and Parker Dean 3/13/26

‘Sinners’ in the LGBTQIA+ Lens, Part 3: Agency

Sinners continuously highlights the power and danger in refusal. This is an underrated technique that women, marginalized races, the Queer and Trans community, and anyone else that the world actively rejects have to learn if they expect to survive—when all options have been systemically stripped from you.

When your voice is not only ignored, but silenced… There is power in saying “No.”

Raegan Ballard-Gennrich and Parker Dean 3/13/26 Raegan Ballard-Gennrich and Parker Dean 3/13/26

‘Sinners’ in the LGBTQIA+ Lens, Part 2: Protection of Youth

With Sammie, one of the most notable themes in Sinners—the protection of youth—is carried through the film.

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