Seattle Weekly, January 11, 2012

JANUARY 11–17, 2012 I VOLUME 37 I NUMBER 2

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inside » January 11–17, 2012 volume 37

| number 2 » seattleweekly.com

»8

»23

up front 6 NEWS

»27 27 MUSIC

27 | REELWORLD | This Ballard company’s

become a major force in the radio-jingle biz.

THE DAILY WEEKLY | The city argues

28 | DUFF MCKAGAN | Post-Christmas

that videos made by public employees in a public place are private. Also: Belltown as role model, and Central Cinema’s dilemma.

29 | ALLEN STONE | His white-boy soul’s

8 FEATURE

BY MIKE SEELY | When people order a drink

from bartender Murray Stenson, they expect he’ll make the best they’ve ever had. “Nationally, any bar of any measure knows who [he] is,” says one colleague, and Esquire has named him America’s Best Bartender. But Stenson is sheepish about such accolades, and has never abandoned his clock-puncher’s commitment to customer service.

in back 15 THE WEEKLY WIRE 16 ARTS

OPENING NIGHTS | A rarely performed bit of Shakespeare and an unwelcome Tony winner.

19 FILM

more Billy Joel than Marvin Gaye.

30 | REVERB | Why album sales rose

in 2011; Craig Robinson answers our Questionnaire; MK Speed Dial says farewell; Heath Ledger holds a secret; and Carrie Brownstein has Portland figured out.

32 | THE SHORT LIST | Wolves in the Throne Room, the Fucking Eagles, and more.

C hoices...

38 | KARAOKE KORRESPONDENT A low-pressure Fuel.

also

17 | PERFORMANCE 21 | FILM CALENDAR 24 | FEATURED EATS 34 | SEVEN NIGHTS 39 | TOKE SIGNALS 40 | DATEGIRL

ad sections

38 | ALTERNATIVE HEALING 42 | CLASSIFIEDS

THIS WEEK’S ATTRACTIONS

Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, a drunk Kate Winslet, and lost Japanese tourists.

23 FOOD

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24 | FIRST CALL | Artusi’s cocktails

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25 | BOTTOMFEEDER | Bad Albert’s been

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26 | A LITTLE RASKIN | Chefs speak out for healthy eating, but cooking shows should too.

» cover credit

PHOTO BY JOHN KEATLEY COPYRIGHT © 2012 BY SEATTLE WEEKLY, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. ISSN 0898 0845 • SEATTLE WEEKLY IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY SEATTLE WEEKLY, LLC. SEATTLE WEEKLY® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK. • FOUNDED 1976.

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Surf rock in Ballard, bloodshed at Seattle Opera, and slow videos at SAM.

blues in the returns line.

5

news»The Daily Weekly » dispatches from our news blog

Bad Example The rough neighborhood the mayor’s office thinks is a model for crime-fighting.

D

Eric DEvEricks

eputy couldn’t be reached for comment, but Tim Mayor DarGaydos, a pastor at Mars Hill Church ryl Smith and president of the Belltown Business says the Association, explains what the deputy city has a model for mayor is likely talking about. Over cleaning up crime the past few months, Gaydos along downtown’s says he’s been participating Third Avenue. That in monthly meetings with model, he told The Seatrepresentatives from an tle Times recently, array of city departments. is . . . Belltown?

Really?

We’re talking about a neighborhood so renowned for open-air drug dealing that last spring a coffee-shop owner penned a letter to dealEach has talked about ers suggesting a “conwhat it could do to alleviate tainment zone” where Belltown’s crime problem and revitalthey could push their ize its street life. wares in peace—and in one The parks department, for instance, is place. A neighborhood that for creating a new park along Bell Street. “It’s at least two decades has drawn going to bring in a lot more good busicomplaints about crime from nesses, like sidewalk cafes,” Gaydos says. business owners and residents.

City Light has also worked on making Smith contends that somesure streetlights are lit with long-lasting thing has changed over the past bulbs, according to Gaydos. three months. In the Times’ And the police department has stepped paraphrase, “The city has up morning patrols. SPD’s Sean Whitcomb enlisted the business commuconfirms that two extra officers are patrolnity, social-service providers, ling the streets three days a week from 5 to city department 10 a.m., a period in leaders, and the which the department police to address often gets complaints issues in a more about drug dealing. coordinated way.”

“It’s not a big thing,” It’s been quite a Whitcomb says, but print is great. long time since Seattle “arrests are up.”

But if you want to see Weekly had its offices in None of which is video proof of Belltown, so we asked to say that Belltown Belltown’s bad habits, some denizens of the has witnessed a drayou’ll have to check it out on neighborhood whether matic turnaround, The Daily Weekly. a miraculous transGaydos concedes. “If SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM/DAILYWEEKLY formation has indeed you look at where we taken place. were two years ago, it Tim Buckley, prowas like we were on prietor of the bar the five-yard line,” he that shares his last name, gave a common says, comparing progress to a football game. response: laughter. “This is about the worst “Now we’re moving the ball up the field.”

I’ve ever seen it,” he said. “I’ve been broOther apparent locals are less charitable, ken into five times in the last year”—most however. Said one sarcastic commenter, who recently about three months ago, when the identified himself as the owner of a local thieves smashed his windows and grabbed gym: “Thank you, Deputy Mayor, for longerfive cases of liquor. lasting lightbulbs. So sad.” NiNa Shapiro Buckley said he’s seen no improvement since. Indeed, he says, there’s an open invitation for anyone who thinks different to sit The dash-cam video—once rare, now in front of his bar’s bay windows overlookwidespread—creates a new vulnerability for ing Battery Street around 3 in the morning. police officers who go too far. Entered into With the drug dealing and the prostitutes, a court record and made public (or leaked he says, “it’s a jungle.” to the media), videos become the measure Peter Lamb, a partner in Belltown restauby which the average TV and online viewer rant Branzino, doesn’t think it’s that bad. But judges, rightly or wrongly, the Seattle Police he still says the neighborhood is populated Department. Their release is something by “literally dozens and dozens of small-time SPD would prefer to avoid. That seems the drug dealers.” Ditto, says the realtor who likely reason why City Hall is suing James declines to give her name because she sells Egan for asking to see cops on film. properties in Belltown, but who feels unsafe This draconian reaction—being hauled walking around there at night. to court by the government for requesting So if the city hasn’t solved Belltown’s public records—is the work of Seattle City crime problem, how is it a model? Smith

S e at t l e w e e k ly • J a N U a Ry 1 1 − 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

p

6

Dashed Hopes

Attorney Pete Holmes. He says he’s seeking “guidance” from the courts, arguing that a video taken by a public servant in a public place is somehow private information. He says in the lawsuit that the state’s privacy act prevents such videos from becoming public until any litigation surrounding them is concluded.

Egan says that’s hogwash. A Seattle attorney who represents clients suing the police, Egan—making a request available to any average citizen—sought 36 dash-cam videos. He was turned down. Then notice of Holmes’ lawsuit arrived.

“I was floored,” he told KING-TV. Should Holmes prevail, it would take at least three years to obtain the vids—just when the statute of limitations for lawsuits against SPD runs out and when the department routinely erases stored videos. “The idea that you can’t get a video until three years later is self-protectionism. They don’t want the public to know the skeletons in their closets,” Egan says.

Another TV station, KOMO, is already suing the city over failure to release dashcam vids, and that case seems ready-made for Holmes to raise such an issue. But now he has gone to the extra expense of raising it in a whole new case.

“What the police department is saying,” Egan told KOMO, “is if you make a request for public documents, ultimately you will be sued.”

“He’s made a request that puts the city between a rock and a hard place,” Holmes told KIRO, curiously the only station without a dog in the fight. “We have a plain conflict and we simply need direction from the court, both in order to comply with the law and protect the public treasury.”

“It would be comical,” says Egan, “if it weren’t alarming.”

Holmes says it could cost taxpayers “dearly” if he makes the wrong decision.

But of course lawsuits against police officers, based in part on video evidence, can cost dearly too. His anti-disclosure lawsuit comes off like another bad move to protect bad officers, similar to the defiant arrogance of Mayor Mike McGinn and Police Chief John Diaz in the wake of the Justice Department’s recent findings that Seattle cops regularly use excessive force.

“It would be comical,” says Egan, “if it weren’t alarming.” Rick AndeRson

A quirk in Washington liquor laws could force Central Cinema to choose between continuing to serve alcohol and admitting minors. And that could force the Central District theater to shut down, says its owner.

As first reported by the Central District News blog, the state’s liquor control board last month notified the single-screen theater that it was in violation of a rule prohibiting minors from entering a “cinema with a dinner theater” licensed to serve beer, wine, or spirits.

Although Central Cinema has had its license renewed twice since the law was enacted in 2010, the board didn’t broach the issue until the theater applied for a spirits license so it could add cocktails to its menu.

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Booze Blues

Owner Kevin Spitzer was running errands when he took the call. “I was like, ‘You’re going to close us,’ ” he recalls. “For us, it would be devastating. We’re a neighborhood family theater. Talk about taking a big piece of who we are.”

Spitzer stresses that restricting the theater to adults would spell a far greater loss than just the box-office revenue from G-rated movies. The movie house currently functions as a neighborhood gathering place, where kids congregate for weekly cartoon showings, nonprofit Reel Girls stages workshops for teens, and a Christian rock band from a nearby church practices. This December, Central Cinema hosted a community Christmas party, with Earl, the local barber, serving as Santa. A junior-highschool break-dance team also performed.

“It was a fun party and it was packed with families,” Spitzer says.

According to Spitzer, the rule was written in response to Mountlake theater Cinebarre’s license application. Since the board hadn’t before dealt with the booze-and-view model, the state devised a rule prohibiting alcohol sales in movie-theater lobbies and banning minors from theaters with alcohol service.

“Their big fear was that every mall multiplex was going to install beer taps next to the popcorn machine,” Spitzer says.

“They’re worried about a dark room and minors not being supervised.”

Spitzer points out that minors are allowed in similarly dimly lit entertainment venues where adults drink, such as Teatro ZinZanni and The Triple Door. “What’s the big deal with having a screen instead of people onstage?” he asks. “Just because we run a projector instead of an old guy with a banjo doesn’t mean we’re any different.”

The establishments cited by Spitzer are licensed as restaurants, which is how Central Cinema has been classified since 2005.

Spitzer doesn’t want to stop serving beer and wine, which accounts for 30 percent of the theater’s revenue, but wants to avoid being reclassified as a bar, which the theaterspecific rule requires. He’s now working with the board to determine whether Central Cinema could fall under a different category.

“They’re not going to prosecute us as long as we’re working toward becoming compliant, as long as we’re applying for things,” Spitzer says. “I wish I knew how everything was going to work out, but it’s been up in the air for a month and it’s still up in the air.”

Spitzer initially pinned his hopes on rewording the rule or inserting an exception for Central Cinema, but Gov. Chris Gregoire has imposed a year-long moratorium on non-critical rule-making. Yet Brian Smith, spokesman for the liquor control board, suspects the conundrum may still have a legislative solution. “We’re working with the legislature to get some clarity in the 2012 session,” he says, adding that the board would prefer that the legislature fashion a comprehensive liquor policy rather than address appeals on a case-by-case basis. While the board doesn’t receive many liquor-license applications from movie theaters, “We’ve seen more in recent years.”

Central Cinema’s relationship with the board has always been good, says Spitzer, who doesn’t blame the agency for enforcing the law. “They don’t have a problem with how we operate, but they can’t just let it slide because they like us,” he says.

“We’re trying to see what we can work out that keeps us in business and keeps the neighborhood happy.” HAnnA RAskin E

7

At Canon, Stenson (left) and his boss, Boudreau, form the bartending equivalent of Magic and Kareem.

S e at t l e w e e k ly • J a N U a Ry 1 1 − 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

Everybody has a Murray Stenson story. Robert Hess’ goes like this:

8

A self-proclaimed “cocktail evangelist” who works for Microsoft, Hess had been prodded by his drinking buddies to visit Il Bistro, a restaurant in Pike Place Market. In particular, they wanted Hess to test the wiles of a bartender named Murray Stenson.

“I finally got around to ordering an Old Fashioned from Murray,” says Hess of the experience, which occurred in the mid-’90s. “I’m halfway through my drink and my phone rings, and I have to leave.

I didn’t get the chance to tell Murray my name or talk to him at all.

I didn’t get back to Il Bistro for another year. When I ordered my second drink, Murray said, ‘You must like that seat. That’s the same seat you sat in last time.’ He was right: It was the exact same seat. I could remember that, but to have a bartender remember that after thousands of customers, that’s what Murray does.”

[Jamie Boudreau also has a Murray Stenson story. One of the best-known mixologists on the West Coast, Boudreau first stopped into the Zig Zag around the time he moved from his native Vancouver, B.C., to Seattle in 2006. Upon introducing himself to Stenson, who’d moved on from Il Bistro, the latter quoted verbatim a blog post Boudreau had recently written.

“He’s all about hospitality,” says Boudreau, who after stints at Vessel and Tini Bigs now owns Canon, undoubtedly the rookie of the year within Seattle’s 2011 bar ecosystem. “And, of course, there’s his memory.”

There are great memories, and then there is Stenson’s memory. To have any memory at all after 40 years in the bar biz is a feat unto itself. To boast one that features the eidetic attributes of Asperger’s without the nasty side effects defies conventional wisdom.

In early October, Boudreau added Stenson to his crew at Canon, elevating what was already a standout roster of bartenders to the drink-pouring equivalent of Blind Faith. Upon hiring him, Boudreau, widely considered the city’s most talented cocktail craftsman, offered to bar-back for Stenson, exempt him from measuring portions of liquor, and install “a second shit ice machine” to make him feel like he was back at Zig Zag, from which he parted company last spring after a decade-long tenure that put both the bar and Stenson on the mustsip maps of aficionados nationwide.

Three months into his stint at Canon, where the bar is literally painted with bitters, Stenson has made Boudreau second-

guess himself. Not because Stenson has failed to live up to expectations, but because he’s insisted upon conforming—measuring portions for the first time in 25 years and eschewing the familiar ice while working side-by-side, not front-to-back, with Boudreau every Sunday evening, when people regularly line up at Canon’s nondescript front door to secure a seat at the bar, which often fills as soon as it opens. Hence, Boudreau is now considering unloading that second shit machine.

“I’m a team player,” says Stenson of his refusal to exploit Boudreau’s loopholes. “I want to learn.”

Of Stenson’s work ethic, Kacy Fitch, his former boss at Zig Zag, says, “He never took a vacation.” When Fitch offered Stenson the opportunity to skip Friday-night shifts, which by the end of Stenson’s tenure regularly attracted a headache-inducing mob of patrons, Stenson, 62, demurred. “He said, ‘I can work as hard as any of these young guys,’ ” and kept right on working Fridays.

On a recent Sunday at Canon, Stenson is dressed in blue jeans and a button-down shirt, posing quite the casual contrast to Boudreau, a handsome block of a man whose retro finery harkens back to Repeal Day, which is memorialized in framed newspaper clippings on the regal bar’s walls. For booze geeks, seeing this pair work a shift together is tantamount to having seen Hendrix and Jimmy Page jam in a basement club in London. The two couldn’t be more different: While Stenson is heralded for his customer service, knowledge of classic cocktails, and efficiency, Boudreau is known as the

dogmatic, cutting-edge mixologist who refused to pour frou-frou drinks while working at Vessel, a polarizing downtown hooch haven which enjoyed a short but groundbreaking run in the latter half of the aughtnaughts (while the bar’s been closed for more than a year, a reboot is in the offing).

“They are my two favorite bartenders in Seattle,” says Paul Clarke, a regular contributor to Imbibe magazine who maintains a blog called The Cocktail Chronicles. “Jamie is a technical wizard and obsessively detailoriented. Murray is a bartender—there’s a certain flexibility. At Zig Zag, there was an improvisational factor to what he was doing.

But neither of them imposes their will on the other. That’s what makes it work.”

At Canon, one might expect sonatas to dominate the sound system, but Boudreau has shrewdly programmed against type, blaring the likes of Zeppelin and the Stones.

He has been somewhat schizophrenic in describing his vision for the bar, saying in one breath that he “just want[s] it to be a neighborhood bar,” while in the next proclaiming that he’s aspiring to make Canon “one of the nation’s elite bars.” He might ultimately achieve both objectives: The response thus far to Canon’s opening has

ity that so endears him to customers. It’s a demeanor that doesn’t quite square with how celebrated he’s become.

“The more I get to know him,” says Clarke, “the more I realize I don’t really know him.” eated at a window table at Oliver’s, the majestic Mayflower Park Hotel bar which more closely resembles a ballroom than a watering hole, Stenson is instantly recognized by the host as happy hour kicks off. He is svelte and articulate, with short white hair, an elfin face, and a nervous but conversational disposition. After being presented with a small glass carafe of peanuts by a cocktail waitress, Stenson settles on a Negroni, which rivals a Manhattan or beer as his favorite drink to order, if not make.

As a customer, he counts the Wedgwood Broiler among his favorites, although he hops around to the point where he doesn’t have a regular haunt. To Stenson, what makes a great bar is hospitality and comfort, plain and simple. And Oliver’s, where Stenson worked for a spell in the ’70s, has both to burn. (Oliver’s, which opened in 1976, was among the first full-service Washington state bars with windows, which until then had been verboten in all but beerand-wine-only taverns.)

“This bar has a great feel to it,” says Stenson of Oliver’s, among the few bars in town to offer gratis appetizers during happy hour (Bernard’s, also an ideal Stenson destination, is another). “It’s comfortable, and they have good people working.”

Born in the remote northeast Washington town of Colville in 1949, Stenson was 12 when his family moved to Kirkland, which at the time “was really blue-collar— Bellevue’s ghetto,” he says. His father was a schoolteacher and principal, and the Stensons enjoyed what Murray describes as a “lower-middle-class” upbringing, which taught him to be frugal. Hence, Stenson had amassed a comfortable sum of savings when it came time to move out of the family home.

After dropping out of Shoreline Community College, Stenson “somehow never got drafted to Vietnam” and worked as a shoe salesman at JC Penney before moving on to jobs with a door manufacturer and as a Safeway night stocker. Living in a small apartment in Kirkland, he decided to take a summer off. During his sabbatical, he spent the bulk of his time lounging around the complex’s pool. One day, the building owner’s son approached Stenson, who’d never tended bar before, about a gig at Benjamin’s, a Bellevue restaurant he managed. Stenson took him up, and spent a year tending bar before quitting as an act of solidarity when his girlfriend was fired.

After their departure, Stenson drove his girlfriend to an interview at Henry’s Oyster Bar on Capitol Hill. While waiting for her interview to end, Stenson was unexpectedly offered a job, which he accepted. He stayed at Henry’s for a year before moving on to Oliver’s, then to virtually any bar he pleased whenever he got antsy. “There were so many bars that you could give your notice and walk to the next block and get another job,” says Stenson, whose immediate post-Oliver’s gigs included stints at Ray’s Boathouse and Daniel’s Broiler, among a dizzying flurry of others, many long since shuttered.

Of the first half of his career, Stenson says, “That was the disco era, and drugs were pretty prominent. By the mid-’80s, there was a lot of cocaine. But I was a music junkie. It was always like, ‘I can buy coke for $120, or I can go buy $120 worth of vinyl.’ ” Without fail, he chose vinyl. His collection today totals some 6,000 records, many of which

S

“NatioNally, aNy bar of aNy measure kNows who murray steNsoN is.”

