SGN August 3, 2018 - Section 2

Seattle Gay News

Issue 31, Volume 46, August 3, 2018

Arts & Entertainment

An incredible journey, like you’ve never seen it before...

Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society presents The Who’s Tommy

Emily Welter as Tommy

Varsha Raghavan as Tommy

The Who’s trailblazing rock opera Tommy bursts to life as an all-star cast and creative team led by Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society Artistic Director Phil Lacey and music director Brandon Peck create a vibrant new concept that brings Tommy into the 21st century with electrifying force.

The cast features Nastacia Nicole Guimont as Captain Walker (Legend of Geor-

Garrett Dill as Tommy

gia McBride at ACT, Milk Like Sugar at ArtsWest), Tori Spero as Mrs. Walker (Gregory Award for People’s Choice of Outstanding Actress in Parade with Sound Theatre Company), and Jeff Orton as the Acid Queen (Parade at Sound Theatre Company, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

see TOMMY page 5

Two anniversaries bookend 2018-2019 season for Seattle Men’s Chorus and Seattle Women’s Chorus

Chad Michaels, guest artist in SMC's Believe: The Music of Cher – Photo courtesy of the artist

The Seattle Women’s Chorus (SWC) leap into their 15th year of concerts with “Hear Me Roar” in October and the Seattle Men’s Chorus (SMC) bring the season to a close with “Summer of’ ’69,” a musical commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. In between SMC presents their annual holiday concert “Jingle All the Way” in December and “Believe: The Music of Cher”

in March. In April SWC presents “Legends of Rock.” Special surprise concert guests will be announced in the coming months.

SWC expands their outreach to South Puget Sound by adding a new venue in Burien to their concert schedule. In addition a new mixed ensemble group, comprised of

see SEATTLE CHORUSES page 3

Humorously incisive Blindspotting Starting a conversation a rambunctious social commentary Chatting about Blindspotting with director Carlos López Estrada

Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal in Blindspotting – Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN A&E Writer BLINDSPOTTING Now playing Oakland native Collin (Daveed Diggs) has three days left on his probation. He’s

been working a job as a professional mover with his best friend Miles (Rafael Casal) for a company that just so happens to be run by his ex-girlfriend Val (Janina Gavankar).

She’s no longer angry about the antics he pulled to land himself in jail, but she still is

see BLINDSPOTTING page 6

Director Carlos López Estrada ahead of the SIFF 2018 screening of his film Blindspotting – Photo by Ezra Asfaw

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN A&E Writer BLINDSPOTTING Now playing Few films this year have slapped me as hard across the face as Blindspotting did.

Written by its multi-hyphenated stars, popular musicians, poets and theatrical impresarios Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, and directed by relative newcomer Carlos López Estrada, this three-day slice of life in today’s Oakland, CA is downright masterful.

see ESTRADA page 6

2 Seattle Gay News

July 27, 2018

Celebrating 44 Years!

Seattle Men's Chorus – Photo by John Pai

Seattle Women's Chorus – Photo by Conrado Tapado

wall that generations of women rockers have burst through. This concert is a loud and proud ode to the trailblazing singer-songwriters who weren’t afraid to raise their voices and make a scene: Patti Smith, Joan Jett, Alanis Morissette, Florence Welch, Tina Turner, Debbie Harry, and more groundbreaking artists.

Date: 4/27 @ 2:00pm at Benaroya Hall (3rd Ave & Union St, Seattle)

SEATTLE CHORUSES continued from cover

members from both SMC and SWC, will make their debut at the 2018 holiday concert. Each season they will perform tightharmony, contemporary a cappella pieces at community events and select SMC and SWC concerts.

Season subscriptions are on sale now.

Single tickets go on sale on Tuesday, September 4, 2018.

Seattle Men’s Chorus “Summer of ’69” Woodstock. The moon landing. Vietnam.

Stonewall. In the summer of 1969, current events churned into a psychedelic era of rebellion and change. SMC transports us back to this vibrant year through the charttopping, culture-defining music that blared through turntables and transistor radios.

Joining with a coalition of LGBTQ choruses across the country, we also present a thrilling new musical theater work that tells the stories of the Stonewall riots and the birth of the struggle to live life out loud, a message that still resonates today.

Dates: 6/21 @ 8pm & 6/22 @ 2pm at Benaroya Hall (3rd Ave & Union St, Seattle)

Seattle Women’s Chorus “Hear Me Roar” This blowout concert marks 15 years on stage. It’s filled with throwback favorites, pop extravaganzas, and fresh choral sounds that mark where the chorus has been…and where they are going! The music of Katy Perry (“Roar”), Melissa Etheridge (“I Run for Life”) and Alicia Keys (“Superwoman”) illuminate stories of strength, survival, and hope as the worlds of disco, Broadway and Hollywood blend together for an epic celebration.

Dates: 10/12 @ 8pm, 10/13 @ 2pm & 8pm at Seattle First Baptist Church (1111 Harvard Ave at E Union St.); 10/20 @ 8pm at Highline Performing Arts Center (401 S 152nd St, Burien)

Tickets and for more information Subscription Packages: On sale now: $51 - $287 Individual Tickets: Starting 9/4: $25 - $78 Online: www.seattlechoruses.org Box Office: (206) 388-1400; Mon-Fri, 11am-6pm

Seattle Men’s Chorus “Jingle All the Way” SMC is ringing in the season with a highspirited celebration that brings together all your favorites: beloved carols, fresh takes on holiday classics, and show-stopping dazzlers that will have you on your feet! Featuring “Silver Bells,” “Do You Hear What I Hear,” “Jingle Bell Rock” and many more moments of pure Holiday joy.

Dates: 12/8 @ 3pm & 7:30pm at Rialto Theater (310 S 9th St, Tacoma); 12/9 @ 7:30pm at Benaroya Hall (3rd & Union, Seattle); 12/15 @ 7:30pm at Everett Civic Auditorium (2415 Colby Ave, Everett); 12/16 @ 8pm, 12/20, 12/21 @ 7:30pm, 12/23 @ 2pm & 7:30pm at Benaroya Hall (3rd & Union, Seattle)

About Seattle Men’s Chorus/ Seattle Women’s Chorus The internationally renowned Seattle Men’s Chorus (founded 1979) and Seattle Women’s Chorus (founded 2002) comprise the largest community choral organization in North America. Both choruses stand out as the largest LGBTQ-identified men’s and women’s choruses in the world. The choruses comprise one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest, most vibrant and successful music organizations, performing in Seattle’s most prestigious venues for an annual audience of more than 30,000 patrons. Flying House Productions is the not-for-profit organization that governs and manages the Choruses. Collectively there are over 600 singing members along with staff, volunteers, and associate members who support both Choruses. They are a leading voice for the LGBTQ community and offer more than 30 outreach events and main stage concert performances annually.

Our Mission: Our voices transform society through innovative and entertaining programs that build community, illuminate the experiences of LGBTQ people and their allies, expand inclusion, and inspire justice.

Our Vision: A more harmonious world that celebrates the unique identities and talents of all people.

Seattle Men’s Chorus “Believe: The Music of Cher” With Special Guest Chad Michaels Six decades of #1 hits. 100 million albums sold. Countless reinventions. No other diva compares to the Goddess of Pop and her groundbreaking success as a music, movie, and style icon. SMC packs McCaw Hall with all the songs, sparkle and sequins you’d expect from the ultimate Cher tribute. Guest-starring Chad Michaels, the uncanny Cher impersonator who hair-flipped his way to the championship of “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars.”

Dates: 3/30 @ 8pm & 3/31 @ 2pm at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall (321 Mercer St, Seattle) Seattle Women’s Chorus “Legends of Rock” Decades ago, women like Janis Joplin and Carly Simon erupted onto the mainstream rock scene, blowing a hole through the stage

Courtesy of Seattle Men’s Chorus and Seattle Women’s Chorus Chad Michaels, guest artist in SMC's Believe: The Music of Cher – Photo by Kristofer Reynolds

Visit us online www.sgn.org

August 3, 2018

Seattle Gay News 3

August theater openings are few but mighty

Isis King as Ariel, Archana Srikanta as Sanam, Stephen Grenley as Hayes in Pratidhwani's Queen at ACT Theatre – Photo by Pankaj Luthra

by Miryam Gordon SGN A&E Writer There aren’t that many new shows opening this month, but there is plenty of Shakespeare to see in parks – see GreenStage at greenstage.org and Seattle Shakespeare Company’s Wooden O at www.seattleshakespeare.org for details – and a few shows that opened at the very end of July – see http://www.sgn.org/ sgnnews46_26/page22.cfm.

Hope you are having a wonderful and entertaining summer!

Blood Wedding, The Williams Project, 8/2-4 (at Equinox Studios) This is a dry run toward a full production sometime next year. In an isolated village, a bride is visited on her wedding day

by a former lover, sparking a sequence of events that will shock everyone from the flower girl to the Moon itself. The Williams Project will bring the whole town to life in song, dance, and verse. With some of the best poetry ever written, in a seldom-seen translation by famed American poet Langston Hughes, Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca will explode and expand our understanding of love, violence, race, gender, sex, and community. https://www.artful.ly/the-williamsproject/store/events/15279 Queen, Pratidhwani and ACT Theatre, 8/3-19 PhD candidates Sanam and Ariel have spent the better part of the last decade exhaustively researching vanishing bee populations across the globe. Just as these

Sound Theatre Company's The Rules of Charity at Seattle Center Armory – Photo by Yoon-ha Noh Photography

close friends are about to publish a careerdefining paper, Sanam stumbles upon an error, which could jeopardize their reputations, careers, and friendship. How far will you go to defend your ethics and standards of integrity, and at what cost? Queen by Madhuri Shekar is a play about the pursuit of truth, relationships, and bees. www.acttheatre.org The Rules of Charity, Sound Theatre Company, 8/4-25 (Seattle Center Armory) The late John Belluso, a playwright who championed honest portrayals of people with disabilities, wrote this play about an older generation clashing with a younger.

This “lacerating critique of altruism” (SF Weekly) focuses on Monty, a brilliant father who has Cerebral Palsy and uses a wheelchair. He spars with his caretaker daughter

in the haunting relationship at the heart of this play that examines what it means to be disabled and marginalized in modern American society. Contains Mature Content. www.soundtheatrecompany.org The Who’s Tommy, The Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society, 8/16-9/1 (12th Avenue Arts) The well-known story of the deaf, dumb, and blind boy who becomes a pinball sensation is the contemporary show of The Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s summer season. This Tommy, with multiple actors playing pinball wizard Tommy at various ages, is a story that invites everyone in our community to see and be seen, touch and be touched, heal and be healed. https://seattlegilbertandsullivan.com/ the-whos-tommy/

Bard on the Beach extends its record-breaking 29th season with added shows VANCOUVER, BC – As a result of record-breaking demand for its ‘60s-inspired production of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It, Bard on the Beach’s 29th season will be extended by a week to allow for added performances.

The closing night for the Beatles-songfilled musical will now be on Friday, September 28, with four added performances in the extension week.

“This season has been an unprecedented hit. We’re breaking all our attendance records, and all four of our plays have resonated with critics and patrons,” said Artistic Director Christopher Gaze.

“But As You Like It is a unique phenomenon. Its audiences are cheering with enthusiasm and excitement and it’s become a huge favourite with people of all ages, and from dedicated Shakespeare fans to those who don’t know Shakespeare at all! Performances are close to being sold out through September, and we want as many people as possible to experience the delights of this remarkable production. And we know a number of our patrons are seeing the show more than once! So we’ve made the decision to add shows, and extend our season by an extra week in Vanier Park (1000 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC) – a first for the Festival.”

Additional performances of As You Like It are scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, Sept 25-28, at 7:30pm.

The Festival’s productions of Macbeth, also on the BMO Mainstage, and Lysistrata, on the Howard Family Stage, will both close on Thursday, September 13. Closing night for Timon of Athens, on

4 Seattle Gay News

Austin Eckert, Lindsey Angell, Nadeem Phillip & Nicco Del Rio in As You Like It (2018) – Photo by David Cooper

the Howard Family Stage, will be Sunday, September 9. Availability for some performances is very limited – check online or call the Bard Box Office.

For complete details on all the productions and upcoming special events (Bard-BQ & Fireworks and Opera & Arias: Bold and Beautiful), as well as the revised schedule and to buy tickets, visit bardonthebeach.org or call the Bard Box Office at (604) 739-0559.

July 27, 2018

About Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival Bard on the Beach is one of Canada’s largest not-for-profit, professional Shakespeare Festivals. Established in 1990, the annual summer festival’s mission is to perform, explore and celebrate the genius of William Shakespeare, surrounded by the natural beauty of Vancouver, British Columbia. The 2018 Festival will run in Vanier Park from

June 6 to (extended date) September 28. Bard also offers year-round education and training programs for youth, adults and theatre professionals in its administrative home at the BMO Theatre Centre in Vancouver’s Olympic Village as well as in schools and community facilities throughout BC’s Lower Mainland.

Courtesy of Bard on the Beach

Celebrating 44 Years!

Lauren Weedman Doesn’t Live Here Anymore doesn’t know where to go

by Miryam Gordon SGN A&E Writer LAUREN WEEDMAN DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE ACT THEATRE Through August 12 Lauren Weedman used to live in Seattle and developed a lot of her theatrical skills and instincts here before moving on to more national recognition of her unique talents.

She’s a naturally funny person (there are many aspects of comedy that just can’t be taught, since a lot of timing is something innately understood). She also has bravely mined her own insecurities and foibles to create solo shows about aspects of her personality that also apply to lots of other people in the world.

Many solo performers use autobiographical history to create performances that make statements about the larger world. The most successful hone in on one or two particular events or aspects, develop a theme incorporating other characters, and weave together a whole story they perform all the roles within.

The last time Weedman had a longrun Seattle show was in 2007 with Bust, a play about her time volunteering at a Los Angeles women’s lock-up, where she tried to listen, but often talked so much that she put a foot in her mouth. It was a beautifully distilled performance where characters included a host of different incarcerated women and their jail-house visitors, and Weedman’s sometimes ham-handed interactions with them.

Intermingled with Weedman’s stints on television shows (like series regular on “Looking”), Weedman has developed solo shows that seem specific to the towns she performs in, such as People’s Republic of Portland (OR). Her current show at ACT Theatre is Lauren Weedman Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

At first blush, the title seems to refer to Seattle. But after seeing the performance, a mishmash of snippets of her autobiog-

Lauren Weedman Doesn't Live Here Anymore at ACT Theatre – Photo by Chris Bennion

raphy – that she was an adoptee (and then found her bio family as an adult), that the father of her child cheated on her with a young babysitter – and being a guest star on an alter-ego’s television show (Tammy Lisa seems to be what Weedman imagines Weedman might have become if she stayed with her Southern bio family), the title might be more broadly looked at as a statement of Weedman’s current inner discomfort. Likely similar to a lot of slightly aging actors in Hollywood, she seems not to know where she belongs.

The “entertainment industry” as practiced in Los Angeles and New York inhales and spits people out and deems them relevant – for a time – and then irrelevant, and women often reach a time where they are no long deemed sexy enough and then are

simply tossed away as if they have no other use. That issue is the focus of an amazing viral Internet clip with Amy Shumer, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Patricia Arquette and Tina Fey (Last Fuckable Day: http://www. comedycentral.co.uk/inside-amy-schumer/ videos/inside-amy-schumer-last-fuckableday).

In Seattle, we have a plethora of veteran (read “older”?) Seattle actresses who have had great careers on our stages but are rarely seen anymore. Some of them have been stalwart members of the actors’ union and some have left their union membership behind in order to get on any stage and still practice their craft. Often, the reasons are partly due to how many men’s roles there still are versus how many women’s in any given play or musical.

