The irrepressible Amelia Reeber, one of the choreographers presenting new work at Velocity Dance Center’s Strictly Seattle this Friday and Saturday. Photo by Tim Summers.

Thursday, July 29th

• Let’s Do It Again!: Another Night of Sex Worker Made Media is pretty much what it sounds like @ Northwest Film Forum
• The U.S. Senior Open tees off at the ass-crack of dawn @ Sahalee Country Club
• Quote along with Anchorman @ Central Cinema
• Now that Vitaminwater Social Club has finally vacated the premises, things can get back to normal, with City Arts‘ Off Hours reading series, in which writers present new works @ Sole Repair
• For one night only, Elvis hasn’t left the building, thanks to the screening of some never-before-seen footage from 1972 in Elvis on Tour @ Pacific Place
• Toad the Wet Sprocket (still a band!) transport you back to 1991 via nostalgia; openers Hey Marseilles take you around the world via smile-inducing videos and maximalist orchestral pop @ the Moore
• Check out some short films care of Pacific Northwest filmmakers in Tall Beers, Short Shorts @ Re-bar

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Friday, July 30th

• Human Prop’s Summer Invasion is closing down after this Friday’s performance @ Odd Duck/Eclectic Theatre
• Strictly Seattle, Velocity’s annual summer dance festival, opens for three performances starting Friday @ Velocity Dance Center
• Her Mother Was Imagination, a new work by local playwright Elizabeth Heffron, opens @ Annex Theatre
• Meet up with Austin indie film hellraisers Bob Ray and Chad Holt when they screen Total Badass with CrashToons @ Central Cinema
• It’s “Women of Inspiration” Night when the WNBA-leading Storm play Chicago @ KeyArena.
• The Yellow Wood continues its critically praised run @ the Center House Theatre
• Neumos, Chop Suey, The Morgue, and The Comet get taken over all weekend by metal/punk/hardcore mini-fest @ Hunting Parties
• The summer edition of 14/48: The World’s Quickest Theatre Fest opens @ Theatre off Jackson

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Saturday, July 31st

• The Balagan Theatre‘s Greetings from Styx! finishes its theatre-in-the-park run in Queen Anne @ David Rodgers Park
• It’s another concert in their summer series, this time with Jackson Browne @ Maryhill Winery
• The power of the double rainbow helped them get their gear back; see Phosphorescent, with Fleet Fox J. Tillman @ the Crocodile
• Ask the Ages brings together musicians from the jazz, classical, rock, and multi-culti worlds @ Good Shepherd Center
• You might have brought a ticket to see Neko, Carl, Cousin Catherine, and Dan, but arrive at the first of two New Pornographers shows early enough not to miss the sunny psych of the Dodos (and Imaad Wasif) @ the Showbox
• Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde opens @ Seattle Opera

Sunday, August 1st

• GreenStage’s Romeo and Juliet visits West Seattle for a performance in the park @ Camp Long
• As previously mentioned, New Pornographers play their second of two shows @ the Showbox
• Watch Tilth’s Maria Hines take on Iron Chef Morimoto on the flat-screen @ the Bottleneck
• It’s your last night to catch the concert doc of Montreal: Family Nouveau @ Northwest Film Forum

Monday, August 2nd

• New Voices 9 is here! Contemporary Classics brings their revue of songs from brand-spanking new musicals to the stage @ ACT Theatre
• Gary Shteyngart follows in Miranda July’s footsteps and heads to a rock club for his reading, joined onstage by Paul Constant and Orkestar Zirkonium @ the Sunset Tavern
• Local indies Exohxo, Kids & Animals, and Quiet Ones @ the Crocodile
• It’s the first Monday of the month, so that means another edition of The Rumble, this time with See Me River and Rumspringa @ Havana

Tuesday, August 3rd

• If you haven’t already torrented or pre-ordered, visit your friendly neighborhood record store to pick up a copy of the Suburbs, the much anticipated Arcade Fire album.
• Seattle native Michael Byers reads from his novel Percival’s Planet, about how Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• The ZZK label presents a night of Latin urban beats (Tremor, El Romolon, Chancha Via Circuito and El G, with special guest Darwin) @ the Crocodile
• SIFF and Remy-Cointreau host the Speakeasy Series: “Miami,” this time featuring Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot, with subtitles on and music from the Eduardo Mendonça Trio @ the Triple Door

There’s Shakespeare and more in Seattle parks each weekend. Here’s a round-up.

Wednesday – July 21st

• The morally ambiguous tale of Rudolf Kasztner, the Jew who negotiated with Eichmann to save his kinsmen, is on display in a new doc, Killing Kasztner, through Thursday @ NWFF
• Learn to win with The Coach! Pete Carroll reads from his new book Win Forever: Live, Work, and Play Like a Champion @ Town Hall
• Miniature Tigers bring their undeniably catchy pop to a tour kick-off show with the Spinto Band @ the High Dive
• Author Doug Dorst reads from his short story collection (of damaged people called) The Surf Guru @ Elliott Bay Book Co.

