Speaking Tour: 4/9 - 4/15
Monday
PREQUEL TO MCARTNEY'S WINGS: Richie Unterberger, the author of several books on the history of rock, shows some film footage and plays some music recordings of unreleased Beatles material. He´s promoting his latest book, The Unreleased Beatles -- Music and Film. We had no idea they were in jail! (Ha! Because of the "unreleased" -- see how...oh...sure, we can move on.)
7pm // Seattle Central Public Library Microsoft Auditorium // FREE
GARDENING AT NIGHT: In A Pattern Garden, local garden expert Valerie Easton identifies 14 garden patterns fundamental to successful design that will turn any backyard landscape -- regardless of style, site or climate -- into a memorable and rewarding retreat. There's a slideshow, even.
7:30pm // Third Place Books // FREE
Tuesday
SEATTLE ARTS & LECTURES POETRY SERIES: Born in Yugoslavia in 1938, Charles Simic emigrated to the U.S. -- via Paris -- in 1952. Having already fallen in love with jazz, which was prohibited in his homeland, Simic quickly fell in love with the rest of American culture. Noted Irishman Seamus Heaney says the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's writing "comes dancing out on the balls of its feet, colloquially fit as a fiddle, a sparring partner for the world."
7:30pm // Intiman Theatre // $20 general/$10 students, under-25
BART BAXTER PERFORMANCE POETRY COMPETITION Presented by the Washington Poets Association -- who are either not on SAL's Poetry Series mailing list or "don't care for Simic, frankly, a bit pedestrian isn't he?" -- eight finalists will compete in head-to-head Taos-style poetry bouts with the overall champ winning $300. Finalists scheduled to perform are Miryam Gordon, Jared Leising, Jack McCarthy, Rebecca Meredith, Jeremy Richards, Roy Seitz, M. Anne Sweet and D.D. Wigley.
7pm // Hugo House // FREE (donations accepted)
Wednesday
LOCAL SPORTS GUY: Derek Zumsteg runs the USS Mariner and contributes to ESPN.com. Library Journal calls A Cheater’s Guide To Baseball "a lively and challenging account of cheating as part of America's pastime, whether it's the habits of particular notables, such as Gaylord Perry and his spitball, or modern day pharmaceutical legerdemain."
7pm // Third Place Books // FREE
LET'S GET PHYSICAL: One Reel Literary Arts poobah Judith Roche reads from her newest poetry collection, Wisdom of the Body, a meditation on "the physicality of all things: our bodies and how they change, the salmon and their life cycle, trees, flowers, the earth, everything caught in the mystery of time." Wasn't this a Twilight Zone episode?
7:30pm // Elliott Bay // FREE
Thursday
TWO-PARTY STRONGMAN: Bill Bradley—former Senator, basketball star, and Presidential candidate—has a new book, The New American Story, arguing that we need a stronger two-party system. He also talks about pyramids. They're a visual analogy for something.
7:30pm // Town Hall // $5
LANGUAGE!: Chinese American author Shawn Wong reads from his novel, American Knees. After, there's a brief discussion of the novel and its film adaptation, Americanese, scheduled for a Fall 2007 release, with a sneak peek of selected scenes from the film.
6:30pm // Seattle Public Library ID Branch // FREE
Friday
BETTER HALVES: For the 1.1 million women in divorce proceedings each year, Kathleen Miller, a Certified Financial Planner, offers a comprehensive guide to help integrate the financial aspects of divorce into a personalized and sound financial plan. Counter to the country song that goes "She got the goldmine/and I got the shaft," her book is called Fair Share Divorce.
6:30pm // Third Place Books // FREE
SINGLE AND PROUD: Single State of the Union: Single Women Speak Out on Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness is a collection of essays by single and formerly single women that moves beyond shopaholics and serial dating to buying a house, raising a child, and countering (Parry! Thrust!) the media images of single women.
7pm // University Bookstore // FREE
Saturday
HOW TO BE GOODER: Jacob Needleman, San Francisco State professor and former director of the Center for the Study of New Religions at the Graduate Theological Union, draws on a variety of psychological, philosophical, and religious traditions to address one of the most basic questions about human morality in his new book, Why Can't We Be Good? Seattle sports fans, this one's for you.
2pm // Elliott Bay // FREE
WILD-EYED ZEALOTS & YOU: Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming journeys through modern America in the grips of a fevered religious radicalism. From the classroom to the megachurch to the federal court, Goldberg carefully demonstrates how the growing influence of dominionism -- the doctrine that Christians have the right to rule nonbelievers -- is threatening the foundations of democracy, maybe even late-night TV.
6:30pm // Third Place Books // FREE
Sunday
SEATTLE POET POPULIST: It's a poetry reading in celebration of Jourdan Imani Keith’s term as 2006-07 Seattle Poet Populist. Keith performs from "Umbilical Topography," a collection of poems, flash fiction, and essays. Fellow poets Felicia Gonzalez and Brian McGuigan read from the chapbooks, "Recollection Graffiti" and "More Than I Left Behind," respectively.
3-4:30pm // Seattle Central Public Library // FREE
