Slog - The Stranger

News • Death • Guns • Slog AM/PM • 2020

Slog PM: We're 100 Seconds from the End of the World, Four Mass Shooting Victims Released from Haborview

by Chase Burns • Thursday at 5:49 pm

Wednesday's mass shooting outside a downtown Seattle McDonald's injured seven people and killed another. Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images

Downtown shooting updates: One of the three suspects has been booked into jail. At a press conference today, Mayor Durkan said that “if this had been a fistfight, eight people would not have ended up at the hospital,” referring to the need for increased gun safety. There's also talk of shutting down that McDonald's, located right where the dispute took place. Here are the conditions of the victims, per Seattle Times:

Four of the seven people injured had been treated and released from Harborview as of Wednesday afternoon, officials said. [I assume they mean Thursday. The shooting was Wednesday evening —Chase.] Those who remained hospitalized were recovering: A woman in her 50s who initially had been in critical condition and the 9-year-old boy, who was initially in serious condition, had been upgraded, according to the hospitals. A 32-year-old man was in satisfactory condition.

And here's today's press conference:

Is a mass shooting good for business? Riders are fuming over how expensive Lyft and Uber rides were last night due to the traffic congestion resulting from the mass shooting. A $46 ride from downtown to Fremont? Jesus. “I didn’t know how to get home, and I felt like I was getting taken advantage of in a really bad situation," said one rider to the Seattle Times. The companies say they plan on reimbursing people who were affected by the spike.

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Music • Inbox Jukebox

Inbox Jukebox Track of the Day: The Trance-Dance Jam "kawasemi Ah" by YoshimiO's Band OOIOO

by Dave Segal • Thursday at 4:50 pm

OOIOO reap percussion. Scott Nhat

OOIOO, "kawasemi Ah" (Thrill Jockey)

With the groups Boredoms and Free Kitten, Japanese percussionist/vocalist YoshimiO (formerly Yoshimi P-We, erstwhile muse for the Flaming Lips) has been an unswerving agent for sonic chaos and transcendence. Along with Boredoms' Eye Yamantaka, Yoshimi helped to create some of the most adventurous and monomaniacal noise, prog, and space rock of the '90s and '00s. As leader of OOIOO, she's continued to extrapolate the extraordinary pneumatic tendencies of that band, plowing a percussion-heavy path to satori.

OOIOO's eighth studio album Nijimusi is as vibrant as any they've done. Most bands show signs of decline by this point in their career, but OOIOO are still soaring and burning at optimal levels. The quartet use conventional rock instrumentation here to twist the genre into action paintings of manic beats, loopy chants, guitar squalls, and torqued bass churns. (Between OOIOO and Otoboke Beaver, Japanese women are doing much of the heavy lifting to keep rock vital in the 21st century.)

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In their brand-new show, Heavy Flow, Lindy West and Samantha Irby join forces for an unforgettable night at Benaroya Hall on April 5.

These critically-acclaimed writers and essential cultural voices are two of the most dynamic women in the country. In Heavy Flow they will lead a raucous conversation about womanhood, pop culture, body image and politics. Following their talk, audience members will be invited to ask questions and revel in the hilarity as Lindy and Sam (self-described medium-successful idiots) dispense their unique brand of advice.

Get tickets HERE.

Visual Art

Bubbles in Oil Paint

by Jasmyne Keimig • Thursday at 4:20 pm

That is Cupid perched on the wall behind her, blowing bubbles. PHOTO BY EDUARDO CALDERON / COURTESY OF FRYE ART MUSEUM

I had never seen a soap bubble in an old painting before. I naively and unthinkingly believed that the thin film of water that floats on air was an occurrence that came into being relatively recently—an invention that debuted around the time of microwaves or automatic juicers.

That belief popped when I saw German artist Gabriel von Max's 1881 Seifenblasen (Soap Bubbles), which is currently hanging at the Frye Art Museum as part of the show Unsettling Femininity: Selections from the Frye Art Museum Collection. Duh. Of course bubbles have always been a thing.

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Film/TV • EverOut

43 Movies Worth Watching in Seattle This Weekend: January 23–26, 2020

by Stranger EverOut Staff • Thursday at 3:50 pm

It's crazy Cage in spades in the Lovecraftian The Color Out of Space! RLJE Films

There's a great diversity of excellent films, both new and old, on Seattle screens this weekend. Whether your tastes tend to searing documentaries (The Cave), botanical horror (Little Joe), or magnificent, classic crime dramas (Dog Day Afternoon), you can find plenty of options here. See all of our film critics’ picks for this weekend below, and, if you're looking for even more options, check out our film events calendar and complete movie times listings.

