MISCmedia by Clark Humphrey » Blog Archive RANDOM LINKS FOR 4/4/12

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RANDOM LINKS FOR 4/4/12

April 3rd, 2012 by Clark Humphrey

artist's rendering; via kiro-tv

Millions in the making, the big Seattle waterfront roller coaster is finally on the way! Estimated opening: July 4th.
You all need to read Judy Lightfoot’s piece at Crosscut about people forced to live in their vehicles at highway rest stopsâ€”even people with full time jobs.
On a related note, the state’s (official) jobless rate has dropped just enough to disqualify the state’s unemployed from 26 weeks’ worth of extended benefits.
The state’s finances, services, and basic sense of humanity are swirling down the drain. Tim Eyman, of course,Â doesn’t give a shit.
Dept. of Correction: It turns out public breastfeeding is already legal in Wash. state. Yesterday’s “Random Links” piece implied otherwise.
Queen Anne Books has got itself a lucky new owner.
It’s official: there’s a whooping cough epidemic in our state.
Seattle Center asked the public for input on new public-space designs for the place. Only they announced it on Tuesday with a deadline of Wednesday. And we’re asked to choose between three plans, all designed by out-of-state firms, and all reeking of “world class” emotional coldness.
Three deserving local theatre troupes will get to share the performance space at the bottom of a new mixed-use development on Capitol Hill.
Who doesn’t look at a bizarre press release issued on April 1 with at least a little skepticism? The Puget Sound Business Journal, that’s who. (The hoax was from Ivar’s, announcing a 100-flavor chowder dispenser to rival the Coca-Cola Freestyle pop machine.)
The Mariners are acting all NIMBY-y about getting a basketball/hockey arena next door.
As the Seattle Times finishes up its recounting of every complaint anyone’s got against Amazon (including some pretty serious allegations), labor advocacy group Working Washington is inviting people to register their own snark on the etailer’s sales page for a “Fair Share Pie Cutter.”
Despite the plethora of comic book-based movies and related merch, actual comic book sales have collapsed in recent years (even more than newspapers). But one reviewer sees a ray of hope emerging amidst the pall of gloom. It’s the new higher-res iPad.
Just declassified and in hot demand, it’s all the data from the 1940 Census.
Celebrity-snark writer Dustin Rowles depicts sitcom has-been Kirk Cameron as a complete douchebag, albeit one of the pseudo-Christian rather than the regular Hollywood variety.
Morley Safer snarks at the bigtime art world. New York mag’s Jerry Saltz snarks back.
Your daily dose of political outrage: Paul Buchheit at Buzzflash lists some “preposterous but persistent conservative myths;” Stephen D. Foster Jr. at Addicting Info lists 40 particularly disgusting quotes by GOP politicos demonstrating the “values Republicans want to destroy America with;” and Laura Clawson at Daily Kos recounts the utter failure of a particularly dorky would be right-wing sting operation against a commuity organizing group.
And let’s all get ready for Easter with (direct from the Betty Crocker Kitchens) the original “Bunny Butt Cake.”