Saturday , September 18, 2009
7:00 PM – Shifting Words: Poetry Reading
Dunshee House
Shift hosts the fourth installment of this spoken word event. Part of National Recovery Month.
[LINK]

Sunday, September 19, 2009
4:00 PM – Kenneth A. Burr: Coming Out, Coming Home: Making Room for Gay Spirituality in Therapy
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“Gays, Guns, and God” takes on a creepy subtext with this book, which purports to “provide readers a rare opportunity to enlarge their belief systems, and interpretation of Scriptures so they can make room for spirituality that includes homosexuals.” I found this book problematic on many, many levels, not the least being the smarmy “see how enlightened we are? We don’t hate all teh gays… only those that don’t love Jesus!” tone. Excuse me while I gouge out my eyes with a spork.
[LINK]

girl talk, performing tonight and on monday at showboxes. photo by josh (me) from last year’s block party. [flickr]

• Philadelphia master of pop-culture mixes, Girl Talk, and Illegal Art labelmate Junk Culture (who mixes hooks, samples, field recordings, and live drums into a “love letter from outer space” join forces tonight at the Showbox SoDo to drive your brian wild with new connections between deeply ingrained cultural fragments, send your body into wild spasms of recognition, and call scenesters to the stage to become part of the performance. Tonight’s show is reportedly sold out; paradoxically, tickets may be still be available for next week’s school night performance at the more intimate Showbox (Original flavor) at the market. (sold out) / 21st: $15-20[sodo / market]
• If you don’t have tickets, but still are looking for a party, head to Fremont where Mad Rad will be celebrating P’Smoov’s birthday at Nectar. Mad Rad headline, maybe from the rafters — who can say?, with support from Ninjasonik, Totally Michael, and an early DJ set from Darwin. $10, Friday. [nectar]
• On Saturday, horror punks Black Eyes and Neckties wind down by playing their last Seattle show EVER at Neumo’s. If the place is still standing, Israeli garage anticeers Monotonix will do their best to correct that, playing a floor show, and likely getting into all sorts of shenanigans. $13, Saturday. [neumos]
• Not satisfied with the offerings in town (there’s also the Get Up Kids and Arctic Monkeys!)? Why not pack up the kids and head south to Portland where Music Fest Northwest continues tonight all around town. We bolted down last night and had our faces melted by Explosions in the Sky and hearts squeezed by Frightened Rabbit. Space allowing, a $60 wristband gets you into bazillions of club and day shows by the likes of Mount Eerie, Sunny Day Real Estate, Arctic Monkeys, Mudhoney, Arctic Monkeys, BOAT, Deer Tick, Port O’Brien, Mayer Hawthorne, and the Get Up Kids. Portland, through Sunday.  [mfnw]

12:00 PM – Wendy Hornsby: In the Guise of Mercy
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
6th book in a series that hasn’t been updated in over a decade.
[LINK]

6:30 PM – Heather Davis: Never Cry Werewolf
Queen Anne Books
The author presents her first YA novel.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Stephen Elliott: The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Moods, Masochism, and Murder
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“The Adderall Diaries begins like the ocean, seemingly able to take in everything—prize fights to Paris Hilton—until the ocean forms into a river, making its way through unmapped territories—a murder, an absent father—and finally this river is stilled into one precious teardrop. Stephen Elliott is one of those ‘people who keep searching when everything is dark’ – I don’t know a more hauntingly fearless writer, and this is an immediate, visceral, and ultimately beautiful book.” – Nick Flynn. “You don’t just read The Adderall Diaries, you fall right into them … It’s a brilliant book.” – Roddy Doyle
[LINK]

12:00 PM – Jon Katz: The Soul of a Dog: Reflections on the Spirits of the Animals of Bedlam Farm
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“Jon Katz understands dogs as few others do, intuitively and unburdened by sentimentality. His keen insights cut to the heart of the human-pet relationship—its immense joys and painful sorrows. With wisdom and grace, he unlocks the canine soul and the complicated wonders that lie within, and offers powerful insights to anyone who has ever struggled with, and loved, a troubled animal.” – John Grogan
[LINK]

