Break the Hump Day doldrums by heading out to Rebar for the second annual Literary Death Match, a wild cross-disciplinary shootout, with readers like Stacey Levine (who won the PEN/West Fiction Award for My Horse and Other Stories) and Aaron Dietz (author of Reserved for Emperors) and performers Kelleen Conway Blanchard (playwright of “Small Town”) and Danbert Nobacon (lead singer of Chumbawumba).

Judges for the event are Paul Constant (of The Stranger), Maria Semple (This One Is Mine), and Jonathan Evison (All About Lulu), the host is Todd Zuniga of Opium Magazine.

The Literary Death March takes place Wednesday, November 11; doors at 8:00, show at 9:00. $10 at the door, but $8 in advance at Brown Paper Tickets.

Where: Re-bar, 1114 Howell St. (map)

Cost: $10 at the door; $8 pre-sale at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/87563.

Local poet and artist A.K. “Mimi” Allen creates some genuinely interesting and provocative art; her installation at this year’s Bumbershoot was one of my favorite parts of the festival.

Currently she’s engaged in a new project with the help of ACT Theater. Daily through December (except Monday) from 5 to 6 pm on weekdays and 1 to 2 pm on weekends, Mimi sits in a window at ACT and views the world as if it really were the stage and all of its people performers. After an hour of watching, Mimi will review the “show” she’s just seen and post it in the window so that people walking by the next day can read her review from yesterday.

Anyone who is interested is encouraged to come down and join the act: dance, pantomime, act out a scene, sing, shout (she can’t hear you in either case), or do whatever feels right to you. Your performance will be incorporated in the show as a whole.

Solace Room in the new City Hostel Seattle

If you don’t feel like driving or busing all the way up to Greenwood for art tonight, also consider the happenings in Belltown.
- City Hostel Seattle (2nd Ave and Battery St.) will once again have it’s doors open to to public to check out the uniquely painted rooms, all of which were done by local Seattle artists. They are all worth a peek into, and most will make you wish you could stay the night in them. Seriously something not to be missed. But hurry up, word has it this is the last month the rooms will be open. After this the art shows will be restricted to just the hallways.
- The Whisky Bar (2000 2nd Ave) will feature artist 179’s new show along with live painting and plenty of booze.
- Schmancy (1932 2nd Ave) has a show by Portland artist team APAK who has also created a line of plush dolls exclusively for Schmancy. (special thanks to PowFox for the heads-up on this show)
- Roc La Rue (2312 2nd Ave) has a show by Jim Blanchard that is opening and looks like something not to be missed.
- Halogen Gallery (2316 2nd Ave) has a show featuring the art of Justin Hilgrove, Ninjagrl, Soopajdelux. Always good stuff from these three artists!

It’s been a while since you’ve been on an art walk, hasn’t it, maybe even one whole week or even longer? And now you find yourself thinking, “Wow, I should totally go on an art walk.”

Really, you should.

Tonight you can head up Capitol Hill for Blitz, an artwalk encompassing art of all types in galleries, coffee shops, private studios, street corners, and retail shops. There’s a ton of work to be seen, but you might especially want to keep your eye out for “Glitterporn” at Grey Gallery, a “tongue-in-cheek exploration of censorship, sex, and pornography” and “Whimsy Home Decor”, a mixed media work combining multi-level paintings and three-dimensional murals.

