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Looks like Conan O'Brien has found something to do with his free time, as today he announced a thirty-city live performance tour.  Dubbed "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour," his live show promises "a night of music, comedy, hugging, and the occasional awkward silence."  That sounds like the Conan we all know and love.

Kicking off in Eugene, Oregon on April 12th, the tour will take place over two months, making stops in twenty states and three Canadian provinces, as well as a special appearance at Bonnaroo.  Locally, Conan will perform at McCaw Hall on April 18th and April 19th--looks like this second show was just added!  Prices start at $39.50 (but this is Ticketmaster, so let's just say $50) all the way up to $695 for the drool-worthy special VIP meet-and-greet package. 

Full list of tour dates as of right now--ticket sales are strong, so second shows keep getting added--after the jump....

A brief timeout from the important business of war and teh Twitter and high school sports for this bulletin: This Grace Harbor Farms Golden Guernsey yogurt, which they just started selling at Ballard Market and I'm going to assume the other Town & Country markets, is freaking delicious....

This Friday, March 12, from 6 to 9 p.m., Roq la Rue is having its opening night for the second annual Lush Life invitational group show. Featuring works by 18 separate artists "that contain an opulence or richness, either in subject matter or technique," Lush Life 2 serves as a sort of primer course in the pop surrealist work Roq la Rue specializes in. The show features everything from Brian Despain's steampunk paintings to Travis Louie's ephemeral old-fashioned photorealistic paintings of alternate realities. Michael Brown's animal paintings pervert Margaret Keane's famous "big eye" paintings by making them far too human and soulful, while Andrew Arconti and Madeline Von Foerster ape classical painting styles while adding in surreal twists. The show also goes beyond paintings to include sculptures by Kris Kuksi, Mandy Greer, and Boomer Torvik.

The promoters for the third Isle of Wight pop festival in 1970 thought they'd build a bit on their successful draw of 150,000 the previous year. They got 600,000 or more. Despite the three-pound entrance fee for a weekend concert with Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Miles Davis, Procol Harum, Joan Baez, and Joni Mitchell, hordes camped out on a bluff overlooking the festival, watched for free, and occasionally set things on fire.

35-year-old Leonard Cohen was one of the last acts, roused in the middle of the night, and wearing what look like pajamas under his trench coat. Murray Lerner's live footage is more in the way of a concert film than a documentary, though he cuts away briefly to get context from Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Kris Kristofferson. The best thing would be to see it in a crowded theater, savoring all the hits Cohen had come up with before 1970, enveloped in a darkness that is both the beginning and end of something. Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight, 1970: Friday, March 12, 9 p.m., Saturday March 13, 9 p.m....

First: Let us congratulate the Cleveland High girls' basketball team, which yesterday won their first-ever state tournament game. In the 83-year history of the school! "Eagles! Eagles" chants filled the Tacoma Dome parking lot as Cleveland fans filed out post-game. Pretty cool. Cleveland will play Shorecrest tonight at 8:30 p.m. for a spot in the state semifinals.

You know you'll be rooting for Cleveland in this game, as KIRO right-wing talker Dori Monson is one of Shorecrest's assistants. I'm surprised Monson is in favor of government-funded athletics. Shouldn't the kids pay their own way, like the orphaned children Monson pilloried on his show last week? I digress.

Other Seattle schools shared Cleveland's success. Five Metro league teams advanced to today's quarterfinals, with only one suffering a loss. Franklin was the only loser--but with their three top scorers being underclassmen, I suspect the Quakers will exact some non-violent revenge in next year's tourney....

Seattleites will be seeing plenty of green over the next four days, March 11 to 14. Throngs of Seattle Sounders fans, wearing their green Sounder scarves, will be turning out en masse for a pre-season match between the Sounders and Portland Timbers late Thursday afternoon, at Qwest Field.

Friday evening, the Saint Patrick’s Day celebration kicks off with the 2010 Laying of the Green Stripe down Fourth Avenue. The Saint Patrick’s Day Parade marches up Fourth Avenue at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, and Sunday morning, thousands...

So the latest hullabaloo is over the Wright family proposal to build a Chihuly glass house where the Fun Forest once misspent idle youth--the news made the USA Today, for heaven's sake. The lesson seems to be that if you say you'll pay for construction, you can build whatever you like at Seattle Center.

A glorified Chihuly gift shop/restaurant was on no one's top ten list for the Center--well, except for Dale Chihuly and the Wrights, apparently, where it was number one with a putti.

Mossback crawled out from beneath a seed log to make the point that the Center has never been all that high-toned--that was in defense of Chihuly, by the way. On the City Council, Sally Bagshaw said, What about our Central Park plan? Mayor McGinn said, It makes money? And Council President Richard Conlin plumped squarely for a Central-Parkesque open space with a glass house in it....

