The legislative session ended this past Sunday, but this cool letter just came in.

The writer, from the 42nd legislative district (Whatcom County), wrote in about the sex ed bill —which passed the House as usual, 63-34, and the Senate finally, 30-19, under the leadership of suburban R-turned-D Senator Rodney Tom (D-48, Bellevue). Apparently, though, we need some more Rs-turned-Ds in Whatcom County.

Happily for kids who live in Washington State, our legislature recently passed the Healthy Youth Act, which mandates that public schools that choose to teach sex education must use a comprehensive, medically accurate curriculum. However, I was very disappointed that Representative Doug Ericksen A (R-42, Ferndale) used his floor time to oppose the Healthy Youth Act, claiming that that this was a “Seattle issue” and that he had not heard from anyone in his district regarding this bill. In fact, 50 of his constituents signed postcards asking for his support of the Healthy Youth Act. A delegation of constituents from the 42nd District went to meet with him in Olympia, but he cancelled the meeting leaving us with no other option but to leave materials about the bill with his staff. I personally sent him a hand-written note about the bill after he cancelled his meeting with us, and I also sent him several emails regarding the issue. I know others from our district have contacted him as well. Not only did Ericksen ignore his constituents’ support of the issue of medically accurate sex education, he lied during the debate.

Sincerely,

Lisa Van Doren
Bellingham, WA

Did the finance and operations director of the Austin Museum of Art really have to steal at a street fair?

Caught art-handed in Texas, thanks to the Art Law Blog.

The Back of the Line is a collaboration between artist William Powhida (remember his enemies and friends lists?), writer Jeff Parker, and the design firm DECODE (Stephen Lyons of Platform Gallery). It’s $25 and available here or by calling Platform Gallery, which, by the way, is having this great show by Jesse Burke.

Here’s the description of The Back of the Line:

Through four stories interwoven with images, The Back of the Line follows the plight of ornithophobic, cuckolding, leering, scooter-thieving, laundromat loving, peeing-while-sleepwalking James J. Wreck. The narration—in the suspect, second-hand account of James’s best friend—sometimes agrees and sometimes conflicts with the documentary evidence of James’s deeds, creating fissures in the story as each of the two men see it. Motivated alternately by revenge, jealousy, altruism, and obsession, they continually misread one another in a train wreck of egos and desires.

I wish I could show you an image of One Shot, the other release today, because it’s a good-looking little black book with an even littler white pistol embossed on the cover.

This is the parting work of Visual Codec, which was a great online regional art mag run by M until earlier this year, when she needed her life back. One Shot is simple, like the process that prompted it. A group of jurors working individually (including Liz Brown of the Henry, Beth Sellars of Suyama Space, Greg Bell of 4Culture, and me, representing Seattle, plus jurors from Portland and BC) received a series of single images, one from each artist, but without names, cities, artist statements, or gallery affiliations attached. The only information we got was medium and title.

The images the judges chose are in the book, which is a straightforward, vivid parade with little text to clutter the experience of a regional overview.

The book is $20, on sale at Powell’s in Portland (or online) and Wall of Sound in Seattle. The Hideout hosts the release party this Saturday night from 6 to closing, and One Shot also will be for sale at the opening of the Lead Pencil Studio show at Lawrimore Project the night of May 3.

I sure wish this blog was still active. Sadly, reform Port Commissioner Alec Fisken, who hasn’t posted on his Port Watch blog for over two months, tells me it took up too much of his time.

Fisken’s blog, while certainly doubling as a campaign tool, was also a first and refreshing dose of transparency at the opaque Port.

Speaking of transparency, or lack thereof… Where’s George Bush and the NSA when you need them?

Let me get this straight: The Port’s independent ethics board, a five-person board with two seats currently vacant, is going to investigate the Pat Davis/Mic Dinsmore matter and report back to a closed executive session of the Commission.

This is nonsense. It is, however, a pretty metaphor: A closed executive session to resolve a matter that stems from closed executive sessions.

Indeed, the whole problem started in executive session (which, by definition, are closed to the public) — two executive sessions last year to be exact, where Commissioner Davis says she discussed Dinsmore’s $340,000 “severance” package with her fellow commissioners. Three of her four fellow commissioners, Fisken, Lloyd Hara, and John Creighton, say that never happened. One of them, Bob Edwards, isn’t clear on the matter.

