The 9,690-square-foot mansion was built in 1952. It is north of
Carkeek Park, almost as far west as you can go without being a giant
Pacific octopus, and suffered a semitrashy renovation in 1994. “See,
it’s designed so you can do cocaine off every surface,” one of its
residents, Annette Auger, told me in the marble-tiled “Less Than
Zero room.”
The nine bedrooms house nine members of the Beta Society, a
filmmaking collective and production company and
fanny-pack-for-your-head* distributor formed by Auger, Celene Ramadan,
and Jessica Aceti in April 2008. There is a swimming pool, a hot tub, a
retractable glass roof over said pool and tub, an outdoor wood-fired
pizza oven and gas grill (at least one person was eating a hot dog
every time I visited), two refrigerators, a rooftop deck twice the size
of Africa, an ivy-covered gazebo in which to watch sunsets and receive
bug bites, an indoor koi pond that is possibly also a volcano, a home
theater worthy of any celebrity’s Cribs except maybe Mariah
Carey, a bidet in every bathroom (seriously), a circular drive with a
fountain, too many fireplaces, and a panoramic view of Puget Sound and
the Olympics. It is fucking insane, and hardly a place for
non-oil-baronesses to live. Rent is approximately $700 each.
Sitting at the kitchen table, Ramadan—her acting background
broadcasting loud and clear—starts talking about Alan Thicke,
best known as Growing Pains‘ Jason Seaver, the 1980s’
second-most-attractive sitcom patriarch (after Tony Danza, obv). The
best part of the story: Ramadan and Aceti are sitting on the front
porch of a well-appointed home in Santa Barbara, California. Suddenly,
Alan Thicke emerges from the house, screaming, “HONEY, CALL THE COPS!
THERE ARE THIEVES IN MY HOUSE!” Aceti and Ramadan watch,
freaking-the-fuck-out, as the accused—a British television crew
there to interview Thicke—gather in the driveway, deny the
charges, and plead with Thicke to calm down. “They’ve been taking
silverware! Valuables! Some woman was just dumping them in her purse!”
he counters. The police have been called. Thicke blocks any British
escape attempts with a large SUV. “Alan, don’t dooo this,” the
interviewer pleads, Britishly. “We’re friends, Alan!” Then, in
front of Ramadan and Aceti’s eyes, Alan Thicke wrestles a man to the
ground.
This, obviously, is the best thing that has ever happened.
As it turns out, Thicke is absolutely correct: The crew had been pocketing treasures, but not because they were thieves. Apparently
they were pranking him for a television show (on Showtime or something,
though nobody’s sure). “Well, I guess it was a prank, but it wasn’t a
very good one,” Thicke told Ramadan and Aceti in his Thicke voice, once
the scene had calmed down. “Looks like you ladies got more than you
bargained for! Well, I gotta go. But you should really go explore Santa
Barbara—they’ve got some great restaurants down on State
Street.”
And Thicke was gone.
How they got to Thicke’s doorstep in the first place: In the winter
of 2007, the group (then known as the Seattle Neutrino Society) was
putting together a holiday variety show called A Very Alan
Thicke-mas. “We had developed this semifictional character of ‘The
Thicke,'” Ramadan says, “where we’d just trade outlandish statements
backstage, like, ‘The Thicke once pissed chain mail’ or ‘The Thicke
once had sex with wine.'” So, just for poops and chuckles, they
e-mailed Thicke’s website. And he wrote back. And a weird,
long-distance partnership was born. Thicke wrote a letter to be read
aloud at the first A Very Alan Thicke-mas. The following year,
he wrote an original song and made a music video (“we got all
this footage in the mail,” Ramadan says, “and it’s like, Alan Thicke at
the kitchen table, looking at bills; Alan Thicke in the backyard, like,
rocking a baby…”). So when the gals decided to take a trip to L.A.,
Thicke invited them by to say hello. And then, you know, that happened.
The Thicke saga is an uncannily accurate analogy for the Beta
Society in general: an unlikely confluence of pop-culture kitsch,
fortuitous coincidence, and unflagging determination. The Beta Society
has its roots in improv. In 2004, Ramadan joined the Seattle Neutrino
Project, a spin-off of a New York improv group that incorporated short
video projects (six minutes to make a three-minute film) into their
live shows. Eventually, enthusiasm began to wane—”It was really
just a gimmick, and once it wore off, we realized it really wasn’t that
interesting… There wasn’t anything with real legs that you could
do”—and, after an incarnation as the Seattle Neutrino Society,
Ramadan and a few others reinvented themselves. Their new name: the
Beta Society—playing off the triple meaning of Beta tape (the
aforementioned ’80s kitsch), the beta version of their evolving group,
and, most importantly,
beta-as-in-ß-as-in-what-you-might-call-your-frat-house-brah! The
Beta Society envisioned itself as a kind of creative fraternity, and
Ramadan was on the lookout for Beta House, but she didn’t really imagine she’d find it.
