Agnostic's Way

(SOLO PERFORMANCE) A faux TV talk show about agnosticism and after-life experiences sounds godawful--but it's coming from Vincent Balestri, whose previous show, Kerouac: The Essence of Jack, ran for years at the late, lamented Velvet Elvis Arts Lounge. Balestri is a smart, capable performer with remarkable improvisational skills; in his previous show, he did an extensive question-and-answer session with the audience while in the character of Jack Kerouac, drawing on years of research about Kerouac's life but always coming across as spontaneous. Agnostic's Way's talk show host, Wade Nomo, won't have as dense a back-story, but I'll bet Balestri can spin metaphysical ideas into a lively and rigorous entertainment. (The show also features "the lovely and ephemeral" Kay Morrison as "The Spirit Guide.") BRET FETZER

Remember Theatre at the Chamber Theatre, 915 E Pine, Fourth Floor, 800-965-4827, Thurs-Sat at 8; $15 general, $12 students/seniors. Through Jan 27.

Graig Markel

(MUSIC) If you haven't checked out Graig Markel's post-New Sweet Breath work, you should take this opportunity to see what this talented fellow is up to. Markel has recently released a second solo album, the deliciously groovy Hard Grammar, on Recovery Room Records. Whether he's blissfully unaware or just completely unconcerned that rage is all the rage, Markel continues his mission to bring sweet soul music to the rock set. The result is a slow-burning, sonic smorgasbord that showcases Markel as one of our more original and--dare we say it?--sexy local voices. BARBARA MITCHELL

Graceland, 109 Eastlake Ave E, 381-3094, 9 pm, $6.

Artist Trust Benefit Auction

(ART) If you're not going to buy any art, you should at least go see the spread. There's work by some of the Northwest's best artists, from the bigtime (Michael Spafford, Akio Takamori, Sonja Blomdahl) to the up-and-coming (Leo Saul Berk, Joseph Park, this year's Betty Bowen Award winner Iole Alessandrini). There's some amazing work by artists who won't remain underground favorites for long, including one of Phil Roach's fisheye dioramas, a piece of headgear by Thess Fenner (with an LCD screen that covers the wearer's mouth and replaces it with an image of the wearer's mouth), and a two-penised piñata by Patrick Holderfield. The auction is on February 11 at the Seattle Center Pavilion and is widely known as an opportunity to buy very good art at indecently reasonable prices. EMILY HALL

Bank of America Gallery, 701 Fifth Avenue, Third Floor, 585-3200. Opening reception begins at 5:30 pm.

The Warden

(TV) Dear Ally Sheedy: What happened? Hollywood can be so unfair. I thought for sure you were my kindred spirit in The Breakfast Club, with your dandruff and ratty black sweater. Then I wished I were you in St. Elmo's Fire, with your elegant pearls and perfect life and the way Andrew McCarthy looked at you.... Then you took a break (we don't need to talk about Short Circuit and Maid to Order). You dabbled in other stuff--rehab, TV movies, publishing poetry. And then! High Art won you so much praise and buzz, with you portraying a sexy lesbian and all! You scored big-time with Hedwig and the Angry Inch off-Broadway! But now you're starring in the TNT original The Warden? WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?!? A tough broad takes over a maximum-security prison and deals with a murder investigation, fighting to expose a "scandalous cover-up" within the corrections system? What about your burgeoning indie cred? What about your art?! WHAT ABOUT SEXY LESBIANS? The Warden? MIN LIAO

TNT, 8 pm.

Alien Crime Syndicate, Super Deluxe

(MUSIC) Whether it's post-holiday exhaustion, seasonal affective disorder, or simply the chill of the Northwest winter, this time of year makes it difficult to leave the warm, comfortable embrace of your couch. Well, here's a reason to bundle up and head back into the world: an excellent double bill at the Crocodile. The recently reunited Super Deluxe has always excelled in delivering frighteningly good-natured pop songs that have choruses more contagious than the most pernicious winter virus. And Alien Crime Syndicate? Thankfully, this is one band that remembers that going to rock shows is supposed to be fun. Killer songs AND a kick-ass light show? Whoo-hoo! BARBARA MITCHELL

Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave, 441-5611, 9:30 pm, $8.

