Julia Raban, who interviewed the director before the film screened at SIFF, wrote: Lane 1974 depicts not only the discomfort of being outsiders... but also the tangible dangers, from exposure to the outdoors to the threat of arrest, all while basking in the atmospheric California light.
Seattle director SJ Chiro is probably pretty happy that the film she worked on forever is getting so much attention. Lane 1974

Lane 1974 Scores Distributor with World-Wide Reach: The feature film—which was set in Northern California but directed, shot, edited, and produced by local filmmakers—has been acquired by Orchard, a film and video distribution company that operates around the world and includes indie hits like Cartel Land and Hunt of Wilderpeople among its titles. The deal, which does not include theatrical, was announced by Variety. Lane 1974 has received a stream of good reviews and awards this year. It premiered at SXSW in March, and last week, the director, SJ Chiro, was handed the CIAL Environment award at the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy. Julia Raban, who interviewed the director before the film screened at SIFF, wrote: "Lane 1974 depicts not only the discomfort of being outsiders... but also the tangible dangers, from exposure to the outdoors to the threat of arrest, all while basking in the atmospheric California light."

Panel 12 of the Migration Series, captioned in 1941 by the artist, Jacob Lawrence: The railroad stations were at times so over-packed with people leaving that special guards had to be called in to keep order.
Panel 12 of the Migration Series, captioned in 1941 by the artist, Jacob Lawrence: "The railroad stations were at times so over-packed with people leaving that special guards had to be called in to keep order." COURTESY OF SEATTLE ART MUSEUM

Speaking of Seattle In Cinema: Kathryn Bigelow's new film Detroit, which is about the riots that hit the city in 1967, opens with an amazing montage of the Jacob Lawrence paintings from the Migration Series. They explain how black people ended up in that cold city in the first place. Lawrence spent the last part of his life in Seattle. The film opens next Thursday, Aug 3. Stay tuned for our review.

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Courtesy of the Frye

The Frye Hired Amanda Donnan As Their New Permanent Curator: "I'm into everything from good abstract painting to meta-documentary videos," she said when she sat down to talk with Jen Graves after the Hedreen Gallery hired her as curator last year. She's also "drawn to 'projects that address underknown cultural histories.'" Donnan is the first full-time curator Joseph Rosa has named since he arrived last October to direct the museum, and the last one since Scott Lawrimore.

The Writers Coming to Hugo House Next Year Make Me So Happy: Mary Ruefle. Ben Lerner. Charles Johnson. Ruth Ozeki. Jess Walter. Kelly Link. Ada LimĂłn. They're all going to speak for HH's 2017-18 Writers on Writing series. Let hometown hero Charles Johnson teach you how to write instantly canonical novels, or let Mary Ruefle teach you how to write voice-driven poetry that makes you love the world again, or let Ben Lerner teach you how to write time-bending polygenre novels. You can't go wrong.

Dig Muru Music’s Funky-fresh New Algorithm: Australian entrepreneur Nicc Johnson has founded a company called Muru Music that hopes to disrupt (please kill me) the streaming-platform game with novel AI-based music classification technology. What makes Muru Music different, Johnson claims, is its ability to dial in “human randomness,” and to position a discovery setting to “obscure” in order to (theoretically) go deeper into the world’s storehouses of music than other such companies. We wish Muru Music well in its admirable endeavor, while remaining skeptical that it can supersede a flesh-and-blood disc jockey’s selection process.

Michiko Kakutani Steps Down As NYT's Book Critic: She says she's "moving on to focus on longer pieces about politics." Read a selection of excerpts from the kingmaker's most important reviews.


Pussy Riot, the Musical!: Punk band and political provocateurs Pussy Riot are Kickstarting a campaign to create Inside Pussy Riot, an immersive theater project that will bring audience members inside their Russian prison experience: to “recreate Russian courtrooms, a real Russian labour colony, solitary confinement cells, priests who shout about banning abortions and many more absurd, but real-life things that exist in Russia today,” according to Pussy Riot co-founder and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova.

There's a Problem with NPR's List of '150 Greatest Albums Made by Women:' There aren't enough talented, avant-garde and experimental musicians on it, so says Dave Segal. So he added a few more to the list. Alternately, the Stranger's Amber Cortes and music intern Anna Kaplan added a few more terrible albums by male musicians to Jezebel's '150 Worst Albums Made by Men.'

Dear man wearing a camo-brimmed hat at Cherry Glazerr, your friends are not super sweet.
Dear man wearing a camo-brimmed hat at Cherry Glazerr, your friends are not super sweet. ULYSSES CURRY

Read the Confessions of a Block Party Virgin: The Stranger's new music intern, Anna Kaplan, had never been to the Capitol Hill Block Party before, so we sent her there to get her first impressions: "From the Diplo brahs to the misplaced techies, I saw more than I ever would have wanted this weekend," she writes. Read on for tales of merciless security guards and people who licked each others' backs, "all amazing humans." And of course, there's the music, too: Noname and Lizzo killed it, and the Naked Giants mosh pit was pretty fun.