I'm On a Mac!

Check out the "I'm on a Mac" video parody at http://digg.com/d31E1bf



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My Top Movies Of 2009

2009 over all was a great year for movies. My list of movies that I enjoyed in 2009 is long so I'll talk about a few and the rest will be listed below. Being that there is still another two weeks with potentially two amazing movies coming out on the 25th, I will update my list again on the 28th of December. Until then, here is my top list thus far in no particular order:

A Single Man



Star Trek
In my opinion the best reboot for a franchise ever. Full of action, more accessible to the mainstream but yet maintained the imagination and intrigue that Star Trek fans loved about the franchise.

Are you outta your Vulcan mind (Bones)


Watchmen


Zack Snyder's masterpiece. It was the unfilmable graphic novel but I think Zack accomplished what nobody thought anyone could. He filmed a beautiful movie and brought the graphic novel alive. Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach was a thing of beauty. Also had one of the year's best trailers.

Zombieland


Closet thing to the American version of Shaun Of The Dead. Hilarious with a great cast (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson) and a cameo that takes this movie to a whole new level of amazing!

500 Days Of Summer


2009 was the year for some amazing trailers. This trailer here had me sold on the movie a month before Sundance. I probably watched this trailer 20 times before Sundance and another 20 times after seeing the movie at Sundance. Two of my favorite rising stars, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Mysterious Skin) and Zooey Deschanel (She & Him, Elf). Not only are they both hott but seriously talented.

The Box
To me Richard Kelly is the new David Lynch (I know to many thats blaspheme, but its true). Though still rough around the edges his movies are beautifully landscaped, based in the "what if" and layered in existentialism. After seeing a Richard Kelly movie I'm always left with this feeling that I can't shake for a few days, a longing to live in the world that he's created. The Box is no exception, its dark, bizarre, beautiful and will live you with more questions then answers but thats what makes me love Richard Kelly.

The Road

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a sucker for a good post apocalyptic movie. Hands down this is the best post apocalyptic movie that I have probably ever seen. The Road is dark, depressing as hell and true to Cormac McCarthy's book by the same name.

Adventureland


The "Say Anything" of our generation. Coming-of-age comedy starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. Movie solidified in my head how much better of an actor Jesse Eisenberg is than Michael Cera and showed that contrary to her Twilight performances, Kristen Stewart can actually act.

District 9

Surprise indie sci-fi flick of the year. The movie was written and directed by newcomer Neill Blomkamp for under 30 million yet the movie had the look and feel of something costing 2 to 3 times that. Which always amazes me how much crap can be put out there costing hundreds of millions yet movies like District 9 can blow them away. Rotten Tomatoes pretty much sums it up "Technically brilliant and emotionally wrenching, District 9 has action, imagination, and all the elements of a thoroughly entertaining science-fiction classic."

Rudo Y Cursi & Sin Nombre


Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal were busy in 2009 with 2 movies. First one was Rudo Y Cursi which was the directorial debut of Carlos Cuarón brother of Alfonso Cuarón, which reunited Diego and Gael on the screen for a "drama/comedy about two brothers from a rural lower class Mexican family with roots in a little "banana town" on the coast of Mexico, and fighting over who performs better in professional soccer." (Wiki)

2nd movie was the award winning "Sin Nombre" in which Diego and Gael were executive producers.

Sin Nombre was like the Mexican version of "City of God," a realistic portrayal of migrant life and the cancer that is the gangs of Mexico. Apart of the movie made me miss the streets of Juarez Mexico but at the same time seeing the movie also served to remind me everything that I hated about Mexico.


The Mystery Team - One of the funniest indie comedies I have ever seen. I think it was pretty much made on "no budget" which makes it even more amazing. Watch the Trailer


Drag Me To Hell - It was the return of the old Sam Raimi, back with a new classic. Not a horror movie but a celebration of all things Sam Raimi, if you loved the Evil Dead series but were disappointed with his Spiderman era, you'll love this movie.


Other great movies
Let The Right One In
The Hurt Locker
The Hangover
A Vicious Kind
Moon
Up In The Air

What are your top movies of 2009?