And then they found it. On Craigslist. In a truly bizarre
coincidence, it’s owned by Garr Godfrey, a Seattle dot-com millionaire
who produced three of the most prominent local films of the past three
years: Zoo, Cthulhu, and The Immaculate Conception of
Little Dizzle. “We don’t really know him very well,” Ramadan says.
“We have a very landlordy relationship with him.”
Moving into the mansion has situated the Beta Society in a perfect
petri dish of creative possibility. They physically live in a gorgeous,
versatile set. They’ve added an editing room and built a green-screen
studio in the garage. The mansion is bustling at all hours of the day
and night—actors, writers, filmmakers, and weirdos swimming in
the pool and eating hot links and saying things like, “He
single-handedly saved my generation from all of this irony bullshit” or
“That sounds like something so-and-so would write.” It can be an
overwhelming scene, but one surprisingly free of the one-upmanship
common in big groups of performers. It’s also ideal for creative
productivity: No good idea goes unplumbed or unremembered, because even
if you’re drunk, there are 4,000 other people around to catch it.
There are approximately 35 people in the official Beta Society
orbit, from age 20 to 41. Day jobs range from server to software
engineer to freelance videographer to octopus wrangler. Their bios list
special skills including magic, iconoclasm, “styling my hair like the
first lady (not the current one necessarily, just in general),”
“Sheffield dialect at will,” huge balls, and “was once stabbed in the
arm.” Aceti, Ramadan, and Auger are known as “headmasters”; everyone
else is a “master.” (Master Betas—I assume you get it.) But
they’re not, Ramadan emphasizes, just a sketch-comedy group. The Beta
Society wants to make something with weight, something more than a
joke: “We’re such a social group—and this is my theory behind
it—that when we get together, it tends to be lighthearted. But we
want to do darker stuff, more serious stuff. We just want to make good
films.”
So far, the Beta Society is mostly potential. The collective output
consists of comedic shorts, a reeeally funny series of found footage
called VHS Gold (the latest episode is called “Oxycise,”
essentially an infomercial for breathing), an ambitious but
distractingly DIY feature-length horror comedy called Junkbucket (money quote: “If you listen closely on a quiet night, you can still
hear old Junkbucket out there, cryin’ for his mama and his lost cock
‘n’ balls”), and Cap-sac-
related ephemera. The first time I
visited, they were shooting intros and outros for a series called
Hot Tub Theatre, in which they take classics of literature and
theater and “put it in a hot tub for you.” The Betas have a sly ear for
balancing absurdity and wit, a knack for branding, and they have the
equipment and drive (and the mansion) to actually bring projects to
fruition. Whether they’ll succeed isn’t certain, of course, but fuck,
I’ll be surprised if they don’t—they’ve set a pretty remarkable
stage for themselves and seem poised on the verge of something good.
“The house is really what is going to make this all happen,” Ramadan
says. “And I’m really committed to making this a prolific time for our
group and making a name for ourselves. And we’ll see what happens.”
And as for life after Thicke? “We’ve reached out to many ’80s sitcom
has-beens—we tried contacting, like, Kimmy Gibler, but nothing’s
really come of it.” Your loss, Gibler. Your loss. 
Junkbucket, sucka! Protect ya junk!
The Thicke once turned a diamond back into coal…by singing it its own theme song
“The Thicke is what cocaine snorts to get high.”
Nice pic of a bunch of white people.
I went to one party at this place and it truly is a miami vice cocaine snorting paradise, minus the cocaine. I can’t believe Godfrey is renting it out to all these people.
NATIVE moments! when you come upon me—Ah you are here now!
Give me now libidinous joys only!
Give me the drench of my passions! Give me life coarse and rank!
@#4 Ramadan isn’t a very “white” last name. Just saying.
LW,
So with so many other arts groups overlooked, you just took up feature space to promote a group that you say has no actual creative output? There are so many other arts organizations that actually produce, not just promote. Besides one low-budget film, their only other work is ripping off someone else’s VHS product and posting it as their own, or doing rip-offs of SNL’s “Hot Tub Dangerous Liasons”?
Nothing against these kids, but I’m not sure they know what “gimmick” means with all their 80’s kitsch and Thicke jokes. Here’s hoping they eventually produce something real.
