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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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MON
SEP 21, 2009

If there existed a musical note that literally killed people with pleasure, Girl Talk would find it and use it (probably chopped up with three crunk hits, some Radiohead, and a joyous female wail you only later realize is from Carole King's Tapestry). The next decade will bring 1,001 variations of the music geek with a house-rocking laptop, and you shouldn't waste a chance to experience the guy who does it biggest and best. (Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave, www.showboxonline.com. 8 pm, $15 adv/$20 DOS, 21+.) by David Schmader

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TUE
SEP 22, 2009

Sufjan Stevens's concept albums about states are vigorous and thoughtful works of art—the kind of wonky music-making that MP3s supposedly murdered a decade ago. He's put that same jittery energy into a 40-minute "cinematic suite" about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, a poorly planned and ineptly produced stretch of ugly commuter highway in New York City. The BQE is a Wagnerian love letter to an ugly chunk of urban planning, featuring time-lapse photography, adventurous collage-work, and a trio of comely Hula-hoopers. (Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, 829-7863. 7 and 9 pm, $6–$9.) by Paul Constant

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