Thursday night at BookExpo

Posted May 31, 2007 at 9:39 pm by Karla Starr

Tomorrow, BookExpo, the nation's largest publishing convention, kicks off in New York's Javits Center. This comes soon after the demise of the LA Times Book Review section and a full-time books editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; the Chicago Tribune recently moved its book section to the Saturday paper in a cost-cutting move.
What are we to make of the discrepancy between fewer places for criticism while more books continue to be published—172,000 in 2005 alone?
Tonight, Bookforum hosted "The Intellectual History and Culture of the Book Review" at the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York for members of the NBCC, which I was fortunate enough to attend. The crowd was an elbow patch-wearing, ethnic necklace-donning set; eyeglasses were strikingly common. They were nerds and proud of it; a guy from n+1 was there and ultimately asked, "Who are our heroes?" Need I say more?

The editor of Bookforum, Eric Banks, moderated a panel including Columbia professor James Shapiro (who teaches a class on criticism), Joyce Carol Oates, the National Book Award winner who who recently published her 53rd novel, Harvard University Press's Lindsay Waters, and Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Soon after National Book Critics Circle President John Freeman (dapper as always in a pinstripe suit) introduced the panel, Lindsay Waters rushed in with an effusive plea to save the book review. Perhaps his caffeine and passion had found each other, as he ended: "We really will be killing off the plankton if we let the book review die... that's what at stake: everything." He spoke of letting critics free and giving them breathing room, of the history of the newspaper and the integration of arts reporting and criticism into daily discourse.
Next, FSG's Galassi insisted that "book reviews are in trouble because newspapers are in trouble." That the internet is allowing us to focus on our interests and niches has created a generation of consumers who go online already knowing what they want to read, buy and what circles they want to inhabit.

While Columbia's Shapiro was more even-handed, less apocalyptic, he added that "you don't get a mentorship with a blog." He was also fairly skeptical of any of the reviews in the New York Times finding their way into the literary canon, especially with their recent reduction from 1400 to 1100 words. He was more afraid for the burgeoning generation of book critics under 30: with less pay, fewer places to work, would there even be any book critics in 20 years?

This was, in other words, a slightly skewed version of the Pop Conference at EMP, the conference of music writers and academics, which I attended last month. Gate-keepers of the old school, trumpeting the demise of the paper and its implicit authority, gave heartfelt talks about why people on the internet were ruining culture.
I was surprised, then, to hear Joyce Carol Oates applaud some of her favorite literary blogsters, stating that their tone, a new, inviting tone, was reassuring and welcoming. Harvard University's Lindsay Waters also admitted that he'd read some brilliant things online (though he also made a joke about tantric sex, which I strongly discourage unless told in conjunction with a joke about Sting).
Is her good spirit one of the reasons why she has 53 novels under her belt and seems young as ever? Though it's easy to throw your hands up and say that no one's reading anymore—or that no one's talking about it in an intelligent and sustained fashion—that's just lazy. It's not true! While that's one topic that panels at BookExpo will be discussing this weekend, there are so many people and institutions currently at work diversifying and throwing life jackets out to the publishing industry. This weekend I'll be looking into the more relevant matters of criticism, as well as taking notes on what local companies like Amazon.com and Starbucks are up to.
And at least for one night, there was a fairy tale ending. After the panel, everyone went across the street and got quite drunk on rose.

Topics: Books & Authors

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Big Firm For Little Nickels

Posted May 31, 2007 at 4:33 pm by Rick Anderson

The mayor's son, Jacob Nickels, has hired one of the city's top law firms to represent him in federal court against racketeering charges. Submitting appearance papers yesterday in U.S. District Court in Seattle were Jeff Robinson, Amanda Lee and Kimberly Gordon of Seattle's Schroeter Goldmark and Bender, a personal injury firm that also handles select criminal defense cases. Nickels' three attorneys comprise the firm's criminal defense department.

They've asked the government to produce all the standard evidence it has against Nickels, including any electronic monitoring and statements by him and to name any "informant, spy [or] eavesdropper" to the crime he is alleged to have committed - helping facilitate a multi-state gambling scam at Indian casinos, including the one where he worked as a pit boss in Whatcom County.

Among Schroeter Goldmark's roster of successful criminal cases are dismissal of charges against a Port Angeles physician accused of murdering a 3-day old infant, representing corporate managers in the U.S. investigation of medical billing practices at the University of Washington (no charges were filed), obtaining not-guilty verdicts in recent murder and robbery cases, and obtaining the release of an Iraqi immigrant accused of terrorism.   

