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Lynn Shelton Charms the Bagger

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New York Times media reporter and blogger David Carr, aka The Carpetbagger, ran into Seattle director Lynn Shelton over the weekend at Sundance. And though he hadn't actually, you know, seen the her new movie Humpday, he was thoroughly smitten with Shelton and her scrappy band of indie stars and crew. Soon thereafter, the movie signed a distribution deal (reports Carr), which is a major coup for any Seattle filmmaker. Shelton's last feature, My Effortless Brilliance, played SIFF last year to less than steller notices. Let's hope Humpday plays SIFF this year, and goes on to full national arthouse distribution (i.e., the major cities, then Netflix).

Not All Clowns Are Bozos. Some Are Mimes.

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Last night, a group of female physical theater performers set out to prove, as the title of their TOJ show plainly suggested, that Not All Clowns are Bozos. They succeded wildkly at their mission of proving that their corner of the artistic universe could be enjoyed by adults as well as kids. While the first half of the show was a little uneven (full disclosure: we arrived 20 minutes late after a leisurely supper at Maneki), the second half crackled, with hilarious solo and duo performers relieving one another well before any one sketch had the chance to get stale.

Here's the thing, though: none of these performers fit my definition of "clown." I'm sure the artists would argue that this was part of the point, and I'd get that point were it not for the fact that their mostly silent acts veered far, far closer to the supposedly moribund art of mime. After taking in this show, I'd submit that purebred whiteface pantomime is dead only because the people who possess the skills to be keep it alive don't want to anymore. Which is a fair choice, I guess, but still a little sad.

Before I forget, one awesome thing about Theatre Off Jackson is they sell Wells Banana Bread Beer, which sounds horrible but tastes heavenly. Another awesome thing is the availability of Arrested Development lapel buttons for $1 a pop. I bought one of Tobias Funke (David Cross) in fully-body Blue Man Group paint, announcing, as he did on the show: "I just blue myself."

Our First Report From Sundance

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SW contributor and critic Scott Foundas is in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. He begins by reporting the following:

"Will everyone be wearing black?" a friend asked over dinner the other night when the subject arose of my imminent departure for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. "I'm so glad I'm not going to Sundance," confided one longtime film publicist at this week's Los Angeles Film Critics awards dinner, as if she had escaped sentencing to a leper colony. Indeed, this year, it feels like a funereal pall has descended on Park City, Utah before the curtain has even risen on January's annual powwow of independent filmmakers, distributors and deep-pocketed passholders hoping to catch a glimpse of Jennifer Aniston as she tries not to slip on the ice. When the festival does kick off tomorrow evening, with the world premiere of Oscar-winning animator Adam Elliot's debut feature, Mary and Max (featuring a clay-mated Philip Seymour Hoffman as an obese Jewish man with Asperger's syndrome), it will do so at the center of a perfect storm of indie-film bad voodoo.

Click here to continue reading.

And the Fifth Cylon Is...

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Really, the only major plot-hole was expecting you to believe the characters actually thought that this woman was a human.

Not to worry! Several friends called to say they have "lives" on Friday night—whatever that means. So they recorded the Battlestar Galactica 4.5 premier. If you are one of those people, do not click below the jump. Everyone else, the real geeks, yeah, I'm talking to you, the person trolling the internet looking for BSG discussions, please continue:


Continue reading "And the Fifth Cylon Is..."...

Holy Frak! BSG Tonight (and Other Dork News)



The final episodes of Battlestar Galactica start airing tonight at 10! Who is the final cylon? Will the formerly warring nations survive on Earth without killing each other? What about all these half-cylon kids running around? And will Leigh Adama finally cut that mangy hair?

In other sci-fi news, the beloved Japanese cartoon Cowboy Bebop (the inspiration for Joss Whedon's Firefly) is slated for a live-action production. The Hollywood Reporter says Keanu Reeves is set to star as Spike Spiegel. Nerd-dom is on fire with rage—there are so many ways in which it's a terrible choice, not the least of which is Spike's ability to laugh at himself—a skill Keanu conspicuously lacks. Sorry, nerds, we might just want to watch the original series in all its animated glory—you know, again.

