Seattle Weekly, November 25, 2015

GIVING GUIDE

LOUIE GONG’S INSPIRING (AND WARM) WOOL BLANKETS, DAZZLING JEWELRY FROM AREA ARTISTS, BOOKS FOR COOKS, EIGHT GREAT LOCAL ALBUMS, AND SIX WORTHY NONPROFITS PULLOUT &

G N I LIV

E C U R B H WIT rs.

rothe b e l t t a e S r f fou o s e v i l e h t haped s t s e u g e9 e g s a u P o h t f e l e b o a h l t mi esse W d a r n o C How an indo y B

Pleeeeease Stop Driving!

Metro goes to great lengths to get butts on their buses.

By Ellis E. Conklin Page 5 NOVEMBER 25-DECEMBER 1, 2015 | VOLUME 40 | NUMBER 47

Caffeine Culture

Sitting in on an Ethiopian coffee ceremony in Columbia City.

By Nicole Sprinkle Page 12 SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM | FREE

Opening Day Special: Family of Four...$60 2 Kids with 2 Grown-ups, $80 value.

Nov. 28th & 29th only!

GRANDPARENTS NIGHT SPECIAL $60 2 Very Grown Ups and 2 Kids, $80 value.

Dec. 4th 7:00 pm Performance only!

Sleeping Beauty

Great Musical Entertainment for the Whole Family!

CALL November 28 – December 20, 2015 TODAY! Adults $30, Senior/Military $25, Kids $10 Knutzen Family Theater • 3200 SW Dash Point Rd., Federal Way 253-661-1444

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

centerstagetheatre.com

2

SEE THE ZOO THAN EVER November 27 through January 3 NEW! Visit Santa on select evenings!

Get tickets online at zoo.org/wildlights

BECOME A ZOOPARENT Looking for a special gift? Get your kit at the ZooStore when you visit WildLights!

inside

VOLUME 40 | NUMBER 47

SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM

November 25-December 1, 2015

elevate

tonight

15

PULLOUT

news&comment 5

HIGHWAY BRIBERY

BY ELLIS E. CONKLIN | King County

Metro says: Don’t drive and earn free gas!

(It kind of makes sense.) Plus: the personal toll of changes to the food-stamp program; hospitality, South Lake Union style.

9

GUEST OF FURY

EDITORIAL

Food Editor Nicole Sprinkle Arts Editor Brian Miller Music Editor Kelton Sears

A personal remembrance of Bruce Lee on what would have been his 75th.

Staff Writers Sara Bernard, Ellis E. Conklin, Casey Jaywork

BY NICOLE SPRINKLE | The Ethiopian

coffee ceremony: an essay in photos.

14 | BEER HUNTING

arts&culture

15 ON THE THRESHOLD

BY KELTON SEARS | A local hip-hop

artist explores the poetry of death.

16 | COMIX

The Rocky series jumps ahead to a new generation; an unsettling subterranean doc; a surprisingly non-unsettling 9/11 musical; and more.

20 CALENDAR 20 21 21 22 23 24

| | | |

THE PICK LIST PERFORMANCE BOOKS VISUAL ARTS | MUSIC | FILM

MOTOWN LEGENDS

THE TEMPTATIONS

Editorial Interns Cassandra Calderon, Scott Johnson, Mara Silvers Contributing Writers Rick Anderson, 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, Tiffany Ran, Michael A. Stusser, Jacob Uitti

SUN | DEC 3 | 7:00PM

AUSTRALIA’S

THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER THUR | DEC 10 | 7:30PM FRI & SAT | DEC 11-12 | 8:00PM

PRODUCTION Production Manager Sharon Adjiri

09|03

Art Director Jose Trujillo

DANNY BONADUCE CHRISTMAS SHOW WITH

Graphic Designers Nate Bullis, Brennan Moring

SPIKE AND THE IMPALERS

ADVERTISING Marketing/Promotions Coordinator Zsanelle Edelman Senior Multimedia Consultant Krickette Wozniak

THUR | DEC 17 | 7:30PM

Multimedia Consultants Julia Cook, Rose Monahan, Matt Silvie DISTRIBUTION Distribution Manager Jay Kraus

odds&ends

4 | CHATTERBOX 25 | HIGHER GROUND 26 | CLASSIFIEDS GIVING GUIDE # 1 | Follows page 14.

cover credits

PHOTO BY JAMES DEMILE

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.

TICKETS: SNOCASINO.COM OR THE SNOQUALMIE CASINO BOX OFFICE I-90 E. Exit 27 | www.snocasino.com

/Snocasino

– SEATTLE’S CLOSEST CASINO –

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

17 REVIEWS

SUN | SEPT 29 | 7:00PM

News Editor Daniel Person

Editorial Operations Manager Gavin Borchert

12 JOE BUSINESS

COMEDY CONTEST

Editor-in-Chief Mark Baumgarten

BY CONRAD WESSELHOEFT

food&drink

36TH ANNUAL SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL

3

FINALLY, A GIFT BOX YOU ’LL actually ENJOY. NO FRUITCAKES OR CHEESE BALLS – JUST PREMIUM CANNABIS INFUSED EDIBLES

Elevate the holidays with ZOOTS .

Find your neighborhood store at zootology.com.

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

PREMIUM CANNABIS INFUSED EDIBLES

4

COURTESY OF VANCOUVER COASTAL HEALTH

chatterbox

MAY I INTERJECT?

Last week, Casey Jaywork reported on the growing push to institute safe-injection sites in Seattle.

Though the precise form such a site would take is unclear, the basic idea is simple: provide a place where intravenous drug users can shoot up under medical supervision as a way to prevent overdoses and needle-sharing.

I was at Cal Anderson park this last summer, and someone had OD’d on the field and died right there. I am a small-business owner, parent, and have family that struggle with drug addiction . . . I will gladly pay higher taxes if these programs needed the money. For those who don’t want to pay their share . . . tax them anyway.

Saras Gabbery, via seattleweekly.com

“I was at Cal Anderson park this last summer, and someone had OD’d on the field and died right there. I will gladly pay higher taxes for these programs.” interim superintendent who didn’t want the permanent job. The third was hired by Sherry Carr and colleagues, and he left early with no penalty for doing so.

You’d think that with the contract for this superintendent that Sherry Carr and colleagues would be more cautious and conservative, but you would be wrong. Despite the contract extension that is supposed to ensure stability, Dr. Nyland (who came out of retirement and said he didn’t want to stay longer than 2017) has only to give six months’ notice that he’s out of here, and just like that we’ll be back looking for another superintendent. Oh, and don’t miss the fact that if he does leave, he does so after collecting his raise (why not a retention bonus instead to incentivize him to stay?) and with a higher pension thanks to the higher salary they’re about to give him (retroactive to September, of course).

SPS Parent, via seattleweekly.com

Telling people they can get help only if they give up drugs JUST DOESN’T WORK. Sites like these treat people as they are, and offer them addiction treatment without forcing it down While $13,000 probably won’t solve any major their throats, and they’re successful at it. And, district-wide problem, it can also be said that on top of that, there are many people who can, for someone already earning over $200,000/year, and do, live successful lives while $13,000 won’t buy a new car or using drugs. I mean, if you can pay one year’s college tuition for Send your thoughts on avoid overdose and unclean one of their children. this week’s issue to needles (which these sites preJulia Caskey Marshall, via letters@seattleweekly.com seattleweekly.com vent), heroin is factually less harmful than alcohol, which I’m sure you’re OK with people buying of their own Note: The School Board approved the raise, which free will.

Nyland then announced he would donate back to the general fund.

Sam, via seattleweekly.com Bad idea. It’s not treating the source of addiction, and it removes the social stigma attached to using. How is this helping addicts and members of the community who want nothing to do with any of the disease and crime connected to drugs?

Maria Wakefield, via Facebook RAISING OBJECTIONS

Several readers responded to our report on Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Larry Nyland’s $13,000 raise and the ensuing protest from parents who thought the money could be better spent elsewhere. School Board member Sherry Carr justified the raise by saying it contributed to stability in the district.

Warning: This product has intoxicating effects and may be habit forming. Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. For use only by adults 21 and older. Keep out of the reach of children.

Sherry Carr should know about superintendent turnover, since she was on the board through the four she mentions. With the first one, she voted for three contract extensions and two raises, even while parents were pointing out how unhappy they were. That superintendent was fired and left town with a parting gift of $275,000 when the district decided to buy out her contract instead of firing her for cause. The second one was an

COME, COME WHOEVER YOU ARE

Finally, on Gov. Jay Inslee’s statements welcoming Syrian refugees to Washington state: The melting pot of the United States is something we should embrace, not run away from.

Our culture is only improved by the presence of people from other countries. Interacting and living amongst people from different cultures will not destroy our culture but rather enrich it.

Obama was right to increase the quota for Syrian refugees, but, with four million people trying to find new homes, a quota of ten thousand is not going to cut it. After the war in Vietnam, there were three million refugees, and the United States accepted roughly 20,000 refugees per month. Despite the fear of communism sprouting in the U.S. due to these refugees, nothing of the sort happened. We need to be welcoming to immigrants, and while Obama’s quota increase was a step in the right direction, more needs to be done.

Thomas Striegl, via e-mail E Comments have been edited for length and clarity.

news&comment TRANSIT

SeattleBriefly

Fast takes from the news desk

Get Outta the Damn Car!

Anger continues to boil among KPLU listeners over the public radio station’s surprising sale to KUOW—so much so that the KPLU’s regular community board meeting, surely one of the more tedious gatherings ever conceived, had to be moved to a large room in the Westin on Monday to accommodate the fuming hordes.

Before a crowd of 200, the board voted to oppose the sale. It was a symbolic gesture, but an important one, since the meeting was the first time since the sale announcement that listeners were provided with a forum to discuss it, all that listener support be damned. This even though three boards, among them the UW Board of Regents, subject to the state’s open meeting laws, voted over the course of the fall to approve the sale.

The Regents avoided any real public scrutiny of their vote by playing coy with their agenda, on which the sale was listed simply as “KUOW license,” with no additional information.

Since the meeting was regularly scheduled and open to the public, the regents were not required to make note of the sale on the agenda, says Michele Earl-Hubbard, a local media attorney who serves as vice president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government. But just because it’s legal doesn’t make it a good idea.

“You’d think they would have given more thought to how the public would react to this and would have wanted to hear the public’s thoughts,” Earl-Hubbard says. “It’s the kind of thing you do when you want to push something through; not the kind of thing you do when you want to get the community behind you.”

A desperate King County resorts to bribery to stop commuters from driving solo on I-405.

BY ELLIS E. CONKLIN

In that vein, King County Metro earlier this year

Metro is going to new lengths to put butts on buses.

prefers to call it an incentive—is what’s needed to help unclog the transportation toilet that I-405 has become, then so be it. And it certainly shows how creative—or desperate—the region’s transportation managers are getting to solve the collective civic nightmare that is rush hour.

“I’m fascinated by this,” says former state Secretary of Transportation Doug MacDonald.

“One thing is for sure: If you wanted government to function with the level of innovation that drives private enterprise, a ‘test device’ like this to research consumer attitudes, motivation, and behavior would in all probability be duck soup.

“I’d be inclined to encourage this kind of innovation, and I don’t think it is a prima facie case of either government stupidity or waste.”

Today, a 17-mile trip from Lynnwood to Bellevue now averages around 50 minutes during the morning commute, but can often take 70 to 75 maddening minutes, just about the time it takes to fly 399 air miles from Seattle to Boise.

More than 500,000 drivers traverse this sardine-packed corridor each day, reports WSDOT (hard to believe it was just 35,000 in 1971, the year SR 405 became a full-fledged interstate highway), and there is scant evidence that the express toll lanes that opened in late September have yet done much to ease the gridlock, though they sure have accelerated the level of commuter confusion and frustration.

Critics aside, though, it is not hard to argue

For years, state, county, and city transportation

officials have tried just about everything to con-

received a $1,456,000 grant from WSDOT to help manage demand on the busy I-405 corridor. It was one of 35 new Regional Mobility Grant projects the state legislature approved this past session to help communities statewide improve transit mobility and reduce congestion.

About 10 percent of that money will be used to administer the gift-card giveaway, says Metro Transit program director Debbie Jaksich, who projects that 3,000 to 5,000 people will take the pledge, resulting in a payout of $100,000 to $125,000.

The remainder of the grant will be used for marketing, promotional mailers, and other PR tools designed to help drive drivers to alternative means of commuting.

To receive the $25 gift cards, which also includes a card to REI or ORCA credit, a person must sign up on rideshareonline.com (the enrollment period ends Dec. 6), and tell Metro Transit what transportation changes they plan to make.

“We will stay closely in touch with them to see how it’s going,” says Jaksich, who adds that this kind of program has been tried before, but on a smaller scale, through employer campaigns.

“They have to log their trips,” adds Metro Transit spokesman Jeff Switzer, “but we’re trusting that people will be honest.”

Jennifer Rash, a transportation-policy expert at PRR, says the gift-card incentive is a worthwhile program. “I think it’s a good experiment.

This is something that starts as a reward, but then can become a permanent behavior change, and that’s a win,” says Rash. E

econklin@seattleweekly.com

On Thursday, the King County Superior Court judge who presided over the Our Children’s Trust case in Washington—the one in which eight kids petitioned the Department of Ecology to put a strict cap on carbon emissions—officially ruled against the plaintiffs. But she did so for only one reason: The Department of Ecology is already developing a new carbon-emissions cap to be finalized in 2016, per Gov. Jay Inslee’s executive order.

Judge Hollis Hill’s ruling upheld every fundamental argument the kids’ attorney put forth. The Department of Ecology has an obligation, she wrote, under both the state’s Clean Air Act and its constitution, to protect the climate for future generations. And she made the case that the state’s existing carbon-emissions standards are not good enough. “The scientific evidence is clear that the current rates of reduction mandated by Washington law cannot achieve the GHG reductions necessary,” she wrote, to “ensure the survival of an environment in which Petitioners can grow to adulthood safely.”

“We lose, but we win,” explains plaintiffs’ attorney Andrea Rodgers. “[Judge Hill] agreed with us on all of our legal arguments.” That, she says, is why this ruling “is so much bigger than this decision.” Legally attaching citizens’ constitutional rights to climate change is unprecedented, and could influence the conversation about climate change, as well as the law. SARA BERNARD E

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

ow bad is traffic congestion on Interstate 405 these days?

So bad that King County Metro will actually pay you to stay off one of the most snarled stretches of asphalt and concrete in the entire state. Or at least leave the damn car at home and find an alternative mode of transportation.

The transit agency concluded recently that something beyond pushing carpooling, vanpooling, bus travel, and the like was needed to convince drivers to ditch their solo driving habits. Indeed, an incentive was in order, a carrot at the end of the transit stick—something like a gift card to Shell or Jiffy Lube. And so now we have it: If people pledge to give up their precious car for eight round trips driving alone every month for three months, and instead bike it, bus it, or whatever-it wherever they might normally motor it, Metro will give them a $25 voucher to help top off their gas tank or change the oil in their (idled) jalopy. The whole arrangement, which began October 17, hinges on an honor system.

Predictably, the gift-card plan drew some howls. KIRO radio talk show host Jason Rantz wrote earlier this month, “I believe drivers will just want a free $25 gift card for the extra gas they burn as a result of the traffic mess WSDOT created.” that if a small bribe—Metro understandably

DANIEL PERSON

BEN / FLICKR

JOSHUA BOULET

vince solo drivers to surrender their automobile, especially during rush hours.

In Seattle, in particular, the emphasis has been on promoting telecommuting, compressed work weeks, carpooling, and walking. The city has put us on road diets, eliminated parking, built dedicated and grade-separated bicycle lanes, pushed the Pronto Cycle share program, and of course endlessly extolled the virtues of buses—to the point where so many people are taking them that there is no guarantee you can get on one during peak morning and evening commute times.

The Eastside, though, has its own transportation challenges. The population growth there is ferocious. While Seattle grew about 7 percent from 2000 to 2010, the Eastside jumped 15 percent, which is overwhelming capacity on I-405.

And in suburbia, transit can be a harder sell: Bus stops are farther away from doorsteps, and getting where you need to go can often entail several transfers. Bicycling, meanwhile, is a nonstarter for those with 15-mile commutes.

That said, Metro officials clearly believe that many drivers are skipping transit out of force of habit, and that they could happily use public transit if given the right kind of nudge.

H

Kinda-Public Radio

news@seattleweekly.com

5

Mixed Decision

Win a trip for 2

to San Juan Island Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday!

Airfare provided by...

SanJuanAirlines.com

800-874-4434 Under new Ownership! Carl and Gudrun Hassell

Call for information

360-378-3550

flights from Bellingham & Anacortes

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

Hotel accommodations provided

6

210 Nichols Street, Friday Harbor

Subscribe to the San Juan Journal!

Get up to date news and events happening on the San Juan Islands!

Contact our subscription department at 360-376-4500

San Juan Island

Whale Watch Trips

*Dinner for two at...

We are an island inspired company with Taxi and Tour service for all island residents and visitors!

We can carry bicycles and kayaks and enjoy transporting for weddings and other groups for special occasions.

P: 360-378-1934 Friday harbor & roche Harbor 360-378-1323 • 800-450-6858

*up to $100. Alcohol not included Reach us at (360) 298-6975 and (360) 378-TOUR (8687) Hours: 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

www.sanjuansafaris.com

Enter to win today!

visit: bit.ly/1kZLPtj

*Must be 18 year s or older to en ter .

Restrictions ap ply.

news&comment

FIRST PERSON

It’s the End of Food Stamps as We Know It And I feel fine.

BY JOE BERNSTEIN The “work requirements” system devised in 1996 has exemptions (for people on unemployment, for example), but without an exemption, we ABAWDs have to work at least 80 hours per month, attend employment and training activities (E&T), or earn our benefits at minimum wage through “workfare.” We get to ignore these requirements for three months out of every three years, with a bonus three months if we work for a while in between.

The system can be locally waived when unemployment is high, and in some circumstances entire states can waive it; Oregon and Alaska have had statewide waivers since 2004.

President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill waived the work requirements nationwide for a year and half, and allowed states to continue the waiver for years after that.

As unemployment has receded, a few states at a time have been losing their waivers. The feds expect most of those remaining to end this year.

Near here, Montana’s waiver ended last year; Idaho’s losing its waiver this year; and Alaska, Oregon, and Washington are all losing waivers in their biggest cities. So next year, ABAWDs in King County, Snohomish County, and Pierce County (except in Tacoma and Lakewood) will face the work requirements.

When I first lived on the streets, in autumn 2003 in Wisconsin, I applied for food stamps, and got a temporary card and an appointment to enter a work program. But then a job interview conflicted, so I skipped the appointment, disqualifying me for the card; not getting the job, I ended up moving back in with my mother, and no longer needed it anyway.

When I became homeless again in August 2012, this time in Washington, I again applied for food stamps. Nobody pointed me to any work programs this time, though, and I’ve been in the program ever since.

The food-stamp program is federally funded but managed by the states, with each state setting its own rules. In Idaho, for example, most recipients must attend work programs, while Washington, Oregon, and Alaska have long been more liberal with their stamps. But the states don’t have limitless freedom, and more generous states are now being reined in by the Clinton-era rules.

Probably not. Of the states that have already lost their waivers, Minnesota may be most like Washington in demography and economy. Its waiver ended, in most of the state, on Halloween 2013. Anti-hunger advocates there complained that the process was botched.

ABAWDs were punished for missing appointments at nonexistent E&T sites. Minnesota did nothing with workfare. Yet Minnesota’s statewide food agency, Hunger Solutions, saw no spike in demand in early 2014. Hunger Solutions executive director Colleen Moriarty speculates that Minnesota’s steadily declining unemployment rate masked the problem.

Washington actually has some experience with ending food-stamp waivers. It had a waiver from 2003 to 2006. So I asked Christina Wong at Northwest Harvest and Susan Eichrodt at the Washington Department of Agriculture, which run overlapping food networks here, what happened when that statewide waiver ended in King, Whitman, Whatcom, and San Juan counties. Each spent much of a day compiling numbers for me to crunch—showing no increase in demand here either. And while these counties were doing OK in early 2007, unemployment was stable, not decreasing. Whatever ABAWDs then did to get food, it didn’t burden the food banks. So no, the Outdoor Meal Site isn’t likely to crumble.

I now have a clearer picture of my own future.

If I don’t get a real, year-round job, I still expect to work the next two winters, paying for about 12 months’ food. That’d allow me six months of food stamps without facing the work requirements.

And I turn 50 after 21 months. So that leaves only three months during which I’d have to find a workfare slot or a BFET placement. Or organize my life around the Outdoor Meal Site and get hungry on weekends.

I’m now waiting for the other shoe to drop on the macro-scale. Will BFET significantly cut Puget Sound’s homeless population? Will we see new levels of food-related theft and fighting? Or will nothing much change at all?

The smart money is on door #3, but we’ll just have to wait and see. E

news@seattleweekly.com

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

A

central component of the welfarereform efforts of the 1990s—shepherded into law with bipartisan resolve to cut off benefits going to the “undeserving poor”—was the idea that able-bodied adults without dependents should not have unlimited access to food stamps.

Then-President Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich’s Congress required ABAWDs—as they are known in the business—to obey “work requirements” or their food stamps would go on a time limit.

During the great recession, many of these restrictions were waived as a crippled economy added millions to the food-stamp rolls. But with the economy improving, this act of welfare reform will soon return to King County, and most of the roughly 35,000 ABAWDs here and in Pierce and Snohomish counties who use food stamps—nearly half of whom are homeless—will probably lose them. I’m one of those 35,000; here’s my story.

Programs like Operation Sack Lunch could become more vital.

I’ve worried about this on two levels. First, I thought Washington had advertised food stamps pretty well during the recession, so I was concerned that many people who had signed up for the assistance might have the rug pulled out from under them. I got more worried as I accumulated evidence that the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) wasn’t warning anyone about the pending change. I envisioned thousands and thousands of people thrown off the rolls, demolishing food banks and soup kitchens with sheer demand, flooding jails and courts with shoplifters.

And on a personal level, I feared for my own future if the Outdoor Meal Site were to close under a crush of newly hungry people in Seattle.

But in fact DSHS is making preparations for the new rules and putting smart, inexpensive remedies in place. It’s dusting off its workfare program and ramping up its employment and training program. It’s still taking its time sending us postcards to warn us. (I haven’t seen mine yet.) But it’s doing better than the Division of Public Assistance in Alaska, where 3,000 ABAWDs in Anchorage will be affected.

That agency did send a letter in June—but to all food-stamp recipients, creating a panic.

Then they took until about a month ago to hire a contractor to set up their new E&T program.

One advantage Washington has is that DSHS’s 10-year-old E&T program—Basic Food Employment & Training, or BFET—is considered first-class, a national model, for several reasons. First, it reports measurable results: consistently, within two years of enrollment, three quarters of its clients find decent jobs. (This kind of retrospective check has been rare in food-

stamp E&T programs.) Second, it reports classy results: Its clients earn employment credentials, sometimes even associates’ degrees.

However, great as the program is, it’s unlikely to grow enough to absorb the 35,000 of us who’ll soon need E&T, workfare, or, well, jobs to stay qualified for food stamps. Other programs don’t seem poised to handle the increase either. DSHS is only beginning to set up workfare; how many slots will it come up with?

DSHS can also use arbitrary exemptions, but they can cover only about a thousand of us.

And there’s an inconvenient fact: In every case known to me, when ABAWDs get subjected to work requirements, they leave food stamps.

Period. It doesn’t matter whether there are good or bad services available—we just leave.

Given all this, will there be a mini-apocalypse, anyway?

7

news&comment

Reach your customers where they live.

97 %

Sound Media’s digital experts

can help you succeed online with optimized websites, targeted landing pages, social media marketing, eye-catching display advertising and much, much more.

of today’s consume rs research purchasin g decisions online. Is yo business advertisin ur g for today’s a udience?

DANIEL PERSON

Let us build your custom campaigns today!

HOSPITALITY

But no sandwich for you!

Cold Cuts Sound Media Business Development Solutions

Connecting customizable socially integrated channels to measurable strategies for informed consumers.

www.soundmediabds.com

|

425.339.3062

CREMATION PRE-PLANNING SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

We’re the company everyone is talking about!

8

Join us for a complimentary meal and short seminar—have all your questions answered without any pressure.

• Worldwide Coverage Available • 0% Interest Financing • Lock in Today’s Price for Life!

Join us at

599

$

*

*$599 is for at-need service only. To lock in lifetime price guarantee, there is an additional $150 processing fee due.

Expires 11/30/2015.

Shari’s Restaurant 15252 Aurora Ave N, Seattle Tuesday, November 10 .............11:30 am Tuesday, November 24 .............11:30 am

RSVP to Dan at 253.831.2646

844.682.6800 • www.cremationsocietywa.com

Were two men turned away at a South Lake Union business for being poor?

BY ELLIS E. CONKLIN

W

hen Scott Freutel, onsite manager of the Bart Harvey Apartments in South Lake Union, heard that restaurant chain Meat & Bread planned to hand out free sandwiches to celebrate its new location in the neighborhood, he posted a note in the low-income housing complex’s elevator.

“I wrote, ‘Hey guys, go and get yourself a free sandwich,’ ” he recounts.

The morning of the shop’s soft opening was cold and windswept. But still, outside the Tommy Bahama building at 400 Fairview Ave. N., the line was enormous. Most of these were young Amazon workers who have come to dominate the neighborhood—not a surprise, as the 5-year-old Meat & Bread is wildly popular in Canada, and its Capitol Hill store, which opened in April, is packing them in for jerk chicken, porchetta, and meatball sandwiches. Also waiting in the chilly line were two elderly men from the Bart Harvey; also not a surprise, since the complex caters to those 62 and older on a fixed income.

