At the quirky acoustic music shoppe:

“I love that track, how it starts with a descending hurdy-gurdy, then resolves itself into a didgeridoo. I got the chance to see them at an open-mic down in Tacoma not too long ago.”

In our living room, while debating whether to add a string of all white lights to our christmas tree, which has multi-colored lights on it already:

“Hmm, I don’t know about mixing white and colored.”

Happy Holidays.

Seattle’s best-named landmark, The Undre Arms.

The rickety apartment building at 11th Ave and E Madison St has been collecting mold for decades. “When I told my friends I lived here, they were like, ‘Ugh, really?’” says Christina Hunsberger, who moved in this summer and attends Seattle University across the street. But inside her apartment, she says, there’s a claw foot tub, crown moldings, and three-inch-thick orange shag carpet. Fancy.

A few years ago the building’s official name became a URL.

The Web site says only this: “We, the residents of the charmingly ratty Undre Arms, are not responsible for the opinions held by our landlord, who is the one with ‘the sign’ in Apt.1.”

Jerrold Boilet, who owns the property but isn’t the landlord, has submitted a proposal to replace The Undre Arms with a six-story building containing 48 residential units, street-level retail, and underground parking. Nice. The existing building might be a fine mecca for pit fetishists, but it looks like it may collapse any moment, killing every resident in its 15 units. No word yet from Boilet on when the building will meet that big stick of deodorant in the sky.

Tune in tonight’s installment of the Stranger News Hour on KIRO radio where Jonathan Zwickel and Megan Seling will talk about the Crocodile Cafe: Why’d it close. What it means for Seattle’s music scene.

And of course, they’ll pay tribute to the “indie rock think tank” —to pull a nice phrase from Seling’s story this week.

Tune in at 7pm.

An email from Velocity executive director Kara O’Toole regarding the purchase of Odd Fellows Hall and the future of the center:

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, the Odd Fellows Hall - Velocity’s current home - has been sold to a commercial real estate developer. Many of you have contacted us expressing your concern, which has been a powerful reminder of how important Velocity is to this community.

We are currently negotiating to stay at this location for as long as we can while we look for a permanent home where Velocity can have more control over its destiny. We’ll know more details in the new year and will keep you updated.

The best thing you can do to keep Velocity strong is what you always do: take classes, come to performances and consider making a donation to our year-end campaign by going to www.velocitydancecenter.org and clicking on the “Donate Now” icon.

We are very close to our goal of raising $10,000 before the end of the year! A generous anonymous donor will match every dollar we receive up to $2,500 before the end of the year. Please consider making a contribution today.

Dance on!

Kara O’Toole, Executive Director

From Flickr pooler billyohphoto…

Music

Kay Kay and
His Weathered
Underground at Chop Suey

• See what else is happening in Music on Saturday »
• More Stranger Suggests for this week »

This is brilliant…

Via Americablog.

posted by news intern Brian Slodysko

CIA, Lies and Video Tape: CIA told 9/11 Commission all requested information about interrogation of Al Qaeda detainees had been surrendered… except, of course, those now destroyed tapes.

Surprise Surprise: Port of Seattle officials dragged heels, altered records and blocked access of firms conducting efficiency audit.

Condemnation From the Right Pending: Belgian authorities release 14 suspects detained over plot to free an Al Qaeda prisoner after a court decided there was insufficient evidence.

EPA Gives Fuel Standards Lump of Coal: The EPA under the Bush Administration is refusing to honor stringent fuel standards set by 11 states including Washington.

Invasive: FBI developing new database using facial features, finger prints and possibly retina and voice patterns to route out criminals and terrorists.

I’ll Be Home For Christmas: 200,000 Army employees could be laid off as a result of the Bush/Congress war-funding showdown.

All The King’s Men: Populist Illinois governor investigated by federal cronyism probe.

Oh the Irony: 91st richest man in the U.S.—a roofing company billionaire—fell to his death through his garage roof.

Tis’ the Season: Man stabbed by wife for opening Christmas gift early.

This ABC News story lays it out more clearly than any onsite airline professional managed to:

Dense fog and a low cloud ceiling forced airlines to cancel more than 200 flights at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Friday at the start of the busy holiday travel season.

All I was told last night, after standing in an hour-long line with a hundred other bleary-eyed grumps, was that my Friday-night flight from Chicago to Norfolk (home of my brother and his family, Christmas destination for me and my fella Jake and the parents) had been cancelled and the next available flight was 36 hours later, on Sunday morning.

Cruel twist: This Chicago cancellation affected only me, as Jake took separate, uncancelled flights to Norfolk, where he’s now getting to spend some quality time with my extended family while wearing underpants borrowed from my brother. (He travelled with the suitcase packed with gifts, I have the one packed with clothes.) Meanwhile, I’m getting to spend some quality time with airport-concourse carpet.

Last night I built a small hobo camp around a power outlet in a semi-abandoned hallway and watched Once Upon a Time in the West on my laptop. (The airport had set up hundreds and hundreds of cots, each with a pillow and a blanket, but I’m afraid of public cots and addicted to electricity.) This morning I’m continuing the western theme, watching Red River while drinking some breakfast beers and awaiting my newly hatched two-point escape: This afternoon, I fly to Charlotte, NC, and this evening, I land in Norfolk. Knock virtual wood.

