With oil prices spiking again—I say from both real increases in global demand and speculation piggybacking on the market conditions, you may disagree—and global energy supplies at some of the tightest margins ever, is it any surprise that…

Nuclear power, long reviled as a dangerous source of energy, is on the verge of a comeback. That’s because a growing body of scientists, politicians and environmental activists see atomic energy as part of the solution for global warming and our ever-growing dependence on foreign oil, much of it from nations that, if not downright hostile toward us, certainly don’t share our values.

Well, what of nuclear power? On the Dear Science blog, I’ve just completed a six post series on nuclear power, covering…

…the physics behind nuclear power:

Every nuclear power plant in operation today works by capturing the energy release when a really unhappy large nucleus breaks up into two smaller and more successful get-togethers–atomic fissioning. When these cranky huge parties break up, a few neutrons typically get flung out at high speeds–think of these as a few type-B’s from the party screaming away in tears. If these neutrons hit another large nucleus, teetering towards breaking up already, they can smash the party to pieces, sending yet more neutrons out.

So, you can imagine a game where you place enough of these large nuclei next to one another, such that the neutrons from one breaking up shortly cause a neighboring large nucleus to break up, sending more neutrons out to break up more nuclei… creating a chain reaction.

… how almost all current nuclear power reactors work…

The goal? A controlled fissioning of large nuclei. You’ll need fuel, moderation, coolant, and some control…

Hey, something nifty! Water is both a good coolant and moderator! No moderator, no chain reaction, right? So, if you use water as your coolant and moderator, your reactor has an intrinsic safety feature. If you lose coolant, you lose moderation and the chain reaction stops. We all live! Thus, almost all nuclear reactors in operation today use water as a coolant and moderator.

… radiation…

Alpha particles, the cannon balls, can be stopped by a single sheet of paper. Smash! Likewise, the dead outer layer of skin does a damn good job of protecting your living cells from alpha particles. Beta particles, the bullets, go right through paper. A thin sheet of aluminum, or something of similar density and substance, will gobble these up.

Gamma radiation is trickier. Gamma radiation is just a freakishly high energy version of light, with almost no substance. Just like light can pass right through your hand, gamma radiation can pass through all but the heaviest and densest of metals, wreaking havoc deep into the body.

… nuclear waste …

When we loaded our reactor, the fuel was chemically fairly pure. Recall, however, that nuclear decay typically results in new chemicals being created–whether by alpha or beta decay or by fissioning. As our reactor operates, these new atoms build up. Most are radioactive themselves, also undergoing various decays. Most of these atoms are neutron hoarders–gleefully absorbing our precious neutrons, while offering up few when they themselves decay. So, as these new atoms build up, we lose more and more neutrons. Eventually there are too few free neutrons left to keep the chain reaction going, even if we completely remove the control rods. Such fuel, still containing a bunch of Uranium but now contaminated various highly radioactive but non-chain reacting atoms, is called spent. It’s hideously radioactive, more radioactive than when we put the fuel in the reactor, but useless as fuel.

Welcome to the trickiest problem of nuclear power, the waste. What can we do?

… the two most famous disasters at nuclear power plants …

I’d like to imagine the following exchange, between a middle manager in the Soviet Union and us, some plucky nuclear engineers, when planning these plants:

Middle manager: “You have my plant design?”
Us: “Yes, but it is incredibly dangerous!”
MM: “But it will work without any Plutonium, enriched Uranium or heavy water?”
Us: “Yes. In fact, it produces Plutonium as a waste product!”
MM: (Claps hands) “Excellent. We shall have such nice dachas when I tell everyone of this plan.”
Us: “It is far to dangerous to build. I refuse to do it!”
MM: (Laughs. Then pauses.) “Oh. You’re serious.”
MM: (Considers his boss, probably some one-eyed, one-armed veteran of Zhukov’s Berlin campaign in the Great Patriotic War, who won’t be sympathetic to concerns about hoards of irradiated civilians after asking why his reactor isn’t operating yet.)
MM: (Points to us.) “Guards, shoot this man.”
Us: (Shot in the head)
MM: (Turns to our assistant) “So, ready to build the reactors?”
Assistant: “Let’s just pick some places in Ukraine, Romania and other shitholes to build ‘em, yes?”

… and finally what future reactor designs will be like.

The designs are, individually, brilliant. The lead-cooled variant is designed to be modular. The reactor is small, easily installed and removed and works for about fifteen to twenty years without having to be opened or refueled. Perfect for countries or remote areas with no interest in or infrastructure for refining nuclear fuels. The gas-cooled variant can operate safely at huge temperatures and is incredibly efficient at minimizing waste products in a relatively simple manner. The sodium-cooled design is the dreamiest to me. Such a reactor complex could not only operate at tremendous efficiencies, but also eat up the waste of the older pressurized water reactors. Keen!

2030 is too far away. If we were smart, we would throw resources at these fourth generation technologies, pushing to have the pilot reactors and designs finalized within ten years. None of these are perfect. No source of power is without risk or environmental injury. None. Our planet hosts nearly seven billion people. Fossil fuel reserves are dwindling. The atmosphere and oceans are buckling under the carbon strain. Nuclear power, particularly responsibly applied with standardized plant designs and a real plan for dealing with the waste, remains our best hope. The physics and technology is available. We just need to do it. Now.

It’s time we talked about nukes. For most, the opinions run deeper than knowledge. Read my series, or pick up a good book on the subject. Educate yourself. Get an informed opinion and then go out and win some arguments.

I’m hoping to get video of the whole thing soon, because in many ways the clip below was the least interesting part of Clinton’s speech. (The most interesting parts, in my opinion? See here.) I’ll update with video of the full speech when it comes… UPDATE: And lo, the full speech comes. I’ve swapped it in to replace the earlier excerpt:

Hiphop

Good Medicine at Vera Project

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

Saw Jar City last night: two thumbs up! An entertaining, chilling, slightly magical police procedural. Made me want to move to Iceland.

