SGN Jun 8, 2018 - Part 2

Arts & Entertainment

Seattle Opera’s O + E a thrilling adaption of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice

by Sharon Cumberland SGN Contributing Writer

SEATTLE OPERA O + E AN ADAPTATION OF GLUCK’S ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE

SEATTLE OPERA

SOUTH LAKE UNION STUDIO

Through June 10

Gluck’s heart-rending opera, Orpheus and Eurydice, has been a big hit ever since its first performance in Vienna in 1762. It tells the mythological story of Orpheus, whose trip into the underworld to rescue his dead wife, Eurydice, is helped along by Amore, the god of Love. In the Seattle Opera’s current chamber version, performed in their rehearsal studios on Terry Avenue, the myth is brilliantly transposed to the present, where Orpheus is

Wild Horses tells a 13 year-old’s tale

Allison

WILD HORSES

INTIMAN THEATRE

(AT 12TH AVENUE ARTS)

Through June 24

a play that turns the idea of a short story, told around a campfire, into a visceral experience and a solo performance. She crafts a memoir told from the point of view of a woman

PNB’s “Love & Ballet” an exceptional reprise of great contemporary dance works and music

by Sharon Cumberland SGN Contributing Writer

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET “LOVE & BALLET” MCCAW HALL

Through June 10

This program is a wonderful reprise of four recent works by contemporary choreographers that we’ve seen at PNB over the

last two years – Christopher Wheeldon, Benjamin Millepied, and Justin Peck. It’s important to bring contemporary works back within a year or two because a onetime viewing of new creations is not enough for audiences to learn and remember what was distinctive about an emerging artist. We don’t need to see “Swan Lake” every year, or even every other year. We know

&

Bigger conversations:

Truth, lies and the pursuit of immortality all collide in Bart Layton’s American Animals

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN A&E Writer

AMERICAN ANIMALS

Now playing

In 2012 director Bart Layton wowed people with his dynamic, edgily creative documentary The Imposter. The story of a young man who claims to be a grieving Texas family’s 16-year-old son who

BART LAYTON page 6

Upstream Music Fest + Summit: My 10 favorite acts from the 3-day festival

by Paul Torres SGN Contributing Writer

UPSTREAM MUSIC FEST + SUMMIT

PIONEER SQUARE

June 1-3

The second year of Seattle’s Upstream Music Fest + Summit was another wild and fun musical odyssey. Over the course of three days (most acts played at night) a cross-section of different acts performed a variety of music styles. Some acts crisscrossed more than one style in just their sets. Famed musicians Krist Novoselic as a guest curator and indie super legend Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips showed their well-earned and music prowess, but never outshone new and upcoming talent.

In random order, here is my rundown of my ten favorite acts that I saw at Upstream 2018:

The Brodcast

SUNDAY

Starbucks Stage at the Ninety

The Brodcast are a lively young group who utterly master the stage with a male/ female rap duet reminiscent of early-2000s California pop-rap sounds, the good ones. Golden moments included the very friendly lead vocalist inviting the crowd at the Starbucks Stage at the Ninety venue (in the Pioneer Park plaza) to gather around an imaginary campfire. There was a sonic glow of upbeat rhythms from the talented crew an equally talented lead vocalist playing truly positive sounds.

Terror/Cactus

SUNDAY

The Lower Quarters at 13 Coins

Terror/Cactus is a masked trio of musicians who spill out mad South American beats and power guitar chords. Their unique brand of hallucination electronica mixed with earthy ethnic vibes is transcendent. When the guitarist struck chords under shimmering lights it was at once frightening (especially with his mask on) and breathtaking, but you keep grooving, because you want these dark beats to never see the day.

Amen Viana

SATURDAY

Deschutes Stage at J & M Café

With an alluring blend of reggae, jazz, rap, and rock Amen Viana is not the second coming, but the third and the fourth of blessed musicianship and entertainment. This act was curated by One Vibe Africa. This band’s live presentation, with its charismatic lead orchestrator Amen Viana, enthralled the packed room and never let down the congregation. By the end of their sweaty set tunes, you wanted more music. I guess that’s what their website is for!

American Nudism

FRIDAY

Axis 2

Another act that mixes sounds and genres from around the world to create something exciting, American Nudism meets the challenge of coming up with something super appealing. They successfully mix hard rock, driving beats, and synth into danceable music. This Seattle band can really shake the floors of Axis 2, as many bands did last year (must be the old Pioneer Square foundations). The lead singer spits and spews punk-like vocals as the crowd goes mad. They were a great first night act with revved up raw energy powered by their fine-tuned talent.

Nuela Charles

FRIDAY

Canada House at Quality Athletics

Nuela Charles is a powerhouse performer from Canada who belts out airy 1960s inspired R&B rock songs. She captivated the Quality Athletics crowd, a Canadian themed bar and grill with sports on the TVs. Not even the games could take people’s eyes off her mesmerizing set. She’s the piano bar vocalist, but with a rock band sound. Another blended genre band that is not a pastiche, but pure fun-night-out vibes for all around along with the beer!

Aaron J

FRIDAY

Trinity Nightclub

As a master of beats, Aaron J is a newcomer, but has a spotlight on that begs you to follow. His brand of highly energetic hip-hop tears up the floor and moves you beyond the walls. With a sheen of metal toughness to his music, he is a must-see wherever he plays next. He is out of Tacoma and like that city to the south his ferocious music clamors for well-deserved attention.

Flaming Lips

SUNDAY

Amazon Music Stage

Iconic indie rock band Flaming Lips’ theatrical and circus inspired shows are legendary. They didn’t let down their fans this night. Lead singer Wayne Coyne knows what it means to be a showman: whether it’s being carried around the crowd on a unicorn or rolling across the crowd inside a plastic ball. It’s their music that’s their trademark. Especially with the crowd pleasing psychedelic classic “Do You Realize??” sung under an inflatable rainbow with Coyne donning a king’s crown and looking regal, wise, and like a true rock god. “Do you realize,” Coyne beams, “that you have the most beautiful face.” It’s puts you in their magical world on a cool and gloomy Sunday Seattle evening.

Caela Bailey

FRIDAY

Zocalo

She’s a mighty blend of camp and country, a bit Dolly, a bit Reba, and a pinch of Winona with a groovy bent. She’s Caela Bailey! She brought down the barn, well

bar, on Friday evening. She’s a pleasurable blend of punk and western music. She even did a nifty cove of Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” that replaced Kurt’s gnarly growls with her sassy purrs. And it worked amazingly! Yeehoo! She was fab!

Cut Copy

SUNDAY

KEXP Stage

Cut Copy hail from Australia and are true electronic musicians from that era. In them I hear New Order, but they are truly innovative with their sweet and suave melodies with layers of beautiful wavy synths. They played outdoors on Sunday and it felt like an intimate and dark club (it was a rather gray evening). You can groove and move in place or get out on the lawn and dance away to rhythm, to the beat.

Jawbreaker

SATURDAY

Amazon Music Stage

Punk legend Jawbreaker reformed recently, but they seem as raw and real as they did in their 1980s heyday. A time when

punk music reigned in its purest form: a cold, wet club lit up by a few light bulbs smelling like blood and beer. They were and now are more of the more expressive ilk of punk bands, hence being able to bring a sneer to your smile or a tear to your eye. It was pleasing seeing them live in black and blue.

Other great acts included coffee shop band Cold Comfort, R&B star Miguel, hip hop artist Sol, rocker Kyle Craft, rapper SUPERDUPERKYLE, and hip hop’s Aramis who rounded out Friday night at Trinity.

This year’s lineup was outstanding in keeping true with its artistic vision: curating music as art and revealing how or what it says about today’s society. What is that? It’s a mix or a blend of many ideas confronting each other in ways we never thought possible. Sometimes it’s scary, sometimes it’s beautiful and sometimes it’s just spectacular. As Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips sings, “…You realize the sun doesn’t go down / it’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round.” Now, that’s some refreshingly real news.

“LOVE

it, we love it, and we look forward to its eventual return. But works like “Tide Harmonic” by Christopher Wheeldon make a big impact when they first appear – I’ve never forgotten that amazing move where the women flip over onto one toe while their partners rock them back and forth like weird sea creatures in a current. But I may have forgotten the context, and the patterns, and Joby Talbot’s fabulous music. We need all that again – and YouTube can’t be relied upon to give you the full picture in between times. (Let’s not even talk about the difference between digital and live performance.)

“Love & Ballet” could as easily be called “Love Ballet” – because seeing these works again makes you love ballet in its new life with new dances and choreographers as much as you love ballet in its mature life with the dances we already love. Here are the dances in order of presentation:

“Tide Harmonic” (2013)

Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon

Music: Joby Talbot

This work was commissioned by PNB and the music was written specifically for dance by the British composer, Joby Talbot, who describes the work as “…a kind of a water symphony.” Even if the dancers weren’t dressed in subtle fishtails and watery colors you would know that this was all about a tide pool. The gestures are gentle, flowing, and creature-like. When I first saw it in the “See the Music” program in 2015, my companion turned to me with a face that fairly glowed in the dark and said “Wow! I feel like a better person for having seen that!” – and I couldn’t agree more. Talbot’s lush, percussive music together with Wheeldon’s strange variations on familiar moves evoked a mysterious, tidal world without being overly literal. It brings you magically into another universe of creatures – sometimes beautiful, sometimes weird – as the couples organize and re-organize themselves into duets, trios, quartets and various other configurations that merge and melt away. Wheeldon creates the unfamiliar through the devices of the familiar – moves we love to see in conventional ballet but which are cleverly and subtly transformed. One of my favorite passages was performed by a male duo, arms entwined, whose legs moved together but whose torsos created variations that conjured a symbiotic mirrorcreature that must surely exist somewhere in the water-world. When you see this ballet you realize that it’s something you always wanted to see, but had no idea it could possibly exist.

“After the Rain pas de deux” (2005)

Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon Music: Arvo Pärt

The “rain” in this compelling, intimate dance, is sex, as you can easily tell from the fact that the dancers are quasi-nude, moving to the sleepy, dreamy music of Arvo Pärt. His atmospheric sound cloud, “Spiegel im Spiegel” (“Mirror in Mirror”) is as much a partner with the lovers as a backdrop for their post-coital settling. Their moody coming-together and parting – in what General Director Peter Boal calls “origami-like poses” – is a very elevated version of the human condition and particular moment most of us are familiar with – if only our hum-drum lives were as interesting as this (and our figures as svelte). This work premiered at PNB in 2008 and is a showcase for its most experienced dancers – one of whom, Karel Cruz – will be retiring soon. What a loss to the dance community, but what a privilege it has been to have seen him so often.

