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MONDAY
READINGS & TALKSErin Morgenstern: The Starless Sea
The New York Times bestselling author of Night Circus will come to Seattle with a new fantasy novel about a grad student in Vermont who discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks of his school's library that contains, among many fantastical tales, the story of his own childhood. The author will be joined in conversation by French Prix award-winning author Rene Denfeld.
MONDAY-THURSDAY
FILMCinema Italian Style
The Cinema Italian Style is a weeklong SIFF mini-festival featuring the best in contemporary Italian cinema.
MONDAY-SATURDAY
FOOD & DRINKSeattle Pizza Week 2019
If you were a fan of The Stranger’s Burger Week this past summer, we’ve got another exclusively crafted (and priced) food to deliver to your mouth: $2 pizza slices! During our inaugural Pizza Week, 11 restaurants are participating (Andare Kitchen & Bar, the Ballroom, Belltown Pizza, Humble Pie, Johnny Mo's Pizzeria, Little Maria's Pizza, Nine Pies Pizzeria, Ozzie's, South Town Pie, Southside Pizza & Gelato, and Watershed Pub & Kitchen), with three vegetarian offerings amid the meaty meats, and even one that’s gluten-free. Check out the Pizza Week calendar for details on who’s serving what for this one-week-only event. LEILANI POLK
TUESDAY
FOOD & DRINKFall Foraged and Game Dinner
Chef Jessica Rudell will prepare a meal revolving around wild game meats, like cured duck breast crostini and confit sunchokes with braised rabbit, along with optional wine pairings curated by manager Ross Crifasi.
The Stranger Presents: A Worldwide Silent Reading Party!
Cookie Couture & Betty Wetter raid your closet every Tues night in Bedroom Bingo!
'Caravan Chronicles' Open Rehearsal & Sneak Preview
Catch theater simple's production of an interactive play set in and around an Airstream trailer. You're invited to sit in on their rehearsal or join their fundraising preview before they head off to a festival in Turkmenistan. It may seem odd to recommend a rehearsal, but since they haven't announced Seattle performance dates this year, and their production of Master and Margarita last year was extraordinary, this is worth checking out.
Amor Towles
Internationally praised author Towles, whose first novel The Rules of Civility in its French translation won the 2012 Prix Fitzgerald, will talk about his follow-up, A Gentleman in Moscow, which appeared on many 2016 "Best Books" lists.
Janelle Shane: You Look Like a Thing and I Love You
An optical research scientist by day, Janelle Shane spends her free time running the humor blog AI Weirdness, where she reports AI-generated answers to quirky prompts (such as Halloween costume ideas, ice cream flavors, and horror movie titles). In her new book, she explains how AI understands our world and what it gets wrong.
Lecture Series: Lynda V. Mapes & David B. Williams
Local author and Seattle Times reporter Lynda Mapes's Witness Tree, which chronicles the year she spent with hundred-year-old oak trees in the Harvard Forest of Massachusetts, explains how the tree has been impacted by global warming. David Williams's Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology takes readers on a tour of the city streets to discover underlying geology.
Mo Rocca: Mobituaries—Great Lives Worth Reliving
Everyone has a person in their life whose first stop in the Sunday paper is the obituary section. Mo Rocca—a frequent contributor on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!—is one of those people, and he's taken it upon himself to pay tribute to those whose stories he feels have been forgotten. He'll read excerpts from his book about departed icons worth bringing back to life.
Nino Cipri: Homesick
In their Dzanc Short Story Prize-winning debut collection of speculative short fiction, Nino Cipri introduces us to queer relationships and trans characters as they discover time travel, haunted keys, and intelligent weasels. The author will be joined in conversation by author Claire Rudy Foster.
Salon of Shame
Writing that makes you cringe ("middle school diaries, high school poetry, unsent letters") is read aloud with unapologetic hilarity at the Salon of Shame.
