Beer & Film, Beer & Yoga, Beer & Kenyan Goat, And More Critics' Picks For July 25-31
by Stranger Things To Do Staff
Our music critics have already chosen the 28 best concerts this week, but now it's our arts critics' turn. Here are their picks for the best events in every genre—from New Belgium Brewing's Clips Beer & Film Tour to Bendy Brewski Yoga, and from A Reading of Indigenous Writers to the continuing run of the world-premiere play Daisy. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
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MONDAY
ART
Dean Wong: New Street Photography
If you don't know Dean Wong's name already, he is the photographer who has most doggedly and beautifully documented Seattle's Chinatown, and he has a new book out, Seeing the Light: Four Decades in Chinatown. It includes photographs also taken in Chinatowns in San Francisco and Vancouver, BC, but Wong's heart is where his home is, here in Seattle, where he grew up in his family's home tucked into the streets of what we now call the International District, where he learned to develop his first roll of film at Cleveland High School in a black-and-white photo class taught by the biology teacher, and where, at the University of Washington, he developed a conscious practice of resistance toward the racist mainstream. Here at Jack Straw, you'll see a selection of the photographs and a copy of the book, which includes images and also Wong's stories. JEN GRAVES (Through Friday)
Adam Fung: Constellation Atlas
These new, layered paintings by Adam Fung, inspired by cartography, attempt to map/investigate the outer bounds of the universe. (Closes Sunday)
A Touch of Light
Seattle-based arts organization A Touch of Light curates the artwork of prisoners from around the country and the world, in an effort to promote social change and give prisoners a second chance. This is the first Captive Art gallery show, and will feature work from Pacific Northwest artists in the new A/NT Gallery space in the International Fountain Pavilion. (Closes Sunday)
FESTIVALS
2016 Seattle Chamber Music Society Summer Festival
On Monday of this week, enjoy selections from classical composers Edvard Grieg, Sergei Prokofiev, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by the Seattle Chamber Music Society. On Friday, they will take on selections from classical composers Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten, Feliz Mendelssohn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and, on Saturday, hear selections from Francis Poulenc, Johannes Brahms, and Ludwig van Beethoven. (Through Friday)
Music Under The Stars
The concept of Music Under the Stars is simple but compelling: A professional or student ensemble sets up in a park and plays to whoever shows up at 7:15pm, often folk with picnic blankets in tow and maybe a surreptitious bottle of wine or two. Then, at eight, Benaroya Hall pipes in whatever performance is happening that night to the assembled throng — it’s basically two shows for the price of none! During the final week of MUTS, there will be shows in West Seattle (July 25), Columbia City (July 29), and First Hill (July 29-30).
THEATER
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by Teresa Thuman, is a darkly comic, purgatorial meditation on the conflict between fate and free will. (Also Thursday-Sunday)
TUESDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Chow Down 2016
Rainier Avenue South is a magical place for eating and drinking—a place where you can get Ethiopian injera, Neapolitan pizza, Kenyan goat, Peruvian roast chicken, and craft beers—sometimes all under the same roof. Chow Down, a restaurant-and-bar crawl through Columbia City and Hillman City, gives you the chance to taste the many cultures found in those neighborhoods. Purchase a $50 passport, and then graze your way through locally owned businesses including Kezira Cafe, Safari Njema, Spinnaker Bay Brewing, Full Tilt Ice Cream, Big Chickie, Island Soul, and many more. Even better: 100 percent of the proceeds benefit the Rainier Valley Food Bank, ensuring everyone in the neighborhood is well fed. ANGELA GARBES
Mezcal Fest
Celebrate The Barrel Thief's favorite "non-barrel-aged spirit," Mezcal, with special sales and deals (all Mezcals and Mezcal tasting flights 20% off) and a special Mezcal cocktail menu. There will also be a special, seated tasting of premium Mezcals for $40.
READINGS & TALKS
The Least Boring Poetry Event of the Year 2016
Come to the Factory to be wooed by the poetry of Kate Durbin, Kary Wayson, Anastacia Renee, and Sarah Galvin, as well as visual art (with what Rich Smith calls "a deep understanding of poetic structures") by Mary Anne Carter. If you didn't already know, poetry is far from boring, and these folks will prove it.
Robert K. Elder and Aaron Vetch
Robert K. Elder and Aaron Vetch will read from Hidden Hemingway, a volume about the author that includes never-before-seen photos, love letters to and from his World War I lover, high school assignments, and bullfighting memorabilia.
THEATER
Daisy
This world-premiere play is based on the true story of marketing firm Doyle Dane Bernbach's creation of the first negative political TV ad. The weirdly avant-garde commercial, which was made for Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign against Barry Goldwater in 1964, shows a little blonde girl picking petals off a daisy only seconds before she gets blown to smithereens by a nuclear bomb. The ad is so legendary that politicians still reference it today. Though playwright Sean Devine didn't mean for it to be when he started working on it years ago, Daisy serves as a piece of compelling, dramatic commentary on the 2016 Trump Versus Clinton Hate-Vote Election™, which means his play is relevant in a very obvious way that people like. RICH SMITH (Through Sunday)
WEDNESDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Eden Hill Winemaker Dinner featuring Martedi Winery
James Beard-nominated chef Maximillian Petty presents a five-course tasting menu (with dishes including chicken liver pirouette, sea urchin arancini, charred octopus, and butter poached lamb rack) with wine pairings from Martedi Winery.
