Last Night: First Thursday in Pioneer Square

Photos by Seattle Weekly intern Nick Feldman.

Strolling around the Tashiro Kaplan Building last night, here are a few of the exhibits I visited. First Thursday takes place every month in Pioneer Square, between about 5 or 6 p.m. and 8 or 9 p.m.

One of Deborah Butterfield's gorgeous, imposing, cast wood, bronze horses at Greg Kucera(above). There's a lovely blue horse in the back gallery made from reclaimed radiant heating pipe, the copper all bent and banged.

And at G. Gibson, a series of photographs by Jim Riswold, Damien Hirst-inspired presents under a Christmas tree, wrapped in what looks like one of Hirst's dot paintings.

At the Design Commission, one wall of letterpress works, with this perfect poem by John Ashbery, a print by Paul Hunter of Woodworks Press.

At SOIL, what look to be Styrofoam building materials, and a mysterious block on the floor (more about this to come in print) by Vancouver artist Scott Bowering.

Topics: Visual Art

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Public Noise: Geoff McFetridge at the Olympic Sculpture Park

Better known for his design work for Nike, Burton Snowboards, and Marc Jacobs, the L.A.–based artist Geoff McFetridge has taken over the PACCAR Pavilion with a graphically strong installation. The Mind encompasses the entire sloped-ceiling space, with a crowd of line-drawn faces papering the west wall.

On the east side is a colorful collection of poster-like works: an oversized, blue, contorted trumpet-looking sculpture especially appealing to kids; giant thumbtacks (a nod to Claes Oldenburg's Typewriter Eraser outside); and an enclosed room. Amid the crowds at the Olympic Sculpture Park, this tiny room offers a bit of respite.

On the inside wall is a large painted work that reads, "The Saddest Circle is a Square." Two figures are shown: a baby-blue circle with legs is the shadow of a black square figure. There's a bench to sit on, with three fat books, Vol 1, 2, and 3.

Punning on "volumes," these false texts contain three soundtracks to the space: Don a headphone set and you'll hear live sounds incorporated with meditative piano phrases. Vol 1 eavesdrops on the cafe across the way; baristas grind coffee beans, with the repeated staccato of a lever pushed to release the grounds. Vol 2 is a bit more abstract and harder to identify. A percussive noise repeats, sounding at first like footsteps along a smooth walkway, and later like the slap of a bounced basketball. Vol 3 contains the white noise of what could be traffic on Western Avenue. In all three tracks, the piano swells and recedes, the outside noises taking over for awhile, then subsiding. This intimate sound room has a door, so you can close yourself inside the meditative space. Until the kids want in.

Olympic Sculpture Park, PACCAR Pavilion, 2901 Western Ave., 654-3100. Ongoing.

Topics: Visual Art

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Who Needs CSI When There's Monk?

When I realized that USA Network's Monk had its sixth season out on DVD already, I felt almost absurdly nostalgic. Six years - has it really been so long? I guess time flies when you're watching Tony Shaloub (who plays the title character) deliver Emmy winning moments as everyone's favorite OCD sleuth.

Remember the time Monk had jury duty and solved the case on trial from the window of the jury chambers? Or the time (well, times really, it happens at least once an episode) when he took forever to get to a crime scene because he had to touch the radio antenna on every single car he passed?

And now as of Tuesday, when season six is released on DVD, you can watch the latest crop of Monk moments as often as you want. Like the time he traces the root of his obsession with a murder on a nudist beach to the traumatic memory of...his birth. Or the ridiculously scrawny, superlatively white Randy (played by Jason Gray-Stanford) belting out a rap song as part of an interrogation.

Really I think this season may have one of my favorites, if nothing else because guest stars include Sarah Silverman, one of my personal goddesses of comedy. Certainly it manages to keep what is essentially a formula show - murder happens, Monk is called in, discovers clues that puzzle everyone until the much-vaunted "here's what happened" moment, all sprinkled liberally with situations requiring Monk to do something that violates his OCD worldview - from getting stale. Gold star for Universal Pictures on that front.

Topics: DVD

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If the Discovery Channel Had a Sense of Humor...