TUESDAY & THURSDAY-SATURDAY
Pilobolus: Come to Your Senses
Pilobolus is a troupe that depicts science-related narratives through dance. For Come to Your Senses, they've collaborated with Radiolab and MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, plus Song Exploder podcast host Thao Nguyen, to craft choreography based on the origins of life, humanity's place on earth, and "the beauty and strength of human connection." The UW Chamber Singers will accompany the multimedia performance with a live score. JOULE ZELMAN
TUESDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCEDracula
Dracula will be breathed to life yet again when playwright Steven Dietz's adaptation of the Bram Stoker tale is revived and revised specifically for ACT Theatre. In this Dracula, the focus shifts to Mina Murray Harker. Her character has always been ripe for a reckoning or a refresh, or both. She is the source of endless fascination, because she is an obvious heroine in Stoker's novel, pure of heart and mind, and yet she's just as much a casualty of Dracula's desires as her poor friend Lucy. No matter how many gender norms Stoker challenged, it was still the Victorian era. Mina could be given only so much agency. "But to simply make her a victim was super unsatisfying to all of us," director John Langs explained. "So Steven has done some reworking of the story, and she really comes to the forefront. The hunted becomes the hunter in this particular adaptation." LEILANI POLK
WEDNESDAY
FILMFade to Black: Night of the Living Dead
See a screening of George A. Romero's 1968 Night of the Living Dead, then stay on for a discussion with local screenwriter Nicole Pouchet.
Author Talk: Drunk in China by Derek Sandhaus
The centerpiece of South Seattle College’s Chinese Garden is a dignified statue of medieval poet Li Bai getting drunk (Drinking with the Moon by Chinese sculptor Ye Yushan). To Westerners, having something like this in a collegiate setting probably seems unadvisable. In China, it could be lobby art. Anybody interested in understanding the extremely different Chinese approach to alcohol cannot afford to miss author Derek Sandhaus as he discusses his latest book, Drunk in China: Baijiu and the World’s Oldest Drinking Culture. Sandhaus is one of the world’s top experts on baijiu, China’s alcoholic beverage of choice. After years of conducting research all over China, Sandhaus is finally prepared to help others reach what he calls “spiritual” enlightenment. DAVID LEWIS
Literary Luncheon with Timothy Egan: A Pilgrimage to Eternity
The beloved author of The Immortal Irishman, The Big Burn, and other works of history, travel writing, and true crime tackles nothing less than Christendom itself. As he travels the Via Francigena, a route to Rome via France and Switzerland, Egan reflects on the history of the Catholic Church and its current upheaval in secular Europe and beyond. Hear him speak over a catered lunch.
WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
FILMDan Savage's HUMP! Film Festival
In the beginning... there was porn. And some of it was pretty awesome! But a lot of it, you know, wasn't. Mainstream porn can be problematic in all sorts of ways—most notably that 90 percent of dirty movies are made for white dudes by white dudes. And why is there primarily only one body type (skinny and hairless)? And are any of the actors having fun? I mean, for real? These are the kinds of porn problems that inspired beloved sex columnist Dan Savage to create the HUMP! Film Festival—an annual celebration of amateur dirty movies that are for the people, by the people! HUMP! invites folks to submit five-minute mini porn flicks written, directed, shot, and—in a lot of cases—performed by these sex-positive amateur auteurs. The filmmakers are encouraged to express themselves sexually in whatever way they see fit—so instead of seeing the same, staid heteronormative clips you'll find on the internet, HUMP! is a virtual rainbow of diverse (AND HOT) sexuality! WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
Beautiful
The dancers of Can Can and powerhouse singer Renee Holiday (formerly Shaprece, who "ranks among the Northwest’s most radiant, soulful vocalists and producers of torch-song-centric electronic music," per Dave Segal) collaborate on this sensuous coming-of-age story, featuring a leading performance by Holiday and new choreography.
The Great Moment
Playwright Anna Ziegler earned a lot of attention in 2015 for Photograph 51, a well-received bio-drama about Rosalind Franklin, the woman who discovered DNA. Nicole Kidman played the starring role, everybody loved it, and Ziegler was praised for her "fair-minded and philosophical" (New York Times) approach to character building. Ziegler will likely bring that same talent for creating multidimensional characters to The Great Moment, which will have its world premiere at the Seattle Rep. According to press materials, the story follows a woman named Sarah, who is watching her grandfather slowly die while she raises her son. Alexandra Tavares plays the lead in this, and I've loved everything I've ever seen her in. RICH SMITH
Natalie Ball: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Snake
Natalie Ball (Klamath) was last year's winner of the prestigious Betty Bowen Award, which means she gets $15,000 and a solo show at SAM. Cool! Ball makes sculptures out of found objects, cloth, and other unusual materials, refashioning perceptions of Native American history. When she showed work at METHOD in August 2018, Stranger contributor Emily Pothast called her pieces "enigmatic, potent, and visually stunning."
Closing Sunday
THURSDAY
COMEDYAbortion AF: The Tour Featuring Lizz Winstead
Lizz Winstead, co-creator and former head writer of The Daily Show, will appear on a pro-choice comedy tour along with the brilliant local (and Stranger favorite) El Sanchez.
