Seattle Weekly, September 23, 2015

SEPTEMBER 23-29, 2015 I VOLUME 40 I NUMBER 38

SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM I FREE

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STAGE AN IRISH STATE OF CONFUSION PAGE 18 FILM NOT EVEREST, NOT AGAIN! PAGE 20

Meet the basement DJs from Tacoma revitalizing the Seattle electronic underground.

By Cate McGehee Page 9

Xi Whiz!

Our socialist hearts swell to welcome the Chinese president.

By Chairman Murray Page 5

Dumb About Sex Leslye Headland on her raunchy new rom-com.

By Brian Miller Page 16

Decibel Fest Notable and vocal locals sound off.

Page 25

BREW AT THE ZOO presented by Fred Meyer and QFC

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1

Sample from over 40 breweries, and see more animals than ever!

SEATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEM BER 23 — 29, 2015

Get tickets at zoo.org/brew

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Ages 21+ only

inside» September 23-29, 2015 VOLUME 40 | NUMBER 38 » SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM

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news&comment 7

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CLUSTERFRONT

BY ELLIS E. CONKLIN | First Bertha, now the seawall: Cost overruns and delays are beleaguering our bayfront projects.

Plus: a poignant vigil in the ID, and tallying more recent police-related deaths.

And: Attention, comrades! Our Glorious Chairman Murray speaks!

DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION

BY CATE MCGEHEE | How a group of

energetic young Tacoma transplants are revitalizing our techno scene.

food&drink

13 JOE THREE WAYS

BY JACOB UITTI | Have you tried any of these trending high-tech methods of brewing coffee?

14 | WINE FOLLY

arts&culture

16 DUMB ABOUT SEX

BY BRIAN MILLER | Director Leslye Headland on her raunchy new rom-com.

16 | THE PICK LIST 18 | CLASSICAL | The Seattle

Symphony’s piano shootout.

19 | OPENING NIGHTS | Green Day in

West Seattle, Dublin downtown.

22 FILM

OPENING THIS WEEK | An Everest melodrama, Emily Blunt gets punched in the face, and North Dakota townsfolk battle white supremacists.

24 | LOCAL SIGHTINGS | Standout features at the regional film fest.

25 MUSIC

BY CATE MCGEHEE | Electronica

artists in Decibel’s all-woman showcase share their influences and recommendations; plus, a photo collage of the event’s notable locals.

28 | THE WEEK AHEAD

odds&ends

29 | HIGHER GROUND 30 | CLASSIFIEDS

»cover credits

PHOTO BY CECILIA CORSANO-LEOPIZZI

JAZZ FESTIVAL Seattle’s Jazz Festival

Editor-in-Chief Mark Baumgarten EDITORIAL News Editor Daniel Person Food Editor Nicole Sprinkle Arts Editor Brian Miller Music Editor Kelton Sears Editorial Operations Manager Gavin Borchert Staff Writers Sara Bernard, Ellis E. Conklin, Casey Jaywork Editorial Intern Mara Silvers Contributing Writers Rick Anderson, Sean Axmaker, James Ballinger, Michael Berry, Alyssa Dyksterhouse, Jay Friedman, Margaret Friedman, Zach Geballe, Chason Gordon, Dusty Henry, Rhiannon Fionn, Marcus Harrison Green, Robert Horton, Patrick Hutchison, Seth Kolloen, Sandra Kurtz, Dave Lake, Terra Clarke Olsen, Jason Price, Keegan Prosser, Mark Rahner, Tiffany Ran, Michael A. Stusser, Jacob Uitti PRODUCTION Production Manager Sharon Adjiri Art Director Jose Trujillo Graphic Designers Nate Bullis, Brennan Moring Photo Intern Christopher Zeuthen ADVERTISING Marketing/Promotions Coordinator Zsanelle Edelman Senior Multimedia Consultant Krickette Wozniak Multimedia Consultants Julia Cook, Rose Monahan, Matt Silvie DISTRIBUTION Distribution Manager Jay Kraus OPERATIONS Administrative Coordinator Amy Niedrich Publisher Bob Baranski 206-623-0500 COPYRIGHT © 2015 BY SOUND PUBLISHING, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. ISSN 0898 0845 / USPS 306730 • SEATTLE WEEKLY IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY SOUND PUBLISHING, INC., 307 THIRD AVE. S., SEATTLE, WA 98104 SEATTLE WEEKLY® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK. PERI ODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT SEATTLE, WA POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO SEATTLE WEEKLY, 307 THIRD AVE. S., SEATTLE, WA 98104 • FOUNDED 1976.

Over 50 events in venues all around Seattle

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SE ATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEMBER 23 — 29, 2015

20 | PERFORMANCE/EAR SUPPLY 21 | VISUAL ARTS

»26

EARSHOT

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Welcome to tranquility

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• San Juan Island: www.sanjuanjournal.com, www.sanjuanisland.org • Orcas Island: www.islandssounder.com, orcasislandchamber.com • Lopez Island: www.islandsweekly.com, www.lopezisland.com • Shaw Island: www.shawislanders.org 3rd Annual

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WASHINGTON www.fhff.org

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LOCATED AT 540 Spring Street Friday Harbor, WA

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news&comment

Fiasco on the Waterfront The tunnel is a debacle, and now the seawall is delayed a year and will cost tens of millions more. What the hell happened?

BY ELLIS E. CONKLIN

PHOTOS BY JOSE TRUJILLO

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Scenes from the waterfront mayhem.

“In mid-June, we first knew we had a problem,” Kubly tells Seattle Weekly.

The bad news was discovered around the time Mayor Murray was on a fiveday trip to Israel, speaking at an LGBT conference and taking part in a trade mission.

By late June, SDOT became aware that the cost was going to be at least $5 million to $6 million more than anticipated because of the price of “grout spoils disposal,” says Kubly—in other words, more water and soil than planners originally thought was being unearthed from the ground by injected grout.

On July 1, four days after returning from Israel, Murray was briefed by Kubly on the grout-disposal problem. “We told him we were not yet sure whether this was a city responsibility or the contractor’s responsibility,” Kubly recalls.

(It turned out the city was on the hook.)

On August 5, “we gave the Mayor a more complete picture,” says Kubly— namely, that the cost overrun was going to be far more than $5 million. “He [Murray] said, ‘Go back and sharpen your pencils and give me a better estimate.’ ” Sometime in mid-August, SDOT realized (and Murray was informed) that the city’s budget for the seawall replacement would require an additional $71 million, which, Kubly says, was not only because of the grout-disposal issue, but because of other underestimated costs

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

BY CHAIRMAN MURRAY

Transcript of remarks

by Chairman Murray on Tuesday, broadcast over state television.

COMRADES OF SEATTLE! As I look out from City Hall onto a sea of glinting, stationary windshields on I-5, I say with joy and excitement: It is a bright day for our great city.

This week we welcome Xi Jinping, president of China, and his 1,000 closest advisers, in worker solidarity, to the Westin Hotel. Let me say to you: President Xi’s visit bestows upon Seattle the prestige of being one of the great socialist cities of the world! Beijing has heard about our $15 minimum wage! Beijing has heard about our mandatory composting! Beijing has heard about our resolution asking the legislature to lift the ban on rent control, which we may or may not someday have in Seattle! And Beijing has found it good! Let us celebrate! [Raucous applause] Of course, with great prestige comes great responsibility. [A hush falls over the crowd] Let us come together, citizen to citizen, to ensure we live up to the ideals of our revolution.

As you know, and as is becoming of a republic founded by and for the workers, we have long been working to give you the freedom to stop driving to work so that you may experience the more civilized modes of transportation, such as bicycling or the E Line. We have eliminated parking downtown and instituted road diets to ensure that the bourgeois who continue to resist this freedom do not impede our inevitable march toward the future.

But not until now have we truly enjoyed the sweetest fruits of immobility! In consultation with President Xi, today we shut down traffic in our city center entirely! No driving on Lenora! No driving on Sixth! No driving on Olive!

As I looked upon miles and miles of backup on I-5 today, I remarked to village transportation chief Kubly: ‘Yes, the dreams of Beijing come to Seattle today!’

We may not yet be allowed to arrest drivers, as long as the antiquated practice of single-occupancy vehicles remains legal. But to be sure, comrades, we can arrest them in other ways! Their progress will be arrested right there on the Interstate! [Chants of “Arrest the drivers!” break out among the crowd.

Chairman Murray beams triumphantly until the crowd quiets. He speaks again in a hush] So please, citizens, do your part in hoisting this great banner of progress by staying in your homes—a multiunit town home, we can only hope. I know what you may think: “I will be a hero and ride the bus to work.” But this will not do.

You will find that even our public transit system has had to succumb to a greater duty. Show our brothers from Beijing how orderly Seattle can be by remaining confined to your apartment for the remainder of the week. [Applause reaches a fever pitch. Kshama Sawant steps up to whisper in Chairman Murray’s ear. Chaos ensues onstage] Citizens! Citizens! I must cut my remarks short.

I am just now informed by Councilwoman Sawant, great leader of our Politburo, that a catastrophe is in progress that demands my full attention.

President Xi has just left Seattle to visit Tacoma. E news@seattleweekly.com

SE ATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEMBER 23 — 29, 2015

as someone put a curse on Seattle’s central waterfront, a hex on our city’s front porch, this once-handsome portal to the Pacific? Surely some form of dark spell must have been cast.

How else to explain the most recent snafu?

For more than two years, ever since Bertha, the much-maligned 6,700-ton boring machine, began her stalled 1.8-mile subterranean journey, the waterfront has turned into a clutter of cement trucks, beeping backhoes, and cyclone fences enclosing a maze of makeshift ramps crisscrossing deep open pits.

It does make one pine for the days when a person could sit on a dock, smell the briny air, gaze upon the white-capped Olympic Mountains, and watch seagulls cawing for fries flutter past kitschy tourist shops.

The flag inside the shop window of Pirates Plunder at Pier 57 says it all. It shows a red bandanna tied to a skull and crossbones above these words: “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”

On a drizzly morning last week, an older gent named Bob Smithson from Elkhart, Ind., visiting Seattle for the first time, stood with a steaming cup of Starbucks coffee, with Elliott Bay, its waters dimmed gray, in the background, and asked, “Do you know when all of this is supposed to be finished?”

Does anyone?

The tunnel was to have been completed by fall 2014 and opened to traffic by late 2015. Now we are looking at March 2018. Of course this depends on whether Bertha, the $80 million Japanese-built monstrosity, is able to resume drilling on November 23, the date set for her to fire up her engine after endless months spent repairing her seals and central bearing.

Construction on the Elliott Bay Seawall, built between 1916 and 1936, began in November 2013. It was to have been completed in 2016, on time and on budget. That is no longer possible.

Unlike the city’s beleaguered endeavor to replace the 2001 Nisqually quake-damaged

Alaska Way Viaduct with a $2 billion tunnel, there is unanimous agreement that a new seawall is vital.

On Jan. 15, 2010, on just his 15th day as Seattle mayor, Mike McGinn called a press conference and said there was a 1-in-10 chance of seawall failure in the next 10 years, and if that occurred, it would bring down the viaduct.

“It would be irresponsible to not address this basic issue of public safety immediately,” McGinn said of his plan to put a $241 million bond issue for the seawall replacement on the ballot. In November 2012, Seattle voters overwhelmingly approved (77 percent voted yes) a 30-year, $290 million bond measure.

Soon the cost of the project rose to $300 million; by 2013 that number had grown; and by the time Ed Murray took office, it had climbed to $330.8 million.

Now Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) director Scott Kubly says the job is going to take $410.2 million to remake the centuryold seawall, $71 million over the 2013 cost estimate, or more than 33 percent over the original budget.

What went wrong?

Welcoming President Xi

5

news&comment» Fiasco on the Waterfront » FROM PAGE 5

SEATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEM BER 23 — 29, 2015

related to water management, traffic control, and city-mitigated expenses to compensate waterfront businesses forced to temporarily close.

“It was extremely disappointing,” Murray told the Weekly in an interview last Thursday. “I believe we have to change the conversation in government—that we can deliver on projects on time—and this doesn’t feed into that conversation.”

By mid-August, the cost overruns still had not been made public, and Murray said he “felt no urgency” to tell Seattle residents or the City Council after receiving that discouraging August 5 briefing. “We needed to know how we were going to pay for it before I sent it to the Council.”

On August 21, Murray went public with the distressing news that part of the project would not be completed until fall 2017, a year late, and as a result some of the design elements of the city’s planned waterfront park would also be delayed.

6

Murray’s delay in announcing the cost overruns has drawn some scrutiny as it relates to another major tax levy. On June 23, around the time SDOT came to realize the problem, the Seattle City Council voted to put Murray’s proposed $930 million “Move Seattle” transportation levy on the November ballot.

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who chairs the Council’s transportation committee, told the Weekly the Council might have been wary of a levy of this magnitude had it known about the cost overrun. “They [SDOT] said they wanted to make sure they had accurate information, but they should have told us right away that they had concerns,” Rasmussen said.

Eugene Wasserman, spokesman for Keep Seattle Affordable, the group leading the campaign to defeat the upcoming transportation levy (Prop. 1), argues that the cost-overrun revelations “were deliberately withheld” by SDOT and Murray so as not to jeopardize the Council’s June 23 vote. Murray and SDOT deny it.

Murray has stressed that the new seawall costs would be taken care of without raising new taxes. The mayor has targeted other revenue streams to pay for the cost overruns, including the use of real-estate excise taxes and a commercial parking tax.

Kubly concedes that the seawall budget overruns will likely divert money from transportation projects such as the city’s bike master plan, more bike lanes, and needed pedestrian improvements.

Ivar’s President Bob Donegan, a member of the Seattle Waterfront Association, says he’s disappointed but not surprised by what’s transpired. “I talk to the seawall team at least six or seven times a week, and as far back as February, we [business owners] on the waterfront knew they weren’t meeting the project schedule,” he says.

“Businesses have been hurt,” he adds, with the number of customers along the waterfront down by as much as 30

percent this summer compared to the summer of 2014.

Donegan says he met with SDOT’s Kubly not long after he took over as director of the department on July 28, 2014. In hiring him, Murray called Kubly a “transportation visionary” well qualified to manage an agency with 750 employees and an annual operating budget of $400 million.

“I told him that first week he was on the job,” Donegan recalls, “that his success would not be measured by bike paths, putting in pedestrian amenities, or snow removal, but by how well he did in completing the seawall project.”

On Sept. 14, Mayor Murray announced that an

external expert review panel would be created to analyze the budget, the seawall designs, and project management to fully understand what went wrong and make recommendations to minimize cost and disruptions going forward.

The process of choosing an expert consultant will be completed by early October, and agency experts will be selected by the end of next month. The final findings are to be delivered to the city by year’s end.

The cost: $200,000.

As Murray told the Weekly, “This is a very complicated project.” E

econklin@seattleweekly.com

The Constant Vigil

Christina Enriquez has become a fixture on the corner where her son was killed.

(9/25) Philip Howard with Mark Donovan The Building Blocks CIVICS & CULTURE COMMUNITY of aSCIENCE NewARTS Internet

Clockwise from top: Christina Enriquez; Benito’s memorial; surveillance video of the suspect.

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Pacific Islander heritage—a theory partially supported by the police description of a man who’s “Hispanic, Middle Eastern, or Pacific Islander”—a large man who says he’s an Islander himself stops and looks at the blurry surveillance images of the suspect, which Christina has blown up and affixed to the wall of Uwajimaya facing the crime scene.

“I was here the next day,” he tells her. “There was blood everywhere . . . It makes me mad. I’m from the islands. But once an Islander goes crazy like that, that’s what they do.”

“Is that right?” Christina asks.

“What’s scary is, he might strike again,” the man continues.

“I’ve had mediums talk to me, people who talk to the spirit world, saying he’s killed before and he’ll kill again,” she adds.

The two hug and part ways.

“This is what I do. When people take interest, I tell them all about it,” she says.

A woman named Polly who’s spoken with Christina before rides up on her bicycle and hears her talking about the tattoos the surveillance video shows on the suspect’s legs.

“Oh, for goodness’ sakes, he should be easy to find!” Polly says.

“Right?” Enriquez agrees.