Thursday – July 22nd

• The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a new musical, continues its run @ the Ballard Underground Theatre
• Fresh farm products meet big outdoor art for weekly markets @ Olympic Sculpture Park
• Unlike Roger Ebert, Tom Bissell argues that video games matter @ UW Bookstore
• Holy Fuck kicks heads up the Capitol Hill Block Party pre-party planning committee with a free show in Belltown @ the Crocodile
• Mel Brooks’ true-life Western epic Blazing Saddles begins a pizza-and-beer run (through July 28) @ Central Cinema

Friday – July 23rd

• Human Prop, late-night comedy @ the Odd Duck Theatre
• The Capitol Hill Block Party takes over several blocks of Pike Street for a three day music festival weekend @ chbp
• Boogeymen are real, at least in the child abduction documentary Cropsey @ NWFF
• The Yellow Wood, another new musical theatre show @ the Center House Theatre
• It’s the third and final night for the genre-twisting flamenco/jazz/bossa nova/Hindu meditation music of Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra @ Triple Door
• Did you know that Big Head Todd and the Monsters still exist? Did you know that they just released a new album, Rocksteady? Will wonders never cease? They’ve got a show @ the Moore

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Saturday – July 24th

• DJs spin Bollywood beats @ the Crocodile
• Get down with some sustainable music and culture at the GreenNote Festival @ Seattle Center
• Enjoy some outdoor shopping at the new outdoor market @ Occidental Park
• Check out a special advance screening of locally-made drama Hollow @ SIFF Cinema
• Meanwhile, there are outdoor movies a plenty: War Games @ West Seattle Outdoor Movies, Zoolander @ Fremont Outdoor Movies, and Moulin Rouge @ Carillon Point Outdoor Movie Nights

Sunday – July 25th

• Sexy brute Jean-Paul Belmondo teams up with auteur Jean-Pierre Melville in a new 35mm print of Leon Morin, Priest, through next Thursday @ NWFF
• It’s the last day for art on the Eastside, hosted by the BAM @ Bellevue Arts Fair
• Fresh off of Pink Flamingos, its the continued salute to great American hero John Waters with Female Trouble @ the Grand Illusion

Monday – July 26th

• Nada Mucho’s New Music Monday, with Water Fae, Sad Face, A-Bro & Testa, and Albert Figures @ the High Dive
• If you love David Bowie and/or Bruce Springsteen and/or Modest Mouse, step right up an all-ages show with Wolf Parade @ the Showbox
• West African acoustic and electric guitar virtuoso Alpha YaYa Diallo plays @ Jazz Alley

Tuesday – July 27th

• Author of The Pleasing Hour and The English Teacher, Lily King is back to read from her new book Father of the Rain, about the dysfunctional relationship between an alcoholic father and his surprisingly level-headed daughter @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• Just don’t mention his alopecia or he’ll break out his angry eyebrows. Actor and longtime environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. talks sustainability @ Town Hall
• The Mose Allison Trio kicks off a week-long run @ Jazz Alley
• Head to Ballard for These United States, along with the Pica Beats and (difficult to google) SHiPS @ the Tractor
• And don’t forget Kinky Friedman with a couple of his Jewboys @ Triple Door

Kylie Lewallen and Olivier Wevers’ feet in a shot from “Coquette,” Whim W’Him’s burlesque turn as part of the Triple Door’s Bastille Day show. Photo by La Via Photography.

Plus: Through July 17th, enjoy sweet sweet alcohol (or coffee) with part of the proceeds going to the Vera Project @ Drink for the Kids various drinking establishments around town.

Wednesday – July 14

• As the photo up top indicates, le sexy among you will enjoy “L’Edition Française” @ the Triple Door
• Adventure School presents a Bastille Day Fête @ Corson Building
• It’s Science! It’s Art! Author Rob Mitchell talks about the exciting new field of bioart @ Town Hall
• For a counter-Bastille Day event, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube are @ the Paramount

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Thursday – July 15

• Cataldo (Eric Anderson and friends) play warm fuzzy pop songs suitable for campfires or picnics, some of which are about vampires. With Loch Lomond and Kyle Bradford @ the Crocodile
• FREE: Stanford University professor Gordon H. Chang talks about his book Asian American Art: A History (1850 – 1970), with Seattle writer Kazuko Nakane, artist Roger Shimomura, and writer/artist Alan Chong Lau @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• Catch Singing in the Rain or an ’80s and ’90s music singalong @ Central Cinema

Friday – July 16

• The “From the Land of the Midnight Sun” film collection opens (and runs through the 18th), including Package Deals: Finland, the documentaries Helsinki Forever and The Living Room of the Nation, and Calamari Union @ the Northwest Film Forum
• The documentary Killing Kastner, about the Jewish-Hungarian journalist and lawyer who negotiated with Eichmann to save 1,600 Hungarian Jews and was later assassinated, opens (and runs through July 22) @ the Northwest Film Forum

Saturday – July 17

• Brite Futures (the recently rechristened Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head) headlines the Drink for the Kids closing night party @ Neumo’s
• How LOLworthy is it that the Gin Blossoms are playing the Vodka Rocks festival @ Snoqualmie Casino
• Seattle writer and cartoonist Monica Murphy Lemoine reads from her memoir on miscarriage, Knocked Up, Knocked Down @ Elliott Bay Book Co.

Sunday – July 18

• Fraternal harmonies meet upbeat infectious folkish rock when Avett Brothers & Thao with the Get Down Stay Down take the big stage @ the Paramount

Monday – July 19

• Australian novelist Kate Veitch reads from Trust @ Elliott Bay Book Co.

