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TagsWind storms mostly missed Seattle, but were still felt.
It's almost Thanksgiving, and there's a heartening amount of goodwill out there. After thieves stole about $2,000 worth of food from the Rainier Valley food bank, the food bank has almost disappeared under a flood of food and cash donations. The Seattle Times reports about $100,000 in donations have arrived so far.
If you're planning on traveling for the holidays, you'd better have booked your seats already. Seattle Transit Blog has the Amtrak update: even with extra service, Seattle-to-PDX trains are almost sold out. If you're flying, you might notice a new "holiday surcharge" on your fare. Here's a holiday travel checklist, courtesy of the Times.
A coyote has been wandering around Terminal 91, possibly hoping to take in the sights on an Alaskan cruise. (Holland America doesn't advertise with us--...yet--but who doesn't want to win a cruise?) Magnolia gets all the cool sightings. Cougars, coyotes, now orcas. West Seattle is still thrilled with the seasonal return of their brant geese.
Local homebuilder Quadrant Homes is being sued for "widespread, shoddy construction," reports Seattlepi.com. On the other hand, winemaker Columbia Crest's 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was voted the best wine in the world by Wine Spectator magazine. That's all well and good, but for everyday drinking (not that you should drink every day), cognoscenti have been crowing about Columbia Crest's Two Vines label. I have been trying this out, and am on board.
On The SunBreak, I dug into the city council's proposed budget (after I started wondering how they were paying for those restored library hours) and state's now-chronic budget deficit, with the findings only increasing my sense of unease. Seth watched basketball at KeyArena. Audrey watched people cook and sew on TV. And Jeremy profiled Manifold Motion and the Satori Group, but not in a potential-terrorist way.
Cornish College of the Arts' Fall dance concert at the Broadway Performance Hall
This weekend is a big week for closings: the Intiman's Abe Lincoln in Illinois finished its extended run Thursday, the Satori Group's Artifacts of Consequence is sold-out through its close on Sunday, and finally there's Macha Monkey's Nancy, Frank and Joe which closes up down at Freehold tonight (tickets $12-$15). Macha Monkey has always been good, and that's one I'm sorry to have missed.Playwright Paul Mullin's collaborative "living newspaper" play, It's Not in the P-I: A Living Newspaper About a Dying Newspaper, is closing Sunday, up at North Seattle Community College. The play has garnered some stunning attention, including an NPR feature on Friday that prompted Mullin to send out a press release taking aim at the lack of risk-taking on the part of the city's larger theatres (more power to him):
...If this coverage by NPR proves one thing it’s this: the rest of the nation actually does give a damn about what we do in this city. They actually do care what happens to our newspapers, and they actually do want to know about what kind of original theatre we’re doing here, what stories we’re telling, uniquely, as Seattleites.
What they don’t care about, what they will never care about, is how carefully and exquisitely we craft a restaging of some chestnut from the canon, or the play that knocked ‘em dead off-Broadway last year. And this isn’t because those stories aren’t good, it’s because those stories aren’t uniquely ours. Seattle theaters that dedicate themselves exclusively to craft and the canon and providing a local outlet to New York’s latest exports are museums. And Seattle will never have as good museums as New York, Chicago or LA.
Andrew Lazarow of the Satori Group. Photo by Timothy Aguero.
A founding member of the group and the director of their current show, Ashlin Halfnight's Artifacts of Consequence, which closes this weekend with sold-out shows, Lazarow showed up for our meeting at Bauhaus a scant week-and-a-half before opening night impeccably dressed in suit and tie, with a camel hair overcoat that he casually cast over the back of his chair before sitting down to talk with me about the company and the play. Since bringing themselves to Seattle's attention with their production of Will Eno's Tragedy: a tragedy, as well as their collaboration with Washington Ensemble Theatre for their much discussed production of Titus, the Satori Group have been garnering the sort of attention that you don't usually associate with a company that's only just over two years old and none of whose members, to my knowledge, have yet reached the age of 30.
Their success lies in the eleven core members' unusual devotion not only to the process of creating their work, but to group itself, to the point of relocating themselves to Seattle to set up shop. Over the past year I've had the chance to meet most of the members, and have had long discussions not only with Lazarow but also Adam Standley, another of the founders whose acting career in Seattle has led him quickly from a role in a fairly weak an uneven production of Ibsen's Ghosts with Eclectic Theatre just last December, through a stunning performance in an off-night production of Peter Morris's Guardians, to a supporting role in Sheila Daniels's Abe Lincoln in Illinois, which just closed at the Intiman last night.