She notes that, in the waning light, the street lamps aren’t turning on. “It was still light out when this happened to Benito, but why do people need

She has ideas for making Seattle safer, so no one

else has to die in the street. Not long after Benito Enriquez was killed, Donnie Chin, a private citizen who patrolled the International District and who Christina says took an interest in Benito’s case, was shot and killed at Eighth and Weller. Another man, Jeremiah Foco, went missing after last being seen outside his own apartment in the ID. Christina wants schools to institute stronger anti-bullying curricula, in the belief that the man who killed her son probably had bullying issues; she wants to organize a walk that raises awareness about violence on Seattle streets; she wants loved ones of victims to be treated better by the police, complaining about the call she received from Harborview informing her that her son was dead—a cold-hearted way to do it, she thinks.

“But the first thing is turning the lights on.”

She points to the dark street around her.

A moment later, a street lamp flickers. “Hey, this one’s on! It wasn’t on the other day!”

Though Seattle Public Utilities says there’s been no problems with the street lamp, this night it feels like a small victory.

Eventually, as the chilly night sets in and the candles grow more intense in the dark, only Christina, Magee, and this reporter remain at the memorial. Christina finally cracks open the cranberry juice and takes a sip. In the calm that follows all the talking, a somber mood takes over.

Tears well up in both women’s eyes.

“Sometimes I stay here too late,” Christina says. “I don’t want to leave.” E

dperson@seattleweekly.com

TOWN HALL

(9/25) Global Rhythms Kasse Mady Diabate (9/26-27) Saturday Family Concerts Caspar Babypants ‘Beatles Baby!’ Album Release **SOLD OUT** (9/26-27) ‘Says You!’ presents ‘Says You!’ Live Taping (9/28) Jon Palfreman Demystifying Parkinson’s Disease (9/29) Seattle Speaks Move Seattle?

(9/29) Ted Rall with Paul Constant Snowden’s Courageous Betrayal of Big Brother (9/30) Town Music Johnny Gandelsman Bach’s ‘Complete Sonatas and Partitas’ from a member of Brooklyn Rider (9/30) Philip Warburg with Denis Hayes Realizing the Dream of a ‘SolarPowered Future’ (9/30) Town Hall, PNA, and Seattle Channel present Seattle City Council Debate: District 6 Mike O’Brien & Catherine Weatbrook (10/1) Alva Noe Using Art As a Gateway to Human Nature (10/1) Town Hall & Seattle Channel: Seattle City Council Debate: District 4 Rob Johnson & Michael Maddux (10/2) Larissa MacFarquhar Self-Sacrifice, The Price of Idealism (10/3) Early Music Guild presents Seattle Baroque Orchestra ‘Ebb and Flow,’ Handel’s ‘Water Music’ (10/4) Russian Chamber Music Foundation presents Atrium String Quartet Autumn Evenings TOWN HALL

CIVICS

SCIENCE

ARTS & CULTURE

COMMUNITY

SE ATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEMBER 23 — 29, 2015

As people stop to listen, different parts of the story pique their interest. And there are many parts of Benito’s story.

As she explains her belief that the suspect is of

SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT

early every day for more than two months, Christina Enriquez has driven an hour from her home in Auburn to stand at the corner of Fifth Avenue South and South Weller Street in the International District to talk about her son.

It was at that intersection, first on its southwest corner, then on the southeast, that Benito Enriquez got into a confrontation with another man on the evening of June 27 while leaving a Kenny Chesney concert at CenturyLink Field.

Benito, a nurse, was killed that night, pummeled to death on the sidewalk in front of Uwajimaya, the sprawling Asian grocery store. The suspect was caught on surveillance video and witnesses saw the altercation, but details of what exactly happened that evening remain scant and no arrests have been made.

So Christina Enriquez comes and talks, and talks, and talks, to anyone who will listen.

“Nothing I do will bring Benito back, I know that. But I need to make the streets safe so others don’t have to experience this loss,” she says while standing on the corner. “I want people to understand what kind of person this man took away from us. He wanted to go back to school to earn his nurse practitioner degree and go to work at Western State Hospital, to help the sickest of the sick. Who does that?”

A large utility box at the corner has become a elaborate memorial for Benito, covered with photos of the 30-year-old that one imagines will have to be removed when workers eventually need to access what’s inside. Notes are pinned up on wooden hearts, with the little remembrances common to this kind of memorial: “I’ll see you again and we’ll raise hell in heaven bro.” For this particular nightly vigil, Benito’s girlfriend, Niki Magee, has lit dozens of candles and put out some flowers.

Absent any firm information from the police, Christina is left to speculate to strangers as she pleads for help in finding the suspect. She says she’s met eyewitnesses who had previously not spoken to police and convinced them to contact detectives; she’s addressed tour groups visiting the sites of the ID; she met a Native American couple that later held a smudging ceremony to cleanse the area of bad spirits.

to walk around here in the dark?” she asks.

Polly goes in to the store to shop, and offers to buy Christina a bottle of juice.

For a solid hour, Christina has an audience—beyond this reporter— as people filter in and out of the conversation. Twice a homeless man comes by asking the group for change. Twice Enriquez firmly shooes him away.

A woman with a strong punk aesthetic—black boots and hair shaved short on the sides—asks if the photos on the large poster are the only surveillance images the police have.

“That’s all they’ve released,” Christina says.

The woman looks incredulous. “It looks like their faces are smeared out. Seattle is wired up.

There are cameras everywhere. This is ridiculous,” she says.

“And guess who owns that building?” Christina says, pointing across Fifth Avenue toward the sleek Union Station office complexes. “Paul Allen.”

“Have you tried tweeting at Kenny Chesney?” the woman asks. “Social media can be a powerful tool.”

“No. Can you show me how to do that?”

Christina says. “I’m new to all this stuff.”

When Polly returns with a bottle of cranberry juice, Christina accepts it with thanks, but doesn’t stop to take a sip. She keeps talking.

JOSE TRUJILLO

COURTESY OF CHRISTINA ENRIQUEZ

BY DANIEL PERSON

(10/4) Town Hall, Seattle WWW.TOWNHALLSEATTLE.ORG Channel, and SU present TOWNSeattle HALL CIVICS City SCIENCE ARTS & CULTURE COMMUNITY 7 Council Debate: District 3 Kshama Sawant & Pamela Banks (10/5) Anne-Marie Slaughter

news&comment» State Police-Related and Jail Death Toll Rises to 26 Over Nine Months

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ild-mannered sushi chef Samuel Toshiro Smith seemed a most unlikely person to die at the hands of police, his friends think. “He was not a violent man,” said one, “and had no [criminal] history.”

Nonetheless in July he became the first person to be killed this year by Seattle police. His and other recent deaths brings to 15

BY RICK ANDERSON the number of people directly killed by police across the state in 2015, a new review shows.

Another person died recently in jail, upping the statewide in-custody toll to 11 so far, thus pushing all state law-enforcement-related deaths to a total of 26 as of mid-September.

That averages about three deaths a month, a pace similar to last year’s, when 34 died over 12 months.

As we explained in a recent cover story (“Death & Duty,” July 15), the mounting U.S. toll and increasing public awareness—thanks to amateur and dashcam videos—led to calls for more precise state-by-state tracking of police-related deaths.

Seattle Weekly is among those attempting to keep a running count in Washington, where the latest death came Friday night on the Tulalip Reservation in Snohomish County.

There, an unidentified 50-year-old man died in a confrontation with tribal police and a county deputy. Officers, responding to a report of a man walking in the roadway, attempted to place him in a patrol car. The man began fighting with officers, they said, then became unresponsive. Despite revival efforts, he died at the scene.

Here’s a rundown on other deaths since our July report:

SEATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEM BER 23 — 29, 2015

SEATTLELAND

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NINKASIBREWING.COM

#TOTALDOMINATION

Sam T. Smith, 27 Sought as the driver of a car that inexplicably rammed the rear of a Seattle police cruiser on I-5 on July 17, Smith was spotted at 4:30 a.m. in Ravenna. Dash-cam video shows an officer greeting Smith with a “Good morning” when the barefoot Smith begins to advance menacingly holding a knife with a 10-inch blade in his right hand. The cop begins backpedaling and draws his gun. “Drop the knife!” he shouts, then fires three shots.

“Drop the knife!” he repeats. Smith, fatally wounded, falls in the street. Three seconds elapsed from the moment the officer saw the knife to the moment he fired.

Friends thought the most likely reason Smith was armed with a sushi knife is because he was a sushi chef at ‘Ohana in Belltown.

A Port Townsend native, he’d been working 75-hour weeks for a month, friends told the Port Townsend Leader. “He was a gentle, sweet human being,” said one. “I don’t believe for one moment he did this intentionally.”

Jason Hale, 29: Hale was killed by Stevens

County deputy sheriff Dave Reed in the tiny community of Hunters on August 19. Hale had reportedly brandished a handgun near a Red Cross wildfire shelter, and was being sought by deputies. “The guy pulled out a gun and the deputy shot him,” Officer Teresa Fuller told the Spokesman-Review. “That’s as plain and as simple as it gets.” A news release from police said that, during a confrontation, “Reed fired his weapon striking Hale just below his jaw.”

An eyewitness, however, said Hale was shot as he was walking away. “I never saw a gun being pulled; there was no fire exchange,” recalled Annette Herbert, who was standing nearby with her boyfriend. Reed tried to restrain Hale in a bear hug, Herbert said, but Hale got away and kept walking. The deputy warned Hale to stop or he’d shoot, and did so a few seconds later, Herbert said.

The medical examiner said Hale was shot in the back of the neck, the bullet exiting the jaw.

Kevin Lee McDaniel, 46 The suspected car

thief was killed August 8 in a shootout with Spokane police. He’d been tracked to a home, where a standoff ensued. It ended when McDaniel came out the front door shooting, and was killed by officers. Police said McDaniel had 28 felony convictions dating to 1987.

Jason Galaviz, 40 He was killed August 5 by an off-duty Tacoma police officer who happened upon a street robbery in progress.

The officer was driving in the area of South Tacoma Way when the suspect knocked down a woman and took her cell phone, police said.

The suspect ran to his truck, chased by two witnesses, who backed off when Galaviz drew a gun.

According to police, the off-duty officer, after identifying himself, told the suspect to drop his weapon. When he refused, the officer shot him once.

Timmy L. Walling, 57 Walling was killed by a Mason County sheriff ’s deputy August 21 in Grapeview. Few details were available, but a coroner’s news release said the first deputy on the scene killed Walling after he refused to drop his shotgun. Also in Mason County, Brandon Kenneth Dahl, 31, from Union on Hood Canal, was found dead in his county jail cell last Wednesday.

Officials are calling it an apparent suicide.

In July we noted that The Washington Post’s nationwide death-by-police count (the paper doesn’t include Taser-related or in-custody jail deaths) stood at 385 for the first five months of 2015. At press time, the count has hit 712. E

randerson@seattleweekly.com

Rick Anderson writes about sex, crime, money, and politics, which tend to be the same thing. His latest book is Floating Feet: Irregular Dispatches From the Emerald City.

To this self-supporting crew from the basements of Tacoma, revitalizing the Seattle dance scene was simply secondnature.

By Cate McGehee

NICK CARROLL

O

n a recent Saturday night, the heart of Seattle’s dance scene is beating fiercely at a cabin in the woods. Fifty people have driven three hours to be here, following 11 of the city’s most talented, visionary young DJs and producers, who will spend 16 straight hours filling the Washington wilderness with music. It’s an unlikely scenario. But as is the case with Seattle’s techno underground these days, the unlikely has become the inevitable.

The feeling at the lodge party is that of a castle in the sky. Eddie Lee does a somersault over the laps of eight people inside a four-person tent right before he spins techno as hard as diamonds for two hours. People play ping-pong during Nick Carroll’s explosive, indulgent 3 a.m. set that unravels every nerve ending in the room. Dawn breaks over the mountaintops as Kayla Waldorff’s sunrise set echoes through the valley. The sound here is better than most Seattle venues, and that is by some effort—someone even drove from the city after a 10 p.m. restaurant shift to bring a replacement cable for the subwoofers. People are dancing, kissing, and talking, or lounging inside an art installation that’s been set up: Fabric wall paintings arranged like a Bedouin tent. A friend cuts off a lock of hair with someone’s knife and then eats it. People trade shirts on the dance floor, share their food, booze, cigarettes, and bedding. By 9 a.m., the bodies of everyone too exhausted to stand but too in love with the music to leave are slumped against the cabin walls, trying to prolong the waking dream of secondnature’s latest party.

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

achieved. They’ve released studio albums, played shows in Europe and Canada, have a nearly sold-out party at this year’s Decibel Festival, and have been praised individually and collectively by many media outlets, including premier global online electronic music magazines Resident Advisor and XLR8R. But by far their greatest success has been the cultivation of new meaning, depth, and energy in Seattle’s techno and dance scene.

Sam Melancon, founder of the experimental label Debacle and the monthly dance party

came out of nowhere and were a legit scene, and created a legit scene. I think it’s becoming obvious that they’re the next wave.”

“I think people want an experience, and I don’t think anyone was getting it,” says Chloe Harris— a Seattle native and head of experimental label Further records who DJs, produces, and performs under the name Raica. “Just having an Ecstasy and drinking beer, you’re supposedly having a great night, but that doesn’t seem like it’s an experience. Like with Elevator doing something in a brewery in Georgetown, that’s kind of an experience, because it’s a weird place. You have to get there, it’s not on the Hill. When raves first started here, that’s how it was. You’d get a phone call or a message a few hours before, or a map, and you’d have to try to find it. And I think people were missing that experience. Going to a club isn’t like that, it’s just a meat market.”

Secondnature’s recent lodge party, three hours outside of town, is an example of the kind of old-school, truly transportive, musiccentric experience Harris is talking about.

This weekend’s Decibel after-hours show at downtown club Kremwerk, which will run from 1 to 11 a.m. Sunday morning, is a kind of urban encore to the lodge party that will demonstrate how well secondnature can translate their aesthetic to a club. The afterhours show will feature performances not only from secondnature members Nick Carroll, Kayla Waldorf (DJ Aos), Ted Shin (Fugal), and Ben Block (Simic), but also a DJ set from Qu, leader of the New York label Strength Music, and a live set from Aurora Halal, the internationally acclaimed organizer of New York outdoor electro fest SustainRelease. The music will be world-class (Resident Advisor recently hyped the event on its front page, calling it “one of Seattle’s more prominent techno parties in recent years”), but a 10-hour party that runs well past dawn and includes art installations and breakfast is something novel for most young Seattleites. And for a city that’s been house-centric for the past 10 years, so is techno.

“How much house music can you listen to?”

Harris says. “How many more funky fucking bass lines can we do? It’s the same shit, it doesn’t really change, you need to do something to make it interesting for people. Otherwise they’ll get really, really bored. . . . I think that people are ready to hear more experimental techno. I think that if [secondnature] was around 10 years ago, it wouldn’t have worked. Everyone who listened to techno didn’t leave their house. But now they leave their house.”

Even though they host dance parties, secondnature’s music isn’t always easy to dance to, and the point isn’t getting fucked up or even hanging out.

The point is to be brought as close as possible to the music, and the members take great pains with both the sound quality and the room’s atmosphere to facilitate maximum audience immersion. For a covert party at the now-defunct OHM gallery in the Central District, they covered the walls in black plastic, draped the ceiling in mesh and pine boughs, ran red lights and flickering old televisions full of static, and let the strange dark techno pound away at the intimate dance floor.

BÉ, NICK CARROLL, AND

EOPIZZI

CECILIA CORSANO-L

10

“It’s been a big shot in the arm to have them around because I was a little bit worried about Seattle’s future in terms of dance music, I really was,” Cody Morrison says of secondnature and the wave of young new promoters and artists it’s affiliated with. Morrison, organizer of the peerless warehouse and loft parties High + Tight, is the unofficial godfather and benefactor of Seattle’s underground dance community.

“I mean, fuck, I’m 40 years old, most of my friends are in their early to mid-30s, and this isn’t the kind of thing where everybody keeps going forever. This will either burn you out or life changes.”

Most of the major nights or crews in Seattle’s electronic landscape date back to the early 2000s. Decibel Festival and dance promoters Shameless were both founded in 2003, the Innerflight crew in 2004. Housemusic party Flammable has been running at Re-Bar for more than 20 years, and Seattle’s Electronic Tea Garden, which consolidated and defined so much of the local underground culture, ran for almost 20 years until it closed in 2013.

Seattle’s last techno-only collective, Sweatbox, stopped having nights when ETG shut down.

