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Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. editor@thestranger.com (The Stranger Editor) webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:30:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/06/13/worn-out-fashion-and-psychoanalysis http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/06/13/worn-out-fashion-and-psychoanalysis Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:212px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/cf40/1371152325-wornout-click.jpg" alt="wornout-click.jpg" title="" width="200" height="312" /></div>In her book <em>Fashion and Psychoanalysis</em>, Alison Bancroft investigates a selection of garments that embody our most intimate and fundamental human fears. Shit abruptly gets real as designs by fashion superstars like John Galliano, Hussein Chalayan, and Alexander McQueen demonstrate the "hopelessness of bodily containment" or the "<strong>desecration of the body in the grave</strong>," Bancroft writes. There's also the humiliation of public nudity, the "terrifying maw of castration," the "visceral, bloody, traumatic process" of giving birth, and many other compelling unpleasantries.</p> <p>Bancroft's language manages to be both dense and lively, and layers of research perpetuate every idea. Describing <strong>clothes isolated from their wearers</strong>, Bancroft references Sigmund Freud's concept of the uncanny. Whether displayed in cases or strewn on floors, all empty garments take on "a sinister otherworldliness," she writes. She cites the Greek legend of Procrustes, who "forced his victims to lie on a bed that he made them fit [into] by cutting off or stretching" their limbs. One great segment discusses the function of fashion photography and how it draws upon the "fundamental asymmetry of desire." Another details a McQueen ensemble from his La Poup&#233;e collection&#8212;it has a square metal frame attached by shackles to the model's arms and thighs to provoke<strong> an upsetting "jerkiness" </strong>and "artificiality" in her movement, "like a doll being 'walked' along the floor by a child's hands," Bancroft says, and with this, McQueen "is staging a brutality of feminine experience."</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=17002827">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/06/13/worn-out-fashion-and-psychoanalysis?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=17018852&id=comments 0 Worn Out: Fashion and Psychoanalysis Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:42:25 -0700 The Stranger http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=17002895 http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=17002895 Marti Jonjak Wonder Coffee &amp; Sports Bar by Marti Jonjak <p><span id="dropcap">W</span>onder Coffee &amp; Sports Bar is a coffee shop, Ethiopian restaurant, burger joint, sports bar, dessert stand, and karaoke venue in the Central District, where the Wonder Bread bakery used to be. On a Saturday night, the crowd is thick but serene, people are dressed real nice, and the decor is fancy-ish and anonymously modern, with sleek black booths, cloth tablecloths, and walls painted the color of basketballs. Suddenly imparting a different feeling, the actual front end of an actual sports car rests just inside the South Jackson Street entrance. "I don't know whose it is, or why it's there, or how it got there," a bartender says.</p> <p>The car at Wonder Coffee &amp; Sports Bar has flip-up headlights, summoning memories of Capitol Hill's former Club Lagoon and the glorious fiberglass Lamborghini mounting its roof. Retro-futuristic airbrushed planets embellish the hood, along with glowing rings, lots of stars, and, behind them all, the vast blackness of outer space. A guy seated nearby wears a tank top and a scrunched-up leather cowboy hat. He's meaty and relaxed, and it's easy to picture him inside this vehicle, driving through video games and casually murdering aliens, accompanied by strange passengers: a floating pet of some kind, or perhaps a blond, spandexed woman, made of television vapor and suffused in dry ice.</p> <p><b>Happy hours:</b> Daily 4&ndash;7 pm.</p> <p><b>Happy-hour drink specials:</b> $3.99 Shock Top and Pacifico drafts; $3.99 house wine; $4.99 Long Island iced tea.</p> <p><b>Happy-hour food specials:</b> Choices like chicken wings, french fries, nachos, and an injera roll for $3.99 each, plus samosas for $1.99 apiece. <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border= ";0&quot;" /></p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=17002895#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=17002895&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Food & Drink/The Happiest Hour http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=17002895&show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=17002895&id=comments 0 Happiest Hour Wed, 12 Jun 2013 04:00:00 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/06/10/worn-out-david-bowies-perv-pants-from-labyrinth http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/06/10/worn-out-david-bowies-perv-pants-from-labyrinth Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:232px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/d5e1/1370902028-wornout-click2.jpg" alt="wornout-click2.jpg" title="" width="220" height="280" /></div>Happening now, EMP's <em>Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic </em>exhibit has some great costume artifacts from 1986's <em>Labyrinth</em>, a heavily puppeted fantasy film starring an adolescent Jennifer Connelly as Sarah and David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King, who takes <strong>a certain fierce pleasure</strong> in menacing her. A couple of the masks extras wore in the ballroom scene are on display, though during the movie you probably overlooked them to watch Jareth instead. He was especially dolled up for the ball, with glimmering coral lipstick and glitter spilling down his jacket's shoulders. In other on-screen moments, Jareth passed the time singing and prancing, tossing a baby high, or simply just looking on wanly. "One feels that he has rather reluctantly inherited the position of <strong>being Goblin King</strong>, as though he'd really like to be, I don't know, down in SoHo or something," David Bowie says of his character in the documentary<em> Inside the Labyrinth</em>, though it's obvious he's actually talking about himself.</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16950968">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/06/10/worn-out-david-bowies-perv-pants-from-labyrinth?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16993738&id=comments 0 Worn Out: David Bowie's Perv Pants from <em>Labyrinth</em> Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:10:00 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/06/04/the-dark-romance-of-stone-crow-designs http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/06/04/the-dark-romance-of-stone-crow-designs Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/0c12/1370368757-wornout-570.jpg" alt="wornout-570.jpg" title="" width="500" height="263" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">AMANDA PAREDES / SWAE PHOTOGRAPHY</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p><a href="http://stonecrowdesigns.com/">Stone Crow</a> designer Jenn Charkow's garments impart the ragged majesty that accompanies experiences of personal anxiety. "It's mostly about that moment when you're finally able to put yourself together after having some manic breakdown," Jenn says, describing a deep-wilderness fashion photography series with models in voluminous gowns. <strong>A woman has come to the woods to empty her mind</strong>, and the scenes she inhabits recall certain folklores&#8212;the ones with the beautiful lady-ghosts who're really into singing lullabies and vanishing into thick shadows, or just hanging out and mourning. "There's something so appealing about the dark romance, and this whole intense longing, and of being tucked away somewhere," Jenn says.</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16898086">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/06/04/the-dark-romance-of-stone-crow-designs?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16948029&id=comments 0 The Dark Romance of Stone Crow Designs AMANDA PAREDES / SWAE PHOTOGRAPHY Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:01:12 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/28/devon-yan-berrongs-pleats-and-geometry http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/28/devon-yan-berrongs-pleats-and-geometry Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:212px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/cd46/1369717350-wornout-click2.jpg" alt="wornout-click2.jpg" title="" width="200" height="300" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">DEVON YAN-BERRONG</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div>Hong Kong native and local designer <a href="http://www.devonyanberrong.com/">Devon Yan-Berrong</a>'s Devonation spring/summer 2013 couture collection pairs crisp geometric shapes with boxy silhouettes to emphasize the space between the fabric and the body, and the best look is a short bright dress made from <strong>a mystery synthetic</strong>. "I don't know the English word for it," says Devon of the material, though its texture and shininess suggest a specific blend of ingredients&#8212;plastic tablecloths, spaceship insulation, oil slicks, sheet rubber, and garage-sale records&#8212;melted in the sun, then stirred together.</p> <p>Embodying the sheen of 1970s-era retro-futurism, his other designs contain sunburst angles and flat colors and general spotlessness. Devon's models come off as <strong>well-kept women, hardened by privilege</strong>. One with long, fluffy hair has a columnar dress of pleated chiffon that descends into falls, or spreads and trails with movement. The gloves she's wearing are fitted so tight and scooped so deep that her hands seem to have been dipped, just past the knuckles, into <strong>buckets of paint</strong>. More mod details creep in: dangling, Edie Sedgwick&#8211;style tasseled earrings; curls flattened, glossed, and pasted onto foreheads; and hats with domed shapes, as if the thoughts drifting up got trapped inside, forming balloons.