5:00 PM – Tod Davies: Jam Today: A Diary of Cooking with What You’ve Got Pilot Books “A diary of cooking with what you’ve got.” Doesn’t The Splendid Table do a weekly segment like this: “Hi Lynn, I’ve got moldy goat cheese, peanut butter, a head of cabbage, orange juice concentrate, and ground lamb…”
[LINK]

6:00 PM – Miz Floes & the Carmel Latte Duo: Rhythmic Rhyme Spoken Word
Northwest African American Museum
All ages open mic!
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Front Porch Theatre: Abe Lincoln in Illinois
University Bookstore U-District
Community reading and discussion.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Joann Green Byrd: Calamity: The Heppner Flood of 1903
Fremont Place Books
A disastrous flood did not quite wipe out Eastern Oregon. What a shame.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Mattox Roesch w/ ULGM & Matthew Simmons: Sometimes We’re Always Real Same-Same
Neptune Coffee
Roesch will read and sign from his debut. ULGM will play music. Simmons will be charmingly self-deprecating. Good times!
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Edward Espe Brown: The Complete Tassajara Cookbook: Recipes, Techniques, and Reflections from the Famed Zen Kitchen
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“With profound-yet-playful regard for his subject matter, Ed Brown has consistently graced us with the practical poetry of his delicious cooking … In our modern era of rapid media images and flashing-light information, The Complete Tassajara Cookbook will provide a glowing sense of calm—hefty with substance, light with spirit, and rich with the experience of a master.” – Mollie Katzen
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Lesley Hazelton: After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia – Sunni Split in Islam
Town Hall Seattle
“…Americans in general, and our politicians in particular, often can’t tell Sunni from Shi’ites. With the publication of this outstanding book, we no longer have any excuse. Hazleton (Jezebel) ties today’s events to their ancient roots, resurrecting seventh century Arabia with reverence and vivid immediacy … The battle to name Muhammad’s successor is gripping—but it is Hazleton’s ability to link the past and present that distinguishes this book … anyone with an interest in the Middle East, U.S. – international relations or a profound story masterfully told will be well served by this exceptional book.” – Publishers Weekly
[LINK]

7:30 PM – SAM Word: Reading
Richard Hugo House
Work from poets Nicole Hardy and Peter Pereira in response to the SAM exhibition, Everything Under the Sun: Photographs by Imogen Cunningham.
[LINK]

frightened rabbit, photo by Dave Gourley via frightened rabbit [myspace]

• Tonight at Neumo’s, a slate of Scottish bands with deceptively twee names. Sure, all three of the Fat Cat labelmates have their share of emotional turmoil, but they swaddle their sad bastard hearts in searing guitars and thick brogue. Of the group, the Twilight Sad are the most twisted wall of sound, Frightened Rabbit comes nearest to the hard-driving diary entries, and We Were Promised Jetpacks splits the difference. All three of their albums have found their way into heavy ipod rotation. $13 adv, 8pm [neumos]
• Sportin’ Life’s D. Black, seemingly beloved by all of the hiphop fans on my internet, releases his new record Ali’Yah tonight at the Crocodile with support from Dyme Def, They Live, Darrius Willrich, Spaceman, and DJ Vitamin D. $10, 8pm. [croc]

7:30 PM – Book-It Theatre: A Confederacy of Dunces
Book-It Reperatory Theatre
Book-It does the cult classic.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Tess Gallagher & Fred Marchant: Reading
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Gallagher will read from her third fiction collection, The Man from Kinvara: Selected Stories. Marchant will read from The Looking House, his latest collection of poems.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Tod Davies: Jam Today: A Diary of Cooking with What You’ve Got
University Bookstore U-District
“Here are my secrets for cooking without recipes. Know what you want to eat. Keep it simple. Enjoy yourself.” In my household, this technique is known as “run for your life!”
[LINK]

grand archives, photo by (me) josh [flickr]

