The Stranger back issues from March 2008:
PUBLIC EDITOR
Mar 06, 2008; ... Every issue of The Stranger is a Chinese puzzle box of ironies, but this particular issue finds the aforementioned box also baked inside a casserole of hypocrisy. Our menagerie of pickled hipsters has somehow managed to slap together a package called "The Young Ones." Let me see if I can fully ...
I, ANONYMOUS
Mar 06, 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. THIS CUNT IS ...
IN OTHER NEWS
Mar 06, 2008; ... SEXY NEWS ITEM Amazon.com has fired another employee for discussing their work with The Stranger. Arielle Davis, 20, who was named "Seattle's Sexiest Customer Service Rep" in The Stranger's February 14 issue, was fired from her job as a receptionist-contracted through an employment ...
Sound Move
Mar 06, 2008; ... Sound Transit Heading Toward 2008 Light Rail Measure 1. A majority of the Sound Transit board now appears to be leaning toward a vote on a transit-only ballot measure in 2008. Sound Transit's 18-member board has until March 29 to decide if it wants to put a transit ...
Badge of Dishonor
Mar 06, 2008; ... Liberal Seattle Companies Giving Money to Antigay Boy Scouts of America Several of the largest employers in Seattle-such as Boeing, Alaska Airlines, and Microsoft-are giving thousands of dollars of support to an antigay group. While the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) aren't as loud about ...
Are the Terrorists Right?
Mar 06, 2008; ... Snohomish County Arson Destroys McMansions Sometime before dawn on Monday, March 3, arsonists struck five "green" single-family homes at Quinn's Crossing, a wooded subdivision in unincorporated Snohomish County, burning down three of the houses and damaging the other two. A sign at the ...
EIGHT BANDS TO WATCH IN 2008
Mar 06, 2008; ... Last year, The Stranger highlighted a handful of up-and-coming bands, acts to watch in the coming year, and dubbed them the Young Ones. Since then, all these groups have achieved international fame and unbridled financial success-Bow + Arrow even bought a yacht. Seriously, though, most of them ...
The State of Video Art
Mar 06, 2008; ... The State of Video Art It's Not About Video Takeshi Murata's spectacular Monster Movie is the unmistakable star of the show up now at Western Bridge. To make the four-minute-long piece, Murata digitally tore up a few seconds from the 1981 B movie Caveman using tools that allow ...
TRANSCENDENT
Mar 06, 2008; ... TRANSCENDENT People passing by the big windows at Open Satellite in Bellevue while Hilary Wilder was creating her exhibition applauded. They applauded a contemporary artist. The New York-based Wilder was, after all, painting soaring Turneresque landscapes on the walls-a flashy ...
CRIMINALLY NEGLECTED
Mar 06, 2008; ... CONSTANT READER Some of the best fiction of the 20th century is crime fiction. Jim Thompson, Patricia Highsmith, and Dashiell Hammett don't stylistically have much in common with each other, but they share a nihilistic sensibility that says more about what it was like to be alive in the ...
Reefer Madness
Mar 06, 2008; ... Reefer Madness RK Productions at Live Girls! Theater Through March 22. Are weed jokes still funny? I mean, is it funny to talk about "the munchies" and forgetting stuff and ... are there any other ones? Because I can tell you that, as a 25-year-old lady who's not ...
THE PARTY THAT WASN'T
Mar 06, 2008; ... THEATER NEWS Last Thursday evening, 10 strangers idled in room 816 of Hotel Max, waiting for the show to begin. Performer Lori Dillon encouraged the strangers to rummage through the hotel-room drawers, read text taped to the walls, and mix themselves drinks from the minibar. One young ...
R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)
Mar 06, 2008; ... R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) Open Circle Theater at Theater Schmeater Through March 22. The concept at the center of Karel Capek's 1921 play R.U.R. is radical even for this age of DNA and cloning: that love is an independent substance, and that it will persist even ...
IN THE FACE OF CAKE
Mar 06, 2008; ... BAR EXAM B&O Espresso has been on the corner of Belmont Avenue and Olive Way for 30-plus years, but the tiny bar installed inside is only five years old. A little-known fact: Officially, it's called the Belmont Lounge at B&O Espresso. Another: The "B" and the "O" stand for the ...