</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16837409">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/28/devon-yan-berrongs-pleats-and-geometry?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16887506&id=comments 0 Devon Yan-Berrong's Pleats and Geometry DEVON YAN-BERRONG Tue, 28 May 2013 10:13:00 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/16/worn-out-liberace-extravaganza http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/16/worn-out-liberace-extravaganza Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:187px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/b29d/1368589410-wornout-click.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/b29d/1368589410-wornout-click.jpg" alt="wornout-click.jpg" title="" width="175" height="447" /></a></div>The performer Liberace's life is a cascading story of fame and riches and fantasies, utterly bought into. Sure, there were smack-talkers along the way, such as William Connor, writing under the byline Cassandra for London's <em>Daily Mirror</em>, who called him "<strong>a sugary mountain of jingling claptrap</strong> wrapped up in such a preposterous clown," along with other unpleasantries. Mostly, though, everybody just loved the living fuck out of Liberace, with his corona of feathery hair, schmaltzy piano tunes, and absurdly fancy costumes&#8212;and even more so when he'd leave the stage "to go slip into something a little more spectacular," as he'd say. In tribute to these very moments, costumers-to-the-stars Connie Furr-Soloman and Jan Jewett have created the new compendium <em><a href="http://admin.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/amazon.com/Liberace-Extravaganza-Connie-Furr-Soloman/dp/0062202553">Liberace Extravaganza!</a></em>, a book perfectly blending designer bios, technical garment descriptions, and loads of fashion pictures, each of them throbbing with vision and dazzle.</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16764974">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/16/worn-out-liberace-extravaganza?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16768523&id=comments 0 Worn Out: Liberace Extravaganza! Thu, 16 May 2013 10:44:00 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/07/nail-salons-and-the-enduring-legacy-of-patrick-nagel http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/07/nail-salons-and-the-enduring-legacy-of-patrick-nagel Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:212px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/560d/1367949255-wornout-click1.jpg" alt="wornout-click1.jpg" title="" width="200" height="265" /></div>Today's critics refer to artist <a href="http://www.patricknagel.com/">Patrick Nagel</a>'s work as "pervy mall art," but the sharply linear portraits were hot shit in the 1980s. Nagel designed the album cover to <strong>Duran Duran's best-selling <em>Rio</em></strong>, featuring a gorgeous young lady and presumed owner of the "cherry ice cream smile," with a trademark m&#233;lange of diagonal lines, flatness, tendrils, purple drop earrings, and heavy black liquid eyeliner.</p> <p>Loads of Nagel's paintings also appeared in <em>Playboy</em> magazine, and to remind the readers of their essential manly nature, Nagel dressed his coldly alluring subjects in leg warmers, spike heels, and bikini panties, then <strong>showcased their naked boobs</strong> in inventive ways: jackets slung open, dresses cut low, or camisoles pulled down. If the images were real people, they'd be compulsively immersed in hobbies involving mauve seashell collectibles or recreational cocaine usage, while living in spartan apartments with stucco ceilings and white carpet and black leather couches and <strong>water beds and venetian blinds</strong>, and every time you dropped by they'd be listening to the best song you ever heard in your life. "I don't think I want to know these women too well. They never come out in the sunlight. They stay up late and <strong>smoke and drink a lot</strong>," Karl Bornstein recalls Nagel saying, in the coffee table book <em>Nagel: The Art of Patrick Nagel</em>.</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16637792">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/07/nail-salons-and-the-enduring-legacy-of-patrick-nagel?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16695646&id=comments 0 Nail Salons and the Enduring Legacy of Patrick Nagel Tue, 07 May 2013 11:34:00 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/25/worn-out-tomboys-making-clothes-for-tomboys http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/25/worn-out-tomboys-making-clothes-for-tomboys Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:245px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/49d0/1366923298-wornout-click1-1.jpg" alt="wornout-click1-1.jpg" title="" width="233" height="320" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">TOMBOY EXCHANGE</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div>Brought to us by Naomi Gonzalez and Fran Dunaway, <a href="http://tomboyexchange.com/">Tomboy Exchange</a>'s impressive collection of separates targets a very specific type of woman&#8212;she prefers "tube socks over leotards," their website says&#8212;and draws style influences from <strong>George Sand and Amelia Earhart</strong>, what with their practical glamour and trousers pulled high. Also seeping in: Diane Keaton's elegantly disheveled character Annie Hall, from the 1977 Woody Allen film, and her piling together of menswear items: the knotted ties, bulky jackets, starched shirts, suit vests, pinstripes, and drooping pocket squares. (This was either Diane Keaton's idea, or Ralph Lauren's, or costume designer Ruth Morley's, I can't tell, but the look swiftly pervaded the era's magazine spreads and generally turned the fashion world <strong>upside the fuck down</strong>.)</p> <p>TomboyX's capsule line contains plush cotton sports blazers and high-end polo shirts in check prints or earth-tone solids; an additional selection of caps, T-shirts, cargo pants, and golf skorts is coming soon. For their <a href="http://thestranger.com/seattle/worn/Content?oid=9536777">fit model</a>, Naomi and Fran deliberately chose <strong>a middle-aged woman who wears size 12</strong>, which is a refreshing change. Large-scale, corporate shit shows often rely on fantasy bodies to fulfill this utilitarian role, even though those fantasies have nothing to do with who we really are or what we really need. "We're not 20 years old, we're not a size 0, and nor do we want to be," says Fran. "We're tomboys making clothes for tomboys."</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16573329">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/25/worn-out-tomboys-making-clothes-for-tomboys?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16591409&id=comments 0 Worn Out: Tomboys Making Clothes for Tomboys TOMBOY EXCHANGE Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:56:53 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/23/krista-kelly-oiled-silk-and-saucy-tomboys http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/23/krista-kelly-oiled-silk-and-saucy-tomboys Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:212px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/9bb6/1366750512-wornout-click1.jpg" alt="wornout-click1.jpg" title="" width="200" height="301" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">CHONA KASINGER</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div>Ignore the gray days and smeary bullshit snowfall a couple weeks ago, because now spring is really here, and emerging superstar designer <a href="http://kristamariekelly.com/">Krista Kelly</a> has created a mini-capsule line as an accompaniment to nature's upcoming smorgasbord of sunshine and petals. It's called Hoyden, in tribute to a particularly <strong>saucy variety of tomboy</strong>, and in the fashion photographs, Krista's model comes off as an intense but dreamy woman with exquisite manners who probably smells like gingerbread houses and has never had a cavity and collects antique microscopes.</p> <p>Krista's work often plays up paradoxical combinations. (Prior to this, she was best known for her transformations of <strong>vintage T-shirts into underpants</strong>.) Hoyden's geometric mini-sleeves and high-low hems are trending now, while the slacks' scalloped cuffs were pulled directly from long-forgotten '30s-era golf-wear styles. Other more distant influences include '40s garments, like floaty blouses, with their heavily padded shoulders; those were so wildly popular, they made their way into nightgowns for a time.</p> <p>Krista also collects images from the constructivism and Bauhaus art movements, with their <strong>clean lines, strange tensions</strong>, and flat blocks of color. Her hues of dawns, apricots, and pastel pinks recall the cheeks of porcelain dolls, though as it happens, this same palette was also used for the "protection costumes" made of "pure oiled silk" detailed in 1939 London Harvey Nichols store advertisements, in a time when women lived each day in full catastrophe mode, as stylishly as possible: "The wearer can cover a distance of two hundred yards through <strong>mustard gas</strong> and the suit can be slipped over ordinary clothes in thirty-five seconds." As a suggested accessory, "a special pair of mittens... designed to cover up the head space unprotected by the ordinary gas mask."</p> <p><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16508767"><u>Continue reading &#187;</u></a></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/23/krista-kelly-oiled-silk-and-saucy-tomboys?