Billy Budd

(OPERA) You can count the great operas scored exclusively for male voice on one badly maimed hand: And on top of the slender stack is Benjamin Britten's marvelous adaptation of Melville's Billy Budd. This protean masterpiece--as skillful in exploring psychological complexity as it is in evoking the vast depths of the ocean--may well be the composer's greatest work, which makes it de facto one of the greatest in opera history. The struggle between the good, pure, eponymous hero and the driven, villainous Claggart is portrayed with great power and nuance, and the stunning range of buzzing, percussive, dramatic choruses more than compensates for the lack of high-end voices. BRUCE REID

Seattle Opera House, 321 Mercer, 389-7676 or 800-426-1619, Sat at 7:30, $35-$68. Through Jan 27.

Love and Science

(FILM) Like some Eastern-bloc contingent of the French new wave, the films of 1960s Russia use that gorgeous black-and-white film stock, include plenty of street shots (often featuring reflections in large windows), emphasize structure as much as story, and focus on characters in flux. Nine Days of One Year is almost exactly what the title promises: nine looks at a love triangle between three scientists over the course of a year--a woman caught between two unreliable men, one a cocky idealist, the other a skeptical science reporter. Unpredictable and sometimes heartbreaking, Nine Days will make you want to see the entire weekend series of rare Russian films at the Grand Illusion, and that's a good thing. ANDY SPLETZER

Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St, 523-3935, Sat-Sun at noon.

Rebecca Brown & Stokely Towles

(READING) If you've ever been to a reading by Rebecca Brown--or perhaps even if you've just read her stories in these pages (she wrote the recent "Smokers" piece, and a novel called The Dogs)--you know how Ms. Brown tends to bob on one foot, grasping the podium or desk or sales counter behind which she stands, her voice rippling up and over the pages she glances at infrequently like some blue-toned sea creature that suckles at your ears. Brown will read thus from her soon-to-be-released Gray Spider Press chapbook, Excerpts from a Family Dictionary. In a happy pairing, Brown reads with writer and performance artist Stokely Towles, whose electric bearing may be the perfect accompaniment to Brown's lyric flood. TRACI VOGEL

Pistil Books & News, 1013 E Pike, 325-5401, 7 pm, free.

Sister Spit

(SPOKEN WORD) Finally! After the trauma of eviction (fuck gentrification) and an earlier canceled event, San Francisco's kickin'-est girl group Sister Spit makes it back to Seattle for a performance at Re-bar. The inimitable Michelle Tea headlines the event. Tea, author of, most recently, Valencia, not only writes like a five-alarm fire, but she is as cute as a waterskipper. Furthermore, Tea is accompanied by writers Sini Anderson, Lynn Breedlove, Beth Liscick, Tara Jepsen, Nomi Lamm, Tara Hardy, and Inga Muscio, whose combined talent should knock a hole in Re-bar the size and shape of Hillary Clinton's self-esteem. Don't miss it. TRACI VOGEL

Re-bar, 1114 Howell St, 233-9873, 8 pm, $7-$10.

SolarMax

(IMAX FILM) I spent all my life upon the sunburnt dunes of the Botswana desert; that sort of intense scrutiny surely made me weary of the sun's supposed mystique. Nevertheless, I loved this movie--from sweeping panoramas to dancing South Americans, SolarMax feels massive, yet tempered by an emotive orgasm of a soundtrack from the Sidney Symphony Orchestra. And then there is the main attraction, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory's images of the sun flaring and blistering, brooding to the soundtrack of its own belligerent undertones--a view of the pugnacious bastard that you've never seen, the very spectacle leaves me at a loss for words... ubiquitous fucker. KUDZAI MUDEDE

Pacific Science Center, Seattle Center, 443-2001. See Movie Times for details.

Ennio

(LIVING CARTOON) Ennio Marchetto is this Italian guy who has drawn rave reviews from around the world, was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for "Best Entertainment" and for "Unique Theatrical Experience" by the New York Drama Desk, and toured as an opening act for pop group Erasure. He creates living caricatures of celebrities--from Britney Spears to Fidel Castro to Jessica Rabbit--using cardboard costumes and his own mimetic skills. Lightning-quick changes are essential to the show: Ennio claims the average length of each characters is 85 seconds, and it's in the transformation from one personality to another--morphing from the Spice Girls into the Three Tenors--that the wit and artistry lie. Think of it as two-dimensional drag. BRET FETZER

Moore Theatre, Second & Virginia, 292-ARTS, Tues-Thurs at 7:30, Fri at 8, Sat at 5 & 9, Sun at 2 & 7, Jan 16-21, $20-$35.