“Appassionata” (2016)

Choreography: Benjamin Millepied

Music: Ludwig van Beethoven, “Piano Sonata 23 in F minor, Op. 57” (c. 1804-06)

Danced by three couples to the impressive solo piano performance of Allan Dameron, Millepied’s “Appassionata” is more narrative than Wheeldon’s “rain” dance. Both the movement and the costumes suggest that the couples are on their honeymoons – or some other form of passionate encounter – and that we are witnessing a discovery that normally would not have an audience. When I first saw this work in

the “Tricolore” program in 2016, I was very moved by the way dancers were infused by Beethoven’s familiar music, and how the dance in its many permutations of partnering is so intense and energetic that, like sex, the couples end up panting, sweaty, and glowing. We even hear the heavy breathing – an unusual phenomenon in an art form that tries to fool you into thinking it’s easy. Particular signatures of Millepied’s choreography – the diamond-shaped leg formation of lifts, the hopping, alternate-leg jetés, the pin-wheel arms – conjure the sense of a choreographer with a point of view that we can see from work to work, but that we can also see in the other choreographers in this program. It’s as if certain expressions in dance – like expressions in language –catch on and spread until they seem like natural elements of contemporary ballet.

“Year of the Rabbit” (2012)

Choreography: Justin Peck

Music: Sufjan Stevens

This work was commissioned by the New York City Ballet, where Justin Peck was a dancer, and first seen in the “Director’s Choice” program in 2016. It earned Peck a PNB commission, “Debonair,” in 2014 and made him the subject of a fascinating documentary film, “Ballet 422” in which Peck, then a 25-year-old soloist, was commissioned to create that company’s 422nd dance, following in the footsteps of City Ballet luminaries George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. What a daunting set of expectations! Here’s a young guy who is expected to step into the shoes of giants. Can he do it? Will we witness his brilliant career develop over the coming years? I was

in some doubt when I first saw this work, and was underwhelmed by “Debonair” – but on re-viewing I can see what others saw then: that this is a really, really talented dance maker who will surely continue developing his considerable talent. One of his special skills is knowing how to manipulate and deploy the entire corps de ballet, which “Year of the Rabbit” uses in tiers, as three layers of dancers line up in three rows, popping in and out of each other’s lines like a team of cuckoo clocks going off all at once. They are less Greek Chorus and more cheering squad as one of their number capers before them in a “My turn!” moment. Peck is adept at managing groups in interesting and charming ways, at one point having the corps stack their heads in a sideways puppy pile, and at another point having the central boy surrounded by girls who sink into splits while the central girl is surrounded by boys who do one-legged push-ups. It may sound simple, or even corny, but the effect – the cascading effects of Peck’s imaginative manipulation of the corps – adds up to a fully developed universe in which the extras are the stars. The girls’ blue razor-pleated skirts with white piping, and the boys’ blue tee shirts create the impression of a uniform in the sort of school I wish all the children in the world could attend – fun, challenging, inventive.

This reprise of great contemporary dance works and music should be on your list of things to do that make you happy to be human. You can still see it this weekend – get over to McCaw Hall and Love Ballet! (https://www.pnb.org/)

O + E

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O, a young woman, and Eurydice is E, her wife, who is undergoing life-and-death surgery. The trip to the underworld is assisted by A, a female surgeon, who guides O through a nightmare of dangers to rescue E. It’s an entirely plausible updating of the familiar story, with an excellent English language libretto by music director and conductor, Lucy Tucker Yates. And in this production all the performers are female, as are the production designers and most of the orchestra and chorus.

The intimate arena-style seating for fewer than a hundred people, embraces a small stage containing only a hospital gurney where E lays unconscious, and a lamp and a chair where O sits mournfully. The baroque orchestra of fifteen players sits behind a semi-transparent hospital curtain with a smaller curtain creating a corridor where busy personnel bustle on urgent business. When the surgeon A/Amore comes to tell O that the surgery may not be successful, we are in an entirely familiar place of fear and anxiety. If you’re familiar with Gluck’s famous opera, you are also in an entirely familiar musical place since, thankfully, there is no alteration of

WILD HORSES

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who has survived some difficult moments in life, yet who can remember a seminal summer at the age of thirteen and implies that that summer formed much of who she later became.

Dedra D. Woods takes on that role and Sheila Daniels makes sure that Woods’ transitions into the various people intersecting with her teenage self are portrayed with clean, clearly individuated characters.

The woman at the bar has no name. She begins telling the story of her thirteenth summer by relating that there was a radio contest to “name” “A Horse With No Name,” a song by the band named America. It was released in 1972, so that links it to a very specific time. In fact, if the woman is supposed to be telling the tale in 2018, that would have to make her 59ish and Ms. Woods is not nearly 59. However, the atmosphere in this bar is a little unmoored in time, so maybe it’s being told a few years ago, too. The indistinct nature of theatre time…while being very distinct.

The song, a beguiling and hypnotic poem, references freedom and horses and the idea that riding in the desert allows an escape from human pain and ridicule. As

the beautiful, beloved opera. The English libretto sticks closely to the original re-telling of the myth with very few updates, all of which seemed appropriate in this setting. In fact, it was a joy to listen to this wonderful ensemble and watch – through a little crack in the curtain – as conductor Yates simultaneously conducted while playing continuo on the harpsichord.

In the myth Orpheus sings and plays his harp to lull the furies of Hades into admitting him to the underworld, where he has to persuade Eurydice to follow him even though he must obey Amore’s condition that he may not look back at her until they return to the land of the living. In this version, O is met by furies in combat dress who twitch and contort to Gulck’s exciting, agitated music. The chorus, standing out of sight with the orchestra, provides the resounding “No!” each time O pleads for admittance. I was a little baffled by the army references – though “War is hell” certainly came to mind. In this era of PTSD it’s a fair enough metaphor for Hades.

The most heart-wrenching part of the myth is E/Eurydice’s inability to follow her husband/wife because they refuse to look at her with love. O/Orpheus is forbidden to explain the conditions of her rescue, and eventually becomes worn down by her beloved’s pleading. When she finally looks,

she sees E fall dead for a second time. I’ve seen several productions of this wonderful opera – including the Mark Morris production at the Met, the Pacific MusicWorks’ French language version in 2015, and several concert presentations – and all were compelling because so much of the drama and pathos is built into Gluck’s music. But this all-woman iteration of the Orpheus tragedy gave me chills. I was mopping away tears through the entire second half of the opera. Magda Gartner, a mezzo soprano from Germany, was a wiry, determined O with a fabulous voice. She made her Seattle Opera debut in this role, and we can only hope to see her in many more roles in the future. Tess Altiveros was equally fabulous as the elegant, passionate E. She was seen last season in Seattle Opera’s The Combat, and in Pacific MusicWork’s splendid presentation of that other great Orpheus opera, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo last October. Both Gartner and Altiveros have powerful, big-opera voices, but modulated them perfectly for the smaller space. It was a thrill to be in such close quarters with their beautifully trained voices. A/Amore was sung by another Seattle Opera debutant, Issaquah’s own Serena Eduljee, whose sparkling performance brought light and hope into the darkness of a death-threat. Not only does she possess a confident, soaring soprano, but she navigated the range from

far as thirteen year olds go, many of us might consider that particular age as a fundamental moment in the shape of our lives. For this woman, that summer and horses are forever tied together.

In fact, the story she tells is of three young teens, herself, brash Zabby, and ditzy, accident-prone Skinny Linnie, feeling the outrage and social-justice urge regarding a horse farm outfit they think has

captured wild horses, and they determine to set them free. Certainly, from an adult perspective, this adventure has plenty of gaping holes in it. But that doesn’t exactly deter them from planning it anyway.

It’s that seminal summer of challenging parental boundaries and trying things that sometimes we’re lucky we’ve survived. The teens steal booze from their parents and mix it in vile concoctions, because the

serious surgeon to impish Amore with charm and authority.

Enough cannot be said about the importance of presenting a lesbian version of Gluck’s timeless opera as a way to focus on love in all its forms. It spotlights the depth and legitimacy of human devotion in a way that makes you wonder why anyone could ever doubt that every combinations of consensual love is natural. Seattle Opera’s chamber opera series – including the transgender opera As One, the Japanese internment opera An American Dream, and the Muslim/Christian conflict opera The Combat – all address the troubled and timely issues of the present through metaphors of the past. Seattle Opera has taken a tremendous step forward in bringing opera into the 21st century, to 21st century audiences. Kudos all around – it’s been a privilege to see these works. I only wish everyone in the LGBT community could see it, and know that Seattle Opera is not only an ally, but a fully committed arts partner in the search for justice and understanding for the LGBT community. You can still see O + E on Saturday, June 9th or Sunday, June 10th. Go to the Seattle Opera website (https://www.seattleopera.org/) for tickets and directions to the Seattle Opera studios.

point is not the taste, right? It’s just “some of the red, some of the clear, and some of the brown.” Then, of course, they cover it up by putting any kind of liquids back in the bottles.

We feel drawn into the story because we recognize ourselves and our discoveries in it. It’s got humor and pathos, difficult discoveries and trying to figure out a crazy, mixed up adult world.

Sound designer Erin Bednarz peppers the story with moments of music from the period, evoking a sound memory of classic rock tunes. Even those way too young to have lived then may well know these tunes from golden oldies radio.

Besides one small strange choice of staging with a mist machine adding nothing but confusion to the atmosphere, it’s a strong piece with a singularly muscular solo performance. Woods nails the emotions of the teens and the dual role of the surviving adult telling her personal story. For more information, go to www.intiman.org or call 206-441-7178.

Discuss your opinions with SGNCritic@ gmail.com or go to www.facebook.com/ SeattleTheaterWriters. More articles can be found at MiryamsTheaterMusings. blogspot.com.

Documentary and docudrama collide with observationally prescient American Animals

by Sara Michelle Fetters

SGN A&E Writer

AMERICAN ANIMALS

Now playing

In 2004 four Lexington, Kentucky residents, all attending Transylvania University, attempted to steal some of the world’s most valuable books from their school’s special collections library, including John James Audubon’s Birds of America. The scheme was the brainchild of Spencer Reinhard (Barry Keoghan) and Warren Lipka (Evan Peters), two best friends from reasonably wealthy families who had no reason to attempt something so foolhardy. They rope fellow students Chas Allen (Blake Jenner) and Eric Borsuk (Jared Abrahamson) into their scheme, the quartet planning for their heist by spending more time watching films like Rififi and The Asphalt Jungle than they do almost anything else.