But what I want to talk about is the poorly punctuated subtitles. There’s nothing more distracting in a film. I was repeatedly ripped out of the thriller’s grip by ellipses with two dots rather than three and misplaced quotation marks. Maybe it’s an affliction of a former copyeditor; maybe it didn’t bother any one else.

What was most galling was the akward typo in the final frame’s giant caption: “English sub—titles by [Name Withheld].” Jeeezus. Awful proud of mediocrity. Proofreaders aren’t that expensive.

(“Subtitles” should be closed up or hyphenated, not interrupted by an emdash. That was obvious, right?)

You saved Latvia from the wicked forces of International Sodomy once before, Rev. Hutcherson, and it looks like Latvia needs your help again! This time its not the U.S. Embassy that’s advancing the Homosexual Agenda but the British Embassy. Via Slog tipper Tiffany comes this shocking story…

British Embassy Flies the Rainbow Flag

The British embassy in Riga, Latvia made history over the weekend when it flew the rainbow flag to mark the city’s Pride and Friendship days.

It’s thought that ambassador Richard Moon’s decision makes it the first time a rainbow flag has been officially flown at a British embassy anywhere in the world.

Moon professed the government’s devotion to LGBT rights as he raised the flag, saying: “The British Government totally supports LGBT rights in Europe and throughout the world. And this support is 24/7, 365 days a year—and not just for Pride.”

To the Batshitcrazymobile, Rev. Hutcherson! Latvia needs you! There’s not a moment to lose!

From the NYT:

Military engineers defused a giant bomb from World War II that was discovered in East London during construction for the 2012 Summer Olympics, a military spokesman said. The 2,200-pound bomb… started to tick at one point while being defused by a team of Royal Engineers from the British Army. Thousands of bombs fell on East London during World War II.

It strikes me as odd that this necessarily short “World Briefing” item avoids mentioning just who it was that dropped all those bombs on East London during WWII. Those bombs decide on their own to fall all over East London.

I just read Eli’s post about Hillary’s concession speech this morning. I knew it was coming, and I’ve never felt like a Hillary loyalist.

And yet, I’ve got a lump in my throat. A lump. When is the next woman coming up? What have we lost here?

^{Sherry Markovitz’s Gone (2007), gouache on silk, 44 1/2 by 47 1/2 inches}

At Greg Kucera Gallery. (Gallery site here.)

We have an open mic, a book about a painter, and a thriller about fighting terrorists today, as well as a few other readings of interest.

There are two readings at Elliott Bay Book Company: Jenny Block, who the press notes describes as a “a suburban wife and mother,” reads from her new book Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage. We might be running a review of this one in upcoming weeks. Here’s a question: Do people still have key parties? I never found one in two and a half years of Party Crashing, so perhaps the time has come and gone.

Seth Kantner reads later that evening at Elliott Bay. Kantner wrote a novel called Ordinary Wolves that was really very popular in the Northwest. I didn’t read it, because I have a job and can’t read everything. But Kantner is back with Shopping for Porcupine, which is a collection of essays and photographs. The buzz for this one was pretty high at Book Expo America; people were excited to read it, and I am, too.

Also, at Neumo’s from 9 am to 5 pm, Wizards of the Coast will be celebrating Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day, marking the release of the new fourth edition with sample D&D games. I’m going to go at some point today (most definitely not in the morning), and if you’re not going, I’ll let you know how it went. I wrote about the new edition of D&D in this week’s Constant Reader:

…this month, D&D is releasing a brand-new fourth edition intended to fight the online competitors by cleaning up a lot of the rules—it now takes a matter of minutes to create a new character, rather than a few hours—and D&D itself now has an online component.

Lastly, up at 826 Seattle, a class on comics by young people is having a release party for their book, titled Happiness? I know that David Lasky, who was on The Stranger’s Genius shortlist last year, is a teacher of the class, and I know that comics by young people are almost always fascinating. The art above is from one of the stories from the book. The publicist at 826 also says that there will be cupcakes, and “milk in fancy glasses.” You won’t be getting that at the open marriage reading.

Check the full readings calendar for more information.

It’s the penultimate weekend at SIFF, and boy are my typing fingers tired.

In the morning slot: We haven’t had a chance to review either of them, but the Phillipe Petit doc Man on Wire (11 am at the Egyptian) and and the melancholy Irish drama Garage (11 am at the Uptown) both seem promising.

Next is your last chance to see Be Like Others (1:30 pm at the Egyptian), a fascinating documentary about the contrast between the ways Iran treats its gay and trangendered citizens—and whether that differential treatment might push some young men to make rather hasty decisions. Seriously, don’t miss it—it doesn’t have distribution and may not be back.

Then, we like two more docs: Derek (4:30 pm at the Harvard Exit), about the experimental filmmaker Derek Jarman, and About Water (4:30 pm at Pacific Place).

The evening slot gives you another shot at Otto, or, Up With Dead People, which has to be the best titled film at the festival. And Charles Mudede liked the movie about “four grannies who decide to sell lingerie in a small Swiss town”! It’s called Late Bloomers (6:30 pm at Uptown).

Also somewhat unexpected: In the late evening slot, the time-travel movie is actually pretty good: We recommend both Timecrimes (9:30 pm at Pacific Place) and Lars von Trier’s semiautobiographical Erik Nietzsche: The Early Years (9 pm at Uptown).

The midnight movie tonight is Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django (12 am at the Egyptian). It’s okay.

Good morning. Anyone awake out there in Slogland? I wish I wasn’t, but here we are, a few minutes away from Clinton’s speech…

8:55 a.m. My preferred livestream is here, and while we wait I’m reading about how, “Now that a would-be first female president is ending her quest for the White House, the race is more about women than ever before.”

9:12 a.m. Why hello, all of you. Looks like we have a crowd. Clinton was supposed to speak at 9 a.m. PST but these things never start on time. I’ve now moved on to reading, while I wait, about why her loss was her own damn fault.

9:29 a.m. Still waiting… Predictions on who will introduce her? Terry McAuliffe again? (He introduced her at her last valedictory speech as “the next president of the United States.”) Or maybe Bill Clinton? Or Chelsea? Or—and this would be a huge surprise—Obama?