The Motor dance night series is only three years old, but it’s an extension of Seattle’s 13-yearold Debacle Records. Even relatively newer events, like High + Tight or the Train Car House Party, are run by people well out of their 20s. And though there are some younger crews in town, like OMW, Night Shift, or Customs, they’re exclusively club-oriented and therefore necessarily above-ground.

But in the past several years, a group of young people from the basement incubators of Tacoma have moved to Seattle and reinvigorated the city’s interest in heady techno, experimental electronics, and DIY underground dance culture.

The primary players of this new guard are the eight members of the techno collective secondnature and their tight network of friends and collaborators, such as Kirsten Thom and Matty McBride, creators of the monthly ambient, drone, and experimental night Elevator. Secondnature events cover a wide spectrum, from homies-only off-the-grid outdoor gatherings to major-label collaborative and independent bookings at Seattle venues; in between are small, dark city basement shows with cerebral techno from obscure imported artists like Varg, the Swedish black-metal-turned-spooky-acidelectro producer.

Five of secondnature’s eight members and both members of Elevator are graduates of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. They all started DJing at KUPS, the college radio station, and cutting their teeth at college house parties.

Their swift rise since graduation has been meteoric and locally unprecedented.

“It’s very surreal,” says secondnature cofounder Nick Carroll. “You’ll have agents hitting you up about artists you thought you’d have to be banging on their door to get, and they’re just like, ‘Oh, we’ve heard about this thing, what’s going on in the Northwest these days?’ It was literally

just college kids partying and doing music, and it’s steamrolled into so much more.”

Elevator has been responsible for booking both the legendary New Age musician Laraaji and celebrated experimental computer composer Holly Herndon, both of whom were booking coups not only for Elevator, but for the whole city. “Me and Matty [McBride] were talking about dream bookings, and Laraaji was one of mine,” Thom says, “and Nick [Carroll] was like, ‘You should just e-mail

PHOTOS BY DIANE BAR

SEATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEM BER 23 — 29, 2015

“Who Are These Kids?” » FROM PAGE 9

Secondnature and Elevator’s guerrilla parties range from warehouses to mountain lodges to packed basements, and their aboveground events have brought legends like Laraaji (top right) to Seattle.

him,’ and I did to see what would happen, and he was like ‘Sure, I’ll do it.’ And that made me feel like, if I can book my favorite artist of all time, I can book anyone.”

“It was sort of surprising to me to find out that we could do whatever we wanted,” Elevator’s McBride echoes.

Sure, you can measure secondnature’s success

by its high-profile bookings and the visibility the DJs and producers within the collective have

Motor, is very frank about the influence of Elevator and secondnature. “I’ll be pretty honest about this,” he says. “I think up until recently, what I perceived of the Seattle electronic scene was somewhat older, lifers, people going to the same things . . . When all of a sudden those kids started coming up from Tacoma, it was like, this is what we need. We need young kids who are super-motivated, who are not at all dilettantes— they know what they’re talking about, they know what they’re doing, they are organized. They

The reason these Tacoma transplants party the way people partied 10 or even 20 years ago is likely because they’ve modeled themselves closely on their revered Seattle forerunners. “When I was at UPS,” says Kayla Waldorf, “the majority of my time spent out in Seattle was at Electric Tea Garden, going to Decibel, and High + Tight’s legendary Loft parties. What I’ve heard over and over from the people I consider our ‘techno aunts and uncles’ is that ‘You guys are doing it right . . . ’ I mean, I really used to idolize all those guys, and I never thought I would be hanging out with them or working with them.”

Amazingly, secondnature and Elevator aren’t only working with their heroes, but also helping them. By knitting cliques together and roping in

younger crowds, they’ve increased the reach and relevancy of the groups that made them want to move here in the first place.

“A lot of people have come up to me and been like, ‘So what do you think about Elevator moving into your space?’ ” Debacle Records head Melancon says, “and I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? Do you know how many shows we get to see now?’ They’re pushing me—I can’t rest on my laurels. And they’re bringing people into that scene who would never go to a drone or noise show two years ago, who are now buying records and being excited about whatever odd person is coming.

CATE MCGEHEE

“They came out of nowhere and were a legit scene, and created a legit scene. I think it’s becoming obvious that they’re the next wave.”

Matty McBride, Kirsten Thom, Nick Carroll, and Eddie Lee (left to right) hanging in Thom and Carroll’s West Seattle home.

“They were a completely important tipping point for Motor,” he adds. “Having them pop up symbiotically helping us—and I mean actively helping us—I don’t think we could have done anything if they hadn’t been, like, ‘Here’s a wave of kids who want to come to your show.’ . . . A lot of the reason the [Motor] shows have been amazing is that almost 90

percent of the time there’s a secondnature person on it or helping with it. That’s incredible—you don’t get a windfall like that in music very often, where a built-in scene just shows up out of nowhere.”

Morrison says that for High + Tight’s show last February with the influential techno label Sandwell District, he e-mailed 525 people and

an incredible 350 showed up. “It wouldn’t have happened five years ago,” he said. “And I’ll take it a step further—without people like Eddie and Nick and Kirsten and Alex and Kayla and Nathan, and then the whole Motor/Debacle insurgence of energy, that wouldn’t have happened. That kind of turnout would never have happened without them.”

It’s fitting that secondnature has been a boon to High + Tight, because Cody Morrison basically hosted the collective’s debutante ball in Seattle. When he was booking at Capitol Hill’s Q, he booked Cio D’Or, a German dub-drone producer, and had to figure out an opener.

“I took a Facebook poll,” Morrison says, “who should I book for this? And several people actually reached out to me privately through that thread and were, like, ‘If you don’t book Eddie Lee, you’re a fucking idiot.’ They were so strongly in his corner, and I was like, ‘Well, who the fuck is Eddie Lee?’ ” “That was the first time we heard of [secondnature],” Harris says, remembering that night. “I was just, like, ‘Who are these kids, this is so cool, what the fuck’s going on?’ ” At 29, Lee is the oldest member of the Tacoma

vanguard by five years, and the impetus of the scene that grew up around UPS. “He’s the grandfather, he’s in charge,” McBride says. “He introduced all the techno quality.”

Not only was Lee the first person at Tacoma’s UPS house parties to start spinning techno, but he was also the electronic-music director at KUPS, the student-run radio station that was the center of the community.

The members of secondnature and Elevator may have found each other through the

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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“Who Are These Kids?” » FROM PAGE 11 radio station, but it was at their parties where their sound, style, and hosting capabilities were forged. Before Lee and Carroll, “there was, quite literally, no dance scene at UPS,” one current student says.

“In Tacoma, you had to create your own fun,” Carroll says. “You could go to a bar, but the bars sucked. There weren’t many venues, if any. It taught us that if we want to go to parties that we wanted to go to, we either have to throw them ourselves or find them in Seattle, and you can’t go to Seattle every weekend.”

“So we basically threw a lot of parties,” Lee adds. “We threw a lot of parties. At the expense of both of our GPAs.” “The attitude was ‘Fuck it, let’s party until the cops come,’ ” says Alex Markey, a secondnature member and one of Seattle’s finest up-andcoming producers who works under the name Archivist. “We would push it as far as we could until we got shut down. One time our friend who lived at a good party house even got arrested and spent the night in jail for having too many noise complaints.” Tacoma has deep punk and DIY roots, and secondnature’s first parties (and their parties today) reflect that influence.

“When we first started DJing together,” Lee says, “techno was not something most of the kids had heard at parties. Most parties were iPod hiphop parties or rock bands.”

Carroll claims that “year zero” for electronic music in Tacoma was when Lee’s friend DJ Baboonface (Isaac Lewin) was asked to DJ a girl’s birthday party. “[Baboonface] had been a crate-digger for a while and had a big collection of funk, boogie, lots of other records. [The birth-

day girl] asked him to play some Lil Wayne, and he said, No way, I’m not going to.

“Lots of people said he was an asshole for not honoring her request,” Carroll recalls, “but he stuck to his guns, ended up DJing the party, didn’t play any Lil Wayne, and [Lee] saw that you could DJ a party and play stuff you were actually into that wasn’t garbage Top 40.”

The key to secondnature’s early success was

sound. The fledgling crew would round up as many speakers as they could and borrow subs from whomever had them. “It set us apart from the other parties on campus,” Lee says. “Kids wanted to come to the house parties we were throwing because they knew they could expect a party with a lot of effort behind it.” In addition to superior sound, the DJs were spinning vinyl on Technics and mixing CDs, often incorporating visuals from a borrowed library projector. Lee and Carroll quickly began promoting and throwing parties of an anomalous caliber for college kids and teenagers. And after Carroll bought a pair of QSC speaker towers with money from managing an ice-cream bicycle operation and a cash gift from his parents for his 21st birthday, “everything changed.”

“I don’t think electronic music would have blown up in Tacoma without the QSCs,” says Carroll. “They’ve sound-tracked a lot of hedonism-slash-community-building exercises.”

This set of speakers was also their ticket into the Seattle scene. “If you’re not throwing the party, you have to compete to get booked with everyone else who’s competing to get booked,” Carroll says. With the speakers, they could throw their own shows in Seattle without relying on bars or venues, which is all they knew how to do anyway.

It’s impressive and surprising that the members

of secondnature and Elevator are only in their early 20s, but it’s not a coincidence that a city like Tacoma, which lacks a robust bar and venue circuit, skews young. There is closer collaboration and involvement between people under and over 21 because “getting carded” isn’t a shibboleth that keeps you out of shows. And just as Lee helped Carroll develop his tastes and talents, secondnature and Elevator members have nurtured yet another generation of even younger producers and DJs. Currently 20, Jack McGougan attends UPS, works as the production manager of KUPS, and has earned recognition in Seattle through his production work as as-dfs. He remembers Carroll, then a senior, having freshmen such as himself over to teach them how to mix CDs. “It was inspirational for us young folks,” says McGougan. “The older folks were always interested in getting younger people involved, never cliquey, very inviting. There’s a whole group of younger people in Tacoma right now that have been seeing this and starting to DJ.” McGougan still has a flier from a basement show Carroll and Lee headlined.

“I got to, like, listen to hard fucking techno melting my face off on acid at 18. That’s priceless.”

Current KUPS director Will Winston remembers a night in their dorm room when they and McGougan both received a text that DJ Eddie Lee was playing in Carroll’s basement. “This was the first time I’d ever heard techno music DJed at a party,” Winston writes, “and watching Eddie with his head lamp and collection of CDs was transformative for me, even though I couldn’t appreciate it fully at the time . . . In terms of secondnature influencing myself and my peers, I can say with certainty that I would not be the person I am today without them.”

If Winston and their peers hope to ascend the

ranks of Seattle’s dance music scene, they might have to make like their mentors and forge their own path. After experiencing explosive growth, adding DJs and producers Corey Wall (DØD), Ted Shin (Fugal), and Nathan Levenson ( Joseph Gaard), secondnature has closed ranks.

“We went to eight pretty quick, and then stopped taking apps,” Carroll says.

That doesn’t mean that secondnature is done growing. Ben Block says the current lineup is built to last and expand. “It’s such an advantage to have so many different people in our crew with so many different relationships throughout the city.”

Now woven into the fabric of an inter-city underground dance scene, secondnature and Elevator have become indispensible. It was an unlikely outcome, yet somehow inevitable.

“They’re all badasses who have no fear,” Melancon says. “Now people are trying to catch up to them, realizing, ‘Oh, I need to be friends with this crew, because that’s where the people are.’ I don’t even know if they’re aware that that’s where they’re going, but I think it is.” E

music@seattleweekly.com

SECONDNATURE DECIBEL SHOWCASE With Tin Man, Cassegrain, Josef Gaard, Archivist. The Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-4618, thecrocodile.com. $20. 21 and over.

9 p.m. Wed., Sept. 23.

SECONDNATURE DECIBEL EDITION AFTER-HOURS PARTY With DJ QU, Aurora Halal, Khotin, Simic, Aos, Fugal, and Nick Carroll. Kremwerk, 1809 Minor Ave., 682-2935, kremwerk.com. $20 (breakfast included). 21 and over.

1–11 a.m. Sun., Sept. 27.

12

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food&drink

The New Brews

How Seattle’s most innovative coffee shops keep up.

BY JACOB UITTI

INFUSIONS Syrups, oils, and other solvent liquids can be infused with flavors by allowing materials to remain suspended in the liquid over time.

Milstead & Co. makes a vanilla simple syrup onsite that can be added to espresso and milk drinks—their “version of the traditional vanilla

Tougo Coffee Co.

C

offee is a very personal thing. There’s a reason those jokes float around about customers ordering extra-hot half-caf iced vanilla soy lattes—we all like our coffee drinks our own way. Me, I like a shot of espresso with a touch of cream and a side of carbonated water. I had it this way in Italy a few times, and now I’m hooked.

Recently, though, a number of trends have emerged and are now providing dedicated coffeedrinkers with new ways to caffeinate. We asked some local shops exactly how they serve up these new coffee concoctions.

especially in bottled options, water is added,” says Locatelli. The cold brew is sold on tap in Vita’s cafes as well as wholesale in kegs and growlers.

True North Roasters’ nitro cold brew looks and drinks a lot like a Guinness, says Maine Hofius, who along with her husband John have no formal beer background. “We don’t even drink beer,” she laughs. “But my husband figured out a nitrogen blend that gives the coffee a nitro head like a Guinness and bubbles like a Guinness.”

The nitro cold brew is sold to places like Joe Bar and Crumble & Flake as kegs, bu they do offer samples at their shop.

Anchorhead Coffee has created a hopped cold-brew coffee, made from its Narwhal blend using fresh Citra hops. The drink is steeped with the hops, adding citrus and effervescent floral notes, creating, yes, a non-alcoholic drink for beer and coffee connoisseurs. Anchorhead’s cold-brew process takes about 20 hours, after which they package the drinks in 12-ounce glass bottles for places like QFC, PCC, and Metropolitan Market. Customers can also try samples at area farmers markets.

Milstead & Co.

water produces a highly caffeinated, concentrated coffee that often must be diluted to taste.

Tougo Coffee Co. adds a cheesecloth during their 24-hour cold-brew process to get the drink “extra-filtered and as clean as possible,” says coffee educator and training manager Doug Meils. Tougo grinds their single-origin coffee most often from Ethiopia or Kenya (a big trend now, preferred to blends) as fine as possible—“French-press grind,” Meils notes—which creates a heavy concentrate that brewers then cut with water to taste. The cold brew, served over ice, is available in 12 and 16 oz. servings. Also available is their chocolate iced coffee—Meils’ own invention, he says: The cold coffee concentrate is cut with milk, not water, then shaken with ice and chocolate “like a milkshake.”

Caffe Vita, using gravity, lets cold water drip through their coarse preground coffee—slowly, about every 30 seconds. The water extracts all the acidity from the coffee, making it “really smooth,” says West regional sales manager Skyler Locatelli. “It’s a really great way to taste the flavor, and it’s the most caffeinated way to drink

Broadcast Coffee

Milstead & Co.

coffee.” Vita usually makes their cold brew starting with five to 10 pounds of coarsely ground coffee on top of a “giant” filter. They then add the water and let the liquid drip through a “tiny hole” for 12 to 14 hours to finish. This makes the concentrate, which they then dilute. “You can pour the concentrate over ice, but most of the time,

latte,” says founder Andrew Milstead. The syrups are made with organic cane sugar, filtered water, and Madagascar vanilla beans. Milstead strips the pods apart so the seeds help flavor the syrup, then simmers them together to a desired consistency, about an hour per batch.

Morsel, which has locations in the U District and Ballard, makes a plethora of syrups in-house because, says co-owner Kekoa Chin-Hidano, “We weren’t satisfied with the other products out there.”

Maybe their most unusual flavor is toasted green cardamom: Raw green cardamom pods, Chin-

POUR-OVER/CLEVER BREW/CLOVER BREW The process of making a cup of coffee with fine grounds and hot water (often using a pre-wetted filter).

When a patron orders a pour-over at Vif, the barista grinds one gram of coffee on the spot for 40 seconds and puts it atop a filter in a coffee pot. Sixteen grams of hot water are poured over very slowly, for about two and a half minutes, then the drink sits for a little over a minute to finish. “It’s at the utmost freshest when we deliver it to our customers,” says owner Shawn Mead. Pour-over, or slow-drip, coffee is served in a 12-ounce cup for $3.75, and the entire process takes about three and a half minutes, so be patient! Vif also makes many of their products by hand, including almond milk and vanilla syrup.