Part suspense flick, part documentary, writer/director Bart Layton’s American Animals, the award-winning filmmaker’s follow-up to his sensational 2012 doc The Imposter, is an exceedingly odd (if still observationally prescient) piece of work. A mixture of interviews with the real subjects involved in the case, including all four of the amateur thieves, as well as the Transylvania University librarian, Betty Jean Gooch, they inadvertently terrorized, as well as suspenseful reenactment with rising stars Keoghan, Peters, Jenner and Abrahamson right at the center of things, the movie is an inventive new take on both the heist thriller as well as the straightforward docudrama. It toys with memory in a way that clouds just how legit the events being depicted are, Reinhard and Lipka offering up different versions of key moments that make getting a firm grasp on the hows and whys of this attempted theft all the more ephemeral and pleasingly difficult to grapple with.

But because the film toggles back and forth between documentary and reenactment, Layton has a terrible time trying to maintain tension. By the time this crew goes

through with their plan and finds a number of ways to mess things up before making off with only a small handful of the precious literary works they were hoping to snag suspense is noticeably lacking. This is understandably due to the fact we’ve already met each of the guys during the interview portions that have been interspersed throughout. We know they don’t get away with it. We know they get caught. There’s never a question any member of their quartet is going to keep their hands on the few manuscripts they were able to somehow abscond with. It’s just the way it is, and because these truths are made known right from the start the finish isn’t exactly the breathless piece of suspense storytelling I’m sure some are hoping it was going to be.

Yet it’s all still pretty fascinating. Not only are listening to the recollections of Reinhard et al. intriguing, watching all four actors portraying these characters is equally noteworthy. Keoghan, fresh off his unsettling, star-making turn in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, finds the story’s emotional center with hypnotic fidgety grace, while X-Men: Days of Future Past scenestealer Peters oozes machismo as Lipka, his puffed-out chest concealing an infantile insecurity hungry for recognition and fame no matter what the cost. Jenner is also good, but his screen time is honestly rather limited, Allen nowhere near as complicated a figure as the other members of this small band prove to be. As for Abrahamson, he might just be the best of the bunch, the young actor mining sensitive veins so richly satisfying every moment spent watching Borsuk navigate his way through each event as it happens, especially during the actual theft, is positively golden in its hypnotic heartbreaking majesty.

I kind of loved the Rashomon trick Layton waits until the best possible moment to reveal, the director forcing me to reconsider every single thing I’d just watched from a variety of varying perspectives I hadn’t even bothered to take the time to consider beforehand. There’s also some agreeably playful banter between Reinhard and Lipka

that had me grinning madly, the snappy cadences of the filmmaker’s dialogue consistently keeping me invested in learning what either of them was going to say or do next. Layton also has a strong rapport with all of the real life individuals he manages to score interviews with, especially the core foursome, and as such there’s a large part of me that almost wishes he’d made a fullon documentary about the heist instead of a hybrid motion picture that wants to bob back and forth like it’s some feature length “Unsolved Mysteries” instead.

Even if I don’t think the constant tonal shifts work as well as I imagine Layton wanted them to, American Animals is still

BART

LAYTON

continued from cover

had been missing for three years, the film blurred the line between the truth and a lie to such a fascinating degree by the time the film had come to an end knowing what was fact and what was fiction was practically impossible. It really was a case where truth was stranger than any fictional narrative ever could have been, the whole thing a mind-blowing shell game that built to an unforgettable final reveal.

Six years later Layton follows up that impressive piece of documentary subterfuge with an equally idiosyncratic cinematic endeavor. Once again he is working from a true story, this time the 2003 attempted heist of a cache of rare, seemingly priceless first editions from Transylvania University’s library, including John James Audubon’s Birds of America. White, from privileged backgrounds, seemingly having perfect futures all laid out in front of them, these four men, Warren Lipka, Spencer Reinhard, Eric Borsuk and Chas Allen, all attended this Lexington, Kentucky college and, almost on a whim, decided to try and pull the perfect crime.

It all goes hopelessly wrong, of course, and it doesn’t take very long for law

strong on more than enough levels to make its narrative imbalances mean precious little as far the bigger picture is concerned. It’s insight into the current social and cultural malaise, a worldwide ailment seemingly exacerbated by social media, the devolution in political discourse and the slow and steady drumbeat that asserts fame of any kind, no matter how heinous and vile it might be obtained, is worth achieving whatever the cost, all of that is worthy of debate and discussion. The filmmaker looks at this jolt of criminal lunacy and discovers universal truths viewers should take note of, this group’s failure revealing more about the human condition than initially meets the eye.

enforcement to figure out who was involved with the heist. But Layton isn’t so much interested in the hows as he is in the whys, the filmmaker going out of his way trying to dig into the reasons these four felt the need to attempt such a foolhardy robbery.

One part documentary, one part narrative reenactment (actors Even Peters, Barry Keoghan, Jared Abrahamson and Blake Jenner portray the four youngsters), the movie bounces back and forth between varying recollections and points of view as it attempts to get to the heart of what happened. In the process, memory becomes a hazy vehicle that is as flawed and as vague as any fictionalized narrative ever could be. Layton pulls no punches, allowing all four men, their families and even some of those they callously terrorized to all speak for themselves, their idiotic pursuit of fame and immortality speaking to a crack in the American Dream few want to talk about let alone admit even exists in the first place. I had the pleasure to sit down with the director while he was in town to screen American Animals during this year’s Seattle International Film Festival. Here are some of the highlights from our freewheeling conversation:

Sara Michelle Fetters: How did it go last night? Did you have a good time?

Bart Layton: It was great. I didn’t sit in on the screening; you come in at the end. Do the Q&A. But the reaction seemed to be kind of great. There was a lot of excitement. People seemed to be loving the film, which is obviously good as far as I’m concerned. [laughs]

Sara Michelle Fetters: It’s got to be empowering and a little heartwarming for a film that you spent so much time just getting off the ground, let alone getting made, to have such a positive reception at these festivals. I think I read that it took you, what, six or seven years to get this picture made?

Bart Layton: It was probably six years since I found the story. In terms of the work, writing, directing and editing, that is probably a couple years. So it was a pretty long process, start to finish.

But, yes, I’m definitely happy people have been responding as they have. There’s always that thing where you put all of that effort in and you actually don’t have any sense of what’s going to happen next. I’ve got friends who’ve done the same, worked harder and longer on a project than I have on this one, and their movies haven’t been picked up and may never see a theatrical window. That’s pretty painful. It’s a shame, don’t you think?

Sara Michelle Fetters: Without question.

For you, though, why did this story speak to you so loudly? What was about this one that fascinated you to the point you knew this was a film you just had to make?

Bart Layton: First of all it has to be a ripping story. It has to be a kind of “what’s going to happen next” story. But more important than that, or equally important, I think that it speaks to a kind of way into a bigger conversation about something in the culture or something in the way we live. A good story’s not really all you need. You have to have more. This story, it had that “more.”

Since making The Imposter, I’ve had offers to make a lot of big studio movies and none of them really feel like anything other than they have that first bit, that initial seed of a good idea. They have a fun story or they are a thriller. But they’re not really about anything. None of them. The Imposter was a film equally about self-deception as it was about deception, about those lies we choose to believe. That’s why I made it.

Sara Michelle Fetters: And this story had that, “more.”

Bart Layton: Yes. It did. To answer your question, I thought this was a great and interesting story. What kind of people, you know, try to do something like this? And when I found out they were young, privileged and well-educated? That was kind of my okay to know there must be something more to their story. I wanted to understand a little more about them and their motivations; that was the thing that made me think this was a story that needed telling.

A lot of what they said in the letters we exchanged – because at the point we were conversing they were all in prison – almost all of that is in the film. That’s how the whole thing began, that correspondence with them. The things they wrote in their letters, it was amazing. First, and most importantly, they were very honest. But secondly they were just so not what I expected them to be. They were surprisingly intelligent. They were very articulate. They were very erudite. A lot of what they talked about was a need to be special, a need to leave a mark on the world, a need to do something that would completely shake up everything about their lives and their existence. That was a thing I felt was very relatable.

Just before you walked in a young woman from a college newspaper was talking about how deeply relatable this story was. She wants to be a writer and she’s worried about that she’s never going to have a story to tell because she’s white and privileged and all the rest of it. So, it felt relevant to her in a way. It’s that kind of response that what made me say that this could be a great heist movie but also realize that it had to deliver on a variety levels because it was a story that could be so much more than just another thriller about a heist.

Sara Michelle Fetters: This story, it is oddly relevant for what is going on in America right now in regards to these larger conversations that we’re having,

especially in regards to questions of white privilege and toxic masculinity, all that stuff. In this weird way it feeds into that conversation and gives you a great insight into this sort of, this laissez faire mindset.

Bart Layton: Yeah. Exactly. I think you might be right. I mean, I don’t think they really planned on going through with it [the heist]. I think they fell in love with the fantasy. One of them described it to me in one of the letters that this was their version of Fight Club. It was a secret that they had that made them different from everyone else. I don’t think they thought that they were going to go through with it. They just were enjoying the role play and then it went way too far.

Sara Michelle Fetters: Why tell the story as part documentary and part reenactment? Why go back and forth between the dramatization, the thriller and the real guys and their families sitting there talking about this?

Bart Layton: For the exact reason that I was saying earlier. Because I think if you didn’t include them it would be a smaller, more disposable story. It would be kind of the story of the crime. It would be hard to relate to them. I think you would think, “What a bunch of idiots.”

They had all of these opportunities and they squandered them while doing this stupid thing. But I think it’s the same thing that made me want to tell the story and that was these people and the way they talk about their reasons. I also thought we potentially had the opportunity to find a new way of telling a true story that we hadn’t seen before. At least, that was the idea.

The simple intention was that your emotional investment would be heightened, would be greater because you looked them in the eye. You don’t get to go off into movie world where everything’s fine and you walk out unscathed. With this you’re like, “What?” With this, you’re constantly reminded it really happened and because of that you’re like, “Where is this going and how is it going to turn out?” You got more skin in the game.

Sara Michelle Fetters: I think this way of telling the story makes concrete the whole Rashomon way they have looking back on things. I mean, these guys were all together, planning this together, and yet they all still have different interpretations of how stuff happened. It’s fascinating.

