There’s terrific terrifically scary conversations going on about Sandra Day at Daily Kos and Americablog. Goodbye, Roe. It was nice to know you…

So, some lady retired from the Supreme Court or something. What’s up with that?

Discuss.

I don’t mean to brag, i don’t mean to boast, but I’m like hot butter on a breakfast toast. Check this out!. Police Beat with Chris Cunningham at the Lincoln Center.

I hope Bush realizes he deserves some of the credit for the great news today in Spain.

After all, Bush started the Iraq War, and roped in Spain’s former PM, Jose Maria Aznar, who obediently sent troops to Iraq.

But that pissed off the majority of Spaniards, who were against the Iraq war. They were even more incensed when al-Queda members killed 201 people in last year’s Madrid train bombingsending troops to Iraq certainly hadn’t made Spain any safer from terrorists.

So those smart Spaniards turned around and elected Zapatero. Who just led the charge to legalize same-sex marriage.

I should send GWB a thank you card.

Last night’s monorail finance committee meeting, at which the board voted to kill the finance plan and create an ad-hoc committee where “everything’s on the table,” was heavy with mea culpas from board members. The commentary was occasionally eloquent (Tom Weeks) and occasionally overwrought (Cindi Laws), but for the most part, the board seemed serious and earnest and definitely humbled. However, it was only Steve Williamson who seemed to truly “get it.” While most board members said the public’s comments had gotten through loud and clear, and then personally apologized for the crazy finance plan, Williamson made an important distinction. Williamson undercut some of his colleagues’ condescending explanations that the “finance plan had not been spoken about in a way people could understand,” by stating:“I don’t believe that it’s a question of perception of the plan. I think it boils down to this question of the revenue shortfall that we didn’t address. I think if we begin to talk about people’s perception of the plan we miss the larger point.” Williamson chastised the board for never having the discussion about issuing long-term bonds to cover the shortfall, which he clearly saw as the central issue.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish PM, gave a rousing speech in defense of the rights of gay and lesbian Spaniards yesterday. I’m going to put it in an “extended entry,” so you’ll have to click through to keep reading it. It’s long, it’s impassioned, he speaks in complete sentences, he quotes poets - can you imagine an American president making a similar speech? No, you cannot.

Two interesting points: He tells opponents of gay marriage that this is a victory for them too, although they don’t realize it yet. (Why? Because we all win when liberty triumphs.) He wags his finger in the faces of Spanish homos, telling them to be gracious in victory and respectful of the feelings and sensibilities of the opponents. (“To the homosexuals that have tolerated personally the abuse and insults for many years, I ask of you that the courage you have demonstrated in your struggle for your civil rights will contribute now an example of generosity and express your happiness with respect to those who think different that you.”) It’s a tremendously moving speech, if a rough translation.

Continue reading "The Spanish Prime Minister..." »

…I guess it’s safe to store this e-mail exchange here, safe from the prying eyes of Seattle blog readers.

We got this e-mail from Philip Dawdy, the Seattle Weekly staff writer who covers the batshitcrazy beat:

Josh:

I enjoyed reading the monorail coverage this week. It’s about time you guys were honest about how fucked up the financing is on this plan.

But in the midst of your sudden spasm of honesty you guys claim to have broken the 11 billion cost on slog—not once, but twice in the same issue. Do I have that right?

Given that slog is not on your main webpage or in a place of prominence where anyone would look, you guys ought to get off your high horses—or maybe just get off your highs—and retract that claim that it’s your news somehow. It was Hadley’s news in the p-I that the public encountered first.

Besides, every reporter I’ve talked to today is laughing their ass off at that claim. As well as the Cronkite reference.

Honestly yours,

philip

—
Philip Dawdy
Staff Writer
Seattle Weekly

Honestly! Get off our highs? That’s not going to happen. We like our meds around here, and we intend to keep taking them. They’ve improved our quality of life, Philip, and it helps us get through long, tiring days writing Slog entries that no one is going to read.

Anyway, Erica C. Barnett sent this note back to Philip…

shouldn’t you be working on your resumé instead of spending your day on the phone with other reporters?

sincerely,
erica

…which wasn’t very nice of her. Philip’s paper is in trouble, rumored to be for sale, and I thought Erica’s comments were unnecessarily rude, which is why I’m hiding them away here, on Slog, which no one reads.

Philip’s e-mail was addressed to Josh, and Josh responded as well…

Philip,

Honestly, I’m excited about the Slog, and I do see it as a place to break news. I’ll post something on there about Paige Miller or Casey Corr and my phone starts ringing off the hook and the e-mails start flying in.

Erica got a hold of the monorail news on Tuesday and was savvy enough to post a writeup and a link to the financial documents re: the $11 billion. We were the first publication to make those documents widely public that way. I was psyched about that, and I’m proud we got it up first.

Ironically, I was e-mailing with a reporter yesterday right when your e-mail arrived, and he was complimenting me on our coverage. Then, when I headed down to the SMP meeting last night, I ran into two more reporters… including one from the P-I, and they were both complimentary about the coverage. No one, including the P-I reporter, challenged me about our claim to have broken the news on our Blog. And certainly, the P-I deserves big props for getting the story on their front page the next morning before the Times.

I know the Weekly isn’t big on breaking news (except about bread, I guess) but you should put blogs on your radar screen. Blogs are breaking a lot of news these days.
—
Josh Feit
News Editor
The Stranger

Josh wrote a reasoned response, but he’s a reasonable guy. But we wouldn’t want that to get out there, now would we? We built this paper up on the rep/rap that we’re a bunch of bomb-throwing lunatics, and if word got out that we were actually reasonable people, well, that wouldn’t be good for our bidness. So I’m putting it here on Slog, which no one readsor so Philip Dawdy says. But, hey, I’m going to defer to Philip on this point. Having worked at the Weekly for so long, Philip has some expertise on writing for publications that no one ever reads.

DAN SAVAGE:

“Well, Spain has become the third country to legalize gay marriage - Catholic Spain. Or, I should say, not-so-Catholic-anymore Spain.

If not catholic Spain.

When gay marriage is discussed in American papers or on cable news, the fact that a majority of Americans oppose gay marriage is always trotted out as some sort of conversation-stopper. If a majority of Americans are against it, commentators and guests state or imply, then gay marriage is not only a nonstarter, it must not be a Good Thing. After all, if the collective wisdom of the noble American people comes down on the “no” side, why even discuss the topic? (Note: a majority of Americans support gay marriage or civil unions; only a third of Americans oppose any legal recognition of gay relationships.)