While Weedman has picked particular autobiographical elements for this outing, she seems not to have been able to look straight into the eye of her discomfort with where she is living – in life. Maybe doing so means to recognize that she has to cope with the push into irrelevance of the industry she’s made her living in, and her struggle to push back. Plenty of comedic women, standups like Carol Liefer and Lisa Lampinelli, and actors like Jane Lynch and Lisa Kudrow, are seen less and less. Those who survive the “lull”-years, like Betty White and Joan Rivers, are still the exceptions.

There might be plenty of material that Weedman could develop about this discomfort. Maybe she will find a way in another solo show. I’ll bet that many women her age (49), and younger and older, could find a lot of interest and humor in a show like that.

Instead, this time, we get some jokes, some songs, and a visit to a terrible (pretend) inner-cowgirl TV show hosted by Tammy Lisa, where Weedman is not only a reluctant visitor, but has no “talent” to offer an audience that the audience would like.

Her story-focus on being a single mother after divorcing the husband who cheated on her with a babysitter feels like recycled news or a pain she hasn’t yet been able to sort out.

Some folks will grab the humor and hang on. Some will appreciate the personal nature of the show. Others might see a theoretical pile of “stuff” on stage and feel like backing away slowly.

I truly appreciate Weedman and her work to help us understand ourselves by bravely revealing herself. This particular time I don’t think she found a clear enough nugget to build a show around.

For more information, go to www.acttheatre.org or call 206-292-7676.

Discuss your opinions with SGNCritic@ gmail.com or go to www.facebook.com/ SeattleTheaterWriters. More articles can be found at MiryamsTheaterMusings. blogspot.com.

TOMMY

continued from cover at ArtsWest, Altar Boys at Seattle Musical Theatre).

The role of Tommy will be shared by three performers – Varsha Raghavan, Emily Welter, and Garrett Dill – working together to create a complex, multifaceted protagonist.

And the two young Tommys will be played by Vivienne Ridao and Fiona Alhadeff.

Freed to expand beyond the original story of a “deaf, dumb, and blind” white boy in 1970s England -- this Tommy is a story that reaches across genders, ethnicities, preconceived ideas, and prejudice to unleash the sensation in all of us.

“This show is a journey towards healing,” explains director Phil Lacey. “We dive deeply into the cycles of violence that in one way or another affect us all, and – through the power of presence, forgiveness, and definitely some pinball and rock ‘n roll – look for a glimpse of hope. Maybe not a definitive answer, but at least a starting point where some of these hurts can begin to heal.”

Brandon Peck whose credits include The Pajama Game (Rising Star Project) at the 5th Avenue Theatre, 9 to 5 at Seattle Musical Theatre, and many other local credits, is excited to be part of this creative team. He received a Broadway World Award for Music Direction for his work on Jesus Christ Superstar at Seattle Musical Theatre, and a Gypsy Rose Lee Award nomination for music direction on Toxic Avenger with StageRight.

“The musical talent of this team in the smaller 12th Avenue Arts venue will immerse you with the experience to feel what’s being sung and felt right along with

Director Phil Lacey – Photo by Margaret Toomey

the performers,” says Peck.

The artistic team includes McKenzie Baird (Choreographer), Margaret Toomey (Scenic Design), Ahren Buhmann (Lighting & Video Design), and Emily Woods Hogue (Costume Design).

The Who’s Tommy has a history in Seattle. First produced by Seattle Opera in 1971,

Visit us online www.sgn.org

Musical Director Brandon Peck – Photo courtesy of the artist

few companies in the Puget Sound area have taken on this challenging contemporary piece. Fresh off successful reviews of Patience, Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society looks forward to wowing audiences with a stunning production in the more intimate setting of 12th Ave Arts.

Tommy runs August 16 to September 1

at 12th Avenue Arts (1620 12th Ave.) More information and tickets at: https:// seattlegilbertandsullivan.com/the-whostommy/

August 3, 2018

Seattle Gay News 5

Courtesy of Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society

Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs in Blindspotting – Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

BLINDSPOTTING continued from cover

disappointed in Collin, and even if she trusts him to always do a good job the chances she’ll ever be able to forgive him for his past violent mistakes are highly unlikely.

Maybe things will change at the end of these three days. Maybe they won’t. Either way, Collin intends to walk the straight and narrow from this point forward, especially for the next 72 hours. But just before midnight the mover inadvertently sees something that puts his whole life and the choices he’s made in an entirely new perspective. At a secluded intersection Collin is a terrified witness to a police shooting, a lone White officer gunning down a Black suspect square in the back.

Blindspotting is a tough movie to talk about other than to say it’s spectacular and I can’t wait to watch it again. Please note, that’s coming from someone who’s already seen it three times, each viewing allowing me to notice even more deft nuances and politically vicious insights than I did the time before. Written by Diggs and Casal, the former a vaunted Broadway star and a best-selling rapper, the latter a spoken-word artist, educator and playwright, the film is born out of the pair’s well-worn friendship born in Bay Area neighborhoods and nurtured as teenagers while attending Berkeley High School. This is a story that is fresh, funny and vital, the electrifying observational meditations at its center overflowing with a satirical edge that’s frequently thrilling. I loved this movie. Full stop. And no matter what I say next that’s the key statement that matters most.

Diggs and Casal have a lot on their minds, and not just on topics pertaining to racial inequality and police brutality. The pair riff on the gentrification of the inner cities thanks to the rise of giant tech conglomerates like Facebook and Amazon, gun violence, blended families and cultural appropriation. They balance humor and drama in ways that are less than subtle, getting right up in the viewer’s face as they put the hammer down on these hot button issues with cravenly incisive rage. At the same time, they also craft a pair of complicated, three-dimensional characters who make a number of questionable decisions as they attempt to navigate the final three

6 Seattle Gay News

days of Collin’s probation, Val frequently the voice of reason who must remind her former boyfriend what initially got him in trouble and what he now needs to do in order not to find himself in a similar situation all over again.

Newcomer Carlos López Estrada directs with fluid confidence, allowing comedy, drama, satire, suspense and outright terror to all coexist in a naturalistically humanist way that’s wonderful.

There’s a spellbinding moment where a random nobody recognizes Collin and proceeds to tell a friend a story about an incident he happened to witness at a local nightclub. The way he recollects things, this is a spectacularly funny incident, one where a drunk patron’s stupidity led to him getting what he felt were the guy’s just deserts. But to Collin and especially Val, this is one story neither would like to be reminded of, the level of disappointment, regret and outright sadness filling both of their faces as this clueless guy standing in the moving company’s lobby continues to flippantly tell his tale shattering my heart to pieces as the scene built to its crescendo.

While not as imaginatively original as Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, Estrada, Diggs and Casal have still put together a motion picture that’s far more consistent and free of any dead spots. This film burns up the screen for every one of its lightning fast 95 minutes, things climaxing with a bit of razor-sharp lyrical poeticism that had me sitting on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen. Diggs delivers a sensational performance, one of the best I’ve seen this year, while Casal, Gavankar and a dead-eyed Ethan Embry, whose character I’m purposefully saying precious little about, add magnificent support throughout.

As I stated earlier in this review, I love Blindspotting. It’s the kind of film I want to stand up and cheer the moment the end credits come up on the screen, the type of nail-biting human drama I wish studios made more of and the kind of incisive, takeno-prisoners satire viewers of all persuasions owe it to themselves to take a chance on and see. In short, this is one incredible piece of pop, character-driven madness where social commentary and entertainment value are blissfully one in the same.

July 27, 2018

ESTRADA

continued from cover Weaving a variety of hot button themes and ideas into its scenario including subjects pertaining to police brutality, gentrification, gun control and racial identity, there’s so much food for thought it’s close to impossible to take it all in and process what’s happening in a single viewing. It’s fantastic stuff, and there’s really not a lot more to say.

The story follows Collin (Diggs), an Oakland native currently on probation for a massive mistake in judgment where he let his anger and his frustration with the world at large explosively get the better of him. With only three days of probation left to go before he’s free of supervision and his debt to society has been paid and just before midnight as he’s driving back to the halfway house where he’s been living to meet his midnight curfew Collin has the misfortune of witnessing a police shooting where an unarmed Black man is shot in the back and killed by a White officer.

Knowing he can’t afford to report what he’s seen, Collin continues to work his professional moving job with best friend Miles (Rafael Casal), an explosive hothead whose bad decisions have unfortunately gotten both men in more than their fair share of trouble in the not-so-distant past.

There’s so much more going on here, including the fact that the woman running the moving company Collin and Miles both work for just so happens to be the former’s ex-girlfriend Val (Janina Gavankar), but the less the viewer knows about the ins and outs of the more intricate aspects of the plot the better. The key takeaway is that Diggs and Casal’s script is a freewheeling, cleverly complex piece of narrative imagination that’s as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. Estrada directs with absolute confidence, the film building to a revelatory moment of eye-opening catharsis that left me sitting in my theatre seat shattered and stunned.

During his visit to Seattle this past May I had the pleasure to sit down with Estrada to talk about his debut. Here’s some of what we talked about: Sara Michelle Fetters: Were you surprised at all that Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, even though you’d worked with them on their videos, gave you this script and basically asked you, “What do you think?”

This is your feature debut, after all, and the material is undeniably challenging. Did it come as a shock that they knew you could pull it off?

Carlos López Estrada: Definitely. I know and trust and love those guys, but the speed at which this whole thing happened was just insane. I also think it was a big factor in their choosing me. [laughs] They just had no time. We had no time.

We had no time to think about this, my directing, too much. This was a kind of thing where I think the producers told them, maybe late March, that the movie could happen in the summer [of 2017] and they needed a director right away.

Sara Michelle Fetters: That’s incredible.

Carlos López Estrada: It was! Two weeks after I said, “Yes,” we were prepping the film in Los Angeles. I don’t know how we did it. At that point, you look back now and while [Blindspotting] is a movie that we’re all very proud of and just ecstatic all these fantastically talented people came on board, back in the beginning it was only a movie that didn’t have a lot of money, that was very ambitious, that needed a significant rewrite and they wanted us to start filming as soon as possible. The amount of work that needed to happen in the amount of time was almost just impossible. I almost can’t believe we thought we could tackle it.

Sara Michelle Fetters: Why did it need a rewrite?

Carlos López Estrada: The script was two times as long. It had two times as many locations. It had four or five times the characters. It was massive, and it was obvious to all of us it needed to be pared down some.

Sara Michelle Fetters: And yet, here you are. You all managed to pull it off.

Carlos López Estrada: We did. I think that’s where it helped we had history working with one another. We knew each other. We’ve been working together for years. We’d done projects. I mean, nothing like Blindspotting, but we’d done projects that on paper seemed impossible and somehow managed to pull them off, so I think they trusted my ability to ground their larger-than-life ideas.

Also, all the projects that we worked on were in many ways really dealing with all these different, multi-disciplinary, cross-platform ideas like spoken word, music, rap and theatrical-driven film stuff. I think that all of these factors made Daveed and Rafael think

Celebrating 44 Years!

Rafael Casal, Ziggy Baitinger, and Jasmine Cephas Jones in Blindspotting – Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

that maybe it wasn’t all that crazy to offer the job of directing their movie to me.

Sara Michelle Fetters: Did it help, working at this breakneck pace, that you never really had time to stand back from it all and realize you were in the process of making your first feature? That the speed of the production kept you continually focused?

Carlos López Estrada: I keep telling people that by the time it hit me that we were making a movie we were already done shooting. We had no time to have too much stress over anything. I think most people, most of my friends who are working on their first movies, you usually don’t have the luxury to prep it properly, have months and months to plan a shot list, to storyboard it and to cast. That’s a luxury. But I also think that much time allows you to get into your head and to second-guess everything you’re doing. It also allows other people to question what you’re doing, which can definitely be problematic. I think just the timeline for us didn’t allow for any of that, so we were just acting on our toes, getting all these curveballs and improvising.

Sara Michelle Fetters: What did you see in the material? How did it speak to you personally when you first dove in and read it?

Carlos López Estrada: The thing that I was drawn to, before even having read the script, is just knowing Daveed and Rafa, knowing them as artists and having worked with them for so long. They’re the kind of people that I know who wouldn’t do a project unless they felt like it was worth their time, wouldn’t do it unless they felt like it was important to do right now. I hadn’t signed the contract or anything but I essentially said I would do [the film] before I even read the script just because I knew that they were behind it. That was enough.

Daveed and Rafa had talked to me about what they wanted to accomplish with the story. That was enough of a selling point for me. But after reading it, I was very moved by how human the story was. But I was also struck by how exciting it was, too. It’s like a very human story told in the most exciting of ways, and I know how much it meant to them to portray Oakland in a way that they had never seen before. I know how much it meant to them to tell this story that was inspired in all of the places and people that they knew, by events that they grew up surrounded by.

For me, it just felt like this really unique opportunity to work with two people that I respect and that I care about on a project that is really coming from inside their souls. I felt that more than anything. It made me realize that directing this was something that I should probably do.

Sara Michelle Fetters: Obviously, this movie couldn’t be timelier, and not just in its dealings with subjects pertaining to race.

I mean gentrification, the corporatization of major cities and this influx of money from the tech industry, all of that feeds into this giant

mélange. How do you separate all of those pieces so that you tell one coherent story, and not allow any one to overshadow the other.

This very easily could have just been a movie about race. It could have been about gentrification. It could have been about gun violence.

It could have been about any one of the many themes you all are tackling. But it’s not. It’s about all of them.

Carlos López Estrada: That’s what was most appealing and was also most challenging about the movie. It deals with so many timely and important and very complicated issues. It also, just tonally, is all over the place. It’s a comedy, but it’s also a drama, and it’s also sort of a psychological thriller.

We would talk about the references in other movies that we were watching when we were prepping. You would just think all of this would be a recipe for disaster.

We were watching movies like Friday, and then we were watching movies like The Shining, and then we were watching movies like Jackie, and I can’t imagine any other movie that’s like Blindspotting that would allow for those influences to all coexist. It was a real challenge to figure out how to do so much in 90 minutes and also make it not the most overwhelming cinematic experience that people could ever watch. It required a lot of conversations, and it required a lot of fine-tuning to make sure that we could strike

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that balance and make sure that the comedic moments weren’t detracting from the drama, that the dramatic moments weren’t detracting from the comedy.

We did a lot of test screenings to make sure the threads were clear and that we weren’t pushing too hard in any one direction. We got some really great feedback.

I think we did like six screenings in L.A., tried to bring in as diverse of audiences as we could. The conversations that we had I think really informed the process just because the movie is all about perspective. Watching this with younger audiences, watching this with older audiences, watching it with different backgrounds and races and genders, it was so eye-opening to see lines resonate with certain people and see the scenes that would just go over other people’s heads. Things that someone would think were really heavyhanded and unnecessary someone else in that same screening room would raise their hand and say, “That was actually the thing that hit me the hardest. I’ve never seen that in a movie.”

I think that process helped us a lot. We were dealing with all these things and wanted to do so in a way that came from a place of respect but also in a way that was informative and entertaining but never in a way where it felt like we were shoving ideals down anyone’s throats.

Sara Michelle Fetters: I think “Respect” is the right word. Not only do you show respect to your characters in this film and present them in a very complex, if not always flattering, light, but you also respect your audience, too. All of which has got to be difficult in the context of a film like this one. How did you balance all of this?

Carlos López Estrada: It is very difficult. Definitely. I think Daveed and Rafa could probably speak more accurately to this from a writer’s point of view; but for me, I think it was the only way I decided I could approach the material because I’m not from Oakland and yet I’m telling an Oakland story. I’m not African-American and I’m telling a Black story, and I can’t really pretend like I know what I’m talking about because I can’t pretend to be something that I’m not. So the only way that I imagined I could approach this material was with a lot of respect and with that outside perspective.

I mean, that’s what the movie is about, isn’t it? Just someone trying to understand something that they never will be able to understand and the only way they can do that is by taking a step back and listening. That’s exactly what I did here. I knew that I was telling the story of two people that love their city and all of the complicated issues that come with that love.

