About Us

The SunBreak is a conversation with Seattle.

We’re here to talk with everyone from politicos, chefs, and athletes, to artists, filmmakers, musicians, scientists, and neighborhood activists. Think of us as a little ray of sun shining through that infamous Seattle chill–a group of friendly people who won’t keep quiet and mind our own business.

We encourage like-minded Curious Georges to contribute to the site (send your pitches or inquiries to editor@sunbreakmagazine.com), but if you’d rather just sit back and read, we won’t judge.

Flickr members can add their photos to two pools: the general SunBreak Flickr pool, for use in Glimpses or to accompany posts, or our SunBreak Cover Shot pool, which provides the photos featured behind our home page’s masthead.

SunBreak Cover Shots courtesy of: Michael Holden, Ryan Healy (1, 2, 3), Shawn McClung (1, 2, 3, 4), and Chelsea Nesvig (1, 2, 3, 4). All other masthead photos courtesy of Michael van Baker. To be included, just join The SunBreak’s Cover Shot Flickr pool.

For information on advertising with The SunBreak, scroll down below the staff listing, or download our rate sheet (.pdf): TheSunBreakAdRates2012.

Editor & Publisher [twitter]
Michael van Baker moved to Seattle in 1987 to attend Seattle University, and his affection for things with Seattle in the name is as yet undiminished. Earlier incarnations have seen him wearing marketing hats at Seattle Opera and the San Francisco Examiner. He wrote for Seattlest from 2005-09, becoming arts editor and editor-in-chief before leaving to found The SunBreak in September 2009.

Managing Arts Editor, Film & TV
Audrey Hendrickson is kinda a big deal. She was Chicago-born and –raised, but doesn’t miss the weather one bit (the people and the politics are another story). She spends a great deal of time eating oysters and drinking wine, watching movies and going to shows, reading Videogum and The Awl, and quoting Arrested Development (yes, still). Her favorite stuff on television includes 30 Rock, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Community, Parks and Rec, and pretty much any VH1/Bravo reality trashvaganza. In terms of movies, she tends to agree with Glenn Kenny. Fun Fact: She always tries to keep on hand at least two pounds of Tillamook extra sharp cheddar cheese.

Food
Jay Friedman, gastronaut, is one of the most intriguing and innovative food writers in Seattle. You may know him from “Dishin’” for Seattlest, or City Arts‘ “Dish-Off,” in which he challenged chefs to create meals based on songs. Combining food writing with his other life as a sex educator, you can also find him in Seattle Weekly‘s “Sexy Feast,” and acting as co-editor/author of the Fearless Critic Seattle restaurant guide. When not eating out or writing about it, Jay is most likely in the kitchen making kimchi, xiao long bao, or anything with offal. You can find most of his writing at his personal blog, Gastrolust.

Music [twitter] [facebook]
Tony Kay, the SunBreak’s Music Editor, has been slugging it out in the journalistic front-line trenches of the Northwest music scene for over two decades in various websites and periodicals. In addition to covering music, arts, film, and whatever else strikes his fancy for the SunBreak, he also writes about film for City Arts magazine, covers live music for the Seattle Concerts Examiner, and periodically hosts Bizarro Movie Night at the Aster Coffee Lounge in Ballard. Tony was crowned Ultimate Film Fanatic of the Pacific Northwest on the Independent Film Channel game show The Ultimate Film Fanatic a few years ago, and he’s got the wacky stories (and the rump-end of a trophy) to prove it.

Classical Music
Philippa Kiraly comes to The SunBreak from The Gathering Note where she covered classical music for three years. She has been steeped in her field since early childhood and began writing as a critic in 1980. She has written for a variety of publications, as second critic for the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal from 1983-1991 and, since moving to Seattle that year, in the same capacity for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer until its print demise.

At-Large Arts
Jeremy M. Barker was born in Portland and studied theatre and comparative literature at the University of Oregon. He’s written about Seattle arts and culture since moving to Seattle in 2003. Now he lives in New York, where he’s a contributor to Culturebot. Previously, he was the performance arts editor for Seattlest.

At-Large [twitter]
Josh Bis is a contributing editor at The SunBreak. He tumbls at sciencevsromance.net. Since the first volume of his autobiography will not be published anytime soon, here: Lured to Seattle during the twilight of the Clinton administration by a PhD program at the University of Washington, he lives on Capitol Hill, has become embarrassingly dependent on espresso, and stopped watching Grey’s Anatomy after that ridiculous ferry storyline. He takes photographs of musicians and can’t resist launching tiny websites that he inevitably forgets to update.

At-Large Sports
Seth Kolloen, a fourth-generation Seattleite, has been obsessing over local sports since seeing his first Mariners game on Bruce Bochte T-shirt day. Former executive editor of Sports Northwest Magazine and contributing columnist to the Seattle P-I, he now writes Exit 164 at Sportspress Northwest. He’s also written for the Stranger, Seattle Metropolitan, Deadspin, and every bathroom stall south of 85th St.

Arts Intern Emeritus [site]
Leah Vendl is a movement artist born and raised in Colorado. She studied English and Studio Art at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma where she was editor of the literary and arts magazine, Crosscurrents, and has recently relocated to Seattle to dance, design, and nestle into Capitol Hill coffee shops.

ADVERTISING

Our advertising is served by Seattle Indie Ads. For information on ad types and sizes accepted, download our rate sheet (.pdf): TheSunBreakAdRates2012. Our lowest priced ad is $45 per month; our highest, $150. For other questions about ads, pricing, and sponsorships email advertise@sunbreakmagazine.com.

We use both internal and third-party traffic trackers. View our Quantcast profile here, or write to advertise@sunbreakmagazine.com with any questions. We also accept sponsorship proposals for the home page and each category section. We offer a limited amount of contests and giveaways, depending on how well the contest fits the interests of our readers.

For a more reliable snapshot of our readership demographics than Quantcast can provide, we turn to our Facebook fans:

DISCLOSURE

Per both FTC rules and to satisfy any reader curiosity, here’s more details on disclosure.

The SunBreak doesn’t usually pay the expenses of reviewers. Often the reviewer(s) pay(s) out of pocket, but they can also be the guest of the host, or given a media discount. We make it clear that these arrangements represent neither a guarantee of a favorable review, nor even a guarantee of coverage. Whenever possible, we distinguish editorially between events at which we are guests, rather than paying customers. We alert readers to any other arrangements on an article-by-article basis.

In general, our performing arts reviews and festival coverage relies on tickets or admission provided by the hosting organization, as is common practice. Books and CDs are often provided for review by artists, publishers, and labels. Some food-and-travel reporting includes discounted or free accommodations, which helps make visiting several places in one trip possible.

Advertising on The SunBreak is the best way for businesses to reach readers directly.