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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper's InsaneJournal:
| Wednesday, October 11th, 2017 | |
| 3:12 pm | Amazon Spokesperson to Seattle: You and PNW Still Has a Chance In Race for HQ2 by Charles Mudede  Reflection of HQ1... Charles Mudede Adam Sedo, Amazon spokesperson, informed me that all is not over for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest in its search for HQ2. This is in contradiction to the feeling the city and region got from comments made yesterday by Amazon executive at Jeff Wilke at the Geekwire Summit. Not everybody wants to live in the Northwest, Wilke said. Its been terrific for me and my family, but I think we may find another location allows us to recruit a different collection of employees. That sounded like game over, man, game over. But this is what Adam Sedo stated to me, on behalf of Amazon: We will give serious consideration to every HQ2 proposal we receive from across North America, including from communities across the Pacific Northwest. Will this statement make Seattle feel better? No. It will only make the city crazier. It has been thrown back into the madness it was pulled out of only yesterday. Knowing it had no chance, meant it could give up and try to something else with its nervous hands. But it's not over! Amazon has said so. And besides, what does it mean for HQ1 to also want to become HQ2? Doesn't that sound weird? And if it sounds weird, isn't it? Game over, Seattle. |
| 3:46 pm | Sierra Club Criticizes Puget Sound Energy Over a "Repeal and Replace" Climate Plan by Sydney Brownstone  Montana's coal-fired Colstrip power plant. David T. Hanson Puget Sound Energy, the private utility company that serves natural gas to Seattle and electricity to the rest of King County, has received praise for meeting and exceeding its carbon reduction targets under the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. But in the wake of the Trump administration's plan to repeal the federal government's best shot at climate control, local environmental activists say they're concerned that the utility is joining the wrong side of history by advocating for a replacement plan that could walk back certain climate targets. "They need to explicitly and immediately step out and declare their support for the Clean Power Plan as is," Doug Howell, senior campaign representative at the Sierra Club, told The Stranger. The Sierra Club's frustration with PSE comes from its role on a coalition of energy utilities and private companies across the country that last month put out a proposal to replace the Clean Power Plan if the Trump administration were to repeal it. On Monday, Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt announced that he had signed a measure that would indeed scrap the Obama-era power plant regulations. Those regulations would have required states to reduce emissions to certain levels by 2030. The new plan, created by a group of utilities called Coalition for Innovative Climate Solutions (CICS), while vague about compliance requirements, pushes the date for compliance back five years to 2035. That bugs enviros. While Puget Sound Energy is already court-ordered to shut down two of the oldest, coal-burning facilities at Montana's Colstrip power plant (resulting from a lawsuit with environmental organizations including the Sierra Club), environmental activists are concerned that it isn't doing more to support of the Clean Power Plan's original goals. "There is no need to extend the deadline," Howell said. "The only thing that Puget [Sound Energy] is doing is aligning themselves with Trump and his allies that seek to dismantle the Clean Power Plan. Their mantra is: Don't repeal, replace. Frankly, I think that's crap. The EPA and Trump have one agenda: to repeal. The only thing this coalition is doing is giving Trump power to do that." But Puget Sound Energy says the compliance date of 2035 in the CICS white paper doesn't really matter. "We're on plan to deliver cleaner and cleaner energy and we will certainly continue on that path," Grant Ringel, a spokesperson for the utility, said. "Our real focus from our involvement in that organization is that if the administration decides to repeal the Clean Power Plan, we support replacement as soon as possible." Ringel said that the company wasn't advocating for "any specific timeframe" because doing so would be "getting ahead of yourself" before the EPA figured out the new rules. As for the claim that PSE and the CICS are siding with the Trump administration or enabling the destruction of the Clean Power Plan, Ringel said: "We're looking forward, not backward. We very much think that if the Clean Power Plan goes away, something ought to replace it, and as I said, our plans to provide cleaner energy here are underway and well known." King County, which is served by PSE, has a plan to phase out coal electricity by 2025more than a decade ahead of the CICS compliance date. |
| 3:53 pm | Late-Night Happy Hours by Christopher Frizzelle  1522 12th Ave, 206-457-4068 There's a light sculpture in the front bar of Momiji that looks like some unidentifiable form of sea life. The bar was crowded with happy people, and the lighting was just right, and the two free seats along the bar meant we didn't have to wait for a table in back. Only later, after knocking back a shochu mule (Satsuma Mura, lime, ginger beer; $8) and a yujo (Bulleit bourbon, lime juice, Giffard orgeat, barrel-aged bitters, soda water; $8) and sharing a crunchy Seattle roll ($7), did we wander to the back and see several more sea life light sculptures. Also, an outdoor garden. The three deep-fried crunchy rolls on the happy hour menu (the Cali, with snow crab; the Bad Boy, with eel; and the Seattle roll, with salmon) are all $7 (half off the dinner-menu price), and a daily rotating roll (chef's choice) is $12. The crunchy Seattle roll takes its cue from the Seattle hot dog and includes cream cheese. It's decadent and delicious. Happy hour: 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. every night of the week. |