Then, earlier this week, the divided board held another closed executive session to discuss this scandal. Curiously, the divided board emerged for a public meeting yesterday, where they unanimously passed all sorts of stuff: Such as doing an investigation that would report back to a closed executive session. Boy, that’s reassuring.

And why the sudden consensus anyway? Guess, we’ll never know.

Again, executive sessions are closed to the public and commissioners are not allowed to talk about them.

They also voted to void any “severance” package for Dinsmore and to tape all future executive sessions, so that subpoenas can resolve future disagreements like the one currently in play. Those are both good votes, but why and how did they come about? There had been talk that the Commission was going to call for Davis’s resignation. What happened to that? Was it worked out in the executive session? Fisken would only tell me “we didn’t have three people.” When I asked him if the missing vote was Creighton (Hara and Fisken are seen as progressive reformers while Creighton is seen as more of a business as usual conservative), Fisken said coyly: “I don’t recall suddenly.”

As I’ve Slogged previously, the King County Democrats voted last night to call for an investigation into Davis; and GOP good-government activist Chris Clifford filed a recall petition.

What’s the big deal with Davis’s memo granting Dinsmore a “severance” deal?

Well, I put severance in quotation marks because outgoing CEO Dinsmore wasn’t laid off, he retired… and he was already getting a comp package. So he wasn’t entitled to a severance payout.

Furthermore, you have to have a public vote to do something like pay out $340,000 to an outgoing Port CEO. Davis insists that they had a public vote—last night. That’s a suspect assertion, though. Dinsmore has been retired for months. Why wasn’t his “severance” approved last year when he got a controversial salary bump, or when he left? Moreover, it’s certainly weird that there was this sudden vote after the Davis memo came to light last week—which only happened after a Port staffer brought it to the attention of the other Commissioners and the new Port CEO Tay Yoshitani.

Questions. Questions. Questions. All to be answered in a closed executive session.

Just after 11:00 a.m. on April 24, Seattle Police arrived at (my alma mater!) Nathan Hale High School near Lake City Way, after a male student found a clip of 22-caliber bullets in the handicapped stall of a first-floor bathroom across from room 124.

According to the police report filed by Officer Outlaw (yes, that’s really his real name), the item was secured and placed into evidence for fingerprint analysis. The report notes that “there is currently no information on the item’s owner.”

After the Virginia Tech shootings just over a week ago, this incident was certainly a cause for alarm. In a letter to families, Nathan Hale principal Lisa Hechtman stated that “she was very proud of the student who reported the found items” and reiterated the school’s “Zero-Tolerance policy” regarding weapons on school grounds. “Some kids were upset,” said a teacher at Nathan Hale addressing the incident. “It’s sort of a symptom of the fear and violence that is frighteningly common in our American society. We need to work on building communication and decreasing the attention on violence.”

Still trying to get more information on this, will update when possible.

Strip club lobbyist Tim Killian says his clients will oppose new legislation sponsored by city council member Peter Steinbrueck that would limit strip clubs to areas 800 feet or more from schools, parks, day cares, and community centers. “There’s nothing necessitating this move,” Killian says. “They haven’t laid out any rational reasons for taking this step.”

Killian notes that there have been no applications for new strip clubs since voters rejected the four-foot rule last year, despite the fact that strip clubs are now allowed in all areas of the city where performing-arts theaters are permitted. (A map of those areas can be found here.) And he calls the new proposal too restrictive, because it would limit strip clubs to a very small area of the city that could get smaller. (Including, as this map, shows, the land currently occupied by Qwest and Safeco Fields.) “It severely restricts where these clubs can go, and in short order—two, three, five years out—this map is going to be even more restrictive, as more of these land uses, like child care centers, open up,” Killian says.

Steinbrueck, for his part, has noted that just because no one has applied for a strip-club license yet, that’s no reason to believe no one ever will. And he points out that his proposal is far less restrictive than the mayor’s, which would have restricted clubs to a small area of South Seattle near Georgetown. “This is an attempt to liberalize legislation proposed by the mayor,” Steinbrueck says. “It’s not my goal to unduly restrict strip clubs—it’s to apply a common set of principles to every neighborhood.”

