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News • Slog AM/PM

Slog PM: 3-D Gun Printing Mastermind Charged With Child Rape, UW on Its Way to Engulf Seattle, Is Gasworks Park Toxic?

by Nathalie Graham • Wednesday at 5:55 pm

Could this view be killing you??????
Could this view be killing you?????? GREGOBAGEL / GETTY

The owner of that 3-D printing gun company got charged with child rape: Yikes. Cody Wilson, the self-proclaimed “little anarchist of Austin,” has been charged with sleeping with a girl under 17-years-old, who he allegedly paid for sex. This charge comes in the middle of the lawsuit Attorney General Bob Ferguson is waging against him for the whole 3-D gun thing.

Gasworks Park was, and maybe still is, gross: The now-defunct plant used to be the primary power-supplier to Seattle. It shut down in 1956. All the garbage it leaked into the soil remained. That includes arsenic, sulfur, and coal tar. Kite Hill—a mix of biosolids and sawdust (??)—was an attempt to clean up the mess of contaminated soil. The rest of the park was covered in two feet of topsoil. It’s okay now. We think. Probably. There’s still all that fucking goose shit, though.

UW wins its first approval to engulf Seattle: A city council committee advanced UW’s huge growth plan. There are some stipulations and requirements like UW has to commit to reducing car congestion and it has to build 450 units for low-wage employees. But, if all goes to plan, or should I say master plan, then UW will be able to grow its Seattle campus and build a “high rise innovation district.” The U-District may not be a shithole for much longer. Check out this report from the Seattle Times, it has cool graphics about UW’s growth. Also, information. Both are good.


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Free Will Astrology: September 19–25

by Rob Brezsny • Wednesday at 4:30 pm

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ARIES (March 21–April 19): "The flower doesn't dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes." So says poet and philosopher Mark Nepo in The Book of Awakening. Now I'm transmitting his observation to you. I hope it will motivate you to expend less energy fantasizing about what you want and devote more energy to becoming the beautiful, useful, irresistible presence that will attract what you want. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to make plans to produce very specific blossoms.

TAURUS (April 20–May 20): Budi Waseso, the former head of the Indonesian government's anti-narcotics division, had a radical plan to prevent escapes by people convicted of drug-related crimes. He sought to build detention centers that would be surrounded by moats filled with crocodiles and piranhas. But his replacement, Heru Winarko, has a different approach. He wants addicts and dealers to receive counseling in rehabilitation centers. I hope that in the coming weeks, as you deal with weaknesses, flaws, and sins—both your own and others'—you'll opt for an approach more like Winarko's than Waseso's.

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Sponsored

A Small History of Amal, Age 7

Join Forward Flux and Pratidhwani for a magical journey to Mumbai, India! A SMALL HISTORY OF AMAL, AGE 7 is an immersive play that tells the story of Amal, a young boy who uses his explorer's heart and a little Bollywood magic to defeat the god of death on the day of the 2006 train bombings. Showing Sep. 19 - Oct. 6 at West of Lenin.

Get Tickets HERE

News • Enviro • 2018

Washington State's Carbon Fee Will Make History—Unless Big Oil Can Stop It

by Nathalie Graham • Wednesday at 3:33 pm

Pay up for your pollution, please.
Pay up for your pollution, please. kamilpetran/Getty Images

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and a coalition of tribal leaders are putting their weight behind a state initiative that would create a carbon fee, just as big oil launches a $15 million mission to defeat the measure. Of the money raised for the opposition, 99 percent of it has come from out-of-state oil and gas interests.

Initiative 1631 would charge polluters for each ton of carbon they emit, and then invest that money in lowering the state’s carbon footprint. If it passes in the November election, I-1631 would charge carbon emitters $15 for every metric ton emitted starting in 2020. That fee would increase $2 annually until the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals are met. It will also add 14 cents at the pump for consumers. The revenue from the fee would fund programs and projects related to the environment—70 percent would go toward clean air and energy, 25 percent would go toward clean water and healthy forests, and 5 percent toward healthy communities.

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Savage Love

Group Sex With Her Fiancé Is Great But She Can't Come During and Feels Guilty After

by Dan Savage • Wednesday at 3:17 pm

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I’m 30, a cis female, romantically attracted to men and sexually attracted to men and women. (Whatever that is? Heteroflexible?) Anyway, I’m engaged to the absolute love of my life, it blows me away everyday how compatible we are, he’s the fucking best person I know.

