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REPORTING FROM THE HEART OF CASCADIA
WHATCOM *SK AGIT*ISL AND COUNTIES
The Great Symmetry, . * Art in the City, . * Film Shorts, .
SHAKESPEARIANCELEBRATION
Bard on the Beach, P.16
SHELL VS. SKAGIT Information is not a luxury, P.08
OVEREASY
Bountiful breakfasts in
Sunnyland, P.34
Grooving on the green, P.20
a kLwnstocc a s c a d i a
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c a s c a d i a ThisWeekA glance at this week’s happenings
WEDNESDAY [05.27.15]
MUSICSpring Choral Concert: 7pm, Bellingham High SchoolMilo Petersen Quartet: 7pm, the Majestic
FOODSedro-Woolley Farmers Market: 3-7pm, Hammer Heritage Park
THURSDAY [05.28.15]ONSTAGE Best of Brass Monkey: 7:30pm, iDiOM Theater Good, Bad, Ugly: 8pm, Upfront TheatreThe Project: 10pm, Upfront Theatre
MUSICMVHS Tribute Concert: 7pm, Lincoln Theatre, Mount Vernon
FRIDAY [05.29.15]ONSTAGE DPS Improv Festival: 7pm and 9pm, Old Main Theater, WWU Little Shop of Horrors: 7pm, Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth Best of Brass Monkey: 7:30pm, iDiOM Theater Bare: 7:30pm, DUG Theater, WWU To Kill a Mockingbird: 7:30pm, Anacortes Com-munity Theatre Penn & Teller: 8pm, Mount Baker Theatre Blender: 8pm and 10pm, Upfront Theatre
DANCE Bellingham Rep’s Spring Concert: 7:30pm, Fire-house Performing Arts Center
SEND YOUR EVENT INFORMATION TO:[email protected]
Mount VernonBayshore Symphony: 7:30pm, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Mount Vernon
WORDS Stories We Must Tell: 7pm, Presence Studio James Wells: 7pm, Village Books Jazz Jam & Poetry Slam: 10pm, iDiOM Theater
COMMUNITY Bridge of Aloha Festival: 10am-9pm, Ferndale Events Center Multicultural Family Festival: 2-5pm, Skagit Valley College
GET OUTColor Me 5K: 9am, Lynden High School Boathouse Open House: 10am-12pm, Bloedel Donovan Zombies versus Survivors: 12-3pm, Maritime Heritage Park
FOOD Mount Vernon Farmers Market: 9am-2pm, Water-front Plaza Anacortes Farmers Market: 9am-2pm, Depot Arts Center Bellingham Farmers Market: 10am-3pm, Depot Market Square Sips & Cigars: 6-10p, Silver Reef Events Center
VISUAL ARTSGreen Eileen Pop-Up Sale: 11am-2pm, Ragfinery
SUNDAY [05.31.15] ONSTAGE Little Shop of Horrors: 2pm, Bellingham Arts Academy for YouthBare: 2pm, DUG Theater, WWU Laughing at the Stars: 8:30pm, Star Club DPS Improv Festival: 8:30pm, Old Main Theater, WWU
DANCECapstone Concert: 2pm, Performing Arts Center, WWUBellingham Rep’s Spring Concert: 5pm, Firehouse Performing Arts Center
MUSICBayshore Symphony: 3pm, Central Lutheran Church Whatcom Chorale: 3pm, First Congregational Church Art of Jazz: 4-6:30pm, Mount Baker Theatre Jamie Leval, Dan Compton: 7pm, YWCA Ballroom
VISUAL ARTS National Art Exhibition Opening: 12-5pm, What-com Museum’s Lightcatcher Building
MONDAY [06.01.15] ONSTAGE Guffawingham: 9:30pm, Green Frog
MUSICMVHS Choir Finale: 4pm and 7pm, McIntyre Hall, Mount Vernon
TUESDAY [06.02.15]ONSTAGEForever Plaid Auditions: 4pm, MBT’s Walton TheatreTalent Show: 7pm, Lincoln Theatre, Mount Vernon Faust: 7:30pm, Performing Arts Center, WWU
Capstone Concert: 7:30pm, Performing Arts Center, WWU Friday Night Dance Party: 7:30-10pm, Belling-ham Dance Company
MUSICI Love a Ukulele: 7pm, Heiner Theater, WCC Ten Strings and a Goat Skin: 7:30pm, McIntyre Hall, Mount Vernon
VISUAL ARTSChildren’s Art Show Reception: 6:30-8pm, Lynden Library
SATURDAY [05.30.15]ONSTAGE Little Shop of Horrors: 2pm and 7pm, Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth
DPS Improv Festival: 7pm and 9pm, Old Main Theater, WWUBest of Brass Monkey: 7:30pm, iDiOM Theater Bare: 7:30pm, DUG Theater, WWU To Kill a Mockingbird: 7:30pm, Anacortes Com-munity TheatreBlender: 8pm and 10pm, Upfront Theatre
DANCESwing Kids Anniversary Celebration: 11:30am-11pm, the Majestic Bellingham Rep’s Spring Concert: 5pm and 7:30pm, Firehouse Performing Arts Center Contra Dance: 7-10:30pm, Fairhaven Library Capstone Concert: 7:30pm, Performing Arts Center, WWU
MUSICFidalgo Youth Symphony: 1pm, McIntyre Hall,
An original commissioned work by Seattle choreographer Mary Sheldon will be part of Bellingham Repertory Dance’s “Up/Rooted” performances May 29-31 at the Firehouse PAC
Wear white and be prepared to go from clean to colorful as part of the Color Me 5K fundraiser happening May 30 in Lynden
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VIEWS & NEWS 4: Mailbag
6: Gristle and Views
8: Shell vs. Skagit, cont.
10: Last week’s news
11: Police Blotter, Index
ARTS & LIFE 12: Sci-fi explorations
14: River reveries
16: Bard on the Beach
18: Pop-up art
20: Lawnstock lives
22: Clubs
24: Inside an icon
26: Film Shorts
REAR END 27: Bulletin Board
28: Wellness
29: Crossword
30: Free Will Astrology
31: Advice Goddess
32: Comix
33: Slowpoke, Sudoku
34: Over Easy
©2015 CASCADIA WEEKLY (ISSN 1931-3292) is published each Wednesday by Cascadia Newspaper Company LLC. Direct all correspondence to: Cascadia Weekly PO Box 2833 Bellingham WA 98227-2833 | Phone/Fax: 360.647.8200 [email protected] Cascadia Weekly is distributed free, please take just one copy. Cascadia
Weekly may be distributed only by authorized distributors. Any person removing papers in bulk from our distribution points risks prosecutionSUBMISSIONS: Cascadia Weekly welcomes freelance submissions. Send material
to either the News Editor or A&E Editor. Manuscripts will be returned if you include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. To be considered for calendar list-ings, notice of events must be received in writing no later than noon Wednesday the week prior to publication. Photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelope. LETTERS POLICY: Cascadia Weekly reserves the right to edit letters for length and
content. When apprised of them, we correct errors of fact promptly and courteously. In the interests of fostering dialog and a community forum, Cascadia Weekly does not publish letters that personally disparage other letter writers. Please keep your letters to fewer than 300 words.
ContactCascadia Weekly: � 360.647.8200
EditorialEditor & Publisher: Tim Johnson � ext 260
editor@ cascadiaweekly.com
Arts & Entertainment Editor: Amy Kepferle � ext 204
calendar@ cascadiaweekly.com
Music & Film Editor: Carey Ross � ext 203
music@ cascadiaweekly.com
ProductionArt Director: Jesse Kinsman
jesse@ kinsmancreative.com
Graphic Artist:Roman Komarov
roman@ cascadiaweekly.com Send all advertising materials to
AdvertisingAccount Executive: Scott Pelton � 360-647-8200 x 202
spelton@ cascadiaweekly.com
DistributionDistribution Manager:Scott Pelton� 360-647-8200 x 202
spelton@ cascadiaweekly.com
Whatcom: Erik Burge, Stephanie Simms
Skagit: Linda Brown, Barb Murdoch
LettersSend letters to [email protected]
{05.27.15}{#21}{V.10}{FREE}
REPORTING FROM THE HEART OF CASCADIA
WHATCOM *SK AGIT*ISL AND COUNTIES
The Great Symmetry, . * Art in the City, . * Film Shorts, .
SHAKESPEARIANCELEBRATION
Bard on the Beach, P.16
SHELL VS. SKAGIT Information is not a luxury, P.08
OVEREASY
Bountiful breakfasts in
Sunnyland, P.34
Grooving on the greens, P.20
a kLwnstocc a s c a d i a
NEWSPAPER ADVISORY GROUP: Robert Hall, Seth Murphy, Michael Petryni, David Syre
COVER: photo of Shaprece by Manuela Insixiengmay. Shaprece plays during Lawnstock Sun., May 31 at WWU
TOC LETTERS STAFF
RENTAL SAFETY INSPECTIONS INVITE CHAOS
If the City of Bellingham continues to add more and more levels of bureaucracy, we will end up looking like boarded-up Detroit. Who in his right mind will want to be a landlord here?
This ill-thought-out program that requires land-lords to be licensed and tenants to be inspected will drive everyone nuts. It will not help the hous-ing supply and will worsen already sky-high rates. Housing costs are based on supply and demand. Landlords will throw in the towel; housing avail-ability will decrease; rents will go up still further. Even more homeless folks will be on waiting lists.
Meanwhile, as usual, the bureaucrats will be accountable to almost no one. They will justify their jobs with busywork for themselves and us. Picture a circular firing squad.
—Joan Dow, Bellingham
OILY ARGUMENTSFirst off, I love your publication and I read
it weekly. Over the last week there have been many articles that have come out over the Shell oil drilling. I am neither for nor against this action, mainly because I do not have enough information that is untarnished by opinion to make a good, educated choice.
But one thing that does bother me is how all the people in kayaks and boats go out there in the name of “save the environment” when
they themselves are running around in a prod-uct that is made from polyurethane, which, of course, is a plastic that is made from the oil they are protesting. Seems kind of like the pot calling the kettle black. Maybe if you are against drilling you better make sure your house is in order first and that you use no oil-based products, then you might have a real reason to say “stop the drilling.”
It would be nice if the papers covering the whole situation might touch on the products that would be affected by this, either in a posi-tive or negative, much like you have preached for months on the stupid trains and coal or no coal.
—Angie Dilley, Bow
Petroleum is terribly useful; we use it in many ways to create many things that are also useful. Why would this dismiss or disqualify concerns about new drilling in ecologically sensitive areas? You protest with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.
—Editor
THISWEEK
SEND US YOUR LETTERSBut keep ‘em short (300 words or less). Send them to [email protected] or mail to P.O. Box 2833, Bellingham, WA 98229
A deadly storm has claimed more than 20 lives in two countries this week. From Oklahoma to Texas and beyond—including the border city of Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, where 13 people died in a tornado on Mon., May 25—residents have experienced epic rain, flash floods and more tornadoes. More than 40 people are still unaccounted for.
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THE GRISTLE
VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF CASCADIA WEEKLY
viewsOPIN IONS THE GRISTLE
In eighteen hundred and forty-two I left the old world
for the new. That’s the sorta luck that brought me to work
upon the railroad.—Irish Folksong
I n Bellingham, between Chuck-anut Drive and Squalicum Park-way, we have 14 places where
trains, autos, bikes and pedestri-ans interact. At seven of these, a tunnel, bridge, or underpass avoids all risk. But at the seven others we have people and vehicles moving across railroad tracks, with train whistles blaring at least five times at each location.
This places us well ahead of Freiburg, Germany, which has hun-dreds of passenger and freight trains moving through the city daily with nary a peep nor whistle. Ger-mans build passes over and under their rail lines. In Freiburg proper, to the best of my memory, not a single auto or pedestrian rail cross-ing can be found. To traverse rails on foot there we must either climb stairs or hike through a tunnel. In the city center, do watch out for trolleys rolling through pedestri-an and bicycle-filled streets from which the city has banned private automobiles.
Are Bellingham’s repeated blasts from each train, including Amtrak, really so terrible, terrible enough for our city government to ban them if it could?
One solution would be to build more tunnels or bridges for walkers and cars, as we have already done at Squalicum, Boulevard Park, Taylor
Street, Chestnut Street, and Clark’s Point. But that will be expensive.
A cheaper solution simply de-creases or outright bans train whistles and horns inside Belling-ham. The cost of that? More pe-destrian and auto fatalities, not to mention the damaged minds and job resignations of engineers operating the trains.
But is the locomotive horn-blar-ing problem so serious? Not if put in the context of other urban sounds, including constant noise from cars and trucks to which we can add
even louder if less frequent blast-ing from motorcycles with straight pipes—sometimes at 6am on the streets of Fairhaven.
I live two miles west of I-5, but on a calm morning we hear a constant dull roar from the freeway. To fairly count intrusive irritating decibels, we must factor in air traffic as well, the loud noise from the sky above. Someday, while relaxing on your patio or sundeck, count the number of airplanes that fly overhead, plus choppers doing their duty, taking off and landing daily and nightly at our airport. Consider total decibels. Noise from cars, freight trucks, mo-torcycles, freeways, jets and heli-copters far exceeds anything that trains produce at their dozen-plus Bellingham crossings. Admittedly, unlike blasts from rail crossing, those other sounds do not pen-etrate our kitchens and bedrooms night and day.
We must also keep in mind that, except for ships, railroads provide a most efficient, economical and safe means to transport goods and peo-ple. Imagine all of our rail freight, including oil and coal, loaded onto trucks or trailers rolling up and down I-5.
Noise, low and occasional, soft or loud, comes as a price of industrial urban life. If we desire nights bright with a canopy of stars and planets, we should move to rural Whatcom, avoiding the South Fork valley and the Mt. Baker Highway. Meanwhile, try to appreciate the safety that results from those five jarring lo-comotive blasts, then enjoy some silence when they cease.
BY BOB KELLER
Deliberating DecibelsSOME PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT TRAINS
,We must also keep in mind that, except for ships, railroads provide a most efficient, economical and safe means to transport goods and people.
THE BIGNESS OF DE MINIMIS: Developers of a proposed coal export pier at Cherry Point appear to have been snared by their own media hype, misinterpreting a key communication by the federal agency authorized to issue the shoreline permit and very nearly missing a deadline for response.
At the opening of the year, Lummi Nation asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny a permit for the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal, arguing that capac-ity to ship 54 million metric tons of coal per year out of Cherry Point on the largest oceangoing vessels would create impacts that cannot be mitigated in a manner that would not impair the tribe’s fishing rights. The Corps replied in February, requesting the tribe detail their claims to help the Corps determine whether the impacts on their usual and accustomed (U&A) fishing rights protected under treaty would be more than de minimis, or too trivial to merit consideration by law. SSA Marine and Pacific International Terminals issued a press release, interpreting that response to mean the Corps would not disrupt the environmental review un-derway for their project and would consider the Lummi petition within that framework.
Not so, declared the USACE in a flurry of correspon-dence last week.
“Your letter indicates your belief the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should complete a detailed analysis of the project as required by the National Environmental Pol-icy Act (NEPA) and other laws and regulations before addressing U&A issues. We disagree,” wrote Michelle Walker, chief of the regulatory branch of the USACE Seattle Division. “Upholding our trust responsibility to protect the tribe’s treaty rights is not constrained by procedures for pre-application environmental analysis or by post-application permit review processes.” The petition will be considered wholly outside that pro-cess, defined by legislative action, and managed under the Corps’ duty to uphold treaties as required by the Constitution.
“We are concerned,” Walker wrote on behalf of the Corps, “you may be attempting to undertake evalu-ations and analyses that may not be relevant to our U&A determination,” warning that SSA had not pro-vided sufficient information to warrant a requested extension before the Corps begins to consider the Lummi petition.
This, of course, prompted a mad scramble of corre-spondence from SSA, pleading for an additional 90 days to fully respond to the Corps request.