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16571768&id=comments 0 Krista Kelly: Oiled Silk and Saucy Tomboys CHONA KASINGER Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:57:19 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/11/worn-out-bronwyn-lewiss-razzle-dazzle-camouflage http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/11/worn-out-bronwyn-lewiss-razzle-dazzle-camouflage Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:212px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/3819/1365788459-wornout-click1.jpg" alt="wornout-click1.jpg" title="" width="200" height="300" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">MOLLY BAUER</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div>"It might resemble war paint. Or football players' under-eye stripes. Or sometimes you'll get more of a postapocalyptic Blade Runner look," says local performance artist and burlesque dancer <a href="http://glamrockwetdream.com/">Bronwyn Lewis</a>, describing her upcoming workshop, <strong><em>Facial Recognition Defense, a Makeup Tutorial</em></strong>, this <a href="http://henryart.org/events/show/726">Thursday, April 11, at Henry Art Gallery</a>. The blocky shapes, with their warping, cubic patterns and gemstone angles, spring directly from New York artist Adam Harvey's <em>CV Dazzle</em> project, short for Computer Vision Dazzle.</p> <p>The name alludes to <strong>dazzle camouflage</strong>, a WWI-era ship-painting technique that used oblique grids to form illusions, distorting familiar shapes. Similarly, Harvey designed a camouflage to rupture certain patterns that algorithmic software programs like Google and Facebook use to identify images of human faces. Once these ideas got into Bronwyn's head, they would not leave her imagination alone.</p> <p>"A diagonal line works really well. Anything that'll break up the symmetry," Bronwyn says. She experiments by drawing strange patterns on her skin, using sponsor Atomic Cosmetics' cream foundations, in colors ranging from "clown white to ink black to really fair to super pale to pretty dark." She tests each look by <strong>running her digital portrait through a customized program</strong>. When it registers Bronwyn's face, it frames the area with a red box, but if her makeup is right, Bronwyn will slip past without detection.</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16458864">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/11/worn-out-bronwyn-lewiss-razzle-dazzle-camouflage?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16476757&id=comments 0 Worn Out: Bronwyn Lewis's Razzle-Dazzle Camouflage MOLLY BAUER Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:47:00 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/28/jean-paul-gaultier-cooks-thieves-and-plastic-corsets http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/28/jean-paul-gaultier-cooks-thieves-and-plastic-corsets Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:312px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/7bfb/1364496154-wo-570.png" alt="wo-570.png" title="" width="300" height="233" /></div>Peter Greenaway's 1989 film <strong><em>The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover</em></strong> is a weird, grand spectacle involving haute cuisine and sex and luridness and many particularly horrible things, such as cannibalism, torture, and shit-eating. It showed at Central Cinema recently, but if you missed it, get it from Netflix; YouTube has the censored version, which is less thrilling but less exhausting.</p> <p><strong>Jean Paul Gaultier</strong> designed the costuming, which is not surprising. His work has a tendency to appear in movies that embody hallucinatory worlds, including <em>The City of Lost Children</em> and <em>The Fifth Element</em>. (The latter's gorgeously absurd airline-stewardess dresses inspired<strong> local designer</strong> <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=14330995">Aubrey McMillan</a>.) Many of Gaultier's styles in <em>The Cook</em> pull details from his signature bondage-y ensembles, with their cage crinolines, cinched waists, and intricate straps. As Georgina, Helen Mirren pairs ostrich-feather accessories with intricate hairdos, all lacquered and swirling, and her<strong> garments change colors as she moves</strong> from room to room. Restaurant waitstaff uniforms manage to seem both servile and regal, with combinations of epaulets and gold tassels, meticulous white gauntlets, and shiny plastic corsets, while the transparent forks and spoons stacking the chest in horizontal rows impart a sci-fi-nutcracker-magic-majorette effect. As the pathological lunatic Albert, Michael Gambon and his accompanying thugs <strong>dole out abuse</strong> by jamming objects into victims' mouths: book pages, spoon handles, wooden buttons, belly buttons. They resemble 17th-century cardinals, with red sashes and delicate lace collars draped over finely tailored suits.</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16346348">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/28/jean-paul-gaultier-cooks-thieves-and-plastic-corsets?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16365068&id=comments 0 Jean Paul Gaultier: Cooks, Thieves, and Plastic Corsets Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:54:00 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/21/happiest-hour-the-tin-lizzie-lounge http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/21/happiest-hour-the-tin-lizzie-lounge Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:262px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/6909/1363813067-chow-happy-570.jpg" alt="chow-happy-570.jpg" title="" width="250" height="176" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">THETINLIZZIELOUNGE.COM</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-tin-lizzie-lounge/Location?oid=14534534">The Tin Lizzie Lounge</a> is a newish component to the MarQueen Hotel, the thoroughly lovely brick building in Lower Queen Anne that's been around for 100 years. To replicate a historic mood, there are floral still-life paintings, granite countertops, and tin- paneled ceilings, and an ornate armoire is spotlighted behind the bar, bringing a shrinelike presence. Plenty of modern flourishes are mixed in, too: zebra-print tuffets, tabletops of sturdy bluish glass with tiny suspended bubbles. The scene feels generally richer and more grown-up, so leave your hat crocheted from Old Milwaukee beer cans at home.</p> <p><strong>Saturday evening happenings:</strong> It's a full bar, and people are calmly tossing around sentences coded with delightfully horrifying information: "The bride had alcohol poisoning during the wedding, her sister kept flipping off the cameras." "My lips are tattooed, my eyeliner is tattooed." "I bought a Jagerator earlier this week, it's sitting in my living room."</p> <p><strong>Happy hours:</strong> Daily 4&#8211;7 pm, Sun&#8211;Thurs 10 pm&#8211;close.</p> <p><strong>Happy-hour drink specials:</strong> $2 off wine; $1 off wells and beer, which means $3.66 drafts (Manny's, Roger's) and $2.65&#8211;$4.25 bottles (Blue Moon, Strongbow Cider, BridgePort IPA, more).</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=16295612">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Booze http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/21/happiest-hour-the-tin-lizzie-lounge?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16302922&id=comments 0 Happiest Hour: The Tin Lizzie Lounge THETINLIZZIELOUNGE.COM Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:48:00 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/21/the-dowsing-dickeys-and-faberg http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/21/the-dowsing-dickeys-and-faberg Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:312px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/d72c/1363888486-wornout-570.jpg" alt="wornout-570.jpg" title="" width="300" height="158" /></div>In the upcoming fashion performance <em><a href="http://www.henryart.org/events/show/723">The Dowsing</a></em> this Friday, March 22, at University of Washington's Red Square, designer <a href="http://annatelcs.com/">Anna Telcs</a> will gradually layer male models in her garments that "are more like sculptures," designed to build the silhouette's volume. "It'll feel ritualized as the bodies are walking. I'll be <strong>anointing them with clothing</strong>," she says. (The affiliated display runs at the Henry Art Gallery through May 5.)</p> <p>Watch for voluminous sleeve caps fastened on with buttons, pleated neckwear "like an ecclesiastical dickey," quilted thigh pads, a chest plate of swollen knots made from batting-stuffed tubes, cocoon-shaped outerwear resembling "a Faberg&#233; egg that you can peer into and see all the smocking inside," and another form that "started as a <strong>jacket-y situation</strong> but then became a ball."</p> <p>The apparel of <em>The Dowsing</em> manages to seem both pure and timeworn. The shapes are basic and flowing and embellished with details like darning-stitched knees to suggest use and repairs, and a palette of deliberately washed-out colors: "It's what happens when you wear a garment again and again and again. Black becomes bleach black or <strong>rust black or blood black</strong>." To make an actual rust-tone trim, Anna soaked bias tape in a salve made of water, vinegar, and steel wool. And she transformed silk from beige to an ash brown by singeing the fabric: "It sort of melts. It doesn't really catch fire. Well, it does every once in a while."</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16295001">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/21/the-dowsing-dickeys-and-faberg?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16311281&id=comments 0 <em>The Dowsing</em>: Dickeys and Faberg&#233; Thu, 21 Mar 2013 11:04:00 -0700 The Stranger http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=16295612 http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=16295612 Marti Jonjak The Tin Lizzie Lounge by Marti Jonjak <p><span id="dropcap">T</span>he Tin Lizzie Lounge is a newish component to the MarQueen Hotel, the thoroughly lovely brick building in Lower Queen Anne that's been around for 100 years. To replicate a historic mood, there are floral still-life paintings, granite countertops, and tin-&#10;paneled ceilings, and an ornate armoire is spotlighted behind the bar, bringing a shrinelike presence. Plenty of modern flourishes are mixed in, too: zebra-print tuffets, tabletops of sturdy bluish glass with tiny suspended bubbles. The scene feels generally richer and more grown-up, so leave your hat crocheted from Old Milwaukee beer cans at home.