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Newcomers to Seattle love the variety of neighborhoods. We’re a counterpane of livable places with modest and grand homes often tucked together in a green and pleasant landscape. It’s a residential smorgasbord of cultures, home styles and enclaves, from houseboats to high-rises, bungalows to classic boxes. But that excitement of choice wasn’t always there for…

Arts and culture editor Brangien Davis picks the top shows coming to Seattle this spring. Get recommendations for shows, performances, readings and more, featuring rebooted classics, empowered leading ladies and inventive new takes on old favorites. Follow the links for detailed listings in each of the following categories: Editor’s PicksAbsolute must-sees in a variety of…

When former Microsoftie Nathan Myhrvold’s six-volume, 2,438-page book, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, was released in 2011, it was deemed nothing short of a culinary revolution—and established Seattle’s reputation as a hotbed of molecular gastronomy. Now two of Myhrvold’s culinary cohorts—chef and principal coauthor Chris Young and food photographer Ryan Matthew Smith—have…

It’s rumored that Danish poet and paper-cutting artist Hans Christian Andersen always kept a small pair of scissors on his person, just in case he was suddenly struck by the urge to snip out a scene. Called psaligraphy, the art of paper cutting has long been a tradition in Denmark, where every spring, sweethearts exchange…

Saying Joyce Carol Oates has a new novel out (Daddy Love, a riveting story of child abduction) is like saying a Kardashian made the cover of People magazine. She’s phenomenally prolific, but Oates also happens to be tremendously skilled at crafting compelling stories. Ask her how she excels at both quantity and quality during this…

Walden Three If you build it, they will come, right? What if you get a schematic of the place drawn up, build a website for it and write blog posts reporting on (fictional) arts events that (never) took place at the (imagined) space? Then will they come? Seattle’s Greg Lundgren aims to find out with…

LA Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema Starting in the late 1960s, amid tremendous social unrest, black Americans entered the UCLA film program in unprecedented numbers and began developing a new “black cinema.” These unheralded films—experimental, narrative, documentary—reveal uniquely artful attention to issues of class, history and culture. 3/1–3/24. Times and prices vary. Northwest Film…

Dateline: Paris, 1913. Russian composer Igor Stravinsky debuts his orchestral ballet The Rite of Spring (with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky) to a packed and eagerly awaiting house at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. But the audience is reportedly so confused and infuriated by the dissonant chords, unusual time signatures and freaky tonal structures that it begins…

Justin Marx was starving when he checked into a small hotel in the remote countryside of New Zealand a couple of years ago. He phoned down to the tiny kitchen, hoping for a simple snack. “They sent up a beautiful plate of cheese and charcuterie, but it was the olive oil that really blew me…

A growing distilling scene like ours in Washington goes through a series of stages. First, everyone’s excited about what might become available. Next, the clear spirits show up, the gins and vodkas, followed by the darker numbers, the brandies, liqueurs and whiskeys. After that, though, the individual distilleries personalities really begin to shine. This is…

My neighborhood, Wedgwood, never tops any best-neighborhoods lists. And even as loyalty prompted me to make a case for it while we planned this story, I knew couldn’t offer convincing evidence that this modest northeast swath, developed as part of the post–World War II housing boom, has it all. We do have a surprising number…

Bill Gates signed on to Reddit earlier this week for his first AMA (Ask Me Anything). That’s a question and answer forum in which Reddit users post questions and the AMA “host” (some celebrities, many not) answer in real-time. Not familiar with the Reddit format? It’s easier to read the streamlined version on Bill Gates’…

Sign up to have The Must List delivered weekly to your inbox. It’s free! MUST SEEHippiecrit: I Want to Change the World, I Just Don’t Feel Like itOpens Thursday (2/14-2/23) — Local theater fans who recognize veteran Seattle actor Bhama Roget will be thrilled to learn that her newest funny role is starring in her…

Mind-expanding afternoons at our beloved Pacific Science Center just got a whole lot easier on your wallet with free admission on the first Monday of every month from now until April (courtesy of Cigna). The first 200 people to come to the center will get an entire afternoon of awesome physics, dinosaurs and insects, as…