The problem with this, of course, is that a majority of Americans have been wrong about civil rights issues in the pasthell, a majority of Americans is almost always wrong. A majority of Americans were wrong about slavery, wrong about giving the vote to women, wrong about the civil rights movement, wrong about interning the Japanese, and on and on.

Well, Spain has become the third country to legalize gay marriageCatholic Spain. Or, I should say, not-so-Catholic-anymore Spain. And guess what? A majority of Spaniards support gay marriage: 55-65 percent. Read about it here. Here’s the funny thing, though: The same Americans who want the wisdom of average Americans honored when it comes to gay marriage in the United States (a majority opposes it in the polls, so it’s off!) won’t extend the same respect to the wisdom of the average Spaniard. The fact that a sane, progressive, liberal majority of Spaniards supports gay marriage hardly gets a mention, much less the deference or respect that the nutso, conservative majority in America gets.

Our newest intern, India, spotted this chilling swastika stencil at a bus stop in the U District the other day, near 15th and 45th.

“I would say by the fact that it is a stencil, that it probably can be found elsewhere,” India points out. Let’s hope not…

… of Miranda July (and who can get enough of genius?), you can read the transcript of my phone interview with the weird, smart director/performer/writer on this, Seattle’s only website. Topics include Laura Ashley bedsheets! Amorphous blobs! Roger Ebert’s thumb! and more. Confidential to coworkers: save the mockery ‘till you’ve seen the movie, okay? Me and You and Everyone We Know plays at the Uptown, tomorrow through, hopefully, forever.

I may drink smoothies every morning, but I will never set my lips on one of these smoothies. Straight dudes who shave it all=nasty.

Seen in Westlake this afternoon:

Yep, it’s a man decked out head to toe in anti-monorail gear, complete with signs saying “An $11 Billion Mistake,” “Whoops,” and of course a vintage monorailrecall.com placard. He also had stickers to match his sandwich board, with a red X over a green monorail, and the words “RE•VOTE NOW.”

I nabbed two (I felt bad for the guy - most people were sidestepping him, ignoring him, or glaring). First two people to stop by my desk or email me each get one.

(apologies for the poor quality camera-phone image)

I missed this in the pages of Rolling Stone. Norman Mailer dismisses New York Times tough nuts Michiko Kakutani on account of her Asian-ness. Page Six has it here.

I know the monorail is this week’s big news. (We filed about 3,100 words on the monorail financing disaster in today’s paper.) But If people can divert their attention for just a moment, I’d like to flag an even more important story in this week’s edition: Amy Jenniges has more breaking news about Lake Washington High School’s brazen affront to the Constitutional concept of Separation of Church & State. They’re handing out “Ten Commandments” pledges to pre-schoolers. Just what in God’s name is going on at LWHS?
In my opinion, a good news story is one that scares you. This is a good news story, and it’s way more scandalous than the monorail stuff. Go Amy!

The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled unanimously in favor of The Seattle Times. Decision here.

That decision, I believe, marks the end of the Supreme Court’s opinion-issuing until the fall. Which means we won’t be hearing a verdict in Anderson v. Sims - the marriage equality case - until September or October, at the earliest.

And I’d so hoped to be a June bride.

The Washington State Supreme Court has indicated that it will issue a decision today in the long-running game of legal brinksmanship between The Seattle Times (owned by the Blethen family) and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (owned by the Hearst Corporation).

The stakes in the case are potentially huge: Control over Seattle’s daily newspaper market. But the fight is essentially a contract dispute: Should The Seattle Times be allowed to pull out of a joint operating agreement that both companies agreed to long ago in an effort to keep two papers alive in this city?

If The Times is allowed to withdraw from the agreement, Hearst has said the P-I may go under. Today’s decision is not likely to completely settle the matter, but it will show which side has the upper hand, for the moment. Expect more legal action on other issues, particularly if the P-I loses today.

Continue reading "Big Decision Today in Seattle Times v. Seattle P-I" »

Last night on HBO, I caught a new installment of the documentary series “America Undercover,” featuring Twist Of Faith, the Oscar-nominated, SIFF-showcased documentary about Tony Comes, an Ohio firefighter, husband, and father of two wrangling with the legacy of the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a Catholic priest twenty years before.

Comes’s story is amazing: After 20 years of silence, Comeswho was in his mid-teens when the abuse occuredlearns that his former abuser now lives five doors down from him and his family in the Toledo suburbs. In one scene, Comes explains to his preadolescent daughter exactly why news of their new neighbor makes Daddy sob.

Continue reading "The Art of Catholic Sex Abuse" »

Dylan developments…

DAVID SCHMADER WROTE:

Novelist, scholar, and preeminent Civil War historian Shelby Foote has died. He was pretty old, so it’s not a tragedy, but commemoration is in order. As anyone who’s seen all 700 hours of Ken Burns’ PBS documentary The Civil War (for which Foote was a key featured commentator) can attest, Shelby Foote was a superstaras adorable as Webster, as smart as shit.

I was such a huge fan of Shelby Foote after watching the Civil War miniseries. Then I asked my UVA history major friend and high school hero Grau about him and Grau said, “As far as I’m concerned, he was the worst bastard in Virginia. In all of academia, in fact.”

I just like the way he said “Shiloh.”

Out of 120000 votes posted so far, 90000 found Bush’s speech to be worrying rather than reassuring.

If you’re among the majority who found Bush’s speech “worrying,” then perhaps you should protest.

For Christopher, who’ll soon be departing for Europe (lucky bastid), and whom I hope will fall as sincerely in love with A’Dam as I have:

1) Rent a bike. Even if you don’t ride a bike at home, flat Amsterdam is perfect for it and learning to ride like the Dutch is easy. You’ll find dedicated bike signals and lanes almost everywhere in the central city, and cars yield to you; even Taxis! Ride like the plucky Dutch and use your bell to warn heads-up-their-asses tourists to get out of your way.

Continue reading "10 great things to do in Amsterdam" »

Carolyn Edmonds is in a bind.

