MARCH 12-18, 2014 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 11
SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM I FREE
WHAT THE MAESTRO OF MARRIAGE EQUALITY IS DOING NOW PAGE 5 | A FOOD FOREST GROWS PAGE 17
Hey, Kirkland neighbor!
grand opening grand opening celebration three event-filled weekends celebration March 15event-filled & 16, 22 & 23 and 29 & 30 three weekends
March 15 & 16, 22 & 23 and 29 & 30 Hey, Kirkland neighbor! Hey, Kirkland neighbor!
grand opening grand opening Hey, Kirkland neighbor!
grand opening celebration celebration
celebration
Stop by and shake paws! There’s a new kind of pet store in your neighborhood. Help us celebrate our new digs with fun events and valuable giveaways over three event-filled weekends!
three event-filled weekends
three weekends March 15 &event-filled 16, 22 & 23 and 29 & 30
three event-filled weekends March 15the&excitement 16, 22 &your 23 andfamily 29 can & 30 Sniff out all entire
March 15 & 16, 22pets! & 23 and & 30 enjoy—including your Be sure to 29 check out our entire grand opening schedule. Kirkland 10042 N.E. 137th St. At Juanita Firs Shopping Center 425-820-0934 Monday–Saturday 9 am–9 pm Stop by and shake a new kind of pet Sunday 10paws! am–7 There’s pm Stop neighborhood. by and shake paws! a new kind store in your HelpThere’s us celebrate our of pet Stop by and shake paws! There’s a new kind of petour store infun your neighborhood. Help us celebrate new digsstore within events and valuable giveaways your neighborhood. Help us celebrate our new digs with fun events and valuable giveaways over three event-filled new digs with funweekends! events and valuable giveaways over three event-filled weekends!
10
gift
Present coupon and Pals Rewards card to receive your gift card. Valid only a Petco. Not valid on the purchase of gift cards, prior purchases, services (such online or with any other coupon offer. Void if copied, altered, transferr prohibited by law. Single-use coupon, limit one per transaction. Expires: 3/16
card
Monday–Saturday 9 am–9 9pm Monday–Saturday pm Monday–Saturday 9am–9 am–9 pm 10 Sunday 10Sunday am–7 pm Sunday 10am–7 am–7pm pm
with any purchase of $20 or more with Pals Rewards
1010
00 0000
800443955208
Valid March 15–16 onlyonly at the Kirkland Unleashed by Petco store, store, Valid March 15–16 the Kirkland Unleashed by Petco Validwhile March 15–16last. only at theat Kirkland Unleashed by Petco store, supplies while supplies last.
whilePresent supplies couponlast. and Pals Rewards card to receive your gift card. Valid only at Unleashed by
Present coupon and Pals Rewards card to receive your gift card. Validas only atunleashedbype Unleashed by sit. stay. connect. Petco. Not and valid on the purchase of gift prior purchases, services Grooming), Present coupon Pals Rewards card to cards, receive your gift card. Valid (such only at Unleashed by Petco. Not valid on the purchase of gift cards, prior purchases, services (such as Grooming),
gift giftgift
online or with any other coupon Void if copied, altered, transferred and where Petco. Not valid on the ofcoupon giftoffer. cards, prior purchases, services (such as Grooming), online or withpurchase any other offer. Void if copied, altered, transferred and where by law. Single-use coupon, limit one per transaction. Expires: 3/16/14. online prohibited or prohibited with any other offer. Void if copied, altered, transferred and where by law.coupon Single-use coupon, limit one per transaction. Expires: 3/16/14. prohibited by law. Single-use coupon, limit one per transaction. Expires: 3/16/14.
card
card card with any purchase
with any purchase 05-03359_Unleashed_GO_StreetTeam_Flyer_v2_Kirkland.indd
1 800443955208
800443955208 800443955208
of $20 or more with Pals Rewards sit. stay. connect. sit. stay. connect.
sit. stay. connect.
05-03359_Unleashed_GO_StreetTeam_Flyer_v2_Kirkland.indd 1
05-03359_Unleashed_GO_StreetTeam_Flyer_v2_Kirkland.indd 1
unleashedbypetco.com
unleashedbypetco.com
unleashedbypetco.com
5823
of $20 or more with Pals Rewards with any purchase of $20 or more with Pals Rewards
5823
2
00
entire grand opening schedule.
KirklandKirkland Kirkland 10042 N.E. 137th St.137th St. 10042 N.E. 10042 N.E. 137th St. At Juanita Firs Shopping Center At Juanita FirsShopping Shopping Center At Juanita Firs Center 425-820-0934 425-820-0934 425-820-0934
5823
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
over three event-filled weekends!
Sniff out all the excitement your entire familyValid can 15–16 only at the Kirkland Unleashed by Pe Sniff out all the excitement your entire family March can Sniff out all your the excitement yourto entire family enjoy—including pets! Be sure check outcan our enjoy—including your pets! Be sure to while check supplies out our last. enjoy—including your pets! Be sure to check out our entire grand opening schedule. entire grand opening schedule.
2/10/14 3:19 PM
2/10/14 3:19 PM
inside» March 12–18, 2014 VOLUME 39 | NUMBER 11
» SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM
»39
»9
news&comment 5
LIBERAL ADVICE
BY NINA SHAPIRO | Meet the man
who helps progressive venture capitalist Nick Hanauer play politics. 5 | SEATTLELAND 7 | SPORTSBALL
9
20 YEARS ON
BY CHARLES R. CROSS | Experts
feared Kurt Cobain’s death would inspire copycat suicides. They were wrong. An excerpt from Cross’ upcoming book.
food&drink 17 ECO-CUISINE
BY GWENDOLYN ELLIOTT | The
Beacon Food Forest combines locavorism and environmental concern. 17 | FOOD NEWS/TEMP CHECK 18 | THE BAR CODE
Editor-in-Chief Mark Baumgarten EDITORIAL Senior Editor Nina Shapiro Food Editor Nicole Sprinkle Arts Editor Brian Miller Editorial Operations Manager Gavin Borchert
Contributing Writers Rick Anderson, Sean Axmaker, James Ballinger, Michael Berry, Sara Billups, Steve Elliott, Margaret Friedman, Zach Geballe, Dusty Henry, Megan Hill, Robert Horton, Patrick Hutchison, Sara D. Jones, Seth Kolloen, Sandra Kurtz, Dave Lake, John Longenbaugh, Jessie McKenna, Terra Clarke Olsen, Kevin Phinney, Keegan Prosser, Mark Rahner, Michael Stusser, Jacob Uitti
Graphic Designers Jennifer Lesinski, Sharon Adjiri
Man and a campus comedy. 27 | PERFORMANCE 29 | VISUAL ARTS/THE FUSSY EYE
30 | OPENING THIS WEEK | Wes Anderson’s latest, Sam Rockwell on drugs, and physicists with a proton obsession. 32 | FILM CALENDAR
37 MUSIC
Duran Duran says thank you to its most notorious fan. Plus: Rock’s reigning goddess; Geoffrey Castle’s is bigger. 37 | SEVEN NIGHTS
odds&ends
35 | THE GEEKLY REPORT 41 | TOKE SIGNALS 42 | CLASSIFIEDS
»cover credits
PHOTO BY CHARLES PETERSON
Art Director Karen Steichen
Photo Interns Joshua Bessex, Kyu Han ADVERTISING Advertising and Marketing Director Jen Larson Advertising Sales Manager, Arts Carol Cummins Senior Account Executives Krickette Wozniak Account Executives Peter Muller, Sam Borgen Classifieds Account Executive Matt Silvie DISTRIBUTION Distibution Manager Jay Kraus OPERATIONS Administrative Coordinator Amy Niedrich PUBLISHER Wendy Geldien COPYRIGHT © 2014 BY SOUND PUBLISHING, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. ISSN 0898 0845 / USPS 306730 • SEATTLE WEEKLY IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY SOUND PUBLISHING, INC., 307 THIRD AVE. S., SEATTLE, WA 98104 SEATTLE WEEKLY® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT SEATTLE, WA POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO SEATTLE WEEKLY, 307 THIRD AVE. S., SEATTLE, WA 98104 • FOUNDED 1976. MAIN SWITCHBOARD: 206-623-050 0 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: 206-623-6231 RETAIL AND ONLINE ADVERTISING: 206-467-4341
18 karat “Single Loops” by Michael Good available in 3 sizes and in white gold
Exclusively at
1407 FIFTH AVENUE | FIFTH & UNION | SEATTLE, WA 98101 | 206.447.9488
turgeonraine.com TRnewspaperWeeklynewsize2013r.indd 9
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
30 FILM
citydogclub.com
PRODUCTION
21 FACING EAST
22 | THE PICK LIST 26 | OPENING NIGHTS | The Elephant
809 Olive Way, Suite B • Seattle, WA 98101 206/623-5395
Editorial Interns Margery Cercado, Colleen Fontana, Imana Gunawan
arts&culture and Isamu Noguchi discovered China in the ’30s.
Dog Daycare • Dog Boarding Dog Grooming • Dog Shop
Staff Writers Ellis E. Conklin, Matt Driscoll, Kelton Sears
Production Manager Christopher Dollar
BY BRIAN MILLER | How Mark Tobey
More wiggle in the wag!
Entertainment Editor Gwendolyn Elliott
3 8/6/13 6:25 PM
S E AT T L E ’ S B E S T D A M N
HAPPY HOUR S E A T T L E
C E N T E R
A R M O R Y
Third Thursday, 5pm – 8pm Seattle Center Armory
Liv Sansoz, Mike Libecki & Ethan Pringle, China / Photo: Keith Ladzinski
March 13-23
From March 13-23, spend $150 and
Get $30 Back
to spend on anything in stores this April.
City of Seattle
Event/date/time subject to change More information at 206.684.7200 or seattlecenter.com Seattle Center, 305 Harrison St., Seattle, WA 98109 © iStockphoto.com/chrisgramly
250 Pine St. Seattle, WA 98101 206-441-2639
Mountain Hardwear t eS
Ave
FREE Wi-Fi available at Seattle Center
Mountain Hardwear
3rd
seattlecenter.com
Ave
4
No Cover (21+)
2nd
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
Beer • Wine • Cocktails • Food Specials Music • Games • Prizes
Pin
In store purchase at Mountain Hardwear retail stores only. Excludes purchase of gift cards. While supplies last. Other restrictions apply. See Mountain Hardwear store associate for details. ©2014 Mountain Hardwear, Inc. All rights reserved.
news&comment
Smooth Operator
Sailors Seek $1B After Fukushima
I
Nick Hanauer hasn’t gone from successful venture capitalist to hard-charging progressive activist alone. He’s got the state’s hottest political strategist at his side.
BY NINA SHAPIRO
I
SEATTLELAND
JOSHUA BESSEX
out front pushing their ideas—but not entirely unprecedented. Democratic political consultant John Wyble calls to mind Tom Steyer, the former hedge-fund manager who has actively supported a range of environmental and liberal campaigns in California and across the country. “We seem to be moving away from party politics and toward these independent operators,” Wyble observes.
Zach Silk brings practical political skills and a sense of focus to Hanauer’s irrepressible and wide-ranging views. Last year, as Hanauer’s political ideas became more ambitious, he turned to Silk to run an operation loosely known as the True Patriot Network, named after one of two books Hanauer has co-authored. Silk, for his part, says he wouldn’t have been happy with a traditional donor-advisor role, but feels comfortable doing hands-on organizing for someone with a shared progressive vision. Hanauer and Silk are a complementary pair.
While the venture capitalist has a big personality—“The great thing about being me is that I can do whatever I want,” he says, explaining his free-form activism—Silk comes across as lowkey and somewhat self-effacing. “Zach strikes me as the type of guy for whom it really doesn’t matter whose idea it was,” says David Freiboth, executive secretary of the King County Labor Council. Silk also brings practical political skills and a sense of focus to Hanauer’s irrepressible and wide-ranging views, observes influential political consultant Christian Sinderman, who has worked with them both. “He’s the calming yin to Nick Hanauer’s excitable yang.” Over coffee on a recent afternoon at a down-
town cafe, the 38-year-old Silk relates that he met Hanauer soon after celebrating the wedding ceremonies of gay couples held at City Hall on December 9, 2012. He was still coming off a high from winning the campaign to make those marriages possible. If in retrospect the passage of Referendum 74 seems inevitable, Silk recalls he headed into that campaign with “spotty” polling. “Most people tell you that you shouldn’t go to the ballot unless you’re in the 60 percent range,” he says. “We were in the mid-50s.” A big part of his success, he believes, was
» CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
THE WEEKLY BRIEFING | What’s going on at seattleweekly.com: Seattle’s got gondola fever. Is there a cure? And what can be learned from Portland’s Aerial Tram? Facing potential caps, ride-share start-ups revealed how many registered drivers they have. Spoiler: They say it’s a lot. The 2014 Gathering of the Juggalos will not be coming to the Kitsap County Fairgrounds. For fun, we talked to the Internet troll from Poulsbo who reported otherwise. Pramila Jayapal, the founder of OneAmerica, has her eyes on Adam Kline’s Senate seat. Note: She’s got some powerful allies. Finally, Bertha’s still stuck and the Viaduct is a crumbling mess. What else is new?
a
•
•
•
•
IBTIMES.COM
The long view: Zach Silk, left, advises Nick Hanauer on his political operations from his boss’s office overlooking downtown Seattle.
Sailors scrub the flight deck of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan on March 22, 2011.
Some of the super-carrier’s crew remember the flakes leaving a metallic taste on their lips. Navy chopper crews, setting down from rescue and supply missions to aid Japanese stranded by the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, also complained of sensing metal in their saliva. It was similar to the metallic taste experienced by the crew of the Enola Gay 66 years earlier when their B-29 bomber flew over the radioactive cloud they created by dropping the first atomic bomb on Japan. With a major difference. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs released an estimated one million curies of radiation that led to widespread illness and deaths, many related to thyroid disease and leukemia. But the human exposure to the Fukushima meltdown is being compared to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster that released as many as 50 million curies. Chernobyl is predicted to eventually result in tens if not hundreds of thousands of early deaths. The 3/11 snowfall was the beginning of Japan’s nuclear winter. And the radioactive iodine taste in their mouths was the Reagan crew’s first lesson about radiation. They next learned over the ship’s loudspeaker that they were not to drink or bathe in the ship’s contaminated desalinated sea water. Then they found out their carrier
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
n 2006, political strategist Zach Silk cut his teeth managing the high-profile, if ill-fated, Congressional campaign of Darcy Burner, the former Microsoft manager who became a favorite in the liberal blogosphere. In 2008, he served as deputy manager for thenGovernor Chris Gregoire’s successful re-election campaign. Four years later, he had the biggest political success of his life leading the campaign to pass the state’s same-sex-marriage initiative. And where is this sought-after political strategist now as a crucial midterm election looms? Ensconced in the 28th-floor offices of a venturecapital company. Silk hasn’t given up his political work, though. Far from it. Instead, he is leading the ever-more-expansive political operation of Nick Hanauer, one of the principals of Second Avenue Partners—a man who made his fortune by investing early in high-tech companies and then turned to investing in politics. “It’s an evolutionary step,” Silk says of his full-time work for Hanauer. Many wealthy entrepreneurs looking to invest in political and philanthropic causes hire a “donor advisor ” who helps them choose wise philanthropic investments. But Hanauer isn’t just interested in writing checks. He has drafted Silk because he wants to play a hands-on role in crafting and implementing big ideas, many of them informed by politics that are far to the left of your typical jet-owning, multiple-mansion-dwelling tycoon like Hanauer. (“Rich people, huh?” he says jokingly one day when I visit his office and take in its living roomsize, panoramic views.) In the last year, Hanauer has become particularly well known for his championing of a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Having written a piece for Bloomberg last June on the “capitalist’s case” for such a wage, which he argues will put more money in the hands of potential customers, Hanauer says he “takes credit” for the $15 figure that has become a rallying call throughout the country. But that’s not all Hanauer is doing. He helped conceptualize, and is now pushing, a state gun background-checks initiative. He’s talking with national political figures, including potential presidential candidates, about their electoral ambitions. And he’s trying to shape a national conversation about the economy that reaches beyond the minimum wage to address the very meaning of capitalism. This level of activism is unusual for someone in his position—even those lavish donors to conservative causes, the Koch brothers, aren’t
t’s no great surprise that the Pentagon does not believe that its Marines and sailors—many of them from Seattleland— were hit with life-threatening illness after pitching in to help the Japanese three years ago this week. That was March 11, 2011, the day that put the fuk in Fukushima. This is, after all, the Pentagon that experiments on its troops with drugs and vaccines, tested mustard gas on solBY RICK ANDERSON diers and nerve gas on sailors, and denied the existence of Agent Orange and Gulf War Illness even as the bodies stacked up. So when the Navy insists the sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan were not at risk and that all necessary precautions were taken, you have to look to history, and then to the odd-tasting snow that fell on the Reagan’s 1,000-foot flight deck that day off the east coast of Japan.
» CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 5
SPRING FLAG FOOTBALL
news&comment»
a proud member of
Smooth Operator » FROM PAGE 5
“This is the first major gun legislation passed [by the legislature] in a decade.
bringing together unexpected allies: small business leaders and big employers, Republicans and Democrats, straight and gay men and women. (He himself is straight, married, and the father of two.) He says one lesson learned is that “you need to not make assumptions about who’s with you and who’s not.” Five days after the City Hall event came the mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. As a renewed call for gun control grew around the country, Silk got a call from Eric Liu, Hanauer’s longtime collaborator and co-author. “Hey, I think we’re going to form an organization,” Silk remembers Liu saying. “We want to build a coalition that can bring people together. The model could be what happened on [same-sex] marriage.” After a series of meetings with Hanauer and others, Silk took the helm of what became the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. Using start-up money from Hanauer, the group hired lobbyists and began working to pass a legislative bill in 2013 that would require background checks for all gun sales. It failed. Although he and others believe a majority of legislators supported the bill, a frenzy of opposition, fanning concerns about the government coming next to people’s homes to confiscate their guns, managed to block it. “Everything you’ve heard about the gun lobby is true,” Silk says. So the alliance turned to gathering signatures for what is now Initiative 594, which will be on the ballot in November. Silk says the organization is currently building its infrastructure for the campaign—3,500 donors and 10,000 volunteers so far, he says. It is also coordinating its efforts with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group co-founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Silk went to New York last month to meet with MAIG staff. The alliance, however, has a somewhat strained relationship with the region’s longtime gun-control advocacy group, Washington CeaseFire. “There’s a degree of arrogance there,” says executive director Ralph Fascitelli. His group wanted to put a measure on the ballot in 2013 rather than this year. Fascitelli argues that, unlike support for same-sex marriage, which has built steadily over time, momentum for gun control is “episodic,” peaking only after shocking events like Sandy Hook. “You have to seize the moment,” Fascitelli says, adding that the alliance “didn’t listen to us.” “We weren’t ready,” responds Silk, elaborating that he and his cohorts felt they needed time to build forces that could withstand the gun lobby. The timing debate notwithstanding, Fascitelli recognizes that the Hanauer-funded alliance has brought resources to the table that have eluded CeaseFire. “We couldn’t have done it,” he says, referring to the initiative campaign. With its lobbying team, the alliance has continued to work the legislature. While it has had no luck on background checks this session either (as with all initiatives, the legislature was given first crack at passing 594), the group did successfully rally support for a bill that allows a judge to order those accused of domestic violence to surrender their guns. “It’s pretty awesome,” Silk enthused last Thursday, after HB 1840 unanimously passed the Republican-controlled Senate.
Meanwhile, Silk is advising Hanauer on the activist’s broadening work on income inequality. Silk’s precise role is a bit amorphous; he says it’s to advise Hanauer and “find ways to spark conversations” about the venture capitalist’s ideas. Judging by Hanauer’s visibility, Silk is having success. Hanauer serves on the mayor’s minimumwage advisory committee; took to the airwaves last week to spar with KIRO’s Dori Monson on the subject; met late last month with U.S. Senate Democratic leaders to expound on his economic views; and co-wrote a recent piece for the journal Democracy called “Capitalism Redefined.” The article, which Hanauer says is the thing he’s done in the past couple years that he’s happiest with, argues that prosperity can’t be measured by simple wealth or the GDP. Instead, it must be assessed by “the availability of things that create well-being,” whether antibiotics, a comfy bed, or adequate food. Democracy editor Michael Tomasky says the piece generated 500 tweets, an unusually high number for his high-minded journal, which incidentally receives funding from Hanauer. Where does Hanauer’s political operation go
HAPPY HOUR
3 PM - 6 PM & 10 PM - 1AM MONDAY - FRIDAY
TUESDAYS
TACOS, TALLBOYS & POKER @ 7 PM
Boys & Girls Ages 5 - 15
WEDNESDAYS
WHISKEY WEDNESDAYS!
Seattle Renton
SeaTac Kent
THURSDAYS
TRIVIA @ 8:15 PM
FRIDAYS
LADIES NIGHT JUKE BOX MATCHING
$3.50 PINTS
DURING ALL MARCH MADNESS GAMES (8) HD TVS & (1) 9’ HD SCREEN
18 BEERS ON TAP!
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
Corner of 87th & Greenwood www.thehousesportspub.com
6
22,000 FANS AND COUNTING facebook.com/seattleweekly
Silk’s role is to advise Hanauer and “find ways to spark conversations” about the venture capitalist’s ideas. from here? Wyble muses that its challenges may stem from its expansiveness. Unlike, say, a teachers’ union or a chamber of commerce, Hanauer’s organization has no defined identity. It can do anything Hanauer wants it to, and thus risks diffusing its energies. Silk seems aware of this risk. “The most important thing when you’re having success is to keep succeeding, not to turn your attention away to something else,” he says. And so, after the Seattle minimum-wage debate is over (which he hopes will result in a steep wage hike), he and Hanauer intend to take the issue national. He doesn’t mean lobbying for the $10.10 minimum wage that President Obama has espoused—a figure that he calls “so a decade ago.” He’s talking about aiming for something in the ballpark of $15, whether through a federal law or a series of local laws across the country. Hanauer and Silk also have their eyes on the upcoming presidential campaign. Among the potential candidates Hanauer is talking with is Martin O’Malley. The Maryland governor has often proclaimed himself a fan of Gardens of Democracy, a book by Hanauer and Liu that argues that the trickle-down theory of economics is wrong. Instead, the authors contend, economic growth is driven by the middle class. If you hear that argument pop up more forcefully in the coming presidential debates, it will be no coincidence. Silk’s brief, handed down from his boss, is to help turn that idea into “the big conversation of the 2016 election.” E
nshapiro@seattleweekly.com
sportsball»
was so hot that that South Korea, Guam, and even Japan barred it from entering their ports. After returning to its home base in San Diego, the nuclear-powered carrier sailed on to Puget Sound the following January, 2012, for a scheduled 14-month overhaul at the Bremerton Navy yard. There is a report, citing shipyard workers, that carrier hardware contaminated by the Fukushima exposure was taken away on rail and buried on the Hanford N-reservation. Sailors and Marines began to complain of unexplained cancers, thyroid problems, excessive bleeding, and a litany of other ailments they feel are related to the exposure, estimating that the ship came within five miles of the Japan coast. One sailor’s baby was born with multiple deformations seven months after Fukushima. No one seemed to be listening to servicemen such as Petty Officer 3rd Class Daniel Hair, who told Stars and Stripes about his pain, memory loss, ringing in the ears, and an immune-system disease so severe he was separated from a Navy job he loved. Fuk-ed over, he said, “I went from this guy in top physical condition to a deteriorating body and a whacked-out mind-set.”
randerson@seattleweekly.com
Rick Anderson writes about sex, crime, money, and politics, which tend to be the same thing.
L
ast week, I asked four Sounders season-ticket holders to gauge their level of excitement for the franchise’s sixth season. Here are their responses: “Low to none,” “low to medium,” “pretty none,” and “I don’t give a shit.” Judging from this small sample, Seattle’s affair with the Sounders appears to be cooling off. And yet, on Saturday, the Sounders’ first game drew 39,240 to CenturyLink—the team’s largest opening-day crowd ever. Those who BY SETH KOLLOEN stayed despite heavy rain—including me—saw a thrilling lastsecond goal by newcomer Chad Barrett. The crowd’s deafening cheer, and the hugs and highfives I exchanged with the fans in my section didn’t feel apathetic. In my section, where I’ve had season tickets for all six seasons, I could see how the years have changed the fans. The 20-something Capitol Hill couple who sat in front of me for five years are
SPORTSBALL
Scarves were up for the Sounders opener.
now married with a kid and live in Richmond Beach. They left at halftime. In the next row down is a 30-something father who’d bring his daughter to every game. Now she’s a teenager and she was at the game with her own friends; you have to wonder how much longer she’ll want to match her social calendar with her dad’s, or even with the guys on the pitch. 2014 will be a particularly challenging year for the Sounders, for three reasons: 1) Roster turnover: Nine of the Sounders’ starting 11 in Saturday’s season opener have been with the team for less than two years. Will fans warm up to players they barely know? 2) Bad timing: The World Cup will yank soccer fans’ attention away from the Sounders from June 12 to July 13. Then, a couple of weeks later, Seahawks’ training camp begins. Can the Sounders compete for mindshare with the defending Super Bowl champions? 3) Mariners afloat: The Mariners’ new $2 billion TV deal and their signing of Robinson Cano signals a more competitive era for the franchise. Will fans looking for sun and booze flock back to the M’s if they start winning again? Most trends don’t last long. A trend either dies out, like cowboy boots for scenesters, or it stays for good, like cowboy boots for cowboys. Were the Seattle Sounders a trend during an otherwise dreary patch for Seattle sports? In 2014, we’ll come closer to finding out. The Sounders will either cement their place in the Seattle sports pantheon or settle one step below. E
sportsball@seattleweekly.com
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
But he and 80 other crew members now have a voice in federal court. “We represent a number of sailors from Everett and also from Bellevue,” says their mouthpiece, Paul Garner, who, with co-counsel Charles Bonner, is an attorney based in Sausalito, Calif. Last month they filed a lawsuit for damages against the allegedly negligent powerplant operator. They seek to establish a $1 billion healthcare fund for affected servicemembers. Garner says nuke owner Tokyo Electric Power “was fully aware that the American responders would be exposed to hazardous levels of radiation, yet did not communicate this to the ships and to other responders.” (An independent Japanese commission also found that plant operators were unprepared for an accident and that “the direct causes . . . were all foreseeable.”) A copy of the federal suit also shows Navy plaintiffs from Mount Vernon and Bremerton, and more of the Reagan’s crew of 5,500 are expected to sign on, along with some civilians. “The workers at Bremerton who worked on the decontamination of the Reagan have also reportedly come down with illnesses,” Garner tells me. In addition to the suit, Congress has now asked the Pentagon to review the exposure and report back next month. Meanwhile, the Navy’s denials of harm are being knocked down. One new study of 3/11’s effects, reported in The AsiaPacific Journal, pegs radiation levels aboard the carrier at 30 times above normal. The report includes a transcript of a telephone conversation with a U.S. Energy Department administrator—the guy in charge of Navy reactors—who describes the Reagan’s radiation level as “much greater than what we had thought.” Some sailors, he tells another official, could have suffered irreversible harm within hours: “It’s a thyroid dose issue.” At last, “It feels like maybe there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” says attorney Garner. “But we shall see.” E
Are the Sounders Fading?
