The Stranger Vol. 23, No. 9

Volume 23, Issue Number 9 October 30–November 5, 2013

STUDY GUIDE

Questions

for The Stranger, Volume 23, Issue 9

1. In the week before the election, The Stranger has opted to use its precious, shrinking page count to highlight a parody of Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll guiding readers around a fictional church that Mars Hill allegedly wants to build on Sound Transit property. It is yet another instance of The Stranger chastising people for not sharing their far-left values. Which would be a more useful expenditure of The Stranger’s time: Pursuing this unfunny joke, or standing in the middle of a field, wagging their middle fingers at the sky, and shouting epithets directly at God?

2. DAVE SEGAL mourns the death of Lou Reed. Is this display of public mourning really about a musician’s death, or is it more about a man confronting his own mortality? Find appropriate Lou Reed lyrics to support your stance.

3. DAVID SCHMADER reviews 12 Years a Slave and lambastes the film for not making us feel worse about our nation’s complicated history with slavery. In your opinion, when did white guilt become non-optional with The Stranger? When did this once-irreverent alternative weekly become so somber about everything? Does the hiring of CHARLES MUDEDE have anything to do with this? Why or why not?

4. Speaking of Mr. Mudede: For the umpteetnth time, he has written a pro-socialist screed, this time in support of city council candidate Kshama Sawant. In your opinion, is it a good idea for Mr. Mudede to “support” Sawant in this fashion? Wouldn’t the “socialist” label scare likely moderate voters away from Ms. Sawant? Write a theoretical news story outing Mr. Mudede as a “sleeper agent” hired by a conservative organization to discredit far-left liberal causes from the inside. Doesn’t your story sound kind of true?

5. GOLDY obsesses over a right-wing organization that has bought KOMO, an old-media company that was at one time relevant in Seattle. Goldy is, of course, upset that the new owners of KOMO are known for airing “right-wing propaganda ” Speaking of partisan propaganda, have you ever read The Stranger? On a related note: If a hypocritical piece is published in a section of The Stranger no one reads, like the so-called “news” section, does anyone care?

Find podcasts, videos, blogs, MP3s, free classifieds, personals, contests, sexy ads, and more on The Stranger’s website.

LAST DAYS

The Week in Review

BY DAVID SCHMADER

MONDAY, OCTOBER 21 This week of fatal fakeness, Biblical freak-outs, and belovedby-Last-Days artists venturing into the great beyond kicks off with a double whammy of deadly driving in the Pacific Northwest. Our first story comes from Kenmore, where just after midnight this morning, a young woman was driving and attempting to light a cigarette when she allegedly fatally struck a pedestrian. Details come from Seattepi.com, which identifies the victim as 31-year-old Joseph Humphreys, who’d been walking along the edge of 62nd Avenue Northeast when he was struck and sent flying by a truck allegedly driven by 24-year-old Sydney K. Jones, who initially fled the scene, only to return on foot several hours later and report finding Humphreys’s body. Jones will turn herself in to police tomorrow, when she will be charged with felony hit-and-run.

•• Meanwhile, this evening in Snohomish County, “[a] 55-year-old Edmonds man tried to avoid arrest for drunken driving and wound up dead,” reports KIRO. The unnamed and now dead alleged drunk driver was first detained by cops around 6:30 p.m., after they received reports of the man driving erratically near the town of Sultan. “Two deputies in two

To submit an unsigned confession or accusation, send an e-mail to ianonymous@thestranger.com. Please remember to change the names of the innocent and guilty.

BLURRED PICKET LINES

Dear members of society who cross picket lines: Go fuck yourselves. No, really. Particularly the banker-looking asshat who, after hearing why workers at this establishment were justified in their struggle, argued that he needed to cross the picket line because “Where else could [he] get so much [product] for [such a low price]?” Plenty of places. It’s not as if downtown Seattle is a ghost town devoid of anywhere else to spend your money. When you tell the workers who make your life as convenient as it is by providing you with basically any good or service at an affordable rate (when they themselves make such low wages that they have to rely on taxpayerfunded assistance) that you can’t be temporarily inconvenienced by having to choose a different establishment in which to spend your money for one fucking day, you uphold a system of inequality and allow for the minority with wealth and power to exploit the rest of us. And don’t fucking dare turn around after patronizing the establishment and tell me that you “Hope [we] win the fight.” Because we won’t win as long as wasted pieces of shit such as yourself defend the owners over the workers.

separate squad cars pulled the driver over and the man got out for a field sobriety test,” reports KIRO. “The exact details of what happened next are under investigation, but [Everett police officer Aaron] Snell said the suspect got back into his vehicle and sped away.” After speeding six miles east on Highway 2 with police in pursuit, the suspect crossed the center lane and crashed into an oncoming truck, after which his car spun around and was hit again, this time by one of the pursuing squad cars. Both deputies and the driver of the truck escaped with minor injuries; the suspect driver died at the scene.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22 In worse news, the week continues in California’s Sonoma County, where this afternoon a 13-yearold boy was walking near his home with a toy rifle and wound up fatally shot by a cop. Details come from the San Francisco Chronicle, which identifies the boy as Andy Lopez Cruz, an eighth-grader who played basketball, trumpet, and the occasional shooting game involving an air rifle that was apparently indistinguishable from an AK-47. Cruz was carrying this air rifle this afternoon when he caught the eye of two sheriff’s deputies in a patrol car. “[A]fter

requires replica guns to have an orange tip, but Andy’s toy rifle didn’t have one,” writes the Chronicle. “California law requires ‘imitation weapons’ to look like playthings by being brightly colored or transparent. But a state senator’s proposal in 2011 to extend that requirement to air guns failed after manufacturers and retailers opposed it.”) Cruz was shot seven times, authorities said, and died. The deputies involved have been placed on paid leave pending an investigation.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23 Nothing happened today, unless you count the 11-yearold boy arrested after he was found with a gun, knives, and more than 400 rounds of ammunition at Frontier Middle School in Vancouver, Washington, or the two students taken to the hospital with minor injuries after a police rifle discharged during an officer’s drug-awareness presentation at an elementary school in Chino, California. (As KTLA News reports, the loaded rifle was mounted on a police motorcycle, its trigger was pulled by an elementary school student, and the resulting injuries were caused not by gunfire but by resulting “metal debris.”)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24 In lighter but still troubling news, the week continues with a notable freak-out in Oklahoma City

Our protagonist: 22-year-old Jeremy Anderson, who first caught the attention of authorities after someone called 911 to report a “person going ballistic” in a nearby apartment. “When officers got to the apartment, they said they found Anderson, whose face and hands were covered in blood, screaming random

SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOUR GENITALS PAY ATTENTION

SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU NEVER WANT TO HAVE SEX AGAIN

A FRIEND/RELATIVE/ COWORKER AMONG THE AUDIENCE

A FRIEND/RELATIVE/ COWORKER ON-SCREEN LESBIAN KNIFE PLAY NOTEWORTHY LIMBERNESS

things on the front porch,” reports KFOR-TV. “Authorities used a sledge hammer to get into the house and found the walls and floor were covered in blood, bleach, and other ‘substances.’ A small fire was burning near the stove which quickly filled the house with smoke.”

About that fire: As Anderson reportedly told police, he started the fire in his kitchen because he was “cooking the Bible.” “Anderson told officers he met a ‘possessed homosexual demon’ who wanted drugs from him and performed sexual acts on him,” reports KFOR. “He said he ‘wasn’t gay, just high’ and when he came to his senses, he couldn’t believe he let the male demon touch him.” Then came the Bible-cooking, the bloody screaming, and eventually, the firstdegree arson charges.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 In lighter but not completely untroubling news, the week continues with the ridiculous Daily Show interview that resulted in real-world consequences. Our hapless hero: Don Yelton, the Republican precinct chairman of Buncombe County, North Carolina, who sat down with The Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi to discuss his state’s contentious and allegedly racist voter ID proposals and made a series of jaw-dropping proclamations.

Top of the heap: Yelton’s defense of North Carolina’s voting ID requirements, which he said aren’t designed to hurt black people, just Democrats. “ The law is going to kick the Democrats in the butt,” said Yelton to Mandvi. “If it hurts a bunch of college kids that are too lazy to get up off their bohonkas and go get a photo ID, then so be it. If it hurts a bunch of whites, so be it. If it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give them everything, then so be it.” Other highlights: Yelton’s explanation that his Facebook

posting of an image of Obama as an African witch doctor was meant to poke fun at the president’s “white half,” and interviewer Mandvi’s awestruck response to Yelton’s growing pile of mouth poo: “You know we can hear you?” The interview aired Wednesday, the North Carolina GOP called for Yelton’s resignation yesterday, and the world continued spinning today.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26 In worse news, the week continues with the death of Marcia Wallace, the comedy actor who spent her life cracking up America, first as Bob Newhart’s salty receptionist, Carol Kester, on The Bob Newhart Show, then in her Emmy-winning role as Edna Krabappel on The Simpsons . In between, she made a zillion hilarious appearances on TV game shows and played Teen Witch’s favorite teacher in Teen Witch, and yesterday, she passed away at her LA home at age 70. RIP, Marcia Wallace, and confidential to whoever decides who gets the Mark Twain Award for humor: There is no shame in a posthumous nomination.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27 In more bad news, the week continues with the death of Lou Reed , the songwriter and musician who spent his life making rock ’n’ roll history—first with his untouchable band the Velvet Underground, then with his four decades as a solo artist —before passing away this weekend at 71. For a fitting tribute to Reed, see Dave Segal’s remembrance on page 37.

Send Hot Tips to lastdays@thestranger.com and follow me on Twitter @davidschmader.

Jaw-dropping proclamations at THESTRANGER.COM/SLOG

I’m a fast food worker and I went on strike this summer because we deserve better. Sometimes fast food workers don’t get paid for all our hours. We’re forced to work off the clock, aren’t paid overtime and don’t get our breaks.

That’s wage theft, and it’s a crime in the City of Seattle. If you’re a victim of wage theft, call 206-486-9896 and you can get help.

Shelter Beds or Westlake Park

Defunding a Program for Homeless Youth Will Just Put Kids on the Street

BY CIENNA MADRID

Many of Seattle’s homeless youth would rather sleep in doorways, under Interstate 5, or in Westlake Park than stay at an overnight shelter geared toward adults. “The adult

shelters are terrible places—they’re scary,” explains 21-year-old Damien, who says that on his one and only stay in a Seattle adult shelter, a man harassed him and called him “yummy.”

“I was scared out of my mind,” he says. After that night more than a year ago, Damien resigned to living on the streets—until another homeless youth told him about YouthCare’s James W. Ray Orion Center, located at the foot of Capitol Hill on Denny Way. But the center says it will be closing its overnight young adult shelter this winter, one of only two such shelters in the city, due to lack of funding.

But without shelter, many youth tend to congregate in public places downtown and on Capitol Hill, where business owners and media pundits chastise them for being unsightly and evidence of so-called street disorder.

SOURCES SAY

• Last week, Seattle Times reporter Jim Brunner reported on a letter US Attorney Jenny Durkan sent to Seattle’s Community Police Commissioners chastising Mayor Mike McGinn for taking credit for creating the commission—a key part of the settlement to reform the Seattle Police Department—in his reelection campaign. Durkan, who is a family friend of McGinn rival Ed Murray, says in the letter that the US Department of Justice “formally propos[ed] a community based entity that we called the

For example, Seattle Times guest columnist Philip W. Eaton wrote last week about his experience moving downtown: “We navigate our way uncomfortably among teenagers who occupy Westlake Park, hanging out with their pit bulls, backpacks and skateboards, lately with their babies, freely smoking their nowlegal marijuana.”

With the Orion Center’s overnight shelter slated to close, other nonprofits are bracing for more homeless youth seeking other services—like meals and showers—at their doors. Mary Steele, executive director of New Horizons Ministries, a nonprofit in Belltown that offers such drop-in services, says, “If they can’t be at Orion, they

have to be somewhere—either at Westlake, where no one wants them, or here.”

Every night at 8:30 p.m., a huddle of homeless young adults, all between the ages of 18 and 24, line up along the neon green wall of the Orion Center for the chance to sleep on the warm, well-worn floor.

“You don’t know how many lives it saves,” says a 19-year-old woman named Zero, while eating lunch at Orion Center. She became homeless a year ago. “I used to sleep under the bridges a lot, or party to stay awake and not be cold.” After using the center’s beds, kitchen, and social services, Zero is now employed, advocating for resources for other homeless youth.

People like Zero avoid adult shelters for several reasons. They are populated largely with drug addicts, alcoholics, and the mentally ill—and the caseworkers provide services tailored toward those problems. But homeless youth have unique challenges.

“Many of the young people we see were actually kicked out of their homes,” explains Hedda McLendon, director of programs at the Orion Center.

“The adult shelters are terrible places— they’re scary,” explains 21-year-old Damien.

“About 74 percent of the young people we see are physically and sexually abused at home, and about 40 percent leave or are kicked out because they’re gay.” Because the adults in their own lives have mistreated them, many young people are reluctant to trust older strangers at shelters.

“I went to an adult shelter and I walked out,” remembers 19-year-old Brittany, who is also a familiar face at the Orion Center. “For someone with a traumatic past, it’s traumatizing to go into an adult shelter,” she explains. “It’s not a safe place.”

By day, the center offers about 60 homeless youth the county’s widest array of services—from private lockers and laundry to a computer lab, barista training, and GED classes. Each night, 20 sleeping pallets are unrolled on its floors as makeshift beds. And they’re always full—as is the other homeless youth shelter operating in the city.

“We are full every night,” confirms Kristine Cunningham, director of ROOTS, a 45-bed young adult shelter operating in the University District. “The need is far greater than we could ever have space for.”

This winter, the Orion Center will close its overnight shelter. A three-year, $250,000 grant from a local group, Raynier Institute and Foundation, which helped cover the cost of running the shelter, ends in December and has not been renewed. On November 3, the shelter beds will be closed to the general public (it will still sleep several “peer leaders” who are in the midst of completing job training and education programs). By February 1, the shelter will be closed completely.

The Orion Center’s budget woes don’t end there. They are slated to lose roughly $1.2 million in federal and local grants by the end of the year, due to shifting priorities on a local level (the Raynier Institute is focusing its funding on supporting artists instead of homeless youth, for instance) and cutbacks from the federal government. “We’ll have to scale back staff and drop-in services by 50 percent,” spokeswoman Liz Trautman says.

None of the cuts are coming from city and county government; nevertheless, the center’s staff members are lobbying both the city and county councils for funds to fill this gap. City council president Sally Clark is currently pushing to earmark $130,000 for the Orion Center, with the hopes that the county council would fund an additional $120,000.

“We can’t lose 20 percent of these shelter beds when, even now, they’re turning kids away,” Clark says. “That is completely counterproductive to where we, as a city, are trying to go.”

Many suited factions of the city—including the Downtown Seattle Association—have been wringing their hands about downtown “street disorder” and crime. As Eaton said in his guest editorial, “We must further empower the extraordinary work already happening” in order to fix a “broken” downtown.

If people like Eaton want to help downtown (and help homeless youth in the process), they should step up and help save the Orion Center.

Read our live election-night coverage at THESTRANGER.COM/SLOG

‘Community Monitoring Board’—with a significant role in the reform process somewhat modeled on similar successful endeavors in other cities.” While the letter, cosigned by DOJ’s Jonathan Smith, says “city leaders should be property credited in crafting the final agreement,” they don’t give the mayor any credit for the idea behind the commission. But interestingly enough, the DOJ said basically the opposite thing last year. At the press conference announcing the settlement on July 27, 2012, Durkan herself said the agreement “creates a community police commission. Mayor McGinn will be discussing this further, as he crafted this very important mechanism to ensure continued and meaningful public input.”

Reached by phone, a spokesman in Durkan’s office refused to clarify her contradictory

statements and political affiliations

• Brace yourself for a round of applause: Gonorrhea infections in Washington State are up by more than one-third this year, making the clap the second most common (dare we say popular?) sexually transmitted disease in the state after chlamydia. For the love of your untainted junk, wear condoms and get tested regularly!

• Obscene amounts of cash continue to pour into the No on 522 campaign, the soda/chips/pesticide-manufacturer-funded campaign against labeling genetically modified food in Washington State. After another $3.7 million dumped in from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, $460,000 from DuPont, and $540,000

from Monsanto, No on 522 has now raised nearly $22 million to prevent labeling on grocery store shelves. The Yes on 522 side has raised $6.8 million.

• Don’t bother mailing in your ballot, for “we can already declare the big winner in Seattle,” says Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat: “It’s the socialist. Kshama Sawant.” As Westneat points out, the two mayoral candidates have already embraced Sawant’s “socialist” agenda—things like a $15-an-hour minimum wage, universal preschool, and expanding transit. But on second thought, why settle for a cheap imitation? Sawant actually stands a chance of winning more than just a symbolic victory, so mail in your ballot and help elect Sawant to the Seattle City Council.

Konzuk Jewelry Trunk Show

IDow’s Million Dollars

What the Hell Should the County Exec Do with All This Money He Didn’t Need?

BY STRANGER STAFF

ncumbent King County executive Dow Constantine—who, let’s be honest, doesn’t really have an opponent—has raised an impressive $911,000 this campaign season, far more than any other county or city candidate in this off-off-election-year cycle. So on what has Constantine been spending all his campaign cash?

Fundraising!

Of the $507,000 Constantine has spent, $154,000 went to Newman Partners, his campaign fundraising consultant. Another $75,000 went to “event” rental, catering, staging, entertainment, etc., presumably to pay for campaign fundraising events. That’s $229,000—about one shiny quarter out of every dollar raised, and more than half of every campaign dollar spent.

It takes money to raise money, and all that. Even in politics.

Constantine’s campaign has also paid $63,000 to its general consultant, Northwest Passage, while transferring another $50,000 to Constantine’s “surplus funds account” (whatever that is). But throw in (or out) another $65,000 in miscellaneous expenses, and Constantine still has more than $400,000 left in his campaign war chest with only a week to go before his sure-thing reelection.

So how should Constantine spend his remaining $400,000? We at The Stranger offer

the following carefully considered suggestions: • 160,000 peak travel time Metro bus tickets, to be passed out like candy all around the county.

• 75,000 Rancho Bravo burritos, enough to feed the entire staff of The Stranger lunch for more than seven years.

• 500 high-quality hairpieces, so that all of Constantine’s future old, white, male challengers won’t have to start their campaigns with inferior heads of hair.

• 125 pounds of marijuana—again, enough to keep the entire staff of The Stranger totally wasted for more than seven years.

• A fleet of 20 brand-new Priuses for Stranger staffers, so that we can stop giving a shit about King County Metro and start hassling the City of Seattle about parking.

How should Constantine spend his remaining $400,000?

• Or one $400,000 independent expenditure on behalf of Proposition 1’s public campaign financing, so that at least here in Seattle, fucking insane campaign cash hoarding like this becomes a thing of the past.

And… Cut!

KOMO-TV’s New Right-Wing Owner Slashes Newsroom

BY GOLDY

Shareholders cheered back in April when Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group agreed to a $373 million acquisition of Seattle-based Fisher Communications, which owned and operated KOMO-TV, KOMO Newsradio, and KVI along with 19 other TV stations in eight states. But while the Sinclair deal may have been great news for Fisher shareholders, it totally sucked for KOMO employees and their local audience.

Sinclair is infamous for its stations airing right-wing propaganda. Just two weeks before the 2004 presidential election, Sinclair ordered its 62 stations to air the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth–funded Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, a film that attempted to smear Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s war record. During the 2010 midterm elections, Sinclair stations ran a 25-minute infomercial that described President Obama as a “socialist” and accused him of raising money from the terrorist group Hamas. Last year, Sinclair stations in swing states Ohio and Florida ran anti-Obama election eve specials in the slot normally occupied by Nightline

Sinclair also has a long history of labor strife, earning itself a prominent spot on the AFL-CIO’s national boycott list since 2010. Combine that with Sinclair’s penchant for cost-cutting at recently acquired stations, and KOMO employees had lots of reasons to worry.

Those fears were realized last week when Sinclair reportedly laid off 18 workers at KOMO and another nine at its sister station, KATU in Portland, Oregon, including editors, writers, and producers. But the most contentious layoffs involve the elimination of

satellite truck operators—three at KOMO and two at KATU—shifting the responsibility for driving and operating this massive equipment to the remaining videographers.

“It’s more than just driving a truck,” explains IATSE Local 600 representative Dave Twedell, whose union represents KOMO’s video editors and videographers. “Operating the satellite communications technology is a daunting task… this had been a full-time job for another person.” KOMO also laid off three video editors, about a quarter of the department, with the videographers expected to pick up the slack there as well: “Our members get more work but don’t get any more money,” complains Twedell.

IBEW Local 46 representative Angela Marshall, whose union represents the laid-off drivers, says it’s also a safety issue, especially when crews are dispatched to snowy mountain passes and other hazardous locations: “All our drivers are trained and certified,” says Marshall. “These are massive trucks with lots of satellite technology. What does that mean for safety?”

Sinclair is infamous for its stations airing rightwing propaganda.

Both IBEW and IATSE say these layoffs may violate labor agreements, and both plan to file complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.

KOMO declined to comment. Sinclair did not respond to a request for comment.

No Charges for Protesters

In Sudden Reversal, City Drops Charges Against Anti-Foreclosure Activists

BY ANSEL HERZ

This week, the Seattle City Attorney’s office dropped criminal trespassing charges it had filed against five activists who held a sit-in at a bank in July to protest a South Seattle man’s foreclosure and eviction.

“We looked at the cases again after your inquiry,” says John Schochet, the city attorney’s deputy chief of staff, “and determined that they didn’t meet our standards for civil disobedience/protest charges.” Pressed to explain why the city would initially believe it had the basis to press charges and later retract them, Schochet said that even if a crime was committed, “our office is exercising its discretion not to pursue these charges here.”

Some of the activists suggest they were charged—and then let off the hook—because Wells Fargo is the city’s bank, and prosecution would entail political undertones. “They realized a trial where they are representing their bank’s interests against three senior citizens and two young teachers wouldn’t look too good in the eyes of the public,” says Kailyn Nicholson, a teacher who participated in the sit-in. “I’m glad they came to their senses.”

It’s a surprising and sudden reversal. The activists, including 87-year-old Dorli Rainey, were summoned to court this month for arraignment. Prosecutors offered to drop the charges if the defendants performed 48 hours of community service and promised to stay away from Wells Fargo for two years. “We all refused,” Nicholson explains.

The activists had been protesting a

foreclosure by Wells Fargo against Jeremy Griffin, a construction worker who lives in South Seattle. Griffin had attempted to pay the bank for months, but it refused to take the money since foreclosure had already begun. “After watching Jeremy try and fail to get Wells Fargo to even talk with him about working out a payment plan,” Nicholson says, “we were simply trying a new approach to get them to consider his proposal.”

The five activists walked into the bank on July 2, read a statement, and sat down facing the tellers, until police calmly lead them

into paddy wagons. Later that month, King County Sheriff officers arrested protesters, including Seattle City Council candidate Kshama Sawant, for blocking the entrance to Griffin’s home.

According to the real-estate firm Zillow, 17.5 percent of all Seattle homeowners are underwater on their mortgages (they owe more than the house is worth), meaning they’re at risk of foreclosure. At a candidate forum on October 28, Council Member Nick Licata said he intends to propose a bill to give large-scale relief to struggling Seattle homeowners early next year, potentially by using eminent domain to write down their debts.

The Stranger Election Control Board CHEAT SHEET

For the November 5, 2013, General Election

Read our full endorsements and why we picked these folks at thestranger.com.

STATE

INITIATIVE MEASURE NO. 517 No

INITIATIVE MEASURE NO. 522 Yes

ADVISORY VOTES NO. 3, NO. 4, NO. 5, NO. 6, NO. 7 Maintained KING COUNTY

CHARTER AMENDMENT NO. 1

COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC DEFENSE Yes

PROPOSITION NO. 1

MEDIC ONE—EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES RENEWAL OF EXISTING LEVY Approved

EXECUTIVE

Dow Constantine

COUNCIL DISTRICT NO. 1

Rod Dembowski

COUNCIL DISTRICT NO. 5

Dave Upthegrove

COUNCIL DISTRICT NO. 9

Shari Song

PORT OF SEATTLE

COMMISSIONER POSITION NO. 1

John Creighton

COMMISSIONER POSITION NO. 2

Courtney Gregoire

COMMISSIONER POSITION NO. 3 Stephanie Bowman

COMMISSIONER POSITION NO. 4 Tom Albro CITY OF SEATTLE

MAYOR Mike McGinn

COUNCIL POSITION NO. 2

Kshama Sawant

COUNCIL POSITION NO. 4 Sally Bagshaw

COUNCIL POSITION NO. 6 Nick Licata

COUNCIL POSITION NO. 8 Mike O’Brien

PROPOSED CHARTER AMENDMENT NO. 19 Yes

PROPOSITION NO. 1 Yes

SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT

DIRECTOR DISTRICT NO. 4

Sue Peters

DIRECTOR DISTRICT NO. 5

Stephan Blanford

CITY OF SEATAC

PROPOSITION NO. 1 Yes

The Stranger does not make endorsements in uncontested races or races we forgot.

God’s Favorite Building

I Just Got Off the Phone with Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and Can Now

Share

Exclusive Details of Our Vision for Mars Hill Headquarters | BY PASTOR

MARK DRISCOLL

People have been asking me: “Pastor Mark, why is Mars Hill Church so set on buying this four-acre former cardboard-box factory in Bellevue? Don’t you know it’s already Sound Transit property?” And I’m like: “Dude, so what? Wives are property, too—you’ve read Exodus, right?” I take that stuff literally, man! Wives are supposed to accommodate what Christian leaders want, and public transportation agencies should, too. Didn’t you read Mars Hill’s statement about all this on our website? “God rules a world that bends to His will. We

believe that God wants us to have this property.” Case closed. If Sound Transit wants to stand in God’s way and align itself with the Devil, there’s going to be Hell to pay. Literally. Plus, this old factory is full of awesome stuff that we don’t have in our current location, like many additional acres of parking for our godly and masculine SUVs. (Like I always say, if you drive a minivan, you’re just a miniman!) Do you want those acres going to some “maintenance facility” for public transportation? Come on, bro. Let me show you some of the other good stuff…

WOMEN’S SHUT-UP HUT: Thanks to the glory of God, women are filled with thoughts and feelings. But that doesn’t mean men have to listen to all that Goddamn yapping. This is where we’ll send wives who succumb to the temptation of asking irritating questions. That window will be boarded up, because no one wants to see women running their mouths.