What do they make? I mean really. What the fuck they are just people living in a really nice house that have a big inside joke. Granted the house is really nice… and I’m bitter because I make art which the stranger can’t even bother to review… oh well they are cute, hip, and meaningless which could be the tag line for the stranger.
Congratulations Lindy
I didn’t think you could be any more of a waste of space but you have proved me wrong. They have a mansion, fantastic. They have cameras, awesome. They have matching sweat shirts, rad. What is it they do exactly? I’m going to chime in with the others, what have they done? You have an ENTIRE feature here and you talk more about how much they pay for rent then the art that they produce.
Style isn’t substance, no matter how much you believe that it might be.
Improvised films, made on the fly, sound infinitely more interesting.
“a sly ear for balancing absurdity and wit, a knack for branding, and they have the equipment and drive (and the mansion) to actually bring projects to fruition.”
What a great description of my entire generation. They have all the ingredients for making sarcastic, meaningless, commercialized bullshit…and occasionally they even make some. Here’s a thought: in order to be “creative,” you have to actually create something. Preferably something a bit more meaningful than recycled, corny, half-assed 80’s pop culture references. I think this may be the first generation of Americans to actually fail to create anything even remotely recognizable as an art movement (even a minor one) or generational subculture. I hate to say it, but my generation’s empty headed hipster sarcasm and non-existent productivity makes the slackers of the 90’s seem downright prolific and profound.
I guess Ezra Pound was right…art and culture will eventually completely suffocate in a capitalist democracy.
I just checked out their YouTube account and they look pretty funny. There’s actually quite a bit of content there. Hey Beta Society, I look forward to what is to come. Work that house. I’m glad I checked you guys out before I MADE STUPID ASSUMPTIONS. Ah…MY generation.
I checked their lame youtube account before posting. In fact, I’ve been aware of their “output” for some time. No assumptions here.
Sorry “impressed,” some of us have standards.
@15
I just checked the YouTube as well. Yes there are a lot of videos, and yes a few of them are funny. It’s the same joke though. It’s nostalgia humor over and over and over again. I don’t think the complaint is that they don’t have content, it’s that they don’t have original content. Seems like what they do is the AV equivalent of lip-syncing
16 and 17, I think you’ve hit on what the beta society is really about: trying to become the next YouTube sensation by trying to guess what will be the Next Big Thing. It seems they hope Thicke is the next Chuck Norris nostalgia sensation.
The best part of this article is the idea of the social experiment of slackers sharing a mansion together. I’d like to see a check-in in a year to see how it’s going.
So wow, they took the “Chuck Norris Facts” thing and replace Norris with Alan Thicke. WOW. UTTERLY FANTASTIC. Can I have a column written about me now?
Wow, I heard that these guys were just a bunch of cool people having fun making movies. I guess they should spend their time writing douchey comments on message boards. I only wish the article would have discussed more of what they do and less on the mansion itself (and we didn’t need that much info on the Thicke)
I just took 35 different craps, dressed them up in matching clothes and put them in a big box. They don’t actually do anything but that’s what makes them so cool. I call dibs on the next Stranger Feature.
My comment was deleted by the editors, why because I am correct?
“Wow. They have taken the “Chucken Norris Facts” and replaced Norris with Alan Thicke. WOW. UTTERLY FANTASTIC. Can I get a story written about me?”
@18 “I think you’ve hit on what the beta society is really about: trying to become the next YouTube sensation by trying to guess what will be the Next Big Thing”
Not that there is inherently anything wrong with that, it just doesn’t seem like we need a feature on it
@19 & @22
no it did not get deleted, The Stranger’s comment pages are very buggy
Hi, all:
They’ve been doing great, creative work together for years (in music, theater, improv)–my point is that I think they’re really coming into their own with this mansion/filmmaking situation. It’s a great idea and a great opportunity, and I’m curious to see what happens. And let’s not get all sour-grapes on a bunch of interesting, funny people trying to contribute to Seattle’s creative community.
Really Lindy? That was your point? You should write an article about that.
@14
“I think this may be the first generation of Americans to actually fail to create anything even remotely recognizable as an art movement (even a minor one) or generational subculture.”
ummmm you’re kind of included in that demographic… don’t think you’re responsible for an art movement either…
So basically Lindy did a feature story on a bunch of her friends. Typical Stranger nepotism.
it’s just an article…sheesh! calm down angry pandas!
@28: Nope, never met them before the article.