However, at 10:45 a.m., 15 minutes before the public giveaway was to begin, Freutel says the two men were singled out and asked to leave. “One of them came back and told me that he was told, ‘You are not the type of person we were looking for,’ reports Freutel. “And the other guy came to me and said he was told pretty much the same thing.”

Here again, a tale of two cities—another stark example of the lingering socioeconomic tensions that exist in a once-blue-collar neighborhood, rich in history and character, that has been dramatically transformed over the past five years by a vast army of highly paid tech workers and hip, cosmopolitan businesses eager to serve them.

“This is an outrage,” says Sharon Lee, executive director of the Low Income Housing Institute, which runs Bart Harvey. “This is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the the city. We were here before REI, before Amazon. What total disregard [for poor people]. Talk about profiling.

“What kind of message is this: ‘We are here to cater only to high-wage earners.’ ” After hearing their story, a furious Freutel charged out of the complex and headed over to Meat & Bread, located on the first floor of the building on Fairview.

“The line was so long that I couldn’t get in to see the manager,” he recalls. “So I asked the security guard about this, and he said, ‘They are not the sort of people we had in mind.’

“I told the security guy to have the manager call me, and he did, and he said he was sorry—that he had no idea that happened.”

Still fuming, Freutel dispatched a fiery e-mail to the sandwich chain’s corporate office in Vancouver.

“I said that they really blew a chance to become good partners in this neighborhood.”

As of late last week, Freutel had not received any response from company headquarters.

It is G4S, one of the leading security firms in the

U.S., that handles all security matters at the Tommy Bahama building, and it was G4S who oversaw security on the day of Meat & Bread’s promotional event. The sandwich chain did not retain them to provide security.

When contacted by Seattle Weekly, a G4S supervisor at the building, who would not give his name, said, “This guy was trespassing. He had been coming into the building over and over and he was told not to come back.” The security official says he has no knowledge that a second man was turned away.

Frankie Harrington, co-owner of Meat & Bread, tells Seattle Weekly that he was unaware of the incident. “That’s terrible,” Harrington says. “It is not in our ethos to turn people away from getting a free sandwich. Our first store was in Gastown, in Victoria, and there are a lot of homeless people there, but we’ve worked with these people.”

Sharon Lee doesn’t care to hear any excuses. “We hold Meat & Bread responsible,” she says bitterly, “and I think our residents are owed an apology.” E

econklin@seattleweekly.com

®&©

ENTER BRUCE

BR UCE LE E ENTE RPRISE S, LLC. ALL

How an indomitable houseguest shaped the lives of four Seattle brothers.

By Conrad Wesselhoeft

RIGHTS RESER

R. ER J ALM KE) P

ALL RIGHTS RISES, LLC. E LEE ENTERP

© BR UCE L E E ENTE RPRIS ES, L LC. A L L RIGH TS RE SERV ED.

® & © BRUC

®&

“It was Bruce Lee saying his landlord had just kicked him out,” Doug Palmer would later remember. “He asked if he could stay with us for a few days, and Ida said ‘Yes.’ ” Ida—Doug’s wife and the mother of their four boys—laughed at the memory. “Five minutes later, he appeared on our doorstep with a suitcase. He must have made the call from the phone booth at 34th and Union.”

The Palmers lived at 1542 Grand Avenue, a few blocks from my family’s house on Madrona Place East. I made the trek regularly to play with the youngest of the brothers, Cam. Saturday nights often found me bunking there. However, my regular visits didn’t start until about 1965—nearly two years after Bruce’s memorable stay. By the time I entered their lives, Bruce Lee was a memory, but a vivid one.

Ten-year-old Cam had endless Bruce stories to share.

“Bruce can hit Jake with a one-inch punch and send him flying halfway across the room. Whoop-bam!”

“Bruce can tear a phone book in half.”

“Bruce can chop a brick in two with his hand.”

Kevin Palmer, 13 at the time, was equally impressed. “I worshipped the ground he walked on,” he told me about a decade ago when I asked the family to share with me their memories of Bruce—via anecdotes, e-mails, and written reflections. What emerged was the portrait of a young man on the cusp of something great, both a gifted perfectionist and a witty, polite, trendy person.

This was before he was famous—the first international martialarts megastar of hit movies like Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon— and before his very presence could stop traffic on the streets of Hong Kong. He was just Bruce, standing alone on a front stoop in Seattle, suitcase in hand.

To the two older Palmer sons, he was an incredible sparring partner, physically and intellectually. To the two younger sons, he burned like a Roman candle—intense, magical, and cool—the original Bruce Almighty.

Bruce Lee would have been 75 this Friday, November 27—a milestone that evokes yet again the man in his remarkable fullness.

Yes, he was a genius and pop-culture icon, but also a man with everyday quirks, needs, hopes, and vulnerabilities, as the Palmer family witnessed in the fall of 1963, when Bruce spent six weeks as their houseguest.

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

The Palmer Family (top left) welcomed a young Bruce Lee (bottom left) into their lives. No brother was more impacted by the rising martial-arts star than Jake, who regarded him as a friend and teacher (top right).

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

RESERVED.

COU

RTES

Y OF

D

(JA OUG

VED.

It started with a phone call one day in September 1963.

9

Enter Bruce » FROM PAGE 9

® & © BRUC

E LEE ENTERP

RISES, LLC. AL

L RIGHTS RESE

RVED.

HOTO

ILE P

10

The young Bruce Lee was serious about his art…

SW F

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

T

he dinner table at the Palmer house was a lively place. Discussions centered on current events, especially the growing tensions surrounding Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement, with frequent forays into pop culture: the latest John Wayne movie, Lou Rawls release, or Prince Valiant comic-strip installment. Doug had been a Marine Corps captain in World War II and emanated discipline. He loved most things Irish and Scottish, including sentimental ballads.

Like the father, the sons had rich singing voices.

They could sing, even in brogue, the many verses of Clancy Brothers songs. Another favorite was Marty Robbins’ interminable “Ballad of the Alamo.”

With Doug presiding at the table, the sons spoke in reasoned and respectful tones. When he left, however, modesty and formality exited with him. The brothers took to ribbing, slapstick, and one-upmanship. Laughter—belly laughter—was a prominent characteristic of the Palmer brothers. My friend Cam, a precocious cornstalk, inhaled this masculine energy, and by age 10 was brimming with hubris.

Enter Bruce Lee. “Bruce was a quick wit and practical joker,” Kevin remembered. “He loved conversation, but he always was aware that Doug was the host at the dinner table.”

Mike agrees. “He was respectful and polite with elders—his upbringing. My folks remarked on that.”

As a guest, Bruce set a strict example of discipline for the younger boys.

“Was he ever an eye-opener,” Doug said.

“When it came to chores, Kevin and Cam were a couple of slack dudes. Bruce ironed his own shirts and cleaned his room, and he tried to get them to do the same.”

Looking back on Bruce Lee’s extended visit, other little things stood out.

Doug, who died in 2007, remembered Bruce taking him to lunch in Chinatown. “I nearly whoopsed when he ate a dish of chicken feet with gusto and sucked with relish on the scaly talons.”

Kevin recalled Bruce’s attention to grooming, how he shaved and primped while humming pop tunes, a favorite being Cliff Richard’s hit “I Can’t Ask for Anymore Than You.” “Bruce wore his hair Ricky Nelson–style, with lots of Brylcreem,” Kevin said. In Jake’s room, where he bunked, the cowboy-themed wallpaper soon developed a grease spot where he propped his head.

Ida, who died in 2011, remembered that Bruce never had socks in his dirty laundry (“though he did wear socks”) and that he tired of eating potatoes. (“ ‘Oh, Mrs. Palmer, I have to go to Chinatown to get rice.’ You see, I always served potatoes.”) She also remembered the time on the front stoop when he broke a brick with a swift chop of the hand. “We stood open-mouthed.”

“Once the lights were out, he liked to tell corny jokes,” Mike says. “He was his own biggest fan. Usually I had school the next day and wanted to get some sleep. But I remember him telling jokes, and how he responded with muted laughter under the covers, in consideration for the rest of the household. Maybe it would’ve

...but also liked to goof off, as he did in the snow on First Hill.

render a bull-sized man been different if I “A lippy cynic understood Cantonese.

“I worshipped the ground powerless. was prime meat,” Mike He probably had some great jokes in Chinese.” he walked on, but Bruce remembers.

Cam, who died in 2001 Once, to demonstrate wasn’t bigger than life, of a heart condition, told his strength, Bruce asked me of the time he was 17-year-old Mike—then he was just a man.” reading on the livingsix feet tall and 195 room couch when Bruce pounds—to drape his full walked in, placed four weight on Bruce’s back. fingers on the back of his shoulder, and drove a At just under 5´8˝ and weighing about 140 pounds, thumb into the soft spot above the clavicle. Cam Bruce proceeded to do a one-handed pushup. sat paralyzed. When Bruce eased up on the hold, Mike, a boxer and football player, found this Cam yelped in agony: “Why did you do that?” he kind of display of strength hard on the ego. “I demanded to know. Bruce explained that he was remember standing by the light switch in our working to fine-tune the move and wanted to room, about to turn it off. Bruce was in bed. I test it on Cam. Unimpressed with the explanasaid ‘You might be tough, but I could sneak up tion, Cam raced off in tears, shouting “Mom!” on you while you’re sleeping and take you out Mike Palmer tries to put the clavicle-hold epiwith a baseball bat.’ ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘You could do sodes into perspective. “Bruce could be overbearthat. But you’d better make sure the first blow ing, but not in a haughty way. He was very sure lands, because you won’t get a second one.’ That of himself, and that came across strongly when was the end of the bat idea. He had the assuryou spent time with him. If you were his friend ance; I had the uncertainty.” and got a little too saucy, sometimes he used his The younger sons remembered pain as well. clavicle hold to show you that that wasn’t acceptBoth experienced Bruce’s infamous “clavicle able. I didn’t look upon that as being cruel. I don’t hold,” a move he used in public demonstrathink Bruce took any sadistic pleasure in it.” tions to get audience attention. The hold could

At the time Bruce “dropped in,” the older Palmer boys, both students at Garfield High School, had sprouted into tall, raw-boned young men. Eighteen-year-old Jake had a scholarly bent. Mike, 17, was a standout on both the baseball diamond and gridiron. Starting in grade school, Jake and Mike had developed a passion for boxing, and by high school they were participating in amateur bouts and hanging out at the Knights of Columbus gym off Broadway, where amateurs and pros trained.

“Boxing was very important to me,” remembers Jake, an attorney who currently lives in Seattle.

“Over the years, as I grew more competent, it gave me a lot of confidence, which has carried over to many situations, including confidence in unfamiliar surroundings abroad.”

It was Jake who formed the earliest and strongest friendship with Bruce. He had glimpsed the martial artist two years before at a Seafair event in Chinatown. That day, the street was choked with summertime revelers. In the distance, a young man was moving about a stage demonstrating a fiery brand of self-defense. Intrigued, Jake moved closer for a better look.

“I was mesmerized by his speed, grace, and obvious power, but also by the efficiency of his moves,” Jake recalls. He noted that Bruce used a fight system that “engaged all parts of the body, including legs and elbows,” not just the “fist work” he himself was trying to master in boxing.

After the event, Jake asked a mutual friend for an introduction. A week later, at Bon Odori, the Japanese community fair held every summer at Seattle Buddhist Church, Bruce walked up and introduced himself. “He seemed very self-possessed and confident,” Jake remembers, “yet also very open and polite.”

Despite the four-year difference—in August 1961, Jake Palmer was 16 and Bruce Lee 20—they hit it off. Bruce had a philosophical turn of mind, staggering self-discipline, and a gamin sense of humor, Jake recalls.

Jake had been boxing since fifth grade, when he participated in a class held weekly in the basement of Prospect Congregational Church on Capitol Hill. The teacher, Walter “Cap” Michael, had been a pro boxer in his younger days and, among local fight aficionados, was considered the consummate boxing instructor. Mike Palmer, too, was a student in Cap’s class. In the years to come, younger brothers Kevin and Cam would don gloves and learn “the sweet science of bruising” from Cap. “Before I met Bruce, I saw boxing as the ultimate fighting sport,” Jake says. “After I met him, I saw that boxing could take you only so far—that gung fu was a natural continuation.”

Bruce thrived in the role of teacher, and likely saw in this new gung fu student someone hungry for both martial-arts prowess and general life insights. As Bruce later wrote: “He who knows not and knows he knows not, he is simple—teach him.”

Their relationship drew Bruce Lee into the Palmer family’s wider circle, which involved frequent social gatherings at 1542 Grand Avenue, brotherly horseplay in the basement rec room, and, inevitably, demonstrations by Bruce of his one-inch punch, two-fingered pushups, or, a particular favorite, his “dime trick.” This trick called for a volunteer to stand with arm extended, palm up, holding a dime. As someone shouted “Now!,” the volunteer tried to close a hand around the coin. Inevitably, Bruce snatched the dime before the volunteer could make a fist. His reflexes were lightning-quick.

“When he dropped by socially, it was pretty much as a friend, not teacher,” Jake says. “His moves were designed to demonstrate some impressive aspect of gung fu. He was always expanding the parameters and scope of his martial-arts approach. Or he was just goofing around.”

Bruce Lee’s life has been endlessly chronicled.

didn’t know gung fu. “Bruce didn’t want anyone in the Hong Kong gung fu community to know that he was teaching gung fu to non-Chinese,” Jake says. “But in Honolulu, on our way back to the States, he gave a demo at a gung fu school and was unconstrained.”

Bruce Lee’s final resting place at Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery.

OTO

SW FILE PH

The fall of 1963—the period overlapping his six-

week stay with the Palmers—was pivotal for Bruce.

He was synthesizing various martial-arts techniques and merging gung fu with other styles. The result would become his own brand of fighting, Jeet Kune Do—“The Way of the Intercepting Fist.”

Bruce was also experiencing an upswing in his romantic life. He had recently proposed to girlfriend Amy Sanbo, but was turned down. Now he was captivated by a blonde Garfield cheerleader named Linda Emery. Jake, on the other hand, had started dating a Chinese girl. Both girls’ parents were leery of interracial dating and set strict dating guidelines. Jake recalls one evening in which he picked up Linda at her door and Bruce picked up Jake’s girlfriend, and they switched dates once they got in the car. “We laughed about it—beating the parents at their game, but we also thought it was unfortunate,” Jake says. Bruce and Linda eventually married, and became the parents of Brandon and Shannon Lee. Meanwhile, 13-year-old Kevin Palmer, a budding artist, did pen-and-ink drawings of Bruce in various gung fu poses. “Just simple position sketches,” Kevin remembered. Following graduation from Garfield, Mike Palmer entered Stanford. As a member of the university’s boxing team, he was intrigued by Bruce’s ability to analyze and utilize the most efficient moves in self-defense.

“Bruce had a gift of mental and physical speed combined with power. I admired him for that.”

Mike remembers an evening he spent with Bruce during his sophomore year at Stanford. By then, Bruce was breaking ground in Hollywood as the first Asian star of an American TV show, The Green Hornet, in which he played the sidekick Kato.

“He was starting to incorporate different moves into his system of self-defense, and he felt that American boxing might be helpful,” Mike says.”

Bruce and Mike spent the evening at a friend’s house in Oakland watching old boxing highlights of heavyweight greats Jack Dempsey, Max Baer, and Joe Louis, complete with Bruce’s commentaries on punching power. Bruce would back up

the film and run it in slow motion. “Watch this, Mike,” Mike recalls his saying. “Once we watched Jack Dempsey floor Jess Willard with a left hook.

I found that instructive in a positive sense. I thought ‘Maybe I could use that.’”

Mike saw Bruce for the last time in the summer of 1968 in Los Angeles, when the second-oldest Palmer son was invited to join the movie star and his wife for dinner at the family home. Afterward, folBruce showed Mike a new move—two steps fol lowed by a swift waist-high snapping kick. As himBruce explained the move, Mike positioned him self with a blocking pad. “Having been a football player, I was familiar with the use of the blocking dummy,” Mike says. “I checked the distance to the wall, leaned into the kick, and braced myself.

One, two—wham! His kick lifted me up onto my toes and I backpedaled until the wall absorbed my impact. As always with Bruce, the power of the blow impressed me.”

Jake saw Bruce for the last time during a visit to Hong Kong in the early 1970s. When the two went out to dinner with their wives, everyone on the street seemed to recognize Bruce. In their cab, drivthe driver signaled his excitement to other cab driv ers. When they stepped into a crowded restaurant, the waiters immediately found a table, even though they had no reservations and the place was packed.

“I don’t think the other tables even got served—all rememthe waiters were hovering around us,” Jake remem bers. He marveled at the impact of stardom on his friend. Yet, at the core, Bruce seemed unaffected.

“He seemed more mature in many ways,” he says.

On July 20, 1973, not long after Jake last saw Bruce, the actor died due to cerebral edema, a swelling of the brain triggered by an allergic reaction to a headache medicine. He was 32, and though he died in Hong Kong, he was laid to rest in Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery.

Contemplating the 75 years since Bruce’s birth—and the nearly 42 since his untimely death—Jake Palmer weighs the friend with whom he passed countless hours against the legend.

“I miss the little things—his corny jokes, his going out of his way to help friends, his generosity and open-mindedness. I also miss his genius, since I believe he truly was a genius, and opened up gung fu to the world outside of China . . . and Chinatowns. I guess it doesn’t surprise me that he still commands attention. Bruce was like Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali in his prime. He was somebody who stood above everyone else. It’s not that the other martial artists weren’t good. It’s just that he was great.”

Mike Palmer remembers Bruce’s self-confidence. “To meet a guy that seemed infallible and untouchable was difficult to believe. And for me, at 17, a boxer and football player, it was frustrating for my ego to accept, especially when I had to have him as a roommate. Bruce was one unique hombre, that’s for sure.”

Sadly, Kevin Palmer died in 2007 after a long illness. However, in one of our many conversations about Bruce, he tried to sort myth from memory.

“My kids never met him, so they’re in awe,” Kevin told me. “They can’t believe Bruce Lee lived in our house, ate at our table, taught us gung fu. I worshipped the ground he walked on, but he wasn’t bigger than life, he was just a man.”

On that day, Kevin shook his head and broke into a wide grin. “But he was a bad-assed man.” E

TOWN HALL

CIVICS

ARTS & CULTURE

COMMUNITY

(11/30) Randall Munroe with Hank Green ‘Thing Explainer’ (12/1) Deepa Iyer Eliminating Hate Crimes in Post-9/11 America (12/2) Christopher T. Bayley ‘Seattle Justice,’ From Past to Present (12/3) Cascadia Resilience Center: Sandi Doughton, David Montgomery, Others Rising to Disaster Risks in Cascadia (12/3) Women’s Funding Alliance: Jackie VanderBrug and Ruchika Tulshyan Mobilizing Money, Power for Change (12/4) Town Hall, Seattle Radio Theatre, and KIRO Radio: ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ (12/5) Columbia Choirs: Columbia Choirs YuleFest 2015 (12/5) BCHCS: Balkansky Bulgarian Folk, Jazz, Electronica (12/6) ‘As I Age’ A Celebration of Creative Aging (12/6) Short Stories Live A Rogue’s Christmas (12/7) Resident Findings C. Davida Ingram and Brangien Davis (12/7) Steven Hill Fixing the American Workforce (12/8) Megan Watzke The Unseen Power of Light (12/9) Stan Greenberg Renewing American Politics

news@seattleweekly.com

Thanks to Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience for many of the photos accompanying this story. For more on Bruce Lee, check out the second installment of the museum’s three-part exhibition “Do You Know Bruce?”, on display through September 4, 2016. wingluke.org

SCIENCE

(11/30) Jon Meacham George H.W. Bush’s Influence on Modern Politics

(12/9) David Gregory ‘How’s Your Faith?’

TOWN HALL

CIVICS

SCIENCE

ARTS & CULTURE

COMMUNITY

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

Although films, books, and fan sites have exaggerated certain parts of the story, the vital facts remain: Born Lee Jun-fan in San Francisco on Nov. 27, 1940—biographers note that he was born not only in the Year of the Dragon, but also in the Hour of the Dragon, between 6 and 8 a.m.—he moved at age 1 with his parents to Hong Kong, settling into an apartment on Nathan Road in the Kowloon district. At 6 he began his career as an actor, appearing in a film called The Beginning of a Boy. Over the next dozen years, he acted in more than 20 films. At age 13, reputedly after losing a street fight, he began to study gung fu under Sifu Yip Man, a master of the Wing Chun fighting system. Bruce also turned his prodigious athletic skills to dancing, specializing in the cha cha. The year 1958 was a banner one, with three notable wins: the Crown Colony Cha-Cha Championship, a leading role in a film called The Orphan, and a major Hong Kong boxing event, defeating reigning three-year champion Gary Elms.

By the measure of his peers, Bruce Lee, at 18, was a towering success. Yet the shiny surface masked a tarnished underside. Bruce was drawn to street mayhem and had frequent run-ins with the Hong Kong police. In 1959 his parents sent him to the United States to claim American citizenship. Another motive, according to some biographers, was to distance Bruce from the dark temptations of the Hong Kong streets. A long visit to the United States, his parents reasoned, might set Bruce on the right course.

In many ways this strategy worked. Arriving in San Francisco after three weeks at sea, Bruce took odd jobs and eventually moved to Seattle, where he worked as a waiter at Ruby Chow’s Chinese restaurant at the corner of Broadway and Jefferson.

During this time, he worked on—and earned—his high-school equivalency diploma at Edison Technical School, located on what is now the campus of Seattle Central Community College.

Bruce returned to Hong Kong in the early summer of 1963—two years after meeting Jake Palmer and two months before his stay with the Palmers. It was his first visit home in nearly four years, and he invited Jake to join him for part of the summer. He wrote to Jake from Hong Kong: “Well, it’s been quite a time since I last heard from you. The water supply here is coming to crisis. . . . The temperature is around 95 degrees, and it’s like living in hell. My plan . . . is to leave at the end of July so if you don’t mind coming for around a month and then to Japan and Honolulu you are very welcome to stay in my house. In any case let me know ahead of time. Bruce.”

And the postscript: “Man! I can’t stand the heat.”

Jake leapt at the opportunity, and quickly negotiated a $600 loan from his dad.

Except for short forays into Canada, Jake had never been outside the United States, and the trip was to prove unforgettable—equal parts immersion in Asian culture and “goofing around.”

“I’d had a year of Mandarin and was hoping to use some of it,” Jake recalls. “As it turned out, this didn’t come to pass because few people in Hong Kong spoke much Mandarin. Cantonese was the local lingua franca.”

Jake stayed at the Lee family apartment on Nathan Road, setting out each day to explore the city by foot, streetcar, or funicular. He also spent time socializing with Bruce’s friends—many of them actors and actresses in the Hong Kong movie industry—or accompanying Bruce to train with Yip Man at the local “guan.”

In Hong Kong at this time, gung fu was viewed by many as a privileged art not to be shared with foreigners. So instead of participating in the training, Jake sat on the sidelines and pretended he

(12/10) Seattle Human Rights Day WWW.TOWNHALLSEATTLE.ORG Kimberlé Crenshaw TOWN HALL CIVICS SCIENCE ARTS & CULTURE COMMUNITY 11 Black Lives Matter (12/10) Robin Koerner The Art of Political Persuasion

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

food&drink

12

Coffee at Its Origin There’s more to Seattle’s coffee scene than hip indie cafes. Travel back in time at an Ethiopian coffee ceremony in Columbia City.

BY NICOLE SPRINKLE | PHOTOS BY KYU HAN

S

From pan-roasted beans to cup.

FRESH FRESH FRESH NATURAL TURKEY FOR CHRISTMAS We Ship We Seafood Seafood Overnight SeafoodShip Overnight Overnight Anywhere in the USA Anywhere in the USA Anywhere in the USA or We Pack for or We Pack for Travel Pack for AirAirTravel orAirWe Travel University University Seafood & Poultry Seafood & Poultry

We Ship

University Seafood & Poultry 1317 NE 47th, Seattle 1317 NE 47th, Seattle (206) 632-3700 or (206)632-3900 (206) 632-3700 or (206)632-3900

1317 NE 47th, Seattle

(206) 632-3700 or (206) 632-3900

RESTAURANT

SUSHI & GRINDZ 2207 1st Ave • BELLTOWN 206.956.9329 OHANABELLTOWN.COM

EAT, DRINK, SING & DANCE!!

HOLIDAY SPECIAL! BUY A $50 GIFT CARD, AND RECEIVE A FREE $20 CARD FOR YOURSELF! AT BOTH LOCATIONS~ BELLTOWN & EASTSIDE!!

By the time Nigist pours the dark, semi-thick

coffee into small porcelain cups without handles (similar to Chinese teacups), we note that soon an hour will have passed without us realizing it, sated as we are by our immersion in this ancient practice, with no noise or distraction besides our quiet conversation and the pop and hiss of the coffee-making, all our senses engaged.

The coffee itself is lovely—enhanced ever so slightly by the ginger, very balanced, and not at all bitter. I could easily drink cup after cup of it. Nigist tells us that in Ethiopia or Eritrea, one will knock on a neighbor’s door to invite them for coffee, and the invitee will reciprocate later that night. It’s a tradition steeped in community—much like our dwindling Southern version, drinking iced tea with neighbors on the front porch.

It’s almost 3 p.m. and I know that more coffee will result in a sleepless night, so we reluctantly prepare to leave. When we emerge out of the dark, quiet space into the bright September sunlight and bustle of Rainier Avenue, I truly feel like I’m stepping out of history, fully caffeinated yet somehow, also, serene. E

nsprinkle@seattleweekly.com

R MENU!!

