Lawmakers Allow Liquor Prices to Drop

Monday April 30, 2007  by Allen Keene, Co-Editor

     Thanks to a handful of boozers on Olympia's Capitol Hill, all Washington residents will be able to get their drink on and save 42 cents a liter while they're at it, as of July 1st. 

     The expiring tax charge was responsible for raising roughly $19 million in revenue for the state, which means that approximately 43.238 million liters of liquor were consumed by Washingtonians over the past 24 months.  That's more than 59 thousand liters a day!  Way to hit the bottle, Washington!  I do expect you to kick it up a notch, however, after the tax lapses on June 30th.

     In addition to letting the tax expire, the good ole' boys down in Oly have promised to more than double the number of state run liquor stores allowed to unlock their doors on Sundays.  So in addition to maintaining (still, with about 60% of any bottle's listed price being state mark-up) the highest liquor taxes of any state in the union, lawmakers are making a run at Nevada for the highest number of residents with severe liver problems.

Cheers, Seattle!

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To Be Young and Gay at Gig Harbor High...SUCKS!

Friday April 27, 2007  by Allen Keene, Co-Editor

     Today's story comes from the wilds of Gig Harbor, where a pair of girls were recently singled out for holding hands and kissing at Gig Harbor High School.  At the request from one of the girl's parents to report any abnormal behavior, Dean of Students Keith Nelson went out of his way to monitor said girl.  And so, unbeknownst to the unnamed student (at least local media has the decency to maintain some semblance of privacy) a sweaty middle aged man was watching her from the wings, zooming his little camera lens in and out, in and out, waiting for the time to bust her.  Nelson then reported his findings to the girl's parents, who promptly transferred her to another school.

     Shortly after, a complaint related to violation of privacy and discriminatory policy was filed with the school board.  One of the girls told the Tacoma News Tribune yesterday that "we weren't doing anything inappropriate, nothing anyone else wouldn't do."  Because kissing (which in this case was reportedly a simple peck) is against school rules, Nelson, Assistant School Superintendent Shannon Wiggs and Principal Greg Schellenberg, have entrenched themselves in the reasoning that the outcome would have been the same had one of the girls been exchanging pecks with a virile young boy, to which the Kite calls "bullshit on you, assholes."

     Whether the ratted-out student was forced to transfer schools as a result of the school's discrimination or that of the ratted-to parents doesn't really matter.  The fact of the matter is that Nelson violated school policy by taking a request from a parent or parents to monitor and report aberrant behavior of a single student, regardless of the student's sexual orientation.  It's bad enough that high school students have their life scheduled for them for eight hours a day, five days a week, thirty-eight weeks a year, for four years.  They shouldn't have to feel like Big Brother is watching while they're at it.

     Nelson, in his defense, stated that "they're paying good money for us to make their kids good citizens," and that "whatever that means to the parents, I'll do it."  So here's to Nelson for validating his douche-baggy behavior by retreating into the old tax-dollar argument and implicitly claiming that not only is good citizenship determined by an individual's parents rather than the individual, but that homosexual behavior runs contrary to civic duty.

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Seattle on YouTube

Thursday April 26, 2007  by "Slap" Jackson, Street Contributor.

     I typed "Seattle" into YouTube's search bar and these are some of the more interesting returns that I got. Enjoy them en masse or individually. (But it's fun to press play on all of them at once!)

Seattle WTO Riot music video, 1999

Metallica - Master of Puppets - Live in Seattle 1989

Joshua Prince-Ramus on the Seattle Public Library: TEDTalks

Martini Family on Evening Magazine Seattle - May 1, 2006

American Idol Seattle

Ray Allen "The Game" NBA TV Seattle Sonics

Sleepless in Seattle: Recut as a horror movie trailer

King Of Seattle Mc Battle 2004/ Jin Freestyle

Seattle, Washington, Ice Storm

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The Kite Flies Over the Olympic Sculpture Garden

Wednesday April 25, 2007  by Jamie Pater, Art Critic

     In 1680 a baby, soon to be dubbed Joseph Dezallier, made his way into this world, or more specifically, France.  Unbeknownst to this child at the time of his birth, he would grow up to develop the sensibilities of an artist and the discerning eye of a critic, ultimately laying down these four maxims in regards to the role that art should play in a garden: “first, that Art must yield to Nature; second, not to congest a garden to excess; third, not to expose it all to immediate view; and fourth, always to make it appear larger than it really is.”  Though somewhat dated, Dezallier’s foundation serves as a more than adequate point of departure for our examination of Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Garden, (OSG).  Since we’ve decided to be so stuffy and academic in our approach, let’s take each of Dezallier’s maxims in turn.

