Were talking about One Seattle again!
We’re talking about One Seattle again! King 5

The Seattle club Re-bar was known for many things before it got booted and replaced with a piano bar. People knew it as the long-time home of Dina Martina; as the place where Dan Savage put on those weird plays; as the bar that kicked out Nirvana; as the owner of a famously lime-green dressing room wall; as the spot where The Stranger would hold HUMP juries, and where at the end of one jury I saw a rat hobble into the middle of the floor and then die, right in front of us. It was an omen, and Re-bar closed for good at that spot on Howell Street soon after.

One of the things Re-bar was most known for was its weekly Sunday house dance night, Flammable. Established in 1995, the event went rogue after Re-bar shut down. Now, with the new Cherry nightclub opening this week, Flammable is returning to a weekly spot. And it’s on that very same block! Sweet!

What is this? I won’t say this reminds me of CHOP because CHOP did not have wood-burning saunas, but the thought did cross my mind.

Mayor Bruce Harrell advocated for “the politics of and” during his State of the City address this morning: As in “yes and,” like the improv exercise. We can have “the right number” and “the right kind” of police officers. “More housing” and “vibrant, unique neighborhoods.” “Climate justice” and “new jobs.” “Diversity” and “commonality.” “Fairness” and “true justice.” “Safety” and “reform.” That’s a lot to deliver from the mayor who’s been in office for six weeks, but we can have it all, Seattle. As for funding, fortunately that big biz tax is giving us better returns than expected. Wow! Who would’ve thought!

The speech starts around 7 minutes in, but feel free to watch the first minutes if you want to see Bruce vamping.

Hannah Krieg has a rundown here.

A big list of bills that are dying, dead, alive, or hacked to bits: Rich Smith has the latest on which bills are dead or alive in Olympia during this year’s maddeningly short 60-day legislative session. Read his round-up here. Updates to come.

Some Starbucks celebrities visited Seattle this morning: Councilmember Kshama Sawant has dedicated $10K from her solidarity fund to support Starbucks workers organizing unions. This morning, part of that fund went to flying 2 members of the “Memphis 7” out to Seattle to speak at a sister rally.

Today’s two rallies in Memphis and Seattle protested the firing of the “Memphis 7,” a group of seven Starbucks employees in Memphis who were fired after they initiated an effort to unionize their store. Starbucks says the firings weren’t union-busting and argues they fired the employees for inviting a reporter and other non-employees into the store after closing and for not following COVID-19 protocols. 1 of the Memphis 7 told the crowd in Seattle today that Starbucks’ justification for the firings was BS: “These are things that normally no one would ever get fired for.” KIRO has video.

Freakout added more people to its upcoming “Weekender” fest at Crocodile: We’re big fans of Freakout Fest, so we’re excited for this one.

Big get for shitty app*: Warnermedia OneFifty acquired critical darling Drive My Car and will drop the film on HBO Max on March 2. The delicate epic about a grieving theater director isn’t for everyone (it’s long; it’s stern), but it’s hard to argue it’s not a masterpiece. It recently received four Academy Award nominations and became the first Japanese film to ever be nominated for Best Picture. I’d be surprised if it doesn’t win an award on March 27.

*Why is HBO Max so hard to navigate? I honestly think Peacock is a better app than HBO Max, which is saying something.

The “era of experimental streeteries may soon be over,” but it’s looking good for Seattle streeteries: Don’t bring up Edmonds, though.

Also important to note:


I’m still holding out for Symphony station.

The hardest working shirt in the biz: Matt’s NFT-inspired hockey t-shirt sells like hotcakes! The money goes to charity! We love it when you send us pics of you wearing the shirt!

Who’s Seattle’s next top librarian? Is it gonna be Tom or Chad? Publicola reports on the two finalists’ recent public forums, highlighting that Chad, who controversially has run the Hennepin County Public Library (which is Minneapolis’ county) while living in LA, said that the way the Seattle Public Library defended a group of trans-exclusionary radical feminists in early 2020 “really made” him “want to be a part of this organization.” As for Tom, who is currently the interim chief librarian, Publicola writes:

Asked about intellectual freedom, [Tom] Fay told the board it was the library’s “legalistic” responsibility to allow the anti-trans group to use their space, but added that the library could have chosen to be less “hyper neutral” and “say, we are legally obligated to provide this group, this meeting space, however, the library in no way endorses this particular group. That’s one way to at least state where we’re at on an issue without being so neutral.”

The library says it will announce its choice for Seattle’s chief librarian by mid-March. The last permanent director dipped out a year ago. More here.

As we slowly, eventually, one day climb out of the pandemic, the backlog of medical procedures becomes its own emergency. “Hospital leaders have said they expect it will take months, if not years, to work through the backlog of delayed procedures,” reports Seattle Times.

DVD news: The hard-to-find Mira Nair movie Mississippi Masala is getting a Criterion release in May.

A few years ago, we started our Unstreamable column with Mississippi Masala: And it was recently highlighted as a part of the new project Missing Movies, which Nair is an advisor for. Mira Nair hive rise up!

Chase Burns is The Stranger's former editor. He's covered everything from gay luchadores to chemical weapons to Isabella Rossellini's favorite pets.