Alexander Weheliye
(AFRO-THEORY) Though his book Phonographies: Grooves in Sonic Afro-Modernity (which explores the impact that sound technologies have had on 20th-century black culture) is not yet completed, Chicago-based Alexander Weheliye is bound to become the most important academic to examine black popular culture since James Snead, who died in 1989. As with Snead, and as Weheliye's essay "Feenin" in Social Text makes abundantly clear, Weheliye's research employs, with surprising success, the most highly developed theoretical equipment to explain what seems trashy (R&B, pop rap, two-way pagers, and so on) or unworthy of serious scholarship. (University of Washington, 226 Communications, 3:30 pm, free.) CHARLES MUDEDE
FRIDAY APRIL 11
EMP Pop Conference
(MUSIC) Whether or not you think this yearly event is a weekend of useful, insightful music discussion, or nothing more than music writer navelgazing, is up to you. If you believe it's the former, then there's much to recommend about this year's conference. Some of the heavy hitters filling out the panels: Greil Marcus, Ann Powers, and the Village Voice's great Robert Christgau. If you love to read/write/obsess about music, this conference is for you. (Thurs-Sun April 10-13 at EMP, Seattle Center. Go to emplive.com for a complete rundown.) BRADLEY STEINBACHER
SATURDAY APRIL 12
Robert Yoder
(ART) Robert Yoder's cut up and reassembled road signs--the work for which he's best known--transmit a sense of low-level disturbance, of nonfunctioning familiar systems. Now, in a show entitled abfall (German for "garbage"), he takes his wry view of the information landscape into a spectacular new direction, with fragmented mosaics of tiled bits of magazine, and strict, formalist assemblages of LEGO blocks. These small, tight, controlled gestures grow louder the longer you look at them, as if rocketing through an echo chamber. (Opening reception Sat April 12, 6-8 pm, Howard House, 2017 Second Ave, 256-6399. Through May 23.) EMILY HALL
SUNDAY APRIL 13
'All That Heaven Allows'
(FILM) Fans of Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven should make a point of checking out the soap operatic 1955 tearjerker on which Haynes based his beautiful deconstruction. Directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Jane Wyman as a well-to-do widow who falls for gardener Rock Hudson, All That Heaven Allows opens a window into the social hypocrisies that defined bourgeois America in the '50s, and like its latter-day counterpart, wrenches real emotions out of campy melodrama. It plays with Sirk's likewise bathetic Imitation of Life (1959). (Fri-Sun April 11-13, Tues-Thurs April 15-17 at the Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St, 523-3935, $7/$4.50 members.) SEAN NELSON
MONDAY APRIL 14
'Backfire' magazine
(R.I.P.) Since starting Backfire over 10 years ago (taking a break to run Backlash magazine from '87-'91), publisher/editor/writer Dawn Anderson has been giving lots of great ink to both local and national rock acts. Although I've only been in Seattle a short time, I always picked up her quarterly music mag to read about good new rock/metal/punk coming out, and often times she'd get the big stories before any of the other local publications even realized what they were (she isn't shy about having done the first Nirvana interview). So it's with sad regret that I pass along the knowledge that this current issue of Backfire will be Dawn's last. Be sure to pick up your (always free) copy around the city and e-mail her your appreciation for all the hard work she's put into covering the rock. JENNIFER MAERZ
TUESDAY APRIL 15
'Underneath the Lintel'
(THEATER) "Glen Berger's small miracle of a play is fundamentally about finding something to believe in." So wrote Stranger critic Jeff Meyers in his opening-weekend rave of Underneath the Lintel, now in its final week at Empty Space Theatre. Concerning the obsession of a Dutch librarian (played by local fave Todd Jefferson Moore) with the return of a 113-year-overdue book, Lintel smartly spins off in a number of deep directions, inspiring our snooty critic to praise the production as a "smart, funny, and literate night of theater that shouldn't be missed." Trust him, and catch it while you can. (Empty Space Theatre, 3509 Fremont Ave N, 547-7500. $22-$35. Tues-Thurs at 7:30 pm, Fri-Sat at 8 pm, Sun at 7:30 pm. Through April 19.) DAVID SCHMADER
WEDNESDAY APRIL 16
'A Mighty Wind'
(FILM) Not only is this the third improvisational mockumentary from the brilliant mind of Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show), it also offers a Spinal Tap reunion of sorts. The target this time around is folk music, specifically the folk revival of the late '50s/early '60s; the twist is that it takes place in the present, at a concert that reunites the once-semi-famous groups (including Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean as the bald, bearded "Folksmen") to commemorate the passing of the agent who discovered them all. We'll have a review and interview next week, but the film opens today, and devotees will be out in force. (Wed April 16 at the Guild 45th.) SEAN NELSON
