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Archives for 01/13/2006 - 01/13/2006

Friday, January 13, 2006

The Man Who Conned The Stranger

Posted by on January 13 at 5:25 PM

First, the Smoking Gun nails James Frey for fabricating chunks of his best-selling memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Yesterday a woman in Illinois filed a lawsuit charging Frey with fraud. And now a Stranger investigation reveals that a piece Frey wrote for us in 2004 was riddled with falsehoods. Christopher Frizzelle reports.

Dot My Heart

Posted by on January 13 at 3:47 PM

A reader sent this to us. I miss Top Gun’s dim sum and am thrilled to hear that veggie dim sum exists. Thanks, Victoria. Sara, ‘member your vow to give Asian cuisine more love in 2006?

I recently had dim sum at this new restaurant in Chinatown called “Vegetarian Bistro”. If you haven’t heard about it already, it just opened a couple weeks ago on King Street (at the old Top Gun location). The menu is entirely meat-less, but all the dishes I’ve tried have been great, really flavorful and creative (a nice change from the other vegetarian Asian restaurants in this city). They serve dim sum at any hour, and it is delicious, better than a lot of the standard stuff at other restaurants. It seems like every decent, large city has a vegetarian dim sum restaurant (if not several), and for years I have bitched about Seattle lacking one. Please review this restaurant! It’s the only one if its kind here, and was woefully empty when I went there last. Victoria

Gay Marriage Decision Coming Soon?

Posted by on January 13 at 3:41 PM

Of all the tea-leaves that people have been reading in an effort to determine when the Washington State Supreme Court is going to rule on its landmark gay marriage case, this one, from yesterday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer, seems the most conclusive:

Chief Justice Gerry Alexander of the state Supreme Court said the court is aware of the public’s intense interest in the issue and hopes to decide before the end of the legislative session in early March.

According to gossip in Olympia, the chief justice, who is up for reelection in November, delivered this news while paying a suprise visit to the capitol press house. Whether the chief justice’s call on the Olympia press corps means good or bad things for gay rights is unclear, but it’s certainly an unusual happening—some wags are saying it’s not just unusual, but unprecedented.

Count Shlockula

Posted by on January 13 at 2:56 PM

And we thought Dino Rossi was a joke.

Chicago’s Delayed Mortification

Posted by on January 13 at 2:46 PM

Chicago also recently passed a smoking ban; you can read about it in Ben Joravsky’s article in Chicago Reader. The law’s a marvel of niggling, defanging conditions and kow-towing to Mayor Daley’s favorites—and it doesn’t go into effect until 2008. Inhale to the chief.

FSU in NY.

Posted by on January 13 at 2:26 PM

David King of Metroland (a weekly paper in Albany, New York), wrote an interesting feature story about FSU’s affect on their own local hardcore music scene. You can read it here.

Googlenumerology

Posted by on January 13 at 2:00 PM

I idly Googled an acquaintance’s birthday (063072) and uncovered the secret life of a number: it appears to be a Russian postal code, the model number of a titanium laptop case and, in a Google image search, produced the following series:

first063072.jpg

second063072.jpg

T063072A.jpg

It’s like something out of a Borges story, if Borges had lived a little longer. And wasn’t blind.

A Beautiful Noise

Posted by on January 13 at 1:15 PM

As a general rule, it’s bad policy to piss off a group that has predilections toward anarchy and access to deafening instruments. Maybe we should have learned the first time.

Some background: Editor Dan Savage’s infamous endorsement of the invasion of Iraq led the Infernal Noise Brigade to stage an impromptu concert right under his office window. Despite that bad blood, Christopher Frizzelle managed to convince the group’s members to let him follow them through Europe, so he could write this feature, which seemed to mark a period of detente between INB and The Stranger. Then this past week I wrote about how the U.S. Rubber building is kicking out artists, a few of whom are members of INB.

Leave it to the new guy to fuck everything up: Now we find ourselves in the middle of a conspiracy theory, alongside such INB shitlisters as Bill O’Reilly and Osama bin Laden. Below I’ve pasted the group’s response to my article, as articulated by the shadowy INB figure known only as “The Professor.”

To the people of the city of Seattle:

The Infernal Noise Brigade is greatly displeased by the recent evictions of the tenants of the building at 321 Third Avenue South. No doubt this space will be turned into a yuppie condo, or a jail, or a cheesecake sweatshop, or something equally preposterous.

The INB also knows who is behind this treacherous act…


Continue reading "A Beautiful Noise" »

I’m on the radio!

Posted by on January 13 at 1:03 PM

Hey! If you’re a fan of the Young & the Restless (and why wouldn’t you be? It’s 107.7 the End’s local music show!), be sure to tune in this Sunday around 8:15 pm to hear ME! I’m gonna be on-air with harms and we’re gonna talk about good shows happening next week, and he’s even gonna let me spin a song or two by some of my favorite Northwest bands. We’ll also probably make fun of each other, because that’s what we do. It’ll be fun, I promise, so listen!

