The Stranger back issues from January 2008:
IN OTHER NEWS
Jan 03, 2008; ... SUDDENLY, THIS ODD LAWSUIT SEEMS GERMANE A 58-year-old former zookeeper is suing the Woodland Park Zoo for discrimination. According to court documents, Ellen Leach-a 23-year employee of the Woodland Park Zoo-claims she was terminated in 2004 after an on-the-job injury left her ...
Burning Rubber
Jan 03, 2008; ... Toxic Emissions Roll Over South Seattle On December 18, the city council approved legislation protecting industrial lands from encroaching commercial development in South Seattle's manufacturing corridor. It was a controversial decision, but given the facts on the ground it seemed to ...
I (Love) Television(TM)
Jan 03, 2008; ... I (Love) Television(TM) Who Needs Writers? There are two great things about this current, seemingly endless writers' strike: I end up watching shows I'd never watch in a bazillion years (That's So Raven is not half bad!), and TV networks are getting so desperate for content ...
BAR EXAM
Jan 03, 2008; ... THE BAR THAT WASN'T An overpriced cocktail on the top floor of a downtown hotel sounded just right the other night, but the place wasn't there. The hotel hadn't gone missing-trfere it sat, that inevitable concrete block at Sixth Avenue and Madison Street with Renaissance in the name and ...
Bellevue Beats Seattle
Jan 03, 2008; ... A Tale of Two City Halls In November, the Seattle chapter of the American Institute of Architects made the most amazing announcement: One of the winners of the 2007 Honor Awards for Washington Architecture was a building in Bellevue. How could this be? A building with architectural value ...
THE HAPPIEST HOUR
Jan 03, 2008; ... Viceroy 2332 Second Ave, 956-8423. Description: A swanky Belltown lounge, accented with upscale '70s-style furnishings. Scene: In the early evening, a charming mix of unwinding businessmen and incoherent locals; by night, swarms of Belltown's gussied-up ...
EAT & TELL
Jan 03, 2008; ... FOOD LANG SYNE There are as many traditional New Year's meals as there are cultures in the world, and these dishes are all eaten with the belief that they'll promote prosperity, life, and luck. While I am slightly distressed by the very popular and very literal tradition of burying coins ...
Little People
Jan 03, 2008; ... Little People A Children's Play for Grown-Up Tokers Jersey Boys 5th Avenue Theatre Through Jan 12. Jersey Boys is a buffed and shiny thing, an entertainment machine greased with pomade whose engine hums in four-part harmony. Every component of this jukebox ...
A History of Users
Jan 03, 2008; ... A History of Users Clark Humphrey's Short Book of Facts BY CHARLES MUDEDE Seattle's Belltown by Clark Humphrey (Arcadia) $19.99. As with the hundreds of other titles in the Images of America series (celebrating "the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country"), ...
No Exit
Jan 03, 2008; ... No Exit Slow Food at the Thomas Street Bistro There is something fundamentally sad about a bad restaurant, especially one where the people who toil there-from the overworked chef to the hapless waiter-are trying so hard. Perhaps it provokes a realization of the failures we often ...
Why Britney Matters
Jan 03, 2008; ... And Why 'Blackout' Is the Most Underappreciated Smash Album of 2007 It's Britney, bitch. That's the opening to the first single released from Blackout, Britney Spears's sex and drugs masterpiece (though the drugs aren't in the lyrics and "masterpiece" is a bit of a stretch). I'm ...
BAND OF THE WEEK
Jan 03, 2008; ... BEESTINGS Local quartet Beestings draw upon years of Northwest indie and Midwest emo tradition, evoking Sharks Keep Moving (and their descendents Minus the Bear), the subtler moments of Braid, or early Promise Ring. There's even a trace of Doug Martsch's optimist harmonies in there ...
POSTER OF THE WEEK
Jan 03, 2008; ... A British psychologist recently calculated that January 24 is the most depressing day of the year. This entire month has traditionally been a sort of black hole in the world of music and, consequently, a terrible time for the rock poster. This one makes my eyes ...