</p> <p><b>Saturday evening happenings:</b> It's a full bar, and people are calmly tossing around sentences coded with delightfully horrifying information: "The bride had alcohol poisoning during the wedding, her sister kept flipping off the cameras." "My lips are tattooed, my eyeliner is tattooed." "I bought a Jagerator earlier this week, it's sitting in my living room."</p> <p><b>Happy hours:</b> Daily 4&ndash;7 pm, Sun&ndash;Thurs 10 pm&ndash;close.</p> <p><b>Happy-hour drink specials:</b> $2 off wine; $1 off wells and beer, which means $3.66 drafts (Manny's, Roger's) and $2.65&ndash;$4.25 bottles (Blue Moon, Strongbow Cider, BridgePort IPA, more).</p> <p><b>Bonus:</b> Varying weekday discounts! On Thursdays, ladies get specialty cocktails for half the price&mdash;the $5 Mary Pickford has white rum, pineapple juice, and grenadine.</p> <p><b>Happy-hour food specials:</b> A nice menu with many fancy choices&mdash;$5 prosciutto-wrapped melon and fresh greens; $5 crostini with black olive tapenade; $7 Italian salami panini with roasted red pepper, mozzarella, pesto mayo. <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border= ";0&quot;" /></p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=16295612#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16295612&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Food & Drink/The Happiest Hour http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=16295612&show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16295612&id=comments 3 Wed, 20 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/14/janieta-eyre-leech-gowns-and-manicures http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/14/janieta-eyre-leech-gowns-and-manicures Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:262px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/370a/1363285485-wornout-click2.jpg" alt="wornout-click2.jpg" title="" width="250" height="313" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">JANIETA EYRE</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div>Happening now at Henry Art Gallery, <em><a href="http://www.henryart.org/exhibitions/show/1178">Out [o] Fashion Photography: Embracing Beauty</a></em> presents a vast mix of styles, eras, artists, and subjects, including the pair of disquietly enchanting black-and-white portraits by <strong>Toronto-based artist</strong> <a href="http://www.janietaeyre.com/">Janieta Eyre</a>. In <em>Twin Manicurists</em>, the identical women each wear a mantilla, a tiered fox stole, a full-length lace-floral dress, and bare feet, with excessively long toenails to depict the characters as "somewhere between animal and human," says Janieta during our phone interview. In <em>Twins Modeling Identical Leech Gowns</em>, the fashions layer antique ruffles and fleshy gobs: "They aren't real leeches. <strong>It's a squid.</strong> I remember its heavy smell. And I had to be careful sewing it to the tulle. It was very fragile; it frayed easily."</p> <p>Janieta is compelled by twin imagery. One delightful legend suggests she is the lone survivor of a conjoined set: "That's a rumor, and I have no idea whether it's true or not," she says. "The body itself is like a garment&#8212;it can be changed... And when I [observe twins together], I see how differently they wear their bodies," she says. Similarly, Janieta transforms for her pictures, then arranges herself in stark rooms, among <strong>mutilations, dolls, flowers, dildos</strong>. Her narratives are rooted in costuming. "I'll start with a piece of clothing and create the character and development around it," she says. This might be a Value Village garment she "cuts apart, reassembles, alters, and puts back together again," while past rigorous apparel journeys turned up corsets, balaclavas, Mickey Mouse ears, crinolines, WWII-era gas masks, and nuns' winged cornettes. Objects can get incorporated, too: A cheese grater becomes a necklace pendant. So does a <strong>dead albatross</strong>.</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=16235839">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/03/14/janieta-eyre-leech-gowns-and-manicures?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16248573&id=comments 0 Janieta Eyre: Leech Gowns and Manicures JANIETA EYRE Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:29:33 -0700 The Stranger http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=16235646 http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=16235646 Marti Jonjak Speckled &amp; Drake by Marti Jonjak <p><span id="dropcap">S</span>peckled &amp; Drake is outfitted with duck-oriented novelties of every imaginable variety: taxidermied ducks, duck-hunting decoys, tiny wooden toy ducks clutching tiny wooden toy rifles, a Russian-doll-style trinket collection with shrinking ducks all in a row. Owner Justin Martinsen has a Brooklyn bar, too (it's called duckduck), and the theme of both commemorates his old hairdo: "It flipped up in the back and looked like a duck's ass." Like his hair, Justin's lounge is nostalgic-styled&mdash;it's got '60s-esque cubbies and vintage signs and slatted wood walls. S&amp;D occupies the snug yet airy bi-level space on Capitol Hill's Olive Way where the Living Room used to be.</p> <p><b>What else:</b> They have free Cheetos! Not the standard crunches, but the swollen variety whose forms resemble the spongy black snakes that spritz up from certain firework tablets. Justin hypothesizes that this is how Cheetos harvests the puffs&mdash;that, following ignition, "they form long tubes that are cut into segments."</p> <p><b>Happy hours:</b> Daily 5&ndash;8 pm.</p> <p><b>Happy-hour drink specials:</b> $1 off most everything, from whiskey (including fancy-schmancy $11 Hudson Manhattan Rye, $7 Eagle Rare bourbon) to cocktails (the $9 Rootbeer Float has Art in the Age ROOT liqueur, Oola vodka, cream); also $3 wells, $2 off drafts from 5&ndash;6 pm (that means $1 Olympia!), and from 6&ndash;8 pm, $1 off selected drafts like Lagunitas Pils and Schooner Exact King Street Brown Ale.</p> <p><b>Bonus:</b> Sun&ndash;Wed 1 am&ndash;close, $1 off wells and drafts.</p> <p><b>Happy-hour food special:</b> $7 Rain Shadow Meats grilled sausage, with onions, peppers, and a side&mdash;potato salad, coleslaw, or baked beans. <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border=";0&quot;" /></p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=16235646#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16235646&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Food & Drink/The Happiest Hour http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=16235646&show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16235646&id=comments 0 Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/18/unicornnarwhal-will-host-a-show-to-benefit-the-wounded-twilight-exit-bouncer-on-february-20 http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/18/unicornnarwhal-will-host-a-show-to-benefit-the-wounded-twilight-exit-bouncer-on-february-20 Marti Jonjak <p><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/unicorn/Location?oid=3308838">Unicorn/Narwhal</a> is hosting a benefit show on <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/unicorn/Location?oid=3308838">Wednesday, February 20</a>, to raise money for the bouncer injured by gunfire in the January 27 <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/27/gunman-open-fires-inside-the-twilight-exit">shooting at Twilight Exit</a>. Entertainment includes sets by <strong>Murder in the Woods</strong>, <strong>Local Dudes</strong>, and <strong>PonyHomie</strong>. Tickets cost $10, and the bouncer will receive 100% of ticket sales. There will also be a jars for individual donations for him, and family members have arranged a donation site on his behalf, via PayPal. You can <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=5HUQ9G8T8UC32&lc=US&item_name=Help%20the%20Twilight%20Exit%20Employee%20Shot%20on%201%2f26%2f13&#164;cy_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donateCC_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted">donate here</a>.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/18/unicornnarwhal-will-host-a-show-to-benefit-the-wounded-twilight-exit-bouncer-on-february-20#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16037876&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Crime Music Life http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/18/unicornnarwhal-will-host-a-show-to-benefit-the-wounded-twilight-exit-bouncer-on-february-20?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16037876&id=comments 1 Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:49:08 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/04/twilight-exit-will-host-a-benefit-on-february-10 http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/04/twilight-exit-will-host-a-benefit-on-february-10 Marti Jonjak <p><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/twilight-exit/Location?oid=24755">Twilight Exit</a> will have a karaoke benefit on <strong>Sunday Feb 10th</strong> to raise money for the bouncer injured by gunfire in <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/27/gunman-open-fires-inside-the-twilight-exit">the January 27th shooting</a>. There will also be a jar at the benefit for individual donations to him, and family have arranged a donation site on his behalf, via PayPal. <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=5HUQ9G8T8UC32&lc=US&item_name=Help%20the%20Twilight%20Exit%20Employee%20Shot%20on%201%2f26%2f13&currency_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donateCC_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted">You can donate here.</a></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/04/twilight-exit-will-host-a-benefit-on-february-10#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15872749&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Life http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/04/twilight-exit-will-host-a-benefit-on-february-10?