9:35 a.m. As someone in the comments just noted, Clinton’s web site is now asking visitors to “support Senator Obama today.”

9:38 a.m. Commenter Kathryn Rathke writes:

I am picturing her clinging to the door jambs with her fingernails. Where are they anyway, somewhere in Italy?

Yes, it is very Roman colosseum in there, isn’t it? The event is at the National Building Museum in D.C.

9:40 a.m. And here we go. Bill, Chelsea, Hillary, and Hillary’s mother, Dorothy Rodham, have just been introduced by an announcer and are headed toward the stage.

9:43 a.m. The four of them take the stage and join hands, but instead of raising their joined hands together in the traditional victory salute, they keep them at their sides. Then Bill, Chelsea, and Dorothy leave the stage.

Hillary:

Well, this isn’t exactly the party I’d planned but I still like the company.

9:47 a.m. Clinton begins by praising her supporters and promising: “I will continue to stand strong with you, every way and every place that I can.” She also notes, again, that there are 18 million of them.

9:50 a.m. “The way to continue our fight now… is to do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States.” She is suspending her campaign, endorsing Obama, and throwing her full support behind him.

9:53 a.m. She doesn’t look happy about it, but she is praising Obama at some length here, repeating his name and reminding her crowd that the Democratic party is a family that needs to come together now.

9:55 a.m. As she ticks off the list of issues that are important to her, the first is healthcare—and she again mentions her hope for universal healthcare, which she had tried to make a point of contrast with Obama during the primaries.

9:58 a.m. Echoing Obama’s speech on Tuesday—in which he said something like, “America, this is our moment”—Clinton says: “We cannot let this moment slip away.”

And then, the most quotable line so far: “Today I am standing with Senator Obama to say, ‘Yes we can.’”

10:00 a.m. It’s really striking: Clinton only has an easy smile when she’s talking about her campaign and what it accomplished (at the moment she’s saying that she proved a woman could be elected Commander in Chief). When she talks about Obama, it’s far from all smiles. Her mouth is saying one thing, her face is saying another.

10:05 a.m. Clinton talks about running as a woman. This is, to me, the most interesting and most powerful part of her speech. She never talked about this on the campaign trail, saying only that she wasn’t running as a woman, but as a candidate for president who happened to be a woman.

But now it’s very clear just how strongly she felt about her barrier-breaking candidacy. She talks for a long time about this—maybe the longest amount of time she devoted to any subject in this speech—concluding with:

Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest and hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it’s got about 18 million cracks in it and the light is shining through like never before.

10:15 a.m. Also:

It would break my heart if in falling short of my goal I in any discouraged any of you from pursuing your goals.

And:

Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward. Life is too short, time is too precious and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been.

10:16 a.m. It ends with Clinton on the stage, briefly, giving a double thumbs up and waving, standing with Bill and Chelsea, and then exiting and reaching out to shake the hands—overwhelmingly female from what I can see on the livestream—that are waiting to bid her farewell and good luck.

10:24 a.m. Final thoughts: A long, gracious, and ultimately quite moving speech, obviously very difficult for her to give but probably as helpful to her battered image as to Obama’s campaign. Clinton needed to connect, without equivocation, with the electoral reality that most Democrats now perceive. She did that, repeatedly throwing her support behind Obama and setting herself up to move toward the Ted Kennedy model—lose a nomination fight but move on, get back to work, and win the undying loyalty of several core Democratic constituencies (the ones she plugged repeatedly were women, gays, and lower income voters from what I remember) by proving that you’re ultimately in it for them and not for yourself.

I was also struck by how powerful it was to see Clinton finally speak honestly of her feelings about running as a woman. She couldn’t—or felt she couldn’t—do this on the campaign trail. I was glad to see her do it today. It’s a paradox that requires a little more digesting, at least for me, but Clinton seemed so much more free to speak passionately as a woman, and talk forcefully about the barriers women still face, now that she isn’t running to be the first woman president.

I don’t know who freed up this side of her—her consultants? herself?—but it was great to watch this part of Clinton come out into the open. This is obviously such a huge part of who she is, such a central aspect of her passion for politics, and it’s a shame it couldn’t be seen more clearly before today.

If she can’t be president, Clinton seemed to be saying, she will still be one of the loudest voices speaking on behalf of gender equality. It was good to hear. It’s a voice that, as she knows, America still needs.

posted by news intern Chris Kissel

Bad day: News of unemployment, oil prices sends stock market reeling.

Peacing out: Hillary prepares to leave the race.

Chipping in: Parties reap money candidates don’t want.

Talking shit: Medvedev blames ‘economic egoism’ for American troubles.

Talking shit, Part 2: Israel would attack Iran if they have nukes, deputy prime minister says.

Car bombing: Six dead in Iraq.

Sonics case: Pechman will rule on motions on Monday.

Weapons ban: Nickels possibly planning ban at festivals after Folklife shooting.

Flavored Cigarettes Are Hillary and Menthols Are Obama: Officials irked that menthols get a pass.

Jacked Up: Fifty dollar cups of coffee.

Set Up: Sexy Teacher framed in pot bust.

Let Up: Teachers miffed about drug searches.

Fed Up: Pot potency claims unfounded.

Winning the War on Drugs: In Los Angeles.

Winning the War on Drugs: In Gaza.

County Line: Mendocino restricts pot growing.

Last Meal: Jail guard accused of smuggling drugs in tacos and chili.

Last Trip: Rock poster icon Alton Kelly is gratefully dead.

This is a bit of a “don’t know much about economics” moment for John McCain, and I can’t believe no one has Slogged it yet.

This morning, the New York Times reported on a curious contradiction in McCain’s and his advisor’s statements regarding the legality of warrantless wiretapping.

In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. McCain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance.

Mr. McCain believes that “neither the administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the A.C.L.U. and trial lawyers, understand were constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin wrote.

And if Mr. McCain is elected president, Mr. Holtz-Eakin added, he would do everything he could to prevent terrorist attacks, “including asking the telecoms for appropriate assistance to collect intelligence against foreign threats to the United States as authorized by Article II of the Constitution.”