Changing While Staying the Same
Mar 06, 2008; ... Changing While Staying the Same La Côte Crêperie and a Very French Déjà Vu If you ever went to Saint-Germain, the tiny and delicious French place in Madison Valley, then going to La Côte, its successor in that tiny space, is strange. Saint-Germain served open-faced sandwiches ...
PRAISE THE PIG
Mar 06, 2008; ... EAT & TELL I spent the last month in the Philippines where, on a daily basis, I ate all manner and part of pig-the face, chopped and served sizzling with fresh chilis and lime; an ear, slow-roasted over a fire; the lungs, braised in vinegar; the skin, deep-fried and served piping ...
The Imaginary Invalid
Mar 06, 2008; ... A Frenzy of Acting Reefer, Robots, and Molière The Imaginary Invalid Seattle Repertory Theatre Through March 22. In the winter of 1673, Molière collapsed onstage while playing Argan, the main character in his last play, The Imaginary Invalid. Argan is a ...
CHOW BIO: SALOME ISKENDR
Mar 06, 2008; ... SALOME ISKENDR Manager, Baguette Box 1203 Pine St, 332-0220. What makes food-service work more enjoyable than other careers you've had? While I was earning my MBA at the University of Southern California, I worked in a restaurant to support myself. Then I got a ...
FUCKING IN THE STREETS
Mar 06, 2008; ... FUCKING IN THE STREETS HOLY FUCK @ CHOP SUEY, 2/26/08 Chop Suey was dark, smoky, and crowded last Tuesday, the air thick with lingering fog from opening act A Place to Bury Strangers' disappointingly quiet, strobe-lit (and fog-machine-assisted) set of gothic shoegaze. Headlining ...
IT'S A HIT
Mar 06, 2008; ... IT'S A HIT SINGLES, REMIXES & MP3s Missy Elliott "Ching-a-Ling" (Atlantic) In which Missy repeats herself big time: The spoken intro's bald rewrite of "Pass That Dutch," the cod-dancehall "This is a Missy Elliott exclusive" utterances, the Michael ...
Alopecia
Mar 06, 2008; ... WHY? Alopecia (Anticon) **** Few lyricists-outside of perhaps the realm of black metal-are as obsessively morbid as Why? songwriter Yoni Wolf. Probably none are as self-conscious about it. From opener "The Vowels, Pt. 2," which has him "fuming his own fake death" ...
White Magic
Mar 06, 2008; ... SORCERER White Magic (Tirk) ***1/2 The formula is as righteous as airbrushed custom vans and slip-on checkerboard Vans: Take '80s dance-floor pop, spliff it out with downtempo-beat aesthetics, and burnish with cosmic-disco synthery. The result is sensual, tacky, ...
FabricLive 38
Mar 06, 2008; ... CRAZE FabricLive 38 (Fabric) ** You'd figure a fast-cutting DJ mix that crams 27 rapid-tempo songs into 67 unbroken minutes would have some drive to it. Some of the time, you'd be right. But for the most part, this Fabric mix, helmed by longtime Miami hiphop jock ...
Stephin Merritt
Mar 06, 2008; ... DAVID SCHMADER INTERROGATES HIMSELF ABOUT HIS FREAKISH INABILITY TO INTERROGATE MASTERMIND BEHIND THE MAGNETIC FIELDS, FUTURE BIBLE HEROES, THE 6THS, AND THE GOTHIC ARCHIES This week's Interrogation was supposed to be an interview with Stephin Merritt. It didn't go so well. The last time ...
HIPHOP YA DON'T STOP
Mar 06, 2008; ... MY PHILOSOPHY A continent of millions couldn't hold him back! Our guy Macklemore is back home from Europe and rarin' to give you his all at Nectar come March 8, Seatown. Really it's an all-around helluva bill-also appearing are JFK of Grayskul, the Physics, and Wizdom (featuring Grynch) ....
VOGELISMS
Mar 06, 2008; ... UNDERAGE Scott Vogel, the lead singer of bombastic L.A. hardcore band Terror, is infamously expressive onstage, constantly egging on the boiling mosh pits at their shows to go as fucking nuts as possible. Adrenaline pumping through his body, Vogel ends up saying some pretty hilarious ...