DRUNK OF THE WEEK
Jan 03, 2008; ... SCREW YOU, POUTINE Don't get me wrong, the poutine at Smith on 15th Avenue is pretty frickin' delicious. But it's got nothing, sorry, NOTHING on the real deal-the centuries-old traditional crinkle fries and brown gravy served in a big-ass giant cup-that they serve at all restaurants in ...
THE SCORE
Jan 03, 2008; ... NEW YEAR'S READING Although the web teems with blogs and online forums devoted to experimental music, print magazines still offer the most compelling and thorough coverage of the scene. Two publications remain essential: The Wire, published monthly in London, as well as the ...
MY PHILOSOPHY
Jan 03, 2008; ... MY PHILOSOPHY HIPHOPYA DON'T STOP So this is the New Year. Hope you didn't go OT with those Lemon Drops (what up Neema!). If it were a person, I wonder what kind of resolutions local hiphop would make? Less EGO would be my number one-and naturally that applies to me as well. Yes, ...
UNDERAGE
Jan 03, 2008; ... UNDERAGE THE LASHES When the Lashes took the stage this past year at Bumbershoot, the huge crowd of teens and twentysomethings were pressed into each other like the discarded pieces of ABC gum on the wall at Pike Place Market, but that didn't keep fans from screaming, cheering, ...
PARTY CRASHER
Jan 03, 2008; ... PARTY CRASHER I'M GONNA CALL YOUR MOM, MOTHERFUCKER! Upon my arriving at "the Bowie Room" and introducing myself, a fellow named Jonathan quips, "You're from The Stranger! I feel like I need to get really drunk now to give you something to write about." I tell him to go for it ....
BUG IN THE BASSBIN
Jan 03, 2008; ... POLITELY UNLEASHING THE CLAWS I'm writing this from a cramped airplane seat, so I'm not in my usual perky headspace. Instead of wasting my vitriol, I'm channeling it into a rare Rooneyesque moment to discuss some things that need to die. "OMFGBESTALBUMEVER" There's ...
FUCKING IN THE STREETS
Jan 03, 2008; ... GETTING WITH THE PROGRAM Two weeks ago, the Program sold out all five nights of its run at Neumo's, a coup not only for Blue Scholars or Mass Line but for all of Northwest hiphop. That's 4,000 people, which is like three sold-out nights at the Showbox, or two at the Showbox Sodo. That's ...
There Will Be Blood
Jan 03, 2008; ... On Screen This Week's New Releases There Will Be Blood dir. Paul Thomas Anderson For the first 15 or so minutes of There Will Be Blood, the only dialogue heard is a whispered "there she is ... there she is." The "she" in question is a hint of silver discovered at ...
The Orphanage
Jan 03, 2008; ... The Orphanage dir. Juan Antonio Bayona I really don't get the whole concept of ghosts. I mean, why are ghosts supposedly so mad all the time? Isn't a ghost just somebody's grandpa? My grandpa was a Norwegian carpenter named Ole who smoked a pipe and ate licorice all day. Why ...
He Was a Quiet Man
Jan 03, 2008; ... He Was a Quiet Man dir. Frank Cappello An ungainly movie about an unsympathetic office drone named Bob (Christian Slater), He Was a Quiet Man expends considerable energy illustrate ing Bob's grimy, hateful, misogynist world and absolutely none critiquing it. Unless a comb-over ...
Elliptic and Unbridled: The Early Films of Béla Tarr
Jan 03, 2008; ... Elliptic and Unbridled: The Early Films of Béla Tarr Starts Tues Jan 8 at Northwest Film Forum It's all about reality. From the beginning to the end, the real is what matters in Bela Tarr's early films: the realities of family life, the realities of a friendship, the ...
CONCESSIONS
Jan 03, 2008; ... YOUTUBE ON POLIO MEDS In 12 hours I have to board a plane to Paris, France. Which is awkward, because 24 hours ago I was stricken with tuberculosis. Or polio. Or whatever kind of disease makes your head feel like a water balloon filled with boiling pudding and your lungs feel like a ...
Lead Pipes
Jan 03, 2008; ... NewHolly Kept in Dark About Alarming Report In 2006, when homeowners at the Seattle Housing Authority's NewHolly development requested an investigation from SHA into hotwater pipes that were leaking into their walls and causing water damage, SHA responded that it was already working on ...
