Friday, January 2, 2009
City Shots Fired at 23rd and Union
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 9:39 PM
Seattle Police have locked down the intersection at 23rd and Union in the Central District.
As many as a dozen shots may have been fired in the area.
Police have apparently recovered a gun, taken two people in to custody and are interviewing witnesses in the area.
More info coming.
Update: Witnesses report seeing a police chase near the scene of the shooting.
At least one person has been taken to Harborview.
There also appears to be a major police incident near Rainier and Letitia—I'm told there are about 10 squad cars on scene—but the two events may be unrelated.
Update 2: The two incidents were in fact related!
A man standing near 23rd and Union was shot in the leg around 9:30 tonight after he apparently got into an argument with two men in a car.
The men in the car fled southbound and crashed into another parked car several miles away near Rainier and Letitia. Both men are in custody.
Arts Always Be Closing
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 5:55 PM
In Los Angeles, where the school district ends the hallowed tradition of torturing school children by forcing them to sit through plays:
When the school board was forced to slash almost $400 million from this year's budget because the district received less than expected in state funds, it kept most of the cuts away from classrooms. But now the district may have to cut another $400 million, which could mean increasing class sizes, laying off teachers or providing fewer meals at schools.L.A. Unified officials also instituted a spending freeze, which resulted in the abrupt postponement of the arts program. In a Dec. 12 e-mail, district administrators told arts instructors with the Arts Community Partnership Network to cancel all work immediately and that payments might be delayed, though work could begin again next month if the state resolves its budget crisis.
The Los Angeles arts partnership has been in place for six years and had a budget of about $8 million this year. The 80 participating groups include the Music Center and the Center Theatre Group.
For smaller arts providers, the delay could be disastrous. The 24th Street Theatre, which has served 111 schools by taking students to shows and providing teacher training, was counting on receiving about $300,000 from the district, about half of its operating budget.
And in Cambodia because of the goddamned Buddhists:
PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodian monks have persuaded authorities to ban the country's first rock opera, which features actors dressed as clergy who break into song and dance, saying it insults Buddhism.
The Ladies Please Try Not to Vomit
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 5:04 PM
As you check out this British ad campaign, featuring a bunch of dopey-looking (but hot in a gay way?) male actors who first pretend not to know what a cervix is, then lecture us silly ladies about how we really ought to look after ours. Their web site, until recently, featured the "top ten excuses" (now nine) that women use for not getting Pap smears, including two gems that have since been deleted: "I don’t have time. Going for cervical screening should be part of your overall health and beauty regime. You are never to busy to have your hair cut, so you should always make time for a smear. " And: "It’s disgusting. Yes, well we can’t argue with that one. Nobody enjoys going for a smear (think about the poor nurses and doctors at the receiving end!). But you may feel better when you realise that the only one it’s a big deal to is you."
Via Lauredhel at Hoyden About Town, who points out the ad's similarity to "Tee-Hee! Boobies!" breast-cancer awareness ads like this one.
Film Saturday Evening Cartoons
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov have teamed up to produce an animated movie called 9 that's going to be released on 9/9/09. It looks like a cross between Wall•E and Lord of the Rings. It's a postapocalyptic fantasy movie, and this character is voiced by Crispin Glover:
Between this, the fancy-looking Up trailer from Pixar and the stop-motion Coraline adaptation by former Burton collaborator (on Nightmare Before Christmas) Henry Selick, the movies I'm most looking forward to next year are animated. That hasn't happened since I was 6.
City Seven Shots
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 4:59 PM
This is the gun that got University of Washington student Miles Murphy killed:
The Seattle Police Department held a press conference earlier this afternoon to talk about the events that led to Murphy's tragic death on New Year's Day.
SPD Chief Gil Kerlikowske said that as officers were taking up positions outside of Murphy's home, the 22-year-old man came out of his house wearing a German military uniform and pointed a Kar 98 bolt action rifle—which was apparently loaded with blanks—at officers.
