The Hunger Games of Housing

News • Labor

This Week in Worker Conquests: Alaska Pilots Authorize Strike, Google Workers Refuse to Return to the Office, and the Work Week Is Changing

by Conor Kelley • Friday at 12:56 pm

TKTK
New Teamsters prez Sean O’Brien popped in to speak to the folks from Teamsters 117 and 174 on Thursday. Brian Rainville

Hell of a hard week, folks. I’m grateful you’re here and have decided to spend a few of your minutes reading this. What else is there to say? Here’s some hope.

Celebrating Homer Simpson, working-class hero: On Sunday, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich joined The Simpsons to explain how Homer Simpson’s life in the long-running cartoon is impossible to achieve in the U.S. today because the rich are at war with us. The Simpsons’ viewership in Season 1,000 is down from its peak, of course, but around a million people watched that episode live and got a lesson on labor. Pretty cool. Have a look:

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EverOut

70 Cheap & Easy Things To Do in Seattle This Memorial Day Weekend: May 27-30, 2022

by EverOut Staff • Friday at 10:00 am

This years Northwest Folklife Festival celebrates the old and the new with the theme metamorphosis.
This year's Northwest Folklife Festival celebrates the old and the new with the theme "metamorphosis."
This long weekend brings plenty of fun activities and some extra free time to partake in said fun, from Northwest Folklife Festival to Pride ASIA Fest and from Mx Gothic Seattle Pageant to Seattle Night Market | Rise of the Luchadors. For more ideas, check out our guide to Memorial Day road trips and where to find Memorial Day food and drink specials.

FRIDAY


FILM


The Emerge Arts 2022 Cohort and Showcase
This showcase highlights works created by BIPOC LGBTQ+ performing artist participants in the Emerge Arts Cohort, which provides production support, creative mentorship, and business and sustainability training. Five artists were chosen for the cohort by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ established artists in Seattle via an open application, and this exciting showcase represents the culmination of the program with filmed translations of each artist's live works.
(Northwest Film Forum, Capitol Hill, free)

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Sponsored

Seattle Rep presents Bruce, a world premiere musical that you can really sink your teeth into

Seattle Rep presents Bruce, a world-premiere musical that takes you behind the scenes of the making of the first summer blockbuster. In 1974, a virtually unknown 26-year-old director sets out to film off Cape Cod. It’s story of creative ingenuity and resilience between endless delays, an exploding budget, and a highly dysfunctional mechanical star named Bruce. Based on The Jaws Log by Carl Gottlieb, and starring Jarrod Spector as Steven Spielberg, Bruce Surfaces May 27th through June 26th at Seattle Rep.

Get your tickets HERE!

Slog AM/PM

Slog AM: Uvalde Parents Criticize Police Response, Fed Plans to Hike Interest Rates, and Pandemic Still Raging

by Will Casey • Friday at 8:30 am

People would love some truth spoken into those mics, officer
People would love some truth spoken into those mics, officer Getty | Eric Thayer

Uvalde parents rightly want answers from local cops: And they're not alone. Rep. Joaquin Castro has asked the FBI to investigate the local law enforcement's response to the school shooting. Now that media has interviewed the parents who flocked to their children's school while the shooting was happening, they're providing firsthand accounts about how law enforcement responded that contradict law enforcement's initial descriptions of the shooting.

Here's the spokesperson from the Texas Dept. of Public Safety, completely in command of the situation:

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Slog AM/PM

Slog PM: Uvalde Victim's Husband Dies of Heart Attack, Seattle Is Losing People, The Actor Who Played Paul Schell in a Major Motion Picture Is Dead

by Charles Mudede • Thursday at 6:15 pm

Cant get out of this city fast enough.
"Can't get out of this city fast enough." Charles Mudede

There is no such thing as killing one person. A person is not an individual. A person is always a point (monad) where social lines originating from others meet. This is why when you kill a person, you also kill a part of them that's in these others. The closer one is to the death, the larger this lost part is. Indeed, the size and growth of such a loss can have the power to consume the life of the other. And so it is with Joe Garcia, the husband of Irma Garcia, "one of the two teachers killed in the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas." According to Joe Garcia's nephew, after his uncle "visited his wife’s memorial on Thursday morning to drop off flowers," he came back home, “pretty much just fell over,” and died of a massive heart attack. The loss of hope in him was that massive.

