Here's your CHEAT SHEET for the general election

Film/TV • Unstreamable

Sweet Charity Is Unstreamable

by Chase Burns and Jasmyne Keimig • Friday at 7:00 pm

Its time for our semi-regular appreciation post on Ms. Edith Head and her fantastic costumes.
It's time for our semi-regular appreciation post on Ms. Edith Head and her fantastic costumes. Courtesy Universal Pictures/Sweet Charity

Unstreamable is a weekly column that finds films and TV shows you can't watch on major streaming services in the United States.

SWEET CHARITY
USA, 1969, 149 min | 154 min (TCM print), Dir. Bob Fosse

Shirley MacLaine is delightful in this, even though the role probably shouldve gone to Gwen Verdon.
Shirley MacLaine is delightful in this, even though the role probably should've gone to Gwen Verdon. Courtesy Universal Pictures/Sweet Charity

Not enough is said about Ms. Edith Head.

We also don't talk enough about Sweet Charity, Bob Fosse's first feature film starring Shirley MacLaine, featuring Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly, and Sammy Davis Jr, and costume designed by Head. That's probably because Sweet Charity is too long—over two-and-a-half hours, feels like three. A great Achilles heel of Fosse is his inability to pace a straight scene like he paces a musical number.

But onto Ms. Head. The record-setting Acadamy Award-winning costume designer, born in 1897 and dead in 1981, designed costumes for nearly 400 films, many of them with astoundingly large casts. Best known for her work in Hitchcock's movies and movies like Breakfast at Tiffany's and White Christmas, Head gets to really let her immaculate sensibility loose on a Fosse musical. The costumes here are the late '60s at its absolute vivid best. She makes even the party hats look couture.

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Slog AM/PM

Slog PM: Let's Get to 90% Turnout, King County! We Want an Invite to the Socially Distant Wedding, Sue and Megan!

by Chase Burns and Jasmyne Keimig • Friday at 5:45 pm

We need your help. The economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis is threatening our ability to keep producing the stories you've come to love. If you’re able, please consider making a monthly contribution to The Stranger.

Courtesy of @streetphotojournalism
It's packed over at Shawn's. Courtesy of @streetphotojournalism

Shawn Kemp's Cannabis is officially open: Sonics legend Shawn Kemp and former teammate Gary Payton cut the green ribbon this afternoon. The store, located on First Ave near the Seattle Center, was billed as Seattle's first Black-owned dispensary. That claim generated controversy this week, with many questioning how much of the business Kemp owns, as the majority ownership seems to be Kemp's business partners, the Main Street Marijuana chain. A spokesperson for Shawn Kemp’s Cannabis wouldn't disclose to Seattle Met how much of the business is owned by Kemp. Converge Media discussed the issue during an online panel a few days ago. The store is open all weekend and also features a giant mural of Kemp by artist Jeff Jacobson.

Is South Lake Union prepping for Election Night rioting? Looks like the repeated smashing of windows at Amazon Go in Capitol Hill has techie landlords stressing.

Saw wooden walls like this going up in front of some buildings in South Lake Union from r/Seattle

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Food & Drink • EverOut

Alexandra's Macarons Opens and More Seattle Food News You Can Use This Week: October 30, 2020 Edition

by Stranger EverOut Staff • Friday at 4:45 pm

The macaron shop Alexandras Macarons opened a brick-and-mortar cafe in the Central District this week.
The macaron shop Alexandra's Macarons opened a brick-and-mortar cafe in the Central District this week. Alexandra's Macarons

EverOut is The Stranger's new website devoted to things to do in Seattle and across the Pacific Northwest. It has all the same things you're used to seeing from Stranger EverOut and Stranger Things To Do, just in a new spot!

This week, Alexandra's Macarons has opened its new brick-and-mortar cafe in the Central District, El Gaucho plans to unveil its massive new flagship location, and the owners of Capitol Hill's craft cocktail and charcuterie destination Cure Cocktail have launched a new Hawaiian and Filipinx BBQ spot. Plus, Bastille begins a new chapter as the trendy cafe Sabine, and Jack's BBQ expands to a new location. Read on for all that and more food-world updates. For additional inspiration, check out our full food and drink guide, including our guide to Halloween food and drink specials and events.

