• As the first-ever speaker in the Bagley Wright Lecture Series on Poetry for Seattle Arts & Lectures, poet Dorothea Lasky gave a speech that compared orgasms to being possessed by a ghost (you shudder, you lose control, and then the spirit leaves you, mysteriously as it arrived). She was resplendent in her colorful sequined jacket, bright green glasses, chunky rainbow jewelry, and matching purse and insane high-heeled shoes, which glimmered like a rainbow on an oil slick. Equally resplendent? SAL's Rebecca Hoogs, in a pastel quilted skirt. Better outfits have never been worn to a poetry reading.
• In the middle of a recent screening of 12 Years a Slave at Ark Lodge Cinemas, a man physically accosted a woman for making too much noise with her popcorn bag. He freaked out and knocked the popcorn from her hands into the aisle, and much yelling ensued. What's most bizarre is that the man considered the snacking sounds to be worth a loud, huge confrontation while watching a true story about SLAVERY.
• The Northwest has many quality exports, from coffee and cheese to hiphop and artsy drag queens. Our latest: homegrown pornography, with the greatest hits of HUMP!—The Stranger's legendary amateur porn fest—heading out on a tour. February 15 brings three shows in Chicago, and February 28 and March 1 bring seven shows in San Francisco—see humptour.com.
• In other export news, SuttonBeresCuller, the Stranger Genius Award–winning artist trio, have their first New York gallery show—titled Solid Gold—in December. Whoever writes Planthouse Gallery's PR is a bringer of brilliance and groans: "These three amigos wear one sombrero," the release reads. "Each is a rock to the others' paper and scissors. Truly a trinamic trio." Also, the line that begins "Having conquering the hollowed grounds of Seattle's ultra chic art scene" is, you know, clever, even if accidentally so.
• An "Unnamed Hot Dog/Cheesesteak Cart" was shut down by the health department in Fremont at 10:40 p.m. on Friday, November 1, for operating without a valid business permit, and (according to kingcounty.gov) it remains closed. A small, sad short story about this pretty much writes itself.
• A big white head is coming to the waterfront. It's 44 feet tall, made of resin mixed with marble dust, and modeled on a photograph of a 9-year-old girl; the artist is Spaniard Jaume Plensa. Echo will sit on the water's edge at Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park, not far from the naked-father-and-son fountain by Louise Bourgeois. She'll face away from them, toward the mountains, with her eyes closed, because eww! Naked! Echo's a gift from Hunts Point collector/Build-a-Bear investor Barney A. Ebsworth.
• A show of new works in watercolor and encaustic from soon-to-be-former Seattle City Council member Richard Conlin opened to mixed reviews.
• The clouds were very interesting one morning this week—they looked like fish gills. Cirrusly. 
