Posted by news intern Chris Kissel

Yesterday, I attended the “Capitol Hill Homeless Summit,” put on by Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets, a non-profit which helps homeless youth and young adults make the transition from homelessness into a stable living environment. The event featured a panel, which delivered the findings of a two-day “summit” on homelessness.

After talking to homeless members of the community and others who’ve experienced homelessness, PSKS reached a few conclusions, which they shared with the 40-or-so people in attendance:

-Mental health, hygeine issues, criminal records, credit history, and “cultural competency” can be frequent barriers to accessing services for the homeless.
-Once the homeless receive services, serious addictions, the “shock of moving indoors,” pets, and relationships with others can make it hard to achieve stability.
-Stealing out of necessity too often lands the homeless in jail.
-Police get to know certain homeless people, and “profile” them.
-Shelters and other facilities often exclude homeless from certain age groups.
-Capitol Hill needs more housing for those with mental health issues, legal campsites, more homeless feeds, and needs to consider having “safe injection sites.”
-Interestingly, all of the participants on the four-person panel pointed out that they would prefer being homeless on Capitol Hill than in any other neighborhood because of open-mindedness. “Because the neighborhood is accepting of people who are different, we feel comfortable making our home here,” said a panelist named Raven.

I’m glad these homeless men and women feel like part of a community, and that they’re accepted and supported on Capitol Hill. I was genuinely touched when they shared details from their own experiences of homelessness, and glad that I got to experience their perspectives. So I quietly approached organizer Elaine Simons to ask her what she proposes we actually do about all this, now that they’ve got a sense of what the problem is.

Simons told me that the purpose of this meeting was to “make time for the funding people to get to know each other” - she hoped to draw attention to what her organization is doing so thay can get support from others in the community. The next meeting will be the one that will be tasked to come up with any real solution to these problems.

The bombing occurred a day after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told NATO defense ministers in Brussels that in May, for the first time, the monthly total of American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan had exceeded the toll in Iraq.

Dancing

Emerald City Soul Club at Lo-Fi

• See what else is happening in Music on Saturday »

Music

Georgetown Music Fest at Georgetown

• See what else is happening in Music on Saturday »

Washington residents can rest a little easier now that the 61 year-old co-owner of a garden-supply store in Kent has been sent to prison for three and a half years. Le My Nguyen was the “matriarch of marijuana growers” in our area, according to the Seattle Times, and she sold supplies to folks that grew marijuana. And marijuana, of course, is an illegal and very dangerous drug—why, the potency of pot is a 30 year-high, and that’s just one of the things that makes marijuana so very, very deadly.

Wait, what’s that you say, NYT?

Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says

From “Scarface” to “Miami Vice,” Florida’s drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit….

Drugs with benzodiazepine, mainly depressants like Valium and Xanax, led to 743 deaths. Alcohol was the most commonly occurring drug, appearing in the bodies of 4,179 of the dead and judged the cause of death of 466 — fewer than cocaine (843) but more than methamphetamine (25) and marijuana (0).

John Cole:

MSNBC has been running nothing but a 5 hour (and presumably it will go until 11 pm or beyond) marathon of Russert remembrance. CNN has done their due diligence, and Fox news has spent at least the last half hour talking non-stop about him.

But let’s get something straight—what I am watching right now on the cable news shows is indicative of the problem—no clearer demonstration of the fact that they consider themselves to be players and the insiders and, well, part of the village, is needed. This is precisely the problem. They have walked the corridors of power so long that they honestly think they are the story. It is creepy and sick and the reason politicians get away with all the crap they get away with these days.

Tim Russert was a newsman. He was not the Pope. This is not the JFK assassination, or Reagan’s death, or the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. A newsman died. We know you miss him, but please shut up and get back to work.

Via Sullivan.

Technically this is the closing night of the festival (meaning you get to “enjoy” the silly and blithely jingoistic (verging on racist) closing-night gala selection Bottle Shock [6:30 pm at the Cinerama]), but never fear—there’s another full day of programming tomorrow.

In the early matinee slot, we recommend The Fairytale of Kathmandu (11 am at Pacific Place). If you’ve already seen that, you might try The Island of Lost Souls, because if you’re going to see a Danish kids’ adventure film on a Saturday morning, it might as well be at the Cinerama (noon).

Next, head directly to the inspirational (and tremendously depressing) education doc Accelerating America (1:30 pm at SIFF Cinema). Already seen it? Try Days and Clouds (1:30 pm at Uptown) or Dan Ireland’s new movie, Jolene (2:30 pm at Cinerama). I haven’t seen it because I can’t bear to face a road trip movie called Jolene that doesn’t have Dolly Parton on the soundtrack.

Next, skip Lakshmi and Me—but only because it plays again tomorrow morning—and head to the restored Cassavetes film Faces (4 pm at SIFF Cinema).

Next, you should probably eat dinner and discuss (“What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes”: Best Le Tigre song ever?). There are OK movies in this slot, but nothing stunning, unless you have tickets to Alexander Nevsky (8 pm at Benaroya Hall).

Finally, head back to SIFF Cinema for Emmanuel Jal: War Child (9 pm). It’s another world politics doc, but compared to the stunning Trouble the Water, which I saw last night (Trouble My Dreams is more like it), War Child is downright upbeat.

Skip Donkey Punch (midnight at the Egyptian). Seriously? Who calls their movie Donkey Punch?

^{An installation view of Eric Thompson’s Cleaning Out the Dead (2008), 5-channel audio, custom fluorescents, reel-to-reel machine}

At Lawrimore Project. (Gallery site here.) *This show, featuring the UW’s DXArts grads, is only up for 10 days, through June 22. More information about the show here.

posted by news intern Chris Kissel

Oil be back: Saudis plan to export more oil in order to combat high prices.

Breaking the news: Tim Russert was “the preeminent political journalist of his generation.”

Arrested development: Zimbabwean government detains opposition party members again.

Waterlogged: Midwestern floods could take serious toll on economy.

Jailbreak: Detained Taliban fighters escape from a jail in Kandahar.

