LOCAL POLL II #5 i think -- SEATTLE, WASHINGTON!

sorry -- will finishing editting this when i get back after the 7th, and add the rest of the new stuff i got & get then too. happy weeks, yall! xo

What's yer name/nickname yer going with here: pants

Where do you live?: seattle

What neighborhoods or areas around where you live you do you recommend exploring? capitol hill & the waterfront

Any good parks round you for sitting in or wandering through?
the waterfall park in pioneer square, volunteer park (great view on a
clear day - and the hothouse has GORGEOUS plants & fleurs! FREE!), 40-oz
park (it's really the park that's on the north end of pike place market,
but it's the most bizarre mix of folks hugging their brown bag 40-ouncers
& tourists in their dockers), gasworks park (best view of the city and
across the street from the best bakery ever: the essential baking co.), shilshole/golden gardens & alki beach (both places allow for pit fires)

Other local features or beautiful natural spots to take in?
take the ferry - any ferry - they're marvelous and the best place to
read the sunday nytimes! the COAST: going to 2nd beach to stare at a very inhospitible sea. drive through the cascades to see the mountain pass (it's on "20") - make sure to drive in each direction. driving through deception pass (moody & spooky on a misty day). oh, oh, oh! and camano island (which is really attached to the mainland and no island at all). or pacific beach (skip ocean shores, which my friends & i refer to as "open sores" - people play "sweet home alabama" and fly union flags and fucking mean it - SCAREY), which is gorgeous, lonely and looks out onto an unfathomably huge body of water. OOO! and the ballard locks - bring a campchair or blankie, a baguette & watch the boats come & go - it doesn't sound interesting, but it's the coolest thing - take my word for it. and in june, when the salmon are running, you can visit the fish ladder and see them do their thang. oh, and then you can go to the waterfront close by magnolia park. it's a rocky beach, but it's pretty private and a gorgeous place to take in sunsets.

Any good festivals? When?
capitol hill block party! i think it's @ the end of july and fuckin' RAWKS. i mean, the MELVINS played there last year! right next to a stage with HAWT breakdancers (sigh - nubile, agile boys). it costs like $10 or $15 but is SO worth it just to sit on a curb and stare @ all the gorgeous hip chillun's. i mean, for real! where DO all these people come from? i swear, i never knew there were THAT many gorgeous folks here in my city! oh, and they sell super duper cool local crafts and have all sorts of kule local community booths.

Best on-line/print source(s) for local entertainment info:
www.thestranger.com - it's our free weekly and the "stranger suggests" column is a great bet for good goings-on. altho i'm still pissed they didn't promote the world's biggest dance off till AFTER it happened, dammit! it was like THE kewlest thing EVER, and it was girls against boys, and fuckin' RAWKED. and here's a web guide to seattle's happy hour: http://www.seattletravel.com/seattle-happyhour-ballard.htm.

Best place(s) to stop in to see inexpensive local music (particularly those that regularly book bands with females):
chop suey is a good bet. neumo's hosts a lot of good shows.

Best place(s) to stop in to dance: wherever "yo son" is hosted. it's presently @ neumo's. or, if fankick hosts a 80's themed dance party. OR if circus contraption is hosted an open casting call for their halloween production of guerrilla performance - the past two years it's been "thriller" and appears to be an annual thang. or, if you want to be surrounded by a bunch of pastey, doughey nekkid honkeys, stop by the fremont solstice parade - a veritable freak show celebrating the summer solstice. the best part are the nekkid cyclists - it smacks of burning man.

Best place(s) to stop in to get a beer without pretention or hoo-haw:
golden palace. it's where you're rubbing elbows with homeless vietnam vets and "older" sex workers on the nod. very interesting scene. where i discovered i really could enjoy beer out of a can. good juke box. if you play star-spangled banner, just be prepared. there's nothing more heart-breaking than seeing a gaggle of homeless vets, singing their hearts out for "their country." shudder, shudder. during the day, it serves AWESOME hot & sour soup for cheap and is patronized by an entirely different constituency (think septuagenarians, women, that is, with really big hair drinking whiskey sours and whose feet don't even reach the rungs of the barstools).

okay, okay. if that sounds intimidating, check out 9-lb hammer. fucking awesome place in georgetown. reminds me of chicago ("sniff") and is down the street from stellar pizza (THE best pizza (thin crust) in the city and open late and has outdoor seating). or jules maes, which is also in georgetown (although there you get to see all the guys and gals in their vintage rock-a-billy gear - there's good pinball in back, too!). twilight is a good bet on the edge of capitol hill/central district. there's a pool table in back, and, if i'm not mistaken, karaoke machine. it's where the hipsters bring their online dates so that other hipsters don't bust their chinadoll asses. and it's nextdoor to deano's, where miss helen serves up the best soul food, but there's always a mess of bullshit nastiness around the liquor store (i mean, where you want to make sure your faculties are still sharp enough to know what's what although there are always a ton of squad cars cruising that block...).

Best place(s) to stop in to get a drink (ideally also without pretention or hoo-haw):
linda's - although there's plenty of pretense there (rock-n-roll pretense), but if you appear to be over the age of 25, you're invisible anyway so you may as well stop in and just be a voyeur. the drinks are pretty cheap, too. the people-watching is marvelous. the cha-cha's another good choice. both of these joints are in capitol hill where parking is kinda tuff.

the tin hat's up in ballard, has a pinball machine, good fish sammiches, cheap, unpretentious rock-n-roll joint - parking's no issue there, tho.