“There is every reason to take the time to get all of the facts before the Corps to inform its final decision,” urged Skip Sahlin, vice president of SSA’s project devel-opment. “As you know, we are not in any way impacting the Lummi Nation’s fishing rights today. Nor will we be impacting them during the deliberations on these is-sues. There is no harm to the Lummi Nation in allowing us sufficient opportunity to gather the facts that we want to put before the Corps of Engineers. There is no need for a rush to judgment.”
The Corps of course agreed, granting SSA an exten-sion of 90 days to get their documents in order, with assurances that there is no urgent clock ticking but cautioning the agency does intend to respond to the Lummi petition in a timely manner.
More devastating to SSA, however, is the apparent fact that the Corps has accepted the reasoning of Lum-mi Nation to apply a de minimis threshold to decide
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THE GRISTLEwhether Lummi fishing would be im-paired enough to warrant halting the project—a molecular measure so tiny it likely cannot be responded to by de-sign changes.
“The treaty fishing right has two dis-crete aspects,” federal court justices wrote in a seminal 1988 test of the cen-tury-old Point Elliot Treaty signed by Lummi and other Salish Sea tribes, “the geographical aspect, and the guarantee of a proper quota of fish.”
The geographical aspect is delivered in the shorthand U&A, usual and ac-customed places:
“The right to resort to the fishing places in controversy was a part of larger rights possessed by the Indi-ans, upon the exercise of which there was not a shadow of impediment, and which were not much less necessary to the existence of the Indians than the atmosphere they breathed,” the court asserted in its recitals.
Concerning the second aspect is the question of whether an estimated 487 of the largest oceangoing cargo vessels churning the waters and cutting across net sets in those usual and accustomed places will place no measurable reduc-tion on the numbers of fish Lummis catch each year. The case law in making this determination is fairly clear and in-volves, at its center, the consideration of whether a project or operation is lim-ited in duration or season, and thereby potentially limited in impacts to fish biology. This cannot be said of GPT.
“Absent from consideration by the tribe in formulating its petition are measures that could be incorporated into the project features or operations of the terminal that could eliminate or reduce impacts,” SSA Marine com-plained in correspondence to USACE. “They are absent because the tribe refuses to engage in discussions with Pacific International Terminals about such measures; instead they take the unsubstantiated position that all im-pacts are ‘unmitigatable.’”
It’s understandable why SSA Marine despairs that the Corps decision will not occur inside or subsequent to the environmental review of NEPA. That framework was created by industry to serve industry, and involves detail-ing of costs followed by negotiation of those costs. When those costs are finally haggled, a check is written and the permit issued. Within this frame-work, there is no scenario in which a permit is not issued, provided money papers over ecological concerns.
The Lummi refuse to be caught in that bargain. Some things of value cannot be purchased.
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NEWS POLITICS FUZZ BUZZ INDEX
currentscars, six trains per week. The trains are regulated by the federal government, under exclusive jurisdiction granted years ago. The law protects railroads from any hodgepodge of state and local regulations.
Federal law also shelters the railroad from questions by state and local gov-ernments who want to know when and where the volatile Bakken oil is passing through their communities; their chanc-es of confronting a rail disaster; what kind of money they might need to retrain emergency responders; how the railroads choose where to route the trains; what inspectors know about aging railroad bridges that they can’t tell mayors and city councils (see sidebar).
The Shell study sought by Skagit County could be pivotal in a national debate about who gets to know what
about oil in transit. By definition, the environmental impact statement (EIS) can examine the direct effects of proj-ects such as the new Shell oil facility and the secondary problems that come with it, attendant to bringing across the county a substance more explosive than anyone had known before the disasters of the past couple of years.
Local and state governments shape the studies and oversee them; the company or agency creating the impact pays the bill. In this case, Skagit County and the state Department of Ecology will study, and Shell will pay. How far the Skagit study may reach will be decided in the prelim-inary process known as scoping, in which citizens comment on the impending study and suggest areas of inquiry.
It’s uncertain just what will happen when the EIS process demands infor-mation that Burlington Northern Santa Fe declines to provide, or that federal regulators claim as their exclusive turf. One effect would be to stall an important
Puget Sound Refinery unloading facility will go forward as planned after Judge Michael E. Rickert granted the county’s motion to dismiss Shell’s request for ju-dicial review.
Shell had sued—and failed—to block an environmental impact study of the company’s proposed new unloading facil-ity in Anacortes, following a decision in 2014 by a Skagit County hearing examin-er seeking a higher threshold for review of Shell’s proposal. Shell sued the coun-ty, alleging the hearing examiner had acted in an illegal manner and claimed the matter was out of the county’s ju-risdiction, preempted by federal law. The county defended the decision of its land-use official in court.
A new rail yard and oil transfer system would allow Shell’s March Point refinery to take in crude oil from the Bakken formation in North Dakota—the same cargo that blew up in the course of ten derailments in the United States and Canada during the past two years.
The Bakken oil would cross the Skagit Valley in BNSF trains of 100 or more tank
BY BOB SIMMONS
SHELLv.SKAGITCOURT RULES THE PUBLIC IS ENTITLED TO MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OIL TRAIN TRANSPORT“Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe.”
—Abraham Lincoln
S hell Oil didn’t get far last week in its effort to head off a study of Bakken oil transport in the Skagit Valley. Its lawsuit rolled backward down a legal slope, like the unattended oil train that blew up in Quebec in 2013.
Nobody got hurt when the rhetorical brakes failed in Skagit County Superior Court last week. The world’s second-biggest oil company (or biggest, depending on how you measure it) emerged with smudges on its corporate profile. There may have been some gains in people’s right to know the hazards of living in the midst of a frantic rush to extract and sell fossil fuel.
A lawsuit filed by Shell over Skagit County’s plans to conduct an environmental impact statement on Shell’s proposed unloading oil facility in Anacortes was dis-missed on Thursday by a Skagit County Superior Court judge. The EIS for the Shell
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway bridge over the Skagit River near Burlington, Wash., known as Bridge #70, is likely material for an environmental impact review of Shell Oil’s oil-by-train project in Anacortes. The bridge was built in 1906 by the Pennsylvania Steel Company for the Great Northern Railway
,“These glorious federal laws they’ve given us, they tell us we can’t regulate anything having to do with the railroads. If trains were blowing up and killing three people a week, there’s nothing we could do about it.”— JUDGE MICHAEL E. RICKERT
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BNSF customer’s project—Shell’s expan-sion in Anacortes—while the turf ques-tions are sorted out in the courts.
Shell Oil almost escaped the need for a more rigorous EIS.
Applying for the permits needed to build its Bakken crude intake system, Shell asked for a “Mitigated Declaration of Non-Significance.” That’s a document that says the company’s plan would have little serious impact on the environment, and that the developer—Shell— could offset whatever harm it was about to do, through a series of make-good actions (for example, the replacement of a ruined wetland by an enhanced or artificially built wetland somewhere else).
Skagit County Planning and Develop-ment Services readily issued an MDNS for Shell, as it did earlier for Shell’s neighbor and competitor, Tesoro Refining.
But a coalition of environmental orga-nizations appealed the “non-significant” finding to the Skagit County Hearing Ex-aminer, who acts as a judge to resolve land-use conflicts within the jurisdic-tion. Petitioners argued that the explo-sive nature of Bakken oil, and the cumu-lative effect of the increasing volume, cried out for a broad EIS.
Hearing Examiner Wick Dufford agreed with the challengers.
In a strongly worded decision, Dufford scolded county planning officials for their light touch in dealing with Shell and for a failure to confront serious problems ignored in the MDNS. He directed the Skagit planning department to get to work on an EIS.
“It is probably asking too much to re-quire an environmental impact statement covering specific possible physical effects along the entire route of the rail system from North Dakota to Anacortes,” Dufford acknowledged. “But it seems appropriate to ask for an analysis of the potential ef-fects of crude-by-rail activity on features within Skagit County. This was not done.”
Dufford warned of the cumulative haz-ard as oil-by-rail volume increases:
“The risks that adding one more actor to this scene poses to the environment and to health and safety can only be ap-preciated after a cumulative analysis of the entire picture. The crude oil being brought in large quantities to a small area in the northwest Washington State is highly flammable and explosive.
“Catastrophes have occurred else-where. No one doubts that such a thing could occur here,” Dufford said.
That’s when Shell filed suit to block the study.
The company’s attorney, Thomas Mitch-ell, said Dufford’s references to railroad safety make it clear this is a federal matter, outside the county’s authority. He offered precedents showing federal preemption of all railroad regulation. He described Duf-ford’s call for an EIS as illegal, arbitrary
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TROUBLE OVER BRIDGED WATERSTrainloads of crude oil cross the Skagit between
Burlington and Mount Vernon on a 99-year old bridge that takes a beating in flood season. Huge piles of debris collect upstream and surge against the piers.In 1995, with a logjam hammering it, one of the
piers tilted. Rails separated from the steel girders. There was no train on the bridge at the time.The structure known as Bridge #70 is key to
Shell Oil’s hopes for bringing 600 tank cars per week of Bakken crude oil from North Dakota to the Shell refinery in Anacortes. The bridge sits upstream a short distance from
the intake of the Anacortes municipal water system. Over 1,000 feet long with 13 piers, the bridge can act as an artificial barrier accumulat-ing debris during flood events.An oil spill at the bridge would interrupt the
water supply of an estimated 53,000 persons, including personnel and families of the U.S. Na-val Air Station on Whidbey Island. State Ecology officials say there’s no geographic response plan for such an event. Burlington Northern Santa Fe inspects and
repairs the bridge regularly, along with its 13,000 other bridges. “We inspect all our bridges twice a year,” BNSF
spokesperson Courtney Wallace said. “Skilled en-gineers examine them very closely. If there’s any evidence of a problem, we bring in trained divers to make certain the bridges are safe.”“What they find we make available only to the
Federal Railway Administration. They have over-sight over all the bridges.”Burlington Mayor Steve Sexton dislikes the two-
way secrecy agreements between the railroad and the federal government. “They should let local government see the
inspection reports,” he says. “How can our communities make any contingency plan against a bridge failure or a derailment or an oil train explosion, if we don’t have the basic information we need?”
and capricious.Will Honea, Skagit County’s civil pros-
ecutor, argued that Shell was “jumping the gun” in trying to block the EIS be-fore its scope has even been considered. Federal preemption doesn’t matter at this point, he said.
“They’ve got to do an EIS, that’s the point,” Honea told the court. Just what the study will cover remains to be de-cided in the public scoping process, he reasoned.
“We don’t have to do exactly what Wick tells us, and likely won’t.”
However, Honea said, there are plenty of other reasons for preparing an EIS that have nothing to do with the railroad. For example, he said, there are more than a million cubic feet of dirt to be moved and there’s nothing in the Planning Depart-ment’s MDNS to show where it will go.
Judge Rickert dismissed Shell’s lawsuit within a half hour of hearing the argu-ments. Rickert drew sharp differences be-tween regulating the shipment of oil and studying the shipment of oil and the prob-lems it may cause.
“These glorious federal laws they’ve SHELL, CONTINUED ON PAGE 31
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pact damaged two girders. Bridge engineers say the overpass is still safe, but one girder needs repair and the other has to be completely replaced. Damage is estimated in excess of $1 million.
Scientists say they’ve discovered Washington state’s first dinosaur fossil. The announcement marks a unique find for the state and a rare mo-ment for North America’s Pacific coast. Paleon-tologists at Seattle’s Burke Museum say the 80- million-year-old leg bone probably belonged to an older, smaller cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex. They’ve been studying the nearly 17-inch-long, 9-inch-wide fragment for about three years and say it probably came from a 3-foot thigh bone.
05.22.15FRIDAY
State officials declare it is unconstitutional for Shell Oil to store its Arctic drilling rig at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 5. The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) sends a letter to Shell, informing the energy giant that short-term mooring of Shell’s Polar Pioneer rig at the Port is fine. But the state constitution prohibits long-term mooring out-
side of harbors. The Polar Pioneer, a massive floating platform 400 feet long and 292 feet wide, is more than twice as wide as the official harbor area at Ter-minal 5, where it arrived last week. And for most of Terminal 5’s length, its 130-foot-wide harbor area is completely covered by a dock that extends over the water and the state-owned land beneath it.
05.24.15SUNDAY
A revised course produces a new winner in the annual Ski to Ski race. After three years of coming in second best in the largest race in Whatcom Coun-ty, Aeromech Sensible Technology finally took the Ski to Sea crown. Missing a ski leg and with rivers torpid without snow—challenged by a passing coal train that temporarily obstructed the finish in Fair-haven—the race featured an additional bike leg to round out the 991/2-mile course.
In a timely irony, a team introduced to protest the fossil fuel industry’s impacts on climate change—No Snow, sHell No!!—finished in the 199th position. The corporate team Shell Thunder are nearly disqualified and finish under protest.
05.19.15TUESDAY
Cleanup of Bellingham’s central waterfront could begin this summer. The Port of Bellingham awards Tacoma-based American Construction Company with a $30.6 million contract to clean-up Whatcom Waterway. The waterway is contaminated by heavy indus-trial activities at Georgia-Pacific’s former chemical plant dating back to the 1960s. Cleaning up the waterway will transform the shoreline and set the stage for the port and City of Bellingham’s efforts to redevelop Bellingham’s downtown waterfront. Construction is set to begin this August and be completed by mid-2016.
Burlington Northern buys more time to respond to reports of spills. Last month, rail regulators from the state Utilities and Trans-portation Commission determined BNSF didn’t properly report several spills, including one discovered in Whatcom County. A leak found in a tank car at the BP Cherry Point Refinery may have allowed more than 1,600 gallons of crude oil to spill. Railroad officials meet with the UTC to schedule a 2016 hearing to resolve the dispute.
05.21.15THURSDAY
The Washington State Supreme Court upholds the right of local jurisdictions to control the supply of medical marijuana in their communities. Plaintiffs argued that while the state medical mari-juana law preserves local authority to regulate collective gardens, it does not allow for complete bans, and only applies to commercial activities. The court rejected these arguments.
The Birch Bay-Lynden Road overpass on I-5 suffers “substantial damage” after a semi pulling an excavator strikes its underside. The impact sent chunks of concrete into one of the lanes below. The im-
The
Week that WasBY TIM JOHNSON
LAST WEEK’S
NEWSMAY19-24
currents ›› last week’s news
Two people chained themselves to a support ship in Bellingham to protest Royal Dutch Shell’s exploratory oil drilling plans. Activist Matt Fuller joined Chiara Rose D’Angelo, a 20-year-old Western Washington University student, in suspending themselves from the anchor chain of the Arctic Challenger, which is moored at the shipping terminal operated by the Port of Bellingham as the drilling fleet assembles in harbors around the state for departure to the high Arctic. D’Angelo suspended herself from the ship with a climbing harness on Friday night. She was joined briefly by Fuller, who was later taken off the vessel without incident by the U.S. Coast Guard. D’Angelo voluntarily came down off the anchor chain on Monday, 63 hours and three nights after she started her protest on the vessel. The Coast Guard did not issue charges, but D’Angelo said she received a summons for misdemeanor trespassing from the Bellingham Police.
PHOT
O BY
PAU
L K.
AND
ERSO
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SPICE VICE NOT NICEOn May 20, the Whatcom County Prosecutor’s Office and the Bellingham Police Depart-ment’s Special Investigations Unit reported they’d teamed up to investigate the sales and manufacture of “Spice” in Bellingham and Whatcom County. Spice is a synthetic drug that, when smoked, can cause rapid heart rate, vomiting, agitation, confusion and hallucinations. “It has been marketed and sold as “aromatherapy,” police noted. “It is packaged with names such as Storm, Superstorm, Nitro, Mr. Badass, and Woozy Willie. The packaging will typically feature cartoon characters and bright colors.” The six-week-long investigation into the avail-ability of the drug culminated on May 14, when police officers served two search war-rants related to the sales of Spice at two businesses within the city of Bellingham. “Information and evidence gained from the service of those search warrants led officers to a suite in a business park outside of Fern-dale. It was believed the Spice seized during the previous two search warrants had been manufactured at this location.” Officers seized approximately 3.36 pounds of Spice, hundreds of empty containers and lids, la-bels, and other documents supporting the manufacture and sales of Spice. The street value of all the Spice seized at the three lo-cations totaled $13,737. Their investigation continues.
