THURSDAY 10/26


Salome

(DANCE) Australian troupe Sydney Dance Company come to town with their interpretation of the bloody tale of Salome, the lissome lass who had John the Baptist's head cut off when he wouldn't respond to her romantic advances (while her father King Herod grapples with some lascivious desires of his own). This lurid tale, best known from Oscar Wilde's play, is given new form by the company's longtime choreographer Graeme Murphy, who was named a National Living Treasure of Australia in 1998. Expect inventive movement, gorgeous costumes (designed by Akira Isogawa, recently named Australia's "Designer of the Year" by somebody), and an evocative Middle Eastern-influenced score. BRET FETZER

Meany Hall, UW Campus, 543-4880. Thurs-Sat Oct 26-28, 8 pm, $32.


Lifelike

(ART) Claire Johnson has gathered together a handful of figurative artists for this show, a meditation on different styles of representation. Figurative art is often seen as a little old-fashioned, especially given art's history of turning on the real in favor of the abstract. True, artists such as Karen Liebowitz draw on older painting traditions, but her surfaces also hold two-dimensional figures that look like they were pulled from tarot cards or out of illuminated manuscripts, and the tension between the two styles invites all sorts of associations--are they subconscious thoughts? Dreams? Hallucinations? Demi Raven's works supplement near-photographic images with cryptic text, much of it containing visual language. Faint, barely-there body tracings by Sarah Morris and photo montages by Jefferson Pinder seem to comment on disembodiment, and Johnson's own paintings are intimate, privileged views of bodies. Figurative art might reference the real, but its ways are as various as people are different. EMILY HALL

Oculus Gallery, 216 Alaskan Way S, 543-9655. Through Oct 28.


FRIDAY 10/27


Big-Ass Pumpkin

(PUMPKIN) A few weeks ago I visited the pea patch at Marymoor Park, and noticed someone was paying very careful attention to a pumpkin that already showed prime potential for winning awards. It was strategically strung up so as not to promote an unsightly flat spot, and grew round, perfect, and proud. Well, I hate to rain on that particular gardener's parade, but not much can compare to the big-ass pumpkin soon to become a jack-o'-lantern at Kirkland Parkplace. Surely it will be a misshapen, discolored blob of a mottled orange and green, but at 600-plus pounds, well, like Rosie, you could say she got it all. KATHLEEN WILSON

Kirkland Parkplace is located on the corner of Sixth and Central in downtown Kirkland. 10 am-3 pm, free.


Spooky Performances

(THEATER) With its emphasis on costumes and atmospherics, Halloween is naturally the favorite holiday of most theater folk. So it's no surprise there's an abundance of special Halloween productions, ranging from Night of the Damned (a collection of short plays about everything from Martians to mad scientists) to Night of the Living Dead America (a haunted house with radical political commentary) to Radio Activity (A Theater Under the Influence's presentation of Orson Welles' notorious War of the Worlds radio broadcast, along with other spooky radio shows) to Circus Contraption's Gravedigger's Ball (a mixture of their surrealist circus stunts and the wild-ass music of Baby Gramps and Jason Webley). Something for everyone to do this spooky weekend. BRET FETZER

See Theater Calendar, p. 101, for performance dates, times, etc.


SATURDAY 10/28


Ira Glass

(SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT) Ira Glass is a funny man. He has a funny voice and tells funny stories. You want to go to this event to hear his funny stories, hear other peoples' funny stories from This American Life, and perhaps hear the man next to you chortle so hard he chokes on his own spittle. But the most important thing, the thing you must attend this event for, the thing that plays on your heartstrings like the season cliffhanger of Melrose Place is this: You want to know what he looks like. Don't you? You can admit it. Even though it might ruin your enjoyment of This American Life forever (but it won't, because I've heard he's cute), you are just dying to know. TRACI VOGEL

5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave, 621-2230, 7:30 pm, $7.50-$25 (call for tickets).


