As Barack Obama touched down in China, the American press seemed to settle on a single story line. The president, wrote the New York Times, will be "assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker." And the Wall Street Journal highlighted "China's Blunt Talk for Obama," about US economic policy and the "nervousness" expressed by Chinese leaders that "huge U.S. budget deficits will weaken the dollar and slash the value of China's massive foreign-currency holdings."
The karmic symmetry of this state of affairs makes for an appealing fable. The once mighty United States, which for decades used the IMF to impose its will on the domestic policies of developing countries across the globe, is brought low by its profligacy and forced to beg sufferance from the miserly Chinese.
But just a few days here in Shanghai (on a trip sponsored by the China-United States Exchange Association) has convinced me it's bullshit and the Chinese know it.
"There's an old Chinese saying," Yang Jiemian, president of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told me. "If you borrow a hundred dollars, you are borrower; if you borrow a million dollars, you are not borrower." There's an English version of this, which is a bit zippier—"When you owe $100,000, the bank owns you. When you owe $100 million, you own the bank"—and it aptly describes the US relationship with China, which holds approximately 70 percent of its 2.3 trillion foreign reserves in dollars...

The numbers are pretty extreme.

Last year, Medicare paid $50 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients' lives.

But the issue really isn't the specifics of the spending, or the sure-to-follow frothing about rationed care and socialism (don't miss the comment thread on CBS' site). It's about our fear of death, and our very American desire to find some kind of a loophole. We always think we're going to win the lottery. A patient in the story has multiple organ failure and is not a candidate for transplants, but when asked if he should be resuscitated if his heart should fail, even if it meant a prolonged and painful death in the ICU, he answers without hesitating - "Yes."

We should do all we can when appropriate and when that's the patient's wish, but it should be informed and rational, not automatic.

The reporter asks the doctor at the center of the story if talking about refusing to pay for extreme measures for terminal patients is "a version then of pulling Grandma off the machine".

The doctor won't have it:

"You know, I have to say, I think that's offensive. I spend my life in the service of affirming life. I really do. To say we're gonna pull Grandma off the machine by not offering her liver transplant or her fourth cardiac bypass surgery or something is really just scurrilous. And it's certainly scurrilous when we have 46 million Americans who are uninsured."

Agreed.

It's probably politically impossible right now, but it sure would be nice if we could collectively come to terms with the most basic fact of life: it ends.

The band was tight and clean in their presentment of the songs. Tempo changes hit on a dime. Doug Martsch hung from the mobile of his tunes with his hard and earnest head twitches. He sang regally, gently raking his voice into the music, and did all the songs justice. Martsch slathered an agile and warm pin pricked scrawl of language into his solos. Sometimes playing for orbit and sometimes swinging open an old beloved door that creaks the same every time.

Built to Spill fans have relationships with the songs. And the songs know the fans in return. The finer sections of the night for me were when the band came down in dynamics. The quieter, moments of stasis, where the music gathered itself to decide where it needed to go next. Built to Spill has the ability to do that, to let the song decide where it needs to go. And when they’re in these in betweens, drifting and playing, their sound floats and seeps off the stage.

At one point, someone in the crowd agitated the band (or just Brett) and they tried to make him move to the back. I couldn’t tell if he got kicked out or not. Brett said, “Dude, just be glad you aren’t at a Fugazi show.” Doug chimed in with a, “Mob rules.”

They ended the night with a near thirty-minute epi-jam. Drummer Scott Plouf produced mallets and cycled patterns around into soft mountains. “Conventional Wisdom”. A feedback exploration of builds and fades emerged that shrunk the crowd of the Showbox into the Proteus submarine. It was a spin on the plot of Isaac Asimov’s Fantastic Voyage. In this version, Kim Jung Il has gotten hold of a slew of nuclear bombs and has programmed them to launch all over the world. He then slips while taking a bath and goes into a coma. The shrunken Proteus, with the crowd at the Showbox for Built to Spill inside, is injected into Kim Jung Il’s body to save the world.