Movies play Thursday–Sunday unless otherwise mentioned.

* = Nominated for a 2020 Oscar

*1917
Legendary screenwriter William Goldman once said of the film industry, “Nobody knows anything,” and this is still mostly true, with one exception: If cinematographer Roger Deakins shot the movie, that movie is worth seeing on the biggest screen possible. Even if 1917 were solely the most impressive work of Deakins’ remarkable career—which it is—I’d be recommending it. But the World War I movie is also one hell of a stunning storytelling experience from director Sam Mendes, co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns, and editor Lee Smith. “But wait,” you say, “isn’t the whole point of this movie that there aren’t any cuts? Why did they need an editor at all?” 1917’s hook (or less generously, its gimmick) is that it’s meant to unfold in a single, unbroken take. It’s one of the rare instances of a film’s marketing actually benefiting the finished film, because of the way this knowledge is both paid off... and then subverted. BOBBY ROBERTS
Various locations
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director (Sam Mendes), Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay, Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects

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Looking To Decrease Your Alcohol Consumption In 2020? DRY Is Challenging You To Have More Fun This January By Cutting Out The Booze And Living It Up!

The local botanical-bubbly-soda purveyors at DRY Soda are teaming up with more than 25 Seattle bars and restaurants (including the restaurants of Ethan Stowell, Tom Douglas, and Thierry Rautureau) and Columbia Distributing to provide interesting zero-proof drink specials all January long.

To make it easy for you to take advantage of DRY January, we've compiled all of the participating restaurants and bars - check them out HERE.

City

First Arrest Made in Connection to the Mass Shooting Outside McDonald's in Downtown Seattle

by Lester Black • Thursday at 3:25 pm

SPD Police Chief Carmen Best, left, and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon. Lester Black

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) made their first arrest in connection to last night’s mass shooting in downtown Seattle. They arrested a gunshot victim taken to Harborview Medical Center who was allegedly himself one of the shooters. The department is still searching for two other individuals believed to have been involved in the gunfight, which left one person dead and seven others injured.

SPD chief Carmen Best told reporters Thursday afternoon that over 20 shell casings have been recovered from the scene near the corner of 3rd Avenue and Pine Street after gunfire erupted around 5 p.m. yesterday.

“We had two subjects that were in front of the McDonalds,” Best said. “Some sort of dispute occurred, guns were pulled, shots were fired, people were running, and the suspects ran from each other.”

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Animals

Do I Hate My New Cat Because He's Black?

by Charles Mudede • Thursday at 3:08 pm

The cats in my house; one is black and the other is not. Charles Mudede

The cat became a member of my household five months ago. He is totally black, and has yellow-greenish eyes. He is also very needy, and restless, and has a memory that's full of holes. I'm certain the cat is daft, slow, fickle, lives almost entirely in the present. At first, I attributed these failings to his young age, but I have not noticed in the past few months, as he's grown older, an inch of improvement in his behavior. Aging is having no effect on his bad habits. The black cat continues to jump on the kitchen counter, despite it being made clear that he shouldn't. If you spray water on him to discourage this impulse (jumping on the kitchen counter), he just stares at you with completely blank eyes. He has no idea that he is supposed to not like water. My other cat—which is not black, and so I call her the not-black cat (I do not believe in giving pets names)—hates water. She gets it. No water squirt if I do not jump on the kitchen counter. But my black cat. What's his problem?

There are even times when his restlessness (I'm running here, I'm tearing apart that, I'm knocking down this) is so distracting, I have to place him in the laundry room for a break, for a moment of peace. The black cat also knows I like the not-black cat much more than him. The not-black cat also dislikes the black cat. She hisses at him whenever he tries to get close to her. My interpretation of these hisses: "Stay away from me, you dumb black cat! And stop trying to touch my tail! And why don't you just die, already!"

Lately, however, I have been concerned about my favoritism. Is it racially motivated? Do I side with the not-black cat because it is not black?

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Film/TV

Star Trek: Picard Review: On Earth and in the Stars, an Old Captain Finds New Life

by Erik Henriksen • Thursday at 1:56 pm

1579740737-screen_shot_2020-01-22_at_4.51.57_pm.png

JAMES DIMMOCK/CBS

The last time we saw Jean-Luc Picard was in 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, a not-particularly-great film that ended with the legendary Starfleet captain striding through the corridors of the Enterprise with Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” swelling optimistically over the soundtrack.

