Get excited, because it’s time for another batch of newly announced events. British folk-rock troupe Mumford & Sons is coming to the Gorge this summer to support their new album Rushmere. Alt-rock legends Garbage have announced their first headlining tour in ten years. Plus, Lady Gaga has added a third Seattle date for her Mayhem Ball.

MUSIC

Acid Bath with High On Fire, Yob, and Witch Mountain
Marymoor Park (Sat June 21)

Architects
Showbox SoDo (Mon Aug 4)

Brand New
WaMu Theater (Fri May 30)

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Saturday April 5, at Washington Hall. by Megan Seling

On Saturday, April 5, some of Seattle’s funniest comedians will take the stage as part of The Stranger’s annual Undisputable Champions of Comedy showcase. It’ll be hilarious! The lineup was curated with help from everyone’s comedy bestie, Emmett Montgomery, co-host of Joketellers Union at Clock-Out Lounge and purveyor of all things delightfully weird. And this year’s lineup is stacked with talent, from a local comedy legend who once won over a crowd of bikers at an Aurora bar in the ’80s to a comic who uses laughter as a way to deal with grief. We even have a bunny and a fundamentalist Christian pastor on the bill! It’s gonna be great.

We're posting interviews with the champs all week long, and now it's time to hear from Genevieve Ferrari! She co-hosts the podcast Oops! All Franchises, and yes, that is her real name. In fact, watch the clip below to see how she feels about that.

Describe your comedy in five words.

Very, very, very, very sensual. Just kidding! I don’t know, chaotic & weird? Technically that last sentence is 5 words because I used an ampersand. 

What’s the first thing you did when you found out you were chosen as one of The Stranger’s Champions of Comedy?

I've always considered myself "the people’s champion,” if you will, so I sort of stared off in the distance and whispered, “Finally.”

I love the concept of your podcast, Oops! All Franchises—you set out to find the best sequel ever made. That’s a question a lot of people have passionate feelings about! What is your least popular sequel take so far?

Thank you! It's been an absolute, torturous slog, but I get to yap about movies with my amazing co-hosts Robert Bojorquez, Sloane Smith, and Brian Toews, and that makes it all worth it. 

The wonderful thing about watching so many horrible sequels is that it completely warps how you perceive and enjoy movies. I feel like I don’t judge a film by its plot, pacing, or cinematography anymore: I'm all about vibes now, baby! There is nothing more offensive to me than a boring sequel, so if it's weird, bring it on. 

My hot take is that Alien: Resurrection absolutely fuckin’ rips. The people may disagree (its first search suggestion on Google is "Why is Alien 4 so bad"), but they are wrong, and I am right. It's directed by Amelie's Jean Pierre Jeunet, and he really brings a whimsical and kinda horny vibe to the party. Highlights include some very weird erotic tension between Sigourney Weaver and the Alien, some very weird erotic tension between Sigourney Weaver and Winona Rider, and a human-xenomorph hybrid with incredibly kind eyes. It also features the greatest practical effect in the entire franchise! Anyway, I laughed my ass off during the whole thing and then cried a little bit when (SPOILERS) the freaky little Alien/human baby got sucked out of a hole in the ship. Is it good? No! But it made me feel alive! 

Another movie-related question, if that’s okay: Do you have a favorite movie-watching snack?

I love Good and Plenty, a personal favorite of mine and also of everyone who survived the Great Depression. Apparently, they are one of the oldest candies in the US, which is why they taste like something an old-timey pharmacist would prescribe you alongside a pack of cigarettes and a Coca-Cola made with real cocaine! 

Where is your favorite place to see comedy in Seattle right now?

Good luck getting me to answer that truthfully: I want all the clubs and bookers to like me! 

If I'm being sincere, though, Club Comedy and Here-After are where I feel most at home onstage, and you can see some really amazing local and touring comedians performing at both places.

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Sat April 5, Washington Hall, $25, 21+. Tickets available here.

Welcome to The Last Word, a monthly column about craft cocktails. Meg van Huygen talks about her cocktail faves—both alcoholic and not—their histories and their components, to lure you to Seattle’s dive bars and cocktail lounges that deserve your attention.

Despite having lived in Seattle my whole life, I know mortifyingly little about Shoreline. There’s great food in Shoreline, of course, but I don’t drive, and taking the bus out there is usually too much of a chore. Especially when it’s shitting rain and there are no sidewalks. Forget it. 

Unless the legendary Chef Zephyr Paquette lands a new gig there, that is. And oh yeah, unless there are not one but two new light rail stations in Shoreline that opened last summer! Hmm, okay. Right. I guess I totally do go to Shoreline now.

Along the southern border of Shoreline, across the street from the discount Crest Cinema and sprawling easterward, is the darling Ridgecrest neighborhood, where the Ridgecrest Public House has been the neighborhood’s go-to night spot for the last 20 years. 

When owners Megan Kogut and Jarred Swalwell opened Drumlin next door in 2020, it was essentially a family-friendly pub version of the bar: They served beer, wine, and cider with subdued snacks like tuna melts and pretzel knots with beer cheese, and the space with popular with parents and kids. Then the pandemic lockdown struck soon after Drumlin’s debut, and when it reopened, the food was being supplied by trucks outside. Then the pub abruptly closed again in September 2024, a sign on the door promising that the hiatus was temporary. The grand re-opening finally arrived in February 2025. The food trucks, however, have been scrapped to make room for Paquette, who’s helped restyle Drumlin as a chef-driven, farmer-focused bar-bistro. 

“I told them, ‘Whatever you want,’” Paquette says she responded when she was asked to join the team. “Want me to be the chef? The GM? The bar manager? It’s up to you guys.” Officially, she’s Drumlin’s chef, but while the shop’s still in reopen mode, she’s doing a bit of everything.

Drumlin’s name refers to a small hill in the Irish language—because Ridgecrest, get it?—and the newest release has more of a dinner-date vibe than its pubby previous incarnation. The shop’s running on table service now, and there’s no kids allowed. The menu’s leveled up as well—the pretzel knots (from Lake City bakery Kaffeeklatsch) and beer cheese have stuck around, but new additions include cacio e pepe risotto with burrata and tomato dust, lamb albondigas, beluga lentils with kale and Italian sausage and bacon, and a spectacular roasted carrot dish that we’re gonna talk about in a minute. Most importantly for this column’s purposes, Drumlin is now equipped with a full bar.

Zephyr Paquette’s been cooking in Seattle for well over two decades now. Today, as ever, she’s known for employing a strong field-to-plate, farmers-market culinary philosophy to cheffery, using local producers, organic foods, and a punk-rock DIY ethos. Closely affiliated with the late, great Chef Tamara Murphy and her restaurants (Terra Plata, Brasa, Elliott Bay Café) over the years, Paquette’s also an alum of Dandelion, Lecosho, Marjorie, and Cafe Flora, among manifold others, and she ran two of her own joints as well, Le Petit Paquet and Skelly and the Bean. She was a longtime participant in Murphy’s brainchild festival Burning Beast, “the world’s best feast in a field,” and a grad of the prestigious Quillisascut Farm School in rural Stevens County, where students learn to raise farm animals, make cheese, harvest from the gardens, and essentially create food from the ground up. This is just a fraction of Paquette’s resume, because you don’t have an hour and a half to read the whole thing. Suffice it to say that when Chef Zeph is at the wheel, I’m showin’ up. 

This farm-to-plate credo shows up in Drumlin’s bar program, of course. Concentrating on rejiggered classic cocktails, the drink list comprises spirits sourced from small-batch distilleries, and mostly local ones. There are only a couple original crafties on there, and the one I’m besotted with is the Women’s Work. This babe comes with a special twist: Alongside being delicious and innovative and beautiful, it’s also specifically made from products that’re owned and produced by women. 

In Women’s Work, Paquette combines Libélula blended tequila, Flor de Azar, ginger liqueur, honey, and her own housemade lemon soda. On the rim is honey powder and bee pollen—both sourced from Rainy Day Bees, just around the corner from Drumlin. The drink is served in a rounded-but-triangular Collins glass and then strewn with yellow marigold petals. She’s a shimmering vision, all in gold.

I tend to shy away when I see tequila on a cocktail list—it makes me braindead in an embarrassing, not-fun way. You can also safely assume the drink it’s in is gonna be thick and syrupy ’cause that’s everyone’s favorite way to style the stuff. Either you see a variation on a marg, a fruity sugar bomb loaded up with grenadine, or some kind of smoky masculine highball with fuckin’ cedar sawdust and barbecue powder. Tequila makes people act corny, man. Maybe just Americans.

This cocktail, though, is the obverse of that. Women’s Work is lovely and light, citrusy and herbal, with the tequila starring as the floral centerpiece. Honey-sweet but alpha femme. An accessible, chilled-out tequila cocktail, at last. “Yeah, everybody’s got a tequila story,” Paquette laughs when I confess my prejudices. “You’re definitely not the first person to say this.” 

“I'm secretly proud of Woman's Work,” Paquette adds, “especially since it was a beautiful accident. Libélula brought me in for a tasting, and while I was there, my friend Amy Beth (Nolte), who co-owns Rainy Day Bees with her husband Peter, got back to me about buying honey powder. And then Peter was like “Does she know about the bee pollen?” So she told me about that, and I was like “WAIT, let’s just take them all and make an all-female cocktail!” And so we built it with other woman-produced liquors we had, and I was like ‘Oh my god,’ at the coincidental beauty of how it all tasted together.” 

Based in Jalisco, Mexico, Libélula Tequila is owned and produced by the Lopez family, led by their matriarch Carmen Villareal Treviño. One of a small handful of living maestras tequileras, Treviño took the wheel at Casa San Matias Tequila back in 1986, whereupon she became the first woman to both own and operate a tequila distillery. Today, she guides her adult children on the same path via Libélula, whose craft distillery, Destiladora Bonanza, is located on the same estate as Casa San Matias. A joven (blended) tequila, it’s grassy, citrusy, and peppery, with just a little richness from the oak-aged reposado.  

“This is actually our well,” Paquette explains. “It’s 80% blanco, with 20% reposado in it, so it’s got real gumption to it.”

Flor de Azar is a premium triple sec, and the name’s a Spanish slang term for the orange blossom (literally the “flower of luck,” hence the four-leaf clover on the bottle). Although triple sec is usually just orangey, this liqueur throws in limes, pomelos, and mandarins, alongside both sweet and bitter oranges. Agave syrup is used in place of cane sugar, and the citrus fruit is grown on a family farm in Veracruz, Mexico. It’s made by Mexico City-based distillery Flor de Luna, owned by Hillhamn Salome, who founded the distillery when she was only 18 years old and now produces the liqueur on a team with five other women. It tastes like triple sec except more so. Brighter and fruitier. Triple sec times two. 

Paquette makes the lemon soda herself, and the honey-pollen rim is manufactured by neighborhood bees, per above, by way of the Ridgecrest neighborhood’s own flowers. (Don’t worry, most primary pollinator bees within a hive are female.) 

I did discover a possible outlier hiding in the recipe: The ginger liqueur is made by Portland’s New Deal Distillery, which is owned by Tom Burkleaux, a person who COULD be a non-femme and is described by he/him pronouns on the company’s website. (Who am I to assume, though?) That said, the staff at New Deal seems to be overwhelmingly composed of women, and there's just a hint of the ginger liqueur in the drink anyhow. Made from spicy organic ginger, the liqueur’s a spot of potential masculinity to even out the superfemme sound, but which lays low in the cocktail’s multitrack overall. 

And about those carrots. So I had some disappointing carrots at a press event at [redacted] a couple months ago, wherein the menu description called them “roasted carrots,” and the carrots delivered to me were pure orange with zero caramelization. They were still crunchy in the middle. These were in fact parboiled carrots that had never seen the inside of an oven, and I was angry about it. I felt tricked. Rarely does free food ever make me mad. 

“You want these carrots,” Paquette promised when I told her my sad story and then asked about her carrot side. “I stand confidently by these roasted carrots. These are the ones.”

She was right to do this. Hers are slathered in olive oil and roasted for reals, so they’re all wrinkly and knurled like a witch’s fingers, and she serves them on a lake of maple goat-milk yogurt, accented by pomegranate molasses, salty feta, and toasted pepitas. Carrots themselves? Perfect and roasty and great, but I wanted to stick my whole hand in the plate and just scoop up every drop of the sweet-and-salty yogurt sauce. I wanted to pour it into my coat pockets. This dish instantly wiped the bad, free carrots from my memory—a real Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind moment. Therapy carrots.

As excited as I am to know that Drumlin even exists, and about Women’s Work in particular, I’m even more stoked to know that Drumlin’s newest season has an innovator like Paquette to help owners Kogut and Swalwell realize their long-held, COVID-delayed plans for the space. I’m stoked for sweet little Ridgecrest too—the weather’s just starting to get nice, and they’re opening up the front and back patios at Drumlin. Live music acts are being scheduled next, for their big indoor stage. You can see how it’s all gonna come together. Damn, y’all got me light-railing out to Shoreline now. 

If you dropped dead in the middle of the city with no identification, the potter’s field would likely be your last stop. by Bess Lovejoy

Photos by Billie Winter

Cari Simson first heard the rumor in the early 2000s.

Amid the dark, comfortable bars of Georgetown, and in other places where the neighborhood’s old-timers gathered, there were stories about a cemetery. It was a place that didn’t last, the old-timers said—a place where
one day, all the bodies were dug up, and the ashes dumped into the nearby Duwamish River.

Simson, a local environmental consultant, producer, and mixed media artist, was intrigued by the stories. She’d spent years producing the annual Georgetown Haunted History Tour, and this elusive cemetery would have been a natural addition. But she didn’t start researching them in depth until 2022, after she met a kindred spirit.

Elke Hautala is a filmmaker, performer, and visual anthropologist. In 2022, she had undertaken a project on the challenges surrounding the Duwamish River, an often-forgotten waterway that was once home to rich wetlands and is today a Superfund site. That project brought her to Simson, who was helping to run a trash pickup via kayak on the river. The pair went out on the water together, and right away, they bonded over a shared love of cemeteries and ghost stories.

“Even during the deepest, darkest, dumbest days of the pandemic, we found joy through graveyards and picking up trash,” Simson says.

Today, Simson and Hautala produce and host a podcast called Invisible Histories, devoted to local stories that are rarely, if ever, told. Recent guests have included Cynthia Brothers of Vanishing Seattle and Taha Ebrahimi, author of the book Street Trees of Seattle. But the first season focused on that cemetery in Georgetown—which, it turns out, was much more than a rumor.

