Your Guide to All the Events The Stranger Is Now Streaming

Books

Take a Break and Read a Fucking Poem: "dear white america"

by Rich Smith • Wednesday at 6:09 pm

This absolute utterance from a young Danez Smith runs through my head every time a cop like Derek Chauvin kills a man like George Floyd in the street, or every time a white person threatens to weaponize the state against a black person for petty bullshit and then the response from white America is: Why do you have to make this about race??? As Smith says in this poem: "because you made it that way!"

(Side note: My GOD has it really been six years since they performed this poem in Detroit? Seven years since Black Lives Matter rose up following the slayings of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin? And still we have large numbers of thinking people responding to racist violence in this way? I wouldn't dare admit surprise, but it's no wonder Smith's narrator has "left Earth in search of darker planets.")

Anyhow, you can find this poem, "dear white america," in Smith's book, Don't Call Us Dead, available at local bookstores.

A few notes:

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News • Film/TV • Death • Slog AM/PM • Culture

Slog PM: 100,000 Dead, Churches Rush to Pray Together, Cinerama Closed for the "Foreseeable Future"

by Chase Burns • Wednesday at 5:50 pm

Please Lord, dont let Rich be right.
"Please Lord, don't let Rich be right." GETTY IMAGES

The historic SpaceX launch couldn't happen today: It was rescheduled for Saturday due to bad weather in Florida.

A dozen inmates have tested positive for coronavirus at an Eastern Washington prison: "The Spokesman-Review reports Wednesday that all the prison’s inmates will be quarantined in their units for 10 days. All classes and other programming will be suspended."

Terrible news from Cinerama: Looks like Seattle Art Fair and the Living Computers Museum might be going down too.

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Sponsored

WA’s “War on Drugs” is failing. New approach: with proven solutions and effective treatment

Yes! Put Treatment First in WA! Paid for by Treatment First Washington, PO Box 9100, Seattle WA 98109 | Top 5 Contributors: American Civil Liberties Union of Washington | TreatmentFirstWA.org

WA’s drug laws have failed. Jailing people for substance use disorder only makes things worse.

“Prison isn’t the place where you get clean,” says Monisha Harrell, E.D. of Equal Rights Washington.

Harrell supports a new approach. I-1715, Treatment First WA, would replace the failed "War on Drugs" with better access to effective treatment and recovery services, like 24/7 triage centers and mental health care. Now voters are signing I-1715 from home.

Sign up here.

Music • Quarantine Quickie

It's Last Call at Re-Bar

by Jasmyne Keimig • Wednesday at 5:00 pm

Last Call is one of Re-bars final events livestreamed from their Howell Street space.
Last Call is one of Re-bar's final events livestreamed from their Howell Street space. Kelly O
Earlier this month, I spoke to Dane Wilson, co-owner of Re-bar, who confirmed that the beloved performance venue and nightclub will permanently close their Denny Triangle location due to costs stemming from the pandemic shutdown. Although Wilson said he plans to relocate Re-Bar in South Seattle sometime in 2021, the move is a heartbreaking decision that will certainly reverberate through the queer, music, and drag communities for years to come. In spite of the shutdown, the club had been livestreaming DJ sets for some of their most popular dance nights, like Flammable and DnB, to keep up with the regulars and viewers across the world. But even that has to come to an end.

On Saturday, Re-Bar will be hosting Last Call, an opportunity for patrons to say one final goodbye to the venue As We Know It. Four Re-bar regular DJs—Morgan J, Nick Cressman, Alfonso Tan, and Robbie Nielsen—will be playing 4/4 all night long starting at 8pm. While this isn't the very, very last livestreamed event—Wilson says they will continue to do Flammable and DnB until a final sendoff on June 16—this stream will provide space for those to say goodbye and dance their faces off from the comfort of their own living rooms. Get more information here and I'll see you on Zoom.

If you can't make it, I'd recommend you listen to KEXP's DJ Sharlese Metcalf and DJ Riz Rollins talk about Re-Bar's history and importance in the city on Sound & Vision.

City • Coronavirus

What's With the Crop Circles in Seattle Parks?

by Nathalie Graham • Wednesday at 3:56 pm

I want to picnic in the germ circle.
I want to picnic in the germ circle. Christopher Frizzelle

Cal Anderson Park looks like it got paid a visit from one of those UFOs in the videos the Pentagon released last month. There are circles mowed in the grass throughout the park. It's like performance art. Or a cry for help from a lawnmower.

In reality, they're just another way to keep people socially distant, according to Rachel Schulkin, a spokesperson with Seattle Parks and Recreation. Personally, I'm gutted that this isn't some community-wide Signs reenactment but I suppose I'll get over it.

