We’re totally freaking out—the lineup for the 10th annual Freakout Festival has dropped, highlighting Latin and femme-fronted acts, plus some favorites from past festivals. This summer, 12s can watch the Seahawks prep for the 2022 season at their training camp. Plus, the NBA returns to Seattle this fall when the Portland Trail Blazers take on the LA Clippers in the first-ever Rain City Showcase. (Give us our Sonics back already, you cowards!) Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

ON SALE FRIDAY, JULY 1

MUSIC

Amenra & Liturgy
Neumos (Sun Aug 28)

Best Sticker I've Seen All Week

If having babies is so fucking important, why aren't we listening to them? They are probably the chillest contingent ever. Like, all they wanna do is suck boobs, poop, and cry. As recent womb residents, of course they don't give a shit about what a person does with their body. Get fuckin' real. 

First, a public service announcement: At the time of this publication, people who need abortion care can still safely travel to Washington to get it. That was the overwhelming message from the pro-choice advocates and lawmakers I spoke with this week in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

How long that fact remains true, however, is uncertain. With prohibition states considering a variety of tactics to criminalize abortion across state lines, Democratic lawmakers and policy advocates in Washington are watching closely to develop “airtight” legal protections for both abortion patients and medical providers. 

Currently, Democratic lawmakers in Olympia aren’t planning to seek a special session to pass those laws before regular session starts in January, but advocates worry that they may need to act sooner than that to counter concerning developments in Republican state legislatures.

Seattle sucks! Our friends over at FOX 13 reported that a new WalletHub study ranked Seattle as one of the worst-run U.S. cities. To make this determination, WalletHub weighed services in the country’s 150 largest cities against the total per capita budget. The study ranked Seattle number 18 in services. Not bad. But unfortunately, we cannot have good public programs in a major city without spending money! The study measured Seattle’s budget as 140th out of 150th (the closer to number one, the smaller the budget), but 18th in services. This put Seattle at 118 on the list for best-run city, which to WalletHub just means the best “deal” on public programs. They put fucking Nampa, Idaho as number one.  

She’s so pretty: Crosscut captures what Seattle looks like from the fresh eyes of a tourist. 

Sorry, I know we're all fucking sick of news from the Supreme Court, but here's some housekeeping: Justice Stephen Breyer announced that he will officially retire tomorrow at term's end, reports USA Today. Now, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson—who the Senate confirmed back in April—will take the reins and be sworn in on Thursday, making history as the first Black woman judge on the highest court. Good fuckin' luck with those zealots on the right!

A less sexy Titanic: 2,000 passengers on a Norwegian Sun cruise ship off the Alaskan coast got to live their sexual fantasy/nightmare when they got word their ship had hit a chunk of ice near Hubbard Glacier. According to the Seattle Times, the ship went to Juneau for "further assessment," where it was determined passengers would still disembark in Seattle as planned and get a full refund and cruise credit. 

The Stranger is searching for an experienced, professional Social Media Engagement Manager for our editorial and film festival divisions.

The right candidate will have expert knowledge of social networking platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok) and possess excellent verbal and written communication skills, (including proofreading).

FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS

Ascend Prime Steak & Sushi
Ascend Prime Steak & Sushi is a Vegas-flavored ultra fine-dining spot in Bellevue’s schmancy Lincoln Square, which just so happens to be celebrating its fourth birthday on the Fourth of July! The deal is that, for $250, you get access to seven “culinary stations” that feature 20+ dishes and beverages as well as live chef demonstrations, drink credits for bespoke cocktails and vintage wines, a live band, and a sweeping 31st-floor view of the downtown Bellevue fireworks show. Hm, not bad. Probably the kind of thing you’d dress up for. They don’t offer hints as to what’s being served, but the name of the game at Ascend seems to be uni and foie gras and A5 wagyu, stuff like that. It’s okay; you love surprises. MEG VAN HUYGEN
Bellevue
Dine-in

Nearly 30 years after Toy Story’s original release, Pixar is dipping back into a well of nostalgia with Lightyear, a reimagining that depicts Buzz Lightyear not as a toy but a character in a sci-fi blockbuster.