Cooperating: Bush kicks it with the Pope.

Not cooperating: Iraqi leaders, U.S. government hit an impasse.

Martians chronicled: Phoenix lander collects some serious particles.

Hulk beware: Scientists scan boats in Puget Sound for gamma rays.

Trashed: Homeless advocates say City’s decision to throw away personal belongings found during park sweeps is legally unsound.

Fresh faces: College students whose parents never got degrees struggle to make it to the finish.

Now, back to my homework:

From “Imprisoned Narrative? Or Lies, Secrets, and Silence in New Mexico Women’s Autobiography,” by Genaro Padilla. Criticism in the Borderlands, Calderón, Héctor and José David Saldívar, eds. Duke University Press, 1991.

What happens when the autobiographic impulse finds its self-constitutive means undermined by the very discursive practices that make autobiographic textualization possible? What happens when an individual finds herself in a situation where memory is encouraged to imprint itself upon the page, but only in a language and idiom of cultural otherness that mark its boundaries of permissible autobiographic utterance? Given the discursive domination to which the subordinate cultural self must make supplication if it wishes to survive in any form, the imprinted self is likely to be a representation that discloses intense cultural self-deceit, political fear, and masked and self-divided identity. The “I” is made alien to itself, existing as it does deeply embedded in a discursive world outside of its own making or control.

There is a ton of stuff going on all over the place today, including two thrillers, an open mic, a book about “zen gardening”, a book about space travel to Mars, and a book about crocheting with non-traditional fibers.

First, and something that’s about to start at the Hugo House right now, is an all-day discussion of the works of the Bronte sisters (depicted above.) I might go just to see what the people look like; I’m thinking it will be a roomful of beautiful shy people, casting sideward glances at each other. There was an online registration for this one, but I bet you could sweet-talk your way in if you really wanted to.

Up at Third Place, David Klinghoffer reads from How Would God Vote?: Why the Bible Commands You to Be a Conservative, a book that suggests you consider fictional characters before you waste your vote. I really want to know how Superman would vote, myself.

And at the Seattle Public Library, David Shields reads from his latest book, which is about sex and death and birth and death and then more death. Charles liked the book a lot.

Full readings calendar, including the readings I mentioned above, can be found over here.

Hillary Clinton isn’t the only former presidential hopeful with a big campaign debt. Check out this deeply satisfying story in today’s NYT…

With the Republican Party in need of money for the November elections, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has offered to appear at fund-raisers around the country for G.O.P. candidates. But there is a catch: He wants some cash out of the deal.

Mr. Giuliani’s aides have told the National Republican Congressional Committee and Congressional candidates that if he makes an appearance, he wants the candidates to help him get rid of his presidential campaign debt.

The unusual request underscores the financial predicament Mr. Giuliani finds himself in, after he ended his presidential bid this year with roughly $3.6 million in campaign debt. Traditionally, prominent party figures help lower-tier candidates by headlining fund…. Mr. Giuliani’s move has irritated some of his Republican colleagues, who say that the arrangement would put an additional strain on candidates who in many cases are struggling to raise money. Some say rather than making a generous gesture, the former mayor is seeking to tap local candidates’ donors.

The NYT gives the knife a few good twists right at the end of the piece:

Political analysts say that Mr. Giuliani’s once prolific fund-raising abilities have been hampered by several factors. Perhaps most significant is the fact that Mr. Giuliani neither holds a position in government nor is a candidate for public office. Both qualities are attractive to donors who are looking for access to government.

Beyond that, the reputation of Mr. Giuliani was hurt by the sudden collapse of his presidential campaign, as well as by the allegations of corruption that hung over Bernard B. Kerik, a former police commissioner in the Giuliani administration.

Giuliani, who is worth $30 million dollars, is particularly anxious to pay himself back the $500,000 he lent his own campaign. Clinton, as we’ve heard repeatedly over the last few weeks, desperately needs to raise funds to retire her debt and is likewise anxious pay herself and Bill back the millions they lent her campaign—and it’s somehow Obama’s responsibility to help her with that.

But why should only donors who invest in campaigns—particularly big donors looking for “access to government”—lose out when a campaign ends, implodes, collapses, etc.? Clinton and Giuliani’s big donors lost every cent that they invested in Rudy and Hillary’s campaigns. Why shouldn’t Clinton and Giuliani too?

No one really argues about the validity of natural selection. Only the most hardened of young Earth creationists contest that organisms with more adaptive traits will preferentially survive and reproduce. The Intelligent Design crowd tends to wave this off as a trivial truth. Of course, they say, better traits are selected for. They instead claim you need a designer to provide these traits. How could something as complicated as a metabolic pathway simply arise from chance? Where’s the proof that such beneficial traits can simply arise, with no guiding hand?

Zachary Blount, Christina Borland, and Richard Lensk, from Michigan State University, set out to test this tricky question in evolution.

E. Coli, a gut bacteria commonly used in the lab, cannot eat citrate. While other organisms can, it takes a whole complicated set of interacting genes that E. Coli lack. Could E. Coli, by random chance, mutate such a family of genes? How long, how many and how many generations of bacteria would it take?

In 1988, cultures of E. Coli were started in media with little sugar, but much citrate. Any bacteria that could eat citrate would have a huge selective advantage. After 31,500 generations, one colony finally gained the ability to eat citrate. Going back to the freezer, and looking at the earlier colonies frozen back, it became clear that the pieces started to come together in parts at around 20,000 generations.

What an amazing finding! Just by being in a selective environment, that rewarded bacteria that could learn to do a complex new task, the part could form by a series mutations and eventually be selected for. Exactly as evolution would predict—an elegant demonstration of both halves of evolution, natural selection and the arising of complex traits by random mutation. It’s a stinging slap in the face of the Intelligent Design creationists, whose entire loudly touted faith-system is based on the impossibility of this event.

Eat it, M. Night!

Apparently the new M. Night Shamalamayamamama movie The Happening is intelligent design propaganda. I totally skipped the Tuesday screening, because who cares about M. Night and it was going to have to be a web-only review, but I totally would not have been so derelict had I known anything whatsoever about the film’s content.

