Gentlenerds, Start Your Nerding: Cinerama today announced the films playing in its Science Fiction Film Festival, which happens from May 1st through May 12th. They're running an impressive slate of sci-fi classics, including The Thing, the first two Alien movies, Logan's Run, The Road Warrior, and Akira. Go check out the full schedule and buy your tickets early.

Calling All Galleries, Theaters, Bookstores, Jazz Venues, Etc.!: If you'd like your summer event(s) listed in the next issue of A&P: Seattle's Only Arts Magazine™—covering events from June 11 to September 9—send your info to calendar@seattleaandp.com by end of day Friday, May 2.

The Final Fuckfest: This is your last night to see Nymphomaniac: Volume II at Harvard Exit. Volume I, which I liked a little more than David Schmader, contains, among other things, a truly brilliant performance by Uma Thurman (“Would it be all right if I showed the children the whoring bed?"). Volume II, sadly, has less of this kind of lightness and a terrible ending (just terrible). Volume II also has the only black men in the whole damn movie (if my memory serves me correctly). The black men are, of course, from Africa; they have, of course, huge dicks; and, of course, they DP Charlotte Gainsbourg. The scene, of course, is not very good.

Brandy Clark Embraces Her Edge: Country singer/songwriter Brandy Clark's debut album 12 Stories—rightly hailed as one of 2013's best albums—is packed with miniature character sketches of incredible concision and nuance. (She's also a Washington State native and an out-and-proud lesbian, but ain't no thang.) She's so startlingly good that country radio doesn't know what to do with her. For her first single, Clark pitched the most contemporary country-ish (aka corniest) track on her record, and country radio still didn't take the bait. Now it seems Clark is done trying to pass herself off as anything other than what she is, as evidenced by her new single, probably the edgiest song on her album, "Get High." Enjoy!

Banned Books Make Good People: New research is showing that kids who read banned books are more likely to be civically engaged and there's no link between a taste for forbidden literature—usually the best kind!—and delinquency. This couples nicely with the reports from a few years ago that the more "intelligent" British schoolchildren were more likely to use drugs. (Don't ask us how they defined intelligence.) None of this comes as a real surprise—an active mind is a curious mind.