Bart Layton: Totally. And that’s the thing. They’re not just unreliable narrators, there’s also these memories that are totally unreliable as well. That was one of the things I wanted to do. I wanted to invite the

audience into a movie in a slightly different way. We constantly go to movies and at the beginning it says, “Based on a true story,” and then it’s like that’s a license to be Hollywood and basically make the rest of it up. I didn’t want that. I wanted this to make you feel like you were part of the story and part of the progress. I wanted you to question how movies get fictionalized and how stories get Hollywood-ized.

Sara Michelle Fetters: But I also think it also helps us question, not so much our own reality, but our own perception of what our lives are, the events that have helped make us who we are.

Bart Layton: Exactly. It’s all about crossing a line that should never be crossed. I think if it had been more serious, if someone had died, we could never tell the story in this way. What it’s really about is this moment in which they cross a line and they kind of can’t cross back. In that moment they instantly regret it, they instantly wish they could take it back but they can’t and you see them unraveling.

Sara Michelle Fetters: Even though you’d been having this correspondence with them and you had gotten so much information, it’s one thing to get all of that in writing and another thing to have them sit down in front of a camera. Was there some trepidation there from them to actually be in the film?

Bart Layton: I don’t think they were trepidatious until the day of filming and then they were suddenly, “Oh, shit! This is really happening. We’re really doing this.” [laughs] I think at that time they realized it was going to bring the whole thing back up. This had been a huge thing within the community and within their families. It had been devastating. So it was difficult because they’d written a lot of things in the letters, most of which I put into the script. When we sat down to do the interviews I wanted to hear them say the things. Some of those things they talked about and said and some of the things they didn’t say. So I was faced with this problem of having written a screenplay, got the film financed off the back of the screenplay and now I’m not able to get the lines out of the real guys.

The last thing you want to do is turn them into actors. That would never work. They needed to speak their own truth. They had to say it, not me. In the end, I threw the script away and I was like, let’s just sit down and have a very honest conversation about what happened. Afterwards, I went back into the script and rewrote around what they had actually said.

Sara Michelle Fetters: Because of your

documentary background, because you’ve done the “Locked Up” series, does that help you in situations like this?

Bart Layton: Massively. I’ve had a lot of experience getting stories out of people. But, you know, this was totally different because this was a narrative movie with these unconventional, nonfiction elements. There isn’t really a template for that. When we were coming to plan the schedule and the budget everyone was like, I’ve never done or planned anything like this before. How do we do it?

It’s exciting because you’re breaking new ground but it’s difficult because there isn’t a template. Everyone’s wondering if you’re absolutely sure that it’s going to work. And I’m always like, yeah. Of course. It’s going to be great. But even I’m not sure until I get into the edit room and see for myself that it’s going to work in the same way I saw it working on paper. Not that I could tell anyone else that. [laughs]

Sara Michelle Fetters: How hard was it casting the actors to portray these guys?

Bart Layton: I’m not great at making snap decisions. I’m better at making good decisions and sometimes it takes a long time to get to that. With the casting process, I just wanted the best actors, not the most similar looking. They had to be the best actors.

There was a point where we could have cast the biggest names in this age group. The script suddenly caught fire in L.A. We had the option to cast really well known young men and I didn’t want that. I didn’t want them to come with the baggage of all of those big franchise movies that we’re all familiar with. I wanted them to be real people. They needed to look real, they needed to be more authentic and I didn’t want any of these Hollywood pretty boys. I wanted people that looked like you and I.

Sara Michelle Fetters: It’s interesting that you put it like that because, even in the case of Evan Peters, he might be a major part of this big franchise (the X-Men films) but he still manages to come into this without the baggage of portraying Quicksilver. Bart Layton: Exactly, He just came into the room and it was like, yeah, wow, he’s just exceptional.

Sara Michelle Fetters: Evan and Barry Keoghan, the way they work off one another, there’s magic there.

Bart Layton: That is the thing. I’ve never written a screenplay before and I’m not one of those people who sit there writing. I don’t do all the dialogue in a lab and stand up and go and try and do the whole

see BART LAYTON page 8

Movingly incisive Escape a heartbreakingly potent melodrama

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN A&E Writer

THE ESCAPE

Now playing

Suburban London housewife Tara (Gemma Arterton) isn’t doing well. Her hardworking husband Mark (Dominic Cooper) loves her and yet he’s still caught up with his own wants and needs, so consumed with the thought he must provide a posh life for his wife and two children above anything else he fails to see that the woman lying next to him is desperately unhappy. Things are slowly falling apart, and even after she expresses her concerns and fears out loud to Mark it doesn’t appear she’s going to be able to stop her emotional deterioration any time soon.

The British drama The Escape is not for the faint of heart. It’s a precise, step-by-step chronicle of one woman’s depression, the film showcasing how the weight of being all but forgotten in one’s own life, no matter how fulfilling or stereotypically perfect it might appear to others to be, can shatter all chances of happiness into itty-bitty pieces. Writer/director Dominic Savage refuses to shower his characters with pity, making zero apologies for their actions no matter how heinous they might be. Yet his affection and respect for them is equally palpable, Tara a fiercely complex figure whose innate goodness is slowly being devastated by this growing cloud of despair.

Not that this mother’s decisions or choices are easy to comprehend or forgive. The moments when she lashes out, especially at her children, are brutally difficult to endure. The scenes where she expresses what is happening to her to Mark but is unable to contextualize them, where she cannot find a way to get him to at least partially understand the role he’s inadvertently played in manufacturing her ennui, not all of these ring as authentically as they were undoubtedly meant to. While the pain is real, some of the dialogue discussing it can be a little too on-point, some sequences having an aura of stilted theatricality I was less than thrilled with.

But Arterton’s magnificence is undeniable. The veteran actress is almost as wonderful here as she was in last year’s sublime Their Finest, her willingness to break Tara

BART LAYTON

continued from page 7

performance of it because that’s just not how I operate. I write, that’s it, and then I hope that it feels true.

It was nerve-wracking. It wasn’t until the actors turned up and we started doing rehearsals that I felt like I could breathe. It was then that I knew the stuff I’d written was good. That they were good. That they were great. I knew then we were going to be fine.

Sara Michelle Fetters: I have to say, as terrific as Evan and Barry are, I was really blown away by Jared Abrahamson. That scene when you actually get into the heist, that whole sequence I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I’m just watching him and it’s just heartbreaking.

Bart Layton: He’s a natural. He’s got a kind of natural quality about him. I found myself not giving him a huge amount of direction. Often he just was very solid. He just got it. Jared’s so understated, doesn’t feel the need to do too much. He’s just so good here.

Sara Michelle Fetters: Right at the end, you sort of tell us also maybe not everything some of what these guys are telling us is exactly the truth.

Bart Layton: Exactly. It’s that unreliable narrator aspect I was talking about earlier. At one point there was sort of more

down into her basest emotional parts gutwrenching in their horrifying intensity. The scene where she finally loses it completely with her children had me clutching my throat in heart-stricken distress, while the one directly following it up is equally stunning as this young mother realizes what it is she has said and done and tries to find some way, any way, to repair things with her two little ones. There’s always something going on behind Arterton’s eyes in this movie, her depressive physicality truly extraordinary.

Around two-thirds of the way through the picture the action moves to Paris for reasons I don’t choose to go into in any detail here in this review. What I will say is that these scenes, these moments, they say as much about the human condition in total as they do about any one character. All

of that in the movie. But I discovered some places in the story you just don’t want to interrupt the flow of the drama but in other places there were points I wanted to invite the questioning of whether things happened in the way they are depicted. There’s this idea that, not just that they’re unreliable narrators, but also memories themselves are also unreliable.

A week from now you won’t be wearing sunglasses on your head in my memory. Whatever it is, it will be different. Things will morph and change. As a dramatist, you can either choose if two people are giving you two different versions. You can go, I’ll just choose the cooler version because that’s more dramatic. Or you say, no, let’s do both versions and then invite the audience into this kind of game of, “what if.” Instead of tricking the audience you’re inviting them into the process, into this game. We all enter that type of contract when we go into making a film out of a true story. Listen, we all know that Natalie Portman is not Jackie Kennedy but we’re like, yeah, let’s go, we want to believe it. But then you’re asking yourself, did that really happen? Did Jackie Kennedy really say or do that? And then at the end you see a bunch of photographs and then you go and Google Jackie Kennedy, or Molly from Molly’s Game, or anyone else it might be in a movie supposedly based on real people

that happens, all that transpires, the beauty, the heartbreak, the catharsis, the pain; all of that and more, each of these emotions feed into one another with an assured observational gracefulness that’s divine. If total understanding isn’t achieved it isn’t because Savage’s script isn’t doing its job. Instead, this ephemeral refinement is entirely by design, the haunting eloquence of what eventually transpires and potentially brings husband and wife back together to begin anew a generous outpouring of appreciative understanding that brought quiet tears to my eyes with startling ease.

In the end all Tara wants is to be listened to. Her life might not be turning out as she once dreamt it would but that doesn’t mean she should be shackled to continue trudging along in footprints she long ago outgrew.

telling a real story.

I wanted to remove that. I wanted you to be kind of having your cake and the ability to eat it, too, in a way.

Sara Michelle Fetters: What inspires you as a filmmaker?

Bart Layton: It has to be a great story. I’ve got a very short attention span. I’m a very slow reader, probably dyslexic. If I’m not like, “What happens next?” that is problematic. But it’s equally problematic to feel like that was a great book and I really enjoyed it but ultimately I’m never going to think about it for a split second after I’m done reading.

In this case, there had to be something about these questions of identity, masculinity, privilege and the pressure we’re all living under to be interesting, different and be special. All of that had to be there and it was. To answer your question, it has to be a great story but it has to be about something more. Something that you can go to the pub afterwards and have a proper talk about. Did that happen? What does that mean? What would you do? There’s always more to it.

Talking about that young woman who was in before you again, she said she found the movie so deeply relatable because most of her and her friends, she said, “If we don’t have a Wikipedia page by the time we’re however old, I guess we’re not important or we haven’t made it.” That’s so telling, right?

All this young woman desires is for someone to hear what she has to say, to sit there and help her work through these pangs of regret in ways that will allow her to find the strength to carry on and be the type of mother her children can look up to. The Escape isn’t so much about leaving one’s life behind in order to build a new one as it is a mournful call to action to learn how to embrace the beauty of what’s happening around one in each idiosyncratic second of the day. Far from easy to watch, this drama is an incisive glance into the mirror that is heartbreaking in its visceral exactitude, Tara’s realizations as sadly common as they are unquestionably universal.

Making a mark, having our lives mean something, that is a huge driver for all of us in our lives. I think it was also one of the main drivers in this crime. Those are the kinds of conversations that would be good to have people talking about.