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EverOut

This Week in Seattle Event News: Ozuna, Marc Broussard, and More

by EverOut Staff • Thursday at 3:25 pm

An impressive feat: All five of Ozunas albums have topped Billboards Top Latin Albums chart.
An impressive feat: All five of Ozuna's albums have topped Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart.
Latin-trap sensation Ozuna will get the whole city dancing during his Ozutochi tour, which is based around his upcoming album of the same name. If you’re looking for something more mellow, “bayou soul" songsmith Marc Broussard will also stop by this fall. Seoul-based collective DPR is bringing their “Dream Perfect Regime” stateside. Plus, “funny Asian dude” Jimmy O. Yang will pause his movie career for new dates on his Tiger Son comedy tour. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

ON SALE FRIDAY, MAY 27


MUSIC

Bush Tetras
Madame Lou’s (Fri Sept 2)

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Film/TV

Pleasure Is Boogie Nights for Gen Z

by Charles Mudede • Thursday at 1:47 pm

Boogie Nightss pool scene and its reference to that commie flick I Am Cuba... thats not me.
"Boogie Nights's pool scene and its reference to that commie flick I Am Cuba... that's not me." Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival


This review originally ran in 2021 as part of our Sundance coverage. We're re-upping it in honor of the film showing at Grand Illusion from May 27 to June 2.

How has cinema's perspective on the porn industry changed since the Gen X masterpiece Boogie Nights, which was completed in 1997 but set in the 1970s? According to Pleasure, a film written-directed by Ninja Thyberg, a Swede, and set in the capital of US porn, LA: a lot and not so much. Let's begin with the former.

In our day, a person with big porn dreams, such as those maintained by the main character of Pleasure, Bella Cherry (Sofia Kappel), must amass a large following on social media. That means posting dirty selfies on the regular. The movers and shakers of porn will not take you seriously unless you show them the number of likes and eyeballs on your profile. (Please forgive the smutty pun in that sentence, but as the Human League once sang: "I'm only human.") This is the first important lesson that Pleasure's star, Bella Cherry, who moves to Los Angeles from rural Sweden with nothing but what can only be described as Blond Ambition, learns when she attempts to make the fantastic leap from the massive bottom of the porn heap to its tiny top.

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Stranger Suggests • Events

You Are Cordially Invited to Poke a Snail

by Matt Baume • Thursday at 11:30 am

beach_walk.jpg

When the tide rolls out is when ~secrets~ are revealed! So mosey on down to the seashore to meet a Seattle Aquarium Beach Naturalist who will show you where to glimpse the best damp treasures: Weird snails, upside-down barnacles, slimy seaweed, and so on. An entire world of alien life forms are yours for the discovering — no appointment necessary, all ages welcome.

Rather than picking them up, remember to poke the sea life gently, with one wet finger. And never take anything home with you, unless it’s the shed skin of a seal folk who climbed up on shore to temporarily assume human form. (And even then, it seems like it would be polite to ask first.)

Low Tide Beach Walks run through August, but don’t let this become one of those “I’ll get around to it later” excursions — the way this planet is going, who knows how much longer oceanic life will be around.

Meet Us at the Beach: Low Tide Beach Walks take place around the middle of each month from June through August at nearly a dozen local beaches. Check the schedule for locations and low-tide times. The first round will take place May 29 (10am to noon) and 30 (10:30 am to 12:30 pm).

News • City • Crime • Cops

I Want to Live in a Society That Doesn’t Need Community Court

by Will Casey • Thursday at 10:30 am

There is a court inside this court that tries to break the cycle of poverty, rather than perpetuate it with jail.
There is a court inside this court that treats people like people instead of caged animals. WC

Rarely do government bureaucrats admit that they hope to work themselves out of a job. But when I interviewed Judge Damon Shadid after he ran through a full Community Court docket last week, that was his core message.