Tuesday – July 20

• This can be short: Neil Young @ the Paramount
• The SIFF/Remy Cointreau Speakeasy Series goes to Miami–Some Like It Hot and Second Honeymoon, shown with sound down and subtitles on, are accompanied by Brazil’s Eduardo Mendonça Trio @ the Triple Door
• Historian H.W. Brands talks about the U.S. since 1945 @ Town Hall
• But also, historian David Herlihy talks about his new book, The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance (in Turkey, as it turns out)@ Seattle Central Public Library
  

Ryan Higgins as Romeo and Carolyn Marie Monroe as Juliet in Greenstage’s Romeo and Juliet. (Photo: Ken Holmes)

Wednesday

• A collection of stories in which “the author seldom allows a trickle of hope to lighten her characters’ anguish” are on tap when Maile Meloy reads from her lauded book Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• Punishment Park, a yes-it-can-happen-here glimpse of what American political oppression could like like plays @ NWFF
• A Freaks & Geeks party includes four of your favorite episodes @ Central Cinema
• That wascally Seattle Symphony plays along live to cartoon classics projected on a big screen for “Bugs Bunny on Broadway” (through Friday) @ Benaroya Hall

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Thursday

• Action!, a group show featuring work by Joseph Patrick Gray, Keith Tilford, Izzie Klingels, Amanda Manitach, Frank Correa, Nick Bartoletti, Tabor Robak, and DUMB EYES opens @ Ghost Gallery
• Don’t forget the rest of your Blitz Capitol Hill Arts Walk @ all over Capitol Hill, while Penetration, the Cap Hill art walk afterparty goes down @ Unicorn
• Enjoy the summer weather with the pop cutie pies of Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band at a lunchtime concert @ City Hall
• Strawberry Theatre Workshop‘s The Laramie Project opens @ the Erickson Theatre off Broadway
• John Roderick (of The Long Winters) and Jason Dodson (of The Maldives) make beautiful music @ the Triple Door
• Prepare for the opening of Ruined at the Intiman with the panel “America’s Responsibility to Refugees,” featuring Someireh Amirfaiz (Refugee Women’s Alliance), Erika Berg (Refugee and Immigrant Children’s Program, Lutheran Community Services Northwest), Mona Han (Coalition for Refugees from Burma), and Wemba-Koy Okonda (OKONGO) @ Town Hall
• Satirical auteur Preston Sturges gets a well-deserved film series retrospective @ SAM

Friday

• Glenn Barr’s solo show Small Epics opens @ Roq la Rue
• Carissa’s Wierd‘s one-night-only reunion @ the Showbox
• Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Ruined, about war in Central Africa, opens @ the Intiman
• Catch the dark, synthy weird-pop of Fol Chen @ the Sunset
• Shirin Nushat’s adaptation of Shamush Parsipar’s novel Women Without Men casts a light into the private world of Iranian women @ NWFF
• West Seattle Summer Fest kicks off with in-the-street beer, food, and free sets by Kim Virant, Hell’s Belles, the rejuvenated Satchel, and others @ the West Seattle Junction

Saturday

• Day 1 of Greenstage’s Outdoor Theatre Fest, with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, An Inconvenient Squirrel, Romeo and Juliet, Pirates at Princess Island, A Winter’s Tale and more @ Volunteer Park
• It’s the beginning of their annual summer concert series, kicking off with the adult contemporary sounds of Train @ Maryhill Winery
• New Orleanean writer Barb Johnson reads from her bookMore of This World or Maybe Another, with Catherine Kirkwood and Kayleen Dunston @ the Hugo House
• Seattle’s Ivan Doig reads from his mining-in-Butte novel Work Song @ the Elliott Bay Book Co.

• Adrienne Varner and Gust Burns perform piano music from Asia and America, with compositions by Yuji Takahashi, Gust Burns, and John Cage @ the Good Shepherd Center
• Assuming they don’t get shut down early (as per usual), Monotonix gets cray-cray @ the High Dive
• Get crafty @ Urban Craft Uprising
• Caspar Babypants, Kristen Ward, Mark Pickerel & His Praying Hands, and others highlight day 2 of the (free) West Seattle Summer Fest @ the West Seattle Junction

Sunday

• Day 2 of Greenstage’s Outdoor Theatre Fest, with Richard II, As You Like It, Greetings from Styx and more @ Volunteer Park
• It’s a lovely day to eat nine courses of tapas on the patio @ Ponti
• Local writer Janée Baugher brings her love of travel, art, and diaraeses to her new book of poetry, Coördinates of Yes, which she reads from @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• Dinner and dirty movie with Lynn Shelton and Humpday @ SIFF
• It’s for the children! Rationalize your alcoholism with a week-long charity bar crawl to benefit the Vera Project (aka A Drink for the Kids), starting today @ the Cha Cha
• West Seattle Summer Fest wraps up with free sets from acts including the Dusty 45’s and the School of Rock All-Stars @ the West Seattle Junction

Monday

• Gladys Knight stars in the blaxploitation Alaska pipeline movie Pipe Dreams @ Central Cinema
• PLU archeologist Donald Ryan explores the real-life adventures of the trade in Beneath the Sands of Egypt @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• You can expect some weird and wonderful English folk from The Unthanks @ the Triple Door

Tuesday

• Nashville’s Katie Herzig and Ben Taylor, the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon, get all singer-songwriter @ the Triple Door
• American reporter Jere Van Dyk was imprisoned by the Taliban for 45 days and he didn’t crack–see how well he handles a Q&A session @ Town Hall

The ladies of Stripped Screw Burlesque at the Rendezvous Jewelbox this weekend.