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PoDog, Avatar & A New Site

Just a couple of things from this week.



PoDogs is a great new hot dog joint on Capitol Hill. You can get anything from your standard dog to a peanut butter dog. Check them out at http://www.podogs.com/



Avatar was absolutely amazing!!! If you haven't already done so, go

Finally Emerson Salon launched a new website. http://EmersonSalon.com



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A Very Gaga Christmas Parody

One of the funniest things I have seen all week


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Movies To Watch: A Single Man & Broken Embraces

On Christmas this year not only do I get to spend the morning with my family but two movies that I have been waiting to see will finally be out in Seatte.

A Single Man
Here is the movie description: "A story that centers on an English professor who, after the sudden death of his partner tries to go about his typical day in Los Angeles. Cast includes: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Lee Pace and Nicholas Hoult"

Movie features an amazing cast like Julianne Moore and Colin Firth, with Matthew Goode, Lee Pace and Nicholas Hoult for some serious eye candy. This will also be Tom Ford's directorial debut. Movie is set in the 1960's and production design was done by the same team that does the tv show Mad Men.




Broken Embraces
Latest film from Pedro Almodóvar (Volver, Mal Educacion), featuring the beautiful Penelope Cruz in her 4th film with Almodóvar.



Both of these are out December 25th in Seattle, don't miss them.


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Ms.Taken and the Douchbags of 2009

MsTaken is hosting the first ever Douchebag of the year award. Submit your nominee for top Douchebag at http://mstaken.com/blog/douchebag-year-award/

I nominated Tiger Woods and the men from that new tv series Jersey Shore.

Also MsTaken is running a holiday special on their fake engagement ring. For the month of December only $24.99. Check it out here


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Oh Snap! Tiger Woods Voicemail Slow Jam Remix

Share

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My Top 10 Albums of 2009

My top albums of 2009 in no specific order (with the exception of Girls)

Girls
I don't like to order my top albums of the year, I prefer to say I love them all equally but if I had to set one album apart from the rest it would be Girls. "Hellhole Ratrace" is beautifully haunting.

Girls - Hellhole Ratrace sound bite

Metric - Fantasies
Who isn't in love with Emily Haines! Solid pop album that had me singing along all year.

Gimme Sympathy sound bite Fantasies sound bites

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Like Metric this album was solid from beginning to end. One of those albums where you feel like you should have paid more for it due to how damn good it is. I owe my love of Phoenix to Sofia Coppola for first introducing me to the band when she put them on the soundtrack to Lost In Translation.




Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Favorite Scottish rockers return with such a sad album that some how manages to make me happy when listening. I love the heavy 60's influence in songs like "French Navy."

Camera Obscura "The Sweetest Thing" sound bite

Passion Pit - Manners
Easily the best dance album of 2009. I had Sleepyhead stuck in my head all summer long



Brand New - Daisy
Album is delightfully dark and seriously makes me wonder what it must be like to be Jesse Lacey and what horrible events inspired such a dark album. The album can be a shock to the system when compared to their earlier work but may God help you once it burns into your brain trying to get it out of your head.


The Ravoenettes - In And Out Of Control
This was my most anticipated album of 2009 and it did not disappoint. The Guardian summed it up well when they said "fantasy fusion of the Phil Spector-produced Ronettes and C86-era indie stars the Primitives."



Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - s/t
Surprise new band of the year for me. These guys came out of nowhere and quickly became one of my new favorite bands. Young love as told through the lens of this dream pop sugary goodness that is the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Makes you want to be a teenager in love all over again.



The Big Pink - A Brief History Of Love
The 2nd album to kick me in the gut and take me by surprise. I started to hear some buzz but it wasn't until my friend Andy at Eenie Meenie tweeted about it that I finally gave them a listen. The album has that bigger than itself "wall of sound" feel that is like crack to me, and will have you in a euphoric daze.


Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
Though I feel Karen O has had a few stumbles (Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack) together as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, they never disappoint. The album was full of synth, keyboards and beats to make anyone want to dance, also made for some amazing remixes.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (A Trak Remix) sound bite

Breakout bands to look out for: 2010 will easily be about Ellie Goulding. Ellie is a genius, though her album has yet to drop her singles that have been released and leaked like "Under The Sheets" and "Starry Eyed" are absolutely amazing and have played on my iTunes nonstop. With that being said her side project GoldSmith which is her collaboration with StarSmith might very well be the other big thing in 2010 if this video and sample of the material they are working on is any indication of what to expect.

What were your top albums?

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Emerson Salon One Year Anniversary

A little last minute notice. Emerson Salon is turning One this Saturday. If your in the area stop by and celebrate with us. 7pm to 10pm


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Third Eye Blind (Stephen Jenkins) Performing A New Song

New Third Eye Blind, how exciting! Check out this new song called "One In Ten"

Stephan Jenkins sings "One in Ten" from Gothamist on Vimeo.

Stephen performing "Motorcycle Drive-bye"

Stephan Jenkins sings "Motorcycle Drive By" from Gothamist on Vimeo.

These videos were taken at the Gothamist office, you can watch the rest of them here.





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The Seattle Light Rail Has Arrived

Check out some of these pictures and videos from around Seattle
Video of the Light Rail by Linda Jeanne

by Mike Bjork

by LeeLeFever

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Amazon Kindle 1984 update

Amazon released it's reasons for the deletion
From CNET

" the books in question had been published illegally--and not by the publisher with U.S. rights for these books, which are still under copyright protection in this country"

I understand the situation though I still feel deleting peoples books for any reason is not right. In all honesty I still love the concept of the kindle but this situation has made me more cautious. What do you think about the 1984 debacle.

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I Take Back Any Nice Things I Ever Said About The Amazon Kindle & Ebooks

From The SciFiWire and NYTimes

I take back any nice thing I ever felt about Amazon!

Got a Kindle? Think you've got a copy of 1984 on it? Don't be so sure about that.

Hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners had their electronic copies of George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 deleted from their e-book readers overnight, according to David Pogue's tech blog over at The New York Times.

It seems that the publisher which had offered these electronic editions changed its mind, and so Amazon remotely deleted those books from people's Kindles and refunded the purchase price to their accounts. But ... didn't the Kindle owners who'd bought and paid for these editions own them? Apparently not.

Per one of Pogue's commenters, "It's like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we've been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table."

It's like if EMI decided they didn't want online mp3s anymore and one morning I woke up to find my entire itunes EMI collection gone. Who cares about the money! No more Kindle ebooks for me.


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DayBreakers Trailer and the best use of a Placebo song

I love Vampires, so when I saw this trailer I was instantly hooked, the concept is great and it has a solid cast...But what really sold me on it was the use of Placebo in the trailer. Amazing!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYiMygqlfo

Song you hear at the end is Placebo covering Kate Bush "Running Up That Hill"

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Music Recommendations: Passion Pit "Sleephead" & Frankmusik "Rehab (amy winehouse cover)"

Passion Pit "Sleepyhead"


Frankmusik - Rehab


If your on Blip.FM add me
http://blip.fm/alexgarcia

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Movie Review: 500 Days Of Summer

"500 Days of Summer" comes out this Friday, it was my favorite movie at the Sundance Film Festival. Easily the best romantic, not a love story but really is with a great soundtrack that includes The Smiths, movie of the year. Go See It!

FYI, I also wrote up a full review for the Kulture Blog which should be up on the site Thursday or Friday. Look for it at http://www.kulturblog.com

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This weekend the BIG East Pike Street Sale!!

Babeland has put together a pretty amazing 2 day event this weekend. The BIG East Pike Street Sale going on July 17th - 19th.

You can find discounts all up and down East Pike this weekend including Emerson Salon which is offering both 10% off and another 10% off if you bring in some canned food for NW Harvest. More about the Emerson Salon sale here and more about Babeland and other discounts here.

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Vittana - Students in school one loan at a time

There is an amazing new non profit called Vittana, which is kind of like Kiva for student loans.

Their mission statement is:

Our mission is to bring student loans to the developing world through the power of person-to-person micro-lending.