» Continued on page 11

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been “way beyond anything I thought it would be,” says Boudreau, who’s had to double his staff to keep up with demand in his 48-capacity space, which can endure up to seven nightly turns.

When people order a drink from Stenson, they hardly ever request something standard, if they request anything at all. Rather, Stenson’s customers typically specify a type of liquor (or not) and expect that he make them the best drink they’ve ever had in their lives. At Canon, such ambiguity is encouraged on the house cocktail menu, with a $10 “Shrouded Roulette” option beckoning customers to “tell us your base spirit and we’ll create a mystery.”

Only for Stenson, who in the ’80s began voraciously consuming every classic cocktail manual he could get his hands on, there are no mysteries. When a patron specifies only a region (Mediterranean) she’d like her cocktail to evoke, Stenson thinks hard for all of three seconds before replying, “OK, got it.”

“Partially, it’s his own damn fault, because he’s such a good sport about it,” says Clarke of customers’ tendency to demand spontaneity with Stenson’s every stir.

Seattleites haven’t been the only ones to ascribe superstar status to Stenson: Both Esquire and New Orleans’ Tales of the Cocktail convention recently named him America’s best bartender.

“Nationally, any bar of any measure knows who Murray Stenson is,” says Andrew Friedman, who owns Liberty and currently chairs the Washington State Bartenders Guild.

“The advent of the cocktail scene made people recognize who the greats were in different cities. For Murray, it’s embarrassing and a pain in the neck, but when he was named Bartender of the Year at Tales of the Cocktail, it was because of years of people whispering about this guy, this groundswell of interest.”

Yet while Stenson takes great pride in being an excellent bartender, his vocational journey differs dramatically from those of young guns like Boudreau, Friedman, and Rob Roy’s Anu Apte, the premier female character of Seattle’s cocktail renaissance.

Stenson fell into bartending absent any premeditation, and after bouncing from bar to bar during the first half of his career, he’s never abandoned the clock-puncher’s humil-

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The Accidental Tourists » FROM PAGE 9 he keeps in a downtown storage unit, as his Queen Anne one-bedroom apartment, which he shares with a longtime girlfriend several years his junior, lacks the capacity for the belongings of a self-avowed “pack rat and huge reader.”

But the coked-out ’80s did do Stenson one favor: They taught him how to utilize types of booze he otherwise might not have.

While working at a since-closed Belltown bar he declines to name, Stenson recalls how the general manager and his cronies would regularly snort their way through the till, to the point where they didn’t have the money to reorder name whiskeys and key supplementary beverages. Hence, Stenson was left to craft passable cocktails with marginal Canadian whiskey and whatever was left

Kentucky-bred with great speed who lacked the stamina to win at the sport’s more prestigious distances. He finished a respectable fifth in the 1980 Longacres Mile as a 3-yearold, and was once trained by the legendary D. Wayne Lukas under the ownership of Dan Agnew, a Clark County resident who went on to be inducted as a breeder in Washington state’s Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

“He was named after a friend of mine named Mike Murray,” says Agnew. “His nickname was the Blur because he was quick and fast and never stayed in one place for very long. He was a fuel salesman in Centralia.” As for the horse, “He was very precocious, very active, and had a real personality. He was always on edge, which was very fortuitous, because he took on the personality of the guy I named him after.”

As for that guy and where he got his nickname, Murray recalls: “I was playing on a

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baseball team with a guy who was a starting guard on the [Washington State University] basketball team. He could outrun me backwards. He was making fun of me running the bases and said, ‘Mur the Blur!’ After college, I became friends with Dan, and he named his horse after me. I went to the paddock before a race, and he tried to bite me. I said, ‘OK, that’s it—I’m putting $100 on his nose to win.’ ” He won.

So has the original Mur the Blur ever been served a drink by the bartender Mur the Blur? “I’m a Cougar, so I did drink a lot,” concedes Murray. But alas, he doubts he’s ever ordered a cocktail from Stenson, with his big-city drinking excursions mostly limited to bars within close proximity of Husky Stadium on Apple Cup Saturdays.

“BY THE MID-’80S, THERE WAS A LOT OF COCAINE. BUT I WAS A MUSIC JUNKIE. IT WAS ALWAYS LIKE, ‘I CAN BUY COKE FOR $120, OR I CAN GO BUY $120 WORTH OF VINYL.’ ” WITHOUT FAIL, HE CHOSE VINYL.

hen people speak of Seattle’s cocktail awakening, their focus inevitably shifts to Vessel, which opened in 2006 next to the 5th Avenue

W

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gathering dust on the shelf, adding a keen sense of kitchen-sink improvisation to his burgeoning knowledge of the classics.

Stenson doesn’t own a car, although he rents a vehicle from Avis twice a month to run high-volume errands. He spent Thanksgiving dining on sushi at Maneki before taking in a screening of The Descendants. A “huge stereo geek,” Stenson collects vintage hi-fi equipment. He has been married twice and has two children. (“I had sex twice; it was great.”) His daughter is a primaryschool teacher in West Seattle, while his son, just out of the Navy, paints houses and goes to Shoreline, his dad’s almost–alma mater.

While working at Daniel’s, a waiter gave Stenson the nickname Mur the Blur, after a well-known local racehorse of the time.

With a record of 9-6-4 in 40 starts and career earnings of $255,110, the thoroughbred Murrtheblurr, according to Emerald Downs spokesman Vince Bruun, was a

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The Accidental Tourists » from pAge 11 Theatre before flaming out in 2010. Boudreau was lured from a prestigious Vancouver, B.C., bar to build Vessel’s drink program, and toward the end of his tenure he hired Apte away from BOKA to join a team that included Keith Waldbauer, now Friedman’s partner at Liberty.

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It was at Vessel where Boudreau and his cohorts would famously refuse to pour cosmopolitans, lemon drops, or shots, thus screwing over legions of intermission tipplers intent on sustaining a buzz through the second half of Grease. “When people would order a cosmo, we would try to steer them toward something different,” says Boudreau.

“We were actively trying to convert people at Vessel. I really think Vessel changed the scene in the city.” “[Vessel] was the first bar to just go for it, to just truly be a cocktail bar,” adds Apte, who bought Rob Roy (formerly Viceroy) in 2009 from Linda Derschang and quickly set to eradicating the Belltown bar’s danceon-the-banquette set. “A lot of people were doing cocktails, but not making that sort of a statement.”

In announcing that he just wants Canon to be a neighborhood bar and touting his beer and wine specials—although it must be said that ordering beer or wine at Canon is akin to rooting for Ray Allen to set screens instead of take jump shots—it’s evident Boudreau no longer finds much use for his hardheadedness of yore. (Clarke considers an interim gig at Tini Bigs, where Boudreau had to make “Dirty Girl Scouts for sorority girls” and “wasn’t in his comfort zone, making foams and gels for people” to have been “probably the best thing that ever happened to [Boudreau].”) After Vessel hit the scene, Boudreau saw bars like Liberty, Spur, Tavern Law, and Licorous, Canon’s predecessor in its 12th Avenue space, “buy better equipment and step up their game.” Since he moved south in 2006, Seattle’s cocktail culture has grown “by leaps and bounds. Now people are happy to put themselves in the bartender’s hands.”

Yet the notion that Seattle traded its flannel and microbrew for ascots and absinthe a mere five years ago is a faulty one. In truth, the foundation for Seattle’s cocktail renaissance was enabled by the ’90s tech boom, compelling suddenly flush youngsters to reach for higher shelves at a pair of Pike Place Market bars: the Zig Zag and Il Bistro. And the man tending those bars just happened to be Stenson.

When Kacy Fitch and Ben Dougherty signed on as bar managers at the Zig Zag Café in 1998, it was a pizzeria which served only beer and wine and had no physical bar area. Fitch and Dougherty were enlisted to build one from scratch. In so doing, they were governed by a simple dictum.

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“We didn’t necessarily build the bar to entice him to work here, but we built the bar always asking, ‘What would Murray do?’ ” says Fitch, who with Dougherty bought the bar outright in 2001 and quickly hired Stenson, who’d been collecting paychecks at Typhoon (which recently reopened as Dulces Bistro) and the Corner Bar (now the Whisky Bar) since ending his decade-long reign at Il Bistro. “The bar was built for bartenders by bartenders—not by architects. Everything is within two or three steps. We wanted to have the most spirits known to mankind.”

Once the bar was constructed, Robert Hess paid the Zig Zag a visit after a bartender at Marco’s told him that Fitch and Dougherty “were cocky, and thought they could make anything,” recalls Hess. At the time, Hess hopped from bar to bar putting bartenders through an infamous three-drink test he knew full well they would fail. He’d first order an Old Fashioned, then ask the bartender to make him a drink of his or her choice, then request an obscure concoction called the Aviation, which called for maraschino liqueur.

“Ben was behind the bar and Kacy was sitting at the bar doing the books,” recalls Hess of his first trip to the Zig Zag. “Ben made a fabulous Old Fashioned”—no small feat in Seattle at the time, when screwdrivers made with fresh-squeezed orange juice were considered exotic—“and for the personal specialty, made me something that was great. For the third drink, I asked for an Aviation. They said, ‘What’s that?’ The next day I stopped by again, and they had a bottle of maraschino liqueur. In 24 hours, they made the effort to track down this bottle that was not stocked in liquor stores in 1998. That’s what clued me in that the Zig Zag was something special. Soon after that, they got Murray on board, and it became even more special.”

“Even if Murray’s drinks were dive-bar swill, he would still be a great bartender,”

says Hess. “It’s not just the fact that he makes great cocktails or has an encyclopedic knowledge of ingredients. When you sit at his bar, you get to know the customers at his bar a lot easier. It kind of creates a magical atmosphere.”

“He gets the most awkward people imaginable to sing like birds and come back,” adds Stenson’s protégé, Zig Zag bartender Erik Hakkinen.

Like Hess, Boudreau, and virtually everyone else who’s been poured a drink by Stenson over the years, Fitch has a story. Only his story doesn’t involve just one anecdote, but rather a long, mutually beneficial relationship cultivated over many years spent “paying tuition over the bar” to Stenson as a customer at Il Bistro. When Fitch and Dougherty started hanging out there, “[Stenson] was the game in town,” recalls Hakkinen. “The Bistro was nuts.”

The tech millionaires were obsessed with scotch, and “Murray had a gajillion scotches,” says Fitch, who notes that Stenson emphasized how important it was, in that pre-puritanical era, to have a flame awaiting smokers even before they’d reach for their cigarettes. “He was a mentor, and he was our master,” says Fitch.

Ultimately, Fitch and Stenson agree that the reason Stenson left the Zig Zag last spring was that the crowds who came to see him had grown too unwieldy.

“Once the hype got out of control,” says Clarke, who cites 2008 as the year all hell started to break loose, “it was like you had tour buses pulling up.”

“The pace last year was unheard-of,” says Hakkinen. “I haven’t seen that in a place this size anywhere, except maybe New York City.”

“It got to the point where it was brutal,” admits Stenson.

After rumors that he’d be manning the bar at RN74 failed to materialize (Stenson was in negotiations to work there, but a shoulder injury knocked the union off course), Stenson did some consulting and traveled to France.

It wasn’t until he started at Canon in October, Fitch says, that the Zig Zag saw business drop off significantly, which nevertheless can be viewed as a snifter half-full.

“People can get a seat and the staff isn’t frazzled,” says Fitch. “The only thing that’s bad about it is the bottom line.” hen Murray Stenson was announced as Bartender of the Year at the July 2010 Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans, one person was conspicuously absent: Murray Stenson. Rather than travel to accept the award himself, he asked Clarke to do it for him.

“He had to work,” explains Clarke, “and any kind of event where Murray is asked to get onstage and accept an award guarantees he won’t be within 1,000 miles of that event.”

Even though he no longer works there, Stenson still drops by the Zig Zag for drinks once or twice a month, often during Thursday “guys’ night out” gatherings organized by a group of high-tech

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“any kind of event where Murray is asked to get onstage and accept an award guarantees he won’t be within 1,000 Miles of that event.”

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workers. On a recent Thursday night, the group planned to show up in tuxedos. Stenson shows up a shade after 5 in anticipation of their arrival. Stationed behind the bar, Hakkinen also expects his mother, who’s spent the bulk of the day at a Wheel of Fortune audition up the road at the Sheraton, to pop in at some point.

Seeing him enter, Hakkinen places a “Reserved” sign in front of the seat Stenson is angling for. Upon sitting at the bar, Stenson wonders why there’s a missing letter on the placard. “It used to say ‘Preserved,’ ” he quips.

As he and Hakkinen set to catching up, a young Asian couple seated nearby recognizes Stenson, then offers to buy him a drink. Stenson thanks them, but declines.

“I’ll take a rain check,” he says, and then orders a pint of Maritime ale.

After his first sip, he’s approached by a waitress who looks like Taylor Swift. She asks Murray if he’s “still allowed in here” before embracing him warmly, then informs him that she’s just moved in with her boyfriend, who’s 12 years her senior. Stenson, whose girlfriend is “basically half [his] age,” offers the opinion that age is of no import, and wishes her the best.

Stenson is renowned for offering belliedup patrons surprise samplers of unfamiliar liquor, a trait Hakkinen has inherited, offering his former cohort a sip of Buffalo Trace whiskey before pulling out a bottle of Stroh, a 160-proof Austrian rum that Stenson accurately describes as tasting “like a butter-rum Life Saver.” While at Il Bistro, Stenson used Stroh as a prop, turning a wine glass upside down, pouring a dollop of the rum on the upturned bottom, and lighting it so customers could ignite their cigars.

“It was a great presentation,” Stenson proclaims, as assured a statement as America’s Best Bartender is ever apt to utter. E

13

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Lunchtime Matinee

Some downtown office workers may feel deterred from merely browsing at SAM because of, well, the ticket price. If there’s not some big marquee show to see (the Gauguin arrives Feb. 9), wandering at random through the galleries doesn’t seem a good value. But for a cost of absolutely nothing, if you have 45 minutes to spare, walk past the ticket desk to the museum’s southwest corner and plunk yourself down on the comfortable leather sofas. There you can watch six videos by Albanian-born artist Adrian Paci (now living in exile in Italy). Though nowhere near so long as, say, Andy Warhol’s Empire, his works are durational—about time and waiting. In Turn On, for instance, a bunch of grizzled Italian villagers sit on what appear to be old church steps, doing nothing in particular.

After a while, gas-powered generators are fired up, and you realize they’re all holding lightbulbs in the gloom, one per man. The bulbs flare against the dusk, and their indifferent faces are cast into glowing detail.

Then Paci, originally trained as a painter, stops down the lens, and the figures fade back into blackness, leaving only a screen full of stars.

(No popcorn allowed.) Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., 654-3100, seattleartmuseum. org. Free. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

fri/1/13 FI LM

East Beats West

Samuel Fuller ’s 1955 House of Bamboo is no

one’s idea of a classic: a wide-screen, luridly Technicolor tale of love and corruption in the pachinko parlors of Tokyo that reeks of grindhouse and Eisenhower–era triumphalism.

Writer/director Fuller went on location in Japan to make the movie, and he never lets you forget it, madly shoehorning as much local color as possible into the action (every other shot seems to feature Fujiyama) while slinging Japanese slang at the slightest provocation: “I used to be your ichi-ban!” somebody screams at American crime boss Robert Ryan. As a celebration of American empire, House of Bamboo is a priori politically incorrect, yet so wide-screen wacky that even the Daily Worker

MUSIC

Endless Wave

It’s been nearly 20 years since Pulp Fiction catapulted Dick Dale back into public consciousness, and more than a decade since his most recent album (2001’s Spacial Disorientation), but the 74-year-old guitar icon still tours relentlessly. It’s no exaggeration to say he invented surf rock—his blend of rockabilly shake with Middle Eastern and European melodies pretty much defines the genre. His breakneck staccato picking technique later influenced a new generation of rock guitarists (Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, etc.), while the punk-rock crowd also embraced him as an early innovator. Dale has hardly strayed stylistically from his roots, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of touch. After 50 years in the music business, he refuses to sign to a label, preaching DIY as a means of survival. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-3599, tractortavern.com. $10. 9 p.m. BRIAN J. BARR COM E DY

Distraction Artists

Just as some veteran comics (e.g., Louis CK, Marc Maron) are discovering the Internet and podcasts, young and hitherto unknown comics are launching from cyberspace to the stage.

Such is the case with Seth Romatelli and Jonathan Larroquette, whose weekly Uhh Yeah Dude podcast is at 300 episodes and counting. Their relaxed demeanor suggests two smart young guys—Larroquette with the beard, Romatelli clean-shaven—sitting in their living room, a decade removed from their dorm room, still trying to make each other laugh. Their riffs often begin with news, trivia, or tabloid staples (Lindsay Lohan, Matthew McConaughey, etc.), then drift into tangents. Larroquette may complain about “this blogged-out world we’re living in,” but it’s exactly that overmediation that’s the underlying subject of their humor. Laptop and 3x5 notecards at the ready, they’re always eager for the next distraction, the next bit of random annoyance or outrage from the Internet. Live performance is still very much a novelty for the duo (though Romatelli has some IMDb credits as an actor), and they don’t hammer home any

Fuller was one of the first directors to shoot in postwar Japan.

jokes in conventional stand-up manner. Rather, they affably invite you into their living room, where your spot on the couch is still warm.

Neptune, 1303 N.E. 45th St., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.org. $15. 8 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

PARAMOUNT

Both Sides of the Mirror

Hurt was Oscar-nominated for his role.

FRI: FILM

Can it really be that David Lynch has stopped making movies? That’s the unhappy thought occasioned by this nine-film retrospective, which begins tonight with The Elephant Man. His most recent film, Inland Empire (not playing in this series), was released six years ago. Since then he’s painted, written a book on meditation, and even released an album (last year’s Crazy Clown Time). Lynch also maintains an active, very odd website with regular dispatches on the weather in ever-sunny Southern California. By contrast, his first studio picture, The Elephant Man (1980), is an entirely darker work, portraying the wretched life of 19th-century carnival freak John Merrick (John Hurt beneath the bulbous prosthetics). In Merrick’s agonies, his ache to be understood, and his fundamental estrangement from the “normal” world, there’s a kinship with Dennis Hopper’s Frank in Blue Velvet, Robert Blake’s ghoul in Lost Highway, and Naomi Watts’ starlet in Mulholland Dr. They are figures on one side of a portal peering out; their antipodes staring back in confusion include Bill Pullman in Lost Highway and Kyle MacLachlan in both Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Almost everyone has a distorted double in Lynch’s movies (The Straight Story being a notable exception). Other titles in the series include Dune, Eraserhead, and Wild at Heart. My favorite? The great Mulholland Dr., a funhouse-mirror reflection of Hollywood, where Lynch made movies on his own unique terms. Until, perhaps, those terms were no longer permitted. (Through Thurs.) SIFF Cinema at the Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996, siff.net. $5–$10. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

sat/1/14 OPE R A

Steamed Bass

You may not know whom to root for in Verdi’s 1846 Attila. Though the titular Hun is planning to conquer Italy, Verdi paints him with a certain amount of sympathy. He gallantly acknowledges the bravery of captured warrior Odabella, whose father he killed. Does that mollify her?