...it might produce a TV special similar in tone to The Woman Who Is Always Tan And Has a Flat Stomach - And Other Annoying People (a relatively new book by Laura Allison and Lisa Perry).
The book reads like a hyperbolic bestiary of Suburbia, and manages to be hilarious largely because every single person who grew up on the borders of Yuppieland can recognize at least one of the species. For example who hasn't been tempted to smash the expensive electronics of The Husband Who Gets a Video Camera and Now Thinks He's Martin Scorcese?
Allison and Perry harpoon most mockable quirks of the "perfect" suburban lifestyle from Christmas letters that make the family's children look like prodigies to over-zealous scrapbookers to husbands that can't manage to put salt on potatoes without detailed step-by-step instructions, and though some of the humor gets a little repetitive simply because we all do know exactly what they're talking about, it's still there.
In fact, it got me thinking about Annoying People I know...how about The Clerk in Sephora Who Feels Superior For Wearing More Eye Makeup Than You? Or The Man Who Honks At You For Going the Speed Limit? Or the Boss That Thinks He's Hip Because He Listened to a Rap Song Once?
Oh yes, the world is full of them...are you listening, Discovery Channel? Maybe a sense of humor is in order here.

Topics: books

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The Golden Compass

I was deeply impressed by Philip Pullman’s, His Dark Materials series so needless to say, my expectations for the movie were tremendously low. Of course, this movie did not fail to be a magnificent insult to Golden Compass fans everywhere.

Let’s get the good stuff out of the way. The movie was very well cast and superbly acted. Even old frozen-face Kidman put in a decent performance. The action sequences weren’t awful and although I hate most CG crap, the big polar bear fight was the only point in the movie that moved me to do something other than look at my watch—I think I actually gasped.

Ok that’s done, let’s talk about why it sucked so very, very hard. Other than pointing out that they didn't bother to follow the correct time line (and I still can’t figure out why they chose to do that), I think I can best express my problem with the film this way way; it simply did not take itself seriously enough. There are scenes in the book and throughout the series that are gripping, heart-wrenching, dark, terrifying, and genuinely thought-provoking. I cannot attach any of those adjectives to this movie. I can say they made this movie for kids, people that choose not to read, and dolts. If you haven’t read the books, do. Don’t expect surfacy Harry Potter (not trying to knock Rowling, I love me some HP), these books go considerably deeper. If you’re apprehensive about the anti-religion undertones, (they kill God) I challenge you to read and decide for yourself. I believe it’s more about corruption and power than religion. I bet you'll find it hard not to get enchanted.

Topics: DVD

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Capitol Hill Losing Velocity?

In the ongoing drama that is Capitol Hill's arts scene this year (no pun intended, though it is damn funny), Velocity Dance Center's residency remains as uncertain as ever, and the likelihood that said residency will continue to be on the Hill is smaller than it has ever been.

Negotiations with Elizabeth Linke, the former landlord of Capitol Hill Arts Center (another organization that is currently homeless), have stalled, says Velocity representative Kara O'Toole.

"It's not really our most promising option anymore," she says, citing the need for building upgrades before the space is suited to housing dancers rather than small stage shows and comedians.

More troubling to those who have lived with the building tension between commercialization and the arts scene, only one of the organization's other options is in Capitol Hill. Though O'Toole says Velocity wants to stay in the neighborhood, other more affordable options beckon from South Lake Union. Currently Velocity has worked out month-to-month leases with Redside Partners LLC, the firm managing Oddfellows Hall since the owner shift that originally sparked the trouble, causing rents to rise as much as 20 percent.

O'Toole says Velocity can afford to stay in Oddfellows month-to-month until the end of the year if they must, but the decision has to be made by then.

"We'd love to stay in Capitol Hill. It's our home," O'Toole says. "But there just aren't that many spaces anymore that are both affordable and suited to our needs. There are fewer undeveloped warehouses and such. There's a pretty rapid commercial market here."

This conflict has come to the fore in the past six months with many near-casualties for the neighborhood's arts community, including Theater Schmeater. Unless negotiations with either of Velocity's two Capitol Hill options pan out, the dance company could be the first organization this year that prayed for a miracle that didn't come.

