Digable Planets won a Grammy for "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" but had much more in their arsenal than one catchy, minimalist jazz-rap jam. Their albums—1993's Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) and 1994's Blowout Comb—contained some of that decade's sharpest lyrical insights and most velvety grooves, steeped in DJ King Britt's epicurean ear for jazz and funk samples. The core trio (including Seattle native Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler) reunited in 2005; this gig should be a treat for fans of hiphop's second Golden Age. (Neumos, 925 E Pike St, 709-9467. 8 pm, $18, 21+.)

The sign beckons from an unremarkable storefront on an unpromising stretch of Westlake Avenue: "SEE OUR ANTIQUE APPLIANCE MUSEUM." This museum is in the showroom of a 50-year-old commercial laundry-machine company, American Meter & Appliance. Evidently commercial laundry machines don't need much showing—instead, the showroom is given to displays of the earliest washing machines and dryers (with stomping action! with jukeboxes!), stove-tops designed to look like car dashboards for the automaniacal '50s, and the discontinued poet-eating, pilot-light suicide oven. (Tours by a sales manager, who isn't selling anything.) (American Meter & Appliance, 1001 Westlake Ave N, 285-5050. 8 am–4:30 pm, free.)

Single straight men of Seattle, this is the movie for you. If a lady has been giving you no play (date after date), she will melt for you after watching The Romance of Astrea and Celadon. This is no exaggeration. Go and see for yourself. Set in fifth-century Gaul, the movie has a lightness and erotic magic you'd expect from a story that has a hidden castle, a mysterious river, an enchanted forest, lively nymphs, lost shepherds, and helpful druids. It's hard to believe that the French director of this visual feast, Eric Rohmer, is 88. (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 267-5380. 7 and 9 pm, $9.)

Crystal Stilts and caUSE co-MOTION! share a few things in common: an awesome label (Slumberland), the alliterative albatross of being anointed Brooklyn buzz bandsTM, and, most importantly, a penchant for rough-around-the-edges but perfectly-sweet-in-the-center dream-pop racket. caUSE co-MOTION! are the more upbeat of the two, all barely tuned jangle, joyriding rhythms, and eager, wide-eyed vocals. Crystal Stilts deal in more subdued but insistent drones and subway-tunnel echoes, like the Velvet Underground as channeled through Yo La Tengo. With Meth Teeth and Woods. (Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, 324-8000. 8 pm, $10, all ages.)

Hot Grits is clearly the best value for your entertainment dollar in all of Seattle this weekend. You'll sate your appetite for compelling theater as you watch four women form an all-black, 50-percent-lesbian punk band in our lily-white, apathetic city. And you'll get to see an enthusiastic rock 'n' roll show, as the ladies play a dozen tight, loud punk songs, including one inspired James Brown cover. And it's at a bar, so you can get totally hammered while getting your drama fix and your Saturday night rawk on. (Re-bar, 1114 Howell St, 233-9873. 7:30 pm, $15, 21+.)

Two emerging local rap groups will turn the party out with the legendary 2 Live Crew. You could not ask for more fun on the weekend. Indeed, "the freaks come out at night." Mad Rad have just released a fantastic album, White Gold, that's packed with the kind of bumping music that makes your hips want to dip. The hipster hop of Champagne Champagne will keep things interesting and strange. As for the 2 Live Crew? "Me so horny, me love you long time." (Nectar, 412 N 36th St, 632-2020. 9 pm, $10, 21+.)

John Hodgman's first book, The Areas of My Expertise, turned the trivia-book genre into an exercise in supershort fiction. His newest book, More Information Than You Require, applies this formula to memoir, describing what Hodgman's surprise midlife fame—the Apple ads! the movies!—is really like. It's hard to imagine fake trivia being deeply personal, but amid the one-liners (the citizens of Richmond, Virginia, call a sandwich a "meat coffin" and "Randy Quaid has had secret rabies since 1991") there's the story of a man who is grateful for, and deeply puzzled by, his own success. (Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255. 7:30 pm, $5.)

The large back room at the Frye Art Museum has been mostly sealed off, and it's dark in there. Two facing walls of videos and mirrors stand in the center; on them, sexy young men and women perform a parodic restaging of a 16th-century German mariner's account of Brazilian cannibals, this time set on a favela rooftop to catchy beats. The installation, by Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg, is the beating heart of this season at the Frye; the artists will give a talk about traveling the world and making art out of social distortion. (Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave, 622-9250. 7 pm, free.)

