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MONDAY
ARTFoodArt Collection Pop-up Art Show
See food sculpture, painting, photography, and more by âTroy Gua, Rich Stevens, Jean Bradbury, Genevieve St Charles, John Rizzotto, David Teichner, Ben Beres, and Amy Salowitzâ. Some highlights: Gua's sardonic sculptural objects like a super-stuffed Oreo and a glowing burger, St. Charles's La Croix series, and Stevens's burger-head icons.
Closing Monday
Adam Sandler & Friends
Either you like Adam Sandler or you donât. I happen to love the guy, maybe because I was a teenager when he was a cast member on Saturday Night Live or maybe because one time in LA I saw him eating brunch at the Malibu Inn or maybe it all comes down to that Hannukah song. His seemingly irrepressible urge to smile, his stupid songs with hilarious lyrics, his dopey eyes, his lack of pretention, his way of looking like he got lost on his way to someone elseâs party but sure heâll stop and tell a few jokes and sing songsâitâs the perfect comedy for stoners. Get as high as possible and see him perform at Benaroya Hall with âsurprise special guests.â CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE
Winter Whiskey Dinner
This Southern-inspired four-course meal featuring stick-to-your-ribs comfort fare, like sage sausage corn balls, spicy fried pimento cheese yam fritters, and bourbon pretzel bread pudding, is coupled with three wintry whiskey cocktails made with Blade & Bow bourbon, I.W. Harper bourbon, and George Dickel whiskey. Diageo Reserve whiskey educator Doug Kragel will join chef Josef Bonneville and bar manager James Germain to lend some background to each pairing.
Guilty Pleasures
At this gleeful celebration of "books you hate to love," see live performances ripped from the pages of dumb novels and stuff your face with snacks and drinks. There will also be a raffle for a Babeland prize, among others things. Justin Huertas will host.
State of the Theatre: Playwriting in the Age of Trump
Misha Berson will moderate a panel of playwrights, including Yussef El Guindi, Karen Hartman, Vincent Delaney, Keiko Green, and Ramon Esquivel, in a discussion of how theater can be "political" and reflect the state of the nation.
Juli Berwald: Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone
The future is jelly. Specifically, our warm, polluted, carbon-saturated ocean is more hospitable to jellyfish than to the fish we love to eat. Juli Berwald's book explains how cnidarians' proliferation are a warning sign that we need to treat our oceans much better, or we'll be snacking on peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches instead of sushi.
MONDAY-THURSDAY
ARTFrancisco Guerrero: Loaves and Fishes
There is a growing movement of conservative Christians who are withdrawing from society to live off the grid, preparing for the impending environmental and social catastrophes that they know are coming, since their own political beliefs and lifestyles have helped bring them about. Seattle University associate professor Francisco Guerrero examines these "prepper" systems through drawing and sculpture, connecting contemporary evangelical aspirations with the ancient growing and gathering techniques of pre-Columbian Mexico. This exhibition features functional animal traps, among other things. Come hungry? EMILY POTHAST
Closing Thursday
Shellfish Showcase
Shellfish Showcase is the seafood counterpart to Restaurant Week, organized by Dine Around Seattle. The organization has rounded up a host of restaurants to devise exclusive menus with four items highlighting fresh local shellfish, at least two of them entrĂ©es. Some notable participants include underground Pike Place trattoria Il Bistro, cozy Belltown wood-fired kitchen Orfeo, Fremont sushi bar Chiso, Sodo Korean steak house Girin Ssam Bar, Wallingford Japanese yakitori joint Yoroshiku, and Frankâs Oyster House in Ravenna, just to name a few. Itâs a great opportunity to slurp some briny bivalves and scope out some hidden gems you wouldnât otherwise try.
MONDAY-FRIDAY
ARTRevealing Today's Northwest Coastal Peoples: Native Cultural Gatherings
See a collection of artifacts that reflect the cultural traditions of local native coastal peoples.
