There’s nothing that I can say about Broken Social Scene that can’t be better communicated by this video. If watching this montage of home videos and tour footage set to “Major Label Debut” doesn’t make you weep tears of joy at the prospect of seeing them tonight at the Moore, I’m not sure if we can really be friends any more.

[youtube]

They’re kicking off their fall tour in support of their latest, a beautiful compromise between a solo project and a collective effort called Broken Social Scene presents Kevin Drew’s Spirit If… [ms]. More restrained than the band’s self-titled jamboree and a little more in line with the quieter rambling parts of You Forgot it in People, this co-frontman’s project is an an album that continues to endear itself to me with each repeat listen. With New Buffalo. $25, 8pm [moore]

While I’m spending the weekend down in lovely San Francisco you have some great film choices in Seattle:

• SIFF continues their run of abortion documentary Lake of Fire
• Central Cinema continues their French action film series with Killing Zoe (By the way, they’ll be showing Night of the Living Dead on Halloween, for all you zombie fans.)
• The Grand Illusion continues Don’t Go Into the Woods…Alone and begins a Vincent Price double bill: The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Theater of Blood.
• The Earshot Jazz Festival and NWFF http://www.nwfilmforum.org/cinemas/earshot.php team up to screen Let’s Get Lost, a look at legendary Chet Baker
• Midnight at the Egyptian: Cult classic Eraserhead, still one of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a lot of weird movies.

Joe Follansbee of the Maritime Heritage Network knows that I’m a sucker for historical preservation, and so the other day he sent me an email about a controversial move Rom Sims is making in the 2008 budget.

Here’s the background: In 2005, the Legislature passed a little noticed law that requires counties to set aside $1 of assessors’ fees for historic preservation, history programs, and preservation of historic documents. The law is usually referred to as HB 1386, and it’s expected to generate $627,000 next year in King County. Naturally, preservation and heritage groups were overjoyed at this new source of funding, which doesn’t sunset. It was seen as great opportunity to stabilize and grow struggling organizations across the county.

Traditionally, new sources of revenue are used to expand programs. We had hoped that Sims would follow precedent with his budget and continue to fund current HP programs via the general fund, and add the new money, perhaps creating a grant program that all county heritage organizations could compete for on an equitable basis. Instead, he replaced the traditional funding with the new money, wiping out the potential public benefits of the additional resource. The heritage community considers this outrageous and a violation of the spirit of the new law. We call Sims’ proposal a budget cut, because if Sims had followed precedent, the total budget for heritage and preservation would have been an estimated $1.14 million. Instead, it is almost exactly $627,000, the amount raised by HB 1386.

Technically, I guess, Sims isn’t doing anything wrong. No one is going to go under because of this. On the other hand, under his plan, no not-for-profit in the city can apply for any of the HB 1386 money, which was intended by the legislature to help grow the state’s heritage programs in all the counties, not in every county except King.

I’m not sure what Sims is intending to do with the traditional funding, since he’s moved it off of preservation, but it feels like a counterintuitive move in a town that is taking (little, wobbly) steps toward not forgetting its history by doing things like supporting MOHAI’s move out of its hard-to-reach enclave by the Arboretum and into South Lake Union and steadfastly ignoring my brilliant Seafair ideas.

Tasty Brains. Photo by matildaben on [Flickr]

DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN:

5

DRINK:

Bloody Brain Shooter

1 1/4 oz. Stoli strawberry vodka
1/8 oz. Rose’s lime juice
3/4 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream
Splash of grenadine

Add vodka and limejuice to a shaker, shake and strain into a shot glass. Using a straw, dip some Bailey’s Irish Cream into the shot. Once you submerge the straw into the Bailey’s put your finger on top of the straw to hold the Bailey’s in the straw. Dip the straw tip into the vodka and slowly release your top finger. The Bailey’s will curdle a little bit due to the limejuice and you should be able to make strands of Bailey’s. Repeat the straw/Bailey’s process to build a “brain” in the shot glass. Add a splash of grenadine to the concoction to add the ‘blood’ to the mix. Down the hatch as a shot.

EAT:

Brain Cupcakes

These red velvet cupcakes have brain-colored vanilla butter cream frosting squiggled on top to look like mini right and left hemispheres. Mmmm. A no-brainer! [Gaaawd, that was bad.]

