Saturday, October 27, 2001

FRANK RICH WRITES: "This is an administration that will let its special interests — particularly its high-rolling campaign contributors and its noisiest theocrats of the right — have veto power over public safety, public health and economic prudence in war, it turns out, no less than in peacetime."

posted by clark 10:20 AM

Thursday, October 25, 2001

IGNORE THE DAMN YANKEES this weekend and instead attend our glorious Son of MISCsalon public hashing-out session. Some of the print MISC's writers and artists will discuss the mag's future, possible fundraisers, favorite Halloween costumes for this season so besmirched by real-life horror, and a properly palindromic greeting for the year 2002.

It's all this Sunday, Oct. 28, 2 p.m.-on, at the spacious and well-lit Zeitgeist coffeehouse, in Pioneer Square at 2nd Ave. S. and S. Jackson St.

Then later that evening (7 pm), many of us will trek to Titlewave Books on lower Queen Anne for its monthly reading series, curated as always by print MISC contributor Doug Nufer. A plangent time is guaranteed to all.

Greg Thompson Productions, the Seattle-based mounter of musical revues in Vegas and elsewhere, held its annual pre-Halloween costume and garage sale recently. Sequins! G-strings! Wigs! Audio mixers! Prop motorcycles! Scenery flats! Even a real Rolls-Royce (for $25,000 OBO).

posted by clark 1:30 PM

AS WE'D PREDICTED, women are an unprecedented target of the Stateside war hype this time around. Here, a woman strolls downtown in the type of full-body veil prescribed by the Taliban. This particular woman might be an actual conservative Muslim, or she might be trying to drum up war support by presenting an image of the Taliban's repressiveness, or she might be another journalist on some "chador-for-a-day" assignment.

Elsewhere downtown, a dozen or so women stood up at Westlake carrying the name of "Women In Black," an international group opposed to both the Taliban and the war.

While four blocks away, Deja Vu (a company, and an industry, that historically has depicted governments as censorious threats to porn-lovers' civil rights) bares its patriotic support toward making the world safe for lap dances.

posted by clark 1:30 AM

Wednesday, October 24, 2001

PHOTO REPORTAGE DEPT.: Some things seen around town recently, starting with longtime street musician Richard Peterson strolling through Pioneer Square and announcing (as he has done several times before) that "this is my last day on the streets." I met him at the end of a tiring week schlepping print MISCs around town, and could instantly sympathize with the sentiment/threat.

You know that big white fabric rectangle on the back of the Bon Marche parking garage, that had a sign at the bottom apologizing that Salmon Streaming had been suspended due to the power shortage? Now we finally get to see what the heck Salmon Streaming is. It's a short, looping, silent film projected onto the giant outdoor screen at night. Sponsored by Seattle City Light, it's a promo film for fishery-restoration efforts near its Ross Dam project in the Skagit Valley. It's also an odd bit of nature imagery in the heart of Seattle's most urban-decay-looking block.

posted by clark 12:30 AM

Tuesday, October 23, 2001

SOME BRITISH GUY mourns the age of the Polaroid camera, whose maker has filed for bankruptcy.

“Emperor” Lee Smith, 59, was Seattle’s premier top-40 AM disc jockey in the '70s, just about the last time there were such things as top-to AM disc jockeys. He held the morning shift on KJR from 1969 to 1974, and aimed his show at the teens and preteens left behind by a "youth culture" industry more interested in following their older siblings. He spouted witty, energetic banter between the hits of the Spinners, Dolly Parton, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He made public appearances (including annual "chariot races") clad in a burgundy toga and gold sandals. He made his audience feel they had a DJ, nay a celebrity, of their very own. When he was transferred into the station’s sales department, his last on-air day featured a Watergate-themed comedy skit, "The Impeachment of an Emperor." He died Oct. 12 from cancer.

Norm Gregory, one of Smith's former KJR colleagues, said, "The first time I saw him was in 1967 and the last time was in 1995 and he was the same guy from that first day to the last. Emp was a wild and wacky radio personality, a great father, and a wonderful friend."

More on Smith can be had at the KJR Memories site.

posted by clark 12:26 PM

MAKING BOOK: The Northwest Bookfest was held again this year in the Stadium Exhibition Center, and again failed to fill even the front room of that vast space. (Curtaining off sections of the room is apparently not practicable or feasible, because the center's restrooms and concessions are situated along the side walls.)

The result: While attendance was apparently comparable to last year's event (which had more touring big-name authors), the room energy (and, perhaps, consequently the booth sales) just wasn't what it had been back when Bookfest took place in the cozy confines of Pier 48 (where, as I've oft mentioned, Alice Wheeler shot the cover of Loser at one of Nirvana's last shows). The pier, alas, is no longer available for public rental. The State Convention Center, whose more flexible floors hosted the 1999 Bookfest, is apparently not available at the right time of year to land a lot of big-time touring authors.

Last year, I proposed revamping Bookfest to fit the space. Since it's a space built for auto show-type events, I said Bookfest should become more like one of those--a World Of Words Literama, full of pomp and circumstance and balloons and gold lame jumpsuits.

The promoters did successfully attract a few new types of vendors (paper-ephemera dealers, f'rinstance), but still more could be sought out--home office supply stores, computer dealers, college writing programs, grey-sweater and tweed-jacket merchants, magazine publishers (Ed McMahon could even show up to give away some bucks!).

Other possibilities to fill more of the vast room, or otherwise make the thing more exciting: More word-game and puzzle competitions; after-hours no-kiddies-allowed readings from the "good parts" of highbrow novels; Appalachian-style storytelling fests; banks of computers where visitors could add-a-line to ongoing stories; bulletin boards (real, not computerized) where visitors could post index-card-borne answers to pollster-type questions (favorite literary character, first book ever read, etc.); classic poems displayed on big LED-readout walls; maybe even a literary-character costume contest.

Yes, these suggestions go beyond Bookfest's laid-back-and-mellow dictum of good taste, and that's part of the point. Reading and (especially) writing are largely solitary pleasures. It's good to get readers and writers in one big place to share their joys and receive one another's support. And as a mid-October event, Bookfest marks the beginning of stay-inside season; thus it should be more festive and celebratory, the better to help its attendees stave off Seasonal Affective Disorder and remain cozy and happy thru the dreary months to come.

posted by clark 1:04 AM

Monday, October 22, 2001

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM: The Mariners’ Miracle Season sputtered to a halt in the American League Championship Series, when for the second consecutive year our boys were pummled by the still-OK-to-hate New York Yankees. Despite the unglorious end, it was still an amazing ride and a spectacular display of teamwork. It was, and is, one for the record books and a lifetime of memories. Now comes the off-season trading and maneuvering, with one crystal-clear goal: Somehow getting the AL pennant out of the Bronx for once.

posted by clark 9:13 PM

PRINT MAG UPDATE: Now that the fall print MISC is out, work begins immediately on the next one. It will be the first issue planned with national distribution in mind. We won't stop writing about Seattle, but our writings about Seattle will necessarily include more background material so the out-of-town readers can get into the narratives.

This will be the "Recession Is Good For You" issue, in which we shall discuss the (real) possibilities of forging a new, more people-friendly economy out of the smoldering remains of the one we have. Get your submissions in now. Speaking of economies...

WIRED MAGAZINE may now be media-conglomerate owned, but it apparently still operates under the Global Business Network ideology of its Frisco-elitist founders. Witness the current cover story, the first one in which the mag has had anything nice to say about Microsoft. And just what is it about MS that Wired thinks is so hunky-dory, peachy-keeny, and revolutionary? Contracting XBox video-game manufacturing out to the Third World! It's a godsend for management; and as for the US workers, well they never really mattered 'cause they never earned enough to belong to the magazine's target demographic.

posted by clark 9:04 PM

ARCHIVES:

• Past weblog entries.
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• X-Word crossword puzzles, now with on-screen solving.
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• A listing of many Things I Like (and a few things I hate).
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