THURSDAY JUNE 28


Films of Charles and Ray Eames

(FILM) The best--indeed, the only--story about Charles Eames I've ever heard is the one about how, when he decided to start making chairs, the first thing he did was to call a few hundred people into his workshop and measure each and every one of their asses. This novel approach to furniture design carried over into the experimental short films Eames made with his wife Ray, which are obsessed with the literalization of the figurative universe. The most famous, Powers of Ten (which appears here along with its prototype sketch) takes the viewer backwards from a picnic all the way to outer space, then shoots us back, frame by frame, into the heart of an atom, thus quantifying infinity. Atlas pulls a similar trick: It physicalizes the rise and fall of the Roman Empire in an expanding, then contracting, world map. The realm of ideas has seldom had such ingenious spokespeople. Anyone interested in anything at all--as the Eameses seemed to be--won't want to miss this program. SEAN NELSON

Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 675-2055, Thurs-Fri at 6, 7:30, 9 pm, $7.50.


THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE

(THEATER) While the house lights are still up, actor Ron Campbell steps out onto a spare, bluish set. He doesn't speak. For about two minutes he stands there, contemplating the audience. Then he spends the next two hours unfolding a dynamic mixture of science, biography, social commentary, and metaphysics that pieces together the many, many thoughts of R. Buckminster Fuller, arguably the 20th century's answer to Leonardo da Vinci. THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE is something of a greatest-hits collection, skillfully sewn together by writer-director D. W. Jacobs. The first act glides along on a fluid association of ideas, each leading to the next with energetic necessity. The second act lacks this crystalline progression, wallowing around in social theory, but it's still sustained by Campbell's indefatigable energy. When it's all over, you may not be able to remember all of Fuller's ideas, but your mind will have been stimulated just moving through them. BRET FETZER

Intiman Theatre, Seattle Center, 269-1900. Tues-Thurs at 7:30, Fri-Sat at 8, Sat-Sun at 2, Sun at 7:30, $30-$42 ($10 under 25). Through July 7.


FRIDAY JUNE 29


Tartuffe

(THEATER IN THE PARK) O glorious day! Don't be a dope--/'Tis not a day to sit and mope/And ponder your life's miseries/Like some television miniseries./No sitting in the clammy dark--/Go see a play that's in the park:/Moliere's Tartuffe, a witty skit/Of a religious hypocrite,/With big Jim Gall, who's loud and bluff/Yet capable of subtle stuff,/And Joshua Parrot, a skinny guy/With wicked gleamings in his eye./It could be fun, and if it's not/You'll still be sitting in the hot/And wondrous sun. So park your ass/Out on a lawn of cool green grass./And hope the tongue of Moliere/Doesn't pain your derriere. BRET FETZER

Theater Schmeater at Volunteer Park, on the lawn between the Amphitheater and the Conservatory. Fri at 7, Sat-Sun at 2, free. Through July 22.


Emmylou Harris

(MUSIC) It is the rarest of things, in a secular popular culture insistent on the primacy of the self, to find an artistic experience that feels--strange even to say it--sacred. With the waters of Elliott Bay and the vista of the Olympics spread at their feet, those in attendance tonight will find themselves in the perfect setting to receive the sacrament of Emmylou Harris' voice. Despite having served as mentor, muse, and collaborator to almost everyone in "serious" country music, from Gram Parsons to Ryan Adams, and having last year released one of the finest albums in her career (Red Dirt Girl) on the heels of an overlooked landmark record with Linda Ronstadt (Western Wall), what is really important about Emmylou Harris is The Voice. Her presence is not that of a diva, but the humble and humbling visitation of an angel. GRANT COGSWELL

Pier 62/63, 628-0888, 8 pm, $30.


Goldberry Long

(READING) In Goldberry Long's debut novel, Juniper Tree Burning, Seattle is the birthplace of main character Jennifer Braverman's parents, the fairy-tale city at the end of the world, the watery grave of Jennie's wayward brother, Sunny Boy Blue. Long's novel is the messy coming-to-consciousness of a woman damaged by her super-hippie upbringing, a woman whose strength is masked as anger and whose voyage toward understanding is literally that--a trip through the country toward the pearly gray landscape of comprehension. The messiness is in the novel's swirl of beautiful and brutal, in the plot's interchange between "I" and "her," in the narrative's clomp through time. All of this makes Juniper Tree Burning one of the most interesting debuts from a major publisher this year, and Long's visit here an event worth recommending. TRACI VOGEL

Elliott Bay Books, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free advance tickets.