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Al Gore in Seattle next Monday

Posted May 30, 2007 at 5:27 pm by Gavin Borchert

I don't often get late-breaking arts news, so here you go: Just added to Town Hall's schedule, Gore will be here to discuss his new book The Assault on Reason, "an indictment of current policy making, especially the President's use of power and his handling of the war. . . the use of fear and the misuse of faith, the distractions of our entertainment culture, and the concentration of power in the national media and the executive branch." Monday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets, $5, go on sale tomorrow (Thurs.) at 10 a.m. via www.brownpapertickets.com.

Topics: Books & Authors

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The Ill of the People

Posted May 30, 2007 at 12:53 pm by Mike Seely

This past Sunday's New York Times magazine had a short article about an academic who feels American democracy is fatally flawed. Here's the nut: "Bryan Caplan, an economist at George Mason University, has attracted notice for raising a pointed question: Do voters have any idea what they are doing? In his provocative new book, 'The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies', Caplan argues that 'voters are worse than ignorant; they are, in a word, irrational - and vote accordingly.' Caplan's complaint is not that special-interest groups might subvert the will of the people, or that government might ignore the will of the people. He objects to the will of the people itself."

Which brings me to the above-the-fold story on 520 bridge tolls in today's P.I. (which contains an embarrassing fuck-up in print, and has been recently corrected in this online version). The skinny: "There could be $6 round-trip tolls on a new Evergreen Point Bridge within 11 years if regional voters approve a highway-improvement package that rebuilds the aging span, according to a new financing plan for the replacement. The figure, announced Tuesday, was developed by the Regional Transportation Investment District, a three-county entity that is considering the $14.5 billion road improvement package for the November ballot. Tolls, which haven't been imposed on the bridge since 1979, could make up the largest chunk of financing for the replacement, estimated between $3.9 billion and $4.4 billion...The road proposal is to be paired with a $23 billion Sound Transit expansion on the same ballot. Both must be approved by voters to take effect. The Sound Transit package, if approved, would extend the region's light rail system across Interstate 90, south to Tacoma and north to Mill Creek."

So what's a radical D.C.-area economist got to do with a new bridge here in the other Washington? In order to stand a snowball's chance in hell of passing, the RTID package needs to pass overwhelmingly in King County. And in order for that RTID package to pass overwhelmingly in King County, the 520 solution needs to be palatable to voters. A $6 round-trip toll? Not palatable to King County voters, of which there are many, who use that bridge on a regular basis. Hence, that $6 toll, which is almost certain to be included in the final tax package that's put forth to voters, might be the final straw that breaks RTID's back.

But here's the heartbreaker: a $6 toll on 520 is a perfectly logical, reasonable way to pay for necessary construction of a new, improved bridge. It's a user tax, and user taxes are among the most sensible tariffs around. But y'know what? Sanity doesn't always translate into positive results at the ballot box, especially when it removes a significant amount of money from people's wallets on a daily basis.

If Caplan had been consulted on this mess, he'd have advised squarely against putting such a critical, complicated package to a vote of the people. And he'd have been right. There are certain decisions that government officials need to ram down their constituents' throats — the old "take your medicine; trust me, it's good for you; now shut up" philosophy that politicians in just about any other area would see the wisdom in. But here, it's "when in doubt, punt it to the voters." If this approach fails, it's the voters' fault that Sound Transit stops dead in its tracks, 520 is a parking lot, and the Viaduct crumbles to the ground in an earthquake, right? Wrong. This is why we elect people: To make tough decisions on complex matters that the average voter can't be expected to be fully educated on.

Topics: Politics and Transportation

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They Came Out Swingin'

Posted May 30, 2007 at 9:57 am by Aimee Curl

Leave it to Tim Burgess to cut through the pleasantries. This morning at the Alki Foundation’s forum — the candidates’ coming out party with the business community — he introduced himself as the one who’s going to replace “this gentlemen,” (add exaggerated motion toward Seattle City Councilman David Della here.) And later, when it was his turn to answer the first question, Burgess led off with, “When I’m elected and take office in January…” He must be reading up on the power of positive thinking.

