• There have always been two rules for audience members at Hump!, the annual amateur porn festival produced by The Stranger: (1) no cell phones, and (2) no heckling. As of the midnight screening this past Saturday, a third rule has been added: no lewd acts in the theater. We had our first-ever ejection from the theater for an attempted blowjob after a security guard noticed a woman on her knees in front of a man. If you don't yet have tickets to Hump!, there are a handful left for the 2 p.m. screening this Saturday, hosted by Dan Savage, and plenty are left for screenings in Bellingham November 9 and Olympia November 15 (road trip!). Tickets are at thestranger.com/hump.
• A short, round man was hunched over a set of oil pastels last week making a copy of Nikolai Nikanorovich Dubovskoi's 1899 painting Seascape with Figures in the Frye Art Museum's permanent collection gallery. He had permission to stay all day. He was a hobbyist painter from Tacoma who just really, really liked Nikolai Nikanorovich Dubovskoi, one of the 19th-century Russian painters who called themselves the Wanderers. "We try not to advertise this sort of thing, but we do make allowances," a security guard said. Allowances should always be made for love connections between obscure Tacomans and obscure Russians.
• Highlights of Satori Group's haunted Spookhaus the day after Halloween included actor Kate Sumpter losing her shit on a mattress covered in bedbugs, performance artist Alice Gosti staring with dead eyes and bloody mouth at a bunch of TVs, and a woman chained to a chair while a man with a roaring chain saw taunted her (and then turned his attention on you). In terms of freaky thrills, it totally hit the spot. The only problem was how short it was, and the long line to get in. Satori: Please do it again next year, with more rooms and more nights to see it. You've clearly tapped a nerve. Or opened a vein. Or whatever.
• A sneak peek at Kathy Liao's paintings at CORE Gallery this past weekend revealed breakthrough after breakthrough. The Seattle-based, Taiwan-born painter has been hard at work these last few years calibrating color, size, and stroke for her standstill, emotionally intense scenes. I'm Home includes a humongous swimming pool, a small dark hallway, and an old woman seated on her bed trying so, so hard to remember. The official opening is at Thursday's Pioneer Square Art Walk.
• Opening day at Ada's Technical Books, the newly relocated science bookshop, was a raging success, with people packing in densely. And what a space! Go look: 425 15th Ave E, next to Coastal Kitchen. On Twitter, Jeopardy! champion/local author Tom Nissley called it a "cathedral."
• After breaking ground in February, 12th Avenue Arts reached its $4.6 million capital campaign goal. The building—to include two performing arts venues and 88 affordable apartments—is scheduled to open in October 2014.
• This year's most popular Halloween costume was sexy senate hearing. 