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Savage Love

From the Archives: Frustrated Man Gets Backside Spanked Behind Husband's Back

by Dan Savage • Wednesday at 3:53 pm

1582309877-savage-letter-of-the-day-stamp-2020.jpg
I'm a gay man married to a wonderful man. For most of our 12-year relationship, we've had a boring sexual script that is all about him getting blown. He just doesn't seem interested in much else, and although we've talked about it over the years, nothing has really changed. He is selfish in bed. He's a wonderful husband otherwise, and I love him deeply. Recently, he was out of town, and in a weak moment, I ended up meeting an experienced spanking Dom. We've met several times, and I'm counting the days until he whales on my butt again. Not in my wildest imagination could or would my husband EVER do something like this with me. He just doesn't have it in him. I am more sexually fulfilled than I have been in a decade. I'm also lying and cheating. I'm deeply torn. If I tell my husband, my guess is that he won't take it well. It could cause our marriage to unravel. If I keep lying, I bear the moral burden of the lie, and he could find out anyway.

Still Professing A Normal Kink

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Film/TV

The "Ultimate Cult Film" from Japan Is Streaming for a Limited Time

by Chase Burns • Wednesday at 3:17 pm

Late yesterday I was alerted to an exciting update on my favorite—Really! I'm not being hyperbolic!—cult movie, The Legend of the Stardust Brothers:


Very! Big! News!

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Looks Like Cinerama Is Dead

by Nathalie Graham • Wednesday at 2:25 pm

oh no
oh no CHARLES MUDEDE

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the Seattle Cinerama, a haven for sci-fi nerds, the home of the iconic 70-millimeter film festival, and Paul Allen's vast collection of movie memorabilia, is dead "for the foreseeable future."

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Economy • Coronavirus

Obama's Economic Advisor Is Wrong: There Is No Chance the Economy Will Rebound at Warp Speed

by Charles Mudede • Wednesday at 2:20 pm

Now is the time to open the economy...
Now is the time to open the economy... estt/gettyimages.com

On Tuesday Politico posted a story about a possible economic scenario that has Team Biden really worried. John Furman, a top economics advisor in the Obama administration, presented the scenario in early April to a "bipartisan" group on Zoom. It goes like this: Because the economic collapse that began in March of 2020 was caused by a real-world event, rather than one in the fictional realm of finance (housing values, monetary values, asset values), the recovery from the lockdown will resemble those that "economists often see after a hurricane or industrywide catastrophe like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill" (V-shaped), and not the terribly slow and long and agonizing recoveries the never fail to follow the explosion of a stock market bubble (U-shaped).

This is the essence of Furman's scenario, which surprised many in the Zoom meeting because it supported the White House's repeated assertion that the economy will rebound with the same force and warp-speed it crashed. But Furman was Obama's top economic advisor. How can he be saying the exact same things as Trump's economic advisors? The answer to this puzzle shall come right after it's understood that the realism in Furman's scenario is very weak, and for one important reason: the natural disaster in his scenario is nowhere near over.

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Politics

Trump Says He Wants to Regulate Twitter, Will Probably Forget About It in 15 Seconds

by Matt Baume • Wednesday at 12:45 pm

What do facts have to do with anything?
What do facts have to do with anything?

Reporting on Donald Trump’s mood swings sometimes feels like noting that local pigeons are fighting over an abandoned half of a hamburger bun. Is there any intelligence behind this conflict, or just raw dumb instinct that will be forgotten the moment another piece of trash catches the participants’ eye?

Today’s storyline concerns Trump’s tweets about mail-in voting. He wrote yesterday that voting by mail is prone to fraud, which isn’t actually true but is something that is fun for him to believe. Twitter placed some fact-checking links under his Tweets, which threw him into a rage and now he’s threatening to regulate Twitter’s speech. Sure, great, okay, why not try this flavor of fresh hell?

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Tomorrow Night! It's the Return of the I, Anonymous Show—Livestream Edition!!

by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey • Wednesday at 12:30 pm

600x500_IANON.jpg

If you're stuck inside and desperately needing some top notch comedy, then the I, Anonymous Show (Livestream Edition) is for you! Here's how it works: We get the funniest local and national comedians to riff and heckle the wildest, jaw droppingly wrong, and uncensored I, Anonymous submissions from the famous Stranger and Portland Mercury column, and in return you laugh yer buttz off!

The last two editions of the I, Anonymous Show were wildly funny and entertaining, so you truly do not want to miss this one! Joining your delightful host Kate Murphy (a Portland Mercury "Undisputable Genius of Comedy") will be the following murderers' row of hilarious comedians:

• Steven Wilber (Portland's Funniest Person 2014, New Faces of Comedy recipient at the Just for Laughs fest, SF Sketchfest)
• Curtis Cook (Comedy Central, Portlandia, Crank Yankers, The Jim Jeffries Show)
• Bri Pruett (Comedy Central Roast Battle, Splitsider "Comic to Watch," and former host of the I, Anonymous Show)

Oh, boy! That is one helluva lineup right there! So if this quarantine madness has got you down, the I, Anonymous Show is the hilarious cure you've been looking for. GET YOUR TICKETS NOW for the livestream I, Anonymous Show—next THURSDAY, MAY 28 at 8 pm! IT'S SOOOOO GOOD!

