Sonic Youth
(LIVE MUSIC) In the late 1980s, Sonic Youth were the most innovative, exciting band in the country. But nobody can keep a gig like that going forever, and instead of trying hopelessly to stay at the forefront of their genre, they retreated into making (a LOT of) curiously unambitious experimental records that barely merit a repeat listen. Still, they can channel the old majesty like a motherfucker, and are full of surprises; an hour-long instrumental set three years ago at Bumbershoot was as good as any show I saw in the days of Goo. Opening are Olympia's stupidly named the Gossip, originally out of Searcy, Arkansas. They're two-thirds underage, have a debut record out on K, and just came off a tour opening for Sleater-Kinney. GRANT COGSWELL
Moore Theatre, 1932 Second Ave, 628-0888, 7 pm, $20.50.
Memory Lane
(MUSEUM) You would hardly expect to find a museum in the middle of Seattle's largest Goodwill store. But there it is, right next to the store's Vintage Cafe (where you can enjoy $2 egg-salad sandwiches and $1 onion rings). Highlights include Bruce the Bear--a huge, taxidermied Alaskan brown bear who accumulated many film and TV credits, including an appearance on Northern Exposure; a WWII-era deep-sea diving suit; and an array of vintage toys, magazines, posters, cameras, TVs, typewriters, radios, record players, kitchen appliances, cosmetics, razors, and tobacco products. Not to miss is the exhibit of changing fashions over the decades (particularly noteworthy is the "Reagan Red" late-'80s red wool suit, named for Nancy Reagan). MELODY MOSS
Memory Lane Museum, 1400 S Lane St, 329-1000. Goodwill store is open Mon-Sat 11 am-8 pm, Sun 11 am-6 pm. Free admission.
Good Riddance!
(LIVE MUSIC) Come celebrate my last day as music editor of The Stranger and see Kinski and Carissa's Wierd, the two bands who have most impressed me in the past year. Whether you've been thrilled, saddened, or nonplused by my opinions, all are invited to toast my departure, whatever that might mean to you. For my part, I thank you all. ERIN FRANZMAN
I-Spy, 1921 Fifth Ave, 374-9492, 8 pm, $8.
CMJ Showcase #1
(LIVE MUSIC) I see the plume of dust rising from the prairie and I feel the earth shake beneath my feet. There are bands approaching, some recently returning from journeys afar. Lo, it is the two-headed dragon of Two Ton Boa! Behold the beautiful yet fearsome tiger stripes of the Bangs, and yea, the musty odor and stormy countenance of the storytellers of C Average! And like a misty memory, like the dust rising from the soil, Mecca Normal cloud the feet of this family of musicians and drift to the ether. See good bands newly seasoned by the road. See bands you've seen before, and look for something new. JUAN-CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
Graceland, 109 Eastlake Ave E, 381-3094, $8, 8 pm.
CMJ Showcase #2
(LIVE MUSIC) This CMJ "Change Music Seattle" thing is a good time to take stock of the local scene, and there's no better way to do so than to catch this Pacifico showcase at the venerable Crocodile, featuring Juno, Joel R. L. Phelps, FCS North, Automaton Adventure Series, and Welcome. And change music we should, since the bands on this bill are playing in descending order of merit. Anyone who misses Welcome's opening set should be ashamed, as the band's shambling, artfully disheveled indie punk makes them the real stars of this bill. ERIN FRANZMAN
Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave, 441-5611, 9 pm, $8.
C1TV
(TV) The "so bad it's good" gay cable network C1TV is already a cult classic. With production values so low as to make the Home Shopping Channel resemble Industrial Light and Magic, and content problems so severe that they can't fill one hour a week without retooling previously aired gems, these guys have brought true entertainment back into my home. One episode of note: "Meet Joe Gay." West Hollywood resident Benjamin Morgan employs a video crew to tail him while he tracks down ex-boyfriends and painfully extracts the truth of why they left him. By the end of the episode, even I was in line to break up with him. AMY VANDERBECK
View C1TV on Tuesdays between 10-11 pm on channels 23 or 18 (consult c1tv.com for details).