PUBLIC EDITOR
Jan 03, 2008; ... With the New Year comes new opportunity. A clean slate, as it were, a chance for redemption from past ills. For most people it is a time for resolutions, those paper-thin promises we make as a fresh 365 arrives, mere words used to trick ourselves into believing we will be better people in the ...
I, ANONYMOUS
Jan 03, 2008; ... To submit an unsigned confession or accusation go to forums. thestranger.com. Please remember to change the names of the innocent and guilty. One submission will be published in the paper every week, but all submissions to I, Anonymous can be read at www.thestranger.com. KNOCKED UP AND ...
15TH MINUTE
Jan 03, 2008; ... The Stranger kicks off every January by identifying local trends and people we think will be toast in the coming months. Our powers of precognition were pretty uncanny last time out. We predicted bad endings for David Delia, the Sonics deal in Olympia, state GOP chair Diane Tebelius, and ...
A DEATH IN EDMONDS
Jan 03, 2008; ... Last New Year's Eve, Danielle McCarthy took ecstasy for the first time with some friends. The Puyallup teenager died on New Year's Day. The State of Washington has charged McCarthy Is friends in her death. But what if the drugs didn't kill McCarthy? Danielle McCarthy was like a lot of ...
PUBLIC EDITOR
Jan 10, 2008; ... Now that 2008 has arrived, the usual election-year hysteria is building. Democracy is supposedly on the march. That overwhelming wave of pandering and dim insights that runs across America every four years has come again, like some unwelcome high tide that forces me to pull my martini glass out ...
I, ANONYMOUS
Jan 10, 2008; ... To submit an unsigned confession or accusation go to forums. thestranger.com. Please remember to change the names of the innocent and guilty. One submission will be published in the paper every week, but all submissions to I, Anonymous can be read at www.thestranger.com. IDENTITY THEFT ...
Closing Time
Jan 10, 2008; ... Condo Development Stops the Clock on Ballard's 24-Hour Corner Ballard's 24-Hour Corner is no more. The corner where you could once buy a Bloody Mary to go with your pancakes, get a burger topped with beet relish, and bowl a round at four, five, or six in the morning, is about to change, ...
OLY INTEL
Jan 10, 2008; ... THE DEMOCRATIC CATCH-22 AGENDA Washington State's Democrats decided to tread cautiously in Olympia in 2007, not wanting to risk losing the supermajority they had just won in November 2006. The mandate came down from the leadership (instead of the Democratic voters): no new taxes, no ...
Hidmo Hit
Jan 10, 2008; ... Neighborhood at Odds with Eritrean Restaurant A small Central District restaurant is quickly becoming notorious with neighbors for shootings, late-night fights, loud music, and drug deals. The neighborhood has called in the cavalry, in the form of the city attorney's office and the ...
In Other NEIGHBORHOODS
Jan 10, 2008; ... BALLARD: For several months, residents of a quiet Ballard street have been plagued by poop. On Northwest 58th Street-between 22nd and 20th avenues-nearly a dozen large piles of turds dot the parking strips and sidewalks, and there's ample evidence of dookie, now marked by smeared shoe prints ...
from SLOG
Jan 10, 2008; ... POLITICS KUOW's Pot Shot Posted by DAN SAVAGE on JANUARY 7 This morning, I caught a "news" report on KUOW. The Marijuana Policy Review Panel (MPRP), a task force created by voters to track the impact of 1-75, a law passed by Seattle voters that made marijuana the police ...
IN OTHER NEWS
Jan 10, 2008; ... POT ARRESTS The panel of drug-policy leaders tasked with evaluating the effects of 1-75, the 2003 initiative making possession of marijuana the lowest law-enforcement priority for Seattle police, issued its final report this week. The good news: Marijuana arrests dropped by 40 ...
Left Behind
Jan 10, 2008; ... Barack Obama Thought He'd Ditched Hillary Clinton in Iowa. Turns Out He Only Ditched Me. (ProQuest: ... denotes text missing in the original.) 3:00 a.m., January 2: Let Me Off I WAS ON THE WRONG BUS. Worse, I had no idea where exactly I was. I knew what the travel ...