In a discussion over beers at The Stumbling Monk earlier this year, Standley, whose rapid-fire delivery and unbridled enthusiasm in person are glaringly at odds with the carefully crafted characters he brings to the stage, told me about how the company came together and how the eleven core members wound up in Seattle....
Where does David Beckham, in town to play in Sunday's MLS Cup, ranks on the list of world celebrities? Top 20, at least, right? Maybe top 10? I mean, I'm talking about people who are household names all over the world, not just on one continent. It's not a big list. (Off the top of my head: Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Madonna, Michael Jordan, Bono). But Beckham's definitely on it. And he's here, in our crappy little port! Above, it's Becks at the Metropolitan Grill, where sources tell the Times' Jose Miguel Romero he ate "onion soup (without cheese), a petit filet and scampi, asparagus (sauce on the side) and cranberry juice."
I was all set to sell my Cup tickets, until a friend reminded me that Beckham was playing. He came here once before, in an 2006 exhibition while a member of Real Madrid. But this is a championship game, I'll get to see Becks at his most competitive. Fun!
The MLS Cup is Beckham's L.A. Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake. It's at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday at Qwest Field. You can watch on ESPN or head...
It used to be throwing devil horns was enough to show your appreciation for a good metal band. Now, forming the classic "rock on" sign is simply not enough. Bands these days have gotten so technical and interesting that it takes a little more effort to show how much you care.
The new sign of approval is the "rock claw." To perform this move, imagine you're lifting a golden goblet of fine wine to the sky. Hold it there a moment. Then, slowly crush it and bring your elbow back down to your waist. You've just shown a metal band that they have melted your face off with awesomeness.
Helms Alee provided quite a few rock claws at the beginning of the evening. A local group comprised of Ben Verellen (formerly of local noise/hardcore legends Harkonen , and who now makes a successful line of beautiful custom amplifiers ) and two viciously talented ladies named Dana and Hoz. The audience was very appreciative of their--dare I say it--grungy and dark sound.
Helms Alee reminds me of this small barn at the intersection...
As the AP reported yesterday, the state is predicting "weak revenue" for the next year and a half (weak to the tune of $760 million), and so the deficit for that time period has grown to $2.6 billion. That said, Publicola is using $11.6 billion--the cumulative deficit amount for the state's budget from 2009 through 2011 so far--as a way of reminding everyone of how far we are from where budget forecasts started. (It's the same story as at the county and city budget level, writ large.)
With the series of cuts necessary to retire last year's $9-billion deficit, the state sliced past fat and into the meat of its social services. Much of the budget is mandatory, "protected" funding, so the legislature can only cut about one-third of the $33-billion biennial budget total. To make up the new $2.6 billion, Washington Budget & Policy Center says, the state would need to cut that one-third by about one-third.
With unemployment across the state at 9.3 percent (it's actually higher in Seattle), and projected to rise, not many people will greet the idea of higher taxes with delight. "The economic downturn has forced more than 60 percent of Puget Sound area residents to delay their retirement plans," says the PSBJ. If slumping consumer spending is driving most of the state's deficit, look for that to continue.
But taxes are what Democratic leadership is suggesting, though since they are looking for options that include their reelection, one likely suspect is sin taxes. Actually, higher liquor taxes prices just went into effect last August, when the Liquor Control Board raised its markup to just over 50 percent.
What we have here is both a failure of leadership and imagination. State and local government spending is hugely important to the economy--one study says that one lost government dollar equates to $1.41 in lost economic activity. Simply put, slashing government spending makes a recession worse, at precisely the time when people need government programs most.
Yet closing "tax loopholes" and soaking the remnants of our middle class isn't going to get the job done, either. I am a long way from knowing what the solution to this particular dilemma might be, but one thing is clear: The current plan--implementing destabilizing cuts in the hopes that the economy is "just taking a break" and will be back soon--is the option of people who have government jobs. And if things worsen, plenty of people now in Olympia may not have them.
Notorious for their creative schizophrenia and chameleonic nature, The Fiery Furnaces have bounced back-and-forth between a dizzying array of styles over the years. And when they tour, this sibling-fronted indie rock outfit often follows one of their genre tangents for an entire show, only to completely switch gears for the next night's gig. All of the genre hopscotch would irritate...if they didn't do it so much of it so damned well.
Wednesday night's Chop Suey show didn't bring the bouncy, giddily-loopy pop Fiery Furnaces, or the Wildly-Experimental Electronic Noodler Fiery Furnaces, or the eccentric-but-charming Partridge-Family-from-outer-space Fiery Furnaces, or the Mutated Electric Blues Revivalist Fiery Furnaces. Nope, the Garage-Rocking Fiery Furnaces came to town. To which I say, right on.