HAPPY$4.00HOU SUSHI & BEER

$4.99 PUPUS, SUSHI & HANDROLLS $5.00 COCKTAIL SPECIALS, SAKE & WINE $16.00 SAKE MARGARITA PITCHERS MON & TUES ALL NIGHT, WED & THURS & FRI 5-7PM LATE NIGHT: SUN-THURS 9-11:30PM HEATED DECK IS OPEN!!!

11/25 - ALOHA WEDNESDAY PAK & DA LOLOZ!!

11/26 - GET RIGHT THURSDAY DJ CHINKEYE!!

11/27 - FRIDAY DJ KUSH-KO!!

11/28- SATURDAY DJ HEAD-ACHE!!

11/29 - SUNDAY - KARAOKE W/ AURY MOORE! LATE NITE HAPPY HOUR 9 - MIDNITE! MONDAY & TUESDAY ABSOLUTE KARAOKE HAPPY HOUR ALL NIGHT W/ ABSOLUT DRINK SPECIALS!!

11/25- ALOHA WEDNESDAY DAISY CHAIN!

GET YOUR OHANA HUI CARD!

BEST KARAOKE IN BELLTOWN!

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

eattle’s love affair with coffee is evident, of course, by the advent of Starbucks as well as by the many independent coffee shops that continue to proliferate all over town. But in our quest for the quaintest shop or the most hightech brewing methods, it’s easy to forget that the actual birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia, is wellrepresented in the city too.

At Kezira Restaurant in Columbia City, for instance, you can experience an authentic Ethiopian coffee ceremony, where the beans are simply roasted by soft-spoken owner Nigist Kidane—whose first name means “Queen”—in a pan on a small electric burner in a tiny nook by the window. As she keeps them shaking so they don’t burn, she explains that this ritual is traditionally done three times a day back home: morning, afternoon, and before dinner, when people get home from work. (Here in the U.S., people mostly do it on Sundays only.)

“It’s not as slow as back home,” she adds with a touch of nostalgia, referring to our fast-paced American lives. As the beans begin to pop and the smell and smoke of the roast envelop us, she tells us, “My people like the smell more,” and she brings the pan over in front of our noses for a better whiff. After more roasting, while we chat about our daughters and I admire her beautiful traditional red silk gown and gold rings, she gently dumps the beans into a little woven African basket and disappears into the kitchen to grind them, asking first if we like ginger, which, sun-dried and ground, will go into the coffee.

I joke that the process reminds me of popcorn, and am stunned when she actually brings out a plate of freshly popped corn, slightly sweetened, to have with the coffee—another tradition. The ground coffee is now in a rustic clay vessel (a jebena) with an opening and a spout, back on the stove. Kidane lights heavyfragranced incense (etan), and the coffee brews for nearly 10 minutes, until steam begins to waft heavily out of the spout. Once the pot is removed from the heat, it sits on a brightly colored woven coaster to let any grounds settle.

Now thoroughly relaxed, we’ve learned that this process is something that in past times an Ethiopian mother would carefully watch a future daughter-in-law perform to see if she would make a good wife.

13

Which Brews to Drink on Thanksgiving

BEER HUNTING

BY JACOB UITTI

P

eople always talk about Thanksgiving as the holiday dedicated to good eats.

They start ticking off the appetizers, the desserts, the side dishes, and the star of the day, often the Thanksgiving turkey.

But we have a different opinion. We like Thanksgiving because it’s an opportunity to enjoy a tasty beverage or six while hanging out with family and friends, watching football or the parade, to pair with dinner and dessert, or to sip during the evening movie. As such, here is our holiday beer plan—all available locally, at places like Chuck’s Hop Shop in Greenwood—because, of course, we’re also excellent planners.

All right, you’ve helped with the house and prepared what needs preparing, and the morning is shifting into afternoon. Wonderful aromas emanate from the kitchen, the parade is on, and maybe a fire is going (one you made, because you helped out!).

What’s a good beer to kick off the afternoon? Try

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

Firestone Walker’s Opal dry-hopped saison

14

SEATTLE WEEKLY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

MARK BAUMGARTEN

THE SOUND OF MUSIC DIRECTOR

DAVID BENNETT FRIDAY DECEMBER 4TH 6:30PM / $60

THE 5TH AVENUE THEATRE 1308 5TH AVENUE, SEATTLE

TICKETS

ON SALE AT 5THAVENUE.ORG/WEEKLY

(7.5 percent ABV, $6.59 a bottle). Firestone is one of our favorite breweries on the West Coast and we love everything they do, including this effervescent, nuanced, lighter-looking beer with a kick.

Around 1 or 2 p.m. comes that hour after the day’s festivities have begun but before the meal’s on the table. It’s the in-between hour. For this we suggest Double Mountain’s India Red Ale (6.5 percent, $4.59). An IRA, in our eyes, is the perfect beer: They have a touch of malt, as a good red should, and a bit of the edge of an IPA without being too heavy.

But if you do want to try a good IPA, which we think you should as the appetizers are being placed on the table, then look no further than the No Li IPA (7 percent, $8.59 for a four-pack). This

clean and refreshing “Spokane style” beer will pair well with the mashed potatoes, green beans, and macaroni and cheese, but it’s smooth enough not to make you feel heavy. It’s a different choice from the overly abundant IPAs in the city, too.

As the main courses arrive, it’s time to switch from the harvest colors of saisons, reds, and IPAs and go for something a bit darker. Reuben’s American Brown (5.9 percent, $5.59) has the toasted-caramel notes that will complete your turkey, ham, or salmon entrée experience. Reuben’s has been producing some of the tastiest beers in Seattle, and their crisp brown ale is one of their best, even for brown-ale snobs like us.

But what to sample during dessert? When the pumpkin pies and chocolate cakes are being passed, as people are unbuttoning their top buttons, we think beer should be put aside and cider unveiled. Finnriver’s Black Currant Cider (6.5 percent, $8.59) is a top-notch choice: tart, robust, and memorable. Most ciders are overly sweet, but this dark black-currant cider will not cloy your palate—it will invigorate it!

The night is winding down, the dishes have been washed and put away, the guests have gone, and it’s time to curl up with loved ones and watch a movie or TV show (have you seen Transparent? It’s terrific!). But what’s the best nightcap beer? There are many, indeed, but we recommend Ninkasi’s Vanilla Otis oatmeal stout (7 percent, $4.59). Made in Eugene, Ore., it’s a smooth beer with a touch of sweetness. It will remind you of the cozy winter and complement it with malty tones that foretell the coming spring. It’s a drink—like the other five here—worth giving thanks for. E

beerhunting@seattleweekly.com

SE ATTLE WEEKLY’ S 2015 HOLI DAY GIVI NG G UID E • PART ONE

BELLEVUE SQUARE

2

SEATTLEWEEKLY-1PG.indd 1

11/2/15 11:57 AM

the

SEATTLE WEEKLY’S

HOLIDAY

n i v g i G GUIDE

human spirit

place has a happy

VISITSUNVALLEY.COM

GREATEST GIFT

4

BUY LOCAL

5

BUY NEARBY

7

GIFT PICKS

8 11

11

WORDS MATTER.

We here at Seattle Weekly take this brief statement very seriously, considering that we dish out thousands of these meaningful little packages of letters to our readers every week. We know that how you say something is often just as important as what you say.

So, while planning this year’s four-week series devoted to the exchange of presents over the holidays, we ruminated for some time on the alliterative title that has graced the covers of each of these inserts since long before I published my first word here: Gift Guide. We weren’t planning to change the information we provide herein.

As in years past, we’ve filled these pages with thoughtful gifts that have been crafted by local makers or are available at local shops. In this first installment, for example, we spotlight Louie Gong’s powerful wool blankets, striking jewelry from local artists, beautiful cookbooks from local publishers, and more.

But we did want to change something: We wanted to put the emphasis elsewhere—not on the gifts themselves, but on the joy that accompanies the actual giving. And so, we’ve got a new name: Giving Guide.

It’s not that different, and most won’t notice.

But it does make a difference. For instance, it inspired us to create a new feature called Giving Back, which highlights nonprofits in town doing good work for those in need (See “People Power,” page 8). We’re hoping that in this season of selflessness, you might put them on your list.

4

PAGE

4

COVER ILLUSTRATION

BY JOSHUA BOULET

Mark Baumgarten Editor-in-Chief

SEA TO SUN IN UNDER 2 HRS, NON-STOP FLIGHTS ALL WINTER. ROOMS STARTING FROM $100 PER NIGHT.

SEATTLE WE EKLY’ S 2015 HO LIDAY GI VING G UIDE • PART O N E

GIVING BACK

PAGE

3

T Designs oble he Native designs that adorn the wool blankets being created by Eighth Generation are unlike any others.

They’re actually made by Native people. That, says proprietor Louie Gong, is more than just a selling point. To understand how, you have to go back to the beginning.

It all started with a gift. While working as an administrator at Muckleshoot Tribal College in Auburn, Gong volunteered to help the school’s language program create hand drums as gifts. It was unfamiliar territory for Gong, who counts an eighth-grade art class as his only training.

“When people saw I had some ability to paint a straight line and do something that looked like a traditional design, they started making the drums and just giving them to me to paint,” says Gong, a Nooksack tribal member.

Then a weird thing happened. Gong started to see Native designs in other places: people’s faces, cars, animals. But when he searched stores for clothing and crafts with these designs, he was disappointed not to find anything that spoke to him. On a whim, he picked up a pair of shoes and began painting colorful and modern designs with clear roots in traditional Native artwork.

Then a friend created a Facebook page for his work, and the requests came pouring in. Gong began selling his shoes, and named his company Eighth Generation (eighthgeneration.com).

Determined to weave activism into his entrepreneurism, Gong started workshops to teach students how to personalize their shoes while also exploring issues of race and identity. As a result, he was the subject of a documentary and a featured artist at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

All this attention culminated in a 2010 invitation to speak at the National Indian Education Association Annual Convention. At the end of his speech, Gong was wrapped in a wool blanket featuring a Native design.

“It is an intertribal cultural tool,” “Tribes all across U.S. and Canada, when they want to honor someone and show the highest level of respect, will wrap them in a blanket.”

Gong took the blanket home, but something wasn’t right. One night, curled up on the couch, he studied its label and discovered it was not Native-made.

“Why are our communities supporting this non-Native company?” Gong recalls thinking.

“When Native communities were using their resources to buy appropriated Native art from a non-Native company, they were supporting more cultural appropriation.”

Gong decided to change that. He spent the next five years searching for a manufacturer to create the blankets and fellow Native artists to provide the designs. On October 17, he launched his new line by donating $25,000 worth of Eighth Generation’s first wool blanket design, Thunderbird Arise, to The Evergreen State College Longhouse. In exchange, the Longhouse will donate 5 percent of its sales to Gong’s Inspired Native Grant, which is aimed at getting Native works to market.

“In the Native community, there is this expectation that if we’re creating a wool blanket that we’re hiking up into the mountains, taking a mountain goat, taking the hide off with a buck knife, and then having our aunties and grandmas weave the blankets in the back of the studio,” Gong says. “But make no mistake about it; Eighth Generation is a participant in the modern global economy, and we kind of want to champion that that stereotype-busting position.

We will use all of the tools available to us like our ancestors would have done, to create opportunity for other people in our communities.” E

THE GREATEST GIFT

Noble Designs

EIGHTH GENERATION’S WOOL BLANKETS WILL KEEP YOU WARM AND NATIVE-AMERICAN ARTISTS WORKING.

By Mark Baumgarten

eople Power

People Power

hiny Things

Shiny Things

he Gift That eeps Spinning

The Gift That Keeps Spinning

PHOTOS BY DEVIN GONG

Bright Lights

SE ATTLE WEEKLY’ S 2015 HOLI DAY GIVI NG G UID E • PART ONE

right Lights

ooks for Cooks

Books for Cooks

ids &Play

Kids &Play

4

Bright Lights

BALLARD NOW OPEN

HOLIDAY CHEER AND SHOPPING AWAIT IN AND AROUND DOWNTOWN.

By Jeanny Rhee

WPeople Power

hile twinkling lights and festive storefronts thoughout the city will begin to brighten the long, dark nights this week, Downtown and its nearby hoods in particular serve as a kind of communal hearth for the holiday season.

Between the tree-lighting ceremony (Nov. 27 at Westlake Center) and the 29th Annual Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition (Dec. 4 at Westlake Center), you’ll want to set aside some time to shop.

Start in Seattle’s original neighborhood, rich with historic brick and stone buildings: Pioneer Square. There you’ll find elegant, dimly lit bars offering some of the city’s best cocktails, with slow-roasted vegetables and delicately served charcuterie.

Make your way south along the cobblestone walkway in Occidental Park until you reach Velouria (145 S. King St., 788-0330), a whimsical shop that moved from Ballard to its current location a little more than a year ago. With sustainability in mind and an emphasis on Pacific Northwest designs, owners Cat and Chika have filled their shop with beautiful gifts you won’t find anywhere else in the city. From flattering wrap dresses with eccentric prints to handhammered trinkets, shopping for the artiste on your list looking to make a statement with her wardrobe will be a breeze.

At the other end of downtown, closer to Seattle Center, you’ll find Moorea Seal (2523 Third Ave., 728-2523) where affordable and thoughtfully curated gems abound. Peruse the delicate zodiac rings and unisex scarves that are hand-spun and dipped in vegetable dye to give each piece a unique hue, or check out the skinicare line from nearby shop Herbivore Botanicals (2315 Western Ave.).

From earthy lip butters to face and body oils, these organic and cruelty-free beauty essentials promise to provide glowing, supple skin—a

scarcity in our Northwest winters. And since lumbersexuality is still all the rage in the Pacific Northwest, the sage beard tonic is the perfect stocking-stuffer for your stubbly friends. Finally, pick up The 52 Lists Project, tastefully written and compiled by Moorea Seal herself, with beautiful illustrations and photography with plenty of space for doodling and journaling.

Venture up to Capitol Hill to reach the hub of artisanal goods at Melrose Market Studios between Pine Street and Melrose Avenue. You’ll notice Glasswing (1525 Melrose Ave., 6417646), a lofty space adorned with succulents and filled with home goods and works of art.

The shop offers apparel and accessories that are multifunctional, timeless, and simple in design.

Replace the drab briefcase the office worker on your list has been toting around with the weatherproof Teranishi Excursion Roll-Top Bag, just large enough to fit a laptop. A watch from Stockholm-based TID makes a great present for the punctual. With an easy-to-read face and adjustable strap, it’s durable, water-resistant, and sure to get you to the Figgy Pudding contest on time. E

7a – 9p Daily

Shiny Things

The Gift That Keeps Spinning

Dog Daycare • Dog Boarding Dog Grooming • Dog Shop

Downtown Seattle 206/623-5395

Ballard 206/789-1290

citydogclub.com

Kids &Play

COURTESY VELOURIA

SEATTLE WE EKLY’ S 2015 HO LIDAY GI VING G UIDE • PART O N E

COURTESY VELOURIA

Books for Cooks

COURTESY TERANISHI

ks

BUY LOCAL

5

BLACK FRIDAY SALE.

SE ATTLE WEEKLY’ S 2015 HOLI DAY GIVI NG G UID E • PART ONE

STOREWIDE

6

20-80% OFF

ON MOE’S BRANDED PRODUCT .

ANDREAS LEATHER SECTIONAL RIGHT BROWN

MADISON SOFA PURPLE

REG $1,999

REG $865

$999

$499

7 2 0 A N D O V E R PA R K E A S T T U K W I L A , WA MO ESHOME.C OM

1.800.990.MOES

BUY NEARBY

Pickles, Planners Pickles, Planners Pickles, Planners and Pouroversexchange tomorrow Pourovers andand Pourovers buy * *sell*trade sell*trade

MOONBRINE PICKLES

BLACK STAR BAGS

PRESENTS FROM THE WILDS OF PORTLAND.

By Jennifer Karami

U-DISTRICT: 4530 University Way NE • 206-545-0175 BALLARD: 2232 NW Market St. • 206-297-5920 BELLINGHAM: 1209 N. State St. • 360-676-1375

BuffaloExchange.com

M

COMPOUND GALLERY

Your memories preserved in 4K

up your mind—Stew from Moonbrine recom mends a jar of the Super Dill and the Pretty Hot, as well as whatever seasonal offerings are in stock. You either like pickles or you don’t, but chances are you know someone who does, and Moonbrine’s preservative-free pickles make a delicious and whimsical gift.

Part streetwear shop, part art gallery, part Japanese toy store, Compound Gallery (107 N.W. Fifth Ave., 509-796-2733) is conceptually fascinating. The store carries brands like Aape, Nike, and Stussy; colorful geometric art; and prints of rap icons like Earl Sweatshirt and Danny Brown.

“Dope,” the city-slicker millennial in your life will say.

Here’s another customizable idea. Black Star Bags (2033 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., 503-2844752) makes quality waterproof bags of all kinds: book bags, flap tops, panniers, messenger bags, fanny packs, and something called a “Not a Bike Bag,” which can fit an entire disassembled bike inside. Choose your own color and design. Bike not included. E

4K Camcorder AX33

• Capture 4k/24p/30p video that far exceeds HD resolution • ZEISS® lens with Balanced Optical SteadyShot™ image stabilization • Direct Pixel Read Out for smooth edges and color gradation

$84999 Was $99999

Save

$150

Valid 11/25/2015-12/2/2015

©2015 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Sonyand its logo are trademarks of Sony Corporation. Prices and terms of offers are subject to change or cancellation without notice or while supplies last. Sony is not responsible for photographic, typographic or system errors. Offers non-combinable, non-transferable and non-redeemable.

433 8th Ave N. in South Lake Union Seattle, WA 98109 // 206-624-1100 www.glazerscamera.com

SEATTLE WE EKLY’ S 2015 HO LIDAY GI VING G UIDE • PART O N E

uch like Seattle, Portland is going through some growing pains: Its role as the coolest backwater in the country has given way to the kind of influx of people and money that often follows such a designation. But fear not, Seattle holiday shopper. Portland is still a weird and delightful place to spend a weekend gathering hand-picked, offbeat gifts and crossing names off your list.

Go on, roll your eyes at the mention of Powell’s Books (1005 W. Burnside St., 800-878-7323), the knee-jerk answer to the question “Where should I go in Portland?”

But bear with me, because in addition to a city block full of books, they have an espresso book machine, a contraption that prints custom literary materials. Gift your mom a personalized planner with a picture of the two of you on the front, so she can look at it every day next year.

Print a custom-bound copy of Crime and Punishment for that special someone! (Only publicdomain books are printable, for now.) Or give your friends and family what they really want— one of your self-published books!

But what to get the minimalist in your family?

Well, the Chemex pour-over coffee brewer is the creme de la creme of simplistic coffeeware. A clear, hourglass-shaped beaker with wood detail, it is functional and handsome. Swoon! Pick one up at Stumptown’s Tasting Bar at HQ (100 S.E. Salmon St., 503-808-9080).

Follow the spicy, vinegary eau de pickles down into the basement of the historic Ford building, where Moonbrine Pickles Shop and Snacketeria (2505 S.E. 11th Ave.) pickles all their pickles.

Help yourself to some samples while you make

7

GIVING BACK

People Power P

People Power

The Gift That Keeps Spinning Follow us!

Books for Cooks instagram.com/

SE ATTLE WEEKLY’ S 2015 HOLI DAY GIVI NG G UID E • PART ONE

Kids &Play

8

MShiny Things

ost Seattleites are used to seeing the smiling, friendly Real Change vendors selling the progressive weekly paper throughout the city. Each has his or her own spiel to bring in new readers, and his or her own regulars who return to help out. And each has his or her own story.

Shelly Cohen, who describes himself as “61 years young,” has been working with Real Change since June 2013. He came to the organization after losing his job with Seattle Housing Authority due to budget cuts, and his unemployment benefits were nearly stopped due to a paperwork technicality.

Cohen says he has been “selling love from day one,” using phrases like “Smiling helps you live longer! Make it a greater day, make it a greater moment.”

He is emphatic about the benefits of working at Real Change, not only because of the 400 to 500 papers he sells each month, but because he gets to have a positive impact on the people he meets. Cohen is stationed outside the Northgate QFC nearly every day, but also finds time to be on the Editorial Committee and the Advocacy Program at Real Change.

Being a vendor and a political advocate lets him give people “positive feedback and positive thoughts,” says Cohen. “People get the negative and they need positive. . . . I see what it does for them, [but] I see what it does for

me. The more I say [the positive words], the more I believe it.”

Vendors like Cohen purchase papers for $.60 each, sell them for $2, and pocket the difference. With this business model, the nonprofit has to survive off more than just the purchasing power of Seattleites, which is why half of last year’s budget came from donations.

Real Change does makes significant use of every penny donated; employing nearly 800 homeless and low-income people annually, Real Change is gaining traction and setting its sights high for the future. The 2015–2017 Strategic Plan includes increasing traffic online and vendor presence on the ground, becoming a more equitable organization in race and class representation, and advancing the organization’s political activism for racial and economic justice.

Enacting this plan will help Real Change meet its goals of delivering pertinent and powerful journalism about social issues and advocating on behalf of the homeless and low-income population of Seattle. And it will continue to give those populations a way to reach out to those who might give back with a couple of bucks or a few words.

Those relationships, says founder Tim Harris, have a profound impact. “The magic really happens when vendors and readers become important to each other and get to know each other as people.” E realchangenews.org

The Gift That Keeps Spinning

Books for Cooks Kids &Play

ALEX GARLAND

Shiny Things

THE REAL IMPACT OF REAL CHANGE.

By Mara Silvers

Cohen at the Northgate QFC, where he sold Real Change papers in 2013.

FOOD AND SHELTER CHARITIES HELPING OTHERS THAT NEED YOUR HELP.

By Charles Dickens

ROOTS Rising Out Of The Shadows, giving shelter, and building community.

A crucial collaborator in providing services for homeless young adults, ROOTS has been operating a shelter in the U District for young co-ed adults since 1999. Although it was once only open once a week, ROOTS has been successfully operating seven nights a week for eight years. Funded in part by public and private grants as well as monetary and in-kind donations, ROOTS also accepts volunteers for a minimum of four months. In its efforts to build and educate community, ROOTS requires volunteers to complete a training entitled “Race: The Power of an Illusion” as well as conflict-deescalation training. rootsinfo.org Teen Feed Meeting homeless youth where they’re at.

Since 1987, Teen Feed has been covering the basics for teens in need with consistency and compassion. Going beyond offering food and shelter, Teen Feed also provides youth with important resources for getting off the streets, connects with avoidant youth, and offers health-care services to those in need. Starting in 2011, Teen Feed has

A Seattle family tradition celebrating 40 years!

committed to a five-year plan that aims to feed all homeless youth in Seattle, increase access to safe housing, and build community support throughout Seattle. teenfeed.org Seattle Tilth Using food systems to change the system.

Corporate food doesn’t hit the spot. Starting with the premise of creating alternative methods of growing and distributing food, Seattle Tilth has been working toward creating community around sustainable food systems since 1975.

In 2014, Seattle Tilth farmed 23.7 acres with organic techniques, led educational camps for over 10,000 kids, and distributed more than 3,000 bags of food both nutritious and delicious.

With last year’s donations reaching just over $355,000, Seattle Tilth has been making use of every cent. seattletilth.org Solid Ground Antiracist principles for ending poverty.

The end won’t change without addressing the means. For Solid Ground, working to address racism and oppression is crucial when dealing with homelessness and poverty. Running 22 programs that worked to get 60,000 families and individuals out of poverty in King County last year alone, Solid Ground is dedicated to creating services of both breadth and depth. Solid Ground’s four-legged approach includes Advocacy & Community, Food & Nutrition, Housing, and Transportation.

With a net gain of less than $100,000 in 2014, Solid Ground is using every incoming dollar to make its programs as impactful as possible. solid-ground.org E

Nov 27–Dec 30 Buy tickets today or see it with an ACTPass!

acttheatre.org | 206.292.7676

HOLIDAY ART SALE NOVEMBER 20–29 11AM–7PM DAILY

(CLOSED THANKSGIVING DAY, NOV 26)

1905 S. MAIN ST FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC FIRST DIBS PARTY

Volunteers at Teen Feed.

A unique selection of art and handcrafted gifts sure to please your friends and family this holiday season.

THURSDAY, NOV. 19 6–9PM $50 ADMISSION

pratt.org/HAS

SEATTLE WE EKLY’ S 2015 HO LIDAY GI VING G UIDE • PART O N E

FareStart Providing desirable food, job training, and employment opportunities for the homeless and lowincome community.

Food makes the world go ’round. And for the 7,500 people with culinary job training and the low-income people who have enjoyed six million meals from FareStart, the sustenance of food takes on new meaning. Since 1992, FareStart has offered job training and employment in their cafe (2100 24th Ave. S.), and restaurant (700 Virginia St.), and through special-event catering. In 2014 FareStart made plans to expand its programming by 60 percent over four years by acquiring space in the Beacon Hill Pacific Tower. FareStart is putting every penny of the nearly 5.5 million in private donations it took in in 2014 back into its programming and services for the benefit of its students and the community in need. farestart.org

Photo by Chris Bennion

People involved in Seattle Tilth’s organic farm education programs harvest produce at Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands.

TEEN FEED

SEATTLE TILTH

Adapted by Gregory A. Falls Directed by John Langs

9

GOOD BOOKSTORES

WWW. DUP ONT M US E UM. COM

A Reader’s Guide

SPOTLIGHT ON

Eco Elements

A Force for Good: the Dalai

The best way to get SCHOOLED

Lama's Vision for Our World

by Daniel Goleman

This is the perfect holiday book for one who wants to create positive change in our world, one step at a time. The Dalai Lama teaches us how to be compassionate and radiate positive energy to others, transforming sadness and anger into love, Peace, and tranquility. Filled with inspiring true stories, this book teaches us how to deal with violence, corruption, and inequality, in ways that positively impact our community.