Seattle International Comedy Competition 2019
For nearly all of November, a lengthy last-comic-standing battle rages. Thirty-two comedians (split into two batches, each of which performs every night for one week) start the contest, and one will finish a champion. Celebrity judges and audience reactions determine who passes the preliminaries and who becomes a finalist.
Author Talk: Recipes for Refuge: Culinary Journeys to America
Mahnaz Eshetu, executive director at the nonprofit Refugee Women's Alliance, will join Seattle Times food writer Rebekah Denn for a conversation about ReWA's new book Recipes for Refuge, which documents recipes passed down by global refugees to their children in order to share their culture.
chefs+togetherSEATTLE
Over 140 local restaurants and businesses will donate 10% of proceeds to the NW Immigrants Rights Project.
Crazy Cocktails & Charcuterie
Have you ever thought, “This cocktail is good, but it would be way better served in a tiny bathtub with a rubber ducky floating in it?” You probably haven’t, but Cure Cocktail’s Joe Wargo certainly has, and that’s why he was voted one of Seattle’s favorite bartenders in The Stranger’s 2019 Happy Hour Guide. If the “Bathtub Party” (top-shelf vodka or gin, house-made cucumber jalapeño syrup, elderflower liqueur, fresh lemon juice, and lemon foam for bubbles) brings up too many traumatizing memories of watching A Nightmare on Elm Street, there is also Joe’s “What’s Up, Doc?” made with brown sugar bourbon, fresh lemon juice, fresh carrot juice, pineapple juice, and ginger beer; a garnish of mint wrapped in orange peel gives it the full carrot effect. No matter what cocktail you get, however, at this ongoing Thursday night event, it will be served with a world-class board of meats and cheeses, and Wargo will have some fresh mixology concoctions on the menu, too. DAVID LEWIS
Sustainable Seafood Celebration - Fall Chefs Dinner
Spotting an orca from the deck at Ray’s Boathouse is becoming as unlikely as spotting a Sasquatch. Even the future of salmon in Puget Sound is uncertain. In some circles, “uncertain” translates to “hopeless,” but the nonprofit Sustainable Seafood Celebration is working to find the balance between keeping salmon in Puget Sound and on the plate. For SSC’s delicious multicourse dinner at Ray’s Boathouse, local chefs (including Ray’s own Paul Duncan and James Beard Award–winning chef and restaurateur Renee Erickson) will prepare dishes featuring locally caught seafood, like Dungeness crab, halibut, salmon, and oysters. All dishes will be served along with wines that are “salmon safe,” a practice among vintners to protect fish habitats by planting trees along streams or using natural pesticides. Get caught up on the latest in sustainable seafood practices while enjoying a scrumptious meal to benefit SSC. DAVID LEWIS
Sustainabooze
Join distillers, vintners, and brewers as they parse the best environmental sustainability practices in the booze industry with panel discussions, breakout sessions, and sustainably produced libations.
Andrea Long Chu: Females
Perceptive, contentious writer Andrea Long Chu, inspired by a Valerie Solanas play, investigates matters of gender, sex, feminism, and politics, arguing that "femaleness is less a biological state of women and more a fatal existential condition that afflicts the entire human race—men, women, and everyone else."
Azure Savage: You Failed Us
A series of recent studies have shown that Seattle Public Schools have one of the worst achievement gaps between black and white students in the country, and Washington State is dead last in trying to do something about it. But cold numbers don’t often do much to spur action. That’s where Azure Savage’s new self-published oral history You Failed Us comes in. Savage, a student at Garfield High School, interviewed 40 students of color about their experiences in Seattle's schools. The book includes those interviews, plus Savage’s own reflection on the way our public schools handle race and gender in the classroom. RICH SMITH
Roland De Wolk: American Disruptor
The story of Leland Stanford should be better known: because he founded Stanford University, because he commissioned Eadward Muybridge's famous photographic studies of horses, and because he was a world-class swine. De Wolk's biography details how the once-"serial failure" rose to become a stupendously wealthy robber baron, railroad tycoon, politician, and "this country's original 'disruptor.'" Scandal pursued his family even after his death, when his widow, who essentially ran Stanford University, was fatally poisoned and the crime covered up.
Tom Perrotta: Laughter Is Only the Beginning
The observer of suburban malaise (Mrs. Fletcher, The Leftovers, Little Children, Election) will talk satire, comedy, and realism—special alert to aspiring comic writers with a serious streak.