A great rhythm section (drummer Robert D'Amico and ex-Sebadoh bassist Jason Loewenstein) kept things hopping, and lead singer Eleanor Friedberger held centerstage...
Storm mascot Doppler hands Simmons swag
ESPN.com's Bill Simmons, a.k.a. "The Sports Guy," was in Seattle on Tuesday to sign copes of his new bestseller, The Book of Basketball.
Kevin Pelton, who writes for the Seattle Storm (where he explained Doppler's appearance at the signing) and Basketball Prospectus (where he reviewed TBOB last week) was in attendance and shares this report.
Sport Restaurant was a great venue for Bill Simmons' book signing in all respects but one: It turned out to be far too small to hold the masses of Simmons' faithful readers who descended on Sport to get an autograph and share a brief moment with their favorite writer. By the time I arrived, at 5:30 p.m., a line was already forming an hour and a half before Simmons was scheduled to begin. By the time he arrived, people snaked through the lobby of the Fisher Pavilion and the line continued out the door and outside around Sport despite the persistent rain.
Of course, short of KeyArena, I'm not sure where that many people could comfortably fit. By the time I left, around 10, the line was still going strong, though no longer outdoors. I'm told by others who lingered longer that it took nearly four hours before the last book was signed.
The response was fueled in part by the fact that Simmons, as Steve Kelley wrote about for The Seattle Times, has been the major media figure most supportive of Seattle in the wake of the Sonics' departure. In his brief remarks to the lucky handful of people who got spots inside Sport before the signing, Simmons declared that Seattle was a natural stop for his tour because he still considers it an NBA town. Fans demonstrated that by pulling their Sonics jerseys and other memorabilia out of their closets, and Simmons happily took shots at the former ownership group in the books he signed.
With any tour, there's a natural tendency for each stop to become "the favorite one," but Simmons' fondness for Seattle and empathy for Sonics fans is legit. He even talked up Seattle during a video interview he taped at last night's Portland appearance with The Oregonian. (http://bit.ly/1I0SxF) Now, if only Simmons would have ranked Gary Payton a little higher in his Hall of Fame pyramid ...
[ED NOTE: Simmons may be thinking a little less fondly of Seattle after being pulled over for speeding on his way to Portland.]
Finally, the finale. With two days to go before the runway show at Bryant Park, Carol Hannah is still sick as a dog and crying in the workroom. Girlfriend needs to take a shit ton of DayQuil and nut up. It's Fashion Week, bitches. The boy assistants (Logan and Christopher) are sympathetic, but of course Bitch Queen Irina is not.
The designers go to their hair and makeup consultations. Lots of smoky eyes and ponytails. Yay? Now it's model-fitting time, which is actually going really well for Carol Hannah, not so well for Irina. Tim Gunn comes in to check on them. He's enthusiastic about Irina's thirteenth look, but tells her to watch the proportions and not make it too costume-y. Wise words. He's less excited about the exaggerated shoulders on Althea's thirteenth look, but that's kinda everywhere right now anyways (and yes, Tim, I'm not excited about it either). He comments that Althea's smudged and messy makeup sounds a lot like Irina's plan for makeup, which really doesn't help with Irina's "Althea's copying me" complex. Tim keeps his distance from diseased Carol Hannah, but seems positive about her thirteenth look, a lovely blue drapey gown.
Work work work, everybody works. It's one day till the fashion show, and Carol Hannah feels a little better. Now it's crunch time and everyone getting the little details done, adding straps here and final seams there. But they also have to get everything together--the shoes, the accessories, the ridiculous shark fin helmet hats Irina made--to take to Bryant Park. They're up at 3 a.m. for the show, and it's gonna be a looooooong day.
They get to the tent and have a moment to take it all in, before it's back to work. They're styling the models and putting the last touches on the dresses. Irina has a zipper break and has to fix it right there. Basically, it's mass chaos, and Tim Gunn is not having it. The fact that Tim has lost his cool tells the designers that they need to get their shit together. The models aren't even lined up!
Heidi is wearing a ridiculous cropped fuchsia satin suit to introduce the show. The judges are Michael Kors, Nina Garcia, and Suzy Menkes, the fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune. That last guest judge spot on the finale usually goes to a fashionista celeb, which makes me think someone dropped out. Like last season when Jennifer Lopez stood up Project Runway last minute, and they had Tim Gunn fill in instead. Also, what is up with her bangs?...