JEREMY DWYER-LINDGREN
Seattleland » FROM PAGE 5
7
8
TM & © 1957, 2014 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P.
SEASON OPTION
SEASON OPTION
SEASON OPTION © LITTLESTAR
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
EXPERIENCE THE MAJESTIC KEYBANK BROADWAY AT THE PARAMOUNT 2014/2015 SEASON
SUBSCRIBE NOW! STGPresents.org/Broadway • 888.451.4042
THERESE FRARE
HAPPENS EVERY DAY
Y DAY
Fans mourn at Seattle Center on April 10, 1994.
Experts predicted a spike in suicides after Kurt Cobain killed himself. They were so wrong.
‘‘It was really powerful for [Courtney] to read that note . . .
By Charles R. Cross
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
II
are 11 unsuccessful attempts, meaning that in the year of Kurt’s t feels awful to even write these words, but Kurt Cobain death, several hundred thousand Americans tried to take their own is better known now for his suicide than for anything else. lives. n Worldwide, the numbers are in the millions. n Even Even those who know nothing about Nirvana, or music, or Kurt’s personal artistry know he took his own life in from here we are now: the lasting impact of Kurt cobain those closest to Kurt, and who suffered the greatest loss, realized his death was one of many. “It’s not uncommon what happened April 1994 with a shotgun. He is one of the most famous people to ever commit suicide. Any search for suicide on the Internet immediately yields Kurt’s with Kurt,” Krist Novoselic told me once. “The same story happens all over this country every day. name near the top, along with Sylvia Plath, Vincent Van Gogh, and Hunter S. Thompson. n It’s a combination of drug abuse and lack of coping skills.” n The Washington State Youth Suicide Kurt’s suicide made front-page news around the world, made the cover of many magazines Prevention Plan, which was instituted the year after Kurt’s death, identifies the major risk factors (Newsweek ’s headline read “Suicide: Why do people kill themselves?”), was reported on every major for suicide. They read like Kurt’s resume: previous suicide attempt (Kurt made at least half a dozen television news broadcast, was the subject of round-the-clock coverage on MTV, and was the topic attempts); past or current psychiatric disorder (like depression); alcohol and/or drug abuse (severe for of days of discussions on talk radio. “Kurt became synonymous with suicide,” says therapist Nicole Kurt); access to firearms (Kurt had many weapons). One other risk factor not on that list, but that Jon Carroll. For a time his suicide so dominated public thought it “removed him from the brilliance experts agree plays a role, is a family history of suicide. n There is much thought in scientific circles of his artistry,” she says. Carroll would know firsthand: In addition to being a noted therapist, she that researchers will find a “suicide gene.” A 2002 study published in the academic journal Archives was Kurt’s sister-in-law. n Kurt’s suicide affected the lives of his family and his fans, but it was of General Psychiatry found that children whose parents had attempted suicide were six times more not a unique story—except for the fact that he was famous. That same year, in 1994, 30,574 other likely to attempt suicide themselves. Some of the public discourse on this was reignited in 2009 people killed themselves in the United States. Suicide has become such a public health issue that when Nicholas Hughes, the son of Sylvia Plath and one of her two children in the house when she combating it is now the responsibility of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), committed suicide, took his own life at 47. » CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 as if it were the plague or the Ebola virus. The CDC estimates that for every actual suicide there
9
» FROM PAGE 9 PRESENTS
10
PHOTO BY: MIRASTORIES.COM CICCHETTI, PICTURED)
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
3 COURSES FOR $30 BALLARD Ballard Annex Oyster House • Ray’s Boathouse • Ray’s Café • Skillet Diner • Volterra BELLEVUE Cantinetta • Monsoon East BELLTOWN icon Grill • Local 360 Cafe & Bar • The Lost Pelican BOTHELL Preservation Kitchen CAPITOL HILL Coastal Kitchen • La Bête • Manhattan Seattle • Monsoon • Olivar • Skillet Diner • Tango Restaurant • Restaurant Zoe DES MOINES The Scotch and Vine DOWNTOWN Andaluca • Barolo Ristorante • Blueacre Seafood • BOKA restaurant + bar • Chan Seattle • Lecosho • Steelhead Diner • Trace Seattle • The Virginia Inn Restaurant & Bar EASTLAKE Cicchetti FIRST HILL The Hunt Club FREMONT Chiso Sushi • Hunger 2.0 GEORGETOWN Brass Tacks GREEN LAKE/WALLINGFORD Eva Restaurant GREENWOOD The Olive and Grape KIRKLAND BeachHouse Bar+Grill • Le Grand Bistro Americain • Ristorante Paradiso• Volterra LESCHI Daniel’s Broiler MADISON PARK nishino MAGNOLIA Palisade • SZMANIA’S PHINNEY RIDGE Stumbling Goat Bistro PIKE PLACE MARKET Cutters Crabhouse PIONEER SQUARE Delicatus QUEEN ANNE ten mercer • Peso’s • Ponti Seafood Grill • Toulouse Petit SOUTH LAKE UNION Chandler’s Crabhouse • Row House Café • Shanik UNIVERSITY DISTRICT Mamma Melina Ristorante WALLINGFORD Cantinetta WEST SEATTLE Fresh Bistro • Phoenecia WOODINVILLE Barking Frog
VISIT US ONLINE FOR PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS, MENUS & GIVEAWAYS!
DINNER — SERVED AT ALL OF THE PARTICIPATING LOCAL RESTAURANTS. *LUNCH —SERVED AT SELECT RESTAURANTS ONLY. SEE WEBSITE FOR COMPLETE LIST OF PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS, MENUS, AND MORE!
Kurt’s family history of suicide was significant. Two of his uncles took their own lives, and his great-grandfather committed suicide in front of his family. There was also a family history of depression and alcohol abuse, and many in the field feel there is a strong genetic component to depression and addiction. Researchers continue to look for a suicide gene, but what is known is that certain regions have significantly higher suicide rates. Social scientists think that when suicide is common in one area, and this greatest of all human taboos is crossed, it gives vulnerable people “permission” when a period of suicidal thought hits. In Kurt’s case, he had so much suicide in his family and in his hometown, he was already talking about taking his own life as a young teen. Kurt came upon a suicide victim himself when he was in middle school, discovering a man who had hanged himself in a tree. That vision was most certainly indelible in Kurt’s young brain— he extensively talked about it with his childhood friends—and the sheer happenstance of that discovery became yet another horrific part of his history. I often see things written along the lines of “Kurt Cobain killed himself because of fame.” Maybe. But consider that before Kurt ever picked up a guitar he had seen a suicide victim hanging from a tree, he had family members on both sides of his lineage who had chosen suicide, he had family histories of depression and alcohol abuse, and he grew up in an economically depressed area where unemployment and suicide rates were high. It is possible that before he ever picked up a guitar, he didn’t have a chance. It is possible that fame, rather than taking his life, perhaps gave him more years than he would have had without it. What we do know for certain is that growing up knowing other family members have committed suicide, as was the case for Kurt, increases risk significantly. The sad story of suicide in our society has con-
tinued since Kurt’s death. In the two decades since, suicide rates in the United States have steadily increased, according the CDC. In 2010, 38,354 people committed suicide in the U.S. Thirty-three percent tested positive for alcohol, 23 percent for antidepressants, and 20 percent for opiates. In a given year in America, suicide results in an estimated $34.6 billion in medical costs and work lost. Though young females attempt suicide at a greater rate than men, more men die from suicide since they are more likely to be successful in their attempt—what suicide researchers called the gender paradox. Young men are particularly vulnerable, and according to suicide.org there are four male deaths by suicide for every female suicide death. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adults of either gender 27 years of age, after only car accidents. Kurt turned 27 in February 1994. It truly does happen every day. Initially, however, Kurt’s widely reported death caused great alarm among public health officials, who feared it was the perfect storm to threaten vulnerable youth. Celebrity suicides have been known to cause copycats, or “suicide clusters.” When Marilyn Monroe died in 1962, her suicide was extensively studied because she was such a high-profile celebrity with passionate fans. The following month there were two hundred more
suicides than usual in the United States. Given Kurt’s large fan base among an age group already at risk, a catastrophe was feared after his death. Immediately after Kurt’s death, every suicide or suicide attempt in the Seattle area was examined for potential linkages by researchers. One young man did go home after Kurt’s public memorial service and take his own life, and that suicide was widely reported in the press, with speculation that it could be the first of a wave. There are many websites devoted to Kurt conspiracy theories, suggesting that he did not take his own life; a few of these sites also record copycat suicides. These sites argue that the “crime” of Kurt’s supposed murder is all the more heinous and tragic because it resulted in the deaths of further innocent victims. One of these conspiracy websites lists 19 “Cobain-related sympathetic ‘copycat’ suicides”; another says there are “at least 68.” Their salacious reports have received widespread media attention. But what has not gotten as much exposure is the science and detailed statistical analysis by public health experts after Kurt’s suicide. Remarkably, the statistics in King County, where Kurt lived and died, show that the number of suicides actually went down in the months following Kurt’s death. It wasn’t a huge decrease, but it was significant given generally rising suicide rates. Moreover, the fact that there wasn’t a huge spike was the opposite of what researchers expected, the opposite of what has been reported numerous times in the media, and is in stark conflict to what has been claimed countless times on those conspiracy websites.
D Y R E V E S N E P P HA
III
‘‘I was with a guy from the CDC, and our jaws just dropped. ‘This is going to be bad,’ we said. We thought there was going to be an epidemic.”
Dr. David A. Jobes is a leading suicide expert
and the author of one of those studies done after Kurt’s death. He says the figures on the decrease in suicides in the wake of Kurt’s death initially surprised him, but they’ve been confirmed by several further analyses. Another extensive study showed suicides went down significantly right after his death, even in places as far from Seattle as Australia, where Kurt was beloved. I was in my office when news of Kurt’s suicide came to me with that phone call, but Jobes had perhaps an even more surreal experience learning about it. He was actually attending an international convention of suicide researchers that week; he heard the news sitting in a bar discussing trends in the field when a breaking news report came across the television in the background. “It was the headline story,” Jobes told me, “and I was with a guy from the CDC, and our jaws just dropped. ‘This is going to be bad,’ we said. We thought there was going to be an epidemic.” Jobes’ extensive study found the opposite occurred. The paper he published speculates several reasons: “The lack of an apparent copycat effect in Seattle may be due to various aspects of
‘‘It
ex
KEEPIN’ IT LOCAL “It feels good to know that our food, our family, and our business are a part of something bigger. A part of this rainy city we call home” —Steelhead Diner
extensive research, none was more eerie to read about than the case of one young Nirvana fan
» CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
“We proudly seek to grow thoughtfully sourced relationships. It takes a community of passionate artists and artisans to break the cycle of industrially grown foods.” —Skillet Diner “It’s great big world these days...so it’s important to bring it down to cultivating community with the people next door.” —Manhattan Seattle
PHOTO BY: MIRASTORIES.COM CICCHETTI, PICTURED)
Of all the field notes that Jobes reported in his
who did attempt, and succeeded, at taking her own life just a week after Kurt’s death. She had been well aware of resources that the media reported were available, but in her final note to the world she wrote that she couldn’t make use of that help. But she also made a remarkable revelation in her suicide note—she wrote that although she loved Kurt, she was taking her life not because he had, but because of her own issues and depression. “In her note,” Jobes says, “she said she wanted to ‘own’ her own suicide, and didn’t want it linked to his. Some went into this believing an ecological fallacy,” Jobes says—the assumption that people who killed themselves after the death of a celebrity did so because of that news story. In the instance of Kurt Cobain’s suicide, science does not back up that assumption, and in fact the opposite was true. Exactly why a person chooses suicide is an inexact science. The only subject who can definitively explain his motivation is dead. Still, Jobes speculates several key factors that played a part in minimizing copycats and lowering the suicide rate following Cobain’s. One was Kurt’s chosen method of death, which alone diminished copycats because of the intense violence involved. The thought of pain can halt suicidal impulsivity, and while this may seem counterintuitive, it’s a correlation suicide researchers find often: It’s also why sharp spikes under a bridge can halt suicides at that location. Though media coverage of Kurt’s death had lurid moments, the fact that Kurt’s method of suicide was widely reported in detail made it less romantic to young fans. The Seattle mayor’s office and governmental offices in other cities also put out press releases that gave contacts for resources, another critical part of the response. Another key element Jobes cites as a suicidedeterrent factor was Seattle’s public memorial for Kurt. It drew thousands to Seattle Center on Sunday, April 10, 1994, just two days after Kurt’s body was discovered. It was one of the most extraordinary events I’ve ever witnessed.
PRESENTS
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
the media coverage, the method used in Cobain’s suicide, and the crisis center and community outreach interventions that occurred.” Jobes says another key was outreach by the medical community in the previous year to establish a protocol for suicide coverage, urging media outlets to include suicide resources in their reports. Kurt’s death “was the first time where articles appeared with little boxes that listed hotline numbers, signs of depression, and places to get help,” Jobes said. He says Kurt’s death was something of an “outlier of a celebrity suicide in that it arguably led to reporting that did some good.” Vicki Wagner, executive director of Seattle’s Youth Suicide Prevention Program, says Kurt’s death still has a role in raising awareness two decades later. “It made young adults, and certainly teens, much more open to talking about suicide, and normalizing it, even if it’s a topic that is never really normalized,” she says. “His death made kids look at the reality of what the impact of your suicide would be.” In Jobes’ study, his researchers actually went into the homes of people who took their lives after Kurt’s death and searched for Nirvana CDs and posters and examined notes for linkages. Statistically, when a band sells 35 million CDs, their music will likely show up on the shelves of some of those who will take their lives, but Jobes and other researchers looked beyond that. What they found demonstrated that Nirvana fans did not kill themselves simply because of his death. “The results were what we call a ‘proactive nonvarietor effect,’ ” Jobes says, meaning that the attention and circumstances of Kurt’s death may have actually encouraged people to seek help: His research concluded that Kurt’s death statistically decreased suicides among Nirvana fans in the period studied. In some strange way, Kurt dying may have saved lives.
CHARLES PETERSON
Kurt Cobain and his band in 1990.
“Local means... peace of mind in knowing where your food comes from, how it was grown…”. —The Stumbling Goat
11
HAP » FROM PAGE 11 Immediately after the news of Kurt’s death was disclosed on Friday, fans gathered at the public park that was next to his home in Seattle’s Denny-Blaine neighborhood. I drove there myself when I finally got out of my office that nightmare day. I saw fans weeping, holding candles, or propping photographs of Kurt against the park benches. As at many of the events that were related to Kurt and grunge, I had dual roles: I was a fan myself, and grieving, but I was also a journalist. Looking at the greenhouse where he’d been discovered, I still couldn’t believe he’d been
alive in that room not long ago, but now the whole place was covered in yellow police tape. We would later learn, when the medical examiner determined Kurt most likely died on April 5, that his corpse had lain undiscovered in that greenhouse for three days. It became obvious that a larger public Seattle memorial needed to happen. The Seattle music community quickly organized a vigil and scheduled it for Sunday the 10th at Seattle Center’s fountain pavilion. Several radio stations helped spread the word and agreed to broadcast it. Though the main purpose was to honor Kurt, there was also some subterfuge in the planning: It was scheduled to run at the same time as the private funeral. There had been some fear that fans would swamp the funeral, which was to be an invitation-only affair. Press were also barred
IIII
from the funeral, even local press, even newspapers Kurt used to pay $20 to advertise in. When I walked onto the Seattle Center grounds that Sunday, I expected a crowd, and the 74-acre public park was filled with Nirvana fans. Police estimated 7,000 were in attendance, but there could have been many more, as there were pockets of fans for blocks around Seattle Center, sitting in circles, playing guitar, lighting candles, holding pictures. At the memorial, a small stage platform was set up with speakers, and I went behind it, ran into Marco Collins, and asked him what exactly was going to happen. “I don’t really know, and I’m one of the organizers,” he said. “A few people will talk, and we are going to play this tape Courtney made.” Marco said a few words when the event started, and so did a couple of other DJs. Then
‘‘I was with a guy from the CDC, and our jaws just dropped. ‘This is going to be bad,’ we said. We thought there was going to be an epidemic.”
March 12-18, 2014
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
SHIMANE FOOD FAIR
12
Seattle & Bellevue Uwajimaya March 12-18 • 9am - 6pm Come celebrate and savor the delicacies of Shimane Prefecture! Join us as we welcome over a dozen specialty food vendors from Japan featuring tea, Japanese sweets, fresh soba cakes and seafood, noodles, fish ca croquettes, and more! Free demos and samples daily. Visit www.uwajimaya.com for more fair details.
2/$3
20% OFF
19.99
1.79
2/$7
6.25
seattle | bellevue | renton | beaverton | www.uwajimaya.com
a short recording by Krist Novoselic was played that urged fans to find their own muse, follow Kurt’s punk-rock ethic, and never forget that “no band is special, no player royalty.” Next was Courtney’s tape. She began by announcing she
‘‘It was really powerful for [Courtney] to read that note . . . it punched a hole into the romantic expectation of suicide.” was recording it in their bed. The crowd was completely silent as she spoke. I have never been in a crowd of 7,000 and had them be that quiet—never. The recording was so clear you could hear Courtney taking a drag off her cigarette. She said was going to read Kurt’s suicide note. “Some of it is to you,” she said, referring to Kurt’s fans. But before reading it, she asked the crowd to yell “ ‘asshole’ really loud.” And they yelled it. It was kind of a loud communal wail of anger, pain, sadness. Then, for the next 15 minutes, Courtney herself wailed, screamed, and read virtually every line of Kurt’s suicide note. If the idea for the memorial had begun as a subterfuge to keep the masses away from the nearby private funeral, it turned into the most amazing spectacle of public grief I’ve ever witnessed or been a part of. Not long after her recording was over, when the private funeral ended, Courtney even showed up at Seattle Center. She was holding Kurt’s suicide note. She sat with groups of fans and let them hold and read Kurt’s note. Shakespeare never wrote such drama for the stage. But the entire event, more through happenstance than planning, turned into brilliant public health policy. Because Courtney, and the media, specifically addressed how Kurt died, Jobes thinks the public memorial at Seattle Center was the absolute turning point. Courtney spoke very specifically about what Kurt did to himself, which Jobes says took away any glamour that might have been associated with the act and showed how much pain was left for others after his suicide. “It was really powerful for her to read that note, with all her rage,” Jobes says, “because it punched a hole into the romantic expectation of suicide.” After Love’s recording was played, a suicide-prevention expert talked to the crowd, offering options and information on how to seek help. In the end, Jobes says, “it was a disaster averted.” E
music@seattleweekly.com
Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain (It Books) will be available at booksellers everywhere on Tuesday, March 18.
filtering the bTesHt oWf EST! THE NOR
PRESENTED BY WASHINGTON STATE BEEF COMMISSION
April 24 th / 7:30 - 10pm
6pm VIP early entrance
PARAMOUNT THEATRE
follow us at instagram.com/
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
Art of the Bike
PURCHASE TICKETS AT: www.VoraciousTasting.eventbrite.com
Have you been...
Raped or Attacked? In an Accident or Combat?
Keeping Seattle rolling since 1994.
Confidential help is available RECYCLED
CYCLES
If you are 18 years old or older, you may be elligible for a research study on the treatment of psychological reactions following trauma. It includes: • A thorough, no-cost evalutation • 10 weeks of no-cost counseling or medication • 9 months of follow-up assessments • Up to $300 in compensation
Bike Rentals · Buy · Sell · Trade · Consign
We specialize in used and reconditioned bicycles + sell new bikes and full array of both new and used bicycle parts and accessories, including VINTAGE!
(206) 685-3617 www.PTSDoptions.com
1007 NE Boat Street · (206) 547-4491 / 1109 N 35th Street · (206) 397-4286 Seattle’s Used Bike Shop · recycledcycles.com
LL I W NOPENI T O L H O C AP
N
T OR
H
UW Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress
urban verve
Brand New Apartments in North Capitol Hill
RESTRICTED: UNDER 18 NOT ADMITTED!
Cuff Me! The Fifty Shades of Grey Musical Parody will have you DANCING IN THE AISLES with hilarious parodies of popular hit songs like: ❘ RIHANNA, S&M ❘ ❘ MADONNA, Like A Virgin ❘ ❘ Carly Rae Jepsen, Call Me Maybe ❘ ❘ Britney Spears, Hit Me Baby One More Time ❘
• Generously sized studio, one and two bedroom apartments • Located in the exclusive Harvard-Belmont Historic District • Quartz slab countertops & stainless steel appliances • Controlled access entry
1145 10th Avenue East Seattle, WA 98102
gatsbyapartments.com Open Mon-Fri 9AM-7PM, Sat-Sun 9AM-6PM
Knutzen Family Theatre 3200 SW Dash Point Road, Federal Way 253-661-1444 • centerstagetheatre.com
• 24-hour fitness center • Rooftop plaza with water views, grilling and al fresco eating areas • Five minutes to downtown, South Lake Union, I-5 & 520
Another Continental Properties LLC Community
855-536-7368
|
GatsbyApartments012@myLTSMail.com
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
March 14 –30
13
Seattle Weekly’s
Spring SPRING Beer BEER preview PREVIEW A
s we come out of another winter here in the Pacific Northwest, I’m just happy that I don’t live out East, where it seems like they’ve had a snow storm every week for the past 3 months (that might not be an exaggeration). We have had our share of rain and cold, but at least we didn’t have to continually traipse through the snow to get to our local bars for a beer. The end of winter in Seattle means it is time for barleywine; the high ABV elixir that is featured at several events and festivals around the NW. The biggest event will be held at Brouwer’s Café this weekend (3/15 & 16) when they will host their 12th annual Hard Liver Barleywine Festival. Hard Liver is a gauntlet of strong beer. Brouwer’s will pour more than 50 barleywines at once for the event, and the average ABV of those beers will probably be somewhere around 9%. I wouldn’t suggest driving to this one. Most of the beers will come from West Coast breweries, including many local offerings like Old Scoundrel from Sound Brewing and a Bourbon Barrel-Aged Barleywine from Hale’s Ales. All of the beers will be available in pours as small as 3oz so that you can try a few of them without puking all over yourself. Fair warning: there will be a long line when they open at 11am on Saturday. If you don’t like crowds, I’d suggest planning your visit for Sunday when many of the beers will still be pouring.
HERE’S A LITTLE LUCK OF THE IRISH FOR YA!
20% off In-Store purchase with coupon.
Expires April 30th. *Excludes Blichmann Engineering Products.
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
14
Since 2000, Mountain Homebrew & Wine Supply has been proudly serving it’s customers with the highest quality homebrewing and winemaking products with professional, courteous service.
Mountain
Homebrew & Wine Supply
Hours of Operation
Mon. thru Fri. - 10am to 7pm Saturday - 10am to 5pm Sunday - 11am to 4pm
Your Beer and Wine Making Adventure Center! 8530 122nd Ave NE, B2 Kirkland,WA 98033 • 425-803-3996
www.mountainhomebrew.com
Lagers Shine at Gordon Biersch I know that for many beer drinkers in Seattle, lagers are an afterthought. It’s a sad reality. Ales get most of the focus from local breweries, and I can’t blame them. People love IPAs, stouts and all those other tasty styles. Gordon Biersch (GB) is one of just two breweries in Seattle that put their focus squarely on lagers (Emerald City is the other). Yes, it’s a chain. Yes, it’s located in Pacific Place and has all the atmosphere of, well, a chain restaurant in a shopping mall. But, they’ve been making solid lagers for a long time in Seattle (they opened in 1999), and since Kevin Davey took over as Brewmaster last August, things are getting even better. I stopped in about a month ago to grab a beer, and their Czech Pils was tasting fantastic. That shouldn’t be surprising. Kevin was previously the Lead Brewer at Chuckanut Brewery in Bellingham for 3 years, which is regarded as one of the best lager producers in the country. He then spent a year working for the esteemed Firestone Walker Brewing Company in California before returning to Seattle for a short stint at Georgetown Brewing and then moving into his current position at GB. His experience is paying off, as he is a one-man show at the Seattle location of GB.
What sets GB apart from other breweries these days? According to Kevin, “At Gordon Biersch we painstakingly make Germanstyle beers that follow the Reinheitsgebot (“The German Beer Purity Law”). We’re an interesting lot. While most pub brewers are constantly rotating their draft choices and trying new things every week, we are content fine-tuning our recipes until they’re perfect. It’s a painstaking process, but it is incredibly rewarding.” While the lineup at GB typically does not change much, Kevin recently released a Mosaic Pils, which heavily features the citrus and tropical fruit characters of Mosaic hops. It’s worth stopping by to check it out. GB will also soon be undergoing a complete restaurant remodel, which will include expanding the tap selection and pouring some guest beers. Events Not to Miss There is always a lot going on in Seattle, but as we roll into spring it really seems like the beer event calendar starts to fill up. On March 20, don’t miss the 2nd anniversary party for one of my favorite beer bars, The Pine Box. Located in Capitol Hill, Pine Box constantly rotates amazing beer through their 30+ taps on a regular basis. For their 2nd anniversary, they will be releasing a special beer called The 2nd Nail that they brewed with 10 Barrel Brewing, located in Bend, OR. It is a Sour Apple Berlinerweisse brewed with fresh apple juice pressed from Tieton Cider Works in Yakima Valley. They will also pour a special bourbon barrel-aged version of their 1st anniversary beer, which is an Imperial Stout from Fremont Brewing. You should expect plenty of other rarities to be on tap as well. Next up is one of the best beer festivals of the year, Washington Cask Festival. 41 Washington breweries will gather together on Saturday, March 22 at Seattle Center to pour over 100 different beers on cask. You’ll find offerings as traditional as the 3.7% ABV English-style mild from Machine House Brewery, as well as experimental beers like the Creamsicle Brown from North Sound Brewing. Last, but certainly not least, is Seattle Beer Week. It doesn’t take place until May 8-18, but you might need 2 months just to prepare yourself. Each day will be packed with events at local breweries, beer bars, retailers, restaurants and more. Regardless of what you like about beer, you’ll find something exciting to be a part of that week (really, 10 days). Other than that, all I have to say is….Go Seahawks. Geoff Kaiser writes about beer frequently on Seattlebeernews.com.
