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Guilt, karaoke, and power trips
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Slog
News & ArtsThursday, February 23, 2012
LGBTQITSLFA It Gets Better Special
Posted by Anthony Hecht on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:00 PM
I don't think this has been on Slog yet, somehow..
The It Gets Better Project's special on MTV aired last weekend, and now you can watch it online too.
I just finished watching it, and it's just great. Dan and Terry have really done something incredible with this.
Watch:
Get More:
It Gets Better, Full Episodes
Film Re:Generation Tonight Only at Pacific Place
Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 5:18 PM
It involves DJ Premier, Skrillex, Mark Ronson, the Crystal Method, Pretty Lights, the Doors, Erykah Badu, Trombone Shorty, Mos Def, Zigaboo Modeliste, Martha Reeves, Dr. Ralph Stanley, LeAnn Rimes, and members of the Dap Kings, and it's not a bad watch.
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Film Now You Can Be a Film Booker
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 5:01 PM
For once in my life, I learned something by reading Aint It Cool News.com. An AICN blogger by the unfortunate name of "Nordling" wrote a post about a service with the unfortunate name of Tugg. It sounds like an interesting way to use digital delivery of films to make the moviegoing experience more personal:
Tugg, with participating theaters, means that you can basically program your local movie theater for a movie that you want to see on the big screen. Say, theoretically, you want to see ALIEN (the list of movies available is dependent on what's in the Tugg library) on the big screen at the theater by your house. You go to the Tugg website, create an event, set the price, theater, and time (depending on the partcipating theater), invite as many of your friends and family through various social media points, and once the minimum number is reached, Tugg books the theater and you have fun at the movies!
You can read more about it at Tugg's website. I don't know if this service is especially worthwhile in a city like Seattle, with a very strong repertory scene—although I could see it being a draw for birthday parties and things like that—but it could be great in rural areas that don't get a lot of independent movies. I could see the future of movie theaters looking like this: Hyper-personalized, with a huge catalog of choices rather than a strict what's-out-right-now model. But enough about what I think:
Savage Love SL Letter of the Day: How Many Is Too Many?
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 4:43 PM
I'm a 23-year-old male with a 24-year-old male. Not typically into serious relationships, too many emotions make my head explode, but this one works and the sex is great. It's been less than year and the question of how many sex partners we've had has already come up. I can count mine with two hands. He can't come up with a number. I understand that with the gays it's different (especially with things like CL, and Grindr), but it still makes me nauseous to think he's been with so many guys he can't count them. We both have gotten tested and we're both disease-free. Admittedly, I have my insecurities, but I am mostly grossed out by thinking about it. Sometimes I don't even want to kiss him, how can I get over this?
Conflicted And Nauseous
My response after the jump...
Gay Marriage Maryland Senate Approves Gay Marriage
Posted by Goldy on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 4:34 PM
The Maryland state senate approved marriage equality legislation today by a 25-22 margin, sending the bill on to Governor Martin O'Malley, who is expected to sign it into law. This makes Maryland the eighth state to approve gay marriage, following quickly on the heels of Washington.
Kinda feels unstoppable.
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The Ladies AG 's Office Confirms That Every Pharmacy in the State (Except One) Must Still Stock and Sell Plan B
Posted by Cienna Madrid on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 4:11 PM
Yesterday, I reported that a Tacoma federal court Judge ruled that one family-owned pharmacy in Washington State and two licensed pharmacists couldn't be forced by the state to stock or sell the Plan B, as it infringed upon their religious freedom to treat women as second-class citizens and/or ovulating furniture. ("I bought this couch from a farmer down the road but the damn thing won't stop bleeding!")
But two questions remained: Would Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna’s office—which defended the state's prerogative to require pharmacies to dispense the emergency contraceptive in federal court—appeal the decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals? And how would the AG's office interpret how this very specific ruling affect the estimated 1,432 other registered pharmacies in Washington State?
1) If I were a betting woman, I'd say fuck yes, they'll appeal, based on precedent. You see, when the Plan B lawsuit was first filed in 2007, presiding Judge Ronald Leighton immediately decided to suspend the new state rule requiring all pharmacies to dispense Plan B until his court reached a decision on whether it infringed on pharmacist's constitutionally-guaranteed religious freedoms. In response, the AG's office promptly filed an appeal with the 9th Circuit Court to throw out Judge Leighton's injunction:
"When we appealed the injunction the 9th Circuit, they found that Judge Leighton abused his discretion in suspending the rule and lifted the injunction," explains Assistant AG Rene Tomisser, who worked on the case. "I think what the judge did this time in the trial is not consistent with what the 9th Circuit previously ordered him to do, and it’s not consistent with what the Supreme Court has required of courts when analyzing these claims."
