Seattle International Butoh Festival

DANCE/THEATER) Butoh began in post-WWII Japan, largely in response to the nuclear assaults on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It often features white makeup suggesting zombification and decay, as well as slow movement and exaggerated expressions of horror and mania, which has led to a stereotype of Butoh as angst-ridden mime--but there's actually a greater breadth to the genre than you might expect. Seattle's homegrown Butoh troupe Dappin' Butoh, and PAN (Performance Art Network) have teamed up to bring an astonishing collection of Butoh performers from Seattle, Tokyo (including Yukio Waguri, a leading disciple of Butoh's founder), Toronto, San Francisco, and Stockholm (!). This is a prime opportunity to sample one of the most unique and esoteric of contemporary art forms. BRET FETZER

On the Boards, 100 W Roy, 325-6500. See Theater Calendar, p. 79, for full performance information.

Two by Leos Carax

(FILMS) More than mere apprentice work for his 1991 breakthrough Lovers on the Bridge, the first two features by Leos Carax reveal that from the first the director was capable of sweeping poetic gestures. Boy Meets Girl exaggerates its basic romantic setup to absurd comic heights, but the pain is real, soaring, and self-absorbed enough that the Dead Kennedy's "Holiday in Cambodia" works brilliantly as yearning soundtrack. Bad Blood is even more playful and remarkable, a bit of gangster playacting that perfectly captures the swooning, weightless sense of surrendering to love at first blush. Both films benefit enormously from Denis Lavant's compact physicality; his run down a street to the blaring riff of Bowie's "Modern Love" in Bad Blood is one of the greatest cinematic expressions of love ever filmed. BRUCE REID

Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St, 523-3935. See Movie Times, p. 95, for showtimes.

Wiener

(ART) Gary Smoot has seen the future of art, and it is helium-inflated wiener dogs. Described by a discerning arts patron as "a radiant, time-based, whimsical tragedy in the making," this installation includes performances on Saturday, November 4 and 18, at which time the wiener dogs will be inflated and launched into a flotilla of flying balloon animals; the daily gallery showings will include a videotape of the event, photographs of wiener dogs in flight, and their sad, lingering latex remains. Smoot is responsible for an astonishing variety of witty art installations and theater sets, including work with the Compound, Annex Theatre, and the Empty Space. If you think the art world takes itself too seriously, this is for you. BRET FETZER

Pound Gallery, 1216 10th Ave, 323-0557. The gallery is open Sat and Sun noon-4 pm, or by appointment; performances on Sat Nov 4 and 18, 6-10 pm.

Zine Archive Project

(PICNIC) Ever since the advent of the Xerox, zines have become an indispensable part of the literary and music underground. Occupying that important space between corporate and nothing at all, zines have always engendered a sense of community between writer and reader. You probably didn't know that in the basement of the Richard Hugo House, a nice lady named Victoria Howe oversees a collection of more than 2,500 zines, comics, chapbooks, and small-press material, and she's just waiting for you to come browse through it. A good opportunity would be at the zinester picnic she's sponsoring today. Bring a dish, stuff yourself, look for that elusive Cometbus #2 you've never been able to find, and just hang out and sift through the buried treasure. MARK PINKOS

Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030, 1-7 pm, free.

Moe Tucker

(LIVE MUSIC) Moe Tucker is rock royalty for her primitive, cymbal-less drumming with the Velvet Underground. After leaving the band in 1971, Tucker married and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and wasn't heard from again until 1989's stunning Life in Exile After Abdication, with its postpunk-meets-Bo Diddley sound and its lyrical focus on workaday frustrations--appropriate enough topics for the then single mother of five living in small-town Georgia and working at Wal-Mart. Encouraged by Half Japanese's Jad Fair, Tucker quit her job and dedicated herself full-time to music, making two more spare, smart albums: I Spent a Week There Last Night, and Dogs Under Stress. She has since worked with indie band Magnet and experimentalists Kropotkins. Tucker is more than a footnote to rock history; She is a vital and provocative artist in her own right. Her headlining performance at Terrastock promises to be a festival highlight. NATE LIPPENS

Showbox, 1426 First Ave, 628-3151, 9 pm, $25.

Pearl Jam

(LIVE MUSIC) I have a friend who's seen Pearl Jam more times than is fair and just. He has a unique take on the whole "grunge lite" phenomenon. He likes Smashing Pumpkins because it reminds him of Queen. Pearl Jam, meanwhile, he thinks is the '90s version of Whitesnake. "Pearl Jam never claimed to be anything more than a good, straightforward band from Seattle who play heavy rock with personal and impassioned lyrics," he told me during one of our frequent... er... disagreements. Never knew David Coverdale was given over to fits of whining and self-loathing, but still, that's progress for you. Incidentally, support band Supergrass is one of Britain's finest--the '70s sideburns of Mungo Jerry crossed with solid, old-fashioned riffing and mouth-watering tunes. No less an authority than Courtney Love thinks they suck, so, yes, you really ought to turn up early and check them out. EVERETT TRUE

KeyArena, 628-0888, 7:30 pm, $30. Also Mon 11/6.