< ADVERTORIAL >
AVAILABLE IN 16 OZ. CANS, 22 OZ. BOTTLES, AND ON DRAFT 4133 University Way NE • Seattle, WA • 545-4509 • twitter.com/BigTimeBrewery
OPEN AT 4PM TUES-FRI, 2PM SAT-SUN, CLOSED MONDAYS
225 N.36th St. Seattle,WA 98103 (206) 486 -4088 OutlanderBrewing.com
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
COMING SOON:
IRISH COFFEE BROWN, CRICKET STOUT & IMPERIAL PEANUT BUTTER STOUT!
15
W W W. S E AT T L E W E E K LY. C O M / S I G N U P
FRESH FRESH
HALIBUT FREE PARKING We Ship We Ship We Seafood Seafood Overnight SeafoodShip Overnight Overnight Anywhere in the USA Anywhere in the USA Anywhere in the USA or We Pack for or We Pack for Travel Pack for AirAirTravel orAirWe Travel
University Seafood & Poultry University University Seafood & Poultry Seafood & Poultry 1317 NE 47th, Seattle
1317 NE 47th, Seattle (206) 632-3700 or (206)632-3900 (206) 632-3700 or (206)632-3900
1317 NE 47th, Seattle
(206) 632-3700 or (206) 632-3900
DINING
WE E K LY
MUSI
Japanese Grill & Sushi Bar
DINING NEWSLETTER The inside scoop on openings, hotspots and offers.
FI L M
OPEN Tuesday - Sunday
H APPY
621 Broadway E. Seattle, WA 98102 206.324.3633
BEERS
ON DRAFT
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
KEGS TO GO
16
beers on draft
Breakfast
All Day
VOLTERRA BALLARD 5411 BALLARD AVE NW SEATTLE, WA 98107 206 7895100
download our app (206) 267-BIER (2437) 400 N. 35th St. Seattle, WA 98103 www.brouwerscafe.com
(206) 633-BIER 267-BIER (2437) 1710 N. 45th St. #3 Seattle, WA 98103 www.bottleworks.com
(206) 420-8943 2253 N 56th St. Seattle, WA 98103 www.burgundianbar.com
VOLTERRA KIRKLAND 121 KIRKLAND AVE KIRKLAND, WA 98033 425 2027201 Mo
Friday - Saturday 5-12am, Sunday HOUR 5-9pm FEATURING HAPPY Brunch Sat - Sun 9am-2pm
DAILY, NOON 6PM KIRKLAND MON FRI 4:30 6:30PM BALLARD Featuring Happy Hour Monday - Friday 4:30-6:30pm
WWW.VOLTERRARESTAURANT.COM
food&drink Radical Roots
Building a local food infrastructure has as much to do with strengthening community as it does with planning garden plots. BY GWENDOLYN ELLIOTT
I
The Daily Meal has released its list of America’s 25 Best Bartenders, and Adam Fortuna of Cascina Spinasse and Artusi earned a place at #19. The Daily Meal whittled their list down from 550,000 bartenders around the country. Blind Pig at Eastlake Teriyaki had its last day of service last week. It will reopen as Babirusa, a casual restaurant and bar. E morningfoodnews@gmail.com
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KYU HAN
Temperature Check
FROM DAVID VARLEY, CHEF AT RN74
Top: a wintered-over head of hearty kale. Bottom left: Burlap keeps the ground insulated. Bottom right: the gathering plaza.
however—from its top canopy of fruit and nut trees to the berry shrubs, edible perennials, and annuals on the lower levels—will take considerable time, and getting the plants to mature is a mere fraction of that process. The real work is finding the manpower to develop it, though that has not been a problem so
food for Seattleites here in Seattle—not in Carnation or Yakima—might be possible someday.
that “engineers” a plot of land to suit the needs of its farmers in harmony with the ecosystem. Applying its many principles to the idea of a food forest will result, organizers hope, in a highly manicured edible landscape that produces food by and for the community. By volunteering to help maintain it, anyone can have access to it. Incorporating all seven levels of its design
Ericka Burke, owner and chef at Volunteer Park Café, is keeping busy with two new Capitol Hill spots, both in the Chophouse Row project in progress at 11th Avenue and East Pike Street. Chop Shop Café and Bar will be open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and Chop Shop Juice and Provisions will focus on freshpressed juices and takeaway sandwiches and salads. Cone and Steiner General, which opened in December on Capitol Hill’s 19th Avenue East, will have a second location in Pioneer Square’s new Stadium Place. Expect a larger version of the Capitol Hill spot, with takeaway food items, beer and wine, and adorable housewares.
The Beacon Food Forest helps fuel the idea that growing
Permaculture is an eco-friendly style of farming
BY MEGAN HILL
far. At times, volunteer work parties have numbered close to 100. Local businesses like Caffé Vita, The Essential Baking Company, and Tall Grass Bakery donate refreshments. The project’s Facebook “likes”—as good an indication of success as any these days—number over 7,000; its listserv is 2,500 e-mails strong. Everything else, from additional funding to peripheral support like consulting, comes from a slew of like-minded
nonprofits, like Seattle Tilth, the city’s organic gardening and urban ecology organization. “I’m not surprised that the project might appear to be going slowly,” says Liza Burke, communications director for Seattle Tilth. A number of its members—educators, master composters, interns—are involved in some way at the food forest site. “But that’s what’s exciting about what’s going on in Seattle. There are so many types of programs being built to create a healthy, local, sustainable food system. You know, not just one organization is going to take down the corporate food system.” “Taking down the corporate food system” isn’t exactly how Herlihy describes the food forest, but the notion of dismantling “the man”— seed-patenting agribusinesses like Monsanto and food-processing giants like ConAgra, who some allege desire control of the world’s food supply—does factor into the project’s sustainability plan, not to mention the environmental cost of industrial food production. Those costs, for example, include eight million acres of farmland in China now too polluted to grow crops, and bee colony collapse syndrome, linked
» CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
Honest food and flavors. It’s nice to see the industry correcting itself back to really cooking and not using every excuse to cryovac something or manipulate the texture as a gimmick just because you can. Soulful cooking relying on classic technique has always tasted better to me, even if it hasn’t been as convenient or consistent.
Tasting menus. I still like curating the experience for our guests and leading them in the right direction toward our coolest stuff, but I draw the line at the “hostage negotiation” situations, and prefer to eat what I want when I go out.
Looking like a dirtbag in the kitchen. I’m really tired of cooks and chefs wearing greasy T-shirts on the line, especially in open kitchens. I’m not advocating toques and neckerchiefs here, but at least a chef ’s jacket or a nice button-down shirt and apron. It shows guests you take their experience seriously.
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
n an unassuming corner of Beacon Hill, a seven-acre parcel of land owned by Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is under siege. It’s occupied by compost, cisterns, piles of mulch, and a team of dedicated volunteers. This is the Beacon Food Forest (BFF), a long-term permaculture project that aims to cultivate not only land—in this case, a seven-layer edible forest garden—but the concept of urban food forestry. Its goal: to inspire the “community to gather together, grow our own food, and rehabilitate our local ecosystem.” Its stewards hope someday it will become a model for the rest of the nation that will help curb reliance on foods grown and processed on a global scale, and help to rehabilitate urban soils. At the moment, BFF co-founder Glenn Herlihy and his group are celebrating a small victory. With his steering committee, he just signed a memorandum of agreement with Seattle P-Patch and SPU making the Beacon Food Forest—essentially an oversized community garden—an officially organized group, subject to the rules and responsibilities of a P-Patch. Good news, but the project is far from complete. He meets me at the site and explains. “We’re just finishing phase one, to develop two acres,” he says. Scanning the expanse of the remaining five, an untouched, sloping lawn adjacent to Jefferson Park, he says there is no deadline as development enters phase two. “This is a massive volunteer effort,” he says. The only things currently growing on the site at all are “kale, strawberries, and pumpkins.” Yet in a progressive city hungry for all things farm-to-table, support for the idea, originally conceived as a final project for a Seattle permaculture class, has been strong. Funded through a number of community grants in partnership with SPU, bolstered by the efforts of volunteers, the Beacon Food Forest helps fuel the idea that growing food for Seattleites here in Seattle— not in Carnation or Yakima—might be possible someday.
FoodNews
17
food&drink»
» FROM PAGE 17
Wine Folly’s Winning Concept
T
A map of the Beacon Food Forest grounds.
JAPANESE STYLE BURGERS & BEER
In Georgetown • Open 11-9 Every Day • katsuburger.com
THE BEST PHO IN SEATTLE
to the use of pesticides on industrial farms to grow vast quantities of food. Herlihy says the food forest’s commitment to “neighborhood resiliency and food justice”—the idea that all communities have the right to grow, sell, and have access to safe, healthy food—can help mitigate the effects of that, while at the same time combating hunger. “There are lots of hungry people in Seattle,” says Herlihy, especially in Beacon Hill, a neighborhood he says is “one of the most diverse ZIP codes in the country.” Whether such diversity is regularly represented
PHO VIET ANH VIETNAMESE NOODLE SOUP & GRILL QUEEN ANNE
372 Roy Street, Seattle
206-352-1881
U-DISTRICT
6510 Roosevelt Way, Seattle
206-466-2179
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
OPEN TUE-SAT AT 4 & SUN AT 3
18
LATE NITE DINING UNTIL 1AM FULL MENU! DAILY HAPPY HOUR
The
TIN TABLE
®
Photo by Adam Weintraub
FULL BAR & RESTAURANT 915 E PINE ST, SECOND FLOOR CAPITOL HILL WWW.THETINTABLE.COM
at the forest among its volunteers is another consideration for Herlihy. If the project can ultimately provide the fair access and food justice it purports to offer—to serve and be served by those who need it most—remains to be seen. “I worry about it,” says Herlihy. He mentions one work party that united workers from 26 different ZIP codes, but admits there’s a certain “socio-economic flaw” built into the idea of the food forest: “If you’re working two jobs and have a family, you don’t have time to volunteer at the community garden.” Melody Wainscott, the site’s media coordinator, is less worried about what’s to come—and who’ll be reaping the benefits. “To say that BFF is a sustainable model for urban food forestry in practice would be premature . . . there isn’t enough data to know the answer,” she writes in an e-mail. Yet it’s a goal: “We hope to build a model that is adaptable for other food-forest practitioners. All things food forest are not defined, except that learning will take place.” Working on a learning curve, volunteers have labored to incorporate as many members of the community as possible, and have targeted their outreach through pamphlets in the varied languages of Beacon Hill like Lao, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Somali. Soon the food forest will offer translated versions of its website. “The concept of food forestry appeals to a wide variety of people,” Herlihy says. Reaching out to the community, mobilizing those interested, and keeping them engaged, explains Burke, will make all the difference to the venture’s success. “It’s really important to have a high level of engagement with community members,” she says. “Partnering with different community groups [will help] the infrastructure and produce more interest, which will produce more [volunteers]. And people feel empowered when they’re working with the land.” E
gelliott@seattleweekly.com
Beacon Food Forest will hold its next volunteer work party at the site this Saturday, March 15, at 10 a.m. A commemorative ceremony to usher in phase two of the project takes place in June.
eaching about wine is challenging, I know from personal experience. It’s such a complex and complicated topic that just figuring out where to start can be overwhelming. Add to that people’s wildly different levels of knowledge and learning styles, and you can see how panic could set in. That’s why I was so impressed when I came across the Wine Folly blog (winefolly.com). Seeing how deftly Madeline Puckette and the rest of her Seattle-based team present complex wine concepts, often through cleverly designed graphics and maps, was inspirBY ZACH GEBALLE ing. The approach seems to work brilliantly—and it’s clearly been effective, as Puckette was recently named 2013 Wine Blogger of the Year at the International Wine & Spirits Competition. “We use design elements to help simplify concepts within wine, so they go hand-inhand,” she says. “That said, infographics were a surprise hit, so we went with it and created more.” The prowess of the Wine Folly team shows most clearly with their wine maps, which are what first drew me to the site. Studying for my Certified Sommelier exam, I was looking for maps to help me understand the wine regions of Italy. The ones on Wine Folly are vividly colored and easily understood, but also informationdense once you get past the neat design elements. Puckette also has a deceptively straightforward approach to presenting seemingly complicated information: “Wine can be simple, especially if there’s a way to visualize the problem,” she explains. “I also love to compare wine to familiar things. For instance, a glass of wine has fewer calories than a latte . . . and tons more anthocyanins.” It’s no surprise to me that I found lots to love on Wine Folly—not just those cool maps, but the delicate balance between entertaining and informing. It’s one I try to strike here in The Bar Code, with . . . variable results. Clearly Puckette is highly educated (“I passed the Certified Sommelier exam in 2010, and then started Wine Folly with two of my best pals in 2011,” she says), but what’s most clear talking to her is her overwhelming passion for wine. For example, when I ask wine professionals about the most exciting trend in the world of wine, I generally hear pretty standard answers: more people drinking quality wine; new and exciting wines coming out of relatively unknown regions; experimentation with different grapes, techniques, and technology. But Puckette says: “There is a murmur in the industry around the origin of the wine grape, Vitis vinifera. A few producers and wine researchers are spending time in the ancient stomping grounds of the Phoenicians: Lebanon, Turkey, Cyprus, and Israel. There may be wild grape vines that [are] ancient varieties—precursors to modern-day wine. People might want to understand what wine was like 3,000 years ago. I know I do!” E
THEBARCODE
thebarcode@seattleweekly.com
Happy Hours Mobile App Brought to you by
PRESENTED BY WASHINGTON STATE BEEF COMMISSION
Hundreds of happy hours near you. Available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Search “Happy Hours” & download for free
Winter Happy Hours Daily 4pm - Close
2 Courses for $20 at Cafe Ponti
7 Days a Week
Located on the Ship Canal near the Fremont Bridge 3014 3RD AVE N SEATTLE | 206-284-3000 | www.pontigrill.com
April 24th / 7:30 - 10pm
6pm VIP early entrance
PARAMOUNT THEATRE UNLIMITED SAMPLING FROM:
P R E S E N T S
ST PATRICK’S WEEKEND
CELEBRATION FRIDAY MARCH 14 Cover Charge - $5 at 9PM
DINNER SET W/
6 - 9 PM
SATURDAY MARCH 15 Cover Charge - $5 at 9PM
SUNDAY MARCH 16 Cover Charge - $5 at 8 PM
DINNER SET W/
DINNER SET W/
5 - 8 PM
4 - 7 PM
9 PM - CLOSE 9 PM - CLOSE
MONDAY
9 PM - CLOSE
OPEN BAR
$50 ADVANCE G.A. $90 ADVANCE VIP
Cover Charge - $10 at 2 PM
3 - 6 PM Kirkland Shamrock Run After-Party
3/15 at 9am w/ Geoorey Castle
PURCHASE TICKETS AT:
www.VoraciousTasting.eventbrite.com
6 - 9 PM PLAY IN THE GAELIC ROOM
9 PM - CLOSE
8 PM - CLOSE
Irish Dancers
Eastside Firefighters Pipes and Drums
3/15 at 10am and 6pm and 3/16 at 5pm
FOOD LIVE MUSIC by Tangerine TRUCKS
Barrio • Blind Pig Bistro • Cafe Munir • Collections Cafe • Contigo • Crush • Huxley Wallace Collective • Il Corvo • Jemil's Big Easy • Kind • Kukaruza • La Bête Seattle • La Bodega • Le Petit Cochon • Los Chilangos • Marx Foods • Matt’s in the Market • Miller's Guild • Pie • Pinxto • Plaka Estiatorio • Poquitos • Prima Bistro • Radiator Whiskey • Rob Roy • Senor Moose • Serafina/Cicchetti • Shanik • Skillet • Sky City at the Needle • Snoqualmie Ice Cream • Snout & Co • Stella • Tanaka San • The Gerald • Veraci - AND MORE!
MARCH 17 N OON - 3 PM
BITES
Specialty Foods & Desserts Food Trucks
3/15 at 9am and 3/17 at 2pm
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
BENEFITING:
SEATTLE THEATRE GROUP
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
AND
40+ Seattle Restaurants 15+ Local Master Mixologists
19
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
20
THIS WEEKEND ONLY!
MAR 14 at 8 PM MAR 15 at 2 PM and 8 PM (206) 625-1900 WWW.5THAVENUE.ORG
GROUPS OF 10 OR MORE CALL 1-888-625-1418 ON 5TH AVENUE IN DOWNTOWN SEATTLE SUPPORTING SPONSORS
Susie and Phil Stoller
arts&culture Orient and Influence
How two American artists visited China in the ’30s, inspiring new directions for both.
BY BRIAN MILLER
C
There’s no background, no context but white; they could’ve been painted this morning, for all we know. They’re modern, in simple terms, with hints at the future abstraction that would characterize Noguchi’s mature sculpture, landscape design, and furniture of the postwar period. (His most famous local work, 1969’s Black Sun, stands outside the Seattle Asian Art Museum.) Everything about this anomalous interlude in Noguchi’s career is easy on the eye, ready for tea mugs and tote bags. After his famous coffee table was mass-produced by Herman Miller in 1944, he became a saleable international brand. His nudes and wrestlers here are all elbows and knees, often crouched toward or slumping on the floor. Their poses are almost like furniture; the body is warm and palpable but almost structural. We see Noguchi proceeding inevitably to his future, sparser design vocabulary. The second, smaller adjunct show organized by the Frye is Mark Tobey and Teng Baiye: Seattle/ Shanghai. Venerated in the Northwest, where he lived intermittently from the early ’20s to the early ’60s, Tobey left such a long, contentious legacy here that he really deserves his own major retrospective. What we get instead are a baker’s dozen of his excellent canvases, several from the
bmiller@seattleweekly.com
FRYE ART MUSEUM 704 Terry Ave., 622-9250, fryemuseum.org. Free. 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Tues.–Sun., 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Thurs. Ends May 25.
– TICKETS –
SNOCASINO.COM AND
SNOQUALMIE BOX OFFICE
– SEATTLE’S CLOSEST CASINO – I-90 EAST TO EXIT 27 • I-90 WEST EXIT 31 SNOQUALMIE, WA • 425.888.1234 SNOCASINO.COM
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
handsomely on your walls, even if you’ve seen thousands more just like them. Noguchi’s nude women and babies are larger and looser, sometimes rendered horizontally on the parchment.
A N D THE BL ACKHE ARTS SUN | MAR 16 | 10PM
“white writing” postwar period supposedly inspired by his 1934 reunion with Teng, a younger University of Washington student he met in Seattle during the ’20s. Tobey (1890–1976) learned some calligraphy in the ’20s from Teng, most of whose work was later destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (little is displayed here). And Tobey, the spiritual polyglot and seeker, certainly absorbed many currents from Asia. He was a syncretist, borrowing and appropriating what he liked, describing it how he pleased. Recalling his 1934 visit to Shanghai, he’s quoted as praising the “twisting and turning” of Chinese calligraphy. In 1957, he told The Seattle Times, “The Orient has been the greatest influence on my life.” Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s hyperbole. Does that influence directly manifest itself in the work he began producing in the mid-’30s? If you look at the vibrating, lacy rectangular mass of an untitled 1954 work seen here, Tobey’s intricate ivory interweaving resembles a block of coral. The fine brushstrokes and distinct lines could almost be writing or calligraphy if you could somehow pluck out a component piece; but it’s more like the phraseology of a made-up language, the synapses in a neural network. The density and energy jump off the picture surface, and you can understand why Jackson Pollock was an early admirer of Tobey’s work. (We’ll see more of the latter in SAM’s big Northwest modernism show in June.) Still, Tobey isn’t actually writing or using calligraphy, as Qi and Teng employ in their traditionalist scrolls. Tobey didn’t read Mandarin; it’s the shapes, not the sense, of the characters that he and other Western artists found so appealing. This is when “the Orient”—now an outdated, even suspect term—was exciting and new to the bohemian circles of Tobey and Noguchi. Eight decades ago, to be called an “Orientalist” was something of a smear. Now it seems like more of a vindication. E NOGUCHI MUSEUM
JOAN JETT
Above: Noguchi’s Ye Kau Jong. Left: Tobey’s untitled 1954 painting.
COLLECTION OF JANET AND DOUG TRUE
ompare-and-contrast shows are generally a gimmick, pairing artists by virtue of school, medium, nationality, or generational proximity. But sometimes they work quite nicely, as is the case with Isamu Noguchi and Qi Baishi: Beijing 1930, the first of two twinned exhibits at the Frye. (More below on the second, local, and much smaller companion display.) This pairing is a traveling show from the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and it boasts the biggest name: the JapaneseAmerican artist Noguchi (1904–1988), working in an atypical idiom during a very brief, concentrated period. His story goes like this: Noguchi was in 1930 a rising young New York sculptor, uneasily assimilated into a culture that was casually racist toward Japanese though not yet so vehemently as during the war years. Paris, where he’d previously studied under Brancusi, was still feeling the shakeout of abstraction—not then Noguchi’s métier. Arriving in China, not speaking the language, must’ve been a culture shock. Native art was strictly realistic, historical, and mythic. Visiting a friend in Beijing, Noguchi expressed an admiration for Qi’s scroll paintings; the two artists were introduced—Qi being 40 years older—and met several times over six months. Theirs was a relationship born of materials shortage: Noguchi couldn’t find the right plaster for sculpture (only one is on display here), so he took up the traditional Chinese calligraphy brush, Qi’s preferred instrument. It was like a crash course in painting for the L.A.-born artist, and he never again returned to that idiom. In 31 works by Noguchi and 25 by Qi on display here, the contrasts are fairly obvious: Qi depicts landscapes, animals, still lifes, and mythic figures, often employing color; Noguchi works from live figure models— unheard of then in China—and renders them in sparse, gestural brushstrokes of black on white (lots of white). You get the historical details in Qi, the human outlines in Noguchi. Everything in Qi is pictorial and backward-looking; these small, delicate paintings would hang
21
arts&culture»
ThisWeek’s PickList WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12
House of Thee UnHoly
The Swedish Housewife (aka burlesque artist Paula Sjunneson) is taking everyone back to the 1970s in a “radical rocklesque celebration of the 20th century’s most excessive decade.” House of Thee UnHoly steps beyond the variety-show structure of most contemporary burlesque, using bluesinflected rock ’n’ roll as a mythological throughline connecting a stellar cast drawn from the local scene. Dancers include Lily Verlaine, Waxie Moon, Miss Indigo Blue, Inga Ingenue, and Tory Tiara, performing with musicians Jen Ayers, Zack Davidson, and Sarah Rudinoff. All will embody various druids, Vikings, and Hindu deities engaged in sybaritic pursuits. (Through Sun.) The Triple Door, 216 Union St., 838-4333, thetripledoor. net. $20–$45. 7 & 10 p.m. SANDRA KURTZ
THURSDAY, MARCH 13
The Lion King
ONLY AT
M c C AW HALL
Based on an animated movie that’s now 20 years old, this 1997 Broadway stage musical proved a smash for Disney, thanks largely to the vision of director Julie Taymor and the tunes of Elton John and Tim Rice. The Lion King is hardly the first movie reverse-engineered to stage success, but its global popularity—and profitability, having earned some $5 billion (!) to date—now makes it the modern template for such musical exports. By virtue of its age and constant touring, there are few children (and young adults) on Earth who don’t know at least some of the songs from The Lion King. Most parents have had “Hakuna Matata” drilled into their heads by home DVD players on endless loop (or on planes or during family car trips), but the melodies are undeniably catchy. The themes are mythic, too, as little Simba tries to make his way in the world (well, jungle). And the onstage menagerie of zebras, monkeys, and giraffes is wonderfully realized by the costumes (part actor, part puppet) that both tower over the action and elevate the story into fairy-tale-land. (Through April 6.) The Para-
22
Scar (Patrick R. Brown, left) versus Mufasa (L. Steven Taylor) in The Lion King.
JOAN MARCUS
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
mount, 911 Pine St., 877-784-4849, stg presents. org. $85–$135. 7:30 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
FRIDAY, MARCH 14
Northern Lights
The reason I could afford college—and ultimately, I suppose, the reason I’m sitting here typing this—was a student loan from the Bank of North Dakota. A state-run bank? But . . . that’s socialism! Why, yes, it is. Filmed in rich blackand-white in Divide County, in the state’s extreme northwest corner, John Hanson and Rob Nilsson’s 1978 film recounts the 1915 birth of the Nonpartisan League, the most successful of the progressive parties formed to defend farmers against the powerful “Eastern” (read Minneapolis) banking, railroad, and grain-trade interests. Ray Sorenson (Robert Behling), politicized by the foreclosure of his fiancee’s family’s farm, embarks on the grueling door-to-door, face-toface recruitment that proved key to the League’s success, winning over skeptical farmers one by one. His brother is hostile; middlemen retaliate by deflating the prices for his grain (harvested during a blizzard!); and his fiancee waits and waits and waits. (Susan Lynch’s impatient outburst here is a startling flash of emotion in this otherwise taciturn film.) In real life, the League grew to win the governorship and both houses of the state legislature in the 1918 elections—hence the establishment of the BND, the only such state institution (it should go without saying) in the U.S. It’s a populism-on-the-prairie tale to warm a Sawant supporter’s heart. (Through Thurs.) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-
3935, grandillusioncinema.org. $5–$8. 8:30 p.m. GAVIN BORCHERT
Director’s Choice
Pacific Northwest Ballet is looking outside its classical repertory for this program—pointe shoes are involved, but also rigging for a couple of low-hanging trapeze harnesses. Susan Marshall’s Kiss is an aerial romance, with a pair of dancers flying with and past each other until a final embrace. Take Five . . . More or Less is by another Susan—Stroman; it’s a blithe romp set to the famous Dave Brubeck tune. In State of Darkness, Molissa Fenley has tackled another renowned work, making a solo to Igor Stravinsky’s iconic Le Sacre du Printemps. It’s just as grueling as you might imagine, but it ends in a kind of triumph. The mystery number is a new work by Alejandro Cerrudo, who is a resident choreog-
» CONTINUED ON PAGE 25
Real people. Real insurance. Real financial help. Sign up by March 31 at wahealthplanfinder.org or call toll-free: 855-WAFINDER (855-923-4633)
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
LOW-COST HEALTH PLANS FOR PEOPLE LIKE RIAN. CHECK IT.