No—so bent on revenge is she that she foils her lover Foresto’s attempt to poison Attila because she wants to be the one to take him out. In gratitude, he offers to marry her; she accepts, but stabs him anyway. Curtain. Verdi scholar Julian Budden calls her “the most unpleasant heroine in all Verdian opera”—and the role’s a voice-shredder, too, combining the ornateness of an earlier generation’s soprano writing (Rossini, Bellini) with trumpeting dramatic force. This is one reason why when this rarity’s staged at all, it’s usually as a vehicle for a star bass (who don’t have that many vehicles to star in), and Seattle Opera’s got John Relyea, who’s scored big here in past seasons as Don Quixote and Bluebeard, to share the title role with Mika Kares. (Through Jan. 28.) McCaw Hall, Seattle Center, 389-7676, seattleopera.org. $25 and up.

7:30 p.m. GAVIN BORCHERT

Seattle weekly • JaNUaRy 11 − 17, 2012

*

20TH CENTURY FOX

wed/1/11

almost dug it, concluding its 1955 review with the note that the movie is “taut and hard and fast—and tough, too tough.” (A new 35mm print screens through Thurs.)

Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 267-5380, nwfilmforum.org. $6–$9. 7 p.m. J. HOBERMAN

15

arts»Opening Nights CENTER HOUSE THEATRE, 305 HARRISON ST. (SEATTLE CENTER), SEATTLESHAKESPEARE.ORG. 733-8222. $15–$40. 7:30 P.M. THURS.–SAT. PLUS SELECT WEEKEND MATINEES. ENDS JAN. 29.

Drawing parallels between the American and Roman republics has been a popular sport since the Mayflower, and the intensity picks up even more in election years.

Are we a republic or a mob-ocracy? Is the crowd virtuous or virulent? What’s the right size and role for the military?

Shakespeare asked the same questions of his Elizabethan society in this uneven but fascinating tragedy, set in ancient Rome. Seattle Shakespeare’s production effectively contemporizes the tale of professional warrior Caius Martius (later dubbed “Coriolanus,” magnificently played like a smashed-up quarterback by hulking David Drummond) who wins status on

the battlefield but can’t win the hearts of common citizens, who resent his arrogance in the midst of a corn crisis. Here the rabble resembles the 99-percenters of OWS, right down to their grunge fashions and waving placards. Costumer Pete Rush puts placatory senator Menenius (an unctuously political Peter A. Jacobs) in a sharp Wall Street suit as he tries to sell Coriolanus’ leadership to the people. Meanwhile, the Tribunes of the People (David S. Klein and Gerald B. Browning), like shortsighted Beltway insiders, plot Coriolanus’ fall. There’s a lot to keep track of (clarified by extensive program notes and a new voice-over introduction), but the story feels so timely that’s it’s worth the investment.

Director David Quicksall cast strong, dynamic actors in the principal roles, including the radiantly noxious Therese Diekhans as Coriolanus’ bloodthirsty and power-hungry mother. Her manipulative,

January 13 & 14

Bach’s "Brandenburg" No. 2 baroque & wine series

conditional love for Coriolanus drives him into rebellious alliance with Tullus Aufidius (Mike Dooly). The two soldiers’ bond has some nicely directed hints of a homosexual dynamic; they prefer sweatily sparring to politics.

Carol Wolfe Clay’s set features large, semi-abstract paintings that simultaneously evoke antiquity (in crumbling textures and a Lascaux-cave palette) and modern absurdities (a centurion incongruously smokes a cigarette). Sound designer Nathan Wade’s trance tracks and drumbeats further enhance the sense of timelessness, as does Kent Cubbage’s vermillion battlefield lighting.

When Coriolanus, the despised killing machine, finally dies, the sound of waves JOHN ULMAN

P Coriolanus

Mommy knows best? Drummond and Diekhans in Coriolanus.

promises to both carry him out to sea and bring him back again in an endless tide cycle of violence. And indeed he will return: Ralph Fiennes’ new movie adaption opens February 3. MARGARET FRIEDMAN

FeBruary 17–26 Bill Frisell

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arts» Spring Awakening

ERICKSON THEATRE OFF BROADWAY, 1524 HARVARD AVE., BALAGANTHEATRE.ORG. $20 AND UP. 8 P.M. THURS.–SUN. PLUS 11 P.M. SAT. ENDS JAN. 15.

In the eagerly awaited Seattle premiere of this 2006 musical, directed by Eric Ankrim, Balagan Theatre’s actors throw themselves with admirable commitment into its overheated hysteria, boot-on-neck unsubtlety, and deck-stacking self-importance. Steven Sater’s Spring Awakening borrows, but does not update, a hectoring 1892 play by Frank Wedekind (the German names are unchanged, and students write on slates with chalk). Under the microscope are three teens—free-thinking Melchior, sheltered Wendla, and the borderline-nuts Moritz.

Their enemies, and eventual conquerors, embody sexual repression (the mother who refuses to teach Wendla about reproduction, with tragic results), academic pressure (the cane-wielding professor who holds Moritz back, w.t.r.), and general clueless sadism (practically everyone else, w.t.r.).

If these points needed to be made back then, what’s the use today of a show that criticizes, with fiery self-righteousness, the moral strictures of 1892? Unless you’re trying to suggest they still apply, which they don’t— not at this cartoonish intensity, and certainly not among the subset of Americans who go to theater. The heavy-breathing self-absorption of Spring Awakening’s teens remind me above all of their exact opposites—that branch of the Christianist right that’s recently discovered the pleasures of victimhood,

claiming the existence of people who disagree with them as a religious-freedom violation. There’s nothing wrong with a wallow in adolescent angst, I suppose, if it’s therapeutic. Even the ugly stereotypes of the two gay characters—given just one three-minute scene with no connection to the rest of the plot—are too ludicrous to be offensive. (They’re basically the two guys from Hitchcock’s Rope, one corrosively cynical, the other a corrupted innocent.)

What is offensive is the show’s handling of an issue as grave and destructive today as in Wedekind’s time, physical and sexual abuse, which is trivialized in every possible way. Again the abused character, like the two gay boys, drops in out of nowhere and back out, never again mentioned. Again she gets one song (by composer Duncan Sheik), inadequate to the task. And—the salt in the wound—her scene is followed and cheapened by a gratuitous and ridiculous one in which the neurotic Wendla asks to be beaten too so she knows how it feels.

In the world of Spring Awakening, being raped by your father equals getting unjustly flunked out of Latin class—just another dish in this buffet of trauma, another opportunity for the audience to congratulate itself on being so much more evolved than the show’s empty villains. Which makes this not just a dumb and embarrassing show, not just a badly conceived and executed one, but a meretricious and contemptible one.

And it won eight Tonys. The musical is dead. GAVIN BORCHERT E stage@seattleweekly.com

arts»Performance

BY GAVIN BORCHERT

Stage OPENINGS & EVENTS

ANNIE Broadway Bound Children’s Theatre knows the

Groups of 10 or more call 206-315-8054

TAO THE WAY OF THE DRUM

CURRENT RUNS

BLANK SLATE Audience-suggested

characters come first, plot second, in Unexpected Productions’ new show.

Intiman Theatre, Seattle Center. $12 8:30 p.m. Fri.–Sat. Ends Jan. 28.

CORIOLANUS SEE REVIEW, PAGE 16.

THE FUSSY CLOUD PUPPET SLAM 14/48 THEATER FESTIVAL The whole Expect “hijinks, feats of transformation, point to this annual festival, in which 14 and general good times” in this adultnew 10-minute plays are created over two audience show. Theater Off Jackson, weekends, is to accept the format’s hasty 409 Seventh Ave. S., puppetslam.com. limitations. Facing his fourth outing at 14/48, T H I S CO D E $10. 7:15 p.m. Sat., Jan. 14. actor/playwright MJ Sieber says, “You’re TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE HOLIDAY The Endangered Species Project, definitely setting up a chance to fail— SEATTLE WEEKLY dedicated to neglected plays, offers a usually on the first night [Friday], which then IPHONE/ANDROID APP reading of Philip (The Philadelphia Story) informs the second night’s performance.”

FOR MORE EVENTS OR VISIT Barry’s 1928 comedy about the 1 percent.

The themes are assigned at random, and seattleweekly.com Center House Theatre, Seattle Center, the writers’ response is to usually aim for endangeredspeciesproject.org. Donation. laughs. “That’s what I’ve always shot for,” 7 p.m. Mon., Jan. 16. says Sieber. “Having sat through thousands HOW TO WRITE A NEW BOOK FOR THE BIBLE A of 14/48 performances, it seems like SNL-style sketch writer returns to live with his aging mother in Bill comedy works best.” Also, it’s best to maintain a (Equivocation) Cain’s new play. Seattle Repertory character-first approach to writing. “I don’t think about Theatre, Seattle Center, 443-2222. $12–$64. Previews the plot beforehand,” he adds. More advice: Hew to begin Jan. 13, opens Jan. 18. Runs 7:30 p.m. Wed.–Sun., realism or go completely beyond it (into the zany), and keep the stagecraft simple. “If you’re gonna have any props, it’s best to be minimal—a stapler and a cell phone.” BRIAN MILLER ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., Send events to stage@seattleweekly.com, 1448fest.com. $20–$25 ($40 pass). 8 & 10:30 p.m. Fri.– dance@seattleweekly.com, Sat. Ends Jan. 14. or classical@seattleweekly.com

SCAN

FRIDAY | FEB 3, 8PM | THE MOORE Groups of 10 or more call 206-315-8054

Seattle weekly • JaNUaRy 11 − 17, 2012

sun’ll come out tomorrow. Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway, 800-838-3006, broadwaybound. org. Opens Jan. 13. 7 p.m. Fri.–Sat., noon & 5 p.m. Sun. Ends Jan. 22.

THE BIG BLUE BALL Warm up with this winter–themed burlesque show. JewelBox/Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., 800-838-3006, brownpapertickets.com. $8–$10.

7 & 8:30 p.m. Sat., Jan. 14.

THE CALLERS Washington Ensemble Theatre’s first musical is the premiere of Ella Dorband and Ali el-Gasseir’s study of phonesex workers and love over the wires.

Washington Ensemble Theatre, 608 19th Ave. E., 325-5105, washingtonensemble. org. $10–$25. Opens Jan. 13. Runs 7:30 p.m. Thurs.–Mon. Ends Feb. 6.

plus some Wed. & weekend matinees; see seattlerep. org for exact schedule. Ends Feb. 5.

THE NOVEL WORKSHOP SERIES Book-It sponsors readings of stage adaptations of four novels: She’s Come Undone and A Little Princess (Thurs. & Sat.), and Wuthering Heights and The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Fri. & Sun.). Penthouse Theatre, UW campus, book-it.org. $10. 7:30 p.m. Thurs., Jan. 12–Sat., Jan. 14, 2 p.m. Sun., Jan. 15.

THE OUTSIDERS The Greasers and the Socs battle again in this adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s classic novel.

Bainbridge Performing Arts, 200 Madison Ave. N., Bainbridge Island, 842-8569, bainbridgeperformingarts. org. $19–$27. Preview 7:30 p.m. Jan. 12, opens Jan. 13.

7:30 p.m. Fri.–Sat. 3 p.m. Sun. Ends Jan. 22.

UHH YEAH DUDE SEE THE WIRE, PAGE 15.

SATURDAY | FEB 4, 8PM | THE MOORE

17

arts»Performance GODSPELL Village Theatre’s KIDSTAGE Institute presents

Works by Haydn, Martin, and Tchaikovsky Wednesday, January 18 8 PM

Meany Hall on the UW Campus

206-543-4880 uwworldseries.org

70 Classes & Workshops for Artists of All Levels Begin January 16

Michael Howard

ReGisteR OnLine nOW @

S e at t l e w e e k ly • J a N U a Ry 1 1 − 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

on Capitol Hill

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www.GageAcademy.org

foster care heroes save lives Our volunteer foster parents provide life-saving care for more than 1,000 orphaned cats and dogs each year. When you volunteer as a foster parent, you are that hero—providing love, toys, and the essentials for animals in need, in the comfort of your home or apartment.

Visit paws.org for details, or call 425.787.2500 x822

Stephen (Wicked) Schwartz’s musical setting of the Gospel of Matthew. First Stage Theatre, 120 Front St. N., Issaquah, 425-392-2202, villagetheatre.org. $14–$16.

7:30 p.m. Thurs.–Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Jan. 22.

THE LOST FOLIO Wing-It Productions folds your suggestions into a Shakespearian spoof in this improv show. Wing-It Productions, 5510 University Way N.E., 781-3879, wingitpresents.com. $10–$14. 8 p.m. Thurs.– Fri., Jan. 5–20 and Feb. 2–10.

PETER PAN The Fremont Players present a British panto-style version—i.e., audience participation and a dash of drag. Hale’s Palladium, 4301 Leary Way N.W., 800-838-3006, brownpapertickets.com. $6–$12. 4 & 7:30 p.m. Sat., 1 & 4 p.m. Sun. Ends Jan. 15.

SPRING AWAKENING SEE REVIEW, THIS PAGE. TEATRO ZINZANNI: BONSOIR LILIANE! This cabaret homage (plus five-course feast) to singer/actress/ dancer Liliane Montevecchi, who turned 79 last fall, could be TZZ’s sexiest production ever. Teatro ZinZanni, 222 Mercer St., 802-0015, zinzanni.org. $76 and up.

6:30 p.m. Wed.–Sat., 5:30 p.m Sun. Ends Jan. 29.

WEST SIDE STORY Perhaps it’s heresy, but let’s be honest: Tony and Maria can be real drips. Tony, supposedly a former gang member, runs around proclaiming corny stuff like “We got magic!”, and Maria’s virginal appeal seems awfully dim next to the va-va-voom of show-stealer Anita. But this tour, in which late librettist Arthur Laurents’ Broadway direction is recreated by David Saint, beautifully articulates the pure ache and desire between these naive sweethearts. The physical staging is often sublime: Just as Tony’s final note of “Maria” starts to float toward the proscenium arch, the lady in question slides into view on her balcony, ready to take up a heated “Tonight.” By the time the tragic denouement earns its tears, when Maria’s shawl becomes her widow’s veil—a dark echo of its tender use during the faux-wedding play of “One Hand, One Heart”—you understand more than ever that these are two kids so smitten (and, frankly, so turned on) that they can’t fully comprehend that anything could stand in their way. STEVE WIECKING Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.org. $25–$80. 7:30 p.m.

Wed.–Thurs.; 8 p.m. Fri.; 2 & 8 p.m. Sat.; 1 & 6:30 p.m.

Sun. Ends Jan. 15.

A YEAR WITH FROG & TOAD A musical version of the classic tale. Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Center, 441-3322. $20–$36. Runs Fri.–Sun.; see sct.org for exact schedule. Ends Jan. 15.

Classical, Etc. METROPOLITAN OPERA AT THE MOVIES An encore

of Gounod’s fluffy and tuneful Faust. See fathomevents. com for theaters. $18–$22. 6:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 11.

COMPOSER SPOTLIGHT Composer Stephen Parris presents “Indeterminacy and Performer Interpretation in Contemporary Composition” (and invites you to bring your instrument and join in). Co-sponsored by the Washington Composers Forum. Jack Straw Studios, 4261 Roosevelt Way N.E., 328-7694, jackstraw.org. Free.

7:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 11.

MELIA WATRAS Music by Kurtag, Ligeti, and Xenakis, plus two commissioned works, from this new-musicfriendly violist. Meany Hall, UW campus, 543-4880, music.washington.edu. $12–$20. 7:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 11.

PACIFIC MUSICWORKS This innovative troupe presents four staged baroque oratorios, four wrenching tales of woe from the Old Testament: Carissimi’s Abraham and Isaac, Jephtha, and Job, and Charpentier’s The Denial of St. Peter. St. James Cathedral, 804 Ninth Ave., 800-838-3006, pacificmusicworks.org. $35–$40. 8 p.m.

Fri., Jan. 13–Sat., Jan. 14.

SEATTLE SYMPHONY Bach concertos (with several SSO soloists, including new flutist Demarre McGill) and French dances. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., 215-4747, seattlesymphony.org. $17–$74. 8 p.m. Fri., Jan. 13–Sat., Jan. 14.

SEATTLE OPERA SEE THE WIRE, PAGE 15.

CODY YANTIS, DAN TYLER, SETH CHRISMAN, NORMAN CHAMBERS “Experiments in drone,

imperfection, improv, noise, fragments, decay, texture, American primitive, threshold behavior, field recordings, and so forth” from these four musicians. Gallery 1412, 1412 18th Ave. E., 322-1533, gallery1412.org. $5–$15. 8 p.m. Sat., Jan. 14.

SEATTLE PHILHARMONIC Wind music by Handel and Strauss, plus Beethoven’s springy Sixth. Meany Hall, UW campus, 685-2742, seattlephil.org. $10–$18. 3 p.m.

Sun., Jan. 15.

ONYX CHAMBER PLAYERS Two piano quartets, Schumann’s in E flat and Brahms’ in A. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 800-838-3006, onyxchamberplayers.com. $10–$20. 7 p.m. Sun., Jan. 15.

TRIO CON BRIO Two favorite piano trios, Tchaikovsky’s symphonic one and Haydn’s snappy “Gypsy” trio, plus one by Frank Martin. Meany Hall, UW campus, 543-4880, uwworldseries.org. $20–$34. 8 p.m. Wed., Jan. 18.

film»This Week’s Attractions

206.324.9996 | siff.net Playing DECEMBER 13–19 511 Queen Anne Avenue North

In Dreams:

The Films of David Lynch

Norman Foster continues to think big.

FRiDay

The Elephant Man 7:00 New 35mm priNt!

MOnDay

Eraserhead 9:30

Blue Velvet 7:00

SaTURDay

The Elephant Man 1:30 FIRST RUN FEATURES

New 35mm priNt!

Carnage

OPENS AT METRO AND OTHER THEATERS, FRI., JAN. 13. RATED R. 80 MINUTES.

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?

RUNS AT SIFF FILM CENTER, FRI., JAN. 13– THURS., JAN. 19. NOT RATED. 78 MINUTES.

In this country, British modernist “starchitect” Norman Foster is perhaps best known for the Hearst headquarters in New York, with its huge atrium set within the old masonry shell and a faceted new glass tower rising above.

A working-class Manchester lad, he trained at Yale and became a brand name by the late ’60s—aided in part by association with his

MORE ONLINE » aSEATTLEWEEKLY.COM

See reviews of Contraband; El Sicario, Room 164; and Joyful Noise.

The Iron Lady

OPENS AT GUILD 45TH AND OTHER THEATERS, FRI., JAN. 13. RATED PG-13. 105 MINUTES.