Tonight! Azar Nafisi at SPL

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Just a reminder from our Laura Onstot:

In 1979, Iran went through a transformation straight out of Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale. Overnight, new leadership and laws mandated chadors for women, banned anything un-Islamic, and made the country a pariah for our next four presidential administrations. Azar Nafisi lived through it, and she wrote about it in the 2003 bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran. But her follow-up memoir, Things I've Been Silent About: Memories (Random House, $27), isn't just another eyewitness account of that tumultuous revolutionary period. It's mainly Nafisi's own story, that of a woman with troubled parents, a weakness for deceitful men, and a stubborn streak that gets her fired from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear a veil. There is history, too, but Nafisi combines national and personal narratives. Today a professor at Johns Hopkins University, she reminds us how her fellow expatriates still love their broken, distant home. LAURA ONSTOT

Seattle Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., 386-4636, www.spl.org. Free. 7 p.m.


Steven Soderbergh Interviewed

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Soderbergh with Del Toro (Photo: Teresa Isasi/IFC Films)

Our colleague Scott Foundas sat down recently with the director of Che (review here), which opens Friday, Jan. 16 at the Varsity.

Steven Soderbergh tends to travel light — even when he has a movie camera tucked away inside his suitcase. That's how the filmmaker set off on a recent Japanese press tour where, in between interviews, he used a lightweight high-definition video camera known as the Red One to steal some Tokyo exteriors for his upcoming movie The Informant, a darkly comic thriller based on New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald's nonfiction best-seller.

Although The Informant stars Matt Damon and will be released later this year by Warner Bros., Soderbergh's moviemaking M.O. has changed little in the 20 years since his first dramatic feature, Sex, Lies and Videotape, won him the audience award at Sundance (then called the United States Film Festival), the Palme d'Or at Cannes and an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay—all before his 28th birthday.


Continue reading "Steven Soderbergh Interviewed"...

Tonight! Two Openings to See

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Adam Putnam. Untitled, 2009. Mixed media. Dimensions vary.
Image via www2.seattleu.edu/artsci/finearts/Default.aspx?id=2516


Tonight: Void Blank Blank (1 of 3)
Adam Putnam Opening at the Hedreen Gallery
This is curator Yoko Ott's inaugural exhibit at the gallery, and the focus is the lush red passageway between the gallery and the theater.
Thursday, January 15, 5-8pm
Instead of denying that the gallery is an acting theater lobby, Ott's exhibit line-up aims to explore this fact.
Through March 21.

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Joe Park, 1992
can't remember if the brick came first of the tissue dispenser, although they are both numbered so i guess i could check. Image via www.cornish.edu/exhibitions/joepark

Also Opening Tonight: The Hotness: A Sort of Retrospective by Joe Park
Thursday, January 15, 5-7 p.m. at Cornish
Cornish art alum Joe Park shows what could be considered a road map of how he got to his current painting style, including selections of his work as an art student, furniture designer, sculptor, and performance artist. Online catalog and gallery info here.
Through February 20.


Mime Kampf?

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A few months ago, a meeting of the mimes was held at Stumptown Roasters near the Seattle U. campus, where it was agreed that the pure art of whiteface was pretty much dead. There was also something of a consensus reached as to who should be blamed for mime's demise: Shields & Yarnell, a Marceau-trained San Francisco duo who had their own televised network variety show in the late-'70s. This duo has been rather quiet (ha!) for quite some time, but we just learned that they're due to launch a thunderous reunion tour in the Greater Phoenix area at the end of January. So if you've got some time for mime, get down to the desert.

Khaaaaaaaan!!

"I know my own needs ... I request nothing beyond the thickly COO-shunned seats available even in soft Corinthian leather."