The old-timers were right: There was a burial ground in the neighborhood (and not just Comet Lodge, now cut off from Georgetown by I-5 and ripe with its own strange lore). The Duwamish Cemetery was established in the 1870s as King County’s potter’s field, a place to bury the indigent or unclaimed dead. Located two blocks southwest of Corson Avenue South and East Marginal Way South at the site of what’s now Seattle Boiler Works, it was a “burying place of unfortunates,” a large, overgrown “city of the dead,” as The Seattle Times put it in 1904.

There were two common ways to end up at the potter’s field, according to Simson and Hautala. One was dying at the King County Poor Farm, which bordered the cemetery. Established in 1877, it was a working farm located where the South Seattle College Georgetown campus is now. If you were too poor or sick to take care of yourself in the late 19th century, that’s where the county sent you. Another route to the cemetery was dying at the nearby King County Hospital and Tuberculosis Sanatorium.

Those weren’t the only paths to the cemetery. “If you dropped dead in the middle of the city with no identification,” Hautala told me on an early March Zoom call, the potter’s field would likely be your last stop. The same was true if no one came forward to claim your body or pay burial expenses, no matter how you had died. Turnaround was quick at local morgues—bodies unclaimed for only two or three days were sent to the potter’s field.

That meant all kinds of folks ended up at this lonely, windy plot of land. Hautala describes one man whose naval buddies came and tried to dig him up after he was buried there by mistake. “We have to think about how news [traveled],” she told me. “It’s not like we had cell phones to call and say, ‘So-and-so hasn’t shown up for dinner.’”

Their podcast tells the stories of some of those buried at the potter’s field, including a formerly enslaved man named James Carter, and Thomas Blanck, who’s been called the “Jesse James of the Pacific Northwest.” One group that’s rarely at the potter’s field: women. The place was so stigmatized, staggering under the weight of that era’s criminalization of the poor, that the community often raised funds to bury women and children just about anywhere else.

The Duwamish Cemetery ran for fewer than 50 years, never to be replaced. In the early 1910s, King County moved to straighten and deepen the Duwamish River, which once flowed through about a dozen channels in its delta and down winding curves whose banks supported the Duwamish people for millennia. A straighter, deeper river surrounded by more solid land was much better for development, the county’s planners argued, and by 1912, the potter’s field was seen as in the way.

“From a colonizer or patriarchal perspective, it was useless land,” Simson says.

County commissioners made plans to exhume the cemetery’s 3,260 bodies and cremate them on-site. But by the time the job was given to Georgetown mortician C. E. Noice, only 39 days were left to complete the work before dredging was set to begin. The rush meant burning about 85 bodies a day at a crematorium equipped to handle about four. Bodies were supposed to be burned individually, with their resulting ashes placed in individual urns. That’s not what happened.

A state investigation, prompted by reporting from the progressive newspaper The Seattle Star, found that bodies had been burned together, that ashes frequently commingled, and that they were raked to the floor of the crematorium before being divided haphazardly into individual receptacles. A subsequent grand jury investigation confirmed the findings, noting that the individually labeled urns were little more than fiction. What happened to the ashes was “beyond understanding,” in the words of the state auditor. Yet no punishment or actions came of the investigation.

Afterwards, the ashes vanished.

No one knows exactly what happened to them, but Simson and Hautala say they were probably spread in the potato fields or, yes, dumped in the river. “We didn’t find evidence that the county set aside any other land for the future potter’s field, and the ashes were never reinterred anywhere else, as far as we can tell,” Simson says.

While this may seem like nothing but a sad story from a more benighted era, Simson and Hautala link it to issues the city and county face today. “There is a connection we want to make to people being invisible, living on the margins and dying, especially of overdoses nowadays, right here in King County today,” Hautala says. The pair recently attended one of monthly silent witnessing vigils organized by the Women in Black, which works to remember unhoused people who have died outside, in public places, or by violence in King County. In March, the vigil honored 25 people whose lives ended under such circumstances. (And while the county no longer has a potter’s field, the King County Indigent Remains Program now buries those who die unclaimed or without means in a special ceremony that happens every few years at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Renton.)

Ultimately, Simson and Hautala would love to see some kind of memorial at the former site of the potter’s field. That could be as simple as a plaque or as a high-tech project involving augmented reality. It may even encompass fixing up the street by the river and creating a community space with support services. “Maybe that’s the best way to honor these people who were on the margins,” Hautala says.

Part of the challenge is figuring out how to remember people who are unnamed—only 855 of the Duwamish cemetery dead have names, thanks to a brush fire around 1910 that destroyed many of the burial ground’s markers.

The pair say they are happy to hear from the public about creative ideas for a memorial. In the meantime, they’re planning an immersive walking tour of related sites for May 2 and 3. While the details were still being confirmed at press time, the tour will likely include the old sites of the poor farm, crematory, and potter’s field, with theatrical and audio-visual elements.

Their goal is always to humanize, they say. “These are 3,260 people who were mothers, daughters, fathers, brothers, sisters, you know,” Hautala says.

Invisible Histories hosts the "Lost" Potter's Field Immersive Walking Tour May 2–3 at 6:30 pm. Tickets available here.

If you ever feel like you’re trapped in a hostile environment, scrabbling around in a mountain of unforgiving rock and wondering how you can ever possibly make a difference, remember the poor, frightened gophers of Mount St. Helens. by Margaret Harris

Click here to open the comic in a new window or download it as a PDF.

A version of this story was first published by Margaret Harris on Bluesky. Follow her at @drmlharris. The study, 'Microbial community structure in recovering forests of Mount St. Helens,' was published in Frontiers in Microbiomes, November 3, 2024.

How Some Scared Little Gophers Brought Mount St. Helens Back to Life

Story by Margaret Harris

Illustrations by Greg Stump

When Mount St Helens erupted in May of 1980, it blew itself apart, blanketing its surroundings in a cubic mile of rock and ash. Around 57 people were killed, along with thousands of birds and mammals, millions of trees, and an estimated 12 million baby salmon. 

In the worst-affected areas, even the microbes in the soil perished, incinerated by the thermal energy of 1,600 Hiroshima bombs. An expedition to the area above Spirit Lake found no measurable carbon or nitrogen in the soil at all. 

Two years later, little had changed. Very little life existed anywhere in the new Pumice Plain apart from a few straggly lupine flowers that probably grew from seeds dropped by birds. And even they were struggling. 

Still, their presence gave scientists an idea. Lupine seeds are food for pocket gophers, and each gopher can shift as much as 227 kg of soil a month digging for them. They may even do it deliberately, improving the soil so more seeds grow. Like farmers! 

There were no gophers left on the Pumice Plain itself, but a few miles away, a small population had, amazingly, survived the eruption under deep snowpack. Within weeks, their digging had mixed the surface ash with deeper intact soil, speeding up the area’s recovery. 

Could they do the same in the devastated Pumice Plain, which had no intact soil left at all? In 1983, two scientists, Michael Allen and James McMahon, decided to find out. They caught some gophers, helicoptered them in, set up two 1-meter square enclosures, and RELEASED THE GOPHERS. 

For ONE DAY, these confused gophers dug around in what must have seemed like gopher hell, frantically trying to transform the Pumice Plain into somewhere they could survive. Eventually, Allen and McMahon relented, captured the gophers, and took them home.

Six years later, Allen and McMahon returned. The Pumice Plain was still mostly barren. But this time, there were two 1-meter-square exceptions. Within these former gopher plots, FORTY THOUSAND different plant species were thriving. The gophers had done it! 

Fast forward another few decades. Allen is now a professor emeritus at UC Riverside. Last year, he and some colleagues returned to study the Pumice Plain again. And what do you think they found? 

YEP. THEY COULD STILL TELL THE DIFFERENCE. “In the 1980s, we were just testing the short-term reaction,” Allen said. “Who would have predicted you could toss a gopher in for a day and see a residual effect 40 years later?”  

So if you ever feel like you’re trapped in a hostile environment, scrabbling around in a mountain of unforgiving rock and wondering how you can ever possibly make a difference, remember the poor, frightened gophers of Mount St. Helens.

And keep digging. 

Every day, Dave Segal sifts through the hundreds of tracks that bombard his inbox. On a biweekly basis, he tells you about the two artists whose music most impressed him. This time, British neo-krautrockers Beak> flex their soundtrack muscles and ex-Seattle singer-songwriter Eliana Glass makes stripped-down, confessional balladry sublime again.

Beak>, “SOS 5” (Invada)
Over the last 16 years, Bristol, England's Beak> have established themselves as one of the preeminent groups in the neo-krautrock movement. Reviving the peaks of underground German rock from the late '60s and '70s is one of the most important functions of the nostalgic impulse, and Beak> have undertaken this task with utmost seriousness. That they've zeroed in on the sonic universe of Can just demonstrates Beak>'s savvy and ambition.

But perhaps less known to their fans, Beak> also run a nice side hustle in soundtracks, as this new one, State of Silence, proves. Following 2016's Couple in a Hole, State of Silence allows Beak> (bassist Billy Fuller, keyboardist/guitarist Will Young, and drummer Geoff Barrow) to flex muscles that rarely get used in their studio albums proper.

Turns out, they're very good at film music, and in fact, Barrow is leaving the group after their upcoming North American tour to focus more on that endeavor. In a media statement, the Portishead producer said, "Unfortunately, due to a dodgy ankle and other work I need to do before I get too old, it’s time for me to move on from being the mumbling drummer." Beak> will carry on without Barrow, but it'll be hard to fill the void. 

Back to State of Silence. A documentary directed by Santiago Maza, it depicts the lives of four journalists in Mexico who face governmental hardships simply for spotlighting reality in their communities. This portrait of media clampdown resonates in America, where the current administration slanders journalists as "enemies of the people." 

Anyway, the music. "SOS 1" is a noisy dirge that sets an ominous tone, while "SOS 3" is a forlorn fanfare that's nearly as poignant as Brian Eno's "An Ascent." In "SOS 4," desolate (synthetic?) horns waft over a trepidatious bass line and warped synth vapor in the Kluster vein. Beak>'s seldom-heard beatless side emerges on "SOS 8"; this is a miniaturist piece redolent of misty sadness. "SOS 10" is one of those post-rock-group-goes-melancholy songs that shed a single, meaningful tear. It's sonically sparse but emotionally abundant. 

State of Silence closes with "SOS 13," composition of profound compassion and tender beauty—not a facet that Beak> reveal very often in their work. Best of all may be "SOS 5," with its hypnotic, tension-building rhythm enhanced by bulbous bass, distant crashing percussion, and etiolated synth. This track alone makes me want to see the movie. 

Beak> perform April 4 at Neumos. It could be your last chance to see Geoff Barrow perform live.

Eliana Glass, “Shrine” (Shelter Press)
I thought I was absolutely done with new "soul"-bearing singer-songwriters. But every decade or so, one precious confessional artist strolls along and makes my eyes stop rolling at the prospect of spidery acoustic guitar, spacey keyboards, and hushed vox for a minute. Brisbane-via-New York-via-Seattle's Eliana Glass is the latest vocalist/composer to make intimate, spare balladry sublime again. 

It helps that Glass has exquisite musical taste: Annette Peacock, Nina Simone, Sibylle Baier, and Carla Bley (among other greats) have influenced her. From these innovators, Glass has distilled unimpeachable gravitas and exceptional phrasing into her own songs. She has a gift for extending flat notes and inflating sprechstimme into delightful, logic-defying twists. 

Glass's debut album, E (out April 25), is going to turn some smart heads. All the folks who've crowned Lana Del Rey Queen of the Lugubrious should cock ears toward Ms. Glass. Right from jump, "All My Life" dips you into the deep end, as Glass's piano and Mike Rinne's bass gently buttress an abstract ballad in which our heroine emotes with jagged yet subdued intensity. The odd sonic angles and vocal elocutions add luscious tension to what could have been a conventional woe-is-me-athon. "Good Friends Call Me E" recalls Josh Haden's band Spain in its sly, jazzy tumble and soulful understatement, aided by Rinne's lithe bass and Mike Gebhart's nimble drums. It's understandable why Shelter Press would make it the album's second single. 

"Flood"—which was cowritten with her brother/key collaborator, guitarist Costa Colachis Glass—rides a faintly undulating piano melody recalls that in Chicago's "Colour My World," but Eliana makes its lassitude sound heavenly. Singing in smoky, lower registers, Glass reveals an aptitude for penning wonderfully glum tunes, as on "Solid Stone," which she sings with tensile composure. "Song for Emahoy" is an instrumental that channels Ethiopian nun/pianist Emahoy Tsegué Maryam Guèbrous's feathery, melancholy playing. The piece takes you to church—one located in Elysium.  

"Dreams" is not a Fleetwood Mac cover, but rather a stunning rendition of Annette Peacock's pensive, creepy ballad from 1971's Bley-Peacock Synthesizer Show, in which Glass elevates things to peak-era Nico territory with some weird, eerie piano chords. This tenebrous chiller would scare the Buckingham out of Stevie Nicks. 

"Shrine" is what happens when a song of regret gets iced out; shivers ensue. Glass's voice is double-tracked into spicy counterpoint, like she's having an internal argument with herself. In the press notes, Glass says, "This song is more a series of images than a clear story. It’s about the people you encounter in life and the parts of them that live on in you—unbeknownst to them. It’s also about feelings of isolation, of being secluded or remote." Now, it's harrowing to hear a woman in her late 20s sing "I’m living on borrowed time," but on evidence of the velvety poignancy of E, Eliana Glass's time is actually imminent.  

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Saturday, April 5 at Washington Hall. by Megan Seling

On Saturday, April 5, some of Seattle’s funniest comedians will take the stage as part of The Stranger’s annual Undisputable Champions of Comedy showcase. It’ll be hilarious! The lineup was curated with help from everyone’s comedy bestie, Emmett Montgomery, co-host of Joketellers Union at Clock-Out Lounge and purveyor of all things delightfully weird. And this year’s lineup is stacked with talent, from a local comedy legend who once won over a crowd of bikers at an Aurora bar in the ’80s to a comic who uses laughter as a way to deal with grief. We even have a bunny and a fundamentalist Christian pastor on the bill! It’s gonna be great.

We're posting interviews with the champs all week long, and this morning, say hello to Cliff Barnes! Cliff has been performing up and down the West Coast and Western Canada for more than 40 years, and he's racked up a hell of a following. In fact, several PacNW comedy colleagues refer to him as "royalty" and "iconic."