Hey, Artists!
($$$$) Winning the Betty Bowen Award may not put you on the fast track to fame and fortune, but it's one of the most prestigious awards handed out around here. Past winners include artists whose names have become, if not household, then at least common currency in the art world: Robert Yoder, Mark Calderon, Norie Sato, Cris Bruch, Ken Kelly, and Cathy McClure. Why not submit? You'll never know if you don't apply. EMILY HALL
Send six fully labeled slides of recent work, a resume, and a SASE to Betty Bowen Memorial Award, Seattle Art Museum, P.O. Box 22000, Seattle, WA 98122. The postmark deadline is July 28.
Hamlet
(EXPERIMENTAL THEATER) The recent Ethan Hawke film version of Hamlet revived my faith that this old warhorse can actually be interesting--and the more risks taken in its presentation, the better. The UW School of Drama is taking some extreme risks: They're cutting it down (thank god), their design elements blend both past and present, and the production will use "elements of dance, performance art, and formal styles of contemporary Japanese theater." It's this last bit that promises to create something unendurably pompous or something exciting and revelatory. The cast is a mix of faculty and former students, with professor Shanga Parker in the title role. BRET FETZER
Playhouse Theatre, 4045 University Way NE, 685-4848. Tues-Sun July 25-30; Tues-Sat at 7:30, Sun at 7, late-night show on Sat at 10:30. $12 general, $8 students/seniors.
(WEBSITE) Anything that makes fun of dot-com companies instead of cheerleading for them is totally refreshing. Fast Company magazine is a silly business rag that reports on the fastest-growing of these companies; FuckedCompany is a website that spotlights dot-coms that have gone under or show signs of bellying up, and then ranks them according to severity. For example, in the category "Blatantly Fucked," 100 points were awarded to WorkingWeekly.com, which now reads "This web site is for sale. Click here." You can also participate in the "dot-com deadpool," where users log on and bet for points on which company will be the next to get fucked. PAT KEARNEY
Celebrate the miserable failure of others at FuckedCompany.com.
Hot Girls and Boys
(BENEFIT CABARET) The great thing about Re-bar's benefit cabarets is that they are entertainment first, benefits second. No one will relentlessly badger you about donating your last dime; Re-bar just assembles a crack collection of talent and assumes you'll want to pay to see them all in one place. And who wouldn't? This time around there's comic monologuists like Matt Smith, Richard LeFebvre, and The Stranger's own David Schmader; musicians like Jason Trachtenburg and Bhama Roget; a short play from Heidi Schreck; dance from Juliet Waller; and the perverse shadow puppetry of Sgt. Rigsby & His Amazing Silhouettes. All are performing to support Rain City Projects, Seattle's premier playwright support organization. BRET FETZER (who cheerfully admits to being on the board of Rain City Projects)
Re-bar, 1114 Howell, 233-9873, 8 pm, $10 suggested donation.
Cinema Implosion!
(FILM) When big things fall down, there's a presumption of meaning. The Kingdome's collapse would seem to have a lot to say about the temporary, contingent nature of modernity; about America's wasteful responses to its own wealth; about the inevitable comeuppance time gives all monuments to human hubris. But it was hard to think about those themes while watching the actual implosion, or while seeing its perpetual repetition on the small screens of our TVs. Which is, I suppose, why we need this program. It's not quite One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, but the Little Theatre has gathered a group of motion picture documents of the Kingdome implosion into an exhaustive program of shorts by local filmmakers. See the Dome blow, again and again, in time-lapse, in slow motion, in black-and-white, in monochrome, in color, from downtown, from West Seattle... it's just like the TV news stations on the day of the implosion, but artier! ERIC FREDERICKSEN
Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 329-2629, 8 pm, $7.50.
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