LI’L

BUCKET: Mars Hill is an innovator in prepping children for the ministry—when our boys get to elementary school, they’re already trained to beat some Jesus into those faggy kids who still sit down to pee. We’ll build some stairs and a platform around this bucket so boys can practice baptizing sissies with an oldfashioned head dunking!

FACE-BUFFING STATION: Did you know “bread” appears in the Bible 471 times, but “face” appears 490 times? Here’s where we’ll install a state-of-theart face-buffing station—with a high-thread-count linen buffing wheel—to preserve my tan, shiny, Sunday-morning glow.

so

A VICTORY FOR SAWANT

Kshama Sawant: Return of the Alternative

Why You Must Vote for

a

Real, Genuine Socialist

For the first time in my life, I will vote for a candidate who actually holds my political views. Her name is Kshama Sawant. She is running for the city council seat held by Richard Conlin. She, like me, is a socialist. She, like me, sees no future, in environmental terms, for a capitalist market system that’s not regulated by democratic institutions, and believes that the solutions to many of our social problems (lack of real police accountability, lack of meaningful investments in public modes of transportation, and lack of adequate protection from financial and other jobrelated risks) will be found on the open terrain of class struggle.

When I turned 18 in Zimbabwe, I had no reason to vote, because the president of that country, who claimed to be a Marxist, was in fact a tribalist, a dictator, and really quite mad. (The joke at the time: You can vote for Bob, Bobby, or Robert Mugabe.) As for the US, after I became a citizen in 2005, the politicians I voted for were loosely or distantly committed to core socialist principles. Patty Murray, Barack Obama, and even Mike McGinn were on the left of American politics, but none were deaf to the loud and constant demands of the rich and their moneymaking mania. (Socialism ultimately means, to use Karl Polanyi’s words, “the subordination of the economy to society.”) Obama really does believe in the greatness of a free and competitive market, Murray helps Boeing obtain defense contracts, and McGinn (though far better and more liberal than Ed Murray) is at the end of the day a deficit hawk who has and will cut jobs to balance the city’s budget.

None of these politicians would be in power today if they, like Sawant, were members of an actual socialist party. Indeed, Sawant’s rise in the local political world has the potential to generate international attention. During a recent phone conversation I had with Leo Panitch, the editor of the Socialist Register, a journal that was cofounded by none other than Ralph Miliband (yes, the father of the current leader of Britain’s Labour Party, Ed Miliband—unlike his father, Ed is no socialist), he expressed great amazement and enthusiasm when I shared

the news that an actual socialist had a chance of winning a significant political position in Seattle. “Wow, that’s just fantastic… That’s phenomenal,” said Panitch. Now why would a world-famous and influential socialist like Panitch, who recently coauthored an excellent book, The Making of Global Capitalism, published by Verso (the most highly regarded radical leftist publisher in the Englishspeaking world), be so impressed with what appears to be a minor political achievement of a virtually unknown economics professor?

To appreciate the answer to this question, we need a little historical background.

Let’s begin with a British economist named John Maynard Keynes. At the end of World War II, Keynes provided Western governments with a great solution to the real internal and external threat of socialism—internally in the form of the labor movements (that were radicalized by the Great Depression) and externally by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (which emerged from the war as a new superpower). Keynes’s solution: Give workers higher wages, reliable social welfare programs, and a real shot at the middle class, and basically they will shut up and be nicer to rich people. This solution, which is called social democracy (or Keynesianism or demand-side economics), was implemented and in 1947 initiated in the US, Europe, and Japan a long period of great economic performance that’s now called the Golden Age of Capitalism. Socialism in the West could not compete with social democracy, and it also wanted to distance itself from the USSR, whose leaders turned out to be nothing more than criminals. But then something bad happened to social democracy in the early ’70s. The rich became convinced that the high wages being handed to workers were exerting greater and greater downward pressure on their profits. This belief, which was not in fact correct (but that’s another story for another time), led to the rise of a new economic program, neoliberalism (or supply-side economics), that basically attacked labor, aggressively privatized state institutions, and ripped social services to pieces. Keynesianism was eventually replaced by neoliberalism in the early ’80s. In the US, this moment is called “the Reagan revolution.”

After the fall of the Soviet Union in the late ’80s, Margaret Thatcher’s famous declaration, “There is no alternative” (also known as TINA), became a fact of life. Social democracy, socialism, communism, it was said, had all been tried and failed. Concern for workers’ rights and wages proved to be a bad foundation for economic policies. From now on, the rich would be the real job creators. “Adolph Reed [a black American political scientist and contributor to the Nation] described [this] situation as capitalism in a moment of no working-class opposition,” Sam Gindin, the coauthor of The Making of Global Capitalism, explained to me during a phone conversation.

But check this out: Because capitalism became our only reality, all people ever saw in

term “free-enterprise system.”

It is in this context that Sawant, who is a member of a real-deal socialist party, the Socialist Alternative (which is also running a competitive candidate for a council seat in Minneapolis, Ty Moore), has risen from obscurity to the mainstream of Seattle politics. True, the Socialist Alternative party is running a smart campaign, and Sawant is a smart candidate, and the idea to focus on tangible campaign agendas such as pay increases, rent control, and taxing the rich is proving to be efficacious. And true, Socialist Alternative’s program has the kind of political pragmatism that many find absent from the Socialist Workers Party—a local group that has a reputation for promoting ideas and programs that even most

She is a smart candidate focusing on tangible agendas, such as higher wages, rent control, and taxing millionaires.

the papers, on TV, and on the internet was the devastation and misery it causes. There was the Mobutu-level corruption of Enron, the expensive wars for oil and Halliburton’s stockholders, the spectacular rise of student debt, the Hurricane Katrina mess, the crash of 2008, the bailout of the rich, the foreclosures in poor and middle-class neighborhoods, and so on and so on. Everyone has forgotten the propaganda images of bland food, ugly cars, and long lines in the former Eastern Bloc. But everyone can easily recall the images of a major capitalist corporation spewing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and creating an oil slick that was visible from space.

Suddenly, calling someone a socialist seemed not as bad as calling someone a capitalist. Teabaggers could throw the word socialism at Obama or Obamacare, and it just did not stick or have much of an effect. Occupy protesters, however, could call Wall Street bankers capitalists, and the word not only stuck, but hurt. Indeed, in 2010, the Texas Board of Education voted to replace the word “capitalism” in school texts with the much friendlier

on the left find downright kooky.

But the Socialist Alternative savvy is also being rewarded by a political climate that is less hostile to socialist-leaning programs like universal health care, progressive taxes, and affordable higher education. Indeed, many basic government programs like Medicaid and Social Security are by their very nature socialist. It’s no accident that the period of the greatest economic growth in the US was between 1947 and 1973, the peak moment for social democracy.

For the past 30 years, we have given capitalism everything it wants—low taxes, low wages, budget cuts—and in return, all we got back are demands for even lower taxes, lower wages, and deeper budget cuts. What if for once we just stopped giving capitalism anything? How bad would that be? TINA? There is an alternative. Her name is Sawant. Vote for her.

Have you voted? A cheat sheet of all The Stranger’s endorsements is on page 13. THESTRANGER.COM

STRANGER SUGGESTS

Silly Goose, Ex-Girlfriend, Underworld Scum

MUSIC

Your best bet on All Hallows’ Eve eve is this eclectic buffet of thrilling/chilling cover bands! We have Silly Goose, Seattle’s premier Blink-182 cover band fronted by Jenn Ghetto herself; Underworld Scum, a brutal Misfits cover band that will definitely be in costume; and Ex-Girlfriend, a Taylor Swift supergroup bringing you all the heartbreak, bravery, and red lipstick you can handle. When asked about the preparations for the big show, Ex-Girlfriend singer Dashel Schueler told me, “It may be a little sloppy, but we’re fueled by Tay Tay energy.” (Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave NW, sunsettavern.com, 9 pm, $6, 21+) EMILY NOKES

Spookhaus

HAUNTED HOUSE

Two years ago, the upstart theater company Satori Group staged plays for one person at a time—you were led through a mystical, stormy, vaguely haunting story line by the actors themselves. Now, for All Saint’s Day, they’re turning their attention to scaring the shit out of you. They’re making a haunted house called Spookhaus. Expect a madman with a chain saw, a “bedbug room,” creepy videos, screaming actors, and Satan knows what else. Oh yeah, and there’s a dance party after. The $10 cover includes “liquid courage for your walk through the Haus.” (The Lab@INScape, INScape Arts Building, 815 Seattle Blvd S, brownpapertickets.com, haunted house 9–11:30 pm, dance party after, $10, 21+) CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE

Chico Madrid

Black Weirdo

MUSIC

Rumor has it that THEESatisfaction’s recent Black Weirdo party in Brooklyn was a huge success. The line is said to have gone around the corner. The people of NYC, the city at the center of the world, really wanted to see the main black weirdoes of the night—Mursi Layne, OCnotes, and Chocolate Chuck. But what is this all about? What does THEESatisfaction, one of Seattle’s top rap acts, mean by a “black weirdo”? I think it’s someone who is in the R&D department of black American culture, someone who is making new black art, film, or music. Also, as Erik Blood has made clear, you do not have to be black to be a black weirdo. (Lo-Fi Performance Gallery, 429 Eastlake Ave E, thelofi.net, 9 pm, 21+) CHARLES MUDEDE

From the Forest Floor BOOKS

November belongs to Short Run. The smallpress literature and comics festival is celebrating its third year by hosting a series of events culminating in a big show at Washington Hall on the last day of the month. Tonight’s kickoff party features gorgeous new artwork and comics from hot young local talent including Mat Whiteley, China Faith Star, and Sarah Rosenblatt. Because you can’t kick off a festival without some good music, Case Studies and the Waxing Hearts headline. (Heartland, hrtlnd.org, 7–11 pm) PAUL CONSTANT

Coyle’s Bakeshop

CHOW/BOOKS

Every month, pastry-making maniac Rachael Coyle hosts a pop-up bakeshop at Book Larder in Fremont. Her cakes, tarts, marshmallows, and croissants are made with expertise she gained while working at Cafe Presse, Le Pichet, and the Herbfarm—and this is her last bakeshop for a while, so don’t miss out! (She’s looking for a permanent space.) Allow yourself some time to peruse hundreds of gorgeous cookbooks, including Lily Vanilli’s Sweet Tooth (the edges of the pages are bright pink!) and Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar. Both are worth every penny. (Book Larder, 4252 Fremont Ave N, booklarder.com, 9 am–noon, free) MEGAN SELING

The last time I went to tiny, marvelous Chico Madrid, it was after a long summertime afternoon spent swimming in Lake Washington. Their sandwiches—Spanishstyle bocadillos, made on Columbia City Bakery ficelle with excellent ingredients—were exactly right for a hot day’s supper, and I sat outside and had a glass of their actually delicious sangria. (Most sangria tastes like orange peels and bad tannins, doesn’t it? Not Chico Madrid’s. And they have white sangria, too.) Time to pretend it’s summertime—see you soon, Chico Madrid. (Chico Madrid, 711 Bellevue Ave E, chicomadrid.com, 8 am–10 pm) BETHANY JEAN CLEMENT

Mazzy Star

Some bands wear creative stasis with panache— Mazzy Star, for example. Their new album, Seasons of Your Day, is their first since 1996, and not much has changed from their previous three LPs of opiated, melancholic psych blues and lonesome-cowboy folk. Hope Sandoval’s pulchritudinous sad-woman vocals remain a highlight over Seasons’ 10 tracks, and David Roback’s plangent, crystalline guitar continues to move emotions substantially with minimal gestures. All is bliss, still. Don’t ever change, Mazzy Star. (Neptune Theatre, 1303 NE 45th St, stgpresents.org, 8 pm, $35, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

The new film by the great Alexander Payne begins its official Seattle run on November 22, but here’s a onenight-only opportunity to see it early, thanks to SIFF’s New York Film Critics Series. Nebraska concerns a lotterybased father-son road trip, and stars Will Forte and Bruce Dern (who is said to give a career-topping performance). Bonus: Tonight’s screening will be followed by a live-via-satellite Q&A with Dern and Forte. (SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N, siff.net, 7 pm, $25/$20 members) DAVID SCHMADER

ARTS

ART

Closing In Hometown Boy Measures the Distance Between Survival and Living

BY JEN GRAVES

It’s September 2010, and the provincial government of the North Chinese city of Jincheng is announcing a “high-level attraction plan” to “promote the city’s industry upgrade.” Workers in the industrial standbys—the coal mines and paper mills that have left the landscape ransacked and blackened— are no longer needed. Workers in cleaner fields like high tech will be paid a lump sum to relocate to Shanxi; they’ll be the components of the new operating system.

This same year, artist Liu Xiaodong writes, “This time, I’ve decided, I’m really going home”—to Jincheng, a place he left as a teenager. Liu Xiaodong grew up to be a famous artist. His teenage friends grew up to become redundant. Every Chinese New Year, the artist comes home, but now he’s “really going home.” A camera crew follows him to make a documentary as he creates his portrait of the place in a project he calls Hometown Boy

While Liu Xiaodong’s been at the Venice Biennale, his old friends have been to prison and the graveyard shift. The first few paintings he makes upon his return go slowly. He admits that he’s nervous. At one point, he sets up an elaborate tent out in the muddy fields of Jincheng, where he’s doing a group portrait. Done for the day, he leaves the makeshift studio for the night—at night, they might drink,

“These brothers of mine are the forgotten,” he says, quietly. (In terms of temperament, Liu Xiaodong is nothing like Ai Weiwei, the performer of dissidence who makes portraits of the marginalized.) “The working class is forgotten. However talented they are individually… they are a forgotten group. It unsettles me.”

He wants to restore their individualities—over here, look at this journal entry with an old photograph of the same guy in that painting over there—but also to capture the environmental overlay, a blanket they’re under as real as the smothering smog. Hence the woman by the pool table, looking tough, but with a surprising layer of worry still in her eyes. The former criminal who boasts (in the movie) that he still has gun lead embedded in his flesh appears in his painting hold-

LOOSE LIPS

• At the Reel Grrls fundraiser last week, the party concept was Golden Grrls. Artist Jeffry Mitchell was there in gold costume jewelry. Fashion designer Mark Mitchell was there in a hand-knitted cap with golden sparkles. Host Lindy West (who had a gold dress on, and is a girl, and is real) regaled the crowd with tales of Jane Fonda–hugging. Golden balloons fell from the sky. And more than 71k was raised for Reel Grrls, which teaches girls and young women the technical and artistic skills necessary to create transformational visual media.

play cards, sing karaoke—until word reaches him that someone’s set his tent, and his great unfinished painting, on fire. Visiting the scene of the crime, Liu Xiaodong gathers up the singed painting and seems to save it rather than throwing it away, but we are never told its exact fate, and the movie drops the subject, the hostile party never identified. The episode stands on its own as simply part of the project.

In Beijing, where Hometown Boy was first exhibited in late 2010, it included 26 oil paintings, more than 200 pages of framed diary entries—dotted with new and old photographs—and the full-length film. At SAAM, the film screens continuously, and a handful of paintings and drawings convey the flavor, even if you’re left wanting more. Most are portraits of people, but a few aren’t: a small, sorry scene of a former public swimming pool overgrown with weeds, a depiction of a bar of soap in a bowl of detergent in such appetizing colors it looks like a gourmet dessert. The metaphors of abandonment, cleanup, waste, and exhaustion are right on these surfaces.

“When making art about loyalty, I had a burden on my heart,” Liu Xiaodong tells his award-winning director, Hou Hsiao-Hsien.

It’s the ostensible closeness to subjects and scenes that fuels the fire of these pictures—the fire that infuses their vivid, sagging, Van Gogh–like appeal, and the fire that brought the literal destruction of one of them in progress. Liu Xiaodong paints rapidly on-site rather than using photographs. But his presence brings the same problems as any documentarian’s does: You can document survival only when you’re beyond worrying about it.

Still, the artist’s sense of solidarity makes Hometown Boy different from his past works depicting homeless people, migrant workers, and prostitutes. These marginalized are his marginalized. He’s sappy for them, and taken individually, each painting might be almost hokey.

ing his chubby baby in his withered lap. Liu Xiaodong saves certain details for drawings, others for painting, and still others for film. You have to watch the way the mediums work together and separately.

There are devastating moments brought about by these intersections of color, sorrow, documentary footage, journal descriptions, and thick, gloppy paint. One of the first paintings—one that went slowly because he was still so nervous—is Li Wu Works the Night Shift and Still Can’t Sleep by Day Li Wu sits on the arm of the couch, a zombie in a striped shirt. Basketball’s on TV. Soccer players in a crooked poster above him fight hard for a ball. The stripes on Li Wu’s shirt are really cheerful, blue and orange in the shades of a tropical sunrise. He stares off into nowhere that good. From the way he looks, you can tell he’s still in that moment in his life when he looks like himself as a boy. If he could just get some rest.

ART

Art Surveillance

Gigapixel ArtZoom Wants You

BY JEN GRAVES

One recent sunny Saturday afternoon, two inventors talked their way onto the roof of a downtown condo tower. They chose the tower because, magically, it’s mostly free of view-blocking neighbors; you can almost shoot a full-360 photo of the city from up there. They set up a modified camera and went to work, taking thousands of pictures in every direction, which later would be combined to create one incredible image stitching them all together. In this new superimage, you can see who’s on the viewing deck at the Space Needle in the center of the city, as well as if there’s a climber halfway up Mount Rainier 82 miles away. Made of many billions of pixels, this superpicture is probably the single most detailed image ever captured of Seattle. It’s not for state surveillance. Its purpose is art.

“A small team at Microsoft Research has pioneered the technology behind the creation of very-high-resolution panoramic images that allow you to pan and zoom to very fine detail. Now the team wants to create a celebration of the arts in Seattle,” John Boylan wrote in an e-mail to his extensive address book full of artists. Boylan’s been organizing public conversations about art in Seattle for more

• Last week, Marina Abramovic listed Ryan Mitchell (Implied Violence, Saint Genet) as one of two Americans on her “10 young provocateurs to watch” list. Her brief write-up focused on Shoot, Mitchell’s re-creation of the Chris Burden “sculpture” that involved being shot in the arm.

• Thursday brought the opening night of SIFF’s French Cinema Now fest and the Seattle premiere of Blue Is the Warmest Color, the sexual-coming-of-age drama featuring extensive and intricate lesbian sex. Before the show, a sexagenarian attendee was overheard identifying himself as a French teacher who’d bought tickets with zero knowledge of the film. Here’s hoping the three-hour parade of labial grinding, close-up cunnilingus, and great acting served him well. Blue returns November 22 for a full Seattle run.

• Boeing’s given $40,000 to TeenTix, the great local org that’s fought to give teenagers access to arts in Seattle, including furnishing $5 tickets and running a young critics’ blog.

• The enormous Lit Crawl Thursday was grand. The highlight of the evening was Matthew Simmons, Stacey Levine, and Ryan Boudinot at the Hugo House. The stories ranged from a heartbreaking account of the end of Bert and Ernie’s relationship, to what happens when every American decides to leave America, to a plea to use the word “benches” instead of “breasts.” It was one of the best readings in Seattle this year.

• The Henry Art Gallery’s quarterly Open House last Friday involved a notable absence: Nineteen farm animals had spent time in the galleries, unphotographed and unwitnessed by anyone but those involved, only leaving behind scuff marks, dirt, and stray straw. Their leavings, called The Living, are part of an ongoing exhibition of storied sculptures by Berlin-based artist Jason Dodge

• This week, the City of Seattle announced the hiring of one of the world’s leading sound artists, former punk guitarist Stephen Vitiello, to create something along the redeveloped Seattle waterfront. He’s worked at every fancy museum everywhere, on New York’s High Line, and in the World Trade Center towers back in 1999. Now he starts developing his proposal for our part of the world.

• The gutting of TUBS on 50th Street has begun, meaning the full destruction of the graffiti mecca can’t be far off, right? Take pictures.

• Ornamental gourds are 69 cents at

than a decade. He knows the Microsoft inventors of Photosynth—Michael Cohen and Matt Uyttendaele, the two guys on the roof of the condo—and he’s helping them with the project they’re calling Gigapixel ArtZoom.

“This will be a single, multibillion-pixel, zoomable panoramic image of the city and its surroundings,” Boylan wrote. “Imagine yourself somewhere in the image. Cohen and his team want to create a sweeping image of Seattle where, when you drill down, you will see performers and artists on street corners, on rooftops, in parking garages.”

Dancers in midair, muralists in mid-mural, writers on boats out in Elliott Bay.

Many artists are signed on already, and more are welcome (e-mail Elise Ballard at elise.ballard@hotmail.com). Each arranges an appointment in a specific location. The camera will be stationed on that rooftop at Broad and Second to replicate the perspective of the original superpicture created that sunny Saturday afternoon, which will provide the backdrop for the final portrait. At appointed moments, through text-message coordination, the artists will begin doing their things and the camera will start shooting.

Later in the studio, one image of each artist will be selected. These images will be cut out and stitched into the original superpicture, superimposed onto the lawns at Gas Works Park or the waters of Lake Union (places that just happened to be empty of people on that original Saturday).

The final media object, the interactive Gigapixel ArtZoom itself, will be made publicly available online when it’s finished. Its creators hope it will become a historical document, maybe even kept in the digital collection of the Museum of History and Industry as a portrait of Seattle art in fall 2013, all visualized to be happening at the same moment.

The organizers are working to beat the winter weather and juggling the elaborate management of hundreds of artists performing exactly at their appointed times across the city—and then, hours and hours of postproduction work will go into finishing the Gigapixel ArtZoom, which organizers are dreaming of unveiling publicly on the giant panoramic screen at Pacific Science Center sometime before the end of the year.

Shooting started this week. If you see an artist out there performing for nobody, it doesn’t mean nobody’s watching.

BOOKS

The Sweet Science

Ada’s Technical Books Is Beautiful, Smart, and Ready to Meet You

BY PAUL CONSTANT

This could very well be the new most beautiful bookstore in Seattle. Ada’s Technical Books, the science-obsessed bookshop that’s been thriving at the very end of Broadway for three and a half years now, is moving a few blocks up the hill to the old Horizon Books house on 15th Avenue East, with a grand opening party on Saturday, November 2. Owners David and Danielle Hulton bought the house last May and have been renovating it ever since.

That year-and-a-half investment has paid off with a jackpot; when Hulton gives me a tour of her new space—David is a full partner and active in designing and working on the space, but Danielle is the day-to-day manager—I can’t help but gush. Walking down what

Hulton calls the store’s “spine,” you’re dazzled by glass and repurposed wood—about 90 percent of the wood fixtures have been repurposed from the old space, including old doors that partially separate the airy cafe on the left from the tall stacks of books on the right. To riff on a famous Hemingway invention, the new bookstore is a clean, well-lighted place for books and the people who love them.

PREVIEW

Grand

(Re)Opening Party

Sat Nov 2, Ada’s Technical Books, seattletechnical books.com, noon–3 pm, free

With its comfy seating and welcoming fireplace, Ada’s is the kind of space where you just want to spend time. The store’s sections—technical electronic manuals, computer guides, kids’ books, science fiction, biographies of scientists, a small-but-sure-to-grow set of shelves for cookbooks and guides to the sciences of coffee and tea abutting the cafe space— all feel slightly foreign when compared to the liberal-arts-friendly sections found in most general-interest bookstores. They demand inspection. There are puzzles and games and science kits available. Plenty of outlets line the walls and floors for laptops— Hulton was an electrical engineer before she opened Ada’s—and the back room features a convertible screen and projector that can be used during readings. For the first time, Ada’s has an official events coordinator, and they intend to ramp up their already quite full calendar of book clubs, presentations, science talks, and traditional readings in the months ahead.

Hulton had never worked as a bookseller before, and she credits Ada’s success in part to her lack of experience in the field. She sounds jaw-droppingly optimistic for a bookstore owner. “Books aren’t going away,” she says, and, ever the jovial science nerd, she’s done the research to back up that claim. She knows that to run a bookstore, you can’t compete with the quantity of online booksellers, but you can know your stock, specialize, and ensure the quality of the titles you carry. (Hulton refuses to carry the “for Dummies” series of books, for instance, because there are too many intelligent, useful science guides for beginners that don’t insult their readers right there in the title.)

Ada’s also sells used books and e-books, the staff can order any book in print, and when I ask if there’s anything Hulton couldn’t incorporate into her goal to make Ada’s the bookstore of the future, she laments that the technology does not quite exist yet for customers to scan a hard copy of a book and buy the e-book directly from the retailer while standing in the store. She’s confident that will be a reality one day, hopefully soon.

In the course of the move, Ada’s has upped the staff from five employees to 15. The cafe at the front of the store will serve coffee, breakfast, and lunch, and cafe manager Crystal Blaylock Gee brings out samples of a few of the new dishes, including a delicious pistachio granola, a small cast-iron skillet spilling over with macaroni and cheese, a curried lentil dish, and a gooey hot cinnamon roll. The menu is made in-house, from local ingredients whenever possible.

This obsession with detail doesn’t end on the plates; the cafe tables are glass-covered display boxes with scientific paraphernalia inside. One table is filled with locks and locksmith tools. Another has a map of the stars and a gold telescope. And one table is filled with 774 tiny compasses that jitter nervously when you run a cell phone across the top of the table. David Hulton is assembling a working difference engine—an early mechanical computer created by Charles Babbage, research partner of store-namesake computer science pioneer Ada Lovelace—that will be on display, too.

A lot of worried-looking people have approached me at panels and book events to

Ave

ask me what the future of the bookstore looks like, if the bookstore even has a future. Talking to Hulton about her successful past and promising present, I couldn’t be any more confident about the future of bookselling. Ada’s looks closer to that future than anywhere else in Seattle, and the future is a beautiful, hopeful place to visit.

THEATER

A Grim Caper

The Triumph of a 13-Year-Old Girl

BY BRENDAN KILEY

The set for Bo-Nita: A Play Performed by One Woman is a fake-out. At first, it looks like the oppressive, brutalist exterior wall of an urban American high school—it’s as implacable as a cliff, with slab-like buttresses at the top angling out toward the audience, threatening to crush the well-dressed people in the first few rows. Its color is a Rothko-style study in baby-shit yellow, mottled with swaths of white, as if somebody has used a paint roller to cover up graffiti. A large basketball backboard hangs in the middle of the wall, its hoop sagging like a slacked jaw.

