Tagged: Art of Our City

Art Of Our City
You may not know his name, but you’ve probably seen Seattle-based artist Buster Simpson’s work.  On First Avenue, you’ll find a couple of stone benches made by Simpson more than three decades ago, partly so the Belltown homeless people would have a place to sit.  He’s installed some creative downspouts on buildings on Belltown’s Vine Street, part of an unrealized project that would crack open the asphalt that covers the street and turn Vine into a green belt that runs into Elliot Bay.  Buster Simpson almost always works in public, and almost always addresses issues that affect our natural and built environment.  The Frye Museum has mounted a 40 year retrospective.  It’s called “Buster Simpson: Surveyor.”

Dan Savage On Faith, Sex, Love And Politics
Dan Savage is an author, activist and nationally syndicated columnist. He writes the weekly “Savage Love” column and hosts Savage Lovecast, one of the most downloaded podcasts on iTunes. In 2010, Savage and his husband Terry Miller launched the It Gets Better online video project to help LGBT teens. In his latest book “American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics,” he explores issues such as health care, gun control, marriage equality and more. 

The Kings Stay In Sacramento
The inevitable was confirmed yesterday in Dallas by NBA commissioner David Stern. In a 22-8 vote, the NBA Board of Governors voted to keep the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento. Investor Chris Hansen said the struggle makes the payoff sweeter and that he hopes the Sonics will return to Seattle eventually. We’ll talk with Ben Adler from Capital Public Radio in Sacramento and Art Thiel in Seattle on how the decision came to be.

Art Of Our City: The Massive Monkees
Earlier this year the hip-hop dance troupe Massive Monkees opened their first official dance studio, called the Beacon.  As part of a Seattle program to invigorate empty storefronts in the city, the Monkees applied for and received a three-month residency in a storefront in the Chinatown-International District.  Over the course of that residency, the Beacon offered classes for students as young as three up to their 50s and beyond. Now Massive Monkees' official residency is over, but they have the opportunity to make the Beacon permanent.  The landlord has agreed to a longer lease with one catch:  They need to raise some money for capital repairs.  To that end, they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign. We revisit a tour we took to the Beacon in February of this year.

The Book Of Woe
The American Psychiatric Association is currently revising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a tool used by clinicians to diagnose patients with mental disorders. According to Gary Greenberg it is more like an “anthology of suffering.” Greenberg is a psychotherapist and author of the new book, “The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry.” In his book he explains the history of the DSM and how the current revision of the DSM-5 is, as he argues, the most flawed yet. He says the DSM turns suffering into a commodity, leading to over- and misdiagnosis of mental illness.

Seattle Parks Plan
Seattle officials want to hear from you about the future of the city’s parks. They're holding meetings this month to get public input on a parks plan that will guide where the city directs its resources in the years to come. We hear more from City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw.

Art Of Our City
A new live music and film project explores the line between ambition and bad luck as it applied to the Donner Party. "We Are All Failing Them" is a new commission by Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum (teaser below). It’s a song cycle performed live to film. We talk with composer Robin Holcomb about the latest venture in her wide-ranging career.

Neal Thompson On Robert “Believe It Or Not!” Ripley
A 1936 newspaper poll declared Robert Ripley the most popular man in America. How did a young, awkward newspaper cartoonist become a worldwide adventurer synonymous with the strange and unusual? Official Ripley biographer  Neal Thompson joins us.

Electric Car Company Under Congressional Scrutiny
Fisker Automotive is the latest beneficiary of the Obama Administration’s push for renewable energy to flounder. The electric car startup recently fired 75 percent of its workforce and hired bankruptcy advisers. Congress is asking questions about the propriety of federal loans to the politically well-connected company.

A Conversation With Writer Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende is a world-renowned writer, with 19 books in 35 languages. Her latest is "Maya’s Notebook," a tale that revolves around a descent into addiction and a rebirth through the love of family and place.

A Conversation With President Obama’s Sister, Maya Saetoro-Ng
A famous sibling can be a blessing or a burden. Maya Saetoro-Ng is the half-sister of President Obama. She uses her perspective as a history teacher to analyze how her brother’s presidency will be remembered.

Seattle Theater’s Power Couple
Seattle theater audiences know R. Hamilton “Bob” Wright from his long career onstage acting and of late, directing. Wright’s wife, Katie Forgette, is also a fixture on Seattle stages as an actress and now a playwright. Forgette’s newest play has opened at ACT Theatre directed by husband Bob Wright.