At a North Seattle candidates’ forum last week, the county council incumbent said she “[had] the votes to win” the “official” Democratic Party nomination for reelection to her council seat, which is being contested by her fellow council incumbent Bob Ferguson. Edmonds added: “If I don’t, I would not file as something other than a Democrat.” Now that she has resoundingly lost her party’s nomination, Edmonds is faced with some big decisions.

Continue reading "What will Carolyn Do?" »

Granted, CNN’s Quick Votes are not the most reliable way to determine the state of a political or social climate. But this Quick Vote deserves concern for those in the Bush camp because it shows a clear public rejection of the speech. Out of 120000 votes posted so far, 90000 found Bush’s speech to be worrying rather than reassuring. 6000 found it uplifting. (The Quick Vote on the speech is near the middle of the page on the right side of the screen.)

Perhaps no one but myself cares, but according to MTV News two of Canada’s most popular pseudo punks, Avril Lavigne and Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley, are gettin’ hitched!

I wonder what their wedding song will be…

In today’s Stranger, we call for a revote on the monorail’s financing plan, and the resignation of Seattle Monorail Project director Joel Horn. A few highlights of our story:

• $11 billion - the monorail’s $2.1 billion construction cost, plus $9 billion in interest payments over 50 years - is too much to pay for the monorail. While other big public-works projects cost about twice as much as the amount borrowed to build over the life of the loan, the monorail will cost five times as much. That is unacceptable.

Continue reading "Back to the Ballot Box" »

Novelist, scholar, and preeminent Civil War historian Shelby Foote has died.

He was pretty old, so it’s not a tragedy, but commemoration is in order. As anyone who’s seen all 700 hours of Ken Burns’ PBS documentary The Civil War (for which Foote was a key featured commentator) can attest, Shelby Foote was a superstaras adorable as Webster, as smart as shit.

RIP, Sir Foote.

Everyone else: The post of “preeminent Civil War historian” is now vacant.

My pick for replacement: Kelly from Destiny’s Child. (After their farewell tour, what else does she have to do? Plus, she’s cute.)

Apparently Gillian’s wish is the universe’s command.

Right after she posted her complaint about the wussiness of recent I, Anonymous submissions, there appeared on the website a truly shocking new I Anon.

Thank you, Gillian.
Now please write a Slog entry wishing for the impeachment of George W. Bush.

Dave Meinert has organized an important city council candidate forum that will zoom in on how city rules & regs affect the music community. The idea is to suss out where the candidates stand on these issues. Care about the music scene? You should care about who’s on city council. Audience will get to ask questions, and there’s a meet and greet with the candidates afterwards.

This Wednesday, June 29 The Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Recording Academy® along with several community partners Hosts a Seattle City Council Candidates Forum For the Music Community at Neumo’s on Capitol Hill starting at 6:00 pm.  ALL AGES!

Council Candidates attending will include Richard Conlin, Darlene Madenwald, Nick Licata, �ngel Bolanos, Robert Rosencrantz, Linda Averill, Dwight Pelz, Casey Corr, Jan Drago, Linda Averill, Richard McIver.   Candidates not showing up, so obviously not caring about the music community, include Paige Miller (aka the next Margaret Paigler) and Mike Thompson.

The Recording Academy presents this forum as a non-partisan event designed to engage the music community and city politicians on music related issues before this fall’s important election. A panel of community leaders (Josh Feit, Glenn Lorbecki and Kate Becker) will ask both prepared questions and questions will also be taken from the audience. The intent is to give all candidates running for city council a platform in which to have a dialogue with their our community. This forum will be all ages, free and open to the public.

Following the forum, there will be a reception where you can talk to the candidates one on one.

WHERE:  Neumo’s 925 East Pike St.

The I Anonymous submissions of late haven’t been up to their usual quality/darkness. I see I Anonymous as a place to unburden the dark horrible secrets that you could never admit to anyone face to face—not just a forum to air your petty annoyances. Did you sell your wedding ring for drugs? Did you “accidentally” lose your girlfriend’s annoying dog? Are you having an affair with your nephew? Blackmail, cover-ups, crossing picket lines—is there a dark spot on your soul that needs cleansing? Have you buried something unbelievable deep inside that you need to let out? Haven’t we all?

To submit an I Anonymous confession go to: forums.thestranger.com

Re: yesterday’s debate about the aesthetics of film, jazz, and fusion, Stranger columnist Christopher DeLaurenti weighs in. Pay heed!

Continue reading "DeLaurenti Schools Us All" »

Nothing but bad reviews from the major papers this morning regarding Bush’s speech to the nation last night. And in those bad reviews, plenty of code words for “liar.”

The Washington Post says Bush “didn’t speak candidly enough” and once again “missed an opportunity to fully level with Americans.” The New York Times sighs at Bush’s use of Sept. 11: “We had hoped he would resist the temptation to raise the bloody flag of 9/11 over and over again to justify a war in a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with the terrorist attacks.”

But the LA Times, in a news analysis piece, takes the hardest swing:

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Tuesday retooled his original argument for the Iraq war, justifying the U.S. military presence there as the solution to a problem that critics say the war itself caused.

More than two years ago, Bush argued that Saddam Hussein’s control over Iraq could make the nation a haven for terrorists. But in his nationally televised speech, Bush asserted that the tumult that has followed Saddam’s removal created the same threat.

There is, in these pieces, the same unmistakable sense that one gets from reading the recent polling data: people are fed up with the propaganda.

Canada became the third nation to approve full marriage rights for gays and lesbians. By a vote of 158-133, the House of Commons made Canadian gays and lesbians fully enfranchised citizens.

That’s called making real news. Bush’s speech tonight merely rehashed all the old arguments and excuses, and rhetorically exhumed the hero/corpses of 9/11 again.

Read all about it here.

First, props to the live bloggers. I could barely keep my face from exploding, much less have opinions and type.

Can Dubya ever live down his reprehensibleand historically inaccurateexploitation of 9/11?

Or was it a canny nod to that terrifying statistic revealing how many Americans believedespite plentiful concrete evidence to the contrarythat Saddam Hussein was somehow behind 9/11?

Are we in Nixon territory yet?

Please?

Thanks for tuning in to our first live-Slog. We’ve never done this before, but the first glowing review is already in from Stranger critic Sean Nelson. Live-blogging, he says, is “better than yelling at the TV.”

to toe the line. It’s not convincing. We went to the same prep school. He was a few years ahead of me…

Is there a piece of corn that McCain won’t pick out of Bush’s shit and swallow?