He adds: "He made many of the same mistakes again, in much greater detail this time, with regards to his legal analysis."
Education / Economy For-Profit Universities: The Unfettered Free Market at Work
Posted by Goldy on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 3:51 PM
Enrollment at for-profit colleges and universities has boomed over the past few decades, skyrocketing from 18,333 in 1970 to 1.85 million in 2009. Over the past decade alone, the percentage of college students attending for-profit schools has almost tripled, from 5 percent in 2001, to 13 percent today.
So, how are these for-profit schools doing, most of which are significantly more expensive than their public university counterparts? According to a new study, not so well:
Students who attend for-profit colleges are less likely to be employed and have lower earnings six years after enrolling than similar students who attend public and not-for-profit colleges, according to a new study by authors affiliated with the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment (CAPSEE). They also carry heavier debt burdens and are more likely to default on their student loans.
And yes, the survey was controlled to account for demographic differences such as age, income, and ethnicity. For-profit students simply have poorer outcomes and report less satisfaction with their educations, than public and not-for-profit students of similar circumstances and backgrounds.
How could this be? If the market always makes the most efficient allocation of resources, and the private sector always outperforms the public, how is it possible that for-profit universities don't out perform their public university counterparts? If you're a free marketeer, clearly the problem must be the dangerous market-distorting impacting of taxpayer-subsidized public universities. Simply eliminate government funding for our public college and university systems (as we are wisely on our the way to doing here in Washington state), the uber-capitalists might argue, and the market will fix itself.
Olympia Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown: "We will balance the budget without revenue."
Posted by Eli Sanders on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 3:34 PM
The budget sausage—now leaner than ever!—is currently being made in Olympia, with house Democrats introducing their plan the other day and house Republicans doing the same.
There are important (and very predictable) differences between the two parties' proposals, of course, and there will be even more differences to come next week as the Democrats and Republicans in the state senate unveil—don't soil yourselves with excitement—their plans.
However. When you step back, the biggest budget news is best summed up in a statement Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown made today at a sit-down with reporters: "We will balance the budget without revenue."
Meaning: No new revenue. (Aka, another all cuts budget.)
This turn of events traces back to the recent not-as-terrible-as-usual state revenue forecast, which predicted $96 million more coming in during the current biennium than previously thought. Hooray!
Everyone's immediate reaction—including the governor's—was to flush plans for a half a penny sales tax increase right down the toilet and instead find ways to nip, tuck, and use tricky accounting if need be to deal with what's now a relatively small (compared to previous years) $1.1 billion shortfall.
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Chow / Line Out / Tech Line Out Finally Premieres a Song! (Absolute Monarchs' "Attack," from Their Forthcoming Album, 1)
Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 3:28 PM
If that doesn't pique your interest, I'll add that the rhythm guitarist is the lovable Miki Sodos of Bang Bang Cafe. Now go listen to it!
History / Language Etymology of the Day: "Snark" (or, Hello 2004!)
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 3:24 PM
A new novel by Heidi Julavits just arrived at the office, which reminded me of the disservice she did to the English language back in 2003, with her bleating, hand-wringing essay about the insidious evils of a thing called "snark," a "disorder" irreverent humor that was "infiltrating" the writing world:
... I don’t know what many critics believe when it comes to literature; at worst, I fear that book reviews are just an opportunity for a critic to strive for humor, and to appear funny and smart and a little bit bitchy, without attempting to espouse any higher ideals—or even to try to understand, on a very localized level, what a certain book is trying to do, even if it does it badly. This is wit for wit’s sake—or, hostility for hostility’s sake. This hostile, knowing, bitter tone of contempt is, I suspect, a bastard offspring of Orwell’s flea-weighers. I call it Snark, and it has crept with alarming speed into the reviewing community, infiltrating the pages of many publications...
At the time the essay was published (and during the heated debates that followed it) I thought: "Poor Heidi. She thinks it matters whether she understands what a critic does or doesn't believe. While some people are hostile for hostility's sake or witty for wit's sake—and I fail to see the problem with the latter—could it be that she and certain critics just disagree about what deserves hostility? And it seems embarrassingly self-centered to take simple disagreements, blow them out of proportion, and diagnose them as some cultural 'disorder.'"
