Saturday, March 16, 2002

I'M BACK at the computer room of the Stamford Marriott, a midrise tower hotel in a midrise tower district just off I-95. Stamford, or what little I've seen of it on the Metro-North commuter train and in the hotel's vicinity, appears to have formerly been a real community with a real downtown, which was almost completely razed (except for a few too-ornately "restored" blocks) and replaced with the ugliest of late-modern buildings. Office parks and towers, condos and "townhome" developments, hirise apartments and a Bellevue Square-like mall (multilevel parking garages instead of an outdoor parking moat). Somewhere out among those hideous office buildings are the headquarters of General Electric, Samsung USA, the World Wrestling Federation, and other famous outfits.

Got here after an 11-hour odeal that included two flights on the airline soon to be formerly known as TWA (what Howard Hughes hath joined together, Carl Ichan tore asunder), which is still in the process of being integrated into American Airlines' systems. At the St. Louis layover, I saw the big hangars of what had been McDonnell-Douglas, now sporting the Boeing logo. The common adage these days is that Boeing thought it was taking over McDonnell-Douglas, but was infiltrated by it instead. Certainly the move of Boeing's HQ to Chicago clearly bears the scent of Midwesterners' plottings. From there, ground transportation took me through rustic-earthy Queens, still-striving-against-all-odds Harlem, and the progressively tonier suburbs going further away from the city.

The Crossword Puzzle Tournament itself has eight rounds. Six were completed today. I knocked off all six puzzles with time to spare, but was nowhere near the fastest at any of them. Confabbing with fellow entrants later, I've learned I've made at least two mistakes today. On Saturday, puzzle 7 will be issued, followed by the championship round 8 for the finalists in five skill levels. (As a first-timer, I'm in category C.)

Everyone sits at tables in the big hotel meeting room. Volunteers pass out photocopies of each puzzle, one puzzle at a time. Everyone works on each puzzle at the same time. Each has a predetermined time limit, from 15 to 40 minutes. Solvers' filled-in grids are scored on accuracy and speed. I think I've done fairly well, but won't know until tomorrow just how well comparitively.

There are about 400 entrants, almost all Caucasian. Eighty percent are from the Northeast corridor, with most from the NYC metro area. I'm one of only two Washingtonians here.

Will offer up more details later.

posted by clark 2:49 PM

JUST TO LET Y'ALL KNOW: Have arrived safely in Stamford CT, the suburb that thinks it's an actual city. Will report on my Crossword Tourney progress later today.

posted by clark 10:50 AM

Thursday, March 14, 2002

'A BRIEF HISTORY of banned music in the United States" contains snippets about various censorship drives, conservative and/or "radical" denunciations of songs and singers, and other assorted sanctimonious nonsense (including Wash. state's thankfully overturned "erotic music" legislation).

posted by clark 11:05 AM

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

I'LL ATTEMPT to issue regular reports over the next six days from my eastern jaunt, which starts very late Thurs. and runs thru the following Weds. (Not only will I be on a red-eye, after who knows how long in the security checkpoint line, but it'll have a change-of-planes stop at the old TWA hub in St. Louis at 5:45 PT.) Also, the crossword-puzzle tourney to which I'm going will be the topic of human interest pieces throughout the media, including this USA Today piece. Otherwise, MISCmedia.com will be back in full force next Thurs. or so.

posted by clark 9:56 PM

Monday, March 11, 2002

COCA CLASSIC: Over a year since the demolition of the Center on Contemporary Art's last exhibition space, the nearly 20-year-old anchor of Seattle's "alternative" arts scene came roaring back to life this month. It opened a brand new headquarters in one of Capitol Hill's last heretofore non-upscaled warehouse spaces, plentily conveniently situated for most of COCA's longtime clique.

So there could be no more appropriate way to celebrate the end of the organization's hiatus than by staging a massive party--at another, far more remote, location.

Thus, the opening fete for Black and Raw, the first show at the new COCA HQ, was mounted instead at the Big Building, a co-op studio space for iron artists and goth blacksmiths. Hundreds of past and present COCA friends had a smashing time in the big, drafty, beautifully dilapidated Big Building down in the Industrial District, beneath the Spokane Street Viaduct and across from the longshoremen's union hall.

Among the evening's delights were the Gothic Cheerleaders, doing their part to keep cartoony devil-worship alive...

... DJ (and fellow Stranger refugee) Riz Rollins...

...a skillful hula hoop demonstration...

...and the B-Hives, a (not only accurate but lively) B-52s cover band featuring, at left, longtime music-scene vet Alison Wonderland.

As was often the case at COCA's previous incarnations, the party atmosphere outshouted the art on display. Those who noticed (and, yes, I was among them) saw a display of wrought-iron pieces, many by the metal artists who work in the Big Building. These ranged from the sublime (an orca's tail) to the useful (a lot of candle holders) to the outlandish (fetish slave wear; the Henry Leinonen skull chandelier depicted here).

posted by clark 12:35 PM

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.