Victrola also grinds their coffee to order for a pour-over cup. Currently they’re using an Ethiopian blend, but the coffee selection rotates regularly, says barista Michael McCreery. Victrola uses a paper conical filter to “create turbulence in the coffee, which helps extraction,” he adds.

A 10-ounce cup costs anywhere between $4 and $5.50 depending on the coffee used.

Broadcast Coffee’s pour-over version is slightly different and called Clever Brew. It looks like a pour-over, says manager Jen Long, but it’s also something like a French press: The water and grinds “hang out together for a long period of time.” To make a Clever Brew, water is heated to about 210 degrees and a single-origin coffee is individually ground. A filter is wetted and heated with hot water so that it doesn’t “shock” the ground coffee placed into it, and a small amount of water is added to let the coffee “bloom,” or release its gases. Then the rest of the hot water is poured over the top and left to brew for about three minutes. This makes one 10-ounce coffee, sold for $4.50.

In 2006 the first Clover brewing machines (not to be confused with Clever Brew) were put on the market, and in 2008, Starbucks purchased the company that made the machines. Toast Ballard, however, was able to purchase one of the first-generation systems, and continues to use it in its shop. It brews a quick, tasty cup of coffee (similar to an Aeropress), one cup at a time.

“Brewing takes anywhere between 40 and 60 seconds,” says Toast Ballard’s manager/barista, Jesse Johnston. The process goes like this: A barista grinds the coffee and puts it in the top of a filter in the Clover, and water rains down over the grounds. Then the coffee receives a “gentle stir without irritating the grounds so it can bloom,” Johnston says. After the coffee blooms, it’s saturated for 30 to 40 seconds, then the grounds are removed and the coffee is suctioned out and poured as a fresh cup. This method is used in over half of the Starbucks around the nation, and has “enhanced our own business,” Johnston said. “It allows us to offer a large variety.” E

food@seattleweekly.com

SE ATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEMBER 23 — 29, 2015

COLD BREW The process of brewing coffee with cold

Hidano explains, are toasted to get “the nice aromatics coming off,” crushed to expose the surface area, steeped on full boil for about five minutes, and left to cool and strain overnight. Morsel also makes its own Madagascar vanilla-infused syrup, with a ratio of three parts sugar and two parts water, and their own caramel and (kosher) salted-caramel syrups.

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e’re in the midst of the intense geekification of Seattle: As more and more tech workers flock to the city, appealing to their styles and sensibilities has become big business.

Yet the language of wine has always been poetry; those inclined to make a pun might say something about purple prose. There’s no doubt that a glass of grand cru Champagne or properly aged Barolo can turn even a relatively stoic sort into a modern-day Omar Khayyam, yet often that very language is opaque and off-putting to many, especially wine neophytes. Those seeking factual information have often been confronted with dense tomes more suitable for scholars than social drinkers.

Thus, when Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammock launched the Seattlebased Wine Folly blog in 2011 (winefolly. com), they consciously sought a new path: to marry data and readability. It’s served them well, and carries forward in their new book Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine (Avery, $25). They’ve done a fantastic, and frankly awe-inspiring, job collecting and collating data on most of the world’s major grapes and growing regions, consolidating that information into easy-to-read infographics and visual displays. As a reference it’s remarkably info-dense yet concise; the authors have managed to maintain accessibility despite all the nitty-gritty they’ve packed into a slender 200 or so pages.

Speaking with Puckette shortly before the book’s launch (yesterday, Sept. 22!), it was easy to see why Wine Folly’s style is the way it is: She’s relentlessly fascinated with understand-

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WINE FOLLY

What you need, when you need it.

food&drink»

ing the how and why of wine. Early success through infographics and flow charts showed that there was a tremendous audience for the technical data she was uncovering, a sort of “house style” that dominates the book.

Perhaps more interesting, that house style was a bit of a departure from Puckette’s own feelings: She’s quick to offer an opinion, and is certainly capable of snark, sarcasm, and even a bit of condescension when the time is right. Yet Wine Folly has a patient, upbeat, almost relentlessly helpful tone: Concepts are explained in sufficient detail to appeal to novices, yet phrases like “anthocyanins” make sure

Ven. Bardor Tulku Rinpoche Teachings in Seattle Saturday, October 3 10am-Noon & 2pm – 4pm Teachings from Treasury of Eloquence: The Songs of Barway Dorje “Beyond Repayment”

that more veteran drinkers stay on their toes.

Befitting modern American sensibilities, wines are broken down mostly into individual varietals and classic blends—and not just the usual suspects, either: Mencia and torrontés get just as much coverage as chardonnay and pinot noir. The maps that helped put the website, well, on the map are also present, and just as online, they almost seem to pop of the page.

Frankly, though, it’s the sections on food pairings and blind tasting that elevate the book above a simple collection of data. Here Puckette’s wry sense of humor pokes through; for example, “Last Meal” is the highest score a wine can achieve on her four-point scale. It’s in these moments that you get a sense for the ethos behind the book and the site.

English and Chinese translation

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demystify wine over the years (somewhere I have a copy of Wine for Dummies that a considerate but misguided relative once bought me), yet most of them lack relevance in the modern wine world. They either overly emphasize the best-known (and most expensive) regions and styles while offering little guidance to those who don’t have expansive cellars and limitless budgets, or they over-

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The pairing section is perhaps the most robust and useful one I’ve seen yet . . . Frankly, the book might be worth it just for this section.

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whelm with data yet offer little actual assistance. Even worse, the food-pairing advice they give is little more than recycled clichés— maybe a brief note about how German riesling goes with Asian cuisine.

Not so in Wine Folly : The pairing section is perhaps the most robust and useful one I’ve seen yet. The first page offers basic guidance, while subsequent pages provide a bit of theory behind why pairings work (or don’t). Frankly, the book might be worth it just for this section, which also offers detailed instructions for all sorts of food, including some hard-to-pair ingredients like broccoli and cilantro. My only qualm is that it doesn’t discuss the way in which cooking methods and sauces can trump the base protein in a dish, but that’s a minor annoyance, not a serious flaw.

Let’s be clear: Wine Folly isn’t exactly a page-turner. It’s a reference guide, a wonderfully taut and condensed source of information that is often hard or impossible to find elsewhere on the Internet. It’s artfully designed, nicely laid out, and easy to pick up and glance at. You might not be able to take it out to dinner with you, but it could easily alleviate a lot of potential stress in planning events and dinner parties. Most of all, it’s an excellent representative of the website’s aesthetic and tone, and would make a worthy addition to most collections—not to mention a hell of a gift for the oenophile in your life. E

Sunday, October 4 10am-Noon Treasury of Eloquence (cont’d) 2pm – 4pm White Dzambhala Empowerment

15

arts&culture

“You Can’t Be Book-Smart About Sex”

ThisWeek’s PickList

Leslye Headland talks about the brain/body conflicts in her knowing new rom-com.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 24

Risk! Live

BY BRIAN MILLER

Kevin Allison’s touring stage events capitalize on our insatiable appetite for confessional storytelling. He assigns a new theme each evening, and local comics and writers bare all. It’s a podast formula, but it works very well for audiences who prefer live literary events to reading at home alone on their Kindles and iPads. Tonight’s assigned theme is “Bewildered,” with performers Taylor Larsen, Hanna Brooks Olsen, Julia Schertzer, and Emmett Montgomery (the latter recently voted Best Comic in our Best of Seattle readers’ poll). Tomorrow is “Furious,” featuring Pamela Brown, Raven Matthews, Margaret Malone, and Karen Finneyfrock. Allison acts as emcee, and will also share his stories of confusion and anger. The Vera Project (Seattle Center), ticket

SEATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEM BER 23 — 29, 2015

W

16

Headland says of Jake and Lainey, “That is everyone’s biggest fear in the romance department: that they’re going to be some kind of cliché. ‘Am I just some character in some bad movie right now?’ ” Of the film, she explains, “The whole idea behind writing it was . . . Do we really know anybody we have sex with? It wasn’t just the When Harry Met Sally thing—can men

Headland on the New York set of Sleeping With Other People.

and women be friends? Can people get to know each other before they have sex? Is there something of value to that? Most of the time, I think, people have sex before knowing the person.”

Here, for example, Lainey has an unhealthy obsession with her college crush (now a married doctor, played by Adam Scott). “They’re just as close as two people can be, and they absolutely do not know each other,” says Headland. “They only know each other from the waist down.”

There’s an almost violent sexual attraction going on, one reason the movie deliberately—and sometimes unsettlingly—shifts from witty repartee to raw physical need. Lainey’s ruled by what Julian Barnes, in his novel of pathological jealousy Before She Met Me, called the reptilian brain—the primitive old coils that override our newer frontal lobes.

Headland puts it this way: “There is a reason that cheating is hotter than monogamous sex.

There is a reason that before the age of Internet porn that porn was really all about power dynamics. Going into the sex scenes, I really made sure that those dynamics were stacked. So for Lainey . . . it’s not that she’s fucking some guy and wants to get some sexual satisfaction out of it. It’s that she always wanted to lose her virginity to this guy. So he’s always the deflowerer, she’s always the virgin. He always calls her Elaine, which only her dad calls her, so he’s the father and she’s the daughter. He’s the doctor, she’s the patient. She’s in the position of subjugation, of being dominated. That is recreating some sort of trauma, so she can feel in control of it.”

Which brings us back to the brain, as Headland cites the influence of Stanley Siegel’s recent book Your Brain on Sex and “the idea all of your

sexual fantasies and sexual proclivities are connected to some sort of trauma or unresolved issue. It’s a bit of an addiction, where the solution to the problem becomes the problem. The addiction to perfection, the addiction to the perfect woman, the addiction to the perfect body . . . ” From that comes a kind of negative neurochemical feedback loop, the easy but unfulfilling rewards of online porn and hookup culture. To the same frank new oeuvre belong Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s underrated Don Jon. There’s a glut of sexual availability for today’s young men and women, says Headland, “but no knowledge, no intimacy.

I don’t think they know how to be intimate with one another. There aren’t any social cues or cultural cues—you don’t wait three days for a guy to call. Yes, you know what your vagina looks like, but do you actually know how to use it? Is [sex] just something that sort of happens? Is it something you’re entitled to? I don’t think you are.

“How are people even supposed to fall in love at this point? They don’t have any social events to go to. It’s all online. I would guess most people in their late 20s and early 30s think that really the only way to meet people is to have sex with them. Or that’s what’s expected.” In this climate, she says of Sleeping, “It’s a romantic comedy, but it’s a romantic comedy about loneliness. These two people are profoundly lonely, despite the fact they may be fucking a lot of people.” E

bmiller@seattleweekly.com

SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE Continues at Sundance, Meridian, and Lincoln Square. Rated R. 100 minutes.

RISK-SHOW.COM

fly.com. $20. 9 p.m. (Repeats Fri.) BRIAN MILLER

LINDA KÄLLÉRUS/IFC FILMS

hile some critics have complained that Sleeping With Other People is tonally inconsistent, I loved it for just that honest human variability. There’s tenderness and raunchiness, nods to Old Hollywood and modern hook-up culture, and a fistfight that seemingly comes out of nowhere but totally makes sense. So why is it, I asked writer/director Leslye Headland during her June visit for SIFF, that her two smart Manhattan protagonists can be so stupid about sex?

“When it comes to intimacy and emotional intelligence,” she replies, “people within my age group are staggeringly uninformed. It comes down to the fact that we don’t have any vocabulary for it.” In the age of online dating, Tindr and Grindr, and seemingly unlimited sexual options (as opposed to knowledge), she adds with a hearty laugh, “You can’t be book-smart about sex.

It is trial and error almost always. It seems like everyone is so dumb about it.”

Serial sex addicts Lainey and Jake (Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis) embody that divide.

They hook up in college, then meet a dozen years later as near strangers; vowing not to repeat that mistake—or was it?!?—they try to check their lust and cynicism in favor of chaste friendship. Yet a quarter-century after When Harry Met Sally and a dozen years after The Rules, they have no rules or examples to follow. Headland believes that her audience is in that same place of confused swipe-right plenitude, she says. “Part of the reason I wrote the movie was to have a dialogue or provide a reference that people could point to. ‘It’s like that scene.’ Or, ‘I don’t understand why I’m feeling shame when I’m supposed to be in charge of my orgasm.’ ” Her rapid-fire conversation studded with references to old movies (and old critics like Ebert and Kael), Headland is a transplant to New York, raised in a conservative household, once brave enough to work as an assistant to the volcanic Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein. (We enjoy a laugh about how I once interviewed for the same job, about a decade earlier, and was lucky enough—i.e., not tough enough—to get it.)

She’s written TV and theater, and adapted her catty off-Broadway hit Bachelorette in 2012, providing meaty roles for Kirsten Dunst and Rebel Wilson. Sleeping With Other People is her second feature, one steeped in rom-com tradition.

Velocity Fall Kick-Off

Almost everyone who is anyone in local dance passes through Velocity Dance Center—like the center of a Venn diagram, it’s the place where everybody overlaps. And for its annual Fall Kick-Off series, we’ll see a little bit of everyone involved. And if three different programs over three nights weren’t enough, Sunday brings “The Big Bang,” a performance installation and party. If the upcoming season is as dynamic as this opening salvo, we’re in for an astonishing year. (Through Sun.)

Velocity Dance Center, 1621 12th Ave., 325-8773, velocitydancecenter.org. $15–$25. 7 p.m.

SANDRA KURTZ

FRIDAY, SEPT. 25

Steve Peters

You know Peters—or should—as Seattle’s most indispensable impresario of contemporary music (of the sit-down-and-listen variety) and a sound artist of uncommon devotion to craft and beauty.

His newest project is the result of two visits to the Azores, in 2011 and 2014, the climax of his exploration of his roots (his is the fifth generation in America), and he shaped hours of field recordings into the evening-length Canções Profundas (Deep Songs), to be unveiled tonight alongside improvisations on traditional Azorean themes by an all-star quintet of instrumentalists.

Though actually, as Peters describes it on his blog, the field recordings shaped themselves: “I don’t typically think of my work in narrative terms,” he says, yet starting to work with his

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WASHINGTONENSEMBLE.ORG

Higgins (as Dave) plus an unnamed feline.

» FROM PAGE 16 material, he realized that “this piece wants to tell a story.” It “begins with the primal, formative sounds of bubbling geothermal pits and sea water gurgling in lava tubes, an allusion to the islands’ volcanic origins,” and moves on to “the sounds of the local wildlife . . . of domesticated animals . . . of religious ritual, commu-

nity celebration, and music,” and eventually to the journey to America—complete with whale sounds, the industry that drew Azoreans to this country. “And it concludes in the cemetery where my immigrant ancestors are buried, memory hanging in the air, the local birds mixing with the birds from home.” Chapel

Performance Space, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., waywardmusic.org. $5–$15. 8 p.m. (Repeats Sat.) GAVIN BORCHERT

Avenue Arts, 1620 12th Ave., 325-5105, washingtonensemble.org. $15–$25. 7:30 p.m. T. BOND TUESDAY, SEPT. 29

Ted Rall

Snowden! Laura Poitras won the Oscar for her documentary Citizenfour, about the celebrated/ reviled NSA leaker, still a fugitive/exile/martyr living in Russia to avoid U.S. prosecution. And

Christmas will bring Oliver Stone’s feature drama Snowden, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the title role. (Beyond that, an opera or Ice Capades show?) For now we have Rall’s cartoon biography Snowden (Seven Stories Press, $16.95), which—beyond the lefty political kinship—very effectively employs graphics and diagrams to chart the government’s relentless post-9/11 tracking of our personal data. Rall writes, “We live in Oceania”—the surveillance state of Orwell’s 1984. “The NSA’s solution was to collect the haystack” rather than just the needles of prospective terrorists.

Most of this is admittedly old news, sourced on prior reporting with no apparent contact with Snowden. Yet Rall’s account contains more of Snowden’s biography than the Poitras doc. (He was a squeaky-clean Boy Scout who graduated from high school early, a fantasy buff and gamer, a child of divorce.) Above all Snowden is portrayed as a disillusioned idealist, very disappointed by Obama’s continuance of Bush’s practices, whom Rall even depicts as Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince.

There’s also the lingering, disturbing sense that Snowden’s solitary example will change nothing as our precious network turns against us. Does Generation Facebook even care about the loss of privacy? And there’s no prospect of a fair trial or return to the U.S. for Snowden, however many more books and movies are made about him.

Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhall seattle.org. $5. 7 p.m. BRIAN MILLER E

SE ATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEMBER 23 — 29, 2015

TIX @ WWW.STGPRESENTS.ORG

We need more bestiality-themed theater, though Kim Rosenstock’s play actually has more to do with art history than cheap feathered titillation. The piece has its basis in the Greek myth of Leda and the swan, in which Zeus descends from Olympus in sexy, long-necked avian form.

Michelangelo famously painted that scene (lost but often copied), which inspires a writing assignment for Dave (Ryan Higgins), made by his instructor Fiona ( Jonelle Jordan), on whom he happens to have a crush. What results is a kind of sexual fantasia on animal themes, springing from Dave’s notebooks and interlaced with his romantic mishaps—and informed by their historical antecedents. Also, Leda herself (Leah Salcido Pfenning) figures in the action, which is divided among Greek myth, Michelangelo’s workshop, Victorian times, and the present day. Rosenstock is a writer and producer on TV’s New Girl, yet the comedy of Act 1 does give way to darker fetishes in Act 2.

Ali el-Gasseir directs. (Through Oct. 12.) 12th

17

arts&culture» classical

Pitched Battle

Meet today’s informed consumer.

The Seattle Symphony launches a piano competition.

BY GAVIN BORCHERT

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of smart phone owners don’t go an hour without checking their phones

are more likely to buy from a brand that shares the customer experience

check their phones before they sleep and immediately after they awake

practice showrooming (visiting stores to try out products before buying online)

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SEATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEM BER 23 — 29, 2015

BEAT CANCER

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Greater Washington Light The Night

October 24th

Seattle Center 4pm Sign up today! lightthenight.org/wa or call 206.957.4592

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eflecting the enthusiasms of SSO music director Ludovic Morlot and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, jury chair and this season’s artist in residence, the required repertory for the first Seattle Symphony Piano Competition was American and French. Seven pianists were chosen for last Tuesday’s first round from dozens of audition tapes; their mini-recitals comprised three works: one by Ravel, one of their choice, and a brand-new piece—so everyone starts with a blank slate—commissioned from Portland composer Kenji Bunch.

Five survived to Wednesday’s semifinals, where each pianist chose two concertos out of six—three American, by Barber, Copland, and Gershwin; and three French, by Poulenc, SaintSaëns (his second) and Ravel. Each played one in its entirety and a movement or two, selected by the judges, from the other. Wednesday evening, three were chosen—Vijay Venkatesh, Kenny Broberg, and Kevin Ahfat—to play their concertos again, with the full SSO, at Friday’s finals, this time also subject to an audience vote that carried a cash prize of $1,000.

The resonant, golden tone Vinkatesh brought to the severe, Bach-like opening of the SaintSaëns was admirable; less so was his handling of the quicksilver scales later in the piece, which lacked, just slightly, the same firmness and presence. Hearing him then launch into Gershwin’s opening movement marked a missed opportunity, I think, not to play up the works’ differences and underline his versatility, making the Gershwin looser, more insouciant. He sold me, though, with his second crack at the Saint-Saëns on Friday, genial, fluent, technically firmer—and unidiosyncratic; a surprise or two would have been welcome.

The Gershwin in Broberg’s hands, though, was beautifully languid and leisurely right where it did the most good. This approach brought the piece not only more expressiveness, but—though it may sound counterintuitive— clearer outlines, which result if you don’t rush, place every gesture just so, make it speak. There

Ahfat FTW!

was boldness and muscle, too, here and in the finale of the Saint-Saëns. (One tic: He ended nearly every firework-like upward run with a slashing accent on the top note.)

Ahfat chose Barber’s 1962 concerto—Rachmaninovian in everything but harmony, with a wrist-killing, mechanistic finale—giving it a great fleetness and variety of color (he drew some amazing pitch-black roars out of the piano’s bottom register). It was probably Wednesday’s most spectacular performance, and he made a thrilling case for this non-repertory piece. After its thunder, the judges, unsurprisingly, asked for the slow movement of the Ravel; his dynamic control here was subtler here than his competitors’, though he did seem to hurry along some of the notier passages with more urgency than necessary. Well, it had been a long day by that point—longest of all for Li-Tan Hsu and Christina Siemens, who tag-teamed playing all the orchestral parts for all concertos on a second piano.

Yet on Friday evening, both the audience and I went for Broberg, who seemed to me the one artist who really made his piece his own. (We were asked to vote by smartphone, and the results, as they came in, were projected on a screen over the stage, an idea both anticlimactic and vulgar.) The exuberance in the Gershwin concerto, no less than its poetry, was thoughtful, nuanced, and heartfelt—though you could argue that piece does offer more scope for personal expression than the impeccable tailoring of the Saint-Saëns (imagine trying to make an Armani tuxedo “your own”) or the glamorous dazzle of the Barber.

The jury soon after revealed their own choice: Ahfat, who got $10K and is invited back to play with the SSO next season—another non-warhorse, I hope. As testament to the tough call, the jury awarded Vinkatesh and Broberg a double second place ($5K each). No word at press time about the competition’s future, though the enthusiastic Wednesday and Friday audiences must surely be encouragement. E

gborchert@seattleweekly.com

» stage

NURTURE • YOUR • CALLING

Opening Nights

Trina Mills—appropriately captures the animosity and agitation of the music and lyrics. (Armstrong wrote the book with Michael Mayer.)

After such an assiduous assault of angst, the show ends with an unexpected moment of catharsis—just a twinkle of hope and human connection, which caused this snarky Gen-X critic to tear up . . . a bit. America may be full of idiots, but the future needn’t be entirely bleak.

PAmerican Idiot ARTSWEST, 4711 CALIFORNIA AVE. S.W., 938-0339, ARTSWEST.ORG. $19–$39.50.

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stage@seattleweekly.com

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Those who might prefer to avoid a play that draws on a century-old, 700-plus-page novel will find a kindred spirit in the early moments of Bloomsday, a play inspired by Ulysses. Spritely 20-year-old Caithleen (Sydney Andrews) is leading a walking tour through “James Joyce’s Dublin,” clutching the masterwork in her hand. On the tour, however, is visiting American academic Robert (Peter Crook), who loathes the book.

He attempts to undermine her tour group—a phantom presence in Kurt Beattie’s minimal staging—by deriding the “doorstop opus” as an “underread and overpraised piece of doggerel.”

It’s a deft opening that takes the air out of the revered book and provides some relief to an audience that—let’s be honest—likely hasn’t read it.

Yet Ulysses isn’t really the point of this powerful exploration of lost love, a premiere by Steven Dietz, whose Becky’s New Car was seen here in 2008. Dietz takes only what he needs from Joyce, his characters returning to the text to share, to flirt, to obsess.

But the action here is independent of Joyce’s work, wholly the province of its ill-fated duo.

Before that fate unfolds, though, comes the mystery of discerning how exactly Dietz’s characters relate. In the first act, Caithleen is a distant but vivid memory to 50-something Robert, and he is an unsettling stranger to the skittish young woman.

Dietz is toying with time in this double-cast revolving-door production, though the purpose of this temporal tango is frustratingly murky. While we’re disoriented, Robert isn’t. He’s a willing time-traveler who revels in an old love while at the same time warning young Caithleen against his younger self.

That younger self, Robbie (Eric Ankrim), soon appears alone onstage, agitated and out of sync. He has already met and lost Caithleen when he’s joined by a kindly older woman who recounts details of the young couple’s brief fling.

This unnerves Robbie even more. Clearly she’s an older Caithleen (now named Cait and played by Marianne Owen), but how did she arrive?

Between the two acts, the lobby buzzed with questions for a work seemingly mired in its own conceit. There were generous laugh lines—many at Joyce’s expense—and a strong performance from Andrews, whose Caithleen seems on the verge of explosion. But what exactly was it all adding up to?

Thankfully, Act 2 saves the night: Bloomsday’s underlying story becomes apparent, and the early anxiety finds an emotional outlet. Finally the central day-long love affair is told in full, from the first meeting of a coy, daring Caithleen and a charming, mischievous Robbie to their final, anguished farewell. The elders step back from their sustained, shared flashback, and Dietz’s expertly crafted pieces fall into place. MARK

”

Lisa Holman, MS (2014)

PBloomsday

MICHAEL BRUNK PHOTO

Exploring themes of isolation and community, ArtsWest’s potent production offers the audience two possible perspectives: “Observer” sits you in the bleachers, while “Immersive” sets you squarely in the center of the action. Having zero inclination to stand for 90 intermissionless minutes, I sat comfortably in my seat. Then—wouldn’t you know it—I found myself envying those being herded around the performance areas. Damn.

Under Eric Ankrim’s expert direction, the energetic 32-person ensemble encapsulates the gloom of a generation growing up in a polarized, post-Patriot Act America. Particularly notable is Johnny (Frederick Hagreen) battling his inner terrorists in “Before the Lobotomy.” Deadbeat dad Will (Michael Coale Grey) also evokes empathy during “Nobody Likes You.” All the design elements in this multimedia production culminate in a calculated visual and auditory attack on your senses. Twyla Tharpesque choreography—by a creative team led by

that nutrition plays a role in natural medicine and health care.

ALYSSA DYKSTERHOUSE

Each generation has a defining musical. Hippies tuned into Hair. Rent rallied Gen-X. Green Day’s American Idiot musters millennials.

Though the source material, an angry album about post-9/11 America, was recorded in 2004, its lyrics gained currency six years later on Broadway, after the Great Recession. I doubt front man Billie Joe Armstrong could’ve imagined Donald Trump as political candidate or a Muslim child being arrested for building a clock, but our insane political landscape keeps this show important and topical.

The pardonably puny plot has aspiring rockers Johnny, Tunny, and Will fleeing their ho-hum suburban lives. However, this leads each to their personal Dante’s inferno. An unplanned pregnancy forces Will back home; Tunny later enters the military; while Johnny struggles with yearning for love and heroin. Using minimal dialogue, the punk-rock opera simply builds upon the album lyrics.

Hagreen’s Johnny (at bottom of stairs).

“At Bastyr I learned critical ways

19

arts&culture» performance Stage

GREAT SOUL OF RUSSIA A reading of Chekhov’s The

OPENINGS & EVENTS

THE ART OF BAD MEN Vincent Delaney’s new WWII

POW camp drama is based on interviews with actual prisoners—German ones, from a camp in Minnesota. theLAB@Inscape, 815 Seattle Blvd. S., map-theatre.com.

Name your own price. Preview Sept. 24, opens Sept. 25.

7:30 p.m. Thurs.–Sat. plus Mon., Oct. 5. Ends Oct. 17.

BRASS The first chapter in Louis Broome and John Longenbaugh’s England-set, steampunk-tinged serial.

Theater Schmeater, 2125 Third Ave., 800-838-3006, battlegroundproductions.org. $10–$29. Opens Sept. 25.

10:30 p.m. Fri.–Sat. Ends Oct. 10.

BURLESCO DIVINO Lily Verlaine and Jasper McCann’s Italian-flavored burlesque/theater show. The Triple Door, 21 Union St., 838-4333, thetripledoor.net. $35–$50.

7:30 p.m. Wed., Sept. 30–Thurs., Oct. 1; 7 & 10:30 p.m.

Fri., Oct. 2–Sat., Oct. 3.

CHRISTMAS CANTATA Bask in the spirit of the season early with the Gracias Choir and Orchestra’s musical nativity play. McCaw Hall, Seattle Center, christmas cantata.us. Donation. 7 p.m. Wed., Sept. 30.

DRACULA A new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s vampire classic. Taproot Theatre, 204 N. 85th St., 781-9707, taproottheatre.org. $20–$40. Previews Sept. 23–24, opens Sept. 25. 7:30 p.m. Wed.–Thurs., 8 p.m. Fri., 2 & 8 p.m. Sat. Ends Oct. 24.

Wood Demon by The Seagull Project. ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., acttheatre.org. $10–$15. 7 p.m. Wed., Sept. 30.

JIM FRENCH’S IMAGINATION THEATER Radio drama, recorded live. Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave., Kirkland, kpcenter.org. $16. 7:30 p.m.

Mon., Sept. 28.

• 99 WAYS TO FUCK A SWAN SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 16.

SAYS YOU! The popular NPR panel game show is taped live. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., townhallseattle.org. $32.50–$38.50. 1 p.m. Sat., Sept. 26–Sun., Sept. 27.

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE Arthur Miller’s 1955 drama involves a dark family secret, a love affair, and jealousy that alter a working-class longshoreman’s life. Braden Abraham directs. Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Center, 443-2222. $17 and up. Previews begin Sept. 25, opens Sept. 30. 7:30 p.m. Wed.–Sun., plus 2 p.m. weekend matinees; see seattlerep.org for exact schedule.

Ends Oct. 18.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE As we know from last year’s Birdman, things

didn’t go so well for Michael Keaton’s insecure movie star when he tried to mount a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s hallmark short story. Noses were shot off, sets destroyed, and sanity lost. So this is a bold choice for Book-It’s new season (its 26th), with Jane Jones again directing her adaptation of Carver’s

“the greatest american playwright. the moral voice of the american stage.”

-the new york times

famed 1981 collection (updated from its last staging in 1998-99). Andrew DeRycke, Tracy Hyland, Kevin McKeon, and Carol Roscoe enact the title story and three others from the same career-defining collection.

With his flinty economy of words, the Port Angeles– based Carver (1938–1988) was both unsparing yet compassionate toward his flawed blue-collar characters and hard-luck cases. Though fame came late, he was this state’s biggest literary star, an icon of Northwest letters. Hollywood has had mixed results with his canon (see Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go), where old grudges and resentments lurk as ominously as the Cascadia Fault Line.

Action comes rarely and devastatingly in his stories; yet if you flip back the pages and look, the emotional cause was always there. Carver described everyday catastrophes in the plainest of terms. BRIAN MILLER Center Theatre at the Armory, Seattle Center, 216-0833. $25–$50. Previews Sept. 23–24, opens Sept. 25. 7:30 p.m. Wed.–Sat., 2 p.m. Sun., plus other matinees; see book-it.org for exact schedule. Ends Oct. 18.

ALI WONG Rising from San Francisco to stand-up stages across the country. The Neptune, 1303 N.E. 45th St., 877-STG-4TIX, stgpresents.org. $16.50. 7:30 & 10 p.m.

Fri., Sept. 25.

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Dance FALL KICK-OFF SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 15.

• PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET “See the Music” is

a triple bill of repertory works: George Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, Tide Harmonic by Christopher Wheeldon, and Jerome Robbins’ hilarious The Concert. McCaw Hall, Seattle Center, 441-2424, pnb.org. $30 and up. 6:30 p.m. Fri., Sept. 25; 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sat., Sept. 26; 7:30 p.m.

Thurs., Oct. 1–Sat., Oct. 3; 1 p.m. Sun., Oct. 4.

AFTER—AN APOCALYPSE STORY Rebel Belly Dance Theater has chosen a rather somber theme for its latest show. Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way S.W., youngstownarts.org. $20. 8:30 p.m.

Sat., Sept. 26.

Classical, Etc.

SEATTLE SYMPHONY Answer: Beethoven 4, Mahler 1.

(Question: What was the final score of the BeethovenMahler game?) Benaroya Hall, Third Ave. and Union St., 215-4747, seattlesymphony.org. $21–$121. 7:30 p.m.

Thurs., Sept. 24; 7 p.m. Fri., Sept. 25 (Beethoven only, a one-hour “Untuxed” concert); 8 p.m. Sat., Sept. 26.

CHRISTINE WILIKINSON BECKMAN & JONATHAN ODDIE 17th-century Italian duos for violin and key-

board could get pretty weird. Queen Anne Christian Church, 1316 Third Ave. W., salmonrun.wix.com/ salmon-run-concerts. $25. 7:30 p.m. Fri., Sept. 25.

CANÇÕES PROFUNDAS SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 15.

MUSIC OF REMEMBRANCE Stein and Picasso meet again in music from Tom Cipullo’s After Life, an

•

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The traditional view of classical-music genres puts concertos and chamber music at opposite ends of the taste spectrum: flashy, shallow, and crowdpleasing vs.

