Friday, March 07, 2003

THANX TO THE HUNDREDS OF YOU who showed up for our big City Light, City Darkphoto opening Thursday night, gawking and smiling. You can still see the show's 46 stupendous images every Saturday afternoon this month. I'll try to be there each Saturday, particularly this one. It's all at the Nico Gallery, 619 Western Ave., Second Floor, in Seattle's formerly-fun Pioneer Square district.

posted by clark 1:39 PM

NICHOLAS KRISTOFF seems surprised that even Canada doesn't like the US these days. Kristoff, in this regard, is another ignorant American who hasn't noticed that Canada hasn't liked the US for some time now.

posted by clark 1:25 PM

TAMARA BAKER notes how Bush's top advisor on "legal reform" admitted to having lied under oath. She should have put this at the top of her essay, but instead buried it in the middle of an article about the corporate news media burying important facts in the middle of articles.

posted by clark 1:09 PM

WHAT THIS COUNTRY'S COME TO (Jerry Useem in Fortune):

"Wal-Mart in 2003 is, in short, a lot like America in 2003: a sole superpower with a down-home twang. As with Uncle Sam, everyone's position in the world will largely be defined in relation to Mr. Sam. Is your company a "strategic competitor" like China or a "partner" like Britain? Is it a client state like Israel or a supplier to the opposition like Yemen? Is it France, benefiting from the superpower's reach while complaining the whole time? Or is it ... well, a Target? You can admire the superpower or resent it or--most likely--both. But you can't ignore it."

Wal-Mart began in the suburban and ex-rural South, far from the big population centers. It still has yet to appear inside most cities (though Useem notes it's just opened a prototype in-town store in LA). Big-city-based media people are still amazed and shocked upon learning how big and influential the chain is. Political people, of course, know. The chain's late founder Sam Walton was one of Bill Clinton's first big backers. The whole Republican campaign strategy is wrapped around appealing to Wal-Mart's target customer base.

You already know about the chain's notorious censorship policy regarding music CDs and their packaging. As it becomes the nation's biggest video retailer, it could weild similar power over movie content (even more, and more draconian, than is currently weilded by Blockbuster).

Which means those of us who demand more than a discount-supercenter selection of cultural or other merchandise will need to vigilantly support those who can supply it.

For those of you who love overgeneralized dichotomies, here's a new one:

America might be polarizing again, this time into Wal-Mart Nation (limited diversity, one big smiley-faced authority system) vs. Internet Nation (everything and everybody you could ever imagine in a big chaotic and contradictory spectacle).

You should know by now I'd rather live in the second world.

posted by clark 11:45 AM

Wednesday, March 05, 2003

IN CASE YOU DIDN'T FEEL LIKE SCROLLING DOWN, here again is the big news about our big art show opening this Thursday:

City Light, City Dark has been moved to the Nico Gallery, 619 Western Avenue, Second Floor (one floor lower than the previously advertised location, in the same building). It still opens next Thursday evening, March 6, 6-8 p.m.

The exhibit features grouped pairs of images depicting similar subjects. One photo in each pair is set in the tourists' Seattle of sunny days and mellow smiles. The other photo takes place in the "other" Seattle of low overcasts, long nights, and defiant nightlife.

Be there. Aloha.

A FASHION DESIGNER of my acquaintance recently told me she thought antiwar protestors ought to dress up more smartly. She believes if you're trying to persuade outsiders to your cause, you should be dressed to impress. Make a visual statement of your intelligence, dedication, and awareness. Nix-nix on the ragged jeans and stringy facial hair; oui-oui to happy, harmonious looks that say you demand a happier, more harmonious world.

This student, at a student-oriented antiwar protest Wednesday at Westlake Park, has the idea.

So, in her own silver-and-red way, does this young speaker.

The protest gathered young women and men from grade school to grad school and beyond, from throughout the metro area. They were informed; they were impassioned. They'd rather not have their own asses potentially put on the line for the benefit of a few billionaires, thank you.

This particular protestor really dressed up. The plaque reads, in part:

1 ring =
100 Iraqi children killed by
US bombs since 1991
Duration: one every second
for 100 minutes

IF YOU LIKE THE PHOTOS on my site, you should come to my art show (see above.) You're also bound to love another Seattle photojournalism site, Buffonery. Despite the silly name, it's a very accomplished site with gorgeous local architectural photography. It's all done by Manuel Wanskasmith, a 22-year-old UW sociology grad, and it's all fab.

UPDATE TO A LONG-AGO ITEM: A year and a half or so after we discussed the end of what had been my favorite Net-radio operation, Luxuria Music is back on line. Sort of.

Clear Channel Communications, the 8000-lb. gorilla of the broadcast radio biz, bought and promptly killed Luxuria, which played a sprightly mix of lounge, swing, space-age-bachelor-pad, and '60s pop tuneage. One longstanding fan of the station later bought the domain name, and finally has a music stream online again.

The new Luxuria plays much the same sorts of cool stuff the old Luxuria played. But its post-dotcom--crash startup budget doesn't allow for live DJs (a vital part of the old Lux mix). And its third-party server software has some stringent requirements (a Mac user such as myself can only access it via MS Internet Exploder) and seems to cut itself off, and crash your browser, after a half hour or so.

Still, it's a start, or rather a re-start, for the kind of programming creativity you not only can't get on commercial broadcast radio but you also can't get on those highly-formatted commercial online, cable, and satellite music services.

FOR THE SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR, Pioneer Square was essentially declared an official No Fun Zone by city officials. Police permitted would-be revelers to enter and leave the three-block bar strip on First Avenue South, but not to linger on sidewalks or to make spectacles of themselves.

The above shot is the only "crowd" picture I could get. It was a close-up of the tiny stretch of sidewalk from the J&M to Larry's Greenfront. Many PioSq bars were closed altogether; those that opened had little more than their regular lineup of "blooze" bands.

The "mandatory mellowness" attitude of the Seattle civic establishment never cared for rock n' roll nor for festiveness. The 2001 Mardi Gras, a spontaneous and unplanned street party that begat several drunken fights and a fatal beating, only affirmed the anti-fun resolve. It will be up to We The People to take back the streets for revelry as well as for political speech. But it'd have to be thru an event that's just organized enough as to prevent/discourage violence.

As I said after the '01 debacle: Plan it, don't ban it.

posted by clark 12:38 PM

A MUSEUM IN PHILADELPHIA'S offering an exhibition of old sci-fi magazine illos, entitled The Future We Were Promised. The most telling thing about it's the fact that the museum proudly announces its location as being in "the historic Old City District."

posted by clark 12:27 PM

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