The Stranger

When it comes to acting, Beyoncé can bounce (meaning, take a hike). But Jeffrey Wright, who plays Muddy Waters, can sure enough act, and so can Columbus Short, who plays Little Walker, and Mos Def, who plays Chuck Berry, and Eamonn Walker, who plays Howlin' Wolf. In fact, a very good reason to watch this film is to see Mos Def as Berry and Walker as Wolf. I will even go to the limit and say that Walker as Wolf (the blackest of black men) is more than enough reason to watch this movie about the fast rise and fast fall of a record label that helped launch the rock 'n' roll era in popular music. (See movie times, www.thestranger.com, for details.) by Charles Mudede

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For their final show of the year, the Get Loweded! gang gets apocalyptic with an old-timey religious revival/multimedia arts explosion exploring the ultimate battle of good and evil, or something. Helping out is an A-list of talents from Seattle and beyond, including the one and only Reggie Watts and gender-bending chanteuse Ade. (Re-bar, 1114 Howell St, 233-9873. 9 pm, $8/$6 in costume, 21+.) by David Schmader

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The last time Lawrence Weschler was in town, he chatted gamely about how erstwhile New Yorker editor Tina Brown would become sexually aroused by scandalous news stories. He also held forth on the peculiar slant of light in Los Angeles and how categorization destroys bookstores. Weschler—whose 1996 book Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder is a brilliant long essay on museums, freaks of nature, and the saving power of lies—returns tonight with two books about art. Soaking in his considerable intelligence is a rare, memorable pleasure. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600. 7:30 pm, free.) by Paul Constant

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At first, you think it's all in the trees. Green and pink and orange and blue and brown leafless trees with dendrite fingers reaching in from the corners of each of 12 paintings, into the blank landscape, seen from above. Then you start to notice floating heads, cute, decapitated. Then the way the horizon line connects through all 12 paintings, around the three walls of the gallery. How this is one panoramic view of an irresistible imaginary place. Making this for you is what Claire Cowie has been up to. (James Harris Gallery, 312 Second Ave S, 903-6220. 11 am– 5 pm, free.) by Jen Graves

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In 1963, Judy Garland was the star of her own TV variety series and a desperately unhappy drunk. In this hour-long holiday fantasia, Open Circle Theater imagines the dress rehearsal for Garland's legendarily messy 1963 Christmas special. With improv genius Troy Mink in the title role, expect a night of inspired, lightly upsetting comic mayhem. (Open Circle Theater, 2222 Second Ave, www.octheater.com. 8 pm, $15.) by David Schmader

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The Godfather has topped best-of-American-film lists for so long that contrarians keep trying to pick it off, just for the thrill of the hunt. Fuck that shit. No movie comes close to touching The Godfather. There are a thousand examples of its perfection, and here's one: Nobody has ever made a cinematic death scene as towering, and as lonely and small, as the heart attack in the tomato garden. Added three-and-a-half-hour bonus: The Godfather Part II, cinema's greatest sequel, offering such a rich, dark, sprawling trip you'll be tempted to think it's better than the first, and you'll be wrong. Both films screen in lush new restorations. (SIFF Cinema, 321 Mercer St, 633-7151. Part one: 12:15 and 8 pm. Part two: 3:45 pm. $10. Through Jan 1.) by Paul Constant

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