Today, the city council is scheduled to take action on a motion (held over from last week’s meeting) to simplify the process of getting permits for “sidewalk cafes.” All in favor? AYE!

Also on the agenda:
* a loan to rehab the Bush Hotel (409 Maynard Ave. S.);
* several amendments to the Seattle Criminal & Municipal codes, to align with State Law, including stalking, harassment, cyberstalking, “good Samaritan” actions, restraining orders, littering, etc.;
* budgets for the first few neighborhoods with neighborhood plans under review, i.e. the three with light rail stations, & establishing the Neighborhood Plan Advisory committee;
* possible legislation restricting really big houses on teeny-tiny lots (you know who you are!);
* a couple of appointments to the Pioneer Square Preservation board;
* partial funding for a new low-income dental clinic in the International district;
…et cetera.

9:30 AM is the council briefing; the full council meeting is at 2:00 PM today. Watch (or listen) to the action at Council Live!

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The Briefcase Relay occurred this evening in Fremont. Oh, you’ve never heard of the Briefcase Relay? What a coincidence, neither had I until I discovered that my street was closed because of it — at 6 PM DURING FRIDAY NIGHT RUSH HOUR. N 34th from Stone Way to Fremont Ave was entirely closed — no local access. Traffic, normally heavy during this time anyway, was backed up all the way to Seattle Pacific University on Nickerson. I would assume it was just as bad on Westlake and Dexter as cars and buses and bikes and pedestrians all vied for precious space to make their way into and through Fremont. It was an ugly scene that got uglier when I discovered I had no access to my own building and NO ADVANCED WARNING that this race was occurring.

So, hey, Briefcase Relay Organizers: How’s it going? Did you enjoy tonight? Your race sure is hip and funky. I mean, wow, dressing up in office clothes and carrying a briefcase with a phone book in it is really wild. But, could you do me a favor for next time you decide to un-cubicle your lives? Let the people who live in the area know in advance. You know, hand a flyer out to the management of the buildings. That way I won’t waste time and GAS driving around looking for a parking space for thirty minutes. Because right now, sirs and madams, I’m fucking cranky about this. BETTER YET, DON’T HOLD A RACE DURING RUSH HOUR ON A FRIDAY NIGHT.

I’m sending you an invoice for my time spent searching for a parking spot (plus mileage). Net 15 terms are fine.

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Newcastle is a city in New South Wales, Australia, an industrial port town where immense ships line the horizon, waiting to be loaded up with tons of coal to be shipped all over the world. Newcastle is also home to incredible beaches that offer excellent surf breaks and an annual surfing competition that many of the locals see as their shot at fame and glory and making it out of the grimy reality of working on the drydock coal barges. Seventeeen year old Jesse is a talented surfer who resolves to use that competition as his escape from a future that involves joining his father and his older brother Victor on those barges.

Victor had his own shot at escape, but an untimely accident cut short his promising pro surfing career, leaving him angry and bitter and severely straining his relationship with his younger brother. Jesse feels trapped in Victor’s shadow and resolves to get out from it by succeeding where Victor failed. He pins his hopes on winning the surf trials that will get him a slot in the major contest but is crushed by disqualification. His happy-go-lucky mates talk him into taking a weekend surf trip with them, luring him into coming by inviting along the girl on whom Jesse has his eye. To Jesse’s dismay, they also invite along his twin brother Fergus who, with his dyed hair, dark clothing, black fingernail polish and eyeliner, is most decidedly not one of the boys, no matter how much he longs to fit in.

At night around the campfire the friends fuss and fight but Jesse gets his shot at first love and in the morning, much to Jesse’s mixed amusement and dismay, Fergus gets his shot at fitting in thanks to the efforts of local golden boy Andy, the only one of the bunch who has no problem accepting Fergus just the way he is. The boys enjoy the waves until Victor and his friends show up and try to claim the break for themselves. A battle for supremacy on the water leads to a horrible tragedy that sends Jesse reeling; in the aftermath, he must struggle to decide just who he really is and what he really wants from life.

Newcastle is a striking film with excellent cinematography that takes advantage of the stunning natural loveliness of the area; though the port is filled with hulking industrial structures, it is also a place of bright, beautiful sky, sand and water. (When Jesse complains that Newcastle is a shithole, his grandfather motions at the beach around them and suggests that Jesse has a strange idea of what makes a shithole.) The surfing sequences are breathtaking, capturing the true feeling of being out on the waves and the glimpses of the star-filled night sky are amazing. Newcastle is more than just a visual treat, though; it’s true strength in its compelling story filled with strong characters whose complicated bonds might bend and twist but never entirely break. The relationships Jesse has with his brothers, his mother, father and grandfather, his friends and his first love are well-played and meaningful, sometimes charming, sometimes touching, sometimes tragic, but always very real.