Describe your comedy in five words.

Still relevant many years later?

What’s the first thing you did when you found out you were chosen as one of The Stranger’s Champions of Comedy?

Drank a beer, smoked a doobie, and thought, “What an honor…”

Do you remember your first time doing stand-up? Were you immediately hooked?

My first time doing comedy was a major rush because it turned out successful. It was for a room full of bikers at a bar on Aurora. And hell yeah, I was hooked.

I read that your daughter, Felisha Barnes, is also a comedian! Does having another comedian in the family make for some healthy competition? 

My daughter is amazing!!!  She has a fine arts degree in theater, and she is a great comedian, host, actress, and my baby girl. 

Where is your favorite place to see comedy in Seattle right now?

My favorite place to do comedy is Laughs Comedy Club, in the  U-district. Also, my favorite open mic is the Local 907 in Renton. 

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Sat April 5, Washington Hall, $25, 21+. Tickets available here.

Seattle's only news roundup. by Charles Mudede

Liberation Day? According to Trump, yesterday, April 2, 2025, shall always "be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again." (So, America is poor?) What this comes down to, according to the ABC News report, is a "minimum baseline tariff of 10% on all trading partners and further, more targeted levies on certain countries like China, the European Union and Taiwan." Wow. Just wow. This is going to be very bad indeed. Why? Because a protectionist policy can only benefit the working classes if it has capital controls. Meaning, if it prevents the rich from moving their money easily around the world. Without that, Liberation Day may as well be April Fools' Day. And hardworking Americans will soon find some meaning in these words by T.S. Eliot: "April is the cruelest month."

And here is another problem. US deficits were sustained by what the French famously called, back in the 60s, its "privilège exorbitant." The key features of this privilege are plainly described in Yanis Varoufakis's The Global Minotaur. What it comes down to is this: You can maintain deficits in the current account (what a country imports against what it exports) if your own currency happens to be the world currency. The upshot: If the world doesn't buy American paper in the form of debts (the exorbitant privilege), then the US economy must face the consequences of a massive current account correction.

Trump dropped his Liberation Day video on social media.  It's all white men. It's as nutso as all get out:

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Have you watched Hamilton? Yes? No? Either way, let me tell you now what the man on the ten-dollar bill was really about: infant industries. Meaning, he promoted the protection of America's industrial development against developed competition (in his day, the UK stood as the factory of the world). This approach is also called an "industrial policy." The Civil War was more about industrial policy than the liberation of Black labor. The North wanted tariffs to protect its nascent industries, and the South wanted to import manufactured goods and export raw ones picked by free Black labor. The North won the war, and the US became the factory of the world. An industrial policy, however, will not work without policy alignments, like infrastructure development, protective regulations, and R&D support. The government, in short, must be more active, more inventionist. But the government we see today is anything but that. It's being stripped down to the bone by DOGE. In such a situation, tariffs cannot be a hat from which you pull out a whole rabbit. (For more on the Civil War and Hamiltonian economics, read Ha-Joon Chang's Kicking Away the Ladder.)    

At this moment, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost over 2 percent (1,200 points) of its value. And the S&P 500 is looking at its "worst drop in 2 years." The markets are said to have lost something like $2 trillion on this fine morning.

Back to Life, Back to Reality: Winter failed to leave our state with a serious snowpack. It is, as with last year, depressingly below average. This means Washington is facing a summer that will place a great amount of pressure on its water supplies. Does that fact give you a little climate dread? Channel that into The Stranger's 2025 Climate Issue.

Speaking of the Climate Issue: The one bright side to Trump's globally historic tariffs is they will certainly increase the cost of cars. Even KOMO  sees the darkness falling on America's automobile religion. The conservative, pro-Trump rag reports: "Dave Anderson was scouting a North Seattle car dealership when he and his wife described concern about spiked costs for car maintenance and insurance as a result of potentially boosted car prices." But Dave, you live in a city (not the car-dependant boonies). Seattle has made a big investment in public transportation. Its light rail system is happening. It's even smashing records. So, get out of your car and into this socialist dream. 

The weather you say? Today will be nice (high of 57 and cloudy). Tomorrow, not so nice (high of 65 and sunny). We love you Roy Ayers, and may you rest in peace; but not everybody loves the sunshine. 

One of the many things you must not do today is enter the water at Pritchard Beach.  It is, at present, not water for people and pets. It's water for shit. Thanks to a sewage spill, the kind of viruses and bacteria that can make you sick real quick are enjoying this part of Lake Washington. Let them have their day, and be on your way. Seattle Parks hopes to reopen the beach on April 8.

Just another day in paradise? ICE raided Mount Baker Roofing in Bellingham and arrested 37 people it claimed "fraudulently represented their immigration status and submitted fraudulent documents." The arrested were promptly sent to Northwest ICE Processing Facility in Tacoma. 

Amazon wants to buy TikTok? AP reports that the Seattle-based tech giant has put "in an eleventh-hour pitch as a U.S. ban on the platform is set to go into effect Saturday." Apparently this offer was sent directly to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. But all of this is still nothing more than a rumor. Amazon has zipped its lips; as well as TikTok. 

For my post-colonial headz, do you remember Zippo?

The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, will run in November's election as an independent because, for obvious reasons, his path to re-election is closed as a Democrat. 

Breaking News: Mayor Eric Adams of New York City said he would not seek re-election as a Democrat, instead running as an independent in November’s election.

[image or embed]

— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) April 3, 2025 at 4:13 AM

Yeah, we up shit creek, but let's chill for a minute and listen to the lead track of Hiroshi Yoshimura's recently reissued 1987 album Flora. 

Do you need to get something off your chest? Submit an I, Anonymous and we'll illustrate it! by Anonymous

Shared bathrooms are appropriate for some public spaces! Actually, bars are one of the only places that I have truly enjoyed a shared bathroom experience because I get to chat with girls and if I have to poop at the bar I’m calling it a night. 

Anyway, I do not want to share a bathroom with my coworkers or, god forbid, my boss! Imagine you have to take a dump at work, so you stealthily run to the bathroom to take the quickest shit of all time. Mid-release, your boss walks in. How do you know? You can see them through the enormous gaps in the stalls. WHY ARE THE GAPS SO BIG! 

Let me shit in peace! Maybe they have to take a dump, too—that’s great, I just don’t want to know. 

I feel like I’m insane? Can we fix this? Can we get a single-stall situation for offices? How does the bathroom at Lumon work?

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.

One really great thing to do every day of the week. by Megan Seling WEDNESDAY 4/2  

Seattle Restaurant Week

(FOOD) This biannual event, run by Seattle Good Business Network’s Good Food Economy program, is here to help you break out of your takeout rut and find your new favorite restaurant. Here's how it works: A slew of participating restaurants, bars, cafes, food trucks, caterers, and pop-ups across the greater Seattle area serve up to two special menus for $20, $35, $50, and $65 for lunch and/or dinner, and many offer a "give a meal" option so diners can donate to their in-house community meal programs or to Good Food Kitchens. This spring, there's also an Eat Local First digital passport option—rack up points by checking in with a QR code at designated locations dedicated to serving locally sourced food, then redeem them for restaurant gift cards and earn a chance to win special prizes. See our picks here. (Various locations, through April 12) JULIANNE BELL

Truth to Fiction: Sam Now

(FILM) Blending Super 8, home video, and modern-day digital footage, Sam Now follows Seattle documentarian Reed Harkness, his half-brother Sam, and their family over the course of 20 years as they grapple with Sam's mother's sudden disappearance. One Letterboxd reviewer describes the flick as a "one-of-a-kind feat of participatory doc filmmaking," so if you're a fan of other participatory documentaries (Super Size Me, The Act of Killing, Fahrenheit 9/11) you'll likely appreciate this. (Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm) LINDSAY COSTELLO

Remi Wolf, Dana and Alden

(MUSIC) Remi Wolf is a firecracker, both live onstage and in her recorded music. Her 2020 EP I'm Allergic To Dogs! exploded onto the scene with cheeky lyrics and boppy beats, and her pop dominance has only grown since. Big Ideas, her second full-length, was released in July of last year and showcases a broad range of genres and influences in her music, from psych rock to R&B. Her live shows call for barefoot dancing in your brightest threads and chunkiest jewelry. (The Paramount, 8 pm, all ages) SHANNON LUBETICH

Defend Democracy, Then Laugh Your Ass Off 

(PROTEST) Earlier this week, as I watched Sen. Cory Booker's record-breaking 25-hour filibuster, I got a weird feeling in my chest. A tingle. A spark. It was a sensation I hadn't felt for several months... it was a tiny glimmer of hope. Booker reminded the hundreds of thousands of Americans who tuned in for his marathon speech that: "The power of the people is greater than people in power." And on Saturday, those words will be echoing across the country as hundreds of cities mobilize for Hands Off!, a National Day of Action. Here in Seattle, the main event is at the Seattle Center from noon–3 p.m., with guest speakers former Gov. Jay Inslee, Rep. Pramilla Jayapal, and Port Commissioner Hamdi Mohamed. What will you be protesting? The tariffs? The illegal deportations? Elon's attempt to buy an election? RKF Jr.'s misinformation that could quite literally get people killed? The administration's complete disregard for national security? There's so much to be mad about! So let's all scream together, like that scene in Midsommar, and then afterward we can soothe our nerves with a good dose of laughter at The Stranger's Champions of Comedy show. (Seattle Center, noon–3 pm, free all ages) MEGAN SELING

Arboretum Spring Plant Sale

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(SPRING) Good news, plant people! The Arboretum's annual spring plant sale is back and offers up a selection of perennials, shrubs, and young trees for purchase. Volunteers will be around to answer any questions you have about caring for all your different plant babies. Good news for us non-plant people who might be dragged along by our friends—Azalea Way is covered in gorgeous blooming cherry and dogwood trees, and a perfect way to mark "see the cherry blossoms" off your Seattle spring bucket list. (Washington Park Arboretum, 10 am–2 pm, free, all ages) SHANNON LUBETICH

Author Talk & Demo: Lacey Ostermann

(BOOKS/FOOD) Self-taught baker and TikTok creator Lacey Ostermann (@_lacebakes_) started a micro-bakery from her London home after picking up bread baking as a pandemic hobby, and has accrued nearly 800k followers who adore her comforting videos and approachable but precise recipes. I'm excited about the dizzying breadth of possibilities from her new book 3 Doughs, 60 Recipes. All you knead (sorry) is three simple master dough recipes—sandwich bread, pizza, and focaccia—to unlock carby delights like bagels, doughnuts, English muffins, burger buns, ciabatta, sandwich rolls, Roman-style pizza, and more. Plus, the book comes with 15 bonus recipes to enhance your baked creations, like homemade butter, hot honey, scallion cream cheese, chimichurri, and stracciatella, and QR codes to video tutorials to help you along the way. Ostermann will drop by Book Larder for an author talk and bread-making demo. (Book Larder, 6:30 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

Preston Singletary: Raven Is As Raven Does

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(VISUAL ART) Native American glass artist Preston Singletary, who first learned his signature glassblowing techniques over 30 years ago, will present a new selection of his mystical works, which feature themes of transformation, animal spirits, and shamanism inspired by his Tlingit cultural heritage. Raven Is As Raven Does finds its footing in Singletary's collaboration with bestselling author Garth Stein. The pair retell ancient raven myths: Singletary with bold colors and unexpected forms, Stein with a contemporary perspective. (Traver Gallery, every Tues–Sat, April 5–26, free) LINDSAY COSTELLO

Could a disaster like January’s wildfires happen here in Seattle? by Hannah Murphy Winter

On January 1, 2025, a fire sparked outside of Los Angeles, near the Temescal Ridge Trail. It was a minor fire, only burning eight acres of wilderness. Most of us in Seattle didn’t hear about that one. Then six days later, the Pacific Palisades fire started tearing through the LA hills. The same day, about 30 miles away, the Eaton Fire ignited. From 1,100 miles north, Seattleites watched for more than three weeks as 14 wildfires teetered on the edge of a city, consuming 57,000 acres and killing at least 29 people. The Eaton and Palisades fires alone burned an area that would cover 70 percent of Seattle.

Standing in the Pacific Northwest, we could look at the LA fires in two ways: the first is as a disaster that happened in a dry, hot, drought-stricken climate, drastically different from the mossy, pine-y landscape on our horizon. Alternatively, though, we could see them as fires that consumed suburbs built into fire-prone foothills, not dissimilar from our own.

So which one is right? Could a disaster like January’s wildfires happen here in Seattle?

I took the question to Crystal Raymond, the deputy director of policy and management at the University of Washington’s Western Fire and Forest Resilience Collaborative. And you might’ve guessed by now that I didn’t get the clear-cut “no” that I’d hoped for.

“Of course, the answer is yes and no,” she told me over the phone.

To start, it helps to understand what led to the Los Angeles fires. At its core, it wasn’t tied to the climate crisis so much as it was a confluence of really bad luck. “You have three ingredients for these major fires,” explains Raymond. You need an ignition source (usually humans), fuel (dry brush, trees, etc.), and for large, fast-moving fires like these, you need winds that, rather than coming from the cool, wet ocean, come from the east—like California’s Santa Ana winds.

Ignition can happen anywhere. It can occur naturally, but more often, it’s manmade—a cigarette butt, a campfire, a Cybertruck. King County’s Office of Emergency Management usually prepares for more ignition events starting after the Fourth of July; explosives make for excellent ignition events.

The “fuel” part of the equation can be affected by climate change. California’s rainy season came in late last year, leaving its iconic Chaparral shrubland—which is already small, dry fuel that thrives in fire country—especially dry.

When it comes to fires, fuel is quite possibly the greatest differentiator between Southern California and Western Washington. Where California has shrubs, we have thick, wooden trunks. Raymond recommends imagining a campfire. “Think about when someone throws a handful of dry grass or a dry shrub on their campfire. That’s going to burn like that,” she says, snapping. “Now imagine you have a big, sort of dry log, and you put that on your campfire. Maybe if it’s really dry, that’s gonna catch. But typically, when you put a big, sort of dry log on the fire, it doesn’t.”

And then there’s the wind. In California, the Santa Ana winds are a part of the region’s identity. The wind events can happen dozens of times a year. Joan Didion wrote three haunting essays about them; the New York Times once said that “a dry, hot Santa Ana often symbolizes an unnamable menace lying just beneath the sun-shot surface of California life.” We have no such thing. In Seattle, most of our winds come from the west—full of cold, damp sea air that cools our climate down. “It’s what creates our coastal environment,” says Raymond. And when the winds do come from inland, they’re simply called “east winds” or “downslope winds,” she says, “because they come down from the Cascades and out towards the ocean.”