Sara Michelle Fetters: Can we slow down? Can we get out of this technological and societal malaise that we’re in that can potentially lead to stuff like this? Can we connect again as human beings, in real life, away from our computers, cell phones, social media and all of the rest?

Bart Layton: I think so. I hope so. Ultimately it just becomes a total choice. Because if you’re not in it, social media and all of the rest of that stuff, or if you step away, as soon as you are away from it all, it’s suddenly not in your ether anymore. As soon as you turn it off you realize you don’t need any of it. It’s like when you go away and there’s no WiFi or anything and suddenly it’s just like an out of mind thing. You stop caring about it. If I put it out of sight, suddenly I can just think about where I want to be and what I want to do, what’s important to me. I stop thinking about what’s important to me in the eyes of other people. It’s that simple. Don’t you think so?

Pulpy Artemis a violently amusing retro thriller

by Sara Michelle Fetters

SGN A&E Writer

HOTEL ARTEMIS

Now playing

It is 2028 and Los Angeles is controlled by powerful corporations and overrun with poverty and crime. During a riot over an increase in prices for clean drinking water, a retired ace thief (Sterling K. Brown) is reluctantly assisting his ne’er-do-well younger brother (Brian Tyree Henry) in a poorly planned bank robbery. Managing to get away with bags full of jewels, cash and a mysterious pen containing a priceless secret, the pair are injured during their escape after a shootout with the police.

Thankfully, they have a membership at the Hotel Artemis, a secret hospital for elite criminal clientele run by an enigmatic Nurse (Jodie Foster). She is assisted by her faithful orderly Everest (Dave Bautista), a massive granite rock of a man who more than lives up to his name. Giving the thief the code name “Waikiki” and his horrifically wounded younger brother the alias “Honolulu,” she proceeds to patch them up. Other current residents at the hotel include a high-priced assassin known as “Nice” (Sofia Boutella) and a selfish, misogynistic arms dealer tagged as “Acapulco” (Charlie Day), everyone is safe and sound as the riot rages outside on the streets below. But the city’s most powerful crime boss, The Wolf (Jeff Goldblum), is also on the way to take advantage of the Nurse’s services, and if he learns about the pen Waikiki and Honolulu have in their possession, it’s safe to say everyone currently staying at the Artemis will see their life expectancy plummet to zero.

Almost as if it is some sort of side story or spin-off born from the ideas put forth in both of the John Wick adventures, Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation screenwriter Drew Pearce makes his directorial debut with the intriguingly silly retro action-thriller Hotel Artemis Positing the existence of a secret series of hospitals around the globe villains pay to become members of where, once inside, no violence or firearms of any kind are allowed or healthcare privileges are revoked, this film is a suitably pulpy, noirdrenched escapade overflowing in colorful characters portrayed with confidently gleeful gusto by an all-star cast. While far from perfect and not entirely memorable, it’s still a darkly enjoyable lark for almost all of its reasonably well-paced 97 minutes,

and I certainly didn’t hate sitting in the theatre watching this story play itself out to its inevitable conclusion.

It should be said that this is not the giant grindhouse action spectacular the trailers have been selling. Pearce spends more time world-building than he does staging a never-ending series of fisticuffs, shootouts and feats of derring-do. It’s a Wednesdayin-the-life for the Nurse and for Everest and that’s just about it; and while this one undeniably goes a bit crazier and cockeyed than the pair’s typical hump days likely do, the way they so casually attack each obstacle thrown their way maybe what transpires isn’t as unexpected to them as a viewer might initially assume. They’re at the Artemis for a reason, intent on doing their job no matter what fit of lunacy they have to overcome to do so, their relationship the beating heart at the center of the story everything else gains its precious lifeblood from.

The other obviously important element is what is happening with Waikiki and his brother. This retired thief knows more about what is going on in Los Angeles at this moment than he cares to openly admit. He also figures out pretty quickly what Acapulco’s profession is and why old friend (and maybe lover) Nice is at the hotel, his ability to take snippets of supposedly disconnected pieces of informa-

tion and assemble a finished puzzle irrefutably impressive. Most of all, he’s intent on doing what’s best for his brother even if his younger sibling has been something of a constant disappointment, Waikiki’s love for him, no matter what his sibling’s faults might be, understandably overriding his normally rational thought processes to a substantial degree.

Not to say this is a movie of relationships, talk and little to nothing more. There is violence. There is carnage. There most certainly is bloodshed. Pearce doesn’t shy away from any of that stuff. He just waits to unleash the butchery and the chaos until it’s going to be most viscerally effective. The last 20 minutes of the film is the payoff all of the slow-burn build has been promising, and for the most part the freshman director pulls it off. An extended hallway fight scene where Nice draws a line in the sand she insists no one is allowed to pass is especially impressive, Boutella once again showcasing that aggressively violent balletic grace that helped her steal so much of Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek: Beyond right out from underneath her co-stars.

It’s still pretty thin, and Pearce, for all his narrative stratagem, is never quite able to bring the same level of authenticity and intimate realism the John Wick screenwriters have managed to achieve with both

of those action favorites. Also, as terrific as Bautista is, and after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Avengers: Infinity War his comedic timing has never been more on-point than it is right now, once this goliath of a hospital orderly actually gets to get involved with the bone-crunching action the sequence itself is oddly underwhelming. Pearce and his editing team overdo it with the cutting and the close-ups, and as such Everest’s ax-wielding heroics are undercut to the point they sadly barely registered with me at all.

But I still had a jolly time watching Hotel Artemis. Foster is wonderful, her chemistry with Bautista having a surprising emotional oomph I wasn’t expecting. Brown is also excellent, while Goldblum’s brief turn as The Wolf is every bit as idiosyncratically extraordinary as I hoped it would be when I saw his name in the cast list. The whole thing rather reminded me of similar stripped-down thrillers from the ‘70s and ‘80s, films like John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 and Sam Firstenberg’s Avenging Force, and to my mind this is a giant positive. Pearce’s debut, while hardly groundbreaking, is still impressive on a number of levels, and I’m honestly excited to see what the filmmaker might have in store for us all next sometime in what I imagine will be the very near future.

Lack of originality inoculates Feral against success

by Sara Michelle Fetters

SGN A&E Writer

Six medical students head off into the woods for a camping holiday away from the hustle and bustle of school. The de facto leader of their little group is budding hematologist Alice (Scout Taylor-Compton), and when evening hits and everyone couples up and retires the late night chatter mostly revolves around whether or not her romance with newcomer Jules (Olivia Luccardi) is anything more than a collegiate fling. Just as everyone is falling asleep a scream

echoes through the woods, all of them bolting out from their tents to see what is making so much noise. There’s something out there in the darkness, a creature that hungers for human flesh, Alice and her friends all potential targets for this animal to sink its teeth into.

It’s not really a surprise that things are much worse than any of them know, director and co-writer Mark H. Young (The Killing Jar) composing a story that checks most of the modern zombie-as-metaphorfor-viral-infection boxes for his gory horror offering Feral. Eventually Alice and her surviving friends find themselves trapped inside the cabin of a curiously helpful hunter named Talbot (Lew Temple), all of them forced to do whatever it takes to live through the night while also hoping they don’t end up dinner to one of those things or, even worse, transformed into one courtesy of scratch or bite. It’s basically Cabin Fever meets 28 Days Later… only without the pitch black humor of the former and the controlled, expertly directed chaos of the latter, Young’s low budget offshoot content to revel in its blasé mediocrity with a

strange, effortless confidence that in some ways is honestly kind of impressive.

But the movie isn’t good. In fairness, it also isn’t bad. It’s just instantly forgettable and devoid of any original ideas save that it plants a young lesbian couple at the top of the young-people-in-jeopardy pyramid. As laudable as that might be, and as credible in their respective roles as Taylor-Compton and Luccardi prove to be, the lack of anything resembling a surprise is just too big an obstacle for the film to overcome. The nature of the threat, Talbot’s potentially nefarious intentions, the order in which characters are either infected or outright killed, all of that follows a boringly predictable pattern, and as such caring about any of what is transpiring proves to be close to impossible.

This is admittedly a well made film, however, and from a directorial standpoint Young certainly does a workmanlike job. He keeps the pace moving, wasting no time unleashing his creatures and putting Alice and her friends in mortal danger. There’s a nicely choreographed set piece in a dingy cellar where a survivor faces down one of the infected with nothing more than a

baseball bat and their wits, while the initial attack sequence that kicks things off is suitably tense. The film features crackerjack makeup and gore effects, while Christos C. Bitsakos’ lively cinematography balances varying levels of darkness and light splendidly. Most importantly, Taylor-Compton grounds things with conviction, her Alice a strong-willed and intelligent heroine worth rooting for.

Unfortunately, none of that matters. Feral is undone by its rote over-familiarity. It’s hard not to feel like I’ve seen this story done before on multiple occasions. The whole thing is too by-the-numbers to generate a consistent feeling of suspense or dread, and by the time the film reaches its rather foregone conclusion I’d already checked out emotionally long before the climax. Even with veteran composer Elia Cmiral’s (Ronin) suitably ominous score working overtime I just didn’t care about anything that was happening, all of which makes Young’s latest something of a slight disappointment part of me wishes I’d not taken the time to see.

Meetings Events Activities

TO GET A CALENDAR LISTING: To have your meeting or event considered for the Community Calendar, please mail, fax, or drop off details to: SGN, Attn: Community Calendar, 1707 23rd Ave., Seattle, WA 98122. SGN phone: (206) 324-4297. E-mail: sgn2@sgn.org.

INCLUDE: Date, time, location, contact phone # for publication (if possible), brief description of event & sponsoring organization. DEADLINE: Tuesday 5pm.

NOTE: 10-digit dialing has come to the Seattle area. The (206) area code must now be used to dial local calls. Location of meetings/events is in Seattle unless otherwise noted.

SATURDAY - June 9

A Gathering of Men in Edmonds 8:15-11:30am. Edmonds UUC, 8109 224th St SW, Edmonds. Meets 2nd Saturday each month. www.agatheringofmen.org Seattle Frontrunners Fun Run. 9am. Greenlake (outside Evans Pool). Every Saturday. GLBT running & walking club sponsors weekly runs, monthly potlucks, track & field activity, annual Run With Pride. (206) 4488518. www.seattlefrontrunners.org.