23
America's Greatest Big Band Show
“The most memorable show I have ever attended” —Roger Klungle
IN THE MOOD
pays homage to America's greatest generation, when the nation listened and boogied to up-tempo big band rhythms and danced to intimate ballads ... complete with period costumes and choreography .
“Our emotions ranged from goosebumps to tears.”
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
—Ken and Elaine Aubrey
24
d roun A t e t G re? Don’ Anymo the Ta k e o o g a Much tan
Chat Choo to C h o oo Junction Tuxed n d g e t a Mood I n t h eo o n l i g h t for a Mr e n a d e ! Se
BENAROYA HALL S. MARK TAPER FOUNDATION AUDITORIUM
Friday, March 28
2 pm Matinee & 7 pm National Tour Info: inthemoodlive.com
MARCH 20 I 8:00 PM I THE MOORE THEATRE GROUPS OF OF 10 10 OR OR MORE MORE CALL CALL (206) (206) 315-8054 315-8054 GROUPS FOR SINGLE SINGLE TICKETS TICKETS CALL CALL (877) (877) 784-4849 784-4849 FOR
STGPRESENTS.ORG
GROUPS OF OF 10 10 OR OR MORE MORE CALL CALL (206) (206) 315-8054 315-8054 GROUPS FOR SINGLE TICKETS CALL (877) 784-4849 FOR SINGLE TICKETS CALL (877) 784-4849
EST. 1907 1907 EST. 2ND AVE AVE && VIRGINIA VIRGINIA ST ST 2ND
arts&culture» Susan Stroman’s Take Five . . . More or Less at PNB.
ANGELA STERLING
Pick List » FROM PAGE 22 rapher for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago but comes originally from the world of Jiří Kylián and Ohad Naharin, names that are becoming familiar to dance watchers here. (Through March 23.) McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St. (Seattle Center), 441-2424, pnb.org. $28–$179. 7:30 p.m.
SANDRA KURTZ
ary rants about suicide bombers, whose training instructor tells them, “I’m only going to show you this once.” He also loves laying into us fat, slothful Americans who eat from buckets, and his indignant re-enactment of a prostate exam is a dependable and hilarious part of his act. (Entering his 70s, mortality is on Connolly’s mind; he’s even hosting a TV series on the subject in the UK.) Tonight, he may also have stories to share about acting in The Hobbit, whose third segment is due at Christmas. He plays one of the dwarves, and is probably the only cast member who didn’t need a fake beard from the makeup department. The Moore, 1932 Second Ave., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.or. $39–$49. 8 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
Los Angeles Plays Itself
Billy Connolly
The drugs, the booze, the fame, those early years of hard living—nothing seems to stop the iconic Scottish comic and actor, who from the working class rose like a rock star in ’70s England. Connolly manages to be both the acerbic outsider—perhaps like all Scots—and the avuncular uncle with a bottomless repertoire of stories. That Connolly has been slowed in recent years by Parkinson’s disease and cancer makes this all the more a must-see gig. He’s not a teller of jokes so much as a spinner of yarns, embellished with politics and a surprising power of recollection of his early club days in Glasgow. Connolly’s long been a fierce freethinker and secularist, bashing the church and organized religion well before 9/11. When Islamic terrorists planned an assault on the Glasgow airport, it inspired one of his legend-
1515 12th Ave., 267-5380, nwfilmforum.org. $6–$11. 7 p.m. (Repeats Sun.) BRIAN MILLER E
STGPRESENTS.ORG SATURdAy APRIL 12, 8:00 PM EST. 1907 2ND AVE GRace & VIRGINIA ST Minus 16 RevelaTions STGPRESENTS.ORG
(877) 784-4849
(877) 784-4849
EST. 1928 9TH AVE & PINE ST
SUNdAy, APRIL 13, 2:00 PM The RiveR STGPRESENTS.ORG D-Man in The WaTeRs (PaRT EST. 1921 i) (877) 784-4849 NE 45TH & BROOKLYN AVE RevelaTions
GROUPS OF 10 OR MORE CALL (206) 315-8054 FOR SINGLE TICKETS CALL (877) 784-4849
APRIL 11-13 STGPRESENTS.ORG I THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE GROUPS OF 10 OR MORE CALL (206) 315-8054 FOR SINGLE TICKETS CALL (877) 784-4849
STGPRESENTS.ORG
GROUPS OF 10 OR MORE CALL (206) 315-8054 FOR SINGLE TICKETS CALL (877) 784-4849
EST. 1907 2ND AVE & VIRGINIA ST
EST. 1928 9TH AVE & PINE ST
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
SATURDAY, MARCH 15
BILLYCONNOLLY.COM
Go ahead, ask Connolly about his prostate.
Chinatown and the 1996 Steven Seagal cop flick The Glimmer Man are put on an equal footing in this absorbingly high-minded documentary by Thom Andersen—not because they’re comparable movies, but because both showcase the streets and architecture of L.A. As Andersen explains in a voice-over that’s really a lecture (and actually read by someone else), the entertainment industry’s hometown is usually cast as a bland, convenient backdrop—a generic anywhere that doesn’t impose its identity like New York. He finds traces of the city’s history in almost every frame: the lost downtown working-class neighborhood of Bunker Hill; the riots of Watts and Rodney King; the crypto-fascist LAPD glorified in Dragnet and partly exposed in L.A. Confidential. Transportation issues are telling, he argues: In Blade Runner, Harrison Ford never has trouble finding a parking space; in Chinatown, Jack Nicholson is made impotent only when he loses his car. And in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, he notes, though the political subplot is about a mad scientist ripping up L.A.’s trolley lines, Bob Hoskins rides the streetcar only once—and drives everywhere else. In his nearly three-hour essay film, Andersen is not a great film critic, but he is a serious scholar of his city (like Mike Davis, whom he cites). Outside of film school, this 2003 doc is the best lecture—and architectural tour—you’re going to find about a city long overdue for its close-up. Northwest Film Forum,
FRIdAy, APRIL 11, 8:00 PM The RiveR D-Man in The WaTeRs (PaRT i) RevelaTions
25
LIVE @ BENAROYA HALL Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall
Don’t miss this spellbinding desert rock band from the southern Sahara!
TICKETS From: $29 April 19
LEROY BELL AND HIS ONLY FRIENDS Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall
This passionate singer-songwriter captivates audiences and comfortably embraces a wide range of genres.
TICKETS FROM: $30 May 10 & 11
BRANFORD MARSALIS Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall
Branford Marsalis and his Quartet of musical friends are one of the most innovative and forward-thinking jazz ensembles around today.
TICKETS From: $54 July 7
JU ST AD DE D!
BOZ SCAGGS THE MEMPHIS TOUR S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium
Scaggs’ unique voice and trademark sound make plain his abiding respect for a wide spectrum of American roots music.
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
TICKETS From: $42
26
JU ST AD DE D!
S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium
Yanni is a legendary composer and live performer who has brought millions of fans and fellow world citizens together via his concerts.
TICKETS From: $4O
THE LAB AT INSCAPE, 815 SEATTLE BLVD. S., 800-838-3006, SEATTLESTAGERIGHT.ORG. $15–$20. 7:30 P.M. THURS.–SAT. & MON. ENDS MARCH 22.
You know the title because of David Lynch’s 1980 film; however, STAGEright’s production of Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man—which premiered on Broadway in 1979—is a distinct script about the forlorn life of Joseph Merrick, usually called John. Young doctor Frederick Treves (Brian Lange) discovers the debilitatingly disfigured Merrick (Matthew Gilbert) in a London freak show. Treves subsequently saves him by providing a permanent home at his hospital, where Merrick discovers happiness during the last years of his short life (1862–1890). After being rescued, not much happens—aside from Merrick’s expanded eminence and Dr. Treves’ apprehension about prostituting his patient for publicity. Director Robert Bogue’s blocking expertly employs the entire small, multilevel space. His cast of 11 delivers performances ranging from brilliant to flat to indulgent. Sans prosthetics, the script demands that the lead actor portray misshapen Merrick through physicality alone, and Gilbert’s corporeal demeanor is as twisted as an Ann Coulter harangue. As the demure and compassionate Mrs. Kendal, a famous actress who befriends Merrick, Lorrie Fargo delights in the depth she delivers. Likewise, Lange vividly reveals a morally conflicted Dr. Treves. However, some shoddy design elements divert us from the drama. Cherelle Ashby’s period costumes deserve a nod—save for the distractingly unpolished shoes of hospital administrator and fundraiser Mr. Gomm. They look like something from the Goodwill store up the street; who would trust this gentleman with capital? While Brendan Mack’s functional set makes excellent use of the small space, the construction hardly suggests Victorian solidity. The essence of The Elephant Man is appearances, and the more stripped-down and actor-focused it is, the more mind-blowing. STAGEright adds some questionable stagecraft, though it hardly minimizes Merrick’s misery. Freak shows no longer exist in their cruel, 19thcentury form. Yet watching Gilbert’s woeful performance, the thought occurs that were Merrick alive today, he’d undoubtedly have his own reality-TV show. Pomerance’s script elicits both the smug superiority of Merrick’s celebrity supporters and their surges of self-congratulation for rising above revulsion. Are our motives any less mixed when watching Lindsay Lohan today? ALYSSA DYKSTERHOUSE
Third
FOR TICKETS:
206.215.4747 | Benaroyahall.org
ARTSWEST, 4711 CALIFORNIA AVE. S.W., 938-0339, ARTSWEST.ORG. $45. 7:30 P.M. WED.–SAT., 3 P.M. SUN. ENDS MARCH 22.
Liberal society tends to think of reverse-racism charges as the whine de coeur of the historically privileged. But what of that handsome white jock with the exalted last name (and Roman numeral III after it) whose family is broke and
STAGERIGHT
TINARIWEN
YANNI
Opening Nights The Elephant Man
April 14
September 14
arts&culture» Stage
The suffering of Merrick (Gilbert) is also a draw for hospital donors.
whose voracious intellect is doubted because of lefty academic prejudices ? Seems a bit farfetched in the abstract, but in Wendy Wasserstein’s 2005 dramedy, brought to life under Peggy Gannon’s gentle direction, the parable becomes an easy A, like Astronomy for Poets. At an elite New England college, Professor Laurie Jameson (a well-cast Marty Mukhalian) preaches radical interpretations of King Lear— e.g., Regan and Goneril were the story’s heroines for overthrowing the patriarchy. Smartly played by Mark Tyler Miller, her student Woodson Bull III (he goes by “Third”) posits a well-supported alternative theory in an essay for her class. However, because he wrestles on the college team and aims to become a sports agent, she deems him incapable of having written it—a plagiarist, in other words. As she drags him before a disciplinary committee, the professor’s bitter, contemptuous spots come out in all their glory. (She dismisses Third as “practically a walking red state.”) This isn’t a Mamet-brutal exposé, but more a witty midlife reckoning for an ego-blinded pedant. Burton Yuen’s backdrop of renaissance-style clouds, framed in floating window frames, delicately suggests legacy, aspiration, epiphany, and mortality. Strategically drawn supporting characters illuminate Prof. Jameson’s deficits like Scrooge’s ghosts: a colleague battling cancer (the marvelously earthbound Kate Witt), Jameson’s Alzheimer’s-afflicted dad (Bill Higham), and her college-age, not-radical-enough disappointment of a daughter (Kacey Shiflet). In her last play before her 2006 death, Wasserstein’s scenes range from conventional confrontations to more fanciful flights, like the red-light-drenched hot flash Jameson endures. Snippets of news and George W. Bush speeches allude to the Iraq War; it’s a clunky way of comparing W’s certainty about WMDs to Jameson’s about plagiarism. This isn’t so rich or resonant a work as The Heidi Chronicles, but Mukhalian gives Jameson some depth. She’s pompous, clumsy, fragile, lost, and ridiculous (even dancing to PBS fund-drive concerts). Those qualities yield a touching (if slight) awakening of human conscience in the ivory tower—possibly in the audience, too.
MARGARET FRIEDMAN E
stage@seattleweekly.com
arts&culture» Performance B Y G AV I N B O R C H E R T
Stage OPENINGS & EVENTS
BLUEBEARD’S WIFE Or, “Dark Fairy Tales Re-Imagined
for Our Time.” Presented by students in SPT’s Youth Program. Seattle Public Theater at the Bathhouse, 7312 W. Green Lake Ave. N., 524-1300, seattlepublic theater.org. Donation. 7 p.m. Fri., March 14, 2 & 7 p.m. Sat., March 15, 2 p.m. Sun., March 16. BILLY CONNOLLY SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 25. FAMILY AFFAIR Jennifer Jasper’s “sick, hilarious, and ultimately relatable” monthly cabaret on the theme of family. JewelBox/Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., 441-5823, jenniferjasperperforms.com. $10. 7:30 p.m. Wed., March 19.
•
FINAL FANTASY: THE IMPROVISED ADVENTURES
Improv meets (and spoofs) video games. Unexpected Productions Market Theater, 1428 Post Alley, 800-8383006, unexpectedproductions.org. $12–$15. Opens March 14. 8:30 p.m. Fri.–Sat. Ends April 26. HOUSE OF THEE UNHOLY SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 22. JULIUS CAESAR Robert Downing’s solo version of Shakespeare’s political tragedy. Ark Lodge, 4816 Rainier Ave. S., 800-838-3006, brownpapertickets.com. $5. Opens March 17. 7 p.m. Mon. Ends March 31. THE KENTUCKY CYCLE Robert Schenkkan’s multipart story of three families over two centuries. Bainbridge Performing Arts, 200 Madison Ave. N., Bainbridge Island, 842-8569, bainbridgeperformingarts.org. $19– $27. Previews 7:30 p.m. March 12–13, opens March 14. Part 1: 7:30 p.m. Fri., 2 p.m. Sat. Part 2: 7:30 p.m. Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends March 30. THE LION KING SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 22. NCTC’S ST. PATRICK’S DAY BASH Readings of new 10-minute plays, a limerick contest, and more. Solo, 200 Roy St., wearenctc.org. $25. 7 p.m. Mon., March 17. SPAMALOT An encore of the 5th’s successful run, staged by students from the Rising Star Project. 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave., 625-1900, 5thavenue. org. $8–$25. 8 p.m. Fri., March 14, 2 & 8 p.m. Sat., March 15. MUNENORI TAKEDA/FISHER ENSEMBLE Noh master Takeda joins the local alt-opera troupe for a preview of their September collaboration. ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., jaclab.org, fisherensemble.org. Donation. 7 p.m. Fri., March 14.
•
•
Send events to stage@seattleweekly.com, dance@seattleweekly.com, or classical@seattleweekly.com See seattleweekly.com for full listings. = Recommended
•
CURRENT RUNS
BLACK VENGEANCE Now they’ve gone and made
Othello into a punk opera, created by Nathaniel Porter. The Ballard Underground, 2220 N.W. Market St., 800-838-3006, ghostlighttheatricals.org. $12–$15. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.–Sat., plus 2 p.m. Sun., March 16. Ends March 22. THE BOY AT THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING A bored 12-year-old meets his doppelgänger—in space! Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Center, 443-0807. $15–$36. Runs Thurs.–Sun., see sct.org for exact schedule. Ends April 6. THE ELEPHANT MAN SEE REVIEW, PAGE 26. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS I’m not sure I buy the old adage about musicals being the gateway drug to serious theater. With a pop-culture confection like this, based on the old Roger Corman B-movie, turned into a hit musical, and filmed in 1986 with Steve Martin and Bill Murray, I do not believe that school field-trip groups will convert to die-hard Ibsenites. Here the pleasures are those of nostalgia, camp, and jukebox melodies that wink at Little Shop’s retro setting. The unbeatable team of composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman were, in 1982, fondly lampooning a 1960 movie they must’ve seen on television thousands of times during childhood; their show is an unabashed celebration of cheesy horror and Motown harmonies—joyous kitsch, in other words. After ACT’s prior musical collaboration with the 5th Avenue Theatre, 2012’s First Date, this co-production boasts a long roster of Northwest stage talentwith leads Joshua Carter (as the lovelorn Seymour) and Jessica Skerritt (as his ditsy crush Audrey), directed by Bill Berry. As for Seymour’s carnivorous plant from outer space, that’ll be a giant puppet, given voice by Ekello J. Harrid, Jr. BRIAN MILLER. ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., 2927676. $20–$50. Runs Tues.–Sun.; see acttheatre.org for exact schedule. Ends June 15. NOISES OFF In Michael Frayn’s comedy, we see a touring theater troupe from two points of view—first at rehearsal, then from backstage during a performance. Burien Little Theater, 242-5180, burienlittletheatre.org. N.B.: performed at 14907 Fourth Ave. S.W. in Burien. $7–$20. 8 p.m. Fri.–Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends March 23. ODYSSEO The dancing horse show from traveling circus troupe Cavalia performs under a giant tent. Marymoor Park, 6046 W. Lake Sammamish Parkway N.E., Redmond. $34.50–$149.50 ($154.50–$229.50 w/ dinner). Runs Tues.–Sun.; see cavalia.net for exact schedule. Re-extended through March 30. PRETTY FIRE Tracy Michelle Hughes stars in Charlayne Woodard’s solo show about motherhood. Isaac Studio Theatre, 208 N. 85th St., 781-9707, taproottheatre.org. $15–$25. 7:30 p.m. Thurs., 8 p.m. Fri., 2 & 8 p.m. Sat. Ends March 22.
•
Tracy Michelle Hughes in Pretty Fire at Taproot Theatre.
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
ERIK STUHAUG
W W W. ZI NZ AN N I .CO M
27
a&c» Performance A ROSE FOR DANNY The Irish Heritage Club presents
this memoiry domestic drama by Seattle playwright Kevin Moriarty. TPS Theatre 4, Seattle Center, Center House, 4th flr., irishheritageplayers.org. $15–$20. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.–Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends March 16. TEATRO ZINZANNI: ON THE AIR Their new radiothemed show features the return of emcee Kevin Kent. Teatro ZinZanni, 222 Mercer St., 802-0015. $108 and up. Runs Wed.–Sun.; see dreams.zinzanni.org for exact schedule. Ends June 1. TEN DAYS TO HAPPINESS Donna Rae Davidson’s solo show about her experiences at a Buddhist meditation retreat. Amazing Grace Spiritual Center, 2007 N.W. 61st St., 10daystohappiness.com. $15–$20. 8 p.m. Fri.–Sat., plus 2 p.m. Sat., March 15. Ends March 15. THIRD SEE REVIEW, PAGE 26. WICKED WIZ OF OZ A 45-minute mashup of your favorite Oz musicals, part of the “Mimosas With Mama” drag brunch. Narwhal, 1118 E. Pike St., strangertickets. com, mimosaswithmama.com. $15–$20. 1:30 p.m. Sun. WORST TRIP EVER IN ALL CAPS!!1! Jet City turns online travel reviews into theater. Wing-It Productions, 5510 University Way N.E., 781-3879, jetcityimprov.com. $12–$15. 8 p.m. Thurs.–Fri. Ends March 21.
FEB 13
Dance
THROUGH
NORTHWEST BALLET: DIRECTOR’S • PACIFIC SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 22.
CHOICE PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET: PINOCCHIO The
MAY 26
annual performance by PNB students—one act, ideal for families. McCaw Hall, Seattle Center, 441-2424, pnb. org. $25–$68. 12:30 & 3:30 p.m. Sun., March 16; 3:30 p.m. Sat., March 22.
1300 FIRST AVENUE SEATTLE WA 98101
Classical, Etc.
TRAVIS BRASS The brass ensemble from the U.S. Air
Force band plays marches, jazz, ragtime, and more. Benaroya Recital Hall, Third Ave. and Union St., 2154800, benaroyahall.org. Free. 7:30 p.m. Wed., March 12. UW CHOIRS The Chamber Singers and University Chorale perform. Meany Hall, UW campus, 543-4880, music. washington.edu. $10–$15. 7:30 p.m. Wed., March 12. SEATTLE SYMPHONY James Ehnes plays Bartok’s Violin Concerto no. 2; Andre de Ridder also conducts Dvorak and Mozart. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., 215-4747, seattlesymphony.org. $19 and up. 7:30 p.m. Thurs., March 13; noon Fri., March 14; 8 p.m. Sat., March 15. NORTHWEST SINFONIETTA Bach’s St. John Passion, his hard-hitting tale of the life of Christ. Seattle First Presbyterian Church, 1013 Eighth Ave., 800-838-3006, northwestsinfonietta.org. $42. 7:30 p.m. Fri., March 14. METROPOLITAN OPERA AT THE MOVIES Tenor-ofthe-moment Jonas Kaufmann sings the title role in Massenet’s Werther. See metopera.org for participating theaters. $20. 10 a.m. Sat., March 15. JACK QUARTET The adventurous New York–based string quartet offers two shows: music by composers from the UW School of Music and DXARTS at 7:30 p.m., and improv at 10. Meany Hall, UW campus, 5434880, music.washington.edu. $10–$25. Sat., March 15.
•
SEATTLE/SEATTLE CHAMBER • ORCHESTRA Mozart’s Requiem, plus music by Liszt and
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
SINGERS
28
Samuel Jones. First Free Methodist Church, 3200 Third Ave. W., 800-838-3006, osscs.org. $10–$25. 7:30 p.m. Sat., March 15. CONCERT IMAGINAIRE New works from this ensemble, including sings by composer David Hahn. Chapel Performance Space, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., concertimaginaire.com. $5–$15. 8 p.m. Sat., March 15. NORTHWEST SYMPHONY Bruckner’s vast Symphony no. 8 in West Seattle’s similarly vast Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 4142 42nd Ave. S.W., 800-8383006, northwestsymphonyorchestra.org. $12–$15. 8 p.m. Sat., March 15. MASTER CHORUS EASTSIDE Vivaldi’s Gloria, Haydn, and more. First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, 1717 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue, 425-392-8446, master choruseastside.org. $15–$20. 3 p.m. Sun., March 16. MUSIC NORTHWEST Brahms’ rousing Piano Quartet in G Minor, plus Beethoven, Sarasate, and Schumann., Olympic Recital Hall, S. Seattle Community College, 6000 16th Ave. S.W., 937-2899, musicnorthwest.org. $16–$18. 3 p.m. Sun., March 16. SEATTLE YOUTH SYMPHONY Favorites by Copland, Prokofiev, and Weber. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., 362-2300, syso.org. $15–$45. 3 p.m. Sun., March 16. BYRON SCHENKMAN AND FRIENDS Chamber music—this time, by fanciful baroque colorist JeanPhilippe Rameau—from this expert keyboardist and hand-picked colleagues. Benaroya Recital Hall, Third Ave. and Union St., 215-4747, byronschenkman.com. $10–$42. 7 p.m. Sun., March 16.
• •
GET TICKETS AT VISITSAM.ORG/MIRO This exhibition is organized by the Seattle Art Museum and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Major Sponsors Christie’s Seattle Art Museum Supporters (SAMS)
The Seattle presentation of this exhibition is made possible by donors to:
Image: Woman, Bird and Star (Homage to Picasso), February 15, 1966 / April 3-8, 1973, Joan Miró, Spanish, 1893-1983, oil on canvas, 96 7/16 x 66 15/16 in., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. © Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris 2014.
• •
arts&culture» Visual Arts TOWN HALL
Cone and Selection Nothing is symmetrical in nature. Trees are warped by the wind, streams meander, and even mountains are (mis)shaped by the elements (glaciers, erosion, what have you). Yet we insist on imposing the “right” BY BRIAN MILLER shape on creation with our topiary trees, dredged and straightened rivers, and bioengineered fruit. The Wisconsin-based British photographer Stephen Hilyard has seen plenty such
THEFUSSYEYE
be more, well, conical. It’s a bit like the fashion mags that slim models’ legs and lengthen their necks: There’s a mathematical formula, like the old Greek ratios, that pleases the eye into saying, “Oh, that’s just right.” But what’s right about these luminous images is, of course, entirely bogus. Hilyard is lightly mocking our bias toward the ideal; and you see the same tension in an accompanying video of tourists admiring a gorgeous—and again postcardready—Icelandic waterfall. It’s so perfect! It’s the quintessence of a waterfall (like those volcanic cones), a Platonic ideal that’s also weirdly close to kitsch. Perfection is an aes-
CIVICS
SCIENCE
ARTS & CULTURE
COMMUNITY
(3/12) Peter Stark with Feliks Banel The Forgotten Empire of the Pacific Northwest (3/12) Seattle: City of Literature (3/17) Washington Action for Safe Water presents Fluoridated Water in Seattle (3/18) Ann Jones The Everlasting Scars of War (3/18) Kshama Sawant and Charles Mudede Why Socialism, Why Now?
Low Priced Previews
March 19 & 20
Mar. 19–Apr. 13, 2014
www.seattleshakespeare.org
(3/19) Warren Berger ‘Beautiful Questions’ on the Road to Innovation (3/20) Rebecca Goldstein WWW.TOWNHALLSEATTLE.ORG The 21st Century Plato TOWN HALL
CIVICS
SCIENCE
ARTS & CULTURE
COMMUNITY
STEPHEN HILYARD
(3/21) Global Rhythms Harp-O-Rama feat. Máire Ní Chathasaigh
PRESENTED BY WASHINGTON STATE BEEF COMMISSION
examples during his travels, both the before and the after of man’s hand. So, following a recent trip to the marvelously photogenic, volcanic country of Iceland, he took it upon himself to “improve” his images in Photoshop—to give tourists (meaning us gallery-goers) an unnaturally idealized, symmetrical vision of that country’s landscape. You want the postcard view? he asks; fine, here it is. In Mountain, he presents five large lightbox images of old volcano cones that have been subtly resculpted to
thetic trap, a kind of pathological yearning, like those women who can’t stop having plastic surgery (inspired, of course, by the photo editors who can’t stop retouching fashion photos). Implicit here is Hilyard’s gentle, artful rebuke: Iceland doesn’t need digital help, no matter how appealing. Platform Gallery, Platform Gallery, 114 Third Ave. S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 323-2808, platformgallery.com. Free. 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Wed.–Fri., 11 a.m.– 5 p.m. Sat. Ends March 22.