Video still of Bridget Gunning from one of the works to be presented at Manifold Motion's "Miscellanea II" at the Canoe Club.
Manifold Motion, an interdisciplinary performance company founded by dancer/choreographer Keely Isaak Meehan, has a reputation for ambitious and visually arresting work. Earlier this year, they staged Woolgatherer at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, an original piece that explored the psychological crisis of hypermodernity by contrasting it against a stunningly visceral premodern world realized through through a fiber art installation. Now, tonight through Sunday, Manifold Motion is presenting Miscellanea II, the second edition of their showcase series that highlights the varied work of company members and collaborators, at the Canoe Club (tickets $10-$30).Meehan will be performing Tulipomania, a collaboration with local poet and visual artist Linden Ontjes, a version of which they brought to On the Boards' 12 Minutes Max in late October. The core of the piece is Ontjes's poetic text, which uses metaphorical leaps to connect sexuality, economics, and life tensions to the tulip, which Meehan by turns interprets and counterpoints through movement.
Meehan's choreography--in my somewhat limited experience--tends towards the imagistic rather than the abstract. In Tulipomania, she anchors the movement to a series of concrete images of a flower blossoming, in between either interpreting the emotional content of Ontjes's text or counterpointing Ontjes by interacting directly.
Miscellanea II also features a movement-aerial-musical collaboration between upright bassist Evan Flory-Barnes and movement artist Bridget Gunning. Gunning is an extremely athletic performer to say the least, and while I have no idea what this piece will look like, I've heard it's as physical for the musician as the dancer.
The showcase also features work by Nicole Sasala (a frequent collaborator who otherwise runs the Asterisk Project), video work by Meehan and Leo Mayberry, an installation by Mike McCracken, and a variety of other work. Plus, this being the Canoe Club, the bar's open during the performance, giving it a bit more of a cabaret feel.
I have two new rules in the wake of Seattle U's high-five-inducing upset win over Fresno State at KeyArena last night.
1) Never Doubt Elgin Baylor
Before the game, NBA Hall-of-Famer and Seattle Uer Baylor, standing next to his stunning wife on the court now named for him, addressed the crowd. He urged the fans to cheer boisterously for the Redhawks. Baylor said that players perform better when they hear the fans' support.
Baylor was right, because I'm at a loss to explain how a short SU backcourt rotation could've kept up a full-court trap for the final eight minutes of the game, hassling Fresno State into just enough turnovers to give the Redhawks a chance for the winning basket.
2) Never Doubt Cameron Dollar
Fresno State is stronger, faster, taller, and more athletic than Seattle U. So you'd think the last thing you'd do is try to run with them. Last year's Seattle U team, under departed coach Joe Callero, would've tried to slow down the game with deliberate possessions, and attempted to confuse Fresno State with trick defenses.
But under new coach Dollar, a former assistant to UW's Lorenzo Romar, the Redhawks were the aggressors. On SU's second possession of the game, Dollar was barking at his point guard to bring the ball up faster. The Redhawks trapped early and often, and played aggressive man-to-man defense against FSU's NBA-quality athletes.
And when Dollar's players got in foul trouble, got tired, and squandered a double-digit lead? Dollar responded by being more aggressive.
For the final 8:30 of the game, Dollar had the Redhawks run a trapping full-court press. And, to me, the outcome seemed preordained. The short-handed Redhawks would tire, Fresno State would score easy buckets in bunches, foul out SU's best players, and coast to a double-digit win.
Instead, the press paid off right away. Mike Boxley and Cervante Burrell trapped a FSU dribbler and caused a steal that led to an Aaron Broussard three-point play. Then, off a bad pass by the Bulldogs, Boxley hit a three-pointer.
The Redhawks stayed within striking distance from that point on, helped by some extremely generous officiating. And with 1:21 left, the Redhawks struck....
Thank you Mantis of Destiny for starting the day with a jolt of surreality. He comments:
Seattleites were astonished today when the Space Needle revealed that its motive power is actually hot air."It was a workaround issue for us in the 60's" commented Skip Reinswold, systems engineer from the original project. "We were extremely interested in then-current Project Orion discussions, but the side effects of explosive thermonuclear propulsion just seemed too extreme. More traditional means were really our only feasible option at the time. Nowadays we would also consider pop-bottle rocket technology using Coke-Mentos or compressed air, but it's really too late to revisit this issue."
The sudden locomotion came as a surprise to nearly everyone, Several observers remarked that it was nice to finally see the Space Needle do something exciting.