MACE CASE ERASEDOn May 19, Whatcom County prosecutors concluded a U.S. Border Patrol agent was justified in fatally shooting a 20-year-old Canadian man who crossed the U.S.-Can-ada border illegally in March and sprayed the agent with bear spray. Prosecutor Dave McEachran says the man, later identified as Jamison Childress, had threatened multiple Sumas police officers and Border agents with bear mace. He had crossed the border illegal-ly on March 19 and tripped a sensor, leading officers to respond. Childress threatened the first responding officer with bear mace spray he took out of his backpack. He then fled up a steep hill into some blackberry bushes. He was cornered by another Border agent. That agent was sprayed by an angry and aggres-sive Childress and responded with two shots from his sidearm. Struck once, Childress died at the scene.
SMELL QUELLEDOn May 13, a property manager for a mo-bile home park in Blaine requested help from police in locating a daring soul will-ing to live trap and relocate a skunk that had set up camp on the property. “The in-formation was found and delivered,” Blaine
Police reported.
PUTTING TWO AND TWO TOGETHEROn May 15, Blaine Police investigated a re-port from an employee at a business who was concerned that a man who was recently fired from the same company was now outside wielding a machete. “Officers and Border Patrol agents arrived in the area but could not locate the suspect inside or outside the building,” police reported. “Investigation re-vealed that an employee had been terminat-ed the previous day, and someone had heard that he might own a machete. The call about him actually being near the business with a machete was incorrect.”
BALLOT BEATOn May 22, Bellingham Police raced to Barkley Village to respond to a report of harassing signature gatherers.
MITCH’S ITCHOn May 23, Bellingham Police responded to a reported assault at a Samish Way mo-tel. “The victim was assaulted with a glass candle holder by someone called ‘Mitch’ during a robbery,” police reported. “Mitch was demanding $100 but eventually took off with the victim’s whiskey.”
PICKLED PARADEOn May 17, a Blaine Police officer spoke to a man observed walking down the middle of a street who appeared to be extremely intoxicated. “The officer arrived and con-tacted the adult male who was indeed ine-briated,” police reported. “He declined a ride explaining he was only one block and several stumbles from home. He was moni-tored for the duration to ensure he arrived safely at his door.”
On May 24, Bellingham Police checked on a man reported staggering drunk into traffic during Ski to Sea weekend.
MENTALLY DIVERSE SUBJECTOn May 22, Bellingham Police reported “officers spoke with a mentally diverse subject.”
REVENGE OF THE SITHOn May 20, the manager of a store at Sun-set Square called Bellingham Police to re-port the theft of a Star Wars backpack.
ALIEN SKIESOn May 19, a Bellingham couple observed an unidentified object moving slowly from west to east over the city. “It was round in shape and had lights around it,” the husband re-ported. “We watched it for about 10 minutes as it flew slowly and then ascended at a fast-er pace and disappeared. We have never seen anything like this before and are hoping that others in the area have seen it too, as it was fairly low and slow moving.”
FUZZ BUZZ
60PERCENT of Americans who say they support same-sex marriage, a record number up
5 percentage points from 2014.
31 31PERCENT of Americans who now
identify as social liberals—the highest mark since 1999
PERCENT of Americans who identify as social conservatives, collapsed from a
high of 41 percent in 2009.
33 22PERCENT of Americans who approve of the job Democratic leaders are doing in
Congress
PERCENT of Americans who approve of GOP Congressional leadership. Only 41 percent of Republicans approve of the
GOP Congress.
51 35PERCENT of Millennials (18-33 years old in 2014) who identify with or lean
toward the Democratic Party.
PERCENT of Millennials who identify as Republicans or lean Republican.
22.8PERCENT of the American public who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or
“nothing in particular,” up six points from 2007. Americans who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from
78.4 percent to 70.6 percent.
10 20PERCENTAGE points by which an
elected Democrat typically misreads the political alignment of his or her own
district, believing it more conservative than it actually is.
PERCENTAGE points by which an elected Republican typically misreads
the political alignment of his or her own district, believing it more conservative
than it actually is.
index
SOURCES: Gallup; Pew Research Center; University of California, Berkeley
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wordsCOMMUNITY LECTURES BOOKS
BY TIM JOHNSON
The Great SymmetryJAMES WELLS’ NOVEL OF KNOWLEDGE SCREAMING TO BE FREE
T he most compelling speculative fiction comments on the present day.James Wells says the seeds of his novel of a dystopian future were long
germinating, but the soil required something more to bring it all to vivid life. And that ingredient was fertilizer of the most pun-gent variety—modern corporate excess, the despair of the faceless, grinding oligarchs rising as monoliths in our world today, and the chance—by no means certain, and therein lies the drama—that small acts of curios-ity and action may turn it back.
“For the past three years I have been deeply involved in efforts to educate our community about issues relat-ing to the proposed Gateway Pacific coal terminal,” the Bellingham author notes. “My experience with helping to engage and mobilize a community against an outside threat is definitely reflected in the book.”
The Great Symmetry examines a future of truth manipulation and information suppression—science fiction with timely commentary on our times.
As Wells notes, “While the story is set 300 years in the future, it casts a sharp eye on issues of the 21st century. What is the boundary between a genuine info-terrorist—who releases a secret in order to cause harm—with someone who sim-ply reveals an inconvenient fact about a government or a company? What are the acceptable lines defining the relationships between corporations, government,
and individuals? When someone appears to agree to a loss of freedom, is that consent in fact given freely?”
Science fiction runs hot in Wells’ veins. His great-grandfather was fiction pioneer H.G. Wells, and the elder author’s themes of knowledge as a crumbling edifice against ig-norance, of ordinary people stumbling upon extraordinary things, questions of truth and folly run strong in this book.
The questions arise as a planetary arche-ologist stumbles upon a cosmic truth and
then must flee for his life, pursued by rapa-cious interests who seek to both suppress and profit from that truth. These questions, Wells says, “really come back to the True Story. Every day in our lives, narra-tives are constructed for us, different overlapping versions of the True Sto-ry, that we are expected to buy into.
“You take one effect, one discovery, one thing from outside of our civi-lization and see if the
True Story will be able to sustain and pro-tect itself, or will new ideas be able to as-sert themselves and emerge? Counter to the True Story is the notion that new ideas are screaming to be free.
“All of this I tried to wrap into a fun, fast-paced, thrilling story.”
The story and action were developed early, Wells relates, “but it was missing something. What came to energize the story was the activism I began about three years ago in response to the coal terminal. I organized sessions where people learned how to submit public comments. In my day job, I design in-formation systems that support energy effi-ciency programs for utilities and others who are working to save gigawatt-hours every year, reducing costs and emissions.
“What I saw through that public process, really for the first time, was democracy in action,” Wells says, “the idea that people can do more than just vote. They can be part of the decisions that face them in their com-munity at that moment and it can be a very personal thing that matters. And that was the spark that was missing, and able to give the book more significance and meaning—
people fighting to defend their community.“You can write a story filled the action
and characters, engaging descriptions of what they look like and say, but you must have an element powering it along.”
Wells challenges the idea that his book concerns little people fighting a big system.
“You perceive that those forces are much larger than yourself or your community,” he explains. “Sometimes they’re only bigger be-cause you accept the perception that they’re bigger. Part of the nature of power is that people accept it is powerful, that creates a sense of legitimacy. And there’s a presump-tion that if you’re not a participant agreeing to that legitimacy, you do not matter.”
Remarking on the real world events that inspired his fiction, Wells—who writes a blog diary for Daily Kos—notes his home
is a special place that routinely challenges these paradigms in remarkable ways.
“Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic have been the center of a storm of controversy this spring,” Wells relates on Daily Kos. “Large protests in Seattle have focused on plans to park oil drilling rigs at the Port of Seattle. At the Shell annual shareholder meeting, questions about Arctic drilling re-ceived a lot of attention. Even as Shell plans to drill the Arctic, an internal document revealed that the company fully expects to see global warming that exceeds the 2C threshold that scientists have identified as the maximum warming our ecosystems can tolerate.”
A young girl, a student at Western Wash-ington University, chained herself to the an-chor of one of those ships, moored in Bell-ingham, for 66 hours. She changed the story.
A crewman called down to her, “What are you thinking?”
As Wells relates, she called out to her sup-port crew, “I’m doing O.K. Just want to see the sun rise and the earth healthy.”
Sometimes the smallest acts carry a mes-sage that can change the future.
HEARWHO: James WellsWHAT: The Great SymmetryWHEN: 7pm Sat., May 30WHERE: Village BooksCOST: FreeINFO: www. villagebooks.com
,“Part of the nature of power is that people accept it is powerful, that creates a sense of legitimacy. And there’s a presumption that if you’re not a participant agreeing to that legitimacy, you do not matter.”— JAMES WELLS
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THURS., MAY 28MONTEGO’S TALE: Bellingham-based author Jack Shaughnessy reads from Montego’s Tale (about his friendship with a horse) and Puzzle Pieces on the Path (a random collection of per-sonal musings, memories, observations and imag-inings) at 7pm at Village Books, 1200 11th St.
WWW.VILLAGEBOOKS.COM
FRI., MAY 29WALKING HOME: Arleen Williams reads from her new book of fiction, Walking Home, at 7pm at Village Books, 1200 11th St. Williams will be joined by local authors Pamela Beason (Undercurrents) and Susan Colleen Browne (Mother’s Love).
WWW.VILLAGEBOOKS.COM
SAT., MAY 30WAGES OF SIN: Author Rustan Roberts brings The Wages of Sin: The True Story of the Great Sedro-Woolley Bank Robbery of 1914 to life with digitized pictures and personal stories at 3pm at the Everson Library, 104 Kirsch Dr. The book will be for sale at the free program.
WWW.WCLS.ORG
DEATH IN LIFE: Psychology professor and author Sheldon Solomon shares ideas from The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life at 4pm at Village Books, 1200 11th St. S
WWW.VILLAGEBOOKS.COM
STORIES WE MUST TELL: Attend “Stories We Must Tell”—an evening of poetry, music and artwork with Matthew Brouwer, Carol McMillan, Kevin Murphy, Betty Scott, Tsena Paulson, and Jasmine Jean—at 7pm at Bellingham’s Presence Studio, 1412 Cornwall Ave. Entry will be $5 at the door.
WWW.MATTHEWBROUWERPOET.COM
SUN., MAY 31GIRLS OF USUALLY: Lori Horvitz reads from The Girls of Usually at 4pm at Village Books, 1200 11th St. The autobiographical tome focuses on Horvitz’s journey to accept her own cultural, ethnic and sexual identity.
WWW.VILLAGEBOOKS.COM
MON., JUNE 1POETRYNIGHT: Those looking to share their creative verse as part of Poetrynight can sign up at 7:45pm at the Bellingham Public Library, 210 Central Ave. Readings start at 8pm.
WWW.POETRYNIGHT.ORG
WED., JUNE 3EDITING PRIMER: Learn more about Western Washington University’s “Professional Editing” courses at an informational session at 5:30pm at Village Books, 1200 11th St.
WWW.WWU.EDU
SASQUATCH MANUAL: Longtime naturalist David George Gordon shares stories and ideas from The Sasquatch Seeker’s Field Manual at 7pm at Village Books, 1200 11th St. From the creature’s physical features and behaviors to its wilderness habitat, Gordon shares an overview of Sasquatch’s role in Native American lore through to more recent times.
WWW.VILLAGEBOOKS.COM
JUNE 3-5SUMMER READING: Discover how reading, re-viewing books, taking quizzes and participating at the library will earn you badges and chances
to win prizes at “Online Summer Reading for Adults” Demo Days at 5pm Wednesday, 1pm Thursday, and 10am Friday at the Bellingham Public Library, 210 Central Ave. Additional demos take place June 10, 17 and 24.
WWW.BELLINGHAMPUBLICLIBRARY.ORG
COMMUNITYWED., MAY 27WATERFRONT FORUM: “A Waterfront for the Community: Towards a Shared Vision for Belling-ham’s Waterfront” will be the focus of a forum hosted by the BlueGreen Waterfront Coalition beginning at 5:30pm at Northwood Hall, 3240 Northwest Ave.
676-0099 OR WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/EVENTS
SAT., MAY 30VETERAN BENEFITS: If you need to enroll in VA health care, need a DD 14, or want information about your benefits, come to a “Veteran Benefits Enrollment” event from 10am-1pm at the Bellingham Public Library, 210 Central Ave.
393-5514 OR WWW.BELLINGHAMPUBLICLIBRARY.ORG
BRIDGE OF ALOHA: Hawaiian music and Poly-nesian dance, arts and crafts vendor booths, cultural workshops and Hawaiian food will be part of the annual “Bridge of Aloha Festival” from 10am-9pm at the Ferndale Events Center, 5715 Barrett Rd. Entry is $10-$12; kids 8 and under are free.
WWW.BRIDGEOFALOHA.WEBS.COM
GEMS FAIR: Bring your kids to the Girls in En-gineering, Math, and Science (GEMS) Fair from 11am-3pm at Western Washington University’s Academic West Building. The free, family-friendly event showcases groups around the campus and Bellingham that have ties to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Science) community. Learn about careers in STEM fields, watch demos and enter raffles.
WWW.WWU.EDU/EE/YOUTH
MULTICULTURAL FAMILY FESTIVAL: Enter-tainment featuring a diverse range of perform-ers, cultural activities, international cuisine, arts and crafts and a children’s village will be part of “Celebrate the World! A Multicultural Family Festival!” taking place from 2-5pm in Mount Vernon at Skagit Valley College, 2405 E. College Way. Entry is free.
WWW.SKAGIT.EDU
WED., JUNE 3WATER QUALITY WORKSHOP: Learn how to protect your local watershed by becom-ing a Water Quality Sampling Volunteer from 6-8pm at Whatcom County Public Works, 322 N. Commercial St. Find out more about volunteer opportunities that fit with your schedule, Whatcom County’s current water quality status, procedures and guidelines for water sampling and more.
WWW.WHATCOMCD.ORG
THURS., JUNE 4 HANDBAGS FOR HOUSING: Lydia Place will host a “Handbags for Housing” fundraiser from 5-8:30pm at the Depot Market Square, 1100 Railroad Ave. The event features a “Handbags Bazaar” , a fashion show featuring 15 local bou-tiques, a live handbag auction, winery tastings, cocktail samples, gourmet appetizers and more. Tickets are $25-$50.
WWW.LYDIAPLACE.ORG
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7-11 am Mon–Sat 7-1p on Sundays6140 Guide Meridian (360) 318-7720
Free Coffee with purchase of breakfast entrée!
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HIKING RUNNING CYCLINGoutside
M y friend Jesse really likes rivers. Jesse has been a fisherman, rafting guide and all-around river bum for
many years. We go way back: I have known him since he was five years old. So when he offered to take me on a paddle on the tiny Samish River, I said yes without hesitation.
We drove down through the vibrant green fields and marshes of the Skagit Val-ley near Edison and pulled over near an unmarked bridge. The spot was obscure—that’s the way Jesse likes it. We carried his canoe down the steep, muddy bank and shoved off into the murky waters of the diminutive river.
Instantly, the road noises faded away and down in the low trough of the wa-tercourse, the outside world disappeared from view, replaced by a close-at-hand horizon of reeds. It was just us, the lazy water and a riot of birds. Herons waded, robins twittered, eagles soared and geese honked like Ornette Coleman. A feeling of intimacy and solitude settled over us and, captivated by the pastel colors and pastoral vibe of the river, we found ourselves speaking in low voices.
Now and again, the river widened and the horizon expanded, treating us to glimpses of the distant crown of Mt. Baker against a shockingly blue sky filigreed with wisps of languid clouds. As we paddled upstream, the tidal influence waned and the current, flowing against us, stiffened. We dug in. A river otter dove be-neath a floating raft of sticks, startled by our busy paddles. A soft breeze blew in from the Salish Sea.