Positively Living Coffee Social. 9:30am-12 noon. Cupcake Royale, 1111 E Pike St. Every Saturday. Casual social get-together for the HIV community. Anthony, 206-957-1600. Sponsored by LIfelong. Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Green Lake Walk. 12 noon-1pm. 7201 E Green Lake Dr. N. Every Saturday - Come Rain or Shine! - Meet at the Wading Pool (along the north end of the lake). Hot coffee and beautiful Rainbow umbrellas to use “just in case.” For info, call (206) 393-3400;. Wheelchair-friendly walk. Sponsored by Generations Aging With Pride. Volunteer Park Pride Festival. 12 noon-7pm. Volunteer Park, 1247 15th Ave E. Free, all-ages celebration of LGBTQ arts, performance, and culture, with live music, beer garden, food trucks, craft booths, and more. Lineup includes soul singer Desi Valentine, hip-hop artist Donormaal, country band Little Bandit, retro-glam outfit Fruit Juice, blues-rocker Betsy Olson, and DJ Toya B. More info at www.seattlepride.org/events/picnic.

Georgetown Art Attack. 6-9pm. Meets 2nd Saturday each month. www.georgetownneighborhood.com.

Oasis Youth Center in Tacoma - For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Questioning Youth, Ages 14-25. 6pm-12 midnight. Call for location & details. Every Saturday. (253) 671-2838. www.oasisyouthcenter.org Ballard’s Second Saturday Artwalk. 7-10pm. visitballard.com

Trans Masculine Dance - “Falling Short.” 8pm. On the Boards, NW New Works Festival. A duet, choreographed by Elby Brosch and performed with Shane Donohue, which they describe as a “playfully tragic exploration of ’90s masculinity, the failing veneer of perfected manhood.” Tickets ($16) available at www.ontheboards.org/ performances/nw-new-works-festival-2018/ or call (206) 217-9886. (Also on Sunday, June 10.)

SUNDAY - June 10

Center for Spiritual Living. 8:25, 9:45, 11:30am. 5801 Sand Point Way NE. Blessings & we hope to see you soon! (206) 527-8801 ext 203, www.cslseattle.org Gay Men’s Bowling in Everett 9:30am. Glacier Lanes, 9630 Evergreen Way, Everett. Every Sunday. Spectators welcome. Join us for lunch afterwards! Sponsored by the Snohomish County Gay Men’s Task Force. For info email John at johndmarsh@mac.com; www.gaysnohomish.org University Lutheran Church. 9:30am Worship, 10:30am Coffee Fellowship, 11am Adult Forum & Education Hour. 1604 NE 50th St. All are welcome. We choose love. (206) 525-7074. universitylutheranseattle.org Plymouth Church United Church of Christ. 10am Workship. 1217 6th Ave. Love your (LGBTQ) neighbor as yourself. (206) 622-4865, plymouthchurchseattle.org outlook. (253) 854-9747.

All Pilgrims Christian Church. 10:30am Worship. 500 Broadway E. Come as you are. All are welcome. A congregation of the Disciples of Christ & the United Church of Christ. (206) 322-0487, www.allpilgrims.org St. Clement’s Episcopal Church. 10:30am Worship. 1501 32nd Ave S. Great music. Dynamic preaching. Holy communion. Encountering the transformative and unconditional love of God in Christ. Join us! www. stclementseattle.org

Seattle Sunday Bowling. 10:30am. West Seattle Bowl, 4505 39th Ave SW (at SW Oregon St). Open bowl every Sunday for the GLBT community & friends. You don’t have to worry about how you bowl! $6.50 + $3 shoe rental. (425) 785-4729.

Welcome Table Christian Church. 9:45am Meditation; 10:30am Worship; Labyrinth 2nd Sundays 1-4pm. 1322 S Bayview St. Where people of all genders and sexualities, and families of all shapes & sizes are welcome and celebrated. A welcoming and affirming community since 1987. welcometablecc.org

Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church Seattle. 11am Worship. Chapel at University Temple United Methodist Church, 1415 NE 43rd St. Seattle’s oldest Gay-friendly church. (206) 325-2421, www. mccseattle.org.

Lotus Sisters Guided Meditation. 11am-1:30pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Meets 2nd Sunday each month. Senior students lead the meditation, provide dharma talks or reflections & lead discussion. (206) 329-5908; www.LotusSisters.org. (Meets in 2nd floor meeting room; no elevator.)

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Meditation for GBT Men. 11am-1pm. Cal Anderson House, 400 Broadway. Suitable for beginning & experienced meditators. Sponsored by Dharma Buddies. Contact Forrest Rode, (206) 920-6117, or Doug Allison, doug.l.allison@gmail.com. Find us under “Dharma Buddies” under Meetup.com or DharmaBuddies.org. (Women may wish to contact our sister meditation group at www.LotusSisters.org.)

2018 Capital City Pride: “Live. Love. Be.” Pre-parade 11am-12 noon, Capitol Building. Pride Parade 12 noon1pm (step-off at Capitol Building, north on Capitol Way, left onto Legion Way, left onto Water St, ends at Heritage Park). Pride Festival 1-6pm, Heritage Park. Wrap-up Party and Drag Show, 9pm-2am, Jake’s On 4th, 311 E 4th Ave. Events all weekend long. For details visit www. capitalcitypride.net

St Paul’s Episcopal Church. 11:15am (also 7:30am, 9am, 5pm). 15 W Roy St. We are an accepting, progressive, Anglo-Catholic parish, renewing its people for their Christian lives in today’s world through worship, spiritual formation, engagement in the arts, and acts of compassion. www.stpaulseattle.com

Just for Today (NA). 12 noon-1:15pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Sunday. Drop-in 12-step Narcotics Anonymous group open to anyone in recovery. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org

New Beginnings (SLAA). 12 noon-1pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E #201, O’Neil Room. MEETS DAILY (except Saturday). Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous is a 12-step/12- tradition-oriented fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope to overcome sex and love patterns of addiction. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org

Paths to Recovery Al-Anon Family Group. 12 noon1:30pm. Seattle University Student Center, 901 12th Ave, Room 122. Every Sunday. LGBTQ supported. The Al-Anon Family Groups are a fellowship of relatives & friends of alcoholics who share their experience, strength & hope in order to solve their common problems. We believe alcoholism is a family illness & that changed attitudes can aid recovery. Greater Seattle AIS 24-hour number (206) 625-0000; www.seattle-al-anon.org

Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Green Lake Walk. 12 noon-1pm. 7201 E Green Lake Dr. N. Every Sunday..(See related listing Saturday at noon for details.) Sponsored by Generations Aging With Pride. No Safeword Writers Group. 1pm. See website for location. Meets 2nd & 4th Sunday each month. NSWG exists to provide mutual support for members’ efforts. For info & location, www.nosafewordwritersgroup.org

Orca Swim Team Workout. Sun: Afternoon; Mon/ Weds/Fri: Evenings; Tues/Thurs: Mornings. Seattle University, Redhawk Center, 14th Ave & E Cherry St. Pre-registration required. Orca Swim Team workouts are for both competitive & recreational swimmers. www. orcaswimteam.org

Rain City Soccer Club - Kickabout. Sunday afternoon usually at 3pm. Location varies. Join us for Seattle’s mostly-weekly mostly-LGBTQ pickup soccer game. To sign up visit www.raincitysoccer.org Dignity/Seattle. 6pm-Prayer Service. Ravenna United Methodist Church, 5751 33rd Ave NE. Meets 2nd Sunday each month. Dignity/Seattle is the local chapter of the nationwide organization of GLBT Roman Catholics. “We celebrate our inherent dignity with pride in liturgy, mutual support, work for justice, & social activities.” Gender-inclusive & relationship-affirming liturgies & prayer services. All welcome. (206) 325-7314.

Shame to Grace (SAA). 6-7:30pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Sunday. Sex Addicts Anonymous is a fellowship of men & women who share their experience, strength & hope with each other so they may overcome their sexual addiction & help others recover from sexual addiction or dependency. Seattle SAA helpline (206) 237-8828, SAA International Service Organization 1-800-477-8191. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org Integrity/Puget Sound. 7pm Worship & Fellowship. St. Mark’s Cathedral, Thomson Chapel, 1245 10th Ave E. Integrity is an international ministry of Gay & Lesbian Episcopalians, their friends & families, dedicated to education, support & service within the Church & the GLBT community. (425) 226-2746.

Trans Masculine Dance - “Falling Short.” 8pm. (See Saturday, June 9.)

Noche Latina - Latino Night. 10pm. Neighbours, 1509 Broadway. Every Sunday.

MONDAY - June 11

Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Volunteer Park Walk. 12 noon-1pm. 14th Ave E & E Prospect St. Every Monday starting 3/26 - Come Rain or Shine! - Meet at Black Sun sculpture across from museum. Hot coffee and beautiful Rainbow umbrellas to use “just in case.” For info, call (206) 393-3400;. Sponsored by Generations Aging With Pride.

SLAA New Beginnings: 12 Steps of SLAA. 12-1pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201, in the O’Neill Room. Every Monday. SLAA step-study meeting starting with Step One in “A Gentle Path.” The meeting is open to anyone interested in doing 12-step work. No matter

where you are in the steps, or if you haven’t begun, feel free to join us. Books, paper, and pens provided. You need only bring your willingness to grow!

SOBER On Meds. 1-2pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Monday. 12-step group open to anyone in recovery & living on a medicine regimen. (206) 3222437; www.sasgcc.org

Strength Over Speed (SOS). 2-3:30pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Peer support for Gay and Bisexual men recovering from crystal meth addiction. www. strengthoverspeed.org. (206) 322-2437.

Orca Swim Team Workout. Evening. Seattle University, Redhawk Center, 14th Ave & E Cherry St. (See Sunday afternoon listing.)

Freely Speaking Toastmasters. 7pm. Seattle Unity Church, 200 8th Ave N. Every Monday (except holidays & the last Mondays in August & December). Seattle’s only LGBT speaking club. www.FreelySpeaking.org

PFLAG/Seattle Monthly Meeting. 7-9pm. Seattle First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Ave. Meets 2nd Monday each month. (206) 325-7724 or info@pflagseattle.org; www.pflagseattle.org. PFLAG is the national organization for parents, families, allies, and LGBTQ people united for equality.

PFLAG/Skagit County Monthly Meeting. 7pm. Skagit Valley Food Co-op Bldg, Room 309, 202 South 1st St., Mt. Vernon. Meets 2nd Monday each month. Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays is a national support organization for parents, spouses, & families of GLBT persons, as well as those minorities. PFLAG/Puget Sound: (206) 325-7724.

