The Gristle
ODDS AND ENDS: A packed house attended a description of Washington’s long and distinguished history with the Growth Management Act at Bellingham City Club last week. Kaleen Cottingham, director of the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, who worked on the original GMA legislation, presented an overview of that 20-year history to listeners at the monthly meeting of the nonpartisan civic organization. She was followed by panelists that included Ferndale Mayor Gary Jensen and former Whatcom County Planning Commissioner Jean Melious, who ran for County Council in 2010. Panelists took over from Cottingham, and sketched the rough-and-tumble, wasteful resistance to state law that has consumed Whatcom County government for two decades.
Notably absent from the gathering of civic leaders and elected officials was, unfortunately, the architects of that waste, Whatcom County Council. None showed up for an illuminating, factual discussion of strongly bipartisan legislation designed to prevent communities from bankrupting themselves with unplanned sprawl.
Bellingham City Council at least had an excuse for absence, with several members in Olympia attending a conference sponsored by the Association of Washington Cities. There, council learned about a number of public policy issues, including advice on how best to navigate the state’s Public Records Act in an age of social media. These are useful tools that require special care for transparency.
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Words
When a Western Washington University student answers an ad to work for an older woman in her garden, Jean Bowen is hardly aware she is stepping on to a path of peril and intrigue. Set in Bellingham in the 1970s, the pair retrace the life of the elder Alexandra through her eyes, a young woman when she found herself trapped on a rum runner’s cutter in the San Juan Islands five decades earlier. There Alex fell in love with the bootlegging captain, Jake McKenzie, and learned the deep, silent, sometimes ominous lessons of these wild days and evasive nights running whiskey and Chinese opiates. But when Alex at last caught the fancy of Antonio, the head of the Italian Mafia intent on taking over Jake’s Northwest Territory, her thrill turned to danger.
Denise Frisino’s debut novel moves easily between the Prohibition era and the 1970s, arriving full circle as each woman comes of age as they explore mysteries past and present.
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Outdoors
I have found a most excellent remedy for this unassailable desire: a trip to the wilderness coast of the Olympic Peninsula, where the salty wind can be tasted on the continent’s tumultuous edge. I think of the Yellow Banks, a lonely and sufficiently wind-blown stretch of Olympic National Park.
First we must get to the trailhead at Lake Ozette, which begins with a drive to the Keystone Ferry and the blustery cruise across to Port Townsend. Melancholy gulls serenade us as we cross the gunmetal gray waters of Puget Sound. A leisurely drive through the dripping greenery of the Olympic Peninsula takes us to the end of the road beside mist-shrouded Lake Ozette, a few scant miles from our destination—the sea.
As we load our backpacks into the canoe, the mists begin to lift. We push out into the placid water, disturbing reflections of sky and willowy clouds as we paddle up the lake to Erickson’s Bay, where we pitch our tent and watch the clouds dance as evening settles over us.
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Visual
Bucket lists aren’t for everyone, but the fellas responsible for The Buried Life, a reality documentary series, are up to the challenge. For the past few years, the quartet of friends has traveled the United States completing a list of “100 things to do before you die.” When they drop by Western Washington University this week, they’ll be doing so in conjunction with a Viking Union Gallery exhibit dubbed “Fears Vs. Dreams,” which sees students and community members sharing the aforementioned emotions on cards and posting them for all to see. We queried gallery director Ashley Hollender to get the scoop.
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Film
Hill’s elegantly spare 1983 novel has spawned not only radio and television versions, but also the second-longest-running legit work in London (The Mousetrap still holds the record). Playwright Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation has been lauded for its economical use of just a handful of actors and simple but effective theatrical devices to tell the story of how young lawyer Arthur Kipps encounters a ghostly femme in a secluded northern English manse whose malevolent reach extends through time and space. Although the various adaptations have differed significantly, the one constant is the way the Woman in Black’s love for her own lost child has been perverted into a baleful vendetta against others’ progeny, neatly exploiting the primal fears of any parent.
