As well-dressed city dignitaries and council spouses filed into council chambers to witness the ceremonical swearing-in of four reelected city council members and one mayor this afternoon, the council itself was mired in intrigue so thick that at one point it was unclear whether the show would go on at all.

The source of today’s frenzied, hush-hush negotiations was a position so obscure that probably no more than one out of ten citizens can say who currently holds the post, but so coveted it has caused serious acrimony between long-term colleagues: the council presidency, currently held by Jan Drago but sought by both two-term incumbent Richard Conlin and first-term council member Jean Godden. Drago, who was supposed to surrender the post today, will hold on to the position until the council can agree on a new ceremonial leader; currently, the council’s eight remaining members (minus Jim Compton) are split 4-4 between Godden and Conlin, and no one seems willing to budge.

Enter Tom Rasmussen, the quiet, hard-working Conlin supporter whose ongoing vacation in Ecuador left the council with a 4-3 majority in favor of Godden on Monday, its first meeting after a three-week recess. Rasmussen’s long-planned trip ignited a flurry of conspiracy theories in December, when Conlin supporters expressed concern that Godden (or Drago, a strong Godden supporter) would force a vote while Rasmussen was out of reach. Such a vote, the city attorney’s office has confirmed, would be legally defensible.

As of Friday, Conlin and Godden were working on a deal under which Godden would cede the presidency in exchange for new committee responsibilities. This morning, however, the council remained in deadlock, with four members each supporting Godden and Conlin. All that changed around 11:30, when council members and staff got wind of a plan by Godden’s supporters (Drago, Godden, David Della, and Richard McIver) to force a vote on the presidency, giving Godden a 4-3 majority. Soon the entire council hallway was awash in intrigue, with each faction meeting in frantic closed-door meetings, separating briefly into their individual offices, then reconvening for yet another meeting a few minutes later. (I personally saw Nick Licata, Peter Steinbrueck, and Conlin retreat into three meetings in three different council offices over the course of an hour.) Council members were pissed at other council members, council staffers were pissed at other staff, and all the while the 2:00 deadline approached when everyone would have to file into council chambers and make nice while friends and family members administered the ceremonial oath of office.

A vote today, Conlin supporter Licata told me about an hour before the meeting, “would certainly violate the spirit of democracy. This seems to be taking direct advantage of [Rasmussen] being gone.” Peter Steinbrueck, who appeared simultaneously livid and bemused at the whole debacle, told me angrily that “there is nothing to justify such an underhanded approach.” He added, “This is not the time or the place to be having a political brawl. It’s supposed to be a day of celebration.”

Finally, the deadlock broke. Conlin, Steinbrueck and Licata threatened to walk out of the meeting. That would leave just four members - one member less than the quorum required to hold a council meeting. That would cancel the swearing-in, embarrass the current council president, Drago, and give Rasmussen - who was unreachable all day today, and presumably had no idea what was going on in his absence - a chance to come back from his vacation early or negotiate with his colleagues about when a vote might happen. Drago, recognizing that such a spectacle would not be “good for the council or the city,” agreed to vote against any motion to choose the president without Rasmussen present, and the whole issue was tabled until at least next week. And life went on.

What all this ultimately means for the council, however, is still less than clear. Both Conlin and Godden are compromised now, both by their political maneuverings and by the lack of consensus for either candidate. “Both Richard and Jean are going to have challenges mending fences and rebuilding relationships,” Steinbrueck told me. That gives rise, yet again, to the possibility that a third “compromise” candidate, such as Nick Licata, could take the position - a possibility no one appears to be ruling out.

After passing Murray’s civil rights bill, the Democrats will finally be forced to get some new issues. Beyond being pro-choice & pro-gay rights, I can’t really figure out what Deomocrats stand for.

Attn: Dave Segal-
I think I have that female MC you were looking for right here.