McCain: pro warrantless wiretaps! and telecom immunity!

But wait a minute…

In an interview about his views on the limits of executive power with The Boston Globe six months ago, Mr. McCain strongly suggested that if he became the next commander in chief, he would consider himself obligated to obey a statute restricting what he did in national security matters.

Mr. McCain was asked whether he believed that the president had constitutional power to conduct surveillance on American soil for national security purposes without a warrant, regardless of federal statutes.

He replied: “There are some areas where the statutes don’t apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do apply, however, I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is.”

Following up, the interviewer asked whether Mr. McCain was saying a statute trumped a president’s powers as commander in chief when it came to a surveillance law. “I don’t think the president has the right to disobey any law,” Mr. McCain replied.

Confusing! McCain has now weighed in on the matter, and his statement is—I am not kidding—“It’s ambiguous as to whether the president acted within his authority or not.” Way to show leadership, dude. And way to scare the pants off anyone who cares about civil liberties and the separation of powers.

The last event of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign will take place tomorrow in Washington, D.C., and I’ll be here on Slog to watch it with you.

The event begins at 9 a.m. PST and will be livestreamed on Clinton’s web site. When she gets up to speak to her supporters, she’s expected to announce that she’s ending—or suspending—her candidacy. She’s also expected to endorse Barack Obama.

But you never know. So if you’re awake at 9 a.m. tomorrow, pull your laptop into bed with you and watch the Clinton speech with me. And then we can all go get brunch.

Posted by news intern Chris Kissel

The Central District News blog (one of the newer and definitely one of the better neighborhood blogs around) reports today that the CD’s free WiFi service is going to be decommissioned by the end of the month. Matt Towers, who uses his own technology to beam his internet service across the neighborhood, is going to be moving out of town.

Towers says on his website that he set up the service because “my inner idealist thought this was a worthy cause.”

Free wireless not only has a unifying effect on low-income communities, which Towers said he’s seen, but it also allows users to have access to vital information. Kids don’t have to walk to the library to do their homework, residents have better access to job opportunities, and all it takes is one person with the means to broadcast their signal.

Cities like San Francisco and Philadelphia have taken shots at providing free wireless for their residents, all of which have ended in resounding failure. The City of Seattle is working on laying down cable and services to smaller enclaves, like the Columbia City neighborhood, but doesn’t have any plans to provide more widespread service. The best option, analysts have decided, is to let private individuals or companies take care of the providing the service.

Which is why somebody should step in soon to take Towers’ place. A few dollars spent on securing a network for the neighborhood would be a good idea on the part of a small company, and doesn’t seem like it would take much.

In regular movie openings this week…

OMG. Remember Windshield Wanda? Here’s her first appearance in Last Days, under her nom-de-real-life Chante Mallard. Now there’s a movie based on this mind-blowingly awful story, and it’s a horror-comedy. Starring Mena Suvari. You must see Stuck as soon as possible. Here’s my review.

We also have reviews of SIFF alum Kung Fu Panda (Andrew Wright: “The story’s cookie-cutter predictability may keep things from ever quite reaching Pixar’s rarified air, but there’s the gratifying sense throughout that the makers have finally stumbled across an amiable formula that might actually be worth cultivating. Until, that is, a gawdawful hiphop remix of ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ blares out over the end credits) and the Adam Sandler vehicle You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (Lindy West: “Negligible, mediocre, unrepentantly ordinary”).

Lindy also previews the Seattle True Independent Film Festival in Concessions this week. Movie times for the first week of the festival can be found at our Movie Times page.

And Charles Mudede profiles local filmmaker Zia Mohajerjasbi, who has a short film in STIFF.

Limited runs to look out for include the entire Dennis Nyback series at the Grand Illusion, repeat tribute screenings to Yves Saint Laurent tonight at Northwest Film Forum (on his life and atelier), and Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, also at Northwest Film Forum.

From time to time, some of our dear commentors crawl up my nose for hating on Young Frankenstein.

Like you, Mr. Poe, and you, adam_on_alki, who once wrote:

OK, Brendan, seriously, you are a major cunt. I usually like you and your writing and opinions, but you never gave “Young Frankenstein” a chance and you are now totally shitting all over it. Fuck you douche-bag. That was one of if not THE greatest performances I have ever seen live.

It is in a spirit of unfettered gloating and nastiness that I post about Young Frankenstein’s serious financial difficulty.

From the NY Post:

LIKE CEOs in the troubled airline industry, “Young Frankenstein” creator Mel Brooks and producer Robert F. X. Sillerman have embarked on a cost-cutting rampage in a desperate effort to keep their Spruce Goose of a show aloft.

Sutton Foster (Inga) and Megan Mullally (Elizabeth) are both leaving the show in July. They’ll likely be replaced by nonentities who, if they’re lucky, will get paid slightly more than the kid who mans the infrared hearing stand at the Hilton. Producers not involved in “Young Frankenstein” call the drastic salary cuts unprecedented.

“I’ve never heard of trying to get your stars to renew their contract by offering them half their salary,” one says. “It’s innovative. But everything they’ve done on this show is innovative.”

Yeah. Like the $450 ticket.

The Seattle King County Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) is hosting banquets in June and October featuring each major-party gubernatorial candidate.

Dino Rossi, the Republican candidate, will be speaking in June at the Washington Athletic Club

Christine Gregoire, the Democratic governor, will be speaking in October… at the Washington State Convention Center.

Gee, I wonder which candidate BOMA thinks is a bigger draw?

We’ve recently added reviews of…

The Great Buck Howard (me: “The film is as inoffensive and even-keeled as its protagonist, and the only thing you’re likely to remember a week later is the single character indulgence John Malkovich allows himself: a wild handshake that rolls like an earthquake and lasts so long you’d think aftershocks were involved”).

Hidden Face (Charles Mudede: “The movie is in fact a propaganda film for Alcoholic Anonymous”).

Choke (Paul Constant: “It’s certainly no Fight Club”).