The Counterfeiters
Mar 06, 2008; ... The Counterfeiters dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky As a Holocaust story, the Oscar-winning Austrian film The Counterfeiters is a little too entertaining. It even has, unlike most movies of its kind, a happy ending. But it is based on a true story: how the Nazis ran the largest ...
The Bank Job
Mar 06, 2008; ... The Bank Job dir. Roger Oonaldson It's hard not to lower your expectations for a film about a bank job called The Bank Job. Like David Mamet's heist film Heist before it, Job tries to lull viewers into a state of B-movie complacency. The first thing onscreen is a pair of naked ...
KRIS MOON HEADS FOR THE HILLS
Mar 06, 2008; ... BUG IN THE BASSBIN Through a twist of fate, Seattle techno fans owe a huge debt to Top 40 hiphop. For much of the last decade, local techno notable Kris Moon has made ends meet DJing for the masses at Fremont's Ballroom, using the free time from that job to indulge his electronic ...
MAYOR'S ARTS AWARDS
Mar 06, 2008; ... THE SCORE Emblazoned with a commanding "NOMINATE," a Day-Glo yellow postcard shot through my mail slot recently. The postcard exhorts readers to nominate artists "making a difference in Seattle's communities through arts and culture" for a Mayor's Arts Award. Most of the winners ...
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Mar 06, 2008; ... On Screen This Week's New Releases Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day dir. Bharat Nalluri On your desk, is there a Cathy coffee mug filled with peanut M&M's? If so, you will love, love, love Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, a doublewhammy period-costume ...
WHY SEIWERATH QUIT
Mar 06, 2008; ... CONCESSIONS As far as I can tell, Michael Seiwerath is the nicest person in Seattle. Anonymous Slog commenters think so ("Michael Seiwerath should get a key to the city"). Northwest Film Forum board members think so ("God, I love Michael!"). Even random friends I happened to be chatting ...
I (Love) Television(TM)
Mar 06, 2008; ... I (Love) Television(TM) Liar!! Before we address the topic that you're probably a goddamn liar, let's make quick mention of three shows you should watch this week: (1) The Wire series flnale (HBO, Sun March 9, 9 pm). This show is kind of like Battlestar Galactica for ...
THE STATE BEDROOM
Mar 06, 2008; ... By now you've probably considered where your presidential candidate of choice stands on all the important issues, and what he or she would be like in the Oval Office. But have you considered this important question: What would they be like in bed? Because I think what someone is like sexually ...
SONICS DEATH WATCH
Mar 06, 2008; ... Vol. VIII Whenever LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony come to town, I am happy to see local folks wearing their jerseys. I respect other people's basketball passions, even if they are vaguely treasonous. But whenever Kobe Bryant comes to town, my stomach burns with hate. So last week when ...
PUBLIC EDITOR
Mar 13, 2008; ... News of a feature story by CHARLES MUDEDE normally sends me sprinting to the nearest alehouse. Better to lubricate-or better still, obliterate-the senses before descending into whatever bog of tripe The Stranger's chief pseudointellectual dishes out. Inebriation doesn't just help soothe the ...
I, ANONYMOUS
Mar 13, 2008; ... To submit an unsigned confession or accusation go to forums, thestrangercom. 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. YOUR BONG IS GONE ...
BANKRUPT THE BIAW
Mar 13, 2008; ... OLY INTEL If the Democrats in Olympia won't take on the archconservative Building Industry Association of Washington (the cowering Democratic house leadership snuffed important homebuyers' protection legislation at the BIAW's request last week), Democratic voters should step up and take ...
Green Thumbs Down?
Mar 13, 2008; ... The Sierra Club Might Sabotage Light-Rail Expansion Again After the Sierra Club finished helping kill the roads and transit measure last fall, they immediately met with Sound Transit staff to kiss and make up. Sierra Club local chapter chair Mike O'Brien assured Sound Transit that if the ...