In the first scene of The Iron Lady, which re-teams director Phyllida Lloyd with her Mamma Mia! star Meryl Streep, 80-something Margaret Thatcher is presented as a little old lady unfit for the fast-moving world outside her hermetic London townhouse. The bulk of the movie takes place in an even smaller, more airless space: the dementia-stricken former British prime minister’s head. Lloyd’s film alternates between Thatcher’s rich memories of her past struggles and glories and her present-day attempts to remember more quotidian stuff—like how to turn on the TV or that her beloved husband, Denis (Jim Broadbent), whom she sees across the breakfast table and speaks aloud to all day long, is actually dead. Cutting out anything that might complicate the film’s notion of Thatcher as a working-class girl turned

plucky housewife turned feminist icon turned tragically doddering granny, The Iron Lady suggests that arguments against its heroine were always irrational and usually knee-jerk misogynistic. Thatcher’s point of view is wellrepresented; the counterargument is merely violence and chaos. In the film’s version of events, Thatcher “fell” because a lone civilized woman could not possibly survive the onslaught of the barbaric mob. Iron Lady’s presentation of the historical record through the aged Thatcher’s stream of consciousness— an obviously biased and unreliable narrator— gives Lloyd formal justification for turning Thatcher’s life into a highlight reel in which the PM is put upon by sexist, classist, and/ or faceless brutes. As for moral justification, you’re on your own. KARINA LONGWORTH

Littlerock

TUESDay

4:30

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me 7:00

Wild At Heart 7:00 Eraserhead 9:30

WEDnESDay

SUnDay

Lost Highway 7:00

The Short Films of David Lynch 4:30 Dune 7:00

THURSDay

Mulholland Dr. 7:00

War Horse

Daily 5:00, 8:00 / Sat & Sun 2:00

Werner Herzog’s

Cave of Forgotten Dreams in 3D Daily 6:30

Lars Von Trier’s

Melancholia Daily 8:30 / No show Thurs

Tomboy Fri–Sun 4:30 NT Live: Collaborators Sun 1:00 Seattle Center Northwest Rooms

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?

Fri 6:30, 8:30 | Sat 2:30, 4:30, 6:30, 8:30 | Sun 2:30, 4:30 Mon, Tues & Weds 7:00

FutureWave committee presents

RUNS AT GRAND ILLUSION, FRI., JAN. 13– THURS., JAN. 19. NOT RATED. 83 MINUTES.

Two young Japanese tourists get stranded in a sunbaked hamlet far north of L.A. Their destination? Manzanar. So you know from the outset where Mike Ott’s desert mumblecore movie is headed. How it gets there is another, more indirect matter.

Speaking no English, Atsuko impulsively opts to remain in Littlerock while her impatient brother Rintaro makes a side trip. There she falls under the increasingly creepy, desperate attentions of Cory, a fey outcast with delusions of Hollywood. They hang out, ride bikes, party with other slackers (including one handsome guy more likely to score with Atsuko than the hapless Cory), and develop a friendship of mutual incomprehension (“I wish I could understand what you’re saying”). Seen at SIFF last year, with local band the Cave Singers on its soundtrack, Littlerock sensitively depicts the claustrophobia and ennui felt by townies understandably confounded by this alien in their midst. Atsuko’s motives for staying, however, are more opaque (also, her Japanese isn’t always subtitled). She takes a job in a Mexican restaurant and rather charmingly attempts to live like a local, eating TV dinners with Cory and his disapproving dad. (American actress Atsuko Okatsuka is also credited as a co-writer.) In this dry, dwindling, time-petrified community, it’s as if she’s trying on an alternate existence— one explained in Littlerock’s predictable last scenes. Still, the sadness and yearning are heartfelt, as when Cory—amateur Cory Zacharia, raised in the actual town of Littlerock—confesses to Atsuko “You’re my only friend.” She doesn’t understand him, yet she understands perfectly. BRIAN MILLER E film@seattleweekly.com

Mean Girls vs. Fight Club double feature Sun 6:30 Reel Grrls presents: Not Chick Flicks

Agnes Varda’s Cléo From 5 To 7 Weds 7:00 Seattle Center Northwest Rooms

RmAN TRAiT of No mEd R o p T N A G EsTEE “AN ELE f ThE mosT AGE.” o E N o , R E T RN fos f ThE modE o s T c E iT h ARc Telegraph -The

Playing DECEMBER 13–19

SEATTLE WEEKLY • JANUARY 11 − 17, 2012

In Roman Polanski’s adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s hit play, posh pair Alan and Nancy (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) come to the home of wholesaler Michael (John C. Reilly) and crunchy author Penelope (Jodie Foster) to discuss how to deal with the fact that the former couple’s son hit the latter couple’s son in the face with a stick. Artificial politesse gives way to passive aggression, which gives way to aggressive aggression. A real-time, hell-is-other-people endurance test set, with the exception of two framing shots, entirely within the stuffy space of an uppermiddle-class urban apartment, Carnage was filmed six months after Polanski’s release from house arrest in 2010. The director hardly skirts the available parallels. Carnage begins with the boys’ altercation, an incident that Polanski shoots from such a far remove that we cannot know what motivated it or have any sense of context. The film that follows consists of outsiders with personal motives debating blame for an incident they did not witness and, it’s implied, cannot really understand. But for all its apparent analogies to Polanski’s life, Carnage feels like an impersonal exercise, and its study of the rotten underbelly of “polite” social interaction is completely transparent. From the early moment when Foster breaks the facade of niceties by responding to Waltz’s insincere pleasantry (“At least we got a new recipe out of [the meeting]”) with an unrestrained shot (“Wish our son didn’t have to lose two teeth in the process”), there’s no question where this is headed. KARINA LONGWORTH

futurist mentor, Buckminster Fuller (who posed this doc’s titular question). Now in his mid-70s, Foster runs a large international firm that (as detractors will tell you, though none appear here) has been chasing megaproject money from China to Dubai to Kazakhstan.

“They are thinking big,” he says of such emerging economies, and big is certainly what Foster does best. Aerial shots of the famous Millau Viaduct in France, with its needle-topped spires and delicate lattice of support cables, draw gasps; and there is much to praise in Hong Kong’s HSBC tower and other structures that place the skeleton on the outside. Inside are, yes, still more atria— the kind of soaring enclosures that suggest both cathedral and shopping mall. “How do you give glamour to an office building?”

Foster asks rhetorically. Well, so far as the owners are concerned, you hire a starchitect, which makes the building easier to lease. But absent here among those who praise Foster (including Bono, Richard Serra, and critic Paul Goldberger), are the voices of any poor office workers who actually labor within. His edifices are not, to put it politely, human-scaled; their huge, exposed guts—steel sinew and Kevlar skin—can make you feel like Shia LaBeouf being dwarfed by Optimus Prime. By the time this fawning doc enters the CG-animated rendering of a $15 billion planned city in Abu Dhabi (a movie within the movie), you realize it’s essentially an infomercial for the company Foster unsuccessfully tried to sell before the 2008 crash. But even in our current recession, he’s still thinking big—most recently pitching a $77 billion transportation hub north of London. If the Brits don’t buy it, the Chinese will. BRIAN MILLER

The Straight Story

With introduction by Ron Leamon, costume designer

19

2

A COMEDY OF NO MANNERS

GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD NOMINATIONS ®

BEST ACTRESS KATE WINSLET

(COMEDY)

(COMEDY)

BEST ACTRESS JODIE FOSTER

“WE’RE TOO BUSY LAUGHING! WICKEDLY FUNNY!

©HFPA

A GOLD STANDARD FOURSOME!” -Karen Durbin, ELLE

KATE JODIE FOSTER WINSLET

CARNAGE A ROMAN POLANSKI FILM

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BASED UPON THE PLAY “GOD OF CARNAGE” BY YASMINA REZA

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Extraordinary Portraits WED 01/11 Extraordinary People SEATTLE for WEEKLY

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GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEE ®

S e at t l e w e e k ly • J a N U a Ry 1 1 − 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

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SEATTLE WEEKLY

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Film»What’s Showing

 NOW SHOWING  12:15 4:00 8:00

BY BRIAN MILLER

THE DESCENDANTS George Clooney stars in this smart,

affecting seriocomedy, directed by Alexander Payne.

It’s a generous study in everyday catastrophes—death, infidelity, fractured families—that artfully acknowledges the obvious without wallowing in it. His wife in a BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA John Carpenter’s Big coma (and about to be unplugged), attorney Matt King Trouble in Little China (1986) is an enjoyable mashup of (Clooney) first cries in a long shot that Payne discreetly classic Westerns, Saturday-morning serials, and more frames from behind. King’s two daughters, ages 10 and 17, are meanwhile acting out and talking trash; Chinese wuxia than any of the Indiana Jones movies, with Kurt Russell in full bloom as Carpenter’s de rigueur and his entire extended clan, which dates to colonial hard-drinkin’, hard-gamblin’, wise-crackin’ loner hero—a Hawaii, is greedily anticipating a huge windfall from bowling-alley John Wayne. When I was all of eight, this the sale of ancestral property. This duly diligent lawyer seemed like just about the greatest movie ever made, prepares for the family vote to sell, until a prick not of conscience but of jealousy: Standing to profit from the and like much of Carpenter’s work, it has aged well. deal is his wife’s lover, a petty real-estate broker. King Movie screens at midnight. (PG-13) SCOTT FOUNDAS Egyptian, $8.25, Fri., Jan. 13; Sat., Jan. 14. wants to confront the guy, so he drags his daughters E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL I cried three times in on an island-hopping road trip—searching for one revisiting Steven Spielberg’s gorgeous, influential 1982 thing, finding another. (R) Brian Miller Cinebarre, Guild fairy tale. Hell, I choked up not only at the flying bike 45th, Kirkland Parkplace, Lincoln Square, Meridian, stuff, but at the goddamn opening title card, which Thornton Place was raucously applauded. Some questionable p.c.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO David Fincher’s revisionism: Although “penis breath” still malevolent remake follows a cold trail of makes the cut, Elliott’s brother is no longer ritually butchered women through rural Sweden. These previously unlinked crimes chastised for dressing up as a “terrorist” have been discovered by lefty reporter for Halloween—but as a “hippie” instead.

Recent CGI tweaks cast E.T. in Phantom Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), who’s been Menace unreality, yet augment a welhired by a Swedish oligarch (Christopher come, restored bathtub sequence. (PG) Plummer) to solve a supposed family murder. But, as millions of earthlings know, the ANDREW BONAZELLI SIFF Film Center, $4, Opens Jan. 14, Saturdays, Sundays, noon. movie’s real protagonist is Blomkvist’s ace Through Jan. 22. research assistant, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney HOUSE OF BAMBOO SEE PAGE 15.

Mara), and it’s her pale flame that illuminates IN DREAMS: THE FILMS OF DAVID the movie. Mara’s Salander is funnier, as LYNCH SEE THE WIRE, PAGE 15. well as more plaintive, than Noomi Rapace T H I S CO D E MEAN GIRLS VS. FIGHT CLUB This teenin the Swedish original. Fincher’s version of TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE oriented double-feature pits David Fincher the Stieg Larsson thriller is a leaner, meaner, SEATTLE WEEKLY against Lindsay Lohan. Can it really be that more high-powered affair, though similarly IPHONE/ANDROID APP only back in 2004 the latter was considered hampered by a long narrative fuse. It requires FOR MORE FILMS OR VISIT a rising young star? The two films are rated well more than an hour for Blomkvist’s story seattleweekly.com R and PG-13. SIFF Film Center, $5-$10, Sun., to converge with Salander’s. Though things Jan. 15, 7:30 p.m. pick up once reporter and hacker begin pursuing parallel tracks (and each other), it grossly SCI-FI SATURDAY SECRET MATINEES The Sprocket overstays its welcome. (R) J. Hoberman Cinerama, Society presents a secret program of futuristic shorts Bainbridge Cinemas, Cinebarre, Factoria Cinemas, and serials (the 1939 Buck Rogers included among the iPic Theaters, Kirkland Parkplace, Lincoln Square, latter). (NR) Grand Illusion, $15-56 (series), Saturdays, Metro, Pacific Place, Thornton Place 2 p.m. Through March 24.

SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER: Although it has been overJ. EDGAR Clint Eastwood’s biopic is his richest, most rated by the director’s cultists, François Truffaut’s secambitious movie since the Letters from Iwo Jima/Flags ond film, the 1960 Shoot the Piano Player, which stars of Our Fathers duo, if not Unforgiven. Patriot, scounsad-eyed Charles Aznavour as a pianist with a past, is a drel, genius of self-promotion, gang-buster, red-baiter, freer work than The 400 Blows. It’s an odd pastiche of a blackmailer, proponent of the fingerprint, apostle of the wiretap and momma’s boy monster of sexual repression, gangster movie, lively and entertaining, but also uneven J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972), who more or less created and disjointed. (NR) ELLIOT STEIN Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., seattleartmuseum.org, $59-$66 series, the FBI and successfully ran the agency for nearly 50 $7 individual, Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Through March 1. years, was one of the great American personalities of THE SILENT HOUSE From Uruguay, this single-take the 20th century. With prosthetics simulating Hoover’s bulldog look, Leonardo DiCaprio turns out to have been suspense flick sets a young woman in her father in an a quite canny casting move. He successfully promotes ominous old house full of creaks and groans portending possible terror. (NR) Grand Illusion, $5-$8, Fridays, the movie’s idea of Hoover as a star, even as he makes convincing the sexual ambiguity crucial to the Hoover Saturdays, 11 p.m. Through Jan. 14.

THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS: Erik Lindbergh, grandson of conceived by Eastwood and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk). Crammed with material, even if the mid the famous aviator portrayed by James Stewart in this 1957 biopic, will appear and discuss the film. (NR) SIFF section is a bit slack, J. Edgar is a dense historical Cinema at the Uptown, $5-$10, Wed., Jan. 11, 7 p.m. tapestry. (R) J. Hoberman Metro SPOKANARCHY! Subtitled “Where Were You in ‘82?”, MELANCHOLIA The first thing you see in Lars von Trier’s this new documentary looks at the punk rock scene in Melancholia is a close-up of Kirsten Dunst’s face. Behind and around Spokane during the early ‘80s. (NR) SIFF her, slow as molasses, birds are dropping from the sky.

Cinema at the Uptown, $10, Thu., Jan. 12, 9 p.m.

These are the latter days. Generically a disaster film, Melancholia features two disasters. Von Trier devotes the movie’s first half to the disintegration of a storybook wedding between bride Justine (Dunst) and groom THE ARTIST An undeniably charming homage to old Michael (Alexander Skarsgard), who arrive late to their Hollywood, The Artist might be the first silent film many own reception, hosted by Justine’s sister Claire (Charlotte of its viewers have ever seen. French writer-director Gainsbourg) and fabulously wealthy brother-in-law Michel Hazanavicius’ film opens in 1927, when preening John (Kiefer Sutherland). In the movie’s second half, matinee idol George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is still the the mystery planet Melancholia bears down on Earth. top draw at Kinograph Studios. George acts as a mentor Claire is acutely apprehensive while John, an amateur to Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), a chorine with big ambiastronomer, is boyishly enthusiastic, having calculated tions. Borrowing heavily from A Star Is Born, The Artist that the planet will just miss the Earth. Justine grows tracks both Peppy’s ascent (through amusing montage) mystically attuned to the impending cataclysm, calmly and George’s decline as he refuses to acknowledge telling her sister that, “I know we’re alone.” We are alone synchronized-sound as more than a passing fad. By 1932, but Melancholia, a thrillingly sad and beautiful film, dares Peppy’s attracting lines around the block for her latest, to imagine (and insist we do as well) the one event that while George spends his afternoons passed out on a barmight bring us together. (R) J. Hoberman Varsity, SIFF room floor, his Jack Russell terrier his sole remaining fan.

Cinema at the Uptown Or so he thinks: Peppy has never forgotten him, and the THEATERS: Admiral, 2343 California Ave. SW, 938-3456; film’s concluding act restores The Artist’s buoyancy.

Big Picture, 2505 First Ave., 256-0566; Big Picture (PG-13) Melissa Anderson Harvard Exit, Lincoln Square Redmond, 7411 166th Ave. NE, 425-556-0566; Central A DANGEROUS METHOD David Cronenberg’s A Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 686-6684; Cinebarre, 6009 SW Dangerous Method is at once a lucid movie of ideas, a 244th St. (Mountlake Terrace)., 425-672-7501; Cinerama, compelling narrative, and a splendidly acted love story 2100 Fourth Ave., 448-6680; Crest, 16505 Fifth Ave. NE, involving Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), Sigmund 781-5755; Egyptian, 801 E. Pine St., 781-5755; Grand Freud (Viggo Mortensen), and Sabina Spielrein (Keira Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St., 523-3935; Guild 45, 2115 N. Knightley), the near-forgotten patient-turned-disciple 45th St., 781-5755; Harvard Exit, 807 E. Roy St., 781-5755; who confounded both men en route to her own tragic iPic Theaters, 16451 N.E. 74th St. (Redmond), 425-636destiny. The movie opens like an electrified gothic novel 5601; Kirkland Parkplace, 404 Park Place, 425-827-9000; with freaked-out, wild-eyed Spielrein being taken to Lincoln Square, 700 Bellevue Way N, 425-454-7400; the clinic where Jung is experimenting with Freud’s Majestic Bay, 2044 NW Market St., 781-2229; Meridian, newfangled talking cure. Liberated by therapy, Spielrein 1501 Seventh Ave., 223-9600; Metro, 4500 Ninth Ave. NE, eventually propositions her married doctor. Later, she 781-5755; Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 267contacts his mentor Freud to propose herself as a 5380; Oak Tree, 10006 Aurora Ave. N, 527-1748; Pacific patient. (Sensing her unresolved attachment to the Place, 600 Pine St., 888-262-4386; Seven Gables, 911 ultra-civilized Jung, Freud warns her against putting her NE 50th St., 781-5755; SIFF Cinema at the Uptown, 511 faith in Aryans. Spielrein is the movie’s true and tragic Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996; SIFF Film Center, 305 subject. (R) J. Hoberman Egyptian Harrison St. (Seattle Center), 324-9996.; Thornton Place, 301 NE 103rd St., 517-9953; Varsity, 4329 University Way NE, 781-5755; Woodinville, 17640 Garden Way, Send events to film@seattleweekly.com 888-262-4386.

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food&drink»

Altured States

Nathan Lockwood’s new restaurant is great.

But it’s not transformational.

BY HANNA RASKIN

T

JOSHUA HUSTON

he base model menu at Altura, an ambivalence that chef Nathan Lockwood’s new surfaced every time I was temple of Italian cooking atop confronted with imperfectly Capitol Hill, is a three-course cooked pasta or struggled to meal. At $49, it includes an appetizer, pasta, recall the precise flavor of and entrée. Or pasta, an entrée, and dessert. a sous-vide sturgeon hours Or, if you’re feeling long in the sweet tooth, after I’d left the restaurant. three desserts.