The Mentalist: an Explorer's Guide to Astral, Spirit, and Psychic Worlds – Clint Marsh Mandalas to Heal Your Chakras Coloring Book – Olivier Roberts Untethered Soul: the Journey Beyond Yourself – Michael Singer

SE ATTLE WEEKLY’ S 2015 HOLI DAY GIVI NG G UID E • PART ONE

Don GeorGe

10

December 9 • 7pm U District store

for full details, visit

Ubookstore.com/events

...is at your local bookstore

Good Books, Great Events, Free Parking Live Music Friday & Saturday Nights Lake Forest Park Towne Center 206-366-3333 www.thirdplacebooks.com

SPOTLIGHT ON

Ada’s Technical Books Coloring the Universe

by Dr. Travis A.Rector

With a fleet of telescopes in space and giant observatories on the ground, professional astronomers produce hundreds of spectacular images every year. In Coloring the Universe, Dr. Travis A. Rector uses accessible language to describe how these giant telescopes work, what scientists learn with them, and how they are used to make color images. Informative and beautiful, Coloring the Universe will give space fans of all levels an insider's look at how scientists bring deep space into brilliant focus.

Dr. Travis A. Rector will have a Q&A with signing on 12/10/2015 7:00pm to 9:00pm

Largest Selection of

DISCOVER THE HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICANS, HUDSON BAY COMPANY FUR TRADERS, MISSIONARIES AND DUPONT EXPLOSIVE WORKERS THROUGH THE MUSEUMS INTERPRETIVE DISPLAYS, PHOTOS AND ARTIFACTS.

DuP o nt H i s to r i ca l Mus e um DuP o nt, WA Tues-Fri 10-4, Sun 1-4 Always free, donations accepted.

PLAYING PACIFIC PLAY COMPANY NOW

Metaphysical Books In Downtown Seattle MIND • BODY • SPIRIT • EARTH

Books • Tarot • Goddess Magic Astrology • Tibetan Statues Sage • Crystals Candles • Incense Oils Aromatherapy • Hemp Global Exchange Fair-Trade & much, much more!!

Best Psychic Readings Daily!

1530 FIRST AVE (1st & Pine) 206.467.7745

THE ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY CELEBRATING OVER

40 YEARS

OF INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLING

Shop from 250,000 titles and find a complete list of author events & sign up for our blog at:

www.elliottbaybook.com www.adasbooks.com

1521 Tenth Avenue · Seattle 206-624-6600

pacificplaycompany.com

Shiny Things

WEARABLE ART FOR THE FASHIONABLE FRIEND.

By T.S. Flock 1. Solomon Bangles

4. Ring of Fire Cuff

The Gift That Keeps Spinning

The designs of Georgetown-based The Small Beast (thesmallbeast.com) are sharp in every sense. Dark chunks of tourmaline erupt from distressed metal; thick “chasm rings” are riven to the middle of the band; fractured discs form crescent moons. It’s all great for the wild child in your life, but the paired Solomon Bangles have a versatility that can make any ensemble a lot more fierce. $160. Available at Ghost Gallery, 504 E. Denny Way, ghostgalleryart.com.

Aleut artist Lois Chichinoff Thadei works in many media, and her copper Ring of Fire Cuffs are truly wearable art. Each has a unique “crinkle” running around the wrist. Other styles (at a lower price point) have carved surfaces and hammered forms resembling folds of cloth. These pieces make a bold statement, yet blend to become an everyday signature piece for the bearer. $250.

Available at Stonington Gallery, 125 S. Jackson St., 405-4040, stoningtongallery.com.

2. Labradorite Sway

5. Crystal Ladder Necklaces

The playfully elegant designs from Dotted Line Jewelry (dottedlinejewelry.com) blend semiprecious stones, gold, brass, and medallions that range from floral to bellicose (e.g., rifles, scimitars). Its handful of one-of-a-kind necklaces with sacred symbols (Christian and Jewish) make perfect holiday gifts. The earrings are fantastic, too; the Labradorite Sway earrings draw the eye with a graceful, balanced form, echoing the jawline with a sensuous curve. They’re almost kissable. $110. Available at SAM Shop, 1300 First Ave., 343-1101, seattleartmuseum.org.

Crystal power rules in the designs of Portland-based Iron Oxide (etsy.com/shop/ IronOxide). They dangle from delicate body chains that drape sensually around the torso and epaulettes that flow over the shoulder., and have a soft sheen on earrings and pendants.

The greatest variety comes in the line’s ladder necklace design, which offers pendants of amethysts and quartzes in many colors. Find the right one-of-a-kind design for a gift with a mystic appeal. $45–$70. Available at Ghost Gallery, 504 E. Denny Way, ghostgalleryart.com.

3. Starter Stacking Ring Set

6. Hitchcock Cuff Bracelet

Books for Cooks COURTESY SAM

oks

2

Kids &Play

Fashion-forward men and women alike flock to Hitchcock Madrona’s boutique for the coolest accessories, and their own Hitchcock Cuff bracelets in leather and metal are sized to articulate firmly about one’s wrist. The leather grows softer and the band develops its unique patina and scratches over time, making it a truly personal gift that only gets better with age. Like all of us, right? $265-$555.

Hitchcock Madrona, 1422 34th Ave., 838-7173, hitchcockmadrona.com. E

GHOST GALLERY

6

STONINGTON GALLERY

1

4

3

SEATTLE WE EKLY’ S 2015 HO LIDAY GI VING G UIDE • PART O N E

HITCHCOCK MADRONA

Guests of the Fresh Tangerine studio in Pioneer Square can see precisely where the company’s light-weight, sleek jewelry is handcrafted.

The friendship bracelets come in a huge array of colors and are available in sterling and 14k gold; stack a few to make a colorful and personal statement for the recipient. For ease, their adorable stacking rings are some of their best-selling items nationwide, and come in starter sets of four rings. $64. Fresh Tangerine, 89 Yesler Way, 257-1803, freshtangerine.com.

FRESH TANGERINE

g

GIFT PICKS

11

LISTEN AND REJOICE

HOLIDAY CONCERTS AT BENAROYA HALL

SEASON

15 16

DECEMBER 22

DECEMBER 30, JANUARY 2 & 3

A FESTIVAL OF LESSONS & CAROLS

BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO. 9

Joseph Crnko, conductor Northwest Boychoir Vocalpoint! Seattle Members of the Northwest Sinfonia

Andrew Grams, conductor Caitlin Lynch, soprano Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano Daniel Shirley, tenor Corey McKern, baritione Seattle Symphony Chorale Seattle Symphony

The remarkably talented and endearing Northwest Boychoir along with Vocalpoint! Seattle present the story of the Nativity told through reading, choral setting and audience carols.

BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA

DECEMBER 9

THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA: TALKIN’ CHRISTMAS! LIVE @ BENAROYA HALL Celebrate the holidays with living legends of gospel!

The Blind Boys of Alabama bring their Grammy-winning Christmas show back to Benaroya Hall.

Media Sponsor:

TICKETS FROM: $35

DECEMBER 11–13

HOLIDAY POPS

Performance does not include the Seattle Symphony.

TICKETS FROM: $20

Beethoven’s masterpiece for the ages is a wonderful way to end the year or begin the new one. The beauty and drama of the Ninth is alternately awe-inspiring and uplifting.

Media Sponsor:

DECEMBER 27

TICKETS FROM: $28

THE BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA — 12TH ANNUAL CHRISTMAS ROCKS! TOUR LIVE @ BENAROYA HALL Put a little rock into your holiday celebrations! The Brian Setzer Orchestra is at it again, hitting the road in conjunction with their highly anticipated first studio Christmas album in 10 years, Rockin’ Rudolph. Iconic guitarist, singer-songwriter and three-time Grammy Award winner Brian Setzer is credited with continually taking chances with innovative and daring musical styles, while also single-handedly resurrecting two forgotten genres of music (rockabilly in the ‘80s and swing in the ’90s).

Performance does not include the Seattle Symphony.

SE ATTLE WEEKLY’ S 2015 HOLI DAY GIVI NG G UID E • PART ONE

SEATTLE POPS SERIES Title Sponsor:

12

Stuart Chafetz, conductor Tony DeSare, piano & vocals Capathia Jenkins, vocals University of Washington Chorale Seattle Symphony

Media Sponsor:

TICKETS FROM: $40

Broadway star Capathia Jenkins and acclaimed pianist/singer Tony DeSare headline a heartwarming program of holiday favorites. Add to that a special appearance by the talented Mr. Claus, a cheerful chorus and the charming Stuart Chafetz leading the Symphony — guaranteed to get you in a joyous holiday mood!

NEW YEAR’S EVE

DECEMBER 31

NEW YEAR’S EVE

TICKETS FROM: $30

Andrew Grams, conductor Caitlin Lynch, soprano Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano Daniel Shirley, tenor Corey McKern, baritione Seattle Symphony Chorale Seattle Symphony

DECEMBER 18–20

HANDEL MESSIAH Paul Agnew, conductor & tenor Anna Devin, soprano Benno Schachtner, countertenor / Matthew Burns, baritone Seattle Symphony Chorale Seattle Symphony

For New Year’s Eve you can follow Beethoven’s Ninth with a post-concert party that includes a glass of champagne, a live performance by electro-swing band Good Co and dancing all the way to the midnight countdown and beyond!

A triumph of music and text, Handel’s Messiah is a matchless December tradition. The Symphony, Chorale and a strong cast of soloists honor Handel’s greatest work.

Midnight toast sponsored by:

TICKETS FROM: $25

TREVERI CELLARS

TICKETS FROM: $50 NORTHWEST BOYCHOIR

FOR TICKETS:

206.215.4747 | SEATTLE SYMPHONY.ORG

g

s ks

Shiny ShinyThings Things GIFT PICKS

The TheGift GiftThat That Keeps K KeepsSpinning Spinning EIGHT LOCAL RECORDS YOU SHOULD WRAP UP AND GIVE TO YOUR LOVED ONES.

By Kelton Sears

1. Teens of Style

By Car Seat Headrest

Books Booksfor forCooks Cooks

Everyone loves a good Christmas miracle, and the story of young Will Toledo is as feel-good as it gets. After recording an incredible 11 solo albums by age 22 and growing a devoted fan base through online music platform Bandcamp in the process, Toledo moved to Seattle from Virginia in search of a better band culture. One day, just after he realized he was going broke and was heading out to search for a “real job,” he got a message from the founder of major indie label Matador, and soon after signed a shiny new record contract. Hooray! Teens of Style’s lo-fi, angsty indie rock will make your stylish teen happy and teach him or her the Christmas virtues of persistence and not getting a job. Matador Records

Kids Kids&&Play Play 1

3. EarthEE

By THEESatisfaction

2

THANKSGIVING

2. Spirit Child

By Willie Thrasher

2nd

Mountain Hardwear

November 23rd–29th

25% OFF EVERYTHING

3

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

Ave

t eS

Pin

3rd

Ave

When Light in the Attic released its landmark Native North America: Aboriginal Folk, Rock and Country compilation last year, one of the unearthed acts that stood out was Inuit singer/songwriter and Vancouver Island resident Willie Thrasher. Sent to residential schools, forced to cut his hair, and stripped of his native culture as a teenager, Thrasher found salvation in the music of Neil Young, CCR, and the Moody Blues. Spirit Child, Thrasher’s 1981 debut record, mixed the sounds of the artists he loved with a heartfelt reclamation of his Inuit heritage and poetic critiques of the Canadian government’s social and environmental policies. A limited release by CBC restricted the album’s reach, but 34 years later, Light in the Attic has reissued the gorgeous, thought-provoking record in full for a whole new audience. Its message is still shockingly relevant. Light in the Attic

Mountain Hardwear 250 Pine St. Seattle, WA 98101 206-441-2639

Offer may not be applied to prior purchases, combined with any other offer, used online, at in-store kiosks or at any other store, redeemed by employees, or applied to gift card purchases or shipping charges. Mountain Hardwear reserves the right to change or cancel this offer at any time. Void if assigned, transferred, or reproduced, and where prohibited, restricted or taxed. Valid from 11/23/2015 through 11/29/2015. ©2015 Mountain Hardwear, Inc. All rights reserved.

James Heim, Photo: Robin O’Neill

SEATTLE WE EKLY’ S 2015 HO LIDAY GI VING G UIDE • PART O N E

The holiday season is supposed to be a time of reverence and reflection, but it’s mostly just a consumer circus. EarthEE by Seattle Weekly columnists THEESatisfaction is a great antidote to this ever-encroaching Black Friday malaise, a sonic spiritual re-centering that will heal even the most hardened capitalist heart. Through the duo’s trademark cosmic R&B, THEESatisfaction wittily and poignantly examines humanity’s impact on the planet from the celestial heavens above.

A great gift for any aspiring transcendentalists or goddesses you may know. Sub Pop

13

NURTURE • YOUR • CALLING

Black Friday - Open at 8:00 a.m.!

Ugly Sweater Sale Event

is giving me the tools to “ Bastyr build a career that balances research and seeing patients. ” Joshua Goldenberg, ND (2013)

Enter to win a

$50

Create a Healthier World

gift certificate!*

Degrees Include: • Naturopathic Medicine • Public Health • Acupuncture

Save 30% storewide

Be inspired

- and be first! This collection sells out quickly.

*must be present to win.

7710 SE 34th St., Mercer Island, WA 98040

(206)275-7760

Learn more:

www.miyfs.org

Bastyr.edu/Info • 425-602-3330 Kenmore, Wash. • San Diego

Store hours: Monday - Saturday 10-7, Sunday 12-5

HARD TO WRAP. EASY TO GIVE. HARD TO WRAP. EASY

TO GIVE. FS 38 TRIMMER

129 95

SE ATTLE WEEKLY’ S 2015 HOLI DAY GIVI NG G UID E • PART ONE

$

BG 50 HANDHELD BLOWER

HARD TO WRAP. 499 EASY TO GIVE. 179

13995

$

BR 600 BACKPACK BLOWER

$

MS 170 CHAIN SAW

95

$

95

16” bar †

The lightest gasoline-powered handheld blower in the STIHL lineup

“This blower ROCKS! I can’t believe how much easier and quicker it is to use.”

“I’m glad I went with the 170--the price and reliability are outstanding.”

Combines dependability and quality with affordability

– user Russie

– user prutsmanbros93

G 50 HANDHELD LOWER

139

$

95

“I couldn’t be more happy with the product. It fires right up, runs strong and is effortless to operate.“ – user Smitty44

FS 38 TRIMMER

499 TO GIVE. HARD TO WRAP. EASY JOIN US. BR 600 BACKPACK BLOWER

$

Check out these reviews and others on the product pages at STIHLdealers.com.

95

MS 170 $ 95 CHAIN SAW129

Indicates products that are built in the United States from domestic and foreign parts and components.

STIHL

THElightest OFFICIAL The gasoline-powered ombines dependability and handheld blower in the STIHL lineup HANDHELD OUTDOOR ality with affordability POWER TOOLS OF THE

Combines dependability and quality with affordability

“I’m glad I went with the 170--the – user price and reliability are outstanding.”

– user Russie

– user prutsmanbros93

Indicates products that are built in the United States from domestic and foreign parts and components.

CHAIN SAW

TRIMMER

129

“I couldn’t be more happy with the product. It fires right up, runs strong and is effortless to operate.“

17995 JOIN US.

$

16” bar † All prices are SNW-SRP. Available at participating dealers while supplies last. †The actual listed guide bar length can vary from the effective cutting length based on which powerhead it is installed on. © 2015 STIHL

The lightest gasoline-powered – user Smitty44 “This blower ROCKS! I can’t believe how “I’m glad I went with the 170--the † handheld blower in the lineup Brand ofSTIHL Gasoline-Powered Handheld Outdoor Power America e SNW-SRP. Available atSelling participating dealers while supplies last.

The easier actual listed guide vary fromprice the and effective cutting length based on which powerhead it is installed on. © 2015 STIHL much and quicker it bar is Equipment tolength use.” can in reliability are outstanding.”

#

STIHL 14

HE OFFICIAL

STIHLdealers.com

STIHL

“Number one selling brand” Research as well as independent consumer research Combines dependability and is based on syndicated–Irwin userBroh Russie – user prutsmanbros93 of 2009-2014 U.S. sales and market share data for the gasoline-powered handheld outdoor power equipment quality with affordability category combined sales to consumers and commercial landscapers.

THE OFFICIAL HANDHELD OUTDOOR POWER TOOLS OF THE

Check out these reviews and others on the product pages at STIHLdealers.com.

Indicates products that are built in the United States from domestic and foreign parts and components. †

–

– user Smitty44 prutsmanbros93 $ 95

Check outreviews theseandreviews and others the product Check out these others on the product pageson at STIHLdealers.com.

MS pages 170 at STIHLdealers.com.

49995

16” bar †

179

“This blower ROCKS! I can’t believe how – user Russie much easier and quicker it is to use.”

BG 50 HANDHELD BR 600 $ 95 $ BLOWER BACKPACK BLOWER Indicates products that are built in the United States from domestic and foreign parts and components.

139

MS 170

BR 600

$499 95 believe “This blower ROCKS! I can’t how CHAIN SAW BACKPACK BLOWER much easier and quicker it is to use.”

17995

$

“I couldn’t be more happy with the product. It fires $ glad95 “I’m I wentright with thestrong 170--the up, runs and is effortless FS 38 price and reliability are outstanding.”

16” bar † to operate.“

All prices are SNW-SRP. Available at participating dealers while supplies last. †The actual listed guide bar length can vary from the effective cutting length based on which powerhead it is installed on. © 2015 STIHL

BG 50 HANDHELD e lightest gasoline-powered $139 95 ndheld blowerBLOWER in the STIHL lineup

“

JOIN US.

JOI

The Gift That Keeps Spinning » FROM PAGE 15

7. Holographic Violence

By Grave Babies

The holidays can be terribly depressing. It’s really gloomy outside, incredibly cold, and, depending on your kin, you might be forced to interact with unsavory relatives. For the seasonal misanthrope or family goth, Grave Babies’ darkwave opus, Holographic Violence, is a great gift—a heavy, depressive record full of apocalyptic musings and anthemic nihilism to remind you that you aren’t alone in this dark void we call existence. Other people out there are just as bummed as you, and they make catchy Cure-indebted tunes to boot. Now would you please take your black overcoat off for this family photo? It’s for your grandmother, for Chrissake! Hardly Art

6

6. All Around Us

By Briana Marela

4

The wintery feelings are strong on this beautiful, ethereal choral pop record from local vocal looper Briana Marela. Recorded in the icy reaches of Reykjavík with Sigur Ros producer Alex Somers, All Around Us swirls and glistens with warped toy pianos, plinking drum machines, skittering hand percussion, stirring strings (from Icelandic superstars Amiina), and wistful ruminations on the nature of love. A great record for people who love smart-looking sweaters and building elaborate blanket forts. Jagjaguwar

4. Weirdo Shrine

By La Luz

7

Winter can be a tough time for wave-chasers looking to hang ten.

The water is just way too frigid, brah. Seattle’s leading exponent and exporter of the surf-rock sound, La Luz, is a aural dose of vitamin D that will cheer up even the most ocean-deprived of your family and friends. The band’s latest LP, Weirdo Shrine, was recorded in a surf shop, so you know these vibes are pure—no posers here. Mega-bonus: The record comes with 3-D glasses. Hardly Art

8. Product 3

By Beat Connection

5. Women’s Rights

By Childbirth

5

8

SEATTLE WE EKLY’ S 2015 HO LIDAY GI VING G UIDE • PART O N E

Are you a parent unsure of what to gift your confusing, proudly feminist millennial this holiday season? Scratch your head no longer!

Seattle punk trio Childbirth’s new album, Women’s Rights, touches on all the topics the kids love to talk about nowadays—dating apps, alternative personal hygienics, HDTV, Twitter, and, hey, there’s even a song called “Cool Mom” here. What parent doesn’t want her child humming along to a tune about how cool you are! Suicide Squeeze

For the unapologetic pop enthusiast, Product 3 is going to be a surefire hit. Full of sophisticated songwriting that takes cues from the smartest bits of underground producers and Top-40 artists alike, Beat Connection’s new album is its masterpiece. And thanks to its intelligent but purposefully obscured underlying message, multiple listens will reveal hidden meanings lurking beneath its eminently danceable surface, making it a great gift for both pop fans and English Lit nerds.

Anti Records E

15

SE ATTLE WEEKLY’ S 2015 HOLI DAY GIVI NG G UID E • PART ONE

$

16

35 TICKETS TO SELECT *

PERFORMANCES OF

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

GET $35 TICKETS TO THE SOUND OF MUSIC

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

A holiday classic for the whole family!

Includes such memorable songs as “My Favorite Things,” “Do Re Mi,” and, of course “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.”

Satire, swingin’ tunes and some killer high-kicking choreography…it’s just another day at the office!

OFFER VALID FOR PERFORMANCES:

OFFER VALID FOR PERFORMANCES:

Dec 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11

Jan 28, 29, 30 (Matinee or Evening), 31 (Matinee)

4 WAYS TO BUY

Mention promotion code FRIDAY when making your purchase.* ONLINE Log in at www.5thavenue.org/FRIDAY

BY PHONE Call 206-625-1900 after 10 AM IN PERSON The 5th Avenue Theatre Box Office, 1308 5th Avenue in Downtown Seattle after 10 AM. (No service fees!)

Groups 10+ Call 1-888-625-1418 after 10 AM *A service fee of $9 per ticket applies to all web and phone orders. Some restrictions apply.

Mobile users log in and enter promo code FRIDAY when prompted. Not valid on previously purchased tickets. Sale begins Friday Nov 27 at 12:01 AM and ends at 11:59 PM.

Hurry though, this BLACK FRIDAY sale ends at 11:59 PM Friday Nov 27!

(206) 625 -1900 . WWW.5THAVENUE.ORG 2015/16 SEASON SPONSORS

s

GIFT PICKS

Books for Cooks Bo

Holiday 2015

TASTE OF THE CAKES

LOCAL TOMES FOR FEASTS AT HOME.

By Zach Geballe and Nicole Sprinkle Oysters: Recipes That Bring Home a Taste of the Sea

By Cynthia Nims

on Lummi Island will want it as a collectible, as it’s ultimately a love letter to the island, its natural resources, and the farmers, fishers, and foragers who deliver the ingredients with which young star chef Blaine Wetzel works magic each night. Co-writer Ray (whose writing has appeared in Seattle Weekly) allows us to penetrate Wetzel’s processes and aesthetic; he left his home in New York to live on the island for a whole year shadowing Wetzel and his cooks. It’s a unique format: Ray tells Wetzel’s story while Wetzel’s own voice appears in the recipes, explaining their genesis and how the island’s bounty informs them. NS $40, Running Press

Kids &Play

Here in the Pacific Northwest we take our oysters seriously. But how often do people actually go to the trouble of buying, cleaning, and cooking (or slurping raw) their own? Armed with this petite but information-packed book, any reservations you had about bringing home bivalves should cease. So, smartly, a third of the book deals with choosing, storing, shucking, and other practical points that will free you to move on to actually preparing and eating them. Recipes are straightforwardly categorized in chapters, including “Raw,” “Baked and Grilled,” “Fried and Sautéed,” and “Steamed and Poached.” Classics like oyster stew and pan-fried oysters share the pages with more creative concoctions, such as oyster sliders with togarashi slaw and green-curry oyster and spinach puffs. NS $19.95, Sasquatch Books Theo Chocolate: Recipes & Sweet Secrets From Seattle’s Favorite Chocolate Maker

By Debra Music and Joe Whinney

Sea and Smoke: Flavors From the Untamed Pacific Northwest

By Blaine Wetzel and Joe Ray

While this is not a cookbook for beginners, anyone who’s experienced a meal at the James Beard Award–winning Willows Inn

Let’s be clear: Wine Folly, based on the website of that name, isn’t exactly a pageturner. 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. ZG $25, Avery The Hands-On Home: A Seasonal Guide to Cooking, Preserving & Natural Homekeeping

By Erica Strauss

While the conceit of this book may not sound earthshattering, the sheer volume of territory it covers is—from cooking to housekeeping. Inspired by society’s increasing disconnection with genuine household routines and harmony and a reliance on storebought everything, including meals, Strauss aims to bring us back to home and hearth via baby steps or great leaps, depending on your preference. Whether it’s making your own ricotta or your gardener’s hand scrub, you’ll find suggestions for how to live more naturally.