I thought the word would have its faddish moment and then disappear (maybe once some of those delicate flowers, so easily bruised by this "snark" business, aged a little and toughened up). But no. The word has stuck around like a mope, and become a conveniently lazy way of dismissing sharp criticism by staking out an ill-defined moral high ground.
And that's the most insidious thing about this word "snark"—the implication that it is a character flaw, a moral failing. If I criticize X and you respond by calling me "snarky," you're not saying I'm wrong about X. You're simply dodging the argument while slipping in an ad hominem attack.
2012 Here Is Your Newtinerary
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 3:08 PM
As we've told you here on Slog, Newt "Mr. Cheerful" Gingrich is coming to town tomorrow. Here's the hour-by-hour itinterary of all his public appearances:
Newt to visit Washington State Capitol
Friday February 24, 2012 – 9:45am PT
Location: Washington State Capitol
416 Snider Avenue SE
Olympia, WA 98504
Note: This event is not open to the publicCallista Gingrich to visit Evergreen Christian School
Friday February 24, 2012 – 10:00am PT
Location: Evergreen Christian School
1000 Black Lake Boulevard
Olympia, WA 98502
Note: This event is not open to the public. Mrs. Gingrich will tour the school and read Sweet Land of Liberty to students.Newt 2012 Rally in Federal Way
Friday February 24, 2012 – 12:30pm PT
Location: Best Western Plus Evergreen Inn & Suites
32124 25th Avenue South
Federal Way, WA 98003
Note: This event is free and open to the publicNewt 2012 Rally in Everett
Friday February 24, 2012 – 7:00 PM
Location: Historic Everett Theater
2911 Colby Avenue
Everett, WA 98201
Note: This event is free and open to the public
Make your plans accordingly.
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2012 / Booze Santorum Shaken, Not Stirred
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 2:44 PM
Slog tipper Joey notified us that Lunchbox Laboratory has a couple of new cocktails:
The Dan Savage: Watermelon Jolly Rancher–infused vodka, Malibu passionfruit, fresh lemonade, and soda served in our signature beaker
Shot of Rick Santorum: Watermelon Jolly Rancher–infused vodka, sour, shaken up with a drop of cream
Subsequently overheard in the office:
"Why isn't the Santorum a frothy chocolate drink? This is more like a Bloody Santorum."
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
I think this last person speaks for all of us.
Housekeeping This Week in the Music Section: Pat Thomas's Listen, Whitey!, J. Pinder, Black Bananas, Whitney Ballen, Trent Moorman Takes a Lesbian to the Ballet, the West Launch Party in West Seattle, and HELLA MORE
Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 2:41 PM
White Man's Book Does Justice to Black Power Music: Pat Thomas's Listen, Whitey! Is History at Its Grooviest*
by DAVE SEGAL
Rap Urbanism: J. Pinder Finds His Place in Urban Hiphop
by CHARLES MUDEDE
Veteran of Disorder: Jennifer Herrema Switches Gears (Sort of) with Black Bananas
by GRANT BRISSEY
Things You're Not Supposed to Hear: Whitney Ballen's Debut Album Is Telling Everyone's Secrets
by MEGAN SELING
Sound Check: Trent Moorman and Benjamin Thomas-Kennedy Go to the Ballet
by TRENT MOORMAN
Granted: The West Launch Party in West Seattle
by GRANT BRISSEY
Up & Coming | Chuckletown | Data Breaker | The Homosexual Agenda | Underage | Poster of the Week | My Philosophy
* Already populated with White Supremacist comments
Chow Charles Mudede Tried to Eat This
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 2:11 PM
...at Katsu Burger. He failed.
Film Who Will Rescue Her?
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 1:47 PM
My love for the art of cinema is captured in this image...
- North by Northwest
So ridiculous, so dramatic, so beautiful. Who will rescue her?
Arts / ??!! Shpring Is Shprung
Posted by David Schmader on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 1:32 PM
I could waste words telling you why you should go see the brand-new Dina Martina show opening March 2 at Re-bar (AKA the show she'll spend all summer performing in Provincetown), but I had an appreciation of concision Strunk-and-Whited into me at a tender age, and the poster tells you all you need to know.
Full show info here.
Politics Anti-Pot Campaign to Be Funded by Doctors, Lawyers, and Maybe Medical Pot Dispensaries
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 1:11 PM
Purportedly acting in the interest of people who want to drive with active THC in their bloodstreams, No On I-502 filed a campaign this week to oppose a sweeping pot legalization and regulation measure that will appear on Washington State's fall ballot.