BY GAVIN BORCHERT highbrow and emotionally and intellectually profound. Or popular vs. elite, to put it that way. But this difference hardly obtained in the 18th century. Mozart, for example, devised the wind parts in some of his piano concertos to be dispensable, so that the piece would function with only string-quartet accompaniment and thus be marketable for domestic use. Meanwhile some Handel and Haydn works can be played as keyboard solos—the accompanying instruments in their entirety are optional. To open his chamber-music concert series, keyboardist Byron Schenkman has chosen a smaller format for two concertos by Handel and one by Haydn: instead of an orchestra, just one string player to a part. Does his playing change with this change of context from spotlighted soloist to one among

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equals? “Yes! Playing these one on a part allows us all much more freedom to be playful and spontaneous, especially with a group of musicians as comfortable playing off each other as this group is,” he says. “The Haydn has the potential to be funnier (dare I say goofier?), the Handel more dramatic, and both composers more intimate.

One of these days I will do some of the Mozart concertos this way too.” Benaroya Recital Hall, Third Ave. & Union St., 215-4747, byron schenkman.com. $10–$42. 7 p.m. Sun., Sept. 27.

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SEATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEM BER 23 — 29, 2015

Sharing the Spotlight

opera premiered by MoR earlier this year. Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., musicofremembrance.org.

Free. 2 p.m. Sat., Sept. 26.

CARMINA SING FEST Join the Seattle Choral Company for a sing-along performance of Carmina burana.

University Christian church, 4731 15th Ave. N.E., seattlechoralcompany.org. $10. 7 p.m. Sat., Sept. 26.

OCTAVA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Beethoven’s Eighth and more. Maple Park Church, 17620 60th Ave. W., Lynnwood, octavachamberorchestra.com. $13–$20.

7:30 p.m. Sat., Sept. 26.

JORGE CABALLERO This Peruvian guitarist/composer opens the Seattle Classic Guitar Society’s season.

Benaroya Recital Hall, Third Ave. & Union St. $28–$38.

7:30 p.m. Sat., Sept. 26.

BYRD ENSEMBLE Tudor choral music, including a 500thb-day nod to composer John Sheppard. St. Mark’s Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E., 397-3627, byrdensemble. com. $15–$25. 7:30 p.m. Sat., Sept. 26.

PUGET SOUND CONCERT OPERA You know the heroine of Donizetti’s 1830 Anna Bolena as Anne Boleyn, the wife who lost her head over Henry VIII. At Music Center of the Northwest, 901 N. 96th St., 7 p.m.

Sat., Sept. 26, and Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, 411 156th Ave. N.E., Bellevue, 3 p.m. Sun., Sept. 27. $20. pugetsoundconcertopera.org ORCHESTRA ITALIANA As part of the Center’s Italian Festival, music by Cherubini, Piccinni, Vivaldi, and others. Fisher Pavilion, Seattle Center. Free. Noon, Sun., Sept. 27.

KAI CHEN & ANDREW YANG Bonbons for cello and piano. Meydenbauer Center, 11100 N.E. Sixth St., Bellevue, brownpapertickets.com. $20–$100. 2:30 p.m.

Sun., Sept. 27.

AGAVE BAROQUE From countertenor Reginald Mobley, songs from the time of the Thirty Years’ War. Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 4400 86th Ave., Mercer Island, emuseattle.com. $20–$25. 3 p.m. Sun., Sept. 27.

BYRON SCHENKMAN AND FRIENDS SEE EAR SUPPLY, BELOW. TERRA NOSTRA A multimedia reimagining of Christophe Chagnard’s orchestral work about climate change, presented by Sustainable Seattle. Impact Hub, 220 Second Ave. S., sustainableseattle.org. Free. 6:30 p.m. Wed., Sept. 30.

BOLLYWOOD MASALA ORCHESTRA Music and dance in the Indian film tradition. Benaroya Hall, Third Ave. & Union St., seattlesymphony.org. $35–$70. 7:30 p.m. Wed., Sept. 30.

JOHNNY GANDELSMAN Town Music, Town Hall’s Joshua Roman-curated music series, opens with Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas from this violinist. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., townhallseattle.org.

» film Kelly as Krakauer.

UNIVERSAL

Opening ThisWeek Everest CONTINUES AT SUNDANCE, CINERAMA, PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER, THORNTON PLACE, AND OTHERS. RATED PG-13. 121 MINUTES.

Goodnight Mommy OPENS FRI., SEPT. 25 AT SIFF FILM CENTER. RATED R. 99 MINUTES.

RUNS FRI., SEPT. 25–THURS., OCT. 1 AT SIFF CINEMAS UPTOWN. NOT RATED. 94 MINUTES.

Meet the Patels OPENS FRI., SEPT. 25 AT SUNDANCE CINEMAS. RATED PG. 88 MINUTES.

Born in Illinois to immigrant parents, Ravi Patel is a typical first-generation American: Shaped by two cultures, he feels the inherited traditions of the old country but is irrepressibly ’Murican in every significant way. This dual nature is put on breezy display in Meet the Patels, an amusing documentary in which Ravi (and sister Geeta, his mostly unseen codirector) tracks a particularly fraught moment in his family’s life. Ravi is 29, and his parents—humorous dad Vasant and anxious mom Champa—are antsy about him meeting a nice Indian woman and getting married. They come from a culture of arranged marriages, and since that system’s already in place, why bother with the complicated American dating game?

The film offers many amusing revelations about this world. Prospective brides and grooms exchange their “biodata” online and filter through potential matches. Ravi’s parents would really like it if Ravi chose someone from the extended Patel universe— “Patel” is essentially the “Smith” of India. In one of the movie’s best sequences, Vasant patiently sits down with Ravi to explain how members of the vast family tree are spread out geographically. It would be good to meet a woman from this branch of the Patels. But over here? No, no, these are disreputable Patels. So the Los Angeles-based Ravi,

Racing Extinction contains many grisly examples of mankind’s impact on the natural world, but one of its most affecting touches is a snippet of birdsong.

The movie considers the way various species have been driven to nonexistence in the past few decades, among them the Kaua‘i ō‘ō bird. A research unit at Cornell University catalogues wildlife sounds, and they recorded the song of the ō‘ō—that is, the very last one—before the type vanished in the late 1980s. It’s a plucky little cry, made all the more poignant because no other ō‘ō is around to answer it. Later we see footage of people killing manta rays and a Hong Kong rooftop loaded with thousands of shark fins, but that extinct sound really brings home an overwhelming sense of absence.

The movie doesn’t always hit that note. Racing Extinction is from the director of The Cove, Louie Psihoyos, and where that Oscar-winning 2009 film mostly had a single powerful focus (the capture and killing of dolphins in Japan), this one touches on a series of interesting but scattered environmental crises. Most are compelling, for sure: lush photography of blue whales, that largest-ever of the planet’s creatures; a primer on how the methane produced by livestock is a giant creator of carbon dioxide; closeups of dazzling plankton, the teeny, unromantic creature upon which the entire food chain depends.

Psihoyos also serves up some Cove-style undercover stuff, as he and his colleagues take hidden cameras into black-market fish-smuggling factories and restaurants that illegally serve whale meat.

The director is a former National Geographic photographer, and embedded in the film is an intriguing argument about the power of images to change minds and open eyes. The success of The Cove supports that argument, and Racing Extinction also excerpts a recent short film (featuring NBA great Yao Ming) that apparently has been widely influential in discouraging people from eating shark-fin soup. This idea culminates in Psihoyos’ collaboration on big-scale attempts to project footage of engendered (and extinct) species in public places. As an example of image-dissemination, Racing Extinction is skillful, right down to the evocative (but nonstop) music by J. Sharp. It can’t match The Cove for focused passion, but maybe it can help delay the next ō‘ō from annihilation— which would be enough. ROBERT HORTON

SE ATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEMBER 23 — 29, 2015

Lukas (left) and Elias Schwarz as danger twins.

Pay attention to their names. Austrian child actors Lukas and Elias Schwarz, twins, play 9-year-old twins Lukas and Elias. We meet them running wild in the fields and forests, exploring a grotto, lolling on a lake. Lukas seems to be the leader, slightly bolder, Elias his follower. Eventually they return to a chic empty country house, far from their former home in Vienna. Then their mother returns, her face swaddled in bandages—mommy become mummy. (She demands total silence and privacy for her plastic-surgery recuperation.) The kids are understandably

Racing Extinction

RADIUS

Almost 20 years after Jon Krakauer’s Outside magazine story (then book) about the Everest disaster of ’96, followed by a flood of rival accounts (and a bad TV movie), its lessons are well established. Respect the mountain, defer to the weather, stick to your turnaround time, and make sure your logistics are buttoned up. Seattle is full of experienced climbers who knew that already, and this movie is full of Seattle names from that fateful May storm: guide Scott Fischer (an unusually hammy Jake Gyllenhaal, looking like a Spin Doctors roadie), client Doug Hansen (gentle John Hawkes, doomed), Krakauer (astringent Michael Kelly), Ed Viesturs (not a speaking part), and Klev Schoening (ditto). So local interest is high for this clunky adaptation, which opened on 3-D screens last week and expands Friday.

The first thing my fellow climbers will ask is, Is it realistic? Well, yes and no. Director Baltasar Kormákur (101 Reykjavík, Contraband) and his screenwriters respect Krakauer’s book and try, unsuccessfully, to condense its sprawling cast of characters. There are no Cliffhanger heroics or R-rated hijinks in Base Camp (Sheryl Crow and Crowded House on the stereo), and most everyone is treated fairly.

Even brash Texan Beck Weathers ( Josh Brolin) finds a little redemption. The facts are laid out with graphics relating the altitude, day, and time; and the endless calls to Base Camp— where Emily Watson valiantly balances clipped Kiwi-speak with tremulous emotion—provide de facto narration, too often telling us what we’ve just seen higher up the mountain.

So Everest is relatively accurate, but it doesn’t capture the ambivalent pull of risk/reward in high-altitude mountaineering. If you didn’t have doubts and fears, the peaks wouldn’t be as alluring. This isn’t a good climbing film; it’s more like a Grand Hotel melodrama in the Death Zone, centered on the New Zealand expedition led by Rob Hall (calm, stoic Jason

Clarke), his pregnant wife waiting back home.

(In this thankless role, I hope Keira Knightley got back-end points for her snot-nosed crying in extreme close-up.) Most everyone who sees it will have read Krakauer’s bestseller, which much more firmly indicts the commercialization and egos that contributed to the fateful clusterfuck of May 10. The only suspense is like waiting for Titanic to kiss the iceberg; we know what comes after (eight deaths). Everest works best when it pulls back the camera to reveal a sense of scale—the Himalayas a CG-real hybrid— and the ferocious storm, which arrives with the shrieking impact of a trainwreck.

If you want a good film about mountaineering, see the documentary Meru (Krakauer among its sources), still playing at the Guild 45th and other theaters. And, unusually for the genre, there’s even a happy ending. BRIAN MILLER

who recently broke up with a redhead from Connecticut, reluctantly agrees to travel to India and make the dating rounds—where practically everyone asks him why he isn’t married yet.

Meet the Patels is a funny, lightweight look at the weight of cultural traditions. (Ravi has never told his parents about dating white women, it seems.)

What keeps me from loving it is the way the storyline feels forced onto the documentary form. I couldn’t help sensing that Ravi was flirting with the idea of an arranged marriage because it would make a funny, lightweight documentary. He’s a Hollywood actor—an engaging presence, for sure—and his sister has credits in documentary moviemaking, despite Ravi’s warning that we are essentially watching a home movie with rough edges. And speaking of co-director Geeta, surely the fact that she is four years older than Ravi yet also unmarried would cause even greater worry in the traditionminded Patel household, but this rarely comes up.

If that implies a sequel, worried parents Vasant and Champa should have even more prominent roles— they’re good company. ROBERT HORTON

freaked out. There is no father, only reference to “the separation.” Oh, and their house is for sale.

Originally titled I See, I See, this is a gradually building thriller of perception (or rather, misperception), directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala and produced by Austria’s king of peelback-the-scab perversity, Ulrich Seidl. (His doc In the Basement comes to Northwest Film Forum for Thanksgiving, natürlich.) Something is very wrong in this smart family home, where blurry Richter-like portraits adorn the walls. The directors provide early clues that lead to final horror, but the film’s real fascination lies in the fraying corporeal bonds between the twins and their mother, whom they deem to be fake—an imposter. “We want our mom back!” shrieks Elias.

Whom should we believe? Is the reclusive mother a witch or monster? Are the boys like The Bad Seed, with twin-powered murder in their hearts? There’s something here as old as the Brothers Grimm, and the shock still works. This eerie, slow-creeping film’s final trick—though hardly original—will be detected early by some, but I can’t condemn it. As in Stephen King’s Misery, every atrocity is committed for love. BRIAN MILLER

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 23 21

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Welcome to Leith

Sicario

Guess who’s coming to burn a cross on your lawn.

Noted white supremacist—now there’s a tagline for a business card—Craig Cobb decided a North Dakota town would be just right for seeding a nationwide racist movement. So in 2013 he moved to tiny Leith, population 24 or so. Buying a few bargain-basement properties, Cobb hatched a plan to get other white-power advocates to settle there, take over the town council, and live the dream. This crackpot is the central figure of this documentary account of what happened when the residents of Leith found out what Cobb was up to.

Co-directors Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker include interviews with Cobb, who isn’t shy about providing them access.

Given the fact that he goes around town barking “I’m one of the most famous racists in the world!” to terrified locals, this self-aggrandizement is perhaps not surprising. (Cobb is the guy who made headlines when he submitted a DNA test to an NBC show that revealed his heritage was 14 percent sub-Saharan African.) There’s also a pair of hapless young white supremacists who move to Leith with baby in tow; the husband sports a notfully-grown-in Hitler mustache.

OPENS FRI., SEPT. 25 AT MERIDIAN, LINCOLN SQUARE, AND OTHERS. RATED R. 121 MINUTES.

When are those South Park guys going to make a fun musical comedy about the War on Drugs and violent Mexican cartels? Because, frankly, I need one right now. We’ve had depressing dramatic sagas from Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) and Oliver Stone (Savages), and this new one from Denis Villeneuve isn’t lifting the mood.

Instead, a feel-bad spirit of arid futility and double-dealing informs the efforts of Arizonabased FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) to put a dent in the border trade. She’s recruited by some shadowy government spooks ( Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, etc.) who refuse to name their branch of service. (It’s an acronym we can easily guess.) She’s flattered to be on their team, even if her partner (Daniel Kaluuya) is more sensibly skeptical. But Kate’s also a divorced burnout, sneaking cigarettes again, not doing her laundry, and otherwise presenting a case of Acute Need of Redemption Syndrome (ANRS), always a Hollywood plague this time of year.

To Blunt’s and the movie’s credit, her char-

That’s something to celebrate.

RICHARD FOREMAN JR. SMPSP/LIONSGATE

Blunt’s FBI agent in the trenches, er, tunnels.

A couple of things deepen this film. One is the sense that even without its white supremacist, Leith would be a fascinating location for a documentary. Seemingly untouched by the North Dakota oil boom, the town is a collection of quiet people and abandoned shacks. (There’s one black resident, understandably perturbed by the new neighbor.) Its sole business is a bar that might’ve been the set for scenes in Nebraska—the Alexander Payne film or the Bruce Springsteen album.

One might also feel just a slight hint of unease about the lengths the townspeople go to get Cobb out of Leith. Theirs is an entirely understandable reaction—Cobb is a loathsome character for whom it would be impossible to feel sympathy— and you’d need a Fritz Lang to truly explore what happens if good people adopt the tactics of their enemies. Still, the suggestion is there. (A sequence in which the neighbors legally burn down a Cobb property approaches that sort of disquiet.)

The story rounds off in a quiet way, resolved yet unresolved. You can’t help thinking Cobb or his equivalent is about to spring out from under the next available rock. ROBERT HORTON E

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acter feels like a male part in its first draft; and poaching such roles across the gender line has also well served Angie and Sandy (e.g., the latter’s coming Our Brand Is Crisis). Whether washing the blood out of her hair—this after an IED in a Phoenix suburb—or taking not one but two beatings from fellow U.S. lawmen, Kate radiates an angry sense of WTF bewilderment. She’s better than this. Our side is supposed to be better than this, yet she’s confounded by everything she sees: Gitmo-style torture, illegal cross-border raids, killings on the sly (“sicario” means assassin), and a general cozening up to the bad guys.

French-Canadian director Villeneuve rubbed our noses in Pennsylvania vigilantism-gone-wrong in Prisoners ; now he grids our faces further into the smothering sands of American sanctimony.

