Jack Daws, William Kentridge
(ART) Jack Daws is wildly irreverent, but he's never without a point: The objects he fabricates veer a few degrees away from normal, and in those few degrees is a world of meaning. This, his first solo show, features sculpture and photographs, and includes a playpen bounded by barbed wire, a windmill sculpted out of coal, the twin towers built of French fries (pardon me, Freedom fries), and other items that carry his nutty political charge. By way of excellent contrast, Greg Kucera is also showing new drawings and prints by South African artist William Kentridge, one of the few political artists who doesn't make me yawn. (Opening reception Thurs Aug 7, 6-8 pm, Greg Kucera Gallery, 212 Third Ave S, 624-0770. Through Aug 30. ) EMILY HALL
FRIDAY AUG 8
Party Time!
(SEE ABOVE) There's not a damn thing wrong with music that aspires to be the soundtrack to your pants-down, table-dancing blackout. That kind of music is Party Time's raison d'être, and the Sunset Tavern, though way out in Ballard where some of us feel people are just plain strange, is a place that lends itself to pants-down, table-dancing blackouts, especially if you make a quick swing by the Thai place across the street and down a couple of those herb-laden cocktails (notorious for giving imbibers hot pants) before settling in. Hobbit-loving sludge rockers C Average headline. (Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave NW, 784-4880, 9 pm, $6.) KATHLEEN WILSON
SATURDAY AUG 9
Partsong
(EVENT) Partsong is the first event produced by the multimedia team TESTPATTERN, and features poetry, art, dance, and music in a brand-new performance space at Sand Point. The space drives the work, the work responds to the space, and I know it all sounds very vague and woozy but that's what happens when genres collide. With Katie Kurtz, Fionn Meade, Melanie Noel, Elizabeth Jameson, Amelia Reeber, Rob Millis (of Climax Golden Twins), and Ollie Glatzer. (Sand Point Magnuson Park, Building 11. Fri-Sat Aug 8-9 and Aug 15-16 at 9 pm. For reservations or directions, call 405-4382. $10 suggested donation. ) EMILY HALL
SUNDAY AUG 10
Punk Rock Matinees
(GREAT LINEUP) For the second installment of the Sunset's Sunday Punk Rock Matinees, the club is hosting another crop of some of my favorite local talent, which, along with the Intelligence, the Lights, and the Pulses, includes Electric Blanket. EB's five-song demo combines a sharp, deadpan sense of humor with well-crafted jangle-punk, and when they deliver lines about things like helping you move so you don't hurt your back, it's as if they're lecturing about the inherent faults of a capitalist society. Their purposely prep-school-inflected, world-weary delivery goes perfectly with the music, which adds spikes of overdriven guitars to a poppy, '70s New York punk aesthetic. (Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave NW, 784-0627, 4 pm, $5. ) JENNIFER MAERZ
MONDAY AUG 11
Paris in Mind
(BOOK) Paris in Mind is a terrible title for a book containing essays about Paris by famous American writers. The fact is, most great American writers are not intellectuals or "of the Mind," but like Mark Twain, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin, and Ernest Hemingway (all of whom are in this anthology), are about the senses, the body--so the Paris they tend to describe is the better and lower Paris, Paris in Body. Despite the bad title, the book, which is edited by Jennifer Lee, is small, easy to carry, and, while you're stuck on the sucky Seattle public transport system, capable of quickly conveying you to various sections of the City of Lights. (Available at local book stores, $13. ) CHARLES MUDEDE
TUESDAY AUG 12
Flash Mob
(RANDOM STUPIDITY) The latest craze among bored urbanites everywhere--from New York City (where it was born in June) and San Francisco, to Paris and Rome--is about to hit Seattle. Called flash mobs, they're where groups of people surreptitiously organize to meet at a certain place--a hotel, train station, shoe store, Central Park, wherever--at a specific time, to engage in an absurd activity as outlined by the organizers. Like applaud. Or make bird noises. Or act like tourists from Maryland. Then, the mob evaporates. Seattle's first flash mob is tentatively set for August 12, but I can't tell you where, because I don't know. (E-mail seattleflashmob@yahoo.com if you want to be in on the joke. ) AMY JENNIGES
Totally Gay TV
(TELEVISION) With Boy Meets Boy and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, canny cable network Bravo has single-handedly instigated what feels like a gay-culture revolution, with everyone from over-it-all post-gays to their Republican fathers thrilling to the faggiest two hours television has ever seen. The brand-new Boy Meets Boy presents a gay Mr. Right with a dozen suitors (some gay, some straight, all secret), making mind-fucking mincemeat of "gaydar" and the iffy signifiers of gay vs. straight. The already-classic Queer Eye sets six superhero gays on one slovenly straight guy, helping Sir Slob's love-dreams come true and charming the laughter-piss-filled pants off the entire nation. Drink, watch, adore. (Bravo, 9-11 pm. If you don't get Bravo or want a gay group setting, watch the shows live at R Place, 619 E Pine St. ) DAVID SCHMADER
WEDNESDAY AUG 13
They Drive By Night
(BOGIE!) My second-favorite Humphrey Bogart film, They Drive By Night (first place: In a Lonely Place), is being given a rare showing at the Grand Illusion. Directed by the somewhat wacked Raoul Walsh, it is the story of two struggling trucking brothers and the various shenanigans they embroil themselves in (including the loss of a limb--how's that for shenanigans?). Also starring George Raft and Ida Lupino, it's a quiet classic, well written and extremely well designed. (Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St, 523-3935. Fri-Thurs Aug 8-14, 6:30 pm, $7. ) BRADLEY STEINBACHER