Speaking of positive thinking, nearly all of the candidates for city council said solving the ills of the 520 Bridge, though difficult, is doable— and will go smoother than the viaduct debacle. (Thanks to emcee Randy Pepple for gently reminding them that the nothing about the viaduct’s been solved yet.)

The political arm of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Alki Foundation, invited candidates for city council, port commission and school board posts, to the annual grilling, but this year only included those up for reelection who are facing challengers. Deadline to file is next week.

Other highlights: Burgess and Jean Godden still support building a tunnel under Alaskan Way. Only Burgess supports the surface/transit option. (Venus Velázquez raised both her ‘yes’ and ‘no’ paddles for the surface/transit question, but committed to ‘yes’ when asked if the city should just repair the existing structure.) Al Runte was the only council candidate to say yes to a six-lane replacement for the 520 Bridge. And there was unanimous support for the Regional Transportation Improvement District package. To which, a bemused Pepple couldn’t help but add, “Very good. And we don’t even know what it is yet.” (The final RTID package becomes public tomorrow.)

Those vying for the school board agreed there’s a race relations problem in Seattle’s public schools. Candidate Lisa Stuebing even got a little choked up about the whole thing. “We can’t address the problem without admitting that we have one,” she said, her voice wavering.

Port candidates competed for who is, or would be, more green. And all, except for Bob Edwards, raised their 'yes' paddles when asked if the public had lost confidence in the port. Looks like someone else took the positive-thinking pill.

Perhaps easy to say now that it's nearly a foregone conclusion that the roundballers will be hitting the road, but all of the city council candidates, except Runte, said Seattle should try and strike a deal to keep the Sonics in town.

Runte got some chuckles from the sparse audience with his mix-up of Elliot and Bill Richardson. He said the former, Watergate-era figure had been in town last week touting Santa Fe’s transit plans. But give him kudos for not being afraid to be unpopular with the business-types. “We all know the era of the automobile is ending, or at least we should know that,” he pronounced, shortly after calling Washington "the state of tax breaks for big business.”

Good fun. And it's not even June yet. 

Topics: Politics

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ACLU Sues Boeing

Posted May 30, 2007 at 9:17 am by Rick Anderson

The American Civil Liberties Union in New York announced today - as it predicted it would do earlier in a Seattle Weekly story - a lawsuit is being filed against the Boeing Co.'s Seattle-based subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan, claiming it provided travel services for the CIA's extraordinary rendition (torture-flight) program. Named as the three alleged terrorism suspects who were tortured by the U.S. during the flights and imprisonment in foreign countries, says the ACLU, are Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian citizen, in July 2002 and January 2004; Elkassim Britel, an Italian citizen, in May 2002; and Ahmed Agiza, an Egyptian citizen, in December 2001. Mohamed is currently being held in Guantanamo Bay; Britel in Morocco and Agiza in Egypt.

More here from the ACLU.

Reports the Associated Press:

The lawsuit, which the ACLU planned to file today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, charges that Jeppesen knowingly provided direct flight services to the CIA that enabled the clandestine transportation of the men to secret overseas locations, where they were tortured and subjected to other "forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment."

The lawsuit is aimed at Boeing's Jeppesen International Trip Planning unit in Seattle, which the ACLU claims is a "main provider of flight and logistical support services for aircraft used by the CIA in the U.S. government's extraordinary rendition program."

 

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The War Math

Posted May 30, 2007 at 8:02 am by Rick Anderson

The state's military grave markers of those killed in Southwest Asia now number 208 on this, officially, Memorial Day 2007. We've posted 13 new obituaries of troops with Washington connections in Iraq, bringing the Asia toll to 202; six more died within the few days after it was written.

Ages 18 to 53, the state's dead of Afghanistan, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Iraq left behind these additional costs: 114 children, 90 widows, and two widowers.

Another cost - in dollars - is now being projected at more than $2 trillion. Former Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld once predicted the war would run "something under $50 billion dollars," and called $300 billion projections "baloney." Crag Speeter of the National Priorities Project, whose CostofWar.com website tracks the price tag to the second, says the cost so far is $430-plus billion. Not factored in, but just as important, other experts say, are the natural resources we've used up in the war that are never to be replaced, beginning with oil.

Harvard economist Linda Bilmes thinks the true war-cost figure is considerably higher when other long term liabilities are added. Depending on when the war ends, the price tag can range up to $2 trillion, she maintains, when including such liabilities as increased oil prices, the interest on the war debt, and "resetting" the military - bringing forces back up to snuff and replacing equipment.

