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Film/TV

Morgiana: Ridiculous, Hallucinatory Melodrama or Jungian Parable of Self-Destruction?

by Joule Zelman • Saturday at 11:00 am

Iva Janzurová plays two roles, opposite herself, in Morgiana.
Iva Janzurová plays opposite herself in Morgiana, which screens this afternoon, and on Tuesday and Wednesday, at the Beacon.

If you're craving a film that epitomizes 1970s-era stylistic excess—swooping cameras, Freudian set decoration, swooning women in heavily embellished dresses—you've arrived at the right place.

Morgiana, directed in Czechoslovakia by the underappreciated auteur Juraj Herz, casts Iva Janzurová as a virginal beauty and her jealous, Mrs. Danvers-esque sister who's slowly poisoning her to death. In both roles, she wears enough makeup to provision a small army of drag queens. Morgiana's either a ridiculous, hallucinatory melodrama or a Jungian parable of self-destruction. Either way, it's a lot of fun.

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Slog AM/PM

Slog PM: A Book Burning, A Gas Fire, and A Big Ass Avocado

by Rich Smith • Friday at 6:20 pm

Avocados are currency in some areas of Brooklyn AMIRIGHT FOLKS??
Avocados are used as currency in some areas of Brooklyn AMIRIGHT FOLKS?? Justin Sullivan / GETTY

Trump turned the U.S. Department of State into a swamp: This according to testimony from Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. At the risk of losing her current job with the department, the veteran foreign services employee said the President personally recalled her after some flunkies spread lies about her disloyalty. She said she did not take kindly to Rudy Giuliani going around her back in an apparent attempt to enrich himself, and she also mourned the damage Trump has done to the state department in general.

Airstrikes on Kurdish-held territories continue: Since Trump withdrew troops from Northern Syria earlier this week, the chaos of a Turkish invasion gave five ISIS militants an opportunity to break out of jail and bomb a Turkish city, according to the New York Times.

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Sponsored

Entre Hermanos is Going the Extra Mile for HIV+ Immigrants

Alejandra Grillo-Roa is no stranger to paperwork. It makes up the majority of her job at Entre Hermanos, but her job isn’t exactly dreary. She is the organization's Bilingual Medical Case Manager, so filling out forms, making appointments, and checking in with her clients — HIV+ members of the Latinx LGBTQ community — is often a matter of life and death.

“For my clients, the biggest challenge is being undocumented,” she says.

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Music

Seattle-Buenos Aires Latino Neo Psychedelic Rock Band Pampa Celebrates the Release of Their New Record This Saturday

by Leilani Polk • Friday at 4:50 pm

Pampa
Pampa Maddie Rogers

Seattle-based Pampa craft a mix of down-tempo guitar pop, dusty 1970s-vintage-tinged indie folk rock, and neo psychedelia dosed heavily with Latino influences, all of it finished with a layer of gray PNW moodiness. Buenos Aires native singer-songwriter-guitarist Moon Baillie helms the quartet, and his bilingual lyrics on new sophomore full-length La Contumacia are often abstract and delivered in poetic streams-of-consciousness, reflecting on the sun, the moon, sky, sand, love, the idea of home, the passage of time, open land and wilderness versus the city, existence …

Pampa's show at Sunset Tavern this Saturday (with Caitlin Sherman and Hotel Vignette) celebrates the release of La Contumacia (“The contumacy,” meaning “a stubborn refusal to obey or comply with authority”), and the album ranges from the bouncy yet haunted set opener “When the Dawn Is Gone,” to the darkly urgent Crazy Horse–vibing rock of “Maniobrando (Con La Llama),” to the expansive, windswept luster of “So Far (Yes, So Far),” which features guest vocals by the Black Tones’ Eva Walker.

Some media below.

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Film/TV • Unstreamable

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Are No Angels

by Chase Burns and Jasmyne Keimig • Friday at 4:20 pm

Can you imagine these two...with halos?
Can you imagine these two...with halos? Legendary

Welcome to Unstreamable, a weekly column that recommends films you can't find on major streaming services. This week: Dogma, All That Jazz, The Curse of Kazuo Umezu, Mermaid Forest, and Fatal Exposure. Find our other recommendations here.