Forest Service researchers have been connecting our east winds to fire risk since the 1950s. “There is a close relation between…severe easterly winds and large forest fires in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington,” Owen P. Cramer wrote from the Pacific Northwest Research Station in 1957. “With the east winds comes the dreaded combination of low humidity and high wind that in the past has whipped small fires into conflagrations such as the Tillamook fire of 1933 and the fire that burned Bandon in 1936.” (The Tillamook burned more than 300,000 acres of wildland before seasonal rains took it out; the Bandon caused almost 2,000 people to evacuate.)

When our east winds come around, they can create the same fast-moving fires that we saw in California. “They’re often very high wind speeds,” she says. “And they’re bringing hot, dry air from the interior of the continent to the west side. And so that’s what makes them particularly concerning for fire. We don’t get them as regularly and as often as they do in California, like the Santa Ana winds. And so that’s probably why they don’t have such a catchy phrase.”

So, to go back to Raymond’s “yes and no”: Obviously, we aren’t Southern California. According to the Forest Service, King County is at higher risk of wildfires than just 60 percent of US counties, while LA County is in the 97th percentile. And without the Chaparral shrubland and Santa Ana winds of California, we’re at lower risk of such a severe fire. But, as Raymond says, “Western Washington is a fire-prone environment. Any ecosystem in the western United States has areas that burn. And have historically burned.”

We can see that pattern reflected over the last 150 years, Raymond says, and our region has had at least one like this in our very recent history: the 2020 Labor Day Fires in northwest Oregon. That September, a combination of these same conditions—ignition events, fuel, and high winds—burned more than a million acres in the Pacific Northwest, including almost 200,000 acres of National Forest land.

“The Labor Day fires in 2020 in Oregon are very much an example of large, fast-moving fires in our wetter forest types of Western Washington. So, yes, it can happen here,” she says.

So what do we do about it?

To understand fire management, it helps to learn one new vocabulary term: Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). It refers to the area where urban development and natural landscape (which they define as areas that are at least 50 percent burnable vegetation) either meet or intermix. Anyone talking about fire risk in our region will refer you to the Washington Department of Natural Resources’s WUI maps (pronounced woo-wee, like wookie).

Wildfires aren’t likely to touch densely urban areas—concrete doesn’t burn well. But our suburbs press against the Cascades. “Washington has always been a place where the land largely dictates how humans can live,” the Department of Natural Resources wrote in their primer for the WUI maps. “Our waterways define our cities’ boundaries. Our hills and mountains limit the extent of our sprawl.” But as our population grows (and our housing crisis increases), and we push the limits of that sprawl, we increase our chance of encountering fires instead of just oppressive, opaque (and toxic) smoke conditions.

The WUI maps show the “interface” in red and orange. (Don’t let that confuse you—DNR emphasizes that the maps do not represent fire risk, just development.) But several of our major suburbs are deep in that interface. Newcastle, Sammamish, Issaquah, and Woodinville are all surrounded by red and orange.

When those suburbs were built, wildfires were a rare concern on this side of the Cascades. Just a decade ago, there were twice as many fire starts in Eastern Washington than on our side. But for the first time in 2023, we outnumbered Eastern Washington.

This is where Raymond urges us to focus less on the possibility of a catastrophic wildfire like LA’s, and more on the increasing reality of our smaller fires—1,000 or 10,000 acres, say. Those are increasing with climate change, and will continue to do so. Which means our Wildland Urban Interface is more likely to encounter them every year.

“From an ecological perspective, they’re not very meaningful,” she says. “But when they’re in the Wildland Urban Interface, they can be really consequential. They won’t necessarily take off like fires do in a wind event, but those are ones that can put homes at risk.”

In a lot of ways, it feels like we’re preparing for these incidents from scratch in Western Washington. To start, fire experts are battling our lack of wildfire muscle memory, so to speak. “You talk to people in California, and a lot of people are like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been through an evacuation before. I remember 20 years ago, we evacuated here, or we evacuated when I was a kid,’” Raymond says. “There’s so many people who live here in Western Washington that that is not in their memory at all.”

Sheri Badger, the Public Information Officer for King County’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), is part of the team that’s helping us build that muscle memory. She says the office has only been focusing seriously on wildfires for about five years. And the Bolt Creek Fire in 2022, she says, which burned more than 10,000 acres in King and Snohomish Counties, was the event that shook them into action. “Before that, it was always ‘Yes, this could happen here.’ But having an example of, ‘Yes, this did happen here,’ was really instrumental, I think, in kick-starting a lot of our efforts.”

Wildfires are only one of 14 hazards that their office prepares the county for, ranging from dam failure to volcanoes to cyberterrorism. And they’ve prepared an “all hazards response” that can be applied to most of them. That can affect things like how our transit system responds, and how they send out alerts through SMS.

But realistically, our region is much more prepared to respond to an earthquake than to a wildfire. There are some fire-specific projects. The Office of Emergency Management is in their third year of implementing their “Ready, Set, Go” evacuation messaging (they found that Levels 1, 2, and 3 were too confusing for people). “This is something that is very familiar to people in the eastern part of the state, but for us here, it’s not,” Badger says.

“Ready” means evacuation is possible in your area. Keep track of local media, check on your neighbors, identify evacuation routes, make sure your go kit is up to date. “Set” means evacuation is likely to happen in your area with short notice. Get your go kit in your car and be ready to move. “Go” means get the hell out. Follow emergency officials’ instructions and don’t come back until officials tell you to. In all stages, they say, leave if you feel unsafe.

Our fire response is clearly still in its infancy, though. Five years is nothing in County Bureaucracy Time, and there are so many more factors that can inform how we relate to these fires before evacuation: building codes, landscaping, insurance. Last year, an investigation by KING 5 found that the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner received more complaints of people being dropped by their insurance provider for wildfire risk in the first half of 2024 than the last two years combined.

Right now, a lot of that wildfire prep is left to individual decisions—to landscape with slow-burning trees or to build with more wildfire-resistant materials. For people who are eager to manage their fire risk themselves, Badger points to programs like the National Fire Protection Association’s Firewise, which provides resources so communities work together to take control of their own fire mitigation.

But as the Trump administration strips climate scientists out of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which tracks wildfire conditions, we’re going to be more and more dependent on our local government to protect and prepare us for these increasing hazards.

I asked Badger if they felt like they were building a plane while they were flying it. “Yes,” she says. “But also, it’s not a new concept. It’s just new to us. Being able to take a look at the places around us—Eastern Washington, California, Eastern Oregon—we can see the plane they’ve built as we’re building ours.”

Ultimately, if this issue does anything, I hope it reminds you that our future is still ours to imagine. by Hannah Murphy Winter

We started imagining this issue last year, before Donald Trump won the election; before he started dismantling FEMA, the EPA, NOAA, and every other agency that’s trying to help us stave off the climate crisis.

And while the country has changed in drastic ways since last year, our approach to this issue didn’t. From the beginning, we knew we couldn’t look at the climate crisis in a vacuum. We can’t separate it from the rest of our lives, our work, our art, or the way we imagine the future. Treating it as a separate issue just makes it easier to turn it into something huge, overwhelming, and unapproachable; or, worse, something we can pretend doesn’t exist—or deny altogether.

And so we built this issue with that in mind. We'll be rolling out the content online over the next week or so, and you can find a physical issue at hundreds of locations—from Tacoma to Everett—starting today. In it, we take on some of our region’s big, scientific questions about the climate crisis: Staff Writer Vivian McCall asks experts if we’re really on the cusp of cracking the code on nuclear fusion energy, as one local startup claims. I asked if the fires that happened in Los Angeles in January could happen here.

But we also asked how the climate crisis shapes the art we make, and the art we seek. Senior Staff Writer Charles Mudede explored why there’s a trend of doomsday bunkers on TV, from Fallout to Silo to Paradise. And Stranger contributor Nathalie Graham visited the recycling dump to see how their artists-in-residency program is transforming trash into treasure.

Through the process, we looked for little, compact seeds of hope. Our managing editor Megan Seling found one in a Bluesky thread, of all places, about how some scared, confused, half-pound pocket gophers turned the scorched ash from Mount St. Helens’s eruption into thriving wildlands again. We put that thread (written by science journalist Margaret Harris) in the hands of the talented illustrator Greg Stump, who turned it into a comic about surviving in a hostile environment—the same way the gophers kept digging through the ash.

And we’re so excited to introduce you to Drippy, the Soggy Paper Straw. We and our (very real and not at all made up) readers had a lot of questions about environmentalism in 2025. Is it worth it to replace your gas-powered car with an electric one? Are the recycling rules still the same as the ones we learned as kids? How many microplastics are really in my junk? Drippy (Microsoft’s Clippy’s Zoomer nephew) is here to answer all that and more.

Ultimately, if this issue does anything, I hope it reminds you that our future is still ours to imagine. Almost every story in this paper is a story about making beauty out of trash, ash, or absolutely nothing.

So remember to keep digging.

Hannah Murphy Winter

Editor-in-Chief 

Cover Art by Tyler Gross

grossillustration.com

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Saturday, April 5. by Megan Seling

On Saturday, April 5, some of Seattle’s funniest comedians will take the stage as part of The Stranger’s annual Undisputable Champions of Comedy showcase. It’ll be hilarious! The lineup was curated with help from everyone’s comedy bestie, Emmett Montgomery, co-host of Joketellers Union at Clock-Out Lounge and purveyor of all things delightfully weird. And this year’s lineup is stacked with talent, from a local comedy legend who once won over a crowd of bikers at an Aurora bar in the ’80s to a comic who uses laughter as a way to deal with grief. We even have a bunny and a fundamentalist Christian pastor on the bill! It’s gonna be great.

We're posting interviews with the champs all week long, and this morning, say hello to Emma Schmuckler! She's the founder of Queer/Bar's One Man Show, a showcase of female and non-binary comedians… and one man. (The next one is April 27, btw.)

Describe your comedy in five words.

Heartwarming, disruptive storytelling. Also, gay. 

What’s the first thing you did when you found out you were chosen as one of The Stranger’s Champions of Comedy?

In all honesty, one of the first things I did was text my ex. Mostly because he's a friend, and I wanted to share the excitement. But also, who doesn't revel in an ex seeing you win? 

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You’ve used comedy to deal with some heavy stuff. You produced the comedy showcase Good Grief, which featured comedians sharing stories about death and grief, for example. Why is platforming humor in dark times important to you?

Eight months after I started doing stand-up, my dad died suddenly (unrelated to the stand-up, I think. But his autopsy was inconclusive, so there's really no way to know). Two weeks after he died, I was booked to do one of my first-ever paid spots. I didn't think I could do it. The haze of acute grief was all-consuming—how could I get on stage and joke about pap smears and threesomes? 

So I didn't. I talked about ICUs and funeral homes and my complicated relationship with my dad. My set was unpolished and raw. I closed by reading the "honest" obituary my siblings wouldn't let me publish in the newspaper. As unconventional as my set was, it killed. This was a real turning point for me as an artist. These days, the majority of my material is true stories about my real life, dark times and all.

People are hungry for vulnerability. There's a catharsis in hearing someone talk about the thing no one talks about. And there's an even greater catharsis in laughing about the thing no one talks about. That being said, the traditional comedy show isn't necessarily the best venue for winding stories about the intricacies of grief. So I think it's important to create spaces where performers and audiences alike can celebrate the human condition in its entirety—without totally killing the vibe. 

Where is your favorite place to see comedy in Seattle right now?

I love Kitchen Sink at the Rendezvous on Wednesdays. It's a variety mic, so it's a rad place to see in-progress alt-comedy like sketch, characters, and powerpoints. They also produce a showcase at the Rendezvous on the first Friday of every month.

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Sat April 5, Washington Hall, $25, 21+. Tickets available here.

Seattle's Only News Roundup. by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! We’re getting some sun this afternoon, and the temps will get up into the 50s. I’m sure April will pull the rug out from under us soon, so enjoy it today!

It’s April 2: Did you fall for anything stupid yesterday? My local favorite was the NRDC’s “narwhal spotting.”

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“I Rise”: Senator Cory Booker stood and spoke on the Senate floor from 7 p.m. on Monday to 8:05 Tuesday night. He held the floor for more than 25 hours—breaking the previous record held by Strom Thurmond, a segregationist who was filibustering against a civil rights bill (that was lost on absolutely no one in the chamber). Booker hadn’t eaten since Friday. He stopped drinking water on Sunday night. He never went to the bathroom or sat down for 25 hours. And he spent those hours demanding that the body see the harm the Trump administration is causing all of their scared constituents, and hundreds of thousands of people watched him do it. Technically, this speech did nothing. He wasn’t pushing against policy, just demanding attention and action and hope. But maybe for the first time since November 5, he gave hundreds of thousands of us something to collectively root for. I think that’s something we can build on, if we choose to.

A New Holiday: Trump is calling today “Liberation Day in America”: the day he’s announcing a heap of new “reciprocal” tariffs. He’s announcing the specifics at 4 p.m. ET today, but economists overwhelmingly agree that this is going to hit most Americans in the wallet. Trump, meanwhile, is using sizzle reels of Fox propaganda clips to insist that this is going to drive billions of dollars in investment in American business. As economist Paul Krugman put it: “I don’t see any thinking at all.”

Musk Loses in Wisconsin: In a victory for abortion and labor rights, Judge Susan Crawford won the Wisconsin state Supreme Court race, crushing anti-abortion Judge Brad Schimel. Schimel, best known for his charming parenting confessions ("I just psychologically beat the daylights out of an 8-year-old in the back seat”) was bankrolled by Elon Musk, another grade-A dad. Musk spent $20 million backing Schimel, and his super PAC offered $50 on Tuesday for Cheesehead selfies outside of polling sites. Super normal! The race shattered record spending as the most expensive judicial contest in US history, topping $100 million. "As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I'd be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford said at her election night watch party. “And we won!"—likely locking in liberal control for the next three years.

The GOP Won in Florida: But not by the margin they would have liked to. Two Trump-backed Republicans won their special congressional elections in Florida yesterday, solidifying the party’s majority in the House. For now, these wins will help President Trump’s domestic agenda, but the slim wins are giving Dems some hope for the midterms. 

