VOTE NOW: Who Is Your Favorite Bartender, Seattle?

News • Film/TV • Science • Death • Slog AM/PM

Slog PM: God Is Trying; Jojo Rabbit Divides Critics; Congress Is Back in Session, Baby!

by Chase Burns • Monday at 6:30 pm

It turns out the blowhard controls the wind.
Also, it turns out the blowhard controls the wind. TOM BRENNER / GETTY IMAGES

Sigh, I guess we still have to talk about Sharpiegate: I really, really, really wanted to avoid this story but it keeps evolving, building in strength, what was once a Cat 1 shitstorm is now at least a Cat 3... "Sharpiegate," the epic presidential distraction that snowballed into the possible suppression of a government agency, has evolved yet again. Today, US secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross is facing calls for his resignation after the New York Times reported that Ross "threatened to fire senior staff at a federal agency unless they sided publicly with Donald Trump" over Sharpiegate.

Amazon now has more workers in the Seattle region than Microsoft: Daddy Bezos is the biggest Big Tech employer in the area. According to new data released today by Amazon, here's where the company stands against Microsoft:

In the broader Seattle metro region, Amazon has more than 53,500 employees. Microsoft, headquartered in nearby Redmond, Wash. and the region’s longtime top tech employer, has 51,854 employees in the state.

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Weed

Blowing Clouds: Researchers Announce a Breathalyzer for Bud

by Josh Jardine • Monday at 5:45 pm

A breathalyzer machine for alcohol. Could one for cannabis be on the way?
A breathalyzer machine for alcohol. Could one for cannabis be on the way? AlexLMX/Getty Images
Both cannabis prohibitionists and supporters agree that operating a motor vehicle after consuming cannabis is not a good idea. The “effects of cannabis versus alcohol” argument aside—in which some researchers believe cannabis is safer than alcohol when driving—no one is in favor of intoxicated driving.

But what tools are available to determine if a driver is under the influence of cannabis? And exactly what serves as the definition of “cannabis intoxication”? Until now, tests that see if THC had been recently used, and how much, have been unavailable outside of blood tests, and those still don’t answer the “when” part of the equation. Scientists have developed a new tool they claim solves these problems.

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Sponsored

Isis Goldberg is Helping LGBTQ+ Asylum Seekers Find a Home

This article is the latest in a series documenting the important work being done at Entre Hermanos, presented by Uncle Ike's Pot Shop.

Everyone who knows about Entre Hermanos knows that it’s the go-to organization for HIV help in the Latinx LGBTQ+ community. What fewer people know is that, in addition to being a safe place to get assistance with HIV care and counseling, the organization is also helping free trans asylum seekers from detention.

Learn more.

Savage Love

Dating Apps—And the Men On Them—Are Making Her Miserable. But Is Loneliness Worse?

by Dan Savage • Monday at 5:24 pm

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My issue is ghosting. I've been dating for a VERY long time. I came out of a LTR twelve years ago (I'm 42 now) with very low self-esteem after my partner fell for one of our mutual friends. I did what most single people do in their thirties: working my way through the ever-morphing vernacular of dating, from dating sites to dating apps, making mainly three-week to three-month connections with guys. A FWB here, a FB there, I seemed to meet so many poly guys, generally attracting/chasing emotionally unavailable men, which obviously resulted in me never finding anything serious. Possibly a self-defense mechanism as my LTR was not great.

About five years ago I met someone. He was totally unstable (in the middle of a divorce) but I fell for him hard. We had a six-month, drama-filled relationship, until he ditched me when he decided to go traveling. At the same time he confirmed my suspicions that he had never been faithful to me and made a point of telling me about a sexual encounter he had had before he had even set off for his travels. Some time later we semi-rekindled the relationship (or so I thought) and agreed to spend NYE together in Cuba as friends. When I landed he didn't pick up his phone and other than a text message when he returned to London saying that his phone had broken. Then I never really heard from him again. Once again, my self-esteem was totally shot, and what's more I was too embarrassed to tell anyone what had happened.