Why I'm Glad Hillary's Still In It
Jan 10, 2008; ... Obama Pays Lip Service to Good Ideas, But Doesn't Follow Through I was thrilled to see Hillary Clinton taking the lead in New Hampshire Tuesday night, and not-as you might think-just because she's a woman ("Hillary Clinton Has a Vagina and So Do I," by Erica C. Barnett, October 30). It's ...
The Church of Obama
Jan 10, 2008; ... How He Recast the Language of Black Liberation Theology into a Winning Creed for Middle-of-the-Road White Voters At the University of Chicago Law School, famous for its faculty of conservative jurists, like Antonin Scalia, now a Supreme Court justice, Barack Obama, senior lecturer in ...
THEATER NEWS
Jan 10, 2008; ... FLIP OUT Moby Dick is too big to be a play. It is as America is: huge, multivalent, funny, pseudoscientific, bombastic, tragic, and not terribly interested in women. (Sorry, Hillary: It's not you, it's us.) Its 135 chapters are like citizens or waves-each a small, independent thing ...
Julius Caesar
Jan 10, 2008; ... Comedy, Tragedy Actually Funny Improv and a Disappointing Julius Caesar Seattle Shakespeare Company Through Jan 27. The goal of audience participation, one assumes, is to make the audience care-to keep its brains awake, even if the butts attached to them ...
Dart-Mondo
Jan 10, 2008; ... Historic University Theater Through March 15. It is hard to get anyone to go with you to see standup and improv in the University District at midnight-thirty on a weekend night; no, it's not hard, it's impossible. A friend who's usually game for theater stuff declined in favor of ...
CONSTANT READER
Jan 10, 2008; ... THE SPIT OF DESTINY Before Richard Ford's most recent novel, the one about a Ford-like idiot trying to comprehend a world that's passed him by, there was A Multitude of Sins, a book of short stories wherein Ford-like idiots are trying to deal with the aftermath of ill-advised ...
Marrow Worship
Jan 10, 2008; ... Marrow Worship Sampling Animal Ambrosia Around Seattle Marrow is a contradictory food-brutish but genteel, fatty but healthful, nearly flavorless but somehow richer than anything you've ever put in your mouth. Some smear the hot, buttery stuff on sandwiches, others mix it into ...
BAR EXAM
Jan 10, 2008; ... 'MOBY DICK' AT THE MECCA ''This be 'Fluke'?" inquires a man entering the depths of the bar at the Mecca on Sunday afternoon. (It eventually emerges that he is a librarian.) Outside it is sunny, with gutters dripping from a just-finished downpour; inside, as always, it is dark and ...
THE HAPPIEST HOUR
Jan 10, 2008; ... Maharaja Cuisine of India 720 E Pike St, 320-0334. Region: Capitol Hill Description: Maharaja consists of two opposing realms-the front restaurant contains flowery pastel upholstery and low-light chandeliers, while the back bar features ominous black walls and a ...
EAT & TELL
Jan 10, 2008; ... HOW TO BOIL WATER In 2008, I resolve to eat more leftovers. Or at least to have more leftovers. I am a habitual plate cleaner/food vacuum and, whether I'm cooking at home or eating out, my tendency is to eat eat eat until I am completely stuffed, usually leaving no morsel behind. This ...
The Lonesome, Crowded East
Jan 10, 2008; ... After 15 Years of the Old Fire House, the Eastside Is Still Important Proving Ground It's a rainy Wednesday night in Issaquah. I arrive at an average-looking house off the downtown drag and make my way around to the side door, following my ears. The small basement, half of which is a ...
Catching 'The Cool'
Jan 10, 2008; ... Catching 'The Cool' Lupe Fiasco's Second Album Reaches for the Profound Lupe Fiasco Fri Jan 11, Showbox at the Market, 8 pm, $22.50 adv/$25 DOS, all ages. Only two albums in and the Lupe Fiasco apologists are already stepping up. With the release of The Cool, ...
FUCKING IN THE STREETS
Jan 10, 2008; ... UNSCREWING THE CROC When the Crocodile Cafe shut down last month, a lot of people were left in the lurch, nobody more so than the club's suddenly out-of-work employees. Sure, bands and fans had to relocate shows, but at least they had other clubs and booking agents eager to help pick up ...