Sara Michelle Fetters: I think one of the great examples of that is the scene where we learn what Daveed did, what actually got him in jail. It’s very funny how it’s initially presented. But then you watch Daveed and Gavankar’s performances as they’re hearing this story told to them, a story they for obvious reasons already know, and it’s two different worlds processing the exact same thing but doing so in completely opposite ways.

This is kind of where we’re at as a society in some ways right now, isn’t it? It’s a mirror.

Carlos López Estrada: I think so. I mean, I think that really encompasses what Blindspotting is. It’s an entertaining movie that is fun to watch and is sort of like a sensory overload in every single way. It’s hilarious, and it’s bright and it’s colorful. But then somewhere along the way something happens that makes you take a step backwards and just realize it’s actually a little bit more than that, that there’s a lot of layers and this is actually a very complicated story. Something that was on the surface, just like a fun moment about two people getting into a fight, you realize there’s a lot more to it than that. Daveed and Rafa’s script digs deeper.

Sara Michelle Fetters: Not to spoil anything, but I think a great example of what you’re talking about is how you deal with the gun.

see ESTRADA page 9

Director Carlos López Estrada (center) with Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, co–writers, co-producers, and co-stars of Blindspotting – Photo by Chris Pizzello / Invision / AP

August 3, 2018

Seattle Gay News 7

Moving Christopher Robin a loving return to the Hundred Acre Wood

Jim Cummings (voice) and Ewan MacGregor in Christopher Robin – Photo courtesy of Disney

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN A&E Writer CHRISTOPHER ROBIN Now playing Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) has put childhood behind him, seemingly for good. An efficiency expert supervising the luggage manufacturing department of a massive international conglomerate located in London, he’s a shell of the man wife Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) fell in love with before World War II. Worse, he’s quickly becoming less and less the beloved father he once was in the eyes of his daughter Madeline (Bronte Carmichael), the whipsmart youngster starting to wonder why she spends so much time trying to make him proud of her when he so rarely notices any of her achievements. No, it’s clear Christopher Robin isn’t the wide-eyed and imaginative youngster who made friends with a variety of fantastical creatures back in the Hundred Acre Wood when he was a sixyear-old, and it’s starting to look like he’s going to stay detached from that child for the foreseeable future.

Thankfully, Winnie the Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings) has come looking for his one-time best friend, journeying all the way to London to get his help. All of his Hundred Acre Wood pals, Piglet (Nick Mohammed), Eeyore (Brad Garrett), Rabbit (Peter Capaldi), Owl (Toby Jones), Kanga (Sophie Okonedo), Roo (Sara Sheen), and Tigger (Cummings), have disappeared, and this bear with a very little brain isn’t sure how to find them. But he knows Christopher Robin will have the answer, and even if he is a little bigger, a little stranger, and little wrinklier, he’s still the greatest friend a

8 Seattle Gay News

silly old bear like Winnie the Pooh could ever hope to have.

I adored Christopher Robin. A sweet, surprisingly charming continuation of the stories featuring the classic characters created by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard once upon a time, director Marc Forster’s (Finding Neverland, World War Z) delightful little fairy tale is a glorious surprise. Even with a story and script credited to five different writers – a list that includes the likes of Alex Ross Perry (Queen of Earth), Allison Schroeder (Hidden Figures), and Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) – there is an ebulliently innocent joy to this film that’s difficult to describe.

It just made me feel good as I sat there and watched it, and even if the basic plot mechanics are familiar in their rudimentary minimalism there is still a warmhearted gracefulness to this tale that makes watching things play out to fruition easy to do.

The conceit itself is presented with matter-of-fact certainty. Winnie the Pooh and the other residents of the Hundred Acre Wood might have begun their lives as imaginary playmates conjured up by Christopher Robin as a child, but whether by magic, sheer force of will, or something even more extraordinary, somehow they’ve all come into literal existence. An adult Christopher Robin can see, touch, and hold Pooh – and so can everyone else. As such, for obvious reasons this husband and father starts to question his own sanity, but not so much so he’ll refuse to help the stuffedwith-fluff bear as best he can.

That’s the secret to the movie’s success.

While it traffics in any number of familiar themes relating to adulthood, marriage, overwork, and parenthood that are as comfortingly familiar as a screening of It’s a Wonderful Life a few days before Christ-

July 27, 2018

mas, the way it treats them with straightforward authoritative conviction is divine.

Christopher Robin, for all his insistence that he must put his work first above even his own family, at his core understands that a friend in need is one he must bend over backward to help. After his initial shock over Pooh’s existence subsides, his primary instinct is to help his childhood friend. No debate, even less hesitation. There’s a task to be done and Christopher has to do it, and in doing so he rediscovers a side of himself he came perilously close to losing forever.

There’s not much more to it. Christopher feels he must hide this unexpected adventure from his wife and child only to realize that by doing so he’s closing off an important part of who he is from the ones he loves most. He’s driven to put work first because he believes doing so will make life better, not only for Evelyn and Madeline, but also for the employees in his department he feels duty-bound to protect. He forgets about the simple things in life, about the friendships that made him who he is and the quiet certainty that doing nothing is in some instances the greatest form of something a person can accomplish during a given day. Most of all, Christopher is reminded that home truly is where the heart is, and that no matter how hard he works to give his family financial security none of that matters if he isn’t also present in their day-to-day lives to share their ups, downs, and gloriously uncertain in-betweens right alongside them.

I wish Atwell had been given more to do, and I was never altogether certain what was going on in Evelyn’s life or what her passions outside of caring about Madeline and Christopher might have happened to be. There are vague allusions that after the

war she became an artist of some sort but that’s pretty nebulous to say the least, and if not for Atwell’s emotionally astute performance I doubt there’d be all that much to talk about as it pertains to her character.

I also found Christopher’s solution to his vexing workplace conundrum, even for a sweetly simplistic Disney drama, to be a tad underwhelming, and I can’t I say bought into it with anything close to fervent sincerity.

Not that it mattered. McGregor is delightful as adult Christopher Robin, and watching happiness and awe re-enter his life with such boisterous enthusiasm made me grin in obvious glee. I was also taken by young Carmichael. There’s a scene where she meets Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, and Tigger for the first time and the actress plays it with such articulate charm I was positively beaming. Later on, she shares a moment with McGregor after an energetic chase through the streets of London that’s melodiously understated, the two actors sharing a heartrending connection that leapt right off the screen.

Christopher Robin never rises to the same rarified level of magnificence that Paddington 2 did not so long ago. The script’s various scenes and transitions from one writer to the next do show at times, and not every piece fits into the worldview Milne brought to his timeless stories as comfortably as I always wanted them to.

But this movie touched my soul, speaking a language that swept me back to my own childhood days when my mother lovingly read The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh to me before I went to sleep for the night. Now, what about lunch?

Celebrating 44 Years!

Three Dollar Bill Cinema returns to Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park with FREE outdoor movies!

Sister Act – Photo courtesy of Buena Vista

The Devil Wears Prada – Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Three Dollar Bill Cinema, sponsors of “Translations: Seattle Transgender Film Festival” and “TWIST: Seattle Queer Film Festival,” is pleased to announce their 2018 Outdoor Cinema program at Cal Anderson Park with the following line up of entertaining films:

Friday, August 24 – The Devil Wears Prada – https://bit.ly/2KLMn3N Fresh-faced ingénue Andy (Anne Hathaway) runs afoul of acid-tongued fashion Editor-in-Chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) in this madcap satire of the fashion magazine industry.

Friday, August 17 – Sister Act – https://bit.ly/2KDYrr3Ó Whoopi Goldberg stars as Deloris Van Cartier, a sassy lounge singer hiding from the mob in a convent. Relive all the fun, laughter and irresistible music as Deloris turns a tone-deaf nun’s choir into a rollicking Motown revue.

Friday, August 31 – To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar – https://bit.ly/2lOr32C Three glittery drag queens Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze), Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes) and Chi-Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo) make a mad dash across America en route to a world-famous drag competition – only to find themselves in a rustic small town where they help the townspeople rediscover their joie de vivre.

ESTRADA

That was one of the things that was most important because the movie’s ultimately about people. It’s about a community. It’s about two best friends and it’s about relationships.

Sara Michelle Fetters: With that accelerated schedule that you were talking about earlier, was it difficult to convince some of the more relatively well-known actors like Wayne Knight and Ethan Embry to come aboard? I mean, you’ve got Tisha CampbellMartin here for gosh sakes.

Carlos López Estrada: It was surprisingly easy, if I’m being honest, because the script was so good and people knew Daveed, knew Rafa or knew both of them from all sorts of different places. They’re all multihyphenated artists. They knew them from the rock world. They knew them from the theatre world. They knew them from poetry circles.

So we actually had all these different people that would come on for one-day roles that would just fly up to Oakland to be with us for that day and then fly back home because they wanted to be a part of the project. I think they knew how special it was.

You know, it’s not just we were asking them to be a cop for a day or just come onto the set and play a judge. We were asking them to play someone who has in some way influenced lives and someone who is based on someone they might know. Blindspotting is just such a personal story that I think people were especially enthusiastic to be a part of it, whether large or small.

Sara Michelle Fetters: There’s a pivotal point where you very easily could’ve gone into sort of Crash territory, and I actually

continued from page 7 Carlos López Estrada: Yes. Definitely.

Sara Michelle Fetters: It took me a second to realize it, but if I you watch Rafa and the way he’s playing with the gun in that first scene, it’s very similar to how his son is playing with it later on.

Carlos López Estrada: I’m glad you noticed that.

Sara Michelle Fetters: So this juxtaposition, the way you play the two scenes, that was all by design? It was on purpose?

Carlos López Estrada: I mean, I think I’d like to say that everything was on purpose, but that’s probably not true. In this case I think it was. What was most important was letting the actors sort of like find themselves while we were shooting. Of course, we knew what the movie was about and we knew what we wanted to say and what we didn’t want to say, but there was always freedom to explore. I think the group of actors just became so close.

We were able to foster this safe environment on set for people who were really just playing off of each other.

But there were a lot of actors that just came fresh, knowing nothing about any of us, and I think the environment that we created allowed for this like really, really loose acting style. That’s where many of these choices came from. The playfulness that the kid has just came from how well he got along with his movie mom and dad, and that was important to us. So the stuff with the gun, it was born from all of that, I think.

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To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar – Photo courtesy of Universal

All screenings begin at sunset (around 8:40pm) at the SE corner of Cal Anderson Park (11th Ave & E Olive St). ARRIVE EARLY to get a good seat and join us for the pre-show events. Concessions will be open and DJ will start at 7pm. Official announcements and games will begin at 8pm.

All films will have subtitles. This is a smoke-free event. Bring low-backed chairs or blankets for seating, please. Hot popcorn, cold drinks, candy, and other concessions will be for sale on site. Limited lawn chair rentals available.

Proceeds benefit Three Dollar Bill Cinema’s efforts throughout the year to provide voices and visibility for the LGBTQ community through film and video. More info at www.threedollarbillcinema.org.

PLEASE NOTE: As we move towards autumn, the unfortunate likelihood of bad weather increases. In the event of rain, we will make a decision to move forward or to cancel at 6pm on the day of the event.

Interested in volunteering? We are looking for Concession Stand Attendants and folks for our Tech Team. Please head on over to www.shiftboard.com/threedollarbillcinema to snag a shift or two! See you at the movies!

This series wouldn’t be possible without our fabulous sponsors. Please help us thank them! This program is funded by the Seattle Parks District Recreation for All Initiative.

Annual Sponsors: BECU, Vulcan Inc. Outdoor Cinema Sponsors: Seattle Parks and Recreation, Seattle Pride, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Kendall’s DJ & Event, City Arts Magazine, Pacific Medical Centers.

like Crash. What I’m trying to say, I guess, is that there’s a point where the coincidences that happen are fairly extreme, and they could have become melodramatic and felt facile. Yet there is a powerful authenticity during these moments, especially as it pertains to Daveed’s magnificent performance.

I mean, you guys all had to know what the inherent danger of these scenes was, and yet somehow, someway, thanks to your direction and the work from all three actors, it’s all kind of incredible.

Carlos López Estrada: I wish we had had a formula. I think this movie, and especially the last 15 minutes on paper, just seemed like a recipe for a disaster. But all the right people and all the right pieces came on board. And Ethan Embry did such a terrific job. I think he has two lines in the movie and he delivers one of the most memorable performances that I can remember.

Daveed also. What he’s able to accomplish in that scene. I feel like most other actors would have really struggled with giving a human performance with what he’s asked to do there. The asks in that scene are high. It’s a tall order to ask an actor to do what Daveed does and make it seem natural. I don’t really know what to attribute that to other than to say he’s really incredibly talented because I think we were all worried that the scene was going to come up and people were just going to like roll their eyes and wonder why we would ever do anything like that.

But you’re on board with the scene because, hopefully, we’ve done an okay job presenting this world inside the movie and making you care about these charac-

ters, showing you that even though this is a slightly heightened movie and it’s stylized, it still deals with real people, real fears, real insecurities and real problems. By the time the last scene comes up you should be more concerned about what’s going on in Daveed’s mind more than in how exactly the scene plays out or how it’s executed. It should feel as real as anything else. I hope that makes sense.

Sara Michelle Fetters: What do you want people talking about when they leave the theatre? What do you hope they’re saying to one another?

Carlos López Estrada: I don’t know. I mean, it’s up to the individual, isn’t it? Maybe I shouldn’t be telling them what to think?

I mean, we tried really hard through the entire process to not say too much. We tried to ask questions rather than give any kind of thoughts on what we think those answers could be. Every time we felt like we were turning a question into an answer we would pull back and say, we’re not coming into this movie pretending to have answers to the issues that we’re presenting. We’re trying to start a conversation, hoping that people walk away with enough to go home and talk to their friends or their families or their significant others about these issues that we present.

Whether it’s race, whether it’s gentrification, whether it’s police brutality, we’re hoping that people are willing to listen and then talk amongst themselves. We’re not pretending to have any answers. If people who watch the movie walk away with that sort of reaction? I think we’ve done our job.

August 3, 2018

Seattle Gay News 9

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4-5, 11-12, & 18-19 10:00am – 7:00pm

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10 Seattle Gay News

July 27, 2018

Celebrating 44 Years!

Sister Act Aug 17 The Devil Wears Prada Aug 24 To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar Aug 31

Hot popcorn, cold drinks, candy, and other concessions for sale on site.

Limited lawn chair rentals available.

Visit us online www.sgn.org

August 3, 2018

Seattle Gay News 11

12 Seattle Gay News

July 27, 2018

Celebrating 44 Years!

Goofy Spy Who Dumped Me an enjoyably humorous lark

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN A&E Writer THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME Now playing While at first grocery store clerk Audrey (Mila Kunis) believes her boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux) dumped her via text message for no apparent reason, turns out he’s secretly a covert CIA spy who was just trying to protect her from harm. Out of options, he is forced to ask his now ex-girlfriend for an unthinkable favor. Unable to accomplish the task for himself, Drew needs Audrey to carry a secret item to Vienna for him, otherwise countless thousands could potentially die. While she is initially reluctant, her best friend and roommate Morgan (Kate McKinnon) convinces her to take a leap of faith and go on this unexpected adventure, agreeing to join her on the trip.

Soon the pair are bouncing around Europe avoiding Russian assassins, making the acquaintance of sexy British spy Sebastian (Sam Heughan), catching the ire of MI6 bureau chief Wendy (Gillian Anderson), and altogether getting into all kinds of mischief.

Through it all Audrey and Morgan rely upon their friendship to get them through each and every perilous predicament, their bond the true secret weapon that might just prove these two unlikely women are the only ones willing to do whatever it takes to eventually save the day.

The Spy Who Dumped Me isn’t going to change the world. It’s a friendly, low-key throwback that’s far more reminiscent of a film like 1985’s Gotcha! than it is a certifiable fish-out-of-water action/comedy classic like 1984’s Romancing the Stone. Director

Kate McKinnon and Mila Kunis in The Spy Who Dumped Me – Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

and co-writer Susanna Fogel’s follow-up to 2014’s wondrous Life Partners is as messy as it is elaborate, as disjointed as it is amusing.