According to le Gawker:

M. Night Shyamalan’s critically-panned flick The Happening is Hollywood’s first blockbuster to promote the anti-evolutionary theory of intelligent design. Maybe you thought Ben Stein’s ill-fated documentary Expelled was the only movie to argue in favor of the neo-Christian idea that an “intelligent designer” created the universe. Think again. With its references to “unexplained acts of nature” and a science teacher main character who calls evolution “just a theory,” The Happening is basically a giant propaganda machine for intelligent design. Maybe science journalists are jizzing all over its allegedly realistic plants-attack-humans plot, but we talked to Shyamalan and we know the truth.

Avowed Christian Shyamalan told us that The Happening is really about religious faith, and explained that he chose Mark Wahlberg to play science teacher Elliot Moore because of the actor’s intense belief in Jesus. Maybe he also chose vacant-eyed Zooey Deschanel to play his wife Alma because she looks like a little girl who needs a big strong monotheist in her life? No comment on that one from Shyamalan.

We get tipped off to the fact that this allegedly science fictional movie is really an ID tent revival in the opening scenes where Elliot teaches his science students about evolution. He explains to them that honeybees are disappearing all over the country, and asks what some possible explanations might be. Students who say things like “climate change” and “evolution” are dismissed as being “partly right.” But then when a generally quiet student finally says, “It’s an act of nature that we can’t understand,” Elliot lights up and says that’s the best answer. That phrase “act of nature,” which sounds suspiciously like “act of God,” crops up in the movie again and again[….]

It goes on (avec spoilers). The horror! I will see it this weekend and get back to y’all.

When I sent my last post to Amy Kate, I felt better than I had since this whole Slog debacle began. I’d said my piece and was ready to wash my hands of the whole issue. While I don’t think of myself as a quitter, it has always been my policy, when I find myself in a shitty situation, to get the fuck out. So that’s what I did, and I couldn’t have been happier. Maybe I am thin-skinned, but trading insults with strangers has never been my idea of a good time. I am fully aware that for a lot of commenters this is a game. That’s fine. It’s just not a game I’m interested in playing. Especially since I wasn’t getting paid for it.

Until, that is, I got an e-mail from Amy Kate, telling me that none other than Tim Keck was disappointed that I was quitting, and that he would like to up the ante. One dollar for every comment on ‘Fuck This, I’m Out’ posted before 4 pm… if I was willing to write about how I spent the money. I agreed, and since then have been hitting refresh on the thread, watching the money roll in. I saw a lot of assholes being assholes, and nice people being nice. But what I was really glad to see was people discussing the state of the comments on Slog, which I hoped would happen.

But I digress from the point of this post, which is this:

I win, bitches!

I’ll be back next week with how I spent the money. Enjoy your weekend!

“They sunbathed together and shared meals of raw meat, dead mice, fruit and bread.”

The Daily Mail

Forty-sixth legislative district candidate Scott White is perhaps best known for claiming victory in the nomination battle for his district—hours after his opponent, Gerry Pollet, won the nomination in an initial ballot count, and based on an “extra” ballot found in the home of one of his supporters long after the official counts were over. Pollet, as I’ve written on Slog, was later declared the “official” nominee. That designation, however, doesn’t mean much, because neither candidate can use it on the election ballot—instead, both will run with “prefers Democrat” next to their names, under the new “top two” primary system that goes into effect this year.

Things got even weirder this afternoon, when White—reportedly suffering from pneumonia and ordered to stay home for several weeks—became despondent and decided to withdraw from the race.

However, once he’d submitted his withdrawal form (and spoken to his consultant), White reportedly had a change of heart, and has decided to stay in—a change he will have to make official by 4:30 today.

White did not return calls for comment.

Hulk Fact!

The Ang Lee Hulk movie from five years back totally blew chunks. If you need a reminder, here you go:

I have no news to share, but goodness gracious, have you seen this LOL cat?

Opening this week!

Paul Constant reviews The Incredible Hulk (“As in many superhero movies, the third act has problems—how do you keep your villain from becoming a caricature when he’s a giant evil monster whose sole motivation seems to be finding a really tough guy to fight?—but the movie is such great fuck-shit-up fun that it can successfully smash through any cliché in its way”).

I discuss the stylistically crippled The Tracey Fragments, which is nonetheless a don’t-miss for Ellen Page fans. I think it’s a more interesting performance than her turn in Juno, in a way, since it shows her pushing back against clichéd writing—something you rarely see from so young a performer. I never saw Hard Candy, though.

David Schmader compares The Promotion to Election (“From the subject matter and narrative voiceovers to the full-on homage shots, Steve Conrad’s film is colored and contextualized by Alexander Payne’s classic, but eventually finds its legs and grows into something of its own”).

Charles Mudede praises War, Inc. and also talks to John “I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen” Cusack.

Lindy West writes about Moby’s special celebrity visit to the Seattle True Independent Film Festival.

Tucked away in Film Shorts this week are repeat screenings of Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait at Northwest Film Forum and The Dhamma Brothers at the Grand Illusion, plus the remaining STIFF movies.

For complete movie times, use us.

The Seattle Fire Department, Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are investigating a small fire that was set earlier this week at an abandoned womens’s clinic in the Central District.

The fire department was called to the former site of the Aradia Women’s Center—which closed in January 2007—on 13th and Spring at about 10:30pm Wednesday night after someone set a fire near the building’s exterior doors. According the SFD spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick, the fire “burned a little bit…of the door, but didn’t get in [to the building].”

The fire only did $2,000 in damage, but SFD contacted Seattle Police, who brought in the ATF to assess the case.

Fitzpatrick says there’s no indication whether the building was targeted because it housed as clinic, or whether the incident is related to a number of other recent arson fires set in South Seattle.

Hm… I don’t recall seeing “you’re a fag,” or “your a fag,” in our famously vitriolic comment threads all that often. Apparently it’s a problem at other websites, and on other blogs. I guess it’s not a problem here because everyone at Slog presumed faggy until proven innocent.