Kerlikowske says officers, who were in uniform, ordered Murphy to drop his weapon three times. Murphy did not respond, and instead raised the rifle, pointed it at officers, lowered it, raised it again and stepped towards officers.
Two officers carrying rifles—Adam Elias and Kirk Waldord, who've been with SPD for 7 and 10 years, respectively—fired seven shots, fatally wounding Murphy. Witnesses had apparently told police that Murphy was firing blanks in an alley next to his home, however, Kerlikowske argued that “officers don’t get the option to believe everything they’re told by a witness.” He also stated that it is not department policy to use less lethal weapons like Tasers when a gun is involved. “It’s just not done,” Kerlikowske said, later adding that “’shoot to wound’ is purely myth.”
According to Kerlikowske, SPD previously confiscated Murphy's rifle in November 2006, but he would not elaborate on why. The rifle was returned two months later. The chief also noted that Officer Elias has taken an extensive deescalation course with the department and stated that neither officer has been involved a prior shooting. Kerlikowske believes "alcohol was certainly a factor" in the shooting and that officers made the right decision. Police found a box of live ammunition in Murphy's house after the shooting and detained two men for questioning. No arrests were made.
According to Murphy's friend Andrew Swanson, Murphy was depressed, but he doesn't believe his friend committed "suicide by cop."
"He definitely had his issues with depression. He was kind of a sad guy," Swanson says. "A lot of us are too, so we could relate to him in that way [but] I can’t say any of his emotional problems had anything to do with what happened."
Life Today in Feces: Addendum
Posted by Lindy West on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 4:58 PM
Did you ever wish you could send friends and family tender internet greetings in the form of an anthropomorphized enema nozzle dressed up as various famous works of art?
Ladies and gentlemen, meet EneMan, the supercool colorectal health spokes-enema!
Note the unfortunate paint splatters.
Note EneMan's bitchin' shades.
Happy birthday, grandma! Sorry you got laid off, Gary! I got you this EneWoman with the Pearl Earring. Because I love you. And so does your rectum.
Thanks, eternally, to Improbable Research and Andrew.
Books / Retail Booksellers Online
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 4:22 PM
Chicago Bookstore The Seminary Co-op has just come online in a big way. They've got a blog, like many other bookstores, but they have a new feature called The Front Table. Every week, they post all the books they have on their physical bookstore's front table—the space reserved for new arrivals and notable recent books—on their blog. Here's a tiny portion of the post:
And, Netflix-style, if you run your mouse over a particular book, you get a fuller description of the book:
And you can also link to a page with a full product description. This is the sort of thing that larger brick and mortar bookstores are going to have to do to stay competitive, I think, and it's one way to highlight a difference between a bookstore and an online retailer: the ability to browse. I'm a big fan of this bookstore.
TV "Melons" vs. Melons: WHO YA GOT?!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 4:00 PM
There's a reason I don't watch American cooking shows. And it's because they rarely feature women with ginormous funbags smashing them against defenseless watermelons. Prepare for your first big shock of 2009.
Politics Goodman Explains His DUI Law
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 3:54 PM
Roger Goodman, a longtime advocate of drug-policy reform who's now a state representative from Kirkland, took issue with my post earlier this week about a new law he sponsored that makes it easier for people convicted of driving drunk, including repeat offenders, to get their licenses back. I wrote that the law, which mandates ignition interlock devices, implies that the right to drive is more important than the safety of others on the road, and noted that interlock devices are relatively easy to cheat.
I talked to Goodman on New Year's Eve. He told me the reason he wants to restore DUI offenders' driving rights isn't because he thinks the right to drive is sacred, but because people with suspended licenses often drive anyway. Better that they do it, he argues, with a valid license and an interlock device than do so with no license and no device. "Locking them up, fining them, suspending their license does very little at all" to keep DUI offenders off the road, Goodman says. "These are law-abiding people who have made a bad judgment call about having too many glasses of wine. These are people who are embarrassed and want to avoid the stigma and they will comply."