GO:

For the little brains: an outdoor toy and candy hunt will be held at the Greenlake Community Center from 7 to 8 p.m. The best part–the hunt will be in the dark with flashlights! Ooh, spooky. Children ages 4 to 11 should arrive by 6:45, and bring a flashlight and a bag.

For the big brains: the 11th annual Freaknight by USC Events will be at the Pier 30 Events Center from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. This massive Halloween celebration will feature three dance “areas,” featuring Infected Mushroom, Eddie Halliwell, Rank 1, DJ TAJ, MSTRKRFT, DJ Dan, Donald Glaude and more, including a drum and bass chamber hosted by KAOS theory in Area Three. In addition to the three rooms of dance and trance, there will be multiple bars serving liquor with I.D.; a costume contest; fire and dance performers; palm readings; a laser light show; massage booths; live glass blowing; a live 500-pound pumpkin carving, and treat bags for each guest. Wow. That line-up just set my brain into overload.

photo by
by joshc [flickr].

it looks like Africa Mama won’t be getting her oft-abandoned home back anytime soon. This morning I noticed these signs in the window of the storefront at the intersection of Broadway and Denny indicating that Peet’s is coming to Capitol Hill, mere steps from the Vivace Roasteria.

Pac-Man is battling ghosts right here in Seattle. Do you know where?

Does anyone even take their kids trick-or-treating through the neighborhood anymore? I’m seriously curious about this. I live in a neighborhood with very, very few children so it’s no suprise that I don’t see trick or treaters but a suburban friend of mine told me she can’t even remember the last time a costumed candy-seeker came to her door. Maybe door-to-door trick-or-treating is a thing of the past?

In any case, if you are looking for something to do with your kids this weekend to celebrate Halloween, I’ve got a few suggestions for you.

• Seattle Parks is offering evemts like a carnival, pony rides, a flashlight hunt and much, much more at parks all over the city. Check out their site for detail because, seriously, there are tons and tons of events on both Friday and Saturday and they all look like fun.
• Trick or Treat on the Waterfront: This Sunday event starts at 9:30 and runs til 5:00 and gives chance to dress up and go door-to-door in the waterfront getting treats from local merchants. Pay regular Aquarium admission gets you entree into a special party featuring live music and visits by JP Patches and the Seafair pirates.
• From 5 to 8 pm every night on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the Woodland Park Zoo hosts the Pumpkin Prowl, a special event featuring glowing pumpkins, live music, family entertainment, and, of course, candy for costumed visitors. This is an after-hours event so you have to buy a special ticket for it, $9 for adults, $7 for kids at local Bartell’s stores.
• If you can’t make the afterhours event, stop by the zoo during regular business hours for the Pumpkin Bash, a fun event during which zoo animals are given pumpkins as treats along with the rest of the regular meal. The animals really enjoy them and it’s super fun to watch them play with the pumpkins before they eat them.

Dia de Muertos is completely different from Halloween but it just so happens that Seattle Center is the location of a Dia de Muertos festival this weekend. It’s a lively, vibrant and fascinating festival, totally worth checking out.

Buried within a Seattle happenings email I receive daily, I discovered that Cafe Vita will be serving raw milk lattes this Friday at their Capitol Hill location. The lattes are supposed to be Seattle’s first raw-milk caffeine drinks, made with unpasteurized milk from Jersey cows at Vashon Island’s Kurtwood Farms. Strange, strange and stranger was my first reaction. Is it okay to drink raw milk? I thought it was pasteurized for a reason…

With a little searching, I found a number of articles [here, here, here] that chronicled the increasing popularity of raw milk across the nation–the good and bad. Apparently, raw milk is legal to sell in stores throughout California, New York and 26 other states, and a “raw milk black market” exists in the 15 states where it is illegal. [I'm unsure why the other nine states are unaccounted for. ] Some say raw milk is the way to go, for health and flavor benefits. (Pasteurization rids milk of enzymes and good bacteria, and raw milk is supposed to be richer and denser.) And others stated pasteurization, which rids milk of harmful pathogens such as E. coli, salmonella and listeria, keeps us from getting sick. In 1938, before pasteurization was the law, milk caused 25 percent of all outbreaks of food- and water-related sickness. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, after universal pasteurization, this percent fell to less than 1. But still, some Americans scoff at the statistics and drink raw milk daily, without any harm.