Despite the inherent crappiness of the situation, the O’Hare Airport isn’t that bad a place. They let you walk around with beers, and the johns are rigged with auto-forwarding plastic seat covers.

Less appealing: The instrumental Christmas music that’s been playing over the intercom for the past 18 hours. I now officially hate Jesus.

Here are the unscientific results of our very unscientific Slog poll, which was posted yesterday morning and stayed live for a very, very unscientific 32 (or so) hours. Make of it what you will:

Posted by Ryan S. Jackson

Trying to come up with the perfect analogy for John McCain’s run for the presidency isn’t easy.

The first one that came to mind would be McCain and the zombie movie, both because he kind of looks like he’s been dead for quite some time, and because you can continue to hit him with a shovel and he just gets right back up. Remember when he was prostrating himself in front of southern bible colleges as the “frontrunner,” and everyone hated him? Or this summer, when his entire campaign staff walked away from him and he was spending more than he was bringing in?

He’s still going. McCain wants brains!

But the narrative is changing. As the finish-line approaches, McCain is getting a sudden burst of later momentum in New Hampshire, inspired possibly by the fact that he’s stopped apologizing for being the angry-old-man independent voters fell in love with:

A source close to the McCain campaign tells me that online fundraising is up 500 percent this week over the previous weekly average — a reflection of the Arizona Senator’s lift in the polls and some key endorsements he garnered in recent days, such as that of the New Hampshire Union Leader.

“We had the Union Leader, and we had a kick-ass six day trip,” the source says.

In another positive development, the source says there’s been a rise in the number of people calling the campaign to volunteer their services.

All of this is setting up a situation in which nobody comes out of the early primary states as the clear winner; Huckabee wins the culturally conservative enclaves, McCain picks up the moderate states, and Romney wins his father’s old stomping ground of Michigan. Super Tuesday comes with everyone but Fred Thompson having some viable claim of being on top.

Washington Republicans may end up having a part in settling this whole thing. Prepare your votes for Alan Keyes now.

Let Him Take You Dancing: Terry Miller on Bryan Fucking Adams

Perfect From Now On: Megan Seling on the Perfect Record

Croc of Shit: Update on the “Unscrew the Crocodile Employees” Benefit

Who Dealt It?: I’m Up, and That’s Not Hip Hop I Smell

I Believe in You, Your Magic is Free: Jona Bechtolt Gives Away a Bunch of YACHT/the Blow Instrumentals

Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Program: Trent Moorman Talks Big World Breaks

Tonight in Music: Blue Scholars, Wild Orchid Children, Greg Williamson Quartet, and Pase Rock

You’d Prefer a Cosmonaut: TJ Gorton’s Cosmic Jungle Love Mix

Hate Christmas?: How About New Year’s?

Today in Music News: Bob Dylan, R Kelly, Tukwila, and more…

Hate Christmas? : Wait! It Might Not Suck After All

Lumps of Coal: Jeff Kirby on Slipknot, Powerman 5000

Self and the City: Charles Mudede on NASA, London, the City

Band of the Week: Mountain Con

Über-Burger-Mensch: Lupe Fiasco on Nietzsche

The worst-kept secret in Seattle real estate is no longer a secret.

Amazon.com and developers Vulcan Real Estate and Schnitzer West announced this afternoon that the online retailer will move its corporate headquarters to South Lake Union.

The company will consolidate its now-scattered Seattle operations in up to 11 new buildings on six blocks bounded by John Street, Terry Avenue, Mercer Street and Boren Avenue, the companies said in a prepared statement.

Okay, the haiku thing is totally played—with the exception of the P-I’s hilarious terror-kus—but you should vote for Hillku at Capitol Hill Seattle Tourney because 1. their haikus actually manage to be funny and 2. I found this video on their website…

Avenge Slog! Remember the Slogamo! Vote Hillku here.

(Not an actual photo of Seattle’s Boom! Noodle.)

Boom! Noodle, coming soon (not soon enough!) to the corner of 12th and Pike, is not officially spelled with an exclamation mark.

But it wants to be. It name wants to be what the shop inspires—a tiny explosion of hope. Because we are tired of pho. Because the udon and the soba at Hana and Aoki aren’t good enough to inspire us to walk there for lunch. Because we wish Samurai Noodle, and its pork ramen, weren’t all the way in the International District. Because we are hungry for something warm and noodly right the fuck now.

The windows of Boom! Noodle are swaddled in paper, with little rips to tease us. Inside: long tables, dark wood laminate, forest green paint. (It looks like Portland.) Two days ago, one could spy at an assembly of future Boom! Noodlers, sitting at the long tables, listening to a presentation. Yesterday, men on ladders wiped the inside windows. Today, another assembly of Boom! Noodlers sat at the long tables, eating bowlsful of noodles (with slices of tomato?) and taking notes.

You’re torturing us Boom! Noodle. Why don’t you open already?

2007’s grandstanding of the year award goes to the Seattle Times for its “The Democracy Papers” series. The Democracy Papers? Gee, thanks Publius. (I apologize for linking it.)

