Art by Zee

Seattle Out and Proud is launching a new website and parade registration system. From their press release:

Seattle, WA, March 11, 2011: Seattle Out and Proud (SO&P) is excited to announce that on March 15, 2011 we’ll be launching our new website and parade registration system. The new website is designed to be more user friendly and have an even smoother integration with our parade registration system.

Twenty-eleven is a year that will bring many firsts for SO&P. In addition to our new website and registration system we’re happy to announce that our Pride Idol singing competition will be hosted by Neighbours Night Club, and emceed by your favorite Diva Gaysha Starr. Join us March 11, 2011 as we partner with SAM REMIX for the new Nick Cave exhibit “Meet Me at the Center of the Earth” as we have one of our very own board members conduct a guided tour of some of their favorite pieces.

Be You. Be Proud. Express Yourself! Is the parade them for 2011 and is a celebration of the cultural diversity that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and ally communities express every day. Stand up and declare, “I AM! WE ARE!” This year’s theme is a celebration of our ability to create, innovate, influence, and express ourselves. We invite you to find new, exciting, and creative ways to express who you are. Declare your message loud and proud along 4th Avenue this June 26, 2011 as we kick off another great parade that draws over 450,000 spectators, participants and volunteers – Be You. Be Proud. Express Yourself!

Visit our website at www.seattlepride.org for more information and details about our events and programs.

Do you love roller derby? Have you always wished you could be a rollergirl?

You may not have the skills to throw down on the actual flat track with real, live rollergirls, but if you can manage a game controller, you can get in on with theJam City Roller Girls, ready for download on January 24 through Nintendo’s WiiWare(tm) Service.

Featuring real-life teams, real-life players, way-out venues, and, of course, way-out action, “Jam City Roller Girls” is bound to be a big hit with anyone who appreciates the thrill of roller derby, which is anyone who has ever seen roller derby. At last week’s Rat City Rollergirls bout, the capacity crowd roared at the mere site of some video clips from the game; just imagine how great actually playing it will be.

A mere ten years after its founding here in Seattle, Brown Paper Tickets has become the fifth largest primary ticket seller in the USA and with good reason. Founder William Scott Jordan created the company because he was tired of the big ticketing companies looking at consumers as nothing more than walking wallets. Current CEO Steve Butcher expresses the company’s philosophy thusly: “We are ticket buyers. We are event producers. We imagined the perfect system for ourselves, then built and shared it with the rest of the world. We’re changing the ticketing industry for good. The amazing response we’ve had so far inspires us to keep innovating and evolving.”

Their latest innovations are practical and useful for both promoters and buyers alike. New tools let event producers have almost unlimited flexibility in their marketing approach and offers its customers a fair and transpararent fee structure that allows them to be considerate of their customers when it comes to setting prices.

Event producers can now automate last-minute ticket discounts, post events to Facebook, and sell virtually anywhere on the globe. All these new services are free, just like all the previously existing ticketing service options, like 24/7 call centers staffed by real people and customizable physical tickets and seating charts.

For the ticket buyer, things are even more exciting including mobile ticket options that mean that you’re not stuck with tickets you can’t pass on just because you can’t be in the same place at the people who really want to use them. The Transfer-to-a-Friend feature, lets eventgoers send tickets to friends via smart phone which means you’re no longer stuck in the cold, drizzly weather waiting for a friend who is stuck in traffic or going to will call and discovering that through some miscommunication or another your tickets are under who knows what name. Bought tickets and then changed your plans? Sell your tickets right on the main event page.

Check out their website to browse through thousands of events across the globe and find tickets to just about any kind of event–from roller derby bouts to business association galas, comedy clubs to charity fund-raisers, cooking classes to rock concerts. Brown Paper Tickets’ new options mean that an event page isn’t just limited to a simple time and date and maybe a photo – you can find maps to the venue, links to more information about the event or its performers, contact the promoter, email details to a friend, post the event to your Twitter feed or Facebook or other social networking services. Like a particular type of event? You can search for events. Had a great time at a particular show? Look up the performer or the event producer and find out what else their up to. BPT has a lot of great options for ticket buyers.

