The Stranger

You know Ellen Forney’s cartoons—her stars adorn the You Are Here banners on Broadway, her sexy cartoons have appeared in The Stranger for decades—but you’ve never seen them like this. This year’s Stranger-certified Genius of Literature is celebrating the publication of Marbles, her masterful new comic-book memoir. Marbles is the highest point (so far) of a great career; it batters down the walls of comics as we know them to explore Forney’s bipolar disorder in vivid detail. This is the exact moment when Forney shifts into a new level of stardom. (Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 386-4636, 7 pm, free) by Paul Constant

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The Affordable Art Fair—prices range from $100 to $10,000, with more than half under $5,000—originated 13 years ago in London. It spread as far as Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. This weekend is the first edition in what organizers hope will become a Seattle tradition, and the lineup of galleries includes Seattle’s James Harris, G. Gibson, Prole Drift, and Friesen Abmeyer, alongside dealers from Portland, Tokyo, Ecuador, and Greece. Will the fair bring art sales to Seattle? It’s good of it to try, even if the name is dumb. Art is already affordable—now get out there and buy some. (Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, Third Ave N and Mercer St, 11 am–6 pm, www.affordableartfair.com/seattle, free) by Jen Graves

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Kirby Dick’s award-winning documentary starts with a number of American servicewomen holding forth on their deep love for the military (the camaraderie, the pride, the tradition). We then learn how each of these women was raped by a fellow servicemember, then was ignored and shamed and even punished by the military establishment for surviving and reporting their attacks. It’s an infuriating, heartrending film that’s already leading to changes in the military’s sexual-assault protocol, and this one-night-only SIFF screening—presented by the Women’s Funding Alliance—is the perfect way to see it: in a room full of shocked, sympathetic others. Go. (SIFF Cinema at the Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N, www.wfalliance.org, 7 pm, $10) by David Schmader

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It’s getting stormy—time to retreat to our well-worn drinkin’ holes and find a few new ones to make the dark days bearable. With rich wood, just-right lighting, big windows, and low-key friendly service, the Noble Fir is a promising spot to find oneself on a rainy Ballard evening. It’s a beer-nerd bar (they host beer events regularly) and a hiker bar (there are maps and trail guides to peruse), but even if you’re neither, it’ll cheer you. It’s both a good spot to read alone and a charming prelude to kissing someone. (Noble Fir, 5316 Ballard Ave NW, www.thenoblefir.com, 4 pm–midnight, 21+) by Anna Minard

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The high-concept, high-energy, and brain-scrambling comedy duo Cody Rivers Show returns to the stage with their new show, Once and for All for One, which promises “chainsaw bluegrass, facial mime, mixtapes, marauding trees, Gomez,” and more. I presume they mean the band Gomez, but the subject matter of any given Cody Rivers sketch hardly matters—audiences flock to them for their loopy wordplay, bizarre imaginations, and athletic dance numbers. Fill the Cody Rivers–shaped hole in your heart tonight! (Annex Theater, 1100 E Pike St, www.annextheatre.org, 8 pm, $15) by Brendan Kiley

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Documentaries don’t get much more lively or timely than this. We Are Legion tells the story of hacking from its earliest days (everyone tries to forget this now, but Steve Jobs started out as a hacker) through its more recent, populist formulations. Everything you need to know about 4chan, Anonymous, and LulzSec—from the internet-organized real-life protests of Scientology centers worldwide through WikiLeaks and the Arab Spring—is told in a zippy, highly visual style. Important questions of privilege, race, and sexism are never really addressed, but this is still required viewing. (SIFF Film Center, Seattle Center, www.siff.net, 6 and 8 pm, $10) by Paul Constant

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