Seattle Culture
A Broker Weighs in on Housing Prices
Sellers are everywhere. Buyers are not. What gives?
Homeowners want to sell their houses. Buyers are wary. The Northwest Multiple Listing Service recently released its monthly report on housing activity in 26 of the state’s 39 counties, and the statistics are extremely lopsided. The number of homes for sale increased 39.4% year over year, but the number of transactions rose only 1.9%. That’s…
Four Exciting New Hotel Openings for 2025
Urban luxury, European inspiration, and a wine-themed resort
Unlike other options, hotels offer more than just a bed for the night. They turn lobbies into social hubs, become neighborhood anchors, and raise the bar on food and drink. These new hotel openings for 2025 should be just as exciting for Seattleites as they are for visitors. Hotel Westland: A New Era for Pioneer…
It’s Microsoft, Amazon and Starbucks
Washington is home to three of America’s top 10 brands
Download that report to Excel, or play a game of Xbox to relax. Log onto Amazon and grab that Swedish dishcloth you’ve been reading so much about. Then head to Starbucks and grab a latte macchiato or peppermint mocha. You’ve earned it. The Seattle area is home to three of the most valuable brands in…
Hoops and Hops at Seattle Bars During March Madness
Many have special hours during the NCAA Tournament
Jen Barnes, who owns the Ballard sports bar Rough & Tumble, is a fourth-generation Seattleite who grew up cheering on University of Washington sports. So, when the University of Washington women’s basketball team qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017 she celebrated. It also meant a boom to her business, the first women’s sports bar in Seattle. Sports fans and…
The Pulse: Twilight Season
A denim party and one very chill sloth
Everyone’s talking about spring. But Seattle — this is it for now. Gray and wet, with some sun speckled in. This is what you’re built for — slick streets and layered jackets. The city is at its most handsome when it’s moody. The cherry blossoms are just starting to show, soft little rebels that they…
Fixing Third Avenue, One Step At A Time
New lighting is part of a broader effort to revitalize the street
Third Avenue has long been the scourge of downtown Seattle. It’s been sketchy for at least the better part of two decades. It may not seem like much, but festive lighting has been installed along the “Spark Block,” between Stewart and Pine streets on Third Avenue. The enhancement includes striking catenary lighting and builds on…
Must List: Six Things to Do This Week
Mar 20 - Mar 26
Jazz, colors, freedom
What are you up to this week? I’m going to see Emergence with my daughter, who’s a young dancer. Where should we eat dinner before the show? Today is Alien Abduction Day, and here’s how to celebrate. Waitress is at Fifth Avenue, and it sounds like a fun one. Ai Weiwei’s biggest U.S. show just…
Cascadia Art Museum Lands a Game-Changing Gift of Timeless Treasures
More than 75 rare Northwest paintings join the museum’s collection
What did the Aurora Bridge or South Lake Union look like in the 1930s? Probably not the way you picture it. Before tech campuses and traffic jams, Seattle’s waterfront and cityscapes had a different kind of energy — one captured in some of the paintings now headed to Cascadia Art Museum. Thanks to a major…
This Gym is a Hacker’s Heaven
Bellevue’s Upgrade Labs goes all in on biohacking
Debra Arend wants to live until she’s 120. Her husband, Kevin DeLashmutt, goes several steps further. His goal is 150. That’s just one reason why the couple recently became a franchisee of Upgrade Labs, a Bellevue-based wellness center whose website says is “unlike any gym you’ve ever experienced in North America.” Upgrade Labs is…
Fifth Avenue’s Waitress Delivers
The musical is uplifting, even whimsical at times
I loved the movie Waitress when it came out almost two decades ago. I also loved The Fifth Avenue Theatre’s rendition of the musical of the same name. An almost sold-out crowd last week was boisterous and raucous, with many booing the abusive husband (“Earl,” played by Dane Stokinger) and cheering the relationships between the…
How to Celebrate Alien Abduction Day Like a True Washingtonian
If aliens are coming for us, we might as well be prepared
The beauty of Alien Abduction Day (AAD) is that nobody really knows where it came from, much like the aliens themselves. One day, it just appeared. And if any state should fully embrace it, it’s Washington — because according to actual data, we are the second most UFO-obsessed state in the country. The almost-reigning champs…
Ai Weiwei’s Biggest U.S. Show Opens at SAM
The retrospective covers 40 years of the conceptual artist’s career
This week, the Seattle Art Museum opened the largest-ever U.S. exhibition featuring the work of Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Spanning four decades of the artist’s career, Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei (March 12–Sept. 7) includes 130 works — a mix of sculpture, video, painting, wallpaper, furniture, and installation —…
Saying Goodbye to Barney
Seattle’s oldest harbor seal, the first born at the Aquarium, leaves behind nearly 40 years of memories
The aquarium and the city have lost a good friend. Barney, the Seattle Aquarium’s longtime harbor seal, has passed away at the age of 39 — roughly the equivalent of a centenarian in human years. He was the first harbor seal born at the Aquarium in 1985. He was also one of the oldest harbor…
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