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Stranger Suggests Category Archive

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Today The Stranger Suggests

posted by on July 29 at 11:00 AM

art

'Text/ural'

Two dogs, lovingly drawn by Michael Waugh, rest in the grass. But their lines are not lines; they're words written in cursive, taken from inauguration speeches, commission reports, and speeches to Congress. One dog is quietly missing a paw. Things are not right with the world of these speeches. Also in the group show: a big, bright word ("HALFULL") by Kay Rosen; Annie Bradley's audio-video animation Sodding G. Monoliths, inspired by spammer names; and a giant wall drawing by Ewoud van Rijn's that gives reality a talking-to. (OKOK Gallery, 5107 Ballard Ave NW, 789-6242. Noon–6 pm, free.)

JEN GRAVES

Monday, July 28, 2008

Today The Stranger Suggests

posted by on July 28 at 11:00 AM

Film

'The Dark Knight'

The Dark Knight is not "the best movie ever," as many internet nerds have proclaimed. Nor is it even the best movie of the year. But it is a truly great movie, packed with excellent performances (Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart) and thrilling, non-CGI special effects. Plus, Batman! And 30 minutes of the thing were filmed with an IMAX-exclusive camera, which means that if you watch it on an IMAX screen (highly recommended) you're in for some vertiginous eyegasms. (Pacific Science Center, 200 Second Ave N, 443-2001. 7 pm, $10.75.)

PAUL CONSTANT

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Today The Stranger Suggests

posted by on July 27 at 11:00 AM

music

Dyme Def

At the betting table, in the game of who will be the biggest hiphop crew to come out of Seattle in this decade (which has only 17 months left), all of my chips are still on Dyme Def. The local group produces a hiphop sound that's ambitious and manages to be commercial without losing an ounce of art or innovation. In 2009, the crew will only get bigger and deffer. Dyme Def will perform at Nectar's Midsummer Backyard Barbecue Jam, with Pink Skull, South Rakkas Crew, and Mad Rad. (Nectar, 412 N 36th St, 632-2020. 2–10 pm, $5, 21+.)

CHARLES MUDEDE

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Today The Stranger Suggests

posted by on July 26 at 11:00 AM

music

Capitol Hill Block Party

This year's Block Party is—and I say this not because The Stranger is sponsoring it, but because it's true—the best Block Party ever. They heard your cries for more Girl Talk! They brought in notoriously entertaining live acts like the Hold Steady, Les Savy Fav, and Jay Reatard! And they made it even bigger by adding the King Cobra stage! Check out the sexy, sweaty pullout in this week's issue for the complete schedule and write-ups on every single band—and remember to chase your beer with water. It's not fun to party with heatstroke. (Pike St and 11th Ave, www.thestranger.com/blockparty. 1 pm–3 am, $18, some stages all ages/some stages 21+.)

MEGAN SELING

Friday, July 25, 2008

Today The Stranger Suggests

posted by on July 25 at 11:00 AM

Film

'Water Lilies'

Good god! There has not been cinema like this since Esther Williams made her iconic appearance in Bathing Beauty with an extended sequence of her behaving like a porpoise. This movie will be better because this movie involves actual synchronized swimming, not the water ballet of old. With a plot that follows several sapphically oriented girls on the same synchro team, it also involves the French! It is a French film. Please, please let this be the beginning of a beautiful new synchronized-swimming cinema. (See movie times, www.thestranger.com, for details.)

JEN GRAVES

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Today The Stranger Suggests

posted by on July 24 at 11:00 AM

Theater

'Leni'

This electric new play isn't an apologia for Leni Riefenstahl, but you will leave the theater feeling uncomfortable new affection for Hitler's favorite director. The coquettish Leni the Younger (Alexandra Tavares) and the steely, wry Leni the Elder (Stranger Genius Amy Thone) discuss, argue about, and reenact scenes from their life. One of them knows her magnum opus, Triumph of the Will, will define the modern aesthetic of film—and doom her to a life of scorn. The other does not. (Erickson Theater Off Broadway, 1524 Harvard Ave, 800-838-3006. 8:30 pm, $10–$25, Thurs pay what you can. Through Aug 9.)

