Common Thread: Woody Guthrie, Huntington's and Fashion

A model prepares for Thursday's thaw fashion show at a fitting. Photo by Lance Mercer.

What do folk legend Woody Guthrie and Thursday's second annual thaw fashion show, a benefit for Huntington's disease, have in common? Guthrie, who wrote a handful of songs about the Pacific Northwest ("Roll on Columbia", "Grand Coulee Dam"), was diagnosed late in life with Huntington's, a genetic disorder who's symptoms manifest as a combination of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and MS.

Though Guthrie was diagnosed in 1952 and eventually died from the disease, there is still no cure. It was Guthrie's wife who helped to found the Huntington's Disease Society of America- the NW chapter of which, Liz Weber, the wife of Seattle musician Stone Gossard, is now president.

"When I became president of HDSA, my first order of business was to create a fundraiser that would appeal to an audience that had never heard of Hungtinton's Disease," says Weber of the impetus behind the event that raised nearly $50,000 last year for Huntington's- a disease that her mother also suffers from though Weber herself does not. With the funds raised, the organization was able to send 14 people to the 2007 National convention for HD families—one of the only places where many who are affected by the disease say they can feel normal—as well as increased the hours worked by a social worker who provides free services to HD families in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.

The inaugural thaw show was such a surprise success, that this year, they've more than doubled their capacity. What this weekend was a cavernous concrete floored warehouse in SODO, filled with racks of chic clothing and models shivering as they tried them on, will tomorrow be transformed into a full on fashion show complete with catwalk, beautiful people showcasing the work of nearly 30 independent designers and awareness for the cause of the hour.

Liz Weber helps with the model fittings. Photo by Lance Mercer.

"Huntington's Disease is rare. In the Northwest, we hadn't gotten masses of people to attend events by marketing our cause," says Weber, " I figured that fashion was a way to access a piece of our community that wouldn't otherwise find a connection to Huntington's Disease."

After last year, Weber has had no trouble attracting the work of designers from the Northwest—Seattle lines like Alula and Leanimal, Portland bringing standouts such as Kate Towers, Holly Stalder and Frocky Jack Morgan—and beyond. Their work will be highlighted on and off the runway, in the thaw shop, where show goers can purchase donated items that range from handbags by Sabrina Love and Kimberly Baker Jewelry to limited edition tanks.

"I love independent designers. They are the artists that I support," Weber asserts. "This event brings attention to emerging artists and a rare disease. For me, it's a two for one deal."

For tickets and more information on Huntington's Disease visit www.thawfashionshow.com

Topics: Happenings

Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaking of Jews Controlling the Media

Jody Rosen, the Slate music critic who was just in Seattle last week giving a fantastic presentation about the history of "Jewface" music for Nextbook, is said to be on the short list to replace Kelefa Sanneh as the NYT's pop music critic. (Sanneh is trading up to the New Yorker.)

Topics: Happenings

Permalink | Comments (0)

Dead-Sexy Dancer Leaving PNB

Our Sandi Kurtz reports:

Careers in dance are notoriously short, and so dancers often move when a new opportunity presents itself, which is why Casey Herd will be leaving Pacific Northwest Ballet at the end of this season for the Dutch National Ballet, a bigger company with even more performances. Herd has been at PNB almost all of his professional life, starting as a corps member in 1999, becoming a principal in 2006. He has an interesting persona on stage, a kind of sunny disposition with shadows underneath. His performance in Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free is an example — just a happy-go-lucky sailor on shore leave until he dances for the girl, and comes across with a suggestive rhumba. His recent appearances in Roméo et Juliette take that even further. As Tybalt, he was commanding, aggressive and dead sexy — the women sitting near me in the audience were almost swooning at the intermission.

By chance I sat next to his mother at the performance in 2006 where his promotion was announced, and she told me about taking him to his first classes in Salt Lake City, patiently traveling on the city bus. She was thrilled to be here, and thrilled to see her son dancing. Lucky for us, we'll have a few more chances to see him as well, maybe even in Fancy Free, on the all-Robbins program later this spring.

Topics: Happenings

Permalink | Comments (0)

Report from Seattle Center

John Longenbaugh reports from last night's meeting about the future of the rehearsal rooms in the Center House:

An interesting meeting but not much in the way of big revelations. The Seattle Center development folks talked us through the four plans for the Center, and aside from the first one (the Do Nothing Plan) all of them included a radical re-think of Center House, breaking it up into an open-plan building with lots of easy East-West pedestrian traffic. This might mean the end of the Center House Theater (Book-It and Seattle Shakes) and would definitely mean that TPS would need to relocate.