There’s one sign of life on stage—tucked up in a corner, sitting on the ground behind a bicycle rack, a girl reading a book. Meet Bo-Nita, a 13-year-old who wears lots of layers: blue jeans with cuffs frayed at the heels, a baby-doll dress over the jeans, a hoodie over the dress, and plastic barrettes in her hair. She looks trapped and tiny in this concrete canyon. As she stands up, looks around, and steps forward to address us (“There’s this guy… he’s like my… well, this guy, you know?”), we realize that this set, designed by Jen Zeyl, is really just a blank canvas. Even though it doesn’t have any trapdoors or rotating platforms or other tricks—it doesn’t physically change at all—it becomes wherever Bo-Nita needs it to be as she tells us her epic, winding story about what happened when her mom’s ex-husband was trying to beat her, and perhaps to rape her, and then had a heart attack.

Nita to tell us about her life while acting out half a dozen characters on the way: her waitress mother; her stoner, exotic-dancing grandmother; the grandmother’s pot-dealing brother; Gerard, who has abused her but also been a sort of mentor; Gerard’s even-more-Cajun uncle; and the shocked and twitchy Number 47, a tile salesman.

Mootz flies through all these characters like an ace pilot, sometimes playing four of them all fighting each other at once. Like the set, the story is deceptive. On its face, Bo-Nita is a body-disposal-adventure comedy of errors, at times with the frenetic, gallows-humor energy of a Quentin Tarantino film. But it’s wrenching the way Bo-Nita casually drops small details— about her grandmother’s cancer, her mother’s string of bad boyfriends and prison time, the restraining order they had to get against Gerard—before skipping on to the next colorful anecdote. Cancer, a jailbird mom, and child molestation are simply the contours of her life, not anything she dwells on for too long. Their very unremarkable-ness to Bo-Nita is what makes them, for her listeners, so painful to hear. But while the details jerk us from comedy to tragedy and back again, the story flows out of Mootz with the seamless, high-energy patter of a preadolescent who just wants someone to listen to her, on her terms for a change.

Heffron says she started Bo-Nita in 2008, after her first regional-theater production, Mitzi’s Abortion, at ACT Theatre. Like Bo-Nita, Abortion navigated tough social terrain by sticking to the absurdity of its characters’ situations and their senses of humor.

She had started working on a play about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and was doing intensive research about nuclear waste.

“I thought, ‘I can’t take this anymore,’” Heffron said, “so I’d sneak over and secretly work on Bo-Nita. The funny stuff came first because the nuclear stuff was so dark.”

ROCKIN PIANO SHOW

REVIEW

Bo-nita Seattle Repertory Theatre Through Nov 17

Written by Seattle playwright Elizabeth Heffron, directed by Paul Budraitis, and performed by Cornish graduate Hannah Mootz, the talent behind Bo-Nita is about as local as it gets. But the story—about the vulnerability and rage of a young girl, and how she uses humor to cope with her thorny, dangerous world—could be from anywhere.

Bo-Nita’s story begins with Gerard, her mother’s ex-husband (who’s part Cajun) writhing on the floor, begging Bo-Nita to fetch him some nitroglycerin from the medicine chest for his sudden heart failure. “He keeps working this whole ‘life’ deal,” Bo-Nita tells us in an eye-rolling tone of voice, “fighting for all the angles, hoping I’d just forget the pounding he was about to give me for having a smartass mouth—’cause I joked about him not being able to get it up to poke me. Like I was gonna go get his nitro!? No way, sucker, writhe!”

Once Gerard is safely passed out, Bo-Nita is seized with a sudden fury, flies off her bunk bed, and beats his unconscious face into an actual pulp. Mom shows up a few moments later, drunk, with a new boyfriend in tow (Bo-Nita dubs him “Whozzits Number 47”), and then everybody’s got a problem. Bo-Nita could be accused of killing Gerard, mom’s already in a tenuous legal and child-custody situation, and Number 47 is married and doesn’t want any public controversy to pin him at the scene. They’ve got to get rid of the body.

The rest of this grim caper, with its footnotes and asides, becomes the vehicle for Bo-

It began as a play for at least five actors, but she realized the story would be told best if it all happened in Bo-Nita’s mind. “Letting it be so female was helpful,” she said. “That’s the voice—it’s just the girl. And about the ambivalent way life puts people in the world. How the people who can help you can also hurt you.”

That ambivalence is at the center of Bo-Nita’s complicated relationship with her mother and with Gerard.

She has affection for him, as well as the conversations and fun they’ve had over the years, but he’s also abused her. Heffron, and Bo-Nita, won’t allow us to dismiss him as a simple monster, but he’s not a good guy either. “Young women are just so unprotected,” Heffron said. “You go through life and those things happen—that level of danger you’re unaware of until things get really crazy. I think that stuff happens so much more than people realize.”

For that reason, Heffron’s work makes a point of tangling the human side of a story with its broader social and political implications. She worked for several years teaching in a women’s prison and saw how tough it is for ex-con single moms, especially in a climate that wants to cut social-services programs for people like Bo-Nita and her mother.

“It makes me furious when people talk about how much money it costs,” she said. “It’s like: ‘What are you talking about? These are our future citizens.’ I just find that so naive and stupid. For me, the goal was to tell a human story about the harshness of capitalism, and ask what really is a social safety net?” Especially a safety net that looks like Bo-Nita’s.

The magic of Heffron’s writing—and Mootz’s performance and Budraitis’s direction—is its deftness, its ability to slip these bitter questions into a story that is, despite itself, still funny. Bo-Nita, like its title character, is a little miracle.

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Enso String Quartet Opera Composers’ String Quartets

(11/1) Lyanda Lynn Haupt The Secret Lives of Urban Wildlife (11/2) Max Blumenthal Life & Loathing in Greater Israel (11/3) Short Stories Live Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (11/4) Howard G. Buffett, Howard W. Buffett, & Joe Whinney ‘40 Chances’ (11/4) Billy Collins: ‘Aimless Love’ (11/5) Rebecca Eaton ‘Masterpiece’,‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Sherlock,’ & More (11/6) Town Music: Enso String Quartet Opera Composers’ String Quartets (11/6) Scholar in Residence Dr. David Montgomery Stories From My Pet Rocks (11/7) Simon Singh ‘The Simpsons & Their Mathematical Secrets’

(11/7) Donald Fagen of Steely Dan with Ross Reynolds ‘Eminent Hipsters’

11/7

‘The Book of Jezebel’ Anna Holmes & Lindy West

ART

Museums

FRYE ART MUSEUM

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth and the 120th anniversary of his American debut, Munich Secession cofounder Franz von Stuck—the painter of Sin —is celebrated in the first monographic exhibition in the United States dedicated to his accomplishments. It’s a joint project of the Frye and the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich. The opening reception is Friday night from 7:30 to 9 (visit the web to reserve free tickets), and a talk by Frye director/former Museum Villa Stuck director Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker is 2 to 3 on Saturday. Free. Tues-Sun. Through Feb 2. 704 Terry Ave, 622-9250.

HENRY ART GALLERY

Jason Dodge’s sculptures are stories. They are: what’s left after 19 farm animals spend time in the galleries, pillows slept on only by ornithologists, pillows slept on only by acrobats, linens from a local hotel linen service changed weekly, and rolls of newsprint that will become actual pages of the Seattle Times during the run of the exhibition. Through Jan 26. South Korean-born artist Haegue Yang grew up in an environment where you closed the blinds when company came over, just in case the government was watching. Now, she makes installations entirely out of artfully arranged, dangling Venetian blinds. They’re swaying constellations of pretty surveillance. Through Jan 9. David Hartt: Stray Light: The photographer David Hartt got inside the iconic 1971 headquarters of Johnson Publishing in Chicago—the launching pad for Jet and Ebony magazines—right before the building was sold. The photographs, pictures, and sculptures he created are deadpan memorial documents of a specific time of pride and purpose. Through Jan 5. Camera Nipponica: Photographs from Japan, 1880–1930: This small exhibition includes a shelf of incredible, teeny, handcolored glass-lantern slides taken between 1880 and 1930 in Japan. They glow bright. $10 suggested. Wed-Sun. Through Jan 5. 4100 15th Ave NE , 543-2280.

SEATTLE ART MUSEUM

Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and Moon: The museum turns its focus southward to Peru this season, with a great big sparkling exhibition of rarely seen sculpture, painting, and textiles surveying 3,000 years of patrimony, from the Incas to the viceroys and the saints. $20. Wed-Sun. Through Jan 5. 1300 First Ave 625-8900.

SEATTLE ASIAN ART MUSEUM

Liu Xiaodong: See review, page 21. $7 suggested. WedSun. Through Jun 29. 1400 E Prospect St, 654-3100.

Gallery

Openings

ABMEYER AND WOOD

Catherine Eaton Skinner : A multidisciplinary artistic study from the encaustic painter and sculptor, the subject of which is the number 108 and its significance in Buddhism and Hinduism. Free. Reception Thurs Nov 7, 5-8 pm. Tues-Sat. Through Nov 30. 1210 Second Ave S, 628-9501.

A/NT GALLERY

Discovery, a Revelation! : A show with artwork from Juan Gimelli Hemme, Jenn Whitford Robins, and Al Chiado. In various mediums. Free. Reception Sat Nov 2, 6-9 pm. Sat Nov 2. 2045 Westlake Ave

SEATTLE CITY HALL

A Sense of Place II: A group show curated by Juan Alonso that explores ideas of home, belonging, cultural identity, and regionalism. Presented by Idea Odyssey. Free. Reception Thurs Nov 7, 4-6 pm Mon-Fri. Through Jan 3. 600 4th Avenue

CORE

Kathy Liao: I’m Home: Or, in Japanese, ただいま, which is the announcement of one’s return when you arrive—a

phrase that’s resonant with the Taiwan-born artist’s art. Her paintings focus on the familial and intimate spaces of life. Free. Reception Thurs Nov 7, 6-9 pm Wed-Sat. Through Nov 30. 117 Prefontaine Place S 467-4444.

CORNISH COLLEGE OF THE ARTS MAIN GALLERY Russia Rising: Votes for Freedom : Thirty international artists created posters that call for democratic and human rights reforms in Russia. Free. TuesSat. Through Dec 20. 1000 Lenora St, 726-5011.

Events

ARTS & SOCIAL CHANGE

VISIONING SUMMIT

Roundtable and group discussions, including the thoughts of Robert Garfinkle, the architect of RACE: Are We So Different? currently on exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, 104 17th Ave S, 684-4757. www. ci.seattle.wa.us/parks/Centers/ langston.htm. Free. Tues Nov 5, 11 am-2 pm.

CABARET MACABARE

The 10th annual Dia de los Muertos celebration, with aerialists, gypsy-punk music, surreal horror films, electronic music, and fire dancing. Plenty of things to do and see, peppered throughout the space. Fred Wildlife Refuge , 127 Boylston Ave E, 588-6959. fredwildliferefuge.com. $18$20. Fri Nov 1 at 8 pm. visualart@thestranger.com

READINGS

Wed 10/30

BILL AYERS

The man who famously inspired Sarah Palin’s comment that President Obama was “pallin’ around with terrorists” will read from his new biography, Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident . I wonder if those idiots at Fox News will have anything to say about this book? Elliott Bay Book Company 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600. elliottbaybook. com. Free. 7 pm.

DAN SIMMONS

Simmons is the author of many very good sci-fi and historical fiction novels. His new novel,The Abominable, is about a quest to climb Mount Everest in 1924, and the secrets that three explorers are hiding. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333. thirdplacebooks.com. Free. 7 pm.

SIMON WINCHESTER

The beloved author of the wildly popular historical book The Professor and the Madman returns with The Men Who United the States: America’s Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation Indivisible Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth Avenue, 624-6600. Free. 7 pm.

Thurs 10/31

ANNE LAMOTT

Lamott writes popular books about spirituality. Her thinking, as far as I’m concerned, has gotten lazy lately. Her newest book is titled Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Despair Seattle First Baptist Church 1111 Harvard Ave, 624-6600. Free. 7 pm.

GREGORY STOCK

Stock wrote the very popular fad book The Book of Questions Now he’s back with a new one, which is full of new questions. Or is it? No, just kidding, it definitely is. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 624-6600. townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 pm.

Fri 11/1

FROM THE FOREST FLOOR

See Stranger Suggests, page 19. Heartland. hrtlnd.org. $5. 7 pm.

AMBER NELSON Nelson is a local writer who also publishes chapbooks under the excellent Alice Blue imprint. In Anima: Urgency is her first fulllength book. Open Books , 2414 N 45th St, 633-0811.

openpoetrybooks.com. Free. 7:30 pm.

LYANDA LYNN HAUPT

The author of Urban Bestiary discusses all the animals that make cities their home. Including raccoons. Man, raccoons are just terrible. Town Hall , 1119 Eighth Ave, 6343400. townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 pm.

Sat 11/2

CARI LUNA

At the Lit Crawl last week, Cari Luna read a portion of her new novel The Revolution of Every Day. It was a very interesting reading, and the subject matter—the book focuses on a group of squatters—isn’t the sort of thing you often read about in comfortable, middleclass literary fiction. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600. elliottbaybook. com. Free. 7 pm.

Mon 11/4

TOM NISSLEY Nissley is a Stranger contributor who also had a successful run on Jeopardy! His new book is titled A Reader’s Book of Days and it reportedly “features bitesize accounts of events in the lives of great authors for every day of the year.” Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600. elliottbaybook. com. Free. 7 pm.

BILLY COLLINS Billy Collins is a popular poet. That is all I have to say about Billy Collins. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255. townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 pm.

DON R. CRAWLEY Compassionate Geek: Mastering Customer Service for I.T. Professionals is a book that is now in its second edition. Lucid, 5241 University Way NE, 402-3042. Free. 7:30 pm.

Tues 11/5

DANIEL GOLDBERG, LINUS LARSSON

This is an all-day gaming session, with pizza and soda and junk food, to celebrate the release of the book Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus Notch Persson and the Game that Changed Everything. It’s an interesting biography of a game that expanded our belief of what a game can be. HUB 4001 E Stevens Way NE, 634-3400. Free. 6:30 pm.

LEMONY SNICKET When Did You See Her Last? is a book for young readers that takes place in a town called Stain’d-by-the-Sea. Third Place Books 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333. thirdplacebooks.com. Free. 7 pm. REBECCA EATON Eaton’s memoir of producing PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre is titled Making Masterpiece There’s something about Benedict Cumberbatch in the book! EE EEEE! Town Hall 1119 Eighth Ave, 634-3400. townhallseattle.org. $5. 7:30 pm. readings@thestranger.com

THEATER

Opening and Current Runs

ANIMAL CRUELTY

THE DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT “

The Daughter of the Regiment is a complete blast and the perfect way for Seattle Opera to open its 50th season—it tells the story of Marie, an apparently orphaned tomboy who is found on a battlefield (this production is set in France in the l940s), gets raised by a regiment, falls in love with a civilian named Tonio, and is ‘adopted’ against her will by a wealthy marquise. This being a comic opera, the lovers are brought together, the proud are humbled, the chilly are warmed by love, and though the whole thing takes place during war, no one gets killed.” (Rebecca Brown) Seattle Opera at McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St, 389-7676. seattleopera.org. $15-$177. Wed at 7:30 pm, Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm. Through Nov 2.

ROPE

The Patrick Hamiltion play, once adapted for the screen by Hitchcock, about two young ivy league men who commit a murder just to prove they can get away with it. It’s loosely based on the Leopold and Loeb story of 1924. Ghost Light Theatrical at The Ballard Underground, 2220 NW Market St, 3955458. ghostlighttheatricals.org. $12-$15. Thurs-Sat at 7:30 pm. Through Nov 16.

SEX DRUGS DEATH DISCO: THE MICHAEL ALIG STORY A dramatization of the life and times of ‘90s club promoter and convicted killer Michael Alig. Costumes encouraged. Written by Vincent Kovar, directed by Gary Zinter and Rodney Shrader. Re-bar, 1114 Howell St, 233-9873. brownpapertickets.com. $15-$18. Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm. Through Nov 23. THE UNDERNEATH “In a Twin Peaks –like small town, where the local sheriff is honest and heartily mustachioed, a developer is planning a huge water park. Of course, the development disturbs the old town square, which hides ancient oceanic evil. With small, vivid details—missing fingers, absurd sex in a pay toilet— playwright Kelleen Conway Blanchard surprises and entertains us anew, even with a predictable, B-grade horror-movie plot. But for all its fun language, the show as a whole lacks cohesion: Action scenes get convoluted, characters’ motivations switch haphazardly, actors seem lethargic.” (Anna Minard) Annex Theatre, 1100 E Pike St, 728-0933. annextheatre. org. $5-$20. Thurs-Sat at 8 pm. Through Nov 16.

A VERY MERRY

UNAUTHORIZED CHILDREN’S SCIENTOLOGY PAGEANT The satirical musical about L. Ron Hubbard, using children’s Christmas-pageant tropes to tackle Scientology. Directed by Douglas Willott, starring actual children. Balagan Theatre at Erickson Theater Off Broadway, 1524 Harvard Ave, 329-1050. balagantheatre. org. Thurs-Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 2 pm. Through Dec 21.

Dance

MOMIX

These internationally popular “dance illusionists” create elaborate, visually surprising performances with rich costumes and color—it’s contemporary dance with a circus-showman’s flair. The piece performed here, Botanica , is a paean to the beauty of the natural world. Meany Hall , UW Campus, 543-4880. uwworldseries.org.

“Noir parodies have been done to death, but when you find a rare noir-fueled comedy that works, it’s as delicious and welcome a surprise as finding a $20 bill in a $5 thrift-store jacket. The shadow-puppet Chicken Jenny—a world-weary dame who thinks she’s a Southern Lady—makes the perfect central character for another down-and-dirty noir by the popular puppet group Sgt. Rigsby & His Amazing Silhouettes.” (Paul Constant) Printer’s Devil at Theatre Off Jackson, 409 Seventh Ave S, 340-1049. printersdevil.org. $15-$18. Thurs-Sat at 8 pm. Through Nov 9. BO-NITA See review, page 25. Seattle Repertory Theatre , 155 Mercer St, Seattle Center, 443-2222. seattlerep.org. Tues-Thurs at 7:30 pm, Fri-Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 2 and 7:30 pm. Through Nov 17.

WORN OUT

THE HORROR OF MICHAEL JACKSON

Thursday, October 31, is the last day to see EMP’s Can’t Look Away: The Lure of Horror Film, an exhibit of the genre’s cherished remnants, including movie clips, drippy theremin music, and props everywhere. They’ve got the axe from The Shining, the mask from Friday the 13th, and the clammyboned, face-smothering monster from Aliens. (Viewed up close, the organ centering its underside so plainly resembles lady parts that the creature might want to think about picking up modeling gigs for Hustler.)

They’ve also got one of the zombie ensembles from 1983’s Michael Jackson’s Thriller. It’s an ordinary men’s suit, though it’s all spookily tattered and embedded with vines and leaves, and the gray twill fabric has clear little nuggets stuck to it, suggesting dried boogers. Costumer Kelly Kimball styled this and the other backup dancers’ looks from a collection of Salvation Army outfits, which she’d methodically slashed and rumpled and dirtied up, to rouse the dilapidated beauty.

Of course, Thriller’s most prominent item is the red structural jacket worn by the very young, very spry, and very wet-haired Jackson. EMP doesn’t have it, but it’s worth mentioning since it pretty much changed the entire fucking world. Designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis created the garment, with its calf leather and trapunto quilting and famously winged lapel, shaped to “evoke the devil—chevrons are

traditionally a fashion signature of evil,” she said in a frocktalk.com interview with Kristin Burke. Landis also dyed some jeans so Jackson would match like crazy, and incorporated the only shoes he would ever dance in: beat-up, mall-bought Florsheim loafers. When she first presented these ideas, Jackson kept Landis waiting until 2 a.m., so she passed time sleeping on a couch in his receptionist’s office.

In his book The King of Style, Jackson’s long-term costume designer Michael Bush describes similar behaviors, with Jackson frequently calling to request Bush’s immedi-

ate appearance at Neverland Ranch. Bush would drop everything and drive for hours, “sometimes to review specific instructions… other times solely to receive a cryptic rhetorical question.” Or Jackson would assign brilliant but impossible tasks. Make a “Beat It” jacket capable of spontaneously bursting into flame, for instance. Often enough, he’d phone at 3 a.m. just for shits, speaking through a cardboard paper towel roll in a fake British accent.

Send fashion tips to marti@thestranger.com

CHOW

The Restaurant Aquatic

Is Westward Too Much or Just Enough?

BY BETHANY JEAN CLEMENT

Halfway between Ivar’s and Gas Works Park is a magical place called Westward. When you see the big sign with the oyster shells piled up around its foot, in the middle of

nowhere beneath the Burke-Gilman Trail on Northlake Way, you are here. (Assuming you’re not arriving by boat, in which case, use your sextant and to hell with you.) You walk down the driveway, and there’s a blazing hot fire surrounded by a ring of more oyster shells, and those surrounded by Adirondack chairs, with cozy blankets draped here and there. The view is of the city across the water to the south, a view you probably rarely see. On a recent sunny late afternoon, it all glinted and dazzled like an urban mirage; on a recent foggy night, ghosts of boats were barely visible, the water more a sound than a sight. If you want to sit outside—if the weather permits—they’ll bring you sparkling wine and oysters on the half shell and whatever else you like. Inside, you’ll find a shipshape oyster bar and, adjoining but with its own door, Westward. By the host stand hang portraits of Captain Merrill Stubing (of the Pacific Princess), Captain Steve Zissou (the Belafonte), and two more seamen. The host doesn’t know

who the others are; one of them looks like the Gorton’s fisherman. They’re planning to add to their wall of captains, she says.

Westward 2501 N Northlake Way, 552-8215 stage.westwardseattle.com

The dining room has pilings for pillars, with cleats on them to hang up your coat. Big lampshades up above are decked out with numbers and stripes, as if made out of sails. The restrooms, behind a rope divider, have portholes in the doors. Other light fixtures appear to be made of old wire crab-traps. The staff wears nautical, jauntily striped shirts, like Halloween French sailors; one might even wear a woolen watch cap. Mainly, though, there’s the huge cutaway diorama of a ship on the wall behind the bar, like the one in The Life Aquatic but, alarmingly, more quirky and more charming. Instead of the rooms from a ship, each one contains its own bizarre miniature world: There’s a deep-sea diver plunging through the ceiling of an underwater dining room, the Abominable Snowman going on an icy-blue rampage, dogs calmly playing poker, a gallery with tiny replicas of the Delft ceramic machine guns of local

artist Charles Krafft. If you squint at certain miniature rooms you can’t really see (is that a model train?), a sailor-shirted server will bring you a small spyglass in a wooden box. The spyglass does not work particularly well, but it certainly is cute as hell.

Aside from Charles Krafft being a white nationalist and Holocaust denier, this all sounds undeniably like a surfeit of whimsy. There are worse things than whimsy (like white nationalist Holocaust deniers), but if you described this restaurant to me, I would mentally run screaming in the other direction.

location makes it feel like you’ve stumbled into a fun, slightly weird alternate reality, not that you’ve ended up in some Wes Anderson fanatic’s creepy fantasy.

Josh Henderson, of Skillet fame, made Westward. (A server said that he’s obsessed with The Life Aquatic; he denies obsession but says he does love the movie.) The chef is Zoi Antonitsas, formerly of the excellent Madison Park Conservatory. The food is very good, when it’s not outright great.

The oysters on the half-shell were spectacular—especially the Sea Cows from Hama Hama, much smaller than you’d expect an oyster called a cow to be—and your shucker might bring them to the table and tell you exactly what local inlet they’re from and how close he came to winning a shucking championship recently. Little paper flags with the oysters’ names on them are stuck in the bed of ice (highly helpful). The mignonette is made with Banyuls five-year and champagne vinegar, plus pink peppercorns.

The menu proper is odd: only two seafood entrees, the rest smaller plates. (I ignored the meats and roasted chicken, as seemed only appropriate.) But who wouldn’t rather try a couple of fish-things rather than just one? The smoked Manila clam dip ($11) was like a bespoke, oceanic version of the onionsoup-mix one, in the best possible way. If the house-made potato chips that come with it had been hot upon arrival, it would’ve been terrifyingly good. The quick-fried squid ($12) was what every sad serving of fried calamari ever wanted to be: the breading so thin and crisp, you could still taste the actual flavor of the squid, which was not even faintly rubbery, just bouncy and almost sweet. Underneath was a potato skorthalia—Antonitsas is Greek—which was like the lightest, most lemony mashed potatoes ever; fish-’n’-skorthalia should be a thing. An octopus Bolognese risotto ($19) was rich and tomatoey, with squid-ink aioli for yet more richness and sea-flavor, but it had only small pieces of octopus, which was mildly disappointing. Grilled sardines ($13) came with the world’s lightest versions of tahini and melitzanosalata, a lemony Greek blackened eggplant puree: outstanding.

One of the bigger plates, a Moroccan fish stew ($26), was excellent in its components—exceptionally juicy mussels, creamy potatoes, big pieces of grilled bread, a mildly spicy sauce of ras el hanout and cream, and a gorgeous piece of halibut laid over the top— though none of it seemed especially fated to be in the same bowl together. But a special of four scallops nestled in a dish of shallot crème-fraîche sauce with chanterelles ($16) was meant-to-be, tasting like the forested coast in autumn.

Portraits

of Captain Merrill Stubing, Captain Steve Zissou, and two more seamen hang by the host stand.

But somehow Westward is unannoying, not too cute, and thoroughly enjoyable. It’s loud in that way that sounds like everyone’s having fun but not shouting about it, and so that you don’t have to hear quite the whole conversation of the people right next to you. It’s big and busy enough that your eye doesn’t get caught on, say, three maritime thingamajigs at once. The servers are genuinely nice and seem genuinely happy to be here. And the no-man’s-land

Forays outside the seafood realm included fried brussels sprouts ($11), which, due to being cut into small pieces, absorbed too much oil. Firm slices of grilled halloumi cheese ($13) served with persimmons, walnuts, and honey—in the sole misstep, this dish was forgotten by a server—proved to make an excellent dessert. Also perfect for dessert: a housemade spiced rum, which tasted like sitting fireside with good socks on instead of like eating a Christmas candle.