(From the SunBreak Flickr pool.)
With this week being so wet and dark, it seems like a good time to take a trip to South America, via our good friends at the Northwest Film Forum. They're currently showing two movies made in the other America to the south. While the films have different locales, formats, and time periods, they do have one thing in common: they like to take it sloooooooooooowww.
If you miss the warm weather, soak up the sun with the restored print of Margot Benacerraf’s 1959 black-and-white "tone poem" documentary Araya. It's a look at twenty-four hours in a small Venezuelan village dependent on the sea for its fish and salt. There's a lot of back-breaking work (you will come to understand the true meaning of "back to the salt mines"), which means a lot of tan shirtless hunks of men. As always, the village's men may do the majority of the manual labor, but the ladies still bear the brunt of the work. While a man may have to put the nets in the ocean at night, pull them out in the morning, and untangle the fish, a woman has to then take those fish to another village, sell them, come home, nurse her baby, take care of the household chores, and feed her tired and hungry husband. It just ain't fair.
Meanwhile, there's no sweating in Lisandro Alonso's Liverpool, because he's made a narrative feature with non-professionals in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, right near the tip of Argentina. Alonso's process is almost more interesting than his films (see the making-of video below): he goes to a place he finds intriguing with his tiny crew, he meets the locals, and he convinces them to be in a movie. There's very little by way of script, which is to say there's very little by way of story. Liverpool is more of a feeling--loneliness, isolation, um...being cold. Both films invite the viewer to see these disparate, exotic landscapes for themselves, not to do the hard work, but to discover if it's as brutal there in real life as it is in the movies. I want to go to (both of) there.
- Araya and Liverpool both show at the Northwest Film Forum tonight at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Tickets are $9 non-NWFF members, $6 members.
SIFF's New Italian Film Festival kicked off Tuesday night with director Marco Risi's latest film Fortapàsc (a Neapolitan pronunciation of the film title Fort Apache). As Risi gently explained to the opening night audience, he's not really all that new--this is his 13th film. But kudos to the New Italian Cinema people for including him, because he was new to me and his film is a wonderful piece of craftsmanship.
If you can't afford that trip to Italy, this might be the next best thing. The festival includes two Mafia-related movies (Fortapàsc, The Sicilian Girl), two gay/lesbian stories (Different From Whom?, Sea Purple), two relationship dramas (Ex, The House in the Clouds), and two that just happen to come from Italian directors (Lecture 21, Pa-ra-da).
Fortapàsc tells the true story of the last four months of a young journalist's life; Giancarlo Siani was assassinated by the Naples criminal syndicate Camorra. (Risi was caught in one of those awkward "Oh, you've made a Camorra movie, too?...
Erik Lochtefeld with Richard Nguyen Sloniker and Matt Shimkus in a scene from the Intiman's much raved about "Abe Lincoln in Illinois," which closes tonight. Photo by Chris Bennion.
A couple big announcements on the theatre front today. First off, the Intiman just announced next year's season, the first under the guidance of incoming artistic director Kate Whoriskey. The big--and rather unsurprising--news is that Whoriskey will be re-staging Lynn Nottage's Ruined, the winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Whoriskey directed the premiere and worked for several years with Nottage to bring the play, which explores the plight of women in war-ravaged central Africa, to the stage.The next installment of the Intiman's "American Cycle" features a new adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, by Naomi Iizuka. Also, Seattle playwright Sonya Schneider is debuting an original one-man-show called The Thin Space, based on interviews conducted by KUOW's Marcie Sillman. For full details on the rest of the season, visitthe Intiman's website.
The other news of the day, which is more exciting (and not just because I was on the selection panel for it), is that On the Boards has announced the line-up for the 2010 Northwest New Works Festival. Every year it's one of my favorite performance events in town, and this year will be no exception. Again, the mainstage is all dance, with new works by Amy O'Neal (Amyo/tinyrage), KT Niehoff (Lingo Dance), Mark Haim (choreographic artist-in-residence at the UW), and Marissa Rae Niederhauser (Josephine's Echopraxia), and more.
The studio showcase, which is always more eclectic, features new work by Mike Pham of Helsinki Syndrome, Erin Leddy of Portland's Hand2Mouth Theatre, the Satori Group (whose Artifacts of Consequence closes at the Little Theatre this weekend), and local burlesque superstar Lily Verlaine, among others. See here for the full line-up; the festival runs two weekends, June 4-13, 2010.
Here we are, the final challenge for our five cheftestants in Vegas before the big Napa final two episodes. I think. They can't stretch this out to more than two episodes, can they?