As such, the filmmaker’s sophomore effort is wildly uneven and is never quite as entertaining as it continually felt like it was going to be, while at the same time providing just enough in the way of heart, laughs, and excitement to make its shortcomings nowhere near as egregious as they otherwise might have been.

The reason for this can be summed up in the form of “Saturday Night Live” star and Ghostbusters scene-stealer McKinnon.

While not at the top of her game or doing anything unexpected, she’s so fantastically endearing as Morgan I found I could not take my eyes off of her anytime she was up on the screen. The way she twists Fogel and co-writer David Iserson’s (“United States of Tara”) dialogue to suit her character’s needs is masterful, her ability to toss off a one-liner with such self-effacing ease a con-

tinual source of joy. It’s always a question what McKinnon is going to do next, and by the time she climbed to the top of a Cirque du Soleil trapeze in full costumed regalia to conduct an aerial battle of wits and wiles with an angry assassin she had me giggling so boisterously I almost fell out of my seat.

But the other key to the film’s success is the way in which Fogel presents Audrey and Morgan’s friendship. Much like she did so effortlessly in Life Partners, the director cuts away all of the cliché and stereotypical fat that female relationships in most major Hollywood studio-produced motion pictures almost always rely upon. As silly and as convoluted as their adventure might be, their friendship remains authentic and pure no matter what. Even with the introduction of potential male love interests nothing gets between them. There is no third-act hiccup, no forced situation that makes them reconsider their connection. Instead, even when

disagreements occur Audrey and Morgan are true to one another through thick and thin, a stunning turn of events that’s far more radical and ambitious than I’m sure most casual viewers will comprehend, let alone notice.

The central mystery is predictable nonsense, and even as intricate as the plot the two women are trying to foil becomes there was never a moment when I didn’t know what was going to happen or where things were going to go next. Additionally, Fogel has minor trouble sustaining forward momentum, and while I won’t say the film runs long there were certainly times when I began to squirm in my seat waiting for things to pick up speed. I also think the movie wastes its most intriguing villain, a former Russian gymnast-turned-assassin magnetically portrayed by newcomer Ivanna Sakhno, and whether by her own hand or via studio meddling the fierce chemistry the actress shares with McKinnon is never explored as fully as I can’t help but feel the director originally intended.

Be that as it may, I had a really wonderful time watching Fogel’s latest. Kunis is a strong heroine, her reactions to all of the carnage and violence happening around her, some of which she ends up being directly responsible for, frequently priceless. Anderson makes the most of her few scenes, while Heughan is the sexy, albeit gender-reversed piece of eye candy James Bond films and their substandard knockoffs have been making hay out of for decades. Meanwhile, McKinnon steals scenes left and right making the type of impression that’s impossible to minimize, all of which allows The Spy Who Dumped Me to be a humorously enjoyable lark I got a gleeful kick out of.

Well-made Darkest Minds an unsurprising YA adventure

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN A&E Writer THE DARKEST MINDS Now playing It has been six years since a mysterious virus wiped out most of the world’s population under the age of 18. Since then, in the United States the surviving children have been rounded up and put into militarized detention centers and secluded into various groups based on a color system. The reason for this is simple. The surviving kids have developed a variety of astonishing powers, ranging from superior intelligence, to the ability to control electricity, to basic telekinesis. These are the Green, Blue, and Yellow groups. These are the children the government believes it can try and control.

Ruby Daly (Amandla Stenberg) belongs to the Orange group, and kids with either that or the Red designation are executed immediately with no further testing. But she’s managed to hide her abilities for these six long years, waiting for the moment she’ll be able to escape imprisonment and hopefully return home to her mother and father. But when she does get out it is into a world far different than the one she knew as a 10-year-old girl.

By complete chance she manages to hook up with a trio of fellow youngsters, Liam (Harris Dickinson), Chubs (Skylan Brooks), and Zu (Miya Cech), all of whom are also on the run.

Together they are searching for a fabled hiding place filled with kids like them, believing if they can get there they can start a new life outside of the terrors inflicted upon them by the adults petrified of their powerful abilities.

I am not familiar with author Alexandra Bracken’s best-seller The Darkest Minds or the series of Young Adult novels its success helped spawn. I do not know how faithful director Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2, Kung Fu Panda 3) and screenwriter Chad Hodge’s (“Wayward Pines”) adaptation is to the source material. What I can say with rela-

Skylan Brooks, Miya Cech, Amandla Stenberg, and Harris Dickinson in The Darkest Minds – Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

tive confidence is that, unlike films like The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner it is doubtful we’re ever going to see where Ruby’s tale goes next after this chapter comes to an end. It strikes me that for all of this motion picture’s plusses the chances a sequel will see the light of day just isn’t one of them, the nature of the story and the forceful depiction of the violence – primarily directed at children separated forcibly by the government from their shell-shocked parents – not exactly making this dystopian science-fiction adventure all that appealing in light of current events.

Which is kind of a pity, because while the film has its fair share of weaknesses and missteps, the world Nelson and Hodge construct turns out to be an intriguing one, and even though much of this can play out like an X-Men origin story crossed with the doom and gloom of the unfinished Divergent series there’s still enough going on I’d be curious to learn what happens next. It also helps that the cast the filmmakers have assembled of young talent is strong, not the least of which is Stenberg, an actress quickly growing into her abilities who is also no stranger to YA adaptations such as this. Once upon a time she was

Visit us online www.sgn.org

the ill-fated Rue in the aforementioned Hunger Games, her powerful death scene one of the more memorable cinematic moments in recent memory.

After her performance here and in last year’s otherwise underwhelming Everything, Everything, it’s safe to say Stenberg is a talent to keep one’s eye on. She’s outstanding as the conflicted Ruby, mining rich emotional terrain with a naturalistic effortlessness that’s sublime.

The actress subtly makes this young woman’s transition from protected to protector intimately authentic, and I loved the uneven physicality she brings to the role. There is a fluidity to the ins and outs of what Stenberg is doing that’s marvelous, and by the time she makes the decision to stand up and fight against the evils attempting to destroy both her and her friends I almost wanted to jump out of my seat and join her in doing just that.

If only the movie as a whole were equal to her performance. There’s a lot happening here, and there are a number of instances where Nelson and Hodge can’t seem to juggle all of the various balls they’ve tossed into the air with anything resembling success. This adventure tends to move in fits and starts,

August 3, 2018

glossing over what appear to be major plot points only to give extra weight to others that unfortunately don’t add a heck of lot as far as the overall narrative is concerned. There’s also the fact that, as much potential as this scenario might have, there’s nary a surprise to be found anywhere during the feature’s 105-minute running time, its secrets blatantly apparent throughout even to audience members utilizing only a tiny smidgen of their available brain cells.

It’s also apparent that the study and the filmmakers were hoping their film would be the start of another popular YA fantasy series, ending things on a cliffhanger that, while not as annoying as the one in that first Maze Runner or 2009’s Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant proved to be, is still rather obnoxious and unsatisfactory. By insisting on setting up Ruby’s next adventures Nelson and Hodge inadvertently undercut the emotional strengths much of this story utilizes as its foundation, and even an outstanding scene between Stenberg and Dickinson right near the end finds its power and humanistic messaging significantly undercut by the lack of anything resembling a coherent resolution a precious few moments later.

I still can’t wait to see what Stenberg does next, and early buzz is that her performance in George Tillman, Jr.’s upcoming, highly anticipated drama The Hate U Give is going to be the one that potentially makes her an outright star. There’s also something to be said of Nelson’s jump from animation to live action, her ability to utilize the entire frame, especially during action sequences, coupled with her confident handling of actors getting me to hope she gets her next directorial gig sooner rather than later. There’s a lot to applaud about The Darkest Minds, just not enough to believe audiences will give it the type of look it is going to need for 20th Century Fox to continue to adapt Bracken’s books anytime in the immediate future.

Seattle Gay News 13

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UNICORN• • POST OPTIONS •WILDROSE • HOT HOUSE

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• DOGHOUSE LEATHERS

E. PIKE ST. • CHOP SUEY • MADISON PUB • DIESEL BAR • PONY • UNION

WILDROSE - 1021 E. Pike - 324-9210 ZIPPY’S GIANT BURGERS GLO’S - 1621 E. Olive Way - 324-2577 5633 Airport Way S - 466-5954 HOT MAMA’S PIZZA E.328-2914 Pine St. - 322-6444 LOVER’S 9614 14th Ave SW - 763-1347 - 25801 104th Ave. SE - (253) 852-1720 BABELAND - 707 E. Pike St. -- 700 (206) JAZZ ALLEY - 2033#17 6th Ave. E. - 441-9729 BATHS CLUB Z - (men) THE FANTASY SHOP CASTLE SUPERSTORE 1117 Pike near Boren - 622-9958 Broadway 604 Central Ave. S - (253) 850-8428 1017 E.JULIA’S Pike St- -300 (206) 204-0126 Ave. E. - 860-1818 HOT HOUSE SPA & SAUNA - (women) KREMWERK - 1809 Minor Ave. #10 - 682-2935 NASHVILLE’S CLUB Z - (men) CASTLE SUPERSTORE #17 SPORTS BAR (Drag Shows) DOGHOUSE LEATHERS MADISON PUB 1315 E. Madison 325-6537 SW corner of Pike & 11th 1117 Pike near Boren - (206) 622-9958 1017 E. Pike St - 204-0126 114 - Railroad Ave. N - (253) 852-0909 1312 E. Pike St. - (206) 257-0231 NEIGHBOURS 1509 Broadway 324-5358 DOGHOUSE LEATHERS HOT HOUSE(stairs SPA &behind SAUNAWildrose) - (women)- 568-3240 EMERSON SALON - 909 E. Pike St. - (206) 323-7437 OUT WEST - 5401California Ave. SW 1312 E. Pike St. - 257-0231 SW corner ofSTEAM Pike & WORKS 11th - (men) FANTASY UNLIMITED THE PINE BOX - 1600 Melrose Ave - 588-0375 Summit - 388-4818 EMERSON SALON - 909 E. Pike St. - 323-7437 (stairs behind1520 Wildrose) - (206) 568-3240 2027 Westlake Ave. - (206) 682-0167 POCO WINE ROOM HASHTAG - 3540 Stone Way N - 946-8157 STEAM WORKS - (men) 1510 1st Ave (206) 624-1784 THE HERON INN & WATERGRASS DAY SPA 1408 E. Pine St. - 322-9463 NEW YORK EXCHANGE 1520 Summit Ave - (206) 388-4818 HASHTAG 3540 Stone Way N (206) 946-8157 117 Ave. - E. (877) 883-8899 POKE BAR - 1542 12th Ave - 402-5178 225Maple Broadway - 726-3300 HERBAN LEGENDS Bell St -St. (206) 849-5596 info@theheron.com 88 KEYS - 315 2nd Ave. S. - 839-1300 PONY - 1221 E.- 55 Madison - 324-2854 ONYX LEATHER - 1605 12th Ave. #8 - 328-1965 ELEMENTS BALTIC ROOM - 1207 Pine St. - 625-4444 HERB(N) PURR - 1518 11th Ave. - 325-3112 RESTAURANTS & BARS OZ - 3831 Stone Way N - 251-0630 11013 RLake City-Way - (206) 535-8769 THE BOTTLENECK LOUNGE PLACE 619 NE E. Pine - 322-8828 PANACHE LAUGHING BUDDHA TATTOO E. Madison - 323-1098 RE-BAR - 1114 Howell at Boren - 233-9873 225 Broadway E. - 726-3300 88 KEYS - 3152328 2nd Ave. S - (206)St. 839-1300 1534 Broadway - (206) 329-8274 C.C. ATTLE’S GRILLE ROOT TABLE 2213 NW Market St. - 420-3214 RUCKUS CAFE 1465 E Republican St. - 257-4805 DARBY’S BALTIC ROOM - 1207 PineBAR St. -&(206) 625-4444 NEW YORK EXCHANGE E. Pike - 621-7591 1701 E. Olive Way - 726-0565 SEATTLE EAGLE - 314 THE 5th FANTASY 211 Ave. SESHOP - (360) 357-6229 THE BOTTLENECK LOUNGE 225 Broadway E. 2222 - (206)2nd 726-3300 THE CANTERBURY - 534 15th Ave. E. - 322-3130 SHORTY’S Ave - 441-5449 9630 16th Ave. SW - 762-3299 LOVER’S 2328 E. Madison St. - (206) 323-1098 CHANGES IN WALLINGFORD ONYX LEATHER STOUT -1530 11th Ave - 397-3825 TABOO ADULT 3959 Martin WayVIDEO E, Suite D - (360) 456-7300 CAPITOL CIDER - 818 E Pike St. - (206) 397-3564 2103 N. 45th - 545-8363 TOULOUSE 1605 12th Ave. #8 PETIT - (206) 328-1965 9813 16th SW -E767-4855 JAKES - 311Ave 4th Ave. - (360) 956-3247 C.C. ATTLE’S BAR & GRILLE THE CRESCENT - 1413 E. Olive Way - 720-8188 601Stone Queen Ave251-0630 N - 432-9069 OZ - 3831 WayAnne N - (206) TOYS IN BABELAND - 707 E. Pike St. - 328-2914 1701 E. OliveTHE Way - (206) 726-0565 CUFF COMPLEX UNICORN - 1118 ESHOP Pike - 325-6492 PACIFIC NORTHWEST UNDER U 4 MEN THE CANTERBURY 4411 Wallingford Ave. N. - (206) 535-6920 709 Broadway Ave. E. - 324-6446 534 15th Ave. E - (206) 322-3130 PANACHE - 225 Broadway E. - (206) 726-3300 UNCLE IKE’S CHANGES IN WALLINGFORD MAPLE 2310 E ROSE Union INN St - 1-800-GET-DRUGS RUCKUS - 1465 E Republican St - (206) 257-4805 2103 N. 45th - (206) 545-8363 112 (800) 570-2007 501Reservoir 15th AveRd E -- 1-800-GET-DRUGS TABOO ADULT VIDEO THE CRESCENT 9822 15th Ave SW - 1-800-GET-DRUGS 9813 16th Ave SW - (206) 767-4855 1413 E. Olive Way - (206) 720-8188 WILD AT HEART TRUE LOVE ART GALLERY & TATTOO THE CUFF COMPLEX 1111 NW Leary Way - 782-5538 1525 Summit Ave. - (206) 227-3572 1533 13th Ave. - (206) 323-1525 ANDY’S - 1401 W. 1st Ave. - (509) 747-0304 UNDER U 4 MEN DIESEL BAR - 1413 14th Ave. - (206) 322-1080 THE BLIND BUCK 709 Broadway Ave. E - (206) 324-6446 GLO’S - 1621 E. Olive Way - (206) 324-2577 204 N. Division St. - (509) 343-9425 UNCLE IKE’S HOT MAMA’S PIZZA LOVER’S GLOBE BAR AND KITCHEN 2310 E Union St - 1-800-GET-DRUGS 700 E. Pine St. - (206) 322-6444 193N. Telegraph Road - (360) 752-1862 204 Division St. - (509) 443-4014 501 15th Ave E - 1-800-GET-DRUGS JAZZ ALLEY - 2033 6th Ave. E - (206) 441-9729 RUMORS NYNE BARCABARET AND BISTRO 9822 15th Ave SW - 1-800-GET-DRUGS JULIA’S - 300 Broadway Ave. E - (206) 860-1818 1119 - (306) 671-1849 232 W.Railroad Sprague Ave. - (509) 474-1621 WILD AT HEART KREMWERK - 1809 Minor Ave. #10 - (206) 682-2935 1111 NW Leary Way - (206) 782-5538 THE LUMBER YARD 9619 16th Ave. SW - (206) 695-2007 ADULT AIRPORT VIDEO 2 MADISON PUB - 1315 E. Madison - (206) 325-6537 21635 Pacific Hwy S - 878-7780 NEIGHBOURS - 1509 Broadway - (206) 324-5358 LOVER'S OUT WEST 193 Telegraph Road - (360) 752-1862 5401California Ave. SW - (206) 937-1540 RUMORS CABARET THE PINE BOX - 1600 Melrose Ave - (206) 588-0375 ADULT AIRPORT VIDEO 1119 Railroad - (360) 671-1849 POCO WINE ROOM 11732 Airport Road - (425) 290-7555 1408 E. Pine St. - (206) 322-9463 LOVER’S - 112 SE Everett - (425) 353-3607 POKE BAR - 1542 12th Ave - (206) 402-5178 LOVER’S - 3402 Broadway - (425) 252-8754 PONY - 1221 E. Madison St. - (206) 324-2854 QUEER BAR - 1518 11th Ave - (206) 687-7491 ADULT AIRPORT VIDEO 2 R PLACE - 619 E. Pine - (206) 322-8828 21635 Pacific Hwy S - (206) 878-7780 LOVER’S RE-BAR - 1114 Howell at Boren - (206) 233-9873 SECRETS 25801 104th Ave. S.E. - (253) 852-1720 ROOT TABLE 2213 NW Market St. - (206) 420-3214 22862 Pacific Hwy S - (206) 878-8480 THE FANTASY SHOP SEATTLE EAGLE - 314 E. Pike - (206) 621-7591 604 Central Ave. S. - (253) 850-8428 SHORTY’S 2222 2nd Ave - (206) 441-5449 NASHVILLE’S SPORTS BAR (Drag Shows) STOUT -1530 11th Ave - (206) 397-3825 114 - Railroad Ave. N. - (253) 852 - 0909 TOULOUSE PETIT ADULT AIRPORT VIDEO 601 Queen Anne Ave. N - (206) 432-9069 11732 Airport Road - (425) 290-7555 UNICORN - 1118 E Pike - (206) 325-6492 LOVER’S - 112 SE Everett - (425) 353-3607 UNION - 1318 E. Union St. - (206) 328-1318 LOVER’S - 3402 Broadway - (425) 252-8754 WILDROSE - 1021 E Pike - (206) 324-9210 ZIPPY’S GIANT BURGERS 9614 14th Ave SW - (206) 763-1347 1533 13th Ave. - 323-1525