The passage upriver was a Zen reverie of birdsong, sunshine and the heart-beat rhythm of paddles in water. We pulled up to a bank and ate our lunch among the reeds, afterward laying on our backs and watching the clouds dance
THURS., MAY 28 URBAN KICKBALL: Take part in Downtown Bellingham Partnership’s “Throwback Thurs-days” Urban Kickball League by showing up to support the teams from 5:30-7:30pm every Thursday at Maritime Heritage Park, 500 W. Holly St. The spring league will conclude with a family-friendly Final League Tournament from 11am-4pm Sat., June 13. A summer league is also in the works.
WWW.DOWNTOWNBELLINGHAM.COM
NATIVE PLANT WALK: Join the Koma Kulshan Chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society for a free “Downtown Plants” Native Plant Walk starting at 6pm at the En-vironmental Learning Center, 514 W. Holly St. The walk will be led by anthropologist Allan Richardson. No registration is necessary.
WWW.WNPSKOMA.ORG
FRI., MAY 29WILD THINGS: Kids, adults and adventur-ers can join Wild Whatcom Walks for “Wild Things” excursions from 9:30-11am every Friday in May at Cornwall Park. Entry is by donation.
WWW.WILDWHATCOM.ORG
MAY 29-31PLOVER FERRY: The Plover ferry runs through the summer from 12-8pm Friday and Saturday and 10am-6pm Sunday departing on the hour from the Blaine Visitor’s Dock, Gate II at Blaine Harbor. Suggested donation for the excursions is $1 for kids and $5 for adults.
WWW.DRAYTONHARBORMARITIME.ORG
SAT., MAY 30TRAIL WORK PARTY: Join the Mount Baker Club for a Volunteer Work Party today to help rebuild the historic Ridley Creek Trail on Mt. Baker. (Originally known as the Deming Mt. Baker Trail, it was built in 1909 and was the inspiration for the 1911-1913 Mt. Baker Mara-thon.) Meet at 8am at Sunnyland Elementary to carpool, or meet at 9:30am at the Ridley Creek trailhead.
WWW.MOUNTBAKERCLUB.ORG
COLOR ME 5K: Be sure and wear white for the “Color Me 5K” starting at 9am at Lynden High School, 1201 Bradley Rd. Entry to the race is $20 and includes sunglasses, a wrist-band and a color packet to throw at the “color explosion” at the end of the race.
WWW.COLOR-ME-5K.EVENTBRITE.COM
NSEA WORK PARTY: Join the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association and Bell-ingham Parks to remove invasive plants and spread mulch at a Work Party from 9am-12pm at Little Squalicum Creek. Park in the lower parking lot at Bellingham Technical College, 3028 Lindbergh Ave., and sign in at the blue NSEA tent. (The event is also part of “Puget Sound Starts Here Month” activities.)
WWW.N-SEA.ORG
BOATHOUSE OPEN HOUSE: The Whatcom Rowing Association will host a Boathouse Open House from 10am-12pm at Bloedel Dono-van Park, 2214 Electric Ave. Come tour the new building, check out the boats and oars, meet coaches and hear about the programs. The all-ages event is free.
WWW.WHATCOMROWING.ORG
ZOMBIES VS. SURVIVORS: The Black Drop Coffeehouse hosts its sixth annual “Zombies
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overhead. No hurry.We felt lucky to be enjoying this placid
river and were careful to leave no trace of our passage. A place like this, with no “amenities,” demands special respect. Its fragility was obvious. Unofficial sanctuar-ies such as this are rare commodities, and they are getting rarer every day.
Eventually we roused ourselves from our riverbank savasana and slid the canoe back into the river. The current carried us back downstream. We went with the flow; a joy-ous enterprise. The sunshine sparkled on the water like Liberace’s bathrobe and the birds sang hymns.
The afternoon light was luminous; the “Magic Skagit” radiance reflected in the eddies as we glided towards home. Pre-cious moments.
Back at the bridge, we pulled the canoe up on the bank and, after appropriate gen-uflection, lashed it onto the roof of Jesse’s truck and headed back toward the City of Subdued Excitement.
STORY AND PHOTO BY JOHN D’ONOFRIO
Take Me to the RiverTHE SUBTLE PLEASURES OF THE SAMISH
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Vs. Survivors” water balloon tag event from 12-3pm starting at Maritime Heritage Park and continuing throughout downtown Bell-ingham. Participants start out as “survivors” who hunt “zombies” with water balloons, and become “infected” if they are tagged. Players also can form teams to complete ob-jectives and compete against other teams to be the first to finish the course. Free zombie makeup is provided for those who want it, and participants are encouraged to come in costume. This game is family- friendly, hilariously fun, and free for all who want to play. Please register in advance.
WWW.BLACKDROPCOFFEEHOUSE.COM
MAY 30-31BOATING CENTER OPEN: The Community Boating Center has resumed operations for the 2015 season from 10am until sunset on Saturdays and Sundays at their headquarters at 555 Harris Ave. Rentals include kayaks, sailboats, rowboats and paddle boards. Registration for youth camps and adult classes are currently available online. Start-ing June 22, the center will operate through the week.
WWW.BOATINGCENTER.ORG
SUN., MAY 31RABBIT RIDE: Join members of the Mount Baker Bicycle Club for a “Rabbit Ride” start-ing at 8am every Sunday at Fairhaven Bike, 1108 11th St. The 32-mile route takes riders down Chuckanut and back via Lake Samish. The group also holds weekly rides Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
WWW.MTBAKERBIKECLUB.ORG
SAVE THE TRAILS: The WHIMPS Mountain Bike Coalition (WMBC) hosts a “Save the Trails” fundraiser from 12:30-4pm at Inspire Studio, 1411 Cornwall Ave. Mini-Rolfing ses-sions, a silent auction, raffles and more will be part of the day’s events. All funds raised will benefit programs that provide safe, positive and inspiring trail experiences for Whatcom County youth.
WWW.WMBCMTB.ORG
TUES., JUNE 2ALL-PACES RUN: Staffers and volunteers are always on hand to guide the way at the weekly All-Paces Run starting at 6pm every Tuesday at Fairhaven Runners, 1209 11th St. The runs are 20 minutes out and back on two key routes—by the water or through the woods. Entry is free.
WWW.FAIRHAVENRUNNERS.COM
MOON WALK: Area women can join Wild Whatcom for its monthly Full Moon Walk from 8-10pm in Whatcom County (the loca-tion will be revealed when you register). Entry to the “Moon of the Salmon’s Return” excursion is $12. Please register early.
WWW.WILDWHATCOM.ORG
THURS., JUNE 4HIKING WASHINGTON: Journalist, writer and hiking fanatic Oliver Lazenby leads a slide show presentation focuses on his Hiking Washington book at 7pm at Village Books, 1200 11th St. The tome acts as a guide to hiking adventures in every corner of the state, with simple directions for hikes ranging from short walks to multi-day treks. It also includes stories about the region’s characters and history.
WWW.VILLAGEBOOKS.COM
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THEATER DANCE PROFILES
stage
BY AMY KEPFERLE
Bard on the Beach ALL SHAKESPEARE, ALL THE TIME
I ’m quite certain William Shakespeare would have approved of the birthday party I hosted for myself a few nights ago.
The evening’s festivities included a few costumes, a spread featuring grilled meat and intoxicating spirits, the telling of many stories, dancing, gift-giving, pie-eating, the sharing of epic poems and—after a couple shots of Jose Cuervo—a recitation of the final lines of the Bard’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, courtesy of yours truly.
While wearing a celebratory crown handcrafted by a winsome 3-year-old, I stood by the firelight and informed my guests that “If we shadows have of-fended/Think but this, and all is mended/That you have but slumber’d here, while these visions did appear/ And this weak and idle theme/No more yielding, but a dream.”
While I’m sure other actresses have given more nuanced performances of the trickster Puck’s parting lines to the audience in one of Shakespeare’s master-works, being outside under the light of a waning moon and uttering lines that so many others have been transforming for more than four centuries provided its own form of theatrical alchemy.
Which brings me to Bard on the Beach. When the longtime nonprofit begins its 26th season with outdoor performances of The Comedy of Errors Thurs., June 4 at Vancouver, BC’s Vanier Park, it’ll be with the goal of continuing to bring Shakespeare’s words to life in as many creative ways as possible.
Along with the steampunk stylings of the first play on the roster—which focuses on two sets of long-lost twins who meet up unexpectedly and create
comedic confusion for just about everyone involved—the four-month repertory sea-son will also offer up showings of the royal tragedy King Lear, Love’s Labour’s Lost via the Jazz Era, and C.C. Humphrey’s Shake-speare’s Rebel, a period drama adapted for the stage from the bestselling novel of the same name.
In addition to the theatrical produc-tions, Shakespeare-related events are planned throughout the late spring, sum-mer and early fall. There’ll be fireworks and concerts, barbecues, pre-show wine tast-ings, guest lecturers, “Exploring Shake-speare” talks, “Young Shakespearean” workshops, “Talkback Tuesdays”—where
you can learn more about the play you’ve just en-joyed—and plenty more.
The powers that be at Bard on the Beach also recently offered sugges-tions for helping celebrate Shakespeare’s 451st birth-day. Although it took place in late April, I can’t help but think the ideas they had for the scribe’s cel-ebrations would translate well to just about any par-ty, birthday or otherwise.
And, looking back on my own bacchanalia, I can check off nearly all of their proposals, which in-cluded: “Put on your best period costume for the day” (I wore a crown and acted like a queen). “Pro-fess your love from a bal-cony” (I welcomed a few of my lovely guests from
our second-story smoking porch). “Write a sonnet (one of our guests recited an epic poem she’d penned about Bellingham’s pipeline explosion). “Speak Shakespear-ean,” which I executed to the best of my ability while waving scarves around in the candlelight.
Even if you don’t want to share your birthday celebrations with the most fa-mous playwright in human existence, you can still get in on the Bard on the Beach fun by procuring a ticket to see one of the four productions being featured this season. The wearing of a crown, of course, is optional.
STAGE
THURS., MAY 28GOOD, BAD, UGLY: Watch “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” at 8pm every Thursday at the Upfront Theatre, 1208 Bay St. At 10pm, stick around for the “Project.” Entry is $4-$7.
733-8855 OR WWW.THEUPFRONT.COM
FRI., MAY 29PENN & TELLER: The world-famous magi-cians known as Penn & Teller will bring their talents to Bellingham for an 8pm performance at the Mount Baker Theatre, 104 N. Commercial St. With sold-out runs on Broadway, world tours, Emmy-winning TV specials, and hundreds of outrageous appearances on everything from Letterman to Fallon, Friends to The Simpsons, Modern Family to Top Chef, the comedic duo shows no signs of slowing down. Tickets to the sold out show are $45-$150.
WWW.MOUNTBAKERTHEATRE.COM
MAY 28-30SPRING REP: A Spring Rep series concludes this week with showings of Best of Brass Monkey at 7:30pm Thursday through Saturday at the iDiOM Theater, 1418 Cornwall Ave. Additionally, there’ll be a “Jazz Jam and Poetry Slam” at 10pm Saturday. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door.
WWW.IDIOMTHEATER.COM
HONK!: Squalicum High School’s drama department finishes up its season with performances of Honk! The Musical at 7:30pm Thursday and Friday, and 2pm and 7:30pm Saturday, at the school’s Forum Theater, 3773 E. McLeod Rd. Tickets to the family-friendly adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling are $5-$10.
WWW.BELLINGHAMSHCOOLS.ORG
MAY 29-30 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Veteran director Billy Hendrix will helm a version of the American classic To Kill a Mockingbird starting this weekend with performances at 7:30pm Friday and Saturday at the Ana-cortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave. The story is narrated by an adult “Scout” as she looks back on the summer when she faced the good and evil of her world. Tickets are $18 and additional showings happen through June 20.
WWW.ACTTHEATRE.COM
BLENDER: Mainstage players will join forces with other top-notch improv groups from around the region at “Blender” shows at 8pm and 10pm Friday and Saturday at the Upfront Theatre, 1208 Bay St. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door.
WWW.THEUPFRONT.COM
MAY 29-31LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS: An up-roarious version of Little Shop of Horrors performed by youth ages 13-16 can be seen for the final weekend at 7pm Friday, 2pm and 7pm Saturday, and 2pm Sunday at the Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth, 1059 N. State St. Tickets to the musical are $10.
WWW.BAAY.ORG
IMPROV FESTIVAL: Western Washington University’s Dead Parrots Society present
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ATTENDWHAT: 26th annual Bard on the Beach features The Comedy of Er-rors, King Lear, Shakespeare’s Rebel, and Love’s Labour’s Lost WHEN: June 4-Sept. 26WHERE: Vanier Park, Vancou-ver, BCCOST: $29-$45 INFO: www.bardonthe beach.org
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a “DPS Improv Festival” with performances at 7pm and 9pm Friday and Saturday, and 8:30pm Sunday, at the Old Main Theater. The shows will feature improvisers from across North America, including the Upright Citizens Brigade and DPS alumni. Entry is $3-$5 at the door.
WWW.AS.WWU.EDU
BARE: Watch BARE: A Pop Opera at 7:30pm Friday and Saturday, and 2pm Sunday, at Western Washington University’s DUG Theater at the Performing Arts Center. The play focuses on two Catholic school lovers and roommates, and deals with issues of religion, homophobia, drug use, teen pregnancy and more.
WWW.EVENTS.WWU.EDU
PIRATES OF PENZANCE: Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pi-rates of Penzance opens this weekend with show-ings at 7:30pm Friday and Saturday, and 2:30pm Sunday, at Oak Harbor’s Whidbey Playhouse, 730 SE Midway Blvd. Tickets are $20; the comedic operetta shows through June 21.
WWW.WHIDBEYPLAYHOUSE.COM
SUN., MAY 31MAN AND SUPERMAN: Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes plays Jack Tanner in Shaw’s Man and Superman at a National Theatre Live showing at 2pm in Mount Vernon at the Lincoln Theatre, 712 S. First St. Tickets are $12-$16.
WWW.LINCOLNTHEATRE.ORG
LAUGHING AT THE STARS: Comedians from Bellingham and beyond entertain audiences at the weekly “Laughing at the Stars” Stand-Up Comedy Show at 8:30pm at the Star Club, 311 E. Holly St. Joel O’Connor hosts the entertaining event. Entry is free.
WWW.STARCLUBBELLINGHAM.COM
MON., JUNE 1GUFFAWINGHAM: A weekly open mic for come-dians, “Guffawingham!,” takes place at 9:30pm every Monday at the Green Frog, 1015 N. State St. Entry is free.
WWW.ACOUSTICTAVERN.COM
TUES., JUNE 2FOREVER PLAID AUDITIONS: Non-equity ac-tors are invited to open auditions for MBT Rep’s upcoming production of the musical Forever Plaid at 4pm at the Mount Baker Theatre’s Walton The-atre, 104 N. Commercial St. Callbacks will begin at 6pm. Performance dates begin Oct. 2, and rehearsals start Sept. 19. All roles are paid.
WWW.MOUNTBAKERTHEATRE.COM
TALENT SHOW: Expect drama, dance, music and more when students in grades one through five and teachers from Lincoln Elementary perform at at Talent Show at 7pm at Mount Vernon’s Lincoln Theatre, 712 S. First St. Entry is by donation at the door.
WWW.LINCOLNTHEATRE.ORG
JUNE 2-6FAUST: A collaboration between students and faculty from Western Washington Univer-sity’s theatre and dance department and film students from the school’s english department will result in performances of /Faust at 7:30pm Tuesday through Friday, and 2pm and 7:30pm Saturday, at the Performing Arts Center. The devised work is inspired by Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Goethe’s Faust, and numerous film adaptations of the Faust myth. Tickets are $7-$17.
WWW.TICKETS.WWU.EDU
DANCE THURS., MAY 28FOLK DANCE: Join the Fourth Corner Folk Dancers to learn lively folk dances from Eastern Europe, Greece, Turkey, and Israel from 7:15-10pm every Thursday at the Fairhaven Library, 1117 12th St. Suggested donation is $5; students and first-timers are free.
(360) 380-0456
FRI., MAY 29DANCE PARTY: A mix of swing, Latin and ball-room will be highlighted and danced to with an introductory lesson at the weekly Friday Night Dance Party from 7:30-10pm at the Bellingham Dance Company, 1705 N. State St. Admission is $5-$7.