I am really excited for Vittana because I am a huge fan and believer in micro lending, the concept of everyone having the opportunity to help another person. Not just for the wealthy but for everyone, even another student who gives up a few lattes and donates $25 to help another student in another country. I have seen the success and impact non profits like DonorsChoose have had in the classrooms and I am excited to see what Vittana will do for student loans in the developing world. Take a moment and check out Vittana.org

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Puke In My Mouth

One of my favorite SNL shorts is the Lonely Island production "Jizz In My Pants"


Check out this amazing response from the girls "Puke In My Mouth"

Video was for MsTaken.com check them out


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Marination Mobile - Life Changing Tacos!

My friend Dave told me all about the Marination Mobile bbq korean taco truck and when I saw it parked up on Capitol Hill about a month ago I finally gave it a try. Best food decision I will most likely make all year. Seriously these tacos have changed my life and outlook on what mobile food means.

Seriously if there is one thing you do next week for lunch, make sure its the Marination Mobile, I kid you not, once you have their Aloha Sliders or Miso Chicken Tacos it will change your weekly priorities. You'll be waiting anxiously each week for your next opportunity to taste some taco goodness.

You can find them by visiting their site http://marinationmobile.com/

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Who has better parks? Vancouver or Seattle?

VIA Architecture has a great clip from the Great Urban Debate.

Who has better parks? Vancouver with Stanley Park or Seattle with Discovery Park?

Head over to http://via-architecture.blogspot.com/ watch the video and leave your comments on which city has the best parks

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The Great Urban Debate TONIGHT. Seattle vs Vancouver

Pretty interesting event especially since Peter Steinbrueck will be arguing for Vancouver and Vancouver's Gordon Price will be arguing for Seattle. Two amazing cities with such different ideas on urban developement. Looking forward to this event.

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Candlelight Walk Tonight for the 10th Anniversary of Columbine

Candlelight walk around Green Lake on the 10th Anniversary of Columbine. We'll have a short program, and we'll also officially launch schoolshooting.org on the same day. Feel free to bring along family and friends! (from Washington Ceasefire)

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News Around Seattle

Anyone want to be on Real World (link)
Seattle Home Values down 20%; time to buy! (link)
4th of July Firework Show being put on by Chase this summer (link)
Seattle Ranked Fourth Least Wasteful City (link)

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Best Tacos on Capitol Hill: Rancho Bravo Tacos

I read about the new taco joint on the Capitol Hill blog and went to check it out this last Sunday. Rancho Bravo Tacos has some pretty amazing potential. Easily the best tacos on Capitol Hill. The new business is located in the old KFC, pretty much just a shell at the moment but the food is goods. Check it out this week.
Rancho Bravo Tacos
1001 E Pine St
Seattle, WA 98122


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5 Seattle Twitter Peeps You Should Follow March 23 - 27

Here are some of the interesting Seattle people and companies I met on Twitter this week.
@Hotel_Max
Hotel Max a local Seattle hotel, added me and invited me to a tweetup they where hosting at the hotel on Monday. I had personally never been to Hotel Max but had walked by it a few times on the way to Top Pot Donuts. The tweetup was really laid back and extremely friendly. I loved how all the employees including the general manager were very engaging and excited about meeting their new twitter friends. We were also given a tour of the hotel, it was very Seattle.

The highlight of the tour was the 5th floor which is the floor dedicated to the Seattle music scene. Check them out on twitter, they have been known to give out free hotel stays.

The Kurt Cobain Room

Other great people I met on Twitter
@JessEstrada - Jess is the events director and the face of the greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Jess makes things happen, so if your a small business follow her.
@CityStimulus - I am a huge supporter of shopping local to help the local economy. These guys recently added me and gave me a shoutout on Twitter. Follow them and shop local.
@BMW - Northwest Tech Expert Extraordinaire. You can catch him on Seattle Kong 6/16 from time to time showing the latest gadgets and weekly on Portland's KXL onFridays at 6:40am and 8:40am
@Eincline - Besides being a fan of all things geek from BSG, Dollhouse, Star Trek and Comic Books he also happens to be a brilliant writer who has writen essays on Philosophy and Religion in the Whedonverse.