Via Queerty.

Alchemy: In the Daily Mail.

AF Harrier jump jets have blown up the world’s biggest drug haul in Afghanistan by dropping three 1,000lb bombs on a 237-ton stash of cannabis. Officials believe the area - near to the Taliban stronghold of Quetta in Pakistan - was turning dried cannabis leaves into heroin.

Opium Brides: Poppy eradication linked to sex slavery.

High Tides: Pot’s better than ever.

Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years, posing greater health risks to people who may view the drug as harmless, according to a report released Thursday by the White House.

“The increases in marijuana potency are of concern since they increase the likelihood of acute toxicity, including mental impairment,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the University of Mississippi study. “Particularly worrisome is the possibility that the more potent THC might be more effective at triggering the changes in the brain that can lead to addiction,” Volkow said.

Low Blows: How the media blew it.

The operative word in Volkow’s statement is “might.” The claim that higher-potency marijuana means greater risk of addiction is entirely speculative, supported by precisely zero data. That, too, was pointed out by Earleywine, but in a comment buried at the very end of the story.

[N]ot acknowledged anywhere, either by AP or most other news outlets, is the very large body of evidence suggesting that the whole “it’s not your father’s marijuana” scare story is phony.

Wet Blanket: Pot crop stunted by rain.

Clean Green: Pot activist jailed for suspected money laundering.

San Diego: Tries to overturn state law.

Bad Deal: Folks trying to get arrested to sell drugs in prison.

Getting High After Work: Court says it’s groovy in Oregon.

Wake Cup: Smell of coffee is all you need.

Protein: Blocks booze cravings.

Top 10 Celerity Stoners: Jack Black to Barack Obama.

The developer-backed group that planned to spend more than $100,000 promoting city council candidate Venus Velazquez—until her drunk-driving arrest derailed her campaign?

Well, they’re back, and they’re gearing up for next year’s city elections.

In an email last week, PAC founder Joe Quintana invited Forward Seattle members and supporters to meet up at the downtown offices of Gogerty Stark Marriott, “to discuss how we can ensure the election of candidates who are committed to keeping Seattle competitive. The goal of this meeting is to emerge with a short-list of candidates we might support and developing a game plan to ensure success.”

Any candidate Forward Seattle decides to back will be able to draw on a strong base of developer support; already, a year and a half before the 2009 election, Forward Seattle has an impressive $78,000 in the bank, and can count on much more from the big developers and builder PACs that make up its donor base. At the moment, Forward Seattle’s top donors include the development company Touchstone Corporation ($10,000); South Lake Union developer Vulcan, Inc. ($10,000); downtown developer and landowner Clise Properties ($10,000); construction-industry PAC Builders United in Legislative Development ($10,000) public-affairs consultant Quintana ($5,500); Bellevue real estate developer Robert Wallace ($5,000); downtown developer and monorail bad guy Martin Selig ($5,000); the King and Snohomish County Master Builders Association ($5,000); and downtown developer William Justen ($5,000), mining company Glacier Northwest ($1,000); and many others.

A couple accused of tying their 13-year-old son to a tree for two nights to punish him for disobedience has been charged with murder in his death, authorities said Friday.

Brice Brian McMillan, 41, of Macclesfield, told a deputy that the child was being disobedient and was forced to sleep outside Tuesday while tied to a tree, the Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office said. The teenager was released Wednesday morning but again tied up that night for bad behavior, authorities said.

The boy was left tied to the tree until the following afternoon when his stepmother found him unresponsive, Sheriff James Knight said in a statement.

Last week, I walked into Platform Gallery in Pioneer Square and apologized. As soon as I saw the current show (which closes after tomorrow), I knew it was one that I should write about—and one I wouldn’t have time to write about in-depth.

But I do want to recommend it here in short. Please take these three images as testimony to the power and strangeness of the 13 included works by these three artists, all of which depict a beautiful world infected with panic.

^{Joy Garnett’s Paris Riots (#3) (2005-2006), oil on board, 11 by 14 inches}

^{Michael Schall’s Volcano Fabrication Project (2007), graphite on paper, 40 1/2 by 62 inches}

^{Saul Becker’s Weed Explosion (2008), ink and gouache on paper, 41 by 59 1/2 inches}

More here.

Friday, 13 June 2008

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Today I will travel to Alabama to be inducted into the Calhoun County Hall of Fame. Please pray that God will be glorified during the ceremony. Please pray for safe travel and that I feel good physically on the trip.

Thank you!
Pastor Hutch

Hulk Fact!

The Hulk has come in a variety of different colors and flavors over the years:

Classic green:

Captain Universe blue:

Spalding Gray:

“Does this look Infected?” red:

and girl:

John Cusack has made a movie that relentlessly attacks all that constitutes the insane age of Bush.

Because the insanity has no bottom:

MESEBERG, Germany — President Bush on Wednesday raised the possibility of a military strike to thwart Tehran’s presumed nuclear weapons ambitions, speaking aggressively even as he admitted having been unwise to have done so previously about Iraq.

This passage is from my interview with Cusack:

In America, we treat war like the weather and weather like the war. A tsunami can happen and everyone’s outraged. We say: What can we do? We need to do something. Let’s band together to fight the weather. A war happens and they go, Well, that’s just the way it is. Wars come and they go. No, they don’t.

This is what he has to say about McCain:

Click for movie times.

The best thing about this year’s Tony nominees is the number of contending plays and musicals by/starring/about people who aren’t honkies: Passing Strange, In the Heights, Thurgood, a black version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a South Pacific starring actual Asian Americans, and so on.

From a great article on this year’s Tony Awards in the Washington Post:

This season, eight major Broadway shows prominently feature blacks, Latinos or Asians. There’s “South Pacific,” which — for the first time in this musical’s history on Broadway — stars Asian Americans in Asian roles. (Loretta Ables Sayre, who plays Bloody Mary, is nominated for a Tony.) That’s a far cry from 1991, when there was an uproar over casting English actor Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian in “Miss Saigon.”