Lachlan Buchanan, starring in his first feature film, imbues Jesse with a depth of character that keeps him interesting and understandable; Reshad Strik as Victor and Xavier Samuels as Fergus give their characters rich life, too, and the interactions between all three are completely convincing, allowing them to present a look at brotherhood that is honest and emotional. Writer/director Dan Castle has done an excellent job with his writing and his cast, even the characters with the briefest of appearances have a feeling of trueness to them. Newcastle is a dynamic and rewarding film, well worth the viewing.

Newcastle screens Sunday, June 1 at 1:30 pm at the Egyptian Theater.

Before the first screening on May 31, I spoke with writer/director Dan Castle and actors Lachlan Buchanan and Reshad Strik; follow the jump for more.

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Seattle Daily Photo enters the Blarch Badness competition tomorrow. I asked Kim some questions about her website, her favorite photos, and how the competition last year changed her Seattle outlook. Read on:

MB: When did you start Seattle Daily Photo? I starting contemplating doing SDP in October of 2005. I was at that time a daily visitor to a blog by Eric Tenin called Paris Daily Photo, and a few other loyal readers of his photoblog had contacted him and started similar blogs for their cities in Europe, Asia, and the US. My only digital camera at the time was in my Palm Zire which didn’t have the resolution for a photo blog, and our regular SLR was broken, so I couldn’t take and scan prints either. I was a full time student and working part time, and decided to save for a good digital SLR rather than invest in repairing our film camera. A lot of people were having similar thoughts because an explosion of affiliated new City Daily Photo Blogs took place over the next four months. I started laying out the blog template in November of 2005 and by February 2006 I had saved enough and started seriously camera shopping. Some other things came up that I had to focus on, and when I got back on track to launch the site I discovered another Seattlite named Rose had launched an affiliated blog for Seattle two days before. I was really disappointed. But, as luck would have it, after a couple months Rose stopped posting to her blog and Eric in Paris gave me the go ahead to start. I jumped in with a first post on July 8, 2006. I’ve been posting daily ever since, almost 600 posts now.
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On Saturday, I’ll participate in my first Presidential caucus. Being that I’m uncomfortable jumping into totally unknown situations, I asked Josh, a caucus veteran, a few questions.

Me: Have you ever caucused before?

Josh: Yes, in 2004.

Me: What should I expect?

Josh: On Capitol Hill, a big auditorium at Seattle Central full of liberals. Maybe bagels if someone in your precinct is planning to try to lure people to support their candidate.

Me: Well, I’ll be in Fremont but I don’t imagine it’ll be much different.

Josh: In Fremont, I’d expect a bunch of die-hard Kucinich fans trying to cook up a way to allocate delegates to him even though he isn’t in the race. (Technically, I think there’s an option to elect “uncommitted” delegates.)

Me: Are there speeches?

Josh: Brief ones followed by discussion and voice votes for party platform issues. Then you’re split off into small groups corresponding to your precinct (probably a couple of blocks) for the actual voting and persuading portion of the show.

Me: How long does it last?

Josh: About an hour. When you arrive at the site, you sign in for your candidate of choice. Then there’s the big party plank portion of the event. Once you get into your small group, you divide yourselves into factions for each candidate. What you’re actually doing is electing delegates to go on to the legislative/county convention (who will then repeat the process and choose delegates for the congressional district, who will then repeat the process and choose delegates for the state, who will then repeat the process and choose the delegates for the National convention who go and stand under the balloons that fall from the sky and/or look on as a decision for the nominee is brokered.); so the precinct leader has to count everyone up and do some quick math to see how many delegates will be chosen for each candidate. If one candidate doesn’t have enough supporters to be viable, then they get a chance to realign. This is where the horse trading typically comes in, but since there are only two candidates it might be quicker this time than in 2004 when there were at least five democrats still in the race (Dean, Edwards, Kerry, Clark, Kucinich). Once the delegate counts are decided, you choose or harangue people into going to the county convention.

Me: Do I have to sign anything with a quill pen?

Josh: No. But you could bring your own for maximum effect.

Another question that Josh addressed without my asking is whether you have to be a registered Democrat to participate in the caucus. The answer is categorically no. You do not have to be a registered Democrat to participate in the caucus. However, if you professed allegiance to a party in Washington’s meaningless Primary, it is against the law to participate in a different party’s caucus.