In CBS All Access’ ambitious new series Star Trek: Picard, “Blue Skies” is the first thing we hear—but this time, the song is tinged with melancholy, pointing not to the future but to a past heavy with regret. These days, Picard—once again played by Patrick Stewart, and self-deprecatingly calling himself a “benign old codger”—wanders his dead brother’s vineyard, writes history books, and dreams, each night, of lost starships and absent friends. Despite the sun-dappled fields and the company of Number One, his excellent pit bull, his days are hollow. “The dreams,” Picard says, “are lovely. It’s the waking up that I’m beginning to resent.”

That, and the echoes of the man he used to be.

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Food & Drink • EverOut

30 Hygge Cafes, Bars, Bakeries, and Restaurants to Try in Seattle

by Stranger EverOut Staff • Thursday at 1:36 pm

Get a dose of hygge with your coffee at the recently opened Scandinavian cafe Cafe Hagen in South Lake Union. Cafe Hagen

By now, you've probably heard of the concept of "hygge," a Danish and Norwegian buzzword defined as a "mood of coziness and comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment." It's also exactly what is called for to get through a drizzly gray Seattle winter. If you'd like to cultivate more of this feeling in your life, you can find our list of particularly hygge places in Seattle below, from bakeshops and cafes to neighborhood bars and Scandinavian-inspired spots. For more ideas, check out tonight's hygge party with ings and Tomo Nakayama at Fremont Abbey and our full food and drink calendar.

Barnacle
Renee Erickson's petite jewel-box aperitivo bar attached to the Walrus and the Carpenter serves up fine craft cocktails in a snug space.
Ballard

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Savage Love

Holistic Advice: Sometimes the Answer Really Isn't Complicated

by Dan Savage • Thursday at 12:30 pm

I'm a 40-year-old cis gay man who has generally lived his life as a bottom. I have topped from time to time in my life, it's something I can do, but it isn't very fulfilling. I soften up after five or ten minutes (even with ED meds) and I never ever come from topping. The big revelation came this weekend at a leather event. In the week before, I developed a fissure, so bottoming would be off the menu, and for the first time, I'd present myself as a top. (I seem to be the only gay man who doesn't at all enjoy oral sex, so let's put that aside for now.) It was astounding how different things were, how much more attention and action I got: more that weekend than in all of 2019 put together. And yes, I know quality is more important than quantity, but also, if you eat ten apples you're more likely to find a really good one than if you only eat two, right?

I would like to live that life every time I go to an event, and probably at home too. But, even though I greatly enjoyed how I felt inside, I didn't really get much pleasure from how I felt outside. I would inevitably soften up after ten minutes or so (even while fucking a guy I'd fantasized about for years!), and the only time I came was when I pulled out, closed my eyes and tried really really hard to imagine what the bottom was feeling, and jacked myself off. I've bottomed enough to know that's not especially desirable top behavior.

Also, as I age, I'm starting to look more and more like a daddy bear, a physical type that most people (myself included) prefer to fantasize about in the top role. So everything is telling me that I should be more and more of a top. But how do I rewire my brain or my body to start to enjoy it physically?

Changing Roles Is Super Promising

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Theater

Theater Made with Talking Appliances

by Rich Smith • Thursday at 11:33 am

Three rice cookers were hacked and reprogrammed to speak, sing, and fight with each other. RADOVAN DRANGA

A few years ago, a rice cooker awakened Jaha Koo from a deep depression. The South Korean composer and theater-maker had been losing friends and acquaintances to suicide at a rate of roughly one per year for a decade. When suicide took one of his closest friends, Koo retreated into himself.

At the bottom of his own black pit, an unlikely voice called out to him and lifted him up. "Cuckoo has finished cooking rice, please stir," the voice said.

Every South Korean home has at least one electric rice cooker, Koo explained to me over Skype, and his apartment was no exception. Like a lot of high-dollar electronic appliances, Cuckoo, which is the top brand in the country, talks to its users after it completes certain tasks. When the rice cooker informed Koo that it had cooked his rice, he said he felt touched.

"I was by myself, but suddenly I felt less alone. It sounds strange, but I felt encouraged by the rice cooker," Koo said.

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Animals

Oh God, We Might Have to Start Paying to Fly with Emotional Support Pets Again

by Katie Herzog • Thursday at 11:03 am

DOT: Ive had it with these motherfucking dogs on this motherfucking plane.

Department of Transportation: "I've had it with these motherfucking dogs on this motherfucking plane." Ryan Jello/Getty Images

The golden age of scamming airlines out of pet fees may be coming to an end.