This is where they take the brave stance of being against media consolidation!!! (BTW: It’s in The Seattle Times interest to kill the FCC’s proposal to ease restrictions on media cross ownership, because the PI’s super rich owner, Hearst, will be able to exploit the changes and dominate the market.)

Anyway, yeah yeah, I’m against the rules changes too. Duh. It’s bad. But this self-righteous pontificating on the issue is grating.

And besides, even if these rules weren’t changed, the media is already consolidated anyway.

How easy is it to grandstand on this issue? Easy. Super Republican Rep. Dave Reichert is taking advantage of this non-controversial freebie even more than the silly Seattle Times. Yesterday, Rep. Reichert (on a bit of a “lefty” run lately ), co-sponsored legislation with Rep. Jay Inslee to counter the FCC’s rules changes.

One of my favorite moments this year was when all the huffing and puffing, self-righteous lefties were treated to Republican Rep. Dave Reichert’s anti-media consolidation speech at last month’s FCC hearing at Town Hall. The room’s “dissident” anger sorta dissipated when they realized Reichert shared their views. (I’ve linked his speech in the jump.)

Continue reading "Reichert Co-Sponsors Anti-Media Consolidation Legislation with Inslee" »

Dear Stevens Pass,

We came up last week, had a great day, love the mountain, love the way you staff the lift lines and keep ‘em moving. But I have a couple of questions.

What the hell happened to your website?

Your new site is impossible to navigate. I know you’re trying to do something cool here, something that “no other resort” is doing, but it is hackin’ retarded. There’s a reason 99% of all ski resort websites look like they do: they’re structured so that you can get the info you want as quickly as possible before you head for the hills and start shredding.

But so much of the info we’re looking for on your website is hidden from view and the paths to find that info are not very intuitive. I swear I sat looking at the site for 15 minutes before I figured out where to click to find the snow report! And you put this big pictures up in the background, often with very light or white colors (snow is white, you know), and then you lay a white font on top of that? Do you know how hard that is to read?

I know you hired some company to do this, and their “designers” raved about it. But Stevens? This site revamp was a bad idea. Last year the only picture prominently displayed on the front page of your site was the web-cam. You know, a picture that actually shows you the conditions on the mountain…

If you’re going to make riders pay extra to go into the park, could you tell us before we get there?

It came as a surprise to me that the $85 I paid to ride with my kid the other day did not cover entry into the terrain park. You made me and my son sit and watch a video, fill out a waiver, pay $5 and wait in line for 15 minutes to get a pass—at the top of the lift!—just so we could jib some rails. That was $10 extra that I wasn’t expecting to pay, and it’s not mentioned anywhere on your lame website. STUPID.

And that video?!? Who put that together? P.J. Walker talking in “dude”-speak? (Sample dialog: “When you see this lame sign, it’s actually cool, even though it’s lame, you know, so, like, check it bro.” Actual quote!)

And it’s great if your going to push helmets—my kid is wearing one this year—but then don’t have the boarders featured in the video talk up helmets and then show the same boarders performing every trick in the video while not wearing helmets.

Oh, and when I asked the checkers at the top of the park why we had to pay $5 extra, they said, “To pay for us to check that you got your pass.” So… you have to pay $5 to get the priveledge of having some shmoe check to see if you’ve paid your $5 extra. Brilliant scheme!

Outside of that, it was a lovely day, and we had a very enjoyable time.

Yours,

Terry Miller

PS. Seriously, fix your website.

UPDATE: Stevens Pass must have been feeling my hate vibes all the way from Seattle. Because in between drafting and posting this item, they made some changes to their website that make the thing much, much easier to navigate. So the website bitching is withdrawn, I guess, and thanks for the changes, Stevens. Now do something about that video.

That’s what Seattle Art Museum may as well be saying to the New York Times today. The Times got interested in SAM’s excellent show Japan Envisions the West: 16th-19th Century Japanese Art from Kobe City Museum, but only to run a story on it in the Antiques column.

Making matters worse, the story, by antiques columnist Wendy Moonan, was edited sloppily (in print, there are references to the “Seattle Museum,” which doesn’t exist, and “Nambam” instead of “Namban” art). Moonan also writes as if she didn’t see the show; SAM’s spokespeople say she contacted them from New York.

What’s a drag about this is that Japan Envisions the West is a rich, layered art experience (my review here) deserving of serious attention. If it’s an “antiques” experience, then so is the Matisse sculpture show Roberta Smith reviewed on the Times’s arts front page today.

Because many of the artworks in Japan Envisions the West are delicate, this exhibition is in fact two shows. Nearly half of it changed over at the beginning of this month, so if you saw it before, it’s worth another visit. Here are a few examples of what’s new.

This is a view of Washington, D.C., unlike any other—based on a fantasy vision of the American capital. It’s a woodblock print by the artist Utagawa Yoshikazu, made in 1861, after the forced opening of Japan with the arrival of American Commodore Matthew Perry. The concept of naturalistic perspective was a European one, and in this triptych it’s applied, but not naturalistically. The discrepancy in scale between the two women in the foreground and the two men in the background in the central panel is collage-like and disordered. These people don’t really exist in this place, they float. The two little men, though, also pull the eye back into the right panel (where the women look like miniature versions of the spires behind them), as if the panels are coalescing into a single, readable landscape. In other places, the three panels feel like different times and places. The architecture itself would make for a great study, with its weird industrial-religious shapes—curator Yukiko Shirahara says the countryside is based on images of Italy from a common source of imagery from that period, the London Illustrated News. The artist is adapting the imagery and calling it an American scene in order to feed the curiosity of the Japanese about their new trading partner.