***


Moobys is a fictional brand straight out of the mind of Kevin Smith.
Mooby's is a fictional brand straight out of the mind of Kevin Smith. JK

For the record, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are bad actors. I don't buy into the decades-long, Boston-tinged, Weinstein-backed con that's been sold to the American public convincing us otherwise.* They bring their mediocrity to Kevin Smith's Dogma where the two play fallen angels who are looking to exploit a loophole in order to get back into heaven and—in the process—destroy all of everything that ever was. It's up to an abortion clinic worker Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) and her gang of divine allies (including the prophets Jay and Silent Bob) to stop them.

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Film/TV

Not Even Two Will Smiths Can Save Gemini Man

by Ben Coleman • Friday at 3:45 pm

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Paramount Pictures

Ang Lee's Gemini Man isn't a bad movie so much as it's a missed opportunity.

Considering the talent assembled in front and behind the camera, and the 20 years (that's right, 20 years) of development time, you'd expect either a powerhouse of artsy action cinema or at least a train wreck for the ages. But Gemini Man isn't either of those. It's just… kinda boring.

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Things To Do • EverOut

Last-Minute Plans: 99 Free, Cheap & Easy Things To Do in Seattle This Weekend: Oct 11-13, 2019

by Stranger EverOut Staff • Friday at 3:00 pm

Grey on the outside and bursting with color on the inside, the Depressed Cake Shop bake sale will set up at Optimism this Saturday to promote mental-health awareness in partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Grey on the outside and bursting with color on the inside, the Depressed Cake Shop bake sale will set up at Optimism this Saturday to promote mental-health awareness in partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Ashley Fontaine

Panicking because you don’t know what to do this weekend and you're short on cash? Don't worry—below, find all of your options for last-minute entertainment that won't cost more than $10, ranging from an evening with author and self-professed witch Augusten Burroughs to a chance to buy vintage clothes from local rockers Smokey Brights, and from Puget Sound Pagan Pride's All Hallow's Eve celebration to the Washington State Book Awards. For even more options, check out our complete EverOut Things To Do calendar and our list of cheap & easy things to do in Seattle all year long.

FRIDAY

MUSIC
Annie Jantzer & Kelly Ash
Local songwriters Annie Jantzer and Kelly Ash will share the stage for a night of '60s-style Motown and soul at this installment of Funky 2 Death Fridays.
(Wallingford, $10)

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Music • Inbox Jukebox

Inbox Jukebox Track of the Day: The Radical Racial Redemption Song "Blood of the Fang" by Hip-Hop Subversives clipping.

by Dave Segal • Friday at 2:30 pm

Clipping. rapper Daveed Diggs is well red.
Clipping. rapper Daveed Diggs is well red. Screengrab from Lars Jan's "Blood of the Fang" video

clipping., "Blood of the Fang" (Sub Pop)

Any musician who samples something off Sam Waymon's soundtrack to 1973 avant-garde religious-salvation drama/vampire thriller Ganja & Hess, has my undivided attention and unlimited devotion. Such is the case with "Blood of the Fang," the new single from LA hip-hop mavericks clipping.'s forthcoming album, There Existed an Addiction to Blood (out October 18). The track proves that rapper Daveed Diggs and producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes are continuing to stretch the parameters of what constitutes hip-hop.

The song's main samples—an Isaac Hayes-like singer imbuing the line "there existed an addiction to blood" with deep gospel soulfulness and chilling child-choir chants—contrast with the pressurized bass grunts, sadistic, methodical beats, and Diggs's Doseone-on-dexies delivery. Director Lars Jan's video nods to Black Panther co-founder Huey Newton's 1967 ordeal of being cuffed to a hospital gurney while having his gunshot wound treated. Diggs drops speedy, assonance-laced bars that poetically call for a renewed revolutionary spirit the Panthers manifested to combat today's racial oppression. Sonically and lyrically, "Blood of the Fang" is the epitome of that radical fervor.