BRENDAN KILEY

Reading

Ethan Canin

Canin isn't the kind of author who'll be found crushed to death when his mammoth shelf of awards collapses under its own weight. That's fine—book awards are ridiculous, anyway—but people need to pay attention to his body of work; all his novels are well-constructed, entertaining, and satisfying. Canin allegedly decided to become a writer after reading a Saul Bellow novel. That inspiration has never been more obvious or compelling than in his new novel, America America, a study of Nixon-era politics and morality. (Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333. 7 pm, free.)

PAUL CONSTANT
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  • Wednesday, July 23, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 23 at 11:00 AM

    Music

    Mudhoney, No Age at KEXP Parking Lot

    If you missed Sub Pop's 20th anniversary festivities last weekend, this is your chance to catch up. Labelmates Mudhoney and No Age share a penchant for good guitar fuzz, but that's about it. Where the former make a conventional racket of garage punk and hard rock, the latter dilute punk, psych, and pop rock into a more mercurial, thrilling solution. Mudhoney are titans of Sub Pop's past; No Age are the future. (KEXP parking lot, 113 Dexter Ave N. 8 pm, free with e-ticket at www.freeyrradio.com, all ages.)

    ERIC GRANDY

    Tuesday, July 22, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 22 at 11:00 AM

    music

    Zizek Urban Beats Club at Nectar

    Zizek Urban Beats Club is a weekly dance party and DJ collective in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that mixes music from around the globe—Berlin techno, Baltimore club, London grime—with South America's world beat du jour, cumbia. But why the name Zizek? DJ Grant C. Dull explains: "One of the resident DJs, a philosophy student, loved how Zizek used elements of contemporary culture and 'mashed them up' with classical thought to create something fresh and new, similar to what we are doing with music." (Nectar Lounge, 412 N 36th St, 632-2020. 9 pm, $10, 21+.)

    ERIC GRANDY

    Monday, July 21, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 21 at 11:00 AM

    Film

    'Alexandra'

    A friend of mine, a Russian Jew, is of the opinion that a stream of nationalism runs through the center of Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark (2002), and that nationalism always ends in a state of war, a sea of blood. Alexandra, Sokurov's latest film, comes into war by a nationalist stream—a proud babushka visiting her grandson, a soldier, at his camp in Chechnya—for the purpose of finding a way out of the blood and destruction. The way out is humanistic rather than nationalistic. The film is fucking great. (See movie times, www.thestranger.com, for details.)

    CHARLES MUDEDE

    Sunday, July 20, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 20 at 11:00 AM

    Chow

    Spring Hill at Spring Hill Restaurant and Bar

    What's being produced in the kitchen of chef Mark Fuller's new West Seattle venture gives your mind something to do along with your mouth. The cold cioppino ($12), for example, is a miracle of a summer soup: a crystal-clear tomato broth with a bit of basil oil and half-immersed morsels of Dungeness crab, shrimp, mussel, and halibut. How can something transparent be so flavorful and also so subtle? Why is this the perfect medium for seafood? Think it over; eat it up. (Spring Hill Restaurant and Bar, 4437 California Ave SW, 935-1075. 5:45 pm–midnight.)

    BETHANY JEAN CLEMENT

    Saturday, July 19, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 19 at 11:00 AM

    Art

    'The Violet Hour' at Henry Art Gallery

    For being so grim, this three-person show is remarkably entertaining: Jen Liu's videos feature Pink Floyd standards sung in Latin plainchant, Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" performed by a community brass band, cannibalism, brutalist architecture, and pretty young men. In David Maljkovic's videos, young people in a postcommunist daze linger under burdensome modernist architecture, loitering around immobilized cars. Matthew Day Jackson has actually immobilized a Corvette, which sits in the middle of the gallery, bringing to mind stoners and bombed-out cathedrals. (Henry Art Gallery, 4100 15th Ave NE, 543-2280. 11 am–5 pm, $10.)

    JEN GRAVES

    Theater

    14/48 at Center House Theatre

    The world's quickest theater festival (where a pack of artists creates 14 new short plays in 48 hours) rides again. Each 14/48 is equal parts good, bad, and marvelously awful. This year's list of artists is a who's who of the Seattle fringe scene: playwrights such as Elizabeth Heffron (Mitzi's Abortion) and Scot Augustson (master of loopy, perverse comedies), actors Charles Smith (of Greek Active fame) and Ray Tagavilla (criminally underutilized), directors Gillian Jorgensen (artistic director emeritus of Annex Theatre) and Brian Faker (actor, director, and all-around old salt). Bring a flask. (Center House Theater, Seattle Center, 800-838-3006. 8 and 10:30 pm, $15. Through July 27.)