DIESEL BAR - 1413 14th Ave. - 322-1080 RETAIL SHOPS

• RUCKUS

E. THOMAS ST.

• JULIAʼS

DENNY WAY

• UNCLE IKEʼS

E. UNION ST.

LATACOMA CONNER

THE HERON INN & WATERGRASS DAY SPA SUPERSTORE 117 CASTLE Maple Ave. - (877) 883-8899 - info@theheron.com 6015 Tacoma Mall Blvd. - (253) 471-0391 CLUB SILVERSTONE 739½ St. Helens Ave. - (253) 404-0273 THE FANTASY SHOP DARBY’S CAFE 2301 6thS.E. Ave.- (360) - (253)357-6229 272-6640 211 5th Ave. LOVER’S LOVER’S 7002 Tacoma Mall Blvd., #F - (253) 475-2271 3959 Martin Way E. Suite D - (360) 456-7300 PACIFIC NORTHWEST SHOP JAKES - 311 4th Ave. E. - (360) 956-3247 2702 N. Proctor St. - (253) 752-2242 THE MIX - 635 St. Helens Ave. - (253) 383-4327 RAINBOW CENTER MAPLE ROSE INN Ave. - (253) 383-2318 2215 Pacific 112 SHAKABRAH Reservoir Rd - (800) JAVA570-2007 CAFE 2618 6th Ave. - (253) 572-2787

OLYMPIA

PORT ANGELES SPOKANE TRI-CITIES

ANDY’S 1401 W. 1st Ave. - (509) 747 - 0304 STRAY NIGHTCLUB CLUB OUT & ABOUT 415 327 W. Sprague - (509) 624 543-3796 - 4450 W. Lewis Ave. St., Pasco - (509) NYNE BAR AND BISTRO 232 W. Sprague Ave. - (509) 474 -1621

TUKWILA LOVER’S - 530 Southcenter Blvd. - (206) 248-5085 TACOMA CASTLE SUPERSTORE 6015 Tacoma Mall Blvd. - (253) 471-0391 CLUB SILVERSTONE 739½ St. Helens Ave. - (253) 404-0273 THE FANTASY SHOP 2301 6th Ave. - (253) 272-6640 LOVER’S 7002 Tacoma Mall Blvd., #F - (253) 475-2271 THE MIX - 635 St. Helens Ave. - (253) 383-4327 RAINBOW CENTER 2215 Pacific Ave. - (253) 383-2318 SHAKABRAH JAVA CAFE 2618 6th Ave. - (253) 572-2787

TRI-CITIES

CLUB OUT & ABOUT 327 W. Lewis St., Pasco - (509) 543-3796

TUKWILA LOVER’S

530 Southcenter Blvd. - (206) 248-5085 Seattle Gay News is available at KENT most Seattle, King County, Tacoma, and Pierce County Public Libraries.

If your branch library isn't carrying SGN, please let us know!

206-324-4297 sgn2@sgn.com

Celebrating 44 Years!

community calendar

Meetings Events Activities

TO GET A CALENDAR LISTING: To have your meeting or event considered for the Community Calendar, please mail, fax, or drop off details to: SGN, Attn: Community Calendar, 1707 23rd Ave., Seattle, WA 98122.

SGN phone: (206) 324-4297. E-mail: sgn2@sgn.org.

INCLUDE: Date, time, location, contact phone # for publication (if possible), brief description of event & sponsoring organization. DEADLINE: Tuesday 5pm.

ACCESSIBILITY: Is your event accessible to LGBTQ people with visible or hidden disabilities? See Jean’s List webpage www.scn.org/activism/calendar/disabilities. html for Marla Nonken’s disabilities accommodations lists.

NOTE: 10-digit dialing has come to the Seattle area.

The (206) area code must now be used to dial local calls. Location of meetings/events is in Seattle unless otherwise noted.

SATURDAY - August 4

Seattle Frontrunners Fun Run. 9am. Greenlake (outside Evans Pool). Every Saturday. GLBT running & walking club sponsors weekly runs, monthly potlucks, track & field activity, annual Run With Pride. (206) 4488518. www.seattlefrontrunners.org.

Positively Living Coffee Social. 9:30am-12 noon.

Cupcake Royale, 1111 E Pike St. Every Saturday. Casual social get-together for the HIV community. Anthony, 206-957-1600. Sponsored by LIfelong.

Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Green Lake Walk. 12 noon-1pm. 7201 E Green Lake Dr. N. Every Saturday - Come Rain or Shine! - Meet at the Wading Pool (along the north end of the lake). Hot coffee and beautiful Rainbow umbrellas to use “just in case.” For info, call (206) 393-3400;. Wheelchair-friendly walk.

Sponsored by Generations Aging With Pride.

Oasis Youth Center in Tacoma - For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Questioning Youth, Ages 14-25. 6pm-12 midnight. Call for location & details. Every Saturday. (253) 671-2838. www.oasisyouthcenter.org.

sion before we play. Usually there is a “one-beer” after the scrimmage. To sign up visit www.raincitysoccer.org PFLAG/Whatcom County (Bellingham) Monthly Meeting. 5pm. Community Food Co-op Bakery, 405 E Holly St, Bellingham. Meets 1st Sunday each month.

Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays is a national support organization for parents, spouses, & families of GLBT persons, as well as those minorities. www.whatcompflag.org; PFLAG/Puget Sound: (206) 325-7724.

Shame to Grace (SAA). 6-7:30pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Sunday. Sex Addicts Anonymous is a fellowship of men & women who share their experience, strength & hope with each other so they may overcome their sexual addiction & help others recover from sexual addiction or dependency. Seattle SAA helpline (206) 237-8828, SAA International Service Organization 1-800-477-8191. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org Integrity/Puget Sound. 7pm Worship & Fellowship. St. Mark’s Cathedral, Thomson Chapel, 1245 10th Ave E. Integrity is an international ministry of Gay & Lesbian Episcopalians, their friends & families, dedicated to education, support & service within the Church & the GLBT community. (425) 226-2746.

Noche Latina - Latino Night. 10pm. Capitol Lounge, 916 E Pike St. Every Sunday. Go-go dancers at 10:30pm; drag show at midnight. 21+ ID required. $10 cover. Co-sponsored by Entre Hermanos.

MONDAY - August 6

SUNDAY - August 5

Border Riders Motorcycle Club First Sunday Ride.

Contact Border Riders for details and rendezvous point.

Meets 1st Sunday most months. BRMC provides a social & educational fraternity for individuals interested in recreational motorcycle touring. www.borderriders.com Center for Spiritual Living. 8:25, 9:45, 11:30am. 5801 Sand Point Way NE. Blessings & we hope to see you soon! (206) 527-8801 ext 203, www.cslseattle.org Ravenna United Methodist Church. 8:30am “Seattle’s most dangerous Sunday school” - 9:45am Worship. 5751 33rd Ave NE. A reconciling congregation, fully inclusive and affirming of LGBTQ persons. (206) 525-7988.

Seattle Unity Church. 9am & 11am Sunday Services.

200 8th Ave N. “Come join our Gay & Lesbian-friendly, spiritual family at Seattle Unity Church. Our mission is to bring love, miracles & spiritual awakening into everyday life!” (206) 622-8475; www.seattleunity.org.

Seattle Soto Zen. 9:15am Zazen Instruction, 9:30am Zazen. 101 Nickerson St, Lower Level. Follow the traditional forms of the Soto school of Zen in a spirit of warmth & inclusion. Anyone interested in meditation, whether new or experienced in Zen practice or other traditions, is welcome. (206) 323-1659, www.seattlesotozen.org Gay Men’s Bowling in Everett. 9:30am. Glacier Lanes, 9630 Evergreen Way, Everett. Every Sunday. Spectators welcome. Join us for lunch afterwards! Sponsored by the Snohomish County Gay Men’s Task Force. For info email John at johndmarsh@mac.com; www.gaysnohomish.org Tacoma First United Methodist Church. 9:30am Worship, 11am Adult Education. 423 Martin Luther King Way, Tacoma. This reconciling congregation welcomes with warm hands, warm hearts & open minds GLBT persons seeking a spiritual home. (253) 627-0129, www. fumctacoma.org University Lutheran Church. 9:30am Worship, 10:30am Coffee Fellowship, 11am Adult Forum & Education Hour. 1604 NE 50th St. All are welcome. We choose love. (206) 525-7074. universitylutheranseattle.org Central Lutheran Church. 10am Worship. 1710 11th Ave (just north of E Pine St). An open & affirming church, which in Lutheran churches is called “Reconciled in Christ.” “We seek to share God’s love with all people regardless of race, age, gender or sexual orientation.”

All are welcome. (206) 322-7500.

East Shore Unitarian Church. 10am Sunday Service.

12700 SE 32nd St, Bellevue. An open & affirming congregation. (425) 747-3780.

Gethsemane Lutheran Church. 10am Worship. 911 Stewart St. A downtown faith community centered in justice. An open & affirming congregation. (206) 682-3620.

Plymouth Church United Church of Christ. 10am Workship. 1217 6th Ave. Love your (LGBTQ) neighbor as yourself. (206) 622-4865, plymouthchurchseattle.org Queen Anne United Methodist Church. 10am Worship. 1606 5th Ave W. (206) 282-4307.

Unity Church of Kent. 10am. 218 State Ave S, Kent.

A welcoming congregation open to people of all races, religions, creeds & lifestyles. Join us any Sunday for an inspirational message, joyful fellowship & a fresh spiritual outlook. (253) 854-9747.

University Congregational United Church of Christ.

9am all ages education; 10am Worship. 4515 16th Ave NE. UCUCC is an open & affirming congregation. (206) 524-2322; www.universityucc.org.

August 4 thru August 12

Wallingford United Methodist Church. 10am Worship.

2115 N 42nd St. A progressive congregation. In 1984 Wallingford UMC became the 9th reconciling Methodist church in the U.S. (206) 547-6945 (office); (206) 2855077 (George).

All Pilgrims Christian Church. 10:30am Worship.

500 Broadway E. Come as you are. All are welcome.

A congregation of the Disciples of Christ & the United Church of Christ. (206) 322-0487, www.allpilgrims.org St. Clement’s Episcopal Church. 10:30am Worship.

1501 32nd Ave S. Great music. Dynamic preaching.

Holy communion. Encountering the transformative and unconditional love of God in Christ. Join us! www. stclementseattle.org Seattle Sunday Bowling. 10:30am. West Seattle Bowl, 4505 39th Ave SW (at SW Oregon St). Open bowl every Sunday for the GLBT community & friends. You don’t have to worry about how you bowl! $6.50 + $3 shoe rental. (425) 785-4729.

Welcome Table Christian Church. 9:45am Meditation; 10:30am Worship; Labyrinth 2nd Sundays 1-4pm. 1322 S Bayview St. Where people of all genders and sexualities, and families of all shapes & sizes are welcome and celebrated. A welcoming and affirming community since 1987. welcometablecc.org Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

10:30am. 7141 California Ave SW. (206) 935-0418, office@wsuu.org, www.wsuu.org Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church Seattle. 11am Worship. Chapel at University Temple United Methodist Church, 1415 NE 43rd St. MCC is a progressive Christ-centered faith community committed to providing a nurturing environment for individual & community growth thru Jesus Christ while celebrating unity in diversity. MCC is Seattle’s oldest Gay-friendly church. (206) 325-2421, www.mccseattle.org.

Meditation for GBT Men. 11am-1pm. Cal Anderson House, 400 Broadway. Suitable for beginning & experienced meditators. Sponsored by Dharma Buddies.

Contact Forrest Rode, (206) 920-6117, or Doug Allison, doug.l.allison@gmail.com. Find us under “Dharma Buddies” under Meetup.com or DharmaBuddies.org.

(Women are invited to contact our sister meditation group at www.LotusSisters.org.)

St. Paul’s United Church of Christ. 11am Worship.

6512 12th Ave NW. An “open & affirming” congregation.

“We celebrate our diversity in religious background, sexual orientation, race, age & abilities.” (206) 783-6733; www.stpauluccseattle.com.

Visit us online www.sgn.org

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. 11:15am (also 7:30am, 9am, 5pm). 15 W Roy St. We are an accepting, progressive, Anglo-Catholic parish, renewing its people for their Christian lives in today’s world through worship, spiritual formation, engagement in the arts, and acts of compassion. www.stpaulseattle.com Holy Covenant International Christian Community Church. 12 noon. 4525 19th Ave NE. Outreach to the LGBT community. holycovenantccc@gmail.com Just for Today (NA). 12-1:15pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Sunday. Drop-in 12-step Narcotics Anonymous group open to anyone in recovery. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org New Beginnings (SLAA). 12 noon-1pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E #201, O’Neil Room. MEETS DAILY (except Saturday). Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous is a 12-step/12- tradition-oriented fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope to overcome sex and love patterns of addiction. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org Paths to Recovery Al-Anon Family Group. 12-1:30pm.

Seattle University Student Center, 901 12th Ave, Room 122. Every Sunday. LGBTQ supported. The Al-Anon Family Groups are a fellowship of relatives & friends of alcoholics who share their experience, strength & hope in order to solve their common problems. We believe alcoholism is a family illness & that changed attitudes can aid recovery. Greater Seattle AIS 24-hour number (206) 625-0000; www.seattle-al-anon.org Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Green Lake Walk. 12 noon-1pm. 7201 E Green Lake Dr. N. Every Sunday. (See Saturday listing at 12 noon for details.)

Sponsored by Generations Aging With Pride.

