6/87 ArtsFocus Misc
(one-year anniversary)
Welcome to the first issue of the new Arts Focus and the first anniversary of Misc., the at-large column that tries to keep ahead of a world where Hüsker Du goes on the Today show, the Central Area’s Liberty Bank becomes the largest Seattle-owned commercial bank by default, the M’s briefly take first place, and the Pope tries to stop people from doing all they can to have babies.
Top story of the month: Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s and other top national advertisers are refusing to place any ads in Florida, after that state passed a tax on advertising and other professional services. If Booth had gotten his original tax plan past our myopic Legislature, we too would be sharing in this rare and wonderful blessing.
At that same time, Contragate and Hartbreak battled for the public viscera, with many Americans somehow finding lying, cheating, and killing in the name of democracy to be less immoral than sleeping around.
Local junk food of the month: Midnight Sun Dark Chocolate, made in south King Co. by an Alaska firm, with such a bold flavor that it’s the Everclear of candy bars. No relation to the “Midnite Sun Chocolate” in Eskimo Pies.
Local publication of the month: Moviemakers at Work. Despite what the Times says, this is Microsoft Press’ first non-computer book, and its choice of interviewees reflects the real star system in late-industrial Hollywood. Not a single actor, writer or composer is in the book; the only subjects with director credits are two animators. Instead, we get audio technicians, photographers, editors, and most especially special-effects artisans. The newfound prominence of these people indicates how the big-money boys now in charge at the movies have dropped all notions of story, dialogue and character in a relentless rush toward old Darryl Zanuck’s dream: to find a movie formula wherein investing in a certain level of pure spectacle will bring a guaranteed return. It didn’t work for Zanuck (Cleopatra, Dr. Doolittle); it’s not working today.
Time Travelers, one of this column’s favorite record and comic stores, hopes to move away from 2nd near Pine this summer. The folk there say it’s ‘cuz the neighborhood has become too scuzzy, and I agree. That Nordstrom Rack has attracted totally the wrong element. In other comic news, Marvel is now owned by New World Pictures, presumably meaning we’ll get more great comic-based films in the grand tradition of Howard the Duck. Gary Larson, meanwhile, has sold rights for a live-action Far Side movie to Alan Rudolph (Trouble in Mind, Welcome to L.A.) would fit in perfectly, as long as he doesn’t sing.
Sports spurts: Have the Sonics’ recent playoff successes led me to reconsider my stance against letting more than half of any league’s league’s teams into its playoffs? No. This does not mean I don’t love the Supes or will approve of any move to Bellevue (what would they be called then? The Evergreen State Warriors?)…
Most of the potential new local owners for the Mariners are stingy bean counters just like George Arduous. They might meet the requirements of Commissioner Peter Uberalles, but could keep the team strictly a stop for players on their way up or down. The M’s may be contenders now, but the question is whether this year’s stars’ll get paid what they deserve here next year or go to someone who will.
Cathode Corner: Joan Rivers has finally been fired by Murdochvision. Why didn’t it happen sooner? ‘Cuz Rivers & Rupert shared the same worldview, one based on gross-out aesthetics and Righteous Right politics. With any luck Murdoch’s Fox Network will fold this year, leaving KCPQ to running its great movies (with the usual breaks from greatness for the monthly Gratuitous Violence Week). I’d hate to see the Ding-Ding Channel’s uniqueness become lost to more of those fashionable-but-dumb Fox shows, shows which prove that it’s square to be hip.
Richard Nixon has received a Fine Arts award from the French government, presumably for such acts of support for the arts as helping Joe McCarthy’s terror crusade against filmmakers and artists, trying to kill PBS, and putting half the big names in showbiz on his hit list. Of course, this award is coming from the nation that idolizes Jerry Lewis.
The Rep’s production of Red Square inspires this comment from P. Shaw: “The biggest thing about it is the conflict between the cold, badly conceived, laborious Rep set and the fast-paced, anarchic nature of the farce. The way that the fast action stops cold for these slow, slow scene changes sets up a whole other kind of absurdity in the spirit of farce, where inappropriate things are happening all the time.”
The Empty Space’s Gloria Duplex raises lots of questions on religion, sex, artistic inspiration, and hip-art-world attitudes toward lowbrow and folk culture, but none more intriguing than that of why Seattle doesn’t have anything like the intimate passions of body and soul celebrated in Rebecca Welles’ Louisiana-set work. It’s probably a combination of our Nordic Lutheran heritage (in which the only fully accepted alternative to quiet piety is quiet drunkenness) and our post-frontier heritage (in which most expressions of the free human spirit are suppressed to try and prove that the Wild West has “grown up”). In any event, we could use just the revival of both true spirituality and true sexuality promoted so sweetly in Gloria’s Kitten Paradise Temple and Lounge.
‘Til we talk again in midsummer, remember these memorable words from Shaka Zulu (the first live-action nudity-violence miniseries from the producers of Robotech): “Don’t just stand there like a pack of old women, kill me!”
