Lindy West on the Different Kinds of People That There Are
Representative paragraph: "People Who Claim to Be Afraid of Clowns: These people (and they are numerous) are attempting to cultivate a cute quirk, but they are really just aping a cute quirk cultivated by thousands of cute-quirk-cultivators before them in a giant, gross, boring feedback loop. Yes, clowns can be mildly creepy. But come on. Among the many things that are scarier than clowns: fire, earthquakes, a guy with a knife, riding the bus, colon cancer, falling down the stairs (it could happen at any time!), rapists, people who just kind of look a little rapey and are standing too close to you in line at 7-Eleven, Marlo from The Wire, influenza, and scissors."
Jen Graves on What You Should Know About EMP's New Director
"Last week, Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame announced the hiring of a new director and CEO: Christina Orr-Cahall. A press release detailed "Noted Museum Leader" Orr-Cahall's efforts in the last 19 years at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida... What it did not mention (and what the Seattle Times failed to report) is that Orr-Cahall is famous—or infamous—in the art world for quite another reason..."
Erica C. Barnett on Mike McGinn's Flawed Mayoral Campaign Platform
"I like Mike McGinn. Really, I do. The beefy, bearded, bike-riding environmentalist—who's challenging Greg Nickels in his attempt to win a third term as mayor—has values that are near and dear to my heart..."
Dominic Holden on the Group Trying to Stop a Mall in Rainier Valley
"If the council does approve it, the project—on the site currently occupied by Goodwill Industries International—would be one of the largest malls in the city..."
Eric Grandy Wonders: Why Don't I Like Mirah's New Album as Much as I Want To?
"Maybe we should have seen this coming from the concept album about insects, but Mirah's songs have moved away from the intensely personal. These new songs are more cinematic in scope or like fables, more archetypal and broadly mythic..."
Bethany Jean Clement on the Transformation of Elliott Bay Cafe
"Lunch at Elliott Bay Cafe one day in late January was a disaster. When you try to order the chili verde and the counterperson says, "I don't think we have it... there was an accident," things have clearly gone awry. When he then backs away slowly, takes a look into the kitchen, and returns to confirm the unavailability, you can't help but picture the chili verde in the form of a great chili-verde lake on the kitchen floor..."
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Dave Segal lavishes love on JJ Cale ("Like very few musicians in history, Cale has become a genre unto himself"), plus many more reviews and columns in the music section, as well as this week's noteworthy Up & Coming shows and parties and the searchable music calendar; Brendan Kiley reviews a book by Zachary Mexico, a confusingly named young American living in China (and experiencing a China completely unlike the usual representations of China), plus a bunch of other short book reviews in the book section; three reviews and a preview in the theater section; reviews of Tokyo!, Adventureland, and Alien Trespass in the film section, along with Lindy West's motion picture column; Eli Sanders on the upcoming bank protests, plus more in the news section; Dear Science on why we daydream; Bar Exam goes to Cafe Racer; Drunk of the Week; a very stoned I, Anonymous; Last Days; Dan Savage on internet hookups; and all the other columns and calendars.
Now please enjoy the Illustrated Comment of the Week:
