The Stranger Suggests
February 3 - February 10
'Sissyboy'
Film
The live shows of dearly departed Portland drag troupe Sissyboy were glittery, shrieking hot messes of personal and public politics (abortion, Matthew Shepard, suicide, suicide bombers), but they don't translate particularly well to the screen: You can feel their subversive power vaporizing between stage and camera in this simple but captivating documentary. But it's a pleasure to watch Sissyboy's misfit cast of "amazing faggots" tell their stories—of addiction, alcoholism, death—with insight and forthright wit: "I think the most attractive that I've ever felt as a human being is after, you know, washing off the monster at the end of the night. You know, when you wash all that shit off your face, you feel like there's something decent in there." (Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St, 523-3935. 7 and 9 pm, $8.)
See what else is happening Thursday »
Nouvelle Vague
Music
Nouvelle Vague shouldn't work at all: a French collective playing bossa-nova-style covers of 1980s new wave, both obvious and obscure. But not only do they avoid awful Wedding Singer, I Love the 80s pastiche, they really transform these songs. Hearing them play "Love Will Tear Us Apart" or "This Is Not a Love Song" feels like hearing it again for the first time—only softer and sexier. There's a fine line between chanson and cheese, and Nouvelle Vague flirt with it aggressively, but they almost always land on the right side. (King Cat Theater, 2130 Sixth Ave, 448-2829. 8 pm, $20 adv/ $25 DOS, all ages.)
See what else is happening Thursday »
'Sometimes a Great Notion'
Film
Ken Kesey's delirious novel plus Paul Newman's butch yet sensitive filmmaking equals a paean to tough individualism worthy of the ancient Greeks. The Stamper clan, fiercely loyal to themselves and fiercely suspicious of outsiders (including a long-lost "mommy- sissypants" Stamper brother), are Oregon loggers, as tough and knotty as the forests they cut down. They scrap with the unions, they scrap with the townspeople, and they scrap with each other in epic, grinding battles. (Henry Fonda as the wry, nail-spitting Stamper patriarch is awe-inspiring.) The film's final shot, of Newman casually opening a beer on a tugboat after lashing a severed arm to the mainmast, its stiff little fingers flipping off the entire town, is the finest fuck you/beau geste in film, literature, or life. Ain't that America? It gets me every time. (Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St, 523-3935. 8 pm, $8.)
See what else is happening Friday »
Joshua Ferris
REading
The same sick impulse that causes us to rubberneck at car crashes gets a tickle when talented authors fall prey to the sophomore slump. And a failure of a second novel by Joshua Ferris—whose brilliant, funny debut, Then We Came to the End, was a critically acclaimed best seller—would make for some delicious schadenfreude. Sorry, haterz: The Unnamed (about a man stricken with a disease that makes him walk aimlessly) is another smart look at small lives in strange circumstances. No failure here; you'll just have to satisfy yourself with a great book. (Seattle Public Library, University Branch, 5009 Roosevelt Way NE, 684-4063. 2 pm, free.)
See what else is happening Saturday »
Isabelle Pauwels
Art
Henry Art Gallery is the largest museum devoted to contemporary art in the region, and it chose Vancouver, BC–based Isabelle Pauwels to celebrate with its first-ever Brink Award. So you'll want to see what this Belgian-born video artist does. She layers narratives to disrupt genres—the home movie, the talk show, the porno, the documentary—often while weaving in her grandparents, who were part of a strange twilight: the last generation of colonial Belgians. This show is two new videos and a set of related photographs. (Henry Art Gallery, 4100 15th Ave NE, 543-2280. 11 am–4 pm, $10.)
Collide-O-Scope
Film
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a total TV Carnage/Everything Is Terrible!/Found Footage Festival JUNKIE. I can't EVER get enough! I also can't describe how excited I am about this brand-new video night at Re-bar. For $4, you get four hours of weird, obscure, cuckoo-crazy film clips from the private collection of two fellows named Shane and Michael, the duo responsible for all of Dina Martina's videos. They tell me there'll be popcorn, too. Ooh, and prizes! You couldn't pay me NOT to go to this. (Re-bar, 1114 Howell St, 233-9873. 7 pm, $4, 21+.)
See what else is happening Monday »
'my dear Lewis'
Theater
Kyle Loven, a recent transplant from Minneapolis, has brought his gorgeous and brooding puppetry to Seattle—lucky us. Loven uses finger puppets, marionettes, shadow puppets, video projections, and household objects to tell his story about a dying old man and his fraying memory. Lewis's aesthetic is equal parts Edward Gorey, Samuel Beckett, and Czech surrealism, and even when its narrative jumps the rails into total obscurity, his stage pictures (and surprising use of household materials) are a joy to watch. (Annex Theatre, 1100 E Pike St, 800-838-3006. 8 pm, $10.)
See what else is happening Tuesday »
Daedelus, Nosaj Thing
Music
Along with the Gaslamp Killer (you should've just seen him last week), L.A. sample masher (and fellow Low End Theorist) Daedelus was one of the great highlights of last year's Decibel Festival. A one-man party machine in dandy attire, Daedelus frantically taps at the light-up button grid of his Monome, triggering and tweaking sounds with the most theatrical flicks of the wrist, incorporating snippets of everything from indie rock to dubstep trunk rattle into his delirious dance workouts. Nosaj Thing's beat science is more restrained and wispy, but just as resonant in the bass frequencies. (Neumos, 925 E Pike St, 709-9467. 9 pm, $12.50, 21+.)
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