Icky Thump Leak: New White Stripes song went up today.

Trying to Forget You: I don’t want to be Alicia Silverstone anymore.

Nacho Attack!: The local band bombards another bill.

Appreciation for Ella: Happy birthday, Miss Fitzgerald.

Keep It Like a Secret: Don’t tell anyone that USE is playing the Comet this weekend.

Kurt’s One Night Stand: Tiny Vipers and Cornelius equals love.

Now, prepare to fall into a cute overload coma:

(Thanks to Mr. Nipper for sharing.)

A friend and I were talking yesterday about guys (as we often do) and the crushes we have on guys (which we often have). I admitted to loving Adam Brody (geeky and obvious, but not so weird) and she admitted to liking… the Geico cavemen (not at all obvious, and very, very weird).

I couldn’t see what she was attracted to, and she couldn’t explain it. All she could say was “It must be kind of like how every woman has a thing for Jack from Jack in the Box.”

What!? Every women has a crush on Jack from Jack in the Box? My mind was blown; I’ve never heard of such a thing. Fantasizing about Jack from Jack in the Box? Seriously? She insisted that yes, there are many, many women who’d jump Jack’s bones if given the opportunity (there’s a “big head” or “box” joke in there somewhere, but I’m too classy to make it).

Is this real? Do women love Jack? Do women love the Geico cavemen? I mean, really?

comes courtesy of Michelle Malkin.

Three Dollar Bill has added a second screening of Un Chant d’amour to the Scandalous! series that I’ve been praising to the heavens.

The only film by French professional bad boy Jean Genet is the one must-see screening in the series. It’s a stunningly photographed thinking-man’s porno, which was originally meant for private collections and later disavowed by Genet. Fairly hot, very smart, and embarrassingly romantic and beautiful.

Plus, and perhaps even more excitingly, Genet’s film will be accompanied by shorts by Kenneth Anger, including the classics Fireworks and Scorpio Rising and a brand, brand new world premiere of Anger’s latest, a film about Elliott Smith.

Curious trivia: You might think that Genet influenced Anger, and not the other way around, but in fact Genet saw the then-teenage Anger’s Fireworks in Paris a year before he made Un Chant d’amour. (For a deluge of other meticulously researched facts, see Edmund White’s masterful biography Genet.)

Tomorrow: Thursday, April 26, 7 and 9:15 pm. Northwest Film Forum. Get your advance tickets here.

Also, check out our DVD review this week: Kenneth Anger, Vol. 1.

Poor Jesus. Also, the new issue is online.

Sorry about being MIA on what would otherwise be a big Slog day for me—what with Seattle Out and Proud’s decision to go ahead with the pride parade downtown. But I was at the dentist all AM, and now I’m off to the airport. Hopefully I’ll be all over the Slog tomorrow. In the meantime please enjoy this video of Laura Bush explaining that no one—no one—suffers more as a result of the Iraq war than George Bush himself.

My god! Sharing a marquee with Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep) and Alain Resnais (Private Fears in Public Places).
This is as close to heaven as I will ever get. Those who hate my work, my very being, every idea I produce, please allow me this moment of real happiness. Burnett is the greatest African American director, and Alain Resnais is the greatest French director of his generation. Realistically speaking, I’ll never make a work of art that can compare with Burnett’s To Sleep With Anger or Resnais’ Hiroshima mon amour, and so it is nothing more than enough that I get to share this Manhattan marquee with the gods of my imagination.

Last year was a great one for new, graduating talent in Seattle: Susie J. Lee and Tivon Rice, among others, emerged from the crop. In a few weeks the annual BFA and MFA shows will open up, on May 11 at Cornish and May 12 at the Henry.

I know of at least one grad who’ll be in the UW show at the Henry, Nola Avienne. I ran into her work recently in the UW Art School gallery, and was momentarily stopped in my tracks at its spidery strangeness. Avienne makes her small sculptures (that also function as spatial drawings) out of metal filings and magnets:

1. This spicy conversation over at Artworld Salon about the Jerry Saltz v. Alanna Heiss, museum v. market debate. Clearly the subject is ready for an exhibition taken from the other side: how the museums are part of the market, not separate from it. Any curators out there willing to take on that ball of wax?

