THE GRISTLE, P.6 *#*''$4+x} SKAGIT BALLOT, P.35 cascadia REPORTING FROM THE HEART OF CASCADIA WHATCOM*SKAGIT*ISLAND*LOWER B.C. 03.yz.11 :: #12, v.06 :: !- Creative COLLECTIVE WHATCOM ART GUILD’S STAYING POWER, P.18 LUKAS NELSON: NOT YOUR AVERAGE MUSICIAN’S KID, P.20 }} FREE WILL: PROGNOSTICATION WITH PERSONALITY, P.30 COMMON GROUND: WHO CONTROLS OUR BROKEN BORDERS? P.8 34 34 cascadia FOOD Lauded pianist tickles 27 "--$&*#'..*) the ivories alongside the Whatcom B-BOARD Symphony Orchestra March 27 at A glance at what’s happening this week the Mount Baker Theatre 24 [03. .11] FILM FILM 2 ) .4 yz COMMUNITY 20 Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Celebration: 6-9pm, the Majestic MUSIC GET OUT Group Ride: 6pm, Boundary Bay Brewery 18 ART ART /#0-.4[03.y{.11] 16 ON STAGE Stealing Home: 7:30pm, Sehome High School STAGE STAGE Little Theatre Good, Bad, Ugly: 8pm, Upfront Theatre The Insane: 8:30pm, Honeymoon 14 The Project: 10pm, Upfront Theatre GET OUT GET OUT A Hiker’s Tale: 7:15pm, Fairhaven Runners FOOD 12 Wine Event: 6:30pm, Bellingham Cruise Terminal WORDS !-$4[03.y|.11] 8 ON STAGE Doc Holliday and the Angel of Mercy: 7:30pm, American Museum of Radio CURRENTS CURRENTS Stealing Home: 7:30pm, Sehome High School Little Theatre 6 Red, White and Tuna: 7:30pm, RiverBelle Dinner Theater, Mount Vernon VIEWS VIEWS Oklahoma: 8pm, Anacortes Community Theater Games Galore: 10pm, Upfront Theatre 4 DK & Morgan Standup Show: 11pm, iDiOM Theater MAIL MAIL -&./-*-# ./-channel the spirit DANCE 2 Dancing for Joy: 6pm and 8pm, Firehouse Per- of the Grateful Dead when they visit the forming Arts Center DO IT IT DO DO IT 2 MUSIC Mount Baker Theatre March 30. 11 Chamber Chorale Benefit: 6pm, Bellingham Golf .23. & Country Club 03 WORDS .06 Alex Kuo: 7pm, Anchor Art Space, Anacortes DANCE Work Party: 9am-12pm, Maple Creek Reach Artists Talk: 1pm, Anchor Art Space, Anacortes 12 # Contra Dance: 7-10pm, Fairhaven Library Orchid Sale: 9am-5pm, Skagit Valley Gardens, Art and War Presentation: 3pm, Everson Mc- Mount Vernon Beath Community Library ./0-4[03.y}.11] MUSIC Plant & Tree Sale: 10am-3pm, near Fairhaven Whispering Solo Piano Concert: 7pm, the Ama- Village Green ON STAGE deus Project Trail Run: 10am, Berthusen Park, Lynden .0)4[03.y~.11] Camelot: 7pm, McIntyre Hall, Mount Vernon Stealing Home: 7:30pm, Sehome High School WORDS FOOD ON STAGE Little Theatre John Keeble: 4pm, Village Books Community Meal: 10am-12pm, United Church of Sideshow Garage Sale: 10am-2pm, Cirque Lab CASCADIA WEEKLY Doc Holliday and the Angel of Mercy: 7:30pm, Ferndale Stealing Home: 2pm, Sehome High School Little American Museum of Radio COMMUNITY Mexican Fiesta: 6pm, Bellingham Senior Activity Theatre 2 Red, White and Tuna: 7:30pm, RiverBelle Dinner Celebrating Children Fundraiser: 5pm, Belling- Center Camelot: 2pm, McIntyre Hall, Mount Vernon Theater, Mount Vernon ham Golf & Country Club Best of BAAY: 6pm, the Majestic Oklahoma: 8pm, Anacortes Community Theater VISUAL ARTS Ryan Stiles & Friends: 8pm and 10pm, Upfront GET OUT Book Crafting for Beginners: 12-4pm, Whatcom MUSIC Theatre Birch Bay Road Race: 8:30am, Harborview Rd. Museum’s Lightcatcher