THURSDAY 6/15


Ruston Mire, Skyward

(LIVE MUSIC) Ever feel like you're living in a fairy tale, but not in a good way? I'm starting to feel like the protagonist in "The Emperor's New Clothes." Why all the fuss over the same few groups when there are truly fine bands like Ruston Mire and Skyward to get excited about? Ruston Mire has brought smart, quirky, new-wave inspired pop into the 21st century, while Skyward offers a uniquely groovy take on modern pop. Expand your horizons, folks. You can thank me later. BARBARA MITCHELL

Showbox, 1426 First Ave, 628-3151, 9 pm, $5.


Mead

(BOOZE) Made from the fermentation of honey, mead was known in the ancient world as the nectar of the gods, and was popular in northern Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Though the genuine stuff involves much labor and months of aging, you can easily throw together a "cheater's mead": Combine one quart dry hard cider (the alcoholic kind) with 3/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup sliced oranges and lemons, and several cinnamon sticks. Add a small cheesecloth bag filled with 1/4 cup of equal parts whole cloves and chopped ginger and nutmeg. Seal in a container and refrigerate for five days, shaking or stirring daily. Strain before drinking. If you make it today, it'll be ready in time for that ol' medieval partying time, Midsummer's Eve. MELODY MOSS

Available at your local grocery store.


FRIDAY 6/16


Queer Cornucopia

(QUEER THEATER) An abundance of gay-themed theater opens this weekend, all of which sounds entertaining enough for all sexual persuasions. Re-bar and ArtsWest present dueling adaptations of the Greek tragedy Medea (All about Medea and Medea, the Musical), the over-2,000-year-old play about a mother who murders her children to get back at their dad. Both productions feature a behind-the-scenes look at the squalid backstage behavior of the performers; both promise to be over-the-top camp. On the quieter side (but still plenty funny) is Scot "Sgt. Rigsby" Augustson's new play at Annex Theatre, Intelligence, about a gay man blackmailed into becoming a spy for the State Department. BRET FETZER (Who, it must be said, is Annex's incoming artistic director.)

See Theater Calendar, p. 75, for showtimes and venues.

the scandal!

(STRAIGHT THEATER) Kristin Kosmas stands onstage, her eyes both sad and unreadable, and talks. You know that really irritating sing-songy voice that bad poetry readers use? What they're aspiring to (and falling miserably short of) are the natural cadences of Kosmas' voice, a sinewy alto that has the rhythm of a long-distance runner--which it needs, because Kosmas talks a lot. blah blah fucking blah, her 1992 debut, and her next show, again, were maximalist monologues, cramming a million disparate ideas and images into a cascade of stories. Then, with Slip, she focused her energies into a single, lean story. Since then she's moved to New York, but she's back to present a new piece, a two-person play called the scandal!, which sounds like it's fusing both approaches, turning one story into a microcosm of Kosmas' myriad thoughts. BRET FETZER

New City Theatre, First Christian Church, 1632 Broadway, 328-4683. June 16-24, Fri-Sat, $10; June 29-July 8, Thurs, $10 & Fri-Sat, $12. All shows 8 pm. Pay-what-you-can performance Mon June 26.


SATURDAY 6/17


Fremont Fair

2000

(PAR-TAY) While the Fremont neighborhood excels at orchestrating some refreshingly weird-ass GOod times, it definitely wouldn't hurt to dust off the thesaurus and spare us another use of the word "funky." That said, for a weekend crammed with live music, food, art, microbrewed beer, portable toilets, crafts, and throngs of hemp-clad hippies stoned on the fumes of the dread weed marihuana, the Fremont Fair is a zany neighborhood celebration of the HIGHest order--unbelievable, cheap, inspired, harmless fun for the whole family. Not to be missed is the Solstice Parade at noon, a procession that in past years has included nude cyclists. JASON PAGANO

Taking place in lower Fremont between N 34th and N 36th St, 11:30 am-8 pm; Sunday 11:30 am-6 pm. Visit fremontfair.com for schedule of events.