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15872749&id=comments 11 Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:25:07 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/01/is-my-landlord-being-honest-here http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/01/is-my-landlord-being-honest-here Marti Jonjak <p>In this week's paper, I write about my landlord <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-rent-hike/Content?oid=15876932">dramatically jacking up rents</a>, beginning major renovations, and essentially forcing out tenants (who can't stand the construction or afford rents up to 92 percent higher). When I was conducting interviews, I wondered if these circumstances trigger the city's Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance (TRAO), which <strong>requires landlords to provide benefits</strong> for renters being displaced by demolitions, tenants of residential buildings transformed for commercial use, people who live in buildings with property alterations so substantial that they displace the tenant for more than 72 hours, and other circumstances. (More info on the law is <a href="http://www.seattle.gov/DPD/Publications/CAM/cam123.pdf">here</a>.) Should our landlord be offering benefits prescribed by the TRAO to help tenants relocate?</p> <p>When I asked Pacific Living Property's Washington regional manager, Jason Alldredge&#8212;who oversees the Prince of Wales building&#8212;why he did not pursue a Tenant Relocation License, he said it was because "<strong>the city does not declare Prince a low-income housing</strong>." I could have done more research on his claim, but it turns out <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/28/i-was-at-the-shooting-at-twilight-exit">my weekend got turned upside down</a>. Upon revisiting this issue, I believe Alldredge misstated the situation. Despite what he told me, there is nothing in the TRAO that requires a building to qualify as low-income housing. That's a misleading argument. From my understanding, TRAO applies to income-qualifying tenants: single-person households making $30,350 or less per year. So even if the property is not low-income housing, per se, there are plenty of tenants who have low incomes that may qualify. Still, that doesn't necessarily mean that the Prince tenants qualify for the relocation assistance (the building is not being entirely demolished and, technically, renters can stay in the construction zones), but the City of Seattle's Housing Ordinance Supervisor Jim Metz says either way, "<strong>It'd be the right thing to do</strong>." </p> <p>Because realistically, the Prince of Wales tenants are being relocated and the inconveniences are stunning. For instance, last night when I got home from work, <strong>all of the electric outlets had been cut to my unit</strong>. I couldn't use my microwave or charge my cell phone, and even my fridge had been cut from power. So all my food, including a ham, got warm and needed to be thrown out. My modem won't run so I have no internet access&#8212;I had to go to out and find wifi to write this. And lately, <a href=" http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Shooting-witness-I-was-cowering-in-front-of-him-188767571.html">I really don't feel like going out</a>. I notified PLP of the problem yesterday evening and they did not fix it until today, though last night my interim apartment manager responded and was unable to provide help. If these aren't the sort of renovation inconveniences that push out tenants, I don't know what are. </p> <p>A problem for tenants is when landlords suggest that tenants have no rights to relocation assistance or legal recourse. And, of course, by the time tenants move out, it's too late. (I emailed Alldredge with follow-up questions and have not yet received a response.)</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/01/is-my-landlord-being-honest-here#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15894234&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> News http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/01/is-my-landlord-being-honest-here?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15894234&id=comments 58 Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:37:48 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/30/what-happened-when-a-new-owner-bought-our-apartment-building http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/30/what-happened-when-a-new-owner-bought-our-apartment-building Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:337px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-rent-hike/Content?oid=15876932"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/218c/1359586311-prince_by_kelly_o.jpg" alt="DONT TAKE IT PERSONALLY But you&#8217;re being forced out." title="DONT TAKE IT PERSONALLY But you&#8217;re being forced out." width="325" height="247" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">Kelly O</li><li class="imageCaption">DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY But you&#8217;re being forced out.</li></ul></div>Located just off Madison Street, where Madison Valley, Capitol Hill, and the Central District converge, the <strong>Prince of Wales</strong> is a deeply charming brick apartment building that seems as if it's been around longer than anyone can remember. "Supposedly, it used to be a hospice," says Katherine Lind, a 14-year resident. She adds, "Charlton Heston lived here for a time, when he went to Cornish. That's what I heard, God knows if it's true." ("It's true," says a different resident. "It was his cold-water flat.")</p> <p>For a long time, the Prince's owner kept rents low, and Lind says that the units were generally "<strong>filled with quirky creative-type people</strong>" who shared holiday meals, while the backyard garden and picnic tables instilled a community vibe. Although the neighborhood is quiet today, things were different a few years ago, Lind says. "We lived through the hell of it. All the hookers and drugs and gunplay and dogs barking and shit. And the drunk motherfuckers singing. Oh, how I hated them. It was like 300 people were in my living room," she says, gesturing right outside her window to where the dive bar Deano's/Chocolate City and bar/karaoke venue the Twilight Exit formerly stood (and other bars before that). Today, the plot sits vacant, though four town houses are scheduled for construction.</p> <p>Nearby, a Safeway, a Starbucks, and a Subway occupy the ground floor of a multistory residential complex that is so sprawling and beige-colored and aggressively nondescript that it actually seems profane. "I watched it going up. The workers just didn't stop. It was like a giant marshmallow that kept getting bigger and bigger," Lind says.</p> <p>I'm talking with Lind in her apartment. It's a pleasant space with high ceilings and wood floors, but she won't be living here much longer. Rents at the Prince are suddenly skyrocketing. While previous rates for its studios and one-bedroom units ranged from $600 to $900 a month, <strong>the new owners are jacking up rents an extra $315 to $670 a month. That's 45 to 90 percent.</strong> Many tenants, such as Lind, say they can't afford to stay. At $350 more per month, her increase is 44 percent.</p> <p><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-rent-hike/Content?oid=15876932">CONTINUE READING >></a></p> News http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/30/what-happened-when-a-new-owner-bought-our-apartment-building?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15884138&id=comments 0 What Happened When a New Owner Bought Our Apartment Building DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY But you’re being forced out. Kelly O Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:58:29 -0800 The Stranger http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-rent-hike/Content?oid=15876932 http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-rent-hike/Content?oid=15876932 Marti Jonjak What Happened When a New Owner Bought Our Apartment Building by Marti Jonjak <p><span id="dropcap">L</span>ocated just off Madison Street, where Madison Valley, Capitol Hill, and the Central District converge, the Prince of Wales is a deeply charming brick apartment building that seems as if it's been around longer than anyone can remember. "Supposedly, it used to be a hospice," says Katherine Lind, a 14-year resident. She adds, "Charlton Heston lived here for a time, when he went to Cornish. That's what I heard, God knows if it's true." ("It's true," says a different resident. "It was his cold-water flat.")</p> <p>For a long time, the Prince's owner kept rents low, and Lind says that the units were generally "filled with quirky creative-type people" who shared holiday meals, while the backyard garden and picnic tables instilled a community vibe. Although the neighborhood is quiet today, things were different a few years ago, Lind says. "We lived through the hell of it. All the hookers and drugs and gunplay and dogs barking and shit. And the drunk motherfuckers singing. Oh, how I hated them. It was like 300 people were in my living room," she says, gesturing right outside her window to where the dive bar Deano's/Chocolate City and bar/karaoke venue the Twilight Exit formerly stood (and other bars before that). Today, the plot sits vacant, though four town houses are scheduled for construction.</p> <p>Nearby, a Safeway, a Starbucks, and a Subway occupy the ground floor of a multistory residential complex that is so sprawling and beige-colored and aggressively nondescript that it actually seems profane. "I watched it going up. The workers just didn't stop. It was like a giant marshmallow that kept getting bigger and bigger," Lind says.</p> <p>I'm talking with Lind in her apartment. It's a pleasant space with high ceilings and wood floors, but she won't be living here much longer. Rents at the Prince are suddenly skyrocketing. While previous rates for its studios and one-bedroom units ranged from $600 to $900 a month, the new owners are jacking up rents an extra $315 to $670 a month. That's 45 to 90 percent. Many tenants, such as Lind, say they can't afford to stay. At $350 more per month, her increase is 44 percent.</p> <p>This all began on October 16, when a development company called Briarbox purchased the Prince of Wales and hired management company Pacific Living Properties (PLP). Since then, PLP has distributed notices every month announcing that rents will increase in 60 days. About 15 units have received notices so far, though not everyone's been hit. Some wait for the inevitable; others relocate of their own accord. But the building is quickly emptying. Of 32 units, 20 will be vacant by February.