Further, if you’re really gung ho and aspire to be a delegate at the National Convention in Denver, the Washington State Democratic party has this to say about it:

Fifty-one (51) delegates to the National Convention are elected at the Congressional District Caucuses held on May 15th. Additional delegates will be selected at the State Convention on June 13th and 14th in Spokane. Washington will send a total of 97 delegates to the National Convention.

It does not indicate whether they’ll pay for your trip. My guess, and please correct me if I’m wrong, is that you’re on the hook for those expenses.

Finally, if you’re planning to call the King County Democrats to determine where you should caucus on Saturday, expect to hear a busy signal. It took me 9 tries before I got through today. For a split second, the paranoid part of my brain thought the Republicans were jamming phones again [wiki]. However, it’s probably a lot less sinister than that.

Note: The reason I didn’t use the very handy Caucus Finder that Colin linked below [m-b] is because I recently moved and my old address is still in the system. So, if you’re in a similar situation, don’t panic if the phones are busy.

Update: In the comments, Cascadian pointed out that it’s not necessary to call and fight busy signals to find your caucus location. Instead, you can simply click over to the Washington State Democratic Chairs Organization and enter your address.

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• Both Democratic candidates are coming to town in advance of Super Saturday. [p-i]
• this is just getting embarrassing. Pearl Jam records “Barack Around the Clock”. [anyonesguess]
• Kwab Copeland is taking over booking at the High Dive. [reverb]
• Rogue wave strikes Port Townsend ferry. [nwcn via dailyweekly ]
• Macy’s says goodbye to a whole lot of northwest employees. [seattlest (ed: I really wish they would just drop the royal we for personal posts)]
• A brief history of green collar jobs. [sightline]
• the Lonely H premiered their video on SPIN today. [soundonthesound]
• Grand Archives are the Myspace band of the week with a gorgeous new recording of “Torn Blue Foam Couch” posted for your downloading pleasure. [myspace]

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Meet Ayrn. She’s a local artist and all-around crafty chick whose t-shirt designs eat your t-shirt designs for breakfast. She also suffers from a congenital heart condition that gives her the pleasure of experiencing all sorts of enjoyable symptoms — like extreme fatigue and falling down and other cool stuff that you don’t get to experience. And because she gets to experience all this fun stuff she also gets to swim merrily in giant pools of medical debt. But rather than just enjoy life under a pile of bills, or file for bankruptcy, or dive into a self-destructive tailspin, Ayrn is making stuff. Cool stuff. And selling it to you, if you want it.

This type of personal responsibility and lemons-to-lemonade approach to life is a mystery to the likes of me, so I decided to ask Ayrn a few questions. Much to my surprise, she graciously agreed to answer them. (Any emphasis is mine.)
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1. I hope you’ve already left to go shopping this morning. Oh, you haven’t? Then the day is already lost.

2. But here’s the trick for Saturdays at Costco: Time your trip so that you arrive around 5:30 and can get out of there no later than 6:15. It’s the eye of the “hurricane” — everyone has already checked out and is either heading home for dinner or chowing on Polish sausages and pizza at the Costco food court. You’re in, you’re out, Christmas is done. Sure, Grandma may be looking askance at the 30-pack of Charmin under the tree, but she’ll be thanking you later.

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Generation Obama stretches in a ragged line from the doors of the Showbox SoDo along First Avenue to both edges of the block putting up with the cold December air and the agitation of patrolling Ron Paul supporters. Inside, “Celebration” plays on the loudspeakers for the first of many times. For the most part, Generation Obama had the look of people in their thirties and forties who could afford to contribute at least a hundred dollars to the campaign for the chance to see the candidate in action on a school night, with a sprinkling of representatives from the demographic who attend college and are on the ball enough to buy thirty-five dollar tickets before they sell out. Their number also include a scattering of die-hard Brad fans (overheard bar conversation: Brad is easily in my top 10, no top 15 bands of all time, up there above Queens of the Stone Age and below Led fucking Zeppelin // It can be scientifically proven that Queens of the Stone Age is better than Brad) and Ms. Plus Size Washington, clad in her sash and tiara.

Generation Obama appear to politely appreciate the covers played by the Dusty 45s, who cleverly repurpose the “oh boys” from Buddy Holly’s “All My Love, All My Kisses” into “Obamas” before closing their set with a flaming trumpet solo. The horn is, despite safety concerns, on fire throughout the last song and nobody seems to fear for their lives or the wooden ceiling beams in the large warehouse-like space.