The campaign has donation pledges from attorneys and doctors, says treasurer Anthony Martinelli, and he speculates that medical marijuana cooperatives may also fund their campaign of television commercials and newspaper advertisements. "It's a very good possibility [medical marijuana dispensary operators] will donate if they think passing it will negatively harm their patients, because a lot of patients have to drive to get to their location," he says.
The medical marijuana industry—threatened by the prospect of legalization harming their business model—was a leading opposition to the 2010 legalization initiative in California. Similarly, medical marijuana activists in Washington have been opposing I-502.
The anti-I-502 campaign was filed by Martinelli and Gil Mobley, a doctor who operates a clinic in federal Way that writes medical marijuana authorizations, and the campaign has the backing of Patients Against I-502. That organization's advocacy has been led in part by Hempfest director and medical cannabis patient Vivian McPeak along with marijuana defense attorneys Jeffrey Steinborn and Douglas Hiatt. All except Mobley have direct ties to Sensible Washington, a campaign that twice failed to qualify their own legalization initiative that contained no DUI provision and zero regulations.http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/02/24/sorry-medical-marijuana-activists-your-study-doesnt-prove-that-i-502-will-nab-sober-drivers-for-duis
2012 / Celeb This Is What Happens When Mitt Romney Tries to Act Human
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 1:02 PM
During yesterday's debate, Mitt Romney shocked the world by making a Seinfeld reference when he quoted George Costanza. It was almost as though Romney had spent some of his Earthly hours watching television. The thought of him sitting on a couch, perhaps with several bowls of snacks surrounding him, staring at a TV set and occasionally chuckling warmly, was enough to inspire many debate viewers to feel faint, as though they were staring at the sun for too long.
But every time Romney pulls on his human skin-suit and tries to pretend he's like everyone else, it backfires horribly. In this case, it inspired Jason Alexander, who played George Costanza on Seinfeld, to send off the best post-debate Tweet of the night:
Thrilled Gov. Romney enjoys my old character. I enjoyed the character he used 2 b 2. If he'd embrace that again, he'd b a great candidate.
— jason alexander (@IJasonAlexander) February 23, 2012
Media / Olympia Obsessed with the Seattle Times Obsession
Posted by Goldy on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 12:59 PM
Really, Seattle Times editorial board? You're going to lash out at Initiative 1163 for the second time this week... the sixth time since it was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November. Writing about the House budget proposal, the editors lament:
What is in it? Initiative 1163. That is the measure promoted by the Service Employees International Union that has the state pay for increased training that most of their members don't need.
Washington's voters have now twice approved expanded training and certification requirements for long-term care workers, and by landslide margins: 65-35 for I-1163 in 2011, and 73-27 for I-1029 in 2008. Yet the union-hating editors at the Seattle Times simply can't get past the SEIU backing to see these provisions as something that voters clearly want.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Death What Drove Whitney Houston to Death?
Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 12:46 PM
David Schmader surveys the theories that circle the internet like sharks.
News Two Thousand Gallons of Diesel Fuel Spilled Near Ballard Bridge
Posted by Unpaid Intern on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 12:46 PM
Posted by News Intern Clare Moran.
My Ballard has the report:
More than a dozen Seattle Fire units are on scene of a haz-mat spill just south of the Ballard Bridge.
Kyle Moore withSeattle Fire says that a locomotive with no cars attached derailed and spilled 2000 gallons of diesel. The locomotive is currently upright and the fuel is contained to the drainage ditch. Seattle Fire has contacted the EPA.
One of the commenter at My Ballard is posting updates, saying that the "belly tank" of the train engine ruptured when it derailed. Focus was placed at Pier 91 due to diesel getting into storm drains. The storm drains in the area empty out at Pier 91, nicknamed the "toilet bowl" by local fishermen. Current predictions reportedly show it heading to the King County wastewater treatment plant. Yikes!
King County, the Department of Ecology, and the Coast Guard have been alerted and are now patrolling the waters to locate, contain, and clean up the contaminated area.
Books Amazon Pulls 5000 Independent Titles from the Kindle Store
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 11:27 AM
Huffington Post says:
Yesterday, the Independent Publishers Group (IPG) announced that Amazon has removed all their Kindle editions from the site, totaling around 5,000 books.
