Weekending

ByDesign - NWFF is exploring the intersection between art and technology this weekend, with a series of films and events featuring true masters of their craft in the areas of music, graphic design, and overall artistic badassery. We're most excited about 8-Bit: A Documentary About Art and Video Games, which is making its Northwest debut.

Seattle Notables Costume Party: The McLeods are at it yet again. They've got the art exhibit, now they're throwing a party to celebrate Seattle's microcelebrities. We're dedicating ourselves to joining those ranks for next year's exhibit, but we have yet to figure out how we'll make ourselves more (in)famous. In any case, costume party Friday. It's going to be insane. Expect to see nipple on the Flickr photostream.

LebowskiFest: The bowling on Saturday is already sold out, but the screening of the Big Lebowski features The Real Dude, and a whole lot of people drinking white Russians. We're sure that this is going to be a memorable time. Watch out for nihilists. Congrats to BostonSteamer for all his work coming to fruition.

Bot Battles: The Transformers movie doesn't come out until the 4th of July, but this should be a good stopgap. One 12 foot square ring. Two robots enter, one robot leaves.

Rock Music, Rockin' Robots, and Rock Stars

We've picked up a few new readers over the last month, drawn in by the videos and commentary we were posting. It'll be interesting to see how many of them stick around now that we're going back to more activity-oriented posting, but we must stick to our original mission: filling your free time with random activities around Seattle.

We're just getting our heads back into that world (trust us, it's dark and sordid), and have to mention these things to you in case you're lacking things to do tonight (and you shouldn't be - it's First Thursday!). Also, for you new readers, be sure to either join the spanning_time group on Upcoming.org or subscribe to our calendar in your app of choice (click from the badge on the blog).


- Ellen Forney is doing another performance/reading of "I Love Led Zeppelin." We were so excited to see this we actually made the trek twice to catch it (we only caught the Q&A the first time due to traffic), and it was completely worth the effort. Ellen's work is very human, very funny, and very Seattle. At the Wild Rose, 8pm.

- This is a bit more academic, but there's a talk [.pdf link] on "The Art and Science of Social Robots" at UW. Cynthia Breazeal of the MIT Media Lab will talk about her research program, which focuses on the interaction between humans and robots. So in short, when the robots make their first moves to overthrow the world, it may be tips from this night that make all the difference for humanity. UW's Kane Hall 120, 7pm.

- McLeod Residence is having a preview of their newest exhibit, a series of photos and etc. of Seattle Notables as part of their weekly happy hour. That's cool and all, but by now you shouldn't need any prodding to go to the McLeod Residence. Just go!

Press for The McLeod Residence

The McLeod Residence had their first big gala for NYE. We were on the other side of the continent so we couldn't attend, but we've heard nothing but good things about the party, and the space is nothing short of amazing after the work that's been put in. Check the flickr stream from the photobooth to see how the party progressed. Once there's nipple and penis flashing, you know a party has passed a very important fun threshold. Nice work on the booth EQ!

There's an article about The Residence in The Stranger. You should read it.

Also, their grand opening is tomorrow. You should go.

Three Links Plus One

1 - Ignite Seattle - This new entrant to the Seattle unconference family held its first edition Thursday and it was fun, with interesting talks, a bridge-building competition (with popsicle sticks and glue guns naturally), and a nice cross section of the tech and art scenes. Keep an eye out for it. The next two links featured represention.

2 - Mcleod Residence - We get more and more excited about the Mcleod Residence as we hear more about it. Combining, art, tech stuff, and a bar, we can't quite wrap out head around what it's going to be, but that's sorta the point.

3 - RealityAllStarz - It's like 43things, but with points instead of personal fulfillment (which isn't meant as a dig).

Bonus - Heroes - We were hoping that Heroes would do well this season, and it's become a full-blown phenomenon. We've wanted so much to talk about this show every week, but we managed to refrain. NBC has made a smart move though and put every episode online for viewing, so there's no reason for you to not be caught up by the time this season starts up again in January. Trust us, Heroes is way better than Lost (contains spoilers).