Wednesday

• Contemporary Classics’ Zanna, Don’t!, a madcap contemporary musical fairytale, plays through Saturday @ Seattle Rep’s Poncho Forum
• Rhett Miller and his Old 97s alt-country @ the Showbox
• Brat Pack novelist Bret Easton Ellis reads from his new book Imperial Bedrooms @ Elliott Bay Books
• Widespread Panic is sure to jam, jam, and then jam some more @ the Paramount
• Dr. Bent Francis Mboyo Ndombo, president of Congolese United for Social Change, gives you a brief history that explains why the Democratic Republic of Congo has two lies in its name alone @ Town Hall
• The Herb Garden Patio opens (during happy hour: Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m.) @ Cafe Flora

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Thursday

• Stripped Screw Burlesque tackles the American Dream in Paradise Glossed @ the Rendezvous Jewelbox Theatre
• Closing night of the Safdie Brothers’ Daddy Longlegs @ Northwest Film Forum
• A panel discussion on the future of “Walkable Urbanism” @ Town Hall
• After Art Walk, vote for which artist gets $500 @ Pioneer Square Caffe Vita
• Ambiant pianist Keiko Matsui plays the second of four nights (through July 3) @ Jazz Alley
• Irony alert! Caged animals get to eat special Independence Day-themed treats @ Woodland Park Zoo

Friday

• Rewind Seattle, a specialized cover band, takes you back to the heydey of Eighties music @ the High Dive
• Seattle’s International Beer Fest kicks off (and runs through Sunday) @ Seattle Center
• If it’s the first Friday of the month, it must be the latest edition of late-night variety show Spin the Bottle @ the Annex Theatre
• The burlesque sin-sations The Atomic Bombshells lay wanton waste to modesty tonight and Saturday @ the Triple Door
• Convince yourself that winter will eventually end at an aspirational beach party. Don your shorts and flip flops while participating or spectating in hula hoop contests, beer ponging, flip-cuppery, and other summery pursuits. Fresh Espresso and DJ Four Color Zack provide a soundtrack @ Neumo’s

Saturday

• Make it a double feature! The Best Worst Movie (the documentary about the making of Troll 2) and Team America are showing @ Central Cinema
• You can’t go wrong with a name like “The All-American Comedy and Music Extravaganza” @ Chop Suey
• South Seattle’s Helladope, State of the Artist (who all met attending high school on Capitol Hill), Dark Time Sunshine and Katie Kate play  @ the Crocodile
• As per usual, Audrey Hepburn is dreamy, this time in Sabrina @ the Grand Illusion

Sunday

• Naturalization ceremony @ Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion
• Stay home and watch the Sounders take on the L.A. Galaxy @ KONG TV
• Family 4th fireworks show @ Lake Union/Gasworks Park
• Really celebrate your independence with the ’70s radical dystopia of Punishment Park @ Northwest Film Forum

Monday

• Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival begins its month-long performances @ Benaroya Hall
• Deerhoof weird it up, rockingly @ the Vera Project
• Born Anchors headline a “locals only” showcase @ the Crocodile
• Yet another showing of so-bad-it’s-really-really-bad cult flick The Room @ Central Cinema

Tuesday

• Hip writer Aimee Bender reads from her new novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake @ Elliott Bay Books
• The Speakeasy Series Vol. 4 (New York!) presents music, film, and classic cocktails @ the Triple Door
• Get old school Seattle with The Melvins, playing two sets @ the Showbox

Fasten your seatbelts! It’s time once again for some Seattle Pride! (Photo: TSB Flickr pool member shadowplay)

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Wednesday

• Closing night of Circus Syzygy‘s Just Add Water @ SANCA
• It’s nice out, so head Out to Lunch to see seminal ska band The English Beat @ Westlake Park
• Just a couple days left of lo-fi lowbrow auteur Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers @ Northwest Film Forum
• Making out on the beach leads to (spoiler alert) Pearl Harbor in From Here to Eternity @ Grand Illusion
• Geopolitical analyst and journalist Gwynne Dyer prophesies doom in Climate Wars @ Town Hall
• PRIDE: Wildrose starts its several days of Pride partying with a Lady Gaga Dance Party

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Thursday

• Seattle Symphony closes its season with a Bernstein celebration (Chichester Psalms, The Age of Anxiety) featuring Misha Dichter, pianist (Thurs-Sun) @ Benaroya Hall
• FREE: If you liked the Intiman’s The Thin Space, you might want to catch travel writer William Dalrymple talking about his book Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• Clay Shirky talks about your cognitive surplus @ Town Hall
• Concrete Blonde, it turns out, is still in existence @ Showbox
• As previously mentioned, Wild Summer Nights kicks off @ the Bravern
• The term “singer-songwriter” doesn’t even begin to cover Sally Seltmann, despite the fact that she wrote the song “1234” for Feist. It’s the pop songstress’s first Seattle show in three years (and the first under her own name, rather than moniker New Buffalo) @ High Dive
• PRIDE: Bounce on This pre-Pride Party at E. Union’s new Auto Battery