Yeah, I’m the new visual art editor (I’m told the official title is Visual Art Editor). At least we think I am. But on to something about which I am not a miserable knownothing, and that is the house tour my partner and I went on this weekend with our smashing German realtor.

1. Lesbian Kingdom, Renton Ave. Parade of bare-breasted Amazons and goddesses: welcome distraction from dilapidated dullhouse in dim neighborhood.

2. Swamp country at the base of Madison Valley. Really. But a plump blue parrot named Alex almost made up for it. He has his own bedroom. (I hope he doesn’t have to share in the new place.)

3. We sort of liked the bloodstained carpets, the holes in the walls and the dirty doors. It was the `80s renovation in this Central District “charmerâ€� that scared us. Oh, the fixtures.

4. I’m calling you out, 6224 Seventh Ave. N.W. You were cute. You were in a good location. But you turned out to be a big fat liar. You only have one bedroom, not two. You bring shame upon the listings.

5. Chicken-wire closet drawers. Chunks mysteriously missing from every wood floor. Wildly unmatching linoleum on all other surfaces. Scary raggedy dolls (is low-budget staging really a good idea?). Growling neighbor (human).

It hurts.

Eric Oemig, the Democrat who will be running against Republican State Senator Bill Finkbeiner this November in the 45th District (Redmond, Kirkland, etc.), had this to say about Finkbeiner’s new position on the gay civil rights bill:

Why do we have to wait for an election year for Bill Finkbeiner to find his conscience?

Continue reading "Finkbeiner's Challenger Responds" »

This just in: The Stranger has a new visual art editor. Her name is Jen Graves. She comes to us after some glory-filled years at the News Tribune in gun-filled, aromatic Tacoma. She’s also lived in California (she studied at Stanford) and upstate New York. She’s currently traipsing through houses on the market in Seattle shocked by how we live in this city—blood stains, birds, you name it. She’s going to give us all the gory details here on the slog.

Make her feel welcome. It’s her first day. And first days are weird.

So Republican State Senator Bill Finkbeiner is now in favor of gay civil rights. It’s big political news, and I’m going to be writing about it for the next issue of The Stranger. But here are some first thoughts:

A Republican who repudiates his party’s stand against gay equality is such a rare creature that he deserves close scrutiny. And with Finkbeiner there are two especially fascinating veins of inquiry to explore: His evolution, and his motivation.

How did he evolve from a Democrat who voted for gay civil rights into a Republican who voted against gay civil rights, and then today into a Republican who plans to vote against his party and in favor of gay civil rights? And: What, exactly, motivated him to change his mind now?

I just got off the phone with Finkbeiner, and after a long and interesting discussion I can’t say I’ve definitively answered these two questions. (But one can see how Finkbeiner, who is up for reelection this November, might think it is in his interest to keep his evolution and motivations a bit mysterious.)

Here’s how Finkbeiner explained it all to me:

Continue reading "Thoughts on the Finkbeiner Evolution" »

This came with my lunch, ingeniously tucked in a cookie:

Tomorrow we’ll find out if that fucking cookie lied to me.

Those who have read James Frey’s drug abuse/rehab memoir A Million Little Pieces (and judging from the 1.77 million copies sold last year, mainly after the book made it into Oprah’s Book Club, there are many) might want to read The Smoking Gun’s takedown of the author and his alleged fabrications.

This is especially damning:

Police reports, court records, interviews with law enforcement personnel, and other sources have put the lie to many key sections of Frey’s book. The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw “wanted in three states.”

In additon to these rap sheet creations, Frey also invented a role for himself in a deadly train accident that cost the lives of two female high school students. In what may be his book’s most crass flight from reality, Frey remarkably appropriates and manipulates details of the incident so he can falsely portray himself as the tragedy’s third victim. It’s a cynical and offensive ploy that has left one of the victims’ parents bewildered. “As far as I know, he had nothing to do with the accident,” said the mother of one of the dead girls. “I figured he was taking license…he’s a writer, you know, they don’t tell everything that’s factual and true.”

