The Stranger

The best part of the Capitol Hill Block Party—besides the music, duh—is that you can step right out of the festival's gates and walk to some of your favorite bars, restaurants, shops, parks, and whatever amenities of the neighborhood you desire. Hell, you can access a good handful of such spots within the festival's gates. It's a music festival that lives in the city just like you do, and it's awesome. So, about the music. Today: Holy Fuck, Shabazz Palaces, Mahjongg. Saturday: !!!, Obits, the Night Marchers. Sunday: Truckasauras, Blue Scholars, Mad Rad. And so, so much more—check the guide in this issue for more on everything.

(12th Ave and E Pike St, thestranger.com/blockparty. 4 pm–3 am, $23–$30.) by Eric Grandy

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Art-book flea market in the sculpture court! Seattle's contemporary museum, the Henry Art Gallery, has decided to whittle its stash, meaning art books on the cheap. There'll be exhibition catalogs; artist biographies; nerdy periodicals (yesss!); delicious, delicious theory and history books—and you're encouraged to bring your own art books to trade. In James Turrell's Skyspace, in honor of words day at the museum, experimental poets Nico Vassilakis, Crystal Curry, Joel Felix, and Jeanne Heuving will give sky-spatial readings (sunny!) at noon and 2:00 p.m. (Henry Art Gallery, 15th Ave NE and NE 41st St, 543-2280. 11 am–4 pm, free.) by Jen Graves

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This Much Ado About Nothing sizzles thanks to its ace personnel. Director Sheila Daniels has a talent for helping actors crawl under their characters' hides and build dramatic weight with the quiet accumulation of small details. (Her three-person Crime and Punishment at Intiman was as dense and hot as a fever dream.) Amy Thone, playing the sassy Beatrice, won a Stranger Genius Award. Her real-life partner, Hans Altweis, plays the manfully sassy Benedick and is one of Seattle's best actors. Watching them shoot barbs at each other in the great outdoors—with Daniels helping them aim—should be joy. (Se attle Shakespeare Company at Edmonds City Park, 600 Third Ave S, Edmonds, 733-8222. 3 pm, free.) by Brendan Kiley

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In Inception—Christopher Nolan's new is-real-life-really-real-life action-adventure heist thingy—everybody is my boyfriend (and yours!). Joseph Gordon-Levitt is my boyfriend because of suspenders. Tom Hardy is my boyfriend because watching him slouch in a chair is basically sex in slow motion. Ken Watanabe is my boyfriend because KEN WATANABE. Michael Caine is my boyfriend because of everything ever. Nolan has a better-than-average knack for mixing big action with believable humanity and keeps Inception's temporal origami blooming and folding at a rapid, rousing clip. Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio. My boyfriend. (See Movie Times: thestranger.com/film.) by Lindy West

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Between the lackluster sequels, eye-gouging 3-D, and soulless adaptations, this has been one of the most disappointing blockbuster summers ever. Thankfully, Predators serves up the brain-dead thrills you've been craving! It doesn't get bogged down in exposition or unnecessary character development: A surprisingly physical Adrien Brody leads a strong cast in a B-movie creature feature full of 'splosions and huge fucking guns. Are you ready to rumble? Summer, finally, is ready for you. (See Movie Times: thestranger.com/film.) by Paul Constant

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The world simply does not contain enough literature about pie. Local author and food-lover Kate Lebo has written a new zine, A Commonplace Book of Pie, that's stuffed with facts and fictions about nature's finest food. (Do pumpkin pie fans really make better lovers, as Lebo asserts?) Tonight, she's joined by a chorus of local literary talent (David Lasky and Jennifer Borges Foster among them) with their own pie-ballads. Perhaps best of all, the $5 entry fee guarantees you your own slice of homemade guaranteed-to-be-goddamned-delicious pie. (Coffee not included.) (Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030. 7 pm, $5.) by Paul Constant

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