2. Great post by Tyler Green over at Modern Art Notes called “The national mood as reflected in arts criticism”.

3. Robert Storr with Richard Lacayo on the big show at the Venice Biennale this summer:

The underlying premise of the show is that there has been a division between the conceptual and the perceptual, between the “criticality” crowd and the beauty crowd. The argument of the show is that first rate work is always both conceptual and perceptual and the artists making art are far less concerned with these divisions than people who write about them.

Rather than writing extensively, critically, and authoritatively about the changes that have taken place at Pacific Northwest Ballet since the arrival of artistic director Peter Boal, the Seattle Times reports that the New York Times likes PNB! Like, really, really, likes us!

Breaking news: Zoo, written by our very own Charles Mudede, has been accepted into Cannes. (I assume that means one of the non-competition sections, but I don’t know for sure.)

And here, in the New York Times, the inimitable Manohla Dargis gives Zoo a good thrashing and—can it be?—comes out in favor of horse sex.

Okay, technically, she reasons thus:

After all, Bible-believers notwithstanding, if you eat and wear animals and agree that it’s O.K. to torture them in the name of science and beauty, what’s the big deal? Human beings subject animals penned in factory farms to far more grievous abuse than anything apparently done to the horses in “Zoo,” and on a daily basis human beings also subject themselves to greater risk. One zoophile’s fond memories of cooking up ham for his brethren indicate that theirs was not a PETA-approved animal love, true. But, as Mr. Devor makes clear, again and again, these were men who truly loved their animals in sickness and in health and, at least in the case of one unfortunate soul, till death finally did part them.

UPDATE:

Charles confirms that Zoo is in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, where it’ll join Caramel, the Ian Curtis biopic Control, Apres lui, and more to be announced May 3.

Speaking of space: Please enjoy the original Star Wars trailer in all its cheesy glory.

Hey, Stranger arts staffers, you may reel at all my posts about state politics from Olympia or the recent stuff about the Port scandal, but I’ll have you know that way back when (1995), I was published (along with arts writers like Greil Marcus, Dave Marsh, and Sarah Vowell) in a round-up of our choices for “Artist of the Year.”

Click on the above link, scroll past the essays on Eddie Vedder, Jane Austen, Sirius B, Howard Cruse (Dave Marsh’s choice), and other stars of ‘95, and you’ll come upon my choice.

p.s. Sarah Vowell’s choice was Ian Brown, the American Public Radio host for the Canadian show, “Sunday Morning.”

Did you miss him at the White House? On Letterman? Singing “Besame Mucho” (ugh) on Regis and That Spastic Blonde Chick? Do you, like millions, have difficulty expressing the depth of your feelings for the world’s greatest American Idol loser? Well, despair not even a little! There’re a gazillion easy ways out there to say, “I want to (bleep) you, Sanjaya!” Choose from classic rainbow thong:

Burning infant body suit…

Or wag your Sanjay-a-ffection to the world with every flop in your boxers!

Available now at Cafe Press!

I have tried and tried (without much real success) to describe the strange political hybrid—call it reactionary populism or pseudo populism—that festers in Seattle’s old-school Left, now circling the wagons in the vestiges of the “Neighborhood Movement.”

These are the folks whose knee-jerk reaction to every attempt at smart density policy is to dismiss those policies (increased heights, lowered parking requirements, surface/transit on the waterfront) as “Elitist” or “Corporate Liberalism.”

It’s an ugly transition from Left to Reactionary Populism. (When discussing international politics, Christopher Hitchens has a better term for the phenomenon. He calls the strain, Reactionary Utopianism.)

Anyway, below the jump, I’ve linked a shot I took at describing this phenomenon back in May 2005.

Way better, though, linked right here, The Seattle Sinner has an editorial in their April issue that criticizes the convoluted equation of Seattle’s own Reactionary Utopianists. Appropriately enough, the Sinner uses the recent battle over the Viaduct as its metaphor and jumping off point, correctly criticizing the anti-surface/transit folks as “paralyzed.”

