The Stranger

Now in its fourth year, Seattle Beer Week is more than 100 beery events from May 10 through 20 (because a beer week should be longer than a regular week). Today alone, there’s a pig roast and homebrew competition at Quinn’s; the Tour de Pints bicycle-powered beer crawl, from Pike Brewing all around town; a beer-can-car derby at the Pine Box; and the Brewers Mini Golf Blowout in Interbay (“You can be sure there will be drinks on these links”). Celebrate the best beer city in the world (according to Seattle Beer Week) with beer! (Locations, prices vary; see www.seattlebeerweek.com) by Bethany Jean Clement

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I can think of fewer things on the indie-rock spectrum that would be more magical than witnessing Death Cab for Cutie’s songs performed with a full orchestra. And tonight, dreams will come true as the band takes the stage with members of the Magik*Magik Orchestra. Before the tour, Ben Gibbard tweeted: “Expect older tunes never played live…” and he wasn’t lying. Recent set lists feature (spoiler alert!) “Little Fury Bugs,” “No Joy in Mudville,” and a Velvet Underground cover. My heart is already fluttering. (Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St, www.stgpresents.org, 8 pm, $31.25–$61.25, all ages) by Megan Seling

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Owner Dan Bugge and chef Chester Gerl are celebrating five years at Matt’s in the Market by bringing in various haute shite visiting chefs to help cook six-course dinners. Tonight’s is probably already sold out—it’s Iron Chef winner Dominique Crenn of San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Atelier Crenn. Possibly still available: the June 11 dinner featuring James Beard Award finalist Naomi Pomeroy of Portland’s renowned Beast. It’s pricey, but it’s great food in a beautiful space—and wine pairings are included. (Matt’s in the Market, 94 Pike St, www.mattsinthemarket.com, $125, reservations only) by Bethany Jean Clement

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As a film about the realities of sex work in present-day Paris, Elles stumbles. The director/writer Malgorzata Szumowska, a Pole, contributes almost no new information about the current condition of “the world’s oldest profession” and avoids examining the ugly side of this profession with any depth. So why suggest it? Because the cinematography, lighting, editing, and two performances (Juliette Binoche as a reporter working a story about two students/sex workers, and Joanna Kulig as one of those students/sex workers) reach the region of great cinema. In fact, it’s the ordinary moments, rather than the graphic sex scenes, that are riveting. (See Movie Times) by Charles Mudede

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This is an exhibition of 12 artists working in woodcut and linocut, curated by Seattle print nut/Print Zero Studios head Brian Lane, at a gallery that specializes in prints (particularly Japanese woodcuts)—and if you are not already in love with this art form, here you will fall. The thematic range is broad, from a rough woodcut self-portrait of an artist just after he left a mental institution to dated mappings of where and when gay marriage is legal in the United States (that series is Sometimes I’m Married). Two long scrolls hang from the ceiling like incandescent skins, printed with patterns that look like body parts floating apart, or back together again. These prints are alive. (Cullom Gallery, 603 S Main St, www.cullomgallery.com, 10 am–5 pm, free) by Jen Graves

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