A New Music A l coMedy
(3/22) What’s Next for First Hill? A Community Conversation (3/23) King-Snohomish County Regional Spelling Bee
6pm VIP
(3/25) Worldearly Water Week entrance Chris Jordan PARAMOUNT The Plight of the Albatross
THEATRE (3/25) Craig Nelson
with Kathleen Flenniken TICKETS ON A World Filled with Radiation
Richard Goode
SALE NOW!
pianist
MARCH 20
MEANY HALL | 206-543-4880 | UWWORLDSERIES.ORG
(3/25) William Easterly Breaking the Cycle of Poverty
PURCHASE TICKETS AT: www.VoraciousTasting.eventbrite.com
(3/26) Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal, and Sarah Shourd with Mark Wright ‘A Sliver of Light’ A Memoir of Iranian
On stage: March 20 - April 27 Box Office: (425) 392-2202 www.VillageTheatre.org
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
April 24 th 7:30-10pm /
(3/24) WA State TB Action Coalition presents World TB Day 2014
29
arts&culture» Film his own moviemaking approach. Yes, he spritzes “L’air du panache” over his work, but in this case the combination of playfulness and gravity makes The Grand Budapest Hotel linger in the air long after it’s is over. ROBERT HORTON
Opening ThisWeek
If You Build It
Better Living Through Chemistry
RUNS FRI., MARCH 14–SUN., MARCH 16 AT SIFF FILM CENTER. NOT RATED. 86 MINUTES.
Fiennes as the dapper Gustave.
By the time of its 1968 framing story, the Grand Budapest Hotel has been robbed of its gingerbread design by a Soviet (or some similarly aesthetically challenged) occupier—the first of the film’s many comments on the importance of style. A writer ( Jude Law) gets the hotel’s story from its mysterious owner, Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham, a lovely presence). Zero takes us back between world wars, when he (played now by Tony Revolori) began as a bellhop at the elegant establishment located in the mythical European country of Zubrowka. Dominating this place is the worldly Monsieur Gustave, the fussy hotel manager (Ralph Fiennes, in absolutely glorious form), a man given to reciting poetry and dousing himself in a fruity cologne called “L’air du panache.” The death of one of M. Gustave’s elderly ladyfriends (Tilda Swinton) leads to a wildly convoluted tale of a missing painting, resentful heirs, a prison break, and murder. Along the way Zero meets a comely con-
fectioner (Saoirse Ronan), allowing the writer/ director to prove that a pastry shop is as ideal a Wes Anderson location as a continental hotel. Adrien Brody and Willem Dafoe play fascist villains, and Edward Norton is a fumbling policeman. Some of Anderson’s other regulars—Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson—flash by in cameos. All are in service to a project so steeped in Anderson’s velvettrimmed bric-a-brac we might not notice how rare a movie like this is: a comedy that doesn’t depend on a star turn or a high concept, but is a throwback to the sophisticated (but slapstickfriendly) work of Ernst Lubitsch and other such classical directors. In films like this, behavior and personal élan are the currency that matters, a triumph that outlives the unpleasantness of dictators and storm troopers—as evidenced by the way the aged Zero still speaks worshipfully about his natty mentor. In a delightful way, Anderson is making the case for the value of
OPENS FRI., MARCH 14 AT HARVARD EXIT. NOT RATED. 99 MINUTES.
PThe Grand Budapest Hotel OPENS FRI., MARCH 14 AT GUILD 45TH, PACIFIC PLACE, AND LINCOLN SQUARE. RATED R. 100 MINUTES.
Some filmmakers become genres unto themselves. A “Wes Anderson movie” very quickly came to mean something specific, regardless of its definition as coming-of-age picture (Rushmore), Salingeresque family comedy (The Royal Tenenbaums), or animated kiddie fare (Fantastic Mr. Fox). If you’ve absorbed the storybook Anderson style, you won’t find too many surprises in The Grand Budapest Hotel, his eighth feature. But you will find a disciplined silliness—and even an occasional narrative shock— that vaults this movie beyond the overdeveloped whimsy that has affected Anderson’s work since The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.
Northern liberal do-gooders come to a poor region of North Carolina to teach teenagers how to measure, design, and build things. Folks in Bertie County already know how to work with their hands, of course, since farming and industrial chicken ranching are the main forms of employment. But brain drain is an evident problem, so the local school superintendent hires Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller for a pilot program they call Studio H. There, skeptical students are encouraged to get their fingers dirty, make design sketches, and use power tools. Meanwhile, the school board kicks out its chief and cuts the studio’s funding. This could be the plot for a fish-out-of-water comedy, only Emily and Matthew are already a couple, and Patrick Creadon’s earnest documentary is plainly aiming for inspiration, not laughs. Emily and Matthew are relentlessly cheerful and patient, though there are moments of exhaustion and doubt (they’re surviving on grant money). The kids are a typical bunch of teens, by turns rowdy and studious, all of them flattered to be treated like peers. (Creadon, previously the director of Wordplay, doesn’t gain access to their regular classes; nor does he interview the school board members, who’ve made other questionable decisions.) The idea of reinventing shop class is a sound one, particularly when we’re trying to resurrect American manufacturing and train a new generation of skilled workers. Emily and Matthew are like emissaries from the Brooklyn maker movement of 3-D printers and artisans with MFAs. After two years in town, they clearly make a difference to their pupils and community. Yet in the film’s frustrating postscript—do any of these graduates have jobs, by the way?— we see how even these two committed idealists must go where the funding is. And that is far from Bertie County. BRIAN MILLER
Particle Fever
From left, Studio H students Colin White, Jamesha Thompson, and Alexia Williams learn about trusses.
LONG SHOT FACTORY/IFYOUBUILDITMOVIE.COM
30
Sam Rockwell sightings are like spotting a wobbling comet in some oblique, unpredictable orbit. You’re never sure why he’ll show up in this movie or that, seldom as the star, and never following the obvious trajectory. The Way, Way Back gave him a surprise hit last summer, when he wore his teen-mentorship lightly. Not long thereafter, he portrayed a different kind of loner in A Single Shot, and now he plays a disaffected suburban pharmacist who’s also at odds with society. Doug Varney, like so many of Rockwell’s characters, isn’t a joiner; he’s something of a stranger to his wife (Michelle Monaghan), a health fanatic and cyclist, and teen son (Harrison Holzer), a chubby pariah at school. And another thing about Doug, also common to Rockwell’s casting: He’s a suggestible sort, a bit of a weakling, a dupe waiting for a woman to lead him astray—a femme fatale, if you will. This brings us to Olivia Wilde as pillpopping trophy wife Elizabeth, who proves to be Doug’s undoing. Written and directed by Geoff Moore and David Posamentier, Better Living is patently modeled on old film noirs like Double Indemnity or The Postman Always Rings Twice, though it’s given an entirely larky, comic spin. Murder is discussed (here’s Ray Liotta as Elizabeth’s rich husband), crimes are committed, and there’s even a doped-up bicycle race in which Doug makes like Lance Armstrong. Still, the tone is as light as a trip to Ikea (though it gains a little texture from Jane Fonda’s droll, purring narration). For a while, high on his own pills, power, and adultery, Doug can crow, “I’m the man behind the curtain, the wizard! I pull the strings!” But the enjoyably shallow Better Living pulls back from any real transgression or black comedy. (Recall The Details for a genuinely dark-comic take on similar material.) It’s like a John Cheever story scrubbed of the angst or consequences. On the plus side, however, the movie gives Rockwell room to dance; and for that we must be grateful. BRIAN MILLER
FOX SEARCHLIGHT
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
OPENS FRI., MARCH 14 AT SUNDANCE CINEMAS AND SIFF CINEMA UPTOWN. NOT RATED. 91 MINUTES.
If nothing else, this documentary confirms something you’ve probably always suspected: Really brilliant physicists are almost exactly as nerdy as the average science-fiction geek. A sense of humor and issues of personal style appear to be aligned on the same spectrum in both groups, as is the ability to imagine the future in a new way. Given that reality, director Mark Levinson was probably wise to focus on the personalities working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), that huge project near Geneva. Their quirkiness allows a human portal into the science behind this massive underground laboratory, which after 20 years of effort went live in 2008 and confirmed important results just last year. The gist of the project—and I speak with absolutely zero authority on this—is to send protons around a 17-mile ring and smash them into one another at high speed. The result will reveal answers to ongoing theoretical questions
TickeTs available aT www.cinerama.com about what the universe is made of, especially as regards the Higgs boson, the missing piece in the Standard Model of physics. We get the history of the LHC, and cameras are there when the first tiny proton makes its first circle in September 2008. Cameras are also there a few days later when a design flaw causes an accident that sets the experiment back by more than a year. We are guided in this journey by a batch of physicists, from esteemed veterans in the field to the puppy-dog enthusiasm of Monica Dunford, who treats the word “data” the way the average person might describe a Powerball jackpot. All of them are pretty much unified in their anxiety over the outcome of the LHC’s evidence. It might show them the future of scientific research, or it might prove they’ve come to a $5 billion dead end. They are less worried that the experiment could cause the Earth to vanish into a black hole, an extremely unlikely (gulp) outcome. Levinson does a good job explaining the basis of this stuff, although one wants to know a little
Now ShowiNg Daily at
Victoria (Pierrette Robitaille) has come to the forest after her release from a serious prison sentence—what her crime was, we don’t know. She shows up at her comatose uncle’s home and announces that she will now be taking care of him, an act that irritates the neighbors who’d been tending the old man. Vic is 61 and ready to live in this remote place, but her younger lover Florence (Romane Bohringer) is not so content when she arrives. Their relationship becomes rockier as the film drifts along, and an unexplained issue from Flo’s past doesn’t help matters. They receive a peculiar level of scrutiny from Vic’s parole officer (Marc-André Grondin), a stern young man of unexpected depth, and from an unnervingly cheerful local (Marie Brassard), whose demeanor in these backwoods is markedly different from that of the other unwelcoming neighbors. Côté is a former film critic whose demanding output includes the haunting Curling (2010) and the eerie observational documentary Bestiaire (2012). Vic + Flo makes for compelling viewing,
12:30, 3:45, 7:00, 10:15
oPENS March 20 8pm & 11:30pm
StartiNg March 21 12:00, 3:30, 7:00, 10:30
SEATTLE’S WIDEST SCREEN SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGY Fresh Chocolate Popcorn, Cupcake Royale, Theo Choc & so much more
2100 4TH AVENUE, SEATTLE WA • (206) 448-6680 HEINZ PERNEGGER/CERN/PARTICLEFEVER.COM
Inside the Atlas detector at CERN.
Vic + Flo Saw a Bear RUNS FRI., MARCH 14–THURS., MARCH 20 AT NORTHWEST FILM FORUM. NOT RATED. 95 MINUTES.
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Another Instant Coen Bros Classic! DVD $22.95 Blu-ray $24.95 GEORGE WASHINGTON David Gordon Green’s Delicate Debut Feature DVD / Blu-ray $26.95
although the final 10 minutes invite audience backlash (or at least heated conversation), despite a strangely comforting last-minute coda. Is Côté finishing his film with a disturbing left turn for its own sake, or are we watching a fable about the way the past catches up to people? If the latter, Côté isn’t going to spell out what the past was. At first glance that seems like a perverse storytelling strategy, but maybe not. There’s only the present, and the way people treat each other, and how behavior eventually captures people in traps of their own devising. ROBERT HORTON E
BEYOND OUTRAGE More Yakuza Madness from Takeshi Kitano Blu-ray $22.95
Also this week: A Heapin’ Helpin’ of Aussie Exploitation! OZPLOITATION TRAILER EXPLOSION 3 Hours of Rare and Tantalizing Trailers! DVD $15.95 THIRST Vampire Cult keeps Humans as Pets! DVD / Blu-ray $21.95
film@seattleweekly.com
DEAD KIDS Title Kind of Says it All! DVD / Blu-ray $21.95
Friday, March 21 at 2PM
Scarecrow Video welcomes legendary, award winning film editor
THELMA SCHOONMAKER for an In-Store Appearance!
She will also be presenting two films at the Seattle Art Museum on 3/20 and 3/21. See seattleartmuseum.org for details. Vic (Robitaille, left) and Flo (Bohringer).
KIMSTIM
French-Canadian director Denis Côté has described his method as an attempt to create a “no-comfort zone for the audience” that leaves the impression “that a film can fall apart at any second.” That’s a fair description of Vic + Flo Saw a Bear, which sustains the sense that—even in its most mundane moments— something extremely odd is about to happen. When something, at long last, truly horrifying occurs, it’s a confirmation that this little patch of the Quebec woods might not be far on the map from Twin Peaks.
The largest selection of movie rentals in the country NEW THIS WEEK For a full list of new releases for rent & sale, visit www.scarecrow.com
2 FOR 1 RENTALS EVERY WEDNESDAY!
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
more about why it all matters. One possibility, that the Higgs boson would confirm that all matter isn’t in danger of falling apart at any given moment, is a welcome nugget of information. Particle Fever coasts a bit with its reliance on character study, but it contains real suspense and some tantalizing glimpses into the future. It also serves as a needed reminder of the excitement of science, a practice that need not be left exclusively to nerds. ROBERT HORTON
5030 ROOSEVELT WAY NE SEATTLE, WA 98105 (206) 524-8554 www.scarecrow.com SUN. - TUES. 11am - 10pm WED., FRI. & SAT. 11am - 11pm
31
D I N I NG
W E E K LY
EV ENT S
M U SI C
arts&culture» Film
W W W. S E AT T L E W E E K LY. C O M / S I G N U P
FILM
NEWSLETTER
FIL M
The inside scoop on upcoming films and the latest reviews.
HA P P Y HO U R
BY BRIAN MILLER
NOW PLAYING
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
32
®
YOUR TICKET TO THE ULTIMATE MOVIE & DINING EXPERIENCE.
www.cinebarre.com
(NR) B.R.M. Keystone Congregational Church, 5019 Keystone Place N., 632-6021, keystoneseattle.org, Free, Fri., March 14, 7 p.m. LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 25.
Local & Repertory
•
CLUELESS Alicia Silverstone was never sweeter or more
LOTTE REINIGER SHORTS WITH MILES & KARINA
effective than in this clever 1995 treatment of Jane Austen’s novel Emma, directed by Amy Heckerling. (PG-13) Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 686-6684, central-cinema.com, $6-$8, March 14-18, 7 p.m. FESTIVAL OF (IN)APPROPRIATION Filmmaker Josh Hite will introduce this compilation reel of oddities and finds, all wrenched from their original cinematic context. (NR) Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 829-7863, nwfilmforum.org, $6-$11, Thu., March 13, 8 p.m. THE GOLDEN AGE OF ITALIAN CINEMA “I remember” in Italian, Amarcord (1973) is Federico Fellini’s comedic semi-autobiographical, Oscarwinning look back at his hometown Rimini during the 1930s—and oh, the memories! There’s insane Uncle Teo, who refuses to climb out of a tree because he wants a woman (and then settles for a midget nun); the giant-breasted tobacconist, whom the boys lust after; the Fascist parade with a giant floral arrangement of Mussolini’s face; the prostitute, Volpina, who trolls the town for customers; the femme fatale, Gradisca (the lovely Magalí Noël), who pines for a husband like Gary Cooper—and that’s only a fraction of the colorful cast of characters involved. (NR) ANGELA ASHMAN Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., 654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org, $8 (individual), $63-$68 (series), 7:30 p.m. Thurs. HEAVEN AND EARTH MAGIC Local musicians Lori Goldston, Jessika Kenney, and Susie Kozawa perform a live score to the 1962 avant garde movie by Harry Smith. (NR) SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net, $8-$13, Tue., March 18, 7 p.m. THE INVISIBLE WOMAN Playing as part of SIFF’s Recent Raves! series, The Invisible Woman features director Ralph Fiennes portraying Charles Dickens as we imagine him: vital, human, prolific, charming, flawed, driven to succeed. After siring 10 children with his wife, Dickens lost sexual interest in her, as Claire Tomalin explored in her 1990 book The Invisible Woman. That woman was Nelly Ternan (Felicity Jones), Dickens’ much younger mistress for the last dozen years of his life (1812–1870). Does it sound tawdry and inappropriate that Dickens basically pays Nelly’s shrewd actress mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) for this arrangement? There’s something icky about it—one thinks of Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow, or of Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn. There are many pleasures to The Invisible Woman, and they chiefly have to do with the man and his Victorian milieu. As both director and star, Fiennes loves the scenes of Dickens’ public readings to concert halls full of rapt fans, hanging on his every word. Because Ternan as an historical figure left little in the way of a public record, her character feels vague and conjectural; Jones and the filmmakers haven’t got an angle on her. Nelly’s just a fan, a confidante, a lover (it takes over an hour to get to the sex), and finally a scandal to be hidden. (R) BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema Uptown, $6-$11, Mon., March 17, 7:30 p.m. THE LAW IN THESE PARTS History is written by the victors and laws by the occupiers. That’s the way it works in Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s intelligent but tedious doc about Israel’s administration of civil justice—by military judges—in the occupied West Bank after 1967. The film comprises several interviews with retired IDF lawyers who also created some laws in the occupied territories. It was by their rule, in military courts, that thousands of Palestinians have been held in “administrative arrest” (before actually doing anything) and given long, futile sentences for throwing stones at settlers and soldiers in the West Bank. (Killing and suicide bombs are another matter.) History is written by the victors and laws by the occupiers. That’s the way it works in Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s intelligent but tedious doc about Israel’s administration of civil justice—by military judges—in the occupied West Bank after 1967. The film comprises several interviews with retired IDF lawyers who also created some laws in the occupied territories. It was by their rule, in military courts, that thousands of Palestinians have been held in “administrative arrest” (before actually doing anything) and given long, futile sentences for throwing stones at settlers and soldiers in the West Bank. (Killing and suicide bombs are another matter.)
Who is Lotte Reiniger? The pioneering German female animation artist (1899–1981) created exquisite short films, beginning in the 1920s, using silhouette animation. This package of shorts is set to a new score, to be performed live, by local musicians Miles & Karina (aka Dave Keenan and Nova Devonie). (NR) SIFF Cinema Uptown, $6-$11, Sun., March 16, 1 p.m. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA DJ James Whetzel provides a new soundtrack for Dziga Vertov’s extravagantly edited 1929 silent film. (NR) SIFF Cinema Uptown, $6-$11, Thu., March 13, 7 p.m. NORTHERN LIGHTS SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 22. SIN CITY In adapting three stories from Frank Miller’s graphic-novel series, Robert Rodriguez reduces his palette to almost only two tones, black and white, like the ones and zeroes of his all-digital production. Morality is no less stark or violently severe. In different chapters, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, and Bruce Willis play knights in dirty armor (to borrow a phrase from Raymond Chandler). Sin City is thoroughly noir, with guns, trench coats, old cars, and female characters— played by Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, and Brittany Murphy—as thick as cardboard. Visually, the 2005 Sin City is wildly imaginative—but also wildly derivative, since Rodriguez set out to copy Miller’s drawings on film. Most comic-book movies are said to “leap off the page” as praise. Sin City does the opposite: It burrows into the cheap paper and ink, making a virtue of flatness. (R) B.R.M. Central Cinema, $6-$8, March 14-18, 9:30 p.m.
A R T S A ND E NTE R TA I NM E NT
•
cinebarre
PR O M O TI O NS
Send events to film@seattleweekly.com See seattleweekly.com for full listings = Recommended
•
• •
THE SPROCKET SOCIETY’S SATURDAY SECRET MATINEES The 1949 serial Batman & Robin will be
screened in weekly installments. March’s surprise features will have a B-movie monster theme. (NR) Grand Illusion, 1403 N.E. 50th St., 523-3935, grandillusioncinema.org, $5-$8 individual, $35-$56 pass, Saturdays, 2 p.m. Continues through March 29. TIGER AND BUNNY: THE RISING Familiar to some from Japanese TV, the two titular robot buddies have now been expanded into a movie. (NR) Grand Illusion, $15, Fri., March 14, 6 p.m.; Sat., March 15, 9 p.m.; Sun., March 16, 3:30 p.m.; Mon., March 17, 6 p.m.
Ongoing
• AMERICAN HUSTLE The latest concoction from
David O. Russell is full of big roundhouse swings and juicy performances: It’s a fictionalized take on the Abscam scandal of the late 1970s, in which the FBI teamed with a second-rate con man (here called Irving Rosenfeld, played by Christian Bale) in a wacko sting operation involving a bogus Arab sheik and bribes to U.S. congressmen. Along with the FBI coercing him into its scheme, Irving is caught between his hottie moll Sydney (Amy Adams) and neglected wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence). Even more complicated for Irving is that one of the targets of the undercover operation, a genially corrupt yet idealistic Jersey politico (Jeremy Renner), turns out to be a soulmate. Equally unhappy is the presiding FBI agent (Bradley Cooper, his permed hair and his sexual urge equally curled in maddening knots), who’s developed a crush on Sydney that is driving him insane. Russell encourages his actors to go for it, and man, do they go for it. (R) ROBERT HORTON Sundance, Big Picture, Pacific Place, Lincoln Square, others AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY Tracy Letts won a Pulitzer for this play and now writes the screenplay, yet there’s almost no evidence of how this display of canned yammering could possibly have won a high literary honor. Osage County is in Oklahoma, where the lemony matriarch of the Weston family, Violet (Meryl Streep), has gathered the clan in the aftermath of tragedy. She has three daughters, and while she treats sensible Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) and silly Karen (Juliette Lewis) badly enough, she saves her special venom for her favorite, Barbara (Julia Roberts). Barbara’s marriage to an academic (Ewan McGregor) is unraveling, so she’s in the mood for a tussle, and we’re going to get one. While Streep is the savvy, surgical Muhammad Ali to Roberts’ blunt-punching Joe Frazier in that match, there’s a sense that even Dame Meryl is coasting on technique here. The gotcha dialogue is just a little too easy, and director John Wells encourages everybody to bop their lines right on the nose. This big serving of ham and eggs wants to be taken seriously. (R) R.H. Varsity, others CHILD’S POSE Something happened on a dark road outside Bucharest, and a boy is dead. The dead adolescent, a kid from a peasant family, was running
•
ing.) Dr. Stone (Bullock) at first can’t get her bearings; and the rest of the film consists of her navigating from one problem to the next. For all its technical marvels and breathtaking panoramas reflected in Stone’s visor, Gravity is a very compact and task-oriented picture. It’s both space-age and hugely traditional, though with a modern, self-aware heroine. (PG-13) B.R.M. Big Picture, others THE GREAT BEAUTY Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscarwinning account of an aging playboy journalist in Rome casts its eye back to La Dolce Vita (also about a playboy journalist in Rome). Yet this movie looks even further back, from the capsized Costa Concordia to the ruins and reproachful marble statues of antiquity. “I feel old,” says Jep (the sublime Toni Servillo) soon after the debauch of his 65th birthday party. He’s been coasting on the success of his first and only novel, 40 years prior, content with his goal to be king of Rome’s high life. Jep is a dandy with thinning hair brushed back and a girdle beneath his silk shirt. False appearances are all that count, but it takes intelligence to deceive. Disgust—and then perhaps self-disgust—begins to color his perception of a Botox party, the food obsessions of a prominent cardinal, the splatter-art demonstration of a child artist, and the whole “debauched country.” Servillo makes Jep both suave and somber, a guy living parallel lives in hectic ballrooms and in his head. His wry glances are both mocking and wincing, appropriate for a movie that’s simultaneously bursting with life and regret. (NR) B.R.M. Sundance, Kirkland Parkplace, Ark Lodge, Lynwood (Bainbridge), others HER Spike Jonze’s unlikely romance is set in a smooth, efficient near-future Los Angeles. There are no poor people, no upsetting stories on the news. Technology works perfectly. Everyone ought to be happy, and that’s the problem for mopey Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix). Gradually it emerges that he’ separated from his wife (Rooney Mara), but won’t sign the divorce papers. Impulsively deciding to upgrade his phone and home PC, Theodore opts for the new OS1 ( “It’s not just an operating system, it’s a consciousness”). He chooses a female voice (Scarlett Johansson’s) called Samantha, which soon takes over his life. Before long they’re going on dates together—and more. When Theodore finally spills his secret, his friend Amy (Amy Adams) treats it like no big news—everyone’s falling in love with an OS, she tells him. In this ingenious and unexpectedly touching story, both humans and programs worry about being alone. And both yearn to connect across the digital divide between sentience and software. (R) B.R.M. Sundance, Harvard Exit, others INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS While there are funny bits in this simple story of a struggling folk musician in 1961 Greenwich Village, very loosely inspired by Dave Van Ronk’s memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street, the situation for Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is fairly dire. He has no money, no apartment, and no real prospects in the music industry—apart from an album that isn’t selling. He’s the wrong guy at the right moment, as the movie’s poignant final scenes make clear. The Coen brothers aren’t really making a comedy here, and you should temper your expectations to appreciate the movie’s minor-key rewards. Isaac can really sing and play guitar; the sterling soundtrack, by T Bone Burnett, is built around live music performances; and the catchiest tune—an astronaut ditty called “Please, Mr. Kennedy”—is a knowingly cornball novelty song. But Llewyn’s a
•
•
SHOWTIM ES
MARCH 14 - 20
CLUELESS
Fri - SUN & TUES @7:00PM / SAT & SUN @ 3:00PM
NORTHERN LIGHTS
“In its own original way, a companion piece to Malick’s Days of Heaven.” Roger Ebert, 1979
SIN CITY
FRIDAY - SUNDAY & TUESDAY @ 9:30PM
MARCH ��–�� NEW ��mm PRINT!
