The Stranger

Jonathan Lethem's best novels superimpose genre fiction onto what we might otherwise recognize as something like real life. In The Fortress of Solitude, a coming-of-age story passes through the panels of a superhero comic (and through the cocktail-party dilemma: flight or invisibility?); in As She Climbed Across the Table, a wry breakup story crawls into a sci-fi wormhole. Lethem's latest novel, Chronic City, sounds promisingly like more of the same: In an almost-real Manhattan, a former child star longs for a fiancée stranded in the international space station. Hosted by Stranger books editor Paul Constant. (Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave NW, 634-3400. 7 pm, $5/free with book purchase at University Book Store, 21+.) by Eric Grandy

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Ever since Ivar Haglund scuttled his schooner off Alki Point in 1851 and founded "Hagtown" (name later changed to "Seattle" when it was discovered that "Hagtown" means "anal hook" in Salish), indie-horror-comedy has been our fair city's number-two export (after Aplets but just above Cotlets). Slashacre—a collaboration between Crypticon and the Beta Society—celebrates that storied tradition with a fine collection of hee-larious spookies from Seattle and beyond. Blood Squad performs its horror- movie-improv; Andras Jones, star of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, gives mystical advice; and David Katims, of Friday the 13th Part 3, tells jokes. (Historic University Theater, 5510 University Way NE, www.thebetasociety.com. 8 pm, $10, all ages.) by Lindy West

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Matthew Offenbacher is a very clever artist, but he is also very sincere. Does art take itself too seriously? His paintings seem to ask this question all the time, while also having an almost spiritual dimension. Usually he paints wildlife—linking modernist abstraction with, say, beavers or otters or weasels—but in this show, he pushes the point further by featuring his lazy house cat as if the cat were any other muse-model. The cat is pictured at rest and in motion; there's even a view the cat might have had when it was once stuck up a tree. (Howard House, 604 Second Ave, 256-6399. 10:30 am–5 pm, free.) by Jen Graves

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Greil Marcus brought serious intellectual ambition to rock-and-roll criticism—he also spawned a million pretentious rock critics. But you have to admire the ambition of Marcus's new book. In over a thousand pages, A New Literary History of America attempts to do for American history what Marcus did for rock criticism. Pieces by Jonathan Lethem and Sarah Vowell and other literary geniuses bring vivid life to American history (Edison! Tarzan! Alcoholics Anonymous!), with Marcus's unparalleled critical smarts nimbly guiding the whole monstrous book. (Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 624-6600. 7 pm, free.) by Paul Constant

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All signs point to August: Osage County being face-scorchingly great. Tracy Letts's dark family romance, which won the Tony and the Pulitzer and had critics doing backflips from Chicago to New York, is a three-hour-plus epic with 20 actors and all the problems: Mom's on pills, Dad's a disappeared alcoholic, a 50-year-old is molesting his fiancée's niece, siblings are lovers. And it's a comedy—like Tennessee Williams crossed with T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men." As read by Jack Black. Or something. I can't wait. (Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St, 1-800-745-3000. 8 pm, $23.50–$63.50. Through Nov 1.) by Brendan Kiley

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Don't be misled: Blues Control won't be grinding out rote Muddy Waters or Willie Dixon covers. Rather, the Queens duo works in more hazily indefinable strata. Their self-titled 2007 album ran myriad avant-rock tropes through mutational and cosmic processes. This year's Local Flavor elevates Blues Control's game even higher, soaring into glorious Popol Vuh–like mantras and purveying a rarefied brand of dub that's unfathomably aquatic and deeply spacious. This paradox spotlights the distinctiveness of these atypical New Yorkers. (Funhouse, 206 Fifth Ave N, 374-8400. 9:30 pm, $7, 21+.) by Dave Segal

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