A beguiling collection of words gathered under the above title has appeared in the I, Anonymous forum.

It’s not really an I, Anon, or an open letter to John Richards, but it’s definitely worth the six seconds it takes to read it.

Yay, gold fire hydrants!

This just in from one of our freelancers, Mairead Case

Have you been to the Neptune Music Company? It’s just off the Ave, not-so-uncoincidentally next to the Neptune Theatre, and it is brilliant. The walls are yellow, the selection (vinyl! vinyl!) solid, and the dude (David Sandlund) solid-er—he was one of Amoeba’s first employees. Sabzi and the Jivetime dudes have been combing the stacks. Admittedly, I am telling you this because dude merits a mention somewhere, but also because yr stash might be enriched.

Either way, I predict Doom for young Katie Holmes…

(You can read about the one-eyed kitten here.)

They don’t grease their jackscrews, a plane crashes and kills everyone onboard, and they continue to neglect greasing their jackscrews. They fired their union baggage handlers and outsourced the work to some company that seems to be routinely banging up their planes—which knocked a hole in one and almost caused it to crash. And now they’re not following FAA safety regulations on cabin lighting during take-offs and landings.

If you ever wondered what those little prayer cards they pass onboard Alaska Air were for, now you know. Your prayers may be the only thing keeping your plane aloft.

I have to fly to LA in Feb to do a TV show. When the producer called to make travel arrangements, I said, “Anyone but Alaska.”

…while the getting out is good: Tim Micklos, director of advertising, and long-time production manager Mary Bradford, both quit last week. Micklos was a recent hire from Las Vegas; Bradford had been at the paper for a decade.

Weekly staffers tell us Miklos is leaving for personals reasons and that Bradford is leaving to go to the soon-to-launch Seattle Metropolitan, the new glossy city magazine that’s attracting ex-Weekly staffers like, oh, 100 Best Dentist issues attract ads from dentists. Seattle Metropolitan has hired a slew of former and current Seattle Weekly staffers. Judging by the staff the new mag is pulling together, it will no doubt be going after Seattle Weekly readers and advertisers.

Many weekly staffers have been looking for jobs elsewhere since the paper—along with the rest of the Village Voice Media—was sold off to the Phoenix-based New Times chain, a deal that’s expected to close at the end of the month. Some outgoing staffers feel that the Weekly will change dramatically with the new ownership and that there will be mass firings.

But will there be anyone left at the Weekly for its new owners to fire?

Seattle Metropolitan is clearly taking advantage of the low morale at the Weekly when it comes to staffers. If this new mag can also exploit the confusion in the market place over the Weekly’s identity (and survival), it will deliver more painful blows to the already bloody paper.

(I heard about this on Friday, when I got a mysterious email from one “Terry Coe.” Not “the” Terry Coe, SW’s publisher, but someone who mailed me from an anonymous email account. Gee, sounds like morale ain’t so good at Seattle’s smaller weekly newspaper.)

I posted a link to blogosphere reports of this on Saturday. Now Sen. Finkbeiner has confirmed it, in a rather remarkable statement, considering it is coming from the Republicans’ former leader in the state senate:

“I want to take this opportunity to let you know that I plan to vote for House Bill 1515 this year.

“There are two strong reasons that have swayed me to support House Bill 1515 for the 2006 state legislative session. First of all, I’ve had a number of conversations over the past year that have led me to more fully understand the level of discrimination against gays and lesbians, and I now find it is both appropriate and necessary for the state to make it clear that this is not acceptable.

“Secondly, I believe that, unfortunately, this issue has become a political football used by both parties. This bill failed year after year, even in years when Democrats have held strong majorities, because it motivates some party activists on both sides. And the issue has become one of many `wedge’ issues used to split our communities and divide us. Real people are affected by this issue: our friends, our co-workers, our family members, our neighbors. I don’t agree with the politicization of people’s personal lives and I think it is time to move on.â€�

The New York Times piece is good, but New York Magazine busted JT Leroy months ago. Check out this take-down/take-apart by Stephen Beachy.

