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…was in the local region today, in a trip exquisitely planned to ensure he would see and hear from the only people he gives a damn about, zillionaires and corporate poobahs.
That didn’t stop a few hundred or so regular folks from using the occasion as an excuse to gather at Victor Steinbrueck Park, for a pleasant summer Friday afternoon of speechifyin’, T-shirt-wearin’, placcard-holdin’, and down-home togetherness.
The assorted young adults, union vets, senior citizens, Democratic Party operatives, and Greens in attendance were united by a shared idea:
That we don’t have to be paralyzed into passivity by what computer writer Dave Winer once acronymed as “FUD” (fear, uncertainty, and doubt).
That people-power indeed can take back our nation from the junta.
That we can create an America that actually cares about her people and her land.
Meanwhile, life and art go on.
…about a recent piece of cutesy-poo “news” coverage:
Sent in response to the showing of part of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ad as a candidate for Governor on the KING news broadcast on August 19, 2003.Dear KING5, Thanks for putting part of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political commercial on (for free!) during your ‘news’ program last night. I’m sure that he appreciated the free plug, and it’s good to know that Arnold is the only one running, and, even though he’s not running for any office in Washington state, that this is a hip and trendy news story, and that we should all be paying attention. I’m also hoping that you will be airing the commercials, in whole or in part, from each and every one of the other 134 people running for Governor of California. I’d hate to think that just because Arnold is the press-appointed front runner that you wouldn’t be spending equal time on the other candidates. I recognize that there is a certain amount of tabloid fodder necessary to entertain a significant portion of your audience, and that a famous actor running for office almost fits the bill. I only lament that the local news programs would pay so much attention to tabloid political movements in other states, while ignoring (or at least under-reporting) political developments in the state from which they broadcast. I know that Arnold will pull in the viewers and hold them at least until the commercial runs, and that that’s your plan. But how about equal time for people actually running for Governor of this state? Or the problems that actually affect people that can receive your broadcast? I can think of a dozen stories of a political nature that are ever so much more important that who’s running for which office in some other state. And when you spend your precious air time resources on just one of the candidates, you implicitly declare him the winner, or at least the only candidate worth paying attention to. Arnold has already got what appears to be enough name recognition to win the race. He doesn’t need your help. The press, and by extension television, even the tabloid type of television that you put on last night, has tremendous power to shape and define political races simply by focusing the attention on a particular candidate. The 24 hour news cycle demands that any contest for any office be reduced to a horse race where there must be a winner and a loser. ‘Reporters’ follow candidates around looking for ‘gotcha’ moments where a slip of the tongue can be turned into headline fodder in short order. Lazy shortcuts reduce people to clichés, painting a portrait of Al Gore, say, as a wooden policy wonk, or George Bush as a capable and decisive businessman. These portraits get reproduced in the echo chamber, reinforcing themselves until they begin to sound like truth. And we all know that truth is much harder to distribute in sound bytes between commercials, and that many viewers will change the channel if you try to engage them about something important. I’ll continue to watch the three networks for my local news fix. I’m not even disappointed that you (in this case) have been caught in lowest common denominator ‘journalism.’ But I for one am capable of seeing commercials during the newscast for what they are, and I don’t have to be pleased about it. Rich Webb
Sent in response to the showing of part of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ad as a candidate for Governor on the KING news broadcast on August 19, 2003.Dear KING5,
Thanks for putting part of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political commercial on (for free!) during your ‘news’ program last night. I’m sure that he appreciated the free plug, and it’s good to know that Arnold is the only one running, and, even though he’s not running for any office in Washington state, that this is a hip and trendy news story, and that we should all be paying attention. I’m also hoping that you will be airing the commercials, in whole or in part, from each and every one of the other 134 people running for Governor of California. I’d hate to think that just because Arnold is the press-appointed front runner that you wouldn’t be spending equal time on the other candidates.
I recognize that there is a certain amount of tabloid fodder necessary to entertain a significant portion of your audience, and that a famous actor running for office almost fits the bill. I only lament that the local news programs would pay so much attention to tabloid political movements in other states, while ignoring (or at least under-reporting) political developments in the state from which they broadcast.