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The Answers to Seattle People: Capitol Hill Vs. West Seattle

Photos by Laurie Pearman

SPOILER AHEAD! What follows are the are the answers to our quiz, Seattle People: Capitol Hill Vs. West Seattle. If you haven't already guessed which of these folks came from the hill, and which are from out West, check it out.

Continue reading "The Answers to Seattle People: Capitol Hill Vs. West Seattle"

Topics: Seattle People

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Douchebag's Moment, Cover to Cover

Book Review: "Hot Chicks With Douchebags," Jay Louis, Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 240 pages. Photo above courtesy of ClubItUp.com.

It can be said with absolute certainty that douchebag is the swear word of the moment right now. And oh, what a swear it is, turning a female sanitary device into a slur against men whose primary purpose in life is to objectify women. Doesn't get any more deliciously nuanced than that.

In his new book, Hot Chicks With Douchebags (based on the blog of the same name), the Los Angeles screenwriter Jay Louis traces douchery's roots to effectively two Hollywood-based movements: (1) hair metal, starring the likes of Poison, Motley Crue, and GNR, and (2) 21 Jump Street's Richard Grieco. In fact, he devotes an entire chapter to how Grieco effectively ruined the gorgeous flower that once was Baywatch babe Yasmine Bleeth, Grieco's onetime beau. But while these may have been seminal moments in the douche movement, I'm not sure anything propelled douchebaggery into pop culture's consciousness quite like Neil Strauss' The Game, a best-selling book which chronicled Strauss' misogynistic misadventures with a crew of L.A.-based "sargers" — i.e., douchebags who dress like "peacocks" and resort to mental manipulation of chicks to "f-close" ass. In essence, Strauss' book codified douchery and marked its ascent to the top of the Scrotum Pole, thus making Louis' attempt to throw the movement off kilter a necessary literary correction.

Whether Louis will succeed in his quest to knock the modern-day douche down a peg or nine remains to be seen (that drama will play out at clubs nationwide), but, if nothing else, his HCWDB is a marvelously cunning, consistently hilarious attempt at doing so. The book not only painstakingly catalogues the standard DB's most telltate traits — hair gel, spray tan, popped collar, fake dog tags, ice, mandanas, wife beaters, no shirt, too many muscles, boy band facial hair, faux gang signs, et. al. — but also relentlessly belittles uber-douche brands like Armani Exchange, Red Bull, and Grey Goose. 'Bout fucking time.

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Topics: books

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Weekend Review: Pride, Flipper, and Artopia

Friday: Flipper at The Funhouse/Novoselic at EMP

SW blogger Krist Novoselic performs with Flipper. Stay tuned for clips from Novoselic's Q&A at EMP, earlier that evening. Photos courtesy of our friend Mackenzie at Randomville.

"What do you feel like talking about tonight?" said EMP curator Jacob McMurray.
"Oh...music," responded the star of the evening, Krist Novoselic.
Given that Novoselic was the bassist for one of the most successful rock bands of all time, his response raised a chuckle from several in the audience. But as we learned throughout the course of the hour-plus interview session, he could have talked about any number of things. As those of you who read his work for Seattle Weekly are aware, Novoselic is a huge proponent of election reform. But you may not know he's also well-versed in other areas such as potato farming, socialism, and fixing old Volkswagens. Read the entire write-up of Novoselic's Q&A at EMP.
— Brian J. Barr

Continue reading "Weekend Review: Pride, Flipper, and Artopia"

Topics: Weekend Review

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Artopia!

A view of Dan Corson's Matrix-599 nm, in The Engine Room.

12:30 p.m., Lunch: Hallava Falafel
"The best falafel in town," as Stephanie Spear, of the Georgetown Truck Stop put it. I concur. This truck has been parked in front of the 9lb for the past few weeks, and today marked my third sandwich in as many weeks.

1:33 p.m., The Engine Room
Curator Jordan Howland and artist Dan Corson worked until 4 a.m. to get this work (shown above) installed. I enjoyed the way the blue-washed room, and the orange and black striped ropes pull your eyes to the tall ceiling. (For my preview of the show, check out the Artopia pull-out. In print only, sorry.)