LEPRECHAUN: IN HECKLEVISION MONDAY @ 7:00 PM & 9:30 PM
MOVIECAT TRIVIA: ARROGANT BASTARDS HOST - WEDNESDAY 7:00PM
FILM COURT: FORREST GUMP - THURSDAY @ 8:00PM
MARCH ��–�� GR ANDILLUSIONCINEMA.ORG ���� NE ��th StrEEt | ���-����
•
•
HAPPINESS NESS HAS N NO FORMULA SAM ROCKWELL OLIVIA WILDE MICHELLE MONAGHAN RAY LIOTTA JANE FONDA
•
•
Jason Bateman NOT RATED
in theaters March 21
SuckMyDictionary.com
SEATTLE WEEKLY WED 3/12
STARTS FRIDAY, MARCH 14
SIFF CINEMA UPTOWN 511 Queen Anne Avenue North Seattle (206) 324-9996 www.siff.net
SUNDANCE CINEMAS SEATTLE 4500 9th Avenue NE, Seattle Reserved Seats +21 All Shows sundancecinemas.com
4.81" x 7" THUR 3/13 SEATTLE WEEKLY
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
across the road when a car driven by Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) hit him. The cowardly sluggard Barbu was trying to pass another car and probably speeding. Under ordinary circumstances he’d be a sure bet for prison, but ordinary circumstances do not include his mother Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu), an elegant but ferocious upper-class woman determined to control this situation—just as she’s controlled every other aspect of her grown son’s life. Directed by Calin Peter Netzer, Gheorgiu’s performance captures Cornelia with brittle, I’m-still-standing exactitude. Cornelia reeks of clueless entitlement (her conversation with her maid is a small gem of generosity laced with manipulation), yet you’d want her on your side in a street fight. (NR) R.H. Varsity DALLAS BUYERS CLUB Making a straight white Texas homophobe the hero of a film about the ’80s AIDS crisis doesn’t seem right. It’s inappropriate, exceptional, possibly even crass. All those qualities are reflected in Matthew McConaughey’s ornery, emaciated portrayal of Ron Woodroof, a rodeo rider and rough liver who contracted HIV in 1985. Fond of strippers, regularly swigging from his pocket flask, doing lines of coke when he can afford them, betting on the bulls he rides, Ron has tons of Texas-sized character. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, the unruly Dallas Buyers Club goes easy on the sinner-to-saint conversion story. McConaughey and the filmmakers know that once Ron gets religion, so to speak, their tale risks tedium. As Ron desperately bribes and steals a path to off-label meds, his allies and adversaries do read like fictional composites (played by Griffin Dunne, Jennifer Garner, Denis O’Hare, and Steve Zahn). Best among them is the transvestite Rayon, who becomes Ron’s right-hand woman (Jared Leto). They’re both fellow gamblers who delight in beating the house. (R) B.R.M. Sundance, Meridian, Big Picture, others ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME The core audience for this showbiz documentary is self-selecting: If you’ve heard of the Broadway legend, age 87 at the time of filming, then you will go see the movie and be entirely delighted. Produced by Alec Baldwin, an admirer who played Stritch’s son on 30 Rock, this is emphatically a tribute to old-school musical-theater prowess. It’s not all sadness and nostalgia as Stritch prepares for a new show (all Sondheim, natch), grudgingly tolerates the camera of director Chiemi Karasawa, and collects praise from her Broadway epigones (Baldwin, Tina Fey, Nathan Lane, James Gandolfini, etc.). She wears her legend blithely, but never lets you forget she’s a legend. Her photo albums and polished stories are suitably glamorous (JFK tries and fails to seduce her), yet this is equally a portrait of aging—of working to the end, of the structure and dignity that work provides. We see this trouper’s slips in rehearsal and watch her tell the audience, “If I forget my lyrics, fuck it!” (NR) B.R.M. Sundance GRAVITY George Clooney and Sandra Bullock are stranded in orbit, menaced by regular bombardments of space debris. The oxygen is running out and there’s no prospect of rescue from Earth. Their dilemma is established in an astonishing 12-minute opening sequence, seamlessly rendered via CGI by the Oscarwinning director Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Y Tu Mamá También). The camera occupies no fixed position. There is no up or down in the frame as it pushes and swoops among the wreckage and flailing astronauts. (Here let’s note that the 3-D version is essential; don’t even consider seeing the conventional render-
33
a&c» Film
“A RAMBUNCTIOUS CAPER
BURSTING AT THE SEAMS WITH qUICK WIT, FAMOUS FACES, AND WES ANDERSON’S PATENTED AESTHETIC DELIGHTS.” ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
34
ExCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENTS START FRIDAY, MARCH 14
Bellevue Cinemark Lincoln Square Cinemas (800) FANdANGO #2172
Seattle AMC Pacific Place 11 (888) AMC-4FUN
Seattle Landmark’s Guild 45th Theatre (206) 547-2127
4 COLOR
wEd 3/12 3 col (7.33”) x 10.5” ALL.GHT.0312.Sw
SEATTLE wEEkLy
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
LT
RALPH FIENNES F. MURRAY ABRAHAM MATHIEU AMALRIC ADRIEN BRODY WILLEM DAFOE JEFF GOLDBLUM HARVEY KEITEL JUDE LAW BILL MURRAY EDWARD NORTON SAOIRSE RONAN JASON SCHWARTZMAN LéA SEYDOUx TILDA SWINTON TOM WILKINSON OWEN WILSON introducing TONY REVOLORI
jerk to fellow musicians and benefactors, rude to his sister, and dismissive of others’ talent—possibly because he’s unsure of his own. Llewyn is a self-described asshole offstage; he’s only at his best onstage. If music can’t save him or provide a career, it’s also his only succor against life’s crushing disappointments. (R) B.R.M. Admiral, Tin Theater, Crest MAIDENTRIP Dutch teenager Laura Dekker gained fame for her attempt at sailing solo around the world before she even left port; family-court hearings were held, to great European interest, to determine if she had the right—even with the permission of her divorced parents—to undertake such a risky voyage. American director Jillian Schlesinger skips most of the hoopla and courtroom proceedings, and her documentary mainly relies on Dekker’s own video footage. The effect is like a 75-minute-long selfie, as Dekker cheerfully narrates her voyage in diary form, showing us ravioli mishaps, resting birds, visiting dolphins, and new hairstyles. For viewers with a sailing background, Maindentrip is the like the anti-All Is Lost : Everything that can go right does go right. (Schlesinger is vague about the sponsors of Dekker’s adventure, though her 40-foot ketch is festooned with various corporate logos.) Should you take your daughters to see the movie? Sure—Dekker emerges as a thoroughly likable and self-reliant young woman (age 16 at journey’s end in 2012). I don’t think many parents would send their girls out to sea to follow her, but she seems an excellent role model in all other respects. Except for the ravioli. (NR) B.R.M. SIFF Cinema Uptown THE MONUMENTS MEN Leading Allied military unit charged with finding and securing the stolen artworks of WWII, George Clooney first appears as Danny Ocean with professorial beard: Frank Stokes, a museum curator with FDR’s mandate to assemble a crack team of art experts for active duty. As director and co-writer of the film (based on true events), Clooney knows he can’t entirely escape the air of the Ocean’s Eleven pictures, so he doesn’t try; the all-star assembly this time returns Matt Damon to the ranks, with new enlistees Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin (the Oscar winner for The Artist), Bob Balaban, and John Goodman. The old-fashioned humor includes some kidding-in-the-face-of-possible-death, suggesting that Clooney has recently enjoyed a few Howard Hawks pictures. Meanwhile, a subplot involving Hugh (Downton Abbey) Bonneville’s disgraced British curator has an agreeable old-Hollywood simplicity— Clooney could be trying to make a movie that really might’ve been produced in the 1940s. There’s also a bit about Damon’s art restorer passing an evening in Paris with his contact, a museum employee (Cate Blanchett). For a moment, Damon and Blanchett get a palpably human connection going amid the historical do-goodery. There’s a movie that might be made from that moment, but The Monuments Men is too dutiful for that. (PG-13) R.H. Bainbridge, Lincoln Square, Sundance, others NON-STOP Neesploitation. The Full Neeson. Release the Neeson. After Bronson and Eastwood, is there any more satisfying expression of cranky white codgerhood than the resurgent Liam Neeson? His latest, aka Neeson on a Plane, is a hokey but effective thriller encapsulated by our hero’s throwaway line: “I hate flying.” And yet flying is what this alcoholic federal air marshal does for a job. Bill Marks is a familiar distillation of Neeson’s prior roles in The Grey, Taken, and Unknown—a mournful pessimist who only bothers with life out of habit, loyalty, or revenge. Who’s sending him text messages on a London-bound flight, threatening to kill a passenger every 20 minutes for a ransom of $150 million? The plot mechanics don’t really add up, but the constant indignity and annoyance of post-9/11 air travel are what rings true here. Marks trusts no one on his plane, and his fellow flyers have cause to distrust him, too. (Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery, Scott McNairy, and recent Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o are also on board.) Everyone’s a suspect, and every passenger’s petty complaint signals the breakdown of community. That Neeson plays a loner here is a given. What’s darkest about Non-Stop is how isolated and suspicious his seat-mates are of one another. It’s like a journey … Into the Neeson, as it were. (PG-13) B.R.M. Kirkland Parkplace, Meridian, Bainbridge, Lincoln Square, others OMAR Hany Abu-Assad’s Oscar-nominated new film tries to humanize people stuck in the cycle of violence in the Palestinian community of the occupied West Bank. The central figure here is a none-too-bright young man, Omar (Adam Bakri), who’s a kind of budding revolutionary. He’s not affiliated with a known terrorist group; it’s more like he’s hanging out with friends who’ve gradually become more radical of late. Led by the serious Tarek (Eyad Hourani), these amateurs
idea of the artist holding his thumb in front of his eye and miraculously solving the problems of perspective and light. (PG-13) R.H. Sundance 12 YEARS A SLAVE Made by English director Steve McQueen, this Oscar-winning historical drama is based on a memoir by Solomon Northup (here played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man from Saratoga, New York, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. Solomon passes through the possession of a series of Southern plantation owners. One sensitive slave owner (Benedict Cumberbatch) gives Solomon—a musician by trade—a fiddle. Then he’s sold to the cruel cotton farmer Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), who also owns the furiously hard-working Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o). Patsey, like Solomon, is caught inside the terror of not knowing how to play this hand. Do they keep their heads down and try to survive, or do they resist? Instead of taking on the history of the “peculiar institution,” the film narrows itself to a single story, Solomon’s daily routine, his few possessions. The film’s and-then-this-happened quality is appropriate for a memoir written in the stunned aftermath of a nightmare. Along the way, McQueen includes idyllic nature shots of Louisiana, as though to contrast that unspoiled world with what men have done in it. The contrast is lacerating. (R) R.H. Seven Gables, Ark Lodge, Lincoln Square, Meridian, others
•
WALKING THE CAMINO: SIX WAYS TO SANTIAGO
•
George R.R. Martin-Approved Fantasy Art
“MIND BLOWING” “PROFOUNDLY COOL.”
I
–A.O. Scott, The New York Times
t might be 50 degrees outside, but winter is in full swing at Ltd. Art Gallery on Capitol Hill. Earlier this month, the popcultural venue, started in 2011 by Melissa and James Monosmith, opened “Winter Is Coming,” a show inspired by George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, the book series that Game of Thrones BY TERRA CLARKE OLSEN is based on. The Monosmiths, with help from the godly author himself, prepared the show for more than a year; their hard work paid off, as it was the largest opening in the gallery’s history. “Winter Is Coming” is a show for fans by fans.
–Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com
GEEKLYREPORT
EXHILARATING!”
“
-Joshua Rothkopf
PARTICLEFEVER
INSIDE THE SEARCH FOR THE GOD PARTICLE particlefever.com Join Producer/Physicist David Kaplan for a LANDMARK THEATRES Q&A Landmark’s HARVARD EXIT HarvardatExit after the 807 EAST ROY AT HARVARD, SEATTLE 206-323-0587 • LANDMARKTHEATRES.COM 7:20 show, Friday 3/14.
STARTS FRI. 3/14
SEATTLE WEEKLY — 2.33” x 4”
Cosplay on opening night.
Wanting to dedicate an exhibition to ASoIaF, James, a huge fan, was audacious enough to e-mail Martin—who, surprisingly, responded, saying he loved the idea. Thus began a year of correspondence, discussing artists and logistics. Martin, a fantasy-art fan, had a few artists in mind, but also wanted to make sure that people from all over had a chance to enter their work, so an open call was launched. From hundreds of submissions, they chose a select few. Although the artists’ media and locations vary, they all have one thing in common: They’re all massive ASoIaF fans. Stepping into “Winter Is Coming” sweeps you into an ASoIaF fandom paradise. The artists are as passionate about the material as the fan base buying the art is. Local artist Siolo Thompson was determined to be included, joking that “I knew I needed to be in that show even if I had to sneak my piece in.” This passion translates into art that fans connect with. If you’re not a fan, the meanings and subtleties could be lost in translation; however, the variations of artistic styles used to capture ASoIaF are so vast that you don’t have to be. But it’ll help. E
geeklyreport@seattleweekly.com
WINTER IS COMING Ltd. Art Gallery, 307 E. Pike St., ltdartgallery.com. 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Tues.–Sat., noon–6 p.m. Sun. Ends March 23.
SE AT TLE 4500 9TH AVE. NE • 206-633-0059
FULL BAR & BISTRO FARE RESERVED SEATS PRINT TICKETS AT HOME ‘A Grown Up Movie Experience’ $2 PARKING AFTER 5 P.M.* +21 AT ALL TIMES FOR SHOWTIMES VISIT:
sundancecinemas.com TIM’S VERMEER
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY THE GREAT BEAUTY HER
AMERICAN HUSTLE
THE MONUMENTS MEN
ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
OMAR
300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE IN 3D *Pay & validate at our Box Office
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
In Lydia Smith’s cheerful, international, uplifting documentary, a few priests explain the history of the pilgrimage paths to Santiago, Spain, where St. James is supposedly buried. At 500 miles from southwestern France, the Camino is a strenuous walk on both paved roads and pastoral trails, a trek that takes a month for most walkers. Not all of these half-dozen trekkers are strictly religious. For one young Portuguese businessman, the Camino is a personal challenge. A cheerful, sturdy Danish woman wants the time alone—then falls in step with a handsome Canadian. Annie, the lone American, is a New Agey but engagingly candid woman of a certain age. Then there’s the British-accented Samantha, a brash Brazilian who says she’s lost her job, boyfriend, and apartment back in London. She stops for regular smoking breaks, flirts shamelessly, and would be a far better heroine than Julia Roberts in the Eat Pray Love/Under the Tuscan Sun memoir category. This engaging travelogue could well have been produced by the Spanish National Tourist Board. I’m not saying it’s an infomercial, but the fellowship among these travelers is enormously appealing. (NR) B.R.M. SIFF Cinema Uptown THE WIND RISES Beloved animator Hayao Miyazaki has announced this as his final feature, which means the Oscar-nominated The Wind Rises ought to be arriving on a parade float of acclaim, buoyed by pastel clouds and pulled by a collection of amazing imaginary creatures. On the one hand, a biographical study of engineer and airplane designer Jiro Horikoshi sounds like a great match for Miyazaki’s wistful style: It allows for beautiful flying sequences and perhaps some selfportraiture in its study of a detail-minded dreamer who assembles his creations from a combination of math-based design and pure imagination. The problem? Horikoshi’s masterpiece was the Zero, Japan’s lethally efficient World War II fighter plane. There’s something head-in-the-clouds about this movie’s soft treatment of its central character. The film is so full of dream sequences and wistful humor and regret about a lost love that it doesn’t begin to suggest a deep internal conflict in Horikoshi’s work on the machinery of death, if indeed he felt any. (PG-13) R.H. Cinerama, Majestic Bay, others THE WOLF OF WALL STREET Hugely, rudely entertaining, Martin Scorsese’s three-hour tale of rogue stock traders during the early ‘90s stars a ferociously funny Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, upon whose jailhouse memoir the movie is based. Wolf almost seems like a remake of Scorsese’s Goodfellas—or two of them, given its length. Here again are the crazed, colorful criminals, the mountains of blow, the army of hookers, the venal vitality of a life lived outside the law. The crucial difference, however, is the absence of mobsters and violence; this film is a greed-com, and the clowns include Jonah Hill, Rob Reiner, Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, and Spike Jonze. In a way, this is the movie Brian De Palma tried and failed to make out of Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities (a book Belfort read in prison, inspiring his memoir). Belfort is a guy programmed to sell, fuck, steal, and get high, only fun to watch while engaged in those core activities. In the film’s coda, Belfort finally recognizes as much: The only thing worse than being poor is being bored. Fortunately for us, Scorsese’s Wolf is the opposite of boring. (R) B.R.M. Meridian, Sundance, Thornton Place, others
@seattleweekly
TERRA CLARKE OLSEN
will end up murdering an Israeli soldier one night, an act that brings them to the attention of an Israeli investigator (Waleed Zuaiter, a deft actor). You can see the Oscar appeal here: global issue, human approach, dramatic punch. Abu-Assad is a skilled filmmaker, but Omar is significantly less daring than his 2005 Paradise Now—really just a middlebrow treatment of an automatically invigorating subject. The final action is a “shocker” meant to be open-ended and thoughtprovoking, but it leaves behind a faint taste of smugness. (NR) R.H. Sundance PHILOMENA Based on actual events, our film begins with journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a brittle Oxbridge type, newly out of a job and lowering himself to write a human-interest story. That’s how he meets Philomena (Judi Dench), an Irish lady with the kinds of questions that perhaps only a reporter could answer. As a teenager in the 1950s, Philomena got pregnant, was sent to a Catholic convent to hide her sin, and gave birth there. She remained at the convent as unpaid labor, and her little boy was taken at age 3, never to be seen or heard from again. The pair’s discoveries are a matter of record now, but we’ll hold off on the revelations . . . except to say that there are some doozies. Maybe it’s Coogan’s acerbic personality (he scripted, with Jeff Pope), or director Stephen Frears’ unpretentious take on the material, but Philomena generally succeeds in distinguishing itself from the average weepie. The calm roll-out is effective; Coogan’s performance is shrewd; and anytime the camera gets near the convent, the Irish chill is almost palpable. (PG-13) R.H. Ark Lodge, others STRANGER BY THE LAKE Written and directed by Alain Guiraudie, this slow, quietly disturbing French film is no thriller. Don’t expect echoes of Hitchcock or Chabrol. At a gay cruising spot, the killer’s identity is obvious; the guy who falls for him is handsome and kind; and the film’s sole voice of reason is a sad, chubby closet case who observes the cruising rituals from his lonely, pebbled peninsula. Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) witnesses a murder-by-drowning, but reports nothing to the authorities. Neither do his cruising cohort say anything about the beach blanket and car that remain unclaimed for days afterward. Franck has a crush on the sinister, mustachioed hunk Michel (Christophe Paou); to go the cops would be to hurt his chances with him. Consequences, like the outside world, don’t figure here. Guiraudie’s drama never leaves the lake, and there are only a few passing references to jobs and dinner dates in town. Franck may speak of love and the desire for a companion back home, yet he keeps coming back to the woods, where a man waits with a knife. (NR) B.R.M. SIFF Cinema Uptown 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE As befits a graphic-novel adaptation heavy on blood-spilling and war-mongering, the computer-generated skies of this world are perpetually roiling with black clouds and gloomy foreboding. 300: Rise of an Empire is based on Frank Miller’s Xerxes, and it provides a sequel to the 2006 hit 300. Or not quite a sequel, exactly: This is a rare instance in serial-making in which the action actually takes place at the same time as the events of the first film. Rise of an Empire shifts the action to sea, where the Athenian general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) leads his ships into battle against the Greek turncoat Artemisia (Eva Green, from Casino Royale), who has allied herself with the Persians. Then there’s Lena Headey as Queen Gorgo, returning from the first movie and as full of bravado as before. In fact, despite the overwhelming—and perhaps overcompensating—masculinity that dominates these silly films, the appeal here is almost entirely thanks to the two women. The promise of a showdown between them is sadly unfulfilled—and would of course be historically inaccurate, if you’re still clinging to such old-timey notions. (R) R.H. Sundance, Bainbridge, Meridian, Thornton Place, Kirkland Parkplace, Lincoln Square, others TIM’S VERMEER How did Vermeer do it? This question is apparently important to some people, including a Texas millionaire named Tim Jenison. He decided to prove that the 17th-century Dutch master must’ve had help from special lenses and mathematical devices to create his luminous canvases, so he sets out to replicate the hypothetical methods by which Vermeer might have turned the trick. The word “trick” is key here, for Tim’s Vermeer is by magicians Penn and Teller (offscreen friends of Jenison). Teller directs, and Penn Jillette acts as producer and—of course—garrulous narrator. Entertainingly, the movie tracks the months Jenison spent on his project. This kind of historical inquiry is interesting, but the impetus behind it feels a little like the persistent efforts to demonstrate that Shakespeare didn’t write the works of Shakespeare. There’s something undemocratic about the idea of genius, so the debunkers must disprove the romantic
35
W W W. S E AT T L E W E E K LY. C O M / S I G N U P
MUSIC
NEWSLETTER
mainstage
dinner & show
D INING
WEEKLY
M U SI C
The inside scoop on upcoming shows and the latest reviews.
E V E NT S
PR O M
WED/MARCH 12 - SAT/MARCH 15 • 7PM & 10PM SUN/MARCH 16 • 5PM & 8PM
house of thee unholy
EXPIRES: 4/2/14
TUE/MARCH 18 • 7PM & 10PM
nils frahm w/ douglas dare WED/MARCH 19 • 7:30PM AN EVENING WITH
paula cole
F I LM
FRI/MARCH 21 • 8PM
massy ferguson w/ sassparilla
TABLE DANCES $15 VIP ROOM $30
M-F Complimentary buffet 11am-3:30pm Special St. Patricks day lunch!!
HA P PY HO UR
A R T S A ND E NTE R TA I N
Come play with our Kittens 7 days a week M-SA: 10:30am - 2:30am, Sun: 1pm - 2:30am *FREE PARKING*
Sunday- Badge day, Free entry with any work or Military badge Monday- Titty Bingo Thursday - Amateur Contest starts at 9pm $300 prize money and DJ Dirty Harry in the house giving away Sea Hawks autographed T-shirts!!!!
Kittens 5800 4th Ave S | Seattle, WA 98108 | 206-588-1997 KittensCabaret.com Like us on FB
SUN/MARCH 23 • 7:30PM
carrie rodriguez w/ honey noble TUE/MARCH 25 • 8PM - STG PRESENTS
wanting w/ dawen wang WED/MARCH 26 • 7:30PM
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
trace bundy w/ sungha jung
36
next • 3/27 cahalen and eli w/ john reischman and greg spatz • 3/28 ian mcferon w/ mozo • 3/29 pat rothfuss and paul & storm • 3/30 zucchero • 3/31 meklit hadero • 4/1 battlefield band • 4/2 tommy castro • 4/3 tyrone wells • 4/4 left hand smoke • 4/5 joe ely w/ david ramirez • 4/6 stanley jordan • 4/7 little bill 75th birthday tribute show • 4/8 susy sun w/ naomi wachira and whitney lyman • 4/10 cedric watson and sidi toure • 4/11 v. contreras • 4/13 andy daly • 4/14 & 4/15 slow music w/ the humans
happy hour every day • 3/12 eric hullander group • 3/13 fawcett symons & fogg • 3/14 ranger and the “re-arrangers” / country lips • 3/15 spyn reset • 3/16 cracker factory • 3/17 crossrhythm session • 3/18 singer-songwriter showcase featuring: jaspar lepak, zarni and kate lynne logan • 3/19 kareem kandi TO ENSURE THE BEST EXPERIENCE · PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY DOORS OPEN 1.5 HOURS PRIOR TO FIRST SHOW · ALL-AGES (BEFORE 9:30PM)
thetripledoor.net
216 UNION STREET, SEATTLE · 206.838.4333
arts&culture» Music
No Ordinary World
Wednesday, March 12
With his new book, Andy Golub elevates the love of Duran Duran to an art form. BY GWENDOLYN ELLIOTT
I
gelliott@seattleweekly.com
Golub will sign copies of Beautiful Colors at ’80s cover band Night Wave’s show this Saturday, March 15. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 7893599, tractortavern.com. 9 p.m. $10.
Send events to music@seattleweekly.com. See seattleweekly.com for full listings.