• We have already extolled, on several occasions [mb], the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. They play tonight at Neumo’s with Cymbals Eat Guitars (who impressed this summer at the KEXP mural series) and the Deprecation Guild for your enjoyment and likely swooning (careful in/of the all-ages balcony!). $13 adv, 8 pm [neumos]
• If you already have your pre-order bandana, you’ll want to show up early for a spot inside Sonic Boom to hear an acoustic rendition of Grand Archives’s new record, Keep In Mind Frankenstein. When Iron & Wine played an in-store this summer, fans lined up around the block and spilled through the door. They also play a show later this month at the Crocodile; tickets are still on sale. [croc]
• The team at Capitol Hill Seattle tips back a glass or three of wine tonight at Poco Wine Room, where the usual happy hour will be extended until 7 pm. Trade tips about life on the Hill, meet your friendly neighborhood bloggers, and ponder what sort of IRL blogwar fireworks might erupt if the CH.KOMO crew stopped in for a tipple. [chs]

7:00 PM – AJ Jacobs: The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment
University Bookstore U-District
The man behind Living Biblically is in town to talk about his latest, the story behind the story. Excellent!
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Ben & Linda Marra: Faces from the Land: Twenty Years of Pow Wow Tradition
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
The Marras present their second collection of really pretty pictures.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Donald McKenzie, Jamal Rahman, & Ted Falcon: Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-Opening, Hope-Filled Friendship of a Rabbi, Pastor and Sheikh!
University Temple Church
Have I ever told you the joke about the priest and the rabbi who were in a plane crash?
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Jesse Minkert & Jacob Jans
Pilot Books
No idea. Website had not been updated at the time of this writing. Feel free to click the link, below.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Carol Yoon: Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science
Town Hall Seattle
“…the story of the rise of a science, the science of taxonomy or the classification of all life…” Deep.
[LINK]

6:30 PM – Robert Cumbow: The Northwest Independent Editors Guild
Richard Hugo House
The IP attorney will discuss IP issues as they pertain to editors. Seeing as how editors make their living from other folk’s intellectual property and all. Yes.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Frank Portman: Andromeda Klein
Secret Garden Bookshop Book signing party for the author’s sophomore release. “High school sophomore Andromeda, an outcast because she studies the occult and has a hearing impairment and other disabilities, overcomes grief over terrible losses by enlisting others’ help in her plan to save library books–and finds a kindred spirit along the way.” –Publisher’s summary
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Hugo Works in Progress: Open Mic
Richard Hugo House
“A monthly open mic designed to give writers a chance to read in front of fellow writers and share what they have been working on.” (RHH) [LINK]

7:00 PM – Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (Ret.): Education: A Big Idea in Today’s America
Town Hall Seattle
This event is sold out, but if you know someone, ask them to sneak you in, in their backpack. Justice O’Connor will be discussing “Education: A Big Idea in Today’s America,” but Elliott Bay will be selling Justice O’Connor’s books: Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest & Finding Susie, among others (one hopes). Oh, and if you want to be my good fairy and give me a ticket, well… I’ll say thank you, very sincerely. How’s that?
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Paula Becker & Alan Stein: Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: A Timeline History
University Bookstore U-District
Washington’s first World’s Fair continues to fascinate history geeks celebrating the Centennial.
[LINK]

2:00 PM – Band of Poets: Mexico City Blues
Richard Hugo House
John Burgess, Jed Myers, Paul Nelson, Raul Sanchez, Amanda D’pair and Sergey Feldman will read selections from Kerouac’s 242 choruses backed by musicians on guitar, harmonica, bass, drums and horn.
[LINK]

3:00 PM – Craven Rock & Alexis Wolf: Eaves of Ass #7
Pilot Books
Zine release party. Great title, but I can’t believe that their parents gave them those names.
[LINK]

6:00 PM – Mark Kraushaar w/ Aaron Silverberg & Janette Rosebrook: Poetry Reading
Fremont Place Books
Kraushaar is the winner of the Felix Pollak Prize. He’ll be reading from his latest Falling Brick Kills Local Man. Love the title, looking forward to the reading.
[LINK]