2:03 p.m., Dessert: Pocco Carretto
Can I get a small with three flavors? Answer: Burnt Sugar, gianduja (hazelnut and milk chocolate), and malt. I made a mess of myself eating this stuff. I am very lucky woman: this cart doesn't usually travel very close to where I live.

2:30 Grown-Up Kids Games
Power tool races with goofy, skull-decorated, vacuum cleaner engines. An overgrown, industrial see-saw that spun, and a pick-up blocks game that had many fascinated.

3:03 p.m.
In the shade outside The Corson Building, John Boylan led a talk about neighborhoods, pondering the issue: Who gets to decide what Georgetown is? Who gets to decide what Georgetown becomes? (BTW, Sabey's Ice House sign is up for the first time today, the architectural rendering showing a brick-arched mall-ish structure with tattooed hipsters out front.)

5:07 p.m.
Across from The Engine Room, in the Brew House there was opera, which (though I'm not a fan of opera) sounded amazing in the super-tall, raw space. (Gavin Borchert wrote about this in the pull-out.) The opera singer approached the audience descending a set of rickety, rusted stairs. I couldn't stop looking at the moss on the interior brick walls. A gorgeous space. There will be dance here, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

This fest goes until midnight, and right now the streets are packed, with various bars spilling people drinking in the sun. Ride a bike if you can.

For more images, check out Laurie Pearman's slide show here.

Topics: Happenings

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CityArts Awards Announced

Image: http://www.suttonberesculler.com/current.html

The Mayor's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs just announced it's CityArts awards, totaling $225,000 to 38 individual artists working in visual, literary, film, and media arts.

A few of the more interesting visual arts projects receiving funding are listed below, excerpted from the press release. Notice the preponderance of Lawrimore Project artists, including this project, recently featured by Brian Barr.

Drew Daly, visual, $3,700, Visual Fiction. To create and exhibit a group of artworks that explore and exploit the separation that occurs between an object and the image of an object's forced perspective in sculpture, photos and videos.

Eric Eley, visual, $4,200, Tunguska sculpture. To create and exhibit a sculpture inspired by a meteoric explosion in the air above Siberia at the turn of the 20th century. Fabricated in aluminum and powder coated, the work explores hidden structures in landscape and atmosphere.

John Grade, visual, $10,000, Meridian. To create a sculptural installation choreographed to collapse and evolve while sited within two contrasting landscapes. The artist will capture the collapse of the sculpture on video.

Susie Lee, media, $7,500, The Indivisibility of a Line. To choreograph and present performances of an event merging dance with media. The dancers' movements will be tracked in real time - the projected image supported by a complex network of artificial intelligence including robotics.

Susan Robb, visual, $5,000, Project Sea-Ice Life Boat. To underscore global warming by creating and exhibiting an environmental, relational artwork that equips Alaskan polar bears with large raft sculptures made of recycled oil drums to resemble a floating sea ice.

Alex Schweder, visual, $7,000, Stability. To create "performance architecture" with two 4-foot by 6-foot dwelling units on either end of a 24-foot balance beam. Each unit will be occupied for one week by an artist. Separated by kitchen and bath, each unit will move in relation to other to keep the building level.

John Sutton, visual, $10,000, Mini-Mart City Park. To create a "sculptural intervention" using green building and art to turn a former gas station into an indoor city park and conservatory, commenting on contemporary society's civic roles/responsibility.

Lara Swimmer, visual, $2,000, The Palouse Project. To create and exhibit a series of large-scale mappings of wheat growing regions in Southeast Washington and Northern Idaho, through photo montage, topography, structures, roadways and multiple layers of information systems superimposed.

Dan Webb, visual, $5,000, Stone Carving. To create and exhibit a new body of work carving stone, marble, granite or alabaster for exhibition, exploring new ideas and themes for the artist.

Mark Zirpel, media, $7,000, Universal Theory. To create a mixed-media kinetic installation portraying the universe as observed phenomena. The exhibit will be designed by a series of orreries (apparatus displaying orbiting planets) powered by light analogous to the sun, with optical devices enhancing observations.

For a complete list, read this.

Congratulations, you all! I can't wait to see these projects realized.