Global SeXXX-ism

Posted by on January 13 at 12:57 PM

As I’ve written elsewhere, Global SeXXX-ism not only has a baroquely faux-pomo title, but it is pedantic, pretentious, and awful. It is, allegedly, a series of “cycles” that “examine” global sexism and racism, but it simply patronizes its audience with characterless, plotless vignettes of, say, men being shitty to women. Or a girly-boy getting called a fag by his macho uncle. Just miserable moment after miserable moment without an ounce of analysis, depth, or complexity. It pisses me right off, not only because this kind of vacant, smug bullshit gives theater a bad name but because the Conciliation Project (the production company) got a $13,000 grant from the city’s Neighborhood Matching Fund to mount this crap and bring it to Seattle schools. Local artists should subject themselves to the show and then beg - beg! - schools to keep SeXXX-ism as far away from students as possible. Kids don’t need any more evidence that theater is for shit. (Want kids to see a play about sexism and racism that doesn’t suck? Mount a touring production of Fences.)

Think I’m crazy? Read this letter by a reader who stumbled into the show and then read the review:

Bless you, in the name the sweet baby jesus ~ BLESS YOU.

I sat through this thing, and I am still huddled in the fetal position in the shower crying, and hoping to get the stink off me. I can’t believe you let them off so easily~ you didn’t even mention the fact that this is the SECOND RUN the show is having. The last one was like 6 months ago ~ same exact play, same theater.

Nor did you mention the forced “discussionā€¯ we all had after the show… where we all “opened upā€¯ and “shared our feelings about the “intense experienceā€¯ we just had together. Don’t know if you know this Brenden, but the healing can’t begin until we have an overpriced, awkward, forced dialog with strangers.

I agree with the premise that we need an open and honest dialogue to begin the healing… THE HEALING OF A DYING ART FORM.

Steve Wu

Anybody else see this show? Any horror stories> Anybody out there who actually liked the damned thing?

Saying Yes For A Year

Posted by on January 13 at 12:47 PM

This woman, who lives in Seattle, just published a book about the year she spent saying yes to whoever wanted to date her.

In Other Non-Smoker News…

Posted by on January 13 at 12:40 PM

I quit smoking simultaneously with a friend from my high school days. We’ll call him “Dick.” Now, Dick is using The Patch to quit, which I disagree with, but he’s also reached day 5 with no real problems at all, except for, apparently, the same lack of concentration that I’ve been experiencing and really weird dreams. He was telling me about the previous night’s dream—he became convinced that his dog was Boba Fett and he was trying to kill the puppy with a lightsaber—when he stopped talking and turned to the radio, which was stuck on some easy listening station and playing “You Were Meant For Me.”
Out of the blue, Dick turns to me and says, “How much do you think Jewel weighs nowadays?”
There’s no better example of the way the nicotine-deprived mind works than that.

And what I’m for, a week late: Seattle (though a friend of mine taught me this unattributed expression that I agree with completely: “Loving Seattle is like having a beautiful girlfriend who’s sick all the time”,) books, any and every kind of fuckin’, politics, and everything that’s in the movie (not the book) To Have and Have Not.

Speaking of New York

Posted by on January 13 at 12:00 PM

Former (and still sometimes) Stranger photographer Casey Kelbaugh has taken his Slideluck Potshows with him to Manhattan, and they’ve been a huge hit, getting written up in TimeOut NY, needing ever-bigger spaces, and attracting tons of contributors.

Which is not surprising. I was at one of the first Slideluck Potshows, held at a loft in Pioneer Square a couple years ago, and it was great to see so many young local photographers showing work that otherwise would never have been seen, critiquing each other, and sloshing around a lot of red wine. I know we have more than a few people reading the Slog from Manhattan, so you guys should take note: The next show is planned for March, and the theme is Mistakes.

To contribute photographs click here, and to while away some of your workday viewing photos from past shows, click here.

For rain-drenched Seattleites (today is the 27th consecutive day!), I recommend Casey’s Belize slideshow.

Dave Reichert Should Be Held Accountable

Posted by on January 13 at 11:59 AM

I’m not usually hep to just posting press releases, but this one seems important:


What is Dave Reichert hiding?
Dave Reichert has been absolutely silent on his role in allowing police misconduct in the King County Sheriff’s Office

Seattle-Revelations about poor management and oversight in the King County Sheriff’s Office over the last few years have produced a number of proposals for reform recently. It also raises an important question:

What is Dave Reichert hiding? “Many of the incidences happened on Dave Reichert’s watch as King County Sheriff and he didn’t do anything to fix it,ā€¯ said Paul Berendt, Chair of the Washington State Democrats. “His constituents deserve to know why he allowed such conduct to occur.ā€¯

Continue reading "Dave Reichert Should Be Held Accountable" »

My Smobriety, Day Six: Easy Like Sunday Morning

Posted by on January 13 at 11:40 AM

Smobriety Charticle Six

Weight: 174 pounds

Pulse: 60 beats per minute

Song Stuck In Head: “Easy Like Sunday Morning,” Lionel Richie

Medication Note: Stopped taking one Wellbutrin pill a day;
dosage back down to one pill a day, 150 mg, in an effort to wean off.