Orca Swim Team Workout. Sun: Afternoon; Mon/ Weds/Fri: Evenings; Tues/Thurs: Mornings. Seattle University, Redhawk Center, 14th Ave & E Cherry St. Pre-registration required. Orca Swim Team workouts are for both competitive & recreational swimmers. www. orcaswimteam.org Knights of Mantra Monthly Meeting. 3pm. The Cuff, 1533 13th Ave. Meets 1st Sunday each month. K of M/ Jet Chapter is a fun-loving leather/Levi social & charitable organization that raises money for various causes & organizations. (206) 329-0886. www.facebook.com/ kofmjetchapter/ Rain City Soccer Club - Kickabout. Sunday afternoon usually at 3pm. Location varies. Join us for Seattle’s mostly-weekly mostly-LGBTQ pickup soccer game. We play an organized, 2-hour scrimmage on nice fieldturf surface. Sometimes there is a brief training/practice ses-

August 3, 2018

Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Volunteer Park Walk. 12 noon-1pm. 14th Ave E & E Prospect St. Every Monday - Come Rain or Shine! - Meet at Black Sun sculpture across from museum. Hot coffee and beautiful Rainbow umbrellas to use “just in case.” For info, call (206) 393-3400;. Sponsored by Generations Aging With Pride.

SLAA New Beginnings: 12 Steps of SLAA. 12-1pm.

SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201, in the O’Neill Room.

Every Monday. SLAA step-study meeting starting with Step One in “A Gentle Path.” The meeting is open to anyone interested in doing 12-step work. No matter where you are in the steps, or if you haven’t begun, feel free to join us. Books, paper, and pens provided. You need only bring your willingness to grow!

SOBER On Meds. 1-2pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Monday. 12-step group open to anyone in recovery & living on a medicine regimen. (206) 3222437; www.sasgcc.org Strength Over Speed (SOS). 2-3:30pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Peer support for Gay and Bisexual men recovering from crystal meth addiction. www.strengthoverspeed.org. (206) 322-2437; www. sasgcc.org Orca Swim Team Workout. Evening. Seattle University, Redhawk Center, 14th Ave & E Cherry St. (See Sunday afternoon listing.)

Freely Speaking Toastmasters. 7pm. Seattle Unity Church, 200 8th Ave N. Every Monday (except holidays & the last Mondays in August & December). Seattle’s only LGBT speaking club. www.FreelySpeaking.org Trans Youth Group. 7-8:30pm. Lambert House, 1818 15th Ave. Every Monday. A chance for youth to talk with others about their experiences & concerns related to identifying as Transgender. www.lamberthouse.org Lambert House Art Night. 7:30-9:30pm. 1818 15th Ave. Every Monday. Bring your ideas & let’s have some fun.

(206) 322-2515, www.lamberthouse.org Destiny/Unity AA Meeting in Tacoma. 7:30-8:30pm.

Christ Episcopal Church, 310 N “K” St, Tacoma. Every Monday. LGBTQ-friendly AA meeting. (253) 474-8897.

(Also meets Fridays.)

Washington Gender Alliance Support Group Meeting in Shoreline. 7:30pm. Center for Human Services, 17018 15th Ave NE, Shoreline. Every Monday. www. washingtongenderalliance.com

TUESDAY - August 7

Orca Swim Team Workout. Morning. Seattle University, Redhawk Center, 14th Ave & E Cherry St. (See Sunday afternoon listing.)

LGBTQ+ Group. 1:15-2:15pm. Orion Center, 1828 Yale Ave. Every Tuesday. A group for LGBTQ youth ages 13-24 & their allies. Sponsored by Youthcare.

(206) 622-5555.

Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Alki Beach Walk. 2-3pm. 61st Ave SW & Alki Ave SW. Every Tuesday - Come Rain or Shine! - Meet at Statue of Liberty statue. Hot coffee and beautiful Rainbow umbrellas to use “just in case.” For info, call ((206) 393-3400;.

Wheelchair-friendly walk. Sponsored by Generations Aging With Pride. defeatHIV Community Advisory Board (CAB). 5:307:30pm. Cal Anderson House, 400 Broadway @ E Jefferson St. Meets 1st Tuesday each month. CAB builds community involvement in order to advance defeatHIV’s clinical research into a potential gene therapy cure for HIV infection. If you want to learn more about our efforts to ensure that all of Seattle’s communities that are affected by HIV have a strong voice in the cure research of defeatHIV, please come to one of our community dinner meetings. More info, contact Michael Louella, (206) 667-5810; mlouella@fredhutch.org Gay Men’s Task Force of Snohomish County in Everett. 6-8pm. Snohomish Health District, 3020 Rucker Ave Ste 309A, Everett. Meets 1st Tuesday each month.

Open to all Gay & Bisexual men in Snohomish County.

Seattle Gay News 15

“We will be discussing issues concerning the local Gay community & value your opinion, voice, comments, suggestions & attendance. Come join us as we build community in Snohomish County.” David, (425) 339-5238.

LGBTQ Questioning & Allied Youth Drop-in Group in Renton. 6-8pm. Renton Area Youth Services (RAYS), 1025 S 3rd St, Renton. Every Tuesday. Confidential.

Snacks provided. Bring friends or come alone - anyone 12-18 is welcome. Questions? Call Sarah Hardin, (425) 271-5600 ext 155, or email sarahh@rays.org Strength Over Speed (SOS). 6-7:30pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Peer support for Gay and Bisexual men recovering from crystal meth addiction. www.strengthoverspeed.org. (206) 322-2437; www. sasgcc.org Diverse Harmony. 6:30-9pm. Seattle First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Ave. Every Tuesday. Diverse Harmony is the nation’s first Gay/Straight Alliance Youth Chorus. Youths ages 13-22 are welcome regardless of sexual orientation. www.diverseharmony.org Seattle Tennis Alliance Summer Social Doubles.

6:30-8:30pm. Lower Woodland Tennis Courts, 5773 W Green Lake Way N. Most Tuesdays & Thursdays. Courts #5, 6, 7 & 8. June-August. Weather permitting. Pre-pay online if possible. seattletennisalliance.org No Man’s Land - For Female-Identified Youth, Ages 22 & Under. 7-8:30pm. Lambert House, 1818 15th Ave. Every Tuesday. Topics range from family issues to school happenings to like/lust/love relationships. All Queer females welcome. Come discuss how smart. strong Queer women live their lives. (206) 322-2515, www.lamberthouse.org Tuesday Night Sex Addicts Anonymous (GLBTQI).

7-8:30pm. All Pilgrims Christian Church, 500 Broadway E (enter at 509 10th Ave E; buzz in, Colonial room).

Every Tuesday. SAA is a fellowship of men & women whose primary purpose is to stop addictive sexual behavior & help others recover from sexual addiction.

Seattle SAA helpline (206) 237-8828. SAA International Service Organization 1-800-477-8191.

Different Drummers. 7:15-8:30pm. Every Tuesday.

Hand drumming classes for Gay men. For info & location call Dennis at (206) 363-4500 or www.outdrum.com Men’s Discussion Group. 7:30-9pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Tuesday. Peer group for Gay & Bi men. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org Here & Now Gay & Lesbian AA Meeting in Tacoma.

7:30pm. Christ Episcopal Church, 310 N “K” St, Tacoma.

Every Tuesday.

Spiritual Empowerment. 7:30-9pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. A vibrant drop-in workshop for those of any spiritual belief. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org Seattle Poetry Slam. Doors 8pm, Show 8:30pm. Rebar, 1114 Howell St. Every Tuesday. A spoken word poetry event that features a weekly open mic, feature poet, and slam (poetry competition). Come out and express yourself. LGBTQ- & QTPOC-friendly; all genders welcome. $5. 21+. seattlepoetryslam.org

WEDNESDAY - August 8

Mature Friends Walk Around Greenlake. 11am. Meet up at 10:50am with a group of older men gathered at the north end of the parking lot that is next to the boathouse along the southwest side of Greenlake. Every Wednesday. Walk around Greenlake followed by lunch at a local restaurant. www.maturefriends.org Mature Friends Dining Out Luncheon. 12 noon.

Roosters Restaurant, 611 Broadway E. Meets 2nd & 4th Wednesday each month. Just drop in - no RSVP required. MF is a social organization for Gay men & women, 40 years & over. www.maturefriends.org Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Volunteer Park Walk. 12 noon-1pm. 14th Ave E & E Prospect St. Every Wednesday. (See related listing Monday at 12 noon for details.) Sponsored by Generations Aging With Pride.

True Colors: Connecting LGBTQ Teens in Shoreline.

4-5pm. Every Wednesday. Discussing your important issues, building a supportive community. For information, location & to REGISTER call Lindsay Bagley (206) 362-7282 x 8018 or email lbagley@chs-nw.org Positively Living. 5-7pm. Lifelong, 1016 E Pike St., 3rd Fl. Every Wednesday. Social and support group for the HIV community with various topics for discussion and conversation. Anthony, 206-957-1600. Sponsored

by Lifelong.

GLOBE (GLBTQ Loving Ourselves, Becoming Empowered): A Support Group for GLBTQ+Youth (14-20) serving Snohomish County & surrounding communities. 6-8pm. Phone or email for location. Every Wednesday. Sponsored by PFLAG Everett. Brenda, (425) 263-2908. globeleaders@hotmail.com POZ Seattle and Positively Living Monthly Social & BBQ Potluck. 6-8:30pm. The Cuff Complex, 1533 13th Ave. Food, music, 50/50 raffle. POZ Seattle brings grillables; you bring side dishes. $5 suggested donation; no one turned away for lack of funds. www.pozseattle.com.

Queer Seattle Book Club. 6pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E (upstairs). Every Wednesday. This month’s title is “My Ex-Life: A Novel” by Stephen McCauley. https://faculty. washington.edu/swittet/SGLBookClub/ Lotus Sisters Meditation & Dharma Discussion North. 6:15-8pm. Ravenna Bryant neighborhood. Every Wednesday. Call (206) 525-7295 for location. www.

LotusSisters.org.

Center for Spiritual Living. 6:30pm-Meditation, 7pmService. 5801 Sand Point Way NE. Blessings & we hope to see you soon! Info (206) 527-8801 ext 203, www.cslseattle.org Seattle Frontrunners Fun Run. 6:30pm. Volunteer Park, 14th Ave E & E Prospect St. Every Wednesday.

Meet at Black Sun sculpture across for museum. (See Saturday at 9am.)

16 Seattle Gay News

community calendar

Orca Swim Team Workout. Evening. Seattle University, Redhawk Center, 14th Ave & E Cherry St. (See Sunday afternoon listing.)

Border Riders Motorcycle Club Meet & Greet. 7pm.

The Cuff Complex, 1533 13th Ave (at E Pine St). Meets 2nd Wednesday most months - check website to confirm details. BRMC provides a social & educational fraternity for individuals interested in recreational motorcycle touring. www.borderriders.com Ingersoll All-Trans Drop-In Support Group. 7-9pm.

Seattle Counseling Services, 1216 Pine St, Suite 300.

Every Wednesday. All Transgender, Gender Variant, Gender Queer, Gender Questioning, allies, family & friends are welcome. This is a drop in group to get & give support, social interaction & information for the whole Gender community. No fee, donations welcome. www. ingersollcenter.org Mature Friends Weekly Bridge Group. 7pm. Wallingford Community Senior Center, lower level of Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnywide Ave N. Every Wednesday. All levels welcome. MF is a social organization for Gay men & women, 40 years & over. www. maturefriends.org Washington Gender Alliance Open Support Meeting in Everett. 7:30-9pm. Everett United Church of Christ, 2624 Rockefeller Ave, Everett. Every Wednesday.

Trained peer facilitators lead a structured support meeting helping people deal with issues of gender identity & expression. All adults are welcomed, including those who are questioning, allies, or identify as FTM, MTF, Transgender, Queer, or Intersex, among others. (360) 445-2411; www.washingtongenderalliance.com.

THURSDAY - August 9

Gender Odyssey Conference (8/9-8/12) - genderodyssey.org/seattle Orca Swim Team Workout. Morning. Seattle University, Redhawk Center, 14th Ave & E Cherry St. (See Sunday afternoon listing.)

Safe and Sober (AA). 12noon-1pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org BABES Women’s Support Group/Lunch Meeting.

12 noon-2pm. Call for location. Every Thursday. The BABES Network is a peer led agency; a sisterhood of women facing HIV together. (206) 720-5566 or 888-2921912; www.babesnetwork.org.

Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Green Lake Walk. 12 noon-1pm. 7201 E Green Lake Dr. N. Every Thursday - Come Rain or Shine! - Meet at the Wading Pool (along the north end of the lake). Hot coffee and beautiful Rainbow umbrellas to use “just in case.” For info, call (206) 393-3400;. Wheelchair-friendly walk.

Sponsored by Generations Aging With Pride.

Seattle Prime Timers Cards. 2pm. Ballard NW Senior Center, 5429 32nd Ave NW. near The Locks. Meets 2nd Thursday each month in the Arts & Crafts Room on the 2nd floor to play Hearts, Cribbage or Bridge depending on who shows up. Beginners are welcome. On Metro routes 44 and 17X. Oasis Youth Center in Tacoma - For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Questioning Youth, Ages 14-25. 4-10pm. Call for location & details. Every Thursday. (253) 671-2838, www.oasisyouthcenter.org Capitol Hill Arts Walk. 5-8pm. Participating shops & galleries in the Pike/Pine corridor. 2nd Thursday each month. Keep your eyes out for curbside A-boards that mark each participating venue. Pick up a walking map from any location & you’re on your way. Enjoy refreshments & meet the featured artists as you stroll the Hill. www.caphillchamber.org Queer Parent Networking Dinners. 6-8pm. NW Network Community Engagement Center - phone, email or visit website for location. Meets 2nd Thursday each month. Open to all LGBT, Two-Spirit, Queer & Questioning families - including parents, co-parents & other people who have a significant role in the life of a child.

RSVP requested to facilitate planning for dinner and childcare. (206) 568-7777 or qpnd@nwnetwork.org. www.nwnetwork.org B-GLAD (Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Trans & Questioning Adolescent Drop-In Group). 6:30-8pm. Call for location. Every Thursday. Sponsored by Youth Eastside Services, which offers many programs for GLBT youth.

(425) 747-4937.

Seattle Tennis Alliance Summer Social Doubles.

6:30-8:30pm. Lower Woodland Tennis Courts, 5773 W Green Lake Way N. Most Tuesdays & Thursdays. Courts #5, 6, 7 & 8. June-August. Weather permitting. Pre-pay online if possible. seattletennisalliance.org Boys Group - For Male-Identified Youth, Ages 1422. 7-8:30pm. Lambert House, 1818 15th Ave. Every Thursday. Youth take the opportunity to talk about issues that relate to their everyday lives, with the facilitation of a male volunteer. (206) 322-2515 ext 16. www. lamberthouse.org PFLAG/Tacoma Monthly Meeting. 7pm. First United Methodist Church, 621 Tacoma Ave S, Tacoma. Meets 2nd Thursday each month. Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays is a national support organization for parents, spouses & families of GLBT persons, as well as those sexual minorities. www.pflagtacoma.org; PFLAG/Tacoma: (253) 234-9790. PFLAG/Puget Sound: (206) 325-7724.

Buddhism & Recovery. 7:30-9pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Thursday. A meditation/recovery

July 27, 2018

group. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org Gay Fathers Association of Seattle. 7:30-9pm. Group Health, 201 16th Ave E, Central Bldg, Lower Atrium.

Every Thursday. Support meetings for Gay fathers & Gay men who are currently or previously married. Safe, anonymous, non-judgmental environment of caring fathers & friends. You are not alone. For information, community events & “questioning” visit www.gfas.org or our message board at http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/ gayfathersseattle Gay Male Sexuality & Relationships. 7:30-9pm.

SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Thursday.

Ongoing support group open to Gay and Bisexual men.

(206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org [NOTE: Please contact the facilitator prior to attending.]

FRIDAY - August 10

Gender Odyssey Conference (8/9-8/12) - genderodyssey.org/seattle Ageless in Recovery (AA). 12noon-1pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Friday. A drop-in AA group for 55+. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org Rainbow Walk for LGBTQ Elders 50+ - Kubota Gardens Walk. 12 noon-1pm. 9817 55th Ave S. Every Friday - Come Rain or Shine! - Meet at the corner of 55th Ave S and Renton Ave S. Hot coffee and beautiful Rainbow umbrellas to use “just in case.” For info, call (206) 393-3400;. Wheelchair-friendly walk. Sponsored

by Generations Aging With Pride.