Trans Youth Group. 7-8:30pm. Lambert House, 1818 15th Ave. Every Monday. A chance for youth to talk with others about their experiences & concerns related to identifying as Transgender. www.lamberthouse.org

Lambert House Art Night. 7:30-9:30pm. 1818 15th Ave. Every Monday. Bring your ideas & let’s have some fun. (206) 322-2515, www.lamberthouse.org

Destiny/Unity AA Meeting in Tacoma 7:30-8:30pm. Christ Episcopal Church, 310 N “K” St, Tacoma. Every Monday. LGBTQ-friendly AA meeting. (253) 474-8897. (Also meets Fridays.)

Washington Gender Alliance Support Group Meeting in Shoreline 7:30pm. Center for Human Services, 17018 15th Ave NE, Shoreline. Every Monday. www. washingtongenderalliance.com

TUESDAY - June 12

Orca Swim Team Workout. Morning. Seattle University, Redhawk Center, 14th Ave & E Cherry St. (See Sunday afternoon listing.)

LGBTQ+ Group. 1:15-2:15pm. Orion Center, 1828 Yale Ave. Every Tuesday. A group for LGBTQ youth ages 13-24 & their allies. Sponsored by Youthcare. (206) 622-5555.

Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Alki Beach Walk. 2-3pm. 61st Ave SW & Alki Ave SW. Tuesday starting 3/27 - Come Rain or Shine! - Meet at Statue of Liberty statue. Hot coffee and beautiful Rainbow umbrellas to use “just in case.” For info, call ((206) 393-3400;. Wheelchair-friendly walk. Sponsored by Generations Aging With Pride.

LGBTQ Questioning & Allied Youth Drop-in Group in Renton 6-8pm. Renton Area Youth Services (RAYS), 1025 S 3rd St, Renton. Every Tuesday. Confidential. Snacks provided. Bring friends or come alone - anyone 12-18 is welcome. Questions? Call Sarah Hardin, (425) 271-5600 ext 155, or email sarahh@rays.org Strength Over Speed (SOS). 6-7:30pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Peer support for Gay and Bisexual men recovering from crystal meth addiction. www. strengthoverspeed.org. (206) 322-2437.

ALISS - Aging Lesbians in South Seattle Evening Gathering. 6:30-8pm. Southeast Seattle Senior Center, 4655 S Holly St, Rainier Ave S & S Holly St., Social Hall. Meets 2nd & 4th Tuesday each month. This is a group primarily for Lesbians but all are welcome to attend. Facilitator: Fai Coffin; Cost: FREE. Metro route 7. Wheelchair accessible. Kate, (206) 722-0317; www.sessc.org. Alzheimer’s Association’s LGBT Caregivers’ Support Group. 6:30-8pm. Home Street Bank, 7307 Greenwood Ave N. Meets 2nd Tuesday each month. A free information and support group for care partners, family members and friends of individuals with dementia. Please contact group facilitator Mandi Gunderson, (206) 471-2352 prior to attending.

Diverse Harmony. 6:30-9pm. Seattle First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Ave. Every Tuesday. Diverse Harmony is the nation’s first Gay/Straight Alliance Youth Chorus. Youths ages 13-22 are welcome regardless of sexual orientation. www.diverseharmony.org

LGBTQ MS Connection/National MS Society. 6:308pm. Swedish Conference Center, Cherry Hill Campus, James Tower, 550 17th Avenue, Room E, 1st Floor. Meets 2nd & 4th Tuesday each month. MS Connection is a support group with the goal of providing a safe environment for the LGBT community to express their experiences and the impact of MS on their lives and the lives of their loved ones, as well as provide support for one another. Contact Shelly at (206) 250-5002 or LGBTMSConnection@gmail.com.

Seattle Tennis Alliance Summer Social Doubles. 5-8pm. Lower Woodland Tennis Courts, 5773 W Green Lake Way N. Most Tuesdays & Thursdays. Courts #5, 6, 7 & 8. June-August. Weather permitting. Pre-pay online if possible. seattletennisalliance.org

GLSEN/WA - Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network - (206) 330-2099; www.glsenwa.org

Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA) - (206) 363-9188; www.thegsba.org

HIV/AIDS Program, Seattle/King County Dept of Public Health, provides confidential/anonymous information about & testing for HIV/AIDS. (206) 205-7837. For a comprehensive list of HIV/AIDS service organizations see the GSBA Guide or visit www.thegsba.org or call Lifelong AIDS Alliance, (206) 328-8979. Imperial Sovereign Court of Seattle & the Olympic & Rainier Empire - www.facebook.com/ISCSORE; www. imperialcourtofseattle.com

Lambert House - (206) 322-2515; www.lamberthouse. org

LGBT Library - 517 E Pike St. Open Mon-Fri 2-8pm; Sat 2-5pm. A wide range of fiction and non-fiction for the LGBT community and allies can be borrowed free of charge.

LGBT MS Connection - (206) 250-5002; LGBTMSConnection@gmail.com. Support group for LGBT persons with MS and their partners and their caregivers. Sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Lifelong AIDS Alliance - (206) 328-8979, www.lifelongaids alliance.org Lion’s Main Art Collective - www.lionsmain.org MEN: Gay City: (206) 860-6969, www.gaycity.org; Knights of Mantra: (206) 329-0886, www.jetchapterkofm.com; Mature Friends: Gay men & women 40 & over, www.maturefriends.org; Northwest Bears: www. nwbears.com; The Olympians: www.TheOlympians. net; POZSeattle: www.pozseattle.com; Q-Squared: www.qsquared.org; Rain City Jacks: www.raincityjacks. org; Seattle Gay Couples: www. seattlegaycouples.org; Seattle Men in Leather: www.seattlemeninleather. org; Seattle Prime Timers: Gay & Bi men 40 & over, www. seattle primetimers.org; Tacoma Older LGBT: www. tacomaolderlgbt.org. (See also listings under Bisexual, Parenthood, People of Color, Transgender.)

MUSIC: Diverse Harmony: www.diverseharmony. org; Rainbow City Band: 1-866-841-9139 ext 2126; rainbowcityband@onebox.com; www.rainbowcity band. com; Seattle Men’s Chorus and Seattle Women’s Chorus: (206) 388-1408, (206) 323-0750. www.seattlechoruses.org.

Northwest Lesbian & Gay History Museum Project - gayhistnw@aol.com

Northwest Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf - www. nwrad.org

Olympia/Thurston County - www.RainbowCenterOly. org

Out & Equal Workplace Advocates/Seattle Regional Affiliate supports the work of LGBT employees and the growing number of ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) making a difference within local companies, including Alaska Airlines, Amazon.com, Amgen, AT&T, Bank of America, Deloitte, Macy’s, Microsoft, Russell Investments, Safeco Insurance, Starbucks Coffee, Xerox. www.outandequal.org/affiliates/seattle Out & Proud Grays Harbor Coalition - http://outandproudgh.org

PARENTHOOD: Families Like Ours provides a gateway for LGBT families interested in adoption & provides a network of safe placement agencies, training, support & resources: (206) 441-7602, www.familieslikeours. org; Family Works offers support, information & activities for LGBT families: (206) 694-6727, www.familyworksseattle. org; Gay Fathers’ Association of Seattle offers support groups & social activities: www.gfas. org; Proud & Loud Families - Northwest, www.meetup.com/proudand-loud-families-northwest, plfnorthwest@aol.com; Queer Parent Networking Dinners: (206) 568-7777, qpnd@nwnetwork.org, www.nwnetwork.org; Rainbow Families of Puget Sound: www.rainbowfamiliesps.org PFLAG is the national organization for parents, families, allies, and LGBTQ people united for equality with chapters in Seattle, Bellevue/Eastside, the Puget Sound region and across Washington state. PFLAG Seattle: (206) 325-7724, info@pflagseattle.org, and www.pflagseattle.org; PFLAG Bellevue/Eastside: (425) 483-6642, info@bellevue-pflag.org, http://community. pflag.org/PFLAGBellevue; PFLAG Pacific Northwest: www.pnwpflag.org; PFLAG Washington State: www. pflagwsc.org.

PEOPLE OF COLOR: AARTH (African American Reach & Teach Health Ministry), (206) 850-2070, www.aarth.org; Asian/Pacific Islander Queer Network Program at API Chaya, (206) 467-9976; Center for MultiCultural Health, (206) 461-6910, www.multiculturalhealth.org; Entre Hermanos, GLBT Latinos/as, (206) 322-7700, www.entrehermanos.org; Ile LaiLai, (206) 781-3565, iya@ilelailai.org; Men of All Colors & Cultures Together (MACCT), (206) 923-8313, macctseattle@yahoo.com, www.macctsea.org; Northwest Two Spirit Society, https://www.facebook.com/ groups/nw2spiritsociety/, Nubian Pride Productions, nubianpride@gmail.com; People of Color Against AIDS Network (POCAAN) offers rapid HIV testing, M-F, 10am-5pm, (206) 322-7061, www.pocaan.org and on Facebook; QBASS - Queer Black Alliance of the South Sound, (253) 256-1846, weareqbass@gmail. com; Sistah 2 Sistah, LBT women of African descent, (206) 322-7061, (206) 255-8951; Somos Seattle, somosseattle.org; Trikone-Northwest, GLBT South Asians, (425) 985-4376, www.trikonenw.org; Two-Spirit Honor Project, 1-866-685-0164; U.T.O.P.I.A. Seattle, www.utopiaseattlewa.org; VietQ Greater Seattle, vietqorganization@gmail.com Pierce County AIDS Foundation - (253) 383-2565; www.piercecountyaids.org

Pride Foundation - (206) 323-3318; www.pridefoundation. org

Project NEON is a program of Seattle Counseling Service providing FREE information & services to Gay

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& Bi men to reduce health risks associated with methamphetamine use. (206) 323-1768. www.crystalneon.org

Public Health-Seattle & King County Online Comprehensive Health Information for Sexual Minorities: www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/personal/ glbt.aspx

Q Law: The GLBT Bar Association of WA - (206) 682-6711; www.q-law.org

Q Law GLBT Legal Clinic - (206) 235-7235. Queer Geek! - queergeekseattle.org

Rainbow Center - Resource Center for Tacoma/Pierce County LGBTIQA community. Through education, advocacy and celebration, the Rainbow Center expands resources, and safe space for the LGBTQIA community. Sponsors Tacoma Pride Festival. (253) 383-2318, www. rainbowcntr.org

Safe Schools Coalition - www.safeschoolscoalition. org; (206) 451-SAFE; (206) 451-7233. SEAMEC interviews, researches & rates candidates for public office on issues of concern to the LGBT community. www.voteseamec.org

Seattle Area Support Groups & Community Center (SASG) is a non-profit organization that builds community and cultivates powerful, healthy lives by providing emotional support and personal development services to those affected by HIV/AIDS, the Queer communities, and those who love them. Our work is done in a spirit of safety, trust, inclusiveness, and celebration of individual differences. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org

Seattle Bisexual Women’s Network - BiSeattle.wixsite. com/SBWN and on Facebook.

Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities is a community mental health service for GLBT persons & their families providing comprehensive mental health services on a sliding scale. (206) 323-1768.

Seattle LGBTQ Commission - (206) 684-4503. www/ seattle.gov/lgbtq Seattle Out & Proud - (206) 322-9561; www.seattlepride.org

Seattle Police Department Sexual Minorities Community Advisory Council: kim.bogucki@seattle.gov

Seattle PrideFest - www.seattlepridefest.org

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network - (202) 328-3244; www.sldn.org

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, The Abbey of St. Joan - (206) 860-3666; www.theabbey.org

Snohomish Health District HIV/AIDS Program provides free confidential/anonymous HIV counseling &

testing 9am-5pm Monday-Friday, until 7pm Tuesdays. (425) 339-5298.

South Sound Q Calendar - LGBTQ events in Tacoma, Olympia & Sound Puget Sound area; www.SouthSoundQCal.com Spokane/Inland Northwest - www.outspokane.com; www.stonewallnews.net

SPORTS & RECREATION: Bent Car Guys: www. bentcarguys.org; Border Riders Motorcycle Club: www.borderriders.com; Bottom Dwellers Scuba Club: www.bottomdwellers.org; Capitol Hill Cyclers: join their Facebook group or email capitolhillcycling@ groups.facebook.com or jordan.l.simonson@gmail.com; Cascade Flag Football: www.cascadeflagfootball.org; Cascade Flyers: www.cascadeflyers.org; Emerald City Mudhen Rugby: www.mudhenrugby.com; Emerald City Softball Association: www.emeraldcitysoftball. org, www.eteamz.com/womensecsa; Ethyl Forever Car Club: ethylforever@hotmail.com; Festival of the Babes: www.festivalofthebabes.com; Olympic Yacht Club: www.oycnw.org; OutVentures: outdoor education & recreation activities, www.outventures.org; Pacific Northwest Gay Rodeo Association: www.pacificnwgra.org; Puddletown Squares: www.puddletownsquares.org; Rain City Soccer: www.raincitysoccer.org; Rain Country Dance Association: a country-western dance organization catering to the LGBTQ community but open to all, www.raincountrydance.org; Sea Dawgs: LGBT ice hockey - SkateSeaDawgs@gmail.com and on Facebook; Seattle Frontrunners: www.seattlefrontrunners.org; Seattle Gay Basketball Association: www. seattlegaybasketballassociation.com; Seattle Orca Swim Team: www.orcaswimteam.org; Seattle Otters Water Polo: www.otterpolo.com; Seattle Quake Rugby: www.quakerugby.com; Seattle Tennis Alliance: www. seattletennisalliance.org; Seattle Unified Bowling Association (SUBA): magee98106@aol.com, www. teamseattle.org/bowling.htm, www.theprideleague. com, Century 21 League; Seattle Volleyball Club: www.seattlevolleyballclub.com; Ski Buddies: www. skibuddies.org; Team Seattle Gay Sports Network is an umbrella organization for a wide range of local GLBT sports activities, (206) 367-4064, www.teamseattle.org (see website for comprehensive list of sports clubs); Triangle Recreation Camp at Bender Creek: recreational camping for GLBT folks. Must be 21; ID required. trc@ camptrc.org, www.camptrc.org, 1122 E Pike St #1069, Seattle 98122-3934. Strength Over Speed - www.strengthoverspeed.org Tacoma/Pierce County - Rainbow Center, 2215 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, a resource center for the LGBTIQA

community of Pierce County, (253) 383-2318, www. rainbowcntr.org TRANSGENDER: Emerald City Social Club: (425) 827-9494; Gender Alliance of the South Sound: www.SouthSoundGender.com; Gender Diversity: www.genderdiversity.org; Gender Justice League: www.genderjusticeleague.org; Gender Odyssey: www.genderodyssey.com; Hermanos Trans Latino & Foreign-Born Support Group: (206) 322-7700; Ingersoll Gender Center: (206) 329-6651, www. ingersollcenter.org; Lion’s Main Art Collective: www. lionsmain.org; The New BoyZ Club: www.olympiaftmgroup.webs.com; Olympia Trans Discussion Group: www.facebook.com/pages/Olympia-Trans-DiscussionGroup/262449878114; [trans] ACTION: Trans* & Gender Non-Conforming Sex Workers’ Support Group - a safe, peer-led space. mail@utopiaseattle.org; TRANSform Washington: transformwashington.com; Trans Resource & Referral Guide: kctransguide.org; Washington Gender Alliance: (360) 445-2411, www. washington genderalliance.com

WOMEN: Aging Ballard Lesbian Exchange (A.B.L.E.): We are Lesbians 60 years (generally) and up, living (mostly) in the north half of Seattle. The purpose of the group is to connect, socialize and support each other. ruthemilyvogel@gmail.com; Aging Lesbians in South Seattle (ALISS) - Lesbian Group at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center. This is a gathering primarily for Lesbians but all are welcome to attend. Kate, (206) 722-0317; www.sessc.org; BABES: support groups for HIV+ women. (206) 720-5566, 1-888-292-1912; Coming Out Women Support Group of Tacoma: www. comingoutwomen.org; Festival of the Babes: www. festivalofthebabes.com; Mature Friends: Gay men & women 40 & over, www.maturefriends.org; Puget Sound Old Lesbian Organizing for Change: http:// psoloc.org, (253) 777-3357; Older Lesbians Organizing for Change/WA State Chapter: gloria@oloc.org, mary@oloc.org, www.oloc.org; Pacific Northwest Lesbian Archives: www.pnwlesbianarchives.org; RainshadowWomen: RainshadowWomen@aol. com; Seattle Bisexual Women’s Network: BiSeattle. wixsite.com/SBWN; Seattle Girls of Leather: www. sgol.org; Tacoma Lesbian Concern (TLC): www.tacomalesbianconcern.org; Tacoma Older LGBT: www. tacomaolderlgbt.org; Women of West Seattle (WOWS): a fun, member-driven social group for Lesbians, http:// groups.yahoo.com/group/womenofwestseattle; YWCA Women’s Health Outreach: providing low or no-cost mammograms for income eligible 40+ LBTQ individuals. Follow us at http://lbtqhealth-ywca.blogspot.com, twitter.com/ingridWHO or email lbthealth@ywcaworks. org, (206) 461-4493. (See also listings under Bisexual, Parenthood, People of Color, Transgender.) YOUTH: B-GLAD (Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Trans & Questioning Adolescent Drop-In Group): Youth Eastside Services offers many programs for GLBT youth, including B-GLAD, (425) 747-4937; Coyote Central: www.coyotecentral.org; Diverse Harmony: www.diverseharmony. org; GLSEN/Washington State (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) & Washington State GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) Network: GLSEN works to create safe schools for LGBT students. WA GSA Network supports youth-led GSA’s to fight harassment & homophobia in Washington state schools. (206) 330-2099; www.glsenwa. org; www.wagsa.org. GLOBE (GLBTQ Loving Ourselves, Becoming Empowered): a support group & HIV/STD prevention program for GLBTQ youth, 14-20, in Everett, (425) 263-2908, www. globeyouth.org; It Gets Better Project: www.itgetsbetter.org; Lambert House: an activities & resource center for LGBT youth, 14-22, in Seattle, 1818 15th Ave @ E Denny Way; (206) 322-2515, www.lamberthouse.org; Lifelong HEYO (Health Education Youth Outreach): for LGBTQ youth, ages 16-24: (206) 957-1665; www. llaa.org/HEYO; www.MatthewsPlace.com; The Mockingbird Society: (206) 323-KIDS (5437), www.mockingbirdsociety.org; Oasis Youth Center: for GLBTQ youth, ages 14-25, in Tacoma, (253) 671-2838, www. oasisyouthcenter.org; OUT There Adventures: www. outthereadventures.org; Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG)/Puget Sound: (206) 3257724, www.seattle-pflag.org; Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets (PSKS) Drop-In Center & Young Adult Shelter: 1609 19th Ave @ E Pine St., (206) 7268500; www.psks.org; Pizza Klatch: weekly lunchtime support groups for LGBTQ youth in Thurston County, www.pizzaklatch.org; Prism: for LGBTQ youth, 14-21, in Puyallup - Cherise.Alexander@ multicare.org; www. facebook.com/PuyallupPrism; Proud Out Wonderful (POW!): for LGBTQ youth, 13-21, in South King County, (206) 326-9112, www.facebook.com/proudoutwonderful; Q Youth Resources: in Kitsap County - (360) 698-3335; www.kchaf.org; Renton Area Youth Services (RAYS): LGBTQ, questioning and allied youth drop-in group, ages 12-18 - Sarah Hardin, (425) 271-5600, ext 155; sarahh@rays.org; Roots Young Adult Shelter: 1415 NE 43rd St., (206) 632-1635; www.rootsinfo.org; Safe Schools Coalition: www.safeschoolscoalition.org; (206) 451-SAFE, (206) 451-7233 (non-emergency), 1-877-SAFE-SAFE (1-877-723-3723) (crisis line); Seattle Young People’s Project (Queer Youth Resource Board): (206) 860-9606, www.sypp.org; Street Youth Ministries (SYM): (206) 524-7301 ext 111; www. streetyouthministries.org; Teen Link: (206) 461-4922, 1-888-431-TEEN; The Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor; www.thetrevorproject.org; True Colors - Connecting LGBTQ Teens: in Shoreline, (206) 362-7282 x 8018, lbagley@chs-nw.org; Vista Youth Center: for LGBTQ, questioning and allied youth, ages 14-21, in Kennewick, (509) 396-5198, www.vistayouthcenter.org; YouthCare/ Isis Program (Transitional Living Home for LGBTQ Young Adults, 18-22): (206) 522-8412; YouthCare/ Orion Center Young Adult Shelter: 1828 Yale Ave @ Stewart St. (206) 622-5555; Youth in Focus: (206) 723-1479; www.youthinfocus.org; Youth Suicide Prevention Program (OUTLoud-GLBTQ): (206) 297-5922, ext 116, 1-800-273-TALK, www.yspp.org