The Stranger Suggests: Frank Portman | The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper

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MON
SEP 14, 2009

Frank Portman (aka Dr. Frank of the Mr. T Experience) follows up his charming first novel, King Dork, with another darkly humored young-adult book called Andromeda Klein, which, he says, is "a portrait of a teenaged occultist." And because he knows book readings can be the most boring events on the planet, Portman is making sure tonight's appearance is actually fun by involving live music (including a short set of his own!), a tarot-card reader, and other shit most spotlight-hogging authors would never dare include. (Secret Garden Bookshop, 2214 NW Market St, 789-5006. 7 pm, free.) by Megan Seling

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TUE
SEP 15, 2009

Some musical revivals are better than others. Swing dancing? Please kill me. C86-style indie pop? Oh, yes fucking please! And no act from the past year or so's Revenge of the Twee-Core Nerds does that jangling, swooning, dreamy shoegaze fuzz better than Brooklyn quartet the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Their self-titled debut is full of giddy, crushed-out love songs, coy come-ons, blurry girl/boy vocals, and not a moment without some sweetly sticky chorus or softly seductive guitar melody. Live, they're equal parts sharp and shambolic, and totally charming. (Neumos, 925 E Pike St, 709-9467. 8 pm, $13, 21+.) by Eric Grandy

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WED
SEP 16, 2009

Over the last year, three individual artists—the latest an artist duo, the TM Sisters of Miami—have set up works inside one of the odder art spaces in the city: the theater lobby at Seattle University's Lee Center for the Arts. The first was Adam Putnam's magic lantern view of the tunnel-of-love-red hallway leading from the gallery to the theater. Then came Wynne Greenwood, who used abstract tapestries to divide and layer the room into a performing space of its own. Now the place is a cross between a video-game arcade—you play strange games on dance pads—and the inside of a video game itself. (Lee Center for the Arts, 901 12th Ave, 296-2244. 1:30–6 pm, free.) by Jen Graves

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This monthlong exhibition unites two playful, intimate, but searingly serious maestros: video and performance guru (and Stranger Genius Award winner) Wynne Greenwood and avant-garde cellist Paul Rucker. Both artists are sui generis—their work glows with the full spectrum of their radiant personalities and will incorporate video, animation, printmaking, music, sculpture, painting, and interactive technology. (Hence the title.) Throughout the exhibition, the two artists will host a series of events, from Rucker playing a score of musical "puzzle pieces" to Greenwood discussing identity to Tom Skerritt talking about film. Visit the Cornish website to find the day(s) you'd especially like to attend. (Cornish College of the Arts Main Gallery, 1000 Lenora St, www.cornish.edu/exhibitions. Various times, free.) by Brendan Kiley

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Also Suggested Today: '(((sparks)))''Live in the Hyphen'

THU
SEP 17, 2009

Tonight, to celebrate the release of their new and lovely pop record Promenade, the eight-piece indie-folk band Grand Hallway will perform in the Fremont Abbey's gorgeous-sounding Great Hall with... wait for it... the 30-piece Seattle Rock Orchestra. It will be a lush flurry of percussion, trumpets, and strings, and they're even bringing in a small children's choir for some of the vocals, making the evening simultaneously beautiful, adorable, and stunning. (Fremont Abbey Arts Center, 4272 Fremont Ave N, www.fremontabbey.org. 7 pm, $8 adv/$10 DOS, all ages.) by Megan Seling

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FRI
SEP 18, 2009

The Australian trio Dirty Three write some of the most downhearted and exultant songs on the planet. (Their paradoxes rock.) Led by Nick Cave's favorite violinist, the flamboyant Warren Ellis, the mostly instrumental group (also featuring guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White) roam over chamber music, primal rock, raga, blues, and many strains of folk music with fiery zeal and deft chops. And Ellis's bitterly witty between-song banter is worth the price of admission. (Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave, www.thecrocodile.com. 8 pm, $15, 21+.) by Dave Segal

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Stephen Elliott is a 21st-century Renaissance man: a novelist (Happy Baby, from McSweeney's, is the best time-twisty character study since Martin Amis's Time's Arrow), memoirist and erotic writer (My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up), and the editor of an always-entertaining, literary-minded blog, the Rumpus. His newest book, The Adderall Diaries, combines all Elliott's specialties into one mad explosion of a book. It's a thrilling mix of memoir, true crime, sadomasochism, drug use, and boxing, and his most exciting book yet by far. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600. 7:30 pm, free.) by Paul Constant

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Also Suggested Today: Dirty Three Stephen Elliott

SAT
SEP 19, 2009

In the world of Nathan DiPietro's slyly unnerving paintings, the spatial conditions of farmland (big fields, cross-beamed barns, giant skies) are crossed with the fearful impulses of suburbia (cuteness, security, conformity). A lion and a panda sit under a perfect, round tree near a crosswalk, where a family passes by under electrical lines dotted with crows—under a perfect, round, radiating sun. The best (most complex) of these mutated idylls are made in the homey style of the 1930s American regionalists (Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton), but with a terrible, cold, creeping edge. (PUNCH Gallery, 119 Prefontaine Pl S, 621-1945. Noon–5 pm, free.) by Jen Graves

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SUN
SEP 20, 2009

You know what today is?! Don't you dare say "the Lord's day." Hey, time's a-wastin'. You've got a porn to finish; $2,000 in cold, hard cash to win; and one day to do it. You know what else today is? Oktoberfest. Film your submission for the craziest, funnest, best amateur porn contest in the whole wide world among the brau-fraus and drunky-pantses and Wiener schnitzels of Fremont. HUMP! entries must be delivered to The Stranger's offices this Monday by 5:30 p.m. Hurry! YOU CAN DO IT! (For more info on HUMP!, see thestranger.com/hump. For more info on Oktoberfest, see www.fremontoktoberfest.com.) by Kelly O

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