Rimini Protokoll’s “Best Before” at On the Boards. Photo by Milan Radovanovic.

There’s more to this city than Capitol Hill. Here’s a look at the week ahead in “things to do” on the Hill and beyond from our cousin site, The SunBreak.

Wednesday

• Dueling Stranger columnists! Lindy West hosts a showing of American Psycho @ Central Cinema, while David Schmader hosts Seattle poetry and prose writers Elizabeth Austen, Janna Cawrse Esarey, Midge Raymond, and Susan Rich as they read from their work @ Richard Hugo House
• Catch Sinem‘s exotic sounds @ the Skylark
• It’s Cinco de Mayo! There’s a special menu and cheap drinks (no happy hour, but pitchers of Pueblo Punch, please) starting at 3 p.m. @ Barrio, and there’s a taco bar starting at 5 p.m. and the the promise of no “frat boys or amateur tequila drinkers” @ the Bottleneck
• Lee Hood, Institute for Systems Biology co-founder, presents all you need to know about bioinformatics theory and practice in “Genomics 101” @ Town Hall
• Through richly textured haunted songs, the Antlers make caretaking and broken love sound romantic. With Phantogram @ Neumo’s
• Time for Jose Amador’s El Hijo Prodigo @ Annex Theatre

---

Queen Shmooquan. Photo by Tim Summers.

Thursday

• Rimini Protokoll‘s Best Before opens @ On the Boards
• The Gulf oil spill will no doubt be a hot topic when Oxford economics professor Paul Collier talks about his book ThePlundered Planet @ Town Hall
• It’s the 25th anniversary of the Washington Composers Forum with a concert of world and regional premieres @ Wallingford’s Good Shepherd Center
• “Cougar Fest” (a double-feature of The Graduate and Harold & Maude) begins a six-day run @ Central Cinema
• Why of course there’s live music at a bike shop. Nymph, Tiny Light, Shana Cleveland of Curious Mystery, and Corespondents play @ 20/20 Cycle
• Queen Shmooquan goes Unplugged @ the Rendezvous Jewelbox Theatre

Friday

• w00tstock is three hours of geeks and music, featuring Dan Savage, Wil Wheaton, and Paul & Storm @ the Moore
• Ralph Nader’s latest book, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, is a work of fiction, as he’ll explain @ Town Hall
• FREE: Poets Gardner McFall (whose The Pilot’s Daughter inspired Seattle Opera’s Amelia) and Henri Cole read from their latest collections @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• Kate Nash gets Britastic with her pop songs @ Neumo’s
• Some tix available at the door! For one night only, see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version) in Smell-O-Vision @ SIFF Cinema

Mark Siano’s “Shaken, Not Stirred.” Photo by Andrew McDonald

Get The SunBreak iPhone App (Free)

Saturday

• Janeane Garofalo does a live DVD “taping” @ the Moore
• A Night at the Sands, a casino themed fundraiser for and @ the Balagan
• Seattle Symphony goes for Baroque (Corelli, Elgar, Tallis, Tippett, Vaughn Williams) with guest conductor Andrew Manze (repeats Sunday) @ Benaroya Hall
• Emerald City Soul Club fills three unassuming Eastlake rooms with Northern Soul, dancing, and wall-to-wall crowds @ LoFi
• When he’s not busy arranging the string sections for the Arcade Fire, Owen Pallett (who only recently shed the Final Fantasy moniker) spins pop songs out of plucked violin strings and looping pedals. With Snowblink and Seattle’s own gentle charmers, Cataldo @ the Crocodile
• The Seattle Steampunk Festival serves up Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Time Machine to help restore the clock @ MOHAI
• Closing night of Mark Siano‘s Shaken, Not Stirred @ El Gaucho/the Pampas Room

Sunday

• David Sedaris makes you laugh–with a catch in your throat–all night long @ Benaroya Hall
• The Capitol Hill farmers’ market opens for the season @ Broadway
• Bring your mama (and get a free glass of champagne) to dinner and karaoke @ Nectar

Monday

• Saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins clears the air of lesser saxomophone performers @ the Paramount
• Helladope brings together veteran MC Jerm of Seattle’s Alpha P and MC/Producer Tay Sean @ the Triple Door
• Starfucker can’t seem to decide whether to ditch their less than family-friendly name (for the fan-chosed “Pyramiddd”), but expect synth-heavy crowd-pleasers no matter what they’re currently calling themselves. With Truckasaurus @ Neumo’s

Tuesday

• Live Girls! Theatre presents Tiger Eyes: A Judy Blume Cabaret, a fundraiser for LG Theatre @ Theatre off Jackson
• FREE: Poet Martín Espada returns to Seattle to read from The Republic of Poetry (and more) @ UW’s Mary Gates Hall
• A night of precocious orchestral pop with North Carolina’s Annuals and Ontario Canada’s the Most Serene Republic @ the Crocodile
• Be sure to bring a spare set of ear protection when you catch Mono @ Neumo’s
• Mother’s Day marks the beginning of National National Women’s Health Week. There’s a bunch of events around town, including today’s Food, Music, Make-up…and Your Cervix!, which features educational information for women on cervical cancer and HPV prevention, food, free makeovers, and more @ Seattle University’s Wyckoff Auditorium