</p> <p>"It's sad. You're leaving your home, you're leaving your neighborhood, you're leaving your family," says 23-year resident Butch Rogers, who is retired but covers on-call shifts as an inspector for the Department of Agriculture. He says he must relocate after receiving a $670 rent hike, a 92 percent increase.</p> <p>I'm a tenant here, too. PLP directly involved me in this struggle when I received an increase notice of $580 for my one-bedroom unit, which currently rents for $815&mdash;a 71 percent jump I can't afford.</p> <p>So why the huge rent hike?</p> <p>"This outskirted Capitol Hill area is going through a development boom, and meanwhile, Prince tenants aren't paying comparable market rents," says PLP regional manager Jason Alldredge during a telephone interview. "This is a building that's underperforming because the electrical system is bad, the plumbing is horrible, the meters in the basement are old, the mortar is falling apart. From a structural standpoint, the building is not functioning as it should. And, with all the work we're doing, we might as well go in and bring up the aesthetics, too," says Alldredge. Which is to say that the new owners are remodeling the building's systems and its appearance, which cost money and allow them to charge more per unit.</p> <p>Thanks to all the construction under way, even tenants who haven't (yet) had a rent hike, such as 17-year resident Jeanne Ferraro, experience vibrating floors, droning mechanical sounds, and workers everywhere. "I'm moving out. I can't take this. They've started construction all around me," she says.</p> <p>There is more unpleasantness. In my case, for instance, the company scheduled my rent increase to begin a couple of months before my one-year lease expired. I understood it to be a violation of tenant-rights laws, so I contested it. After I provided PLP with a copy of my lease, they dropped the hike (for now, anyway). But PLP issued rent-increase notices to three other tenants also protected by leases, and as I say to Alldredge, "This gives the impression you're testing to see what you'll get away with."</p> <p>Paperwork mix-ups caused these oversights, Alldredge says. "When the building was transitioned to us, not all the [lease] documents were in order. We had to do a lot of weeding through. Ideally, we would've been handed an organized filing cabinet, but it didn't work out that way, and that's unfortunate," he says. "We know you guys are taking it personally, but please don't."</p> <p>"It's not that I'm taking it personally," I say. "I thought it was a violation of tenant law to raise rents during a fixed lease's term."</p> <p>"It's really unfortunate. I'm sorry for that. And it hits home because it's your home," Alldredge says. His tone suggests that the response is supposed to be reassuring.</p> <p>It isn't, but now let's focus on the rent increase, which is totally legal.</p> <p>"It's manifestly unfair to tenants, but there's nothing that prevents it in the law," says Jim Metz, the housing ordinance supervisor for the City of Seattle. "State law specifically prohibits any form of rent control," Metz says, and when tenants are not protected by a lease, owners "can make any rent increase they want, as long as they give tenants 60 days written notice of any increase in housing costs" of 10 percent or more in a 12-month period.</p> <p>After forcing out tenants, property managers like PLP can swiftly rehabilitate the vacant units, which costs them significantly less time and money than it would to follow the terms of the Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance, which requires the property manager and the city to provide relocation-assistance payments for low-income tenants being displaced.</p> <p>But the Prince doesn't officially qualify as low-income housing, according to PLP, so they're not mandated to do this. So I ask Alldredge if it was his goal to create vacancies by raising rents, essentially forcing out the old tenants so that management can begin extensive interior remodels.</p> <p>"It's something that needs to get done," he argues. "It does require vacancy. But it's a process that's happening throughout Seattle. We're not the only ones doing it."</p> <p>Still, it seems ethically questionable to buy a property and raise the rent so high that the artists, writers, seamstresses, music teachers, retirees, and caregivers who live there&mdash;the sort of people who bring texture to the neighborhood&mdash;can no longer afford to stay.</p> <p>"We're not putting a personal spin on this," says Alldredge. "This is a business, and our long-term goal is to beautify and upgrade the building. Difficult decisions have to be made to get there."</p> <p>Appalled and tired, nine-year resident Alicia Bennett is moving to Beacon Hill. She hasn't received a rent-increase notice, but her asthma has recently worsened and she blames the dust from perpetual construction. "The new owners are gonna win. I know that," she says. "They'll do whatever it takes to get their way, and then they'll rent the units for an obscene amount of money." <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border= ";0&quot;" /></p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-rent-hike/Content?oid=15876932#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15876932&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Features/Feature http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-rent-hike/Content?oid=15876932&show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15876932&id=comments 159 The Rent Hike Kelly O Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:00:00 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/28/i-was-at-the-shooting-at-twilight-exit http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/28/i-was-at-the-shooting-at-twilight-exit Marti Jonjak <p>I was <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/27/gunman-open-fires-inside-the-twilight-exit">at the Twilight Exit</a> with my friend Lexi, sitting at the wedged-in end of the horseshoe bar. A young man in a white shirt came in early on, he seemed tense. He sat at the bar but left after not even a minute. Later on, <strong>a really beautiful young woman</strong> came in, she was on her cell phone and sat close by us at the bar, and just after that, the guy came in again. He brought his face close to hers and yelled, "You left my door unlocked and everything got stolen. They took my flat screen. Why did you leave my door unlocked?" The woman didn't hang up her phone, her face was blank, she appeared calm, she wouldn't look at his face. She said, "I don't know you. I have never seen you before in my life. I don't know this guy. Someone call 911," in a really flat, soft voice, and the bouncer led the guy off. </p> <p>Lexi said, "I think she's lying, it looks like she knows that guy." I said, "Yeah she didn't seem surprised or confused like you would if someone you didn't know got right into your face like that."</p> <p>Things calmed down right after the man left, and we shrugged it off. Something like 20-30 minutes later, we heard a popping sound, like a fire cracker. We couldn't see exactly what was happening, but I suddenly felt panicked, and Lexi and I crouched down on the floor, we were trapped in the back corner of the bar. The young man walked towards us, he was holding a gun. I saw the beautiful girl was next to me, on my left. <strong>Our shoulders were touching.</strong> I saw her long black curly hair. As we crouched on the floor, the man was standing over all of us with his gun. He was hyper focused on the girl, and then I jumped up and ran past him. Before I got outside, <strong>I saw a pool of blood on the floor</strong> of the entry way. I tucked myself behind a dumpster and saw the bouncer laying near by. He was covered in blood, and another man was kneeling over him. This man handed me his cell phone, it was already dialing 911. The cell phone was smeared in blood, it left blood stains on my hands. Lexi came out after that, and just after that, the cops showed up in the alley, one pointed his flashlight at me and I held my hands up, and they gathered us together for questions. Lexi was barefoot because the woman who'd been shot had fallen on top of her, and as she struggled to leave her shoes somehow came loose and fell off beneath the woman's body. More police and medics arrived, and later, I watched the bouncer and the girl being transported on stretchers into the ambulance.</p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:280px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/01/28/1359398856-screen_shot_2013-01-28_at_10.47.33_am.png" alt="Screen_shot_2013-01-28_at_10.47.33_AM.png" title="" width="280" height="382" /></div><small>Pic by Charles Mudede</small></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/28/i-was-at-the-shooting-at-twilight-exit#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15862329&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Breaking News http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/28/i-was-at-the-shooting-at-twilight-exit?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15862329&id=comments 87 Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:16:27 -0800 The Stranger http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/veils-with-vroom/Content?oid=15811107 http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/veils-with-vroom/Content?oid=15811107 Marti Jonjak <em>The Stranger</em> Asked Six Local Designers to Create Wedding Veils&mdash;Look at the Crazy Shit They Made! by Marti Jonjak <style>#communityScroller {display:none;}</style> <p><i>Photos by Kelly O, Makeup by Rian Ashleigh</i></p> <img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/298b/feat-veil1-400.jpg"> <div align="left" class="innerhead">Braided Bunny</div> <p><a href="http://oberginnerwear.com/">oberginnerwear.com</a></p> <p><span id="dropcap">L</span>enna Petersen, a designer who's also media director for the boutique Baby &amp; Company, built her veil from white bunny fur, shells, metal chains, braided leather, and long strips of cheesecloth culled from the supply she keeps on hand. ("In fact, I'm making cheese with some tomorrow," she says.) The finished veil manages to be ratty and majestic all at once, and it imparts a certain folkloric glamour. It's the perfect accessory for enchanted journeys into forests strewn with mystical creatures, shimmering piles of gold, and creamy princes in velvet leotards.