Issuu

IX IN THE C M IT CO

January 20-26, 2016 | VOLUME 41 | NUMBER 3

What

Is the

Price of Progress?

On the eve of his latest venture, civic doer David Brewster takes on the skeptics. BY MARK BAUMGARTEN

PAGE 11

“The bartender was friendly and willing to answer all of my newbie beer questions and unselfconsciously sang ‘Jessie’s Girl’ as he whipped them up. In an era where bartenders often are too cool for school, this one was refreshingly unaffected—just like the food.”

VANISHING ACTS ANDREW IMANAKA

Why local musicians decide to leave the PNW (and why they come back). By Kelton Sears

t first, the four members of La Luz were afraid to tell anyone about their decision to pack up and leave town. “I felt like we’d gotten so much support from the people in Seattle,” Shana Cleveland says, “especially after the accident; people really showed us how much they loved us here.” The band’s lead guitarist and vocalist is referring to the night in 2013 when a semitruck spun out on a patch of black ice and smashed into the band’s tour van. Fans responded by filling La Luz’s PayPal account with donations, and local artists directed proceeds from their own shows to help recoup the equipment the band lost in the near-fatal collision. » »CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Bramling Cross reviewed by Nicole Sprinkle Page 18

t’s been 50 years since a young academic named David Brewster moved from the East Coast to a sleepy Seattle. Since then, the city has changed dramatically, and Brewster has been a catalyst for much of that change, first as the founding publisher and editor of this newspaper—a role he held for 21 years before selling the paper in 1997—and then as the founder of the event space Town Hall, the online news outlet Crosscut, and other more minor yet still highminded concerns. This week, at age 76, he will embark on his latest venture, Folio. A membership library located in the downtown YMCA building, this new institution will provide Seattleites willing to fork over $125 a year a place to study, write, and collaborate. It will also serve as a quasi-public space offering concerts, lectures, and other programming that its founder hopes will cultivate the creative energy in this city. I spoke to Brewster about his latest venture and his legacy.

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

elevate

tonight ENDEARING & ENDURING

TONY ORLANDO

SAT | JAN 30 | 8:00PM

the

human spirit

place has a happy

VISITSUNVALLEY.COM

TIMELESS

PETER CETERA SUN | FEB 14 | 7:00PM

BEATLES TRIBUTE BAND

BEATLEMANIA LIVE! FRI | FEB 19 | 8:00PM SAT | FEB 20 | 8:00PM

SEATTLE WEEKLY • JAN UARY 20 — 26, 2016

09|03

AN EVENING OF CIGARS AND STAND-UP COMEDY

SMOKIN’ AND JOKIN’ FRI | FEB 26 | 8:00PM

TICKETS: SNOCASINO.COM OR THE SNOQUALMIE CASINO BOX OFFICE SEA TO SUN IN UNDER 2 HRS, NON-STOP FLIGHTS ALL WINTER. ROOMS STARTING FROM $129 PER NIGHT.

I-90 E. Exit 27 | www.snocasino.com

/Snocasino

– SEATTLE’S CLOSEST CASINO –

editorial

Idaho Creep and Abortion Access in Washington

Tempting as it is to write off these events as

further proof that Eastern and Western Washington just aren’t meant for each other, in fact they

put the onus on Seattle residents to take an active stand on abortion rights. On a political level, the actions of both the Republican-led Congress and state Senate have made frustratingly clear that a vote for a Republican is a vote for a leadership regime that will go to great lengths to attack abortion rights. Conventional wisdom in Washington politics states that all the votes Democrats need to win a state majority can been seen from the Space Needle, but in recent elections Republicans have successfully nibbled at the edges of this turf. Along with taking the State Senate—allowing abortion foes like Sen. Mike Padden (R-Spokane Valley—yes, a district bordering Idaho) to chair influential committees—the GOP has also made gains in the House, knocking off four Democratic incumbents in 2014. Another election like 2014’s, and Republicans could hold the legislature. The governor’s mansion appears more secure, though Republicans are sure to try to leverage the Department of Corrections early-release flap to their advantage. In other words, Seattleites can’t take it for granted that Washington will remain the blue bastion it has recently been. 2016 is a year to engage, be it in your own district or a neighboring one where progressives could use your help. Every campaign needs door knockers and a $20 donation, and Puyallup is just a 30-minute drive away. But more important, the rhetorical attacks on abortion rights—the comparisons to Nazi camps, the threats to lock up physicians—emanating from our own state should be met head-on with equally forceful defenses. Seattle’s own Lindy West and Amelia Bonow created a global phenomenon this summer when they began to talk openly about their abortions. These courageous women will speak at Town Hall on Friday about their plans to continue to fight the stigmatization of abortion, and deserve a packed house. Women should never be asked whether or not they are virgins. But nor should they be ashamed to avail themselves of a right that a near-unanimous Supreme Court affirmed nearly half a century ago. And lastly, Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and Idaho is in the process of rebuilding their clinic in Pullman. We know there are women just over the border in Moscow who’d be thankful if you’d donate to help them do so. E

THE AGE OF AMBITION

TRUTH, FAITH AND FORTUNE IN CHINA PUBLIC LECTURE

FEBRUARY 17, 2016 | 7:30 PM | KANE 120 China is in the midst of transition and transformation economically, politically, culturally and internationally. National Book Award recipient Evan Osnos will discuss its upward trajectory as a global superpower and investigate the broad implications accompanying its rise. EVAN OSNOS: Osnos won the 2014 National Book Award for Nonfiction for his book Age of Ambition. He has worked as The New Yorker’s Beijing correspondent and as the Beijing Bureau Chief of the Chicago Tribune, where he won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, National Committee on US-China Relations, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Poynter Fellow at Yale. He is a contributor to This American Life and Frontline, and appears frequently on programs such as Charlie Rose and Fareed Zakaria GPS. This lecture is free and open to the public. Seating will be limited and advanced registration is required. Mr. Osnos will sign books following his talk.

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY of WASHINGTON Register Online: uwalum.com/lecture

Seattle Store

W I N T

editorial@seattleweekly.com

To donate, Google “Greater Washington Planned Parenthood” and follow the “donate” link on their website.

Photo: Austin Siadak

11 COMIX

The original Battle of Seattle. Plus: How we do dogs.

13 ARTS & CULTURE

A day-long arts immersion; a mixed report card for Seattle Opera; and a great example of a movie genre that thrills (the rest of) the world.

18 FOOD & DRINK

Ethan Stowell knows burgers; the month’s anticipated new beers.

26 ODDS & ENDS

SAVE 25-50% OFF Select Styles

Sale Ends February 15th New and existing Elevated Rewards members receive an additional 10% off their entire purchase. Sign-up today! Offer good in store only.

t eS

Ave

Why boring is popular (tunnels, we mean), and why we may be getting more. Climate activists: guilty, but no jail time. And micro-radio comes to Seattle. (The cost isn’t so small, though.)

Mountain Hardwear

3rd

NEWS & COMMENT

Ave

2nd

inside

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

Offer valid at the Mountain Hardwear Seattle store. Limit one discount per household. Offer may not be applied to prior purchases, combined with any other offer, used online or at any other store, redeemed by employees, or applied to gift card purchases or shipping charges. [If any portion of purchase is returned or exchanged, you will receive a merchandise credit for the price paid after discount (prorated per item based on price), and prorated discount amount will be void.] Mountain Hardwear reserves the right to change or cancel this offer at any time. Void if assigned, transferred, sold, bartered, or reproduced, and where prohibited, restricted, or taxed. Cash value 1/100¢. Valid from [01/15/2016] through [2/15/2016]. ©2016 Mountain Hardwear USA Corporation.

SEATTLE WE EKLY • JANUARY 20 — 26, 2016

here’s a wonderful line in Maria Semple’s novel Where’d You Go, Bernadette in which the protagonist notes one of the more distressing aspects of Seattle life: By the laws of geography, she lives in Washington, a state that borders Idaho. Friday marks the 43rd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision that a woman’s right to privacy extends to her choice to have an abortion in America. In Seattle, safe and legal access to abortion can feel like a moot point, a given. And in many ways, thankfully, it is. But like Bernadette, we must remember that we live in a state that borders Idaho, which puts us far closer to the fight over reproductive freedom than anyone should be four decades after Roe v. Wade. We needn’t look far back in history to know this to be so, as false accusations of Planned Parenthood selling fetal tissue emboldened abortion foes in our own backyard in recent months. This fall, state Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane, whose district clings to the Idaho border like a slug to an outhouse, said at a rally: “There is no difference between Planned Parenthood and what [Nazi] Dr. Josef Mengele did in Germany during the 1940s.” Around the same time, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, also R-Spokane, also of a district glued to a certain panhandle, voted to defund Planned Parenthood in the United States. “What kind of a country are we if we accept that these procedures are somehow acceptable?” asked McMorris Rodgers, the highest-ranking woman in the House. On the same day, she voted yes on a bill that would put doctors in prison for performing abortions. On Monday, The Seattle Times reports, state Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, whose district smacks into Idaho like a bird into a picture window, met with several high-school students lobbying for better insurance coverage for reproductive health. Dye found it apropos to ask these teens, exercising their other constitutional right to petition their government, if they were virgins. In September, the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Pullman, a morning walk from the border, was struck by arson—a frightening precursor of the massacre that took place in Colorado two months later. The Pullman clinic remains closed to this day.

EVAN OSNOS

Brewster » FROM PAGE 1

JANUARY 29TH - APRIL

SW: You’ve been getting some press on Folio and it’s been receiving some wary responses. Were you surprised by that?

The funny thing about Seattle is that Seattle talks a very good game about being entrepreneurial and starting things. And leaving aside the business part of that, it’s actually pretty resistant to change and pretty skeptical when new ideas come. After the idea proves itself, then everyone likes it and takes credit for that. It’s not the easiest place to introduce a new idea. What about the charge that this is an elitist institution?

My answer to that is that it’s $10 a month, which is very reasonably priced. And anyone can join Folio; there’s no question of who are your ancestors or what is your business. These membership libraries have always been leaders in democracy from the beginning, in the 18th century. They had women, they had people who disliked books; they were in no sense an elite organization. And here we are at the Y, and the Y is a wonderful broad-based organization for all kinds of people, all sorts of ethnicities, but of course you have to pay to belong. And the bus system is a public system, but you have to pay in order to get on. Supporting things of worth with membership dues, like public radio, seems to me to be a thing that, once people stop and think about it, yes, that goes on all the time.

