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TagsCoinstar (CSTR), the parent company of Redbox, had its stock "plunge" 24 percent today, after a preliminary announcement that its Q4 earnings didn't meet expectations. Looking ahead, "Coinstar also has revised its initial outlook for full year 2011 and now expects revenue between $1.70 billion and $1.85 billion, adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations between $325 million and $355 million."
That drop is probably an overly dramatic response, considering "[r]evenue from Redbox rose 38 percent in the fourth quarter, and same-store sales (an important metric for retailers) were up 12.5 percent," as CNNMoney reported. They just didn't meet very rosy expectations: "Coinstar's biggest problem is they suck at guidance, not that their business is bad," analyst Michael Pachter told CNNMoney. Redbox currently has about 28 percent of the rental market, and I wouldn't expect that to dip much, if at all, near-term in response to streaming video access, due to the costs associated with and limitations to broadband access.
As it happens, Coinstar is a Bellevue company, and CEO Paul Davis was at the Met Grill yesterday afternoon, giving a presentation for the Met Grill's "Guess the Dow" stockbroker participants. (More on that in a later post.) Davis spoke a bit about the pressure they'd gotten from major studios not to stock new movies in Redbox's automated DVD rental kiosks the day they go on sale. Eventually, Redbox agreed to a 28-day delay, which effectively removed the 28-day advantage they had over Netflix up to that point.
As is common practice, Coinstar waited for the market to close to announce the downbeat earnings, so Davis didn't let on at his noon presentation that anything was amiss. (Other than the dog-not-barking sound of not leaking good news just before it's announced publicly.) Particularly disappointing for Redbox, since they traded rental delay for access to Blu-ray titles, was that demand for Blu-ray was not widespread, even at a $1.50 per day rate. (Redbox's standard DVD rate is $1 per day.) ...
In memory of Dave Niehaus (1935-2010). Video by Jason Koenig (JkoePhoto.com), Produced by Ryan Lewis, all proceeds benefit the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club.
You gotta love these guys.
And now a video preview of what you're likely to see tonight, once the roads ice back up. People, charge your cameras! If you're driving, a safety tip: Avoid really steep hills.
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Regina Spektor's Live in London concert movie gets screened in just 15 U.S. cities this weekend, and the Northwest Film Forum is the Seattle venue, with just one showing on Sunday at 8 p.m. It's just $5, so if you missed her Paramount show--All night, between songs, it had been "Regina, I love you!", "Regina, I love you more than that first girl!", and a baritone howl of "Regina, I want to have your babies!" Spektor, in contrast, traveled imperturbably from song to song, though the "babies" brought her up short. "All tour," she said, "it's been babies. I guess...thanks?"--you can make up for lost time. The live album hits on November 22. Consequence of Sound has the track lists.
The Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) alerted us that they've got some holiday greetings from Washington residents on duty for the Army and the Marines in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. Two soldiers are from Yelm, one from Richland, one from Moses Lake, and one from Fort Lewis.
They've taped tiny little videos saying hello to the home front; if you're from the area, you can send an E-card back by visiting the video page.
It's also Veterans Day, and while some things are open and some are closed, some businesses are giving back. Veterans can enjoy free meals, free car washes, free music, and free museums and parks. Veterans who get hungry on the go can pull into a Dick's Drive-In, flash their military ID, and order a free hamburger.
For fans of jazz music, fall in Seattle means one thing: the Earshot Jazz Festival! Now in its 22nd year, the festival is hailed as one of the most adventurous and all-encompassing in the nation. Over the course of three weeks (October 15-November 7), there will be more than 50 concerts and events throughout the city that touch on just about every corner of the diffuse jazz scene.
With so many shows and events to choose from it can be daunting and downright paralyzing to figure out what to see and hear. But never fear--I'm here to help! As a working jazz musician myself, I thought it might be helpful to hip you to the shows I'm most excited about. Some of these artists might be familiar to you already, but there are some names on the schedule that are known only to the jazz cognoscenti (a group I humbly and rather geekily put myself in). Either way these are must-see shows that will be talked about all year.