He didn’t mince words after slogging through more than thirty cases of misdemeanor trespass, shoplifting, and other minor offenses that morning: “If an adequate social safety net existed, most of these crimes would not happen,” he said. Instead, in Seattle, the people who fall through the gaps in our social safety net and then commit minor crimes of survival wind up in Community Court.

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News

Councilmember Andrew Lewis Guts His Own Policy, Excluding Thousands of App-Based Workers from a Minimum Wage

by Hannah Krieg • Thursday at 9:30 am

App-based worker call Lewiss self-own a betrayal.
App-based workers call Lewis's self-own a "betrayal." Lester Black

After meeting with app-based workers for nearly a year to craft a new policy designed to make huge corporations such as Doordash, UberEats, and Rover pay their workers minimum wage, the bill’s cosponsor, Councilmember Andrew Lewis, cast the deciding vote to reduce the scope of the legislation, excluding thousands of workers. With that vote he joined Councilmember Alex Pedersen and Sara Nelson, the council’s corporate bloc.

“I expect this from Nelson and Pedersen, but from Lewis, who cosponsored the bill, this is really disappointing… It’s weird, it’s confusing, it’s a betrayal,” said Magnolia Klee, who finds cleaning work on TaskRabbit, and who now counts herself among the thousands the committee denied a mandated minimum wage.

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Slog AM/PM

Slog AM: We Live in an Absolute Failed State, The Democrats Baby Republicans on Gun Control Bills, and Seattle Honors Several Tragedies

by Hannah Krieg • Thursday at 8:32 am

Chuck, for the love of god, do something.
Chuck, for the love of god, do something. ONNES / GETTY IMAGES

What’s a Democrat to do? You know those losers we elect to keep our country running? After this latest tragedy, the Democrats, despite their current power in U.S. Congress, can’t pass so much as a background check bill, which is so milquetoast that recent polling shows 90% of Americans would approve. So the U.S. Democrats, the party of Hold Them Accountable and Vote Blue No Matter Who, decided to take a pause on gun control votes with the hope that in the next 10 days they can hash out some sort of compromise.

The Democrats don’t seem hopeful about reaching a compromise. Any Republican who even so much as looks at the Second Amendment funny feels like the voters will take away their cushy job. Good to know these fuckers' job security is more important than at least pretending to do something to stop gun violence.

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Slog AM/PM

Slog PM: The Govs Got COVID, New Dominant Omicron Variant Dropped, Updates on the Latest School Massacre

by Rich Smith and Wm. Steven Humphrey • Wednesday at 6:57 pm

Get well soon, king.
Get well soon, king. Lester Black

Governor Jay Inslee and Lt. Gov. Denny Heck test positive for COVID-19: I wanted to make a joke about those govern together getting COVID together, but The Seattle Times reports that the state's #1 and #2 leaders had not been cavorting together "in recent days." Otherwise, they're both doing fine (within reason) for now, they're both getting that Paxlovid, and they both encourage everyone to get vaccinated and boosted. It's saving their lives right now.

I wonder if they got the new omicron subvariant? We're calling it BA. 2.12.1, and it's spreading so fast it "made up about 58% of all new U.S. cases" by the end of last week, according to the New York Times. Though it's faster than the others, as of right now there's no evidence that it's more deadly. I wonder how many SARS infections our bodies can withstand over a short period of time without major longterm damage? One a year? Two a year? Six a year?

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Food & Drink • Things To Do • EverOut

Where to Find Food & Drink Specials in Seattle for Memorial Day 2022

by EverOut Staff • Wednesday at 3:39 pm

Snohomish Pie Co. is serving up raspberry cream pie and chocolate cream pie for Memorial Day weekend.
Snohomish Pie Co. is serving up raspberry cream pie and chocolate cream pie for Memorial Day weekend. Snohomish Pie Co.