     Does the OSG yield to nature?  In some respects, yes.  Considering its location, (it spans the once concrete dominated area between Broad and Roy Streets, Western Avenue and Elliott Bay) any nature that the garden can incorporate in a terrestrial sense is what the planners could create with a bit of grass seed and elbow grease.  Being open to the air, though, the art is allowed more interaction with the natural world than would otherwise be possible. 

     Does the art excessively congest the garden?  Certainly not.  In fact, more than a few people have complained to me that the sculpture garden is too sparse.  This bareness, however, is one of the OSG’s greatest strengths, as it will allow the space to grow and evolve.  If the planners filled the OSG to the gills with sculpture right from the get-go, not only would it appear congested, choking what little natural elements the space can allow, but there wouldn’t be any room for new art.

     Is the entirety of the OSG exposed to immediate view?  No, and this is genius.  Before I tell you why, let me ask you how many acres you think the OSG is.  Go ahead, guess.  Give up?  It’s nine!  Only nine acres!  That’s tiny!  Doesn’t seem so small, though does it?  That’s because the planners carefully designed not only the space itself, but the paths which you walk.  These trails zigzag towards the water, in and out of valleys carved into the earth, so that while in the bottom of one, you can’t see into another.  In this way, the park is broken up into sectors each with its own feel, afforded mainly by the art in these respective sectors.  Furthermore, this design helps to achieve Dezallier’s fourth maxim: the park appears much larger than it actually is.  Nine acres, I can’t believe it.

     As for the art itself, I have mixed feelings.  But please don’t misunderstand: I am ecstatic that the park exists at all.  The Olympic Sculpture Garden was even awarded the 2007 Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design by Harvard University, the first given to a space inside the U.S. in the eighteen years the prize’s conception.  And admission is free.  So what’s not to like?  Some of the art, unfortunately.  But I’m not going to harp.  My criticism of the art stems from a simple matter of taste, and I’d rather focus on the things I like.  So let us continue.

     Many artists, art historians, critics and others have said time and time again: sculpture is superior to two-dimensional art because it is three-dimensional, allowing circumnavigation and a greater range of interaction between art and observer.  Don’t get me wrong, I respect and adore all media of art, but I really love sculpture.  The OSG is able to take this notion of three-dimensional interaction just a bit further, as it is exposed to the natural elements.  Take, for example, Wake (2004) by Richard Serra, pictured left.  Not only can this piece be experienced by walking in and around it, but by viewing it under varying conditions of weather, and more importantly, natural light.  The high, wave-like fortifications shaped with the same machines used to bend the metal walls of submarines, take on a turbulent air of stolid forbearance under an overcast sky, but appear more noble and tranquil under a sunny one.  Given this, the decision to detach the piece from a view of Elliott Bay is an interesting one, though standing up the path near the pavilion affords a view of each, though they must be taken separately, not in tandem.

     Furthermore, not only can you move around the sculpture, but within it because the garden allows a magnitude of art generally not afforded in gallery spaces, and also because the sculpture garden is a work of art in and of itself.  This consideration involves the viewer in a completely subsuming experience.  In a certain regard, by entering into the OSG, the viewer becomes part of the garden, acting as another variable such as natural light, thus affecting the experiences of all the other people in the viewing space.  That is not to say that we go to the OSG to people watch, only that our experience in a crowded space is indelibly different from our experience in an empty one.

     In short, the Olympic Sculpture Garden succeeds not only in creating a vibrant release from an inundating urban landscape, but in maintaining the interest of any who choose to explore it through an array of architectural landscaping brilliance.  I, for one, look forward to the future of the park.  That is, of course, if the vandals will stop screwing with the art.  Honestly, what are these people thinking?

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From Here We Go Sublime: The Field

Tuesday April 24, 2007  by Naoki Inoue, Music Reviewer

     From Here We Go Sublime, details how techno songs can die and return to the great electronic origin. Rigged up with a rudimentary house beat and a few, varying microseconds of clipped samples, they are turned back into the world to grow. In a macrocosmic sense, Sublime’s focus is rebirth: in the miasma of creation, ideas and forms are endlessly changed, endlessly reborn.

