MISCmedia for 5/4/00
The Destruction Continues

SOME SHORTS TODAY:

WITH THE STEADY demographic cleansing going on in central Seattle, the city's remaining non-millionaires (i.e., most of us) have increasingly sought refuge from high prices at the glorious Children's Hospital Thrift Store.

But soon, that will no longer be an option. At least not at its current convenient 3rd Ave. location.

You know the drill by now: Condo developers are taking over and razing the half-block containing the store, along with the gloriously unpretentious Palmer's eatery-drinkery next door.

The store's suburban branches will remain, as will its online shopping site, for those who need bargains but have Net access.

The store's also being immortalized in Lost in Seattle, an ambitious online map site containing "3,000 Seattle shops and buildings." (The site's still in beta form and already way out of date.)

TONIGHT'S THE FIRST "First Thursday" gallery crawl in Pioneer Square that won't include anything at the now-deserted Jem Studios-Galleries, now being refitted for dot-com offices. I'll miss the four-story party atmosphere, the mix of serious and less-than-serious works in every genre from semirealistic painting to abstract sculpture to video-enhanced live performance, and the camaraderie of hundreds of creators and gawkers sharing the feeling of creative empowerment.

I won't miss the permanent paint stains on some of my best clothes, a remembrance of the final Jem exhibition night when I sat too close to a performance-art piece that devolved into a coed naked body-paint wrestling match. (The things you can do in a space when you don't care about getting a cleaning deposit back....)

JUNK FOOD OF THE WEEK: Haven't had this dept. in a while, but will promise to get back to it every so often. This time, it's Jones Soda Whoopass Energy Drink. Tastes a little better than the better-known Red Bull brand (that favorite of waiters, bartenders, and late-night software coders).

The locally-made Jones product also pays homage to the Asian origin of this beverage genre, with a manga-style cartoon street-fighter mascot, and a name that sounds as if it had been coined by Japanese English-as-a-second-language speakers. (The company's website also promises, "It makes your pee super yellow thanks to all the vitamin B6!")

(It's absolutely no relation to another product, an employee-motivation novelty toy called "A Can of Whoop Ass.")

TOMORROW: Modern art as capitalist tool.

ELSEWHERE:

• There are still slacker movies out there. Are there slackers anymore?...
• "Leonard Nimoy Should Eat More Salsa"....

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• Parts one and two of Matthew Stadler's look at urban dreamers in the distant and more-recent past.
• Dissecting the Way-New Left.
• Parts one and two of luxury-box stadia as a sort of Utopian vision.
• Harper's Magazine discovers those Dreaded Eugene Anarchists.
• The new world capital of photography.
• Strange stuff in the Seattle Times.
• The continuing story of CNBC.
• James Twitchell-- one English prof who (hearts) marketing.
• The real reasons conservatives love baseball.
• USA Today turns 18, tries to start looking more mature.
• Jim Hightower's selective memories of the pre-Clinton Democrats.
• Announcing the launch of MISCmedia Radio.
• Corporate warriors try to capture even more intellectual property.
• Parts one and two of a poet's fascination with the business press.
• Parts one and two of the clash between the arts scene and the info biz, and how it can be resolved.

ARCHIVES:

• 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns
• Reviews of literature & art, monfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise
• Longer articles and essays
• The origin and future of MISCmedia