A 2007 study by Bilmes, of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, produced some other starting conclusions. Bilmes assessed the long-term needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the budgetary and structural consequences of their needs. Her main conclusions:

The Veterans Health Administration is already overwhelmed by the volume of returning veterans and the seriousness of their health care needs, and it will not be able to provide a high quality of care in a timely fashion to the large wave of returning war veterans without greater funding and increased capacity in areas such as psychiatric care;

The Veterans Benefits Administration is in need of structural reforms in order to deal with the high volume of pending claims; the current claims process is unable to handle even the current volume and completely inadequate to cope with the high demand of returning war veterans; and

The budgetary costs of providing disability compensation benefits and medical care to the veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan over the course of their lives will be from $350 to $700 Billion, depending on the length of deployment of US soldiers, the speed with which they claim disability benefits and the growth rate of benefits and health care inflation.

She recommends increased staffing and funding for veterans medical care, particularly for mental health treatment; expanded staffing and funding for Vet Centers; and restructuring the benefits claim process at the Veterans Benefit Adminstration, noting:

President Bush is now asking for more money to spend on recruiting in order to boost the size of the Army and deploy more troops to Iraq. But what about taking care of those same soldiers when they return home as veterans?...There has been a tendency in the media to focus on the number of US deaths in Iraq, rather than the volume of wounded, injured, or sick. This may have led the public to underestimate the deadliness and long-term impact of the war on civilian society and the government's pocketbook...

Happy Memorial Day.

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What is this thing in my motel room?

Posted May 29, 2007 at 5:39 pm by John Metcalfe

 

In case you're wondering what that glowing, out-of-focus miasma is—don't worry, it's not a ghost. It's much, much worse.

Continue reading "What is this thing in my motel room?"

Topics: Environment

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Dept. of Little Pricks

Posted May 29, 2007 at 4:02 pm by Mike Seely

Was called to my attention — a little late, I'm afraid — that Dan Savage, the Seymour Hersh of rim job advice, broke news of Tina Podlodowski's defection from Lifelong AIDS Alliance to Big Bros-Big Sisters before I did. Within a matter of moments, Savage broadcast this fact to Stranger nation, ribbing me in the process for not taking my daily dose of Slogarrhea.

Guilty as charged. But so's Savage: Last week, Savage announced he'd "learned" that Central Loan & Gun Exchange, First Avenue's last remaining gun shop, was about to close down. He evidently learned this from a May 22 story in the Seattle Times. Well, had Savage bothered to read the Weekly, he would have learned of this imminent closure from staff writer John Metcalfe's story on the topic — a full two weeks before the Erik Lacitis crib job in the Times that Savage cites in his post.

What all this goes to show is that even journalists miss a prior report on a news tidbit from time to time in an evermore-crowded media universe. I sure as hell do. And so does Savage.

Topics: Newspapers

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Why?

Posted May 29, 2007 at 3:04 pm by Aimee Curl

Spotted this afternoon on the corner of Spring Street and First Avenue: some dude on a scooter with a Dachshund on the handle bars. Yeah. You read that right. A brown wiener dog, front paws on the bars, back paws on his lap. Pooch was dressed in a red-and-white-striped jumper, a miniature black cowboy hat and perched precariously, headed uphill.

I've ridden around on these things enough to know that it's tough to hang on even when you've got opposable thumbs. Via con Dios, Fido. Your NBA jersey-clad owner should look for less harmful ways of getting attention.

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The Biggest Sister

Posted May 29, 2007 at 2:26 pm by Mike Seely

A little bird (a very trustworthy little bird) just told us that former Microsoft executive and Seattle City Councilmember Tina Podlodowski has been named President & CEO of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of King & Pierce Counties. Noted for her formidable intellect and candor, it will be interesting to see how Tina P's style translates to the apolitical nonprofit world (Podlodowski has experience in the issue advocacy realm with the Lifelong AIDS Alliance), which tends to be more Seattle Nice than Velazquez Spice.

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Free Ballard

Posted May 29, 2007 at 10:58 am by Mike Seely

Y'know those bumper stickers and t-shirts that say "Free Ballard" on them. Weird, right? I've got one, yet am often at a loss to explain what the slogan means — namely because it's pretty complicated. Today, a group of Ballardites who understand its full meaning (it has something to do with annexation and water rights in the early 1900's) will gather at Bell Tower Park at 22nd Ave. NW and Ballard Ave. NW for its annual "protest" of the City of Seattle's 1907 annexation of Ballard. Neighborhood lore has it that Ballardites used to raise the Ballard Bridge for the day in commemoration of this fatal maneuver. Today, at 3 p.m., they're just going to ring a really loud bell 22 times. A comprehensive explanation as to why can be found after the jump.