Ten performers of color have been nominated for Tonys tonight, including Stew, the creator and star of “Passing Strange.” (Whoopi Goldberg, a Tony-winning producer in her own right, will be tonight’s host — marking the first time the Tonys ceremony has had a lone emcee of color.)

The TBP has been a regional theater custom for years. Trying to attract dollars from the rising black middle class is smart business and a little artistic affirmative action is perhaps wise, but watching a TBP, no matter how good or bad it is, always gives me the uncomfortable feeling that the mostly white audience and mostly black artists are mutually condescending to one another.

Again from the Post:

No one tracks the number of people of color working on Broadway, but many observers say that things have changed greatly from more than 20 years ago, when Actors’ Equity conducted a four-year survey of working actors and found that 90 percent of actors on Broadway were white.

Things, obviously, are changing.

Not only are there more black artists, but more black producers, who recognize the economic value—not just the social, artistic, and moral value—of getting away from producing a “black play” here and a “Latino play” there. This year will prove that producers and theaters should put up as much quality work by artists of color as they can. And audiences will reward them for it. Like James Baldwin said: “Black people ignored the theater because the theater has always ignored them.”

Looks like the sun is setting on those days, thanks to years of courage and sweat by artists like George C. Wolfe, Suzan-Lori Parks, August Wilson, Lloyd Richards, and others.

Again, from the WP article:

“Every single day I wake up in the morning saying, ‘What are we doing here?’ ” says Stew, who co-wrote “Passing Strange” with musical partner Heidi Rodewald. “We never thought this would happen… . Not only did we not think we were going to Broadway, we didn’t want to go to Broadway.”

Stew says he insisted on making art how he saw fit — which meant, he says, that he fought with the producers at every turn.

“They can’t force us to do anything. Nobody has to sell out here… . Only artists who wimp out change their script. All a Broadway producer can do is close the show.

“This is like an experiment every night. To see if this weird curio can exist in a mass audience. I really look at it as a science experiment. Every night.”

It’s working, Stew. And sorry to sound Pollyanna about it, but your success should make everyone feel hopeful.

So…

R. Kelly has been acquitted of child pornography charges that he appeared on a videotape having sex with a girl as young as 13….

The graphic, sordid video shows the female dancing and urinating on the floor in the man’s direction. The man then has sex with and urinates on her…. Over seven days presenting their case, prosecutors called 22 witnesses, including several childhood friends of the alleged victim and four of her relatives who identified her as the female on the video. Some said she had referred to Kelly as her “godfather.”

I’m thinking a gay pop star that made a sex tape that showed him pissing on a 13 year-old boy wouldn’t get his ass acquitted at trial.

Hulk Fact!

Did you know that the Incredible Hulk has his own hilarious blog? True story.

From Hulk’s Diary That Is On the Internet:

OH MAN HULK’S ATM CARD WAS STUCK IN THE ATM.

Hulk kept hitting the buttons and saying “Please let Hulk have his ATM card back because Hulk wants to go buy a Playstation 3 and play that Ultimate Alliance game Hulk is in with everyone, even the Punisher” but the machine was all like BEEP BOOP NO NO NO.

And Hulk tried to be nice and called the people at his bank and Hulk said “Hulk has money because Hulk just got a deposit and Hulk would like to get it!” and the bank’s answering machine said “Leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as possible” and Hulk was like “HULK JUST LEFT A MESSAGE WHY CAN’T YOU HEAR THAT?”

And that’s why Hulk now owes Bank of America $43,000 for two ATMs in the Union Square area.

The end.

And:

Hello Hulk got this email and Hulk is wondering if he should help because Hulk needs some money and if Hulk had some money maybe Hulk wouldn’t have to go look at the stupid jobs section of the New York Post and Daily Bugle. No, Hulk does not want to work construction, thank you for asking. Hulk does not like to say things to girls that walk by and Hulk can’t whistle very well.

WITH DUE RESPACT DEAR FRIEND,MY TEL NUMBER 00226 78 02 43 42

IT IS MY WISH TO SOLICITE YOUR ASSISTANCE IN A BUSSINESSS TRANSACTION THAT WILL BE OF BENEFIT TO YOU AND I.

I CAME ACROSS SUM OF MONEY BELONGING TO A DECEASED CUSTOMER OF THE BANK, BANK OF AFRICA, ALHAJI DAHIRU J MUSA, A CITIZEN OFABIDJAN COTE’D’IVOIRE WHO DIED ON THE RECENT CRISES IN THAT COUNTRY. THE REBELS IN THE CITY OF BOAKERY BOMBED ALHAJI MUSA’RECIDENCE DURING ONE OF THEIR RAIDS.HE AND ALL THE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY WERE KILLED IN THAT BOMB INCIDENT.ALHAJI MUSA IS AN INTERNATIONAL BUSSINESS MAN AND A MAJOR SUPPLIER OF YAMAHA MACHINE PARTS IN THIS COUNTRY.

THE MONEY WE ARE TALKING ABOUT IS IN THE BANK TREASURY BOX WAITING FOR THE NEXT OF KIN BECAUSE THE DECEASED DIED SINCE TWO YEARS AGO AND LIVING NO OTHER CONTACT AS IN NEXT OF KIN IN HIS BANK FILE AND THE BANK LAW STIPULATES THAT ANY MONEY THAT STAYS IN THE BANK CUSTODY FOR OVER TWO YEARS WITHOUT WITHDRAWAL OR PAYMENT WILL BE CONFICICATED INTO THE BANK PRIVATE USE.

HE HAS AN ACCOUNT WITH THIS BANK WHICH HE USES TO FINANCE HIS BUSSINESS IN THIS CONTRY.This is my bank website in burkina faso. www.bkofafrica.net)The said amount was USD$1m.(one million united states dollars).

SO RIGHT NOW THAT IS THE AREA I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE TO ACT AS NEXT OF KIN TO THE DECEASED MAN SO AS TO INHERITE THIS FUND FOR OUR OWN BENEFIT AND I AM HERE TO GUIDE U AND TO FUNISH YOU WITH ALL THE NECESSARY INFORMATION CONCERNING THE DECEASED MAN BANK ACCOUNT.

