Q&A with Macklemore collaborator, rapper Xperience
Q&A with Macklemore collaborator, rapper Xperience

Rapper Tyler XP Andrews had a big hand in the latest Macklemore & Ryan Lewis record, This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, including writing credits on the songs "Brad Pitt's Cousin" and "Let's Eat." As such, the hip-hop duo asked Andrews to join them on their latest European tour, where we caught up with the lyricist during some down time in Newcastle upon Tyne in the U.K. We asked Andrews about his recent experience on tour, how he joined forces with Macklemore and what has been the hardest thing for him to cope with while traveling the world.

Read More
Q&AJake UittiSeattle Mag
A Brief History of Ice Skating in Seattle
A Brief History of Ice Skating in Seattle

In 1984, dressed in an eggshell-white leotard with sparkly teal highlights, Edmonds native Rosalynn Sumners, then only 20, rouge-cheeked and surprisingly poised, twirled through the air of a Sarajevo ice rink. Known for both her creativity and strength on the ice, Sumners, who’d won multiple national and international championships as a figure skater, earned an Olympic silver medal that day.

Read More
EssayJake UittiSeattle Weekly
Seattle Virtuoso Quinton Morris Is Set to Open Violin Studio for Low-Income Students of Color
Seattle Virtuoso Quinton Morris Is Set to Open Violin Studio for Low-Income Students of Color

For Seattle University’s Quinton Morris, one of two tenured African-American violin professors in the United States, the violin is both an instrument and a seed. And with it Morris is growing a great forest—his most recent plot being south of Seattle, where he’s founded Key to Change, a violin studio with branches in Renton and Maple Valley for students of color with limited financial resources.

The studio’s origins began way back in the ’90s, when Hank Linear, then president of the Renton Black Parents Association, saw Morris had talent. Linear, through his organization, made it possible for Morris to attend college tuition-free and bought him his first violin. Now Morris wants to pay that generosity forward.

Read More
ProfilesJake UittiSeattle Weekly
Five Seattle Dive Bars Worth Your While
Five Seattle Dive Bars Worth Your While

Look around. Seattle is getting more and more sterile with its prefabricated buildings, gentrified neighborhoods, and predictable cement-floor-and-exposed-pipe taphouses. The new wave of hangouts in this city are elaborate but often underwhelming. Where is the unique, the halting, the rugged? If you’re a beer drinker, where can you go to have a frosty pint that’s not out of a glossy magazine? Well, Beer Hunting has you covered with five great local dive bars (all of which also offer live music) where you can feel like you’re in an old-fashioned saloon.

Read More
ImbibeJake UittiSeattle Weekly
What I Eat: Sir Mix-A-Lot
What I Eat: Sir Mix-A-Lot

The man who wrote “Baby Got Back” is most definitely a foodie.

“I love trying new stuff,” says Anthony Ray, aka Sir Mix A Lot. “[Cooking] is a craft, man, it’s an art.”

Which, of course, inspires the question: would Sir Mix A Lot ever put aside the one’s-and-two’s and microphone for a chef’s hat and measuring cup?

Read More
FoodJake UittiThe Fresh Toast
Dinner Delivered
Dinner Delivered

I open my front door and find a square cardboard box with the words PeachDish emblazoned on the side. With a sense of anticipation, I pick up the heavier-than-expected delivery and take it to my kitchen to see what tonight’s dinner is going to be. Atlanta-based PeachDish, which offers recipes with a southern flavor, is among the dozens of companies contributing to one of the hottest trends in dining today: meal-kit home deliveries. While the services vary greatly, many of the bands allow you to choose savory dishes from an online menu for generally about $10 to $12.50 per serving.

Read More
FoodJake UittiAlaska Beyond/TMR
Kids at heart: Seattle musicians are devoted to their young audiences
Kids at heart: Seattle musicians are devoted to their young audiences

“It was a long time coming,” says musician Chris Ballew, swirling on a stool in his West Seattle home studio.

Ballew is speaking, of course, about his second act in music: Caspar Babypants.

Co-founder and frontman of the rock band The Presidents of the United States of America, Ballew says the lifestyle of a stadium rock group wore him down. But a new voice — one he’d always been looking for — struck him one day in the car thanks to a tantrum by his 2-year-old son, Augie.

His wife at the time, Mary-lynn (the two are now divorced), soothed their young son, singing the refrain, “Run, baby, run. Run, run, run.” Augie was calmed.

“I saw it work and I was amazed by it,” Ballew says.

Read More
EssayJake UittiSeattle Times
Damn the Weather’s Take on This Classic Cocktail Is Something Else
Damn the Weather’s Take on This Classic Cocktail Is Something Else

The Old Fashioned is, well, old-fashioned. But it’s also a drink experiencing a resurgence, in part thanks to its role in the dearly departed television series Mad Men. The drink, in a way, is a perfect metaphor for star character Don Draper: Its appearance is handsome, even bright. And it drinks with that edge that only rye whiskey offers, with a touch of well-worn sweetness.

Read More
ImbibeJake HansonSeattle Weekly