Silent Picture Show
(FILM) In Hollywood, set amongst the ruins of Western culture, there stands a movie theater that shows nothing but silent films, in an attempt to preserve the moviegoing experience as it existed before the reign of the multiplex, back when a "fandango" was a dance and not an obnoxious commercial. The Silent Picture Show is on a national tour, stopping this week at the Uptown Theater, with nothing but an organ, a ukulele, and a suitcase full of black-and-white gems featuring Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, the Little Rascals, and Charlie Chase. (Thurs-Sun Feb 27-March 2 at the Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N, 285-1022, $15 door/$12 advance.) SEAN NELSON
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28
Sharpshooters
(MUSIC) After a break of five years or so, the Sharpshooters (AKA DJs Sureshot and Mr. Supreme) have returned with something of a masterpiece called Twice as Nice. Packed with carefully modulated mutations of jazz, funk, and post-hiphop, the CD features such singers and players as Jim Noriega and Christina Honeycutt, and is released by the local label Light in the Attic--which recently reissued This Is Madness by the legendary Last Poets. The way I feel about the Sharpshooters' latest effort is matched only by the way Etta James sings, with all of her heart, "At Last." (Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, 324-8000, time TK, $10.) CHARLES MUDEDE
SATURDAY MARCH 1
'The Changeling'
(THEATER) "Basically, it's a thriller," says Bret Fetzer of The Changeling, the 1622 Jacobean tragedy he recently adapted for Annex Theatre. "It's got great sex and violence, even some hot girl-on-girl action." What Fetzer's adaptation doesn't have is the "stupid subplot" of Middleton's original. "I wanted to rescue the great main plot, and add things that kept the theme of the original while taking it in exciting new directions," Fetzer says. These "exciting new directions" include such disparate elements as SM sex and the songs of Holland-Dozier-Holland, and drew an unabashed rave from Stranger critic Greg Zura, who praised the show's brainy twists, killer set, and irreproachable cast. Check it out. (Annex Theatre at the Rendezvous, 2320 Second Ave, 728-0933. $12. Fri-Sat at 8 pm. Through March 22.) DAVID SCHMADER
'If I Should Fall from Grace'
(FILM) This documentary about former Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan is an exhilarating and heartbreaking examination of a great artist's self-inflicted dissolution. Toothless, besotted, and largely incoherent, MacGowan comes off like a punch-drunk boxer, spewing alternately sad and funny observations about himself, his band, his love, punk rock, Ireland, addiction, and the fucking British. Then we see him in his glory days, and the disparity between then and now is almost too much to bear. Whether or not you love the Pogues (though what's not to love?), here's a film that puts the lie to the romance of self-destruction once and for fookin' all. (Thurs-Sun Feb 27-March 2 at the Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 675-2055, $7/$4.50 members.) SEAN NELSON
Louise Glück
(READING) The penultimate reader of Seattle Arts and Lectures' Poetry Series, which features only accomplished poets, is Louise Glück. She has published several volumes of poetry, the only one of which I'm familiar with, Meadowlands, successfully blends Greek mythological elements with a postmodern tragedy. As one famous poet said many, many years ago, "Poetry can only be written by great poets." Glück is a great poet and as a consequence is in the habit of writing great poetry. (ACT Theatre, 700 Union St, 292-7676, 7:30 pm, $14.) CHARLES MUDEDE
The Blood Brothers
(MUSIC) If God was a punk, shredding complex guitar rhythms like illegal documents, splattering drum beats like blood in a sniper attack, snapping bass lines, and unfurling unearthly banshee screams, he might come close to the genius of the Blood Brothers' new record, Burn Piano Island, Burn. This already is one of 2003's best releases, hands down. Produced by Ross "nu metal" Robinson (Korn, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit), Burn is a searing anecdote to staid post-hardcore. But it's not all frantic energy. There are also moments of sheer beauty, when gothic atmospherics swell with a boost from a Wurlitzer, piano, or glockenspiel. Taken together, the Blood Brothers' sound is a time-released explosion that detonates on their masterful command. (Graceland, 109 Eastlake Ave E, 381-3094, 8 pm, $10, all ages.) JENNIFER MAERZ
Gus Van Sant Double Feature
(FILM) Two great films--a startling debut (Mala Noche), and a stunning masterpiece that changed my life (My Own Private Idaho)--by a filmmaker who hasn't been great in a while (though I have a hunch there was something tricky going on in Finding Forrester) beg to be seen again on a proper screen. And as neither is available on DVD, that excuse won't work. This double feature is presented along with several rarely screened Van Sant shorts from 1982-present. (Fri-Sun Feb 28-March 2, Tues-Thurs March 4-6 at the Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St, 523-3935, $7/$4.50 members.) SEAN NELSON