Friday, January 29th | Surfin’ A tribute to The Beach Boys

Saturday, January 30th | RIO A tribute to Duran Duran

Friday, February 5th | Second Sting The Ultimate Scorpions Tribute

You recently wrote a piece in The Seattle Times about the KUOW buyout of KPLU. It felt a bit Pollyanna-ish, downplaying the role an independent KPLU could serve. Do you think that public opposition to the buyout comes from this same place of resistance to new ideas?

Well, I certainly took a storm of criticism from

that, and I’ve come to change my mind in seeing the intensity of the loyalty to an independent KPLU. I liked, in general terms, the idea of consolidation of nonprofits and smaller media. I think the result of the decline of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the decline of mainstream journalism has been that we have too many fractured organizations that don’t have the throwweight to really do the stories or enough financial support to be sustainable. So in that context, I liked the idea of having one station being very dominant and really challenging the leading newspaper in town. Why don’t you get more involved in creating that entity?

I’ve reached the point of not wanting to be involved in any media or certainly starting up anything. But the town doesn’t have much in the way of media criticism, and, as in that story, I like to provoke. I wanted to voice the unpopular but plausible idea that the combination of those two radio stations would be a good thing. I think that what I have found is that the loyalty to KPLU and their way of doing it and also the stubbornness of the staff of wanting to keep doing KPLU the way it is, even though their license holder no longer wants to sustain them, is perhaps a good-enough argument for keeping that independent voice. Or, to put that another way, an indication that the marriage is not going to be terribly successful. How does Folio fit into your legacy?

You know, I came originally out to Seattle in 1965 to teach English at the University of Washington as an assistant professor, so returning to literature is kind of a neat closing of the circle for me. I think of Folio as a nice last movement where the themes of earlier movements are still to be heard. E

mbaumgarten@seattleweekly.com

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Saturday, February 6th | House of Floyd The Music of Pink Floyd

Editor-in-Chief Mark Baumgarten

Saturday, February 13th | Mirage

SEATTLE WEEKLY • JAN UARY 20 — 26, 2016

Visions of Fleetwood Mac

Tickets $10 Advance | $15 Day of Show • Doors 7:00 PM | Show at 8:00 PM (unless otherwise stated)

EDITORIAL

PRODUCTION

News Editor Daniel Person

Creative Services Manager Sharon Adjiri

Culture Editor Kelton Sears

Art Director Jose Trujillo

Staff Writers Sara Bernard, Casey Jaywork Copy Editor Gavin Borchert Film Critic Robert Horton

| Full entertainment schedule online

Food Critic Nicole Sprinkle

Tickets available in our gift shop or on the web For more information call 866.547.6468 | Ages 21 and over The Point Casino is proudly owned and operated by The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. Some promotions require enrollment in The Wildcard Club Program. You must be at least 21 years old to participate in gaming activities, attend entertainment events and to enter lounge/bar areas. Knowing your limit is your best bet—get help at (800) 547-6133.

4 TPC-5704-5 Seattle Weekly.indd 1

1/15/16 4:54 PM

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

Visual Arts Critic T.S. Flock

Administrative Coordinator Amy Niedrich

Editorial Intern Sophie Hayes

Publisher Bob Baranski

Contributors

Kingston, WA • www.the-point-casino.com • 1.866.547.6468

ADVERTISING Senior Multimedia Consultant Krickette Wozniak

Rick Anderson, Meagan Angus, James Ballinger, Joshua Boulet, Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, Taylor Dow, Alyssa Dyksterhouse Jay Friedman, Margaret Friedman, Alex Garland, Zach Geballe, Chason Gordon, Dusty Henry, Marcus Harrison-Green, Patrick Hutchison, Seth Kolloen, Sandra Kurtz, Dave Lake, Jason Price, Tiffany Ran, James Stanton, Jacob Uitti, Tom Van Deusen

206-623-0500

COPYRIGHT ©2016 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. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT SEATTLE, WA POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO SEATTLE WEEKLY, 307 THIRD AVE. S., SEATTLE, WA 98104 • FOUNDED 1976.

“I had a secret crush on her too because intelligence for me is a huge turn-on, and she has it in spades.”

JOE GARBER

SCOTT TRAVIS

chatterbox

A WELL-TOLD TALE

Last week, Casey Jaywork penned a touching profile of Jamie Lutton, the owner of Capitol Hill’s Twice Sold Tales. As Jaywork explains, Lutton faces death on two fronts: As a vendor of used physical books in a hyper-digitized city, her business model is under duress. Meanwhile, she is fighting kidney failure. Yet she perseveres, and from readers’ reactions, Jaywork isn’t the only person touched by her presence.

Matt_Sweeney, via seattleweekly.com OVEREDUCATED

In the news section, John Stang and Sophie Hayes reported on efforts in Olympia to make community college free for some students, an idea that has plenty of fans on campus. But support isn’t unanimous.

Dog Daycare • Dog Boarding Dog Grooming • Dog Shop Downtown Seattle 206/623-5395

Ballard 206/789-1290

citydogclub.com

SEATTLE WE EKLY • JANUARY 20 — 26, 2016

Do we need the government subsidizing these people to stay out of the workforce for another couple years? A lot of other nations just make the Back in the day I was Jamie’s best customer, because four years of high school enough qualification for I was a captive market. I had to catch the 43 outside many jobs and offer trade-school options for those every night to get home to the U District. I had a four years if the student isn’t academically likely to secret crush on her too because intelligence for me succeed in the high-school program. Let’s make is a huge turn-on, and she has it in spades. high school not useless, creating adults that can go to work. The first year of community college Wizard Garber, via seattleweekly.com is typically people’s 14th year of publicly funded I doubt she will remember, because I imagine she school, and that’s only in the shrinking districts that aren’t offering Pre-K already. does this often, but Ms. Lutton Send your thoughts on helped me acquire my cat. And Vince Atchison, via Facebook this is no ordinary cat. She’s literthis week’s issue to ally the Best Kitty in the World. TO SERVE AND EXPECT letters@seattleweekly.com Thank you, Jamie. And stay And in our comics section, Tatiana excellent. Gill gave readers an illustrated guide to helping the homeless in our community. One Randy Bowles, via e-mail reader urged a more systemic solution. Wishing, hoping, praying for you Jamie, in a All of these suggestions are nice, but what people Wiccan way. We need book-lovers and people really need to understand is that we have a crisis who also love the crows!!! because the city and county allowed service providScott Adams, via seattleweekly.com ers to continue to use outdated methods that do not reduce homelessness. While the rest of the I remember when Jamie first started selling in the country was busy putting together new systems Broadway Market. We’d walk by her kiosk, check out some titles, talk to her a bit, and move on. There and programming that actually reduce homelessness, we . . . continued allowing tent cities where was something oddly magnetic about her, which I people remained homeless because no services think is still with her today. Best of luck, Jamie! were brought in to get them housed and employed. WaxTadpole, via seattleweekly.com So if you want to do something about the homeless crisis, demand action by your leaders—demand I loved Twice Sold Tales in general and Jamie in that any homeless service, whether a hygiene cenparticular—although anyone who says she can’t ter, a tent city, a shelter, or even the proposed combe difficult is either a liar or has never met her. munity center for the homeless by Rex Holbein’s And while I haven’t seen her since before the group, only come to be if there is an opportunity turn of the century, I feel certain she’d agree with at these sites for the homeless to be engaged with me. The last time I did see Jamie, I was shooting services that move them into housing. meth and heroin and living in an RV with no power. Jamie either didn’t notice or didn’t care, LaBoite, via seattleweekly.com E and said, “Oh, I’m so glad you came in. I’ve got something here that I love and I think you’re Comments have been edited for length and clarity. someone who’ll get it.” I don’t remember the title, Kitties who take exception with Randy Bowles’ kitty or much of the story—a grad student in math being declared “literally the Best Kitty in the World” who married her much older professor—but I can contact our kitty editor at whosalittlekittie remember sitting in my RV reading it and being wittie@seattleweekly.com or thatsrightyourea grateful that I knew someone like Jamie. littlekittiewittie@seattleweekly.com.

In the past couple of years, as a noticeable chunk of Seattle’s music community has shipped out, the dominant narrative in town, as countless messages scrawled in the streets and news headlines remind us every day, is one of impending doom for those trying to make a living making art. “Seattle Is Too Expensive for Artists Who Help It Boom,” declared the latest, a KUOW story from a few weeks ago. Fans wondering why their favorite bands are leaving town find a ready culprit in such stories: gentrification and overdevelopment. Yet more often than not, money isn’t the force driving artists out of Seattle. Take Stasia Irons. In 2013, the rapper from Sub Pop’s cosmic R&B/hip-hop group THEESatisfaction decided to move to Brooklyn. One reason was to follow a relationship, but she was also just bored. “I felt like we’d played every venue here,” she says. “I feel like some people reach the point that they just become a ‘Seattle artist’ or a ‘Pacific Northwest artist’— an artist who goes to Portland or something, maybe does a Seattle/Portland/Canada tour, but that’s as far as you’ll reach. And I didn’t want that at all for us. I definitely didn’t want to stay here my whole life and do Neumos every year or something like that.” Although New York was overwhelming and too fast-paced at first for her self-described chill West Coast style, the city totally delivered on her hopes. After Irons got to know local clubs, THEESatisfaction was able to score East Coast gigs much more easily, and the duo had to buy only one plane ticket to make those shows happen. On top of that, Irons, who says she’s interested in getting into the music side of the film industry, immediately fell in with some pretty high-level talent. “I started kicking it with the Broad City girls,” Irons says. “Wyatt Cenac and Hannibal Buress, just people like that. I was able to connect with a lot of people who I never would have been able to if I’d stayed in Seattle. That was definitely a part of it, and then also, Seattle being an extremely non-diverse place to live.” Diversity is also an issue for La Luz’s Cleveland, who says one reason she’s looking forward to L.A.—beyond the extra sun-triggered vitamin D—is the city’s more widely representative scene. “I think for a lot of us, one thing that’s exciting about the rock-and-roll scene there is that it

building something special, and I’m leaving it for a place where there’s so much that’s already established,” Levenson says. “You can get more recognition for doing something in a place where something isn’t happening, which is definitely how we got recognition with secondnature—it was something special because no one else was really doing it. I didn’t really want to leave Seattle, but I felt like I had to for my own personal growth. I love Seattle . . . the music scene is really tightknit, it’s not the kind of music community you can find most places.”

