There was one person doing laps around the rink with speed and grace and not falling on her back every three steps like the rest of us. I jealously wondered if she had brought her own skates, and if the blades had been sharpened, unlike our dull footwear. Someone told me that this is what professional figure skaters train on, which confused me even more. Because HOW??

The word “accountability” seems impossible to avoid for anyone paying attention. Repeatedly, people with power abuse their position. Repeatedly, communities clamor for accountability, a just outcome for all affected persons, and satisfying solutions that will excise the rot from which harm festers and breeds. It is difficult not to feel disillusioned by the usual wishy-washy or dismissive responses, feigned ignorance, and lack of material progress in terms of repairing harm and promoting safety. How are we supposed to hold people accountable, so to speak, if they won’t take accountability?

On December 14, I was lucky enough to attend the PNW premiere of Life on the Moon, a play written by Anna Tatelman, directed by Jeremy Radick, and produced by Baker Theater Workshop. Hosted at ReAct Theatre, Life on the Moon is a family drama that centers on the relationship between siblings Piper, an 18-year-old with autism, and her older brother Spencer, who has just returned home from the army for the holidays.

Communion Restaurant & Bar sits inside the historic Liberty Bank Building in the heart of Seattle’s Central District. For me, this wasn’t just dinner; it was a return to my roots. I grew up on 20th & Union, and this exact spot used to be Thompson’s Point of View, a restaurant I frequented all through elementary school. Eating here felt like stepping into a memory with a modern twist.

Central Cinema looks incredibly industrial from the outside, but once inside, it's a single screen of terrific movie magic.

The building that houses Central Cinema in Seattle's Central District was erected in the late 1920s and has housed both a car dealership and a milk bottling plant. The idea to turn a piece of the space into a combination movie theater and pub came to Kevin Spitzer, a metal artist, when he was renting it as his studio. In summer 2005, Kevin and his wife Kate opened the theater and have been operating it in the 20 years since.  

In the winter of 2022, Cafe Nordo, a company who created beloved immersive theater and dining experiences within Pioneer Square’s Nord Alley, closed its doors and set its gaze to a dream of the future. After thirty original productions hosted in its two venues, the Culinarium and the Knife Room, the company decided to seek out a larger, more accessible home to produce and sustain boundless creativity. As they searched for real estate with sufficient accommodations, the dream world began to take shape. A rift, so to say, opened beneath Cafe Nordo, and out emerged Nebula.

The strike comes in response to years of unsuccessful bargaining sessions in which Starbucks dismissed their workers’ concerns, chief among them proper staffing and increased wages. A key issue in this strike is Starbucks’ liberal use of union-busting tactics. SBWU has filed over one thousand ULPs (unfair labor practice suits), citing hundreds of unresolved labor law violations such as retaliatory firings, withholding tips, store closures, and unfair staffing cuts.

As the FIFA World Cup looms on the horizon, Seattleites are proactively bracing their communities and neighborhoods for impact. Organizations such as the CID Coalition, Stop the Sweeps, the Seattle Solidarity Budget, and more launched the Protect Our Pitch 206 Campaign, a collective movement aiming to intercept the harm that accompanies mega sporting events. 

Now that we have finally left behind a dreadfully hot summer, gardeners all over the Puget Sound will be adding a layer of mulch to their soil and taking delicate plants indoors, while others, like me, will be keeping a careful eye on their indoor plants and making sure the heater is set low. Although we are about to move out of the ripening season for many of our beloved local Washington fruit (sweet Honeycrisp apple, how I will miss you!), that doesn’t mean that the Evergreen State’s farms and gardens will be empty or that there won’t be any gardening opportunities ahead for all of you green thumbs! If you’re hoping to keep your head in the gardening game, you need not look further than your own neighborhood.  

At its reopening in 2014, the Egyptian was a first run movie house for arthouse cinema and international films, much like it was under previous management. Toward the end of its lifespan, the Egyptian became the venue where SIFF would host more of its revival, restoration, and thematic programming. It is where Noir City and Scarecrowber found enthusiastic crowds. It is also where SIFF hosted Capitol Hill's pinkest party in July 2023 with joyously raucous showings of Barbie.

The bitter adage, “Seattle isn’t what it used to be,” recently increased in circulation after the shocking news of the Crocodile shuttering the doors of Here-After and Madame Lou’s. In their statement, the Crocodile asserted that they are committed to the longevity of their main stage—unfortunately, it comes at the cost of their smaller comedy and music venues.

“People on food stamps are lazy!” A phrase I and many others have heard too often. In the summer of 2019, I was in my 2nd year at the Seattle Aquarium, managing a little over 400 community partnerships, serving on several boards and committees, and I had just become the newest member of the Washington State Environmental Justice Task Force. 

I was also on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. Food stamps. 

Impossible Maps, a dance concert choreographed by C. Asa Call and performed at Yaw Theater, explored the ever-agonizing experience of grief and how, despite its wretched terrain, it can and must be navigated. Under a mythic lens, it interwove expressions of humanity’s despair with the mourning of Earth’s seasonal cyclical deaths and its inevitable final destruction.

On the evening of Monday October 27, actors, theater crew, directors, and producers (along with their families and friends) gathered at Town Hall Seattle for The Gregorys. Twenty-five years of celebration and recognition from and for the theatre community, the theme apt and invited dazzling outfits: One Night, Many Stars. 

Seattle Trans Underground Film Festival (STUFF) held its first viewings on October 16, 2025, at the lovely Northwest Film Forum. I had the honor to snuggle into a cozy theatre amongst a host of creative Queer and Trans individuals to watch the festival’s first double feature, CW’s Laughtrack and Henry Hanson’s Dog Movie. There were many laughs and a few tears shed, especially at the films’ closes, where both received minutes-long applause.

October 16 was Opening Night of The Little Foxes at the Erickson Theatre in Capitol Hill. Directed by Ryan Guzzo Purcell, this fall show is a collaboration between Intiman Theatre and The Feast. The play runs through November 2. Written by Lillian Hellman in 1939, The Little Foxes is set in the early 1900s, and follows a fractured southern family at war with each other over money. With a Gothic sensibility and a satirical, sharp wit, the play feels very contemporary and relevant to reality now, despite approaching a century in age.

With less than one week until the much awaited Gregory Awards, there is much yet to do. Fashion choices must be decided, scenes rehearsed, and speeches prepared. While all that is happening, let’s take a look at who’s going to be there and how their stars rose. 

Andrew Bell is a Seattle-based filmmaker whose feature debut, Bleeding (2024), has received attention from the broader horror community in the past year. The film follows teenage cousins Eric (John R. Howley) and Sean (Jasper Jones), in a world where vampire blood is a highly addictive drug. While on the run from Sean’s dealer, they run into a sleeping teenager (Tori Wong) locked in a house, and things spiral into a morbid nightmare. Bleeding tackles intense real-world problems while maintaining the heightened fantasy of horror.

Tucked in the jagged seam between the end of one theatrical season and the start of another sits the Gregory Awards: a chance for the artists and theater companies of the region to be recognized and celebrated for their achievements and outstanding performances throughout the year.

Nowadays, people are buying twice as many clothes as twenty years ago and disposing of them just as much. This phenomenon exacerbates the presence of worldwide. It is often attributed to fast fashion, which promotes excessive buying. 

The FXRY (pronounced “fix-ery”) is offering a sustainable alternative.