At least one Stranger reader is pretty pissed about the JT Leroy scam. From the Comment section of an earlier post about Leroy:

This has me outraged. I am all for tricksters and fakes, ala Orson Welles (even Genet understood the power of the fake), but this is something else. It appears that a straight, white, middle class woman pretended to be a homeless, abused, junkie, whore, HIV positive gay man/transgendered person in order to sell books (and, apparently, some crappy cd’s). The damage that this does to people who have experienced actual traumas and worked hard to give expression to their experience in a literary and artistic form is incalculable…. This is such a huge embarassment for so many people. And, as funny as hell as this story is (wigs and glasses), I think people should be reminded that this goes way beyond the travesty of faking hate crimes. This is using trauma and abuse to sell hip, indie product. FUCKERS. Fuckers, fuckers, fuckers, fuckers. Goddamn middle class str8 white fuckers who never experienced anything even remotely traumatic, and who don’t have the slightest idea what it’s like to actually live through something traumatic AND try to express yourself on top of it. Fuckers. That’s what these people are.

So, last week I filed a column of New Year’s predictions.
Here was the first one on my list:

State Republican Chairman Chris Vance. In the wake of Paul Berendt’s resignation, the spotlight is currently on the state Democratic Party and Berendt’s likely successor, Dwight Pelz. But the focus will shift to the Republicans later this year when their current state chair, Chris Vance, resigns, taking a lower-profile gig. (That court case in Chelan County just didn’t work out as planned, and the voter-challenge fiasco was an embarrassing follow-up.)

Well, this just in from the State Republican Party

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Chris Vance January 9, 2006 (206) 575-2900 Vance to step down as state chair Seattle, WA — Below is a copy of the memo Chairman Chris Vance sent to the Republican State Committee earlier today announcing his intent to resign. An election for Chairman will be held on Saturday, January 28. To: State Committee From: Chris Vance Date: 1/9/06 Re:         Resignation, Effective January 28 I am writing to notify you of my intention to resign as WSRP Chairman, effective upon the election of my successor at our meeting on January 28. I have been deeply honored and gratified to serve you and our Republican candidates and office holders these past five years, but as a husband and father I need to make decisions that are in the best interest of my family, and that means taking advantage of opportunities I now have in the private sector. This is a difficult decision driven by personal, not political considerations.

Former Stranger staffer (and current Mercury news editor) Amy Jenniges sent me this great NYT article about the real identity of author JT Leroy. The oddball writer is either a brilliant con artist or a brilliant creation of other con artists, and either way “his” facade is being chipped away by journalists craving the Truth. My dealings with Leroy were brief—a writer by that name wrote a piece or two for me when I worked for Dr. Drew of Loveline’s web site, and Leroy emailed as a fan of Drew’s work. I think he wrote about being a runaway and maybe interviewed the band Hanson…it was a couple years ago. There was no reason not to buy it, so we worked with him briefly, all via email. I love the idea that this may be a giant publicity stunt, though, as one of this magnitude—and concerning a writer with such celebrity cult status—would deserve major props for being pulled off so well and for so long.

Snakes on a Plane stars Samuel L. Jackson as an FBI agent escorting a witness on a commercial flight during which an assassin releases a crate of deadly snakes.
WIRED mag reported, “The studio tried to change the flick’s name to Pacific Air Flight 121 earlier this year, but star Samuel L. Jackson balked, saying the title was a big reason he signed on,” and ran this:

Pioneer Square hiphop hotspot Larry’s had it’s liquor license suspended by the State Liquor Control Board on Friday, according to the Seattle Times. Mayor Gridlock asked the board to take away Larry’s Hennessey priviledges, citing several incidents, including Seahawk Ken Hamlin’s catching a seriously bad one, and an alleged stabbing on New Years’ Eve. In order to protect the “welfare, health, peace, morals and safety of the State of Washington,” Liquor Board agents absconded with every last drop of alcohol. It looks like owner Larry Culp is going to fight the decision, as detailed here.