Dennis Cooper is the most harrowing living novelist writing in English. His novels like My Loose Thread are a horror show of intermingled sex and violence. Their viscera are repulsive but their visceral understanding of the basic human enigma—why do people do fucked-up things to each other?—makes them fascinating. Cooper has teamed up with French director Gisèle Vienne to stage Jerk, a solo puppet show based on the true story of serial killer Dean Corll, who slaughtered over 20 boys in Texas in the 1970s. (On the Boards, 100 W Roy St, 217-9888. 8 pm, $24. Through Nov 9.) BRENDAN KILEY

If you haven't voted by mail already, get up as early as you can, get to your polling place, wait in line, and vote the fuck out of that ballot. Then go to Pacific Place and catch W. Richard Dreyfuss's quietly terrifying portrait of Dick Cheney should be a cause for celebration. You've done your part to ensure that the world won't be run by a stubby-armed supervillain! Then head down to the Showbox at the Market and join hundreds of Stranger readers in drunken election-result-watching revelry. (See movie times, www.thestranger.com, for details. Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave, 628-3151. 4 pm, free.) PAUL CONSTANT

Equal parts elegant and terrifying, Peur(s) du Noir is a collection of six animated, black-and-white horror movies produced by French people. You can taste the Frenchiness in the intermittent comedy segments, geometric blanc-et-noir kaleidoscopes with voice-overs about particularly Gallic terrors: "I'm scared of being uninformed about politics... I'm moving center-left." The rest is classic horror about power (an aristocrat with homicidal dogs), possession (an anime short about Japanese schoolchildren and bloody-minded ghosts), and infestation (a nasty bit by hometown hero Charles Burns about sex and bugs). How can something so scary be so beautiful? (See movie times, www.thestranger.com, for details.) BRENDAN KILEY

Best friends Anne Mathern and Chad Wentzel have created a wistful, simple show about themselves—that is­, disjointed urban creatures reaching toward each other—and home. Wentzel and his sister, Seattle natives, perform the Catholic "Dona Nobis Pacem" hymn they were taught as kids, this time over a speaker phone (him at home in New York, her at home in Alaska). Other works are absurdly, touchingly intimate: Mathern's pelt in the shape of Wentzel's chest hair, her laborious video performance of Wentzel's intricate, improvised dance moves. (Crawl Space Gallery, 504 E Denny Way, 201-2441. Noon–5 pm, free. Through Nov 16.) JEN GRAVES

A polymath with dexterous deck skills, DJ Spooky reconfigures old audio/visual data in order to gain fresh insights—including a détournement of D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation. Now Spooky turns his critical faculties on 1973 documentary Wattstax and the loaded roster of Memphis soul-music label Stax. The show's called Soul Power: From Gospel to the Godfather, and it should be a sonic/imagistic history lesson to which you'll sweat as much as learn, as Dr. King figuratively boogies with Queen Aretha. (Earlier that day, at 7 pm, Spooky will read from his new book at Caffe Vita.) (Nectar, 412 N 36th St, 632-2020. 9 pm, $12, 21+.) DAVE SEGAL

Lots of worthy shows are happening this Halloween—Partman Parthorse, Truckasauras, the motherfucking Sonics—but what you really want on this holiday is a manic, satanic party. Diplo (boss of the record label Mad Decent and DJ for M.I.A. and Santogold) is sure to deliver just that, mixing fun-sized song treats with old-skool DJ tricks and monster mash-ups. He could do things to "Thriller" that would make more than your body shiver. Rounding out the bill is the wicked electro bounce of London's Boy 8-Bit, the dark tropical post-punk of Abe Vigoda, and Telepathe. (Neumos, 925 E Pike St, 709-9467. 8 pm, $15, all ages.) ERIC GRANDY

With all the bearded musicians making pretty music in this town—Fleet Foxes, Cave Singers, the Pica Beats—it's easy to forget that we built this city on rock and roll. Tonight's show will remind you. Wild Orchid Children play spastic jams laced with acidic vocals and psychedelic guitars. Navigator vs. Navigator remembered to take their ADD medication, but they've still got some spiraling-out-of-control, passionate moments. Finally, instrumental brethren Bronze Fawn and You.May.Die.in.the.Desert will be a nice warm-up to the crazy train. (Comet Tavern, 922 E Pike, 322-9272. 9 pm, $6.) MEGAN SELING

No matter who wins on election day, the blissful truth is that George W. Bush will no longer be president. Stranger Genius Award–winner Jonathan Raban—who, in addition to being one of the best novelists in Seattle, writes intelligent, funny, and furious political commentary—will take part in a group discussion titled "After Bush." As we get closer to the election, it's important to consider what the nepo-tastic dumb-fuck has done to the face of American leadership in the 21st Century. (Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255. 7:30 pm, $5.) PAUL CONSTANT

Trouble the Water isn't the most comprehensive Hurricane Katrina documentary, but it's a damn compelling reminder of what happens when a half-decade of indifferent Republican leadership meets a natural disaster meets racism. Aspiring rapper and Ninth-Ward resident Kimberly Rivers Roberts filmed her neighborhood during the breezy, uncertain hours before the storm and kept the video running as she and her family fled, terrified, into their dark, cramped attic: "If you don't have money, and you don't have status, you don't have a government." Just in case you forgot why this election is so important. (See movie times, www .thestranger.com, for details.) LINDY WEST