It’s no surprise that for the more literal-minded and commercially driven medium of film, this latest adaptation ups the body count in order to make the stakes more immediate for contemporary audiences. The other canny reworking in Goldman’s script (surprisingly joke-free, given her tendency to crack wise in Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class) is to make Kipps (Radcliffe) a single parent from the outset. He’s still shaken by the passing of his wife Stella (Sophie Stuckey), who died in Victorian fashion while giving birth four years earlier to their son, Joseph (Misha Handley).
The restructuring allows Goldman and Watkins to introduce the notions of bereavement and spiritualism much earlier in the story. It also gives Kipps an extra motivation to finish the unpleasant job he’s been sent to do in the Yorkshire village of Crythin Gifford: sorting through a recently deceased old lady’s papers in her secluded, rundown mansion. If not for the threat of Kipps being fired, and therefore losing the means to care for Joseph, many an audience member would wonder why he doesn’t leave after the first signs of spookiness.
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Food
Bill Dewey, a shellfish farmer and biologist who’s also the director of public policy and communications at Taylor, says Zimmern and his team spent a day in late July filming various aspects of geoduck farming in southern Puget Sound. He’s not sure what will be included on the episode that will air Feb. 6 on the Travel Channel, but says Zimmern was privy to the steps involved in raising and harvesting the enormous clams—from getting seed from the nursery to stomping nursery tubes, planting baby geoduck, harvesting and, naturally, eating them.
Dewey reports Zimmern was fascinated by the growing process, and says they had a great dialogue about the uniqueness of the clams themselves—most notably that the bivalves are capable of reaching great sizes and ages (the largest on record weighed in at a whopping 16 pounds, and they can live more than 150 years in the wild).
During the course of the day, Dewey says they also ate the saltwater samplers on the beach in the form of sashimi. After setting up a propane burner and boiling water to clean a couple of the geoducks, they sliced them thin and offered up soy and wasabi for dipping purposes.
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On Stage
Among my most regular companions are my boyfriend (who seems to prefer standup comedy to almost anything else and eschews interpretive dance), my heterosexual life partner (who jumps at the chance to view partial or full nudity and any sort of act involving animals), and a game-for-just-about-anything friend I’ve dubbed “the professor.”
Because she actually is a theater professor, going to plays with date number three can be an illuminating experience. In addition to being a studious and respectful audience member, she’s also adept at pinpointing salient plot lines, providing background for the plays in question and intelligently discussing the work at hand.
For example, at a recent viewing of Tartuffe at Western Washington University’s Old Main Theater, “the prof” pointed out that when the French playwright Moliere wrote the classic—and sneakily comedic—tale of hypocrisy way back in the 1600s, it was with a political agenda in mind.
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Music
While everyone has their own method of mitigating seasonal stress, I’m of the opinion that if one must spend the bulk of the winter months indoors, what’s happening indoors must offer one more than mere shelter from the cold. In short, when trapped by weather, why not throw a party?
I’m far from the only one espousing this opinion. In fact, some stir-crazy folks at the Skagit Food Co-op and Lincoln Theatre have teamed up to throw a seasonal soiree dubbed Winterstomp. The stated purpose of the party is to “stomp the puddles out of the February fields,” but as the event takes place inside the Lincoln Theatre, I’m going to go ahead and posit that the directive is more figurative than literal. In fact, if I’m interpreting the method behind the Winterstomp madness correctly, the point is to defeat those aforementioned doldrums through the use of music, dancing and poetry, all for the greater good of preserving and supporting the fertile farmland of the Skagit Valley.
What this means is you can show up, show your solidarity with farmers and farmworkers and have an excellent time being entertained in the lovely and historic Lincoln Theatre while doing so. As ways to pass the dark days of winter go, you could do a lot worse than Winterstomp.
News
Sen. Doug Ericksen wants to preserve farmland by encouraging single-family home construction in urban growth areas. Ericksen sponsored three bills in the Legislature this session that were heard in committee this week.