In Other NEIGHBORHOODS
Mar 13, 2008; ... MADISON VALLEY: A teacher working over the weekend at Seattle's private Valley School discovered 40 strange metal discs-covered with cartoon characters and bar codes-scattered across the school's playground. According to the school's director, Barry Wright, the discs-which he describes as "heavy ...
The Veepstakes
Mar 13, 2008; ... What's Behind the Vice-Presidential Talk So Hillary Clinton wants Barack Obama to be her vice president. Isn't that nice of her to offer? Never mind, as Obama pointed out on March 10 in Mississippi, that he has won twice as many states as Clinton, leads her in the popular vote, and is ...
Land Grab
Mar 13, 2008; ... Parks vs. Nonprofits in City Squabble All over the city, dozens of pieces of city-owned land sit unused or "underutilized." Some will be sold on the private market; others will be sold to another city department, to be turned into open space or used for some other government ...
No Experience Necessary
Mar 13, 2008; ... City Cuts Vet SPD Watchdog A key member of the city council's police oversight panelthe Office of Professional Accountability Review Board (OPARB)-has been asked by Council Member Tim Burgess to step down and reinterview for her position, potentially jeopardizing the city's efforts to ...
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT
Mar 13, 2008; ... IN THE HALL Mayor Greg Nickels has put one of his top guns, senior legal adviser Regina LaBelle, in charge of pushing his proposed "311" customer-service hotline-a sign, some council staffers speculate, that he's making it his do-or-die priority in the runup to the 2009 ...
THE HOUSE ON QUEEN ANNE AVENUE
Mar 13, 2008; ... It's modern. It's award-winning. It's hated by its neighbors. In the prosperous and cozy section of Queen Anne Avenue North between West McGraw Street and West Smith Street, one house stands out. It's called Sterling Residence. It's three stories high, white, modern, belted by a ...
The Boy Mike Experience!
Mar 13, 2008; ... Some legends are small. Some are not. And some throw things at people. Long ago, when Seattle was Seattle and not just Microsoft Annex B, Boy Mike roamed the night. Some say Boy Mike came from the sea, like Godzilla or Aphrodite or something fabulous in between-and some say that it was ...
Rome in a Day
Mar 13, 2008; ... Rome in a Day Ten Things to Know About Its Art The latest blockbuster at Seattle Art Museum is an anomaly: 50 tons of Roman art from the Louvre, much of which has never before been moved from its final resting place in Paris. The Louvre put it on the road in order to raise money ....
A GLASS MUSEUM
Mar 13, 2008; ... IN ART NEWS All the Museum of Glass really needed was some glass. Okay, that's not entirely fair. The Museum of Glass, formerly known as the Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art, always had glass. The two best shows in its six years of existence have been ...
ALL MEMOIRS ARE BULLSHIT
Mar 13, 2008; ... CONSTANT READER Misha Defonseca, apparently, is not a survivor of the Holocaust. And it turns out she didn't walk hundreds of miles by herself from Europe to the Ukraine when she was between the ages of 7 and 11, as she wrote in Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years. And she didn't ...
Waylaid by Weirdness
Mar 13, 2008; ... On Q&As, Pop-Tarts, and Asian Porn Stars A lot of great things happen at readings, enough to make it more than worth my while to step up to the mic. I like hearing that someone loved my book-it made them laugh, cry, whatever. One guy even told me that he read my first novel, Waylaid, ...
Authenticity Be Damned
Mar 13, 2008; ... Authenticity Be Damned Zayda Buddy's Mostly Midwestern Comfort Food "This isn't authentic," my friend from Wisconsin said, about the green-bean hot-dish appetizer ($4.95) at Zayda Buddy's, a newish venture by Joel Radin, one of the folks behind Top Pot and Bauhaus. His latest ...
LIKE MAGIC: OCHO
Mar 13, 2008; ... BAR EXAM Ocho's only been open in Ballard for a month and a half, but word of the Ten Dollar Margarita has already spread far and wide. If you ask Will-the bartender/ server/master of ceremonies and possibly the nicest man in America-why this drink is already so beloved, he'll just smile ...
A PERPETUAL JOINT OF CORNED BEEF
Mar 13, 2008; ... EAT & TELL Corned beef, a quintessential Irish dish served by all sorts of folks for St. Patrick's Day dinner, takes its name from the grains of coarse salt ("the corns") used in curing and brining the slabs of brisket. According to my beloved Penguin Companion to Food (the most ...