says. “Most of these music agencies are based in L.A., even though my creative process is very rooted in Seattle. Everything that I write about, all my inspiration comes from nature, and that’s something that’s not very present in L.A. But I worked on the album for two years, and I’m not the only person who worked really hard on it, so I just want it to come out with the best plan possible because I owe that to the people who have been a part of it.” Shaprece says despite needing to be “a

Even Kate Becker, director of the Seattle Office

of Film + Music, admits Seattle is no Berlin, L.A., or New York. But she recognizes other values that have helped the Seattle scene thrive through boom and bust. “There’s probably more publicists and managers per capita in other cities, but I really think Seattle’s music scene has some real merits to it,” she says. “Our scene is much more collaborative and there are so many unique opportunities here.” Indeed, Cleveland of La Luz says she might not have started taking music as seriously as she did if K Record’s founder Calvin Johnson hadn’t randomly been at one of her first shows at the Central District’s Hollow Earth Radio, whose

Sango

tumbleweed at this point” to further her artistic But for some artists who leave, Seattle’s artistic career, Washington is still where she intends to culture and diversity is what inspires them and settle—citing the laid-back atmosphere and lush, keeps them wanting to come back. abundant hiking routes off I-90 as key influences “Growing up in Seattle . . . I was exposed to a on her creative process. lot of different families, the music they listened Atmospheric producer Nathan Levenson of to, the language they spoke,” says Sango, a local Seattle’s secondnature collective, who performs hip-hop producer known for his tonally unique under the moniker Josef Gaard, also cites the Afro-Brazilian-gone-trap style. “I found myself Northwest’s landscape and prevailing vibe as sampling music from Eritrea, which kind of hapa key influences on his distinct fog-shrouded pened randomly at the time, but I knew it and take on dub techno. It’s a literal influence— I understood it, just having grown up around Levenson employs sounds on his album that friends from Eritrea and hearing the music— he recorded in nature while living in the forest Somalian too.” and working on farms. Last year, Sango It’s one thing Levenson returned to Grand Rapids, “I feel like it’s a really says he’ll miss most about Mich., to become a better musician. Looking to comfortable place to be as Seattle when he moves in one month, a decision he hone his already impresan artist, but I don’t think says was heartbreaking. sive skills as a beatmaker, relationship issues he sought the counsel of comfort is something that After and the sudden loss of his close friends in the his job, Levenson has seven-member hip-hop feeds creativity.” decided to try his luck collective AGO, which in the global center for forward-thinking eleche’d first joined when he attended Grand Raptronic music: Berlin. ids’ East Kentwood High School. “They really It’s hard to argue about the drastic infrastruchelped me be a better producer—an artist rather tural differences between Seattle and Berlin as than just a producer who makes beats,” he says. far as techno goes. Leading electronic-music Seattle-bred ambient electronic artist and media outlet Resident Advisor holds an office in vocalist Shaprece Renee recently made a similar the German city; one of the most internationally musical pilgrimage, relocating to L.A., where renowned cutting-edge electronic record stores she’s hoping to learn more about the business in the world, Hard Wax, is located there; and end of being an artist and to find a proper home countless dance labels call the city home. Levfor her upcoming LP Coals. She wrote and enson says a friend almost immediately landed a recorded the album in Seattle and spent last distribution job at celebrated experimental dance summer mixing it in L.A., where she started label Pan when he moved to Berlin recently. meeting people in the industry. A few days after Levenson hopes he can pull off a similar feat, and performing the album live with the Seattle Symalso hopes the move will help nourish the record phony at Benaroya Hall, she decided to move to label he’s looking to start. L.A. provisionally for a year. As excited as he is, he’s also sad to leave home. “It’s a bit more rapid in L.A.; it’s kind of like, “I felt like we [the secondnature collective] were you never know who you’re sitting next to,” she

ATIKH BANA

SEATTLE WEEKLY • JAN UARY 20 — 26, 2016

For a moment, the band members contemplated not telling people they were moving at all. “But after a while it was like, ‘You know what, guys, that would be really rude if we just left and didn’t tell anyone,’ ” Cleveland says, laughing. So drummer Marian Li Pino crafted a letter to La Luz’s fans, which the band edited together and then posted to Facebook on December 22. “Beloved Seattleites,” it began, “In early 2016, we will be moving to sunny Los Angeles.” La Luz’s two back-to-back New Year’s Eve shows at Neumos, the last on a long U.S. and European tour, would also be their last as Seattleites. (Cue the inevitable L.A. Luz jokes). “It’s a trip to be home—even though I know it’s not about to be home,” Cleveland would later tell the rapturous crowd at the first of the band’s final two nights, “but we are really excited to see all you guys here.” “Why?” a remorseful young fan next to me woefully asked her face-painted friend. “Why do they have to leave?”

feels more racially diverse—it doesn’t feel like it’s all white people,” Cleveland says. “I do feel like diversity makes for a more interesting scene.” Cleveland is also looking forward to L.A.’s faster, more challenging pace. She left Chicago 10 years ago for Seattle, a city she says she never intended to stay in as long as she has, and now she says she’s feeling uninspired. “I feel like it’s a really comfortable place to be as an artist, but I don’t think comfort is something that feeds creativity,” she says.

MARIELLE STOBIE

Vanishing Acts » FROM PAGE 1

Nils Peterson

founders, Garrett Kelly and Amber Kai Morgan, were two of the first friends she made when she initially moved to Seattle 10 years ago. (For more on Hollow Earth Radio, see “Dialed In,” page 10.) On the strength of her performance, Johnson would later release some of Cleveland’s earliest records on K. “Seattle is such an amazing place for a band to get started because there’s such a strong community and infrastructure here to support bands,” Cleveland says. “The city’s definitely changing, and that’s kind of a bummer to me, but everywhere we’ve traveled, even in Europe, every city seems to be having that same issue. Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, it used to be so much cooler here.’ ” Cody Blanchard, guitarist of popular Oakland doo-wop punk group Shannon and the Clams, says he was indeed feeling that way about the Bay Area before he recently packed up and moved here. “The first five years I was there, there were tons of good crazy bands doing wild stuff,” he says. “I feel like now when we’re playing the Bay, in San Francisco, we play with the same two or three bands over and over because there are so few interesting bands there.”

Stasia Irons

Still, for many it’s not cheap enough. And though a soon-to-be-published 2016 goal report from the Office of Film and Music will focus very heavily on preserving affordable space for musicians, practice, venues, and music businesses, the dominant narrative remains dominant for a reason. Take the story of Nils Petersen, member of Ole Tinder and Hotel Vignette and former guitarist for the once-rising, now-defunct Sub Pop psych-rock band Rose Windows. “Coming back from tour, it was so depressing knowing I had nowhere to live,” he says. When Rose Windows first got signed to Sub Pop

in 2013, Petersen suddenly found himself on big national tours lasting up to 10 weeks. He couldn’t justify continuing to rent his cheap, scrappy Seattle dwelling while he was away for so long. When he returned, every rental he could find was way out of his price range. A friend from Tacoma defaulting on a home mortgage let Petersen squat with him for free for seven months before Petersen happened upon a place of his own 26 miles north in Everett. At the same time, Rose Windows found itself strapped for the cash needed to rent a practice space in Seattle. “Nobody had money to put into an extra space outside of where they were living,” Petersen says, “so we just kind of bounced around to wherever we could.” Living rooms, lofts, friends’ studios—whoever had enough space to cram in seven band members and was willing to host a night of practice is where they went. Everett, as Petersen describes it, actually had its perks. “It’s odd—when I moved to Everett, I almost felt more support there than I did Seattle,” he says. “Maybe that was just a small-town mentality, but it’s something I never really felt strongly about in Seattle.” Rose Windows did well in Everett thanks to the zealous Everett Music Initiative, a program successfully attempting to jump-start a music scene in the outlying city. Through the support of EMI, Petersen also scored a gig as the house sound guy at the new Everett venue The Cannery. But as fate would have it, Petersen just moved back to Seattle. He could no longer justify the bus commute into the city, where he works as a teacher to 32 private music students and where his other band, Ole Tinder, still practices.

“When I looked online, it was like, ‘Can’t afford that, can’t afford that,’ ” he says. But when a spot opened at a friend’s house in Seattle, he jumped on it. But how could he afford it? “It’s an unheard-of deal,” he says. “It’s a really cheap house . . . that’s going to be torn down. We’re probably in the last seven months of this house before it gets demolished and turned into condos. I know that once this place goes out, I’m going to be out of the city again.” E

ksears@seattleweekly.com

NATHANIEL YOUNG

KING TEXAS

Part of that, Blanchard says, can certainly be blamed on San Francisco’s housing crisis, which Seattle frequently cites as the worst-case scenario for its own upward-trending rents. “I was looking at the prices for housing here and in Oakland, but on average Oakland was $500 more for similar spaces and neighborhoods than for Seattle,” Blanchard says. “In San Francisco, it was probably $500-$1,000 more on average. The cheaper places are getting farther and farther out from the center or where things are happening. It didn’t take me very long to find something in Seattle, though; I was here within two weeks. I found a place on Capitol Hill—I love being able to walk everywhere.” Beyond its being cheaper, Blanchard says he was attracted to Seattle by the friends he’d made, having played here frequently for Shannon and the Clams’ enthusiastic local audience. (The band is signed to Sub Pop offshoot label Hardly Art.) He says he’d already made 20 to 40 friends in Seattle before moving here. “There’s so much access to whatever weird shit you want here,” he says. “Weird shit, weird culture, there’s a lot at your fingertips.” These aspects of Seattle life are not always lost on those who leave. Sometimes they return. Sango came back after just half a year in Grand Rapids. “The people here are willing to look harder at and appreciate your work more because everybody is trying to make their own noise,” he says. “In Grand Rapids, it’s just like, ‘Oh, wow . . . you’re doing music! That’s tight . . . keep it up.’ ” THEESatisfaction’s Stasia Irons recently returned from New York for family business, but says she’s enjoying home for the time being, especially because “It’s a lot cheaper here.”