TPS was well-represented; of the 15 people who talked during the Community Forum section 5 of them were TPSers and one of them was from the board of Seattle Shakes. I talked with Karen Lane (head of TPS) afterwards and she stressed to me that they aren't panicking and they aren't angry, they're just trying to raise awareness of the situation. She said she also believes that the Center is sincere in wanting to honor all of their existing relationships with the current residents and that includes TPS, but at the moment she's only heard one suggestion as to where they could go, which is that they'd relocate TPS's offices and rehearsal spaces to another building to the North that's oddly skinny (40 feet wide). It's hard to imagine that this wouldn't mean a significant downsizing in the square footage they currently offer for rehearsals.

She also says that a lot of this will depend on how much money the City decides it can get for remodeling Center House from a blocky converted Armory into some sort of glass and steel restaurant/retail extravaganza.

What do I think? I think that it's going to be hard for TPS to be able to make the argument that in the midst of all this architectural dreaming the City needs to make sure that they maintain several large dusty rooms that can be rented out for a few bucks an hour to a bunch of theater artists. I worry that TPS doesn't have the political or economic clout to ensure that they get a bunch of shiny new rehearsal rooms someplace else at Seattle Center, and while they offer a variety of other services, the rehearsal rooms are invaluable to a wide variety of companies, from the big Equity houses down to shoestring fringe operations.

Topics: Happenings

Permalink | Comments (0)

Five Post-Christmas Chances to See Nutcracker

Photos courtesy of Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker
Where: McCaw Hall
When: 2, 7:30 p.m. today and Friday; 2 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $18 to $115

I caught PNB's performance of Nutcracker a few days before Christmas. It was the first time I've seen the performance since I was a kid, and I was expecting a show fit for little people. And while there were plenty of the young-adult set in attendance (as well as a puppy. Seriously.) I was surprised at how well the production relates to adults as well. Kind of a rarity in the post-Shrek world of kiddie flicks. Mike Myers take note: Tchaikovsky and Hoffman had the family entertainment bit worked out 100 years ago, and they didn't need penis jokes, Eddie Murphy, or Smash Mouth to do it.

Topics: Happenings

Permalink | Comments (1)

SAD Sufferers Take Heart

Tonight is the longest night of the year, tomorrow night at 10:08 p.m. (according to the ever-reliable internet) we cross through the Winter Solstice and the days start getting incrementally longer. A welcome relief to the citizenry of Planet Night.

Interested in celebrating? There's a feast and concert at the House of Tarab, 1275 Mercer St, starting at 6 p.m. tomorrow night. It's $25 to get in so if you're on a tighter budget there's a free moonlight Winter Solstice beach walk starting in West Seattle's Lincoln Park at 7 p.m.

Topics: Happenings

Permalink | Comments (1)

Party on, Belmont

Implied Violence are performance art pranksters. They throw fun parties. They are uniquely fashionable. They create sexy, strange culture in sprawling, semi-public spaces. I think they'd approve of my gratuitous use of alliteration. Word of their next event just in, reprinted verbatim:

TO ATTEND THIS EVENT:

You must get a ticket from one of the beautiful employees of Le Creperie Voila(located at 701 Pike St. under the arch outside of the Convention Center).

There are 333 FREE numbered tickets available for this event. You will not be able to enter The Belmont at anytime without one of these tickets.

There are 66 tickets costing $5-15 bells that will gain you entry to the Implied Violence performance. You will not be able to attend the performance without a ticket.

Tickets will be made available from 8a.m.-8p.m. the day of the show (Nov. 30th).

The residents of The Belmont will open the building at 9:30 p.m.


The Belmont: located 1611 Belmont Ave (directly behind The Kincora).
November 30th at 9:30 p.m.

"We look at Press everyday and cannot remember what saw there before; this is our fate."

Featuring work from:
nko, Gift Horse, NTG, Adam Beetle, Tom Chapel, and many more.

A formal late night showing of: "the status of the name you miss,love,and search for has now become ambiguous and remote." a new work by Implied Violence will begin promptly at 1:30 a.m.

Thank You.

Again you must have a ticket if you want to attend this event.

*****
Unfortunately, I'll be at a double feature of The Blue Angel and M at SIFF Cinema that night, but I highly encourage attendance!

Topics: Happenings

Permalink | Comments (0)