Batman Forever: Val Kilmer passed away yesterday at age 65. If you were an ’80s kid, you know him best as Iceman from Top Gun. If you’re a ’90s kid, you know him as Batman or Jim Morrison. If you’re younger than that, I’m just gonna assume your parents had the good sense to show you all three. In his NYT obit, they described him as “unpredictable,” “charismatic,” and “tall and handsome in a rock-star sort of way.” We hadn’t seen him much lately. He left the Hollywood spotlight around the 2010s, and when NYT asked him why, he told them that “he had other interests; he wanted to hang out with his kids.” But, he added: “Once you’re a star, you’re always a star.” To honor the star, enjoy this homoerotic masterpiece (The Stranger’s Marcus Harrison Green reminded me this morning that the phrase “mostly straight” didn’t exist in the American lexicon before Top Gun): 

Luigi Faces the Death Penalty: Pam Bondi announced yesterday that the DOJ is calling for the death penalty in the Luigi Mangione case. In a statement, she wrote: “I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.” One of Bondi’s first acts as Attorney General was to release a memo announcing that she would be “reviving the federal death penalty and lifting the moratorium on federal executions.” In it, she called federal executions “critical work” that “undoubtedly” makes Americans safer. Doubt it. Studies have consistently shown that the death penalty isn’t a crime deterrent. You’re just killing people because you want to.

Karma’s a Bitch: Tesla sales fell 13 percent in the first three months of this year.

Local HHS Office Chopped: Remember the 10,000 jobs RFK Jr. cut yesterday? That included the entire Seattle regional office of HHS. Local officials say the closures will impact 15 million people across the Pacific Northwest and Alaska who rely on these services, and local tribes will be hit especially hard—in case there was any question that MAHA just means leaving vulnerable communities without critical support. Washington AG Nick Brown has joined a multi-state lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that the slashing of funding for health programs violate federal law and will harm communities already struggling with public health challenges.

Ferguson Says Nope to a Wealth Tax, Again: Did you think Bob Ferguson had a splinter of progressive backbone left? Cute. On Tuesday, he splashed cold water on Democrats’ proposal to fix our state budget deficit by taxing the ultra-rich. My guy says he won’t commit to the wealth tax, but nor will he commit to cutting everything, basically just leaving everyone on read like a bad Hinge date. So, we’re stuck in a Schrödinger’s budget crisis where the only certainty is that billionaires’ piles of dubiously concentrated cash will go untouched. Republicans are acting like this is some full-throated endorsement of trickle-down economics when, in reality, Ferguson is just ghosting both sides, hoping the budget magically balances itself. It won’t.

Why Aren’t We Taxing the Rich? Ferguson claims that he won’t sign a bill with a wealth tax because it’s “novel, untested, difficult to implement” and likely to face legal challenges. It’s true that it’s novel, and the WA Department of Revenue released a report at the end of last year laying out guidance for avoiding legal pitfalls, and warning that the revenue from the tax could be difficult to predict. But the alternative can’t be cutting essential services throughout the state, especially while we’re losing more support from the federal government every day. The reality is that we need a new, progressive tax model, and Ferguson is intentionally failing to use even an ounce of imagination to build something better. The silver lining? He left the door open for a payroll tax similar to our JumpStart tax. But he also said he wouldn’t pass a budget without $100 million over two years to hire cops. 

For Your Wednesday: Doppelganger by the Montreal-based Japanese band TEKE:TEKE—a perfect song to commute to.

This Slog AM was a group project with Marcus Harrison Green.

On page 230 of her new book, Worthy of the Event, Vivian Blaxell writes, “steer clear of Suicides.” To that I say, whoopsie daisy! My life has been rife with ’em. Still, this book gripped me and stole my attention. Though Blaxell said that some have worried about her over it, that they hear nihilism in it, to this reader, there is humor, resilience, and a learned fearlessness of death, or perhaps pain (though I didn’t confirm with her).

Vivian Blaxell is an academic, a translator of Japanese poetry, a whirling dervish of contradictions that continually surprised me and kept me sharp for our hour-and-a-half conversation, and a trans woman who has always wanted to be “in the world” not just “in the community.”

Worthy of the Event shows its resistance to form starting with the subtitle. It's called "an essay," but you could also say it's composed of many essays, or sections. In this series, Blaxell has created a voice that is not her own. The speaker is a character, which she describes later in this interview—a trans woman of her own creation. Yes, reader, here we are again in that spin of genre, never to be found properly notated on the bookstore aisles, and to gorgeous ends. 

We learn the meaning of the title of the book when Blaxell describes monks surrounding their teacher, the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, on his deathbed. “Grief beams on their faces like ten thousand suns in a noonday sky as their leader slips away… They enjoy the event. They are worthy of it.” I sat with these lines a long time, as I made my way slowly and utterly compelled by her nearly 300 pages. Blaxell is brilliant at serving up new perspectives cheekily and constantly, furiously and beautifully, always flipping the angle and point of view. 

I spoke to her as she began her book tour in New York City, having traveled from Melbourne, Australia, and she did not disappoint.  

The first essay of the book is called “the disappointments” and I wanted to ask you about what's disappointing you lately. 
That's such a difficult question because mostly I'm disappointed in myself. That's the whole point of that chapter. There's one line in it which says, “I'm afraid of myself and that's logical.” Some people have misconstrued that to mean, I'm afraid of what I might do to myself. Some people think that there's a stream of nihilism running through the entire book, but actually, I'm afraid of disappointing other people. I think I've disappointed a lot of people in my time. I'm concerned about that. I wouldn't do it any other way, but I'm concerned about it. 

I don't think I'm ever disappointed in other people. I'm sometimes disappointed in the way that relationships with other people unfold. In a relationship between two people, even between groups, people go in with expectations about the way people are going to behave, what they're going to get out of it, and what service that relationship will provide to them. Rather than what service they will provide in the relationship, and that always seems to end up risking great disappointment at some point. Sometimes it takes years, but it seems inevitable to me. 

I've loved lifelong friendships that have vanished over the years, and are still vanishing at this age, people that I've known for 50 years. We disagree on something and decide we're not going to be friends anymore. I do it. I just say, “You're absurd. I can't stand you anymore. Goodbye.” I think the disappointment is just a prologue to something else. Disappointment isn’t an end to anything.

Expectation precipitates disappointment.
I think that's right. I don't think there's anything wrong with expecting people to behave well, and expecting oneself to behave well, or expecting things to turn out well. I think most people expect. Hope is really a pathetic thing. I have nothing good to say about hope. When something starts appearing on Hallmark greeting cards you know that it's empty. 

If we're talking about the difference between expectation and hope, my understanding of a Buddhist approach would be that you cannot will anything, that it would be pointless to try. So my understanding is that hope is expectation without the will.
I think that what I take from the message of the Buddha is go ahead and will all you like. But be conscious that that's what you're doing and that it's not you, it's just thoughts, and that your thoughts are not who you are. I think will is necessary, don't you? I don't like this idea that people have about Buddhism and all sorts of things, that people can just float along on the river of life, so to speak, without doing anything. That's not possible. Making a cup of coffee requires an act of will. But hope, it's futile. Hope is hopeless. I don't hope at all. I don't know if I've ever hoped. If I did, I gave it up fairly early, as a child. Not in a dismal way. I just realize that hoping is not an action, it doesn't make anything happen. It's almost the very definition of useless.

In that context, hope seems inherently selfish. If my life has proven anything, it's proven you correct. Hope is dopey; it's not going to do anything for you.
It could make you feel better. But feeling better is temporary. 

How did this book come into existence?
At home during Covid, I still needed to teach, because I actually don't have a lot of money, like a lot of trans women my age. I was teaching on Zoom at home, so I had a lot of time to myself. 

At the same time, a mainstream literary magazine in Australia had a call out, so I wrote this thing, and they turned it down. An old friend I've known since I was 16, a major Australian poet, called me, and when I told her they rejected it, she asked, “Are you disappointed?” I said, “I'm really disappointed.” And she said, “Write an essay about it.” I said, “I don't want to. I'm an academic. I've done that for so long.” But I sat down and I thought to myself, I'm just going to write it the way I want to write it. I have all this background in philosophy and theory, I had to try and understand disappointment in that way. 

That first essay was published really quickly, I think because of the first sentence: “My vagina disappoints me.” I didn't add that until I'd written the essay, and thought, What am I going to do to make sure these people that really don't want to hear from me just can't resist it? Then I met the editor of that journal at a colleague's book launch and he said, “Are you writing a book?” And I said, “That's not your business what I'm doing.” 

But later I thought about what the great philosophical issues have been for me, in my life and my work. So the next one that came up was about the cruelty to animals, and immediately all this stuff I already knew about theories of animals and posthumanism came up. I proceeded in that way, and by the time the essay “Nuclear Cats” was shortlisted for the Melbourne Prize for literature, I already had eight philosophical topics. 

Can you talk about Gertrude Stein’s influence on your writing, and your take on the importance and power of repetition? And how did you come to your syntax and your voice?
I'm much more interested in form than in content. I don't really give a fuck about the content very much as long as the form is what I want. I wanted the voice to sound like somebody speaking, and without it being quotable direct speech. Gertrude Stein is really the only writer that does prose where it actually sounds like somebody talking, and she does that by repetition. Because when we speak, people repeat isolated words, sometimes more than once and quite close together. And the way [Stein] manages punctuation invokes the speech act in what is, in fact, not quoted prose. It's not dialogue prose. It's just the opposite. Really, it's quite high-flown intellectual prose. I thought this was a way of creating this sort of transsexual voice. 

I had to change “the disappointments” a lot from the original to make the voice consistent. I had to go through everything and texturize it really carefully. I wanted it to sound like [the narrator is] speaking directly to you in a quite urgent way, and you can't ignore it. You have to keep up with it even when she does that sort of panning, where everything gets a bit blurry because she's [covering so much] so quickly.

Can you speak to that in the context of transition as a craft tool?
I was very deliberate. One of the reasons it's written in a lot of short pieces is because that's the only way I could control the connections between all the pieces. Otherwise it would have been too dense, and the short pieces meant I could move them around really easily, reposition them to make this sort of rotation around a central axis, to make it clearer. 

What would you call the voice, or the style of this book which is supposedly nonfiction?
I have no idea. Call it whatever people call it, whatever they want. I don't care. The only thing that makes me laugh is when people send me messages and stuff saying, “It's so good to see you had such a great relationship with your mother.” I'm like, maybe that narrator had a better relationship with the mother than I had with mine.

Can you talk about the lessons you learned from studying poetry, which the narrator talks about in the book?
She's actually talking about translation. And what happens when you are required to translate a whole set of Japanese poems by a modern Japanese poet, not classical poetry, and you make the most accurate word-for-word translation, but it's not a poem you end up with at all. I can read Kaneko Mitsuharu's poems, [who uses] a Kanji which is very obscure, and that's part of the pleasure of reading that poem in Japanese. But you can't replicate that. You can't repeat that in a translation. So what do you do? You end up writing a new poem that tries to capture the spirit and the meter. The sense of the original poem.

I read poetry quite a lot, but I can't write poetry. I read it because it teaches me something about how to use language. It teaches me how to be lyrical in prose, which is important to me. I like to write about landscape, and poems teach me how to do that better, because I think it's hard in prose to write lyrically. 

I wonder about what you would say about the value of putting really unpleasant or gross shit in art. What does that do for us?
Maybe it wakes us up. Maybe it makes us aware that we're alive, and that's good. I'm a trans woman, and we're kind of shocking by definition. Certainly in my generation we were. I think I've made clear points in the text, my mother saying, “will Centaurs be next?” It's good to make people feel revolted or disgusted. I read things I'm disgusted by and I see movies that disgust me. 

Your lyrical language is stunning and it seems to appear in moments that are absurd or ugly in order to create contrast.
It's been my experience that being able to see beauty when other things are really very difficult, has the power to preserve trust. I think there's nothing—apart from kindness, which is a kind of beauty itself—more important than beauty. I'm not talking about people. I think my purpose in juxtapositioning lyrical description close to difficult things was a lesson. 

One of the times I was living in Japan, I was invited to a dinner party at Arashiyama, which is a very beautiful area of Kyoto by the river, in the middle of the cherry blossom viewing season, and there was a Rinzai monk who had some seniority there. He and I had to leave together, late at night, because we both were using the same train. We walked across the bridge over the river and there was a huge riverside promenade. Lines and lines and lines of very mature ancient cherry trees. They were all in full blossom in the night. It was very quiet, because all the people that are usually out enjoying themselves were home in bed. He said to me, “How beautiful, how beautiful that is!” And I looked, and I said, “Yes, but look at all the shit they've left behind, these people,” and he said to me, “Look up, Look up.” 

I've never forgotten the lesson that he gave me. That was all he said. “Look up, look up!” That's why I write lyrical stuff next to stuff that's not so nice. It's like, “look up, look up, look up.”

Vivian Blaxell’s Worthy of the Event is out on LittlePuss Press.

This afternoon, City Council passed a nonbinding resolution denouncing the Defund SPD movement and acknowledging the city’s actions to reform our police department under the federal consent decree. The vote passed by 6- 0, with councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Dan Strauss, and Cathy Moore absent from today’s council meeting. by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue

This afternoon, City Council passed a nonbinding resolution denouncing the Defund SPD movement and acknowledging the city’s actions to reform our police department under the federal consent decree. The vote passed by 6- 0, with councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Dan Strauss, and Cathy Moore absent from today’s council meeting. 

During his speech before the vote on the resolution, Saka invoked the murder of George Floyd and the uprisings that followed, claiming the previous city council’s pledge to defund the police was “purportedly made in my best interest as a Black man, and other Black people across this great city. Yet, strangely, those defund pledges were made at the height of a racial reckoning when there were zero Black or African American members of descent on the council.”

There’s a lot to unpack there (and my editor, Marcus, assures me we will at a later date), but this revisionist history boils down to Saka asking, “Do you believe me or your own eyes?” No community is a monolith, sure—but if he or anyone else is curious about who was actually marching and demanding a reallocation of police funding in 2020, a quick Google search will do the trick. And wouldn’t you know it? The same communities the council claimed to be listening to at the time were the ones leading the charge. Spoiler alert: the receipts are not in Saka’s favor.

So why do we care about a non-binding resolution? 

This vote is about a conservative-leaning City Council that wants you to believe that we remain under the consent decree because of the Defund movement of 2020, instead of egregiously poor police behavior. 