| 2:30 pm | The Guitar Tech for The War On Drugs Is Awesome Last night at the Moore, the War on Drugs did that one long song they do, and it was indie arena rock to the max. by Rich Smith  This is not the guitar tech, but his handiwork allowed this moment to happen. *Update:* The tech's name is Dominic East. Praise him. RS Last night at the Moore Theatre, lead singer Adam Granduciel was having a guitar problem during the lead-up to a lead. I couldn't tell you which song he was trying to play because everybody knows The War On Drugs has just one long song that seems to be about a train, and the special loneliness of the spaces in-between trains, and you're wearing a jean jacket, and you just can't go back. Anyway, from my seat I couldn't see if Granduciel had broken a string or what. I could only see that he was trying to whammy-bar himself out of this problem. Finally, he threw up his hand in distress, and like a Shakespearean sprite the spry guitar tech, apparently older than everyone onstage and somehow cooler, leapt through the fake fog with Granduciel's trusty sunburst Gibson-whatever just in time for the leading man to tear into a savory riff that had everybody looking wide-eyed as Moses in the shadow of the golden calf. The audience rose to its feetfor the first time all eveningto applaud their new god. Granduciel changed guitars between every song (or I guess every pause between The One Song) during their generous set, and this guitar tech was on time every time with the correctly tuned axe. He's worth whatever money they're paying him. And so was the show last night.  Indie arena rock to the max. RS To start the evening off, Phoebe Bridgers stood silver-haired in a black dress before a black curtain and sang along with a tight four-piece band her record label found in a catalogue somewhere. Her breathy alto bled into the darkness of the auditorium, and though this lower-middle class reviewer nodded in solemn recognition at some of the lyrics (e.g. "I've got a stack of mail and a tall can / It's a shower beer, it's a payment plan"), her set had a soporific effect on me. That said I hope one of her songs gets mainstream play on the radio, and that she and her band make a bunch of money off of it. Maybe this one: The War On Drugs played all the songs you wanted them to play off of 2014's Lost In the Dream, and they played all the slightly brighter and more upbeat versions of those same songs off of their major label debut, A Deeper Understanding. The appeal of the show is the appeal of the records: TWOD offers stability in a world without any. Though the song will begin in darkness, the lead will always show you the light. In the meantime, the snare is going to hit on the 2 and the 4 every time. Once you settle into the groove, you can run an hour on the treadmill or drive to Wenatchee in total peace. Who cares about the lyrics? Even without looking them up you know every one of them tells you the same thing: you just gotta keep goin', keep goin' down the line, keep goin' down that train line in your buffalo plaid button-up. Even if the ghost in Granduciel's voice reminds you that he couldn't keep goin', he's back from the recent past to usher you forward in a series of three-beat phrases that sound like Christian Bob Dylan trying to sound like Tom Petty. Though the band paid no homage to their betters, they did do a "pretty goodno, very good" cover of Warren Zevon's "Accidentally Like A Martyr," according to a friend I brought to the show. He was one of maybe two other people who clapped loudly and wooped when Granduciel sang the opening line. "The phone don't ring..." And maybe this says more about Seattle than anything else, and as if it needed saying, but the crowd was very white. Alarmingly white. Predominately blonde and bearded, they were somehow even whiter than your faithful correspondent. One of my colleagues who saw the show on Monday said the place felt "less like a rock show and more like a webinar at Amazon HQ," but even the local tech industry is more diverse than the crowd assembled last night at the Moore. I mean, at one point Granduciel introduced the bass player, David Hartley, as a man with some relationship to Bainbridge Island, and the crowd went nuts. It was the most love I'd ever heard for Bainbridge Island, and I go to the ballet a LOT. Another colleague of mine at the Stranger described TWOD as "yacht rock Bruce Springsteen," which may also have something to do with it. |
| 3:04 pm | The Foreigner: Jackie Chan Versus Pierce Brosnan! by Ben Coleman  Heres what The Foreigner looks like: Taken, but with Jackie Chan. But if you walk into the theater expecting either a Taken knockoff or a typical Jackie Chan vehicle, youre going to be disappointed. Which is a shame, because The Foreigner is really interestingjust not for the sort of reasons that fit into a trailer. Lets get the Taken thing out of the way first: Yes, Chan plays Quan, a frumpy dad with secret Special Forces training. And yes, his only daughter (Katie Leung) is immediately blown up by terrorists. But Taken movies operate with a straightforward set of rules (Liam Neeson has a particular set of skills, bad guys have his whatever), while The Foreigner threads Quans quest for vengeance through a complex web of contemporary British counter-terrorism and North Ireland politics. |
