The Stranger

This August, our fair city will host the American Cheese Society's annual convention (and you know those cheese conventioneers get CA-RAY-ZEE). Meanwhile, for professional and amateur turophiles (truth!) alike, this weekend brings the sixth annual Seattle Cheese Festival at the Pike Place Market. Free samples of 240 cheeses will be available in the frenzy of the Cheese Concourse—they went through 400,000 toothpicks last year—where you may meet the cheese producers. Also: chef cheese demos, cheese seminars, and a wine and beer garden for washing down all that cheese. (Pike Place Market, First Ave and Pike St, www.seattlecheesefestival.com. 10 am–5 pm, free.) by Bethany Jean Clement

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The Stranger has spilled a lot of glowing ink—deservedly so—on Fuck Buttons; the British duo are reliable creators of expansive techno-noise-drone. But it's advisable to arrive early for this show in order to catch White Rainbow (Portland guitarist/ keyboardist Adam Forkner). Updating Terry Riley's transcendental minimalism, White Rainbow finesses his voice and instrumental emissions into concentric ripples of tranquility, as if they're some beneficent form of radiation. He gives chants a peace. (Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, 324-8005. 8 pm, $12 adv/ $15 DOS, 21+.) by Dave Segal

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In Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes's life, there's a before and an after, and what separates them is three minutes of severe beating by four Seattle police officers. Five years later, Alley-Barnes and his friends and family have created a group show—but it functions as a ritual exorcism, not just a site for vicarious looking, as the artist explains—of collage, installation, video, sculpture, and painting in a gallery right across the street from where it happened. The painted, metallic letters "WE SEE" on the wall (by Alley-Barnes) were taken from the BMW dealership they now face; Kat Larson's tired, beat-up old boxing glove bearing the hand-stitched words "Get Off Of Me" is a plea for other men and other futures. (Pun(c)tuation, 705A E Pike St, www.punctuatedlife.com. 2–9 pm, free. Through May 19.) by Jen Graves

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Iron Man 2 officially kicks off the most wonderful time of the year: Summer Movie Season. No, it's not as good as the first one, and yes, that is a shame. But let's not damn Iron Man 2 with too much faint praise. You have sparkling, funny performances by great actors (when Robert Downey Jr. and Sam Rockwell throw an act-off, everybody wins), three (and only three) enormous battle scenes featuring heavy metallic objects vigorously pummeling other heavy metallic objects, and Garry Shandling's super-puffy face. Let the 'splosions begin! (See Movie Times: thestranger.com/film.) by Paul Constant

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Everybody knows there's no greater amusement than the amusement derived from another person's pain. Prepare for maximum amusement: Three authors will share funny, awkward personal stories while visual accompaniment plays on a giant screen behind them (and the waitstaff delivers pitcher after pitcher of cool, heart-strengthening beer right to your seat). Stranger writer Cienna Madrid talks about the horrors of growing up in Idaho, Josh Zinn discusses traveling cross-country on a Greyhound bus, and Brian McGuigan relates a short history of growing up fat. You'll laugh! You'll drink! You'll wince! You'll drink more! (Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave, 686-6684. 7 pm, $5 adv/$7 DOS.) by Paul Constant

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Man, fuck the sun, right? It burns people, it makes plants grow (like poison oak!), and one day it will explode and leave us all to wallow in blind darkness. Do you really want to reinforce that behavior? Instead, get thee to the movies. The Seattle International Film Festival opens tonight with The Extra Man and a big-ass party at Benaroya Hall, and it continues for the next three and a half weeks with 256 features and 150 shorts in dark, cool, blissfully sunless theaters. Topics include: Hugh Hefner, the Library of Alexandria, Spanish spies, baby turtles, neo-Nazi gay love, and Joan Rivers. Use our exhaustive SIFF guide to help steer you through. (Benaroya Hall, 200 University St, thestranger.com/siff. 7 pm, $45–$100.) by Lindy West

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One of the key sonic architects of 1980s psych rock, Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember has been further refining his astral aural projections under the Spectrum brand for the last 20 years. His natural inclination toward minimalist drone and analog-synth tomfoolery à la the BBC Radiophonic Workshop interacts with a druggy rock motorvation to produce music that's alternately spacey and fiery, blissfully beautiful and ominously turbulent. Spectrum's best-known album is titled Forever Alien, which has become Kember's aesthetic mission statement. (Comet, 922 E Pike St, 322-9272. 9 pm, $10, 21+.) by Dave Segal

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