Proletariat Pizza - Half Cinco, Half Margharita

They say the pizza in New York City is so good because of the quality of the municipal water used to make the pizza dough. Well, if that is true, then White Center must have some of the best water in the state. I say this because Proletariat Pizza is some of the best I have ever had in my life. Though to be fair, I should point out that I have never been to New York. But based on online reviews, I'm not alone in thinking this way. The pizzas are consistently delicious. I have been back five times now, and not once did I finish eating and think, "It was better last time."...

From Flickr pool contributor SlightlyNorth.

A rainforest tree at Lake Quinault Lodge. Photo care of Aramark Parks and Destinations.

If James Cameron wants to lick his wounds and soothe his bruised ego after losing a whole bunch of Oscars to his smoking hot ex-wife, apparently he'd feel right at home on the Washington Coast. 

Trying to take a bite of that sweet Avatar pie, two of Aramark Parks and Destinations' four Washington properties are advertising themselves as Pandora on Earth.  It makes sense that both Lake Quinault Lodge and Kalaloch Lodge are taking advantage of the film's success to promote the resorts' picturesque rainforest locales--Lord knows sci-fi fanboys will pony up the money (see New Zealand and LOTR tourism, or Forks' active courting of Twi-hards).

So head to the coast to get in touch with your Na'vi side.  Commune with nature, search for precious unobtanium, and/or try to plug your braid into anything that moves (TWSS).  Full press release after the jump....

Tomorrow night, the 15th annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival opens, with more than 20 films screening at several venues around town. But the big, big movie in the festival is this Friday at SIFF, where Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti's Ajami plays at 8 p.m.

One of this year's best foreign feature Oscar nominees, Ajami has attracted stunning reviews. Set in a neighborhood of the same name in the ancient port city of Jaffa (part of greater Tel Aviv today), the film tells a series of interwoven stories about Jews and Palestinians grappling with the complexities of crime, poverty, and gentrification against the backdrop of the continuing violence between their peoples. The film's achievement--and it's supposed to be a doozy--was pretty well summed up by The New York Times's Ethan Bronner, who wrote in January that:...

Tamara Ober's charming "Pipa," from SPF 4

But before I get to the two solo works I saw last week, I have to call out some of the exciting shows on this week's docket. Tonight I'm going back for a pair of artists previously featured on The SunBreak: Paul Budraitis with Not. Stable. At all., and Norman Bell with Subprime!, along with recent Cornish grad Mike Harris' Traveling Panties. And tomorrow, one of the most exciting works at SPF 4 opens: Gin Hammond's Returning the Bones. Hammond, a graduate of Harvard and trained at the Moscow Art Theatre, has produced a powerful show about racial and national identity that's supposed to be amazing, and I'm still trying to find time to go see it. Point is, SPF 4 has a lot to offer, so be sure to check out the full schedule and go see some of this stuff....

Steve Broback of the Parnassus Group, at 140TC: Seattle. Photo by Brian Westbrook.

This was Monday early afternoon, and Sagolla and I were making up for not having been able to connect face-to-face earlier in the day, while I was down at the Bell Harbor Conference Center at Pier 66 for 140: The Twitter Conference, a commerce-meets-culture confab digging into nitty-gritty of how to maximize whatever benefit you're trying to get from your 140-characters-at-a-time online presence....

Seattle Fire investigators have determined that two recent car fires in the University District are the product of arson. The first car fire occurred at 12:47 a.m on March 8th in the 4100 block of 11th Ave NE. The second car fire occurred at 12:12 a.m. on March 9th in the 4200 block of 7th Ave NE. The second fire caused additional damage to the exterior of an adjacent duplex.

In both instances, Arson Bomb Squad detectives responded to the scene along with Seattle Fire investigators. The case has been assigned and detectives...

There's something about this photo--the charm of an urban neighborhood, the saturating orange glow of the sun--that reminds my of my childhood in Southeast Portland, living off Hawthorne in the 1980s. Much thanks to our Flickr group contributor :MPG: for the shot.

Don't get the wrong idea--the Navy Times Scoop Deck is "thrilled that Kathryn Bigelow broke the barrier and nabbed the first top prize for a female director." But they're also worried that The Hurt Locker's gritty, you-are-there perspective will "lead people to believe the film to be an authentic and accurate portrayal not only of military operations, but the military mindset."

Intrigued, I asked the author, Lance Bacon for more details, based on his eight years in the Marine Corps, where he served as a platoon sergeant in the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division. He worked with explosives experts, and was a combat correspondent his final four years. Continuing his journalism career, in 2000 he became managing editor of Air Force Times, where he provided combat coverage in the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom. Now he's a senior writer for the Navy Times.

I thought that the "military mindset" was supposed to be conveyed by Sgt. JT Sanborn, who never stopped trying to do things by the book.

There are characters in the movie who display the military mindset, as you rightly point out. Unfortunately, they have a secondary status in the movie....