THANKS AND REMAIN BLESSEDI SUGGEST YOU GET BACK TO ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE STATING YOUR WISH IN THIS DEAL.

FROM MR MUSA SOBIBRA. MY ALTERNATIVE (musa_sobibra@myway.com)

Do you think Hulk should take advantage of this offer? Hulk thinks Hulk could make money and not have to live off the “stipend” that The Avengers still pay Hulk because they are afraid Hulk will come over and raid the refrigerator and make Jarvis cook a turkey for Hulk again.

Hulk has never told you people how nice Jarvis is. Jarvis is very nice. He is the Avengers’ butler but he is not like “Jeeves” because he does not have a website called AskJarvis or anything like that but Hulk thinks he is better because Hulk doesn’t have to type on the computer to ask Jarvis things like “Why do rainbows make Hulk happy?” or “Can you please make some more Yorkshire pudding?”

Unfortunately, the man behind the Hulk’s blog, Kevin Church, has stopped writing about ol’ jade jaw’s life, but there are still plenty of entries on the site worth reading. Go there now. Or Hulk will smash puny humans.

On Tuesday, June 10, a federal court order fortified the rights of tenants whose federal housing vouchers are terminated by the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA). Under new rules, SHA hearing examiners must consider special circumstances such as disabilities; the examiners must have legal training (none was required before); and the examiners will be appointed in with input from tenants.

“The Seattle Housing Authority was terminating tenants on the basis of very problematic and illegal reasons,” says Tenants Union organizer Emily Paddison. For example, she says, a tenant could lose a voucher for having too many people in his home even if he was disabled and required assistance from visitors. But under the old SHA rules, hearing examiners couldn’t acknowledge complicating circumstances—such as failure to respond to letters because tenants couldn’t read English, were victims of domestic violence, or were mentally ill—instead relying strictly on SHA and federal housing regulations.

Although the SHA is accepting the new rules gracefully—SHA spokeswoman Virginia Felton said agencies officials “welcome these changes”—that seems a little disingenuous. After the case was filed in King County Superior Court, SHA moved it into federal court. Why, if SHA accepts the changes, did the agency push to move the case to a higher court? “We felt a lawsuit wasn’t the right way to go,” she says.

The SHA administered about 8,200 federal housing vouchers last year, and 108 were terminated for rules violations, Felton says.

The case originated with Tina Hendrix, who was informed by SHA in March 2007 that she would lose her Section 8 housing voucher for failing to report that her teenage daughter had moved. Eric Dunn, an attorney who litigated the case for the Northwest Justice Project, counters that Hendrix’s daughter suffered from a mental disability and had run away, temporarily.

“We had been observing these hearings for year and had lawsuits before,” says Dunn. He believed that SHA “wouldn’t recognize [Hendrix’s] arguments.” So rather than go to the hearing examiner, Hendrix filed her case, claiming the SHA appeals system violated her right to due process under the 14th Amendment.

Ultimately, this case illustrates the need for independent organizations to keep government-funded agencies in check. The Tenants Union, along with other groups representing low-income renters, has been haggling with SHA for the past couple of years to provide additional translation services, increase protection for domestic violence survivors, and increase Section 8 tenant representation on committees.

“Our people are working very hard to serve clients,” says SHA’s Felton, “and we make mistakes, but we’re working with Tenants Union and we’re making progress there.”

Dead of an apparent heart attack at 58.

Happy Friday, June 13th!

Hulk Fact!

There was a Hulk doll released in the U.K. that was anatomically correct.

ENGLAND— Shocked six-year-old Leah Lowland checked out a mystery bulge on her Incredible Hulk doll — and uncovered a giant green WILLY.

Curious Leah noticed a lump after winning the monster, catchphrase “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry,” at a seaside fair.

And when she peeled off the green comic-book character’s ripped purple shorts, she found the two-inch manhood beneath them.

Horrified Leah immediately ran to mum Kim and reported the find. And last night Kim called for a ban on the saucy toy. She said: “A hulk with a bulk like this just shouldn’t be allowed.

“Considering the doll is only 12-inches tall it’s amazing how big his willy is.

“And it’s definitely not an extra piece of material left on by mistake.”

The full report is here.

Via I-mockery, which has a lovely gallery of hideous Hulk stuffed animals that must be seen to be believed.

Ryan already covered the shutdown of the Exile, the Moscow-based, American-written biweekly that Mark Ames, the Editor-in-Chief, described as “a low-tech suicide bomb designed to destroy our journalism careers and take down a few assholes with us.”

I’ve always loved the Exile. In the aftermath of the 2004 election, the Stranger wrote Urban Archipelago issue. Too extreme? The Exile replied, Gas Middle America:

The awful reality is that George W. Bush won by 4 million votes. No, the awful reality is that he got any votes at all — but he did… he won the popular vote. He won a mandate. He won — get it? Bush won! They voted for him, the stupid fucking suckers, after he gave them four years of the most shocking warp-speed national decline since Franz Josef abdicated. There is nothing normal or sane about what these Americans did. There is no way to spin that. It’s just nauseating, sphincter-twisting, horrifyingly stupid and evil. So the coastal elite — and we are an elite, thank god (what moron wouldn’t want to be part of the elite? “Hey, I’m not elite, I’m akshully jus’ a fuckin’ stupid piece of shit chump who gits used by the elite, ‘n by gum that’s how’s I likes it!”) — and the Democrats and everyone with a brain should stop flogging themselves or falsely localizing blame on a clique of evil Republican operatives who manipulated Middle America, and put the blame where the blame lies — on the 59,000,000 fucks who voted to destroy America. And don’t just blame those 59,000,000 fucks, but blame their families, their friends, their dogs and cats, their furniture, and everything they ever touched, smelled, peed on, or otherwise left DNA samples in. They all have to go. Every last one of ‘em. We don’t like the thought of all that collateral damage that nuking or gassing Middle America would bring, but…aw shit, who are we foolin’ here? We LOVE the thought of all that collateral damage, we DREAM about it! We’re sorry for the 30-40 percent who voted blue in the red states — just like we’re sorry about Dresden and Hamburg, and lose sleep over it every night. That is to say, if you stay there, you’re no longer innocent. Collateral damage in Fallujah is depressing— but collateral damage in Alabama, a giant welfare queen state sucking from the liberal pro-Kerry states’ tax dollars? A few Trident II’s oughtta turn ‘Bama into a Crimson Tide of Manhattan Chowder. M’m-m’m tasty!
…
Let’s not whitewash what this election was about. It was about racism, bigotry and Fascism. In fact the South and Midwest, taken as a “nation,” are the last and only Fascist state left in the white world, an incompetent and vulgar Fascism, without brains and without uniforms. Many of them are openly proud of this fact. They voted for a doomed war, against progress, against modernity and against culture. They are driven by envy and cult superstition and hate. And they want to slaughter other people to make up for the fact that they cannot produce anything of value, that they are nothing but welfare queens and cheap labor whose only consolations is that they aren’t niggers, queers, spics, or…well, they don’t openly hate Jews so much anymore, but their newfound bizarre embrace of Israel and Jews is every bit as sick as their former anti-Semitism.

When I started writing my science column about a year ago, the War Nerd column was a pretty big inspiration—hilarious, informative and insightful.

So, if you’ve every wondered how a government goes about shutting down a paper, check out Mark Ames’ posts on Radar’s blog.

At 11 a.m., four officials from the Federal Service for Mass Media, Telecommunications, and the Protection of Cultural Heritage arrived—the men in shabby Bolsheviki suits, and a squat middle-age woman with pudgy arms and hands that pinched the seams of her wrists. On the advice of a Russian attorney, we greeted them with a box of dark chocolates. It was solid advice, and probably did more to protect us than a hundred attorneys’ briefs could have…. The varied emotional responses to the meeting were interesting. The Westerners, who until last week supported our paper and kept it alive, immediately cut all ties with us, so they weren’t there. The younger Russians on our staff were relatively calm about it. But when our Soviet-era accountant opened the office door and saw the four squat figures in bad official Soviet outfits, she turned white and vanished, the door closing on its own. When our middle-age courier arrived, she too turned white, stopped, then put her head down and walked past us, crossing herself three hurried times in the Orthodox Christian fashion before locking herself in the design room. You have to understand, to anyone with a memory of the Soviet era, those bad suits that the officials wore are extremely menacing, like red stripes on a reptile.

Great stuff. An excellent preview for the demise of the Stranger during Jenna Bush’s first term as supreme president of the homeland.

Hulk Fact!

One of the best Hulk comics ever is by James Kochalka, and it’s only four pages long!

Here’s the first page:

You can find the rest of the story here.

Bonus Hulk Fact!

Kochalka once pitched an idea of a super-hero group called The Hulk Squad. The Hulk Squad was a bunch of multi-colored clones of the Hulk. They would fight crime together. Or they’d fight each other. Or something. But, who cares! Multi-colored clones of the Hulk! My favorite, after the original green flavor, is the blue one.

Hi there,

I was told that the Stranger ran an article recently about how empty storefronts on Broadway were being given temporarily to artists for gallery space….but I have been unable to find it on your website…

Do you have any more information about that, or can recall the article’s title?

Here tis.

Apparently you can leave newspaper boxes in the middle of sidewalks in Oklahoma City—and a swift kick to the nads is the best reason to read this particular newspaper.

And, I’m sorry, but the answer to “You ever wonder why they call this thing a ‘rack’?” is… because it’ll punch in the nuts? Wha? Huh?

Cinerama starts playing SIFF movies today, the third-to-last day of the festival. Boy, are there going to be some annoyed people tonight. Some of the movies that sounded the best on paper are in fact awful, and some of the movies that sounded the worst are in fact fantastic. Here’s the scoop:

Skip the first movie of the day, Unknown Woman (1 pm at Cinerama), unless you love the graphic depiction of misery.

Next, pay someone to take your tickets to In Search of Kennedy (4 pm at the Egyptian), which is the worst movie that could possibly be made about John F. Kennedy’s popular legacy. The documentary has no facts, and lots and lots of feelings. Yuck. There are at least three other good options, including Salawati (4:30 pm at Pacific Place), American Son (4 pm at Uptown), and Some Assembly Required (4 pm at SIFF Cinema). Did anyone see the film-insidery Pierre Rissient (4 pm at the Harvard Exit) on Wednesday? That sounds interesting too.

Next, we absolutely adore three competing options, all of whose filmmakers should be in attendance: the major motion picture The Wackness (6:30 pm at the Egyptian), which will open in Seattle in July; the exceptional education documentary Accelerating America (7 pm at the Harvard Exit); and the conversion-to-atheism one-woman-show Letting Go of God (6:30 pm at SIFF Cinema), with Julia Sweeney. This probably is not the night to try to see Alexander Nevsky (8 pm at Benaroya Hall), though admittedly, all our other recommendations are playing again this weekend.

Finally, settle down at the second (and 21+) screening of Sunrise (9:30 pm at the Triple Door) accompanied by an original score by the Album Leaf.

We don’t recommend tonight’s midnighter, Chrysalis (12 am at the Egyptian). Quel dommage—it’s a bit of a tribute to Eyes Without a Face. But you’ll be too tired for a midnight show tonight anyway.