According to Publishers Lunch, IPG's president, Mark Suchomel, sent out an email alert yesterday stating, "I am disappointed to report that Amazon.com has failed to renew its agreement with IPG to sell Kindle titles."...Amazon turned off the buying button on the approximately 5,000 Kindle IPG titles because they refused to accept a revised set of terms regarding revenue from Amazon.
In an interview with paidcontent.org, Suchomel said, “We’re offering [the e-book sales terms] we offered last week, and somehow they think it’s not quite good enough."
IPG is basically a distributor made up of many small, independent publishers who otherwise would probably get lost in the battle for placement and promotion against the larger New York-based publishers. Amazon's new agreement—it involves steeper discounts in Amazon's favor and new co-op terms—kicked up a lot of dust when it was announced in December. (Co-op, if you're unfamiliar to retail terminology, is money that producers pay to retailers for better placement on their shelves or on their site. You don't see books on display at Barnes & Noble, for example, unless publishers pay for the advertising space.) We'll see how this fight goes; Amazon's not known for budging.
Fashion Sneaker Drop
Posted by Gillian Anderson on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 11:20 AM
These dedicated sneakerheads are camping outside Rock Paper Scissors on Pike Street. They are waiting for tomorrow's drop of the new Nike Foamposite Galaxy. They've been out here off and on all week, set up with chairs, a heater, and good friends.
- GA
The sneakers do look pretty cool: outer-space graphics, material that simulates astronaut training suits, and glow-in-the-dark soles. They retail for $220 but sell for thousands of dollars online. I hope these charming guys get what they came for—they just want to look their best.
The Stranger Suggests
BOOKS
Lysley Tenorio
One story in Lysley Tenorio’s debut collection, Monstress, details the time the narrator’s uncle Willie decided to get into a fistfight with the Beatles.
2012 / Religion Marco Rubio Was a Mormon
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:55 AM
Well, this could affect Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick:
In the compelling personal narrative that has helped propel Florida Senator Marco Rubio to national political stardom, one chapter has gone completely untold: Rubio spent his childhood as a faithful Mormon.
Rubio was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with his family at around the age of eight, and remained active in the faith for a number of years during his early youth, family members told BuzzFeed.
Rubio spokesman Alex Conant confirmed the story to BuzzFeed, and said Rubio returned to the Catholic church a few years later with his family, receiving his first communion on Christmas day in 1984 at the age of 13.
There's much more, including the Rubio family's love of the Osmonds, in the Buzzfeed story. I just can't see super-cautious Romney going for a vice presidential candidate who has even a relatively harmless tie to the Mormon church, even though Rubio is the party's favorite son right now.
2012 / Olympia Former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to Run for Secretary of State (and Lose)
Posted by Goldy on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:39 AM
I'd been hearing this rumor for weeks, and thought too highly of him to believe it, but we just got a press release announcing that former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will run for Secretary of State.
“We need a Secretary of State not only working with counties to improve election oversight and participation, but a strong voice for transparency on how campaigns are financed, and keeping the voice of citizens in the initiative process,” said Nickels.
Oy.
First of all, Washington Secretary of State is the race where Democrats go to die, having last claimed the office sometime in the late 1400s. Second, to my recollection, no Seattle mayor has ever gone on to win any statewide race ever. The rest of the state hates us. Third, the last time Nickels ran for office—in Seattle—he came in third, behind Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn, for chrisakes. Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn!
Wait, I haven't run out of numbers yet.
Fourth, while I like Nickels, and voted for him in the primary, and I don't doubt he'd do a decent job as SoS, he has no particular qualifications for an office that's largely concerned with running elections. Of course, neither do either of the other Democrats running, but then they're not former Seattle mayors, so they don't automatically generate the suspicion throughout the rest of the state that their candidacies are part of a Seattle conspiracy to steal future elections.
And fifth, this is an office that has been dominated by former county auditors, like current Secretary Sam Reed and his hand-picked successor, Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman. So I can't help but believe that a Nickels-Wyman race would just hand the office over to the Republicans in a landslide. Again. And that's a sad way for Nickels to put the final nail in his political career.
City John T. Williams Totem Will Be Erected at Seattle Center This Sunday
Posted by Cienna Madrid on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:38 AM
- Kelly O
“I, like my brother, am a First Nations carver in the heritage and tradition of my people and my family who have been carving in Seattle since at least 1926," Rick Williams, the brother of John T. and primary totem carver, said in a statement. "We invite all of Seattle to experience the traditional pole raising ceremony and to visit the pole once it is standing. We give the John T. Williams totem pole to the City of Seattle in the hope that it will be a symbol of peace and honor for many generations.”