An excellent speech. My God.

The Dem leader issues a tough statement, read on the air, that says Bush’s repeated references to Sept. 11 only remind Americans that Bin Laden still hasn’t been caught. Smart move.

His lips freak me out. He looks like he should be removing algae from the insdide of fishtank.

…and now back to Wheel of Fortune…

As articulated by Joseph Biden, are: We can do better, the president hasn’t been honest with us, the mess is of his own making, and Bush’s recognition of difficulties in Iraq today totally discredits Cheney’s recent statement that the insurgency is in its “last throes.” Also: the Dems aren’t “cutting and running,” but they would like to see a better plan.

Big fucking deal that any of these people are finally talking straight about Bush’s actual failures. It’s great and everything that Biden can have a few minutes after the speech to talk about the paucity of troops, the lack of international support actually coming home to roost, etc. This kind of thoughtful skepticism cwould have been really useful last Fall. Oh, well… la la la.

After the Republican National Convention ABC News had Republicans on to give commentary. It’s nice to see Biden on ABC instead of, say, the chairmen of the Rs or Peggy Noonan. He’s kicking the shit out of Bush.

…last throes of blogging here. I’ve got to get the paper out, which this week includes an essay by Ted Rall welcoming Americans who used to support the war into the anti-war camp. He doesn’t do it with open arms…

We’re only watching ABC here, but the absence of credulity is striking. The reporters’ and anchors’ first instinct is to debunk, debunk, debunk — doesn’t take a genius to see this as lingering guilt left over from them not debunking the propaganda in a more forceful way in the run-up to the Iraq war. Whatever the reason, it’s nice to see.

The cheering in the middle of the speech was “initiated” by a member of the White House advance team?!?!?!?!?

They point out that one of Bush’s big applause lines, staying the course until the mission is done — well that round of applause, ABC says, was started by a member of the Bush advance team.

George Stephanapolopolisisness just said there was no applause during the speech. Wrong, George.

Bush is finished speaking. And on ABC, Stephanopolous’s first point of business: To debunk the links the president made between Iraq and Sept. 11. Good for him.

WHO ARE CONSIDERING A MILITARY CAREER…

Well, it’s not exactly a call for people to enlist. I’m pretty sure that, say, Jenna isn’t considering a military career. Nice of Dad to leave her out of this.

Wait a minute? We ARE prevailing?

No match for the men and women of the United States Military…

When does fascism start creeping and start, uh, trotting, and then sprinting? This is a scary development.

“There is no higher calling than service in our Armed Forces.”

There is nothing more desperate than the president having to go on national TV and ask for more people to enlist in a war fewer and fewer Americans support.

Will he call for people to enlist?

Josh again:
and post the 9/11 Commission Report.
“No evidence of a collaborative relationship between Iraq and al Qaida”

He says. The polls, however, say differently. The Washington Post today: 6 in 10 Americans say the war is not worth fighting.

the “mil” stands for “millionaire war profiteers.”

This is Josh again:
ummmm….what about Iran’s nuclear weapons?

Notice how we’ve gone from talk about weapons of mass destruction, mushroom clouds, the world’s most dangerous weapons in the hands of the world’s most dangerous men, etc….. to now talking just about “lethal weapons.” Car bombs, guns, IEDs, etc.

The troops are cheering for their dear leader. Perhaps a nice cathedral of light for Bush’s next speech? The balcony of the chancellery?

this is Josh F. borrowing Amy J.’s computer:
So, let me get this straight…
we’re not leaving until we get the job done…or else we’d send the message that we’re not in this for the long haul?…but we’re not sending any more troops because we don’t want to send the message that we’re in this for the long haul?

If they can’t see, why are we having so much trouble?

He says the ideal society is one that respects a strong Constitution that protects minority rights — just not here in the U.S., where he’s for re-writing the Constitution to prevent gays from having equal rights.

…are emerging from decades of oppression.

We Americans are still adjusting to terror and oppression, of course.

“The next step is to write a good constitution…”

And then amend it to oppress minority groups you don’t approve of. Here at home, the homos. Over in Iraq, women, Sunnis, homos…

The Iraqis are going to write a constitution that “protects minority rights,” says Bush. Maybe they can write one for us when they’re done with their own.

from andrewsullivan.com:

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.” - Governor George W. Bush, June 5, 1999, on the troops deployed to Kosovo under president Clinton. I should say I disagreed with Bush then and I disagree with his critics on a timetable now. Kosovo worked because of military force and perseverance. For all our mistakes, perseverance in Iraq - and no timetable for withdrawal - is our only responsible option now. I just hope the president tonight outlines a credible strategy for victory; and begins to re-shuffle the team that brought us into the current mess.

Now Bush is addressing the calls for a deadline for withdrawal, coming these days from Republicans and Democrats in Congress. Notice that the politicians in Congress are asking for a withdrawal deadline that comes in the fall of 2006 — right before the mid-term elections. They’re scared, Republicans especially, that this war is going to sink them.

could see the unbelievable nerdathon going on in this room right now. We should get an Apple endorsement. clickety clack, clickety clack.

…especially the insurgents.

Good to hear the name of that great country mentioned again. My step-dad is polish, great guy. I don’t know if he’s training any Iraqi troops personally, but I’m sure he would be up for it.

If we leave, Iraq will become like Afghanistan under the Taliban, Bush says, put on the stage through the assidious get-out-the-vote efforts of our own American Taliban, the religious right.

But not, you know, progress progress.

You gotta admit, though, he looks really smart and handsome. What an orator.

if our presence in the region is supposed to be inspriring democratic reform, why did Iraq’s next door neigbhor, Iran, just elect a hard-liner? Maybe it’s cuz our presence there is freaking people out.Is this last throes?

Meets operation good lighting at home, at Fort Bragg — as Bush talks about the successes of Operation Lightning, the lighting on the stage emphasizes the thick, distinguished creases of his brow and weathered face.

We’re always hearing about these 160,000 Iraqi troops we’ve trained.

Where they hell are they? And if we can’t equip our own troops, or recruit American troops, how the hell can we equip and train Iraqi troops?

“The principal task of our military is to find and defeat the terrorists.”

Where’s bin Laden then?

“As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.”

“The Iraqis are at different levels of preparedness.”

Is that like being “differently abled”?

Bush is saying the exact same stuff he said before the election.

They are? Via email?