Closing Friday
MONDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCEStraight White Men
In Washington Ensemble Theatre's Northwest debut of this family drama about three brothers mulling over their varying degrees of success during a Christmas vacation, Young Jean Lee holds whiteness and straightness and maleness up to the light for a proper examination that's long overdue. Something tells me that director Sara Porkalob, who has written extensively on the issue, is going to have a lot of fun with this one. Though there's plenty of fodder for her, theater critic Charles Isherwood says the play "goes far beyond cheap satire, ultimately becoming a compassionate and stimulating exploration of one manâs existential crisis." RICH SMITH
No performance on Tuesday or Wednesday
TUESDAY
ARTNEXT STAGE Workshop: âGiving Backâ
Nikkita Oliver will join the Next Stage lineup to discuss how to give back to the community through art and how to use art as a means of social justice.
Brewlab & Taylor Shellfish Pop-Up
Enjoy a special menu from Redhook built around Taylor Shellfish's offerings and learn to shuck at the "Learn to Shuck" table.
Anne Fadiman: The Wine Lover's Daughter
Anne Fadiman is well known for her acclaimed 1997 biography of a Hmong refugee family from Laos, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, which chronicles the family's navigation of the American health care system. Join her as she presents her newest book, The Wine Loverâs Daughter: A Memoir, which tells the story of her parents, including the New Yorker editor Cliff Fadiman.
BeWild: Lowell Skoog
Lowell Skoog will kick off the BeWild Speaker Series with his presentation Living Northwest History: Reflections on the Past and Future of Northwest Mountaineering. He'll talk about the rich heritage of mountain exploration, activism, literature, and art in the Pacific Northwest.
Climate Change Conversations
This "concise, non-partisan, scientifically based" presentation from C-Change Conversations addresses five questions that the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication claims are held by Americans across the political spectrum: How do we know itâs real? How do we know it is us? What do scientists think? What are the dangers? Is there hope we can address it? Learn some answers and ask questions.
Laurie Frankel: This Is How It Always Is
Seattle writer Laurie Frankel will read from her third novel, This Is How It Always Is, which is about the trials, tribulations, questions, and unbridled delights that come along with raising a trans child. Though Poppy is only one of the five children, and though the socially constructed disconnect between her genitals and her gender enter the realm of public concern, as Frankel writes, for only about 2 percent of her life, Frankel focuses the story on the mother's concerns about Poppy. That's because the world seems to be focused on concerns about Poppy. What will the first day of school be likeâfor a girl who has a penis!? What will a sleepover be likeâfor a girl who has a penis?! Can a 5-year-old even really know whether or not they're a girl with a penis? If they don't, should you encourage them one way or the other? Frankel will let you know. RICH SMITH
Maryn McKenna: Big Chicken
Listen, I understand as well as anyone that the flesh that comes off a chickenâs body has been strangely romanticized into being a miracle cure for all maladies and a staple of any well-rounded diet. I also understand that unlike cows and pigs, the birds themselves are hard to sympathize with. But you need only leaf through a few pages of Maryn McKennaâs Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Changed Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats to grasp that the conspiracy to turn these animals into an industrial food staple is only slightly worse for them than it is for us. Sometimes the process of eliminating meat from your dietâeven graduallyârequires only a small nudge. Eric Schlosserâs Fast Food Nation gave a lot of people that nudge when it came out 17 years ago. Big Chicken is part of that same continuum. Hereâs hoping it nudges a lot more of us. SEAN NELSON
Salon of Shame
Writing that makes you cringe ("middle school diaries, high school poetry, unsent letters") is read aloud with unapologetic hilarity at this Salon of Shame.
Our Futures Are Woven with One Another
This panel brings together Indigenous, queer, and trans people of color artists and activists from the Puget Sound to discuss transformational shifts in their work over time, insights gained from working in a community-oriented setting, and "potential areas for additional decolonial coalescings, collaborations, and coalitions." The panelists are Ahimsa Timoteo BodhrĂĄn, Storme Webber, and Christopher Paul Jordan.
TUESDAY-SATURDAY
ARTInternational Mezzotint Invitational
Douglas Bosley, Karinna Gomez, Julie Niskanen, Judith Rothchild, Kouki Tsuritani, and dozens of other artists' mezzotints (a type of intaglio print invented in the 17th century) will reveal the versatility of the medium, ranging from detailed botanical depictions to fantastic "quantum" landscapes.
