The Washington Commanders announced on Thursday that its marching band would make a return for the 2022 season.

The Washington Commanders owner lived a twisted version of every supporter’s dream, ascending the owner’s box only to discover he loved a thing he couldn’t fix, a thing that was actually worsened through his care.

Left-wing activists may have fueled the movement to change the name of Washington’s NFL franchise. However, an indigenous organization known as the Native American Guardian’s Association is trying to resurrect its former moniker and make Washington’s football team the “Redskins” again. Now known as the Commanders, the team changed its name in 2020 to appease a fanatical mob of social justice warriors and white guilt apologists who claimed the name and logo were racist.

After former team owner Daniel Snyder sold the Washington Commanders, many people foolishly hoped that the new ownership group would entertain the idea of returning the longtime Redskins name to the franchise. This wishful thinking was egged on after a group known as the Native American Guardian’s Association created a petition that has nearly 131,000 signatures to bring back the glorious Redskins moniker.

A Native American group filed a lawsuit against the Washington Commanders after the team alleged the group, which is advocating that the team revert to its "Redskins" title, was "fake."

The United States Coast Guard says it has recovered the remaining debris from the site of the Titan submersible that imploded four months ago while visiting the site of the RMS Titanic shipwreck.

Former President Barack Obama encouraged coders to join the Biden administration's artificial intelligence team.

With all of Washington consumed by the promise and perils of generative artificial intelligence and everything that comes with it, we risk neglecting the next technology revolution brewing under our very noses. Biotechnologies, built on our deepening understanding of how to read, write, and edit genetic code, the “code of life,” are not just transforming biomedicine but are generating better, more sustainable approaches to manufacturing, agriculture, and environmental health.

(The Center Square) - How should researchers measure the populations of migratory birds? Researchers developed an idea around a campfire that was put to the test for the first time in Bosque Del Apache earlier this month, according to the University of New Mexico.

The Biden administration announced a $162 million investment in microchip technology on Thursday in an attempt to boost domestic production of computer chips.

An ancient campsite discovered in the Great Lakes can tell us how these ancient humans used to live.

The Nobel Prize-winning discovery of microRNA has reshaped our understanding of gene regulation. Learn what these tiny molecules mean for cancer research.

Join citizen science efforts to monitor bats, track Joro spiders and crowd-source cemetery stories.

Small settlements scattered throughout the region show signs of trade, fortification.

New application of Raman spectroscopy imaging allows scientists to probe the chemical composition of sailors lost at sea over 500 years ago.

Green pump for diesel, blue for gas – but what’s the difference?

Both scientific ‘red herrings’ and flaws in human logic led to inaccurate ‘Pompeii effect’ hypothesis.

Capitals get crushed in decisive Game 7

Players can't explain latest loss in playoffs

Caps have yet to re-sign Ribeiro and Hendricks

Defenseman requests a fresh start elsewhere

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fool's errand or heroic stand?

It’s not often that something almost universally unexpected happens in American politics. Frequent public opinion polls and a variety of political media usually give political junkies a good idea of what to expect next.

Washington Capitals winger Devante Smith-Pelly is planning to sit out the traditional White House visit if his team wins the Stanley Cup.

Facebook and Instagram users in the EU users are getting a new option to use these platforms for free with less personalized ads, and Meta is also slashing the price of its ad-free subscription by 40%.

The post Facebook and Instagram to Display Less Personalized Ads in the EU to Appease Regulators appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Apple leaker Mark Gurman reported today that Apple's next new device is a 6-inch "AI wall tablet" that will spotlight Apple Intelligence.

The post Mark Gurman Reveals Apple’s Next Device appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Short Run Comix Festival, Diwali: Lights of India, and More Cheap & Easy Events Under $15 by EverOut Staff

We hope you're not too tired from Halloween partying because there's plenty of fun events to hit up this weekend, from Short Run Comix Festival to Diwali: Lights of India and from the Polish Fall Bazaar to Seattle Art Museum's Día de los Muertos Community Celebration. For more ideas, check out our guide to the top events of the week. P.S. Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday—don't forget to set your clocks back!

FRIDAY COMMUNITY

Día de los Muertos Community Celebration
Each year, in honor of Día de los Muertos, printmaker and artist Fulgencio Lazo creates a tapete. (Spanish for "rug," tapetes are large-scale sand paintings created on the ground). Inspired by ancestral Oaxacan traditions, the tapete has become an annual tradition at the Seattle Art Museum in observance of the role death plays in the life cycle. This year's Día de los Muertos celebration will also include a musical performance by La Banda Gozona, dances performed by energetic Oaxacan troupe Grupo Cultural Oaxaqueño, and art-making activities with printmakers Edith Chávez and Ivan Bautista. LINDSAY COSTELLO
(Seattle Art Museum, Downtown, free)

The right has been spreading outrageous lies, claiming that kids are going to school as one gender and coming home as another after "impromptu surgeries." The writer points out how absurd this idea is: surgeries, especially gender-affirming ones, aren’t done in schools, don’t happen on a whim, and certainly aren’t performed on minors without extensive parental involvement. It’s a scare tactic with no basis in reality. by Vivian McCall

Lately, Donald Trump has been spreading a ridiculous lie that kids are going to school one gender and arriving home another.

I wanted to explain how a person doesn’t have to know anything about transgender people, schools, or medicine to know this isn’t true. A little boy isn’t going to come skipping home from school a little girl after an impromptu genital gender-affirmation surgery because gender-affirmation surgeries are not impromptu, are rarely performed on minors, and are never performed on minors without parental consent. They’re not performed in schools at all because schools don’t have operating rooms. Even if there was enough time in a school day to rush a kid to the hospital, this is not a check-up. Nobody waltzes out of the hospital after a major surgery. Think for one second and it makes no fucking sense.

Then I heard Trump say that the Democrats want gender surgeries for “almost everyone in the world” because they’re evil. Suddenly, it felt kind of futile and stupid to write a sarcastic, reasonable explanation of the facts because the floor for what Trump is willing to say about transgender people is a chasm. 

By his telling, the people cheer him on when he mentions “transgender” at his rallies, and he’ll do anything for the applause. This fervor is also why the hundreds of failed anti-trans bills—or polling that shows Americans by and large don’t really give a shit about trans issues and would rather talk about the economy—won’t dissuade Republicans from launching more anti-trans campaigns and introducing hundreds more bills restricting LGBTQ civil rights. During the World Series, viewers were subjected to anti-trans and anti-abortion ads so graphic that networks issued content warnings explaining that legally they have to air anything a qualified political candidate pays for.

We’re not having a rational conversation about trans issues in this country, we’re watching a panic attack about the threat trans people supposedly pose to the concept of gender and the nuclear family.

My better angels want me to tell conservatives about the trans people who want children with their spouses, or still love the ones they had before coming out. But if someone believes Big Gender is an evil enterprise, it’ll take someone they love coming out for them to recognize the groomer talk as the manipulative fiction it is. It will always be easier to hate some blue-haired apparition lurking in the shadows of your mind than your childhood buddy Jim when she tells you to call her Linda.

For obvious reasons, the possibility of a Trump victory is freaking out people in the queer community, even here in Washington, with our protective laws and Democrat-dominated Legislature. Because what Trump says and does are often different things, they’re unsure of the implications for their health care, their families, their marriages, and their futures. 

What We Can and Should Worry About at the Federal Level

In 2023, Penny Nance, CEO of the Christian nonprofit Concerned Women for America, asked Donald Trump to sign a pledge that if he won in 2024, he’d direct all federal agencies to uphold that a person’s “gender identity” doesn’t overrule their “sex.” Pledge or no pledge, nothing Trump did as president or has said during this campaign indicates he wouldn’t.

While in power, Trump appointed a slate of anti-LGBTQ judges. He banned transgender people from serving in the military and weakened their already tenuous access to gender-affirming care. How much farther he could go is another question. The man’s mind is an enigma. No matter who wins, the courts will remain a chaotic x-factor for us all.

By the time Trump took office in 2017, federal courts had recognized existing civil rights laws banning sex-discrimination protected gay and trans people, reasoning that anti-LGBTQ discrimination was, at its core, a reaction to people deviating from the norms of their sex. But the words “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” are not in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or Title IX, a 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, or Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (the ACA, also known as Obamacare) outlining groups protected from discrimination.

Those rights exist, but they’re not codified. Their existence depends on a broader legal interpretation of what sex discrimination even means. 

Trump’s administration rejected that interpretation. It rolled back Obama-era non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people and plotted to erase the word “sex” from federal civil rights laws. In 2019, the House passed the Equality Act, a bill that would add “sexual orientation” and “ “gender identity” to the Civil Rights Act, on a bi-partisan vote, but the Senate didn’t take up the bill after Trump said he wouldn’t sign it. The bill passed the House again with only three Republican supporters, but did not survive a Senate filibuster. 

Then at the end of Trump’s presidency, the conservative US Supreme Court delivered a stunning 6-3 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County that found Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protected gay and trans people from employment discrimination. As Trump’s handpicked appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion, “it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.” Trump, whose White House filed two briefs urging the court to rule the other way, admitted to reporters it was a “very powerful decision, actually.” Not that its “power” changed his thinking. 

Yipee! All solved, right? Gay people have rights forever? Gorsuch is competing in International Mr. Leather next year and drinking with us at the Stonewall Inn? Right? 

Not quite. 

Bostock laid an important legal precedent and textualist argument that’s been cited in hundreds of sex-discrimination cases around the country.  The ruling prompted President Joe Biden to issue an executive order on his first day in office that directed all federal agencies to consider policies banning sex discrimination to apply to gay and trans people. It remains at the core of its interpretations of Title IX, the Violence Against Women Act, the ACA and the federal Fair Housing Act.

But Bostock did not end the fight, and its narrow scope leaves some rights potentially vulnerable should Trump take control. Say he’s elected and makes good on his pledge to Nance. The Supreme Court was clear on workplace protections, but Trump’s lackeys could say their ruling doesn’t apply to housing, healthcare, access to public accommodations, and education.

Mirroring Biden’s executive order to federal agencies, Trump said he’d reverse Title IX protections for trans students on day one of his presidency. He’s also vowed to ban gender-affirming care for minors, which he’s called child mutilation, and cut federal funding for schools that push “gender ideology.” His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, introduced five anti-trans bills between 2023 and 2024, which included criminalizing healthcare for trans kids. Saving his most deranged takes for the race’s photo finish, Vance appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast and suggested middle- and upper-class white kids become trans to get into good schools, so they can, I guess, piss their pants in the lecture hall if a state revokes their bathroom access. As CNN pointed out, trans kids are actually a lot less likely to get into good schools because all the bullying, harassment, and dark thoughts tend to bring down the ol’ grade point average.

Harris, Harris, Harris, Harris, Harris. In the 2019 primary, she said she supported gender-affirming surgeries for trans migrants in custody. She’s not special for that–federal law requires the government to provide necessary medical care to inmates, and documents show Trump’s Federal Bureau of Prisons acknowledged that law–but people have made a lot of her apparent lack of support this cycle. When asked about transgender rights, Harris’s canned answer is that she’ll “follow the law.” Without a crystal ball or Ouija board handy, I’d hazard to guess she’d likely follow in Biden’s footsteps and his “follow the law” line is a dodge —perhaps part of her plan to nab all the Republican-leaning voters who can’t stand Trump but may not get trans issues. After all, trans issues have been a fruitful wedge issue precisely because people don’t understand them – and people fear what they don’t understand.

That said, laws are not virtues, and trans people are pissed about her lack of commitment. They’re scared because they’ve been pilloried in this election, and following the law in certain states means they don’t have civil rights. Plenty have fled those laws. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has one of the best records on gay and trans rights of any Democratic governor, from his time as a football coach sponsoring a Gay-Straight Alliance in a small town to signing an executive order to make Minnesota a “trans refugee state.” I don’t trust politicians as a rule, but Walz has been an ally much longer than it’s been cool or even acceptable.

Now for the part that made me go uh-oh out loud.

No matter who wins, these anti-discrimination protections are up against federal courts stacked with conservative appointees, and conservative think tanks have the money, the time, and the zealous devotion to launch sophisticated attacks to invalidate LGBTQ rights and restrict the legal definition of sex in perpetuity.

Jaelynn Scott, Executive Director of the Lavender Rights Project, a Seattle-based LGBTQ legal advocacy organization, is convinced the broad interpretation of Title VII will face continual legal challenges until lawmakers amend the Civil Rights Act to include “gender identity” or pass the Equality Act.

Federal judges have already blocked Biden’s Bostock-backed interpretations of Title XI and the ACA’s non-discrimination protections. The same Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of Bostock also blocked the administration's Title IX rules. The court’s recent decision on Chevron Deference compounds the problem. It not only weakened the power of federal agencies to enact new rules that comply with often vague laws from Congress, but it also made challenging federal regulations much easier and shows we can’t count on the Justices to adhere to binding legal precedent, which sucks because this all may come down to if or when the Supreme Court sets limits on Bostock. 

We know it will soon decide if laws restricting gender-affirming care violate the US Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. On December 4, the Court will hear US v. Skrmetti, a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors.

The case is important because it could determine what level of protection trans people have under the Equal Protection Clause. Elana Redfield, Federal Policy Director at the Williams Institute, a LGBTQ public-policy research center at the University of California, Los Angeles, says the issue at the heart of this case is whether it is unlawful for the state to ban these treatments in the way that it did. 

Recent cases show the state might be able to legally prove no sex discrimination took place. The first is Dobbs, the case that struck down abortion. In the Dobbs decision, the court cited an old case called Geduldig v. Aiello, which found a state could legally deny insurance coverage for medical complications during pregnancy, even though it would have almost entirely burdened cis women, to say states could prohibit abortion. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals applied Geduldig to Adams, a case that upheld a state’s right to enact trans bathroom bans. In Skrmetti, The Sixth Court of Appeals again applied the same exact legal reasoning to gender-affirming care. It ruled the Bostock decision applied only to workplace discrimination and lawmakers had the right to regulate medical procedures as long as they did so without discriminatory intent. 

“I know, it's pretty in the weeds, but it is also important,” Redfield said in an email. “In part because it provides a pathway for courts to avoid finding sex discrimination, and in part because they are citing back to cases decided before “intermediate scrutiny” for sex discrimination was even established.”

It’s not all bad news. This April, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed lower court decisions that North Carolina’s and West Virginia's bans on gender-affirming care were unconstitutional. 

Trump’s focus on trans people has obscured his position on gay rights, which enjoy broader support from the American electorate than trans rights.

But would a party more aligned with the religious and extreme right than ever abandon the positions they’ve consolidated power over for decades, just like that? The supposedly “softer” Republican platform that claims the party will leave abortion to the states has not convinced millions of women across the country. Omitting a direct reference to same-sex marriage in that same platform, while still invoking its “sanctity,” shouldn’t convince gays, either. 

A second Trump administration would be filled with pre-vetted loyalists. The aides, staff, bureaucracy, and institutions that inhibited his most destructive impulses during his first turn have been foxed out of the henhouse. If Trump follows the plan outlined in Project 2025, he’ll reconstitute the administrative state as a faithful engine of Trumpism. If decisions from the Washington Post’s and Los Angeles Times’s billionaire owners are any indication, institutions may be folding in advance. Trump is promising to throw his political enemies in jail, for God’s sake. When have gay people ever emerged from a regime like that unscathed?

Um, What About Washington?

Even if everything goes to hell and Trump or the courts change how the government interprets sex-based anti-discrimination protections, Washington State will probably remain a good place to be gay and trans, legally speaking. Though there’s always uncertainty in the brackish waters between federal and state law, we're pretty Trump-proofed.

The Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) broadly guards against anti-gay and anti-trans discrimination in housing, places of public accommodation, employment, credit transactions, healthcare, and other areas. 

Meaning you should be able to sign a new lease, take out a massive home loan, celebrate with fine dining and heavy drinking, stumbling and falling on your way out the door, breaking your arm, calling an ambulance, arriving at the hospital, and having a qualified medical professional examine you without anyone throwing your gay or trans ass into the street.

The WLAD also guarantees access to gender-affirming care and requires insurers to cover it, a protection the Gender Affirming Treatment Act (GATA) strengthened in 2022.

The state also allows those born here to change the gender marker on their birth certificate from M to F, F to M, or from either to X. In 2023, Governor Jay Inslee signed laws that sealed name changes for transgender people and protected trans runaways in the shelter system. He also signed a shield law that protects people who seek gender-affirming care and abortions in Washington from the authorities in states that have banned or criminalized their healthcare.

Even if the Supreme Court struck down Obergefell v. Hodges, gay marriage would remain legal in Washington, save the Supreme Court losing its mind and allowing for a federal prohibition on same-sex unions, another can of worms that would be litigated to hell along the lines of states rights. Gay couples would still be able to adopt, too. Lesbian couples could count on the law to protect access and insurance coverage for fertility treatments.

Adrien Leavitt, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Washington, says in many regards our state constitution is also more protective than the US constitution, that we have a strong State Supreme Court, and that our lawmakers have shown an ongoing commitment to upholding and strengthening protections for LGBTQ people.

Our Democratic lawmakers did let the right take one victory on LGBTQ issues this year, however, when it passed Let’s Go Washington’s legally ambiguous, but dog-whistle-y Parents Bill of Rights ballot initiative I-2081.

Concerned the law may allow parents to access their child’s counseling records, the ACLU of Washington, QLaw and Legal Voice filed suit. A King County Superior Court Judge later blocked that provision. But passing the law might have been a political calculation in Olympia. HadDemocrats let it go to voters, and it passed, the Legislature couldn’t amend it next session.

We still don’t have all the answers. Rebekah Gardea, QLaw’s director of community advocacy and outreach, raised I-2081 as an example in a pattern of attacks on LGBTQ rights across the country able to infiltrate even a progressive state like Washington. Even if advocacy groups can be fairly confident laws banning gender-affirming care would die in committee here in Washington, the right can always introduce an initiative if there’s the money and motivation to do so. In the event of a second Trump presidency, Gardea says her organization is concerned about how our shield law would hold against a federal investigation, or what potential data privacy gaps the state may have. It’s a question the Legislature may have to answer next session.

“There’s a lot of unknowns that we’re still looking into,” she said. “We’re trying to figure out how we strengthen those protections as soon as possible so there’s really no room for interpretation.”

Should the storm come, the best thing Washington could do is adopt the position that it will live up to its progressive values by vigorously defending them against outside actors, including a federal government that imposed restrictions on LGBTQ rights. Bob Ferguson, the Attorney General and Democratic frontrunner for the governor’s race, said in a statement he’d be ready on “day one” to combat a Trump presidency.

That’s all well and good for us, but sanctuary state thinking is a trap. Your civil rights are tenuous if they can disappear at the state line.  

These progressive state laws do not regulate hate and intimidation, and if the federal government goes screwball, there’s no telling how that would change the social dynamics in this country. They’ve already changed so much in a short period of time.

Eight years ago in 2016, lawmakers nationwide had only introduced 55 anti-trans bills nationwide. That same year, North Carolina's passage of a single anti-trans bathroom bill prompted the NCAA to ban college sports championships in the state, PayPal to cancel plans for a new office and Beatle Ringo Starr to cancel a massive concert. The Associated Press determined the state stood to lose $3.76 billion dollars over the bathroom policy, which is why lawmakers repealed it the next year. In the last two years, we’ve seen between 1,000 and 1,200 bills. Most fail, but plenty are passing. Where are those boycotts now? The only transgender-related social contagion in this country is ignorance. When it comes to hate, state borders are astoundingly porous.

I’m very confident Washington won’t pass a gender-affirming care ban in the next five years, or even the next 10 years. But 15? A lot can change. Fifteen years ago, Donald Trump was hosting Season 8 of The Celebrity Apprentice. 

The world changes and complacency is one way to speed up that change. There’s a snide attitude in blue states about red states, like the only reason regressive laws get passed is because all the people there are stupid and backward enough to let it happen. I hear variations of this contemptuous position in gay bars and on gay couches at parties all the time, and it totally ignores decades of disenfranchisement and manipulation that have tilted the balance of power in red states. 

So the next time you think something to the effect of, “at least I’m safe,” think about the woman going septic in the hospital parking lot, or the trans kid weighing suicide in their bedroom. If you’re not for them, you’re not for anything at all.

Progressive newcomer Alexis Mercedes Rinck absolutely bodied Council appointee Tanya Woo in the August primary, scoring a cool 50.2% to Woo’s 38.4%. Rinck has every reason to measure drapes for the new office in City Hall she will probably move into, and it looks like the deep-pocketed outside spenders who got Woo’s buddies elected last year are counting her out too. Proportionally, Woo’s Independent Expenditure (IE) has spent 90% less this year than a similar IE did in her initial council bid. by Hannah Krieg

Progressive newcomer Alexis Mercedes Rinck absolutely bodied Council appointee Tanya Woo in the August primary, scoring a cool 50.2% to Woo’s 38.4%. Rinck has every reason to measure drapes for the new office in City Hall she will probably move into, and it looks like the deep-pocketed outside spenders who got Woo’s buddies elected last year are counting her out too. Proportionally, Woo’s Independent Expenditure (IE) has spent 90% less this year than a similar IE did in her initial council bid. 

Woo’s campaign has raised $453,000 from 7895 donors, averaging approximately $57 per contributor, according to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission. Her contributors include the real estate industry, CEOs, lawyers, retirees, and some of the conservative council colleagues who appointed her such as Council Members Bob Kettle and Maritza Rivera.

But typically, big IEs spend an ungodly amount of money in the last few weeks of a race on mailers, TV ads, and other strategies to get their preferred candidate's name and face in front of voters before the election. Last year, IEs backed by business or labor or both spent $1.6 million across the seven City Council elections. The candidate with the most outside spending through IEs won in every race besides Woo's failed bid for District Two. Between her campaign and IEs, she outspent her opponent, incumbent Tammy Morales, two to one. 

But IEs don’t seem as interested in burying progressive competition with their cash this time around. 

Many of the same donors who backed Woo in 2023, funded the victorious conservative slate that appointed her, and the previous three mayors. They collectively contributed more than $130,000 to Woo through the Friends of Seattle. This includes the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, Seattle Hospitality for Progress PAC, R.C. Hedreen Company, Goodman Real Estate, and HomeStreet Bank. 

But they don’t seem to be trying as hard this go round. 

A 2023 IE, Friends of SE Seattle, spent $168,000 on her bid for the District 2 seat where she had to win over a majority of the 67,000 registered voters. That’s an investment of $2.50 a voter. Now, in 2024, for her citywide campaign, she’s trying to capture the majority of 485,000 voters. A $130,000 investment from the current IE shakes out to about a quarter spent per voter. That means IEs, who successfully bought every seat besides Woo’s last cycle, have spent 90% less on Woo than they did in her last election where she lost despite spending twice as much as her opponent.

This marks a shift in behavior from corporate donors when compared to the last time Seattle voted on citywide council seats in 2021. An IE called Change Seattle pooled $414,000 for Council President Sara Nelson’s bid for a citywide seat or about three times as much as they are spending on Woo. 

What does any of this mean? Well, it could mean those conservative donors are stretched thin funding the awful, Republican-backed Let’s Go Washington Initiatives, the Republican candidate for governor, or maybe even President Donald Trump’s third shot at the White House. Or, it could mean these corporate donors are saving up to support their darlings, Nelson, City Attorney Ann Davison, and Mayor Bruce Harrell, when they go up for re-election next year. 

Either way, progressives aren’t really beating conservatives at the fundraising game. Rinck's campaign has raised $460,790 from 8,637 contributors, averaging slightly more than $53 per contributor Her contributors include unions, labor organizers, every progressive politico you can think of, and politicians including King County Executive Dow Constantine, Woo’s old foe Morales, and many state lawmakers representing Seattle.

Rinck also found support in a new IE, Progressive People Power (P3), that spent more than $190,000 this cycle. P3’s donors include SEIU 775, which made up more than half of the pot, some other unions, several failed left-lane candidates, and King County Democrats Chair Carrie Barnes who gave more than $42,000 herself. Didn’t know you had it like that, Barnes!

But as P3 Board Chair Ry Armstrong said at a fundraiser last month, progressives don’t need as much money to win — their ideas are just better. A recent poll by the Northwest Progressive Institute found only 28% of respondents voted or will vote for Woo, while 52% voted or will vote for Rinck.

Worried about Tuesday? Here's something to look forward to via @nwprogressive! pic.twitter.com/LQrEh7GSfV

— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) November 3, 2024

 

The 2024 Bainbridge Island Film Festival runs from November 7-10. by Charles Mudede

If catastrophe strikes on Tuesday, and all you can see is four years of gloom and more gloom, then it might be the right time to take a ferry to Bainbridge for two reasons. One, the November-colored waters of Elliott Bay will match and maybe even soothe your mood. (One thing you can always depend on is the love misery has for company.) Two, there is a festival, Bainbridge Film Festival, which features a superb distraction, the comedy Micro Budget.  Directed by Morgan Evans, who has worked for The Onion, the film cannot be praised for originality but for getting the most out of a concept that really should have no gas left in it: The mockumentary.

The plot: An Iowan, Terry (Patrick Noth), decides to relocate to LA to make a movie that can only be, when completed, unspeakably bad. His wife is very pregnant, he doesn't have enough money, and the sun has never shined on his imagination. He hires actors who have many rungs to climb before they come anywhere close to the D List, and the production moves from one absurdity to the next. 

During the filming process, the pregnant wife suffers, the actors suffer, and the members of the production team work without disguising their contempt. All, including the cousin shooting the documentary, are caught in the fantasy of a madman who should have kept his desires in the lowest drawer of his office desk.

We have been there and seen all of that. And yet, Micro Budget, is actually funny and, once in a while, reaches a region that can be called brilliant (particularly in the moments when the director attempts to meet what he imagines to be the woke standards of Hollywood). The film also has a priceless cameo. One you will never expect in a million years.

It's worth watching even if a catastrophe is averted on November 6.

The 2024 Bainbridge Island Film Festival runs from November 7-10.

Tomorrow marks yet another “most important election of our lifetimes.” And to be fair, it is pretty important. We get to pick a Governor between the Democrat’s heir apparent and the guy who definitely did not solve the Green River killer case. We have the chance to tell Council appointee Tanya Woo “no” for the second time. We could vote away hundreds of millions in education funding if enough people fall for Let’s Go Washington’s phony populist schtick, and this might be the last time you ever vote for President! Want to get in on the action? Turn in your ballot by 8pm Tuesday, November 5! by Hannah Krieg

Tomorrow marks yet another “most important election of our lifetimes.” And to be fair, it is pretty important. We get to pick a Governor between the Democrat’s heir apparent and the guy who definitely did not solve the Green River killer case. We have the chance to tell Council appointee Tanya Woo “no” for the second time. We could vote away hundreds of millions in education funding if enough people fall for Let’s Go Washington’s phony populist schtick, and this might be the last time you ever vote for President! Want to get in on the action? Turn in your ballot by 8pm Tuesday, November 5!

According to King County Elections’ (KCE) ballot return statistics, many of you already turned yours in. As of 9am Monday, 50% of King County’s 1.4 million registered voters cast a ballot. That’s a much higher engagement rate than in typical odd-year elections, where less than half of registered voters usually participate. However, turnout still falls short of the nearly 86% we saw in 2020.

Young people need to pick up the slack. About 21% of registered voters are 65 or older, but with a whopping 71% of those voters turning in a ballot, they make up 30% of the returned ballots. As for voters under 35, they account for 28% of all registered voters, but make up only about 19% of the returned ballots. Young people: You tend to vote better than old people. Sorry, not sorry. Please get to the ballot box!

First step, you need to register. You can check here to see if you already are. 

If you’re not registered, it is unfortunately too late to register to vote by mail. However, you can still register and vote at one of seven voting centers in the county, which are all open today until 6pm and then 8:30am to 8pm on election day. Remember to bring your Washington State driver's license, and a state ID, or memorize the last four digits of your social security number when you go. 

If you’re already registered to vote, awesome. The ballot should be in your mailbox unless you took it out and put it somewhere weird. I can’t help you find it in your own home. Well, maybe if you send me a nice email I would. 

But if you really can’t find it, you can print out a new one, or go vote in person at a King County voting center.

Once you have your ballot in hand, you can check out our endorsements to figure out who you should vote for if you’re even a centimeter left of center. If you’re in a hurry — I know some of you are reading this at 7:30pm — you can read this cheat sheet. 

Then, put the ballot in the envelope, give it a lil lick, seal it, sign it, and then I recommend going to a drop box rather than banking on the USPS post marking it in time. You can find your nearest drop box here. 

Login here to track your ballot and make sure it gets counted. If election counters “challenge” your signature, you can correct it here. 

Last, I’d suggest buying yourself a lil drink. You’re gonna need it. 

 

Mute Steve Kornacki, unclench your jaw, and scroll through these sweet scenes from Sea-Meow. by Megan Seling

Photos by Madison Kirkman

Sea-Meow, which bills itself as Washington’s largest cat convention, invaded Seattle Center’s Exhibition Hall over the weekend and brought with it appearances from the Two Crazy Cat Ladies, Moshow the Cat Rapper, and Christopher Watson aka the Catluminati, as well as a cat costume contest, a cat-calling contest, cat bingo, and dozens of vendors slinging everything from cat beds to catnip to cat coffee. (That is, cat-themed coffee that benefits cat rescues and not, like, coffee for cats.)

But most importantly, there were cats. So many cats. Old cats, young cats, kitten cats. Cats available for adoption, cats available for snuggles, and cats being pushed, carried, and cradled in backpacks and strollers and those bags with little clear bubble cutouts that make them look like grumpy-faced astronauts. 

Election results won’t be in for several hours, and even then, it may take days to know who won. So close Twitter (what are you still doing on that hell site anyway???), mute Steve Kornacki, unclench your jaw, and scroll through these sweet scenes from Sea-Meow.

Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman Madison Kirkman

Jones’s musical legacy—and devotion to his Seattle roots—carries on. by Alexa Peters

In 2017, during a performance from local garage-jazz quartet Industrial Revelation at Upstream Music Festival, I noticed a commotion near the stage as people huddled around the VIP seats. I stood on my toes and looked—Is that Quincy Jones?!

While Jones, the legendary musician, producer, and alumnus of Seattle’s Garfield High School, had given a keynote address earlier in the festival, I didn’t expect to see the mastermind behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller sitting amongst the crowd. But there he was, shaking hands, taking pictures with fans, and even sharing generously with a young musician who asked him about score orchestration. Then, it was my turn to thank him. He grasped my hand and grinned, wrapped in one of his iconic striped scarves.

On Sunday, Jones passed away at his home in Los Angeles. He was 91. Though it’s been many decades since he lived in Seattle, and he was only a resident from 1943 until 1951, Jones continuously nurtured his ties to the city over the course of his life and inspired generations of local musicians.

“Sometimes, in today's musical world, there can be a level of superficiality, and Quincy was the opposite of that,” says Riley Mulherkar, a graduate of Garfield High School and rising jazz trumpeter who released his acclaimed debut record earlier this year. “[He had] mastery of the form at a young age—and then he was able to take that into all sorts of musical situations, and literally change the world.” 

Jones was born on March 14, 1933, in Chicago. After a tumultuous early childhood with his mother, who had schizophrenia, Jones’s father, Quincy Jones Sr., moved Jones and his brother to Bremerton, Washington. When he was 12, Jones began playing trumpet at Bremerton’s Coontz Junior High. 

In 1947, after Jones’s father remarried, he moved his sons, his new wife, and her three children, to Seattle. Jones started at Garfield High School and quickly met fellow student Charlie Taylor, who played saxophone.

Taylor was one of the sons of Evelyn Bundy, a trailblazing Seattle jazzwoman who formed one of the city’s first jazz bands in the 1920s. At Garfield, Taylor was ready to put together his own group. He invited Jones to become a member of his band, and Jones agreed, joining a cast of elite musicians at Garfield including Oscar Holden Jr. and Grace Holden, two children of pianist and Seattle jazz scene patriarch Oscar Holden.

After their first few gigs as the Charlie Taylor Band, Bumps Blackwell, a bandleader, songwriter, arranger, and record producer (who would go on to mentor Ray Charles, Ernestine Anderson, and Sam Cooke, among others), offered to manage them as the Bumps Blackwell Junior Band.

As Paul de Barros notes in his book Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle, the Bumps Blackwell Junior Band was a “focal point” in people’s memories of Jackson Street, which was home to a bustling jazz scene in the years around World War II until 1960. 

The time in the band was influential for Jones, too. Jones got to perform frequently, including opening for Nat King Cole at Civic Auditorium, and the group allowed him to befriend other notable musicians who worked on Jackson Street at the time, like Ray Charles or “R.C.”, who first taught Jones about arranging.

Jones left Seattle in 1951 to attend Berklee School of Music. He soon dropped out to tour with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra and eventually form his own band. From there, Jones’s career is one milestone after another. 

Some highlights from Jones’s career include working as musical director, arranger, and trumpeter in trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s band, becoming the first African American vice president at Mercury Records in 1964, composing film scores for dozens of films, composing for iconic TV shows including Roots, and serving as producer and arranger for top-tier talent including, of course, Michael Jackson. 

Jones also founded Quincy Jones Productions, an all-encompassing media and artist management company that helped jumpstart the careers of artists like Jacob Collier.

With all his accomplishments and fame, Seattle organizations have bestowed Jones with various honors, including Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Northwest African American Museum and the Seattle International Film Festival. Likewise, Jones kept up his connection to the Emerald City, often supporting the local music scene and returning home for visits. 

As far back as 1959, when Jones was hired to form his own band, he hired musicians from Seattle he admired, including pianist Patti Bown, trumpeter Floyd Standifer, and one of his lifelong friends, bassist Buddy Catlett. 

Upon Catlett’s death in 2014, Jones tributed his “brother and bandmate” on Facebook, calling him “one of the greatest bass players to ever take the stage. From Charlie Taylor's and Bumps Blackwell's bands when we were starting out in Seattle to my Free and Easy tour of Europe, we traveled the world playing the music we love.”

Jones has stayed especially linked with Garfield High School. In 2008, when Garfield High School decided to name their freshly renovated performing arts center after Jones, he flew in for the dedication ceremony. As recently as last year, Jones donated $50,000 to Seattle’s Washington Middle School, which feeds into Garfield High School, to help keep their jazz program alive. 

“Today, I had the pleasure of visiting my old school in Seattle, Garfield High, and man did it bring back some memories!!,” Jones wrote in a 2017 Facebook post. “I can't believe it’s been 70 years since I walked these halls as a student...Moving to Seattle forever changed me for the better...and finding music here showed me that I could be more than a statistic...”

Mulherkar, like Jones, found music at Garfield High School, where Jones is now embedded into the lore of the school.

In 2009, as a high school junior playing trumpet in Garfield’s jazz band, Mulherkar had the chance to meet and work with Jones when the legendary producer came into their rehearsal. He conducted the students in a couple songs, including a swingin’ Jones original and one of Mulherkar’s favorites called “Stockholm Sweetnin’.”

“It was hard to even wrap our minds around, because there's Quincy Jones, the celebrity,” said Mulherkar. “It felt so special to have this personal connection to the man, as a Garfield student, as a trumpet player, and [as] someone who wanted to make my life in the music.”

Mulherkar, who now lives in New York, still finds it special that the beginnings of his career were so touched by the icon.

“As a jazz musician from Seattle who went to Garfield… I love that he was able to make such a tremendous impact starting from a place that, for me, is so relatable,” said Mulherkar.

Through Garfield students like Mulherkar, and the countless other artists Jones mentored as a producer and music executive, Jones’s musical legacy—and devotion to his Seattle roots—carries on. 

Follow along for continuous Election Night 2024 coverage! by Stranger Election Control Board ????

Welcome to the General Election 2024 Live Blog. Election Day is here, and it’s time to grab your anxiety meds and vice of choice and tuck in for a wild ride.

Chances are, we won’t know the results of the presidential election tonight (though we’ll likely know who won Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan by the end of the night—we’ll keep you posted.) 

But in the meantime, we should have results for some of our most important local elections before we all go to bed tonight. As always, we’ll be lurking at their parties, judging their snacks, and capturing the election night magic/anxiety/crushing defeat.

If you haven’t voted yet, there’s still time! But run, don’t walk. 

Check your voter registration here. If you’re not, you can still register and vote at one of seven voting centers in the county, which are open until 8 pm today. Remember to bring your Washington State driver's license, and a state ID, or memorize the last four digits of your social security number when you go. If you’re already registered to vote, awesome. The ballot should be in your mailbox unless you took it out and put it somewhere weird, but if it’s not, you can print out a new one or go vote in person at a King County voting center. Once you’ve filled out your ballot, find your nearest drop box here. 

Once you’ve voted, if you need to be with people who are just as stressed as you, come on by The Stranger and KEXP’s election party at the Crocodile. The party started at 4 pm but we'll be there until midnight—join us!

Now back to business. Want a refresher on the races as we count them down? Check out our endorsements here. 

Here’s a very non-exhaustive list of the things to know going in: 

• We’re going to elect a new governor! (Bob, you better have food at your party this time.) Both The Stranger and the Seattle Times endorsed Bob Ferguson, and he was squarely in the lead in recent polls, so we’re not too worried about MAGA-dude Dave Reichert running the state.
• Alexis Mercedes Rinck! The most recent polling puts the progressive newcomer a whole 24 points ahead of Council appointee Tanya Woo. Woo came in second in the August primary, but Woo’s campaign manager called the gap between the two candidates (Rinck’s 50.2% to Woo’s 38.4%) “brutal.” It looks like Woo’s big business supporters abandoned her in the general, so we’re hoping to send a proper progressive to City Hall tonight. 
• Now here’s one for the books, folks—a real blue-on-blue showdown in the 9th Congressional District. We’ve got 14-term Congressman Adam Smith, who is also a House Armed Services Committee bigwig, going head-to-head with civil rights firebrand Melissa Chaudhry. What’s the primary dividing line? What else: Gaza and the ongoing horror show that Smith pretends to wring his hands over while quietly writing blank checks for the next round of airstrikes. He's made empty calls for a ceasefire, while Chaudhry has called for an arms embargo. With no fears of a Republican winning in the state's only majority POC- district, it'll be interesting to see if the race serves as a referendum on Smith's support of the Israeli genocide. 
• Have you read about Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s opponent in this election? Local families say David Olson is cozy with Moms for Liberty, a far-right parents group that opposes inclusive policies and lessons on race, gender, and sexuality in school; and he helped the Peninsula School District push away critical race theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training while parents and students raised concerns about racism and discrimination in his district. The race for Superintendent of Public Instruction is a nonpartisan race, which is likely why the most recent polls show that 21% of voters plan to vote for Reykdal, 18% for Olson, and a whopping 61% had no idea who they’re voting for. We hate this, and we’ll be watching it closely. 
• All eyes are on Clallam County. This little bellwether county at the top of the Olympic Peninsula has backed every presidential winner since 1980. Will they keep their streak? 

Check back regularly—we’ll keep you updated through the night!

Outgoing Governor Jay Inslee Takes the Stage 9:26 pm Jay Inslee speaking at the convention center. SECB

Inslee was the last to speak at the WA Dem election party, opening his speech by saying, “I’ve been waiting for Bob Ferguson to take over my job for years…”

People Are Doing Therapy Crafts at the Crocodile 9:11 pm Color the pain away. BILLIE WINTER

Sure, we got a lot of good news locally, but holy shit things are still VERY TENSE. So folks are crafting, donating to Shout Your Abortion, and, of course, drinking at the Crocodile to soothe the stress.

Shout Your Abortion's free swag at the party. BILLIE WINTER Cheers or something! BILLIE WINTER Attorney General Bob Ferguson Declares Victory 9:02 pm Bob Ferguson made it clear he's not gonna take Trump's bullshit (if it comes to that, please god don't let it come to that). SECB

Ferguson declared victory in the Washington State Governor’s race from the stage at the WA Dem election party, as he leads his opponent, former US Representative Dave Reichert, by about 13 points. Ferguson declared that if the presidential election results in another four years of Donald Trump, there is no other statewide candidate in the nation more “prepared to defend your freedoms against that administration than I am.”

Everything We Know So Far About Local Results 9 pm

Alright folks, do yourselves a favor and turn a blind eye to that "other race" going on (unless you’re a glutton for punishment and want to dive headfirst into an instant doom spiral). But hey, there’s actually some decent news in the local returns. Here’s your super-quick breakdown that won’t exactly soothe your soul but might take the edge off:

• Nick Brown is mollywhooping Republican Pete Serrano in the Attorney General race. Brown, who has that “Obama” appeal we’re told, is ahead 56.85% to 43.06%.
• Chris Reykdal, who’s held down the Superintendent of Public Instruction role since 2017, might not be packing up anytime soon; he’s beating David Olsen 53.1% to 45.84%.
• Over in the Commissioner of Public Lands showdown, Dave Upthegrove is trouncing Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler 54.6% to 44.87%.
• Sal Mungia’s narrowly ahead of Dave Larson, with 50.6% of the vote to Larson’s 49.91% in the race for State Supreme Court Position #2.
• Seattle is maybe, possibly, finally, saying goodbye to Tanya Woo. The never-elected city council member currently trails Alexis Mercedes Rinck 42% to 57%. 
• In Congressional District 9, genocide enabling Adam Smith will most likely defeat Melissa Chaudhry. The race currently sits at 70% to 30%, respectively. 
• In what we believe experts refer to as a one-sided ass-kicking, Democratic Socialist Shaun Scott has a gargantuan lead of 68% to 31% over Andrea Surez in the race to replace Frank Chopp in the 43rd district.
• And in what should be a surprise to no one Bob Ferguson is likely our next governor. He currently leads Dave Reichart 56.47% to 43.34%

Turning to the initiatives… 

The good: Initiatives 2066, 2109, and 2124 are sinking fast, with nearly 60%, 70%, and 54% of counted ballots giving them the thumbs-down. There’s a little light at the end of the tunnel!

The not-so-great: Initiative 2117 is pulling 53% in favor.

Still, three out of four ain’t bad! 

And finally, in the race everyone was teetering on the edge of sanity about for the last five months. In the state auditor’s race, Pat McCarthy leads Matt Hawkins 59.21% to 40.66%. If you’ve been losing sleep over this one, maybe you’ll get a nap tonight. 

Nick Brown Feels Good After Initial Results (But Won't Wear Sparkly Cowboy Hat) 8:56 pm Nick, why won't you wear the cowboy hat too? SECB

Nick Brown thanked his team and his supporters and told us he didn’t see a world where he wouldn’t win at this point. As of 8:39 pm, Brown had 56% and his opponent, Pete Serrano, had 43%. As Brown thanked everyone and headed to main ballroom to give a speech, he pointed out his kids, who were sporting those blue cowboy hats.

All But One Initiative Rejected 8:45 pm State Representative Nicole Macri reacting to tonight's local results. SECB

Spirits were high in the Defend WA room at the WA Dems Election Party. Defend WA organized the campaign to reject the four initiatives that sought to repeal the Capitol Gains Tax, the Climate Commitment Act, Washington’s public Long Term Care program WA Cares, and a law intended to reduce Washington’s greenhouse gas emissions. Voters roundly reject the first three of those initiatives, I-2109, I-2117, and I-2124. Unfortunately for Washington’s hopes to decrease our reliance on natural gas in favor of electric power, voters appear to have voted yes on I-2066, which would effectively prevent the state from trying to electrify anything in any building. Insane. State Representative Nicole Macri said Defend WA knew that would be a hard fight because of a lot of early misinformation about the law I-2066 sought to repeal. She says Washington tried to get ahead of the nation, but the change confused voters, and they seem to want the state to go a little slower. But the results aren’t finalized. At last check, numbers showed 51.1% voting “Yes” and 48.84% voting “No.” Also, Macri said the fact that the capitol gains tax remained in place was great. “We need this,” Macri said.

Holy Fucking Shit, Shaun Scott 8:37 pm Shaun "Holy Fucking Shit" Scott speaks. SECB

“Holy fucking shit!” screamed the man next to us, reading the election results from his laptop. “Shaun Scott–67 percent.” That’s as far as he got before the emcee took over to lead a call and response shout of “I believe that we can win.” Rep. Darya Farivar got 87.52%, while Alexis Mercedes Rinck got 57.32%. She acknowledged the anxiety people may be feeling about the presidential race, but she and the crowd kept up the energy.

Election officials have not counted all the voters, but all three candidates are looking like winners, which would be a serious victory for local progressive politics and a rebuke of reactionary conservatism.

Rep. Farivar told the room that they all had work to do.

“I’m so grateful that locally we have Alexis to defend things at the City level,” she says. “I am absolutely thrilled I’m going to have a partner in these shenanigans.”

Scott began his speech by saying his victory came five years ago to the hour of his 2019 defeat running for City Council—and that tonight he finally got it done for the essential workers, the students, the parents, the teachers, and everybody who would benefit from the economic justice he campaigned on.

Alexis took the mic last. The crowd cheered when she said a queer Latina would represent them on Seattle City Council.“But I know I stand on the shoulders of many who pave the way and I promise I won’t be the last.”

The TV is back on, but people are too busy hugging and shaking hands to pay much attention.

Suarez Is Cheery, Losing 8:34 pm Suarez promises to run again. SECB

Suarez kept a cheery attitude despite dismal results—31.4% to Shaun Scott's 67.7%. She says she can't swing back from her poor showing at the first drop. But even though she lost, Suarez maintains that she won.

"When you run, you win just by getting your message out there," says Suarez. "Winners never quit, and quitters never win."

Saurez hugged her small group of supporters after her results dropped. She comforts them by promising to run again. She's not sure for what, but she's always had one eye on the citywide council seats in 2025.

No One Seems to Notice the Local Election Wins at the Dem Party 8:17 pm Look, y'all! Local results are in! SECB

At the large WA Dem party at the convention center, all eyes remained fixed on the national races as Dems swept local results. Speeches will come later, but initial results show the Governor, Attorney General, and Lands Commissioner races all went to the Dems. 

The First Batch of State and King County Results Are In! 8:06 pm

See statewide results here!

See King County results here! 

We're reading and thinking and typing as quickly as we can to bring you some analysis very soon...

For now, a cat in a stroller:

A cat in a backpack at the Sea-Meow convention at the Seattle Center last weekend. MADISON KIRKMAN Hey! We Were Watching That! 7:59 pm Turn it back on! SECB

Somebody shut off the TV at Saint John's. The presidential race is looking a little scary, isn’t it?

Nick Brown Jumped in the Ocean This Morning 7:55 pm Yes, that *IS* Nick Brown. SECB

Attorney General candidate Nick Brown woke up at 5:15 this morning and jumped into the ocean to start his day. Then he did some other campaign stuff, and right before heading to the Dem watch party, he had dinner with his campaign team and Governor Jay Inslee. Brown said he’s excited for his chances tonight and he had a better ground game than his opponent. As we chatted, someone walked past and said, “That’s Nick Brown.” He looked up, confused for a moment, and then said, “I gotta get used to that.” The charm is charming.

Upthegrove's Mooching off Brown’s Campaign 7:49 pm Dave Upthegrove and his husband Chad. SECB

Candidate for Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove just arrived with his husband Chad. Upthegrove doesn’t have his own suite at this thing, it would have cost him $2,000, which made us gag. We appreciate thrifty Upthegrove stashing his stuff in Attorney General Candidate Nick Brown’s room. Upthegrove says he feels good about his chances to win his race, and he hopes to be toasting with a glass of champagne at his parent's house later tonight.

Meanwhile, at Our Election Party at the Crocodile... 7:46 pm Billie Winter

Thank god for Miss Texas 1988.

You Have 15 Minutes to Drop Off Your Ballot 7:45 pm

This ballot box on Capitol Hill even comes with live music! 

Polls close in 15 minutes! But the party is just getting started at this dropbox on Capitol Hill... pic.twitter.com/ddNfGYQw63

— The Stranger ???? (@TheStranger) November 6, 2024

Capitol Hill Protest Update 7:30 pm

A total of five people have been arrested for property damage, according to SPD. The property damage was, apparently, spray paint. They used the helicopter for some spray paint.

There are now five total arrests. The group has broken up. We will update here with additional information if anything changes. pic.twitter.com/YcmKUium3V

— Seattle Police Department (@SeattlePD) November 6, 2024

Loose Protest Leads to Arrests on Capitol Hill 7:10 pm

The Seattle Police Department made at least four arrests for property destruction at a protest on Capitol Hill tonight. Some flyers posted earlier in the week called for people to show up at Cal Anderson Park at 6 pm on Election Day to protest the “genocide abroad and a militarized police state at home.” Apparently, a lot of cops are out on the hill tonight on their bikes according to one of the photographers we have assisting us with election coverage. SPD said the King County Sheriff’s Office has their helicopter out to assist them with the situation.

The Social Justice League Will Save Seattle 7:08 pm People are too nervous to party at Saint John's. SECB

We’ve arrived at Saint John’s in Capitol Hill for the combined election night party for progressives Shaun Scott, a candidate for the 43rd District, District 46 Rep. Darya Farivar, and Alexis Mercedes Rinck, the Seattle City Council candidate challenging appointee Tanya Woo for Position 8. The Stranger endorsed all three of these progressive candidates this year, and if the results tonight are anything like the midterms, all three are likely to win.

It’d be a jolly vibe if everyone wasn’t so goddamn nervous about the presidential election. The people wearing Harris/Walz shirts are looking from their phones to the big screen TV showing minute-by-minute updates from NBC. The room was filling up and a group of guys asked to sit at our table, including Harrison Jerome, a volunteer with the Rinck campaign from the start because he thinks she’s good on housing affordability. “I’m a renter and I want to live in Seattle and by my parents,” he said. “But it gets harder and harder every year. Feels like if you didn’t move here in the ’90s you pretty much have no hope of owning a home.” As we talked, his eyes barely left the screen.

A minute later, Rinck walked in the door, trailed by a cameraman from Fox 13 with a blindingly bright light. On the back porch, she tells me she tried to take it slow today. She made some calls, did some sign waving, and ran off the pre-election jitters. She says that over the past few weeks, voters have been eager to share their personal experiences with affordability, safety, and their loved ones struggling with substance use disorder.

“They just want to be heard,” she says. “...They want to know how the City can play a role in addressing those things.”

Boooo, Bob Ferguson!  6:56 pm Ferguson's folks are turning people away at the door. SECB

Ferguson won’t let anyone in his party. So excited for this man to represent the Democratic Party. Big tent with no room for the people. ☹️

He won't let us in and we're jealous because we want to make friends with this girl. SECB Good Gossip (but No Free Booze) at Andrea Suarez's Party 6:49 pm TELL US WHERE WOO'S PARTY IS, ANDREA. SECB

State House candidate Andrea Suarez of We Heart Seattle fame hosted a small gathering at Cotto (no free booze, remind us to Venmo request Brady). In a small crowd of less than a dozen, Suarez gave us lots of attention. She said she had never seen us in so much clothing! We called her rude in the moment, but we forgive her. She also loudly prompted We Heart Seattle's Tim Emerson to tell us how many people the organization has housed this year. He said eight. Suarez said there's a lot of good We Heart Seattle does, but people get fixated on the times she's moved tents and stuff. She said more coverage should come about the positives of her controversial organization after the election.

But after an Aperol spritz, we really gossiped like girls. We learned that Suarez recently officiated a wedding for two of her "original litter pickers," relitigated her talent show-related trauma, and shit-talked consultants.

Suarez also tattled on Council Member Tanya Woo, who told us she wasn't having a public party. Turns out she's hosting a gathering on the waterfront. Suarez grumbled about Woo not agreeing to a combined party. She said she feels a little insecure about the fact that people came to her party early so they could get to Woo's event in time for the results.

Speaking of, Council President Sara Nelson popped in briefly. She left around 6:15 pm, probably to get to Woo's event, according to Suarez. Feeling snubbed, we plotted briefly to crash Woo's party. We offered to pick up litter for 3 hours in exchange for the address for Woo's secret party, but she didn't rat her all the way out.

Unfortunately, we just missed Council President Sara Nelson. She kept plenty of space between us before she rushed out the door.

Oh Hey, Kay!
6:39 pm And another one. SECB

Democratic convention delegate Kay Acholonu doubled up on the cowboy hats, sporting the one from tonight and the one from the Democratic Convention. 

Immaculate Vibes at Representative Pramila Jayapal’s Party 6:33 pm DO THE HATS LIGHT UP????? SECB

In a swath of empty, lonely, cold rooms, Jayapal’s party set itself apart as the place to be in this convention center tonight. She lucked out that the air conditioning in her room crapped out, we walked in and immediately felt like we were actually at a party, not a failing mega church’s Sunday service (seriously convention center lighting is terrible for the vibes). Jayapal says she expects Democrats to win the presidency tonight, as well as the House. We noted that one of her former campaign staffers, Shaun Scott, is on the ballot tonight, and she says a whole host of great new and old local candidates are on the ballot this year, name-checking Bob Ferguson among them. We left Jayapal with a drink in her hand and in conversation with Leesa Manion, who seemed relieved to no longer be standing in a mostly empty room.

Do You Need to See a Picture of a Cat Wearing a Cheeseburger Hat? 6:29 pm

That fucking New York Times needle is back, goddammit. 

A cat in a cheeseburger at the Sea-Meow convention at the Seattle Center last weekend. MADISON KIRKMAN You Have Two Hours Left to Vote, Seattle! 6 pm

Washington polls close at 8 pm! Not even registered? There’s still time! Haven’t dropped off your ballot yet? Find the nearest drop box and get to it! 

As Hannah Krieg wrote on Monday:

As of 9 am Monday, 50% of King County’s 1.4 million registered voters cast a ballot. That’s a much higher engagement rate than in typical odd-year elections, where less than half of registered voters usually participate. However, turnout still falls short of the nearly 86% we saw in 2020.

Young people need to pick up the slack. About 21% of registered voters are 65 or older, but with a whopping 71% of those voters turning in a ballot, they make up 30% of the returned ballots. As for voters under 35, they account for 28% of all registered voters, but make up only about 19% of the returned ballots. Young people: You tend to vote better than old people. Sorry, not sorry. Please get to the ballot box!

Early Birds Arrive at the Big Dem Party 5:53 pm King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion (center) starting the party at the Convention Center. SECB

King County Prosecuting Attorney Leesa Manion arrived at the Dem party at the Convention Center. She looked around for a second and commented how quiet everything was. They’d only just opened the doors, but we agree with her. Manion said she feels like the election will be solid on the local level, and she’s “going to live in the land of hope” about the presidential race.

And Now for a Message from the Great Riz Rollins 5:33 pm

Riz Rollins has entered the chat with some thoughtful words for the night, from our election party at the Crocodile: 

          View this post on Instagram                      

A post shared by The Stranger ???? (@thestrangerseattle)

Alllllll the Democrats Are Gathering at the Convention Center, Where They're Passing Out Sparkly Cowboy Hats 5:20 pm It's giving Cowboy Carter. SECB

We arrived at the Seattle Convention Center to the smell of popcorn and the vibes of one of those conferences where you learn to sell real estate. Candidates expected here tonight include US Senator Maria Cantwell, Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Bob Ferguson, Governor Jay Inslee, US Representative Pramila Jayapal, Candidate for Attorney General Nick Brown, King County Councilmember and Public Lands Commissioner candidate Dave Upthegrove, and the Defend WA Coalition who mounted the opposition to the statewide initiatives. Excited to see Ferguson spend the whole night avoiding someone placing one of these sparkly hats on his head.

Chris Reykdal Is More Nervous About Presidential Race Results Than His Own 5:14 pm Brandy the dog (left) and Chris watching early national results before Washington's numbers come in. COURTESY OF CHRIS REYKDAL

“It’s been a long 18 months, but I’m glad it’s over,” says Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal. Just home from work, he plans to swing by a function with the Thurston County Democrats tonight. He'll be back by 8 pm to lock in and watch the numbers.

Reykdal got screens. His campaign manager’s got screens. They’ll be watching the county-by-county numbers in his race, as well as races in the Legislature, the open State Supreme Court race, the Commissioner of Public Lands Race, and the I-2109 ballot measure to repeal the state’s gains tax, a big deal for education. They’ll throw MSNBC on the TV for the presidential. The clear favorite, Reykdal is more nervous about Trump and Harris than his own race.

The Superintendent race is technically a non-partisan, but the only non-partisan part about it is that voters won’t see either candidate’s political preference on the ballot. Practically speaking, the Democrat-endorsed Reykdal and his Republican-endorsed challenger David Olson have vastly different visions for our schools.

Reykdal is a progressive former teacher, former state legislator and the two-time OSPI incumbent. He cares about feeding poor kids, diversifying the workforce, paying teachers what they deserve, and protecting queer and trans kids from the onslaught of “anti-woke” attacks from right-wingers.

Republican-endorsed David Olson is one of those right-wingers. As a member of the Peninsula School District school board, he made friends with his local chapter of Moms for Liberty. He said in his nearly 11 years on that board fighting DEI and “critical race theory” was one of his proudest moments.

Despite this clear contrast, a Northwest Progressive Institute survey of 571 likely voters found that despite the stark ideological divide, 61% did not know who they were voting for. Of those who did know who they supported, Reykdal held a narrow three-point lead (21%) over Olson (18%). 

Andrew Villeneuve, founder and executive director of the NWPI, said in an email that the lack of party affiliation explains the large group of undecided voters in this race, even though previous polling shows Washingtonians are enthusiastic about Reykdal’s policy positions. “For those voters taking the time to study the candidates, it should become apparent pretty quickly that Chris is fired up to tackle the tough issues head-on.” (The NWPI has worked with Reykdal for years on issues like no-cost meals and school seismic safety, he says.)

Rekydal says that’s just a reality of his race. “I do think it’ll be closer than it was four years ago, but I also think it’s just the fact that there isn’t an obvious D or an R by a name,” he says. “They just don’t have the traditional political cues.”

The Big East Coast Dump Results...  5:04 pm

Several polls on the East Coast just closed, and the New York Times is projecting: 

Trump wins Florida, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Harris wins Maryland, Massachusetts, and Delaware.

Polls are still open here in Washington for another almost 3 hours! Get your ballots in! There are tons of local elections worth voting on! 

Here's another cat in a backpack.

A cat in a backpack at the Sea-Meow convention at the Seattle Center last weekend. MADISON KIRKMAN Vermont Goes to Sanders and Harris 4:30 pm

But you already knew that wouldn't happen, didn't you?

Related: New York Times called Kentucky and West Virginia for Trump. 

Don't worry, we have more cat pictures for later.

MSNBC Calls Indiana for Trump 4:06 pm

Don’t panic. It’s early.

Here's a picture of a cat preparing for space travel.

A cat in a backpack at the Sea-Meow convention at the Seattle Center last weekend. MADISON KIRKMAN Melissa Demyan's Brain Feels Like Goo 3:55 pm Demyan with her partner in their special occasion tracksuits. COURTESY OF MELISSA DEMYAN

Melissa Demyan, the brave labor organizer taking on Rep. Larry Springer, the Stranger Election Control Board’s least favorite so-called Democrat in the State House, says her brain feels like goo right now. Her campaign’s reached more than 63,000 voters, knocked on 10,000 doors, made 1,300 phone calls, and pitched 500 signs in lawns. And this morning, she and her partner put on their matching Adidas tracksuits—saved for special occasions—to do some last-minute get-out-the-vote effort. When The Stranger called her (we only took 5 minutes of her precious time, we are very considerate!), she said she still had one more “lit drop” before she could head to her party at Ixtapa in Redmond Ridge. She plans to treat herself to a sipping shot of the nicest tequila in the house while she watches the results roll in for her race and across the country. Jane Fonda will not be in attendance.

Iconic actress Jane Fonda endorses labor organizer Melissa Demyan to unseat 20-year incumbent Rep. Larry Springer in the 45th LD, who she said we should really call a Republican. Fonda also asks voters to vote NO on the Let's Go Washington initiatives. pic.twitter.com/0jaW7IYQmc

— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) October 11, 2024

Every action counts for Demyan. She came within striking distance of Springer in the primary, but he outspent her about five to one. Still, given the outpouring of community support and her team's tireless ground game, she anticipates a close match. Either way, Demyan’s proud of the race she and her supporters ran. Demyan felt especially hartened when a supporter responded to a campaign text to tell her that her 8-year-old is telling everyone they encounter that she’s her favorite candidate besides Kamala Harris.

Melissa Chaudhry: Not Stressing, Eating Cake 2:45 pm Why didn't you send a picture of the cake, Melissa? COURTESY OF MELISSA CHAUDHRY

After a long weekend of door knocking, flyering, and general get-out-the-voting, U.S. House of Reps candidate Melissa Chaudhry is ready to celebrate with her supporters and the broader movement against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. “I’m doing party prep and not stressing. I repeat—not stressing,” Chaudhry told the Stranger Election Control Board in a phone call this afternoon.

She’s throwing a party at the Mall of Africa Restaurant in SeaTac where her supporters will enjoy food, non-alcoholic drinks (coconut water appears to be the crowd favorite, she says), and a cake frosted to resemble her campaign yard signs.

Until then, Chaudhry says she’ll be keeping up with prayer, but she won’t be praying for a victory. Her competition, Warhawk Rep. Adam Smith, secured more than 50% of the vote in the primary. Flushed with cash from the defense industry and pro-Israel PACs, Smith has a pretty good chance at winning the general too.

If she loses, Chaudhry says she will continue to do “much of the same work” she’s done on the campaign.

“Dozens and dozens and dozens of people have told us that they're registering to vote or their whole families are registering to vote for the first time because of my campaign,” says Chaudhry. “And that's the kind of grassroots engagement and political empowerment that we need to make democracy real.”

She also hopes her campaign sends a clear message to Smith that his constituents want investment at home, not in genocides across the globe.

A Rainbow Appears
1:44 pm Don't forget to breathe. SECB

As we were preparing all our election night coverage, this rainbow appeared over the city. Good omen? 

Seattle's only news roundup. by Charles Mudede

We wake up today with this certainty: None of it mattered. The secret documents, the sky-high covid deaths, January 6, racist statement after racist statement, the economic crash, the sexual assault allegations, the pussy grabbing, Moscow,  Roe v. Wade, the conviction, and what have you. All of it amounted to a hill of beans. And there will certainly be more outrages in years to come; and once again, they still will not matter one dot. If we, on the left, come to this understanding, we can move on by simply asking: What, then, does matter? What truly counts in American politics? What is its actual ground? This kind of clear thinking might prove to be invaluable.

We also have to accept the fact that California no longer represents the future of America. In the past it did, but not anymore. The future is now found in Texas. Elon Musk knew this. He relocated himself, Space X, and X to what has become our whole country: the Lone Star State.

Kamala Harris only won deep blue states: And Trump is going back to the White House because millions of people decided to "sit this one out." And the Senate returns to the GOP. As for the House, its final composition is yet to be known. Now, how are we to read all of this, and, particularly, the outcome of the presidential race? Well, Trump's first term in office is something like the first book in Octavia Butler's Parable series, Parable of the Sower, which was published in 1993 and features a Trump-like president who basically strips America of its economic assets. The second term will be like the second book, Parable of the Talents, which was published in 1998 and features an out-and-out Christofacist president who promises to “Make America Great Again.” Butler never completed the third book in the series.   

"Welcome to how our only world ends. It will be like this every summer: getting worse, and worse, and worse until there’s nothing worse left."https://t.co/vs5HAmUloY

— The Stranger ???? (@TheStranger) July 23, 2024

Florida and South Dakota gave abortion access the middle finger. But Arizona, Colorado, New York, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, and Nevada protected reproductive rights. However, with the Senate, and possibly the House, under GOP control, the whole states’ rights business might turn out to be worth no more than the salt you put in greens.

The Stranger Election Control Board had a good night. Alexis Mercedes Rinck is going to beat incumbent Tanya Woo for Seattle City Council Position 8. The same goes with Democratic Socialist Shaun Scott. He will certainly beat Andrea Suarez in the race to represent Washington’s 43rd Legislative District. And the man who did not catch the Green River Killer isn't going to Olympia. Bob Ferguson handily defeated Dave Reichert for the governor seat. Sen. Maria Cantwell gave her opponent nothing but the boot. And, altogether, it seems Washington became bluer, saner, a little world, a precious stone, set in the reddest of seas.   

Now that the whole country is basically Texas, Seattle might consider not staying in bed with conservative council members. Now is the time to get up and go hard to the left.   

Voters showed Washington State Ferries (WSF) some love this time: The Prohibit Carbon Tax Credit Trading initiative  went down in flames. This means WSF will get electric ships and some badly-needed government cheese. However, the Ensure Access to Natural Gas measure , which wants to decelerate Puget Sound Energy’s departure from carbon liberation and protec the buyers and sellers of natural gas statewide, left the gate in the lead: 51% to 48%.

Joe Kent is facing a second round of wound licking. His opponent in Washington's 3rd Congressional District race, Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is, at this point, ahead by 4 points.

The sun will be out today. That's something.

A termite mound that's been around for something like 34,000 years was recently discovered in South Africa. Of course, termites haven't called this mound home for thousands of years. And this is a shame, because termites are really delicious. You catch them during the rainy season; this is when termites take to the sky with lots of fat in their bodies (they are trying to start a new colony—the circle life, that sort of thing). A little cooking oil and a few minutes on the burner turns these brown critters into a tasty snack.

Let us end with this scene from Downtown 81. Ronald Reagan is president. Hip-hop is emerging. And Jean-Michel Basquiat is getting his groove on in the ruins. What I want to point out is the way he moves. So smooth. So cold. So internal. This is being with others to be by yourself. This is exactly how I feel today. Dancing to the aftermath.    

One Really Great Way to Cope Every Day of the Week by Megan Seling WEDNESDAY 11/6  

Drink Sad Girl Shots and Eat Cheese at Situ Tacos

(SHOCK) In a state of post-election shock? Me, too. Lean into the overwhelm with a bracing gulp of el Jimador tequila and a salty cube of Tillamook cheese—otherwise known as the Sad Girl Shot. Situ Tacos owner Lupe Flores claims this combination got her through the pandemic, and it’s likely an ideal salve for our current despondent situation, too. I generally try not to suggest alcohol as an antidote to despair—as wine writer Marissa A. Ross wrote in the wake of Anthony Bourdain’s death, “Drink to celebrate life, not to deal with loss”—but the Sad Girl Shot is just too perfect an invention. Plus, Situ Tacos is also hosting Floaters, an exhibition of artist Devin Liston’s bubbly, surreal, Dali-esque paintings of everyday objects like billiard balls, in their glitzy gold back bar Tilda’s Lounge tonight. Instead of doom-scrolling, go feast your eyes on art and knock back a few drinks, and if you’d prefer to abstain from booze, you can always skip the shots and opt for a tub of Situ’s divine queso. Best of all, 25 percent of the night’s proceeds will go to the Lebanese Red Cross, so you’ll be fighting nihilism by supporting a worthy cause. Sad girls por vida! (Situ Tacos, 5239 Ballard Ave NW, Sad Girl Shots are $6, chips and queso are $10) JULIANNE BELL

THURSDAY 11/7  

Go to Another World with SIFF’s Cinema Italian Style Film Festival

(DENIAL) What’s America? You don’t live there. In fact, you’ve never even heard of the United States. You live in a bubble. Your days are steeped in simplicity and unbroken serenity, untouched by the ever-looming threat of Christofascism and student loan repayment. Your life is bliss. And what you have heard of are the sun-dappled olive groves of Italy. Consider snagging a seat at one of SIFF's chic Cinema Italian Style screenings, particularly if you’re into guised critiques of the bourgeoisie. Or amp up the distraction factor at Art of Studio Ghibli, which celebrates the legendary Japanese animation studio’s poetic, intelligent approach to nature and the more-than-human world. (Thanks, Miyazaki—you’re giving us a reason to live right now.) Sean Baker’s Anora, which follows a sex worker who marries a Russian oligarch, might feel a little too “real world-y” at the moment, but his clear-eyed approach and lush visuals are always a draw. (See full film listings on EverOut) LINDSAY COSTELLO

FRIDAY 11/8  

Break Shit

<a href="https://file13records.bandcamp.com/album/hamburgers-ep">Hamburgers - EP by Atom & His Package</a>

(ANGER) Ever since I saw Bob Trevino Likes It at SIFF this year, I’ve wanted to visit a “rage room,” especially as a woman who, like the main character in the film, has always been taught to be kind and polite, never violent. Lucky for us, we have our own version up in Lake City that invites you to smash glasses, sledgehammer a toilet, and more. We recommend emptying your mind and listening to this absurd little song while you do it. If you’re not into destruction, you can punch out your anger at Cappy’s Boxing Gym in Central District or Seattle Boxing Gym in Interbay (they both offer your first class free!). And if you’d rather drink a beer while throwing sharp objects, there’s always axe throwing in Capitol Hill and White Center. (Rage Industry, 13333 Lake City Way NE, sessions start at $40) SHANNON LUBETICH

SATURDAY 11/9  

Have You Tried Being Less of an Asshole?

Even the grafitti can be nicer. MS

(BARGAINING) DO BETTER. It’s the directive that has echoed through social media comments for years as the quick quip that critics post anytime anyone does anything that even mildly rocks their delicate sensibilities. It usually (understandably) is met with eye rolls. But… have you tried it? Have you actually tried to do better? Maybe if we’re all the best versions of ourselves, we can cancel out some of the 72 million selfish bigots who voted for the racist rapist and preserve some goodwill in this world. Lead with kindness. Have patience. Smile at dogs. Randomly text your pals and tell them that they’re the most gorgeous and hilarious beings on the planet. Offer to bring a meal to a sick friend or rake up leaves for an elderly neighbor. Hold open a door, pay for someone’s coffee, and don’t laugh when a tourist falls off their rented scooter. Be everything those 72 million (and counting!) motherfuckers are too selfish to be. Fake it ‘til you make it—or uncontrollably collapse into a crying, shaking heap of blood, guts, and flesh on the floor—baby! MEGAN SELING

SUNDAY 11/10  

Live That “Two Benadryl and a Lifetime Movie” Life

(DEPRESSION) Several years ago, I heard about “Two Benadryl and a Lifetime Movie” on the C-Word podcast and never forgot it. The depression cocktail has since become the remedy I give to myself and my loved ones who are experiencing insurmountable amounts of sadness. While it doesn’t necessarily need to be those little pink pills and Lifetime’s Ladies of the '80s: A Divas Christmas (although it’s a great combination, TBH), pick any mind-numbing film or television show and pair it with an indulgent (but safe) amount of sleep-inducing potion. Other variations include two cups of chamomile tea and an Adam Sandler movie, two hits of weed and a Martha Stewart Living marathon, or two bowls of ice cream and an old season of Project Runway. Personally, I will be taking two melatonin and watching Lifetime’s adaptation of Flowers in the Attic before drifting into a sweet slumber (or dissociative oblivion, we’ll see). AUDREY VANN

MONDAY 11/11  

Go for a Long Walk and Discover Who You Are Now

You don't even have to go up hills if you don't want to. MS

(TESTING) This is my cure-all for when I feel out of control and need to take back my agency because it’s simple, and you set all the parameters. You control when you walk, how fast you walk, how long you walk, and how many steep inclines you choose to brave or creatively avoid. You can break out into a run or sit down on a wet park bench in the morning drizzle to absorb the book, podcast, or music you’re listening to. Counting steps is nice if you’re into goal setting, but so is leaving your phone at home and soaking in the quiet. Let disinhibition lead you. Screw the clock. Fuck obligations. Clear your schedule and just go. Walking is one of the simplest ways to connect with your autonomy and the human spirit, whatever that means to you. Turn home when your legs ache, and when you get that restless, sick feeling, get your ass off the couch and go walk again. VIVIAN MCCALL

TUESDAY 11/12  

Prepare for Battle

Shout Your Abortion mural on Capitol Hill. MS

(ACCEPTANCE) This is here. It’s real. Donald Trump will be the 47th President of the United States. A lot of bad shit is going to happen, so we need to donate and fight and organize. Don’t get complacent in our blue state. I know a lot of you out there will legitimately be fine, but don’t let your privilege get in the way of seeing that many, many others will not. Donate to the ACLU. Donate to abortion funds in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Donate to the National Immigrant Justice Center. Do whatever Pramila Jayapal tells you to do. Organize a friend group to attend this talk at Town Hall on Thursday about taking collective action and building civic community. Join a mutual aid group (like Super Familia, South & East King County, and Homies Helping Homies). Give food to a community fridge. Volunteer. Foster dogs. Do literally anything to give back to your community. Tell people you love them, and mean it. It’s time to show the fuck up, Seattle. SHANNON LUBETICH

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Hannah Krieg

A perfect day for a biiiiiig walk: We could all use a little sunshine right now. Today, Seattlites can expect on-and-off sunny skies—I think the weather nerds of the PNW call it “sunshowers”—and temperatures in the high 50s. 

Council President Rinck: We got another ballot drop last night! Here in Seattle, Alexis Mercedes Rinck has only expanded her decisive lead on the City Council’s faildaughter Tanya Woo. And it's not just Woo that Rinck’s got beat. Her vote count trumps the combined total of the 2023 City Council victors and she’s got a 26,000-vote lead over Council President Sara Nelson’s 2021 campaign. Rinck may be a minority opinion on the council, but she represents more of the electorate than any other member.

Nail-biter: Washington’s 3rd Congressional District is still too close to call. U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez leads her far-right challenger Joe Kent by about 12,000 votes. We should have a clearer picture in the coming days, but for now the whole country is watching—this race is among the handful that will decide if Republicans retain their majority in the House. 

Another close one: It’s still a tight race for I-2066, the hedge fund millionaire's initiative that would ban the state from encouraging electrification.

Something good on Twitter: After a landslide victory, State House elect Shaun Scott has earned a meme.

???????? pic.twitter.com/RNI4iERKsK

— Shaun Scott ???????? (@eyesonthestorm) November 6, 2024

Joever: Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the nation to concede she had lost the 2024 presidential election. She kept her remarks very positive, very boilerplate Democrat. If she truly believed  Trump is the threat to the American people he is, she should have come for blood. But, no. The Democrats love to capitulate to the right. And, it's part of why they lost so spectacularly. They championed an extreme and inhumane immigration platform, shrugged their shoulders at Israel’s utter decimation of Gaza, and totally abandoned working people crushed by the weight of the affordability crisis. I know you’re smart and you already know this, but as the #Resist libs start to re-recognize the ever-present threat of fascism—the precarity of reproductive access, queer and trans liberation, immigrants’ rights, workers protections, and more—remember that the Democrats' constant sidesteps to the right landed us here. 

well, as long as you had fun! https://t.co/FtJ9HJ4T8P

— Lead Actor from Pixar’s Sodas (@ByYourLogic) November 7, 2024

Trump transition begins: President-elect Donald Trump’s allies have started lobbying for positions in his administration. According to CNN, Trump will use these positions to “reward” those who have remained loyal to him. That’s also a key feature of his plan: make the administrative state, or what they often call the “deep state,” more friendly, thus radically expanding the executive's power and efficiency. Some top positions seem narrowed down. Trump’s likely considering 2024 co-campaign manager Susie Wiles, his former budget director Russ Vought, CEO of the America First Policy Institute Brooke Rollins, or his former US trade representative Bob Lighthizer for White House Chief of Staff. Rumor has it he will also find jobs for loathsome little rat Elon Musk and anti-vax nut job RFK. Cool.

Off the hook: Trump’s victory may mean the end of his two federal criminal cases related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his mishandling of classified documents. His team delayed the cases until after the election, banking on a victory so Trump could fire special counsel Jack Smith and end the cases. As for his New York hush money case, Trump is scheduled for sentencing later this month, but his team will likely argue he’s entitled to constitutional protections afforded to sitting presidents after his election. 

Solidarity: Yesterday, Cascade PBS workers staged an informational picket outside their workplace to pressure their bosses to meet their three demands in their contract: higher wages, better benefits, and strong workplace protections. And, boy, do they deserve higher wages. According to their press release, the Cascade PBS CEO made nearly seven times the average unit member’s salary in 2023. Greed is a fucking disease.

Today at noon, @CascadePBSUnion members used our lunch break to rally for fair wages and a fair contract. If you’re in the area, drop by and say hi - we’ll be the ones in the bright red shirts ✊ pic.twitter.com/ZR9pEwK6jV

— Cascade PBS Union (@CascadePBSUnion) November 6, 2024

In honor of our incoming commander-in-chief: He’s a theatre girly.

Captain Kim sightings: Numerous! by Megan Burbank

With the dawn of the theocracy looming, I’ve been in desperate need of brain-smoothing distraction this week, and I am pleased to report that, unlike the several hours I spent watching MSNBC and drinking three proseccos Tuesday night (for me this is a lot!), I had a very enjoyable time watching this very special Men Tell All episode of The Golden Bachelorette, in which the men are invited back to compliment each other and cry onstage before a live audience as Joan’s journey continues. It’s very nice when the stakes of the show you’re watching are “Will this nice but boring lady with bright hair extensions find love?” and not “Will we still have human rights tomorrow?”

Can you believe that reality TV ruined American politics and, after all that, we’re still begging for it to ruin our minds? I can, because the most wholesome thing to happen to me in the last 48 hours was listening to Charles L. express his delight as he entered the studio where Men Tell All was about to be filmed. “So nice!” he says in his usual tone of vaguely surprised cheer. “Gorgeous!”

Punctuated by ads for the RSV vaccine, Tylenol Arthritis Pain, and a network drama that’s just about emergencies, the Mansion Men are finally back in each others’ arms, this time before a Bachelor Nation audience and a grinning Jesse Palmer, who wears a suit that does not seem well tailored for a man of his upper body strength. The menswear guy on Twitter would not approve, and I don’t either! How much has Charles missed these men? asks Jesse. “Every minute!” says Charles. I love Charles!

It’s time for a look back at the season so far, and all the antics Joan’s suitors got up to. Pascal chuckles at footage of himself. Kim grins as he sees himself fall down playing kickball. The men love each other! They are best friends!

The men were fed burgers for some reason. ABC PRESS

“I am such a better man than I was because of them,” says Gary, looking dapper in his signature glasses. It’s the first of many comments about how being on The Golden Bachelorette has made someone a better person, father, etc. It’s not clear how going on awkward group dates with Joan has made any of these guys “a better father,” but I’m just going to let them stand in their truth.

During a little chat about the Snoring of Gregg, Gregg says that Pascal’s complaining has actually impacted him for the better: “I’m now inspired to take care of my sleep apnea!” he says. Cheers and applause! We love men taking care of extremely basic health problems only after being publicly shamed about them on television! Hear, hear!

But that’s not the only health report! Our valiant naval officer from Mountlake Terrace, Kim, reveals that he separated his shoulder playing sports on The Golden Bachelorette. Jonathan is mocked ruthlessly for being too good at stripping on the Chippendales date. Hey, did you know that Pascal’s salon is called Pascal Pour Elle? I looked it up! Also, it’s not in Chicago. It’s in Glencoe. We’ve been deceived!

Michael discloses the semi-horrifying information that he was diagnosed with cancer right before filming and chose to go on the show anyway! He is applauded for this choice, but if he were my father, I would tell him to start his treatments promptly instead of going on reality TV. Michael! I am glad you’re doing better and also, please make better choices!

Looking back on his time on the show, Gary praises the friendships he made along the way—the only true love stories this franchise can consistently deliver, despite its promise of idealized heterosexual romance. That’s not what Gary’s here for! “The bromance here was just absolutely unbelievable,” says Gary. Hell yeah!

Now it’s time to hear from blushing girl dad Keith—oh, sorry, I mean Caterer Jack. I’m struggling to tell these jolly older white men apart. I goofed! It’s definitely Jack! Jack is wearing a cartoony salmon-colored suit, which makes him look like he owns a casino, says the friend I have roped into watching with me, and I agree. For some reason, everyone in the studio eats a burger and there is on-camera chewing, which I hate and never want to see again.

Now we’re getting a glimpse back at Jonathan’s journey, and I’m pleased and amazed to report that Jonathan is not only wearing a fully buttoned shirt, he’s wearing a cravat! That’s right, the man who never saw three top buttons he didn’t want to just ignore is dressing like a little aristocrat, and I don’t mind at all! Mark wrote out affirmations for Jonathan when he got eliminated, says Jonathan, and they both cry when Jonathan describes how it made him feel to be seen and loved by a new friend. I am worried men don’t have very many opportunities to make friends! Is this why they think Joe Rogan and Elon Musk are their friends? I wish they’d work it out like Mark and Jonathan and leave the rest of us alone!

“I just started bawling,” says Jonathan. “It meant so much to me.” It feels good to share!

Charles L. loves to dance in public now. ABC PRESS

Now it’s time for a look back at Charles L.’s time on the show. As we cycle through footage of Charles L. hugging the men and Joan, it becomes clear he loves to give a hearty backpat in every embrace, kind of like how you’d pat your dad on the back when you hug him, or how he pats you on the back when he hugs you, assuming he’s not been lost to Fox News. If that’s you, RIP. I have a Tax the Rich dad, and I am sure he would enjoy talking to you about our state’s regressive tax policies!

Speaking of nice dads, Charles L. thanks his daughter for encouraging him, but wait a minute! It looks like Charles L. has dyed his signature salt-and-pepper locks for Men Tell All, and while I miss the gravitas of his previous look, we can and should forgive him. After all, it’s not unusual for contestants on this show to attend the reunions with much more intense facial updates, and it’s refreshing to see a man on TV who can at least move his forehead. Foreheads are so expressive! Something is truly lost when it’s just a smooth plane of skin, sweaty and still.

In addition to his transformative hair journey, Charles L. says he’s changed in ways that are less visually jarring. He’s found friends, he says! He loves to dance in public now! Feel the rain on your skin, Charles! No one else can feel it for you!

“This is such a kind of treasure to me,” says Charles of his friendships with the men on The Golden Bachelorette. “He just exudes this newfound confidence,” says Charles’s daughter Sophia. “My body is lighter than before,” says Charles in agreement. An audience member says Bachelor Nation thinks Charles should be the next Golden Bachelor, and I am pretty sure it will be Mark or Jonathan, but Charles looks very pleased nonetheless. 

Looking much like a roided-out John Krasinski, Jesse continues the festivities with a look back at Kim’s time in the mansion. It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! PNW representation at last! Footage rolls of Kim fixing the dishwasher (helpful!) and then trying to get everyone to participate in his “Mansion Men” song (creative yet overbearing!). Kim laughs as he watches his past self compare himself to Beethoven. I kind of can’t believe he did that either.

Captain Kim's "Mansion Men" song getting the respect it deserves. ABC PRESS

But there’s a surprise in store! This is not the end of Kim’s songcraft! Because the Los Angeles Gay Men’s Chorus enters the studio, and they’re going to sing Kim’s song! That’s right: “Mansion Men” is getting a respectful, tuneful rendition, and Kim’s face lights up with joy. Now that it’s being legitimized by people who actually know how to sing, suddenly everyone is getting into Kim’s song, but no one more than Kim himself, who sings along gleefully. Aw, I’m happy for him!

With the performance concluded, Pascal is now forced to discuss his emotional journey to breaking up with Joan, which was where we ended last week’s episode. “It’s very emotional,” he says. “It was a very difficult decision I had to make,” one he hopes “didn’t hurt her.” Pascal’s beloved shildren, Maxim and Natalie, are in the audience. Maxim looks just like a very small Pascal.

And now it’s time for the grand entrance! Joan is here! Gary tells her it was “a true honor” to be on the show, and he greets Joan’s mother, who is in the audience and recovered from the illness that inspired Gary to write her a prayer. The one who looks like Jay Inslee (his name is Bob; I’m sorry) talks about the Wayward Lesbians of Marina Del Rey, which is just his cute name for having Thanksgiving with his gay daughter and her many lesbian friends. Joan says something self-congratulatory about the moment when Bob told her about his many adopted lesbian daughters, but she shouldn’t because it was really all his doing. Once again, Bob, may I join this Thanksgiving celebration?

Jonathan has some big news to share: He has “met someone” and is “happy.” Good for Jonathan! Jonathan has found a family! (Is it too early post-election to be making Cider House Rules jokes? Don’t tell me!)

As for Pascal, he tells Joan he just wants what’s best for her and would like for her to be his frond. Joan says she would like to be fronds with all of the remaining Mansion Men, which is nice, because she definitely didn’t seem interested in dating very many of them, despite the premise of the show.

Joan, probably explaining how she doesn't feel ready to date despite being on a dating show. ABC PRESS

With everyone happily ensconced in the frond zone, Jesse grins and releases the season’s bloopers. We see Pascal cut a wig on Charles. Men say they don’t snore but are shown snoring. Kim does yoga. The men dab their sweaty brows over and over and over again. Jonathan twerks. Joan is interrupted by a rooster. Filming equipment falls down. Ha! Ha!

But enough gentle hijinks! It’s time for a peek at next week’s season finale, and it’s clear that a vulnerable and tearful time is coming for Joan. Joan stands stoically next to Jesse and promises that some of the tears to come are happy tears, but I’m not convinced. With all due respect, I’ve seen a lot of weeping this week, and I know what true agony looks like. I’m ready to cry about something that ultimately doesn’t matter! Don’t take that away from me, Joan!

Captain Kim sightings: Numerous!

This week’s rating, out of 10 anchor emojis: ⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓⚓

Plus, More Event Updates for November 7 by EverOut Staff

Henry VIII’s six wives will belt pop songs on the Paramount Theatre stage when the Tony Award-winning musical Six returns to Seattle next spring. Post-hardcore band Chiodos is coming to Seattle next year to celebrate 20 years of their debut album All’s Well That Ends Well. Plus, Billboard-charting hard rock outfit Catch Your Breath has dropped dates for their Broken Souls tour. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

ON SALE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8

MUSIC

Catch Your Breath - The Broken Souls Tour
The Crocodile (Feb 6, 2025)

Chiodos: 20 Years of All’s Well That Ends Well
The Showbox (Mar 28, 2025)

Fleetmac Wood
The Crocodile (Apr 4, 2025)

See someone? Say something! by Anonymous

good boy, Mitten Bakery ????

"Who's a good boy?" you petting your cute dog next to me. I asked "Oh me?". You said, "Well if I get two good boys out of it ya!" - I didn't get ur #!

Smokin Hot at Smoker Dad

I Saw U at the Sunset Tavern at the Smoker Dad release show. You were wearing a tight jean skirt, and you told me I had a timeless beauty. Same, girl.

Barrettes at Hop Vine 10.28

I stared, we waved! I looked up how to sign “ur super cute” but was too shy. I like your hair, sweater, how you cover your mouth when you laugh!

I saw u x2 @ SBP

UW & Fremont. You were tall & brunette w glasses. I’m shortish and brunette w glasses. You seemed interested, I’m shy. But I’m interested too

Party at Porter

We were both on the floor at the Porter Robinson show. You were in front of me, tall and blonde. Thanks for making an incredible show even more fun.

Bus 49 Connection

Tall guy in tan sweater, wearing a black mask, purple-haired girl hoping to meet again. We made eye contact a few times in cap hill and I was too shy to look at you. Kinda felt like I was in a kdrama—wanna be my Lee Min Ho?

Dieu en Mouvement

BV Lincoln SQ: 3:30, Sunday. You were exiting. Tall, dark, a beautiful print coat, thin glasses, I said I liked your outfit. You are art in motion.

Fellow Magnetic Fields Fans

We sat in the balcony turret the first night of 69 Love Songs. Thanks for singing along with me! Hope you got to come back for Papa was a Rodeo.

Is it a match? Leave a comment here or on our Instagram post to connect!

Did you see someone? Say something! Submit your own I Saw U message here and maybe we'll include it in the next roundup!

In an email sent to all Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers on Tuesday, SPD Deputy Chief Eric Barden celebrated the end of King County Jail’s misdemeanor booking restrictions and told officers to immediately begin increasing arrests. Barden called the decision “another great step forward for the City and, particularly, for Seattle PD.” by Ashley Nerbovig

In an email sent to all Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers on Tuesday, SPD Deputy Chief Eric Barden celebrated the end of King County Jail’s misdemeanor booking restrictions and told officers to immediately begin increasing arrests. Barden called the decision “another great step forward for the City and, particularly, for Seattle PD.” Not so great for Seattle’s poorest and most vulnerable residents, who will comprise the “overwhelming majority of people” jailed under this change, said King County Department of Public Defense Interim Director Matt Sanders in a statement to The Stranger Thursday.

In September, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and King County Executive Dow Constantine announced an agreement to lift booking restrictions, which had previously prevented SPD officers from jailing people pre-trial for low-level and non-violent crimes such as low-value theft, criminal trespass, and public drug use. The restrictions went into place because of COVID-19 and remained active due to low staffing at the jail, which is a predicament still plaguing the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (DAJD). Department spokesperson Noah Haglund said that the jail has 60 staffing vacancies as compared to the start of 2024 when it was closer to 100. But with those 40 additional guards, Constantine believes the new agreement balances booking needs with the wellbeing of jail staff, Haglund said.  

The agreement, which took effect November 1, increased the number of jail beds the City could use for misdemeanors to 135. Barden explained in his email Tuesday that in the six months prior, SPD held on average about 90 people a day on misdemeanors at the jail, so the increase would mean an additional 45 beds available to officers per day. The jail held well over 200 people on misdemeanor charges per day in 2019, according to Barden.

“So, while we are moving in the right direction, we are nowhere near pre-pandemic capacity,” Barden said.

With booking restrictions lifted, Barden told officers to book people into jail “whenever there is a public safety interest.” The only time officers should not consider booking someone, Barden counseled, was when the City reached or neared its 135-bed capacity. “Otherwise, booking decisions consistent with pre-pandemic assessments should be utilized.” The email made no mention of considering diversion options.

In a call with the Stranger, Barden explained that "public safety interest" meant officers should arrest if they believe a person could continue to be a problem for a business, the community, or residents in the area, and said officers should not arrest if those factors aren't present. Barden argued that arresting people can both remove them from a cycle of crime, prevent further decompensation for people in a mental health crisis, and set them on a path toward recovery.

Sanders disagreed with that perspective and pointed to studies that show jailing people pre-trial undermines public safety in many cases, and increases the chances that someone commits another crime. Even one to two days in jail can disrupt a person’s life, making it difficult to maintain stable housing, secure medical care for behavioral health conditions, or hold down a job. Lifting the booking restrictions means people presumed innocent might spend time in jail for the lowest level of crimes that might not even end up charged, and still have their entire lives disrupted, Sanders said.

Barden said he understood that perspective, but as he drives around Seattle he sees more disorder than he did before the booking restrictions went into place. As a result, even while the restrictions remained in place in 2023, property and violent crime in Seattle fell compared to 2022, and homicides fell in 2024, which speaks to an empirical improvement in public safety, if not a subjective cosmetic change to downtown Seattle.

The City has made it clear in the past two years that it plans to use cops to address substance abuse, poverty, and people with mental illness, all issues many argue would be better addressed through social services and unarmed alternative response teams. The City has tried to establish new diversion paths, and when it created its drug law earlier this year it came with a policy requiring SPD to consider diversion before booking someone in jail for drug use. Barden said that lifting booking restrictions would not change that. 

Returning to a pre pandemic booking mindset means potentially returning to the days when officers threw people in jail for stealing $30 sleeping bags and souvenir pennies. We reached out to City Attorney Ann Davison to ask her perspective on whether she also planned to crack down on prosecuting low-level, misdemeanor crimes, as she’s advocated for in the past, but she declined to comment. 

Update: The Mayor's Office told the Stranger that it believes the City needs an adequate number of jail beds and the ability to book people into jail and people who cause harm in the City should be held accountable. But, "jail is not always the first or most appropriate option," and Harrell has strongly advocated "for diversion and treatment options to help nonviolent offenders get the services they need."

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Nathalie Graham

One more for the blue: After a neck-in-neck race, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez officially won re-election to the House in the 3rd Congressional District, beating out far-right challenger Joe Kent. Her win is another step forward for Democrats as they try to take back the House and retain a shred of power in the coming administration from hell. About two dozen races nation-wide still need to be decided.

Please spare us, H5N1: The Centers for Disease Control want more testing done for bird flu after blood tests on 115 of dairy workers showed 7% had bird flu antibodies, meaning they'd already contracted the disease at some point. Previously, we only confirmed 46 cases of bird flu jumping from cows to farmworkers. This new study suggests that bird flu has infected many more people than the confirmed cases. Experts say this indicates the H5N1 viruses are a greater threat than we realized. Great! Another flu just in time for the vaccine-doubters to take office. 

Wet weekend—and then week—ahead: Friday will likely be our last dry day for a while. Get your galoshes ready. The rain starts Saturday and it'll continue at least throughout the week.

I hope you like rain this weekend! ????️

It could be wet for the State H.S. football tournament games across the Puget Sound region. #pnw pic.twitter.com/JAvPx7hegV

— Jake Whittenberg (@jwhittenbergK5) November 8, 2024

That's nice: Boeing said it will pay the employees the money they lost while being furloughed during the machinists' strike that started in September. 

Egyptian flooding: A pipe leak at the historic Egyptian Cinema on Capitol Hill shut down the 108-year-old theater for the "foreseeable future." Repairs will be expensive and take months. The universe does not want me or my people (progressives, art house movie lovers) to be happy this week. 

INBOX: The SIFF Cinema Egyptian is going to be closed for "the foreseeable future and the Fine Arts building leadership expect that it will take multiple months of building closure to assess, repair and reopen." Sad news especially during what is a big time of the year for film. pic.twitter.com/v2ItPx5Lpi

— Chase 'Hutch' Hutchinson (@EclecticHutch) November 7, 2024

Another hit while we're down: Don't forget, five light rail stops will close this weekend. Starting at 10 pm on Friday through 5 am Monday, Westlake, Symphony, Pioneer Square, International District/Chinatown, and Stadium stations will all be closed and inaccessible. Trains will run between Lynnwood and Capitol Hill and between Sodo and Angle Lake. Shuttle buses will be available to bridge gaps between open and closed stations. It’s all part of the crawling effort to connect Line 1 to the Eastside line.

Sign of the times: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale rocketed to the top of Amazon's bestsellers list this week.  

Racist texts: In the days after the election, Black and Brown people across the country received spammy, racist texts telling them they had "been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation" and that the senders' "executive slave catchers" would pick them up. State attorney generals say they will root out who sent these texts. A second Donald Trump term means the masks covering the depravity in America are well and truly off. Racists are emboldened. 

Nobody panic: Forty-three monkeys escaped from a medical lab in South Carolina. "There is almost no danger to the public," a local police chief said. No danger? Isn't this how Planet of the Apes started? 

Israeli soccer fans attacked in Amsterdam: Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch's Ajax faced off in a Europa League soccer game Thursday. After the game, people attacked Israelis in hit-and-run scooter attacks. Five Israeli fans went to the hospital, but have since been released. Around 20 to 30 other Israelis sustained light injuries. Police arrested 63 people, and ten are still in custody. Context, as always, is important. In the days leading up to the match, social media videos showed Maccabi fans "chanting anti-Arab slurs, praising Israeli military attacks in Gaza, and yelling 'fuck the Arabs,'" according to CNN. Ajax won the game 5-0. 

And now, something from Ashley about the cops: 

Fill’er up: The King County Jail officially lifted misdemeanor booking restrictions for the Seattle Police Department (SPD) allowing officers to finally lock up all those pesky Target shoplifters and people who tried to use the bathroom at PCC one too many times and ended up trespassed. I wrote about how SPD Deputy Chief Eric Barden told officers in a department wide email Tuesday that they should book people into jail whenever a public safety interest existed and only show additional discretion when the department neared their misdemeanor bed limit of 135 people per day. Most people charged with misdemeanors spend less than a week in jail, so could be a lot of people cycling through, which King County Department of Public Defense Interim Director Matt Sanders said will ultimately make it harder for people to hold down jobs, maintain housing, and secure behavioral health treatment, ultimately undermining public safety in the city.

Did you hear about San Francisco's new mayor? He's a centrist Democrat and he's the heir to the Levi's fortune. Daniel Lurie won the ranked-choice voting election with 56.2% of the vote. Incumbent London Breed only received 43.8%. San Franciscans made clear they are sick of seeing poverty and being confronted with crimes of desperation. Unfortunately, as we know very well in Seattle, electing a centrist may hide the problems for a bit, but it will do nothing to fix them. 

A porn gorge: North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia have unrestricted internet access for the first time in their lives and they're using it to watch mountains of porn and jerk themselves silly. Boys will be boys! 

Need something to do tonight? The world is bleak. Why not laugh a little at an improv show? The improv theater I wrote about for my column is having a battle of the star signs show tonight followed by an open-to-all improv jam. I'll be performing on the Scorpio team even though I'm not a Scorpio (don't tell anyone). 

A song for your Friday: This just feels like the sound of my psyche right now. 

 

 

Best of the Northwest Fall Show, SECS Fest, and More Cheap & Easy Events Under $15 by EverOut Staff

Well Seattle, it's been a hard week and there are difficult days ahead. Take care of yourselves and each other this weekend. If you're looking for something to do to take your mind off things, we're recommending events from Best of the Northwest Fall Show to a Community Fruit Pressing at Republic of Cider and from Seattle Hmong New Year to SECS Fest 2024. For more ideas, check out our guide to the top events of the week.

FRIDAY READINGS & TALKS

Carson Ellis with Jon Mooallem
If Portland City Illustrator were a job, I'd want that role to go to Carson Ellis—something embedded in the Rose City-based artist's naturalistic, folk-inspired, muted, yet richly detailed aesthetic falls in perfect harmony with the Pacific Northwest landscape. Ellis' adult debut is an illustrated memoir filled with paintings depicting memories from a 20-something-year-old journal. One Week in January digs into Ellis' first experiences living in a Portland warehouse in the early 2000s, during which time she met future hubby Colin Meloy (who, as I'm guessing you know, fronts the Decemberists and penned Wildwood). LINDSAY COSTELLO
(Elliott Bay Book Company, Capitol Hill, free)

No one has ever gone broke betting on whiteness and patriarchy in America. by Marcus Harrison Green

No one has ever gone broke betting on whiteness and patriarchy in America. 

What else to make of Donald Trump’s re-ascension to the White House? How else can we metabolize this madness and glee that MAGA-lovers are feeling at this moment? “Your body, my choice,” white nationalist Nicholas Fuentas gloated post-election. Later in the week, Black people were assaulted in mass by racist text messages invoking slavery by an anonymous sender.

Before and since his re-election on Tuesday, there has been a glut of think pieces exploring the wayward shift of people of color toward Trump. The implicit message is to blame the 46 percent of Latinos, the 20 percent of Black men, and the 12 percent of LGBTQ voters for his return. 

Let’s cut the nonsense. A second Trump term and the calamity it will surely produce is not the result nor fault of Americans who are historically and still to remain, marginalized. It is not the fault of Arab Americans, Black Americans, or Latino Americans - whose marginal increase in support from men within those groups wasn’t enough in itself to secure Trump the White House. 

No, it’s the clearest example of Occam's razor.

Trump increased his votes amongst men this election, with 55 percent casting their vote for him this week. So did 60 percent of white Americans. Men haven’t given the majority of their vote to a Democrat in 60 years, and the Republican party has owned the white vote for more than a decade. 

Trump’s impending presidency is a product of white supremacy and the patriarchy it feeds.

The fault lies with too many white Americans who would cling to the promise of power they believe they’re entitled to, rather than link their fate to anyone else’s humanity. It is their lust for exclusionary dominance atop a racial caste. 

Whatever your opinion of Kamala Harris, she was never going to win a majority of white men. No Democratic, let alone progressive presidential candidate, has received a majority of their vote in 60 years, but way to task a Black woman with the impossible. This isn't to excuse the feckless and inept Democratic party. It is to say that a Trump rise should be impossible no matter the political party.

Trump is projected to win the popular vote with roughly 74 million ballots cast for him, a figure closely mirroring his failed 2020 campaign. Nearly 85 percent of Trump’s voters were white, unchanged from 2020. Sixty percent were white men.

In our history, if we only counted white men’s votes, we would never have had the enforcement of the Civil Rights Act, the expansion of health insurance, job-protected family leave, marriage equality, and (as paltry as it is) an increase in the Federal minimum wage. Each achievement happened under presidents they rejected. 

One can argue that due to their voting propensity as a group, we lack universal healthcare, free college tuition, and a national living wage. Policies that would be beneficial to them and the entire country. 

When it comes to marginalized communities, our existence in this country will always be precarious unless enough white men decide to be communally human instead of uniquely superior. 

And that is a decision they have made in the past. 

At a time of chattel slavery when Black men were auctioned like cattle and only white men could vote, there were enough of them in 1865 to pass the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments - abolishing slavery, extending civil rights, and presenting the right to vote (at least to Black men), without one Black vote.

With an all-male constituency, there were enough of them in 1919 to pass the 19th Amendment enfranchising women with the right to vote, with no women eligible to vote.

With a predominantly straight Congress and Senate, there were enough of them in 2022 to protect marriage equality via the Respect for Marriage Act.

In the lead up to the election, the way our media coddled White men’s sense of self-worth at the expense of the concerns of others during this campaign was as repulsive as it was farcical. 

Now, I do have sympathy for the plights of white men who our media has fixated on this last year. Their life is hard. They are experiencing increased loneliness, addiction, economic anxiety, and the list goes on. But the thing is, life is no less hard for women who still make 84 percent less than men. Or Native Americans, who have the highest addiction rates in the country. Or Black women who are more than twice as likely to die during their pregnancy than their white counterparts. Or Black men, who are still more than three times more likely to be killed by police.

Yet, at one time or another during this campaign, all of these groups were publicly scolded, shamed, and patronized for not enthusiastically supporting Harris. But not white men. We spent hours of podcasts and gallons of newspaper ink on their support for exploring their newly discovered malaise. 

Meanwhile, the coalition of the historically marginalized still voted as a majority to reject Trumpism. 

Trump’s presidency is built on the myth of white male exceptionalism. From the way Trump’s economic plans were hailed, you’d think he magically transported the whole of this nation from the breadline to the penthouse during his first term. His economic agenda is not one of mass prosperity. It includes deficit-widening tax cuts for the rich, inflationary tariffs, and mass deportation that will devastate the construction and agriculture industries, at least. Nor did he pretend that he was anything other than he was: unapologetic in his brutality of women, disdaining of trans people, hater of immigrants, and dismissive of racial prejudices.

Upon news of his reelection, the top 10% of wealthiest Americans saw in $64 billion increase in their net worth. Pardon my skepticism of them anticipating a mass redistribution of capital to our poorest.  

This country will only reach its final form when enough white men reject a myth of ultra-individualism, superiority, and dominance in favor of a saga of solidarity. A saga that is difficult, challenging, occasionally infuriating —but ultimately hopeful. 

On Tuesday, we saw that happen in our majority-white state of Washington, and our majority-white city of Seattle. Both dived deeper blue on Tuesday. 

Many pundits and commentators are wary of discussing race at patriarchy at the moment. But it is precisely because we have failed for generations to seriously consider those duel poisons and their lingering effects that we have arrived at this point. 

If we accept that the only recourse we have to better this country is to bow to the whims of recalcitrant white men then where exactly does that lead us other than the hell we’re already in? 

Freakout Festival was back in full force this weekend, featuring over 100 bands at seven venues. For their twelfth go around, the traditionally Ballard-only festival invited the good folks of Fremont along for the ride. While we sincerely wish we could have attended every set, that was literally impossible. But we still managed to groove with some wildly far-out bands—and lucky for you, we’re here to freak and tell. Here’s some of our favorites from the weekend. by Brittne Lunniss

Freakout Festival was back in full force this weekend, featuring over 100 bands at seven venues. For their twelfth go around, the traditionally Ballard-only festival invited the good folks of Fremont along for the ride. From November 7–10, Tractor Tavern, the Sunset, Conor Byrne, Ballard Smoke Shop, Salmon Bay Eagles Club, Nectar Lounge, and High Dive hosted international, national, and local performers. The predominantly psych-rock festival welcomed heavy-hitting touring acts like the Black Angels, Flamin’ Groovies, and Black Lips—as well as hometown heroes Biblioteka, TeZATalks, Shabazz Palaces, and Acid Tongue, just to name a few. The Mad Alchemy Light Show (an analog liquid light show produced by Lance Gordon) worked their magic to provide trip-worthy psychedelic visuals, and you were never too far from a mosh pit. If this sounds like a place where you do mushrooms in faux fur and crowdsurf through a lava lamp… it absolutely is. 

While we sincerely wish we could have attended every set, that was literally impossible. (Trust me, I tried and was very offended by the rules of science.) But we still managed to groove with some wildly far-out bands—and lucky for you, we’re here to freak and tell. Here are some of our favorites from the weekend.

Seaside Tryst / Thursday / Ballard Smoke Shop

Everyone's favorite Ghoulfriend. Brittne Lunniss

Seaside Tryst (which is what the band describes as a gayer way of saying “sex on the beach”) commanded Ballard Smokeshop’s stage Thursday night. Hailing from Olympia, the new wave-indie-twang-goth conglomerate earned their festival spot after winning the Freakout Weekender battle of the bands earlier this year. Best described as the lovechild of Orville Peck and Future Islands’s Samuel T. Herring, frontperson Avery Kanode is the moody queer cowboy of our dreams. Sauntering across stage while clutching his pearls, Kanode flirted with band members and doe-eyed the audience during crowd favorite “Ghoulfriend,” a song about gender-neutral love in the afterlife. Synth player Frankie Champagne periodically left their keys station to dance in front of the audience, Ryan Pangilinan (donning a yellow “No One Is Treading on You, Big Guy” tank) held it down on bass and backing vocals, and Jesse Peoples on drums. The foursome will be playing Ballard again on December 1 at Sunset Tavern–which, for one night, is about to become Seattle’s twangiest, twinkiest new-wave goth club. 

Valgur / Thursday / Salmon Bay (Lower Level)

Hijos del Caos. Brittne Lunniss

Post-punk Oaxacan sibling-duo Valgur was a fever dream I didn’t want to wake up from. Their lyrics are in Spanish, but Valgur communicated a story that didn’t require translation. In what appeared to be a tale of youth, the siblings entered the stage joyfully, interacting playfully with one another. After a mid-set game of pat-a-cake, their youthful naivety began to wane—facial expressions and body language becoming heavy, sad. Elizabeth held a teddy bear and gazed dolefully at the floor prior to taking out a cell phone during their song “Vanidad.” The song begins with an unsettling synth and swells into a videogame-worthy electronic beat. A driving bass rhythm makes you feel rushed, like someone running past you on an airport walkway. Elizabeth turned away from the audience, holding her phone high enough for those in front to see the screen. She began frantically scrolling through Instagram and playing videos of herself. Valgur later explained the song was about hyper-fixating on the internet and caring too deeply about how others perceive you there. Just like their set, Valgur’s latest album, ARMEGGEDON, is a synth-pop commentary on religion, violence, and the downfalls of modernity. 

Carrion Kids / Friday / Sunset Tavern

We're all waiting for the makeup tutorial. Brittne Lunniss

Mexico City’s punk rock hellions Carrion Kids coated Sunset Tavern in blood, sweat, and beers Friday night. The band has become a staple of Freakout Fest, and for good reason. For several Freakouts now, attendees have flocked to Carrion Kids sets for moshing, crowd surfing, and, if you’re lucky, screaming into front-person Micki Navajas’s mic. Decked in red lipstick, blue eyeshadow, and facepaint, he wore a wrestling onesie with a bolo tie hung loosely around his neck. Known for his on-stage shock value, he frequently enters the crowd, contorting his body on the ground and even vomiting on himself. With raging guitar, aggressive foundation, and an avant-garde cast of characters, Carrion Kids is best described as a sensory experience. The group, who says they’re heavily inspired by Devo, is currently on their “Shit Storm West Coast Tour” with Mexico’s wildly eccentric Silverio.

Hate Knife / Friday / Salmon Bay (Lower Level)

Knuk tats to the front. Brittne Lunniss

Seattle trash-punk gremlins Hate Knife ripped through Salmon Bay Low on Friday night. The band is loud, raunchy, and funny. With songs like “I Miss Sex” and “Knuk Tats,” Hate Knife consists of the best kind of punks—ones that never take themselves too seriously. Reminiscent of groups like Static Vision, Hot Tubs Time Machine, and Gustaf, Hate Knife is like that point in a college party where the police arrive and everyone runs out the backdoor. Inappropriate and frenzied, Hate Knife is a newer Seattle band that continues to blaze their own path. The group earned their way to Freakout Fest as was one of the Freakout Weekender battle of the bands participants. You can look forward to new music on other random yet heavily relatable topics in the new year. Catch them on December 7 at Lucky Dime if you, too, enjoy sex and knuck tats. 

TeZATalks / Saturday / Salmon Bay (Upper Level)

She's the monster under your bed. Brittne Lunniss

Hardcore popstar TeZATalks ate the entirety of Salmon Bay Saturday night. Leaving zero crumbs, TeZA performed music from her newly released album, Black Girl American Horror Story. A blend of alternative, rap, and electronic, TeZA (Tasia Thomas) has become a pioneer of the Seattle nu-wave scene. In fishnet tights and a singular yellow contact lens, TeZA performed creepy-catchy hits like “ELVIRA,” in which she sings, “I’m the monster underneath your bed / I’m the reason why your parents told you to be scared.” The genre-bending Seattleite, similar to Tokyo Project and Boon, took a moment mid-set to exclaim, “Change the state of this country or we’re all gonna fucking die,” before a mosh pit broke out during her rowdy anthem “BREAKSHIT.” A Sonic Guild grant recipient, the politically charged TeZA uses her music to incite rage, protest, and a sense of community. One thing is for certain: don’t sleep on TeZA Talks—she may just crawl out from under your mattress and bite you.

The Black Angels / Saturday / Salmon Bay (Upper Level)

Under the lights of the Mad Alchemy Light Show. Brittne Lunniss

Under a sea of liquid light, Austin’s the Black Angels headlined Salmon Bay High on Saturday night. The psych-rock legends, influenced by the likes of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, played a 21-song set, featuring hits across their discography. Fan favorites like “Entrance Song” and “Young Men Dead” sent crowd members into a hypnotic, head-banging sway. With trance-inducing tempos and fuzzy reverb, It’s easy to lose yourself in the retro groove of The Angels. While their musicality alone is worth the listen, it’s the Black Angels’s lyrics that speak rock ‘n’ roll. Focusing on themes of environmental destruction, social action, and political divide, the Black Angels felt extra relevant this Freakout season, with lyrics like, “Empires falling, it’s history on repeat. Our nations pleading from street to bloody street.” The Black Angels provide a mighty reminder of the political, cultural, and social impact of music. Fueled by resistance and counterculture, the Black Angels transported us to the heartbeat of psych rock.

With one of their largest lineups yet, it’s clear that Freakout Fest isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. More than ever, this year showcased the impact of alternative music movements. Bands used their place on stage to draw attention to the current fuckery of global destruction derived from broken political systems. Festival-goers often turned to each other during sets, nodding their heads in agreement at lyrics that may have previously drifted out the door. The weekend served as a stunning reminder of the social impact (and responsibility) of music to speak to the masses. Long live Freakout, and long live rock ‘n’ roll.

"These pigs locked me up to see what color I'd rot into!" by Suzette Smith

Like any fan of Seattle hardcore band the Blood Brothers, I have found myself at a show, pressed up against a wall of people, shouting the wrong lyrics to their songs. For instance, on their hit "USA NAILS" there's a hook where you think you're singing a cheer-style "one, one, and two!" but the lyrics are actually: "These pigs locked me up to see what color I'd rot into!"

The energetic screamo group was active from 1997-2007, during which time they released five critically-acclaimed albums, completed several European tours, and even played a set on Jimmy Kimmel Live, overcoming the reservations of the show's freaked-out producers. Perhaps the best indicator of their success is the fact that their US reunion tour—which hits Seattle on November 14 and 15—is selling out in several cities.

Ever ones to cut the bullshit, Blood Brothers don't have a new record; they're playing the fucking hits. Still, the tour is timed with Epitaph's anniversary reissue of one of their biggest albums Crimes (2004) on vinyl.

When we sat down to talk to Johnny Whitney, who fronts the band with fellow singer/screamer/guttural whisperer Jordan Blilie, he noted that plenty of lyrics websites list incorrect verses for Blood Brothers songs. "It's hilarious how wrong some of them are," Whitney said. "The lyrics on Spotify are not even close to what I'm actually saying. Just buy the fucking CD, and look it up. Come on, people."

We spoke with Whitney and Blilie separately, over sprawling phone calls that we have organized into this piece. For clarity, we're listing their responses together, as we seek to get into the nitty gritty of this group's  danceable, screaming-nightmare material.

Foremost, Whitney and Blilie both began by gushing about the other three members of their band: frenetic drummer Mark Gajadhar, vigorous guitarist Cody Votolato, and ultra-versatile bassist Morgan Henderson, who is currently best known as a member of Fleet Foxes.

"I cannot fucking believe that I got to work with these guys," Whitney says. "I just took all those things for granted at the time. Everybody was, and still is, coming from totally different places [musically], but there was always something really special about all of us together that was there from the moment that we started."

THE STRANGER: Johnny, I've always gotten the impression that you're the major force behind the lyrics.

JOHNNY WHITNEY: I came up with the majority of the lyrics, but it certainly was collaborative between Jordan and I. I would freewrite as much as I could, to have material to draw from, and going back to those notebooks kept things as free and fresh and not contrived as possible. The drawback of that approach is the lyrics are very abstract and hard to parse direct meaning from, but that's also kind of the point. I found myself writing about the absence of answers, or the absence of concrete truths that you can hold onto.

A lot of times, my process would center around coming up with a cool idea: a song name or some common refrain that we would want to work into a song, like "Burn Piano Island, Burn." Something that has a hook or conveys an image or feeling. Then we would reverse engineer the lyrics from that.

JORDAN BLILIE: I would absolutely say that I felt like Johnny was the driver, and for good reason. He's really good. When you see someone who is in a flow state, you do your best to accentuate and collaborate, to help mold and shape and add your pieces. It was always stuff that I was really excited to dig into. It was just that rich and that vibrant. The challenge for me was what can I add to it, you know? It always pushed me to try and come up with the most creatively-inspired stuff that I could.

You two have such an engaging stage style. People would call it sassy, but that has always felt like a description from people who have never been to a play and can't recognize theater. Do either of you have a background in theater arts?

WHITNEY: I wanted to be a child actor—I actually auditioned for that movie Blank Check (1994). Actually, a year after Jordan and I met, we were both in a Jr. High production of Alice in Wonderland. He was the Mad Hatter, and I was the Mock Turtle.

BLILIE: Why would you say that? [Laughs]

Jordan Blilie (left) and Johnny Whitney (right) Suzette Smith Jordan Blilie screams on the tour's first night in San Francisco. Suzette Smith

"USA NAILS" was such a hit, and it involved a phone number everyone could scream. How did that come to be?

WHITNEY: The name and the "1-900-USA-NAILS" comes from the chain nail salon, but we reverse-engineered it into a song about somebody using their one phone call from the county jail to call a phone sex line. It's the idea of loneliness, disaffection, and parasocial relationships with things that exist solely for their own profit or gain.

And yet it's also danceable. There are these moments live where you have an audience of people shaking their asses and shouting "to see what color I'd rot into!" Did you start with that idea and work backwards, or just jam it into that moment of the song?

WHITNEY: At that time, the band would all sit together in a room and have a kind of song tribunal about how each part should go. Then, at some point, we'd have a semi -finished version and [Jordan and I] would just try to fit lyrics to the songs. Especially on Burn, Piano Island, Burn. Some of those songs needed an editor so bad, right? I wouldn't change a thing about it, but looking back, there are parts where it sounds like everybody's playing a different song at the same time, but it kind of works, right? And for the lyrics, sometimes we just had to make it work.

That wasn't the first time Jordan whispered his lyrics in a guttural tone, but it's one of the more emblematic, right? How did that start?

BLILIE: By necessity—I don't have much of a range, you know? I have this weird baritone. Very early on we were drawing from crust punk, where you just have two voices screaming. And we didn't put a whole lot of thought into even what the other person was doing. But then, as we continued to develop, the stuff became more complex, and there was more room for different sorts of shadings of what we could do vocally. So it was just finding out: What is it I can do other than scream at the top of my lungs?

WHITNEY: Jordan's part at the end just works right? He was very inspired by Jarvis Cocker.

BLILIE: Yeah, you can trace that right back to Pulp. If you listen to any Pulp song, there's gonna be some whispery storytelling, with the compression cranked up so you can kind of hear every lick of the lips.

<a href="https://thebloodbrothersofficial.bandcamp.com/album/burn-piano-island-burn">Burn, Piano Island, Burn by The Blood Brothers</a>

BLILIE: Some of my favorite moments of writing with Johnny are the ones that we would where we would crack each other up.

Can you give an example?

BLILIE: Every lyric of "Guitarmy." We really got a kick out of the idea of opening our major label debut with the words, "do you remember us?" Because of the audacity, the absurdity of it.

So you guys all started this band when you were in your teens.

BLILIE: Yeah, we started when we were like, 15-16.

Are there any lyrics that have not aged well, in your opinion?

BLILIE: I'm sure they're the ones that we're not playing. [Laughs.] This question reminds me of something one of my professors said. It was my first class at UCLA, Queer Lit from Walt Whitman to Stonewall. In class discussions my fellow classmates would critique writing from the 1800s for not satisfying certain criteria, and our professor would say: You cannot look at the text backwards. You have to look at it forwards. You can't apply current day criteria to something that was written when that criteria didn't even exist. You have to engage with it in the context of when it was written. I don't think anything we wrote is in a canon warranting that level of examination, but it's useful nonetheless. It's a way for me to remind myself that I was 20, and I had the tools of a 20-year-old. It helps me to not beat myself up too much about it.

WHITNEY: There's a story behind this. When we were doing the song "Camouflage, Camouflage" on Young Machetes, Jordan and I were going back and forth on the lyrics. He was like, "Yeah, I'm great with all this." But he put a line through one verse, where I say: "All the girls in Montreal are smashing skateboards in the street." And I was just like: Fuck you, dude. I'm gonna keep this in. But he was right, because it sounds stupid, and it's like, really horny and makes me want to light my skin on fire. So I'm changing it to something else, probably something different every night.

Johnny Whitney (left) holds a crowd member's hand for support. Suzette Smith The crowd supports Johnny Whitney while he sings. Suzette Smith 

I wonder about imagery in Blood Brothers' songs that seems to be responding to beauty standards at the time. Like, in "Ambulance, Ambulance" you've got this blistering segue to the chorus: "What is love? / What is scam? / What is sun? / What is tan?"

WHITNEY: That's a double meaning. Because it's like tan—like suntan—but also tan is a blah color, right? It's like the color of a dentist's office wall. If you think of the idea of love being something that could feel on-fire, passionate, the color of a dentist's office wall is the opposite. Although, tanning does come into play in a lot of our lyrics. I've noticed as well.

Or on "Beautiful Horses" the lyrics are "gallop into your romance novels / dance atop heavy pectorals."

BLILIE: I think we were seeing an increasingly vapid culture, and we were trying to dig into that—dig into: What does it do to someone when they're bombarded by these sorts of images and messages? There was a lot of that in that writing; I can't say specifically with "Beautiful Horses," but I think "Trash Flavored Trash," would probably fit under that umbrella.

<a href="https://thebloodbrothersofficial.bandcamp.com/album/crimes-bonus-track-version">Crimes (Bonus Track Version) by The Blood Brothers</a>

In "Rats and Rats and Rats for Candy" there's an ongoing narrative of rats living inside a woman. It's like a play. There are characters. And the rats eventually chew out of her and try to find a new body to live in. I wondered if that was also about beauty standards or body dysmorphia?

WHITNEY: That song, it's about that, but it's also about manipulation, right? Not to get too personal, but I grew up with somebody who weaponized being sick—faked being sick—for their entire life in order to manipulate people and extract something they needed out of them. The character in that song is kind of a victim, but like a siren at the same time. They're trying to lure somebody in.

Is that person the rats, or are they Candy?

WHITNEY: The rats are in Candy. I mean, it's both.

What about "The Shame?" Your group resonates so much with "everything is gonna be just awful / when we're around" that you're putting it on t-shirts 20 years later. What does it mean?

WHITNEY: The whole premise of that song is having to sell yourself—how to commoditize yourself. It's about how you function in a capitalist society. You sink or swim by your ability to market yourself, make yourself desirable—whether it be in relationships, job market, blah blah blah. I've always been repulsed by that and was especially at the time we wrote it, which was in Venice Beach, while we were recording Burn, Piano Island, Burn. It was the longest time I'd ever been in LA, and that's the epicenter of being a self-salesman. That line encapsulates the feeling of being sold something. And you're in a position where, in order to survive, you have to be your own salesman.

Salesmen show up in other songs, like "The Salesman, Denver Max." That's another one that almost feels like a short story.

WHITNEY: I initially cribbed the idea for that song's lyrics from the Joyce Carol Oates short story, "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" It follows a narrative of a very dangerous, predatory man in the process of stalking and kidnapping somebody. “Denver Max” was a huge, uncomfortable gamble for me, because I wrote the entire song on my acoustic guitar, recorded it to a 4-track, and then played it for the guys—totally expecting them to hate it. It was really daunting to try to contribute as a songwriter; Cody, Morgan, and Mark are such talented musicians. I think they may have hated it; I don't really remember how we ended up recording it. It was nobody's favorite thing, but we just tracked it, and it sounded great and worked.

Have you read anything by playwright Caryl Churchill?

WHITNEY: Never heard of her.

"Live at the Apocalypse Cabaret" has a lyric in it that reminds me of her play Far Away, which has a scene of milliners making hats for people to wear at a public execution, so I always felt a symmetry there, because of the lyrics "the cross-eyed map of the afterlife is knitting tiny neck ties." 

WHITNEY: I'm going to be super honest, the songs that I'm the most familiar with the lyrics of, at this very moment, are songs that were going to be playing, because I've been rehearsing them. But I do remember, with that song, we were trying to be funny without being silly. Like, a cross-eyed map is a map that makes no sense, where you don't know where you're going. Knitting tiny neckties are noose ties. It's like dressing yourself up for death, right? It's trying to dress up something that's really heinous and horrible and incomprehensible, and also trying to navigate that, through a map that makes no sense.

At this moment you have cracked my understanding of a play you haven't even read. But I digress, I've read that "Celebrator" was a direct response to Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."

BLILIE: That pumped up patriotism felt gross when taken in context with the images and much of the information that we were seeing come out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Is that why there are so many mentions of amputated limbs on Crimes?

BLILIE: The bulk of Crimes was trying to engage with war so that's where you get a lot of that grizzly imagery.

Well, personally, it's so nice that you're touring right now. Blood Brothers are great for when you need to scream, but you can't. You can scream along to the Blood Brothers in your head, or out loud at a show.

BLILIE: I'm glad that we could be of service, in that regard. It's hard for me not to go into a really bleak mindset when I look at our current political landscape. I find myself equal parts enraged and terrified. And there are times when I have to just close all news down. I guess it is a good time to get up and scream.

The Blood Brothers play the Showbox Thurs, Nov 14 and Fri, Nov 15. Thursday's show is all ages, and Friday's is 21+. 

This story was originally published in our sister paper, Portland Mercury.

The most depressing thing last night for me was reading that a longtime friend voted for the worst candidate they've ever voted for because the other one was worse. They wouldn’t say who they actually voted for. This is what we’ll be left with as a country when all this is done.

I gave another $100 to Harris to compensate, and of course voted straight Democratic on Thursday. Unlike my friend I was proud to vote for her. The alternative, after what we lived through between 2017 and 2021, to choose to go through that again, hard to imagine the horror.

And of course that’s assuming he voted for Harris.

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