I should be completely happy, but theres still one man who haunts me: Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
"I should be completely happy, but there's still one man who haunts me: Apu Nahasapeemapetilon" MINDY TUCKER

Hari Kondabolu's The Problem with Apu will premiere on truTV on November 19: The stand-up comic, former Seattle resident, and Simpsons fan tackles the problematic aspects of Indian convenience store character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in this new documentary. He’s also coming to the Neptune this December, so if you’ve never seen his brand of insightful and clever political humor, now is the time.

Seattle Symphony Hires Thomas Dausgaard as New Music Director: Well, he’s actually been with the Symphony since 2014 as principal guest conductor, but he’ll be transitioning into a four-year term after current music director Ludovic Morlot departs in 2018.

Penguin Random House Has Scooped up Sasquatch Books: The giant book publisher scooped up our local indie purveyor of informative books with a Northwest bent on Wednesday. Penguin has been distributing Sasquatch books since 2012, so the transition should be pretty natural. According to Publisher’s Weekly, no one’s getting fired, editorial staff won’t change, and PRH’s president Jeff Abraham says the purchase was “enormously appealing to both sides." Phew!

While you’re here, Stranger book critic Rich Smith highly recommends the following upcoming and recent Sasquatch titles: Chief Seattle and the Town That Took His Name by David M. Buerge, The Best Party of Our Lives by Sarah Galvin, and Pie & Whiskey by Kate Lebo and Samuel Ligon. 

A We the People poster by Shepard Fairey.
A "We the People" poster by Shepard Fairey. COURTESY OF AMPLIFIER

Amplifier’s Art + Activism Space Opens Tonight in Pioneer Square: The new art and design lab, whose “We the People” posters popped up during the Inauguration protests and Women’s March, will have their grand opening tonight at Art Walk, with new work by Molly Crabapple, Shepard Fairey, Layqa Nuna Yawar, Jess X Snow, Ernesto Yerena, and others.

Lane 1974 Is Now Available on iTunes and On-Demand: Stranger film critic Julia Raban describes this coming-of-age tale by local filmmaker SJ Chiro as embracing “the unpleasant reality” to “the beautiful fairy tale” of Captain Fantastic. The film’s lead, Sophia Mitri Schloss, recently won “Best Actress in a Leading Role” at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival.

The “Radical Leftists” of Red May Are Partying Like It’s 1917: Red May, the collective known for last year’s May gathering of local intellectuals, artists and radical authors and philosophers like Michael Hardt and Kathi Weeks, are back. This time though, they just want to celebrate a special anniversary, and (perhaps?) plan a Bolshevik-style comeback.

Kinski Are Prepping a Slew Of Releases For 2018: Next year marks Seattle music-scene mainstays Kinski’s 20th anniversary. In the spring, if all goes according to plan, the powerful space-rockers plan to release a new full-length and a 2xLP reissue of their excellent 2000 album, Be Gentle with the Warm Turtle, featuring bonus tracks from that era, “My New Worry” and “Teen Center” (both on Kill Rock Stars).

Also in the Kinski pipeline: a 7-inch on These Are Not Records featuring covers of songs by Love as Laughter and Stephen (a side project of the Clean’s David Kilgour). Kinski play the Blue Moon Tavern on Friday with Galaxy Research and Savio Farell. Guitarist Chris Martin says they’ll be performing Warm Turtle-era songs as well as tunes by musicians they love who’ve passed away in the last month. Will we get a CAN/Hüsker Dü/Tom Petty medley?