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Religion

Sarah Palin's Divorce Raises This Question: Who Are Conservative White Christians Preaching To?

by Charles Mudede • Monday at 4:34 pm

Panorama view of mega-church near Houston, Texas
A panorama view of a mega-church near Houston, Texas. Julian J Rossig/gettyimages.com

There are two big stories today that involve white people on the Christian right. One is about the "largest Christian college in the world," which is run by the Kim Jong-un of that world, the son of Jerry Falwell, Jerry Falwell Jr. And the other concerns the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. What was revealed about Falwell is that he runs his university like Jong-un runs his country, like a dictator; he is in the habit of striking big deals that benefit only his friends; he is also into racy pictures. There is nothing in all of his doings that looks particularly Christian.

As for Palin, she and her husband are breaking the sacred vows they made to God many years ago. These vows are written in the book of heaven. They say: "...from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance." But these conservative Christians have decided for themselves that what's written in heaven is not always right. Sometimes a vow with the creator of the universe must be broken. How on earth is this possible? Does Palin not believe in God anymore?

And here we must ask the question: Who are conservative white Christians preaching to? Clearly not to themselves. My feeling is that white Christian fundamentalism is not about practicing Christianity, it is instead a system that distributes phantasmagorical micro-powers to those who cannot face the real causes of their powerlessness. The fantasy of power that's granted or distributed is precisely the power to preach to others. But what is this preaching power?

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Sponsored

Innovative & dancer curated - Choreographic Shindig 9/13-15, 9/18-21 @ Erickson Theatre off Broadway

Whim W’Him will celebrate the kickoff of their 10th Season in September with the Choreographic Shindig V. Each year the company’s dancers curate a program featuring new creations by 3 emerging contemporary choreographers. Selected choreographers for this year include artists hailing from Montreal, Houston and New York. 9/13-15, 9/18-21 at Erickson Theatre off Broadway.

Single tickets and season subscriptions on sale now HERE.

Housekeeping • Money

Tell Us How You Feel!

by The Stranger • Monday at 4:01 pm

Theres cash up for grabs!
There's cash up for grabs!

Let's get to know each other a little better.

The Stranger is currently surveying readers and since you are our favorite reader—it's totally true!—we really want you to participate. The questions are easy, stuff like: Which day of the week do you pick up The Stranger? Have you ever been to HUMP? Are you still upset that Lady Prunella Knucklesnude von Wrinklebothum didn't win our inaugural Ugly Pet Contest?! (This remains a sore spot in our office.)

We know filling out a survey takes time*, so we've put prizes on the line to sweeten the deal. Participate in our readership survey and enter for a chance to win one of five $50 gift cards to The Tin Table or the GRAND PRIZE of $250. The survey is open through 9/30 and you can enter HERE.

*This one only takes around 15 minutes!

Arts • Things To Do • Culture • EverOut

The 57 Best Things To Do in Seattle This Week: Sept 9-15, 2019

by Stranger EverOut Staff • Monday at 3:15 pm

Stock up on Lactaid and head to South Lake Union for a melty sandwich-filled Saturday at the Grilled Cheese Grand Prix.
Stock up on Lactaid and head to South Lake Union for a melty sandwich-filled Saturday at the Grilled Cheese Grand Prix. Grilled Cheese Grand Prix

Our music critics have already chosen the 50 best music shows this week, but now it's our arts and culture critics' turn to recommend the best events in their areas of expertise. Here are their picks in every genre—from Whim W’Him's Choreographic Shindig V to a reading with How to Be an Antiracist author Ibram X. Kendi, and from Bellwether 2019: Taking Root to a live broadcast of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's stage show Fleabag. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.

MONDAY

READINGS & TALKS
Midnight Release of Margaret Atwood's 'The Testaments'
Find out what happened to Offred by snatching up a copy of Margaret Atwood's long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale.

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News • Weed

Bringing Diversity to Legal Weed Is Becoming a Top Priority in Washington

by Lester Black • Monday at 2:55 pm

Will Washingtons legislature encourage minorities to own legal pot farms like this one?
Will Washington's legislature encourage minorities to own legal pot farms like this one? Lester Black

Pot legalization has followed an unfortunately ironic path in Washington State. For years, Washington's minority communities were the most oppressed by our government's war on drugs. Our state was the first to correct the injustice of prohibition, by legalizing pot, but the legal weed industry in Washington has almost exclusively benefited white-owned businesses. White people were by and large the least harmed by prohibition and then quickly became the group that benefited the most from legalization.

That may soon change, at least slightly.