Closing Saturday
Kurt Seligmann: "Protuberances Cardiaques" Suite
See depictions of zany machine-creature-conglomerations from Swiss American surrealist/fantasist artist Kurt Seligmann.
Closing Saturday
Zhi Lin: Confronting History | Retrieving Memory
Zhi Lin continues to explore the same themes of Chinese immigration as in the Tacoma Art Museum exhibit In Search of the Lost History of Chinese Migrants and the Transcontinental Railroads.
Closing Saturday
TUESDAY-SUNDAY
PERFORMANCETwo Trains Running
Everyone should be well aware of Fences, August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece about black family life in the 1950s. But everyoneâespecially Seattleites concerned with issues of gentrification, activism, rising racial tensions, and economic inequalityâwould also do well to spend as much time thinking about Two Trains Running, the next in Wilson's 10-play cycle. Set in a Pittsburgh diner, Wilson reckons with the revolutionary decade of the 1960s, when expectations for the future of the civil rights movement were as high as they were uncertain. Everyone should also know that Wilson's a hometown hero, having spent the latter years of his life writing in the Victrola on 15th or the (old) Canterbury on 19th. Seeing his plays at the Rep, where his cycle of plays was produced in full, carries a special resonance. Juliette Carrillo will direct. RICH SMITH
WEDNESDAY
READINGS & TALKSCharles Waters with Reagan Jackson: Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship
Actor/poet Charles Waters will read from Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship and speak with Reagan Jackson about how children experience race. Lashaunycee OâCain of Youth Speaks Seattle will start things off with a slam poem.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors: When They Call You a Terrorist
C. Davida Ingram will engage one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, in a conversation about protest, justice, and survival on the occasion of her new memoir's publication.
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY
ARTBlack Imagination: The States of Matter
For the month of January, Core Gallery will be transformed by a black-womxn-led cadre of writers, multimedia artists, activists, and community builders into an immersive, publicly accessible dialogue on wellness and creativity using technology and storytelling. "Reparations" website founder Natasha Marin delves into what it means to create a space beyond the white gaze, while poet Imani Sims examines the shadow of blackness. Writer and educator Amber Flame gathers origin stories from children and incarcerated people, while LA-based performance artist Rachael Ferguson harnesses the alchemy of bottling "Black Joy." EMILY POTHAST
Closing Saturday
SEA X SEA: The Southeast Asia x Seattle Film Festival
This is the first year of a new mini-festival "emphasizing underrepresented communities and youth-produced visions of the past, present, and future" in southeast Asia. There will be a variety of short films, plus features: War is a Tender Thing (Filipino documentarist Adjani Arumpac's film about religious conflict and her own Muslim/Christian heritage) on Wednesday and Susan Useem's The Peace Agency (about a grassroots women's organization in postwar Poso, Indonesia) on Thursday.
CosĂŹ fan tutte
Seattle Opera will perform Mozart's CosĂŹ fan tutte, an Italian-language opera about fiancĂ©e swappingâroughly translated, the opera's title is "Women are like that." This production about the nature of faith and trust in relationships has regaled audiences for over two centuries with its bawdy, quirky style of comedy.
No performance on Thursday
WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
ARTEveryday Poetics
These works by Central and South American artists are constructed from humble materialsâfrom dust cloths to soda cans to lottery ticketsâto make sculptural poetry shaped by social, resistance-related, and religious themes. The artists include Cildo Meireles and Sonia Gomes, who began their careers under Brazilian dictatorship in the 1960s; Fritzia IrĂzar of Mexico, a conceptual artist; and many others.
Artist talk on Wednesday
Ghost Gallery Celebratory Group Show
For the past seven (almost eight) years, Laurie Kearney has run a brick-and-mortar gallery and shop in a charming space on Capitol Hill. In addition to solo shows, Kearney organized exhibitions with themes like bell jars, the tarot, and mini art. Alas, now Ghost's tenure is drawing to a close, but not without a last-hurrah retrospective. The gallery will bring back some of the most interesting artists-about-town for this celebration: Stasia Burrington, Levi Hastings (who's illustrated for The Stranger), Andie DeRoux, Yoona Lee, Michael Alm, and others. The shop will relocate in the spring of this year, but when Ghost Gallery goes, Capitol Hill will get a little less interesting. Pay your respects and shop for art, cards, decor, and jewelry from their back stock.