SUNDAY 10/29


Sarah Brightman

(LIVE MUSIC) Forget the fact that Ms. Brightman sold 12 million copies of 1997's Timeless (Time to Say Goodbye). Forget the fact that she has a classically trained voice, was married to that chipmunk-faced Andrew Lloyd Webber, and once appeared in Cats. Ask anyone from the U.K. of a certain age... what we venerate the opera singer for is none of her classical achievements or record sales. No! Sarah Brightman was in two of the '70s' most lusted-after dance troupes (thanks to their constant performances on Top of the Pops): Pan's People and Hot Gossip (who she sang lead vocals with on their unforgettable top-five 1978 disco hit "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper"). Now that's an achievement! EVERETT TRUE

KeyArena, Seattle Center, 628-0888, 8 pm, $39.50-$75.


MONDAY 10/30


Dead Alive

(FILM) Becoming a zombie is God's way of telling you you're not dead yet. I hope I never become a zombie, but if I do, I want to star in a movie like Dead Alive. Directed by the great Peter Jackson (who is currently at the helm of the Hobbit trilogy), this movie holds the record for average gallons of fake blood per second of screen time. Jackson said, "Coming to the set each morning was like arriving at a poorly maintained slaughterhouse." All of which would be just so much Karo syrup and food coloring if Dead Alive were not also the funniest, most over-the-top zombie movie ever made--which it is. JAMIE HOOK

Egyptian, 805 E Pine, 323-4978. See Movie Times, p.119, for showtimes.


TUESDAY 10/31


Give 'Em Good Candy

(ADVICE) Nothing is more disappointing after a long night spent trick-or-treating than coming home and dumping out a pillowcase full of Bit O' Honey and Brach's Pick-A-Mix. To prevent this, The Stranger consulted nine-year-olds Sam Lachow and Maggie Brown and compiled the following helpful list. Good candy: Jolly Ranchers, Nerds, Sweet Tarts, Smarties, plain M&M's, Snickers, Milky Way, Tootsie Pops and/or Rolls, Blow Pops, Warheads, Cry Babies, Skittles, Ring Pops, Kit Kat, Twix, bubble gum, and Pop Rocks. Bad candy: 100 Grand, Milk Duds, fruit snacks, fruit in general, black licorice, any brand of sugar-free gum, Twizzlers, granola bars, and pennies wrapped in foil. Thank you. JASON PAGANO

Hey kids! Don't forget to keep a handy "backup" mask for repeat visits to houses giving out the full-size candy bars!


WEDNESDAY 11/1


Coleman Barks, Hamza el Din, & Charles Lloyd

(READING/MUSIC) Coleman Barks' versions of the works of the 12th-century Sufi poet Rumi have a life-transforming power and beauty rarely found in the paint-by-numbers game of translation, and reach an almost epileptic intensity: Imagine William Blake as a teller of Muslim parables, and you might get some idea. Better yet to see the vessel himself, accompanied by jazz drummer Charles Lloyd and Hamza el Din, who plays and preserves the ancient music of his Nubian village (flooded by the Aswan Dam project 30 years ago) with an exalted sound reminiscent of the late, great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. This is how Rumi's incantations were meant to be delivered: ecstatically. Tonight is one instance when hippie-ish world beat trappings should not scare you away from the opportunity for a deep and awesome experience. GRANT COGSWELL

Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255 or www.earshot.org, 8 pm, $20.


Versus

(LIVE MUSIC) So tonight at the Crocodile we've got Cinerama for the lovesick longers, and Rainer Maria for the budding pretentious twerps--what about a band for the happy-go-lucky music fans in the crowd? Versus will provide a sweet 'lil blast of singalong loveliness with songs about bliss and divorce and missed periods and Adidas and pills and champagne and Frederick's of Hollywood lingerie, sung so breezily... why, you'll just wanna clasp hands and swing along to the beat. Versus' latest album, Hurrah, says just that. Those of us who don't particularly care to hew and cry tonight, or dress up in our Febreeze-freshened smartypants and rock back and forth on our One Stars, we who find not-too-happy to be happy just the same, let us all shout "Hurrah!" for Versus. KATHLEEN WILSON

Crocodile, 2200 Fourth Ave, 441-5611, 9 pm, $10-$12.