The state’s top pot regulator, the Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB), announced last month that it wants to create a new $200,000 fund to help disadvantaged communities get into the industry and it wants to issue new retail licenses to minority business owners. Then today, the state’s most powerful trade group issued a proposal for the state to create a second fund that could offer low-interest loans to people from disadvantaged communities to start pot businesses.

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News • Housing

The Latest Trend in Apartment Living Hits Seattle: Forced Installation of "Smart" Devices

by Rich Smith • Monday at 2:21 pm

A guide to your new robot apartment.
A guide to your new robot apartment. RS

On July 6, property managers at CityLine, a 195-unit apartment complex in Columbia City owned by UDR Apartments, sent an email inviting tenants to attend a SmartRent launch party.

At the party, a company representative would introduce tenants to a new package of “home automation” devices that would soon be installed in all of CityLine’s apartments.

“WELCOME TO YOUR SMART HOME EXPERIENCE,” read an email sent by the CityLine Team later on. “Starting today, your property will begin receiving Smart Home packages…”

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Music • Things To Do • EverOut

The 50 Best Music Shows in Seattle This Week: September 9-15, 2019

by Stranger EverOut Staff • Monday at 1:13 pm

Genre-defying alt hip-hop project WHY? will perform at Neumos on Sunday.
Genre-defying alt hip-hop project WHY? will perform at Neumos on Sunday. Artist photo

This week, our music critics have picked everything from savvy local techno selectors Simic, Nick Carroll, and Rhines to the Original Misfits to Ciara. Follow the links below for ticket links and music clips for all of their picks, and find even more shows on our complete music calendar.

MONDAY

HIP-HOP/RAP
Slowthai
Born Tyron Kaymone Frampton, slowthai is being billed as one of the most exciting acts in British rap, and it makes sense—he’s really fucking good. Slowthai has an X factor. He’s spry, twisted (the music video for the nervy “Inglorious” visually references A Clockwork Orange), and confrontationally political (see “Nothing Great About Britain”). And while the media machine has likened him to famed grime rapper Dizzee Rascal, the Northampton rapper is well equipped to make a name for his own damn self. This is slowthai’s first full US tour, and Seattle is lucky enough to be one of the stops—I’ve read his shows are absolutely mental. Enjoy accordingly. JASMYNE KEIMIG

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The Weather

Why Are Thunderstorms So Rare in the Pacific Northwest?

by Katie Herzog • Monday at 12:33 pm

Over 2,000 lightning strikes were recorded in western Washington over the weekend.
More than 2,000 lightning strikes were recorded in Western Washington over the weekend. Jurkos/Getty

Dogs—and people—were seen howling with fear and/or shitting their pants as more than 2,000 lightning strikes were recorded in Western Washington on Saturday night and Sunday morning. According to the National Weather Service, that works out to 440 lightning strikes an hour, or 7 to 8 each minute.

Thunderstorms are a regular part of life in much of the United States, but around here, they're about as rare as sunshine in March. This, according to local meteorologist Cliff Mass, is because "thunderstorms need a large change of temperature with large amounts of water vapor near the surface. Our low-level air comes off the relatively cool Pacific Ocean, which, ironically, cannot put much moisture into the air because the temperatures are so cool and the amount of water vapor that air can hold depends on temperature." That, of course, was not the case this weekend, and here's a video of the show from the Kitsap Peninsula, which was captured by Greg Johnson of Skunk Bay Weather:

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Music

Slowthai Believes There's Nothing Great About Britain

by Jasmyne Keimig • Monday at 12:15 pm

British rapper slowthai is playing at the Crocodile tonight.
British rapper slowthai is playing at the Crocodile tonight. Courtesy of slowthai

Born Tyron Kaymone Frampton, slowthai is billed as one of the most exciting acts in British rap, and it makes sense. He’s spry, twisted (the music video for the nervy “Inglorious” visually references A Clockwork Orange), and confrontationally political (see “Nothing Great About Britain”). And while the media machine has likened him to famed grime rapper Dizzee Rascal, the Northampton rapper is well equipped to make a name for his own damn self.

Tonight, slowthai plays at the Crocodile as a part of his first full US tour, appropriately dubbed the Coming to America tour. Seattle is lucky to be one of the stops. I’ve heard his shows are absolutely mental.