The negative comments here are absurd. Seattle is one of the most generous towns you can find when it comes to coverage of the arts. If you do something interesting, it will get covered. Do those who are complaining really think this article was written at the expense of their own creative endeavors/exposure? Come on. Get over the self-pity, stop bitching, and do something to get our attention.
In the meantime, what’s wrong with a short piece on an interesting social/creative experiment by a group of people who are approaching things from another angle? Even if it is light-hearted. So what? And I’m not even going to address the “white people” comments. How boneheaded are you going to be?
I know a couple of the people involved with this group, and they’re very interesting, creative people who put out a lot of good stuff. You could easily profile the individuals and have a long list of interesting work that goes beyond what the collective has done together so far, so I think they have a lot of potential.
If it isn’t your cup of tea – cool, no one’s forcing you to watch. Just wish ’em the best and get on with whatever you’re doing. No one’s forcing you to read Lindy’s column, either. This “not enough to go around” attitude is just a distraction from whatever it is you’re supposed to be creating yourselves.
It’s amazing how the most innocuous piece can generate so much negativity. Obviously angry people love the internet as an outlet.
It would be a lot more productive to be happy for them and just get on with whatever you’re doing.
Yeah…the hot tub classic lit thing? Already done on Saturday night Live. With Christopher Walken. NEXT!
Living in a mansion with a bunch of hot dog eating artists. I think I just threw up in my brain.
@12 If minorities did something like this, all the neighbors would move out.
I think this house sounds pretty awesome. I wish I could live there.
Only problem I had with the article was that Lindy did not disclose that she is madly in love with the Cap-Sac, which apparently these people make. Isn’t that frowned upon in journalistic ethics?
I for one think that it’s awesome that what passes for modern Bohemians can live in this kind of place. Rock on, Betas. Too much alchohol in the blood surrogate (look it up), no problem!
-J
Max,
Don’t ever recall Lindy claiming to be a follower of “journalistic ethics”. What the hell fun is that?
-J
I think these guys are quite refreshing from the usual broody Seattle “I’m very serious, so I must be taken very seriously” artists and their pretensions.
That’s the first thing you notice, is that TBS is light and unpretentious, and their lack of ego and snobbiness that is so pervasive in the Seattle scenes is a really refreshing.
TBS is tanglible, they’re for the people, and they bust ass.
I think the main fault of Lindy West’s story here is that she forgot to mention the member’s long and impressive resume’s before they formed TBS, like Jessica Aceti’s funny film ‘Tammy Town’.
So please, before you bust out another negative comment, do your homework and give these guys a break.
Haters: I’m coming for your junk.
I think the problem is actually with the way the article is written. I absolutely love Lindy West – she’s probably tied with Schmader for my favorite Stranger writer – but this article was so unfocused that I assumed it was written by Christopher Frizelle.
The Alan Thicke story should have been edited down, as it really wasn’t that interesting. Thicke jokes date back at least 15 years to when I was in college.
This group is pretty intriguing, and if the article were edited a bit more heavily, I think people wouldn’t have been so confused as to what the group itself does. That said, the anger expressed in some of these comments is ridiculously over the top. Cool down, people!
@31 Hi! I’m the internet! Pleased to meet you!
Add mine to the chorus of voices that think Lindy West violated journalistic ethics by not revealing her undying love of the Cap-Sac. I WANT HER HEAD ON A PLATTER RIGHT FREAKING NOW THANKYOUVERYMUCH!
Great, another group of shiny white Seattle hipsters/artists (YAWN)
So being an artist means you’re still renting (in a commune), all you have at the moment is “potential” with no real substance, and counting on YouTube to catapult you into the spot light because you’re that needy for attention…?
But hey, they have the freedom to be whatever Jones Town cult they’re going for and produce as many slow-paced videos as they want. It’s just as easy for us to ignore them, like we have been…apparently.
I wonder if the bitter of the world post more than the rest of us.
This sound so fun. If I weren’t so busy being an underpaid social worker, often too tired to work on my own art at night, I’d want to be there too. I’m relieved and glad that other people have the energy to do stuff like that. Go Beta Society Go! <—(This here is a dose of unashamed, genuinely dorky enthusiasm.)
@42: Yeah, really they should be working toward owning condos instead of “still renting (in a commune)” and making art. Bleh!
Forgot to add an “s” to sound in my post.
Thanks for posting in comments Lindy and entering dialogue, it’s like you’re a writer in the 90s now
– big alan-thicke/junkbucket sized brass ones there that most writers on Stranger don’t have. Thank you and keep it up.