This week’s Last Days brought the following eyewitness

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 “Dear Last Days,” writes Hot Tipper Bradford, placidly commencing the creepiest report of violent Metro-based bigotry since that psycho clocked that blind lady a couple weeks ago on the #18. “This afternoon I was waiting for the #8 Metro on Capitol Hill. Waiting with me was the homeless Native American transsexual I’ve seen around the neighborhood. I call her Two Spirits. She was engaged in her usual self-contained commotion when she spotted a midget and another gentleman waiting for the bus. ‘I hate midgets!’ she started yelling. ‘FUCKING MIDGET! I’LL SLIT YOUR FUCKING THROAT! I’M TRIBAL POLICE!’ The gentleman replied, ‘That’s fine, but it’d be great if you could make the bus come on time.’ Both man and midget entered the bus unscathed.” Dear Hot Tipper Bradford: Thank you for noticing and sharing. Also, I don’t mean to look a gift Hot Tip in the mouth, but “midget” isn’t really a word but a slur that’s gained currency due to pervasive use. Go with “little people,” which may sound odd and comparably insulting, but is the preferred term, no matter what Trapped in the Closet says.

Yesterday brought the following email from Hot Tipper Erin:

As a midget/dwarf/Little Person/whatever-you-want-to-call-me who lives (way too) close to Broadway, I was not at all surprised at this act of violent verbal assault placed upon my fellow LP at the #8 bus stop on friday, June 6th. I myself have been the subject of an array of insults being hurled at me out of car windows, impromptu camera phone photo-ops, and many other ridiculous, horrifying examples of ignorance and hatred for the larger portion of my adult life. (Though none has come so often as when I moved to Capitol Hill, which I have chronicled in my blog, thelowlifeseattle.)

When you consider that this is no different than gay bashing, or calling a black person a nigger, I could only think that people like me have the same legal recourse as those being discriminated against for their ethnicity or sexual orientation. So out of curiosity, I called the Seattle Police Department and asked the on-duty police officer what actions I could take the next time something like this happened. Unfortunately, there’s not much. The most I could do was file a complaint (different and lesser than a report) in order to give the area’s unit a heads-up that there’s a crazy person out there verbally attacking innocent people on the street. If anything, the person may already have a warrants which could hasten any criminal proceedings and get them into the jail/nuthouse where they belong, but that’s it.

I am sorry for the person who had to go through that and I hope that they’ll do something about it next time. That kind of behavior is completely unacceptable, no matter how crazy, homeless and ‘helpless’ the person doing it is. By shrugging it off, victims are only saying to people that’s it’s ‘ok’ and gives the opportunity for more.

Thanks for the tip on the homeless Native American transvestite, I’ll have to watch out for that one…

And thank you, Erin. Everyone else: Please refrain from threatening to slit each other’s throats, no matter what size you may be.

Art

‘From Solferino to Guantanamo’ at City Hall Lobby Gallery

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

Hulk Fact!

Did you know that one of the Hulk’s deadliest foes is named The Bi-Beast? It’s true!

According to The Immortal Thor fansite, the Bi-Beast is a citizen of the “City of the Bird-People,” and that the very sad Bi-Beast doesn’t have any relatives, but

the Bi-Beasts two heads, each possessing a separate intellect, address each other as “skull brother”

It’s unknown if the Bi-Beast will still have two heads when he gets out of college.

Heartwarming story of the day:

Katherine recalls coming out to her parents as they prepared for a picnic by the pool at their home in the Berkshires. It was July 3, 2007 at around 2:30 p.m., she says. […]

Katherine had already come out to her friends, her sister Sarah and a maternal aunt with whom she is close, Lynn Prime. She says she waited for an opportunity to come out to both parents at the same time - a difficult task given their busy lives - so as not to make either of them feel that she was more comfortable with one parent over the other. So when the moment came, she just decided to go for it. Walking into the kitchen, she asked her parents to stop what they were doing and she asked her aunt Lynn to leave the room because she wanted to talk with her mother and father alone. Her parents turned to her and she said, “I’m a lesbian.”

“And I’ll always remember the first thing my dad did was, [he] wrapped me in a bear hug and said, ’Well, we love you no matter what,’” Katherine recalls. Diane Patrick moved in for a group hug. After a moment, Katherine, in what she describes as typical teen behavior, asked her hovering parents to step off. “I said, ’Okay, okay,’” she laughs. “I was like … ’Okay, thanks.’”

Diane Patrick received the news with a mixture of happiness and relief. She says that after Katherine had asked her aunt to leave the room because she needed to talk with her parents, she had no idea what her daughter was going to say. “I often think the worst when I get that kind of build-up. And so I was thinking, ’Oh my goodness, she failed something or she did something really bad’ - not that she has a habit of doing those things - but I worried.” When her daughter made the big reveal, Diane almost burst out laughing out of sheer relief.

What makes this more than just a sweet coming-out story? The dad and mom are the governor and First Lady of Massachusetts.

Did you know the word “bad” was originally homophobic?

So surmises the Oxford English Dictionary (you need only a Seattle Public Library card to log in here):

[ME. badde appears in end of 13th c., rare till end of 14th: see below. Regularly compared badder, baddest, from 14th to 18th c. (in De Foe 1721), though Shakespeare has only the modern substitutes worse, worst, taken over from evil, ill, after bad came to be = evil.

Prof. Zupitza, with great probability, sees in bad-de (2 syll.) the ME. repr. of OE. bæddel ‘homo utriusque generis, hermaphrodita,’ doubtless like Gr. [pronounced something like androgynos, but I can’t figure out how to copy the Greek here—AKW], and the derivative bædling ‘effeminate fellow, womanish man, [Greek word, pronounced malakos—AKW],’ applied contemptuously; assuming a later adjectival use, as in yrming, wrecca, and loss of final l as in mycel, muche, lytel, lyte, wencel, wench(e. This perfectly suits the ME. form and sense, and accounts satisfactorily for the want of early written examples. And it is free from the many historical and phonetic difficulties of the derivation proposed by Sarrazin (Engl. Studien VI. 91, VIII. 66), who, comparing the etymology of madde, mad, earlier amad […], would refer badde to OE. [untranscribable Old English—AKW], ‘forced, oppressed,’ with a sense-development parallel to that of L. captvus, ‘taken by force, enslaved, captive,’ It. cattivo, F. chetif, ‘miserable, wretched, despicable, worthless.’ No other suggestion yet offered is of any importance; the Celtic words sometimes compared are out of the question.]

I guess we shouldn’t expect the pejorative “gay” to go out of style any time soon.