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Last-Minute Plans: 97 Free, Cheap & Easy Things To Do In Seattle This Weekend: June 22-24, 2018

by Stranger Things To Do Staff • Friday at 5:41 pm

See performances from the likes of SassyBlack at the Paramounts free 90th anniversary celebration on Saturday.
See performances from the likes of SassyBlack at the Paramount's free 90th anniversary celebration on Saturday.

You already know all the last-minute ways to celebrate Pride on a budget, but if you want to mix things up, there are lots of other entertainment options this weekend that won't cost more than $10. Find them all below, from the Shoreline Arts Festival to the Bellevue Strawberry Festival, and from a free Sand Point Full Moon Sail to the Shake Shack x Canlis Pop-Up. For even more options, check out our complete Things To Do calendar.

Stay in the know! Get all this and more on the free Stranger Things To Do mobile app (available for iOS and Android), or delivered to your inbox.

FRIDAY

FOOD & DRINK
1. Beers for Bikes
Peddler will donate one dollar from every pint to Bike Works, who "promote the bicycle as a vehicle for change to empower youth and build resilient communities." Stop by for beers and raffles, and don't forget to bring your used bike or bike parts to donate to a new owner. There will also be screenings of short films from Filmed by Bike.
(Ballard, free)

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Politics

The Worst President

by Rich Smith • Friday at 4:39 pm


We have the worst president.

Music

Peach Kelli Pop’s New Album Is Sunshine Punk with Pit Bulls

by Ciara Dolan • Friday at 4:30 pm

Peach Kelli Pop lands in Seattle on Monday
Peach Kelli Pop lands in Seattle on Monday. GINA NEGRINI

The cover artwork of “sunshine punk” band Peach Kelli Pop’s new album Gentle Leader is the perfect representation of their music: It depicts a bedroom where rainbows, hearts, and butterflies coexist alongside more sinister images, like someone wearing a creepy Easter Bunny suit and disembodied reptilian claws holding a pink sword.

When we speak, frontwoman Allie Hanlon is touring through the Southwest with her bandmates, sisters Gina and Sophie Negrini (bass and guitar, respectively) and Shelly Schimek (drums). It’s only June, but they’ve already put out two releases this year: First the stripped-down EP Which Witch, followed by Gentle Leader, Peach Kelli Pop’s fourth LP.

Savage Love

Savage Love: Blown Away

by Dan Savage • Friday at 4:00 pm

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Joe Newton
I am a 24-year-old straight guy who recently broke up with my girlfriend of more than four years. One of the reasons we broke up was a general lack of sexually compatibility. She had a particular aversion to oral sex—both giving and receiving. I didn't get a blowjob the whole time we were together. Which brings me to why I am writing: One of my closest friends, "Sam," is a gay guy. Shortly after breaking up with my girlfriend, I was discussing my lack of oral sex with Sam and he said he'd be willing to "help me out." I agreed, and Sam gave me an earth-shattering blowjob. I was glad to get some and had no hang-ups about a guy sucking me. Since then, Sam has blown me three more times. My problem is I am starting to feel guilty and worry I am using Sam. He's a very good buddy, and I'm concerned this lopsided sexual arrangement might be bad for our friendship. Sam knows I am not into guys and I'm never going to reciprocate, and I feel like this is probably not really fair to him. But these are literally the only blowjobs I've received since I was a teenager. What should I do?

Totally Have Reservations Over Advantage Taking

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Things To Do

44 Affordable and Last-Minute Seattle Pride 2018 Events

by Stranger Things To Do Staff • Friday at 3:41 pm

Expect to see plenty of drag queens among throngs of other glittering entities at the Seattle Pride Parade on Sunday.
Expect to see plenty of drag queens among throngs of other glittering entities at the Seattle Pride Parade on Sunday.

The most anticipated days of Pride Month are here, and there's a seemingly endless lineup of events taking place. If you're looking for the ones that won't cost more than $10 and don't require advance planning, there's no need to search further. Below, you'll find all the cheap and last-minute options the weekend has to offer, ranging from a weekend of festivities at Pony Pride, an all-ages Pride Dance at Vera Project, and, of course, the Seattle Pride Parade, PrideFest Capitol Hill, and PrideFest Seattle Center. See them all below, and find even more options on our complete Pride calendar.

FRIDAY

1. AzuQar! Pride Kick Off Party with #GetWoke: Queer & Trans POC
This Pride edition of the AzuQar Queer Latinx Dance Night will feature extra-good tunes from resident DJs Wonder Twinz, Julie Herrera, and Cristina Ortiz, who will welcome the Get Woke: Queer and Trans People of Color team, including DJ Stunt Queen, Candice Marie, and Monica Beverly Hillz.
(Re-bar, Capitol Hill, $10+)

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Hearts Beat Loud Is Cute, Quirky, and Boring

by Ciara Dolan • Friday at 3:30 pm

Wasted talent.
Wasted talent.