And nostalgia humor is doing quite well these days, on the DIY/neopunk aka Geek scale. Tenacious D, Gabe & Tycho, Wil = individual scale big wins. But I agree that to catch a bigger market share of older audience, they’ll need better material. Not pretending to be a professor of comedy, but perhaps these guys could stand to watch less UCB and SNL and more monty python, Lucille Ball, and vaudeville.
I also would like to hear more about why they are lined up for potential, unless there’s some obvious use of the mansion (other than as a high-end brothel), that my pre-coffee non-super-capitalist brain is missing. Cheap rent’s great… maybe the subtext story here is the evolution of artist housing from old brick lofts in pioneer square 2 decades ago, to coke mansions in the near-burbs…? Or perhaps Lindy is just another victim of an editor with an agenda and a red pen.
To all the bitter posters: If The Stranger is such a wasteland for hopeless hipsters, and the staff all suck, and you’re the only ones brilliant enough to see through it, then why the fuck do you read it?
It’s great to be critical if you actually have something to say, but I’ve yet to read any negative comments posted here that are actually interesting or constructive. I will say one thing though, you all sound just like what you’re criticizing.
Sheesh.
You want constructive comments? F that! If you’re calling yourself professional or pre-professional or whatever here’s a hint:
1. Nobody needs to hold your hand with constructive critiques. That shit was left behind in College and after that you should be able to create something of substance without a second opinion all the time and if people are dogging on your work… then THERE’s you’re answer.
2. Here’s your answer #46: “The Stranger is a wasteland for hopeless hipsters..” – So that’s obviously why this Beta Cult or whatever was featured in it. Great. I’m sure it was a real challenge getting in the free press.
3. I’ve yet to see a comment defending this group that sited evidence of actual work that …well…WORKED. Every video is a dead end except the VHS gold things… and those weren’t anything but a quick edit on pre-existing material (albeit hilarious footage.)
Nostalgia humor WAS doing quite well…last year…if you’re being nostalgic. Move on.
Don’t be jealous.
Don’t be jealous. You’re just bummed you didn’t think of it first.
@47 Your post doesn’t make any sense.
@47 You might consider not drinking a case of beer before you write.
The guy in the front row with glasses is hot.
The Thicke uses only his penis when typing comments into blogs.
Oh wait…that apparently isn’t too out-landish.
gO #29 with the angry pandas comment.
Everyone bitches so much on these comment lines… heck, I’m envious of the Beta Club too… who doesn’t want to live in a rad mansion with their friends doing things they enjoy most of the time? Duh. But that isn’t my life, and actually I like my life just fine too. Stop hating people.
ooops… Beta Society
I think your opinions are unchecked by the real facts of observers serving themselves.
Take for instance the front row… you look like clones trying to hide the profits of a market crash in someone elses comic book.
After all, if… and mind you this is a very big point of contention now for the Columbia Law Review, June 2009 Vol. 109 No. 5 [pages 893 through 1262]
( considering after all Christina Duffy Burnett shares the same spelling as T-Bone Burnett, and T-Bone produced Elvis Costello in 2009 at a blistering rate of down home slack twang-wine and sawdust and tears );
and as constricting this consideration is to the recent switch from pork belly trading in pulp books and comic shacks to abrogated by lines….
again, if you take a look at the Gustav Courbet display (2008 coffee table book by HAJE CANTZ )
[think “well known painter without the GROOOOSSSS sores”]
in the University Bookstore nowhere, in Washington State on the Ave., you might possibly be surprised to find a little known brevity by ERIC STANTON….
The DOMINANT WIVES and Other Stories.. copywrite 2008 25th anniversary edition.
This is a thick block print cartoon fiasco on what NOT to do at home with your next
Supreme Court Law Review and Case study for
Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review :
Thomas M. Mackey Volume 13 Winter 2009….
Just what the heck does this have to do with today’s rate of murder as reported in the Seattle Times today
( July 31st, 2009 ? )
Perhaps Peter Gabriel and Tori Amos, Trent Reznor and Thom Yorke will get together and give Joni Mitchell a call and we can all discuss it together and save a little known hotspot called…
2006…. a copywrite interupted.. the story of a lemondrop.
( other wise known as
‘this never happened, a screenplay
by johnny foxtrot)
Name recognition ain’t dead yet…
it’s just waiting for KIENEKER vs. The War on Iraq and the Fall of the
9-11 Towers in New York to be moved to a new case law without The Journal of Animal Law and Ethics Volume 2 May 2007 getting in the way of really good fight songs… and of course, dietary stimulants mixed with benzoid-quad-u-luber-whatevers.
Peace be unto you… you little wankers of little faith.