But what about people who cheat the device by getting a sober friend to blow into it? Goodman says that new ignition interlock devices require drivers to blow into the device periodically while driving, making them tough, though not impossible, to cheat. (If a driver blows over a certain blood-alcohol level, the horn starts blaring and the lights start flashing—safer than having the car shut down, though arguably a dangerous distraction if you're driving drunk). "The technology's going to keep getting better," Goodman says—already, devices exist that test blood-alcohol content through a driver's skin, making them less obtrusive (and embarrassing) than devices you have to blow into.
Fundamentally, Goodman sees the new law as a harm-reduction approach—meeting people where they're at (driving with suspended licenses) instead of where we wish they'd be (not driving at all). He compares it to reducing penalties for small-time drug offenders rather than throwing them in jail. "We've been locking them up, and they just get out and drive drunk again. Let's just get real and acknowledge what people are doing out there. If someone says, 'so much for getting tough on drunk driving,' my response is, let's get smart about it." As for whether the state should ever say enough is enough, Goodman says, "Frankly, I don’t think that even if you’re convicted of vehicular homicide that you should be ineligible" for a license. However, "I believe if you have three DUIs you should have the device on your car forever."
Personally, although I support harm reduction when it comes to victimless drug crimes, I think there's a point at which we ought to lock drunk drivers up for a good long while. (I also think roadside checkpoints on weekend nights downtown and outside sports stadiums aren't a bad idea, although some of my colleagues would say that raises civil-rights issues.) We wouldn't keep giving someone a gun license if they got drunk and shot someone, and we shouldn't keep giving someone a license to drive if they get drunk, get behind the wheel, and kill someone with their car. On the other hand, MADD strongly supports laws that mandate ignition devices, so maybe Goodman's law is a good first step... but it shouldn't be the only step.
Games Review: Prince of Persia
Posted by Sam Machkovech on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 3:49 PM
There's a stack of game instruction books in my bathroom—one of a zillion carry-overs from my latent youth. Used to be that game instruction books were an important part of obsessing over a game, filled with art, stories, and clean design. Nowadays, even Nintendo's booklets are a jumbled mess, and most others are puny, thin, and in black-and-white.
This season's Prince of Persia (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) has a wimpy booklet, but its screenshots are peculiar. Actually, they're beautiful. Look at any still shot of the game, even in black and white, and you'll see a sprawling expanse of craggly landscapes and battered architecture that looks worth running through. When this book made it into my bathroom rotation during Xmas break, I didn't recognize any of the shots.
So I put the game back in and took my time looking around. Sure enough, UbiSoft Montreal made the most of their generic, Persian world, mixing grasslands, deserts, and huge castles pretty well. What was I missing?
In Prince of Persia, you are a wall-crawler. Climb them, slide across them, scrape down them, bounce from one to the next. Saying that you're Spiderman without the goo makes it sound like this is an intense, powerful experience, but it's not. That's because all you do is stare at these walls—not the massive, surrounding world. And the walls are all the same, as you can do only a few things on each, sometimes with splashy effects attached, typically not.
With any visual art, the designer will shape an important scene so the eye moves accordingly. Perhaps in a diagonal direction, perhaps focused on the only static thing in the scene. Here, UbiSoft focuses your eye on this task of crawling, which would be more fulfilling if it were more fluid. The same company made the broken game Assassin's Creed, but that title at least gave you a superhuman feeling—that you could climb up anything (the years-old Crackdown did so, as well). Here, you merely look for special marks on walls again and again and again. You do not creatively take on these brown walls. Your cues are too blatant.
Media You're Welcome
Posted by David Schmader on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 3:43 PM
Here's your first galling dose of FOX News for 2009. (Watch the running news ticker at the bottom of the screen, which was reportedly posting New Year's messages from viewers.)