WWW.BELLINGHAMDANCECOMPANY.COM
MAY 29-31CAPSTONE CONCERT: The annual BFA Dance Capstone Concert can be seen at performances at 7:30pm Friday and Saturday, and 2pm Sunday, at Western Washington University’s Performing Arts Center, room 16. Entry is $12.
WWW.TICKETS.WWU.EDU
BELLINGHAM REP SPRING CONCERT: Belling-ham Repertory dancers will push the boundaries of what is possible at performances of their ninth annual Spring Concert, “Up/Rooted,” at 7:30pm Friday, 5pm and 7:30pm Saturday, and 5pm Sunday at the Firehouse Performing Arts Center, 1314 Harris Ave. The shows will include a much-anticipated new work commissioned from Seattle choreographer Mary Sheldon specifically for the Bellingham Rep dancers. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Student rush tickets will be available for $5 five minutes before showtime.
WWW.BHAMREP.ORG
SAT., MAY 30SWING KIDS CELEBRATION: Help celebrate 20 years of Western Washington University’s Swing Kids at a “Swing Into Spring” anniversary party from 11:30am-11pm at the ballroom at the Ma-jestic, 1027 N. Forest St. Classes will take place throughout the day, and there’ll be an evening dance happening from 7-11pm. Entry is $45 for WWU students with ID, and $60 general (includes classes and dance); individual classes and entry to the dance only are $15-$20.
WWW.AS.WWU.EDU OR WWW.HEYEVENT.COM
CONTRA DANCE: Join the Bellingham Country Dance Society for its last regularly scheduled dance of the season from 7-10:30pm at the Fairhaven Library, 1117 12th St. Beauty and the Beats will provide live music, and Karen Marshall will call. No partner is needed, and no experi-ence is necessary. Entry is $8-$10.
WWW.BELLINGHAMCOUNTRYDANCE.ORG
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Experimentation and collaboration take center stage when Western Washington University theater, dance and film students present showings of the devised work Faust June 2-6 at the school’s Performing Arts Center
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visualGALLERIES OPENINGS PROFILESGALLERIES OPENINGS PROFILES
BY AMY KEPFERLE
Art in the CityTHE POP-UP PARTICULARS
I f you find yourself at the intersection of Bellingham’s Cornwall Avenue and Holly Street in the next couple of weeks, take a short stroll and don’t stop until you’ve passed the Greenhouse, Café Akroteri, and India
Grill. If you come to Eva Salon, you’ve gone too far. Perhaps I should be more specific about what exactly you’ll be on the
lookout for. For at least a little while longer, the space at 1213 Cornwall Avenue that was formerly a dance studio—but has been empty for the past couple of years, hence the idea that you might mistakenly walk by because you didn’t know anything was happening in there—will take on the role of art gallery.
“Art in the City,” the pop-gallery that opened May 1 and can continue to be visited through June 13, is the result of what happened when four Bellingham-based artists decided to pool their resources to showcase not only their art, but also to draw attention to the diverse array of artists who make their homes here.
“The space will be open to the public for a short window, with a goal to bring energy and diversity to the Cornwall block and surrounding area,” painter and musician Samuel Eisen-Meyer, 24, said of the short-term, non-profit gallery in a recent press release. “The gallery will be represented by a driven organization of individuals working together to enhance, promote and advocate for public art display and a vibrant downtown Bellingham.”
Along with large and small sketches and oil paintings by Eisen-Meyers, viewers who enter the space will find gleaming, sinuous wood pieces by longtime sculptor and painter Francis X Donovan, a funny and heart-wrench-
ing series of paintings by Sarah Denby, wood and light creations by multimedia master Pe-ter Rand, and a smattering of other pieces by area artists who will continue to contribute their works as the exhibit draws to a close.
When I met with Eisen-Meyers on a recent Friday afternoon to take a look at the pop-up particulars, I was struck by the fact that the space—which is long, lined with wood floors, well-lit and still bears hand-painted words like “foxtrot,” “cha-cha” and “mambo” on the walls above where mirrors once hung in the space’s former life as a dance studio—really could be a gallery.
Eisen-Meyers says he agrees. And, although the space is still for lease and they only have plans to be there through mid-June, he and his creative cohorts would be open to helping facilitate some-thing of a more perma-nent nature.
“The goal is that some-body will come in and continue to have this be a functional space,” he says. While he allows that nothing is set in stone, he and the other artists hope galleries such as this one will highlight work by those who spend time bring-ing their visions to life, promote creative discus-sions and engender epic brainstorming sessions.
“It’s the ‘art for art’s sake’ kind of dynamic here,” he says, adding
that there’s also been talk of having live mu-sic sessions, sound healing gatherings, per-formances and more in the large gathering place—time and resources allowing.
Even if the Cornwall Avenue locale doesn’t continue its life as an artistic hub, Eisen-Mey-ers says hosting the gallery and interacting with fellow artists and the community at large has been “one heck of a learning experience.
“I discovered it takes a lot of friends and helpful people to make something like this happen and bring it to life. It’s also taught me how important the creative arts are—both the artists and the art appreciator. Without them, there’s no art.”
ATTENDWHAT: Art in the City: A Pop-Up Gallery WHEN: 4-7pm Fridays, 12-6pm Saturdays, and 12-2pm Sundays through June 13. The space will also be open from 6-10pm Fri., June 5 as part of the downtown Bell-ingham Art Walk, and at a reception from 5-10pm Sat., June 6COST: Entry is freeWHERE: 1213 Cornwall Ave. INFO: (503) 415-1642 or artinthe [email protected]
UPCOMING EVENTS
FRI., MAY 29CHILDREN’S ART SHOW: Meet the talented students of art instructor Brenda Culvert at a reception for a “Children’s Art Show” from 6:30-8pm at the Lynden Library, 216 4th St. The exhibit shows from May 26-30.
305-3600
SAT., MAY 30GREEN EILEEN SALE: Around 500 gently used designer garments will be on sale at a fraction of their original prices at today’s “Green Eileen Pop-Up Sale” from 11am-2pm at Ragfinery, 1421 N. Forest St. Attendees can shop for sustainable clothing and explore Ragfinery’s warehouse of textile resources and upcycled goods. Entry is free. FYI: the first Green Eileen collaboration last October was highly attended, so get there early for the best deals.
WWW.RAGFINERY.COM
SUN., MAY 31MUSEUM OPENING: “Bellingham’s National Art Exhibition and Awards” opens today from 12-5pm at Whatcom Museum’s Lightcatcher Building, 250 Flora St. The exhibit, which was juried by Scott Lawrimore, represents artists from 16 states, including Washington, and features a variety of media—including pho-tography, ceramics, mixed media, paintings and more. Lawrimore will be on hand at 1pm today to lead a guided walk-through of the exhibit, which can been seen through Aug. 30.
WWW.WHATCOMMUSEUM.ORG
THURS., JUNE 4 FIRST THURSDAY ART WALK: The Mount Vernon Downtown Association hosts the First Thursday Art Walk from 5-8pm throughout the urban core. Children’s artwork will be displayed at this particular Art Walk from students around the community. The event is part of the Skagit Valley Art Escape happening throughout the spring and summer.
WWW.MOUNTVERNONDOWNTOWN.ORG
OPENING ARTIST RECEPTION: Attend an Opening Artist Reception for the Early Sum-mer Juried Exhibit from 6-8pm at Lynden’s Jansen Art Center, 321 Front St. Viewers can also check out the third annual Juried Cup Show—which showcases the exceptional work of ceramic artists in the Pacific Northwest—along with exhibits by the Whatcom Artist Guild and painter Amanda Houston. They’ll all be on display through July 31.
WWW.JANSENARTCENTER.ORG
ONGOING EXHIBITS ALLIED ARTS: In honor of Arts Education Month, view professional work by Allied Arts Teaching Artists in Whatcom County through May at Allied Arts, 1418 Cornwall Ave.
WWW.ALLIEDARTS.ORG
ARTWOOD: Mirrors, art pieces for the walls and small tables by Ray deVries will be high-lighted through May at Artwood Gallery, 1000 Harris Ave.
WWW.ARTWOODGALLERY.COM
FISHBOY GALLERY: Check out the contempo-rary folk art of RR Clark from 1:30-5pm every Mon.-Fri. at the FishBoy Gallery, 617 Virginia St.
714-0815 OR WWW.FISHBOYGALLERY.COM
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FOURTH CORNER FRAMES: “Hidden Treasures” shows through June 30 at Fourth Corner Frames & Gallery, 311 W. Holly St. The exhibit features the work of Robert Finnigan (1927-1997), a New York artist with a strong mid-century style of what he called “Modified Realism.”
WWW.FOURTHCORNERFRAMES.COM
GOOD EARTH POTTERY: Ann Marie Coo-per’s works will be featured through May at Good Earth Pottery, 1000 Harris Ave.
WWW.GOODEARTHPOTS.COM
DEMING LIBRARY: Enjoy art created by students from the Acme, Kendall, and Har-mony Elementary schools at a “Kids’ Spring Art Show” through June 11 at the Deming Library, 5044 Mt. Baker Hwy.
305-3600
JANSEN ART CENTER: “Promising Futures: Whatcom County High School Student Art,” an exhibit of works by Seattle-based artist Quincy Anderson, and the continuing Spring Juried Exhibit can be seen until May 30 at Lynden’s Jansen Art Center, 321 Front St.
WWW.JANSENARTCENTER.ORG
MATZKE GALLERY: “The Celebration of Spring” shows through June 14 at Camano Island’s Matzke Fine Art Gallery and Sculp-ture Park, 2345 Blanche Way. The multi-artist exhibit is open every weekend.
WWW.MATZKEFINEART.COM
MONA: “Neo-Naturalists,” “Etsuko Ichiwaka, Hakoniwa Project: To Touch & Be Touched,” and “Study in Green” are cur-rently on display at La Conner’s Museum of Northwest Art, 121 S. First St.
WWW.MONAMUSEUM.ORG
QUILT MUSUEM: View “Revealing the Hidden” (Contemporary QuiltArt Associa-tion), “Impressions in Fabric” (Denise Miller and Nancy Ryan) and “Pastels and More: Selections from our Permanent Collection” through June 28 at the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum, 703 S. Second St.
WWW.LACONNERQUILTS.ORG
SKAGIT MUSEUM: “Salt of the Earth” shows through July 12 at La Conner’s Skagit County Historical Museum, 501 S. Fourth St. Through May 31, you can also view “The Art of Mark Iverson: A Friend Remembered.”
WWW.SKAGITCOUNTY.NET/MUSEUM
SMITH & VALLEE: View “Homage” until May 31 at Edison’s Smith & Vallee Gallery, 5742 Gilkey Ave.
WWW.SMITHANDVALLEE.COM
WESTERN GALLERY: View the “Senior Show”—featuring works by art studio majors and BFA graduates—through June 15 at Western Washington University’s Western Gallery.
WWW.WESTERNGALLERY.WWU.EDU
WHATCOM MUSEUM: “Tom Sherwood: A Golden Perspective,” “The Owl and the Woodpecker: Photographs by Paul Bannick,” and “A Curator’s Perspective: Selections from the Collection” can currently be viewed on the Whatcom Museum campus.
WWW.WHATCOMMUSEUM.ORG
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musicSHOW PREVIEWS › › RUMOR HAS IT
BY WHATEVER YARDSTICK you use to measure, there can be little doubt that summer—oth-erwise known as the reason we endure nine months of wind and rain—has been announc-ing its imminent arrival of late.
For some, the sign of the season comes when the road to Artist Point opens. For others, it hap-pens when the waters of Whatcom Creek go from forbidding to merely icy, meaning one can jump off the falls if that’s how one gets their kicks.
For me, the signs of summer are really the sounds of summer. In other words, when music begins to spill from indoor venues to outdoor lo-cales is when I know the season has truly arrived.
Like so many things, what starts with a trick-le, namely the reopening of Boundary Bay’s beer garden, soon becomes a flood, with al fresco music happening everywhere, all the time.
Along with all the usual spots, this sum-mer, music can also be found for the first time at Maritime Heritage Park. The music series, which begins Fri., Aug. 7, follows on the heels of Downtown Sounds and comes a little more than a month after the end of the kickball tournament currently tak-ing place at the park. All this civic activity has a goal beyond mere fun—although that is the primary aim, to be sure—it’s also part of a plan to entice more residents to use the park, which is both beautiful and has an unbeatable down-town location, but suffers from a bit of a public relations problem owing to the transient popu-lation that hangs out there. However, Maritime Heritage is expansive enough that there’s room for all of us, a point the Downtown Bellingham Partnership hopes to drive home by spearhead-ing activities there.
Another harbinger of summer comes in the form of various lineup announcements for our homegrown music festivals, Subdued Stringband Jamboree and Summer Meltdown, as well as the Make.Shift Block Party.
Meltdown has announced its full lineup for 2015, and it will include STS9, Iration, Tycho, Greensky Bluegrass, Galactic, Sol, Flowmotion, Acorn Project, the Motet, Lyrics Born, and more.
The Subdued Stringband Jamboree, which, once again, takes place during the same week-end as Summer Meltdown—Aug. 6-9—has also confirmed a preliminary lineup, and I’m told an announcement will be forthcoming just as soon as Stringband founder and brain trust Robert Sarazin Blake deems it so.
As far as the Make.Shift Block Party is con-cerned, organizers have elected to turn their lineup announcement into an event all its own, with a Block Party Pre-Party happening at 2pm Sat., May 30. Pan Pan and Biagio Biondolillo have been tapped to play the party before the Block Party. No word if the dunk tank will be trotted out for this event, so feel free to bring water balloons as a backup if you must.
Rumor Has It
BY CAREY ROSS
BY CAREY ROSS
LawnstockPULL UP A PATCH OF GRASS
Once upon a time, not so long ago, Western Washington University, under the auspices of Associated Students Productions (or ASP Pop Music as it was once known before being incorporated under the AS
Productions umbrella), was responsible for bringing bands and musicians to campus for the entertainment of the student body.
This was an arrangement with benefits beyond the confines of the WWU campus, as, thanks to the miracle of plentiful university funding, AS Pro-ductions was able to book bigger acts than you’d typically find at Belling-ham’s other venues, while keeping ticket prices down for students and the general public alike. This confluence of beneficial factors helped bring the likes of the Roots, the Shins, Cat Power, Modest Mouse, and many, many more to town for shows that are still talked about even now.
However, university funding is not what it once was, and with budgetary demands reaching a crisis point at many institutions of higher education, programs such as AS Productions have had to make do with less, and show greater ingenuity than ever before. What this has meant during the past few years is that AS Productions is no longer providing us with a robust roster of big-name talent at rock-bottom prices—a thing about which I am still sad, but I have to admit that it was pretty good while it lasted.
But all has not gone silent on campus, and for the past couple of years, AS Produc-tions has thrown a big, almost-end-of-year concert open to anyone who wants to pull of a patch of grass on the Communication Lawn and attend.
Called Lawnstock, the show has proven to be wildly popular, probably owing to its mix of local and regional talent and its asking price of free. So, while AS Produc-tions doesn’t organize as many concerts as they once did, they make the ones they’re responsible for count.
This year’s Lawnstock—the event’s third iteration—takes place starting at 4pm Sun., May 31 and boasts a lineup that is entertaining and eclectic. Depending on what time you find yourself making your way to the Comm Lawn, you could hear the electro-pop of Seattle’s Beat Connection, or Shaprece’s genre-shattering smooth soul sound, or the once-familiar faces of former Bellinghamsters Kithkin and Spec-ters, both returning to their alma mater for the occasion.
Along with these more established acts, the winner of Sounds of the Un-
BEAT CONNECTION
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WED., MAY 27MILO PETERSEN QUARTET: The Milo Petersen Quartet performs at a concert that will pay hom-age to master guitarist Wes Montgomery at 7pm at the Whatcom Jazz Music and Arts Center at the Majestic, 1023 N. Forest St. Entry is $5-$10.
WWW.WJMAC.ORG
THURS., MAY 28 TRIBUTE CONCERT: The Mount Vernon High School instrumental music department celebrates the troops at a Tribute Concert at 7pm at the Lin-coln Theatre, 712 S. First St. Tickets are $4-$8.