The beauty of this book is that you can use it simply as a cookbook—with knockout recipes like braised pork cheeks with plum jam and star anise or oven-roasted herb confit tomatoes—or turn to it as an excellent DIY guide for making nontoxic cleaning and personalcare products, homespun gifts, and canned goods and preserves. Strauss’ voice is never preachy, but beckons even the busiest urbanites to slow down and find peace in small tasks. NS $35. Sasquatch Books E

The Holidays Are Coming Soon Check out our holiday catering for parties! $5

OFF WHEN YOU SPEND $20*

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

November 27th-29th F Fri/Sat/Sun 11am to 4pm everyday everyyday ay ay

CH EF SH OP

at 142 5 Elli ott Ave nue Wes t Sea ttle , Was hing ton 981 19 (206) 286-9 988 (800) 596-0 885

ONL INE AT CHEF SHOP.COM

JJean Claude’s ffabulous fa bulous Stollen

*DINE-IN ONLY

s e b iis b iis t r o .c o m 20 6.420.2199

Mon-Thurs, 4PM - 10PM • Fri - Sat, 4PM - 11PM

Sunday Brunch Check Dates • 3242 Eastlake Ave E, Seattle

SEATTLE WE EKLY’ S 2015 HO LIDAY GI VING G UIDE • PART O N E

When this book hit shelves in August, I wrote how moved I was that, in sharing the story of how Theo was born, owners Music and Whinney bared intimate details about their own marriage, breakup, and ultimate decision to move to Seattle, divorced but co-parenting—and going on to become business partners. While it might seem puzzling that they would expose themselves so openly, the chapter proves crucial in understanding the underlying ethos of Theo: transparency, in addition to its commitment to sourcing organic chocolate from countries in war-torn regions like the Congo, where they ensure that the cocoa farmers are paid fairly for their work. Now, finally, fans of the delicious, ethically sourced bean-to-bar chocolate can actually use it to make decadent desserts (chocolate walnut tart with orange and bourbon), sweet/ savory small plates (onion jam with dried plums and chocolate), cocktails (roasted cocoa nibinfused vodka), breakfast items (chocolate-pecan breakfast rolls), frozen items (chocolate sorbet), and confections (Big Daddy marshmallow bars).

For anyone who loves this local chocolatier, this book is an absolute must. NS $24.95, Sasquatch Books. (Available on preorder; on sale in January.)

Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine

By Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack

The biggest sampling event of the year!

17

QUEEN ANNE OLIVE OIL COMPANY

CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS

WITH US GIVE THE GIFT OF OLIVE OIL

WE’LL EVEN SHIP TO

GRANDMA WWW.QUEENANNEOLIVEOIL.COM

We take the gift of music very seriously.

QUEEN ANNE OLIVE OIL 1629 QUEEN ANNE AVE N, STE. 100 SEATTLE, WA 98109

Follow us! instagram.com/

Your best stereo shop since 2004.

2121-1st Avenue 206.283.8863

The Elliott Bay a ay Book Company Since 19 1 73

tunehifi.com

The Bastyr Dispensary

Holiday Sale SE ATTLE WEEKLY’ S 2015 HOLI DAY GIVI NG G UID E • PART ONE

November 30-December 5

18

Welcoming

Susan Volland Dec. 2 @ 7pm and presenting

Holiday Storytimes read

by Seattle actors Saturdays at 11am • 20% off sale on all jewelry, gifts, body care, books, candles and more Nov. 30-Dec. 5!

• Free Living Naturally talk on “Winter Gifts: Making Herbal Products at Home” Learn how to make herbal holiday beverages, personalized cosmetics and more!

10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, December 5

Nov. 28 Winter Gratitude Dec. 5 Hannukah Light Dec. 12 Zany Christmas Dec. 19 Christmas Classics

• Health and Beauty Products Fair Noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, December 5 BastyrCenter.org/Holiday 3670 Stone Way N., Seattle 206.834.4100

elliottbaybook.com

oks for Cooks GIFT PICKS

Kids &Play ds &Play 33K FANS & COUNTING! GIFTS FOR CHILDREN AGES 0–5.

By Jacob Uitti

facebook.com/SeattleWeekly

Bunny Rabbit in the Sunshine

Husband-and-wife authors Kate Endle and Caspar Babypants bring to life this instant storytime classic. Written in the calm, spare style of Goodnight Moon and the touching mode of The Velveteen Rabbit, the book depicts a different creature, from black bear to hooty owl, in different lights, from winter to dawn. Fun fact: Babypants is the pen name of Chris Ballew, front man of The Presidents of the United States of America. He also uses Endle’s inspiring artwork for all his Caspar Babypants children’s albums. $9.99. Available at Clover Toys, 5333 Ballard Ave. N.W., 782-0715, clovertoys.com.

I Never Forget a Face Matching Game

Funtime Fishing for Bath

It can be a challenge for parents to get their kids to take a bath. When I’m visiting my brother and his wife in Boston, I often overhear them trying to bargain with their young son to get him to jump in the tub. Well, Funtime Fishing can help convince your kids. The magnetic fishing worm lowers into the water while kids aim to catch one of the three colorful fish that, when submerged, blow bubbles in the water. $23.95. Available at Top Ten Toys, Pacific Place, 600 Pine St., 623-1370, toptentoys.com Jigsaw Puzzles

Growing up, especially at Christmas, puzzles were a big hit for all ages. Here in Seattle, Remarks’ locally made 250-piece ($7.95) and 500piece ($18.95) jigsaw puzzles are bright, beautiful, and full of wonder—perfect for a holiday morning. Made in Seattle using eco-friendly, local materials out of a building that used to belong to the Girl Scouts, Re-marks’ puzzles feature elegant skaters, quizzical Dalmatians, cute kittens, and lush, green forests. Travel-sized, they teach the value of local production and are interactive for the whole family. Available at Top Ten Toys. E

COCKTAILS! BURRITOS! TACOS!

HAPPY HOUR 7 DAYS A WEEK 4-6pm & 10pm - Midnight

WEEKEND BRUNCH

Sat & Sun, 11am - 3pm All locations!

Kitchen Hours

Mon - Fri until 10pm Sat & Sun until 11pm S. Lake Union Phinney Ridge Alki Beach

901 Fairview Ave N c100 206.739.5996 6700 Greenwood Ave N 206.706.4889 2620 Alki Ave SW 206.933.7344

www.elchupacabraseattle.com

SEATTLE WE EKLY’ S 2015 HO LIDAY GI VING G UIDE • PART O N E

Winner of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio platinum award, this simple and easy-to-play matching game will familiarize children with faces of all shapes, sizes, and colors while offering practice on recognition and memory abilities. Kids turn over the tiles and must pair visages to continue the game, which can be played individually or in a group. The game comes with 48 square tiles, two of each design. $18. Available at Clover Toys.

19

arts&culture

COMIX16 REVIEWS17 CALENDAR20

Death Poetry Fresh-to-Seattle rapper DoNormaal’s Jump or Die is a brilliant, surreal dream.

KELTON SEARS

BY KELTON SEARS

poetry about mortality, creating what she calls a Before moving to Seattle three years ago, “memorial mindset” at the forefront of all her art.

Karefa-Johnson had been studying poetry at In her poems, as he also does on Jump or Die, her prestigious Sarah Lawrence College in New father often comes back as a “living” character, York, and you can clearly hear it in her music. encouraging her from the beyond.

As DoNormaal, the playful way she phrases her lines, teasing apart every left-field cadence she can squeeze out of a word, is utterly her There’s an inherent unearthly element to Jump own. Juking on top of the victorious, skronking or Die as a result of her fascination with death, IGNORVANCE beat on “BlackLifeMother,” sudden transformative changes, and divine forces Karefa-Johnson moves from introspection to that may or may not be at play in the world. chiding to surreal levity all in a few Album standout “50 Jasper Horses,” lines, while setting up some killer for instance, paints a vivid portrait DoNormaal melodic hooks: “If I go against my inspired by a series of apocalyptic (with Sendai Era, Astro conscience I could kiss my heart dreams Karefa-Johnson had.

King Phoenix, Diogenes, goodbye/And there’s so many “The most visually amazing and more) people who don’t have one and things in them would happen,” she Central Saloon. Free. 21 it makes my cryyyyyyy/Fills my says. “Like, I was in a field with a and over. 6–11:45 p.m. house with tears and makes me whole bunch of people, and these Thurs., Dec. 3. wonder whyyyyy?” humongous canopies were in the sky “When I would read my poems, unfolding and coming down. In those it was always kind of musical,” she says. dreams I felt like I was witnessing some“I really felt like I needed to make the jump to thing that would change us, that would change music to feel free enough to go the distance with humans and what they believe in forever.” melodies and singing—I definitely wasn’t feelIn the song, over funeral-dirge pianos and a ing I could do all that with my poetry.” While sputtering subdued beat, she wails “You won’t the jump from poetry to rap might seem like a belieeeeve what I sawwwww” and “I can’t pretty smooth one, it was a jarring decision for belieeeeve what’s in my miiiiiind” with perfect family and friends who had seen her as a poet for ghostly conviction before dropping to her default almost her whole life. distanced, cool-girl flow for the verses, challengAt just 8 months old, Karefa-Johnson’s father, ing the listener with the proposition “You can get an urban planner and Dutch citizen from Surireligious if you’re with me on it.” name, tragically passed away. And so, as a little What makes Jump or Die cohesive despite the girl touched by death so early, she began writing wide net Karefa-Johnson cast with its production

(nine producers over 13 tracks) is DoNormaal’s firm control over its spectrum of dreaminess— encompassing both the spookier parts of our unconscious visions and the goofier, surreal elements. “Chocolate Delight,” another album highlight, finds producer Mario Casalini flipping a snippet of a big-band track from an old Mickey Mouse cartoon into a carnivalesque trap beat as Karefa-Johnson riffs on one of her favorite random lines from early-2000s sitcom The Parkers, “I already got my name, it’s Chocolate Delight.”

As a newcomer to Seattle’s hip-hop scene, Karefa-Johnson has set herself up to become an influential voice in the community. Beyond her own output, she’s at the center of 69/50, a collective and “movement” of local hip-hop artists for which she has big plans: shows, dance parties with local arts night LoveCityLove, and— most important to her—artists’ workshops that she hopes will make rappers in Seattle more vulnerable and open to themselves.

“In the Seattle scene I see a lot of hip-hop that feels like hip-hop that’s been made for a long time,” she says. “I think it would be cool if we saw more artists create something only they could create because they’re in this time, in this body, in this city. We all have unique experiences that hold all of this knowledge and information that only we can give to other people. It’s important to veer off to the path less traveled so you can get to the heart of what you are really trying to say.” E

ksears@seattleweekly.com

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

I

n her Ballard apartment, three flickering candles on the floor and a tiny kitten sneaking around, Christianne Karefa-Johnson tells me about the time her grandfather visited her in a dream.

“He passed away four years ago, but he was a legendary person in my life,” she recounts quietly on her couch. “As he came to my dream, everyone froze and was staring at me and my grandfather, and I became lucid that I was dreaming and that he was actually dead. It wasn’t a dream anymore.

It really was my grandfather, coming to say ‘I love you, I’m here.’ After that, I wasn’t afraid of death anymore, because it made me realize people don’t really die. Somehow, we can still talk to them.”

Overcoming her fear of death and traversing the strange, liminal thresholds between it, life, and purpose sits at the core of Karefa-Johnson’s debut LP, Jump or Die. Released a little over a week ago under her performing name as an MC, DoNormaal (a riff on a Dutch phrase that means “Stop acting weird”), Jump or Die already sits near the top of the list next to Mackned’s Female and THEESatisfaction’s EarthEE as one of the most sonically and lyrically distinctive local hip-hop records this year. Which is why it’s a little surprising to hear that Karefa-Johnson was initially scared to do music at all.

“This album was just about me being, like, ‘I’m going to do music, because if I don’t, I’m going to rot away slowly,’ ” the 24-year-old Karefa-Johnson, says. “Either I take the risk jump and maybe fall, or I die anyway and never try.”

15

comix in the city

JD MCPHERSON with HONEYHONEY

1/12

THE DANDY WARHOLS 12/9

12/12

with JOEL GION + MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS

THE ENGLISH BEAT

BILLY ZOOM’S XMAS MIRACLE 12/18

X

8:30PM

8:30PM

BIG HEAD TODD AND THE MONSTERS with MIKE DOUGHTY

1/14

8:30PM

7:30PM

TRIBAL SEEDS

with THE SKINTS + THE STEPPAS with MIKE WATT AND THE SECONDMEN 1/21

STS9

9:00PM

FOREVERLAND AN ELECTRIFYING 14-PIECE TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL JACKSON

1/9

9:00PM

8:00PM

1/23

8:30PM

DOM KENNEDY HOODIE ALLEN with CASEY VEGGIES + JAY 305 + DAVE B

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

12/2 – NOW AT THE SHOWBOX!

16

9:00PM

with SUPER DUPER KYLE + BLACKBEAR

2/5

TRAVI$ SCOTT

9:00PM

SHOWBOX AND USC EVENTS PRESENT

with SKEPTA

12/3

9:00PM

SCOTT BRADLEE’S POSTMODERN JUKEBOX 12/15

8:00PM

2/20

3/30

8:00PM

9:00PM

7:30PM

SHOWBOX AND REIGNCITY PRESENT

G-EAZY

with ETHAN TUCKER

NEUMOS

with DELORA

UNDEROATH

DRAGON SMOKE 12/2

BORGEOUS + MORGAN PAGE

with A$AP FERG + MARC E BASSY + NEF THE PHARAOH 1/7

WAMU THEATER

SHOWBOXPRESENTS.COM

7:30PM

reviews

FILM

Opening Friday In the Basement Wait, No TVs or Tennis Tables?

BY BRIAN MILLER

U

the inevitable training montages—right down to In preparation for Spectre, I recently read chasing chickens!—though without being marbled Simon Winder’s excellent 2006 cultural history with respect. All the past Rocky plots are woven of James Bond, The Man Who Saved Britain, into this one: running stairs, pet turtles, arrogant which contrasts 007’s fantasy heroics with Engchampions (real English pugilist Tony Bellew land’s loss of empire. In books and movies, the as “Pretty” Ricky Conlan), sudden knockdowns, suave killer provided a kind of consolation for miraculous recoveries, split decisions after his nation’s humiliating postwar collapse; Bond 12-round bouts saved by the bell. Creed is a became a palliative projection of everything that 50-pound heavy bag of clichés, yet the preview the UK no longer was. So it is with Rocky. As audience with me loved it. People groan-cheered economists now tell us, the great decline of our every predictable punch in the climactic middle class (and unions) began before bout. Though briefly KO’ed, Adonis Reagan and Wall Street deregulaeven has his life helpfully replayed tion. The gutting of the American Opens Wed., Nov. 25 before he springs back into action. dream—self-belief, striving, Horaat Sundance, (In his corner, Rocky’s confoundtio Alger, etc.—sprang from the SIFF Cinema Uptown, ing advice is “It’s you against you,” same compensatory moment of Pacific Place, Thornton which is about as clear as waveRocky’s blue-collar triumph. Since Place, and others. particle theory or Schrödinger’s then we’ve been sold the myth that Rated PG-13.

133 minutes. cat. The philosophy of “Eye of the hard work and moral fiber will raise Tiger” was so much simpler.) your station. (Hence the patriotic kitsch of Rocky III and IV during the triumphalist ’80s.)

Amid such relentless hokum and uplift, is Adonis, however likable, is a rich kid menthere anything realistically grounded in our age tored by a munificent old codger. He finds sucof #BlackLivesMatter? Writer/director Ryan cess by learning to be humble, disciplined, and Cooglar was hired on the strength of his respectful. Unlike his father (plainly modeled on recent Fruitvale Station, about the real police Muhammad Ali), Adonis isn’t uppity or brash, killing of an unarmed black Bay Area youth. and white America will cheer him for that. For That doomed hero was also played by Jorthat older, non-urban audience, Creed offers dan, too cheerful and charismatic for such an the reliable pleasures of formula and nostalgia. ambiguous victim. But Creed isn’t interested (Though Bill Conti’s famous theme song is only in such flaws; all gripes or grievances here are suggested, never reprised.) Stallone’s brokenswiftly overcome. Sudden illness and argudown presence supplies the continuity: Never ments are interjected, from the Ctl-V of the a great actor, his stiffness now suits Balboa’s screenwriter’s handbook, but the finale is never sad, widowed modesty. And there are flashes of in doubt. It’s only in the first few minutes the core shyness in his character that was best of Creed, a 1998 prologue, that we see young expressed in the original with Talia Shire. Creed black boys in a juvenile detention facility, does make you miss her, Meredith, and Carl warehoused for future imprisonment, from Weathers (Apollo is seen in the YouTube clips which Adonis is miraculously delivered. One his son studies obsessively), and some fans may has to suspect that Cooglar has read Great be disappointed by the lack of a Dolph LundExpectations in this regard, with Rocky his gren cameo. Don’t worry: That surely lies just Magwitch. Adonis is clearly meant for better around the corner in Creed II. E things—i.e., more sequels, with the ex-champ whispering in his ear. bmiller@seattleweekly.com

Two of Seidl’s basement denizens.

There’s some fascination down there, to be sure; Seidl’s fellow Austrian Sigmund Freud might have approved of the basement-asmetaphor for repressed desires. But In the Basement self-destructs by focusing its second half on non-traditional sexual practices. We spend a lot of time on the detailed existence of a dumpy dominatrix and her sex slave, a hairy fellow who cleans the house naked and really gets put through the wringer (not a figure of speech here) when his mistress unlocks her torture devices in the basement. We have plenty of time to ponder life’s infinite variety while time stands still during these pain-filled scenes. The one Austrian basement Seidl does not explicitly mention is the horrifying case of Josef Fritzl, the psychopath who kept a daughter locked up in his underground bunker for 24 years—during which time neither the other members of the Fritzl family nor a series of boarders ever noticed anything wrong.

(The case inspired Emma Donoghue’s novel and screenplay for Room.) That hidden depravity, and that blind eye, looms behind Seidl’s erratic peek into the subterranean. (Northwest Film Forum. Not rated, 81 min.) ROBERT HORTON

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

nbeknownst to me, Rocky movies have been multiplying like socks in the dryer. I never considered these films an exalted franchise—like James Bond or Star Wars—because they’re so dumb, so corny, so all-American and populist. Yet the 1976 forebear won Oscars for director, editor, and picture (in the latter category defeating Taxi Driver, Network, and All the President’s Men!).

Creed is now the seventh installment in a franchise almost four decades old. Despite critical pummelings and disrespect, it keeps getting up from the canvas, bloodied but unbowed, to reliable cheers. Think about it: The 007 novels and films span more consequential Cold War history, the first three Indiana Jones and Star Wars pictures are much better entertainments, but Rocky is the most durable and unlikely Hollywood movie franchise since the collapse of the studio system. What’s the key to its success? Like its hero (once Balboa, now Creed), it believes in itself.

And nothing’s more American than that.

For those with no prior knowledge of these triumph-of-the-underdog boxing melodramas, don’t worry. I saw only parts I and IV of the Philadelphia soap opera, but the whole prior VI are recapped in this new origin story. In brief, the illegitimate son Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) of Rocky’s old nemesis/pal Apollo Creed seeks self-validation in the ring, just like our past hero of the ’70s malaise era. But “Donnie” (his nom de gym) is a different cat, slick and fluent in social media, raised in an L.A. mansion by Creed’s widow (Phylicia Rashad), more square than street—as noted by his musician love interest (Tessa Thompson, from Dear White People).

Amateur boxer Donnie wants respect, to prove he’s not a mistake, so he naturally seeks out training advice from grizzled old Rocky (Stallone, now 69, as was Burgess Meredith in Rocky).

You can write the rest. Creed is a film unburdened by surprises—or any serious consideration of brain damage and CTE, which will have to wait for Concussion. Great emphasis is placed on

Stallone now serves as mentor to Jordan’s young comer.

COURTESY OF STRAND RELEASING

Grumpy old Stallone is back, generously sharing the ring in a bighearted Rocky reboot.

BARRY WETCHER/WARNER BROS.

City of Brotherly Glove

“It’s my cozy room,” the man says, proudly touring his neatly arranged basement. This is where he comes to relax and be himself, surrounded by the things that make him happy: his brass musical instruments, his well-stocked bar, his Hitler paraphernalia. Wait, what? Down here in this Austrian man-cave, forbidden portraits of the Führer share space with uniforms and other Nazi bric-a-brac. You know—cozy. This is one of the many sanctuaries explored in In the Basement, Ulrich Seidl’s unsavory documentary. The baleful Austrian filmmaker (of the grueling Paradise trilogy) turns his gaze downstairs, where all the strange and dark impulses that lie beneath the civilized veneer are blossoming in full weirdness.

Inclined toward dire observations about mankind as he is, Seidl doesn’t spend much time on the more benign examples of rec-room oddity. A couple whose electric dart board plays “The Entertainer” gets about 30 seconds of screen time. But the guy who once dreamed of an opera career and now runs a shooting range below ground, with the friends who talk about how terrible Muslims are—he gets some serious screen time. Seidl’s symmetrically composed camera stares at these cranks, in the fashion of Errol Morris’ Gates of Heaven. And like that film, we’re never quite sure how much the director is ridiculing his subjects or simply allowing them to be. Either way feels plenty creepy.

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 17

» FROM PAGE 17

Delivered weekly straight to your in-box

FILM NEWSLETTER The latest reviews and inside scoop on upcoming films.

WWW.SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM/SIGNUP

Feast your

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

eyes on

18

these deals!

extra savings on SIFF membershipS AND 2016 FESTIVAL TICKETS & PASSES

ONE week only · thru nov 29

Tom Hardy didn’t have enough to say in Mad Max: Fury Road. He spent half the movie wearing a muzzle; and once free, George Miller didn’t give him any interesting lines.

Legend isn’t an especially good gangster movie, but it does provide a solution: twice the dialogue and double the characters, since Hardy plays both the notorious twin gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray. Stylish East London celebrities in the ’60s, the Krays mean little here, and the 50-year gap isn’t helpful to American writer/director Brian Helgeland (A Knight’s Tale, 42). He faces the same problem as in Black Mass: name-brand mobsters like Whitey Bulger are now in thin supply, figures plucked from an increasingly distant past.

Shooting in England, Helgeland certainly gets the period look— cinematography by the great Dick Pope—and texture right. Postwar austerity is just beginning its grateful surrender to Carnaby Street and rock ’n’ roll. Ron (in glasses) and Reg wear carefully tailored suits, as a proper gangster should. They’re chauffeured around in a ridiculously large Lincoln, trailed by cops (chiefly Christopher Eccleston) in a cookie tin on wheels. Image is everything to the Krays—one cause of their undoing. And when Reggie falls in love with Frances (Emily Browning), our narrator, her stylish frocks and extravagant eyelashes could make her Twiggy’s little sister.

Unfortunately, despite glimpses of Joan Collins and Shirley Bassey, the Krays’ world is a small one, and Helgeland’s script is equally narrow. He keeps repeating the same ideas, like Carter Burwell’s muted-trumpet theme, and dilutes the action by having Frances narrate everything in this slavishly linear tale. (Remember that when Ray Liotta told us what was happening in GoodFellas, he was a protagonist, not a mere observer.) Once you realize how routine Legend is, especially compared to 1990’s The Krays, the main pleasure lies in watching Hardy.

And, boy, is he watchable. Legend is chiefly a comedy-with-violence, and the interplay between Reg and Ron is like Keitel and De Niro bickering in Mean Streets. One’s a mentally fragile clown, openly gay, with thicker jawline and Cockney accent (Ron); the other’s a selfish, dapper careerist who grows ever more exasperated by his brother’s idiocy (which may actually be canny provocation). I also thought of Laurel and Hardy, Falstaff and Prince Hal, and George and Lennie in Of Mice and Men—a soul divided equally between two unstable, inseparable people.

A smile begins on one brother’s face and leads naturally to a scowl on the other’s. Such a tight yin-yangness can only exclude poor Frances, and one wishes that Helgeland had taken more liberties with this predictable rise and fall. But Hardy’s stock only continues to rise. Are there any famous triplets he could play? (Meridian, Lincoln Square. Rated R, 131 min.) BRIAN MILLER

The name still has mileage: Toss Frankenstein into a title and you’re promising a modicum of chills, plus at least one creation scene in a laboratory. But ever since Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein loosened the stitches from Mary Shelley’s monster, moviemakers have had a hard time finding a fresh take on the mythology. Victor Frankenstein suffers this fate as well. Handsomely mounted and energetically acted, the film is far more bearable than the inane Van Helsing and other recent monster reboots. Yet it doesn’t seem to fulfill any particular need, except nostalgia.

McAvoy (left) and Radcliffe get their steampunk on.

The script by Max Landis (Chronicle) takes the perspective of Igor (Daniel Radcliffe), a circus hunchback drafted into apprenticeship

by Victor Frankenstein ( James McAvoy). The hump turns out to be a really bad abscess, which Frankenstein drains in a funny-gross scene—a daffy moment that suggests an original sense of humor, which unfortunately surfaces only occasionally thereafter. A bromance develops between the two, as they tinker with Frankenstein’s baboon/chimp creation and, later, the prospect of making a man. Not much of this is actually scary—the film falls short on the horror scale—but it is fun to see lightning bolts buzzing around, and yet another lonely tower (this one in Scotland) ripe for experiments in reanimating dead flesh.

Director Paul McGuigan did some of the TV Sherlock episodes, and that style prevails here: Victor F is design-heavy and generally lively, with lots of steampunk atmosphere. Former Downton Abbey star Jessica Brown Findlay is strictly decoration as a trapeze artist beloved by Igor, but Andrew Scott (the smarmy C in Spectre) gets into a nice little groove as a policeman investigating the strange doings over at the Frankenstein place. Radcliffe, once he gets straightened out, looks every inch the long-haired absinthesipping Victorian gentleman, but his character mostly stands aside while Victor gets the showier dialogue. McAvoy spews it with uninhibited relish, and good for him; it’s the only way to play this kind of thing, as actors from Colin Clive to Gene Wilder have understood.

When Victor greets his newborn creation with a sincere “I am your brother,” it’s an unusually sensitive declaration in the tangled history of the Frankenstein family tree. Eerie little moments like that give some hint of where a really new Frankenstein might go, even if this variation on the formula doesn’t quite carve out its place.

(Sundance, Pacific Place, others. Rated PG-13, 110 min.) ROBERT HORTON E

film@seattleweekly.com

ALEX BAILEY/TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX

Seattle International Film Festival May 19 - June 12, 2016

Legend Doubling the Hardy Adds to Little

Victor Frankenstein It’s Not Quite Alive

THEATER

Grounded, yet Soaring A 9/11 musical—yes, really—celebrates the best humanity had to offer following that terrible day.