NEW OPENINGS AND RETURNS


Alexandra's Macarons and Cafe
Alexandra Greenwald's business, a familiar farmers market fixture known for its pink VW bus named "Gertrude" and its fanciful, French-style macarons, opened its first brick-and-mortar location in the Central District on Saturday, October 24. This week's macaron flavors include Double Chocolate Sea Salt, Chambord Raspberry, Spooky Salted Caramel, Golden Milk, Pumpkin Spice White Choco-Latte, and Earl Grey Tea. Other menu offerings include guava and cheese pop tarts and spiced apple peach pop tarts, loaves of country bread, balls of pizza dough, macaron ice cream sandwiches, and take-and-bake cookies. 
Central District

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Guest Editorial

Harborview Needs Your Help. Trust Us—We Practically Live Here.

by Brandon Peplinski, Lola Mudgistratova, Eve Champaloux, Tim Kelly, Amanda Wise, Kellie Satterfield and Alex Adami • Friday at 4:15 pm

Some of Harborviews finest. (L-R) Nora Li, MD, PharmD; Barbara Kozminski, MD; Alicia Seeds, MD; James Abe, MD; Lyndsey Booker, MD; Heather Barnett, MD.
Some of Harborview's finest. (L-R) Nora Li, MD, PharmD; Barbara Kozminski, MD; Alicia Seeds, MD; James Abe, MD; Lyndsey Booker, MD; Heather Barnett, MD. Alex Adami

Here’s the truth: Harborview Medical Center needs help—lots of it—and the best way to help it right now is to vote APPROVED on King County Prop 1.

We represent the 1,400 resident and fellow physicians of the Resident and Fellow Physician Union - Northwest. We virtually live at Harborview, regularly spending 30 or more hours straight and 80 or more hours a week within its walls. Unfortunately, these walls are at their breaking point.

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Sponsored

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2020

Trump vs Biden Is Not About the Right vs the Left

by Charles Mudede • Friday at 3:46 pm

FDR at Warm Springs (1929)
"FDR at Warm Springs (1929)" FDR Presidential Library & Museum

Let's begin with Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Back in the 1940s, the French philosopher presented the concept of a maximum grip. What this means is that a body must situate itself in a place where it can get the maximum clarity on an observed object. In this post, the object is the presidential election of 2021.

On one side, we have Joe Biden; on the other side, Donald Trump. To obtain a maximum grip on this object (which is also an event—events and objects are, Alfred North Whitehead pointed out in the 1920s, the same) one must see in its details not a contest between the left and the right but the state and the market. Or, put another way, politicians and merchants.

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Events

Stuck at Home? Check Out These Halloween Livestreams Tonight and Tomorrow

by Matt Baume • Friday at 3:35 pm

VHS is dead media. DEEEAAAAADDDDDD
VHS is dead media. DEEEAAAAADDDDDD Cinema Obituary

How I miss the days when we all could complain that Halloween was getting too slutty—oh, what I wouldn’t give for a sexy Pikachu right now. Instead, this year’s shaping up to have more of a lonely Havishamesque shut-in vibe that is a definite mood-killer, and not in a fun haunted house kind of way but more of a “guess I’ll sit on the couch eating 37 mini candy bars while I watch Rue McClanahan and a knock-off ALF in The Wickedest Witch … again” sort of way.

Do not give in to Halloween quarantine malaise! Although group-gatherings are out, seasonal spooks are still on the menu via local Seattle livestreams. Yeah, I know, it’s not the same, what’s been the same as anything these last few months—and hey some of these streams actually look more fun than getting crammed onto a bus with drunk half-costumed amateurs as freezing PNW temperatures make you regret your choices. Instead, get comfortable on your couch for some fun movie-mockery, or an online seance, or drag show, or a midnight tango.

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Stranger Election Control Board

General Election Cheat Sheet

by Stranger Election Control Board • Friday at 2:25 pm

It's a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong ballot. (That's 35 Os for approximately 35 races on the ballot, depending on where you live.)

cheat_sheet__1_.jpg
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EverOut

Your Guide to a Socially Distanced Weekend: In-Person Halloween Events, Shawn Kemp's Pot Shop Opening, and More

by Stranger EverOut Staff • Friday at 1:15 pm

Wear your freakiest getup to Fremonts disco ball-laden Dreamland Bar & Diner for their prize-bearing Screamland Costume Contest this weekend, then stick around for a drink (or order something to go).
Wear your freakiest getup to Fremont's disco ball-laden Dreamland Bar & Diner for their prize-bearing Screamland Costume Contest this weekend, then stick around for a drink (or order something to go). Dreamland Bar & Diner via Facebook

EverOut is The Stranger's new website devoted to things to do in Seattle and across the Pacific Northwest. It has all the same things you're used to seeing from Stranger EverOut and Stranger Things To Do, just in a new spot!

Many in-person Halloween traditions are not feasible this year (such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, packed parties, and goblin embraces), but there are still ways to get out of your house and go about your day in a spooky manner without contracting or spreading a deadly virus. In addition to our guide to the best things to do from home this week (like the Fisherman's Village Music Fest and Hocum Pokem: The Return of the Manderson Sisters) and the best Halloween weekend movies, we're hitting you with some recommendations for IRL, socially distanced ways to spend your weekend, both Halloween-related and otherwise. See them all below, from last-minute pumpkin patches to places to celebrate Fig Week, and from the grand opening of Seattle's first Black-owned dispensary to Liberation Hallows' Eve in Cal Anderson Park with local Black Lives Matter organizers. Just remember to wear a mask (a cloth one, not a costume one, as the CDC advises!), keep your distance, and vote if you haven't already! 