Goodbye, Ricardo Montalban. The world has just become a lot less sexy.

Local Link to Che

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(IFC Films)

Steven Soderbergh's four-hour epic treatment of Che Guevara (played by Benicio Del Toro) opens Friday at the Varsity. (Our review here.) Among the credited screenwriters is Peter Buchman, once a playwright here in town associated with the old Annex Theatre during the '90s. After a script collaboration with part-time local screenwriter Chris McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects), Buchman left town and began getting work in Hollywood, including Jurassic Park III. (Also Eragon, ugh.)

His stage productions here included Airsick (1995) and Zero G (1997). Neither of which, unfortunately, featured dinosaurs or Catalina Sandino Moreno (pictured above with Del Toro).

On View: Michael Dailey at Greg Kucera Gallery

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Image: Dunraven Night, 1999, Acrylic on canvas, 45.5 x 57.5 inches
Courtesy of Francine Seders Gallery, via gregkucera.com


As part of the Color, Light, Time, and Place exhibit (Selected Works, 1965-1999) Michael Dailey shows luminous abstractions in oil at Greg Kucera Gallery (with newer works in acrylic at Francine Seders Gallery) through February 14 (and 9, respectively).

Another Good Reason Not to Own a TV

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File this one under the category of creepy press releases from skeezy publicists. Last Friday, the same day the event was being promoted, we were offered a chance to come report on (leer at?) the following:

"Gold Diggers" produced by David DeLay of Grandpa's R.V. Productions and Josh Hodgins of Jh Productions both of Washington State, will be filming for DeLay's reality show at Centerfolds this Friday. The reality show is an insider's look into the bizarre and sometimes difficult world of Exotic Dancers; much like the shows "Deadliest Catch" and "Dirty Jobs", as young women look to pay their bills, put themselves through school, all with hopes of one day landing a millionaire.
Where is Centerfolds? Up in Crown Hill, I think, and I am certainly not driving there to watch meth-addicted trailer-trash girls audition for yet another permutation of Girls Gone Wild. Moreover, as we found from the following Craigslist ad, said show will be taking gullible women out of state:

"I am searching for beautiful girls to be on a stripper reality TV show. The girl will have to be willing to do strip tease on camera. The show is similar to the Real Life just with strippers! You do not have to have any dancing experience but we do prefer experience. The girls will have to move to Tampa for a few months and live under the camera during designated hours. All expenses will be covered and girls will be paid well. If you are interested please send me your picture and contact number. Auditions will be 1/9/09 which is tomorrow at 12 noon. Please send email as soon as possible so I can set up your audition."
Classy! But you know what reality TV show I would like to watch? David DeLay and Josh Hodgins being chased down the street and beaten with clubs by a bunch of angry Seattle women. We could call it Pimp Beaters.

Safe Sextet

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What to do tonight? Our Gavin Borchert suggests you see eighth blackbird (yes, they spell it that way) at the Benny:

My guess is that in the future, it'll become apparent that Arnold Schoenberg's most lasting and significant contribution to music history was not the twelve-tone composition method he codified (which never became the lingua franca he envisioned), but his establishment of the "Pierrot ensemble"—the grouping of violin, cello, flute, clarinet, and piano he used in his 1912 work Pierrot lunaire, which has become the dominant template for contemporary chamber music. With or without percussion, it's basically the 20th century's answer to the string quartet. (Locally, Quake was an example, and the Seattle Chamber Players comprise the core of one.) At the top of the heap sits Chicago-based eighth blackbird, one of the most acclaimed and audience-friendly new-music groups around—thanks not only to their talent and energy but to their savvy Internet presence; just search their name on YouTube for several rehearsal and performance clips. They'll perform tonight (music by Reich, Rzewski, and others) on a concert showcasing musicians from their alma mater, Ohio's Oberlin Conservatory. GAVIN BORCHERT

Benaroya Recital Hall, Third Ave. & Union St., 292-2787, www.ticketmaster.com. $20. 7:30 p.m.


