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It would be easy to pretend that the thought of returning to Starbucks had given me reviewer

The Black Box Gallery (Seattle’s no-fee, no-commission gallery) was looking for artists to show.

The Seattle photography meet-up group was looking for an excuse to take photos.

It seemed a match made in heaven.

Come see the work of these local photographers at their first group show (titled “Performance Anxiety”) — this Friday April 1st (no foolin’) 6 to 10PM at the Black Box Gallery.

Whether you are ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ on the whole Terri Schiavo debate, and whether you can even spell or pronounce her name, there’s no doubt that the media has yanked a lot of chains, and spawned a lot of debate.

The natural fallout is a whole lot of sudden interest in living wills, powers-of-attorney, and the whole kit-and-kaboodle. I predict this is going to be the new “in” thing. Seriously, all the cool kids will want one. But before you get all excited and go running off to Office Depot for a do-it-yourself kit, be sure and check out what your friendly neighborhood Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) has to say. It may be a little more up to date (and pertinent to us Washingtonians), for a start.

Click here for their recent news item on it (this link is most likely a temporary one).
Click here for a more permanent link that’s a pamphlet on Advanced Directives (living wills, etc.).

Or else, click on the link below.
Don’t make me choose! Just gimme the forms!

Remember that time we were gently making fun of Starbucks for putting a disclaimer on their “Way I See It” coffee cups? [metblogs] In a not surprising turn of events, we were wrong. Call it a failure of imagination that we didn’t expect a backlash against quotations on paper cups. Though it took a couple months, the crows have come home to roost:

Considering Starbucks sells millions of cups of coffee each day – some specialty drinks at $4 and up – it’s no surprise some customers have complained to Starbucks’ Web site, labeling the campaign “offensive” and the company a proponent of “the destruction of family values and virtues.” [sptimes]

The story continues with some quotes that Starbucks probably won’t consider for version 2 (”There are a lot of great conservative quotes, but oh well, I’m not surprised. I’m used to being under-represented.” — Yvette Nunez, Tampa.)

Alas, the daily horrors of being an “under-represented” conservative, forced to sip lattes in a state with Jeb Bush in the Governor’s Mansion, George Bush in the White House, and Republican majorities in the U.S. and Florida legislatures. While we can’t imagine their pain, we salute these brave right-leaning coffee-drinkers who are willing to see beyond the cup to the beverage within. We also congratulate Starbucks for their foresight regarding the corporate disclaimer statement and apologize for our lack of vision on this topic.

(via BoingBoing [#])

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related: “The Way I See It” [starbucks]

We gardeners sure missed last fall’s Fecal Fest, called off due (doo?) to pesticides, or herbicides, I forget which. But apparently we’re on for the spring, so be sure and get that standard-sized postcard in (only one per customer) if you want to win the opportunity to buy the most exotic compost in the PNW. Postcards are being accepted from Mar 25 to Apr 8 (for pick-up from Apr 22 to Apr 29). Check out the poopline of course, to verify the information I’m giving out below.

Address those cards to:

Zoo Doo Doc
Woodland Park Zoo
601 N 59th St
Seattle 98103

and on the back, write your:

Name
Day and evening phone number
E-mail address (if you have one)
Amount of Zoo Doo you’d like to buy (anysize from a garbage-bag-full to full-sized-pick-up-truck)
The weekday/weekend-day you would prefer to pickup your poo.. er, doo

Remember, as the Doo Doc always says, “it’s not just compost. It’s a movement.”

What are you doing with your spring weekends? Me, I thought getting my income tax form filed would be a good enough goal. But WSDOT, who just turned 100 this month, is:

• Closing the Alaskan Way Viaduct for “spring cleaning” this weekend (It’ll re-open on Sunday in time to be flooded with basketball game traffic.)
• Rehabilitating pavement on I-5 between Olive Way and James Street, and also over by Dearborn Street every weekend in April.
• Putting out a book. You know, it’s only through reading their timeline that you can get a scope of how much this state has grown, and how many bridges have collapsed in the meantime. Ahh, good times, good times.

