The Henry Art Gallery's solstice bash--also known as "DeBASHery"--was a packed-to-the-gills affair, elegant with a dash of S&M. The theme, as you might have guessed, was debauchery, and In Arts News spotted more than one variation on the nymph-and-satyr costume. (One anonymous artist dubbed a half-nude couple cavorting in a particularly lewd manner "Eastside ravers.") The lascivious activities included spanking by a lovely dominatrix, foot massages, and waitresses bearing trays of chocolates. We spent most of our time on the loading dock, where Joey Arias crooned a torchy set. It was difficult to get to the beer, because we were stopped every 10 feet by artists who wanted to congratulate us on our Pigs on Parade feature ["Makin' Bacon," Emily Hall, May 31]. In Arts News was most gratified, given the recent spanking we took from Jean Godden in her Seattle Times column.

In the downstairs galleries, there were more than 200 pieces of art for sale at the criminally low price of $200; the catch was that none of the works bore the name of the artist. Fancy that! Art lovers were forced to base their purchases on taste rather than cachet.

Back at the loading dock, we lingered by a Lucullan spread of bread, cheese, and crudités, and debated whether or not we were meant to eat the bulbous chive tops strewn in with wax beans and radishes. We are here to tell you that you should not. EMILY HALL

Pink Champagne on Ice

Ratings have tanked at Entercom's KISW 99.9 FM, and new program director John Sebastian has cancelled two long-running and much-loved (but low-rated) shows. Metal Shop and Seattle Zone (which featured interviews and music by local bands for over a decade) were deemed inconsistent with the station's new "heritage rock" format, in which listeners will be able to tune in "24 hours a day, 24/7, [and] know what they're going to get."

Sadly, we're sure KISW is justified by pages of market research that recommend the station bring back listeners by checking into the Hotel California. We're also sure the corporatization of music has made caring about "the local scene" a wheelbarrow of bullshit that only comes in handy when establishing cred or trying to get laid: Sebastian mentioned that listener response has so far consisted of "basically the same letter," lazily cut and pasted into e-mail messages. If you're disappointed with the station's decision, In Arts News suggests you take the five minutes to send your original opinion to jsebastian@entercom.com or kiswpd@kisw.com. JASON PAGANO

Annex Diaspora

Over the past four weeks, Annex Theatre hauled more than 10,000 pounds of debris to the dump. That's more than five tons of stuff, collected over 13 1/2 years at Annex's former performance space on Fourth Avenue. In that time, the space housed a whopping 250 productions, including the Seattle debuts of writers who have since been produced all over town (Naomi Iizuka, Charles Mee, Erin Cressida Wilson, Nicky Silver, Jeffrey Jones, Doug Wright); new work from a remarkable body of local writers (Chris Jeffries, Keri Healey, Jeff Resta, Scot Augustson, Heidi Heimarck, Glen Berger, Suzanne Maynard, Peter Buchman, Karl Gajdusek, Peggy Stafford, and The Stranger's very own Bret Fetzer); and wild spectacles marked by enormous casts and radical rearrangements of the physical space (Mark Nichol's Little Boy Goes to Hell, Erik Ehn's The Saint Plays, Brian Faker and Bliss Kolb's The Yellow Kid, Derek Horton's Cat-Like Tread, Tom Wiseley's ATF). Plus, almost 75 percent of Annex productions were world premieres, a record unmatched by any other theater in Seattle. However, leaving its longtime home is not the end of Annex; the troupe will be producing a new work by David Bucci and Tricia Sexton at Richard Hugo House in August. DAVID SCHMADER

artsnews@thestranger.com