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  • Krist Gets Some National Love

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    A nice AP story about our esteemed politics-and-music blogger Krist Novoselic found its way into both The New York Times and Seattle Times. And the story of course mentions his weekly blog on this site. The story mentions his music, his love of ranked choice voting, and his run for Wahkiakum County clerk, all of which will be well familiar to his regular readers here. So maybe now, thanks to the AP story, he'll get the national readership that he richly deserves.

    Topics: News
  • Vera Project Fundraiser Tonight Featuring: One Be Lo, Yirrim Seck, Spaceman, Jus Moni and DJ B-Girl

    onebelo vera project.jpg
    Here's a show that seems to be getting promoted surprisingly well, mostly through twitter and word of mouth, but could still use more of a push. Part-time Seattle resident, One Be Lo, is in town performing at the Vera Project tonight and he's got some of Seattle's finest young urban talent joining him as well. Everybody in the headline above will be there, including 16-year-old R&B singer, Jus Moni, who keeps getting better and better each time I see her perform.

    There will also be live art by local painter Jonathan Matas for those that like to be visually stimulated. The show is a part of the current push to raise funds for Vera -- tickets are $7 in advance, $10 at the door. The festivities start at 8 p.m. After the jump, check out one of my favorite One Be Lo cuts of all time.

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  • Palin Out As Alaskan Guv

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    The Idaho grad is resigning at the end of the month. And did you know Alaska was female? Not the governor, but the massive state itself. (Check Palin's quote in the linked ADN piece.) Me neither.

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  • Fresh Wax -- New Vinyl For the Fourth of July

    Beastie Boys Hello Nasty.jpg
    The sun is out and most people don't have to go to work today. With a three day weekend underway, there's no reason not to go out and treat yourself to some brand new vinyl for your home stereos. There weren't a ton of new releases and reissues that hit stores this week, but what did come out is seriously good.

    The Beastie Boys reissued Hello Nasty, the Bad Brains reissued Omega Sessions and a good amount of classic albums came out on 12" this week. After the jump, vinyl columnist Jason Ferguson gives us a run down on some of the best new records to hit stores and the internet this week.

    Topics: Wax Watch
  • The 10 Best Names for Safeco Field's Strip Joint

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    With a brand new strip joint soon to open within an infield single of Safeco Field, it's important that Roger Forbes opt for a name other than Deja Vu in a good faith effort to blend into the ballpark district. There's precedent for this sort of creative nomenclature: Forbes could have called his north downtown pole emporium Deja Vu, but named it Little Darlings instead.

    Hence, we took it upon ourselves to offer Forbes our list of the Top 10 names he should consider for Safeco's sexiest neighbor-to-be:

    10. Caught Looking
    9. The Free Swinger
    8. Good Wood
    7. The Hot Corner
    6. Jerk One Out of the Park

    Topics: Sports
  • Date Night Couples Class

    If you're part of a couple who looks at cooking as a chore to get through instead of as a romantic way to spend an evening (or maybe you feel take-out is safer than standing together in a kitchen holding sharp knives?), you might want to look at Blue Ribbon Cooking School's upcoming date-night couples class: Traditional Italian Nights with Italian Wine Tasting. It starts with a couple of calming cocktails before students move into dishes like homemade spaghetti with mussels and a light tomato sauce, chicken piccata, and grilled Italian vegetables. It ends with the two of you eating at a waterfront table with roses, candles, wine pairings, and, if all goes well, a realization that cooking together doesn't have to end in bloodshed. $155 per couple. 6:30-9:30 p.m. Tue., Jul. 7.

    For more events like this plus Farmers Market news, check out our Food Files listings.

    Topics: Date Night
  • The Rise, and Fall, and Rise, of Frank C.