    BRENDAN KILEY
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  • Wednesday, July 16, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 16 at 11:00 AM

    Disco

    Studio at Havana

    "Gay disco" is about as redundant as "delicious pizza," but Havana's weekly Wednesday affair, Studio, has recently come out as "gay-ass." Not that this will change anything—the night's mix of classic, rare, and Italo disco consistently draws a cool, friendly crowd blessedly free of bridge-and-tunnelers. Conflict of interest: DJs TJ Gorton and HMA are regular Line Out contributors. Further conflict: Stranger music critic Michealangelo Matos DJs the happy hour immediately preceding. Can you stand one more? One of the DJs is sleeping with one of our editors. But one of the DJs always is. (Havana, 1010 E Pike St, 323-2822. Happy hour at 7 pm, free. Studio at 9 pm, $3, 21+.)

    ERIC GRANDY

    Tuesday, July 15, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 15 at 11:00 AM

    Film

    'The Last Detail'

    A young and superhot Jack Nicholson, at the height of his acting powers, is maverick sailor Billy "Bad Ass" Budduski; a very young Randy Quaid, at the apex of his spazziness, is the virginal young sailor Budduski has to deliver to navy prison. The plot takes the sailors on a road trip to seedy 1970s diners, whorehouses, and bars to show the cracked-up Quaid one last good time before the brig, and the result is one of the best American films ever made. Darryl Ponicsan, who wrote the novel Detail is based on, will introduce the film. (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 329-2629. 7:30 pm, $8.50.)

    PAUL CONSTANT

    Monday, July 14, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 14 at 11:00 AM

    Film

    'Encounters at the End of the World'

    Werner Herzog's latest documentary explores the desolate and unforgiving terrain of Antarctica, but the film itself is full of life. Having set out to avoid making another penguin movie, Herzog focuses on the patchwork of interesting souls living among the ice—from the banker-turned-driver of "Ivan the Terra Bus" to the linguist living and working on a continent with no native languages. The stories are fascinating, the images startling, and the overall prognosis for the continent bleak. (See movie times, www.thestranger.com, for details.)

    BRADLEY STEINBACHER

    Sunday, July 13, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 13 at 11:00 AM

    Carne

    Burning Beast at Smoke Farm

    Smoke Farm, about an hour's drive north of Seattle, is 360 acres of trees, fields, and streams and a few weathered buildings made of wood. Weird things happen up there: performance festivals, science seminars, late-night bonfires. This weekend is the inaugural "Burning Beast" festival wherein eight teams of excellent chefs—including Tamara Murphy of Brasa and Matt Dillon of Sitka and Spruce and the Corson Building—will cook beasts over wood fires: lambs, pigs, rabbits, goats, eels. You get to wander from fire to fire, eating and drinking, then fall asleep under the stars. (Smoke Farm, 12731 Smokes Road, Arlington, 800-838-3006. All day, $65. Camping is encouraged.)

    BRENDAN KILEY

    Saturday, July 12, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 12 at 11:00 AM

    Reading

    Zach Plague at Richard Hugo House

    Plague is the author of a self-described "typo/graphic novel" titled boring boring boring boring boring boring boring, just released by Featherproof Books. Besides featuring some gorgeous design, boring7 starts out with one couple's endangered anti-love affair and ends with art terrorism. Along the way, there are sex drugs, an "art patriarch" named The Platypus, and a punk named Punk. Also reading will be Kevin Sampsell of Future Tense Publishing and Jay Ponteri, editor of M Review, making this a huge-ass, small-press hootenanny. (Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030. 7 pm, free.)

    PAUL CONSTANT

    Nostalgia

    Sub Pop Turns 20 at Marymoor Park

    This weekend's 20th-anniversary blowout for mega-indie label Sub Pop includes a lot of great shows, but today's lineup is arguably the best, with reunions from Scottish twee punks the Vaselines and Canadian indie hermits Eric's Trip, as well as sets from rising Seattle stars Fleet Foxes, awesome Allentown ranters Pissed Jeans, New Zealand's adorable Flight of the Conchords, and many more acts from the label's stacked, storied roster. All in the legendary birthplace of "grunge™": Redmond, Washington. (Marymoor Park, 6046 W Lake Sammamish Pkwy NE, Redmond, www.subpop.com. Noon, $35, all ages.)

