This week, our arts critics have chosen the best events in every discipline—from a Hawaiian food festival to a Harry Belafonte talk to a women of horror film discussion series to a political forum on the arts—for you. And, if these 28 events aren’t enough for you, check out our complete Things To Do calendar, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
MONDAY
MUSIC: Death Cab for Cutie
The NW’s premier sad boy band finish up their three night run at the Paramount.
FILM: Monty Python’s Life of Brian
Central Cinema is playing this 1979 classic through Tuesday.
FILM: Black Orpheus
SIFF Cinema Uptown plays this 1957 impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, set to a bossa nova soundtrack, for one day only.
FILM: Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel García Márquez
This doc tells the incredible story of Gabriel García Márquez, a law-school dropout and journalist who grew up in the poverty and violence of northern Colombia and went on to become the globally celebrated writer he’s known as today.
MUSIC: And So I Watch You From Afar, Mylets, and Blis
Northern Ireland’s And So I Watch You From Afar were already a difficult band to pigeonhole when they came crashing out of the gate in 2009. But with their array of effects pedals and complex instrumental compositions, they could be shoehorned into the whole European post-rock thing. But with every successive album they’ve moved even further away from their mopey peers.
TUESDAY
FOOD: I Love Poke Festival
At this Hawaiian food festival, local chefs including Geo Quibuyen of Food & Sh*t and Steven Aril of Trace will compete to be named creator of the Best Poke, a traditional dish typically made with raw ahi tuna, soy sauce, seaweed, and sesame oil. There will be other Hawaiian food to sample, too.
MUSIC: Thundercat
Virtuoso electric jazz is having a moment. While hiphop producers have been sampling Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra for decades, fusion hasn’t really gotten much lip service from the world of modern pop music. Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner is changing all that.
MUSIC: Chastity Belt, Wet Nurse, Lisa Prank, and Powwers
An all-ages, ultra-radical, lady-dominated punk show at the Vera Project.
MUSIC: Ultimate Painting and Zebra Hunt
Ultimate Painting belong to the minority of indie-rock bands you’d be wise to allow into your precious headspace.
READINGS: Bryan Doerries with David Strathairn and Lili Taylor
Bryan Doerries is the founder of the Theater of War project, which helps people deal with tragedy by adapting and staging ancient Greek tragedies for modern audiences of soldiers, prisoners, and people dealing with other kinds of grief. At this talk, Academy Award-nominated actor David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck and Lincoln) and actress Lili Taylor (Public Enemies) will perform excerpts from his most commonly used pieces.
READINGS: Elizabeth Gilbert
Seattle Arts and Lectures presents this talk from the author of Eat, Pray, Love and the new book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, an examination of her own “generative process.”
READINGS: Harry Belafonte
This artist and activist who was the first black performer to win an Emmy Award and the first recording artist to have his album sell over a million copies comes to UW.
READINGS: Harry Potter Illustrated Edition Release Party
Celebrating the release for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Illustrated Edition with the illustrator of the covers for the 15th anniversary edition box set.
THEATER: Bloomsday
ACT Theatre’s romance written by Steven Dietz and directed by Kurt Beattie set against James Joyce’s Ulysses continues its run through Sunday.
THEATER: Waterfall
A new musical based on Behind the Painting, Kulap Siburapha’s 1937 novel set in Thailand and Japan during the turbulent 1930s. While Japan’s monarchy falls apart and the world lurches towards war, a Thai student and an American diplomat’s wife fall in love.
FILM: SHRIEK: A Women of Horror Film & Discussion Series
Evan J. Peterson curates this film and community education series that examines the role of women in horror films, starting with Carrie.
FILM: Monty Python’s Life of Brian
Central Cinema is playing this 1979 classic for just 99 cents.
WEDNESDAY
READINGS: An Evening with Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins was talking about memes since before memes were cat photos slapped with blocky text. His new memoir Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science, is a sequel to his best-selling autobiography, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist, and tells the second phase of his life as a crusader for atheism.
READINGS: The Furnace: Anastacia Tolbert
In its fourth season, The Furnace Reading Series presents Anastacia Tolbert, who will perform hybrid prose by incorporating audience interaction and live jazz.
READINGS: Silent Reading Party
Invented by Stranger editor-in-chief Christopher Frizzelle, the reading party is when the Fireside Room at the Sorrento Hotel goes quiet (except for the free live music from pianist Paul Matthew Moore) and fills with people with books tucked under their arms.
FOOD: Pig Out to Root Out Hunger
For one night, Phinney neighborhood restaurants, pubs, and coffee shops will be donating a portion of their sales to the Neighborhood Association’s Hot Meal Program, which provides nutritious meals for hungry community members three times a week. See the complete list of restaurants here.
POLITICS: Arts & Cultural Community Forum with Seattle City Council Candidates
If your idea of a good time is sitting in a gorgeous theater lobby and watching a panel of solicitous opportunists mangle reason and language in an effort make you believe they give one solitary fuck about arts or culture (while their opponents don’t), then this forum is going to be like prom night at Disneyland.
THURSDAY
ART: COLLECT: see. appreciate. own.
COLLECT Seattle, an organization that encourages people to start an art collection, is celebrating their one year anniversary with a tour through art and food. The tour will stop at three art locations across the city, and, at each one, patrons will be served a dish from Chef Tarik Abudllah that echoes the theme of the show.
ART: Susanna Bluhm: Forty for Forty
Calpyte Gallery is only open once a month, and it will hold an opening and closing reception for Susanna Bluhm’s experimental drawing exhibit Forty by Forty this month.
FOOD: FareStart Guest Chef Night: Jeff Maxfield of SkyCity
FareStart is a fantastic organization that empowers disadvantaged and homeless men and women by training them for work in the restaurant industry. Every Thursday, they host a Guest Chef Night, featuring a three-course dinner from a notable Seattle chef for just $29.95. This week FareStart welcomes Chef Jeff Maxfield of SkyCity Restaurant.
READINGS: Steven Pinker
The Harvard psychologist and linguist and author of The Sense of Style advocates for thinking better and writing better in the age of texting.
FILM: Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival: Opening Night
The 20th Annual Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival opens with the star-studded feature Freeheld, about a decorated New Jersey detective (Julianne Moore) who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and spends the end of her life fighting the county for the right to transfer her pension benefits to the person closest to her—her partner (Ellen Page). Big names and big social issues are usually a good match.
THEATER: Listening Glass
One of the more psychologically thrilling things out there this Halloween season is a play called Listening Glass, the latest production from Seattle Immersive Theatre, in which audience assumes the role of a group touring a police station.