READINGS & TALKS
Gary Hill
This artist talk/lecture series organized by Hami Bohadori and Matt Bell promises a take on the intersection of commercial and academic art through a variety of forms of communication, from performances and presentations to lectures and "beneficial experiences." This time, hear from artist, MacArthur and Stranger Genius, and Guggenheim fellow Gary Hill.
ART
Amanda Manitach: Nothing Left to Say
The West Seattle High School student who would become the movie star Frances Farmer wrote an essay in which she declared God dead. It was just one of the moments in which she opened her mouth, said what she thought, and ended up ostracized for it. Farmer, who eventually was hospitalized for mental illness and alcoholism and died young, is the subject of Amanda Manitach’s new large pencil drawings. Her words appear in the drawings against a backdrop based on an 1885 French wallpaper sample that swirls beautifully and a little frightfully, the way that Manitach’s older drawings of syphilitic labia did. (Yes.) What do Farmer’s words sound like in the voice of Manitach’s hands? JEN GRAVES (Closes Saturday)
THURSDAY
FOOD & DRINK
FareStart Guest Chef Night with Ian Weaver
FareStart is a fantastic organization that empowers disadvantaged and homeless men and women by training them for work in the restaurant industry. Every Thursday, they host a Guest Chef Night, featuring a three-course dinner from a notable Seattle chef for just $29.95. This week FareStart welcomes Chef Ian Weaver of the University of Washington Club.
Drink & Draw
On second and fourth Thursdays of the month, Capitol Cider invites you to come in, sip on delicious cider, and sketch live models using free art supplies from Gage Academy of Art.
READINGS & TALKS
Pundamonium: The Seattle Pun Slam!
Puns are the highest and lowest form of humor: They somehow refresh the materiality of language, reminding you that a word is a figure, a thing that can be looked at from several different angles. So whoever wins the pun competition Pundamonium, hosted by Erika Ellefson, will likely be one of Seattle’s great crafters of language, both in a Renaissance fair kind of way but also in a literary genius kind of way. The contestants will be chosen from the audience on a first-come, first-served basis, so the title could go to anyone. RICH SMITH
FILM
Puget Soundtrack: Fungal Abyss Present The Devils
Ken Russell’s notorious adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun features the most accurate tagline of all time: “The Devils is not a film for everyone.” That was especially true for the Catholic Church, which took offense at Russell’s depiction of a 17th-century priest with a healthy sexual appetite (Oliver Reed in his most robust performance) and the sadistic, emotionally stunted nun (a shriveled Vanessa Redgrave) determined to destroy him. As if that isn’t incentive enough to see this orgiastic cri de coeur against crown-sponsored religious hypocrisy, Caravaggio director Derek Jarman designed the sets and Seattle’s Fungal Abyss (the psilocybin-powered alter ego of doom-metal band Lesbian) will be providing the live score for this incendiary installment of the Northwest Film Forum’s Puget Soundtrack. KATHY FENNESSY
THEATER
DRAGON LADY
Sara Porkalob keeps reworking her one-person performance of The Dragon Lady, a hilarious and surprising romp through the lives of a Filipina gangster's entire family, and it keeps getting better. According to press materials, this one features more than 30 characters from several generations. Porkalob has the ability to morph between incredibly nuanced characters without a hitch, and she does a weirdly good job at playing children, which is hard to do convincingly. Prepare thyself for much laughter. RICH SMITH (Through Saturday)
Hamlet
The Seattle Shakespeare Company presents their take on Shakespeare's funny, terrifying, and often-performed Hamlet at parks throughout the Puget Sound region. This week, there will be shows at Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island through Saturday, and a show at the Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion on Sunday.
Suffering, Inc.