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Food & Drink • Things To Do

A New Doughnut Shop on Capitol Hill and More Seattle Food News You Can Use: Oct. 11, 2019 Edition

by Stranger EverOut Staff • Friday at 2:00 pm

Capitol Hills new retro doughnut shop Half and Half Doughnut Co. comes courtesy of Michael Klebeck, who co-founded Top Pot Doughnuts with his brother Mark.
Capitol Hill's new retro doughnut shop Half and Half Doughnut Co. comes courtesy of Michael Klebeck, who co-founded Top Pot Doughnuts with his brother Mark. Half and Half Doughnut Co.

This week, a new doughnut shop with pineapple fritters and churro doughnuts from the co-founder of Top Pot Doughnuts lands on Capitol Hill. Plus, Seattle food truck favorite Off the Rez will unveil its new brick-and-mortar cafe with the grand opening of the Burke Museum this weekend, Oma Bap brings fast-casual Korean bowls to Capitol Hill, and Rupee debuts its menu of Sri Lankan bar food in Ballard. Read on for that and more essential food news, like the exciting return of beloved institution Phnom Penh Noodle House, below. For more ideas, check out our list of places to eat and drink pumpkin in Seattle, our list of food and drink specials to try in October, and our full food and drink calendar.

OPENINGS
H Mart
Today, the popular Korean grocery chain, which added a location of its high-end District H concept in South Lake Union last month, opened its highly anticipated (and huge!) downtown location, selling produce, meat, seafood, booze, and prepared grab-and-go food. An H Mart location is also expected to open inside Capitol Hill Station in 2020.
Downtown

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Film/TV

Lucy in the Sky’s Retelling of the Tabloid Astronaut Story Never Achieves Liftoff

by Ned Lannamann • Friday at 1:30 pm

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Fox Searchlight Pictures

Lucy in the Sky is not good, but it’s a little hard to pinpoint why. It’s based on the story of Lisa Nowak, the astronaut who, in 2007, drove from Houston to Orlando wearing a diaper, chased down the guy she had an extramarital affair with, and attempted to kidnap his new girlfriend. Sounds like it should make for a pretty good movie, right?

The diaper’s not in the movie, and Nowak here is called Lucy Cola; she’s played by Natalie Portman in a Dorothy Hamill bob and a stretchy Southern accent. Lucy drives to the San Diego airport, not Orlando’s, and there are other changes, too—rather than rehashing a tabloid scandal, Lucy in the Sky would rather use it as a jumping-off point to explore character and interiority. In the right hands, this would be a good sign for a smart movie.

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Election 2019!

#RVGate Hits West Seattle, Drama Over The Stranger's Cover, And More City Council Election News!

by Lester Black • Friday at 12:55 pm

Theres an RV parked in Council Member Lisa Herbolds driveway, just wait till you find out why.
There's an RV parked in Council Member Lisa Herbold's driveway, just wait till you find out why. Lester Black
Endorsements are out! The Stranger’s election endorsement issue is out on the streets which means it’s time to read and vote accordingly. You can be lazy and check out our cheat sheet but it’s more fun to read our 6,000-word election opus, because it includes the phrase “fecal frittata.”

Did you see our last print cover? It had the word “endorsements” in large letters right under our logo, and along the bottom of the outer wrap it had a big ad for Egan Orion, an Amazon-approved council candidate who we most definitely did not endorse. Our print editor and art director (who have nothing to do with ads) did not intend to imply we were endorsing Orion, but that's how some people read it. As explained in the Editor’s Note, you can find the full cover right underneath the outer cover wrap. Meanwhile, Digital Editor Chase Burns filed a complaint with the PDC, claiming the ad violated disclosure laws. Crosscut has the exclusive about Chase’s complaint.

Trailer drama comes full circle: Failed council candidate Ari Hoffman and conservative shock-jockey Dori Monson set off a weird bit of political theater this week after Hoffman used Monson's KIRO radio show to threaten to tow RVs to various council member’s homes. When a trailer showed up parked outside Council Member Lisa Herbold’s house the internet, including activist and writer @Spekulation assumed it must be Hoffman or one of his Safe Seattle goons pranking the progressive council member.