Want a taste of what the show is like? Check out this clip from our first show, featuring the great SHANE TORRES defending the eating of squirrels.

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Homo

Larry Kramer's Great Enduring Legacy

by Matt Baume • Wednesday at 11:30 am

Playwright Larry Kramer takes his curtain call at the Broadway opening night of The Normal Heart in 2011.
The New York Times says Larry Kramer's accomplishments may be "overshadowed" by his "controversial" approach. But I think that approach is itself one of his accomplishments. Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images

This morning, the New York Times led their obituary of Larry Kramer by noting that his “abusive approach” overshadowed his achievements, then changed their wording to “confrontational.” (This comes a week after the same paper deadnamed Aimee Stephens in her obit.)

Neither “abusive” nor “confrontational” really capture Kramer’s approach. “Heroic” might come close. Kramer’s entire life was dedicated to saving bodies and minds that those in power had decided weren’t worth saving. His achievements aren’t overshadowed by his intensity, they’re thanks to it.

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Visual Art • Stickers

Trust No Persona Non Grata

by Jasmyne Keimig • Wednesday at 9:50 am

sticker_patrol_header.jpg
Jess Stein
"Automation Is Coming For You"

Lovely.
Lovely. Jasmyne Keimig
Just so you all are aware, if you weren't already, that automation is coming for us all. I do not look forward to the day that my job is replaced by an AI bot that generates memes or poetry.

"Thank You. I've Been Screened: TUESDAY"
Spotted in Eastlake.
Spotted in Eastlake. JK
A little birdie told me that these stickers—which have been popping up everywhere—come from local hospitals like Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Fred Hutchinson, given to patients passing through their doors.

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Savage Love

New Savage Love: Quickies

by Dan Savage • Wednesday at 9:25 am

JOE NEWTON
JOE NEWTON

I don't want to become one of those people who write to you complaining about how I married someone I wasn't sexually compatible with ten year ago and now my sex life still sucks. I already know I need to break up with my boyfriend and I was about to do it when he got sick with the flu. This was at the beginning of March. I assumed he'd be sick for a week and then we would have an unpleasant conversation. But then the entire country shut down and my boyfriend was officially diagnosed with COVID-19. So I haven't seen him since the last weekend in February—Monday is Memorial Day, Dan, in case you've lost all concept of time—and I've been playing the role the supportive and worried girlfriend from afar. But it's been hard. Both my parents are in high-risk groups and my mental health has been battered. My boyfriend is finally getting better and I don't know what to do when I finally have to see him again. I'm not breaking up with him because he's a bad person and I don't want to hurt him but that's exactly what's going to happen. I feel guilty because I'm choosing my happiness over his. I know I shouldn't, Dan, but I do.

Feeling Resentful About Uncoupling Dilemma

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Slog AM: Boeing Layoffs Are Coming; Beware of Cannibal Rats; Will That Rocket Launch Happen?

by Nathalie Graham • Wednesday at 8:30 am

Rats have resorted to open warfare and eating their young.
Rats "have resorted to open warfare and eating their young." Kseniia Glazkova/Getty Images

It's "unlikely" that all of Washington will reach Phase 2 next week The stay-home order is set to expire on May 31. All of the counties in the state won't be ready to transition into Phase 2. Get ready for a stay-home extension or, in the least, some disappointment. Especially for those of us in King County. So far, 21 counties are in Phase 2 in Washington. Three more are expect to join those ranks soon.

Meanwhile, most of California has moved to Stage 3: Around 80 percent of California is moving into Gov. Gavin Newsom's third stage of re-opening. For them, that means barbershops and hair salons will open. L.A. County, however, will remain left out of re-opening since it's the county with the bulk of COVID-19 cases and deaths statewide.

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Message to the City

A Message to the City from Christopher Frizzelle

by The Stranger • Wednesday at 8:00 am

Christopher Frizzelle is the host of The Strangers silent reading party, which is tonight!
Christopher Frizzelle is the host of The Stranger's silent-reading party, which is tonight! Courtesy of Christopher Frizzelle

Good morning. It's Wednesday, which means the Silent Reading Party is tonight. If you're wondering where you were just hearing about the reading party, maybe it was in the New York Times?

The host of the party, Christopher Frizzelle, is a longtime editor and writer at The Stranger, and also has one of the best apartments in the city (the same apartment he was living in when he wrote this).

He has lived in this apartment since 2005—no way he would be able to afford this apartment now—and as you can see his walls are covered in art and artifacts connected to the life of the city. He gives a mini art tour of his apartment in today's message.

Look for cameos from the likes of Zoe Scofield, Kate Wallich, Kathryn Rathke, Heather McHugh, and Lynn Shelton.

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