| 12:30 pm | Two Freshly Minted Literary Geniuses Will Visit Seattle Soon by Rich Smith  (L-R) Look for Viet Thanh Nguyen and Jesmyn Ward at a Benaroya Hall near you. John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation This morning the MacArthur Fellowship announced their new class of geniuses, each of whom receive $625,000 "as an investment in their potential." Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Viet Thanh Nguyen and novelist Jesmyn Ward count themselves among the winners. The prescient literary programers at Seattle Arts and Lectures just so happened to have invited Nguyen and Ward to speak at Benaroya early next year, so you better get your tickets soon. As I wrote when SAL announced their line-up in April, Ward won the National Book Award in fiction in 2011 for Salvage the Bones. All of her novels (Where the Line Bleeds and The Men We Reaped) are about the lives of poor black families in rural Mississippi. Her latest work of fiction, Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel, continues in this tradition. The MacArthur Fellowship describes Ward's prose as "simultaneously luminous and achingly honest," capable of capturing "moments of beauty, tenderness, and resilience against a bleak landscape of crushing poverty, racism, addiction, and incarceration." She'll be coming to read at Benaroya Hall on Wednesday, January 17. Nguyen wrote The Sympathizer, which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in fiction. He believes we need to hear the story of the American invasion of Vietnam from more Vietnamese peoples' perspectives, and his work is certainly making headway in that direction. His latest is a book of short stories called The Refugees, which is about the multifaceted lives of people caught between countries. He's coming on Monday, May 7th. |
| 12:39 pm | Appeals Court: People Who Live in Tents Have the Same Privacy Protections As Those in Houses A recent case asked: Is a tarp a home? by Heidi Groover  The Stranger The Washington Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that people living on the streets are entitled to the same constitutional privacy protections as those living in houses. Earlier this year, we covered the case of William Pippin. In November 2015, Pippin was living under a tarp on a roadside in Vancouver, Washington, when police arrived. The cops were there to notify people living in the encampment that they would soon have to move on. They rapped on Pippin's tarp. Pippin said he'd be out soon but when an officer felt he was taking too long, the officer pulled back the tarp. Inside, he saw a clear baggie containing crystal meth. Officers arrested Pippin and he was charged with possession. In court, Pippin's public defender challenged the arrest, claiming the evidence was obtained in an illegal search. A judge sided with Pippin, suppressed the drug evidence, and dismissed the case. In opening Pippin's structure without a warrant, officers had violated his rights under the Washington State Constitution, the Clark County Superior Court judge ruled. Clark County prosecutors appealed. "It defies logic to believe a person who erects a makeshift tarp structure tied to a guardrail on the side of a road has a reasonable expectation of privacy in that structure to the same extent a person has an expectation of privacy in his home, which he lawfully occupies," the prosecutors wrote to the Court of Appeals. Not so, the higher court ruled this week. In their decision, three Court of Appeals Division II judges write that Pippin's tarp structure was indeed protected by the Washington State constitution's rule that "no person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law." In their decision, the judges cite past cases and efforts by the state legislature to reduce homelessness, including the creation of a system to collect information from homeless people. That system requires informed consent from people experiencing homelessness in order to protect their privacy. That "provides a small window into the realities of homeless life and conveys a general respect for the privacy of homeless individuals personal information," the court writes. In deciding whether Pippin's structure should count as a home safe from seizure, the judges analyzed whether the structure could reveal "intimate details" of someone's life. Their finding: absolutely. "Pippins tent allowed him one of the most fundamental activities which most individuals enjoy in privatesleeping under the comfort of a roof and enclosure," the judges write. "The tent also gave him a modicum of separation and refuge from the eyes of the world: a shred of space to exercise autonomy over the personal." The temporary nature of a tent or tarp doesn't undermine the privacy rights of the person living inside, the judges write, citing past cases involving hotel guests. "Nor does the flimsy and vulnerable nature of an improvised structure leave it less worthy of privacy protections. For the homeless, those may often be the only refuge for the private in the world as it is." The judges also took on the claim that Pippin did not deserve privacy protections because he was on public land. "To call homelessness voluntary, and thus unworthy of basic privacy protections is to walk blind among the realities around us," the court writes. "Worse, such an argument would strip those on the street of the protections given the rest of us directly because of their poverty. Our constitution means something better." Pippin is not entirely out of the woods on the drug charge, though. In the appeal, county prosecutors argued that even if Pippin had privacy protections, the search was necessary for officer safety. Officers claimed that they worried for their safety when Pippin refused to come out of his tarp structure. But it's not clear how long they waited