Chrysalis (Bradley Steinbacher: “Director Julien Leclercq (Transit) has obviously spent a lot of time watching Hollywood thrillers—and he has the clichés to prove it—but outside of some pounding action and a handful of interesting ideas, the result is an over-stylized and noisy mess”).

Letting Go of God (Jen Graves: “The stage monologue is filmed and performed so smoothly that the live and movie audiences feel united by the end, but more importantly, some of Julia Sweeney’s insights reach the heights of the paragon of the form, the great, questing, poetic, one-woman vehicle written by Jane Wagner and performed by Lily Tomlin, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe”).

Summer Heat (Bradley Steinbacher: “This overbaked “erotically charged” thriller—in which an oft-shirtless National Geographic photographer finds himself embroiled in a drug deal gone wrong—offers skin to spare, but very little else”).

Here’s my Suggests for The Secret of the Grain in this week’s issue.

And star intern Roxanne Emadi has an interview with Island Etude director (and Hou Hsiao-hsien cinematographer) Chen Huai-en over in the film section.

More to come!

Strange Maps has a map of heaven up. It’s too big to post here, but can be found here.

Apparently, Michael Jordan is already in heaven somehow. And there’s America Land, where “every day is Memorial or Veteran’s Day.” Be sure to check out the Marital-Coitus Castle, which is over by the Catholic Section.

I would be so pissed if I died and woke up here.

According to the Whidbey [Island] News Times, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi held a campaign appearance at the Whidbey Naval Air Station’s CPO Club, in violation of US Navy policy. A naval spokeswoman quoted in the story says the appearance, sponsored by the North Puget Sound Association of Realtors, violated the “restriction on holding political events on government property.”

This is hardly the first time Rossi has engaged in questionable campaign activities. Last year, the Washington State Democrats filed a complaint against Rossi for funneling campaign contributions through his “nonpartisan think tank,” Forward Washington, calling it a shadow campaign organization. (In a divided opinion, the state Public Disclosure Commission voted 3-2 to dismiss the complaint.) And just last month, Rossi held a campaign luncheon with the Christian Men’s Business coalition—a nonprofit religious group prohibited by law from engaging in political activities.

I see from the SIFF website that tonight’s showing of Be Like Others is not sold out. Unacceptable!

This is the best documentary at SIFF (I’m pretty sure—though I haven’t seen Stranded, and Accelerating America was a very pleasant surprise).

Here’s my capsule review:

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, you can be put to death for being a homosexual. But according to a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomenei over 20 years ago, the Qu’ran says nothing about transsexuals, and so sex changes are permissible—even gently condoned. Without pressing the case, Iranian-American director Tanaz Eshaghian leaves open the delicate, chilling possibility that some young men may be getting their junk chopped off because their parents, doctors, and society are telling them it’s at once okay to become a woman and an abomination to remain a gay man. It’s a riveting study of the way gender and sexuality intersect in a 21st-century theocracy. ANNIE WAGNER

So, take the film still, above. The young trannie in a hijab is dating the young man to the left. They’ve been dating for a long time, probably since before the hijabi started dressing a a woman. The sexuality of the young man is not what you would call “in question.” Not that I want to put anyone’s life in danger, but he seems pretty damn gay. Unsurprisingly, when his partner gets a sex change (in part to please mom, who’s dying for a normal kid, son or daughter, but also so they can finally get married), he loses interest. It is both hard to watch and utterly fascinating. The concepts of gender and sexuality are tangled together a way that would horrify Judith Butler, but which is so ingrained in the culture that I think you’d have a very time convincing any of the individuals involved that God doesn’t necessarily intend for them to be women just because they like cooking and don’t want to marry a girl.

According to the Guardian, Iran carries out more sex-change operations than any country except Thailand. The government funds the operations with grants of thousands of dollars.

It’s a great topic, and an exceptional film.

Finding out about the new federal cases regarding food contamination is so much fun—remember the Class II Recall of Frozen Cattle Heads That Contain Prohibited Materials?—that I signed up for more USDA email news. I recently received my first USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service New Technologies Update, and while certainly applying technology to food is generally a good idea, a lot of this sounds depraved. Vegetarians, get your gloat all shined up; now is truly the time.

The New Technologies Update contains “new, or new applications of, equipment, substances, methods, processes, or procedures affecting the slaughter of livestock and poultry or processing of meat, poultry, or egg products” that have been “received and reviewed, and for which FSIS has had ‘no objection’ to use in FSIS establishments.”

Highlights from the newest in New Technologies:

Meyn America LLC: Meyn evisceration system can operate at 140 birds per minute on eight inch shackle spacing with four Federal inspectors

Tasker Products*: Use of pHarlo Blue as an antimicrobial processing aid applied in poultry scalders, as a spray on poultry picker rails, and post-picker spray or dip

Olsson, Frank and Weeda, P.C.: Use of up to 5% lactic acids on hot beef carcasses

Cargill Meat Solutions: Hide-On Beef Carcass Washing System using sodium hydroxide applied at the post-exsanguination stage of slaughter

Braswell Foods, Inc.: The In-package Pasteurization of Liquid Egg and Egg Products

Ecolab, Inc.: Reuse of Inspexx 100 ™ poultry wash and chill process water to reduce microbial contamination on raw edible poultry products and/or to wash poultry processing equipment and environmental surfaces

Ashland Specialty Chemical: Reuse of Chlorine Dioxide as an antimicrobial agent in poultry processing water (locations-application cabinets, feather rinses and pickers/scalders)

The list goes on.

Elsewhere, the FSIS is no longer allowing Tyson Foods to use the “Raised Without Antibiotics That Impact Human Antibiotic Resistance” label, having discovered that contrary to information that Tyson itself provided in December, they are in fact using questionable antibiotics in chicks. Peep!

Beware the mass-market meats, birds, and fish.

Heard the one about that secret tape of Michelle Obama railing against “whitey”? You know, the tape that Republican operatives are going to bring out a few months down the road in an Obama-destroying October surprise…

I’ve heard about it, repeatedly, but I didn’t want to post about it until I could say something definitive—otherwise I’m just becoming a part of this depressing phenomenon by which people believe crazy rumors to be true just because they’ve heard about them from a couple of different sources.