SATURDAY JUNE 30


Pootie Tang

(FILM) Like most American comedies made in the last 20 years, this Paramount release, produced by Chris Rock and based on a sketch from his lamentably canceled HBO series, will very likely blow. However, it is written and directed by Louis C. K., a standup comic and former staff writer for Rock and Conan O'Brien, who very well may be the funniest white man alive. If he isn't, then either Dave Attell, David Cross, or Andy Richter--all three of whom appear in the film along with Rock, O'Brien, and comic Todd Barry--is. We therefore insist that Pootie Tang (about a black guy who speaks inscrutable gibberish that sounds like slang) MUST have some inherent worth, and SHALL be at least funny enough in places to warrant recommendation. If C. K.'s other short films are any indication, it might even be brilliant. SEAN NELSON

See Movie Times for details.


SUNDAY JULY 1


Short Stories

(ART) Simply put, the Henry is kicking ass these days: Wolfgang Laib, Uta Barth, Alexis Rockman, the Berman collection of graphic design, and now Short Stories. This exhibit, shown in the smaller rooms of the north galleries, pulls work from the Henry's permanent collection as well as loans from collectors and is presented as a series of "stories" about art and looking at art. It makes a case for interactivity in the most traditional of forms and encourages seeing connections between random things. Denzil Hurley's abstract untitled piece is presented--with pillows on the floor--as an opportunity to create an extended relationship with a difficult work. A mesh sculpture by Ernesto Neto is an experience in texture, closed space, and transparency. A room full of prints by painters invites a reconsideration of this traditionally dismissed media. Curated with a delicate touch by Rhonda Lane Howard and Elizabeth Brown, Short Stories teaches without traditional brick-bat insistence. EMILY HALL

Henry Art Gallery, UW campus, 543-2280. Through May 12, 2002.


MONDAY JULY 2


Some Lounge Night at Some Pleasant Jazz

(DJ) Ever since the Baltic Room changed its format from jazz to electronica, there hasn't been a spot that spins or plays jazz music at the amateur level. Most places care for only one thing: thumping dance music. There are many examples of wonderful places with great wine, comfortable chairs, and pleasant employees, but the loud Euro-dance music ruins the mood and often draws the frat crowd. As far as I can tell, Nation is the only place that offers a solid set of jazz music on a Monday night. It's spun by the elegant DJ Shingi, whose jazz tastes are on the lush side--a kind of Billy Strayhorn of the turntables--and runs for three hours, from 6-9 pm. If you want a place to drink and think in a pleasant atmosphere, the Nation on Monday nights is the only such island you'll find in this dance music-obsessed city. CHARLES MUDEDE

Nation, 1921 Fifth Ave, 374-9492, 6 pm, free.


TUESDAY JULY 3


Kool Keith

(MUSIC) In an industry in which rappers blow up big only to be discarded after a few singles, Kool Keith's longevity is impressive. First with the Ultramagnetic MCs and then as a host of rap personas, Keith Thornton a.k.a. Kool Keith has not only survived but thrived as a true eccentric genius. Like David Bowie's chameleon conceptual personas, Kool Keith has transformed, and sometimes nearly atomized himself, into a Sybil-like variety of personalities including Rhythm X, Mr. Gerbick, Robbie Analog, Black Elvis, and Sinister 6000. His most notorious character was pomo gynecologist Dr. Octagon-- before the subsequent serial-killer cannibal Dr. Dooom finished him off. All of the guises would be little more than bizarro jokes if Kool Keith weren't an incredibly talented rapper whose inspired rhymes and wordplay have sinuous flow that finds emotional depth and drama in off-kilter concepts. The strange associative narratives are embedded in inspired music that is as multidimensional as Kool Keith's protagonists. NATE LIPPENS

I-Spy, 1921 Fifth Ave, 374-9492, 7 pm, $20. All ages.


WEDNESDAY JULY 4


A.I.

(FILM) Though it's being marketed as a dewy, E.T.-esque (right down to the titular initials), feelgood Spielberg fantasy, A.I. is in fact a dark, harrowing fable about the perils of progress. Closer in spirit to a horror film than anything he's done since Jaws, Spielberg's adaptation of the late Stanley Kubrick's pet project bears the unmistakable stamp of both artists, commingled into a vision the likes of which you've never seen. At once Aesopian and dystopian, this futurist Pinocchio tells the story of a robot boy programmed with the capacity to need and give love, but without the human skill of adapting to love's malleability of expression. Huh? Yeah. It's that rarest occurrence: a Spielberg film, with all the requisite visual splendor, too philosophically and psychologically complex to capture in a blurb. I missed the first 20 minutes and it's still the most interesting film I've seen all year. SEAN NELSON

See Movie Times for details.