I am sure the raves are Altura—often more Italian in its passions creating a difficult situation than its ingredients—doesn’t micromanage for Lockwood and his hardits guests’ orders; the servers here won’t working crew, who are now smirk if you wish to thrice summon beef to being held to standards that the table. But freedom begets curiosity, so are stupefyingly high—the diners tend to tack an order of sweetbreads meaning of altura, as it to a meal’s start or make room for a cheese happens. Diners who don’t course at its close, ultimately fabricating have a spectacular meal at Altura report five-, six- and seven-course feasts. Lockback with the chagrin of a child who’s wood’s restaurant supplements the seleclearned Santa Claus is a hoax. tions with niceties that have vanished from Still, those quibbles are with civilian other restaurants of similar caliber: There’s critics, not with Altura, which routinely a slosh of aperitif, an amuse-bouche, and instills plainspoken dishes with artistry a hunk of bread, perpetually replenished and elegance. If I wasn’t overwhelmed by without reprobation. deliciousness, I had no trouble finding With so many dishes to dispatch, Altura’s evidence of it. servers have frequent occasion to visit their hile other foods have lately tables. And even when they’re not within bolted from the humble to earshot, their calm presence is palpable the hot category, cauliflower in the most reassuring way: The salvaged is holding down the fort wooden angel which hovers above the snug abandoned by oxtail, pig’s feet, and pimento dining room is an incarnation of hospitality cheese. Unlike those potentially objectionas practiced at Altura. able foods, cauliflower’s ivory florets must The servers’ comings and goings are seem painfully benign to gourmands, who unobtrusive, but rarely wordless. There’s don’t consider Peter Rabbit a suitable culinothing artificially sterile about the dining nary role model. Yet Altura has debauched experience at Altura, which, with its bookstuffed shelves and timeworn wall tapestries, cauliflower in the most riveting way, stirring BOD_GinAd_4.pdf 1 11/1/11 PM its essence into a cream-thickened soup shot resembles the rathskeller of a 1:23 foothills inn you’d be very lucky to find after a trying drive through with a racy Calabrian chili oil and garnished with bits of cauliflower and brocon twisty, snowy European back roads. So coli that the menu calls “caramelized” and I’d the servers explain, advise, tempt, and tease, call burnt. The dish is all the better for it: An deciphering every dish when it arrives, then appealing acridity, boosted by the saltiness floating away with an appropriate salutation. of just enough capers, gives the sophisticated (“Health and happiness” was one server’s soup a lively bounce. standard parting wish.)

Altura is adept at adding It’s an idiom, of course, but one more element to a dish— Altura’s reception has been so » PRICE GUIDE THREE COURSES ........ $49 such as the split hazelnuts rapturous that the idea of its FOUR COURSES .......... $59 surrounding a molded squash tortelloni inducing miracles FIVE COURSES............ $69 custard adorned with a tangle feels halfway believable. If the of crispy squash shoestrings food here can change lives and and fried sage leaves—which makes them shorten the distance between diners a shade more polished than similar dishes and God, as online reviewers have testified, served elsewhere. Atop tissue-thin petals of might it not also grow hair on balding heads, fatty kobe beef carpaccio, nestled in a wood soothe strained hips, and obliterate seasonal shavings–like pile of curling cabbage and affective disorder? jagged matsutake mushrooms, the lagniappe Perhaps I ordered the wrong dishes, but is a frankly darling quail egg, quivering on my health and happiness are about the same the dividing line between raw and cooked. as they were before I first visited Altura.

Alongside a knob of pink pork loin, wearI don’t expect to live forever, and I still ing a roll of pancetta like a fascinator, it’s a can’t fly. I had a pair of excellent dinners, plump baby turnip, far more glorious than but I’m not sure the gushing volume most vegetables plucked from the ground. shouldn’t be dialed down a notch or two,

W

S

peaking of mixers, Altura has a hardliquor license, but keeps a bar no more elaborate than what you’d find in your average four-star hotel room.

The servers will gamely mix Manhattans and martinis if asked, but guests are meant to drink wine. There are official pairings—$37 buys three courses’ worth—but the servers are also dependable if you need, say, a versatile white to see you through two different

Chef Nathan Lockwood puts the final touches on the pappardelle.

pastas and a plate of scallops. There’s no reason not to entrust all your important food and drink decisions to the talented servers here.

But back to the OJ. Non-starring ingredients give restaurants a chance to skimp. Yet Altura’s juice didn’t come from an oversized aluminum can but a shapely bottle, the kind used for pedigreed juices that aren’t mostly water.

Altura’s reception has been so rapturous that the idea of its tortelloni inducing miracles feels halfway believable.

I spied the juice from my perch at the open kitchen’s counter, which might be the best place to sit at Altura. The food there is designed to be discussed, not devoured— should you string together a nearly perfect dinner-and-a-movie evening by heading to the nearby Harvard Exit after eating, plan on ordering lots of popcorn—and the cooks have much to contribute to the conversation.

“I poached these myself,” one told us, pointing to the quinces on a plate of vanilla gelato speckled with balsamic vinegar. “Let me know if you have any questions.”

The fabulous dessert was a celebration of simplicity, great ingredients, and attentive craftsmanship. Not everything is flawless at Altura, but those vinegared quinces made me very, very happy to be in the restaurant’s care. E hraskin@seattleweekly.com ALTURA 617 Broadway E., 402-6749, alturarestaurant.com.

5:30–10:30 p.m. Tues.–Sat.

Seattle weekly • JaNUaRy 11 − 17, 2012

Absent the turnip, the pork loin—laid atop a scribble of pear mostarda—would still be pretty terrific. Meats were consistently impressive over the course of my two visits to Altura, a product of smart sourcing and precise cooking. A comely top sirloin cap steak, a lean cut which is often toughened by inexact grilling, was admirably tender. Even better was a slab of grilled venison, primeval in its blood-red patina, goosed with cocoa and joined by a sauerkraut thick with mustard seeds. While Altura usually sauces its dishes in dots and darts, the venison sat in a puddle of earthy Barolo marinade.

Every pasta dish I sampled was delicate— with the possible exception of a trio of lava lamp–shaped gnocchi paired with a sweaty wild-boar ragù—although a few lacked the snap of flavor the sauce descriptions promised. Firm matsutake ravioli didn’t ring of the woods, as dishes with a wild provenance should, and tuna-heart fettuccine, which tantalized with a whiff of the ocean, petered out on the palate. The tajarin I tried was floppy.

But I was fond of a pappardelle swathed in a purposefully messy tripe-and-oxtail ragù that had a strong backbeat of heat.

Lockwood exercises tremendous integrity in sourcing, an attribute I saw in action when I watched a cook do something with orange juice. Nothing on the menu that evening was advertised as being overtly citric, so I’m not sure where the juice went. Maybe he was concocting a gastrique. Maybe he was pouring himself a glass in hopes of staving off a winter cold.

23

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» by julien perry

Wrestling With Tequila

The Watering Hole: Artusi, 1535 14th Ave., 251-7673, CAPITOL HILL The Atmosphere: This clean, minimalist space stands in direct contrast to the adjoining Spinasse. The delicate, paperlike cylindrical chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, the bright abstract paintings lining the pale walls, and the eclectic mix of early-’90s hip-hop (or whatever else happens to be playing on the bartender’s iPod) punctuate a pretty drinking parlor that modestly turns out some of the city’s most delicious, well-crafted cocktails. The bar’s eggshellcolored tiles provide a stark backdrop for the colorful drinks that await your grasp. Sibling Spinasse may get all the culinary glory, but Artusi is a welcome, booze-soaked companion.

The Barkeep: Jonathan Hudak has lived in Seattle nine years, ever since he moved from Tacoma to attend UW, where he majored in painting and drawing—a great complement to his thoughtful bartending skills. Before Artusi, he worked at Eva, Tilth, and Golden Beetle. “I worked in restaurants to subsidize my income during college, so I just became inevitably fascinated with food,” says Hudak. “I like working in smaller houses better, and that just leads you to more intense focus on ingredients, I think. I just use the same approach I do to make art: using your ingredients and experimenting with the medium.”

The Drink: Hudak makes a drink inspired by a cocktail called The Choke Artist from the Greenwood bar Oliver’s Twist. “The Choke Artist

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24

far as biological imperatives go, acting on the need to feed oneself after a night of heavy drinking is the least likely to end in regret. That’s assuming you’ve choosen your post-last call meal wisely. In Ballard, that means Dante’s Inferno Dogs. Problem is, everybody knows it, which is why come 2 a.m. the wait to get a fix of dog, bun, and toppings becomes nearly unbearable.

So try your luck at one of this Ballard institution’s many carts at midday, even if you’ve no booze left to soak up. $ LA CARTA DE OAXACA 5431 Ballard Ave. N.W., 782-8722. Perhaps the most stylishly designed Mexican restaurant in the entire Pacific Northwest, La Carta de Oaxaca avoids every piñata-cactusblanket cliché you’ve ever drunk a strawberry margarita under. Also cliché-free is BELLTOWN its menu, great for sampling and sharing PORTFOLIO RESTAURANT 2600 Alaskan tapas-style. Mole negro, the house Way, Fifth Floor (Art Institute of Culinary specialty, is on the sweet side, delicious Program), 239-2363. The food at Art Institute T H I S CO D E TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE over pork or chicken with rice and tortiof Seattle’s culinary program, whose students SEATTLE WEEKLY llas. Standouts are a spicy cook in the restaurant, ranges from serviceIPHONE/ANDROID APP fish soup and fried tortillas stuffed with able to sublime. The menus include such potatoes and beef sausage. The margari- FOR MORE RESTAURANTS OR VISIT items as butter lettuce drizzled with sweet tas are practically perfect. $$ honey-truffle dressing, toasted almonds, and seattleweekly.com LOCKSPOT CAFE 3005 N.W. 54th St., lumps of chevre. You might be lucky enough 789-4865. The Lockspot is where you go to enjoy pork loin with a just-sweet pile of on special occasions—Sunday morning, for instance. braised red cabbage, or a stunning pan-roasted steelIt’s about bacon and eggs and meat and potatoes, solid head trout served on a bed of spinach and white beans family fare with a view of the boys on the barstools with a tangy fennel sauce. Be sure to check out the very cheering at the TV game. Besides the overflowing moderately priced list of West Coast wines. $ breakfast platters, the restaurant is known for its crispy fish and chips. Lockspot is located at . . . wait for it . . .

CAPITOL HILL the entrance to the Ballard Locks. $ CAFÉ PRESSE 1117 12th Ave., 709-7674. The jeans are a MATADOR 2221 N.W. Market St., 297-2855. The feel of Matador bit skinnier on this side of 12th, but on Sunday mornis South of the Border saloon: lots of wood, an open fire pit, ings, there are few finer pastimes than reading The and an elaborate wrought-iron doorway with a steel steer New York Times while scarfing down a petite omelet skull. The drinks are the focus at this Tex-Mex-inspired spot, and sipping on a Caffé Vita Americano, which the staff which makes for a fun, loud night out. But you can also get will happily refill with drip so you can get to the end of gigantic plates of tacos or enchiladas with slow-roasted Frank Bruni’s latest rant. $ tomatillo sauce. Weekend brunch is popular, too. $$ MR. GYRO’S 5522 20th Ave. N.W., 782-7777. In a city where there are Falafel Kings, this sandwich shop $ = $25 or less per person; $$ = $25–$40; $$$ = $40 and up. seems downright humble. The guys slicing the meat for These capsule reviews are written by editorial staff and Mr. Gyros’ pita-stuffed creations are happy to let their have nothing to do with advertising. For hundreds more customers spread the good word of mouth. After getting reviews, searchable by neighborhood and type of cuisine, big love in Greenwood, this Mister decided to expand to go to seattleweekly.com/food.

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so-hip-it-hurts Ballard. The not-so-secret technique that sets Mr. Gyros apart from competitors is the final sear on the grill after the meat is sliced. Mmmm. Smoky. Though one man’s smoke is another grumpy pants’ burned and bitter. If you would rather play at being a sandwich artist, opt for the shawarma plate. All the components are there, so you can stuff it the way you like. $ VIETNAM RESTAURANT 7040 15th Ave. N.W., 783-4310.

Offered in some 15 iterations, Vietnam Restaurant’s pho is as traditional and tasty as anything this side of Saigon. The delicious seafood pho is colorful, with red splashes of prawns bobbing amid the noodles, scallions, and sprouts. The spring rolls are especially notable, prepared with tender beef, pork, carrots, jicama, and glass noodles.

Nothing goes better with a steaming bowl of broth. $

Hudak stands before his canvas.

was interesting to me because they do a rinse of orange bitters. It’s really aromatic and it’s tequila-based,” says Hudak. “I took that cocktail and sort of made a variation. [Oliver’s Twist] uses Cynar and I like Cynar a lot, but I also like Punt e Mes, which is a little more bitter. So I’m doing Fernet, Punt e Mes, and reposado tequila and an orange-bitters rinse. I like really bitter cocktails.”

But does he have a name for it? “I don’t. Give me a moment, I’ll have a name for you.” After conferring with Artusi creator (and Spinasse chef) Jason Stratton, Hudak comes up with The Luchador.

The Verdict: The orange bitters and the Punt e Mes bring out the tequila’s spiciness, which creates a really well-balanced cocktail that has every reason to taste medicinal, but instead tastes wonderfully bitter, in the style of a Negroni. It’ll definitely put you in a choke hold, but breathing is overrated anyway. E food@seattleweekly.com

food&drink»Featured Eats BottomFeeder

business from Katsandres and would reopen it after a subtle face-lift. When the doors were unlocked in early » by mike seely December, Bad Albert’s was still serving its signature Dock Street Burger and had an identical floor plan. But the interior now has a darker hue, When Bad Albert’s opened and what was once a collection in the mid-’90s, Ballard Avenue of half-a-dozen small televisions was nowhere near the bustling has been upgraded to a fleet of nightlife and retail utopia that it is a dozen high-def flat-screens, today. King’s Hardware was actusignaling the Rockey brothers’ ally a hardware store, and more intent to compete head-to-head people showed up for first call with the Ballard Loft for the at 6 a.m. than for dinner at 6 p.m. sporting buff’s buck.

There have been a few Back then, an entrepreneur had updates to the menu, too, to buy into an “If you build it, they including bacon-wrapped will come” philosophy, so sleepy asparagus as an appetizer, was the historic thoroughfare.

Yet even when the strip delicious bacon gravy as a boasted a mere half-dozen topping for fries, and breakfast, The sign remains the same. watering holes, Bad Albert’s now offered every day instead flew under the urban of being restricted to weekends. spelunker’s radar, a simple, The music has gotten no hipper: clean bar and grill situated amid a scene which radiated On New Year’s Eve, Bad Albert’s welcomed Ed Taylor, either diviness or artiness (or, in the case of Hattie’s Hat, “the Northwest’s smoothest jazzman,” to its stage.

The news of Bad Albert’s closure was greeted by both) and turned up its nose at televised sports.

Owned by native Ballardite Steve Katsandres, Bad a chorus of sorrow, but admirers clearly took the bar for granted while Katsandres, who named it after an Albert’s served a signature burger and prime rib on overweight cat, was its proprietor. Thankfully, they’ve Friday, always had the big game on, and centered been granted a rare reprieve now that the Rockeys its live-music programming on blues, blues, and have faithfully restored the establishment. The lesson, more blues. It was notable for its ability to retain which hopefully will be taken to heart this time: There’s employees in a high-turnover industry, and humbly no sense waiting until a bar’s in peril to show it your stood as an Old Ballard bar on a strip on its way to appreciation. Show up early and often, and you’ll never epitomizing New Ballard in all its gentrified glory. have to cry in your beer. E Ultimately, Bad Albert’s pioneer status couldn’t save mseely@seattleweekly.com it, closing this past summer after weathering a string of financial hardships.

Shortly afterward, it was announced that the twin BAD ALBERT’S Rockey brothers, Shawn and Cory, had purchased the 5100 Ballard Ave. N.W., 782-9623, BALLARD LUCINDA SWAIN

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Fat Chance

A longtime foe of childhood obesity, Tom Colicchio WED CITZENS ESCAPE 1/11 METAMERIC • HORSEFLY in 2010 addressed a Congressional committee on 9:30PM • $6 the subject of improving school lunches. But on last week’s Top Chef, when a contestant succumbed to THUR BLOUSE 1/12 SEAPONY • DJ SHARLESE high blood pressure, nobody peeped about obesity.

9:30PM • $8 It’s pretty hip to urge tubby kids to exercise and eat IAN MOORE better: Colicchio, Ming Tsai, Maria Hines, and Sam Kass FRI SPANISH FOR 100 1/13 THE MAGIC MIRRORS have joined First Lady Michelle Obama in calling for 10:00PM • $8 increased rope-jumping and hula-hooping during nonschool hours. They want kids to eat more fruit and fewer LONESOME SHACK SAT SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR french fries. As Obama explained in a November address 1/14 THE CURIOUS MYSTERY to Partnership for a Healthier America, an active lifestyle 10:00PM • $7 is “critical for maintaining healthy blood pressure and cholesterol.” But chastising fellow adults for their diet SUN MATT THE HOOPLA FRIEL’S COMET 1/15 choices is still considered very bad manners —even if 9:30PM • $6 the lecture could provide a public service.

MON KUNG FU On Wednesday’s episode of Top Chef, Sarah 1/16 GRINDHOUSE Grueneberg of Chicago’s Spiaggia was overcome by 7PM • FREE heat while smoking chicken for a barbecue challenge.

TUE JOHN OLENTANGY As Colicchio wrote on his blog recapping the episode, 1/17 SPECIAL GUESTS 9:30PM • $6 it was 140 degrees near the pits. And the chefs weren’t just sunning themselves: They were manhandling DARK STATE LINES WED BUXTER HOOT’N massive briskets and running between stations.

1/18 SUNDAY EVENING WHISKEY CLUB But Grueneberg wasn’t rushed to the hospital 9:30PM • $6 because she was sweaty. The medic whistled when he read her blood pressure. That’s almost certainly THUR KURLY SOMTHING 1/19 KLED • PINK VOID a function of Grueneberg’s weight; according to the 9:30PM • $6 U.S. Surgeon General, high blood pressure is twice as common in obese adults.

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Would discussing Grueneberg’s weight embarrass her? Probably so, but she’s a contestant on a reality show, hardly a leading forum of dignified behavior. Is it Rated clinic in fair to fault Grueneberg for overeating when her teamWashington mates were filmed smoking? Perhaps not, but obesity is head judge Colicchio’s cause—and it’s interfering with Grueneberg’s ability to be a chef, let alone a top one.

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REGARDLESS OF LENGTH, MANDATE A PLAN FOR CONTINUOUS M Americans have a documented tendency to eat what’s CANNAPATH AUTHORIZATIONS IN COMPLIANCE WITH SENATE BILL FOR MEDICAL CANNABIS AUTHORIZATION put in front of them, regardless of their appetite levels.

It’s terrific that Colicchio and his peers are fighting for children’s health. But we shouldn’t tolerate in the kitchen what we condemn in the classroom. E

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music»

presents at DIMITRIOU’S

» PROFILE

Jingle All the Way

Noah Long’s greatest wish was to spend a day with a bunch of music geeks in Ballard who make the radio noise you don’t think twice about.

2033 6th Avenue (206) 441-9729 j a z z a l l e y. c o m

BY JULIA WATERHOUS

Grafitti with Special Guests Dennis Chambers and Gary Grainger

W

Reunion of Masters and 18 Year Celebration!

January 11

Arturo Sandoval

Grammy-Winning Internationally Recognized Afro-Cuban Trumpeter January 12 - 15

Chris Minh Doky & The Nomads with Dave Weckl

Innovative Master of the Upright Bass with Special Guest Drummer Extraordinaire January 17 – 18

Jeff Lorber Fusion w/ Special Guest Randy Brecker

Featuring Eric Marienthal, Lionel Cordew & Ron Jenkins January 19 - 22

MARK KAUFMAN

jingles for radio stations in cities across the country, and recording his own vocals atop pieces of ReelWorld’s jingles. “I’m planning on launching my own radio station this year,” Long says. “It’s just a fake radio station, but I’m hoping it will air at my school so I can show everyone what I’ve been working on.”