But now it seems the facts have stacked up hard against the “whitey” rumor. First of all, Obama has denied it—after expressing annoyance at even being asked about it. But perhaps more convincingly for those inclined to believe that Michelle Obama went on a wild rant about “whitey” and his evils: The rumor is strikingly similar to a rumor about candidates’ spouses that pops up almost every election cycle. It’s also extremely similar to the plot of a 2006 political novel. And finally, the guy who’s pushing the rumor? Well, he’s can’t keep his story straight, can’t stand up to Reason, and isn’t very polite.

Your votes require political pandering. Governor Christine Gregoire has agreed to be the honorary Grand Marshal of this year’s gay pride parade on June 29. According to parade sponsor Seattle Out and Proud, she’ll be marching behind the Dykes on Bikes.

Although this is her first time marching as governor, this isn’t her first time in the parade. According to campaign spokesman Aaron Toso, last time she marched was in 2004—as attorney general—when she was running for governor. Now she’s back at it, apparently hoping to drum up support from her Democratic base in time for this November’s election.

“I think the common wisdom is that it is a political risk,” says Ed Murray, 43rd District state senator and co-sponsor of successful domestic partnership bills. However, he says, “The governor marching in the parade is not dangerous because history goes against common political wisdom.”

Former governors Gary Locke and Mike Lowry marched in pride parades during their terms, according to Murray and others. However, a lot has changed on the gay marriage front since then. “We can celebrate how far we’ve gone in very short time—how close we are to where we want to be,” says Murray, noting the recent California decision to allow same-sex marriage. “Nationally, we’re moving faster than any of us had ever imagined.”

“For all the balloons and the boas, this is a march, and having our political support is really important,” says SOaP spokesman Troy Campbell.

Other Grand Marshals this year include Anne Levinson, co-owner of Seattle’s dyketastic Seattle Storm, and the Safe Schools Coalition, which tells those bullies to fuck off.

Here’s what we’re doing, in case you need some ideas. Pot and film seem to be our top cravings tonight.

• Smoking weed and playing Madden.

• Making ice-cream sandwiches from scratch.

• Seeing Be Like Others at the Harvard Exit.

• Traipsing through the purple forest and then seeing Otto (gay zombies!) at the Egyptian at midnight.

• Eating pot cookies, then seeing Stranded: I’ve Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains.

• Eating green vegetables.

• Going to my kid’s school carnival. (Cake walk!)

• Seeing Cave Singers at the Gregoire event at Neumo’s.

• Previewing the new Kress IGA supermarket downtown (1423 Third Ave), then to a bourbon tasting.

• Going to a bourbon tasting, then to some sort of Gayla. (Gayla-la?)

• Going to the Grand Illusion for the first screening in the Dennis Nyback series.

• Sneaking out of work early to catch Jar City at the Egyptian.

• Going to Balagan Theater’s Road Movie.

Posted by news intern Chris Kissel

As Erica noted, I went downtown yesterday to catch Ron Sims’ press conference, held in response to announcements by County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg and Sheriff Sue Rahr detailing their own responses to $68 million in King County budget cuts.

After spending half of his prepared comments giving props to Satterberg, Sims acknowledged the budget hole, which will see cuts of up to one-third of the county’s budgets for public health and human services - Sims voiced particular concern for domestic protection orders - and blamed the deficit on “a structural gap.” He said his office is working with the prosecutor’s office and state government to find a way out that won’t include an increase in the property tax levy, adding that “solving this problem is my top priority.”

He added that $130 million in cuts made a few years have left county agencies lean as it is. “We’ve cut away the easy stuff. Now we’re talking about the heart and soul of government,” he said.

After the meeting, King County Budget Committee Chair Larry Phillips stood outside in the rain with reporters and berated Sims for not dealing with the problem when he had the chance. “This should have been headed off years ago. It could have been avoided, unfortunately it wasn’t,” he said.

Sims and Phillips agreed that the public needs to be made aware of the severity of the crisis and that these budget problems are likely to cause problems the next few years.

You can keep your “Art Walks”, and your “First Thursdays” big and small. I’ve walked them all, baby, and so have you: Each of us in search of the answer to that ever-elusive question, who is this “Art”, and why does he walk on Thursday? But as everyone who knows anything knows damn good and well, the grandest of them all is the occasional and terribly exclusive Lafayette Elementary School Thursday Night Art Walk in West Seattle. And I was there.

Mrs. Miller’s First Graders startled and enchanted art lovers and the PTA in general at this season’s event, with a moody and reflective Self Portraits in Water Color and Pencil series, the highlights of which follow:

And the thrill of the exhibition, this raw and brooding piece from 7-and-a-half-year-old Simon Dawson:

And my personal Pick of the Walk, this mythic, stark, and engaging offering in acrylic on canvas from the reclusive and eccentric 7-year-old painter, Bianca:

The exhibit will be hanging for a few more days, and then will begin its indefinite tour of refrigerators everywhere—-but if you try to see it, you’ll be detained by security and considered something of a pervert.

And of course, it’s totally worth it.

Even as shelters are turning away homeless Seattle residents with no more than a blanket, and even as people are sleeping outdoors, without shelter, in record numbers, the city of Seattle is continuing its crackdown on homeless “encampments” — semi-permanent campsites at which homeless people set up makeshift shelters. Last week, parks officials cleared four and a half tons of “debris” (including tarps and mattresses) from an encampment in a greenbelt on Queen Anne —a cleanup recounted in this Seattle Times story, which goes on at great length on the “hard,” “demanding” work being done by the noble city employees.