for him to come out before pulling the tarp back. One officer said they waited five minutes; another said it was between five seconds and two minutes. The lower court judge didn't buy the argument that officers' fears during that time justified their search. The appellate judges say the trial court judge used the wrong legal framework to analyze whether officers rightly feared for their safety. So, even while upholding Pippin's privacy rights, the Court of Appeals sent the case back to the trial court to again consider whether officers faced enough perceived threat to justify their search. If that court finds that the safety concerns justified the search, the drug evidence could be allowed back in and Pippin could be convicted. The county prosecutors who charged him have not responded to requests for comment on the ruling. In a statement, ACLU of Washington spokesperson Doug Honig says: We are pleased that the court recognized that constitutional rights apply to everyone. Whether your home consists of a tarp and poles or of bricks and mortar, you have a right to privacy that government officials must respect." |
| 12:40 pm | Savage Love by Dan Savage  I'm a 25-year-old woman currently in a poly relationship with a married man roughly 20 years my senior. This has by far been the best relationship I've ever had. However, something has me a bit on edge. We went on a trip with friends to a brewery with a great restaurant. It was an amazing place, and I'm sure his wife would enjoy it. He mentioned the place to her, and her response was NO, she didn't want to go there because she didn't want to have "sloppy seconds." It made me feel dirty. Additionally, the way he brushed this off means this isn't the first time. I go out of my way to show him places I think they would like to go together. I don't know if my feelings are just hurtif it's as childish as I think it isor if it's a reminder of my very low place in their hierarchy. I hesitate to bring this up, because when I have needs or concerns, they label me as difficult or needy. Is this part of a bigger trend I'm missing? Should I do anything to address this or just continue to stay out of their business and go where I wish with my partner? |
| 12:59 pm | Blabbermouth Podcast: White Men Misbehaving, the NFL Pushes Back, and More! by The Stranger  Harvey Weinstein: Former producer, forever asshole. DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES Republican Senator Bob Corker says our president lives in an adult daycare. But really, what boomer doesnt these days? Dan Savage, Rich Smith, and Eli Sanders talk about whos to blame for all these aging white men behaving so, so badly. After that, they focus on one particularly bad boomer: Harvey Weinstein. What, exactly, should be done about this problem of old, powerful men (like, ahem, Donald Trump) allegedly using their positions of power to assault women? And finally, if the NFL thinks its gonna change the rules to prevent the ongoing protests against police brutalitywell, Dan, Rich, and Eli have some other ideas. (Also, in a herculean group effort they explain what the NFL actually is!) Plus.... |
| 1:32 pm | You Have Never Seen Pride and Prejudice the Way Seattle Rep Is Doing It The show manages to be both utterly silly and unexpectedly profound. by Christopher Frizzelle  This Pride and Prejudice blew me away. It involves slapstick, pop music, and men in dragand it works! Alan Alabastro The curtain is already up when you walk in. There's a dance floor center stage, where most of the action will take place, and surrounding the dance floor are all the props, costumes, lamps, instruments, buckets of water, fans, and sound-effects machines that will be needed for the show. The lights go down, and when they come back up, Mr. Bennet (Rajeev Varma) is sitting center stage, reading the newspaper. The newspaper he's reading is The Stranger. The show is a madcap, postmodern, fourth-wall-breaking, Jane-Austen-joke-making take on Pride and Prejudice. It reminds the audience that Jane Austen's books were funny and full of emphatic inflection. In fact, a recent study of the vocabulary in Austen's writing revealed "a higher-than-average propensity for words like quite, really, and verythe sort that writers are urged to avoid if they want muscular prose." Researchers go on:
At Seattle Rep, playwright Kate Hamill and director Amanda Dehnert have found a hundred ways to dramatize Austen's intensities and ironies. Any restrictions about time and space, gender, or race have been thrown out the window. At the ball, everyone dances to Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke." The actor playing Mr. Bingley (Trick Danneker) comes out and takes a selfie with someone in the first row, and later plays the sappy Mr. Bingley as a puppyliterally, a simple-minded puppy excitedly chasing rubber balls. In alternate scenes, Danneker switches into a homely dress and plays the least lovely of the Bennet daughters.  