Josef Gaard

SEATTLE WE EKLY • JANUARY 20 — 26, 2016

news&comment Not Necessary UNDERGROUND

UPDATE

We Can Dig It

Why ‘guilty’ was a victory for climate activists in Lynnwood.

Bertha’s troubles don’t seem to be dampening Seattle’s enthusiasm for tunnels.

BY SARA BERNARD

BY DANIEL PERSON

Ah, Bertha. As it happened, the Northwest Seattle Coalition for Sound Transit 3—which includes Wasserman’s group as well as a score of neighborhood organizations—issued a press release calling on Sound Transit to build the Salmon Bay tunnel on Tuesday of last week. That very day, Bertha was brought to a halt again, this time due to a sinkhole that formed above where the giant machine was drilling.

SOUND TRANSIT

SEATTLE WEEKLY • JAN UARY 20 — 26, 2016

ugene Wasserman does not fit the mold of your typical Seattle urbanist. Far, far, far from it. As president of the North Seattle Industrial Association, representing the heavy industry that continues to play a significant if increasingly retro role in new-money Ballard, he’s been personally blamed on bike blogs for the “missing link” on the Burke-Gilman Trail, which his group has opposed completing in Ballard for fear it would impede truck traffic. Last year he joined Faye Garneau to fight the $930 million Move Seattle transportation ballot measure, saying the price tag was too big and the benefits too uncertain. He’s on record complaining about recycling policy in Seattle, which is a bit like being on record questioning the Trinity in the Vatican. So it’s worth noting Wasserman’s take on a proposal—now being considered for inclusion on the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure—to dig a transit tunnel underneath Salmon Bay in the Lake Washington Ship Canal to connect Ballard with downtown via light rail: “We know its doable, so we feel it’s the best way to go.” In other words, he’s all for it. Part of his reasoning is practical and selfinterested. He and his organization figure it is inevitable that light rail will come to Ballard in one form or fashion. Best to keep it off the streets now used by trucks and heavy machinery. But another reason speaks to an important narrative forming around Sound Transit as it prepares to ask voters in King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties to approve a massive $15 billion levy next fall: The regional transit agency is killing it when it comes to building tunnels. To date, Sound Transit has built 12 tunnel segments, according to spokesman Geoff Patrick. “And we’re 12 for 12 on our success,” he says. “We’ve shown some pretty good ability to do these projects.” The light-rail line between the U District and downtown, which includes four sections of tunnel, is scheduled to open shortly, months ahead of schedule and $150 million under budget. This track record is generating an enthusiasm about tunneling that is all the more striking due to the 7,000-ton gorilla in the deep-bore tunnel room these days. “If we’re going to build transit, we should build transit that works,” Wasserman said. “Sound Transit has a good record with their boring, as opposed to Bertha.”

Staring into the abyss at the Roosevelt light-rail station.

Transit advocates are hyper-attuned to the bad rap Bertha could give tunneling in general in the region. Along with Sound Transit’s already stellar track record, these advocates are quick, and right, to point out that light-rail tunnels are about a seventh the size of the one Bertha is trying, and failing, to bore. But the odd snarky online comment aside, it’s hard to detect any real waning enthusiasm for transit tunnels. In fact, the opposite may be the case, with Bertha putting Sound Transit’s success in better relief. While the Sound Transit board hasn’t determined the final list of projects to be included in the next round of funding—a draft proposal is expected in March, with a final proposal sometime over the summer—a shortlist of proposals suggests that ST3 could include as much as nine miles of tunneling. This includes the Salmon Bay tunnel, a second downtown transit tunnel, and a tunnel from Ballard to the U District under Fremont and Wallingford. If all nine miles of tunnel were included on the ballot measure, it would be the most tunneling included in any of the three total Sound Transit proposals. Jonathan Hopkins with Seattle Subway—a pro-transit group with a subterranean bent— says the support for tunnel projects is a natural outgrowth of the transportation needs of a crowded city. “I think the fervor is for solutions that make the best use of our space. Therefore in downtown Seattle, the best use of space isn’t

to take lanes away from cars,” he says. The same is true for downtown Ballard. Also working in the Salmon Bay tunnel’s favor is the fact that a surface light-rail line would be subject to drawbridges that already provide infinite frustration to drivers and bus riders whose commutes are subject to maritime whims. Avoid the drawbridges, capture every Ballard resident’s heart. The drawback, of course, is that tunneling

costs money. A lot of it. Sound Transit suggests that building a light-rail line from Ballard to downtown via tunnels could cost as much as $5 billion. Mired as it is, the Bertha project is budgeted at a relatively cheap $1.35 billion. But advocates, like the cost-weary Wasserman, say spending a lot now on a project that works is better than spending less on something that doesn’t. “If you look at Rainier Avenue, they would have been better off tunneling in the long run,” Wasserman says of the light-rail line that now runs through South Seattle. Back in Ballard, Wasserman sounds almost relieved that, on one topic at least, an increasingly divided neighborhood can come to an agreement on this. “We [The North Seattle Industrial Association] decided on our own this was the best route to go,” he said. “We were surprised to find out everyone else in the community agreed with us.”E

dperson@seattleweekly.com

he five climate activists on trial for setting up a blockade in an Everett rail yard for eight hours in September 2014 got their verdict Friday: guilty of trespassing, but not guilty of blocking or delaying a train. In other words, victory. They won’t go to jail, and because they were cleared of the train-blocking charge, BNSF railway can’t demand financial restitution for the economic impacts of the train delay. For the misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass in the second degree, the consequences are pretty minor: Each defendant, except Michael Lapointe, will have to pay a $200 fine plus fees. They also each received a “90 days suspended” jail sentence, which means no jail time. Interestingly, the jury’s favorable verdict came after they were instructed not to consider the defendants’ central defense. Prior to the start of the trial on Monday, Judge Anthony Howard had told the defense team that they would be allowed to employ the “necessity defense” in this case—the legal principle that says the harm caused by a crime was necessary to prevent further harm. For the first time in an American court, the necessity defense was applied to climate change. All week the defense argued that the potential harm posed by explosive oil trains and climate change is greater than that caused by blocking a train. They brought in testimony from climate and energy-policy experts, a hazardous-materials safety expert, a physician, and a BNSF whistleblower. But on Thursday, Judge Howard reversed course and instructed jurors to disregard all this expert testimony, as he didn’t believe that breaking the law was the only option available to the defendants. “Judge now reading instructions to jury. Such instructions would train perfect Nazi soldiers,” Climate Disobedience Center co-founder Tim DeChristopher tweeted from the courtroom. But after hearing the verdict, DeChristopher suspects the jurors were nevertheless moved by the defense’s testimony—which possibly influenced their decision to debunk the more serious charge. “Jurors saying they were powerfully moved by the testimony which they were not allowed to consider in their decision,” he wrote on Friday. Then: “One juror tells @MarlaMarcum that they definitely would have acquitted if they had gotten necessity instructions.” Overall, the defendants were pleased with how the trial played out. Lapointe addressed supporters thus: “I’m disappointed in the ruling on the necessity defense, although I understand this is the law. But the law needs to be changed. There is no consideration of the time factor. [Climate change] is a matter of time.” He argued that he had no alternative to civil disobedience in this case, in part because of how time-sensitive he believes climate change to be, and because “we have no rights as a people, as a democracy, anymore . . . I don’t want to go off on a tangent, but . . . too late!” The courtroom broke into laughter. “It’s instances like this, it’s moments in history, that can affect the change we need,” Lapointe said. “I just want to say that I’m proud of everybody in this room.”E

sbernard@seattleweekly.com

SEATTLE WE EKLY • JANUARY 20 — 26, 2016

SARA BERNARD

Exposure

Fai Mathews joins the Martin Luther King Jr. march on Monday.

AIRWAVES

Dialed In

Starting a radio station is harder than it sounds. But just as fun. BY SARA BERNARD

Hollow Earth is one of seven groups that got construction permits from the FCC to build LPFM stations within Seattle city limits— enough to pave 90 percent of Seattle’s streets with community radio. LPFM radio stations are hyperlocal hubs that broadcast to only about a three-and-a-half-mile radius. They were created under federal policy following a hard-won fight by media-justice advocates in 2011, when

tireless Low Power FM advocate and one of the major players in getting the movement rolling in the Puget Sound region. She’s affectionately described by several members of Seattle’s radio cohort as “the goddess of LPFM.” “I think of the terrestrial signal as more than a terrestrial signal,” she says, explaining why these stations go through the effort, rather than simply stream online. “I think of it as a magnet—as community glue.” Seeing the challenges many stations are facing, Roach is developing a “Low Power FM Accelerator Project” that she hopes will bring dollars, donors, tools, and resources for LPFMs in Seattle and across the country; more specifics on that, she says, should roll out within a few months. For Roach, and for many, LPFM is a clear way to bring a more diverse set of voices to media, as well as for neighbors to get to know neighbors— an outgrowth of the fact that the signal is audible for only a few miles—and to build an immediately relevant audience for whatever experimental art piece or social issue anyone wants to share. “As a mechanism for community and economic development, it’s powerful,” she says. “There’s something magical there.” After the Hollow Earth meeting, I follow Gar-

BRIAN DIONISI

SEATTLE WEEKLY • JAN UARY 20 — 26, 2016

t’s Tuesday night at Hollow Earth’s headquarters, a funky, cluttered, two-room studio space at 20th Avenue and East Union Street, home base for 150 of the raddest radio nerds in town. The walls are lined with bookshelves packed with CDs; tinsel flutters down from an art project taped to the ceiling; a makeshift construction-paper thermometer takes the temperature of the group’s $25,000 IndieGoGo campaign, which, on this particular evening, is still a bit below the $10,000 mark. “We have $15,000 to raise in two weeks,” Becca Richards, a dark-haired woman with short bangs and a scarf, tells the couple dozen volunteers congregated here. “I feel pretty good about it.” Hollow Earth co-founder Garrett Kelly, a stocky guy with a salt-and-pepper beard and a gentle voice, tries to drum up support for the idea of door-to-door canvassing. “It’s really fun!” he says, unconvincingly. “To knock on a door, and be scared, and watch out for dogs, you know . . . It’s fun!” Instead, everyone spitballs ideas for music shows that could double as fundraisers. “Maybe we could have a sleepover show,” says Kelly. “Or a breakfast show?” someone suggests. “Yeah! You know, some guy has been talking about making noise music based off of waffles,” Kelly muses. “He’s been talking about that, like, forever.” Hollow Earth has been ushering in noise music and community conversations and wackyfantastical audio experiments through the Internet since 2007, and has had a home in the Central District since 2011. It’s never needed much money, since no one, not its DJs or show hosts or volunteer wranglers, has ever been paid a red cent. But in 2013, when a dedicated crew of Hollow Earthers applied for and obtained a coveted construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build their very own Low Power FM (LPFM) radio station—aka actual broadcasting on actual airwaves—the tables turned quite a bit. As it turns out, nabbing your own frequency on the radio dial is hardly the end of the road. There’s a shitton more work to do, and a lot of it requires cash, hence the $25,000 campaign. It costs thousands of dollars to buy a transmitter and an antenna, among other crucial bits of hardware, and at least $3,000 more to obtain a city permit to install said antenna on a roof. Oh, and you need a roof, which their studio rental doesn’t provide. They’re working on that, Kelly says. “We have two good options right now.”

