The Stranger

If you didn't make it to Smash Putt last year, your ass must be sore from kicking yourself. Smash Putt is mechanized mini-golf madness—loud, possibly dangerous, and fun as hell, with a full bar. The Astroturf chaos is now located in the old INS building in the ID, meaning "3 cozy jail-cell lounges" and room for lots of new holes. The Driving Range, in which you get to shoot golf balls out of a cannon-gun, is more powerful and insane than ever, with a "resonant target zone" by sound artist Paul Kikuchi. I have no idea what that means, but I desperately want to shoot golf balls out of a cannon-gun at it. Fore! (Smash Putt, 815 Airport Way S, www.smashputt.com, 6 pm–midnight, $11–$15, 21+, through Oct 17) by Bethany Jean Clement

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At a Sasquatch! Festival crowded with big names this year, Caribou damn near stole the whole weekend's show with a noontime set that all but tore open the overcast sky. Dan Snaith and band wound through the melancholic mutant disco and aqueous electro moods of outstanding latest album Swim, frequently detouring the songs into extended dual-percussion jams, loose and subtly funky but tight as clockwork. As they played out the one-word chant of "Sun," their closer, you half expected the orb to drop through the clouds like a disco ball flashing on at midnight. Chop Suey has an actual disco ball. (Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, 324-8005, 8 pm, $16 adv/$19 DOS, all ages) by Eric Grandy

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Go ahead and make fun of me—I really do not care—but Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is COMPLETELY GOOD. First of all, the animation is nuts. The owls look like actual owls, only with emotions and jokes and magical warrior helmets. Secondly, all the cutest types of owl are included—which are, in ascending order of cuteness: barn owl, burrowing owl, baby owl, elf owl. Pay attention. ELF OWL. Third of all, why are you such a bully? Owls are the nerds of the animal kingdom. They're good at only two things: being quiet and graduating from stuff. So why not let them have their day in the sun this once? I mean, not literally. They're owls. They're nocturnal. IT'S A METAPHOR. (See Movie Times: thestranger.com/film) by Lindy West

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A movie about the creation of Facebook sounds like the dumbest idea in the history of filmmaking, but here’s the thing: This is a kick-ass movie. With a rock-’em, sock-’em script that moves so quickly you fail to realize that you don’t comprehend all the geek-talk, complemented with buttery cinematography featuring young, sexy bodies at work and play, The Social Network will charm you into liking it within five minutes. And Jesse Eisenberg’s depiction of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg—nerdy, mildly sociopathic—will blow you away. Eisenberg makes a good movie into a must-see. (See Movie Times.) by Paul Constant

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Creative and life partners John Cage and Merce Cunningham wrote separately and, hair-raisingly, didn't bring their music and dance together until performances. It brought a chaos, poetry, and life to the stage that was, by definition, not replicable. But re-creations have their own lives. Today's free performances of excerpts from Cunningham pieces—Roaratorio (1983, based on Finnegans Wake, which happens to contain a character called Merkyn Corningwham), Fabrications (1987), and Enter (1993)—will happen alongside an ongoing exhibition of Cunninghamania, the first to look at his artistic ties to his native Northwest (where he attended Cornish), with Cornish's Indeterminacy Ensemble performing Cage's music. (Cornish College of the Arts Main Gallery, first floor, 1000 Lenora St, www.cornish.edu/merce, 12:15 and 1 pm, free) by Jen Graves

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The Dorothy K: For Better, For Worse, and Forever is the newest performance by Implied Violence. It has involved horror-movie music, singers dosed with ether, and a mansion in New York City. Now, in Seattle—where the Stranger Geniuses of IV are based—it will be transplanted into the reflecting pools outside the Frye Art Museum, while an exhibition of evidence of past works is ongoing indoors (that exhibition, with video, props, and more, is called Yes and More and Yes and Yes and Why). As the dancers make their slow moves in the water, an archer will shoot 60 arrows per hour at a finely crafted wax target. You never know quite what will happen, but IV always has deadly style. (Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave, www.frye museum.org, 11 am–5 pm, free) by Jen Graves

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