The wackiness wouldn't work if not for thoughtful, probing performances by Kjerstine Anderson (left) as Lizzy, and Emily Chisholm as Jane. Alan Alabastro The cast is top-notch, with Kjerstine Anderson bringing poise and poignancy to her portrayal of cynical, sure-of-herself Lizzywho turns out to be wrong about herself in more ways than one. Emily Chisholm, who won a Stranger Genius Award in 2016, wrings more humor out of Jane than seems possible. Jane's boring. But the way Chisholm talks in the scene where Jane has a head cold is unforgettably funnyalmost as funny as when Chisholm adopts an indecipherable E.T. squeak of a voice and wears a veil that fully obscures her face to play the bit part of Miss de Bourgh. "This character doesn't matter, except to move the plot along, her lines don't even matter," all of these choices sayan arch joke at Jane Austen's expense. I have to confess: The first ten minutes of the show, I thought, "This is not working for me, I'll probably leave at intermission." I didn't get it. Mrs. Bennet (Cheyenne Casebier) was running around clanging a bell, I couldn't figure out what time period we were in, and it didn't seem funny to see a man in a dress. But then Brandon O'Neill made an entrance as Miss Bingley while RuPaul's "Supermodel" blared loudlyanother man in a dressand something started to turn for me. O'Neill, who plays three supporting roles, practically steals the show with his gift for slapstick. Halfway through act one, the production had won me over, and I was going, "Okay, Cheyenne Casebier's brilliant, Rajeev Varma's brilliant, Emily Chisholm's brilliant, Kjerstine Anderson's brilliant, Brandon O'Neill's brilliant..."  Kenajuan Bentley, center, as Mr. Darcy. Alan Alabastro I expected the antics onstage to repel some of the audience membersI saw a Sunday matinee, so it was a sea of bluehairsbut the seats were packed after intermission. Everyone laughed louder during the second half. Kenajuan Bentley, who initially plays Mr. Darcy with a steely reserve, warms up by act two. His version of being seductive involves doing the worm on the dance floor. The energy and life and good humor of the actors is matched by clever scenic design by John McDermott, beautiful costumes by Tracy Christensen, and crisp sound design by Matt Starritt. The show manages to be both utterly silly and unexpectedly profound. By curtain call, I was on my feet. They were playing Stevie Wonder again. Pride and Prejudice plays at Seattle Repertory Theatre through October 29. |
| 2:04 pm | Scraping By with Protomartyr by Mark Lore  Joe Casey has a reputation for being a little surly and fatalistic. This tends to be the focus of articles about his band, Protomartyrtheres even a Tumblr dedicated to Descriptions of Joe Casey. (One entry: Hes like an inverse Bono. ) To be fair, Protomartyr hails from the gritty rock n roll capital of Detroit, and Caseys lyrics can be as direct and raw as a fresh knife wound. Maybe Ive caught him on a good day, but when we speak, Caseys in good spirits and seems genuinely satisfied with the bands success. Unsurprisingly, his approach to touring is still very workmanlike: When youre on the road, youre essentially a traveling salesman, he explains matter-of-factly. |
| 2:06 pm | Ed Murray Was at a City Press Conference Today We'll be busy putting our heads in a blender. by Heidi Groover
In his last major interview, former mayor Ed Murray said he would "end up somewhere on the West Coast, out of town" after resigning from office. Apparently, he's changed his mind. Murray made an appearance at a press conference today, claiming he was there as a "private citizen," KIRO and KOMO report. The press conference was held outside KEXP for now-Mayor Tim Burgess to sign legislation upzoning areas of Uptown and creating the new "Uptown Arts & Culture Coalition" to "advocate for arts and artists in Uptown." The city's ongoing upzones, which include requirements for affordable housing, began during Murray's administration. Murray resigned last month after five men, including his cousin, accused him of sexually abusing them when they were teenagers in the 1970s and '80s. Murray repeatedly denied the allegations and attacked his accusers' credibility.
Murray's resignation was a moment of relief for survivors of sexual abuse in Seattle, a sign that he and the allegations may finally be out of the constant news cycle. It doesn't look like Murray got that memo. KIRO says they'll be airing an interview with him tonight. I'll be busy putting my head in a blender instead. |
| 2:17 pm | Confused Kids, Asshole Dads, and The Meyerowitz Stories Family! It's the worst! Or... the best? No, it's the worst. by Erik Henriksen Everybody thinks their family is unique, and everybody thinks their family is fucked up. Sure, everyones family might technically be unique, but zoom out far enough, and nobodys special: All your sweet grandmothers and tow-headed children blur into everybody elses sweet grandmothers and tow-headed children. And sure, zoom in close enough, and just about every family is fucked upas fucked up, that is, as every other family. So theres the trap that most family dramas and comedies fall into: Assuming that because their characters are wacky or clever, or because they have fucked-up relationships, audiences will care. Thats rarely the case: Audiences already have their own families to care about. Getting them to invest in a fictional one requires something else: a humanistic eye for detail, or a subtle sense of what it is about families that makes being trapped inside one equally attractive and repulsive. Most filmmakers dont have that eye or that sense. Noah Baumbach does. Baumbachthe guy behind The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding, Greenberg, Frances Ha, While Were Young, and, weirdly, Madagascar 3: Europes Most Wantedis the latest auteur to abandon the arthouse for Netflix. The Meyerowitz Stories is getting a theatrical release in 10 citiesSeattle isnt one of thembut for everyone else, itll pop up on Netflix, where the companys algorithm may or may not suggest it to you based on how many times you saw Frances Ha. Or Madagascar 3. Even if Netflix doesnt think youll like it, Meyerowitz is worth searching for. Its got a great cast: Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Emma Thompson, and Elizabeth Marvel hold down the leads, with side characters played by the likes of Candice Bergen, Adam Driver, Judd Hirsch, and Sigourney Weaver. Its got Baumbachs sharp ear for dialogue, with its Manhattanite characters rambling