T

ucked upstairs in an unmarked former firehouse in Ballard, ReelWorld, founded in Seattle in 1995 by producers/composers Steve Thomas and Erik Huber, combines live vocals and instrumentals to create jingles, using the talents of moonlighting professional singers who can rely on jingle income to fill the monetary gaps left by the fickle entertainment industry.

“The purpose is to create a brand for the client so listeners can recognize the station just by the sound,” says Klein, who uses computer programs to manipulate the vocals from “We fuse the sonic brand of the ReelWorld’s national team station into the listener’s head, of singers and layer them so when they think radio . . . with songs and sounds of the radio they think of their station.” characteristic station the jingle is being created for.

“KUBE 93 is a rhythmic hit station and In 2008, Long’s grandfather contacted KBKS [aka 106.1 KISS FM] is mainstream,” ReelWorld’s director of sales, Mike Thomas, says Eric Powers, program director at Clear to see if the company would be willing to Channel Broadcasting, one of ReelWorld’s help Long create a jingle package—a set of many national clients. “ReelWorld makes sound clips—for his school’s radio station. imaging [radio lingo for sounds] that fits Thomas put the family in touch with that.” producer Klein, who worked with Long to Powers explains that radio stations concreate a custom package, free of charge. stantly need new jingles, because jingles that “I’ve never had a fan before,” Klein says. use songs from a year ago, or even a month After that, Long continued to follow Reelago, sound outdated. ReelWorld, he says, has World’s work, memorizing specific sets of

gained a reputation as one of the leading national jingle producers because they make it easy for radio stations to stay current by providing them with monthly updates for their jingles, instead of producing one jingle and leaving it to the station to update it themselves. “ReelWorld’s sounds are highquality and unique,” he says, “and they’re relentless in creating new sounds that are constantly innovative.”

Owner Steve Pigott, who ran Pure Tonic Media in the UK and became owner of ReelWorld after the two companies merged last March, attributes ReelWorld’s growing prosperity in part to its 2006 decision to provide this monthly jingle-update service. “We became a one-stop shop for jingles,” he says, “which is more efficient for the customer.”

Until about two years ago, ReelWorld had no more than seven employees in their office, and few global clients. Now, according to Thomas, the company has about 15 employees in the Ballard office and 50 around the world, with 1,500 global clients.

“This one station in Jakarta was the first automotive station, so I had to add car noises and screeches to every clip,” Klein says. “We also did a bunch of clips for a station in the Philippines that were really sappy and ballady—all about how they loved the station, not about how the listener would love it.”

Thomas points out in an e-mail that people still listen to radio, but spend less time doing so, making it more important for stations to make themselves memorable.

“This is where we come in—we fuse the sonic brand of the station into the listener’s head,” he says, “so when they think radio . . . they think of their station.” E music@seattleweekly.com

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hen the Make-a-Wish foundation asked Noah Long what wish they could help him fulfill, his reply was instantaneous: Fly to Seattle to meet producer Josh Klein and the staff of ReelWorld, a company that produces jingles, the short bits for radio that run between shows and identify stations.

“I was surprised by the request,” Make-a-Wish volunteer Alyssa Chrobuck says. “I hadn’t even heard of the company.”

Although travel from Long’s North Carolina home was more difficult because of his cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and blindness, the 18-year-old jingle aficionado wouldn’t entertain the idea of visiting any other jingle company, even though a major competitor, Dallas’ TM Studios, is much closer to his home. “There was no question for Noah what his wish would be—he knew he wanted to meet these people,” Long’s grandmother, Joy Boyette, confided.

“They’ve been wonderful.”

When Long arrived at ReelWorld in August, Craig Wallace, the company’s affiliate relations director, played a few seconds of a jingle on a computer and asked Long if he knew what city the jingle was used in. “Atlanta,” he replied, not missing a beat.

“Yep,” Wallace answered, and the two continued to playfully challenge each other: Wallace played clips, and Long rattled off the city and station associated with every jingle.

Long says he can memorize jingles after hearing them twice. “I love jingles because they identify something,” he says. “I’ll hear one I like, record it, play it back, and memorize it.”

Long’s fascination with ReelWorld began in 2007 when he discovered it was the company that produces the jingles for his local radio station in Raleigh. “I love how ReelWorld’s jingles sound because of the way they’re produced,” Long says. “The sounds are less human, more like something from outer space.”

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music»Column

The Customer Is Always Right

And other lies.

BY DUFF MCKAGAN

S E AT T L E W E E K LY • J A N U A RY 1 1 − 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

O

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K, I like good deals just like everyone else. There is a store with the initials B.B., right by my house, that specializes in, well, deals and markdowns. They sell TVs, computers, CDs, DVDs, washing machines, etc.

I went into the store the other day to get a new DVD player that would also be Wi-Fi ready so I can get the Netflix and whatnot.

The first thing I noticed was an almost Occupy-esque line to my right. Ah, the customer return line! Boy, was I glad I wouldn’t have to get into THAT! Unless you are a hermit, you’ve had to wait in one of those awful return lines in a big-box store at least once.

You know the ones I am talking about: The people are sweating and shifting their weight, trying to keep aloft whatever box or doo-dad they have. The line never moves.

It’s a funny thing: I never have any problem when I go into a store and need someone to help me buy something. It certainly is much easier to find someone to help you PART with your dough than to find someone to help problem-solve or rectify your retail problem du jour. But I was in luck, for I was in B.B. to part with my money. No problem there. Yet. The second thing I noticed was the three salesman dudes in blue shirts all vying for

Everyone in the sweaty, long-ass line had that steely “don’t-even-fuck-with-methis-is-gonna-suck” glare in their eyes. my attention. I chose one and headed for the DVD players. My guy proceeded to dazzle me with brands and capabilities and factoids. I was overcome. Really, I just took the box he gave me and proceeded to the checkout line.

When I got home and tried to hook up my new toy, it became apparent that this

apparatus was not compatible with my existing TV/stereo system. Oh, crap. I’d have to go stand in that line. This was not a good realization for me.

When I got to B.B. the next day, I was not disappointed by the size of the line . . . it was ginormous. I stood there like the good patron that I am. I shifted the weight of the box many hundreds of times. I shifted my feet. I put the box down. I picked the box up.

I got thirsty, but would in no way leave this line. No one would have let me back in, I was sure of that. Everyone in the sweaty, long-ass line had that steely “don’t-even-fuck-withme-this-is-gonna-suck” glare in their eyes.

Workers behind the desk, conversely, were comparing new apps for their phones.

Every time one of them got close to finishing one of their lengthy transactions with a miffed customer, another B.B. worker would sort of interrupt and tell their co-worker about what they did on New Year’s Eve. Nice.

We are in the boom time of the year for customer returns. With Christmas barely in our rearview mirrors, we are now all going in droves to those stores to return and exchange items. The parking lots are full, but all of that extra Christmas help is gone.

We are a culture of consumers. We have a whole assortment of ways to buy stuff. From the high-end boutique to the huge megastore where we buy in bulk, we have it all. But in this day and age, it seems that the customer comes last. From cranky airline employees to shitty home-mortgage hustlers to simple crap retail give-and-take, we have consumed ourselves into a place where the stuff we want often comes with a caveat of preassumed blaséness from the buyer and seller.

I for one am going strictly onlineshopping from here on out! E Duff McKagan is the founding bassist for Guns N’ Roses and the leader of Seattle’s Loaded. His column runs every Thursday on seattleweekly.com/reverb. His memoir, It’s So Easy (Simon & Schuster), is out now. askduff@seattleweekly.com

music»B-Sides » PREVIEW

Soft as Stone

Seattle’s contribution to the soul-revival canon is high on pedigree, light on soul.

BY BRIAN J. BARR

JASON TANG

Stone: Reaching.

A

llen Stone is a bespectacled white boy from around these parts—Chewelah, Wash., where his pappy was a preacher, to be exact. He wears a natty Cobain cardigan over a Sonics jersey, and has curly blonde hair and a gap-toothed grin. And the falsetto-driven soul music he sings is making him a rising figure in this latest retro-soul blip. His selftitled sophomore effort (released October 4) peaked at #2 on iTunes’ R&B/Soul chart and has garnered praise from USA Today and NPR. He even played on Conan. Of course, we could examine the sociopolitical mumbojumbo of an odd-looking white kid seated in the colored section and reaping all the rewards, but that topic has been bludgeoned nearly to death (Elvis, Beasties, Eminem, etc.) The real question we should be asking: Is Allen Stone’s music any good?

Seattleites seem to think so. His two Neptune shows this weekend have sold out.

And his publicity hounds boast of him as the heir apparent to Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye—probably because it’d be less hip to

say he sounds like Hall & Oates on “Rich Girl” or Billy Joel singing “Tell Her About It,” which he really does. Regardless, Stone’s sound is pure yesterday’s soul, emulated quite well by a backing band comprising Raphael Saadiq’s players as well as Darren Johnson, who played keys for Miles Davis.

Given that army, it’s no wonder listeners are so easily sucked into his vibe—in this era of super-sheen, his band creates the auditory equivalent of an old Polaroid, full of Hammond B3 whirls and funky guitars reverberating through vintage tube amps.

But Stone’s lyrics make it clear he’s rooted firmly in the present. On album opener “Celebrate Tonight,” he sings “Everybody’s feeling the strain of a 9-to-5” before urging listeners to “leave all your deadlines behind” and join him in being fully present with his music. A teacher through and through,

music@seattleweekly.com ALLEN STONE With the Seattle Rock Orchestra. Neptune, 1303 N.E. 45th St., 682-1414, stgpresents.org.

Sat., Jan. 7–Sun., Jan. 8. Sold out.

Seattle weekly • JaNUaRy 11 − 17, 2012

Stone’s not trying to breathe new life into the soul genre; the freshest thing he brings is his looks.

Stone’s lyrics are loaded with rebukes of our society’s drive for upward mobility and obsession with constant busyness: “Whatever keeps you occupied/Whatever gives you a contact high/ . . . will never make you satisfied,” he sings on “Contact High.”

But Stone’s thin falsetto doesn’t pack the punch necessary to pull off lines like this. For the most part, his pleas for self-reflection are more Oprah than Stevie—most obvious in “Nothing to Prove,” where he urges listeners to “Get your act together/It’s really all up to you/Life is always better when you have nothing to prove.”

What Stone lacks is grit. In The New York Times recently, he was quoted in concert saying he’s “sick and tired of soul music looking so crisp and clean and proper! Because my soul—I said my soul!—is just a little bit greasy.” And perhaps that’s his problem— he only appears down-and-dirty. Whereas Sharon Jones takes the stage looking as fancy as Liz Taylor on the red carpet, then bares her sweaty, greasy soul for all, the greasiest thing about Stone is probably his hair.

Stone’s dirty little secret is that he’s got everything it takes to get noticed in the Internet era. What he has going for him is that he’s not trying to breathe new life into the soul genre (Janelle Monáe’s got that covered); the downside is that the freshest thing he brings is his looks. Intentionally or not, his unstudied attire and un-plastic face make him stand out from the cosmetic masses. He seems real, which is more than you can say for most everyone else on the music charts. He’s a publicist’s dream come true—forget the music, the dude sells himself on curb appeal alone!

But that’s the problem. Though Stone’s songs, like Adele’s, sound human and warm— a sound you don’t hear regularly these days— it’s hard to imagine anyone listening to them long-term. They just don’t offer much to chew on. Twenty years down the road, when people want to listen to soul-music excellence, they’ll reach for Talking Book and Lean on Me . . . just as they always have. E

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» DISPATCHES FROM OUR MUSIC BLOG AT SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM/REVERB

Smells Like Nasty Delicious

BY CHRIS KORNELIS

» TELL ME ABOUT THAT SONG

A Knight’s Tale A look inside the making of A Lot Like Birds’ most personal song yet.

BY JOE WILLIAMS A lot went into writing your favorite song, but how much do you really know about it? This week Cory Lockwood, vocalist of Sacramento progressive-hardcore six-piece A Lot Like Birds, delves into secret phone conversations, spider-filled rooms, and Heath Ledger.

Song: “The Blowtorch Is Applied to the Sugar” Album: Conversation Piece Release Date: Sept. 2011 When it was written: A vague, hazy period of months before the summer of 2011.

Where it was written: Half in a white-walled room in Sacramento. Half in a white-walled, spider-filled room in Portland.

What was your inspiration for writing the song?

The wave that broke our writer’s block was actually a phone call between Kurt [vocalist] and myself, while I was in Portland recording and he was still in California, preparing to make the trip up north. He had watched a Heath Ledger movie that reminded him of a particular situation that he and I share in common [secret], and we talked for a long time about it and decided it was time to use it for a song.

What is the meaning behind the song? It’s the most personal song on the album entirely. Since a lot of the songs stemmed from conversations that Kurt and I had in the process of getting to know each other and bonding on past mistakes and similarities, this one fits into there as the most exposing piece, since it was our most exposing conversation. Without spilling an even more personal confession, I can say that the song deals with the idea of deciding if love is truly attainable more than once or if it can only be replicated in fractions of its initial power. E music@seattleweekly.com

S E AT T L E W E E K LY • J A N U A RY 1 1 − 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

A LOT LIKE BIRDS With Just Like Vinyl, I the Mighty. El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., 381-3094. $8 adv./$10 DOS. All ages. 7 p.m. Sun., Jan. 15.

30

» INDUSTRIAL NOISE

Golden Oldies Album sales rose in 2011 thanks to cheap catalog records from the likes of Public Enemy.

BY CHRIS KORNELIS If there was a poster child for the music industry in 2011—a year in which album sales ticked up for the first time since 2004—there’s no question it’d be Adele, the British soul singer who has sold six million copies of her sophomore album 21 since its release last February.

But the records largely responsible for this uptick were not released in 2011—most of them not in this decade.

Catalog titles—records released more than 18 months ago—sold almost 9 percent better in 2011 than in 2010. And of those, “deep catalog” titles—ones released at least three years ago—did even better,

You’ve seen Craig Robinson in The Office Office, Knocked Up Up, Zack & Miri Make a Porno Porno, and Hot Tub Time Machine Machine, just to name a few of his myriad appearances on the big and small screen. Before he brings his stand-up routine and band, The Nasty Delicious, to the Neptune on Thursday, Robinson took a few minutes to answer the questions in our Reverb Questionnaire. Here’s what he told us about Nirvana, dancing with Prince, and Susan Sarandon: SW: What music have you been listening to today? Did you like it?

Robinson: I am currently in Rio de Janeiro, and I have been listening to a tune called “Funk,” and it is awesome. They play it here for like an hour while other songs play over it. I love it.

When was the last time you heard “Stairway to Heaven”?

Did you turn it off?

Ummm . . . like three weeks ago at—no, that was “Dream On.” I last heard “Stairway to Heaven” at a bar in Hollywood, like a year ago, and it was on the radio so I couldn’t turn it off.

I left.

What was the first band/artist you saw in concert? Would you see them again?

First band I saw was the Jackson 5. And hell yes, I would see them again except for . . . never mind.

What was the last band/artist you saw in concert? Worth your time?

Last band I saw was my band, The Nasty Delicious, and it was so worth my time I became a groupie!!! Then things got awkward and I went back to bandleader.

When you sing karaoke, what’s your go-to number?

»

Reverb Questionnaire is a list of (mostly) static questions we pose to folks primarily outside the music industry. The questions are all answered via e-mail.

My karaoke go-to number, Saturday at midnight, crowd is hot, and drunk, and hungry . . . ”Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. Fuhgettaboutit!!!!

How do you feel about ABBA? I’ve got two words for ABBA . . . ”Dancing Queen.” I really like that song.

What is the last song you want to hear before you die?

Last song before I die . . . ”Windmills of Your Mind”

by Michel Legrand. Now every time I hear it, I’m probably going to look around nervously.

Please share a favorite musical moment/story from your past.

I went to see Prince five times at the Forum in Los Angeles. On the last show I attended, one of his singers, Shelby, pulled me up onstage (there were probably 40 other people as well), and I danced onstage with her and Susan Sarandon and Prince’s dancers, who are known as the Twins. Because they are twins. And I have video to prove it!!

Last question: If you had a hot tub time machine, when, where, and who would you go back to, and how do you envision the situation unfolding?

If I had a hot tub time machine, I would go to the Neptune in Seattle, Jan. 12, 2012, and rock the balls off the joint. E

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do MK Speed Dial looks back at its best, and last, memories.

BY ERIN K. THOMPSON THE SITUATION I’m spending a stormy evening at the Forge Lounge with the four members of MK Speed Dial: 20-somethings Brandon Jaffe, Adam Parker, Scotty Rickard, and Jon Wesley. After three years together, MK Speed Dial (the name is a random reference to MaryKate Olsen’s connection to Heath Ledger’s 2008 accidental death) is preparing to play their last show. Jaffe, one of the band’s two principal songwriters and lead singers (Rickard is the other), is moving to New York City to seek his fortune in just a couple of weeks.

HOW THEY GOT HERE Jaffe will be leaving a job at the Showbox, where he works alongside Rickard “settling with bands, walking out drunks, and making sure security breaks up fights.”

“George Clinton’s band had to be asked to stop smoking so much crack,” says Rickard,

music@seattleweekly.com CRAIG ROBINSON & THE NASTY DELICIOUS Neptune, 1303 N.E. 45th St., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.org. $25 adv./$30 DOS. All ages. 8 p.m. Thurs., Jan. 12.

TELL ME ABOUT THAT HIPSTER

One Question for Portlandia’s Carrie Brownstein SW: What’s the difference between Portland and Seattle hipsters?

Brownstein: I think Portland and Seattle are pretty similar. But when we did our live shows, there was a difference. It had nothing to do with hipsters. This guy in Portland asked the question: “There’s a lot of places like Portland. But what makes us different?” And I said, “Well, just the fact that you need to know that, is what makes Portland different.” Portland, definitely, has a sense of, like, “Why are we special?” CHRIS KORNELIS Portlandia’s second season is airing on IFC. Portlandia

ckornelis@seattleweekly.com

rising 12 percent, according to numbers released last week by Nielsen SoundScan. New releases, on the other hand, sold 4 percent worse in 2011 than 2010.

This isn’t normal: Catalog titles don’t usually account for such a large chunk of album sales. Dave Bakula, SoundScan’s senior vice president of analytics, says catalog titles typically made up about 54 percent of sales, but accounted for 60 percent of the albums sold last year. “I think we’re at a place now where catalog is probably at its biggest share [of sales],” says Bakula.

So does that mean Grandpa’s right—they really don’t make ’em like they used to? Not necessarily.

Brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers—and anyone else selling hard copies of records—moved more copies of catalog records thanks to steep discounts on wholesale costs from major labels. Ballard’s Sonic Boom, for example, is selling Public Enemy’s 1990 classic, Fear of a Black Planet, for $5.99—$4 cheaper than on iTunes. But the more expensive digital copies (who thought we’d ever be saying that?) of catalog records grew even faster than physical sales,

» THROUGH @ 2

climbing nearly 20 percent year-over-year.

“What we’re seeing is that catalog proves its value over time in the sense that boomers are buying it, replacing CDs with digital files,” says Gartner analyst Mike McGuire, who follows the music industry. “But increasingly, a lot of young folks are finding [catalog records].”

