The Stranger

(MUSIC) You already know why you need to go to the Capitol Hill Block Party. This year's lineup is fucking killer! Obviously, the Murder City Devils are reuniting Saturday night, but you'll also get to see Pretty Girls Make Graves, Band of Horses, Himsa, Thee Emergency, Common Market, the Divorce, and dozens of others! Full schedule is at www.capitolhillblockparty.com. There's beer, sunshine, and food. No one's too cool for that shit. Go. (10th Ave and E Pike St. Fri 3 pm–1:30 am, Sat 1 pm–1:30 am, $12, all ages.) by Megan Seling

Link  |  Post Comment (0)

(FILM) Todd Solondz's hilariously caustic portrayal of the humiliations of junior-high-school life won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. The film's geeky heroine, Dawn "Wiener Dog" Wiener, attempts to navigate her way through puberty while enduring one indignity after another from her peers, family, and teachers. As always at Central Cinema, you can enjoy snacks and beer while watching. (Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave, 686-6684. 7:15 and 9:30 pm, $5, late show 21+. Runs July 26–30.) by Gillian Anderson

Link  |  Post Comment (0)

(EXQUISITE LEISURE) The romance of a rowboat cannot be overstated—the gentle lapping of the waves, the splashes of fish, the water lilies and drooping willows, the occasional wheeling bat. Summer evenings are meant for rowing with a bottle of champagne, straw hat, small stringed instrument, wine and grapes and cheese, and a boon companion. Rowboats are more romantic but canoes are faster and better for slipping in and out of the narrow corridors of Lake Washington's labyrinthine shoreline. (UW Waterfront Activities Center, behind Husky Stadium, 543-9433. 10 am–9 pm, $7.50 per hour.) by Brendan Kiley

Link  |  Post Comment (0)

(FILM) This two-and-a-half-hour movie, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in 2005, is about headaches, stomach pain, liver damage, solicitous yet unhelpful neighbors, quince jam, incompetence, inefficiency, cats, proper use of prepositions, young and gorgeous Eastern European lady doctors, turf wars between various ranks of medical professionals, and the decrepit state of the Romanian health-care system. Sounds irritating, yes? But it's also beautifully, suddenly, unexpectedly sad. (Varsity, all shows $6.25, see Movie Times for details.) by Annie Wagner

Link  |  Post Comment (0)

(ART) The best work of art up in the city right now is Iranian-born Shirin Neshat's 2002 video installation Tooba, at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Projected on two screens, the narrative, accompanied by a throbbing religious chant, follows a band of men dressed in black who penetrate a desert garden, wordlessly climbing over its walls like a menacing vine, and surrounding a lone tree into which a wrinkled woman has disappeared. Feminism, Islam, international politics, fear, aggression, poetry—what more could you want from contemporary art? (Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 E Prospect St, Volunteer Park, 654-3100. 10 am–5 pm, $5.) by Jen Graves

Link  |  Post Comment (0)

(ART) If drawings are the closest we get to seeing an artist in his creative undergarments, then a peep show uncovering 200 years of artists starts today at James Harris Gallery. In a collaboration with Jill Newhouse in New York, Harris pairs contemporary draftspeople like Patrick Holderfield and Jeffry Mitchell with forebears from Bonnard to Ingres to Delacroix to Corot. This isn't about context, subtext, or isms—just the naked act of making marks on paper that others might see. (James Harris Gallery, 309A Third Ave S, 903-6220. 11 am–5 pm, free.) by Jen Graves

Link  |  Post Comment (0)