Continue reading "Free Ballard"

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MSNBC Gets Its Freak On

Posted May 26, 2007 at 12:33 pm by Karla Starr

Following the success of his original story that explored ways in which high schools are cracking down on less modest forms of dancing, SW's own Huan Hsu has made the leap to cable news. Click here to see Huan Hsu—now an official "freak dancing expert"—offer his take on the entire matter, including the 45 degree rule, on MSNBC.

Also of note is that when I first landed upon the link via MSN Video's "Most Watched" clips, it was #6—more popular than both the clip of Rosie O'Donnell and colleague Elisabeth Hasselbeck sparring on "The View" and the clip of a security tape in which a woman on a motorized scooter snatched another old lady's purse. Congratulations, Mr. Hsu!

Update: Sadly, I've since been told that the above link is dead! This one, or Googling Huan Hsu and MSNBC, might work.

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The Pot-Intelligencer

Posted May 25, 2007 at 1:57 pm by Rick Anderson

OK, I smoked a little weed on the P-I's roof at 6th and Wall, as Tom Robbins recalls in a video clip here today, but it was done in the spirit of high journalism: as copy editors, we all inhaled as part of our mandate to turn out memorable headlines (Phnom Penh Phalls). So what if it later took, as Tom says, 20 semi-comatose minutes to edit two paragraphs...every letter turned out perfect! (Then there were those late-night respites at Danny's 4th Avenue where the happy hour included every other drink for a penny. At the bar, we also proofed P-I news pages for errors, always making the next day's paper a delight to read). Update: For posterity, I should include the other journalism drug of newsroom choice then, acid, which had its hallucinatory drawbacks. In the words of a reporter (now an editor elsewhere) on the day he dropped a tab in the P-I newsroom: "It backfired, man. There were two city editors giving me twice as much shit!"

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Norm Maleng

Posted May 25, 2007 at 7:40 am by Rick Anderson

Surely there are thousands of people out there who don't think much of Norm Maleng. But most of them are in prison. When he died last night at age 68, he was indeed "the heart and soul of justice in this community for more than 30 years," as described by federal judge Robert Lasnik, his former chief of staff who tried some of Maleng's most notable cases, including the 1983 Wah Me Massacre of 13 people at a Chinatown gambling club and the 1985 Christmas Eve murders of attorney Charles Goldmark, his wife and two sons by madman David Lewis Rice.

Those and other Maleng prosecutions - Green River killer Gary Ridgway and firefighter-killing arsonist Martin Pang - come with the job but Maleng earned wide respect for a consistent and fair application of justice in resolving them, controversially, for example, not seeking the death penalty for Ridgway in return for the serial killer's confessions about and locations of the bodies he'd widely interred.

He didn't quite as enthusiastically pursue cases against cops in death cases: In his 28 years, none of perhaps 100 coroner's inquest verdicts, even those rarely critical of officer conduct, led to the charging of a law enforcement officer in King County, although he did directly charge other officers with felonies in cases that weren't close calls. (Among the cops not prosecuted were those who killed 31-year-old Antonio Dunsmore in 1985, a mentally retarded man with a water pistol, shooting him 25 times even though he was cornered in their headlights). In Maleng's name, his staff negligently prosecuted the innocent - Rodney Fletcher, who'd been wrongly accused of stealing school computer equipment in 1993, later sued for intentional violation of his civil rights in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which Maleng personally argued, and lost.

But, said defense attorney John Wolfe, one of his longest adversaries, "He made his decisions not only with his head, but with his heart. Each of his decisions reflected not only his character, but his courage." He'd slowed a bit with age; I'd see him at the local QFC or Starbucks, and last weekend, in a jogging suit on a street corner in Magnolia Village, often standing and staring into space (when you greeted him, he'd smoothly turn and respond - he'd just been thinking deeply I guess). To see him often idling about by himself, a man who put away vicious killers and vengeful thugs, yet an almost mockingly cherubic smile at the ready, tends to suggest a man at peace, satisfied he'd always tried to do the right thing.

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