A couple of nice-seeming event organizers fill the break between the sets getting a few facts wrong and trying to convince Generation Obama that Washington, with its caucus falling well after Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and the massive conglomeration of states holding their primaries on “Tsunami Tuesday”, is critical to maintaining momentum in the nomination process. What they don’t say explicitly, but what must be true, is that Washington’s most important role in choosing a nominee is in its ability to make campaign contributions to keep our favorite candidates rolling through the early critical battlegrounds. They do try to convince people with cellphones to sign up for up-to-the-minute automatic text messaging updates, and several people hold up their mobiles as they subscribe.

Then Brad plays, pausing briefly to endorse Obama as an introduction to a song about a deportee. Their set is nice and mellow and entirely listenable, but I don’t know enough about them or their back catalog to judge whether they lived up to the expectations of those overheard enthusiastic fans in the bar. Some of Generation Obama grows restless as time passes, and I start to wonder about the curious lineup. While entirely competent and enjoyable, it seems less aimed less at “rocking the vote” than at making sure that there’s no question about who is the headliner. On some level, this must be a nice change of pace after sharing the spotlight with Oprah in giant venues in more important primary states.

By 9:30, former mayor Norm Rice is riling the crowd with his introduction and Generation Obama gets thoroughly excited for Barack Obama to step between his large “Change We Can Believe In” banner and the small “Change We Can Believe In” placards scattered throughout the audience. (Interesting that today is a “change” day, not a “hope” day.) In the span of a few moments, the crowd seems to suddenly increase in number by thirty percent and contracts closer to the stage as the Senator begins his remarks.

Heading downtown, it was hard not to think about Obama’s incredible speech [pbs] at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I remember watching, I think from the UW’s IMA, and desperately wishing that we could make a last minute substitution of Obama for Kerry at the top of the ticket. Or, as a consolation, counting the days until his candidacy. There’s no question that Obama is a great speaker, but it was at first a little challenging to remind myself that this address was a campaign speech and not a keynote. It included a quick Sleepless in Seattle reference and a long list of talking points certain to please. Nevertheless, the crowd seemed enthralled and responsive throughout. Heavier on ideas and goals than on process or details, he thrilled the crowd with talk of getting out of Iraq and making healthcare available to everyone who wanted to buy it by the end of his first term.

Biggest applause: Kennedy and King quotes; anti-war everything.

Weirdest detail (while rebutting his record of wanting to be president since Kindergarden): Obama also experimented with, and still enjoys, pulling pigtails.

Other high points: there shouldn’t be a term “working poor”; wanting to tell the world that “America’s back”

Strong finish: the “This is how change happens in America” section, capitalizing on civil rights history and (Standing up to hoses, dogs, etc. for the right to vote, against the Vietnam War …) in the context of MLK’s “the fierce urgency of now” as a motivation for his campaign.

I confess that I went in hoping his speech might settle my swaying candidate affections. Last night’s event didn’t do that, but I’ve grown to not let this fickleness bother me much anymore. I became far too invested and crushed by 2004 and now try to take a zen approach by recognizing that the problem of choosing lies in the hands of people in other states. After all, while most days find me thinking that I’d like it if Senator Clinton will become President Clinton, I would be thrilled with a President Obama or a President Richards or a President Competent Democrat, too.

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Ok, so it’s holiday shopping time, and people that drive cars might be leaving presents in their cars while they shop for something else. I get that. But on Friday a car prowler broke into an SUV parked in the parking lot at 5th and Harrison down by the EMP, and made off with $50,000 worth of stuff–cash, diamonds, a laptop, a passport, and a pilot’s license, all in a laptop bag and a briefcase [PI]. I bet that made him the most popular car thief at the car thief club that night.

The thief got to them by punching the driver’s side keyhole, so I assume that means that the things were sitting in view from the windows, and why would you leave your diamonds and passport just sitting around like that? Lots of people who drive will, at some point, have to deal with their car being stolen or their windows being smashed, but it seems like that’s just asking for trouble. (I had someone steal the broken stereo out of my car, back when I had one, and an ex boyfriend had his whole car taken only to find, upon its return by the police, that the thieves had replaced some of his parts for better ones and forgotten a small bag of marijuana under the driver’s side visor. So sometimes it works out better than others.)

Last year, car prowlers stole about $6.2 million worth of stuff, and about 5% of it was returned. The Seattle Police have offered a list of tips for safe holiday shopping [Times], and one of them is not to leave anything of value in your car, especially not in plain sight. And then there’s this one, which would sort of freak me out if I had a car: “When you leave your car, lock it the old-fashioned way, with the key in the lock; don’t use the remote. Thieves can use a scanner to pick up your remote’s frequency and then open your car with their own remote.”

Just…take your diamonds with you when you leave the car, ok?

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