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    It's one thing to live to 92, which, as of his birthday last month, Frank Colacurcio Sr. has done. It's quite another thing, especially when charged with lowdown federal crimes, to remain upstanding in the community, and it seems he has done that, too. "Colacurcio Sr. regularly engages in sex acts with the dancers from the strip clubs," notes his latest indictment, "and allowed dancers who engaged in prostitution at the strip clubs to remain working at the clubs, sometimes in exchange for committing sex acts with him."

    The secret to Colacurcio's legendary libido and staying power seems to be practice, practice, practice. His run-ins with females and the law start with, at age 25, a carnal-knowledge conviction of a girl, 16, and range to a probation violation at age 80 for grabbing, kissing, and propositioning a teenager he was interviewing for a topless job. By age 86, about the time Strippergate was unfolding, he got six months probation for grabbing a waitress's breast and offering her money for sex. In court filings last year, leading up to the grand jury indictment this week, the feds quote dancers saying Frank is "always trying to get me to his house" and that "he gets laid every night."

    His further nonagenarian adventures are laid out in the newest court docs, which include conversations from bugs and taps: One day last year, Colacurcio was hearing a dancer's complaint that sex was getting in and out of hand at Rick's, his family's Lake City club. Furthermore, she said, "I think a couple girls are bad...they do the real dirty stuff..." Frank interrupted her: "Where are they?" he asked. "I need one!" Of course, he was only 91 then. Who knows if he could pull it off today.

    Topics: Crime & Punishment
  • Soak It Up with Nacho Cheese at The Breakfast Club

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    Chantal Anderson
    The special of the day: English muffin, eggs, nacho cheese, pico de gallo and hash browns.

    Soak Spot: The Breakfast Club, 12306 Lake City Way, Lake City

    Time of the Soak: Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m. The place was
    empty except for two men with thick mustaches and mullet-esque hair cuts.

    Level of Hangover: I'll just say I wasn't as hung over as I should have been to appreciate the greasy, charbroiled, all-American breakfast I put down.

    Topics: Soak It Up
  • Your Arts & Patriotism Weekend Advisory

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    For many, the three-day weekend starts tonight. In that Fourth of July spirit, we begin our arts planner with political cartoonists at Town Hall:

    In an industry substantially built on Hearst's The Yellow Kid and Little Orphan Annie, it's a cruel irony that struggling newspapers are dropping cartoon strips left and right to cut their costs. Also being axed are the children of Thomas Nast--editorial cartoonists like the P-I.com's Pulitzer-winning David Horsey. He and his brethren, including Ted Rall (of the Village Voice) and Mark Fiore, appear tonight at Cartoonapalooza, a public sidebar to the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention being held in Seattle this week. They'll show slides of their work, discuss their satiric inspirations, and perhaps analyze why Bush's ears were fair for exaggeration, while Obama's are more problematic. A benefit auction and reception are also part of the evening, where you can purchase and have signed the cartoonists' latest collections. And that's the format--in books, not newsprint--in which their work may increasingly be found. Unless, of course, you're willing to pay by the download for your iPhone or Kindle. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $25-$30. 7:30 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

    Make the jump for more arts and fireworks events...

    Topics: Arts & Culture
  • Win Tickets to the "Rack N Roll" Benefit Concert July 10 at the Crocodile

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    "Do you like boobs and music?" That's the question organizers of the upcoming "Rack n Roll" benefit concert are asking the public. A local husband and wife team are courageously putting together a show to raise funds for breast cancer research--and naturally, they want you to be there. Especially if you like healthy boobs and good music.

    On July 10, Duffy Bishop, Stone Rangers, No Ground, and Above All Odds are going to be at the Crocodile rocking out to fight the big C. Tickets are only $15, it's all for a good cause, and they're going to have some interesting raffle prizes (like $100 gift certificates to Ivars and Oceanaire, amongst other restaurants) on hand. So head to this website to learn more about the event. We've also got a pair of tickets to give away to a lucky reader. Just shoot me an email with the words Fight Cancer in the subject line and a winner will be chosen at random. Good luck.

    Topics: Contests
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