On Wednesday, the Department of Transportation released a proposed rule that would vastly restrict who and what counts as an emotional support animal for the purpose of flying. Currently, all you need to qualify is a letter from a therapist (or therapy mill) stating that your emotional support animal brings you emotional support. (You know, like a pet.) And then, with this letter—which can be purchased online for less than $200—your emotional support pet flies for free.

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Two Suspects Identified In Last Night’s Downtown Seattle Mass Shooting

by Lester Black • Thursday at 10:24 am

Both men allegedly have extensive criminal records. Lester Black

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) has released the names of two men they believe opened fire in the center of a crowded downtown Seattle intersection last night.

SPD is asking for the public’s help searching for two men, Marquise Latrelle Tolbert and William Ray Tolliver, both 24 years old, who are believed to be armed and dangerous.

Here are the photos of the suspects SPD just released.

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News • Health

To Prep for Strike, Swedish Hires Scabs and "Tactical Security" With Body Cameras

by Rich Smith • Thursday at 9:15 am

Get ready for 8,000 nurses to pour out of Swedish hospitals next week. COURTESY OF SEIU 1199

As Washington state confirms the country's first case of Wuhan coronavirus, 8,000 Swedish caregivers responsible for treating patients and disinfecting hospital rooms are barreling toward a massive three-day strike scheduled for next week.

Though caregivers say they don't want to strike, bosses at Swedish, which was recently acquired by Providence, are telling staff they don't plan to return to the bargaining table before the union's January 28 deadline.

Since the union gave its ten-day notice last week, caregivers say the hospital has been playing hardball. Swedish has dropped $11 million on 5-day contracts with scabs that will effectively lock out striking caregivers from two days of work. The hospital has also hired, some caregivers hear, as many as 200 "tactical security" guards with body cameras.

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News • Sasquatch • Sports • Panic • Health • Horrors

Slog AM: Seattle Shooting Suspects At Large, Coronavirus Shutters Chinese Cities, Hockey Mascot Allegedly Punched a Kid

by Nathalie Graham • Thursday at 8:00 am

Gritty... how could you? Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

No suspects in custody: Little is known about the Seattle shooting that happened just as the workday was ending. There are still no suspects in custody. Eight people were shot. A woman is dead. A 9-year-old boy is among one of the injured. Most of the injured are in satisfactory condition. According to the company, one of the victims worked for Amazon.

Coronavirus patient had contact with 16 people: The Snohomish County man brought the virus with him from a recent trip to China. He is the first U.S. patient with the coronavirus. He interacted with 16 people upon arriving back from his trip. Public health officials are contacting those people regularly to make sure they aren't experiencing symptoms. According to doctors, coronavirus isn't contagious until someone starts showing symptoms.

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News • Election! • Guns • Slog AM/PM • ITMFA

Slog PM: Mass Shooting in Downtown Seattle, McConnell Is Tired, Maybe Mobile Voting Isn't a Great Idea?

by Lester Black and Chase Burns • Wednesday at 6:00 pm

Police are responding to multiple shootings downtown. Traffic is a mess. There are multiple victims.

Police are responding to shootings downtown. One person is dead and seven people are critically wounded, according to Police Chief Best. ANSEL HERZ

Okay, we'll get to the heavy news (impeachment, downtown shootings) in a second, but first: Seattle made national news for the second day in a row today, and this time it wasn't for a scary coronavirus from China, but for... mobile voting! It's sent everyone into a tizzy. The King County Conservation District, previously unknown, is now having its 15 minutes of fame because it's testing out our country's first all-digital election. What could go wrong! The Stranger's Lester Black has more. Take it away, Lester...

A tiny election in the Seattle area just got national attention: The King County Conservation District, which up until very recently held elections that saw less than 4,000 votes cast, is holding the country’s first digital election. That means all 1.2 million eligible voters for the public agency can vote by phone. It’s being called a “historic” moment for elections but not everyone is happy. State Rep. Gael Tarleton, a Democrat running for Secretary of State, blasted the current Secretary of State Kim Wyman for allowing this to happen. Tarleton said in a press release that this digital election could be “easily hacked and compromised.”

“Wyman knows this technology cannot be counted on and is unsecure, but allowed it anyway,” Tarleton said.

Thanks, Mr. Black.

New streaming service's CEO allegedly compares journalists to sexual predators: Gizmodo's headline reads, "Personally, I Would NOT Compare Journalists to Sexual Predators as the Quibi CEO Reportedly Did." That CEO is Meg Whitman, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard. Way to go, Meg. People are strangely excited about Quibi, but you could call this a bit of a hiccup.

Oh wait, Lester is back with another update: The mic is yours, bud.

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