The ambitious measures attempt to set urban growth boundaries, define low-density sprawl and require counties to use middle-range population projections in the planning process.
“Under land use planning guided by the state Growth Management Act (GMA), people are being forced to go outside of urban growth boundaries to build a single-family home,” Ericksen said. “In many cases, this is not their first choice of where to build and adds to the loss of farmland in Whatcom County.”
The first bill (SB 6190) attempts to provide more certainty to urban zoning and to ensure lands bordering cities will be developed at urban densities and intensities.
A second bill (SB 6192) attempts to define sprawl.
“Low-density sprawl” is defined as development taking place outside of urban growth areas that does not conform to the county’s adopted rural element. The rural element of Whatcom County’s comprehensive plan for growth was recently found by a state growth board to be out of compliance with state goals because it allowed too much low-density development outside of the county’s designated urban growth areas. The county has struggled to bring this plan into compliance for more than two years.
If passed by committee and the legislature as a whole, a third bill (SB 6193) would require counties to use a middle range for making future growth projections. Under GMA, counties are provided a range of growth estimates by the state Office of Financial Management (OFM). The requirement has drawn considerable debate. Some advocates believe that selecting a robust population projection actually encourages explosive growth; others believe that selecting a low population figure causes counties to underplan.
“The middle range projection provided by the Office of Financial Management represents the state’s estimate of the most likely population projection for the county,” Ericksen explained in his bill text. “A county choosing to project future growth by deviating from the middle range must adopt a written explanation justifying the reason for the deviation,” he said.
“People who would like to live in a single-family residence are being forced out into the county” due to the availablity of land supply for that type of construction, Ericksen explained as he introduced his bills to the Senate Government Operations, Tribal Relations and Elections Committee in Olympia.
“What we’ve seen in Whatcom County over the past few years is a larger number of single-family residences built in the unincorporated county than we’ve seen built in Bellingham, our largest city,” the Republican senator from the 42nd District said.
These bills attempt to address that issue, not by prohibiting residential development in rural areas, he said, but by accommodating people who prefer to live in an urban setting by creating certainty in density standards.
Provisions defining sprawl are not in the GMA as currently drafted, Ericksen told committee members.
“This is a first stab at trying to put into the Growth Management Act a definition of what that sprawl would be,” he said. “And in this particular situation, it is when housing that would ordinarily go into that urban growth area is forced outward because there is not adequate room available. This would assist in determining what low-density sprawl would be.”
Ericksen predicted these bills would be useful to communities around the state wrestling with similar growth issues. Mandated at the state level, the measures could limit local planning control with local conditions, critics observed.
“I’m a little nervous about taking what appear to be localized issues in Whatcom County and making statewide policy based upon that,” Josh Weiss said, representing the Washington Sate Association of Counties. Weiss explained that he is in contact with planning staff around the state who have not reported a need for these measures, prompting him to wonder whether they are particular to this area.
Whatcom County Association of Realtors spoke in favor of the bills in Olympia this week. Washington Farm Bureau favored SB 6190.
“The bill almost sounds like it is stating the obvious,” Dan Wood said on behalf of the bureau. “If you create an urban growth area you should expect that there would be urban growth there and a high degree of urban density, but seemingly in some places the obvious concept does not synch and connect very well.”
“Predictability and certainty are at the core of the GMA,” Clayton Petree said. Petree, a candidate for Bellingham Mayor in 2011, spoke in favor of Ericksen’s bills.
“We have unprecedented levels of development in designated agricultural and rural areas of the county,” Petree explained. “Bellingham, the county seat, has reduced its capture of growth from 62 percent from 1995 to 2002 down to about 20 percent in recent years. That was about two-thirds of county growth in the past, now down to only one-fifth.”
Representatives of the public advocacy group Futurewise cautioned that problems Whatcom faces may be less related to cities’ inability or unwillingness to accomodate urban growth than with flaws specific to Whatcom County’s plan for abundant rural development.