WWW.LINCOLNTHEATRE.ORG
FRI., MAY 29UKULELE CONCERT: The Bellingham Ukulele Orchestra presents its annual “I Love a Ukulele” concert at 7pm at the Heiner Theater at Whatcom Community College. Tickets are $10.
WWW.BELLINGHAMUKULELEORCHESTRA.COM
STRINGS AND SKINS: Ten Strings and a Goat Skin, a young award-winning bilingual trad/fusion trio, performs at 7:30pm at Mount Vernon’s Mc-Intyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way. Tickets are $20.
WWW.MCINTYREHALL.ORG
SAT., MAY 30YOUTH SYMPHONY: The final Fidalgo Youth Sym-phony concert of the season takes place at 1pm in Mount Vernon at McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way. General admission is $15.
WWW.MCINTYREHALL.ORG
MAY 30-31BAYSHORE SYMPHONY: Bayshore Symphony and soloist Randi Sulkin present Vivaldi’s “Concerto for Piccolo, Strings and Continuo in C Major” and other classical works at 7:30pm Saturday at Mount Vernon’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 415 S. 18th St. An additional concert takes place at 3pm Sunday
in Bellingham at Central Lutheran Church, 925 N. Forest St. Suggested donation is $10.
WWW.BAYSHOREMUSICPROJECT.COM
SUN., MAY 31WHATCOM CHORALE: Bach’s “Mass in B Minor” will be highlighted at a Whatcom Chorale concert from 3-5pm at Bellingham’s First Congregational Church, 2401 Cornwall Ave. Entry is $5-$20.
WWW.WHATCOMCHORALE.ORG
ART OF JAZZ: The Josh Cook/John Moak Quartet performs at the Jazz Project’s Art of Jazz concert 4-6:30pm at the Encore Room at the Mount Baker Theatre, 104 N. Commercial St. Entry is $10-$16.
WWW.JAZZPROJECT.COM
LAVAL AND COMPTON: World-renowned Celtic musicians Jamie Laval and Dan Compton perform at 7pm at the YWCA Ballroom, 1026 N. Forest St. Tickets are $12-$20.
733-5960 OR WWW.JAMIELAVAL.COM
MON., JUNE 1MVHS FINALE CONCERT: The award-winning Mount Vernon High School Choirs will offer up their final performances of the season at 4pm and 7pm at McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way. Tickets are $6 for the early show, $8 for the later one.
WWW.MCINTYREHALL.ORG
WED., JUNE 3SALISH SEA FESTIVAL: As part of the Salish Sea Music Festival, attend an “1820: A Beethoven Band” concert at 7:30pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2117 Walnut St. Entry is $15-$25.
WWW.SALISHSEAFESTIVAL.ORG
FACULTY JAZZ SERIES: The final WWU Faculty Jazz series of the season takes place at 8pm at the BAAY Theatre, 1059 N. State St. Entry is $10.
WWW.CFPA.WWU.EDU
musicevents
derground, the inaugural competition staged by and held at WWU’s Under-ground Coffeehouse, will also get a chance to play on the Lawnstock stage, which will surely be the largest audi-ence that nascent band has ever per-formed for. At press time, said winner had yet to be determined, but will be chosen at the Sounds of the Under-ground finals taking place just a couple of days before Lawnstock, on Fri., May 29 at Make.Shift Art Space. The final-ists are the Female Fiends, Painters, the Cleos, and Scruffager, so one of those will be part of your 2015 Lawn-stock soundtrack, which will no doubt lead to fame and glory beyond the con-fines of WWU’s Comm Lawn.
While music is the reason Lawnstock exists, the event offers more than just free bands in an idyllic outdoor setting. The ever-amazing Sensebellum will be on hand with their mind-boggling vi-suals via light-mapping, Cubix staging system and other tech-savvy trickery that I don’t understand and so think
it comes about via a combination of mag-ic and genius. Food vendors will also be part of the event, so you can satiate your actual appetite along with your artistic one, and a photo booth will be set up so you can immortal-ize the day without the use of the blight on humanity that is the selfie stick. Sav-ing the best for last, AS Productions Spe-cial Events has some-how gotten its hands on a bona fide car-
nival ride, the Cyclone Swing, so step right up for that as well.
As previously mentioned, the best part about Lawnstock is that it’s free, family-friendly and open to anyone who finds themselves on the WWU cam-pus with a yen to be entertained—all thanks to the hard-working folks of AS Productions.
LAWNSTOCK, FROM PAGE 20
ATTENDWHAT: Lawnstock w/Beat Connec-tion, Shaprece, moreWHEN: 4pm Sun., May 31WHERE: WWU’s Communication LawnCOST: FreeINFO: www. lawnstock.com
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Boundary Bay Brewery
Aaron GuestHappy Hour BBQ w/Robert Sarazin Blake, Woe Be Gone
We Are WWU w/Moongrass Irish & Folk Night Out of the Ashes
Brown Lantern Ale House
Open Mic DJ Ontic
The Business
Cabin Tavern Karaoke Open Mic JP Falcon BandShaken Growlers, Purple
MageThe Shady Two
Commodore Ballroom Juicy J Awolnation Apocalyptica, Art of Dying
Conway MuseThe Hoe and the Harrow,
Eddy and the TouksSociety of Broken Souls Q Dot
Corner Pub Knut Bell and the 360s
Edison Inn Blues Union Snug Harbor Orville Johnson Band
musicvenues See below for venue addresses and phone numbers
05.27.15 05.28.15 05.29.15 05.30.15 05.31.15 06.1.15 06.2.15WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY
Bellewood Acres | Bobby Lee’s Pub & Eatery | Boundary Bay Brewing Co. Brown Lantern Ale House The Business | Cabin Tavern Chuckanut Brewery
Commodore Ballroom Conway Muse Corner Pub
LIP SYNC BATTLE/ June 1/Wild Buffalo
CAST YOUR VOTE
EXHIBITION OPENS MAY 31 Through September 6, 2015 | Lightcatcher
A juried exhibition featuring artworks in a variety of media, including video, photography, ceramics, mixed media, paintings and more. Representing artists from 16 states, including Washington, the exhibition includes 101 pieces from more than 60 artists. Juried by Scott Lawrimore, Director of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, University of Washington. JUROR’S PERSPECTIVE Sunday, May 31, 1pm | Lightcatcher Walk through the exhibition with juror Scott Lawrimore and learn more about his process selecting pieces for the exhibition.
www.whatcommuseum.org
Elizabeth Mesa-Gaido; Then and Now Sneakers, Hand painted/dyed, pleated, stitched organza and printed images, 10” x 20”.
BELLINGHAM NATIONAL ART
EXHIBITION & AWARDS @ WHATCOM MUSEUM
Vote for your fave piece b/w May 31-Aug. 2nd. Winning artist will win $500!
Squeak Meisel; secret; down pat, paperboard food packaging and tape, 3” x 5 x 4.5”.
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musicvenues See below for venue addresses and phone numbers
05.20.15 05.21.15 05.22.15 05.23.15 05.24.15 05.25.15 05.26.15WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY
Glow Nightclub Dancearoke Bass Area Crew Girl Meets Boy DJ Boombox Kid
Green FrogThe Broken Bow String-
bandThe Show Ponies, Tai Shan
Kidaoke (early), The Dip, Tea Seas Trio (late)
Slow Jam (early)Open Mic (early), Guf-
fawingham (late)Terrible Tuesday Soul
Explosion
H2O DJ Redding, DJ Z CC Adams Band Karaoke
Honey Moon Open Mic The Shadies
KC's Bar and Grill Karaoke Karaoke
Kulshan Brewing Co. David Flett The Heebie Jeebies Giant's Causeway
Main St. Bar and Grill Comedy Night Sucker Punch Maximus
Make.Shift Art Space Sounds of the UndergroundBlock Party Pre-Party w/
Pan Pan, more
Old World Deli Broken Bow Stringband
Rockfish Grill Fidalgo Swing Wayne Hayton
Royal Karaoke Karaoke Country Night DJ Jester
Rumors Cabaret Leveled Throwback Thursday DJ Postal, DJ Shortwave DJ Mike Tolleson Karaoke w/Zach Treble Tuesday
The Shakedown Hump! Dance Party Falling Up Stairs, Silm, moreCat Bomb, Crossbows and
Catapults, moreTotalizer, Incanus, World
RunnerTom Waits Night Aireeoke
Skagit Valley Casino Pretty Twisted Expertease
Skylark's Chad Petersen The Spencetet Soul Shadows
Star Club Aireeoke TGIF Karaoke The Beach Ball Laughing at the Stars
Swillery Whiskey Bar Karaoke Songwriter Night The Basque Rats, moreDefenestrator, Xoth, Ludovico Treatment
Swinomish Casino and Lodge
The Hitmen The Hitmen
The Underground DJ B-Mello DJ B-Mello
Via Cafe and Bistro Karaoke Karaoke Karaoke Karaoke Karaoke
The Village Inn Jam Night Karaoke
Wild Buffalo ‘90s NightGreat Pacific, Kelu, Actio-
nesseLifted w/Bass Area Crew Potluck, Wrekonize, Prevail Lip Sync Battle
The Green Frog | Edison Inn | The Fairhaven | Glow Graham’s Restaurant | H20, | Honey Moon KC’s Bar and Grill
Kulshan Brewery | Make.Shift Art Space | Main Street Bar & Grill McKay’s Taphouse | Nooksack River Casino | Poppe’s | Paso Del Norte
The Redlight Rockfish Grill The Royal Rumors Cabaret | The Shakedown Silver Reef Casino Skagit Valley Casino Resort 5984 N.
Skylark’s Hidden Cafe Star Club Swillery Whiskey Bar Swinomish Casino |Temple Bar The Underground | Underground Coffeehouse | Via
Wild Buffalo
AWOLNATION/May 28/Commodore Ballroom
PAN PAN/ May 30/Make.Shift
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FilmMOVIE REVIEWS › › SHOWTIMES
ifying power of creativity, whether we’re painting a companion piece to the Sis-tine Chapel ceiling or deciding what color pocket square to wear in the morning. On camera, Apfel laments the “homogeniza-tion” of modern dressing: “I like individu-ality. It’s so lost these days.” She tries to explain how she puts things together the way she does, by gathering bits and bobs from flea markets, from junk-jewelry stores in midtown Manhattan, from her world travels with Carl. “I like to improvise,” she says. “It’s like playing jazz.” The truth is that once in a while Apfel will start with a garment that’s at least mildly atrocious—a jacket, say, with too-garish embroidery. But by the time she’s done putting a look together, it’s all like a peculiar piece of mu-sic, maybe not hummable but defiantly dis-tinctive—the visual equivalent of Mingus’s rubbery, jolly bass solo on “All the Things You Are.”
Maysles’ camera opens its eyes wide to Apfel, taking the measure of her wildly beautiful and witty outfits as if it can hardly believe what it sees. There’s delight here in Maysles’ way of seeing. When it’s time to go, this is the way to do it, with nothing but openness to joy and beauty. Iris is a wonderful parting shot. It’s also very quietly moving, considering that it’s not about growing old, but about already being there. As the film was being made, Iris, Carl, and Albert were already mem-bers of this club—Albert, at 88, would have been the youngest—and even if their curiosity about the world hasn’t dimin-ished, they’re hardly in denial about the creakiness of their bones. Apfel has plenty of salty words about the inevitability of wrinkles and the necessity of just getting up and moving, even when every body part aches. Carl is less vociferous about the inconveniences of aging, but Maysles’ camera captures, with the delicate touch of a watercolor brush, the fragility of his health. We see him celebrating his 100th birthday, quietly seated in a wheelchair but still radiating boyish delight—not least because he clearly gets a kick out of just about everything his wife says, does, or wears, even if he occasionally feigns a weary shrug.
The picture’s loveliest, most offhanded moment involves a rather protracted dis-cussion between Iris and Carl about wheth-er or not there’s any yogurt left in the re-frigerator and, if so, whether it’s “his” or “hers.” This is what life comes down to when you’re 93 and 100, respectively. But beyond that, the exchange is just one little thread plucked from the intricate warp and weft of married life, the wild, imperfect tapestry you make together when you’re with someone—devotedly, as these two are—for a long time. At one point, Apfel states simply that she likes being “in the world and of the world.” She may wear six necklaces at once, but she knows how to pare down to the basics.
REVIEWED BY STEPHANIE ZACHAREK
IrisSTYLE FOR MILES
I ris Apfel isn’t exactly a household name, unless we’re talking about very stylish households. From 1950 to 1992, Apfel ran Old World Weavers, the business she cofounded with her husband, Carl, which faithfully re-created antique textiles for
use in home decorating. From grand Park Avenue drapes to demure White House set-tees, the duo’s historically accurate fabrics made their way into any number of upper-crusty redecorating schemes. But today Apfel, 93, is less well known for dressing inte-riors and more famous for dressing herself. She’s what’s known in fashion parlance as a style icon, though the fatuous blandness of that term doesn’t come close to describing the visual exuberance of her look: On a random day Apfel might sport—in addition to her trademark cropped silver hair and round-rimmed spectacles—a satin patchwork jacket in Marrakesh colors, a pair of velvet smoking slippers with a screw embroidered on the toe of one and the letter “U” emblazoned on the other, and no fewer than six jumbo amber bead necklaces. Plus five bright Bakelite bangles—on each arm.
Apfel is the subject of Albert Maysles’ Iris, one of the final documentaries made by the revered nonfiction filmmaker before he died this past March. And like all good documentaries, Iris is about much more than what we see on the surface, no matter how dazzling that surface may be. Apfel and her colossal feats of accessoriz-
ing have been featured in countless maga-zine spreads, and museum shows have been assembled from her decade-spanning collection of clothes and accessories. She also sells a line of costume jewelry on the Home Shopping Network. Apfel sometimes packs more into a day than younger, stur-dier souls might attempt in a week, and people who care about fashion adore her at least partly for her classic New York candor. (In Iris, more than once someone will ask her solicitously, “How are you?” to which she responds, “I’m vertical.”) May-sles’ camera captures the self-described “geriatric starlet” hobnobbing with Linda Fargo, a senior vice president at Bergdorf Goodman and the doyenne of the store’s famous, fabulous windows, and greeting the elfin New York Times street-style pho-tographer extraordinaire Bill Cunningham with a genuinely affectionate (as opposed to a fashion-world) embrace.
But Iris is more than just a movie about an amusing lady who likes clothes an aw-ful lot. It’s also a celebration of the reviv-
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2015 GMC Yukon XL
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Aloha: This is a Cameron Crowe movie, meaning it could either be touching and poignant (Almost Famous, Say Anything) or utter crap (Elizabethtown, Vanilla Sky). Or a little from column A and a little from column B (Jerry Maquire, We Bought a Zoo). (PG-13)
Avengers: Age of Ultron: Summer blockbusters, meet your new God. (PG-13 • 2 hrs. 21 min.)
Far From the Madding Crowd: Thomas Hardy gets the adaptation his classic novel so richly deserves, with his incomparable heroine, Bathsheba Everdene, embodied with great skill and spirit by the equally incomparable Carey Mulligan. (PG-13 • 1 hr. 59 min.)
Hot Pursuit: This isn’t the worst movie you’ve ever seen and that’s the absolute best thing I can say about it. (PG-13 • 1 hr. 27 min.)
Ir is: See review previous page. (PG-13 • 1 hr. 23 min.)
Mad Max: Fury Road: In 1981, George Miller unleashed his futuristic, post-apocalyptic fantasy The Road Warrior on the movie-going public, and the Mad Max saga was born. Now, some 30-plus years later, Mill-er reboots his franchise, with a little help from stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, and proves himself to still be the right man to deliver a crazy, frenetic, ass-kicker of a Mad Max movie. (R • 2 hrs.)
Pitch Perfect 2: Sure, it’s thin on plot and many of its jokes are infantile at best, but it’s a movie about competitive a cappella singers, not Citizen Kane. The girl-power vibe, killer soundtrack and increased presence of scene-stealing Rebel Wilson make it a pretty good time at the movies. (PG-13 • 1 hr. 54 min.)
