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It’s winter.

It’s the season of hanging out in museum coffeeshops, reclining in those huge new seats at the Regal Meridian 16, going to McCaw Hall for an opera or a ballet or a Seattle Arts & Lectures talk, or staying home to read The Stranger's Seattle Art and Performance Quarterly for the Winter Arts Season.

If you’re a fan of Vince Guaraldi’s jazz soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas, you ought to know there are not two, not three, but four different places you can see the music performed live in Seattle this winter. We've provided a list of them along with an interview by Charles Mudede of a musician who knows the score inside and out.

Sean Nelson is a jerk about jazz. He’s more of a Beatles buff. But even he would be the first to tell you he dislikes most art inspired by the Beatles. So what is it about Mark Morris Dance Company’s tribute to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band that has him actually excited? All you need is... to read more about it here.

How can a book be considered a four-dimensional work of art? Rich Smith, who may be taking a few liberties with the notions of time and space, explains Tyehimba Jess’s astounding book Olio here.

Did you know about Andrew Wyeth's offers the backstory of "Winter 1946," a painting of his dead father currently on view at Seattle Art Museum in Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect? You'd never know it was about his father, since it's a painting of a hill, but Christopher Frizzelle has the inside dirt.

And the Museum of History and Industry just opened a monumental exhibit of the works of Al Smith, the most important photographer you’ve never heard of. Julia Raban dives deep into Seattle's pictorial past here.

As if all this excellent winter arts coverage weren't enough, there are also seven calendars jam-packed with recommendations on things to do in Visual Art, Performance, Readings and Talks, Film, Jazz, Classical Music and Opera, and Festivals.

Enjoy.