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Free Will Astrology: September 9-10

by Rob Brezsny • Monday at 11:16 am

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ARIES (March 21–April 19): John Muir (1838–1914) was skilled at creating and using machinery. In his 20s, he diligently expressed those aptitudes. But at age 27, while working in a carriage parts factory, he suffered an accident that blinded him. For several months, he lay in bed, hoping to recuperate. During that time, Muir decided that if his sight returned, he would thereafter devote it to exploring the beauty of the natural world. The miracle came to pass, and for the rest of his life he traveled and explored the wilds of North America, becoming an influential naturalist, author, and early environmentalist. I'd love to see you respond to one of your smaller setbacks, past or present, with comparable panache, Aries.

TAURUS (April 20–May 20): Of all the children on the planet, 3 percent live in the United States. And yet American children are in possession of 40 percent of the world's toys. In accordance with the astrological omens, I hereby invite you to be like an extravagant American child in the coming weeks. More than any other sign of the zodiac, you have cosmic permission to seek maximum fun and enjoy uninhibited laughter and be profoundly entertained and amuse yourself lavishly with games and playthings.

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Film/TV

It: Chapter Two Hits and Drags

by Suzette Smith • Monday at 10:25 am

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WARNER BROS.

In the rosy glow of memory, It: Chapter One seems like a good film. My initial criticisms have faded, and now I just remember the loudmouth kids in the "Losers Club"—tearing around on bikes, experiencing helplessness and terror in their toxic hometown of Derry, Maine, and fleeing from the malevolent shape-shifting creature threatening them from its depths. True, much of the drama of Stephen King’s grand monster of a novel was missing, but in its place was a funny horror movie, with a tight-knit crew of talented child actors. First there was King's Stand By Me, and then there was the King-influenced Stranger Things, and It: Chapter One fit comfortably between.

The kids in the first movie were so good, actually, that the star-studded adult cast of It: Chapter Two—including James McAvoy as grown-up Bill, Jessica Chastain as grown-up Bev, and Bill Hader as grown-up Richie—suffers by comparison. Early on, when the adult Losers meet up for the first time since childhood, a jarring disjointedness rears its head: A staccato burst of 180-degree reaction shots and two-person framings gives the distinct impression that much of the film was shot separately to allow for the busy schedules of these actors.

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Food & Drink

How to Turn a Peach into Beer

by Lester Black • Monday at 9:20 am

In Floodland’s basement brewery in Fremont, peaches from Central Washington begin their transformation.
In Floodland’s basement brewery in Fremont, peaches from Central Washington begin their transformation. LESTER BLACK

Seattle's breweries are full of fruit right now. The same types of peaches, nectarines, and plums at roadside stands and farmers markets are also fermenting inside oak barrels.


These soft and aromatic fruit beers take months or even years to develop. Breweries around Washington—like Engine House 9, Dwinell Country Ales, Holy Mountain Brewing, Urban Family Brewing, and Garden Path Fermentation—are spending the summer making Belgian-inspired beers with local fruit, but no brewery has gotten more attention more quickly for its fruited beers than Adam Paysse's Floodland Brewing in Fremont.


"I didn't really go into it planning to do as much fruit as we do, but I just kind of got carried away because it's fun," Paysse said. "I like working with the farmers. It's a thing you do during a certain time of year, and then you move on to other things. I like the fleeting component to it."

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News • Money • Health • Slog AM/PM • The Worst President

Slog AM: Shoreline Christian School Denounces Gay Marriage, Trump's Taliban Talks Crumble, the Most Expensive Beer in History

by Nathalie Graham • Monday at 8:00 am

Thanks, that will be $68,120.
"Thanks, that will be $68,120." Ridofranz/Getty Images

Someone please buy Paul Allen's boat: And by boat I mean "megayacht." It's only $325 million. Come on, you coward, pony up and buy the 414-foot megayacht. It's called the Octopus. It only costs four times as much as the Portland Trail Blazers cost the late tech billionaire when he bought them in 1988, according to the Seattle PI.

That lightning storm on Saturday probably won't happen again: The weather event was "highly unusual" and won't be gracing our skies again anytime soon. The Puget Sound region was hit with a deluge of rain, thunder, and more than 2,200 lightning strikes in five hours—440 of them per hour. Much to my delight, it delayed the football game I was begrudgingly at a watch-party for. We all gathered on the porch to watch the sky instead of football, and I wish that could be the standard from now on.

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