Poltergeist: The original was the first horror movie my sister and I ever saw together—she felt great ter-ror and I took great satisfaction in poorly re-enacting various scenes of the movie in order to freak her out over and over again. This movie might have some things going for it—namely that it, much like its predecessor, was produced by Steven Spielberg—but it can never match the glory of what came before. (PG-13 • 1 hr. 33 min.)
San Andreas: I love a cheesy natural disaster movie. And this one just happens to be based on a script by Bellingham native and all-around nice guy, Jeremy Passmore. It also stars the Rock, and if anyone can wrestle a giant earthquake to the ground, it’s him.
(PG-13 • 2 hrs. 3 min.)
Slow West: Dreamy and atmospheric while still managing to be action-packed, this movie, starring Michael Fassbender and Ben Mendelsohn, is a thor-oughly modern take on a traditional Western. (R • 1 hr. 24 min.)
Tomorrowland: All I know about Tomorrowland is it ’s the place at Disneyland where Michael Jackson (disguised as Captain EO) lives and it is also home to Space Mountain, which is good enough for me. All I know about its cinematic namesake is that it bombed at the box office, probably because the moviegoing public has no clue what to do with a film that’s not a remake or a sequel. (PG • 2 hrs. 10 min.)
Welcome to Me: Kristen Wiig is a rare talent, capable of creating characters that are funny without being completely ridiculous and portraying serious roles that are imbued with equal measures of humor and humanity. In this, she plays a woman with bor-derline personality disorder and lottery winnings who buys herself a talk show and proceeds to work out her mental and emotional issues in front of a live studio audience. (R • 1 hr. 45 min.)
What We Do in the Shadows: Spawned from the twisted minds responsible for Flight of the Conchords, this is the completely hilarious, must-see vampire spoof we have all been waiting for. (Unrated • 1 hr. 27 min.)
Woman in Gold: This movie details the story of Maria Altmann, whose family owned a famous painting by Gustav Klimt before it was stolen by Nazis during World War II. Altmann (portrayed by the unerringly amazing Helen Mirren) famously sued to get the painting back, becoming a test case for the law that grants Jewish repatriation, a court battle that would eventually go all the way to the Supreme Court. (PG-13 • 1 hr. 50 min.)
BY CAREY ROSS
FILM SHORTS
film ›› showing this week
Showtimes Regal and AMC theaters, please see
www.fandango.com.
Pickford Film Center and PFC’s Limelight Cinema, please see
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200 MIND & BODY
200 MIND & BODY
200 MIND & BODY
200 MIND & BODY
bulletinboard“Medicare 101” will be the subject of discussion with Australia Cosby, Coordinator of the Whatcom County State-wide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) program, from 6:30-8pm Thursday, May 28 at the Cordata Community
Food Co-op, 315 Westerly Rd. Entry is free, but you need to register. More info: 734-8158 or www.community food.coop
Attend an Open House to introduce new owner Katrina Svoboda Johnson from 12-5pm
at Bellingham’s Ayurvedic Health Center, 203 W. Holly St., suite 201. The free event will include complimentary organic teas and snacks, informal info presentations, a gift basket giveaway, and more. More info: www.ayurvedichealth-center.com
An “Intro to Yoga” course for all ages and skill levels takes place from 10:30-11:30am Fridays through June 19 at the Deming Library, 5044 Mt. Baker Hwy. Come once, or to all sessions. Please bring your own yoga mat (or towel or blanket) and water bottle. En-try is free and no registration is required. More info: 305-3600
Learn more about cutting-edge neuroscience and how
it can be applied to managing stress, anxiety and stabilizing medical conditions at a “Neu-rofeedback with Joan Cross” presentation at 6:30pm Mon., June 1 in Mount Vernon at the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, 202 S. First St. Register in advance for e free workshop. More info: www.skagitfoodcoop.com
Certified hypnothera-pist and reiki master Chris-tina Miglino leads and “Intro-duction to Depth Hypnosis” from 6:30-8pm Mon., June 1 at the Community Food Co-op, 1220 N. Forest St. Depth hypnosis draws on Buddhism, shamanism, trans-personal psychology as well as other forms of hypnotherapy. This class will include a group guided meditation. Entry is $5. More info: www.com-muntyfood.coop
Find out about a healing art which can be used for relaxation, stress reduction, meditation, and is commonly practiced in conjunction with Western Medicine for disease treatment when Carolyn Jack-son leads “An Introduction to Reiki” from 6-8pm Wed., June 3 at the Blaine Library, 610 3rd St. Entry is free. More info: www.wcls.org
A “Take Control of Your Health” Q & A with Jim Ehmke, CN, happens from 6:30-8:30pm Wed., June 3 at the Cordata Community Food Co-op, 315 Westerly Rd. Bring your health questions for an open discussion. Entry is $5. More info: www.community-food.coop
A monthly “Reiki Share” begins at 6:30pm Fri., June 5 in Mount Vernon at the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, 202 S. First St. The gatherings are a time of sharing, learning and healing that is brought to the table by each person regard-less of the individual experi-ence. They are a great way for the curious to experience Energy healing and for the seasoned healers to practice and offer their gifts to others. Entry is free. More info: www.skagitfoodcoop.com
Professional,knowledgeable,fun & friendlyto work with.
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360-671-5600, [email protected] PICKFORD FILM CENTER: 1318 Bay St. | 360.738.0735 | www.pickfordfilmcenter.org
Box Office is Open 30 Minutes Prior to F irst Showtime
LIMELIGHT CINEMA: 1416 Cornwall | Happy Hour: 4-6, M-F $3.50 Beer/$4.50 Wine
We offer a selection of Closed Captioned devices | Parenthesis () Denote Bargain Pricing
NOW SHOWINGMay 29 -
June 4
SLOW WEST (R) 84m “The glorious cinematography sharply illustrates the disparity
between the rugged majesty of the landscape and the
savagery of its outlaws and adventurers.” The New York Times
Fri & Sat: (2:00), 6:30; Sun: (1:00), 5:30
Mon - Thu: (2:00), 6:30
IRIS (PG-13) 83m “Set to a rock-and-roll soundtrack, with titles featuring the
bright colors Iris adores, Albert Maysles’ documentary is
energetic and vibrant.” The Playlist
Fri: (4:15); Sat: 4:15; Sun: (3:15); Mon - Thu: (4:15)
WELCOME TO ME (R) 105m - “Kristen Wiig’s crass,
narcissistic Alice is her greatest creation.” indieWire
Fri & Sat: 8:40; Sun: 7:40; Mon - Thu: 8:40
NOW SHOWING May 29 - June 4
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (PG-13) 119m “Thomas Hardy’s classic Victorian tale about one woman’s
dueling desires for feminist independence and fiery
passion. With a steely resilience, Carey Mulligan brings
remarkable nuance and a rich inner life to the role of
Bathsheba Everdene.” Entertainment Weekly
Fri: (12:45), (3:30), 6:15, 9:00
Sat: (12:45), 3:30, 6:15, 9:00
Sun: (11:45AM), (2:30), 5:15, 8:00
Mon & Tue: (12:45), (3:30), 6:15, 9:00
Wed: (3:30), 6:15, 9:00; Thu: (12:45), (3:30), 6:15
WOMAN IN GOLD (PG-13) 109m “Even with a starry cast (Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds), the
stirring true story is this drama’s standout feature.” Empire
Fri: (1:30), (4:00), 6:30; Sat: (1:30), 4:00, 6:30
Sun: (12:30), (3:00), 5:30; Mon: (12:30), (3:00), 7:15
Tue: (1:30), (4:00); Wed: (1:00), (4:00); Thu: (1:30), (4:00)
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (R) 87m
Fri & Sat: 9:10; Sun: 8:10; Mon: 9:30; Tue: 9:10
Wed: 9:30; Thu: 9:10
TASHI AND THE MONK (NR) 40m
A buddhist monk creates a remarkable children’s
community based on principles of love and compassion.
Mon: 5:30 - With Dr. Frank James and Courtney Taylor
OSAKA ELEGY (NR) 71mMasters of Japanese Cinema Season Finale
A young woman sacrifices herself in order to save her family
from financial difficulties, and pays the consequences.
Tue: 6:30 - Introduction by Jeff Purdue
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (NR) 140m
English National Opera - Sentimental pirates, improbable
paradoxes & absurd adventures, from Mike Leigh (Mr. Turner) Wed: 6:30
MAN AND SUPERMAN 210m National Theatre Live
Ralph Fiennes plays Jack Tanner in this exhilarating
reinvention of Shaw’s witty, provocative classic.
Thu: 6:30
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rearEnd ›› ”What If?”—oh, that if.
Across1 Baymax’s friend in
a Disney movie5 Art Spiegelman
graphic novel9 Dress like13 More put-to-
gether14 Convention cen-
ter event15 Banish from
office16 Members of the
peerage who stay that way forever?
18 “Close My Eyes Forever” singer ___ Ford
19 Test that’s all talk
20 “Jaws” sighting21 Irregular way to
get paid23 Come calling25 Singer Josh26 Aid in finding
the Titanic27 Go door to door,
perhaps28 2, 3, or 4, usu-
ally, in miniature golf
29 Robot come-dian’s scanning command?
34 Wear down36 Clumsy bumpkin37 “Raw” pigment38 Places that are
lush to the max?41 Walgreens alter-
native42 Marketplace in
ancient Greece43 Blockheaded
45 Gold measures47 Journalist Jo-
seph48 Actress Tomei49 1040 expert50 “Game of
Thrones” actress Chaplin
53 “Little Things” singer India.___
54 Device for processing flour in the distant future?
57 Caliph’s title58 Racing pace59 Vegas table op-
tion60 Bull, for one61 “Happy Motor-
ing” company of yore
62 ___-majestÈ
Down1 Salon sweepings2 Pro3 Catch, as a fish4 Round figure5 Badge justifica-
tion6 Impulse transmit-
ter7 “Buffy the
Vampire Slayer” station
8 “My apologies!”9 “Jurassic Park”
actor10 Board for
fortune-seekers11 ___ Martin
(Bond’s car)12 Semi-educated
guess13 ___-mo17 “Hearts ___”
(‘90s TV series)22 Numskulls24 Demonstrates
fuel efficiency25 Blunder26 Indian woman’s
attire27 R&B singer of
“Oh” and “Prom-ise”
28 “As ___ instruc-tions”
30 Pride sounds31 Airer of the
Triple Crown and the Summer Olympics
32 “Scream” actress Campbell
33 ‘01 and ‘10, e.g.35 “Heavens to
Betsy!”39 As desired, in
recipes40 1960s U.N. am-
bassador Steven-son
44 Prank performed on someone in a headlock
45 Word in a Lennon title
46 Common font variety
47 Probably will, after “is”
48 Mangle49 Companies’
money execs51 Handle52 Pro vote55 Auditing gp.56 Lightning org.
2015 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesin crosswords.com)
Last Week’s Puzzle
Jury Verdict
We the Jury, find the defendant:
So say we all.
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Ju
ry Foreperson
Not Guilty
Guilty
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BY ROB BREZSNY
FREEWILL ASTROLOGYARIES (March 21-April 19): Keith Moon played drums for the rock band the Who. He was once voted the second-greatest drummer in history. But his erratic behavior, often provoked by drugs or alcohol, sometimes interfered with his abilities. In 1973, the Who was doing a live concert near San Francisco when the horse tranquilizer that Moon had taken earlier caused him to pass out. The band appealed to the audience for help. “Can anybody play the drums?” asked guitarist Pete Townshend. “I mean somebody good?” A 19-year-old amateur drummer named Scot Halpin volunteered. He played well enough to finish the show. I suspect that sometime soon, Aries, you may also get an unexpected opportunity to play the role of a substitute. Be ready!
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The weta is a very large insect whose habitat is New Zealand. It looks like a robotic grasshopper, with giant black eyes on a long red face, enlarged hind legs bearing spikes, and floppy, oversized antennae. The native Maori people call it “the god of the ugly things.” Please note that this is a term of respect. The weta’s title is not “the most monstrous of the ugly things,” or “the worst” or “the scariest” or “the most worthless of the ugly things.” Rather, the Maori say it’s the god—the high-est, the best, the most glorious. I suspect that in the coming days, Taurus, you will have a close encounter with your own version of a “god of ugly things.” Doesn’t it deserve your love and welcome?
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You have successfully made the transition from brooding caterpillar to social butterfly. Soon you will be in your full, fluttery glory, never lingering too long with one thought, one friend, or one identity. Some heavy-duty, level-headed stalwarts might wish you would be more earthy and anchored, but I don’t share their concern. At least for now, having a long attention span is overrated. You have entered the fidgety, inquisitive part of your cycle, when flitting and flirting and flickering make perfect sense.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Only one fear is worthy of you. Only one fear is real enough and important enough to awaken and activate the numb part of your intelligence. So for now, I suggest that you retire all lesser fears. Stuff them in a garbage bag and hide them in a closet. Then put on your brave champion face, gather the allies and resources you need, and go forth into glorious battle. Wrestle with your one fear. Reason with it. If necessary, use guile and trickery to gain an advantage. Call on divine inspiration and be a wickedly good truth-teller. And this is crucial: Use your fear to awaken and activate the numb part of your intelligence.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the coming nights, try to see your shadow as it’s cast on the ground by the moon. Not by the sun, mind you. Look for the shadow that’s made by the light of the moon. It might sound farfetched, but I suspect this experience will have a potent impact on your subconscious mind. It may jostle loose secrets that you have been hiding from yourself. I bet it will give you access to emotions and intuitions you have been repressing. It could also help you realize that some of the deep, dark stuff you wrestle with is not bad and scary, but rather fertile and fascinating.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The ancient Greek statesman Demosthenes was regarded as a supremely skilled orator. His speeches were so powerful that he was compared to a “blazing thunderbolt.” And yet as a youngster he spoke awkwardly. His voice was weak and his enunciation weird. To transform himself, he took drastic measures. He put pebbles in his mouth to force himself to formulate his words with great care.
He recited poems as he ran up and down hills. At the beach, he learned to outshout the pounding surf. Take inspiration from him, Virgo. Now would be an excellent time for you to plan and launch strenuous efforts that will enable you to eventually accomplish one of your long-range goals.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Long-distance flirta-tions may soon be just around the corner or across the street. Remote possibilities are taking short cuts as they head your way. I swear the far horizon and the lucky stars seem closer than usual. Is it all a mirage? Some of it may be, but at least a part of it is very real. If you want to be ready to seize the surpris-ing opportunities that show up in your vicinity, I suggest you make yourself as innocent and expansive as possible. Drop any jaded attitudes you may be harboring. Let the future know that you are prepared to receive a flood of beauty, truth and help.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I suspect that marriages of convenience will begin to wither away unless they evolve into bonds of affection. Connec-tions that have been fed primarily on fun and games must acquire more ballast. In fact, I recommend that you re-evaluate all your contracts and agreements. How are they working for you? Do they still serve the purpose you want them to? Is it time to acknowledge that they have transformed and need to be reconfig-ured? As you take inventory, be both tough-minded and compassionate.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Petrarch was an influential 14th-century Italian poet whose main work was Song Book. It’s a collection of 366 poems, most of which are dedicated to Laura, the woman he loved. For 40 years he churned out testaments of longing and appreciation for her, despite the fact that he and she never spent time together. She was mar-ried to another man, and was wrapped up in raising her 11 children. Should we judge Petrarch harshly for choosing a muse who was so unavailable? I don’t. Muse-choosing is a mysterious and sacred process that transcends logic. I’m bringing the subject to your attention because you’re entering a new phase in your relationship with muses. It’s either time to choose a new one (or two?) or else adjust your bonds with your current muses.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “The soul moves in circles,” said the ancient Greek philosopher Plotinus. Modern psychologist James Hillmans agreed, and added this thought: “Hence our lives are not moving straight ahead; instead, hovering, wavering, returning, renewing, repeating.” I bring this to your attention, Capricorn, because you’re now in an extra-intense phase of winding and rambling. This is a good thing! You are spiraling back to get another look at interesting teachings you didn’t master the first time around. You are building on past efforts that weren’t strong enough. Your words of power are crooked, gyrate, curvy, labyrinthine and corkscrew.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): It’s no coinci-dence that your libido and your mojo are booming at the same time. Your libido is in the midst of a deep, hearty awakening, which is generating a surplus of potent, super-fine mojo. And your surplus of potent, super-fine mojo is in turn inciting your libido’s even deeper, heartier awakening. There may be times in the coming week when you feel like you are living with a wild animal. As long as you keep the creature well-fed and well-stroked, it should provide you with lots of vigorous, even boisterous fun.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early,” quipped 19th-century English author Charles Lamb. I invite you to adopt that breezy, lazy attitude in the coming weeks. It’s high time for you to slip into a very comfortable, laidback mood—to give yourself a lot of slack, explore the mysteries of dreamy indo-lence, and quiet down the chirpy voices in your head. Even if you can’t literally call in sick to your job and spend a few days wandering free, do everything you can to claim as much low-pressure, unhurried spaciousness as possible. - -
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BY AMY ALKON
THE ADVICE GODDESSTHE FILE HIGH CLUB A year ago, a coworker I had a crush on made moves on me after hours at work, and we stopped just short of having sex. I saw him as a potential boyfriend, and I empha-sized that I was not interested in casual sex. He told me at the time that he had broken up with his girlfriend, but two days later said they’d made up. Several times since, when his relationship has been on the rocks, he’s suggested we have sex. I told him I want no physical contact with him ever again, and now he rarely speaks to me, despite seeing me daily at work. I consid-ered him a friend, so I’m devastated he took advantage of me and was only interested in cheating. I’m finding it really hard to heal and move on. —Disturbed
If there’s a next logical step after late-night office sexytime, it probably isn’t “Now that we’re done despoiling the conference table, let’s go meet each other’s parents!”
