I worked for you for five years. You gave me raises and promotions. The whole team took pictures with my toddler daughter at our all staff meeting, carrying her around like a little football.

Celebrity chef David Chang, the founder of the famed Momofuku restaurant empire, inadvertently caused a social media storm earlier this month when his company attempted to enforce a trademark for the phrase “chili crunch,” even going so far as to issue cease-and-desist orders to other condiment brands using the term.

It wasn’t long before Chang was roundly clowned upon by…seemingly the entire internet. Critics rightly pointed out how absurd it was to attempt to trademark such a generic term—after all, the beloved condiment chili crisp has been around since long before Chang manufactured his signature Momofuku Chili Crunch, and there doesn’t seem to be much of a distinction between “chili crunch” and “chili crisp” (or a danger of consumers mistaking other brands’ offerings for Momofuku’s, for that matter). The fact that Momofuku was using this as an excuse to tear down small AAPI-owned businesses was also not a great look, to say the least. Consumers even called for a boycott of Momofuku products, with many retailers vowing not to stock goods from the business in response to the decision.

In the summer of 2022, a COVID-19 infection sent William White to the hospital.

The drummer for the indie rock band Glass Beach, a proggy, emo-ish four-piece that has amassed a cult following online, White got sick while traveling to Salt Lake City’s Pride Festival, a show they’d debated playing in the first place. To White, COVID-19 felt out of control, and mass gatherings risky, but they’d been invited because queer kids involved with the Utah Pride Center voted Glass Beach their headliner of choice for a youth pride event

“I wasn’t super sure about it,” White recalled during a recent interview while on their way to a show in Phoenix, Arizona. “But that sounded so special and important to us.”

I'm pro-density, pro-public transportation, pro-walkability, and pro-bike infrastructure. As you can see, these positions are shared with conventional urbanism, a movement that began in the 1960s with Jane Jacobs's famous confrontation with the car-centric city planner Robert Moses. Ten or so years after the latter was defeated, urbanism was codified in, of all places, Florida. In the 1990s, the rise of urbanism's influence corresponded with the destruction of public housing and white re-flight to urban cores from the suburbs, which became more and more diverse as a consequence of displacement.

As we entered the present century, it was clear that, as a project, urbanism had failed. Its key principles proved to be too market-friendly. Walkability, improved bike infrastructure, and even access to transit increased, rather than depreciated, the value of a location. At present, the densest zip codes in the USA are inhabited by millionaires (and a few billionaires). Why this outcome? The purpose of this post is to provide an explanation.

On Tuesday, over two hundred of Senator Murray’s Jewish constituents and other people of conscience held a Passover seder in the streets in front of the Federal Building where Senator Patty Murray has offices.

Why? Because on Tuesday, Senator Murray voted yes on a supplemental appropriations bill that includes $17 billion in additional military funding and weapons to the Israeli government. We, the organizers of Jewish Voice for Peace Seattle, are calling on Senator Murray to listen to her constituents and take action towards a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Student walkout for Palestine: Students across the Puget Sound region walked out of class Tuesday to demand that the US stop aiding Israel and that Israel release Palestinian prisoners and cease its occupation of Gaza. Students at colleges and high schools in Seattle, Redmond, Olympia, Issaquah, Bellevue, and Highline planned walkouts, according to the Seattle Times. UW’s Seattle campus did not participate, but they supported high school demonstrations. 

Now to Ashley for a brief interlude…

It’s a shame that Tessa Hulls will never write another graphic novel. 

Even though Feeding Ghosts represents her first foray into the genre, the 400-page odyssey holds its own in the company of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do, or any of the other major comic works that feature immigrants, the children of immigrants, and refugees processing the generational traumas sparked by the horrors, bloodshed, and diasporas of the 20th century. 

No shit. It’s just that good.

The Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) wants to prop up 30 digital kiosks powered by IKE Smart City to run advertisements, display maps, and to emit free Wi-Fi. The kiosks' ads would raise a projected $1 million a year for DSA and smaller Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) to pay for downtown improvement initiatives at no cost to the budget-challenged City of Seattle. But, as the old saying goes, if something is free, then you're the product.

Gooood morning! The National Weather Services says the weather today will be partly sunny, high near 68 degrees. Expect some calming winds in the afternoon.

Texas Attorney General drops challenge of Seattle hospital: In December, a Seattle hospital filed a lawsuit against Texas AG Ken Paxton after he demanded the hospital turn over the medical records of Texas children who receive gender-affirming care from the hospital. Paxton dropped the request for medical records as part of a settlement agreement with the hospital, according to KOMO. However, the hospital also had to drop its registration to do business in Texas. That won't affect children receiving gender-affirming care, but it may be annoying to the hospital employees who live in Texas and work remotely for the hospital.

We've got a special delivery: all of the best events Seattle has to offer this week in one handy roundup. Find details on everything from the Seattle Black Film Festival to the Upper Left Comedy Festival, and readings from Hanif Abdurraqib and Gabrielle Zevin, here.

MONDAY

LIVE MUSIC

Empress Of Live on KEXP
Before seeing her magnetic opening set for Carly Rae Jepsen's Seattle show last fall, I was admittedly unfamiliar with the genius of Empress Of (aka Lorely Rodriguez). I was mesmerized by Rodriguez's performance style, which involved standing amid free-standing mirrors and dancing her heart out while singing ethereal electro-pop songs in a lavender fairy-esque outfit. I was immediately obsessed with tracks like "When I'm With Him" and "Women Is a Word." Unfortunately, her current tour does not include any proper concerts in the Pacific Northwest. However, she will stop by KEXP this week for a live in-studio performance to support her critically acclaimed new album For Your Consideration. The studio session is free and open to the public, but admission is limited—you've been warned! Snag your tickets in person 90 minutes before the set (or just watch it on YouTube afterward). AUDREY VANN
(KEXP, Uptown)

Recently, I logged onto a video call to plan my own funeral. 

A care advisor with Earth Funeral, the newest Washington company to enter the human composting game, walked me through how I’d sign up to give them my body after my eventual demise and how, after a roughly month-long process, I would be turned into soil. It would cost just under $5,500. 

Today is Earth Day. But let’s get serious: Every day needs to be Earth Day. 

What if we all commit to that? What if we see that people and nature are not separate? Then we can create this kind of world, a place in which plants and fungi, kelp and orca, people and eagles, bear and salmon—all of us will thrive. 

What’s one easy action you can take to make that promised land closer to reality? Vote. 

Semi Bird wins WA GOP nomination for governor: The Washington GOP convention in Spokane this weekend was positively nutty. Former King County Sheriff Dave Reichert is leading among the GOP candidates in the polls, but delegates seemed to prefer Bird, a former Richland school board member who was recalled for flouting masking mandates deep in the early pandemic. Yet, to the dismay of delegates the GOP candidate committee disqualified Bird Friday for his failure to tell them about a bank larceny conviction exposed in a Seattle Times report last week. Despite the controversy, the delegates overrode the disqualification and nominated Bird anyway. In response, Reichert withdrew his endorsement bid and called the GOP convention "a chaotic and deceitful sideshow." The upshot of the whole thing splits Republican donors, leaving both Bird and Reichert weakened. 

NEW OPENINGS 

Din Tai Fung
DTF (as I like to call it affectionately) is back and bigger than ever: The popular Taiwanese chain known for its succulent soup dumplings reopened its Lincoln Square location on the building's ground floor in a space twice the size of the original. The original space will soon be replaced by Wagyu House, a restaurant serving wagyu hot pot and Japanese barbecue.