The sweeps are part of a larger strategy aimed at eliminating encampments entirely, which in turn is part of the city’s “ten-year plan to end homelessness” (currently nearing the halfway mark in its fourth year). Under a policy recently adopted by the city’s human services department, city workers may now ban people from all city-owned property, including but not limited to parks, for “rule violations,” including sleeping outdoors, or “camping.” The new rules also enable the city to confiscate personal property and to destroy any property deemed “hazardous”—a definition that could mean almost anything, as it “may include blankets, clothing, sleeping bags, tents, or other soft goods that may be contaminated by unknown substances.” Personal items like glasses or wallets are stored at the city’s Westbridge storage facility in West Seattle. The city provides directions to the facility on HSD’s web site—but only by car (“Follow I-5 or Highway 99 to West Seattle Bridge)… which isn’t much help to someone so poor they’re forced to sleep outside.

The controversy over the sweeps, which the Times story breezes past in five short sentences consisting of an obligatory quote from a single homeless advocate, isn’t just about the fact that there aren’t enough shelter beds to meet demand, or the fact that wealthy neighbors don’t like their greenbelts being trashed by homeless people. The raids on encampments represent a violation of homeless people’s most fundamental human rights—the right to have a place to sleep, to not be subject to unjustified search and seizure of your property, to not be told to “move along” when you have no place else to go. Interestingly, a federal judge in California ruled last month that the city of Fresno’s policy of sending city workers to raid homeless camps and confiscate people’s property violated constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure; the city and state just settled with the homeless plaintiffs for $2.3 million.

Real Change, the homeless newspaper, will be sponsoring an overnight camp-in at City Hall (600 4th Avenue) starting at 6:00 this Sunday evening. The camp-in will be followed in the morning by an interfaith memorial service for those who’ve died while living outdoors.

At least according to a “prophet” from Texas:

Nuclear war will begin next Thursday, June 12, or sooner, according to the latest prediction of self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins, the founder of a religious sect in Abilene, Texas.

“It could be turned loose before then,” Hawkins told 20/20 for a report to be broadcast tonight. “You’re going to see this very soon, really soon,” he said.

Hundreds of truck trailers have been loaded with food and water on the group’s 44-acre compound, in preparation for the coming war.

Hawkins last declared the end times were upon us in in 2006:

As for people thinking he’s crazy:

Hawkins says he does not care if people consider him a laughing stock.

“You know, the savior himself, told me not to worry about that. He said, ‘They’re going to hate you above all people on the face of the earth,’” Hawkins explained.

Here’s Hawkins’s latest prediction:

Variety reports that Keira Knightley is in talks to star in the remake of My Fair Lady.

Also, Variety reports that Guy Ritchie, whose Revolver is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen even though it stars both Jason Statham and Ray Liotta, is about to direct a Sherlock Holmes movie. “(T)he new Holmes [will] be more adventuresome and take advantage of his skills as a boxer and swordsman.” Unless Holmes is played by either Statham or Liotta (in which case it will be entirely awesome in an entirely awful way), this looks like bad news.

Keith of Green Housing Collaborative recently sent me a link to this post on hugeasscity:

Dan Bertolet writes:

How unfortunate that we all don’t have a stash of whatever it was that Charles Mudede was smoking when he wrote this Stranger piece on the new Four Seasons building on 1st Ave between Union and University. How fun it would be to look up at a stark, rectilinear glass and concrete tower that forms a massive barrier to sun, mountains, and water, and interpret it as profound connection to the natural world, a form that casts shadows like those from pristine alpine peaks because it is painted the color of mud.

First: I’m not a pot smoker. If you have to know, wine is my prime (and almost only) poison. Second: The poster’s leading criticism does not connect with what I attempted to explain in the article. Dan is concerned with pedestrian matters:

Back here on earth, on the ground, what I see is a building that fails to embrace the street. As you can see in the photo above, roughly half of what the passing pedestrian encounters at eye level while walking along the building on 1st Ave is concrete wall.

I couldn’t care less about the street and what the building is doing to it. My leading concern was (and still is) the coding of the work. To my eyes, the Four Seasons is less a building and more of a book. And here I’m referring, of course, to the second chapter of Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, “This Will Kill That.” Because everyone has read this novel, everyone knows that the chapter is about architecture as a form of writing:

Architecture began like all writing. It was first an alphabet. Men planted a stone upright, it was a letter, and each letter was a hieroglyph, and upon each hieroglyph rested a group of ideas, like the capital on the column. This is what the earliest races did everywhere, at the same moment, on the surface of the entire world.”

What everyone might not know is that this chapter inspired Frank Lloyd Wright to become an architect—verification of this claim can be found in Edward R. Ford’s The Details of Modern Architecture: 1928 to 1988.

This is what I read in the Four Seasons: It tells the story of Seattle’s self-imagined relationship with its natural surroundings. For this reason, its story/coding is less related to the international green movement in architecture and more related (if not totally related) to the mural of the orca whales on Seattle Steam, a building that the Four Season faces and echoes. Indeed, to walk down Western Ave is to walk in a forest of correspondences.

This (the coding, the language, the correspondences) is the utter matter of my article.

Bruce LaBruce vs. Punks!

LaBruce will be in attendance at his big gay zombie movie tonight! I can’t wait to see yet another one of my forever heroes, live in person. Thank you SIFF, you’re the best.

Ever wanted to get obliterated by Guitar Hero addicts for a good cause? 826 Seattle hosts an all-ages charity GH tournament this Sunday afternoon at its Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co location. [Address is 8414 Greenwood Ave N; go here for directions.] Show up around 1 p.m. to register, hang out, and maybe practice before the competition starts at 2. (There might be a Rock Band setup as well, Jonah.) Entry fee is $5 for under 13, $10 for over, and the proceeds all go toward 826’s zillions of free programs for helping Seattle students. Prizes will be given to winners and runners-up from folks like VAIN, The Sneakery, The Vera Project, Archie McPhee, and Everyday Music.

Unlike GH nights at bars, this one should be all about the insane talent of young people who wield plastic guitars. I’ve already resigned myself to not winning this, but if I have any shot, it’ll only be because the competition is separated into under-13 and over-13 camps:

See you there.

Today’s bust of a drug ring should once and for all put a stop to the distribution and consumption of illegal substances in our area.

Oil hit a new record high—$139 a barrel—after jumping more than $11 in a single day.