Closing Sunday
The Gin Game
One of the all-time chestnuts of the legitimate stage comes to Issaquah featuring two of Seattleâs all-time favorites, Kurt Beattie and Marianne Owen, as aging residents of a nursing home who sublimate the dread of death by playing cards and tearing each other apart with words. However familiar the play might be from drama classes and monologue books, The Gin Game has a seemingly infinite capacity for renewal in the hands of the right actors, which is to say that the only way this show can go wrong is if the building floods. SEAN NELSON
Trojan Women: A Love Story
Dido is a tarot-reader, Cassandra's a domme, and the world lies in ruins in this visceral adaptation of Euripides's The Trojan Women by Charles L. Mee.
UW Department of Dance Faculty Dance Concert
The UW Department of Dance presents its annual Faculty Dance Concert, showcasing original work by faculty members Rachael Lincoln, Bruce McCormick, and Dr. Juliet McMains, plus musical quartet Torch, and costume designer Michelle Lesniak. This year's concert will also feature a collaborative new piece for 21 student dancers by inaugural Kawasaki guest artists zoe | juniper.
Wonderland
Wonderland returns! Can Can will transform its venue into a snowy chalet and populate it with teasing beauties. VIP tickets get you champagne and a meal as well. There's also a brunch show that's safe for kids.
THURSDAY
FILMAwesome, We're F*cking 10! An Oscilloscope Retrospective
Oscilloscope Laboratories is turning 10 years old, and to celebrate they're bringing back some old favorites and some never-before-seen gems from their vault, from Shut Up and Play the Hits to We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Winter Light: The Films of Ingmar Bergman
I know. Itâs Ingmar Bergman. I know, most of his films are very slow. I know, you want to see lots of action and explosions and all of that sort of thing. I know, I know, I know. But you must still watch Bergman's films. Look at it this way: A film like The Commuter, which must not be missed, is your fat-rich steak, and a movie like Bergmanâs Through the Glass Darkly or Silence or Persona is your broccoli. You just canât eat steak all of the time. You will die from just eating steak. You need your veggies. You can almost live forever on a diet of just films of the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. CHARLES MUDEDE
This week's film is The Seventh Seal.
The ALL BEET Dinner by Chef Aaron Tekulve of Surrell
Dwight Schrute would delight over this seven-course dinner from chef Aaron Tekulve that features some iteration of beets in every single dish, including beet curly fries, beet sourdough, smoked beet tartare, and clove and beet granita.
Meet Me at Cone & Steiner: Rachel Marshall of Rachel's Ginger Beer
In the inaugural edition of Cone & Steiner's new Meet Me at Cone & Steiner series, in which the eclectic artisan general store hosts a different local business owner each time and offers a sampling of their wares, Rachel Marshall of Rachel's Ginger Beer will share her story and answer questions. There'll also be a tasting of her ginger beer and other delicious beverages.
Sake Pairing Dinner with Fukuju Brewery
Chef Mutsuko Soma, who was recently named Eater Seattle's Chef of the Year and who crafts meticulously handmade buckwheat soba noodles at Kamonegi, will present an exclusive seven-course omakase dinner with six sake pairings from Fukuju Brewery's Hiro Kubota. Kubota will educate guests about the process of making sake.
The Whale Wins Wine Night: Badia a Coltibuono, Chianti Classico
Badia a Coltibuono, âthe abbey of good culture,â is a legendary, sprawling, 1,000-year-old wine estate with a lush botanical garden and ancient stone monastery in the Chianti region of Italy, which has been presided over by the Stucchi Prinetti family since 1846. Sixth-generation winemaker Roberto Stucchi joins Renee Ericksonâs crew at the Whale Wins for an evening of plentiful pours of real ruby-red Chianti Classico, flowing alongside Tuscan-inspired small plates from the Whale Winsâ smoldering wood-fired oven.