Friday

• Parks & Rec‘s Aziz Ansari makes all the people laugh @ the Moore Theatre
• Rachel Randall’s RandAll Dance Troupe performs @ Lo-fi
• The recipient of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Rae Armantrout, reads from Versed @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• Cocorosie does their quirky sister act @ Showbox
• NO COVER: “Elsa Nilsson Quartet are an improvisational groove quartet playing Deathjazz like Vikings who got sick of the cold and fled to Brazil” @ the Triple Door Musicquarium
• Mudhoney brings grunge to the great outdoors @ Olympic Sculpture Park
• PRIDE: To kick off Pride Weekend, get a free Po Dogs deep-fried danger dog blessed by Sylvia O’Stayformore at the fourth annual Hot Dog Blessing @ the Bottleneck
• PRIDE: The 2010 Bend-it Extravaganza rocks Cal Anderson with Queer Garden: Bands in the Park
• PRIDE:

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Saturday

• Voices Rising celebrates Pride with Nedra Johnson, Kevin Simmonds, Crystal Ybarra, and Imani Sims @ Hugo House
• It’s the annual Triple Sip, a pricey, winey benefit for KEXP @ Triple Door
• Celebrate the tenth birthday of a great local venue all weekend long @ The Sunset
• Dum Dum Girls go fuzzed-out lo-fi with Crocodiles and Past Lives @ High Dive
• Best Worst Movie runs for another week, but this is your last chance to see the doc along with its subject, the wonderfully terrible Troll 2 @ Central Cinema
• PRIDE: House of Hands brings the Pride party outside in the sure-to-be fabulous parking lot @ Havana
• PRIDE: Big Gay Field Day in Cal Anderson
• PRIDE: Capitol Hill Pride Festival shuts down Broadway for good times

“Two lesbians in a fountain…” Love that song. Did we mention it’s Pride weekend yet? (Photo: Thanks again, shadowplay)

Sunday

• Stay gold, it’s the last day for Bobby Caldwell with The Pony Boy Orchestra @ Jazz Alley
• Three Imaginary Girls throw a listening party with the new Carissa’s Wierd and Femurs albums, not to mention the arts and crafts @ Neptune Coffee
• PRIDE: Go over the rainbow @ Seattle Pride Parade
• PRIDE: momo the official Pride after-party on the streets of Pike/Pine
• PRIDE: The Cuff Pride Street Party. Starts at noon!

Monday

• Seattle author Mishna Wolff reads from her memoir I’m Down @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• Indie rapper Cage returns to Seattle @ Nectar

Tuesday

• Poet and Hugo teacher Elizabeth Austen (good name!) reads from her first chapbook The Girl Who Goes Alone at a book release party @ Hugo House
• Meshell Ndegeocello presents a night of Gil Scott-Heron covers @ Triple Door
• Femi Kuti & the Positive Force bring their version of Fela’s afrobeat to Seattle @ Showbox

The Aerialistas. Photo by John Cornicello.

Thursday

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• Opening night of Automatic Performance Ensemble‘s FOWL: an adaptation of The Birds by Artistophanes @ Open Circle/Freehold
• Your last chance to see Linas Phillips’ Bass Ackwards @ NW Film Forum
• Tamara the Trapeze Lady’s Broadway Follies benefits the YWCA’s Women’s Health Outreach program @ Julia’s on Broadway
• The Nature Conservancy’s Jen Molnar and Jon Hoekstra talk about the uses of their Atlas of Global Conservation @ Town Hall
• Cage the Elephant and the 22-20s bring the noise to a sold-out crowd @ Showbox
• Gerard Schwarz kicks off his Mendelssohn (Lobgesang) and Wagner (excerpts from Parsifal) program (also Fri/Sat) @ Benaroya Hall

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Katy Hagelin’s “from Phantastes”.

Friday

• FREE: the awesomely talented Colson Whitehead reads from his memoir Sag Harbor @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• Closing weekend of Liquid Morality @ Annex Theatre
• Katy Hagelin Dance Project‘s adaptation of Phantastes opens for weekend only @ the Everett PUD Auditorium
• Save our Butts II, a burlesque fundraiser for Open Circle Theatre @ Open Circle/Freehold
• Quickies Vol. 11, Live Girls! Theatre‘s annual women’s short-play festival opens @ the Ethnic Cultural Center
• Glittorus!, a fundraiser for the Lambert House, opens for two nights @ the Rendezvous Jewelbox
• The Seattle Pianist Collective, featuring Michael Owcharuk and others @ the Good Shepherd Center

Saturday

• “Cupcakes to Madrid,” a fundraiser for the Aerialistas @ Hales Palladium
• HERE/NOW, an awesome, surprise collaboration between dancers and musicians @ Open Flight Studio
• FREE: Sasquatch Press‘s book about the Sounders’ first year is out and it’s a [soccer pun]! Meet the authors @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• One night only! Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra performs Ellington’s Far East Suite @ Benaroya Hall
• Check out Jose Gonzalez’s other band Junip @ the Vera Project
• If you’ve seen DIG!, please oh please do not intentionally rile up The Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Neumo’s
• Eat a hot dog with some Capitol Hill cops @ the annual Picnic at the Precinct

Sunday

• Did someone say Pudding Pop? The original and still champeen Bill Cosby does two shows for all the dads on Father’s Day @ Benaroya Hall
• It’s the Mendelssohn and Haydn bicentennial and Onyx Chamber Players–violinist James Garlick, cellist Meg Brennand, and pianist David White, with Mel Butler and Laurel Wells, violas; and Steve Schermer, double bass–perform two Haydn trios and a Mendelssohn trio and quartet @ Town Hall
• FREE: local activists (and authors) Cecile Andrews and John de Graaf contributed to State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures, which is not about people who dress up like Optimus Prime @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• Before their show at El Corazon on the 24th, Halifax invites their fans to play Capture the Flag (potential team captains should email [email protected]) at 1 p.m. @ Cal Anderson

Colson Whitehead. Photo by Erin Patrice O’Brien.