Is this the waterfront seafood restaurant that the city’s been missing for so long? One that feels special but not stuffy, with a stunning view and beautiful fish that’s not overthought or oversauced or overcooked— and then some? Maybe so. Westward ho!

Comment on Wes Anderson, Westward, etc. at THESTRANGER.COM/CHOW

DRINKIING WITH CHARLSE MUDEDE

BY CHARLES MUDEDE

THE SPACESHIP OF THE JAZZ IMAGINATION

We entered the Triple Door’s dark theater, we found a free table that faced the stage, we sat, we ordered white wine, and we watched with great interest the jazz pianist Brad Mehldau perform with drummer and percussionist Mark Guiliana. This was the middle of the Earshot Jazz Festival, and the dark space was packed. You know you live in a city when a musician of Mehldau’s caliber—a musician who often makes heavy demands on the listener—can draw a considerable crowd. Stars glittered on the stage. Everyone was focused on the music, which had elements of jazz, late rock, and prog rock. Brad Mehldau was less playing than messing with vintage synthesizers. He turned this and that knob, and the machine droned like icy-coated objects

being drawn, with sparks and flashes of bent light, to the edge of an event that will collapse all of time and energy into a single impossible point. The stars on the curtains, the black holes of ghostly sounds, the gas clouds of drumming.

In one piece (we were now on our third round of drinks), Mehldau played something utterly beautiful on the piano. Like so many of his piano pieces, things began simply enough—a repeated phrase that even a child could play. But as time passed, things became more and more complicated. It was the same simple phrase, but—as if entering a hall of plain, partially draped, and distorted mirrors—it was multiplied all over the place. The total effect of the performance was the wonderfully monstrous illusion of Mehldau having more hands and fingers than are possible through normal human gene/phenotype development. Mehldau finished the night with another trip through deep space He sat there, Fender Rhodes and synthesizers on the side, the acoustic piano facing the stars on the curtain, like Carl Sagan used to sit in his Spaceship of the Imagination (the glittering crystals on the control board replaced by black-and-white keys). As he played and played, you could feel the galaxies approach and zip by as the wine flowed through the blood.

Chow Events

Thurs 10/31

FREE VINO VERITE

WINE TASTING

Every Thursday, nicely

stocked Capitol Hill wine shop Vino Verite hosts a drop-in wine tasting that will not part you from any of your money. Vino Verite , 208 Boylston Ave E. vinoverite.com.

Free. 5-8 pm.

Fri 11/1

MATADOR’S

DIA DE LOS

MUERTOS

Local tattoo artists paint longhorn skulls with Dia de los Muertos designs inspired by Jose Guadalupe

Posada, and the resulting silent auction at both Matador locations benefits the very worthy Childhaven. Also: food and drink specials. Matador , 2221 NW Market St, 2972855; 4546 California Ave SW, 932-9988; matadorseattle.com. Free.

HARVEST AND TIDE PARTY

Lauren Feldman and Shawn Mead—both formerly of Campagne/ Cafe Campagne—invite you to their new Fremont wine bar (where its polar opposite, Herfy’s, used to be) for their first annual Harvest and Tide Party, with the Narwhal Oyster Truck, lots of wine, and general good times. Vif , 4401 Fremont Ave N, (206) 557-7357. vifseattle. com. 5-9 pm.

Sat 11/2

COYLE’S BAKESHOP

See Stranger Suggests, page 19. The Book Larder , 4252 Fremont Ave N, 397-4271. booklarder.com.

FREE WINE TASTING AT CHAMPION WINE CELLARS

Champion owner Emile Ninaud possesses Seattle’s very first wine license: He opened in 1969 and works there to this day. Though he’s French by birth, he’s made Champion a snobbery-free zone, with wine novices welcome and an emphasis on good value for whatever your budget may be. His Saturday drop-in wine tastings—from the more than 1,500 bottles in stock, with tons from France—are all about “obscure wines from obscure regions,” he says. Champion Wine Cellars, 108 Denny Way, 284-8306. championwinecellars.com. FREE. Noon-5 pm.

ELLIOTT’S OYSTER NEW YEAR BASH

Elliott’s Oyster New Year is sheer oyster insanity. Held in a giant tent on the pier behind the restaurant, it’s got all-you-can-slurp of 30-plus varieties of local oysters, a seafood buffet, live music, and all-you-canimbibe of 40-plus local wines and beers. Also: shots of vodka via a giant ice luge. Get your tickets early—this always sells out. Proceeds benefit the Puget Sound Restoration Fund. Elliott’s Oyster House , 1201 Alaskan Way, Pier 56, 623-4340.

elliottsoysterhouse.com/ ony. $95 (with 4-5 pm VIP champagne preview: $125). 5-9 pm.

DAY OF THE DEAD AT POQUITOS

Poquitos decorates its patio room for its annual Day of the Dead Party, “complete with a makeup artist doing free sugar skull-inspired makeup,” plus complimentary sugar skulls (but no food or drink specials, apparently). “Poquitos is the natural place to celebrate Día de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday that focuses on remembrance for family and friends that have passed on,” they say, but not why. Poquitos 1000 East Pike St, 4534216. vivapoquitos.com.

7 pm.

Sun 11/3

LAMB JAM

Chefs from Shanik, Andaluca, Volterra, and a dozen more local restaurants compete to prepare (and attendees eat) lamb of all cuts, plus there’s lamb butchery demonstrations, local beer/wine/ liquor, and “lamb swag.” Herban Feast, 3200 First Ave S. seattle.fansoflamb. com/lamb-jam.seattle. $60, $75 VIP.

TAVOLÀTA

SUNDAY FEAST

Tavolata’s monthly Sunday Feasts always sound great—though since they’re served family-style at the 26-seat communal table, you might want to bring a bunch of friends to insulate you from people who use the word “foodie.” Tonight: five kinds of shellfish, from Shigoku oysters to whole Dungeness crabs. Reservations required. Tavolata , 2323 Second Ave, 838-8008. ethanstowellrestaurants.com/ tavolata. $65.

Mon 11/4

CALAMITY

JANE’S BINGO

Bingo plus booze equals FUN, and this Monday night bingo game has $2.50 PBR tallboys with all-you-can-eat spaghetti for $9.13 (plus meatballs “as big as your head” for a bit more). N.B.: The first Monday of every month is Dyke Date Bingo, where “you don’t have to be a lesbian, but if you are, grab a friend and come on down!”

Calamity Jane’s , 5701 Airport Way S, 763-3040. calamityjanes.biz. 6-10 pm.

Tue 11/5

BUFFALO TRACE

DISTILLERY DINNER

Buffalo Trace master distiller Harlen Wheatley (who probably has a great accent) guides some lucky people through an election-night five-course bourbon-cocktail-paired dinner at El Gaucho. (Let everyone else eat cake!) El Gaucho, 2505 First Ave, 728-1337. elgaucho.com. $125.

HALL WEEN!

October 31st parties below! More scary shit for Wednesday and through the weekend at thestranger.com!

BUMP!’s 30th Anniversary Party

Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters

will be performing a special DJ set along with DJs Sammy Jo, Nark, and Trouble. And there will be a performance from Alyssa Edwards of RuPaul’s Drag Race season five!

Hosted by Ben DeLaCreme, too! Neighbours, 1509 Broadway, strangertickets.com, 9 pm, $30 general admission/$65 VIP.

R-Rated Underworld Tour

This is like the usual Underground Tour, but “raunchier” and only for adults! Admission includes a cocktail. Underground Tour, 608 First Ave, 682-4646, undergroundtour.com, 7, 8, and 9 pm, $25.

An All-Hallows Eve

Rock ’n’ Roll Party

With Hell’s Belles, Seattle’s own all-female AC/DC tribute band, HalloQueen, playing Queen songs, duh, and Belles Bent for Leather, a tribute to Judas Priest. Yeow! Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave, 7 pm, $20

Black Weirdo Halloween Party

Presented by THEESatisfaction!

With DJ sets from Shabazz Palaces and SassyBlack, special guests Gift Uh Gab and Malitia MaliMob, and the Stranger’s own Larry Mizell Jr. as your host. See page 19 for more info! Lo-Fi Performance Gallery, 429 Eastlake Ave, thelofi.net, 9 pm, $12 adv/$15 DOS/$18 after 2 am.

Hula Hula Halloween Party and Costume Contest

The costume contest starts at 9 p.m., the winner will be announced after midnight, and the grand prize is two tickets to see Macklemore at KeyArena in December! With karaoke all night and prizes for the runners-up, too. Hula Hula Lounge, 106 First Ave N, 284-5003, 9 pm, free.

Halloween Bash at the Tractor

With McTuff and Crack Sabbath featuring Skerik on saxophone! Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave NW, 7893599, tractortavern.com, 9:30 pm, $12 adv/$15 DOS.

Happy Hallows: An EDM

Benefit for R.O.A.R.

This is an alcohol-free all-ages show with music from Anarctica, Jimni Cricket, and C3llar Dw3ll3r, and prizes for best homemade costumes, too. Kids under 14 are welcome with an accompanying adult. Washington Hall, 153 14th Ave, happyhallows. brownpapertickets.com, 8 pm, $10.

7th Annual

Halloween Bash

Neumos, Barboza, and Moe Bar unite for a big Halloween bash featuring performances by Grynch, the Good Husbands, DJ 100 Proof, Swervewon, Jeff Hank, Nostalgia B, and more. There will also be candy, costume contests, and drink specials. Neumos, 925 E Pike St, 709-9442, neumos.com, 8 pm, free.

Halloween at the Blue Moon

Cover is only $5, with live music from Boners in Space, Wayfinders, Bad Love, and Kurly Somthing. Blue Moon, 712 NE 45th St, 675-911, bluemoonseattle.wordpress.com, 9 pm, $5.

Flavr Fright Nite

An all-ages costume party with the Flavr Blue, Don’t Talk to the Cops!, Mack Ned, and DJ 100Proof! The Vera Project, Warren and Republican, theveraproject.org, 7 pm, $10 adv/$12 DOS, all ages.

City of Screams

With music from Grammy-nominated DJ/Producer Dirty South, Darrius, Rion, and Matei Craciun. Best costume gets $500! Foundation, 2218 Western Ave, foundation-nightclub. com, 9 pm.

Halloween with Hoodie Allen

The Party with Your Friends Tour comes to the Showbox Sodo with performances by Hoodie Allen, Moosh & Twist, D-Why, and Shelton Harris & Tyler Dopps. Showbox Sodo, 1700 First Ave S, showboxonline. com, 7:30 pm, $21.50 adv/$25 DOS.

Halloween Bash at the Crocodile

With DJ Sharadawn, door prizes, drink specials, and Seahawks tickets for best costume! The Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave, 441-4618, thecrocodile.com, 8 pm, free if you RSVP at facebook.com/underdogseattle, otherwise $10 DOS/$20 VIP.

Halloween at Chop Suey

A very punk rock Halloween with the Accüsed, Millhous, Triple Sixes, and Brainscraper. Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, chopsuey.com, 8 pm, $5 adv/$8 DOS.

Halloween Party at Bogart’s

With the Unlimited Horrors (a Roky Erickson Tribute), Coconut Coolouts, and the Gallow Swings! It’ll be great. Bogart’s Airport Way, 3924 Airport Way S, 622-1119, bogartsairportway.com, 9 pm, $5.

Stephen Kingo

It’s Stephen King Bingo! It sounds scary, whatever it is. Pop Kitchen + Bar, 325 Fifth Ave N, empmuseum. org, 5 pm, free.

Monster Fest: Kids

Halloween Extravaganza

Trick-or-treat in the Sky Church and go on a scavenger hunt through the rest of the EMP. There will also be face painting, crafts, screenings of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Hotel Transylvania, and other familyfriendly surprises. EMP Museum, 325 Fifth Ave N, empmuseum.org, 2-8 pm, kids under 12 are free, adults in costume get $5 off museum admission.

Hopvine’s 5th Annual

Halloween Karaoke

Costumes are encouraged, of course! Hopvine, 507 15th Ave E, 328-3120, 9 pm, free.

The Green Halloween & Costume Party

Featuring Longstride and Elton Jah, the “ultimate reggae tribute to Sir Elton John!” Also, prizes for scariest, funniest, and sexiest costumes. Nectar Lounge, 412 N 36th St, 6322020, nectarlounge.com, 8 pm, $5 adv/$10 DOS.

Zombie Apocalypse

Costume Bash

With an “open casket” buffet, cocktails, and a guest DJ spinning Top 40 and ’80s music. And a costume contest! The Belltown Pub, 2322 First Ave, 448-6210, 9 pm, free.

Soul Funky Halloween

With music from Radio Raheem and Shady Bottom. Conor Byrne, 5140 Ballard Ave NW, 784-3640, conorbyrnepub.com, 9 pm.

The Canterbury’s Final Halloween

It’s the 37th Halloween to be celebrated at the Canterbury, and it’s going “all day, all knight.” Drink specials will help you drown your sorrows that this divey Seattle institution is closing down later this year Canterbury Ale and Eats, 534 15th Ave E, 322-3130.

Bassdrop Music Halloween Showcase

With live music from the Dirty Byrdz, McFunk Brothers, Bizzara, and Ras Chiba. High Dive, 513 N 36th St, 632-0212, highdiveseattle.com, 8 pm, free before 10 pm/$5 after.

Halloween at the Barrel Thief Music, dancing, trivia, games, and $5 drink specials. The Barrel Thief, 3417 Evanston Ave N #102, 402-5492, 7 pm, free.

Slim’s Halloween Party

With live music from Patitude and Snakes of Christ. Slim’s Last Chance Chili Shack & Watering Hole, 5606 First Ave S, 762-7900, slimslastchance.com, 9 pm, free.

Halloween at the Highline

With Blowfly, Ronald McFondle, the Fabulous Downey Brothers, and the Blue Ribbon Boys. Things will probably get a little weird. Highline, 210 Broadway Ave E, highlineseattle.com, 8 pm, $15.

All Hallows Eve at the Haunted Theater

With a full-costume tribute to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, zombie Talking Heads tribute Talking Deads, and the female Ramones tribute the Dee Dees. Hosted by Dr. Frank-NFurter and Elvira, too. Yes! Columbia City Theater, 4916 Rainier Ave S, columbiacitytheater.com, 8 pm, $12 adv/$15 DOS.

Halloween at Cichetti

With “spooky food,” drink specials, and a costume contest. Cicchetti, 121 E Boston St, 859-4155, free.

La Carta de Oaxaca and Mezcaleria

Oaxaca’s Annual Dia de Muertos Party

A day filled with festivities including live banda music at both the Ballard and Queen Anne locations! Also: the best tortillas in Seattle. Mezcaleria Oaxaca, 2123 Queen Anne Ave N, 216-4446, mezcaleriaoaxaca.com, noon; La Carta Oaxaca, 5431 Ballard Ave NW, lacartadeoaxaca.com, 11:30 am.

Halloween at Trinity

First place in this year’s costume contest wins two trips to Las Vegas! Trinity, 111 Yesler Way, 447-4140, trinitynightclub.com.

Creepy Clown Fest

With a screening of Killer Klowns from Outer Space and a creepy clown costume contest! Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave, 3283230, central-cinema.com, 8 pm, $6 adv/$8 DOS, all ages.

The Haunted Mansion Costume Ball

With DJ Murph One and $1,000 cash prizes for the best costumes. Also: complimentary valet service and VIP booths available. Aston Manor, 2946 First Ave S, 382-7866, aston-manor. com, 10 pm.

Naughty Cowgirls

Wear a costume and have a chance at winning $500! Probably a naughty costume gives you more of a chance. Cowgirls Inc., 421 First Ave S, 3400-0777, cowgirlsinc.com, 9 pm.

Halloween at Linda’s

The Shining Twins DJ this creepy party with a costume contest, plus drink and food specials. Linda’s Tavern, 707 E Pine St, 325-1220, lindastavern.com, free.

Halloween at King’s Hardware

DJ Blazon Stone will bring the spooky music and Ghostbusters will play on the (heated!) patio at 10 pm. With food, drinks, and costumes all over the place. King’s Hardware, 5225 Ballard Ave NW, 782-0027, kingsballard.com, free.

MUSIC

Not a Hackneyed Story

The Incredible Rebirth of Black Rock Anomalies Death

BY DAVE SEGAL

The story of the Detroit band Death is so outlandish, a movie could be made out of it. In fact, a great film about them was released in 2012, and it showed at SIFF this year. Titled

A Band Called Death and directed by Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino, the documentary poignantly recounts the unlikely saga of three African American brothers—guitarist David, drummer Dannis, and bassist Bobby Hackney—who forged a particularly speedy and strident strain of hard rock in the mid ’70s that has been dubbed “proto-punk” (more about that later), but which went largely unheard for more than 30 years.

During their first run, Death only released one 45—“Keep on Knocking”/“Politicians in My Eyes”—on their own Tryangle Records. One of the 500 copies of that single ended up in the hands of a collector named Robert Cole Manis, who’d heard “Keep on Knocking” on a 2001 bootleg comp of rare punk singles. He scored a copy on eBay for $400. Eventually, Manis got in touch with the Hackneys, who’d relocated to Vermont in the early ’80s, and he connected them to Drag City Records. That Chicago indie label wisely decided to release …For the Whole World to See in 2009—a cache of seven songs from a master tape that Bobby Hackney had been storing since the group split in 1977. David—who died in 2000 from the effects of excessive smoking and alcohol intake—had told his siblings that the world would come looking for this music after he’d departed this plane, and he was correct. David’s spectral aura haunts A Band

Called Death. He’s the Hackney brother who named the trio Death, a handle inspired by their Baptist minister father’s tragic passing in a vehicular crash in 1968 while driving an injured coworker to the hospital. They had been called Rock Fire Funk Express and played funk and fusion in the early ’70s, but witnessing concerts by Alice Cooper and the Who in 1972 persuaded the Hackneys to thrust all their creative energies into rock and roll.

Death w/Unnatural Helpers, Magic Mouth Sat Nov 2, Chop Suey, 9 pm, $20 adv/$25 DOS, 21+

Dannis remembers catching Alice Cooper by chance at the Cobo Hall basketball arena on the way to a Motown party with his mother. “Those guys, more than working, looked like they were having a good time,” he says. “It dawned on me that this is what I want to be doing. I play drums, and I was looking at the drummer [Neil Smith], and this guy’s got all the reckless abandon in the world and he doesn’t care. He’s just up there having a good time. They didn’t look like they were sticking to the script. If he wanted to kick a drum off the stage, he did it. Alice Cooper was up there with his boa constrictor… Looking at that changed me.”

Growing up in a black neighborhood on Detroit’s east side, the Hackneys provoked confusion—and cries of “white-boy music!”—from their neighbors when they’d practice their ear-blistering songs in an

• Lou Reed passed away on October 27 at age 71 from complications stemming from his May liver transplant. Read Dave Segal’s excellent tribute to Reed’s legacy on page 37.

• In related news, a Stranger staffer knows someone who dug a piece of gum out of the trash that he saw Lou Reed chew and throw away in the ’70s. The man kept it preserved it in a specimen jar in his bedroom all these years, but took it out on Monday to chew it in commemoration.

• Seattle musician Ian Hill and his wife, Allison, are making progress of sorts in their quest to purchase the Comet, which has been shuttered since October 5. “We now know that Lost Lake is one of the other prospective buyers,” Hill says. “Word on the street is that they want to acquire the space and expand Lost Lake, essentially doing away with the Comet… When I spoke to Stacy [Krantz], she said the building owner

upstairs bedroom, where they rehearsed from 3 to 6 every afternoon, with their mother’s blessings. “They looked at us as being kind of weird,” Bobby says, laughing. “We were playing weird rock and roll music. It wasn’t accepted. We wouldn’t be the band to be called if there was a dance happening.” While their peers were expecting them to play in the style of James Brown and the Isley Brothers, the Hackneys instead channeled the Stooges and MC5. “So, yeah, we got a lot of rejection,” Bobby says.

Death didn’t play out much in the ’70s, focusing instead on recording. They ended up getting involved with Groovesville Productions after David threw a dart at a Yellow Pages book opened to recording engineers. Groovesville boss Don Davis steered Death to United Sound Studios, where they worked with renowned engineer Jim Vitti and commingled with luminaries like Funkadelic, the Dramatics, Johnnie Taylor, and several Motown artists.

The seven songs dusted off and issued on …For the Whole World to See have prompted some pundits and Jack White to hail Death as “punk before punk existed,” or something to that effect. This is debatable, as many critics

Unlike many punks, proto- or otherwise, Death could sing and play like motherfuckers.

trace punk’s origins back to ’60s rockers like the Stooges and MC5; plus, a song like Love’s 1966 single “7 and 7 Is” is more “punk” than anything the Sex Pistols or Ramones did.

Semantics aside, Bobby is grateful that some writers have called them honorary “proto-punks,” but they knew nothing of punk in the mid ’70s. “It was just good, harddriving Detroit rock and roll,” he says. “Back in ’74, ’75, if you called somebody ‘punk,’ those were fightin’ words. We just wanted

[Charlie Chao] wants to keep the Comet what it is. They said they don’t want ‘another Bellevue yuppie bar.’” Lost Lake co-owner Jason Lajeunesse says, “We’ve made it no further than general inquiries. We share a landlord, and it’s important to us and the neighborhood that the right tenant goes in next door. As of now, Lost Lake has made no offers on the space.”

• Last Sunday, America’s worst pop star, Chris Brown, was arrested and charged with felony assault after an altercation with a man in Washington, DC. The next day, the charges were reduced to simple misdemeanor assault, and he was released without bail. Nevertheless, with Brown still on probation for his 2009 assault on Rihanna, these new troubles will likely result in a new jail sentence, which Brown will likely blame on “the haters.”

• Spotted in Ballard this weekend: two beardo dudes busking in the rain, dressed as a bearstronaut (an actual bear astronaut, not the New England dance-pop band) and a kid in teddy-bear PJs. Simultaneously: A parade of costumed children followed a high-school marching band through the farmers’ market. Duh.

• Estonian vocalist/producer Maria Minerva played a magical, mushroomy set of dubby dance music Sunday night at Chop Suey before a meager crowd of around 25. She finished with an a cappella version of Andrea True Connection’s porntastic “More, More, More.” In a better, more psychedelic world, Minerva would be as popular as Lorde.

• At a birthday party on Saturday, everyone stood with hands on hearts as an intoxicated man dressed as a flasher sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which ggnzla karaoke had on hand for some reason.

The Bitch is Back

Starring Jerick Hoffer aka Jinkx Monsoon

to be hard and loud like the MC5, Iggy, Grand Funk Railroad, Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.”

There’s no denying the immediate, furious impact of Death songs like “Freakin Out,” “Rock-N-Roll Victim,” “You’re a Prisoner,” and “Politicians in My Eyes.” They all deliver surplus adrenaline injections, like the best punk does, from the Saints to Wire to Electric Eels. Substantial angst-venting happens and clangorous rave-ups occur. If there were any other black rock groups sounding this noisy and righteously truculent during Gerald Ford’s reign, they’ve not yet surfaced.

But unlike many punks, proto- or otherwise, Death could sing and play like motherfuckers. Their peak tune, “Let the World Turn,” is more psychedelia than punk. Beginning in dewy contemplativeness, the song explodes into a roller-coaster ride of freak-rock flamboyance and dazzling dynamics in the vein of “Your Mind and We Belong Together” by Love (them again).

Death’s music sounds vital today, but apparently the world wasn’t ready for three black dudes with a morbid name rocking this viciously. The Hackneys were this close

David refused to change the band name.

to getting a $20,000 recording contract with Arista’s Clive Davis, but David refused to change the band name, and that stubbornness cost Death a deal. “He told Brian Spears [Groovesville’s director of publishing] to tell Clive Davis to go to hell. That put us on the path to this long journey that we’re on now,” Dannis says, still sounding a bit regretful about it.

The Hackneys moved to Vermont and formed the more overtly spiritual rock band the 4th Movement in 1981. “It’s funny: People say ‘gospel rock,’ but we still called ourselves a rock and roll band,” Dannis says. “We just put the message of god in it. After all the rejection from being Death, we went with a softer name. It was still David’s concept. The 4th Movement is a metamorphosis of what Death was. David had a symbol he created called the mental/spiritual/physical triangle.”

David eventually became homesick and moved back to Detroit, while Dannis and Bobby remained in Vermont and formed Lambsbread, a reggae group that includes guitarist Bobbie Duncan, now also a fullfledged member of Death. They have a new single, “Relief” (which lacks the throttling recklessness of their peak years), and an album in the can featuring six archival Death cuts and four new ones. And Drag City is slated to release another archival treasure trove in 2014 on the order of 2011’s Spiritual Mental Physical

So, does death scare Death? “The act of dying? No, man,” says Dannis. “The whole concept of death is… it’s a door, as David explained it,” Bobby says. “All of us have that mysterious door we all have to go through. You don’t pay attention to that door when you’re young. It keeps you up at night when you’re old. It makes you examine yourself. When David first explained the meaning behind the name Death and the door, he said, ‘We can’t call ourselves the Doors, because that name’s already taken.’ He was certain that Jim Morrison had the same concept, when talking about breaking on through to the other side. That’s what it’s all about, man.”

He’s Set Free

Lou Reed’s Long Walk on the Wild Side Ends

BY DAVE SEGAL

Lou Reed, who passed away October 27 at age 71, would surely hate every word of every overwrought obit/tribute that will deluge print and online publications (including this

one) and social media sites—and that’s one reason why he ruled. Reed died from complications resulting from a liver transplant he underwent in May. It’s safe to say that hundreds of thousands of fans will probably be in a daze for days. I know I will.

Reed was one of the greatest, most influential rock musicians of all time, stated Captain Obvious from Obviousville. From 1965 to 1970, he led the Velvet Underground, who over time have become akin to the counterculture’s Beatles in terms of inspiration to future generations of musicians. The Velvets’ 1967 debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, in itself contains enough dynamic musical and lyrical invention to spawn several universes. Who else was capable of moving from the elysian bliss of “Sunday Morning” to the infernal chaos of “European Son”? Who else could shift from the pretty, butterfly-wingdelicate balladeering of “Femme Fatale” and “I’ll Be Your Mirror” to the majestic, seductive drone rock of “Venus in Furs” and “All Tomorrow’s Parties”? Nobody, really.

