Monorail Needs You, Right Now
(CITIZENSHIP) This is urgent! Things are really heating up in Olympia. All the state legislators are talking about transportation, and the monorail has a real chance at getting some support. I'd help, but I'm too busy working at that over-budget light rail agency you've heard so much about. (Call the Olympia hotline, 1-800-562-6000, to find your district legislator and tell him or her to light a fire under it.) LEE SOMERSPLEEN
Love Is Strange
(THEATER) Two one-acts: Amy Freed's Claustrophilia, which imagines how Edgar Allan Poe and his child bride Sissy (Jerry Lloyd and Terisa Greenan, both excellent) whiled away their impoverished evenings, manages to be funny, creepy, sad, and a piercing exploration of sublimation, both sexual and creative--all within an hour. Marcy Rodenborn's implausible All Acts of Love and Pleasure is made engaging by the clean, committed acting of Anni Bluhm and Josh Hartvigson. (Thurs-Sat Feb 7-9, Thurs is pay-what-you-can, Theatre Babylon at the Union Garage, 1418 10th Ave, 720-1942, 8 pm, $12.) BRET FETZER
Beulah
(MUSIC) An Elephant 6 band with a mad appreciation for all things Burt Bacharach? Surely you jest.... Perhaps it's not all that novel, but Beulah is indeed mired in glorious pop arrangements and vintage-sounding horns that conjure images of not only Bacharach but Alpert, Beck, Pavement, and even those wonderful Shins we're all so in love with. Shiny harmonies and bop-bah backing vocals are just two of the elements that make this San Francisco band so habit-forming. (Crocodile Cafe, 2200 Second Ave, 441-5611, $10.) KATHLEEN WILSON
Henry Art Gallery
(BIRTHDAY PARTY) I would like to take this opportunity to wish the Henry a very happy 75th birthday, and personally thank its curators for making my job so much easier. No other institution in this city consistently mounts such interesting work--food for the mind as well as candy for the eyes. And I exhort the art-viewing public to join the celebration at the opening of a typically smart and cool show called Cheap Thrills: Great Designs for $5 or Less, in which ordinary objects are elevated to cult status. Party favors for the first 75 guests. Thanks, Hank. (Henry Art Gallery, 15th Ave NE at NE 41st St, UW Campus, 543-2280, 1-3 pm, free.) EMILY HALL
Jack Johnson
(FILM) This documentary, which is about the black American boxer Jack Johnson and is scored by Miles Davis, was lost or forgotten for many years. It only existed, at least for me, in film theory books, which invariably described it as important and brilliant. Indeed, when the subject of a film is one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century, and the score of that film is by one of the most fascinating figures of 20th century, how in the world can it be anything but an important film? (Fri-Sun Feb 8-10, the Little Theatre, 610 19th Ave E, 329-2629, 7 & 9 pm, $7.) CHARLES MUDEDE
Little Otik
The noted Czech animator Jan Svankmajer (Alice, Conspirators of Pleasure) reworks the Pinocchio legend to surreal effect, offering the tale of a childless couple who adopt a bit of log that resembles a baby. Svankmajer lends this fable a macabre bent--the log baby comes to life, answering the parents' prayers and creating a whole new world of trouble at the same time. (Opens Fri Feb 8 at the Varsity, see movie times.) SEAN NELSON
Exercise Your Rights
(FAT TUESDAY) Despite last year's moronic, villainous rioters, and despite President Bush's call for a "new culture of responsibility" in his State of the Union address, your rights to free assembly and the pursuit of happiness (both of which can be demonstrated by getting tanked on a Tuesday night) should not, cannot be hindered. This is not a call for you to act irresponsibly, but to fully embrace and defend your rights. If you want to peacefully party at one of the many clubs in Pioneer Square on Fat Tuesday, then you should. (See Live Music calendar for club schedules.) BRADLEY STEINBACHER
Blue States
(MUSIC) The promoters of this show make sure to say "this is not a DJ show," because Blue States mastermind Andy Dragazis is a man of the studio. His background is in electronica, and although his dreamy, down-tempo Nothing Changes Under the Sun was composed using live instruments, he played nearly all of them. The Brit assembled a band for this tour, and here's hoping they'll get on Dragazis' lovely vibe. (I-Spy, 1921 Fifth Ave, 374-9492, $8.) BRIAN GOEDDE