After an amniotical journey through Il’s body, the Proteus arrives at his brain to find him having a dream about explosions. Speakers are aimed onto his lobes and Built to Spill is played. “Conventional Wisdom”. Cue slathering Martsch solo. Inside his coma, Il likes the song and its slathering and his explosion dream turns into one where he’s on a luxury riverboat surrounded by geishas, lotus flowers, pillows, and sage. Sun is on his face and the river bank slides by slowly. He wakes, stops the bombs from launching, and becomes a pacifist for the rest of his life. The Proteus, with the crowd at the Showbox for Built to Spill inside, is safely jettisoned from his body inside a tear of Il’s joy, and is brought back to normal size.

Built to Spill saves the world.

Set list after the jump.

If you see something, say something. Others of us are braving the elements to see it in person and will hold forth later.

Film

Burning Fuse Festival

• See what else is happening in Film on Sunday »

Several nurses at Jackson Memorial Hospital have personally apologized to Janice Langbehn, a lesbian from Washington state who said that a Jackson social worker wouldn't allow her to be with her dying partner in 2007. "We certainly are sorry for the pain and suffering she felt," said Martha Baker, a registered nurse and president of Service Employees International Union Local 1991, the union representing about 5,000 healthcare professionals at Jackson, which is in Miami.

Langbehn, whose lawsuit against Jackson was dismissed in September by a federal court in Miami, welcomed the nurses' gesture. But she still wants the hospital to apologize formally. "The management has to do it," Langbehn said.... [Langbehn's] longtime partner Lisa Pond, who suffered a fatal brain aneurysm on Feb. 18, 2007, shortly before they were to sail with their three children on a Caribbean cruise. At Jackson, Langbehn said, a social worker would not let her visit Pond because Florida is "an anti-gay state." Pond, 39, died the next day.

Does that social worker still have a job?

Here is a trailer for a short story by Colson Whitehead that appears in the second volume of Electric Literature, a nifty new literary magazine with amazing authors like Lydia Davis and T Cooper in every issue:

Maybe you should think about buying Electric Literature today. Or if you prefer your literary magazines to be free and entirely on the internet (but still good), you should look at the second issue of The Orphan.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

Jesus Is Mean: An orthodox Catholic bishop has banned U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving communion—which is important to those guys—in Rhode Island. Because Kennedy's pro-choice. And the bishop's kind of a dick.

The Crazy Murder Trial is Back: Prosecutors in Italy are seeking a life sentence for Amanda Knox. They even backed up their case with some kind of crazy cartoon reenactment!

Mine Explosion in China: 92 people now dead, and 16 missing inside.

MLS Cup: They've sold 40,000 tickets so far for today's championship game between the L.A. Galaxy and ridiculously named Real Salt Lake.

Smoking: Here's who the CDC says is doing it. A lot of them seem to come from West Virginia.

Anyone Else Noticed This? The city's been installing brown street signs. Here's what it all means.

Iran: They want fuel for their nuclear facilities, and say any attack on them "will be crushed."

Raising Awareness About Pedestrian Safety: Via a crowd of people prancing around downtown. It's how SDOT is getting the word out about car-pedestrian collisions.

Oops: Washington State collects $21,000 in child support from a man who didn't owe it. And offered him a $1.24 refund.

In case you need some dumbing down this morning:

And if that wasn't enough glorious stupidity, part 2 is here.

VS. at Re-Bar!
If you are not a female who spends a remarkable amount of her time fantasizing that you are the only pair of panties at Wimbledon, you probably don’t even have the foggiest clue that the humble little Re-Bar is home and host to the sweatiest, sex-rich-iest, and overall awesomest (and newest!) girl-for-girl club night between here and the sordid shores of Lesbos. (And that’s just how it ought to be.) It’s called “VS.”, and tonight it features the DJs Amateur Youth, Dee Jay Jack, and Texas Justice, with (hold me!) a very special live, live LIVE performance by The Ononos! 1114 East Powell.