Brother Bryan needs to win this money. His phone might get shut off, y'all. Kevin is wearing a rosary? Maybe that's why he's been killing it all season, and is definitely going to win the whole shebang. Eli doesn't want to lose Top Chef like his mentor Richard Blais. (A moment of silence to pour one out for the Blaisinator.) He wants to win Top Chef so they they both can win, and to demonstrate this he quotes from The Princess Bride. Um, Eli, your motivation for winning should be getting out of your mother's basement. You are a grown-ass man! Jennifer needs to prove she's not a basket case and can cook better than the shitshow she's been putting on plates the second half of this season.
The chefs head to the kitchen and James Beard winner Gavin Kaysen is there with Padma, who for once this season isn't wearing a romper. Kaysen previously took part in the Bocuse D'Or, which is like the Olympics of cooking, with chefs representing countries all over the world competing via French cuisine. So the quickfire challenge is each chef's version of a crazy meat stuffed with meat stuffed with meat abomination that took Kaysen months to figure out how to make well. Since it's a quickfire challenge, they have no such time to carefully consider their protein choices. Are you ready for some garbage food?
Apparently, the official name of such a dish is a ballotine, which is a nice way of saying "meatstravangza." Jennifer starts out thinking about making a turducken, but ends up with calamari, scallops, and salmon. I would like that; it's called a sushi roll. Brother Bryan's making a sausage-lamb thing. Brother Michael's still being cocky and is making a terrine that is bacon in turkey in chicken. Beardo Kevin thinks the Brothers are reaching too high in such a short period of time. So he's preparing a cornmeal-fried catfish fillet with scallops and shrimp. Eli is making a bacon-crusted scotched egg. Kevin thinks he and Eli are somehow making a statement by making "homestyle food" on Top Chef, because they believe in the food they grew up eating. Relax, Beardo, it's just food.
Anyways, Gavin thinks Kevin's catfish is too dry, and Michael's terrine isn't really a ballotine. He likes Bryan's and Eli's and Jennifer's dishes. Jennifer wins. Yay, she's not crazy anymore! Now, for the elimination challenge: the chefs will participate in Top Chef's version of the Bocuse D'Or. Woof. They need to make a presentation platter, which consists of one protein and two garnishes. And this ain't no simple garnish: the vegetables need to be intricate and demonstrate great technique and method, and perhaps also cure cancer. As an example, Gavin describes a zucchini that is weaved into a basket, which then contains more food. Because who doesn't want to eat food out of a basket and then eat the basket itself? Probably the poors. The chefs have the choice between lamb and salmon as a protein, and they will be able to put their dish on the special Bocuse D'Or mirrored platter to present their food before they plate in front of the judges. Oh yes, shit just got real. ...
A friend just called, practically spitting bullets. He stopped by the Chase branch in the University Village to pick up a roll of quarters because he's paranoid about using his credit card in parking meters. He bought a roll for ten dollars, stepped outside to open up the roll, and discovered that he'd also bought a number of dimes, nickels, pennies, and Philippine centavos.
Because banks are too busy to count change, they simply measure the rolls of quarters people bring in. A scammer had padded both ends of the roll with quarters, and filled in the middle with an assortment of coins that in width and weight brought the roll to the right specifications.
Whoops! So back into the bank, only to learn that Chase observes a strict "caveat quarter" rule--once you walk out the door, that's your money. No returns. "No, no, look," protests my friend, "I just gave you ten dollars and you gave me less than that." A manager is summoned. A customer's long history with--well, not Chase, but with the previous bank, a friend...
Last night a hardy band of bloggers braved wind and rain to gather for Blogsgiving, a fundraiser for NW Harvest and a chance for everyone to meet in real life. Sponsored by the Neighborlogs empire (including CHS and CDNews), Seattle Metblogs, Seattlest, and The SunBreak, the party raised $447 in cash, and packed up a big box of food.
The mulled wine flowed like...wine, and the Central Cinema pizza vanished astonishingly quickly. You want celebrity guests? How about Joel Connelly, ladies and gentlemen! Mónica Guzmán! Dominic Holden! Clark Humphrey! nerd's eye view! The list goes on. B-Town Blog! We even had an Office Nomads blogger show up. I know I'm leaving people out. It was a cavalcade of stars, and, as I say, a cavalcade of mulled wine, so things get a bit hazy for me about mid-way.
Thanks to everyone who helped set it up, especially our host Central Cinema, and everyone who came by to socialize. We'll see you next year!