This might be a good time to remind you about their 5-1-1 traffic number, now with new touch button options!

Now that the myth about the NCAA tournament costing employers $889.6 million has been debunked [salon] feel free to resume your obsession with the big dance, which goes into sweet sixteen mode today. In particular, keep an eye on the University of Washington Huskies. With state and city pride on the line, it’s your civic duty to watch! The local number one seeds face the Louisville Cardinals at 4:10 PST, which sounds like exactly the right time to leave work early to catch a basketball game.

If you’re in need of inspiration, Citysearch has a roundup of the best bars for watching the game [#]; we don’t have an argument with any of their suggestions. With the UW on spring break, you might have luck crashing one of the U-District options for maximum college neighborhood authenticity.

There are still several rounds left in the tourney — plenty of time to try several bars. Report your results in the comments and help us find the best place to watch.

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related: Wendy Molyneux’s descent into March Madness [mcsweeneys]

image [*])

This week, The Stranger sees last week’s Seattle Weekly cover story about an African-American family in Western Washington and raises it with a Person of Color Bible Action Hero on the cover and a feature about what remains of Seattle’s disappearing “ ’hoods.” Extra credibility points go to the Stranger: the story is written by Charles Mudede who grew up in Zimbabwe and develops the article by contrasting the American ‘hoods with the High Density Areas of Harare. Although his article provides a thoughtful travelogue for Seattleites who haven’t left the city center, the can’t-miss story this of this week’s issue is Mudede’s interpretation/retelling of a completely bizarre break-in on Capitol Hill. [if you haven't guessed, we favor short-attention span stories.] Conveniently, “police beat” is located on the page before his feature story so it’s like a double header.

image [*])

Meanwhile, the Seattle Weekly’s gigantic feature, “the Green Dream” [#], had us scrambling to google to find out if we’d forgotten about Earth Day. Never fear, Earth Day isn’t until the 22nd of April. Instead, the occasion for the multi-faceted story is the thirtieth anniversary of Ecotopia [$], a book that we hadn’t heard of until today. Once again, the Weekly continues its tradition of long-attention span theater. We have trouble keeping up, but expect that these articles are a godsend for those caught on the bus without enough reading material.

To further assist you in your weekly tabloid selection … compare and contrast!
news: the Seattle Weekly looks critically at Gregoire’s biotech initiative, the privatization of Seattle Center, and the paychecks of R.E.I. executives while the Stranger keeps an eye on Vulcan’s sweet real estate deals, a CASA Latina wrench in Nickles’s Southeast development plans, and possible monorail misconduct [!]. Both weeklies feature columns (loosely) about the Bush administration — the Stranger takes on the conservative response to Terri Schiavo while the Weekly analyzes the antiwar movement.

entertainment: both papers feature accounts of SXSW and love Low (who have two shows this week [neumos]).

picks: This week’s only shared “pick” is the Doug Atiken opening at the Henry Art Gallery [#]. The opening party takes place on Friday night, go and try to identify which guests were sent by which weekly.

(picture taken by Tim Reynolds, accessible at the site mentioned at the end of this article)
Have you seen this man? I know I posted about this earlier but due to recent developments and having seen him just about everywhere, I decided to write another post about him (and hopefully ladies, we’ll get some stats about him as soon as he gets back to me). His name is Emery Carl so I can stop calling him the Pike Place Guitar Man. I actually saw him as I was leaving the Decemberists show on Friday night at the Showbox. He did this amazing thing where he balanced the guitar on his chin, danced in a circle and all the while telling jokes. I was amazed. I just stood there for the longest time. It was really great. If you see this man, give him a huge thumbs up and a high-five from me, Beth…oh, and if you can spare it, put a donation in his boot. Those cute little bells on his boots aren’t cheap ya know! More information about Emery and his act can be found, HERE!