(Thanks for the heads up, Towleroad.)
Books Donald Westlake
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 2:56 PM
The mystery novelist (whose Parker novels I have recently written about on Slog) died at the very end of 2008.
You can't really go wrong with a Westlake novel, especially if it's one of the Parker series written under the pseudonym Richard Stark. I suggest hitting up a used bookstore tonight and spending a little bit of your weekend with one of his books. I'm glad he lived to see his work appreciated in a broader context than 'dime store thriller.'
Film Have You Read Paul Constant's Review of Revolutionary Road?
Posted by Lindy West on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 2:37 PM
Oh, you should!
The problem is that every year around Oscar season, Hollywood dresses up like average people and puts on a caricature play of suburban life, and we know the score far too well at this point. There is sad, meaningless adultery. DiCaprio and Winslet relentlessly feud—from the very beginning of the film—in the kind of screaming, snot-splattered scenes that always wind up in Best Actor and Actress montages at awards shows. And you can throw all the money in the world at this sort of thing (the costumes and sets are beautiful), but without the soul of Yates's gorgeous language, it's only so much pretty whining.
Life Today in Feces
Posted by Lindy West on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 2:11 PM
I should really set up a Google Alert for "feces." Or maybe "covered in feces."
Man Covered In Feces Attacks Flight Attendant
Passengers said the man left the plane's bathroom covered in his own waste on the Dec. 26 flight.The commuter jet had one flight attendant, who moved passengers forward to empty seats and kept the unkempt passenger in the back row.
Stacey, a passenger on the plane who requested her last name not be revealed, said the man attacked the flight attendant.
"I hear all of this ruckus and yelling," she said. "I turned around and the poor flight attendant is on his back and the guy is, like, punching him."
Stacey said other passengers came to the flight attendant's aid.
"It's almost like a scene out of a movie," Stacey said.
Yes. Almost like Air Force Feces. Snakes (and Feces) on a Plane. Soul Plane 2: It's Feces Time, Son!.
Also, I would like to point out the accompanying weird, blurry photograph of the exterior of a plane. Is it the actual feces plane? Amazing.
Thanks, Melissa & Meags
Politics Re: There is No Morality Without Religion
Posted by Eli Sanders on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 2:00 PM
I thought of one of Dan's Slog obsessions when I watched this TED Talk the other night. It argues a few things: 1) There's no politics without moral judgment. 2) Moral judgment is an evolutionary adaptation. 3) What makes a person "liberal" or "conservative" has more to do with that person's particular form of evolutionary hard-wiring than with what we normally call morality.
Which means, if true and taken to an extreme, that there's really no Morality at all, never mind where it comes from. There's just moral psychology.
Via OpenLeft.
Religion Rick Warren: Abused, "Miserable" Women Have "No Right" to Divorce
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Image via Boston Globe.
Also, members of other religions can't go to heaven, Jews are going to come around, and homosexuality is a "dangerous sin."
Some excerpts from sermons by Rick Warren, the homophobic, anti-choice pastor tapped by Obama to deliver his inaugural invocation.
On whether members of other religions can go to heaven:
Even those of you who have been believers for quite some time now are tempted to want to think, well, why wouldn't God let those people in? I know you feel that way; it's a tempting way to think in our world today. One of the reasons we're tempted to think that way is because we're tending to look more at this world and not enough at God and what he's really like. If we really understood God and how holy he is and how sinful we are.... we would realize it 's not a matter of comparing ourselves of, who gets in and who doesn't? It's a matter of the fact that we were so far, we were so lost, that we just have to pour our hearts out in gratefulness that God would reach his hand down in Jesus Christ and save us. All of the other religions of the world depend on people rising above other people, being a little bit better, having a few more good works. It's only in Christianity that you have God's grace being expressed in Jesus Christ... I don't think any of us will ever know what a terrible state we were in before Christ came to us... If Jesus Christ were not the only way to salvation, first of, all he would be a liar, because he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. But second, God the father would be a cruel father. Why would God the father send his son to die on a cross if there were other ways to salvation? ... He sent his son to die because he's the only way to salvation. ... Human history is littered with those who have followed idols rather than the true God, so that's what most cultures have degenerated into. In the united states we don't have to worry about that as much.