Tartuffe: Moliere’s classic tale of hypocrisy, Tartuffe, shows at 7:30pm Wed.-Sat., and 2pm Sunday at Western Washington University’s Old Main Theater. Tickets are $8-$12. more »
The Devil’s Workshop: View six new works by six playwrights—and performed by six actors—when the “Devil’s Workshop” shows at 8pm Thurs.-Sat. at the iDiOM Theater, 1418 Cornwall Ave. Tickets are $10. more »
Becoming Eleanor: Find out more about the amazing life of Eleanor of Aquitaine when Becoming Eleanor shows at 8pm Thurs.-Sat. and 2pm Sun. at the Bellingham Theatre Guild, 1600 H St. Tickets are $8-$12 and additional showings happen Feb. 9-12. more »
Iron Curtain: View a new musical comedy dubbed Iron Curtain at 7:30pm Thurs., 8pm Fri.-Sat., and 2pm Sun. at the Anacortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave. Tickets are $20 and additional showings happen through Feb. 25. more »
Annie: Students offer up performances of the perennially popular musical Annie at 7:30pm Fri.-Sat. at Deming’s Mt. Baker High School, 5100 Mitchell Rd. Tickets are $6-$8 and additional showings take place Feb. 10-12. more »
Space Trek: The completely improvised space adventure show known as “Space Trek” plays at 8pm every Fri.-Sat. through February at the Upfront Theatre, 1208 Bay St. At 10pm, attendees can check out “Evil Space Trek.” Tickets are $8-$10. more »
Hello Dolly: Students from the Lynden Christian High School drama department present showings of Hello Dolly at 7:30pm Fri.-Sat. at the school’s digs at the Lynden Christian Worship and Fine Arts Center, 515 Drayton St. Tickets are $6-$10 and additional showings take place Feb. 7-11. more »
A Shayna Maidel: The Alger Lookout Thespian Association presents showings of A Shayna Maidel (Yiddish for “a pretty girl”) at 7pm Fri.-Sat. and 2:30pm Sun. at the Alger Community Church, 1475 Silver Run Lane. Tickets are $10-$14 and additional showings take place at various dates Feb. 11. more »
Busybody: The British murder mystery and comedy dubbed Busybody opens this weekend with showings at 7:30pm Fri.-Sat. and 2:30pm Sun. at Oak Harbor’s Whidbey Playhouse, 730 S.E. Midway Blvd. Tickets are $16 and additional shows take place through Feb. 12. more »
Skagit Opera’s Elixir of Love: A snake oil salesman, a phony love potion and a surprise happy ending can be expected when Skagit Opera presents “L’Elisir d’Amore: The Elixir of Love” at 7:30pm Fri.-Sat. and 2pm Sun. at Mount Vernon’s McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way. Tickets are $25-$59. more »
Red Wine and Chocolate: Attend the 7th annual “Red Wine and Chocolate Festival” from 10am-6pm Fri.-Sun. at Mount Vernon’s Carpenter Creek Winery, 20376 E. Hickox Rd. Select reserve wines and fine chocolates will take center stage, so stock up for Valentine’s Day. more »
Rainy Day Arts Festival: Head to Skagit County Saturday and Sunday for the La Conner Rainy Day Arts Festival. The communitywide celebration features guest artists, live music, festive decorations, special menus and much more at a variety of businesses. more »
Winter Wings: Libby Mills leads North Cascades Institute’s “Winter Wings: Birding the Skagit Delta” outing today throughout the Skagit Flats. Cost is $95 and includes lunch. more »
Winter Bird Feeding: Learn more about offering shelter and sustenance to feathered friends at a “Winter Bird Feeding” class at 9am at the Garden Spot Nursery, 900 Alabama St. Register in advance for the free presentation. more »
Trail Work Party: Join REI and the Mount Baker Club for a Snowshoe Trail Work Party from 9am-2:30pm at the Salmon Ridge Snowpark. Meet at 8:15am at the Whatcom Events office, 2227 Queen St., or at 9am in Maple Falls at the Cross Roads Grocery. Register in advance. more »