    ERIC GRANDY
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  • Friday, July 11, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 11 at 11:00 AM

    Art

    Roq La Rue Turns 10 at Roq La Rue

    Roq La Rue gallery opened in the summer of 1998. Since then it has made many sales, many Stranger covers, and many big claims for itself. It's supposedly the Seattle outpost for a national "movement" named "pop surrealism" by the gallery's powerhouse dealer, Kirsten Anderson. All these scare quotes are my response to the gallery's boasts and throw-downs over the years about being an "art outsider." Go judge for yourself. (Roq La Rue, 2312 Second Ave, 374-8977. 6–9 pm, free.)

    JEN GRAVES

    Wednesday, July 9, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 9 at 11:00 AM

    Art

    'Alloy of Love' at Frye Art Museum

    Dario Robleto's exhibit at the Frye is one of those shows you read as much as see. On display is a simple button-down shirt next to a pile of buttons that—the posted description informs us—were made from melted Billie Holiday records, gathered under the title Sometimes Billie Is All That Holds Me Together. The whole show's a death-and-pop-culture-obsessed mindblower, and you'd be a fool to miss it. (Yes, even you.) (Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave, 622-9250. 10 am–5 pm, free. Through Sept 1.)

    DAVID SCHMADER

    Tuesday, July 8, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 8 at 11:00 AM

    Dubstep

    Kode9 at Chop Suey

    Kode9 is a London-based Scotsman, philosophy professor, dubstep/grime producer, and owner of Hyperdub, one of the most innovative record labels in the world. From this label we get the hero of our time, Burial (or Saint Burial), and the madman of our time, the Spaceape—both were discovered by Kode9, the father of hauntology, a kind of thinking and feeling that emerged after the optimism of the '90s crashed against the wall of Bush's '00s. Kode9's beats soundtrack a world that is dead but haunted by the living. (Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, 324-8000. 9 pm, $12, 21+.)

    CHARLES MUDEDE

    Monday, July 7, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 7 at 11:00 AM

    Music

    Matmos at Triple Door

    Avant-electronic duo Matmos creates high-concept albums from digitally buggered audio samples (in 2001, they made a record based around sounds from cosmetic surgeries). Their latest, Supreme Balloon, was composed entirely without microphones, using only the direct input from an imposing assortment of vintage modular synthesizers. Live, Matmos might process sounds from such sources as a contact mic attached to a balloon, melting ice, or hair clippers as they shave a fan's hair into a Mohawk. Genius. With SF noise makers Wobbly. (The Triple Door, 216 Union St, 838-4333. 8 pm, $20, all ages.)

    ERIC GRANDY

    Sunday, July 6, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 6 at 11:00 AM

    Theater

    'A Streetcar Named Desire' at Intiman Theatre

    We wouldn't normally suggest, sight unseen, a production by out-of-town actors we don't know—but Streetcar is a durable work of genius and Sheila Daniels is one of our favorite directors. A fringe-theater star for nearly a decade (and recently hired as Intiman's associate director), Daniels has a tender, almost maternal approach to directing that coaxes deep, multifaceted performances out of her actors. "This play is Shakespeare," Daniels told me in an interview last week. "Shakespeare with New Orleans accents and 100 props." We have great expectations. (Intiman Theatre, 201 Mercer St, 269-1900. 7:30 pm, $10–$48. Through Aug 2.)

    BRENDAN KILEY

    Saturday, July 5, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 5 at 11:00 AM

    Music

    Big Business, Akimbo at El Corazón

    It's been a while since we've had Big Business to kick around—the bombastic stoner-rock duo fled Seattle's pine-scented air for L.A.'s polluted pastures in 2006. Tonight, they return to blow your face off with new material and 33 percent more shredding! (Earlier this year BB, announced the addition of guitarist Toshi Kasai.) Speaking of blowing your face off, Akimbo is releasing a new record in September. No doubt they'll showcase some of that epic material as this evening's openers. With Coconut Coolouts. (El Corazón, 109 Eastlake Ave E, 381-3094. 9 pm, $10 adv/$12 DOS, all ages.)

    MEGAN SELING

    Film

    'WALL•E'

    Yeah, Pixar movies are usually good, but this one's unimaginably great. From its little trash-compacting hero (never so cute as when he stands up on tippy-toes—er, jacks up on an expanding lattice—to search for a replacement binocular lens) to its Apple-inspired shiny white pod of a love interest (as bellicose and career-minded as any female character in film history), WALL•E is completely crushworthy. And its storyline, half Little Tramp and half Benito Cereno, is a venerable pastiche. (See movie times.)