Let's say someone was as pigheaded and risk-taking as Renner's character: What would his sergeant have most likely done?

There are some solid options for a sergeant in such a scenario. He could go to the team/squad leader's immediate supervisor. If that person was of the same nature (which is highly unlikely), the sergeant could "request mast." That means he can talk to anyone within his chain of command without having to divulge his concerns to others. For example, if he desires to talk to the battalion commander, he can do so without first explaining his concerns to the company first sergeant, sergeant major, commander, etc....

Flickr pool member abosco adds a sense of mystery to real estate.

February's MLS report shows Seattle residential real estate has got a little tiger back in its tank, with pending sales up 35 percent from February '09. (I direct you to the Seattle Bubble for a grain of pending sales salt.) More convincingly, closed sales are up 34 percent as well, with 459 closed compared to 342 same month last year.

The safe conclusion we can draw from this is that some people want to sell and some people want to buy (though total "activity" was actually down almost eight percent). But speculating about the health of the market seems premature. It might be good news that the median price jumped $10,000, to $390,000, but then again it might not.

For one thing, that's very much in the ballpark of the $8,000 homebuyer credit. For another, the median doesn't tell you about short sales....

Sally Pepper, one of the many artists who have performed with the Moisture Festival, which opens this week at ACT. Photo by Michelle Bates

Wednesday

• Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle talks about the topic of his book Critical: What to Do About the Health-Care Crisis @ the Seattle Sheraton
• Open Satellite and the Henry Art Gallery co-present a lecture by Brad Cloepfil, one of the founders of Allied Works Architecture @ Kane Hall on the UW campus

Thursday

• Opening of The Jammer @ the Balagan Theatre
• Opening of the fifth annual Moisture Festival, with the Grand Variete and Libertease (burlesque) shows @ ACT Theatre
• Eighth annual Young Playwrights Festival, featuring eight original plays written by Seattle students ages 14-18 @ ACT Theatre
• The Esoterics celebrate Samuel Barber's 100th birthday-week with his entire choral oeuvre @ Plymouth Congregational Church
...

It's hard to find information on Prodigal Sons, Kimberly Reed's documentary about her truly dysfunctional family, that doesn't reveal too much of the story. The majority of the reviews and even the official trailer gives away more than I think is appropriate.  Since I live a life of NO SPOILERS--what's in the baaaaaahhhhxxxx?--I direct you to the review above (also because I agree with their recommendation of The Ghost Writer) and warn you to seek out further info at your movie-ruining peril. ...

Sometime back, former Washington Husky basketball star Nate Robinson began signing off his tweets with "wordaapp." Huh?

"When I say word aapp It means the same as up I just spell it diff," he explained to a confused Twitterati.

Robinson, the three-time NBA Slam Dunk Competition champ who serves as an unofficial godfather to the city's young basketball players, then started turning his signoff into a tag. Other Seattle-area tweeps have followed suit.

Take this from a Denver resident, reminiscing about childhood visits to Tacoma: "I spent my summers gett'n dirty up in HillTop nev'r forget where u come from #WORDAAPP."... (more)

Seattle is going to place its hat in the ring to test an ultra-high speed broadband network and is asking for your help.

What Is This About? 

The City of Seattle will respond to a “Request for Information” from Google for a pilot program that Google is doing to build and test ultra-high speed broadband networks.  If we are successful, Google will select one or more neighborhoods in Seattle to participate...

First came the announcement that the Wallingford Community Senior Center would have to close. But then people said nuts to that and held a "soup line" fundraiser.

The community's show of support brought a matching challenge grant of $25,000 from an anonymous Wallingfordian, so now the Board of Directors feel confident about their decision to keep the Center open, and begin to rebuild its services and strengthen its financial footing.

To commemorate turning the corner, the Center plans to hold a community pancake breakfast on Sunday, April 25, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The "New Start Celebration" will be open to the public....

Flickr user Photocoyote provides this rather unique perspective of the Seattle cityscape, from our Flickr pool.

You know how when you see a flood-prone area hit yet again, and hear it declared a state of emergency? That's not just to attract TV cameras--the declaration means state and federal monies can be made available for home repair, legal services, medical care, and so forth. Depending on the size and frequency of the floods, that can add up to a large bill.

It's also, in part, an answer to the question, "Why do people build in a flood plain?" For one thing, the land is often cheaper than land that doesn't flood. But for another, we help people rebuild. So while there's a risk, you're not paying full freight.

To rectify that last part, FEMA has, for the last five years, been working on developing updated Flood Insurance Rate Maps, which try to assess the risk both in places that flood often, and in places that could flood disastrously. They've created 100,000 individual digital flood insurance rate maps, and, to the chagrin of people who live and work in areas at risk, they don't put a lot of faith in levees or dams....

In which is this line more likely to be found: "Experts say there is nothing unusual about the latest spate of earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and now Turkey...." Roland Emmerich's 2012? Or KING 5's website?