Currently in theaters, the film has an unexpected tie to the Pacific Northwest. Director Angus MacLane grew up just outside Portland and slipped a few regional references into the film. Lightyear’s inclusion, exclusion, and re-inclusion of a same-sex kiss has also attracted the ire of conservative idiots looking for something to complain about.

In a Zoom interview with The Stranger, MacLane opened up about his Portland roots, the film that inspired him to make Lightyear, and that blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kiss, which was nearly something far weirder.

Starbucks workers across Seattle went on strike last weekend to protest the company’s decision to create a “heritage district” at three downtown locations. The workers said the decision amounted to “union-busting” and “constructive dismissal,” a legal term that describes an employer creating a hostile environment that makes workers quit in response.

Hatis Noit, “Jomon” (Erased Tapes)

Hatis Noit's pseudonym derives from Japanese folklore and translates as "the stem of the lotus flower." According to the press notes for her new album, Aura, the lotus represents the natural world while its root signifies the spiritual realm, so the alias connects the two.

She became engrossed with the human voice after a visit at age 16 to Buddha's birthplace in Nepal. There, Hatis Noit heard a woman monk's Buddhist chants, and their unearthly, guttural power inspired her to explore the limits of her own pipes. Consequently, Hatis Noit made all eight songs on Aura strictly with her voice, except for the impossibly beautiful and delicate “Inori,” in which a field recording of ocean waves located a kilometer from the Fukushima nuclear power plant appears. That track is a radical juxtaposition of sonic tranquility and historical tragedy.

You were collecting signatures for I-135, and I almost gave you my social security number. I judged the people who refused to sign the petition, and we laughed about my bag, which was full of pasta and dumplings instead of the vegetables I had intended to buy. I regret not getting your number. So, if you’re single and interested, I hope we can meet for drinks!

Do you need to get something off your chest? Submit an I, Anonymous and we'll illustrate it! Send your unsigned rant, love letter, confession, or accusation to ianonymous@thestranger.com. Please remember to change the names of the innocent and the guilty.

Paging Merrick Garland: It's time to break out some tiny handcuffs and prove Nixon wasn't a prophet when he said, "if the president does it, it's not illegal."

Portrait of a coup attempt pic.twitter.com/FwQqIhAmaN

— Brent Staples (@BrentNYT) June 29, 2022

Big Lie backers come up short at the ballot box: In the last round of multi-state primary elections until August, voters in Colorado, Mississippi, and Oklahoma rejected prominent supporters of Trump's election fraud conspiracies. One failed candidate for Colorado's Secretary of State position reacted to her loss by claiming without evidence that the results were fraudulent, because of course she did. 

What must no longer be doubted after today's Jan 6 hearing is that Trump directly (rather indirectly) tried to overthrow the US government. The testimony by Mark Meadows's former aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, was, to quote Fox News, "stunning." Trump knew his MAGA mob was armed and prepared to kill and die for him. He also apparently wanted to lead the charge into the Capitol Building. He also "tried to grab [the] steering wheel to go to U.S. Capitol" and basically allegedly assaulted a Secret Service agent. And he threw "his lunch against the wall because he was so upset that his aides and the Secret Service hadn’t taken him to Capitol." (The wall dripped with ketchup.) We also learned that Trump wanted more MAGA troops for the storming of the building. In short, he was at the heart of all of it. He and his team planned it, expected it to explode into violence and to plunge the US into a political crisis from which he would emerge as a dictator, as president for life.

If the multi-world hypothesis proposed in the mid-1950s by the physicist and Cold War technocrat Hugh Everett is true, I'm happy to be the world where, so far, Jan 6 failed. 

In today's Public Safety Committee hearing, Mayor Harrell's office updated the Seattle City Council on its plans to develop a team of alternative responders to handle low-level 911 calls. Though this work dates back to the protests following George Floyd's killing in 2020, so far details still remain scant. 

During the Durkan administration, concerns in City Hall about a potential conflict with the rank-and-file police union stalled progress on this issue. But last week, Public Safety Chair Herbold told The Stranger that she wanted to move more quickly now regardless of those possible objections. Based on the lack of material updates from the Mayor's Office at today's hearing, however, it doesn't look like the executive branch shares that same sense of urgency.