With that I give you One Working Musician's Top 10 Guide to the Earshot Jazz Festival (in chronological order):
1. Friday, Oct. 15th - Kora Band at Tula's
The Kora band is the brainchild of Portland pianist Andrew Oliver. Not your typical jazz band, the group is built around the playing of Kane Mathis on the 21-string Kora, a traditional harp from West Africa. The group is rounded out by some of Seattle's finest young musicians, including Chad McCullough on trumpet, Brady Millard-Kish on bass and Mark DiFlorio on drums. The group's combination of West African rhythms and melodies and its members' formidable improvising chops has left me breathless when I've seen them perform.
Here's a video of the band from their recent CD Release Party:
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Of course, not everyone is Bumbershooting this Labor Day weekend. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy a personal music festival. Abbey from The Sound on the Sound emailed me about the Doe Bay Sessions, and I would be greedy indeed to keep the news from you. Every Tuesday, from now through October, they're posting a new live session from bands like The Head and the Heart, Hey Marseilles, Ravenna Woods, Drew Grow and the Pastors' Wives, and Fences.
It's a new project from SOTS, which begins with music videos of The Maldives somewhere in the woods, filmed during this year's Doe Bay Fest. The initial idea was to invite a few bands to the SOTS yurt for a Vincent-Moon-style "takeaway" shoot...but these things have a way of getting away from you, and now:
Over the next 10 weeks we will be releasing videos featuring a candlelit session from Fences, The Head and the Heart (and the Doe Bay All-Stars) singing down the sun, Ravenna Woods using trees for percussion, a mid-trail serenade from Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives, The Maldives on a mossy knoll, picnic table perching with Hey Marseilles and many more....
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On Saturday, August 21, 1-4:30 p.m., you can learn to use basic tools (paper, pencils, microphones) to draw characters and scenery, add music, and see these made into a video THAT YOU TAKE HOME. This video game workshop is led by Brent Watanabe, one of the artists featured in the museum's current Cultural Transcendence art exhibit and who currently works for Microsoft. Participants must pre-register by calling (206) 623-5124 x114; space is limited. This workshop is for ages 10-13, an $8 fee includes snacks.
The album is called All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, and on tour it's just Rufus Wainwright, his piano, and his moody album for the first half of the show. "In the second half," he told Philly.com at the outset of his 2010 tour, "we come out and sing the old favorites and have a good time."
He'll be at the Paramount on August 25, holding everyone spellbound with that burnt-caramel baritone and songs like "Zebulon," above, written while his mother was sick. (Kate McGarrigle died in January of this year, of cancer.) He's also adapted three Shakespeare sonnets (10, 20, and 43). I don't need to tell Rufus fans that it will be a memorable performance--there's more than a little Judy (or Lulu) in Wainwright. The show will go on.
It's viral and virile, isn't it? Here's the enigmatic set-up: "A few weeks ago, the 2010 AquaSox pitching staff decided to grow mustaches. Slowly but surely the mustaches have crept on to the faces of over a dozen players. Can you match the man to the mustache?"
As you know, Seattle has big plans for a streetcar network. The First Hill Streetcar (named for glancingly passing by the eastern edge of First Hill as it connects Capitol Hill and the ID) would look a little something like this. The video looks like someone was expected to watch it, which is odd because it's only available as a .wmv file on the Seattle Streetcar site. Everyone's linking to a YouTube video The Stranger made.
Just before 3 a.m. on June 6, a shooting took place outside the V Club (V-Bar) at 2nd Avenue and Blanchard St. A resident of the building across the street took the footage above. Police officers monitoring bar closings in the area responded and found two men with gunshot wounds on the sidewalk.
21-year-old Steven Sok was dead, reports KOMO, and a 44-year-old man who may have simply been a passer-by was transported to Harborview with life-threatening injuries. MSNBC says a witness told them Sok was outside, having a cigarette and talking with the club's bouncer when he was killed. An update later on Sunday on the SPD Blotter said, "As of this posting, there are no known suspects and no one is in custody."