LPFM in Seattle is pretty much “up to their President Obama signed the Local Community neck in alligators.” Radio Act. It’s about “not having just some peoErik Takuichi Wallace, technical coordinator ple in charge of the airwaves,” says Luzviminda for Rainier Valley Cultural Center and audio Uzuri “Lulu” Carpenter, host of Hollow Earth’s engineer for Rainier Valley Radio, an LPFM community talk show Lulu Nation. station set to start streaming online in March, But the stations are now at another crucial but not on the air until mid-2017, compares the step. When the FCC grants an LPFM station a LPFM effort to a Clint Eastwood movie. “Go spot on the dial, they want it to be used, so when ahead. Pick up the gun. I the agency began issuing “Bringing in people that dare you,” he mimics. “It’s permits in late 2013, it like the FCC was like, ‘Go set the expectation that would never get the Start a radio staeach applicant would start time of day on any radio ahead. tion. I dare you.’ ” broadcasting local conLuckily, the FCC tent for eight hours a day station . . . That’s my grants additional exactly 18 months later. personal thing.” 18-month extensions At this point, however, it for those who apply, and as a result, most of the looks as though just one of Seattle’s LPFMs will Seattle stations have set 2017 as a more realistic meet that deadline: Seattle University’s KXSU. deadline. “As of right now, it’s pretty loosey-goosey,” Money has proven the major barrier. Even concedes KXSU station manager Randy Scott, though $25,000 is a dizzying amount to raise for who says they’re ready to go on the air largely a ragtag band of volunteers like Hollow Earth, thanks to the access to equipment and funding that’s a very, very lowball amount to sustainably provided by their affiliation with a university. run an LPFM station, says Sabrina Roach, a Meanwhile, he says, everyone else working on

rett Kelly out into the wet night and he stops at a trunk on the street, just west of Hollow Earth’s front door—a big, mysterious, wizardly trunk full of non sequitur objects left by passersby: brightly colored picture frames, stickers, pins, journals, comics, bits of paper. “It’s the Time Travel Box,” he explains cheerfully. “You’ve always got to check the Time Travel Box.” Once, he says, Hollow Earthers found “an actual letter from the future” in it. So they threw a party on the subject—but not before they installed a Time Travel Museum at their headquarters for a few weeks, featuring “artifacts and evidence” of time travel. “The image of the scrappy radio station where people are doing ridiculous things, and bringing in people that would never get the time of day on any radio station because they’re, like, breaking glass as their music,” says Kelly: “That’s my personal thing.” He wants to be able to “turn on the radio and be like, ‘What the hell is this?!’ ” That’s why, for its on-air station, most likely to broadcast in 2017, Hollow Earth picked the call letters KHUH (definitely to be pronounced “k-HUH?!”). LPFM has the whimsical quality of a bookstore—that element of serendipity we left back in the pre-Amazon days, when we could stumble upon something totally unrelated to what we thought we were looking for. It’s part of what Kelly calls the “rawness and realness” of an oldschool medium that, ironically, thanks to the Internet, is enjoying a new heyday. Here in Seattle, money or no money, if you ask the LPFMers, that heyday is definitely coming. And so are you, if you want. “I hope people realize that they can invite themselves in,” Kelly says. “There’s a lot of space for that.”E

sbernard@seattleweekly.com

comix in the city

160 Years Since the Battle of Seattle by Gord Hill

SEATTLE WE EKLY • JANUARY 20 — 26, 2016

Seattle-Style Dog Dog Seattle-Style by Ben Horak and Travis Vogt

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

sponsored by

SEATTLE WE EKLY • JANUARY 20 — 26, 2016

a real-life kung fu grandmaster. The real Ip Man rom the outside, my barbershop on (or Yip Man) defined a new school of martial First Hill looks like every Main Street arts called Wing Chun, and counted among America tonsorial parlor, complete his pupils the great Bruce Lee himself. Ip Man with the striped helix of the traditional has lately become a cottage industry in Chinese barber pole. Inside, the tiny space is a pleasant film, with another competing series and one glimpse into another culture: the aroma of Asian bona fide arthouse entry, Wong Kar-wai’s The takeout, twangy music, and occasionally a VietGrandmaster. Donnie Yen plays the title role in namese epic playing on a monitor. During one this series, and he’s ideal for the part. He leads visits, the owner explained to me the plot of one with his wide smile and generous eyes; one of these melodramas. I’m pretty sure it was scene shows his satisfaction at changcertifiably unfollowable, unless you’d ing a light bulb at home—he’s like seen the story many times, which I IP MAN 3 Rated PG-13 a rebuke to action stars who think take it she had. for sequences of martial their authority is established with I am fascinated by the universe arts violence and brief brooding and pose-striking. of world culture that barely penestrong language. This installment is set in 1959 trates the average American’s radar Opens Fri., Jan. 22 at Hong Kong, where Ip Man has (including my own) yet occupies a AMC Pacific Place. settled with his wife (Lynn Hung) huge amount of space on the menu and his widely admired fight school. of the rest of the globe. For instance, Director Wilson Yip, Yen’s partner in the films of Bollywood—shorthand for the trilogy, leads with a deft gag involving India’s incredibly prolific moviemaking sysBruce Lee (played by Chan Kwok-Kwan) and a tem—resonate in barbershops from Nairobi to packet of cigarettes, then gives over the first half Sao Paulo to Hanoi. of the film to a plot about a criminal gang that Ip Man 3 can be found in the Chinese section wants to destroy a grade school. of this global menu. It hails from a genre that, If that sounds like crudely drawn melodrama, since the heyday of Bruce Lee, actually has made it is. Movies like this are engineered to create some inroads in the U.S.: the martial-arts picfoot-stomping reactions, and you should feel your ture. Still, this movie will open in only a handful blood boiling around the 10-minute mark. The of theaters stateside, and will be treated casually, second half sets Ip Man against a mysterious new if at all, by a media geared toward Englishrival (Zhang Yin), and also against a foreign devil, language releases. But wherever in the world it Tyson’s corrupt American developer—a plot thread plays, it will play like gangbusters. Built around that allows for some of the nationalistic chestcheerfully broad emotional deck-stacking, wellthumping seen in the first two Ip Man pictures, spaced fight scenes, and charismatic actors, Ip including a moment when a British official sarcasMan 3 delivers its punches with confidence. tically asks a Hong Kong police chief whether he Far from the grit of exploitation flicks, it looks understands Chinese. Tyson gets one big sequence terrific, full of vivid color and period design; with Yen, a hand-to-hand scrap that registers in the fighting has the precise spatial logic associtooth-rattling detail. (Tyson has dialogue in both ated with action director Yuen Woo-Ping (of English and Cantonese, although at any given Crouching Tiger and The Matrix renown). The moment it’s hard to tell which he’s speaking.) movie even has a role for Mike Tyson, who is Lopsided in its storytelling and brazen in not among its more charismatic actors but whose its string-pulling, Ip Man 3 is no masterpiece. presence speaks to the film’s no-translation-necWith so much quality cinema in theaters during essary worldwide appeal. Tyson’s presence is akin awards season, it will be overlooked by tasteful to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar showing up in Bruce cinephiles. But if you’re curious about what kind Lee’s Game of Death—less a matter of “Why?” of thing actually connects with audiences around than “Why not?” the globe, this movie will tick all the boxes. E As its title suggests, Ip Man 3 is third in a series documenting (with hefty fictionalization) film@seattleweekly.com

Good Food Hunting

DINING

Bramling Cross, Ethan Stowell’s latest, is a model of the modern pub with local brews and refreshing bar fare. BY NICOLE SPRINKLE

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

EAT, DRINK, SING & DANCE!! ISSAQUAH NOW OPEN! 240 NW GILMAN BLVD ISSAQUAH, WA 98027

SEATTLE WEEKLY • JAN UARY 20 — 26, 2016

HAPPY HOUR MENU!!

$4.00 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!!!

1/20 - ALOHA WEDNESDAY THE ILL LEGITAMATES! 1/21 - GET RIGHT THURSDAY DJ CHINKEYE!! 1/22 - FRIDAY DJ KUSH-KO!! 1/23-SATURDAY DJ HEAD-ACHE!! 1/24 -SUNDAY - KARAOKE W/ AURY MOORE! LATE NITE HAPPY HOUR 9 - MIDNITE! MONDAY & TUESDAY ABSOLUTE KARAOKE HAPPY HOUR ALL NIGHT W/ ABSOLUT DRINK SPECIALS!! 1/27- ALOHA WEDNESDAY KANIKIPILA W/PAK!

GET YOUR OHANA LOYALTY CARD!

BEST KARAOKE IN BELLTOWN!

