Bumbershoot program, 1993, courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives. From our Flickr pool.

12:00 PM – Christian Lander: Stuff White People Like
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

1:45 PM – Spencer Moody: The Enablers Have Spoken and You’re Fine
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

2:00 PM – ReAct Theatre: The House in Town
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“Elliott Bay’s Tenth Annual Staged Play Reading Series continues with a Seattle premiere reading presentation of Richard Greenberg’s recent Broadway play, The House in Town. The time is New Year’s Eve, 1929, and a Jewish department store tycoon and his shiksa wife bid their last few party guests with a parting wish: “A better year ahead.” But, as that pivotal year begins, the shadow of the enormous new apartment complex under construction looms over their home. The shadow also portends Wall Street’s impending collapse, and the growing strain upon the couple’s marriage. Don’t miss this extraordinary play.” –EBB
[LINK]

3:30 PM – SE Hinton
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

3:45 PM – Melvin Van Peebles
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

5:45 PM – Zak Smith: We Did Porn
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

7:30 PM: iLL-Literacy
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

8:15 PM – David Cross
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

Are you looking at Metblogs on some sort of mobile device? Are you at least willing to let me pretend that you might be? Elvis Perkins in Dearland will be playing on the Northwest Court Stage at 8:30. They played in the KEXP Music Lounge this afternoon with at least three times as many instruments are there are band members, including the extra special one man band drum cymbal combination pictured, and now I sort of want to kidnap them all and make them be my own personal bluesy rock soundtrack.

If you are here, you should be preparing to watch them.

At the risk of jinxing my good luck, I have to point out that it hasn’t yet rained on me, and is in fact kind of humid. In case the weather at Seattle Center is behaving differently than elsewhere in town.

The crowd at Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head featured more neon sunglasses than I think I’ve ever seen in one place and nearly shook down the gates holding them out of the photo pit with all of their dancing. As expected, the band puts on the perfect early afternoon outdoor show, bounding all over the stage and throwing a big inflatable turtle named Bessie into the crowd.

Past Lives is made up of some former Blood Brothers, and they have left off with the screaming in favor of something more like wailing. (Also: a terrific beard.) Some bands on the EMP stage are overwhelmed by the light show or swallowed by the space, but these guys took over everything compellingly.

The visual arts are well-represented by Kerfuffle, which I can’t actually be objective about because my friends are behind it. But the show is wonderfully curated and interactive.

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. This is one of the worst covers I have ever seen.

12:00 PM – Neil Low: Sign of the Dragon
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
“…a maelstrom of revenge, tested loyalties, corruption and violence” (SMB) set in Seattle during the ’40s.
[LINK]

12:00 PM – Tom Douglas & Kathleen Flynn: F is for Food
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

2:00 PM – Steve Gritton: The Trouble with Sisters and Robots
Barnes & Noble Pacific Place
“Meet and greet Steve Gritton, local author, teacher and professional goofball. Steve will be reading and signing his newest title The Trouble with Sisters and Robots in support of Harborview Pediatric Literacy Project!” –B&N
[LINK]

2:00 PM – Writers in the Schools: Youngheads vs. Oldheads
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

3:30 PM – The Great Northwest: Jess Walter, Kerry Cohen, Kevin Sampsell
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

5:15 PM – McSweeney’s New Fiction
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Speak, Poet! Tara hardy, Jack McCarthy, Danny Sherrard
Bumbershoot
[LINK]

Back in 1909 during the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, one of the most popular events during the three-month fair was “Norway Day”, a celebration which included a specially built Viking ship which sailed across Lake Washington.

This year’s celebration of the centennial anniversary of the A-Y-P includes a day to commemorate that Norway Day with the launch of another Viking ship, this one even older than the original. The Nordic Spirit was originally built in the early 19th century in Norway as a coastal fishing boat. Back in the 1960s, a dragon’s head and other decorations were added to make it look like a Viking ship. For the past 10 months, the Nordic Spirit has been docked at the Pacific Fisherman Shipyard where a dedicated crew has been restoring the vessel with a number of components including new planks, 10 gallons of pine tar, and hundreds of copper rivets.

On Sunday, August 30, the newly refurbished Nordic Spirit will leave the confines of the shipyard to be rowed over to Fisherman’s Terminal (3919 – 18th Ave W) for a special rededication ceremony featuring Honorary Consul of Norway Kim Nesselquist, Washington state senators Ken Jacobsen and Jeanne Kohl-Welles, representatives from the Nordic Heritage Museum, the Norwegian Male Chorus and the Norwegian Ladies Chorus.

The ceremony begins at 2 pm.

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.

Crisp Morning by Xinapray. From our Flickr pool.

Face pressing forward
into the glass mountain west,
through the train window

Thanks, Jeff, and enjoy!

Light Reign, a James Turrell Skyspace

There can be only one…

Wave Books, co-sponsors of the Wave Poetry Festival, in conjunction with the Henry Art Gallery, have offered a free pass to this weekend’s verse-fabulous events to one lucky winner. To win, e-mail a haiku (or other short poem) to seattle (dot) metblog (at) gmail (dot) com. We’ll pick a winner and a pass will be left in the lucky dog’s name at Will Call.

Poetry is cool.
All the popular kids write.
You know you want to.

Light Reign, a James Turrell Skyspace. Photo courtesy of the Seattle PI.

Next weekend, August 14th-16th, Seattle poetry press Wave Books, with the UW’s Henry Art Gallery, is hosting a poetry festival: three days of poetry, film, books, art, book arts, et cetera, et cetera. The event will feature Wave authors and take place in the Henry Auditorium, as well as the James Turrell Skyspace.

Authors scheduled to read are Joshua Beckman, Noelle Kocot, Dorothea Lasky, Anthony McCann, Eileen Myles, Richard Meier, Maggie Nelson, Geoffrey Nutter, Matthew Rohrer, Mary Ruefle, Dara Wier, Jon Woodward, Matthew Zapruder and Rachel Zucker. Various authors will read 7 – 9 PM on Friday and Saturday, but all will read in the Skyspace on Sunday, 11 AM – 4 PM.

The festival is limited to 150 tickets, and run $50 for students, $75 for regular folks. A limited number of day passes ($25 each) are available for Friday and Saturday admissions only; there are no Sunday passes.

Also at the Henry next weekend is Ann Lislegaard’s 2062, a trilogy of digitally animated installations based on classic works of science fiction by Ursula LeGuin, J.G. Ballard, and Samuel R. Delany. 2062 closes August 23rd and really should not be missed. The other must-see exhibit is Chiho Aoshima’s The red-eyed tribe, a digital mural influenced and inspired by traditional Japanese painting, modern pop culture, manga, and kawaii.

The red-eyed tribe by Chiho Aoshima. Photo courtesy of Blum and Poe.