CHOW BIO
Mar 13, 2008; ... SARAH WEEKS Server, barista, line cook Chaco Canyon Cafe 4757 12th Ave NE, 522-6966. What thrills you about working here? That you can actually get healthy food here, and that our dedication to healthy vegetarian/vegan living is exhibited in every aspect ...
THE HAPPIEST HOUR
Mar 13, 2008; ... SHOWBOX SODO 1700 First Ave S, 628-3151. Description: Showbox Sodo is a full-scale rock arena, replete with bare cement floors, big-screen TVs, and blazing fluorescent lights, while its adjacent bar lounge features an intimate floor-level stage and a delightfully gaudy ...
Vague Against the Machine
Mar 13, 2008; ... Talbot Tagora's Radical Mumble Talbot Tagora seem perpetually out of place-as a band, on a stage, in a club, in Seattle, even just in general. They don't look like much of a rock band, even by punk standards. They wear plain jeans, flannels, and generic, monochromatic ...
MEGAN SELING INTERROGATES Jason Finn
Mar 13, 2008; ... DRUMMER FOR THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA So, you're in the Presidents of the United States of America. Right. My popular, twice Grammy-nominated musical group. Were you embarrassed by the name when Bush came into office? That's an interesting way ...
YOUNG ONES HIGHLIGHTS
Mar 13, 2008; ... FUCKING IN THE STREETS Some highlights of the March 6 Stranger Young Ones showcase, a benefit for Real Change: * Sleepy Eyes of Death's wall of light and sound (and fog). With their man Alejandro running the boards at Neumo's, these guys sounded nothing short of massive, their ...
SINGLES, REMIXES & MP3S
Mar 13, 2008; ... IT'S A HIT SINGLES, REMIXES & MP3S Flex "Te Quiero" (EMI Televisa) Forget Vampire Weekend: Nowhere in current pop is there as deep a minefield of cross-cultural appropriation than the lousy-voiced young Latin pop singer behind this trifle, which made ...
Sun Giant
Mar 13, 2008; ... FLEET FOXES Sun Giant (Sub Pop) **** People often say that a band is a breath of fresh air, but rarely does a band actually sound like one. Fleet Foxes are the clean, crisp inhale you can only find outside of the city, high up in a mountain field, or along a ...
Innocent Youths
Mar 13, 2008; ... EARTH, ROOTS ANDWATER Innocent Youths (Light in the Attic) **1/2 Earth, Roots and Water were the house band for Toronto's Summer Records, the reggae label already spotlighted by last year's Summer Records Anthology 1974-1988. This addition to Light in the Attic's ...
Devotion
Mar 13, 2008; ... BEACHHOUSE Devotion (Carpark) *** Beach House are the Baltimore duo of singer/organist Victoria Legrand and guitarist/keyboardist Alex Scally. Together, they create spare, gorgeous pop songs that are as picturesque as they are desolate, like longvacant versions of ...
HIPHOP YA DON'T STOP
Mar 13, 2008; ... MY PHILOSOPHY Yes yes y'all. Seattle hiphop just continues to seep out into the national consciousness like an unexpected Olestra emergency-only better! Peep this month's XXi. magazine, where Stranger music editor Eric Grandy gets his Gucci carpetbag on, using a review of Lupe Fiasco's ...
HUNGER, THE OPERA
Mar 13, 2008; ... THE SCORE "Number three. Can we try number three?" Tom Baker poses the question while leading a rehearsal for his latest "operatorio," Hunger-the Journey of Tamsen Donner. The Seattle composer and guitarist gives a quiet count and the musicians begin. A clarinet burbles quietly. As wire ...
NEW FACES, THE 2008 SOUND OFF! CHAMPIONS
Mar 13, 2008; ... UNDERAGE Congratulations to New Faces! On March 1, the Port Townsend trio were crowned champions of Sound Off!, EMP's annual underage battle of the bands, beating out the almost 200 bands who submitted demos. After a month of tournamentstyle battles, the field of 12 semifinalists ...