Geoffrey Castle Saturday, March 15
W
atching someone play the violin might not strike you as the most exciting thing. But hold on a minute—you probably haven’t seen Geoffrey Castle, an artist who continues to push the boundaries of “classical” music through his experimentation on the six-string electric violin. Born in Virginia, the acclaimed musician has called the Northwest home for 15 years, but he’s been playing the violin for nearly twice that long. The experience, and Castle’s knack for thinking outside the box, has earned him a reputation as an energetic performer who fuses elements of Celtic, blues, jazz and rock into his genre-bending music. On any given week, you’ll find Castle at the Wild Rover in Kirkland, where he and his band have become the main feature at the watering hole’s weekly Celtic night. Yet his most popular tradition is probably Kirkland Performance Center’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Celebration, now in its ninth year. Castle was inspired to create a St. Patrick’s Day show because of the passion and celebratory nature of Celtic music. It’s since evolved into an opportunity for local music lovers and families to learn a little about Gaelic heritage while showcasing his band’s unique spin on
JAYME STONE’S LOMAX PROJECT Looking to
explore field recordings and pay homage to folklorist and field recording pioneer Alan Lomax, two-time Juno Award–winning banjoist/composer Jayme Stone gathered a few folk musicians to re-interpret traditional songs, including “Bahamian sea shanties, African-American a cappella singing . . . [and] ancient Appalachian ballads.” The group manages to add a breath of fresh air to each song while still keeping their roots firmly intact. With Eli West, Brittany Haas, Moira Smiley, Joe Phillips. Columbia City Theater, 4918 Rainier Ave. S., 723-0088, columbia citytheater.com. 8 p.m. $14 adv./$18 DOS. 21 and over. AZARIA C. PODPLESKY In a recent interview, AVATAR DARKO remarked that he’s trying to show a different side of Seattle, one that avoids references to Priuses, Starbucks, and thrift shops. Darko, half Russian and half Ukrainian, just released “SOAH,” a “warm-up” single for a forthcoming Soviet Goonion 3. With Thaddeus David, Donte Peace, Feezable the Germ, Peta Tosh. Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-4618, thecrocodile. com. 8 p.m. $8 adv. MICHAEL F. BERRY
traditional and original songs. In addition to his usual antics, this year Castle is debuting a single, “Sword and Shield,” from his new project, Fractal Music Works, set to be released this week by London Tone Music. The new 11-track album, The Other Side, will showcase an original dubstep style, Irish Electronica, that Castle and his band have been developing for the past year. And the show, which benefits the Pipe and Drum Eastside Firefighter Band, will also feature bagpipers and Irish dancers. St. Patrick’s Day being the unofficial drinking holiday it is, the event does include a full bar, so there will be no shortage of Guinness and Jameson on hand. Sláinte! With T.J. Morris, Brooke Lizotte, Steve Boyce, Connor Dunworley. Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave., Kirkland, 425-893-9900, kpcenter.org. 8 p.m. $15–$25. All ages. KEEGAN PROSSER
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
in its history and Durandy’s role in “conserving and archiving” them. “When John Taylor and I played our very first show, the poster design was of utmost importance. It was the first aesthetic statement of who we were, or perhaps who we were aspiring to be . . . To this day, he and I still agonise over images, colour schemes, typefaces and stylisation relating to every aspect of our band’s visual presentation.” Asked if the other three band members— John Taylor, Roger Taylor, and Simon Le Bon—are equally appreciative of his unusually focused support, Golub says “They put their full wind into my sails,” noting that he was backstage with the band when he proposed to his fiance and Simon Le Bon jokingly advised Born to ‘think about it.’ ” Some would say Golub’s obsessed, but he prefers the word “passionate.” “I have tried to channel my passion into creating an experience for others,” he says. “I’ve never gone into debt, never broken the law . . . For me [commemorating the band] is about the history, the memorabilia, preserving things that would be lost in time . . . some people won’t be able to relate and that’s OK, but I’ve never lost sight of the real goal: to be able to save and preserve their history.” His book—which sells for $75 on Amazon and through his site, durandy.com—is the ultimate expression of that passion. And radio personalities like Dori Monson and Josh Kerns of KIRO, who’ve interviewed the superfan, agree that Durandy’s devotion is delightful. “Dori and the rest of us have decided we are jealous of Durandy . . . not because of his musical tastes, but his passion,” wrote Kerns in a 2011 blog post. He then quoted Monson as saying ‘I wish I could get as excited about any night as you were about Friday night’s Duran Duran concert.” “It’s a very short life we all have,” Golub says. “It’s important to embrace the things you love.” E
Thursday, March 13
BILL BUNGARD
n most cases, one could safely assume a storage unit packed wall-to-wall with stuff to be a good setting for an episode of Storage Wars. The Duran Duran “archive,” however—a 10´ by 20´ Eastside storage facility filled with more than 10,000 articles of band memorabilia—does not fit this description. Each item in this exhaustive collection of buttons, posters, photos, and miscellany—like a bottle of “Some Like It Hot” sauce and an (unused) condom—is meticulously categorized by size and country of origin, faithfully maintained and organized by the band’s biggest fan, Andy Golub, aka “Durandy.” “I started my archive to commemorate the band and preserve their history,” Golub says, who began collecting Duran Duran memorabilia in 1984 when he was 12. He now finances his efforts through a day job as a legal assistant, and shares his small museum with other Duran Duran fans—Duranimals, as he calls them—as often as he can. In addition to a few regular visitors, the archive sees 10 to 15 new fans a year, and Golub shuttles each one to the site personally and walks them through the collection. A self-described ’80s-music fan with an eye for design, Golub says “It was a combination of visual elements and the careful attention the band paid to its image and its look that captured my imagination.” That evolution of style is represented nowhere better than in Golub’s hundreds of posters, his area of special expertise. Last year, with the help of his fiance, photographer Christine Born, he assembled his favorites—a whopping 543 images—into a carefully curated coffee-table book, Beautiful Colors: The Posters of Duran Duran. In the book’s introduction, he writes that “Graphic design was employed as a professional signature, enabling otherwise utilitarian posters to become an extension of Duran’s identity.” The glossy hardcover book chronicles the band’s many styles, phases, and world tours from its early beginnings in the late ’70s through 2012, most accompanied by expert commentary. A glowing forward by the band’s own Nick Rhodes acknowledges the importance of posters
DURANDY PRODUCTIONS
Golub (right) looks on as the band pores over a poster.
Seems that Tacoma is rife with belters who can wow television audiences. STEPHANIE ANNE JOHNSON is the latest, her soulful rendition of “Georgia on My Mind” impressing the judges on the latest season of The Voice. Here she will likely sing some favorites—as she did when she worked as a cruise-ship entertainer—but you can count on some originals as well. In support will be Whitney Monge, a product of Pike Place Market who knows how to stop passersby in their tracks. Highway 99 Blues Club, 1414 Alaskan Way, 382-2171, highwayninetynine.com. 8 p.m. $8. 21 and over. MARK S. BAUMGARTEN Hip-hop artist and Auto-Tune enthusiast T-PAIN burst onto the music scene in 2005 with his debut record Rappa Ternt Sanga, afterward earning numerous hit singles and two Grammy awards. Today, the rapper-turned-singer is still distorting his voice in his songs, but sans his signature dreadlocks, which he cut off to symbolize new beginnings. No wonder his record, scheduled for release later this year, is titled Stoicville: The Phoenix. With Dirtay, J Key. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9442, neumos.com. 8 p.m. $30 adv./$70 VIP. All ages. MARGERY CERCADO It’s been exactly 11 years since THE ATARIS released its most successful album, So Long, Astoria, on major label Columbia. The record featured the band’s biggest single, “The Boys of Summer” (a pop-punk cover of Don Henley’s 1984 solo hit), and catapulted it to short-lived mainstream popularity. Now, more than a decade later, the group is on an anniversary/reunion tour, playing its breakthrough record for fans old and new all over the nation. With
Authority Zero, Drag the River, Versus the World. The Showbox, 1426 First Ave., 628-3151, showbox online.com. 7:30 p.m. $19 adv./$22 DOS. All ages. MC DARK HIP FALLS One of the more intriguing local outfits to emerge from 2013, the group’s debut album, Seventy Four, is a highly polished, sonically rewarding work of real pop music. Sometimes spacey, other times in-your-face, the band knows how to attract your attention—and, more important, how to keep it. With Mariko Ruhle, Dearly Departed. Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave., 784-4880, sunsettavern.com. 9 p.m. $6. CORBIN REIFF
37
arts&culture» Music
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
38
Naomi Wachira
through with tremendous optimism. With Hannalee, Vaudeville Etiquette. Columbia City Theater, 4918 Rainier Ave. S., 723-0088, columbiacitytheater.com. 9 p.m. $8 adv./$10 DOS. 21 and over. MSB A nod to its fans, BAYSIDE’s latest LP is called Cult, which pop-punk cognoscenti have deemed its strongest release to date. With Four Year Strong, Daylight, Mixtapes. El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., 262-0482, elcorazon.com. 7:30 p.m. $16 adv./$18 DOS. DL Bellingham quintet POLECAT has that something-foreveryone thing down pat. Its latest, 2013’s Fathoms, is incredibly diverse. “Domino” is heavy on Celtic influence, while “Pages” features country twang from singer Aaron Guest. Each song has a twinge of bluegrass, thanks to Cayley Miranda Schmid on fiddle and upright bassist Richard Reeves, and the title track features a touch of jazz. Talk about eclectic! With Eric Tollefson Band. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-3599, tractortavern.com. 9 p.m. $8. 21 and over. ACP
JANELL KALLANDER
Cuban jazz trumpeter ARTURO SANDOVAL has been performing since he was 13, with the resume to prove it: 10 Grammys, a 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom, and dozens upon dozens of credits to his name, including 2012’s Dear Diz (Everyday I Think of You), dedicated to his mentor, Dizzy Gillespie. Sandoval keeps busy, but, watching him onstage, there’s no doubt he loves his job. Through Sunday. Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave., 441-9729, jazzalley.com. 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. $28.50. All ages. ACP BLUE SKIES FOR BLACK HEARTS occupies the fertile territory between the AM pop of the ’60s and ’70s, where the Kinks and the Beatles reigned, and the later underground iteration of pop that grew out of punk and was played by groups like the Replacements and Elvis Costello’s Attractions. Unapologetic and unadorned, it is music that lasts the test of time, and few do it as well as this long-standing Portland quintet. With Stereo Embers, Bye Bye Blackbirds. The Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., 441-5823, jewelbox theater.com. 10 p.m. Cover. 21 and over. MSB A trailblazer in the realm of conscious hip-hop, JERU THE DAMAJA has been damaging mikes for more than 20 years. Despite rumors of a new album—he hasn’t released a new solo project since 2007—he continues to provide “classic hip-hop for the future,” as his website proclaims. With Zoolay, Kung Foo Grip, Nu Era, Porter Ray, Romero Franceswa. Nectar Lounge, 412 N. 36th St., 632-2020, nectarlounge.com. 8 p.m. $10 adv. MFB ISKA DHAAF It’s not often that a season’s most highly anticipated album is a debut, but the two musicians behind this group have played their cards right in the run-up to the release of Even the Sun Will Burn, which will be celebrated tonight. Fortunately, they also play some powerful music, suffused with psychedelia and surf guitar but more emotionally searing than those two genres generally allow. With Don’t Talk to the Cops, Stickers. Neumos. 8 p.m. $8 adv. 21 and over. MSB If you couldn’t make it to the Big Easy for Mardi Gras, you’re in luck. GALACTIC, the shape-shifting New Orleans funk band, brings Carnival to Seattle. A core quintet of instrumentalists collaborates with vocal-
Saturday, March 15 ists and instrumentalists from all genres, refashioning traditional New Orleans music into its own blend of funk, hip-hop, and jazz. Its most recent studio album, Carnivale Electricos, chronicles the spirit of Carnival from Lundi Gras (the day before Mardi Gras) through Ash Wednesday, and features guests ranging from local high-school musicians to rapper Mystikal to New Orleans icons Cyril and Ivan Neville. A comparison with the tales of exodus and mourning on From the Corner to the Block, Galactic’s 2007 post-Katrina album, shows that while New Orleans will never be the same, a sense of normalcy is slowly returning. With Brushy One String. The Showbox. 9 p.m. $26.50 adv./$31 DOS. MFB
Friday, March 14
Last year Seattle Weekly named MO-WAVE the best festival in Seattle, and with good reason. Not only
does it celebrate queer music, it also offers a fantastic, eclectic lineup. To be able to watch the faceless, mysterious Ononos and support queer arts and music is a win-win situation. With Crypts, L’Orth, Amoania. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 324-8005, chopsuey. com. Suggested donation $10. 9 p.m. 21 and over. DUSTY HENRY A Kenyan native who got her start at age 5 singing gospel songs alongside her pastor father, NAOMI WACHIRA knows how to capture a room. In recent years her stage show has earned her a growing fan base, the title of “Best Folk Artist” from this publication, and the adoration of fellow songsmith Damien Jurado, who produced the self-titled debut she will be celebrating tonight. Confident, alive, and uplifting, the Seattle musician’s folk songs, inflected with the rhythms of her childhood home, are unlike anything happening in town right now; in short, they are rooted in reality but shot
On last year’s fantastic Forestelevision, Seattle’s LESBIAN was able to meld just about every metal genre into one fantastic 44-minute acid trip of a track. Tonight it’s unlikely that song will appear in its entirety, but heavy cuts from it will probably mix with older songs from the band’s catalog. Co-headlining the show is Sandrider, playing its last show in town for a while. Don’t miss this. With Lords of the North. Columbia City Theater. 9 p.m. $10 adv./$12 DOS. 21 and over. JAMES BALLINGER ENDINO’S EARTHWORM Jack Endino is one of the greatest producers the Pacific Northwest has ever known, credited with creating the raw, gut-punch sonics that would rule the ’90s as the “Seattle Sound.” He also has a serious, though less celebrated, career as a musician in which he embodies his recording ethic. The Earthworms are his latest—and, it’s fair to say, greatest—iteration of this. With The Gum, Trees and Timber. Slim’s Last Chance, 5606 First Ave. S., 762-7900, slimslastchance.com. 9 p.m. $8. 21 and over. MSB
1303 NE 45TH ST
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
NTw.RlitYtlereMdhUenS.coICm LIVE COUww THURS MARCH 13TH
WES JONES BAND
Sunday, March 16
9PM - $3 COVER
FRI MARCH 14TH
BUCKING HORSE 9PM - $5 COVER
SAT MARCH 15TH
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
J
9PM - $5 COVER
SUN MARCH 16TH
DAVANOS
9PM - $3 COVER 4PM OPEN MIC ACOUSTIC JAM W/ BODACIOUS BILLY TUES MARCH 18TH
TEQUILA ROSE 9PM - NO COVER
MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY
KARAOKE WITH DJ FORREST GUMP 9:00PM • NO COVER
FREE COUNTRY DANCE LESSONS WITH OUR HOST MARY ANN
in This Bring T And ge n o Coup er iz T e p p one A 2 oFF! For 1/
AT 8PM; SUN, MON, TUES
HAPPY HOUR 9AM-NOON & 4-7 PM • MON-FRI
WELL DRINKS & DOMESTIC BOTTLED BEER $2 DINNER: 5-10PM EVERYDAY BREAKFAST & LUNCH: SAT 8AM-2PM / SUN 9AM-2PM 7115 WOODLAWN AVENUE NE 522-1168
El Corazon www.elcorazonseattle.com
109 Eastlake Ave East • Seattle, WA 98109 Booking and Info: 206.262.0482
FRIDAY, MARCH 14 Mike Thrasher Presents:
BAYSIDE
with Four Year Strong, Daylight and Mixtapes Doors at 7 / Show at 7:30PM ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $16 ADV / $18 DOS
SATURDAY, MARCH 15
THURSDAY, MARCH 20
DIRTY SIDEWALKS with Shady Elders, plus guests
Lounge Show. Doors at 8 / Show at 8:30PM 21+. $6 ADV / $8 DOS
FRIDAY, MARCH 21
MONSTERS SCARE YOU
JAR OF FLIES (THE ULTIMATE ALICE
Bead, Prestige, Reach For The Sky and We The Audience. Doors at 5:30 / Show at 6PM ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $10 ADV / $13 DOS
Dog) and Stoic F.B. Doors at 8 / Show at 9PM 21+. $8 ADV / $10 DOS
(FINAL SHOW) with Keeping Secrets, Pink
SUNDAY, MARCH 16
SICK EITHER WAY with Brooks Carlston, Jester’s Secret,
Hellbelly, plus guests Lounge Show. Doors at 7 / Show at 7:30PM ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $8 ADV / $10 DOS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19 Mike Thrasher Presents:
THE WONDER YEARS with Defeater, Real Friends, Citizen
and Modern Baseball Doors at 6 / Show at 6:30PM ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $16.50 ADV / $20 DOS
IN CHAINS EXPERIENCE) with Outshined (The Premier Tribute to Soundgarden & Temple Of The
FRIDAY, MARCH 21
DENNIS IS DEAD with The Lion In Winter, Hidden History,
plus guests Lounge Show. Doors at 7 / Show at 7:30PM ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $8 ADV / $10 DOS
SATURDAY, MARCH 22
SPIRIT CARAVAN
with Pilgrim, MOS Generator, Curse Of The North and Ape Machine Doors at 7 / Show at 8PM ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $15 ADV / $17 DOS
JUST ANNOUNCED 4/4 DEAD MEADOW 4/7 AUGUST BURNS RED 4/22 LOUNGE PAT HULL 5/4 FU MANCHU 6/7 NICE PETER (EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORY) 7/21 SAM SILVA UP & COMING 3/22 LOUNGE WITCHBURN 3/23 NO BUFFER 3/23 LOUNGE KOLDUN 3/24 EAST OF THE WALL / DIAMOND PLATE 3/25 ANIMALS AS LEADERS 3/26 TOADIES / SUPERSUCKERS 3/27 LOUNGE OLIVER TROLLEY 3/28 LOUNGE FALL CITY FALL 3/29 ROCKARAOKE 3/30 THE LACS / MONNSHINE BANDITS 3/31 DYLAN JAKOBSEN 4/1 LA DISPUTE 4/2 LOUNGE FROM INDIAN LAKES 4/3 GREEN JELLY 4/4 LOUNGE POKE DA SQUID 4/5 BLACK N’ BLUE 4/5 LOUNGE MOTION 4/6 MOURNING MARKET 4/6 LOUNGE THE VIRUS 4/9 THE CREEPSHOW Tickets now available at cascadetickets.com - No per order fees for online purchases. Our on-site Box Office is open 1pm-5pm weekdays in our office and all nights we are open in the club - $2 service charge per ticket Charge by Phone at 1.800.514.3849. Online at www.cascadetickets.com - Tickets are subject to service charge
The EL CORAZON VIP PROGRAM: see details at www.elcorazon.com/vip.html and for an application email us at info@elcorazonseattle.com
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
oan Jett seems to have found the rock&-roll fountain of youth. At 55, she transcends both space and time, her look and sound unchanged across nearly 40 years in the record business. She’s still thin and tomboyish, sporting the same haircut and skintight Spandex, her raspy voice as evocative as ever. And she’s still with the Blackhearts, releasing their 10th record together, Unvarnished, last year. If you made a playlist with that band’s 2013 songs alongside tracks from its 1981 debut, I Love Rock ’N’ Roll, you’d be hard-pressed to name which ones came from which record. Therein lies everything that’s great about Joan Jett: Like Motörhead and the Ramones, some sounds don’t need mucking with no matter the decade. Helping keep her young, Jett collaborates on the new album with a few of her peers, which is to say rockers with punk roots: Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! “Just the two of us cut it in the studio,” she told Rolling Stone about “Any Weather,” the track she wrote with Grohl. “He played the drums. I played the rhythm guitar. It was a really fun thing.” Not only is Jett a rock icon, but a feminist and animal activist to boot, sticking to her politics as tightly as to her sound. She made news last December when she asked SeaWorld to stop using her music as part of their whale show. “I’m among the millions who saw Blackfish,” she wrote to the theme park about the documentary about captive orcas, “and am sickened that my music was blasted without my permission at sound-sensitive marine mammals.” Willie Nelson, Cheap Trick, and Trace Adkins also distanced themselves from SeaWorld in response to the film. Though she’s playing the nostalgia circuit, Jett remains more relevant than anybody else coming through the casinos in upcoming weeks (sorry, Pat Benatar), and has more rock classics under her belt too: “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll,” “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” and “Crimson and Clover” will be rock-radio staples as long as there is rock radio. In a word (or four): She’s rock’s reigning goddess. Go see her. Snoqualmie Casino, 37500 S.E. North Bend Way, Snoqualmie, 425-8881234, snocasino.com. 7 p.m. $35–$62. 21 and over. DAVE LAKE
TWISTED DIXIE
39
arts&culture» Music
2033 6th Avenue (206) 441-9729 jazzalley.com
Some cry sexism over REVOLVER’S HOTTEST CHICKS IN METAL TOUR, but more cry simply “Metal!” at the thrill of having so many commercial hard-rock acts on one bill, like Sick Puppies, Lacuna Coil, and Eyes Set to Kill—each featuring at least one hot chick, of course. With Cilver, Amanda Hardy. Studio Seven, 110 S. Horton St., 286-1312, studioseven.us. 6 p.m. $25 adv./$28 DOS. DL
JAZZ ALLEY IS A SUPPER CLUB
Sunday, March 16 ARTURO SANDOVAL THUR, MAR 13 - SUN, MAR 16
King of Latin jazz, nine-time Grammy Award winner and one of the world’s most dynamic performers
HIROMI - THE TRIO PROJECT TUES, MAR 18 - WED, MAR 19
Feisty acoustic pianist/electric keyboardist pianist, touring in support of her latest album Move
BRIAN CULBERTSON - LONG NIGHT OUT 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR THUR, MAR 20 - SUN, MAR 23
Join us in the Trophy Room for Happy Hour: Thursday Bartender Special 8-Close Fridays: 5-8pm RESERVE THE TROPHY ROOM FOR YOUR NEXT EVENT!
Contemporary jazz, R&B and funk trailblazer touring in support of his new release Another Long Night Out
JACKSON HIGH SCHOOL JAZZ BAND ENSEMBLES MON, MAR 24TH
The next generation of jazz giants!
JOHN NÉMETH AND THE BO-KEYS FEATURING PERCY WIGGINS TUES, MAR 25 - THURS, MAR 27
Blues singer and harpist, with Memphis classic soulsters the Bo-Keys
all ages | free parking full schedule at jazzalley.com
COCKTAILS • TASTY HOT DOGS • LOTSA PINBALL
2222 2ND AVENUE • SEATTLE
206-441-5449
PRESENTED BY WASHINGTON STATE BEEF COMMISSION
www.facebook.com/takewarningpresents twitter @takewarningsea
tickets @ ticketfly.com
Tuesday april 1sT @ el Corazon
LA DISPUTE
pianos BeCome The TeeTh, mansions
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
all ages (bar w/ id) - 7:00 pm
40
April 24 th 7:30-10pm /
6pm VIP early entrance
PARAMOUNT
THEATRE TICKETS ON SALE NOW! PURCHASE TICKETS AT: www.VoraciousTasting.eventbrite.com
Tuesday april 8Th @ Vera projeCT
I AM THE AVALANCHE
diamond youTh, TurnoVer, disTriCT
all ages - 7:00 pm
*TiCKeTs GoinG FasT*
Friday april 11Th @ The sunseT
CHELSEA PERETTI
- ameriCan Treasure (oF BrooKlyn nine-nine)
21+ onlY - 7:30 pm
*TiCKeTs on sale 3/14!* Thurs. april 24Th @ Vera projeCT
CoLLEgEHUMoR all ages - 8:00 pm U&C: 3/18 rotting out @ Vera project, 4/15 the grahams @ the sunset, 4/17 onward etc @ the kraken, 4/19 consider me dead @ Vera project
Paris-based hip-hop/electronic producer STWO is one of the many chillwave beatmakers to bring the genre attention in the global music game. Many of his tracks feature down-tempo, sensual sounds, like “Virgo” with Shay Lia—not to mention that his Soundcloud page is chock-full of slowed-down remixes and reworks of popular tracks from artists like Drake and The Weeknd. With Keyboard Kid + Pressha. Barboza, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467, the barboza.com. 8 p.m. $10 adv. 21 and over. MC
BENEFIT FOR RAIN CITY ROCK CAMP FOR GIRLS
Whitney Houston once said she “believe[s] the children are our future.” She was absolutely right, of course. Rain City Rock Camp for Girls’ annual “Shout Out! Seattle” benefit concert features bands from the camp itself. This isn’t just a grit-your-teeth-andendure-it recital—these bands kick ass. Headliner Tess Henley, for example, recently won Guitar Center’s nationwide singer/songwriter contest with her soulful, original piano ballad “Going Back,” and was then awarded $25,000 and a chance to work with Grammy-winning producer Don Was. Between her songwriting prowess, Cryptobebelem’s post-punk angst, and the aptly named Death Kitty, these bands prove that girls are a formidable force in music. With Kelsey Bowers, Rocker’s Destiny. Chop Suey. $10 adv./$12 DOS. 5 p.m. All ages. DH KYLE EASTWOOD, the son of film icon Clint Eastwood, has made a real name for himself over the past decade for his tremendous talents on the bass. His latest record, The View From Here, is as deep, atmospheric, and precise as any great jazz offering should be. Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave., 425-828-0422, kpcenter.org. 8 p.m. $40. CR THE SWORD hasn’t needed to change or grow much over the years. Sure, some of the band’s subject matter has shifted from fantasy-based lyrics to sci-fi and back again, but the band still churns out the stoney, fuzzed-out amplifier worship it’s displayed since its first record in 2004. The Sword is as loud and powerful as ever, and the riffs are always just as huge as the amps behind them. With O Brother, Big Business. Neumos. 8 p.m. $18 adv. All ages. JB
Tuesday, March 18
The Seattle hip-hop scene is notoriously hard to define. The best way to describe it—as many have—is “weird.” Shabazz Palaces, Erik Blood, and Mark Gajadhar have all focused that weirdness into startling, psychedelic beats. As part of the ongoing RED BULL SOUND SELECT SERIES, these three acts will share a discounted set at the Tractor Tavern. Shabazz Palaces’ Black Up, produced by Blood, is dark and looming. Emcees Ishmael Butler and Tendai Mararie spit like beat poets on a different celestial plane. Blood’s indie-rock background is only subtly hinted at on Black Up, but his entire catalog shows him to be an artist who will experiment with any genre to get the sound he wants. Gajadhar has similarly crossed genres, switching gears from drumming for the Blood Brothers to crafting trip-hop-inspired beats with Champagne Champagne. These three artists shape their surroundings into something outside predefined limits, valuing ingenuity over genre—something to think about while Red Bull hocks overpriced energydrink cocktails. Tractor Tavern. $3 adv./$10 DOS. 9 p.m. 21 and over. DH NILS FRAHM is a classically trained piano virtuoso and composer who uses his talents for innovation instead of staying in the past and rehashing Franz Liszt and Frederic Chopin. Building upon new-age and ambient tones to compose sparse and haunting arrangements, he’s much more Explosions in the Sky than highbrow concert hall. With Douglas Dare. The Triple Door. $18 adv./$22 DOS. 7 p.m. All ages. 10 p.m. 21 and over. DH Raised on a steady diet of Pennywise and Suicidal Tendencies and named after a Descendents song, ROTTING OUT is one of L.A.’s best up-and-coming hardcore bands. Tonight it plays songs from its tight and efficient sophomore LP The Wrong Way, which combines hardcore influences from both coasts. With No Bragging Rights, Orthodox, The Beautiful Ones. Vera Project, 305 Warren Ave. N., 956-8372, thevera project.org. 7 p.m. $12 adv./$14 DOS. DL
LocaLReLeases
Constant Lovers, Experience Feelings (3/18, Good to Die, goodtodierecords.com) The cover image’s ghastly sensuality—a monstrous Photoshopped composite of all four hairy members—is spot-on for this release, a heavy, grunged-out artrock record that sounds like Oscar the Grouch’s desperate come-ons to a potential Muppet-mate, doing his best to convince her that he won’t bite even though he lives in a smelly trash can. “I may be only 130 pounds/But I’m a tough cookie, macaroon, a snickerdoodle/Why don’t you ask me about my mean-guy scowl?” yelps rakish frontman Joel Cuplin in “Snickerdoodle” before menacing guitars rocket their way in, blowing the track wide open. This give-and-take between Cuplin’s surreal, goofy screaming and the Fugazistyle feedback that pepper the album drives the record’s main dynamic—one notably less drum-centric than that of the band’s last effort, True Romance. There are moments when the drums still take the forefront (“Cry Me a River” and album standout “Hey Bo Didley”), but for the most part, the band has traded its extra floor toms to focus on more rhythmic songwriting overall. Guitars lurch in and out of Cuplin’s vocals in stop-start zig-zag patterns, like a drunk wobbling toward you lustily but tripping on himself the whole way there. KELTON SEARS
The Soft Hills, Departure (3/18, Tapete Records, tapeterecords.de) While similarities to the melodic rock of Death Cab for Cutie exist, and where its folksy stylings call to mind Fleet Foxes, the Soft Hills truly make a sound all its own. Formed in 2007 by singer/songwriter Garrett Hobba, the Soft Hills sounds familiar because of its sweeping arrangements, crisp harmonies, inspiration drawn from lofty dreams, and of course Hobba’s soft, angelic vocals. Unlike the Americana leanings of previous releases, Departure finds the Soft Hills exploring more classic, rock-minded influences, including Syd Barrett, Brian Eno, and overtones of ’80s pop. The differences continue in the way the four-piece puts it all together: draping the album with layers of shimmering synths and lush, often psychedelic instrumentation. Album high points include lead single “Golden Hour,” a slow roller that feels like it could fit on the first Twilight soundtrack (this is a compliment), and “The Fold,” which finds Hobba delivering lyrics both concise and shockingly straightforward. While the words might not require much dissection, their accessibility is appreciated: “Lying in a vacant lot, sucking on alcohol/There’s no way he can make it, no one’s gonna save him/It’s over.” As a whole, the band’s melancholic, easy-on-the-ears vibe is something truly lovely and worth the listen. That the album was mixed in London by Abbey Road veteran Guy Massey (Spiritualized, the Beatles, Manic Street Preachers)? Well, that’s just a plus. KEEGAN PROSSER
Send your upcoming release to
reverbreviews@seattleweekly.com
arts&culture»
An Elementary Education
T
he Healthy Element is a hidden gem in the unassuming Olympia suburb of Lacey, offering more than 30 strains (15 indicas, three sativas, and 13 hybrids) and more than 20 varieties of cannabis-infused edibles. The shop’s relaxing vibe can be at least partially credited to budtender Brian, whose knowledge is helpful when BY STEVE ELLIOTT perusing such a bountiful selection. Brian happily opened numerous bud jars for my inspection and sniffing, as I narrowed down the candidates and arrived at my selections: the sativa-dominant Sour Kush and the indica-dominant UK Super Cheese. While most strains, including both of my
TOKESIGNALS
S.A.M
RMMCconsulting.com (206) 395-8280 flowers, you are quite likely to thoroughly enjoy it. UK Super Cheese offers over-the-top flavor and bouquet in its dense, rock-hard flowers. Their musky, cheesy scent has subtle undertones of fruit, berries, and flowers. Its spicy taste presages its thunderous onset; your eyelids are going to quickly become heavy. Cheese is more suitable for nighttime usage due to its heavy indica effects, but it also often results in creative thoughts along with insomnia relief, appetite boost, and anxiety relief. It would be a shame to visit a shop with such an extensive selection of medibles and not try any. If, like me, you have something of an elevated tolerance to THC, you might want to drop $24 on one of the 250-milligram THC
DINING
BUSINESSS DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CANNABIS CULTIVATION MEMBER OF
MEDICINE MAN MEDICINE MAN WELLNESS CENTER Walk-ins Welcome WELLNESS CENTER
SINCE 2013
Providing solutions and opportunity for business professionals and medical cannabis patients
Celebrating our New Low Prices and New Summer Clinic Hours ** Starting June 28, 2011 ** New Clinic Times: Tues 4–6 Fri 12-2 Sat **starting JULY 2ND ** 10–2
New S
On-Line Verification Available Celebrating our New Low Prices th P RClinic O M OHours TinI O N- S Bring E V Eand N TNew S Summer M US IC Providing Authorizations For week W W W. S E AT T L E W E E K LY. C O M / S I G N U P Bring thisJune ad and receive with RCW 69.51A** 4023 Aur **Accordance Starting 28, 2011 an additional $25.00 OFF w New4021 Clinic Times: Tues 4–6 Fri 12-2 $99 includes Aurora Ave N. Seattle, WA 98103 Authorization and ** Card seattlealt@yahoo.com Sat206-632-4021 **starting •JULY 2ND 10–2 A non-profit org
WE E K LY
Doctors available Tuesday 2 - 6,
BringThursday this ad 11 - 3,and Fridayreceive 11 - 6 Also Open Sunday 12 - OFF 4 an additional $25.00 AR T S4021ANAurora D E Ave N TN.E RSeattle, TAI NWAM98103 ENT H A P P Y H OU R 4021 Aurora Ave N. Seattle, WA 98103 206-632-4021 www.medicinemanwellness.com 206-632-4021 • seattlealt@yahoo.com HAPPY HOUR NEWSLETTER
F IL M
Sign up and receive a weekly list of the top drink specials right in your area.