Road to Recovery (SLAA). 12 noon-1:30pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Friday. Ongoing 12step group for sex and love addicts. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org South Lake Union Block Party. 12 noon-11pm.

Westlake Ave N & Denny Way / 9th Ave N & John St. Community booths and restaurants 12 noon-6pm.

Food trucks and beer garden 12 noon-11pm. SVC’s Steamroller Smackdown Poster Competition and Plein Air Printing Parlour 2pm-8pm. Live music from 5 bands from 4pm-11pm. FREE & ALL AGES. More information at slublockparty.com Sponsored by Vulcan and Amazon.

Oasis Youth Center in Tacoma - For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Questioning Youth, Ages 14-25. 4-10pm. Call for location & details. Every Friday.

(253) 671-2838, www.oasisyouthcenter.org LGBTQ & Allies 18+ Free Friday Night Drop-In Volleyball. 6-7:45pm. Miller Community Center, 330 19th Ave E. Every Friday. 206-684-4753.

Orca Swim Team Workout. Evening. Seattle University, Redhawk Center, 14th Ave & E Cherry St. (See Sunday afternoon listing.)

Strength Over Speed (SOS). 6-7:30pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Peer support for Gay and Bisexual men recovering from crystal meth addiction. www.strengthoverspeed.org. (206) 322-2437; www. sasgcc.org Congregation Tikvah Chadashah. 7pm. Call/see website for location. Puget Sound’s Gay & Lesbian Jewish Congregation where all are welcome holds Shabbat services the 2nd Friday each month. An oneg Shabbat follows services. (206) 355-1414; www.tikvahchadashah.com.

Game Night. 7pm-11pm. SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Every Friday. Card games, board games and fellowship. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org Lambert House Queer Movie Night. 7-9:30pm. Lambert House, 1818 15th Ave. Every Friday. Lambert House is a nationally-recognized activities & resource center for GLBT & questioning youth, ages 14-22. (206) 322-2515, www.lamberthouse.org Rain Country Dance Night. 7-11pm, lessons at 7:15pm.

The Cuff, 1533 13th Ave. An evening of country-western dancing for the LGBTQ community. FREE. www.raincountrydance.org.

Destiny/Unity AA Meeting in Tacoma. 7:30-8:30pm.

Christ Episcopal Church, 310 N “K” St, Tacoma. Every Friday. LGBTQ-friendly AA meeting. (253) 474-8897.

(Also meets Mondays.)

LGBT Friday Night Al-Anon Family Group. 8-9pm.

SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201 - in the O’Neill Room.

Every Friday. The Al-Anon Family Groups are a fellowship of relatives & friends of alcoholics who share their experience, strength & hope in order to solve their common problems. We believe alcoholism is a family illness & that changed attitudes can aid recovery. Greater Seattle AIS 24-hour number (206) 625-0000; www. seattle-al-anon.org; (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org

SATURDAY - August 11

(See previous Saturday for ongoing activities.)

Gender Odyssey Conference (8/9-8/12) - genderodyssey.org/seattle A Gathering of Men in Edmonds. 8:15-11:30am.

Edmonds UUC, 8109 224th St SW, Edmonds. Meets 2nd Saturday each month. www.agatheringofmen.org Georgetown Art Attack. 6-9pm. Meets 2nd Saturday each month. Reflects the industrial-strength character of the neighborhood. For information stop into Georgetown Records at Airport Way S & S Vale or visit www. georgetownneighborhood.com Ballard’s Second Saturday Artwalk. 7-10pm. Pick up maps at participating shops & galleries located in the Ballard business district (Ballard Ave NW & NW Market St area). Meets 2nd Saturday each month. Enjoy an evening of art as local galleries & businesses show-

case artists from Ballard & beyond. (206) 784-9705; visitballard.com

SUNDAY - August 12

(See previous Sunday for ongoing activities.)

Gender Odyssey Conference (8/9-8/12) - genderodyssey.org/seattle Lotus Sisters Guided Meditation. 11am-1:30pm.

SASG, 115 15th Ave E, Suite 201. Meets 2nd Sunday each month. Senior students lead the meditation, provide dharma talks or reflections & lead discussion.

(206) 329-5908; www.LotusSisters.org. (Meets in 2nd floor meeting room; no elevator.)

No Safeword Writers Group. 1pm. See website for location. Meets 2nd & 4th Sunday each month. NSWG exists to provide mutual support for members’ efforts.

Support is in the form of critique & commentary on each other’s work, information about publishing opportunities, & discussion of issues facing writers. NSWG’s primary focus is erotic writing - but they welcome anyone who writes. The only requirements are to write, to attend, & to be respectful. For info & location, www.nosafewordwritersgroup.org Dignity/Seattle. 6pm-Prayer Service. Ravenna United Methodist Church, 5751 33rd Ave NE. Meets 2nd Sunday each month. Dignity/Seattle is the local chapter of the nationwide organization of GLBT Roman Catholics.

“We celebrate our inherent dignity with pride in liturgy, mutual support, work for justice, & social activities.”

Gender-inclusive & relationship affirming liturgies & prayer services. All welcome. (206) 325-7314.

XV Annual Leo Party 2018 - A Benefit for Seattle Counseling Service and YouthCare. 6pm-2am. Neighbours Nightclub, 1509 Broadway (entrance in alley off E Pike St.) Hosted by Aleksa Manila and Roxy Doll with Isabella de la Rosa. Featuring special guest Yara Sofia from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” plus special performances by over 15 of the Northwest’s best entertainers. Doors at 6pm with general admission meet & greet reception and VIP buffet on mezzanine. 7pm performance by go-go dancers from Las Vegas and Seattle. Followed by three shows at 8pm, 10pm & midnight. Tickets: $25 general & $40 VIP available in advance at leofoundation.us and, if available, at the door. Complete schedule of events available at leofoundation.us.

COMMUNITY RESOURCES

Allyship - an organization of LGBTQ individuals fighting for economic and social justice. www.LGBTQAllyship. org, allyship@yahoo.com, (206) 279-8169.

American Veterans for Equal Rights - www.aver.us Another Gay Social Club! - www.meetup.com/AnotherGay-Social-Club/ Bellingham/Whatcom County - www.theslowlane. com/guide.html BiNet Seattle is a mixed gender, social group for Bisexuals, their partners & other Bi-friendly folks - www. binetseattle.org.

Bremerton/Kitsap County - www.outwestsound.org Capitol Hill Alano Club - www.chacseattle.org Cascade Rainbow Community Center (Mount Vernon) - (360) 840-8499 and on Facebook.

COLAGE unites people with LGBTQ parents and caregivers into a network of peers and supports them as they nurture and empower each other to be skilled, self-confident, and just leaders in our collective communities - www.colage.org Central Washington University GALA Hotline: (509) 963-1994.

DIFFA/Northwest (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS). (206) 763-8885; www.diffanorthwest. org DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & SEXUAL ASSAULT: Crisis Clinic, (206) 461-3222 (24 hour line); King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC) - 24-hour crisis line for information, support, & medical & legal assistance: 1-888-99-VOICE; Northwest Network support & advocacy for Bisexual, Trans, Lesbian & Gay Survivors of Abuse & Dating Violence, (206) 568-7777 (voice), 517-9670 (tty), www.nwnetwork.org; Pierce County Domestic Violence Helpline: Teresa, (253) 798-4166; Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities - offers on-going support groups for men: 323-1768; Seattle Police Dept Domestic Violence Unit, (206) 684-0330; State Wide Domestic Violence Hot Line, 1-800-562-6025. In an emergency call 911.

Report domestic violence and sexual assault.

Equal Rights Washington - (206) 324-2570; www. equalrightswashington.org Everett/Snohomish Cty - www.gaysnohomish.org Freely Speaking Toastmasters - www.freelyspeaking.org Gay City promotes wellness in LGBTQ communities by providing health services, connecting people to resources, fostering arts, and building community. Gay City Health Project’s Wellness Center provides anonymous & confidential HIV/STD testing. 517 E Pike St. More info or to schedule an appointment, (206) 860-6969. www.gaycity.org Gay & Lesbian National Hotline (GLNH): 1-888-THEGLNH (1-888-843-4564). Non-profit, peer-counseling, information & local resources telephone hotline for GLBT people across the country.

Generations Aging With Pride empowers elder LGBTQ adults to live with pride and dignity by promoting, connecting, and developing innovative programs and services that enhance belonging and support, eliminate discrimination, and honor the lives of older members of our community - (206) 393-3400; info@gapseattle.org; gapseattle.org GLSEN/WA - Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network - (206) 330-2099; www.glsenwa.org

Celebrating 44 Years!

Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA) - (206) 363-9188; www.thegsba.org HIV/AIDS Program, Seattle/King County Dept of Public Health, provides confidential/anonymous information about & testing for HIV/AIDS. (206) 205-7837. For a comprehensive list of HIV/AIDS service organizations see the GSBA Guide or visit www.thegsba.org or call Lifelong AIDS Alliance, (206) 328-8979.

Imperial Sovereign Court of Seattle & the Olympic & Rainier Empire - www.facebook.com/ISCSORE; www. imperialcourtofseattle.com Lambert House - (206) 322-2515; www.lamberthouse. org LGBT Library - 517 E Pike St. Open Mon-Fri 2-8pm; Sat 2-5pm. A wide range of fiction and non-fiction for the LGBT community and allies can be borrowed free of charge.

LGBT MS Connection - (206) 250-5002; LGBTMSConnection@gmail.com. Support group for LGBT persons with MS and their partners and their caregivers. Sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Lifelong AIDS Alliance - (206) 328-8979, www.lifelongaids alliance.org Lion’s Main Art Collective - www.lionsmain.org MEN: Gay City: (206) 860-6969, www.gaycity.org; Knights of Mantra: (206) 329-0886, www.jetchapterkofm.com; Mature Friends: Gay men & women 40 & over, www.maturefriends.org; Northwest Bears: www. nwbears.com; The Olympians: www.TheOlympians. net; POZSeattle: www.pozseattle.com; Q-Squared: www.qsquared.org; Rain City Jacks: www.raincityjacks. org; Seattle Gay Couples: www. seattlegaycouples. org; Seattle Men in Leather: www.seattlemeninleather. org; Seattle Prime Timers: Gay & Bi men 40 & over, www.seattle primetimers.org; Tacoma Older LGBT: www.tacomaolderlgbt.org. (See also listings under Bisexual, Parenthood, People of Color, Transgender.)

MUSIC: Diverse Harmony: www.diverseharmony. org; Rainbow City Band: 1-866-841-9139 ext 2126; rainbowcityband@onebox.com; www.rainbowcity band. com; Seattle Men’s Chorus and Seattle Women’s Chorus: (206) 388-1408, (206) 323-0750. www.seattlechoruses.org.

Northwest Lesbian & Gay History Museum Project - gayhistnw@aol.com Northwest Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf - www. nwrad.org Olympia/Thurston County - www.RainbowCenterOly. org Out & Equal Workplace Advocates/Seattle Regional Affiliate supports the work of LGBT employees and the growing number of ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) making a difference within local companies, including Alaska Airlines, Amazon.com, Amgen, AT&T, Bank of America, Deloitte, Macy’s, Microsoft, Russell Investments, Safeco Insurance, Starbucks Coffee, Xerox. www.outandequal.org/affiliates/seattle Out & Proud Grays Harbor Coalition - http://outandproudgh.org PARENTHOOD: Families Like Ours provides a gateway for LGBT families interested in adoption & provides a network of safe placement agencies, training, support & resources: (206) 441-7602, www.familieslikeours. org; Family Works offers support, information & activities for LGBT families: (206) 694-6727, www.familyworksseattle. org; Gay Fathers’ Association of Seattle offers support groups & social activities: www.gfas. org; Proud & Loud Families - Northwest, www.meetup.com/proudand-loud-families-northwest, plfnorthwest@aol.com; Queer Parent Networking Dinners: (206) 568-7777, qpnd@nwnetwork.org, www.nwnetwork.org; Rainbow Families of Puget Sound: www.rainbowfamiliesps.org PFLAG is the national organization for parents, families, allies, and LGBTQ people united for equality with chapters in Seattle, Bellevue/Eastside, the Puget Sound region and across Washington state. PFLAG Seattle: (206) 325-7724, info@pflagseattle.org, and www.pflagseattle.org; PFLAG Bellevue/Eastside: (425) 483-6642, info@bellevue-pflag.org, http://community. pflag.org/PFLAGBellevue; PFLAG Pacific Northwest: www.pnwpflag.org; PFLAG Washington State: www. pflagwsc.org.

PEOPLE OF COLOR: AARTH (African American Reach & Teach Health Ministry), (206) 850-2070, www.aarth.org; Asian/Pacific Islander Queer Network Program at API Chaya, (206) 467-9976; Center for MultiCultural Health, (206) 461-6910, www.multiculturalhealth.org; Entre Hermanos, GLBT Latinos/as, (206) 322-7700, www.entrehermanos.org; Ile LaiLai, (206) 781-3565, iya@ilelailai.org; Men of All Colors & Cultures Together (MACCT), (206) 923-8313, macctseattle@yahoo.com, www.macctsea.org; Northwest Two Spirit Society, https://www.facebook.com/ groups/nw2spiritsociety/, Nubian Pride Productions, nubianpride@gmail.com; People of Color Against AIDS Network (POCAAN) offers rapid HIV testing, M-F, 10am-5pm, (206) 322-7061, www.pocaan.org and on Facebook; QBASS - Queer Black Alliance of the South Sound, (253) 256-1846, weareqbass@gmail. com; Sistah 2 Sistah, LBT women of African descent, (206) 322-7061, (206) 255-8951; Somos Seattle, somosseattle.org; Trikone-Northwest, GLBT South Asians, (425) 985-4376, www.trikonenw.org; Two-Spirit Honor Project, 1-866-685-0164; U.T.O.P.I.A. Seattle, www.utopiaseattlewa.org; VietQ Greater Seattle, vietqorganization@gmail.com Pierce County AIDS Foundation - (253) 383-2565; www.piercecountyaids.org Pride Foundation - (206) 323-3318; www.pridefoundation. org Pride Lives - www.facebook.com/PrideLives/ Project NEON is a program of Seattle Counseling Service providing FREE information & services to Gay & Bi men to reduce health risks associated with metham-

community calendar

phetamine use. (206) 323-1768. www.crystalneon.org Public Health-Seattle & King County Online Comprehensive Health Information for Sexual Minorities: www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/personal/ glbt.aspx Q Law: The GLBT Bar Association of WA - (206) 682-6711; www.q-law.org Q Law GLBT Legal Clinic - (206) 235-7235.

Queer Geek! - queergeekseattle.org Rainbow Center - Resource Center for Tacoma/Pierce County LGBTIQA community. Through education, advocacy and celebration, the Rainbow Center expands resources, and safe space for the LGBTQIA community.

Sponsors Tacoma Pride Festival. (253) 383-2318, www. rainbowcntr.org Safe Schools Coalition - www.safeschoolscoalition. org; (206) 451-SAFE; (206) 451-7233.

SEAMEC interviews, researches & rates candidates for public office on issues of concern to the LGBT community. www.voteseamec.org Seattle Area Support Groups & Community Center (SASG) is a non-profit organization that builds community and cultivates powerful, healthy lives by providing emotional support and personal development services to those affected by HIV/AIDS, the Queer communities, and those who love them. Our work is done in a spirit of safety, trust, inclusiveness, and celebration of individual differences. (206) 322-2437; www.sasgcc.org Seattle Bisexual Women’s Network - BiSeattle.wixsite. com/SBWN and on Facebook.

Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities is a community mental health service for GLBT persons & their families providing comprehensive mental health services on a sliding scale. (206) 323-1768.