First, the details. Res. 32167 affirms the city’s support for police, fire, and other first responders, and disavows any efforts to “defund or abolish SPD services or personnel.” Saka’s announcement of the resolution advancing to full council said that it would “[finalize] Seattle’s federal Consent Decree with the Seattle Police Department (SPD)” and “[shape] the future of public safety in our city.” It will do no such thing.

What it will do is ask other people to do that. Again, in Saka’s own words: “Once SPD has updated its crowd management policies to comply with the Less Lethal Weapons Bill that we passed earlier this year, my proposed legislation would formally request that the City Attorney submit the updated policies to the court for review.”

To be clear, City Attorney Ann Davison was 110% already going to do that. One of Mayor Bruce Harrell’s rare explicit goals has been to get out from under the 2012 consent decree, and despite the police continuing to do bad shit, we’re pretty damn close.

The reason we’re still under consent decree has nothing to do with the Defund movement. In Rob Saka’s reality, Seattle politicians pledged to defund the police by 50 percent. He is joined in that belief by cosponsor Bob Kettle and Mayor Bruce Harrell, who also came out in favor of this, along with such luminaries as Brandi Kruse, Jonathan Choe, and Jason Rantz.

Besides being our region’s most nightmarish of nightmare blunt rotations, all of those people are obsessed with something that never occurred.

While seven out of our nine councilmembers did express support in 2020 for a proposal put forth by Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now to reduce the police budget by 50 percent, they a) never put anything down on paper about it and b) didn’t actually do it.

What happened, after those seven councilmembers said they would support defunding the police by 50 percent, is that then Councilmember Kshama Sawant proposed a budget amendment to do so and no one voted for it. So that’s about all their “pledge” amounted to. 

“The idea that the SPD was defunded by 50 percent in 2020 is a complete myth. I know because I was the socialist on the City Council who put forward the legislation that year, which not a single Democrat supported. City Hall Democrats like Councilmember Saka and Mayor Bruce Harrell have been doing the bidding of big business, cutting funding for social services and pumping more money into the already-bloated police department,” Sawant told The Stranger.

A few weeks later, her fellow councilmembers voted through a budget that, Sawant wrote, “fails to address the systemic racism of policing, trimming only $3 million from the bloated department’s remaining 2020 budget of $170 million.”

The police budget did technically shrink after the council chose to move parking enforcement under the purview of the Seattle Department of Transportation, but that simply moved the money to a different department. It did not do away with parking enforcement. Once they were moved back, in Harrell’s 2022 proposed budget, funding for SPD was above 2020 levels, where it has remained since. In recent budgets, it has only grown.

(If you want an eye-opening look at how cops twisted and wriggled to avoid ever being defunded, give this Real Change investigation by watchdog Glen Stellmacher a read.)

The reason we’re still under consent decree then, has everything to do with police misbehavior.

Seattle’s federal consent decree has been hanging around since 2012, thanks to a DOJ investigation that found SPD had a little habit of using excessive force—an investigation sparked by the police killing of John T. Williams. Since then, the city has burned through more than $200 million trying to prove it can police without violating civil rights, and yet, here we are, still talking about police accountability like it’s some unsolvable mystery.

One major roadblock? The Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG), which has spent the past decade making sure that any real oversight is dead on arrival. Case in point: a 2018 contract that gutted a city ordinance meant to improve civilian oversight. Fast forward to May 2024, and Seattle’s latest love letter to SPOG handed officers hefty raises while barely touching accountability reforms, so much so that even the federal judge overseeing the decree, James Robart, and the Community Police Commission threw up their hands in frustration.

At a March 2025 hearing, Robart admitted Seattle has made progress but remained unimpressed by the glaring lack of accountability fixes. The city’s next steps? Finalizing a crowd control policy and pushing through legislation on less lethal weapons before asking the feds to officially end the decree. Robart expects it to wrap up soon but is clearly annoyed that he can’t do much about the SPOG contract’s flimsy disciplinary measures.

So, after six mayors, seven police chiefs, and 12 years of legal wrangling, Seattle is almost free from federal oversight. But if you thought that meant SPD suddenly fixed its accountability and bias issues, well, you’d be as cartoonishly wrong as Rob Saka.

Nonbinding resolutions are useful for at least one thing: telling us how politicians want to be seen. And, in some cases, how they see things. This is one of those cases.

And, sure, it sounds great to claim that Seattle defunded the police if you’re, say, a right-wing commentator trying to portray us as a “socialist hellhole.” But a sitting councilmember in the actual city that you’re actually supposed to represent? Why?

Saka’s resolution concludes by claiming that the council’s hastily abandoned commitment to a 50 percent defund “led to the resignation of hundreds of police officers.” Complaining that the idea of maybe possibly defunding the police did so much emotional damage to the police that they quit in droves is as close to compelling as his argument gets here, but even that claim is dubious at best.

We get that most of the current council has never seen a pair of boots they didn’t want to lick, but come on. 

“Defund is dead,” Rob? Really? 

It was never alive! It never happened!

Marcus Harrison Green contributed reporting to this article

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Saturday, April 5. by Megan Seling

On Saturday, April 5, some of Seattle’s funniest comedians will take the stage as part of The Stranger’s annual Undisputable Champions of Comedy showcase. It’ll be hilarious! The lineup was curated with help from everyone’s comedy bestie, Emmett Montgomery, co-host of Joketellers Union at Clock-Out Lounge and purveyor of all things delightfully weird. And this year’s lineup is stacked with talent, from a local comedy legend who once won over a crowd of bikers at an Aurora bar in the ’80s to a comic who uses laughter as a way to deal with grief. We even have a bunny and a fundamentalist Christian pastor on the bill! It’s gonna be great. We're going to post interviews with the champs all week long.

Now, let's get to know tennis lover and rotisserie chicken enthusiast Mary Lou Gamba! 

Describe your comedy in five words.

Silly and punchy meets bawdy.  

What’s the first thing you did when you found out you were chosen as one of The Stranger’s Champions of Comedy?

Well, I'm embarrassed to say I immediately checked with other comics to see if it was legit.  Then, when I found out it was, I TOLD EVERYONE! I was very excited! I am very grateful to be recognized. It means a lot to me.  

You describe yourself as a rotisserie chicken enthusiast. There are always debates raging about who’s rotisserie chicken is the best. Costco. Whole Foods. QFC. Etc. Are you prepared to say, right here and right now, once and for all, who sells the best rotisserie chicken?

PCC's Balsamic Herb rotisserie chicken.  

Do you remember your first time doing stand-up? Were you immediately hooked?

I do remember.  I took a class a million years ago, and the day of the big show, where we all performed in front of our friends and family, I could not stop laughing. I laughed all day leading up to the show. I had never experienced that before. It was so weird. I finally stopped laughing after I went up. It was really fun, and the crowd was very supportive. Although, I was not hooked until I found an open mic years later that really worked for me. After that, I was addicted.

Where is your favorite place to see comedy in Seattle right now?

There are many great places to go. I just go to the place that has someone I want to see.  

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Sat April 5, Washington Hall, $25, 21+. Tickets available here.

The first full month of spring brings a bouquet of entertainment options across genres to our fair Emerald City. Below, we've compiled the biggest concerts, food events, theater shows, author talks, and other great things to do, from Kylie Minogue to Sakura-Con and from Live Wire Radio to KUOW Presents: The Splendid Table Live.

Mo Amer: El Oso Palestino Tour
Palestinian American comic Mo Amer has found a unique way to blend difficult real-life experiences with humor: His path to citizenship took two decades, he once endured a flight next to Eric Trump, and his performances often work to defuse harmful stereotypes about Muslim Americans. It makes sense that the humble, cheeky charmer landed the semi-autobiographical Netflix series Mo. (The second season started in January, by the way.) Personally, I'm hoping to hear more about his favorite vaccine. (I'm a Moderna girly, myself.) LINDSAY COSTELLO
Moore Theatre, Belltown (Sun Apr 6)

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Saturday, April 5. by Megan Seling

On Saturday, April 5, some of Seattle’s funniest comedians will take the stage as part of The Stranger’s annual Undisputable Champions of Comedy showcase. It’ll be hilarious! The lineup was curated with help from everyone’s comedy bestie, Emmett Montgomery, co-host of Joketellers Union at Clock-Out Lounge and purveyor of all things delightfully weird. And this year’s lineup is stacked with talent, from a local comedy legend who once won over a crowd of bikers at an Aurora bar in the ’80s to a comic who uses laughter as a way to deal with grief. We even have a bunny and a fundamentalist Christian pastor on the bill! It’s gonna be great. We're going to post interviews with the champs all week long. Today, say hello to Ricci Armani! 

Describe your comedy in five words.

Fun, Sassy, Honest, Good Universal

What’s the first thing you did when you found out you were chosen as one of The Stranger’s Champions of Comedy?

I was very excited, but honestly, the first thing I did was get right back to work. I wish I had a better story about this, but unfortunately, I am constantly working, whether that's at my part-time day job or working on my show or working on my own personal stand-up. I am constantly working, haha.

          View this post on Instagram                      

A post shared by Ricci Armani (@ricci_armani)

Caroline Rhea was a recent guest on your comedy show My Straight Friends. She is so great! Please tell me you have a good Caroline Rhea story.

Caroline was such a treat. She was so nice and so sweet and very giving of her time. We played a game with her onstage similar to Taboo, and she had to get me to say Sabrina the Teenage Witch. All the hints that were given to me sounded like the TV show Charmed, so that's what I said. She stormed off the stage when I said that instead of Sabrina. It was hilarious to see and I felt so dumb afterwards.

Speaking of My Straight Friends, you host the show once a month with Joe Dombrowski in both LA and Seattle. I gotta ask: Which city has a better audience?

I suppose that's subjective. I would say both cities now have their cult following, and I couldn't be more thankful for them. Both cities are full of fans who love the show and love what we put out.

Where is your favorite place to see comedy in Seattle right now?

My favorite place to see comedy in Seattle right now, honestly, would be through Don't Tell Comedy. They are a nationwide chain of popup comedy shows, and it's really my favorite place to perform and watch. I get to see the best of Seattle, and I get to see random larger names come through as well. Though there is no wrong answer here. All of the clubs and venues in the area are pretty great, depending on the lineup. 

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Sat April 5, Washington Hall, $25, 21+. Tickets available here.

The filing deadlines are in early May, so there’s still time for some surprises, but even now, the election is shaping up to be an interesting one. by Stranger Election Control Board

We blinked, and suddenly, we’re on the cusp of another local election season.

In case you haven’t been following the election so far (and with totalitarian takeover on our heels, we’d understand), here’s your chance to catch up. The filing deadlines are in early May, so there’s still time for some surprises, but even now, the election is shaping up to be an interesting one.

This year, we have a mayor’s race featuring an embattled moderate incumbent who speaks the language of progressivism,  but governs like a conservative. We’ve got a challenger for the District 9 City Council seat and a wide-open race in District 2. And finally, a City Attorney race, where anyone with an ounce of progressivism (or human decency) has been eager to unseat the incumbent from the moment she took office.

We’ve got months before endorsement time, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t meet the candidates who have thrown their hats in the ring. Without further ado, here’s our quick breakdown of the local elections so far.

Bruce Harrell, Seattle’s very own Chamber of Commerce sock puppet, finally has some challengers.

The biggest name in the game so far is Katie Wilson: a street-fighting policy wonk who’s built a strong, progressive reputation actually winning battles for working people (raising the minimum wage, keeping transit affordable). When she launched her campaign, she told The Stranger about the kind of mayor she hopes to be: a coalition builder who’s able to reach across the aisle to find common goals, without diluting progressive, research-backed policies. She described herself as someone who’s willing to test new ideas and push forward on issues that have stagnated in this city for a decade.

She’s untested in elected office—or even running in an election—but she urged voters to look at her record as a policy advocate. “I’ve spent the last 14 years of my career organizing, building powerful coalitions that win major victories for working people,” she told The Stranger. “And I’ve done all that from the outside. I would be happy to put my legislative record up against Bruce Harrell’s any day of the week.”

Then there’s Ry Armstrong, an MLK Labor Delegate for SAG-AFTRA and an elected member of the Actor’s Equity Association, repping 50,000 actors from Texas to Hawaii. This is Armstrong’s second go at elected office. In 2023, they ran for Kshama Sawant’s City Council seat in District 3, and while progressives generally got wildly outspent by big business (and therefore creamed) in that election, Armstrong’s showing was particularly rough. Only 1.86 percent of the electorate (a total of 488 people) voted for Armstrong in that race. They’re proud of their big ideas, and a suite of progressive taxes to pay for them.

Ry and Katie are joined in the race by a handful of other candidates, including: MAGA-y Rachael Savage, the Republican who is campaigning to block permanent supportive housing and arrest homeless addicts as means of recovery; and Joe Molloy, a homeless man who says he lost his housing last year due to an unsupported disability, and is running his grassroots campaign from Tent City 3.

Seattle’s City Council President Sara Nelson has been on the council since 2022 and has been president since 2024. Her leadership has represented the Chamber of Commerce (and Amazon’s) bid to claim control of city government, so we’re very pleased to announce that she has a challenger. Her name is Dionne Foster, progressive policy wonk, and capital gains tax champion. Nelson, known for her right-leaning, business-first politics, might be in trouble, given the city’s enthusiastic support for progressive Alexis Mercedes Rinck in November, and the runaway success of February’s social housing initiative. Foster’s got the right ideas on housing and homelessness, but let’s be real, to quote a Reddit-er, if a rock ran against Nelson, some Seattleites would probably throw a vote its way just to avoid the “right-wing, inept millionaire” vibe.

At the end of last year, Tammy Morales stepped down from her seat representing D2 on City Council, saying that the conservative, business-oriented City Council was a toxic, undemocratic environment. The council appointed Seattle Police Department crime prevention coordinator and long-time City Council hopeful Mark Solomon to hold down the seat until this year’s election, when it goes back to the people.

So who’s gonna replace the progressive Morales? In the battle for D2’s vote, we start with Assistant City Attorney Eddie Lin, who primarily works with the Office of Housing. He describes himself as a champion of affordable housing, progressive revenue, and creating a city where “artists and bike messengers and baristas and educators can all afford to live here.” So far, he’s light on details for how he plans to do that, so we’ll be watching him closely.

Then there’s Adonis Ducksworth, the Mayor’s senior transportation policy official and one of the architects of the 2024 transportation levy. He’s pushing a platform that combines safety, affordability, and... skate parks? The lifelong skateboarder knows how important public space is for kids (yay) but he also believes safety in D2 comes with more cops (boo). Like Lin, though, he hasn’t offered many other details yet.

