At 7:30 a.m. this morning, the bespectacled, 73-year-old Peter Lippman was in a crowd of activists with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). 

As he walked around the corner from Cascade Playground to Fairview Market, 400 Fairview Ave. N., Lippman explained he was there for the same reason as everyone else marching with him: To ruin Palantir’s day.

Saturday 7/19

DJ Pee .Wee
While the name DJ Pee .Wee might not ring any bells, I’m sure you are familiar with the man behind the pseudonym, Anderson .Paak, of both solo fame and duos like Silk Sonic (with Bruno Mars) and NxWorries (with Knxwledge). Now, one thing about me is that I absolutely cannot stand Bruno Mars, so naturally, I steered clear of Silk Sonic’s Grammy-winning An Evening with Silk Sonic. However, I recently discovered that the duo covers one of the best songs of all time on the album, Con Funk Shun’s “Love’s Train.” This is all to say that despite sometimes making embarrassing music, Anderson .Paak clearly has great taste. Don’t miss his headlining set, which, according to Redditors, promises a dance party with back-to-back bangers (Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” and Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” have been played in the past), sing-alongs of his songs, and potentially live drum solos. AUDREY VANN

Dora Jar
California-based rising star Dora Jarkowski, better known by her stage name Dora Jar, burst onto the indie scene with the release of her debut EP Digital Meadow in 2021, which combined dreamy bedroom pop with confessional lyrics and garnered comparisons to Faye Webster and St. Vincent. Since then, she’s opened for artists like the Neighborhood and Billie Eilish. Most recently, she’s been in the news due to a particularly whiny subset of Gracie Abrams fans petitioning to oust her as the opener for Abrams’s tour, which seems more like a ringing endorsement than a drawback if you ask me. If you were a theater kid in another life, secretly still believe in fairies, are nostalgic for the ethereal vocals of pre-Elon Grimes, and/or enjoy the whimsical storytelling of artists like Laufey and Conan Gray, you’ll be into this. JULIANNE BELL

Slayyyter
Once likened to “Charli XCX on whippets” by The Fader, internet pop princess Slayyyter rose to fame via SoundCloud and sounds like an amalgam of Y2K icons like Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan in the best way possible. With songs like “Daddy AF” and “I Love Hollywood!,” her music is the aural equivalent of a bedazzled magenta Motorola Razr. She frequently collaborates with electronic artist Ayesha Erotica and was recently featured on Kesha’s pulsating new club banger “ATTENTION!” along with up-and-coming English singer-songwriter Rose Gray. I predict the crowd at her set will be populated by girls, gays, and theys dressed in leather and rhinestones. JULIANNE BELL

Thundercat
Thundercat’s music is weird, groovy, and kind of brilliant. It’s funk, jazz, R&B, and anime energy all smashed together by one of the best bass players alive. One minute he’s singing about his Dragon Ball durag, the next he’s shredding a solo that sounds like it came from another planet, and somehow it all works. His live shows are loose and unpredictable, but that’s what makes them fun. You’ll get jokes, you’ll get feelings, and you’ll definitely get a lot of bass. If you like music that’s funny, emotional, and groovy all at the same time, don’t skip this set. And if you see someone in the crowd dressed as Sayaman with a Dragon Ball durag trailing on the ground like a cape, just let them vibe. That’s me. Mind your business. CHRISTIAN PARROCO

MONDAY 7/14  

Find a Good Patio

(SUMMER) Monday's weather is shaping up to be a perfect summer day—low 70s, cool breeze, slight cloud cover so the sun doesn’t bake you alive. So today, forget all your responsibilities and treat yourself to an afternoon on a really great patio. A few favorites of mine include Marination Ma Kai in West Seattle, which is far enough from Alki Beach to avoid the maddening crowds and terrible traffic; Bongos in Green Lake, which actually has a sandpit so you can run your toes through soft beach sand while eating alllll the tostones (get the chocoflan, too!); and the Flora Bakehouse's rooftop patio, and not just because THEY PUT SOFT SERVE IN A CROISSANT. Don't forget sunscreen. MEGAN SELING