Again with this canard? We have 135,000 troops in Iraq right now, and that’s by far the largest number of troops any nation has in the country.

he says, is “to defeat an enemy and give strength to a friend.” As Kerry said today, the war has strengthened the terrorists in Iraq, making the country a center for jihadist fighters…

Who has not been heard from in ages, and whose network, Al-Qaeda, was found by the 9-11 commission to have no link to the Iraqi leadership.

Is it just me, or is there something fundamentally creepy about Bush giving this speech in front of a worshipful military audience and not, say, from the Oval Office? It’s so… Hitler, Bush, Moussolini, so tinpot, banana republic, so generalisimo. I was pleased when the troops didn’t cheer him when he walked out - I thought that would happen. I wonder if they’ll cheer when he’s finished.

If our presence in Iraq is supposed to be inspiring tolerance and Democratic reform in the region…why did Iraq’s next door neighbor, Iran, just elect a hard-liner last week. Maybe cuz our presence is making people in the region turn to hard-line response.

9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11…

He says, though 2/3 of Americans say we are bogged down in Iraq, 6 in 10 say the war is not worth fighting, and 4 in 10 say it’s becoming analogous to Vietnam.

…but I’m cutting vet benefits, and be sure your parents buy you some body armor before you ship out.

The prez is going to encourage young people to enlist, according to ABC. Starting with his daughters?

A word about the war from someone who supported it…

As everyone knows, and angry readers frequently remind me, I was for the war, pro-removing Saddam Hussein from power. When I express any displeasure over the conduct of the war, or the depressing current state of affairs, people remind me that I supported it — I suppose their position goes something like this, “Support the war then, support it now.â€�

Those of us who went out a limb to support the war, particularly us lefties, are angrier about the inept conduct of the Bush administration, more so than the pure lefties who opposed the removal of Saddam…

The San Francisco Bay Guardian gets shut out of prime advertising in a deal New Times, an alt weekly chain, allegedly made with Clear Channel. Music advertising is a huge deal for weekly newspapers, especially a paper like the Guardian, known for its excellent arts coverage…read the Guardian’s story on what went down below…

Continue reading "Unfair media practices in San Francisco" »

…had this to say about gay marriage earlier this year:

“For a prime minister to use the powers of his office to explicitly deny rather than affirm a right… would serve as a signal to all minorities that no longer can they look to the nation’s leader and to the nation’s Constitution for protection, for security, for the guarantee of their freedoms. We would risk becoming a country in which the defense of rights is weighed, calculated and debated based on electoral or other considerations. That would set us back decades as a nation. It would be wrong for the minorities of this country. It would be wrong for Canada.â€�

Can you imagine those words coming out of Bush’s mouth? Can the man pronounce “constitution”? There oughta be a law: No one who can’t spell “Constitution” should be allowed to propose an amendment.

Salon.com, reading the advance copy of the president’s speech this afternoon, noticed that Bush will once again be linking the war in Iraq directly to the attacks of Sept. 11. He will say: “The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September 11…” Salon wonders:

When Bush utters those words tonight, would it be too much to ask the cable networks to run some words from the 9/11 Commission under his picture in the crawl? We’re thinking about something like, “‘No evidence’ of a ‘collaborative relationship’ between Iraq and al Qaida.” Or maybe, “No evidence that ‘Iraq cooperated with al Qaida in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States.’” Yes, the United States is fighting terrorists in Iraq now. But that’s not why the U.S. started the war, and it’s a shameful cover for failing to offer a real plan for ending it.

We’re not cable, but we’re doing our part…

Bush will speak in a few minutes. First test: Does he come across as “disconnected from reality,” as Republican Senator Chuck Hagel recently said this administration is when it comes to Iraq.

Welcome. It’s Dan Savage, Josh Feit, Eli Sanders, and special guest Richard Clarke. We’re just about to start our live-Slog of the president’s speech. If you’re following at home, keep hitting reload to get our latest posts.

As for Bush, who is about to speak in a second, his head is filled with straw.

The House of Commons - the one in Canada, not the UK - is debating a bill that would legalize gay marriage across the country. (It’s already legal in seven, er, states or provinces or suburbs or whatever they’re called up there.) Is the timing intentional? God, I hope so. The religious right in the USA, our homegrown nutjobs, have been exporting anti-gay dollars and attempting to bully Canadian pols away from gay marriage. (They pulled the same stunt on marijuana reform.) These are, of course, the same idjits who cried bloody murder when a newspaper in the UK organized a letter-writing campaign, urging their readers to write to Americans in swing states and beg them not to vote for Bush. They were interfering with our democracy, meddling, etc.

Well, it didn’t work on marijuana - they reformed their laws, nevermind what our Drug Czar had to say - and the bullying isn’t going to work on gay marriage, apparently. If it passes, the legalization of gay marriage in Canada will compete with Bush’s speech on the front pages of American newspapers tomorrow. Way to go, Canada!

Jazz died in 1969 because I was born in 1969. The minute air fills my lungs, jazz stops blowing. Also, man landed on the moon in 1969. But let me be serious for once. The state of black arts has been that of total decline since 1969. (I wrote about this at length for an academic journal out of Columbia UniversitySouls, Winter 2003, Where Is Black Culture? “The Burden of the Golden Age,â€�) If blacks are not making jazz then they are making something that is artistically inferior. Jazz is the peak of black expression. As for Hancock’s 70s albums: Hearing them makes me feel much the same way that Jesus felt when he saw merchants in the temple. I want to turn over tables, kick in this, box the ears of that. Hancock, say it aint so. Why have you turned your silver fingers into straw?

“All That Jazz,” from Chicago.

Enough with the jazz debate - jazz is dead, long live the musical theater.

We’re going to be live-blogging the Prez in forty minutes or so. Let’s leave a little space on SLOG for that, okay?

Jazz is 1954-1964!!!! That is it. (Exclamation marks included in honor of Ornette Coleman.)
Furthermore, must I point out in all my white pretension, that these dates coincide exactement with the civil rights movement. Thank you.

I said jazz not fusion. Fusion is all that stuff Miles made after he abandoned handsome suits for rock (funky chicken) costumes. And how on earth can any one compare the work Hancock made between 62 and 69, to what he has made since 1970 (“Maiden Voyage” is serious/man art; “Future Shock” is toy/boy art)?