</p> <img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/216e/feat-veil2-470.jpg"> <div align="left" class="innerhead">Silky Ceremony</div> <p><a href="http://itsmarkmitchell.com/">itsmarkmitchell.com</a></p> <p><span id="dropcap">C</span>ustom-clothing superstar designer Mark Mitchell's veil involves hand-rolled and hand-sewn hems, a silk-floss chain-stitch embroidery, and a microweight silk gauze. (Banshees and dollhouse hobbyists are really into this fabric: It's all ceremonial and filmy and slow-floating, and its teensy strands hold miniature scales.) Silk gauze also tears, unravels, and gathers fingerprints&mdash;and its fine mesh causes threads to shred while they're passing through during needlework. "It was a nightmare," Mitchell says. "I felt oppressed after working with it all day, like I was a tailor from some 18th-century French court and would get only a loaf of bread as payment."</p> <img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/7f61/feat-veil3-470.jpg"> <div align="left" class="innerhead">Vinyl Veil</div> <p><a href="http://miriamreynolds.com/">miriamreynolds.com</a></p> <p><span id="dropcap">"I</span> call it '60s-space-age-meets-glam-rock-meets-Barbie-bride," says Clear Coated designer Miriam Reynolds of her veil, an asymmetrical-pillbox-and-draped-layers vinyl concoction trimmed in gathered stretch tulle and piled-on flowers with alternating matte and shiny petals. Reynolds's veil contains a range of lengths and styles: Its parts can be swiftly removed, or switched and restacked, and then secured with dainty white ribbon. (She was inspired by customary Japanese weddings, with brides undergoing several outfit changes throughout the ceremony.) Worth noting: An early vinyl veil prototype incorporated hand-painted doily swirls to replicate lace, but "it just ended up looking too much like a shower curtain."</p> <img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/5544/feat-veil-crop-470.jpg"> <div align="left" class="innerhead"> Matrimony Macram&eacute;</div> <p><a href="http://gabrielaserigatto.wix.com./gabrielaserigatto">gabrielaserigatto.wix.com./gabrielaserigatto</a></p> <p><span id="dropcap">"I</span>t's like embroidery that grows over the face," says crochet designer Gabriela Serigatto of her veil, a delightfully unsettling arrangement of sheer organza, silky bamboo yarn, scrunched-up wads, nail-polished wire, and fake jewels. The segments coiling against the eye, up the nose, and into the ear reference the traditional veil's ability to obstruct the bride's senses, "keeping her separated and far away." Serigatto drew inspiration from many images, including the elegant and repulsing masterpieces of Alexander McQueen; a woman in a hospital bed, her head wrapped in bandages; and a dove, gutted, its insides spilling with meat and pearls.</p> <img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/1825/feat-veil5-470.jpg"> <div align="left" class="innerhead">Brace Face</div> <p><a href="http://jonquilandblack.com/">jonquilandblack.com</a></p> <p><span id="dropcap">J</span>onquil &amp; Mr Black designer Jordan Christianson crafted his veil's traditional netted cap from brass horse-dressage tacks and raw-silk floss so freakishly delicate, it kept catching against the teeny burrs of skin on his hands: "I'd considered sanding down my fingertips to make them smoother, but then I used a set of needle-nose pliers to tie each knot, and that did the trick." There's also the antique dog muzzle: "It had been sitting around for a while." So Christianson reconfigured the leather straps to fit a human's head and finished the cage. "It was a little rusty, so I painted it to be more weddingy."</p> <img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/8880/feat-veil6-470.jpg"> <div align="left" class="innerhead"> Rolled Gold</div> <p><a href="http://caseycurran.com/">caseycurran.com</a></p> <p><span id="dropcap">C</span>asey Curran, sculptor to theater collective Saint Genet, has created scary and wonderful headwear from pheasant hides, taxidermy bear jaw forms, gold leaf, dead flowers, walkie-talkies, raw wool, and gobs of wax suggesting "semen frozen in space." Curran's veil blends design elements from "Saint Teresa's halo of ecstasy, a burka, and an executioner's mask," while the shape suggests "something is exploding from the face." The veil's construction materials include thousands of gold-foil wrappers culled from a restaurant supply store; they're more commonly used to enrobe premade hamburgers and hot dogs. <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border= ";0&quot;" /></p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/veils-with-vroom/Content?oid=15811107#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15811107&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Pullout/<em>The Stranger</em>’s No-Goddamn-Bullshit Wedding Guide http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/veils-with-vroom/Content?oid=15811107&show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15811107&id=comments 4 Veils with Vroom Wed, 23 Jan 2013 04:00:00 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/16/happiest-hour-the-coterie-room http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/16/happiest-hour-the-coterie-room Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:312px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/01/16/1358381267-happiest-570.jpeg" alt="happiest-570.jpeg" title="" width="300" height="158" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">Kelly O</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div>Brought to us by superstar chef team Brian McCracken and Dana Tough of Spur Gastropub and Tavern Law, <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-coterie-room/Location?oid=9260940">the Coterie Room</a> is an outpost of suaveness in Belltown. The space is airy, window-lined, and decked with expected symbols of elegance: a crystal chandelier, damask patterns, burning candles, swirling relief-panel ceilings, whitewashed surfaces, general spotlessness, and grown-ups of the serious and well-heeled variety.</p> <p><strong>What else</strong>: One wall has plants growing fluffily out from it, giving the room a weighted and prehistoric grandeur. Stacked together, the leaves resemble a breathing green passageway that's too dense to peer through, probably a porthole to some distant world&#8212;maybe one that's shimmering and dreamy, with mermen and rose-colored skies. (Though it might as easily lead to an unfriendly terrain, all barren and inescapable, so I just couldn't bring myself to walk through it.)</p> <p><strong>Happy hours:</strong> Daily 5&#8211;6:30 pm and 10 pm&#8211;close.</p> <p><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15752793"><u>Continue reading &#187;</u></a></p> Booze Chow http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/01/16/happiest-hour-the-coterie-room?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15761852&id=comments 0 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:49:00 -0800 The Stranger http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15752793 http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15752793 Marti Jonjak The Coterie Room by Marti Jonjak <p><span id="dropcap">B</span>rought to us by superstar chef team Brian McCracken and Dana Tough of Spur Gastropub and Tavern Law, the Coterie Room is an outpost of suaveness in Belltown. The space is airy, window-lined, and decked with expected symbols of elegance: a crystal chandelier, damask patterns, burning candles, swirling relief-panel ceilings, whitewashed surfaces, general spotlessness, and grown-ups of the serious and well-heeled variety.</p> <p><b>What else:</b> One wall has plants growing fluffily out from it, giving the room a weighted and prehistoric grandeur. Stacked together, the leaves resemble a breathing green passageway that's too dense to peer through, probably a porthole to some distant world&mdash;maybe one that's shimmering and dreamy, with mermen and rose-colored skies. (Though it might as easily lead to an unfriendly terrain, all barren and inescapable, so I just couldn't bring myself to walk through it.)</p> <p><b>Happy hours:</b> Daily 5&ndash;6:30 pm and 10 pm&ndash;close.</p> <p><b>Happy-hour drink specials:</b> $5 champagne; $5 wine; $2 Olympia cans; $4 Maritime Old Seattle Lager drafts; $7 select cocktails, including martinis, manhattans, and three types of Collins (the Tom, John, and Comrade are prepared with gin, bourbon, and vodka, respectively).</p> <p><b>Happy-hour food specials:</b> Discounted small plates imbued with fanciness: $6.40 marinated beet salad (with sumac candied pistachios, baby arugula, fromage blanc), $8 stuffed dumpling squash (with fennel sausage, herbed bread crumbs, and a pickled squash and fennel salad), $11.20 poutine (braised pork shoulder gravy, fried Beecher's cheese curds, and herbs over french fries). <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border= ";0&quot;" /></p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15752793#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15752793&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Food & Drink/The Happiest Hour http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15752793&show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15752793&id=comments 0 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 04:00:00 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/21/happiest-hour-the-lockspot-cafe http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/21/happiest-hour-the-lockspot-cafe Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:312px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/fd21/1356069011-happiest-570.jpeg" alt="happiest-570.jpeg" title="" width="300" height="158" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">Kelly O</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/lockspot-cafe/Location?oid=37286">The Lockspot Cafe </a>is the lounge, espresso stand, and seafood shack that's occupied the same severely enchanting space in Ballard for a hundred years. Its architecture involves a special blending of two buildings (a restaurant structure integrated with disassembled portions of an old house), and inside, everything is askew and seemingly wiggled into place, with lots of indiscriminate jutting, weird angles, and slantingness.