Monday

• Journalist Nicholas Carr, a voice crying out in the wilderness for less-wired living, will talk about his book The Shallows, which sez that too much online maek us dum ‘n’ stuff @ Town Hall
• FREE: Fortune‘s David Kirkpatrick, the official Facebook biographer, ah…really, a book? Now FB wants to waste my offline time, too? @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• If you missed it at SIFF, Laura Poitras’ documentary on Osama Bin Laden’s bodyguard and taxi driver, The Oath, plays through Thursday @ NWFF
• Funky, feisty, leggy lady Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings show ya how it’s done, with British neo-soul-r&b-blues quartet The Heavy @ Showbox SoDo

Tuesday

• Oh, oh, oh! Polemicist and très bon vivant Christopher Hitchens is interviewed by Too Beautiful To Live’s Luke Burbank @ Town Hall
• FREE: Kate Walbert reads from her slow-burning, much respected novel A Short History of Women @ Elliott Bay Book Co.
• FREE: Humorist and book publicist Sloane “I was told there’d be cake” Crosley unveils her newest, How Did You Get This Number? @ the Sorrento Hotel
• Catch The Big Four, with Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax performing in Bulgaria, on the big screen for one nights only @ Pacific Place and @ Southcenter
• PBS’ Ray Suarez talks global public health (yes, there’s much to discuss) @ UW’s Kane Hall

Gbenga Akinnagbe in “The Thin Place” at the Intiman Theatre, through June 13. Photo by Chris Bennion.

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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, TheSunBreak.com.

Wednesday

• As Tiny Vipers, Seattle’s Jesy Fortino brings whispery intensity to her performances @ the Triple Door
• Get your bone density checked at the Mayor’s Office Healthy Aging Fair @ Downtown’s Central Building
• Today’s the kickoff, so check out all the festivities scheduled @ Green Week
• Take a break from SIFF with a very un-Charlie Chaplin Charlie Chaplin film, Monsieur Verdoux @ the Grand Illusion

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Thursday

• Author Sebastian Junger talks about his war tourism (and assuredly, his SIFF film Restrepo) @ Town Hall
• UW art historian Kolya Rice explores the political dimensions of Gerhard Richter’s photorealistic paintings @ the Frye
• A screening of the classic The Long Haul, part of the “Empire of Night: Best of British Film Noir” series @ SAM
• It’s another bike shop rock show with Paleo, French Quarter, Married in Berdichev, Shenendoah Davis, and Mega Bog @ 20/20 Cycle

• SIFF further expands its reach to the provinces, bringing Kyle Maclachlan to Everett to walk the red carpet for Mao’s Last Dancer, followed by a gala reception @ Everett Performing Arts Center
• Candace Dempsey, author of Murder in Italy, digs deep into the Amanda Knox saga @ the UW bookstore
• Caribou, PhD mathematician Dan Snaith’s electronic heavy solo recording project, warms up Seattle before heading Gorgeward with liquid sunshine electronic music enhanced with overwhelming visuals and a live touring band. With chillwave pioneer Toro y Moi @ Neumo’s
• Henry Rollins Speaks! The Frequent Flyer Tour @ the Moore Theatre

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Friday

• The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, the fictional exploration of Malcolm McLaren’s self-aggrandizing @ NW Film Forum
• Welcome to my hellscape. All weekend long, it’s Folklife @ Seattle Center
• The Jump Session Show brings you “Jazz Through the Ages” @ Benaroya Hall
• Seattle dean of soliloquizers Matt Smith talks you through his solo show “All My Children” @ Hugo House
• Animal behaviorist Jonathan Balcombe talks about animal emotions, problem-solving, and moral judgment @ the Elliott Bay Book Co.

Saturday

• A mild sunny forecast, an exceptional lineup, and a run on tickets mean a mass migration from Seattle to the Gorge for Memorial Day Weekend. Get up early for the drive (Shabazz Palaces take the mainstage at 12:05) and stay all day for the likes of Broken Social Scene, Miike Snow, the Hold Steady, and the National all the way through headliners Vampire Weekend and My Morning Jacket @ Sasquatch
• UMO Ensemble, one of Seattle’s top physical theatre companies, brings Zen Tales to town for two performances only @ ArtsWest
• It’s a long weekend, so stay out late for Emerald City Soul Club’s Capitol Hill soul night, Talcum @ Chop Suey
• It’s also SIFF Centerpiece Gala, featuring French spy thriller Farewell @ Egyptian
• ticktock dance, who mix circus-style aerialism and postmodern dance, are holding a fundraiser to support summer touring @ 4750 Airport Way S.
• Local singer-songwriter Damien Jurado brings his new album Saint Bartlett, along with Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, both opening and acting as his boisterous backing band @ the Triple Door