The traditional pole raising will start at 10:00 am at Pier 57, where members of the public will gather to help carry the 40-foot pole (volunteers still needed—go here for details). The procession will then carry the pole through the city to the Seattle Center, specifically to the area bounded by Broad Street, Thomas Street and 4th and 5th Avenues N (a spot south of the Experience Music Project building and east of the Space Needle). The pole is scheduled to be raised at 1:00 pm and "at 2:00 pm the Program and Celebration of Gifting the Pole to the City of Seattle will commence," according to a press release, including drumming, blessings, singing, and dancing.
Two weeks ago, the John T. Williams totem pole project announced that it was thousands of dollars short of its fundraising goal to pay for, install, and maintain the 40-foot totem pole in honor of Williams, who was fatally shot in August 2010 by a Seattle police officer in downtown Seattle. The group is still accepting tax deductible donations to fund subsequent phases of the project.
Death / Life / Media Background on 'The Bitter End'
Posted by David Schmader on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:31 AM
Yesterday I shared the obituary of 94-year-old Josie Anello, a Florida woman whose death notice contained some posthumous jabs at her kids, who "betrayed her and broke her heart."
In the comments to the post, Bremerton Boy directed readers to the backstory, brought to us by the Tampa Bay Times:
The condemning language reveals a long-standing rift between Angelo "A.J." Anello, who wrote and placed the obituary, and his two siblings — particularly his sister.
A different obituary of Mrs. Anello, this one placed by Mrs. Anello's daughter, appeared the next day. It contained most of the same information, minus any reference to broken hearts or betrayals.
As with many a family quarrel, it comes down to money.
Basically, Angelo Anello, 63, and his sister, Ninfa Simpson, 65, accuse each other of stealing from their mother.
Simpson says Anello drained the mother's savings and maxed out her credit cards. Anello says Simpson and her husband used their mother's Social Security checks to go on vacations to Branson, Mo., and Alaska.
Both siblings deny the other's allegations.
Thank you, Bremerton Boy, and rest in peace, Josie Anello.
Visual Art Currently Hanging: Matthew Clifford Green's Excitable Boy
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 9:33 AM
- The Stranger
- One half (the darker, thicker half) of Matthew Clifford Green's show at Lawrimore Project.
A row of luscious acrylic paintings at Lawrimore Project this month could easily be mistaken for exploded floral arrangements. Their surfaces are buried under layers of vivid color and palm-sized glop-bursts of red and yellow and white. They look like a typical gestural abstraction series—the kind of thing created when a painter hits on a palette and a theme, and runs with it.
But these are actually copies of each other, made by physically pressing piles of paint from one messy surface onto a blank, then adding some paint and repeating to create more. These paintings are versions of each other, even though you can't quite figure out which one is the alpha, which came next, or exactly how it worked. There are only indirect suggestions of relationships.
On the wall facing the thick paintings is a row of photographs of their back sides. These photographs have been printed on canvas, which has then been stretched and hung like a painting. These are the B sides.
Green, based in Portland, also makes and distributes music, and he created this exhibition with vinyl record pressings in mind. Paintings, even of the same subject, are thought to be uncopyable—each one essentially human and alive—versus vinyl records of the same piece of music, which are considered interchangeable. But Green's hamfisted process of smacking two surfaces together in order to create new paintings suggests that painters repeat themselves, too—become machines of their own works. And of course this is true in the larger sense: artists of all kinds find a style that works, then repeat, repeat, repeat. How is this so different from mechanical reproduction?
It's a juicy subject to take up, since artists are often pressured to create a signature style, then punished (or rewarded) if they stick too closely to it. It's disorienting not to know what kind of work to expect from an artist, but it's dull to be able to predict it. Green is a performer. This sticky display is a smart way for him to take up space in a fine art gallery.
Jay Inslee Calls Judge's Plan B Decision "Beyond Reason"
Posted by Eli Sanders at 9:17 AM in 2012
Morning News: Gun Deaths, No Emergency Contraception for You, Grown-up Harry Potter
Posted by Anna Minard at 8:22 AM in News
Utopia Today: Recharging Your Cell Phone's Battery with Your Body's Heat
Posted by Charles Mudede at 7:52 AM in Science
A Bill to Require More Suicide Prevention Training for Doctors, Opposed By Doctors
Posted by Eli Sanders at 6:00 AM in Olympia
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