Here’s the heart of the editorial, by Jeremy M. Barker:

The historical causes of our current situation are pretty simple: it’s the continued struggle between Seattle’s old guard, blue collar population and the younger, urbanite population that’s been transforming the city since the tech boom of the 1990s. The old guard was behind what used to be known as Seattle’s “neighborhood movement,” where neighborhood activists came to wield substantial power over city planning. A lot of people embraced the neighborhood movement as a sign of intelligent growth: neighborhoods were helping ensure a higher quality of life, reinvigorating civic participation and serving as a bulwark against heartless redevelopment.

But that was a mistaken impression. The neighborhood groups also represented the status quo, consolidating power in older, richer, more established neighborhoods fighting to keep a disproportionately big share of the pie. The neighborhood movements, in other words, were pretty happy with they way things were; they were political reactionaries fighting against progress. They helped scuttle Seattle Commons, Paul Allen’s ambitious civic project for SLU. They made nice with homeless advocacy groups to give their greed for city money the veneer of progressive politics. Organizations like the Seattle Displacement Coalition and the hobo newspaper Real Change took to advocating strange positions: Real Change used to give disproportionate article space to Magnolia residents opposing a tunnel, and the Seattle Displacement Coalition’s John Fox became a point man for criticizing the city’s redevelopment priorities, opposing things like streetcar service between downtown and SLU.

Continue reading "Sinful Analysis" »

After yesterday’s vertiginous now-Pride-is-cancelled-and-now-it’s-not updates, the Pride parade is slated for Fourth Avenue. Sweet Jesus, that’s good news.

However, the Pride rally appears to be… non-existent? The LGBT Center has plans for something called Queerfest in Volunteer Park. But the idea of trudging two miles up hill after the parade makes me want to drink, starting now. Dan suggested marching right into Seattle Center without a permit and setting up camp on the lawn by the fountain. That might be kinda relaxing, until the police arrive in riot gear and tell us to haul our gay asses up the hill.

There’s another option: Rallying at a big park downtown. You know, the one overrun by stoners in August: Myrtle Edwards Park. Here’s a picture from Hempfest to help you imagine what the Pride rally could look like:

Myrtle Edwards Park is near the parade route, it’s big enough for a large event, we could have a big sound system, and it’s a public space without usage fees. And if SOaP is to ever pay off their huge debt at Seattle Center—and pay for this year’s parade—a rally site will help them raise the money they need. Down at Myrtle Edwards Park, they could sell vendor spaces, sell water, host a beer garden!, and collect donations at the narrow little entrance.

Oh, about that narrow little entrance. A hundred thousand parade marchers funneling into the waterfront park would be a tight squeeze. But with line managers and help from the cops, we could have our parade and our rally, too. Of course, this is just an interim location until SOaP shapes up or another organization forms that can hold the rally in Seattle Center without incurring six figures of debt.

(Documentary)While watching this dark Canadian masterpiece from 1969, my boyfriend and I became obsessed with whether it was real. “It has to be fiction. Look at those facial expressions!” “It’s a documentary, but he’s wearing bikini briefs because it’s funny.” “But they’re constantly at each other’s throats.” “I think they’re us.” “I am not hysterical.” “Well, you’re the guy, and she’s me.” Then they started hitting each other, and we were both too alarmed to speak. (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 267-5380. 7 and 9 pm, $5—$8.50.) Annie Wagner

More from “the lighter side” line by Jesus Togs here.

KING 5 is one of many outlets reporting the basic facts: This morning, a Seattle construction crew broke or damaged a 20-inch water main near Harrison St., causing major flooding in the South Lake Union area.

I heard John Richards give thanks for KEXP’s placement uphill from the flooding on the radio this morning, and read a Slog commenter’s report of brown water bubbling from the toilets at her workplace—anyone else out there in the thick of it?

On Sunday, the Elliott Bay Water Taxi resumes service between Pier 55 (at Spring Street) and Seacrest in West Seattle. File this idea away for the next time you have relatives in town—it’s $3 well spent on a sunny afternoon. At Seacrest, you’ll find a small park with a postcard view of the city, a walking path that leads to Alki, and a fish-n-chips place (but if you’re picky, the fried seafood at the Ivar’s fish bar at Pier 54 is better).