I know that Arnold will pull in the viewers and hold them at least until the commercial runs, and that that’s your plan. But how about equal time for people actually running for Governor of this state? Or the problems that actually affect people that can receive your broadcast? I can think of a dozen stories of a political nature that are ever so much more important that who’s running for which office in some other state. And when you spend your precious air time resources on just one of the candidates, you implicitly declare him the winner, or at least the only candidate worth paying attention to. Arnold has already got what appears to be enough name recognition to win the race. He doesn’t need your help.
The press, and by extension television, even the tabloid type of television that you put on last night, has tremendous power to shape and define political races simply by focusing the attention on a particular candidate. The 24 hour news cycle demands that any contest for any office be reduced to a horse race where there must be a winner and a loser. ‘Reporters’ follow candidates around looking for ‘gotcha’ moments where a slip of the tongue can be turned into headline fodder in short order. Lazy shortcuts reduce people to clichés, painting a portrait of Al Gore, say, as a wooden policy wonk, or George Bush as a capable and decisive businessman. These portraits get reproduced in the echo chamber, reinforcing themselves until they begin to sound like truth. And we all know that truth is much harder to distribute in sound bytes between commercials, and that many viewers will change the channel if you try to engage them about something important.
I’ll continue to watch the three networks for my local news fix. I’m not even disappointed that you (in this case) have been caught in lowest common denominator ‘journalism.’ But I for one am capable of seeing commercials during the newscast for what they are, and I don’t have to be pleased about it.
Rich Webb
HEARD TODAY from a reader on an ol’ fashioned phone-line connection, who said it took him over 10 minutes to load all the pix on this page. While I try to crop ’em small ‘n’ tight, if you think the site’s become too image-heavy lemme know.
…was even duller than the first. About 70 of us sat around at the Kent Regional Justice Center from 8:45 until 3:00, including a long lunch from 11:00 to 1:30. Finally we were informed no trials were ready for us to be picked for. Thus ended our obligation to the People of King County.
With time on my hands in a corner of Puget Sound country I never get to otherwise, I of course had to photograph what sights there were to be seen. And there were many.
The original downtown Kent is a beautifully sited and constructed little town. It’s compact, has great all-American architecture, and is bedecked with well-groomed shade trees.
The only problem with downtown Kent is you can’t shop there for life’s basics (aside from tires and mufflers). As in so many other U.S. towns, Kent’s food, drug, and clothing stores have all fled to the outer sprawl. Former supermarkets now house a carpet store and a discout outlet cutely named “Stupid Prices.”
TODAY, more proof there’s beauty everywhere in our town, even in the no-person’s-land known as Interbay. (Please, don’t let ’em put up a strip mall there.)
THE HYDRO RACES went off flawlessly. Alas, so did the near-annual coronation of Miss Budweiser, the 5,000-lb. gorilla of the sport.
Still, it was a great afternoon of noise, sunburns, partying, and debauchery. And the power boats themselves still express the union of some eternal dichotomies: The sky and the sea, power and beauty, triumph and frustration.
WHILE WE ATTEMPT to get our lovely main digicam either fixed or replaced, we’ve got a backlog of dozens of cool pix taken on it. They’ll appear on this site at the usual erratic frequency.
…why I haven’t put her picture up on this site.
Wes Browning responds to our recent rant about a Jack in the Box commercial:
“Remember when they blew up the old pre-Jack Jack in the Box clown? I was driving a cab at the time. One day I got a bell to a Jack in the Box somewhere and what I got was a car-load of Jack in the Box ad execs. Done with a day of touring stores, they were ready to eat dinner and weren’t about to eat at a Jack in the Box. I ended up taking them to one of the considerably more expensive restaurants at Shilshole.”Along the way they asked me what I thought of the clown being blown up. I told them I thought it was great. I said it was long overdue; I despised that clown. They thanked me and then they told me that the whole campaign was being tested out here in Seattle before taking it nation-wide. They said that — whereas Seattle-ites had such a reputation (this was then) for being sensitive and kind-hearted — if WE didn’t mind the clown being wasted nobody would. “PS: I think the new ad is a hoot. I don’t think it insults the Northwest because it’s so over the top it’s absurd. I don’t think it insults the Southwest either, for the same reason. And, who knows, maybe they’re planning to come out with clam burgers or something so they can eventually bring Jack triumphantly back to our rain. “So — lighten up, Dude!”