     Sublime’s first three tracks trace the texture of creative life from beginning to end.  “Over The Ice” could soundtrack a documentary on an Antarctic biome: “even in the most adverse conditions, tiny protists can find nourishment on bacteria; generating just enough metabolic energy to throw a tiny rave.” “Paw in My Face,” a mellow, status-quo type track, remains pleasantly copasetic until the icecaps melt, and the ocean reclaims the land in the aptly titled “All Good Things End.” Fitting quite nicely along the apocalyptic minimalism of William Basinski and Boards of Canada, “All Good Things End” is an arms-spread, come what may type track, perfect for savoring the bitter-sweetness of mortality. 

     From here we go back to dance. “The Little Heart Beats So Fast,” with its throbbing acid pad and relentless EQ wipes, actually burgeons on electro-house; while “Everyday” ends in what might be described as a crescendo.  Certainly the closest The Field has come to straight dance floor ingratiation, these two tracks demonstrate how Axel Willner can craft a sound that is much larger than the sum of its parts.

     Sublime’s remaining tracks gradate from the ethereal aesthetic developed on Sun & Ice (including that EP's titular track), to a rougher, sample focused mix. The final two tracks, “Mobilia” and “From Here We Go Sublime,” stutter and stumble almost organically over their own samples. Abandoning the oppressive quantizing, Willner allows the samples a few moments to breath and de-integrate from his mix. Ending with the two-minute disintegration of a doo-wop sample, Sublime reminds us how destruction and re-integration underlay all creative acts. Just as time progresses and energy is transformed, so too must all expression reformulate itself, even if it’s only to propel some pert posterior.

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Sweet Onion Achieves Root-Vegetable Superiority; Potatoes Surrender
Monday April 23, 2007  by Jimmy Sparerib, Senior Root Vegetable Correspondent

     At long last, the Walla Walla sweet onion will have its day. Before a throng of onion enthusiasts in the state capital on Friday, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law a bill designating the Walla Walla sweet onion as Washington's official vegetable. The sweet onion joins other recognized state symbols such as the apple and the orca — symbols that, incidentally, I think would make for one kickass omelet. Gov. Gregoire's signature also brings resolution to a timeless struggle between the state's onion and potato growers for root-vegetable supremacy in Washington.

     Last year, potato lobbyists proposed an amended state vegetable bill that would have recognized the Walla Walla sweet onion as Washington's official "edible bulb" and the russet potato as its "official tuber" — to which the sweet onion replied, "Hell to the naw." Finally, the nefarious tuber cabal relented:

"This year, the potato lobby decided to back off," said Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-College Place, the onion bill's primary sponsor.

     The House unanimously approved the onion bill Feb. 14. The Senate voted 42-3 in favor April 5. Republican senators Janea Holmquist (13th Legislative District – Ellensburg), Jim Honeyford (15th Legislative District – Klickitat), and Republican Floor Leader Mark Schoesler (9th Legislative District – Pullman) opposed the bill. Naturally, they will be crushed under the wheels of progress by Washington's powerful onion lobby.  Advisers to the embattled senators are already gearing up for what will be hotly-contested re-election bids.

     In abstaining from the vote, Republican senator Cheryl Pflug (5th Legislative District – Hobart) said the bill simply had "too many layers."  Her case has been forwarded to the Senate Oversight Committee on Hackneyed Expressions for further review. In what was a monumental legislative session for state mascots, lawmakers also delivered to the governor bills designating the Lady Washington as the official state ship and the Pacific chorus frog as Washington's official amphibian; Gov. Gregoire has yet to sign either bill.

     The Pacific chorus frog bill passed unanimously in the Senate and by a 90-3 margin in the House, with Republican representatives Glenn Anderson (5th Legislative District – Snoqualmie) and Richard DeBolt (20th Legislative District – Centralia) and Democrat Dennis Flannigan (27th Legislative District – Fife) spearheading a bipartisan effort to quash the proposal.

     Political insiders speculate that the dissenting lawmakers may have bowed to external pressures from the state's Rough-skinned Newt Commission.

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Related links:
Gregoire signs Walla Walla onion bill (Seattle P-I)
House Bill 1556, Sweet Onion (Washington State Legislature)
House Bill 1084, Lady Washington (Washington State Legislature)
House Bill 1069, Pacific chorus frog (Washington State Legislature)
 

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