My Ballard

26 responses so far ↓

• 1 Silver // May 15, 2008 at 6:42 am

  Where is the Kiss Cafe? I want to make sure I never patronize them.

  Unbelievable.

  On the plus side, Jim Wilkinson now has two images that will sell for more money because he can say they were “Banned in Ballard.”

  I’m sure he now has a ton of offers to show his work. ;-)

• 2 m // May 15, 2008 at 7:58 am

  Point of confusion here - didn’t the owner preview the pieces that would be hanging in his establishment? He knew it was about nudes, right?

  Or was it worth whatever discomfort he might feel to make it a successful draw for ArtWalk?

  Yes, its his establishment and he has the right to choose what & what not to display - and I have the right not to spend money at an establishment that reeks of censorship and possible homophobia.

• 3 Julia Pequlia // May 15, 2008 at 9:23 am

  If the photos in the show are like the one on the blog, and if they show no private parts, then they are no different than tons of very public images of women that are used to sell cars/perfume/cosmetics/movies/whatever. So not only is the decision to take them down rank censorship, and homophobic, it’s also sexist.

• 4 chelsea // May 15, 2008 at 10:08 am

  We were in there on Saturday night for sandwiches, and the place was PACKED. I don’t think I overheard a single person complaining or saying anything about the ‘nude’. How odd.

  I’m interested to hear KISS’s side. The owners seem pretty laid-back - I wonder what made them take it down.

• 5 CH // May 15, 2008 at 10:13 am

  Be very careful in jumping on this bandwagon — you may be the one exercising knee-jerk prejudicial “censorship”.

  I was in the cafe when he made the call on Sunday and overheard some of the brief conversation — I think he said that it “just isn’t my thing” and there was nothing in his tone that indicated anything other than trying to preserve his creation (the cafe). If you’ve been there you might understand why. The cafe is small, several of the images are huge and dominated the space — it was the Jim Wilkinson cafe for a couple days.

  Sure, they made a mistake by taking a chance on the artist’s images which they apparently (based on the article) weren’t thrilled about to begin with, and yeah, I’d be fairly angry if I were the artist, but let’s not tag them as bigots. There are a lot of establishments that never give local artists a chance.

  btw, it never reeks of anything but good food.

• 6 m // May 15, 2008 at 11:10 am

  CH - thanks for the level head. I’ve still got negative vibes but will make an effort not to tag too quickly.

• 7 Suthii // May 15, 2008 at 11:15 am

  The Kiss Cafe should have kept them up and simply changed their motto:

  “Kiss Cafe: Put a little c*ck in your coffee”

• 8 Rudy // May 15, 2008 at 11:31 am

  I was wondering when the 12 year old humor would enter the comments.

• 9 Duncan // May 15, 2008 at 11:40 am

  Not sure it really qualifies as “humor” if you have to explain the joke. Seriously, I don’t get it.

• 10 Kara // May 15, 2008 at 12:03 pm

  I’m actually really surprised to hear something like this in Ballard. Although it is a neighborhood with a sense of strong pride it is very welcoming to all peoples.
  I have yet to go into Kiss Cafe at all since they opened even though I live less than a block away…I miss my Karma Coffee…maybe a small part of me is protesting.
  I would really like to hear the owner’s side of the story though.

• 11 keith // May 15, 2008 at 1:30 pm

  Last Monday I blogged about Wilkinson’s show at KISS Cafe and subsequent removal of the art for Ballardblog.com. I have put some additional thoughts about the matter on my site, Ballardite.blogspot.com.

  In short, KISS Cafe co-owner Amanda was one of the subjects photgraphed by Wilkinson. She wanted to host the show and obviously Brenda and Oakley agreed. However they had an agreement in advance with the artist that some of the photos would come down after the show. There was a subsequent dispute over a couple photos but it was Wilkinson who, per comments on his Flicker page, took pulled the plug.

  So the owners felt a little uncomfortable about having some of the nudes up. Are they so much different than any other business in that regard? I’ll tell you what: most ArtWalk venues would not have even shown Wilkinson’s work. I give them credit for showing the work, which I very much enjoyed — all of it. So KISS Cafe gives Wilkinson some exposure and a great opening and he turns around, pulls out and cries “homophobe.”

  I understand the artist sticking up for the integrity of his show. However I also understand business owners being nervous about pushing the envelope. They, after all, have to consider how their patrons are going to react to their choice of shows.

  BTW, the show was not as tame as made out. There was frontal nudity male and female — not what were referred to as “PG” rated pieces by The Stranger. Jen Graves wasn’t even at the show …

• 12 Suthii // May 15, 2008 at 3:55 pm

  OK, how about this one:

  ‘Kiss Cafe: Come in for a stiff one’

• 13 Peter // May 16, 2008 at 6:50 am

  Duncan - please don’t feed the troll.

  If we ignore it then it’ll go back to bothering people in the SeattlePI comments. Hopefully.

• 14 toudios // May 16, 2008 at 9:49 am

  Peter: *hopefully* it will soon pitch it into the weeds at the ’s’ curve by Greenlake on a motorcycle doing 60, rendering its typing hands useless, at least for a while.

• 15 Silver // May 16, 2008 at 11:03 am

  I walked by the Kiss Cafe yesterday completely on accident, so I now know where it is. It’s in the same building as the rock climbing place up by the Lockspot. The Lockspot has nice drinks, and a yummy prime rib, by the way.