HALLOWEEN
Catch a killer view of the rare blue moon on Halloween—it deserves to be fawned and howled over without obstruction. If you can get yourself to a national park, by all means do so, but there are also some great spots for optimal moon-gazing and supernatural transformations within the city. Wallingford's Gas Works Park, with its Tim Burton-like industrial structures and panoramic view of Lake Union, and Queen Anne's Kerry Park, with its sloping view of downtown, are both good options, as are—and we hope we're not ruining a neighborhood secret here—the stone steps on Capitol Hill's Bellevue Avenue East that boast a view of the Space Needle. For some supplemental eye candy from the Olympic Mountain and Elliott Bay, stake out a spot at Ballard's Sunset Hill Park. Fun fact: This moon is particularly special because it will be visible to the entire world, rather than just parts of it, for the first time since World War II. (FYI, the moon won't actually be blue in color, the name just refers to the occurrence of a second full moon within the span of a month.)

Read on EverOut »

2020

Takeaways from the Stranger Debate Between Sherae Lascelles and Frank Chopp

by Rich Smith • Friday at 12:30 pm

Sherae Lascelles displaying some soup for their family.
Sherae Lascelles displaying some soup for their family. Screenshot from Stranger Debates

The final installment of the Stranger Debate series was full of surprises. Appropriately enough for the week before Halloween (and perhaps the end of our Democratic Republic), most of those surprises were slightly unnerving, uncomfortable, chaotic, and yet somewhat absolutely thrilling.

The first surprise was The Stranger audience selecting Rep. Frank Chopp as the winner of the debate. The longtime Democratic House Speaker, who stepped down from that role last year, beat Stranger-endorsed challenger Sherae Lascelles 57% to 43%, with 136 voters weighing in. Maybe Chopp packed the court, or maybe he just made the better case for himself last night—it was honestly kinda hard to tell.

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Film/TV

Last Chance! Saturday Is the Last Night to Stream the SLAY Horror Film Fest!

by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey • Friday at 10:25 am

Screen_Shot_2020-09-17_at_1.02.39_PM.png
SLAY Film Festival

Looking for some terrifying fun on Halloween night? Well, hurry, hurry! It's your last chance to stream SLAY—the horror film festival featuring short, deliciously TERRIFYING flicks from the makers of HUMP! and SPLIFF! We asked talented amateurs like you to submit short, eight-minute-or-less horror flicks that were creepy, funny, sexy, or flat-out terrifying—and wow! Did you deliver! In fact, we got so many great submissions we were able to break SLAY into two volumes—so you can watch just one, or if you really want to be scared witless, WATCH BOTH for a discount.

Want a taste? CHECK OUT THE SLAY TRAILER!

Need some straight-up terrifying Halloween fun? Then don't miss your LAST CHANCE to stream the SLAY film festival this Saturday, October 31, at 8 pm and 10 pm. So if you're not a scaredy-cat, GET THOSE TICKETS NOW AND HERE!

Stranger Election Control Board

The Stranger's Endorsements for the November 2020 General Election

by Stranger Election Control Board • Friday at 9:20 am

Nothing scares Republicans more than a big, stuffed ballot box.
Nothing scares Republicans more than a big, stuffed ballot box. LOLLI MORLOCK

We'll take a moment to fantasize about the end of the Trump regime in a moment, but first we need to let you in on a little secret.

Donald Trump will not win Washington state.

But you know who might? Our very own version of Betsy DeVos, who wants to privatize our public schools and keep kids in the dark about their health. A Secretary of State who refused to condemn Trump's attacks on our democracy. A bunch of churchy homophobes who want to trick you into voting the wrong way on a bill designed to reduce sexual assaults and LGBTQ bashing. A racist criminal justice system full of psychopaths who resist all reform. Two fucking mediocre white guys challenging the first Black woman and the first Native American ever to serve on the Washington State Supreme Court. And of course, some Republicans (and Democrats!) who live to block progressive policy and impose austerity measures that will put our state on the path to another long, slow, miserable economic recovery.

We could go on, and we will! But the point here is that Trump's party hopes you rush to fill out that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris bubble, grow bored or discouraged halfway down the ballot, and then ship it off to King County Elections without voting in all the races. That's their great hope. This is how they win.