On paper, Hearts Beat Loud looks fantastic: It stars Nick Offerman as Frank, the owner of a struggling Brooklyn record store and the single father of Sam (Kiersey Clemons, of Dope and Transparent), who’s romancing her first girlfriend while preparing to move to the West Coast for college. It’s even got Toni Collette as Frank’s landlord/love interest and Ted Danson as his friend and permanently stoned bartender!

But the crux of the weak dramedy is Frank’s unfolding midlife crisis—he’s widowed, his business is failing, his daughter is going away for school—and his desire to transform casual jam sessions with the musically gifted Sam into a real band (called, naturally, We’re Not a Band).

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My Night with Jordan B. Peterson

by Katie Herzog • Friday at 2:59 pm

Much loved/loathed psychology professor Jordan B. Peterson
Much loved/loathed psychology professor Jordan B. Peterson YouTube/Jordan Peterson

Until yesterday, my proudest achievement of the year was managing not to form an opinion on Jordan B. Peterson.

Peterson, for the unaware, is a controversial Canadian psychologist and University of Toronto professor who burst into international fame through a massively popular series of YouTube lectures on psychology, personality, personal responsibility, and a bunch of other shit that doesn't really seem like it would go viral on a platform more famous for Justin Bieber vids.

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LGBTQITSLFA • Queer Issue 2018

What Happens After the Person You Married Tells You They're Transgender

by Natalie Wood • Friday at 2:30 pm

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LEVI HASTINGS

Last September, three days before my second wedding anniversary, I sat on the couch and asked my husband the hardest question I have ever had to ask anyone: "Are you transgender?"

I had noticed some changes in Kyle. He had started to grow his hair out. He was doing it for charity, but then he left it that way. He'd obliged the manicurist and gotten his nails painted for the first time in the five years I've had him join me at the nail salon. He shaved his beard off without me asking and had kept it shaved for several months.

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Savage Love

He Asked His Girlfriend to Cheat on Him and She Did but She Did It All Wrong

by Dan Savage • Friday at 2:24 pm

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This letter originally ran on February 6, 2013.

I'm a 27-year-old man in a two-year relationship with a 26-year-old woman. My last partner cheated and lied and did some unforgivable things. I wasn't blameless-I stayed with her long after I realized it wasn't working-but our relationship did unearth a kink. After I found out about her cheating, I got extremely turned on thinking about it. I never told her.

Enter my next girlfriend. We were together a few months before I brought up my kink. She was very accommodating (dirty talk about her cheating, making up stories about cheating) and then, after some months, she admitted that it was something she wanted to try in real life. I said I was okay with it as long as I had the option to pursue other partners as well. We agreed on some rules and gave it a shot. She set up a date through OKCupid and had sex with someone; I hooked up with an ex. Everything seemed to be turning out great. Then two weeks later, she got drunk and told me she had seen the OKCupid guy again without asking. I was so upset, I nearly broke up with her. Having the guidelines ignored felt like a betrayal. She later admitted to seeing him one other time without talking to me first.

Are we going through the normal trip-ups of a newly open relationship? Or are these lies an indication that she can't be trusted? I feel like it might be hard to find someone else who is into my kink and maybe we're just having a hard time navigating polyamory. I love my partner, and I want to make this cuckolding thing work if we can. Suck it up or break it off?

Confused Upon Cheating Kink

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Housing

KOMO News Shows How We Manufacture Hate for the Homeless

by Charles Mudede • Friday at 2:10 pm

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PhilAugustavo/gettyimages.com

KOMO reports that a "homeless man" was arrested by the Seattle Police Department "for attacking [a] father, [and] daughter" who were walking on 3rd Avenue toward the Cinerama. If they were heading to that cinema on Sunday, June 17 (the day of the incident), then their plan was to watch Incredibles 2, an animated film about a family of superheroes. The father and daughter were attacked by the homeless man for no good reason at all, claims KOMO. The homeless man was “acting erratic and aggressive.” Then something bad happened that might have involved a knife, and did involve a baton (a head was hit by it). The homeless man left the scene, and was later identified and arrested.

KOMO is, of course, owned by The Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which is a conservative organization that owns lots of TV stations in the US. To give one example of its pro-rich agenda, SBG recently forced its TV stations to air a two-minute segment that defended what in essence is indefensible, Trump's family separation policy. So, it's not a surprise that it's running stories about crimes related to the homeless. The rich hate these people, and they want the productive members of their society to feel the same way about them. But let's go a little deeper into this hate. Let's take a dip.

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Politics

Landlord Chases Indivisible Members Off Dave Reichert’s Lawn

by Rich Smith • Friday at 1:47 pm

Get these...uh...middle-aged people off their Congressional representatives lawn!!!
"Get these...uh...middle-aged people off their Congressional representatives lawn!!!" Indivisible Washington 8

Thursday afternoon members of Indivisible Washington 8, a congressional advocacy group working out of Washington's 8th Congressional District, went to visit Congressman Dave Reichert's district office in Issaquah.

This time they were visiting to express their dissatisfaction with the two late statements Reichert issued about Trump's family separation policy, to ask him to vote against the two Republican measures on the House floor, and to instead support Rep. Jerrold Nadler's bill to keep families together. But this time, the meeting didn't go the way it normally does.