Risk of Smoking Resumption: Periwinkle Blue (low risk of smoking resumption)

Symptoms: Lionel Richie songs stuck in head, some minor lack of concentration, especially regarding work, frequent urination, time still passing very slowly.

Last night, in a desperate attempt to inject some drama into this smoking cessation thing, I went to a party that should’ve been a squirming nest of heavy smokers. The party turned out to be a dud; the house was quiet and dark. Instead, I went to a bar that was rumored to be protesting the smoking ban. More lies! There was not an ashtray in sight; not even the requisite wall of wobbly, grousing smokers barring the doorway.
Remarkably, around the time that I was ignoring the man with the Russian accent who wanted to know where the hospital was, (nice try, Boris, but ol’ Paul Bobby’s been burned by that Commie “Where you medicine, Americanski?” scam one too many times) I realized that I was trying to make myself want a cigarette.
Here’s the thing: quitting has been easy. I can’t believe I’ve been afraid of this for so long…honestly, if I’d known, I would’ve quit years ago. All that buildup and concern, the 10 years of worrying, combined with my Catholic sense that anything worth having will involve years of suffering and pain, has kept me chained to this addiction for so long. I understand that this is only day six, and the three-week-mark is the second real test, but I honestly figured that by now I’d be Leonardo Di Caprio in The Basketball Diaries, drooling on myself, locked in a bedroom and sobbing “Just one more hit, man! I just need one more hit!” But, really, it’s been less of an annoyance than your average bad cold. Go figure.

Raising the Gambling Age

Posted by on January 13 at 11:37 AM

This just in:

Legislature set to raise legal gambling age from 18 to 21

The last time I was in a Washington casino I got the impression the legal gambling age was 81.

More than you wanna know about the proposed new law and the problem of teen gambling can be found here and here.

Wocka! Wocka! Wocka!

Posted by on January 13 at 11:36 AM

USA Today:

When the stress of the war in Iraq becomes too severe, the Pentagon has a suggestion for military families: Learn how to laugh.

With help from the Pentagon’s chief laughter instructor, families of National Guard members are learning to walk like a penguin, laugh like a lion and blurt “ha, ha, hee, hee and ho, ho.”

The Pentagon’s chief laughter instructor? That’s got to be a tough gig.

Contiguous Awnings!

Posted by on January 13 at 11:24 AM

Read my proposal here. (Thanks to everyone who posted comments — six positive comments in a row is a record for me.) I’m serious, people!

Greetings from NYC

Posted by on January 13 at 10:33 AM

I’m in New York this weekend, visiting my fella Jake and catching the new Craig Lucas musical at Julliard. Still, my Slog jones will not abate, and before I even made it out of Seattle I witnessed something Slogworthy, in the form of a nationally prominent arts figurehead sitting in the airport picking his nose and delivering the pickings to his mouth. (Unlike Savage’s, my cell phone doesn’t take pictures, and you should consider yourselves lucky. However, I will confirm that it was NOT Cindy Crawford)

On the plane, I re-watched the Hughes’ Brothers’s Menace 2 Society for the first time since the year of its release; it didn’t hold up as well as I’d hoped, but the film will remain forever noteworthy as the second important film of the ’90s in which a fatal shooting is prompted by the soon-to-be victim instructing his soon-to-be murderer to “suck my dick”. (The first, of course, is Thelma & Louise, which would make a dynamite partner with Menace should any local film forums wish to present a Deadly Fellatio Demands double feature.

Now I’m here in Manhattan, and I think we’re gonna head over to that Rauschenberg exhibit at the Met that Jen Graves slogged about yesterday, if we’re not deterred by ferocious crowds drawn by the attendant Met exhibit of Pixar delights, which I wouldn’t mind taking a gander at myself.

In the meantime, I’m busy having my mind blown by the New York Post, a trash-tastic nightmare of a newspaper that makes up for its far-right bullshittedness with judgmental gore, such as today’s headline/cover photo of “THE EVIL, UGLY FACE OF SADISTIC STEPDAD FROM HELL.”

Read all about the sadistic stepdad’s allegedly yogurt-inspired fatal beating of his 7-year-old stepdaughter in next week’s Last Days…until then, keep your feet in the ground and pick your nose in your car, like normal people.


A force of evil fighting for good….

Posted by on January 13 at 9:59 AM

Democrats, Republicans…how about voting for a Satanic dark priest, head of the party of “Vampyres, Witches and Pagans” (and, of course, former pro wrestler) for your governor?

Cindy goes deep.

Posted by on January 13 at 9:54 AM

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