Higher sales numbers on lower prices have been good for industry morale and for gargantuan record stores like Queen Anne’s Silver Platters, which has acres of shelves to fill. But it hasn’t been as beneficial for boutique record stores. Jason Hughes, owner of Sonic Boom, says that he’ll sell catalog records like Black Planet for a pittance to stay competitive, but he’s not selling enough to make up for the richer margins of a record which retails above $10.

Bakula says whether or not the low-price catalog model is sustainable is a question that “both the retailers and content owners are going to have to answer” in 2012. E ckornelis@seattleweekly.com

MICHAEL SPADONI

music»Reverb

recalling on-the-job memories. “[At that show], a kid who couldn’t get in because he wasn’t 21 climbed through the air ducts and fell through the roof onto the guitar tech during the show.”

“The bartender was like, ‘It’s raining white people!,’ ” says Jaffe. “That [story’s] legendary.”

SHOP TALK MK Speed Dial’s final show at the Rendezvous will also serve as the release show for their second EP, the conclusively titled Here It Is. The five songs are youthful and punchy. “One of the songs [“I Wish She’d Call Me”] is about cell-phone stress,” says Rickard. “I wrote it specifically about this girl I was dating, and I knew she was going to break up with me, and she wouldn’t call me back or text me back. I was like, ‘I can’t deal with this! Just do it!’ ” “I think those are the best lyrics you’ve ever written,” says Jaffe.

BTW: I ask each band member for their favorite MK Speed Dial memory, now that it’s all coming to an end. Wesley loved playing Neumos, his favorite venue; Parker picks opening for Miike Snow at the Showbox SoDo back in 2010—“Biggest stage, most people,” he says. “It felt like our peak performance.”

Rickard and Jaffe go with more low-key moments—Rickard chooses the band’s beginnings in the basement of his tiny house; Jaffe names a costume party they played in West Seattle two Halloweens ago. “We played in a basement and it was just packed,” he says.

“We kept breaking strings and everything was all fucked up, but we just had a great time.” E ethompson@seattleweekly.com MK SPEED DIAL With Ships, Wimps.

JewelBox/Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., 441-5823. $5.10 p.m. Fri., Jan. 13.

Seattle weekly • JaNUaRy 11 − 17, 2012

31

music»TheShortList dinner & show Black-metal brothers Wolves in the Throne Room.

FRI/JANUARY 13 • 8PM

w/ adam sweeney SAT/JANUARY 14 • 8PM

apple jam’s

beatles & solo years retrospective SUN/JANUARY 15 • 7:30PM

frank vignola

FRI/JANUARY 20 • 7:30PM & 10PM

left hand smoke SAT/JANUARY 21 • 7:30PM

CHRIS BEUG

zoe muth & the lost high rollers

David Dondero WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11

Singer/songwriter David Dondero is a ramblin’ man, a troubadour, considered by some a modern-day Woody Guthrie—an artist as committed to an experience of authentic American life as to the exalted prose he crafts in response to it. He’s crisscrossed the nation from road trip to road trip, navigating through an endless highway of characters linked through rich, regional shades of the American landscape. “Wherever you go/ then there you are,” he sings on “Wherever You Go,” off his latest album # Zero With a Bullet, a track sandwiched between “Carolina Moon” and a song about po’boys. Sufjan Stevens once boasted he’d score an album for each of the 50 states, but in his succinct seven-album catalog, Dondero has genuine

pasatempo rebetika

EDITOR’S PICK

TUE/JANUARY 24 • 7:30PM

S E AT T L E W E E K LY • J A N U A RY 1 1 − 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

johnny a

32

next • 1/27 suzanne westenhoefer • 1/28 the big gig • 1/29 lisa koch birthday bash! • 2/1 teitur w/ aunt martha • 2/3 locarno

• 1/11 alika lyman • 1/12 satellite 4 • 1/13 joe doria • 1/14 levi ware • 1/15 gavin guss • 1/17 closed for a private event until 7:30pm • 1/18 kane mathis TO ENSURE THE BEST EXPERIENCE

PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY DOORS OPEN 1.5 HOURS PRIOR TO FIRST SHOW ALL-AGES (BEFORE 9:30PM)

thetripledoor.net 216 UNION STREET, SEATTLE 206.838.4333

Fuller. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave., 7893599. 8 p.m. $10. GWENDOLYN ELLIOTT

Bryan John Appleby THURSDAY, JANUARY 12

As scruffy, folky troubadours go, Seattle pretty much has the market cornered. But while many of his local counterparts’ worldviews begin and end with bedroom-bound acoustic strumming, Bryan John Appleby’s world is a much more colorful, interesting place. As a songwriter he’s staggeringly well-balanced, writing spindly, splintered narratives of lovelorn lost souls that exist as sentimental but strong characters—the kind you feel sympathy for, but who never fall into spineless, woe-is-me territory. On his first full-length LP, Fire on the Vine, Appleby’s gentle voice and acoustic foundations get fleshed out into fully fledged, masterfully polished arrangements while still retaining the intimacy of a living-room performance. With Motopony, Tomten. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9442.

8 p.m. $8. GREGORY FRANKLIN

Hot New Sounds From Oly

MON/JANUARY 23 • 7:30PM A CHINESE NEW YEAR’S CONCERT

*

retort, “Who cares—it’s THE BEST SONG EVER!” If your heart pumps nitrous and you prefer to wear your Vans ’til they fall apart, it’s virtually impossible not to have a good time at a Fu show. Tonight is extra-special, as they’re celebrating the reissue of . . . In Search Of and will play the whole bongload from start to finish. With Helms Alee, Witchburn.

El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., 381-3094.

8 p.m. $13 adv./$15 DOS. HANNAH LEVIN

The Fucking Eagles SATURDAY, JANUARY 14

This rollicksome Tacoma group is one of the local bands most effective at transcribing ’50s-style R&B/dance as guitar-led happy punk. On the surface, their sound seems something like Jet’s if Jet weren’t lame, with friendly love/out-of-love lyrics that emit a self-aware poppiness. But don’t be fooled— there’s a competent rock foundation beneath the smiley sheen, as foretold by their totally rad (probably Big Lebowski–influenced) moniker, which delightfully belies their sonic jolliness and makes one respect them even more.

It’s one thing to make infectious dance-rock, another to kick ass while doing it. With the Suicide Notes, The Snap. Funhouse, 206 Fifth Ave. N., 374-8400. 9:30 p.m. $6. TODD HAMM

FRIDAY, JANUARY 13

CAPTURED TRACKS

geoffrey castle and lucy wu

tales of each one. With Ghosts I’ve Met, Levi

BLOUSE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 12

This Portland trio—bassist Patrick Adams, breathy vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Charlie Hilton, and producer/ multi-instrumentalist Jacob Portrait, who also plays with fellow PDX band Unknown Mortal Orchestra—had a busy 2011. They released a single on Brook Brooklyn’s Captured Tracks, another on Sub Pop, and a self-titled full-length back on Captured Tracks in early November. The popularity of dreamy haze-pop is wellestablished by now, and in the wake of M83 and quieter successes like Sub Pop signees Still Corners and Seattle’s own Seapony, Blouse’s detached and gauzy sounds don’t exactly sound new. But that doesn’t mean they’re not worth listening to—their best song, “Videotapes,” employs muted beats, screwy synths, and spacey lyrics (“You’re not in my hands/ But I often see you in my head”) to connote a beautiful sense of a climaxing, joyous daze. With Seapony, DJ Sharlese.

Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave. N.W., 784-4880. 9:30 p.m. $8. ERIN K. THOMPSON

The dream of the ’90s is also alive in Olympia, where, of course, it never really left. It’s still a dirt-cheap town to live in, sleepy enough that you have to make your own fun, but with a rich tradition of punk and indie rock and always animated by fresh influxes of college kids. But the three bands touted here as “hot new sounds” also hew to a more specific dream of the ’90s—one where punk draws outside its own self-imposed three-chord lines and indie rock turns up the scuzz until the two meet in the middle, looking kind of like Homestead Records. Gun Outfit contrasts bright, clean riffs with sardonic, deadpan singing; Milk Music throws fuzzy guitars and purposeful screams against a tumbling rhythm section; Broken Water treads alternately sludgy and clear currents, with male/female vocals that recall prime Sonic Youth. A stellar show, even before you get to Seattle space rockers Kinski.

With Kinski. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 324-8005. 9 p.m. $8. ERIC GRANDY

Fu Manchu

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14

It has been said that Fu Manchu has only one song—an anthemic, humorously distorted stoner-rock riff played ad nauseam over a wind tunnel of percussion and best delivered via the blown speakers of a vintage muscle car. Let’s be frank: This actually is an undisputed truth, but one to which I consistently

Wolves in the Throne Room TUESDAY, JANUARY 17

North American black metal has been gathering steam for some years now, with in-depth profiles in The Believer, prominent reviews on Pitchfork, and fuel for the fire in the form of OG Norwegian black-metal documentary Until the Light Takes Us. (I think Skyrim fits in here somehow, too.) The niche style has even developed a couple of outstanding crossover acts. In Brooklyn, “transcendental” black metal act Liturgy brings the form classical training and theoretical frameworks. Locally, we have Mount Eerie’s earnest tinkering with the idea of black metal and Olympia’s Wolves in the Throne Room’s far more direct, though still distinctive, take on the genre. On records such as last year’s Celestial Lineage, Wolves stretches both black metal’s symphonic tendencies and its guttural blasts to their ends in service of a non-denominational pagan/ eco-mystical worldview. We’re lucky to have them in our backyard. With Master Musicians of Bukkake, Druden. Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-4618. 8 p.m. $13. ERIC GRANDY

xBLOG ON » MUSIC

SHOW REVIEWS EVERY MORNING

SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM/REVERB

Seattle weekly • JaNUaRy 11 − 17, 2012

33

CONCERT SERIES

FRI JAN 20 • ALL AGES SAT JAN 21 • 21+ (SOLD OUT!)

7:30PM DOORS MARKET

SAT JAN 28 • SODO 8PM DOORS • ALL AGES

seven»nights

FRI JAN 27 • MARKET 8PM DOORS • 21+

THU FEB 2 • SODO 8PM DOORS • ALL AGES

with FILASTINE FRI FEB 3 • SODO 6:30PM DOORS ALL AGES

FRI FEB 10 • SODO 7PM DOORS • ALL AGES

MUTEMATH THEESatisfaction will open for Theophilus London at Neumos on Tuesday, January 17.

THU FEB 16 • MARKET 7:30PM DOORS • ALL AGES

CHRISTINE TAYLOR

WED FEB 15 • MARKET 7PM DOORS • ALL AGES

with ROBERT FRANCIS JUST ADDED!

with WARBRINGER

Concerts

FRI FEB 24 • MARKET 8PM DOORS • ALL AGES

SLEIGH BELLS S e at t l e w e e k ly • J a N U aRy 1 1 − 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

628-3151. Steel Panther, 7 p.m., $16 adv./$20 DOS.

TRACTOR TAVERN: David Dondero: SEE SHORT LIST, P. 23.

This Week

JAZZ/BLUES

DIMITRIOU’S JAZZ ALLEY: 2033 Sixth Ave., Seattle,

THURSDAY, JAN. 12

ON SALE SAT@10AM!

BEATLEMANIA LIVE!: 7 p.m., $10-$30. Snoqualmie Casino,

37500 S.E. N. Bend Way, Snoqualmie, 425-888-1234.

SATURDAY, JAN. 14

ALLEN STONE & SEATTLE ROCK ORCHESTRA: SEE

B-SIDE, P. 29.

441-9729. Grafitti, with Dennis Chambers, Gary Grainger., 7:30 p.m., $22.50.

MUSICQUARIUM LOUNGE: 216 Union St., Seattle, 838-4333. Alika Lyman, All ages., 5 p.m., NC.

Thursday 12

SUNDAY, JAN. 15

TUE MAY 8 • MARKET 8PM DOORS • 21+

34

SHOWBOX AT THE MARKET: 1426 First Ave., Seattle,

YANN TIERSEN UP AND COMING:

ROCK/POP/INDIE

CHOP SUEY: 1325 E. Madison St., Seattle,

ALLEN STONE & SEATTLE ROCK ORCHESTRA: SEE B-SIDE, P. 29.

ON SALE NOW!

FASCINATION STREET AND NITE WAVE | JAN 14 | MARKET • THEORY OF

A DEADMAN | JAN 22 | MARKET • WU-TANG CLAN | JAN 25 | SODO | SOLD OUT! • THE DUSTY 45S |

FEB 3 | MARKET • FLOWMOTION IS THE TRUE SPOKES | FEB 4 | MARKET • PUSAFEST 2012 FEAT. THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | FEB 17-19 | MARKET • BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB |

FRI • ALL AGES FEB 18 JAN | THE20 CROCODILE • DIE ANTWOORD | FEB 20 | MARKET • MORGAN PAGE | FEB 25 | MARKET • SAT JAN 21 • 21+

REBELUTION | FEB 25 | SODO • SOJA | MAR 1 | MARKET • G. LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE | MAR 2 | MARKET • KELLER WILLIAMS | MAR 3 | MARKET • UMPHREY’S MCGEE | MAR 22 | MARKET • KAISER CHIEFS | MAR

23 | MARKET • GALACTIC | MAR 23 | SODO • MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE | MAR 28 | SODO • DARK STAR ORCHESTRA | MAR 29 & 30 | MARKET

SHOWBOX AT THE MARKET 1426 1ST AVENUE SHOWBOX SODO 1700 1ST AVENUE S. SHOWBOXONLINE.COM

324-8000. SPORTS, with Pegasus Dream, The Fascination Movement, Tito Ramsey., 8 p.m., $7.

TUESDAY, JAN. 17 COMET TAVERN: 922 E. Pike St., Seattle, CITY AND COLOUR: All ages., 8 p.m., $25 322-9272. Sandrider, with Lesbian, Brokaw., adv./$30 DOS. Neptune Theatre, 1303 NE 9 p.m., $7.

45th St., Seattle, 877-784-4849.

EL CORAZON: 109 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, 381-3094. Gunmetal Grey, with Pill Brigade, Grasp Logic, Coitus, Medic Medic All ages, 8 p.m., $8.

FUNHOUSE: 206 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle, T H I S CO D E 374-8400. Airpocalypse, with SuperNothing, TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE Prat Attack, Explement., 9:30 p.m., $5.

SEATTLE WEEKLY HENRY ART GALLERY: 4100 15th Ave. N.E., IPHONE/ANDROID APP FOR MORE CONCERTS OR VISIT Seattle, 543-2280. Tender Forever, with Your Heart Breaks All ages., 7 p.m., $10-$12. seattleweekly.com NEUMOS: Bryan John Appleby: SEE SHORT ROCK/POP/INDIE LIST, P. 23.

COMET TAVERN: 922 E. Pike St., Seattle, 322-9272.

SUNSET TAVERN: Blouse: SEE SHORT LIST, P. 23.

Learning Team, with The Royal Sea, Kithkin, The Slacks., 9 p.m., $6.

COUNTRY/FOLK/ROOTS EL CORAZON: 109 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, 381-3094. Jupiter, 418 PUBLIC HOUSE: 418 NW 65th St., Seattle, 783-0418. with Letters, Oceans On Fire, 8:30 p.m., $6 adv./$8 DOS. Molly Gene The One Whoaman Band, with Crosby Tyler, FUNHOUSE: 206 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle, 374-8400. How To Dan Infecto., 9 p.m., NC. Operate Your Brain, with Case and Ctrl., 9:30 p.m., $5.

BLUE MOON TAVERN: 712 N.E. 45th St., Seattle, 675-9116.

HIGH DIVE: 513 N. 36th St., Seattle, 632-0212. Luminol, with The Brambles, with Dayton Stone, Kate Logan., 9 p.m., $5.

We Are Aarows, Capture, The Light., 8 p.m., $6.

COLUMBIA CITY THEATER: 4918 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, JEWELBOX/RENDEZVOUS: 2322 Second Ave., Seattle, 723-0088. Danny Barnes, with Spoonshine, Ali Marcus., 441-5823. Crooked Smile, with Quiet Nights, Bent Knee., 8 p.m., $10.

9 p.m., $5.

CONOR BYRNE: 5140 Ballard Ave. N.W., Seattle, 784-3640.

NEUMOS: 925 E. Pike St., Seattle, 709-9467. Mico de Day Laborers and Petty Intellectuals, 9 p.m.

Noche, with He Whose Ox is Gored, White Orange, Ancient Warlocks., 8 p.m., $7.

JAZZ/BLUES DIMITRIOU’S JAZZ ALLEY: 2033 Sixth Ave., Seattle, 441-9729. Arturo Sandoval, Jan. 12-14, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m.; Send events to music@seattleweekly.com Sun., Jan. 15, 7:30 p.m., $28.50.

Club Listings Wednesday 11

SCAN

seven»nights EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE: 1707 N.W. Market St.,

Seattle, 789-1621. Tracy Spring, with Jeff Knoch., 7 p.m., $8.

THE TRIPLE DOOR: 216 Union St., Seattle, 838-4333. Zoe

Muth & The Lost High Rollers, with Adam Sweeney All ages., 8 p.m., $12 adv./$15 DOS.

Friday 13

FUNK/SOUL

ROCK/POP/INDIE

Saturday 14

BLUE MOON TAVERN: 712 N.E. 45th St., Seattle, 675-9116.

Sound on the Sound’s Birthday Party, with Hot Damn, Dude York, The Golden Blondes., 10 p.m., $8.

CHOP SUEY: Hot New Sounds From Oly: SEE SHORT LIST, P. 23.

CROCODILE: 2200 Second Ave., Seattle, 441-7416. Who’s Bad: The Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Band, 8 p.m., $15.

DARRELL’S TAVERN: 18041 Aurora Ave. N., Seattle, 542-6688. The Local Dudes, with Can’t Complain, Brian Ledford., 9 p.m., $5.

EL CORAZON: 109 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, 381-3094.

Norma Beach, with The Jason Childs Band, 9 p.m., $8 adv./$10 DOS. FUNHOUSE: 206 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle, 374-8400. Thee Cormans, with Le Sang Song, Broomsticks, Telemesser., 9:30 p.m., $8.

JEWELBOX/RENDEZVOUS: MK Speed Dial: SEE THROUGH @ 2: P. 30.

NEUMOS: 925 E. Pike St., Seattle, 709-9467. Hell’s Belles, with Stone Axe, Palooka., 8 p.m., $13.

Q CAFE: 3223 15th Ave. W., Seattle, 352-2525. Plant Party, with Ambulance, Friday at the Lake, Brandon Keeley All ages., 8 p.m., $8.

SKYLARK CAFE & CLUB: 3803 Delridge Way S.W., Seattle, 935-2111. Sweet Secrets, with Poland., 9 p.m., $5.

COUNTRY/FOLK/ROOTS

COLUMBIA CITY THEATER: 4918 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle,

723-0088. Smokey Brights, with Brother Bear, Sean Flinn & The Royal We., 9 p.m., $8.

CONOR BYRNE: 5140 Ballard Ave. N.W., Seattle, 784-3640.

Half Brothers, 9 p.m.

SLIM’S LAST CHANCE CHILI SHACK & WATERING HOLE: 5606 First Ave. S., Seattle, 762-7900. Texas

Rangers, with Shivering Denizens, 800 Mile Monday, The Dan Family., 9 p.m.