And what’s with the monochrome? The blue color gives everything a dreamlike quality, not unlike this other woodblock print from the same artist.

In this one, which was on display during the first half of the exhibition, the view is doubly alien. Not only is the color weird, but the title calls the picture Steam Locomotive in an American Town and yet what’s pictured looks like a ship on land. Shirahara says the thicket of figures in the foreground is there to cover up the fact that the artist didn’t know what a train wheel looked like.

These are woodblock prints and sketches for a double portrait of Americans from that same period, of Matthew Perry and Captain Henry A. Adams, by the artist Hasegawa Sadanobu. In the catalog for the show, the portraits are described as “devil like … but they do not inspire fear.” They’re both decorative and action-oriented—Perry has his hand on his gun and his face engaged. Here’s another, similar view of Perry, by an unknown Japanese artist.

Compare those to this pose-y portrait of Perry from exactly the same time by German artist Wilhelm Heine. Which portrait would you prefer if you were the subject?

Finally, there’s one point I have to take issue with in Seattle Times critic Sheila Farr’s oddly piecemeal recent “report card” for SAM. Farr complained that Japan Envisions the West should have been at the more “intimate” Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park, rather than in the white-box galleries at SAM headquarters downtown. I disagree on two grounds: One, the show is too important, quirky, and fascinating to hide away in the park. Unlike Farr, I believe it demonstrates what SAM does best (and not often enough). Two, the show benefits from the blankness of the walls. Lacking a theatrical installation that would make the artworks look immediately exotic, they are instead themselves more enterable. You disappear into their world, not them into yours.

On another point in Farr’s story, I have to agree with her—with a twist. She criticizes SAM for raising its admissions prices, both for special exhibitions and for access to the regular collections. What Farr doesn’t point out in her gripe about standard collections admission is that this charge is suggested only. This is one of SAM’s most admirable policies, and the museum does it out of sheer goodness. (By having a suggested admissions price rather than a fixed fee, SAM is in the minority nationally.) The rates have gone up, but SAM allows people to determine whether they can pay. There’s nothing to criticize there.

What’s not admirable is that admission to special exhibitions is not pay-what-you-can. In order to see those shows—and the rate is rising to $20 for Roman art from the Louvre in 2008—you have to fork over the high asked-for fee.

That’s a violation of the spirit of the suggested policy, and it amounts to cheating. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, often looked to as a model in its suggested-donations policy, applies the policy to all of its shows across the board. That’s how it should be at SAM.

DIY, Portland is a monthly radio show and podcast “highlighting revolutionary do-it-yourself projects,” and this month DIY, Portland highlights DIY sex, a.k.a. self-pleasuring, beating off, passing the time, what Brad does at his desk when he thinks I’ve nodded off at mine, etc. DIY, Portland is usually broadcast on Portland’s community radio station, KBOO, but this month’s installment is too explicit for the airwaves and, as such, is exclusive to the Internets.

And it’s probably too explicit for the air because the producers were foolish enough to interview… me.

Host and producer Julie Sabatier welcomes guests such as syndicated sex advice columnist (and Stranger editor) Dan Savage, who will enlighten listeners about the dangers as well as the ethics of DIY sex, and Portlander Isis Leeor, who will talk about a class she created called “Look Ma, No Hands! How to Orgasm With Your Breath.” Listeners will get the inside scoop on assisted onanism from a protected source in the phone sex industry. The show will also feature music from Leviethan.

You can listen to DIY, Portland here.

Terribly exciting news from the last two weeks:

Lists and awards!: LA Film Critics weighed in last week, and included a passel of special citations; New York Film Critics Circle parried with a stripped-down list. This week: indieWIRE publishes critics’ secret passions (confidential to BM, who’s apparently hurting for municipal scandals: Don’t you think no longer working as a film critic warrants a recusal?); the Screen Actors Guild goes mad for all kinds of boring sap. It’s a sad year when Marion Cotillard’s patchworked slump-and-tremble in La Vie en Rose counts as the frontrunner in lead performances by women. She was all right, but the way that movie was put together, the character had no room to change over time. It was all makeup and posture. As for Angelina Jolie—let’s not even go there.

Out-outsourced!: NPR had a great series last week on Hollywood’s incursions into Bollywood—and vice versa. Turns out Alvin’s chipmunks’ eyeballs—but only their eyeballs—were manufactured in Mumbai.

Tied to the mob!: Paramount exec gets wiretapped.

Censored!: The MPAA doesn’t want you to see this poster:

Opening today:

Dan Savage dismantles Sweeney Todd! (It’s perfectly fine for you horror fans, though.)

I review the excellent The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I’ll have you know in an earlier draft of this piece I compared the movie to Barack Obama. Thank god I restrained myself, but the point I was trying—feebly—to make is that this movie is grave and utterly buoyant at the same time. Even its gimmicks are fascinating.

Here’s my interview with the director, the eccentric Julian Schnabel.