Their next three albums were all essential in their own idiosyncratic ways. Reed (with considerable help from John Cale on the debut and White Light/White Heat—and Sterling Morrison, Mo Tucker, Doug Yule, and Nico) brought literary storytelling and decadent, druggy subject matter to rock’s playground and infused it with elegant, high-minded luridness, inflated it with a heart of tarnished gold.

VU combined Cale’s minimalist inclinations with Reed’s phenomenal grasp of simple yet sublimely beautiful melody, and thereby drew the template for thousands of rock bands who wanted instant access to an indomitable vocabulary of cool. The Velvet Underground held the keys to the kingdom for drone and deathless chord progressions.

Lou made the most of his miserable monotone voice, and it became a reliable vehicle—a Saab, say—for his perverse thoughts. I’m not really a big lyrics guy, but hundreds of Lou’s have been caroming around my brain and enriching it for decades. To quote a fellow Jewish wordsmith, he was a natural-born poet and he was just outta sight.

Reed’s solo career had serious ups and downs (hello again, Capt. Obv.), but it rarely ceased to be fascinating, even in its awfulness. Some people I respect swear that his 2011 collab with Metallica, Lulu, is something you need to cherish, that it is not actually a soundtrack to burning your Velvet Underground box set in grief. (Kidding, guys—put away your hatchets. It’s a respectable late-career opus that did anything but play it safe.)

Some college-educated folks believe that Reed’s monumental 1975 LP Metal Machine Music stands as his crowning achievement. The controversial double LP is the big bang of noise music, a demonic howl of sinphonic [sic] guitar abstraction that is the purest expression of Reed’s legendarily assholistic personality. It is timeless, placeless, and immortal. Lou Reed’s week will always beat your year… and then spit tobacco juice in its ear. Honestly, I’m too distraught to continue. Go forth and read the 23 billion other Lou Reed eulogies rising around the world like cries of despair and awe. You deserve it. On this page are 20 of my favorite VU/Reed songs, at this juncture in history—some choices immutable, some subject to whim/ mood.

Lou Reed wrote dozens of

COMING UP: 10/30 CHARLI XCX 11/16 RAVENNA WOODS 11/17 CULTS 11/18 MELLOWHIGH 11/19 BIG FREEDIA 11/20 BILL CALLAHAN 11/22 MONSTER MAGNET 11/23 WIRE 11/27 NIGHTMARES ON WAX 11/29 NADASTROM 11/30 SANDRIDER 12/6 EL TEN ELEVEN 12/13 PERE UBU 12/14 THE MOONDOGGIES + THE MALDIVES 12/17 RUSTIE 12/20 DEEP SEA DIVER 12/21 ROSE WINDOWS 12/27 & 12/28 BUILT TO SPILL 12/30 & 12/31 STRFKR 1/17 TRIBAL SEEDS 1/22 DARKSIDE 3/1 NICKI BLUHM & THE GRAMBLERS 4/17 GODFLESH

CRYSTAL BALL READING ROOM

COMING UP: 10/30 GOLDROOM 11/5 LUKE RAIN 11/7 JK POP! 11/10 DIEGO GARCIA 11/12 CROCODILES 11/13 JILLETTE JOHNSON 11/14 CATALDO 11/15 THOSE DARLINS 11/17 THUNDERCAT 11/18 DALEY 11/19 PAPA 11/20 NOBUNNY 11/21 EARTH 11/22 SHELBY EARL 11/23 PAWS 11/24 MIKEY DAVIS 11/29 PINK BEAD 12/1 BRENDAN CANNING 12/6 BASIA BULAT + CATE LE BON 12/8 LEE RANALDO AND THE DUST 12/9 DONTE PEACE 12/10 GAVIN TUREK 12/12 WILL HOGE 12/13 ERIN MCKEOWN 2/11 DELOREAN

BY ANNA MINARD

Anna Minard claims to “know nothing about music.” For this column, we force her to listen to random records by artists considered to be important by music nerds.

MOTÖRHEAD

Ace of Spades (Mercury)

First: It feels dumb to write about music this week without writing about Lou Reed. Back before I had music nerds feeding me music, when I was trying to map out the landscape of hipness all alone in the forest without letting anyone find out what a dork I was, I whispered to a friend working at a record store that I wanted to buy a copy of “that album with a banana on it.” He helped me do that, and I listened intently, and I didn’t love it. But I kept going, and it led me to Transformer and that album married my brain and took up residence in my head forever. It just sits there and chimes at me sometimes, a reminder. If you’re facing Reed’s death like I would’ve a few years ago—going, “Oh no, I should’ve gotten to that by now”—try out Transformer. Trap yourself with it in the car, in your room, on a long walk. Your ears will say yes, you’ll have checked off an important box, and it won’t for a second have felt like a chore for music knowledge, just a quiet new present from the world. Anyway, on to Motörhead! (Rock dots!!!)

When this album was chosen, everyone was giggling at me, so I assumed it would be shitty. No way! This is belt-buckle-grabbingly awesome. Sure, it sounds so, so silly. You can’t be tough when you spend that much time on your hair and oiling your leather clothes! But for a newbie like me, the straightforwardness of the guitar and drum lines makes it palatable and easy. Grrrrrroowwl, go the men, and their instruments come lumbering along with them, in a relatively orderly fashion.

Let’s start at the top: “Ace of Spades,” which is apparently their biggest hit—I’d heard it at karaoke, but not for real. Chuggachugga-chugga guitar, sandy drums, and then it’s a song about gambling. (Or it’s a metaphor, which most gambling songs are.) The album doesn’t really rev up until the fourth track, “Live to Win.” Everything up till then sounds like something that would be playing at a construction site. But suddenly that one is odd, creepingly smart and braided a little looser and breathing more. It’s not for blindly nodding along to, it’s for really digging in. The next one, “Fast and Loose,” is great, too. And listen to the lyrics! It’s a song all about waking your baby up at two in the morning for a bone session, and then he goes: “I’m coming over and I won’t be long/Just let me finish writing this song.” (It’s okay if you can’t stop laughing.)

“Fire, Fire” is just “Ace of Spades” again. “The Chase Is Better Than the Catch” is fun, with more laugh-worthy mustacheman lyrics. “C’mon, honey, touch me right there!”

I give this a “turn it up, laugh it out” out of 10.

EARL SWEATSHIRT, HALLOWEEN SHOWS, BLACK WEIRDO PARTY

The leaves are underfoot, pumpkins and pumpkin-spice everything are multiplying like seasonal-flavor cockroaches, candy’s on sale, On Demand movie-banks and Tumblr dashboards overflow with horror movie imagery. What are you doing for this bastardized, Christianized, and commercialized holiday?

Surely something, right—on the 30th alone, you got LA roach-clippers Earl Sweatshirt and Vince Staples at the Neptune, J. Cole and Wale at the Paramount, and Janelle Monae at Showbox Sodo (niiice clusterfuck!). Depending on your disposition, each of the three headliners could be said to have put out one of the best albums of the year; I am not disposed to make that claim about Cole’s slick but personality-deficient Born Sinner, nor to watch Wale perform ever again. (There will be some cool shoes at this show for sure, though.) Janelle’s The Electric Lady, though, definitely makes that cut. (It, and the Internet’s super-sumptuous audio spa-day Feel Good, are some essential 2013 soul if I ain’t said or yeen know.) As for the Neumos show—Earl’s Doris is way, way up there on my list of favorite releases of the year, and Vince was a big part of it, so this, like a C.H.U.D.’s latest victim, is a no-brainer for your guy.

Halloween proper is no less flush with

situations to avail yourself of, like the Flavr Blue’s Flavr Fright Night at Vera with Don’t Talk to the Cops! and Moor Gang’s newest, MC/producer Mac Ned. Speaking of the Gang, Nacho Picasso hosts a Halloween Bash at See Sound Lounge in Belltown (the “open-air drug market” from the hilarious Seattle episode of NatGeo’s Drugs, Inc.) with DJs Supa Sam and El Grande Neumos is doing their seventh annual free Halloween Bash (why is it always a ‘bash’? Cuz monsters?) with Grynch, the Good Husbands, and a plethora of DJs: 100Proof Swervewon, Jeff Hank, Nostalgia B, BtwoTimes, and Rad’Em. Rising “whitehop” (I’ve heard this term from a couple high-ranking music makers of Caucasoid descent) savior Hoodie Allen makes his return to Seattle this night as well with his “Party with Your Friends Tour,” now at the Showbox Sodo—and eventually, I’m sure, a bigger room. Hoodie hit my inbox after my last write-up of him, declaring, “Seattle was one of the coolest crowds I’ve had so far on this tour,” which I don’t doubt one single bit. With him are your friends OCD: Moosh & Twist, D-Why, and Shelton Harris & Tyler Dopps. I plan on partying with my friends at the Black Weirdo party over at the Lo-Fi, though—I’m hosting—with THEESat’s SassyBlack, Shabazz Palaces’ Ish and Tendai, and OCnotes DJing, plus Gift Uh Gab and Malitia Malimob performing sets.

Lastly, beastly, far from leastly, is the Pete Rock & CL Smooth Reunion Tour over at the Crocodile on November (yes, November already) the 1st—with support from no less than Camp Lo (not to mention Porter Ray and Supreme La Rock). Do I even have to tell you how crucial and classic this lineup is? Of course I do.

SOUND CHECK

INTERVIEWS BY TRENT MOORMAN

SLAYER’S TOM ARAYA ON THE EVIL THAT MEN DO

An old, robed man opens a microwave oven and puts a cockroach inside. He sets the power to high and cranks the timer for as long as it will go. Slayer’s “God Send Death” begins. The old man laughs, loose and yowling. Slayer’s napalm guitars lay out in fired lines as the cockroach jolts and spasms in a panic, looking for a way out. Its roach thoughts are, “Fucking fuck. Hot. HOT. Inside me? SCALDing. Out of here. Whaat the f-FUCK is happening??!” Tom Araya screams (from the diaphragm),

Slayer w/Gojira, 4ARM Fri Nov 1, WaMu Theater, 7:30 pm, $40, all ages

“Watch you die inside!!!”

Double kick drums batter, splatter, and ram. In its previous life, the cockroach was 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta. Now he’s on his back with insect legs flicking in the air, being cooked from the inside. For 30 years, 11 studio albums, and two Grammys, Slayer’s rifling, exacted thrash metal has dealt with dark, unpretty subject matters. In “Necrophiliac,” you’ve got sex with the dead; “Jihad” is told from a terrorist’s perspective. It can be uncomfortable, even controversial. Their album Christ Illusion was banned from India in 2006. But they’re just songs, remember. Sadly, this past May, guitarist and founding member Jeff Hanneman passed away from liver failure. A great one, was he. Tom Araya spoke from his home in Texas.

The way you play and sing, it’s no fucking cakewalk. A song like “Necrophobic.” You’re moving through a minefield at high speed. What’s it like doing that song? Of everything we’ve ever done, that one has to be the most obscure one to sing and play—with the timing of that riff change. When we did the album, we made all the music first, and didn’t really have any lyrics. We wrote the lyrics in the studio—I didn’t have a whole lot of time to get inside the songs and feel them out. That song in particular, when you listen to what’s being played, and then what I’m singing… [pauses] it’s a fucked-up song [laughs]. It took a while for me to be able to do it. The crazy melody line, and the way the riffs are played, compared to what I’m singing. It’s a bunch of hurdles. And having to get that knee up just perfectly to get past that hurdle was really hard.

Slayer is the mental/physical package. The shows, the albums, the sound, everything. For you, is conveying the subject matter of a song more mental or physical? It was more physical when I used to bang my head all nuts. It’s both. You gotta make sure you’re playing the song the right way. It’s like a race. The instant you trip on yourself, you gotta get up quick and keep on running. The things that go through my head when I’m singing [laughs], especially when I start off with the wrong verse—it doesn’t happen a lot, but when it does—my first thought is, “Holy shit, hopefully no one will follow what I’m doing.” The most important thing is for the band to remain a unit. When you realize someone’s gotten into a part quicker than normal, you have to adjust for that. You’re right about it being a mental and physical thing. It’s all muscle retention, but you gotta be on it mentally, or else you fall all over yourself.

Do you ever wish you were in a

band that played slower? Do you ever wish you were in Coldplay? I mean, even bands that play at slower tempos have to react. Most of the time, no one notices but you. I’ll tell Kerry, “I can’t believe I fucked that part up.” And he’ll go, “What part?”

Slayer has been banned from countries. I think being banned from a country is a huge accomplishment. Forget your Grammys, you got banned from India. To us, it’s just self-created drama. Like when we started getting shit for “Angel of Death.” When Jeff wrote that, and I was recording vocals, I was thinking, “Wow, this is such a great subject. This is about a person who did some pretty fucked-up shit.” Jeff put it together well—it was a great song. We didn’t think two shits about it. And it became a reason for the label not to release the album. We were like, “Whaaat? Over a fucking song?” So somebody else released the album. But they made such a stink about it. When we put together ideas, we’ll think, “Yeah, this is interesting, this is cool. No one’s done this.”

It’s never because we’re thinking, “This one is really gonna piss people off.”

What an honor. Were you mad at all? It was sort of an honor. I don’t get mad about that stuff. When we became a band, we did it to become a band, to be part of a band. We lucked out because we wrote our own material and people heard it and liked it, people that could do things for us, and put us out into mass production to the public. We were fortunate to be discovered. Financially, yeah, if we don’t sell records, we don’t make money, but that’s not really what we’re about. We’re just about making music. When people start saying they’re gonna ban this and ban that, we’re like, “Whatever. Do what you want. We’re doing what we want.” We have an audience that enjoys it. Hopefully, they’ll keep buying our records.

Back to Christ Illusion—the song “Jihad,” is told from the perspective of a 9/11 terrorist. It’s uncomfortable and unique. Musically, it was a Jeff song. When he played us the song, he looked at me and went, “I want to call it ‘Jihad.’” I was like, “Whaaat?” [Laughs] He said he wanted it to be from the perspective of the terrorist. It’s one of the only times I’ve ever thought, “Man, this is a heavy topic. Some people might not like this.” And understandably so. But I think it’s an interesting subject, so I filed it away. Later, I was home and saw a show on an educational channel about jihad and the aspects of the extremists. Toward the end, it got into this manual that the jihadists have—guidelines on how to be a good jihadist. I started listening to it and remembered Jeff’s song. It was like, “Dingding-ding.” I grabbed a pen and paper, and jotted down things I heard and ideas.

What draws Slayer to those subject matters? Areas that might be deemed controversial—that darker shit. Because it’s interesting. It’s not mundane stuff. You mentioned the mental/physical before.

That involves the psyche, the mind. I find the psyche fascinating—how people can do the things they do to each other. There’s a phrase: the evil that men do. We do some fucked-up shit to each other, and we don’t think twice about it. The people who think twice about it end up dead. Human nature is fascinating. When we got together as a band, those are the things we knew we wanted to write about. And it went from demons and devils to the demons and devils of real life: ourselves. That’s what draws me into that subject matter. I have books on serial killers, but I have a lot more books on the psyches of serial killers—case studies and interviews with them trying to figure out what made them do what they did.

Animals out there do some fuckedup shit to each other to live. A pride of lions picks out the sick, limping baby wildebeest to attack and kill. We’re animals. I agree. For me it brings up the question, what’s the human link? What is it that makes us different from animals? I hate to get religious on you, but that’s the God aspect. God gave us his DNA, and combined it with something. So we came from somewhere. He made us in his own image. We’re half of something, and the other half is animal.

Do you believe in God? Are you a religious person? Yeah. I was brought up that way. I believe in God as a creator, as something grander than we are. I think he’s put order to everything that’s here. Starting with the universe and everything out there. It was done to order and specifications. I believe there’s something bigger than us.

But Tom, who made God? How are we here? Because we’re here. I’m sitting here talking to you, right now. It’s a dream come true, don’t get me wrong. I mean, talking to the singer of Slayer feels like a fantasy, but we’re here. How did we get here? He is, he was, he has always been. It takes a lot for people to believe and think that way, in terms of a greater being, but that’s the gift.

Speaking of gifts, do you own your own Slayer Christmas sweater? Tell me you’ve seen this. I approved it! The ugliest fucking sweater on earth. When they sent it to me, I was beside myself. They asked me, “Do you approve this?” I said, “Yeah! Are you kidding? Send me one now.” When it came out, it sold out quick. The four I got were hard to get. I couldn’t even get any for my mom or my brothers and sisters. I wanted more!

You guys have a tour, shouldn’t you be practicing? The band is actually rehearsing right now. I do a lot of homework here at home.

What is Slayer homework like? It’s like anything else—when you haven’t done something in a while, you have to familiarize yourself with how it’s done. For me, it’s just a matter of listening. Once I’ve heard the song a million times, it kicks in, and I’m like, “Okay, I remember how to do this one.” People think you should know how to play a song that you wrote, but when you haven’t played it recently, they get tricky [laughs].

You’re re-instilling your muscle memory. It’s a neuromuscular facilitation. Oh, we’re using big words now [laughs]…

UP&COMING

Lose your fake Jamaican accent every night this week! For the full music calendar, see page 47 or visit thestranger.com/music For ticket on-sale announcements, follow twitter.com/seashows

Wednesday 10/30

Silly Goose, Ex-Girlfriend, Underworld Scum (Sunset) See Stranger Suggests, page 19.

Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples (Neptune) See My Philosophy, page 39.

J. Cole, Wale (Paramount) See My Philosophy, page 39.

The Bismarck, Nervous Curtains, DJ Dr. Troy (Highline) See Data Breaker, page 51.

Kaytranada, Jerome LOL, Tony Goods (Chop Suey) See Data Breaker, page 51.

Janelle Monae, Roman GianArthur (Showbox Sodo) To some, she’s a fearless musical hybrid injecting new life and high drama into contemporary R&B. To others, she’s a frantically rotating series of poses, not one of which ever seems to gel in full. To me, she’s a fascinating comet of ambition and potential, and I can’t wait till she’s willing and able to hitch her futuristic alter-ego fantasies and orchestral suites to songs that connect beyond the spazzy dazzle. Whatever the case, onstage, Janelle Monae’s a superstar, leading her band like a benevolent disciple of JB, spinning out songs with great showmanship, and dancing her ass off. DAVID SCHMADER See also My Philosophy, page 39.

Charli XCX, Kitten, LIZ (Neumos) Who doesn’t miss the old MySpace? The

auto-playing songs, the blinking neon zebra-print backgrounds, the glittering GIFs of stars, hearts, and words like ANGEL BABY? Charli XCX is a British ultrapop maker who was discovered on MySpace and somehow looks and sounds like the internet, or maybe the 2013 version of 1997—Snapchat meets Spencer’s meets black lipstick and the shiniest club you’ve ever danced on a clear platform in. Charli throws the past two decades worth of dance-music tricks into a faux-pixilation blender set to “plaid miniskirt.” Do yourself a solid and watch her video for “SuperLove” to prepare for this show. EMILY NOKES

Hitchcock’s Psycho (Benaroya Hall) Seattle Symphony live-scores the movie as it plays on the big screen above. Conducted by Adam Stern. JEN GRAVES

Thursday 10/31

Black Weirdo Halloween Party: THEESatisfaction

(Lo-Fi Performance Gallery) See Stranger Suggests, page 19, and My Philosophy, page 39.

Flavr Fright Night: The Flavr Blue, Don’t Talk to the Cops!, Mac Ned (Vera) See My Philosophy, page 39.

Neumos Halloween Bash: Grynch, the Good Husbands (Neumos) See My Philosophy, page 39.

Hoodie Allen, OCD: Moosh & Twist, D-Why, Shelton Harris & Tyler Dopps (Showbox Sodo) See My Philosophy, page 39.

Hitchcock’s Psycho (Benaroya Hall) See Wednesday.

Decades Cover Night: Ubu Roi, Neighbors, So Pitted, Witch Hammer, Ravenna Woods, Wasted USA, Dude York, Grenades, and more (Black Lodge) See Underage, page 50.

The Accüsed, Millhous, Triple Sixes (Chop Suey) What better thing to do on Halloween than to go see devilish hardcore, errr, “splattercore,” band the Accüsed? (The band themselves coined the term splattercore or “splatter rock” after writing songs in homage to their favorite horror-film genre—inventing a vengeful, feminist, mohawked lady zombie mascot named Martha

Splatterhead, who came back from the dead to murder rapists and child molesters.) This was all in the early ’80s—when people still, uh, “moshed.” Formed in Oak Harbor, Washington, in 1981, the band has seen a gazillion lineup changes. This special Halloween show will feature founding member and original guitarist Tommy Niemeyer, joining drummer Josh Sinder, and former vocalist Brad Mowen. Let’s hope Martha and her mighty mohawk will be there, too. KELLY O

Longstride, Elton Jah, Imaginary Friends (Nectar) It didn’t feel like an extraordinary Halloween night until the fog started to roll into the city. It came on quickly, filling every inch of Fremont’s airspace with an uncomfortable chill. People scur-

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TAJ MAHAL TRIO

FRI, NOV 22 - SUN, DEC 1

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ried down the sidewalk, jumping into Nectar before the monstrous fog stole what was left of their visibility. Once inside, people began to joyously drink and dance—but just as they thought they had found safety… WHAM! The door slammed shut, and the lights dimmed. A man took the stage. Someone in the audience cried out, “Noooooooo!” The man smiled a crooked, knowing smile and gently brushed a synthetic blond dreadlock away from his eye. “I’m Elton Jah,” he said in a fake Jamaican accent, “and I play reggae versions of Elton John songs.” A steel drum started to play “Candle in the Wind.” The door locked itself. There was no way out! Everyone screamed. A baritone voice, a voice that sounded like it was coming from outside, in the midst of the fog, bellowed “Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haha! HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEN.” MEGAN SELING

The Unlimited Horrors, Coconut Coolouts, the Gallow Swings, Underworld Scum (Bogart’s) I know it’s fun to pretend to be Glenn Danzig (looking at you, Underworld Scum, Seattle’s premier Misfits cover band), but there are other scary bands out there, too, ghouls and boys! For instance, what about Roky Erickson? He has lots of songs about demons. And Satan, too! Check out the lyrics to “Stand for the Fire Demon”: Stand for the fire demon/Rising into and with the clouds/Stand for the fire demon/Satan’s is his crowd/Stand for the fire demon/ Stand and feel it loud. That’s almost a “Praise Hell, Satan! Are you with me, brothers and sisters?” Roky Erickson cover band Unlimited Horrors include familiar faces (Derek “Cave Singers,” Corey “Cold Lake,” Brian “Cute Lepers,” Marc “Movitas Marching Band” and Emily “Tacocat” [conflict of interest alert].) You should stand (and feel it loud!) with them, at their very first show. KELLY O

Friday 11/1

White Lung, Antwon (Barboza) Vancouver’s White Lung will harsh your mellow and blacken your eyes with their seething punch of fast, loud, no-shit punk sheathed with a hardcore brass knuckle. Lead Lung Mish Way’s lyr-

MONDAYS Micro Mondays industry night! 20% Off!

TUESDAYS: Taco Tuesday & Open Mic

WEDNESDAYS: Stand-up Comedy & Folk Music

THURSDAYS: Up and Coming Local Bands

THURS OCT 31 Scary-Oke!  Karaoke Halloween Costume Party!  Prizes for everyone in costume!

FRI NOV 1 Ska/Reggae/punk showcase w/ The Slags, They Went Ghost (CA) + guest

SAT NOV 2 The Ladykillers, Vast Void + guest

SUN NOV 3 8pm. Free Seattle Singer-Songwriters Showcase.

FRI NOV 8 Tim Fantastic and the Styrofoam Meat Trays, Sir Mark the Poet + guests

SAT NOV 9 Joe Buck (formerly of Hank 3), Viva Le Vox, Load Levelers, Mean Street Meanie, $8 SUN NOV 10 Live Jazz Showcase. 8 pm.  Free 602 N

Nervous

ics skew feminist (Way is also a writer and has a lot of good things to say on the subject of vaginas and vaginas in music), and her band’s aesthetic lives on the angrier side of the F word for sure. On tour with White Lung is San Jose’s Antwon, a punkshow-appropriate rapper from the Tumblrized, post-dial-up school of panoptical influence, whose songs are often about drugs, eating out, and eating out (speaking of vaginas). EMILY NOKES

Pete Rock, CL Smooth, Camp Lo, Supreme La Rock (Crocodile) Elsewhere in this paper, I write that rappers are usually bad at producing, and producers are bad at rapping. One of the few exceptions to this rule is, of course, Pete Rock, who is one of the greatest producers in the history of hiphop (I rate him below only RZA, DJ Premier, and J Dilla, all of whom can’t rap). Bronx-born Pete Rock can hold a mic and turn an MPC out. As for CL Smooth, a New York rapper who in 1992 made hiphop history with Pete Rock with the track “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.),” he was not lying when he rapped on “Da Two” that he was “the best that ever did it on a Pete Rock track.” CHARLES MUDEDE See also My Philosophy, page 39.