GEOFFREY SMITH

RESTAURANT

f you thought that Ethan Stowell couldn’t possibly come up with another restaurant concept, you’ve underestimated the Seattle restaurateur’s marketing prowess. This time, capitalizing on the current craft-beer craze, he’s planted a highend pub on Ballard Avenue, surrounded by all the breweries that he has on tap and just down the street from two of his other concerns, Staple & Fancy and Chippy’s. Walking into Bramling Cross, the Stowellian design signifiers are immediately noticeable: the stark gray palette, the dim lighting, the hanging glass bubble lights, the ceiling’s exposed ductwork. But Stowell has added details throughout that aim, it seems, to give it a worldly huntsman vibe: white plaster renditions of taxidermied deer, elk, and moose as well as sporting oil paintings—one of hunting dogs, another of a shot pheasant. He’s also lined shelves throughout the entire first half of the restaurant with antique editions of classic books—Dickens and the like—which make it feel less like a hunting lodge than like the library of the old uncle from The Chronicles of Narnia. Those stagy elements aside, the roomy space with a considerable bar is serving some damn good food—all of which goes well with the 60 beers and ciders available by the bottle and the six or so on tap (among them local brews including Populuxe, Reuben’s, Hilliard’s, and Peddler). The beer list offers something for everyone— sours and saisons, IPAs and stouts, Belgian ales and ciders—as well as interesting beer cocktails, including an Old Fashioned with a housemade stout syrup, a drink with fresh citra hops muddled in, and a rendition of a Moscow Mule made with an IPA. While I’m not a beer enthusiast, this expansive menu—from around the Pacific Northwest, the East Coast, the Midwest, France, and even Eastern Europe—definitely piqued my interest. For those who aren’t beer lovers,

The Bramling Burger gets everything right.

there are plenty of rare, and is thick but compact. The beef holds wine choices and other up to the potato bun it’s served on, and the cocktails. simple additions of lettuce, tomato, pickle, and The menu too is American cheese don’t distract from the qualmore expansive than ity of the meat. It’s refreshing that Stowell isn’t we’ve come to expect trying to reinvent the wheel here. Though I do from Stowell, whose enjoy a burger with modern bells and whistles, restaurants are usually tightly curated. So while sometimes you just want the real deal. The other you’ll find plenty of his signature items—smoked item I felt obliged to try was the $38 Dynamite mackerel on crostini, a Bibb lettuce and wedge Chicken—a whole fried Mad Hatcher chicken salad, roasted Brussels sprouts, a simple bowl (eight pieces) that supposedly takes 20 minutes of pasta with pepper and cheese and steamed to prepare but which made it to us in under 10 Manila clams (though here with beer)—he (granted, it was 6 p.m. on a Wednesday). I has pushed the envelope to come up love the fry on it, flaky, not greasy, and with some seriously tasty new dishes. the skin is flavored well. However, With so many offerings, I the meat itself is unfortunately Bramling Cross decided to skip items I feel confilacking in salt. I barely cared, 5205 Ballard Ave. N.W., dent he does well, like the grilled though, since the grits and collard 420-8192, scallops and hangar steak. Instead, greens served with it indeed live ethanstowell I went for his cheddar and ale up to the claim of dynamite. The restaurants.com. soup, a decadent affair that trangrits are of the creamy persuasion scends the often one-note quality of with a pool of butter, rather than the cream-based soups. In this one, the tanmore granular variety. These may or may gerine color promises—and delivers—the tang not be your thing; they sure are mine. The colof cheddar while also allowing a bolt of beer to lards, too, are done just as I like them, vinegared glide down your gullet. but not bracingly so. This can easily feed three to Likewise, his warm Dungeness crab dip is four people, or two ravenous ones. luscious and surprised me with its pronounced This gluttonous feast, and two cocktails, came crab flavor. I’ve never been much of a Dungeness to just $100—though that is in part thanks to fan, finding it bland in comparison to blue crab, the terrific happy hour, when the burger is just but this dip may have changed my perspective. A $9 vs. $16 during regular hours, the squash just “smaller” plate of roasted red kuri squash, which $6 (vs. $9) and the drinks $8 (vs. $11). Since we also comes with hunks of acorn squash, is huge opted to sit at the bar, because unfortunately and could have been a meal. It’s served with that’s the only way to partake in the happy hour, honey, chestnut, and brown butter, all of which I can’t speak to the table service. However, the add sweetness. It’s a fine dish, but fairly straightbartender was friendly and willing to answer all forward. If you love squash, order it. Otherwise, my newbie beer questions (with detailed descripthere are so many better things to try. tions of how the beer cocktails were concocted) and unself-consciously sang “Jessie’s Girl” as he whipped them up. In an era where bartendI couldn’t leave without tasting the ultimate ers often are too cool for school, this one was pub staple: the burger, which Stowell nails. refreshingly unaffected—just like the food. E The Bramling Burger gets everything right. It’s cooked to a perfect medium-rare, bordering on food@seattleweekly.com

BEER HUNTING

Happy New Beer! Local brews for 2016. BY JACOB UITTI

Family owned, authentic Polish and German dishes, fresh, organic ingredients, ...just the way your babcia (grandma) used to make.

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

Greenwood full menu until 11pm Sun - Thur & till midnight Frid & Sat.

sebisbistro.com 206.420.2199

S. Lake Union Phinney Ridge

Mon-Thurs, 4PM - 10PM • Fri - Sat, 4PM - 11PM Sunday Brunch Check Dates 3242 Eastlake Ave E, Seattle

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 • JANUARY 20 — 26, 2016

PUBLIC DOMAIN

made with more than a thousand pounds of ith 2015 thankfully in the rear-view mirror, we have all of coffee per 600-gallon batch. The cider is big, popping with flavor, its 2016 to look forward to. And body almost like a Guinness’s but with more of course here at Beer Hunting nose-tickling carbonation. The subtle sweetwe have one thing on our minds: What new ness is pleasant and the overall complexity local beers are on the horizon? To find out, we impressive. In addition to the coffee cider, checked in with a few of our favorite brewerSchilling is also workies in Seattle to see ing on a few other what we can expect to concoctions, including come out in the next The cider is big, a lemongrass-agave month or three. popping with flavor, cider for summer. Fremont Brewing Keeping with the founder Matt Linceits body almost like a nitro theme, Georgecum says his brewery is working on two new Guinness’s but with more town Brewery has IPAs right now, both recently put a nitro nose-tickling carbonation. brown ale on tap in its utilizing a top-secret hop (so top-secret he South Seattle tasting The subtle sweetness is can’t even tell me its room. And, says coname) and both of pleasant and the overall founder Manny Chao, which he is excited “Bodhizafa is kind of complexity impressive. about: a Triple IPA set our new big-deal IPA to debut for Hop Mob for 2016.” It’s a subtler (more info below) and IPA, lighter and less an IPA called Dark bitter than their sigHeron. The official nature Lucille IPA. beer of the Emerald Ballard’s Stoup City Comicon 2016 Brewery is having a (April 7–10 at Washtap-room release on ington State ConvenJanuary 19 for its new tion Center), Dark Hey MarsAle, brewed Heron’s bottle will, in conjunction with naturally, be adorned the January release of with superhero art. the new album from In addition to Seattle orchestral-pop these new beers, Freoutfit Hey Marseilles. mont also recently The beer is said to be expanded to a new a “classic” and “malt80,000-square-foot forward” amber that location currently brings “beer harmony.” under construction off Finally, dozens of Leary Way in Ballard. breweries will parWhen it is completely ticipate in Hop Mob up and running, this year, including Lincecum says, the Reuben’s Brews, original Fremont Tacoma Brewing, location will be used Populuxe, and Cloudfor more experimentburst. The event is ing and playing exclusively for Triple around with new and IPAs, a huge, hoppy, unique recipes. and often malty Just up the road style of beer. After from the Fremont the Brouwer’s Café facility is the Schilkickoff on Feb. 4, the event will travel all ling Cider tap house. over the state, from Onsite they have Kirkland’s Flatstick been experimenting Pub to Seattle’s with a nitro coffee The Bergschrund cider they’ve named to Leavenworth’s Grumpy Bear that’s Der Hinterhof. For 20 percent cold-brew a complete list of coffee—a single-origin events, check out Guatemalan dark wahopmob.com. E roast. The creamy cider, which will be available beerhunting@ in cans this spring, is seattleweekly.com

The LiT LOWDOWN TOWN HALL

CIVICS

SCIENCE

ARTS & CULTURE

COMMUNITY

(1/20) Lakeside Arts: Music in the City

LARGEST SELECTION OF METAPHYSICAL BOOKS IN DOWNTOWN SEATTLE

104

(1/21) Education Lab: Ignite Education Lab

MIND • BODY • SPIRIT • EARTH

(1/21) Patti Warashina with Gary Faigin Oh, These Women (of Clay)

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

(1/22) Planned Parenthood: It’s Our Right: 43 Years of Legal Abortion (1/23) Saturday Family Concerts Swil Kanim (1/25) Oliver Morton Geoengineering A Way Out of Global Warming (1/26) Eric Weiner Place, Creating the Tools for Genius (1/27) Stolen Youth: How to Stop Human Trafficking

Mountlake Terrace

Shoreline I-5

BEST PSYCHIC READINGS DAILY!

1530 FIRST AVE (1st & Pine) 206.467.7745

523

25% off everything in the store 6pm-close.

NORTH SEATTLE

522

Our books are many and our cats are cute.

Twice Sold Tales

4 3

FRE MONT

(1/27) Leif Wenar Ending Dependence on ‘Blood Oil’

(1/28) Rick Shenkman How Human Instinct Shapes Elections

CAPITOL HILL

SEATTLE WEEKLY • JAN UARY 20 — 26, 2016

(2/2) Robert Gates Building a Foundation for Leadership (2/2) Phyllis Bennis The Foundations of ISIS, World Terror (2/3) WAmend : Derek Cressman ‘When Money Talks’ (2/3) Eli Sanders and Jennifer Hopper with Marcie Sillman ‘While the City Slept’ (2/4) Ted Rall Bernie Sanders, A New Political Era TOWN HALL

CIVICS

SCIENCE

ARTS & CULTURE

COMMUNITY

WWW.TOWNHALLSEATTLE.ORG TOWN HALL

CIVICS

SCIENCE

ARTS & CULTURE

COMMUNITY

Seattle

www.adasbooks.com

6 4

THE ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY Shop from 250,000 titles and find a complete list of author events. www.elliottbaybook.com 1521 Tenth Avenue Seattle · 206/624-6600

The Great Spring by Natalie Goldberg

Reading this book of essays by Natalie Goldberg was a serious pleasure. She has a way of telling stories that creep into your heart before they hit your brain; before you know that you’ll be thinking about what you read long after the story is over. I don’t want to tell you she’s a national treasure-she would hate that and besides, nobody wants to read national treasures. She is in fact almost the opposite-she is a writer of the exquisite moment, a writer you breathe along with every step of the way.