I’d been to Larry’s a couple times in the last few years, and it was aiight- crispy white tees glowing in the blacklight, Lil’ Jon, Hpnotiq- y’know, club shit. I don’t typically fuck with P-Squeeze at all, because of all the morons, tourists, and desperate clubgoers who drove in from the boondocks. You can go ahead and miss me with that shit. There’s always a lotta bullshit in that area because of the alcohol, and there’s a lot of it because of the Square’s bustling drug trade. Is one club the source of all evil in the Square? I don’t believe so.I’m reminded of comments that 206 legend Vitamin D made while I was interviewing him awhile ago:

“They wanna say Larry’s nightclub is the cause of this violence in Pioneer Square? No, it’s not, it’s because you guys allowing all that drug trafficking in that area- and it’s been there for years! Don’t say it’s cuz of the hiphop at the club- that don’t make no sense. You guys need to control your streets so we can have a club in Pioneer Square where hiphop is played. It’s not hiphop, or the club dj’s fault. It’s out in the parking lot, and it’s goin down out there no matter what’s going on at Larry’s. They need to lighten up for real- let the people kick it on some hiphop shit.”

This will either be brilliant or a disaster. From Variety:

Warner Bros. has acquired “Where the Wild Things Are” out of turnaround from Universal.

Adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic kid’s book, which Spike Jonze will helm from a script he and novelist Dave Eggers penned, is expected to get under way late in the year.

Playtone’s Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman are producing, along with Sendak and John Carls.

Figuring out a way to turn the 338-word “Wild Things” story into a movie has been a long process, with multiple helmers and writers weighing in. Details of the Jonze-Eggers version have been closely held, but pic will be a live-action feature that will likely require a sizable CGI budget.

Robert Washington turned 19 on August 16, 1977, the day that Elvis died. Two years ago, Washington cracked the color barrier and became the first black World Champion Elvis Impersonator at the “Images of Elvis” contest in Memphis, TN.

Sadly, you have to go all the way to Olympia to catch Robert Washington, but it might be worth the trip - the 6th Annual Elvis Birthday Bash on Saturday will also feature a documentary about championship Elvis impersonators, a velvet Elvis art show, and fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Visit
this site for more information.

Tim Eyman has filed a new initiative. He’s demanding…can you guess… flat $30 car tabs. He’s going after the weight fees that nudge car tab fees over $30. And, mostly, judging from his sound bites— “It is contemptible that state and local governments, especially Sound Transit, are spitting in the face of voters and forcing a third $30 tabs initiative to be sponsored” —he’s going after Sound Transit.

Here’s the basic:

* Reestablish tabs at a fair, reasonable $30 fee for vehicles such as cars, light trucks, vans, SUV’s, motorcycles, motor homes, RV’s, and other vehicles; * Repeal numerous motor vehicle taxes and fees (weight fees on vehicles and motor homes and license plate fees, for example) imposed by the Legislature in 2005; * Repeal motor vehicle taxes and fees that counties want to impose in 2006; * Require any government (now and in the future) that imposes vehicle taxes (Seattle monorail, for example) to calculate the taxes using vehicle market value, not the artificially inflated manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP); and * Require Sound Transit to stop collecting the vehicle tax repealed by the voters with I-776 in 2002.

Smobriety Charticle Two

Weight: 175 pounds*

Pulse Rate: 61 beats per minute

Current Mood, as Identified by U.S. President: Martin Van Buren

Song Stuck In Head: “My Girl,â€� The Temptations

Symptoms: Tremendous lack of concentration, night sweats (possibly caused by Sean Nelson’s terrifying Wellbutrin story posted on the SLOG yesterday,) increased interest in glossy magazines about celebrities, major physical craving for a cigarette, some shaking, slight cough, and also a tremendous lack of concentration.