OH! how could i forget: MARS BAR. it's the punk rock joint with good beer, an awesome juke box, and kinda spendy nibbles @ the adjacent cafe. that's in eastlake. in the summer, they keep the backdoor open in the back room where you get the best view of the sunset over the city. shorty's has pinball and the hangover special: a bloody mary, a hot dog & a cigarette. that's in belltown.

Best place(s) to stop in just to stop in while visiting:
pike place market, for real. the central museum (the kewl museum in downtown). the frye art museum, the henry art gallery, iwajimaya (expensive, tho, good for window shopping), i-heart-rummage @ the crocodile every first sunday of the month (awesome local arts & crafts - AND they spin great music - good people-watching, too).

Best secret deals (happy hours, free museum times,free music locations, eats...):
great outdoor bars with happy hour: sam's steakhouse (happy hour 4-6pm daily), twilight (happy hour m-f 5-8pm & sa-sun 4-8pm), islander (hh m-f 5-7pm), roanoke tavern (no happy hour but they have TABLE TENNIS!) & contour (hh m-f 4-8pm & sa-sun 2-8pm).

Best bets for lodging: there are 2 hostels in town: green tortoise & hostelling international.

Is public transport available? Do you recommend it? If so, how much is it? If not, how should a visitor get around?
no train, but there's an extensive bus system ($1.25-$1.50 depending on the time). it's kind of overwelming since the buses weave through seemingly circuitous routes, but you can go online (http://transit.metrokc.gov/) and get door to door directions. walking's a good option, but the hill's ain't no joke. if you do drive, the cheapest parking lot in downtown i've found ($5 for all day) is on union just west of 1st - it's very close to the market, ironically.

Local book store(s)/music shop(s)/co-ops/other shops to check out (any feminist bookstores left out there?):>elliott bay bookstore, bailey-coy bookstore, TONS of used bookstores all over, sonic boom records, wall of sound records, pcc market (good market), any of the amazing farmer's markets that offer the best organics (http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/ - please note that this is NOT a complete list - the ballard farmer's market is year-round, not listed, located on market street), damsel, lipstick traces & blue bottle are all fun for one-of-a-kind arty stuff & clothing.

Locally-run cheap restaurant(s) you dig (yay to veg friendly and regional flair ones!):
Thai: jamjuree

Mexican: la carta oaxaca (medium priced - best mole in the city) or, for super cheap: bimbo's

Fish/seafood: ? most seafood places are a little too spendy for me

Breakfast: the bay cafe (fisherman's terminal: blue collar, cheap, fabulous view of the harbor, never any wait and awesome fresh food) or jitterbug cafe (a little more spendy but good) or coastal kitchen (again, spendier but good)

Diner: the five point, which is also a bar, is great for people-watching and is open super late.

Comfort food: especially after drinking? the frites place next to neumos. nothing but frites and like a dozen different kinds of fritesaus. open late. and then there's clara's in wallingford: good HAWAIIAN comfort food - mid-priced with a decent wine selection.

Good salad / salad bar: whole foods salad bar

Vegan food?: araya's (thai - they use a lot of seitan) & cyber dog's (upscale veggie dogs - sounds gross, but it's delicious)

Takeout: no se.

Pizza: stellar pizza or hot mama's or romio's

Coffee shop with character: bauhaus (hands down BEST people watching and FAB drip & FAB espresso, has wifi, too - AND they were playing erasure when i was there this weekend), zeitgeist and vivace.

Regional fare: again, too spendy for me.

Yer fav fancier place: cheap is fancy for me these days.

Others to recommend: ethiopian: pan africa or lalibela or meskel - pho: pho of aurora (better than "than brothers," no question, and you can watch the sex workers do their thang out on aurora) - vietnamese sammiches: seattle deli - gelato: bottega italiana (try the chocolate) - donuts: top pot (for real)

One road trip outta town you like: going out to the olympic coast; driving out through the cascades on 20.

Best/worst time of year to come. Why: best: june through mid-november - the weather's perfect, mild & clear - although i have to admit it's really cool to see the camillas blooming in february, and then the cherry blossoms and dogwood kick in march, and the rhododendrons and wisteria go apeshit in april! >worst: december-march - low ceiling skis. monochrome grey.

Shoes you recommend bringing for a good visit: good walkin' tchooz.

Quirks of yer town we should know about:>the drivers are horrible: polite and indecisive.

A bit about who you are:
i'm an artfag-jock mid-30s personal trainer and about to go to grad school for a physical therapy degree. into all sorts of music but gang of four, pixies, birthday party, bowie, cat power, all sorts of "nst-nst" music for working out (like jungle brother remixes, dubtribe soundsystem, fsol, diamanda galas remixes, old severed heads, front 242, revolting cocks), st. germain, old sabbath, lanterna, melvins, this mortal coil, modest mouse, arcade fire, etc. fiction - middlesex was my last favorite. robert olen butler's shorts are amazing. give me a nytimes magazine, harper's, the sun or smithsonian review, and i'm a happy clam. love periodicals. and will show up early to any appointment to dive into people/us-weekly trash!! i won't buy it, but i sure do love flipping through that nonsense. i dig breakdancers, my headphones, peppermint tea, graffiti art, capoeira, triathlon, block parties, tube socks, (road) bike porn, high performance gear that doesn't smell and that i can prodeal, old tools, oil cans, knife blanks, suicide girls, the color orange, pomegranites, cake, eating, shoe forms, undiscovered thrift stores without offensive prices, poppies, pansies, public gardens and p-patches, farmer's markets, people-watching, water, mountains, riding buses, smiling at strangers, williamsburg, brooklyn, chicago, memories of endless brunches @ leo's lunchroom, wicker park.