Lenny Bruce

Today is the birthday of comic and social critic Lenny Bruce, born October 13, 1925. Bruce's sad life and short career are the stuff of legend. He was perhaps the first comedian to crash through the taboos of the Eisenhower years, broadly mocking the official hypocrisy of the military, the Catholic church, the racist culture of his time, and generally skewering American attitudes at a time when it was considered dangerous to do so.

Bruce was arrested for obscenity in 1961 for using the word "cocksucker," and although the jury acquitted him, the incident began a long and torturous series of arrests. In 1964, Bruce was arrested in New York and the widely-publicized six-month trial resulted in Bruce being found guilty and sentenced to four months in the workhouse. The conviction was announced despite testimony and support from Woody Allen, Bob Dylan, Jules Feiffer, Allen Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, William Styron, and James Baldwin, among other artists, writers and educators. The conviction was eventually overturned by the New York Court of Appeals, but the unceasing legal scrutiny took a toll on Bruce. He died of a drug overdose in 1966, having been blacklisted by nearly every nightclub in the United States.

According to the obituary by jazz critic Ralph Gleason,

Lenny Bruce had an incurable disease. He saw through the pretense, hypocrisy, and paradoxes of our society. All he insisted on was that we meet it straight ahead and not cop out or lie about it...He was one of those who, in Hebbel's expression, "have disturbed the world's sleep." And he could not be forgiven.

In 1971, one of Bruce's comedy routines was developed by San Francisco filmmaker John Magnuson into a short animated film, "Thank You Mask Man," which features Bruce performing all of the voices, and is now available to all of us through the miracle of Youtube.

Madalena at the MoMA

Italian painter Batiste Madalena was hired by Kodak founder George Eastman during the last days of silent cinema to design and hand-paint film posters for his theater in Rochester, NY—at the time the third-largest cinema in the U.S. Working alone over a four-year period and against deadlines that required as many as eight new posters a week for each change of bill, Madalena created over 1,400 unique works. Approximately 250 of these posters survived when the artist himself rescued them from the trash behind the theater. Madalena's rediscovery in the 1980s brought his brilliantly colored, singular designs, done in tempera paint on illustration board, to the attention of critics and collectors, and soon made him one of the most celebrated advertising artists for moving pictures. Fifty-three of Madelena's posters from this period will be on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from October 16 through April 6.

Look! Up in the Sky!

Beginning this Thursday, the talented madmen at Monkey Wrench Puppet Lab present their newest fever dream, "UFO the Puppet Show." The twisted puppeteers, who regularly stage Drunk Puppet Night and recently created the epic "Dracula: A Case Study," now tell the tale of what really went down at Roswell Airforce Base, and what it means for mankind. Apparently it involves Nazi scientists, Bess Truman, and a certain Austrian body-builder turned politician.

The show opens tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 9, and runs Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights until Nov. 8. At the Theatre off Jackson, in the heart of the International District. Tickets are available here. MWPL are the only local theatre group really exploring the strange and beautiful world of puppetry, and their shows are always worth checking out.

Heavy Baggage

Artist and gallery owner Paul Pauper is creating a series of provocative luggage sure to attract attention at airports. His suitcases and handbags feature brightly colored paintings and stencils of explosive devices, with the express aim of making fellow travelers paranoid and getting a reaction from security screeners. The subversive suitcases are available through his gallery, the Form/Space Atelier, and he is asking any buyers to document the process of taking them on board on airplane for use in a future installation.

Evan Roth of Graffiti Research Lab is exploring a similar idea, and taking it one step further. He has been cutting messages and symbols into metal plates and placing them in his carry-on luggage when he goes through airport security. Roth's project, which he calls "TSA Communication" has already made it through three airport runs. So far, he's used plates with portraits of Osama Bin Laden, the message "NOTHING TO SEE HERE," and a design he calls "The Exact Opposite Of A Box Cutter," which is a plate with a box cutter shape cut out of it.

It takes a certain kind of imagination, and a significant level of courage, to respond to the theater of airport security as an active participant rather than a passive one. I'm convinced that the country would be in better shape if more people found a way to creatively talk back to our self-appointed guardians, rather than blindly following instructions.

Punk Rock Flea Market Holidaze Edition

The date for the next Punk Rock Rock Flea Market has been nailed down.

The Underground Events Center presents the Holidaze edition of the Punk Rock Flea Market on Saturday December 6. For those of you keeping track, this is PRFM #5.

This is a full on flea market selling records, clothing, furniture, computers, stereo equipment, housewares, haircuts, toys, videos, bicycles, tacos, falafels, vegan treats, skateboards, political propaganda, information from non profit groups, books, art, baby stuff, tarot readings & whatever else we can fit into the space. Don't let the name lead you to believe that we only welcome vendors selling punk records, clothes etc. The "Punk Rock" of the name refers as much to the DIY spirit of the event as it does to any particular music or lifestyle.

Spaces are still just $25 (cheap!), and double spaces cost $50 (insanely cheap!). Like before, the market opens to the public at 10:00 am and bands will begin to play at around 6:00 pm.

Once again, the space we are using has been generously loaned to us for the day by the Low Income Housing Institute, aka. LIHI, a non-profit organization that builds homes for homeless and low-income people all around the Puget Sound.

To reserve a table or ask questions email the PRFM crew at PRFleamarket@gmail.com or visit the PRFM MySpace page. More info soon!

Embarassment of Riches

The week to come brings an unusually rich cinema schedule - even by Seattle's extremely high standards - as two renowned film makers come to town to present their work at our non-profit theatres, and one up-and-coming local arts collective premiers a very unusual series of new work at one of the City's brightest new spots for underground art.

On October 6, at the charming Grand Illusion in the U-District, animator Don Hertzfeldt presents a selection of his animated shorts, culminating in the regional premiere of his film I Am So Proud of You. Hertzfeldt developed a cult following after the release of his short film "Rejected" which features his disquieting, and ultimately declined, animated spots for the Family Learning Channel. His newest film is a sequel to the gorgeous and depressing Everything will be OK, which won the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Award in Short Filmmaking in 2007. The Seattle screening will be followed by "an embarassing live interview" and audience Q+A with Hertzfeldt.

On October 8, at the SIFF Cinema in Seattle Center, British Director Mike Leigh presents his latest film, Happy- Go- Lucky, followed by a public reception. Leigh began his career as a stage director in the 1960's, made a series of bleak and beautiful television dramas, and in the 1980's began work on his unique oeuvre of socially realistic films set in the hidden recesses of the English working-class world. Leigh may be best known in this country for his films Secrets & Lies and Vera Drake, and for his 1993 pitch-black comedy Naked, which won Leigh a Best Director award at Cannes and features David Thewlis as Johnny, one of the most physically charismatic and morally reprehensible characters to appear on film in many years. Though he is somewhat under-celebrated in the U.S., Mike Leigh is one of the giants of contemporary film, and is unquestionably one of the great directors in cinematic history.

Finally, at the soon- to- be- demolished Free Sheep Foundation in Belltown, the collective "Silvering Path" opens a two-week run of new works beginning on October 10th. Seattle dancer/performer Haruko Nishimura commissioned film maker Ian Lucero, installation artist Mandy Greer and sound sculptor Colin Ernst to create three new multi-media collaborations. The film by Lucero captures in microscopic detail the life of a “Slug Princess," played by Haruko, and features a sound track made from field recordings of grains and vegetables. Previews of the film are available here, and you can buy tickets for the show here.

We have a rainy week ahead, and there is simply no better way to save an otherwise dreary evening than by supporting our local non-profit cinemas and watching some excellent movies.

Hayden Carruth

Hayden Carruth died yesterday at 87 years old.

The upstate New York poet was a devoutly private and radically intelligent man of the widest reading and cultivation, equally at home with modern jazz and classical Greek. He made a principle of staying alert to trends in speech, art, music and politics which was closely tied to his self-styled anarchism. Carruth's poetry could veer from gentle and appreciative to sizzling with rage, expressing everything from fantasies of escape to deep psychic unease. To my mind, the most characteristic of his many qualities was his unfailing ear for popular speech - the talk of streets, pubs, barnyards, jam sessions, and lunch counters. This unique sensibility was brilliantly displayed in the book that introduced me to him - and still my favorite - "Asphalt Georgics," in which he rhapsodized the malls, bars and road culture of my own homeland around Rochester, Rome and Utica New York.

As he aged, his disillusion with the world around him grew, but he never stopped writing. His last poems were regretful, even sorrowful, but anger was never Carruth's dominant note. Rather his poems, like the people he lovingly chronicled, were gallant improvisers - bent but never broken.

This poem is from Carruth's 1996 book, Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey.

Graves

Both of us had been close
to Joel, and at Joel’s death
my friend had gone to the wake
and the memorial service
and more recently he had
visited Joel’s grave, there
at the back of the grassy
cemetery among the trees,
“a quiet, gentle place,” he said,
“befitting Joel.” And I said,
“What’s the point of going
to look at graves?” I went
into one of my celebrated
tirades. “People go to look
at the grave of Keats or Hart
Crane, they go traveling just to
do it, what a waste of time.
What do they find there? Hell,
I wouldn’t go look at the grave of
Shakespeare if it was just
down the street. I wouldn’t
look at—” And I stopped. I
was about to say the grave of God
until I realized I’m looking at it
all the time....

Street Level

I was up in Greenwood this morning and saw a few hopeful signs of things to come. Some nice stencils of a decidedly political bent.

Also, this photo from v!sualism of the ever-changing Belltown stencil wall appeared on the Seattle Streetart flickr page.

Correo Denio

I've gushed before about local musical hero Amy Denio. Another local phenomenon are the duo Correo Aereo, who play a beautiful and unique mix of traditional Hispano-American music and their own original compositions. Madeleine Sosin is a violin prodigy and Abel Rocha restlessly explores the many exotic stringed instruments of Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and Latin America. The three of them - Amy, Madeleine and Abel - share a stage for the first time this Saturday, October 4, at the Cafe Paloma in Pioneer Square. I don't know exactly what's in store, but they are three extremely passionate musicians with exquisite taste and an uncanny sense of harmony. The music will certainly be interesting, and it may be great. Cafe Paloma is tiny, reservations are recommended.

Attending Mass

As Friday afternoon rolled around, it was tough deciding whether to stay at the Rendezvous and watch the presidential debate or join the monthly Critical Mass bikeride. Man, did I make the right choice. As far as I could tell afterward, the debate went absolutely nowhere while Critical Mass covered some 10 miles of new ground. Around 300 people showed up to take advantage of the warm autumn night. After half a dozen sweeping loops around and through downtown, the ride headed due south on 1st Avenue, past Safeco Field, across the Spokane Street Bridge, over Harbor Island, and finally to Alki Beach in West Seattle after nightfall. Glorious. We're not gonna have too many more nights like that one, I'm glad I made the most of it. There are still two more debates in which Obama may yet crush old man McCain like a worm.

As always, some fantastic pics from eagle eye photographer The Corey.

Nickelsville

Last night I headed out to Nickelsville to lend a hand and take a look around.

Nickelsville is a homeless camp that appeared early in the morning of Sept. 22, on a vacant lot in the industrial lands south of Seattle. Using tents donated by the girl scouts and the Race for the Cure, the makeshift city had some 200 tents in place by dawn. By the end of that day the City of Seattle had covered the site with No Trespassing signs and 72-hour eviction notices.

For a "city" that was built overnight, Nickelsville is impressively efficient and well-organized. Tents are arranged in distinct groups, with a small group of Port-a-potties behind each group. At the entrance to the camp a set of tables beneath tarps serves as a check-in point, first aid station and camp kitchen.

While I was there, a team of volunteer builders, led by UW engineering student Joe Taylor, was constructing an administrative building from palettes and donated scraps of lumber. SHARE/WHEEL, the organization responsible for organizing the Tent Cities that roam Seattle and the East Side, was a major force behind getting Nickelsville up and organized. Many of the campers had been living in the two nomadic Tent Cities.

Mayor Nickels (for whom the camp is named) has been consistent in describing the camp as a political demonstration - which it is, to a certain extent - but much more importantly it's abundantly clear that the camp is full of genuinely neglected people who need a safe and supportive place to stay.

As advocates have pointed out again and again and again, 2,631 people were counted sleeping outside on a freezing January night this year. The Post-Intelligencer reported that 24 people were turned away from Operation Nightwatch on the very night that Nickelsville went up owing to a lack of shelter beds. The fact is indisputable - there just isn't enough shelter in Seattle.

The word in the camp is that clearances may begin this morning. The City is due to arrive between 6 and 7 am today, with bulldozers. Send an email to Mayor Nickels to let him know what you think, and keep an eye on Real Change news or Tim Harris' blog Apesma's Lament for updates.

Noise

I've got to add my baritone to the chorus of voices singing the praises of recent MacArthur award recipient Alex Ross. For the last twelve years Ross has been the music critic for the New Yorker magazine, where he writes about new music with amazing passion and fluency, often introducing obscure or over-looked music with great enthusiasm and without a hint of condescension. In 2007 Ross published the remarkable book The Rest Is Noise, (the name from Ross' must-read blog of the same title) an extremely lively cultural history of 20th-century music that journeys through pre-World War I Vienna, Paris of the 1920s, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, and New York of the 1960s and 1970s. I haven't read the book cover-to-cover, but instead have been dipping into it as the occasion arises for a treasure trove of revealing anecdotes about Arnold Schoenberg, John Cage and Duke Ellington. Ross champions all manner of music, but more than anything else he encourages listeners to keep their ears, and their minds, open to new sounds and new experiences. The book brilliantly has its own online audio guide, to which any music lover can devote many, many hours.

Ross also has something of a Seattle connection. Earlier this year Ross hosted the local Icebreaker Festival, which featured nine world premiere performances by young composers, and in 2006 he donated a fully loaded iPod to a charity auction whose proceeds benefitted Northwest Harvest, Washington's statewide hunger relief agency. Somewhere in Seattle, some lucky person is riding the bus with his or her ears tuned in to the musical selections of a verified genius.

Earshot

Seattle's Earshot Jazz Festival, now in it's 20th year, begins on October 18th. I'll be writing more about this in the coming weeks, but I just saw a festival schedule this weekend and a few performances deserve some excited advance notice.

Most thrillingly, Charlie Haden and the Liberation Music Orchestra are making a very rare appearance at the Seattle Town Hall on October 31. This big band, which was started by bassist Haden in the late 1960's in response to the U.S. bombing of Cambodia, has released only 4 albums over the last 40 years, each of which is an brilliant exploration of free jazz and political music. The ensemble's first album focused on the Spanish Civil War, a 1983 album commented on US involvement in Central America, a 1990 release focused on apartheid in South Africa, and the latest album, from 2005, dealt with the wars in the Middle East. Past members of the LMO have been a virtual who's who of American jazz - including Carla Bley, Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri, Curtis Fowlkes, Dewey Redman, and many many more. The band almost never tours, and, owing to their unapologetically radical politics, have trouble getting bookings when they do. Halloween is one of the busiest nights on the Seattle calendar, but this show is simply not to be missed.

On Otober 19, violinist Billy Bang is bringing his quartet to the Langston Hughes Center. Bang is one of the greatest jazz violinists working today - over a 40 year career he was worked in a huge variety of genres with such luminaries as Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society, trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah, funk legend Bootsy Collins, and a ten-year association with Sun Ra. Two of his recent recordings, Vietnam: Reflections and Vietnam: The Aftermath, are incredibly powerful and personal explorations of Bang's time as an infantryman in Vietnam, and are among my favorite albums of recent years.

Act fast to get tickets - Bang and the LMO are world-class performers and these concerts should sell out quick. The complete Earshot festival runs from Oct. 18 until Nov. 9.

Pirate Jenny Day

According to many sources, none of them reliable, today is "International Talk Like a Pirate Day." I don't care about that. But I do care, very much, about Lotte Lenya performing 'Pirate Jenny' in the film version of the Threepenny Opera, one of the greatest movie musical numbers of all time. If a silly non-holiday gives me an opportunity to post this wonderful clip, in which a cheap prostitute indulges in an gory reverie of laying waste to her city, so be it.

Now you gentlemen can wipe that smile off your face
'Cause every building in town is a flat one.
This whole fuckin' place will be down to the ground,
Only this cheap hotel standing up safe and sound,
And you yell, "Why do they spare that one?"
Yes, that's what you say:
"Why do they spare that one?"
All the night through, through the noise and to-do,
You wonder who is that person that lives up there?
And you see me stepping out in the morning
Looking nice with a ribbon in my hair.

And the ship, the black freighter
runs a flag up its masthead
and a cheer rings the air.

Bike Smut

Portland bike evangelist Reverend Phil Sano is on the road touring with his latest collection of dirty bike films called "Bike Porn 2: Bikexploitation." Phil has been alternatively collating and screening a wide range of short films for years, and his series of new and old bike porn has become insanely popular. The 28 shorts in the current program range from the contemplative, to the inventive, to the downright nasty, with a common theme of erotic bicycles.

Since December Phil and his films have gone from Portland to L.A. to Minneapolis to New York and now back to Cascadia, almost always via his trusty two-wheeler. He pedals into Seattle for two screenings this Saturday, Sept. 20, at the ever- experimental F.B.K. House, 6272 S. Ellis in Georgetown. After that it's the Capitol Theater in Olympia on the 22nd, and back to the Hollywood Theater in Portland on 10/2.

Schtock

Lots of serious stuff recently, this is more fun. Schtock is the work of an anonymous "amateur designer" who works at a stock photo company and creates lovely digital collages out of images that catch his (or her) eye on the job. Clicking on the image shows you its component parts. Nicely done.

For The Corey.

Our Revels Now Are Ended

In reaction to the financial news coming at us from all sides, this poem by William Shakespeare, as spoken by Prospero.

The Tempest, Act 4 Scene 1

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

Different Approaches to Mass Transit

Very interesting story in the NYTimes today about the transit system in Rochester, New York. It seems the Rochester transit system just cut fares, thus increasing ridership and ultimately making more income.

"The Rochester system, which expects to run a surplus for the third year in a row, has been able to reduce its one-ride fare in part by eliminating some low-trafficked routes, avoiding debt and aggressively raising revenues from other sources. The fare fell to $1 from $1.25 on Sept. 1."

Concurrently, the Rochester system made some creative arrangements with local public schools, colleges and private businesses, all of whom have students or employees who use the system extensively, to help subsidize transit operations.

In contrast, this morning King County Metro announced that it will be adding new bus routes and more frequent service to keep up with rising transit demand, and “revising” bus service for 22 other routes. To support the service expansion Metro has already had to raise fares 25 cents, and another 50-cent increase is in the works. As Rochester's approach demonstrates, higher fares lead to lower ridership, bringing lower revenues, which launches us once again into the vicious cycle of crowded buses, unreliable schedules, and a less pleasant bus experience.

Obviously there are great differences of scale - Rochester’s Regional Transit Service carries 15 million riders a year, which is a fraction of the King County ridership. But as economic hard times have reduced tax revenues and increased demand for government transit subsidies, Rochester's unusual approach to transit may provide valuable lessons for larger cities that are having trouble balancing increasing demand with reasonable fares. Like Seattle.

Thanks to RocBike for the sweet photo taken on a Rochester bus.

Twilight Zoning

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels recently rolled out his latest proposal to increase development in the City of Seattle while ostensibly benefiting the affected communities. The plan creates a structure for a voluntary trade off: developers would be asked to create or pay for new affordable housing in exchange for lucrative land-use changes. Basically, the proposal would require developers to convert 11% of increased height into affordable housing. The legislation won't change building heights anywhere, but it would establish how developers can take advantage of greater building height allowances in the future.

Puget Sound SAGE (Seattle Alliance for Good Jobs and Housing for Everyone) called a community meeting last Friday, September 11, to dissect the proposed plan. SAGE, an up-and-coming coalition of labor, faith and community organizations, is coming off of a successful three-year effort which created the landmark Community Benefits Agreement guaranteeing culturally sensitive development and 200 units of affordable-housing in the rapidly changing Little Saigon neighborhood.

Around 75 people showed up at the Columbia City Library to learn about incentive zoning from local development experts, and to hear a detailed analysis of the Mayor's proposal. The organizers made it perfectly clear that while they support increasing density as an important means of creating urban communities, curbing traffic and reducing greenhouse gases, the City could do much more for its citizens in exchange for instituting zoning changes that make development far more lucrative.

The general feeling at the meeting was that the Mayor's proposed incentive program does very little to create affordable housing in neighborhoods where it's most needed. Given the option, most developers will make the choice that least affects their bottom line - either paying a fee to build low-income housing in distant locations, or designing smaller projects to avoid the costs altogether. Unsurprisingly, many developers are arguing that any legislated community benefit is too much. In cities where zoning has worked well to create affordable housing - including New York City, San Francisco, and Boston - the rules have not been voluntary but rather require that a given share of new construction be affordable to people with low to moderate incomes.

Adding insult to injury, Mayor Nickels' current proposal provides primarily "workforce housing," or homes for people making up to 100% of Seattle's median income - around $77,000. By any measure there is already an abundance of such housing in Seattle. What we really need is a strategy to build housing for poor people within existing communities.

Seattle area developers will make a presentation to the Seattle City Council on Sept. 24, and the only public hearing on the matter is scheduled for October 7. Every Seattle resident who has an interest in the future of their neighborhood and who believes that the creation of affordable housing is a necessity, should come to this meeting to demand that any new laws work to meet the housing needs of people in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, and don't just open up further opportunities for massive give-aways to powerful developers.

Some Photos of That Day

In 1979, a young New York film student named Jamie Livingston decided to take one Polaroid image every day of his life. He died 18 years later, never missing a day. The resulting album is archived on this fascinating and deeply moving website.

The site, lovingly compiled by Livingston's friend Hugh Crawford, features one photo for every day between March 1979 and October 1997. There is no commentary or captions, just the strange and compelling photos of friends, family, landscapes, beaches, buildings, graffiti, TV screens, parking lots and swimming pools.

Livingston himself regularly pops up, doing ordinary stuff like eating dinner or doing unusual things like playing music on the street or holding a skinned goat. Then, in 1997, events take a dark turn. There are pictures of the photographer in a hospital, then with a long scar across his head. In October there is a picture of a gold ring, then two days later a wedding ceremony. After that he's back in the hospital with some of the friends from the early photos around his bedside. On October 25 the series ends. The photographer has died.

This beautiful collection of photos forms a unique legacy of a life and a touching souvenir of thousands of tiny details that would otherwise have been completely lost to time.