Either way, a risk with drinking raw milk still exists, however slight it may be. So, Seattle, what are your thoughts on raw milk? Will you be heading up to Cafe Vita to give it a try? I have to admit, I’m a little more than curious…

Raw Milk Lattes
Fri., 6 a.m.-11 p.m.
Cafe Vita Capitol Hill
1005 E. Pike St.
(206-709-4440)

Washington’s Raw Milk Dairies
RawMilk.com

Devil with blinking horns at The Vogue, 2006
Photo by Crashworks on [Flickr]

DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN:

6

DRINK:

Black Devil Martini

2 oz. Dark rum
1/2 oz. Dry vermouth
Black olive

Stir and strain into a chilled martini glass (rimmed with orange or red sugar), and garnish with an olive.

EAT:

Chipotle Deviled Eggs

Get in my belly deviled eggs! Aren’t these always the first to go at a party? This deviled-egg variation uses chipotle chiles and fresh cilantro for a little zingy Tex-Mex flair. OR, not into deviled eggs? Try this insanely complicated but oh-so-pretty Devil’s Food Cake with Flame Tuiles.

GO:

Get your best devilish costume together and go to Clup Pop’s Halloween Slasher/Monster Fest at Chop Suey, featuring Fist Fight, Joey Casio, The Knast, DJ’s Colby B/ and Glitterpants, and special performance by Bizerk, $8 before 11 p.m., $10 after, discount with costume. (18 and over, bar with I.D.)

You know there’s an election coming up? If you have a phone, then there’s no way you could not know that. The robo-calls are coming thick and fast, and they’re… hang on, phone’s ringing.

Hello, this is Gael Tarleton, and I’m running for Port Commissioner Seat 2. My opponent is spreading filthy lies about me, accusing me of being a Republican and voting for President Bush. That is simply not true. I am a lifelong Democrat, and I am so liberal I voted for Nader twice

*click*

Where was I? Yeah, robo-calls. I mean, they won’t stop. And when they get your voice mail, they just keep right on going, so you have no idea who they’re talking… oh, hang on again.

Hello, this is David Della. Did you know my opponent Tim Burgess once put money in a Salvation Army bucket — an organization that not only is part of the virulent anti-homosexual but also wears military uniforms as if they might SUPPORT THE WAR? I, on the other hand, am a lifelong Catholic

*click*

But, see, the more I get these robo-calls, the more I don’t want to vote for the candidates who are calling… arrgh.

Hi, this is Stranger columnist Charles Mudede, urging you to vote for R-67. In the early days of Mugabe, the Marxists held that the state must above all uphold a Weltanschaung that at once embraced the whites as part of a Leninist “New Man” proletariat and yet rejected their colonial capitalism that their hero Cecil Rhodes brought with him, which was to black Africa as the Louis Trichardt’s trek was to the guttural Afrikaans-speaking whites of South Africa. And this is why you should support R-67, which will allow policy holders to sue their insurance companies

*click*

The stunt casting. The wink-wink-nudge-nudge of the underhanded and not entirely truthful campaign allegations. And, of course, David Della… oh, I bet that’s him again now.

This is David Della. Did I mention my opponent Tim Burgess once shook a Republican’s hand? Have you ever wondered where all the puppies are on Queen Anne Hill? I’ve heard drinking puppy blood invigorates you with the power of Satan. Did I mention that my opponent lives on Queen Anne?

*click*

Dear candidates: STOP. Honestly. You’re wasting my time, and you’re wasting my voice mail. And in the end, you call me 30 times, but you never return my calls once you get elected. And on top of that, you won’t even listen to me and my ideas (since your handlers and money people are all you listen to), so why should I listen to you? This whole… oh, not again.

Hi, this is Dr. Hardy’s office. I’m calling to remind you that you have a dental appointment scheduled for Tuesday, November 6, at 9am

Oh, hey, a real call…

And since that day is Election Day, we want to remind you of the great job Jean Godden has done the last four years as City Councilwoman

*click*

This election can’t end soon enough. And there’s still another election a year from now, with another round of guvernatorial poo-flinging to go with the president election that WILL NOT END. It really does make you dream of a benevolent dictatorship, doesn’t it? Oh, there goes the phone again.

Hello, this is Tim Burgess, candidate for City Council. Did you know that the Tagalog word for ‘Karl Rove’ is ‘david-della?’ Or maybe it’s the word for ‘village idiot.’ I forget. But so did Della forget all his campaign promises

*click*

All of you. STOP. CALLING. ME. Or else I’ll start calling YOU during dinner.