Lindy West destroys National Treasure: Book of Secrets, making delightfully gratuitous use of historical allusions. Oh, Calvin Coolidge.

Speaking of the awesome Lindy West, did you know she has a new column of her very own? It’s called Concessions, and can be found in Film Shorts in the print edition every week. This week: Lindy attends the Northwest Film Forum Holiday Party, where she sees invisible people and out-dreidels the Jews.

Bradley Steinbacher takes on the latest from Francis Ford Coppola: the crazily ambitious Youth Without Youth.

And in On Screen this week: the talky yet boob-littered Charlie Wilson’s War (Andrew Wright: “True to form, the Aaron Sorkin-penned Charlie Wilson’s War features miles upon miles of speech-clogged corridors. Thankfully, the combined efforts of a top-tier cast, an undeniably relevant mid-’80s storyline, and a director who does this type of highbrow stuff better than anyone manage to punch a breezy hole through the ever-present chattering din”), the stupid P.S. I Love You (Lindy West: “Hilary Swank—dead of husband, pointy of spine (‘You make a ravishing widow, sis!’)—is just so, so unappealing as a romantic-comedy lead. She’s annoying. She’s a snooze. And, like I said, she looks like a fucking stegosaurus”), and the good-natured Johnny Cash roast Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Megan Seling: “It’s really, really funny (if you like dick jokes), and it’s still funny even if you love Johnny Cash”).

Limited Runs and Movie Times can be found at Get Out. This week: From Here to Eternity, It’s a Wonderful Life, Bad Santa, Rope, and more. There’s tons of great stuff in theaters this weekend—you’ll be kicking yourself if you don’t go to the movies.

Looking for reviews of Christmas releases like The Savages, The Water Horse, and The Great Debaters? They’ll be up at thestranger.com/film promptly on December 25.

Those damn squirrels—the same ones that bested the Slog in 2006—are currently out polling local blog Hilku in Capitol Hill Seattle’s second annual tournament of Capitol Hillians. Or whatever.

Defeat the squirrels! Click here, and vote Hillku! Avenge Slog! Remember the Slogamo! Once more into the Capitol Hill Seattle Tourney, dear friends, once more!

Thank you.

Longtime Gregoire aide, Lyle Canceko, has left the governor’s office.

Canceko, an extremely loyal and dedicated staffer (a fan), was Gregoire’s community outreach director, doing the important groundwork with policy stakeholders.

Canceko has been replaced by Pearse Edwards, who used to be in Gov. Gary Locke’s communications department, and most recently comes from a stint at Microsoft. Pearse’s job, Communications and External Affairs Director, represents an office reconfiguration where political outreach and communications have been combined.

Canceko, a former theology student who lives in Seattle, is going to work for the liberal Church Council of Greater Seattle.

Full disclosure: Canceko is a casual acquaintance of mine and once lent me a totally weird and cool book about exorcisms.

14th & Pike

After 17 years and six different owners, the vegan Globe Cafe & Bakery will close at the end of the year.

Owner Michael Leaves says he’s tired of dealing with his clientèle. “People are just bitches,” He says. “They’re not willing to wait thirty minutes [for food].”

Leaves says he was married to the Globe’s head chef, who left the restaurant following the break up of their marriage. Because of the loss of his chef, Leaves says the restaurant wasn’t able to keep up with customer demand. “We decided we had to change the menu and the clientèle revolted against us,” he says.

The Globe will now move to Bellingham, but Leaves wouldn’t say when he’d be reopening. “I don’t want Seattle to know where I am,” he says. [The Globe has] been a marvelous thing and it will continue to be. Seattle doesn’t deserve it anymore. Seattle is a wasteland. “

Leaves says an Italian restaurant will be opening in the Globe’s space.

The week begins in the PI. An “article” off the AP Wire about a truck from Canada stopped for smuggling pot concludes with contact information for the US Customs officer on the case, including his cell-phone number. Wait, this isn’t a news article by the AP, this is a press release from US Customs.

A man filed a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority against Burger King for a coffee ad depicting a porcelain cup and saucer, but ol’ have it your way served the coffee in a “horrible” paper cup.

In other idiots, Felipe Francisco Garcia faces child abuse charges for allegedly making a toddler smoke a blunt. He made video of it, just like these assholes, so I can’t imagine any convincing legal defense. He faces up to four well-deserved years in prison.

Also on the topic of drugs and kids, this guy says candy-flavored meth is actually safer than regular meth. But candy-flavored meth turns out to be a candy-flavored myth.

Meanwhile, Romney and Huckabee are facing off over who supported the more draconian meth policy and who will keep those policies good and draconian if they become president. Hmm… 5 years or 10 years for consensual crimes? They both sound so reasonable, considering candy-flavored meth is being marketed to children…

Around the World: In Denver, a former Marine wants his pot plants back. In New York, a couple cops are arraigned for fingering 11 bags of cocaine. In the UK, there’s a performance-enhancement drug scandal, but the drugs are enhancing the brain muscle. I continue to omit the sports juicing news because sports aren’t news. In Kansas, a doc is charged with running a “pill mill” that allegedly contributed to 56 deaths. In Massachusetts, a statewide pot decriminalization measure made the ballot. Cradle of the revolution? And in Holland, cops are miffed because, for the first time ever, they’re banned from using drugs while off duty.