Eclipsing both of their fundraising, though, is a newer entrant: Takayo Minakami Ederer, a Columbia City-born real estate investor and karate instructor (and one of the first members of the women’s national karate team). Based on her early interviews, she’s largely running on a “public safety” platform—which, you guessed it, to her means more cops. She also acknowledges that we need more shelter beds, and advocates for a public-private partnership to make that happen.

In our friendly neighborhood City Attorney showdown, Nathan Rouse, Rory O’Sullivan, and Erika Evans all have big ideas on how to fix Seattle’s broken justice system in contrast to incumbent Ann Davison—spoiler alert: most of them don’t involve locking up more people. Rouse, a public defender who’s done with Davison’s “tough-on-crime” charade, wants to bring back community court and stop prosecuting minor offenses like SODA and SOAP violations (which, fun fact, aren’t even being enforced right now). Meanwhile, Evans is focusing on serving up anti-Trump tea and advocating for harm reduction programs that actually help people instead of shoving them into jail. And then there’s O’Sullivan, who thinks the City Attorney’s office could use a little more compassion and a little less spectacle. So, get ready for a race that could decide whether Seattle stays stuck in the criminal justice quicksand or finally tries to pull itself out with actual solutions. 

Stranger Election Control Board is Marcus Harrison Green, Vivian McCall, Charles Mudede, Emily Nokes, Megan Seling, and Hannah Murphy Winter. 

Got problems? Yes, you do! Email your question for the column to mailbox@savage.love! by Dan Savage 1. How does one find the clitoris? I’m told the clitoris is not hard to find — go north, young man — but if one tries to find it and one fails, one should pull over (or pull out) and ask for directions. 2. If someone tells you to “do whatever you want,” should you? Someone who says that and means will eventually say it to the wrong person and get hurt; they’re a danger to themselves. Someone who hears that and takes it as license to do whatever they want is a danger to others. So, a decent person — by definition — wouldn’t do whatever they wanted to someone who told them they could. And seeing as you’re a reader of mine, I’m hoping you’re a decent person. P.S. People who say “do whatever you want” don’t mean it. What they mean is this: “I’m too embarrassed to…

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There is no drug more important than spending time with good people, people you love. There’s no drug worth risking a stranger’s actions. There is no drug worth risking something important to you. No drug worth getting caught up in a damn robbery. And there’s DEFINITELY no drug worth your life. But like a person living in the real world, I know you may consider cannabis at some point. So remember: WWJD. Don’t smoke weed…with losers. by Eva Walker

Eva Walker is a writer, a KEXP DJ, one-half of the rock duo the Black Tones, and mom to her baby girl, Hendrix. She also co-wrote the book The Sound of Seattle: 101 Songs That Shaped a City, which was released in 2024. Every month for The Stranger she writes a letter to Hendrix to share wisdom learned from her experiences—and her mistakes.

Dear Hendrix,

My dear Hendrix, you will likely have your mother’s rebel gene. And let me tell you, it’s not something to hide from, but it is something to sharpen.

To learn how to do that, I want to tell you about a woman named Jo.

Jo has known your grandmother for more than 35 years, so she’s been in my life since I was young. Jo is one of those people who’s seen it all. She’s tough and she knows how to handle herself in a pinch. She’s often got a smile on her face. She’s one of the most honest and straightforward people I know. It’s one of my favorite qualities about her.

Jo started doing my hair when I was a teenager. And one day, when I was 15, we started talking about cannabis. I’m not sure how it came up. We talked about damn near everything during my Saturday hair appointments. That’s the beauty of Jo. She knows hair and she knows life. At this point in mine, I hadn’t yet tried pot—or any drugs, for that matter. And I was aware of the stigma it had—especially with adults Jo’s age. By then, though, I had watched the 1936 anti-dope propaganda film, Reefer Madness. (You should watch it too, sometime. It’s hilarious!) That movie has made way more people want to try cannabis than not. Me included.

That day, Jo said to me something I’ll never forget. Something so important that I want to pass it down to you here. She said, “Baby, don’t do drugs.” But she wasn’t finished with her worldly advice. What she added so poignantly was, “But if you’re going to try weed… don’t do it with losers.”

Bingo was his name-o! That was some of the deepest shit I’ve ever heard. But what IS a loser? It’s not someone exclusive to any race, gender, class, background or anything like that. Losers come in all forms. If you only remember one thing I ever tell you, remember this: Losers wear suits. Losers wear boots. Some losers even read Dr. Suess. They’re everywhere. It’s one of those things where your gut just tells you. You know one when you see one. (If you need help, just ask me, I’ve seen plenty!) And they’re to be avoided when you’re doing anything special, from drugs to sex to going out to your favorite restaurant.

Jo’s point was that people are curious, but curiosity can be dangerous. So if you indulge yours then it’s important to be around others worthy of your time and attention. People who have self-respect, goals, intellect, and something to lose. Your father and I want you to appreciate yourself and to always remember this. 

Speaking of losers, the infamous crook Richard Nixon declared a whole war on drugs on June 17, 1971. That was 18 years to the day before I was born. A whole person came of age between that declaration and when I popped out of the womb. So to have another adult tell me pot wasn't the worst thing in the world—but what was worse was doing it with losers, Hendrix, that was some life-changing shit. So, did I eventually try weed? Duh. I was 17 when I first smoked pot (I refuse to type out all the letters in marijuana, which might be a side-effect of using marijuana). I first smoked at a party in high school, which is where you’ll likely be offered something, too. Or it could be college, or a bathroom stall or outside a bar or at a friend’s house. Weed is everywhere. (Note: make sure whatever weed you might try is store-bought and not wrapped in foil.)

The first time I smoked, I went up to a guy at a party who had a glass pipe. He carefully showed me how to use it. He was kind and wasn’t shady or gross. He passed the test! The only painful part was the cough. Hendrix, you will never forget the pain of your first weed cough after a big hit. Unfortunately, people rarely warn you about that part. Your throat will want to call the fire department.

It turns out, though, that I still needed to sharpen my Inner Jo. While the boy with the pipe was no loser, the party was full of them.  And after that first-ever hit, the fun house party turned quickly and strangely into a robbery. Your Uncle Cedric was with me as men with guns started demanding possessions. Thankfully, he whisked me out the backdoor like a superhero. That led to a class field trip to a lineup at the police station. Ugh. See, I wasn’t smart that day.

My advice to you is this: WWJD? What would Jo do? There is no drug more important than spending time with good people, people you love. There’s no drug worth risking a stranger’s actions. There is no drug worth risking something important to you. No drug worth getting caught up in a damn robbery. And there’s DEFINITELY no drug worth your life. In the end, you don’t need drugs—weed, included. And like any parent, I’d prefer it if you didn’t do them. But like a person living in the real world, I know you may consider cannabis at some point. So remember: WWJD. Don’t smoke weed…with losers.

The Stranger's Only News Roundup by Hannah Murphy Winter

Good morning! It’s April Fools Day, a day that has a storied history of tricking journalists into reporting stupid fictional shit—from predator trout to the first human-powered flight machine. Stay sharp and keep your parents away from the internet until midnight. IRL, the rain’s only sticking around til 10 a.m., and it’s kindly staying away til the sun goes down, so get out there and enjoy the grey. Until then, grab a Mighty-O poop donut, and let’s get into it.

Council Loves to Blame Defund SPD: Later today, City Council is voting on Resolution 32167, a nonbinding “public safety” resolution that is trying to blame the Defund SPD movement for the fact that our police department is still under federal consent decree (which basically means we’re being babysat by the DOJ). Introduced by Rob Saka, the resolution is framed as a step toward ending the consent decree. It reaffirms the city’s support for police, fire, and other first responders, but also specifically disavows any efforts to “defund or abolish SPD services or personnel.” The problem? We never defunded SPD, and we’re still being babysat by the feds because we can’t get our police oversight game together. The resolution won’t change any law or policy, but if (when) they pass it later today, City Council should be embarrassed that they’re still trying to peddle this straight-up lie. Stranger contributor Tobias Coughlin-Bogue will have more on it after the vote.

School District Tattles on Washington to Fasc Daddy: Last week, the Kennewick School District filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, claiming that they’re in an impossible position: disobey Trump’s Executive Order and allow trans athletes to compete in school sports; or break state law and ban them. The district—which is about an hour west of Walla Walla—explains to the DOE that they’re already on Trump’s side on the issue, with classic “don’t let dicks in the locker room” coded language: “The Kennewick School Board is committed to ensuring the protection of biological female athletics, maintaining ‘all-female’ locker rooms separate from male locker rooms, and prioritizing the privacy rights of our students,” they wrote in the complaint. “However, we find ourselves caught between conflicting directives that threaten not only our federal funding but also the rights and values of the families we serve.”

This is what boot licking looks like. The school district asked for three things: Assurance that if they’re obedient subjects, they won’t lose federal funding; confirmation that either the school district or the federal government gets control over how they treat their trans students; and an investigation into Washington State’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction for civil rights and “parental rights” violations.

Cruelty Is the Point: Two weeks ago, Fife police believe a 26-year-old drove an SUV covered in fake ICE decals around a Ukrainian market, honking and blocking the parking lot entrance. Ukrainian store employees were scared and thought authorities were “coming for them,” police said. On closer examination, in much smaller print, the decal said “ICE Deliveries.” He’s still being charged with second-degree criminal impersonation. He pleaded not guilty.

Why Did They Think ICE Was Coming for Them? Because ICE officers have been making themselves very noticeable in Washington these days. Last week, they detained Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino, a farmworker activist in Skagit County, and Lewlyn Dixon, a lab technician at UW Medicine, both of whom are now being held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. At least 100 protesters showed up outside of the facility over the weekend. La Resistencia, which helped coordinate the protest, said that they video-called a migrant detained in the facility during the rally, and they said that “the large public display of support brought tears inside the detention facility.” Photographer Jake Nelson was there for The Stranger. Check it out. 

Death of 10,000 Cuts: This morning, Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. made good on his promise to lay off 10,000 people from his department. According to the New York Times, combined with earlier cuts and departures, this will shrink the department by almost a quarter. The officials responsible for minority health and infectious disease prevention were both laid off, as well as our top tobacco regulator, staff who oversee veterinary medicine, and the people who review new drug applications. Entire departments at the CDC studying chronic diseases and environmental problems were cut. HIV prevention was gutted. The FDA alone lost 3,500 staff members.

Don’t Call It a Filibuster: But Cory Booker has been speaking on the Senate floor since 7 p.m. last night, and as of 11 a.m. ET today, he was still talking. This isn’t to block specific legislation. It’s a protest of the Trump Administration’s “complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution and the needs of the American people,” and it’s possibly the strongest demonstration of protest we’ve seen in our federal representatives. Around dawn, he said: “I’m wide awake. I’m going to stand here for as many hours as I can.”

New Blood: King County has a new executive this morning. Dow Constantine, who’s been in the role since 2009, has officially stepped into his new $450,000-a-year job as the head of Sound Transit, and King County Council has named his deputy, Shannon Braddock, to finish out the last nine months of his term. So what do we know about her? She’s the first-ever woman in the role. She’s lost two elections in the last 10 years—one for city council and one for state senate—and we endorsed her opponent both times. What was our beef? Mostly her big-business leanings. We’ll be watching.

Two-Wheeled Highway: While Washington State has been struggling to fund most of its major transportation projects, the chair of the state Senate Transportation Committee says financing a statewide bikeway system is cheap enough to pull off. The project would connect our existing major bike paths across the state—the Burke-Gilman, Palouse to Cascades, Eastrail, and Spokane’s Centennial—for less than $50 million over two years. It’s orders of magnitude cheaper than car infrastructure AND better for our environment. Let’s fucking go. 

It Wasn’t Aliens, This Time: Over the weekend, Seattleites noticed a dark grey smoke ring hovering over the city. Was it a vape cloud? An alien chem trail? Or, as one commenter asked: “Is that the tornado?” Most likely, our big black halo was thanks to the pyrotechnics show at Lumen’s Supercross event this weekend. KING 5’s meteorologist says it didn’t affect air quality. But like—look at that thing.

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After All That Smoke-Ring Excitement: Here’s a gentle groove for your Tuesday morning. This duo met at Mali’s Institute for the Young Blind, and they’ve been making (Grammy-nominated) music together ever since.

Last weekend, hundreds of migrant advocates and union members rallied in front of NWDC for the release of Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino, a farmworker activist in Skagit County; and Lewlyn Dixon, a lab technician at UW Medicine—and the release of the 1,500 other detainees at the facility. Photographer Jake Nelson went to Tacoma to capture the day for The Stranger. by Jake Nelson

Introduction and captions by Hannah Murphy Winter. Photography is by Jake Nelson.

Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made two high-profile arrests in our region: Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino, an Indigenous Mixteco farmworker activist who's been working as a berry picker in and around Skagit County since he was 14; and Lewelyn Dixon, a lab technician at UW Medicine, originally from the Philippines, who moved here 50 years ago. Both of them were transferred to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma (NWDC)—one of the largest immigration detention facilities in the United States.

These aren't the first, nor the last, people detained by ICE in Washington. While we don't have state-by-state numbers, Homeland Security says they've made 32,809 immigration-related arrests nationwide in the first 50 days of the Trump Administration, and the ICE Seattle X account practically fetishizes their local arrests, posting daily photos of people in handcuffs, facing deportation. But Zeferino and Dixon have drawn particular attention. Zeferino has been an activist for farmworker rights in Skagit County, and friends and colleagues suspect he was targeted for his activism. And Dixon, who is a green card holder who came to the US from the Philippines five decades ago, has been held for more than three weeks. Her family and her union at the university, SEIU Local 925, have been rallying for her release.

Last weekend, hundreds of migrant advocates and union members rallied in front of NWDC for their release and the release of the 1,500 other detainees at the facility. Photographer Jake Nelson went to Tacoma to capture the day for The Stranger. 

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Saturday, April 5, at Washington Hall. by Megan Seling

On Saturday, April 5, some of Seattle’s funniest comedians will take the stage as part of The Stranger’s annual Undisputable Champions of Comedy showcase. It’ll be hilarious! The lineup was curated with help from everyone’s comedy bestie, Emmett Montgomery, co-host of Joketellers Union at Clock-Out Lounge and purveyor of all things delightfully weird. And this year’s lineup is stacked with talent, from a local comedy legend who once won over a crowd of bikers at an Aurora bar in the ’80s to a comic who uses laughter as a way to deal with grief. We even have a bunny and a fundamentalist Christian pastor on the bill! It’s gonna be great. We're going to post interviews with the champs all week long—say hello to Zahnae Aquino!