Remember dating? People who want relationships—especially female peo-ple who aren’t up for anything less—go on dates before they go on the con-ference table. This isn’t to say women should never have after-hours fun with some guy at work; it’s just that if you want a relationship, having sex before he gets emotionally attached is a risky strategy—one that often leads to just sex. Or just sex whenever his relation-ship is on the rocks.
Sure, you “emphasized” that you don’t want casual sex—a statement that prob-ably buzzed on papery little wings around the guy’s ear before getting squished by his sex drive. Women evolved to be the Missouri of human sexuality—Missouri’s nickname being “the Show-Me State.” Women protect themselves by being what evolutionary psychologists Martie Haselton and David Buss call “commit-ment skeptics”—holding off having sex while seeking evidence of a man’s will-ingness to invest (beyond an evening of semi-naked fun in a desk chair). As for men, research by psychologists Russell Clark and Elaine Hatfield confirms what most of us have observed numerous times: As long as a woman has a moder-ate level of attractiveness, a man’s likely to want to have sex with her. In other words, while women are the sexual gate-keepers, for men, there is no gate. There isn’t even a fence.
Sure, it’s disappointing when a man you’re picturing in the “future boyfriend” slot just wants to have sex. But feeling insulted about that is like my feeling in-sulted that my 5-pound dog tries to have sex with my arm—apparently some sort of odd biological imperative that my arm and I don’t take personally.
To move on, turn this into a learning experience so you can protect yourself in the future. This starts with admit-ting that you got sucked in not because of something this guy did but because you let ego and emotion do the driving while reason was gagged, hogtied, and left for dead in the trunk. Accept that it’s your responsibility to vet whether a situation would ultimately work for you instead of leaving the guardianship of your needs to others—others whose agenda may not match yours. Yes, I’m hinting that many men will tell a wom-an just about anything to get sex. (Just ask a man whose grandma has died sud-denly and tragically…dozens of times.)
FERAL HUGSAfter casual sex, why do some men spend all night spooning and cuddling? This just happened for the second time, and it really messes with my head. My nesting inclina-tion kicks in, and I start fantasizing about engagement rings. And I’m not some needy little thing. —Confused
It’s like when the plane’s landing gear is malfunctioning and a person grabs the hand of the stranger seated next to them—not because that person means something to them but because it feels better than possibly dying alone in a fiery explosion.
Casual sex, like grain alcohol and ladies’ clingy knitwear, isn’t for every-one. In research by anthropologist John Marshall Townsend, many women who just wanted sex from a guy still woke up the morning after with worries like “Does he care about me?” and “Is sex all he was after?” This is perhaps because of the release of the bonding hormone oxytocin—upon orgasm or from intense cuddling. (In men, testosterone goes all defensive lineman, tackling the oxyto-cin and blocking it from getting to its receptor.) Understanding this may lead you to rethink hooking up. At the very least, you should take precautions for safe sex—like asking “Where’s the fire escape?” and telling a guy about the tender talk you need immediately after-ward, such as, “You can let yourself out” and “Don’t forget to leave the parking pass in my mailbox.”
©2015, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. Got a problem? E-mail [email protected]
given us, they tell us we can’t regulate anything having to do with the railroads,” Rickert said. “If trains were blowing up and killing three people a week, there’s nothing we could do about it.”However, “Thinking about railroad impacts is not the same as regulating railroad im-pacts,” he said, adding that Skagit County has the right to use its authority to study the potential impact of the project.
Following the ruling, Prosecutor Honea sounded hopeful for smoothing out the county’s differences with Shell.
“Skagit County appreciates the jobs that Shell provides,” Honea said, “And we recognize that our civilization still runs on fossil fuel. So we’d like to extend an olive branch to Shell and hope we can move forward cooperatively, without more litigation.”
Jan Hasselman, an attorney for Earthjus-tice, who represented the five victorious environmental organizations, also called for peace among lawyers.
“We feel pretty strongly that it’s time to stop suing each other and talk about what this project means for Skagit Coun-ty,” he said.A statement issued from Shell offices in Seattle expressed the company’s disap-pointment with the judge’s ruling, but said Shell remains “committed to working with the County and other agencies to complete the permitting process in a timely manner in order to achieve a win/win for both Shell and the local communities.”
There’s been no indication Shell will take its case to the Washington Court of Appeals, an action that could stretch even further the time involved in obtaining a shoreline permit and starting to build.
Questions remain on how much infor-mation county and state EIS researchers will want Burlington Northern to tell them about its Bakken oil train frequency and routes, and how much information the railroad will readily share. BNSF shows no sign of weakening its opposition to making train information public.
“We already provide information on sen-sitive cargo to emergency responders,” spokesperson Courtney Wallace says, “on a need-to-know basis.” That’s enough, the railroad asserts.
Not enough, according to worried lo-cal governments around the state. City councils in Bellingham, Seattle, Spokane, Mount Vernon, Burlington, and Anacortes have approved resolutions asking for more information from BNSF about hazardous cargo, when it’s expected to pass through populated areas, what the railroad’s plans are for countering a disaster.
Earlier this month the Washington legis-lature approved an oil safety bill requiring refineries to provide weekly notice to fire and police departments of the type and volume of oil shipped. Governor Jay Inslee
signed it into law. Significantly, the new law requires railroads to submit oil spill contingency plans to the Washington De-partment of Ecology.
There have been suggestions that BNSF might challenge the new law in court. Wallace doesn’t confirm nor deny that possibility.
“We’re federally governed,” she said. “We want to make certain we can comply with federal and state law, not just comply on the state level.
“There are some security issues regard-ing hazardous cargo,” Wallace said. “It is not in the public interest to know exactly where these shipments are.”
An official of the Association of Ameri-can Railroads, Thomas L. Farmer, defends the need-to-know policy BNSF follows.
“We feel the information is getting where it needs to get,” he told reporters in Washington, DC. “Public availability of highly detailed information is problematic from a security perspective.”
How much potential sabotage is averted by double-secrecy agreements between railroads and federal agencies is debatable. One hundred round, black cars with bright red placards at the end of each seem un-likely to be mistaken for cattle trains. As Anacortes City Councilmember Liz Lovelett mused at a pubic forum a few weeks ago, it’s obviously not hard to reach out and touch a standing oil train—tank cars of-ten bear the work of graffiti artists who got close enough, unchallenged, to express their artistic and political impulses with a can of Rustoleum.
State Rep. Reuven Carlyle of Seattle, a co-sponsor of the oil train safety bill, says neither the railroads nor the federal gov-ernment feel any obligation to provide citi-zens with information about the hazards of oil train shipments. Railroads are obligated to provide the facts only to federal regula-tors and the feds keep it to themselves. Carlyle thinks Washington state’s new law will begin to fill the need for important knowledge at the local level.
“Information is not a luxury,” the legisla-tor told the New York Times. “Regular people have a right to this information.”
SHELL, FROM PAGE 9
More than 1,000 feet long with 13 piers, BNSF Bridge #70 over the Skagit River can act as an artificial barrier accumulating debris during flood events. In 1995, with a logjam hammering it, one of the piers tilted. Rails separated from the steel girders.
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STORY AND PHOTOS BY LAUREN KRAMER
Over Easy SWEET AND SAVORY IN SUNNYLAND
I t’s great to see a new restaurant packed with happy customers, and that was certainly the case this past Mother’s Day when my family and I popped into Over Easy, the new breakfast and brunch eatery in Bellingham’s Sun-
nyland neighborhood, next to Trader Joe’s. Proprietors Jamie and Colleen Bohnett were run off their feet by the steady
influx of hungry diners ready to celebrate the women in their lives. But their kitchen and staff were in peak form, delivering a great selection of sweet and savory hot entrees.
Over Easy is a four-restaurant Arizona-based franchise—its Scottsdale loca-tion was featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2010, which boosted business by 350 percent—and this is its first foray into Wash-ington state.
The Bohnetts originally considered opening in Bothell, but eventually opted for Bellingham. “It was a good decision,” Jamie confided a few days after OverEasy’s quiet opening in early May. “We love it here and we’ve been consis-tently busy since we opened our doors.”
The space, formerly LaLa Eatery, has had a fantastic makeover and now
boasts new floors, a bright, cheerful yellow color scheme and booths with funky, retro stools.
We loved the menu, which features omelets, items from the griddle, eggs Benedict, healthy choices and a few en-trees. My kids gravitated straight to the children’s menu, which offers pancakes with a choice of chocolate chips, M&Ms, or bits of Reese’s Pieces. This, coupled with a strawberry lemonade, provided more than a month’s worth of sugar in a single meal. But it was Mother’s Day, so
I decided to relax the rules a bit.
My omelet gave me the choice of any three additions from a list of vegetables, cheese varieties and proteins, and came with either hash browns or toast. It was a substantial-sized serving, but it still didn’t stop me from devouring my half-order of pumpkin bread french toast with bourbon caramel sauce. Another dish that tempted was car-amelized banana and pecan brioche french toast—but I left that
one for my next visit. Other entrees include chicken fried
steak, chilaquiles and waffle dogs (breakfast sausages on a stick, dipped into waffle batter, fried and served with icing sugar and maple syrup). Price-wise, Over Easy is not a difficult choice. Most items on the menu cost between $6.50 and $10, and there’s nothing over $12, so it’s an affordable place for a nice, hot breakfast.
Jamie Bohnett started out in the res-taurant business as a youngster, work-ing alongside his father at Sambo’s, a restaurant chain his father founded. Then he turned to the nonprofit world for three decades, returning only re-cently to the food business. When he met Brad May, founder of Over Easy, he was won over by the food, the dining experience and the hours of operation. (Over Easy opens at 6:30am daily and closes at 1pm during the week and 2pm on the weekends.)
The Bohnetts are intimately involved in the eatery, greeting guests person-ally, serving food and overseeing the operation. Sure, there will be a few growing pains as they and their staff find their feet and iron out early chal-lenges. But there’s a fun, friendly vibe at Over Easy. Between the decadent dishes and the bright colors, you can’t help but leave feeling cheered and hap-py—which is precisely what eating out should be all about.
EATWHAT: Over Easy WHEN: 6:30am-1pm Mon.-Fri. and 6:30am-2pm Sat.-Sat. WHERE: 2430 James St. INFO: (360) 656-6585 or www.eat overeasy.com
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WED., MAY 27SEDRO MARKET: Suss out spring offerings at the weekly Sedro-Woolley Farmers Market from 3-7pm every Wednesday through September at Hammer Heritage Park (on the corner of Ferry and Metcalf streets).
WWW.SEDROWOOLLEYFARMERSMARKET.COM
MEDITERRANEAN RECIPES: Chef Nahla Gholam will bring the flavors of Lebanon to life at a “Rec-ipes from Around the Mediterranean Sea” class from 6:30-8:30pm in Mount Vernon at Gretchen’s Kitchen, 509 S. First St. Entry is $40.
WWW.GRETCHENSKITCHEN.COM
SAT., MAY 30MOUNT VERNON MARKET: The Mount Vernon Farmers Market takes place from 9am-2pm at the city’s Waterfront Plaza. In addition to the fresh, local food, expect activities for kids, cooking demos and special events through the season, which continues through Oct. 17.
WWW.MOUNTVERNONFARMERSMARKET.ORG
ANACORTES FARMERS MARKET: Vegetables, fruit, baked goods, fresh meat and dairy, cut flowers, wine, eggs, art and much more can be found at the Anacortes Farmers Market, which takes place from 9am-2pm every Saturday through Oct. 24 at the Depot Arts Center, 611 R Ave.
WWW.ANACORTESFARMERSMARKET.ORG
BELLINGHAM FARMERS MARKET: Peruse and purchase a plethora of locally grown produce, ready-to-eat foods, crafts and more at the Bellingham Farmers Market from 10am-3pm at the Depot Market Square, 1100 Railroad Ave. The market runs every Saturday through Dec. 19.
WWW.BELLINGHAMFARMERS.ORG
SIPS & CIGARS: Enjoy an evening of spirits, beer and cigars at a Sips & Cigars “Cigar and Spirit Festival” from 6-10pm at the Silver Reef Event Center, 4876 Haxton Way. Tickets are $60 in advance and $75 at the door and include ap-petizers, beer samples, spirit samples, premium cigars and entry to a door prize. Funds raised benefit the Bellingham Sunrise Rotary. Attend-
ees must be 21 or over. WWW.SILVERREEFCASINO.COM
TUES., JUNE 2SOCKEYE SALMON: Chef Robert Fong focuses on fish at a “Sockeye Salmon” course from 6:30-9pm at the Community Food Co-op, 1220 N. Forest St. Attendees will learn how to cook the salmon three “fun and easy” ways. Entry is $49.
383-3200
WED., JUNE 3FIRST WEDNESDAY MARKET: The first Wednesday Market of the season commences from 12-5pm at the Fairhaven Village Green, 1207 10th St. (behind Village Books). Farmers will feature everything from fresh produce to plants, chicken, salmon sausages, mushrooms, flowers and more, and there will also be craft vendors, ready-to-eat food options, live music and face painting. The market continues Wednesdays through Sept. 30.
WWW.BELLINGHAMFARMERS.ORG
THURS., JUNE 4BUSINESS BREAKFAST: Napoleon’s Rules: Life and Career Lessons from Bonaparte author William Dietrich leads a “Business Breakfast” at 7:30am at the Book Fare Cafe at Village Books, 1200 11th St. Ticket are $18 and include a breakfast spread, a copy of the book, and leadership advice inspired by Napoleon’s tumultuous career.
WWW.VILLAGEBOOKS.COM
HEALTHY EATING: Certified food and health coach Demetree Robinson focuses on how to “Eat Right to Banish Chronic Illness” at a class from 6:30-8:30pm at the Cordata Community Food Co-op, 315 Westerly Rd. The session will provide recipes for easy-to-make breakfast, lunch, din-ner, snacks and desserts—and plenty of healthy samples. Entry is $15.
734-8158 OR WWW.COMMUNITYFOOD.COOP
SPRING BISTRO: Celebrate the abundance of the Pacific Northwest with French-accented reci-pes when Karina Davidson leads a “Spring Bistro” course from 6:30-9pm at the Community Food Co-op, 1220 N. Forest St. Entry is $39.
383-3200
doit
Chef Robert Fong will focus on three ways to make sockeye salmon—including grilling the whole fillet—at a cooking course June 2 at the Community Food Co-op
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