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News

Slog AM: 90,446 US Cases in a Day, Fremont Tea Shop Allegedly Being Trumpy About Virus, You Already Have a Halloween Mask

by Charles Mudede • Friday at 8:34 am

Good Morning, America!
"Good Morning, America!" Joesboy/gettyimages.com

90,446 Cases: This is bad. Indeed, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has seen this coming for some time now, has declared 2021 a total write-off. Don't even think about it. And while you are canceling plans for this holiday season, you might as well cancel those for the next one. Masks all up and down 2021.


Taiwan: You have gone 200 consecutive days with zero "locally transmitted cases of the [virus]." What are you doing that we are not doing here? Please tell us. We want to know. One thousand dead every day. As the world turns, 100,000 new cases appear. That's like an Everett of new sick people every 24 hours. Taiwan, to borrow words from the problem film The Pawnbroker: "What is the secret of your success?" Well, we simply did something. That's about it. Really? Yes, really. So, basically we have done nothing. Looks like it. And yet, Trump's chances of winning the election are not at zero? Appears so. Well, we can blame the money changers and the Bible thumpers that make up the GOP for this grim fact.

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Slog AM/PM

Slog PM: A Plane Full of Pets, Amazon "Crushes" Expectations and Pats Itself on the Back for a $15 Minimum Wage

by Chase Burns • Thursday at 6:00 pm

We need your help. The economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis is threatening our ability to keep producing the stories you've come to love. If you’re able, please consider making a monthly contribution to The Stranger.

Its surreal to look at all these people near Jeff Bezoss balls. The days of wine and roses.
It's surreal to look at all these people near Jeff Bezos's balls. The days of wine and roses. Timothy Kenney

Washington state health officials say coronavirus cases could overwhelm the state's hospitals if current trends continue: "We know that this virus doesn't really care about the county borders," said Washington state health officer Dr. Kathy Lofy. "I'm particularly concerned about Snohomish (County), you can see that Snohomish is on a very steep incline, almost a vertical line." Health officials are crucially worried about counties' current rates of infection. Health officials continue to recommend that people wear masks around anyone who does not live in their household, including family and friends.

Many King County employees will WFH until at least July: Citing a rise in coronavirus cases, Executive Dow Constantine announced that all executive branch employees must telecommute until July 5, 2021.

A new model shows "a neighborhood by neighborhood, sometimes block by block forecast" for how fast something like COVID-19 can spread throughout Seattle: It's pretty neat and stressful.

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Visual Art • How to Look

How to Look at Michael Heizer's "Adjacent, Against, Upon"

by Jasmyne Keimig • Thursday at 5:05 pm

Very thoughtful slabs of granite.
Very thoughtful slabs of granite. Courtesy of the City of Seattle/Spike Mafford
Michael Heizer's "Adjacent, Against, Upon" in Myrtle Edwards Park reminds me of how difficult it was to explain prepositions to English-as-second-language learners. I'd use my hands as teaching tools—my left fist acted as the object while my right fist acted as the preposition. At, on, under, around, I'd repeat to a group of glassy-eyed fourth graders. Thinking about how bodies relate to one another in space can be confusing in another language, but it's something that Heizer's minimalist sculpture illustrates quite well.

Running parallel to the shoreline, three 28 to 45-ton slabs of granite quarried in the Cascades rest next to three concrete plinths that increase in complexity. One slab is upon the three-sided plinth; the second slab is against the four-sided plinth; the last is adjacent to the five-sided plinth. This contrast of materials within the work—granite culled from a mountain's belly against very humanmade concrete shapes—showcases humanity's progression with nature. The piece starts with a simple, harmonious relationship and ends with marked space between the two.

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2020

Time Is Becoming More Oppressive As We Near Election Day

by Charles Mudede • Thursday at 4:44 pm

Im so tired of being aware of being in time.
"I'm so tired of being aware of being in time." FG Trade/gettyimages.com

What is making the present presidential election very stressful? Some humdrum psychologists have an answer. Here is what these experts have to say: "Feelings of stress are a direct result when something feels out of your control." In the US, this explanation is popular because it has a solution that can be offered without much effort. If you feel you have lost control, what you must do is find and focus on things that are under your control and then control those things. I recall hearing this advice on a radio talk show that boomed from a speaker placed on one of the shelves behind a beefy man preparing a salami and turkey sandwich for me in a Greek deli near 23rd and Lovejoy, Portland, Oregon.

My recollection of what I heard at that time, maybe the fall of the election year of 2004?

CALLER: I do not know what to do, the oil prices are rising. There is the war in Iraq. Wages are just not growing like they used to.

HOST: Listen to me. You are talking about things that are out of your control. What you need to do is focus on things that are. Like what you spend on your groceries.


If this does not sound like bad advice to you, it is because your mind has confused individualism ("I'm the sum of my decisions") with what it actually is, a cultural construction.

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