Every flickering value that Kate might’ve been harboring, cupped in her hand like a precious cigarette flame, must be snuffed out. None of this, given the economics, is particularly surprising, and Taylor Sheridan’s script spells it out more than needed. Kate—and the audience—are left with a grim imperative: Get over your moral qualms, or get out of the game. BRIAN MILLER

Growing the local sustainable economy for 15 years?

RUNS FRI., SEPT. 25–THURS., OCT. 1 AT GRAND ILLUSION. NOT RATED. 86 MINUTES.

23

arts&culture» film SE AT TLE

4500 9TH AVE. NE • 206-633-0059

Close to Home

Previewing the Local Sightings Film Festival.

BY BRIAN MILLER

Two Ways To Save At Sundance Seattle Monday is $6 ORCA Day Show Your Orca Card and ALL Seats are $6 ($7.50 for 3D).

Tickets Avail at Box Office Only. Not good on holidays.

Tuesday is Girls Movie Night Out!

2 or more ladies get $6 ($6.50 for 3D) Admission All Day. Tickets Avail at Box Office Only.

EVEREST IN 3D / 2D THE INTERN STONEWALL

MEET THE PATELS BLACK MASS

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON TRAINWRECK SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE

THE VISIT MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS NTLIVE: BEAUX’ STRATAGEM *Tickets available at the box office.

SEATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEM BER 23 — 29, 2015

SUNDANCECINEMAS.COM

24

A

lways my favorite showcase for rising directors in the greater Pacific Northwest, the Local Sightings Film Festival opens the doors for talents perhaps not yet industry-polished and SIFFworthy. (But please don’t stop trying.) This year’s edition includes 15 features and 50-plus shorts; and the opening-night program is an all-shorts gala with after-party. (Various panels and workshops are also on the schedule.) The regional conceit means indie efforts on small budgets, but with that—and VOD, Vimeo, etc., which didn’t even exist when LSFF was launched in 1997— comes the freedom to be a little more eccentric than your national multiplex fodder. Because the fest has helped inculcate local stars like Lynn Shelton, I opted to preview purely Seattle titles (plus a few blind picks below). We may see more of these guys in the future.

There’s more than a splash of Harold and Maude to Isaiah Corey’s Killing June (8 p.m. Sat., Sept.

26), a droll but focused little rom-com about suicide. The film’s a compact two-hander between new-in-town photographer Edwin (Nathan Pringle) and wacky retro-garbed librarian June (Wonder Russell), whose death wish is plain from the title. She’s a big list-maker, resolutely cheerful in her dwindling inventory of tasks. But of course she needs an assistant on her bucketlist quest, so she forcibly enlists the rather meek, pliable Ed. (Here one will also note the influence of Something Wild.)

June’s checklist makes for some amusing vignettes, which include fencing lessons, a giant backhoe, drugs, and sex. (What, you thought her Moleskine wouldn’t include sex?) Beyond the obvious complications—yes, Ed will fall for June—Corey adds some clever camera tricks that allow his heroine to step back and inspect her carnage. (She’s a shutterbug, too.) In these moments I thought both of Cindy Sherman and Gregory Crewdson, though Killing June is considerably more lighthearted. Suicide aside, Russell is wonderfully vivacious, which helps buoy the mood.

Dead Body (7 p.m. Fri., Sept. 25) also proceeds from light to dark. It starts as a millennial spin on the old Agatha Christie And Then There Were None conceit: A group of carefree college-bound teens gather in a remote cabin where . . . well, you can guess what always happens to teenagers in a cabin. The horror starts with no cellphone service!!! Following that come axes, nail guns, knives, hacksaws, and a particularly lethal shovel (a fitting nod to Blood Simple).

One by one our group begins to dwindle, as recriminations fly and suspicions fester.

Nobody in director Bobbin Ramsey’s cast of nine looks to be a teenager, but they’re having fun with two disparate genres, as country-home comedy gives way to slasher flick. Not only is there a resourceful Final Girl (Rachel Brun), but class resentment also drives the bloodbath.

Heroine Ilsa is Harvard-bound, though still trying to detach herself from her snooty old Lakeside clique. (Hold onto your pearls: She actually transferred to a public school! ) An older redneck

guest is immediately suspect—because if you didn’t go to the Ivies, serial killing is your likely career path, one step up from community college.

New in town, Jaffe Zinn is an indie cinematographer now directing his second feature, Children (7 p.m. Sun., Sept. 27), which really dares to take some chances. This very oblique drama puts two pensive evangelical women (Kate Lyn Sheil and Samantha Jacober) on a woozy, hazy road trip through rural Idaho. In a film full of voiceovers and cryptic imagery, this isn’t Malickland we’re entering. Rather, Children is more an odyssey inside the apocalyptic End Times mindset. Too many indies—local and otherwise—flatter and reassure us urban liberals and hipsters (loosely: the Sundance demo), but Zinn isn’t having any of that. You may not like his final revelation, but you’ll surely remember it.

As someone who recalls the reader outrage when we dropped Lynda Barry from these pages, the plight of local cartoonists has always been a concern. Since the heyday of alternativepress comix (which seemed to crest in the late ’70s), and since the decline of editorial-page comics in the dailies (which accelerated in the ’80s), the news has been bad. Directed by Louise Mandes and Rob Austin, Bezango, Washington (8 p.m. Wed., Sept. 30) aims to counter that trend. It’s a cheerful fanboy roll-call of Northwest comics talent that drags on way too long (even at 90 minutes), determined to honor everyone possible. (A partial list includes Charles Burns, Pat Moriarity, Ellen Forney, Peter Bagge, Roberta Gregory, Brian Basset, David Horsey, Lelly Froh, Megan Kelso, and Bob Cram.) The shout-outs extend to The Intruder and Short Run (October 31 at Seattle Center), though the film’s most interesting in its historical chapters. Did you know the Times once featured a character called Umbrella Man during the pre-WWI years? They should bring him back. This film also makes you want to see the New Yorker cartoonist doc Very Semi-Serious (on HBO this December). What’s Bezango’s biggest omission? Retired press-shy Far Side creator Gary Larson, an elusive interview I’ve always hoped to land.

Under the category of Unseen But Curious, I would file the Canadian dumpster-diving doc Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story (7 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 1), which should make all non-composting Seattleites feel guilty (and perhaps hungry); and Slackjaw (4:45 p.m. Sat., Sept. 26), from Portland’s Zach Weintraub, whose The International Sign for Choking and Bummer Summer played at prior fests. His oddball and generally underplotted sensibility lies somewhere between mumblecore and Cassavetes. But again, the whole point of LSFF is to make room for those who don’t fit into any category beyond region. E

bmiller@seattleweekly.com

NORTHWEST FILM FORUM & GRAND ILLUSION CINEMA 267-5380, localsightings.nwfilmforum.org.

Most tickets $6–$11.

Runs Thurs., Sept. 24–Sat., Oct. 3.

» music Wesley Holmes Breakfast Club on Sunday 9/27 at Monkey Loft Deep House / Nu Disco / Tech House

Sean Majors dB in the Park on Sunday 9/27 at Volunteer Park House / Breaks / R&B Vox Mod Subversion on Thursday 9/24 at Showbox at the Market Transcendental / Psychedelic / Mystic

Brian Lyons Flammable: Decibel Edition on Sunday 9/27 at Re-bar House / Deep House / Disco

Shaprece Thievery Corporation on Sunday 9/27 at Showbox SoDo Soul / Classical / Trip-Hop

Decibel’s Notable Locals

Mikey Mars Paradise Sunset Sessions on Wednesday 9/23 at Monkey Loft House / R&B / Bass

Sure, the electronic festival has tons of amazing national and international talent—but here’s some of the homegrown variety.

PHOTOS BY BROOKLYN BENJESTORF

Kid SMPL dB 2015 OPTICAL KickOff Party on Thursday 9/24 at Re-bar Ambient / Beats / Noise

Pezzner Body Language on Friday 9/25 at Q Nightclub House / Techno / Ambient

SE ATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEMBER 23 — 29, 2015

Manatee Commune Sublime on Saturday 9/26 at Showbox at the Market Indie Pop / Melodic / Chillwave

25

Shelectronica

Four local female producers playing Decibel talk tradition and community.

I

26

Bardo:Basho

BARDO:BASHO Kirsten Thom is the soft-spoken powerhouse

behind this dreamy techno project, which employs drones built from virtual synths, hypnotic drum loops, and gigantic, haunting vocals.

Thom told me that the name combines bardo, which in some sects of Buddhism is “the state between incarnations, where you’re tested by multiple demons that determine what you come back as,” and BashŌ, the haiku poet and “hermit guy writing about nature and meditating all the time.” Thom’s live performances feel like a place

between life and death, or perhaps dreams and waking. She hopes her Decibel set of mostly unreleased, meditative grooves will “get people dancing with their eyes closed.”

Thom is a member of TUF, a Seattle-based collective for female and non-binary people involved in electronic music, and it’s fitting that she’ll be playing on the Discwoman showcase, from which TUF has drawn much inspiration.

“Discwoman is doing things for the larger electronic-music landscape that I want to see happen on a local level, and that are starting to,” she says.

“I have a solid community of female-identified folks around me, and it seems to constantly be growing. A lot of my female-identified friends are just starting to DJ or produce electronic music and it’s really exciting to witness.”

Thom’s influences: Kate Bush, Alice Coltrane, Margaret Dygas, Lena Willikens, Holly Herndon, Anna Von Hausswolff, Nina Hagen, Diamanda Galas, Grouper, Nina Simone, Cio D’Or, Dasha Rush.

Track recommendation: Kate Bush, “Get Out of My House.”

BRIANA MARELA

Marela spins a web of harmonies from looping vocal rhythms that sound both childlike and ancient, evoking spells or fairy tales, blending the electronic and acoustic. Marela recently released her debut album, All Around Us, on Jagjaguwar, which she recorded in Reykjavík with Sigur Rós producer Alex Somers, but she has strong roots in Seattle’s U District DIY community. “The music community I’m in has strong support for femaleidentified artists,” she says. “People are paying attention more, listening more to those whose voices and creative expression hadn’t been shared.”

“Growing up as a person of color, it felt important to see women who I identify with playing a style of electronica that I relate to,” Marela says of the acoustic-electronic Argentinian producer Juana Molina. “It is still important to have more visibility for women of color making electronic music in a scene that is predominately white. Learning about audio and music tech in college, I was often one of few girls in the classes, and one of the few people of color.”

Marela’s influences: Juana Molina, Trish Keenan, Laurie Anderson, Delia Derbyshire, Liz Harris.

Track recommendation: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, “Careen.”

CECILIA CORSANO-LEOPIZZI

SEATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEM BER 23 — 29, 2015

f electronic-music festivals have disproportionately low female representation (and they greatly, abominably do), perhaps the best defense is disproportionately high media representation. Yet, spotlighting the immensely talented female producers who make it on the lineup often perpetuates the problem by suggesting that women are “finally” breaking through the glass ceiling of dance music, when in fact they built the house in the first place.

The history of electronica is packed with female forerunners, founders, antecedents, and visionaries, just as our communities today are humming with creative female power. Seattle is starting to carve a significant space in the country’s pantheon of major destinations for dance music, and our female producers, bookers, and DJs have powered that redefinition.

Decibel is hosting the first-ever West Coast edition of the Discwoman parties, a series of New York–based events that feature femaleidentified DJs and producers exclusively. “It’s about access and options,” Discwoman cofounder Frankie Hutchinson told me. “Women need to be encouraged to play with drum machines and machines in general. It needs to be ingrained that women are just as able to have a career in production and DJing as men are . . . I don’t believe anyone is predisposed to being better at something.”

I talked to four of the local female producers featured this year at Decibel Festival about their music, community, and influences, and got a recommendation from each for a track by a female artist they cherish.

LUCINDA ROANOKE

BY CATE MCGEHEE

Briana Marela

RAICA Chloe Harris was a world-renowned house

and techno DJ for 18 years until she got bored with the club and fell in love with the creative challenge of hardware experimentation. She’s been producing as Raica for several years, making synth-based music that’s dark, euphoric, intricately textured, and exhilarating. She’s also cohead of the experimental label Further Records, daughter of Easy Street Records founder Kim Harris, and a mother currently pregnant with her second child. Harris is one of the most inspiring examples not only of formidable and forwardthinking production locally, but of how women can create a musical heritage for their families.

“I’m really happy I can share my experiences with Jack, my son, and my soon-to-be little human. I have always been a music fiend, and I can only hope they will share my and my husband’s love for it. I like showing people who go to clubs and shows that being pregnant and having kids doesn’t mean all life ends . . . I hope I inspire or make other females comfortable in never losing their dreams of doing music while giving life.

Men don’t seem to—why should we?”

Harris’ influences: Mica Levi, Pharmakon, Jana Winderen, Jo Johnson, Huggy Bear, Rrose, Karen Gwyer, Antenes, Stellar Om Source, Aurora Halal, Helena Hauff, Bardo:Basho, Emily Pothast, DJ Explorateur, Pulling Out the Light.

Track recommendation: Jo Johnson, “In the Shadow of the Workhouse.”

NATASHA KMETO In recent years, a wave of artists have

combined ringing, soulful R&B vocals with sophisticated and exquisite production, and the

Portland-based Kmeto is the best example of this work in the Pacific Northwest. Her clear, strong voice is a careful instrument she threads seamlessly with clean waves of emotion-wringing beats. A graduate of the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, Kmeto is a serious composer with enough talent to make it sound effortless. Like Thom, she is a member of TUF and will be playing on the Discwoman showcase.

“I’m definitely an advocate for any organization trying to gain visibility for women in electronic music,” she tells me. In a September 18 Facebook post announcing her single “Inevitable,” Kmeto wrote, “I’m not going to sugarcoat it—being a queer, female-identified POC making progressive music is not an easy thing in this industry. But for those looking to open themselves to a different narrative, I welcome you with open arms.”

Kmeto’s influences: Missy Elliot, Bjork, tUnEyArDs, St. Vincent, Paula Temple, Ikonika, Flava D, Yukimi Nagano.

Track recommendation: tUnE-yArDs, “Water Fountain.” E

music@seattleweekly.com

OPTICAL KICK-OFF PARTY With Raica, Richard Devine, Kid Smpl.

Re-Bar, 1114 Howell St., dbfestival.com. $12. 21 and over. 6 p.m. Wed., Sept. 23.

DISCWOMAN SHOWCASE With Natasha Kmeto, Young Ejecta, Bardo:Basho, Experimental Housewife. Re-Bar, 1114 Howell St., dbfestival.com. $17 adv./$20 DOS. 21 and over.

10 p.m. Thurs., Sept. 24.

OPTICAL 2 SHOWCASE With Eskmo, Briana Marela, Strategy.

Triple Door, 216 E. Union St., dbfestival.com. $30 adv./$35 DOS. All ages. 5:30 p.m. Sun., Sept. 27.

tractor TIMES

2033 6th Avenue (206) 441-9729 jazzalley.com

DOORS OPEN 30-60 MIN. BEFORE.

LISTED ARE

SHOW TIMES.

WEDS,

SEPTEMBER 30 TH 

DA808 PRESENTS

COMMON KINGS

JAZZ ALLEY IS A SUPPER CLUB

with SAMMY J + LEILANI WOLFGRAMM + AOK

SOUTHERN GOTHIC ROCK

LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS JOE FLETCHER

THURS,

8PM - $12

THE EDGES OF TWILIGHT TOUR

THE TEA BLUES PARTY TRAVELER DUKE DUMONT

OCTOBER 1ST 

A VERY SPECIAL EVENING WITH

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO FRI,

OCT 2

8PM - $20

ND -

SUN, OCT 4

TH

MACEFIELD MUSIC FESTIVAL JESSE SYKES & THE SWEET HEREAFTER

GRACE LOVE & THE TRUE LOVES, THUNDERPUSSY, MACEFIELDMUSICFESTIVAL.COM & MORE! FRI,

OCTOBER 9 TH  AUSTIN HONKY TONK HERO

DALE WATSON DARCI CARLSON 9PM - $20

Up & Coming

KYLE EASTWOOD BAND WED, SEPT 23

MONTY ALEXANDER WITH JOHN CLAYTON AND JEFF HAMILTON

with MATT JAFFE & THE DISTRACTIONS

10/28

40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!

THURS, SEPT 24 - SUN, SEPT 27

9PM

HEY YOU GUYS!! TOUR

Great music played with inspiration, joy and absolutely amazing technical chops.

