Back in 1996, young filmmaker Ondi Timoner had an ambitious plan: She would follow 10 young underground rock bands for one year and film them, as they all reached for their respective grip on a brass ring of fame, success, and financial solvency that—thanks to the world-altering arrival of Nirvana—suddenly seemed within reach. 

But as the project, dubbed The Cut, moved forward, Timoner was drawn to the Brian Jonestown Massacre, a scuzzy gang of '60s psych-pop revivalists from LA with two impossibly charismatic members—hyperprolific frontman Anton Newcombe and tambourine player Joel Gion. And the BJM wouldn't stop hyping a band from Portland, the Dandy Warhols, that trucked in a more bubblegum glam sound, but were part of Newcombe’s foggy plan to foment a musical revolution.

Backyard Bagel
During the pandemic, owners Aaron and Emily Emas found a New York Times bagel recipe and began baking a half dozen per day for 10 months straight, so it's safe to say their formula is dialed in. The hobby soon grew into a baking business and pop-up known as Aaron's Bagels and has now morphed into this brick-and-mortar in Fremont, serving coffee, bialys, babkas, pizza, and other delights in addition to their crowd-pleasing bagels. 
Fremont

Good Morning! Our cold, dry January continues. I’m not mad at all the sunshine, but it’s 28 degrees right now and that’s just not walking-to-the-bus weather. It’s supposed to make it all the way up to the low 40s today, and we’ll have a break from the freezing temps overnight today, but we’ll dive right back in tomorrow. Stay warm, check out the KCRHA resources if you need them, and for the love of their little Frito-y paws, keep your animals inside.

Have you been enjoying the clear skies? It's been cold and quiet weather-wise, so we thought we'd share some pretty mares' tails (ice clouds high in the atmosphere) over Lake Washington this morning!☁️#wawx pic.twitter.com/53OzutZhWM

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) January 22, 2025

Okay, let’s get the Trump-dates out of the way. Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, hit a new snag in his confirmation hearing. Democrats have a sworn statement from his ex-sister-in-law, saying that he was frequently intoxicated and abusive to his ex-wife. The Senate is holding a test vote to see where things stand, but “There has been no public indication that any Republican is having reservations,” the New York Times reported. Cute. 

I live in an apartment complex where I have a neighbor upstairs who seems to think the world is his personal concert hall. This person plays piano at all hours of the day and night, with the earliest I’ve heard him start being around 7 am and the latest close to 1 am. I can’t even begin to describe how pissed off I get to hear the same two or three songs on repeat, and I’ll go ahead and add that he’s not particularly good at playing them. The repetition alone is enough to make me see red.

The kicker is that he’s not even good. I recognize the beginning of the same couple songs, and somewhere, he starts hitting random keys and then starts over again.

WEDNESDAY 1/22  

Amusements by Ikechukwu Ufomadu 

(COMEDY) I feel like whatever the 2025 equivalent of a "hipster" is when I espouse my love for alt comedy, but voices like Joe Pera, Connor O'Malley, Jo Firestone, Jacqueline Novak, Kate Berlant, and John Early really do keep me alive. I'm excited to count Ikechukwu Ufomadu, deemed the “gentleman-scholar of alt-comedy” (New York Magazine), among my new favorites. Armed with books, a cup of tea, and a slideshow, the Ziwe writer's absurdist one-man show Amusements defies genre and makes some astute observations. ("I understand many of you are 'here' tonight," he notices.) (Here-After, 2505 First Ave, 7 pm, $19.99, all ages) LINDSAY COSTELLO

In less than a week, the Seattle City Council will choose one of six finalists to fill Councilmember Tammy Morales' seat and represent District 2, which spans from the Chinatown-International District to Rainier Beach. With such a short timeline, there's little time to get familiar with the D2 hopefuls. 

Unfortunately for all involved, last night's only scheduled candidate forum, which took place at the Columbia City Theater, was a confused, biased disaster. 

Let’s Do Something a Little Different: If you want this morning’s headlines—both the good and the bad—then read on. There is news about death, murder, fire, and Trump, and almost none of it is good! But if you want to exist in a world that’s all lollipops and roses, and act as though nothing is terrible, click here for the first (only?) installment of Slog AM: Only Good News! 

Executive Order Whiplash: There are a lot of headlines flying around about all the executive orders that Trump has signed so far—he’s rolled back diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, halted all refugee travel to the US, increased large-scale deportations across the country, withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, and demanded the government only recognize two genders, for example. If you’re starting to feel nauseous from it all, Axios has this handy running list of the executive orders that he’s signed so far, what they are, what it means.

Let the Lawsuits Begin: Twenty-two states are suing Trump “to block an executive order that refuses to recognize the U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants as citizens,” reports the New York Times. The National Treasury Employees Union is also suing his administration for his DEI rollback, resulting in “reclassification of thousands of federal workers as political hires.” Several groups have also filed lawsuits against DOGE. 