People are wondering: Does this mean Al Gore is going to endorse Barack Obama? And if so, will Gore weigh in before the Iowa caucuses?

That is to say, while Clinton and Obama duke it out, Edwards is going to emerge the winner in Iowa. That’s my current prediction, anyway.

Really, I think Iowa is a contest between Edwards and Clinton—where on-the-ground machinery (Edwards and Clinton) trumps noise and crowds and Oprah (Obama.)

And with Obama suddenly in the high-expectations seat and Clinton in the low-expectations seat, the whole equation has changed about the meaning off Iowa.

Previously, if Clinton didn’t win Iowa it was going to be a big deal story. Well, the breathless press has already vetted that story. Obama’s surge in recent weeks, has ironically, put him in a precarious position if he doesn’t deliver. (This was Clinton’s previous predicament.)

But before you make a speech about athletes and team sports and sexism and masculinity, please read the story. It seems the the football players were the victims.

I totally hate Christmas. It’s really boring, especially because I’m not Christian and everyone else is, so I just have to sit around, maybe clean the apartment a little. Yawn. (Although last year was fun because me and a few friends snuck a bottle of champagne and a bottle of OJ into a showing of Dreamgirls. That movie is great if you are drunk and accompanied by smart, sassy gays fresh off a Paris Is Burning kick.)

Anyhow, whether you love or hate Christmas, now’s the time to start planning for New Year’s. A lot of the funnest parties are going to sell out, so you should buy your tickets now. We have 63 (!) events in our extremely comprehensive listings, plus a list of taxi and towncar services, and the Metro transit spiel for that night so you can get home safe. (Coming at the end of today—a more printable, pocketable, prettier form of that list.)

Here’s a couple of events that look neat:
MoeBar’s Enchantment Under the Sea Dance w/ DJs Paul Devro, Pretty Titty and Fourcolorzack

Science Friction, a gigantic event put on by the Decibel Festival, Shameless, Flight to Mars, SunTzu Sound, Fourthcity and EMC at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West Seattle

(You can’t really read the flyer, but that’s pretty much every good DJ in Seattle. Honestly.)

More details and more events here. Get your plan on!

There’s going to be a ferocious battle this legislative session in Olympia between Sound Transit and backers of governance reform.

Sound Transit is looking to go the ballot while governance reform advocates (Gov. Gregoire among them) want the agency to cool its jets and become a subset of a larger, coordinated transportation agency. Of course, coordinated is short hand for diluted—as in Sound Transit would be part of a giant regional agency where roads (not transit) would be the priority and there would no longer be a dedicated force pushing for light rail.

My take on governance reform is that governance reform is the new Prop. 1—a transit/roads combo platter that seeks consensus to the point of obliterating a pertinent transit project. (And it seems like governance reform advocates aren’t hiding that goal—arguing that light rail should consider stopping at Convention Place, which would fall short of even completing voter-approved Phase 1 to the U. District.)

So, I was glad to see that Sen. Ed Murray, who Gov. Christine Gregoire is counting on to move governance reform legislation (she got him to move RTID+Sound Transit legislation back in 2006), posted this comment over at Seattle Transit Blog in their discussion of governance reform.

I have no current plans to work on a regional proposal. No one has shown much interest. I support ST going to the ballot this fall should they make that decision and will oppose any efforts in the legislature to prevent them. My interest in regional issues remains one of planning. We fail to look at the best way to move people and focus on road corridors vs light rail corridors. That is not how you get to an integrated transportation system.

Regards,
Ed Murray

December 19, 2007 4:27 PM

Despite Murray’s surprising statement (last time I talked to him about ST, he was hot on governance reform), my sense is that governance reform will have momentum in the legislature.

Before Sound Transit goes on the defensive they should go to work with the philosophy that the best defense is a serious offense and put light rail on the ballot now.

Ok, yes, 13 Days: Commenters have been questioning my ability to count the days until the Iowa caucuses. Look, depending on whether you count today it’s either 13 days or 14 days until the caucuses. But the New York Times says 13 days, so I will change my today-counting ways.

Moving on: Giuliani feels fine, but won’t say exactly what was ailing him.

Facts are stubborn things: And yet Mitt Romney has consistent trouble with them.

Woman on the cross: Noonan finds Huckabee’s Christmas commercial “so sweet-appalling.”

Ludicrous: Condoleezza Rice comes up with a different way to describe Huckabee.

Under orders: No one in camp Clinton is allowed to predict an Iowa win.

Leak free: The Obama campaign.

How to rig an election: From a guy who should know.

Desperate times: When is a catalog of attacks really an attack?

Bill on Hill: In New Hampshire.

Conservative cameo: For an unhappy Obama.

The looming nine-month general: Which causes Ben Smith to ask a good question.

And a long one, with lots of banjo action:

“Science is the practice of obscuring, then rediscovering, what we already know.” —Unattributed

Some claim drinking eight glasses of water a day leads to good health, while reading in dim light damages eyesight. Others believe we only use 10% of our brains or that shaving legs causes hair to grow back thicker.

But a review of evidence by US researchers surrounding seven commonly-hold beliefs suggests they are actually “medical myths”.