From the folks at Reverent Entertainment comes this inspired literary quiz: Can you guess which phrases were written by the Nobel Prize-winning Faulkner, and which were created by a German translating machine? Good luck!

(Thank you, MetaFilter.)

And what a big boner it was!

Exciting news on the science front:

Astronomers reported on Wednesday they had discovered a “super-Earth” more than 20 light years away that is the most intriguing world found so far in the search for extraterrestrial life.

About five times the mass of Earth, the planet orbits a cool, dim “red dwarf” star located in the constellation of Libra, the team from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said in a press release.

The star, Gliese 581, has already been identified as hosting a planet similar in size to Neptune, the frigid gas giant on the edge of our own Solar System.

The new planet is 14 times closer to Gliese 581 than the Earth is to the Sun. But because Gliese 581 is so cool, the planet is not scorched by solar radiation. It zips around the star at express speed, making just 13 days to complete an orbit.

“We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40°C, and water would thus be liquid,” said lead researcher Stephane Udry of Switzerland’s Geneva University.

Here’s an artist conception of what the “super-Earth” looks like:

Meanwhile in Britain…

…bookmakers wasted no time slashing the odds on aliens being discovered after astronomers announced Wednesday that they had discovered an Earth-like planet.

William Hill cut the odds on proving the existence of extra-terrestrial life from 1,000-1 to 100-1.

“We felt we had to react to the news that an Earth-like planet which could support intelligent life had been discovered — after all, we don’t know for sure that intelligent extra-terrestrial life has not already been discovered, but is being hushed up,” said spokesman Graham Sharpe.

Even at 100-1 it’s still a sucker bet — especially since the wager only pays out if “the prime minister [confirms] officially the existence of intelligent extra-terrestrial life within a year of the bet being placed.”

[Originally posted at 10:40 p.m. on Tuesday]

Troy Campbell, a board member for Seattle Out and Proud, just called to tell me that contrary to his group’s earlier press release, they have now decided to stay together, scrap their bankruptcy plans, and organize a Pride Parade downtown again this year.

(If you feel like you have whip-lash from following this story, try writing about it…)

Campbell tells me that his group decided to reverse course after receiving an overwhelming amount of encouragement today from people who want the Gay Pride Parade to remain downtown.

“People really, really enjoyed the civic feel of the downtown parade,” he said.

However, the group will not plan any festival in conjunction with the parade this year, leaving plans for any post-parade celebrations to others. Out and Proud thinks that the parade, which has always been profitable, can help the group gradually pay back the $100,000+ debt it incurred from running a wildly unprofitable post-parade celebration at Seattle Center last year.

“The board has decided that we owe it to our debtors and the community to produce the parade, and so we are going to go forward,” Campbell told me.

And what will people do to celebrate after the parade this year? “There’s a variety of events that are being produced around the city,” Campbell told me. “And there’s the Center itself, which is a large park with amusement rides and games.”

Sounds like he’s been listening to Dan.

Fightin’ Words: Cheney, Reid exchange barbs over Iraq timetable

Who’s Under Investigation This Week? If you guessed MC Rove…you’re a winner!

Finally: Bellevue backing domestic partnerships

Blind Eye:OSHA avoiding policymaking and enforcement

Triumph: Abortion legalized in Mexico City

Study: No connection between abortion and breast cancer

11,000,000: The global warming death toll in the next three decades

Hottest New Real Estate Market: The Gliese 581 System

People Food: Possibly as dangerous as pet food

Fun Superhero Fact of the Day: Benjamin J. Grimm, the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing, is Jewish.

The King County Democrats passed a resolution on Tuesday night, similar to the one passed by the 46th District Democrats last Thursday, calling for an investigation into Port Commissioner Pat Davis.

It came to light last week that Davis had signed a memo authorizing a hefty pay package for outgoing Port CEO Mic Dinsmore. Three of her four Commission colleagues say they were never informed about the deal. One, Bob Edwards, has not directly addressed the issue.

The KC Democrats’ vote comes only a few hours after a recall petition on Davis was filed with King County by good government activist Chris Clifford, a Republican.