“second bananas” of music, John Oates and Art Garfunkel. The ladies met at the Upright Citizens Brigade in LA and wrote a bunch of songs to address hard-hitting topics like weed cards, pregnant women being smug, and “God’s Loophole,” the practice of Christian girls having anal sex to preserve their virginity because it’s not specifically forbidden in the Bible (“Well, there’s a loophole in the scripture that works really well/So I can get him off without going to hell/It’s my hail Mary full of grace/ In Jesus’s name/We go to fifth base”). They became famous from their hilarious YouTube videos, and now the IFC network just announced that they’re going to produce a show with 10 half-hour episodes that will premiere in 2014. BREE MCKENNA

Earshot Jazz Festival:

Marc Seales Group

Benefit for Comet Employees: Hounds of the Wild Hunt (Chop Suey) When the Comet unexpectedly closed its doors earlier this month, it sucked for a lot of reasons, not least of which because the closure (temporary? Permanent? Who knows!) left a handful of good people suddenly unemployed. But Chop Suey booker Jodi Ecklund and members of the music community are doing what they can to lessen the blow—they’ve put together a night of stellar music to raise money for the defunct venue’s staff of bartenders, bouncers, and bookers. Not only will the show—featuring Hounds of the Wild Hunt, the Daemon Lovers, Black Nite Crash, and others—raise some serious dough for the Comet folks, it’ll jog everyone's craziest Comet memories. Remember when fuses kept blowing during U.S.E’s show? Remember when Akimbo played Black Flag (with Tad!)? While the fate of the bar is in limbo (see page 35), let's raise some cash for the people who've made it so fucking great. MEGAN SELING

Garfunkel and Oates (Neptune) Garfunkel and Oates are the comedyfolk duo Kate and Riki, named after the two great

www.nectarlounge.com

10.31 Thursday (Reggae / Du ) THE GREEN HALLOWEEN & COSTUME PARTY

feat LONGSTRIDE, ELTON JAH Imaginary Friends

$5 adv / $10 dos, 8pm doors, 21+

11.2 Saturday (Electro / Pop / Soul) RICHIE ALDENTE (CD Release Party)

The Dip, Dionvox, Mugatu! $10 adv/$12 dos, 8pm doors, 21+

11.5 Tuesday (and EVERY TUESDAY!!)

KARAOKEGRASS: Free Live Band Karaoke! 7pm doors, 21+

11.6 Wednesday (Benefit Concert)

Friends of the NWAC Present: SNOWBASH 2013

The Grant Farm, Buzz Brump Info at nwac.us, $20 adv, 7pm, 21+

11.7 Thursday (Reggae)

TWO STORY ZORI CD Release Party

Tribal Order, Valley Green

$7 adv / $10 dos, 8pm, 21+

11.8 Mad Professor 11.9 Yogoman/ Georgetown Orbits 11.10 The Student Loan 11.13 RITTZ 11.14 Head For The

(Tula’s) It is appropriate that Marc Seales is a professor of jazz piano at the University of Washington, because he often plays the king of instruments much like the sonar echoing/mapping of the deepest parts of American popular music. On songs like “Deep River,” which is on his excellent 2004 album A Time, A Place, A Journey…, we hear not only the ghosts of early jazz, blues, and spirituals, but also the raw soil of black American music (which is to say, American classical and popular music), which is, of course, the black American voice itself. Tonight, Seales celebrates the release of a new CD.

MUDEDE

CHARLES

Slayer, Gojira

(WaMu Theater) After the untimely death of legendary riffmaster Jeff Hanneman this past year, longtime metalheads began to question whether the Slayer-powered thrash train would keep rolling on. Fans didn’t have to wait long to realize that even death could not halt the unstoppable force that is Slayer. Instead, they replaced O.G. drummer Dave Lombardo and announced Exodus guitarist Gary Holt would continue to fill Hanneman’s role, a position he stepped into back when Hanneman contracted necrotizing fasciitis in 2011. Whether you like it or not, this is Slayer in 2013, and they show no signs of letting up. KEVIN DIERS See also Sound Check, page 41.

RANDY ROGERS BAND SHOEMAKER ANI

MIKE BALDWIN

Mike Baldwin is considered by many to be one of the smartest, funniest, and most likable comics working the road today, and has a clever writing style and a oneof-a kind delivery that will have audiences rolling with laughter.

After winning the Trial By Laughter in Indianapolis, becoming a finalist in the San Francisco Comedy Competition, being TWICE named Funniest Comic in Kansas City, winning the 2011 Seattle Comedy Competition and having his debut album go all the way to #8 on the iTunes US comedy charts,

proven that he just might become the next big thing!

Saturday 11/2

Death, Unnatural Helpers, Magic Mouth (Chop Suey) See preview, page 35.

Glasser, the Tempers, Dutty Wilderness (FRED Wildlife Refuge) See Data Breaker, page 51.

Sunday 11/3

Earshot Jazz Festival: Bill Frisell Trio (Jones Playhouse) Seattle-area guitar master Bill Frisell is an über-adaptable player who’s collaborated with a hall of fame’s worth of musical giants in his long, fruitful career. (Just found out today that he gigged with Ginger Baker and Charlie Haden; Frisell’s résumé probably houses dozens of such overlooked combos.) Frisell displays an astounding ability to shift gracefully from beautiful, feathery passages to torrid, jagged ones. He also possesses the uncanny ability to make Beatles songs sound wonderfully abstract. Tonight, Frisell will be playing in duet and trio configurations with drummer Ted Poor and King Tears Bat Trip bassist Luke Bergman. (You can check him doing similar things with pianist Robin Holcomb and trumpeter Cuong Vu on Friday, November 1, at Jones Playhouse.)

Monday 11/4

Underpass, iji, the Witches Titties (Hollow Earth Radio) See Underage, page 50.

Mazzy Star, Mariee Sioux, Entrance Band (Neptune) See Stranger Suggests, page 19.

Sepultura, Unearth, Kataklysm, Dark Sermon (Neumos) South America’s biggest metal export is on the cusp of turning 30. But like so many other multidecade acts, there isn’t much resemblance between

today’s Sepultura and the original Brazilian band that helped bridge the gap between thrash, death metal, and hardcore back in the late ’80s and early ’90s. For one thing, only bassist Paulo Jr. remains from the lineup that delivered classics like Beneath the Remains, Arise, and Chaos A.D. Sonically, Sepultura still retain some of the groove-oriented chug of the proto-nü breakout album Roots—the band even reenlisted producer Ross Robinson for their latest album, The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart. But unfortunately, post-Roots Sepultura haven’t been able to retain the urgency and voracious absorption of new underground sounds that defined their early years. BRIAN COOK

Andy Coe Band (Blue Moon Tavern) Respected music heads in the community have been saying positive things about the Andy Coe Band for a while now. ACB play for free every Monday at Blue Moon Tavern, going up against another long-running Monday night staple, Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder at the White Rabbit. Seattle jam-band aficionados sure are spoiled. Anyway, Mr. Coe is a guitarist who initially started ACB in order to pay homage to the late Grateful Dead leader, Jerry Garcia. A few minutes in Coe’s presence proves that his mercurial, serpentine leads vibrate close to that Garcia-esque golden mean. Deadheads can feast well here. Whatever your allegiance, you’d do well to dip your head at least once into ACB’s marathon hippie-soul sessions. DAVE SEGAL

Tuesday 11/5

Luke Rain, BingX

(Barboza) Luke Rain’s a young white rapper/producer from Seattle who might benefit from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s global success. His latest album, Rain Shine, sounds brashly flashy with booming baps, twisted synth riffs, aspirational lyrics spit authoritatively, and the occasional melodramatic, Nerf-metal guitar solo from Ayron Jones. Luke Rain, who looks a bit like a high-end fashion model, plans to sell out the Barboza; by this time next year, it’ll be Neumos or Neptune. You heard it here last. DAVE SEGAL

WHISPERING PEE SPIRITS

DRUNK OF THE WEEK …BELOW THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA …49 UNDERAGE…50 DATA BREAKER …51 POSTER OF THE WEEK …51

WED 10/30

LIVE

a 88 KEYS Blues On Tap, 8 pm, free BARBOZA Goldroom Live, Dr. Fever, Bgeezy, 8 pm, $10

BENAROYA HALL Psycho: Seattle Symphony, 7:30 pm, $19

CHOP SUEY Kaytranada, Jerome LOL, guests, 8 pm, $15/$20

HIGH DIVE Highlight Bomb, Bear Cove, 8 pm, $6

HIGHLINE The Bismarck , Nervous Curtains, guests, $6 HIGHWAY 99 Chris Stevens’ Surf Monkeys, 8 pm, $6

JAZZ ALLEY Roberta Gambarini, 7:30 pm, $26.50 a NEPTUNE THEATRE Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, 8 pm, $21.50/$25

NEUMOS Charli XCX, Kitten, LIZ, 8 pm, $12

PARAMOUNT THEATRE J. Cole, Wale, 7:30 pm, $45.75

PINK DOOR Casey MacGill & the Blue 4 Trio, 8 pm

SEAMONSTER The Unsinkable Heavies

SHOWBOX SODO Janelle

Monae, Roman GianArthur

STUDIO SEVEN Charlie Drown , Mixtape Minus, guests, 6:45 pm, $10/$12

SUNSET TAVERN Silly Goose, Ex-Girlfriend, $6

TRACTOR TAVERN Martha Scanlan, Cahalen Morrison & Eli West, 8 pm, $12

TRIPLE DOOR JD Hobson , free VITO’S The Wally Shoup Quartet

DJ

BALTIC ROOM Crunk: DJ

Henski, Marty Mar, Blue Eyed Soul, Bgeezy, guests

CHA CHA LOUNGE DJ Hank Rock, Cutz Like a Knife, free CONTOUR Rotation: Guests THE EAGLE VJDJ Andy J

ELECTRIC TEA GARDEN Jayms Nylon, Joey Webb FOUNDATION Schoolboy, D!rty Aud!o, PressHa, Zack Attack, $10 after 10:30 pm

HAVANA Peter Evans, Devlin Jenkins, Richard Everhard, $1 LAST SUPPER CLUB Vibe: Jame$Ervin, DT, Contagious

MOE BAR The Hump: DJ Darwin, DJ Swervewon, guests, 10:30 pm, free

NECTAR DJ Rhythma, DJ Starterkit, 7 pm, $10

NEIGHBOURS Undergrad: Guest DJs, 18+, $5/$8

PONY DJs Gin & Tonic

Q NIGHTCLUB All Bands on Decks: Sir Thomas Gray

SEE SOUND LOUNGE Fade: DJ Chinkyeye, DJ Christyle

THURS

10/31

LIVE

2 BIT SALOON Downtown Brown, Butterflies of Death, guests, Grynch , the Good Husbands, DJ Rad ‘Em, free a BLACK LODGE Ubu Roi, Neighbors, So Pitted, Ravenna Woods , Wasted USA, Dude York, guests

BLUE MOON TAVERN Boners in Space, Wayfinders, Bad Love, Kurly Somthing

BOGART’S Coconut Coolouts, the Unlimited Horrors, guests, $7

CAFE IBEX Reggae Bubblers, $10

CAFE RACER Wendy DeWitt featuring Kirk Harwood

CAN CAN Vince Mira CHOP SUEY The Accused,

MARK, AS BOE ODISSEY

Part of the annual Gaelic Samhain celebration, which we now call “Halloween,” is honoring and dressing up as not just scary “monsters,” but also important cultural icons, martyrs, and personal heroes. Mark, here, chose to dress up as Seattle’s most famous (and probably ONLY) rainbow scarf dancer, Boe Odissey. In a sea of not-sexy vampires and Miley Cyrus rip-offs, one Boe Odissey has the power to keep the REAL spirit of Halloween alive, for generations to come. Bless you, Mark. And Mr. Odissey, you are famous for a reason. KELLY O

= Recommended

Millhous , Triple Sixes, 8 pm, $5/$8

COLUMBIA CITY

THEATER Talking Deads, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, the Dee Dees, guests, $12/$15

CONOR BYRNE Radio Raheem , Shady Bottom

HIGH DIVE Dirty Byrdz, McFunk Brothers, BizZaRa, $5

HIGHLINE Blowfly, Ronald McFondle, 8 pm

HIGHWAY 99 Monster Road, 8 pm, 8 pm

JAZZ ALLEY Gerald Albright, 7:30 pm, $28.50

THE KRAKEN 7-Year-Old

Blind Girl, Steel Tigers of Death , Cinco Gringos

NECTAR Longstride, Elton Jah, Imaginary Friends, $5/$10

a NEPTUNE THEATRE Greensky Bluegrass, Fruition, $25

NEUMOS Grynch , the Good Husbands, DJ 100Proof, SwerveWon, Jeff Hawk, Rad ‘em, 8 pm, free SEAMONSTER Funky 2 Death Halloween: Guests

SHOWBOX AT THE MARKET Hell’s Belles, Halloqueen a SHOWBOX SODO Hoodie Allen, guests, 7:30 pm, $21.50

SLIM’S LAST CHANCE

Patitude, Snakes of Christ

SUNSET TAVERN I Will Keep Your Ghost, Gold Wolf Galaxy, Gems, $6

TRACTOR TAVERN McTuff , Crack Sabbath, 9:30 pm, $12/$15

TRIPLE DOOR Letters from Traffic, free a VERA PROJECT The Flavr Blue, Don’t Talk to the Cops, Mack Ned, 7:30 pm, $10

THE WHITE RABBIT Marmalade, $6

DJ

BALLROOM DJ Rob, free

BALTIC ROOM Revolution: DonnaTella Howe, Olivia LaGarce, guests

CROCODILE Halloween Bash: DJ Sharadawn, $10

THE EAGLE Nasty: DJ King of Pants, Nark

FOUNDATION Dirty South, Darrius, Rion, Matei Craciun

HAVANA DJ Sad Bastard, DJ Nitty Gritty

LO-FI Black Weirdo

Halloween Party: THEESatisfaction, Shabazz Palaces, guests

MOE BAR Saucy: DJ Rad’em, DJ 100 Proof, free

NEIGHBOURS Bump!: Jake Shears, Alyssa Edwards, guests, $30-$65

NEIGHBOURS UNDERGROUND The Lowdown: DJ Lightray, $3

RE-BAR DJ Catherinna, Slowdive, DJ Mariu5, Dr. Noir

SEE SOUND LOUNGE Damn Son: DJ Flave, Sativa Sound System, Jameson Just, Tony Goods

TRINITY Rise Over Run, DJ Christyle, Johnny Fever, DJ Nicon, Sean Majors, B Geezy, guests, free THE WOODS Pure Thursdays: Omar Valadez, MMars, Chris T, 10 pm, free

FRI

11/1

LIVE

BARBOZA White Lung, Antwon, 7 pm, $10

BLUE MOON TAVERN

The Harborrats , Stereo Sons guests, $5

CAFE RACER Grumpy Old Bear Records Showcase a CAIRO Haunted Horses , Dreamdecay, Darto, 8 pm, $5

CENTRAL SALOON The Hz a CHAPEL PERFORMANCE SPACE

University of Washington Research Study Department of Medicine

Testosterone & Insulin Sensitivity Study

Men are needed for 2-1/2-month investigational study using acyline, letrozole, and testosterone gel to examine the effects of androgens on insulin sensitivity, body composition and fat.

Eligibility:

• 25-55 years of age

• Healthy male

• No History of infertility.

-- Volunteers will be reimbursed compensated $650 -If interested, call 206-616-1818 (24-hours volunteer line) Mention T-IR study

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 30TH

KAYTRANADA

JEROME LOL // TONY GOODS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31ST

THE ACCUSED

MILHOUS // TRIPLE SIXES

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1ST

A BENEFIT FOR THE COMET’S EMPLOYEES

W/ HOUNDS OF THE WILD HUNT // DAEMON LOVERS // BLACK NITE CRASH // FABULOUS DOWNEY BROTHERS // DJ MAMMA CASSEROLE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND DEATH

UNNATURAL

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH

ACAPULCO LIPS

GANG CULT // BAD MOTIVATORS // RED RIBBON

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH

DELHI 2 DUBLIN

HOSTED BY DJ PRASHANT

11/5 K2 MOVIE PREMIERE 11/8 CROOKED VEILS 11/9 RHM BENEFIT W/ CHIMESTONE 11/10 EXOHXO 11/13 POP 1280 // CRYPTS 11/14 XVIII INDIVIDUAL EYES 11/17 DARKPINE 11/19 KSUB PRESENTS: LURES 11/21 LARRY MIZELL JR. 11/22 HELMS ALEE 11/23 GIRL TROUBLE 11/24 ALBERT HAMMOND JR. 11/27 WAXAHATCHEE 12/3

S // ANNA OXYGEN 12/5 JAIL WEDDINGS

12/6 DEVO TRIBUTE NIGHT 12/12 THE FAMILY CURSE 12/14 HOLOGRAMS 12/20 PETE SWANSON 1/29 DENT MAY

Composers Salon

CHOP SUEY Benefit for Comet Emloyees: Hounds of the Wild Hunt, the Daemon Lovers, Black Nite Crash , guests, $10 donation

COLUMBIA CITY THEATER

Foy Vance, Rams’ Pocket Radio, 8 pm, $12/$14

CONOR BYRNE Country

Lips, the Outlaws

CROCODILE Pete Rock, CL Smooth, Camp Lo, Porter Ray, Supreme La Rock, 8 pm, $20

DARRELL’S TAVERN Cutlass Supreme, Hellephant, the Lot Lizard, $6

EL CORAZON Dwarves, Poison Idea, Toxic Holocaust, guests, $13/$15

FRED WILDLIFE REFUGE

Cabaret Macabre: The Bad Things , Baby Gramps, Nu Klezmer Army, guests, $18/$20

HARD ROCK CAFE Platinum Spandex, $20/$25

HEARTLAND Case Studies, Waxing Hearts, 8 pm

HIGH DIVE The Braxmatics, Soul Senate, Tip To Base, $8

HIGHLINE Dead Animal Assembly Plant, Murder Weapons, Mixed Messages, $8

HIGHWAY 99 Left Hand Smoke, 8 pm, $15

JAZZ ALLEY Gerald Albright, 9:30 pm, $28.50

a JONES PLAYHOUSE Bill Frisell, Cuong Vu, 7:30 pm, $12/$20

THE KRAKEN Head Honcho, Swells, HellGod, $5

a NEPTUNE THEATRE

Garfunkel & Oates, 8 pm, $25

NEUMOS Terakraft, $13

RENDEZVOUS Def Leprechaun, the JV, 10 pm

a THE ROYAL ROOM Brian

Haas & Scott Amendola, Chemical Clock, $8-$16

SEAMONSTER Funky 2 Death, 10 pm, free

a SHOWBOX AT THE MARKET AFI, Touche Amore, Coming, sold out

SKYLARK CAFE & CLUB Come As You Aren’t: Robotic About Us, Gibraltar, Werebearcat, In Cahoots , guests, 8 pm, free

SLIM’S LAST CHANCE

Thrashers Corner, Demolition Kings, Jaguar Paw

a STUDIO SEVEN The Chariot, Glass Cloud, guests, 5:30 pm, $12/$14

SUNSET TAVERN Curtains for You , Hannalee, Not Amy, $8

TIM’S TAVERN Indecent Liberty, the Slags , They Went Ghost

TRACTOR TAVERN Polecat, World’s Finest, 9:30 pm, $10/$12

TRIPLE DOOR Manhattan Transfer, 9:30 pm, $30-$50

VITO’S Joe Doria Trio

WAID’S Fox and the Law, Branden Daniel and the Chics, Psychedelephant, the Mama Rags, $5

a WAMU THEATER Slayer, Gojira, 4ARM, $40

DJ

95 SLIDE DJ Fever One

BALLROOM DJ Tamm

BALMAR DJ Ben Meadow

BALTIC ROOM Dirty Work: Rotating DJs

BARBOZA Just Got Paid:

100proof, $5 after 11:30 pm

CUFF TGIF: Guest DJs, 11 pm, $5

FOUNDATION Treasure Fingers, Amtrac, guests

FUEL DJ Headache, guests

HAVANA Rotating DJs:

DV One, Soul One, Curtis, Nostalgia B, Sean Cee, $5

LAST SUPPER CLUB Madness: Guests

In excess of joy, we weep, or something, William Blake is rumored to have said, and if that is true (which it is, of course— Blake is rumored to have said everything), we shall indeed be left with salty pumpkins full of giddy tears over the sheer joyful excessiveness of this here Halloween. We have on our gory little hands an exquisite glut of gay/spooky/sexy happenings happening, far too many to cram into this little cranny. So. You know. Check Line Out for ever-so-many more gay and highly recommended recommendations.

WEDNESDAY 10/30

CRAFTY TEEN WITCHES AT WET

Firstly! The power of something (pretty sure it’s not Christ) compels me to draw your attention to Washington Ensemble Theatre’s new and one-night-only “theatrical re-imagining” of my favorite witchy-teen flick ever, The Craft! (Please note: I do not recommend this just because it mirrors my high-school experience exactly, except that, yes, it really is because of that.) What’s scarier than four feckless, newly menstruating teenagers wielding the powers of hell? FUCKING NOTHING! Exactly. Staring The Stranger’s own Devin Bannon

LO-FI Dug Rare Funk Dance Party: Guests, $7

NEIGHBOURS UNDERGROUND Caliente

Celebra: DJ Polo, Efren

PONY Beefcake: DJ Jack, Freddy King of Pants

RE-BAR Miguel Migs, Jason Tokita, Michael Manahan, Ramiro, $15

TRINITY Tyler, DJ Phase, DJ Nug, guests, $10

THE WOODS Deep/Funky/

Disco/House: Guest DJs

SAT

11/2

LIVE 2 BIT SALOON The Mortals, the Godbeast, Witchripper, Eternal Bad

BARBOZA Rubblebucket, the Hoot Hoots , 7 pm, $10

BLUE MOON TAVERN The Western Red Penguins, Verdant Mile, Will of the Wild, $5

CAFE RACER Brian James CENTRAL SALOON The Hardcount a CHAPEL PERFORMANCE

SPACE Paul Kikuchi, $9-$18

CHOP SUEY Death, Unnatural Helpers, Magic Mouth, $20/$25

COLUMBIA CITY THEATER Peculiar Pretzelmen, L’Orchestre D’Incroyable, $15/$25

CONOR BYRNE Gram Parsons Tribute Night

CROCODILE Polyrhythmics, Picoso, DJ Chilly

DARRELL’S TAVERN The Of, Red Sea, People Tank, $7 a EL CORAZON The Story So Far, Stick to Your Guns, guests, 6:30 pm, $16/$18

EMPTY SEA STUDIOS Tarana, 8 pm, $12 / $15

FRED WILDLIFE REFUGE Glasser, the Tempers ,

Dutty Wilderness, $16

HIGHLINE Day of the Dead, Smile Brigade , Half Breed, Tall Smoke, G.O.A.T.

HIGHWAY 99 Hot Roddin

Romeos, guests, $12

JAZZ ALLEY Gerald Albright, 9:30 pm, $28.50

THE KRAKEN Crazy Eyes, Cabana, Grackles, $5

LO-FI Studio 66: Red Jacket Mine , the 66ers

NECTAR Richie Aldente, the Dip, Dionvox, !Mugatu!, $10

NEPTUNE THEATRE Mike Doughty, 8 pm, $25

NEUMOS Ayron Jones & the Way, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Tomeka Williams, 8 pm, $15

RENDEZVOUS About the Author, Storm Circus, Josh Clutter, Tyler Giles, 10 pm, $8

THE ROYAL ROOM

Guardian Alien , YO

SEAMONSTER Sound

Dialog: Guests, 10:30 pm

SHOWBOX AT THE MARKET

Windowpane, Mechanism, Jason Kertson and the Immortals, Jaded Mary

SKYLARK CAFE & CLUB

Petrified Forest, 8 pm, $7

SLIM’S LAST CHANCE

Elbow County Rough Riders, Darci Carlson, Ben Everyman

STUDIO SEVEN The Browning, This or the Apocalypse, guests, 6 pm, $12/$15

SUNSET TAVERN Princess, Deadkill, Ubik, Yassou Benedict

TRACTOR TAVERN Lake

Street Dive, Miss Tess and the Talkbacks, 9:30 pm, $15

TRIPLE DOOR Manhattan Transfer, 9:30 pm, $30-$50 a VERA PROJECT SoMo, PropaneLV, Bianca Leonor, 7 pm, $16

VITO’S Sunga Rose and her Ukulele, 9:30 pm

THE WHITE RABBIT The High Council , 8 pm, $6

as Nancy, a role he was born to play. But remember: If now is the time, if this is the hour, if ours is the magic… WHY ARE YOU STILL BLEEDING? Washington Ensemble Theatre, $6, 8 pm, all ages.

THURSDAY 10/31

ALYSSA AND JAKE GO BUMP!

Second to lastly! By the prickling of our bums, something wicked this way comes… and what could be wickeder than Alyssa Edwards’s infamous BACK ROLLS?! Or Jake Shears’s sexy, sexy armpits? FUCKING NOTHING! Exactly. It’s BUMP’s 30th anniversary, you know, and tonight we celebrate the wickedest night of the year with these two luminaries, of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 5 and the Scissor Sisters, respectively. Also sexing you up all Samhain-style will be our own DJ Nark (naturally—Nark Magazine is producing this year) and DJ Trouble (who you know is secretly Dan Savage’s husband, Terry, right?), and hosted by the ever-amazing Ben DeLaCreme! Neighbours, $30/$65 VIP, 9 pm, 21+.

ARMAGEDDON!

Finally! If Obama has screwed up your personal economy, too (OBAMA!!), and you need something a little bit not-a-$30cover-charge, there is no better choice than Pony tonight, as an All Hallows’ Eve at Pony is a visual horror show of freakish delights—in fact, please note, this year costumes are REQUIRED for entrance. (And “a moustache from Archie McPhee’s doesn’t count!” Ahem.) Queer rapper Boy Funk (PDX) is performing, a costume contest (of course) is happening, and BEWARE THE WHISPERING PEE SPIRITS THAT LINGER AT THE GLORYHOLE. No joke. They are NOT messing around. Pony, 9 pm, $5, 21+.

LIVE MUSIC • FOOD • BOOZE TWICE DAILY

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/TAKEWARNINGPRESENTS TWITTER @TAKEWARNINGSEA

TICKETS @ TICKETFLY.COM

THURSDAY NOV 7 @ THE SUNSET THE CLIKS THE ADARNA, HOT PEACH 21+ ONLY 8:00 PM

FRIDAY NOV 22 @ THE VERA PROJECT POLAR BEAR CLUB CITIZEN, DIAMOND YOUTH, SAINTHOOD REPS, AFTERWORDS ALL AGES - 7:00 PM

FRIDAY NOV 22 @ THE SUNSET @DADBONER (AKA KARL WELZEIN) W/ SPECIAL GUESTS MATT BRAUNGER, BRETT HAMIL, MARCO COLLINS 21+ ONLY 9:30 PM

TUE DEC 10 @ EL CORAZON LOUNGE THE FLATLINERS

LIVING WITH LIONS, SUNDOWNER (CHRIS FROM THE LAWRENCE ARMS), POKE DA SQUID ALL AGES (BAR W/ ID) - 7:00 PM

SATURDAY DEC 14 @ EL CORAZON AMERICAN NIGHTMARE (GIVE UP THE GHOST) ALL AGES (BAR W/ ID) - 7:00 PM

TICKETS @ WWW.ELCORAZONSEATTLE.COM OR EL CORAZON BOX OFFICE. TICKETFLY TICKETS SOLD OUT.