  The Kiss Cafe looks like it caters to a Frat/sports boy crowd, with TVs showing sports and so on. The men I saw inside seemed to fit that stereotype.

  If this is an accurate impression, I can see why the owner might be uncomfortable with male nudes on his walls.

  Yes, I can see where he has a right to display what he wants. And I have a right to avoid giving my money to phobes.

• 16 Duncan // May 16, 2008 at 11:15 am

  Wow, that’s definitely not the impression I get. Granted, I’ve never been inside, but I walk by all the time and it’s usually early 30s professionals or moms with strollers.

  “Sports on TV” does not equal frat. Nor does a lack of hard alcohol (Kiss only serves beer and wine, I believe). And for Pete’s sake, it’s called “Kiss”!

  You want to see a frat crowd, go to King’s.

• 17 m // May 16, 2008 at 11:20 am

  Loft is also a frat crowd place.

• 18 CH // May 16, 2008 at 12:29 pm

  @Silver — thanks for the drive-by analysis. Clearly, you have a finely honed ability to shoehorn people into stereotypes, but I notice that your classification system seems to ignore women — would that count as sexist, or am I taking things a bit too far?

• 19 Suthii // May 16, 2008 at 12:34 pm

  Peter, Toudios, are you here just to reinforce the stereotype of the cheerless, earnest, PC Northwesterner?

  “Kiss Cafe: Take it with a shot of cream.”

• 20 keith // May 16, 2008 at 1:21 pm

  I have posted on KISS Cafe on several occasions on my blog and I go there quite a bit. I strongly disagree with the unfair characterization of the place as full of frat-boy homophobes — especially when a snap judgment was made from glancing in the window on one occasion.

  Unlike most here I have been to KISS Cafe a number of times. Most of the time when we have been there the crowd consists of a mix of younger and older couples and small groups of friends … many women … sometimes a kid or two … Oakley for his part is a friendly quiet spoken guy who loves dogs and the outdoors.

  As for the atmosphere it is typically quiet and happy … not rowdy or angry or agressive. I have never seen any greek letters, beer throwing, Pukemon or Hooters U. shirts etc. during my trips to KISS Cafe.

  Oh, wait a second … they do serve beer and show soccer games on TV — unlike most other bars in town. Guilty as charged I guess.

  I wish that some posters like Silver would just admit that no matter what the reality is you have already made up your mind.

  By the way I was in a fraternity and we had several gay brothers.

• 21 Duncan // May 16, 2008 at 1:58 pm

  Keith — do they show baseball/basketball/hockey in addition to soccer? I’ve been meaning to check the place out, but not if they don’t show M’s games.

• 22 Thomas // May 17, 2008 at 10:04 am

  This whole thing is total crap. I was about two feet away from the conversation between the owner and the artist. It seemed simple and not heated at all. There was certainly nothing relating to homosexuality in the conversation. I was really surprised to hear there was a dust up about this at all. The conversation was simply about whether or not the owners like the art - which evidently they did not. But there was no indication of homophobia. I guess my respect for the Stranger’s “reporting” (and the automatic reaction of so many in the blogoshere) must be misplaced.

• 23 LD // May 20, 2008 at 9:25 am

  It is unfortunate that some people would place a stereo type on the Kiss Cafe. The idea that this place is a Frat type bar would really offend the two free spirited woman owners. I happen to know openly gay people who frequent this establishment. Oakley, Amanda, and Brenda have an open door policy to anyone who wants to have a good meal and listen a to a local jam on the guitar. Yes, there is tv’s there… And Silver, I dont know if you realize this but many gay and lesbian folks love sports. Its a cafe not a library

• 24 keith // May 20, 2008 at 1:05 pm

  Hey Duncan,

  Yeah, they have had baseball on and other sports — x-games type stuff, hockey as I recall, college basketball … I don’t know if there is a schedule as there is in some bars. You might want to call and ask if they are showing the games.

  -K

• 25 TS Golden // May 20, 2008 at 9:39 pm

  I was there for the show opening and was completely unimpressed with his uninspired and rather amaturistic and inartistic representations. The lighting in the photography was terrible. The ‘art’ was low quality and the owners had every right to take down low quality art in their own establishment. This wasn’t a show at MOMA, and the likelihood Jim Wilkinson will have a show beyond the cafe circuit is completely dependent on how many people buy into his victim desperation to cover up the fact his photos are lame. This was a publicity stunt by this guy, and all of you sympathizers are all marks in the con. I am showing my art at the Kiss Cafe next, and gladly displaying my paintings, sketches, and photography after this previous “artist” threw his bogus tantrum. Get over it, your photography barely has even shock value. Go buy another all black turtleneck outfit, suck on a pacifier, and keep working on your craft instead of crying about a fabricated great injustice of art: It is just a Cafe showing! BTW: The people, food, beer, and wine are all great at the Kiss Cafe, judge for YOURSELF!

• 26 TS Golden // May 20, 2008 at 9:56 pm

  Right now my sketches from Europe are being displayed at the Kiss Cafe. By June 1st my paintings and international photography will also be available to view. View examples of my artwork in the Spective Paintings album in my myspace.com/tdieci pics.

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