    ANNIE WAGNER
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  • Friday, July 4, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 4 at 11:00 AM

    Science

    Naturalists at the Beach at Olympic Sculpture Park

    Norwegians, I am told (by the internet), "relish" moon snails. The Seattle Aquarium Beach Naturalists also relish moon snails. This second group is a crew of trained volunteers who spend summer afternoons hanging out on Puget Sound beaches teaching about moon snails, sea stars, barnacles, and the like. On our nation's birthday, they will be at the pocket beach at the edge of the Olympic Sculpture Park. Hey! Moon snails! Something you can touch at the sculpture park! (Olympic Sculpture Park, 2901 Western Ave, 654-3100. 11:30 am–2:30 pm, free.)

    JEN GRAVES

    Thursday, July 3, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 3 at 11:00 AM

    Film

    'My Winnipeg' at SIFF Cinema at McCaw Hall

    A characteristically hyperventilated outing from Guy Maddin, My Winnipeg has the added virtue of being (almost) grounded in reality. It's an ode to Maddin's hometown in which civic history gets tangled up in Oedipal reveries, and the line between fact and fiction is perpetually buried in snow. But it feels more substantial than Maddin's previous fictions: You now have some idea of what it's like to grow up itchy and feverish in a buttoned-up Canadian town. (SIFF Cinema, 321 Mercer St, www.siff.net. 7 and 8:45 pm, $10.)

    ANNIE WAGNER

    Wednesday, July 2, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 2 at 11:00 AM

    Art

    Monet vs. Monnoyer at Seattle Art Museum

    The impressionists are overrated and need some comeuppance; they're getting it at a new exhibit at SAM. Inspiring Impressionism pairs impressionist paintings with older paintings (Sisley vs. Goya, Renoir vs. Greuze), and the impressionists often lose. Take Monet's Still Life with Flowers and Fruit versus the 17th-century French baroque painter Monnoyer's Vase of Flowers on a Marble Table. Monnoyer gives us a feathery white lily too long in the vase: brown, sagging, slimy. Monet gives us overlit dahlias: dumb pom-poms. (Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, 654-3100. 10 am–5 pm, $20.) JEN GRAVES


    Tuesday, July 1, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on July 1 at 11:00 AM

    Music

    True Colors Tour at WaMu Theater

    Cyndi Lauper's big gay music fest lands in Seattle with a lineup so great, it quashes all reservations. Topping tonight's bill: queers-for-life the B-52s (whose new album is 50 times better than it has a right to be) and, be still my heart, the West Indies–born/United Kingdom–bred legend Joan Armatrading, whose lavish love songs have inspired more lesbian sex than booze and The L Word combined. (And don't underestimate Cyndi Lauper; she always delivers.) (WaMu Theater, 1000 Occidental Ave S, www.ticketmaster .com. 6:30 pm, $56–$126, all ages.) DAVID SCHMADER


    Monday, June 30, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 30 at 11:00 AM

    FILM

    'The Mark of Zorro' at Paramount Theatre

    I'm still waiting for Silent Movie Mondays to tackle my favorite new discovery, Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl, but in the meantime I'll gladly settle for this classic swashbuckler. If you've never been, you're not going to believe your ears. The genius entertainer Dennis James accompanies the film on the Paramount's tricked-out Wurlitzer organ and the crowd hisses at the bad guys—you'll never think about "silent" films the same way again. (Paramount, 911 Pine St, 292-2787. 7 pm, $12 at the door.) ANNIE WAGNER


    Sunday, June 29, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 29 at 11:00 AM

    PARADE/FESTIVAL

    Gay Pride

    After a couple years of divide and fail, Seattle is cramming its butt- load of gay pride into one supergay day. Things begin at 11:00 a.m. with the Pride Parade: two and a half hours of Dykes on Bikes, shirtless bartenders on flatbed trucks, and award-winning floats. That afternoon brings Seattle PrideFest, four and a half hours of live music, DJs, beer gardens, and wandering gay herds at Seattle Center. Last year, both events were incredibly fun. Here's hoping for a repeat. (Parade starts at 11 am at Fourth Ave and Union St and proceeds down Fourth Ave to Denny Way. PrideFest runs from 1:30–6 pm at Seattle Center. Both events are free.) DAVID SCHMADER