</p> <p><strong>What else:</strong> The Lockspot is historic and legendary, but it's not a tourist trap. The decor is neither clipped nor spotless nor stylishly weathered nor potently themed, and though a few nautical objects are on display&#8212;oars and captain's wheels and life rings&#8212;they're not trying too hard to look cool. Also, there are neon beer signs, men of few words, 2007 almanacs, workaday carpets, sports-broadcasting televisions, Christmas lights, and wood-paneled surfaces, and the mounted moose antlers are thoughtfully tipped with wine corks to ensure some reckless dipshit doesn't poke his face off.</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15565861">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Booze Chow http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/21/happiest-hour-the-lockspot-cafe?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15583892&id=comments 0 Happiest Hour: The Lockspot Cafe Kelly O Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:00:00 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/21/beau-travail-short-shorts-and-blood-dipped-hands http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/21/beau-travail-short-shorts-and-blood-dipped-hands Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:312px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/09aa/1356068227-wornout-570.jpeg" alt="wornout-570.jpeg" title="" width="300" height="158" /></div>Claire Denis's solemn 1999 art movie <em>Beau Travail</em> is about the French Foreign Legion, and involves messy blends of emotional longing and precise military duties and <strong>corrupt leaders and sexiness</strong> and tensions and long wordless passages and sudden wild reactions. "I'm so mesmerized by the look and the feel of this film," says Robin Held, current executive director of Reel Grrls and former chief curator at the Frye Art Museum, who chose it for <em>Seattle Met</em> and Northwest Film Forum's recent Screen Style series. Other scenes include throbbing dance clubs, fluky helicopter crashes, <strong>crisply made beds</strong>, blood-dipped hands, beautiful young men marooned in deserts, and physical regimen montages loaded with so much rhythm and effort, they're "like a choreographed dance."</p> <p>Throughout all this, men pair very tan skin with very shaved heads or very short shorts, or olive tank tops, or heavy boots, or skimpy swim trunks, or dust-colored pants, or <strong>open-side shirts</strong> held in place with straps. Says Robin, "The way [Denis] showed you uniforms was different than the way you usually see uniforms, whether in benign or frightening settings. Like when you'd see them in a parade. Or in a fascistic show of power. Or in an invasion. Or saving the day."</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=15566647">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/21/beau-travail-short-shorts-and-blood-dipped-hands?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15583882&id=comments 0 <em>Beau Travail</em>: Short Shorts and Blood-Dipped Hands Fri, 21 Dec 2012 09:38:00 -0800 The Stranger http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15565861 http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15565861 Marti Jonjak The Lockspot Cafe by Marti Jonjak <p><span id="dropcap">T</span>he Lockspot Cafe is the lounge, espresso stand, and seafood shack that's occupied the same severely enchanting space in Ballard for a hundred years. Its architecture involves a special blending of two buildings (a restaurant structure integrated with disassembled portions of an old house), and inside, everything is askew and seemingly wiggled into place, with lots of indiscriminate jutting, weird angles, and slantingness.</p> <p><b>What else:</b> The Lockspot is historic and legendary, but it's not a tourist trap. The decor is neither clipped nor spotless nor stylishly weathered nor potently themed, and though a few nautical objects are on display&mdash;oars and captain's wheels and life rings&mdash;they're not trying too hard to look cool. Also, there are neon beer signs, men of few words, 2007 almanacs, workaday carpets, sports-broadcasting televisions, Christmas lights, and wood-paneled surfaces, and the mounted moose antlers are thoughtfully tipped with wine corks to ensure some reckless dipshit doesn't poke his face off.</p> <p><b>Happy hours:</b> Daily 3&ndash;7 pm.</p> <p><b>Happy-hour drink specials:</b> $4.25 drafts&mdash;Profanity Hill Porter, Boundary Bay IPA, Odin's Gift, Port Townsend Pale Ale, more; $3 tallboys&mdash;Rainier, Coors Light, PBR; $4 wells; $4.25 wells with juice.</p> <p><b>Happy-hour food specials:</b> A great little menu stocked with delightfully greasy items and plenty of seafood, including $6.95 clams and chips, $6.95 shrimp and chips, $5.95 fish and chips, $5.95 chicken tenders with fries, and two house-made cod cakes with aioli for $4.95. <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border= ";0&quot;" /></p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15565861#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15565861&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Food & Drink/The Happiest Hour http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15565861&show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15565861&id=comments 0 Happiest Hour Kelly O Wed, 19 Dec 2012 04:00:00 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/14/worn-out-enchantments-at-hair-fair-wig-shop http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/14/worn-out-enchantments-at-hair-fair-wig-shop Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:312px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/c13e/1355441642-wornout-570.jpeg" alt="wornout-570.jpeg" title="" width="300" height="199" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">STEPHANIE ELLENDT</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div>Open for 20 years, Hair Fair Wig Shop (124 Pike St, 623-9430) imparts the uneasy enchantment of a haunted dollhouse. It occupies a long, narrow space downtown with rose-red carpets, faux-wood cabinets, and candy-pink walls lined with hundreds of mannequin heads. Most are copies of the same person&#8212;a pale-eyed, sweet-faced, glossy-skinned young lady marooned in time, her expression pleasant but indifferent. (Were she real, she'd probably wear flowered underwear and <strong>her voice would sound like wind chimes</strong>.) Strewn on her necks are fake flowers, pom-pom fringe, plastic jewels, and Christmas tinsel. And on a Friday afternoon, the store is dead quiet, except for the churning mechanical sound as a tiered display stand patiently rotates in the front window.</p> <p>Hair Fair has wigs in every color, texture, and style, of course: long, dirty green-blond mermaid hair; frothy <strong>Afros the color of spaghetti sauce</strong>; glazed wedges shaped into punky thorns; damp-looking swirls. There are curls of all types: some lumpy; some brittle and triangular; some tight and even, cinching one's head; some scraped back and finished with a hard sheen; some curdled like wadded clouds; some left plump and bouncy, <strong>imparting a certain coziness</strong>. (Fair warning: Earnest memories notwithstanding, this inventory list might only be a mirage. The owner agreed to have her business profiled for this column, but for reasons that remain unclear, she asked that I not write notes, take pictures within the store, or list specific item prices, just the basic range: $59&#8211;$190.)</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/worn-out/Content?oid=15504133">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Fashion http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/14/worn-out-enchantments-at-hair-fair-wig-shop?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15524321&id=comments 0 Worn Out: Enchantments at Hair Fair Wig Shop STEPHANIE ELLENDT Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:35:00 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/07/happiest-hour-wann-japanese-izakaya http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/07/happiest-hour-wann-japanese-izakaya Marti Jonjak <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:262px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/1db7/1354735768-happiest-click.jpeg" alt="happiest-click.jpeg" title="" width="250" height="334" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">Kelly O</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/wann-japanese-izakaya/Location?oid=154930">Wann Japanese Izakaya</a> is a restaurant and bar with a harmonious layout: all neat rectangles, lacquered surfaces, gridded wood screens, and clean white cushions. Beige accent walls made of grooved plaster replicate raked sand. A couple rock-and-moss terrariums are inlaid in the dining-room floor, so precise and segmented and color-coordinated and well-lit that walking on them imparts a certain retro-futuristic-museum- diorama-spacecraft-fantasy-garden-wonderland effect.</p> <p><strong>Namesake happenings:</strong> Wann is a chain that's popular in Japan&#8212;the name is also slang for a top-banana overachiever, and "wan-wan" describes the sound of a dog's bark, which, just like "woof-woof," works in a limited way. Because really, what words could ever describe this noise that, were it made visible, would drift up and form murky brown, splintering, meatball-shaped puddles?</p> <p><strong>Happy hours:</strong> Mon&#8211;Tues noon&#8211;2:30 pm and 4 pm&#8211;close, Wed&#8211;Sun 4&#8211;7 pm, and, in the bar only, daily 10 pm&#8211;close.</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/happiest-hour/Content?oid=15449139">Continue reading &#187;</a></u></p> Booze http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/07/happiest-hour-wann-japanese-izakaya?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15455458&id=comments 0 Happiest Hour: Wann Japanese Izakaya Kelly O Fri, 07 Dec 2012 03:17:38 -0800 The Stranger