and mumbling, shouting and interrupting. And its got a hard-to-describe feel about it: The feeling of people whore trying to do their best, and failing. The feeling of people who know they should care more about their relatives than they do. The feeling of simultaneous desperation and comfort. They feeling of family. Baumbach introduces three siblings: Danny (Sandler), a loving dad whos lost now that his daughter is heading to college; Matthew (Stiller), a financially successful, emotionally pathetic neurotic; and Jean (Marvel), whose steady deadpan masks a hard-edged toughness. The only thing theyve got in common is their dad, Harold (Hoffman), whos either a great sculptor who never got his due or a mediocre sculptor who got exactly the due he deserved. Either way, hes cranky and bitter, with his cantankerous charm barely covering his incessant criticism of his children, his friends, and his ex-wife (Bergen). He rarely has an ill word to say about his current wife, Maureen (Thompson), but Maureens drinking isnt what any of the Meyerowitzes need. If it sounds like a lot to track, it is: Baumbach throws us right into the Meyerowitzs family dynamics, with half-remembered resentments bubbling beneath awkward hugs. Even as Baumbachs film gets wobbly toward the end, the cast holds it together. Over all of Adam Sandlers years of... well, being Adam Sandler, hes nailed a few unquestionably great performancesPunch Drunk Love, Funny Peopleand with Meyerowitz, he adds another, expertly balancing sentimentality and self-loathing. Stiller is similarly good: Tight-wound and earnest, hes the living embodiment of the stress that comes from caring too much about some things and too little about others. But back to that ending: As Meyerowitz tacks on epilogue after epilogue, it loses its rhythm, as if Baumbach cant bear to say goodbye to his characters. But maybe thats the only way to end a movie like this one: The Meyerowitzes will go on, just like most families, and theyll still be fucked up, and theyll still keep trying. I keep thinking I know how to handle you now, Matthew tells Harold, but then I see you and get sucked into your shit all over again. And that, for better and worse, might be the most accurate description of family Ive heard in a while. |
| 2:18 pm | I, Anonymous: The Curious Incident of the Dog (Poop) in the Night-Time by Anonymous  I'm on to you, Granny. We both know that I've seen you, and that little dog, too. |
| 2:24 pm | The Foreigner: Jackie Chan Versus Pierce Brosnan! God bless you, Jackie Chan. by Ben Coleman Heres what The Foreigner looks like: Taken, but with Jackie Chan. But if you walk into the theater expecting either a Taken knockoff or a typical Jackie Chan vehicle, youre going to be disappointed. Which is a shame, because The Foreigner is really interestingjust not for the sort of reasons that fit into a trailer. Lets get the Taken thing out of the way first: Yes, Chan plays Quan, a frumpy dad with secret Special Forces training. And yes, his only daughter (Katie Leung) is immediately blown up by terrorists. But Taken movies operate with a straightforward set of rules (Liam Neeson has a particular set of skills, bad guys have his whatever), while The Foreigner threads Quans quest for vengeance through a complex web of contemporary British counter-terrorism and North Ireland politics. Its also a chance for Chan to demonstrate his dramatic talents to a Western audiencewhich may take a bit of getting used to. Quan is a man hollowed out by grief, and Chan translates his talent for demanding physical comedy into a keenly observed body language of hunched shoulders and shuffling steps. Paired with Pierce Brosnans effortlessly menacing charm, theres a lot of, well, acting, in a genre thats usually reserved for stoicism and grave intonation. The closest analogues to The Foreigner I can think of are Harrison Fords Jack Ryan movies, which married a handful of action set-pieces with lots of wonky spycraft and a bit of soap opera and seduction (fittingly, The Foreigner is based off Stehen Leathers book, published in that same, early 1990s era). Its not a bad combo, but it does seem like something you need to be primed for, especially in 2017. But now that you know what The Foreigner really is, I say go for it. |
| 2:30 pm | The Guitar Tech for The War On Drugs Is Awesome Last night at the Moore, the War on Drugs did that one long song they do, and it was indie arena rock to the max. by Rich Smith This is not the guitar tech, but his handiwork allowed this moment to happen. RS Last night at the Moore Theatre, lead singer Adam Granduciel was having a guitar problem during the lead-up to a lead. I couldn't tell you which song he was trying to play because everybody knows The War On Drugs has just one long song that seems to be about a train, and the special loneliness of the spaces in-between trains, and you're wearing a jean jacket, and you just can't go back. Anyway, from my seat I couldn't see if Granduciel had broken a string or what. I could only see that he was trying to whammy-bar himself out of this problem. Finally, he threw up his hand in distress, and like a Shakespearean sprite the spry guitar tech, apparently older than everyone onstage and somehow cooler, leapt through the fake fog with Granduciel's trusty sunburst Gibson-whatever just in time for the leading man to tear into a savory riff that had everybody looking wide-eyed as Moses in the shadow of the golden calf. The audience rose to its feetfor the first time all eveningto applaud their new god. Granduciel changed guitars between every song (or I guess every pause between The One Song) during their generous set, and this guitar tech was on time every time with the correctly tuned axe. He's worth whatever money