Fusion is jazz; it’s a crucial stage in the music’s evolution, except to those equipped with a decidedly narrow view of what jazz is (not that I’m an expert, but let’s be a little more open-minded here).
Hancock made some amazing albums in the early ’70s before Future Shock:
Sextant, Headhunters, Crossings, Thrust, Mwandishi. They’re all as serious as your life.

I said jazz not fusion. Fusion is all that stuff Miles made after he abandoned handsome suits for rock (funky chicken) costumes. And how on earth can any one compare the work Hancock made between 62 and 69, to what he has made since 1970 (“Maiden Voyage” is serious/man art; “Future Shock” is toy/boy art)? And it was swing that died in 39, the music Philip Larkin loved, and not jazz.

There is only musical theater. The rest is noise.

Wow. Wow. Mother said there’d be days like these.

I’m going on vacation.

After their poaching Minor Threat’s cover art, Nike sees the
error of its ways.

One of the great ironies of President Bush’s speech tonight is deftly noted here. The irony is this: A president who has repeatedly said he doesn’t listen to opinion polls is clearly being driven by opinion polls in deciding to make this speech now.

The administration often denies paying heed to opinion polls, and Mr. McClellan struggled a bit to explain why Mr. Bush needed to make a prime-time speech now.”It’s a very significant speech by the commander in chief at a critical moment in the war on terror,” he said.

Our live-Slog of the speech begins at 5 p.m. PST.

this is the longest we’ve ever been able to engage dan in a conversation about music.

The Wizard of Oz was released in 1939. Nothing else happened that year, nothing else mattered. (Unless you count the start of WWII, of course.) The song and dance number “The Jitterbug” was cut from the film before its release, proving that jazz, as an art form, was indeed dead by 1939.

You can read the slightly offensive lyrics here. You can also download Wizard of Oz ring tones for your cell phone. Don’t everyone do it once, though - we don’t want to crash their server.

CHARLES:

[We] have not heard a great jazz album since 1969.

DAVE SEGAL:

This statement is so comprehensively wrong, I need to go outside and take a calming walk. (You just trying to wind me up, Charles?)

Sorry, Dave. He actually meant 1939.

There is only musical theater. The rest is noise.

Hey did anyone hit the Ezee Tiger show at the Funhouse Sunday night? I’d love a review if you went….I had to miss it due to a wedding. Too sad. If you went, please kindly post a review in our forums. Thanks!

[We] have not heard a great jazz album since 1969.

Lord have mercy, we have a Northwest version of Stanley Crouch on staff!

This statement is so comprehensively wrong, I need to go outside and take a calming walk. (You just trying to wind me up, Charles?)

But, off the top of my head, I will say that all of these artists have made jazz albums that can stand with anything in the genre pre-‘69: Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Don Cherry, Terje Rypdal, Weather Report, Alice Coltrane, Love Cry Want, Return to Forever, Matthew Shipp, Ornette Coleman, Joe Henderson, and Wayne Shorter. I could go on, but your eyes are probably already glazed over.

Ari Spool, our wonderfully intrepid Party Crasher columnist, has unfortunately had to hang up her assignment due to a new job crashing cars at the Monroe Speedway instead (from one demolition to another)…or something like that. We’re looking for a brand spanking new Party Crasher columnist. Is that you? Details below.

Continue reading "Party Crashing" »

Batman Begins is not a movie but an event, and only an event can be cinema. Cinema is an event. Cinema is an intoxicating concentration of all creative possibilities (musical, theatrical, poetical, visual). Cinema is an eruption. Cinema is the highest art form. Next is jazz. But we have not heard a great jazz album since 1969. Today cinema persists. Batman Begins is pure cinema.

The president speaks about Iraq at 5 p.m. PST. We’ll be here to live-Slog.

As long as we’re blogging blockbusters, the first trailer for Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong has appeared. Leaving aside the question of whether the original needed yet another spin (does anyone have fond memories of the previous re-hash?), this first glimpse at Jackson’s version still left me underwhelmed. For one thing it stars Jack Black, who gives me a rash. Then there’s the beast itself, which looks impressive and technologically marvelous and all that, but which is also let out of the bag far too early. (Why not keep the ape secret, like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, until the film’s release?). And finally: Must the island natives look like orcs?

I know perfectly well that this complaint won’t have much traction with people who work real jobs and lead real lives, BUT: I was literally shaking with outrage at the state of affairs at last night’s screening of War of the Worlds. Ok, so they’re all scared about people pirating their movie and selling bootleg copies on the streets of lower Manhattan or the internet or whatever. This leads to security guards, not just to look through your backpack or purse, no, but to confiscate your belongings, holding them in numbered plastic bags for the duration of the screening, like a compulsory coat check. Then, the airport wand, for which you open your jacket and turn around three times, answering whatever invasive questions the retard (sorry, retarded people actually have integrity) with the plastic badge sees fit to ask, then you might be allowed inside. Is it crazy to think that a culture of suspicion and nastiness (supervised, OF FUCKING COURSE, by middle aged min wagers with no sense of tact, or delicacy, despite the fact that they’re in charge of your personal belongings, without anyone watching them to see if they’re rifling through for fun or profit)

Continue reading "Meanwhile, down at whiny little bitch corner..." »

Now this may not be a matter of huge import , it’s not corporate welfare, or George Bush’s “Hail Maryâ€� speech, or John “Don’t Kid Yourselfâ€� Kerry’s intentions vis-à-vis 2008 (I still want my 2K back, John), but I think it rises to the level of blog-worthy…

I went to see the new Herbie movie last night - the one starring Lindsey Lohan’s late, great rack.

Before Herbie, which sucked, they showed a preview for the Willy Wonka remake. Tim Burton directs, Johnny Depp stars. Johnny has long, straight dark hair, wears white pancake makeup, and talks in a breathy whisper. As in the original (which starred Gene Wilder), Willy — Willy? - has a thing for making kids’ dreams come true or, failing that, dispatching them in some colorful manner. And the, er, chocolate factory itself? It looks like something out of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and/or Michael Jackson’s id — brutal, looming, phallic, and black.

The scenes inside the factory scream “Neverland,” and Depp might as well be moonwalking through his scenes. Michael Jackson as Willy Wonka? Find the Golden Ticket hidden in the candy bar, drop your kid off at the gates, and his fudge gets packed by a pro.