How do we deal with all of this? The president is threatening to take over New York City because voters want to elect a candidate who simply promises to make a very expensive city affordable. Federal agents storm a city park near downtown Los Angeles as if they are in a warzone (they also brought along horses, as if they were hunting down runaway slaves). In Seattle, masked men claiming to work for ICE abducted a woman, known as “the food lady,” from a parking lot in White Center. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

We can no longer end a day in the US without Trump’s administration breaking or strangling laws that protect the rights of all individuals or the institutions of our democracy. When will this end? How long can this go on? Because questions of this kind are on the minds of most Americans, I propose that we turn to sadness itself for support during a period that, for now, appears to be endlessly tenebrious.

Good Morning! We’re getting a break from the heat today. Highs in the mid-70s, partly cloudy. The kind of perfect Seattle summer weather that convinces innocent bystanders to move here on a whim. Today’s the day to do all of the things you couldn’t bear to do in yesterday’s 90-degree heat, because it might be coming back later this week.

But to start, let’s do the news.

Seattle’s Proudest Bank Robber: Since June of last year, Seattle has had its very own serial bank robber, and we might finally know who it is. Leena Chang, a 24-year-old in the U-District, has been charged with seven counts of first-degree robbery (and one attempt). According to the charging docs, she did a really solid impression of every bank robbery you’ve ever seen on TV: She wore a face mask, sunglasses, or hats, and passed handwritten notes to tellers requesting the cash in their drawers. She later began to carry “a hyper-realistic air soft gun,” the charging docs say. When police searched her home, they found clothes and accessories that matched ones from the robberies. They also found the notes she showed tellers (one says “Thanks in advance” at the bottom) and a painting that she’d made of her own FBI bulletin. “She LOVES that the FBI put out a bulletin on her,” the anonymous tip to police read, “and has never seemed (so, so) proud that the term SERIAL bank robber is what she is being considered.” We all cope with late-stage capitalism in our own ways. 

Wrong-way driving on Roosevelt

Exiting the bar at close, I flag your car down. You swing back and tell me you need people like me in your life. Is it too late to buy you a drink?

Solstice boy @ Add-A-Ball

You’re tall + told me your name was Skyler (?) but I was on a mission. You told me to find you later but I forgot. Glitter shorts, red boots. Find me.

There is an old and probably apocryphal story from the French revolution that goes like this: A bourgeois leader of the revolution is seated comfortably at a café by the side of the road in the 12th arrondissement, sipping  wine and enjoying the company of a friend. Suddenly, a mob rushes by, carrying torches and pitchforks and shouting revolutionary slogans. “There go my people,” remarks the revolutionary. “I must find out where they’re going so I can lead them there.”

I’ve been thinking about this story a lot over the last few months as I’ve watched the Harrell administration struggle to respond to the growing challenge posed by Katie Wilson’s upstart mayoral campaign. As things stand, Wilson is almost exactly tied in fundraising, way ahead in Democracy Vouchers, quite possibly leading the polls, and is now endorsed by The Stranger.

Illustrations by Addeline Griswold

Click the image below—or right here—to open a larger version of the flowchart in a new tab! 

1. Northwest Tune-Up

July 11–13

Northwest Tune-Up will transform downtown Bellingham into a peak-PNW oasis celebrating all things bikes, beer, and music. After a long day of exploring the world-class mountain bike singletracks and competing in (or spectating) bike races, wind down with some live music and local brews. 

HIGHLIGHTS: STS9, Chet Faker (DJ set), Silversun Pickups, and the 502s.

State Department Firings Today: Today the State Department is firing more than 1,300 employees, according to the AP. Layoff notices are going out to “1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the United States.” Back in May, the State Department said they’d be cutting 18 percent of jobs to, as the Trump administration wrote in a memo obtained by the AP, “reshape American diplomacy and scale back the size of the federal government.”

