Drag Fest 2003

(MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA) Brought to you by Northwest Film Forum and Lex's Pimp & Ho Ball, Drag Fest 2003 is four days of artsy drag, kicking off with tonight's screening of the Northwest drag documentary Third Antenna at the Little Theatre. The fest continues on Friday with a Ladies-Only Moustache Contest (hosted by yours truly) and the Northwest premiere of Venus Boyz, an international drag documentary. Saturday brings Lex's Pimp & Ho Ball 2003 at Noiselab, and Sunday things wrap up with Trouble Man, a live performance by Venus Boyz star Storme Webber. See you there. (All events take place at the Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E. Lex's Pimp & Ho Ball 2003 takes place at Noiselab, 925 E Pike St. For full info, see www.lrc.net/Dragfest.html.) DAVID SCHMADER

The Push Project

(ART) Agitator/curator Larry Reid got some excellent artists to adjust their fields of vision down to skateboard size--a good idea, not least because not all of the artists are young punks. Some of them--Charles Krafft, Jim Woodring, Shawn Wolfe, Jeff Kleinsmith--seem practically grizzled. (Opening reception Fri Feb 7, Roq la Rue Gallery, 2316 Second Ave, 374-8977. Through March 1.) EMILY HALL

Hint Hint

(CD RELEASE) It's the mark of a great band when you hear something different in their music every time it's played. From Hint Hint's first live shows through their excellent debut CD (Sex Is Everything), the quartet's noisy, keyboard-heavy, post-punk sound creeps into new places with each listen. Backed by guitarist Dean Hudson, drummer Jason Lajuenesse, and keyboardist Leona Marrs, frontman/keyboardist Pete Quirk tried out various methods to record the vocals on this disc--including singing through microphones made from skulls. The result is a taut, intense windup of jerky dance-floor beats overlaid with artfully dark atmospherics, a combination that works as well live as it does on Sex. (Vera Project, 1916 Fourth Ave, 956-8372, $6/$5 with club card, 8 pm.) JENNIFER MAERZ

Arthur Beakler and the Mathematastics

(ROCK OPERA) Listen, I don't throw the word genius around lightly, but if there is such a thing, it's Herbert Bergel, the prolific avant-garde composer, playwright, and punk rocker. His latest rock opera, commissioned by the Bush School as their winter musical, is a story of rival high-school rock bands, math clubs, book clubs, nerds, and cool kids, featuring 50 students, five live bands, and a fashion show. It's all tied together with Bergel's Beat Happening-meets-Jonathan Richman aesthetic, and energized by the collision of Seattle's boldest avant-rock with real teenagers. You'll never see anything like it. (Thurs Feb 6-Sun Feb 9 at 7 pm, with 2 pm matinees Sat-Sun at the Bush School's Benaroya Theater--NOT BENAROYA HALL--3400 East Harrison Street, 322-7978. $5 adults/$3 students.) SEAN NELSON

'Rock and Roll Won't Wait'

(DOCUMENTARY) Rock and Roll Won't Wait is a poor-man's Behind the Music concerning the late, great Murder City Devils. Fans in a van followed the MCDs for an entire year, documenting every detail of merit--every high and every low--of life on the road. Don't expect much live-show content, but do expect plenty of lip and lore, and even some words from the members' parents. (Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave NW, 784-4880, 8 pm, free.) KATHLEEN WILSON

Kevin Sampsell

(Books) Kevin Sampsell began his literary career in Spokane, Washington. Upon discovering that no one could read in that small, acrid city, he moved to a city where everybody reads: Portland, Oregon. The move proved to be efficacious. Last year, Sampsell's small press, Future Tense Books, sold a 44-page chapbook--Please Don't Kill the Freshman, by 14-year-old Zoe Trope--to HarperCollins for six figures. As if that weren't enough, also last year Sampsell penned a little gem titled A Common Pornography: A Memoir of Youth & Trouble in the Nuclear Land of Eastern Washington, which is less a memoir than a strange, drug-addled dream of a man writing something that could be a memoir. (Lux Coffee Bar, 2226 First Ave, 328-9898, 8 pm, free.) CHARLES MUDEDE

'Strange Attractors'

(THEATER) Thank the freaking Lord. After what's seemed like years, the Stranger preview curse--wherein a promising theatrical event is lavished with splashy advance attention, only to have the finished product draw a tepid-to-livid review--has finally been broken. David Adjmi's Strange Attractors--recipient of both a promising Stranger preview and a rave Stranger review--is a smart, tough, brutally funny reworking of Ibsen's A Doll's House, blessed with a knockout cast (including the rigorously brilliant Heidi Schreck) and just two more weekends of performances. Don't miss it. (Empty Space Theater, 3509 Fremont Ave N, 547-7500. $25-$40. Tues-Thurs at 7:30 pm, Fri at 8 pm, Sat at 2 and 8 pm, Sun at 2 and 7:30 pm. Through Feb 16.) DAVID SCHMADER