Topics: Visual Art

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Spice Girls: Raw and Exposed!

Much to the chagrin of my parents, I began dressing like a prostitute at age 12. Of course, I was simply trying to emulate my beloved Spice Girls. My girlfriends and I split up Spice duties during our daily “rehearsals.” I was Posh. My sister was Sporty. Our friend with the crazy hair was Scary. We writhed around in our training bras and sang about lovers. My mother demanded that I stop rummaging through her makeup. My father suggested I put on a shirt.

Raw Spice: The Unofficial Story of the Making of the Spice Girls is a documentary featuring footage of the girls prior to getting their record deal. They live a crappy house together, Ginger Spice and Scary Spice get into lots of catfights, and they all confide to the camera about their ambitions to become a famous girl band. It’s sort of like The Real World: London.

So should you just save a couple bucks and watch vh1? Fact: Prior to snagging fame and hottie David Beckham, Victoria had acne and weighed at least 100 pounds! If you find such tidbits interesting, then you’ll love this documentary. If you could care less, definitely skip it.

Raw Spice: The Unofficial Story of the Making of the Spice Girls. $19.98. Shout! Factory. Arrives on DVD July 1.

Topics: DVD

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Lawrimore Project Turns Two Tonight

Tivon Rice's "Apotheosis"

In case you haven't made it to each and every one of Scott Lawrimore's exhibits in his gallery's two-year existence, tonight you can try to make up for the shows you've missed. And there will be cake, to celebrate. And (if past events are an indicator) Scott might just have whipped up the cake himself.

The Terrible Twos: A Lawrimore Project Biennial
Opening reception Friday, June 27, 6-9 p.m.

Exhibiting artists include:

Josh Azzarella
Sami Ben Larbi
Leo Berk
Cris Bruch
Tiffany Calvert
Liz Cohen
Charles LaBelle
Isaac Layman
Lead Pencil Studio
Susie J. Lee
Anne Mathern
Sabrina Raaf
Tivon Rice
Susan Robb
Alex Schweder
Kerry Skarbakka
SuttonBeresCuller
Claudia X. Valdes

For images of their work, look here.

Lawrimore Project, 831 Airport Way South, Seattle, Washington 98134
(206) 501-1231.
Ends July 12.

Topics: Visual Art

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Regina Hackett Needed! Stat!

(Dategirl book, published February 2008)

(Seattle Stranger cover, published June 2008)

lead pencil studio has nothing on these guys!

Topics: News

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Hanging Weight: Carolyn Healy and John Phillips at Suyama Space

Computer rendering by John Phillips

Suyama Space feels like it's become inhabited by an overgrown science experiment, perhaps one designed to measure gravity by way of weights at the end of a network of pulleys. Philadelphia-based Carolyn Healy and John Phillips have constructed a physical drawing from rods and pulleys, punctuated every so often by a brightly colored object (a weight, or what looks like an industrial sanding attachment), as well as by intermittent sound and video.

The rods are hung from the ceiling, making glassless window formations and the outline of a box opening toward the floor. Metal weights dot the room with color: An orange ring (220 lbs.) looks sourced from an old-school barbell. An oblong weight hung head-height tells its own number in scrawled yellow: 11½ lbs. Disks hung face-up like plates tell their figures, too: 6.6 kg, 6.7 kg. And one ink-blue stained disk simply hangs foot-height, worn and beautiful. I wanted this installation to be touchable, not quite so metaphorical, this MetaphorM. (I was tempted to pull on it, actually, to test those pulleys and get the weights swinging.) This piece is very good at making you pay attention to the space. The darkened floorboards. The paint peeling from the beams overhead. The ladder of skylights creating so many rectangles of sunlight.

For the first time, I noticed old paint on the Eastward beam spelling out "CARS STORED AT OWNERS RISK." This piece shows off the room it's in, an old auto shop. (I'd forgotten.) There's a little movement, too, aside from the video. One large circular lens rotates slowly, catching images of the ceiling on its round face, and tinting the video that passes through it a pale green.

Suyama Space, 2324 Second Ave., 256-0809.
Ends Aug. 22.

Topics: Visual Art

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