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Savage Love

Reader Who Read Entire "Savage Love" Archive Has Thoughts to Share

by Dan Savage • Friday at 12:30 pm

1548976856-savage-letter-of-the-day-stamp-2019.jpg

I'm not going to do my weekly "Reader Response Roundup" today, as there was only one SLLOTD on Monday. There was a new Savage Lovecast on Tuesday and a new Savage Love column on Wednesday but I wasn't able to post new SLLOTD after Monday because, well, I'll spare you the gory details. But I got really ill on Tuesday morning and spent the rest of the week in bed. But I did get a response letter this week that I wanted to share today...

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Weed

Who's Down for Diversifying Pot Shops?

by Lester Black • Friday at 11:45 am

The state could release new retail licenses to minority business owners.
The state could release new retail licenses to minority business owners. RACHELLE ABELLAR

It's been more than 20 years since Jim Pugel was a police officer arresting pot dealers on the corner of 23rd and Union, but he can still remember what the suspects looked like. They were almost all black men.

Now, one of Seattle's busiest pot shops sells millions of dollars' worth of weed on that same corner. But the African American community reaps only a fraction of the legal weed industry's profits. And that doesn't sit well with Pugel.

"I can understand," Pugel recently said, "how the [African American] community is a little pissed off. We, the system—police, prosecutors, judges—all went after them for relatively low potency dope in the 1980s and '90s. And now it's all mainstream. Where are the revenues going to repatriate all of those people who were incarcerated?"

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News • Politics • 2020

Carolyn Long's Campaign Reports Over $600,000 in Fundraising, Which Is A Lot

by Rich Smith • Friday at 10:45 am

Longs starting strong.
Long's starting strong. ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHELCIE BLACKMUN

Unless something fun happens in eastern Washington, the most flippable U.S. House seat in the state appears to be the one in the 3rd Congressional District, where Carolyn Long and a couple other Democrats are vying to take on five-term incumbent Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler.

This morning Long's campaign announced that she's hauled in over $600,000 from 3,202 individual contributors in her first quarter of fundraising. That's more than double what she raised during her campaign's first 12 weeks in her effort to unseat Herrera Beutler in 2018, which ended in a five point loss, and more evidence that the new campaign is off to a strong start. When Long launched back in July, she was greeted by hundreds on a tour of the district.

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Politics

The Winner of the LGBTQ Town Hall? Donald Trump.

by Katie Herzog • Friday at 10:30 am

Protesters interrupting the one gay candidate at the CNN LGBTQ town hall.
Protesters interrupting the one gay candidate at the CNN LGBTQ town hall. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Despite my multiple and very serious arguments against it, eight of the top Democratic candidates for President plus Tom Steyer took part in the first-ever LGBTQ town hall on Thursday night on CNN.

It was four and a half extremely long hours. Aside from taking a short break during Amy Klobuchar’s segment to whip myself with a metal whisk and pray to the ancient God Sotos to turn me straight, I watched every goddamn minute, and I am surprised to report that there were fewer obvious gaffes than I expected. No one, as far as I could tell, accidentally called trans men “trans females,” as Julian Castro did at an early debate, and Joe Biden only tried to kiss Anderson Cooper once.

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Savage Love

Savage Love: Three City Swing

by Dan Savage • Friday at 9:45 am

sept10_savage_3-city-swingers_mag.jpg
Joe Newton
We brought Savage Love Live to the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, the Barrymore Theatre in Madison, and the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis over three nights. As is always the case at live shows, the crowd had more questions than I could possibly answer in a single night. So in this week's column, I'm going to tear through some of the questions I wasn't able to get to.

If you use food for vaginal play, is there any type you should definitely avoid?

Lasagna makes for a lousy insertion toy. (Food doesn't belong in vaginas; there could be bacteria on the food, even after washing, that results in a nasty infection. #FuckFirst #EatAfter)

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