SUNDAY 6/18


California Dreaming

(FILM) You know Mike Mills: designer for Sonic Youth, Beck, and the Beastie Boys; director of those West Side Story GAP commercials. Mills is the design world's current paramour, whose artistic ambitions are hopelessly (and gloriously) wedded to his commercial sensibility. In the short films that comprise California Dreaming, Mills works with the seeming vapidity of Americana to create art of strangely provocative conscience, at peace with the commercial underpinnings of our built environment. In the 23-minute standout The Architecture of Reassurance, he peers beneath the placid surface of a geometric, pre-planned California suburb to unearth the strange, disconnected beauty of Americans caught naked in their daydreams, their desires written in the integrated architecture that surrounds them. The tone is dreamy and diffuse, like a memory of a sunny day, and the final image is, for oddly inexplicable reasons, quite haunting. JAMIE HOOK

Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 675-2055, at 5:30, 7:30, 9:30 pm, $7.


MONDAY 6/19


Teen Dance Ordinance

(HEARING) You may be old and grumpy now, but you were once a young thing hungry for a good time. Today, you can go to bat for the kids by storming City Hall and giving Seattle's council members the word on why they should repeal the troubling Teen Dance Ordinance, which has stalked young, sweaty fun in this town for more than 15 years. Thanks to a recommendation from local nightlife advocates the Music & Youth Task Force, the council just might do away with the TDO and its stupid, stupid rules, including convoluted age restrictions and unreasonable club guidelines. ALLIE HOLLY-GOTTLIEB

City Council Chambers, Municipal Building, 11th Floor, 600 Fourth Ave (enter from the back on Fifth Ave), 5:30 pm.


New Wet Kojak, Distortion Felix

(LIVE MUSIC) Listening to New Wet Kojak's latest album, Do Things, makes me want to drink. To be honest, it makes me want to do a lot of things, none of them really fit for publication. This NYC outfit features Scott McCloud and Johnny Temple of Girls Against Boys, and NWK are quieter, sleazier (in a good way), and possibly even sexier and more dangerous than G vs. B. Get there early for Distortion Felix, whose debut came out on Temple's Akashic label. BARBARA MITCHELL

Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave, 441-5611, 9 pm, $8.


TUESDAY 6/20


Cris Bruch

(ART) Cris Bruch has an obsessive way with paper. His intricately pieced sculpture at Consolidated Works earlier this year was absolutely mind-bending--about a thousand paper triangles fitted together somehow to make a large hollow, multi-faceted form. His new installation at Suyama Space promises to be as fiercely difficult to fathom. The wheel-like forms filling the atrium, built of paper and metal and entitled Duty Cycle, invoke labor, repetition, and the passage of time--what happens, in short, in the studio. EMILY HALL

Suyama Space, 2324 Second Ave, 256-0809, Mon-Fri, 9 am-5 pm, through Aug 18.


WEDNESDAY 6/21


Green, Green Grass


(RELAXATION) Stressed out? I sure am. I shouldn't be, what with summer coming on, but I am. You too? God, it sucks. You know what really helps, but that I always forget to do? Find a patch of healthy, green grass, take off my shoes and socks, and rub my feet into the grass. For at least 15 minutes. The longer the better. Oooooh, it feels good. All my muscles start to lose their painful clench. Oooooh lord. I'm no nature junkie, but a nice patch of grass can sometimes be the only thing that makes life livable. BRET FETZER

Grass can be found in small, discreet patches throughout the city, as well as in our lovely city parks.


Comic Artists Make Movies

(FILMS) The comics are funny. Sometimes we giggle just thinking about the comics. Every time I look at Maakies, I laugh so hard my bottom hurts. Movies should be funny too, like watching a monkey slip on a banana peel, or seeing a weasel fall out of a tree. WigglyWorld is a funny place, with a funny name, and recently they commissioned some of the best and funniest comic artists in Seattle to make short, live-action Super-8 movies with a little Super-8 camera. Eight of the best cartoonists in the entire world--Peter Bagge, Pat Moriarty, Jason Lutes, Smell of Steve Inc., Robert Cunningham, Jim Woodring, Roberta Gregory, and Ellen Forney--will be on hand to show their work and talk about it. This should be one of the funnest, funniest nights ever in the history of the world. JAMIE HOOK

Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 275-5055, 6 and 8 pm, $7.