Capitol Hill Art Walk
Every second Thursday, rain or shine, the streets of Capitol Hill are filled with tipsy art lovers checking out galleries and special events. Check out our critics' picks for this month here.
THURSDAY-SATURDAY
PERFORMANCEPilobolus: Come to Your Senses
Pilobolus is a troupe that depicts science-related narratives through dance. For Come to Your Senses, they've collaborated with Radiolab and MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, plus Song Exploder podcast host Thao Nguyen, to craft choreography based on the origins of life, humanity's place on earth, and "the beauty and strength of human connection." The UW Chamber Singers will accompany the multimedia performance with a live score. JOULE ZELMAN
The Thanksgiving Play
In this holiday comedy, Lakota playwright Larissa FastHorse takes aim at a group of white teaching artists who end up reasserting colonial ideology in their attempt to rid their teaching practice of that very same ideology. According to Jesse Green's review in the New York Times, the more cringe-inducing skits in the show are based on actual school lesson plans lifted from social-media posts: "They include potted history and offensive ditties and, in one case, a suggestion to split the pupils into Pilgrims and Indians 'so the Indians can practice sharing.'" Sounds like it'll be another fine entry into the growing canon of plays about white people fucking up something they're trying to fix. I'm unfamiliar with the actors in the show, but I have no doubt they'll flourish in the highly capable hands of director Kelly Kitchens. RICH SMITH
Gillian Theobald: And the Language Was Beauty
Gillian Theobald’s paintings are absolutely, deliciously tropical. They remind me of the most fantastically patterned fabric that makes up the 1970s dress of my dreams. I’d like to drape myself in her images and forms. She creates abstract-ish landscapes that build “a meditative, slow space using families of color playing off each other,” like a call-and-response. In her first solo show at studio e, Theobald—who was a finalist for the 2017 Neddy Award—will be exhibiting new paintings, drawings, and bas-relief collages made of found paper and paint. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Closing Saturday
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCEFrost/Nixon
Forty-five million people watched the first episode of a five-part interview David Frost conducted with former president Richard Nixon in 1977, three years after Nixon left office in disgrace. It is still the most widely viewed political interview in world history. Peter Morgan's play Frost/Nixon reminds us of the era when politics first became something that happens on TV. Sadly, you watch it knowing that Trump will never offer us the consolations Nixon did. Nixon admitted wrongdoing and apologized. We'll get none of that from Trump, no matter what. Frost/Nixon under Trump thus serves as a way to measure how far down the dark pit our democracy has descended. RICH SMITH
Locally Sourced
Three local choreographers will present three brand-new works for Pacific Northwest Ballet, all of which pique my curiosity for different reasons. Tony-nominated choreographer Donald Byrd often uses dance to examine acts of violence levied against minorities, so it'll be interesting to see how music by Emmanuel Witzthum, who creates warm, morning-light compositions, works into his vision. Bellevue-based choreographer Eva Stone, who produces the CHOP SHOP: Bodies of Work festival, will have a new piece called F O I L. She often challenges assumptions about gender in her work, and her recent collaboration with Au Collective at PNB & SAM’s Sculptured Dance ruled. And PNB corps member Miles Pertl makes his choreographic debut with music from Stranger Genius Award finalist Jherek Bischoff, whose soaring indie compositions always make me feel better about life. RICH SMITH
Occurrence #8
At this edition of Spectrum Dance's Occurrence series, dancers will reinterpret director Donald Byrd's 2009 improvisations, recorded at the MacDowell Artist Colony in Peterborough, NH.
Where is home : birds of passage
You know what's really scary? Concentration camps for asylum seekers at the border, constant ICE raids, border patrol separating children from their parents and not having the administrative infrastructure to unite them, and the state generally doing everything it can to dehumanize people who want to immigrate to this country. In her brand-new—and first-ever (!)—solo show, Where is home : birds of passage, local Italian American choreographer Alice Gosti aims to push back against the xenophobic narratives that drive these anti-immigrant policies. She'll draw from her own history with immigration as well as the larger history of Italian immigration to the United States in a spectacle that will run about three hours. As always with Gosti's work, you'll get to decide how much attention you want to devote to this performance. And the act of making that decision, of course, is part of the performance. RICH SMITH
FRIDAY
COMEDYJim Jefferies
Celebrated Australian stand-up comedian Jim Jefferies will perform his set at the Paramount. In 2015, Dan Savage wrote, "[Jefferies] does a better job making a case for gun control—and puncturing the arguments against gun control—than any liberal American politician or gun-control advocate has ever done."