While national Democrats lost the White House and US Senate in November, what happened in Pennsylvania should not dictate what Washington legislators do now. Washingtonians voted to expand Democrats’ power up and down the ballot, making it clear we want more — not less — of what Democrats have been doing the last 8 years. Voters gave Washington State Democrats a mandate this election. Now Democratic legislators must act on it by passing bold, progressive policies during this year’s legislative session. 

Photos by Patty Tang

Nearly four thousand people gathered in the frigid chill of a Seattle morning for the 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. March and Rally. They came, as they have for the last 42 years, to remember, to demand, to insist upon their right to hope. But this year, the march struck a searing juxtaposition with events unfolding 2,700 miles away in the nation’s capital. 

In Washington D.C, Donald Trump stood before the world once more, mouth full of lies, a demagogue returned to power by a nation still unable—or unwilling—to reckon with itself. Within hours, the familiar machinery of cravenness was back in motion: Insurrectionists welcomed home as heroes, rolling back transgender rights, and rescinding Diversity Equity, and Inclusion measures at the federal level. All this on the same day meant to honor a man who gave his life for the vision that we might, one day, be better than this.

Don't let winter's frigid temps keep you from living your best life. We're giving you plenty of reasons to leave the house this week, with tip-top events from Jamie xx to thuy: Wings World Tour and from Tim Heidecker: Slipping Away Tour to a talk with Percival Everett.

TUESDAY

LIVE MUSIC

Arooj Aftab: Night Reign Tour
New York-based Pakistani singer-songwriter Arooj Aftab blends traditional Urdu poetry with gentle folk guitar and ambient elements that perfectly cradle her ethereal voice. On her newest album, Night Reign, Aftab collaborates with a wide range of musicians, including Kaki King, Moor Mother, Elvis Costello, and Chocolate Genius, Inc. for a haunting blend of Pakistani folk music and bebop jazz. With the album's atmospheric electronics, neo-classical piano melodies, and heavenly vocals, it will surely sound just as magical live. AUDREY VANN
(The Crocodile, Belltown)

I’m a lesbian in a big city. My partner of five years is the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met, and we are deeply in love, and plan to spend the rest of our lives together. She has a son from an early-in-life marriage to a man. He is eighteen years old, a senior in high school, and living at home with his mother. (My partner and I do not live together.) About two years ago he got swept up in MAGA hate, toxic masculinity, and virulent homophobia. He is incredibly verbally abusive to my partner and increasingly to me. He has threatened her physically a couple of times. He has called me a pedophile and refers to me as “that piece of shit.” He has said that Trump is going to “take care of people like” me and his mother! All his friends are MAGA bros, but he is too embarrassed by his gay mother to bring them around. My sister says it’s past time for this young man [to] find his own place to live but my partner doesn’t want to throw him out because that’s what’s been done to so many queer young people and of course she loves him. She has a lot of justifications for why he turned out this way. I am hesitant to keep weighing in because he’s her kid, but it affects me and our relationship. He is the angriest and most hateful person, and he thinks I am preventing his mother from living a “normal life.” I don’t know what boundaries I should set but I’m not willing to give up this woman who I love with all my heart. I would welcome any advice you might have.

This Relationship Under Mounting Pressure

Whelp, that happened. Trump, “saved by God to make America great again,” kicked off his first day as the 47th President of the United States with a flurry of executive orders, wielding his signature big Sharpie like a pro. Whether you dealt with those pangs of existential dread by way of drowning them in booze, talking it out to a teletherapist, or marching in the streets (no judgment from someone who partook in all three, at times simultaneously), we got through the first day of the Trump administration, now only 1,459 of these suckers to go… 

Meanwhile, Melania, back in her role as First Lady, showed us how to ward off predators and defend borders—one oversized hat at a time. She’s not an icon, she’s complicit! Alright, let’s get into it.

 

 

 

 

 

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Introduction and captions written by Hannah Murphy Winter.

Last weekend, photographer West Smith got on Sound Transit and headed down to Tacoma. Why? Because it was time for Monster Jam—the three-day monster truck rally at the Tacoma Dome. This show has everything: A truck named Scooby-Doo; A motocross halftime show; (Probably) AI-generated songs about America. The whole event was (actually) sponsored by super glue. So today, as we all doom scroll through executive order updates, we offer you monster trucks. No thoughts, just smash. 

David Lynch, the one-of-a-kind mind behind the acclaimed Twin Peaks, and iconic films like Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire, was a dreamer in the purest, most exciting sense of the word. He conjured up richly atmospheric visions of the Pacific Northwest that took the mundane and made it mystical—inviting viewers into his ethereal, vibrant, and evocative twilight dream of this region. Lynch died on Thursday at the age of 78, leaving not only an indelible mark on cinema but a legacy in Washington state, too. 

In the Pacific Northwest, Lynch built worlds that were eerily familiar and frighteningly strange, bringing whimsy and wonder to the lore that lurks in our dark corners. He was not just one of the greatest American filmmakers to ever live, he was one of our greatest artists. And nowhere were the dreams he shared more mesmerizing and moving than when he graced the region with his camera. In his death, he takes an irreplaceable part of our cinematic history with him. As I write this, with the rain pouring down and the heavens thundering, my mind is dominated by his work.