Bacon and Egg Sandwich

(FOOD) Bar food is an essential component to a successful night of drinking, one that is too often forgotten. Take, for example, Jimmy Woo's Jade Pagoda. Sure, it's a Chinese restaurant, but for bar food it grills up a topnotch, liquor-sopping burger that is lousy for the waistline but great for the taste buds. Those who want even more deliciously "bad" food go even further down the menu and land on the bacon and egg sandwich. A fried egg with just the right amount of liquid yolk, floating on a small pond of mayonnaise, topped with two crispy slices of bacon. Of course the lettuce, tomato, and pickles on the side are there so you can delude yourself into thinking there's something healthy about this meal, but really, a heart attack has never tasted so good. ANDY SPLETZER

Jade Pagoda, 606 Broadway E, 322-5900, $4.95.

Vote!

(PLAN A) Here's the deal: Feeling screwed over because they were getting drafted to fight and die in Southeast Asia, but didn't have the right to kick war pigs like LBJ and Richard Nixon out of office, protest kids helped pass 1971's 26th Amendment (lowering the voting age from 21 to 18). Evidently, without something like tours of duty in Vietnam to scare the hell out of young voters, they don't feel compelled to go to the polls. Only 32 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted in 1996--as opposed to 50 percent in 1972. Well get scared, folks! George W. Bush is straight from the AIDS joke, date rape, frat boy mold. You DON'T want to have a beer with this guy and you DON'T want him to be president. Twenty-five percent of the electorate is under 30. That's 50 million people. Vote. JOSH FEIT

Call King County Records and Elections at 296-8683 to find your polling place.

Flee to Canada!

(PLAN B) Clutched by Post-Election Fear? Don't despair! Here's a quick, handy rundown of your eleventh-hour options for expatriation to the safe haven of British Columbia, Canada: For $21, you can book a seat on Amtrak's one-way rail to Vancouver; Greyhound also offers one-way bus services to Vancouver at $20.50 a head. A private, 45-minute flight to the regal island of Victoria on Victoria Express charter lines (425-742-8720, via Lynnwood Airport) runs $80; Victoria Clipper's high-speed passenger ferry to Victoria ($60 per person) shoves off at 8 am from Seattle's Pier 69; and, if all else fails, you can grab a Yellow Cab to Blaine's border crossing for approximately $267. Keep in mind that your only valid proof of citizenship is either a passport or a birth certificate (no driver's licenses). Happy traveling, and we'll see you on the other side! RICK LEVIN

Call the U.S. Dept. of Immigration at 800-755-0777 for additional information.

Wild Style

(FILM) I now support EMP! It's a great institution and Paul Allen is the man. How can I ever say another bad word about a museum/project that not only plans to screen the greatest hiphop movie of all time, Wild Style (second is Beat Street, third, Breakin'), but to fly over the practically unknown director of the masterpiece, Charlie Ahearn? In the early '80s, Wild Style offered the outside world its first clear window of the borough (the Bronx), the projects, the streets where hiphop lived and thrived. We saw the great DJs (Grandmaster Flash), bombers (Fab Five Freddy), and poppers (RockSteady Crew). Indeed, Wild Style was not so much a movie as a textbook, which every serious hiphop head studied for authentic break moves and rap styles. Now, 20 years later, it is the greatest document we have of this remarkable era. Hiphop hooray! CHARLES MUDEDE

JBL Theater at EMP, 325 Fifth Ave N, 329-5483, 7 & 9 pm, $7.50.

Reverse Psychology

(THEATER) The late Charles Ludlam wrote some funny plays. But though he crafted entertaining dialogue, his plays really excel between the lines; Ludlam knew how to leave just enough room for talented performers to run amok with their characters without letting the plot's momentum flounder. Of course, this approach needs the right actors--and the Empty Space has cast Reverse Psychology (Ludlam's 1980 farce about a married pair of psychologists having affairs with each other's patients) with some of the most inspired farceurs in town: Kevin Mesher (recently seen in Beyond the Invasion of the Bee Girls and Deflowered in the Attic), Imogen Love (Mesher's twisted co-creator of Deflowered in the Attic), the whisky-voiced Shelley Reynolds (a veteran of Greek Active), and Philip Endicott (formerly of the Velvet Elvis Arts Lounge). Expect rubber-limbed and loin-driven madness. BRET FETZER

Empty Space, 3509 Fremont Ave N, 547-7500. See Theater Calendar for full performance information.