My question is in regards to this: we are both sexually attracted to women and have been interested in exploring other people together. We’ve had a number of experiences, threesomes/orgies and while on the whole I feel like they were positive experiences, I always walk away with a certain degree of troublesome negative emotions from it. I feel a fair amount of shame/guilt when I participate in what society tells me is slutty/a-typical sexual behavior. I was also shamed as a kid for “playing doctor” with both boys and girls which has contributed to my feeling guilty about experiencing sexual pleasure in general. I’ve also been with plenty of guys that affirmed that my sexual pleasure was not as important as theirs, so it's safe to say I have some emotional baggage when it comes to sex. (Doesn't everyone? Thanks, religion and patriarchy.)

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Amazon

Amazon Reportedly to Open Thousands of Cashierless Stores

by Katie Herzog • Wednesday at 2:27 pm

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DAVID RYDER/GETTY

And so it begins.

Bloomberg reports that friendly local bookseller Amazon is considering opening 3,000 cashierless grocery stores in the next few years. So far, the company has announced three cashierless AmazonGo grocery stores in Seattle and one in Chicago, but according to people who are familiar with the matter, this future endeavor may look more like 7-Eleven than AmazonGo:

Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos sees eliminating meal-time logjams in busy cities as the best way for Amazon to reinvent the brick-and-mortar shopping experience, where most spending still occurs. But he’s still experimenting with the best format: a convenience store that sells fresh prepared foods as well as a limited grocery selection similar to 7-Eleven franchises, or a place to simply pick up a quick bite to eat for people in a rush, similar to the U.K.-based chain Pret a Manger, one of the people said.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Jeff Bezos won't stop until he has taken over every aspect of commerce in this dog forsaken country. First it was books; next, the world.

Music

Inbox Jukebox Track of the Day: The Transcendent Motorik Jam "Alt" by Seattle Bliss-Rockers somesurprises

by Dave Segal • Wednesday at 1:55 pm

somesurprises show some krautrock clout on their new EP.
somesurprises show some krautrock clout on their new EP. Chris Schmoeckel

somesurprises, "Alt" (Doom Trip)

Seattle's somesurprises has morphed from guitarist/vocalist Natasha El-Sergany's solo project to a duo with guitarist Josh Medina to a quartet with bassist Emma Danner (Red Ribbon) and drummer Nico Sophiea (Dangerknife). For their new EP on Doom Trip, on which "Alt" appears, Brenan Chambers [Jetman Jet Team, Plant Lab] and Patrick Latham help out on synth and piano, respectively.) With these additions, somesurprises have evolved into one of the city's most mesmerizing bands.

The three-track Alt EP (which came out yesterday) reflects somesurprises' desire to ease out of the hazy, Mazzy Star-like reveries heard on 2017's Serious Dreams cassette and embrace a more vibrant and even more blissful strain of space-rock. These songs were recorded during the same sessions as tracks that will compose somesurprise's forthcoming LP, which is due out in 2019. But it's on the 9:23 instrumental "Alt" where the major change happens, as somesurprises shift into a motorik groove that bustles down a dark highway with a steely vengeance. Taking cues from krautrock pioneers Neu! and their excellent acolytes in Stereolab, somesurprises gradually intensify the guitar distortions and synth pulsations blooming and criss-crossing over the metronomic rhythm until your brain is one massive, throbbing orb of adrenaline. It's an approach that's been done many times before, but damn if somesurprises don't turn in one of the most sublime krautrock homages Seattle has ever produced.

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News

Get Free Health Care at KeyArena This Weekend

by Lester Black • Wednesday at 1:29 pm

This is the Seattle Centers Fisher Pavilion, where the line for free healthcare will begin.
This is Seattle Center's Fisher Pavilion, where the line for free health care will begin. Kelly O

Try explaining the American health-care system to a European. Our health-care laws are so far from their reality that they have a hard time understanding it.

"You'll go bankrupt if you get sick?" "You have to pay how much for a broken arm?"

They often can't fathom the cruelty and utter idiocy of our American system, that we would turn our backs on the poor and middle class so we can fill the pockets of rich health-care executives and the stock market. But for a few hours this weekend, our health-care system will look a little more European if you swing by KeyArena, where you can get free medical, dental, and vision services.

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Blabbermouth

Should Christine Blasey Ford Testify Against Kavanaugh on Monday?

by The Stranger • Wednesday at 12:55 pm

Episode 166 talks about Chrstine Blasey Fords sexual assault allegations against Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Episode 166 talks about Chrstine Blasey Ford's sexual assault allegations against Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Win McNamee / Getty Images


The rush to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court has been slowed by accusations from Christine Blasey Ford, who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school. Dan Savage, Katie Herzog, and Eli Sanders talk about this very consequential #MeToo moment and what should happen next.