Strength to Love,

BALLARD

(2/1) Mei Fong Exploring China’s ‘Radical’ One Child Policy

By University Book Store

By Third Place Books

1833 Harvard Ave, Seattle, 206-324-2421

(1/31) Seattle Festival Orchestra Beethoven, Lalo,Dvor˘ák

RECOMMENDATIONS

Great Books Great Events Free Parking LAKE FOREST PARK RAVENNA SEWARD PARK – coming early 2016

www.thirdplacebooks.com

by Martin Luther King, Jr.

This slim volume of select sermons by Dr. King has relevance not limited to the religious among us. Those today only familiar with his momentous “I Have a Dream” speech should be impressed at the scope of topics covered here, with references not only to Christian doctrine but also to the likes of philosophers Plato and Hegel. The profundity of Dr. King’s practical wisdom echoes to this day. --Ben, manager at Twice Sold Tales

calendar

PICKLIST features 175 films from 58 countries. Innovative and inspiring, the featured films should give the whole family something to talk about and hopefully make Candy Crush—or whatever it is they’re playing on your phone—boring by comparison. Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th

Ave., 329-2629, nwfilmforum.org. Individual shows $8–$11, festival passes $140–$180. Through Jan. 31. MARK BAUMGARTEN

JANUARY 22

Friday

Whim W’him

JANUARY 20

Wednesday Pae White

543-2280, henryart.org. Free (reserve tickets online). 6:30 p.m. T.S. FLOCK

Brothers of the Sonic Cloth

Did you know another goddamn Kurt Cobain book is coming out in February? It’s called Cobain on Cobain (is the title meant to taunt us?), and it is author Nick Soulsby’s third Nirvana book. Grunge is over, and there’s absolutely nothing left to dredge up or monetize about St. Cobain, but one of the really cool things that has actually come out of those mythical days is the majestically crushing doom band Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, the brainchild of grunge heavyweight

5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-3599, tractortavern.com. $10–$12. 21 and over. 8 p.m. KELTON SEARS

JANUARY 21

Thursday The Birds

No, this is not a stage adaptation of the really freaking horrifying Hitchcock film. This Strawberry Theatre Workshop production does share source material with it—Daphne du Maurier’s 1952 short story of that name—but here the bloodthirsty birds aren’t the show; they merely mark the parameters. Irish playwright Conor McPherson puts his own spin on the dystopian tale with a 2009 script that focuses on the drama at play in a New England cabin where a trio of characters take shelter from the birds. This is still a thriller, but one that avoids Hitchcock’s psychosexual leanings and instead trades in the existential unease that could lead a rational person into the realm of fowl play. Sorry. I couldn’t resist. 12th Avenue Arts, 1620

12th Ave., 12avearts.org. $36. 7:30 p.m. Mon. & Thurs.–Sat. Ends Feb 20. MARK BAUMGARTEN

Ty Segall & the Muggers

There is perhaps no living artist more prolific than Ty Segall. In a mere decade, the Los Angeles guitarist has dabbled in garage pop, psychedelia, and glam rock while releasing eight minimalist lo-fi pop albums and joining at least eight different bands (three of which are ongoing concerns). It’s a catalogue in line with modern consumption, and perhaps because of that Segall has not made many drastic artistic leaps until now. His ninth solo release, Emotional Mugger, is a reinvention that retains Segall’s essence, a noisy, unfetterred affair that casts his undeniable vocal melodies in a more unforgiving landscape. And it is great. But Segall has not forgotten what made us fall in love with him. Rumor has it that he and his new band the Muggers will play a 90-minute set, one half of the new stuff and one half of the golden sorta-oldies. With CFM, Bread & Butter. The Neptune,

1303 N.E. 45th St., 682-1414, stgpresents.org. $18.50. All ages. 8 p.m. MARK BAUMGARTEN

Children’s Film Festival

Of the many challenges that face the modern parent, none is as fraught as the question of screen time. Kids love screens. They love to stare at them, to poke at them, and to drool on them, quietly, while the adults try to get things done in peace. But what are those little screens doing to their brains? There is a lot of research saying a lot of things, but we’re not interested in that. Instead we are going to suggest you park your kids in front of the big screens at the Children’s Film Festival, which have been unscientifically proven to bring joy to family members of all ages. The festival, which runs for 12 days,

whim.org. $25–$30. 8 p.m. Fri.–Sat. Ends Jan. 30. SANDI KURTZ

Seattle Vice

In these pages in 2008, then-staff writer Rick Anderson painted the kind of Seattle vignette only he can. It’s summer 2006, and famed strip-joint king Frank Colacurcio Sr. is onstage at Sugar’s in North Seattle talking to some new hires. “If you give a hand job, charge for it,” he tells the girls. “If you give a blow job, charge for it. If you don’t charge for it, then you’ll be fired.” Two years later Anderson published Seattle Vice, the definitive history of Seattle’s commercial sex scene, which focuses on the Colacurcio family and the crooked cops that allowed them to flourish. The book is just as full of the sex and scandal as you’d want and expect. If there’s one problem, it’s that it’s not a picture book, if you catch my drift. That’s where Mark Siano and Opal Peachey’s stage adaptation comes in handy. First performed last year at ACTLab, the critically acclaimed cabaret musical now comes to the Triple Door for a limited run. The fictional tale told in the musical is more inspired by Seattle Vice than based on it, but the book’s spirit remains intact, and the production appropriately contains male and female nudity. There aren’t any actual blow jobs, but then some things are better left to the written word. The Triple

Door, 216 Union St., 838-4333, thetripledoor.net. $15–$45. 8 p.m. Ends Jan. 31. DANIEL PERSON

The Fabulous Downey Brothers

If Devo and Pee-Wee Herman had had six lovechildren, they might have hoped to create something like the technicolor herkyjerky circus that is the Fabulous Downey Brothers. Of all Seattle bands, FDB easily wins the “best large foam-based headwear” award with its freak-chic statement pieces

SEATTLE WE EKLY • JANUARY 20 — 26, 2016

Prior to the January 24 closing of her installation Command+Shift+4 at the Henry Art Gallery, artist Pae White will give a free public talk. As the Henry puts it, White’s work “moves fluidly across the disciplines of fine and applied arts, architecture, and design.” Command+Shift+4 was inspired by The Sea Ranch, a northern California housing development founded in 1963 that used visionary design to enliven and expand perception of its austere architecture. Dynamic supergraphics were a key feature, and White references these in particular in Command+Shift+4, which at first seems abstract and spontaneous. Yet as one navigates dazzling sprays of colored, acrylic yarn, a methodical plan and legible shapes are revealed. If one takes for granted how architecture and design shape our awareness, White’s work is a gentle reminder of the power these disciplines possess. Henry Art Gallery, 4100 15th Ave. N.E.,

Tad Doyle (TAD). Formed in 2006 with his wife on bass, BOTSC slows down the sludgy metal-inspired riffs that gave grunge its weight until they become monolithic, primitive tides of destruction, lurching toward you like a carnivorous predator in the woods. The group’s 2015 self-titled LP is a satisfying aural eruption, full of long-form dirges like “Empires of Dust” and “I Am” that soak postrock, doom, and punk in molten lava. With Suma, Black Bone Exorcism. Tractor Tavern,

COURTESY OF HENRY ART GALLERY

Command+Shift+4

Olivier Wevers has been cultivating a sense of play with his Whim W’him company, and if you’re looking for a bubbly evening in the theater, you’ll certainly find it with them. But there’s much more going on than surface-level sparkle—Wevers has been methodically hiring dancers whose skill set extends from the heightened physicality of ballet to the expressive power of modern dance, then commissioning or creating works that put all those strengths into play. This program includes new works by Mark Haim, who connects postmodern dance with his classical-music background; the award-winning Dominic Walsh in collaboration with Two Star Symphony from Texas; and Wevers himself. All fun, yes, and much more. Cornish Playhouse, Seattle Center, whim-

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 22 21

calendar

SILENT MOVIE MONDAYS

Ben Hur A Tale of The Christ

Pick List » FROM PAGE 21

JANUARY 24

that range from huge silver face-triangles to sparkly forehead spirals, fur-covered blobs, and elongated iridescent tube hats. The group’s music, inspired by the asymmetrical, staccato sounds of XTC, the B-52s. and Oingo Boingo, sounds like it’s blaring out of a mad scientist’s music factory with production levels set at mega-overdrive. The band urges audiences to “Work harder!” in its most recent single of that name, and witnessing the hyper-stimuli of the painstakingly choreographed neon-cabaret live will make you wish you’d done exactly that. FDB puts most lazy, sleepy bands in Seattle to shame. If you don’t have fun at this show, you’re probably brain dead. With Future Shock, Kblanq. The Central Saloon, 207 First

Spinosaurus: The Lost Giant of the Cretaceous

Ave. S., 622-0209, centralsaloon.com. $5 adv./$7 DOS. 21 and up. 9 p.m. KELTON SEARS

Sunday

The spinosaurus was a 50-foot long predator—10 feet longer than the big bad T. rex. It even had a giant sail on its back to peacock itself: a sexy come-hither to mates and a warning to would-be attackers. The reason old Spino isn’t as well-known as the tyrannosaurus? Surprisingly, WWII. A German paleontologist discovered the king predator’s fossils, subsequently lost during Allied bombings. But at tonight’s National Geographic event, a full replica of a huge Spinosaurus skeleton will be on display, thanks to the efforts of scientists. One of them, Nizar Ibrahim, will tell the story of how the dino was almost lost to time, and how, through lots of literal and figurative digging, it’s again seeing the light of day. Benaroya Hall,

200 University St., 215-4747, seattlesymphony. org. $20–$40. 2 p.m. KELTON SEARS

PICK MIX A LIBERAL DOSE OF POLITICS BY SARA BERNARD

BEN HUR SCORE COMPOSED AND PERFORMED BY STEWART COPELAND

SEATTLE WEEKLY • JAN UARY 20 — 26, 2016

THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE

part of the Silent Treasures series | february 8-29

FEB. 8 THE GOLD RUSH Featuring recorded score composed by Chaplin

presented by

FEB. 15 THE BIG PARADE Featuring Christian Elliott live on the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ

FEB. 22

LIME KILN CLUB FIELD DAY

Featuring Tedde Gibson live on the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ

GROUPS OF 10 OR MORE CALL (206) 315-8054 FOR SINGLE TICKETS CALL (877) 784-4849

STGPRESENTS.ORG

EST. 1928 9TH AVE & PINE ST

Are you feeling this man?

alling all radicals, politicos, lefter-than-left-wingers, and progressives, aka Seattleites! If you’re tuned in and civic-minded, but like to mix some pleasure with your purpose, this is your week. Start with the talented and righteous Guardian columnist Lindy West, hosting It’s Our Right: 43 Years of Legal Abortion on Friday, Jan. 22. The occasion is the 43rd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, but this is no idle celebration. This is the meeting of the minds on the front lines of the continuing battle—yep, even in Washington—to preserve access to reproductive freedom. The event will bring together a collection of local storytellers, including Amelia Bonow, a Seattle-based activist whose loud-and-proud Shout Your Abortion campaign has gone a long way to destigmatize abortion and those who choose it. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle. org. $10–$50. 7 p.m. If you’re a Bernie Sanders fan, check out the local #MarchForBernie on the afternoon of Saturday, Jan. 23, when a mass of humanity led by University of Washington students will join hundreds of other

groups across the country. It’s a solidarity event for those “fed up with establishment politics” and “the billionaire class” in advance of the very first opportunity anyone will get to cast a vote for the man: the Iowa Caucus on February 1. (Washington’s is on March 26.) The UW march starts on campus at the George Washington statue and will be followed by an indoor meeting, building TBA, to view Sanders’ live-streamed address to his supporters. Free. 1:30 p.m. Then, if you’ve any righteous anger or creative juices left, grab a drink and pen a letter to your Senator at To Whom It May Concern: Writing for a Cause on Tuesday, Jan. 26. The event is free, the bar is open, and everyone will be there to flex his or her verbal muscles in the name of justice. The evening will start with inspirational readings on social change by local authors Charles Mudede, Litsa Dremousis, and Jennie Shortridge, to be followed by a roundtable discussion and the opportunity to free-write on “any topic you believe in.” Raise a fist, write a poem. Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave., 322-7030, hugohouse.org. Free. 7 p.m. E

GAGE SKIDMORE

FEBRUARY 29

LETTUCE

Safer FDA-Approved Device Option for Obesity Are you frustrated with the results of diet and exercise?

with PROBCAUSE

2/4

Do you always feel hungry, even after you have eaten a meal?

8:30PM

TRIBAL SEEDS BUILT TO SPILL SUPERDIAMOND INFAMOUS with THE SKINTS + THE STEPPAS

Unlike other weight loss procedures, this therapy works by blocking the hunger signals between the brain and stomach. You do not have to restrict your diet or worry about what you can’t eat or drink. This first of its kind procedure: • Does not alter or restrict your digestive anatomy • Is clinically-proven and safe • Is reversible • Makes you feel fuller, longer • Puts you in control of hunger This device is for weight loss in adults with a BMI of 35-45 with a related health condition. This therapy is a surgical solution and carries some risk. Please talk to your doctor about the full benefits and risks.

1/21

TRIBUTE TO NEIL DIAMOND

with PETTY THEFT

1/26

with THE HAND + ICEBERG FERG

2/5+6

NEVERSHOUTNEVER

1/22

9:00PM

with JULE VERA AND WATERPARKS + METRO STATION

featuring

TALIB KWELI & HI-TEK

with NICKI BLUHM + DELLA MAE

2/18

7:30PM

9:00PM

2/21

8:30PM

4/1

with NEW KINGSTON

9:00PM

4/4

with DELORA

9:00PM

AUGUST BURNS RED + BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME

4/8

6:30PM

CIARA TINASHE

1/12/16 4:12 PM

8:00PM

9:00PM

TECH N9NE

5/7

with KRIZZ KALIKO + RITTZ + MAYDAY! + STEVIE STONE & CES CRU

SHOWBOXPRESENTS.COM 288410_4.75_x_5.5.indd 1

7:00PM

SHOWBOX AND KNITTING FACTORY PRESENT INDEPENDENT POWERHOUSE TOUR 2016

with THE FACELESS + GOOD TIGER

3/24

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10AM

8:00PM

SEATTLE WE EKLY • JANUARY 20 — 26, 2016

SHOWBOX AND USC EVENTS PRESENT

2/20

8:30PM

with MEMPHIS MAY FIRE + 36 CRAZYFISTS

IRATION + PEPPER BORGEOUS + MORGAN PAGE

TALIB KWELI

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE

KEXP’S POSITIVE VIBRATIONS AND SHOWBOX PRESENT HAWAIIAN PUNCH WINTER TOUR

2/19

CHIC NILE RODGERS featuring

+ HI TEK

STS9

1/23

8:00PM

KEXP AND SHOWBOX PRESENT

TALIB KWELI

with PHAROAHE MONCH

1/30

9:00PM

STRINGDUSTERS

REFLECTION ETERNAL

TO LEARN MORE: call 1-888-393-0310 text “Control3” to 66746 or visit www.BlockHunger.com

8:00PM

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

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 LIVE MUSIC & DJ’S FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHTS GORDON BIERSCH 600 PINE ST. LEVEL 4 SEATTLE, WA 98101 (206) 405-4205

SEATTLE WEEKLY • JAN UARY 20 — 26, 2016

600 PINE ST. LEVEL 4 SEATTLE, WA 98101 (206) 405-4205 JAZZ ALLEY IS A SUPPER CLUB

MARC COHN

WED, JAN 20

Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, Cohn combines the precision of a brilliant tunesmith with the passion of a great soul man

TOWER OF POWER

THURS, JAN 21 - SUN, JAN 24

Bringing their horn-driven dynamic funky stuff back to Seattle 4 nights and 8 shows - by popular demand!

JAMISON ROSS

MON, JAN 25

$10

2015 Grammy nominee for “Best Vocal Jazz Album,” he’s a soul man that combines his gifts to present a unique offering to the jazz world.

BOBBY CALDWELL AND HIS R&B BAND

FRI, JAN 29 - SUN, JAN 31

Touring in support of his new release Cool Uncle, Caldwell has a twenty-five year history as an acclaimed soul-stylist and in-demand pop/R&B songwriter: one of the most revered vocalists in contemporary music today.

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

YOUNG AMERICAN 12-year-old Ruby Sullivan tells us what it’s like to discover David Bowie. BY MARK BAUMGARTEN

t was Ruby Sullivan’s dad who introduced her to the music of David Bowie. Months before the artist’s universally mourned death, he learned that the West Seattle School of Rock where Ruby was taking bass lessons was planning a tribute to the pop icon. He asked her if she would like to play, and then he showed her the video for “Space Oddity,” the 1969 hit that started it all. “It was weird,” Ruby says now. “It looked old and the music sounded different. But I liked it.” On Saturday at Chop Suey, she will be playing bass on a number of songs and singing lead on “Pressure” and backup on “Changes.” I spoke with her about the show and what it is like to discover Bowie.

SW: What are your favorite David Bowie songs? Sullivan: “Sound + Vision,” “Queen Bitch,” and “Changes.” And which song are you most nervous about performing? I’m nervous about “Sound + Vision,” because the bass line is pretty tough. But I really like playing things that are difficult. What do you think of the Bowie songs you’ve heard? I like that they are all so different. In “Queen Bitch” he is just, like, screaming through that entire song, and then on “Sound + Vision” it’s more of this kind of groovy thing that he is doing. But it’s still coming from the same artist. Was that something that you didn’t think an artist could do? I didn’t think it was impossible, but I haven’t seen it. There weren’t a ton of artists I knew who did that. Are you going to continue to be a Bowie fan after the show? Yeah. I think I’m going to have a lot more appreciation for the music after taking the time to learn the pieces on bass, and it’s going to give me a lot more appreciation to be able to hear the individual bass parts. I think I will listen to him a lot.

COURTESY OF SCHOOL OF ROCK WEST SEATTLE

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

BOWIE PICK

Have you introduced Bowie to any friends? I have, and there are some people who know who he is and some who don’t. With his recent death we were doing a listening at our music class to some good David Bowie music. Our music teacher told us that he listened to Bowie when he was younger and he played “Under Pressure,” Young Americans,” “Space Oddity,” “Changes,” and “Moonage Daydream.” What did your teacher tell you about Bowie? One thing he said was that David Bowie was more of an artist than a lot of people who were considered artists, and I thought that was cool and that that was true. Are you going to dress up for the show? Oh, yeah. And are you choosing a particular era of Bowie as inspiration? Well, we have the poster, and I might try to go by that. We probably have to go to Goodwill to find a good costume. I think I’m going to try and go crazy. I just think it’s a lot more fun when people put themselves out there like that. E music@seattleweekly.com

School of Rock West Seattle Performs David Bowie. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 538-0556,chopsuey.com. $10 adv./$12 DOS. All ages. 5:30 p.m. Sat., Jan. 23.

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

tractor TIMES

DOORS 30-60 MIN. BEFORE. OPEN

LISTED ARE

SHOW TIMES.

instagram.com/

 WED,

JANUARY 20 th  8 PM - $10/$12

SEATTLE WEEKLY PRESENTS

BROTHERS OF THE SONIC CLOTH

SUMA, BLACK BONE EXORCISM  THUR,

JANUARY 21 st



8:30 PM - $10

FACTORY BELT PRESENTS

THE MUSIC OF UNCLE TUPELO & JASON MOLINA

WE EKLY

P R OMO TIONS

EV EN T S

MUSIC

W/ GALEN DISSTON, JASON DODSON, EVENING BELL + MORE HOSTED BY DON SLACK SAT,

JANUARY 23 rd 

MONTANA PROGRESSIVE BLUEGRAS

THE LIL’ SMOKIES

9 PM - $10/$12

CROW & THE CANYON TUES,

JANUARY 26 th 

LOCAL AMERICANA

MADS JACOBSON

8 PM - $8

THE W LOVERS, CEDAR TEETH