Studies suggest that adequate fluid intake is often met by drinking juice, milk, and even caffeine-rich tea and coffee.

And the belief that hair and fingernails continue to grow after death may be an optical illusion caused by retraction of the skin after death.

The belief that we only use 10% of our brains appears to be completely untrue.

The stubble resulting from shaving grows out without the finer taper seen at the ends of unshaven hair, giving the impression of thickness and coarseness.

And so on.

(Via the BBC.)

So, who did the supermajority Democrats appoint to head up the state House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee—the committee that’s central to drafting state environmental policies that affect water, watershed planning, timber, mining, and fish and wildlife?

Answer, an environmental conservative from logging country, of course. The new chair is Rep. Brian Blake (D-19, Aberdeen) who gets a C from the local Sierra club’s Cascade chapter. Blake voted, for example, against a bill to up biodiesel use.

“Brian Blake, in the past, has not had environmental issues as a priority and he has been hard to convince,” Clifford Traisman, state lobbyist for Washington Conservation Voters, says diplomatically.

Blake is replacing Brian Sullivan (D-21, Mukilteo) who’s leaving the legislature for a spot on the Snohomish County Council. Sullivan rated an A+ from the Sierra Club.

Silver-Lining UPDATE
Brand new Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34)—appointed to fill now-state-Senator Joe McDermott’s seat—was assigned to Ag & Natural Resources. Nelson, an environmental warrior who was appointed by her district based on her record of fighting to save Maury Island from strip mining, will be a pain in Blake’s ass.

I’ve linked all the committee reassignments for the 2008 House Democrats below the jump.

Continue reading "The Supermajority Democrats Strike Again" »

Local Hiphop

Blue Scholars, Dyme Def, J.Pinder, Jake One at Neumo’s

• See what else is happening in Music on Friday »
• More Stranger Suggests for this week »

What is right with Africa:

What is wrong with Africa:

From IndieWIRE:

A total of 106 leading North American film critics participated in the second indieWIRE Critics’ Poll, surveying the best in film for 2007. Voting was conducted in nine categories during the first half of December. (Details on how the scores were tabulated are available at the end of this page.)

Best Documentary

1 No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson

2 Into Great Silence, Philip Groning

3 The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Seth Gordon
Lake of Fire, Tony Kaye

5 Manda Bala, Jason Kohn

6 Terror’s Advocate, Barbet Schroeder
Zoo, Robinson Devor

Eat dust, haters.

_{Photo: Alex Berezow}

Tomorrow will be the shortest day of the year for those of us in the northern hemisphere. In Seattle, there will be a mere 8.5 hours between sunrise and sunset.

But first: Mitt Romney, finding himself in hole of his own making, keeps rimming—excuse me, digging:

Now I’d like to clarify my comments about Brad Pitt’s ass.

Brad Pitt and I were not in the same city on the date that we fucked, but we have both fucked, in various cities all over the world, and on various dates, so figuratively, Brad Pitt and I have definitely fucked. Repeatedly. I was the top. And I was aware of, in the sense I’ve described, fucking Brad Pitt’s ass. I saw my dick go into Brad Pitt’s ass. I did not see my dick go into Brad Pitt’s ass with my own eyes. But I saw it in the sense of being aware of my participation in that great effort.

Thank you and I hope that I can count on your support January 3.

In other marched-with-Martin news, thirty years ago Mitt Romney not only claimed that his father marched with Martin, but that he marched with Martin too.

Mitt Romney went a step further in a 1978 interview with the Boston Herald. Talking about the Mormon Church and racial discrimination, he said: “My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit.”

Yesterday, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom acknowledged that was not true. “Mitt Romney did not march with Martin Luther King,” he said in an e-mail statement to the Globe.

Via Sullivan.

Holiday Hell: At least 50 dead after a suicide bomber set himself off in a northwestern Pakistan mosque during the “Festival of Sacrifice” holiday.

Thwarted: Police in Brussels have arrested 14 Islamic extremists accused of plotting to free an Al Qaeda sympathizer from prison.

No Recession: President Bush is keeping his chin up about the U.S. economy.

Forget the Bridge to Nowhere: Republican Alaska reps want to build a “Ferry to Nowhere.”

Whistle-Blowing: Former C.I.A. operative spills the beans on waterboarding, is now under investigation.

The Katrina Effect: Plans to tear down four New Orleans public housing structures lead to a protests, pepper spray.

Fundie Rants Begin In 3…2…1…: Bill S.2521, which would “equalize employment benefits for same-sex domestic partners of federal employees,” has been introduced to the Senate.

Prohibition: Iraqi insurgents are turning their bombs on alcohol merchants.

Dubious Honor: The Transportation Security Administration is now liked less than the I.R.S.

Port of Squander: A state audit reveals close to $100 million in public funds have been wasted by the Port of Seattle.

In Completely Unsurprising News: Washington State’s strong economy is making gridlock worse.

Blue Needs You: Seattle City Council has approved a $5,000 signing bonus for new police recruits.

That’ll Teach ‘Em: The Washington State Surpreme Court has ruled judges have the right to throw repeat runaways in jail.

No Tunnel For You!: Tests will now keep the downtown bus tunnel closed until Monday.

Making Waves: The country’s first wave-power program has been approved for Makah Bay, just off of the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula.