The New Negroes
Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, actor Baron Vaughn and MC/comedian Open Mike Eagle host The New Negroes on Comedy Central. Vaughn and OME are politically and culturally savvy entertainers whose humor transcends race and opens minds with unerring accuracy. Their show combines rap music with stand-up routines to address topics like racism, social-justice warriorism, police brutality, office rage, conspicuous consumption, drug abuse, and more. "It's mostly an all-black stand-up showcase, and it's interspersed with live music—mostly me," Open Mike Eagle explained when we chatted prior to The New Negroes tour stopping in Seattle. He said the live show's material varies on a night-by-night basis. "If I find the crowd is hungrier for straight-up comedy, I'll do stuff from the show. If I feel like they're there for a little balance, I'll do stuff that's more varied out of my catalog." DAVE SEGAL
Chefs Without Borders 3.0
Not even Donald Trump’s vague threats of war with Iran can ruin the third annual Chefs Without Borders dinner. Back in August, chefs in Tehran prepared Pacific Northwest meals using recipes by Seattle’s own chef Dezi Bonow of the Carlile Room. Now Bonow will make dishes from Iran. Working from recipes translated from Farsi expressly for this dinner, Bonow will cook up a saffron scented banquet of kebabs wrapped in eggplant and salmon along with other Iranian delicacies. The theme of this year’s dinner is "peace," and it’s not just a platitude. It is only possible to enjoy all of these barberry, cardamom, cumin, and rosewater-filled dishes because the US and Iran are not currently trying to destroy each other. Let’s hope it lasts. DAVID LEWIS
David Rue: A Physical Homage
David Rue, a dancer who "transmits the metaphysical and makes a person want to move" (according to former Stranger writer Jen Graves), has curated an incredible series of outdoor performances dedicated to AIDS activists and those who perished from the disease. The first iteration kicked off in June and featured Randy Ford, whose sheer range and talent has moved me to consistently call for someone to award her $100,000 so that she may create work at her leisure. When Ford dances, she uses modern, bounce, vogue, and moves from genres I've never seen before to communicate maximum velocity, sharpness, and strength—all qualities shared by ACT UP and other activist groups fighting against the deafening and deadly silence of the US government. RICH SMITH
The final iteration will feature local queer dance artist Dani Tirrell
Global Party
This performance will celebrate the diversity of the Seattle community with music and dancing from various cultures.
Johanna Stoberock: Pigs
Four children eke out a living caring for a herd of ferocious pigs on an island where all of Earth's garbage is sent. One day, they find not another piece of flotsam but a boy, whose arrival challenges their routine. This Jack Straw fellow and Artist Trust GAP recipient's new book was a runner-up for the Italo Calvino Award.
Spotlight Fiction: Peg Alford Pursell and Sharma Shields
Peg Alford Pursell (A Girl Goes into the Forest) and Sharma Shields (The Cassandra) will read "fractured myths and modern fables."
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
COMEDYRoy Wood Jr.
You know Roy Wood Jr. as a wry correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and the host of This Is Not Happening since 2017.
Cornish Dance Theatre Fall 2019
Cornish Dance Theater presents their fall concert with choreography by faculty and guest choreographers Alana Isiguen, Michele Miller, Gérard Théorêt, and Stephanie Zaletel.
Novel Nights
Raise money for Seattle's most beloved writing center, Hugo House, at this book club series featuring special guests (including the authors, if they're still alive!). The books you'll discuss this week are A Pilgrimage to Eternity (with Timothy Egan, Fri) and Exhalation (with Ted Chiang, Sat).
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
FILMRomanian Film Festival: Sixth Edition
The Romanian film industry has been producing international festival hits since 2004, and the so-called New Wave filmmakers and their successors have never stopped innovating. This brief but mighty film festival screens movies that range from caustically funny to fearlessly intellectual. This year's edition of ARCS's annual event, the sixth, is subtitled "Stories OFF the Wall," emphasizing overcoming barriers and borders (like the Berlin Wall, of course). You should check out the entire roster, but three features stand out: Corneliu Porumboiu's corrupt cop thriller The Whistlers (Sat), a Palme d'Or nominee and Romania's submission to the 2020 Oscars; Serge Loznitsa's Ukraine-Romania coproduction Donbass (Sun), a critically acclaimed dark comedy about propaganda and manipulation; and Andrei Gruzsnickzki's The Escape (Sun), a tense, morally thorny drama about two academics trying to smuggle a paper out of communist Romania. JOULE ZELMAN
SATURDAY
COMEDYTragic School Bus
Taking off on the educational children's series, this cleverly conceived show follows a group of poor adults trapped in public school limbo and their increasingly insane teacher as they go on "magical" field trips to learn about topics of your choice. Directed by Jessica Dunstan and Jet City Artistic Director Mandy Price, this one should earn an A.