This has nothing to do with Seattle, except for the fact that Seattle loves the diminutive Swedish singer Lykke Li--and if we can trust shouted proclamations from the Showbox stage, she loves us. Her song "Possibility" catches the sugar-pop fairy in a tormented mood, as its from the New Moon soundtrack. Thus the lyrics that go, "By blood and by me, you walk like a thief / By blood and by me and I'll fall when you leave." This is the only good thing to come out of this whole Twilight mess.
You don't have to be for or against a tunnel to appreciate the "under the sea" perspective in this video from WSDOT. From huge pilings stabbing into the earth, to underground electrical vaults, an 11-foot diameter-sewage pipe, and a railroad tunnel, the underbelly of Seattle is exposed in all its glory as you tunnel to a depth of just over 200 feet. How much all this will eventually cost is the subject of a nice long story by John Stang at Seattlepi.com: "Viaduct tunnel: Will it finish within budget?"
"For fun," the Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold is opening for Joanna Newsom, just a few times, on her tour, Pitchfork tells me. I don't see Seattle anywhere on that list, so it's nice the Pecknold has added this video to his YouTube channel. Never satisfied, Pitchfork would like a duet.
I am not unbiased about this Falstaff at Seattle Opera (it runs through March 13). In fact, I am counting the hours until tonight's performance.
Previously, I saw the production performed by the Opera's Young Artists, also directed by Peter Kazaras, and was absolutely blown away how Shakespearean it was. That, I realize, sounds strange, but it's a Verdi opera and if you saw Seattle Opera's production of Verdi's Macbeth, you realize the latitude a director has. (I didn't love Macbeth.)
Drama is about choices, and Kazaras chooses wisely. Bernard Jacobson, in his Seattle Times review, goes all out. Jacobson is a thoughtful critic, and more immune to gushing than many. But he likes what he likes: "Kazaras' genius is to use genuinely original ideas to set the true message of an opera forth in a new and utterly arresting light."
One day in seventh grade, I was waiting for the #14 bus across from Washington Middle School when three teenage gang members approached this kid in my class. One gang member, who was wearing brass knuckles, suddenly punched the kid in the temple, knocking him cold.
A few teachers came out to check on the kid, who soon came to and staggered down the alley leading to Odessa Brown Childrens' Clinic, vowing revenge. No Metro security guards were there. No hidden cameras caught the scene. And so KING-5 didn't cover it. The Seattle Times was likewise silent.
Which is why you haven't heard about that beating until now, unlike that of a teenage girl in the bus tunnel, which occurred in the presence of Metro security people who did nothing to stop it, and a surveillance camera which caught the whole episode on tape. That sickening beating has sparked a fresh round of city-wide Metro-targeted outrage.
But consider this--if Metro hadn't deployed security to the bus tunnel, would a fight between teenagers even be a story? If Metro didn't have video surveillance, would the TV news be reporting it? The bad publicity Metro's getting stems from the agency's attempt to do the right thing....
Part of the ammunition Mayor Mike McGinn brought to his City Council briefing on the seawall replacement [video] were the results of a poll he had conducted on the public's willingness to fund it. Of the 1,001 people who were asked this question:
This May, voters will decide a property tax measure to fund replacement and seismic improvements to the downtown seawall, built by city engineers in 1934. The measure authorizes property taxes of up to two hundred forty one million over thirty years, at approximately twelve cents per thousand dollars of assessed valuation.
If the election were today, would you vote yes to approve, or no to reject this excess levy?
70 percent said yes, 19 percent said no, and eleven percent were undecided. The margin of error is plus/minus three percent. That 70 percent is important because the property measure that McGinn is proposing requires a 60 percent approval rating. At $0.12 per $1,000 of property value, it would raise $241 million.
McGinn argued to the Council that the response to "What's the hurry?" is not just public safety, but is related to the depleted city coffers as well. In a letter, McGinn wrote:
Until further funding is secured, financial constraints will limit design and permit work. In 2010, $8.3 million was appropriated for design and permit work. While it is difficult to estimate the precise cash flow impact of accelerating the seawall project, SDOT estimates that an additional $3 million will be needed to cover the additional design and environmental review for 2010....