Now accepting all major credit/debit cards!
STEVE ELLIOTT
BLOG ON » POT xTOKESIGNALS.COM
candies, practically guaranteed to bulldoze over insomnia and pain (I had a blissfully sound night’s sleep behind one of these things). Also available are a selection of 100-milligram treats for $14 each; Chocolates by Scottie (150 mg) for $10 each; and assorted 50-mg candies for $9 each. Avoid the Kit-Teas cannabis-infused teas ($20 each); most patients I’ve talked to tell me they don’t work. Every $100 donation gets a free gram of butane hash oil (BHO); first-time patients get a free 1.5-gram pre-rolled joint. E
tokesignals@seattleweekly.com
Steve Elliott edits Toke Signals, tokesignals.com, an irreverent, independent blog of cannabis news, views, and information.
THE HEALTHY ELEMENT 430 Carpenter Rd. S.E., Suite A, Lacey, 360-556-7247, laceydispensary.com. 10 a.m.–7 p.m. Mon.–Sat., 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Sun.
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
selections, are $10 a gram, eight of The Healthy Element’s strains are $12 a gram. What all but one of these eight have in common is that they come from award-winning medical garden TJ’s: indicas TJ’s Purple Kush, TJ’s Platinum Label, TJ’s White Label, and TJ’s Choco Kush; sativa TJ’s Sage ’n’ Sour; and hybrids TJ’s Raspberry Kush and TJ’s Harcanna. (The eighth $12 strain is Blackberry Kush, an indica.) Sour Kush is a tasty sativa-dominant strain with a flavor and smell somewhere between the Sour Diesel half of its genetics and the indica Kush with which it was crossed. After the third toke, you’ll learn that Sour Kush produces a pleasantly euphoric head high, along with almost immediate pain relief. If you happen to put on some music after indulging in these
41
ADULT PHONE ENTERTAINMENT
SPAS
KING’S MASSAGE Body Shampoo Sauna Expert Massage Come and see us You won’t be disappointed
13811 HIGHWAY 99 LYNNWOOD WA 98037 425-743-6183
MASSEUSE NEEDED
Bali Spa
UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
100s of HOT local Singles Try it FREE!! Call NOW! 18+ 206-812-2900 425-791-2900 253-579-3000 QuestChat.com
Ask our friendly new Asian staff for our special! 1084 Kirkland Ave. NE / Renton, WA 7 days a week / 10am – 10pm
100s of HOT Urban singles are looking to hookup NOW! 18+. Try if FREE! 206-866-2002 425-297-4444 253-590-0303 MetroVibeChatLine.com
10 OFF WITH THIS AD!
$10 Buck Phone Sex Live 1 on 1 1-877-919-EASY (3279) 18+
425-228-8268
$
For 1 hour session
Vina Sauna GRAND OPENING
Open 7 Days a Week
#1 Chat in Seattle! HOT LOCAL SINGLES! 18+ try it FREE! 206-812-2900 425-791-2900 253-579-3000 QuestChat.com
#1 Chat in Seattle! HOT LOCAL SINGLES! 18+ try it FREE! 206-812-2900 425-791-2900 253-579-3000 QuestChat.com #1 SEXIEST CHAT! Join the party with local singles! FREE to try! 18+ 206-577-9966 425-953-1111 253-444-2500 NightLineChat.com Always SEXY Chat! Instant live phone connections FREE to try 18+ 206-577-9966 425-953-1111 253-444-2500 NightLineChat.com Hot & Nasty Phone Sex 1-800-960-HEAT (4328) 18+
Erotic Playground! 1-888-660-4446 1-800-990-9377 Free FORUMS & CHATROOM 206-753-CHAT 253-203-1643 425-405-4388
MAN to MAN Free chatrooms! 206-753-CHAT 253-359-CHAT 425-405-CHAT WebPhone on LiveMatch.com Naughty Older Women 1-800-251-4414 1-800-529-5733
FREE PARTY LINE! 712-432-7969 18+ Normal LD Applies
Private Connections Try it free! 1-708-613-2104 Normal LD Applies 18+
Gay & BI Local Chat! 1-708-613-2103 Normal LD Applies 18+ Hot live Sexy Chat!!! 1-888-404-3330 1-800-928-MEET (6338)
Sexy Swinger’s line! 1-800-785-2833 1-800-811-4048 Tired of talking to your cat? 206-753-CHAT 253-203-1643 425-405-4388 WebPhone on LiveMatch.com Ladies free to talk w/VIPs!
Intimate Connections 1-800-264- Date (3283)
10AM - 9PM
13985 Interurban Ave., Suite 200 Tukwila, WA 98168
WARNING HOT GUYS!
(206) 243-2393
@weeklyevents
Seattle
206.877.0877 Tacoma
Activism // Culture // Dispensaries // Legalization // Legislation // Medical // & More
FREE to listen and reply to ads!
Toke Signals with Steve Elliott Your source for uncut, uncensored, no-holds-barred, non-corporate-controlled cannabis news.
>> tokesignals.com
253.882.0882
FREE CODE : Seattle Weekly
1-888-MegaMates
TM
24/7 Customer Care 1(888) 634.2628 18+ ©2013 PC LLC 2589
filtering the best of
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
THE NORTHWEST!
NING
42
WEEKLY
MUSIC
W W W. S E AT T L E W E E K LY. M / S I GTIONS NUP PRC OOMO EVENT S
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
FILM instagram.com/
HAPPY HOUR
Find out about upcoming performances, exhibitions, openings and special events.
AR T S AND ENTER TAINMENT
Firewood, Fuel & Stoves
Appliances
Call
Classified @ 206-623-6231, to place an ad
Employment Professional
Employment General
Environmental Scientist (Moffatt & Nichol; Seattle, WA) Research marine/fisheries/nearshore envtl issues & sci & permitting reqs that guide water-dependent projects (projs), & complete envtl review & perm’g proc nec’y for such projs. Reqs: Master’s deg in Marine Sci, Ocean Sci, Fisheries, or rel & 3 yrs exp as marine scientist wrk’g on wtr-depen’t projs. Exp must incl 3 yrs of: coord’g & complt’g envtl review for wtrfront & port projs; complt’g State Envtl Policy Act (SEPA) review docu’n & local, st, & fed permit apps; applying knwldg of local, st, & fed envtl laws & regs to iden’y & obtain nec’y permits & approvals req for wtrfront & port projs or ops; app’g undrstnd’g of sci & stat analysis to review others’ wrk prods in supp of perm’g efforts of port projs; coord’g & complt’g field wrk, monit’g, & tech reports nec’y to supp wtrfront & port projs or ops; conveying tech & envtl info to variety of stakehldrs, incl fellow emplys, proj team membrs, other scientists & engs, resource agncies & gen public; & particip’g in local, st & fed port-rel mtgs. 10% national travel required. Applicants mail resume to Moffatt & Nichol, Attn: HR Job Code M120517009, 3780 Kilroy Airport Way, Long Beach, CA 90806-2457.
MARKETING COORDINATOR
Product Manager in Seattle, WA. Responsible for utilizing metrics-driven decision making to plan and oversee a mobile application game, taking it through the entire product lifecycle from conception to live operations for play. Experience required. Email resume to jobs@z2.com or mail to Z2Live, Inc., 1601 2nd Ave., Suite 800, Seattle, WA 98101. Z2 is an equal opportunity employer.
Employment Social Services
Employment Career Services THE OCEAN Corp. 10840 Rockley Road, Houston, Texas 77099. Train for a new career. *Underwater Welder. Commercial Diver. *NDT/Weld Inspector. Job Placement Assistance. Financial Aid avail for those who qualify 1.800.321.0298
Employment General
Attention Women! Learn Skills to Pay the Bills. We train women for nontraditional employment. To find out more, Call ANEW 206.381.1384 www.anewaop.org Explore Your Options! Get career-focused training. Day and evening schedules. Call Everest: 1-888-443-5804 www.StartEverest.com
hreast@soundpublishing.com No phone calls please.
Real Estate for Sale King County
BANK OWNED HOUSES Free List With Pictures www.Seattle BankOwned.net LESCHI View Home Only $604,900 3 Bedrooms, 2 Baths, 2240sqft + Garage. Like New Condition. Realty West 206-570-7672 Real Estate for Sale Services HUD subsidized Housing Waiting List Closures- Est wait times for Bellwether’s Security House Apts. HUD Housing, 2225 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98121 are greater than 2 years. List is closed to new applicants 3/15/14. Pre-applications received on or after 3/15/14 not accepted. Notice posted in this publication when list re-opens.
Real Estate for Rent King County ALGONA
2
Sound Publishing is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) and strongly supports diversity in the workplace. Check out our website to find out more about us! www.soundpublishing.com
Employment Transportation/Drivers
DRIVERS Premier Transportation is seeking Tractor-Trailer Drivers for newly added dedicated runs making store deliveries MondayFriday in WA, OR, ID. MUST have a Class-A CDL and 2 years tractortrailer driving experience. • Home on a daily basis • $.41 per mile plus stop off and unloading pay • $200/day minimum pay • Health & prescription insurance • Family dental, life, disability insurance • Company match 401K, Vacation & holiday pay For application information, call Paul Proctor at Premier Transportation: 866-223-8050. EOE • $1,000 longevity bonus after each year • Assigned trucks • Direct deposit Professional Services Music Lessons GUITAR LESSONS Exp’d, Patient Teacher. BFA/MM Brian Oates (206) 434-1942
Home Services Lawn/Garden Service
Plant, Prune, Mow, Weed, Bark, Remove Debris Henning Gardening Call Geoff Today:
206-854-1794 LICENSED & INSURED
BR: MOUNT RAINIER View duplex! Features garage, fresh paint, refurbished & all new appliances! Near Supermall & Freeway. $1,000 per month, first, last & damage dep. No pets. Asking $219,950. Call 253-293-8817. RENTON
2 BEDROOMS, 1 BATH ground floor unit of a two unit duplex. This home sits on a hill high, above the commercial district ! Views of Mount Rainier and downtown! Large windows, forced air gas heat, wood burning brick fireplace, washer and dryer. 10 minutes to Seattle via I-5. 10 minutes to downtown Bellevue via 405. Recently renovated! Walking distance to Downtown, shopping, restaurants, entertainment and The Cedar River Trail. No smoking inside. Small pet ok (with deposit). Water, garbage, Internet included. $950. First, last, $300 security deposit. Non refundable $30 background/ credit check fee. To take a tour, contact Michael at 1-408-4227828.
Apartments for Rent King County Commercial space avail perfect for office. 880sqft. Rent $1,760 + NNN. Call (206) 441-4922 Daniel University District 3 bedroom apts available for rent. 206-441-4922 9am–2pm
WA Misc. Rentals Rooms for Rent Greenlake/WestSeattle $400 & up Utilities included! busline, some with private bathrooms • Please call Anna between 10am & 8pm • 206-790-5342
U-DISTRICT $450-$550 All Utilities Included! Call Peir for more info (206) 458-0169
Announcements
NORTHEND MASSAGE
REPO REFRIGERATOR Custom deluxe 22 cu. ft. sideby-side, ice & water disp., color panels available
UNDER WARRANTY!
was over $1200 new, now only payoff bal. of $473 or make pmts of only $15 per mo. Credit Dept. 206-244-6966
FOR YOUR HEALTH LAURIE LMP #MA00014267 (206) 919-2180
STACK LAUNDRY Deluxe front loading washer & dryer. Energy efficient, 8 cycles. Like new condition * Under Warranty * Over $1,200 new, now only $578 or make payments of $25 per month
Lost
%206-244-6966% Firearms & Ammunition
************** Gun & Knife **Show**
MISSING DOG - LOGAN. Missing since August 10th from Auburn area. Sightings in Kent and Bellevue. Mini Blue Merle Australian Shepherd. Very scared and skittish. Please call Diane at 253-486-4351 if you see him. REWARD OFFERED.
March 15--16 Enumclaw Expo Center Sat 9-5 & Sun 10-3 Admission $7
1-800-659-3440 CollectorsWest.com ****************** Firewood, Fuel & Stoves
MISSING DOG: Wheaten Terrier named Figs slipped his collar on Saturday, March 8th in downtown Kirkland: Kirkland Way, just NE of RR Bridge. Possible sightings on Cross Kirkland Trail going North/ South on 116th (Highlands). Visiting from Portland, so doesn’t know area. Microchipped. Skittish, barks when frightened but friendly, likes children. Any news appreciated. Contact (425)443-1333.
A+ SEASONED
FIREWOOD
Dry & CustomSplit Alder, Maple & Douglas Fir Speedy Delivery & Best Prices!
NOTICE Washington State law requires wood sellers to provide an invoice (receipt) that shows the seller’s and buyer’s name and address and the date delivered. The invoice should also state the price, the quantity delivered and the quantity upon which the price is based. There should be a statement on the type and quality of the wood. When you buy firewood write the seller’s phone number and the license plate number of the delivery vehicle. The legal measure for firewood in Washington is the cord or a fraction of a cord. Estimate a cord by visualizing a four-foot by eight-foot space filled with wood to a height of four feet. Most long bed pickup trucks have beds that are close to the four-foot by 8-foot dimension. To make a firewood complaint, call 360-9021857. agr.wa.gov/inspection/ WeightsMeasures/Fire woodinformation.aspx
AM-PM TOWING INC
Abandoned Vehicle AUCTION!!! BICHON FRISE Puppies. 3 Males Left! $900. Parents AKC registered, Companions only. Vet check, first shots, wormed. 360-271-8912, 360-895-4251. Pictures/ info: www.bichonfrisepuppies4sale.com
3/14/14 @ 11AM 1 Vehicle
1993 OLDSMOBILE ALERO 1121696
Preview 10-11AM 14315 Aurora Ave N.
Do you have PTSD and alcohol problems? Seeking free treatment? Paid research opportunity. Call the APT Study at 206-543-0584.
ADOPTION
agr.wa.gov/inspection/WeightsMeasures/Firewoodinformation.aspx
Flea Market
2 RANGES $50 each. Burien 206-330-3942. 2 REFRIGERATORS $75 each. Burien 206330-3942. 3 DRAWER DRESSER with beveled mirror. Circa 1943. Excellent condition! $150. Bellevue 425-641-0643.
Devoted, nurturing, loving gay couple in Seattle, looking to adopt first baby into a family offering education, fun, travel, laughter, and unconditional love and support. Call, TEXT, or email anytime about Kyle & Adrian; 971-238-9651 or kyleandadrianfamily@gmail.com or visit kyleandadrianadoption.com
BEAUTIFUL VANITY Table with large beveled mirror. Circa 1943. In excellent condition. $150. Bellevue 425-641-0643. Dogs
WANTED: Hound Puppy. White Male Non-papered. ceive Tons of Great Care. 1807
BASSET Red and preferred. Will ReLove and 206-783-
425-312-5489
Appliances AMANA RANGE Deluxe 30” Glasstop Range self clean, auto clock & timer ExtraLarge oven & storage *UNDER WARRANTY* Over $800. new. Pay off balance of $193 or make payments of $14 per month. Credit Dept. 206-244-6966 KENMORE FREEZER
Repo Sears deluxe 20cu.ft. freezer 4 fast freeze shelves, defrost drain,
interior light *UNDER WARRANTY* Make $15 monthly payments or pay off balance of $293. Credit Dept. 206-244-6966
KENMORE REPO Heavy duty washer & dryer, deluxe, large cap. w/normal, perm-press & gentle cycles. * Under Warranty! * Balance left owing $272 or make payments of $25. Call credit dept. 206-244-6966
Appointment Setter Work Outdoors on Flexible Schedule
Avg. Reps are earning $500-$750/ week working 25 hours/week. Top Reps are earning $1,500+/ week Travel, Medical, and Cell Phone Allowances Avail. Req. Vehicle, Driver’s License, & Cell Phone
Call 855-720-3102 ext. 3304 or 3308
or apply online at www.tlc4homesnw.com
SEATTLE WEEKLY • MARCH 12 — 18, 2014
VISITING ANGELS Certified Caregivers needed. Minimum 3 years experience. Must live in Seattle area. Weekend & live-in positions available. Call 206-439-2458 • 877-271-2601
The Daily Herald, Snohomish County’s source for outstanding local news and community information for more than 100 years and a division of Sound Publishing, Inc. is seeking a Marketing Coordinator to assist with multi-platform advertising and marketing solutions of print, web, mobile, e-newsletters, daily deals, event sponsorships and special publications as well as the daily operations of the Marketing department. Responsibilities include but are not limited to the coordination, updating and creation of marketing materials across a range of delivery channels, social media, contesting, events, house marketing, newsletters and working closely with the Sr. Marketing Manager to develop strategies and implement the marketing plan. The right individual will be a highly organized, responsible, self-motivated, customer-comes-first proven problem-solver who thrives in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment with the ability to think ahead of the curve. We offer a competitive salary and benefits package including health insurance, paid time off (vacation, sick, and holidays), and 401K (currently with an employer match.) If you meet the above qualifications and are seeking an opportunity to be part of a venerable media company, email us your resume and cover letter to
$2500 tidy 2bd/2ba crftman Home, Madrona view, finish Bsmt w/full BA could be BR Or rec rm call (253)670-8357 theamooregroup@gmail.com
NEW APPLIANCES UP TO 70% OFF All Manufacturer Small Ding’s, Dents, Scratches and Factory Imperfections *Under Warranty* For Inquiries, Call or Visit Appliance Distributors @ 14639 Tukwila Intl. Blvd. 206-244-6966
Auto Events/ Auctions
Dogs
43
GET TRAINING for a career in CALL TODAY!
Classified
Call
Sleeping rooms in clean and sober house. $130 a week w/no deposit! Includes Cleaning and Util. 206-762-2757. Available March 4
3$5.
MOST CASH PAID 4 GOLD JEWELRY 20%-50% MORE 24/7 CASH 425.891.1385
WWW.KIRKLANDGOLDBUYER.COM 0$5&+ 72 Seasonal6($77/( Allergies? Are you allergic to Pollen, Weeds, Food or have other allergies? &(175$/ Earn $100 for each qualified plasma donation. Call Today! 425-258-3653
www.plasmalab.com
Singing Lessons (1'256(' %<
FreeTheVoiceWithin.com Janet Kidder 206-781-5062
PAID FOR UNWANTED CARS & TRUCKS
$100 TO $1000
7 Days * 24 Hours Licensed + Insured
ALL STAR TOWING
425-870-2899
WANTS TO purchase minerals and other oil & gas interests. Send details to P.O. Box 13557, Denver, Co 80201
facebook.com/seattleweekly &219(1( $7
-8'.,16 3$5.
ON SAT., MARCH 15
0$5&+ 72 6($77/( &(175$/
-0$"5*0/4 #SFNFSUPO t 4FBUUMF t 5BDPNB Programs and schedules vary by campus. For more information about our graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program and other important information, please visit our website at www.everest.edu/disclosures.
10338 Aurora Ave N, Seattle
DANCING BARE Âť HOT BABES & COLD DRINKS ÂŤ
HAPPY HOUR MONDAY p ½ OFF DOOR 11PM-4PM 2,4,1 TUESDAY p 2 FOR THE PRICE OF 1 @ THE DOOR BOEING RECOGNITION WEDNESDAY p½ OFF DOOR* MICROSOFT RECOGNITION THURSDAY p ½ OFF DOOR* MILITARY FRIDAY p½ OFF DOOR* *I.D. Required American Liberty Adult Store
Select from a variety of DVDs, Mags, and Toys. Buy, Sell, Trade!!!! Ask Clerk for details about how you can save $$$ on your next purchase.
www.seadancingbare.com OPEN MON-SAT: 11AM - 2:30AM & SUN 2PM - 2:30AM
Does your life revolve around chronic constipation? Are you between the ages of 18 and 80 and experiencing infrequent or incomplete bowel movements? Do you have hard lumpy stool? You may be experiencing symptoms of Chronic Idiopathic Constipation, and may qualify for a clinical research study with an investigational medication.
(1'256(' %<
5$,6( 7+( 5$,6( 7+(
0,1,080 :$*( 0,1,080 :$*( &219(1( $7
-8'.,16 3$5.
1-888-443-5804
ON SAT., MARCH 15
0$5&+ 72 6($77/( &(175$/
Study procedures may include: physical exams, blood & urine labs, and ECGs. Compensation may also be available for your time and travel.
(1'256(' %<
5$,6( 7+(
0,1,080 :$*( 5$,6( 7+(
0,1,080 :$*(
LQIR# 1RZ RUJ Â&#x2021; )DFHERRN FRP 1RZ Â&#x2021; #)LIWHHQ1RZ Â&#x2021; LQIR# 1RZ RUJ Â&#x2021; )DFHERRN FRP 1RZ Â&#x2021; #)LIWHHQ1RZ Â&#x2021; LQIR# 1RZ RUJ Â&#x2021; )DFHERRN FRP 1RZ Â&#x2021; #)LIWHHQ1RZ Â&#x2021;
Proof Due
Ad #: P31 Deadline T First Run: Publicatio Section: C Specs: 4.8
T Appro T Appro T Revis
Initial ___
ON SAT.,15MARCH 15 ON-8'.,16 SAT., MARCH $ TOP CASH $ HomeWell Senior Care Franchising is growing! Recession proof business. Only 8 available territories in Western Washington. $85K Initial investment includes Franchise Fee. Next Step: Visit www.HomeWell.biz
Health Care!
Visit us online at www.StartEverest.com
@ 206-623-6231, to place an ad Explore Your Options! Get career-focused training. Day and evening schedules. Call Everest: 1-888-443-5804 &219(1( $7 www.StartEverest.com
Career Training
To learn more, call Seattle Health and Research at 206-522-3330 x2 or visit www.SeattleWomens.com