10/5

9PM

$10

AN EVENING WITH

RUFUS

FTNG VINCENT HERRING, JEREMY PELT, RICK GERMANSON AND MICHAEL GLYNN

MON, SEPT 28

Great music played with inspiration, joy and absolutely amazing technical chops.

SONNY KNIGHT & THE LAKERS TUES, SEPT 29 - WED, SEPT 30 $10

WAINWRIGHT

EUGE GROOVE THURS, OCT 1 - SUN, OCT 4

5213 BALLARD AVE. NW  789-3599

all ages | free parking | full schedule at jazzalley.com

American smooth jazz saxophonist with a string of Top-40 hits!

10/7

MARIANAS TRENCH

PEACHES with U.S. GIRLS

8:30 PM

11/4

ROBERT DELONG

7PM + 9:45PM

10/6–TWO SEATED SHOWS!

”It’s a retro-soul blowout of epic proportions.”

-Blurt Magazine

10/5 BALTHAZAR 10/6 BRENDAN JAMES 10/7 AUSTRA 10/8 CHARLIE PARR 10/10 HORSE FEATHERS 10/11 DAVID COOK 10/15 QUIET LIFE www.tractortavern.com

8:30 PM

10/1

”Eastwood demonstrates monster bass chops.”

- JazzTimes

LOUIS HAYES AND THE CANNONBALL LEGACY BAND

8PM (10/8) 9PM (10/9)

10/8+9

with COLEMAN HELL

8:30 PM

8:30 PM

11/20

SHOWBOX SODO SHOWBOX AND DECIBEL FESTIVAL PRESENT

THIEVERY CORPORATION 9/27

with SHAPRECE + DEREK MAZZONE

10/2

with THE GRISWOLDS + LOLO

7:45 PM

ALL YOU CAN EAT TOUR

STEEL PANTHER

9PM

NEW POLITICS + ANDREW MCMAHON IN THE WILDERNESS 10/13

10/20

with BORN OF OSIRIS + BATTLE CROSS

10/22

8PM

COHEED AND CAMBRIA with KNAPSACK + 6:35 PM

SHOWBOX AND KNITTING FACTORY PRESENT

10/23

THANK YOU SCIENTIST

7:30 PM

TECH N9NE

GHOSTLAND OBSERVATORY

10/18

11/7 – ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON

with KRIZZ KALIKO + KNOTHEAD + NEEMA

8PM

SHOWBOXPRESENTS.COM

9PM

SE ATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEMBER 23 — 29, 2015

BIG GIGANTIC +THE FLOOZIES

7:30 PM

GWAR

27

a&c» music

TheWeekAhead Wednesday, Sept. 23

Howling and melodic, emotive and unapologetic, LE BUTCHERETTES lead singer/songwriter Teri Gender Bender and crew create enthralling feminist punk rock using fake blood, feather dusters, and smashed guitars.

Gender Bender herself has been known to jump into a crowd in pursuit of unruly and troublemaking concertgoers, so it’s best to think twice before saying something unsavory (see the band’s Phoenix performance of “They Fuck You Over” if you want proof). You can’t say they didn’t warn you, though—their unsettling lyrics include lines like “All you wanna fucking do/Is rip right through/Is rip right through/Tonight.” Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Le Butcherettes have had wide success touring the U.S. with their mesmerizing tunes, so make sure to catch them while they’re here. With Sister Cryon, Eureka the Butcher. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 324-8005, chopsuey.com. 7 p.m. $12 adv./$15 DOS. All ages. MARA SILVERS

Thursday, Sept. 24

COURTESY PLANET MU RECORDS

Jlin

El Corazon E orazon www.elcorazonseattle.com

109 Eastlake Ave East • Seattle, WA 98109 Booking and Info: 206.262.0482

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 23RD FUNHOUSE

NATHAN FOX w/The Lotus Vellum, Vito and the One Eyed Jacks, Isaiah Dominguez, Plus Guests Doors 7:00PM / Show 7:30.

ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $8 ADV / $10 DOS

SEATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEM BER 23 — 29, 2015

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 24TH EL CORAZON

28

BIBSTER w/Alienshiprex, Da JNX, Tha Droman, Workshop Killaz, King Flyz, Killiah Tactics, Homegrown Psychotherapy, Bizznizz, B-Low, E MC

Doors 7:00PM / Show 7:30.

ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $10 ADV / $12 DOS

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 24TH FUNHOUSE

SATURDAY WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER JULY 22ND 26TH ELEL CORAZON CORAZON BRIAN FOSS PRESENTS: PRESENTS: MIKE THRASHER

THRASHERS Coat UNCLE ACIDCORNER & THEw/Burlington DEADBEATS

Felony, Upwell, Hell Raisers / w/Ruby The Hatchet, EcstaticDoors Vision,9:00PM Plus Guests Show 9:30.

21+. $7 9:00.

Doors 8:00PM / Show 21+. $18 ADV / $20 DOS

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 27TH EL CORAZON

GODFLESH w/Prurient

Doors 8:00PM / Show 9:00.

21+. $25 ADV / $30 DOS

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 28TH EL CORAZON

BRIAN FOSS PRESENTS:

MIKE THRASHER PRESENTS:

Jason Dodson (of The Maldives)

w/Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Boondox, Prozak, Wolfpac, Scum, Enasnimi, Knothead

STAR ANNA w/Mishka Shubaly, Doors 9:00PM / Show 9:30.

21+. $8

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25TH EL CORAZON MIKE THRASHER PRESENTS:

MARTY FRIEDMAN w/Exmortus, George Varghese, Plus Guests

Doors 7:00PM / Show 7:45.

ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $20 ADV / $25 DOS

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25TH FUNHOUSE BRIAN FOSS PRESENTS:

MOMMY LONG LEGS

w/Nail Polish, Pleather, Boyfriends

Doors 9:00PM / Show 9:30.

21+. $7

TWIZTID

Doors 7:00PM / Show 7:30.

ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $23 ADV / $25 DOS

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 29TH FUNHOUSE BRIAN FOSS PRESENTS:

ZEALANDIA

w/Wild Lungs, pitschouse, Plus Guests

Doors 8:30PM / Show 9:00.

21+. $7

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30TH FUNHOUSE MIKE THRASHER PRESENTS:

STRAY FROM THE PATH w/Comeback Kid, Being As An Ocean, Major League, Isles

Doors 6:00PM / Show 6:30.

ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $15 ADV / $18 DOS

JUST ANNOUNCED 11/7 FUNHOUSE - SPIRIT CARAVAN 12/6 - NASHVILLE PUSSY UP & COMING 9/30 FUNHOUSE - PIPSQUEAK 10/1 - DAVE DAYS 10/2 - TODD BARRY 10/3 - PANCAKES & BOOZE ART SHOW 10/4 FUNHOUSE MATINEE - SPECIAL SECRET REUNION SHOW! 10/4 FUNHOISE LATE - VOICES OF RUIN 10/5 FUNHOUSE - THESE YOUNG FOOLS 10/7 - SIANVAR 10/7 FUNHOUSE - THE GHOST EASE 10/8 FUNHOUSE - HELLBAT 10/9 FUNHOUSE - SHE IS WE 10/10 - A BENEFIT TO HELP EDDIE SPAGHETTI (SUPERSUCKERS) KICK CANCER’S ASS! FEATURING MUDHONEY / ZEKE THE FUNHOUSE BAR IS OPEN FROM 3:00PM TO 2:00AM DAILY AND HAPPY HOUR IS FROM 3:00PM UNTIL 6:00PM. Tickets now available at cascadetickets.com - No per order fees for online purchases. Our on-site Box Office is open 11am to 9pm weekdays at The Eastlake Waffle Window and all nights we are open in the club. - $2 service charge per ticketCharge by Phone at 1.800.514.3849. Online at www.cascadetickets.com - Tickets are subject to service charge The EL CORAZON VIP PROGRAM: details at www.elcorazon.com/vip.html for an application email info@elcorazonseattle.com

Punk breathed life into rock in the ’70s by pumping simple threechord progressions full of rabid energy. Chicago’s footwork scene, then, is one of the more punk subsets in the contemporary electronic dance landscape; its simple, energycharged MPC bangers push two or three key samples to a trembling, transcendent breaking point in an effort to get people to move (the sound was originally concocted to score frenetic “juke” dance battles). JLIN resides just over the border from the heart of the scene—she’s a steelworker in Gary, Indiana—and that outsider perspective perhaps informs her genius spin on the sound, exemplified on her brilliant, menacing debut record Dark Energy. Tracks like “Erotic Heat” and “Guantanamo” stuff the unbridled punk energy of footwork’s forebears into a regal, malevolent package that sounds entirely its own. If Cruella deVil rolled into the club, this is what would play. Discwoman Showcase with Natasha Kmeto, Young Ejecta, Experimental Housewife, Bardo:Basho. Re-Bar, 1114 Howell St., dbfestival.com. 10 p.m. $17 adv./$20 DOS. 21 and up. KELTON SEARS Looking for some classic Seattle flavor with a twist? LOW HUMS’ new EP, Adventuring in the Near and Far, is an interesting blend of this city’s folkier, twangier tendencies and its heavier ones, all tossed into a psychedelic blender. Sometimes it’s fuzzed-out garage guitar, then all of a sudden it’s breezy rooftop strumming. This hometown band has quite a range, but the common underlying thread lies in the paisley haze that coats psyched-out tracks like “Tell It to Me.” With Fountains, Great Spiders.

Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave., 784-4880, sunsettavern. com. 9 p.m. $8. 21 and over. MARA SILVERS

Friday, Sept. 25

If you’re one of those Pacific Northwest romantic/acoustic/ folk/nature lovers, VALLEY MAKER’s harmonies and soul-bearing style will probably strike some chords with you. The lyrics are heart-on-sleeve—“When the sun lights up your face/Don’t give me god don’t give me grace/Just give me something that I can taste/Like you right by my side”—which makes sense given that the album the band is releasing tonight is called When I Was a Child. Bon Iver and Will Oldham fans take note: You’ll probably swoon over this one. With Pete Quirk. Barboza, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9442, neumos.com. 7 p.m. $8. 21 and over. MARA SILVERS Deadly sweet and dressed in pink, PROM QUEEN evokes an eerie, surfer-esque ’60s rock tone. Beyond the ripping guitar solos, the band has a distinct visual element as well—all red velvet cushions, floor-length pink gowns, and rhinestones on pink guitars. Lead singer Celene Ramadan’s haunting vocals and choice aesthetics are hard to miss, just like the band’s throwback, crooning sound. With Kingdom Pine, The Crush. Barboza, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9442, the barboza.com. 8 p.m. $8 adv. 21 and over. MARA SILVERS Send events to music@seattleweekly.com.

See seattleweekly.com for more listings.

odds&ends» CannAnswers: Fire Fears and Frankenbud

W

e asked you to send in your canna-questions, and now it’s time to answer some reader mail! (The Higher Ground legal staff has asked me to remind readers that answers provided herein should be taken with a grain of hempseed; I am, after all, a marijuana HIGHERGROUND columBY MICHAEL A. STUSSER nist.)

With wildfires all over the state, I’m worried a nearby marijuana field may catch on fire and get me and my family stoned. Can burning weed farms get people high? Lance, Chelan

While rumors of genetically modified weed have been around for decades, at least for the moment

You constantly mention how much in taxes legal pot is bringing in for the state, but obviously it also means there’s a ton more weed out there. So now all our kids are going to be getting their hands on the stuff and smoking up nonstop.

Great job, Stoner-Dickwad.

Derrick, Des Moines I’m not sure there’s a question in there, Derrick, but I’d like to refute the statement.

According to data from the Washington Institute for Public Policy, the use of cannabis by youngsters in our state has remained unchanged over the past decade. “Cannabis use and access among students in sixth through 12th grades have changed little from 2002 through the most recent survey in 2014.” The report went on to state that all the groups surveyed—sixth graders, eighth graders, 10th graders, 12th graders—demonstrated static use over time, with the oldest group actually reporting slight declines in lifetime use since 2002.

Of course, Initiative 502 passed in 2012 and retail sales didn’t start until July 2014, so those numbers may change. However, eighth graders who were asked about their use of pot in the past month (as well as lifetime use) reported that they’d not only smoked less since legalization, but that it was harder to get. Unlike black-market dealers (who’ve been around for decades), our new crop of legal recreational cannabis stores actually checks IDs. Last but not least, Derrick, I can tell you who is getting their hands on more reefer—full-grown adults. Since it became legal here, self-reported use is up 17 percent between 2012 and 2014. So yes, great job stoner-dickwads, indeed! E E-mail your questions to higher@seattleweekly.com.

For more Higher Ground, visit highergroundtv.com.

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I read somewhere that they’re starting to make GMO marijuana! Is that true, and how can I make sure I’m not smoking Frankenbud from Monsanto! Erin, Wallingford

it’s a paranoid fantasy. “Genetic modification or genetic engineering involves altering a substance’s DNA at the molecular level,” the website PolitiFact explains. “Producers of marijuana on the illicit market don’t have the ability to pull off those kinds of lab-based modifications.”

Modern-day Reefer Madness proponents like Patrick Kennedy are also feeding the Frankenbud fires, claiming that GMO pot is being used to hard-wire megadoses of THC into the plant.

While many growers (both legal and blackmarket) are selecting and breeding the best plants and coming up with high-potency strains of cannabis, thus far Big Ag players like Monsanto and company have yet to get their hands on seeds (one of the very few advantages of marijuana not being legal at the federal level).

Of course, given that cannabis is a cash cow (estimated to be a $15 billion market by 2020), the corporate agro-bastards at Monsanto will jump in at some point. It’s part of the reason the independent-grower model in early-legalization states like Washington, Oregon, and Colorado is so important—local, non-corporate farmers have got a headstart and a fighting chance!

BRIANNA CASHIN

Does Smokey the Bear crap in the woods? Yes! Look, if you are standing right next to a giant burning pile of ganja and you inhale the smoke, you will be stoned to the bejesus. A town in Indonesia got seriously baked after police there burned a three-ton mound of confiscated marijuana in March.

Dozens of residents of Tangerang (about 20 miles from Jakarta) complained of severe headaches and dizziness after inhaling smoke from the bud barbecue.

In the event, however, you’re not standing right next to giant bales of burning herb, it’s unlikely your family will catch a contact high from wildfires of marijuana plants. According to a study in Drug and Alcohol Dependence (great centerfold last month, btw!), secondhand smoke can get people feeling stoned, but it takes a huge amount of THC for that to happen.

“We evaluated the conditions under which you’d need to be to get intoxicated from secondhand smoke exposure,” noted Ryan Vandrey, an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, “and it needs to be very extreme.” In their study, researchers put a dozen students in a small Plexiglas chamber without ventilation and gave threequarters of them joints to smoke. “Enough smoke from the room filtered out so that the nonsmokers stuck in the ‘hot box’ didn’t experience a buzz,” Vandrey said. “Outside, where there is a constant circulation of air, it’s hard to imagine that a person could breathe in enough marijuana smoke to feel the effects of the drug.” (Bummer—though I am enrolling next semester at John Hopkins!)

Ultimately, if you’re worried about that kind of fire getting the wife and kids high, you’re worrying about the wrong thing: Get the hell outta Dodge, man! Smoke inhalation of any kind is serious in mega-quantities, and fumes from burning gas, plastics, pesticides, household products, and clouds of soot and ash can also do serious damage to your lungs.

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Excited Grandparents too. Expenses paid 1-800-563-7964 Cellco Partnership and its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless is proposing to collocate antennas (existing location modification) on a 106-foot building rooftop located at 116 Stewart Street, Seattle, WA 98101. Public comments regarding potential effects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30-days from the date of this publication to: Paul Bean, Tetra Tech, Inc., 19803 North Creek Parkway, Bothell, WA 98011, 425-482-7811, paul.bean@tetratech.com.

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REQUEST: ZONE RECLASSIFICATION File: LUT415-0002 Applicant: Darren Huddleson Location: 1511 SW 107th St Seattle Proposal: Request a zone reclassification to change current zoning from O (Office) to CB (Commercial Business) DPER Project Manager: Kevin LeClair, Senior Planner 206-477-2717 or kevin.leclair@kingcounty.gov COMMENT PROCEDURES: Comments on the above file are now being accepted by King County DPER, at the address listed above. If you have any questions or comments please contact the listed Project Manager at the phone number or e-mail also listed above. ______________________________________________________ Published this 23rd day of September 2015

SE ATTLE WEEKLY • SEPTEMBER 23 — 29, 2015

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