It’s not just for the Bush Administration anymore: Lakota Indians declare independence from the United States, withdraw from all treaties, and announce their intention to take chunks of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming with ‘em.

The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free - provided residents renounce their U.S. citizenship, Mr Means said.

The treaties signed with the U.S. were merely “worthless words on worthless paper,” the Lakota freedom activists said.

Hey, guys: You can have Idaho too—but you gotta take Larry Craig.

A gay Iranian teenager whose asylum claim was denied in the UK fled to the Netherlands, and then to Germany. The Germans returned him to the Dutch, who are now threatening to return him to the Brits, who have already decided to return the gay teenager to Iran.

And you know what they do to gay teenagers in Iran, right?

The UK would be sending this kid to his death if they send him back to Iran, which means the Dutch will be sending this kid to his death if they send him back to the UK. The teenager, a 19 year-old named Mehdi, has asked a Dutch court not to send him back to the UK. A decision is expected in early 2008.

Some more news from the 2008 Federal Budget: Sound Transit secured almost $90 million to finish the existing light rail construction and extend service to Cap Hill and the U District.

The best tidbit from the press release:

The project connects the three largest urban centers in the region: downtown Seattle, Capitol Hill and the University District. It will offer much faster travel times for transit passengers than buses. Light rail will carry passengers from downtown to the University in 9 minutes instead of 25 and to Capitol Hill in 6 minutes instead of 14. Trips between Capitol Hill and the University District will take 3 minutes instead of 22. Riders will also enjoy reliable service no matter how bad the weather or traffic congestion.

Capitol Hill to the U District in three minutes. Three. Fucking. Minutes. I can’t make a right turn onto E. Roy from Summit in that amount of time, at most times of day. Even a jet pack wouldn’t be that fast.

How? The link between the Hill and the U district will be entirely underground—grade separation works.

Thanks Seattle Transit Blog.

The Same Question He Asks Everyone: Christopher Frizzelle and a bartender talk about the presidential race.

Freak Out, Far Out: If Dan Paulus had his way, the Moondoggies would sound and look like this.

Season of Giving: Chop Suey will host a benefit show for the Crocodile’s former employees featuring the Pleasureboaters, Peter Parker, Triumph of Lethargy, Damien Jurado, and more.

Love is the Message: TJ Gorton on NY deejay Danny Krivit.

And What “Love is the Message Inspired”: Nick Scholl takes you to vogue school.

Music News: Featuring the Eagles, James Brown, Lou Reed, Stephen Stills, and uh… Kenny G.

Without the Help of Google: Can you guess the mystery singer?

Flickr Photo of the Day: R.I.P. the Crocodile’s pretty stained glass windows.

Jeff Kirby Partied With Kid Sister: But he had no idea who the friend of Kanye’s was at the time.

The Program, Mix 3: Charles Mudede and Brian Geoghagan’s final installment of sounds from the Program.

Remy Ma: Someone’s trying to “undermine her name and character” via YouTube.

Kanye Opens His Mouth: And makes very little sense.

Silly Rabbit: Declined hiphop slogans.

Last Minute Gift Idea: A mixed tape USB and paper boom box.

This turtle is ready for Christmas!

My new boyfriend and I just spent a romantic Friday making love and performing all kinds of love acts. However, about 10 hours after our fabulous day of lovemaking, he developed a rash. He has asked me in a very kind way, whether I thought I had any skin issues or VDs, but as far as I know I’m disease-free. I haven’t even slept with anyone in at least 7 months. This looks a bit to me like a moisture-related folliculitis issue to me. Do you have any ideas? This could put a huge damper on this fabulous new relationship I’m in and I’m very worried that he may have trust issues after this if I’m to blame. Please help!

Back East

BE here was kind enough to enclose a photograph of her boyfriend’s rash for me—it’s right up there at the top of the post. That picture? Did you notice it? Scroll back up, if you missed it, and take another look. Or click here for a bigger version. I’ll wait.

Back?

Okay, a lot of people think my sex-advice gig is an easy-peasy stroll in through a park full of pervs. But there are risks, people, occupational hazards. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been innocently reading through the ol’ email and—bam!—up pops a picture like the one above. I opened this email from Back East—click here for a hi-rez version of the photo she enclosed!—while I was eating my lunch. I nearly choked to death on my spring roll. I should be getting combat pay here.

Most people that send me pictures of the sores on their cocks, labia, sacks, and assholes me they’re “too embarrassed” to see a doctor, but they’re not too embarrassed to take a picture and email it to me. Since I’m not a doctor, and can’t proscribe anti-crotch-rot-otics through the column, the folks that send me pictures like this still have to go to the doctor. By writing me they’ve just delayed an inevitable doctor’s visit and, in most cases, allowed symptoms to worsen.

But I don’t think Back East’s boyfriend has an STI. There are no STIs that I’m aware of with a 10 hour exposure-to-breakout turnaround time. And those don’t look like any syphilis sores or scabies’ bites or anything else I’ve ever seen on YouTube. What it looks like is a weird allergic reaction, as Back East suggests. But if Back East’s boyfriend is concerned—and wouldn’t you be if this happened to you?—he should GO SEE A DOCTOR, not send pictures like this one to me.