Studio Canote Brothers: 2pm, Nancy’s Farm Whatcom Symphony Orchestra: 3pm, Mount Baker Theatre The Art of Jazz: 4pm, the Amadeus Project 34 COMMUNITY FOOD Bowl for Kids’ Sake: 10am-7pm, Park Bowl GET OUT 27 Orchid Sale: 9am-5pm, Skagit Valley Gardens, Mount Vernon B-BOARD FOOD Brewery Tour: 12pm, Chuckanut Brewery 24 (*)4[03.y.11] FILM WORDS Open Mic: 7pm, Village Books 20 Poetrynight: 8pm, the Amadeus Project GET OUT MUSIC First Gear Class: 6pm, Birchwood Elementary FIGHTER WEIGH-INS 18 VISUAL ARTS ART Whatcom Art Guild Meeting: 7-9pm, Belling- APRIL 1 AT 7PM ham Public Library 16 /0 .4[03.y.11] STAGE MUSIC Slough Dogs: 7pm, McIntyre Hall, Mount 14 Vernon WORDS GET OUT Cara Lopez Lee: 7pm, Village Books Spoken Word: 7-9pm, Blue Horse Gallery 12 GET OUT Nature Babies: 9:30am, Whatcom Falls Park WORDS 8 CURRENTS CURRENTS 6 VIEWS VIEWS 4 MAIL MAIL 2 2 DO IT IT DO DO IT 11 .23. 03 .06 12 # Get a head start on spring at the (/& - *-#$.*$ /4. annual show and sale March 26-27 at the Skagit Valley CASCADIA WEEKLY Gardens 3 SEND EVENTS TO CALENDAR@ CASCADIAWEEKLY.COM THIS ISSUE Contact Cascadia Weekly: E 360.647.8200 34 34 Editorial FOOD Editor & Publisher: Tim Johnson E ext 260 27 mail ô editor@ cascadiaweekly.com CONTENTS LETTERS STAFF Arts & Entertainment B-BOARD Editor: Amy Kepferle Eext 204 Knut, the four-year-old polar bear who was so famous his ô calendar@ 24 furry visage once graced the cover of Vanity Fair, died unex- cascadiaweekly.com pectedly Sunday in his outdoor enclosure at Germany’s Berlin FILM FILM Music & Film Editor: Zoo. Autopsy results are pending. Carey Ross Eext 203 20 ô music@ VIEWS & NEWS cascadiaweekly.com MUSIC 4: Mailbag Production 6: Gristle & Views 18 Art Director: 8: Broken borders Jesse Kinsman ART ART ô jesse@ 11: Last week’s news kinsmancreative.com 16 12: Police blotter Graphic Artists: Kimberly Baldridge STAGE STAGE ARTS & LIFE Stefan Hansen ô stefan@ 13: All in the family cascadiaweekly.com 14 Send All Advertising Materials To 14: Big black bird [email protected] 16: The doctor is in GET OUT Advertising 18: The wonders of WAG Advertising Director: 20: Born to tour Brian Young 12 E360-647-8200 x 202 22: Clubs ô brian@ cascadiaweekly.com WORDS 24: Life with Leigh 26: Film shorts Account Executives: 8 Scott Herning E360-647-8200 x 252 REAR END ô scott@ FRACTURED FAIRY TALE to send them the coal as well. cascadiaweekly.com Once upon a time, there were huge coal beds Our tale ends with the Whatcom townsfolk CURRENTS CURRENTS 27: Bulletin Board Scott Pelton in Montana and Wyoming. The coal industry was cheering from Taylor Dock as the coal trains 6 28: Wellness E360-647-8200 x 253 big out there, and the biggest coal company of rolled by. And they all lived happily ever after— ô spelton@ 29: Crossword cascadiaweekly.com all was Peabody Energy. They were so big they or did they? VIEWS VIEWS 30: Free Will Astrology even had their own song. —Gary Coye, Bellingham Distribution Word had spread throughout the land that there 4 4 31: Advice Goddess JW Land & Associates was a shortage of coal in Whatcom County, so Mr. HOMELESSNESS ô distro@ MAIL MAIL MAIL 32: This Modern World, Peabody sprang