Speaking Tour: 11/8 - 11/14

Wednesday, November 8
>>>UW Forum for Science and Ethics Policy, 5:30pm. Dr. Dennis Schatz, VP for Education at the Pacific Science Center, cheerleads for “Making Science as Pervasive as Sports in Society.” His ulterior motive? It can only be to pack the Sonics off to Oklahoma and build our very own Exploratorium right here in Seattle, to which we say “Be Aggressive, Be Be Aggressive!” Free. UW Health Sciences Building, T-478.

>>>Pacific Science Center at Town Hall, 7:30pm. The Dead Sea Scrolls: An Interfaith Dialogue features a panel of varying local religious leaders grabbing for a scrap of the "Ancient Roots of Faith." Cage match moderated by Bryce Seidl, CEO, Pacific Science Center. $15 from Pacific Science Center or at Town Hall an hour before the lecture.

>>>University Bookstore at Town Hall, 7:30pm. According to Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Upside of Down, "from beneath it devours." Five "tectonic stresses" -- energy stress, economic stress, demographic stress, environmental stress, and climate stress -- will result in a new explosion of creative what-have-you. Unless you die in the process. $5 economic stress at the door.

>>> The Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater, 7:30-10:00pm. You have a choice: listen to some other folks read embarrassing passages from their teenage diaries -- or read an embarrassing passage from your own teenage diary. That's the Shame game. Cover $5, or $1 with reading material. Door's at 7pm, but their website says they usually sell out by 7:10. Get there early.

Thursday, November 9
>>>University Bookstore at Town Hall, 7:30pm. David Callahan talks about his book, The Moral Center. Callahan tries to find some common ground for moral outrage: the issues are not abortion and gay marriage but our out-of-control selfishness, our violent and consumerist culture's effects on children, and our lack of a greater purpose. $5 at the door. Bring your own blood pressure meds.

>>>Richard Hugo House, 7:00pm. And the winning niche-market title goes to A Night of Cheap Wine and Poetry. Featured readers: Harvey Goldner, Seattle poet populist Jourdan Keith, Brendan Regan, Willie Smith and Deborah Woodard. Hosted by Charla Grenz. Wine: $1/glass. Open mic sign-up at the door. Free as a drunken dove in flight.

Friday, November 10
>>>Third Place Books, 6:30pm. For a real taste of life during wartime, try Letters From The Front Lines, a collection of letters from the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, compiled by Rear Admiral Stuart F. Platt (Ret.), himself a Vietnam veteran. Free. Bring your own tissues if you get weepy. You know who you are.

Saturday, November 11
>>>Elliott Bay, 2:00pm. Lonely Planet and Roadtrip Nation visit Seattle, with a special screening of the PBS documentary Roadtrip Nation at 2:30, then a talk with Lonely Planet travel expert/guidebook author Thomas Kohnstramm (on the Caribbean, South and Central America). Free with proof of wandering feet.

Sunday, November 12
>>>Richard Hugo House, 8:00pm. It's called "Trans-Scribe -- To Make Record of: A Night of Readings by Transgender Writers." The timing is perfect because on Monday, Joan Roughgarden is in town, one of the more famous transgendered writers out there. $7 to $10 at the door; nobody turned away for lack of funds. In fact, group hug everyone!

Monday, November 13
>>>Elliot Bay Books at Seattle First Baptist. Stanford professor Dr. Joan Roughgarden, on her book, Evolution and Christian Faith, which reflects on her years of research on lizard biology in contrast with her Episcopalianistry. Her research on lizard biology informs her Darwin-flaunting theories about sexual selection. Free. Seattle First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Avenue (at Union).

>>>World Affairs Council at Town Hall, 7:00pm. Barry Lynn, whom you may remember from such publications as Harper's and HBR, talks about how global supply chains -- and the multi-national corporations who love them -- are shaping globalization. Tickets $15 general public, $10 WAC member or student with ID.

Tuesday, November 14
>>>Warren Report HQ, 7:00pm. Film Rap: Neal Gabler in conversation with Warren Etheredge on his biography, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. One of the great visionary artists of American entertainment, Walt Disney is less of an enigma after Neal Gabler's research. Goofy's animal forebears, though, are still shrouded in mystery. Free after naming all seven dwarves. Carnegie Free Public Library, 2026 NW Market Street.

>>>Elliott Bay, 7:30pm. KUOW's Marcie Sillman talks with Philip Gourevitch, editor of The Paris Review, about its new book, The Paris Review Interviews: Volume 1, which includes interviews with Jorge-Luis Borges, Kurt Vonnegut, Elizabeth Bishop, Dorothy Parker, and Joan Didion. Free. Just to be clear, some of those people are dead and couldn't attend. And Joan was just way too busy.

>>>Seattle Public Central Library, 7:00-8:30pm. Remember how strict your second grade teacher was? Shuddup. Roya Hakakian, Iranian American writer, journalist, and film producer, talks about her memoir Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran. Free, because this is America! Microsoft Auditorium.