* No, I did not lose five pounds between yesterday and today. Yesterday’s readings were taken from my doctor’s appointment on Tuesday the third. So I’ve lost five pounds from Tuesday to today, which makes sense since I was incredibly nervous about quitting.
.

The first day’s worth of recriminations, resolutions, and slow-motion montages are after the jump.

Continue reading "My Smobriety, Day Two: Big Tobacco Owns Big Dictionary" »

Legalization of all drugs and, ergo, ending the war on said drugs, which has been going worse than that in Iraq for decades. It is past time we ended this futile fiasco.

Going through life without a single tattoo or piercing. This is about the most non-conformist thing one can do at this late date.

Georges Bataille’s The Story of the Eye and Pauline Réage’s Story of O. These tomes are the twin towers of 20th-century erotic literature. Roll over, Anaïs Nin, and tell Henry Miller the news.

It can’t be good news for Bush when the John Birch Society conducts a poll and 69% say the president should be impeached.

(Via All Spin Zone.)

As you may or may not know, the price of a regular postage stamp increased today to $.39. According to NPR, the post office is not allowed to make a profit; their increases in stamp costs can only be used to pay for increases in post office costs, so rounding up to $.40 is out of the question.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera becomes the longest-running musical in Broadway history tonight. This would be worth getting all upset about if Webber’s schlockfest wasn’t stealing the crown from another Webber schlockfest, the incoherent, despicable Cats.

And, yes, this is the gayest post ever on the SLOG—and for that I apologize.

My brother Bill—who takes a keen interest in lesbian issues—just sent me this link.

A bill in the Virginia state legislature would prevent unmarried women from using assisted reproductive technology, including lesbians who frequently use donor insemination to have children. Del. Robert Marshall (R-Manassas), who has also sponsored measures to ban same-sex marriage and strictly limit abortions, pre-filed HB 187 on Jan. 2 for the 2006 state legislative session, which begins Jan. 11.

The measure would forbid medical professionals from providing to unmarried women “certain intervening medical technologyâ€� that “completely or partially replaces sexual intercourse as the means of conception.â€� The bill provides a list of medical procedures, including “artificial insemination by donorâ€� and invitro fertilization.

Equality Virginia, the state’s gay political group, denounced the measure as a “direct attack on Virginia’s families…â€�

This piece that I wrote for The Stranger in June of 2004 is truer now than it was then:

We’ve reached an odd point in the struggle for gay rights. If a gay man in the United States wants to know what rights he enjoys, he has to ask himself, “Where am I?” The issue of full civil equality for gays and lesbians is dividing the country geographically like no other issue in our history besides slavery. Indeed, it’s hard not to look at one of the “gay rights maps” on the websites of the Human Rights Campaign or Lambda Legal without thinking “slave states and free states.” In some states, we have no rights. We’re non-citizens. In others, we have achieved full civil equality.

Here are a couple delights to kick off your week.

First up, international mopester Morrissey has a new album due out soon. Entitled Ringleader of the Tormentors, the record’s tracklist (published by Stereogum.com) is a delight unto itself. But the real treasures are the reader-submitted fake Morrissey song titles. (Scroll down.) My faves: “My Tears Could Cure Cancer, But I Don’t Cry” and “You’re Still The Only One I’ll Ever Love, Dead Psycho Killer.”

Speaking of psycho killers and homosexuals trapped in prisons of their own making: Michael Alig, the notorious “club kid killer” profiled in the movie Party Monster, got a fresh burst of notoriety thanks to the WOW Report, which was sent a letter found by a reader at a Brooklyn junk store, written by Alig from prison in 1998.

Creepiest passage (and one that should be featured in every parole hearing Alig ever applies for): “The movie is called Honeymoon Killers…go out and get it today..pay special attention to the hammer killing—it is the most realistic killing I’ve ever seen in any movie! It looks just like that when you kill someone with a hammer!”

(See full letter here.)