Local author Sierra Nelson thrives on the connection between poetry and chance; her most recent book, I Take Back the Sponge Cake, is a choose-your-own-adventure-style voyage through a mood-based narrative. Tonight, she’s debuting a new project that combines the I Ching with poetry and “the natural landscape of Washington State.” Nelson will be joined by an array of very good local poets (including Sarah Galvin and Rachel Kessler) to introduce this weird engine of artistry and fortune-telling to the world, in the form of free “divinatory consultations” for interested parties. PAUL CONSTANT
A John Waters Christmas @ Neptune
What a fucking delight it’s been to watch John Waters journey from a proudly trashy gutter filmmaker to a wise and hilarious elder statesman of pervy culture. Tonight, Waters takes the stage at the Neptune to hold forth on all things XXXmas: perverted gifts, holiday horror stories, “religious fanaticism for Santa Claus,” the nature and purpose of Christmas exploitation films, and more. DAVID SCHMADER
A Winged Victory for the Sullen @ Triple Door Musicquarium and Lounge
Pompous band name? Check. Gorgeously glacial compositions featuring strings, pianos, and horns? Double check. An unabashed and melodic romanticism, with tones that stretch and shimmer like the arctic horizon at dusk? Hat trick. Even before you know that one half of A Winged Victory for the Sullen is Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzie, this project has the ambient granddaddies’ fingerprints all over it. Wiltzie has teamed up with neoclassical composer Dustin O’Halloran to craft swelling sonic vistas equally indebted to Wiltzie’s work in SOTL as they are to Arvo Pärt, with O’Halloran’s orchestral chops adding an element of structure and forward momentum that sets Winged Victory’s work subtly apart from its peers. Their recently released second album, Atomos, is highly recommended for those who need a dose of aural Valium to get through these increasingly dank, gray days. KYLE FLECK
Factory Showroom: Idleness @ Jacob Lawrence Gallery
The second installation in the Factory Showroom series at the rebooted Jake—under the new leadership of director Scott Lawrimore, who took over at the start of this school year—focuses on the artist at rest. Much like the installation preceding, Industry (which focused on the artist at work), Idleness is several videos projected on walls and displayed on screens of artists “in moments of pause, idleness, daydreaming, non-studio-time, convalescence, or spending time with friends.” The artists include Seattle’s Gretchen Bennett, Matt Browning, and Anne Fenton, and history’s Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Bertrand Russell, and Andy Warhol. To do your reading ahead of time (this is a college gallery, after all), check out Russell’s 1932 essay “In Praise of Idleness.” And Seattle architect Nicholas Bower Simpson has been commissioned to design and build an outdoor deck for the gallery “so that laziness could be practiced and perfected in the future.” Free meetings to talk about the show’s themes continue to happen every Wednesday at noon at the gallery; they’re called Factory Picnics. JEN GRAVES
Robert Schenkkan @ Central Library
Schenkkan wrote All the Way and The Great Society, the lauded and awarded plays which are being produced this season at Seattle Rep and drawing excellent crowds.