BY ALYSSA DYKSTERHOUSE

SEATTLE'S MOST EPIC MOVIE EXPERIENCE THE PERFECT GIFT FOR THE MOVIE LOVER IN YOUR LIFE!

Pilot Beverly (Colella) and her passengers.

CHRIS BENNION

L

GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE AT

CINERAMA.COM

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

ike most people, I vividly remember Over the next few days, a dozen individual sto9/11—the attacks, I mean. What folries emerge from the plane and island. While lowed in the streets of Chicago was more 9/11 serves as the backdrop (passengers and vague: a cloud of grief, solidarity, and conlocals watch the TV news offstage), the depth fusion. People seemed friendlier. Strangers smiled of this show lies in “normal life”—petty travel and said hello. My individual memory was woven annoyances, break-ups, flirtations, etc. Yet into the collective story of our nation’s generally everyone’s aware that 3,000 people are dead, admirable response, so unlike the vicious polarizaso passengers are palpably desperate to contact tion we now see after the recent Paris attacks. their loved ones—none more so than Lana But at least until the subsequent invasion of Iraq, (Q. Smith), whose son is a New York fireman.

I remember 9/11 bringing out the best in people; Meanwhile, though not political, the script and on that day 14 years ago, far from Chicago, realistically addresses the Islamophobia felt by there was a remarkable community response in the passengers from the Middle East. small town of Gander, Newfoundland. The Moments of comedy abound, as when true basis for this show by the Canadian passenger Bob (Rodney Hicks) duo of Irene Sankoff and David Hein, contrasts big-city thinking and Seattle supported by passenger interviews, small-town living when he’s Repertory Theatre sent to take—i.e., steal—all the is how 38 flights—carrying over Seattle Center, 6,000 “come-from-aways,” in the Canadian neighbors’ grills for a 443-2222, seattlerep.org. local parlance—were diverted to barbecue. He marvels that each $17 and up. Ends Dec. 13.

Gander. There the befuddled locals household invites him in for tea bigheartedly embraced travelers instead of shooting him. These and from around the world, providing food, all other episodes are enacted on a shelter, and entertainment. And in this tellsingle set, where Beowulf Boritt’s striking, the inadvertent visitors encounter agony, love, ing design and Howell Binkley’s lush lighting inconvenience, and shock. transport us from airport to plane and other Did I mention this is an uplifting holiday locations around the island. show? After debuting in June at La Jolla PlayThe songs—which I hope to download from house (co-producer with Seattle Rep), Come a future cast recording—seamlessly shove the show along. Most poignant is the divine duet From Away plainly has Broadway as its goal. It’s a between Nick (Lee MacDougall) and Diane show that entreats you to believe in the goodness (Sharon Wheatley), “Stop the World,” which of people. And, despite being a jaded theatergoer, goads us to slow down and savor life. In “Me and let me say that it succeeds abundantly on both My Sky,” pilot Beverley ( Jenn Colella) expresses counts. Sankoff and Hein provide a brilliant blend the outrage that her beloved airliners have been of a pleasing plot, congenial characters, and burstturned into bombs. Rarely am I moved to tears, ing emotions. (Exposition is kept modest during but during this show my eyes leaked. the 100 minutes, sans intermission.)

Fourteen years ago never seemed so distant.

Under the direction of La Jolla’s Christopher And our current political divisiveness and Ashley, a local/La Jolla ensemble of 12 portrays multiple roles (though thankfully not 6,000 of them). paranoia—Trump, Carson, Syrian refugees, Muslim registries, etc.—makes this show’s In a series of vignettes tied together via monologue generous spirit all the more timely. Even as or song, the day begins with a cheerful “Welcome things fester overseas and at home, we all to Newfoundland.” Parents drop kids at school, a still require human connection. Come From cop drives his beat, the mayor goes to Tim Hortons.

Away reminds you of our inherent craving to Then we’re on a plane, as passengers are told of their care for one another. Quick, someone secure emergency diversion. Mostly unsure of what’s hapthe northern border! We’re being invaded by pened, “28 Hours/Wherever We Are” gives voice to compassion! E their confusion—until they’re told the awful truth in Gander’s shelters, schools, and private homes. stage@seattleweekly.com

19

calendar

PICKLIST

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 25

A rendering of Falconer’s new costume designs for PNB’s rebooted Nutcracker.

The Sound of Music

625-1900, 5thavenue.org. $29 and up. 7:30 p.m.

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

BRIAN MILLER

Jinkx Monsoon & Major Scales

In their more famous stage personae, Jerick Hoffer and Richard Andriessen (respectively) are following last year’s cabaret showbizsendup pas de deux The Vaudevillians with a holiday show called Unwrapped. Hoffer in drag becomes a brassy belter with remarkable lungs and fabulous gams; I’d love to see him as Chicago’s Roxie Hart. There’s a hint of Megan Mullally’s Karen Walker in his vocal inflections as chanteuse Kitty Witless in The Vaudevillians—maybe Karen impersonating a Carol Channing impersonator, or vice versa. Pianist Andriessen continues the tradition of local alt-theater compères like Kevin Joyce or Circus Contraption’s Armitage Shanks—with a similar polished suavity, but with less of a sinister vibe and more rubbery energy. Details on this new show will have to wait for the opening curtain, but expect holiday standards laced with camp and shtick. The gags and mugging are sprayed at a machine-gun pace, and the audaciously invasive audience-participation segments allow Hoffer’s ad-lib skills to shine.

(Through Dec. 13.) Seattle Repertory Theatre, 155 Mercer St. (Seattle Center), 443-2222, seat-

20 tlerep.org. $34–$40. 8 p.m. GAVIN BORCHERT

© IAN FALCONER

When this smash Rodgers and Hammerstein musical made its Broadway debut in 1959, Eisenhower was still in office, the Korean War was over, and the Cold War was at its height.

American culture would be far different when the Julie Andrews movie came out in 1965 (how most now remember the show, after all).

That’s when the fresh-scrubbed von Trapp family saga prompted The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael to call it “the single most repressive influence on artistic freedom in movies.” But if you can place yourself more in the mind-set of 56 years ago, instead of 50, there was reassurance in the musical Austrian clan standing up to the Nazis and belting out songs of strength and virtue. In a real sense, America wanted to believe that its virtue was its national strength: that our goodness (not the A-bomb) was our might, and that our shining moral example would somehow defeat the Commies.

Set in 1938, with the Anschluss around the corner, The Sound of Music can be understood as a war story. Captain von Trapp (Hans Altwies) has been ordered to take a commission in the German Navy. And his governess Maria (Kirsten deLohr Helland) is a de facto drill sergeant over his brood of seven motherless kids. That they become a choir is credit to her stern martial leadership. And songs like “My Favorite Things,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” and “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” foster unit cohesion—not for marching into battle, but for facing adversity. David Bennett directs this local production, with Anne Allgood as the Mother Abbess and Jessica Skerritt as the villainous icy blonde Baroness Elsa, my favorite character in the piece because she lacks all of Maria’s smothering benevolence. (Through Jan. 3.) The 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave.,

FRIDAY, NOV. 27

Nutcracker

The original Nutcracker may have been choreographed in 1892 by Lev Ivanov for the Imperial Ballet, but it’s George Balanchine we have to thank for the work becoming a holiday classic.

When he created a new production for his New York City Ballet in 1954, he reached back for some of the iconic moments from his Russian heritage, but distilled them into a charming narrative of a young girl’s dream on Christmas Eve. Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal danced the role of the Prince as a student, and now he’s bringing the work to Seattle—thus ending the 31-year-run of the Kent Stowell/Maurice Sendak version, on which a whole generation of fans grew up. With fresh set and costume designs by renowned children’s author/illustrator Ian Falconer (of Olivia the Pig fame), this Nutcracker brings new life to a well-loved ballet. (Through Dec. 28.) McCaw

Hall, 321 Mercer St. (Seattle Center), 441-2424, pnb.org. $25–$156. 7:30 p.m. SANDRA KURTZ

The Winding Stream

If there was one problem with Walk the Line, it’s that we didn’t get more time with the enchanting June Carter Cash. From childhood sensation to the wife of Johnny Cash, she deserves her own movie. Beth Harrington’s broader documentary goes back to the ’20s for an an enriching look into the history of the Carter Family, and explores the roots of country music as well. If you don’t know this story, these early days of radio are fascinating, as is the saga of A.P., Sara, and Maybelle Carter, chronicled with new interviews, archival performance and audio clips, and studio sessions from the likes of George Jones, Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, and Kris Kristofferson. We

also see the late Johnny and June Carter Cash singing together. The Winding Stream may not provide a comprehensive education in country music and the Carter/Cash families, but it’s a pretty good place to start. (Harrington will attend tonight and Saturday; her film runs through Monday.) Northwest Film Forum, 1515

12th Ave., 267-5380, nwfilmforum.org. $6–$11.

7:45 p.m. SCOTT JOHNSON

Hollywood Nights

Plus-one called it the best Teatro ZinZanni show he’s seen, and I see no reason to disagree.

The company channels silver-screen glamour as Ron Campbell plays movie director Cecil B. DeGrille, who invades the theater with his crew and inspires dreams of stardom among the performers. In a ZinZanni show, everyone multitasks, and here not only are the cirque stunts as dazzlingly skillful as usual, but the character work overall is a cut above the norm.

I wish all opera singers were as comedically ferocious as soprano Juliana Rambaldi, who then turns around and delivers a sumptuous “Con te partirò.”And I still can’t figure out how Wayne Doba makes tap-dancing so affecting; his “Rainbow Connection” number is the show’s emotional high point, and I’ve never even liked the song. (Through Jan. 31.) Teatro ZinZanni,

222 Mercer St., 802-0015, zinzanni.com/seattle. $99 and up. 6:30 p.m. GAVIN BORCHERT MONDAY, NOV. 30

Jon Meacham

Moderation! Shout it out! I’ll take a splash more coffee! I am not a wimp! This will not stand!

Voodoo economics don’t work! I want a kinder, gentler nation! Read my lips: No new taxes!

Hey, what’s that thingamajig at the end of the grocery-store conveyor? . . . OK, like the

author of Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush (Random House, $35), I miss our 41st president and the moderate Republican Party he once led. (Though, of course, I held my nose in ’88 and intended to vote for Michael Dukakis, who won this state and nine others, but my absentee ballot never reached China.)

Sure, GHWB had his patrician flaws and blind spots, but he was a grown-up, reasonable adult who didn’t put on crazy pants each day— unlike the current clown car of GOP hopefuls, where the moderation 2.0 of son Jeb! is gaining exactly zero traction. The early takeaway to Meacham’s book, based on extensive interviews, is that Bush senior hates Dick Cheney for having led W into war. The more general context, however, is how the Republican Party has moved away from the East Coast establishment that Bush embodied. The angry outsiders have taken over, which must make the famously non-introspective Yankee a little sad.

Now 91, Bush will likely live to see the wife of his travel buddy Bill Clinton elected to the White House. And many years later (we hope), when all the living presidents see him off at Arlington, he’ll be remembered as the last of the WASPs in American politics. And one of the best. Seattle University, Campion Ballroom, 914 E. Jefferson St., 652-4255, townhallseattle. org. $5. 7:30 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

Metropolitan

Tom, a “committed socialist” in a rented tuxedo, is lured by a gaggle of Park Avenue socialites into sharing a taxi one winter’s night, commencing his ambivalent journey through the annual rituals of Manhattan’s debutante season. Although decrying class privilege and the irrelevance of bourgeois literature, our revolutionary hero takes to a sentimental education in the constant company of several young, eloquent debs and preppies who ponder their genuinely unhappy destinies.

The aristocratic gatherings—black-tie events alternating with boozy nights of strip poker and truth-telling—assume a double-edged ratpack intimacy capable of turning on itself. But in Whit Stillman’s 1990 debut, there is also warmth, and time, and room for these people to live in their skins before life as a New Yorker cartoon begins. In the midst of this, young Tom (Edward Clements), smitten with the nolack-of-suits Serena (Ellia Thompson), tramples on the heart of sensible, gentle Audrey (Carolyn Farina), who conducts herself like a heroine from the pen of her beloved Jane Austen. (A related side note: Stillman’s adaptation of Austen’s novella Lady Susan will be released next year as Love and Friendship, with Chloë Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale, and Stephen Fry among its cast.)

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the very satisfying Metropolitan is funny, subtle, and rigorous in its avoidance of sudden character epiphanies or overnight resolutions. Even the most deserved opportunities for drama are eclipsed by Stillman’s modesty, especially in the fulfillment of the classically drawn Tom/ Audrey love story. And Stillman will introduce his film tonight via Skype. SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center), 324-9996, siff.net. $10–$15.

7 p.m. TOM KEOGH E

Classical, Etc.

THEATER Openings & Events

wants your help with the rewrite.

Market Theater, 1428 Post Alley, unexpectedproductions.org. $5–$15.

Opens Nov. 27. 8:30 p.m. Thurs.–Sat. plus Dec. 21 & 22; 7 p.m. Sun. Ends Dec. 26.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Keep your parodies and improv shows; ACT dishes the Dickens straight up. Kurt Beattie and Charles Leggett tagteam as Scrooge. ACT, 700 Union St. $27–$37 and up. Preview Nov. 27, opens Nov. 29. Runs Tues.–Sun. plus Mon., Dec. 28; see acttheatre.org for exact schedule. Ends Dec. 30.

A CHRISTMAS TWIST Skewering two Dickens hits for the price of one. Burien Actors Theatre, 14501 Fourth Ave. S.W., Burien, burien actorstheatre.org. $7–$20. Opens Nov. 27. 8 p.m. Fri.–Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Dec. 20.

CITY OPERA BALLET OF BELLEVUE Messiah, danced as

well as sung. Meydenbauer Center, 11100 N.E. Sixth St., Bellevue, brownpapertickets.com. $29–$49.

7:30 p.m. Sat., Nov. 28, 2 p.m. Sun., Nov. 29.

DINA MARTINA CHRISTMAS SHOW 2015 An all-new show of

warmth and wonder from the incomparable, indefatigable, indescribable entertaineress. Re-bar, 1114 Howell St. $22–$25. Opens Nov. 27. Runs Fri.–Sat., then nearly every day starting Dec. 10; see brownpaper tickets.com for exact schedule.

Ends Dec. 31.

EARLY MUSIC UNDERGROUND

AS A BEAVER AND AN ARTIST

“As indescribable as it is bizarre, the show combines clowning, improv, movement, and taxidermy.”

Annex Theatre, 1100 E. Pike St., annextheatre.org. $20–$30. 8 p.m.

Fri.–Sat. Ends Nov. 28.

CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG

Caractacus Potts and his flying car are back. Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Center, sct.org. $25 and up. 7 p.m. Thurs.–Fri., 2 & 5:30 p.m.

Sat., 11 a.m. & 2:30 p.m. Sun. Ends Dec. 27.

COME FROM AWAY SEE REVIEW, PAGE 19.

ELEPHANT & PIGGIE’S “WE ARE IN A PLAY!” This new musi-

cal adaptation of Mo Willems’ book series opens SCT’s season. Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Center,

through the sometimes spotty story.

Mike, Charlotte, and Val each grab the mic in turn, performing songs that are endearingly schmaltzy and brilliantly bombastic, all delivered with confidence and bravado.

During such musical interludes, the show-within-the-show takes over and the text’s shortcomings are forgiven. Plot matters less than moxie in this club, and we’re transported back to bygone times. MARK BAUMGARTEN Nordo’s Culinarium, 109 S. Main St., cafenordo.com. $65–$99. 7:30 p.m. Thurs. & Sun., 8 p.m. Fri.–Sat. Ends Dec. 20.

SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY COMPETITION A show-

case for stand-ups from around the world. See seattlecomedycompetition.org for complete schedule and venues, from Vancouver, Wash., to Bellingham. Ends Nov. 29.

SHOGGOTHS ON THE VELDT

The Rogues Gallery (“a Geek Theater Company”) presents this Lovecraftian spoof. The Lab at INScape, 815 Seattle Blvd. S., theroguesgallery.tv. $15–$20. 8 p.m.

Fri.–Sun. plus Mon., Nov. 30. Ends Dec. 5.

TEATRO ZINZANNI: LIGHTER THAN AIR The band Recess

Monkey headlines their family show. Teatro ZinZanni, 222 Mercer St., 802-0015. $20–$25. Runs 11 a.m. some Sat. & Sun.; see zinzanni.com/ seattle for exact schedule. Ends Dec. 27.

■ TEATRO ZINZANNI:

HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS SEE THE

PICK LIST, PAGE 20.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE: LIVE

Theater Schmeater stages three more tales from the iconic TV series.

Theater Schmeater, 2125 Third Ave., schmeater.org. $22–$29. 8 p.m.

Thurs.–Sat. Ends Dec. 19.

Dance

■ PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET: NUTCRACKER

SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 20.

LOST AND FOUND WITH TRIMPIN The culmination of the

instrument inventor’s eight-week workshop with music students; come see what new sonic contraption they’ve built. Benaroya Hall, Third Ave. & Union St., seattle symphony.org. Free. 7 p.m. Wed., Dec. 2.

■ SANDI DOUGHTON & DAVID R. MONTGOMERY Doughton scared us shitless, you may recall, with Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big

DAANA STRING QUARTET

Viennese classics plus William Grant Still’s Danzas de Panama.

Brechemin Auditorium, School of Music, UW campus, music.washington.edu. Free. 7:30 p.m. Wed., Dec. 2.

Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest.

Montgomery shares his The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health. Town Hall. $7–$25. 7:30 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 3.

PAY DIRT New work by Anca L. Szilágyi, Bernard Grant, Emily Bedard, Martha Kreiner, and Matthew Schnirman. JewelBox Theater at the Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., jackstraw.org. $5.

7 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 3.

ANTHONY GEIST The School of Solitude: Collected Poems is his new translation of the work of Peruvian poet Luis Hernández (1941–77).

Elliott Bay. 7 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 3.

CAROL GUESS AND SUSANNE PAOLA ANTONETTA Their Family

Resemblance: An Anthology and Exploration of 8 Hybrid Genres collects work by think-outside-the-boxers. University Book Store. 7 p.m.

Thurs., Dec. 3.

KRISTINA MCMORRIS The Edge of Lost is her novel of Irish immigration. Third Place. 7 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 3.

MAIREAD CASE Her novel See You in the Morning covers a summer in a small Midwestern town. Elliott Bay. 7 p.m. Fri., Dec. 4.

WRITE-O-RAMA Sample Hugo’s writing classes: five for $45. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave., 3227030, hugohouse.org. 1–5 p.m. Sat., Dec. 5.

STELLA CAMERON “Who would want to harm a widow who had lived quietly in the picturesque Cotswolds village of Folly-on-Weir?” Find out in Out Comes Evil. Seattle Mystery Bookshop. Noon, Sat., Dec. 5.

GREGORY WOLFE The Seattle Pacific University writer in residence reads from The Operation of Grace: Further Essays on Art, Faith and Mystery. Elliott Bay. 7 p.m. Sat., Dec. 5.

LISA MANTCHEV Sugar Skulls, her new YA dystopian adventure, seems to have little if anything to do with Day of the Dead traditions. University Book Store. 6 p.m. Sat., Dec. 5.

CORNISH ARTIST DIPLOMA BAROQUE ENSEMBLE Chamber

music with voice. PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College, 710 E. Roy St., cornish.edu. Free. 7:30 p.m. Wed., Dec. 2.

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

Current Runs

441-3322, sct.org. $22–$40. 7 p.m.

Thurs.–Fri., 2 & 5:30 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m. & 2:30 p.m. Sun. Ends Dec. 6.

FRINGE EXPLOSION Topics of works in the Pocket Theater’s minifestival include gay domestic violence and a Chekhov sendup set among actual seagulls. Pocket Theater, 8312 Greenwood Ave. N. $10. Runs Fri.–Sun.; see thepocket. org for full lineup. Ends Nov. 29.

IN SUSPENSE A high-school computer attack leads to drama and dark secrets in Leonard Goodisman’s new play. Eclectic Theater, 1214 10th Ave. $12–$25. 8 p.m. Thurs.–Sat. plus some weekend matinees; see eclectictheatercompany.org for exact schedule. Ends Nov. 28.

■ MY FAIR LADY The enduringly popular and hit-filled 1956 Lerner and Loewe musical is directed by our homegrown Tony- and Pulitzerwinning Brian Yorkey, who must love the thing. Village Theatre, 303 Front St. N., Issaquah. $38–$70. Runs Tues.–Sun.; see villagetheatre.org for exact schedule. Ends Jan. 3.

(Runs in Everett Jan. 8–31.)

■ SAUCED Directed by Paul Budraitis, this noir-inspired tale is filled with surprising doublecrosses, a steamy love triangle, and dialogue so pulpy you might need a strainer to drink it in. The 1937 setting is the Diamond Club, a Seattle gin joint owned by a slightly drunk and dyspeptic Mike (Mark Siano), unsatisfied with his station in life and on the hunt for a singer. Hostess Valerie Rush (Opal Peachey) is Mike’s long-suffering girlfriend, who keeps the Diamond afloat while he drowns in his narcissism. Enter femme fatale Charlotte (Billie Wildrick), the bombshell Saul has hired to croon. (Ray Tagavilla’s bartender Saul provides the narration.) Written by Terry Podgorski, with songs by Annastasia Workman, Sauced is a dinner/cabaret show where the music carries you

JOHN ULMAN

holiday memories, then lets everyone’s least favorite relative destroy them forever. Jet City Improv, 5510 University Way N.E., jetcityimprov. org. $12–$15. Opens Nov. 27. 10:30 p.m. Fri.–Sat. Ends Dec. 19.

■ UNWRAPPED SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 20.

WINTERFEST All kinds of music, dance, circus, and more. Nov. 27– Dec. 31. Seattle Center, seattlecenter.com.

It’s a Scrooge fight! Kurt Beattie (left) and Charles Leggett alternate in the role in ACT’s A Christmas Carol.

Seasonal chamber music and a wine-tasting. Northwest Cellars, 11909 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, emuseattle.com. $25. 3 p.m. Sun., Nov. 29.

YULIANNA AVDEEVA From this pianist, a Chopin miscellany plus Prokofiev’s Eighth Sonata. Meany Hall, UW campus, uwworldseries. org. $37–$42. 7:30 p.m. Tues., Dec. 1.

AUTHOR EVENTS ■ COLLEEN FRAKES Both her

parents worked at the penitentiary on McNeil Island, growing up on which would have to leave a mark on a person. Prison Island is her graphic memoir. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, 1201 S. Vale St., 658-0110, fantagraphics.com. 6 p.m. Sat., Nov. 28.

NEIL LOW His Wages of Sin, set in Bremerton in 1941, is based on true events. Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St., 587-5737, seattle mystery.com. Noon, Sat., Nov. 28.

■ JON MEACHAM SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 20.

■ DAVID SHIELDS outlined how aesthetics shapes politics in War Is Beautiful: The New York Times Pictorial Guide to the Glamour of Armed Conflict. Uncouth Buzzard Books, 8310 Greenwood Ave. N., 7 p.m. Tues., Dec. 1; Third Place, 7 p.m. Tues., Dec. 8.

SRIKANTH REDDY The University of Chicago faculty poet explores Dickinson and Stein in “Like a Very Strange Likeness and Pink.”

McCaw Hall, Seattle Center, lectures.org. $5–$60. 7:30 p.m. Tues., Dec. 1.

FANTAGRAPHICS

7 MINUTES IN HEAVEN— FOOD COMA 2 A special post-

UNCLE MIKE RUINS CHRISTMAS Jet City asks for your

activist’s latest is We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhall seattle.org. $5. 7:30 p.m. Tues., Dec. 1.

AUGUSTUS WHITE Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care chronicles his own career as a black man training and teaching in overwhelmingly white medical institutions. Hotel Deca, 4507 Brooklyn Ave. N.E., bookstore.washington. edu. 5:30 p.m. Tues., Dec. 1.

■ CHRISTOPHER T. BAYLEY We excerpted this former King County Prosecutor’s Seattle Justice: The Rise and Fall of the Police Payoff System in Seattle in our October 21 issue. Town Hall, 7:30 p.m. Wed., Dec. 2 ($5); Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E., 366-3333, third placebooks.com, 7 p.m. Mon., Dec. 7.

ROBERT CRAIS An explosives expert goes missing in The Promise.

Seattle Mystery Bookshop, noon; Third Place, 7 p.m. Wed., Dec. 2.

SUSAN VOLLAND Zhuzh up your holiday dinners with Mastering Sauces: The Home Cook’s Guide to New Techniques for Fresh Flavors.

Elliott Bay Book Co., 1521 10th Ave., 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com. 7 p.m.

Wed., Dec. 2.

BRIGITTE LE NORMAND You may not think of Yugoslavia as an avatar of forward thinking, but in one respect it was: Read how in Designing Tito’s Capital: Urban Planners, Modernism, and Socialism. Ellison Center, UW campus, bookstore.washington.edu. 1:30 p.m. Wed., Dec. 2.

RORY LINK This healer and shaman offers The Theory and Practice of Joy. University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 634-3400, bookstore.washington.edu. 7 p.m.

Wed., Dec. 2.

Music for voice and guitar. Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave., seattle guitar.org. Free. 2 p.m. Sat., Nov. 28.

BYRD ENSEMBLE Christmas choral music by Byrd, Tallis, and other Tudors. St. Mark’s Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E., byrdensemble.com. $15–$25. 7:30 p.m. Sat., Nov. 28.