Dictionary.com is one of the most helpful sites on the internet, saving me from making a complete fool of myself on a regular basis. Besides providing a way to check your spelling and word use, they also have some great word games and useful tools and resources.

Plus, they like to do fun things like make neat little lists like “10 Top Vocabulary-building Horror Flicks of All Time”.

What made the cut?

The Exorcist – This controversial masterpiece not only redefined horror movies, but has also given people nightmares and nausea since 1973 and introduced us to the term pneumoencephalogram.

The Silence of the Lambs – When Dr. Hannibal Lecter insists, “Enthrall me with your acumen,” we can’t help but be enthralled with his. We also have Dr. Lecter to thank for some perverse culinary education – fava beans and Chianti will never taste the same.

The Shining – Stephen King’s imagination for horror + Stanley Kubrick’s cerebral filmmaking + Jack Nicholson’s sardonic wit = neuron-firing chills. Kudos to a film that makes ten words – “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” – one of the most terrifying moments in cinema. Alas, you won’t find “redrum” in any mainstream dictionary.

Jaws – Sure, those of us who were kids in 1975 are now afraid to swim in a pool, but this classic may have done more to generate interest in Carcharodon carcharias than all Shark Week episodes combined. When we weren’t being traumatized, we were educated on the animals’ extreme territoriality as well as nautical and medical terminology.

Scream – A clever plot and satirical dialogue set this one apart within the otherwise mind-numbing teen slasher genre. Randy offers insight into the killer’s actions: “It’s the millennium, motives are incidental.” We dare you to find a line like that in any of the Friday the 13th films.

Suspiria – This English-dubbed, gruesome 1977 Italian Dario Argento classic revolves around unusual words that inspire the viewer to look them up, when you aren’t too busy gasping in terror.

Videodrome – From what we can determine, the only film included in our Quotes section is David Cronenberg’s early, visionary work. Phrases, concepts, even the names of characters play off of word meanings. And who can forget the grotesque yet mesmerizing imagery and the young James Woods’ intensity?

The Omen – We have to give this film credit simply for making its title, a useful and sophisticated term, ubiquitous in popular vocabulary. For better or worse, the series also deserves credit for perpetuating concepts such as the Anti-Christ and the apocalypse.

Alien – This film put Sigourney Weaver on the map and put us into a state of nightmare for about a week. Nevertheless, those with the intestinal fortitude to see past the blood were enlightened by discussions of evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, and corporate politics. The film’s 1979 movie poster corrected a scientific fallacy perpetuated by Star Wars – “In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream…”

Psycho – This masterpiece brought the oedipal complex out of the English classroom and made it something so scary that we were afraid to shower. Norman Bates lulls us into a false sense of security with his discussions of taxidermy and armchair philosophy before forever proving that men dressed as old ladies can indeed be terrifying.

Seattle based technology firm Spoon specialize in technology that lets games run instantly from the web without installations. Today they announced the immediate availability of the online IGC and IGF Sandboxes.

The IGC, or Indie Game Challenge, is an annual competition for aspiring game developers to showcase their skills, pitch their games to top publishers and win cash. This year’s winners, Cogs by Lazy 8 Studios in the professional division, and Gear by Team 3 in the non-professional category, each won $100,000 grand prizes.

The Independent Games Festival is an annual event that allows indie game developers to meet, show off their games, learn from and network with their peers and compete for cash prizes. This year’s IGF kicks off March 13 in San Francisco.

Spoon allows users to access these hot new games with a single web click.

“Spoon is pleased to support the independent game development community by offering online versions of the IGC and IGF game competition finalists”, said Spoon CEO Kenji Obata. “These sites demonstrate how Spoon can bring the benefits of instant, single-click launch to full DirectX- and OpenGL-based download titles.”

The IGC and IGF Sandboxes are available free of charge on the web at http://spoon.net/igf and http://spoon.net/igc, respectively.

Rather work on your own games than play someone else’s? Spoon offers a free Spoon Studio tool which allows developers to quickly adapt existing apps for deployment on Spoon.net and Spoon Server. Spoon Server allows enterprises and publishers to host apps on internal servers, manage users and licensing, and view detailed usage analytics. The Spoon.net online app portal, powered by Spoon Server, offers free hosting of hundreds of virtual apps on the web.