And/or…

No Foolin’! at Wild Rose
And if VS. isn’t lebsolicious enough to tickle your figurative pickle, you’ve got option. (Yes, option.)Tonight’s No Foolin at the remarkably lesbolicious Wild Rose, specifically, which features the electric spinnings of Seattle superstar DJ L.A. Kendall and DJ FrankenHeart. A piddling $3 before 11pm, a whopping $5 after. Doors at 9pm. 1021 East Pike Street. Girls-for-girls encouraged. Everyone else, not so much.

I guess I’ll just stay home and cry.

Tonight!

This version, like the House bill that passed earlier, contains a public option. The senate's bill allows states to opt-out of the public option.

Lieberman, the ass, has stated he will not vote for any bill containing a public option. He has agreed to vote to open, but not close, debate on the bill—helping Reid achieve the sixty votes he needed today.

Brunch

Hudson

• More restaurant reviews in Get Out »

Friends of the Library is hosting a Mini-Book Sale today at Magnuson Park. No, the books aren't mini. The sale is mini; they'll only (?) have 10,000 books for sale.

At Seattle Mystery Bookshop, it's time for Derek Haas. Columbus is about an international assassin who is nicknamed "The Silver Bear." I think "The Silver Bear" would be a great nickname for our new mayor.

Dr. Ken Croswell talks at Pacific Science Center. Croswell, who knows about "stellar evolution" and "extrasolar planets," discusses what life on other planets could be like. This is like awesome with a side of awesome, soaked in awesome sauce.

Anthony Alvarado & Friend(s) are at Pilot Books today. Alvarado is the author and illustrator of Throwing Bones, which is a "macabre" selection of weird stories. You can read more about the book and Alvarado's great little publisher, Gunbaby Graphics, over here.

Mary Karr reads at Third Place Books tonight. Karr is a very rare thing: a memoirist who doesn't suck. Lit is about her drinking problem.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

Shooting on Capitol Hill: A man was shot in the chest last night, and was in critical condition at Harborview. Few details at this point.

The Tunnel—Still a Crappy Idea: The Sightline Institute looks at the Brightwater sewage treatment tunnel's problems, and says the viaduct replacement tunnel could be just as much of a clusterfuck!

Kids These Days: State school superintendent Randy Dorn wants a delay for math and science testing requirements. 'Cause, you know, the tests aren't working.

There are Always Test Prep Classes: Now available when you're five years old, apparently.

At Least Some People Aren't Dicks: People have donated over $100,000 worth of food to the Rainier Valley food bank that was robbed last week.

Berkeley Protesters: Dozens of the people occupying a campus building at UC-Berkeley were arrested last night.

Today in Smashing Particles Into Each Other: The gigantic particle accelerator in Switzerland is almost ready to resume experiments to create Big Bang-like conditions.

It's the History Eraser Button, you fool!

Plus, Charles Mudede explores the New Italian Cinema Festival at SIFF Cinema, and I review the Burning Fuse Festival at Grand Illusion.

Paul Mullin accompanies this announcement with his usual broadside.

There’s a stereotype about Seattle, and especially its artists, and even more especially its theatre aritists, that we have an inferiority complex. We have trouble believing that anyone who lives and creates their art here can really be doing work of such quality to deserve national recognition. After all, if you’re such a good playwright (or actor or director or designer), why the hell are you living here?

Alas, I think there’s some truth to this myth. But I also earnestly believe that in the next few years we’re going to see the stereotype so completely exploded that it will never be able to reconstitute to haunt us again.

If this coverage by NPR proves one thing it’s this: the rest of the nation actually does give a damn about what we do in this city. They actually do care what happens to our newspapers, and they actually do want to know about what kind of original theatre we’re doing here, what stories we’re telling, uniquely, as Seattleites.

What they don’t care about, what they will never care about, is how carefully and exquisitely we craft a restaging of some chestnut from the canon, or the play that knocked ‘em dead off-Broadway last year. And this isn’t because those stories aren’t good, it’s because those stories aren’t uniquely ours. Seattle theaters that dedicate themselves exclusively to craft and the canon and providing a local outlet to New York’s latest exports are museums. And Seattle will never have as good museums as New York, Chicago or LA.