“Remember when they blew up the old pre-Jack Jack in the Box clown? I was driving a cab at the time. One day I got a bell to a Jack in the Box somewhere and what I got was a car-load of Jack in the Box ad execs. Done with a day of touring stores, they were ready to eat dinner and weren’t about to eat at a Jack in the Box. I ended up taking them to one of the considerably more expensive restaurants at Shilshole.”Along the way they asked me what I thought of the clown being blown up. I told them I thought it was great. I said it was long overdue; I despised that clown. They thanked me and then they told me that the whole campaign was being tested out here in Seattle before taking it nation-wide. They said that — whereas Seattle-ites had such a reputation (this was then) for being sensitive and kind-hearted — if WE didn’t mind the clown being wasted nobody would.
“PS: I think the new ad is a hoot. I don’t think it insults the Northwest because it’s so over the top it’s absurd. I don’t think it insults the Southwest either, for the same reason. And, who knows, maybe they’re planning to come out with clam burgers or something so they can eventually bring Jack triumphantly back to our rain.
“So — lighten up, Dude!”
A new Jack in the Box commercial begins with the guy in a plastic clown head (allegedly voiced by Matt Frewer) in a damp, dark forest setting, in front of a crew of dingy, ponytailed hackey-sack players. As the rain beads up on his plastic face, he announces the fast food chain’s new “Northwest chicken salad.” Halfway through the ad copy, the clown realizes a mistake. Cut to a cue-card holder who says “Sorry dude.” Cut to a hastily revised cue card now reading “Southwest chicken salad.” Instantly the scene changes to a bright, sunny playa. Instead of the hackey-sackers, there’s an energetic marimba band.
This is no way for the San Diego, CA-based chain to treat our region. First they kill some of us, then they insult us.
THIS ISN’T “FOUND ART,” but more like “received art.”
Specifically, it’s one week’s worth of titles of junk emails.
Call it, if you will, Spamwich.
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…honoring the early arrival of the dog days-O-summer.
…to New Kids on the Block action figures, here’s a site with dozens of your fave ’80s commercials.
SOMEBODY doesn’t like Hummers. (But nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee.)
SOMETIMES a blown lighting fixture can reveal more than it conceals.
AS PROMISED, here are some of the pix I took but was unable to upload last month, starting with what’s commonly known for short as the “Gay Pride Parade” (the official name’s almost as long as the parade itself).
This year’s parade was to have been hardly different from any, except for the larger and more numerous surrounding beer gardens. (They’re here, they’re queer, they’re drinking beer.) But recent news events gave the paraders a couple extra things about which to feel proudly.
First, a court in Ontario ruled gay marriage legal in Canada’s most populous province. The move capped a half-year in which the Great White North, once seen as quaint and stuffy, suddenly attained a reputation as North America’s bastion of Euro-progressivism and (relative) political common sense.
Then the U.S. Supreme Court, in a rare victory for libertarian conservatives instead of authoritarian conservatives, said Texas couldn’t criminalize “sodomy” (a code-word for gay-male sex). G.W. Bush, who as Texas governor had supported the law, was uncharacteristically quiet about its overturning.
Thus, an event that, as late as a week before, might have held a mood of brash defiance, instead took on an air of only slightly-muted celebration for lesbians and gays, and for everybody who’s been yearning achingly for even the slightest hope.
Hope for a way out of the right-wing nightmare.
Hope for an America that would run on compassion and common sense, instead of greed and fear.
Hope for not just a more prosperous future, but for any future at all.
The new age people say anything we do to maintain a positive attitude will help us achieve our goals. Let’s hope this time they’re right.
IF YOU SAW the movie Ghost World, you’ll remember a shot of the astoundingly racist logo for an old restaurant, the Coon Chicken Inn. A few of you might not know that was a real chain, which until the ’50s had a large outlet on Lake City Way, just beyond the old Seattle city limits–and just a half mile north of the offices of Fantagraphics Books, which published the original Ghost World comic. (Ying’s Drive-In now stands on the ex-Coon Chicken site.)
What’s more bizarre than the old Coon Chicken logo is the fact that modern-day folks are making counterfeit logo souvenirs!