Sunday

• Scenic vistas and great music continue Pavement’s reunion, LCD Soundsystem, and Massive Attack on the big stage as well as Dirty Projectors, the Tallest Man on Earth, the xx, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Local Natives, YACHT, and so many more throughout the day. Oh, and Public Enemy, too @ Sasquatch
• Today and tomorrow are the last two days of the half-month-long Solobration @ Solo Bar
• Enjoy the holiday with The Big Lebowski (through Wednesday) @ Central Cinema

Monday

• Festiweekend concludes with a Band of Horses homecoming, MGMT (maybe) sprinkling their hits into a new album heavy setlist, Seattle Rock Orchestra reprising their version of the Arcade Fire’s Funeral, and Zoe Deschanel cute overloading via She & Him. Other noteworthies include Passion Pit, Dr. Dog, No Age, Japandroids, Camera Obscura, Neon Indian, and the Mountain Goats. Ween and Boys Noize close the mainstage @ Sasquatch
• Staying in town doesn’t mean a complete Memorial Day musical shutout. Longtime pop charmers Nada Surf are @ the Crocodile
• Lucid presents the Inside Out Jazz Awards @ Benaroya Hall (pre- and post-party across the street @ the Triple Door)

Tuesday

• Journalist Jeffrey Kaye discusses the rising immigration crisis @ Town Hall
• It’s a benefit for Real Change, featuring Turning Points, a documentary about some of the paper’s vendors @ Central Cinema
• FREE: Matthew Shepard’s mother, Judy Shepard, reads from her book The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed @ Seattle First Baptist Church

The Mark Morris Dance Group returns to Seattle for 3 nights at the Paramount Theatre. Photo: Stephanie Berge.

Wednesday

• Wake up at 2:30 a.m. to see afroed erstwhile Seattleite Reggie Watts’ debut comedy release Why S#!+ So Crazy? uncut and uncensored @ Comedy Central

• Screening the second slate of films from the 48hr Film Project @ Harvard Exit
• Closing: Jose Amador’s El Hijo Prodigo @ Annex Theatre
• It’s the one, the only Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars @ Triple Door
• Salmon Gone Wild continues today (through June 30) with an extra special happy hour, featuring grilled salmon bites, drink specials, and a chance to win whole Copper River salmon @ Elliott’s
• Dresden Dolls’ Amanda Palmer unveils her conjoined twin supergroup side project Evelyn Evelyn @ Showbox
• SAL‘s Linda Bowers defends Mulholland Drive @ NWFF’s Curator’s Defense
• A roundtable discussion of marijuana policy in Seatte @ Town Hall (RSVP req’d)

Thursday

• Let the film festival festivities begin! It’s opening night for SIFF with The Extra Man @ Benaroya Hall

• Poet Karen Finnyfrock and the Vis-à-Vis Society @ SAM Word
• Scott/Powell Performance‘s Home @ the Erickson Theatre
• The Most Dangerous Woman in America opens @ Odd Duck Theatre
• Wiping My Mother’s Arse opens @ ArtAttack Theatre
• The Thin Place opens @ the Intiman
• One Pot‘s Michael Hebb defends Dig! @ NWFF’s Curator’s Defense

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Friday

• The Mark Morris Dance Group @ the Paramount Theatre
• Catherine Cabeen‘s Form and Fluidity @ The Seattle Changing Room
• The unholy forces of Umphrey’s McGee, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Northern Mississippi All Stars unite in 30db @ the Tractor
• KEXP takes over the neighborhood all day long in their third annual Hood to Hood Day @ West Seattle
• Seattle Men’s Chorus zany alter-ego Captain Smartypants kicks out choral jams (also Saturday) @ Town Hall
• Yes, that’s right: Peter Frampton loves your way @ Little Creek Casino
• Roger Ebert hated, hated, hated this movie (but Jonathan Rosenbaum loved it): Chelsea Girls @ Seattle Art Museum
• How’s that involuntary simplicity workin’ out for ya? Duane Elgin is keepin’ it real (simple) @ Town Hall
• How to your 21st century readers (panels & presentations Friday through Sunday) @ Hugo House

Saturday

• Monkey See, Monkey Buy, an auction supporting Macha Monkey Productions @ Freehold Theatre
• Schmorgasborg, a monthly cabaret of new performance @ the Balagan Theatre
• If you missed Hey Marseilles‘ all-ages show at the Vera last night, catch the local orchestral popsters @ the Tractor
• Nashville singer-songwriter Landon Pigg plays the latest (RED)Nights show, with proceeds going to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS in Africa @ Triple Door
• Plants and Animals bring their lush melodies and sense of irony to Seattle. With Frog Eyes and Lost in the Trees @ the Croc

Sunday

• Learn how to moregasm your orgasm for only $35 (or free at their couples’ event next Wednesday) @ Babeland
• City Arts presents Lessons from West, with “Awesome,” Nick Garrison, and Sarah Rudinoff @ the Sorrento Fireside Room
• FREE (but it will assuredly sell out, so be sure to get a seat via a $5 food/beverage voucher): It’s the 2.5-hour final episode of Lost! All the mysteries of The Island revealed, in the company of drunk strangers @ Central Cinema
• Microcredit financier Muhammad Yunus talks about his book Building Social Business @ Town Hall
• FREE: PNB’s Doug Fullington and dancers Chalnessa Eames, Seth Orza, and Kaori Nakamura, talk about Coppélia @ Elliott Bay Book Co.

