THURSDAY AUG 28
The A-Board Project
(STREET ART) Lance Weakling (or Lance Wakeling, or WantBuyHave) and Austin Plann-Curley are making the streets of Capitol Hill strange once again, this time with artist-made A-boards. What’s an A-board, you ask? It’s that propped-up billboard outside stores and cafes that you trip over if you’re not paying attention. If you have been paying attention over the last month or so, you’ll have noticed a few A-boards on Broadway and on Pine Street that don’t seem to be advertising anything in particular, and are in fact nonsense, there among all the bright signs: just colorful, graphic, and slightly surreal. On Thursday evening, 13 artists’ A-boards come out in full force; join the artists for a beer at the Canterbury, grab a map to the project, and take a spin through the neighborhood. (Reception at Canterbury Ale & Eats, 534 15th Ave E, 322-3130, 8 pm.) EMILY HALL

FRIDAY AUG 29
Deerhoof, Caustic Resin, Cobra High
(ANTI-DEPRESSANT) I am not a happy person. And though it may seem a little masturbatory to waste precious print space to expound on this fact, it’s a necessary starting point to clearly articulate my particular appreciation of San Francisco’s Deerhoof. Deerhoof is, quite plainly, the sound of glee made external. Fittingly, their music is occasionally difficult to stomach, often grating, and always unpredictable–allowing us wretched masses a brief understanding of what it might be like on the other side. As the bright days of August set, spend an evening with America’s sunniest dissonant avant-pop quartet. (Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, 324-8000, 9 pm, $8.) ZAC PENNINGTON

SATURDAY AUG 30
‘Fucked’
(THEATER) Brainchild of Matt Fontaine (the theatrical mind behind Herbert West: Re-Animator and Market Research Theatre), Fucked: An Evening of Theatrical Atrocities earns this Stranger Suggests on concept alone. Cherry-picking a bunch of routinely fearless theater-makers–including Derek Horton, Bret Fetzer, Richard LeFebvre, and Tamara Paris–Fontaine asked them to write the most shocking, disgusting, immoral short plays they could scrape out of the sickest corners of their souls. Will the resulting works break new ground in offensiveness to shed fresh light on the very concept of artistic insult? Or will it just be a bunch of fucked-up crap? Either way, Fucked should be something to see. (Open Circle Theater, 429 N Boren Ave, 382-4250. $8. Fri-Sat at 11 pm, 18+. Through Sept 20. ) DAVID SCHMADER
‘Stoked’
(DOCUMENTARY) Few kids skating today are aware of Mark “Gator” Rogowski, the ‘80s skateboarding star turned cautionary tale. But that will change with the arrival of Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator, a heartbreaking documentary directed by Helen Stickler that chronicles Gator’s rise as Vision Skateboards poster boy to has-been to, finally, incarcerated former Jesus freak. The film is an engaging biography of a pop-culture casualty. (Varsity, 4329 University Way NE, 632-3131. Fri Aug 29-Thurs Sept 4.) BRADLEY STEINBACHER


SUNDAY AUG 31
Augusten Burroughs
(READING) Running with Scissors established Augusten Burroughs as an irreverent memoirist whose walks down memory lane reveal that, sometimes, nobodies can make for awfully interesting protagonists when they re-explore their lives using the comedy of honest hindsight. His latest book, Dry, is the funniest memoir I’ve ever read about being a big ol’ booze bag–even funnier than that poor sap’s tearful testimony in AA’s “Big Book” about how he burned down his house because he was painting and guzzling at once. (Biringer Farm Charlotte Martin Theatre, Bumbershoot, 6 pm, $20.) KATHLEEN WILSON

MONDAY SEPT 1
R.E.M.
(ROCK) Though there is crossover, most R.E.M. fans fall into two unyielding groups: the Murmur lovers, and the Reckoning lovers. In defense of the latter, 1984’s Reckoning is less meandering than the previous year’s Murmur, and extremely vital, with jangly pop songs that are sung prettily more than played that way. “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville,” “So. Central Rain,” “7 Chinese Brothers,” and, oh god, “Pretty Persuasion” are so dang bittersweet you just have to hang your head a bit at the mere mention of their titles. Murmur is musically heavier and more evocative, and the timeless “Talk About the Passion” deserves all the praise in the world. But still. In support of the new Greatest Hits album, expect tonight’s show to make fans of both early albums pee with glee. (Memorial Stadium, Bumbershoot, 8:30 pm, $20.) KATHLEEN WILSON

TUESDAY SEPT 2
‘American Splendor’ and ‘Things Are Meaning Less’
(A MOVIE & A BOOK) American Splendor, a film named after Harvey Pekar’s autobiographical comics, captures Pekar’s talent for conveying “the poetry of the everyday experience,” as Andy Spletzer wrote last week. The movie is proof that being a depressed, cynical bastard in a dead-end job can actually be very entertaining if conveyed well. Pekar’s work reminds me of a much younger, equally cynical scribe, Al Burian, whose writing in Burn Collector provides endless poetics–and humorous anecdotes–on very mundane activities. Burian’s new comic, Things Are Meaning Less, just came out and it’s full of witty asides on everything from New York as a giant intestine to a good PB&J sandwich. See the movie and buy the book–in whatever order you like–and have faith in the power of the everyday crap. (American Splendor is currently playing at the Uptown, 285-1022, and the Neptune, 633-5545. Things Are Meaning Less, $7, is available at Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, and Confounded Books, 441-9880. ) JENNIFER MAERZ

WEDNESDAY SEPT 3
Rocky Votolato
(MUSIC) Granted, I’ve written about Rocky Votolato many times before and have probably already said all that I can about the stunningly-voiced Waxwing-frontman-gone-solo, but will that stop me from writing about him now? Of course not. So long as Votolato continues to make music, chances are I’m going to continue loving (and writing about) it. With a new album, Suicide Medicine, due to be released on September 16, his set will be littered with a bunch of new poignant and beautiful material. (Graceland, 109 Eastlake Ave E, 381-3094, 7:30 pm, all ages, $10 adv. ) MEGAN SELING