RuPaul's Drag Race Premiere Screenings
Thereâs no denying it, RuPaulâs Drag Race has become mainstream. (Itâs also internationalâRuPaulâs Drag Race: Thailand was announced last month.) Capitalizing on the attention, drag queens all over Seattle are vying for drag fans to attend their viewing parties of episodes from the new, highly anticipated season of RuPaulâs Drag Race: All Stars, which premieres today. The buzziest viewing parties are at R Place (hosted this week by Milk) and Queer Bar (hosted by Robbie Turner), with other notable parties at Saint Johnâs (hosted by Betty Wetter), Purr (hosted by Karmen Korbel), and Little Mariaâs Pizza (hosted by Americano). Most screenings include live drag performances. CHASE BURNS
Major Margaret Witt: Tell
Major Margaret Witt attracted international attention after she was discharged from the military on a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" violation (The Stranger's Eli Sanders covered the story several times). Eventually a federal judge in Tacoma ruled that she should be reinstated, and just months after that decision was made, Obama repealed DADT. Now Witt will visit Seattle to tell her own story and share her new memoir, Tell: Love, Defiance, and the Military Trial at the Tipping Point for Gay Rights.
WYNK: Ijeoma Oluo
Why can't white people say the N-word? What do you mean by privilege? But don't all lives matter? What do you mean when you say "intersectionality"? If you're seriously struggling with the answers to those questions, then current editor-at-large of the Establishment and former Stranger contributor Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race? is here for you. In the book, Oluo employs humor and plenty of anaphora to explain, chapter by chapter, some basic ideas about race that a lot of powerful people (and powerfully loud people) don't seem to quite understand. RICH SMITH
THURSDAY-FRIDAY
COMEDYBechdel Test
In a better world than this, female characters in films would talk about whatever the fuck they pleaseâsay, horses, cramps, or ongoing global disasters at the hands of a small-fingered megalomaniac. But all too often in this world, female characters, when they talk to each other at all, discuss one thing and one thing only: men. Thereâs even a term for itâthe Bechdel Test, named for the cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who, in a 1985 comic strip, featured a character explaining that she goes to a movie only if it has at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. Inspired by the Bechdel Test, Jet City Improv re-creates films that fail the test, but with a Bechdel-approved twist. You name the movie; they make it pass. Woody Allen, take note. KATIE HERZOG
THURSDAY-SATURDAY
ARTARTifACTs: We Almost Didn't Make It
Jump forward 150 years: What do you see? Environmental chaos? Or a civilization celebrating the last-minute choices that let it escape doom? We Almost Didnât Make It by the ARTifACTs collective, led by UW Tacoma's Beverly Naidus, invites visitors to transform their dread and pessimism into inspired action. Follow their "recipes" and combine "ingredients" to make artifacts emblematic of today's world, for the benefit of a future society that may be radically different. If having an environmental conscience means living in a constant state of terror these days, here's a chance to transport yourself to a more utopian futureâand act on behalf of your children's children.
Opening Thursday
Trust Fall
SOIL welcomes Ditch Projects, an Oregon-based artist studio, for some experimentation in a collaborative exhibition.
Closing Saturday
Frost/Nixon
There are about 27 reasons to see Strawberry Theatre Workshop's all-female production of Peter Morgan's classic play about the disgraced president reflecting on the Watergate scandal for the first time on television, and Stranger Genius Award winner Amy Thone playing Nixon is like 14 of those reasons. Alexandra Tavares grilling Thone/Nixon as the ever-intrepid Sir David Frost is about 10 of those reasons. The other three have to do with the fact that Trump would never be, in any kind of hell, least of all this one, as forthcoming, as deviously charming, and as disarmingly honest as Nixon was in this absorbing and infinitely fascinating interview. RICH SMITH
Wit
Margaret Edson's brainy and deeply moving Pulitzer-winning play is a piercing study of a successful English professor diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. The professor intertwines the story of her experimental chemotherapy with her intellectual quest to understand her own mortality.
THURSDAY-SUNDAY
FESTIVALSChildren's Film Festival Seattle
The Children's Film Festival is founded on two premises: 1) Children are not stupid and 2) they deserve beautiful world cinema just like us grown-ups with underused film degrees. The organizers at Northwest Film Forum believe that art can do heavy lifting for "racial equity and diversity, inclusivity, social justice, [and] global awareness" through brilliant storytelling and lovely sound and imagery. For this year's theme, "Dream the Future," the festival reaches across the globe (Bamse and the Witch's Daughter from Sweden, 5 Rupees from India, Hero Steps from Colombia) and revives masterpieces of the past (Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky, Karel Zeman's Invention for Destruction), in a splendid mix of live action and animation. There are also shorts programs, film workshops for your baby Bergmans, and even a pancake breakfast. Don't have a tadpole to bring to the movies? Go anyway. The films are age-appropriate, but they don't talk down to kids and they won't talk down to you.
Bridge Project
In Velocity's Bridge Project, four up-and-coming choreographersâHope Goldman, Leslie Kraus, Michael "Majinn" O'Neal Jr., and Jordan Macintosh-Hougham this yearâeach create a fully produced new piece over the course of three weeks. At the end of their residency, you get to see the birth of these brand-new works.
Ghost Quartet
Though the phrase "a song cycle about love, death, and whiskeyâ might not inspire you to sprint to the box office, this particular song cycle comes from the mind of Dave Malloy, who also created one of the most original and musically experimental Broadway musicals of recent (or, indeed, distant) memory, Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812âa show that, by the way, began its life in a similar fashion to this one. Ghost Quartet draws on musical sources as diverse as murder ballads, doo-wop, jazz, and campfire drinking songs, with a narrative inspired by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, James Joyce, Thelonious Monk, and Stanley Kubrick. In other words, if you have an affinity for any of the dark undercurrents rushing through the past two centuries of American, British, or Irish culture, thereâs an excellent chance youâll find something to embrace in Ghost Quartet. SEAN NELSON
Peerless
In Jiehae Park's take on Macbeth, two competitive Asian American twin sisters hatch deadly plans for a white male who claims a fraction of Native American heritage when he wins an affirmative action spot at "The College."
FRIDAY
ARTWinter in the Park: Art Encounters
Artists will reveal their processesâand involve onlookersâas they respond to inspirations from the Olympic Sculpture Park and the wider Seattle region.
Lovett or Leave It
I hope I'm not alone in thinking that the "live show" is the worst genre of podcast. The sound quality tanks, the clapping irritates, and the sheer fact of other people in the room ruins the illusion that my favorite conversationalists are talking only to me for my exclusive benefit. Lovett or Leave It, a political game show hosted by Crooked Media's Jon Lovett (a real straight shooter respected on both sides), is the exception to this rule because it was designed for the stage. Lovett meaningfully (and occasionally wonderfully dismissively) engages with the audience, rolls out his trademark charming rants, exercises his borscht belt humor, and generally chews through the news of the week in a fun way with a couple other hilarious comedians. It's as if Lovett woke up one day and asked himself, "What if Wait Wait⊠Don't Tell Me! was funny?" The early show sold out quickly, so scoop up tickets for the late show soon if you want to go, which you do. RICH SMITH
Dada Films
See a special program of Dada and Surrealist experimental shorts, made between 1921 and 1929. Shown on 16mm film, with live musical accompaniment by Lori Goldston (cello) and Dave Abramson (percussion), they'll show films by Viking Eggeling, Hans Richter, Man Ray, Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy, Salvador Dali, René Clair, and others. Getting stoned beforehand might be a good idea.
Prime Rib Dinner
The sought-after sandwich eatery will reprise their popular three-course dry-aged prime rib dinner from last year, with oysters Rockefeller to start and a chocolate espresso pot de crĂšme to finish. Complimentary welcome cocktails will be served.
Winter Drams Spirits Festival
Surrender to hedonism in style at this festival hosted by the Seattle Spirits Society, where you can glut yourself on a supply of unlimited tacos and appetizers from Marination, sample more than 100 different spirits (all types of whiskey, including bourbon, Scotch, and Japanese single malts, as well as tequila, mezcal, rum, gin, and others) from more than 25 distillers, and smoke hand-rolled cigars from San Juan Cigar Company while looking out at the view from the rooftop deck.