Rowers Race: The La Conner Sound Rowers Open Water Rowing and Paddling Club hosts an Open Water Race at 10am on the Swinomish Channel. More than a dozen racing classes for all levels of competition will be available. Entry is $8-$18. more »
Compete for a Cause: The Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center hosts its 3rd annual “Compete for a Cause” Scrabble Tournament starting at 10:30am at the Leopold Crystal Ballroom, 1224 Cornwall Ave. All ages and experience levels are welcome, though understanding of the game is important. Cost is $10 for students and $20 general. more »
Community Fundraiser: Raffles, a silent auction, food and baked goods, live entertainment, activities for kids and much more will be part of a community celebration and fundraiser honoring the life of Caleb Kors from 11am-2pm at the Sudden Valley Dance Barn. more »
Mixed Bag: Laurel Leigh leads a primer on an upcoming “Knock Out Editing: From Polish to Publish” course at noon at Village Books, 1200 11th St. At 2pm, Denise Frisino reads from Whiskey Cove. Additionally, Wayne Lutz shares ideas from Off-the-Grid Living at 4pm and, at 7pm, Sarah Jio reads from her fictional novel, The Bungalow. All events are free. more »
Hard Cheese Class: Seattle’s Mark Solomon leads a “Make Your Own Hard Cheese” class from 1-4pm at the Cordata Community Food Co-op. Cost is $55. more »
Traditional Jazz: The Clamdigger Jazz Band will perform during the Bellingham Traditional Jazz Society’s monthly concert and dance from 2-5pm at the VFW Hall, 625 N State St. Entry is $6-$10. more »
Cygnus Opening: A reception for “Natural & Supernatural: Contemporary Art of the Northwest Coast” takes place from 3-7pm at La Conner’s Gallery Cygnus, 109 Commercial St. The multi-artist exhibit will be on display through March 25. more »
Lutefisk and Meatball Dinner: The Sons of Norway will offer a Lutefisk and Meatball Dinner from 4-6pm at Norway Hall, 1419 N. Forest St. Cost is $10-$20, and reservations are required. more »
Band Benefit Dinner: The Ferndale Band Boosters will host their annual Benefit Dinner and Auction at 5pm at Hampton Inn’s Fox Hall, 3985 Bennett Dr. Tickets are $35. more »
Oysterfest: Bellingham Sunrise Rotary Club hosts its 20th annual Oysterfest starting at 6pm at the Bellingham Golf & Country Club, 3729 Meridian St. Cost is $100 and includes oysters, dinner, wine, beer and admission to an auction. Proceeds raised benefit local youth services. more »
Winterstomp: SmokeWagon, the Gallus Brothers, and Foghorn Stringband will perform at Winterstomp at 6pm at Mount Vernon’s Lincoln Theatre, 712 S. First St. The event—which is designed to “stomp the puddles out of the February fields and gather new and seasoned farmers and farm supporters”—will also include art and poetry. Tickets are $10-$15. more »
South Asian Heritage Dinner: WWU’s South Asian Student Association hosts its annual Heritage Dinner at 6:30pm at the Viking Union Multipurpose Room. Entry is $10-$15 and includes food and live performances. more »
Andy Irvine: Irish music master—and living legend—Andy Irvine will be joined by Bellingham musician Robert Sarazin Blake for a 7pm show at the YWCA Ballroom, 1026 N. Forest St. Suggested donation is $20. more »
Throat Singing: Internationally renowned throat singer and sound healer Matthew Kocel will perform at 7pm at Presence Studio, 1412 Cornwall Ave. Tickets are $10-$20. more »
Folk Dance Party: The Makedonians will provide live Greek music a Folk Dance from 7:30-10:30pm at the Fairhaven Library, 1117 12th St. Suggested donation is $10. more »