So you might want to think twice before you take the Wall Street Journal’s advice (reproduced today on the front page of the Seattle Times) about all the money you’ll save buying an SUV despite rising gas prices. Rebates and discounts are one-time savings. Rising gas prices would appear to be here for good.

Mark Patrick O’Donnell is on trial in Pennsylvania for the rape and murder of his girlfriend’s 14 year-old daughter. In attempt to undermine the credibility of the girl’s mother, Danielle Cattie, O’Donnell’s defense team entered the woman’s sex toys—dildos, vibrators, anal beads—into evidence yesterday.

Judge William J. Furber, who is presiding over the nonjury trial, nodded stoically as the detective displayed a vibrator, purple anal beads, a bottle of “pleasure-enhancing lubricant,” a videotape titled “Big Bad Biker Bitches” and a mysterious sex device with wires coming out of it.

O’Donnell and Cattie had been smoking crack together on the night of the murder. The dead girl—amazingly enough—was an honor student.

Michael Coleman lived in Atlanta and San Francisco before moving to Seattle two years ago. Coleman is a 42 year-old “sports nut and baseball fan,” and in both of the previous cities in which he lived—at Braves and Giants games—Coleman attended official gay nights at their teams respective ballparks.

“In Atlanta, first time we had gone to one, they had three or four thousand people show up for their gay night and sit in one section,” says Coleman. “It was a great time.”

Coleman and his partner were shocked when they discovered that the Seattle Mariners didn’t have a gay night.

“Seattle is such a liberal city,” says Coleman. “I thought when I got here that the Mariners were really missing the boat here.”

Coleman didn’t wait for the Ms to launch an official gay night. He and his partner have hosted two DIY gay nights at Safeco. This year’s “Unofficial Gay Night at Safeco Field” took place in mid-May, on J.J. Putz Bobble Head Night, when the Ms played—and lost to—the San Diego Padres. (The Padres do an official gay night every year in July.) Coleman didn’t put up a website or work too hard to spread the word; he says he just emailed friends, who emailed friends. This years he attracted roughly 40 folks to his Unofficial Gay Night at Safeco Field, qualifying for a group-sales discount.

“We didn’t have a name when I placed our order with the ticket agent,” Coleman told me. “When she asked, ‘What’s the name of your group?’ I just decided to call us the Seattle Gay Adventure Club.”

When the lesbian-kiss-at-Safeco scandal broke last week, Rebecca Hale, public information director for the Seattle Mariners, told me that she wasn’t aware that all other MLB teams on the West Coast—and numerous others across the country, including the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs—host gay nights at their ballparks. She promised to discuss the idea with her marketing and promotions department and get back to me today. (I’ve got a call in to Hale.)

Okay, back to Coleman’s unofficial gay night at Safeco…

During home games the Mariners flash the names of groups at the park that night and “Seattle Gay Adventure Club” appeared on the screen—along with Little League clubs and corporate workplaces—on Coleman’s Unofficial Gay Night at Safeco Field.

“We cheered, and nobody booed or raised an eyebrow. I honestly don’t think anyone really thought anything about it,” says Coleman. “Which makes it that much odder that the Ms don’t just do this themselves.

“Basically, there’s a large group of gay folks out there that enjoy sports,” says Coleman, “and the Ms are missing an opportunity to fill the stands. The Ms aren’t doing well this year, I’m sure they could use more people at the games.”

The Austrian documentary About Water (Über Wasser: Menschen und gelbe Kanister), deftly mimics global travel as it documents three societies whose survival is tightly bound to water. The camera acts as impartial witness; the film refrains from narration or obvious directorial nudges. Even the soundtrack is minimal and stays out of the way, respecting the drumming of a rainstorm, the gurgle of a river lapping its bank, the soft splash of a woman washing her children.

We watch as farmers in Bangladesh survive monsoon season on the banks of an unpredictably rising river; as residents of Aralsk, Kazakhstan, a former port town from which the sea has receded, grapple with livelihoods in the absence of industry; and as a restaurateur in a Nairobi slum relies completely on water from a few unreliable spigots owned by others. The themes are evident and poignant.

About Water plays again on Saturday at 4 pm at Pacific Place.

^{Going Home, 1946}

Rep. Jim McDermott has introduced legislation to name the University District post office after the late artist Jacob Lawrence. Lawrence lived near UW, where he taught, for nearly 30 years before his death in 2000.

It makes me wonder: There are oodles of donor names all over this city, but what about spaces named after artists? I can’t think of one.

Lawrence nearly ended up a postal worker, it turns out, according to Sharon Fitzgerald, writing for American Visions.

Jacob Lawrence often describes Augusta Savage—a leader both among artists and within the community—as the person who stepped in and made his later success possible. The occasional sales of his paintings to friends, local teachers and librarians were not sustaining him, and his mother had started urging him to take a job in the post office, one of the few secure positions available to blacks. When Savage learned of these difficulties, she took him to the WPA Federal Art Project and had him signed on for the easel project. With the standard weekly salary of $23.80, he was at last a professional artist.

“If Augusta Savage hadn’t insisted on getting me onto the project, I don’t think I ever would have become an artist,” Lawrence has stated. “I’d be doing a menial job somewhere. It was a real turning point for me.”

The legislation has been filed, but no date has been set yet for consideration in the House of Representatives. Co-sponsors include every member of the House from Washington.

This email was just sent to us this morning:

I’ve noticed that Jack in the Box, Taco Bell and KFC have all closed up on the hill. I definitely have no problem with this, I’ve seen the images of chemical burned chickens, read the nutritional info for their food, and get nauseous even thinking about eating at any of these places. But is this the reason these places have closed? Are there that many others like me? Or have the lots just been bought out from rich developers?

Don’t worry late-night drunks: fast food isn’t completely gone from the hill! While the Taco Bell on Broadway and Republican may be gone for good, Jack in the Box will return to the hill, replacing the KFC on 10th and Pine.

But why eat a greasy late-night turdburger to head off that hangover when you can have greasy, delicious Fish Fry,