After that, Rich Smith returns from a sojourn in Trump Country to tell us about a rural Congressional race that’s so surprisingly close it’s giving him new hope for the Democrats taking back Congress.

Finally, Dan talks about all the great shows he watched while grudgingly taking some forced time on the couch. Plus...

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Visual Art

White Man Who Painted Portraits of White Supremacists Feels Victimized, According to a Local DJ of Color

by Leah St. Lawrence • Wednesday at 12:29 pm

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On Sept 6, Gallery 110 opened a controversial show titled Angry White Men which featured portraits of white supremacists. The artist, David Haughton, is white and based in Vancouver BC. But why did a white man paint white men who hate anything that’s not like them? And some of these white men have killed people of color. Haughton responded to the expected controversy by appealing to our emotions; he is just a painter putting paint on a canvas. From this feeble response, one can only conclude that, at best, he does not know what he is doing or the kind of world he lives in. But if such is the case, there is a point when naivety becomes sinister.

On the night of the opening, a man described to me by Haughton as a “local black DJ,” entered the gallery and confronted the attendees because he found the show incredibly upsetting. Gesturing to the large portrait of Dylan Roof, the DJ questioned the artist's intentions. In response to this and the various confrontations which followed, Gallery 110 posted two commentaries: Statement on Controversy and Questions and Answers. Prior to the release of these statements I had written a review of the show, "White Artist 'Arbitrarily' Paints Portraits of White Nationalists, Some of Whom Have Murdered POC." The described local DJ of color turned out to be Adam Mohr, a 9-year resident of Capitol Hill and regular DJ at Chop Suey for Dance Yourself Clean. Mohr reached out to me and outlined what happened.

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Homo

Actually, I'm the One Who Said Bert and Ernie Are Gay

by Nathalie Graham • Wednesday at 11:54 am

Can they be twinks with all that fur?
Can they be twinks with all that fur? Jason Kempin / Getty Staff

I was the one who "libeled" the puppets.

Katie Herzog dragged Michael, our fresh-faced and bushy-bearded Slog AM intern, through the mud for writing that Bert and Ernie are gay. I have to take full responsibility here—I'm Michael's editor and added "Bert and Ernie Are Gay" into the headline.

But listen, I took a quarter of mass media law at the University of Washington and had a sit-down meeting with The Stranger's lawyer about libel when I first got hired. So, I'm basically a master of constitutional law. That aside, I also spent the better part of my teenage years embroiled within television fandom where the topic of "queerbaiting" was brought up constantly.

Queerbaiting isn't a familiar term for you all? Not surprised. It's the possibly-real-possibly-imagined-by-rabid-fanbases phenomena where a show hints at but never actually depicts a same-sex romantic relationship between characters. The argument is that this is done for ratings; shows, typically with male leads and terrible diversity, give out little bread crumbs—long, lingering glances, delicate touches between two characters—that viewerships read into that are never capitalized on.

This raises the question: has Sesame Street been queerbaiting us all along?

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News

Millions in Public Money and No Sonics Guarantee—Will the KeyArena Deal Leave Us With Buyer's Remorse?

by Lester Black • Wednesday at 11:11 am

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JOSH POWERS

A new KeyArena is coming to Seattle Center.

After years of negotiations, the city is now in the final stages of approving Oak View Group's (OVG) $700 million renovation of the historic venue. If all goes according to plan, the Los Angeles company will spend the next two years excavating millions of pounds of concrete from under KeyArena's historic roof and then building a gleaming new arena underneath it. By 2020, a professional hockey team will likely be skating in Seattle Center. And if you listen to city leaders, the Seattle SuperSonics will hopefully be returning shortly thereafter.

This is the kind of deal that cities supposedly dream of. Last year, city council member Debora Juarez said Seattle will score "a world-class arena at little or no cost to the taxpayers." Everyone from Mayor Jenny Durkan to OVG's executives have consistently connected the dots between KeyArena's redevelopment and the Sonics' eventual return home. Eight years after we lost our NBA team because we wouldn't build them a new facility, we now have a private company paying to bring a team back.

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Slog AM/PM

Bert and Ernie Are Not Gay, MICHAEL

by Katie Herzog • Wednesday at 10:44 am

No homos.
No homos. Matthew Simmons / Stringer

This morning soon-to-be-fired Stranger intern Michael Bell libeled beloved Seasame Street characters Bernie and Ernie in his Slog AM post. It normally takes people at least a month to commit libel around here, so, first off, congratulations, Michael. You're going to fit in well. Second of all, BERT AND ERNIE ARE NOT FUCKING GAY.

