Northwest EXTRA: A Wanted Name

Dennis P. Eichhorn is not a man to back down from a fight, especially when he's on the side of the little guy--himself. Eichhorn, who has published a small regional arts tabloid with the registered trade name Northwest EXTRA! intermittently over the past 10 to 12 years, is in a battle of the wills with KING TV-owned NorthWest Cable Network, which began airing a news show a few years ago called NorthWest EXTRA.

"I contacted NWCN General Manager Paul Fry and informed them they'd have to cease and desist the unlicensed use of our name," Eichhorn says. "Fry put me touch with an attorney who works for Belos, the parent company. So far we've exchanged letters, but they haven't stopped using our name! We're working on it."

Appropriately, Eichhorn's latest issue of Northwest EXTRA!, dedicated to comics, features a beautiful spread titled "Wobbly Reverie," a story written by Eichhorn and illustrated by Colin Upton that tells the history of the IWW--the Industrial Workers of the World. The issue is available (for two dollars) in Seattle at Left Bank Books, Fallout, Fremont News, and Titlewave Books, or by mail by sending three dollars to NORTHWEST EXTRA, 2318 Second Ave, #1131, Seattle, WA 98121. TRACI VOGEL


The Future of Art?

In its ongoing quest to haul new media art into the respectable mainstream, 911 Media Arts announced the artists selected for its third annual New Works Laboratory. The idea is to pair artists working in various forms of digital media (video, computer animation, web art) with visual artists (of the more or less traditional ilk) and therefore bridge the great (perceived) divide between the two. This year's list of artists is particularly good, with visual art represented by Donnabelle Casis, Phil Roach, and Susan Robb, and new media by Dave Hanagan, R. Eugene Parnell, and Jennifer West (the actual pairings will be determined later). We look forward to seeing what--for example--mating the work of faux web historian Parnell and fleshy abstractionist Casis might produce.

Also, 911 named three artists in residence for this year: David Herbert, Franklin Joyce, and last year's Betty Bowen Award-winner, Iole Alessandrini. Joyce, in the New Works Laboratory three years ago, created a gorgeous interactive installation with sculptor Gerard Tsutakawa called remember when we thought television was flat and the center of the universe?, which, you might say, provided an ars poetica for the kind of new media 911 has been excellent enough to encourage.

In Arts News salutes the foresight and support of 911. Bring on the future! EMILY HALL


Goodbye, Fuzzy Engine

Alas, this week we bid adieu to Fuzzy Engine, the conceptual gallery that was breathing new life into Ballard's art scene. The converted office building that housed the gallery and a number of artists' studios has fallen in the inevitable path of development--now reaching its long tentacles into a neighborhood near you--and, rumor has it, will be taken over by lawyers. Fuzzy Engine director Walter Wright hasn't been specific about what he'll do next, but we suspect he'll bounce back. After all, he was the force behind Project 416, a gallery whose demise caused pangs of regret to ripple through the art community. Phoenix-like, we are sure, he will rise again. EMILY HALL

artsnews@thestranger.com