Sunday, June 14, 2009
Homo / Video of the Day Westboro Baptists: Video, Part I
Posted by Kelly O on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 5:56 PM
I know a lot of people may still be wondering, what exactly *is* a bitch burger? And/or is a CRAPuccino a drink that was invented in Seattle? Well, I tried to get some answers for you. Also stay tuned for Part II, where I try to find out why God suddenly hates President Obama... and, in Part III, a real live Israeli Jew asks "The Hot One" what he really thinks of anal sex.
Homo Westboro Baptists: "The Hot One"
Posted by Kelly O on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 2:49 PM
Film The Devil Is in The Details
Posted by Dominic Holden on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 2:08 PM
Daphne Tomchak, 56, knew that letting a film crew use her house on the edge of the arboretum through July would be a drag. But the sacrifice would reap a huge reward—or so she thought. Producers of The Details, a dark comedy starring James McAvoy, offered her a contract in May that would allow them to tear out walls to convert two bedrooms into one large room; in exchange, crews would restore the house to her liking. “They were going to install French doors in the back and a new garden,” she says. Crews would also redesign the rear bedroom, install new walls, and refinish the floors.
But on the afternoon of June 3—after the 1914 Craftsman house was gutted—crews called Tomchack. “They said, ‘You need to come home right away; we lost our funding so we are pulling out.’”
In the place where they agreed to install French doors, “It is just a dirty wall,” says Tomchak. Some of the walls are stripped to their structural elements, and holes are in the floor in the place where heat ducts used to be. In one room, she says, “the plumbing is exposed, but you can’t see it very well because the power is out in that room.”
Here are two pictures:
The Details, which was due out next year, is about “a couple whose disagreements over how to deal with their raccoon infestation leads to an escalating series of events,” according to IMDb. “It’s the worst movie script I have ever read,” Tomchak says.
The film's producers had initially instructed Tomchak to use $13,000 that they gave her for temporary lodging to renovate her house. But Tomchak, an architect, says restoring her house would cost at least $25,000. Anything else, she says, they told her to pay for herself. “They said to send them a bill and they would add it to their pile.”
But she can’t get any more information. “They are not talking to me,” Tomchak says. Calls from The Stranger to the location manager, Doug du Mas, have gone unanswered. And attempts to reach the film's producer, Jennifer Roth, President of the Northwest Film Forum, have also been unsuccessful.
Homo / ??!! / Religion Westboro Baptist Church Takes on Mt. Zion
Posted by Lindy West on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Oh man, I am kind of obsessed with these crazy people. I just live a block away from the Mt. Zion Baptist Church and I could hear the singing/yelling/fag-hating/anti-fag-hating through my bedroom window this morning: a pleasant blend of "2 4 6 8 Don't assume your kids are straight!" and "YOU WILL EAT YOUR BABIES." The nutter-butters had set up shop along Madison across the street from Mt. Zion Baptist Church, outnumbered at least five to one by protestors on the opposite side of the street. There was much honking and middle-fingering from passing cars.
The WBC folks are weirdly jovial. (Also, one of them was weirdly HOT, which was pointed out to me by someone from the SPD.) They have a whole schtick going—everything ends with a ZINGGG!!! ("Seattle is the city of not coffee, not cappuccino, but CRAPuccino!" ZINGGG!!!) I almost liked chatting with Jael—when I could get her to shut up about scripture for a minute (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz), I asked her if they're enjoying their time in Seattle and what they're doing when they're not reminding Jews to "TAKE A BATH WITH SOME SOAP." It went like this:
"So, are you guys going to, like, go to the Space Needle?"
"Maaaaaaaybe! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
"I'm just wondering what you do in your free time—I don't mean that I want to hang out or anything."
"No, I wouldn't imagine."
"I mean, I'm sure you're lovely."
Through the window of a car stopped at the light, I heard a little girl—probably 7 years old or so—ask her dad, "How could the Jews kill Jesus? You can't, like, go back in time."
A twentysomething man ran through yelling, "I LOVE DICKS!"
A middle-aged passerby commented, "I think they're nuttier than a bag of howler monkeys."
The WBC folks don't care at all—they just want to make a scene, get some attention, throw in some ZINGGG!!!!!!s, then move on. They're living trolls and there's no reasoning with them, so I just tried to have a chat.
I had this exchange with a creepy fish-faced WBC member who was yelling about feces.
"Wait, what about feces?"
"Wouldn't you like to know."
"I'm a reporter."
(skeptical) "Yeah, okay."
"I am!"
"Right."
"What do you think I am if I'm not a reporter?"
"Oh. Oh man."
"Okay, I write for the Feces Times."
"Hey! There you go!"
ZINGGG!!!!!
More—including photos and video from Kelly O—coming later.
Stranger Suggests Today The Stranger Suggests
Posted by The Stranger on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 11:00 AM
SIFF
'Poppy Shakespeare'
Based on the novel by Clare Allan, Benjamin Ross's Poppy Shakespeare tells the platonic love story of two women: N, a devoted patient of a mental-health clinic in London, and Poppy, a violently unhappy new admission who's as certain of her sanity as N is of her own compromised mental state. The result is a rich, stylizedblack comedy illuminating the vast perversities of "mental illness," executed with an assured and meaningful quirkiness reminiscent of young Jane Campion. (Harvard Exit, 807 E Roy St, thestranger.com/siff. 9:30 pm, $11.)
DAVID SCHMADERBooks Reading Today
Posted by Paul Constant on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 10:18 AM
Town Hall hosts a tribute to John Updike today. Trained actors will read great Updike stories like "A&P," which everyone should read.
And Elliott Bay Book Company hosts Tyler E. Boudreau. In his book Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine, a Marine officer deals with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Updike is the reading of the day.
The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.
News The Morning News
Posted by Unpaid Intern on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 8:10 AM
post by news intern Alexander P. Brown
Unrest: Protests in Iran following election results.
And What About The 6 Out Of 7?: Chinese Muslims released from Guantánamo never heard of Al-Qaeda until detainment.
Not Dead Yet: The Associated Press plans to syndicate investigative journalism done by non-profits.
Head Honcho: Meet Mexico's most wanted.
Detour: Amanda Knox trial stalls at questions over UW party.
Not An Award We Want: The gum wall marks one of the germiest attractions in world.
"It Now Appears That Drugs Have Won": Nicholas Kristof on America's drug war.
Bill O'Reilly Shouting At Joan Walsh About Abortion:
Politics The Twitter Revolution
Posted by Charles Mudede on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 7:14 AM
For great coverage of the first important post-Bush event in the Islamic world, go here and here:
Do not for a second separate the demonstrations from the removal of Republicans from American political power. The fact that America could change created the space for change here. If Obama were not the president then there would have been no need to fabricate a landslide for Ahmadinejad. A realistic little win would have done just fine.
No matter what the outcome, Ahmadinejad now has a permanent legitimacy problem. The demonstrations are working. They're making it much harder for those on the right in America and Israel to demonize Iran as a whole. To Obama's advantage, the situation there is now far more complicated. 1979 finds its strange mirror in 2009.
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