Tomorrow night kicks off Seattle’s first annual Cabaret Festival, presented by the Can Can and hosted all over the place: shows will be at the Moore, the Triple Door, and at ACT Theatre [Can Can].

As far as I can tell, everyone even sort of cabaret-y is going to be involved–The Tiger Lillies, The Circus Contraption Band, Orkester Zirconium, even Emerald City Soul Club is getting in on the show. Performance art and dancing and drag and comedy and something for pretty much everyone.

We recommend any of it, but particularly Scarlet Room with Vagabond Opera on Wednesday at the Triple Door. There are two shows: one at 7:00, all ages, and one at 10:00 21+. I particularly enjoy the description of Vagabond Opera: “Weaving elements of Kurt Weil, Duke Ellington and Edith Piaf with absurdist flair, theatrics and an old world mood, Vagabond Opera presents the new wave of opera–lusty voices singing in 13 languages and presenting a cabaret of rich musical phrasing, sparkling lyrics and indomitable stage presence, all played with exuberance, skill and a gritty Vagabond edge.”

We’ve talked about Scarlet Room here before, but the last time they played the Triple Door Bonnie Vie had this to say about them: “The band is like a fantastic mechanical doll; churning out a whirl of circus and cabaret melodies, with a stage presence that is larger than life.  With dark music-box-style keys, Alexsandra Weil – the group’s vocalist and pianist – weaves elaborate stories, written by Scarlet Room’s drummer, Eloise Govedare.”

The Triple Door is probably the perfect place for the spell of all of this dark swirling cabaret. You probably don’t want to miss it.

Election Night counting showed that Seattle mayoral candidate Mike McGinn led his opponent, Joe Mallahan, by a mere 910 votes. For reference’s sake, the student body of Chief Sealth High School outnumbers the votes that separated the two.

Today with more ballots counted the separation has only gotten smaller; the Seattle P-I and other media outlets are now reporting that McGinn leads Mallahan by 462 votes. If a dozen of them stayed home, you could fit this number of people into Jillian’s on Eastlake or the Jefferson Community Center.

Next count update comes tomorrow afternoon. Go ahead and kick your shoes off, Greg Nickels, it’s going to be a while til you find out who replaces you.

The last time I went to a silent movie with an organ, I was extremely impressed. We were in the middle of somewhere in Los Angeles and my boyfriend and I might’ve been the youngest people in the theater – by 30 years. The three mini movies were hysterical not because they were old, but because they were actually funny. And the organ played back-up to a great time, hysterical movies complete with sing-a-longs and, best of all, $1 popcorn.

That all said, I was just as excited to go to Silent Movie Mondays. This Mighty Wurlitzer Organ induced movie experience isn’t new to Seattle, but it was to me. After 3 years of living here, I finally had a chance to enjoy my first film at The Paramount. I’ve seen plenty of shows there, but it just seemed different to actually sit back for 2 hours and watch a movie while Jim Riggs, the organ player, jammed away with such caress and ease.

After stalling the movie thanks to latecomers (this would never happen at 45th Guild) we finally were graced with our feature film – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Apparently this was a very important movie for its time because it was the first flick was able to film in the ocean. You can tell the movie took advantage of this brand new technology because there were maybe a few too many scenes that lasted a wee bit too long and all there was to show for it were some little fishies, lots of coral and a big shark.

The movie was entertaining in the way that you see old photos of yourself with a bad trendy hairdo. It wasn’t a quality movie, but one to laugh out for it’s ridiculous characters and bad acting. And sure, the organ maestro played perfectly with each scene and we all had a few chuckles. But I also found myself nodding off every now and then because I just couldn’t stay interested to the actual movie.

Maybe I’m no movie buff, or maybe I just rather see laugh out loud silent movie comedies, but 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea just wasn’t for me. If I were a critic I’d give it a solid C. But thanks to some free popcorn my boyfriend scored, the beautiful ambience that is The Paramount and the very talented organ man, I’d give the Silent Movie Monday experience a whole hearty A.

Silent Movie Mondays is happening throughout the month of November. To get tickets, click on this link.

Everyone’s been wondering which way Boeing was going to jump with their new 787 line for ages, and now they’re officially jumping clear across the country: “Boeing’s board has voted unanimously to build a second 787 final assembly plant in Charleston, according to a highly placed official of the Machinists union.

South Carolina offered the company $170 million in upfront grants for startup costs, plus multiple tax breaks that would be worth tens of millions of dollars more[Times].”

Talks between the local union and the company fell apart, while the workers at the plant in Charleston voted to remove the union [PI].

On October 21, 1871, a man named Mr. Kennedy opened a roller skating rink at what is now 1st and Cherry [historylink]. A couple of weeks later, the editor of the Weekly Intelligencer went and broke his ankle:

One of our townsmen, who was just flattering himself with the idea of having acquired some proficiency as a skatist … while making a round on the rollers, at the Pavilion … got himself into an ungainly ‘posish,’ when the skate he was for the instant turning upon in a twinkling left him in the lurch. In gravitating to the floor, which he did with inconceivable rapidity, and that, too, without the least restraint over the grotesque contortions and genuflections [sic] of his limbs he went down in an unseemly pile, sustaining considerable injury.

The opening was attended by 100 or so people who skated all day long and then cleared the floor for dancing at 9:00.

-Those Darlins are putting on a free show before they play at the Sunset. Where? Sonic Boom in Ballard. When? Today (Friday) at 6 pm.

-Those crazy teens should take advantage of “Teen Swim” at the Ballard Pool where they can splash around for free between 7-8 pm, tonight (Friday).

-Give audience feedback and see a free special workshop of ARTIFACTS OF CONSEQUENCE performed at Theater Schmeater at 1500 Summit Ave, tonight (Friday) at 7:30-9:30 pm.

Have a free, wet weekend.

I’m off to Portland for an 8k race, but thought you should know that usually races cost you money to register. Some, like Amica’s Marathon can put you $75 in the hole.

That’s why I’m excited to tell you that Run Vera Run is absolutely FREE to register! And the word on the street is that the treats are worth the FREEness. Walk around Seward Park and when you’re done feast on free pizza and cupcakes. Of course, they are taking donations, but like I said the registration is FREE and that’s FREE enough for me.

photo by ray tracing [flickr] via our group pool [#]

• Art walks in West Seattle [wsaw] and Capitol Hill [blitz] duke it out for your autumn evening attentions.
• In West Seattle, the opening party for an exhibition of photos by Chona Kasinger, who’s easily one of the best rock photographers in the city. Though she’s not yet allowed into 21+ shows, she’s nevertheless assembled a drool-worthy portfolio of just about every band who matters for just about every outlet that counts. Highlights are on display at Cupcake Royale.
• Richard Dawkins cheers up the evolutionists at Hec Ed. Arrive early and bring pom poms. [ubookstore]
• the Stranger gets happy at Pony with free books, a drawing for hard-to-come-by HUMP tickets, and happy hour specials. [slog]