    DAVID SCHMADER

    Saturday, June 28, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 28 at 11:00 AM

    ART

    'Task' at Seattle Public Library, Central Branch

    A hearty gang of 35 regular Seattle people (nonperformers), led by German artist Oliver Herring, are taking over the third floor of the downtown library. After interviewing and picking his volunteers, Herring writes tasks for each of them, and the all-day performance will begin with each person performing his or her artist-given task, such as "pick a cat hair or dog hair off somebody's sweater without somebody noticing and place it on somebody else." The 35 people will spend the rest of the day writing tasks for each other, creating a symphonic group portrait. (Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 386-4636. 10 am–5:30 pm, free.) JEN GRAVES


    Friday, June 27, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 27 at 11:00 AM

    Music

    The Saturday Knights at Nectar

    Mingle, the Saturday Knights' debut album, is Seattle's first summer blockbuster. MCs Tilson and Barfly are genial block-party hosts, dishing up goofy punch lines and technical tongue twisters like so much hot barbecue. DJ Suspence straddles genres, presiding over warm breakbeats, wheezy soul organs, horns, piano, and bitchin' Camaro guitars. With Daptone's the Budos Band opening (and possibly sitting in with the Knights). More than a record-release party, this is the official start of the summer party season. (Nectar, 412 N 36th St, 632-2020. 9 pm, $10, 21+.) ERIC GRANDY


    Thursday, June 26, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 26 at 11:00 AM

    READING

    Andre Dubus III at Town Hall

    Dubus's House of Sand and Fog was a literary smash hit, loudly pimped by snooty book critics and by Oprah. His newest, The Garden of Last Days, is about the last few weeks in the life of one of the September 11 hijackers—much of that time spent in a strip club. It promises to be the kind of book that's devoured in one tense sitting, even by people who swear that they never read. (Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 624-6600. 7:30 pm, $5.) PAUL CONSTANT

    PAUL CONSTANT

    MUSIC

    Happy Birthday, Chris Travis at Sunset Tavern

    Chris Travis is the host of The Young & the Restless, 107.7 The End's Sunday-night local-music show. He's also co-owner of the small local label Burning Building, and if you ask nicely, he'll listen to your demo tape when no one else will. For his birthday, Travis shares the spotlight with his favorite Seattle bands—melodic, instrumental act You.May.Die.In.The.Desert opens the celebratory show, followed by To the Waves, Hungry Pines, and Speaker Speaker. It's his birthday, but you get the present! (Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave NW, 784-4880. 9 pm, $6, 21+.) MEGAN SELING

    MEGAN SELING
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  • Tuesday, June 24, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 24 at 11:00 AM

    documentary

    'Bigger, Stronger, Faster'

    By examining the impact of steroids on American popular sports and culture, Chris Bell, the director of Bigger, Stronger, Faster, exposes something that Michael Moore's documentary Roger & Me exposed nearly 20 years ago: America is less the land of milk and honey and more the land of very sad people. (See movie times.

    CHARLES MUDEDE

    Monday, June 23, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 23 at 11:00 AM

    mea culpa

    Scott McClellan at Town Hall

    As White House press secretary, Scott McClellan peddled lines that he now says were part of a "propaganda campaign"—you know, lines about little things like the war in Iraq and the Valerie Plame spy-outing scandal. Pity that McClellan is only now copping to his role as a useful idiot for the Bush administration, but better late than never. One hopes that after reading from his new mea culpa memoir, he answers audience questions honestly. For a change. (Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255, brownpapertickets.com. 7:30 pm, $5.) ELI SANDERS


    Sunday, June 22, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 22 at 11:00 AM

    theater

    'Namaste Man' at Intiman Theatre

    Andrew Weems grew up as the child of a State Department official and an inscrutable, chain-smoking mother. Namaste Man is a series of elliptical stories about his childhood in Zambia, Virginia, and Nepal—tales of hippies and hash bars, yak dung and betel nuts, and a few bleak scenes from his adulthood in New York. Weems leaps through his stories with a sprightly, almost impish, energy. For an autobiographical solo show, Namaste Man is surprisingly generous: Weems seems to care, primarily, about other people. (Intiman Theatre, 201 Mercer St, 269-1900. 2 and 7:30 pm, $10–$48.) BRENDAN KILEY

    BRENDAN KILEY

    Saturday, June 21, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 21 at 11:00 AM

    hiphop

    James Pants at Nectar

    James Pants is a producer from Spokane. James Pants recently released a solid hiphop/new wave/soul album, Welcome, on Stones Throw Records. How in the world did a person from Spokane get signed to one of the most influential underground labels in hiphop? Pants's explanation: "In Spokane, rent is very, very cheap and so James Pants can afford to buy records and not work too awfully hard." (Nectar, 412 N 36th St, 632-2020. 6 pm, free–$20, 21+.)

    CHARLES MUDEDE

    Friday, June 20, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 20 at 11:00 AM

    theater

    'All's Well That Ends Well' at Center House Theatre

    The marketing campaign for this play is horrifying—Seattle Shakespeare Company is calling the problematic problem play a "romantic comedy"—but the production doesn't seem to be much affected. The vibrant Sarah Harlett stars as Helena, a girl physician whose evident smarts don't prevent her from throwing herself at a snotty, unworthy boy. Bitterly funny, fast-paced, and well acted, All's Well That Ends Well is thoroughly enjoyable. Just don't call it a romantic comedy. (Seattle Shakespeare Company at Center House Theatre, Seattle Center, 684-7200. 7:30 pm, $20–$34.) ANNIE WAGNER


    Thursday, June 19, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 19 at 11:00 AM

    art

    'A Peculiar Brightness in the Sky' at Platform Gallery

    Patte Loper's melancholy paintings and drawings of fluffy little dogs adrift in modernist interiors and fawns added to a series of famous minimalist installation photographs from the 1970s were charming to look at but also secretly thick with references and questions about art, sex, and nature. Now, in a show of new drawings and animation, she's taking on Antarctica. (Platform Gallery, 114 Third Ave S, 323-2808. Reception 5–7 pm, free.)

    JEN GRAVES

    Wednesday, June 18, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 18 at 11:00 AM

    Cabaret

    Can Can Castaways at Can Can

    Sometimes it seems like every bar, club, and Laundromat has an amateur burlesque night, with dilettante dancers who are as supple and sexy as a paper bag full of coat hangers. But the subterranean, candlelit Can Can remains a haven for the genuine article. You won't find any desultory shimmying here: These dancers are strong, limber, and explosive. They swing from chains, slam each other against walls, and generally steam up the almost-too-intimate stage. The Castaways are the soul and flower of burlesque. (Can Can, 94 Pike St, 652-0832. 9 pm, $5, 21+.) BRENDAN KILEY


    Sunday, June 15, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 15 at 11:00 AM

    Theater

    'Avenue Q' at Paramount Theatre

    Avenue Q is Sesame Street for adults: a puppet musical set in an "outer borough of New York," whose residents get drunk, have sex, fall for Scientology, and mourn their useless college diplomas. Song titles include "I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today," "The Internet Is for Porn," and "It Sucks to Be Me." Avenue Q opened in a 120-seat, off-Broadway theater in 2003 and surprised everyone by becoming a magnet for Tony and Drama Desk awards. (Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St, 292-2787. 1 and 6:30 pm, $25–$70. Through June 22.) BRENDAN KILEY


    Saturday, June 14, 2008

    Today The Stranger Suggests

    posted by on June 14 at 11:00 AM

    Dancing

    Emerald City Soul Club at Lo-Fi

    Why do I love Emerald City Soul Club? Because ECSC is one night's blissful reprieve from the same old musical palette and constant THUMP THUMP THUMP of other club nights. Every 45 that the DJs play sounds familiar, even the ones I'm sure I don't know, and every song swings and spins and steps across a floor that's been sprinkled with baby powder for your dressed-up dancing pleasure. It's perfect. (Lo-Fi, 429 Eastlake Ave E, 254-2824. 9 pm, $7, 21+.) ERIC GRANDY

    Music

    Georgetown Music Fest at Georgetown

    The third annual Georgetown Music Fest is a shot of adrenaline stabbed into the heart of Seattle's industrial district, and it's bigger than ever, with 60 bands on four stages over two days. Friday night ends with a performance by Helmet (!), but Saturday's all-day schedule brings the best bargain with sexy, blues-infused classic rock by Thee Emergency, quirky acoustic songs by PWRFL Power, and the Lashes' first Seattle performance of '08. (Georgetown Music Fest, 6000 Airport Way S, www .georgetownmusicfest.com. 11:30 am, $17 DOS/$26 for a weekend pass, all ages.) MEGAN SELING

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