they're paying him. And so was the show last night. Indie arena rock to the max. RS To start the evening off, Phoebe Bridgers stood silver-haired in a black dress before a black curtain and sang along with a tight four-piece band her record label found in a catalogue somewhere. Her breathy alto bled into the darkness of the auditorium, and though this lower-middle class reviewer nodded in solemn recognition at some of the lyrics (e.g. "I've got a stack of mail and a tall can / It's a shower beer, it's a payment plan"), her set had a soporific effect on me. That said I hope one of her songs gets mainstream play on the radio, and that she and her band make a bunch of money off of it. Maybe this one: The War On Drugs played all the songs you wanted them to play off of 2014's Lost In the Dream, and they played all the slightly brighter and more upbeat versions of those same songs off of their major label debut, A Deeper Understanding. The appeal of the show is the appeal of the records: TWOD offers stability in a world without any. Though the song will begin in darkness, the lead will always show you the light. In the meantime, the snare is going to hit on the 2 and the 4 every time. Once you settle into the groove, you can run an hour on the treadmill or drive to Wenatchee in total peace. Who cares about the lyrics? Even without looking them up you know every one of them tells you the same thing: you just gotta keep goin', keep goin' down the line, keep goin' down that train line in your buffalo plaid button-up. Even if the ghost in Granduciel's voice reminds you that he couldn't keep goin', he's back from the recent past to usher you forward in a series of three-beat phrases that sound like Christian Bob Dylan trying to sound like Tom Petty. Though the band paid no homage to their betters, they did do a "pretty goodno, very good" cover of Warren Zevon's "Accidentally Like A Martyr," according to a friend I brought to the show. He was one of maybe two other people who clapped loudly and wooped when Granduciel sang the opening line. "The phone don't ring..." And maybe this says more about Seattle than anything else, and as if it needed saying, but the crowd was very white. Alarmingly white. Predominately blonde and bearded, they were somehow even whiter than your faithful correspondent. One of my colleagues who saw the show on Monday said the place felt "less like a rock show and more like a webinar at Amazon HQ," but even the local tech industry is more diverse than the crowd assembled last night at the Moore. I mean, at one point Granduciel introduced the bass player, David Hartley, as a man with some relationship to Bainbridge Island, and the crowd went nuts. It was the most love I'd ever heard for Bainbridge Island, and I go to the ballet a LOT. Another colleague of mine at the Stranger described TWOD as "yacht rock Bruce Springsteen," which may also have something to do with it. |
| 2:34 pm | Joe Hagan on the Rise of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Sticky Fingers is a crawl through rock & roll journalism and American history. by Jenni Moore During my college days at the University of Oregon, one of my favorite journalism professors, Tom Wheeler, told my class about the time he interviewed Keith Richards for Rolling Stone. I always thought it would be rad to contribute to such an iconic publication, and to meet and interview popular artists. Now, as a working music writer, I was immediately drawn to Joe Hagans Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine, which promised interviews with the likes of Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Yoko Ono, Elton John, Lorne Michaels, and Annie Leibovitz. {{image:1, align:right, width:250}}Knowing virtually nothing about how Rolling Stone or its co-founder Jann Wenner rose to success, I dove into the book and quickly got stuck in the mud. Its not the easiest readI had to google often while trudging through all the namesand with all of the backstory provided for Wenners family, friends, ex-girlfriends, and their family members, I had a hard time deciding if my experience was more like reading a textbook or crawling down a Wikipedia wormhole. From the beginning, Wenner is painted as a sort of leftist, pro-establishment Trumpian icon: fame-obsessed, manipulative, wealthy, and highly concerned with elevating his social status within rock n roll and youth culture. As the book points out, Wenner is actually the same age as the president and the two have a few things in common, despite their different politics: Theyre both deeply narcissistic men for whom celebrity is the ultimate confirmation of existence. Even from childhood, Sticky Fingers shows Wenner was on track to become a Slytherin-esque evil genius, citing a year-end review from one of his teachers, who said he was unusually intelligent but with a compulsion to violence, and in group situations he tries to dominate, withdrawing when the group does not recognize his leadership. While the book doesnt shy away from Wenners many unflattering angles, and the fact that his unshakeable arrogance often made him unlikable, I could relate to and empathize with other aspects of his identity and visionlike his deeply repressed homosexuality in a time when coming out wasnt an option, his neglectful Jewish parents, his unavoidable and ambitious fanboying, and his passion for legalizing psychedelics. I found it interesting, too, that Wenner never saw the Beatles live (he once traded two tickets for 30 hits of acid), was quoted as having mainstream musical taste, and was not a deep musical person. I was a fan. Sticky Fingers is more than just a book about how Wenner came to know Mick Jagger and John Lennon, own multiple magazines, help establish the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and capture and assisted in defining an entire counterculture in print. Its also a good refresher for the timeline of the Free Speech Movement, Vietnam War, youth-driven drug and counterculture, as well as civil and womens rights. Though its a dense read, as an alt-journalist with a clear slant to her writing, learning about Rolling Stones strong ties to the Democratic Party and how it became an influential and respected beacon for intelligent, critical culture writing was well worth the slog. |