Seattle LGBTQ Commission - (206) 684-4503. www/ seattle.gov/lgbtq Seattle Out & Proud - (206) 322-9561; www.seattlepride.org Seattle Police Department Sexual Minorities Community Advisory Council: kim.bogucki@seattle.gov Seattle PrideFest - www.seattlepridefest.org Servicemembers Legal Defense Network - (202) 328-3244; www.sldn.org Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, The Abbey of St. Joan - (206) 860-3666; www.theabbey.org Snohomish Health District HIV/AIDS Program provides free confidential/anonymous HIV counseling & testing 9am-5pm Monday-Friday, until 7pm Tuesdays.

Visit us online www.sgn.org

(425) 339-5298.

South Sound Q Calendar - LGBTQ events in Tacoma, Olympia & Sound Puget Sound area; www.SouthSoundQCal.com Spokane/Inland Northwest - www.outspokane.com; www.stonewallnews.net SPORTS & RECREATION: Bent Car Guys: www. bentcarguys.org; Border Riders Motorcycle Club: www.borderriders.com; Bottom Dwellers Scuba Club: www.bottomdwellers.org; Capitol Hill Cyclers: join their Facebook group or email capitolhillcycling@ groups.facebook.com or jordan.l.simonson@gmail.com; Cascade Flag Football: www.cascadeflagfootball.org; Cascade Flyers: www.cascadeflyers.org; Emerald City Mudhen Rugby: www.mudhenrugby.com; Emerald City Softball Association: www.emeraldcitysoftball. org, www.eteamz.com/womensecsa; Ethyl Forever Car Club: ethylforever@hotmail.com; Festival of the Babes: www.festivalofthebabes.com; Olympic Yacht Club: www.oycnw.org; OutVentures: outdoor education & recreation activities, www.outventures.org; Pacific Northwest Gay Rodeo Association: www.pacificnwgra.org; Puddletown Squares: www.puddletownsquares.org; Rain City Soccer: www.raincitysoccer.org; Rain Country Dance Association: a country-western dance organization catering to the LGBTQ community but open to all, www.raincountrydance.org; Sea Dawgs: LGBT ice hockey - SkateSeaDawgs@gmail.com and on Facebook; Seattle Frontrunners: www.seattlefrontrunners.org; Seattle Gay Basketball Association: www. seattlegaybasketballassociation.com; Seattle Orca Swim Team: www.orcaswimteam.org; Seattle Otters Water Polo: www.otterpolo.com; Seattle Quake Rugby: www.quakerugby.com; Seattle Tennis Alliance: www. seattletennisalliance.org; Seattle Unified Bowling Association (SUBA): magee98106@aol.com, www. teamseattle.org/bowling.htm, www.theprideleague. com, Century 21 League; Seattle Volleyball Club: www.seattlevolleyballclub.com; Ski Buddies: www. skibuddies.org; Team Seattle Gay Sports Network is an umbrella organization for a wide range of local GLBT sports activities, (206) 367-4064, www.teamseattle.org (see website for comprehensive list of sports clubs); Triangle Recreation Camp at Bender Creek: recreational camping for GLBT folks. Must be 21; ID required. trc@ camptrc.org, www.camptrc.org, 1122 E Pike St #1069, Seattle 98122-3934.

Strength Over Speed - www.strengthoverspeed.org Tacoma/Pierce County - Rainbow Center, 2215 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, a resource center for the LGBTIQA community of Pierce County, (253) 383-2318, www.

August 3, 2018

rainbowcntr.org TRANSGENDER: Emerald City Social Club: (425) 827-9494; Gender Alliance of the South Sound: www.SouthSoundGender.com; Gender Diversity: www.genderdiversity.org; Gender Justice League: www.genderjusticeleague.org; Gender Odyssey: www.genderodyssey.com; Hermanos Trans Latino & Foreign-Born Support Group: (206) 322-7700; Ingersoll Gender Center: (206) 329-6651, www. ingersollcenter.org; Lion’s Main Art Collective: www. lionsmain.org; The New BoyZ Club: www.olympiaftmgroup.webs.com; Olympia Trans Discussion Group: www.facebook.com/pages/Olympia-Trans-DiscussionGroup/262449878114; [trans] ACTION: Trans* & Gender Non-Conforming Sex Workers’ Support Group - a safe, peer-led space. mail@utopiaseattle.org; TRANSform Washington: transformwashington.com; Trans Resource & Referral Guide: kctransguide.org; Washington Gender Alliance: (360) 445-2411, www. washington genderalliance.com WOMEN: Aging Ballard Lesbian Exchange (A.B.L.E.): We are Lesbians 60 years (generally) and up, living (mostly) in the north half of Seattle. The purpose of the group is to connect, socialize and support each other. ruthemilyvogel@gmail.com; Aging Lesbians in South Seattle (ALISS) - Lesbian Group at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center. This is a gathering primarily for Lesbians but all are welcome to attend. Kate, (206) 722-0317; www.sessc.org; BABES: support groups for HIV+ women. (206) 720-5566, 1-888-292-1912; Coming Out Women Support Group of Tacoma: www. comingoutwomen.org; Festival of the Babes: www. festivalofthebabes.com; Mature Friends: Gay men & women 40 & over, www.maturefriends.org; Puget Sound Old Lesbian Organizing for Change: http:// psoloc.org, (253) 777-3357; Older Lesbians Organizing for Change/WA State Chapter: gloria@oloc.org, mary@oloc.org, www.oloc.org; Pacific Northwest Lesbian Archives: www.pnwlesbianarchives.org; RainshadowWomen: RainshadowWomen@aol. com; Seattle Bisexual Women’s Network: BiSeattle. wixsite.com/SBWN; Seattle Girls of Leather: www. sgol.org; Tacoma Lesbian Concern (TLC): www.tacomalesbianconcern.org; Tacoma Older LGBT: www. tacomaolderlgbt.org; Women of West Seattle (WOWS): a fun, member-driven social group for Lesbians, http:// groups.yahoo.com/group/womenofwestseattle; YWCA Women’s Health Outreach: providing low or no-cost mammograms for income eligible 40+ LBTQ individuals. Follow us at http://lbtqhealth-ywca.blogspot.com, twitter.com/ingridWHO or email lbthealth@ywcaworks. org, (206) 461-4493. (See also listings under Bisexual, Parenthood, People of Color, Transgender.)

YOUTH: B-GLAD (Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Trans & Questioning Adolescent Drop-In Group): Youth Eastside Services offers many programs for GLBT youth, including B-GLAD, (425) 747-4937; Coyote Central: www.coyotecentral.org; Diverse Harmony: www.diverseharmony. org; GLSEN/Washington State (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) & Washington State GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) Network: GLSEN works to create safe schools for LGBT students. WA GSA Network supports youth-led GSA’s to fight harassment & homophobia in Washington state schools. (206) 330-2099; www.glsenwa. org; www.wagsa.org. GLOBE (GLBTQ Loving Ourselves, Becoming Empowered): a support group & HIV/STD prevention program for GLBTQ youth, 14-20, in Everett, (425) 263-2908, www. globeyouth.org; It Gets Better Project: www.itgetsbetter.org; Lambert House: an activities & resource center for LGBT youth, 14-22, in Seattle, 1818 15th Ave @ E Denny Way; (206) 322-2515, www.lamberthouse.org; Lifelong HEYO (Health Education Youth Outreach): for LGBTQ youth, ages 16-24: (206) 957-1665; www. llaa.org/HEYO; www.MatthewsPlace.com; The Mockingbird Society: (206) 323-KIDS (5437), www.mockingbirdsociety.org; Oasis Youth Center: for GLBTQ youth, ages 14-25, in Tacoma, (253) 671-2838, www. oasisyouthcenter.org; OUT There Adventures: www. outthereadventures.org; Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG)/Puget Sound: (206) 3257724, www.seattle-pflag.org; Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets (PSKS) Drop-In Center & Young Adult Shelter: 1609 19th Ave @ E Pine St., (206) 7268500; www.psks.org; Pizza Klatch: weekly lunchtime support groups for LGBTQ youth in Thurston County, www.pizzaklatch.org; Prism: for LGBTQ youth, 14-21, in Puyallup - Cherise.Alexander@ multicare.org; www. facebook.com/PuyallupPrism; Proud Out Wonderful (POW!): for LGBTQ youth, 13-21, in South King County, (206) 326-9112, www.facebook.com/proudoutwonderful; Q Youth Resources: in Kitsap County - (360) 698-3335; www.kchaf.org; Renton Area Youth Services (RAYS): LGBTQ, questioning and allied youth drop-in group, ages 12-18 - Sarah Hardin, (425) 271-5600, ext 155; sarahh@rays.org; Roots Young Adult Shelter: 1415 NE 43rd St., (206) 632-1635; www.rootsinfo.org; Safe Schools Coalition: www.safeschoolscoalition.org; (206) 451-SAFE, (206) 451-7233 (non-emergency), 1-877-SAFE-SAFE (1-877-723-3723) (crisis line); Seattle Young People’s Project (Queer Youth Resource Board): (206) 860-9606, www.sypp.org; Street Youth Ministries (SYM): (206) 524-7301 ext 111; www. streetyouthministries.org; Teen Link: (206) 461-4922, 1-888-431-TEEN; The Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor; www.thetrevorproject.org; True Colors - Connecting LGBTQ Teens: in Shoreline, (206) 362-7282 x 8018, lbagley@chs-nw.org; Vista Youth Center: for LGBTQ, questioning and allied youth, ages 14-21, in Kennewick, (509) 396-5198, www.vistayouthcenter.org; YouthCare/ Isis Program (Transitional Living Home for LGBTQ Young Adults, 18-22): (206) 522-8412; YouthCare/ Orion Center Young Adult Shelter: 1828 Yale Ave @ Stewart St. (206) 622-5555; Youth in Focus: (206) 723-1479; www.youthinfocus.org; Youth Suicide Prevention Program (OUTLoud-GLBTQ): (206) 297-5922, ext 116, 1-800-273-TALK, www.yspp.org

Seattle Gay News 17

21 [LICENSED MASSAGE - NON-SEXUAL] 10 [HOUSEMATES] 11 [FOR RENT]

14 [HELP WANTED] LANDSCAPING/GARDENING

We are an organic residential landscaping company looking for experienced gardeners/landscapers to join us. We design, build and maintain sustainable gardens and work year-round throughout the greater Seattle area.

Job requirements: Experience in garden maintenance and installation; Plant knowledge; Ability to lift 50 pounds; WSDL and proof of insurance; Must own your own vehicle, truck greatly preferred. Salary DOE. Contact: Pat Reh, General Manager; Northwest Botanicals, Inc.; 206-932-1850 (office); 206-683-3030 (cell); www.NorthwestBotanicals.com.

Visit our Blog for pictures and news. We design, build and maintain sustainable gardens. 30/3

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20 [HEALTH & WELL-BEING]

Swedish, Deep Tissue, Sports, and Hot Stone Massage on Capitol Hill. $65 an hour. Jeff, LMP. 206-6500542; rjeffa@hotmail.com; www.broadwaymassage. com. 29/3

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Therapeutic massage. 30 years experience. Relaxation, major/minor injuries, chronic muscle pain. Small Ballard home office/studio. Massage table or massage chair. Convenient parking. (I’m a Gay-friendly straight male graphic artist, web author.) First session 50% off = $45/1.5 hours (travel extra). By appointment only.

References available. Chris Pringer, Reiki Master, 206-286-0899. If you get a voice message mentioning “extension #,” please hang up and call back again; otherwise, please leave a message. Brochure, testimonials, etc. via chalicebridge.com/BMI-Brochure. html. 44/21

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22 [FOR SALE]

38 [MEN] RAIN CITY JACKS

RCJ is Seattle’s private club hosting hundreds of group jack-off events since 2005. Hot, friendly, and genuine male bonding for men 18+ only. Email or visit our web site for information. info@raincityjacks.org; www. raincityjacks.org. 30/12

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FREE & ANONYMOUS HIV & STD COUNSELING/TESTING Walk-In or by Appt GAY CITY HEALTH PROJECT 517 E. Pike St. M-F: 3pm-8pm; SAT: 12:30pm-5pm More Info & to Schedule Appt 206-860-6969 ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

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I have two private studios, one on CapHill, and one just north of the UW. Call/text Matt, 206-235-7766. In/ out calls. 29/12

[SERVICES]

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Zazoo PETS OF THE WEEK Adoption Center

Sunday – Wednesday | 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Thursday – Saturday | 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.

13212 SE Eastgate Wy, Bellevue, WA 98005 (425) 649-7563 | adoption@seattlehumane.org

Is your life missing a furry friend? Now is the perfect time to open your world to a pet in need.

Coldwell Banker’s Homes for Dogs program with Adopt-a-pet.com has helped place 20,000 dogs into homes across the country. Could your place be the next happy ending for a pet in need? Make your house a home by visiting the shelter and bringing back the pet of your dreams.

Adoption Updates!

As with all of our dogs, Zazoo has been spayed, microchipped, and vaccinated. She will go home with a certificate for an examination by a King County veterinarian and an identification tag. PLUS, most dog adoptions include 30 days of pet insurance from Trupanion and a training rebate when you complete a dog behavior course – a great way to start off on the right paw!

Introduce to children 8 years and older. Resident dogs are required to meet Zazoo prior to adoption. Cat-free home.

Heron

Love at First Lick Aug. 3-5 Looking for an instant love connection and lifelong kisses? Find “Love at First Lick” at Seattle Humane in Bellevue. Adoption fees are $50 off for any dog you fancy ages 3 and up. Check out adoptable sweethearts at seattlehumane.org.

18 Seattle Gay News

Meet Zazoo, a beautiful 2-year-old American Pit Bull Terrier mix! This handsome girl with the great name loves to go for walks and play fetch. Zazoo also likes treats and takes them softly from your fingertips. Zazoo would benefit from additional training, and we offer a training rebate when she passes her first class. Zazoo is unsure about larger dogs, but she really enjoys small dogs. Zazoo might like to share a home with a second smaller dog, who can show her the rules, and help her adjust. If you have room in your heart and home for Zazoo, she will make you the center of her universe! Meet Zazoo today at Seattle Humane – you'll go home smiling!

Say hello to Heron, a gorgeous 13-year-old white shorthair with brilliant blue eyes. This confident gal is sure to charm everyone she meets and would be a wonderful addition to a home looking to add a new best friend. Come to Seattle Humane and meet Heron today.

As with all of our cats, Heron has been spayed, microchipped, vaccinated and behavior tested. She will go home with a certificate for a complimentary veterinary examination and an identification tag. PLUS, most cat adoptions include 30 days of pet insurance from Trupanion – a great way to start off on the right paw!

July 27, 2018

Celebrating 44 Years!

EVERY WED NIGHT!

THE

DOLLHOUSE OPEN MIC SHOW

JOIN US FOR SEATTLE’S WILDEST OPEN MIC NIGHT AT OUR FABULOUS NEW VENUE! AUDIENCE CHOOSES THE WINNER! CASH PRIZE! We need performers for Wednesday nights!

Please text Roxy Doll ASAP if you would like to perform! *** 206-708-9127

HOSTED BY SEATTLE ICON

Roxy Doll

WE ARE A WEEKLY OPEN MIC & OFFER A SUPPORTIVE, POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT TO PRACTICE YOUR CRAFT. STAND-UP COMEDY, ALL FORMS OF DANCE, BURLESQUE, SPOKEN WORD POETRY, LIVE SINGING, LIVE MUSIC/BANDS, STORYTELLING, DRAG, MAGIC ACTS, CIRCUS/SIDESHOW ACTS, FETISH ACTS, AND MORE! Doors open at 9, show starts at 10!

Only at Capitol Lounge Seattle!

916 E Pike St, Seattle, WA 98122

Visit us online www.sgn.org

August 3, 2018

NO PERFORMER EVER TURNED AWAY, ALL ARE WELCOME (21+)

Seattle Gay News 19