Friday night there’s the Art Up Greenwood Phinney Art Walk which features photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, books, spoken word, performance art, theater and food and drink specials from neighborhood merchants, not to mention the always-charming “living art” of the cats and kittens available for adoption at PAWS Cat City. While you’re there, you should definitely stop in to Taproot Theatre to view Sam Vance’s water lily series, studying the effects of light upon water. As a bonus for stopping in during the art walk, you’ll also get to observe Vance as he sketches a portrait of fellow artist Nikki Visel, a sketch which will then be used on-stage during Taproot’s upcoming presentation of Enchanted April.

kerfuffle, a glimpse at the bumbershoot arts program courtesy lele barnett. more in her photoset [flickr] via our group pool [#]

With the biggest names on the Bumbershoot poster typically dedicated to music (often of the confusing mainstage variety), the most visible lines at the festival composed of dedicated comedy fans, and the most frequent accessory a buttery stick or corn or deep fried dough, it’s often easy to forget that stashed away in the northwest corner of the festival is an exceptional set of art exhibits. If you’re worried that you’ll become so overwhelmed by bands, shortbread, skateboarders on energy drink vert ramps, scrambles to performance spaces, and other forms of exhaustion, then why not add to your schedule and drop in on the art exhibits a day early?

In ancient times, Bumbershoot was an even more massive, four day festival. Now with the magical Friday evening having fallen out of favor, the day is left open to peruse the visual arts programming. Even better, you can see it all, without the massive crowds and with no admission charge from noon to 7pm in celebration of the Mayor’s Arts Awards (presented this year to Artist Trust, Jesse Higman, Speight Jenkins, Northwest Tap Connection, Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras).

This year’s featured exhibits include four major presentation by some of Seattle’s finest: the Seattle-Moscow Poster Show, curated by Daniel R. Smith; Dada Economics, Greg Lundgren and Vital 5 Productions; the return of the Gage Drawing Jam; and Kerfuffle (or the Uneasy Relationship Between Humanity and the Environment) curated by Chris Weber and Lele Barnett. In addition, spectacles abound around the Seattle Center grounds. Press release with tons of information about the program after the jump.

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seattle art museum by faeryboots. from our flickr pool.

The Jon and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum will discuss this summer’s big show. EBB will have copies of the catalog available.
[LINK]

Seattle’s hardworking Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs is hosting a series of public art roundtables and they’d like to invite you, the aspiring public artist, to join them.

The Public Art Roundtables workshop is dedicated to emerging public artists. Attendees get to take part in half hour roundtable discussions on everything from preparing a strong application to developing projects and covering one’s rear end, legally speaking. There are also opportunities to schedule 15 minute one on one sessions for more individualized discussion.

Some of the presenters include artists Marita Dingus, Claudia Fitch, Kay Kirkpatrick, and Kristin Tollefson as well as staff members of the Art & Cultural Affairs office.

If you want to attend these roundtables, taking place Saturday, September 19th at City Hall, the good news is that they’re totally free. The bad news is that there is limited space–you’ll want to hurry and sign up ASAP; get contact info by visiting the Office of Art & Cultural Affairs workshop page.

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Tuesday night at Northwest Film Forum join filmmaker Bill Brown and media artist Sabine Gruffat for an evening of video performances, spoken word, scratchy records, and 35 mm slides with their project Time Machine

Gruffat directs you through Real Time Rendering, Quartz and Max patches through digital and analog hyperspace. Brown gives you a guided tour of memory’s roadside attractions from both the past and the future.

The trip begins 8 pm Tuesday, August 18th.

Pateboard Skoem by Slightlynorth from our Flickr pool

The New York School

A couple towards the front cuddles,
As Frank’s cat excavates his armpit
And looks away from the camera,
Black and white diva tabby.

Farther back, a woman slumps,
Mouth open, wheezing? Snoring.
She snuffles, sits up, fakes a cough.
(So sorry, pardon me.)

Schuyler sweats, glistening beads
Rolling down his face as he mumbles,
His thick lisp like surf describing rock.
I think the cameraman is high.

The couple still canoodles, like the gallery
Is Make-Out Point and they are in his car
Over a dry Midwestern town,
Dirty windows steamed with lust.

John is funny. “Saturday,” he reveals,
“Is a very good time to write a poem.”
And, casually, “all words are pretty good.”
I concur, but secretly contemplate nachos.

*

Wave Books Poetry Festival, August 14-16, 2009. Good times, y’all.