Matt Mason snapped this picture. If I was staring down kids that looked this determined, I'd just get out of the way. (From the SunBreak Flickr pool.)
The more time I spend cozied up with the debut disc from Paul Banks' solo project/nom de muse Julian Plenti, the more I like it (initial reaction documented here). And that like is metamorphosing into adoration after seeing Banks'/Plenti's great set at Chop Suey on the 16th.
Julian Plenti pulled off that greatest of hat tricks with his live show--namely, pointing up the strengths of the original album while still rocking enough to turbo-charge an already-enthusiastic club audience.
Banks reputedly considered bringing a small orchestra for this solo tour, but the Interpol singer eventually opted for a tight, four-man team of back-up players. The decision paid off in spades on Monday. The stripped-down backing gave even the most pastoral tracks definition and strength, repainting pencil sketches of atmosphere with sharply defined and expansive brushstrokes.
The band maintained the fragile beauty of "Skyscraper," even as the taut electric-guitar-toughening brought a sense of menace to the fore. And converting the stark piano on "Madrid Song" into mournful six-string notes made it sound almost psychedelic. A single cellist filled in for most of the frills and filigrees on the record (keyboards, horns, strings, etc.) brilliantly, but the sound always coursed with energy. The added oomph brought out the sexy big-time on "Fly as you Might," which contrasted the interplay between Banks' and Damien Paris's axes with a near-coital grind.
Best of all, the band gave the rock numbers a swift kick in the pants, to killer effect. Banks and company chucked the burbly keyboards and studio fuss on "Fun That We Have," mashing the song's memorable hook into the floor (mad props to Paris, guitarist for Brooklyn metal-punks The Giraffes, for the extra heft). And "Unwind" got a much more bottom-heavy stomp in the bargain.
Paul Banks (aka Julian Plenti himself) seemed genuinely elated by the scruffy energy his compadres generated, ending most of the songs with a broad smile and genuine happy surprise at the thundering enthusiasm of the crowd. I'd argue that he's an even more charismatic--and more relaxed--frontman when flying solo. How charismatic? Well, he converted America's granola-rock chestnut, "Horse with No Name," into throbbing post-punk magic for the encore.
I know that all of you, dear readers, are already well aware of Blogsgiving and have already RSVPed, and are currently shining up your finest Pilgrim shoes, but just in case, one final reminder: Tonight (Wednesday the 18th) is our second annual Blogsgiving.
Like last year's event, this year's Blogsgiving is a chance for a cadre of local blogs (us, of course, along with Seattle Metblogs, Seattlest, Seattle PostGlobe, and all of Neighborlogs) to host a big ol' blogger meetup while also raising money for Northwest Harvest.
So head on over to Central Cinema tonight starting at 6 p.m. for food, drinks, and seasonal tidings. You know that free food is bound to go quick, so be sure to be punctual if you want to get your hands on a caramel apple or a slice of pizza. Or a slice of caramel apple pizza.
It's a $5 suggested donation at the door, or feel free to bring some non-perishable food items. Last chance for you to send us any of your favorite YouTube vids to broadcast on the big screen (via jseattle at gmail.com). And for an extra $6, stick around for Big Trouble in Little China at 9:30 p.m.
For more details, take a look at the invite. See you all soon!
The party begins at 6 p.m. Enjoy some mulled wine and caramel apples. On top of that, we're bringing back the amateur paper turkey contest, a big hit from last year. Will you see amazing things transpire on the big screen? Yes, obviously, or we wouldn't have brought it up. Invite your friends, family, and fellow bloggers, journalers, or tumblrs. See you there!
- Blogsgiving is tonight (Wednesday, November 18th) 6-9 p.m. at Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave. $5 suggested donation and/or two non-perishable food items.
November is a strange time to visit our large cousin to the north. It's cold, but there's very little snow. Every new day loses another five minutes of daylight from the previous. The whales have gone south. The bears have had their fill of salmon and are working on making their dens nice and cozy for the winter slumber. You can count the number of actual vacationers on one hand. Most of the out-of-towners appear to be there on business, as was the case with my wife. I tagged along because I can't pass up an opportunity to go to Alaska no matter what time of year it is.
We spent our first few days in downtown Anchorage without a vehicle. We stayed at a bed and breakfast called the Copper Whale at the West end and spent most of our time walking the streets, ducking into shops, boutiques, cafes, and brewpubs. There was a lot of bundling up, covering the ears, neck, and hands, only to shed it all again minutes later.
