Friday, June 22, 2001

PRINT MAG UPDATE: Sean Hurley has designed a truly luscious new logo for the revamped print MISC (yes, reverting to the shorter original title). I still only have about half the material I need.

All of you who think you can write, and especially those who falsely believe you can't: We need your stuff. Particularly desired, though not exclusively, is material within the next issue's theme of "Death and Destruction." That could be a brief memoir of a loved one, a death-defying or otherwise fearful experience, a remembrance of a no-longer-extant favorite home or hangout or funky building or radio station, a job-loss horror story, or a meditation on the eternal creation/destruction cycle.

Email me at clark@speakeasy.org for particulars.

posted by clark 6:24 PM

IT'S CRUTCH WEEK IN SEATTLE! The downtown streets are filled with normally self-ambulant d00dz & d00dettez (you can tell from their inept, inexperienced limps) hobbling along with leg casts, canes, etc. One can only presume something in the early-summer air got 'em all to try risky, untrained-for athletic maneuvers.

ONE MORE PROBLEM WITH BELLTOWN THESE DAYS: The once-hip neighborhood has all these $100-a-plate foodie restaurants, but no decent bar at which to watch TV sports in the company of one's fellow sedentary sports fans. Mr. McAlpern, please do something about this.

HAD A LONG TALK the other morning with someone from a prominent local commercial publishing co. about my aforementioned book project. The talks were productive, but I've still some persuading to do.

ON OTHER SITES:

Corporate charity-giving as a brand-building strategy.

Not only does eBay have an eternally entertaining "Weird Stuff" section, but it's now subdivided into "General," "Slightly Unusual," "Really Weird," and (if you dare!) "Totally Bizarre...."

posted by clark 12:01 AM

Wednesday, June 20, 2001

UPDATE: Turns out others besides Dave Winer are interested in the idea of dissolving criminal corporations. Those wacky Vancouverites at Adbusters magazine are also proposing it.

THE FINE PRINT (on the back of a Spoon Size Shredded Wheat box): "POST is committed to nurturing and championing the well-being of families across America. Our families, like yours, have challenges and triumphs. We celebrate both the big and small events--the everyday joys and moments that sustain us. We'd love to hear from you about the things that help make a difference in your family." [Then, in almost unreadably tiny type:] "Comments and materials submitted become the property of Kraft Foods and may be used by Kraft Foods without compensation to the submitter."

TALES FROM THE INTELLECTUAL-PROPERTY INDUSTRY: Michael Jackson currently owes Sony Music $30 million! If the major-label system doesn't work for even one of its (formerly) most lucrative artists, for whom the hell does it work?

posted by clark 12:22 PM

Tuesday, June 19, 2001

THE SKINS GAME: Went to the Fremont Fair. The unauthorized naked bicyclists were out in force once again, beloved by paradegoers of all ages and detested (but unarrested) by cops.

This year, the baring bikers all had elaborate body-paint designs, and almost all were female. Both factors helped make the experience more of a display and less of a statement.

Mind you, I do eternally adore the work of heavenly creation that is the adult female body. And I have nothing less than total admiration for those women who selflessly share the sight of their physical beauty with the world.

It's just that the Fremont Fair's bike brigade has been a situation in which adults of all genders could appreciate this beauty, and in which children of all ages could glimpse adult bodies presented as something neither disgusting nor overtly sexual. It's been a proclamation of freedom, in which the bikers invited the audience to share the spirit of wholesome naturist body-love and innocent norm-breaking.

I'd like to see that continue.

(This article's permanent link)

IN RELATED NEWS: The Gun Street Girls, those lusciously costumed neo-burlesque dancing dames, are apparently splitting into two new troupes, neither of which will be Seattle-based. One will be in New Orleans; the other in Portland. Let's hope both will still visit often, for either separate or combined shows.

posted by clark 11:36 AM

Monday, June 18, 2001

WHEN A HEALER DIES: The following is the "long version" of one of the short items to run in the Stranger obit column later this week:

Rev. Fred Beaver Chief Jameson, 46, was a member of the Lummi Nation, a spiritual leader, musician, and social activist, who worked among Seattle's Native American community and also in the local art and music scenes.

He lectured across North America and Europe; he'd married a Swiss woman and was planning to move to Zurich. He was the SeattleSchool District's Native American liaison in the '70s. He led drum circles and made recordings of Northwest Coast Salish music, including the 1999 CD Red Cedar Medicine Circle Songs.

One of Jameson's friends in the music community, Sky Cries Mary founder Roderick Romero, said he was "the most significant native of this area that I've encountered. His whole purpose was to bridge the indigenous culture and that of what he called 'the settlers,' and try to heal the pain. His dream was to have a children's center where children could learn more about the indigenous people of this area.... He had a massive impact on Seattle, not just because he was a native but because he stepped out side of those boundaries."

"He was open to every religion," Romero added. "He didn't alienate anyone; he was always open to what anyone had to say or was feelng. He married Anisa and I. He blessed our houses. When Anisa was going through cancer, he was there for her. He was one of the most significant people in my life.

"He was planning on moving to Switzerland with the woman from Zurich he'd married. He was so accepted into any culture, I thought he'd be such a great person to speak for the States. He always had something positive to say."

In the local neo-pagan publication Widdershins, writer Amanda Silvers called Beaver Chief "a wise man, teacher, healer, singer, storyteller and all-around funny guy who is very serious about spirit."

Jameson also wrote the book A Handbook For Human Beings, in which he said about himself: "I am a bridge. A bridge to help you understand our culture and combine it with your own... NOT to replace it, but to combine it."

Jameson died of a sudden aneurysm on June 8 at the Queen Anne post office. Services were held last Wednesday at the Bonney Watson funeral home on Broadway, followed by a ritual burning of his belongings at the Swinomish Medicine House near La Conner.

posted by clark 10:31 AM

ARCHIVES:

• Past weblog entries.
• 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns.
• Reviews of literature & art, nonfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise.
• Longer articles and essays.
• Some slightly weird little fiction pieces.
• X-Word crossword puzzles, now with on-screen solving.
• Cyber Stuff, links to cool and/or useful sites.
• A listing of many Things I Like (and a few things I hate).
• The origin and future of MISCmedia.