FRIDAY DEC 20 & SATURDAY DEC 21 @ EL CORAZON

“TAKE WARNING, EL CORAZON THE STRANGER & KEXP 90.3 FM PRESENT: A FAMILY X-MAS” TWO NIGHTS WITH X & THE BLASTERS

21+ ONLY 7:00 PM

2/4 REGGIE & THE FULL EFFECT, DADS @ VERA PROJECT

THURSDAY OCTOBER 31 | 7:30 PM

THE FLAVR BLUE

PLUS GUESTS

$10 ADV

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 2 | 7:00 PM

SOMO PRESENTS: THE RIDE TOUR SOMO PROPANELV, BIANCA LEONOR

GA TICKET: $16 ($15 W.CLUB CARD) MEET & GREET TICKET: $45

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 7 | 7:30 PM

DEERHOOF, LXMP, JARV DEE

$16 ($15 W. CLUB CARD) ADV

$18 ($17 W. CLUB CARD) DOS

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 15 | 7:00 PM

NOVA BEATS COMMITTEE BENEFIT

KUNG FOO GRIP

KEYBOARD KID, VERY, SPECIAL GUESTS, TELLEZ THA FORMULA, STREET LOGIC, YOSEPH AMARE

$10

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22 | 7:30 PM

TAKE WARNING & THE VERA

PROJECT PRESENTS

POLAR BEAR CLUB, CITIZEN, DIAMOND YOUTH, SAINTHOOD REPS

7:00 PM DOORS

$12 ADV / $14 DOS

ALWAYS ALL AGES

BY BRITTNIE FULLER

THURSDAY

10/31

DECADES COVER NIGHT

Local music curator What’s Up Seattle has conjured another bill with some of the city’s best up-and-coming punk, garage, and indie rock bands for Halloween. All acts will be playing covers of songs from the last 50 years, and there will even be a costume contest for maximum festive vibes. If the rest of garage punks Ubu Roi’s upcoming Nice Dude EP is anything like the first single, “Cheezburger” (“I don’t wanna eat no cheeseburger French fry/I just wanna drink some alcohol”), expect an even more booze-fueled, hormonal punk frenzy from them ahead. A ’70s punk cover would be appropriate, but who knows? Not even time’s the limit (well, sorta). The lineup also includes Dude York, So Pitted, Neighbors, Wasted USA, Ravenna Woods, Grenades, Witch Hammer, Smiling, Bath House, and mystery acts to be announced. Ghouly, baby. Black Lodge, 8 pm.

MONDAY 11/4

UNDERPASS, IJI, THE WITCHES TITTIES, JAMES RABBIT Vancouver, BC’s new dreamy goth-rock act Underpass will play their first show ever at a kickoff for a full West Coast tour. In a recent interview published in Vancouver zine Dunk, duo Alexander Miranda and Celina Kurz—who started collaborating due to “a shared interest in Psychic TV and New Order”— revealed they had never played a show together before booking the tour. Their just-released debut EP, About Violence, is playfully morose, lo-fi post-punk full of spacey, Robert Smith–kissed guitar bleakness and an aura of psychotropic graveyard romance. Laced over divinely eerie female vocals, Victoriancollared guitar riffs dangle pensively with sincerest brood-a-tude. Underpass descend upon Hollow Earth Radio tonight with their cavernous goth rock, and the night stays spooky with the Witches Titties, a newish local queer post-punk coven/band. These drag punk cabaret “Witches” are a high-energy spooktacle, backed with frenetic synths and “occult loincloths.” If you need a boost in cheer at this point, iji’s Zach Burba is one of DIY pop’s hometown heroes, and his shows never cease to be endlessly huggable. Prepare to smile and likely dance as if compelled by a force beyond your control. Hollow Earth Radio, 9 pm, $5.

Fuller & the Library, GreenhornBluehorn , 8 pm, $5

a EL CORAZON Oh Mercy, These Young Fools, guests, $8/$10

HIGH DIVE Released from Quiet, Basement Baby, 8 pm, $6

HIGHLINE Pillagers of Silence, Botherations, $6

JAZZ ALLEY Gerald Albright, 7:30 pm, $28.50

a JONES PLAYHOUSE

Bill Frisell Trio, 7:30 pm, $12/$20

NECTAR Soulfinga, Combinator, High Noon, free NEUMOS Hallstrom, Steady Skies, Kate Lynne Logan, 7 pm, $8

PONCHO CONCERT HALL

The Kora Band, 8 pm, $9-$18

THE ROYAL ROOM Leni Stern, 8 pm

SEAMONSTER Papa Josh

Plus

a SKYLARK CAFE & CLUB

C-Trip, Ever, 3 pm, $5

SUNSET TAVERN Lindee

Hoshikawa, Lady Grace, the Summer Birds, $6

TRACTOR TAVERN

The Defribulators, Tekla Waterfield, the Lowest Pair, 8 pm, $8

TRIPLE DOOR The Manhattan Transfer, 9:30 pm, free VITO’S The Ron Weinstein Trio, 9:30 pm

DJ

BALTIC ROOM Mass

CONTOUR DJ Venus, Rob Cravens, guests, free THE EAGLE T-Bar/T-Dance: Up Above, Fistfight, free MOE BAR Sosa, MarsONE, Phosho, free

NEIGHBOURS Noche Latina

PONY DJ El Toro, Freddy King of Pants, 4 pm

Q NIGHTCLUB Riz Rollins, Chris Tower, 3 pm, free

RE-BAR Flammable: DJ Wesley Holmes, 9 pm

SEE SOUND LOUNGE Salsa: DJ Nick

11/4

2 BIT SALOON Dilapidation, Hereticon, Drone Strike BARBOZA Jef Shocki, Sebastian and the Deep Blue, 8 pm, $8

BLUE MOON TAVERN Andy Coe Band, 9 pm, free

a EL CORAZON The Motorleague, the Balconies, 7:30 pm, $8/$10

a MOORE THEATRE

Isabella Rossellini, Green Porno, $37.50/$62.50

a NEPTUNE THEATRE Mazzy Star

NEUMOS Sepultura, Unearth, Kataklysm, Dark Sermon, 6 pm, $25

PARAMOUNT THEATRE Iron and Wine, 7:30 pm, $29.50

TRACTOR TAVERN The Tallboys , 7:30 pm, $7

TRIPLE DOOR Free Funk Union, free WAID’S Stickers, Haunted Horses , Coming, Sailor Mouth, $6

THE WHITE RABBIT

Michael Shrieve’s Spellbinder, $6

DJ

BALTIC ROOM Jam Jam: Zion’s Gate Sound, $5

BARBOZA Icon Mondays: Sean Majors, guests, free COMPANY BAR DJ Plantkiller, 8 pm, free

CONOR BYRNE Get the Spins: Guest DJs, free CONTOUR Manic Mondays

HAVANA DJ Jay Battle, free THE HIDEOUT Introcut, guests, free LO-FI Jam Jam: Zion’s Gate, Sound Selecta, Element, Mista Chatman , $5

MOE BAR Minted Mondays: DJ Swervewon, guests, free

NEIGHBOURS UNDERGROUND SIN: DJ Keanu, 18+, free

PONY Dirty Deeds

Q NIGHTCLUB Reflect, 8 pm, free

TUE 11/5

LIVE

AQUA BY EL GAUCHO Ben Fleck, 6 pm

BARBOZA Luke Rain, BingX, guests, 8 pm, $5

CAFE RACER Jacobs Posse

a EL CORAZON The Kill Devil Hills, Eyes Set to Kill, guests, 7 pm, $15/$18; The Conditionz, Billy Dwayne and the Creepers, 8:30 pm, $8/$10

WEDNESDAY 10/30

NERVOUS CURTAINS’ WIRED SYNTH ROCK

Besides being one of the foremost synth-music DJs in the city, Dr. Troy is the head of the Seattle-based Medical label, which specializes in reissuing exceptional, obscure records from the ’70s and ’80s in the minimal-synth and Italo-disco veins. His ear for these sounds is acutely sharp, and that helps him to book modern bands that are mining these styles with panache. Case in point is Dallas band Nervous Curtains. They have a tune on their Fake Infinity album called “Wired to Make Waves” that encapsulates their rousing yet tuneful way with aggressive synth composition. With the Bismarck Highline, 9 pm, $6, 21+.

THE ODDLY ANGLED PARTY MUSIC OF KAYTRANADA AND JEROME LOL

Montreal’s Kaytranada is one of those producers who excel at several styles e.g., house, hiphop, disco, and R&B— without sounding like a hack in any of them. He balances experimental textures and song structures with beats that should inspire unconventional dancing. Kaytranada’s bootleg remixes of tracks by greats like Danny Brown, Janet Jackson, and Missy Elliott have further en-

Look at this gorgeous poster by Seattle illustrator and animator Joe Garber! You can find more of Joe’s work at joegarber.net, and check out his crowd-sourced web comic The Odyssey of Blueboy at toobb.org. AARON HUFFMAN

Smile Brigade w/Half-Breed, Tall Smoke, G.O.A.T. Sat Nov 2, Highline

ELECTRIC TEA GARDEN Monktail Creative Music Concern, DJ Shonuph, free HIGH DIVE Merin, Goodbye Heart, English Gardens, 8 pm, $6

JAZZ ALLEY Steve Smith, 7:30 pm, $22.50 a NEPTUNE THEATRE Twenty One Pilots, Robert Delong, Sirah, 8 pm, $18/$20

SEAMONSTER McTuff Trio, 10 pm, free a SHOWBOX AT THE MARKET Trivium, DevilDriver, After the Burial, Thy Will Be Done, $22.50-$25

SUNSET TAVERN Desert Noises, Tiger of Morning, Teleportation, 8:30 pm, $8

TRACTOR TAVERN Jeffrey Foucault, Sarah Gerritsen, 8 pm, $15

TRIPLE DOOR Garland Jeffreys, Lincoln Barr, 7:30 pm, $22/$25

DJ

BALTIC ROOM Drum & Bass Tuesdays: Guests

BLUE MOON TAVERN

DJ Country Mike, A.D.M., guests, 8 pm, free

THE EAGLE Pitstop: DJ Nark

HAVANA Hoot and Howl, $3 after 11 pm

LO-FI Stop Biting: Introcut, guests, $5

MERCURY Die: Black Maru, Major Tom, $5

MOE BAR DJ Cory Alfano, DJ Cody Votolato, free

NEIGHBOURS UNDERGROUND Vicious Dolls: DJ Rachael, 9 pm, $5

WILDROSE Taco Tuesday: Guest DJs

hanced his reputation among people who like to move their bodies rhythmically to music. LA DJ/producer Jerome LOL is a member of LOL Boys, who appear to be on hiatus. On his own, Jerome continues with the freewheeling, oddly angled party music that skitters among genres with poise. With Tony Goods Chop Suey, 8 pm, $15 adv/$20 DOS, 21+.

SATURDAY 11/2

GLASSER’S ELECTRO-POP DECOR IS IMPECCABLE

Glasser (aka Cameron Mesirow) debuted with the impressive 2010 album Ring which took some of the demonstrative vocal techniques of Björk and Zola Jesus into some exotic realms where goth pop intersects with tribal electronic music. (That sort of fusion rarely happens.)

Now Glasser’s supporting her new album, Interiors. It wasn’t inspired by the 1978 Woody Allen film of the same name, but rather by architect Rem Koolhaas’s book Delirious New York. What I’ve heard of Interiors (not much, sadly) sounds more polished than Ring; she’s working with producer Van Rivers (Blonde Redhead, Fever Ray) and the sound is luxurious, with Glasser’s crystalline voice matching that richness. With the Tempers and Dutty Widlerness FRED Wildlife Refuge, 8 pm, $16 adv, 21+.

Jet City Animal Clinic

Jet City Animal Clinic - Seattle’s newest fullservice veterinary hospital located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Comprehensive Physical Exam ($50 Value). Your Price: $25

Seattle Arnis Academy

Seattle Arnis Academy is the only full time Martial Arts training academy in Seattle that focuses specifically on the Filipino Martial Arts of Arnis, Kali and Eskrima. Offering classes that are just right for beginning, intermediate, or advanced practitioners, Seattle Arnis Academy’s goal is to develop a student’s ability to defend themselves. One Month/Eight Classes ($100 Value). Your Price: $50

Michael Cepress Studio

Seattle’s rising-star fashion designer Michael Cepress is adding to his new collection American Dreaming by letting us all wrap ourselves in the love of hand woven beauty. The MC Ikat Grid Scarf is made from hand woven cotton with a two-sided design that features both indigo and ivory color-ways of this glorious ikat design. One Indigo & Ivory MC Ikat Grid Scarf ($68 Value). Your Price: $34

FILM

American Nightmare

Humans Versus Monsters in 12 Years a Slave

BY DAVID SCHMADER

Heading in to the cinema to watch 12 Years a Slave, I felt a level of trepidation that called up images of the marches Germans made through Nazi death camps after the war, as ordinary

citizens were forced to behold the evil they allowed to flourish in their homeland. Distress on the part of the viewer was the point, but also beside the point: The pain experienced by after-the-fact witnesses is so far removed from the horror being witnessed that it effectively counts as privilege.

That said, watching a film by Steve McQueen cannot be compared to marching through the remains of a death camp. This is a man who makes beautiful things. As a Turner Prize–winning video artist and Cannes-honored filmmaker, McQueen brings a highly accomplished visual aesthetic to this brutal true tale, the facts of which come from the 1853 autobiography of Solomon Northup. Northup was a free black man living in Saratoga Springs, New York, with his wife and children when, in 1841, he was kidnapped,

transported south, sold to the highest bidder, and subjected to a barbaric 12-year enslavement.

In the film, Northup is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, the highly accomplished British actor who does extraordinary work here. As McQueen and screenwriter John Ridley take us through each step of this nightmare— where the crossing of a state line legally turns a man into property—Ejiofor anchors the film with a performance that can feel mythic, until it breaks apart into something a hundred times messier and more complicated. Peppered among the scenes of hideous inhumanity are long, close shots of Ejiofor’s face, maybe three such shots in all, each of which sends an intense blast of humanity into the ever-accumulating horror. Viewers will likely leave this film accustomed to looking at

When Giants Walked the Earth

BY CHARLES MUDEDE

The Trials of Muhammad Ali appears to be about a specific and very dark time in Muhammad Ali’s life—when he refused to join the US Army and be sent to a faraway place to kill people who had never done anything wrong to his kind, black Americans. But the documentary, which is expertly executed (the pace of the story, the organization of the information, the flow of the images) by director Bill Siegel, is really

about the first and less well-known half of his career: the group of wealthy white men in Kentucky who bankrolled him, the fight that made him, his discovery of a black American strain of Islam, the change of his name, his confrontation with the US government, his fall into the college lecture circuit, and his return by way of a Supreme Court judgment. This brisk doc intelligently balances his weaknesses and his strengths, his

Chiwetel Ejiofor through a wash of tears.

Throughout 12 Years are scenes of such barbarity, brought to life by actors talented enough to tap every nuance of that barbarity, that at times I had to look away. I don’t know if the ratcheting up of intensity to face-covering levels was deliberate, but it feels just. After all, the characters are being ripped from their families, exported for profit, and forced to work in torturous conditions for free.

If there’s a gripe to be made about the merits of McQueen’s film, it concerns the story’s villains, a good number of whom speed past banal evil to superhuman monsterism. The worst of the slavers aren’t just humans capable of treating other humans as property—they’re psychopaths who get off on treating their property like shit. The idea that some slavers might be garbage rat people incapable of decency isn’t hard to accept or justify, but to amp the psycho-villainy up to Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet levels threatens to let viewers off the hook, suggesting that the US slave trade was the work of evil monsters, instead of an entirely human endeavor.

Still, beyond the psychomonsters (brought to terrifying life by Michael Fassbender and Sarah Paulsen), McQueen packs his film with so much identifiable humanity you’ll leave sore.

Watching 12 Years is a grueling experience, and the artistry of the filmmakers and actors is a generous, pain-diminishing life raft.

madness and his brilliance, his family life and public life, and his enemies and allies. At the end of it all, we are left feeling that the world no longer makes giants like Ali anymore.

The doc also points out a fact that I had completely missed: The Nation of Islam, the controversial pro-black and anti-white religious organization that was founded by Elijah Muhammad, discovered Malcolm X (and in my opinion, probably killed him), and is currently run by Louis Farrakhan, actually saw itself as cosmopolitan and black Christianity as rural. In NOI’s eyes, Martin Luther King Jr. was nothing more than a country preacher who lacked the kind of urban sophistication that could make a black man not only proud but worldly. This was the deep attraction the organization had for the black youth of its time: It mocked black Christians as hicks. The documentary has other surprising insights about a remarkable and also very strange time in American history.

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FILM SHORTS

More reviews and movie times: thestranger.com/film

LIMITED RUN

AKA DOC POMUS

AKA Doc Pomus is the unlikely story of a rotund, poliostricken Brooklyn Jew behind several of the catchiest and heart-stirring tunes (“Lonely Avenue,” “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment”) ever penned. Pomus—born Jerome Felder in 1925—reinvented himself as a blues singer who became one of the most prolific, popular composers during rock and roll’s first blush. He wrote over a thousands songs for performers like Ray Charles, Dion, Elvis Presley, and the Drifters. Fellow composer Gerry Goffin accurately called Doc “the professor of soulful pop music.” Written out of profound misfortune, Pomus’s songs especially resonated with the downtrodden. This documentary traces Pomus’s brash rise as one of the few Caucasians to succeed in blues, his tenure as a font of Brill Building chart-dwellers, his descent into gambling addiction, divorce, and health problems, his comeback with surprising coconspirators like Dr. John and Bob Dylan, and his death from lung cancer at 65. AKA Doc Pomus is as moving as its subject’s work and does his improbable life justice. (DAVE SEGAL) Grand Illusion, Fri 7:30 pm, Sat 4 pm, Sun 4, 6, 8 pm, Mon-Tues 7, 9 pm.

THE BEST OF NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE

Rebroadcasts of a boatload of the UK’s National Theatre’s stage productions: Othello (starring Adrian Lester), a modernized Hamlet (the Dane wears a windbreaker hoodie), Macbeth (starring the Bard-addicted Kenneth Branagh), The Habit of Art (with the recently departed Richard Griffiths as W.H. Auden), and Frankenstein (with Benebatch Cumberdict as the doctor, and then, in a reverse-cast production, as the monster!). SIFF Cinema Uptown, Wed-Tues. For complete schedule and showtimes, see siff.net.

BIG JOY: THE ADVENTURES OF JAMES BROUGHTON

Part of a group of bohemian poets, philosophers, and dancers who made radical art, James Broughton was a poet, a pioneer of queer filmmaking, a teacher, and a free-spirited man who had a dynamic and amazing life, and who knew some of the most interesting people in the San Francisco art scene from the 1950s onward. His avant-garde films included dance, nudity, poetry, love, and all modes of sexuality. Big Joy includes excerpts from his poetry and films, documentation of him throughout his life, and interviews with people who knew him. A friend said of Broughton: “He was forever liberating people.” (GILLIAN ANDERSON) Northwest Film Forum, Fri-Tues 7, 9 pm.

DONNIE DARKO

Having studied the film carefully a few times, I still can’t tell if the plot’s weird calculus—what actually happens, to whom, and where, and when—actually adds up to anything more than a semi-random sequence of related but unconnected events. What I can say, however, is that the film resonates with a uniquely American kind of sadness. (SEAN NELSON) Harvard Exit, Sat Nov 2 at midnight.

HALLOWEEN

A one-off screening of the iconic slasher film from John Carpenter. This film does not star Mike Myers. Harvard Exit, Wed Oct 30 at 9 pm.

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH

The film adaptation of John Cameron Mitchell’s legendary stage play is one of the greatest rock movies ever made, and you should see it on the big screen whenever possible. Central Cinema, Fri-Tues 9:30 pm.

HORROR WEEK

A week of classic horror films wraps up with Poltergeist, Nightmare on Elm Street, and a few more. Cinerama, Wed-Thurs. For complete schedule and showtimes, see cinerama.com.

KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE

Horror comedy at its most horrific. And there’s a clown costume contest, so be prepared to be horrified by actual living clowns in addition to the projected images of clowns. Central Cinema, Thurs Oct 31 at 8 pm.

M Peter Lorre stars as a child killer hunted by both the police and the underworld in this intense and suspenseful Fritz Lang film. Presented on 35 mm. Seattle Art Museum, Thurs Oct 31 at 7:30 pm.

SMALL JOYS FROM JAMES BROUGHTON

In tandem with its week run of the Broughton bio-doc, Big Joy, the forum presents several of the artist’s short films on 16 mm. The lineup includes The Bed, Dreamwood, The Pleasure Garden, and more. Northwest Film Forum, Sat-Sun. For complete schedule and showtimes, see nwfilmforum.org.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

A mild-mannered tennis player meets a sociopath on a train and somehow they bicker their way into a murder plot in this Hitchcock thriller from 1951. Co-screenwritten by Raymond Chandler. Central Cinema, Fri-Tues at 7 pm.

TURANDOT

A video presentation of Puccini’s final opera, performed

onstage by the UK’s Royal Opera House. Guild 45th, Sun Nov 3 at 11 am.

URBAN ELEPHANT

A documentary about elephants in captivity and the efforts that organizations have made to apologize to elephants for the miserable way mankind has treated them for most of the history of elephants. Keystone Church, Fri Nov 1 at 7 pm.

THE VCR THAT DRIPPED BLOOD 2: UNDEAD MEDIA

An 80-minute “psychotronic nightmare” collage of footage, pieced together from the weirdest VHS finds in the Scarecrow Video collection. Grand Illusion, Wed Oct 30 at 8 pm.

VIOLA

Finally, a new independent Argentinian play-within-aplay-style adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night! Northwest Film Forum, Fri-Sun 7, 9 pm, Mon 9 pm, Tues 7 pm.

THE VISITOR

An Italian-produced sci-fi horror film from 1979 that attempted to rip off The Omen, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and several other American blockbusters, and which idiosyncratically stars American film directors Sam Peckinpah and John Huston. In English. Grand Illusion, Fri-Sat at 10 pm.

WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES

In 1922, a Swedish-Danish “documentary” about the history of witchcraft was released under the name Häxan With liberal reenactment sequences (with demons and the like), the film played more like a horror film than anything else. In 1968, it was rereleased under this title with the notable additions of an experimental jazz soundtrack and voice-over narration from William S. Burroughs. Presented on 35 mm. Grand Illusion, Thurs Oct 31 at 8 pm.

NOW PLAYING

ALL IS LOST

The nearly wordless All Is Lost focuses, with exhausting intensity, on a single man. (In the closing credits, he’s listed only as “Our Man.” He’s played by Robert Redford—wrinkled, presumably, from both years and water.) When a yacht he’s sailing hits a shipping container in the middle of the Indian Ocean, water rushes into his cabin with startling speed; everything that follows charts his attempts to stay alive. Grim and quiet and melancholy, All Is Lost is tough and relentless—but perhaps the most impressive thing about it is that Redford and writer/director J.C. Chandor make this story as exciting and as touching as it is harrowing. (ERIK HENRIKSEN)

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

Captain Phillips should be mass-market sap. But it’s the opposite of that: Lean and smart and intense, it’s a film that’s happy to kick you in the stomach to make a point.

The broad strokes: Tom Hanks plays Richard Phillips, who captained the shipping vessel Maersk Alabama in 2009 on what was supposed to be a routine trip around the Horn of Africa. It wasn’t routine: Somali pirates took the ship, then took Phillips as a hostage. And in Captain Phillips, it’s in the details where things get interesting and blurry. Not satisfied with telling the story from Phillips’s white, American perspective, the story also follows the life and the motives of Muse (Barkhad Abdi, excellent), who hijacks the Alabama with a tiny crew and desperate determination. (ERIK HENRIKSEN)

THE COUNSELOR

The Counselor is the first screenplay written by Cormac McCarthy—who, at least in the past few years, has had solid luck with films based on his novels, with the Coen brothers’ great No Country for Old Men in 2007 and John Hillcoat’s decent The Road in 2009. McCarthy wrote The Counselor as a straight-up screenplay and teamed up with director Ridley Scott, which makes it hard to figure out why The Counselor doesn’t work nearly as well as it should: McCarthy offers a reliable serving of dour philosophy and new and exciting ways to kill people, and Scott reins in the aloof goofiness that plagued Prometheus The Counselor’s plot is vague but propulsive; the performances, aside from a few iffy moments from Fassbender and a whole lot of iffy moments from Diaz, are solid; and the visuals, as one would expect from any Scott production, are very pretty. But by the time it ends, The Counselor feels like a series of sequences that never make a coherent movie. (ERIK H ENRIKSEN)

ENOUGH SAID

All of Nicole Holofcener’s films involve the same building blocks: They’re about self-deception and unhappiness and relationships and how to be a good person. Catherine Keener is always in them. But from this toolbox of feelings and Catherine Keeners, Holofcener consistently constructs perceptive, emotionally acute films that are clear-eyed about human frailty. And while it doesn’t let any of the characters off the hook for their bullshit—it wouldn’t be a Holofcener joint if it did—Enough Said is her warmest movie to date, thanks to the insanely likable Julia Louis-Dreyfus and a great turn from James Gandolfini, in one of his last performances. (ALISON HALLETT)

dresses up like an old man and does things that old dudes aren’t supposed to do, like perv on ladies and try to have sex with vending machines. And he’s got a kid with him, and the kid does stuff that kids aren’t supposed to do, like drink beer and say words like “asshole.” And they do those things in front of unsuspecting passersby, who are horrified and amused and concerned, and some of it is funny and some of it is not. A fake penis is involved. A couple times. (ALISON HALLETT)

LAST VEGAS

This is the latest in the burgeoning “they-still-got-it” genre of movie comedies, in which a collection of over-the-hill actors flirt with risque behavior, only to eventually reembrace decent suburban family values by the end of the film. The actors this time—Morgan Freeman, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline, Robert De Niro—are older than the actors in, say, Wild Hogs, but the formula is the same. To celebrate Michael Douglas’s character marrying a woman less than half his age, four old friends gather in Las Vegas for a bachelor party. There are plenty of lame jokes about pills and hip replacements and Viagra, a small army of nubile young women sacrifice themselves to the eternally

hungry male gaze, and lots of Valuable Lessons are learned. Everything in this movie, from the performances to Mark Mothersbaugh’s soundtrack on down to the screenplay and editing, feels like it was created in the largest cinematic act of sleepwalking ever recorded. Last Vegas isn’t awful, it’s just... not there. (PAUL CONSTANT)

WADJDA

Wadjda is a 10-year-old Saudi Arabian girl who doesn’t quite fit in: She listens to pop music, wears high-top Converse, has a friend who’s a boy, and wants a bicycle. Her all-girls school teaches proper moral behavior for women, and she gets in trouble with her strict principal for her entrepreneurial endeavors and uncommon ideas. At home, things are strained because her father is being pressured to take another wife in order to have a son.

