Paul Krugman
(LEFTY BRILLIANCE) If you don't like Bush--and who does?--then you will love Paul Krugman, the New York Times' best debunker of Team Bush's bullshit. He's coming to town to blast the right and flog his new book, The Great Unraveling. Go see him. (Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 325-3554, 7:30 pm, $25, $125 for pre-show fundraiser.) SANDEEP KAUSHIK
'Baja to Vancouver'
(ART) So five curators from up and down the West Coast (including SAM's Lisa Corrin) got together and winnowed down the prodigious number of West Coast artists to 33. Art-world people have been talking about this for a year: Sensation? Hype? Smashing? Coherent? Decide for yourself. Tonight's opening bash includes performances by the Turn-Ons, FCS North vs. Sientific American vs. Electribaby, and the Typing Explosion. (Seattle Art Museum, 100 University St, 654-3100, 5:30 pm-midnight, free with museum admission; exhibition runs through Jan 4. ) EMILY HALL
FRIDAY OCT 10
Genius Awards Party
(FREE MUSIC) As part of the prolonged celebration for the Stranger's Genius Awards in writing, filmmaking, visual art, and performance, we're throwing a free show with some of our favorite Northwest music acts (and one New York guest). Portland's Lifesavas--who released one of the best breakout hiphop albums this year (Spirit in Stone)--make ebullient, intelligent music that lifts your mood and your ass with equal thrust. Also on the bill is Portland's Helio Sequence, a rock duo who play (as Kathleen Wilson has written) "melodic noise rock that blends shoegazer with the ever-more-acceptable prog." And crowning off the evening, Princess Superstar and her cohort Alexander Technique will blaze both sides of her split personality: smart-ass rapper and skilled DJ. The work of the Stranger-selected geniuses--see page 19 to find out who they are--will be on display all night long. (Consolidated Works, 500 Boren Ave N, 381-3128, 9 pm-2 am, free.) JENNIFER MAERZ
Steven Jesse Bernstein
(RETROSPECTIVE) His is a visage familiar to anyone interested in Seattle's musical history--the thick-framed, sinewy character in those Arthur Aubry photographs, a sore thumb amongst all of those id-soaked portraits of our city's salad days. But for most, Steven Jesse Bernstein's legacy ends there. Bernstein's self-stolen influence--an oft-footnoted element of the Seattle rock story--is finally given the tribute it deserves with EMP's new retrospective, "More Noise Please: A Portrait of Poet Steven Jesse Bernstein." Tonight's opening reception features audio collage work by Steve Fisk. (Experience Music Project, 325 Fifth Ave N, 262-3222, 6-9 pm, free. ) ZAC PENNINGTON
SATURDAY OCT 11
Arbitrary Art Grant
(DEADLINE) The good folks at Artists for a Work Free America will randomly give $500 to someone who sends in a sample of digital graffiti. This means: a digitally tagged, painted, or altered image of a billboard, building, or commercial vehicle. Have fun, but don't sweat it: There's absolutely no way to increase the odds of winning--only one entry per person is eligible. (Send your piece in JPEG format to info@vital5productions.com. For more information, go to www.vital5productions.com.) EMILY HALL
SUNDAY OCT 12
Future Soul
(DJ NIGHT) The capitals of the dance-music form called broken beat are Munich (Compost Records), Toyko/Kyoto (Kyoto Jazz Massive), Philadelphia (Vikter Duplaix), Detroit (Dwele), and London (Bugz in the Attic), and to a certain extent Washington, D.C. (the label Seven Heads just put out an excellent compilation that captures perfectly the spectrum--Afropop, science-fiction jazz, dub, soul, hiphop--that is fused into the term "broken beat"). Seattle is far from the action, and was almost completely out of the picture when SunTzu Sound's Beat-Bop night was canceled two months ago. But the Baltic Room has brought broken beat back on Sundays under a new title, Future Soul, but with the same DJs, SunTzu. (Baltic Room, 1207 Pine St, 625-4444, 10 pm, free. ) CHARLES MUDEDE
MONDAY OCT 13
'Kill Bill: Volume 1'
(FILM) Chances are you've already decided to see Kill Bill: Volume 1, the first half of Quentin Tarantino's kung-fu epic. If so, you've made a wise choice, for it may be the most fun you will have at the cinema this year. Seriously. Uma Thurman absolutely kills in her Bruce Lee tracksuit. (Opens Fri Oct 10. See Movie Times for more info. ) BRADLEY STEINBACHER
TUESDAY OCT 14
Demolition Doll Rods
(ASS-SHAKING) "If you wanna shake some ass then come on, but if you can't hang... just GO HOME!" Yes, oh yes, them Doll Rods: two precious ladies and one fella who are STILL bish-bashin' some of the finest dur-tay-assed no-fi R&B around! And they got pedigree too, dig... Dan Doll Rod was in the Gories! Sounds great, don't it? And they kinda got a "gimmick," too--um, something of a GLAM fixation. They like to wear pretty outfits! Now who don't wanna shake some ass to folks in pretty outfits!? (Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave NW, 784-4880, 9 pm, $7. ) MIKE NIPPER
WEDNESDAY OCT 15
Electric Blanket
(MUSIC) Thank God someone had the good sense to book a band at Vito's--a bar that oozes retro glam like a fat man in a polyester shirt oozes sweat. The Start! DJ crew is throwing this live music party, with local snotty garage-pop boys Electric Blanket (snotty in sound, not in personality). Their spunky, fuzzed-out songs tie sarcastic ascots around prep-school lyrics, so Vito's red velvet interior should be the perfect faux highlife background for this show. (Vito's, 927 Ninth Ave, 682-2695, 9:30 pm, $3.) JENNIFER MAERZ
