SATURDAY 12/1
OLD BELLEVUE--In an attempt to feel like the Puget Sound area has a long, rich, Dickensian holiday tradition, the Wells Fargo Magic Season will sponsor horse-andcarriage rides around "Old Bellevue." People are invited to feel the magic of the holidays by being carted around by a domesticated horse in drizzling rain while SUVs drive into Bellevue Square. A cultural experience indeed. Pick-up is at the southeast corner of Downtown Park, just south of Bellevue Square, $1. Call 425-453-1223 or visit www.magicseason.com for a complete schedule of Wells Fargo Magic Season events.
DAY WITHOUT ART--Today is World AIDS Day, when we are to honor the lives lost to the disease--a.k.a. Day Without Art, the day when some museums and galleries hang black cloths over art. I must confess I am still deeply affected by this gesture; it gives me great faith that the institutionalized art world is still sensitive, insightful, critical, and "artistic" enough to imagine the death of art, the death of the museum--the death of self--in honoring the lives lost from AIDS. Unfortunately, I believe Day Without Art has fallen out of fashion. The notice from the Henry Art Gallery says that it will instead donate museum admission proceeds to Lifelong AIDS Alliance. I will miss the black cloths, but this is a good thing, too. Plus, you should go see Superflat anyway; why not do it for LAA. Henry Art Gallery, UW campus, 543-2280, www.henryart.org, $6/$4.
SUNDAY 12/2
PHINNEY WINTER FESTIVAL--This is the biggest festival of the year for the Phinney/Greenwood neighborhood, and this self-described "wonderful community event, truly a community treasure" features "crafts galore." A total crafts blowout. Maximum crafts. Crafts for that ass. Ass crafts. There will also be concerts and picture opportunities with Frosty. Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave N, 783-2244, Sat-Sun Dec 1-2, 10 am-6 pm, $4.
WEDNESDAY 12/5
RUTH ANDERSON--This author and San Rafael, California psychologist will give a lecture titled "Being Culturally Creative Now: The Art and Craft of Shaping a New Future." It is co-sponsored by the Cultural Creativity Network and the Antioch Center for Creative Change. The CC Network is a group of people who, according to them, "care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, relationships, peace, social justice, self-actualization, spirituality, and self-expression." You know, this bloated leftist vocabulary dazzles and mystifies me--when constructed as such, all these words become wide, abstract strokes of thought. Are these people real? Is anything they do real? I might have to go just to see if anyone's feet are on the ground, or if they truly levitate on their mystical words. Antioch University, 2326 Sixth Ave, Room 100, 441-5352, 7 pm, free.
KGRG BENEFIT--This Green River Community College radio station not only has programs that provide indie radio to the south end of the Seattle sprawl, but is geared toward training its students on how to run the equipment. As a result, the graduates of the programs can continue the South End's indie voice. More power to them! Tonight's benefit show features the bands Stay Gold, 12 Hour Turn, Small Brown Bike, and PIEBALD. Lindbloom Student Center, 12401 320th St, Auburn, 7 pm, $8/$7 with can of food (maybe for the starving students? The press release doesn't say).