On whether gay people can be members of Saddleback Church:
The Bible says he created man and woman to be together. God's ideal, God's design is for a man and woman to be together in a committed relationship, in a marriage. ... Anything outside of that design is sexual immorality or sexual sin. ... God says that all sexual sin is dangerous because it hurts our bodies, it hurts who we are. ... Once I become a believer and become a member of Saddleback Church, our commitment, our covenant together, is to live by the truth of the Bible. We've decided together that we trust God's word. ... That's one of the reasons that someone who is actively involved in sexual sin ... and refuses to say that the Bible teaches that it's a sin, is not a member of Saddleback Church. ... Now, anybody can attend... but to be a member is something special. Homosexuality ... is a dangerous sin. Why is it dangerous? Because God loves us and he's designed us in a certain way out of that love to live the kind of life he has for us.
On whether women can divorce an abusive spouse:
I'd always rather choose a short-term pain and find God's solution for long-term gain than try and find a short-term solution that's going to involve long-term pain. ... [In scripture] adultery is one [reason for divorce] and abandonment is a second. I wish there were a third in scripture. Having been involved as a pastor in situations of abuse there's something in me that wishes there was a Bible verse that says if they abuse you in this and such kind of way then you have a right to leave them. ... If you're in this kind of situation I strongly recommend that you take advantage of our lay counseling ministers.
On whether a woman has to stay in a "miserable" marriage:
The Bible answer is yes. Does God expect me to stay in a miserable marriage, and why would he do that to me? I often say to people when they're facing this decision, really, you're choosing your pain in this moment because it's going to be painful either way. If you stay in your marriage there is the opportunity for reconciliation and for the loss of pain, but there is going to be short-term pain on the way there. ... There is lifelong pain in divorce. ... I wish there was a way to say there is a choice here where you're not going to have pain but there is pain in relationships. Now, God understands that... He can be with us in our pain and he can comfort us, he can strengthen us, he can give us perspective. He can also give us wisdom. Does God expect me to live with this pain? No. I think he expects us to ask for wisdom to do the things that would cause the pain to begin to be solved. ... The Bible says the husband is to sacrifice for his wife and the wife is to respect her husband and if that doesn't happen you have the right to keep pushing for that.
On whether Jews can be "saved":
Jews and gentiles are alike. We come to faith the same way—through Jesus Christ... the Bible says there is going to be a great outpouring of faith among the Jewish people at the end of time. ... The Jewish people will recognize and come to him. ... They'll see he is the Messiah. They'll see the truth of who he really is. If you talk to someone who is Jewish you'll find that one of the real struggles they have is with the fact that Jesus claimed to be God... To understand the Trinity, that the father, son and holy spirit are one God, is a difficult concept. But when the Jewish people realize that Jesus is god... there's going to be this great outpouring of faith among the Jewish people. We're all saved the same way: through Jesus.
On whether Christians who commit suicide can still go to heaven:
The Biblical answer is yes... there is no sin you can commit that will cause you to not go to heaven if you've truly had an experience with Jesus Christ... That's not the end of the answer, though. ... I do know that some people commit suicide out of mental illness but someone who commits suicide not out of mental illness ... you'll go to heaven but you'll lose all kind of rewards.
Celeb / Life John Travolta...
Posted by David Schmader on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 1:20 PM
...is a movie star, and a celebrity Scientologist, and, as we'll be hearing a lot over the next few days, the father of a newly dead son.