The high temperature during our stay was 35 degrees, though at times it was much colder than that. Still, I felt kind of silly, wrapped up as I was inside my snowboarding parka while hardened locals strolled by in little more than a flannel shirt. I told my wife I was glad it was so cold. "It makes the trip seem more exotic," I said. Luckily for us, the sky was clear, even sunny, so we were able to keep an eye on the surrounding mountains to be sure they were not misbehaving.
If you visit Anchorage, I recommend you not leave until you've consumed the following: the Crabby Omelet from Snow City Cafe, the Big Orso Burger from Orso, beers from Glacier Brewhouse and Snow Goose Restaurant and Brewery, and trivia night at Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse.
After a few days in Anchorage it was time to drive south to the Kenai Peninsula in a rented mid-size SUV. This is a breathtaking drive. First one must drive around the Turnagain Arm, a large inlet ringed by snow-capped peaks which seem to launch straight up from the icy water. The highway then ducks into the mountains and snakes its way through the gorgeous Chugach National Forest. The road then nuzzles the turquoise glacial waters of Kenai Lake and the Kenai River before eventually straightening out into a more even landscape dotted by marshes and small lakes.
Moose love Kenai. I don't think a day passed without seeing one of these huge, goofy-looking things in someone's lawn, on the side of the road, or, as was the case once, crossing the road right in front of me. I'm happy to report that the brakes worked wonderfully in my rented Toyota.
Located at the south end of the peninsula is the beautiful town of Homer. If you believe the bumper stickers popular in the area, Homer is "a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem." If you ever get the chance to visit the area, you must visit Homer. It is stunning. And it has a spit.
As my wife was busy working for two days, that left me with a vehicle, some magnificent country, and ample time for exploration.
I drove around the first day, somewhat aimlessly, without an agenda or a destination in mind. I took photos, watched the sun rise over the Kasilof River, visited an old Orthodox Russion Church in the town of Kenai, and then drove around some more. Feeling like I must be missing something, I decided that my second day of solo exploration needed to be a little more organized....
Starting in 2008, actress, writer, and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini began producing a series of wacky but deeply touching short films called Green Porno for the Sundance Channel, each episode exploring the sex lives of the sort animals we interact with daily. The films have a charmingly low-budget sort of look, replete with lots of cardboard sets and nutty costumes, and reinforced with willfully cheesy cuts and Rossellini's guileless interest in her subjects' libidos. They're delightful on the one hand, passionate on the other, and one of the most compelling bits of educational filmmaking to come along in ages.
Tonight, Seattle Arts & Lectures is bringing in Rossellini to discuss Green Porno at Benaroya Hall at 7:30 p.m. (tickets available at the box office starting at 6). Rossellini has also recently released a book/DVD combo on the project, which is in its third season.
Flags adorned the stage at the Croc last night for Fanfarlo. That seems to be their thing, if Flickr is any guide. Opener Freelance Whales were really cute, precious even, but sometimes too cute by half. The world already has one Ben Gibbard, and that's more than enough. My friend called them "Happy Meal-sized Architecture in Helsinki," and to be fair, they had good songs sprinkled here and there. Just less Death Cab lite and songs with wordless choruses and more like their final number, please--which is to say, less of "Generator^First Floor" and more "Generator^Second Floor" (mp3s here).
The New York Times described Fanfarlo as looking like extras form There Will Be Blood, and the description is apt. However, they are much more lighthearted than the film. I bounced along to their poppy songs with a big dopey grin on my face, and much of the crowd looked to be similarly gleeful. The six-piece trumpeted the trumpet and bowed a saw, and on a couple songs, even broke out the extra snare drum and...
Eric Fredericksen rockin' the 'roke. Photo by Andy Pixel.
Tonight, Nov. 18, On the Boards hosts the first of a two-part lecture-performance by Eric Fredericksen, the curator of Western Bridge, called "Speak & Sing: Contemporary Karaoke Practice" (one-night-only, $12). While the connection between karaoke and contemporary cultural production may not be immediately apparent, that's an intellectual leap Fredericksen's willing to make. As the audience takes turns on the karaoke machine (you can ever plan your tunes in advance by checking the songbook [PDF]), Fredericksen promises to guide the viewers along a weaving path of radical associations and...oh hell, I have no idea how he's going to do it, but it'll be rad.
OtB has a history of karaoke-themed parties engaged in with reckless abandon, so they're the perfect host. Plus, it's worth noting that this is a two-part series, with the second night coming up in March, so be smart and buy your tickets to both now: after the first half, it's definitely going to sell out. The space only accomodates like 90 people.
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