Bon Jovi will be playing Key Arena in February but tickets go on sale to the public Monday, November 9th. Of course there will be a ticket presale starting Thursday, November 5th at 10 am that lasts until 10 pm Sunday, November 8th.

Bon Jovi's new album 'The Circle'

Although The Cranberries never actually used the words “breaking up,” they certainly haven’t released a new album in eight years – the last being ‘Wake Up and Smell the Coffee’ in 2001 – or been on tour together for the last seven years.

Irish band, The Cranberries

By now the news has made the internet rounds that Morrissey collapsed while onstage at a concert in Swindon, England on October 24th. According to Rolling Stone and the Times Online, he had problems breathing and “fell to his knees after completing the first song. Band members carried an unconscious Morrissey off the stage and paramedics were called to the scene. Morrissey regained consciousness by the time ambulances arrived, and the singer was taken to a nearby hospital.”

He spent the night in Swindon’s Great Western Hospital where a spokesperson said, “He was admitted overnight as a precautionary measure. He was seen this morning and was much improved and has now been discharged.” And that is all the information it appears anyone is going to get. Even with the cancelled concerts earlier this year due to “unspecified illness” and the recent collapse, Morrissey’s management is keeping mum about the nature of the illness.

Morrissey's latest album, 'Years of Refusal'

Broken Lizard are currently on tour.

You’ve laughed at their antics during their movies Super Troopers, Club Dread, and Beerfest. And now you have the chance to see them perform live during a comedy tour! Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffeman, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Eric Stolhanske are all set to perform their sketch comedy before a live audience. And they will also be unveiling some of their short films. and it’s all on the coattails of their next movie, The Slammin’ Salmon.

The Slammin Salmon

The group formed at Colgate University in 1990 when Jay Chandrasekhar was asked by a student theater director to put together a comedy show. Chandrasekhar agreed and assembled a sketch comedy troupe which included Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske. The team performed a combination of live stage skits and short videos under the name Charred Goosebeak. Charred Goosebeak continues to exist at Colgate to this day.

As they graduated, the members reunited in New York City, and spent the next few years performing at various clubs, mostly Greenwich Village mainstay The Duplex, under a new name: Broken Lizard. (The group has offered varied explanations of the origin of this moniker, from describing it as a euphemism for the loss of virility, to a tribute to Chandrasekhar’s pet allergies. Most recently, the members have admitted that after a marathon idea session that resulted in agreeing on the name Chocolate Speedo, Chandrasekhar simply made up Broken Lizard off the top of his head when he had their first flyer printed.)

Broken Lizard spent the next few years performing at clubs and college campuses, as their membership dwindled to the five current performers. By the mid 90’s, the group’s interests shifted away from live material as they became more interested in filmed content. They wrote and acted in Dante’s Levels of Hell, a series of interstitial shorts for Comedy Central’s “Is This On?” feature.

At this time, the Lizards also made their first foray into long-form film, shooting the 30-minute 16 mm project, The Tinfoil Monkey Agenda, an absurdist media spoof that earned them a trip to the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival, and cemented in the group’s minds that they should be creating full length features.

In 1995, the group went back to the campus of Colgate University to shoot Puddle Cruiser, their first 35 mm full length feature, using a tiny budget cobbled together from family loans and maxed-out credit cards. (Chandrasekhar claims his Indian surname caused credit card companies to believe he was a doctor, and therefore offer him generous cash advances.) The movie, a compilation of characters and storylines from their own college experiences, was quickly accepted to the Hamptons International Film Festival, where it won the top jury award, The Golden Starfish. It was also accepted to the Sundance Film Festival and eventually aired on Sundance Channel and IFC.

The group put together the script for their next feature, and first wide-release movie Super Troopers. The film, which portrays rural highway patrolmen as regular guys desperate to make their jobs entertaining, was shot in 2000, and was also invited to Sundance, where raucous screenings earned the film a distribution deal from Fox Searchlight. The movie was released in February 2002 to moderate theatrical success, but eventually caught on as a cult phenomenon DVD.

Fox Searchlight produced and distributed the group’s next feature, 2004’s Club Dread, a parody of slasher movies that takes place at an idyllic tropical resort.

After Chandrasekhar directed The Dukes of Hazzard for Warner Bros., Broken Lizard was offered a deal with the studio. This relationship resulted in Broken Lizard’s fourth feature, 2006’s Beerfest, which revolved around two brothers who discover an underground Oktoberfest beer-drinking Olympics, and assemble a team to compete.

The Brokend Lizard Crew during their Movie Beerfest.

Broken Lizard will be appearing at the Royal Oak Music Center in Royal Oak, Michigan on October 24; and the Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC on November 12. The Next day they’ll be performing at the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia, PA, followed by the Wilbur Theater in Boston Massachusetts on the 14th. On November 19th the comedy troop will be playing the Boulder Theater in Colorado; followed by Moore Theater in Seattle, and the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon. The group will end their tour at the Nokia Theater in New York City. To Learn more about Broken Lizard check out their website or on Wikipedia.

Seattle’s Phinney neighborhood has a lot of things going for it. Great restaurants, shops and atmosphere – and the Phinney Neighborhood Association which hosts several outstanding events every year and provides programs and classes that enrich the neighborhood and city.

On November 14, from 7 pm to 10 pm, the PNA 22nd Annual Beer Taste takes over the neighborhood center, located at 6532 Phinney Avenue. 26 microbreweries from the Northwest will be present and many of them are bringing their winter beers.

A few of the 26 microbreweries represented at the PNA Beer Taste

You’ll find the Georgetown Brewing Company, Hale’s Ales, The Pike Brewing Co. and big al brewing. Also in attendance will be Rogue, New Belgium, Maritime Pacific, Diamond Knot Brewery, Lazy Boy Brewing and many more.

Good luck deciding which ten you want to sample with your entrance fee. Cost for the general public is $30 and includes 10 tastes and snacks. There will also be a silent auction and live music going on. If you’re a PNA member it will only cost $25. Click here for tickets.

The 2009 Seattle Home Show 2, from October 22 – 25 at the Qwest Field Event Center, wants you to “Get Your Green On.”

The four day showcase will feature everything from alternative heating and energy efficient appliances to sustainable landscapes, and just about everything will be geared toward living a greener lifestyle.

The fortino model home by ideabox

There’s never been anything terrible about being in such close proximity to Canada here in the Pacific Northwest, but in February we really reap the benefits of being neighbors with British Columbia. No, I’m not actually talking about the 2010 Winter Olympics, although they play a small role.

Wilco

Wilco will giving a free concert in Vancouver, B.C. on February 13th as part of the Olympics celebration, before setting out on a Canadian tour. But even before that they’ll play a few dates south of the border, including February 10th here in Seattle.

The concert will be in The Paramount Theatre at 8 pm and tickets are already on sale. Click here to get them.

Wilco’s 2007 album Sky Blue Sky picked up the Grammy for Best Rock Album in 2008 and their latest album, Wilco, was released in June of this year. Talking about the album, Jeff Tweedy noted, “I have to say, this was the most fun I’ve ever had making a record.”