Writer-director Haifaa al-Mansour told the New York Times that she based the story on her niece, who is “feisty” but being pressured to conform, saying: “To me, that’s a great loss… [girls] could change the world if they were given the chance.” The first feature filmed entirely in Saudi Arabia, Wadjda is a remarkable look inside an intensely religious and closed society. (GILLIAN ANDERSON)

BY WM. TM STEVEN

JUDGE NOT… UNLESS I CAN JUDGE YE FIRST!

As my mom always used to nag, “Judge not, lest ye be judged!” Okay, fine. I’ll judge myself—and THEN I’ll judge the crap out of everyone else! Now that the fall season is underway, I’m gonna offer my very strict judgments on a few of the new shows… but first? I’m going to judge myself just as harshly. Let’s begin.

Hmmm. Okay, at first glance… I’m awesome! Sure, I’ve got a receding hairline, and a little extra junk in my ba-dunk-adunk… but who cares, when I’m practically squirting raw sexuality. Seriously, wear a raincoat—unless you prefer to be covered in gooey, unbridled S-E-X (and, from experience, I know some of you do). But let’s delve deeper, shall we? Let’s peer into the darkest recesses of Wm.™ Steven Humpme’s psyche to find what’s really buried beneath all that bravado.

Hmmm. Okay, still just a bunch of awesome! I’m not kidding—my soul is a delightful stew of cotton candy, Totino’s Pizza Rolls, sex juice, and just a weeeee bit of bile… just to keep things interesting. So! What’s my final, very objective self-judgment? It looks like I’m a walking two-liter bottle of awesome sauce! Hooray! NOW. ON TO JUDGING OTHERS. In particular, some of the fall season’s new shows!

Trophy Wife (ABC, Tuesdays, 9:30 pm). The name of this show makes me want to vomit into my shirt pocket—and yet? This sitcom about a young wife trying to fit into a new extended family (which includes not one, but two vengeful ex-wives) is turning out to be one of the most charming shows

of the season. Like New Girl, Trophy Wife boasts quirky scripts that snap, crackle, and pop alongside a very strong ensemble (including kid actors you don’t want to slap in the chops). Judgment: YOU ARE NOW FREE TO WATCH THIS SHOW.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC, Tuesdays, 8 pm). While Trophy Wife may be the most annoyingly named show of the new season, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is hands down the most annoying to type. (Normally, I just cut and paste it, because… A.N.N.O.Y.I.N.G.) Unfortunately, the show is just not as good as creator Joss Whedon and the rest of us had hoped. Ratings have been steadily slipping since episode one, and it’s because S.H.I.E.L.D. (cut ’n’ paste) just doesn’t have the emotional center that Buffy and Firefly possessed in truckloads. Frankly, it’s just another tired-ass action show—which is fine, if you like reruns of MacGyver Judgment: YOU MAY NOW STOP WATCHING THIS SHOW.

Masters of Sex (Showtime, Sundays, 10 pm). Love Mad Men’s style, but hate its oblique plots? Try Masters of Sex, which not only NAILS the cool visual style of the 1950s (Dr. Masters’s home makes me want to PUKE—with envy!), but has a very specific and worthwhile focus… sex and feminism. Dramatizing the challenges faced by pioneering sex researchers Masters and Johnson, Masters of Sex homes in on what it was like to be a woman in the ’50s— wielding varying amounts of power in the office (none to a little) and the bedroom (none to lots). The acting and the scripts are great… and did I mention it has a LOT of sex? Judgment: YOU WILL START WATCHING THIS SHOW.

And just to make sure… let me check the mirror one more time. YUP! Awesome sauce!

Read Humpy’s weekly TV listings at THESTRANGER.COM

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

For the Week of Oct 30

ARIES (March 21–April 19): Once when I was hiking through Maui’s rain forest, I spied a majestic purple honohono flower sprouting from a rotting log. As I bent down close, I inhaled the merged aromas of moldering wood and sweet floral fragrance. Let’s make this scene your metaphor of the week, Aries. Here’s why: A part of your life that is in the throes of decay can serve as host for a magnificent bloom. What has been lost to you may become the source of fertility. Halloween costume suggestion: a garbage man or cleaning maid wearing a crown of roses.

TAURUS (April 20–May 20): What don’t you like? Get clear about that. What don’t you want to do? Make definitive decisions. What kind of person do you not want to become and what life do you never want to live? Resolve those questions with as much certainty as possible. Write it all down, preferably in the form of a contract with yourself. Sign the contract. This document will be your sacred promise, a declaration of the boundaries you won’t cross and the activities you won’t waste your time on and the desires that aren’t worthy of you. It will feed your freedom to know exactly what you like and what you want to accomplish and who you want to become. Halloween costume suggestion: the opposite of who you really are.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20): Are you up for an experiment? Not just on Halloween, but for a week afterward, be scarier than your fears. If an anxious thought pops into your mind, bare your teeth and growl, “Get out of here or I will rip you to shreds!” If a demon visits you in a nightly dream, chase after it with a torch and sword, screaming, “Begone, foul spirit, or I will burn your mangy ass!” Don’t tolerate bullying in any form, whether it comes from a critical little voice in your head or from supposedly nice people who are trying to guilt-trip you. “I am a brave conqueror who cannot be intimidated!” is what you could say, or “I am a monster of love and goodness who will defeat all threats to my integrity!”

CANCER (June 21–July 22): Are you ready to be amazed? Now would be an excellent time to shed your soul’s infantile illusions… to play wildly with the greatest mystery you know… to accept gifts that enhance your freedom and refuse gifts that don’t… to seek out a supernatural encounter that heals your chronic sadness… to consort and converse with sexy magical spirits from the future… to make love with the lights on and cry when you

come. Halloween costume suggestion: the archetypal LOVER.

LEO (July 23–Aug 22): Some people in your vicinity are smoldering and fuming. The air is heavy with emotional ferment. Conspiracy theories are ripening and rotting at the same time. Hidden agendas are seeping into conversations, and gossip is swirling like ghostly dust devils. Yet in the midst of this mayhem, an eerie calm possesses you. As everyone else struggles, you’re poised and full of grace. To what do we owe this stability? I suspect it has to do with the fact that life is showing you how to feel at home in the world no matter what’s happening around you. Keep making yourself receptive to these teachings. Halloween costume suggestion: King or Queen of Relaxation.

VIRGO (Aug 23–Sept 22): Unification should be a key theme for you in the coming weeks. Anything you do that promotes splicing and blending and harmonizing will get extra help, sometimes from mysterious forces working behind the scenes. The more you work to find common ground between opposing sides, the stronger you’ll feel and the better you’ll look. If you can manage to mend schisms and heal wounds, unexpected luck will flow into your life. To encourage these developments, consider these Halloween disguises: a roll of tape, a stick of Krazy Glue, a wound that’s healing, a bridge.

LIBRA (Sept 23–Oct 22): What do you think you’d be like if you were among the one-percent-wealthiest people on Earth? Would you demand that your government raise your taxes so you could contribute more to our collective wellbeing? Would you live simply and cheaply so you’d have more money to donate to charities and other worthy causes? This Halloween season, I suggest you play around with fantasies like that—maybe even masquerade as an incredibly rich philanthropist who doles out cash and gifts everywhere you go. At the very least, imagine what it would be like if you had everything you needed and felt so grateful you shared your abundance freely.

SCORPIO (Oct 23–Nov 21): What if you had the power to enchant and even bewitch people with your charisma? Would you wield your allure without mercy? Would you feel wicked delight in their attraction to you, even if you didn’t plan to give them what they want? I suspect these questions aren’t entirely rhetorical right now. You may have more mojo at your disposal than you realize. Speaking for your conscience, I will ask you not to desecrate your privilege. If you must manipulate people, do it for their benefit as well as yours. Use your raw magic responsibly. Halloween costume suggestion: a mesmerizing guru, an irresistible diva, a stage magician.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22–Dec 21): I had a

dream that you were in the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? You were like the character played by George Clooney after he escaped from a prison chain gang. Can you picture it? You were wearing a striped jailbird suit, and a ball and chain were still cuffed around your ankle. But you were sort of free, too. You were on the lam, making your way from adventure to adventure as you eluded those who would throw you back in the slammer. You were not yet in the clear, but you seemed to be en route to total emancipation. I think this dream is an apt metaphorical depiction of your actual life right now. Could you somehow use it in designing your Halloween costume?

CAPRICORN (Dec 22–Jan 19): I invite you to try the following exercise. Imagine the most powerful role you could realistically attain in the future. This is a position or niche or job that will authorize you to wield your influence to the max. It will give you the clout to shape the environments you share with other people. It will allow you to freely express your important ideas and have them be treated seriously. Let your imagination run a little wild as you visualize the possibilities. Incorporate your visions into your Halloween costume.

AQUARIUS (Jan 20–Feb 18): In the course of earning a living, I have worked four different jobs as a janitor and six as a dishwasher. On the brighter side, I have performed as a songwriter and lead singer for six rock bands and currently write a syndicated astrology column. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you Aquarians are primed to cultivate a relationship with your work life that is more like my latter choices than the former. The next eight months will be a favorable time to ensure that you’ll be doing your own personal equivalent of rock singer or astrology columnist well into the future. Halloween costume suggestion: your dream job.

PISCES (Feb 19–March 20): Author Robert Louis Stevenson loved the work of poet Walt Whitman, recommending it with the same enthusiasm as he did Shakespeare’s. Stevenson also regarded Whitman as an unruly force of nature, and in one famous passage, called him “a large shaggy dog, just unchained, scouring the beaches of the world and baying at the moon.” Your assignment is to do your best imitation of a primal creature like Whitman. In fact, consider being him for Halloween. Maybe you could memorize passages from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and recite them at random moments. Here’s one: “I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,/I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.” Homework: Meditate on death not as the end of physical life but as a metaphor for shedding what’s outworn. In that light, what’s the best death you’ve experienced? Freewillastrology.com

SUPERIOR COURT OF WASHINGTON IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF KING. IH2 PROPERTY WASHINGTON LP, a Delaware limited partnership, Plaintiff, v. MONIQUE HART, an individual, JOHN DOE HART, an individual, and their marital community thereof, Defendants.

Case No. 13-2-34352-5 SEA.

First Amended Eviction Summons (Residential)

THIS IS NOTICE OF A LAWSUIT TO EVICT YOU. PLEASE

THE

TO THE DEFENDANTS: This is notice of a lawsuit to evict you from the property which you are occupying. Plaintiff is asking the court to declare that you are unlawfully or forcibly detaining the premises, direct the sheriff to remove you and your belongings from the property, enter a money judgment against you for unpaid rent and/or damages for your use of the property, and for court costs and attorneys’ fees.

If you want to defend yourself in this lawsuit, you must respond to the eviction complaint in writing on or before the deadline stated above. You must respond in writing even if no case number has been assigned by the court yet.

You can respond to the complaint in writing by delivering a copy of a notice of appearance or answer upon the person signing this summons by personal delivery, mailing, or facsimile to the address or facsimile number stated below TO BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN THE DEADLINE STATED ABOVE. Service by facsimile is complete upon successful transmission to the facsimile number, if any, listed in the summons.

The notice of appearance or answer must include the name of this case (plaintiff(s) and defendant(s)), your name, the street address where further legal papers may be sent, your telephone number (if any), and your signature.

If there is a number on the upper right side of the eviction summons and complaint, you must also file your original notice of appearance or answer with the court clerk by the deadline for your written response.

You may demand that the plaintiff file this lawsuit with the court. If you do so, the demand must be in writing and must be served upon the person signing the summons. Within fourteen days after you serve the demand, the plaintiff must file this lawsuit with the court, or the service on you of this summons and complaint will be void.

If you wish to seek the advice of an attorney in this matter, you should do so promptly so that your written response, if any, may be served on time.

You may also be instructed in a separate order to appear for a court hearing on your eviction. If you receive an order to show cause you must personally appear at the hearing on the date indicated in the order to show cause IN ADDITION to delivering and filing your notice of appearance or answer by the deadline stated above.

This summons is issued pursuant to Rule 4 of the Superior Court Civil Rules of the State of Washington and Chapter 59.12 RCW.

IF YOU DO NOT RESPOND TO THE COMPLAINT IN WRITING BY THE DEADLINE STATED ABOVE YOU WILL LOSE BY DEFAULT. THE PLAINTIFF MAY PROCEED WITH THE LAWSUIT, EVEN IF YOU HAVE MOVED OUT OF THE PROPERTY.

The notice of appearance or answer must be delivered to: Carrie A. Ivy, Esq. Mullavey, Prout, Grenley & Foe, LLP

SUPERIOR COURT OF WASHINGTON COUNTY OF KING

In re the Parentage of: Callie Jean Sutton, Child, Jeffrey Fosie, Petitioner

And Respondent: Cori J. Sutton, Mother

TO THE RESPONDENT: CORI J. SUTTON

1. The petitioner has started an action in the above court requesting that there be a determination of parentage. Additional requests, if any, are stated in the petition, a copy of which is attached.

2. You must respond to this summons and petition by filing a written response with the clerk of the court and by serving a copy of your response on the person signing this summons.

If you do not file and serve your written response within 20 days (60 days if you are served outside of the state of Washington) after the date this summons was served on you, exclusive of the date of service, the court may, without further notice to you, enter a default judgment against you ordering the relief requested in the petition. If you serve a notice of appearance on the undersigned person, you are entitled to notice before an order of default may be entered.

3. Your written response to the summons and petition must be on form WPF PS 01.0300, Response to Petition for Establishment of Parentage (RSP). Information about how to get this form may be obtained by contacting the clerk of the court, by contacting the Administrative Office of the Courts at (360) 705-5328, or from the Internet at the Washington State Courts homepage: http://www.courts.wa.gov/forms

4. If this action has not been filed with the court, you may demand that the petitioner file this action with the court. If you do so, the demand must be in writing and must be served upon the person signing this summons. Within 14 days after you serve the demand, the petitioner must file this action with the court, or the service on you of this summons will be void.

5. If you wish to seek the advice of an attorney in this matter, you should do so promptly so that your written response, if any, may be served on time.

6. One method of serving a copy of your response on the petitioner is to send it by certified mail with return receipt requested.

This summons is issued pursuant to RCW 4.28.100 and Superior Court Civil Rule 4.1 of the state of Washington.

Dated: Pro Se Jeffrey Fosie Signature of Petitioner or Lawyer/WSBA No.

File original of your response with the clerk of the court at: Clerk of the Court King County Superior Court E609, King Co. Courthouse 516 Third Avenue Seattle, WA, 98104

Serve a copy of your response on: Petitioner [You may list an address that is not your residential address where you agree to accept legal documents. Any time this address changes while this action is pending, you must notify the opposing parties in writing and file an updated Confidential Information Form (WPF

Read bucketloads more (or place your own) online at www.thestranger.com/personals

BLUE PUFFY JACKET AT REDLIGHT

(redhead) was entering RedLight on Broadway just as you (blond) and your (Asian) friend were leaving. I noticed your blue puffy jacket because have one too. But I quickly noticed you are way more attractive than the jacket. When: Friday, October 25, 2013. Where: Red Light on Capitol Hill. You: Man. Me: Woman. #920086

GEIDI PRIMES!

Night of the Living Tribute Bands in Olympia this weekend. You were dressed as Grimes, Geidi Primes. Just wanted to say I “got it”. When: Saturday, October 26, 2013. Where: Night of the Living Tribute Bands. You: Woman. Me: Man. #920085

BIG BUILDING PHOTO SHOOT

noticed you taking pictures of me in line and inside at the big building party last night. I’d be interested to see what shots you got, and give you a chance to get a few close ups. When: Saturday, October 26, 2013. Where: Big Building. You: Woman. Me: Man. #920083

NAME RHYMES WITH “FORK”.

We stood in line together at a Con. We chatted about the age of consent and bad puns. Then we sat next to each other. would love to hang out with you sometime. When: Saturday, October 19, 2013. Where: Geek Girl Con. You: Man. Me: Woman. #920082

GORGEOUS ASIAN GIRL AT AGRODOLCE... was seated behind your party of 10 at a lunch meeting when I noticed you and couldn’t stop staring at you. As you left, wished that could have asked you to join me for another cup of tea... When: Thursday, October 24, 2013. Where: Agrodolce in Fremont. You: Woman. Me: Man. #920081

HEY BABY! WOOF ! Saw You Again On Third Aue Waiting For Your Bus Going South. You Kept Looking Up To See Me. Come By And Lets Get Drunk. When: Tuesday, September 17, 2013. Where: 3rd Aue & Lenora. You: Man. Me: Woman. #920080

RUSTON WAY DIVE TEAM

TUESDAY

You were gearing up to dive Tuesday and you held eye contact coming and going. You: tall, dark, handsome guy with easy smile. Me: the dark-haired runner who flashed you a smile and the peace sign. I regret not stopping. When: Tuesday, October 22, 2013. Where: Ruston Way. You: Man. Me: Woman. #920079

PURPLE HAIRED GIRL IN MAPLELEAF

You: cute girl with fantastic smile and amazing hair behind the counter at ace on Sunday. Me: shorter guy in flannel who joked with you about Christmas being here before Halloween was over. Want to go corn mazing? When: Sunday, October 20, 2013. Where: Maple leaf ace hardware. You: Woman. Me: Man. #920078

COFFEE ADONIS AT CAFFE LADRO Espresso slingin ¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ bearded hunk at Caffe Ladro in LQA. You sometimes wear a leather jacket and always look like the gods’ gift to mornings. If you get this, just leave me a message in the latte art. When: Sunday, October 20, 2013. Where: Caffe Ladro in LQA.

moment, we exchanged verbs. I think you’re pretty fly. I could leave it to this emerald city, but hope you see this. When: Sunday, October 20, 2013. Where: Seattle. You: Woman. Me: Man. #920075

RETURNED WALLET

Apartments. You: Man. Me: Woman. #920074

GARDEN PARTY VOLUNTEER

You have a dog and are not a fan of Seattle traffic. I was making toostrong coffee. You arrived right as I was leaving, wish I could have stayed to talk more! When: Friday, October 18, 2013. Where: Volunteering. You: Man. Me: Woman. #920073

HANDSOME BLONDE MAN

AT VITA

You were studying; blonde hair, curly in front, nose ring, gray shirt. I was behind you trying to study but your good looks were too distracting. Me: dark hair, bangs, yellow cardigan, with a friend. Introduce ourselves over tea sometime? When: Sunday, October 13, 2013. Where: Vita on Pike. You: Man. Me: Woman. #920068

JULES MAES SALOON, GEORGETOWN, WEDNESDAY You were playing shuffleboard in back of Jules Mae’s with daughter, me: sitting in last booth and totally noticed you. I had to leave but I thought Id try this post. Contact me if you are interested to meet sometime... When: Wednesday, October 16, 2013. Where: Jules Maes Saloon, Georgetown. You: Man. Me: Woman. #920067

DOWNTOWN LIBRARY

You helped me Monday afternoon and complemented my bowler. I’d like to chat more, but without running up more late fees can’t think of a good excuse to come in and bug you at work. When: Monday, October 14,

Halloween talk at Broadway QFC

I was buying pumpkins and wine with friends. You were next to us and struck up a convo. I was completely caught off guard and could hardly make cohesive words. Hope you read these. Let’s make Halloween plans.

When: Sunday, October 27, 2013. Where: Broadway & Pike QFC. You: Man. Me: Man.

#920084

RED DERVISH boots, red suede skirt, red shirt (with flowers), and red hair -- damn, woman -- you were a-fire! We squared the intro, but drifted apart. I wanted to DoSiDo or Promenade with you. like Shams, your beauty cannot be contained! When: Friday, October 18, 2013. Where: Square Dancing: Eagle’s Ballroom, Olympia. You: Woman. Me: Man. #920072

HONEY BEE SEATTLE CENTER

This was before the cold snap. You jogged in yellow and black heading east. knew it was you because my heart leapt into my throat. I didn’t shout but you gestured anyway. It’s been mighty quiet without your buzzing. When: Saturday, August 31, 2013. Where: Seattle Center. You: Woman. Me: Man. #920071

DARREN AT FRED MEYER

I think thats your name??? We talked about things that are hUge, and the over-use of U. You like Firefly, I do too. Add an avacado and the feeling is moot. I would love coffee if you are free. When: Thursday, October 17, 2013. Where: Freddies on 85th. You: Man. Me: Woman. #920069

on me? When: Tuesday, September 17, 2013. Where: Starbucks at Group Health. You: Woman. Me: Man. #920066

YOGURT PRETZEL You were the adorable lady in Fred Meyer’s bulk food (Oly).

SAVAGE LOVE

Your Sister’s Keeper BY

DAN SAVAGE

Two years ago, I found a letter in my sister’s car informing her that the blood she gave during a charity blood drive had tested positive for HIV. I didn’t say anything to her at the time, because it was a really bad time, I wasn’t supposed to find out, and I didn’t know what to say. In the time since, there were a couple times that it sounded like she came close to telling me, but never did. I worry she never will. She has also recently had some health complications that raise concern about how well she’s taking care of herself, and I am concerned that she’s missing out on treatment that she should be receiving out of fear that someone in our family might find out. (As an added complication, our family is a bunch of judgmental religious immigrant types.)

been binding for a while and identify as genderneutral. But I’m afraid to tell others that I’m gender-neutral for fear of being told I’m wrong because I wear dresses. Does wearing skirts and dresses mean I’m not gender-neutral? I just think I look better in dresses than flannel. Gender-Neutral Asexual Youth

My sister and I have had a complicated relationship growing up and have really only begun to get along in the last few years. In short, our relationship is fragile, but I care for her deeply. I can’t really understand the gravity of having to live with HIV, especially being from such a family as ours, but I wish we could have her diagnosis acknowledged between us so she can know that I’m not going to stop loving her, that I respect her no less, and that I want to help take care of her. I want her to feel supported, because this must be terrifying to face alone. But that means having a conversation that I’m not sure I have the right to start. What should I do?

Sensitive Issue Surrounds Treating Errant Retroviruses

Your sister may not be facing HIV alone. She could have confided in friends, she could be seeing a great HIV doc, she could be attending a support group. And if your sister were in good health, SISTER, I would encourage you to run with those assumptions, i.e., that she’s getting the help and emotional support she needs. Because it’s generally a good idea to err on the side of respecting a sibling’s right to privacy—even if that respect is retroactive in your case—while also respecting your sister’s specific right to control who she tells about her HIV status.

But it doesn’t sound like your sister is in good health.

While it’s possible that she’s facing unrelated health problems that you’ve wrongly attributed to her HIV infection—people with HIV can come down with other shit—that could be a risky assumption. You wanna show respect for your sister, of course, but you don’t wanna respect your sister to death. If there’s a chance your sister hasn’t sought treatment because she feared it would get back to your family (she’s still on your parents’ health insurance, her physician is a family friend) or because there’s some other issue that prevented her from accessing services for people with HIV (language barriers, cultural barriers), I’m going to urge you to err on the side of speaking up. Tell your sister what you know and tell her how you found out. If you don’t tell her how you learned about her HIV diagnosis—“How did you know?” “That doesn’t matter!”—your sister will worry that rumors are spreading and that other people already know. So you have to come clean about snooping. Then tell her you love her, tell her you’re worried for her, and tell her you want to make sure she’s getting both the medical care and the emotional support she needs to stay healthy. She may be upset that you know something she wanted to keep secret—she may be furious— but you can point to the last two years as proof that you can be trusted to keep her HIV status confidential. You can’t be trusted alone in her car with her mail, obviously, but you’ve proven to her that you aren’t going to blab about this to the rest of the family.

I’m a youth who identifies as asexual. That isn’t my question. I was born female, and I’ve

Wear whatever you like, identify however you like, and refuse to engage with idiots who think they have a right to critique, dictate, or overrule your gender identity.

I’ve been reading your column for years, and that helped me tremendously as my husband’s kinky side began to emerge. We have recently started flirting with the idea of “same-room sex” with other couples. We want a couple to watch us have sex, and we want to watch them have sex, but there would be no physical contact between the couples. But we have had a difficult time finding couples that do not want a soft or full swap. Long story short, I have decided to surprise my husband with a prostitute who will watch and video us but not have contact with either of us. I think he will be thrilled. But I’m wondering if you have any advice on this situation. What are the dos and don’ts? I am totally naive about sex work and sex workers, and I’m also afraid I could get jealous since there would be no other man in the room for me! I should mention that we have had same-room sex with a couple and it went fairly well, but we couldn’t really perform because they kept trying to initiate a swap with us. Help me avoid possible pitfalls!

Monogamous Voyeurs And Exhibitionists

“Surprises are generally unwelcome when it comes to sex, and especially to sex work,” says Siouxsie Q, a Bay Area sex worker as well as the creator and host of the WhoreCast (thewhorecast. com), a weekly podcast about sex work and sex workers. “You think your husband will be thrilled by a surprise prostitute—but what if he is not?”

You’re already worried that you might not be into it: You wanna be watched by a male/ female couple, but you’re only thinking about hiring a woman, and that could leave you feeling jealous and left out.

“But if you are going to hire a pro, you might as well get exactly what you want, right?” says Siouxsie. “There are plenty of escorts who do ‘doubles’ with other escorts. Take the time to do the research and find a provider who offers doubles with a male escort or a partner—some providers even specialize in this! Communicate about it with your husband, and instead of putting together an elaborate surprise, embark on a sexual adventure together. The process of looking through ads and picking out people you both find attractive may even be fun.”

Siouxsie recommends booking at least two hours for a session like this—you don’t want to rush through your fantasy, right?—and to respect your sex worker’s quoted rate, i.e., no haggling over their hourly rate.

“When your providers arrive, communicate your boundaries and expectations clearly so everyone is on the same page,” says Siouxsie, “and you and your husband should agree in advance about either of you being able to call a ‘time-out’ mid-session in order to reestablish boundaries or to talk something out. And finally, on a more personal note, this sounds like a really fun session that most providers I know would be really stoked to book! So get out there and make your fantasies come true!”

For your Halloween treat, Dan secures sex advice from a mortician at savagelovecast.com.

mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter