MISCmedia by Clark Humphrey » Blog Archive RANDOM LINKS FOR 8/29/11

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RANDOM LINKS FOR 8/29/11

August 29th, 2011 by Clark Humphrey

Those of us who were looking forward to that separatist, elitist Burning Man institution’s imminent demise are outta luck.Â A nonprofit is being formed to take over future annual festivals. Among other effects, it means those who go there this year for the first time will get to annoy everybody back in their hometowns in subsequent years, with sermons about how much more “pure” the festival used to be.
Ex-Defense SecretaryÂ Donald Rumsfeld held a book signing in Tacoma. Antiwar activists, including the widow of a Ft. Lewis soldier who committed suicide, tried to disrupt the proceedings and got roughed up.
Can something really be done to stopÂ drug selling in Belltown? I say, it’s not likely as long as the First Avenue glamour-bar scene keeps attracting so many affluent drugÂ buyers.
Ain’tÂ them Sounders something? Well, yes they are.
Despite the elimination of state tax breaks for filmmakers, one production is underway on the Eastsideâ€”aÂ horrific true-life drama.
As Wash. state’s government payroll gets smaller, it’s also getting whiter. Gov. Gregoire’s response: more “staff reviews” and talk about the importance of diversity.
Gay marriageâ€”here next year?
For reasons I won’t get into, I witnessed the closure of the (high level) West Seattle Bridge late Saturday night. Sadly, it wasn’t due to road work, but to a jumper, who eventually “succeeded.”
Gawker’s unsupported rant that Seattle was “a very annoying place” has made Seattlest’s “Seattle stereotyping hall of shame.”
Qaddafi, Gadaffi, Gadhafi, however you transliterate the nameâ€”he lived the typical dictator’s opulence amid public squalor. And his son and daughter-in-law were grotesquely brutal to the household staff, in ways unimaginable outside of a Japanese gore movie.
Megabucks campaign financing just continues to get bigger and more corrupt. But you knew that.
And Republicans increasingly bind themselves around an anti-science, anti-thinking ideology. But you already knew that.
Ad Age lists some lessons from past recessions, for those businesses that still need to sell tangible products to U.S. consumers.
I keep getting asked about this, so for the record: The L.A.-based chain In-N-Out Burger is not, repeat NOT, opening in Bellevue. Not this year, not next year. It was just an EastsideÂ food blog’s April Fool’s gag. Need proof? Just look at the link in the story for “View renderings of the new restaurant here.”