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While, understandably, human refugees are the most visible sufferers from natural catastrophe, Mine (showing at SIFF Cinema from January 22-27) presents a less familiar, but also wrenching look at what happened to people's pets after Hurricane Katrina.
Thousands of animals left behind by people fleeing the storm were found (or kidnapped, depending on whom you talk to) by animal rescuers, who placed many in adoptive homes around the country when it became clear New Orleans had been grievously damaged. But as soon as many pet owners got back on their feet--many were not allowed to return home--they wanted their pets back.
Manohla Dargis writes in the New York Times: "Go ahead and get a tissue to wipe your tears. I did. Mine isn't fully successful--it's a bit ragged and, at 81 minutes, far too short for the scope of its ambitions--but it's smart, sincere, and affecting."
The film also catches us up, once again, in class and race. Dargis mentions one troubling scene: "When a white lawyer chides a black woman for abandoning her dog--the woman says she had her hands full rescuing her children and wheelchair-bound mother--it's hard not to flash back to those commentators who wondered why the poor inhabitants of New Orleans didn't just leave in their nonexistent cars."
Pet rescue, of course, is ongoing in Haiti right now.
That's right, our brand spanking new light rail system will be hosting a half-off event this Sunday. Well, not half off ticket prices, more like half of people's clothes off. And, Sound Transit didn't plan it--the No Pants Light Rail Ride was conceived and organized by our own Emerald City Improv as an extension of the New York No Pants Subway Ride (see video). They've already had a few years of practice, but us Seattle folk are quick learners.
Now is your chance to get famous for taking your pants off, just like mom always wanted. It appears that everyone in the city is already aware of the event (850 people are signed up on Facebook and countless more have seen it on Yelp) and even major media will be in attendance. This timid SunBreak reporter plans on being there and will bring back pictures and/or video if at all possible. Actually, you may just want to skip those--there hasn't been sun here in years.
Seattle's experiment with not wearing pants on public transportation will occur sometime in the early afternoon. It will cost you a light rail ticket to experience the moment. More information is available here and here.
Friday, January 1, 2010, was the date of the official Polar Bear Plunge at Matthews Beach Park. It's not exactly a hoary tradition, as it began in 2003, but it seems to be popular (at least up until the actual moment). Here we have video of the "plunge," which frankly I'm a little disappointed by. A good number of these people are wading, not plunging.
A second hardy group, having missed the en masse plunge at Matthews Beach, regrouped at Mt. Baker Beach. These people get my vote for follow-through. They demonstrate real commitment. You know who else demonstrates real commitment is Darth Vader. But then, he has his light saber to keep him warm.
Had enough of those treacly "Christmas in the Northwest" lyrics? Here's a change of pace.
Yep, that's a real (twisted) take on "The Twelve Days of Christmas," released exclusively to L.A. radio way back in pre-grungesploitation 1990. (And the voices are those of some of the show's actual cast. Can't mistake Kimmy Robertson's squeaky pitch.) The North Bend- and Snoqualmie-shot Twin Peaks clips are a more recent addition, but they remind us what a head-scratchingly wonderful present David Lynch gave us—courtesy of quaint, sleepy, sometimes creepy Northwest locales—all those Christmases long, long ago.
The Twin Peaks legend limps on in North Bend's Twede's Cafe, worth a visit if you're in the area during the holidays. They still offer a damn fine (well, mediocre, really) cup of coffee.
The protester/auteur notes: "Another month has come to protest and we have returned to the cult building on Aurora Avenue. I forgot my video camera at home for some reason, but I did have my cell phone camera ready to go. Not so great with the quality of footage, but it's better than nothing." The Santa hats are a huge plus.
For my money, CHS has said it best: "Depending on where you fall on the Grinch spectrum, Seattle Santarchy either means a surreal experience watching a group of Santas invade bars and have a holly, jolly Christmas--or an irritating experience watching a bunch of douchebags make asses of themselves in holiday costumes."
However, it's hard to begrudge the rogue Santas playtime in a public park, and I'd like to thank YouTubers Sonny Kwan and cadabeso for sharing the moment with the general public. It really warms my heart to see Santas ice skating and scoring goals in soccer.
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