Thomas Graham, Jr. and Scott Montgomery: The Climate Case for Nuclear Power
Join diplomat Thomas Graham Jr., who participated in nonproliferation talks for 30 years, and his co-author Scott Montgomery to learn about the environmental benefits of nuclear power. Seeing the Light: The Case for Nuclear Power in the 21st Century comes with a recommendation from Hans Blix: "It merits broad reading by anyone interested in the future of energy generation, from the general public to students and scientists to policymakers."
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
COMEDYCotton Gin: An Improvised Puppet Show For Grown-Ups
Rowdy, bawdy puppets, worn out from entertaining children, hang out at the Cotton Gin bar and entertain you with songs and jokes in this improv show.
Configurate
Whim W'him will please your eyes with three world premieres by New York choreographer and Princess Grace Award-winner Gabrielle Lamb, the Switzerland-based Sadler's Wells Global Dance Contest laureate Ihsan Rustem, and Whim WâHim's own founder Olivier Wevers.
Fresh: A Drag Show for New Talent
Just like we learned in Girl Scouts, it's good to make new friends and keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold. The same goes for drag artists. This showcase, curated and hosted by Arson Nicki, highlights new artists that have something different to bring to the stage. The lineup this time: Beau Degas, Bosco, LĂŒChi, and one on January 26; Christian Brown. Karmen Korbel. Kiki Banks, and Whispurr Water-Shadow on January 27.
Keep It Surreal
In exchange for your fundraising generosity, Nordo's Culinarium pledges a "mind-melting dining experience" inspired by the painters DalĂ and Magritteâwhose works you're encouraged to embody in costume. (You can also go as "an 'artist's palette' (dressed all in whites and grays)." The meal will be followed by a teri-oke (teriyaki and karaoke) party.
Measure for Measure
Emmet Temple will direct this production of Shakespeare's semi-comedy (the tone is a little odd) about a young nun about to enter the convent, her imprisoned brother, the corrupt, lustful judge planning to execute him, and such comic relief characters as the madam Mistress Overdone and her pimp Pompey Bum.
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
ARTTavares Strachan: Always, Sometimes, Never
Born and raised in the Bahamas and currently based in New York, Tavares Strachan is a conceptual artist whose work in a diverse range of mediums investigates the overlapping domains of science, technology, and historyâin particular the hidden stories and agendas behind common cultural narratives. His signature mediums include neon sculpture and projected lights, often presented alongside reflecting pools that suggest the distortion of perception and reveal invisible implications. Strachan has exhibited widely, including at the 2013 Venice Biennale. Always, Sometimes, Never is the first presentation of his work in Seattle. EMILY POTHAST
Opening Friday
It Gets Wetter: Episode II
Betty Wetter and Steven Palin return for another show with special guests Cookie Couture, Princess Charming, Jordan Hill, and "a new love interest."
SATURDAY
ARTCity Arts & Dockside Cannabis Present: The Future List Party
City Arts magazine's Future List honors Seattle's most innovative emerging artistsâincluding, this year, painter Jazz Brown, educator/activist Julie-C, dancer Randy Ford, singer Lisa Prank, sculptor Philippe Hyojung Kim, choreographer Coleman Pester, artist Neon Saltwater, game show host Claire Buss, actor Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako, filmmaker Jeff Ferrell, and improv player/actor/writer Jekeva Phillips. Party with the artistic vanguard over what's sure to be an inspiring evening.
Neddy Artist Awards Exhibition
The Neddy Awards, given by Cornish College, recompense artists living in the Puget Sound area. This year, Tacoman Christopher Paul Jordan and Korean/Indigenous artist Che Sehyun took top prizes, while Barbara Sternberger, Gillian Theobald, Tuan Nguyen, Gretchen Bennett, Marita Dingus, and Dakota Gearhart were runners-up. See the works of these distinguished locals.
Opening Saturday
Ricky Gervais
Welcome the prickly British comedian, creator of The Office, Extras, and Derek, on his stand-up comeback tour, Humanity.