SORRENTO HOTEL: 900 Madison St., Seattle, 622-6400.

Star Anna, All ages., 7:30 p.m., NC.

THE TRIPLE DOOR: 216 Union St., Seattle, 838-4333. Joe

Doria, 9:30 p.m., NC.

ROCK/POP/INDIE

CHOP SUEY: 1325 E. Madison St., Seattle, 324-8000. The

Young Evils, with Land Of Pines., 9 p.m., $8.

COMET TAVERN: 922 E. Pike St., Seattle, 322-9272. Amy

Bleu, 4 p.m., $5; The Awfully Sudden Death of Martha G, with Sundries, Quickie, The Hardcount., 9 p.m., $6.

EL CORAZON: Fu Manchu: SEE SHORT LIST, P. 23.

FUNHOUSE: The Fucking Eagles: SEE SHORT LIST, P. 23.

JEWELBOX/RENDEZVOUS: 2322 Second Ave., Seattle, 441-5823. Watch It Sparkle, with Branden Daniel & the Chics, Lazy Animals., 10 p.m., $7.

STUDIO SEVEN: 110 S. Horton St., Seattle, 286-1312.

Lacero, with Nether, December In Red, Eros All ages., 7 p.m., $10 adv./$12 DOS. TRACTOR TAVERN: 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., Seattle, 789-3599. School Of Rock Presents the Songs of Neil Young, 5 p.m., $10 adv./$12 DOS. THE TRIPLE DOOR: 216 Union St., Seattle, 838-4333. Apple Jam, All ages., 8 p.m., $29 adv./$34 DOS. THE WILD ROSE: 1021 E. Pike St., Seattle, 324-9210. Brush Off, with Glitterbang, Vox Mod, DJs Timmy Taco and Sh6rl6s6., 9 p.m., $5.

HIP-HOP/R&B

CROCODILE: 2200 Second Ave., Seattle, 441-7416. Metal

Chocolates, with The New Law, Dead Noise, WD4D., 8 p.m., $8.

HIGH DIVE: 513 N. 36th St., Seattle, 632-0212. Ripynt, with Spekulation, Sarx, DJ Seabefore., 10 p.m., $7.

COUNTRY/FOLK/ROOTS

COLUMBIA CITY THEATER: 4918 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle,

723-0088. Honkey Tonk Angels Night, with Zoe Muth, Kaylee Cole, Shelby Earl, The Rachem Mae Band, The Brambles, Side Saddle., 9 p.m., $15.

CONOR BYRNE: 5140 Ballard Ave. N.W., Seattle, 784-3640.

Rory James & Wind River, with Pancake Breakfast., 9 p.m.

Seattle weekly • JaNUaRy 11 − 17, 2012

35

LUCKY

GREENHOUSE AND LIGHT

OPEN NOON TILL CLOSE EVERY DAY!

206.682.8222

3323 3rd Ave S. Suite 100B Seattle, WA 98134

Events

SAT. JAN. 28

SEATTLE’S ANNUAL LUNAR NEW YEAR FESTIVAL

Free Stuff

Photo of the Week

WIN A TRIP FOR 2 TO PALM SPRINGS!

RESOLUTION RUN 5K AND POLAR BEAR DIVE

WHERE: HING HAY PARK

tractor www.tractortavern.com

5213 BALLARD AVE. NW • 789-3599

WED, 1/11 8PM ~ $8ADV/$10DOS INDIE FOLK SINGER/SONGWRITER

SAT, 1/14 9:30PM ~ $8 HEARTY FOLK-POP

LEVI FULLER GHOSTS I’VE MET

CUMULUS FORT UNION

THUR, 1/12 9PM ~ $8 LIGHTNING FAST STRING-BAND

SUN, 1/15 8PM ~ $12 ALT-FOLK SINGER/SONGWRITER

S E AT T L E W E E K LY • J A N U A RY 1 1 − 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

DAVID DONDERO

36

LARRY AND HIS FLASK

RATS IN THE GRASS THE LOAD LEVELERS FRI, 1/13 9PM ~ $20 KING OF THE SURF GUITAR

DICK DALE

DEAD MAN SAT, 1/14 EARLY SHOW 5PM ~ $10 ADV/$12 DOS

SCHOOL OF ROCK PRESENTS

THE SONGS OF NEIL YOUNG ALL AGES/BAR WITH ID FOR MORE INFO VISIT SCHOOLOFROCK.COM

GOLD LEAVES

TONY FURTADO BAND TBA

TUES, 1/17 8PM ~ $6 LOCAL COUNTRY ROCK

THE BOURBONITES PALATINE AVE BRET PHILLIPS

& THE WORKING CLASS DISEASE WED, 1/18 8PM ~ $6 MELODIC INDIE ROCK

FAINTLY AL

LOWLANDS RESHLEABUOWSEM MOYA

TIMES LISTED ARE SHOW TIMES. DOORS OPEN 30-60 MINUTES BEFORE

&UCOPMING:

1/19 THE MILK CARTON KIDS, THE BRENDAN HINES 1/20 THE PIMPS OF JOYTIME, THE STAXX BROTHERS 1/21-early WYLIE AND THE WILD WEST cd release show 1/21 THE PACK A.D., HOBOSEXUAL, WATCH IT SPARKLE 1/23 MONDAY SQUARE DANCE with THE TALLBOYS 1/24 BOBBY PREVITE vs. BANDALABRA TRIO 1/25 TOM EDDY, LEARNING TEAM 1/26 GRAVELROAD, VERY SPECIAL GUESTS, ANGELO SPENCER ET LES HAUTS SOMMETS 1/27 THE MALDIVES, THE HORDE AND THE HAREM, ELK AND BOAR 1/28 REWIND 2/1 GRAVEYARD, RADIO MOSCOW, SANDRIDER 2/2 NADA SURF, SAY HI (solo) sold out! 2/3 LEGENDARY OAKS, SMOKEY BRIGHTS, THE WASHOVER FANS 2/4 GRAND HALLWAY, LAURA GIBSON, THE DEVIL WHALE 2/8 THE CHASERS, PIPSISEWAH, THE MAGIC MIRRORS 2/9 BLVD PARK, NETTLE HONEY 2/10 Square Peg presents MATTHEW GOOD ~ solo acoustic tour, EMILY GREENE

seven»nights DARRELL’S TAVERN: 18041 Aurora Ave. N., Seattle, 542-6688.

The Weird Birds, with Haymaker, The 3rd Law., 9 p.m., $5.

THE SHANTY TAVERN: 9002 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, 526-9854. Wild Snohomians, with Rainieros, Western Bluebirds., 9 p.m., $5.

TRACTOR TAVERN: 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., Seattle, 789-3599. Gold Leaves, with Cumulus, Fort Union., 9:30 p.m., $8.

THE WHITE RABBIT: 513 N. 36th St., Seattle, 588-0155.

James Apollo & The Sweet Unknown, with Sam Russel & The Harborrats, Kate Noson., 9:30 p.m., $5.

DANCE/DJ/ELECTRONIC

NEUMOS: 925 E. Pike St., Seattle, 709-9467. Subhuman

Beatdown, with Bare, Smash Gordon, The Wolfpack, Mixed Up Mike, Just One All ages., 8 p.m., $15.

JAZZ/BLUES

EGAN’S BALLARD JAM HOUSE: 1707 N.W. Market St.,

Seattle, 789-1621. Robert Parks Quartet, 7 p.m., $10.

SORRENTO HOTEL: 900 Madison St., Seattle, 622-6400. Miss

Rose & Her Rhythm Percolators, All ages., 7:30 p.m., NC.

DANCE/DJ/ELECTRONIC

NEUMOS: 925 E. Pike St., Seattle, 709-9467. MLK Unity

Dance Party, with Riz, Kid Hops, MASA., 9 p.m., $8.

Monday 16 ROCK/POP/INDIE

EL CORAZON: 109 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, 381-3094.

Sins Of A Bullet, with DownPour All ages, 7:30 p.m., $8 adv./$10 DOS. FUNHOUSE: 206 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle, 374-8400.

Postmadonna, with Lineata., 9:30 p.m., $5.

AFROPOP/REGGAE/WORLD

CHOP SUEY: 1325 E. Madison St., Seattle, 324-8000. Jam

Jam, with Zions Gate Sound., 10 p.m., $5.

Tuesday 17 ROCK/POP/INDIE

Sunday 15

COMET TAVERN: 922 E. Pike St., Seattle, 322-9272. The

Fred Roth Revue, 9 p.m., $5.

CROCODILE: Wolves in the Throne Room: SEE SHORT

ROCK/POP/INDIE

CHOP SUEY: 1325 E. Madison St., Seattle, 324-8000.

Ponyhomie, with Spaceneedles, Lazer Kitty., 8 p.m., $7.

COMET TAVERN: 922 E. Pike St., Seattle, 322-9272. Same

Sex Dictator, with Crawlin, Bitches Crystal, Labyrinth & the Desert., 9 p.m., $6.

EL CORAZON: 109 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, 381-3094. A Lot Like Birds, with I The Mighty, Just Like Vinyl, The Mother’s Anger, Mercy Ties, Pharaohs Of The Sun All ages, 7:30 p.m., $8 adv./$10 DOS. FUNHOUSE: 206 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle, 374-8400. The Wild Ones, with Up All Night, Sweet Pups, Blue Ribbon Boys., 9 p.m., $6.

MUSICQUARIUM LOUNGE: 216 Union St., Seattle, 838-4333. Gavin Guss, Free., 8 p.m., NC. THE TRIPLE DOOR: 216 Union St., Seattle, 838-4333. Frank Vignola, All ages., 7:30 p.m., $15 adv./$18 DOS.

HIP-HOP/R&B

CROCODILE: 2200 Second Ave., Seattle, 441-7416. The

MCC Awards, with Dice, John Crown, Eighty4 Fly, Royce the Choice All ages., 7 p.m., $15-$40.

LIST, P. 23.

EL CORAZON: 109 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, 381-3094.

Falling Up, with Monarch, Lybecker, Step One All ages, 6:30 p.m., $8 adv./$10 DOS. HIGH DIVE: 513 N. 36th St., Seattle, 632-0212. Frost Giants, with Pollyanna Socialist, Science., 8 p.m., $6.

HIP-HOP/R&B

NEUMOS: 925 E. Pike St., Seattle, 709-9467. Theophilus

London, with THEESatisfaction., 8 p.m., $13.

THE WHITE RABBIT: 513 N. 36th St., Seattle, 588-0155.

Fifteen, with Mike DC, B3, Donte Peace., 9:30 p.m., $5.

COUNTRY/FOLK/ROOTS

TRACTOR TAVERN: 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., Seattle,

789-3599. The Bourbonites, with Palatine, Bret Phillips and the Working Class Disease., 8 p.m., $6.

JAZZ/BLUES

DIMITRIOU’S JAZZ ALLEY: 2033 Sixth Ave., Seattle, 441-

9729. Chris Minh Doky & The Nomads, with Dave Weckl., Tue., Jan. 17, 7:30 p.m.; Wed., Jan. 18, 7:30 p.m., $20.50.

Un.SIcoCm LIVE COUNwwTwR.liYttlerM he ed THURSDAY JAN 12

BUCKAROOSTERS

9PM $3 COVER FRIDAY & SATURDAY JAN 13 & 14

BUCKAROO BLUES

9PM $5 COVER SATURDAY IS BEACH PARTY NITE - WEAR YOUR TROPICAL ATTIRE! SUNDAY JAN 15

THE DAVANOS 9PM $3 COVER 4PM OPEN MIC NIGHT W/ BILLY BODACIOUS TUESDAY JAN 17

HIGHWAY 9 9PM

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KaraoKeKorrespondent » by jeff roman

Sucks So Good

S E AT T L E W E E K LY • J A N U A RY 1 1 − 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

The Venue: Fuel—the sports bar on Washington Street in Pioneer Square where Sounders fans rally to get hammered before, during, and after every home match—has had karaoke on Wednesday nights for more than four years.

I first walked in around 10:15 p.m. Song binders were placed at tables throughout the bar, and I could hear singing from the room where the stage was, but next to no one was there. Since I was taking the next day off from work, I decided to come back later to allow time for the night to pick up. When I returned at 11:30, a few people had arrived, but they still hadn’t built a rotation.

The Setup: The main floor has three sections. The bar is at one end, the stage is at the other, and there’s a TV area in between. The second floor is located toward the back, and it looks down on the stage.

The KJ station is a designated sound booth halfway up a stairway that leads to the top floor.

There are high ceilings and a true elevated stage.

The huge projector screen that takes up the entire wall above the stage serves as the main lyrics screen and backdrop for every performance. From the stage, there are two lyrics monitors on the walls to the right, one to the left, and one straight ahead.

There isn’t much of a production between singers, but the overall sound is loud and well-balanced.

The Performances: The first half-hour, three dudes in their late 20s were trading off songs. No one else was watching, so they were pretty much just goofing around, trying stuff out. This guy Danny did a pretty good rendition of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice,” and his buddy Kyle came through with an equally decent “Forgot About Dre” by Eminem.

Things began to pick up around midnight when “Super Dave” got into the mix. His first number was “Lust for Life” by Iggy Pop. Shortly after him I turned in my first slip, and then six other new singers joined in to round out what would

38

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eventually be a nine-singer rotation.

Two singers that night had real skills. Danny was the best male vocalist, consistently delivering his numbers in tune and with enthusiasm. And Mia hands down was the house ringer and best performer. Her rendition of Erykah Badu’s “Apple Tree” made everyone else’s stuff look like child’s play.

The KJ: Danny is the main host, and has been there for more than a year. He was training Kyle to be his future backup that night.

Kyle did a fine job announcing the singers before and after their numbers. Before I turned in my first request, he checked in on me to make sure I was going to sing.

Busting people’s balls to sing is a very necessary duty for any host to perform on a slow night. Danny hung out on the floor below Kyle and acted as the cheering section for every singer.

The Book: Their catalog was well-organized and easy to skim through, and contained both artist and song-title lists. It’s dated January ’09, but they’ve constantly been adding new content.

There’s a reminder on every cover to ask for a song if it’s not in the book.

The Audience: Only a few people were hanging out in the stage area. A table of four was sitting in the section I was in, but everyone else was hanging out at the bar, not paying much attention to the show.

When Kyle got his ass kicked by Yes’ “Long Distance Runaround,” it came to me this would be the perfect night to sing stuff I would never try on a busy night.

It took me less than a second to figure out I wanted to sing “Angel” by Aerosmith. Kyle took it down a full key for me, but it was still way out of my range. I was on my tippy-toes straining to reach the notes, but the crowd still ended up loving it. I got high-fives and a great round of applause as I made my way back to my table. It made me realize that even when I suck I’m pretty good, so I should try to suck more often. E

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ast week, faced with some rare time off from reviewing, I ran out of fresh flowers. For my particular medical conditions, cannabinoid supplementation isn’t an option; it’s necessary, regardless of the source. Fortunately, I still had my roach jar.

Something about the nature of pot’s mental effects—coupled with, as noted by Proust, smell’s role in evoking memories—made this little tour through the recent past interesting. Because the stubs in the jar were from all the different collectives I had visited in 2011, the trip provided me with a quick reminder of last year’s highlights, if you will.

Green Door Delivery was the very first marijuana delivery service I tried.

Though I had no idea at the time, subsequent experience showed me that Sean and his crew are among the best in the business, as is their medicine. Their hard work has since paid off with a downtown storefront (1207 S. Jackson St.).

Tacoma Cannabis Farmers Market , the first of its kind in the area, broke new ground by bringing patients and growers together in a mutually beneficial atmosphere. Since then, additional markets have sprung up in Seattle, White Center, Lacey, and even Hoodsport.

THC Care Provider, hidden among the acupuncturists and massage therapists in the Tallman Building (5423 Tallman Ave. N.W., #104), impressed me with its freebies to cancer patients. THC offers all qualifying cancer patients a free eighth (3.5 grams, a $40 value) every last Sunday of the month.

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Fweedom Collective (7027 15th Ave.

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Herban Legends (9619 16th Ave. S.W., White Center) was one of the best collectives I visited all year: a good vibe, a menu of 30 strains, and organically grown flowers. Try the Hog (if you like indica) or the Jack Herer (if you like sativa), both worth the $13 donation per gram.

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The trip provided me with a quick reminder of last year’s highlights, if you will. and a relaxing lounge area with plenty of comfortable couches and available Volcano vaporizers. While you’re there, soothe that dry mouth with a refreshing $10 bottle of medicated Dream Cream, the best psychoactive iced mocha you could ask for. E Steve Elliott edits Toke of the Town, Village Voice Media’s site of cannabis news, views, rumor, and humor.

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I am healthy now, I feel fine, and the doctors think I can stay like this for a very long time. Of course, I am dramatic and can’t even imagine my future; I just started my drugs and I have no idea what the response will be.

Anyway, I am single and can’t imagine who in the hell would want to date me. I know I don’t have to disclose my health situation on the first date, but it seems unfair to rope someone in emotionally and then have to tell them my expiration date may be sooner than later.

The drugs will affect my libido, too, so that also becomes something that I can’t necessarily give as I would have. I want to fall in love, and feel more now than ever that I could really use that energy to move me through, but I can’t help but think I will only attract major mental cases. What to do?

—Possible Flatline

Since my firsthand cancer knowledge is limited to a shitty little melanoma on my left ankle, I called my friend Diane Mapes, author of How to Date in a Post-Dating World. She’s also going through breast cancer, and blogging about dating with her diagnosis at doublewhammied.com.

The first words out of Diane’s mouth were “She shouldn’t think of it as ‘roping someone in.’ That’s a negative, down-onyourself notion.” Not to mention, how many first dates turn out to be last dates because the person sitting across from you turns out to be a cretin? Or worse, too

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Diane goes on to say, “Everyone has baggage. Do people tell you they come from an alcoholic background or were sexually abused as a child on the first date? No! She should get to know them with a first or second date to see if she likes them and if they like her—and then tell them once she thinks it’s appropriate.”

Rob Dobrenski, a licensed psychotherapist and author of Crazy: Notes on and off the Couch, agrees.

“No one knows how long we get on this earth, and far too many of us act as if we have all the time in the world. She could be around a very long time, and then her biggest regret will have been not pursuing what she wants because she believed she had a shorter lifespan. And anyone who is worth getting involved with would easily take a fantastic relationship for however long it lasts, rather than pass because it may end sooner rather than later.”

Diane says she got a little clarity along with her cancer diagnosis: “It helped me realize that, yes, I would like to find somebody. And having cancer also makes it a lot easier to shake off the bad dates. You’ve

Do people tell you they come from an alcoholic background or were sexually abused as a child on the first date? No! got bigger fish to fry, so you don’t fuss so much about the little stuff.”

So you see, all three experts (yes, I’m including myself ) agree: Get out there, young lady! E dategirl@seattleweekly.com

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As the world leader in next generation mobile technologies, Qualcomm is focused on accelerating mobility around the world.

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Medication Study for PTSD and Alcohol Problems The Seattle VA is looking for people ages 18 and over who have experienced trauma and have Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and also use alcohol frequently, have problems with it, and want to stop using it. Non-veterans are welcome! Study is evaluating whether an investigational medication is effective at reducing alcohol craving and use and symptoms associated with PTSD. Study takes 8 weeks. Volunteers will be paid up to $395 for participation in this study.

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