Monday

• Lynnwood High School jazz bands bring the noise and/or the funk @ Triple Door
• Eat Pan-Asian till you can’t eat no more at the ID Spring Roll @ Showbox SoDo
• Economist and author Juliet Schor talks about measuring “true wealth” @ Town Hall
• Benaroya Hall has a huge built-in organ (What? What’d I say?) that doesn’t get played enough (Oh come on!)–fine, tonight is a French organ music recital @ Benaroya Hall

Tuesday

• MacArthur fellow jazz violinist Regina Carter takes on African folk tunes in her first of two nights @ Jazz Alley
• Sorry folks, the super-teaming of Danger Mouse and James Mercer in Broken Bells, with the melodic pedal-heavy pop of the Morning Benders, is all sold out @ Showbox
• FREE: Real estate is the topic of novelist and L.A. Times op-ed-er Meghan Daum‘s memoir, Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House, which she reads from @ Elliott Bay Book Co.

The Vis-à-Vis Society perform at the Del Rey Monday (Photo by Jenny Jimenez)

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

• Icelandic composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Jóhann Jóhannsson performs a mix of classical and electronic @ the Triple Door
• 5@5, involving free pizza and cheap beer for bike-riders, kicks off @ Georgetown Via Tribunali
• Women’s Health Week continues with an information table hosted by NOW, through Friday @ Seattle University
• Giant Magnet is multi-culti circus-music-art-dance fun for the whole family, through Saturday @ Seattle Center
• Matt Crawford, the PhD-holding motorcycle mechanic, returns to talk about his now-in-paperback Shop Class as Soulcraft @ Town Hall

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Thursday

• “Species,” a show of new paintings by Leroy Davis, opens @ Ghost Gallery
• Jed Dunkerley, Curtis Taylor, and Jason Puccinelli open their new show “Backdrop” @ Vermillion
• Hell, it’s all part of the Capitol Hill Art Walk; check out the full details @ CHS
• Enjoy drinks and a roundtable discussion on the Great American Cocktail at the Cocktail Symposium @ Canlis
• Or grab a beer, because Seattle Beer Week kicks off tonight and runs through May 23. Brewer Kent Larimer will be serving up his Roslyn beers @ the Bottleneck
• A new, ensemble-generated version of the Oedipus Cycle opens tonight @ the Balagan Theatre
• Local writer/actor/genius Marya Sea Kaminski closes out with Condo Millennium at the first “Live at the Film Forum” series @ NWFF
  

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• Friends-of-the-site Mal de Mer and the Redwood Plan play @ the Crocodile
• Out in Fremont, Half Light, Graystar, and Goldie Wilson play @ the High Dive
• And–wow!–a One Act Play Festival is opening @ Stone Soup Theatre!

Friday

• BoingBoing blogger and open source science fiction writer Cory Doctorow reads as part of the Verse Chapter Verse series with music by Pillow Army @ the Sunset Tavern
• Check out the new generation of Seattle artists @ Cornish’s 2010 BFA exhibition
• The 48-Hour Film Project kicks off–expect a mad rush of filmmakers around town
• Shel Silverstein’s grown-up side is on display @ Theater Schmeater
• The SCUBA touring network, featuring Amy O’Neal’s locust, is the first big show @ Velocity’s new space
• The CD Forum presents “The Creation Project,” the culmination of year-long development project for a group of talented artists
• Yes, the rumors are true. It’s the final show for math-rock noisemakers X-Ray Press with their current lineup @ the Josephine

Saturday

• Shout Out Louds sound like the Smiths rolling down a dandelion-filled hillside. The Swedish band recorded their latest, Work, in Seattle with Phil Ek giving it a touch of his trademark, bright clean indie sheen. With hard-touring Freelance Whales @ Neumo’s
• Closing night of Lingo’s Glimmer… @ ACT Theatre
• It’s finally summer! This Saturday and Sunday marks both the U District Street Fair @ the Ave and the 6th annual Seattle Cheese Festival @ Pike Place Market
• FREE: Novelist Catherine Kirkwood (the “dark, erotic” Cut Away is her first) and author Rebecca Brown (essay collection American Lights) team up for a reading @ Hugo House

Sunday

• Frightened Rabbit bring whiskey-soaked heartbreak from Scotland. Playing with Chicago’s technical pop band Maps & Atlases @ Neumo’s
• It’s the closing night of Translations: The Seattle Transgender Film Festival @ NWFF
• Enjoy some Mexican wrestling and saucy striptease, care of Lucha VaVoom @ Showbox SoDo
• Gordon Edgar, cheesemonger for the San Francisco Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, is in town for the aforementioned Cheese Festival, and discusses his book Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge @ Elliott Bay Book Co.

Monday

• The Vis-a-Vis performs for the new release of Poetry Northwest @ the Del Rey
• North by Northwest continues its run (through a field, being chased by a low-flying plane) @ Central Cinema
• Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Isobel Coleman talks about how the often-overlooked women of the Middle East are bringing their own change to the region @ Town Hall
• AM‘s sun-soaked indie pop returns to Seattle, with Diane Birch @ the Croc

Tuesday

• Ukelooza 8 and Manifesto Book Launch @ Canoe Social Club
• It’s the first of a two-night stand for Mississippi bluesman Pinetop Perkins with Chicago blues harpist and vocalist Willie “Big Eyes” Smith @ Jazz Alley
• Are you considering investing for human impact as well as profit? R. Paul Herman talks about his bookThe HIP Investor  @ Town Hall