From a special prix-fixe meal from Southern chef John Hall at Finistère in Port Townsend, to exclusive pies from Snohomish Pie Co., we've got you covered with plenty of Memorial Day specials. Read on to find out how to make the most of your federally recognized three-day weekend. For more ideas, check out our list of Memorial Day weekend events in Washington worth taking a road trip for and our food and drink guide.

Bluwater Bistro
Feast on a whole Dungeness crab, a side of summer potato salad, and corn on the cob for just $39 while taking in lake views at this Leschi waterfront spot.
Leschi
Pickup, delivery, dine-in

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Comedy

Comedy Legend John Cleese Goes on the Offensive

by Dave Segal • Wednesday at 3:02 pm

Sockless comedy legend with lemur plush doll.
Sockless comedy legend with lemur plush doll. Cristi Russo

Although John Cleese's Monday night show at McCaw Hall was billed “An Evening of Exceptional Silliness,” I half expected an hour-plus of “old man yells at cloud crowd” material from the 82-year-old comedian, actor, and author. Blessedly, it wasn't that at all. Nor, thankfully, did my favorite Monty Python's Flying Circus member deliver a series of fish-out-of-water observations about his adopted home of Los Angeles—although surely he would have made tasty juice out of that low-hanging fruit.

True, there was a didactic, somewhat grumpy quality to some of Cleese's set. He went to pains to spotlight how unfunny “woke” jokes were, and to emphasize the idea that "good" humor must offend—or at least cheerfully mock—somebody, anybody. His examples of the former were truly duds, but he was quarter-assing it to tip the scales to prove his point. (In December 2021, Cleese huffily ended a BBC TV interview about “cancel culture” when the host broached the subject of Dave Chappelle.) But at his advanced age, Cleese is not about to go-all in on the cultural wars with people who could be his great-grandchildren. Although he views “wokeness” as an existential threat to humor, Cleese assuredly is not MAGA, and he got in some righteous barbs against The Former Guy.

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Housekeeping

FINAL WEEKEND: It's Your Last Chance to Stream the Sexy Hot HUMP! Film Fest!

by The Stranger • Wednesday at 2:30 pm

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ALERT! ALERT! You've got one more chance to get a streaming pass for the 2022 HUMP! Film Festival this weekend, May 26-29! This year's festival is packed with as much dirty, hilarious, eye-popping fun as we could squeeze into one 90 minute show. So grab those tickets now before it's too late!

As you undoubtedly know, HUMP! is the annual film festival where sexy amateur filmmakers share their lustiest five-minute dirty movies with the world. This delightfully sex-positive fest features all sorts of horny fun, including hardcore, softcore, live action, stop action, animated, musical, kinky, vanilla, straight, gay, lez, bi, trans, and genderqueer flicks that are guaranteed to have you squirming with glee!

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Stream HUMP! this weekend, May 26-29—it's your final chance!

Need more temptation? Check out the trailer:

Music • Stranger Suggests

This Year's Folklife Is Bringing Seattle an Impressively Diverse Understanding of What Folk Music Can Be

by Matt Baume • Wednesday at 12:30 pm

NWFL_50th_Logo_Large_Horizontal_w_Text_e1606871356965.png

The theme of this year’s Northwest Folklife festival is “Metamorphosis: In with the Old, In with the New,” so, really, in with everything. But not necessary indoors! If you’re still wary about gathering in enclosed areas (and good for you if you are, with transmission on the rise) there’s plenty of outdoor programming to keep it folksy all weekend. Stages will be scattered throughout the Seattle Center, with performances scheduled Friday through Monday. Highlights include a John Denver tribute/singalong, Lynn Applegate, Seattle Song Circle, Zydeco Lowdown, and an open drum circle —which is my worst nightmare, but to each their own.

Also on the menu are sea chanteys, cloggers and Irish step dancers, breakdancers, and klezmer ... Folklife is truly embracing folk traditions from around the world this year, rather than limiting themselves to a 1960s-style hootenanny. It's an excellent opportunity to learn and broaden your horizons while you party.

The 51st Annual Northwest Folklife Festival kicks off on Friday May 27 and runs through Monday May 30.

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