Pony World Theatre presents a revamped production of Suffering, Inc., which debuted in 2011 at Washington Hall. They'll return with an edited script, new staging, and new and returning cast members at 12th Avenue Arts. Former Stranger theater editor Brendan Kiley wrote that the premiere was "a gorgeous mix of office-speak, poetry, and understated violence and romance." (Through Saturday)
FESTIVALS
Seagaze Festival
Seattle has held several psych-rock-oriented festivals in the last few years, but Seagaze offers a slight twist. Organized by Blackpool Astronomy guitarist Jeff McCollough, Seagaze is an ambitious four-night spread that focuses on the intersection of psychedelia, shoegaze, and post-punk. Among the many highlights: dream-pop sorcerer Erik Blood, brawny Chicago brain-melters Plastic Crimewave Syndicate, beatific inner-space rockers Ecstatic Cosmic Union, Loop-like trance rockers This Blinding Light, black-hearted Portland goth-rockers Shadowhouse, and San Francisco shoegaze reanimators LSD and the Search for God. Every night of Seagaze offers ample opportunities to dilate your ears and expand your mind. DAVE SEGAL (Through Sunday)
ART
American Power
CoCA presents American Power, an exhibit about the current cultural climate in the United States: from gun violence to ostracizing "the other." The exhibit will feature a partial remounting of Paul Rucker’s Rewind Exhibit, as well as work by Pacific Northwest artists Tracy Boyd, Chris Crites, Rebecca Cummins and Troy Gua. (Closes Saturday)
Hit and Run: The Final Exhibition
This group exhibit featuring work by Renee Adams, Howard Barlow, Justin Colt Beckman, and Justin Gibbens will be the last gallery show of its kind at PUNCH. After this exhibit, they'll shift to a more "project-focused" approach: "Our mission will shift toward building bridges between the urban cultural centers of the Northwest and the smaller rural communities among the fertile landscape from which PUNCH gallery originated." (Closes Saturday)
Natalie Ball and Noelle Garcia: Make
Make, by Klamath members and multi-media artists Natalie Ball and Noelle Garcia, is a series featuring sculpture and installation that explores the complexities of indigenous motherhood. (Closes Saturday)
Sonya Stockton: The Head and Figure
Paint, fabric, pillows, and other unconventional material make up these depictions of women's heads and bodies, created by Sonya Stockton. (Closes Saturday)
FRIDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Jack Straw Group Reading
A selection of this year's Jack Straw Writers (a group of 12, chosen by curator Karen Finneyfrock) will read from their recent work, including Casandra Lopez, Shin Yu Pai, Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum and Carolyne Wright.
FILM
New Belgium Brewing's Clips Beer & Film Tour
Enjoy an evening of short films alongside a selection of New Belgium beers, outside at Gas Works Park. Don't hold back on the brews—all the proceeds of beer sales will go towards local nonprofits.
QUEER
Mod Carousel Presents Fruitcake
The international boylesque stars of Mod Carousel bring you a brand new vintage cabaret tribute with the talents of the Luminous Pariah, Paris Original, Trojan Original (Danny), and Moscato Extatique, with Perry Von Winkle, and hosted by Leeni.
SATURDAY
READINGS & TALKS
A Reading of Indigenous Writers: Elissa Washuta, Tommy Pico, Demian DinéYazhi’
Elissa Washuta has been writing inside the northwest tower of the Fremont Bridge all summer. That's because she won the writer/poet in residency appointment from the Office of Arts & Culture, which means she gets an office and a sweet $10,000 purse. What has she been writing up there? According to an interview she did with UW Today: the Lake Washington Ship Canal, "displaced Indigenous peoples," and "unseen elements of the land." Her sentences are musical and she's a good reader of her work. Two weeks ago at CAM, Brooklyn-based poet Tommy Pico read from his new book, IRL. The section he read was humorous, thoughtful work that reinvigorates the flâneur style with explicit discussions of gender and race. I don't know much about Portland-based artist and poet Demian DinéYazhi’, but he describes his own work as "a continual inquiry into Radical Indigenous Queer Feminist ideology." RICH SMITH
Shin Yu Pai
Shin Yu Pai, a 2014 Stranger Genius Nominee in Literature and current Poet Laureate for the City of Redmond, will give a poetry reading at Shoreline's "Mid-Summer Arts Eve."
FESTIVALS
9th Annual Hoodstock
Hoodstock—founded by the late, great, all-black-female punk band NighTraiN—is simply the best small music festival/big ol’ house party around. Think of it as a family-reunion-style barbecue filled with grown folks, young folks, good vibes, diverse music, and cheap food and drinks. The whole thing will be, to borrow the name of one of Hoodstock’s producers, POC as Fuck. ANGELA GARBES
FOOD & DRINK
Pozole Making Class
Learn how to make Pozole—a traditional Mesoamerican stew with red or green chile, meat, and hominy maize corn—at this class benefiting El Centro's Senior Nutrition & Wellness Program.
SUNDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Bendy Brewski Yoga
In a gallery lined with gold frames, the Frye Art Museum hosts a series of “Noise Yoga” classes, which caters to lovers of yoga, art, and experimental music. But what about all the craft beer–loving yogis and yoginis of Seattle? Where can they go? Today, Sodo’s Pyramid Brewing hosts its first “Bendy Brewski” class: 45 minutes of yoga (open to all levels, with mats available to borrow) followed by a pint of beer. It seems inevitable that someone would finally find a way to combine two of the city’s favorite activities. Namaste and cheers. ANGELA GARBES
QUEER
Jocks, Frocks, and Bacon: A Drag Brunch Spectacular
The Gay Softball World Series is coming up, and Seattle's own Los Gallitos are fundraising to head to Austin in August. They'll be donning drag for this Sunday's brunch, with Two Doors Down serving food and drink, and the players serving fishy realness. Twenty bucks gets you food, booze, and the undying thanks of some men in uniform. Though they bill themselves as "slow-pitch," there's no limit to how fast they can catch. MATT BAUME