32nd Annual Winter Beer Taste: Stranger Beers
At this 32nd annual event, taste beers from a ton of local microbreweries—with snacks included in the ticket price, too—at the Phinney Neighborhood Association.
Seattle Night Market: Winter
This yearly market series (now indoors for the first time) gathers a lineup of over 125 vendors, food trucks, pop-ups, artists, and more, including favorites like Pecos Pit, Sticky Treats and Sweets, and Alexandra's Macarons. There's also a craft beer and cocktail garden with breweries like Reuben's Brews and Fremont Brewing, and this editon will feature a "hot sauce fest" pop-up with a focus on local makers of the spicy stuff, like Ballyhoo Hot Sauce and Mike's Fine Brines.
MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora
Hear a talk about Black diaspora women photographers from authors Laylah Amatullah Barrayn and Adama Delphine Fawundu, artist Berette Macaulay, and photography specialist Michelle Dunn Marsh in conjunction with the tripartite exhibition MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora.
Original Music Inspired by Samin Nosrat's Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Chef and food writer Samin Nosrat's runaway hit cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which distills the elements of good cooking into four simple principles and spawned a Netflix series of the same name, will provide fodder for art and music from a lineup of local artists from the Bushwick Book Club.
Shira Erlichman: Odes to Lithium
Three-time Pushcart nominee Shira Erlichman writes a love letter to lithium, the medication she takes to regulate her bipolar disorder, in her autobiographical debut. Hear her read experts and chat with Tara Hardy, the author of My, My, My, My, My.
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
VISUAL ARTChristopher Boffoli: Bite Sized
Boffoli positions minuscule, hand-painted human figurines on seemingly vast landscapes of food and drink. You may have seen his tongue-in-cheek photography featured on NBC First Look or in Business Insider.
Opening Saturday
New Additions: Lesley Frenz, Emily Gherard, Saya Moriyasu
Frenz's abstracts mimic the atmospheres and landscapes of the Pacific Northwest and the coast. Emily Gherard's phantasmal monochromes seem like humped shapes, doorways, human figures, or even coffins, depending on how you look at them. Moriyasu's representational ceramic sculptures sometimes channels a folkloric vibe while alluding to "animism, Americana, class, history, consumerism, humor, decorative arts, Buddhism and love of beauty."
Opening Saturday
SUNDAY
COMEDYHari Kondabolu's New Material Nights
It's not always a guaranteed pleasure to watch comedians working out new material, but Hari Kondabolu is not just any comedian. You could make the case that his asides, self-edits, and ad-libs are as funny as the individual finished bits. Though the finished work is, all in all, a whole other level of funny. These shows give small audiences an intimate look at the process of a comic whose trajectory is thrilling to behold. Plus, when you see the final, polished gems months from now, in video clips from TV appearances shared on your Facebook feed, you'll be in a great position to make the comments all about how YOU saw it first. Everybody wins! SEAN NELSON
The Shambles Presents: Dinner with Holy Mountain & Hama Hama
Chef Sara Harvey of the celebrated Hama Hama Oysters and chef Seamus Platt of the Maple Leaf bar and butcher the Shambles will join forces for the "ultimate surf and turf collaboration," featuring Hama Hama oysters and mussels, Bar R Wagyu beef, and Pachamama Farms pork. As if that's not enough, culty brewery Holy Mountain will round out the meal with beer pairings.
Cindy Safronoff: The History of 4th Church of Christ, Scientist, and Its Building
Back in Seattle's early days, a progressive congregation called Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist built a gathering space in what is now the beloved Town Hall building. In this talk, Cindy Safronoff will share stories of a homeopathic doctor, a prominent dentist, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, a prominent bootlegger, and a ragtime music composer who all followed the church's Reverend Mary Baker Eddy.
Jenny Slate: Little Weirds Tour
The star of acclaimed indie comedies Obvious Child and Landline as well as Venom (and, let's not forget, the creator and voice of Marcel the Shell), will appear in Seattle about a month after the Netflix debut of her comedy show Stage Fright. She'll be reading from her new book Little Weirds, a collection of nonfiction.
