THURSDAY, JAN 3


Cinema Remix: The Future

(ALL ART FORMS MERGING) It's certainly one vision for the future--the kind where we all plug in to multisensory events that include music and less definable audio experiences, with what artists call visual "landscapes." One of the visual practitioners is Franklin Joyce, one of Seattle's most prescient new media artists, with Northwest Film Forum's Peter Lucas, and DJs Sientific American, J-Justice, and Jadie. EMILY HALL

The Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 675-2055, 8 pm, $10.


FRIDAY, JAN 4


14/48

(THEATER) Seven playwrights each write a 10-minute play on a theme overnight, then seven directors and a whole army of actors rehearse the plays all day and perform them Friday night--at which point another theme is selected and the whole madness starts over again for Saturday. This event has been so successful that the producers (Three Card Monty, One World Theatre, and Consolidated Works) are stretching it out to two weekends. In most circumstances, spreading artistic resources too thin would be a recipe for disaster. But thanks to the remarkable pool of talent Seattle has to offer, I suspect the results will be as strong as ever. BRET FETZER

Consolidated Works, 500 Boren Ave N, 325-6500, Fri-Sat at 8 pm and 10:30 pm, $14.48. Through Jan 12.


SATURDAY, JAN 5


U.S. Chess Championships

(BRAINIACS) From today through Sunday, January 13, 56 of the nation's best chess players will compete for $200,000 in cash prizes. The competition's free and open to the public, and if it's unclear who's whooping whose brain, commentators Jeremy Filman and William Schill--master chess players themselves--will be on hand to clarify. BRIAN GOEDDE

Seattle Center Northwest Rooms (next to KeyArena), Seattle Center, 1-7 pm, free. Call 675-0490 for more information.


SUNDAY, JAN 6


Valley of the Dolls

(GLORIOUS EXCESS) Burton Curtis (remember him from lighting up Camille and the Alice B. Theatre production of Grease?) and Allison Narver (former artistic director of Annex Theatre) combined their talents at the Empty Space and concocted a stage version of Jacqueline Susann's torrid tale of nubile babes sucked into the hungry maw of the drug-drenched entertainment industry, Valley of the Dolls. Combined with a stellar cast (including Nick Garrison, Sarah Harlett, Ian Bell, Basil Harris, and John Kaufmann, among others), this promises to be a knockout. BRET FETZER

The Empty Space at the Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway, 547-7500, Tues-Thurs at 7:30 pm, Fri-Sat at 8 pm, Sat-Sun at 2 pm, Sun at 7 pm, $22-$30. Through Feb 9.


MONDAY, JAN 7


Dollar Beers!!

(A GOOD DEAL) The generous new management at Art Bar is offering dollar beers every Monday! They don't specify which beer (or beers) will cost a buck, which means the cheapo brew will be whatever they have too much of after the weekend. At the time we went to press, the Monday night DJ was still unannounced, but who cares? DJ Dollar Beer will be raisin' my roof. BRIAN GOEDDE

Art Bar, 1516 Second Ave, 622-4944.


TUESDAY, JAN 8

Northwest Printmakers Month

(NEW COMMEMORATIVE HOLIDAY) Says me, that's who. Whereas I've never really sorted out the difference between a monotype, a monoprint, a monograph, and a monolith. Whereas my eyes start to glaze over when they're explained to me. Whereas there happen to be at least three shows this month--and what better time to kick in that high-minded resolution to see more art? EMILY HALL

Martin-Zambito Fine Art, 721 E Pike St, 726-9509; Phinney Center Gallery, 6532 Phinney Ave N, 783-2244; ArtsWest, 4711 California Ave SW, 938-0963. See Visual Art Calendar for more details.


WEDNESDAY, JAN 9

Charlie "Bird" Parker

(FILM) The excellent EMP Music + Film series continues its foray into jazz with this fascinating (and long) documentary about the great Charlie Parker, whose style evolved from hard bop into a revolutionary synthesis of man and instrument, in which there was no such thing as a wrong note. Clint Eastwood made a crappy fiction about Bird. This doc more than makes up for it. SEAN NELSON

JBL Theater at EMP, 325 Fifth Ave, 369-5483, 7 pm, $5/$7.