JESSICA LURIE TRIO Free improv for sax, flute, electronics, voice, and more. Parliament Tavern, 4210 S.W. Admiral Way. Free. 9 p.m. Sat., Nov. 28.

SEATTLE MEN’S CHORUS The guest for the first weekend of their annual holiday spectacular is Tituss (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) Burgess. Benaroya Hall, Third Ave. & Union St., seattlemenschorus.org. $25–$78. 8 p.m. Sat., Nov. 28; 2 p.m.

Sun., Nov. 29; 8 p.m. Fri., Dec. 4; 7:30 p.m. Sun., Dec. 6, 13, 20; 7:30 p.m.

Mon., Dec. 21.

A(N IMPROVISED) CHRISTMAS CAROL Unexpected Productions

Thanksgiving edition of the speeddating-themed improv show. Pocket Theater, 8312 Greenwood Ave. N., thepocket.org. $10–$14. 8 p.m. Sun., Nov. 29.

■ THE SOUND OF MUSIC SEE THE PICK LIST, PAGE 20.

THIS CHRISTMAS The holiday threatens to careen out of control (but probably won’t) in Anne Kennedy Brady’s play. Taproot Theatre, 204 N. 85th St. $20–$40.

Opens Nov. 27. Runs generally Tues.–Sat.; see taproottheatre.org for exact schedule. Ends Dec. 26. ’TWAS THE NIGHT . . . StoryBook Theater’s musical sendup of the perennial poem. Studio East Mainstage Theater, 11730 118th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, storybooktheater.org. $15. Opens Nov. 28. 11 a.m., 2 p.m., & 5 p.m. Sat.–Sun. Ends Dec. 20.

DEEPA IYER The social-justice

MICHAEL & KELEREN MILLHAM

Frakes appears Saturday at Fantagraphics.

21

TIMES

calendar

DOORS 30-60 MIN. BEFORE. OPEN

LISTED ARE

SHOW TIMES.

WED,

NOVEMBER 25 TH 

SEATTLE SECRET SHOWS PRESENTS

O80’S VS 90’S W/ DJ INDICA JONES #ALL4DORAS FRI,

9PM - $8/$10

NOVEMBER 27 TH 7 

THANKSGIVING FUNKOVERS

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 ($7.50 for 3D) Admission All Day. Tickets Avail at Box Office Only.

HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY SPOTLIGHT

BROOKLYN

SPECTRE

ASTHMA

THE YOUNG EVILS, TIP TO BASE, THE BAD TENANTS BRASS MONKEYS 9PM - $8/$10 (BEASTIE BOYS TRIBUTE) SAT,

NOVEMBER 28 th 

LOCAL COUNTRY

AARON CRAWFORD

THE LOWDOWN DRIFTERS 9PM - $12 BRUISED HEART REVUE SUN,

NOVEMBER 29 TH 

KBCS PRESENTS BANJO/SLIDE GUITARIST

TONY FURTADO BAND feat ELI WES JOSH CLAUSON TUES,

DECEMBER 1 ST  PERPETUAL ROCK MOTION

EZRA FURMAN

CREED

GUY BLAKESLEE, SCARVES 8PM - $10/$12

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN THE NIGHT BEFORE SECRET IN THEIR EYES

*Tickets available at the box office.

SUNDANCECINEMAS.COM

8PM - $15

Up & Coming 12/2 BOBBY BARE JR, 12/3 DAVID WAX MUSEUM, 12/4 MOTOPONY, 12/5 ZEPPARELLA, 12/8 PATTERSON HOOD, 12/9 CORB LUND, 12/11 & 12 MALDOGGIES FAMILY CHRISTMAS 5213 BALLARD AVE. NW  789-3599

www.tractortavern.com

El Corazon E orazon www.elcorazonseattle.com

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

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 27TH EL CORAZON MUSICWERKS SEATTLE AND EL CORAZON PRESENT:

22

MONDAY NOVEMBER 30TH FUNHOUSE

AURELIO VOLTAIRE

AMONG CRIMINALS

Doors 7:30PM / Show 8:30.

ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $15 ADV / $20 DOS

Doors 8:30PM / Show 9:00. 21+. $6 ADV / $8 DOS

Jeff Ferrell, Dead Spells

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 27TH FUNHOUSE BRIAN FOSS PRESENTS:

VAPORLAND

Skullbot, Crunchbird, Shagnasty

Doors 9:00PM / Show 9:30. 21+. $8

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 28TH FUNHOUSE HEAVY BLOG IS HEAVY PRESENTS:

SIRENS

The Fine Concept, Thread The Sky, Tides Of Malice, Plus Guests Doors 7:00PM / Show 8:00. ALL AGES/

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

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 29TH EL CORAZON THE COTTON MOUTH COMEDY TOUR FEATURING:

TOMMY BROOME Lucia Carol Tuman, Hosted by Mikey G aka Stoney Baloney, Special appearance by Macho Man Randy Savage

Doors 7:00PM / Show 8:00. 21+. $FREE

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 29TH FUNHOUSE BANGOVER: SEATTLE’S FIRST POP/PUNK DRAG “CONCERT”

ANGELA VISALIA

Hellen Tragedy, Venus LaPenus, Arson Nicki, Deb Leigh Nightshade, Autumn Equinox Doors 6:00PM /

Show 7:00. ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $5

Ichi Bichi, Plus Guests

TUESDAY WEDNESDAY DECEMBER JULY 22ND 1ST EL ELCORAZON CORAZON BRIAN FOSS PRESENTS:

THRASHERS CORNER w/Burlington Coat CANCER BATS Mercy SuperNothing, Shitlips, Guests Felony,Ties, Upwell, Hell Raisers DoorsPlus 9:00PM /

Doors / Show Show7:00PM 9:30. 21+. $7 7:30. ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $10 ADV / $12 DOS

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 2ND EL CORAZON

36 CRAZYFISTS

Tyranny Theory, OtherWorld, Kings Of Cavalier, Plus Guests Doors 7:00PM / Show 7:30. ALL AGES/BAR

W/ID. $13 ADV / $15 DOS

THURSDAY DECEMBER 3RD FUNHOUSE

RAW FABRICS

The Skins, Nitrogen Lion Society, These Young Fools, Ryan Hyde

Doors 7:00PM / Show 7:30. ALL AGES/BAR W/ID. $8 ADV / $10 DOS

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4TH FUNHOUSE MIKE THRASHER PRESENTS.

SCOTT KELLY

Bruce Lamont Doors 8:30PM / Show 9:00. 21+.

$10 ADV / $13 DOS

JUST ANNOUNCED 12/26 - SHE IS WE 12/31 - SUPER GEEK LEAGUE 1/6 FUNHOUSE - JAKE MCNEILLIE & CO. 2/2 FUNHOUSE - CONVEYER 2/9 FUNHOUSE - THE TOASTERS 2/18 FUNHOUSE - WUSSY 3/4 - ANTI-FLAG / LEFTOVER CRACK 4/1 - DECIBEL MAGAZINE TOUR FEAT. ABBATH / HIGH ON FIRE 5/8 - PRIMAL FEAR / LUKA TURRILLI’S RHAPSODY UP & COMING 12/3 FUNHOUSE - RAW FABRICS 12/4 FUNHOUSE - SCOTT KELLY (NEUROSIS) 12/5 - THE FACELESS 12/5 FUNHOUSE - PUNKRISTMAS W/ ANGRY SNOWMANS 12/6 - NASHVILLE PUSSY 12/7 FUNHOUSE - MISS MASSIVE SNOWFLAKE 12/8 FUNHOUSE - DOUBLECLICKS 12/9 - POUYA 12/9 FUNHOUSE - LO’ THERE DO I SEE MY BROTHER 12/10 FUNHOUSE - HUNNY 12/11 - BLACK SABBITCH 12/11 FUNHOUSE - WIMPS 12/12 - THE BLASTERS 12/12 FUNHOUSE EARLY - KINGDOM OF THE HOLY SUN 12/12 FUNHOUSE LATE - KIDS ON FIRE

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 Ticketfly.com – no per order fees for online purchases! Charge by phone at 1-877-987-6487. Online at www.ticketfly.com. Tickets are subject to a service charge. You can also buy advance tickets at the El Corazon Box Office – open weekdays from 11:00am to 9:00pm at the Eastlake Waffle Window. There is a $2 service charge per ticket at The El Corazon Box Office.

The EL CORAZON VIP PROGRAM: details at www.elcorazon.com/vip.html for an application email info@elcorazonseattle.com

ROBERT WADE

Two Ways To Save At Sundance Seattle

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

” Motley Crue tribute

SE AT TLE

4500 9TH AVE. NE • 206-633-0059

tractor

At the Henry: Pae White’s colorful, gallery-filling installation Command-Shift-4, inspired by an old gymnasium.

VISUAL ARTS Ongoing

■ ART AIDS AMERICA The point to this 30-year survey show (including some 125 works) isn’t to elicit guilt or horror or tears, even if those feelings do inevitably come. Rather, the AIDS crisis is presented as an historical watershed, a catastrophe like World War I, in the story of American art.

Works in all media are arranged by six themes—activism, portraiture, memento mori, etc.—with a very useful timeline that combines art, politics, culture (e.g., Rock Hudson’s death), and vital statistics. Curators Jonathan David Katz and Rock Hushka are advancing the thesis that AIDS interrupted and diverted the art world from something the dead end of postmodernism, which deflected meaning and denied final authority.

AIDS changed all that, since it was a direct personal attack on so many artists. Anger and militancy were the first reaction, and the hottest works here still glow with street-level outrage and graphic clarity. There are also calmer, more conceptual pieces, though portraiture and documentary photographs are necessarily more direct. Some simply turn the camera on their own (or friends’) diseased bodies. Unusually for an art museum exhibit, this is also a living history show for visitors who remember these three decades. Though it inspires zero nostalgia, there are many moments of piercing recognition of place and time. Boldface names include Jasper Johns, Keith Haring, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Annie Leibovitz, but it’s cumulative effect that’s so powerful. BRIAN MILLER Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Ave., 253272-4258, tacomaartmuseum.org. $12–$14. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tues.–Sun. Ends Jan. 10.

BEN BERES & CAROL SUMMERS

The former creates dense etchings in Horror Vacui (“fear of empty space”).

The latter shows colorful woodcut prints dating back to 1958. Davidson Galleries, 313 Occidental Ave. S., 624-6700, davidsongalleries.com. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Nov. 28.

■ BYRON BIRDSALL He paints Mt. Rainier and other familiar alpine landscapes, some with climbers in the frame, in a tradition recalling Dee Molenaar. Also on view, wooden bowls from Dian Friend.

Kirsten Gallery, 5320 Roosevelt Way N.E., 522-2011, kirstengallery.com. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sun. Ends Dec. 27.

CAMP FIRES BAM goes totally gay

with this queer art tribute to Léopold L. Foulem, Paul Mathieu, and Richard Milette. Bellevue Arts Museum, 510 Bellevue Way N.E., 425-519-0770, bellevuearts.org. $5-$10. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Tues.-Sun. Ends Feb. 14.

■ MARY COSS Her sculpture show Trace includes a large central sculpture, made of old wedding dresses sewn tent-like over wire, that’s shaped like a pelvic bone. Method Gallery, 106 Third Ave. S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 223-8505, methodgallery.com. Noon-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Ends Jan. 2.

■ COUNTER-COUTURE Curated by the UW’s Michael Cepress, an artist who studies and works with fiber, textiles, and fashion, this fashion show bears the subtitle “Fashioning Identity in the American Counterculture.” In other words, hippies! Cepress is exploring the ecstatic ’60s and ’70s spirit via the bell-bottoms, macramé, embroidered vests, miniskirts, headbands, granny glasses, customized jeans, peasant blouses, Huarache sandals, and tie-dye—always the tie-dye!—that defined that era. MILLER Bellevue Arts Museum, Ends Jan. 10.

PHILIP GOVEDARE Sky Paintings offers just that—swirling compositions of clouds and light. Prographica, 3419 E. Denny Way, 322-3851, prographicagallery.com. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Wed.-Sat. Ends Dec. 19.

TROY GUA Inspired parly by King Tut’s tomb and the pyramids, his show Orange Dust “is created as a collection of metaphoric artifacts to be unearthed from the preimagined tomb of a long gone America.”

Bonfire (Panama Hotel), 603 S. Main St., thisisbonfire.com. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tue.-Sat. Ends Jan. 28.

HANNA HILL She shows small collage works, some inspired by old record labels, and large wooden wall pieces recalling childhood innocence. Zeitgeist, 171 S. Jackson St., 583-0497, zeitgeistcoffee.com. 6 a.m.-7 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Weekends vary.

Ends Dec. 2 ■ BOOTSY HOLLER One of our favorite contributors to Seattle Weekly , now based in L.A., Holler includes four different photo series in her show Nuclear Family . One component consists of annotated snapshots from her own family history, in which she Photoshops herself into the frame.

Wall Space Gallery, 509 Dexter Ave. N., 330-9137, wall-spacegallery.com.

Hours by appointment. Ends Dec. 22.

■ IN LEGO, WE CONNECT

Yes, these are merely cute photographs of toys, but who can resist?

(Also, Christmas is near...) Kristina Alexanderson, Shelly Corbett, Mike Stimpson (who combines Star Wars with kittens!), and Boris Vanrillaer are featured. Bryan Ohno Gallery, 521 S. Main St., 459-6857, bryanohno.com.

Free. 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Ends Dec. 12.

■ INTIMATE IMPRESSIONISM

Out come the big guns in SAM’s fall behemoth: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Cézanne, Degas, Pissarro, Gauguin, van Gogh, and more. Traveling from the National Gallery, the 68 works have a net worth approaching that of Bill Gates. Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., 654-3121, seattleartmuseum.org. $12–$19. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Weds.-Sun. (Open to 9 p.m. Tues.)

Ends Jan. 10.

LOCAL GEMS Over a dozen Seattle artists are featured, including Tina Albro , Matthew Behrend, Kathryn Booze, William Booze, Christine Lee, Elinor Maroney, Sarah Parent, and Juliette Ripley-Dunkelberger.

Columbia City Gallery, 4864 Rainier Ave. S., 760-9843, columbiacitygallery. com. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Weds.-Sun. Ends Jan. 10.

■ ROBERT MCCAULEY Bears!

The Northwest native, recently returned home, paints bears and other fauna. Also on view, animals and mythic figures by painter Peggy Washburn. Linda Hodges Gallery, 316 First Ave. S. 624-3034, lindahodgesgallery.com. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tues.-Sat. Ends Nov. 28.

■ PARADOX OF PLACE

Contemporary Korean art is the focus to this group show, which features six artists: Jung Yeondoo, Lim Minouk, Yee Sookyung, Lee Yongbaek, Noh Suntag, and Yang Haegue. Their work spans video to photography and new media. Seattle Asian Art Museum, Volunteer Park, 654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org. $5-$9. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed., Fri.-Sun. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thurs. Ends March 13.

■ ROGER SHIMOMURA & WILLIAM KENTRIDGE Two great

artists need little introduction. The Seattle-raised Shimomura presents Pop-infused new works in Great American Muse, with traces of Disney, Hokusai, and Warhol. The South African Kentridge, subject of the Henry’s knockout 2009 show, has recent linocuts on offer (depicting typewriters, cats, birds, and such).

Greg Kucera Gallery, 212 Third Ave., 624-0770, gregkucera.com. 10:30 a.m.5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Ends Dec. 24.

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

MUSIC Wednesday, Nov. 25

■ Originally a practitioner of that

JAZZ ALLEY IS A SUPPER CLUB

hoariest of allegedly counterculture genres, garage-rocker BEN VON WILDENHAUS long ago abandoned the rote for a deliciously strange and mesmerizing kind of guitar performance that he calls “guitar noir.” Besuited, with knit brow, and tonight with a full band, the New York artist pulls equally from Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks score and the depths of his imagination as he wrestles off-kilter worlds of sound from his Gibson SG. Vito’s. 9 p.m. Free. 21 and over.

MARK BAUMGARTEN

■ When people talk about Seattle’s KATIE KATE, they usually talk

about her rapping—and she is a fine rapper. The fierce staccato coda to “Persephone” is proof

Ben Von Wildenhaus ■ Major congrats to new major-label

It’s like if Rush wrote songs about sleigh rides and had even more lasers and pyrotechnics. Have you listened to “Wizards of Winter”? I had no idea how epic jingle-bell solos were until I heard that song.

Think I could borrow your flask for the show, man? This spiked egg nog isn’t going to drink itself. KeyArena.

4 & 8 p.m. $30–$75. All ages. KS

Man, Christmas rocks, m’dawg.

All those lights everywhere; chubby dudes with beards handing you “goodies”; hiding stuff in socks—it’s just like that Sabbath

Celebrating decades of recording and touring that have nearly singlehandedly reshaped the definition and scope of the blues.

TIERNEY SUTTON BAND: A CENTURY OF SINATRA TUES, DEC 1 - WED, DEC 2

“A serious jazz artist who takes the whole enterprise to another level.” - New York Times

ROY HARGROVE QUINTET THURS, DEC 3 - SUN, DEC 6 Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter, composer and band leader

MATT WILSON CHRISTMAS TREE-O TUES, DEC 8 - WED, DEC 9

$10

Extraordinary jazz drummer entertains the campy side of Christmas with excellent musicianship

AVERAGE WHITE BAND THURS, DEC 10 - SUN, DEC 13

Sunday, Nov. 29

Widely regarded as the best funk and soul band in the history of music!

DAVE B, delivers on the promise the

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

■ Punch Drunk, the new LP from

One of the biggest rules of having a baby (besides don’t drop it) is don’t bring that baby to a rock concert, you dummy. Babies have tiny, sensitive ears that you should only fill with whispery “I love you”s and lines recited from books about puppies.

The one exception is a CASPAR BABYPANTS concert, which is custom-designed to be agreeable and pleasing to your small human’s little earholes. Chris Ballew, the lead singer of the Presidents of the United States of America (the ones who did that song about peaches) has an enormous back catalog of songs about tiny doughnuts and little worms and girls with squirrels in their hats to tease and please your babies’ toothless sensibilities.

Feel free to dance along with your squiggly child, but remember, don’t drop that baby. The Neptune. 10:30 a.m. $4.50. Very all ages. KS

(Closed on Thanksgiving)

Seattle MC showed while logging a decisive victory in the 2013 Sound Off competition. This is a more mature Dave B, with bright, vibey production (from Jake One, Swish, et al.) in place of his live band and lyrics that hint at darker thoughts and frustrations without sacrificing any of his considerable charm. What is not likely to have changed is his explosive stage presence and in-the-pocket swagger, likely to be on full display tonight. With Vitamin D, Nyles Davis. Crocodile.

8 p.m. $10–$15. All ages. MB

MAKE US YOUR FIRST STOP THE PLACE TO MEET BEFORE HITTING THE TOWN CONVENIENT PARKING GARAGE OPEN LATE CONVENIENT TO PIONEER SQUARE AND BELLTOWN

MAKE US YOUR FIRST STOP THE PLACE TO MEET BEFORE HITTING THE TOWN CONVENIENT PARKING GARAGE OPEN LATE CONVENIENT TO PIONEER SQUARE AND BELLTOWN FRIDAY 11/27 • DEMARCO DJ SATURDAY 11/28 • DJ STYLE “E” GORDON BIERSCH 600 PINE ST. LEVEL 4 SEATTLE, WA 98101 (206) 405-4205

LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT GIFT?

GORDON BIERSCH 600 PINE ST. LEVEL 4 SEATTLE, WA 98101 (206) 405-4205

Tuesday, Dec. 1

!!! entered the new millennium as part of a dance-punk movement that somewhat clumsily lumped the Sacramento-based band with the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Electric Six, and The Rapture. The movement has all but ground to a halt, but !!!— led by frantic, dancing, shorts-clad 42-year-old front man Nic Offer—is still dancing. In fact, the band’s latest, As If, is perhaps its most club-ready album yet, showing its origins as a disco cover band playing Chic and Michael Jackson and Prince. With Stereolad. Crocodile. 8 p.m. $17 adv.

All ages. MB

Frank Zappa holds a special spot in Seattle history for kickstarting the career of one this city’s most legendary animators, Bruce Bickford, whom he hired to create the terrifying Claymation opus Baby Snakes in 1979. Many beautifully weird people owe a lot to Zappa—perhaps none more than his son Dweezil, since, you know, he’s his dad. ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA, an incredibly true-to-form cover band led by none other than Dweezil himself, is paying tribute to the freak father by playing the entirety of One Size Fits All, the final album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

The Neptune. 8 p.m. $38.50–$75. All ages. KS

ble gift card !

om/the tin ta buy a century ballro

CENTURY BALLROOM

915 E PINE ST CAPITOL HILL

206.324.7263 DINE & DANCE WWW.CENTURYBALLROOM.COM

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

Indie rock’s decade-long blues moment shows no sign of abating so long as new acts like LONESOME SHACK continue to emerge, inspired by a fresh combination of the old masters and delivered with a minimalism that gives the plaint of the singer—in this case Ben Todd— room to moan. This is the band’s only show this winter, presumably before it goes into hibernation to work on the follow-up to last year’s woozy, trance-blues long-player More Primitive. With Evening Bell, Mindie Lind. Sunset. 9 p.m. $10 adv.

21 and over. MB

Saturday, Nov. 28

ORCHESTRA’S GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS EVE TOUR, though?

COURTESY OF SUB POP

Friday, Nov. 27

concert I went to in ’82! Have you heard about TRANS-SIBERIAN

punx SO PITTED, whose trash-rash, buzzsaw neo-grunge just got picked up by the OG lumberjack jammers themselves, Seattle’s venerable Sub Pop. The trio of neon-haired rippers deserve it—songs like “Rot in Hell” and “Holding the Void” legitimately sound like a pack of rabid bulldogs snarling at a short-circuiting electric fence. Lead singer Nathan Rodriguez’s howls are so intense sometimes it makes you worry about his neck veins. Look for the band’s debut LP, Neo, in February, but in the meantime check out the group’s violently loud live show and worry about those neck veins up close and personal.

With Toner, Big Bite, Michael Abeyta.

Cairo. 8 p.m. $7. All ages. KS

So Pitted enough of that. But on Nation, her latest LP, she proved she’s also a great singer and songwriter, with beautiful, lovesick, Robyn-style songs like “Sadie Hawkins” and “Rushmore” that would slay on Top 40 in a fairer, more just alternate universe. That versatility also extends to her live show, which features some pro-level vamping and strutting. With Tilson XOXO, Arkomo. Sunset Tavern. 8 p.m. $10.

21 and over. KS

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

THUNDERPUSSY Thunderpussy Thunderpussy. Just like Beetlejuice, say it thrice and lead singer Molly Sides will magically appear out of the ether and kick you in the face with her thigh-high boots, and probably hit a Robert Plant-style falsetto shriek while she does it. If you like leather, ladies, and Led Zeppelin, Thunderpussy is your new favorite band—a local femme-power foursome who revel in the golden Viking excess of ’70s classic rock and all the power chords and tom fills that came with it. With Nightmare Fortress, Draemhouse, Bod. Neumos. 8 p.m. $10. 21 and over.

KELTON SEARS

TAJ MAHAL TRIO WED, NOV 25 - SUN, NOV 29

JOIN US FOR JOIN THE US GBFOR NIGHTLIFE! THE GB NIGHTLIFE!

23

calendar FILM SHOWTIM ES

NOV 27 - DEC 3

Opening Friday

ASTHMA Krysten Ritter (Breaking

CASABLANCA

THE BREAKFAST CLUB

FRIDAY - WEDNESDAY @ 9:30PM

BACON LOVES TEASE - WITH FOOTLOOSE! THURSDAY @ 8:00PM DIFRET - WEDNESDAY @ 7:00PM

NOV ��–DEC �

GR ANDILLUSIONCINEMA.ORG ���� NE ��TH STREET | ���-����

cinema

NOW PLAYING

FRI NOV 27 - THU DEC 3

H O L ID AY FAV O R IT E S

EGYPTIAN

UPTOWN

FILM CENTER

ONE WEEK ONLY

EXCLUSIVE PRESENTATION!

FRI-SUN: HOLIDAY FAVORITES

Ridley Scott directs and Matt Damon stars as an astronaut who finds himself stranded and alone on the surface of Mars.

Musician, artist, filmmaker and creative pioneer Laurie Anderson’s wry, wondrous, and unforgettable cinematic essay.

Enjoy the beloved family classic with fragrant and tasty treats from our free Wonkariffic goodie bags.

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

805 E PINE ST

24

511 QUEEN ANNE AVE N

The Martian Heart of a Dog FINAL SHOWS

By the Sea

Angelina Jolie Pitt directs, writes, and co-stars with husband Brad Pitt in this lavish and heartrending relationship drama.

SIFF EDUCATION FUTUREWAVE

Crash Student

DEC 5 · SIFF FILM CENTER Create a cohesive film in just 8 hours.

Crash Kids

DEC 12 · SIFF FILM CENTER

Collaborate with other kids ages 9-12 CATALYST

First Draft

DEC 16

Happy Now?, written by Gina Merchan Unproduced scripts that entertain and receive audience feedback!

Spotlight Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, and Rachel McAdams star in the riveting story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe story uncovering decades of abuses in the Catholic Church.

Creed

This inspiring new chapter in the Rocky legend follows the son of former heavyweight champ Apollo Creed.

COME GET COZY WITH SOME MULLED WINE! TICKETS & MOVIE TIMES SIFF.NET · 206.324.9996

SEATTLE CENTER · NW ROOMS

Willy Wonka in Smell-O-Vision

-------------- PLUS -------------

The Princess Bride Quote Along The iconic swashbuckling fairy tale with quote along subtitles, free inflatable swords, and R.O.U.S.