IT'S A HIT
Jan 10, 2008; ... SPECIAL ALL-KANYE EDITION "Flashing Lights" by Kanye West ft. Dwele (Roc-a-Fella) "Stronger," Graduation's first single, was slow-mo Euro-techno sourced from the most beloved group in the style. It was also a bit turgid, though that hasn't stopped it from ...
MY PHILOSOPHY
Jan 10, 2008; ... HIPHOPYA DON'T STOP Wanna know why there're no rap songs about how great wintertime in Seattle is? 'Cause it fucking sucks. I'm on my second cold in as marly weeks, holla! Anyway Abyssinian Creole-Khingz and Gabriel Teodros-are headlining a bill o' that live shit over at Neumo's ...
Made of Bricks
Jan 10, 2008; ... KATE NASH Made of Bricks (Interscope) ** Kate Nash is the heir apparent, or the version 2.0, of fleeting British-music-tabloid darling Lily Allen (it depends on whether you liken the British pop-music system more to a royal family or a plannedobsolescence assembly ...
5 Star Stunna
Jan 10, 2008; ... BIRDMAN 5 Star Stunna (Motown / Universal) * 1/2 Last year's Birdman/Lil Wayne collaboration, Like Father Like Son, seemed like a powerful capping of Cash Money's past as well as a look ahead into Wayne's iridescent future-an impression strengthened by Birdman's ...
Overpowered
Jan 10, 2008; ... RÓISÍN MURPHY Overpowered (EMI) *** The problem with going solo is that it ruins everything. The original sound-expanding, in-band creative tensions are lost, and you end up with some sad, low-key, acoustic, parallel-world version of something you used to like ....
THE SCORE
Jan 10, 2008; ... QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME For the latest installment of Town Hall's TownMusic series, cellist Joshua Roman has scrapped the standard notion of a classical concert. Instead, he's assembled a compelling program that mixes rock and classical without watering down either genre. At ...
DRUNK OF THE WEEK
Jan 10, 2008; ... TOIVO THE SNOWPLOW DRIVER What da ya do after a long day a-plowin' all da snow off da roads, den gettin' da kids off t'bed? Ya go down tada bowlin' alley ta meet your wife's brudder and drink some beers and then get ta braggin' aboat dat six-pointer you shot dis past deer season on ...
UNDERAGE
Jan 10, 2008; ... YOUR LIFE DOESN'T SUCK I hate it just as much as you do, trust me: The fact that you're under 21, the fact that you can't get into any bar in the city without a fake ID, and the fact that there's no place in the city to get a decent fake ID. You're fucked until your 21st birthday, ...
BUG IN THE BASSBIN
Jan 10, 2008; ... MORE ELECTRO, RETRO, HOUSE, AND TECHNO Usually the beginning of the year is a wasteland, with promoters and clubgoers taking a few weeks to recover from NYE and time with family. Not so this year, as 2008 maintains the momentum with which 2007 closed. The cover to Egyptian ...
PARTY CRASHER
Jan 10, 2008; ... NEW YEAR'S AT THE CLUB After fighting the hordes flocking to Seattle Center for New Year's Eve, I finally make my way to Queen Anne and find the Zadra Apartments. The residents are holding a joint apartment party in which they have all dressed up like the titular gang from the 1970s ...
Billy the Kid
Jan 10, 2008; ... Billy the Kid dir. Jennifer Venditti Billy the Kid is a documentary about 15-year-old Billy Price, an adorable, hollow-chested eccentric who rules the downtown strip of a small town in Maine. If the camera is to be believed, he's cheerily tolerated by his mainstream peers at ...
The Bucket List
Jan 10, 2008; ... The Bucket List dir. Rob Reiner Rob Reiner's latest film stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as grumpy old dying men. The former is billionaire Edward Cole; the latter is trivia-nut mechanic Carter Chambers. Both men have been informed that their final days are upon them, and ...
Honey and Clover
Jan 10, 2008; ... Honey and Clover dir. Masahiro Takada A friend of mine once announced that the world would be a better place if it was run by teenage Japanese girls. I don't know if I agree with that sentiment, but I do know that, in this hypothetical Harajukracy, every movie would be like Honey ...