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What I Love About Seattle: Bauhaus Coffee House

Seattle has an amazing coffee shop scene, unlike any where else I have ever been with exception to Portland (Portland is like Seattle's little sister / they have a similar culture)

Photo from Flickr genesse

Photo from Flickr mvjantzen

Bauhaus is inviting and always packed full of people from the moment it opens till it closes at 1AM. People reading, writing novels, doing homework, chatting with friends and it's not uncommon for this all to happen to the soundtrack of some amazing music like Morrissey. There is something comforting about being surrounded by your fellow Capitol Hillers to the sweet sound of lattes and mochas being made. (Bauhaus on Yelp)

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Movies To Watch Out For: Sunshine Cleaning & The Limits Of Control

Sunshine Cleaning just looks plain hilarious


Limits of Control has so many things going for it. It is filmed in Spain which I absolutely adore and has some of my favorite actors Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Gael García Bernal. What else could I ask for? It is by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch who did Broken Flowers which I also loved.


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Jon Stewart Calls Out CNBC and Jim Cramer

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Obama On Education

President Obama gave a huge speech today on Education

President Obama is basically showing Republicans now to walk and chew gum at the same time. I am amazed by how focused Obama is, addressing all the important issues. Republicans have criticized him for taking on too many issues to which Obama responded that it's like Firefighters only focusing their efforts on the living room and letting the rest of the house burn to the ground. Brilliant!

Here is the Gates Foundation response to Obama speech on Education

"President Obama today continued to advance the urgent demand to improve America’s public education system from the earliest ages through high school and the completion of a college degree or certificate.

We join our grantees and students across the country in this important endeavor, including the need for fewer, clearer, and higher standards; pay that rewards effective teachers; data systems that track student achievement; and increasing financial aid that rewards postsecondary completion--not simply access." You can read the rest of the statement here

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Emerald City Comicon Is Almost Here

Emerald City Comicon is less than a month away and this year looks amazing.
I am looking forward to meeting Hellboy creator MIKE MIGNOLA, BEN TEMPLESMITH co-creator and artist of 30 Days of Night, WIL WHEATON (Star Trek, author), JEWEL STAITE (Kaylee from Firefly), AARON DOUGLAS (BSG) and TAHMOH PENIKETT (BSG). Emerald City Comicon is April 4th and 5th at the Washington State Convention Center



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Emerson Salon March Special

$10 Off in March
Style Cut, Shampoo and Blowout just $25
Visit EmersonSalon.com

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Won't You Just Die Already!!

picture from the dallas observer

Tonight there was a "Seattle as a No Newspaper Town?" panel and town hall to discuss the future of print media in Seattle..... Sounds absolutely boring and about 10 years too late. I can't even remember the last time I picked up a newspaper. You can't turn back the clock and unfortunately the time for change for most newspapers has passed.

Here are some tweets from the town hall tonight:

dont want print media to disappear though. so hoping the solution involves saving actual papers made from paper.

cannot sit idly by and watch newspapers die.

what upsets me is the classism of the discussion. not everyone has high-speed internet. (gets applause)

Why in the world would professionalism and ethics be lost due to change in MEDIUM?

I am amazed by the confusion and how the discussion can be very similar to the "We must save the auto industry" discussion. It's not like we have to re-invent the wheel, there are plenty of online new sites that are flourishing online and I recommend that we look to the political arena which has really been the leader in online news.

Here are two great examples
The Huffington Post - probably the closest thing to an online newspaper. Its format is newspaperish and it's content comes from a core group of staff writers and guest contributors which in the past has included Hillary Clinton, President Obama and John Cusack just to name a few. It's a model I could easily see implemented locally. Core staff of writers and guest contributors from the community.

Real Clear Politics - is more of an aggregator and it has been so successful that it has launched many spin offs. They aggregate what they consider to be the best news from the web and contribute original articles and commentary from a small group of core writers. Another great model I could see being implemented locally, pull in some great local blog content, pull some national news from the AP and have a core group of writers that can contribute some local newspapers.

So this brings me back to... what will we do with one newspaper in Seattle or none.. gasp! The answer is...we will survive. The time for discussion has long past and it's time for action and I have my money on someone like Patrick from WestSeattleBlog.com and Justin from CapitolHillSeattle.com to bring us the future in Seattle news.

