The blue hair is so on the nose.
The blue hair is so on the nose for "stressed Seattleite during the pandemic." Trailer screenshot from HBO Max

I'm already obsessed: HBO Max has dropped the first official trailer for Steven Soderbergh's KIMI, a film starring Zoë Kravitz as Angela Childs,"a voice stream interpreter who overhears a murder on a recording she was analyzing." The title refers to the Alexa/Siri-esque digital assistant in the film. Iconically, the movie is set in Seattle and has Kravitz frantically running up and down our city's streets thinking someone is out to get her. Deeply relatable. It comes out February 10:

Yesterday, King County Exec Dow Constantine announced $1.9 million in awards: The $$$ comes from the Festival & Event Restart Fund and will go to 185 festivals and events across King County. This comes after Constantine announced that $19.5 million in awards would go to arts and culture organizations still suffering from the pandemic. Check out the full list of fundees here.

I spent last week in snowy-ass Spokane, and was pleased to see that the snow had all but washed away on this side of the state. In big Western Washington fashion, there's more where that came from. According to the Seattle Times, another atmospheric river is snaking its way to our region today and tomorrow, hitting us with one to two inches of rain. Weather nerds also expect some King County rivers to potentially flood starting tomorrow.

And in eastern Washington: Snow is coming out of residents' eyeballs. In Leavenworth, there's so much of the fluffy, cold stuff that they are running out of places to put it.

The ocean is basically boiling, everyone: In 2021, we saw "the hottest ocean temperatures in recorded history, the sixth consecutive year that this record has been broken," reports The Guardian. And, ya, humans are at fault.

After spilling the beans on KUOW's Soundside, Mayor Harrell announced a couple more office appointments: Port Commissioner Hamdi Mohamed will head up the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, International District/Chinatown PDA director Maiko Winkler-Chin will run the housing department, and notably, Andrew Myerberg will leave his role as the Office of Police Accountability's director to become Harrell's director of public safety. On Mohamed's move: The port is a part-time job, so Mohamed taking this position in Harrell's cabinet doesn't mean she has to give up her newly elected position, and she told us she's staying at the port.

OK the quickest of dispatches from my colleague Rich Smith: Take it away, my friend.

The state of the state is not much: Continuing in his tradition of comparing the challenges facing the allied powers in World War II to the challenge of passing pretty standard Democratic fare through two legislative chambers with healthy Democratic majorities, Inslee borrows a quote from Winston Churchill and demands “action, this day” from the Legislature on his supplementary budget proposal.

Ty Rich ^__^

Attention ravers: Kremwerk is expanding! The vaunted club complex will be adding Cherry Nightclub to its roster. Located right next to Krem's Little Maria's pizzeria, the street-level club will open on February 16 during the complex's eighth anniversary festival. Hope that COVID rates go down enough so we can all meet at the Cherry 🍒

Police have found the cellphone and car keys of a man believed to have been swept away by fast-moving water in Southwest Washington. 39-year-old Timothy Warren of Malone, WA has been missing since Sunday when he drove past a road closure sign, reports the Associated Press. The Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office believes "the items were dropped by Warren after he exited the vehicle and tried to walk out of swiftly-moving water."

Neo-Nazi group leader sentenced: Today, 25-year-old Kaleb Cole was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of leading an intimidation campaign against primarily Jewish and of color journalists and activists who fought antisemitism, reports KOMO. As part of the Antomwaffen group, he and his co-conspirators sent threatening letters and glued posters that read "you have been visited by your local Nazis" to victims' homes.

More than half of Europe could catch the 'rona in the next six to eight weeks: According to the World Health Organization, there will be "a new west-to-east tidal wave sweeping across the region," reports the New York Times. Vaccines do work against causing severe illness and death, but WHO said COVID shouldn't be treated like the seasonal flu especially as parts of Eastern Europe—and indeed much of the world—is not yet vaccinated.

I know Rich mentioned this in Slog AM: But President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris officially gave their speeches today in Atlanta backing the end of the Senate's filibuster as well as urging Congress to pass the voting rights bill. “Sadly, the United States Senate, designed to be the world’s greatest deliberative body, has been rendered a shell of its former self,” Biden said. “As an institutionalist, I believe that the threat to our democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills, debate them, vote. Let the majority prevail." Shit is looking fraught for the end of the filibuster and there may be more than just killjoys Sinema and Manchin to worry about.

Good news for Bank of America customers (for once): The bank announced today that starting in May, they will cut overdraft fees from $35 to $10 following pressure from consumer advocacy groups, reports ABC News. They also said they will completely cut the totally bullshit "non-sufficient funds fee" which would charge customers for a rejected transaction or a bounced check. Do yourself a favor and get with your local credit union.

Heads up Pierce County readers: There's a new temporary COVID testing site at Spanaway Park. This opens as the county (and the whole damn country) is experiencing record case counts and a surge in need for testing. Tests are free and appointments are not required, so officials say be prepared to wait to get your nussy swabbed. You can expect results "in three to five days," says KING 5.

Someone will for sure host the Oscars this year: After going three years sans host, the 94th Academy Awards will air on March 27 with an MC to guide the evening's proceedings. It could be Tom Holland.

"Houston, we have a pebble problem": The little lonely rover called Perseverance that is currently traversing the cold, red surface of Mars has run into a problem. According to Gizmodo, a "Martian rock sample extracted on December 29 didn't transfer correctly into the rover's long-term storage" causing some debris to get left inside its cold, metal body. The big brains over at NASA are figuring out how to remove the debris before sending the rover on its merry way.

End your night with some drama: The New York Times looks into the fracture between the Seattle Symphony and their recently departed director, Thomas Dausgaard.

For your listening pleasure: Remi Wolf's "Sexy Villian."