| 2:49 pm | Elliott Sharp Reimagines the Work of Thelonious Monk His current tour celebrates what would’ve been Thelonious Monk’s 100th birthday. by Robert Ham Thelonious Monks shadow still looms large in the music world some 35 years after his death. It wasnt until guitarist Elliott Sharp studied at Bard College in the early 70s that he really got to know the pianist/composers work, exploring it at the behest of his teacher, trombonist Roswell Rudd. And once he did, he was hooked. Ive always kept an ear toward Monk, no matter what else Ive been doing, Sharp says, speaking from his studio in Manhattan. He had such a reserved but very sardonic way of playing. The melodies were very simple and catchy in a childlike way. And the way he would user minor sevens for this percussive attack that would bend notes in a way that it no longer sounded like a piano. Since then, Sharp has used Monks compositions as practice pieces and performed them during live gigs. In 2003 he decided to record some for posterity, working out arrangements of five of Monks finest works and performing them on a stunningly resonant DellArte Grande Bouche, a gypsy jazz acoustic, for the 2006 album Sharp? Monk? Sharp! Monk! To celebrate what wouldve been Monks 100th birthday, Sharps performing the focused live set Sharp Plays Monk this week at Classic Pianos. He plays Bemsha Swing and Well You Neednt with a feline interest, batting and clawing at the familiar melodies with his handpicked attack, and, at times, warmly curling around them. I wanted to stay true to my own vocabulary of guitar and to Monks compositions, Sharp says. I stick with the forms, but sometimes Ill focus in on one chord or take one motif and explore it. Sort of like Sonny Rollins used to take one simple motif and tear it apart, then rebuild it over and over in this very obsessive compulsive way, [and] make sure hes wrung out every single aspect of it. |
| 2:52 pm | Savage Love Letter of the Day: Best Friends Has Game, Boyfriend, Endless Parade of Sexy Hookups by Dan Savage 
Use your words. Or use mine: "Hey, you know I usually love hearing about your sexual escapades, best friend. But I'm still hurting after my longest relationship ever endedafter one whole weekand I'm feeling little down and a little insecure and I'm just not in the right headspace to enjoy your stories. Can we talk about something else? Or, hey, since you're so fucking good at this fucking stuff, maybe you can give me some fucking-and-sucking-dating-and-mating-an That said (me to you, you to her), FAG, I don't know exactly what you mean by "back on the dating/hookup wagon." That could mean you're back on the apps and don't have anything to show for itno sexual success, to say nothing of romantic successor it could mean you're getting tons of anonymous-or-nearly-so sex but you're frustrated because what you want is a stable romantic connection like the one your best friend has with her boyfriend of four years. (It could also mean, I suppose, that you've sworn off the apps, in the off-the-sauce sense of on-the-wagon. But I'm gonna set that one aside.) Lots of great relationships got their starts as one-night stands, FAG, mine included; and nearly 70% of same-sex couples met online (scroll down and look at that chart!)and lots of those same-sex couples met via sleazy hookup apps, not holesome dating apps. So I'm not opposed to one-night stands and I don't think sleazy hookup apps are the death of romance and/or true intimacy and/or lasting connections. But if what you've been doing isn't working for you, FAG, whatever it is, then it couldn't hurt to make a change and try something else. Ask your best friend to hang out with you in bars and clubs (maybe you'll be in the right frame of mind to hear her stories after you've had a drink or two), do some volunteer work at a queer community org, join a team (doesn't have to be a sports team). Meeting people the old-fashioned wayor moving on both fronts at once (online, offline)might get you better results. At the very least it'll provide a welcome distraction and opportunities to converse with people who can talk about something other than themselves. Good luck! Listen to my podcast, the Savage Lovecast, at www.savagelovecast.com.
Impeach the motherfucker already! Get your ITMFA buttons, t-shirts, hats and lapel pins and coffee mugs at www.ITMFA.org! Tickets to HUMP 2017 are on sale now! Get them here! |
| 3:00 pm | 4 Days in France Is a Beautiful, Directionless, Sexy, and Profound Trip by Chase Burns  It's hard to think of a tool that's more effective at getting men to come together than the Grindr app. If you're a gay man, or if you're into a gay man, or if you've ever met someone who has fucked/will fuck/wants to fuck a gay man, you know Grindr. It did to gay sex what Amazon did to books. While Grindr is prolific, it isn't revered. The "geosocial networking" app is spectacularly good at getting men off, but it also reduces the sticky business of casual encounters to two-dimensional torsos who jump from "hey" to "hole pic." In 4 Days in France, however, Grindr is treated with a spectacular reverence. Even the app's iconic notification sound is presented thoughtfully. God, French Grindr is so moody. </p> |
