The Stranger

(SONIC INSTALLATION) Sixteen discrete channels of sound will be broadcast over 16 handmade loudspeakers arranged in Westlake Park. This sound installation takes place five times daily from March 23 to 26. Today at 4:30 p.m., the scrappy, brilliant Infernal Noise Brigade joins the melee. The idea, says organizer Robb Kunz, is an event that blurs the distinction between carnival and chaos. It'll be fun to see what the cops do. (Westlake Park, Fourth Ave and Pine St. 4:30 pm, free, all ages.) by Christopher Frizzelle

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(EROTICA) The Sabbath is the day for engorged genitalia. Witness: the Seattle Erotic Art Festival, where something like 270 contemporary artworks are up all day, including vulvas too numerous to count. From noon to 3:00 p.m., Charles Gatewood, "the family photographer of America's erotic underground," teaches Photography for Perverts ($50). Oh, how something so wrong can be so right. (Consolidated Works, 500 Boren Ave N, 270-9746. Noon–5 pm, $5, 18+.) by Jen Graves

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(GOOD PROPAGANDA) V for Vendetta is certainly the most expensive anti-Bush film ever made, and judging from its $25 million haul last weekend, it's bound to pass the highest grossing anti-Bush film to date, Fahrenheit 9/11. Written by the Wachowski brothers, and based on a comic by Alan Moore, and set in the near future, V for Vendetta is about a superhero who overthrows a fear-mongering dictator. Stop reading this and go see it. (See Movie Times, p. 83, for more info.) by Charles Mudede

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(MUSIC) Sometimes it just feels good to fucking scream, and Seattle's the Assailant know this like no other. Guttural growling, pounding hardcore, and wailing metal guitar is all packed into 45-second songs that will leave your skin covered in heat blisters. Philadelphia outfit An Albatross add a little shake to the earthquake by throwing in some undeniably stellar synth to go with their bratty vocals. By the end of this show you'll be absolutely exhausted, but you'll feel a hell of a lot better. (The Paradox, 1401 NW Leary Way, www.theparadox.org. 7:30 pm, $7, all ages.) by Megan Seling

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(READING) You've got to love a lady who has voluntarily classified much of her literary oeuvre (Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith) as "lesbo Victorian romps." Her new World War II novel is not that, sadly, and it contains only two meager references to Dickens (that I could find). But The Night Watch is as skillfully plotted as Fingersmith, and it's historical fiction of the most absorbing kind—evoking an era that bears the comforting weight of its past even as it patently strains for the future. (Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 386-4636. 7 pm, free.) by Annie Wagner

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(DANCE) In 1741, an insomniac Russian count asked Bach for some music that his harpsichordist (one Johann Goldberg) could play to while away the sleepless hours—and out came the Goldberg Variations, 30 brief solos on a single aria. In 1997, Mark Haim (of Juilliard, the Joffrey, and a NEA fellowship) created 30 short dance solos to the Variations. Tonight, Haim—and, for the first time ever, other dancers—will perform them. Expect water spitting, singing, great technique, and a little nudity. (On the Boards, 100 W Roy St, 217-9888. 8 pm, $18. Through April 1.) by Brendan Kiley

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(MUSIC) Named after a George Romero flick, Zombi emulate Italy's favorite horror-film soundtrackers Goblin, with thickly tenebrous waves of analog synths and heavily FX'd bass. The Chicago duo also channel the chthonic throb and juggernaut rhythms of mid-period Tangerine Dream and Heldon. At SXSW, Zombi aired songs from their new disc, Surface to Air, that furthered their mission to turn your mind's eye into a receptacle of macabre images. Expect blood on the (Marshall) stacks. (Neumo's, 925 E Pike St, 709-9442. 8 pm, $14 adv, all ages.) by Dave Segal

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