Charles Mudede

Big City, Big Street Food Seattle is growing. We are becoming big. And with a big city, comes big, delicious food tents.

The city is obsessed with shutting down unlicensed taco trucks and people selling fruit from tables, saying they've gotten complaints from vendors who paid their fees and got to be vendors the right way. I'm 100% with Charles on this one: Unauthorized vendors are a feature of real cities.

Big City, Big Street Food Seattle is growing. We are becoming big. And with a big city, comes big, delicious food tents.

In our Food Issue, @mudede.bsky.social writes about Seattle's street-food scene, and talks to local vendors about some of the hurdles they face as authorities shut down more unpermitted food vendors every year.⁠

Slog AM: The Government Is Shut Down, Portlanders Are Rattled by Military Helicopters, It Really Rained Last Night The Stranger's Morning News Roundup

www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025...

Red/purple promotional graphic for event titled "Power Thru It! with Burl Dirkman: Special Guests Charles Mudede and Katie Wilson," scheduled for Oct 17 at 7:30 PM. Headshots of the presenters are included. Presented by Town Hall Seattle.

10/17 at 7:30 PM | From the mind of @bretthamil.bsky.social comes Power Thru It!, a unique comedic talk show starring Burl Dirkman, his handyman alter ego. 🔨

Featuring special guests @mudede.bsky.social & Katie Wilson.

🎟️ Get tickets: buff.ly/tMQvMxP

Thanks @mudede.bsky.social for keeping it real and surreal this morning

Power Thru It! with Burl Dirkman | Town Hall Seattle From the mind of Brett Hamil, the cartoonist behind Doom Loop and co-producer of Joketellers Union, comes an utterly unique talk show. Starring Hamil’s wistful handyman alter ego Burl Dirkman, Power T...

BIG NEWS: Wistful handyman BURL DIRKMAN is gonna have a talk show at @townhallseattle.bsky.social starting next month (OCT 17)!!! His first guests will be @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social and @mudede.bsky.social plus some surprises.
Tickets are now on sale! townhallseattle.org/event/power-...

Something in me wishes Trump put Kirk's open coffin in the Oval Office for like a week. I won't lie, that would have impressed me.

Wow. By all accounts, it seems a war has erupted in the far right. And I think those in the know know this but will do nothing about it. My hope is someone somehow puts the brakes on this situation before it devolves into more violence.

WaPo "America enters a new age of political violence" Wow. It's as if the mass shootings in our schools have not been political.

I ask you this. Would ICE ever raid an oil production facility?

People walk a corridor of Hoog Catharijne in Utrecth adjacent to the central station. No empty storefronts in evidence.

Relatively empty Pacific Place mall in Seattle. Only people in evidence are 2 people emerging from the parking garage level, a security person, and a mall employee. Only 3 of the retail bays visible are tenanted.

Impressed to see an entire indoor mall with few if any vacant store fronts. Culture shock.

Utrecht (left by me today) vs. Seattle (right by @mudede.bsky.social from The Stranger, April 2024)

Hilarious that they offered Adams a position at the US Department of the only thing they hire black people for

We once had Melissa missiles. Now we have Epstein missiles.

If that sandwich had not been from Subway, he would not be in so much trouble.

there’s been some “whither criticism” discourse going around and this is a golden example of the way a critical point of view has very little to do, in some ways, with ‘see it or not’, it’s for the ages

Are Seattle’s Arsonists High on Pyro? Everywhere I look, I see Octavia Butler.

www.thestranger.com/dance/2025/0...

It was a pleasure to be on air with Scott Greenberg and Lynn Ware Peek on @npr.org KPCW’s Cool Science Radio. We discussed my upcoming book, “What Is Intelligence?” (from @mitpress.bsky.social & Antikythera) and its central theme of how life and intelligence are inherently social.

Trump seizes control of Washington DC police and deploys national guard President claims US capital ‘overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals … and homeless people’

Seattle City Council needs to pass a poison pill ordinance stating that if the president ever seizes control of the Seattle Police that the city automatically stops paying them. Make it clear to SPD officers that they can choose to back a police state or to collect paychecks, but they can’t do both.

Re-inding My Religion One Pop Song at a Time What to make of all this? I honestly don’t know yet.

@mudede.bsky.social writes about finding his way back to religion’s complexity through music — from Marvin Gaye’s sacred-to-scientific shift, to the Staple Singers’ erotic gospel, to house music’s church-born energy on the dance floor. Read the full story at The Stranger.

"Atheists, such as the great cosmologist Fred Hoyle (he brought the stars to life), wanted a story-less universe, one without a beginning or end. Epistemology without narratology. They were wrong. We are in a story. And I do believe in stories."

Re-inding My Religion One Pop Song at a Time What to make of all this? I honestly don’t know yet.

www.thestranger.com/music/2025/0...

Film Review: It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley Is All About That Reminiscence Bump It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a documentary by Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil), offers those who study human memory an excellent examination of what's called a "reminiscence bump." Reminiscence bump ...

A new documentary by Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil) captures songwriter Jeff Buckley's vivid youth cut short.
via @mudede.bsky.social

What is not being said is that lowering interest rates will weaken the dollar and, as a consequence, make imports more expensive. Couple that with Trump's tariffs and the deflationary potential of checked demand will evaporate.

Starmer is endlessly fascinating. A live-action character from Yes, Minister. A too-on-the-nose parody of someone who believes in absolutely nothing. A man who seems capable of starving to death in a busy pizzeria while waiting for someone to tell him which toppings poll well.

Generational talent.

They gutted your funding you don’t have to keep doing this

In Defense of Sadness in a Depressing Time How do we deal with all of this? The president is threatening to take over New York City because voters want to elect a candidate who simply promises to make a very expensive city affordable. Federal ...

Why you should be listening to jazz pianist Bill Evans this year. Reflections by @mudede.bsky.social: www.thestranger.com/news/2025/07...

In Defense of Sadness in a Depressing Time How do we deal with all of this? The president is threatening to take over New York City because voters want to elect a candidate who simply promises to make a very expensive city affordable. Federal ...

www.thestranger.com/news/2025/07...

Dems, Mamdani Is Not Extreme Our values are being bombarded daily. How are we going to respond?

ICE isn’t about immigration. It’s about suppressing cities and their values. Zohran Mamdani’s win in NYC shows a way to fight back. @mudede.bsky.social explains.

Great interview by Charles Mudede in @thestranger.com with Stacey Levine, on "market thoughts", work-writing balance, and everything that went into Mice 1961.

"Lots of time helps cure a novel and makes it better."