Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 8/18/26 Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 8/18/26

Your Weekend Plan: What the Funk?! BIPOC Burlesque at Triple Door

Puckduction, in association with The Stay Up Late Show and powered by Shunpike, proudly announces the return of What the Funk?! An All BIPOC Burlesque Festival. Celebrating its milestone 7th anniversary, the three-night spectacular will take over the historic mainstage of The Triple Door from August 20 to August 22, 2026.

Zach Youngs 8/11/26 Zach Youngs 8/11/26

Sound Cinema: Pickford Film Center

The Pickford Film Center at Grand Ave. was an effort by the Center's board of directors to further meet the demand for the cinematic experience in downtown Bellingham. They had found a space not very far from their home location on Bay St. and in August 2021, the work began to bring the space to life. In August 2025, the Grand location opened. This makes the Grand the youngest theater, by nearly a decade, covered so far here in Sound Cinema.

Parker Dean 8/6/26 Parker Dean 8/6/26

Parker’s Pages: Hollow Kingdom

There’s one thing you should know about me: I LOVE birds. Can’t get enough of ‘em. Which you can tell by my many articles that I’ve written and shared here at the Echo. So when I found this lovely little gem, narrated by a self-assured little crow named Shit Turd (S.T. for short), I was all in.

Maxwell Meier 8/5/26 Maxwell Meier 8/5/26

Carkeek Park: The Psychic

The captain called her to the parking lot of Carkeek Park Beach around noon. An open field, cradled by a crescent of evergreens, had people sprinkled throughout. The grass quivered in the summer breeze as the sun bore down on everyone bobbing through the barricades and the towering trees.

“Missing child,” Captain Long stated.

Parker Dean 8/4/26 Parker Dean 8/4/26

Genesee Park: Wasp Nest

Buzzing around an unattended bottle of soda, Wasp #134—a.k.a Zippy—plotted for the domination of one such place known by the Humans as “S Bradford St Trl.” Though Zippy was not well versed in the ways of the Humans, he assumed these strange words to have a hidden message.

Zach Youngs 7/31/26 Zach Youngs 7/31/26

Movies by the Tower: A Super Year 5

There are many summer events that draw crowds—maybe from out of town, or even out of state—but sometimes the sweetest summer event is the one from your own community.

Gray Harrison 7/22/26 Gray Harrison 7/22/26

Spooky Tales Traverse Seattle with ‘KAIDAN: Japanese Ghost Stories’

Japanese ghost stories are coming to Seattle in August. Za Trans-Pacific Productions and director Mimi Katano will present KAIDAN: Japanese Ghost Stories in August at locations around the city. Ghost stories go way back in Japan’s history. Kaidan, or traditional ghost stories of yūrei (ghosts) and yokai (supernatural beings) are steeped in literary and theatrical tradition.

Zach Youngs 7/14/26 Zach Youngs 7/14/26

Sound Cinema: Edmonds Theater

On this particular summer Tuesday at the Edmonds I saw the latest from Pixar, Toy Story 5. As with all franchises that have made it into their third decade, this one has quite a few diminishing returns. This feels like a rehash of Toy Story 2, mixed with the identity crises of Toy Story, and the dread of being left behind from Toy Story 3.

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.

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