Saturday Morning Cartoons Presents: Song of the Sea
The monthly international animated film club is back in a new location. All screenings are followed by a discussion with donuts and coffee. It's a great way to introduce kids to the Seventh Art, but the films are usually compelling for adults, too.
Saturday Secret Matinees
Grand Illusion and the Sprocket Society will continue their tradition of pairing an adventure serial with a different secret matinee movie every week. This year, the serial is Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, and the theme of the feature film will change every fortnight (maybe they stole the idea from the Stranger's new printing schedule. Though probably not). These themes include "Alien Invasion!," "Swashbuckling Heroes!," "Very Bad Deals," "Twisted Intrigues," "Atomic Monsters," and "Widescreen Thrills." The coolest part, from a film buff point of view? Everything will be presented on 16mm.
Ninth Annual Belgian Fest
Hooray for Belgian yeast, enabling top Washington breweries to produce exotic tripels, dubbels, saisons, wits, abbeys, and lambics! Yes indeed: at this beer fest featuring over 100 brews, all beers have been made with imported Belgian yeast. Sample deliciousness from local brewers.
Rum: The Soul of the Cane & the Secrets of Tiki Cocktails Class
Tiki cocktail culture originated with one Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gantt, a young adventurer and former bootlegger from Texas who spent years sailing through the Caribbean and South Pacific. He decided to incorporate his tropical travels into a Hollywood restaurant called Don the Beachcomber (in a show of true dedication to his brand, he later legally changed his name to Donn Beach), ushering in a fad of heady rum-based libations and colorful Polynesian-themed decor. This crash course at Eastlake Italian eatery Serafina will discuss the history and legacy of the tiki craze as well as the history and evolution of rum, all while guests sip delicious umbrella-topped tipples alongside a four-course paired lunch.
Winterfest 2018
Warm up with Scotch whisky, cigars, craft beer, and live jazz.
SUNDAY
COMEDYcontest4improv4humans
Jet City Improv's contest4improv4humans is a nationwide improv comedy competition hosted by Matt Besser of the Earwolf podcast improv4humans. 19 Jet City Improv, CSz Seattle, Unexpected Productions, and indie teams will storm the stage to brawl for applause.
The Heat Around the Corner: The L.A. Films of Michael Mann
Before attending this one-day class led by local film historian and scholar John Trafton (it will explore three LA films by Michael Mann: Heat, Collateral, and L.A. Takedown), I highly recommend reading Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by the late Mark Fisher (aka K-Punk). Itâs a short book (86 pages) and contains an excellent section on Mannâs masterpiece, the heist film Heat. Fisher argues that one of the best ways to understand the transition from industrial to postindustrial US is to watch and compare Mannâs Heat (1995) with crime films by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese (the 1970s). My point is this: Mannâs work cannot be dismissed as nothing but style: shiny surfaces, sharp suits, slick haircuts. His films in the 1980s and 1990s describe the homo economicus who roams the ruins of Reutherâs Treaty of Detroit. CHARLES MUDEDE
Comadre PanaderĂa Pop-Up
The delicious genius behind Comadre PanaderĂa will host a pop-up in partnership with Amandine Bakeshop and Dorothea Coffee, with a variety of pan dulces and postres for sale until they run out.
Tarik Abdullah Pop-Up Brunch
This brunch pop-up from raved-about chef Tarik Abdullah promises Mediterranean and North African-inspired dishes like braised lamb, masala prawns, and Abdullah's famous chamomile squash bread and hibiscus tea.
Connections Presents NPR's Susan Stamberg
Join broadcast journalist Susan Stamberg, an NPR Special Correspondent and the first woman to anchor a national nightly news program. After spending 14 years co-hosting All Things Considered, she hosted Weekend Edition for three years. She now reports on cultural issues for NPRâs Morning Edition and Weekend Edition.
National Geographic Live: View From Above
Terry Virts, onetime commander of the International Space Station, installed the 360-degree view module Cupola and took more pictures in space than anyone up to that point. Find out what the Earth looks like from orbit at this event, presented by the Seattle Symphony.