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Reality Campaign: Clean Coal

New Reality ad directed by the Academy-award winning Coen Brothers. This is an amazing ad, you can learn more and join the campaign at http://www.thisisreality.org/



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Random Seattle News: Electronic Billing, Pets and Naming Parks

Finally electronic billing has arrived!

As a new option, customers of Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities now can choose to receive their bills electronically....To learn more or to sign up, visit either utility’s Web site. Seattle City Light’s is http://www.seattle.gov/light/. Seattle Public Utilities’ is http://www.seattle.gov/util/services//.

New Seattle Parks
Somehow with this big budget deficit Seattle still has the budget for more parks. I'm not complaining I personally think it's great, I just would have assumed that parks would have been the first thing to go.

The new parks are in Northgate and West Seattle. You can read all about the new parks and how to submit potential names for the new parks here

Spay or Neuter Your Pets For Free

To commemorate Feb. 24 as Spay Day USA, for the entire week of Feb. 23 through March 2, the Seattle Animal Shelter is offering certificates for free spaying and neutering to pet owners in need of financial assistance to have their pets sterilized. This offer ends at 5 p.m., Monday, March 2. For more information, call (206) 386-PETS (7387) or visit www.seattleanimalshelterorg.

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Slumdog Millionaire

Neighbors of "Slumdog Millionaire" child actor Mohammed Azharuddin cheering as they watch the Oscars on television in Mumbai on Monday.

(Indranil Mukherjee/Agence France-Presse)

One of my favorite movies of 2008 "Slumdog Millionaire", cleaned up at the Oscars last night. As someone who watches trends on the Internet for a living, I was fascinated by the discussions last night around the movie and it's awards. First I want to point out that I love Danny Boyle and thought the movie deserved all the awards that it won, especially when you consider what it was up against(Benjamin Button...!). The movie has sparked a huge interest in Bollywood and Indian culture altogether so look for more Indian influenced movies in 2009 and 2010.

What I found most interesting as I browsed my Facebook, Twitter and blog posts last night was that most negative comments about Slumdog came from the east coast. Words that seemed common in the criticism include: manipulative (especially in reference to how it made them feel) & overrated.

This blog post from Cinema Blend probably says it best.

"Too bad it’s also a forgettable, obvious fairy tale robotically programmed to tug at the heart strings of ignorant philistines. Slumdog Millionaire might be last year’s John 3:16 for most, but it’s last year’s 3 A.M. Lifetime original shitfest for me" (Cinema Blend)

So here are my conclusions:

• My east coast friends have amazing taste in movies and my west coast friends and I are just a sucker for a fairy tale.
• Life on the east coast is just so much harder, darker and so existential that a movie with a happy ending is just an insult to their very being.
• Indian culture is just not as popular on the east coast kind of like how Mexican films (Amores Perros, Y Tu Mama Tambien) are more popular on the West Coast due to the huge hispanic culture out west.

Well I am a sucker for fairy tales and Slumdog Millionaire was a great one. So if you have not seen this movie yet go out and see it for yourself.



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Why I Love Seattle Pizza Fusion

With all the restuarants coming and going on Capitol Hill I hardly have time to notice them. One restaurant that has impossible for me not to notice is Seattle's Pizza Fusion. Not only are they eco friendly, have gluten free options, organic ingredients, have tasty pizza, they are also one of the only retail businesses to understand the power of social media.

Check them out on Facebook and my favorite Twitter
Check out the review at Seattle Metro Blogs


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Where Are My Browncoats? Where is the Dollhouse Love?

I was sad to hear that Dollhouse had one of the lowest premiers for a network drama. I personally thought the show was great and had alot of potential. Joss Whedon is a genius and if I have learned one thing, it is to trust the guy. Joss has never let me down before, just look at the amazing work he has brought us: Firefly, Serenity, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel.

Calling all Browncoats and overall Whedon fans, don't let another great show get cancelled. If you missed the first episode you can watch it on Hulu for free http://www.hulu.com/dollhouse




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