Condolences, RIP, and all the other stuff you're supposed to say when you're sad for someone you don't know in real life.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Today in Spam
Posted by David Schmader on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 12:32 PM
After David Plouffe, my most tenacious spammer is a fellow named Chase Wang, who emails me/The Stranger daily with tantalizing cross-promotional opportunities in anime and video games or something.
I don't care about anime or cross-promotion, but here's what I want to know: Am I the only one being stalked by Chase Wang? If not, do the rest of you giggle every time you see his name?
Thank you for your help.
Life According to the Old Mayan's Alamanc...
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 12:10 PM
Run into the jungle, smite a stranger, drag him back to your jungle city, haul him up a pyramid, cut out his heart in front of the assembled multitude, and burn it in a sacred brazier; start projects; go camping.
City Happy, Um, Early Valentine's Day?
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Yes, Metro, I know you need some time to repair buses damaged in the storm. But today is January 2—a day when most people, even those with ample time off, are back on the job and in need of express buses (and normal service levels) to get them there. What "holiday" do you believe your riders are celebrating today?
Books Seattle Poetry Chain 6: Crystal Curry
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 12:00 PM
As you know, we've started a weekly poetry feature here on Slog. Last week's poet was Nico Vassilakis. For this week's poet, Nico has chosen Crystal Curry.
His reasons for choosing Curry are as follows:
when a behoover steps up to the dais there are dense shifts. and there are sinister schemas that curtail. the cocktail of dactylic tetrameter up on its upper bleacher. a distinct twang assault. humming her logic, her taunt of - poetry should do nothing. this is crystal curry, a found appetizer, drifting through sheets of emulsified paper.seattle poetry would do well to deny its unauthentic past and create a new vocabulary of itself.
bring it on, bring it here. i double dare you.
And she has. Curry's most recent book is titled Logotherapy Pant, and you can read more about it here. She also has poems here, here, and 5 more here. She's a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop.
Here is Crystal Curry's poem:
Many thanks to (the delightfully named) Crystal Curry. Tune in next Friday at noon to see who she has chosen to be the next link in the Seattle Poetry Chain.
Economy The Molasses Economy
Posted by Erica C. Barnett on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 11:31 AM
Apparently rock salt—the magical fairy dust of Seattle gripers—is becoming so expensive that cities are turning to other alternatives for clearing snow, including molasses, garlic salt, and "a rum-production byproduct that smells like soy sauce."
Politics Ladies, the Law is Coming for You
Posted by Eli Sanders on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Seattle Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles will be introducing a bill in Olympia this session to make sure that inclusive gender terminology is used in the legal language that supports Washington State's laws.
So, for example, if you are a woman who has enjoyed kindling out-of-control fires on her property, and so far you have felt legally justified in kindling such fires because state law regarding out-of-control fires only limits what "he shall" do on "his own land"—well, your days of being able to claim this as a defense are probably numbered.
Here's RCW 4.24.040, one of hundreds of laws that would be affected by the Kohl-Welles bill, as the senator would like it be amended:
If any person shall for any lawful purpose kindle a fire upon his or her own land, he or she shall do it at such time and in such manner, and shall take such care of it to prevent it from spreading and doing damage to other persons' property, as a prudent and careful ((man)) person would do, and if he or she fails so to do he or she shall be liable in an action on the case to any person suffering damage thereby to the full amount of such damage.
A step forward for gender equality, certainly. Also, and just as certainly, a setback for lady pyromaniacs.
Books The Lack of Understanding
Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 11:25 AM
From the preface:
Death, as we may call that unreality, is the most terrible thing, and to keep and hold fast what is dead demands the greatest force of all. Beauty, powerless and helpless, hates understanding, because the latter exacts from it what it cannot perform.
Proof of beauty's hate can be found here:
Chow Apropos of Nothing: A Waxy Poll
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 11:15 AM
I would rather eat:
(Crayon is your choice of color, regular or anti-roll.)
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