He's got a point. And if some theater somewhere in the city had been willing to work with Paul on this project (on his admittedly fast timeline), our city's professional acting talent could've read the scenes for the national radio audience.

But there wasn't, except for North Seattle Community College, whose student-actors got the chance instead.

• They're already dressed for their funeral.

"Steve [Bonnell] and Brian [Turner] have kind of phased themselves out over the last year or so, and it'd be weird going on with them," says Jonah Bergman, the band's bassist. "So our Home for the Horrordays show is going to be our last one."

Even though Schoolyard has been playing recently without Bonnell and Turner, the two will be rejoining the band for the December show, happening at El Corazon on December 19th. It will also be the last show for Kane Hodder, who have played many a show with Schoolyard over the years. (And they too will be performing with their original line-up, including bassist Nick Cates and guitarist Jeremy White.)

Despite the break up, Bergman and Co. probably aren't done with music. Schoolyard's music has always been about dead things coming back to life, after all. In fact, he stressed that all Schoolyard fans will want to be sure they arrive to the show on time to see the opening "special guests."

But before they look too far ahead, with or without new projects, they're concentrating on giving Schoolyard the funeral service it deserves. "This band has been the only thing that we’ve thought about, and done every day for the last 10 years and now it’s gonna be done."

RIP, Schoolyard Heroes.

Home for the Horrordays is Saturday, December 19th, at El Corazon with Schoolyard Heroes, These Arms Are Snakes, Kane Hodder, Sirens Sister, and special guests. Doors are at 7 pm, it's all ages, and tickets are available here for $15.

Timothy Thompson, a former news reporter for Portland radio station KXL, will have 11 years and 6 months in prison to think about the severity of what he did to his wife Susan and their three young children, Knapp said. In a bench trial with no jury, Knapp found Thompson guilty of eight counts of assault and one of criminal mistreatment.... Since his arrest, Timothy Thompson said the bruising came from a single occasion when the couple’s “game” of correction got out of control. That story was clearly a lie, McKey said. The bruising was almost unbelievable—purple, green, yellow, red and blue. Knee to waist. Breast to navel. Looking more like the lividity of a corpse than injuries to living tissue, they were administered over years with such exacting care that no one would even notice them on a fully-clothed Susan, McKey said.

The beating game came to an end when the police were called to the house because a woman was screaming. Thompson wasn't home but the police noticed cuts and bruises and that Susan Thompson, "was barely strong enough to lift her infant son." The Thompsons—Mr. and Mrs.—argued that the beatings were a game meant to compensate for Susan Thompson's "lack of discipline" growing up. The couple also wanted a "traditional American family," complete with a submissive wife who stays home with the kids, but Susan Thompson had a hard time submitting. So, beatings. It was all supposed to be "titillating and fun," Mr. Thompson told the court—it was supposed to be consensual sex play—but the court didn't buy it and neither do I. First, because Susan Thompson was punished when she tried to call her parents, which smacks—sorry—the typical abuser's attempt to isolate his victim. And then there's this:

In April of 2009, the beatings escalated to 70 to 100 swats a day. Thompson decided to start using a surveyor’s stick instead of a belt because his arm was getting sore, McKey said. After he was done, daddy would sometimes have the children take the rod and smack the bruises, too, to “let mommy know she had to learn her lesson,” McKey said.

Sorry, but it's not a consensual adult sex game if you're forcing your children to participate. Christ.

The strong supporting cast includes DJ Riz (KEXP) and the Made Like a Tree DJs Struggle and D'jeronimo in the lounge, and SunTzu Sound opening for Jazzanova in the main room. Diverse, top-flight dance music happens 9 pm-2 am; 1325 E. Madison St./21+/$12 adv. Tickets available at Ticketweb.com and Chop Suey box office.

(Also, techno DJs M'chateau, Ctrl_Alt_Dlt, and Jonny Romero will be hosting an afterhours show at Electric Tea Garden starting at 1:30 am. Entry is $5 with a Chop Suey stamp.)