into action. With the world’s larg- KNOWS NO BORDERS cascadiaweekly.com Tom the Dancing Bug est shovel, he loaded up his coal train, but he I can’t speak for the impoverished community 2 33: Sudoku, Troubletown Letters didn’t own any tracks. For help he turned to his within Washington State, although I admit that Send letters to letters@ friend, Mr. Buffett, who had his very own railroad. I picture it somewhat worse than even up here in DO IT IT DO 34: The bread of spring cascadiaweekly.com. As luck would have it, Mr. Buffett had a set of Canada and, most notably, British Columbia. THE GRISTLE, P.6 *#*''$4+x} SKAGIT BALLOT, P.35 tracks that went all the way to Whatcom County. Those who are homeless and/or impoverished 11 cascadia REPORTING FROM THE HEART OF CASCADIA WHATCOM*SKAGIT*ISLAND*LOWER B.C. 03.yz.11 :: #12, v.06 :: !- Now, there was a place in Whatcom County have a sometimes-great nemesis in mainstream .23. 03 called Cherry Point, where SSA Marine, the world’s society, its political officials and in many promi- ©2011 CASCADIA WEEKLY (ISSN 1931-3292) is published each Wednesday by largest shipping terminal company, agreed to let nent news-media figures, whom generally are fis- .06 Cascadia Newspaper Company LLC. Direct all correspondence to: Cascadia Weekly the coal pile up. But it turned out there really cal conservatives and social (e.g., abortion and 12 PO Box 2833 Bellingham WA 98227-2833 | Phone/Fax: 360.647.8200 # [email protected] wasn’t anybody who wanted coal in Whatcom homosexual rights) liberals. Such ideology is re- Though Cascadia Weekly is distributed free, please take just one copy. Cascadia LUKAS NELSON: NOT YOUR AVERAGE MUSICIANS’ KID, P.20 }} FREE WILL: PROGNOSTICATION WITH PERSONALITY, P.30 County, after all. placing the polarized left- and right-wing camps Weekly may be distributed only by authorized distributors. Any person removing COMMON GROUND: WHO CONTROLS OUR BROKEN BORDERS? P.8 papers in bulk from our distribution points risks prosecution Happily, China and some other countries all of the past—all of which translate into “welfare” SUBMISSIONS: Cascadia Weekly welcomes freelance submissions. Send material Cover: Cover photo by Whatcom to either the News Editor or A&E Editor. Manuscripts will be returned if you Art Guild member Lynne the way across the Pacific Ocean said they’d help and “social services” becoming dirty words. include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. To be considered for calendar list- Edwards, design by Jesse ings, notice of events must be received in writing no later than noon Wednesday out. They agreed to send ships to take away every Current fiscally conservative governments seem the week prior to publication. Photographs should be clearly labeled and will be Kinsman returned if accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelope. single lump of coal and then burn it up to make to be the antithesis of a friend to the very poor, LETTERS POLICY: Cascadia Weekly reserves the right to edit letters for length and CASCADIA WEEKLY it disappear. It was easy for them to do because allowing cuts to the social safety net during hard content.