Still Talking Tariffs: Trump is still obsessed with tariffs, like a toddler who just learned a new word. This week, the administration threatened to raise several rates to absolutely bonkers levels if the countries didn’t fall in line and accept his initial tariff rates proposed in April. (Remember that big dumb sign he had made? What an idiot.) He says he’s going to impose a 25 percent tariff on Japan and South Korea, a 35 percent tariff on all Canadian goods, and a 50 percent tariff on products from Brazil. That last one is because he’s mad about the “witch-hunt” trial against former president Jair Bolsonaro, btw. (Remember when they said women were “too emotional” to be in office? Sigh.) The Guardian has a handy explainer if you want to feel like you’re punching yourself in the brain over and over and over again with a fistful of nails.

Suspended Secret Service: Six Secret Service agents have been suspended without pay for a range of 10 to 42 days after an “official disciplinary review process” of the shooting at Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The Biden-ordered independent review of the shooting found that Secret Service personnel at the event demonstrated “a troubling lack of critical thinking.” It’s contagious. 

The weather's heating up this weekend and so is the event calendar. From Ballard SeafoodFest to the West Seattle Summer Fest, and from the One Seattle Day of Service to Hot Off the Press Book Fair, there's plenty to squeeze into your schedule. And don't forget, there are even more suggestions in our top picks guide.

FRIDAY

LIVE MUSIC

Downtown Summer Sounds 2025
Downtown Summer Sounds brings free, live music to the heart of Seattle for their 46th annual concert series. Shows run through August and take place across several parks and outdoor venues featuring artists from smaller local bands like Racoma and Cumulus to world-renowned multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi and Seattle power rockers Chastity Belt. The series kicks off this Friday evening with Raveena's Indian-tinged R&B. SHANNON LUBETICH
(Westlake Park, Downtown, free)

A summer blockbuster about an undocumented alien with unyielding socialist values who continuously bails out a country clearly undeserving of him. Is it any wonder that James Gunn’s Superman movie, released Friday, is reflexively triggering fascists to demand people claw out their corneas rather than be subjected to its “woke proselytizing?”

Even before its release, the outrage coming from the conservative content mill branded the film a beta male cuckfest, wishing it the ultimate cinematic kiss of death: that it bombed harder than Disney's live-action remake of Snow White (ouch). And for what? Simply because Gunn, the film's director and screenwriter, had the gall to emphasize Superman's ties to the immigrant experience in America. After all, he did migrate from another planet with dubious legality.

Hey you, don’t be the last to hear about the latest crop of concerts going on sale! Heart plays a hometown show this November with frequent tour-mates Cheap Trick. Experimental pop duo Magdalena Bay has added a Seattle date to their Imaginal Mystery tour. Plus, rising R&B artist Destin Conrad supports his debut album with a headlining tour this fall. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

ON SALE FRIDAY, JULY 11

MUSIC

Anna of the North
Neumos (Mon Dec 1)

Baroness - Red & Blue Part II
Neumos (Thurs Sept 11)

Destin Conrad - Love On Digital Tour
Neptune Theatre (Tues Oct 28)

Silver Wave Alert: We hate kids in Washington. And we love old people. At least, that's what I'm inferring from this data about how older adults are outnumbering children in 24 Washington counties. While we still have more youths than elderly as a whole in Washington, this current demographic shift signals a narrowing gap that could spell trouble for our aging state. Make it easier to buy a home, fund schools, and have well-paying jobs and maybe my generation will start reproducing. Just maybe though. Sorry to my mother-in-law. 

Love City Love Claims Another Corpse: For now. The nomadic art venue is camping out inside the shell of the former catch-all convenience store, ShopRite (or the Shit Shop as some Capitol Hill lifers I know dubbed it), which closed on 15th Avenue E earlier this year after 30 years in business. Between now and whenever the investment firm that will redevelop the building gets its act together, Love City Love is filling the space with open mics, sewing classes, and a cafe. It joins the Punk Rock Flea Market which has taken over the old QFC just down the block as it awaits its own redevelopment fate. 

It turns out having half a dozen people shove their giant cameras into the stage to repeatedly fire flash bulbs into the faces of performers is pretty fucking distracting.

You are worse than the people holding their phones up, and you actively take people out of the performance by inserting yourselves aggressively between audience and performer.