Either the film itself is going to be creepy, or it’s going to hilarious, or hilariously creepy, or creepily hilarious, but it’s not something I want to take my kid to see. It looks like something I might get stoned and go see on my own, though.

One final note: When, oh when, is Tim Burton going to get off his ass and do a stop-motion animation film version of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd? Nightmare Before Christmas was great, but it didn’t plot was strained. Sweeney Todd, Tim, Sweeney Todd. It’s your Oscar-bait film. Make it!

As the Stranger first reported, Nucor steel got a lovely utility tax break from the Nicekls administration last year. Lo and behold: the company ended up making $1.1 billion in 2004. That’s a 1,686% jump in profits over the previous year, which means Nucor hit #1 on the Fortune 500 when measured by profits growth.

Another twist in the ongoing furor over Nike’s appropriation of Minor Threat’s cover art.

When I checked out the story on Pitchfork, I gaped at the Nike/Minor Threat pairing with the requisite indignation, then noticed the ad on the left of the page, for the online T-shirt shop Kung Fu, featuring another nicked album-cover image, this one lifted from The Clash, here tweaked to place modern rock T-shirts on the band members.

Are such things only galling when zillionaire corporations swipe from modest independents? Because on strictly artistic merit, ripping off The Clash (either version) is a far greater steal than ripping off Minor Threat.

Whatever the case, had I not found Kung Fu, I never would’ve found this Sonic Youth totebag.

Tonight, in front of a crowd of soldiers at a military base, Bush will remind us that as commander in chief he understands the nature of the enemy (aka The Terrorists). The enemy, he will tell us, is ruthless, loves chaos, and embraces violence. Therefore, Bush will say, the plan is to stand firm in support of the troops (and get those poll numbers back up, too).

Tune in for our live-Slog of the president’s speech at 5 pm PST. We’ll say what he doesn’t.

Perhaps the better question, given Kerry’s Op-Ed in today’s New York Times, is: Did he ever stop running?

Launching a pre-emptive strike against Bush’s address to the nation tonight (which we will live-Slog!), Kerry hits some rhetorical themes sure to give you deja-vu from last summer. He says Bush is out of touch with reality (“The reality is that the Bush administration’s choices have made Iraq into what it wasn’t before the war - a breeding ground for jihadists”). He says Bush has a credibility gap (“So what should the president say tonight? The first thing he should do is tell the truth to the American people”). He says Bush’s hubris hurts us all (“Our mission in Iraq is harder because the administration ignored the advice of others”).

What’s the difference between now and last summer, when Kerry said all of this ad naseum and wasn’t able to dismantle Bush’s aura as the tough, on-the-right-track commander in chief? With soldiers’ deaths continuing to mount, WMDs still non-existent, and Rumsfeld talking about a 12-year battle against the insurgents, people who were willing to give Bush more time to do things his way are starting to get fed up.

I attended the Pride Parade yesterday and the Fremont Solstice Parade last weekend for the same reason: I love spectacle. I feel like if someone is willing to go through the trouble to dress up, get all worked up, and parade down the street, I can be there to watch it. The Solstice Parade restores my faith in humanity every year, people use all their creativity to express themselves in imaginative outfits and funky floats. The Pride Parade has a different feeling. While many of the participants put a lot of effort into their presentations, others were disappointing. Taping a balloon onto the front of your car is NOT a float. Loved the Filipino dancers, the drag queens, and the firefighters. So come on everybody, put some soul into it next time!

Today’s Stranger Suggests is for a movie at the Varsity called The Holy Girl. I second the recommendation. I saw the movie last night, and indeed, it’s a gem. The main characters inexplicably live and work on site at a doctors’ convention in a hotel. In an era when filmmakers are otherwise obsessed with pulling back the curtain on the suburbs, this creepy world of life in a hotel is extra startling. (Varsity, 4329 University Way NE, 781-5755. Playing in the eve at 7:10 or 9:40)

Also at the movies: Greg Araki’s Mysterious Skin at The Harvard Exit (807 E. Roy, 781-5755) See it now!

Even though I keep getting olderand so, more stupider and more conservativera groovy liberal group seems to agree with me about this morning’s SC ruling. Here’s what they say.

For those wanting to get involved with the local/political side of the Seattle music community, there’s a meeting a Neumo’s on Wed June 29th. More info below in an email sent to me a couple weeks back.

Continue reading "You've got (music) issues" »

when Justice David Souter drops your name in an opinion of the Court. The quote: While there is doubtless some demand for free Shakespeare, the evidence shows that substantive volume is a function of free access to copyrighted work. Users seeking Top 40 songs, for example, or the latest release by Modest Mouse, are certain to be far more numerous than those seeking a free Decameron, and Grokster and StreamCast translated that demand into dollars.”

I know it makes a person sound like an old codger, but can I just say that I can’t get used to the fact that so many hip contemporary bands (Futureheads, Dogs Die in Hot Cars, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, Hot Hot Heat, et al) sound so incredibly much like XTC? I love XTC, and I’m glad if this current surge of ripping everything about their sound off yields some additional interest in their unstoppable catalogue, but goddamn, kilogram. You have to try hard to sing like Andy Partridge, and all these bands seem to be trying their hardest. I remember when it was novel for bands to cop the Swindon sound (anyone else have a soft spot for The Sugarplastic?), but this is ridonkulous. The radio and MTV2 now sound so directly derivative of one thinga thing I love dearly, but still. That doesn’t make it better. Gang of Four is another hip influence right now (and more power to them, obviously); the great Carrie Brownstein said it best when she said, “these bands all sound like Gang of Four… if Gang of Four sucked.” Why bother paraphrasing?

I spent my weekend thinking about this: Now we know that Hegel’s slave/master narrative influenced Franz Fanon’s concepts. He, as Stuart Hall points out in the opening essay to Fact of Blackness, “After-life of Frantz Fanon: Why Fanon? Why Now? Why Black Skin, White Masks,â€� located the scene of black liberation (or black male liberationas Fanon knew nothing about black women) as “a savage struggle,â€� which is a racialization (or epidermalization) of Hegel’s “life-and-death struggle.â€� What the slave struggles for is recognitionto be noticed, to be seen. He sees the master and wants the master to see him, which is why the ideal relationship between the a black man and a white man would be one of “absolute reciprocity … `They recognize themselves as mutually recognizing each other’.â€�

But what exactly is “absolute reciprocity” and is it even possible? I will spend next weekend thinking about “absolute reciprocity.”