Now, before anyone takes to the comments to accuse me of homophobia, scroll down to the bottom of this post and look at my haircut. Do I look homophobic to you? No, I look like an unpaid extra on the set of The L Word. I'm about as homophobic as a strap-on. That said, as much as I personally would love to see Bert and Ernie draped in the Pride flag, I cannot allow Michael to perpetuate the myth that they are homosexuals, a myth that originated when one-time Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman said in an interview with Queerty that we he was writing for the characters, he loosely based their relationship on the one he has with his husband.

It's a sweet idea, Michael, but despite what Rudy Giuliani thinks, truth is truth and we need to acknowledge it: Bert and Ernie aren't gay.

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2018

Is Washington's 8th District a Wealthy Suburb, an Outer Suburb, or Rural Trump Country?

by Lester Black • Wednesday at 10:17 am

Snoqualmie Falls is way cooler than Mall of America (Ive been to both).
Snoqualmie Falls is way cooler than Mall of America (I've been to both). The New York Times with some added illustrations by yours truly

Our national paper of record put out a cool idea today—instead of tracking all 75 House races that are competitive this fall, how about grouping each one by its general characteristics? The Times’ political writers grouped races into five archetypes based on their attributes: the Metro Melting Pot; the Wealthy Suburbs; the Outer Suburbs; The Open West; and Rural Trump Country.

Washington has three competitive Congressional races this fall and each one made it into the Times' roundup. Our Third (Vancouver) and Fifth (Spokane) districts were categorized as the “Outer Suburbs” archetype, which the Times describes as “once-reliably conservative seats” that are now up for grabs thanks to centrist Democrats. And our Eighth Congressional District got thrown in the “Wealthy Suburbs” group, where rich and mostly white “Mitt Romney-style Republicans” that hate Trump are making these districts competitive for Dems this year.

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Music

Freakout Fest 6 Announces Full Lineup, Including Shabazz Palaces, All Them Witches, Deap Vally, and Joel Gion

by Dave Segal • Wednesday at 9:30 am

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The sixth annual Freakout Festival finalized its lineup Tuesday, with new additions including Seattle hiphop mavericks Shabazz Palaces, Brian Jonestown Massacre maracas specialist Joel Gion (doing a DJ set), R&B futurist SassyBlack, rising bilingual rock dynamos Tres Leches, brash LA garage-rockers Deap Vally, local bedroom-pop queen Lisa Prank, dreamy Olympia dance act TransFX, and many more. Run by Skyler Locatelli, Guy Keltner, and Nathan Casey of the Seattle-based Freakout Records label, the fest takes place at several venues in Ballard on November 16-17.

This year looks like an ambitious mix of interesting out-of-towners and local standouts, with acts coming in from the UK (Tempesst) and Mexico (Los Blenders, Los Mundos, Los Honey Rockets). Freakout Fest also has added select all-ages shows. You can purchase tickets here.

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Fashion

In Search of Rihanna's Diamond Milk

by Jasmyne Keimig • Wednesday at 8:45 am

Everyones tryna fix their inner issues with a bad bitch.
Everyone's tryna fix their inner issues with a bad bitch. Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Staff

Last year, Rihanna expanded her music and fashion empire into beauty, debuting Fenty Beauty, an inclusive makeup line addressing the lack of products that cater to women of color, specifically, women with deeper skin tones. To commemorate the one year anniversary of the brand, Rih launched two products in September: Gloss Bomb, a universal lip luminizer in the new shade Diamond Milk, and Diamond Bomb, an all over silver highlighter.

As a fan of both Rihanna’s music and business acumen, I eagerly awaited the anniversary drop. Being of the Lip Smacker generation, I naturally gravitated toward the Gloss Bomb. No lie, the lip gloss kinda looks like glittery cum. Naturally, I'm into it, but getting Rihanna's Diamond Milk means going to Sephora.

Walking into any Sephora immediately rouses the most confusing mixture of emotions in me: deep-seated insecurity, the Glamorous Bitch, a desperate need to find a matching foundation shade. Most importantly it awakens the little monster who lives in my liver, the one who whispers, "want, want, want." It activates the beauty part of my lizard brain, compelling me to swatch every concealer known to man, telling me that yes, everyone does notice my acne scars, and I should really do something about that.

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