Meg van Huygen, The Stranger Journalist Profile

Articles

Some of Seattle’s Best Happy Hours are Just Minutes from SIFF Theaters

3 weeks ago | thestranger.com | Meg van Huygen

Nobody can blame Seattle restaurants for dialing back the deals lately; wholesale food and booze costs have surged since the pandemic, and thereâ€™s no end in sight. But the fact remains that we need a good happy hour more than everâ€”especially after watching a Swiss stop-motion feature about death, or a film about a woman who wants to be a chair (real films showing at SIFF!).
Why IS the Virginia Inn Closing, Though?

1 month ago | thestranger.com | Meg van Huygen

Last Friday, when the historic Virginia Inn Restaurant and Bar announced on social media that it would be closing on April 27,¬†the post included a call to arms. The author of the message, Virginia Inn‚Äôs owner Craig Perez, asked patrons to contact Mayor Bruce Harrell and the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA) to protest their notice to vacate.
The Women’s Work at Drumlin

2 months ago | thestranger.com | Meg van Huygen

Welcome to The Last Word, a monthly column about craft cocktails. Meg van Huygen talks about her cocktail faves—both alcoholic and not—their histories and their components, to lure you to Seattle’s dive bars and cocktail lounges that deserve your attention. Despite having lived in Seattle my whole life, I know mortifyingly little about Shoreline. There’s great food in Shoreline, of course, but I don’t drive, and taking the bus out there is usually too much of a chore.
PublicSquare Is an Inadvertent Gift to People Who Don’t Want to Fund Fascism

2 months ago | thestranger.com | Meg van Huygen

I don’t know where I heard about PublicSquare, and I’m not sure why people in my sphere (including me) are just now learning about this four-year-old, not-new company. Probably because it’s stupid and who cares? But for whatever reason, all of my algorithms in the last few weeks have been bombarding me with posts about this nationwide “anti-woke online marketplace,” wherein businesses can sign themselves up to be collated into a big Trumpy database.
Get High on Seattle Symphony's 'The Planets: An HD Odyssey' This Weekend

2 months ago | thestranger.com | Meg van Huygen

When I texted my trombone-major boyfriend to ask if he wanted to go see the Seattle Symphony perform Gustav HolstâsÂ The Planets: An HD Odyssey with me this weekend, I received this enthusiastic, if very stoned, reply: >planets is hella sick >holst was a trombone player who was tired of being dissed by composers >so they got the cool parts with fortissississimo dynamic markings >he was like âlet âer ripâ and so the horn section just goes nuts >i wrote a whole paper at humboldt state...
Tariqa Waters’s SAM Debut Is a Wave of ’80s Latchkey Nostalgia

Mar 4, 2025 | thestranger.com | Meg van Huygen

Tariqa Waters doesn’t want to ruin the surprise. I’m asking for details about her upcoming solo Seattle Art Museum installation, Venus Is Missing, but I can only get hints. “Another key element, without giving too much away, is those hair baubles that we wore as kids. Where you could mess up your knuckles on them, you know?” We’re in the upstairs nook at Charlie’s Queer Books in Fremont, in the attic of the pastel Victorian dollhouse.
Seattle Opera’s Animated Take on Mozart’s The Magic Flute Is Exquisite, Riveting, and Weird as Hell

Feb 18, 2025 | thestranger.com | Meg van Huygen

Wolfgang Mozart was a weird little dude who was obsessed with farts and butts , collected birds, drank to excess, and was pathologically afraid of trumpets. He was sick his whole life and dead by age 35, with so many historic ailments that nobody’s sure which one killed him. But in his short life, he managed to compose over 600 separate musical works, among them symphonies, masses, operas, and piano concerti.
Historic Kerry Hall Was Worth Saving

Feb 10, 2025 | seattlemet.com | Meg van Huygen

Some of the happiest memories of my life happened in Kerry Hall. As a late teen in the late '90s applying to colleges as a piano performance major, it was a tour of the Spanish Colonial Revival building that sealed the Cornish deal for me. I could see myself studying among the terra-cotta arches and chiseled Greek muses on the facade. Or lunching in the colonnade on a spring day, perhaps accompanied by a live soundtrack from my fellow music students. What a beautiful place to learn things.
The Best Affordable Restaurants In Seattle - Eater Seattle

Jan 26, 2025 | seattle.eater.com | Meg van Huygen

Sushi, teriyaki, tacos, and other bargains.
Seattle Philharmonic Will Perform Orff’s Bitchingest Cantata at Benaroya Hall and You Should Definitely Be There

Jan 14, 2025 | thestranger.com | Meg van Huygen

When I mentioned on Instagram that I’m super psyched that Seattle Philharmonic will be performing Carl Orff’s 1936 choral masterwork, Carmina Burana, this month, a friend DMed me to say: “I used to write and produce movie trailers, and there was a point in the '‘90s where the Carmina license holders said, ‘ENOUGH!’ after this piece was used ad infinitum.” He linked me to the trailer for 1993’s Cliffhanger, explaining that an unofficial moratorium was placed on anything from Carmina Burana, so...