It’s always a little embarassing to have celebrity crushes, especially when the person is a B-list TV actor.But mine was put into immediate and terrifying perspective when a friend sent me this obsessive fan’s homage to Christopher Meloni. I’ve always felt dumb for watching Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, but I can’t hold a candle to that. Can any crush withstand being rendered in charcoal?

From Adbusters:

The Israeli army has put an unusual new weapon into service, one that produces an unbearable sound that causes acute dizziness and nausea in its victims. Dubbed “The Scream,” the device is being lauded as a welcome, non-lethal addition to the IDF’s arsenal of means to control and suppress violent protest.

All that money for R&D and they could’ve just blasted old Throbbing Gristle or Merzbow albums for the same effect.

A propos of Pride, I celebrated the way I always do, the way I feel is only appropriate when you’re straight and down with the struggle, as it were: by abdicating. I stayed indoors for most of the day (uh, watching bootleg DVDs of The L Word), thus ensuring that when I invariably see all the nice gays in the days that follow the event, I won’t have to be thinking of the time I saw them wearing Coors Light Uncle Sam hats and rainbow-colored Mardi Gras beads from Car Toys or whatever while stumbling drunkenly down the same street they march down every day to get coffee. If you love someone, you hardly want to be the one to remind them of how embarrassing they become in the unimaginative pursuit of their own liberty.

A propos of last week’s post-post-post adolescent monologue about Nike’s use of Minor Threat’s album cover, comes a brilliant ILM thread of smart people beating the bastards at their own game. Hooray for the internet!

The parade is also a perfect metaphor for the state of the gay movement in this area — politically, culturally, creatively. Which is the intent, I think. So what did this year’s parade show the gay movement here to be?

Strong in numbers, weak in new ideas, and more interested in commercialism than political activism. And you can spin this both ways. You can say it’s sad, the sign of a community whose priorities (sex, beer, and cupcakes, judging from the floats) are way out of synch with its needs, and whose creativity is atrophying in direct proportion to its increasing comfort. Or you can say it’s progress. After all, isn’t the point of these parades to some day arrive at a cultural moment when we can obsess about sex, beer, and cupcakes, instead of obsessing about persecuting moralists, anti-gay laws, and scorn from the culture at large?

Obviously we’re not at that point yet, even though a lot of people this weekend seemed to want to believe we are. But we’re far closer than we used to be. And this is where the power of marching through downtown, as a metaphor, falls apart, I think. Marching through downtown would have been a powerful metaphor for not being ghettoized and for demanding respect from the establishment — in 1979, or 1982, or even 1995. But marching through downtown in 2005 to show the establishment that we’re not scared to buy cupcakes? That’s a metaphor for “nothing left to prove,” and if that’s where we’re at, then why march in the first place?

If, as it seems, the Pride Parade is on the cusp of evolving (devolving?) from a political act into a Mardi-Gras-like celebration of sexual freedom and booze (the straight guy walking near Volunteer Park on Saturday wearing beads and shouting “show me your tits” seemed, in his apparent confusion about which celebration he was at, a good metaphor for how ready the culture is to see the two as indistinguishable) then I say keep it on Capitol Hill, where you don’t have to walk so far to get to a gay bar.

I say move the parade downtown and let it die. If it can’t rise to the challenge, then it should expire. It’s not that I’m a self-hating fag (though that’s always a very convenient way to write someone off for disagreeing with the community), but rather that I’m completely embarassed by the total lack of any real political content, any outrage or any protest in pride. The idea that visibility is enough and that visibility is getting drunk and half-naked on corporate beer floats (or in the case of Seattle Pride— the bed of truck) is pathetic. As of this October I’ll have been out for twenty years ( I came out when I was fourteen. Where’s my goddamn watch?), and I actually remember going to marches not parades. I remember going to pride in Dubuque, Iowa in 1989. It was their second year having it. The first year the marchers had been pelted with eggs and rocks. In response, thousands of people came from all over the midwest. The event planners were in tears because they were so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support. There were a ton of protesters, but we marched without incident. And, yes, I was actually proud. We’re in an equally dark political time right now and I’m sorry to be the ultimate killjoy but this isn’t the time for a fucking parade. It’s time for a protest and that means leaving the safety of this neighborhood. I think there are a lot of people who would show up that never do if there was something to stand up for other than being the queer version of Saint Patrick’s Day.

So, a group of us got together and watched the Pride Parade from Frizzelle’s apartment overlooking Broadway and John.

Re: the moving the parade downtown controversey…

The parade this year, as in so many years past, pretty much sucked. Scraggly, small groups of marchers, sometimes two or three, made up dozens of contingents. Yawn. Even more distressing were the number of contingents that consisted of one or two cars driving down the street. Wow. Cars. Driving down Broadway. That’s not something you see every day, is it?

If we’re going to move it downtown, and invite the whole city, the parade can’t really suck so hard. It’s an embarrasment. It’s small, sad, depressing, threadbare, and uninspired. In its current condition it’s perfect for Broadway, which is sad, depressing, threadbare, etc.

This morning’s SC rulings on the 10 Commandments seem smart. If I’m reading it right, the Court said that endorsing religion is a No No, but trotting out religion in a meta way as a part of history is legit. I think that’s fair, and I like that they set a case by case precedent. Absolutes on this kind of issue can be dangerous. (For example, the Tinker case back in ‘65 re: wearing protest arm bands to school, was cool at the time, but its sweeping absolute language gives the Christian Right leverage to say religious speech can’t be 86’d from the classroom.)

What I don’t like about this morning’s rulings is that they were 5-4. That’s scary. Why so close?

Last week, I slogged that BusinessWeek’s new media columnist was one to watch. Looks like Gawker says different.

Mostly, I walked along Harvard today to avoid the gay pride crowds on Broadway. I was up on Broadway for a bit, though. Here’s what I saw:

1) A sign that said “Keep Pride on Broadway.” I disagree. I say march thru downtown so the ‘out and proud’ mantra actually means something. Staying on Capitol Hill is like staying in the closet.

2) A sign that said: “Civil Unions Aren’t Enough!” Despite the potential political suicide of this sentiment, I have to agree. Civil Unions seem like a “separate but equal” kind of solution to me.

3) “Grass roots” mayoral candidate Christal Wood. I’d be stretching it if I said she had three people marching with her.