Describe your comedy in five words.

Bodacious, bombastic, beautiful, buoyant, and humorous. 

What’s the first thing you did when you found out you were chosen as one of The Stranger’s Champions of Comedy?

I finished eating the bowl of granola that I had started prior to getting the notification. After that, I realized I was still hungry and went up to get a banana. Once I was satiated, I said thank you to Emmett Montgomery for helping me get to this point in my comedy career.

You founded the Fun & Flirty comedy dating game. You’ve helped a lot of people hook up! Hopefully, that’s resulted in some good karma, but do you have a funny bad date story?

One time on a date I asked a guy who his celebrity crush was and he said Anna from Frozen (FYI not a celebrity). He also made me pay for everything and give him a ride to QFC afterward. 

What’s a good joke or icebreaker people should tuck away for a first date if things start getting awkward?

Ask them who their celebrity crush is. Just kidding. Ask them: “If you could choose any movie where all of the characters would be replaced by muppets except ONE, which movie would it be?”

Where is your favorite place to see comedy in Seattle right now?

Laughs Comedy Club, Here-After, or the Clock-Out Lounge every other Wednesday.

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Sat April 5, Washington Hall, $25, 21+. Tickets available here.

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy! Saturday, April 5, at Washington Hall. by Megan Seling

On Saturday, April 5, some of Seattle’s funniest comedians will take the stage as part of The Stranger’s annual Undisputable Champions of Comedy showcase. It’ll be hilarious! The lineup was curated with help from everyone’s comedy bestie, Emmett Montgomery, co-host of Joketellers Union at Clock-Out Lounge and purveyor of all things delightfully weird. And this year’s lineup is stacked with talent, from a local comedy legend who once won over a crowd of bikers at an Aurora bar in the ’80s to a comic who uses laughter as a way to deal with grief. We even have a bunny and a fundamentalist Christian pastor on the bill! It’s gonna be great. We're going to post interviews with the champs all week long, starting with Erin Ingle!

Describe your comedy in five words.

Relatable musings on the everyday.

What’s the first thing you did when you found out you were chosen as one of The Stranger’s Champions of Comedy? 

I said, “Cowabunga,” and ripped a sick 1080 on my Razor scooter.

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Your Is This Normal? podcast co-host Alyssa Yeoman was in last year’s showcase! I have to ask you the same question I asked her: What quirk do you have that some people might not consider “normal”?

I have no idea where this comes from, but I regularly mix up the words "green" and "orange”—I can fully discern the two different colors, but I'll be like, "Could you pass me the green—I mean orange—marker?" No other colors, no other words, but those two, I swap sometimes accidentally. I have met one other person in my life that does this, and we are both deeply confused why it happens.

Where is your favorite place to see comedy in Seattle right now?

I love seeing shows at Here-After, and I can't wait for the reopening of the new Emerald City Comedy Club.

The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!, Sat April 5, Washington Hall, $25, 21+. Tickets available here.

Etran de L’Aïr perform April 8 at Neumos. by Dave Segal

Not to get all chamber of commerce-y about it, but Seattle has played a crucial role in laying the foundation for Saharan rock’s current popularity. In the ’00s while based in the Emerald City, the esteemed global music label Sublime Frequencies issued transformative releases by Group Bombino, Group Doueh, and Koudede. Thus began the groundswell of Western interest in heat-hazed, mantric rock that’s imbued with the blues’ ability to transmute oppression into transcendent art.

But the real boom in guitar-centric African music occurred in the 2010s, when artists such as Bombino, Mdou Moctar, Tinariwen, Les Filles de Illighadad, and Tamikrest broke out into America’s live circuit. Etran de L’Aïr have joined these compelling musicians in the 21st century’s great Desert Rock Invasion.

Striking out from Agadez, Niger, Etran de L’Aïr (henceforth, EDL) consist of three brothers and a cousin: bassist Abdoulaye “Illa” Ibrahim, drummer Alghabid Ghabdouan, guitarist/vocalist Moussa “Abindi” Ibra, and guitarist/vocalist Abdourahamane “Allamine” Ibrahim.

They formed in 1995 as young lads (group leader Abindi was 9), playing Niger’s demanding wedding circuit and singing in Tamasheq, a language spoken mainly by nomadic tribes in North and West Africa. Very few Americans know Tamasheq, which could be considered an impediment to enjoyment, but the grain and intensity of EDL’s vocals make it easy to understand the players’ profound joy and sadness.

According to EDL’s Portland-based label, Sahel Sounds, the members belonged to nomadic families that settled in Agadez after escaping the droughts of the 1970s. When they started the group, EDL only had one acoustic guitar and they’d thwack a calabash with a sandal for percussion. Before they attained American patronage, EDL would haul their own gear while on foot, sometimes traversing 25 kilometers (about 15 miles), to play free gigs.

Now three albums deep into their official music-biz career, EDL have adapted to this hemisphere’s protocols. That being said, their songs feel as if they are theoretically infinite and that they only truncate them into manageable durations to placate the demands and attention spans of the Western music industry. On their home turf, though, EDL have been known to play sets that would make Springsteen’s band look like slackers.

Saharan rock is a distant cousin of America’s desert rock, which arose in 1997 out of jam sessions manifested by stoner-rock behemoths Kyuss. While both strains of desert rock rely on repetition to drive home their incisive riffs, and both have their psychedelic moments, the American brand doesn’t tap into spirituality and strife like its African counterparts do—unless you count running out of marijuana and getting sunburned to be serious hardships.

With the 2018 debut album, No. 1, EDL established their galvanizing approach and have continued on that path with few deviations through 2022’s Agadez and 2024’s 100% Sahara Guitar. The opening track from No. 1, “Etran Hymne,” bears rough fidelity, but the guitars’ liquid gold tone is buoyed by beats that have a lopsided propulsion. What sounds like an agitated women’s choir ululates wildly, while the men sing in unison with poised defiance. That combo never gets old. On “Agrim Agadez,” the awkward beats clash with the coruscating guitar riffs. This is peak Saharan rock: roiling, trance-inducing juggernauts with intricately interlocking guitar motifs and massed vocals conveying indomitable joy among hardships that comfortable Westerners cannot fathom. “Hadija” conjures slow-rolling hypnosis with those mad lady trills in the background. Yes, there’s very little variation in the rhythms, but the guitar/bass/vocal interaction is often riotous.

Sophomore LP Agadez boasts fuller production, boosting the songs’ impact while avoiding slickness. “Imouwizla” instantly pleases with easy-rolling blues rock, albeit with that patented rhythm which feels as if you’re on a merry-go-round with a sputtering motor. The galloping and undulating rock of “Toubouk Ine Chihoussay” accrues an irrepressible momentum, with the main cyclical guitar riff positively spangling with euphoria. If EDL have a “hit” single, this is it. “Karade Marhane” is an outlier with its darker mode and coiled rhythm, but it’s still a trance-inducer. The album closes with “Tarha Warghey Ichile,” a celebratory banger that begins at a phenomenal velocity and then accelerates near the end. You can imagine this went down a storm at the many Nigerien weddings EDL played.

EDL’s latest album, 100% Sahara Guitar, begins auspiciously with “Ighre Massina,” in which ebullient vocals, tight, cyclical guitar riffs (Moussa and Allamine are the Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd of Africa), and ratatat drums that make you feel as if you’re running with one leg much shorter than the other. “Igrawahi” is EDL’s most laid-back song, and it’s nice to hear some variation in tempo and intensity. The singing is as gorgeous and yearning as the sparkling, mesmerizing guitars. In a better world, “Igrawahi” would be a smash hit. “Amidinine” rolls like a diamond-encrusted tank over dunes, unstoppable and glinting in the unforgiving sun.

As exhilarating as their recordings are, EDL are, by all reports, even more exciting live. They’re traveling over 7,000 miles to hit Seattle, so you’d best believe Etran de L’Aïr will bring the desert heat to zap your blues.

Etran de L’Aïr perform April 8 at Neumos, 7 pm, 21+. 

We've taken stock of everything happening this week and distilled our findings into one handy guide, just for you. Read about all of our picks below, including events from Remi Wolf to Seattle Restaurant Week and from Janeane Garofalo to The Stranger Presents: The 2025 Undisputable Champions of Comedy!

Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus
The new documentary Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus chronicles the life of Diane Luckey (aka Q Lazzarus), the singer behind the absolute banger "Goodbye Horses." The story goes like this: a 25-year-old Luckey was driving a yellow taxi in NYC when she picked up director Jonathan Demme and played her demo for him. Demme became infatuated with her androgynous vocals and cerebral new wave sound, using her music in three of his films—Married to the Mob, Silence of the Lambs, and Something Wild. After a brief stint with fame, Q vanished for more than two decades until she was recognized by documentarian Eva Aridjis in 2019. Don't miss a rare screening of the film followed by a Q&A with Aridjis. AV
(Here-After at the Crocodile, Belltown)

The Stranger's morning news roundup. by Nathalie Graham

Two Dead After Night Club Shooting: A security guard and another man were shot and killed outside Capri Bar and Restaurant, a hookah lounge in Rainier Beach. A different shooting occurred at this same lounge just a month ago. The recent violence draws fresh attention to new city council legislation that seeks to crack down on after-hours lounges that operate as private clubs, stay open past 2am, and aren't regulated the same way as typical bars and restaurants. Several recent Seattle-area shootings like the December International District shooting have occurred outside similar establishments. 

Shooting Near House Party: In the Tacoma area, two people are dead and four are injured after an early Saturday shooting near a house party. Multiple people called 911 when a fight broke out at the party. Police arrived about 30 seconds before the gunfire started. The victims were between 16 to 21 years old. 

Local Jurisdictions Need New Revenue: That's the subject line in the open letter to Gov. Bob Ferguson signed by 68 local officials across the Evergreen state. The letter calls on Ferguson to seek new progressive revenue options as budget deficits grow and federal cuts become imminent. Washington's regressive tax code means there isn't enough "funding for infrastructure, housing and human services, public health, and public safety" investments. The signers then list the measures they support including current bills in Olympia that would lift the 1 percent property tax cap, expand the sales tax to fund public safety programs, and more. Outgoing King County Executive Dow Constantine signed the letter, as did KC Exec hopeful Girmay Zahilay. King County Council Members Teresa Mosqueda, Rod Dembowski, and Jorge L. Barón also signed. The only Seattle City Council members to sign were Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dan Strauss. Mayor Bruce Harrell, unsurprisingly, did not sign on. 

The Weather: I'll wager it'll rain today. And, you know what? I wager it'll rain tomorrow, too. April showers and all that. 

Must Be Nice: France's far-right party leader, Marine Le Pen, was barred from seeking office by a court due to embezzlement. The judge ruled Le Pen, as well as eight other people in her party and 12 who served as parliamentary aides, were embezzling public funds. Le Pen, the judge said, was "at the heart of 'a system' that her party used to siphon off EU parliament money," reports the Associated Press. Some worry this ruling is an overstep. I dunno, I think it's a good thing to prevent criminals from taking political control of a country and burning it to the ground for their own gain. 

France raises a fascinating hypothetical point: what if the law still exists even if people might get mad at you

— Ian Boudreau (@ianboudreau.com) March 31, 2025 at 5:55 AM

Musk Gives Out His Million Dollar Checks: Ahead of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, which could change the makeup of the highest legal body in a battleground state, Elon Musk gave two $1 million checks to two Wisconsin voters at a rally for the conservative candidate. Musk and groups he's affiliated with have spent $20 million to get this guy elected ahead of a year where the Wisconsin Supreme Court—where liberals currently hold a 4-3 majority—will consider legislation on "abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power, and voting rules." The current Supreme Court declined to hear a case that objected to Musk's political interference ahead of the event. 

Myanmar Quake Kills Over 1,700: Friday's quake in Myanmar and neighboring Thailand caused devastation. Though the death tolls are already high, prediction models expect deaths could exceed 10,000. Buildings collapsed throughout Myanmar. Many people are believed to still be trapped under the rubble. A woman was pulled out from under a collapsed hotel after 60 hours. She was alive. 

The Stock Market Hates Trump: Trump's beloved stock market keeps on plummeting. In the wake of his recent announcement that he would level tariffs on imports from all countries, the stock market hit its lowest point since 2022. The value of the US dollar also decreased 3.5 percent this month thanks to Trump's global trade buffoonery. Meanwhile, the value of gold keeps on climbing as investors look for something—anything—safe to invest in. Goldman Sachs believes there's a 35 percent chance that the US enters a recession in the next 12 months. 

See? You Don't Need Musk's Blood Money: All you need is 88 cents and a dream. Last week, a gambler at the Mardi Gras-themed Orleans Hotel & Casino about two miles off the Las Vegas Strip bet 88 cents on a slot machine and won $19,627.01. 

Tensions are high: The Pistons and the Timberwolves got into a tussle last night. Five players and two coaches were ejected from the game. In case you want to watch seven minutes of grown men fighting each other, here you go: 

International Students Asked to Self-Deport: An email from the Department of Defense to certain student-visa holders in the US notified them that their F-1 visa had been revoked and that they should voluntarily leave the country. Allegedly, the students getting these emails participated in campus activism or showed social media activity—things as small as liking a political post the Trump administration considers unsavory—critical of those in power. Immigration attorneys say impacted students should seek legal representation. 

Aide Worker Mass Grave in Gaza: Last week, aide group Palestine Red Crescent Society said nine of its emergency medical technicians had been missing for days after Israeli forces opened fire on ambulances and fire trucks near southern Rafah. Israel said the ambulances and fire trucks were "being used as cover by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants." The United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs unearthed the missing humanitarian aides alongside their missing vehicles and six other aide workers using bulldozers and heavy machinery. They had been buried in what the UN called a mass grave. 

Seems Like a Red Flag? Trump keeps refusing to say whether he'll leave office after his second term—which, you know, is unconstitutional. He said he wasn't joking about seeking a third term and that there are "methods" to make it happen. 

I'm sorry to report we are actually not saving the bees. Honeybee deaths in the US have reached record highs. Scientists don't know what's causing it. 

A Song for Your Monday: Do you like 1970s German electronic music? Good, I have just the ditty for you.