MON NOV 30

Metropolitan 25th Anniversary screening and Skype Q&A with director Whit Stillman.

TUE & WED

NT Live: Skylight

Encore screenings! Starring Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan.

Local & Repertory

■ THE BREAKFAST CLUB Only Cameron Crowe outranked the late John Hughes (1950-2009) on the ’80s youth-movie scene, yet Hughes’ mogul-making ’85 hit lives on as a cult movie. Revisited, it astounds us by its sheer verbiage—who could imagine a teen movie today made of witty repartee? Hughes knew how to use pop music to keep his plotless tale from succumbing to drone.

The Brat Pack cast does wonders, including Judd Nelson as Criminal and Molly Ringwald as Princess (the character, Ringwald told me, is a Hughes self-portrait—sensitive, smart, out of place). Crucially, neophyte Hughes had for an editor Dede Allen (Bonnie and Clyde, Wonder Boys). For him, it was like film school.

He passed. TIM APPELO (R) Central Cinema, $7-$9. 9:30 p.m. Fri.-Wed. ■ CASABLANCA We all know the story: a classic love triangle set against the tensions of war. True to its stage origins, the 1942 perennial sets up neat oppositions between selfishness and sacrifice, patriotism and exile, love and duty. Humphrey Bogart gained iconic status as Rick, who balances his lingering attachment to Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa against his long-suppressed sense of idealism. Directed by Michael Curtiz, Casablanca is about a lot of things, but one strong theme is forgiveness: Two former lovers must somehow reconcile themselves with the past, mutually absolving each other to clear the way for the future. Their relationship has its parallel as Bogie and Claude Rains also forgive and forget, then famously stride forward together to battle. (G) Central Cinema, $7-$9. 7 p.m. Fri.-Wed. & 3 p.m. Sat. JAMES BOND-ATHON Showtimes aren’t given, so maybe these 007 movies are on continuous loop. This Sunday it’s Live and Let Die (1973).

Roger Moore’s first Bond film is a borderline racist postcolonial fantasia. Geoffrey Holder and Yaphet Kotto make strong impressions, but deserve better—as did Moore, who wouldn’t hit his 007 stride until The Spy Who Loved Me, four years later.

(PG-13) King’s Hardware, 5225 Ballard Ave. N.W., 782-0027, kingsballard. com. Free. Sundays through Nov. 29.

WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY Oh, God.

It’s the annual “Smell-O-Vision” presentation of the 1971 Gene Wilderstarring adaptation of the Roald Dahl children’s tale. (G) SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center), $10-$15. See siff.net for schedule. Runs Fri.-Jan. 3.

Ongoing

■ BRIDGE OF SPIES In Steven

Spielberg’s true-life saga, New York lawyer James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) is plucked from his profitable private practice to defend

Saoirse Ronan and Domhnall Gleeson in Brooklyn, your best family-friendly bet for the holiday weekend. a Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), in the late 1950s. What pricks Spielberg’s interest is the way Donovan is ostracized for performing a constitutional task during the height of Cold War. A few years later, Donovan is given another difficult task: negotiate a prisoner trade for Francis Gary Powers, the downed U-2 pilot. This section is all snowy East Berlin alleys and tense meetings in unheated rooms—exactly Spielberg’s cup of borscht. Nicely complicating the situation is the way Abel, the enemy, comes to be a sympathetic figure. The British stage giant Rylance (Wolf Hall) gives a marvelously detailed performance as the kind of guy Spielberg appreciates— a schlub doing his job. ROBERT HORTON (PG-13) Pacific Place, Lincoln Square, Kirkland, others ■ BROOKLYN Burnished by what you might call sentimental realism, this lovely adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s 2009 source novel has young Irishwoman Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) sent to America by an older sister.

Our heroine is determined to escape the narrow confines of Enniscorthy, where the stifling social codes seem almost medieval—though the year is 1951. Immediately established in a Brooklyn rooming house and a tony department store, it might seem that Eilis is an innocent. Yet, partly because of Ronan’s assurance, Eilis already seems wise to the world.

She appraises new people and situations with a cool gaze that belies her years. Sensitively adapted (by Nick Hornby, of Wild and An Education) and directed (by John Crowley), Brooklyn is respectful of all the minor players in Eilis’ adventures—which oughtn’t be surprising but somehow is. (Jim Broadbent trenchantly plays a priest; Julie Walters adds spice to the twinkle of Eilis’ landlady.) And while there are traces of melodrama, there’s a notable absence of blarney. MILLER (PG-13) Pacific Place, Sundance, Lincoln Square, others THE NIGHT BEFORE This lazy Christmas bro-com fits like a holidaypatterned Cosby sweater bought from the January discount bins.

A quick prologue establishes that morose musician Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was orphaned back in ’01, then befriended by Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie).

Their annual Christmas Eve project to cheer up poor Ethan—via karaoke, copious drinking, and Cosby sweaters—has hardened into an unwelcome December obligation.

The movie’s main mission is to riff on as many Christmas perennials as possible—from jukebox standards to Charles Dickens to It’s a Wonderful Life and Die Hard. In the latter instance, Broad City’s Ilana Glazer makes a real impression as a malicious sneak thief who models herself on Hans Gruber. MILLER (R) Pacific Place, Sundance, Lincoln Square, Oak Tree, others

■ ROOM Joy (the excellent

Brie Larson), we shall learn, was abducted as a 17-year-old. We meet her as the young mother of Jack (Jacob Tremblay), both of them confined to a garden shed/prison that forms the 5-year-old boy’s entire known universe. A skylight above, a few books, and TV cartoons blur into a magical realm for Jack; notions of what’s real and imaginary are just beginning to settle into his head.

Adapted by Emma Donoghue from her 2010 novel, Room takes a big turn after an hour, Jack’s task, like Alice’s in Wonderland, is to understand the rules—or their absence—in two different realms. He’s like a refugee, an almost alien visitor. Joy is meanwhile subject to regular attacks of guilt that I suspect many mothers will know. Lenny Abrahamson, of Frank, provides direction that’s both surehanded and dry-eyed. MILLER (R) Guild 45th, Pacific Place, others SPECTRE 007 (Daniel Craig) is in disgrace as usual, while MI6 (still led by Ralph Fiennes’ M) is itself threatened by an upstart new spy agency. There’s also a self-satisfied new villain (Christoph Waltz) who goes by different names, and a new Bond girl, Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), also trying to escape her past. Spectre has a signature look and operating system that reinforce the Bond brand: quality, familiarity, lack of surprise (though many delights), and a design consistency that leads inexorably to the next product launch. It looks back, beginning with the famous theme and gunbarrel intro, then swoops forward in a seamless one-take assassination sequence in Mexico City. This enjoyably overstuffed entertainment , also directed by Skyfall’s Sam Mendes, again has Bond reluctantly excavating more of his fraught/repressed past. Yet one suspects that Ian Fleming would have little use for all the talk of wounded heroes and stolen childhoods. MILLER (PG-13) Cinerama, Sundance, Majestic Bay, Ark Lodge, Kirkland, others ■ SPOTLIGHT Tom McCarthy’s extremely well-cast ensemble drama follows The Boston Globe’s Pulitzerwinning 2002 exposé of the Catholic church’s cover-up of widespread sexual abuse of minors by priests.

He relates the story from the multiple viewpoints of editors (John Slattery, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber) and reporters (Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d’Arcy James).

The approach allows us to see how the scandal permeates every level of Boston society, from blue-collar Catholic neighborhoods where disgraced priests are hidden to tony golf courses where church attorneys share the links with Globe editors.

This movie excels at digging into the nooks and crannies of deep-seated corruption and making those shadowed places come to credible life.

(R) HORTON Meridian, others

KERRY BROWN/TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX

Bad) and Benedict Samuel (The Walk) star in a romance tainted by drug addiction. (R) Sundance THE GOOD DINOSAUR The second Pixar (and dinosaur) movie this year continues to mine the theme of friendship having no barriers. With the voices of Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, and Sam Elliott. (PG) Opens Wide LEGEND Tom Hardy plays both the twin English gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray, last seen 25 years ago in the underrated The Krays, when the pair were played by musicians Gary and Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet. (R) Opens wide

FRIDAY - TUESDAY @ 7:00PM / SAT URDAY @ 1:30PM

odds&ends

HIGHER GROUND

Turkeys of the Year

BY MICHAEL A. STUSSER

T

Banda, who faces 28 years in prison, will be arraigned in January, and has become a spokesperson for legalization, bringing national attention to the absurdity of the charges. As hemp farmer Thomas Jefferson said, “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”

Or in this case, a woman.

Ohio’s failed legalization initiative gets the

Wishbone Award, screwing up not once but in two pieces! First, the deeply flawed law was a greedy attempt to make billions for the 10 millionaires who wrote and backed the initiative in the first place; second, it introduced the world to Buddy, a regrettable marijuana mascot who resembles Joe Camel. Sixty-four percent of voters clearly saw what a sham this attempted oligopoly was, and voted it down. But ya know who did support this anti-free market boondoggle? The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. For that, NORML gets a Dumb-Stick.

Not everything with the words “marijuana” and “legalization” is a good idea, pals.

A 420-friendly resort called CannaCamp was set to open July 1 in a gorgeous wilderness area outside Durango, Colo. In addition to scenic cabins, weed-infused dinners, and baked yoga classes, the Mary Jane Group offered high hiking and a cannabis concierge on its 170 marijuana-friendly acres. Unfortunately, the stoners at the MJ Group didn’t get the details about the ranch’s sale a month before cannabis-campers were set to arrive. “Dude.

Where’s my ranch?!”

While the Colorado CannaCampers are now looking for a new location, here in Washington we’ve got hundreds of CannaCampgrounds for all to enjoy! They’re called parks, and our beautiful state is chock full of ’em!

(Disclaimer: It is illegal to smoke in local, state, or national parks. Enjoy!)

Finally, the biggest Turkey of ’Em All was . . . the DEA! In addition to the 700,000 annual arrests still taking place for marijuanarelated offenses (now there’s a harvest!), our Drug Enforcement Administration is continuing to put up major roadblocks when it comes to even researching the benefits of medical cannabis.

The solution to carving up this mega-turkey is simple: Take marijuana off the controlledsubstances schedule—which currently equates pot with heroin and meth and states it has “no medically accepted use” and a “high potential for abuse.” This will allow doctors and scientific researchers to begin exploring, producing, and testing the medical benefits of this plant without fear of arrest. Put that in your pipe and stuff it. #ThankfulforLegalization E For more Higher Ground, visit highergroundtv.com.

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

ime to reveal this year’s cannabis turkeys—the fattest, most frivolous, flapping, dumbass ideas in need of being stuffed, baked, and smoked once and for all.

Let’s start with a turkey large enough for the whole family, and by that I mean Gov. Chris Christie. He not only had the nerve to call cannabis a gateway drug, but said potheads lack restraint BR IA NN (ahem). “If I’m elected A president I will go after mari- CASH I juana smokers and the states that N allow them to smoke,” he said. “I’ll shut them down big-time. I’m sick of these addicts, sick of these liberals with no self-control.” Governor GobbleGobble got in one more zinger on the campaign trail: “If you’re getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it,” Christie lectured a small crowd last month. “As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws.” Don’t hold your breath, Guv. Well, unless you inhaled, of course.

Last week the DEA chief, Chuck Rosenberg, called medical cannabis “a joke.” “What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal—because it’s not,” said pilgrim Rosenberg. “We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous, but don’t call it medicine—that is a joke . . . If you talk about smoking the leaf of marijuana—which is what people are talking about when they talk about medicinal marijuana—it has never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine.” Hilarious joke for those being aided by cannabis for everything from epileptic seizures to Parkinson’s, chronic pain, PTSD, and more. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) slammed this diatribe from the House floor, calling Rosenberg “an inept, misinformed zealot who has mismanaged America’s failed policy of marijuana prohibition.” A change.org petition created for this turkey’s removal currently bears more than 100,000 signatures.

The State of Kansas is still attempting to put Shona Banda, an author and medical-marijuana patient, in prison after her young son accidentally outed her in a D.A.R.E. presentation. Banda, who uses cannabis oil to treat her Crohn’s disease, had her 11-year-old taken from her when he challenged the school presentation’s accuracy based on his own firsthand knowledge that marijuana was helping his mom battle her illness. Though her son has since been returned, Banda is still facing felony criminal charges, including distribution or possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of school property; unlawful manufacture of a controlled substance; possession of drug paraphernalia; and child endangerment.

25

SPAS

JESSICA’S ULTIMATE SPA

Sensual Relaxation 425.765.0376

All American Girls • Hot Showers OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 10am - 9pm 1084 KIRKLAND AVE NE RENTON, WA 98056

KING’S MASSAGE Body Shampoo Sauna Expert Massage Come and see us You won’t be disappointed

13811 HIGHWAY 99 LYNNWOOD WA 98087 425-743-6183

MASSEUSE NEEDED adult phone services

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

Free FORUMS & CHATROOM 206-753-CHAT 253-203-1643 425-405-4388

N I NG

26

MAN to MAN Free chatrooms!

206-753-CHAT 253-359-CHAT 425-405-CHAT WebPhone on LiveMatch.com

Tired of talking to your cat?

206-753-CHAT 253-203-1643 425-405-4388 WebPhone on LiveMatch.com Ladies free to talk w/VIPs!

W W W. S E AT T L E W E E K LY. C O M / S I G N U P

Apartments for Rent King County

Employment General

Clean quiet sleeping rooms South end $150/week, includes laundry, clean rooms every two weeks and utilities 206-762-2757

Multi-Media Advertising Consultant Puget Sound Region, WA Do you have a proven track record of success in sales and enjoy managing your own territory?

Are you competitive and thrive in an energetic environment? Do you desire to work for a company that offers uncapped earning opportunities?

Are you interested in a fast paced, creative atmosphere where you can use your sales expertise to provide consultative print and digital solutions? If you answered YES then you need to join the largest community news organization in Washington. The Daily Herald/La Raza is looking for a candidate who is selfmotivated, results-driven, and interested in a multi-media sales career. This position will be responsible for print and digital advertising sales to an exciting group of clients from Bellingham to Tacoma.

The successful candidate will be engaging and goal oriented, with good organizational skills and will have the ability to grow and maintain strong business relationships through consultative sales and excellent customer service. Every day will be a new adventure! You can be an integral part of our top-notch sales team; helping local business partners succeed in their in print or online branding, marketing and advertising strategies. Professional sales experience necessary; media experience is a definite asset but not mandatory. If you have these skills, and enjoy playing a pro-active part in helping your clients achieve business success, please email your resume and cover letter to: hreast@soundpublishing.com ATTN: LARAZA in the subject line. We offer a competitive compensation (Base plus Commission) and benefits package including health insurance, paid time off (vacation, sick, and holidays), and 401K (currently with an employer match.)

Sound Publishing is an Equal Opportunity Employee (EOE) and strongly supports diversity in the workplace.

Visit our website to learn more about us! www.soundpublishing.com

WA Misc. Rentals Rooms for Rent Greenlake/WestSeattle $550 & up (1st/last/deposit) Utilities included! busline, some with private bathrooms • Please call Anna between 10am & 8pm • 206-790-5342

Announcements

Professional Services Music Lessons GUITAR LESSONS Exp’d, Patient Teacher. BFA/MM Brian Oates (206) 434-1942

Appliances AMANA RANGE Deluxe 30” Glasstop Range self clean, auto clock & timer ExtraLarge oven & storage *UNDER WARRANTY* Over $800. new. Pay off balance of $193 or make payments of $14 per month. Credit Dept.

206-244-6966

KENMORE FREEZER

Repo Sears deluxe 20cu.ft. freezer 4 fast freeze shelves, defrost drain,

interior light *UNDER WARRANTY* Make $15 monthly payments or pay off balance of $293.

Credit Dept. 206-244-6966

KENMORE REPO Heavy duty washer & dryer, deluxe, large cap. w/normal, perm-press & gentle cycles. * Under Warranty! * Balance left owing $272 or make payments of $25. Call credit dept.

206-244-6966

NEW APPLIANCES UP TO 70% OFF All Manufacturer Small Ding’s, Dents, Scratches and Factory Imperfections *Under Warranty* For Inquiries, Call or Visit Appliance Distributors @ 14639 Tukwila Intl. Blvd.

206-244-6966

REPO REFRIGERATOR Custom deluxe 22 cu. ft. sideby-side, ice & water disp., color panels available

UNDER WARRANTY!

was over $1200 new, now only payoff bal. of $473 or make pmts of only $15 per mo.

Credit Dept. 206-244-6966

STACK LAUNDRY Deluxe front loading washer & dryer. Energy efficient, 8 cycles.

Like new condition * Under Warranty * Over $1,200 new, now only $578 or make payments of $25 per month

%206-244-6966%

W E E K LY WEEKLY NEWSLETTER The inside scoop on features, columns and reviews.

FILM

MUSIC

Flea Market

COFFEE TABLE, octagon, 4 bevelled smoked glass panels, base underneath, Excellent cond, $45. Bellevue 425641-0643.

Order Generator Work for the Northwest’s Largest Tree Preservation Service.

No Experience Necessary.

Must enjoy working with people and being outdoors Set Your Own Schedule.

Paid Orientation, Marketing Materials & Company Apparel Provided • $500-$750/ Week Average, Top Reps earn $1000+ • Daily Travel & Monthly Cell Phone Allowance Available • Group Medical & Voluntary Dental Plan Avail Email resume to recruiting@evergreentlc.com 1-800-684-8733 ext. 3434

WANT TO WIN DVDS, CONCERT TICKETS & MORE?

CHECK OUT OUR FREE STUFF PAGE!

HAPPY HOUR

Employment Computer/Technology

FT Tree Climber $1,000 Incentive after 30 days as FT Climber Full Time- Year Round Work We perform Residential Tree Trimming, Pruning & Removal work. Climbing Gear, Vehicle & DL Req. Company Sponsored Medical Avail. & Voluntary Dental Email work experience to recruiting@treeservicesnw.com 1-800-684-8733 ext. 3434

Business Opportunities

Turn Key Restaurant For Sale Glass Alley Cafe, 5575 Harbor Ave., Freeland Family Tragedy Forces Owner to Move out of State Dear Whidbey Island Community & All of Our Devoted Patrons It is With Great Sadness that I am selling my successful wellestablished restaurant.

See why Glass Alley Cafe has attracted a steady following; visit website: glassalleycafe. squarespace.com Established Return Clientele!

This is a rare and exciting opportunity to earn, learn & be your own boss with such a fine establishment such as Glass Alley Cafe! $59,000 For your serious inquiry & personal tour appointment directly with owner, please contact Debbie at: (360) 969-2320 maytopcat@cox.net

Employment Career Services THE OCEAN Corp. 10840 Rockley Road, Houston, Texas 77099. Train for a new career. *Underwater Welder. Commercial Diver. *NDT/Weld Inspector. Job Placement Assistance.

Financial Aid avail for those who qualify 1.800.321.0298

Software Engineer: Design & devp sw for next-gen Visual Analytics & Collab suite util high-level, obj-oriented prog languages. Req MS or foreign equiv in Comp Sci, or rtd field, & 1 yr exp in: design & devp comp sw apps util high-level, obj-oriented prog languages, incl Java, C# & C++; design & devp change reqmts, visualization techniques & UI for webbased sw apps using Web Services, Windows, & XML; produce design docs, write code, build code, write test cases & perform unit & integration test for devp sw components; investigate issues rtd to comp sw apps, analyze code for origin of bugs, troubleshoot, debug, & recommend sols; & util relational dbases, incl SQL, & data structures, incl dictionaries & linked lists. Position at Tableau Software, Inc. in Seattle, WA. To apply, please e-mail resume to Jobstableau@tableau.com and ref Job ID: SE4.

Employment Services WANTS TO purchase minerals and other oil & gas interests.

Send details to P.O. Box 13557, Denver, Co 80201

CASTING CALL: Hot “real” northwest guys +18 y.o. wanted for adult video/photo work. www.XYRAW.com

FREE TO LISTEN AND REPLY TO ADS Free Code: Seattle Weekly

Auto Events/ Auctions

BIG D TOWING Abandoned Vehicle Auction Thursday 12/03/15 @ 11AM. 2 Vehicles Preview 10-11am.

1540 Leary Way NW, Seattle 98107

FIND REAL GAY MEN NEAR YOU Seattle:

(206) 877-0877 Tacoma:

www.megamates.com 18+

(253) 882-0882

BIG D TOWING Abandoned Vehicle Auction Wednesday 12/02/15 @ 11AM. 2 Vehicles Preview 10-11am.

1540 Leary Way NW, Seattle 98107 Stan’s Mountain View Towing Inc Abandoned Vehicle Auction 9000 Delridge Way SW, Seattle WA Wednesday 12/02/15 Gates Open 9AM, Auction 12 PM 206-767-4848

TAX PROBLEMS? You Could Save Thousands On Any Amount You Currently Owe The IRS

@seattleweekly

To Get Your Free Report “What the IRS Does Not Want You to Know” GO TO www.nunnbettertaxresolution.com Nunn Better Tax Resolution LLC, Redmond, WA

Toll Free: 844-SOS-1040

W W W. S E AT T L E W E E K LY. C O M / S I G N U P

PROMOTIONS

EVENTS

D I N I NG

FOR MORE DETAILS, VISIT US AT: seattleweekly.com/freestuff

Employment General

W E E K LY

MUSIC

EVENTS

MUSIC NEWSLETTER The inside scoop on upcoming shows and the latest reviews.

A R T S A N D E N T E R TA I N M E N T

The YWCA of Seattle|King|Snohomish seeks a

Emergency Shelter Domestic Violence Advocates

LOCALS BUY & SELL HERE Call

Classified

@ 206-623-6231, to place an ad Enroll Now! Severe Allergies to Food or the Environment?

Earn $200 per qualified plasma donation and help advance medical research! 425-258-3653 - plasmalab.com

HAPPYHAULER.com

Debris Removal • 206-784-0313 • Credit Cards Accepted!

Psychic, Palm & Tarot Card Readings $15 Special. 425-789-1974

Singing Lessons

FreeTheVoiceWithin.com Janet Kidder 206-781-5062 WE PAY CA$H FOR OLD VIDEO GAMES! ---------------GAME OVER VIDEOGAMES --------------Bellevue – Crossroads 425-746-GAME Seattle – Northgate 206-364-GAME GameOverVideoGames.com

The YWCA

$ TOP CASH $

DV Advocates are responsible for providing crisis intervention counseling and other social services to women in crisis who are temporarily housed in the Downtown Emergency domestic violence shelter. As an equal opportunity employer, we highly encourage people of color to apply.

Part-time (16 hrs/wk) and on-call (hours as-needed). Rate $16.35/hr.

PAID FOR UNWANTED CARS & TRUCKS

Respond to dohiring@ywcaworks.org.

Details @ www.ywcaworks.org

Up To $1000

7 Days * 24 Hours Licensed + Insured

ALL STAR TOWING

425-870-2899

Want to stop drinking to numb the pain?

Volunteers are needed for the APT Study examining two different types of treatment for people who have both alcohol problems and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Counseling is provided at no cost.

Call the APT Study at

206-764-2458

of Seattle|King|Snohomish seeks an

W W W. S E AT T L E W E E K LY. C O M / S I G N U P

•

Administrative Assistants

•

Executive Assistants

•

Office Support Specialists

•

Legal Assistants

•

Office Managers

•

Accounting Assistants

•

Data Entry Personnel

•

Marketing Assistants

206.386.5400

Temporarily Yours Staffing

720 3rd Ave. Ste. 1420 - Seattle, WA 98104 “The friendliest and preferred agency”

Life is calling. How far will you go?

W W W. S E AT T L E W E E K LY. C O M / S I G N U P

D I N I NG

W E E K LY

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVE MBER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

A R T S A N D Efacebook.com/seattleweekly N T E R TA I N M E N T

World Aids Day Panel Discussion Tuesday, December 1 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Douglass-Truth Public Library 2300 E. Yesler Way • Seattle, WA

855.855.1961 | www.peacecorps.gov

Bookkeepers

Or call today — we’re here for you!

Discover Global Health Projects Overseas

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers will discuss why health education specialists are needed to address global health issues at the grassroots level in communities arould the world.

•

NEVER A FEE TO YOU! Apply Online: www.tyiseattle.com

o partner with South Seattle College and other local community colleges to increase PROMOTIONS EVENTS I N I NGwho enroll inW vocational E E K LY training andM Uattain S I C post-secondary the number ofDwomen PROMOTIONS NEWSLETTER credentials and employment in the field of Manufacturing. As an equal opportunity Th e inside scoop on free tickets, and event photos. employer, we highly encourage people of color to apply.

Respond to mshiring@ywcaworks.org I L Mywcaworks.org HAPPY HOUR DetailsF@

Receptionists

•

Career Navigator 40 hrs/wk, $16.35-19.08/hr DOE

Temporary, Temporary-to-Hire & Direct Hire Do you have administrative experience? We place:

MUSIC

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER The inside scoop on features, columns and reviews.

27

Get a new Rheem furnance installed for as low as Angie’s List Super Service Award $1995!*

28

*Plus tax and permits Limited Time Offer

You Can Trust Us With Your Home's Comfort

www.sundanceenergy.com

Call for a FREE In-Home Consultation!

206-802-9156 SW1115

• Top rated by leading consumer magazine • Peace of mind – Best warranty in the industry • Rheem Team Top Contractor for over 20 years • Performance that exceeds expectation

Ask about our FREE whole house air filtration system

License #SUNDAES063J9

10228 Main Street • Bothell | 1314 Anderson Rd • Mt Vernon

1469588

SEATTLE WEEKLY • NOVEM BER 25 — DECEM BER 1, 2015

Recipients 7 years running