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Music

Inbox Jukebox: SOPHIE, Low, Sneaks, and More

by Dave Segal • Friday at 1:25 pm

Transgender producer/vocalist SOPHIE is taking radical electro-tinged IDM to the masses.
Transgender producer/vocalist SOPHIE is taking radical electro-tinged IDM to the masses. Charlotte Wales

SOPHIE, “Faceshopping” (Transgressive). If this is what the cool kids are listening to now, then high 5s all around. "Faceshopping" recalls the late-'90s Schematic output of Otto Von Schirach (remember that crazy dude?), an electro/IDM maverick whose slapstick sound-design genius almost rivaled Squarepusher and Richard Devine's. Scotland-born/LA-based producer SOPHIE is transgender, and the lyrics for this song dance around the vagaries of identity and authenticity: "My face is the front of shop/My face is the real shop front/My shop is the face I front/I'm real when I shop my face/Artificial bloom/Hydroponic skin/Chemical release/Synthesize the real/Plastic surgery/Social dialect/Positive results/Documents of life." The twisted-metal/car-crash timbres and brutal, splenetic beats contrast with SOPHIE's deadpan-to-super-emotive-diva vocals, creating a paradoxical frisson. "Faceshopping" appears on the album Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides, which came out last week.

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Food & Drink • Things To Do • Food News

A Tom Douglas Restaurant Opens Inside Nordstrom and More Seattle Food News You Can Use: June 22, 2018 Edition

by Stranger Things To Do Staff • Friday at 1:00 pm

You can sip sake slushies at Tom Douglass new restaurant Department Bento, which is inside the Bellevue Square Nordstrom.
You can sip sake slushies at Tom Douglas's new restaurant Department Bento, which is inside the Bellevue Square Nordstrom.

This week in food news, hungry Nordstrom shoppers at Bellevue Square can now sate their appetites with fresh bento boxes at Department Bento, a new restaurant from Tom Douglas. Plus, Seattle gets new lunch options from Black Cat and Sushi Kashiba, Southside Pizza joins the recent boom of new openings in White Center, and Shake Shack will bring their pop-up to Canlis this weekend. Read on for all that and more. For more ideas, check out our list of places to get berry desserts in Seattle right now, our list of June food and drink specials, and our complete food and drink calendar.

OPENINGS
Department Bento
Building on the increasingly popular fast-casual build-your-own-bowl concept, Tom Douglas has opened his first restaurant on the Eastside, a bento-themed establishment inside the Nordstrom at Bellevue Square (on the second floor, where Nordstrom Grill was previously located), which opened on June 18. Diners can choose between three bases: a bento box, rice bowl, or a salad. Next, they can add their choice of rice (with options like wasabi furikake or shiitake mushroom); veggies like matcha green beans, charred broccoli, or orange-miso cauliflower; and proteins like salmon, skirt steak, albacore tuna poke, or seared tofu. To drink, there's also Japanese beer and cocktails, sake slushies, wine, and Japanese sodas. There's a kids' menu with items like teriyaki chicken or buttered miso noodles.

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LGBTQITSLFA • Queer Issue 2018

How a Radical Faerie Changed My Life

by Marc Castillo • Friday at 12:45 pm

Agnes de Garron taught me how exhilarating it is not to be normal.
Agnes de Garron taught me how exhilarating it is not to be normal. DANIELLE LEVITT

In my mid-20s, I was having a life crisis. I had a great job as a dental assistant, but I was miserable. Though the money allowed me to do what I really wanted to do—showcase art—the job had no creative outlet at all. I was preparing peoples' teeth for a drill.

On top of all that, I was going through a nasty breakup. I'd been living in Portland, Oregon, for most of my life, and I wasn't happy with the city anymore. A friend told me he was moving to New Orleans and asked if I wanted to go with him. It took me some time to say yes because I'm a West Coast boy, but that's also what I was trying to escape. I wanted to get out. So I said yes. I planned on being in New Orleans for a month. Then I met Agnes.

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Film/TV

Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town: Angry Slacker Tries to Crash Engagement Party Without Money, Car, or Care

by Sean Nelson • Friday at 12:05 pm

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In terms of tone and texture, Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town would have been right at home in the low-budget American independent film explosion of the early 1990s.

The plot is simple: Mackenzie Davis plays a young, broke musician with a huge chip on her shoulder who has to make it across LA without money or a car to try to ruin a party celebrating the engagement of her ex-boyfriend to her ex-best friend. Along the way, she has tragicomic encounters with friends who are sick of her shitty, self-involved attitude, and other odd denizens of what used to be called slacker culture. It all may sound familiar, but the performances (especially Davis, but also Lakeith Stanfield, Alia Shawkat, Annie Potts!!!, and others) are startling. Best of all: A scene in which the tormented estrangement of Davis and her sister (the magnificent Carrie Coon) plays out entirely in their eye contact as they play and sing Heavens to Betsy’s “Axemen” as an acoustic duet. Scenes like that are what movies are for. Trailer below.

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